last night georgetown residents got an exclusive screening of a new drone movie outlining human cost of this covert warfare there wasn't enough theater though instead it was on the side of the home and have it by department of homeland security nominee jay johnson u.s. code pink organize the event in order to bring light to the fact that johnson is one of the main individuals behind the legal justification for these unmanned killer robots and while it's true that many people are responsible for the creation and codification of the drone program one historian argues that the buck stops where we at the white house is name is lloyd gardner is the author of sixteen different books on u.s. foreign policy his latest is called killing machine the american presidency in the age of drone warfare and he analyzes how the evolution of war technology is changing the executive branch lloyd joins me now from our new york studio thanks so much for coming on lloyd. well thank you very much for having me so ward your book is a strong indictment of obama's presidency in terms of foreign policy what has obama

done to exacerbate the war on terror. well that's a very complicated question he obviously inherited a very bad situation in iraq promise to get. american troops out of iraq in a reasonable amount of time but he'd also promised he was going to step up the war in afghanistan he thought that the war in iraq was the wrong war and the real war should be fought in afghanistan against. where the attack on the united states originated so he believed that he would. do this and in stages of counterinsurgency it first he adopted the idea that if you had the right general at the right time that you could in fact mation build if you will not since he was.

not unlike president george w. bush but when counterinsurgency failed as it inevitably did in afghanistan then he turned to drones and his major advisor on that was a man by the name of john brennan. and he had other their advisors and in the same way you have to also understand it seems to me that the two things here one there is counterinsurgency and that assumes that you have a government that's worth defending and that you are eliminating illegitimate insurgency and the other is a problem of terrorism of the two separate problems. and in this case president obama stepped up the counterinsurgency and when that failed he turned to drone well i mean he campaigned for the due for due process and the rule of law i mean we're talking about a constitutional lawyer here what happened between that rhetoric and the current reality in which we let. the rhetoric of fundamental change

in the wrong i mean i mean let's restore the rule of law well right. that came into play and the question of whether or not you could take out an american citizen in a foreign country with a drone the most famous example of that of course was the attack that killed the the preacher of the muslim preacher the instigator many thought of attacks on the united states a lackey and attorney general holder argued that. due process under article five of the constitution does not necessarily mean judicial process that there was enough evidence out there to convict this man and so that it was proper to use a drone to kill an american citizen in a foreign country yemen. your book zeroes in on the role of the american presidency but is the system set out as such that it's beyond the ability for

a president to scale back. that's very good question. the president only has so much power to change anything it at any time he has the most leeway it seems to me in foreign policy at least that's been the case since the cold war started and one could argue that the main factor in giving the president this power was the invention of the atomic bomb not counterinsurgency in drones but the atomic bomb because we relied on the president to carry that little football sized haven't aged care that football sized package around and that he was the one who is going to protect the united states and that also lends itself to secrecy in the growth of executive secrecy the central intelligence agency the national security agency all the agencies that form this

very top heavy intelligence program how much can any one president change that after after the motion is. not a whole lot but it does have to do with attitudes too and what you can. try in a sense remember obama said he wanted to change the mindset he not only wanted to change getting into the war why we got into the iraq war but the mindset that got us into the iraq war and many people assume that meant he was going to change some of the basic american foreign policies that george bush did push the limit well certainly did change the minds now were completely detached from any sort of warfare or foreign policy that were perpetrated around the world i want to get into this your book you know focuses on how u.s. foreign policy has evolved since world war two in defining technological solutions to political problems i mean what interests you think have driven u.s.

policy toward that direction. i think i mean america has always going way back to the. prior to world war two even world war one we had a notion that any problem political problem can be solved if you have the right technology and the right general that is if you have lincoln has his grant and he has more firepower then you solve the problem of the confederacy well that works up to a point. after a time you get to a point where technology no longer is the only solution or in fact the best solution to a problem harry truman at potsdam in one nine hundred forty five for example complained that he'd been there twelve whole days and he said well you could you could solve any problem in twelve days he knew upon stam he had the atomic bomb. and so therefore he thought that. after world war two problems would become even

more technologically solvable that's not been the case. here is this deliberate to a point i mean having robots replace people private armies replace standing armies what does this detachment do i mean because private armies of course every place the draft as we saw in vietnam what does this do to the american psyche in accepting the kind of these global policies being perpetuated in our name. well that's a very good question to what happens is that the american people by and large become detached from the military you eliminate the draft. and you eliminate large scale numbers of people being drawn into the army. in that process against their will or at least not voluntarily and you have a population which sees war as kind of over here it's something that's happening over here on the side. you might be afraid of terrorist attacks and so on and so

forth but these are being taken care of by an increasingly smaller percentage of the population so that so that it's very hard to get. any sort of real critique. mobilized. it is indeed and you know how does you know there's a chapter in a book called american hubris and i just wanted to see your opinion on american exceptionalism and how it affects our standing in the world we have about thirty seconds left. yes well american exceptionalism. has been a constant mix to technology next to the romantic affair with technology and in fact the intertwined the notion that we have technologically superior suggests that we are also somehow morally superior and that america's next step and all those bad things that happened over in europe before america was discovered before there was the united states and this is ingrained in people i mean in high school

textbooks right for a long long time of course one one learn. after all america had never lost a war right. and you know this is just a simple it wasn't true lloyd unfortunately we're out of time it is a toxic notion indeed everyone check it out killing machine the american presidency and the age of drone warfare pushchair time. ever heard of a tiny government program called obama care if you've been watching the corporate media and you probably haven't just heard of it but i bet you could point out every little error on health care doc. tech experts say it could take a long time to fix the glitches that people are experiencing when they try to sign up online senior medical correspondent elizabeth cohen has been trying to set up an account and she is getting nowhere fast elizabeth it turns out it's not about you

is it but where is the accountability of getting it in hiring someone without checking out other bidders i mean i'm putting a weekly thing about them sink without getting a couple big in there just right what what's going on and you shouldn't and i probably by the way because he would have done a better job than i would have thought responsible for a good deal of the latest changes strictly cosmetic that smiling woman on the home page is gone. you're smiling. a lot not sure the new home page is an improvement i think. yes based on the incessant coverage of the obamacare website you think that healthcare dot gov only featured miley cyrus twerking videos for the all the banal commentary on the disastrous rollout of the website the success of one part of the program has been largely ignored i'm talking about medicaid which traditionally has covered low income americans this is part of the affordable care act twenty five

states expanded medicaid to cover individuals who make about sixteen thousand dollars a year just over the poverty level according to apple their health so far this expansion has signed up four hundred forty four thousand new people who most likely have never been insured before and reality this number is actually much higher because so far only ten states have available data now compare that number to the enrollment figures of the private health insurance exchanges that are connected to the obamacare website according to wall street journal so far only fifty thousand people have signed up to this private marketplace this falls pretty far short of the administration's goal of seven million new enrollees by the end of march when open enrollment and furthermore mol everyone focuses on obama's broken promise that anyone who wanted to keep their existing insurance plan could he broke a far more important promise long ago let's go back to two thousand and nine when this health care program was first being negotiated obama continually hammered home the importance of a public option which is the government insurance program that would make the

private insurance industry far more competitive meaning lower prices for all of us . you'll have a chance under what we've proposed to take part in what we're calling a health insurance exchange this gives you some. and i believe one of these options needs to be a public option. now the public option of course was eventually scrapped because obama said he did not have the necessary sixty votes in the senate to pass it one thing all that boasting about the public option turned out to be a bunch of unadulterated malarkey that's because according to several behind the scenes sources the white house had already secretly bargain no way the choice of a public option with corporate health insurance interests months after taking office most notably tom daschle the former nominee for secretary of health and human services verified that negotiations with the hospital industry relied on two premises that the health care program would cover ninety four percent of americans

and that no public option would be included in the plan. yet obamacare munk care should really just be called corporate care because the health industry made damn sure that they had one hundred percent control of the program which brings us back to the current success of medicaid which is essentially a public option for the poor that already has the infrastructure in place so why haven't we seen the corporate media touch upon this aspect of the program well if they do talk about it and that means that have to acknowledge the public option could actually function within the existing framework which doesn't exactly lead and facial artificial conflict. you know forget according to a two thousand and nine new york times poll seventy two percent of americans support a public option but of course giving the people what they want would be no good for the private insurance industry is so in profits. coming up just when you thought occupy wall street was a long forgotten think again after the break i'll show you how recently claimed

a major success. on june sixteenth one thousand forty one we had a graduation party at school and the war broke out. the shops were always full of goods. but in september leningrad was blocked. one day mom went and saw that all the shelves were empty. in november they bombed the die of steel warehouses it was the main storage place for all the food in the city people eating the earth because it had small traces of sugar in it i tried to eat it as well but i couldn't. get the third look

at the lists incredibly heavy bombing. it was a direct hit on that very shelter and everyone was buried underneath. all of them with dead. if you. know opportunity. to start to construct your own. don't want to meet gangsters in a lot of. drug dealers they don't want to blow we know the time that a kid came be we can see. you just meet the fockers i was like

in the hood. i said. i don't want to die i just really do not want to die young young age. margy dot com is launching a special project to mark the appalling scale of violence in iraq. we want you to know. this is a medium so we need to. push the security. there's

an. issues that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politic. as a little kid to ever play with a toy gun of course you have who hasn't what today in the trigger happy nation of the us today simply having a toy gun out in public can get you killed this is exactly what happened to an eighth grader named andy lopez in broad daylight he was walking to his friend's house in santa rosa california holding this airsoft gun and officers claim that they thought it was an a k forty seven in it and he didn't drop the gun they opened fire resulting in the death of a thirteen year old boy so what's next for the lopez family who are seeking justice

for their son's death piers talked about the issue of police accountability i'm joined by the lawyer for randy lopez's case arnaldo c.s. thank you so much for coming on the show nanda every i can tell you to be here thank you so can you break down for our audience what exactly happened to any of the day. well let me just correct things a little i mean you suggested that the officers gave vandy the option or maybe some time to respond to the fact of the matter is at least what witnesses tell us is that that opportunity just wasn't there they drove up behind him as they were exiting from their patrol car they called him some order we don't know what the order is yet and within two to three seconds three of the longest they were shooting the police officer that shot and only one shot. hit him in the heart and the folds of the ground immediately and the officer continued to unload is his

firearm and. into his body. as i understand he was also handcuffed after laying on the ground is that correct. the from what we understand they rushed over they handcuffed him turned on him turned him over and made the realization of what had just happened in started giving him c.p.r. like i said the first bullet literally went through his heart c.p.r. was a worthless gesture at that point talk about the cop who killed lopez eric gallo house what is his background with the l.a.p.d. i'm sorry the santa rosa police department what does he claim happened that day. a deputy go house claims that he feared for his life the santa rosa police department is doing the investigation and they immediately i think the day after the shooting marshaled up a real a k. and a toy to suggest that his belief was reasonable. and that actually

is why we filed as early as we did in our opinion the it's it's a done deal they've they've already decided they will determine that the shooting was reasonable they will not put a critical focus on that observation in the shocking part is there was a witness that immediately drove by before and the seconds before the police officer got there and he noticed two things again not a police officer not a weapons expert like mr jailhouse that witness concluded that it was a kid first of all and two that he was carrying a toy gun and what's shocking is that. the officer could make the same observations got out and shot period very shocking and i you would think that they would be able to make that same observation that a bystander would get house's attorney just said in an interview that this case has nothing to do with age or race you agree with that sentiment.

andy was a thirteen year old kid he loved to play the trumpet loved box. it's great one hundred forty pounds five three there is no way that he could have been mistaken for anything other than a kid. what is the status then best partition i'm sorry. no no no that they're part of town is. primarily hispanic part of town. deputy go house has a penchant for profiling things just recently he approached a vehicle about a month ago. believing that there was some sort of crime afoot drew is weapon in approach the passenger and literally held the gun inches from the passenger's head when they complained about it to go houses supervisors the supervisors told them he

was profiling you you were driving a nice black car in a part of town it was profiling and i believe that we basically had the same thing it was true first ask questions later i don't think this would have happened in a different part of town frankly and what is that is the best occasion of the murder right now are there any punitive measures being taken against al house by the center as a police department. i understand he's on administrative leave and that's what's shocking to and his parents. and he's been cremated his body is now. in an urn at their home and the officer from intents and purposes is on vacation i suspect again that he's going to be vindicated by the center as a police department that's shocking and that's why we filed the lawsuit as soon as we did it's time for us to do our investigation and as the family's lawyer what

would accountability mean to the lopez family. truly. they are still optimistic that the district attorney is going to do the right thing they're still optimistic that a critical lie is going to be. used when they look at his statements they are hopeful that justice will be done they're hopeful. but if the officer is going to be prosecuted i i i want to share that hope i'm not as confident you know it does seem like even when lawsuits are filed and won i don't police department in these cases taxpayers are the ones to foot the bill of course and cops are rarely jailed let alone punished how can we expect the pollies to police themselves or get any more accountability for this. well one thing i think you hit on a very important note the. folks like you and me of the voters out there in sonoma county have to speak up i mean they're going to be hit with a verdict after

a verdict because these shootings are shocking the shootings are unjustified and they need to let their own voice be heard they're the ones that have to speak and they're the ones that should vote for example a sheriff whose policies lead to excessive force regularly that sheriff should be sheriff i think it's time for the voters to speak on this issue too as anywhere we can quickly go to have our audience help out with this case and put pressure on the police. the family i should say has been overwhelmed by the incredible outpouring of support. there are regular marches in the center rosa community for those folks that are out there i ask that you please join. but i do want to make sure that folks know and something that both of those three will and his father and souquet and his mother have urged everybody that's marching on and his behalf please please be peaceful that's something that we would would want.

thank you so much arnold i can see as lawyer for the family of any lopez appreciate your time. everything. for those of you who thought occupy wall street was dead check this out just this week an offshoot group of the movement called strike that claimed huge success a year after launching the rolling jew believe project the organization announced that it had successfully abolished medical debt owed by over twenty six hundred people across forty five states the way it works is through a campaign that purchases an individual's debt from banks for pennies on the dollar it's done by taking advantage of the secondary market and by purchasing debt of the low cost over the last years strike debt has freed up close to fifteen million

dollars of personal debt spending only four hundred thousand dollars of their own so if you're thinking this is just some sort of charity think again what this project is doing is actually creating a grassroots movement to end the crippling debt crisis and offering twenty six hundred people from major seem like a drop in the bucket organizers make no claim that this project is the final and all be all answer to all of our financial woes organizer of strike debt andrew ross said in a statement rolling jubilee is a spark it's not a solution in force and a debt for basic social services that will require collective response it's a small but affective way to change the conversation americans are having about debt and helping to shed light on the corporate dogma of putting profits about people but above all else what the role in jubilee represents is the power of the people and conquering seemingly impossible obstacles. you see so far you guys head to our facebook page at facebook dot com slash breaking the set

and be sure to do what thousands of done already and give us a like we're updating our status daily there with links to past segments as well as reaching out to you. you for ideas on what you want to see covered on breaking the sat. behind the scenes photos and past episodes like yesterday's interview with james corbett and our facebook page and check out all that and more on facebook dot com breaking the site thanks for sticking around you guys i'm watching it see them are breaks up all over again. negotiations continue but that is not stopped the blame game from raging we were told or ran in the western powers are on the verge of even agreement regarding to end this nuclear program then the talks stalled into the familiar stalemate the enemies of diplomacy appear to have the upper hand is war the only option left.

zachary what happened that day i don't know but a woman killed. piers later is when i got arrested for. for a crime i did not do. we have numerous cases where police officers lie about polygraph results. innocent people to consent to the police officers don't beat people anymore i mean it just doesn't happen really. in the course of interrogation why because there's been this is like meant no because the psychological techniques are more effective in obtaining confessions than physical abuse and they were often they could do what they wanted they could say what they wanted and there was no evidence of what they did or what they said. is obviously more for the latest because it's pink. women wanted to avoid rate

they really need to buy guns environ how to use them i'm. sure this is the one that i want to go with them once again it's the field from. definitely the target of the gun lobby and one you don't kill them when you're killing money but if somebody with you with this with her. i've noticed more and more if that's really scary marketing tactics which implies that women have some sort of moral obligation to own a gun to protect their family and young girls shoot out here too so we do have a pink or. more kids young kids choke on food than are killed by firearms if being armed made us safer in america we should be the safest nation on earth we're clearly not the safest.

party dot com is launching a special project to mark the appalling scale of violence in iraq. we want you to know. we're not psyched to an active camp at guantanamo where patients are forced that this comes after a man on the first strike never turned the world's attention to the police that something gulag of our time.

an afghan probe a. a series of brutal civilian killings scrapped off the washington refused to help allegations from locals of american involvement in the deaths. clear evidence pointing to the ugly truth behind the ongoing operations in. the us. despite predictions of nuclear negotiations in geneva will break new ground. immigration by sending out threatening text messages with intimidating advertising that its effectiveness the public's patience.