it's. coming up on our t.v. it appears no one is immune from the n.s.a. spying tentacles the latest n.s.a. leak revealed to us kept watch on a close ally an well known international charities details on these latest revelations that. u.s. lawmakers are demanding the release of a secret cia report detailing torture of detainees after september eleventh this as a british report shows their own intelligence agencies turned a blind eye to some controversial u.s. practices will have information on that coming up and more sanctions on iran that's what a group of senators are calling for despite repeated requests by the obama administration to halt any legislation what's really behind this latest push we'll have that answer for you next.

it's friday december twentieth four pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you are watching our t.v. we begin today with a press conference where the president faced a flurry of questions about the n.s.a. after receiving nearly fifty recommendations from a white house appointed a committee to reform the n.s.a. surveillance practices president obama pledged to make a definitive statement in january about such which suggestions he will undertake now at the press conference president obama maintained that while edward snowden's disclosures have prompted an important conversation the method of how the information was leaked has been damaging take a listen this is an important conversation that we needed to. have also said before that the way in which these disclosures happen had been.

have been damaging to be united states and damaging to our intelligence capabilities and. i think that there was a way for us to have this conversation without that damage now damaging or not the conversation about who the n.s.a. is looking into continues with a new week from edward snowden just this morning r.t. sam sacks reports on the latest. just when the n.s.a. thought the week couldn't get any worse a new edward snowden leak drops this one jointly reported in the guardian the new york times and their spiegel reveals that the n.s.a. and its british spying partner g.c. h.q. are using their global dragnet to spy on economic diplomatic and humanitarian targets in more than sixty nations specifically the secret documents revealed joint surveillance by american and british spies on charity and development programs run out of the united nations including unicef on the doctors of the world

a french humanitarian group that provides doctors to conflict zones and on the trade union the economic community of west african states the documents also include joaquin almunia as a target of joint surveillance as the vice president of the european commission focuses on antitrust issues and has taken on several american companies including google and microsoft companies that were pushing for n.s.a. reforms at the white house this week perhaps most embarrassing about the latest snowden revelation there's evidence that g.c. age q. and the n.s.a. were spying on more allies including government networks in germany and spying on the former prime minister of israel they who'd olmert and other israeli officials with these new targets of n.s.a. n.g.c. h.q. spying revealed it adds more evidence to the claims that the n.s.a. and its spying partners have overstepped their national security mission and are engaging in mass nearly limitless surveillance around the world can i say has been

not only violating the trust of its own citizens by conducting mass cabinet surveillance on innocent people but on doing that to be innocent populations of allied nations the man who is holding on to all of the edward snowden documents journalist glenn greenwald testified in front of an easy you committee this week in argue that these disclosures prove that the. a say in partners are spying to gain economic and diplomatic advantages as well as the targeting by the u.s. in the g.h.q. it had through asked the oil giant and or the organization of american states for economic conference is where economic accords are being negotiated in latin america or spying on energy companies such as we've reported in norway and sweden and what a lot of this signing is about has nothing to do it terrorism national security that is the pretax it is about diplomatic manipulation and economic advantage and essentially a humiliation of power and the n.s.a.

has responded to this latest report by denying of its and gauging economic espionage on behalf of u.s. companies the agency did say however that intelligence about economic systems and activities around the world are critical for policymakers to make informed decisions regarding national security but then what exactly are the national security threats emerging from allies humanitarian groups and economic organizations that justify mass surveillance well that's a question the spies won't answer in washington d.c. if sam sachs are to. and arising communications as just announced it will publish semi annual reports on the number of government requests it receives for comes customer data risin is the biggest wireless provider in the u.s. and has been under fire for its cooperation with government surveillance programs up until now it had decided to keep any data requests from the government private

however it says it will start disclosing that information early next year this announcement comes just days after the nation's biggest technology firms including bryson warned president obama that national security agency's spying was detrimental to their reputation and standing in the economy rising communications has said that it is facing angry shareholders and some of them have even filed lawsuits demanding the company disclose the extent of its participation and essay intelligence activities while there's a limit to how much companies can disclose under current law risin won't be the first to file a transparency report google facebook and yahoo reported receiving over ten thousand data requests from the u.s. government in the first half of this year apple was queried forty five hundred times and twitter was asked about nine hundred times for user account information and all say they only complied with some of the requests so verizon will be

following in its tech competitors footsteps as it moves closer to transparency. and the pressure is mounting on the cia to release a very significant document from the post nine eleven era it's a secret senate report that reveals in great detail how the intelligence agency employed torture tactics in its handling of detainees the six thousand page interrogation report is the product of three years of work and forty million dollars in costs now ever since it was completed a year ago there's been strong disagreement between intelligence officials and lawmakers over how much information. the public should be allowed to read some officials of the cia claim the document is deeply flawed and inaccurate while members of the senate intelligence committee say it's the best account of how the cia carried out its role in the years following nine eleven here's how some vocal lawmakers address the issue at a hearing earlier this week. the course of techniques used by the cia during the

time frame were not consistent with their values as much as anyone i want to see the committee study of the cia's enhanced interrogation program finished and released but that cannot happen while the cia slow walks the documents that we've requested we don't have many options available to us to foresee agencies corp but i will not rule out any in order to get the agency to finally cooperate with our requests the new york times editorial board is also pushing for the obama administration to release the report with minimal redactions yet a tauriel published today says that the illegal detention and torture the not happened on president obama's watch but his quote expansive claims of secrecy have succeeded in blocking victims lawsuits and helping to keep details of rendition and torture secret denying the country a reckoning necessary for the historical record establishing accountability and

avoiding similar human rights violations in the future now while efforts to bring this report to light continue here in the us it seems british lawmakers have found some more success just yesterday one hundred fifteen page report was published that takes an in-depth look at the role of british law enforcement and intelligence agencies in post nine eleven operations the report specifically looks at the involvement of the m i five and m i six in the abduction of terrorist suspects who were taken in secret to prisons where they were mistreated it also takes a look at how these agencies interacted with the cia earlier i was joined by r t correspondent sara firth from london to talk more about these revelations i first asked her how hard it was to get the gibson report off the ground. well it's been easy process this inquiry was lawrence t. years ago at the time of the prime minister saying this is

a response to the allegations that we've seen of british agents involved in. a torture over and decision and mistreatment of detainees that it's been rocky process from the very beginning now we've seen the human rights groups abandon cooperation with the inquiry in last year it was scraps and we then saw it fall into the hands of the parliamentary committee and that caused a lot of months human rights groups who really wanted to see this be a judge led inquiry rather than have that government involvement the report that we actually published finally after all that time was actually an interim report and so human rights groups here in the u.k. have branded that a whitewash wow and this report outlines how officers of the m i five and m i six had turned a blind eye for years to out right abuse of detainees can you talk about the kinds of torture activities these agencies were ignoring. well it was

a huge amount of documents that we've gone three for this inquiry and it's not easy reading we saw evidence of british spies had been aware of the detainees makes mention two examples of physical assaults sleep deprivation and the use of it wasn't saying that this was british agents who were carrying out this mistreatment but what it did point see was that they had been directed at scenes not to intervene in one part of the court it says that officers were advised that faced with apparent breaches of geneva convention standards that there was no obligation to intervene said that certainly causing a lot of concern the scenes the direction coming from the u.k. was when these alleged abuses were taking place. back in keep quiet sure and what's your sense as to why the u.k. had decided to by and large stay out of the u.s. is way essentially giving them free rein to detain anyone for as long as they want

to whether it was a common scene that ran all through the report that these cases that were looked at hadn't been dealt with appropriately the issues hadn't been raised appropriately and it seems that the british intelligence officers he'd raise concerns about the mistreatment of detainees by the united states we're told not to intervene it seems the fear of offending the u.s. i think that's. hinted at in the report that there was a sense that these issues shouldn't be raised because it could have a potential knock on effect to the so-called special relationship between the and the u.s. and as i understand it serve peter gibson's investigation listed twenty seven areas he believes needs further inquiry can you talk about what questions were left unanswered by this report. absolutely was there a large number and he identified four key areas in the twenty seven issues that he

felt needed to be examined further interrogation and treatment rendition guidance in training and policy in communications and certainly the guidance in training the oversight of these operations that is really a major area that's raised repeatedly throughout the report if we look at the way that these complaints raised by intelligence officers from the u.k. were dealt with the guidance that they were then asked to give we saw one cabinet minister saying that that was clearly one of the issues that needed to be handled and that it seems clear from the report that at the time intelligence officers weren't perhaps given the appropriate guidance that they should have had they were in at the deep end essentially i'm not sure that's going to hold much sway with human rights because they're going to have wanted a little more than that and that's certainly what's come from this inquiry is that there is a lot of unanswered questions his have to see if those get answered but that leads

me to my next question which is what's the next step now you know is there going to be a follow up report are there any actions expected as a result of what's already been released. the government's response so far has seemed to be that we've got the publication of this interim inquiry there's a sense that possibly they want this to be a line in the sand essentially when it comes to the issue of britain's involvement in rendition and torture and these allegations as i said human rights groups are not going to let that go lightly they've been heavily involved in this process as we said they actually abandoned the inquiry in their involvement because of the government involvement and so i think there's a real sense of anger amongst those groups that this is being put out in the form that it has in their response has been look there is more questions raised here than answers this is no line in the sand there is still a big issue that needs to be addressed properly and they want it to be

a full inquiry you know what's actually happened is is being handed over to the intelligence and security committee and of course again you've got the anger over the fact that the next steps going forward from here are once again going to have that government interference will have to see what does happen max i do appreciate you coming on and breaking it down for us r.t. correspondent sara firth. and bipartisan legislation was introduced in the senate this week that may just shake up on going to go she between the u.s. and iran the bill which is called the nuclear weapon free iran act of two thousand and thirteen now has the support of twenty six senators both democrats and republicans the bill would authorize new economic sanctions on iran if it does not hold up its part of it interim agreement to limit its nuclear program the measure if approved would entail harsh restrictions on iran's petroleum industry while also imposing financial restrictions the introduction of this bill comes just

a month after diplomats from iran and six world powers signed an accord in geneva but temporarily puts a halt on certain parts of to her arms nuclear program in return for some relief from its current economic sanctions and the obama administration has said that new sanctions would completely undermine those efforts here's what president obama said today at a press briefing what i've said to members of congress democrats and republicans is there is no need for new sanctions legislation not yet while the discuss this bill and its implications i was joined earlier by retired colonel lawrence wilkerson i first asked him why this bill would be introduced at a time when the u.s. and iran are so close to achieving a comprehensive peace agreement. i think there are people who don't want that peace agreement to be achieved we know the obvious characters like b.b. that yahoo in a pack here in this country advocating for netanyahu. there are other people though

like my own senator mark warner whom i just sent a note to that inexplicable in terms of why they're signing on with senators like robert menendez and lindsey graham and john mccain and others i think many of these people won't war they do not see diplomacy as a way to keep iran absolutely from having a nuclear weapon and they believe war is a way course i've got news for them war is going to make a run get a nuclear weapon not keep them from getting one plus drag the united states into another trillion dollar enterprise in southwest asia but they don't seem to believe that they think that dropping a few bombs and then mow in the grass afterwards as they say is sufficient to keep iran from getting a nuclear weapon and diplomacy isn't well you mentioned prime minister benjamin netanyahu let's take a listen to what he has said in the past about the historic deal you wrote it is

a take you only cosmetic steps which it could reverse. and in return sanctions the two years to put in pleas are going to be eased so you're on got the deal of the century. and the international community got a bad deal the supreme and has made the world a much more dangerous place this is a very bad deal. so can you talk a little bit about the pressure from israel and how that sort of playing into this whole thing. well netanyahu has been saying this now for about twenty years by my calculation when he started saying it really adamantly they had three thousand centrifuges and all of his efforts hardline efforts you might say have resulted in their having now some nineteen or so thousand

centrifuges so it hasn't worked and it won't work in the future i understand prime minister netanyahu position and i have a door lieberman and others like him in the israeli government and out of the government they are maintaining their political power based on the fear of iran based on keeping israelis worked up about iran based on keeping that issue in front of the israeli people that's how they're maintaining their political power and understand what this is all about it's not about nuclear weapons not really it's about who's going to be the power in the gulf you've got three contending parties here you've got the saudis and the g.c.c. the gulf cooperation council you've got israel with the united states behind it and of course you've got the united states allied with saudi arabia for all practical purposes too and then you've got iran really the only stable state in the region other than israel and this is a contention of power game in the persian gulf israel does not want

a rapprochement between tehran and washington because that means israel by power implications would mean less and so it's really all about a power game in the gulf it has nothing to do except superficially with nuclear weapons and who has them and who doesn't well it does seem like there's also a power game here in washington you know the white house has said that they would veto this bill if it actually were to get passed so for some of the people who are really trying to push this bill through like senators menendez and schumer are they just think gauging in political theater here. well they are to a certain extent just as some others did for the budget battle that we had which was probably the most believable thing to show the rest of the world about the united states i've ever seen in my almost seventy years on this earth and the congress seems as if it is lost its bearings of late it doesn't seem to be able to deal with foreign policy issues or domestic issues at all and this is just another

case in point when you have senators like schumer. minda is who are more or less taking a position against their own president it makes it even more ridiculous especially when it is as i said such a war mongering position and let's be very clear it is a war mongering position right and it does like you said it does seem like it would take that achievement away from president obama and you know there are a lot of democrats that are behind this bill which is interesting but one key republican sponsor of the legislation senator mark kirk has said this of the bell he said quote the american people rightfully distrust iran's true intentions and they deserve an insurance policy to defend against iranian deception during negotiations i mean do you think it's really the case that american people that the american people are very wary of iran's intentions or is this just something he sort of came up on his with on his own we have to remember that this is

a man who said that he came to washington and this is almost a direct quote to protect israel. now if i had voted for a senator or representative who said that i would quickly and vote for it because i don't sin my senator or my representative to washington to protect israel that's not supposed to be their primary purpose so just the fact that you quoted kirk is enough to disbelieve him but let's look at this issue from the perspective that i think people like him are looking at it they're saying that the long term interest of israel is served by military action against iran because that's essentially what they're advocating if you don't want diplomacy you're advocating military action because you can't just sit there and do nothing. let's just see what that does for israel's military action against iran is going to start a conference in that region of the world that will last for at least

a decade maybe to israel's long term security is already looking at sea it's got egypt all one side not knowing where it's going not knowing for a minute to minute if it's going to adhere to the peace treaty is got jordan falling apart it's god syria involved in the now almost over two years of civil war it's got a rack back in the civil war again this is not a time for israel to me to be making new enemies and starting new wars it's a desperate time for israel and mitt in many respects i don't see israel's long term security being served by yet another war in southwest asia so when you posit netanyahu short term political interest that is staying in power against israel's long term security netanyahu kirk and all those who support their position come i'll come out on the short end of the stick they're actually advocating for israel's insecurity not its long term security i don't trust the iranians but i do

trust the negotiators to make sure that we can verify whatever it is they they conclude that's where my trust lies not in the iranians and that was retired army colonel lawrence wilkerson. and if you're looking for a restaurant you might head to an online review sites like yelp to help decide but as our tease liz wahl shows you can also use an app to figure out who to go to dinner with. from match dot com to ok cupid more people are going online to find mr right or mr right now but what's he like in real life you can find out on this site where when men write men lulu prompts women to answer a few questions and rate their former flings by selecting preset hash tags they range from the good like sweet to mom and skin like butter to some not so desirable like wandering eye and strip club v.i.p.

all that info is used to calculate their rating from one to ten the makers of the app say it's designed to empower women to make smart choices women should a get references for everything and they wouldn't hire a babysitter without a reference they wouldn't a good job without a reference to extermination be getting into a relationship without a reference the app launched in february and was mostly used in colleges and sorority is lulu marketing says their user base is expanding money we've seen more recently our fastest growth is actually coming in cities and i own women who are in their later twenty's or early thirty's i mean if my friends were using the app i would definitely take with a look at it it could be fun lucky for jeffrey plats a life and love coach who counsels men on how to succeed in the dating world his rating is high i've seen my rating. you're right it's

a point but for those that haven't fared so well on the app that is exclusive to women rating men the worry is that it's being used as a venue to vent and seek revenge it's best viewed as an entertainment source because i think any woman that's going to use that as a main source of. evaluating a potential date. is probably not going to do too well and then there's the issue of privacy. men don't know they're being raided and don't approve what's on their profile no one's willing will anymore you know it's one thing online and it's one thing and part thing and that reality is one that those in the dating game today have to face and washington lives will r.t. and that does it for now for more on the stories we cover go to you tube dot com board slash r t america check out our website r.t. dot com for the usa you can also follow me on twitter adam you're a david stay tuned boom bust is next. i got

a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay with substory. get this guy like smear that guys that are working for the people most issues the mainstream media are for each other right right they should. they did rather it was.

i would rather ask 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 r.t. question or. will. science technology innovation all the least of melanin strewn

around russia we've got the future covered. it is a whistleblower edward snowden has always maintained his motivation was to force a serious conversation about the all encompassing surveillance state well he certainly has achieved this so with mission accomplished is it time to cut a deal with them or even bring them apart. i would rather ask 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 r.t. question for.

ok i marinated this is boom bust and here are the stories we're tracking for you today. first up the debt has been downgraded but doesn't matter it's the question on deck and wolf one answer coming right up plus cornell professor david column is here in studio today dr call him a walk us through his twenty thirteen year in review exciting stuff you won't want to miss it and plastic money who want to bunk it apparently the bank of england will be issuing palmer bank notes racial currency aside discussed in today's big deal it's all coming up and it all starts right now.