coming up on our t.v. sends out a word snowden revealed the expansion of the n.s.a. surveillance many have tried to discredit him among them count little hill lawmakers attacking both snowden and the reporter that helped out what this could mean for journalists and their sources ahead. and since news broke about the death of actor philip seymour hoffman the dangers of heroin is a vacuum in the news a large portion of the drug comes from afghanistan now lawmakers in washington are trying to figure out how to stop the flow of heroin into the u.s. more on this front on the war on drugs coming up. and we're only two days away now from the start of the sochi winter olympics athletes are gathering from all

around the world to compete and represent their country it's a preview of the preparations from sochi later in the show. it's wednesday february fifth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our team america. we're again today in pakistan where the number of u.s. drone strikes have the window rolled over the past two months according to officials the drop is due to a request from the pakistani government to curb the strikes as they are in peace talks with the taliban and it looks like the u.s. is listening you can see the number of strikes has gone down drone strike deaths were reported during the last four months of two thousand and thirteen they were down in january as you can see this year no deaths were reported and

afghanistan president hamid karzai has also has also been working on peace agreements with the taliban it's happening apparently without the input of the u.s. are they correspond or unimportant i has more on the secret talks one of america's longest and most expensive foreign investments is turning into one of its greatest obstacles the u.s. intervention you know afghanistan. has sensually created a new taliban. far more powerful no comparison really with the taliban that existed before nine eleven or before the u.s. intervention in afghanistan a matter of fact as the taliban and afghan president reportedly remain in secret talks about reaching a peace deal washington's future in the country after twenty fourteen remains in limbo president hamid karzai still refuses to sign a long term bilateral agreement with washington and last week that the afghan

leader cited poet percy shelley when describing the painfully strained relations with america i believe the best way to summarize this is to put it in the words of shelley the great british put i met murder on the way the whole twelve years was one of constant pleading with america please treat our civilians respectfully and treat their lives as the lives of people. the u.s. has reportedly spent more than ninety billion dollars on reconstruction and relief in afghanistan adjusted for inflation that's more than any european country received after the second world war however journalist gareth porter says in this case no amount of money can buy love what the united states has accomplished in its escalation of origin afghanistan is exacerbating tremendous increase in anti american sentiment and a large part of that of course was the use of night raids on people's homes

knocking down doors in the middle of the night and antagonizing hundreds of thousands. who was traveling a friends neighbors were affected by this tactic and it's tremendously antagonized the afghan population and that is going to be a problem that will affect u.s. national security for many decades to come in the year to come for the u.s. may turn out to mean leaving afghanistan in the same circumstance it was when it was invaded. marina porton r.t. new york. hacking the hacker as for the first time a western government has launched an attack on hacktivists at least that we know of according to documents leaked by former n.s.a. contractor edward snowden and obtained by n.b.c. the british intelligence agency called the government communications headquarters

that's what it's called launch the attack on members of the hacker group anonymous the type of attack method used in this case is a denial of service attack or a d.d. o. s. as it's known it's the same method hackers use themselves this is how it works you see it on the screen there the hacker uses a network of zombie computers to take down websites by overwhelming traffic to be a target it's. anonymous has used this technique against government agencies and corporations that activists have targeted sites like pay pal and amazon to retaliate against their participation in blocking funds to wiki leaks now it looks like the spy agency of the british government wants to give anonymous a taste of their own medicine the documents show that the government group infiltrated chat rooms where anonymous members get together and to scare off about eighty percent of the hackers but some people think that the government took it too

far here and that british spy is may have crossed the line on citizens freedom of speech and that's because the hacker group often targets sites for political reasons the hackers say they are engaging in civil disobedience not terrorism meanwhile edward snowden the man that brought all these revelations to light is the target of debate on capitol hill one of his biggest critics representative mike rogers the chairman of the house intelligence committee he condemns snowden for stealing the secret documents but it's not just snowden he's after he's also speaking out against journalists that work with him so if i'm a newspaper reporter for fill in the blake and i still stolen material is that legal because i'm a newspaper reporter. if you're a newspaper reporter and you're hocking stolen jewelry it's still a crime and if i'm in mocking 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 it's something that probably you better answer but it. and after that hearing rogers zeroed in on a particular reporter he told politico that investigative journalist glenn greenwald was a thief for stealing government information at the time greenwald published the leaks he worked for the guardian now he freelances for various news organizations and continues to publish information leaked by his source he maintains that he never sold the documents and has been tweeting up a storm since the accusations he tweeted maybe there's something that has become pretty sick about d.c. political culture if the idea of prosecuting journalists is now this mainstream for more on the debate of journalists and their sources i'm joined now by somebody

who knows a lot about that wiki leaks spokes person kristinn hrafnsson welcome chris said so we are air here in from government leaders a particularly james clapper the director of national intelligence he has gone as far as calling a journalist that publish snowden leaks his accomplices that the where they used to suggest that reporters are taking part in in a crime what do you think about this accusation. well is that really absolutely ludicrous and nothing new though this has been going on in escalating for the past three years since weeklies can force with or explosive revelations it is time to shoot the messenger and in effect to criminalize journalism. it's absolutely outrageous as if this were to come print james clapper who last freeing lied to congress which is of felony and nobody's talking about bringing him

to justice which he should i mean he committed perjury was is can be mean up to five years in prison and you had mentioned that this is a way to go after journalists this language that we're hearing from people like clapper and journalists glenn greenwald shares the same sentiment as you want to bring up this tweet related to this he says quote the main value in bandying about the areas of prosecuting journalists is the hope that it will bolster the climate of fear for journalism now chris and we saw the same attacks against julian a songe for publishing leaked documents on his website wiki leaks i covered the bradley manning trial extensively there and this was one of the big issues that came into play what similarities do you see kristen between the two cases. well as you remember i mean there was an attempt to to bring weeklies into the

this. case against manning. in effect and there was an attempt to basically. create a case where weeklies could be tried for a breaching the espionage act of one nine hundred seventy s. as ludicrous as it sounds and let's not forget that the the investigation into weekly leaks and into julian the science is still ongoing it has been going on for now three and a half years. secret grand jury is still not rationed in the us under the geneva of course this is an intimidation attempt against a journalist and against proper journalism and we have seen this escalating expects dreamily serious tendencies there and this is something that all journalists have to take into account and finally stand together and push back against these attempts because this is extremely serious. now mike rogers the representative we

heard from earlier has really been at the forefront of launching these accusations and he actually went as far as to say that. actually you know let's listen to this exchange between the. at this hearing yesterday a question that was directed to the chairman of the defense intelligence agency mike flynn 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. so roger they're really trying to get some added ins that snowden is in fact working for the russians what do you think about that kristin about that about this claim that snowden is working for the russians now in this fight i mean we heard

there at least we didn't hear any evidence yesterday in this hearing. of course you didn't have any any evidence because there is no evidence which was new to suggest this but this is a feeling that has been going on for quite some time until as you know since last summer that somehow this all has been a big conspiracy it goes us conspiracy theory that three and a half years ago we can leaks greenfield and snowden planned the entire events of last year and all of this supposed to be plotted cooked up with the f.s.b. and russia and putin's friends syria's people are putting forth these these these drage is fear is a conspiracy theories without any any evidence with any proof whatsoever and i have to say you know to it too to listen to mike rogers. is this is

a person who in an open session in parliament claimed that a person's privacy was not a violated if the person didn't know that his privacy privacy had been violated this is the kind of politician we are dealing with here so it's hard to take this from a guy seriously to be honest i'm going to ask you because i know well one roger that . those are hold similar beliefs as head as i know it if you work with classified information you have taken this elliptically of it for granted at this is violated it could pose a threat to national security where the same the same thing they and the manning case when it comes to regular leaks i want to ask you your response to this argument which rick you hear time and time again. well i've said this repeatedly we have to go to the basic principles here and the basic principle is that

whistleblowers have to rely on their rights and even their duty to set aside lesser laws when a higher ideals are at stake and that in the instance of edward snowden in the instance of manning we are talking about the us congress constitution we're talking about international law so on on the on war we're talking about war crimes so you have. a right and almost a duty to set aside lesser law when when these high ideals are at stake this it gives whistleblowers the right to to bring whatever contract they are under they are exposing wrongdoing but what we talked about earlier was of course a different scenario where those who are criticizing the whistleblower outright whistleblowers are trying to maintain that the journalists working with whistleblowers. have committed

a crime and this is something so serious that i don't think that you have heard anything like this in the united states since the mccarthy era in of the fifty's so this is a serious serious situation we're dealing with you and i just want to ask you if you could talk to roger as the man that is really launching these accusation has and has really been at the forefront of this what would you say it had. well. i would have to take some courses you know freaks and reasoning as i said earlier a guy who says that somebody some some person's privacy has been violated if he doesn't know it has been violated it is just that i don't understand you have to you know to rethink your entire you reflects in your message or reasoning and i'm sure the price that you would. approve of these position is the ending

in such a powerful position as he has in the house i have a feeling we're going to hear a lot more from him and a lot more debate on this issue appreciate you coming on the show and weighing in that was wiki leaks spokesperson kristinn hrafnsson things with me when it comes to cyber security it looks like the u.s. may be vulnerable this out of a report just released by senator tom coburn the report details the federal government's track record on cybersecurity and critical infrastructure the mistakes made by key u.s. agencies are alarming most of them seem to be careless and sloppy here are some of the common cyber failures revealed agencies have failed to set adequate passwords by using obvious words you can easily guess like the actual word password failure to change these passwords update software and install fire walls these weaknesses according to that report put everything from the electrical grid to the financial

markets at risk well this is unsettling for the very offices that are supposed to be in charge of security we are after all talking about the department of homeland security and other agencies like the nuclear regular regulatory commission and the i.r.s. coburn hopes this report will shed light on some of these vulnerabilities so agencies can make the appropriate changes. well the death of acclaimed actor philip seymour hoffman has highlighted the problem the rising problem of heroin heroin abuse prescription drug abuse is on the rise and heroin is seen as an easier and cheaper alternative in the u.s. most of the heroin on the black market makes its way from mexico so it's a rising problem on the border but heroin traffic trafficking is also on the rise in afghanistan it was the topic of discussion today in a hearing on counter narcotics operations in afghanistan here is aaron logan from

the office of the undersecretary of defense and describing the threat of afghan heroin in the united states with the governor of vermont issuing his state of the state speech focused entirely on vermont exploding heroin and opiate problem we have to realize be vigilant but there is a possibility that afghan produced heroin will become more available across the united states well the u.s. has spent billions of dollars in battling drugs in afghanistan but have there been any real results to discuss i'm joined now by anthony cordesman of the hardly a burke chair in strategy at the center for strategic and into her national studies welcome anthony so the u.s. is getting ready to get out of afghanistan but we've seen a surge in violence lately much of it can be attributed to the opium industry can you elaborate on how drugs are fueling the unrest well if you may don't rest.

assured clear. it. is as are so that. you know what we're told by arc. you have seen an ops take in taliban activity against the afghan forces what you did see in the un survey is that there's been a fifty percent increase in production in opium this year and you've expanded the area under cultivation by nearly a third now to the extent that there is always tension between they have drug lords and powerbrokers that kind of violence sort of goes on on a study level when you look at the actual farming opium and the production of opium getting it out of the farm gate out of provinces like helmand that's not really a major cause of violence and rage ok but you know you mentioned fifty per cent

increase in the production of opium we've spent billions of dollars on fighting death and putting an end to death how is it possible that so many resources have been directed at something at now receiving arriva being produced well you're talking about expenditures overturn the years and then extremely erratic program when the special inspector general for afghan reconstruction feels as not been effective one that the un data indicates is really very very little real impact what you see over time is not that these programs much impact but for example last year. people that originally predicted a much higher increase in production would have production what happened was the range weren't very good and to the extent there isn't

a limitation on opium output it had nothing to do with counter drug programs what you did do at one point was push the growth of opium out of the north out of the east where there was a much stronger troop presence and then to the south where you had more talk about control but for example last year you saw areas that had been previously drug free at least according to the estimates producing again and as you say more and more troops pulled out of afghanistan. and to be blunt is a very corrupt police force be the only real barrier you're almost certain to say a lot of those areas which were supposedly going to take up drug production again you would call that in any radek program and it's an erratic program to use your word that had been an expensive program does that mean i mean should we keep

funneling money into something that hasn't really seen results are that the approach need to change well it's too late to change anything and you aren't going to have anybody there to make the program work. you do not have a police force which is capable of honestly really affecting the drug crop you're going to be pulling aid workers and made money out of the area because of the vulnerability of afghan farmers to the rains which can be extremely erratic o.p.m. is still one of the most attractive crops to virtually any farm you watched a lot of road system deteriorate over the last two years and opium so easy to move it's an area where farmers can get loans which they can on normal commercial crops so to be honest the idea that you're going to have honest mating for eradication is

simply not going to happen and efforts to find substitute crops and persuade farmers to move into areas like we have had some success in some areas haven't worked in hell monitor the main drug producing areas and since we're going to have the aid workers out the police advisors largely out and not carry advisors largely out by the end of this year and afghans are going to have much less aid you can pretty well predict what's going to happen doesn't our comics production. it sounds like as long as there is an incentive to create that crop that there is it's going to keep happening we don't have that much time but i want to ask you seeing all these outside resources directed into solving this program do you think that change if it's going to happen in scale it's going to have to happen within afghanistan itself. it's going to have to happen within afghanistan and virtually every political security and economic force is going to push back toward more

production as soon as i see forces we at the end of this year. very interesting what's happening over there and appreciate you sara weighing in on it that was anthony cordesman the arly a burke chair in strategy at the center for strategic and international studies. but we are just two days away now from the opening ceremonies of the winter games in sochi the head of the international olympic committee has a message for world leaders who are using the games to score political points here's his take we are grateful to those who respect the fact that sports can only contribute to development and peace if it's not used as a speech for political dissent or for trying to score points in internal or

external political contests druther political leaders we say have the courage to address your disagreements in a peaceful direct political dialogue and not on the backs of the athletes. or for the games russia has built new venues around sochi to host the events are. moti as more the olympic hopefuls and bumps lady use and skeleton will be chasing the dream here at the sunday sliding center. the movie cool runnings say to use retelling of the true story of jamaica's bobsled team could perhaps resonate here in sunny sochi but i've always wondered how do they get the shape of the track to be able way it is and also how do they get it so

smooth while i've found the answer today and it takes manpower to actually call out of the shape of the track and once that's done this big baby here comes into action what it does is it works sort of like a vacuum machine so it's suck up all the absence ice off of the track and then smooth stood over the causes of for us in russia to have three upward slopes which help to slow speed and keep athletes safe but competitors can still clock up to one hundred and thirty five kilometers an hour here and getting to try to level takes a few calming tools and educated convents i wasn't making my way all the way to an olympic track without testing my carving skills say i dig in. and this is how we get the tracks to native.

so it really isn't as easy as of looks so you really need men like a here who know what they're doing have been trained to do what they're doing right now to actually cover all of the ice now twenty seven of them including jamia how will we add during the olympics basically taking care of this entire tribe making sure that the bobsled a and the sledging competitions go exactly the way it is because a truck is too big to get through the narrow lanes it's done the old fashioned way with this new shovel and a broom. for russians speeding down snowy use is a form of growing up and that's why this being new has been called sunday the russian word sledge bomb would see at the sun these lines and. boom bust is coming up next here in our tear in aid joins us now for a quick preview on hire and what can we look forward to that a slew is now coming up on boom bust investment advisor mike shagbark is giving us

his views about the shape of the u.s. economy today you won't want to miss that it was big news for all your smokers out there which drugstore giant is pulling all tobacco products off the shelves we'll tell you coming right up so stay tuned going to be someone happy smokers there but i think for health officials like they got things there and. that's going to do it for now i'm liz well stay tuned boom bust is next. i've got a quote for you. it's pretty tough. stay with substory. let's get this guy like you would smear that guy stead of working for the people most nations in the mainstream media are working for each other bribe writers vision to find. the brother.

i marinate join me. for that impartial and financial reporting commentary for news and much much. only on the best and only. wealthy british style. time to write. markets why not come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy

with my stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to conjure reports on our. air i marinated and this is boston these are the stories that we're tracking for you today. first up investment advisor and financial blogger mike shed walk discusses minimum wage inflation and the overall health of the u.s. economy you won't want to miss our interview that's coming right up then film director jim bruce is back on the show today he is joining us live from los angeles to discuss his latest documentary money for nothing plus he's giving us his take on the regime change over the fed and finally in today's big deal ed harrison and i are talking wall box water wall but you might be asking you've got to stay tuned to find out it's all coming up and it all starts right now.