the. coming up on our t.v. new developments in the n.s.a. surveillance scandal along with phone metadata government agencies also tracked e-mail meditate on american citizens for over a decade more on that in a moment. stuck in limbo n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden is still grounded in the moscow airport and american politicians are putting pressure on any country that might offer him asylum an update from moscow coming up. president obama starts his africa trip to the nation of senegal but he might not have the star status he once claimed critics are questioning america's interest in the region more on this story later in today's show.

it's thursday june twenty seventh four pm in washington d.c. lopez and you are watching r t while we begin this hour with yet another guardian newspaper revelation about the n.s.a. surveillance program for weeks now we have known that the n.s.a. collects phone metadata on millions of people including americans it turns out the government agency was also collecting e-mail mehta data and had been doing so from two thousand and one to two thousand and eleven and that's according to a top secret draft report by the n.s.a. inspector general now the government says that it has since stopped those practices but documents obtained by the guardian reveal that the n.s.a. has the ability to start new programs to essentially do the same thing we are also getting more insight into the american public's reactions to this surveillance scandal or courting to a recent rescues and poll seventy two percent of likely u.s. voters think it is somewhat likely that the n.s.a. monitored the private communications of congress military leaders and judges of

those forty five percent believe that it. is very likely meanwhile fifty seven percent of voters believe it is likely that the n.s.a. data will be used by other government agencies to harass political opponents and finally sixty eight percent of people say that it is likely that the government agencies are listening in on private conversations of american citizens so there you have it most people polled acknowledge that this information is being collected and also say that it could be of use so take that for what it's worth. well let's move on to the latest details on the man who revealed this treasure trove of information to the guardian edward snowden the n.s.a. leaker is still in the moscow airport a second flight headed for cuba left today but snowden was not on board meanwhile president obama is finally speaking out about both snowden and the cooperation the president expects from other nations take a look my continued expectation is that russia is the rather

countries that have talked about potentially providing mr snowden asylum recognize that they are part of an international community and that they should be abiding by the international law. and will continue to press them as ours as hard as we can to make sure that they do so. in the limited when i say because yes it's a final question no i'm not going to be scrambling jets. to get a. twenty nine year old. for more from moscow i was joined earlier by our team is lucy cough and off i asked her can snort an interracial without a valid passport or a visa. no of course not i mean without a passport you can't enter russia the thing is this is all a techno technicality in a matter of political well for example all of people who are wanted in the in the united states technically has been pulled off planes and arrested in transit so

theoretically if the russian government wanted to they could arrest or take snowden if they were to want to do that of course that's not a position that russia is willing to take at the moment snowden is in a quite tricky position here is really flew here on a on a flight that he was booked to to go to have an us and there's no direct flights to ecuador where he's presumably trying to seek asylum he missed the flight to havana and now he's stuck here now there are several problems with that in order to get to to cuba in order to get to ecuador he would need to buy a ticket the u.s. as you mentioned revoked his passport so he's unable to do that on top of that there's a separate issue with the ecuadorian saying that well legally technically if you want to apply for asylum he would have to do that on ecuadorian soil he can't get to ecuador without a passport many can't get to an ecuadorian embassy here in moscow since as you mentioned he doesn't have a passport nor can he get a visa in order to do that and at this point in time the russian government has not indicated that they are willing to transport him or do anything beyond essentially

keeping him in limbo in the transit area at the airport where we're standing and i as i understand it says he doesn't have a passport since it has been revoked he also can't get a ticket out of there so can't listen can you characterize the response from russians to snowden being in the moscow airport. i mean the russian response to the response has generally been look we're not going to get too involved in this of course that is a bit of a political game but the russian position has generally been you know we don't have an extradition treaty with the united states the u.s. has asked russia to expel him president putin has said that he is not willing to do that at the moment there have been cases in the past where the two countries have swapped people of interest but again no indication that that's going to be happening at this point right now and the. russian position has generally been ok he's here we're not really going to get involved in this issue but based on what president putin said several days ago the position generally is look you know it wouldn't be so bad if he gets going and gets on this way because it seems that at

this point although the russians are sort of willing to play some political ball of this they're not willing to get involved to the point of actually taking matters into their own hands and actually influencing the situation beyond keeping him or allowing him to stay here in this transit area unless that at this point but again really unclear where he could go and some people have raised questions whether this is going to be julian assange type situation where of course the wiki leaks founder had sought asylum in the ecuadorian embassy and remained there for over a year now hopefully snowden will not be stuck in this tiny transit area the share image of our airport i was actually there earlier it's a really small area there's like a little airport hotel where you can say with a bathroom there's a coffee shop or you can buy a cappuccino for eleven dollars not really the kind of place that you want to say long term but again not many options that he has at this point in time and listen we do know that he has filed for asylum in both iceland as well as aqua door however we do know also that the united states has tried to pressure about south

american country into rejecting that request doesn't seem to be having an effect on ecuador's decision. while at whatever it is not likely to bow to u.s. pressure and in fact the government officials from ecuador had a press conference earlier today where they said several things first of all they said that they have not officially granted him asylum as i had mentioned earlier in order to do so they want for him to apply on their soil absolutely unclear how he would be able to do that given the fact that he's stuck in this transit area and it's also a process that is going to take quite a bit of time at the same time some of the threats for example that we've heard from capitol hill from certain lawmakers the senate foreign relations committee chairman had threatened to for example put at risk several to. deals that were at stake with ecuador well the ecuadorians had preemptively decided to cancel those deals even though they're due to run out in about a month and so it looks like it or is not likely to balata u.s. pressure anytime soon but at the same time they're not exactly taking over steps to

try to rush by any means to get snowden on their turf and it's unclear whether he'll actually be able to reach their turf and there's an added problem here too because there's no direct flights from moscow to ecuador even if snowden was somehow able to get some sort of paperwork that would put him there he'd have to go through cuba and because of a small sort of falling in relations between the u.s. and cuba there's questions as to whether he'd be able to get and safe passage through that country as well and that could be perhaps some of the reason for the delay and for his being holed up here at the sheremetyevo airport it is just another day at a very long limbo that this man might find himself in are to correspond to losing half an off in moscow thank you so much back here in the u.s. the court martial of private first class bradley manning was under way again today this morning prosecutors focused on evidence contradicting the government's claim that an iraq war video manning released to wiki leaks contained classified information are to correspondent liz wahl was at the proceedings in fort meade and

she brings us this wrap up. well the trial was on recess for much of today as the prosecution and defense worked on testimony to be submitted to the court and we heard testimony from special agent mark manders the prosecution called into the dishpan to discuss two tweets that appear to be sent from the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks one of them is requesting military addresses the other of it is looks like it's from the whistle blowing web site announcing that they have possession of this a video a classified encrypted video now mander testified that he took a screenshot of these tweets and said he found them by doing a simple google search the defense then cross-examine him and question the authenticity of the tweet they say that there's really no way to prove that these tweets are in fact authentic because he found them through a google search and did not find them directly feed the twitter feed of wiki leaks

they say the only way to verify the authenticity of these tweets is to have somebody from the wiki leaks organization themselves testify that these tweets are in fact real now why do we care about these tweets while the are there significance of a prosecution and possibly proving that manning was a working with wiki leaks to get all of this top secret classified information on to be internet also this week we heard testimony in regards to the two hundred fifty thousand state department cables that manning admitted leaking to wiki leaks now so far based on the evidence it appears that manning did not hack or steal from any government database while manning has admitted to leaking the document the burden is on the government to prove the more serious charges of computer fraud espionage and aiding the enemy charge that carries with it a life sentence without parole here in fort meade maryland liz wall. and you cannot speak about the bradley manning case without bringing in wiki leaks co-founder

julie. and a son to this day has been holed up in the ecuadorian embassy in london and to this day he has not been charged by the u.s. or any other nation for leaking government secrets but could that change political commentator sam sachs questions of julian assange could one day become the ninth person charged with espionage under the obama administration. does this man look like an f.b.i. informant to you standing next to julia songes sigurdur thordarson a former wiki leaks volunteer a man who's been described as a pathological liar and has a new report in wired magazine alleges a paid f.b.i. informant tasked with taking down julia songe and wiki leaks if the report is accurate then it means that the department of justice is in possession of at least eight hard drives containing videos child logs and other sensitive data belonging to a.q. it's all of it obtained through this informant reach out to the f.b.i. at the end of two thousand and eleven and been feeding them information about

julian assange and wiki leaks information that's likely been very instrumental in the dear js more than three year long investigation in the wiki leaks attorney general eric holder in two thousand and ten and i condemn the action that we keep leaks has taken it puts at risk our national security we have an active ongoing criminal investigation with regard to this matter we are not in a position as yet to announce the result of that investigation but the investigation is is ongoing e-mails provided to wired by thordarson show the knocked over two thousand and eleven third arson reached out to his f.b.i. handlers about wiki leaks hard drives he had copied asking if they were interested in them a few days later the f.b.i. responds yes will want to copy the new stuff newly unsealed court documents show that around the same time the f.b.i. was obtaining search warrants to snoop through the e-mails of two wiki leaks paul interiors that warrant allowed federal prosecutors to uncover preserved copies of

e-mails draft e-mails deleted e-mails e-mails in the source and destination address is associated with each e-mail the date and time at which each e-mail was sent in the size and length of each e-mail third arson was fired from wiki leaks in november of two thousand and eleven for allegedly embezzling fifty thousand dollars from the organization though he reportedly remained untouched. at the f.b.i. in december of two thousand and eleven during a pretrial hearing for bradley manning who's been charged under the espionage act for his role in allegedly providing wiki leaks sensitive documents an agent for the u.s. army's computer crimes investigative unit confirmed that seven civilians working on behalf of wiki leaks were involved in wrongdoing in the case and just last month michael ratner an attorney for julian assange has told the huffington post quote i think it's more likely than not that there is a sealed indictment against julius songe right now last week ed snowden became the eighth individual charged by the department of justice under the espionage act now

given what we've learned recently about just how much information the f.b.i. has obtained on wiki leaks in the last three years it looks likely that julian assange is the ninth individual facing espionage act charges and department of justice wants to keep it a secret because it is their learning with snowden espionage charges really complicate the extradition process international criminal lawyer an extradition expert douglas mcnabb these three extradition treaties have a wandering a list of offenses crimes that are set out and if the crime which one country is seeking to have somebody extradited isn't on that list then it's not an extraditable offense and espionage is not a laundry list of fences and so that's certainly going to make it more difficult for the u.s. to render him back and this whole case gives us a glimpse into just how aggressive the department of justice is in pursuing journalists associated with whistleblowers from using paid informants to mass data

collection on wiki leaks volunteers to likely even prosecuting the founder of wiki leaks organization julian assange hunch it shows that whatever protections used to exist for journalists have all been thrown out the window and it should serve as an important lesson for today's whistleblower on the run edward snowden and the journalist that he's chosen to spread his secrets in washington. well the n.s.a. surveillance scandal and the bradley maya manning trial for john at home president obama has arrived in africa this week trying to shore up ties with one of the fastest developing regions in the world the president is in dakar senegal today meeting with president macky sall he will then travel to south africa and tanzania however these visits aren't expected to be as well received as the president's first trip to sub-saharan africa back in two thousand and nine for one many kenyans are upset obama's not visiting the country where his father is from but most of all many africans feel he hasn't lived up to his promises and where the u.s.

is falling short countries like china brazil and india are moving in and that could play a major role both in the president obama's visit and the region's overall relations with the u.s. here to explain how i'm joined now by nia kootenay he is the founder and the democracy and conflict research institute thank you so much for joining me so i know some of these african critics say that president obama is really lacking substantive help to the african region and just as a point of reference to african aid dipped from eight point two billion dollars in fiscal year two thousand and nine to six point nine billion dollars in two thousand and eleven so how will that aspect play into this trip and i think it does bleed into the trooper as you mentioned i mean there are many if you listen to africa those. more critics people we've moments compared to two thousand million when he was in. the. news have not be made as somebody who lives

in washington who covers u.s. policy. i've covered it for decades it's my job i think there are nuances that me not be operant on the on the african continent but clearly the obama administration's policy on africa could have been much better so i don't blame the africans for being disappointed but one hopes that this trip this one week trip to three countries will actually be the beginning of the more vigorous u.s. engagement with the continent but engagement of the right kind now as i had mentioned earlier president obama has barely visited africa in fact he only made a top twenty two hours total stop and i was in ghana i was a flyby over back in two thousand and nine so what kind of a message does that send to the african region that he's not visiting well you know the continent has of course we talk about africa but many tales we mean sub-saharan

africa africa below this. of is actually say we don't the continent divided so is the whole continent so if you put it like that he has been to egypt but you are right he hasn't gone you know of and saw how will this see now there are fifty four countries and so the president president obama can only spend so much time in some of them so actually some of us have been seeing his this issue have a regional focus so we are glad that he is going to three of the regions west africa southern africa is to africa but clearly as you mention a number of countries are disappointed kenya where his father is from and where he himself has visited i say a student senator the disappointed does not come in nigeria is disappointed that he hasn't come as the most populous country so i guess the short answer is he can't go to every country now the marks that i do give him though because i am very much a democracy activists i mean i think of it enough ruka is terrible africa has

a lot of challenges but i think the best way to address them is to deep. in democracy or in all the african countries and therefore i am glad that his good in two countries which there would be are not perfect the lead if you were to sort of run covering countries in terms of how democratic they are the three that is going to cigar south africa and tanzania will be at the top of the list so his prarie ties in there will cressy and i give him marks for that now some of the obama administration officials say that this trip is really designed to establish a new paradigm and u.s. africa policy they want to move away from that donor recipient kind of relationship and more toward a more equal and mutually beneficial trade and development type of partnership so first of all are africans ready for that and do they want it i think i think they do wanted but you know is should do be either or ok i mean all kinds of countries

in areas of the world that are more stronger reach of africa they get aid so you know frequently people's will see trade not aid i actually don't buy a slogan i think we should be there are some things to which you need aid there are other things in which you need treat of course trade has to be to be number one and definitely africans are variants are premier and they will very much like to improve relations with the united states and finally at one president obama and others have been talking about balancing out this relationship and moving forward with relations we are also seeing abel start up military presence in on countries like mali and libya and somalia and uganda so are we sending mixed messages here well in a certain way yes we are but here is a reason many people think is because i think you know there are people who question whether security terrorism is an issue enough or go where there is not i

happen to think it is book is killing nigeria's book or i mean the shabaab is killing the somalis. the good heart is to give arnold the muddy but in my view because we had to fight to. open this so yes to resume but. only to freight train them to respect democracy. human rights so i think security is a charlie and i just question the approach by with the us has been trying to fight it. it's a founder of the democracy and conflict research institute thank you so much for your opinions and weigh in and it's a pleasure thanks for having me. out of congress but not out of the limelight ron paul is still lecturing his fellow lawmakers and even the president about living up to the constitution and getting out of the nose they're getting their noses out of other country's affairs this week in his weekly column it centered around the issue of lessons from the afghanistan war as the u.s.

prepares to pull out here's part of that column we are leaving afghanistan after twelve years with nothing to show for it but trillions of dollars wasted and thousands of lives lost afghanistan is a devastated country with a weak puppet government and now we negotiate with those very people we fought for those twelve years who are preparing to return to power still we learn nothing instead of learning from these disasters brought about by the interventionists and their failed foreign policy the president is now telling us that we have to go into syria so what have we achieved in this war and where do we go from here to discuss juror vandyke as a journalist and author of the book captive my time as a prisoner of the taliban and he joins me now hi there juror now for years ron paul has been opposed to foreign intervention and to wars is isolationism really tenable at this point given that although the years that we've spent fighting. no i don't think so at all i listen to what he had to say and in part he is correct but the

united states and its allies had an obligation because we backed the mujahideen during the one nine hundred eighty s. when they were there fighting the soviet union when they were our proxy army we are in part along with a great many other people responsible for part of this destruction to which you just referred also a tremendous number of afghan girls and boys are now going to school in afghanistan that before they have i think over twelve hundred health clinics throughout the country maternity childbirth death rates are much lower than before in many ways the country is far better than it has ever been in its life however yes correct the war goes on united states states and its allies have spent trillions of dollars in afghanistan a great many people have died many more unfortunate have been maimed for life tremendous tragedy the war is not over and the taliban are not losing so if the solution is not isolationism then one isn't. the united states must engage in the

world because to isolate ourselves the reason that the united states went into afghanistan was so that the nation would not ever again be a place from which people like al qaeda could launch attacks on in this case the united states or anywhere else in the west as the united states or has nato accomplished that i think it has to have a very great degree it has done that if the united states were to leave completely and depart pakistan. first of all as well as afghans would be diametrically opposed the united states will probably most likely stay in afghanistan right now president karzai on behalf of the afghan government and the united states are negotiating what they call the b.s.a. bilateral security agreement whereby after two thousand and fourteen the united states and some of its nato allies germany italy among others will maintain a certain number of troops there we will also give in this is very important a lot of money to the afghan government we want the afghan government to stay in

power we're trying to foster a sort of democracy difficult thing to do it may not work we hope it will we want president karzai also to step aside when his time in office is up so that a nother person can run for others can run for office and that democracy will then have given birth and continue that now all i don't think will leave you just brought up a lot of different points let's start by talking about this negotiations with the taliban and taliban of course open an office in doha qatar what exactly do they plan to do with this office i mean ron paul calls it at government in exile what do you make of that. that's exactly what the president karzai president obama and others do not want to hear the taliban very very astutely raise their flag which is white flag and in arabic there is the islamic emirate of afghanistan which is not what the united states has been working for with its allies so the taliban

a very effectively place themselves on almost an equal level with the afghan government in the eyes of the world which to which mr paul has just alluded that is the absolute worst thing that that anybody wants there what are they doing there no one really knows they are they have been living a very luxury is life in air condition hotels. they are there not on their own we have to be very clear about that these people are diplomats and is according to what the past head of the afghan intelligence said just recently they have not even seen mullah omar these men in twelve years and so what they represent are elements of the taliban definitely diplomats each one supposedly speaks another language there to negotiate with the united states to find a way for the united states to leave and for the taliban to come back will this happen as james dobbins the brand new u.s. on boy to afghanistan and pakistan said we are not naive we are our expectations

are not great at the moment but he knows what's going to happen we have seven just about a minute left in the shell but can you finally talk about your experiences that the taliban and more importantly can you say if we can achieve peace in afghanistan without including the taleban. one thing i learned as a prisoner of the taliban is that they will not give in they will fight to the death i've lived with the mujahideen in the one nine hundred eighty s. and then and unfortunately lived in a different capacity entirely with i think we will call to a degree there are more radical sons and today they will not give in they will fight to the death and i think what the united states and its allies must do is show them respect they want this very very much and i think that there has been a certain cultural contempt if you will of the taliban of these people whom we've looked down upon and they have shown us very clearly that they are not going away that they're able to answer we're going to have to stand up there i'm so sorry

journalist and author jervis and i thank you so much welcome that does it for me on meghan lopez see right back here at five pm. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. mission free cretaceous and free transfer charges free. arrangement free. free stew tied free.

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good afternoon and welcome to prime interests imperium boring broadcasting live in washington d.c. and let's get to our prime headlines of the day. citi group is heading to iraq after ten years of war and one point seven trillion dollars spent by the u.s. that's too big to fail bank is going to take advantage of an estimated one trillion dollars and infrastructure spending this will be the first adventure into a new country and the year and according to a study executive with business in iraq will come from rebuilding roads telecommunication networks electricity and water infrastructure but violence continues to escalate over one thousand civilians and.