you live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how fabulous bad luck i got. i mean. i believe that i'm still really messed up. in the all very sort of. the. worst for the little things. like how sick of a. radio guy for a minute. i want. to give you've never seen anything like this i'm so. happy monday guys i remember one lucky break in the set there's a lot going on this weekend simply not enough time to cover all in thirty minutes

let's get started and let's break that. guys it's been over a month since n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden made public some of those damning information about the extent of u.s. government surveillance and as of friday june twenty first he became the eight person officially in charge of the espionage act the bill designated for spies but instead of focusing on the erosion of civil liberties or the u.s. has cracked down on whistleblowers the corporate media quickly held their court of public opinion on his guilt. this is what i think i think this kid's a punk i think he's a coward and i don't view him as a patriot at all he's a coward because he would come home and face the music so i hope we'll chase him to the ends of the earth bring him to justice and let the russians know there will be consequences if they harbor this guy we need to get very very serious about treason

and old by the way for treason as in the case of bradley manning or edward snowden you bring back the death penalty. yes folks you just heard lieutenant colonel ralph peters publicly calling for whistleblowers to be put to death let me get this straight u.s. government orders the n.s.a. to spy on american citizens in violation of the constitution you know that little oath that officials themselves have sworn to protect and once an individual makes known this unconstitutionality he's charged with the crime of spying wow i wish orwell was alive to see this but i digress needless to say the case of edward snowden's global escape has turned to a full blown media circus but the timeline of events looking more and more like the pages of a spy novel after meeting with guardian journalist glenn greenwald in hong kong the publication published snowden's first bombshell on june fifth revealing that arise in a good force to hand over the phone records of millions of american citizens the following

day prism was exposed the n.s.a. program that allows direct access to the otherwise secure servers of google facebook apple and other tech companies then we learned about boundless informant in an essay analytics tool that allows monitoring of surveillance programs on a country by country basis finally on june ninth snowden decided to go public and reveal themselves as the source of the leaks in an exclusive one on one with glenn greenwald within the following week it was bombshell after bombshell first telling the south china morning post that the n.s.a. had been hacking the government and civilian infrastructure of hong kong and china since one thousand nine soon after we learned about u.s. and u.k. surveillance of foreign leaders at the g twenty including russia but probably the craziest revelation is that as it turns out u.s. and u.k. governments have access to phone and internet traffic everywhere across the entire world gee that's a comforting thought and just yesterday in a surprising twist snowden left hong kong on

a flight to moscow and in response to an arrest warrant issued by the u.s. the hong kong government responded with a press release saying quote there is no legal basis to restrict. snowden from leaving hong kong adding that the h. k. s. a our government is requesting clarification on earlier reports about the hacking of computer systems in hong kong by u.s. government agencies the government will continue to follow up on the matter so as to protect the legal rights of the people of hong kong so basically china just played the d.o.j. although snowden stayed the night in airport in moscow as i'm writing this now his whereabouts are undisclosed has sought asylum in multiple countries so far journalists have been led astray and the latest reports indicate that he left the moscow airport destination unknown so at first i wasn't sure about what his plan was but now i'm starting to realize that he's a genius after all why would a china and russia comply with the us only days after learning the extent of the us

by now and then but as the story plays out let's not overlook the most important point of all charging whistleblowers with espionage violates the principles this country was founded on labeling them traitors and spies only peels back more layers of the photo democracy in which we live. today i had the chance to sit down with one of the most well known journalists of our time larry king you probably know him as former host of c.n.n. he's since moved on it is now producing a daily show called politicking that airs right here on our t.v. now let me preface this interview by saying that larry king and i have pretty different opinions nonetheless it was an interesting conversation it was good good his insight on the role of journalism in the world today i first asked him when he

looks back throughout his entire career of interviewing presidents foreign leaders and celebrities if there's one question he regrets not asking and here's his response. big. the president of apple. got his name and i did two hours with him on radio was a fascinating terrific interview and then i took from coles and the first caller said larry you know the president probably you just interviewed he was hired by steve jobs and he fired steve jobs i didn't know that and i never asked about it and that's something i regret i have been asked about this and i regret to this moment but you know there's never been the perfect interview you can't you can't have it all i missed what about government officials especially during the bush administration do you think that journalists did their job to hold those people who committed crimes accountable. by committing crimes the violation

of the geneva conventions you know people war based on false pretenses but there was no it was a question of you mean about iraq things you think it was person going out enough. i think i think good journalist or you could do is all you can do i think bush left office with a low popularity rating the war in iraq turned people turned against him people would say now but with the american public generally did not favor but war. they were told no weapons of mass destruction a lot of people saw the weapons of mass destruction democrats republicans said. colin powell who i admire more than most of them are for more than most i think he's one of the most of the mobile people who believe the weapons of mass destruction so if you believe their weapons of mass destruction may go in with your belief since he really believed that why would i question and i don't know i mean

should we be questioning government or you know the one hundred a question of if i tell you that the information given to me says there are weapons . mass destruction and i believe that person and i'm paying them and they bring me this information why would you doubt me. in other words i can disagree with you are we discovered they weren't weapons of mass destruction they made a mistake but we you know as you think they were all teary motives i think that they knew that there weren't weapons of mass hysteria think they're all to the motives and everyone you think hears and i think you know a lot of a lot of current war monitoring especially with syria and iran i think that the weapons of mass destruction and chemical weapons are a little bit of. questioning motives of everyone. then i could reverse that. question mr snowden knows his motives. but that's taken away from the outcome of what was you know more thoughtful but he had

a motive didn't he now of his motive was out to wish to be flee. because he doesn't want to face the same fate as bradley manning he doesn't want to face fate therefore he wouldn't stand up for what he stood for right yes see in other words we could go on like to say that there's a what i drive to do in asking questions is i do the best i can over my career and ask the best questions i could but listing the best answers and hopefully be audience make up their own mind but like your interviewer probably will has an opinion and you bring the opinion to the broadcast i did more of that well let's talk about that let's talk about the role of journalists today do you think that we're straying away from the kind of watchdog journalism that when you started it was really more prevalent. we have a lot of pontifical journalism now we have pundits who are not journalists people come on to give their own opinion i guess is a problem for their opinion is where i think what do you think i don't like that i don't use the word i in all my interviews i try to i suppose questions i was

intensely curious am intensely curious i i listen to answers i follow up what they're asked busier but we don't have any it would all moros to. which you're asking walter cronkite's but the but it's such a different atmosphere that you've got five hundred channels you know everyone's for a piece of the pie if you get. you go off the if you get ten million viewers now you are an enormous hit twenty years ago you dropped. a big package so everyone's grabbing for a piece of the pie so you can get those you can get any kind journalism you want what about entire networks partisan networks fox imus n.b.c. is that problematic. given this fox n.b.c. news b.b.c. to c.n.n. there's r.t. because al-jazeera you've got so many choices i don't know that it is what it is. i may not watch it or may be critical of some that i don't like of others but it's

all earning process i love the business i love communicating so i love this what about c.n.n. i mean you worked there for twenty five years how did you see it evolve did you see any sort of bias develop there to kind of try to adapt to the other models that were there was. great respect for c.n.n. turner was a best person to work for he never told you what to say he never put his hands on he never. made his mic work he couldn't control and he said. i never. never folk put upon i never saw anyone see and say let's go get this guy or let's not get this guy i never saw anything one would be of i think it was an independent network i think it still is you mention journalists who now kind of pontificate with their own opinions glenn greenwald's in the spotlight right now of course having revealed the hack many people say it's not good because of his open

bias toward snowden bradley manning do you have a problem with journalists who are completely open with what the bias that they know that you just said you kind of did but people a. journalist. i mean they they could perform a kind of journalism but they come with an opinion that's fine i mean but i call them op ed page you would not call glenn greenwald a journalist though he could be a journalist but was is is some if you give an opinion you then come with a bias correct it isn't every question biased when i'm your own what you can be all that abby is you buddy of mine yes if you did that and you do this if this is and that is when you say you've gone crazy he turned yourself into a sort of i just i don't know how to respond to that because yes every question is bias for example every headline every headline is subjective. what you just did now was subject right so technically every question i asked was subjective right

but i came with it with the best motives i never came up with a motive that my way is the highway. because of going gold's open by as some politicians and media pundits are now calling for his prosecution taking it that far i mean have you seen i would say you know i believe in free speech how do you see this kind of attack on journalism ever before or do you see that this is the worse it's been terms of crackdown of whistleblowers of the obama administration etc. i mean whistle blows are. never heard of a court right now. well he's already charged the snowden is the eighth person in charge of the espionage act the world war one piece of legislation the wall but isn't the government breaking the law i don't know. i have to ask i'm not in this bill i want to see the one question i don't. so do you think that that are they now do you think obama's bringing along absolutely he want to reach absolutely

so then you're not you're a journalist with an opinion. of course not i think it's naive to say that journalists don't have opinions and i think it's refreshing. when journalists do out i don't think it is when they bring it to the. ok i'm going to forever that's a little bit different time move i know and i think it's amazing bigger inside and i think that times are changing where you're seen people like going to go the spotlight i think it's dangerous when you see people calling for prosecution for simply having that opinion that you're stating. i wouldn't buy i don't know barbara i don't know but well i have to look at the law who if you if you break the law you should be prosecuted i don't have a brawl broke out of those that would. not was larry king state here not the break i'll talk to former u.s. ambassador edward peck and get his take on the violence that's plaguing countries all across the middle east. looking pretty tough in the field that he won't find it here if you're looking for relevant stories unique perspectives on top my skin's

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it looks like it when i. never seen anything like. this past weekend a suicide bomber blew himself up inside of a shia mosque in baghdad iraq killing at least fourteen people and wounding twenty five more this attack marks just the latest violence stemmed from the resurgence of ethnic conflict and bolton by the country's recent elections since april two thousand people have been told they get the deadliest period since the height of sectarian war during u.s. occupation two thousand and six in fact many are now saying that iraq is quickly escalate into a full syria style civil war that the instability of both countries is fueling a region wide conflict syria talk about the likely future of the middle east i'm

joined by a former diplomat who served thirty two years of foreign service in the region is the former chief of mission in iraq former deputy director of covert intelligence programs at a white house task on terrorism i'm joined by ambassador edward peck thank you so much for coming in supporters before. so as former chief of mission in iraq you oppose the two thousand and three invasion staunchly saying that would turn pretty much into a quagmire surprisingly cheney actually agreed with you in one thousand nine hundred four where he said the exact same thing and i want to play that. ok we're coming from no one because if we'd gone to baghdad we would have been all alone there would've been anybody else with us it would've been a u.s. occupation of iraq none of the arab forces that were willing to fight with us and to way we're going to invade iraq. once you got to iraq and took it over and took down saddam hussein's government the money going to put into place that's a very volatile part of the world and if you take down the central government of

iraq you can easily end up seeing pieces of iraq fly off for part of it. the syrians would like to have the west part of eastern iraq the iranians would like to play it over for eight years in the north you've got the kurds and the kurds spin loose and join with the kurds in turkey then you threaten the territorial integrity of turkey it's a quagmire something that the bush administration officials knew exactly what the fate of iraq would be if there was an invasion do you think that the destabilization of the country was part of the plan no i don't think it was what they wanted to do was to get saddam hussein and they did and what mr cheney said there he went on to say on the front page of the new york times when the invasion was actually taking place. excuse me. what kind of government would you get shia sunni a moderate democratic races and what and the answer is you're not going to get anything the problem i think is that people like me who know something about their country

are not listened to by people who think that they know everything about their country so you stand there and you try to tell them what it's like i speak arabic i lived there for two and a half years. and know they know more than i do call a blind arrogance the belief that you know everything including what those people are going to do when in fact you haven't got a clue one. and now we're seeing a complete breakdown in the region i mean as i just mentioned and the violence is an epidemic at this point two dozen people died in the last two months what's the danger to iraq falling prey to a serious style civil war in that region quite serious one it becomes both ethnic kurds the christians nobody ever talks about the mandate ends and the other sects that are there so that if it becomes a civil war and people rush to their own enclave a shia stamp of kurdistan what happens to the rest of the people who don't make it

to their own place a bloodbath we saw that in india and pakistan before you were born you know a million people died there we saw it in cyprus much more recently when people who couldn't turks who couldn't get to the turkish part were killed greeks who couldn't get to the greek part. and i think it's quite serious because the lessons there are so clear i remember as a diplomat how we all waited eagerly for marshall tito to pass from the scene so yugoslavia could flower and prosper. and you saw what happened. same thing in syria i was there three years ago in the summer by the way i was in baghdad in december but never got out of the green zone to see what it looked like my old hometown but those countries are different than many other countries because

they can't break up very easily they've only been countries for sixty years what do you think they'll terrier motive is to supplying the rebels in syria with arms. to me there are something. awfully stupid about sending in arms to stop the killing i mean that's a seems i mean for peace sensitive that's called counter-intuitive really. but america feels it has to go there for the same reasons that the russians have to go there on the other side and the saudis when i was there three years ago everybody who was there there was a fairly large group all of them were experts i am not a syria expert but they were scholars diplomats you know journalists and everybody there agreed the what was going to happen to syria was that it would become the testing ground for all these people both in the region and from far away

trying to advance their own interests so if you're going to arm the rebels which ones are they really going to institute a democratic government you remember what the americans said about baghdad about iraq when saddam hussein falls utopian democracy will burst and bloom all green with flowers and candy and i was on a television show with someone who didn't ask questions. it's in our troops will be greeted with flowers and candy and cheers and i said well would you think a moment and give your viewers a list of countries geographically alphabetically historically that have welcomed invaders. you know as a short short silence there because you know you don't welcome write an invasion unless they're your people but in syria where you've got all of these groups all of these forces and it's interesting to me to notice that bashar assad as you may know

is a british trained up they'll just speaks english as well as we do. is now being described as a thaw good old murderous oppressive no you know i've been there a number of times people walk the streets in freedom as they did in baghdad because unless you bothered the government the government had no reason bother you it's a lot about the dehumanization and demonization of the enemy as you have leaders nominee i want you to have despised by everyone around since and i wanted to move on to israel of course you were on the two dozen ten gaza flotilla which was ambushed by israel it was pretty bold of you to be on that ship in the first place what drove you over the course of your career to take such actions and to be such a fervent activist for palestine well it's not an activist for palestine it's an activist i think in the interests of my own country as much as anything else because. no one in his or her right mind wants anything bad to happen to anyone in the middle east israeli palestinian american but horrible things have happened are

happening and they're going to happen because of what is happening and what is not happening in gaza the west bank and jerusalem so they called and offered me a seat on that little bitty ship i was not on the big borders or maybe no little bitty greek ship i said ok here's a chance to do something better than writing reports of making speeches to be an activist. to me the most interesting part of it was actually getting to ashdod they took us there and i had met this i'd already been told what was going to happen they were going to give us a piece of paper to sign and hebrew. which would then they would be pointless if you didn't sign that you went to jail so the man said syme this i said why he said because you have broken the israeli law we're speaking in english of course he says you broke it is really a lot i said i've been here for three minutes what is really

a lot of i broke and he said you have entered the country illegally. i said you captured the ship on the high seas that's piracy you brought us here are the armed guard and metaphorically speaking i was marched ashore with my hands in harrison early and call you entered in the country illegally and he said yes unbelievable i was working covert intelligence counterterrorism operations for a long time in the eighty's are you concerned with how it's evolved since then yes i can remember when i was on the white house task force on terrorism and i was deputy director of the working group and the members of the task force were all the cabinet folks involved for international relations plus the joint chiefs of staff and the chairman of all that and everybody admitted that the weakness with intelligence business using bengazi as an example is that after the event takes place is that all that's what we should have been watching for because before your

desk is piled the stuff coming in from all over and one of the very senior officials of the cia said it's like you being assigned is a big billboard at ten thousand light bulbs your job is to tell us which one is going to burn out next. so. you can't do it so well and when they tell me us that they've prevented all of these terrorist attacks from taking place where's the proof they never took place. but it becomes it becomes frightening as our own rules and laws and behavioral procedures go out the window in order to deal with something that we are creating on a daily basis. for with our support for israel doing whatever pleases to the palestinian people in their own homeland it's been called a self to self fulfilling prophecy the war on terror unfortunately out of time pleasure to have you on edward pak former chief of mission in iraq really appreciate it thank you so much of good luck thank you. and that's it for our show

tonight you guys make sure to come back and join us right here going tomorrow when we break the set all over again. i would rather as 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. exposed. us time as a new alert animation scripts scare me a little. heat. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news coming in. alexander's family cry tears of joy and a great things rather that there has been together render in a court of law found alive there's a story made for movies playing out in real life. even.

more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. trying to look for a shelter rooted a spy. i believe clay is the perfect material it's a live. working with the demands precision. you make just a small change and you get a totally different result. was that before getting to work you have to study the material watch it try to figure out what it looks like then the image comes to you .