operations are ruled today. polo all i'm abby martin and this is breaking of the set you're get the feeling that u.s. policy is still running on a cold war mentality or maybe just appalled more. case in point tuesday's un general assembly vote to finally bring an end of the fifty year old economic embargo against cuba this is the twenty second year in a row the u.n. voted to condemn this blockade but this time the vote was especially in store in an unprecedented roll call the u.n. g.a. voted one hundred eighty eight to only two and a favor of ending the decades long embargo that is largely isolated the small caribbean island and guess who were the only two may vote yep none other than the

good old us of a are inseparable partner in all things undiplomatic israel and even though the overwhelming majority has already been tallied twenty one times before every time it does the u.s. government knocks it down faster than you can say crippling economic sanctions hope following the vote cuba's foreign minister spoke out about the embargo to the general somebody by saying quote seventy six percent of cubans have lived under its devastating effects since the day they were born it provokes hardships and is a mass flagrant and systematic violation of human rights the foreign minister also reminded the un that the economic damages have amounted to well over one trillion dollars since it was unstated under president kennedy at this point the world is wondering what the hell is the point in continuing the blockade and for that matter what legitimacy does an international body like the u.n. even have if the global community can vote almost unanimously on a change in policy and have zero zero effect on its outcome there remains to be no

rational argument for the u.s. to continue depriving the people of. cuba financial stability and international trade people are suffering right now and this country an able to live up to its full potential so if you think the charade needs to stop once and for all and stick around because we're breaking the set. the please please sir they are very hard to take under. the. law that he ever had sex with the terror threat there. that.

it. seems like every day i see another bush era war criminal being given a platform in the news to speak you their revisionist history whether it be dick cheney talking about his poor black heart on c.n.n. or bush lackey karl rove vehemently defending the n.s.a. on fox but usually would expect a little more scrutiny from such a well respected news program like sixty minutes which is why i was surprised to see who was on this past sunday former associate deputy cia chief under bush mike morrell how to unfiltered opportunity to speak about the decisions his agency made during one of most controversial presidencies in american history and one of the most of the foreign policies employed during bush's time in office was the use of

enhanced interrogation techniques better known as torture. if these were americans being held overseas by a foreign power would we have called that torture and i actually john want to challenge you on the word torture my officers carried out the guidance that was provided to them. in both administrations and obviously that was different i guess what's my view. my view was that those coerces techniques were the wrong thing to do. wow the wrong thing to do how do you have a change of heart now that you're completely powerless to do anything and i love how my challenge is the word torture so funny they don't consider waterboarding torture considering how japanese troops use the same tactic and against american soldiers and world war two and were executed for it but i guess it's easy to pass the buck to everyone else in government

a speck except for the agency most responsible yours but an interview with the cia official just wouldn't be complete without talking about drones today's preferred method of or. is a very precise weapon. collateral damage is very low it's not zero i wish it was. but it is as close to zero as we have gotten with any weapon system in the history of this country. most precise weaponry in the history of this country and zero collateral damage what a salesman i wonder if he's already making his move into the private defense sector to sell these and murder machines and you know i would. love to hear mike recites that almost zero collateral damage statistic to the family members of the three thousand five hundred and ninety five people that have already lost their lives to drone strikes that we know was accorded the bureau of investigative journalism but

see according to people like morale it's all worth it. there is no doubt in my mind that without these without this these operations that there would have been. another attack on the homeland that would have rivaled the scale of nine eleven yep it just wouldn't be a cia interview without some good old fashioned fear mongering about the next nine eleven any you can't pass up an opportunity to really traumatized the american people over and over again you know. his statements actually unprovable because these drone victims have and will never be tried in a courtroom because pretty hard for the deceased to tell their side of the story but you know what role does eventually reveal his human side at the end of the interview morel tells us the one thing that really keeps him up at night. what really keeps me up at night is the inability of our government to make make

decisions that push our economy and our society forward whoa whoa whoa whoa that's what keeps you up at night the partisan bickering in congress are you kidding me superficial squabbling is more troubling to you then the criminal policies you oversaw including torture rendition and definite detention and falsifying evidence to justify war these are the unaccountable crimes that are really preventing our economy and society from pushing forward listen it's bad enough that these people are out on book tours gallivanting around the world and set of behind bars but the compliance on the part of the corporate media to continue to allow out right war criminals to parrot propaganda with little to no pushback is a crime in itself. earlier

this year florida congressman alan grayson invited a pakistani family who lost their grandmother to a drone strike to testify in front of congress after jumping through hoops for months to run plan family finally arrive at the u.s. this week to speak to grayson and other members of congress about how drone warfare has tragically impacted their lives except one person was suspiciously missing from the hearing the family's lawyer shazad akbar that's because the state department refused to grant a visa despite the fact that akbar is travel to the u.s. many. in the past without any problems unfortunately only five members of congress took time away from complaining about the obamacare website to actually show up yes five out of four hundred and thirty five representatives felt it necessary to hear this family's story well our team got a chance to sit down with grayson earlier today to discuss why he's only one of

very little politicians willing to acknowledge the truth scope of the tragedy and devastation resulting from these drones. in the case of thrones there have been documented reports of roughly a thousand innocent people who've been killed by these attacks virtually every observer says that the chance of killing an innocent is roughly one in five every time we launch one of these attacks one in five like timbs turns out to be entirely innocent and there are publicly available lists of almost two hundred children who have been killed by these attacks people have to start to wonder why are we so willing to do this when there's so much collateral damage here. you know he brings up a really great point why is this policy being employed given the enormous collateral damage and the fact that there begets terror it's amazing to hear someone speak so reasonably about the truth of what's really happening in these far off regions grayson goes on to mention the abysmally low success rate that this program has

according to a study by the new america foundation there's only a two percent success rate at killing a high level targets on the ground that means ninety eight percent of the time innocent people are probably dying hardly seems like a worthwhile program doesn't it especially when you consider the aftershock phenomenon associated with these strikes known as double taps at the tactic where a particular target is bombed multiple times in quick succession often killing and injuring those simply responding the initial attack usually there's just emergency workers or family members rushing to help the victims but despite the new attention being paid to drone warfare grayson says this is anything but a new policy. this is a longstanding policy of the u.s. government and not limited to obama's tradition but to some extent the military industrial complex has a policy of denying obscuring attacking and to some degree turning the

victims into the suppose that oppressors i think that we have made position taken positions with regard to actual threats to this country that turn out to be somewhat overstated to say the least and we avoid other ways of dealing with these problems that are maybe a little more low tech maybe a little more difficult in requiring diplomacy but much more effective it seems to me that we're talking about people whom we regard as their enemies operating on pakistani territory the obvious solution is to have the pakistanis clean up their own mess rather than trying to send. death machines over to the other side of the world and do it for them of course there are other ways to deal with these problems the u.s. government could be easily working with these foreign governments to capture a ladder to high level targets if they are really are a threat and nuff to outright execute but of course that would be too easy too

messy too hard rather remember one of bush's drone architects john bellinger said earlier this year to a think tank in d.c. that the reason why obama has ramped up drones so much is to avoid the bad of get now let that sink in for a second this is the stark reality that we're living in right now assassinating people at will to distract from what many see as america's darkest stain and that's from the drone architects mouth and of course on the home front americans are told that blanket unconstitutional spine is necessary to catch terrorists all over the world but grayson says he has virtually zero trust in the intelligence community to properly oversee an already out of control surveillance state. what we see from the congressional committees congressional oversight committees regarding our so-called intelligence community is not the they're performing oversight rather overlooking and systematically doing so i think that they become apologists for the spying

industrial complex and i have literally never seen them do anything other than rationalize these in some cases gross abuses and constitutional violations particularly with regard to domestic surveillance well you just heard it from a member of congress and self these bureaucratic committees exist for pretty much no other reason than to justify and unlawful spying and egregious war crimes. if you like what you see so far you guys head to our youtube channel. by breaking the set of the described so you don't miss a single episode we do now as of our interviews posted sept. the end of the videos tab and purge i want to check out my interview with wayne kramer on his prison reform program in jail but hardly the words so go to you tube check out all that and more youtube dot com slash breaking the side holiday break from my preaching for now but stay tuned for an exclusive interview with the rough long family about their hopes to end drone strikes in their home country of pakistan.

i am the president and i think a society that case i see big corporation trying to convince to whom we can do. the banks are trying to get all that money all about money and i'm actually that for a politician writing the laws and regulations to attack. somebody out. there just to lead. today from. that.

despite a u.n. report that at least four hundred civilians have been killed by u.s. drone strikes in pakistan yemen and afghanistan the pakistani government has countered that figure with a shockingly low report just today the pakistani defense ministry said that there's only been sixty seven civilian casualties from drone strikes within the country

since two thousand and eight this discrepancy is outright appalling considering how multiple organizations such as the bureau of investigative journalism have shown as many as nine hundred twenty six civilians have died in pakistan some strong strikes began not to mention the fact that the number could be as high as three thousand five hundred ninety five considering how just being a military age male in a strike region could label you as a militant in the eyes of this government and every casualty from this drone war has a face every casualty has a family left behind to mourn their loss as i said earlier one such family just arrived in the u.s. a couple days ago to face congress and tell their story their rafique to him and his children zubair age thirteen and the be age nine these children lost their grandmother when a drone hit their village in north waziristan last year they all joined me earlier along with their lawyer jennifer gibson to talk about their story. their can you

briefly describe what happened on october twenty fourth two thousand and twelve with those it was the day before either and i had just returned from school i was inside the house having a snack and then my grandma had told me to come outside and help her while she was harvesting the vegetables we were going to prepare for the next day then i saw from the sky that was clear there was a drone that came overhead then two missiles fell right where my grandmother was to . right in front of me and everything became dark i couldn't tell if it was night or day anymore i could also smell smoke and i then felt a pain in my left leg despite the pain i tried my best to run out of there because i was very scared about five minutes later i heard the same dum dum noise and again a missile had come down but i kept running i later found out that my cousins who were still in the house they came out when they heard the first attack and then

they were also injured by the second strike in total of nine children were injured and i had left in my left leg. besides being physically hurt to this missile strike leave you with any psychological damage. everything just became brewing and i became very disturbed and anxious i would have it and i'm constantly living in fear i sometimes would have trouble going to sleep even because when i hear the drones i just be scared that it's going to fall on the same thing's going to happen again just like when i saw my grandmother was blown. what were your first thoughts when you found out that american drone missile was responsible for your mother's death. i actually was even in the city i wasn't in my village at the time when this had occurred i had gone to the nearby place to the bazaar to collect some supplies and to buy some sweets for either which would be the next day when i returned to the

village i saw that there are preparations for a funeral service and then i had asked some local village children whose funeral it was when they informed me that it indeed was my mother who was attacked. by an american drone i didn't know what to do i ended up fainting and i dropped all the stuff i had just bought i just i've never heard so i've never been in a situation like this i just didn't know how to react and i felt as if a limb had been cut off for me. i am very sorry for your loss but what was your message to both the american people and members of congress yesterday. the. my message today yesterday to the congressman and to the americans was i just wanted them to be aware of what had happened i wanted them to know that something bad had happened to us that we are innocent people that i'm just a teacher and i've never done anything wrong and that my children are not they don't mean any harm to anyone neither did my mother i also wanted to ask requests

that to do whatever they can to end these drones because i dream of have living in a village where we live peacefully and that my children can grow up without fear they can grow up and to be to become professionals they can finish their education right now ever since this incident my children feared leaving the house and i worry deeply as educator that this is going to cause them not to want to complete their studies. what's your response to politicians here in america who say these strikes are necessary to prevent terrorism. i don't know i'm not trying to propose any policies i'm not a politician i'm just a teacher but all i see from this pacific incident that the drone had killed my mother she was the one who brought stability to my family and ever since her death i feel like everything has just been turned upside down what i want is peace in my neighborhood and i if they really think that drones is the answer i disagree i

believe that this is something that's just dropped in our lives and that we're constantly living in fear and children do not want to continue their studies it's because they don't they fear going outside to play and they fear walking to the local schools thank you for expressing that zubair how does it feel to be in the country that is responsible for your grandmother's. well. the reason i came to america was because i have nothing against americans. therefore i'm enjoying my stay here i have seen that americans are very friendly and they're nice and that there's just like in pakistan we have good and bad people there are good and bad people everywhere what i did hear though was that obama said that he throws these drones to go after bad people after terrorist but i'm not a terrorist and that's why i came here because i wanted to tell my story and i wanted to ask i've never done wrong to anyone so why did i get injured why did my

sister get injured why did they kill my grandmother. we're asking all the same questions rafique do you would all blame the pakistani government for allowing these strikes to happen. i don't really know much about relations between the two governments but i do know about august on the government is supposed to take care of me as a citizen. what i also know is that when i did seek. answers from the pakistani government they told me that this was an american drone and what had happened to me although a tragedy i should not blame them that i should turn to america. all i really care about is the disruption of my life right now i am just really concerned about how my children are going to get past this and i'm just here to seek answers thank you jennifer why do you think that the state department refused to issue a visa for the original lawyer bar when he never had problems under in the country

before. only the state department knew why they didn't grant visa but one of the only conclusions you can draw is they didn't grant it because they don't want him coming here and speaking he had absolutely no problem coming to the u.s. before he started working on drones and sense that he it's become near so impossible for him to get a visa to come it's unfortunate because he's a critical voice in this debate he's one we should be engaging with and listening to and it's only when we start gaging with the human faces of this and listening to people like shazad that we can really get to the bottom of the true impact of what's going on absolutely jennifer this hearing has been a long time in the making what was the biggest challenge getting the reforms in the u.s. and were you disappointed that only five members of congress turned out for the hearing . oh i'm not sure what the biggest challenge as we've had a lot of them it's a band of at a six month process trying to get them here everything from time to get birth

certificates. machines breaking down in that were necessary to upload the information to them having to get past or the visa process itself and then having to physically get them here i mean without. i had to make an extra check to evolve to pick them up they've never been on a plane before the whole journey has been absolutely fascinating for me and i think for them as well but in terms of the hearing yesterday. and the turnout if we had done this a year ago i don't think we would have had a single congressman that so i think it's absolutely amazing that i think the total count was six or five. six showed up they came in and not. not in significant members of congress either you know we had someone from the house intel committee we had congressman conyers. you know there were some

senior people there and it was nice to see them there it was nice to see them interacting with the family it was nice to see them say we heard you we care sorry . considering homely twenty six percent of americans disapprove of drone strikes though jennifer what will it take for this practice to and. i'm hoping it's putting in a human face on it i'm hoping this week is the start of a change in those numbers that there was a poll earlier in the week that said that. you know the number drops to magically in terms of approval when you look at whether they're killing civilians or not well the reality is here are three civilians right here who have been impacted by u.s. drone strikes they need answers we need transparency in the program and maybe if we can start putting faces to the numbers and engaging with the human side of this discussion rather than just the statistics we can start to get people to take action. how do you think the average american citizen going to help and these drone

strikes. who's a little. i think of it this way that we're all human beings and by me coming here and sharing my story that other human beings having natural feelings will sympathize and realize that we're innocent people and that we have done nothing wrong and hopefully hopefully by listening to my story and seeing my children and me and my hearing about my mother about being blown into pieces that they will put some pressure on their politicians but that's something that i can't really speak about it's just something that i hope for i hope for the same thing. to wrap this up would you like to say a message to the american people. with what i'd like to say to them is please find a way to end these drones just the injury on my leg is not the only thing that happened to me i've been impacted my life has changed i no longer feel like going outside and playing cricket or soccer volleyball with my friends i don't even feel

comfortable going to meeting with my friends or going to school because i keep hearing the drones overhead and i'm scared that one day i may end up like my grandma. thank you so much for all of your courage for coming here fighting on behalf of the pakistani people. zubair not being home and jennifer gibson thank you so much. now to you. and thank you all for tuning in to day saturday night and we'll see record break the said mama. drama is the chance to be ignoring the. stories other islamists use to notice. the faces change the world writes never. grow. old picture of today's leads the east london

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