coming up on r t it appears no one is immune from the n.s.a. spying tentacle latest n.s.a. leak revealed the u.s. kept watch on a close ally and well known international charities details on these latest revelations. and 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 is 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 later in the show. it's friday december twentieth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. we begin tonight 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 committee to reform the n.s.a.'s surveillance practices president obama pledged to make a definitive statement in january about which the gestures he will undertake 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. i've also said before that the way in which these disclosures happened have

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 damaging or not the conversation about who the n.s.a. is looking into continues with a new week from edward snowden earlier in the morning artie's sam sachs 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 dare speak will 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 a hoot 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 nascar that 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. have a say in partners are spying to gain economic and diplomatic advantages as well as the targeting by the us in the g.h.q. it had a morass the oil giant and or the organization of american states or 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 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 in 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. sam stocks are today. and horizon communications as just announced it will publish some my annual reports on the number of government requests it receives for customer data horizon is the biggest wireless provider in the u.s. and has been under fire for its cooperation with the 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 brize and warned president obama that national security agency spying was detrimental to their reputation and standing in the economy rise in 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 in n.s.a. intelligence activities while there is 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 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 those requests so risin will be following in its

tech competitors footsteps as it moves toward 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 and 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 at the c.i. . they 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 addressed the issue at a hearing earlier this week. the course of techniques used by the cia during the

time frame were quote 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 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 the editorial published today says that the illegal detention and torture did not happen 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 them where 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 more success just yesterday a document called the gibson 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 one hundred fifteen page 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 launched 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.

torture over indecision 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 into last year it was scraps and we then saw it fall into the hands of the parliamentary committee and that caused a lot of upset a month's human rights groups who really wanted to see this be a judge led inquiry rather than have that government involvement so 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 to intervene in one part of the court it says it also says were advised that faced with apparent breaches of geneva convention stearns's 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 pieces that taking place. step back and keep quiet and that was r t correspondent sara firth. and bipartisan legislation was introduced in the senate this week that major shake up ongoing negotiations between

the u.s. and iran the bill which is called the nuclear weapon free iran act of twenty 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 an interim agreement to limit its nuclear program the measure if approved would entail harsher strictures 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 that temporarily puts a halt on certain parts of town iran's 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 africa 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 bell 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 a peace agreement to be achieved we know the obvious characters like bibi that in a pact 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 are inexplicable in terms of why they are 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 the way course i've got news for them war

is going to make a wrong 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 mo 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 easily within a few weeks and in return sanctions the two years to put in place are going to be eased so you're on got the deal of the century. and the international community got a bad deal this agreement 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's 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 has position and they 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 unbelievable 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 that was retired army colonel lawrence wilkerson. as part of dodd frank wall street reform and the consumer protection act of two thousand and ten lawmakers astound wished a new agency focused on making sure americans don't get taken advantage of when using services like home mortgages student loans and credit cards but since its creation the consumer financial protection bureau or the c f p b has been a point of contention in washington president obama had to scuttle his first choice

to head the agency elizabeth warren when it became clear that she couldn't overcome republican opposition on the hill to install a c.f. p.b.s. director richard cordray the president had to use a recess appointment in january of two thousand and two january of two thousand and twelve and now republicans are concerned that the c f p b is collecting extensive financial data on americans artie's perry and boring has the latest. well the uproar over the n.s.a.'s data collection program continues there's another government agency compiling data on americans this time it's financial data like billions of credit card transactions and some members of congress are pretty upset about it they don't want you to have the data and you're taking it anyway under the auspices of the consumer financial protection bureau you take their data they don't want you to have it and you don't care house financial services member representatives sean duffy is concerned that the newly created consumer financial protection bureau is violating the fourth amendment but c.f.p.

director richard cordray disagrees we are not looking to monitor individual consumers credit card accounts we have no interest in what individuals like you and i are spending or what our habits are patterns are what we're trying to do is monitor the practices of large institutions how they treat things like late fees interest rate changes and so forth for their customers morgan drax and a legal support firm is suing the c f p b for requesting their client's sensitive personal financial data morgan jackson claims that giving this data to the c f t v what have violated state bars laws they want information about bankruptcy services that are bankruptcy lawyers who are providing to their bankruptcy clients and we said well that's protected by the attorney client privilege and they took the position that they could just take it without regard of the privilege i was a big problem for us and we refused to produce that information a month later the c.f.p. launched a suit against morgan directs in saying the company made misleading claims about its debt relief services to consumers c f p b director richard cordray said the

company took advantage of people who were struggling the company charged consumers a legal fees and deceived them about the services provided but morgan jackson thinks the c.f.e. be a suit was motivated by revenge we tried to cooperate with them but it was it became clear to us at some point that they just they were on a mission to simply put us out of business morgan jackson claims the c f p b is an illegitimate agency because it lacks the checks and balances of other government agent. but proponents of the c.f.p. say that's just the point i do think that that was a conscious decision made in dodd frank to give them independence so that they could advocate on behalf of consumers and not fall into all of the things that all of these other regulators fall into which is the undue influence and lobbying of wall street what's most unusual about the c.f.p. b. is it's under the jurisdiction of the federal reserve meaning they get their money from the fed and are not accountable to congress but they're not responsible to the fed either because they are entitled to their funds without question from the board

of governors. at least is tracked by the congressional appropriations process but to see if the c.f.p. we aim to monitor eighty percent of all credit card transactions this year it's over forty two billion transactions are nine hundred thirty three million credit cards where this conference or frightens you depends on your level of trust with the government newest agency in washington d.c. area boring or c. . with the winter olympics in sochi less than fifty days away the world's eyes are on russia the country's president vladimir putin surprised observers when he announced the pardon of former oil tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky so who is khodorkovsky and what does his freedom mean artie's a nice and now we brings us up to speed. he may well be one of the most well known prisoners in the world but the idea of a pardon for former russian tycoon mikhail khodorkovsky was unexpected to say the least a four hour q. and a and not one question about her. and then this you know the course of the

recently wrote a petition asking me to pardon him but he spent more than ten years in prison and this is a serious punishment he saw as humanitarian reasons and his mother is secure in the go i believe taking jew account of all the circumstances it's possible to take your respective decisions and in the near future i will sign a decree to pardon him the former c.e.o. and founder of the oil company yukos built a fortune that made him russia's richest man after the collapse of the soviet union snapping up state assets at a bargain price in often dubious circumstances rather caused the fall from grace began in october two thousand and three when he was arrested on charges of fraud and tax evasion he and his business partner plot told them that there were found guilty in two thousand and five and handed eight year sentences four years later fresh charges were brought against the two men and twenty ten both were convicted of money laundering and embezzling two hundred eighteen million tonnes of oil worth

twenty seven billion u.s. dollars. holder course he is here by sentenced to fourteen years in prison. word of his part in an imminent freedom came as something of a surprise for all sides including apparently his lawyers debates are raging over whether this is a pay our start a smart move but most intriguingly about what's next for mikhail khodorkovsky and he's now a r.t. moscow and if you're looking for a restaurant you might head to an online review sites like yelp to help decide what is artie's lives while 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 today get references for everything and they wouldn't hire a babysitter without a reference they wouldn't you could shop 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 blue 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 them 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. 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 also because i think if any woman is going to use that as a main source of. evaluating a potential date. it's 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 really real anymore you it's one thing online and it's one thing and part of that reality is one that those in the dating game today have to face in washington liz wall r.t.

. tonight's resident takes a look at the poverty stricken town of camden new jersey because it's so poverty stricken that children are not performing well in school and the townspeople just can't seem to catch a break take a look. if you need proof of how america fails a school in poverty stricken areas than listen to this story camden new jersey is a city of eighty thousand people when its high school students took the s.a.t.'s earlier this year only three of them scored is college ready as defined by the college board three student as in one two three no war that's it in

a city of eighty thousand camden is so poverty stricken that brian williams did a special on it the nation did an article on it called city of ruins and rolling stone just did an article called apocalypse new jersey in which they stated if camden was overseas we would have sent troops and foreign aid at this point the people of camden are really sick of being everyone's poverty porn and then see nothing changed and i don't blame them in the high school they're sick of the fact that us auditorium was deemed structurally unsound ten years ago but remains unfixed they're sick of the boiler room which dates back to the nineteen fifties a disaster waiting to happen they're sick of all the broken windows they're sick of the burned down wing of one of the building the kids are sick of being so cold and classed that they have to wear gloves they're sick of not being able to drink from

the water fountain because there's lead in the pipes. and because the school is literally falling apart around them so is their performance there's a high turnover of teachers and only fifty three percent of students there graduate from high school at all it's just a math it's so bad that the a.c.l.u. has filed a lawsuit seeking a report on conditions and so far of course this state has refused to provide it this data contribution to this situation has been allowing the more affluent suburbs of new jersey to pay off camden to meet their own affordable housing requirements so they don't have to have any poor people in their neighborhood how we're almost in that and of course governor christie has loved using gambon as a talking point at the podium but meanwhile slashed their police force for his own political gain so bare is your proof that america is failing its schools in poverty

stricken areas when it comes to making sure that no child gets left behind i'm giving this country and. tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the resident. and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america check out our website r t dot com slash usa follow me on twitter at amir david have a good night. dramas they're trying to be ignoring the. stories other islamists use to noticeably. say since changing the world writes never. grow. old picture of today's leaves the eyes.

from around the globe. local. t.v. . plenty plenty won't. sleep technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've dumped the huge earth covered plenty. plenty last time was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and we are continuing to follow the breaking news. the alexander family cry tears of the war a great thing that.