coming up on r t christians in the crosshairs a new report shows the amount of christians killed for their faith has doubled in two thousand and thirteen. christians are being persecuted the most just ahead believe first fana lows and deadheads are all known as devout followers of a specific music icon but have you ever heard of juggalos they're the followers of a rabid duo group called 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 hollywood are connected with favors being traded between the two more on that later in the show.

it's thursday january ninth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. . we begin tonight 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 a nondenominational christian group that supports persecuted christians according to the list the five worst countries to practice the 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 face 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 murder killings in the country that's more than half of all murder killings the organization documented world wide number four is iraq where christians are increasingly threatened in attacks by islamic terrorist groups local sources told open doors that one christian is killed every two to three days there and in fifth place is afghanistan open doors 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 earlier i was joined by david currie president and c.e.o. of open doors usa here's david as he explains what sources open doors used to obtain information about north korea

a country so heavily guarded by its government take a look. both in-doors now for sixty years have 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 it's an 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

the numbers of martyrdom for faith there are only numbers that we can identify there that are just the tip of the iceberg of from media outlets and other sources the 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 crews are gets in order to raise response from some of the larger population. that was dr david currie president and c.e.o. of open doors usa. and the european parliament voted today to authorize the use of prevent courted testimony from former government contractor edward snowden the vote 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 dutch liberal m.e.p.

sophie into the elder 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 felt the legal avenues to report abuse were not open to him and whether he feels whistle blowing procedures has now been improved peter oliver is in berlin 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 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 four thing 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 now as our tease 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 time to see 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 for least 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 mainly 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 a yemeni one wedding party killing twelve civilians while injuring fourteen the defense department's joint special operations command or jay sock 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 quote dangerous al qaeda militants in the wedding convoy however a follow up investigation conducted by u.k. human rights organisation 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 u.s. government will inspect a drone attack since president obama pledged to tighten the rules on drone strikes in his may twenty thirteenth speech now in response to an announcement of the investigation reprieve investigator barrage yvonne said in the process 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 u.s. administration's internal investigation is robust and that it results in needed policy change and reparation for those affected will continue to follow this investigation . and a detroit rap group known as the insame a clown posse has filed a lawsuit against the justice department and the f.b.i. if that sounds a bit strange it gets even stranger because this is all

a response to how the f.b.i. has categorized the rap duo its followers in this case their followers known as juggalos have been designated gang members at the i am less concluded that the followers were a 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 philosophy of life organized crime is by no means part of the juggalo culture now here is 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 america. these guys games

does exist a real blessing to the lives of the jobs parents of moscow city to their boots that inspired from the guardhouse the it is yet to do legal searches and sometimes it's you again do these simply for walking down the street where your eyes. spray down this case and what it means going forward i was joined earlier by one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs on this case who is a partner at miller canfield and cooperating with the michigan a.c.l.u. on this i first have to him why me f.b.i. designated the juggalos a gang. but 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 games that you would think of like the bloods the crips days like that there are common knowledge and household names and so what

they have done and what we would say their approach is is to go hard into the day and so far that they have branded a group of music fans as a gang the bottom line is they've 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. now or imagine being in a situation where be with rahm again just because i'm a teacher. three times believe me i'm straight now you question my path to being a gentleman we've seen we've had a few ensure him out of the game even though i told him you have an agenda.

other than the police interrogation you know that brennan was describing just there would have been some other consequences of this gang designation for juggalos. but you know and psychopathic records put out the word and asked people what sort of challenges they were facing they got responses from people all over the country and is responsible for going about problems that people faced in terms of their parental rights in terms of their jobs in terms of things that they faced in the high school on the street like brandon said the violent day yesterday mentioned the number goes into people's behalf just in terms of arrests in terms of their employment or in terms of their other relationship to like everything from from parental custody to to walking down the street well during a press conference and members of the insane clown posse said that while it was legal to listen to their music he asked me i was criminalizing the expression of their fandom what and what did they mean by that. well the only way to really

identify what a jungle is or collect on the lands is by there. being a fan of i feel peace music by their belief in the juggalo 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 predecessor meant that the f.b.i. and the o.j. wrote the only way to identify somebody essentially as 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 settler tattoos to the memorabilia anything that identifies them simply as a music fan they become a target as if it was some kind of gang apparel well let's broaden this a little mad because what if they are not juggling or not a fan of this group and i'm not saying you personally are not you can be you know why should this last you matter to all americans why should they be concerned about that. well. there at this well for him i can tell you that we're

a very mainstream corporate law firm and when we heard about the opportunity to help work with these journalism stand up for their rights we were excited to do it and the reason is that's one of the things that while in jail some mentioned in and 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 choose 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 a minute we recognize is mainstream and corporate is a firm idea that these are the things that matter to 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 i would say that the juggalos are or even standing up for those very same rights of the f.b.i. officers out there to make their once important each of us it sure does have much

more. i should say broader implications i mean are there any other instances that you know on 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 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 in that the national gang intelligence center itself is quite. new just

brought together in two thousand and six there are some action by congress into golden five so there really haven't been a lawsuit like this this will be the first time but we think that in terms of other cases and other areas that are very similar to this that we at least there's a very strong ground to go on small teams the plaintiffs certainly have a very strong case but that's all we have time for. cooperating counsel and a feel you michigan and partner and miller cancelled thank you well happening now in las vegas as the international consumer electronics show it's where companies get together each year and show off their newest most cutting edge technology some highlights this year are big screen t.v.'s you can bend tech you can wear and drones of all shapes and sizes just to name a few i spoke earlier with our correspondent liz wahl to discuss all the latest and greatest that came out of the show and i first asked her to tell me more about some of the highlights from this year. big things this year is aware of old technology

there is actually give term for at risk revolution i don't know if that's just a buzz word if this is actually going to become a reality but basically it's articles of clothing watches we're seeing bracelets things that you can wear what you're looking at right now with some of. kogi smart watch so it's kind of like an i phone or the capabilities of apple on your wrist watch so you can get tax e-mail alert kind of organize your life and get alerts right there on your watch we're seeing a lot of other similar types of technology wrist where where you can use it for help purposes where you can monitor your heart rate your sleep patterns even exposure to to sun you name it so apparently that's the big thing we saw a lot of it but the thing with fashion or are things that you can wear is whether or not it can be seen as fashionable and cool and whether or not people are going to actually wear this stuff well and it shows up on the runway and it will narrow

sure well as i understand it drones did make a big appearance that's not that surprising can you tell us a little bit more about yeah drones we saw a lot of drones of all sizes but we're talking about drones for the for the layperson and for recreational use so people that want to use this for fun some of them you can have built in cameras so you can take video you can take photographs and some have you can connect with through your i phone or your smartphone and you can control it with your phone or if you get taking video you can actually see the drones perspective from your phone. so yeah we're seeing a lot of we talk a lot about drones here. so controversial this is a recreational recreational use i don't know if they're becoming more al but they are coming more and more popular and i think that as they become more popular the price is coming down so sure everybody can get a drone i know. so we're going to be seeing them a lot more in the future will for people who aren't hyped up on on drones you know

probably most most women probably don't care as much about drones what else is out there that can make people's lives a little bit easier well one thing that they had something that i could use because . i have cracked my smartphone before it. is a vis case you can put on it like this super strong case paranoia you can bang it with a hammer or you can crack a well no wow. and slice vegetables i don't know why you would be doing that on your tablet or i phone but you can do it but i had supposed to be a very durable as a i made that yeah yeah but it's supposed to give you some cutting edge technology nasa develop nanotech mobile devices cover it's called the invisible phone guard so something we can use it's only twenty bucks so why not i mean for the phone companies in the repair shop it has a lot of money when that's developed well you know at the c.s. we heard a statement from ford motor company that's raising some eyebrows during

a panel discussion jim farley which is ford's global v.p. of marketing and sales had this to say said we know everyone who breaks the law we know when you're doing it we have g.p.s. in your car so we know what you're doing by the way we don't supply that data to anyone so as i can imagine some privacy advocates were a little concerned about this are we hearing anything oh yeah definitely especially with this new concern with privacy these days that statement very basically was saying we know everything about you but we're not going to tell anybody i think these days a lot of people are are going to be weary to take a statement like that at face value but we are seeing this in cars that these black boxes which basically they said you know if there's an accident insurance companies can can find out get to the bottom of a get to the facts find out how fast you're going whether or not you're wearing a seatbelt your location so that's kind of the benefits that are counted with these kinds of technologies. new cars have to have these black boxes but his admission

there is raising some eyebrows. saying we really we know a lot about about you and what they're going to do with that information. that that's what the what has privacy advocates concerned absolutely definitely some drawbacks with the burgeoning technology well that's all we have time for but thank you so much sharpies long. and new details have surface regarding how bank of america has been keeping tabs on social activists last year you may remember that anonymous hacktivist revealed the private e-mails and spreadsheets that showed bank of america had been involved in tracking the online services used by activist now more information regarding the bank's recent surveillance activities are coming to light this time through the obtained public records the documents concerned anonymous backed demonstration called million mask march its 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 it involved the in-depth tracking of the event organizers and other activists who had planned to attend information gathered about the potential protesters was then shared with 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 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 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 systemically deficient in all major areas but judge also note. that the lack of basic mental health care has led to death in some cases a lawsuit was filed by protection an advocacy for people with disabilities and the group did not seek financial damages but did ask 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 and these intelligence operations take the award winning film argo for instance which is based on

a short story. there are eighteen film crew for a science fiction writer we all fly out together. you know if you make it for you or you want to come to hollywood with a big shot without actually doing. it right in. science fantasy going to get mars desert exotic looking. if our military could be it's going to be big. but that's only the tip of the iceberg as long time 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 another 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 brazil recounted there was an actor who wanted a taste of or shall i say

a sniff of something else he said in that situation quote the actor refuses to take any money but he told us that instead all he wants of us is just 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 if the cia could move forward and make the trade rizzo claims he nixed the awkward request but it's likely the actor was able to find his primo stuff elsewhere and people often wonder how much money charities raise in the sense of how much they give to the charity versus their own pockets tonight's resident looks at how some of the fifty worst charities in the country actually give less than four percent to direct cash aid.

by now we all know that charities can be pretty sketchy about how much of the money they raise actually gets put toward the cause itself as opposed to operational expenses or you know their own pocket a recent year long investigation by the tampa bay times and the center for investigative reporting found that the fifty worst charities in america devote less than four percent of their donations to direct cash aid that is so crappy to profit from someone else's need or pain that it should be a crime and in the case of two guys from new jersey their charity work actually was a crime because it was bogus there was no charity they just based it is steve after the terror attacks on nine eleven most people were thinking about how awful the

tragedy was and what it meant about the state of the world and the u.s. is role in that but these guys were thinking you know what this is a great opportunity to make them muddy so they went out and painted a pickup truck with the twin towers on it and then they drove it around a public memorial event where they sold t. shirts and other merchandise depicting n.y.p.d. locos another nine eleven and kinds of commemorative things selling their schlock under the pretense that they were a charity they knew were helping out the families of nine eleven victims they need more than fifty thousand dollars and not one dime of that went to anyone but themselves they just pled guilty in court to fast by deception they both face possible jail time and probation and. they have to pay more than one hundred twenty thousand dollars in fines and investigative costs they are also permanently barred

from working for any charitable organizations in new jersey again ever and that part of their sentence is kind of ridiculous because that's how charities roll in the u.s. they regularly profit from other people's pain seriously one of the charities investigated by the center for investigative reporting where nearly fourteen million dollars for diabetes but only gave about ten thousand dollars to patients it's ridiculous and the attorney general in new jersey put it these condom and shamelessly exploited the generosity of others as i put it these conmen shamelessly acted like many real charities here in the u.s. just with a lot less paperwork 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 cover go to youtube dot com

slash r t america check out our web site r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at a mirror david for now have a great night. if it was a. very hard to take i. once again to come on here a lot happened that had facts without hurting their feelings so i want. to see. if it was safe. if it if

. i got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. stay with sob story. let's get this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most issues in the mainstream media were pretty much on the bridegroom's didn't find out . if it's.