coming up on r t with all the buzz about n.s.a. surveillance exactly how is the u.s. able to track movements around the globe will take a trip through the wires and tubes coming up. from n.s.a. secrets to the public spotlight and now to a lawsuit the group epic is turning to the supreme court to block the disturbing expansion of government surveillance more coming up and it's now day sixteen of the bradley manning trial the defense teams today is focusing on guantanamo bay and what was leaked about the security facility live from fort meade coming up. it's tuesday july ninth four pm in washington d.c.

i'm meghan lopez and you are watching our t.v. well starting off this hour russia's u.n. envoy vladimir churkin announced today that samples have been collected from the site where chemical weapons were used in syria those samples have now been analyzed and are now being handed over to the u.n. in an attempt to prove that the rebels and not the syrian government were the ones using chemical weapons artie's guyin chicken and reports. as you remember the u.n. investigation into the use of chemical weapons near aleppo never materialized the syrian government requested such investigation but some you want to social demanded an access into all syrian facilities which syria denied insisting on the investigation of that particular incident in a way that the u.n. investigation never happened but nonetheless the u.s. came forward and said it had evidence that the syrian government used chemical weapons but there were a lot of questions as to the sources through which they got the evidence washington brushed up all reports that rebels could have been behind the attack the syrian

government wanted the incident clarified and requested russian experts to look into what happened in khan sol near aleppo which they did and based on that analysis russia says there is every reason to believe that it was the armed opposition fighters who used chemical weapons in khan take a listen to the results of the analysis clearly indicate that the ordinance used in kind of a cell was not invested in manufactured and was filled with sudden the sudden technical specifications proved that it was not invested in manufactured either the project island world is not a standard one for chemical use therefore there is evidence you seem to believe that it was the opposition fighters who used the chemical weapons so. russia has just submitted this analysis of on site samples russia's you an envoy also underscored that unlike other reports provided to the secretary general russia samples were taken at the project impact point by russian experts in person he said

they were not handed over to russia through third parties which was apparently the case with the u.s. military the samples were analyzed that an internationally recognized and certified russian laborde three russia also says it has information that so-called bashir all not so brigade affiliated with the free syrian army began the production of bashir unguided projectiles in two thousand and thirteen and they were used in the more in the march attack in light of this russia calls for the un to look into this and for the international community to consider all evidence at hand when asked about the evidence that russia submitted to the un president obama's press secretary yet again brushed off the report saying we seriously doubt anybody bought the syrian government could use chemical weapons in syria the fact of the matter is that the u.s. has already decided to arm the syrian rebels under the pretext that the syrian government has used chemical weapons although the evidence that the us suppose we has was not very finite by the u.n. so you have a huge gap of trust with the u.s. on the one hand insisting that the syrian government has used chemical weapons and

russia on the other hand saying that you have to look at all evidence before you take such a dramatic action is flooding the region with more weapons that was artie's guy and you can reporting. well by now just about every american knows that the government has the ability to collect data on your phone conversations we know that the government has collected metal data on millions of phones and we know this was all the rawest by a secret court and has been going on for years but have you ever wondered how exactly all of this happens exactly how the government goes about physically tapping your phones or your internet well get ready for a trip in the wires the political commentator sam sachs takes us there. and it's not something that you just it's just something i just i don't think try it it's a series tell us the late senator ted stevens from alaska and his the mortal description of what the internet really is despite sounding bizarre and spawning

several viral parodies. senator stevens description of what exactly the internet is so wasn't really that far off at all. the internet is really a series of tubes or at least cables hundreds of them that stretch for over five hundred thousand miles underwater connecting all the major condensate to the web and to each other so this is what the internet physically looks like so how does the n.s.a. go about physically tapping into it rewind back to two thousand and one wall street journal reports in early one nine hundred eighty nine the agency assembled a team of researchers in a small warren of labs had its headquarters in fort meade maryland their mission according to one former n.s.a. researcher who worked on it was to find a way to get inside fiber optic cables and secretly siphon off the data moving through them this included a fleet of specially equipped submarines deployed to dive to the sea floor and cut

into the fiber optic cables. the wall street journal lads in an interview air force lieutenant general michael hayden the n.s.a. director laughed when asked whether the n.s.a. had tapped undersea cables i'm not going to sit here and dissuade you from your views he said but he suggested that access isn't the problem rather he said the sheer volume and variety of today's communications means there's simply too much out there and it's too hard to understand again that was twelve years ago then the a.p. reports after nine eleven president george w. bush secretly authorized the n.s.a. to plug into the fiber optic cables that enter and leave the united states knowing it would give the government unprecedented warrantless access to americans private conversations not only bad but also access to much of the world's conversations since huge swaths of global internet traffic pass through cables coming in and out of the united states in two thousand and six and eight hundred eighty whistleblower

exposes the existence of n.s.a. monitoring hardware installed at a key internet hub right here in san francisco but then the n.s.a. ran into a problem more and more of these under seas internet cables in hubs were being owned and managed not by u.s. companies but by foreign companies and so as the washington post reported this weekend the u.s. government made agreements with these foreign companies to ensure that when u.s. government agencies seek access to the massive amounts of data flowing through their networks the companies have systems in place to provide it securely one particular agreement with an asian company called global crossing require the company to have a network operations center on u.s. soil that could be visited by government officials within thirty minutes of warning and the point was clear to keep an eye on the tubes and all the stuff coming out of the tubes the phone conversations the e-mails everything and edward snowden's leaks reveal the extent to which the n.s.a.

has done just that now the latest leak exposes have the n.s.a. tapped into brazil's. indications network to intercept in-store e-mail and phone records belonging to millions of brazilians a job that's made easier since eighty six percent of latin america's internet traffic is routed through the united states meanwhile the rest of the world in particular in the middle east and africa relies on europe to be its main hub for internet traffic eighty seven percent of all outgoing middle east internet traffic goes through europe and the n.s.a. is heavily invested in that continent as well edward snowden revealed british intelligence is ability to tap into in-store huge volumes of data drawn from fiber optic cables by may last year three hundred analysts from g.c. h.q. and two hundred fifty from the n.s.a. had been assigned to sift through the flood of data a total of eight hundred fifty thousand n.s.a. employees and u.s. private contractors with top secret clearance had access to g c h q databases the

documents reveal that by last year g.c. h.q. was handling six hundred million telephone events each day had tapped more than two hundred fiber optic cables and was able to process data from at least forty six of them at a time plus snowden's leaks obtained by darr spiegel revealed that the n.s.a. is collecting from germany up to twenty million telephone calls and ten million internet data exchanges daily and the n.s.a. is more active in germany than in any other of the u.s twenty seven member states usa is primarily interested in important internet hubs in southern and western germany frankfurt for example plays an important role in the global internet infrastructure again it's all about keeping an eye on the tubes ninety nine percent of the world's energy continental phone internet communications travel through this network but just how many tubes has the n.s.a.

tapped that's a question that's still unanswered but given what we've learned so far about the n.s.a. is obsession with data do you think they'd leave any of these tubes unchecked. in washington. well an update now to the edward snowden diplomatic standoff that has captured public attention around the world yesterday we told you that bolivia nicaragua and been a swale ahead offer of the n.s.a. secret spiller asylum in their countries and as if the story isn't confusing enough get ready to wrap your head around this today the chairman of the foreign affairs committee of russia's state duma alexei pushkov tweeted that snowden had accepted asylum in venice while a that spurred a flurry of retreats news articles and even an associated press news report to be published but most seriously the tweet was taken down and another went out saying that push call is hearing from other sources that snowden accepted asylum but not breaking the news himself the t.v.

station he says he heard it from has not published anything about that on its website meanwhile other news reports are surfacing saying that the government of venezuela confirms snowden has accepted asylum in that country but again no sources were named now that you are all caught up let's move on to the next big dilemma how is snowden going to get to whatever country he chooses asylum in if he flies the plane will most likely have to travel through american airspace or that of our allies we could see the plane diverted by a bolivian president evo morales his plane was last week now cuban president raul castro said he would allow the plane snowden is traveling on to land and refuel on the island nation but again the question of flying into american airspace comes up so it looks like this game of diplomatic competent you know isn't over yet. now beyond the edward snowden's dilemma the n.s.a. is still experiencing both domestic and international fallout from the leaks

detailing its surveillance program the electronic privacy information center epic as this better known filed an emergency petition directly to the supreme court to end this surveillance it says quote the n.s.a. is a collection of silly domestic come unifications which has been acknowledged by the president the director of national intelligence and the chair and ranking members of the senate select committee on intelligence also constitutes a legislative rule that substantively affects the public to a degree sufficient to implicate the policy interests animating notice and comment rule making under the administrative procedure act accordingly the n.s.a.'s collection of domestic communications absent the opportunity for public comment is unlawful so it's very king the law and that isn't the only lawsuit the government is has coming its way as a result of the revelations of the n.s.a. surveillance program here to tell me more about epix petition the man who submitted

it alan butler he's epix appellate advocacy council thank you so much for joining me so first of all let's talk about this emergency petition why did you decide to file it directly to the supreme court instead of going through the process of lower courts first sure will or petition is asking the supreme court to review the decision of the foreign intelligence surveillance court specifically to the decision regarding verizon telephone communications records so we are asking the supreme court to review the decision of the intelligence court because of horizon customer those records affect us in addition to millions of americans and because of the unique format of the u.s. surveillance law there's no other place we can go we have to go direct to the supreme court to challenge what we allege is unlawful surveillance and months talk about the main argument of your petition sure well our petition and again to clarify we have a mandamus petition with. as for in court and that petition alleges that under the foreign intelligence law that it is unlawful for the foreign intelligence court to

issue an order like it did to arise and that requires the disclosure of all call detail records are related to calls that the company processes and as i understand it the reason that that is important is because you have to have it in order to have one of these surveillance programs a very specific kind of argument against the person that you want to tap is that correct right to the legal standard here is relevance and what's required in the foreign intelligence law is that the records collected in this case business records are relevant to an authorized investigation and it's our contention that it says since implausible that all telephone records of a rise in customers are relevant to a particular investigation so realistically what do you think the chances of your petition being heard are well we believe that the court will take our petition seriously it is a critical issue of law that the court hasn't considered in the past and that it has the direct opportunity to consider now we're asking for extraordinary relief

and so that always comes you know with limited prospects but at the same time we believe it's a critical issue and it really is an extraordinary circumstance however at the same time given historical precedent with lawsuits of this type or petitions of this type things really haven't changed now two thousand and five new york times investigation was the thing that first brought up the warrantless wiretapping program there was a lot of lawsuits filed against individual companies as a result of this and that allowed these and they were trying to say that that was their fault that they will allow the government to to have this kind of tapping program now when that law changed in two thousand and eight congress retroactively relieved that all the companies from this type of liability of being sued do you think that something like that some type of retroactive action can play into to your petition or future lawsuits that we might see well i think our petition really gets to the heart of of what congress. changed after those revelations that you mention. the n.s.a. was during the bush administration sweeping up communications records somewhat

similar to what they're doing in the in the lawsuit and sort of the facts behind what we're challenging here and when the patriot act was passed reauthorized in two thousand and five they amended the provision the exact provision that we are dealing with here and the provision again requires that the records be relevant and we're basically making clear that the bulk collection of telephone communications records is not the same as collecting records that are relevant to a particular investigation however one other point of contention to bring up is that a lot of the reason a lot of those lawsuits back in the past failed was because they have to have this burden of proof they have to prove that yes they were specifically tapped and a lot of them can't prove that because the fact is that these programs are secret the surveillance is secret so do ad words snowden's documents or do any other documents prove specifically this this reason this burden of proof beyond reasonable doubt rights of standing has been a problem in the past this year we saw in the clapper case in the supreme court

that you know five out of the nine justices decided that those plaintiffs did not have standing in the and thus the court didn't review the legal claims but in our case we have an order from the foreign intelligence surveillance court specifically citing that verizon communications records are obtained and whereas in customer so we believe we can get over that hurdle very interesting please keep us up to date with your petition and what comes of it allan butler is that appellate advocacy counsel at epic. well it is day sixteen of the trial for private first class bradley manning and his defense team second day of arguments today lawyer david coombs question retired colonel morris davis about guantanamo bay detainee policies and information used in their detention this is important because manning leaked the assessment so five get most detainees to wiki leaks artie's was wallace at fort meade with the very latest there liz let's start with the latest now as i had mentioned retired colonel morris davis was on the stand he's a frequent r.t.

america guest why was his testimony so important today. that's right he is a frequent guest on our t.v. was also a key witness in the court martial against private first class bradley manning today colonel morris davis testifying as an expert an expert on these guantanamo bay detainee assessments of the seven hundred thousand documents that bradley manning admitted to handing over to wiki leaks are these profiles these assessments of guantanamo bay detainee is now essentially the defense compared briefs to baseball cards they contain all types of information on. everything from their names date of birth aliases they may have had biographical information organizations they may have been affiliated with all of this information on contained in these detainee assessment briefs now when manning's attorney david

coombs questioned colonel morris davis he was trying to find out if these assessment briefs were closely held u.s. secrets and how damaging they may have been to national security now colonel morris davis his response was interesting he said much of the information that was found in the detainee assessment briefs could be found on open source is people like you or me or anybody out there that really wanted to get ahold of this information they could do it on their own they could do it by doing internet searches they could do it by reading news articles by reading books that profiled these detainees you also mentioned this movie this movie called road to guantanamo and i believe we do have a clip of it if we could show it. three hundred two what would. you. say to the british troops that are none of us.

so yeah that was a clip of that documentary that was a clip of that documentary road to guantanamo should mention that it's considered part drama part documentary either way colonel davis said that some of the information he found in these briefs could be found in that very movie why is this is significant because he is saying you know what if we could find this information out there on public sources on movies like the one that you the one the one that you just saw a clip of that maybe these briefs didn't contain these held information this closely held information that the prosecution is alleging very interesting thank you for keeping us updated on the very latest from fort meade r.t. correspondent. well it's been two years one month and one week since president obama

announced to the world that a special team of navy seals had conducted an operation that killed the leader of al qaeda osama bin ladin but a new report coming out this week shows that the goal could have been achieved years earlier if it weren't for mistakes on both the u.s. and pakistan's part something that the report called collective incompetence and negligence are to correspondent erin aid reports. i. believe. we've all seen zero dark thirty and while it was an entertaining flick we must remember it was fiction not facts those were actors radio some of the lawn and compound not real navy seals the guns and helicopters were props and the script was written by screenwriters in hollywood not by journalists and while the u.s. government might have done a very good p.r. job at tricking you into thinking you know everything about the rating capture of

osama bin laden the reality is you don't what you know is hollywood's fictional account and that is probably all you're ever going to know this is because of tactics used by the cia to transfer the military files about the raid thus ensuring the likelihood of them never ever seen the light of day now yesterday we learned via the associated press that the nation's top special operations commander william a grad an order of military files on the raid to be purged from all defense department computers by removing them from the defense department and sending them over to the cia they can be more easily shielded from ever having to be made public now mcgrath and order since the only copies of the military's records about the seals bin ladin mission to the cia that's because the raid was actually run by the covert agency and legally the cia has special authority to prevent the release of operational files the defense department can also prevent the release of its own military files that can be contested in court and a judge can then compel the pentagon to turn over non-sensitive portions of records

that isn't true for the cia now the truly troubling thing about all this is that by secretly moving the records it allows the pentagon to tell the media that it just can't find the documents inside the defense department and will make ravin allegedly said it was done to protect the names of personnel involved in the raid this covert play could represent a new strategy for the u.s. government when it comes to shielding sensitive activities from the public now this clandestine move was described only briefly and a report by the pentagon's and. director general and set off no alarms within the obama administration ministration this despite having to sidestep federal rules and perhaps even the freedom of information act now president obama has pledged to make his administration the most transparent in u.s. history just barely that doesn't apply to things like osama bin laden and the navy seals furthermore moving data from the defense department to the cia and then deleting it is an example of the government's attempt to hide information from its own people and i don't mean the general public i literally mean the people it

employs and potential whistleblowers alike in washington i marinate r.t. let's turn now to egypt where the military led interim government has laid out a six month plan to restore order to the country they also chose has an elbow. a prominent economic consultant as the country's new prime minister but both of those decisions were denounced by the muslim brotherhood and the protests continue. as of right now we have not heard of any clashes or deaths that have occurred today as the result of these protests however it should be noted that the military is limiting how many are allowed in to enter into square and the other clauses around the country where the people are protesting for larry very latest i was joined earlier by our team middle east bureau chief paula slayer and cairo and i first asked about the military plan that has been laid out to restore order in egypt.

well yes what we did here is a five month roadmap plan that's been put forward by the interim president adly mansour and in the splendid what it calls for is a review in an amendment of the current draft constitution it then says if it will be a referendum to ratify the constitution following this come december they will be parliamentary elections and then in february next year there will be a place attentional poll the muslim brotherhood has rejected this outright it says that the whole process is illegal and in fact i spent the better part of today talking to muslim brotherhood supporters and they were insistent that they are not going off the street and to morsi as we had stated and we're talking here of hundreds of thousands of people there was a call on cheese day for nationwide protests for an uprising to deal with this illegal action to quote the muslim brotherhood leadership and also to address their calls for some kind of revenge some kind of action to be taken in light of the

fifty one per morsy supporters that were killed on monday morning and as i understand it paula the liberal economist has them. has been a newly elected as the new prime minister how are people responding to that i know the al nor salafi as party has backed him. yes i mean you he is certainly a more popular figure then you had for mohamed el baradei which was the previous candidate that was put forward for that position but let me underscore again that you have groups like the muslim brotherhood who refused to come to the party for them it really doesn't matter whether you have a finance minister coming from the scoop all from that group or a prime minister coming from here so you do have a very very divided society where a huge chunk of people obviously seem to come forward but it is significant that he has more support than our baradei out there it is very much seen as a puppet of the waste there it created for the divisions in in fact. this country

once his appointment was announced the. interim president is at pains to try and name some kind of interim government as quickly as possible it doesn't really matter to some extent he names because you've got six years you're not going to recognize this that this interim government but he is under pressure to try and get something established politically as quickly as possible and certainly this is a step in the right direction in the sense that you do have this former finance minister who's now being named as the new prime minister and he is receiving support from some sectors of the community so in that respect perhaps it's the base case in a situation like you have now in egypt where the street is so divided that was our two middle east bureau chief paula slayer and that's going to do it for now for more on the story as we cover to go to youtube dot com slash r.t. america and check out our web site r.t. dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez i'm always curious to see what you have to say about the stories that we

cover today and stay tune prime interest is next. the old. science technology innovation called the list of melons from around russia. the huge earth covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok. i'm charging welcome to the big picture. odds what defines a country's success the a faceless figures of economic growth. for

a factual standard of living legend. is . it possible to navigate the economy with all the details of his diction information and media hype we'll keep you up to date by decoding the mainstream status if in your mind.

good afternoon and welcome to prime interest i bob english here in washington d.c. here are the stories we are telling today there's a sea change in the markets that is putting the squeeze on china and other emerging markets not necessarily intentionally that's because when ben finally pulls the plug as he's been signaling those markets get hit hardest we'll be talking about the road in irish banks with reggie middleton a boom bust blog dot com in just a bit. to also check out his new google glasses which you said could be bigger than the i phone oh tim cook and speaking of sea change is libraries crossing the pond from the city of london to wall street so nicely your next will cite one of the world's most important interest rates lie board to which trillions of derivatives are tied so without further ado let's get to what's in.