a new jersey congressman is pushing a bill to curb government surveillance if passed it would repeal the patriot act among other challenges and protect american civil liberties we'll have the man himself on the show to discuss his new bill. last night the house of representatives forced a vote on of the marsh amendment to limit n.s.a. surveillance although the legislation failed with a vote was much closer than expected so is congress ready to act when it comes to curbing the ever growing surveillance state. and the bradley manning trial interest closer to its end today the prosecution and defense made their final arguments after the judge refused to dismiss the charges against manning an update on this case ahead.

it's thursday july twenty fifth four pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. well earlier this week we told you about new jersey congressman rush holt crafting a new legislation that would get rid of the patriot act as well as the two thousand and eight foreign intelligence surveillance amendment today she introduced the bill to the house h r two eight one eight otherwise known as a surveillance state repeal act here's an outline of a few things that this bill does it repeals the patriot and fice amendments act it prohibits the government from mandating that electronic device or software manufacturers build the so-called back doors that we've been talking so much about and it increases the terms of judges on the foreign intelligence surveillance court from seven to ten years so does this bill stand a chance. well the man who introduced that piece of legislation says that it's not

rocket scientists science and he would know why along with being a congressman he's also a rocket scientists rush holt joins me now for more. hi there mr hall because so much for joining me now if you're bill only repeals the feis amendments act of two thousand and eight versus all of why target this specific amendment well maybe it's going to be with you thanks for covering this story. the financial amendment was something that was passed in two thousand and eight to make it all the illegal activities that were already underway in the intelligence community and i think it has also been used as the basis for the the n.s.a. and the intelligence community to continue to do things that are out of bounds and so. i think they're probably fact i'm sure there are some changes that need to

be made to the original face as well but this would repeal the patriot act which has been the source a number of problems excesses in law enforcement intelligence and if i said amendments and as you point out if we do several other things so should we take this to mean that you agree that the original fice a bill or parts of it have a place in american society today post nine eleven. well the feis a bill was set up to deal with. catching spies and and protecting this country from people who would do us harm and there's no question it's a dangerous world there are some things that must be done to protect us to enforce the law and but the way it's being done these days it has turned

americans into suspects first and citizens second now answer your question is is there a chance that this could pass you know as recently as yesterday more than two hundred members of congress out of four hundred thirty five so nearly a majority a large minority voted to cut the spending for the national security agency domestic surveillance so yes there there is a strong interest in congress and around the country to have the debate that we have not had for decades now congressman you have been in congress since one nine hundred ninety nine you voted for house resolution three one six two better known as the patriot act on october twenty fourth two thousand and one now in the year since you have voted against it four times between two thousand and five and two

thousand and six what changed your mind why act against it now. well you you've done your homework there when the patriot act was passed you'll recall that day it was just a couple of weeks after the attacks on the world trade center and on the pentagon we were then still sifting out information about the hijackers about these terrorists they had spent time in florida and they had boarded planes in maine and they had. there were indications that there might be terrorist cells all over this country nobody knew. it turns out that that was. exaggerated fear. but this was a time of great fear. passing the patriot act as one of my great regrets in my time in congress. but it's understandable i think how

that came about it was pretty clear quickly that. there were not terrorists cells scattered all over the united states and it was equally clear that we didn't need. national security letters and sneak and peek. techniques where the f.b.i. and law enforcement come into your house without without a warrant and leave no you know leave nothing behind sir and that that they can't just pursue a person on a hunch without having to get probable cause prove probable cause before a judge their initial sorts of things that the patriot act and vice amendment x. act allow that shouldn't continue now congressman how much this you know about the n.s.a. surveillance and the fife the courts before this closure is that happened in the

guardian just about a month ago as a result of edward snowden leaks did you know how deep they really went for you part of that cell of congress that was informed about all of this. i was on the intelligence committee for a number of years and you can. see the letter that i wrote to the director of the n.s.a. in two thousand and five. following my visit to the n.s.a. where i asked him to. showed to me or give me the evidence so that i can tell my constituents that the american government does not spy on americans and he gave me a very deceptive briefing a couple of days later the new york times james rice and the new york times came out with. an explosive exposé about the n.s.a. spying i wrote a blistering letter i wrote the head of the n.s.a.

blistering letter. choosing him not just deceiving me and individual but withholding from congress. the necessary information for congress to be able to do its oversight. a wide of different things have come in and you are you are learning as much as we are with piece by case coming out one other thing that i did want to bring out is that the bill proposes extending terms of judges on the foreign intelligence surveillance court as i had mentioned now we have seen one article after another commenting on how laughable this court is considering the fact that the fisa court has never once turned down a government request so my question to you is why is it important to extend their terms and is this court a legitimate court. well i don't believe it's true that they have never turned down a request nevertheless it is a fair criticism that they aren't rubber stamp courts and because they operate in

secret and essentially make law as as as courts do by setting up a you know a series of decisions. it's it's really unfortunate that this happens in secret. and is essentially allowing the intelligence folks to do whatever it is they want. a longer term you know one of the objections that the court. members that the judges on this court. one of the problems that they point to is that this is such a complicated material and so technically complicated that unless they've served on the court for a longer period of time they don't really mastered the material this is a really i would argue a an important but. secondary. modification we need to make in the court we need to make other modifications in the court to make sure that it really

functions that. there is an adversarial. situation created in each case so that it isn't just a rubber stamp. so that the two sides will argue pro and con we have to make sure that what comes before the court. is. you know is subject to review elsewhere in an expeditious way so there are a number of other changes that need to be made to the feis the court that this bill does not yet make and other words more and more oversight we have thirty seconds left but can you put quickly tell me what would you like to see done to efforts not in. you know clearly he broke the law as it is part of what my legislation does is change the whistleblower protection so that people who work

in the intelligence community have whistleblower protection just like employees in other parts of the federal government and we particularly need it there because so much of that work is done in secret and unless a whistleblower comes forward there's no way that you know the public or congress can know what's going on and conduct oversight so if there had been a good whistleblower projections. would not be in this situation that he is now thank you so much for weighing in on this u.s. congressman rush holt he is a senate candidate he's also a rocket scientist and the man who beat the watson computer on jeopardy thank you meanwhile late last night the g.o.p. controlled house came within twelve votes of barring bulk collection of americans business records the march conyers amendment it would have defunded section two fifteen of the patriot act that's the part of the bill that allows for this wind

scale collection of americans telecommunications banking and other business records this is the closest we have ever come to seeing action on this law since its passage after september eleventh and although it failed civil liberties advocates are celebrating the closeness of the vote and the bipartisan coalition that came together to fight for it political commentator sam sachs has more we're here to answer one question for the people we represent. do we oppose the suspicion this collection of every american's phone records when you have the chance to stand up for americans privacy did you please support the monster amendment and oppose the n.s.a.'s blanket surveillance of our constituents let us get back to the big politics of protecting america and moving america forward soundly reject this amendment the responsible thing to do is so some contrition let's pass this amendment let's make sure that we can have a practical approach that show that protecting our liberties and securities are

consistent and critical for the united states of america i urge you yes about let us not deal in false narratives let us deal in facts that will keep the american people say after the debate was over in the votes taken the emotion moment was defeated but you'd be hard pressed to find another vote total that looks like this in the end one hundred eleven democrats joined with eighty three republicans to support the amendment both parties split in half progressive is joining with the tea party leadership breaking from their members today capitol hill is still trying to make sense of last night's vote that nearly defunded the n.s.a.'s mass surveillance of american citizens and when that vote we saw political leaders from both parties from speaker of the house john boehner minority leader nancy pelosi defied by their own members and today they have to be wondering have edward snowden's leaks about the n.s.a. put their own power here on topical hill at risk the people who want to stand by the status quo of the n.s.a.

program have to pay attention to the fact that a bipartisan group of members of congress nearly overturned nearly passed a bill to bring it all to a stop just seven republicans or seven democrats switched their vote wednesday night the n.s.a. would be scrambling today and although the amendment went down these new political coalitions formed in the vote could be a force moving forward in a congress that's now seen its approval ratings reach historical. lows they may offer some ray of hope you know in what has been a pretty dysfunctional congress maybe on this issue of privacy and constitutional rights we might be able to come together and put some things together that will benefit the american people members who narrowly lost last night aren't giving up shortly after the vote congressman rush holt introduce the surveillance state repeal act which repeal the patriot act in the pfizer amendments act to have laws that underpin the n.s.a.'s mass dragnet on american citizens so it's clear this

issue isn't going away any time soon this was a victory i think we should count as one and i think that i am nothing but encouraged by the numbers i don't think any of the people who voted for this are ready to stop trying to stand for privacy for americans yes there will be more bills there will be more votes and i believe we're going to win now despite the defeat of the a marsh amendment on wednesday night efforts continue to undo the n.s.a.'s mass surveillance state and we've learned that edward snowden's leaks haven't just shaken up the n.s.a. but they've fractured traditional political coalitions here on the hill and they've build new coalitions that were unheard of just a few months ago now what these new coalitions can achieve over the next three months remains to be seen but establishment power here on the hill and down the street at the white house and in our intelligence agencies they should be taking no . in washington. army judge denise lend her closing arguments today in the case against wiki leaks or bradley manning the twenty five

year old army private first class faces twenty one charges for leaking some seven hundred thousand military diplomatic and diplomatic cables to the world the most serious charge manning faces is aiding the enemy which could result in a life sentence the prosecution spent its final moments trying to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that manning leaked those documents knowing that they could end up in the hands of al qaeda or other terrorist organizations meanwhile defense lawyer david coombs is expected to portray manning as well meaning but naive for the very latest from fort meade r.t. correspondent liz wall. after nearly two months of trial we hear closing arguments today in the court martial of private first class bradley manning today the prosecution said manning recklessly leaked the documents put national security at risk when he did it and put american lives in danger the prosecution kicked off their closing arguments today by saying quote the only human he cared about was

himself they painted manning as somebody that was self-absorbed and somebody that craved notoriety at the time that he leaked the documents they also spent a good amount of time talking about the relationship between manning and wiki leaks co-founder julian a songe the prosecution said quote it's obvious manning pulled as much information as possible to please julian assange so their theory as that manning and a songe work together in this conspiracy to put as much classified information as possible on the internet now the government also spent time kind of downgrading wiki leaks as a journalistic organization saying that their job there or their goal was it was not to do good journalism but rather at times aided the enemy and putting that sensitive information on the internet the government reiterated that manning aided the enemy when he leaked the classified documents citing his job as an intelligence

analyst that he dealt with classified information on a daily basis and receive this special training so he should have known in the prosecution's view that he should have known full well exactly what he was doing exactly what the consequences were and that the enemy would see this information when you put it on the internet so we're here we're in the middle of the prosecution's closing arguments very lengthy closing argument still waiting to hear from the defense it's expected that the defense will paint manning as a whistle blower somebody that just wanted to expose government wrongdoing and spark a national debate so we will keep keep you updated on all of the. elements here and for me it was wall r.t. and was core proceedings wrapping up for the day now bradley manning waits his fate is about to shift into the hands of judge lent she alone has the power to declare bradley manning a whistleblower hero or an american traitor but this case is bigger than one army private first class turned whistleblower it could set

a precedent for future cases to come for more i'm joined now by elizabeth she's the co-director of the liberty and national security program at the brennan center and you've been caught following this case closely so in your opinion how is it stacking up i think the prosecution has really struggled to establish that bradley manning knowingly was transmitting this information to the enemy which is the major charge against him that said judge lynn just recently ruled that that charge that there was some evidence that could actually sustain that charge she refused to dismiss the charge so my assessment of the government's evidence may be a little different than the judges on this point sure and when she did refuse to dismiss the charges so the burden of proof was much lower than it is right now but they still have that burden of proof now what about predictions for the outcome do you have any well the one thing i can say is that bradley manning has already pled

guilty to lesser version of some of the charges that were brought against him through a very strange procedure that enables him to basically rewrite the charges against him and then plead guilty and that plea stands no matter what the government does so one way or another he will be found guilty and sentenced on some of these charges which include versions of the espionage act charges against him and i suspect he'll probably be found guilty on some other charges as well so probably going to jail the question now is for how much time you know what would you say to people that called bradley manning a traitor i would say that we've now had a trial we've had evidence put together. where the government presented no evidence that he affirmatively intended to harm the united states which is what a traitor is i mean those he's not legally accused of being a traitor that were does not appear in any of the statutes against him but i think we all understand that term to mean somebody who's an enemy of the state and sets out to harm the country there's been no evidence of that you mentioned earlier is

he a traitor or traitor or is he a hero he doesn't have to be either i mean there's there's a lot in between traitor and hero and i think we've gotten a fairly complex pick picture of this person that's emerged at the trial now one of the people that was actually a witness for this was colonel morris davis he was an expert witness and when he came into the studio after he testified he said that he believes that this is a case of over prosecution i understand you think that that's a case of over classification can you talk about that a little bit there related i mean one thing that this case has demonstrated is that the government keeps secrets that it shouldn't be keeping in a million years and does so frequently the charges that the government brought against manning addressed only a subset a tiny subset of the information that he allegedly disclosed because so much of the information is quite obviously not sensitive and didn't cause any harm and we just don't have a good system in place for dealing with people who leak classified information when

that information was improperly classified in the first place and what we have instead is over prosecution so what kind of a precedent do you think that this trial sets i've just question time and time again and i'm just very interested to get every single different person's perspective because obviously he's being tried in a military tribunal not a civilian court but it could set a precedent could it not it could i mean the charges against him include charges that are civilian charges that can be brought against civilians and that includes the espionage act charges there have been asking object charges brought against other people and those defendants have in some instances pled guilty. so there have been convictions that the equivalent of a conviction this would be the first time under this administration and really recently that a judge or jury in this case a judge has actually upheld a conviction if there were a conviction obviously has has a public conviction on espionage act charges for this kind of leak

a leak that in fact was not motivated by an intent to harm the united states so that right there would be a precedent that we would need to really take notice and it's very interesting and you know something else that colonel morris davis said was that this child could go on for years and years depending on what the outcome is either the prosecution can appeal or the defense of can appeal but either way it could end up in the supreme court although they really don't take and they don't take these military tribunal cases very often i appreciate you coming in and weighing in on this elizabeth co-director of the liberty and national security program at the brennan center thank you. while the mainstream media focuses on new york city mayor oral candidate anthony wiener controversy is current new york city mayor michael bloomberg is dealing with one of his own today tuesday mayor bloomberg vetoed two bills that were passed by the new york city council they would have provided oversight for the city's contentious stop and frisk program the first the fill would have created the

n.y.p.d. inspector general to oversee the departments and the author would have allowed citizens to sue the city for racial profiling by police officers now the family of trayvon martin is quickly becoming the face of the debate over racial profiling whether it's police officers or rather it's regular civilians trayvon father tracy testified on capitol hill yesterday before the newly created congressional caucus on black men and boys take a look. it sparks the conversation in every household over the dennet table and that conversation is what can we do as parents what can we do as men working we do as as fathers what can we do as mentors to stop this problem from happening to your child. and i think that's where the conversation begins. and he's not the only one that feels this way and the joint statement new new york city council members humane williams and brad lander said quote the community safety act

will help us make new york a place where everyone can walk the streets without fear of violence or discriminatory policy policing that is we look forward to overturning mayor bloomberg veto and making this legislation law the two beers bills appear to have enough support in the city council to override his veto both measures passed with a two thirds majority in the fifty one member council which is the amount of votes needed to make the bill the bill a veto proof bloomberg is only hope is to get some of the councillors who originally voted for the bill to change their minds but for his part mayor bloomberg argued that the inspector general bill would create an official position that would rival the police commissioner on law enforcement policy and the second bill would lead to an avalanche of lawsuits against the city. well it's the moment students across the country have been waiting for a drum roll please the senate approved

a plan on wednesday to restructure the government's education loan program tying interest rates to the market and imposing limits on how high those rates can go but before you start banking on college savings there are a few very important flaws to point out first and most obvious the house still needs to approve the plan more importantly some democrats argue that this is not i repeat not a long term solution because the plan does not address the one trillion dollars in student loan debt that already exists it doesn't reduce the billions of dollars in profit that they say the government borrows from these loans or deal with the growing cost of a college degree and finally it establishes a rate setting system that many argue could in the end lead to higher loan rates overall here's how the senate. well woodwork. future borrowers will see their student loans tied to the u.s. treasuries ten year old borrowing rates charging an additional one point five

percent for undergraduates three point four percent for graduate students and four point four percent for plus loans which parents can take out for their children for the upcoming year these will be lower than the current rate yet as the economy approves they will rise but the legislation does cap the loans at eight point two five percent for undergraduates nine point five percent for graduates and ten point five percent for their parents the congressional budget office estimates that the rates won't reach the caps in the next decade but that doesn't mean that they won't go over the current rate now one lawmaker who is making a big stink about this bill is senator elizabeth warren who has argued time and again that student interest rates should be the same as big banks a measure of that is very unlikely to pass on capitol hill 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 check out our website r c dot com slash usa don't forget to follow me on

twitter at meghan underscore lopez stay tune prime interest is next. going into the future. this will coincide eligible dates and you try to transmission makes for a smoother ride bush and scientists conjure up could crystals the e.u. says he's laser sight some to ponder on one of the take giants comes to town tons of goods you update here on. the contrary. the worst you're going to face. the white house of the day when the radio guy bought available minutes from a quick profit i want you to watch closely to do because you've never seen anything like this on trial.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom hartman welcome to the big picture. wealthy british style. that's not on the title of. market why not it's going to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike's conjure raw no holds barred look at the global financial

headlines tune into cars a report on our. good afternoon and welcome to prime interest i'm harry i'm boring and i'm bob english let's get to our headline. it's official as they see capitol is toast that would be the cohen's hedge fund which posted annual profits of over twenty percent and once had fifteen billion dollars under management a grand jury indicted the firm alleging securities and to wire fraud and the head to find it may have to discard hundreds of millions even billions in profit and when mr cohen is not himself indicted in fact the indictment doesn't even contain his name you simply refer to as the as they see owner so it looks like you pulled records are in for know what you mean very civil suits from the investors that may not get their money back by the way the soon to be defunct hedge fund the cohen spies so most of.