coming up on our team new developments in the n.s.a. surveillance scandal along with phone metadata the government agencies also tracked e-mail mehta data on american citizens for over a decade or more in a moment. stuck in limbo n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden is still grounded in a 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 in the nation of senegal but he might not have star status that he once claimed to have their critics are questioning america's interest in the region more on this story later in tonight's show.

it's thursday june twenty seventh eight pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. well 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 well it turns out the government agency was also collecting e-mail that data and had been doing so from two thousand and one to two thousand and eleven that's according to a top secret draft report by the n.s.a.'s inspector general now the government says it has since stopped those practices but documents obtained by the guardian revealed 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 reaction to the surveillance scandal according 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 mean. while 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 believe it is likely that 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 abused so take that for what it's worth. but let's move on also 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 of the president expects from other nations take a look my continued expectation is that russia 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 something. but in the limited when i say because you have the final question no i'm not going to be scrambling jets. to get a. twenty nine year old. from or from moscow i was joined by r.t.s. lucy lucy catherine off i asked her if snowden can enter russia without a valid course passport or visa. no of course not i mean without a passport you can't enter russia and the thing is this is all a techno technicality in a matter of political will for example 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 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 is 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 it 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 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 at the sheremetyevo 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 trying 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 ballot 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 charter and there's an added problem here too because there is 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 as a share made to the 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 often moscow thank you so much well back here in the u.s. the u.s. court martial of court martial of first class private first class bradley manning was under way again today this morning prosecutors focus 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

proceeding in fort meade and brings us this wrap up. well the trial was on recess for much of today as the prosecution and defense worked on written 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 website 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 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-examined had and questioned 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 beer 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 leaving the documents the burden is on the government to prove the more serious charges of. and aiding the enemy charge that carries with it a life sentence without parole here in fort meade maryland r.t.

and you cannot speak about the case of bradley manning without bringing up wiki leaks co-founder julius saundra into the conversation to this day he is 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 about change political commentator sam sachs questions of julian assange could one day become a nice person charged with the us be an object. does this man look like an f.b.i. informant to you standing next to julian a son just secured or 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 julian us on 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 chat logs and other sensitive data belonging to wake you ix all of it obtained through this informant reached out to the f.b.i.

at the end of two thousand and eleven and been feeding him information about julian assange and wiki leaks information that's likely been very instrumental in the d.o.j. is more than three year long investigation and so we're clearly attorney general eric holder in two thousand and ten and i condemn the actions that wiki 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 results of that investigation but the investigation is ongoing e-mails provided to wired by thordarson show that 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

volunteers that warned aloud federal prosecutors to uncover preserved copies of e-mails draft e-mails deleted e-mails e-mails in the source and destination addresses associated with each e-mail the date in time at which each e-mail was sent in the size and length of each e-mail that 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 joining us on this told the huffington post quote i think it's more likely than not that there is a sealed indictment against joining us on the show 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 a son has the ninth individual facing espionage act charges and department of justice wants to keep it a secret because they're learning with snowden espionage charges really complicate the extradition process international criminal lawyer an extradition expert douglas mcnabb these three extradition treaties have a laundry list of offenses crimes that are set out and if the crimes of which one country a seeking to have somebody extradited isn't on that list then it's not an extra diable of fans and espionage is not on the laundry list of offenses and so that's certainly going to make it more difficult for the u.s. to render him buck 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 a son 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 journalists that he's chosen to spread his secrets in washington. and while a songe is under investigation and could one day be charged with espionage a former marine general might beat him to the punch of becoming the ninth person charged under the espionage act the n.s.a. surveillance scandal might be the most recently the american public has found out about during the obama administration years but not too long before the two thousand and twelve election we learned about the stuxnet virus a computer virus that was set up to attack the infrastructure of the nuclear reactors in iran's uranium enrichment facilities it was all part of operation the

olympic games now these viruses are very sophisticated and centrally they speed up their reactors and then slow them down in order to cause them to malfunction additionally the virus would report problems to the controllers when there weren't any and on the other hand not report major issues it was a huge discovery that republican critics argue the obama administration leaks on purpose in order to earn a leg up in the polls but tonight legal sources are telling in b c news that the former vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff is now being targeted in an d.o.j. investigation into that leak marine general james cartwright has been notified that he's under investigation for allegedly leaking information about stuxnet it when those leaks came out last year president obama said that he has a zero tolerance policy toward these kinds of leaks and that he considers them criminal acts but time will only tell if general cartwright actually does become

that person charged under the espionage act. while the n.s.a. surveillance and bradley 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 mackay saul he will then travel to south africa and tanzania however these visit. it's 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 and many kenyans are upset by the fact that president obama is not visiting the country where his father is from but most of all many africans feel that he hasn't lived up to his promises and where the u.s. fall short of countries like china brazil and india are all moving in and that could play a major role both in the president's visit to africa as well as the region's overall relations with the u.s. to explain how i was joined earlier by ne ak he's the founder and director of the

democracy and conflict research institute and i started by asking him how attitudes toward obama have changed in africa view listen to our. more critics a lot more people we've been down ten miles compared to two thousand and nine when he was in ghana so clearly. a split decision is have not been made as somebody who lives in washington who covers u.s. policy work the u.s. engages africa covered it for decades it's my job i think there are nuances that need 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 hour for those for being disappointed but one hopes that this trip this one week trip to three countries will actually be the beginning of a 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 and in fact he only made twenty two hours total stop here and i was in ghana i was a fly by 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. we talk about africa many terribly mean sub-saharan africa forgot below this i. another t.v. is actually see it on the continent divided so it's a 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 mentioned a number of countries disappointed kenya where his father is from and where he

lives of has visited i say a student senator the disappointed does not come in nigeria is disappointed but he hasn't come out 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 charlie in use but i think the best way to address them is too deep in democracy or in all the african countries and therefore i am glad that he's going to countries which do they are not perfect the lead if you were to sort of run covering countries in terms of how democratic the three that is go into a cigar south africa and tanzania would be at the top of the list saw his prioritising there will cressy and i give him marks for that now some of the obama administration officials say that this trip is really it 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 men 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 be either or ok i mean all kinds of countries in areas of the world. more stronger reach of africa to get aid so you know frequently people's will see trade not aid i actually don't buy the slogan i think we should be there are some through syria which you need there are other things which you need treat of course treat has to be to be number one and definitely africans are very interpret mirror 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 boko haram is killing nigeria's book or i mean. is killing the somalis. good hard is to go over northern mali but in my view the best way to fight terrorism is deep in democracy and open this so yes fight terrorism but not just by. only how to fight train them to respect democracy train them to respect human rights so i think security is a challenge 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 why an answer is a prayer of thanks for having me well 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 our noses out of other countries affairs this week his weekly column centered around the issue of lessons from the afghanistan war as well as the u.s. prepares to pull out of that region. 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 policies the president is now telling us that we have to go into syria the people returning to power that congressman paul was referring to are

the taliban they they they are a group that actually set up an office in doha qatar and is in the process of setting up negotiations with both the u.s. and the afghan governments in order to discuss peace in that country those talks were slowed significantly after the group claimed responsibility for attacks outside of the afghan presidential palace but on the other hand both the taliban and pakistani officials have indicated that president hamid karzai should not be involved in the negotiations since he is set to step down in april of next year still there's no doubt that it will take the collaboration of all three of these major players to finally achieve peace in that region. well with the series of problems like the status of education or the economy here in the u.s. a lot of ideas have come up to solve them but it seems that one of the most used ideas is in the color of green with lots of american taxpayer dollars being spent

on certain projects for more on that the residence lori harmfulness with her two cents. here in the u.s. our government faces many complex issues and because it is american it addresses those issues in a very american way with money just this week a new study showed that the u.s. spends more than the other developed nations on education every year according to the report the u.s. spend over fifteen thousand dollars on each young person in the system in twenty ten the average spent by all the other nations in the study was just over nine

thousand for comparison and yet the u.s. ranks thirty first in math literacy and twenty third in science and parents and private sources still had to pick up a quarter of the bill so the u.s. spends a ton of money and got bad results that's something it does over and over again. for instance the official federal budget for health care is over eighty two billion dollars and yet rising medical bills are expected to push one point seven million american households into bankruptcy this year so the government doled out eighty billion and americans still have to pay so much for health care that they have to go bankrupt obama just gave a long speech about climate change the official federal budget for the department of energy which is largely charged with increasing our use of clean energy sources is twenty eight billion dollars and yet there is only reserves the u.s.

ranks number two. for the most carbon emissions created by a country immigration is a hot button issue right now to solve the problem the u.s. is ready to spend thirty billion dollars to pretty much militarized its southern border and yet fewer than two hundred fifty thousand immigrants were actually found to cross illegally last year when the number used to be well into the millions. you get to the point in developing meaningful reform the u.s. government just throws money at a problem that is probably a direct cause of why everything costs so much here and nothing ever gets solved because money doesn't make you smarter it doesn't green the environment it doesn't guarantee good health and it's certainly does not solve complex problems like immigration it just creates an empty show and

a lot of money in the pockets of bureaucrats. the bottom line is that the u.s. government can print up and spend all of money in one but that will never fix its real problem and that is a gross addiction to money tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the rest of it. all right and that's the do it for me for tonight but for more on the stories we cover go to youtube dot com slash r t america and for the latest information on everything that's coming out from around the world check out our website or to dot com slash usa follow me on twitter at my going to underscore lopez don't forget polytech dealing with larry king is coming up at the top of the hour.

politicking what to do about n.s.a. leaker edward snowden and the countries that seem to help them out it's a headline grabbing challenge for the obama administration my guests today are a grad of ancestry representative jerry connelly of virginia and former chairman michael steele that's all ahead on politics with larry king.

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