me up on our t.v. the year two thousand and thirteen nears its end and it was quite a year for news from the boston bombing tennis a revelations r.t. was there covering it paul special roundtable in the years greatest news heads just ahead. then concerns grow over israel creating new settlements it's claimed that such a move would derail the peace process leaving israel and palestine still at odds we'll bring you an exclusive interview with a palestinian entrepreneur on the path to peace in new york federal judge rules that the n.s.a.'s bulk collection of phone records is legal ruling runs counter to last week's ruling by a federal judge in d.c. who found the program to be likely unconstitutional the latest update on that and more later in the show.

it's friday december twenty seventh four pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sachs and you're watching r.t. and we begin today with a look back as two thousand and thirteen winds down we close the book on the year with some really big news stories because the year whistleblowers and n.s.a. secrets a year of violent explosions both from homegrown terrorism in boston and corporate disregard in west texas a year of government dysfunction and a year in which average people around the world took to the streets to protest against the status quo actions against the transpacific partnership trade deal a new community of activists rising up on behalf of chelsea manning who learned her fate this year for exposing u.s. war crimes so joining me now to discuss how these stories and more impacted two thousand and thirteen are the people who brought you the stories here in washington d.c. correspondent liz wall from new york r.t. course by. an honest turkana and from l.a. r.t.

correspondent ramon glinda oh thank you all for being here so i want to start with what has to be the year of the whistleblower thanks in large part to what edward snowden started during the summer revealing the secrets of the n.s.a. and i spoke with the washington post barton gellman this week about the impact snowden has made in such a short amount of time. i've seldom if ever seen a story that has taken hold. so far and so broadly and so deeply and you know if you're a whistleblower who wants attention and. you can't even plausibly aspire to the impact you've had already then of course we'll be hearing a lot more from delman thanks to stoughton in two thousand and fourteen but certainly wasn't the only whistleblower to make news this year liz you were at the trial of chelsea manning of the former us army soldier who was a queues of leaking documents to wiki leaks would you learn from that trial how did

this story impact twenty thirteen yes certainly it was a year of very high profile leaks namely the court martial of chelsea manning formerly known as bradley manning spend a lot of time there covering the trial and for meeting maryland of course he is accused of the largest leak of classified information in military history charged with a very serious charge of aiding the enemy in addition to a slew of other charges and the judge found him not guilty of that most serious charge of aiding the enemy but guilty on most of the other charges he was sentenced to thirty five years behind bars of course manning a divisive figure some people handling him as a hero for shining a light on government wrongdoing others calling him a traitor for exposing government secrets throughout this trial his attorney david coombs tried to keep it under the radar but did make

a very public statement after that sentence was delivered in august here's what he had to say while we were successful in avoiding the aiding the enemy offense. the fact that the government pursued this offense the fact that the government. let this offense go forward even after. it was clear there was no evidence of any intent to do so should sound an alarm to every journalist it should sound an alarm to every concerned citizen that was manning's attorney there david who is arguing or kind of condemning the government for its so going so aggressively after manning and charging him over of charging him he says especially when it comes to this aiding the enemy charge and he says and what a lot of civil rights activists have argued throughout this case is that it has had this chilling effect on the media they'd also chelsea manning is the only

whistleblowers having to jail john kiriakou was sentenced to jail years the cia whistleblower we've been talking a lot of the notable whistleblowers of this year in studio. the story how did his story affect jobs where it was actually around this time last year that he was sitting in this studio i interviewed him right before he was about to go to jail as you had mentioned he's a former cia officer and he is also charged with leaking information to the media interesting thing about kerry aku before that happened he was also the first cia officer to publicly expose that torture does go on on u.s. bases at guantanamo bay and he brought specific attention to waterboarding saying that this practice happens at guantanamo bay and he was he called it torture he used those words now here is part of my conversation with him right before he went to prison. the bush administration more specifically president bush at the time was lying to the american people by saying that we were not waterboarding prisoners we

were not torturing anyone and if anyone was being tortured it was a result of rogue officers inside the cia on a saucer i want to bring you in as a result of what whistleblowers have done particularly chelsea manning in recent years wiki leaks has been able to bring to light some of the nation's darkest secrets about the iraq war in afghanistan war in particular the detention facility in guantanamo bay especially with the summer's hunger strike you were gone tony mowbray on a star you gave us several reports from there what's going on down there this year . well last and what's going on down there this year is pretty much what has been going on for since day one of obama's presidency when he promised to shut this place down which has become really a permanent state on america's image and you know what home and abroad and what went down there with this major hunger strike that took place earlier this year where for over six months the majority of the prison population was on hunger

strike in attempts to bring some kind of attention to the fact that they are still there because people just stopped talking about this location politicians kind of brushed it aside after obama's promises to kind of put an end to this place so we saw this kind of peak of desperation from the majority of the prison population over one hundred people going on this major hunger strike which so many times we've heard described as just horrific process and when we were there the way officials talked to us about it was a lot more nonchalant take a listen. before it's passed down the news we lubricate it in we give the patient a choice do they want to have the key which is the agent who will numb the area or if they want of will to lubricate the tube. most of our patients have been using olive oil he seemed to like it in fact some of

our patients are so used to this they will describe which nostril they want so sam and guys you know one of the major things we saw add one time of this year was that this this huge disconnect between the way officials describe this place and presented to the media and by the countless reports of desperation torture and just horrid conditions and hopelessness that we've heard from prisoners throughout the years on associate whistleblowers hunger strikers i didn't receive a lot of attention from mainstream networks but the boston marathon bombing was wall to wall coverage it was a huge story this year you were in boston right after the bombing in what it up being a wild few days in that city with the manhunt for the bombers to shoot out the eventual capture of shores or najaf what was it like. well you know sam this was the biggest terror act in the united states since nine eleven and certainly to say the least was absolutely tragic and of course tragic and of course

unexpected and i think one of the bigger things that people learned from it was that. this sense of security that we've kind of become accustomed to sort of in the united states this pretense sometimes sense of security because of the measures that are put in place all over the country that kind of tell us that a lot of being is being done to make sure these terrible things don't happen this bombing showed people i think this year that. nothing it is as secure and safe as it feels in this day and age and certainly was just a very tragic sad event and the city of boston has certainly recovered but when we were there for about ten days it was really just just really sad and everybody was able to kind of communicate because again terrorism is you know something that is not that happens in a particular nation and something that unfortunately is plaguing the entire world. i want to bring you in a few days after the boston marathon bombings there was the explosion at the fertilizer plant in west texas killed fifteen people injured more than two hundred

you were there would you see on the ground in west texas in those days afterward. this reporting that we did in west texas it was some of the most physically demanding and emotionally demanding that i've done in my career i mean it was a scene of utter destruction and despair when we originally when we initially arrived there in west texas we heard from the mayor of that tiny town tommy muska and he described the explosion as having a nuclear bomb being dropped on his town the night of the blast when we arrived we arrived only a couple of hours after it happened and we were kept a little distance away from the fertilizer plant it was still on fire but even miles away you could see blown out windows buildings badly damaged in was the fire was put out in we were able to get a little bit closer to to where the blast originated from we could if it was just a crater more than ninety feet wide we could see schools which were completely

destroyed fire trucks a mangled mess playgrounds just reduced to rubble and all the while which is has a population of about three thousand people so everybody knows there is a body knows each other there are a lot of people knew the victims and they talked to us in the aftermath let's hear from them. the windows were blown in on where i was at in the room my kids. saw i don't we don't know the extent of the damage just the house lifted up and. i grabbed my kids and we're headed out the door in the hallway in the room at the time explosion and the windows blew in and everything we fell to the floor and we waited until it stopped we got up and i got my other daughter and my mom that was in the room with my stepdad and ran outside the house to smell like gas.

yeah and a lot of people still in mourning some people still leaving and rentals other people are in the process of rebuilding for but for a lot of those people living in that tiny town to two thousand and thirteen was unfortunately a year to forget for them of a rough one ramon i want to switch gears here this is also been a year filled with protesters like the last few years have been and if you few issues generated as much popular revolt as the trans-pacific partnership trade deal being negotiated throughout the year you covered many of these protests in california what impact have they made. that's right we've covered protests t.v. protests here in beverly hills los angeles and even upping utah and there has been a lot of grassroots efforts to put these this trade negotiation on hold and so far it appears to be successful because we're not just seeing opposition at the grassroots level many people in congress are are really concerned about the obama administration's goals to move the t.v.

piece forward and to really fast track it to congress we have to remember that the obama administration really wanted to have this deal which encompasses twelve nations done by the end of this year but it appears that the you know people of the negotiators from all the countries involved have been able to come up with something that they all can agree on so in two thousand and fourteen you can expect to see more protests against the p.p.p. and many people in d.c. really questioning whether this is in the best interest of the united states and the other countries involved just one of many big stories this year brought to us by great correspondents covering them r t corresponded liz wall in our d.c. studio on a saucer turkana from new york ramon going to from l.a. thank you all thank you. and now let's take a look back at some of the most viral clips from our team america's you tube channel over the past year.

others write for the constitution a deep rooted grass roots campaign of independence had drivers and they words their quotes leaving a convoy to deliver their truck or demands and their left hand and the us constitution and non-negotiable rights and their rights when they set out this morning to the interstate surrounding d.c. to bring attention to their cause by backing up traffic when they saw the google street view car coming tuesday after the pair pulled over and jumped out of a car beverage in hand and. well i. was. there. were known as alvin gerhardt speaking out now against the t.s.a.

after agents nap his rare cello in to the cello was a one of a kind heinrich punk prosecutors were looking for a lengthy jail sentence after sixteen year old ethan couch got there in the will of a pickup truck with a point to poor blood alcohol level three times the legal limit and value in his bloodstream and hit for pedestrians killing them including her mother and her daughter but instead couch got probation because his lawyer basically argued that couch was suffering from flu winds up i spoke to a member of the secret service i asked him why the experts the carrot he said that this is in response to the tragedy that happened today and boston and even just walking around the city you can get a sense i saw members of the law enforcement. dogs so clearly a heightened sense of security here this is ministration is very much for. guns and i think a position that is anti-gun and i think that they do this because it's a knee jerk reaction to having to deal with the reality that this is

a very violent society inside america and that even banning guns is not going to end the violence. and now moving on to turkey where a high profile corruption scandal has prompted massive protests in istanbul the country's capital earlier this week six members of prime minister air to one's party resigned over charges of graft many of which involved bribery prosecutor heading the investigation and turkish prime minister after one's inner circle was removed from his job yesterday and issued a strongly worded condemnation over what he called interference in the country's judiciary istanbul's chief prosecutor said the staffing change occurred because of leaks to the press. as protesters take to the streets police are using water cannons and tear gas to try and break up the demonstrations and the r.t. crew on the ground in istanbul covering this protest was caught up in that tear gas we go now to sara firth on the streets of taksim square for more on these protests

you pay the price has this been way the fight being fair and the people being trying to push them back a thing that's a kind of an let me thing really be nothing past in this present that night and then coming if there is a if in fact that some paper that we've been trying to began trying to imagine didn't think that's not good news wasn't going to stay a pretty bad thing we've seen i really think maybe since we've been run kind of administering kind of i mean if in fact anything i think i can read can i really i'm a free agent but i'm going to night the planes have no one come and fight and it's time to lay back the power of the arabic to the paper we think the prime minister thank you thing a challenge not only from the people here in the pentagon have been the same thing with them you've got to remember them thank you and that was our t. sarah firth reporting from the streets of istanbul. next week israel is expected to announce plans to build fourteen hundred new homes in jewish settlement areas in the west bank on thursday night out of fear that such a move could derail the peace process in the region palestinian president mahmoud abbas called on the united states to dissuade israel from going through with these

new settlements according to a palestinian negotiator abbas asked the u.s. envoy for quote u.s. intervention to stop the israeli government from issuing new settlement decisions in order to save the peace process despite recent setbacks in the peace process one man believes a solution is within sight when he is a palestinian entrepreneur and businessman he's perhaps best known for his history as a negotiator in the peace talks between the u.s. israel and palestine palestine excuse me he's over eighty years old but he still believes he will see peace before he dies or correspondent amir david had a chance to sit down with al masri here's part of that interview. you were nearly fourteen years old when the state of israel was created you were just a kid coming into your teenage years you've witnessed over sixty years of conflict and powerless failed attempts at peace agreements yet you've said a number of times that you remain very optimistic about seeing peace happen in your

lifetime why to answer you is more mystic because i think for many reasons the most important that the players are the is the and the the geography needs this peace treaty because i think the whole world is looking to the region to see that is stable. peace provided and i think with the with everybody. with all the players there i think that we do have a child's all what we need is more people more constituency believe in peace because it's good for israel is very good for israel is good for the but islam is good for the arabs is good for the region of and that's why i think i think it's a great opportunity we should not miss well certainly after the obama administration announced that they would be reopening peace talks we of course

heard israel then announce they would be starting a settlement reconstruction or construction plan of course that's not the first time we've seen something like that happen what do you make of the fact that israel seems to announce these new settlement projects every time are almost every time at least the united states attempts to revive the peace process you know but it's a shame it's a shame but sure that at the end the israelis will will would know or believe that or what they're doing in this part is illegal in it's not good it's not good for the peace work for the peace world peace or for the peace in the real. you know many people say that the only way there will be meaningful negotiations is if the two factions the two parties hamas and fatah can come together what do you think needs to happen at this point to see these these differences reconciled i think

i've been working on this as you know probably for the last six seven years and this is the toughest thing that this is the palestinians it happened because of i think mainly because of the you know unilateral. withdrawal of the israeli troops from gaza before they preparing the whole thing but it happened now i think we need to encourage them to encourage both sides to come together hamas is a very sizable piece of the they are from the fabric of the police in fabric i think i think but i think. fourth of may two thousand eleven mr michel the leader of hamas in cairo in front of all the press he said three things that i'm ready to accept nine hundred sixty seven border i'm ready to give mr buzz a chance to negotiate with the israelis and i would stop sending rockets to israel if israel would come along and say ok let's listen to it but we need him he

needs an issue from israel and he need to move in eyes the state of israel if things go this way what we need to do is to have the world encourage mr abbas and mr mitchell to come to this not like what mr netanyahu say which. told him that he can say if you make reconsideration with hammers you mr was in mr president the police then you become a terrorist no way i mean you look at every movement in the world once you in the eyes of your enemy you're a terrorist but. of your people you are a hero you are a liberator and i think i must be a very very important segment of the control of the of new palestine so we need to encourage them we need to do that why i want to ask you about iran because recently

we're seeing new signs of tension between the u.s. and israel over at least new iran talks that have opened. do you see that at all affecting between palestine and israel first we have to convince these rate is that it is to their benefit this happens because first if israel have to consider itself that is part of the whole region they must know that iran plays a very important part of it iran is very important players in this region and they have done they contribute to civilization they can contribute a lot to the stability of the region and we need them and the guy can be they can provide a lot of stability in this thing and if the palestinians if the palestinian israelis get together on this i think then all what israel is afraid from iran it will leave because the iranians will know that peace is done with the palestinian is

really is i should look i should look peacefully at this thing and they want to be part of the deep and lastly i want to ask you about the recent news regarding yasser arafat's of course he was a very close friend of yours and you actually were with him when he passed is there any doubt in your mind that he was poisoned no. four billion reasons no the the results of the test this was test of the french to solve a respectable. they say there's no doubt that there was poison was the. reason for him now so now is the best thing to do is to do everything we can to take it further to create international judicial body to investigate who did it. and fortunately or unfortunately now he's poisoned

they say because of polonium polonium is produced by a reactor is the closest reactor to us is the motor don't say israel did it but the bona is where the where the atomic reaction in israel. this raid is unfortunately they poisoned so many people of my friends close friends of mine so who do you think that it. is very difficult for me to say did it but let's give it to the people the the group of people who go to investigate was good to do it would i think the truth will come it will always prevail but i want to thank you for your time on evil musri palestinian businessman lantus and member of the palestine much state of council thank you so much thank you very much it was really great thank you thank you so much joy that. and finally today the n.s.a.

strikes back today a federal judge in new york ruled that the n.s.a.'s bulk phone records collection program does not violate the law and that it serves as an effective quote counter punch to al qaeda those were the words of u.s. district judge william pauley as he dismissed a lawsuit brought by the a.c.l.u. back in june following the edward snowden disclosure that millions of arising customers in the united states were having their phone data collected and stored by the government they sell you argued such a collection violated an individual's fourth amendment right to privacy and first amendment right to free association but in the fifty four page decision judge poly argued the n.s.a.'s bulk collection program is not being used in a way that violate the constitutional rights of average law abiding americans he notes there is no evidence that the government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks this ruling comes less than two weeks after a federal judge in washington d.c.

came to a different conclusion about the n.s.a.'s bulk phone records collection program judge richard leon ruled the program to be likely unconstitutional arguing i cannot imagine a more indiscriminate an arbitrary invasion than the systematic and high tech collection and retention of personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of querying it analyzing it without judicial approval with this latest ruling it's looking more and more likely that the supreme court will be the final arbiter when it comes to the n.s.a. spying programs although that will likely take a few years and that will do it for now more of the stories we covered go to youtube dot com forward slash r t america check out our web site r t v dot com forward slash your site a you can look at all the big stories from twenty thirteen and you can follow me on twitter at sam sachs we'll be back with more news at five pm thanks for watching.

i've got a quote for you. that's pretty tough. stay with sob story. but if this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most issues the mainstream media are working for each other right right just as you don't find. a good brother.

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