anyway. coming up on r t a judge makes a major ruling in the bradley manning trial will the wiki leak or face the aiding the enemy charge we'll have a report from for me just ahead and a lawsuit against a key provision in the india a has been thrown out there are fears that the provision allows that attainment of anyone anywhere suspected of helping terrorist organizations more on this court decision coming up. on the first week of ramadan in iraq has been deadly insurgency and sectarian violence have created a sky rocketing death toll more on the chaos engulfing the country later in today's show.

it's thursday july eighteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. while the last line of defense for wiki leaks or bradley manning's legal team failed in court today military judge denise lynn dismissed the team's request to drop the most serious charge facing the army private first class that is the charge of aiding the enemy here's why she turned it down judge lynn says that manning's training that made him aware of the fact that terrorist organizations use the internet therefore he should have known that the seven hundred thousand military and diplomatic cables that he leads could end up in the hands of america's enemies so is this a preload to the ruling and what type of an example does it set for future trials against whistleblowers artie's those walls at for meat and she joins me now with the latest hi there live is how about this is this a very big blow to the defense's case at this point. well it certainly is a big disappointment to the defense's case magen as you said the judge today did

not dismiss that charge that charge of aiding in the enemy that is the most serious charge that bradley manning faces so as of now the possibility of life without parole is a very real possibility for bradley manning the court examined all the evidence and all the testimony that we've heard so far in this trial and what the judge found at least right now is that there is enough evidence to move forward with that charge and i understand that coombs a defense lawyer david coombs stated that at best prosecutors might have shown that manning was negligent or that he should have known that al qaeda could access wiki leaks and has done so in the past but that he might not have had actual knowledge but other than aiding the enemy charges was what other charges did the judge actually dismissed. ok i just want to make it clear clear that coombe said that manning shouldn't he never said that manning

should have known that is the prosecution's theory that manning should have known and that that's kind of the definition of actual knowledge that he should have known with evil intent that osama bin laden or al qaeda would have seen that like you said it's it's the defense's theory that possibly he was negligent but you got to make that distinction there and other other charges today that the judge didn't. the other charges today that the judge did not dismiss is the computer fraud charge the judge despite the defense has been insisting that manning did not hack into any database did not hack into any computers the theory is that manning all the information that he leaked that he had access with the security clearance i had at the time that he had access to this information the prosecution however is saying that no matter how you cut it this is an unauthorized use so as of today these charges are standing now in order to convict manning as

you said of aiding the enemy the government must prove that he gave wiki leaks intention intelligence with quote evil intent and actual knowledge now obviously that charge wasn't dismissed and it could result in him getting one hundred fifty four years to life liz but from what you are your stamp or your standpoint sitting in court there have you heard of any evidence proving that he had actual knowledge of that. well that meghan is the big question that's a big question and as you said earlier it's what the prosecution is saying is that manning's job as an intelligence analyst meant that he should have known he should have known what he was doing he should have known what the consequences were that that was his job he was computer to work on computers that his training would have informed him that this is how al-qaeda this is how the enemy obtains information that this is one method that they use to obtain intelligence they're saying that

this this this is one way that he should have known the prosecution excuse me the defense however is saying that there was no intent there there was no evil intent there they are saying that manning is a whistleblower that he leaked this information in an effort to expose wrongdoing and to spark a national debate no i understand was that the prosecution began its rebuttal this afternoon what are we hearing from them. well right now we are hearing a rebuttal to the way that the case has played out as we know the defense rested its case the prosecution rested its case so right now we are hearing just rebuttal testimony to what we've heard so far today a lot of it was kind of very monotonous testimony computer forensic analysis we know that the prosecution is going to try to kind of rebuttal the way that the defense has basically questioned the motives that offense of course has has as many

as a whistleblower that the reason he did all this was for a noble cause is the prosecution however is going to try to prove otherwise that he's for some reason leaked this information to gain notoriety and by doing so he put lives in danger and that that was his intent and that is that at least is what the prosecution is going to try to prove it during this phase liz any idea of when we could see this case being wrapped up here. while the case is definitely winding down we are in the rebuttal phase right now unclear when we will hear closing statements could be as soon as tomorrow could be next could be early next week those are some of the dates that are floating around so we're going to hear closing statements and then of course it's up to the judge judge colonel linden eastland to deliver this verdict in this case meghan and manning chose to be trying to buy a military judge instead of my a military jury could this decision given the fact

that the judge would now dismiss the charges of him or refused to dismiss the charges of him aiding the enemy actually be backfiring on him. well that i think at this point that speculation we don't we don't know right now the judge. refused to dismiss these charges it is important to note that at this phase of the trial there is not as much of a burden of proof right now the judge is saying based on the evidence she has heard so far there is enough evidence to move forward with the trial to let these charges stand important to note that when it comes to the verdict that the judge has a higher burden of proof when it comes to that phase of the trial she is going to have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that manning when he leaked hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the empty secrecy website wiki leaks that he did so with actual knowledge that the enemy was going to get their their hands on this information mag

and so we're here at the final final end of the trial here so we will be keeping a close eye on it our to correspondent liz wahl in fort meade maryland thank you for the update. and this is not a good day for civil liberties advocates either a federal appeals court threw out a lawsuit that would have prevented the u.s. from indefinitely detaining people under the national defense authorization act the second circuit court of appeals found that the group of lawyers journalists and activists who brought a lawsuit against the obama administration cannot mount a case saying they quote lacks standing because section ten twenty one says nothing at all about the president's authority to detain american citizens the non-citizen plaintiffs also have failed to establish standing because they have not shown a sufficient threat that the government will detain them under section ten twenty one now the group maintains that the n.d.a. which by the way i should mention was really up in two thousand and twelve is unconstitutional and it could potentially lead to the arrest of innocent americans

that's what they allege they are now looking at the supreme court for a final verdict when i was joined just a short time ago by tangerine bowl and she is the founder and director of revolution truth and she's also a plaintiff on this india a case and she told us in on the very latest. well that's nice not over and we have plenty of them to try with but you know it's just i think it's frustrating at that exhausting. just waiting for our team standpoint it's unfortunate. for now journalist chris hedges was particularly disappointed in this ruling in a statement that he released through truthdig he said quote it means there is no recourse now either in within the executive legislative or judicial branches of the government to hold a steady assault on our civil liberties and most of basic constitutional rights and means that the state can use a military overturning over two centuries of domestic law to use troops on the

streets to seize u.s. citizens strip them of due process and hold them indefinitely in military detention centers now your group argues that the indefinite detention clause has a unique effect on journalists can you explain that a little bit in more detail. i can say we started as you know over two things the first amendment and i'm in the first amendment and our first amendment it has had a chilling effect on speech on my speech my plane said. another journalist that we know are not part of this case combined not with the revelations about the n.s.a. surveillance dragnet surveillance and the unfortunate clapper case throwing a case like i said is also part of and we know that the government has absolute right to target any one of us it's not that difficult for them to do so by not as well with. whistleblowers and it's definitely chilling our speech and our freedom of association we're all worried about who we provide

a quote platform to which might be construed as substantial support or being the associated or i think i particularly worrying for people who have worked with a gun around with you know i'm a judge in this case ruled that you do not have standing to bring this case up as i mentioned earlier so that my question is who has standing if any want to bring this case up. so i want you for answers to that it's a great question the people who have got me as a people that we have no way to find they are indefinitely detained somewhere on this planet we can't reach them they have no right to access and or even family members or friends obviously on their behalf it's certainly happening people have been inducted the detainees who are in it that we thought that and we probably happening outside of guantanamo. but we were powerless and just like with proper with the plaintiffs couldn't prove that they were being targeted they were sort of the targets the softer targets are going on we can't prove that it wanted to make

a change because we have no right to know that and if you recall last summer the government attorneys actually refused to assure i think court that they had a provision had not been applied but it were going to injunction which would have a contempt of court so really if this incredible will you where we have no right no power no recourse to find out what's even going on and they were denied acting is just absurd now after the federal court of appeals the next step is the supreme court but they also have the right to not take up this case in your opinion does the highest court of the land really stand to take up this case because it is so controversial. well so there are a few other options we have before the supreme court we can pile on our position which are which would we would be asking the full twelve judge court in the second circuit to hear our case we can actually go back to judge for us and ask her to clarify a few things we and then we can get it to the supreme court you're right because you don't have to take the case we have hopes based on the supreme court's very

strong stance on first amendment issue. is that they will actually take the case certainly such a critical case that there are so many ambiguities here that the second circuit didn't result it would be very surprising because you didn't take a case it would be it would be pretty rough for me various ago you were all of us if they didn't take the case because it would be so shocking very interesting and we know that on our show yesterday we talked about congressman rush holt and he trying to repeal the patriot act and parts of the feis act as a result of the n.s.a. leaks it'll be interesting to see if one of these people actually takes up your case in the india a and indefinite detention in specific tangerine bowl and founder and director of revolution truth and a plaintiff in the n.d.a. case thank you so much for shedding some light on this. well let's head now to cuba where one tunnel bay officials are making notable progress in their attempts to end the hunger strike at the facility a military spokesman announced this week that dozens of detainees had quit their hunger strike bringing the number of men

participating in the forced starvation down to seventy five was about forty sixteen four spent also new this week u.s. district judge rosemary collier rejected the request of three detainees to block the military's practice of force feeding she said that these detainees had failed to show that the military policy is quote a reasonable now there are a few reasons attributed to why so many men are ending their strike first one tunnel they officials are in thai sing them with communal living arrangements if they choose to resume eating also it's the beginning of the. holy month of ramadan meanwhile the obama administration has appealed and won the right to search the growing of detainees each time they enter the camp after meeting with their lawyers here's the reasoning the obama administration provided for the first time to the government's knowledge a federal court has restricted a military commander from implementing routine security procedures at

a detention facility holding enemy forces notwithstanding the universally recognized need for the maintenance of discipline and order in those facilities however lawyer david remes says that it is a scare tactic meant to punish the men in this facility. or devout muslim and i think it is the. one of the worst forms of humiliation there could be and for that reason if they don't want to leave their camp because of the searches they end up not being able to meet their lawyers not being able to have telephones with their telephone calls with their lawyers not being able to have told phone calls with their families now rooms went on to say that he believes that these searches will end when the hunger strike does but given the obama administration's adamant stance on this issue that premonition is unlikely to become a reality. well back here in the u.s. the death of a chechen man who was being questioned by the f.b.i.

is becoming shrouded in even more secrecy a florida medical examiner's office said tuesday that the f.b.i. has ordered it not to release its autopsy report of twenty seven year old. todashev was a friend of the suspected boston marathon bomber tom our lawns are naive and was being interrogated in his home possibly about a triple homicide that happened back in two thousand and eleven and here is where things get weird todashev was surrounded by at least three f.b.i. agents and massachusetts state police officers being questioned for the fifth time when he was shot and killed by those agents his family released photos that they say are of his autopsy showing that he was shot six times in the torso and once in the back of the head officers inside the house at the time have also told conflicting stories about the moment that led up to that shooting one said that he had a knife blade some say that he had a metal pole or maybe a broom or even

a ceremonial sword or that he threw a chair or pushed a table at the officers today the f.b.i. and the justice department say that they are forbidden the release of the reports about the shooting because of an ongoing internal investigation they are checking for. wrongdoing within the organization but if you're waiting for a response don't get your hopes up it should be pointed out that the f.b.i. is internal shooting review process has reviewed some one hundred fifty f.b.i. shooting cases in the last twenty years and it found that its agents were culpable in not a single one of those incidents now the medical examiner's office said that it would check in with the f.b.i. every month for permission to release the autopsy report and we will be checking in with them. meanwhile violence in iraq is that behind this level in seventy years and numerous years excuse me the first week of the holy month of ramadan is traditionally marred with violence but this year is the deadliest since two thousand and seven correspondent erin eight takes

a look at the numbers and the possibility of the reasoning behind that. in iraq ramadan this year is shaping up to be one of the deadliest the country has seen in years the first ramadan falling the two thousand and three u.s. led invasion began with a blistering wave of suicide bombings at police stations and the red cross headquarters now in two thousand and seven nine hundred thirty six people were killed during ramadan including two hundred thirty six the first week according to an associated press count but this year just seven days into the islamic holy month suicide attacks car bombings and other acts of violence have killed at least one hundred sixty nine people the death toll in the first week of ramadan hasn't been this high since two thousand and seven intensifying fears that iraq is slipping back into widespread chaos and a potential civil war now no one has claimed responsibility for many of the terrorist attacks but the indiscriminate and coordinated bombings used in most of these attacks are a favorite tactic of al qaeda which hopes to fuel hatred and undermine iraq's

shiite led government al qaeda and other sunni fundamentalists consider shiites to be infidels in the groups extremist ideology acts of jihad including suicide bombings that are carried out during ramadan are seen as more blessid and at other times of year now a spokesman for iraq's interior ministry saad mani brahim said that the militants heighten spiritual enthusiasm during ramadan is partly to blame for the upswing in violence. crowds often gather at soft targets such as mosque mosques and cafes during ramadan giving attackers a chance to kill several people at once now ramadan last year also got off to a deadly start with more than one hundred forty killed during the first week most of those victims died during a single day of attacks claimed. some days so no deaths at all something that has yet to happen this time around from washington d.c. any aid. now as aaron mentioned ramadan is a holy time for the muslim faith and yet iraqis are being slaughtered by al qaeda

and its affiliates by the hundreds this is something that isn't new to the country but it is getting worse i was joined just a short time ago by michael o'brien he's the author of america's failure in iraq and he still dissin on the curtis current status in that country. you know ramadan is it's a period of time every year it goes on the cycles of the moon so it shifts by about one week every year and it's the holiest time of the year the end of ramadan there is a period called ied for about three or four days i can't remember exactly so it's the main event of ramadan which is about thirty days i believe and then eat is about three or four days afterwards but the point is is the time of the year in islam. for worship for pilgrimage. but also it's a time for the clerics specially the really hardcore extreme fundamentalists

clerics to work people up into a frenzy and. you know of course in iraq you know my daughter and and some of the others there the hard core. this is their this is their you know the happy times this is when they can really get people whipped up into a into a frenzy as i said about islam about the whole meaning of it and you know you know going after the infidels very interesting so how volatile is the situation in iraq on a map a moment could we possibly see as country slip into a civil war well we could see it slip into a civil war just about any time but if there's one time during the year that more so than probably any other it would be the it would be ramadan it's very very symbolic it's symbolic as it gets for in the muslim world and you know the fasting when i was over there. most most of you know iraq is

a is a secular country it was under saddam and it still is so many of the muslims practiced the fast they fasted religiously but many of them did not a lot of people may not know but when they say fast they really mean it you know. thing until sundown not even a cup of water nothing the entire day and it's like oh here we are in d.c. it's about feels like it's on and it's the same thing over there so i mean there's the physical aspects of it you know the the exhaustion and then at the end of the day they really go all out and eat and they drink and they make merry but also it's a time for the to really get people worked up and i understand that people in iraq right now are choosing to stay indoors because those times when they go out and they are merry are the times that a lot of these suicide bombers and car bombers choose to strike and when these people are celebrating but a lot of people's nature reaction whenever something that is violent in iraq

happens is that if it's the u.s.'s fault and just to remind people that the u.s. overthrew saddam hussein and his baath party that was supported by a shia minority at the time now are a sunni minority at the time excuse me and now we have this shia majority in power did the us and by inserting itself into the sectarian violence and turning the tables to put another party in power essentially create this kind of this kind of violence in this kind of backfire that we're saying that there's no question about it. as we know. saddam was sunni it's the minority the minority of the population of iraq iraqis sunni and shia sunni is probably maybe twenty thirty percent she is the balance there almost what it's like ireland. the they're all christian they're all christian but catholic and protestant but but iraq that's the best analogy i can think of. so when we went over there and overthrew the regime

and then all of the thing the other things that happened the disbanding of the iraqi army and the national police by paul bremer we didn't have enough invasion forces over there. you know we we created we created the civil. or that really we're up to six o seven which was when i was over there. and now we've got a shiite government the shiites want to run the show the show and the sunni sure going. well not so fast you know we were in charge all these years we like being in charge but they're outnumbered so it's it's a mix of religion and who's what religious what religious parties in power in iraq right now and it's a terrible situation but we had a very big role in creating it by totally dismantling all of the security infrastructure of the country and then essentially walk away and when saddam was in

power he kept a lid on everything it's a very serious situation that's going on right there we will be sure to keep our eyes on it that was michael o'brian he's the author of american failure in iraq well flipping through news channels each state could give viewers a skewed vision of what's really going on in the world the george zimmerman trial commanded hours of programming as has the wait for prince william and kate middleton's first child and who could really blame these news outlets in an industry that is bleeding viewership these stories that soak up the ratings and consequently the advertising dollars but is the media losing sight of what news is really about as it focuses on the business side of the industry our to correspondent margaret howell explains. stings anger people and rage by this rolling stone cover we're all on royal baby watch the birth maybe eminent of. this man's best friend this pop sticking by his owners side even in air can be done but

there is. a deadly cocktail of heroin and that's what killed actor corey latina why does it seem mainstream news does everything but cover well actual news it is about who can generate the most controversy who can sound the dumbest. loudest so dumbest yet loudest in other words you're creating a soap opera on a news program and you have villains and you have heroes you have heroines you have the knight in shining armor you might have the nasty bits you know those are the means the soap opera characters that they draw upon and just like a soap opera the news media is obsessed not with informing people but with scoring high ratings according to t.v. guide the three most watched shows of last season were crime drama football and a sick so is the news media taking its cue from here with the six year ratings low

m s n b c took a plunge devoting nonstop. coverage to the george zimmerman trial and they weren't alone fox and c.n.n. followed suit in the style of high ratings and courtroom drama rather than the real courtroom news taking place at the bradley manning trial and we know how the mainstream news media covers politics it's just like sunday night football your team versus my team and then their celebrity gossip to rip stray from your favorite entertainment shows all of this is having an effect on people's faith in news and journalism a recent pew poll shows that public opinion ranks just about a business exacts and attorneys the lowest percentage of americans since the study began that journalists contribute to the overall good of society professor chambers believes corporatization. it's to blame we saw the death of real news many years ago the die was cast with corporate consolidation in the eighty's where you had huge corporations buying up media properties this is continued and it's just

a natural do you have allusion to the death of investigative reporting and hard news reporting in the american media is the mainstream media dumbing down america if it's really all about the ratings a better question should be are we capable of decipher in real news from just a ratings grab in washington margaret howell r t well talk about sweetening the deal panamanian officials were performing a routine cargo check on a boat bound for north korea after receiving information that there might be drugs on board and when they found this buried inside a container carrying sugar bags were two hundred and forty tons of soviet era defensive weapons including two anti-aircraft missile systems nine missiles in parts and two in my g twenty one in jets that's according to cuban officials cuba says that the weapons were in route to north korea for repairs and are quote obsolete but regardless this is

a direct violation of trade treaties that since it is considered undeclared military cargo experts believe that the sugar could be cuba's payment to north korea in exchange for the weapons repairs the crew faces possible charges of illegal weapons smuggling in panama. and that's going to do it for nell for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our web site r c dot com slash usa and for the very latest and greatest to stories that are interesting to me follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez see right back here at eight pm.

you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear see some other part of it and realize that everything is ok you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture. i would rather as questions for people in positions of power instead of speak on their behalf and that's why you can find why go larry king now right here.