n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden remains hidden in the moscow airport because her press for asylum in ecuador is up in the air while relations between the us than ecuador appear to be souring more on that story just ahead still the twelve in the bradley manning trial and still facing prosecution under the ask me to act bradley manning's fate remains unclear r.t. is at fort meade for another day of testimony details just ahead be careful where you chalk or you might be doing the perp walk in the us there's been several activist arrested for chalking on sidewalks to express their concerns well look at that issue later on in the show.

it's friday june twenty eighth five pm in washington d.c. i'm robert how well you're watching r t we begin the show with the latest update on edward snowden the man who leaked confidential national security agency documents to media outlets he has at this moment still holed up in the transit area of the moscow airport meanwhile edward snowden's father is speaking out saying he's confident his son will return to the united states in an interview with n.b.c. lonnie snowden said that he was he had not spoken to his son since april however are his lucy kavanagh is in moscow and brings us the latest. well it looks like the saga of edward snowden continues for yet another day of course he still presumed to be somewhere in the transit zone of the sheremetyevo airport behind me although he hasn't physically been seen since his arrival as far as we know mr snowden has been accompanied by a woman named sarah harris and she is a wiki leaks researcher now the two had flown to moscow on sunday they were supposed to fly to have vanna the following day but never ended up boarding that

flight now edward snowden is facing several problems as a result at the moment number one his american passport has been result revoked so he can't technically buy a ticket to go anywhere that also means he can't get a russian visa to get out of the airport transit zone now pete could get perhaps special papers from ecuador that allow him to theoretically travel but no indication at this point that this is something that will actually happen on top of all this while ecuador has seemed generally supportive of mr snowden's actions officials aren't exactly bending over backwards as of yet to protect him a spokesman for the government have said that snowden would physically have to apply for asylum on ecuadorian soil which could include an embassy or the country of course at this point since he can't get out of the airport there's simply no way for him to do that but it should also be noted however that ecuador has also ramped up its defiance over the united states by canceling preemptively a special trade deal with the u.s. to thwart what it called blackmail by the united states of the country in another

cheeky move they also offered a twenty three million dollar grant to the u.s. supposedly for human rights training and were in response to criticism over its own record now the so-called transit zone where snowden is free to roam is between the airport terminal gates and passport control now i was actually there just yesterday having returned from a trip abroad and this is basically not the kind of place that you really want to spend that much time and time and there's a t.j. i friday's restaurant several coffee chains including one where a cappuccino will cost you a grand total of twelve dollars there's also a small hotel where you can book a tiny little room which basically comes with a bathroom and a nightstand. it's been thought that snowden perhaps might be in that room but officials haven't confirmed that we have to keep in mind that there's a number of porters who are also staying there in hopes of catching sight of edwards and they have not been able to do that for days so really a lot of mystery about where he is in the meanwhile we did hear from snowden's father he gave a t.v. news interview even though he hasn't spoken to a son since april he said that snowden he's confident at least that snowden could

return if certain conditions are met that would include knox detaining snowden before trial letting him choose the location of the trial and essentially not subjecting him from a gag order that would prevent him from making public remarks he also expressed concern that snowden may have been manipulated by others he named wiki leaks as one example he criticized also the group for essentially saying their focus isn't really on the u.s. constitution but on releasing quote as much information as possible so at this point it looks like it's just a father who wants the son back the hunt for edward snowden continues. how does our season see cavanagh's. how many people have been viewing the stories coming out of the guardian newspaper regarding the n.s.a. surveillance scandal there's a group of people who can't even look at the leaked documents the us army admitted on thursday it's that there is an army wide bloc and viewing the guardian news website r t s political commentator sam sachs has that story and it was nothing.

because there was nothing on the. us. big tanks big missiles big guns the u.s. army is strong the strongest in the world when it comes to firepower but today the u.s. army strength is questioned after news that it's censoring internet content from its soldiers and we're not talking censorship of pornography or extremist websites which would still be pretty troubling but we're talking censorship a very important news stories stories that the rest of us who have access to a free and open internet can view anytime we want we're talking a full army wide blackout of the guardian's reporting on edward snowden's n.s.a. leaks yes while the rest of america has been able to view the multiple classified documents released on the guardian news's web site from secret buys a court orders to powerpoint slides depicting mass domestic data collection to even

internal n.s.a. regulations governing snooping our soldiers and bases across the world cannot access this information and a letter to the monterey herald a spokesman for net com which is an agency within the army cyber command confirmed that quote yes the army is filtering some access to press coverage and online content about the n.s.a. leaks the department of defense routinely takes preventative network hygiene measures to mitigate authorized disclosures of classified information on to d.o.d. unclassified networks. by network hygene the army means restricting access to any classified documents that may be found on the internet and that haven't been properly disclosed by the appropriate officials so that basically means all the articles based on snowden's leaks that have appeared on the guardian after all imagine the chaos if our army strong soldiers actually start reading about edward snowden or reading about the n.s.a.

maybe they'll get some ideas maybe they'll turn into little whistleblowers themselves scary stuff i know if you think it's odd that the fighting force that's out there defending our american ideals is also engaging in very un-american rampant censorship well you're not the only one as the netcom spokesman said in the letter quote the d.o.d. is also not going to block websites from the american public in general and to do so would violate our highest held principle of upholding and defending the constitution and respecting civil liberties and privacy. well that's a relief but really the u.s. army won't have to worry too much longer about what sort of stuff its soldiers are reading on the internet after all drones are becoming the preferred weapon of choice and as we all know drones are not serious they do not read and they do not think for themselves and isn't that exactly what we want defending our freedom in

washington same sex. and out of yet another instance of the army cracking down on the release of confidential documents the very latest on the trial of private first class bradley manning manning at the end of his fourth week of trial stands accused of violating the espionage act as well as giving aid and comfort to the enemy among other charges. here you can see exclusive footage obtained by our t. of manning leaving the courtroom after a day of court manning allegedly leaked hundreds of thousands of classified government cables to wiki leaks our ceaseless wall has been covering the trial from fort meade brings us the latest. wrapping up the fourth week of bradley manning's trial we have heard some of the most compelling testimony we have heard yet throughout the month that this trial has been going on today colonel david miller took to the stand he was the commander of manning's unit in iraq and he spoke about the impact he believes these leaks had odd the brigade and the prosecution asked

what was his reaction when he found out that about these leaks and he said quote i was the last thing i anticipated was an internal security breach from one of the prosecution went on to ask ask him about the more route how these leaks impacted the morale among the troops on the ground there in iraq and he said quote my read of myself a funeral like atmosphere fell over the crowd went on to describe the anger and frustration among soldiers there. and the brigade i want to talk about what this brigade was tasked with doing they were trast tasked with this transition this drawdown of troops in iraq and the transfer of responsibility to iraqi security forces the colonel said that the transition was going smoothly until this scandal he says just came out of the blue and he spoke about what he believed manning's leaks did to the trust among soldiers and he said trust is the foundation of what

we do he said quote i got you you got me that's how we roll he says is that's how he described this cultural culture of trust among soldiers and then he said the whole thing started to unravel now this is the prosecution's witness what they're trying to view is prove the fallout of these leaks and what effect they really had what effect they had on the morale and trust of true. there as we know manning admitted to leaking these documents but the question now is how damaging they really were. so gary very compelling testimony animated lively testimony a little bit different from some of the testimony we hear in this trial a lot of a very technical sometimes dry and glance of today he really colonel miller really brought some character during his testimony also notable today of the judge admitted as evidence to tweets believed to be sent from the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks the first tweet requesting military addresses the second tweet

saying they have this video of that airstrike in afghanistan there's been a lot of time spent throughout this trial debating on whether or not these tweets can be authenticated and today the judge ruled that that they can be admitted as evidence. as a board to know that this evidence is circumstantial evidence to show that wiki leaks was out there out there trying to get a hold of this information this all relates back to that the most serious charge alleged by the prosecution this charge of aiding the enemy trying to show the prosecution trying to prove that bradley manning and julian assange and were working together and getting this classified information onto the internet important to note also as the defense points out that there is no proof that bradley manning actually saw these tweets here in fort meade maryland livable our city. well it turns out that even u.s. generals can face investigations over leaking classified information the former second highest military official in the u.s.

general james cartwright resigned in two thousand and eleven as the vice chairman of the joint chiefs of staff now he is at the center of an investigation over his alleged leaking of information about a u.s. that has really led cyber attack on an iranian nuclear facility the virus is called stuff and it's temporarily disabled a fifth of iranian center fuses that were used to enrich uranium well back in june of two thousand and twelve the new york times wrote about stats neck and an article and president obama's acceleration of cyber attacks we article included detailed information for meetings in the white house situation room well n.b.c. news revealed last night that general cartwright is being targeted by the justice department probe into the release of classified information about stout stick is this the highest level of government official to be accused of leaking information to the process to discuss this i'm joined by michael cohn president of the national whistleblower center hi there michael so at this point do we even know if general

cartwright is a whistleblower no there's no way of determining that right now what we have is a leak investigation. in fact what you have is a leak of a leak investigation where the justice department is saying that they are investigating general cartwright which you find a little i find little disturbing because all of a sudden with the snowden investigation going on it gives cover that the that the administration goes after high and low level people at the same time but this is a very different situation you know it's very different than mr snowden to say general cartwright is a whistle blower. there's no indication of that at this point you do have an individual who had access information sharing it with the news media maybe it was off the wrong. maybe it wasn't authorized to be shared was authorized with a nod and a wink from the administration potentially i mean so at some point. the facts have

to come out and what you the problem is we're seeing investigation of the leaks from the justice department are you saying that there must be giving the general ok what would cartwright be the highest level ok if we can call the whistleblower at this point would he be the highest level that the obama administration has has gone after today i would think so ok ok so general courageous being investigated yet has to he's not been charged with anything at what the charges be like that he would face if they find anything when the same thing that you see with mr snowden i think another issue that you have to look at when the obama administration first came into office there were a lot of potential investigations that were ready to go forward dealing with the iraq war vice president cheney and others were associated with leaking potentially false information to the news media to justify the war so the first thing president obama did one of the first things he did in office was say let's with that all

under the rug let's start off with a new clean slate well that's very interesting when it's a product ministrations sleep you know that was done for political reasons so the question the real problem you have is these investigations can become very political and just the now the timing of the announcement when they're going after general cartwright is maybe a political move on the administration's part to give cover to the snowden investigation it's too complex and too difficult to cut into soundbites and say this is why this is happening this is why this isn't happening you have to have a level playing field and you have to have an opportunity with whistleblowers in federal government and around the world to have a place to go where they can safely provide information one thing that's important is the new. media can be a very importing betting outfit when this information comes to light the new york times they just don't release it wholesale they call the ministration up will this

compromise in the ongoing programs or will people's lives be put in jeopardy they don't report this information unless they know that there's so some assurances of what's going on and in fact. the administration would typically also have the opportunity to go into court to stop it if they had a legitimate right reason to try to stop the publication so in this case you also have this other issue of pre-pubescent it's high level officials in the government who have access to this material can go and get pre-publication clearance which means the government looks at it so you come publish you can't publish that's why general cartwright would have done it in this case i don't know there's too many unanswered questions to say he's a whistleblower not a whistleblower why was this information being released was it to help the administration was it because it needed to be released for some other reason that it's too speculative but how thoughtful of the new york times to call the administration before they release any information that that's really thoughtful of

them but let me let me get on to this next question we're running out of time here general cartwright as i understand it was one of the architects of this program can he actually be considered a laker since he was one of the architects of stats neck i mean how does that work he's being called a leaker because he was giving information at a point in time that the republicans believed it was helpful to the obama administration's reelection effort and they demanded an investigation to find out who was a source of a leak i mean at some point he is an integral part of government he will excuse me for interrupting you we have to leave it there that's all we have time for really appreciate your input that was michael conde president of the national whistleblower center. well remembering coloring on the sidewalk with chalk as a child an american favorite pastime could land you in jail if you color in front of a bank or politicians house san diego activist jeff olson age forty is facing up to thirteen years in jail and thirteen thousand dollars in fines for scribbling

a big bank in chalk messages and front of three san diego bank of america branches he isn't the only activist arrested for writing in chalk on the sidewalk just yesterday a harrisburg pennsylvania man was arrested for chalking the words corbett has health care we should too on the sidewalk in front of the pennsylvania governor tom corbett mansion the kicker the charge was an action that served no legitimate purpose how many of us have violated that today around the country other cities have seen a crackdown on chalker us from austin texas to minneapolis mn and minnesota to discuss this with me i was joined earlier by artist alex schaefer from the l.a. studio and i started off by asking him if chalking is a way of exercising free speech or is it vandalism it is not vandalism this this olson case i think is i think it's good in that it's going to get people upset again. and if you if you're following the if you're following the trial there's

just unprecedented moves by the judge gag order and the lawyer can't bring up free speech during the trial i mean this is ridiculous well alex even if it does amount to vandalism after thirteen years in jail for chalk on a sidewalk what are your thoughts on that. well i mean it just exemplifies this kind of two tiered justice system that we're living under you know if you're if you're a big of a too big to fail bank you get one of these signs right here eric holder get should get out of jail free card but if you're just an average joe you're pointing out the problem then you're going to get the book thrown at you when i think of. americans are finally realizing how insane this is why i really like your product there that man i like my job there that is ok ok so i want to take you back to olson's case i understand that in a recent twist of events the judge in his case issued a gag order saying that he can't even talk about the legal proceedings against him

and to the media it is ok if what he's saying that. again insane this this story. i've actually called and talked to the the city attorney or at least one of their in their office whoever answers the phone and i think that they did not realize the blowback that this was going to have. and how quickly it was going to get out there i feel sorry for jeff olson but i'm glad that in. the people that this issue is being discussed it's on reddit you know. well as i understand it san diego is not the only city issuing punishment for chalking on a street would you call these chalk related erast is there a trend happening. well i hope so i mean if you look at the timeline of protests and you know two thousand and eleven two thousand and twelve was pretty good and it

feels like we've kind of fallen asleep again at least it's dropped off the media's radar or maybe everyone's just too for scrambled with student loan payments and mortgage payments to actually be upset you know which is a good strategy but. i hope that that this will cause more i mean when i first did it a year ago i just thought it was a perfect form of protest and jeff olson did exactly what i did and what the city never pressed charges on me rightly so but i hope we see it more well if this trend of a rasper talking continues you know could we see a five year old neighbor girl being arrested for chalk on the sidewalk if this keeps up well again it points out the selective enforcement and the arbitrary nature of who's going to get arrested for chocking you know i just think they're going to have an impossible time trying to get a sympathetic jury to get a conviction on this i hope it just boomerangs in the city attorney's face i hope

it boomerangs and bank of america's face and and just becomes a another p.r. nightmare for them to know your money if you're not out of bank of america by now then you know it i don't know alex i really appreciate you weighing in we have to leave it there that was artist alex schaffer thank you. the united states has announced its intention to begin arming the syrian rebels but the question remains who are these rebels. brings us that story. the bloody conflict raging on for over two years violence to get the syrian president to step down versus more violence from a leader refusing to do so at least ninety thousand lives taken and counting from the get go washington supported the opposition the u.s. is making a terrible mistake in giving this undifferentiated very oversimplified

black and white picture that the rebel opposition really good guys and assad is the bad guy it's a very very dangerous state. dangerous because the opposition is not even close to being a unified political force in reality made up of an array of groups you find fundamentalist groups factions of various sectarian armies many of them affiliated either with al-qaeda broadly or with the ideas the jihadi ideas that they espouse the free syrian army is a network of thousands of militias and maybe they they come up to about eighty thousand people what's scary is how many of these people want you know an extremist government and i think it's more you know it's at least half horrific videos such as this one have shown that in the uprising the enemy can not only be killed but eaten to find out. there's ten thousand fighters with the else or of al nusra front

which is al qaeda in iraq reconstituted in syria they might as well call themselves you know al qaeda in syria but you know they want to rebrand while the west and russia remain at odds on where u.s. support of the opposition could lead. washington has its mind set on providing vetted routes of rebels with small arms and ammunition they're deluding themselves they think that they can cherry pick which factions of the opposition to support they think that there's a quote clean free syrian army apparatus that somehow or other we can control the flow of weapons because we give them only to select people. which indicate that american politicians are kidding themselves if they think the arms flow can ever be managed by aligning the united states with forces that have been conspicuous terms of their own human rights abuses including the use of chemical weapons according to

a u.n. investigator you asking for trouble and that's what we're going to get and this question of how to give arms to one group but keep them out of the hands of another can likely never be answered i don't know if i've even heard a clear and unambiguous answer. the obama administration or any foreign policy about where those weapons are going and how we can actually secure in the fact that they're going into the right hands but you know who are the right hand russia which has been sending arms to the assad government under a contract that began before the violence says that the united states arming the diversified opposition would kill not only more people but any hope for a peace settlement potentially turning the syrian crisis into never ending chaos like of galveston i don't think americans ever have a clear understanding of corn policy there's a lot of catching up to do to even understand the social fabric that's in place and the political. the political history out what it's come to be in syria even if

assad is pushed out after years of bloodshed there are no assurances that his departure will bring peace moreover the u.s. goes ahead with any shape or form of involvement in syria which the opposition will . embrace the tide could turn much quicker than american officials may desire loyalties are temporary and guns and weapons like diamonds are forever so today they may be your friend and tomorrow they're there pointing to the stinger at you receive the sun that as many as thirty percent of americans want you must stay away syria. take them out after four decades of warfare in the middle east so while forces were free for a while and the firepower left right it might be time you want to rethink. the citric you know. egypt is bracing itself for a mass protest with some egyptian activist hoping for a second revolution as morsi is one year anniversary holding egypt's highest office

is just around the corner the first anniversary of president mohamed morsi this election is on sunday and the egyptian army is gearing up for an intervention among speculation there will be a large scale protests will opposition activists claim that fifteen million egyptians have signed a petition demanding morsi is removal and expect a significant amount of those to take to the streets and june thirtieth in protest there currently outbreaks of violence in two major cities armored vehicles were deployed on the streets of cairo wednesday for more on that arson is archie's bell true has that story. these are not any street battles of all ranging between the uses to pool surprise and there is again a symbolic egypt's comes to city about eccentric they started this often named after demonstration here by anti government protesters trying to descend into the scenes when they were confronted by there you see supporting the president the police but after are trying to contain the violence using tear gas however they are

unable to control the situation and i have been fatalities because you had to close the protesters have a time the missing mother had a call to say in the crisis that to the next on terror i have a much more states this is a worrying trend here in egypt where we're having these very bloody clashes between sunni and sighs the country becomes increasingly divided it's time meanwhile here in the capital as you can see behind me hundreds of thousands of people have come out in support of the president saying that in a city that they're clinging to see as a red line they say they barely keep in the president's hand and that's what they want their voice to be and if the president is serious trying to should be used to change a should be truth about it books not be forced by the streets it's a very different scene just a few kilometers away in three square when opponents of mostly have gathered it's already i intend to thousands while i am not she spearheaded by crosstrees campaign called rebel and they are calling for president morsi to step down i may say this is a make or break moment it's

a worrying sign the country's becoming divided increasingly violent in the lead up to the first anniversary of president obama knows these rules but you people are warry i'm going to say look more fatalities in the future that was our team is bell true. and they're not activist aaron swartz who died in january will be posthumously inducted into the internet hall of fame swartz died in the u.s. government's aggressive pursuit of legal charges against him for allegedly stealing thousands of academic documents from the j. storage database which he said he planned to provide to the general public free of charge he faced thirty five years in prison under the computer fraud and abuse at. well swartz committed suicide in january of this year and after his death prosecutors dismissed all charges he was a major force in this awning rabbit and the r.s.s. feed he was also instrumental in the internet freedom movement including campaigns to prevent the passage of the stop online privacy act and protect the ip act aaron

swartz is one of thirty two to be awarded this prize of this year that doesn't for now you can follow me at twitter on twitter m underscore j underscore how will all see what a. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so for life you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm charged as a big picture.