coming up on r t friend or foe president obama meets with the prime minister of pakistan and washington will meeting focus on drone attacks and trying to ease rising tensions between the nations details ahead inside get both a detention facility in cuba is shared bill shielded away from the public and the media but r.t. has gained access to get phone for a rare inside look at that story coming up and ole canada our neighbors to the north now find themselves involved in a spying scandal it appears a canadian intel agency is accused of collecting that met as data on its own citizens which is a violation of the law more details later in today's show. it's

wednesday october twenty third four pm in washington d.c. i'm megan lopez and you are watching r.t. all right well president obama met with pakistani prime ministers no wasn't sure if today to talk about relations between the two nations prime minister sharif is calling for a fresh partnership with the u.s. but simultaneously demanding an end to drone strikes in his country or to correspondent liz wahl tells us more about this high stakes meeting at the white house pakistan prime minister nawaz sharif's meeting with president obama aims to ease tensions between the two countries the meeting comes just a day after amnesty international released this report detailing how u.s. drone strikes in the north waziristan region have resulted in the deaths of hundreds of innocent civilians during anti american sentiment and emboldening militants we have to basically in the control the impunity. that human rights

abuses have in that region be they the u.s. of the cia pakistani forces or the taliban and al qaida speaking at the u.s. institute of peace prime minister sharif called for an end to drone strikes in pakistan the use of group just not only for continued religion or for data integrity but to get treatment to do. eliminating risen from our country this issue has become a major irritant to nobody or to relationship is when i would defer stressed the need for an end to drone attacks the obama administration has maintained that drone strikes target terrorists with precision while aiming to minimize threats to civilians but amnesty international's report suggests some of the strikes have violated international law the human rights group is calling for an investigation or as a part of a broader policy was a command structure level that this was allowed to happen was that an individual

pilot was behind the killing who chose made that decision to do the killing it depends on public discussing what happened in these cases who was behind it which institutions which individuals ties between the u.s. and pakistan weekend after the navy seal raid in pakistan that led to the death of osama bin laden pakistani officials complain that the obama administration didn't warn the country before swooping in the u.s. claims it didn't trust factions of pakistani intelligence with the information aside amending relations the state department has announced the u.s. will resume one point six billion dollars in aid to pakistan in tuesday's speech sure we've highlighted the two countries common interest of a stable afghanistan a nation with an uncertain future as the u.s. winds down troops i mean how it would have where they're the greatest challenge to pakistan comes from terrorism and extremism. but by the standards no that is social no that is. disinterest it isn't as is sometimes alleged all the

rhetoric has talent down at the dispute between the u.s. and pakistan but there remains a deep divide between the two countries while this meeting at the white house is seen as a significant step it's unclear how much it will really believe it's a rebuilding relations in washington as well all right. so what should we expect to come out of the meeting between president obama and prime minister sharon or will anything actually good come from it joining me now is mark marvin weinbaum scholar in residence at the middle east institute thank you so much for coming in here now this is the first time in years that the leaders of these two nations have come together is that a sign of progress oh absolutely two years ago we would be inconceivable for for them to meet but what's happened since then and talk about in the two thousand and eleven when the relationship really hit rock bottom this was particularly after the

raid which killed osama bin laden but a number of other incidents really set it back but where they are today is a new normal in their ears essentially that they recognize that some of the expectations they had out of the relationship were just not going to ever work but that they could agree on a narrow band of common interests and that's where they are now in the washer comes here and he presents his agenda the president also has an agenda they're not the same agendas but they're not totally incompatible and in any event i think both sides will politely here the other struggling here of them but we'll see if anything actually progresses from and are you expecting at all i don't think out of this particular meeting we're going to see an announcement would suggest that somehow there's some breakthrough on. for example the. president obama's going to say well we're giving up drones as a as

a weapon or for for in the washer if to say i want to announce here there we're going to do everything possible to seriously go after the extremists who are part of the problem in afghanistan and the insurgency which has found safe haven in pakistan so i don't think see anything like that sure now this thing happens right of the day after two deferent very respected human rights organizations released report on john's one dealing with pakistan the other one dealing with yemeni johns how realistic is it for in the future possibly the end to a drone campaign in pakistan well it's not going to happen for this reason as the u.s. draws down its forces. the drones in a sense become more important even if the are used as the we've seen they use much less frequently than they were just a year ago or two years ago so there is there is more caution in the use of them is

perhaps better targeting fewer civilian casualties although over the full time that they've been using certainly have been some hundreds of civilian casualties but right now it's a much more limited program and one that the u.s. is going to u.s. is going to be loath to give up on because it's not going to have very many other instruments with which to go after particularly groups like al qaida are now moving forward what needs to happen in order to get these two nations to work together how can they start laying that foundation for a new type of partnership well i think both of them will talk about a new relationship but actually they'll be fortunate if they can keep what they've got now. because what they have now when i said a new normal is again the understanding here let's not be lucian's about what we can get out of this we do have. not entirely overlapping interests here

particularly in afghanistan. so that the let's narrow understand what we both sides need a central way and for example what pakistan needs is economic assistance not just the u.s. foreign assistance program which is more tertiary and civilian but pakistan knows that the key to international financing which they need badly goes that key is held by the united states so there must be here a sense that the united states is concerned about pakistan's economic stability and that without that then the u.s. cannot expect anything else from pakistan and we have seen in recent days that flow of money going more toward pakistan as they are now fell and they said it was separate and completely independent of the meeting between president obama oh yes i'm sure sure sure it is but this is

a sweetener for them for the meeting this is something that they go into it and the united states can say you see there's goodwill on our our side with they have done is released funds that were already allocated to go to pakistan but because of these difficulties and particularly the inability of the pakistan military could to account for how some of their money has been used that has been held up and then we have the u.s. congress which is going to be a future problem here in in the appropriations for pakistan so i'll be very interesting to see how this relationship goes moving forward a very kind of careful step in that i think that's exactly saying thank you so much for joining me marvin weinbaum is a scholar in residence at the middle east institute. well since its inception the guantanamo bay detention facility has been shrouded in secrecy over the years a piece of information would come out here or a name there but the fact is that the world still has

a very limited understanding of what really goes on within those compound walls even journalists that trapped there have a hard time finding the truth in this part of her special investigation r.t. correspondent on a stasia charkha tells us about the struggles that she faced while on assignment. transparency is a word repeated by u.s. officials working at guantanamo like a mantra by those few who are comfortable speaking on camera you see the conditions under which the detainees live you get to talk to the people who are responsible for garnham we make it is transparent as possible and those preferring to remain on identifiable like the majority of officials we were permitted to speak to every week we get media like yourself international media or local media or whatever and they're welcome to come you know we tell them what we have any journalists workflow at guantanamo starts with a mandatory introduction to media rules the so-called operation security briefing

or the material that you guys are gathering to make sure. it is biased by our policies here even though transparency is a word brought out by all the personnel we talk to on the ground we as journalists access to detainees aside are asked to be very careful about the shots we filmed all the backdrops and at the end of each day videos are reviewed and any shots deemed unacceptable are deleted this one will be ok because palm trees are not too controversial remind you of any frowned upon seaward like censorship it's in this series of program established to a car or a car program accomplished with regulations sorry old video and audio recordings and even sketches are carefully studied cell phones are banned from camps we're not supposed to put anything on facebook or anything like that or in our even worry about talking about it over the you know anything over the phone this said purpose of these ground rules to protect the safety and security of get more operations the detainees you know make it their mission so we try to photograph them to take down

we are warned violations of media ground rules may result in restricted access denial of future visits and or removal from guantanamo people just kind of mislabeled it and i have a call that a call for bia just not leading. giving the true picture i mean the only people who knows what goes on get more is os and the detainees and getting the detainees side of what goes on at get most apparently just couldn't be done after an extensive explanation of how exactly we are to film the prisoners the amount of detainee face time we get a total of one minute and five seconds through a dark glass window the reason we're given out of respect for them and and not using them is as you know. you know. making them some kind of curiosity on film a thing like that we don't want to do that despite our requests to not even film but at least witness more real prison or life

a high ranking guantanamo admiral convinces us that we actually have a lot more access than we think you're seeing what there is to to see you know. given the amount of time that you have here to to see it we are as transparent as possible after one minute glimpse at one detainee our schedule is in fact all booked up tonight their comments if they were taken to the detention camp kitchen to witness how well things run their will since we're not really being allowed to close to the detainees this might be the closest glimpse of their life we might be getting today we're being told be that these are the meals that they're offered on a daily basis. we're also taken to the only local radio station all made up like zombies in the audience military personnel serving at the base doing news related to the guantanamo detention camp. like. that to the public media because. you know there's enough journalists over there covering their music sports and talk radio pure infotainment rains here and

so we learned there were not the only ones simply being treated to a show and party one ton of cuba. well there are a few moments that were more monumental during the arab spring uprisings than when libyan president moammar gadhafi was deposed and then killed on this day two years ago the a national transition council in libya declared the country liberated two days after a long time dictator colonel moammar gadhafi was found and murdered by a militia however a since that declaration the country has been still plagued with unrest and is dealing with an uncertain future political commentator sam sacks brings us a look over the last two years. two years ago today with moammar gadhafi dead in tripoli and most of libya firmly in rebel hands. the national transitional council declared libya. liberated that liberation came with

a price plus two years of been a chaotic ride for the nation filled with violent clashes assassinations parliamentarian dysfunction and most recently the brief kidnapping of the prime minister the united states which along with nato was instrumental in enforcing a no fly zone and bombing campaign that led to the ouster of gadhafi. has paid a heavy price as well in september of last year terrorist attack the u.s. consulate in benghazi killing ambassador chris stevens and three other americans so two years into its democratic experiment there are serious questions about libya's future amnesty international released a report this week about the plight of tens of thousands of libyans who have been displaced in victimized by roaming militias seeking retribution for gadhafi era crimes the libyan government which is dealing with fresh accusations of corruption has failed to rein in these militias across the country which are comprised of more

than two hundred twenty five thousand libyans and many of these militias run entire resource rich cities in libya declaring themselves independent of the national government tensions are strained further out. the u.s. special forces abducted an al qaeda suspect from the streets of libya two weeks ago and militants accuse the libyan government of being complicit with the united states. fueling the ongoing unrest in libya are lots and lots of weapons enormous stockpiles of weapons from gadhafi is forty year rule that flooded into the streets not just strengthen the hands of militias within libya but also across the border helping rebels in mali and syria so remains to be seen if post gadhafi libya can succeed and if the nato operation to depose gadhafi may have created more harm than good but given the unrest taking place in other nations also swept up into the arab spring like egypt which is under military rule in syria which is in a civil war libya's problems are not unique to the region and washington same socks

are to. president obama you have some explaining to do that's the message german chancellor angela merkel is probably saying to the president at the moment after finding out that the u.s. might have topped her personal cell phone it appears not even world leaders private conversations are safe from the watchful eye of the n.s.a. according to the associated press and der spiegel merkel reportedly called president obama personally to say that this behavior is unacceptable the u.s. government responded by saying quote the president assure the chancellor that the united states is not monitoring and will not monitor the communications of chancellor merkel note that the statement did not deny that the united states had monitored merkel's communications in the past and would not specifically specify about that tutor spiegel now this isn't the first time in recent months that germany has taken on the n.s.a.

for its overarching collection techniques the edward snowden leak revealed a long list of countries that the n.s.a. was keeping a close eye on and the german public was no exception in fact many internet users are flocking to german service providers in an attempt to keep big brother's nose out of their business but again it appears as if not even on the merkel herself who is a close u.s. ally to keep her data out of american hands we'll bring you more on this story as it develops. well the n.s.a. might be the most overarching surveillance agency in the world but it certainly isn't the only one one of canada's top spy agencies known as the communications security establishment canada is facing a lawsuit for violating privacy rights of canadian citizens the lawsuit was filed by civil liberties association and the open media organization who argued that the broadened unchecked surveillance of canadians directly violates the country's

constitution to speak in more depth about the last. and what americans can learn from it i'm joined now by steve anderson executive director at open media steve thank you so much for joining me so can you want a little bit more detail about what's going on here who is the canadian government spying on what information are they collecting. you know it's been revealed. the community the communications establishment canada. has the power to monitor any comedian any time without a warrant and not only that we're being asked to foot the bill for this expense of online spying and that's why thankfully the p.c. civil liberties association has filed this lawsuit arguing that this activity is unconstitutional and media we're really happy to support them and you know

similar to the u.s. here in canada citizens are very upset there's a pledge on our web site up media dot ca and thousands of people just in. their support for the b.c. civil liberties. and you know i'm i'm hopeful that the government will listen but but so far the day they haven't said much on this and there's very little accountability or transparency with this issue so is it do you have any idea if they're collecting the content of the phone calls or collecting mehta data are they collecting e-mails anything like that. yeah well they're definitely collecting method data and so that could pinpoint you know where someone is you know who people are meeting with that sort of thing and if you're communicating with someone outside of canada which is pretty much most canadians then that information could be collected and we could be talking about listening to phone calls or e-mails that sort of thing but even what's worse is that we don't know what information is being

shared between the n.s.a. and cia so for example the n.s.a. has definitely has the ability to sweep up our information and then canadian officials can then get we think and then get access to that and you know that sort of thing is really why i can medians want to know how many canadians law abiding canadians are being swept up with this activity and what information of ours is being stored and collected in these giant databases absolutely i'm sure a lot of people would want to know the answers to those questions and so let's talk about this lawsuit what are they suing for and what are we hoping to achieve here. yeah well the c.e.o. is arguing that storing canadians law abiding collecting and storing and monitoring and is unconstitutional under our charter and the hope is we'll have some parliamentary oversight because right now even our own parliament doesn't know

what's going on and you know if you look in the u.s. there's some move some measures being put forward where there would be some sort of oversight here in canada there's virtually no oversight and you know the government's own commission are supposed to be looking into this has said that he does not know how many canadians you know what information is being stored so the hope is that they'll be some sort of legal measures out there by the government in response to the kind of revelation that what is happening is unconstitutional so hopefully there's more oversight and how was it all uncovered i know here in the u.s. obviously we had the edward snowden leaks how was this a mass surveillance program uncovered. more or less it was uncovered by the releases well there's been for example it's been in the news recently because it was revealed. it's really becoming out of control and is actually engaging industrial espionage with our allies in brazil and so those sorts of

revelations and others. have come out and i think that's why the b.c.l. a has gotten involved and engaged i mean if you look at the u.s. there's a rally this saturday that we're actually involved there in washington d.c. with the stop watching us coalition and people are really upset with you know the revelations that have come up from snowden i think it's very similar up here in canada where the more canadians learn about this the more they learn about their privacy being invaded the more they learn about how c. sec is is kind of secretive and expensive in a controlled the more people are demanding oversight and accountability and we have a little bit less than a minute left but i have to ask you what can the american public take away from this lesson from this last two in particular about how canadians are reacting and handling it. yeah i think. people in the u.s. can take away the canadian tour basically with women being very upset about the spying that's going on i'm really happy that people in the us are calling for the

n.s.a. to be reined in because we're swept up in not surveillance too and i think people up here as well are trying to do our part to make sure that our spy agency is reined in and there's more accountability because really americans could be swept up their data could be left out of able to cyber criminals leaks to others and so hopefully if people on both sides of the border continue to speak out on these issues will rein in the spying on both sides steve anderson executive director of open media thank you so much. thanks for having me. all right well by now you're probably used to the long lines and the downs in the bag searches metal detectors ticket checks name checks sniffing dogs body scanners and everything else that goes along with the security screening process before you board an airplane in a post nine eleven world that is but it's not only your physical being that the t.s.a. is getting frisky with these days the transportation security administration is

also patting down your records by searching through various government and private databases to learn everything it can about you a new york times article goes into detail about this expanded screening process that begins well before the traveler heads to the airport their records include car registrations employment information your tax id previous travel itinerary his property records physical characteristics criminal records and so much more this new process is way way beyond the background check that the t.s.a. previously used called secure flight and this has privacy advocates fighting back they say this one size fits all approach violates privacy rights now the great irony of this program is that an agency official told the new york times that this process is so post to identify a low risk travelers for lighter screening by using get this more screening so the

next time that you think the t.s.a. patdown was a little too close for comfort relax they've already had their way with your records. well normally craigslist is the place you turn to for a good deal on gently used goods and on everything from cars to furniture maybe even clothes you can rent an apartment meet a new friend and now know you can get food stamps fox news discovered this week that some supplemental nutrition assistance programs of recipients are selling those food stamps for quick cash money. posting ads and apparently it's not only happening on craigslist other auction sites like e bay are also seeing food stamps for sale on their websites one ad boasted i have five hundred dollars worth and it costs three hundred fifty cash another said if you would like to get an extra one hundred fifty dollars to one hundred seventy five on groceries and pay no taxes and can see the benefit that you will be still

saving then email me or call me and we can arrange the whole deal as soon as you like however this activity is illegal by law and craigslist policy vans them from being sold but because it is such a large web site it is very hard to regulate now count collating the exact degree of abuse is also difficult to determine the united states department of agriculture estimates that the trafficking rate in the snap program has remained at about one percent or one cent of the dollar over the last decade a large drop from the trafficking rates of three point eight percent in the early ninety's nearly fifty million americans use food stamps today a figure that has increased significantly in recent years we don't yet know if these food stamps that are for sale on websites like craigslist are just a few bad apples or a sign of more serious problems with the program but that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash america and check

out our website r t dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez. old. son technology innovation all the list of melamine stuff from around russia we've dumped those huge earth covered. you don't know if you don't per car or you're not response to really. most everyone in my life that i cared about their goal much and then. i came askin well.

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know there i marinate and this is boom bust here are some of the stories we're tracking for you today. first up china's jump in u.s. debt or so the headlines what are the chicken littles of the financial world getting ahead of themselves we were below that historical hysteria when it comes to foreigners buying of uncle's sam's ious as well as the real eight hundred pound gorilla sitting on the trade desperate over there and thirty eight months after dog was caught the bureaucrats are still little in around with the final rules rules that are supposed to keep your favorite too big to fail bank on the wraps naylor of public citizen joins me.