coming up on r t the us has been pressuring foreign governments to not help n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden but how did the u.s. react to extradition requests from other countries will tell you the answer to that coming up. years after the end of the iraq war the nation still carries scars from that time one of those wounds is the increase in iraq even birth defects and cancer cases a report on the toxic legacy left behind and thanks to goldman sachs the cost of aluminum is going off the investment group is hoarding piles of the commodity we'll tell you how that works later on today show. it's monday july twenty second find the on the washington d.c.

i'm not going lopez and you are watching r t well in the weeks since the world has learned about the precedents its scale of surveillance programs that the national security agency has engaged in over the years we've heard the public outcry and we have seen n.s.a. officials scramble to justify or to clarify these programs national security they cried an absolute must to prevent future nine eleventh's they said and lawmakers for the most part have sat on the sidelines and agree to all of these claims with a few notable exceptions like congressman jim just an amish of michigan and rush holt of new jersey were guard lists none of the criticism has seemed to slow the gathering of this surveillance if anything it is growing the obama administration just quietly renewed the feis amendment that allows government agencies to collect phone records of millions of americans evidence of this collection was the very first disclosure released by the guardian. thanks to edward snowden the foreign

intelligence surveillance act must be renewed by the feis a court every ninety days it compels the nation's communication providers to hand over of the telephone metadata pertaining to millions of u.s. citizens deputy attorney general james cole says that spotting terrorism is like pulling a needle out of a haystack he insists that these programs create the haystack for the agencies to sort through but at the end of the day it's nearly impossible to speculate about how successful this program really is meanwhile the u.s. continues to try to block travel plans of the man who leaked that information about the n.s.a. surveillance tactics edward snowden american officials have demanded for his extradition certainly any country that offers the former government contractor asylum but the u.s. has a very long history of refusing to extradite people to other countries so is this a case of say do as i say and not as i do political commentator sound sax shows us some examples currently pending before the united states senate is

a bipartisan resolution calling on the russian government to hand edward snowden over to u.s. authorities the resolution says that russia's willingness to provide shelter to edward snowden is quote negatively impacting the u.s. russia relationship they were committed to taking actions including recommending a different location for the september twenty third team g twenty summit in st petersburg russia if edward snowden is handed over in a statement one of the co-sponsors of the resolution senator lindsey graham says on multiple fronts russia is becoming one of the bad actors in the world and then hear one senator john mccain talking recently about russian president putin. he is a person who feels so involved in these days that he doesn't mind sticking you some right in our i which is what he's doing in this noble case you see lawmakers in washington just can't understand what the heck is going on here they're absolutely enraged by the back to russia. now why is it doing them

a favor in handing over snowden a man who some in congress believe is some sort of terrorist traitor or something i mean to senators like john mccain and lindsey graham it would sort of be like if the united states was harboring a man who russia calls a terrorist ignoring calls for his extradition and ultimately granting him political asylum and the united states would do that right right. there why into two thousand and four read the headline u.s. asylum for chechen draws protest from russia quote the russian government will protest the u.s. decision to grant asylum to an exiled chechen leader considered a terrorist by the russian government. yep this is sakamoto a man who russia alleges was involved in chechen terrorism he took refuge and applied for asylum in the united states in two thousand and two russia demanded he be turned over but a slew of top american government officials and members of congress ran to his defense including one man in particular senator john mccain in

a two thousand and three letter to then homeland security secretary tom ridge mccain wrote i have met with mr alcott of three occasions i found him to be a proponent of peace and human rights in chechnya akhmad of was given asylum he was put up in an apartment here in downtown washington d.c. next to the national zoo today nine years later as the snowden saga unfolds a spokesperson for the russian interior ministry reminded the united states of the case of sakata same quote law agencies asked the u.s. on many occasions to extradite wanted criminals through interpol channels but those requests were neither met nor even responded to the nation of ecuador can say the same thing they've been trying to get to banker brothers extradited back after being convicted of investment but the u.s. hasn't complied and the two brothers are living a cushy life in south florida and it remains to be seen whether or not the u.s. will hand over recently or. did former cia agent robert seldon where you shoot over

to italy where he is wanted to serve prison time on kidnapping conviction. now whether the united states should or shouldn't have ignored extradition requests or granted asylum isn't the issue the issue is they did does recognizing the extradition request go beyond the confines of cultural relativism to the united states pressures china russia ecuador venezuela and other nations on snowden it should be remembered that a precedent has already been set on this issue of extradition it is the united states that's sort of. in washington sort of socks are two we're just learning this week about an internal pakistani government assessment that raises serious questions about u.s. drone strikes in the country a secret document obtained by the bureau of investigative journalism shows that hundreds of pakistani civilians died in these drone strikes between two thousand and six and two thousand and nine the confidential twelve page summary paper was

prepared by government officials in pakistan's federally administered tribal areas and here's what it discovered the cia conducted seventy five separate strikes between those three years killing seven hundred and forty six people in the process one hundred forty seven of them were confirmed civilian casualties and of those civilians ninety four or children this document clearly all goes against the obama administration narrative that only fifty to sixty civilians have died over the years and this document is as damning to pakistan as it is to the u.s. that's because the country's government and its military have both privately supported these strikes and they knew about the high number of civilian casualties over the years now it isn't worth bringing up again that anyone who is military aged and is a male is considered to be an anime combatant whether or not they actually are one arguably the civilian casualty rate could. could be much higher than this report

indicates as a result of that now despite all of this the majority of the american public still supports the use of drone strikes fifty six percent approve and only twenty six percent disapprove. but let's head over to iraq now a country that is still dealing with the aftermath of a decade long war the violence and bombings are still a daily occurrence in the country a suicide bomber killed at least twenty five people just today when attacked in a rocky army convoy in the northern city of most soul and beyond the bloodshed a new generation of children is being born with major birth defects the families say that is it is the result of the toxic chemicals used during operation iraqi freedom are to correspondent lucic half an office in iraq and she brings us the story of one of those families. hundred sixty kilometers south of baghdad the secret shiite city is known for its holy shrines and is surrounded by one of the largest cemeteries in the world some of the heaviest fighting of the

iraq war took place and these graves its legacy still haunts the residents it was born with severe birth defects he's only eight months old but the doctors don't expect him to live pounce just first birthday. and throw the noose around out the terms of the taxi. but for his mother there's no escaping the reality. her son has a nervous system disorder and his muscles are slowly wasting away. it's a recurring nightmare for you and her husband three of their children were also born with congenital deformity is none of them survived and while they don't have proof they believe the radioactive ammunition used by american forces during the war is to blame the rule isn't over just. on.

suffering from the consequences of spiraling numbers of birth defects and high miscarriage rates have also been reported in fallujah and more american and british forces used heavy munitions at the start of the war but our visit to knowledge of revealed that the phenomenon may be far more widespread in iraq than previously known dr sundin's and as one of the few scientists who's been documenting cancer and birth defects here and she says as in the midst of a growing health catastrophe. after the iraq war rates of cancer leukemia and birth defects rose dramatically the areas affected by fighting so the biggest increases we believe it's because of weapons fled depleted uranium and hospitals here cancer is more common than the. depleted uranium or do you cut through armor like a hot knife through butter more than four hundred tons of it is estimated to have been used in the two iraq wars the vast majority by u.s. forces the pentagon did not respond to our request for comment but the military

generally denies any link between exposure and cancer or birth defects it also says do you weapons are only used to penetrate enemy tanks but a new report funded by the norwegian government found that was used against civilian targets in populated areas including not jobs in two thousand and three it notes a lack of transparency by coalition forces over the use of depleted uranium but describes one incident in najaf where a bradley armored fighting vehicle fired three hundred five rounds in a single engagement. the heavy fighting may be over but in nearly every street we visited in this neighborhood multiple cases of cancer and children with deformities no one knows what's making people here sick the families want answers and they want help. is old enough for school but have to be cared for as if he's a toddler he can't walk he can't speak he can't even go to the bathroom on his own use of so. brother is healthy but the family has two children one severely deformed

the other with a hole in her spine like many of the couples in this city are simply too afraid to have another baby and they're left feeling totally abandoned no one cares about what's happening to us or the other families from the syrian government doesn't do anything to help what can we do this is our feet it's a fate that many and not just suffer in silence. count was iraq is lost their lives in the decades since the u.s. led invasion all across the country their memories are honored in cemeteries like this one the dead may be the most visible reminder of the human cost of the war but if the living victims of that war's toxic like to see who are still paying the price. of our team iraq while summer is in full swing with states across the country crushing heat records on a near daily basis perhaps nothing is more welcome to someone caught in one hundred degree temperature and the cool can of pop well while you slip down that one dollar

soda big banks are profiting in a major way and get ready for this number trying not to spit out the contents of that can anywhere goldman sachs has collected five billion dollars over the past three years for simply storing the aluminum cans the aluminum used to make cans and other products why is this such a big deal while a new york times investigation has discovered that goldman sachs is creating an artificial shortage of aluminum by buying warehouses that store the commodity and then delaying the shipping process by up to sixteen months i was joined just a short time ago by prime interest host bob english to discuss the story and i asked him how goldman sachs has been able to manipulate that a new aluminum price. here's how it basically works we have futures markets and some of those are based in london some of those are based in chicago where you can bet on the price the future price of a commodity in the case of aluminum the biggest market is in london so that's why

we're talking about the london metal exchange here goldman sachs has to decided to be become a big player and they actually take physical delivery and supply of this aluminum so they've created twenty seven warehouses in detroit whereby they can just shuffle those aluminum around here is where it gets really shifty is that by these exchange laws so london metal metal association they have to ship a certain amount out every day three thousand tons ok instead of doing that because there isn't the demand for that they just move it around their warehouse literally on forklifts and then they charge a storage fee on top of that so that's how they're making their five billion dollars and says it's not it's only a tenth of a cent penny on every call can but you know there's nothing like that i can but it's almost like high frequency trading and i hope i don't get to a board here but in stocks trading you know you have computers that are just shaving off one tenth of a penny at a time from stock prices that you were you know in our four one k.'s my take and it

adds up of over time it's like superman to that money laundering scheme the head so how is this thing going on for and is that really that unique to aluminum or even to goldman sachs you know goldman sachs was an early player in the commodity field and this happened through a company they acquired called aaron and they got special exemptions from the government from the futures regulators in the u.s. to avoid speculation laws in other words they were not bonafide hedgers they were speculators and they got exemptions that said they could just control as much as they wanted and goldman was an early player they didn't actually become a bank until we had the financial panic of two thousand and eight so magically overnight they're a bank now and they have access to all this free federal reserve money and they become an even bigger player and that's when j.p. morgan really started getting big into the commodities market too and they they get . did in crude at one point during the financial panic crude have gone from one hundred forty five dollars per barrel all the way down to thirty barrels thirty dollars per barrel so j.p. morgan bought up a bunch of ships dumped all this crude oil they just said it in the ocean and

waited for the price to rise very interesting so it's obviously not unique to alone or to goldman sachs but another player that is involved in this is the london metal exchange we talked about and it's so interesting because they are regulating the detroit industry where this is happening and as i understand it they also have they get part of the pie when it comes to the money can you explain this a little more detail and why they are the ones regulating it well first there is a distinction be to be made between london and the city of london the city of london is a square mile blog where all of the big financial deals are done in london and that's where the l m a resides and it's actually not even known didn't let the in the city of london anymore it was sold off to a group in hong kong so we have the usual players on the board of directors from j.p. morgan goldman sachs but to answer your question the london metal exchange gets about one percent of these storage costs and that's how they're profiting in this goldman sachs game so if goldman sachs is making money london metal exchange's making money

and so on and technically none of this is a legal right even if it is considered stacking the cards in your favor or some would call it overreaching no it's technically legal but it gets down to a concept called regulatory arbitrage we have rules and regulations in the us and a lot of those rules and regulations do not exist in london or the city of london or even hong kong so there is an arbitrage game to be played and definitely goldman sachs is playing that out right no so it is a conflict of interest is what you are arguing i think it's a conflict of interest because we're i have no problem with speculators per se it's when these speculators are financed by the federal reserve they're given free money to play with basically i mean we had a near a zero interest rate policy by brant ben bernanke you for five years so the. all this money to play with and then they go to the federal reserve and they demand exemptions to play with this money in the commodities markets it's a recipe for disaster that was prime interest host bob english. over the weekend

civil rights leaders rallied alongside demonstrators in more than one hundred cities across the u.s. demanding for justice for the family of trayvon martin from new york to los angeles the chance no justice no peace filled the summer air many are demanding for a civil lawsuit as well as the end to the so-called stand your ground laws and similar legislations that are practiced in twenty two states even president obama has jumped into the debate saying that trayvon martin could have been him thirty five years ago artie's can attend at the rally in d.c. and she brings us more. for people who took to the streets all across america and here in d.c. it's a black and white and they think had trayvon martin being white he would have been a white even president obama thinks of the civil rights activists here it's obvious that george zimmerman followed trayvon martin because he would block the president america's first black president spoke from the heart on friday when he recalled

some of the instances when he had been looked upon with suspicion for no apparent reason just because the law too many many americans were following the zimmerman trial it's obvious that racial disparities in the application of criminal laws in america remain under stand your ground laws the defense doesn't even have to prove that their client is an angel it's enough to prove reasonable doubt that the defendant acted in self-defense and they are free to go so in this case in the case of george zimmerman you have a clash of different issues great civil rights vigilantism collins's self-defense laws these people see a clash between the law and justice a very recent example also in the state of florida black woman a mother of three was sentenced to twenty years in jail because she fired a bullet at a wall to scare off or abusive husband nobody was injured and the woman is in jail for twenty years while george zimmerman walks free so you see the basis of these people outraged we've seen protests in dozens of cities in the good wife throughout

the week following the verdict in the george zimmerman case people took to the streets demonstrating at courthouses and police stations throughout the country demanding justice for trayvon martin dozens of people were arrested most of the arrests were made on charges of a lawful assembly in some places like in san bernardino protests turned violent on friday the president tried to put out the fire of protest by basically saying as much as you don't like the verdict don't blame the judge and jury blame the existing law although president obama called for the nation not to politicize the ship but he's opponents as well as his support. i have done exactly that and from just the black and white issue it is now a left and right issue democrats versus republicans and it is once again divided and. that was our teams going to can reporting so i have here on r t there's a new lawsuit in utah that challenges the state's ag gag law well look at the lawsuit and find out what it means for activists and journalists trying to document

these animal abuses back in a moment. they would grab as questions to people in positions of power instead of speak on their

behalf and that's why you can find like you know larry king now right here on our key question more. well not too long ago we told you about a woman named amy mayer who became the first person in the state of utah trying. to get the state of utah actually tried to prosecute under its new agag law she was being pursued for filming a slaughterhouse from a public street her case garnered so much attention however that it was dismissed. but the ag gag law is still on the books a new lawsuit looks to change that the animal legal defense fund peta professor james that mick williams daniel hoff and counterpunch as well as journalist will potter who has been on the show have come together to bring a constitutional challenge to that law they argue that it pits journalists and whistleblowers against the state and that it encroaches on the public's right to

know and that it hinders independent regulation of these industries jeff her is a general counsel at peta and he's here to tell us a little bit more about this so let's start off with talking a little bit more in-depth about this lawsuit and this major collaboration of groups that have come together to get it together for you gave a great summary of the lawsuit in fact maybe we could offer you a job as a lawyer but the law is clearly overbroad it violates the first amendment by discriminating against the content and viewpoint of speech and it violates the equal protection clause of the fourteenth amendment because it's clearly designed to attack and silence animal welfare advocates consumer advocates people who seek to expose and animal abuse that happens behind closed doors on factory farms at the same time however we're not seeing these ag gag laws reduced or dwindling anyway if anything they're growing right so what chance is your lawsuit really have to gain

steam and how has it been supported or not supported well we've actually gained great traction in many legislatures around the country and having these good gig bills defeated in many legislatures and so we're hopeful that will continue but utah is one of the worst it is it effectively makes illegal undercover investigations which are critical to exposing these abuses it's critical for consumers to know what happens to pigs chickens and cows behind the scenes before those animals end up on their plate and so we think the lawsuit has a very strong chance we believe it's clearly against the constitution and as you. and out of the opening amy meyer who is one of our co plaintiffs has been charged under this law that was the first time anybody's been charged in-ring egg which shows the seriousness of these kinds of actions she simply filmed a downed cow from a public roadway and for her troubles were charged with a crime that's how serious and how un-american these statutes are and i'll talk

a lot get back to your lawsuit in just a second but let's focus on amy mer for just a second as you had mentioned she just filmed on the streets but really it could be used in so many other instances i mean to play devil's advocate could this could these people that go away and that sneak in and grab these footage expose interstate secrets or anything like that that could that could arguably hurt the end of story now this has nothing to do with this and it was clear during the legislative session that the sponsors of the bill some of whom are in the factory farming industry themselves and who are clearly doing the bidding of industry front groups who are the ones who have drafted these bills are all about silencing peta and other animal protection advocates in fact peter was specifically targeted on the floor of the utah legislature for this this has nothing to do with trade secrets there's no trade secret in stopping a chicken like a football which we found in our investigations there's no trade secret to sexually

abusing pigs with hurting mccain's there's no trade secret to smashing piglets heads on a concrete floor which are other investigations have shown what the investigations are about is exposing illegal conduct and taking it to law enforcement and regulatory authorities who have the job of enforcing these laws pure and simple so we have any merit case that was eventually dismissed again because the popularity of that case kind of garnered do you think that that will in the future be the exception to this rule or do you think that we'll see other kind of people threatened possibly to kind of scare and then. eventually dismissed the case well clearly the intent behind these laws is to scare people into inaction to scare them from speaking up and we're saying once and for all we're not going to have any part of that this is the united states of america still and these kinds of undercover investigations have been a critical part of journalism and advancing our society and sinclair in the jungle

and his undercover investigation of slaughterhouses was a seminal moment in this nation's history and the egg the egg was and cruelty to animals behind the doors of factory farms is a stain on this country and the only way it's going to be removed is through the disinfecting bright light of undercover investigations now the animal the legal defense fund says that it is has uncovered a numerous things as a result of the undercover investigations that you are talking about and that those things have led to food safety laws like the federal meat inspection act and the pure food and drugs act and it's actually helped prevent things like mad cow and equalized salmonella my question to you is what rights to life and to death at this point do animals have if anything well this issue we certainly stand foremost for animal rights and we believe animals deserve even greater legal protections and they have currently what these laws are about is hiding is closing the door

shutting the windows and pulling the blinds on animal abuse on in these facilities the and these laws show the dishonesty of the industry they claim to care about animals and they claim to care about consumers and yet these laws show they do neither they try to hide the animal abuse with these laws and prevent consumers from knowing what goes on so in your opinion it affects them more than activists it also and more than the animals themselves it can also affect the health of the people that are actually eating these animals jeff current general council of peta thank you so much for joining us my pleasure. and now to cars where it seems that the he said she said typical argument during fender benders can now be replaced by something else it's recorded that's right the same kinds of black boxes an airplane cockpits are now recording all of the data regarding our cars and movement from location to speed to whether or not the people are wearing seat belts and a report from the boston globe shows that a staggering ninety six percent of new cars sold in the united states how the black

box inside of them already and many drivers simply don't know about it the national highway traffic safety administration wants that number to be increased to one hundred percent data from the cars are being used more and more to discover the truth in accidents and also in criminal cases but it's leaving some privacy advocates asking who owns this data and can we really rely on it it's just another reminder to make sure that you read the manual before you get behind the wheel you never know what kinds of recording devices are stored within 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 check out our web site r c dot com slash usa for the latest and greatest information on all the stories that we cover today and a few that we just didn't have time to get to and don't forget to follow me on twitter at underscore lopez i'm always interested to hear what you have to say about the stories that we covered today and also what you want us to cover so let

me know don't forget to tune in breaking the set with host abby martin is coming up at the top of the hour. many americans still have the almost cult like believe that america is the greatest nation on earth for the past thirty years the us has been in decline relative to other countries yet during this time washington continues to fight wars abroad and injured as a nation building is america becoming a third world country. i would rather i asked questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here.