it's. coming up on r t a warning about some graphic photos released today by the web site t m z they show what looks like u.s. marines burning the bodies of the rocky insurgents more on this just ahead. taking on the n.s.a. to jersey congressman rush holt has called for major changes to u.s. surveillance help join us to talk about reforms he thinks are needed in just a few minutes. and although many west virginian residents have had their permission for their water to be turned down many of them are still leery eighteen lawsuit times are pressed against the company responsible for the leak more on that later on the show.

it's wednesday january fifteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm maggie lopez and you are watching r.t. america we begin this afternoon with shocking new photos released by t m z which allegedly show u.s. marines burning the bodies of dead iraqi insurgents back in two thousand and four in fallujah iraq t m z reports it obtained it forty one photos but it did not name the source of those pictures also the web site said it will not release all of the pictures because some of them are just too gruesome we are going to put a couple of those up on the air right now so please be warned these pictures are extremely graphic and upsetting but we here at r.t. america believe they are important representation of the true ugliness of war to the photos appear to show a marine a pouring gas on what seems to be two iraqi insurgents two other pictures show the bodies on fire another shows them are. posing with the dead bodies others that are

not being disclosed are the ones that show the bodies being covered in flies and being eaten by dogs to the reports that it turn the pictures over to the pentagon last week r.t. reached out to the pentagon for comment today here's part of the statement that they sent back the actions depicted in these photos are not what we expect from our service members nor do they represent the honorable and professional service of the more than two point five million americans who have served in iraq and afghanistan the marine corps is currently investigating the veracity of these photos circumstances involved and if possible the identities of the service members involved again these pictures have not yet been confirmed for accuracy however if they are this would be yet another explosive revelation about how some troops conducted themselves overseas another discovery in january two thousand and twelve showed u.s. soldiers urinating on the bodies of dead insurgents joining me now to discuss these

horrifying images is jake villa barito its political researcher at the university of birmingham jake thank you so much for joining me i want to get your initial impressions of these pictures. so nationally when i when i looked in the photos and began making some phone calls investigating a little bit more on my personal view is i thought obviously again they were they were gross they are they also demonstrate that for the violence the brutality of conflict and the kind of various behavior that can come out of it but i think as i investigate a little bit more i think what we can clear to me two major things is that one after in the past there has been situations where soldiers have been ordered for humanitarian purposes just to burn bodies for cleanliness and this kind of thing but that's not the kind of situation that you would see from photos like this this

is a clear demonstration to me of the various actions cover up or scandal to some degree as the pentagon state is evidence of that i mean if the pentagon knew that soldiers were doing this because of some sort of close they want to come out right away we have a report we knew why cetera but that didn't come out so we definitely know there is nefarious behavior there are some sort of criminality here done on by the brains of forcibly and i think that the video photos are very telling about the problems of or the brutality out we can affect people's mental state of being and how also all it affects iraqis we can't come at any rock you he's going to be outraged now as a former soldier yourself what was this aggression this type of anger against iran to insurgents or other insurgents part of the culture. well i would definitely i mean when you have revenge actions when you have any kind of killing going on one

human against. this kind of thing can come out as we saw in afghanistan years ago with the soldiers on the. on the taliban and also the situations and i was raped so they're isolated they're not normal but this is a problem occurs in conflict zones you don't see this in the streets of washington d.c. where you're at obviously so. it's a problem or it's a problem that all armies have had to deal with and i think that it's it should make everyone stomach curl up should make us from about the war in general. former marine that is now at the same time u.s. troops were hung by the neck back and pollution in two thousand and four so is this just the true cost of war the true face of war that people are finally starting to see here. for sure. the longer we're separated from the

conflict we're able to see more and more of the problems of it i think that this particular element highlights the particular two thousand four years under bush in two thousand for the member. states basically pulled back into their into their bases they were kind of. they didn't have any real strategy a real political vision this is largely because rumsfeld is trying to get the u.s. out of iraq soon as possible and so without a clear vision without a clear mission without a clear for some time soldiers or marines to be left to themselves left to their own demise which i think is this situation had they had a mission to work with the rockies to rebuild it to do the kind of things you do you wouldn't see these kind of behaviors and also if you're fighting somebody you don't go and burn them afterwards this is clearly a sign of of lack. the plan of lack of vision. of redemption and sort of the challenge that comes out of your doc kind of environment it sounds

and we. are sorry to interrupt you there but near while while all of this is going on there has been this huge up spur of violence within iraq within full lucia and these are these photos coincidentally enough are from fuller's to six to two were left dead just today as a result of some of these attacks so as a former marine yourself i mean what do you feel about knowing that this kind of violence is spring up again do you feel like your mission was a failure was i said over and over again i'll be happy to serve the rest of my life was made by the bush administration to invade iraq was an unbelievable mistake cost americans thousands of lives cost trillions of dollars of it certainly cost of iraqis a whole lot more than this you look at the country now it's falling apart and you know what's what's that what's left what do we have to answer for well not much so

it was a it was it was our was our vision of failure it's a little you strategically absolutely thank you so much for joining me jay political researcher at the university of birmingham thank you. well another day another leak about the national security agency and it's brought up global reach check out this headline that greeted new york times readers this weekend it turns out the n.s.a. has implanted software into nearly one hundred thousand computers around the world that allows the agency to spy and also to create a digital highway to launch a cyber attacks this comes in the wake of a recent revelation about the agency building a quantum computer and another revelation that the n.s.a. could read out mail to their offices so they can insert malware into computer components and then forward those parts to their own originally intended destinations this is known as digital packaging while this complicated n.s.a. spy web keeps on rattling congress is working on ways to rein in the agency's broad

powers congressman rush holt of new jersey has even made it one of his platforms. i'm rational as a teacher i wish students would stop checking your email. as your senator i'll make the n.s.a. stop checking your emails behind your back let's ban warrantless wiretapping we can do this. several months ago congressman holt announced a bill called the surveillance state repeal act which offers massive reforms congressman holt joins me now to talk all things n.s.a. and by the way he's also a rocket scientist so hopefully he can help us understand these more complex revelations like quantum computing for instance congressman paul thank you so much for joining me good to be with you as a journalist it feel like we are reporting on a new n.s.a. leak each day what have you what are your thoughts on these recent revelations has any of them surprised you well another day another revelation first of all i should

say it lest your viewers be confused i am no longer a candidate for the senate but you're right i did make stopping this warrantless spying on americans. a platform of my campaign and i do think that this is a real transgression and these recent revelations that you talk about and you listed several of them. really go go to show how capable the n.s.a. is for many people it's scary how capable they are and what what they can listen in on what they can manipulate so all the more reason that we have to make sure that they operate within bounds that they operate with good firm oversight and that they engender the trust of the american people. and to some extent people around the world i mean i'm sure the n.s.a.

will say look we don't we don't owe the you know we don't know protection of civil liberties to other people around the world. although i would hope that the united states sets a good example everywhere around the world and that within the united states all actions of all government agencies are bound by our constitution now i last spoke to you a few months ago about the n.s.a. and more specifically about the bill that you have introduced any update on that bill well a few more co-sponsors i wouldn't say it's close to becoming law i wish it would it does several things it grants whistleblower protection to members of the intelligence community as things currently stand. most federal employees have protection against retribution if they expose waste fraud abuse of power but not so with members of the intelligence community my legislation would fix that it

would prevent the n.s.a. or any similar agency from installing back doors into hardware or software in other words to. prevent them from undermining the encrypt ssion. that banks and ordinary e-mail services and others use it would prevent the n.s.a. from undermining those that encryption in ways that they know about but other people might not know about it turns out that other people do know about him and so an essay has. really hurt a number of u.s. companies by undermining the really the quality of their products the bill would also. repeal the five amendments act and would. remove the justification that the n.s.a.

has invoked for seizing the mete data of virtually everyone saying they will treat it with care and we won't abuse people's civil liberties unless we suspect them well that's kind of a backward way of of enforcing the law or detecting. evil doers and in fact the last time we spoke you said that you believe that u.s. citizens right now are being treated as suspects first and citizens second now i understand that right you believe the white house is panel recommendations on n.s.a. form as well as a bill that competes with yours that's known as the usa freedom act don't go far enough in reining in the n.s.a. i first want to focus on the downfalls that you believe come with the usa freedom act if you could walk us through a couple of the well the the the legislation that is the leading legislation in

congress but it may not actually go anywhere is known as the leahy sensenbrenner conyers bill. and it would modify the patriot act and the five. the foreign intelligence surveillance court legislation. so that. it would. provide some improvements but it wouldn't provide whistleblower protection it wouldn't really stop this back door. the back door compromising that n.s.a. has undertaken it would not i think. really stop the this massive collection of mehta data the two from information who sent what to whom and when. in short it does not. it does not invoke the probable cause standard you know our fourth amendment to the

constitution says there shall be no search and seizure of personal property or information without the enforcement or surveillance agency going before an independent judge proving that they know what they're doing proving that they're not on a wild goose chase or operating on an empty hunch and. with very specific accounting of who they are looking for and what they are looking for now meanwhile we also have this white house appointed panel they put out a long list of forty six recommendations designed to increase transparency the very day that that review was released i sat down with one of its authors cass sunstein and he claims that he had complete access to conduct the report and i asked him if he found anything surprising during his investigation i want to take a look at his response and then we'll get yours i'll be interested we didn't

discover any shocking practices so our goal was to think about principles that are going to be helpful for the future and one thing we do is honor and respect the hard work of the intelligence community which is helping to keep our nation safe and helping helping to keep our. safe and order to keep in mind is some of the work is helping to prevent human rights abuses and atrocities abroad so we want to create sturdy foundations that are respectful of. privacy and liberty and not accuse anybody of anything so we didn't find anything surprising what do you think about that i'm surprised that he didn't find anything surprising i do believe that the committee had very good access in some cases they went back to basics they approach this more or less like the law professors that they are. and you know

i thought i think all of us in approaching these things in going back to basics have to remember that there there are bad actors there are terrorists there are people who would do harm to americans and the government and the intelligence agencies have a responsibility to detect and deter such such people so that's the starting point but it's not a tradeoff i don't believe between safety and civil liberties in fact if you adopt a probable cause standard so that the those who are surveil or in force have to prove to a court that they know what they're doing you will get better surveillance fewer wild goose chases or or people operating on their hunches or you'll have fewer cases where a bureaucrat you know a.g.s. thirteen in the government will decide who the bad guys are we don't want those who

are doing the surveillance to be the very same ones who decide who the bad guys are that's the that's that's a prescription for. abuse and a real violation of human. that was us congressman rush holt from new jersey. well in the world of journalism many believe the newspaper is going the way of the dinosaur in the midst of a technological revolution but not everyone the washington post's new owner jeff bezos believes in the newspapers potential so much that he shelled out a cool two hundred fifty million dollars to buy it back in october that money pales in comparison to the six hundred million dollars that bezos as amazon company is getting in contracts with the central intelligence agency however controversy is already abound to as a result of his new buy thirty thousand people signed

a petition calling for drew greater transparency when it comes to bezos his relationship with the cia artes and we are david has a story. today here at the washington post headquarters civil liberties organization roots action demanded that the post be fully candid with its readers over a controversial new relationship now a relationship involves the newspaper's new owner jeff bezos who also happens to be the c.e.o. of amazon of particular interest to civil liberties advocates as amazon's recent six hundred million dollar contract with the central intelligence agency for cloud computing services at a press conference that took place here one activist and former washington post reporter had this to say i think readers of the washington post have a right to know what influences might be brought to bear on the stories that leave in the paper but it's bad business for a journalist in any respect to be tied in with the cia the washington post often

reports on cia activities so activists say it's only fair that the newspaper's coverage offer full disclosure that the owner jeff bezos is now making huge profits off of this new cia deal and for that reason roots action recently launched an online petition encouraging washington post readers to come forward and call for more transparency now so far over thirty thousand people have signed that petition with some of them leaving their thoughts on the situation one user wrote that this is just another example of the good old boys club another user wrote if the amazon cia link is no problem what is the bar to disclosure today that petition was officially delivered to the washington post now the newspaper's executive editor martin baron did respond to a separate letter notifying him about the petition in that letter he defended the newspaper and said that the post has among the strictest ethics policies in the field of journalism and we've bigger asli enforce it but he went on to say that

quote the petitions request for disclosure of amazon's cia contract in every story we write about the cia is well outside the norm of. conflict of interest disclosures at media companies now earlier i had the chance to speak with norman solomon the co-founder of roots action and this is what he had to say in response when you don't have the sunlight disinfectant going on so that people know what the vested interests are then there's a relationship between very powerful government agencies in this case the central intelligence agency and the power of the press so we pride ourselves in the united states we'd like to think that there's a separation between press and state this is a in a row share of that separation so this is a highly contentious issue when are manes to be seen given the mounting pressure whether the washington post will change any of its procedures going forward in washington ameri david r t. well it's been nearly a week since

a little known chemical company called freedom industries accidentally spilled seventy five hundred gallons of a chemical used in coal production into the elk river poisoning the water supply of three hundred thousand residents for nearly a week these people have been living like fish out of the water or relying on the generosity of the nation to survive but want to ban has been lifted on a few neighborhoods in charleston west virginia the places in blue show where the water is flowing out once again the area in red is where the ban is still in effect now the red areas tend to be the more rural less affluent neighborhoods as of this morning one hundred fifty three thousand residents have their raw water turned back on so just a little bit over half authorities say that the water will still smell like licorice for a few days but that it's safe to drink but keep in mind though that this is just an educated guess in reality we do not know much about this technical this for meth

the cycle hexane methanol if anything experts say this spill highlights the vulnerability of the u.s. water system in the dangers in the master. auction of unstudied chemical compounds now the situation is starting to calm down and a number of investigations are popping up that look into exactly how this happened the u.s. chemical safety board deployed a team to investigate the issue u.s. senator jay rockefeller is demanding a probe into the potential health effects of the spill also west virginia attorney general patrick morrisey and state majority leader john unger have also announced a probe today state environmental protection officials report that inspectors have already found five violations at a second freedom industry site the company moved its coal cleaning chemicals there after thursday's spill but inspectors found that the new site also lacks appropriate secondary containment again freedom industries refuses to speak with

the media even after the company's president gary southern promised transparency at a press conference on friday meanwhile no fewer than eighteen. freedom industries as well as the west virginia american water company now i have the opportunity to speak with a lawyer with the firm that actually filed the first lawsuit on behalf of local businesses in charleston here's part of my interview with attorney john many. the lawsuit that we have filed we were the first ones to file and not county which is where the skill this bill will occur we are seeking class action status you can report this innocence this is that or suffer the loss of those words or of the forced government shutdown i was really it was with the smaller business in mind of some of the service providers restaurants one of the bar umbrella and the other one's a restaurant a little rest but as word got out what's going on order it that it has

exactly been contacted by mr otel chain. various and sundry other businesses listed out from restaurants and service providers now that we have salons and to foreigners and this really all all going to keep that require water operate the business wise they've been a great economic impact across west virginia in the surrounding areas there's a lot of charles which is the abbott west we're pretty good about and people in the ninety pounds that are affected. well you know the beer is difficult situation especially given the fact you know i'm a rebound right now. but you know people what's written you're going to get through this. time this is the beginning of. your finger. and.

that was jonathan many a partner at many ls and lane p l l c well boom bust is coming up next right here on our see america let's check in with the aaron a to see what's on the agenda air and what do you got for us hey there meghan shank's now coming up on boom bust american novelist and economic blogger can volodymyr along with professor michael hudson join me to talk about the history of debt and the oligarchies that they say america has morphed into today pretty exciting stuff you don't want to miss it then ed harris and i will tell you all about the newest trend on wall street toilet nothing it's a real thing i'm not joking toilet and you will want to miss it to stay tuned that's coming up right up i want to know more about that i had a very well thank you so much aaron a to. and this sunday in hollywood a star studded event to show support for the women in texas dealing with the state's onerous new restrictions on abortion the fundraiser is called a night of

a thousand vagina's and hundred dollar tickets to the show have already sold out performers including sarah silverman zach galifianakis and musicians from queens of the stone age the money is going to groups in texas that are helping women navigate the new law which includes a ban on abortions after twenty weeks and that all abortion doctors must get admitting privileges at a nearby hospital but the law means that about a third of the state's thirty four clinics will have to stop providing abortions services twelve of them have already been shattered by september twenty fourth teen when more of the regulation set in there will be six abortion clinics left in the state which has an area of nearly two hundred seventy thousand miles all right let's go to do it for me for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america and follow me on twitter at meghan underscore lopez stay tuned does next.

well you know i think one of the real turning points was the mass that we heard about in one nine hundred fifty three and sharon had been given orders to create as much destruction as he could by the americans condemned this act there were seventy women and children killed they condemned the act of said the person who perpetrated this should be punished and so forth that your own established this policy of

smashing. the palestinians and the arabs and hitting them ten times harder than they could get israel it looks like you know they're at a dead end here with this so-called peace process which of course sharon was against from the very very beginning he wanted to create small pockets of palestinian presence in the west bank that would be surrounded with israeli settlements and so that is his legacy today and you know israel stuck with that reality today and is dealing with this question of centrally apartheid.

hello hello i'm marinated this is boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you today first of big bank lobbyists have done it again this time they've managed to wiggle the interests of wall street into the one trillion dollar federal budget bill we'll tell you all about it coming right up then michael hudson professor of economics at the university of missouri along with gonzalo lira who joined me on today's show to talk about the history of debt and the old guard that they say is america today interesting stuff you won't want to miss it and in today's big deal ed harrison and i talked. and if you were to major wall street firm you know what i'm talking about yet you do it all starts right now.