well coming up on our t.v. and us a whistleblower edward snowden six asylum in iceland the man who revealed the n.s.a. is expanding surveillance program still remains in hong kong with his move to iceland still up in the air an in-depth look at that story just ahead the expanding surveillance state has given serious bank to defense contractors so how much of the government's intelligence gathering relies on private sources to go through data collected a look at how big surveillance it leads to big bucks coming up. we're just days away from a student loan increased rate so doubling it on a group of senators are trying to come up with a deal to avoid that increase but what will happen more on that later in the show.

it's friday june twenty first four pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret hello you're watching our t.v. we start the hour with new developments unfolding about how the n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden is out of hiding in hong kong with one man's connections to this secrecy organization wiki leaks who has chartered a two hundred forty thousand dollars private jet to transport snowden to iceland where supporters hope that he will be granted asylum the twenty nine year old mysteriously escaped to hong kong after leaking secret documents to the guardian newspaper to describe two n.s.a. surveillance programs and has been in hong kong ever since for more on who is spending big to save snowden here's our tease liz wall. well the man who exposed secret u.s. surveillance programs is on the run but many of his supporters are trying to fight for his freedom icelandic businessman olafur girvan since says he has

a private plane ready to fly snowden from hong kong to iceland the businessman has ties to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks he told reuters that he may be able to fly snowden to iceland as soon as tomorrow if the country's interior ministry grants. and confirms that he will be extradited to the u.s. and was formerly the c.e.o. of data cell an icelandic company that process donations for wiki leaks i spoke to the c.e.o. of the company today who described the obstacles the company has had in getting funding to wiki leaks he said quote every payment processor we asked refused us even got one telling us that we were blacklisted by the card companies so fact is that we are being pushed out of business for our data center and hosting business just because we took the freedom to help a totally legal news organization named wiki leaks to process donations for them all them and now helping snowden is no longer working for a data cell but the company is still fighting to be able to get funding to the

website meanwhile an organization here in d.c. raising money for snowden's defense is raising money first of its defense a spokesperson for the progressive change campaign committee told r.t. that they're not funding this flight but as of today the organization has raised twenty thousand eight hundred eighteen dollars for his legal fees that's from one thousand donations with the average donation being around twenty dollars so several small donations mostly from members of the committee also to face prosecution if he steps foot in the u.s. after admitting exposing secret government surveillance programs while he has his supporters some government officials have publicly condemned snowden's actions. absolutely he's a traitor what are you going to. i think he's a traitor and some tough words for edward snowden. he's a traitor. sell as government officials call for his prosecution the former defense

contractor remains in hiding in hong kong avoiding for the time being facing the consequences here and the u.s. and washington was wall r t what do you recall ortiz coverage of that alleged bank robber that request of the n.s.a. hand over their surveillance records to prove his innocence were in the us the n.s.a. to release his phone records to prove that he was nowhere near where the robbery took place in broward county florida well as it were it appears the n.s.a. is only in the business of using information they've illicit collected to prove people guilty not innocent for more on that here's our tease political commentator sam sachs. according to n.s.a. whistleblower bill benny the government has collected as many as twenty trillion emails and phone calls be longing to americans so what this means is the n.s.a. is essentially a backup server for the nation's entire store of communications both over the phone and the internet so if you email the photos say of your pug dogs first bath well

the n.s.a. may have that photo somewhere in its database and now they were all finally becoming aware of the n.s.a. surveillance and storage capabilities questions are rising about who should have access to this trove of data and how it should be used for example in florida a man suspected of bank robbery is demanding that the n.s.a. turn over any phone records it may have on him to prove that he was nowhere near the location of the robbery he's accused of committing after all it's against the law for prosecutors to withhold evidence that could prove the innocence of a defendant but the government claims it doesn't have the particular phone call information in that even if it did it would be classified information and thus the defendant wouldn't be allowed to see it anyway so the n.s.a. so far is unwilling to go on a fishing expedition through its records to find what could be exonerating evidence for defendants but they are more than happy to hand over what could be

incriminating evidence to appropriate law enforcement agencies according to one of the latest edward snowden leaks published by the guardian on thursday the n.s.a.'s own grammatical error written guidelines used to minimize data collection on american citizens say quote a communication identified as a domestic communication will be destroyed upon recognition unless the director of the n.s.a. specifically determines the communication does not contain foreign intelligence information but is reasonably believed to contain evidence of a crime such communication may be disseminated including you. noted states person identities to appropriate federal law enforcement authorities again i don't know why there's so many errors in that statement but the key thing here is notice how the document doesn't say evidence of a crime of terrorism or evidence of a threat to national security or anything it just says evidence of

a crime so let's say you text your friend who may have had too much to drink the night before to make sure he drove home safe that could be evidence of the crime of drunk driving in the us the n.s.a. can keep that text message or let's say you're organizing a protest against i don't know the n.s.a. surveillance operations and you send an e-mail with plans to stage a sit in in the street at the n.s.a. headquarters that's technically illegal so the n.s.a. can keep that e-mail to. not only vatican hand over this information to the f.b.i. and the f.b.i. can do with it whatever it likes but again evidence held by the n.s.a. that might prove you're innocent of a crime that's top secret you can't have that now this is really important we've been told all along that these surveillance programs are aimed at foreign individuals in the name of national security but collecting data on american citizens that could implicate them in crimes ranging from jaywalking to drunk

driving to civil disobedience seems to have no bearing whatsoever on national security and instead to seems to be just another tool for law enforcement to slant our criminal justice system away from the accused and toward the accuser and for those who say this sort of surveillance doesn't bother them because they're not doing anything wrong just remember there are thousands and thousands of laws on the books and evidence that you may have broken any one of them is enough to get your e-mail and your phone calls put in the n.s.a.'s massive database and washington same sex r.t. we've all heard by now no doubt of the n.s.a. spying on citizens that just who exactly is carrying out their dirty work turns out u.s. contractors are making some serious bank in the surveillance game companies like raytheon allan have been paid by the government to spy on you just how long is the

n.s.a. been farming out their spy jobs well defense contractors that make out the spy community are major players in cyber security our teams from uncle endo has more. it's now become an all invasive twenty four seven security complex. where the leaks by edward snowden every privacy concerns worldwide over the national security agency and who it's tracking they've also shed light on the influential companies in the u.s. surveillance state so this is an enormous state complex with a lot of money changing hands and snowden's former employer booz allen hamilton is in the scrutiny for its close ties to d.c. insiders like director of national intelligence james clapper does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir. it does not. not wittingly. james

clapper used to work for booz allen hamilton now in the his predecessor who previous director of national intelligence now works at booz alabama. that's the classic revolving door it's not just booz allen who's profiting from spine traditional defense contractors like boeing northrop grumman and say i see are making big bucks on intelligence s.a.i.c. has locations worldwide including sunny southern california. the contractor thrives thanks to billions of dollars in government contracts s c is also behind the n.s.a.'s failed trailblazer program the costly and invasive surveillance project that was exposed in the early to thousands so by whistleblower thomas drake staggering amounts of money are being made off the fear mongering since nine eleven you now have an entire industrialized scale mechanism by which a number of contractors are feeding off and it's it's

a lot of money the contractor is considered to be one of the major private players in the cyber security industry and employs tens of thousands of people worldwide and here in california dozens of jobs are available involving intelligence and high security clearances we've seen multiple countries basically start beefing up their cyber security both governments and companies the twenty thirteen budget for u.s. intelligence is nearly seventy two billion dollars it's estimated seventy percent of that money is going to private contractors the intelligence community is bamboozling congress and the administration they are telling them that we have to do this in order to find the bad guys in the networks and i just absolutely false the top contractors who analyze data for the pentagon and the n.s.a. have contributed more than sixteen million dollars to members of congress since two thousand and seven according to research by map like a campaign cash goes to both democrats and republicans so with both parties this

security national security complex is deeply embedded with the revolving door that's corruption the u.s. government is defending its intelligence programs as legal and as american six. the increasing privacy intrusions contractors with friends in congress will keep cashing in on the growing market of cyber surveillance. in los angeles. r t r t's are mogul and joins me now from los angeles with more hi there ramon so how much are these major corporations making off the u.s. government anyway to go over our personal data well the true number can really not be quantified when we take a look at the intelligence budget for last year here in the united states it was seventy two billion dollars and that's actually lower than at the height of eighty billion dollars which was back in two thousand and ten but when you really take a look at it back in one thousand nine hundred seven we're only spending twenty

seven billion on intelligence twenty seven billion compared to seventy two billion so since nine eleven the industry has really grown exponentially and we know how long this has been going on yet while this really has. blown up after nine eleven and with the installment of the patriot act it has really led to a lot of policies which have opened up this surveillance state here in the u.s. and really at the bottom of this is the perceived conflict of interest where we see government officials going back and forth between contractors and there's this perception that they're influencing policy they're overselling true national security threats in order to make a buck ramona i have to tell you it does look like one another example of the revolving door situation that we've seen for a while now booz allen hamilton employees are in a say and they seem to go round and round but let me ask you a question playing devil's advocate here why do critics believe that private

security contracts for surveillance are dangerous why would that be a bad thing. sure well besides these these personal conflicts of interest there's still the issue of people like snowed in others who have these top security clearances it's estimated hundreds of thousands of people have these and this all happened with the explosions of contractors being used as for hire spies so besides snowden there's hundreds of thousands of other people who potentially could have access to your personal information whether you're committing a crime or not ok so i want to talk to you now about the risk of the intelligence at the end fluence created you know by these contractors what is their influence exactly on the intelligence industry sure well critics will point to companies such as booz allen northrop grumman as a i c and they take a look at whether these companies are getting these new creative government contracts because they're so effective or is it because they have those close

contacts in d.c. and when we look at those adults in say i see boeing they're both the recipient they're all the recipients of multi billion dollar deals which in the past have shown to go way over budget and many times they are just not effective thomas drake pointed out one of the biggest multi-billion the bottles that cac was behind so a lot of people wondering if they keep receiving these contracts because they're so good at their job or just because they have certain names in their role of don't zone always great to see you we have to leave it there that was our t. correspondent rym uncle and oh now the u.s. has pulled out of iraq and has begun the final stages of its military handover in afghanistan expensive equipment including two thousand ambush protected vehicles are being dumped or scrapped each of these vehicles cost one million dollars so you do the math with the region while the region become the u.s.

military is dumping ground will artie's meghan lopez brings us that story. this is a historic moment for our country. you hereby amounts that are served tomorrow all security and defense affairs will be led and carried out by security forces it's the moment americans have been waiting for for over a decade the moment when nato forces hand over control to the afghan government and begin the process of leaving the country but with the twenty fourteen deadline looming and the military looking to make its final exit from afghanistan what's going to happen with the billions of dollars worth of equipment remaining in the country a new washington post article sheds some light on the drawdown and it starts with the meltdown of military vehicles we've got about eleven thousand mine resistant ambush protected vehicles and wraps in the country in afghanistan two thousand

which are being destroyed turned to scrap metal the claim by the defense department is that the afghanistan government won't be able to use them won't be able to run them and so it will be more expensive to bring in bring them back to the u.s. about two three billion to transport them eighty nine billion to repair them. that general stands claimed in afghanistan but as a result you're looking at a seven billion dollar waste instead two thousand of these but he myths which by the way cost one million dollars a pop will be melted down and turned into scraps sold for pennies on the dollar in fact the army plans on shipping back no more than seventy six percent of all equipment in the country but one group will profit from this waste it's a perfect too for the defense contractors because they love it so yeah sure it destroyed the equipment in country it's terrible for the environment terrible it's a slight of it's a slight to the country saying you can't actually using ten rounds but then it's a great opportunity for defense contractors to build more immature more future it's a project contract workers have already begun to work on last month alone kandahar

yard produced eleven million pounds worth of scrap but the obvious question is why not leave those vehicles to the afghans and that's not the only. concern opponents of the plan have it's a huge waste of taxpayer dollars seven billion gone done no one's benefiting the americans are benefiting the afghans aren't benefiting so it's a huge waste of money it's a huge environmental waste because there's a lot of toxins in those. so yeah some of the scrap metal will be used on the market sold for nothing but environmental waste it's huge and in the political ways to mean it's a huge blow to the afghan people to say we don't trust you enough to provide both the equipment and the ability to keep that equipment restored to maintain to going forward now this move isn't completely out of line with a storable president the military left behind millions of pieces of equipment in iraq and moved all the rest to afghanistan well with the u.s. planning its ultimate exit from the entire region the so-called graveyard of empires could soon have another tank junkyard to mark

a decade worth of war and of strife in washington meghan lopez. and those who'd update on the mass protest underway in brazil estimated one million protesters have taken to the streets for several days in a row in the capital brasilia some twenty thousand demonstrators are in front of the capital it's said that thirty five hundred police officers were deployed to that area with clashes erupting after protesters reportedly threw molotov cocktails attempting to break through police police haven't fully tear gas but not all cops are against these protesters take a look at this video it shows cops joining the protesters in solidarity. for more on what's happening r.t.s. . has the story. hundreds of thousands have taken to the streets all over brazil in an unprecedented public protest the hottest sport of the rez remains sell paolo where tear gas has been fired protesters who tried to take over the local

governments building in the capital brasilia clashes have erupted when riot police faced off with protesters trying to break through towards the congress in rio de janeiro local police resorted to tear gas to disperse crowds marching towards city hall police say some three hundred thousand people have rallied but organizers claim it's twice as many there are reports that around thirty people have been injured earlier around eight thousand security officers have been deployed near the city stadium ahead of time for the ration football match between the spanish and eighty football teams such rallies are believed to be the most violent in a decade the protesters say they're angry at the government's excessive spending for the two thousand and fourteen world cup and another point of discontent is the increase of public transport fees in several brazilian cities the country's health or it is later reversed their decision to increase the first but this doesn't seem

to have a peace demonstrators they say they are also angry over the underfunded health care and education systems the rest come a six months ahead of elections in brazil and as we can see there are plenty of complaints to was president dilma rousseff government to protest say they will remain until they see change and promise a fresh wave of rallies to take place for the next days how does it not seem to be a little reporting. for those who knew who are under the burden of a student loan get ready for your interest rate to spike if congress doesn't stop it interest rates for the most popular type of student loans are thought to double in ten days we're going to light a first we'll go from three point four percent to six point eight percent and that could be a big. financial burden for the thirty seven million americans who currently have student loan debt as many as sixty percent of students are borrowing money for college contributing to that one trillion dollars owed by americans and student

loans over eighty percent is owed to the federal government will senator say that they proposed a draft proposal that's gaining some steam would create a three tiered loan rate system for undergraduates graduates and a third group which would be tied to the interest rate on a ten year treasury note for more on the senate's latest hattrick to stop the interest increase i'm joined now by mark kantrowitz senior vice president and publishers of advisors dot com hi there mark so how is congress going to help out americans who find themselves and the crux of this type of debt oh this isn't the first time we've seen this last year in the middle of the election the rate was going to double and they extended it or year in the can down the road this is just the latest proposal that we've seen to try to fix the problem there and this is the ninth proposal that has been issued by members of congress or the white house

in the last few weeks ok well mark break this down for me what does this current proposal look like. well the current proposal would peg everything to the ten year treasury rate plus a fixed rate margin. two and a half percent if you were an undergraduate student on the stafford loan three and a half percent if you were a graduate student these would be fixed rates that would each year's alms would have a new fixed rate no cap on these interest rates so they could a few years from now they could be much higher than they are now and on the parent plus loan and grad plus loan it would be a ten year treasury bust four and a half percent instead of three and a half or two and a half percent. you see this is congress's way of kicking the can as you put it earlier are they doing that again with this latest bill do you think well i mean what when interest rates are high people want them to be when there are valan

heading up they want to walk them in this fixed rates and we see this again and again and again there are no really new ideas here these hybrid fix variable rate schemes were actually we had them in prior to one thousand nine hundred two so this is just a ongoing flipping from one approach to another approach and it's cyclical ok well talk to me about the fact that students don't necessarily have a lobbying effort in congress do you think that that has anything to do with them getting shafted as opposed to if they had a bigger presence maybe they would have more of a say and what's happening directly to the. well students were the swing vote in the last election if it weren't for students president obama would not have been reelected they also made a difference in many of the congressional races so i think members of congress are starting to pay more attention to student needs the problem this year is unlike last year it's not an election year so there's less per pressure on congress to get

something done ok what can you tell me who in congress doesn't want to see this relief then what reasons they would have behind not wanting to give relief to students well i think you see proposals from both democrats and republican members of congress the disagreement is and what the interest rate should be whether there should be a cap and many of these proposals save the government money because they're increasing the costs for borrowers and actively they are immediate rate cuts that are ultimately going to cost borrowers a few years from now a lot more there is disagreement about how to spend that extra money they were up republicans want to cut the deficit the president wants to expand a. repay or a loan program pay as you earn. two although or is not just recent dollars

right mark well if they don't reach a deal what could we see happen. well i mean if they congress doesn't act on july first new homes and this only applies to new loans it does not affect existing loans will have an interest rate of six point eight percent instead of three point four percent for each year's worth of new bones that works out to be about seven dollars a month increase in the monthly loan payment for the typical dad a graduation of a bachelor degree recipient that's about a twenty four dollar a month increase in the monthly payment so it's not the end of the world. it's just college loans will cost new dollars more than they cost ours over the last few years all right so you know as you well know mark i'm sure you can bankrupt a student loan and i we don't know we do know that this debt makes up one trillion dollars with that interest it's growing what advice do you have for people who find themselves trapped under this kind of debt at all in the first thing is to explore

your options for financial relief i mentioned the repay is here and repayment plan there is an earlier version of that that's built everybody called income based repayment so if you're struggling to repay your loans if your debt exceeds your annual income look into income based repayment there are also temporary suspensions of the obligation to repay the debt something called the economic hardship deferment if you lost your job you can get your payments suspended and or certain on site the subsidized loans the government will even pay the interest so there are many options you need to talk to you under before you falls because you will lose options if you default first or a mark we appreciate the information we have to leave it there that was mark kantrowitz senior vice president and publisher of pfizer is dot com. well that does it for 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 can also follow me on twitter at m underscore j underscore

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