coming up on r t n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden is located now the world waits to see where he'll head next and if there were revealed more details about the u.s. surveillance program updates on this story ahead. as the afghan war winds down defense contractors may have found a new battlefield for profit the senate is debating an immigration bill that would militarize the us mexico border a look at this development later in today show and in afghanistan a daring suicide attack was launched on kabul's presidential palace now the taliban is taking credit for this bombing so what does this mean for peace talks between the u.s. and the tal a bottom that story ahead. it's

tuesday june twenty fifth five pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r t well looks like the international guessing game of where in the world is edward snowden is finally over the last twenty four hours news outlets have had wall to wall coverage speculating where he is and whether or not he left russia and finally what his next destination might be today russian president vladimir putin actually put an end to some of those questions mr snowden has indeed landed in most he came as a transit passengers and remains in the transit zone of the airport. so there you have it he is still in the transit area of the moscow airport in the zone between the arrival gates and russia's passport control checkpoints president putin went on to say that the sooner snowden selects a final destination and departs from the country the better it will be for both russia. as well as for snowden himself meanwhile u.s.

officials are demanding from moscow to detain the n.s.a. leaker and extradite him to the u.s. and although we now know where he is a number of questions remain what is edward snowden's final destination why didn't he board that plane to cuba and why is he staying in the transit zone set of interesting into russia for the latest from the ground i'm joined now by our to correspondent to bang boat say she is right outside the moscow airport with the latest hi there tabbies so tell us the latest that you've learned about the snowden case and what his status is. i'm a good oh well you know this is a story has been taking a certain many twists and turns good keeping us all guessing as to whether indeed it is an edward snowden but as we heard earlier on today from president putin that indeed he is still holed up somewhere in that transit is zone in a short amount of airport now of course he had also reiterated the fact that does

not and did not come out of the airport into russian soil so they did not know that he was even coming there was it just as a surprise as everybody else now because we know that the hong kong released a statement on sunday saying that snowden was a border plated to moscow heading towards a third country they did not mention which country it was but which he lives in the background was also saying that he will be mad to buy someone from a diplomatic representatives from the country which he'll be seeking asylum from of course we know that the ambassador of al queda did make a stop here on sunday to the airport whether he did all meet up with snowden as well as the wiki leaks a representative that straddling supposedly with a snowden that that is still i know what we do know is that from the president that he is in that transit sorry during our research we know that he did spend a night at the capsule hotel which is a transit hotel inside of this airport no one has seen him as yet he wasn't on that

plane to cuba which he checked in himself on sunday upon arrival to moscow so it's been such a goose chase really to say but every wasn't on the plane and he can be found within the transit zone where is he hiding and now i'm going to remain next question time we obviously everyone is trying to get their hands or of our eyes on him give us a layout of the airport i mean how big is it and why are travelers not snapping pictures of him like crazy. but a ceremony of the airport to megan is about. eighteen miles just northwest of moscow central it's actually the hub of our florida airlines which is the airline that snowden supposedly boarded from hong kong there's a roger it takes in about just over twenty six of thousand passengers a day coming in and out of this airport over two hundred twenty eight flights to and fro from this airport it's the second largest airport in russia now you can

imagine how busy it gets with over twenty six thousand people coming in and out so i can imagine if there's a lot of people with glasses on toll men you might do you know you start to have visions of snowden all of which many of us have have had in the past couple of hours you can think am i supporting him no it's not it's just one of the passengers so that does make it a little bit difficult when it's such a busy airport with so many people coming and going and to be afraid i don't know if many of the passengers who would want to tell anyone if they do see have i think everyone to stay away from this and let the authorities as well as the media kind of hound him down and take megan and hubby is there an indication as to why he did not get on a flight to cuba or what his next step might be. you know from the beginning that when he left hong kong or supposedly on that aeroflot

plane achieve a moscow for that a third country of which a hong kong had stated that he was heading to the us so much as speculation surrounding where would that country be countries like venezuela with thrown around cuba was thrown around and could do was also thrown around even a russia but then upon the arrival of the best of ecuador then we did learn that indeed to edward snowden did ask for asylum in the aqueduct now this story resonates a little bit much of the one whistleblower that we've all been following his case of course that one of julian assange still holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london now his story was very different he was wanted for sex allegation charges in sweden fear of fearful for the fact that he might be extradited back to the united states he then seek asylum in that the ecuadorian embassy in london and he's been holed up there for over a year now still in their code or an embassy has said that they are aware of this and that the fact that if you want to be extradited to the united states he might

possibly phrase an unfair trial and might be subjected to our unfair treatment hence the decision to give him that a file and now it's the same situation here with snowden if that door in the embassy does indeed decide that he is going to receive an unfair trial in the united states they could possibly award him with asylum right now what we do know is a big adoring embassy has offered him refugee status of papers this is because the one he has his passport has been revoked by the united states they've all said anyone who is trying to help him has got to send him back to the united states that makes traveling very difficult so we're guessing that perhaps the reason he's still somewhere in at this airport is because of the pay. if he's going to leave moscow if he's going to be that transit area in the even if they have some kind of paperwork the other thing is this is only speculation of course he could be getting

a new identity who knows there's so much running around the fact that he was not on the plane is still back and there is another plane on there is that we found out that is that leaving for cuba will he be on the plane only time will tell me again for the very latest from the ground r.t. correspondents abang most say thank you so much well for a closer look at the rough road ahead for edward snowden i was joined earlier by international human rights lawyer stanley cohen and i started off by asking him what types of dangers this n.s.a. leaker faces next he's a capable young man who's put his life in the in the crosshairs of the united states which is seeking his blood and if i were advising him i would suggest that he should get to the venue that he plans on going to and that's willing to accept him and then continue with whatever way that he wants to do in terms of exposing some turban in some turban practice is of which he became aware in the united states now hong kong reporters asked snowden whether he took the job at booz allen

hamilton specifically to gain information about the national security agency and he said that in fact he did that job he had for three months does it change his status as a whistleblower and to something more like a moral and from a legal standpoint does that matter. no i don't think it matters and i think we've spent a lot of time discussing him rather than the subject matter the material that he has released as a whistleblower the question of whether he found himself in a job and then became concerned in which to expose it or whether we pursued it for that reason doesn't change his status from the government standpoint nor does a change of status from his own defense team however stanley let me stop you there because it would in fact stop would it not the refugee standpoint what temp a fine line for asylum the motives behind his release saying that's what it not. those are questions of fact that need to be fleshed out in whether it's in a courtroom whether it's in proceedings whether it's under international law the

fact that there's information being leaked by both sides being pushed and debated doesn't change the fact of the matter is that it currently does every future status under the international law and it has to be played out here now from a legal standpoint what is the next best move that edward snowden could make in order to avoid this jail time that he is afraid of. well i'm not so sure he's afraid of jail time i think this is someone who made a decision i think he understood at the beginning that if he were lucky perhaps the worst he gets is jail time this is the government that show no problem with this as a nation of the last forty years throughout the world if i were representing him i would suggest that he pursue asylum request political asylum request in a country and then let the let let let it go where it's going to go in terms of litigation he has as far as i understand it so i've requested asylum and two countries one of them is ecuador the other one is iceland so where does he go for

now does he stay in the airport should he go somewhere else. well he's got two applications apparently pending and under international law and given the fact that he's in that transit zone he's beyond the reach of this half hearted effort by the obama administration to grab in any event and i think if i represented him i would suggest to you wait a decision from the government then take whatever step is in his best interest and then consistent with international law i mean being vilified now as a law breaker is being assumed that these to engage in all sorts of conduct none of it's been shown none of it's been proven what we do know is that he's being singled out by this administration the way it has and seven other occasions people for their political positions and people for in effect becoming whistleblowers now speaking about him being singled out and targeted as an enemy senator dianne feinstein says that a real whistleblower doesn't run away after spilling the beans from a legal standpoint is snowden making his case worse or is he complicating it by

fleeing the country before his disclosures were made public well given the treatment of bradley manning given the government's disrespect of international law with julian a sourness i think it's the height of hypocrisy for any representative in this country to point the finger at someone who's become an historical figure for this country a hero to say stand up young man to be counted if anyone needs to be count. needs to be the administration deeds to be people like feinstein it needs to be congress that should step up and admit that they violated domestic law violated international law and stop this illegal policy we don't need anymore scapegoats where they want to torture him send him to get low let him sit in a cell naked like this demanding it's outrageous the standard they're preaching on how i know the ones have created this own mess so let's talk about that let's move beyond edward snowden do you think that first of all that he is clouding that the judgment clouding the media coverage of this potentially massive story when it comes to n.s.a. surveillance sure it's convenient all of

a sudden we're now focused on. the so-called whistle on the whistleblower it's not about him we should be debating and discussing and arguing exploring this massive unprecedented illegal surveillance tactic that's been embraced by this administration that has violated the constitution that has violated everything that president obama said he stood for that's the issue that's the argument that's the debate that's what congress should be exploring including its own complicity the question of this gentleman is secondary the issue right now is what will americans do with the most unprecedented most illegal massive outrageous act of surveillance in the history of this country particularly brought on by an administration that claim to support was a blowers and believe in transparency it's outrageous let's not make him the scapegoat and when media the jetta reach and get sucked into this debate over what he did and why as opposed to the substance of the material it's convenient it

serves the government and it defeats the purpose of the american discourse which would be number one in the in the agenda right now sadly i am willing to bet that people will not be willing to have that conversation until something happens the next edward snowden case and some type of resolution is that is made in his asylum but air national human rights lawyer stanley cohen thank you for joining me. well in his attempt to escape extradition edward snowden has gathered quite a following authorities and media outlets are all trying to get their hands on him and they aren't alone artie's margaret how explains. after edward snowden's leak about the national security agency to the guardian and the washington post there's been no shortage of critics the new yorker's jeffrey toobin called snowden a quote grandiose narcissist who deserves to be in prison and he wasn't the only one there is another group of people out there with a very different observation of snowden for lack of a better term they see him as well hot in some sectors of the internet edward

snowden has become a sex symbol one person tweeted i moved to hong kong for other social network users have gosh that student clad in those dark glasses is quote geek and one early tweet i have him in my bag now you know it's a certified trend when there is a blog going one named edward snowden kind of high has surfaced meanwhile some are making a buck off their infatuation of snowden team snowden t. shirts are being sold on e bay and more than one hundred thousand people have signed we the people white house petition calling snowden a hero how many were wearing snowden t. shirts as they added their name to the list will that we just don't know in washington margaret howell r.t. after more than twelve years of finding its way through afghanistan the u.s. and the talabani have acknowledged that they are ready to sit down and broker a peace talks this move has been a long time coming and regional experts had met that there cannot be peace in

afghanistan without these negotiations taking place but no sooner did the u.s. today an envoy to doha qatar for those talks and this happened take a look at yesterday's headlines presidential palace comes under attack in afghanistan afghanistan palace attack three dead in kabul assault and explosions and gunfire in central kabul now as if these negotiations with the taliban want to already on unstable grounds the group publicly claimed responsibility for these attacks told one spokes person as a blow. he actually said in email eight of our suicide bombers were able to reach the most secure area of kabul the brave mujahedeen with special tactics and help from inside were able to reach their target with their weapons and cars a number of foreign invaders were killed and wounded in the attack so how monumental of a setback is this was trying to earlier by michael semple who's a senior fellow at the cia our our center for human rights policy at the harvard

kennedy school he filled us in on the latest with the taliban peace talks. i don't think that anybody should expect the taliban to play soft their spokesman made quite clear that they are not on ceasefire yet and this is what you call a fight and talk strategy they are saying that they're ready to go into talks but they're saying that we're not going to stop fighting until there's some kind of a cease fire but at the same time with this fight and talks tragically are you really brokering a peace deal when you're outwardly attacking the people that you're trying to talk with it i would certainly i would say that you cannot expect to go very far in peace talks unless you are prepared to go on to a cease fire you cannot be in a room talking with people if outside your your comrades are trying to kill them so i think very very soon in this process we will get to see whether the taliban are

serious or not so are you saying that the moves that they made today are evidence that possibly you know the taliban is either not serious about these talks or that they're shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to moving forward in afghanistan so far because they have not yet started negotiations and they are they can stick to this point where under no obligations are still there's still a war on but i think it will become increasingly clear over time whether they are prepared to make the kind of compromises which are required for an agreement or not i think the other point is that until now the taliban have claimed to be fighting against a foreign occupation and they can't really keep on with this excuse for very long because everybody knows foreign troops are leaving if they insist on fighting against the afghan government i think they'll probably quite soon soon run out of support for their armed conflict they have some support for fighting against foreign troops very little support for fighting against the afghan government so what should we expect to happen now a u.s. envoy was already en route for these talks in qatar are they just expected to turn

around and head home these are new want to turn on home because of this incident. the u.s. is trying to do is to keep the afghan government board while getting the taliban on board and also maintaining the confidence of the various countries in the region that it requires for a proper settlement so that's really quite ambitious for a process of diplomacy i think they're trying to make sure they've got everybody on board and then they sit down and how these talks and of course the talks between the u.s. and the of the taliban aren't really the important ones the important talks of the talks amongst the afghans the u.s. is trying to set the scene for our historic encounter between the taleban the afghan government and final question is it possible in your opinion to achieve peace and stability in afghanistan without the taliban's participation and it would be an awful lot easier if the the taliban decide to cooperate and see seek a compromise if they don't well you know the game will go on and people will look

for other strategies very interesting thank you so much for joining us michael semple senior fellow at the cia our center for human rights policy at the harvard kennedy school the supreme court is feeling the heat today and that is not because it's the first official week of summer justices ruled five to four this morning that a key part of the voting rights act is unconstitutional for some background the voting rights act it's a landmark civil rights era law that protected minorities from racial discrimination at polling booths it is a move that civil rights leaders are furious about even president obama said that he is deeply disappointed in this ruling party correspondent liz wahl takes a look at the bigger implications of this supreme court decision it's a ruling that steering a divided reaction it is deeply disturbing because it undermines puts our democracy at risk in a five to four vote the supreme court today struck down a key part of the voting rights act of one thousand nine hundred sixty five the

landmark legislation was aimed at writing discrimination at the polls the large plies to these states and counties that. how the history of racial discrimination against minority voters section four of the voting rights act required these states to get federal permission before changing any of their voting laws but according to chief justice john roberts who wrote the decision that part of the law is outdated he says coverage today is based on decades old data and eradicated practices and voter registration and turnout numbers in the comfort states have risen dramatically in the years since civil rights activists outside the supreme court say the decision is devastating that this decision is a breach trail over to the american people that there is nothing more critical than making sure that the highest court of our land gets it right bipartisan congress several times has recognized that we as a nation are better when all of us why you lack every color every ethnicity or

part of the political process congress most recently renewed the voting rights law on two thousand and six the supreme court decision now since the case back to congress for review congress in this moment must take this seriously must seize this opportunity to together in a bipartisan way seek to we enact a measure that will protect the voting rights of those voters who have been chief justice roberts used census data to show that the racial gap in voter turnout has decreased dramatically for example in alabama the gap shrank from forty nine point nine percent in one nine hundred sixty five to less than one percent in two thousand and four but according to justice ruth ginsburg who wrote the dissenting opinion the court is ignoring history a sentiment shared by activists outside the court was truly outrageous and disgraceful decision today also of all rights activists see today's decision as

a judicial overreach citing decisions by lawmakers and presidents to renew the law time and time again now the. the law is uncertain as it's up to a divided congress to figure out what comes next in front of a supreme court list of all party while the debate on immigration reform is slowly moving forward but before congress begins to focus on a password a pathway to citizenship for the eleven million immigrants living in the u.s. without paper numerous republican lawmakers are demanding increased border security the senate approved its most expensive plan ever to bulk up border security on monday with a sixty seven to twenty seven vote here's what the plan includes adding twenty thousand more border agents extending the fencing at the us mexico border by three hundred fifty miles and providing resources for twelve additional drones total anticipated cost thirty eight billion dollars for more on this border war i was right earlier by our to correspondent ramon the lindo and i asked him what he made

of this new militarized border plan. when we look at the obama administration he's been trying to put immigration reform at the top of priority ever since he ran for his first term and now he's repeated that this became especially important for the g.o.p. after mitt romney lost and they saw that they really needed to reach out to latino voters so during this compromise talks of immigration reform in the senate it seems however that the republicans have taken charge and have made this bill more about enforcement and less about dealing with those immigrants that you spoke of who who don't really have papers here but who are living and working in this country so. as you mentioned this new amend the past on monday which would dedicate billions and billions of dollars more for drones surveillance and manpower without really addressing the larger picture of corruption and human rights abuses at the border

and really having to deal with the big picture issue of how u.s. foreign policy affects migration now a lot of pundits have said that the only way to pass comprehensive immigration reform is mine including borked up security at the border between the u.s. and mexico where lawmakers saying about bad. that's absolutely right and really a lot of this pressure as i mentioned has been coming from the more right wing conservative branch of the republican party many of which want enforcement only and really don't want to give immigrants any sort of chance of citizenship i mean the way that the bill is written now it would take up to ten years just to get legal residency and that doesn't even guarantee citizenship and besides that you would have to be ordered to pay taxes and penalties i mean even has some republican senators such as john mccain wondering i mean what does it take to really get immigration reform off of the senate floor hears him the other day talking. legislation concerning beefed up border security removes any validity to the

argument that border security is not sufficient i mean this is not only sufficient it is well over sufficient and will be the most militarized border since the fall of the berlin wall. yeah and just a follow up on that arizona governor jan brewer who is considered to be one of the most anti immigrant. politicians in the country is supporting these new military militarization efforts happening in the senate right now so it really goes to show how much this immigration reform has gone to the right since its inception now let me ask you both sides from the republicans and the democrats who are the biggest winners and losers in this from this for immigration reform and more importantly this is this border woke up. sure well some of the same companies that we saw make a profit off of the wars in afghanistan and iraq are also said to make big money off of the contracts are done with homeland security and in order to secure the

southern border we have conned companies like general atomics here and california which already supplies ten drones to homeland security they're likely to get a contract for many more drones if this immigration reform does pass in fact they've already signed the sole source contract with homeland security for up to fourteen more drones they're just waiting for the money to come through now we have other contractors like say i see b.m. who are going to be making billions just on the administrate of cause and what we have to remember is that there's been a military zation of the border over the last couple of decades already so companies like the corrections corporations of america and the geo group which have already made a ton of money on transporting and housing undocumented immigrants are only said to make more money off of this new immigration reform proposal and one of the very interesting things about this reform reform proposal is that a says ten years must pass before undocumented workers in the u.s. can receive payment permanent legal residency and that's only if these border

security changes are in place at all so very interesting artist correspondent uncle and our reporting for us from l.a. . and now an update on the story of the untimely death of muckraking journalist michael hastings he died just a week ago just hours before the car crash that cost him his life in los angeles he sings allegedly sent out the following email to colleagues at buzz feed it says the feds are interviewing my close friends and associates perhaps if authorities arrive at buzz feed g.q. it may be wise to immediately request legal counsel before any conversations or interviews about our newsgathering practices or related journalism issues also i'm onto a big story and needs to go off the radar for a bit all the best hope to see you soon michael the email was leaked to k.t.l.a. by staff sergeant joseph big who received the e-mail and met hastings while he was embedded in afghanistan while buzz feed has confirmed that hastings thought the f.b.i. might be looking into him other recipients of that e-mail have not confirmed its

content meanwhile the f.b.i. has issued a statement denying that it as out had opened an investigation into hastings the los angeles police department has said that it found no evidence of foul play at the crash site either now hastings was best known for looking deeply into major structural powers like the military and the government and his refusal to flown over power for people perhaps his most well known story was a profile of general stanley mcchrystal who was the commander in afghanistan before hastings rolling stone article called the runaway general forced his resignation hastings came into the r t studios discussed many of his media colleagues responses to this story. the pentagon press corps. the national some national security reporters who were sort of the ones who were the most sort of vocal about it and look as a journalist i criticized all the time just as in life michael hastings death

raises questions about the actions of the powerful that's going to do it for now i make a lopez i'll see you right back here in pm excuse me. let me let me respond will let me ask you a question. here on this network is what we're having a debate we have our night. with the preview this is just about staying there's again. we're being free to talk about the surveillance.