coming up on our t.v. christians in the crosshairs a new report shows that the amount of christians killed for their faith has doubled in two thousand and thirteen we'll take a look at where christians are being persecuted the most just ahead believe worse than a lowe's and deadheads are all known as devout followers of a specific music icon but i do you ever heard of juggalos they're the followers of the rap duo insane clown posse a group that's making waves for filing a lawsuit against the f.b.i. find out why they're prepared to go to court coming up. and it's a spy connection that goes beyond the silver screen a new book reveals how the cia and honeywood are connected with favors being traded between the two more on that later in the show.

it's there is a january ninth four pm in washington d.c. david you're watching our t.v. . we begin today with the twenty fourteen world watch list a ranking of the fifty countries in which the persecution of christians for religious reasons is most severe and according to the report the amount of christians killed because of their faith doubled in two thousand and thirteen the report is released every year by open doors and nondenominational christian group that supports persecuted christians around the world according to the list of five worst countries to practice a religion are as follows north korea takes the number one spot for the twelfth year in a row the report cites no numbers on the amount of people killed however it says that christians there faced quote the highest imaginable pressure with between fifty to seventy thousand living in political prison camps the next rank country is somalia where open doors reports that this year ten christians were targeted and

killed by members of the militant group al-shabaab the third most dangerous place for christians is syria a country plagued by an ongoing civil war open door says that in two thousand and thirteen there were one thousand two hundred thirteen martyr killings in the country that's more than half of all the martyr killings the organization documented worldwide number four is iraq where christians are increasingly threatened and attacked by islamic terrorist groups a local source has told open doors that one christian is killed every two to three days there and in fifth places afghanistan open door says the influx of islamic extremism and tribal pressure have made practicing christianity unsafe some lawmakers have publicly said that converts to christianity should die to discuss the findings of this report a little bit more earlier i was joined by david curry president and c.e.o. of open doors usa since north korea is number one on the list i first asked david what's going on there that makes it so difficult to practice christianity. well

there are different reasons why countries show up on our world watch list of countries where it's very difficult to have freedom of faith to be a christian north korea suffers under what is a very strange combination which is a form of call the communist oppression mixed with a theocracy where the leaders for now three generations believe that their god so any ideology or theology which would question that or challenge that they're putting down with force and you don't hear a lot about that that force or that oppression on christians or directed at christians because of the secrecy and because the control is so total and like you said i mean generally it is so hard to obtain information on the people of north korea you know what were your sources and how were you you know able to figure out sort of the beliefs of a population that's so heavily guarded by its government open doors now for sixty years is supported persecuted christians wherever they may be and so we get our

data from the local level we work with who are believers in these countries we get our responses from them right on the ground level so that's how we get this data together and we measure it on a number of factors violence is one of them but also pressure and squeezing of them in more and more subtle ways perhaps and we'll talk about what we're seeing happen in syria of course we know that the country is now in braille than a civil war and has been for over two years how do you know that the numbers that that we're seeing because we know that it's been extraordinarily high are just a reflection of how many people are dying as a whole and that it's actually there's a targeted. persecution of christians that's right i mean there is a there's a larger humanitarian crisis going on in syria but what we're using is when we use numbers of martyrdom for faith or only numbers that we can identify they're they're

just the tip of the iceberg of. from media outlets and other sources folks who've been martyred within syria what's happened in syria is you have a civil war clearly there's a lot of damage to the society at large but there are also efforts from islamic extremist groups to target christian areas where historically christians have. settled and christian churches soft targets in order to raise response from some of the larger population and that was my next question which is that you know we're seeing this conflict really take hold of the region in both syria and iraq which are both obviously on the list and the conflict to really see it happen more so between muslim factions the sunnies and the shiites and christians seem to by and large sort of be out of the conflict or at least not incite the conflict so how how is it that you think that christians are alternately the ones being targeted here well in some cases they're being scapegoated you have islamic extremists who

feel theologically or political for political motivations that christians are a threat to their society or the way the view should be a law being played out so there's a number of factors in every country is different in iraq you know the government either seems to be unable or unwilling to support the saw what we would call soft targets of christian churches you had a bombing just christmas of two churches where people were going to worship the christmas holiday so it varies from country to country and from area to area absolutely and also you also see iraq and afghanistan both on the list and these are two countries that the united states has most recently gone to war with and i know you guys have only been doing the survey for twelve years but how would you describe the trend regarding the persecution of christians when you say that it increased its increase since the first year you did it or we we've seen a doubling of the martyrs that we can identify just from last. sure and some of

those numbers a large portion of them the largest portion is in the syrian conflict but there's also other countries like nigeria and somalia and some of these where there's there's a targeting of christians so we feel like it's getting worse nine of the top ten on our world watch list are islamic extremist factions and or governments thirty six of the top fifty so that's the main driver this year it's not always been that way but it's certainly a trend that we're concerned about sore and you know aside from people being targeted and murdered what kinds of obstacles are christians facing and practicing their religion just generally well there's a issue here that in many of the countries where where they are operating as a minority and there's a lot of social pressure from families to conform in many countries on the world watch lists it is illegal to convert to christianity if you so so choose what we

want is a free marketplace of ideas where people have the opportunity to study and choose what they think for themselves sir and when you take a look at the numbers more generally i know that you say you know between two thousand and twelve and two thousand and thirteen or is a huge jump but have you seen the numbers go down at all in those twelve years or have they just been consistently getting higher and higher and higher what we're doing is ranking the countries as they are today and so we've seen a fluctuation and it's changed when we first started we were dealing with communist oppression now we're dealing with this lawmaker extremism so it's different and the numbers have changed as time has changed is all very interesting and will certainly follow your statistics going forward thank you so much david curry president and c.e.o. of open doors usa thank you. and the european parliament voted today to authorize the use of prerecorded testimony from former government contractor edward snowden about which was held by the parliament's committee on civil liberties justice and

home affairs now paves the way for snowden to provide the e.u. with key information such liberal m.e.p. sophie and val who's the vice chair of the civil liberties committee said snowden's remarks would be quote an opportunity to give citizens across europe the answers they deserve over mass surveillance she also went on to say that she would like to ask snowden why he thought the legal avenues to report abuse were not open hand and whether he feels whistle blowing procedures have now been improved artie's peter oliver is amber lyon with more the e.u. parliament approved plans for an inquiry into just how far the n.s.a. spying program went into looking into the private communications of citizens across the european union now these leaks came out because of the revelations put forward by edward snowden the former n.s.a. contractor. and it's really sent a shockwave across europe not least here in germany where it was revealed that the

chair of the cell phone of chancellor angela merkel may have been listened into by the united states government now by a number of thirty six in favor two against and one abstention they decided that yes they would have to be an inquiry and there is also the chance that edward snowden may testify at that inquiry by videophone he remains in russia where he sought asylum and remains there until until august of this year but yes that certainly looks like something that we're going to have to be keeping an eye on over the coming months is twenty fourteen continues to see more news come out and more upset here in europe about just how much the united states may have been listening in to our communications. that was our teeth peter oliver back in washington d.c. president obama has been meeting with leaders from the u.s. intelligence community and members of an oversight panel focusing on privacy and

civil liberties today he met with key lawmakers as privacy groups met separately with administration officials the meetings come just as the department of defense released a classified report regarding the harm that's been caused by the snowden leaks the d.o.d. report made a number of conclusions but namely that snowden's disclosures significantly impacted the capabilities of the u.s. to carry out its intelligence operations. and the u.s. government will be investigating a twenty thirteen drone strike which hit a yemeni wedding party killing twelve civilians while injuring fourteen the defense department's joint special operations command or jay sachs is responsible for carrying out the strike which took place on december twelfth of last year in the aftermath of the attack the government said they had credible intelligence leading them to believe there were dangerous al qaeda militants in the wedding convoy however all follow up investigation conducted by u.k.

human rights organization reprieve found that all those killed and injured in the strike were guests attending a wedding with no known militant connections this will all be explored in a forthcoming internal investigation and it will mark the first time the us government will inspect a drone attack since president obama pledged to tighten the rules on drone strikes in his may two thousand and thirteen speech in response to an announcement of the investigation one investigator of the reprieve report on said in a press release that these continuing drone strikes don't bolster anyone's security they only serve to alienate the yemeni people and undermine the rule of law we can only hope that the us is ministrations internal investigation is robust and that it results in needed policy change and reparation for all those affected will continue to follow this investigation. and new details have surfaced regarding how bank of america has been keeping tabs tabs on social activists last year you may remember

that anonymous hacktivists revealed the private e-mails in spreadsheets showing the bank of america had been involved in tracking the online services used by activists now more information regarding the bank's recent surveillance activities are coming to light this time through legally obtained public records the documents concern an anonymous backed demonstration called the million mask march as a protest that took place in olympia washington on november fifth of last year the new documents reveal an extensive collaboration that took place between the bank washington state patrol and federal counterterrorism agencies involved in-depth tracking of the events organizers and other activists who had planned to attend information gathered about the potential protesters was then shared with the bank of america and in return bank of america participated in its own snooping and sharing mainly by using twenty of its own employees to monitor activists via social

media. and still ahead here on r t the music group insane clown posse is taking the f.b.i. to court they're outraged that their fans are listed by the f.b.i. as again more on this case after the break. got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. they were it's about story. it's this guy's look which we're about done started working for the people motivations the beach the media we're pretty much on the right right was beating. the drum.

look it was a problem very hard to take a look once again to. a life that never had that would that hurt their feelings. about. the bigger the bigger the

book look the the. drama is the truth be ignored. stories others refuse to notice. places change the world writes never. so picture most states leaves close to home to and from around the globe. look to. the. and a detroit rap group known as the insane clown posse has found a lawsuit against the justice department and the f.b.i. that sounds a bit strange it gets even stranger because this is all a response to how the f.b.i. has categorize the rap duo spa words and this case their followers known as

juggalos have been designated gang members f.b.i. analysts concluded that the followers were quote loosely organized hybrid gang and this is all based on law enforcement and media reports of crimes committed by people wearing juggalo tattoos and clothing in the complaint filed just yesterday the clown posse and four fans have said that quote juggalos are a family of people who love and help one another enjoy one another's company and bond over the music and the philosophy of life organized crime is by no means a part of the juggalo culture here's what one of the insane clown posse band members violent j. had to say about the case discrimination based on the type of music the person listens to slow ridiculous in. the guy's game he's just using this code realistic to the laws of the judge rules parents of moscow

studios or. the housing that is going to do illegal searches sometimes it's you again do these simply for walking down the street where you might see. and here to break down this case and what it means going forward i'm joined by one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs on this case or a saw who is a partner in miller canfield and cooperated with the michigan a.c.l.u. on this sort of things for joining me. so the first question that needs to be asked here is why the f.b.i. would even designate the juggalos again what kinds of activities were they involved with. well you know the f.b.i. as well as the other agencies within the d.o.j. have a tough job across the country in terms of trying to identify real gangs and deal with real gang problems and a lot of those games are the kind of gangs that you would think of like the bloods the crips things like that they're common knowledge and cultural names and so what

they have done and what we would say their approach is is to go forward to the day so far that they have branded the group of music fans as the bottom line is they have been so zealous in their law enforcement activity that they sort of keep going past the line and then far across the line till they're way out at the point where they're just dealing with music fans so interesting well one juggalo brandon bradley is a plaintiff in this case and i want to take a listen to what he said yesterday at a press conference i'm a peaceful person trying to live my life right. i've never imagined being in a situation where i be without running game just because i'm a teacher. street asking questions might have been a gentleman we've seen we've had a few. games or even. just an event. other

than the police interrogation you know that brennan was describing just there would have been some other consequences this gang designation for juggalos. but you know when psychopathic records had put out the word and asked people what sort of challenges they were facing they got responses from all over the country and the response of the community problems that people faced in terms of their parental rights in terms of their jobs in terms of things that they faced and the hassle on the streets like brandon said by the violent day yesterday mentioned the number of those things that people be had just in terms of rest in terms of their employment or in terms of their other relationships in life everything from parental custody to walking down the street well during a press conference members of the insane clown posse said that while it was real to listen to their music he asked me i was criminalizing the expression of their fandom what did they mean by that well the only way to really identify

what it. is is by their. fan by c.p.s. music by their belief and the other little philosophy of tolerance and acceptance of the expressed of that music so when you come down to it and for example if you just look in the two thousand and eleven national gang fred assessment that. the o.j. wrote the only way to identify somebody essentially is a juggalo is that they are a fan of the insane clown posse well if that's the case then. as soon as someone walks down the street with tattoos to the memorabilia anything that identifies them simply as a music fan to become a target if there was some kind of gang apparel well let's broaden this a little bit because what you're saying you're not a juggler you're not a fan of this group i'm not saying you personally are not you could be you know why should this last two matter to all americans why should they be concerned about that. well for him i can tell you that we're

a very mainstream corporate law firm and when we heard about the opportunity to work with these generals and stand up for their rights we were excited to do it and the reason is it's one of the things that while in jail so mentioned in some of his comments yesterday is that they're really fighting for all of us i mean we all want to choose our own friends we want to choose what we talk about in public we want to choose the music that we listen to the one political affiliations we want to choose how we deal with the issues are important to us in life and that's all the jugglers are standing up for so this for money we recognize as mainstream and corporate as firmly that these are the things that matter all of us and so we were happy to get involved and i think that's how it impacts everybody across the country i mean folks across the country value these very same rights and so these are ones that we all should be excited stand up for and and i would say that the juggler's or even standing up for those very same rights of the f.b.i.

officers out there to be the ones important each of us it sure does have much more . i should say broader implications you know are there any other instances that you know and which people are targeted are designated and members of the gang by law enforcement for their consumer choices or is this unique well. i suppose the way that i would answer that is to say that i think that the department of justice or the f.b.i. may have an interest in looking at some sort of groups that are organized around things like gangster rap sometimes and other material like that but i think this is a developing area and it's probably too soon to tell whether or not that's something that where people been targeted based on their. music choice sure and from what you know i mean have a lawsuit ever prompted the f.b.i. to renew the gang designation. well i mean these gang designations are relatively novel and the national game intelligence center itself is quite new just brought

together in two thousand and six after some action by congress in two thousand and five so there really hasn't been a lawsuit like this this will be the first time but we think that in terms of other cases in other areas that are very similar to this that we at least has a very strong ground to go on while it seems the plaintiffs certainly have a very strong case but that's all we have time for sora cooperating counsel at a.c.l.u. michigan and partner and they were cancelled thank you thanks very much mary appreciate it. and another state is at the center of a lawsuit over how they treat their mentally ill prisoners a south carolina judge on wednesday ruled that the south carolina department of corrections violated the cruel and unusual unusual punishment clause in the state constitution the state now has six months to make a plan to better deal with its mentally ill inmates thirty five hundred seriously mentally ill inmates have filed a class action suit against the south carolina department of corrections during the

five week trial ten inmates testified about harsh treatment that included long periods and restraints excessive use of pepper spray and long term solitary confinement and his ruling fifth circuit court judge michael baxley said the state's mental health program is quote inherently flawed and systematically deficient in all major areas the judge also noted that the lack of basic mental health care had led to death in some cases a lawsuit was filed by protection and advocacy for people with disabilities the group did not seek financial damages but asked the court to compel the department of corrections to provide adequate mental health care for its inmates and the department of corrections says it will appeal the ruling. hollywood loves movies about international intrigue and spying at the central intelligence agency sometimes the films even include a role for hollywood in these intelligence operations take the award winning film argo or canadian film crew for

a science fiction writer we all fly out together so. you know if you make it for you or you want to come to hollywood for the big shot without actually doing. it right in. science fantasy only stupid mars desert exotic looking. if our military is going to be beat. but that's only the tip of the iceberg as longtime cia lawyer john rizzo tells it the relationship between the spy agency and la la land is quite cozy and his new book company men rizzo says that actors producers and other movie making power players were always happy to help out the cia in any way they could something the lawyer said was quote probably in equal parts because they are sincerely patriotic and because it gives them a taste of real life intrigue and excitement but in one story rizzo recounted there

was an actor who wanted a taste of something else or should i say a sniff of something else the actor the actor refuses to take any money but he told us that instead of all instead all he wants of us is to score him the best fifty thousand dollars stash of cocaine we can find he seems to think we can get the real primo stuff rizzo learned about the situation because an agent had approached him to ask the cia if the cia could move forward and make the trade rizzo claims he nixie awkward request one one can only hope the actor was able to find his primo stuff elsewhere and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com for r.t. america check out our web website r t dot com forward slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir david stay tune boom bust it's next.

some of the sixteen percent imports came from illegal fishing. the european union is i want to keep taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. coupons but they enter our territorial waters like they fish they load the fish on to the ships and leave for europe. to day illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. stay with substory. let's give this guy like me are about guys that are working for the people all tissues

the mainstream media works for each other right lines didn't. they did rather well. i was a new alert animation scripts scare me a little bit. there is breaking news tonight and they are continuing to follow the breaking news. alexander's family cry tears of the war a great big brother that had he ever read dark and of course a wall around our own lives there's a story made for a movie is playing out in real life.

marinating this is boom bust and these are the stories we're tracking for you today first up we're talking fed today tim dewey and peter schiff away and on the past present and future of the federal reserve plus a lax banking regulations in the e.u. have a european financier is doing the wall spoken wrong dope lament go on and whatever else they dance in europe we'll tell you all about it coming right up and harrison joins me in today's big deal to talk about some of the most posh places on the planet you won't want to miss it and it all starts right now.