coming up on r t a warning about some graphic photos released today by the web site t.m.c. they show what looks like u.s. marines burning the bodies of iraqi insurgents more on this just ahead and taking on the n.s.a. new jersey congressman rush holt has called for major changes to u.s. surveillance he'll join us to talk about the reforms he thinks are necessary and just a bit. 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 is wednesday january fifteenth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r.t. america will begin tonight 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 of forty one pictures but it does not name the source of those pictures also the web site said it will not release all of the photos because some of them are just too gruesome we're going to put up a couple of those pictures now so please be warned they are graphic and upsetting but we believe they are an important representation of the true ugliness of war two of the photos appear to show a marine outpouring gas on what seems to be two insurgents two other pictures show the bodies on fire another shows the marines posing with the dead bodies allers show the bodies covered in flies and being eaten by dogs teams the reports that it turned the pictures over to the pentagon last week reached out to the we reached out to the pentagon to comment today here's part of the statement that they said that the actions depicted in these photos are not what we expect from our service

members nor do they represent. honorable or professional service of 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 a nother explosive revelation about how some troops conducted themselves overseas and the discovery in january two thousand and twelve showed us soldiers and urine eating on the bodies of dead insurgents to discuss these horrifying images i just spoke with jake delhomme barito a political researcher at the university of birmingham and i first asked him his initial impressions. i made it really 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 they were

they were gross they are they also demonstrate 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 is two major things one is that one after in the past there has been situations where soldiers have been ordered for humanitarian purposes 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 nefarious actions cover up or scandal to some degree as the pentagon state is is evidence of that i mean if the pentagon knew that soldiers were doing this because of some sort of fellows 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's the various behavior of some sort of criminality here done on by the marines

unfortunately 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 tell any iraqis easy going to be outraged now as a former soldier yourself what was this aggression this type of anger against iraq the insurgents or other insurgents part of the culture. well i would definitely i mean it in any way when you have revenge actions when you have any kind of killing going on when you are against going to. this kind of think it come out as we saw in afghanistan just years ago with those soldiers being on the. you know on the taliban and also the situations and how great so they're isolated they're not normal but this is a problem occurs in conflict zones you know you're see this in the streets of you know washington d.c.

where you're at obviously so. it's a problem war if it's a problem that all armies have had to deal with and i think that it's it should make everyone stomach or all should make this found about the war in general. former marine that is now at the same time u.s. troops were hung by the next back in full loser 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. well for sure. the longer we're all were separated from the conflict we're able to see more and more of the problems of it i think that this this particular element highlights the particular two thousand or years under bush in two thousand and four you remember there were very states basically hold back into their into their bases they were kind of. they didn't have any real strategy a real political vision this is this is largely because of rumsfeld was 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 some time soldiers and marines can 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 or 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 beyond them afterwards this is clearly a sign of a lack of. plan of lack of vision. of revenge and sort of brutality 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 know 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 have said over and over again i'll be happy to serve the rest of my life. made by the bush administration to the great arar was an unbelievable mistake cost americans thousands of lives cost trillions of dollars of it certainly cost our rockies a whole lot more abuse you look at the country now it's falling apart and you know what's what's the what's left what do we have the answer for well not much so it was a it was it was our was our vision of failure if they were little you strategically absolutely thank you so much for joining me jake political researcher at the university of birmingham. well another day another leak about the national security agency and its broad at 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 rush as a teacher i wish students would stop taking your e-mails. as your senator i'll make the n.s.a. stop checking your emails behind your back let's warrantless wiretapping we can do this several months ago congressman holt announced

a bill called the surveillance state repeal act which offers a 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 and to me as a journalist it feels like we are reporting on a new n.s.a. leak each day what have you what are your thoughts on these recent revelations have any of them surprised you know well another day another revelation first of all i should say 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 the 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 feis 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 are now are being treated as suspects first and citizens second now i understand that 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 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 method data that too 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 in the intelligence community which is helping to keep our nation safe and helping helping to keep our. it is safe and the order to keep in mind is some of the work is helping to prevent human rights abuses and any 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 think i think all of us in approaching these things in going back to basics have to remember that there are 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 trade off 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 real violation of humor. that was us congressman rush holt from new jersey. well the u.s.

senate committee on commerce science and transportation held a hearing today to put the use of domestic unmanned aerial vehicles under the microscope the committee debated potential economic benefits of you avi's as well as ways to update the federal aviation administration's regulations to accommodate these vehicles but the meeting will be on using drones to survey crops at the hearing today senator feinstein said she's concerned about surveillance issues and particularly safety. finally we should not allow armed drones in the united states period. it should be a crime for a private individual in the united states to arm a drone the f.a.a. should use its certification and licensing authorities to prohibit armed drones and no government state or federal should use an armed drone on american soil

drones are increasingly flying around american airspace in fact federal and local law enforcement agencies are borrowing border patrol drones more frequently to use in domestic surveillance operations the customs and border protection agency has the largest drone fleet outside of the d.o.d. and now we know that it flew nearly seven hundred surveillance missions on behalf of other agencies between two thousand and ten and two thousand and twelve that's according to documents released by a freedom of information lawsuit filed by the electronic frontier foundation and over those two years border patrol drones were also increasingly supporting undisclosed local and state law enforcement operation but it's not only the sky you should keep your eyes on to spot one of these unmanned vehicles the u.s. navy just announced a contract worth nearly two hundred four million dollars for the tech company tele dyna benthos to develop an underwater drone that uses thermal energy from under the

ocean to run the hope is that this thing will be able to push for all the american coastlines for five years at a time a lot of what they will be doing is research an observation just another tool the navy will have in its extensive stockpile of technology. well the secret spilling website wiki leaks has released a portion of the highly sensitive transpacific partnership dealing with environmental regulations along with harsh criticism against the protection provisions what he likes founder julian assange describes the section as quote a truth like a toothless public relations exercise and media sugar water the tepee negotiations have been conducted behind closed doors much so you know i meant of transparency advocates since this is described as the most historic international agreement since nafta congressman peter de fazio went on the big picture with host tom hartman last night and explained who has access to the t p p negotiating documents

the way it works now is. being shared real time we six hundred corporations were deemed to be special created by czars given access to what is a classified document this document is classified the tremors are congress' cancer i can see it i can see it alone i have to make a specific request for what parts of it i want to look at and i can't take notes and i can't talk about it after i've read it. the last fifteen to go ga sions were held in salt lake city back in november wiki leaks obtained draft documents from that meeting and has been releasing parts of it to the level of new environmentalist say that this new twenty three pages section raises serious concerns about enforcing environmental abuses so this is only recognizes and acknowledges environmental treaties but doesn't actually announce any actions well you know that expression if the shoe fits wear it what about with condoms tonight's resident takes a look at a grant awarded to

a company that has developed fitted condoms for up to ninety five different sizes check it out. we study some funny stuff here in america case in point the national institutes of health just awarded a company called they'd fit a two hundred twenty four thousand dollars grant for a study called behavioral and manufacturing science to commercially developed fitted condoms the goal to study and create custom fit condoms that can accommodate third ninety five different sizes and shapes of penises they also want to figure

out how to make condoms strong enough for men to have sex with men in their abstract they say their analysis will help move condoms toward being regulated medical devices for that. whether or not this is noble or morally corrupt is debatable detractors mainly conservatives in the media are saying the taxpayers are getting screwed since we're footing the bill for this but i say it's par for the course we are constantly studying fundies weird crap the national endowment for the humanities has provided nearly one million dollars in taxpayer funding for the popular romance project that program studies the genre of popular romance fiction another government funded study called a conditional economic incentives to reduce the risks might sound just fine but when you learn that the study is paying male prostitutes in mexico city did not get

the c.d.'s and that is already cost taxpayers over four hundred thousand dollars it gets a little more ridiculous so our government pays for a lot. funny weird studies here in the us what's not so funny are a few studies that just came out about the us studies that came really lousy conclusions like half of black males in the us are arrested by age twenty three or that a fault at school and over ninety thousand kids to the e.r. each year or that there are now more millionaires in congress than ever before in our country's history or that mash shootings have other quizzically been on the rise across the u.s. since two thousand and eight. so while we might study hilarious things here it quickly becomes less aware iest when you realize we could be spending that money studying what he's really going on in this country which is them seriously screwed up stuff. but i guess our government would rather not study that that they

discredit forget or at least divert our attention away from it with a regular shift condoms and romance novels tonight let's talk about that by following on twitter at the residence. well since marijuana became legal in colorado people have been flocking to the state to participate in the rocky mountain high people are even going on tours and where hormones of people go at the media is sure to follow c.n.n. has had a continuing series for the past month called gone to pot reporter randi kaye has gone to great lengths to learn everything there is to know about marijuana and its effects on colorado's economy but it appears ready might have gotten carried away. so randi i got to ask how extensive was your research in the back about what.

you know anderson it was top notch we did very extensive research i have to tell you my brain was a little fun really by the time i got added there oh yeah i just i wasn't thinking right i couldn't remember even some of the questions that i wanted to ask in the interview which has never happened to me when i'm reporting in the field and i found things to be really funny much funnier than i normally do so i think we got a little bit of a guy there. so network correspondent apparently gets a contact high and giggles her way through the interview i am feeling political comedian leak camp has some interesting opinions on this. was this news or nonsense a little bit of both but i don't know why you brought a comedian in for this you're just going to go on her you would have found it hilarious but it's also that they're basically go clearly part should be illegal because it makes people giggle laughter oh my god you know this is not a laughing matter my grandfather was lost to laughter so clearly this stuff needs to be illegal i think about the legal stuff we have like cigarettes kill half

a million americans a year you get a anti-depressant some of them causing suicide but we need to keep body legal because it could cause a run on toasty doe's or a spike in the cartoon network ratings well i certainly hope you are feel over from laughter or watching one of your sats now using your no. i haven't killed anyone that you know of anyway using your teen power of observation was writing k.-i i sure hope so i don't know i don't know if she was or not but clearly she found things funny. she's like oh my god it was crazy i couldn't think right in everything and. people don't think right for other reasons such as having billions of dollars that seems to corrupt some people's minds as well it's not just part also you know that she had a very traditional smoking marijuana experience where you get in a stretched homer and hang out with people the joints the size of their heads every

time i've seen pod it's that same that same situation stretched summers generally yann and massive amounts of pot do you think this was a fair representation of marijuana in the marijuana industry in colorado yeah this is this is exactly how it works if you're even near it because she said she is out of contact i read so apparently just being in the same room. and you instantly your brain goes out the back door and you you get a goal and that's exactly how it works every time i've ever seen it and not to mention the fact that she seems to have that case of the very same giggles while she was doing that life hit with anderson cooper however she was wearing a different chart i might point out so maybe maybe some different instance a contact high a gas right now and now we're doing some deep reporting that that's an investigative journalism. so what should we make of this situation overall what do

you want the viewers to take away from this or do and. these news reports are ridiculous because they're you know they could have a real representation of the people smoking pot was what it is doing for them how they're responding but instead this seems like a silly like oh i don't know i was it was me rejoice it instantly i started banging my head against the wall i couldn't even remember a question i had well certainly it has gotten a lot of attention. one c.n.n. correspondent potentially getting contact high. well how do you send any of our own correspondents there are things like the truth of the partnership could get the amount of attention that marijuana has now you're really talking there's a lot of talk immediately can thank you so much for joining me thank you all right that does it for me for tonight but for more on the stories we cover go to youtube dot com slash r c america our check out our website or to dot com slash usa and don't forget to follow me on twitter at make an underscore lopez i've got all outs

of information that you're not going to find during this newscast like pictures of my cats for now have a great night. 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 dollars federal budget bill will 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.