coming up on our t.v. from the mouth of snowden himself wiki leaks releases a letter allegedly from the n.s.a. whistleblower what it says and what more we can expect from this man of mystery coming up and on the international front european union members are in disarray about the n.s.a. scandal the latest snowden document drop reveals that the agency intercepted information from the embassies of european allies more on this up ahead. millions of protesters fill up the streets of egypt demanding the resignation of president mohamed morsi and new elections more on the unrest in egypt and tonight show.

it's monday july first eight pm in washington d.c. i'm megan lopez and you are watching r.t. well we begin tonight with a developing story out of russia the anti secrets web site wiki leaks has now released a letter that was allegedly written by edward snowden here's part of that letter the obama administration has now adopted the strategy of using citizenship as a weapon although i am convicted of nothing it has unilaterally revoked my passport leaving me a stateless person without any judicial order the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right a right that belongs to everybody the right to seek asylum meanwhile earlier today we found out that an anonymous russian official told the l.a. times that snowden has now filed for asylum in no fewer than fifteen countries for reaction on the letter and the latest in the snowden saga i was joined earlier by our to political commentator sam sachs and abby martin host of breaking the set and

i started off by asking sam if there was any proof that this letter was in fact genuine take a look. well it seems like it is reuters is coming out with another corresponding statement that snowden sent to the ecuadorian embassy where you he says been the point person for snowden since he left hong kong when we found out he was heading to moscow with plans to seek asylum elsewhere through statements made by wiki leaks so i don't think it's strange that wiki leaks is releasing his statement now about this and i think it's about time the snowden does make a statement i mean there's been a lot of questions as to what exactly is going on over the last eight days whether or not this was the plan all along was to take a flight from hong kong to moscow and then just kind of wait there and in find out were going to go or whether there was some plan ahead of time so a lot of people wanted to hear from snowden joining us on just come out and said that he's ok so now we have stones and words kind of saying he's ok and abby i want to turn to you this letter obviously just came out

a very short time ago what are your initial reactions from reading through it it's just really sad it's a tragic state of affairs i mean here. in saying i can't go anywhere because my my own country has made me a stateless person this is a right this is a human right absolutely declared in article fourteen of the universal declaration of human rights to seek asylum and the fact that president obama has demanded his passport to be revoked he's pressuring leaders of other countries to not grant him asylum i mean what country are we living in here this is trumping the universal declaration of human right that everyone should have on the entire planet we've had no problem taking in political prisoners or or political dissidents from other countries who actually have been charged with crimes so it's an utter disgrace and it is interesting to point out that there has been no extradition treaty between russia and the u.s. in their country currently is not now sam we do know today that according to an anonymous russian official that edward snowden has filed for asylum and no fewer

than fifteen countries is there any indication right now as to what those countries are what the possible asylum. processes are if he has to be on soil in order to get that type of asylum anything like that you know we don't know what countries he's applied to we could imagine he's applied to ecuador and certain other countries that seem to be willing to take on free speech activists whistleblowers. they're also countries that might just be ok with. filming it coming. in the united states . look at some of snowden's most recent leaks have been given to countries that have been exposed to this sort of illegal surveillance they're spiegel in germany read the article from snowden's documents that talked about how germany is one of the most frequently used sites for the prism program for a for the n.s.a. as prism program and how we've been spying on the european union look if you want to there's been conflicting reports whether or not he's applied for asylum in

russia putin today said you know he could stay in russia but he has to stop embarrassing you know his u.s. partners and of course snowden's release or started statement ecuador said he does continue planing to release more documents so that doesn't seem to quite jive with any any asylum hopes at least there and we'll get to that later in just a minute but i also another thing to point out is before edward snowden actually went to moscow he was thinking about applying as far as we know to countries like venezuela to cuba the places that have been not so warm and friendly with the united states now abbi talk about this concept of shopping for countries in order to get that asylum bid that he so desperately looking for i mean really what other what are his options this is this is really all he can do at this point i mean he's in a transit center international airport i mean he has to apply to as many countries as he possibly can whether or not these countries are going to grant him asylum is a different story it's really a big like sand is that i mean you're basically defying the largest empire in the

world that could really go after you if you make this bold move but really he has no other choice right now. he has to do this and i don't know i mean his options look bleak right now but i would shop for countries of fire and i shop for as many countries they could interview as the united states has yes they've done all of repealing his passport pressuring other countries denying him sought asylum but the united states has complicated their own efforts to try and get started by charging him with espionage a lot of these extradition treaties that countries like ecuador. venezuela and other countries have with the united states include crimes that would be appropriate for extradition but espionage is not on there that's considered a political con and that doesn't jive with a lot of these extradition treaties so with the united states is asking these countries to make sure that handover snowden they probably shouldn't be charging him with things that the country would be more reluctant to have him over with and sam piggybacking off of the letter a section that i had read earlier let's talk about revoking a person's passport yes or no does that stop

a person from getting asylum. i mean it's it makes it almost impossible for him to travel anywhere and but there's no interpol worn out so he can pretty much go places where. he trusts and he may mention that in his statement that by flying to moscow and knowing what was going on he was basically putting a lot of faith in a lot of strangers to protect him and that's kind of how he has to live throughout now because there are a lot of countries that he can't fly into now and and i mean who knows how much longer he will be given the sort of temporary asylum in countries like russia or ecuador or cuba and abby i want to read another part of the letter it says quote in the end the obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me bradley manning or thomas drake we are stateless imprisoned or powerless no the obama administration is afraid of you and is afraid of an informed angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised and it should be abby your thoughts

it's obvious to anyone who looks into this program that. saying spying grid that snowden has shed some light on that this is not about terrorism this is about keeping all of the citizens of this country in a giant data mining grid to control and to keep tabs on us i mean the needle in a haystack there has already been debunked by the government to have said an internal documents that it's actually deterred them from catching terrorists from learning about warnings about the brothers exciter a so you cannot say that expanding surveillance will actually be better to catch terrorists no this is about controlling society keeping everyone under the thumb of the government tracking everyone keeping everyone into a chilling effect on an already ice cold environment for dissent and political dissent about making an example of snow to. start is referring to in a statement this idea such harsh charges they've also been used against bradley manning they've been used against thomas drake john kiriakou it's not to punish these people but it's to it's to make people after them afraid and so far it hasn't

worked because whatever's been done to thomas drake didn't stop bradley manning which didn't stop. edward snowden very interesting we also know that edward snowden allegedly sent out a letter to ecuador thanking them for helping him get to moscow also saying that he wanted to be free because he wants to have the ability to release documents in the future breaking the set host abby martin and sam sachs political commentator thank you so much for weighing in it's going on now to the latest u.s. that missions when it comes to the white house surveillance scandal over the weekend the german newspaper der spiegel and the guardian reported that the n.s.a. has been eavesdropping on officials in the european union by bugging their offices that's according to documents released by former n.s.a. defense contractor edward snowden and this has sparked outrage in the international community will leaders from german chancellor angela merkel to european parliament president martin schulz demanding an explanation secretary of state john kerry attempted to pacify some of the international criticism by promising today to look

at these claims that the n.s.a. bugged the mission in new york. it's embassy in washington but then he went on to say this every country in the world that is engaged in international affairs of national security undertakes lots of activities to protect its national security and all kinds of information contributes to that all i know is that it's not unusual for a lots of nations but beyond that i'm not going to comment any further until i have all the facts and find out precisely what the situation is so is that justification enough for the alleged u.s. spying political commentator sam sachs reports. the spy game has changed used to be a world of moles shady briefcase exchanges and honey traps now it's

a world of blanket surveillance across pretty much the entire planet through little more than a tap on the world's internet and phone communication lines some help from willing internet service providers and massive storage facilities that could be capable of holding a billion phone calls a day we're reminded of this thanks to more revelations from edward snowden who's released documents showing that the united states is engaging in rampant spying on key allies around the world particularly the european union as the guardian reports one document lists thirty eight embassies and missions describing them as targets it details an extraordinary range of spying methods used against each target from bugs implanted in electronic communications gear to taps and it cables so the collection of transmissions with specialized antenna along with traditional ideological adversaries in sensitive middle eastern countries the list of targets includes the e.u. missions in the french italian and greek embassies as well as

a number of other american allies including japan mexico south korea india and turkey and it's alleged that the n.s.a. bugged e.u. offices in washington d.c. at the u.n. and in brussels you see with new technology spying has become a lot easier. think of everything that went into setting up a spies say at the german embassy during world war two the planning the training the buy offs the human lives put at risk if the mission gets exposed the fear of being crossed by a double agent a world of constant paranoia this is now the stuff of hollywood the real spy game today is just a tech geek at the n.s.a. listening to everything you don't even need to install a secret hidden camera anymore you just tap into the computer cameras that the embassy staff have bought for themselves you want to know what makes a certain ambassador tick to eventually gain leverage over him and his government

well you know longer need an inside man to track his movements figure out his likes and dislikes you no longer need to send in some sort of female or male seductress to get him to spill his secrets and bed nope nowadays the n.s.a. can just look at his web history find out what sites he logs onto frequently oh he likes going on chat roulette well i'm sure that could be exploited for something thanks to technology there are no limits to this spy game anymore it's as vast as the intercepting and storage capabilities allow it to be but just because the technology allows the united states the wealthiest and mighty a superpower on the planet to spy on everyone else on the planet from allies to enemies should we do it. can this still be considered legitimate spying in our nation's best interests or is this something else altogether something that's only been addressed in disto big science fiction novels and nuts international statutes

yes the old school spy game with all its limitations is gone the new spy game created by the n.s.a. is here in so far the only limits on it are whether or not it can be kept a secret in washington same sex r.t. for more on the international reaction from the revelations that the n.s.a. was bugging european union offices was the feelin is the head of the roughly newsroom in berlin and she brings us this report. there has so far been no comment from the us in response to this latest round of revelations that have been published over the weekend by the eagle which revealed that half a billion communications including phone calls text messages and e-mails monitored under the n.s.a. program each month and that's in germany alone now the german justice minister has been absolutely livid she has described the type of the n.s.a.

is similar to the type six used in the cold war the german chancellor angela merkel has said that she feels alienated which you know is so obviously very curious as to why germany has been targeted by the n.s.a. programs that n.s.a. have stated that as very few countries which have been excluded from the program including the united kingdom new zealand australia and canada so questions are being off the why germany has been specified as a tog it's and some official in germany commented that of course the us is known for costing a wide net foghat whoever they want under the war on terror so are german citizens now also being treated as terrorists under this n.s.a. program of course it's not just germany that is reeling from the latest revelations that is being outrage across europe so it's not just the u.s. and china relations but in the entire trends that line take relationship between

europe and the united states that is under threat that was was the feel of the head of the roughly newsroom in berlin. protests in egypt have swelled so much that the size of the demonstrations is now bigger than when the public was protesting against longtime ruler hosni mubarak back in two thousand and eleven sunday's protests are being called the biggest in the country's history the egyptian army estimates that millions of protesters took to the streets day after day protesters continue. pilot's toque are square in a festival like atmosphere and then night after night dozens of those protesters turned violent some of them were smashing windows throwing molotov cocktails into buildings and squaring off with police. at least sixteen people were killed and more than seven hundred and eighty were wounded as sunday and monday during the demonstrations egypt's army has now given

president mohamed morsi and his government for yet hours to respond to the demands of the protesters or it says it will step in and restore order for the very latest coming out of cairo we turn now to bell true. to ordinary scenes across the country hundreds of thousands come back to treat for a second day of protest against president mohamed morsi as you can probably see behind me the gathering the president to put it down being shunted vehemently they say enough's enough the president must say this from judge just after a statement by the ministry said to me that the president comes with a solution that would be with him on the people and to say always they will create a movement for the future of egypt many people here are interpreting this as a ministry intervention. and they've been one of the people have been easy to manage to get into that but up until eighty five and in a number of people die in leading up to this big demonstration on the other side

people are saying that the military when they were in the one year up that was the barak step down but in the forming human rights because the people in the democratic change they were still using a good idea to egypt they weaken must've been demonstrating president speaking the truth justice in the protests today they told me they see no change in the president to what they preach about a failing economy you know if you. tell me you wouldn't want to. right but it's human rights if you save the planet. you're in the police force the promises of president morsi made when he came. in that in cases running the country to complain about it it's an issue that i think the typical commission but the big thing they have taken the monopoly of power not to have a quick fix is to make that part too old to think because if it is to the people this is a way to. say that the president was going to try to get elected and they were done

by him he should be finished. and that is undemocratic to him to step down but it was just a few things in the ministry basically putting more people looking him up that he feels amongst the people which is that he was going for the military into being i think we're going to be seeing possibly presidential elections very very soon that was artie's bell true. well starving college students are about to get a little more hungry that's because interest rates are set to double today as a result of congress's inaction let's take a look at the numbers interest rates on student loans double to six point eight percent so what does that mean financially well it means that the average student will pay about two thousand six hundred dollars extra in interest accrued this rate hike will affect some seven million students across the nation but it will not impact the people who already have loans so what's next for more i was joined by robert appel bomb he's co-founder and executive director of the student debt crisis

dot org and i started by asking him whether this rise in student loan interest rates could actually deter students from attending college. absolutely it could as you know the rates have doubled and if congress doesn't act to reverse that then college students are going to be facing one thousand dollars per year per loan in additional costs on top of the already skyrocketing cost of college now what we do know right now is that congress is on recess for july fourth for independence day also that this three point four to six point eight percent rate will actually affect subsidized stafford loan program which are people that are already find it facing financial constraints as i understand it so it doesn't look like congress is going to address this issue at all or can it be retroactively taken back considering the fact that most students don't apply to loans and soul august or september that's right last thursday i believe the of coalition of

democratic senators came together to offer a another one year fix that would apply retroactively i believe they plan on voting on july tenth so assuming that that vote happens and it passes and the president signs it then we're back to where we were one year ago which would be to just extend the one three point four percent interest rate for another year and then next year we'll have this fight all over again so are we just kicking the can down the road here i mean we're having this find oh it's time and time again and before you answer that question let me play exactly what barack obama said last year around this time that you just alluded to. we can't control every you can have a good one that we face but this is something we can control this and we can do something about stopping student rates from doubling of of the month is something we can do right now to make a difference in the lives of all the american people. so there's still time for

gardeners do the right thing so deja vu what can we do to stop kicking this can down the road you know i really don't know what it's going to take to make congress do its job we have a student debt crisis in america with one point one trillion dollars of outstanding student loan debt and we're only making the problem worse we need comprehensive student loan reform that addresses all of the inequities and hardships that are faced by student borrowers so i really don't know what it's going to take to make congress do its job and stop putting band-aids on it and start kicking the can down the road now we've already talked about the losers here the losers are obviously the people that are taking out these loans that are experiencing these interest rate hikes or will be experiencing these interest rate hikes talk about the winners here well unfortunately the who are the winners really is the the department of

education they're projected to make fifty one billion dollars in profits off of student loans in the next year old loan and that's without the rates doubling so now with the rates doubling they're going to make that much more now. i don't know about you but i don't believe that the government's role is to profit off of the backs of students the government should be extending a helping hand to those who want to seek a higher education to better themselves and to better contribute to society and instead they're making it harder to obtain an education and we're basically pricing the middle and working classes out of higher education now robert you're an advocate for forgiving the student debt altogether but i want to know for you how about working is it actually financially viable considering the fact that student loan debt is greater than credit card debt in this country right when i first became involved in the issue of student loan debt i did propose that we forgave all student loan debt as a means of stimulating the economy that was four and

a half years ago. obviously the president and congress didn't take my advice and so you know at that time the outstanding student loan debt was about seven hundred billion dollars today it's one point one trillion so in just those four and a half years it's grown by that much and it's just growing every day so i don't necessarily think that forgiving all student loan debt is. necessarily a viable proposal but it's certainly something that could jumpstart the economy and give a helping hand to those who are trying to better themselves and we just how about thirty seconds left yes or no is college worth the cost right now. just yes or no yes it's worth the cost robert after obama executive director and director of the student debt crisis dot org thank you so much thank you for having me. thanks to n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden we know now more about the expansion of the u.s.

government surveillance but this among author leaks has been seen as a problem by the obama administration a problem that needs to be plugged for more on how the u.s. government is keeping a closer eye on its own ranks the residents lori harvest. thanks to the charity everyone on the planet knows that the u.s. government is spying on us all we know that they are reading all of our e-mails and listening to all of our phone calls and counting all of the calories we eat ok not really on that last one but you get the point we all know that they are watching us

what you might not know yet is that in their heightened state of paranoia they are also watching themselves the obama administration is encouraging federal workers to fiat each other through an initiative called the insiders to write program. it's a program that demands that millions of federal employees and contractors must watch for high risk persons or behaviors among coworkers and if the federal workers don't report and suspicions they might have they could face criminal charges and if they dare talk to the media about it that's just straight up. and the insider threat program is not just with an agency having to do with national security the program extends to all of us agencies including the peace corps the social security administration and the department of agriculture. so if you work in the peace corps and you see one of your coworkers being disgruntled at work and think they might

tell others about their job and you don't report them as a possible insider threat you could face harsh penalty. and now that there have actually been some extremely huge worldwide oh my god leaks about the u.s. spying the insider threat spying program on the steam u.s. officials who are critics of the program worried that it's only a matter of time before the program is used not only to just discourage whistle blowing and leak it will be used to encourage federal workers to rat on each other they worry the program will create and reward a federal workforce comprised of bland non-thinking conformant was to scared to do anything but toe the line. all of this by stuff coming out in the news about the u.s. government points to one thing and that is the administration's desperate grab

control control of information control of its workers thought control of this population individualism which psychology one o one will tell you is a result of only one thing the us at no it is losing control and it scared feral state of mind it now does everyone has the threat even itself. tonight to talk about that by following me on twitter at the rest. and finally tonight there are many people who call poetry and alien language well nasa is hoping that that is true the mars atmosphere and volatile evolution spacecraft also known as may. even is set to launch this november and the spacecraft is going to have some poetic stowaways

a set of haikus written for mars today is the deadline for submissions to write ahead code that will be included on a d.v.d. sent to mars while only three haikus will be chosen everyone who writes the poem will get their name included on that d.v.d. the real goal isn't to start a conversation with extra terrestrials but to get people here on earth talking about the next big mission to the red planet still though a little poetry might coax some aliens to come out of their spaceships for an intergalactic coffee house and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america and for the latest and greatest information coming out about the edward snowden saga the n.s.a. surveillance or any of the stories that you saw us here to cover today or some that we just didn't have time to get to our check out our website that's r t dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez stick around larry king is up at nine pm with special guest gavin newsome.

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