coming up on r t edward snowden's travel plans are still on hold the former n.s.a. contractor remains in russia up he's now seeing amnesty from more than a dozen countries and it looks like venezuela may be snowden's number one defender a deeper look at that up ahead. and it's now day fourteen of the bradley manning trial it's the defense's team's turn to call of witnesses and a bit to help the whistle blower's case will get the latest from fort meade coming up. the streets of egypt are still packed with protesters demanding for the removal of president mohamed morsy and now the nation's army has offered morsi and ultimatum to resolve the crisis more on the unrest in egypt and today show.

it's tuesday july second five pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. well he's the n.s.a. contractor who leaked america's surveillance secrets to the world now edward snowden is desperately reaching out to the international community to protect him from the wrath of the u.s. government wiki leaks announced today that snowden has applied for asylum in no fewer than twenty one countries including some of the very countries his in a say documents prove the u.s. was trying to spy on here's a look at those nations and how they are responding let's start with the countries who flat out said no or are unlikely to grant snowden's asylum bid austria ecuador iceland ireland italy the number ones norway spain and switzerland all said that he must be present on the country's soil in order to ask. for protection brazil won't

respond finland hasn't process the request france said asylum is a non issue germany and poland said his argument isn't strong enough to be granted asylum india flat out said no and snowden withdrew his request from russia after president vladimir putin said he had to stop leaking documents in order to be considered now to the best of our knowledge bolivia and venezuela are the only countries to offer the former n.s.a. contractor a ray of hope meanwhile no information is coming out from china cuba or nicaragua in terms of the request or the government response to them for the latest on the edward snowden international plight and venezuela's reaction to a plea to his plea i was joined earlier by r.t. correspondent igor pitts going off i asked him what he know about these asylum beds well snowden was sent requested twenty one countries this time and have already officially given the red lights including brazil and india and eight e.u.

member states including spain and germany and they're saying that under their rules all political asylum applicants have to be on very serious since snowden clearly isn't you still stuck in that transit zone. where for that they're still not able to begin processing the requests the same goes for ecuador which became the first currency which you turn to with the requests and we've heard from the ecuadorian president who said that by their rules snowden has to be at least on russian territory and since he's not then they're also not able to begin processing it now he has applied for asylum in over twenty one countries of course it only takes one of those countries in order for him to be potentially a state the u.s. justice system but one of those countries that has been as i understand it thinking about giving him asylum is then asked why law venezuelan president nicolas maduro had this to say to r.t. spanish today the young man. has to be protected by the

international community he said with dignity to tell the world that there are mechanisms to spy on the world even on your own if snowden stays here world be destroyed protecting snowden will protect peace meanwhile also evo morales the oblivion leader went ahead and made another statement if you would go ahead and fill us in on what it will morales had to say. even moralez also said that their country is basically ready to grant political asylum to snowden but if they received an official request for him earlier the same or at least everybody thought the same one for event as well as since its president snowden had a great chance of getting political asylum there but he's still saying that they have also not you see requests from him in fact well as the venezuelan president.

was here in moscow everybody expected him to take snowden a wall with him toobin as well but that didn't happen he is saying that they're not afraid of pressure from washington that they're used to this pressure in the exclusive interview to r.t. but he's also saying that if he did receive this official request from snowden for political asylum he would have to weigh everything else first and see what the reaction would be both in going as well and abroad so he's despite being obviously sympathetic to snowden and his revelations he's still being very cautious about this whole issue now no matter what the ultimate outcome is whether any one of these twenty one countries decide to in fact grant him asylum the fact is that he's still kind of caught in this catch twenty two where he can't leave an intern to russia because he does not have a valid visa but he also can't leave the country and fly elsewhere because he

doesn't have a u.s. passport anymore so is this just a symbolic kind of measure or what would be the next step in this asylum process the fee is granted it. it's very hard to predict what will happen next because snowden is clearly stuck in this transit limbo as it's been called by world media now basically in the spotlight of the global media for the past week but at the same time nobody nobody really knew exactly where he was since we didn't know that he arrived through this transit. airport in moscow from hong kong with this invalid passport and accompanied by a week elise representative but then for the full week nobody pretty much knew exactly where he was we heard from president putin who confirmed that snowden was in the transit zone in the beginning of the week we've heard from foreign minister lavrov who said that he never crossed the border line so the rest was mostly speculation and now that while the ten countries that applied to have already given

the red light so the list is going shorter and he had to retract the request for political asylum from russia after hearing what. conditions warrant the list is getting is growing shorter and it seems that while there's some chance of him receiving in ecuador it seems there is a chance of him getting political asylum inventor's well and believe you will really have to see how this journey or how the story is going to work out next this story certainly has taken a lot of twists and turns over the past few days and it is a story that we here at r.t. will continue to follow follow along with our correspondents over in moscow reporting from moscow thank you so much. perhaps no one better knows the potential fate edward snowden could face if he ends up in u.s. custody and wiki leaks bradley manning today is week five day fourteen of the court martial but could decide if this private first class will spend the rest of his life behind bars for the biggest document drop in u.s.

history for the latest we turn now to our to correspondent liz wall today the judge ruled that the prosecution's last witness can in fact qualify as an expert in counter intelligence yesterday the defense tried to cast doubt on daniel lewis and his expertise lewis is a defense counselor intelligence officer the judge cited his twenty nine years of experience and counter intelligence that qualifies him as an expert in that field however judge lindh ruled that he is not an expert in valuing classified information now this is important because the prosecution is trying to prove that manning stole classified documents and that these documents something the monetary value now accord was in session for just a short time today before they went on recess into a closed session that's because much of lewis's testimony is expected to be classified so whenever classified information is discussed we go black and that media room and are on able to see or hear what is going on now louis is the

prosecution's last witness before to the defense calls their witnesses if the government were to rest its case today it's likely that manning's attorney david coombs would motion to dismiss some of the charges the defense will oftentimes do this by saying the prosecution failed to show enough evidence that well the courts of the trial to justify the charges as we know with the most serious of the over twenty charges that manning faces is aiding the enemy defense has been trying to chip away at the government's theory that manning aided by working together with wiki leaks co-founder julian assange on to get u.s. secrets on to the internet secrets that word then excel. well qaeda and osama bin ladin a key piece of evidence admitted by the judge yesterday is this wiki leaks most wanted list of two thousand and nine this is a list of by wiki leaks listing a document that they're interested in getting a hold of part of this list included up profiles of guantanamo bay detainee as

manning admitted to leaking these documents to wiki leaks but denies that he did so in an attempt to aid the enemy now the timing of this trial is really in the hands of the judge judge colonel landa we are told that after today the trial will go on extended recess for the fourth of july holiday and be back in session on monday so we will keep you updated on all of the latest developments here in fort meade maryland live all our team. now looking at the cases of bradley manning an edward snowden outsiders are undoubtedly making comparisons between the men both leaked massive tros of information to the public both are being pursued by the government for espionage and a host of other charges both ways that they leak that information to serve the public interest but there are also a few pointed differences between those two secret spillers to help me navigate through some of the similarities and differences i was joined just

a short time ago by michael brooks who's a producer at the majority report take a look. i think you know the similarities are clear you know they're both young young men who decided to really great personal risk expose what they perceive to be significant systemic wrongdoing. and they both by most accounts are very intelligent very competent and good in their fields as far as we know obviously the core similarity or dissimilarities because edward snowden chose to flee the united states and as his cases kind of progress it's become it's taken on a much different kind of. a distinct geo political calculus that breading bradley manning's case does not and then obviously going back to manning he's been the victim of really significant abuse and in the main conditions under

military capture in the united states and another very big difference is the fact that bradley manning was in the military versus edward snowden who is an n.s.a. contractor so if severus snowden is somehow extracted and brought back the u.s. to face the criminal justice system he'll be facing a civilian court versus a court martial or a military tribunal can you talk about that a little bit. yeah i mean that's a that's a really good point and i actually think the one thing that's very significant about that even before you get to the legal implications is the fact of edward snowden's position in and of itself how many contractors we have handling this type of intelligence i mean you could take the opposite view even and say maybe hey i don't want this stuff to be we will then you would have to ask yourself do you feel comfortable with a system that allows someone like edward snowden who you know there's conflicting reports about his how senior he was and even just the fact that he was

a private contractor having this amount of access. two to that information he also faces espionage charges so he's also been hit with you know the most harsh charges possible i guess other than treason so even though you know he's not a military system he's also been hit with an incredibly draconian and exceptionally over the top charge which in some ways that elevates his point almost as much as some of his leaks about the n.s.a. surveillance program i would say and edward snowden allegedly sent out a letter yesterday via wiki leaks comparing himself to other whistleblowers he said quote in the end the obama administration is not afraid of whistleblowers like me bradley manning or thomas drake we are stateless imprisoned and powerless no the obama administration is afraid of you isn't afraid of an informed public and informed angry public demanding the constitutional government it was promised and should be so finally what are your thoughts to wrap this whole thing up about both

of these men kind of being seen together in the same sentence as whistleblowers. well again i think that there are some distinctions i think some of the things that snowden has had to do have complicated his his situation because it's got drawn into larger geopolitical concerns and raise other questions in terms of some of the other countries that he's had to deal with in the situation that he's in and some of the leaks he's chosen to make but fundamentally yes they're both performing a whistleblowing function thomas drake is a whistleblower and the obama administration unfortunately has taken an exceptionally aggressive stand against whistleblowers and then also. had double standards which is the other significant component of this because leaks have happened throughout about all of these security programs and when they are favorable they aren't as aggressively pursued and when they're exposing abuses or problems they are and right there that undercuts the whole notion that this

threatens our security and highlights a really huge issue of accountability and democratic process which of course should concern all of us two men potentially facing two very different fates from both being whistleblowers and secret feller's michael brooks producer at the majority report. thank you edward snowden's release of documents about the n.s.a. included particular information about the prism program which started in two thousand and seven under george w. bush and his administration and it continued under the obama administration an interview that aired yesterday from zambia president bush defended the program the program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil liberties were guaranteed so you don't think there's a compromise between security and privacy i think there needs to be a balance and i think as the president explained there's a proper balance. so a bit of bipartisanship from the former president but keep in mind president obama

came into office on the promise of being the anti bush but these revelations about america's continuing surveillance and counterterror tactics are spurring more criticism of the president than before and some are even feeling that deja vu back to the bush years political commentator sound sax shares his thoughts on the matter today presidents forty three and forty four were together in tanzania africa far far away from the white house which is dealing with the fallout of all its intelligence secrets being laid bare for the world to see secrets created by both presidents bush and obama now these two men seemingly couldn't be more different barely of the same generation they are from different socio economic backgrounds from different parts of the country from different intellectual backgrounds and professions they're different upbringings different hobbies different religious beliefs but they did hold the same office and that's why today bush and obama look more similar than ever before it's as though the white house took hold of these two

men these two very different men chewed them up spit them out and into monochromatic globs who forgot who they were before moving into the highest office in the land and most importantly forgot their ideals remember it was as a presidential candidate in two thousand and seven that barack obama opposed mass domestic surveillance. i will provide our intelligence and law enforcement agencies with the tools they need to track and take out the terrorists without undermining our constitution and our freedom that means no more illegal wiretapping of american citizens no more national security letters to spy on citizens who are not suspected of a crime no more tracking citizens who do nothing more than protest a misguided war no more ignoring the law when it isn't convenient and remember it was as a senator in two thousand and seven that barack obama took on bush's white house and supported lead. placing that would have protected journalists from heavy handed subpoenas by the department of justice it was called the free flow of information

act and it failed and two years later when obama was in the white house he made sure the legislation failed again he then turned his justice department loose on journalists at the a.p. and at fox news i remember as a member of the illinois senate in two thousand to brock obama spoke out so passionately against the iraq war and then as president a decade later he's at the helm of a global drone war targeting not just afghanistan and iraq but also pakistan yemen and somalia. so what causes this transformation maybe it's what eisenhower warned of in one nine hundred sixty one the power of the military industrial complex maybe it's the immense political pressure to keep the nation safe from terrorism maybe it's the weight of responsibility of steering a world superpower maybe it's a combination of all of these but it's affected not just obama and not just bush

but also bill clinton and george h.w. bush and ronald reagan all have used the force of our military around the world that the only president who didn't start his own conflict was jimmy carter and that was more than thirty years ago and today he's distinguish himself from both bush and obama calling snowden's leaks beneficial. but carter was tossed out of the white house after only one term and the presidents who came later learned this lesson and now here they both are two term presidents bush the man who created the surveillance machine and obama the man who innovated it both shaped not by their political ideology but by their time in the white house taking the reins of the american superpower and doing everything it takes from war to mass surveillance to hold on in a world that's becoming more and more hostile to superpowers and was.

james komi is one step closer to clinching the title of f.b.i. director but before he does president obama's pick to replace robert mueller has a few major hurdles to overcome according to the hill newspaper the senate judiciary committee will hold a confirmation hearing next week for comi but don't expect him to go through that process the a.c.l.u. and human rights watch have serious object sions to khomeini's nomination based on his support of the infamous bush torture memos when he was the deputy attorney general from two thousand and three to two thousand and five yesterday these groups wrote a letter to the judiciary committee urging members to ask me about his involvement in the approval of various enhanced interrogation techniques against terror suspects that is it said quote the senate cannot make an informed decision on whether to confirm mr cole me as f.b.i. director without having a complete understanding of his actions at a time when torture and abuse were being used and top government officials were

taking extraordinary steps to avoid criminal liability the letter references an e-mail that komi wrote in two thousand and five stating that he concurred with a specific legal memo that authorized the use of confinement wall standing water dowsing extended sleep deprivation and waterboarding although he called the techniques simply awful in subsequent e-mails he did not object to the lawfulness of such acts now james komi is best known for racing to the hospital room of former attorney general john ashcroft to convince him not to reauthorize the warrantless spying program under president bush. well nelson mandela once said education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world but tell that to four star general david petraeus when he begins teaching as an adjunct professor at city university of new york he is now fighting for the high. the hearts and minds of american students and he's got

a salary that you're more likely to see in the department of defense and the department of education the former commander of the united states armed forces in iraq and afghanistan will be paid a whopping one hundred fifty thousand dollars to teach two classes and conduct a to conduct some public lectures while petraeus announced his appointment to the professorship in april his six digit salary was revealed by gawker freedom of information request not just for a refresher general petraeus resigned from his post as cia director in two thousand and twelve after the public learned that he had an affair with his biographer paula broadwell along with general petraeus is scheduled to begin teaching and mentor and part time at the university of southern california he has a fellowship at harvard's kennedy school of government and he has accepted a position chairing the new global institute at a private equity firm are so just more money to line the walls of his financial bunker who university has

a student population of five hundred thousand and it is mostly funded by city and state tax money county officials say that they are asking private donors to help fund raise petraeus a salary. twenty four hours down less than twenty four to go on egyptian military time anyway before the army steps in and wells the unrest that has spread throughout the country as of late however president mohamed morsi rejected that ultimatum meanwhile the protests continue you are looking at live pictures from the massive protests that are continuing in tougher square that continued yesterday throughout today and into tonight and they are just massive as you can see seven people reported dead today protesters are demanding for morsi to immediately step down and make way for new elections for the latest from egypt here's our teens tell true. mates growing tensions across the country on this day of mace. why protests against the president the muslim brotherhood the islamist group the president hails

from released a statement saying they expect imminent attacks on to harry's unpresidential policies which the witnessing antigovernment demonstrations right now they say this will be on they don't know who's behind these intimate attacks they talk about but it's set up to frame the their muslim brotherhoods and divide the nation some people are dismissing this statement as a means of them trying to get people to leave anti-government demonstrations in fear however the clock is ticking for the president the hour winds the military have given him to meet the demands of the people in closing with hundreds of thousands of people coming back to the streets calling for his ouster they said they've had enough the president is unable to to rule they see no change in the last year and they're staying put in till he resigns the president appears to be losing support from within his own administration we've already had five ministers resign in the last few days and today two presidential spokespersons and the spokesperson to the cabinet have also resigned and the president for his bond has

met with the minister of interior and the ministry of defense in a bid to try and solve this crisis however many are protecting that we may see presidential elections coming soon in addition we've had comments from the u.s. president obama who's pulled on the scene as you listen to the people saying that democracy is not just through a bout of books this comes amidst growing fees from the americans the u.s. embassy has closed off to the has been a lot of a measure of anti-american sentiment expressed in protests here on to the square and also in the presidential palace i've certainly seen a lot of bomb is targeting the u.s. ambassador to egypt and passive in paris and sorry saying that the mission by the head is following a u.s. agenda what's happening right now is a severely divided egypt with tensions rising an expected violence on the horizon that was our case bell true in cairo. atheists agnostics and nonbelievers across the country now around the monument. of their own to adore or rather it's a celebration of secularism according to the american atheist group which just

wrapped up a week our year long battle in court this week the lawsuit demanded for a local christian group to remove its monument of the ten commandments from a local park outside the bradford county courthouse in starker florida a settlement however allows that monument to stand and another to be built up by the atheist group and that is the statue that you're looking at a five foot long gray granite bench that features secular quotations from the founding fathers for more on the new monument david new scotto with the american atheist organization joined me just a bit earlier and i asked him if he could describe the monument in a bit more detail. sure well like you said it's five feet long it's granite grey we wanted something that was functional that had utility as opposed to the ten commandments monument which just sits there that you look at. it it has a pillar in the back with our logo on the top which is the symbol for atheism and

quotes from the founders of this country a quote from madalyn murray o'hair and also an excerpt from the treaty of tripoli which was the first treaty of the united states that says the. united states was not founded on christianity now david and there are thousands of religious monuments across the country and around the world why it was this one of the ten commandments too much to bear and not so to make you bring up a lawsuit. well one of our members initiated this. basically our position is just that the ten commandments does not belong on public property it's a overtly religious. symbol and it has no place in government land and really this was just where we started it is could have been anywhere it just happened to be stark florida now on the other hand as i understand it you have a kind of ten commandments list on yours which says the possible punishments for

things you could suffer if you broke the ten commandments and that is in fact getting a lot of criticism from other atheist groups and what have you can you talk about why they are knowing that you brought up the ten commandments at all in your monument and your group's response to those other atheists well some people feel that by bringing the bible into our monument we're making this in an anti-religious monument as opposed to a monument about secularism or celebrating secularism which is part of the purpose of the my unit but the other purpose of the monument is to show that the bible is a primitive and brutal document that people there's this this idea that it's. that the bible or the ten commandments specifically are this just kind of good moral code that we can all kind of agree on but that's not true it's very very brutal if you actually sit and read it the punishment call for death seven out of ten times and it's just it's not something that civilized people live by and finally let's take a look at the gallup poll that was conducted in may regarding american attitudes

toward religion seventy seven percent of americans believe religion is losing its influence on american life as a whole but according to that same poll seventy five percent of americans said the country would be better off if it was more religious any thoughts as to why we're seeing this change i mean is it is it cultural. will it i think part of it's cultural part of it's just better access to information with the internet proliferating people can find out that a lot of this stuff is a scam god doesn't exist and they can see that there are other cultures with many different beliefs and that they're not right just because they happen to be born in the united states and they were raised christians as far as people thinking that it would be better if it were more religious that's not true we can clearly see that the people who have less religion have better lives and. as a result dave in the sky from the american atheist organization thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me i really appreciate it that does it for now for

more on the stories we cover and go to youtube dot com slash r t america has the right back here at eight pm. well. technology innovation called the list of elements from around russia we've gone to the future covered. you know how 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 realize everything you thought you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big.