coming up on r t guantanamo bay has been holding war on terror detainees for twelve years the facility is known for waterboarding forced beatings and indefinite detention but will it ever close and what will happen to those still in limbo at the facility we try to answer some of those questions ahead. and on capitol hill a new bill is introduced to fast track trade deals that would include the tepee trade deal that critics fear will help big businesses over consumers the latest on that coming up in south dakota and in reservation faces a host of problems from incredibly high unemployment to alcoholism locals worry what may have been a ban on alcohol is lifted but take

a deeper look at this reservation later in the show. it's friday january tenth to five pm in washington d.c. i'm perry and boring you're watching r t america tomorrow marks the twelfth anniversary of detainees from the war on terror entering guantanamo bay the american military detention facility located in cuba this by president obama's campaigning on a promise to close the camp back in two thousand eight hundred fifty five detainees remain a get moet seventy seven of which have been cleared for release artes and the stasi a church takes a look at the past dozen years at guantanamo bay. hidden on a tropical island a symbol of promises made being far flung promises kept it will leave an appalling

black mark in the history books unless the people who advocate for its continued existence when and if they win. the supposed civilized values that america has will be gone forever twelve years ago the us brought to guantanamo its first detainees of the war on terror the us and powerful sections in the ruling class of the us want a place that openly defied international law it's a decision that's been made and that they want to display a place that we can treat people however we want to whenever we want to the tube is poured into the bag scandal surrounding torture and force feeding mass hunger strikes of desperation and dozens of suicide attempts that hasn't been something that has been an issue since i have been here in a facility that has long stopped making sense if it ever did despite the rhetoric it really isn't about national security or prisoners being so dangerous that they

can't possibly be released and therefore that can't be true out of seven hundred seventy nine hundred eighty s. held at guantanamo in these past twelve years only seven have been convicted and sentenced we have seen eleven prisoners released between august and december last year compared to just five men in the whole of the previous three years so it's movement but it would be unwise to think that you know we're nearly there there are hundred fifty five men still in guantanamo and seventy six of those men were cleared for release the us struggling with what to do with them and then even bleaker future still ahead for the other seventy nine prisoners facing the abyss of indefinite detention and then years are here because they were somewhere so somebody whether they're innocent or guilty is not our job right after a majority of detainees. went on hunger strike last year obama's administration was forced to make big steps again by double standards and overlooking the law

international treaty obligations mean that we shouldn't be sending people back to countries where they face the risk of a treatment of torture this followed in some cases but completely ignored in others two men were recently sent to algeria amid grave concerns of possible persecution on the ground the guy who was our client jamila bey as he. spent his whole adult life basically in europe and in canada and there was really no reason why how educated guy was fluent in german english and french and i should be sent home. and probably trapped there unable to emigrate because of the stigma the future of some of those released over the years even more questioned and increasingly grim as media claims surfaced that the cia might had reportedly been engaged in recruiting some of the prisoners as double agents in exchange for freedom our job here is to do the safe legal humane and transparent care and custody of the detainees while in the legend tug of war between the president's will to shut the prison and congress

resisting this is officially used as an excuse to avoid simply closing the place down despite personal promises to do so i think the only reason he can get away with that is by portraying it really as a credit mess you know as if this was somehow harder to do now than it was five years ago he was the president but politicians human rights organizations legal experts and common sense have long called for an end to the struggle of guantanamo prisoners but america's self-made mess of the last twelve years is already so hard to clean up that reasons to keep it around are likely to breed more anniversaries to come i'm spacesuit you're going to party me. the pentagon has now completed the first guantanamo periodic review review board and just added one more to to me mom you a new hobby into the list of people approve. to be released and a press release the board said they found that continued law of war detention is no longer necessary to protect against

a continuing significant threat to the united states and that you have the that is therefore eligible for transfer although he has been approved for release it is unclear when and where you have the will be released and to talk more about the guantanamo periodic review board the military justice at the detention facility i'm joined now by lieutenant commander kevin gucky he has represented other detainees at guantanamo bay thanks for joining us thank you perry and can you tell us a little bit more about obama's periodic review board what is their purpose and what have they accomplished in regards to closing get no but it's a great question president obama first came up with the concept where i should say first inactive the concept of the periodic review boards in march of two thousand and eleven with an executive an executive order it then became part of our national law with the national defense authorization act of two thousand and twelve

nonetheless it took almost two years before the first periodic review board was actually held which was held at the end of last year two thousand and thirteen and of course that's right and we just got the the results of that first quarter just now so a scheme that president obama set in place in march of two thousand and eleven is only just starting to bear fruit i will say that this result today is is great news for mr and for his lawyer david remes but to some extent it was streets that continuing problem with guantanamo bay even though this periodic review board found that there's no need to continue to detain mr mujahid at guantanamo bay. he now just shifts from a category of people who are being in indefinitely detained basically pending the end of the war on terror to the category of people who are being indefinitely detained him till we are comfortable enough with the diplomatic relations with

yemen to be able to transfer him yet that's a whole nother issue and it has been a very slow roll out and his trial yesterday it was conducted via video teleconference and the board was located in a secret location in washington d.c. and. they detain me and his attorney were encarta no bay cuba further the pentagon said it was quote unprepared to let reporters watch and watch the pentagon envoy for guantanamo closures paul lewis was surprised to discover that detention center staff had no plans to accommodate the media for the hearings why the lack of transparency with this process the lack of transparency with the periodic review board process is exactly in line with the lack of transparency we've seen with everything related to guantanamo including the military commissions process where.

we most recently litigated a motion arguing that the and i did states person went to the international convention against torture cannot use classification to hide evidence of torture and human rights abuses and yet we were shot down on that motion and effectively what the commission said is that the government can continue to classify and make secret all the evidence regarding its human rights abuses and torture but even president bush's military review panel allow for the detainees to meet face to face with the board and allow the press to watch so other than that controversial treatment that we are the know about and get knowledge such as waterboarding detaining teenagers for speeding that you know we're hearing about the suicides do you think this administration is hiding anything else there well that initial round of hearings which where the combatant status review tribunals those had a lot of problems too while it's true that the detainees may have actually faced

the members of the board they weren't represented by lawyers they were as is true in this process represented by non lawyer personal representatives with whom they've established absolutely no relationship so i wouldn't say that those hearings were fair those hearings were an attempt to to retroactively correct a problem which was that we didn't comply with the geneva conventions when we caught these people we didn't give them the proper article five tribunals they were entitled to to determine what their status should be as as combatants captured on the battlefield and as a member of the navy jag and someone that has represented other detainees why why do you believe there is not a conflict of interest there is no there is no conflict of interest when i was assigned to represent these men which was now five and a half years ago my primary duty became their best interest and i've fought hard for my clients over the course of those past five years i've gone all around the world actually. talking about how bad i think one ton of all this and all the

problems with the military commission system all the problems with the periodic review board system one of which i'll note it was noted by the american bar association in july of last year that these men are not entitled to be represented by lawyers of their own choosing i have formed close relationships with all my clients but someone arbitrarily decided that maybe jags cannot have any role in this process this periodic review board process so these men with whom i've formed close relationships i can't represent them in their periodic review boards instead they'll be represented by non lawyer personal representatives with whom they have no relationship ok thank you so much that was kevin bogusky of the u.s. . thank you and west virginia a chemical spill into the elk river caused governor earl ray tomblin to issue a state of emergency and nine counties and

a water ban for three hundred thousand people over five thousand gallons of coal preparation chemical has escaped from a tank at freedom industries in the state's capital the link was discovered last night but it's possible it's been going on for longer r.t. correspondent megan lopez has more. state and federal authorities are working around the clock in charleston west virginia after a spill leads chemicals into the elk river just one mile upstream from a local water treatment facility so the spill comes from a forty eight thousand gallon chemical storage tank from freedom industries right now west virginia governor earl ray tomblin has declared a state of emergency for nine counties surrounding charleston west virginia schools and businesses have been closed and the three hundred thousand or so residents that have been affected by this spill are told not to drink the water not even to wash their hands with it only to use it to flush the toilet and case of

a fire emergency meanwhile president barack obama has declared a federal emergency in west virginia fema and the department of homeland security are both getting involved in the relief efforts right now as investigators try to figure out how contaminated the water is how serious the problem is and how they can go ahead and fix it now the president of freedom industries the company that actually leaked those chemicals put out a statement just a little bit ago today and i want to read part of it it says quote we have been working with local federal and safety and environmental entities including the coast guard army corps of engineers and homeland security and are following all necessary steps to fix the issue our team has been working around the clock since the discovery to contain the leak to prevent further contamination now the same i went on to say that the company doesn't know how the leak happened in the first place it also doesn't know exactly how much of the chemical was released now this chemical is a foam agent used in the coal process coal of course is

a major industry in west virginia and this chemical is actually used right before the coal goes to market in order to clean it something else that authorities don't know at the moment is a possible hazard that this chemical has on the fumin body so far no one has been. ordered as experiencing negative side effects as a result of this however a number of people have gone to local hospitals to be checked for possible symptoms but again knowing it has been reported as being sick now something else to keep in mind here is that some of the symptoms that are involved in this or that authorities are warning residents of is burning throat hands and arms and skin and a lot of other symptoms that are just really scary to begin with local grocery store owners have described the mad dash by local residents there as pandemonium in order to get their hands on some clean bottles of water residents there are even resorting to buying bags of ice and sporting drinks and soda and things like that

in order to have something to drink as there is a shortage right now at the moment we don't know right now how long it's going to take for the school to be cleaned up but residents are hopeful it will be done in the next few days on the road to west virginia meghan lopez r.t. . and the u.s. house and senate has taken steps towards expediting and international trade negotiations house ways and means committee chairman dave camp and senate finance committee chairman max baucus and ranking member or and hatch introduced the bipartisan congressional priority act yesterday congress members released a statement saying the bill establishes twenty first century congressional negotiation objectives and rules for the administration to follow when engaged and trade talks the bill if passed into law would apply to the twelve nation trans-pacific partnership which includes the u.s. the end of the eleven other highlighted nations along the pacific rim critics of the trade deal have expressed concerns with transparency surrounding the

negotiations and proposed corporate policies the bill includes a fast track per vision which would limit congressional input on the t p p calling for a straight up or down vote with no room for amendments and limited florida bait to discuss the trade deal and the process of fast tracking more i'm joined by lori wallach director at public citizen's global trade watch well i think for joining my pleasure so here is the bill that was introduced yesterday it's pretty expansive it's one hundred seven pages and section two is the first thirty five pages you can see it's a long section is titled objective trade negotiated negotiation objectives and it clearly outlines what their objectives are such as strengthening the system of international trade to foster economic growth and to ensure that trade agreements afforded small businesses equal access to international markets all great objectives but that's just it they're just objectives they're not directives so if

this bill was passed in its entirety how can we be assured that these objectives will be fulfilled well first of all a bunch of the objectives i things that aren't so great extensions of medicine patents i would increase prices special for an investor rules that promote. job offshoring from the us now law are a laws to be attacked in international tribunals with the requirement that we pay compensation out of the treasury there are rules that would limit imported food safety so a bunch of his objectives aren't so great but it doesn't kind of matter because none of them are binding the way fast track the process is set up whether or not any of the objectives are met when congress were to vote for this the executive branch the president could sign a trade agreement for congress wrote right implementing legislation rewriting wide swaths of u.s. law and said to congress with no committee markup is the one piece of legislation

the president not congress writes and get a guaranteed yes or no vote in ninety days no amendments so it's like a legislative lose run and they pack all kinds of extra stuff on the slide so these trade agreements are about trade but are rewriting wide swaths of domestic law to get radium through congress which is why it's so controversial a very interesting way to circumvent the congressional process but what she has was all those interviews yesterday does this have a becoming law given that both the house and senate already have bills introduced and they're bipartisan so what's interesting is bipartisan in name but actually they couldn't find a single house democrat to sponsor it so the bill in the house doesn't have a democratic sponsor just a republican camp the chairman well but remember that of the majority in the house so right there already there are thirty republicans who before the bill went in said they wouldn't do fastrack they don't think it's constitutional it doesn't get away congress's exclusive constitutional authority over trade and also a bunch and just wouldn't think giving more power to president obama if anything

then you've got democrats one hundred sixty of them before the boy even one in said no more of that since then you've had a bunch of the senior members saying we're not for that that's the old fast track we need a new way to do trade so right now the way i think to serve disk. it is they're running out of time it's a second year in an election year and they don't have the votes in the house the sense not to go first is the bill has to start it's a revenue bill so it has to start and house so if it does manage to get their house and senate has the president expressed interest in is this something he would sign off on or the president wants it's a huge power grab for him in the sense that he's suddenly getting rid of congress meddling in all this law or writing i mean it's he's the one who's asked for it what's interesting the more i think is there's so rarely days with democrats and republicans agree on anything the fact that house democrats or republicans are saying we're going to keep our constitutional authority it's both a reflection of how the american public generally as democrats independents or

republicans have gotten really upset about this trade agreement so those members are thinking about the political liability of giving away their authority but this is this is nothing new fast tracking was first passed in one nine hundred seventy four the most recent provision expired in two thousand and seven and it wasn't quite as controversial back in the seventy's but critics say that's because trade deals have expanded in scope and size since the seventy's so how is the tepee different from previous trade negotiations that weren't quite as controversial as this one well first of all they've been hunted to trade agreements since the seventy's but only sixteen ever in the history of the country that fast track fast track has not been a fact but for five of the last one thousand years or so democratic presidents republican presidents have not been able to get it clinton lost it in a slap down in the house floor when one hundred seventy one democrats and seventy one republicans said no only george w. bush has had it only for five years literally in the last nineteen years what is different with p.p.p. and why now the disinclination generally not do fast track and sort of bulked up is

t p p is the most expansive serve invasive agreement as far as dodging into congress is territory of trade agreements are really about trade tariffs quotas congress is less nervous about giving away some of its authority and that's what was like in the seventy's when fastrack first hatched and now we're going. no medicine and. the rights patents procurement immigration law energy policies financial services land use professional licenses food safety it's like the entire federal statute book gets rewritten through trade agreements thank you so much this is lori wallach she is the director of public citizen's global trade watch. and now to afghanistan where a four year old boy afghan boy was accidentally killed today by u.s. forces afghan officials say that the troops must took the boy because as an enemy because of poor visibility to nato servicemen and one civilian employee were also killed and the aircraft accident in the country this comes as u.s.

afghanistan ties are strained over negotiations for a term security agreement the deal would determine the u.s. presence in the country following a withdraw of most foreign troops planned for the end of the year the civilian death that was used to emphasize one of afghan president karzai made demands for all you know a lot or all u.s. and nato military officers operations and afghanistan to and among other demands cars i also was the u.s. to persuade the taliban leadership to take part in peace negotiations with his government karzai is refusing to sign a security deal before a presidential election and april skepticism is growing that negotiators will get him from the former commander for the u.k. special air service tells r t what he expects from the negotiations i believe that what we try to achieve is to set the conditions whereby an afghan government can.

play we. believe. if those conditions are certain he should be here then what we're likely to see is a compromise between kabul once the taliban once which will see afghanistan not a little over the next period of time perhaps the next ten years but they're going to be a great strategic victory if we want to call it that or any great strategic outcome . americans initially wanted a deal signed before the end of the year. now so the pine ridge and the a reservation in south dakota. has an annual per capita income of four thousand dollars eight times the rate of diabetes than the national average two times the rate of heart disease and three times the rate of infant mortality and also has possibly the highest unemployment rate in the country eighty percent which is the

estimated rate of alcoholism on the reservation and this is despite the fact that alcohol is a legal there review is that producer cody snell breaks it down from an eighty percent unemployment rate to an average life expectancy of fifty years old your goal is to a pine ridge reservation in south dakota face some of the most harrowing statistics in the united states but behind these numbers are silent and of me that's decimating families and threatening the oglala way of life alcohol for the vast majority of the reservations one hundred twenty five year history alcohol has been banned despite this ban pine ridges alcoholism rate is estimated to be as high as eighty percent alcohol is infiltrating the tribe from a border town just two miles away only about twelve people live here in whiteclay nebraska but in two thousand and twelve the four stores located right next to pine ridge sold over one hundred sixty thousand cases of beer and that beer is generating an enormous profits for both store owners and the state of nebraska. any

where from. three to five million dollars being made every year or two loops in the country none of the white clay store owners would talk to us on camera but it's clear that this i popping revenue in an economically distressed area is why tribe members voted this past august to finally allow alcohol on the reservation but the decision to legalize only passed by a four percent margin and continues to generate deeply divided opinions among the people of pine ridge a lot of people drink. they're going to find it somewhere even though they don't legalize it don't make. it leave along the reservation because we have enough problems when it's not legal if we. give them it and start being more self-sufficient monks or selves. by legalizing. those that's one more step to grow although the referendum was passed by

a majority vote five months ago pine ridge is tribal government a council consisting of nineteen representatives has final say on if and how the new law is implemented robin tapio a representative from the village of pine ridge and an advocate of alcohol legalization believes this potential revenue is the only way to turn the tide when it comes to preventive health i don't ever see the federal government coming up with the resources to help us build treatment centers to help us build a detox to help us build on the shelter another council member burning shot with arrow who opposes the referendum worries that more alcohol on the reservation will lead to more crime and wording on law enforcement so if it does get legal either it's going to be it's going to be worse not to mention the difficulties police officers already have in responding to alcohol related crime. thirty officers and probably someone sometime this reservations the size of rhode island so if that's

not enough there's like forty thousand people who are both tapio and shot with arrows concerns are well justified considering that two hundred twenty million dollars was slashed just last year from the indian health service a nearly five percent cut due to the sequester the decrease in money is actually illegal and stands in violation of longstanding treaties between the u.s. government and native american communities but government cutbacks and broken promises aren't the only hurdles facing the lakota nation the inner corruption within the council itself is of concern when it comes to the allocate. of funds if this were to pass we would like the alcohol revenues to be set in a separate account not come into the tribes general because the tribe has something called the general fund and the general fund is pretty much money that's spent where there's you can't really take a gator track it you know i mean they call it the black hole only time will tell if legalization is the right course of action for

a community devastated by alcoholism but more importantly is whether the tribal council will spend these potential funds in a way that can build a sustainable future for generations to come in pine ridge south dakota cody snow. according to a pentagon report sent to the house intelligence committee edward snowden's leaks about the national security agency helped terrorists and according to chairman mike rogers are likely to have a lethal consequences for our troops and the field over the intel committee could allow very much further because the document detailing the harms from the classified information snowden leaked was also classified word snowden's legal adviser ben why is there told r.t. as larry king that history will vindicate snowden's actions think that in five years and ten and twenty no one is going to take seriously the argument that these disclosures harm national security people are going to recognize that he was the

necessary instrument in order to start this global debate and that a law that would punish him with life in prison for that isn't a fair one until then the pentagon is hoping that americans will trust that these leaks are dangerous while keeping their proof classified and i take another leader to get that report a wider audience that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america and check out our web site. u.s.a. you can also follow me on twitter perry and d.c. . my marinates join me on. that impartial and financial commentary for news and much much. only on bombast and.

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