coming up on r t n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden is speaking out would he have to say about allegations he gave top secret intel to the russian and chinese government details just ahead and force feeding i get no should the u.s. government have the right to force feed striking detainees a judge here in d.c. is hearing a case that's asking for an injunction to prevent the inhumane practice we'll have a report from the court coming up. and governing by crisis it seems washington can only make decisions when there's a looming catastrophe but is this hurting the u.s. economy we'll get some perspective on that later in the show. it's friday october eighteenth five pm in washington d.c.

i know you're a david and you're watching our t.v. we begin today with the details from an interview with former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden and an extensive conversation conducted through encrypted online communications with james risin of the times snowden give detailed responses to a myriad of accusations levied against him by the u.s. officials one major allegation that snowden had leaked secrets to both chinese and russian governments and that therefore made him a traitor to the united states snowden says that before going to russia he gave all the classified documents to journalists and hong kong and he reiterated that he did not keep any copies for himself saying quote it wouldn't serve the public interest . in response to how he protect protected excuse me that classified documents from china spies snowden said that he was able to to because of his background and training at the n.s.a. as a contractor snowden was well aware of china's intelligence ability. noting that as

a contractor he targeted chinese operations while at the same time teaching a class on chinese cyber counterintelligence the former government contractor also made it clear that he did not take any secret n.s.a. documents with him to russia which of course is where he is located right now and he did this he says to assure that the russian intelligence officials could not access them snowden has been seen by government officials as a traitor who's causing much enormous damage to u.s. intelligence operations however privacy advocates feel just the opposite hailing snowden as a whistleblower who acted in the government's best interests just last week some of those privacy advocates from the u.s. paid snowden a visit to russia for the sam adams award and integrity and intelligence work which that word snowden received we're fortunate to have one of them here with us right now just one raid act the national security and human rights director of the government accountability project just one thank you so much for joining me here so

you just returned from moscow were you able to attend the award ceremony for snowden how would you characterize him now having met him and his disposition right now you know i thought he was healthy and happy he seemed very grounded and balanced and thoughtful despite all the pressure that he's under needs seem very. you know very funny. very wicked than him or yet he was very funny and. and social and i think he was really glad to see us and we were really really glad and grateful to be able to see him too did that surprise you. his disposition and how happy he seemed i think. so i think most people under those circumstances i mean i can hardly imagine being away from my friends and my family and actually having my country exile me. and bandon me. so i thought

he might be depressed or have lost weight or you know be more despondent but no he he looked great and what kinds of safety precautions did you take before you made the trip. we those of us who were traveling there were four of us and we had a lawyer under a tension if we were detained coming back into the country if we were detained and interrogated and if our devices were taken from us and at the same time we also left all those devices including cell phones laptops and any other normal twenty first century landline that you have to be u.s. that had to be so hard to do what was it like just being disconnected from all of it's really hard and i'm not even one of the more technologically savvy people who has a million gadgets but for me not being able to talk to my family once i arrived or to tell people that i was safe that was very disconcerting and i think that's

horrible that there are a number of people like with all this amazing technology we have there are so many people now who are disconnected because it's not safe as we've learned thanks to his revelations to use your cell phone or computers or i mail or internet work facebook or anything people people are using to communicate it is unfortunate and of course you did go along with it with three other americans two of which are former was whistleblowers like yourself i want to pull up what the new york post wrote about it the article begins benedict arnold would have fit right in a fan club of us traders went all the way to russia to give in a war to their hero terror watch secret spiller edward snowden how do you even respond to something like that usually i just don't except they keep getting asked about it you know the new york post always has these crazy incendiary inflammatory headlines of the border and the absolutely ridiculous but if they had. in any

research they would have known that the people who went are themselves former whistleblowers including myself who have all been vindicated by the u.s. government. and last week the rhetoric surrounding snowden sort of went a step further when on a panel n.s.a. director former n.s.a. director michael hayden jokingly said i must admit in my darker moment over the past several months i also thought of nominating mr snowden but it was for a different list to which then it representative mike rogers chimed in and said i can help you with that so of course they're referring to you know snowden being on the drone kill list i mean what does this say about how they are perceived perceiving snowden and you know all of this information that he's really provided to the public i mean it really is a transparent about how irate they are and how reckless they are these are elected and appointed officials at the highest levels of government and to make comments like that it's why we're responsible and profoundly disturbing frankly and

it really shows you the entity and the venom that the u.s. has so when it's like oh come back and we will treat you well and we'd love to hear from you i mean really are you kidding me when you joke about putting people on the targeted assassinations bill but i did hear that that word snowden is not necessarily taking this very seriously at all or. i think he sees it is a veiled threat which it is but i think he feels secure in his surroundings in russia because russia frankly has the muscle to stand up against the united states and to protect him sure and of course we learned that on wednesday and as a director keith alexander will be stepping down in the coming year do you think that has anything to do with the snowden leaks oh absolutely not only keith alexander but his body chris inglis they're both leaving to spend more time with

their families which is frankly ok with me i'd rather them spend more time with their own families than with my family and just you know to wrap it up i wanted to ask you about the award that snowden received the sam adams integrity award i don't think a lot of people know what it is can you just talk a little bit about it and i should mention you perceive it was back in two thousand and eleven sure sam adams associates are a collection of former cia intelligence analysts operatives who have decided to bestow this award on other people who have showed courage and integrity and bravery from the intelligence community often but not always as they happen to be was so blowers who've revealed truths that are either embarrassing or frankly illegal to the united states but in the public interest to know these people not just for people in the u.s. or been a number of recipients from other countries absolutely well we're very excited

you're able to get you fresh off your trip thank you for joining us just former whistleblower and national security director of the government accountability project thank you and we're. last february more than one hundred men at guantanamo bay went on a hunger strike to protest their indefinite detention but instead of addressing the underlying issues pushing these men to put their lives on the line the u.s. military decided to force feed them now sixteen men remain on hunger strike but the technique to keep the men alive remains and question force feeding has been deemed cruel and inhumane by the international medical community and today the federal court of appeals in washington d.c. heard a case seeking an injunction against that very practice artie's sam sachs is there and brings us more. u.s. federal court of appeals here in washington d.c. heard arguments that in a case challenging the force feeding of guantanamo bay detainees at three detainees have challenge there for speeding and i've asked the court to put an end to it the issue at hand today was whether or not the court even has jurisdiction to do that

because earlier this year a u.s. district judge ruled that while for speeding is painful and humiliating the courts don't have the power to stop it i kuantan know but i would say that decision that's being challenge today right here and we'll have to see if this federal appeals court gives power to the courts to put an end to force feeding procedures at guantanamo now at the prison sixteen hunger strikers are still being force fed on a daily basis of this is a procedure that's been deemed an ethical and even torturous by the world medical association and by the united nations after today's hearing a number of organizations gathered in front of the courthouse to protest the continued use of force meaning cry. cry cry cry out and. it was there that activists on driscoll terrorists who's been on a hunger strike for more than one hundred days drinking only water under one to force feeding procedure himself force feeding is being done to prevent prisoners

who would rather die in guantanamo then to live in the limbo of what they are living not knowing when they will be free but also the constant psychological and physical torture that they are living every single day then the force feeding begin . cone terrorists describe the pain. when the tube has gone in at times it has blocked my cut capacity to breathe it is felt like constant agony and it is this fire in your throat. as you saw it's absolutely gruesome and this happens out of sight in guantanamo to the men who are force fed so the hope is that bringing visibility to the gruesomeness of in terrell feeding will shock the conscience and make americans troubled by what the government's doing i cannot not stop and so i have gone in front of the white house

why because we need to reveal to the light of day what is the torture that is happening in the shadows there will have to wait some time perhaps months before we hear the appeals court decision but activists here are confident that actions like this today and the strike still underway kuantan ago are working and they're raising public awareness and political will to do something about a prison the just can't see and be closed and a hunger strike it just won't go away. in washington. yesterday the justice department brought new charges against four former blackwater worldwide security guards the guards were accused of taking part in a shooting in iraq six years ago they killed fourteen unarmed civilians and eighteen more the decision was determined by a federal grand jury in the u.s. district court for the district of columbia with the guards being charged with voluntary manslaughter and other crimes involved in the shooting in a statement u.s. attorney now mation jr said today's indictment charges for blackwater guards with

killing or wounding thirty two defenseless iraqi citizens these defendants abuse their power through a relentless attack on unarmed civilians that recklessly exceeded any possible justification the blackwater incident took place back in two thousand and seven in baghdad the contractors security detail had been clearing the way for a convoy of u.s. state department vehicles transporting diplomats to a meeting blackwater guards said that the convoy was ambushed and that they fired at the attackers in self defense however in a long investigation that followed the attack the f.b.i. and federal prosecutors determined that the shooting was a potent unprovoked illegal attack on civilian killings of course outraged iraqis and significantly strained relations between baghdad and washington now this isn't the first indictment against these blackwater guards justice department charges against these four men and another were dismissed at the end of two thousand and

nine a judge said the investigation into the case was improper because the guards who gave statements were threatened with dismissal a sixth guard pled guilty to manslaughter and attempted manslaughter in two thousand and eight and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors. and still ahead here on our t.v. governing by crisis is this the only way to washington only way that washington can get anything done and is the practice hurting the u.s. economy. we'll tackle that object next. week or not trying to adopt a camera on a military where armed forces that are in the aftermath of the first strike never turn the world's attention to the point that some. hard line.

drama is the truth be ignored to make. stories others refuse to notice. the faces change the world writes no. picture of today's you know. from our rooms to to. drop. i think. i would rather as 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 on our t.v. question. and

may feel like the distant past now but it was only three days ago that the u.s. government was on the brink of disaster the country was hanging on a ledge as it neared closer and closer to defaulting on its fillion dollar debt default that could have triggered an economic collapse and reinvigorated a global financial meltdown but despite the stakes being so high lawmakers in washington seemed more concerned about serving their political agendas instead using the political deadlock to force each other to make tough decisions and it's a crisis driven approach that president obama called attention to earlier this week . i want to thank the leadership for coming together and getting this done. hopefully next time. it won't be in the eleventh hour one of the things that i said throughout this process is we've got to get out of the habit of governing by crisis

. but it goes just beyond poor strategy to get things done in washington this brinkmanship is starting to have a real effect on the economy this according to a new study called the cost of crisis driven fiscal policy the study commissioned by the peter g. peterson foundation shows that this reliance on crisis driven governing just since two thousand and ten has cost the us nine hundred thousand jobs so to talk about how this is possible and what these perpetual political impasses are doing to disrupt the economy i spoke earlier with richard wolfe professor of economics americas at the university of massachusetts amherst i first asked him about the process by which political deadlock translates into a loss of so many jobs. i think the basic problem has to do with how to handle an economic system that isn't working for the majority of the american people anymore i mean the basic issue the long term issue is that american large businesses have decided they can make more money by moving out of the united

states taking advantage of the lower wages in china in india in brazil in nigeria all over what we used to call the third world and basically they've left or they are in the process of leaving that leaves the united states with an enormous problem there aren't enough jobs the people who lost their jobs crowded into the job possibilities that remain driving down the wages there and we have a fundamental economic crisis that requires a massive response if there's any hope of getting out of it the only agency in the united states that can deal with that problem that has the money that has the reach that has the broad scope for action is the united states government but the fear of the business community is that if the government takes this problem under its wing

and goes after it that either they will be taxed to pay for the solution or that the solution will involve taking power and decision making away from big corporations and maybe even limiting their freedom to leave the country without taking care of the mess they leave behind they're determined not to let that happen they work through the republican party but also the democratic party to stymie the government to get it into gridlock so it can't move in the directions they're fearful about that's our problem. and richard people talk about why she can be more divided than ever at this point but it seems like gridlock has always. exist ed i can you put this into historical context for us is this government more people polarized than ever before not at all it's only polarized around particular issues and it can swing into action when its interests are allied with those of

business let me give you the clearest example in the last four months of two thousand and eight our economy came this close to complete collapse that's the period of time beginning with the bankruptcy of lehmann brothers in new york and the cascade of disaster incomes the congress of the united states republicans and democrats mostly the same people who are sitting there now and in a matter of weeks they swung into action and they pumped trillions of dollars with the teen trillions in the united states in a stimulus program in a bailout program they brought in the federal reserve everybody worked together there was no dispute there was no fighting there was no gridlock all the trouble came later after you bailed out the big banks the big corporations save general motors the whole story suddenly when it came time to maybe taxing the beneficiaries

of all those bailouts so that the government could help the average american then we had gridlock then we had fighting no no no we don't have a gridlocked congress when it comes to helping the people who call the shots we only have gridlock when the question is what do you do for the people who suffered five years of this crisis still around employed find their children having to borrow on questionable amounts of money to go to school and all the rest then when it comes to solving the people's problems then we hear about gridlock and division no no no the issues go much deeper than that and richard i think the scare. thing is that we know that we'll be revisiting these same contentious issues in another four months when the debt ceiling returns lawmakers aren't necessarily fixing the underlying problems here but rather they are finding temporary solutions to them so how difficult is it to actually recover from the damage that's been done. i don't

see any change in the basic contours of the u.s. economy forty years into the future and i notice that one of the most wise commentators stephen roach used to work for many years at morgan stanley bank has said the same thing in recent days we are not doing anything to solve this economic problem we're patching it over with a little bit of fix it here and there we've made our commitment to bail out the big corporations we fought as a nation that the bailout would lead the banks to lend money to businesses and people so we could recruit parekh on the me they did no such thing the big corporations keep believing we have a political system that is subservient to the people who run our economic system and the truth of it is unless and until we face that we're dealing with the people who run our big corporations and we have to change how they work and the decisions

they make so long as we don't face that we'll be dealing with their puppets their tools in the united states congress and the white house too and they will give us lots of political theater lots of raw material for news stories but they will not give us real movement or decision making because they are held in check by subservience to the larger interests control them sir and speaking of corporations in response to everything that has happened politically one venture capitalist and silicon valley said that he said if companies shut down the stock market would collapse if the government shuts down nothing happens and we all move on because it just doesn't matter what's your take on that well i think there's a point to it all anyway it matters you know there were hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs for a few days there were businesses that therefore had no customers there were all

kinds of hardships when the government doesn't. do the thousands of things we needed to do so i wouldn't underestimate that importance i wouldn't also underestimate the enormous significance for the rest of the world that used to look upon the united states as the bastion of capitalist come of capitalist functionality a safe place to invest your money the united states is looking less and less like a society that can control itself and more and more like a society beginning to fall apart the long run effects of that are enormous but i do agree with the silicon valley fellow that you quoted that the real issue is how corporations are making decisions since we have an economy in which we let allow the tiny number of people that control the biggest corporations to make decisions we all have to live with but which we are not allowed either directly or through our government to have much influence over at that in the hunter noble situation i

want to jump in there because i want to ask you as a very important question which is how do we even begin to break this vicious cycle that has really come to define this way that washington is operating will it take an overhaul of our political system our economic system or both. i think first and foremost the focus should be on our economic system we should stop this strange american desire to blame our economic problems on our politicians you know the biggest problem of the last six years has been unemployment millions and millions of people were fired from their jobs you know who fired them private capitalist employers not government officials and the first line of criticism and anger ought to be focused where it belongs on the decision makers in our corporations who decided to move out of the country to lay off american workers and let's go from

there we don't do that we leap over the corporations who fire us to blame the politicians who have relatively little to do with it that's where we got to start and what do i mean we have to bite the bullet we have to face the hard reality we allow an economic excess system to exist which is flagrantly undemocratic in most corporations a tiny handful of people major shareholders doesn't the board of directors another doesn't make all the decisions what to produce how to produce where to produce and what to do with the profits we all the mass of people who work in all these businesses making this economy go we live with the results that a tiny group of people make do we vote admin no do we have democratic accountability for their actions no they do what's profitable for them they give themselves enormous our ease they pay themselves the dividends they decide to move

to china we live with the results they make the decisions you know we had the american revolution not to have a king of england do that for us and we don't need a few corporate executives overpaid as they are to play the role of kings in our modern. we have to face that question to become a mission that can rule its own destiny just like we had two years ago visit being would and i think until we face that we're going to look at all of these irritating troops in washington be worried about them while the real problem goes over address well it's certainly a lot more to come and we'll definitely have to have you back on because this is the news that doesn't stop giving richard wolfe professor economics merit is that the university of massachusetts amherst thank you so much for joining me thank you for the opportunity in the past you might have used your phone to call up your

friends to see how they were doing but thanks to the advent of social media now you can just check their facebook statuses and twitter accounts to see if they're having a good day or not scientists at the university of california san diego are trying to apply this concept on a broader scale the research institution received a grant from the national institute of health to use twitter to monitor depression amongst americans currently to figure out the rate of major depressive disorders scientist use telephone surveys which cost a lot of money and require a ton of operators and despite all of the work the surveys reach less than one percent of the population but using twitter the scientists say could cut down on costs and provide a better picture of mental health on a national scale however of the scientists explained that the first step is to investigate the challenges to privacy that could erupt from studying mental illness through the social media site and then they have to figure out how to identify depressive symptoms in one hundred forty character updates now that sounds like the

really difficult part considering so many tweets out there don't make a whole lot of sense. and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered today go to youtube dot com slash r.t.m. america and check out our website r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir a david see you right back here at eight. thirty . crisis averted at least for now washington's dangerous and even the responsible political circus has taken a time out with barack obama still standing however neither the president nor

congress have much to be proud of none of the core issues at the heart of this deadlock have been dealt with washington gridlock issues like that can't be kicked down the road. i was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears of the war you and your great things rather that. regard at the core of what the ground alive is a story made sort of movies playing out in real life. you know recently.