coming up on our t.v. another u.s. drone attack on yemeni soil and another potential mistake that's comes while some members of congress disagree with president obama over whether the pentagon or the cia should control the u.s. drone program that story right ahead and the t.p.t. trade deal could benefit hollywood internet activists worry that the pact will put too much power in the hands of the entertainment industry we'll tell you more coming up and mississippi is looking to end the conjugal visits we'll speak with a woman whose husband is behind bars and what this will mean for her family if the visits come to an end.

it's thursday january sixteenth four pm in washington d.c. i mean you're a david and you're watching our t.v. . we begin today with the news that another innocent civilian has become the victim of a u.s. drone strike in yemen the attack was thought to have been intended for suspected islamist militants in the southeastern part of the country however it took the life of a farmer instead witnesses say the farmer had been walking home in the village of. early wednesday when he was abruptly killed by the shrapnel of two rockets according to reuters a local government official has confirmed the report but as declined to give further details it's attack comes just a month after a massive drone strike killed at least fifteen people travelling in a wedding convoy human rights organizations argue that there were no islamic militants in that convoy and that only innocent civilians were targeted these are just two of the most recent drone attacks that have contributed to a heightened concern amongst yemenis and those in the international community over

the cia's controversial and classified drone warfare program but this news comes just as congress is trying to make it more difficult to bring transparency to the program according to the washington post congress inserted a secret provision and a massive government spending bill introduced this week that keeps lethal counterterrorism operations under the umbrella of the cia while it's still unknown what is exactly in this provision it allegedly prohibits funding from being used to transfer unmanned aircraft from the cia to the pentagon here to talk about these latest developments and the implications going forward i'm joined by robert naiman he's the policy director for just foreign policy robert thank you for joining me. good to be with you so rather in twenty thirteen there was a lot of buzz about the drone program switching from the jurisdiction of the cia to that of the defense department president obama himself said he wanted to see that happen yet here we are with an outright restriction on doing this what happened.

well first of all as you said we don't exactly know what's in the restriction because it's classified reports on it there's some dispute about their report secondly there is a narrow issue a disagreement on the broader issues the new issue is that some people in congress goes out of congress to have legitimate concerns about claims that actually whatever you may think of the past you are all the cia has more recent experience actually conducting these drone strikes and is more precise than the military does that concern there was cited in the report in the recent reports members of congress are concerned that the military that if the control is transferred to the military they'll be more civilian casualties and.

there are now in the point to this most recent wedding strike in yemen which was conducted carried out by the military by a sock so that's a legitimate concern that doesn't mean that the overall policy reform. stop being the cia from doing this transfer in this to military is a good idea but it may not be a good idea to do it right away before the military can certify that it's ready to do it sorry but there's evidence if i could have that yes i could jump in there you know the pentagon does have some strong checks and balances however that would certainly make it more visible certainly more visible than the cia so do you think that that all pass or all that the congress at that congress is trying to keep this in the dark. well congress is keeping it in the dark there is that it is that the broader issue is that there is unfortunately a collaboration between the administration and congress to give this in the dark

one of the arguments as you say for the reform of mutes of the military is that there would make it more transparent but the. the administration could make the current policy more transparent right now without moving it from the cia this is an intelligence committee passed a provision that would require the administration to report on civilian casualties from georgia that could happen right now even if it's in the cia so in a way this issue of cia versus military is a distraction because both congress in the administration could move right now but to make the policy more transparent without moving anything from this yea to the military which is a more complicated reform well interestingly it's not just president obama that has expressed some concern about switching this program over even the cia director john brennan has specifically warned that the drone program is in some ways the diverting the cia from its primary mission of intel gathering i mean how would you

describe how the role of the cia has really changed over the years to incorporate that sort of that new role. so since september eleventh there was a concerted push to make the c.a.a. more of a paramilitary organization and this has been i want to show you inside u.s. government when the trance was head of the cia he was a big cheerleader for the idea that ca should have its own fleet of drones brennan is associated by many people with the idea of pushing back against that it putting the cia into a more traditional intelligence function and there are very good reasons to be concerned about the cia being moved away from a traditional function one of them is that it's the job of the cia to report to the president and congress to be independent eyes. u.s. military policy cia can't be independent eyes if it cell is conducting the military

bodies over example there is a huge debate about the impact of the drone strike partly not only you know who's being killed how many civilians are being killed how important are the quote unquote militants are being told there's really top level people are getting the robber a lot of out of a lot of questions out answering and unfortunate why you want it independent intelligence oversight in the fall absolutely unfortunately we run out of time but robert naiman policy director at just foreign policy thank you so much. good to be with you i love the n.s.a. revelations role we're just learning that the national security agency has collected almost two hundred million text messages a day from across the globe using them to record specifics like the date time and location of messages sent this is all a result of a joint investigation conducted between the guardian and the u.k.'s channel four news and it's based off of material provided by former government contractor edward

snowden also in the documents are revelations that the u.k.'s spy agency the g c h q has been using the n.s.a. database to search the private communications of people in the u.k. the n.s.a. program code name was dished fire and according to g.c. h.q. documents the goal was to collect pretty much everything it can and that means it was used to extract all kinds of information including people's travel plans contact books and even financial transactions this revelation comes just a day before president obama's expected speech on possible changes to n.s.a. surveillance rules americans are awaiting the announcement to hear what reforms will be made to n.s.a. programs but foreign governments are interested too when leaks files from the agency revealed that the u.s. had been spying on germany's uncle a murky all the german government was furious comparing the practices to those of east germany's notorious secret police artie's peter oliver met with a veteran of that service to find out just how similar the two really are.

on finding out that the united states' attempt to private mobile phone call confronted president obama with this claim. former offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars of a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems who quote if it's even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services during the cold war to this can now as to elude this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stars used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't

stop it i read would snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance show in germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again high up on top of the ominously named devil's mountain life the remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or it's a bond and now back in the day this post with ears to listen in normally private phone calls of thousands of citizens and both the east and the west of the fifty then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and loved at the milliken the way they do it now is much more intensive your web browsing history credit cards they can build a profile on you way easier than was ever possible in my day. didn't have access to this type of technology they rely on developing personal contacts mendelssohn's

version even those who are working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said it we were pretty good even then the fear of being listened into is taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us you mind those fires my superior officer is there anything. knowledge so that they can use the story was dropping on my calls yes just don't pick it up these veterans of the spy game might be impressed by the capabilities of the n.s.a. but they cautious about the quality of the information collected for dozens yet they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their calls it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation. two point zero by critics looks set to continue for some time yet these are all over germany . and believe it or not penis pumps cost the us government one hundred seventy two

million dollars between two thousand and six and two thousand and eleven which is about twice the amount the consumer would have paid at the retail level this is all according to a new government watchdog report released by the inspector general regarding spending by the department of health and human services the report shows that medicare the government health insurance system for seniors paid for nearly four hundred seventy four thousand claims for vacuum erection systems also known as v s take a look at this over a six year period yearly claims for the devices nearly doubled from twenty point six million in two thousand and six to thirty eight point six million in two thousand and eleven government waste is an issue that's taking the forefront as lawmakers try to reach an agreement on a one trillion dollars spending bill so here to talk about some of this overspending and where we could maybe be saving a little bit more money i'm joined by tom schatz president of citizens against government waste tom thanks for joining me thank you mary so the question at hand

isn't just what is being purchased but the price the government is paying why is medicare paying more than the retail value here there's no reason that they should be they knew about this disparity in one thousand nine hundred eighteen and medicare is capable of setting a special payments. limit for something that is grossly excessive compared to other costs for other devices veteran's department pays about half of what medicare pays for these devices and the private sector pays even less so how do we ensure a more competitive bidding process here and then a carrot has had trouble with competitive bidding for durable medical equipment which is where this falls into in terms of the category that there was a change in the law a few years ago they're having trouble of course getting this off the ground this particular item is not covered but they don't need congressional authority for competitive bidding they can just set the price and say what we're paying is far too much because clearly what everyone else is paying seems to be enough to keep

those devices around but interestingly they haven't done this for the past fifteen years so the question is why are they not exercising this authority and they have a lot of things that they are doing they probably haven't paid attention takes a report by their own inspector general to bring this to light and it's now that it is. hopefully they will start taking it more seriously and possibly give us not a lot of money but eighteen million dollars a year for them four and a half million for the beneficiaries but it's real money to taxpayers and the people that need these devices well speaking of taxpayers i think a lot of them would be surprised to learn that that a vacuum erection system is covered medical device how does the agency determine which items are medically necessary and which aren't when i'm going to judge what they consider necessary that's a separate discussion but they do provide to medicare beneficiaries sixty five recently not that old right but and i think of a physician says it's medically necessary that is one of the ways that medicare

judges whether to provide any kind of drug or device right well a lot of people will look at the story and just laugh but it does you know shed light on a much bigger issue of government waste when it comes to health i mean why is there so much money being spent on this particular area when it could be perhaps you know better span. lifesaving treatment and equipment to better serve seniors well again it's a question of what the medical necessity years of a lot of different things that some people might not need but others do need and that's a judgment that may be second guessed by congress if they say they can't cover certain devices but the medical field is so large and over so many things that people need it's constantly being reviewed sure while the certainly a field for which there could be some cutbacks but i know you probably researched many other fields that are due for some spending cuts can you talk about you know some other things on your agenda absolutely the appropriations bill for this current fiscal year two thousand and fourteen is on the way to be approved in the

senate was approved in the house there are earmarks or pork barrel spending in that bill even though congress claims they've eliminated these earmarks hundreds of billions possibly billions it's much better than it used to be but nonetheless there's wasteful spending everywhere duplications an overlap hundreds of billions a year in duplicative programs that congress want to eliminate so there's plenty of work for us to do and what would you propose going forward to remedy the problem well the easiest way to reduce spending is to eliminate the duplications an overlap there are more than two hundred science and math education programs and yet the achievement of science and math students in the u.s. isn't any better than it was ten years ago compared to the rest of the world in fact it's probably getting worse spending money doesn't solve the problem congress should solve the problem and then figure out how much needs to be spent in the get rid of a lot of these duplicative programs all said well tom schatz president of citizens against government waste thank you you thank. and this morning the senate finance

committee held a hearing about the so-called fast track authority which would allow trade deals to pass through congress with a simple yes or no vote rather than letting legislators add or take away from the deal this gas tax authority would then apply the trans-pacific partnership a pact under negotiation between the twelve countries on the pacific rim including the u.s. three of the witnesses at the hearing represented business interests and spoke favorably about the tepee and other free trade deals only one witness says to me only free trade is best for every economy economic growth and job creation at home depend on our ability to so american goods and services to the ninety five percent of the world's customers living outside of the u.s. only one witness raise concerns about the goshi asians like t.p. what has the net effect been of twenty years of these trade deals what has happened to our jobs our communities the north philadelphia that i grew up in the cleveland

i can picture right now devastation throughout those communities nowhere near the replacement jobs for that more than seven hundred thousand jobs lost from nafta alone but one interest group that's been supportive of the t.v. is hollywood and industry which has launched a full scale assault on online piracy so why is hollywood pushing for this trade deal artie's among the lindo has the story. hollywood is the land of glitz and glamour where superstars are made hollywood is also a big money industry with a major role in d.c. politics and the future of the internet they want to raise quote unquote protection for copyright but in a way that many harmes users write as the entertainment industry pushes for tighter copyright laws on the web hollywood is hoping that the u.s. government will help fight its battles public and online outcry helped beat the stop online piracy act or sopa from passing through congress but trade agreements

like the trans-pacific partnership could be a backdoor way for hollywood to get what it wants powerful hollywood interests failed to push controversial sopa legislation through congress now supporters of the free internet are worried that some of the same provisions that were in sopa are being included in the trans-pacific partnership. the. defenders of digital rights feel the trade deal could undermine free speech on the internet turning service providers into copyright cops when that happening is. actually woke up and down because there's no consideration for whether there is a fair use so users have a right to use content and commentary and educational etc advocates of the free web feel that media consolidation is part of the problem. there are a few gate keepers controlling. such maturity in this country if you buy your way into politics you just use money to subvert people's will in that present

a great threat to democracy in united states kim dotcom the founder of the file sharing site meg upload was arrested in new zealand based on an american criminal copyright indictment when he talked to r.t. he claimed the indictment was based on politics you know they have to be some kind of plan and i turned it to four soap opera. course the president certainly was aware and his team in the white house was aware if they don't have anything to give at those fundraisers to those guys in hollywood who are eager to you know have more control over the internet he wouldn't probably raise that much and you know hollywood is a very important contributor to bombers come pain organizations like the electronic frontier foundation anything google has spoken out against hollywood's copyright crackdown efforts as the entertainment industry fights to protect its profits the worry remains that it could at the cost of a free internet. in los angeles remodeling the party. and the

mississippi corrections department announced it will no longer allow conjugal visits as of february first of this year conjugal visits refer to a schedule period in which an inmate of a prison or jail is permitted to spend anywhere from an hour to multiple days in private with a visitor usually his or her legal spouse and in that instance the two parties may engage in sexual intercourse but now mississippi which became the first u.s. state to sanction sex for prisoners says it will and it's century old program corrections commissioner christopher apps as it will and do to raise concerns about costs and post the number of babies being born possibly as a result yet at the same time studies have shown that there are some positive effects these these visits could have as well in fact in a two thousand and twelve review of family visitation programs a yell study showed that the programs functioned as powerful incentives for good

behavior help reduce sexual activity among present prisoners and help to strengthen families the decision which was announced in december came as a surprise to prison spouses who rely on them and that's why both spouses along with many mississippi advocacy groups have organized around tomorrow to protest the policy change discusses more earlier. i spoke with kelley school lino who's a south of the mississippi state in maine i first asked her why she believes this program is important for her and her family well it's just essentially keeping us together i mean that's the only time that we have that we're just alone that we can talk and people are not just constantly stand in over us and watching us i mean it's only just a little tiny bit of pride that we get and it's just important it keeps my husband out of trouble i mean he he knows that if he loses if he gets in trouble he's going to lose his visit with me and said that in itself is enough to motivate. to make

sure that nothing that he does not get involved in anything are not in the wrong place at the wrong time i mean it just it really motivates him to keep maintaining good behavior. well one state representative by the name of richard bennett who i'm sure you know is an outright opponent to this practice and he said the following he said i don't think it's fair to the children conceived and to the taxpayers who are in prison for a reason you are in there to pay your debt and conjugal visits should not be a part of the deal so there are certainly other people out there who are going to agree with those sentiments what's your response to wife taxpayers should support this. well i just believe that what we are with map what we feel is like just out so many people have been given just excessive sentences like my husband was given twenty years for armed robbery he didn't hurt anyone he didn't need to think two hundred dollars and at the age of twenty they gave him twenty years and so i just

feel like it's almost like a life sentence at that time when he was twenty he got the same amount of time you know that he'd already spent on this planet and it's going to take their right away to have a child we've taken everything away from them aready we're not giving them any kind of rehabilitation options. that they are but the family is there. we have dilatation those people that have family that are in facilities the family is who is rehabilitating them those are going to be their support network when they come home and we need to make sure that we keep those barn as close as possible and makes a lot of sense how that could help you know the commissioner is saying that he can no longer justify the supervision and maintenance costs and light of the department's twenty two point four million dollar budget deficit but the department won't say how much money will be saved by ending these visits and at the same time only one hundred fifty inmates out of more than twenty two thousand of them have

actually taken part in this program so do you believe that you know do you believe what they are saying about the cost being an issue. no ma'am i don't believe that and i would like for that if mr s. can prove these these prices need numbers there are ways that he could come up with some statistics to actually show us he claimed that there's one hundred fifty five people receive in the visit but he's only counting minimum security inmates minimum and medium security inmates both receiving the visit so i know that there are more than one hundred fifty five people also he hasn't put a price tag on how much it's costing for the supplies on the families that that are in my group were willing to pay for it we feel like it's that important and. if we knew how much it cost we would be willing to pay a fee every month or every year that is not an issue. but as far as the cost i

don't feel like there's anything as they did with it is it minimal the guards that are transporting you back and forth are walking into a a lockdown they're already on duty there are no extra people that are working just specifically for the family visitation also the sheets the below cases whatever other supplies like end of that nature that we're receiving are made by and the industry which is the prison one of the only prison work camps that produces thing that is are made by inmates and produce they're not outsourcing these to other companies we're not buying from somewhere else the inmates that are on duty the. trustees are the ones that are cleaning the style and everything else after visitation is over with there is no staff no in the. involved other than just the walk as they are and walk as back. is just don't leave him as far as the cars

concerned when we now have only four states that allow for conjugal visits and that's decreased significantly over the years now when you look at the trend for this around the world they are actually increasing qatar and turkey have put them into use this year and many latin american countries are even allowing them for unmarried and mates so why do you think the u.s. is striking these visits down while they move forward in other parts of the world. i don't know why the us is as i just feel like we're lacking in a lot of areas i feel like we're we have the opportunities every year to really just change things for the better and we're letting other countries jump on that bandwagon mississippi was the first state to offer them we were innovative and the fact that we use the rehabilitation we implemented it and found it to be effective and now i know other states have jumped off the board but some have joined new york even expanded it to their. gay and lesbian inmates so i mean i just really feel like we're getting all of the buzz too soon. i just i don't understand why we're

doing this but how do we really do appreciate you coming on and giving us some insight into this really important issue kelli muska lino director of the mississippi advocates for prisoners thank you thank you and that does it for now on an era david statin buses next. we welcome aaron eight and abby martin to two of the coasts on the our team network . it's going to give you a different perspective give me one stock oh never i'll give you the information you make the decision don't worry about how breaking the work of the mind it's ideas and consciousness. of the system. would be described as angry i think i'm a strong you know i was single. one

of your whole life at the hall of fame i just felt like you know. a pleasure to have you with us here on t.v. today i'm sure.

there are i marinate. these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. first up dr james bulger the joins me on today's show to talk about predator states which also happens to be the title of his new book then outspoken british politician nigel for raj gives the prime minister and trying to sum ours a proverbial smack you won't want to miss that's pretty funny and in today's big deal at harrison i talk mismanagement misuse and abuse of government funds some enough and it all starts right now.