we love you for your media. c.e.o. don carty dot com. coming up on r t today in switzerland john kerry and sergey lavrov meet to discuss a possible diplomatic solution for syria but will a deal of void u.s. military intervention the latest on the meetings and the future of syria just ahead with the latest leaks coming out about the n.s.a. surveillance state more americans want congress to act but what is on docket for capitol hill to fix the problem we'll speak with new jersey congressman rush holt about the issue. the c.e.o.'s of facebook and yahoo are speaking out against the n.s.a. scandal mark zuckerberg and the rest of the mayor have voiced their concerns over the expansion of surveillance we'll hear their concerns later in our tech report.

it stars day september twelfth in washington d.c. i'm vegan lopez and you are watching r t u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in geneva switzerland today participating in another round of talks with his russian counterpart sergei lavrov about the chemical disarmament of syrian military forces the two day meeting will include a full diplomatic teams from both countries as well as chemical weapons experts will discuss the overarching question of how this disarmament will happen the goal is to have a resolution to present to the u.n. by the end of these negotiations and a speech secretary kerry delivered today he set some guidelines for this disarmament this is not a game that i should vote for a surrogate when we talked about it initially. it has to be real it has to be comprehensive it has to be verifiable it has to be credible it has to be

timely and implemented in a timely fashion and finally there ought to be consequences so the military option is not off the table after all back in syria president bashar all all side has openly agreed to handing over chemical arms in his first interview with reporters since the news of a possible agreement came out the united nations secretary general's office confirmed it has received an application from syria to join the international convention banning the production and use of chemical weapons this afternoon it will take thirty days to become a party and assad says he will begin submitting data on his chemical arsenal one month after that this is assad says if the u.s. halts the threat of military action. our she is one of the only news stations to have a reporter on the ground in syria correspondent maria for an ocean and her team are

in the historic christian town of milou la which has been the scene of some of the most brutal fighting as of late one of her crew members was actually injured as a result of the chaos from or from the ground here is maria from notion. we're at. the top of. the mood is cheerful soldiers are smiling and relieved the jihadists have been booted out i don't know but there are some of them were killed some of them escaped but the. locals joined the army to defend the native town the soldiers in light colored uniforms of the so-called national defense but the terrain here is very difficult with mountains and caves but we know the area better so we are carrying on with the operation of that. we come across one grocery shop owner who we feel

and back in two thousand and twelve here then he told us that the armed rebels hasn't come to their village and why would they this time he's armed with a gun and monster in soldiers and he has some question is again a story out of thirty syria is a land of history and of luck but they sent terrorists here from all corners of the world to kill syrians and each other why i ask the world why if the european citizen is so much a slapped across the face they'd be a scandal while in syria how many victims how many hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered why will it stop would quickly find out that it won't be today held by the militants for a week it seems that mountain tops of fear hotel still poses a threat that sufi hotel our goal was the liberated them push on my tough one a streak that we couldn't do it best my business everywhere my lul is home to many

christian churches in monasteries as well as mosques everywhere we go here we see either crosses on the rents now added to these we see black jihadists flags. it's time to head back to. the clown the car something goes wrong. we take cover in a place where we find dozens of army soldiers hiding from enemy bullets. the main road is the computation and from down we're only way out. we think over our chances when our engineers it takes. too much. pressure. thankfully it's not serious. but it becomes clear we can to wait a minute more. oh. ok

my luck. when i'm stuck here in this corner and we're now trying to get out of here using this was. well no no no no. that would have been anything done back the next go was ok clear a lot. more full capacity during the boom did you hear them within by. yes that's it we've reached a carrier. that far in the behind the shooting.

told us this is here now or maybe a little bit testy tell me what it is to come up so you guys. and we leave well get. meant to just continue their principal manuella village which despite the claims remains under siege. reporting from syria. well it's called the national security agency but in light of the seemingly endless stream of leaks detailing n.s.a. spying perhaps a more accurate name for the agency these days is the national surveillance agency not only do we now know that the n.s.a. can access your phone and e-mail metal data but it has accidentally collected american citizens information in the past and that there are numerous cases of blatant abuse we also now know that the agency is sharing this data with other

government entities and other countries this controversy was dominating political conversation before congress went on recess but now the crisis in syria has taken over the spotlight one congressman is still paying attention though and he's ready to dismantle the patriot act that gives the government these kinds of overreaching surveillance capabilities and he's also willing to take on parts of the foreign intelligence surveillance act as well u.s. representative rush holt of new jersey joined me earlier to talk about his efforts to rein in the government he joined me earlier to talk about why it is so important to him take a look. well we've seen a lot of excesses and missteps come to public attention now the n.s.a. has gone out of bounds in a number of ways with their vacuum cleaner surveillance with their heavy handed many people a sion of encryption code. with their. really i

guess. heavy handed approach to whistleblowers. all of this is coming to light i think it means that the legislation i introduced some months ago now. is all the more relevant let's hope that it becomes supported we'll find out. and let's talk about this agreement that has recently come to light about the n.s.a. in this israeli counterpart i guess in you or by the n.s.a. pass along raw data and intelligence to israel not just about u.s. citizens but also on canadians new zealanders brits and australians what do you make of this recent information you know over the years the united states has shared intelligence with israel and israel has shared intelligence with the united states. as in so many cases i think with the intelligence

community there has been too little congressional oversight. you know these things that are done in the name of the security of the american people. should be reviewed and. overseen by the. representatives of the american people. to see that things are done really in the best in the national interest and in the best way. we know that with surveillance of americans the n.s.a. went way overboard outside the law probably against the constitution in. surveilling americans collecting data. really personal data about americans without probable cause without good court oversight the court has now said it's come to light in recently released papers that

they felt they were lied to the court was lied to and deceived and and then the n.s.a. admitted that all of this collection and use was so extensive that no one in the n.s.a. knew all that they were doing and other words they were so out of control they didn't even know what they were doing and as for. collecting and sharing with other countries. you know that too needs more congressional oversight for years now the n.s.a. and most of the agencies of the intelligence community have been operating. well with impunity and without oversight and they've gotten what they wanted because they said it's in the national interest and so they get lots of funding and a free hand to do what they're whatever they want to do that they believe is in the national interest only to discover some years later. only for the public and

the representatives to discover some years later it's not necessarily in the national interest collecting on americans certain kinds of sharing of intelligence . and you know i haven't even really addressed the matter of encryption the n.s.a. has over the years had a responsibility one of one of its responsibilities was to see that communications within the united states can be carried out securely so when the president wants to use the phone on air force one that the phone conversation won't be stolen by some someone else well it turns out that the n.s.a. in. looking at the the electronic chips as well as the computer software that's used for encryption by banks and online purchasers and.

you know any number of uses has been compromised deliberately by n.s.a. so that people so that they can intercept the otherwise encrypted messages. what that says to the world is don't buy american merchandise. or or american software it's been compromised by the n.s.a. and if you know. an intruder who's smart enough to get into it and so in all of these ways we've got examples of an agency run amok and it just underscores the need for congressional oversight and public public awareness and in some cases public outcry now congressman your repeal the surveillance state act wants to repeal the patriot act and parts of the fight amendments new revelations show that the drug enforcement agency for instance has partnered with

a t.n.c. to get information access the database is going back twenty seven years so my question to you is is the surveillance they more than just the patriot act or even more than the n.s.a. will. sure some of the excesses of the intelligence community including the n.s.a. predate the patriot act but so many of the excesses derived from this legislation that was passed in in fear and the procedures that were adopted in the programs that were undertaken after two thousand and one undertaken in fear and so many of the excesses that we're familiar with that the public is becoming familiar with. date from that time the patriot act was passed in the weeks after the september eleventh two thousand and one attacks. it goes way overboard in

a number of ways not just in what it what the n.s.a. thinks it empowered them to do the sites that amendments act which i would also repeal in the legislation that i've introduced. came some years later but it has also been used as the justification for these excess of practices by the n.s.a. that was us representative rush holt. and while there is a huge spotlight on what the government is doing with your data the question of how the government is organizing its own data has been less explored until now that is congressman darrell issa has been trying to standardize the way different agencies keep track of their spending so that taxpayers can search and examine where their money is going artie's perry and boring caught up with the congress man and she brings us this report. the federal government has been collecting all sorts of data

on citizens but is a terrible job organizing its own data expression only when it comes to spending the issue they are using twentieth century technology to track the twenty first century the federal government is so large and expansive that it doesn't even have a full list of all the different agencies it departments and programs and addition all of these different organizations do not report in the same place or in a standard format making all of the information and searchable and complete and not transparent to taxpayers the data transparency coalition as a trade association advocating for data reform hudson hollister is their executive director we would like to see federal spending fully standardized and fully published that means on a transaction by transaction level everything is public available for all to see but if the government published all this data an easily accessible place what the

public like what they see just of coal formally from the u.s. office of management and budget had this to say look you mention a few unleashed all of this data and you have a lot of gray haired people like me with nothing better to do than sit around my computer following the money that my congressman or senator is spending in my district. you're going to have like two million pairs of eyes watching everybody in this country and the way they spend money so i think it's just a tremendous power there that's really beyond least i think the public will love it the u.s. treasury department already has the authority to implement these reforms there does not fully flexing that power so congressman darrell issa entered is the data act which mandates that the government standardize and publish all financial documents any time that you want to update is to say you have to give up your legacy you have to comply with a common standard you're going to get some resistance unless there's an order to do so and we believe that with the that's what the data can force dare i say the chairman of the government over. site committee also sent

a strong letter to the f.c.c. chair which expresses my disappointment that we haven't gone all digital that we continue to have transcribing errors and that it's unnecessary we believe that pushing to get ten k.'s to be truly online in the original format and checked not only reduces cost but it will increase reliability on september tenth i saw a launch an investigation into the us security and exchange commission on their implementation and enforcement of the interactive data rule representative jared polis doesn't think this is a partisan issue really i just think it takes a little extra work i mean the easiest thing is to do nothing to continue for a system to be arcane and accessible all these problems that we have lack of interoperability challenges doing something advocates for open data reforms that it would also open new enervate of technology markets not ends of code will replace years of lawyers the burden of compliance will be lifted without sacrificing

oversight we will see a product of the boom i firmly believe comparable to the introduction of the p.c. we will see economic growth new jobs people moved out of poverty but unfortunately with so many pressing issues in front of congress can they make data reform a priority congress can walk and chew gum at once and will get work in the other issues as well. lawmakers recently wait for crisis to make moves hopefully they standardized government data before the next one so the public can see the true cost of it and washington i'm parian boring r.t. and white of all the recent n.s.a. revelations internet privacy advocates aren't the only ones criticizing the government for the way it deals with surveillance and that c.e.o.'s are also speaking out against the way the n.s.a. has handled american communications and its sweeping surveillance programs here's facebook founder mark zuckerberg. i think it's my job and our job to protect

everyone who uses facebook and all the information that they share with us it's our government's job to protect all of us and also to protect our freedoms and protect the economy right and companies and i think that they did a bad job of balancing those things here right. you know so frankly i think the government blew it and zuckerberg wasn't alone and in on stage interview at the tech crunch disrupt conference in san francisco yahoo c.e.o. marissa mayer said that she has made numerous pushes for transparency but that she is at the end of her rope lesson. and you know the seven yahoo filed a lawsuit against the venue of the patriot act hard a prison uprising and you lose somebody we've lost you if you don't comply it's treason so if they can't find back against the government does anyone else stand a chance let's get to today's tech report with eric hess and all he's

a senior editor at all things digital era thank you so much for joining me were any of these surprising calm were any of these comments by either mayor or zuckerberg surprising to you. that out surprising because they're pretty much they're fairly consistent with the positions that the companies have generally taken so far. facebook and microsoft in particular yahoo as well and google in particular they've all taken kind of a fairly consistent line in that they don't like the. requests are coming from government agencies and so they've been trying very hard to convince the government you can through litigation or to sort of negotiation or a combination of both. disclose what the actual amount of data that they've been asked to provide actually is in the hope of the reputation with their users i'm wondering if some of the reasons behind what they are doing do you really think that they care about the consumers at this point or are these comments trying to

save their own butts. well they do have to save their own butts but with the with the reputation of their consumers i mean remember these are not just american companies are global companies trying to serve global consumers on a basis and so on a global basis and so when these revelations about these n.s.a. disclosures and requests are and it's not just the n.s.a. by the way it's pretty much any law enforcement agency we can make these requests but the way the u.s. laws written under the foreign intelligence surveillance act. they don't really have a choice when these requests come in they have to respond they have to they can argue when they can try to minimize the impact of the request but they can not respond they can't ignore it and so what they are trying to show through litigation and other disclosures is to show that it doesn't really happen all that often and so in that way it's a matter of salvaging their reputation with their user base now what do you think the companies can do at this point is there anything that they can do. there

litigating microsoft and google in particular after prolonged good faith negotiations with the u.s. department of justice they've now recently said that they're going to continue and pursue litigation a lawsuit to force the government to actually allow google and microsoft to disclose the number and specifics not the actual data itself but information about the requests that they get from the government whether it's the f.b.i. the n.s.a. the cia and so on you know these are qwest made under five because of the secret files and to this point even talking about these requests is been illegal and so it's been difficult to even have the discussion one of them just outright refuse to give the information to the n.s.a. could they really be arrested and charged. they could be held in some kind of contempt that basically you're breaking the law the way the law is written they don't have that choice and companies are stunned simply have to follow the law whether they like it or not. they can also lobby congress and other other bodies to

try and change the law. or repeal the law or or something like that and ultimately laws can be changed by courts but you have to remember that the foreign intelligence surveillance act was debated by congress in the open several years ago and so it's been on the books for some time and so now we're beginning to see exactly exactly what the law's capable of and so at this moment all they can do is either hope to change the law through litigation or or read legislation and eric misses a question that i have been asking all of my guests who come on to talk with me about the n.s.a. surveillance program and i will keep asking it until there is a realistic solution how can the public protect itself from the surveillance or can it. you can protect yourself to a certain point there are encryption solutions available and when properly implemented and that's a key phrase properly implemented there are ways when you can minimize or lessen

your exposure to these two things technology there's no absolutes and a lot of the exception technologies have been compromised or there are ways through them or around them or be an encrypted data can be found or compromised in other ways but put your faith in mathematics that's what some of the encryption s. are picks for it's for saying now put your faith in the mathematics and the ability of making your making your message difficult to read that's a very good step and that is a very good step and david thank you for the information and also for the advice eric hesseldahl he is the senior editor at all things digital. well in the last few months immigration reform has taken a back seat in congress but activists are fighting to bring the issue back to the forefront today immigrant women from across the nation came together to call in the house of representatives to move forward and secure a path for citizenship for the eleven million aspiring u.s. citizens the protest was the largest act of civil disobedience on behalf of

immigration reform to date david has more. well over one hundred immigrant women participated in a civil disobedience action where they voluntarily got arrested here today at the capital they are protesting against what they are calling unjust immigration policies that are tearing families apart my parents and many of my other family members are undocumented and i'm just always living in fear of them being separated from me and you know i rely on my parents and that's really worrisome all this females need an immigration reform they need to be able to come out what i'll be as scared to get on medication for decades what i'll be as scared to buy food to put into table for tickets but i'll be as scared to go to work and have a kids at home at school and why we and i wonder if when i come back there it took my dad when i come back is my mom going to be home from a numbers perspective the majority of immigrants to the u.s. are women and children so this is an issue that's it's very close to home for them

now it's important to know that many of the women who are here today are undocumented many of them specifically representing the domestic industry as nannies or health care aides for the elderly and say now these are jobs that unfortunately don't provide pay stubs they don't provide verification of work and therefore is very difficult for them to obtain a path to citizenship and that's why they are here today risking arrest calling for congress to take action once and for all it is time for the house of representatives to act the house needs to be united there is strong bipartisan support for this bill from the senate and in the house the majority of americans are in support women are standing up to say today it is time for the house to be united this is an issue that's been on the table for a long time and women and children and families cannot afford to wait anymore there's certainly a lot of emotion out there today for these women and the millions more they

represent especially considering that their livelihood and future rests on the. congress to put politics aside to find a meaningful resolution in washington i mean our david our team. organizers say that over all of the over one hundred women who were arrested this afternoon fifteen have been released so far the others will be released later this evening the women each had to pay a fifty dollars fine but nothing will go on their record. well remember that pesky piece of legislation that we told you about early this earlier this year known as the monsanto protection act against the outcry of farmers the bill slipped into the last minute short term house agriculture appropriations bill for two thousand and thirteen under the auspice that it would be expired in six months time many legislators expressed their surprise that the writer formally known as the farmer assurance provision was even in the bill in the first place well six months have

come and gone and the act it has now been approved by the house for a three month extension the actual old biotech behemoth like monsanto cargill and dupont from the threat of lawsuit against as a result against them as a result of their genetically modified seeds it also bars federal courts from forcing these g.m.o. giants to halt sales even if it is known as that the product is linked to harmful health effects the center for food safety is speaking out against the extensions saying quote the rider represents an unprecedented attack on u.s. judicial review which is an essential element of u.s. law and provides a critical check on government decisions that may negatively impact human health the environment or livelihoods but at least for now for the next few months anyway a look south as if this act is here to stay and that's going to do it for now i'm not in lopez syria right back here at eight pm with more news an in-depth

interviews but keep tuned to abby martin is coming up with breaking the set of the top of the hour. wealthy british style. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report. put on your full show common to watch any bank holiday face i just i feel alone.