i'm. going to. be up on our t.v. two thousand and thirteen has been the deadliest for iraq since two thousand and eight the wave of terrorist bombings now the u.s. is sending hellfire missiles and drones to help the iraqi government battle extremists the latest on that just up ahead. and on both sides of the pacific the fishing industry is facing economic shocks china has been shellfish imports from the united states leaving american fishers in the lurch while japan's seafood industry is still taking hits from the fukushima nuclear plant disaster more on these developments coming up. and here's a live look at the outside of the capitol building in washington d.c. where it is literally crumbling is about to undergo the first round of renovations

since nine hundred sixty this while americans lose faith in a congress that's bitterly divided throughout the year we'll take a deeper look at where the cracks form. it's thursday december twenty sixth four pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sax and you're watching r.t. and we begin today in iraq a nation that's experienced a very bloody two thousand and thirteen and now it's receiving a fresh shipment of american drones and missiles last week the united states ships seventy five hellfire missiles to the iraqi government to help deal with the increasing extremist violence that has crippled the nation this year and led to the deaths of more than eight thousand iraqis in the coming months the u.s. will also send ten scan eagle reconnaissance drones to iraq unlike the deadly predator drones the u.s. previously flew over that nation. these drones will be used to locate targets for

iraqi security forces to attack as right now u.s. government officials say there have been a nowhere quests from the iraqi government for u.s. operated lethal drone strikes in the country. due to the unrest in syria al-qaeda linked extremists have flooded into iraq this year carrying out hundreds of suicide bombings against the maliki government the violence has been so severe that last month the iraqi prime minister maliki came to the white house to lobby for more military assistance after that november first meeting a joint statement released by the u.s. and iraqi delegations read both sides emphasized on an urgent basis the need for additional equipment for iraqi forces to conduct ongoing operations in remote areas or terrorist camps are located. but this latest shipment of military equipment is just the tip of the iceberg from what iraq is said to receive in the coming year and clue doing four dozen more reconnaissance drones and even some f.

sixteen fighter jets also if the senate approves of the deal six of patchy attack helicopters could head to iraq sometime next year. now under another u.s. military hotspot afghanistan specifically bob graham prison which is indefinitely detained thousands of individuals arrested by u.s. and afghan forces during the now twelve year war still raging in that country while the u.s. handed off control of the vast majority of prisoners to afghan security forces earlier this year the u.s. still controls those prisoners add who are foreign nationals non afghans picked up outside the country and detained at biography three of those foreign nationals filed a hideous corpus petition to challenge their indefinite detention in u.s. courts but on christmas eve three judges on the u.s. appeals court here in washington d.c. rejected that petition arguing that prisoners do not have access to constitutional rights mostly because it's impractical in

a war zone as the judges ruled united states in afghanistan is not involved merely in and minister in occupied territory and containing scattered guerrilla fighters but rather in quelling a large scale insurgency against the government of a regional ally orders issued by judges thousands of miles away would undercut the commanders authority. while the white house pushes for a two thousand and fourteen afghan withdrawal date it's likely u.s. forces will still mayne maintain control over the non afghan prisoners at bagram indefinitely until those individuals can be settled elsewhere which as we've learned kuantan m o takes years. speaking of america's most notorious prison the detention facility at guantanamo bay has taken recent steps toward closing its doors albi it very very small steps first in recent weeks the obama administration has quietly released eight detainees the first transfers out of the

prison in a year second when congress passed the national defense authorization act this month for the for the first time restrictions on guantanamo transfers were actually eased instead of tightened the law lifts the transfer ban on detainees who have never been charged with a crime and have been cleared to be released so a summer of hunger striking may be responsible for a winter of releases at the prison we now go to our chief correspondent on a stasi turkana who takes a closer look at some things you might not know about good mom. despite misconceptions good law is not just a geo to be or not to be shot it's also a forty five square mile military base with no plans of going anywhere. full of signs of the stablished american life it is a navy base and we just happened to have the camps in here home to the only mcdonalds on cuban soil a subway sandwich shop a starbucks and a taco bell you got busted vested financial interests there you go to starbucks and

. all of these other places that help to set up. the logistical support for the troops over the there are about five and a half thousand people living and working on the base roughly half serve the actual detention center the u.s. government has been leasing this territory since nine hundred three for just over forty five hundred dollars curiously that is still the price today but it's said that the cuban government has been refusing to accept this money for decades the castro government said you know we don't want this lease anymore in the united states' position was that it's a binding lease and in the lease it actually says that it can't be broken unless both sides both countries agree to that that strikes me as a very odd contract so when territory that the u.s. has occupied against cuba's wishes since one thousand nine hundred most officers come here for short term of up to nine months or longer deployment of two to three years four for the whole life isn't put on hold and. certain people where you can certainly have if it's a web friendly or like rank system then you're allowed to there's the don't tell an

open air movie theater playing all the hottest hollywood blockbusters and it ticky bar to let loose after a hard day's work even though most say schedules aren't that intense anyway we actually get quite a bit of time off like a decent man and we. are activities for people of m.w. our stands for morale welfare and recreation for. almost every sport known to man is available to team get well on state of the art facilities. i love it it's a lot of people think there's not much to do but there's definitely an abundance to do. being in a remote location doesn't even have to affect eating habits and all you can eat lunch cost just under five bucks and breakfast is that price a downside though information or lack thereof. for decision a lot of the t.v. programs broadcasting here are army focused. and internet is almost nonexistent the

base dubbed new stream a stand by some soldiers even so we're told those serving here are banned from looking at websites like wiki leaks for example once classified always classified. even if the information has long been made public there are other strict regulations in place to fun fact about guantanamo apparently a life of an. little more than a life of a detainee if you run one of these babies over the fine is ten thousand dollars. there's a very strict speed limit in guantanamo and it's a very slow speed limit and people say that that's that's all about the quantised somewhat ironic at a place marred by human rights scandals officials make a point of showing journalists how well prisoners too are kept and thirteen here we're now in a typical so for a compliant detainee at guantanamo they would be allowed to eat books have a piece here some head and shoulders shampoo the less compliant ones have to wear

the orange uniforms and get only two books at a time who's going to the other side so you can see the books detainees can't come in here but the prisoner library lovingly displays the best of their art for t.v. crews to see a lot of pre-selected books to avoid certain topics violence sexual and religious stuff controversy shelves packed with magazines d.v.d.'s and video games plenty of ways for legit prisoners of war to pass the indefinite time they're kept here without charges and party. cuba. now an update to a story we've been covering the case of nicholas george a former college student who was detained for hours at the philadelphia international airport for carrying educational arabic language flash cards and another christmas eve ruling the third circuit u.s. court of appeals ruled in favor of the t.s.a. and the f.b.i. blocking a lawsuit brought by george claiming his constitutional rights were violated he

george was studying arabic for a study abroad program but was detained questioned and even handcuffed for several hours after t.s.a. agents concluded that carrying arabic a language flashcards is suspicious behavior the flash cards had words on them like bomb and terrorists as well as words like fat and cheap eventually george was released but claimed his free speech rights were stepped on by the agents and that he was subject to an improper search and arrest over chief judge theodore mickey disagreed and said the agents were justified in their actions writing on behalf of the three judge panel mckee argued that it's not reasonable to require agents to turn a blind eye to arabic words like bomb and terrorism on flashcards your rights in a world where air passenger safety must contend with such nuanced threats as attempts to convert underwear into bombs and shoes and do incendiary devices we

think that the brief detention that followed the initial administrative search of george was reasonable benjamin winsor an attorney for the a.c.l.u. representing george criticized the ruling saying were they saying that he needed those flash cards to try to hijack the plane in arabic and here is george's legal team is considering an appeal. the pacific northwest in the united states is feeling an economic crunch as china has banned all shellfish imports from that region after finding two toxic clams earlier this month the chinese put the import ban in place which is now led to the state of washington losing roughly six hundred thousand dollars a week and putting numerous fishermen at the risk of losing their livelihoods one type of shellfish on the banned list is called gooey duck seen right here which the chinese has have paid one hundred fifty dollars a pound for it's a delicacy that seen at the end of january for the chinese new year but no nation

is having as many problems exporting its seafood as japan which is struggling to assure the world its food is safe more than two years after the nuclear disaster at fukushima artie's alexy or chefs as the report. work doesn't stop in the port of salma despite being just a few kilometers from areas still ravaged by the twenty eleven tsunami and still contaminated by radiation seafood of all shapes and sizes lands here several times a day not only fish has traditionally been the integral part of the japanese culture but also one of its prized acts boards last year alone the exporting companies pocketed more than two billion u.s. dollars however there are serious concerns now this particular cat was made in the waters of the pushing my nuclear boss station after it became known that he drawled existing at the fukushima nuclear power plant was severely radiated fears grew that the contamination could be spreading into the pacific there are significant

contamination in the bottle sentiment especially in the paul system so we can find a very very high concentration of the regular. rate the fish factories around the fukushima prefecture now have to take radiation measurements but despite lab workers assuring us the fish was free of any harmful particles we're taking samples from every cage we make and if we ever find even the slightest trace of radiation will destroy the whole catch and so far there has been none because this species safe and even the nuclear plant operator tepco standing firm that the nearby waters are clear of radiation this edition is pretty much on the control we've built francis not to let polluted ground waters leak into the ocean we were surprised to learn that most of the seafood we saw at the port of soma will never make it to the shelves of fish markets all restaurant tables. most of the fish caught within the thirty kilometer radius is thrown into the garbage because it is radiated and tepco

is paying local fishermen for it so they're happy and keep silent some of it though makes it to stores but only locally seafood firms here are on the. wet and there are five reflectors possibly affected by contamination of the sea accounting for almost forty thousand tons of fish the year but things may get even worse as the third anniversary of the fukushima disaster approaches south korea has become the first country to ban japanese fish and seafood boards and. reporting from japan. a disturbing story coming from the washington d.c. metro police department keith own a twenty three year veteran of the force who was actually named detective of the year in two thousand and twelve has now pled guilty to charges that he was secretly videotaping his adult stepdaughter in her bedroom and in her bathroom according to court records to brown was found to be spying on his stepdaughter at least fifty times over the course of nine months in two thousand and eleven and two thousand

and twelve it installed secret cameras he was sentenced to five years in prison but that sentence could be waived after he first served five years of probation also to braun will not be forced to register as a sex offender this is just the latest scandal hitting the washington d.c. police force where one officer was arrested this month for child prostitution another officer was also arrested this month for child pornography that officer committed suicide. perhaps no institution is happy to see two thousand and thirteen go away in the united states congress it's been a rough year under the dome and many are calling for fundamental repairs to our nation's primary law making body and there's repairs are actually coming next year just not in the way you might think are key correspondent lives wall as this report . it's an architectural marvel in the nation's capital that has come to represent democracy and enjoy this i while you can because the capitol dome is about to look

much different while come spring that iconic dome will be covered in scaffolding transforming the skyline of the region for at least two years the dome was built from cast iron one hundred fifty years ago and last repaired in one nine hundred sixty topped off with the statue of freedom the dome stands two hundred eighty eight feet tall inside intricate architecture and classic painting seem to be in prime shape but a closer look shows a damaged joe over thirteen hundred cracks and other deficiencies according to the architect of the capitol we have to have before we have a bill to recast the stitching. closure. here is a sketch of what the dilma looked like when it's in cased in scaffolding as it undergoes the sixty million dollar repair tourists will have to view the landmark through the construction i wouldn't want to be the tourists coming here when that

happens it's not the only d.c. landmark being fixed for months the washington monument has been covered in scaffolding giving it a modern look the washington monument has a scaffolding on it right now that doesn't spoil my trip i took from the national cathedral and site scattered throughout the city repairs are being made for some it's symbolic of a capital and congress in dire need of repair just in the last year a historic government shutdown a glitchy rollout of the obamacare website and extreme partisan gridlock this is a terrible deal. and i urge my colleagues here to oppose it divisive language on both sides but under present obama cabinet nominees are faced unprecedented struction and significant boyishness from their positions now many think washington is broken and november approval of congress saying to a record low of nine percent it's really frustrating for the american people and

for myself to see you know our government be so inefficient as for the dome that's scheduled to be fully restored in two years the hope that amended congress will be able to function under it in washington liz wall r.t. . joining me now fresh from the county crux of the capitol dome dome. live all welcome so i like the connection you draw in this report between the actual physical crumbling of the dome and the sort of more metaphoric crumbling of congress and the ineptitude we've seen over the last year yeah certainly a lot of people think that congress is broken and one poll after another reaffirms that there's of very strong disapproval of the work and the way that things have been playing out inside of that capitol building and nine percent that is a historical low hopefully can't get much lower than that and that is not the only record low sam you take a look so far there have been fifty seven bills and acted into law in the one

hundred thirteenth legislature that is the least productive in history so a lot of records were set is. not good ones this year but a few end of the year here just a few weeks ago we did get a budget deal we haven't had a budget passed in several years is that a sign that things you know might be improving you know you had to give him props for that right that that was that's an accomplishment that's showing some kind of a sign of being able to work together on something even if it's not the kind of the tail end of the year here but we should mention that it's by no means. there is it leaves people out and there's definitely some work that needs to be done on issues that were not addressed in that bill for example just touching on some of the more contentious issues there are benefits for veterans a lot of benefits have been cut. federal workers they can have to pay more for

their pensions and unemployment benefits as well those are set to expire in a couple of days so congress on needs to work on getting addressing that issue because a lot of people are going to be out so even when they come together and work together on. a lot of people get left out the unemployed get left out these military retirees get out they did make sure that doctors got paid which you know doctors i just knew about it but you wonder why you wonder why unemployed unemployed people don't exactly command as much weight around here because they don't have lobbyists . members of congress are to be walking through the dome to work over the next two years is this going on any chance that seeing their home base here remodeled might inspire a sort of remodelling within congress and home or shall be there in ten you have the metaphor continues to work and that way when it comes to the budget that's seen as hopefully a sign that things are going to turn around but there is a lot of work that needs to be done in the year two thousand and fourteen we have a farm bill that they have to take up that's going to touch upon sensitive issues

like food stamp benefits subsidy is also with the debt ceiling bads a big one that is going to resurface come this spring the government again on the side of defaulting if they don't come on come to an agreement on that i was in the scene in the past that's been very contentious and as a bargaining chip for the republicans you know they would debate they're trying to get something out of it before an agreement vice versa so that's coming up also it's a it's an election year so a lot of times that's not that doesn't that's not can this is a lot of imagination yeah right you know i think that you always choose time times of unrest or instability to rebuild the dome that they built the dome in the one nine hundred sixty in the eight hundred sixty s. during the civil war they renovated during the one nine hundred sixty s. which was kind of kind of to mold united states and here we are with the worst congress and let's go and fix the dome hopefully it's it'll be a transformation on many levels this are teasley as well thank you thank them. and moving on while the budget debates in washington d.c.

are normally focused on numbers on a spreadsheet it's important to remember those numbers have real world consequences just as those veterans as i just mentioned will see their benefits cut as a result of the latest budget deal and then there's the story of one highly decorated air force pilot whose posthumous honors were delayed due to a lack of resources at the air force or he's period born tells us more. lieutenant urban drew was a fighter pilot extraordinaire he shot down nazis and was given one of the most prestigious ceremonies at arlington national cemetery my father served during world war two and he was stationed in an angle and it flew the mustang p. fifty one d. mustang he was even given the second highest award in the air force he was an ac had six aerial kills and one ground kill i think the most notable victory was his shoot down of two german and two six two in a single dog fight and that was

a feat for which many years later he was awarded the air force cross he passed away on april third two thousand and thirteen and was applicable for a full honors military funeral at arlington over his family had to wait eight months for the service arlington national cemetery performs about eight thousand a year which in a jewish family said it was well worth the wait was a beautiful day as one of the most decorated war two pilots his friends and family felt it was essential to have a fly over there is no higher salute to a pilot than a fly over from another aviator due to budget constraints the air force was not able to provide this service at this time the united states air force was unable to support this fly or. from either an active duty air force freezer or national guard resources however according to sen tom coburn's waste book after congress ordered the air force to purchase four hundred thirty two million dollars worth of cargo planes that had been taken out of service the air force was then allowed to

mothball its brand new c. twenty seven days before these aircrafts took a single flight with war two vets passing at a rate of almost six hundred per day there's not many so tom recruited a civilian pilot to fly his own airplane into arlington a flight restricted zone as the owner of a refer based war two fighter bomber andrew mckenna was able to add something to the. ceremony that the air force would not. be able to. be asked to do a fly over at arlington our nation's most sacred ground in the airplane that he flew in world war two with precise coordination between air combat command aerial control team and arlington cemetery the pilot took off from the nasa regional airport into with the restricted air space he flew over arlington just as the case on honor guard and band were assembled i have to admit when andrew flew over and me and the p. fifty one mustang and gave us

a way that was pretty special and like my father i know for sure that and would have liked to have done that flight himself. the ceremony also included a firing party and the perishing zone a u.s. army band following the full military honors ceremony the family was invited back to manassas airport to follow up with one more pilot tradition to be able to honor him in this type of an airplane rather than the one you know a modern day frontline strike fighter i think makes it a little more impactful and introduce lieutenant drew's grandson to the cockpit a full military honors funeral at arlington includes a case on an escort platoon a casket team firing party and bugler fortunately for lieutenant drew his you know also included a fire over of a p. fifty one mustang in arlington virginia perry and boring archie. and finally today when someone says they want to sell you some star trek technology don't give them a million dollars this week fifty seven year old howard leventhal pled guilty to

stealing millions of dollars from investors who he had conned into thinking that he was inventor of a real world version of the famous star trek tricorder in the fictional t.v. show the tricorder was used to scan a patient of the term in his or her illnesses and leventhal convinced investors he had invented something similar called healthy o's mccoy home tablet and his pitch to investors lemon paul forged documents to show that the canadian government was on board with his invention and in the end he took in more than twenty five million dollars from potential investors u.s. attorney loretta lynch spoke of the crime in leventhal as world the truth was cloaked by his web of lies and impersonate his actions were the stuff of fantasy and science fiction valid only in another dimension next up maybe leventhal can pitch warp drives to nascar and tractor beams to the us military and that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com forward

slash r t america check out our website r t v dot com for its last year so you can follow me on twitter at sam sachs back with more news at five pm thanks for watching. i think.

that. it was a compliment very hard to take a look at once again on here a plug that had sex with her make her. let's. listen to. it let's. play. live.

dear bank account how does that look today a bit more depleted than usual could be that the masters of the universe a lie the n.s.a. change your bank account balance that's what i've been up to. all those jokesters of the n.s.a. just playing around with the financial system for a fall and by the after game i thought the reason they were involved in all that invasive technology stacy was to keep us say.

hello and welcome technology updates on today's show christmas comes early from. a novel animation not brings films to the big screen. a moscow state university gives a whole new meaning to wearable technology but first new year may still be a couple of days off but they've already been plenty of festivities this month. something along. the take no spark nano technology sensor was officially opened in the town of troy just south of moscow. aims to become a launch pad for high tech startups by bringing together all the facilities and know how to develop and produce innovative goods all into one roof while the town's strong research based meet at the not to.