coming up on r.t.e. in the hot seat u.s. intel leaders are called before congress to answer questions about n.s.a. surveillance worldwide threats and reforming the pfizer court will have all the details on that just ahead and the keystone pipeline gets a green light the u.s. state department says the pipeline would not have a significant effect on climate change or the environment but is that really the case will dig further into this fight that'll coming up and cloaked in secrecy in san francisco google's mysterious barge still has people asking questions all city officials are pushing for its removal from the bay more on that later in the show.

it's tuesday february fourth eight pm in washington d.c. i mean you're a david and you're watching r t america. we begin tonight on german media outlets reporting that u.s. intelligence began spying on german leaders long before chancellor chancellor angela merkel took office the report say that the u.s. began spying on chancellor merkel's predecessor gerhard schroeder in two thousand and two because of his opposition to the u.s. led invasion of iraq this comes of course just months after n.s.a. leaks indicated merkel's cell phone had been targeted merkel spoke with obama by phone last july about allegations that the united states was conducting surveillance on its european allies and in that call she made it clear that if the information about the u.s. having monitored her phone were true it would be quote completely unacceptable in response to the revelation chancellor schroeder had this to say back then i would have never entertained the idea that the u.s.

secret service services would be listening in on me but now this comes as no surprise and now we turn to two different hearings that took place in congress this morning the house intelligence committee heard testimony from the director of national intelligence james clapper on his annual worldwide threat report this fall is a senate hearing on the same topic that took place last week also on the hill the house judiciary committee examined recommendations to reform the foreign intelligence surveillance act artie's sam sachs was on capitol hill and has more. the house intelligence committee took on the issue of worldwide threats to u.s. national security and a hearing today and there was quite a long list of threats covered cluny al qaeda militants in syria iran has nuclear capabilities and even threats of china shooting down space satellites but with the director of national intelligence james clapper on hand to testify it was the so-called threat of edward snowden's n.s.a.

disclosures that stole the show and led to some hair raising comments by members of congress its chairman mike rogers that has repeatedly made claims without evidence that snowden is secretly working with the russians but at today's hearing the witnesses on hand refused to confirm that accusation do you believe that. there's any indication that the n.s.a. contractor who is now in moscow might be under the influence of russian intelligence services chairman i don't have any information to that effect excuse me later in the hearing congresswoman jan schakowsky asked for evidence of a snowed in russia connection she was told that was best discussed in a classified hearing also during the hearing chairman rogers suggested that journalists who are handling the snowden documents are breaking the law though he was unable to get the director of the f.b.i. james komi to agree with that assertion so if i'm a newspaper reporter for fill in the blank and i sell stolen material is that legal

because i'm a newspaper reporter right if you're a newspaper reporter and you're hocking stolen jewelry it's still a crime and if i'm a hocking stolen classified material that i'm not legally in possession of for personal gain and profit is that not a crime. i think that's a harder question because it involves a news gathering function could have first amendment implications that's something that probably you better answered by the department of justice the issue of targeted drone killings came up as well with representative adam schiff calling for an annual report detailing all the drone strike deaths the director of the cia john brennan called it a worthwhile recommendation but back to the n.s.a. today's hearing comes a few weeks after president obama laid out a series of n.s.a. reforms including changing section two fifteen of the patriot act which underpins the n.s.a.'s domestic phone spying program and nearby in the house judiciary committee another hearing was underway that specifically honed in on these issues it was here that david medina of the privacy and civil liberties oversight board

explained how this sort of surveillance restricts american civil liberties examine the privacy and civil liberties consequences of the program and found them serious because the program contains highly sensitive information and citizens are may be chilled and if their association writes in engaging with reporters or religious groups or political support is ations knowing that the government is collecting information about them and finally we also learn from the hearing about members of congress are having their own phone data swept up in the n.s.a.'s domestic phone spying program as well but that came hardly as a surprise since we know that virtually all americans phone data is collected by the n.s.a. according to the snowden documents that's the latest coming from capitol hill i'm sam socks are two. and american tech firms have released their most detailed data gadabout the us governments and formation requests made under the foreign

surveillance intelligence act of the controversial law that has governed the national security agency's most secret surveillance programs that's how companies that have released that information include google facebook yahoo microsoft and linked in take a look at this for the six month period between january and. june of two thousand and thirteen google yahoo facebook and microsoft all report they received between zero and nine hundred ninety nine pfizer requests for content e-mail messages photos address books and calendar entries for example google says those requests involved between nine thousand and nearly ten thousand users or accounts but yahoo was actually much much much worse with three times more yahoo user accounts affected the content requests impacted over five thousand facebook user accounts and over fifteen thousand microsoft users the government only allows the companies to disclose data and broad ranges of one thousand or as linked in chose to do combined all of their national security requests and report it in ranges of two

fifty the social networking company reports receiving between zero and two hundred forty nine national security related requests affecting that same number of user accounts. the new data disclosures are the result of a legal battle over transparency between tech giants and the justice department and it's all result of the revelations brought to light by former government contractor edward snowden last summer snowden leaks documents to the press revealing the role of tech companies in secret u.s. surveillance programs tech companies were specifically vulnerable in light of disclosures regarding a u.s. intelligence system called prism showing the government's access to users' e-mails videos and online chats regardless of the deal reached with the justice department privacy advocates and civil liberties watchdogs say it doesn't go far enough while google and linked in are already calling for more transparency. and in other news

related to former government contractor edward snowden we're just learning that sweden and iceland's pirate party representatives have jointly nominated snowden and chelsea manning for twenty fourteen nobel peace prize in a letter published by representatives of both countries it says we are nominating manning and snowden together because the courage of manning inspired snowden and both of them have inspired thousands of people all over the world to speak truth to power and demand transparency and accountability in their own societies chelsea manning formerly known as bradley was sentenced to thirty five years in a military prison last year after leaking hundreds of thousands of documents to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks. and the state department has finished a highly anticipated review of the controversial keystone x.l. pipeline the five point four billion dollar oil pipeline has been

a thorn in president obama's side with supporters encouraging his approval for the sake of job creation and photos saying it will produce even more greenhouse gases the report says the pipeline would not have a significant impact on climate change but as artie's liz wahl finds out it's not exactly that couldn't drive. there's. a state department report that outlines the environmental impact of the keystone x.l. pipeline is fueling anger among activists the report backs up the findings that this this pipeline fails says climate test it will have a huge climate impact some scientists are referred to it as game over on climate change the pipeline would funnel oil over a thousand miles from canada's tar sands through the american heartland to the gulf coast there is the long awaited state department report that assesses how the pipeline would impact the environment it states quote climate changes are

anticipated to occur regardless of any potential effects from the proposed project it finds that the pipeline would not have a significant impact on greenhouse emissions because the oil would be transported anyway by rail according to the report moving oil by train is just as harmful to the environment but environmentalist are now questioning the motives of the study while we look at the report we have to kind of look at it with this kind of you know has the oil industry so influenced this report that the conclusions or the recommendations that are in the report don't really matter environmental organizations like friends of the earth believe the report is riddled with conflicts of interests we did some freedom of information act request to the state department as well as did some checking on the internet and we found that in fact they actually have relationships with at least five organizations including the

american petroleum institute who are advocating for the construction of the keystone x.l. pipeline the pipeline is a political conundrum for president obama who has pledged to make progress on climate change he said this about the keystone pipeline last summer our national interest will be served. only if this project does not significantly exacerbate the problem of carbon pollution well the obama administration has vowed to put climate change at the top of the agenda but protesters here say he can turn those words into action by blocking the keystone x.l. pipeline president obama has a decision to make does he want to be a climate champion or does he want to be remembered as the pipeline president we know what the implications of moving so much fossil fuel from one part of the continent to another would have for not only global climate change and carbon dioxide emissions but really for the future heating of the planet but with energy

independence high on the agenda and labor union saying there's jobs on the line there is strong political pressure especially from republicans to get moving on the pipeline it's unclear how much the state department report will sway the administration's decision in washington liz wall r.t. . and we are just three days away from the start of the twenty fourteen olympic games taking place in sochi russia of course arts he will have full coverage on this take a look. and

now for a closer look at russian president vladimir putin's visit and the preparations for the games here as artie's martin andrews president bush had arrived earlier today ahead of the olympics everybody starting on friday in left of the wonderful statement is complete and it's behind as we actually have a higher hustle it's taking place at the moment but it was the president putin's first stop when he met the official delegates of the i.o.c. one hundred twenty six committee the opening to the sessions they discussed it was sort of salt chief national what was that will do the same facts the whole group all of that but it's posted leftwards as that goes through rehabilitation center was a put a few years ago and didn't sell fox he went inside one of the cages to pat's for the cubs of course the wildlife it's important. or the president indeed important to the people of saatchi so much so that she chose a leopard to become one of the mascots of the winter olympics here in sochi regarding the actual delegates they had a great feast and banquet and

a peaceful soviets architectural building they enjoyed live music from russian traditional musicians and also listen to some western music in the form of we are the champions of course the famous hit by queen regarding the people who are here six thousand athletes that are making their way to sochi over the next weekend to wrestle with the men of the olympic mountain village i spent long as you're about we spoke about the security issues and how people including businesses i see feel about the atmosphere here in sochi take a look at that you did not just among hispanics and a good many of their flits have been seeing the back home liesl very negative media coverage of all the sochi olympics some go even afraid to come here but when they arrived they started wondering what all the bad press was involved and really very impressed by what's going on here they see there's much less hassle and this conference is specially when it comes to security checks compared to previous games

given because as i said that opens on friday people are still fighting for a ticket for the opening ceremony with our various celebrities arrive here in such of their helicopters around this as we speak princess diana rides earlier today and also r.t. spoke to the famous tennis star maria sharapova about the excitement surrounding the winter olympics twenty fourteen. students and i'm very impressed by what i've seen here in sochi i haven't been here for a year and when i arrived yesterday i was amazed when i finally saw all the stadiums and then use i really hope that everyone will enjoy the olympic games here in sochi had friends some of them are volunteers they flowed over from canada they were fortunate enough to see over her with a sheet as they call it in russia on sunday including some fireworks to. lights at eleven o'clock the fish stadium that seats forty thousand people that will also be in full swing the rehearsals on friday the olympic ceremony is said to bring three billion spectators from around the world but the subject on many people's lips is

that of gay rights and earlier on in the week i went to such he's only gay couple to speak to the owner and some of the party revelers we got in how gay life really is in russia and how the new and he gave already affects them take a look. thousands of athletes and visitors are expected to arrive this week and three billion people are also estimated to watch the winter olympics this month for some however the games aren't about sporting progress they're about gay rights and the controversy surrounding last year's legislation that restricts children being given information about nontraditional relationships a similar law to the u.k. section twenty eight that was impost for two decades in the late eighty's we had to the city's only beach front gate venue my ak or lighthouse in english for a club that's been in the city for more than thirty years it seems as such she and its being subculture is far more liberal than people think traditionally one of the more tolerant russian cities when during the soviet era russians from all over the

country could holiday here. club owner and his partner a man have been a couple for over thirteen years and said although they don't agree with the law they remain mostly unaffected by it and welcome this is because they describe the west's response as heavy handed i don't know if the reaction. of color i think it's really bad it negatively affects gay russian people because society blames them for spoiling the olympics for an important opinions are still divided on sexuality in russia and this club does give something of an insight into the reality of gay life here the one time in the club and needing people. like any other gay bar that i've ever been to even out of the activists abroad have spoken loudly in great numbers but the reality is that the issue is more complicated than it seems while some in the algae to community say that the ball is brought in last year let's bring in

a new way the behavior violence under the situation has to be changed and they gave up in the rush to get to that and even somewhat lower it well people do not roam the streets handed hand in sochi behind closed doors at such clubs people can be openly affectionate and one thing is for sure whether you have conservative or liberal views this month is going to be a celebration of sport to remember martin enteritis see sochi. and still ahead here on our t.v. google's mysterious barge is no longer welcome in san francisco officials want a barge removed from the bay area after complaints were made about its construction more on that after the break. our forces. look at the finish line of the.

my current number for. good.

i would rather ask questions to people in positions of power instead of speaking on their behalf and that's why you can find my show larry king now right here on our t.v. question more. well it seems google is coming under fire and this time it has nothing to do with n.s.a. government requests the tech giant is now being targeted by california authorities for not having the proper permits necessary to construct a barge and its current location it's a four story structure that's now docked at the pier at treasure island in san francisco bay the barge rose to fame last year as google's floating mystery of course all of this begs the question what is this mysterious structure and where is it going to discuss this

a little bit more i was joined earlier by artie's ramon glendale and i first asked him to take me back to how this structure was discovered in the first place the first reports did start coming back in october of two thousand and thirteen but at that point this massive construction project at irving going on for more than a year now so you know it started to you know looking at lease agreements talking to people there on treasure island and eventually connected the dots linking the project to google but even when that report came out google stayed pretty quiet about what their intentions were and did google ever reveal what they intended to use the structure for well once this story started to pick up a little bit more steam they were forced to say something and investigative reports there in the bay area indicated that google intends to use this as an display for some of their new projects him and products but. right now there hasn't been

any construction since last summer so google remains very big about what they intend to do with it only saying that they hope that it becomes some sort of interactive technology center where people can learn about the technology they're working on it's very peculiar i mean is there any reason to be suspicious that google had some secret intentions that we don't know about. well this is reportedly part of google x. which is the secretive research unit of the tech giant so the coast guard and the park service have boarded the barge but when asked. about what's on there they're staying quiet saying that they can't reveal what's on there so this has really led to more mystery and more speculation theories abound about what's going on up there some people the reason people think that it's a data centers because google got a patent for that a few years ago some people think that it might be a floating island that google is going to be using to avoid taxes or just to keep

their servers away from the prying government eyes so still a lot of speculation and google continues to get a lot of publicity because they have kept it pretty mysterious and we also have to remember that they're building a similar barge on the east coast over in portland maine people do love speculating its fine will google never did officially finish the project and now that's come to a halt because the san francisco bay conservation and development commission has asked the company to move it do we have any idea where it could move to you know what what's the future of this mysterious structure. well mir i contacted the development commission in google earlier today still waiting to get a response to that however yesterday state regulators did say that because the action has to be stopped because that there are no proper permits to build there however they did indicate that. if the project does move to another part of san francisco bay that they may be able to continue the project if they get the proper

permits now the current lease at the location they're out now runs through the end of the summer but documents obtained by a sample to school chronicle show that google had proposed this moving barge that would be going all around san francisco bay and up and down the west coast they intended to get it going. they passed that deadline so the earliest we might find out what this truly is might be later this year so. sometimes a full report from you from inside the mysterious structure when it does finally open r.t. correspondent ramon going to be an eye on it and it seems like a pill sized camera maybe gaining some rare insight into your colon very soon the food and drug administration has just approved the use of the pill cam colon for people who are not able to complete a standard colonoscopy the pill sized camera which is about one point two five inches long takes photos of the patients g.i.

tract over the course of ten hours after the patient swallows the tiny camera they put on a special device around their waist that device that helps transmit the photos of the intestines to a computer where a physician can then determine any abnormalities however there are some risks involved including the device getting stuck inside the body choking on it when trying to ingest it or possible skin irritation but with colon cancer as the third leading cause of cancer related deaths in the u.s. this might be an easy pill to swallow. and what if you found out that you had been skiing on a mountain of human waste tonight's resident takes a look at snowball mountain in arizona and how the fresh powder is actually made from recycled waste water.

grover a decade now a fights been brewing between the city of flagstaff arizona and the hopi tribe you see skiing is big business in flagstaff resorts bring in about thirty five million dollars to the local economy during snow season but since the climate has been changing there isn't enough snow so what is the genius has there been doing since two thousand and two this city has been supplying one resort called the snow bowl with wastewater so they can freeze that to make snow wastewater as in water from sewage systems and that people have pita and cooped in that and that's what snowball is using to make snow and the people he and frolic in that piece and who

you know granted the wastewater is treated before it's made into snow so it's not exactly coming out yellow and brown but still studies have shown that flagstaff's wastewater contains and apprenticed reffing chemicals that's in r.p. from the prescription drugs we take for antibiotics or steroids or timing that other crap that's in all of the products we use all of that crap is still in the wastewater snow that snow bowl is you waiting all over the damn mountains to the point where the city has mandated the resort post sorry and saying things like don't leave the snow all around the resort now that's just gross and dumb but it's also a spiritual desecration to the natives who live in arizona the mountains are a sacred place to the hopi tribe and spewing a bunch. waste water all over them is an affront to the hopi tribe spiritually and i gently and in front of them and to anyone with a modicum of sense the dr has been trying to stop the city from selling its

wastewater to the snowball resorts for years now and they just got the green light from the state supreme court to go ahead with the lawsuit in hopes of banning any more of this nonsense and hopefully they'll win because this is just discussed on many levels seriously making money is so important in this country that we're willing to spew ways to water all over pristine revered mountains it's so it noxious we're like a dog that has to leave its mark on as many places as possible by pee everywhere but in this case we're literally spraying our p. water over miles and miles of spiritual land not to margaret territory but to practice america's one true religion the worship of the almighty dollar tonight let's talk about that by following me on twitter at the resident.

and before we go don't forget to tune in at nine pm for larry king now tonight's guest is the actress vanessa hudgens from such films as high school musical and spring breakers still talk all about her starring role in the film give me shelter and much much more here's a snippet of what's to come. the woodwork of the disease because some say when you were a disney they told you if you did interviews saying nothing controversial everything has to be smiling all the time i think that you're not true not necessarily no because the interview was like that come along with with high school musical i would disney i'm going to be hard heavy hitting questions are going to be about the film and about the projects and they're going to be light hearted because that's the audience i don't necessarily think that you will come in and say something controversial just to mix it up i'm not a drama starters you didn't call true is to admit i didn't do anything no they just

let us be i mean i'm happy bubbly person so it's not that hard. and that is a for now i will mirror david have a great night. it's hard for some. of the finish line to. what we're hearing. there i marinate this is boom bust and these are the stories that we're tracking for you to.