a group of lawmakers in the u.s. house have forced a vote to limit n.s.a. surveillance the vote comes despite a veto threat from the white house will dive into the battle over civil liberties versus national security ahead. and it's a whistleblower edward snowden remains in the moscow airport but snowden could soon be able to leave the airport and travel inside russia thanks to his asylum request an update on this case coming up and finally the senate plays host today to a hearing on closing the u.s. detention facility at guantanamo bay as the hunger strike there lingers lawmakers finally ready to do something about it and a report later in the show. it's

wednesday july twenty fourth four pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sax you're watching our team. and we begin with news out of moscow regarding the fate of edward snowden today snowden's lawyers anatoly visited his client at the airport and he's been in this transit is been in this transit home now for about a month and hit his lawyer happen to be carrying with him travel documents that could allow snowden to finally leave the airport very soon now for the latest on all this here's our tease paul scott. edward snowden remains. he remains in the transit zone and it was widely thought that today was going to be the day that he would finally be allowed to enter russia he's waiting for a piece of paper now we know that he's applied for temporary asylum in russia. are considering whether to. or not when they make that decision he will be given a piece of paper a temporary visa if you like that will help him to enter russia it was widely

expected that today was going to be the day that he was going to get his. piece of paper but basically the paperwork still hasn't been processed in the federal migration service still haven't decided whether they're going to process his application or not his legal representative. did arrive. around four o'clock this afternoon and he was carrying a. watching and waiting with anticipation expecting him to hand that piece of paper over to edward snowden which would then allow edward snowden however it transpires there were just some books by russian wolf is exactly what we were painting so edward snowden does remain in the transit. in terms of the actual process from here once he does get his hands on that piece of paper and he is allowed to enter russia . application for temporary asylum will be processed up to three months so this piece of paper will allow him into russia to move around freely if the

temporary asylum is then granted he's allowed to stay in russia twelve months for a twelve month period that will be renewed on a rolling basis if he decides to settle and all indications from his legal representative from his legal advisor is that edward snowden is keen to remain in russia if asylum application is granted and move on elsewhere as we were expecting of course to latin america so it looks as if he's keen to stay in russia for the time being for at least several more days he has to remain in the transit. and that was artie's paul scott reporting. and now on to a story that could have been ripped straight from the headlines of the onion the n.s.a. which has the power to read all of our emails is apparently unable to read its own e-mails pro publica filed a freedom of information act requests looking into the agency's p.r. efforts after a very friendly documentary about the n.s.a. aired on the national geographic channel basically pro publica was asking for

records of e-mail exchanges between the n.s.a. and the national geographic channel but the n.s.a. freedom of information act officer cindy blocker responded to the request saying quote there's no central method to search an e-mail at this time with the way our records are set up unfortunately she acknowledged it's quote a little antiquated and archaic. but the n.s.a. could have bigger problems on its hands namely what's happening in congress today as we near a key vote in the house to defund part of the n.s.a.'s surveillance programs targeting american citizens that amendment would defund the n.s.a.'s ongoing use of the patriot act section two fifteen to conduct blanket surveillance on americans now head of the vote the white house is aggressively pushing back against the amendment last night the n.s.a.'s chief keep it and it's a steep keith alexander met with members on the hill to urge a no vote and the white house released this statement saying quote we oppose the

current effort in the house to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence communities counterterrorism tools this blunt approach is not the product of an informed open or deliberative process we are to the house to reject the a mosh amendment despite the pressures this vote will mark the very first time members of congress will have a chance to go on record either supporting or rejecting the n.s.a.'s mass dragnet on american citizens. now moving on to the latest efforts on capitol hill to close the detention facility at guantanamo bay while some reports indicate that a hunger strike there which has now lasted nearly six months is starting to slow down some members of the senate aren't ready to give up on closing gitmo so what the senate judiciary committee held a hearing this afternoon on closing of sylvie and what implications that might have on our national security and our record of human rights you know i was archie web

producer and your book it all around this topic of guantanamo and what congress is going to do about it that's a question people been asking for less than twelve years now yeah this so given that this hearing was held in the senate and we had members of members of the senate give some pretty strong words about kuantan ago in the sort of human rights abuses that are going on down there we're heading into debate over the defense authorization act and that's usually been where restrictions have been put in place on closing guantanamo do you think that there might be a change of heart happening here in the senate i mean you would think so especially after this long especially this late into this administration you know at this point it's been five six years since obama first started saying oh we're going to close it down we have some very senior members of both the house and the senate who have expressed the most interest in actually bringing this place down today when things start to go rolling senator dick durbin actually said that you know for operating guantanamo it's it's more than just a human rights thing it's more than

a national security thing we're just we're blowing money in a time when we don't have it cost something like four hundred forty million dollars . just to keep it running every year and that's two point seven million dollars per inmate whereas if they were at the nicest federal prison within the condo united states they're looking at maybe spending seventy grand max in order to keep that person carse rated instead we have people hundred sixty six they're being held in this prison and millions of dollars a year is being spent on them and they're at this point being held there indefinitely actually one of the one of their witness is today. they was a government appointed military counsel for one of the detainees so you know his job is to represent him although you know he's being paid by local sam and he was up there saying look at this guy's been there for the last eleven years twelve years you're going to keep him there it's just costing so much especially during this time of so-called austerity i want to play a clip here from retired he was one of the witnesses retired army general brigadier general stephens innocuous here's what he had to say about the ongoing hunger

strike tunnel. the treatment of hunger strikers kuantan m o compromises the core ethical values of our medical profession the a.m.a. has long endorsed the principle that every competent patient has the right to refuse refused medical intervention the world medical association and the international red cross have determined that force feeding through the use of restraints is not only an ethical violation but contravenes common article three of the geneva conventions. major is it fair to say not only this hearing but other actions we've seen recently whether it's just the president being forced to talk about guantanamo game lifting the prisoner transfer ban to yemen is it fair to say that these things wouldn't have been possible or even to be discussed without the hunger strike going on at guantanamo i mean. it should be i mean these are things like a sense of over a decade of people just literally rotting away in prison and this president

campaigned on this six years ago saying this is something i'm going to get done if you do it now always blaming congress for that and you it's you know it seems like there's a lot of different sides you can take and however it's definitely propelled it to the right here where people are actually they don't have to dig too far to find out information on guantanamo yes the military proceedings are still held and relative secrecy and sure attorneys might not be able to contact their clients being held behind bars but there's actually enough media coverage now where you can turn on the t.v. and find out something about guantanamo unfortunately it's you know the fact that dozens of them are being force fed and just rotting away in prison for the rest of our lives but there is a discussion that's happening right now and today actually this hearing in the senate was the first hearing of its type in five years so i think that that's actually saying something and then durbin said if it's going to remain open we're going to remember we're going to remember the come back here and actually start it i want to play something else that durbin said he hopes of this this hearing this is about the implications of closing guantanamo when he addressed one of those

implications. no want to suggest in the closing guantanamo is risk free or that no detainees will ever engage in terrorist activities if they're transferred but if a former detainees does return to terrorism he will likely meet the fleet of so you know. the number two official in the arabian peninsula who was recently killed in a drone strike. and this is interesting because he didn't say that he'll meet the same fate of being captured and brought back to guantanamo he said he's going to meet the fate of being killed in a drone strike incident kind of speaks to this idea that the president and the white house doesn't want to put people in guantanamo or they're just now assassinating people see what's next i mean i mean for you know we do a couple years worth of just leaving him locked up in a cage forever and ever and then we move to using john flying robots to kill them i'm assuming will have legs by on a whale cyborgs that in a few years and then that's how we'll get back at the bad guys but you know that

what he was talking about was that you know people always say they just go back in a region and rejoin the ranks of al qaeda it's just it was getting tossed around all over the place on the hill today with a twenty eight percent twenty percent of people have been released just go back to join the ranks of al qaeda once again or whatever other extremist organization and some witnesses are up there so they are actually saying no that that's not the case you know the u.s. government has a very peculiar definition of what it means to be a terrorist or associated forces and providing support and what kind of support is provided so just because some people are making one argument some people are going to make the other and that's i mean we're going to see like that and we're just going to keep this facility open indefinitely out of fear that someone might go and commit another crime but rather time it was our t. web producer and. and now on to syria where president obama's plans to arm the syrian rebels was given a green light by congress well some of congress at least and in june shortly after the white house announced its plans to dump weapons in the syrian civil war we learned that members of the select intelligence committees in the house and senate

expressed concerns with those plans and blocked the assistance out of fear that weapons could end up in the hands of radical elements within the syrian opposition those concerns were raised in secret and only among those members who serve on the intel committees not all members of congress and then this week we learned that those secret concerns raised in secret to the white house have now been addressed in secret by the white house and members of both the house and senate intel committees have now given their secret approval for the white house to provide lethal assistance to the syrian opposition u.s. arms could begin funneling into syria as early as august speaking this week at the veterans of foreign where's foreign wars excuse me national convention center rand paul slammed the idea of arming the syrian rebels saying the united states may be putting itself in the position of arming al-qaeda the assad regime is no friend of freedom or of the united states but this does not mean that the enemy of our enemy

is our friend there are currently seventeen different rebel groups in syria including the largest group al nusra. nuestro fighters are radical anti-american geodes and they're affiliated with al-qaeda. but your politicians in washington are eager to send weapons they promised oh these weapons won't get into the hands of the enemy i don't believe it does anyone believe that unfortunately for senator paul he doesn't sit on those select intelligence committees in congress that i've debated this issue behind closed doors and in secret so he's had very little say in crafting policy but is he striking the right tone here and should u.s. policymakers be listening to these more skeptical voices when it comes to intervening in syria and elsewhere around the world to discuss this further matthew feeney assistant editor at reason dot com joined me earlier i started out by asking

him if rand paul has some sort of special insight into syria that other members of congress don't have when he says we shouldn't be arming the rebels. no i think they all have the same the same access to the same piece of information he's just come to a different conclusion which is that to intervene in syria on behalf of assad's opposition is not in americans america's national security interests well why is it that when mccain and graham talk about this issue they say they oversimplify it they say this is all about assad must go there's a democratic opposition that's challenging the u.s. needs to be here whereas when senator paul talks about it he brings up stuff like al nusra he brings up the fact that the opposition is so is so faction that there are elements of al qaeda with it why is he willing to talk about this stuff but other people aren't willing to talk about these kind of inconvenient truths that come with arming the opposition why i think he's willing to talk about it because he understands that if we were to get involved in the situation in syria it's just impossible to know what will happen the real tragedy of the situation in syria is

that a bad guy assad who's committed you know her if it crimes is being fought against by an opposition that is as you rightly pointed out complex and diverse and then of all the liberal moderates that we would hope that they would be almost zero which has connections to al-qaeda is a group that especially if you're concerned about american security you don't want them to gain a foothold in syria alter the you know topple the regime and take it over so i think it would be wise for us to make sure that any american policy in syria does not involve giving weapons to rebels that could end up in the hands of people like this or rather beyond that there's a whole economic component here as general martin dempsey briefed members of congress on the options that are on the table with syria everything from arming rebels which is what the president's going forward with doing all the way to a no fly zone to targeted air strikes and you see that if we're just going to arm

the rebels that's going to be like five hundred million dollars a year but if we start doing stuff like a no fly zone or targeted strikes we're talking a billion dollars a. type figures how is this even on the table an option considering the noise that's coming out of washington about austerity and how we need to be reining in spending rather than massive new amounts of spending on some sort of military engagement rhetoric about the fence in the united states always seems to exempt fiscal sanity and this is no different you know dempsey also recommended you know securing chemical weapon sites or the creation of buffer zones which you rightly say would cost that he estimates would cost of billions of dollars but in that same lesson to senator levin dempsey also said you know deeper involvement is a possibility and you would hope after are a adventures in iraq and afghanistan the legislators on capitol hill would be wary all of what another engagement in the middle east looks like but unfortunately it looks like the rebels is the way it's going to be that it seems like the u.s.

has had a history of the sort of mission creep i remember that was talked a lot about when we were intervening in libya a few years ago let's get into the political dynamic here rand paul's name is thrown around in two thousand and sixteen as a possible challenger to someone like hillary clinton show in the last year or so we've seen rand paul very vocal on this issue we've seen very vocal on issues of drones and surveillance and the sort of stuff whereas other mainstream candidates like hillary clinton haven't seemed to be on board with all this stuff. how might this all shake out politically in twenty six there are these kind of outspoken states that rand paul staking going to be beneficial to him do you think i think they they could be i mean he's running for president in an official capacity hasn't announced yet i don't think it's a secret to anyone that he's you know lying twenty sixteen pretty significant you know realistic way but he is only a only one example of a republican. politician that is becoming

a proponent all of you know of and he will positions and all of civil liberties and you know there's also thomas massie in the house who also is. well a similar philosophy is ron paul and it will be interesting to see how the republicans deal with this that they're going to have that the party that. had backed you know mostly the invasion of iraq is now one of its most prominent and it is now you know and he will crusade it it's really interesting we see. decades now of military u.s. military intervention around the world lots of military misadventure things aren't going so well do you think we're seeing a backlash against this with senators like rand paul and other voices that are speaking out against syrian opposition are we seeing kind of an anti interventionist movement building not just among maybe american people who are tired of it but actually within congress within policymakers i think it's a little hard to know in congress i mean they do seem to be cautious but ok with the rebels in syria so i'm not as optimistic that interventionism is going to

become a thing on the hell but certainly among the american public a polling shows that the american american people are not really full the throwing their support behind intervention in syria but you know it's not the first time that the american public and elected representatives have a security we'll see what happens that was matthew finney assistant editor at reason dot com meanwhile on the hill questions linger about how the house of representatives will handle the senate's recently passed immigration reform law hearing on tuesday in the house subcommittee on immigration and border security took on the issue of children and undocumented immigration particularly those children who were brought to the united states illegally at a young age and have since been raised here they've been referred to in this debate as the dreamers and while republicans in the house are skeptical of immigration reform that includes pathways to citizen citizenship here is the republican chair of the subcommittee congressman trey gowdy speaking on behalf of the dreamers.

children and the issues that impact their lives unite us like nothing else and the call of children or a special class the law treats children differently in almost every regard when children wander in the neighborhood yards we don't call that trespassing the law treats children differently for a variety of reasons including the fact that children cannot form the intent necessary to violate the law and intent is a necessary element of every criminal offense simply put children who were brought here haven't committed a crime mr major or otherwise the adults may have but the children have not now often lost in the debate over immigration reform are the personal stories those who are dealing with our nation's immigration system and would be most affected by reform are t. correspondent megan lopez has one of those stories. meet ten year old kelly roselli she's

a tomboy whose favorite subject at sugar land elementary school is math she likes writing and reading and bicycling with her dad she could almost be described as a typical fourth grader. almost. think a little bit. and. like i always. because the lake. is good awards two and three. but kelly is different you see kelly was born in el salvador when she was just a few months old her mother brought her to the u.s. illegally for years she has lived with her father who also into the country illegally now kelly's father is facing deportation leaving her with two options go with her father or stay and face an uncertain future then i want to. stay with immigration authorities did offer her father one option you know. they told me to

leave my daughter that i could give her up for adoption that an american family could adopt her and she could be a citizen but at ten kelly is willing to abandon the only life she has ever known if it means staying with her father and. i want to be with him now when i go. when i when kelly broke the news to her best friend she broke it with a heavy heart it's the first time she has ever really had to say goodbye in her short life. here and i'm like sam i have to. ok. kelly and her father are just two players in the battle over immigration reform lawmakers on capitol hill remain in gridlock over what to do about border security and how to deal with the eleven million people that are already living here and house democrats say that the closer we get to twenty fourteen the less that likely reform bill really is because congressional elections will be within sight

meanwhile just down pennsylvania avenue the obama administration has deported more people during its first time during all eight years under the bush presidency that includes forty five thousand parents that were deported during the first half of two thousand and twelve alone. obama said he wasn't going to deport people with families that he wasn't going to separate them what he's doing is the opposite i think the president obama i think he can do something but in reality he doesn't want to hear simply come to this country looking for a better life for himself and his daughter tearing families apart the pouring him and leaving kelly here i mean that's not the american way tearing families apart is not the american way dishonored jefferson and the virginia new majority have been working with the road sells for months leading up to brian's deportation i didn't realize how inhumane the system is.

it's. when we run through the senate gallery. i first met brian we went to go see the vote the senate gallery you know commissioning me the plain sight and you know it's really hard for me when he said he has to buy his own ticket. this is the man who asked for an electronic monitoring bracelet that hurts the virgin young new majority is a progressive civic engagement organization that usually focuses on voting reform and they know that the hispanic vote is a sleeping giant that has the potential to sway elections but to dishonor it's more than politics it's people it's hard for me is in america this saying that this is my country when we do this to other people brian was scheduled to be deported by

july thirty first of this year but as a result of media attention like artie's story that ran on july nineteenth immigration officials have delayed his exit to give him more time to appeal a prayer vigil will be held tonight to honor the rowe sells for now kelly and her father are spending their final days in the u.s. together enjoying the american dream one last time before it fades in sterling virginia meghan lopez r.t. and finally on to the university of southern california which is the subject of a federal investigation alleging that the school routinely failed to respond to failed to respond to or even investigate rape allegations u.s. department of education's office for civil rights launched the investigation last month at the end of june thirteen students and several other unnamed students have come forward alleging that university officials and the department of public safety have failing to respond to numerous complaints of harassment on campus parties

ramon go indo reports. with college students across the u.s. say that they've been the victim of sexual assault and that the same institutions that they look towards for protection have ignored their pleas for help the u.s. department of education's office for civil rights is looking into allegations by women here at the university of southern california that the university did not properly look into their allegations of rape victims in their advocates say that the problem is rampant we had one woman the other day at our press conference come come out for the first time in talk about her rape and she said that when she came forward to the administration about it they denied her rape claim was valid because her attacker didn't orgasm and these are the kinds of reasons that are being given to dismiss these kinds of claims the university says that it's fully cooperated with the investigation and that it's currently reviewing its policies but this

issue is far from being isolated to just you with c. students from prestigious institutions such as occidental college dartmouth and even yale have also filed similar complaints i've just seen so many negative consequences to friends of mine who have had this happen to them and. they've ministration is not there to support them after this and that was like a second betrayal that was almost as intense as the first betrayal of being raped by a policy for victims filing complaints the fear is that justice will not be served but in the end they're hoping that college students across the u.s. get better responses from their schools in the future in los angeles. party and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com forward slash our team america and check out our website r t dot com forward slash usa you can also follow me on twitter sam sax stay tuned prime interest is

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after costing trillions of dollars charge for fighting personal freedoms and ingratiating rent seeking corporations can anyone claim the us in the world is any safer for me in cities plants or terrorists what is the difference between an act of terrorism in western style humanitarian intervention. is it possible to navigate the economy with all the details of his text and misinformation and media hype keep you up to date by decoding the mainstream has stated it's been your right.

hello and welcome to prime interest i'm perry i'm boring and i'm bothering bush and here's the story that we're tracking today are becoming the ponzi scheme that's what the headlines in the media suggest the security exchange commission is alleging. however the f.c.c. is simply investigating whether the new crypto currencies are being used as a tool to war investors and to an illegal investment scheme now whether or not this is true the smear campaign against alternative currencies continues in a press release the f.c.c. stated quote investors should understand that regardless of the type of investment the promise of high returns with little or no risk is a classic warning side of fraud well don't tell that to freddie and freddie at least trying to got out. and there was a natural gas explosion.