times a u.s. law firm representing the government of indonesia for assistance with the international trade talks was selected for monitoring in february of last year the n.s.a. was working directly with its counterpart agency in australia to gather information about the law firm and its dealings with indonesia and yes this went far beyond just gathering for metadata a strategy is signals directorate explicitly told the n.s.a. that quote information covered by attorney client privilege may be included in intelligence gathering well that certain make americans feel a whole lot better about the fairness of the u.s. justice system listen from the wiretapping of western leaders to the industrial espionage of brazilian oil companies it's becoming increasingly clear that the so-called national security mandate is a complete joke the agency has shown time and time again that if it wants information on the inner workings of business government agencies and now law firms will stop at nothing to get it so if you believe that attorney client privilege still means something in this country then join us and let's break the set.

they are very hard to take. that are fact that are right there. just when you thought it couldn't get any worse for the water supply in west virginia last week yet another toxic spill struck the state this time over one

hundred thousand gallons of coal slurry that watery byproduct of coal mining spilled into the fields into fields creek which is a tributary of charleston's can now a river of course this latest rupture comes just weeks after the january ninth chemical spill the port an estimated ten thousand gallons of a chemical called for m c h and into the elk river contaminating the water supply for three hundred thousand west virginians now the e.p.a. is saying that west virginia residents shouldn't be worried about this latest spill as the creek was not connected to a main drinking water source nor did the coal slurry contain the dangerous m c h and chemical but these assurances have done little to placate the fears and worries of west virginians are now heavily reliant on the coal industry and its economic benefits well earlier today i spoke to investigative journalist carl gibson was on the ground in west virginia about the latest developments regarding both spills i first asked him if he believed the e.p.a.'s claims that the coal slurry contained.

none of the potentially deadly chemical and c.h.m. . first test was a guy who charleston he drew she decided this bill the morning after and he told me that you know when you smell the air you smell that licorice and that licorice is the smell of and c h m which was the chemical spilled into the elk river on january night another environmental activist stockman from the ohio valley environmental coalition she told me the same thing she felt she smelled licorice now it's interesting because the west virginia department of environmental protection says that no m.c.h. . even though people all around her are smelling chemical so it remains to be seen what what ultimately going to be done and the cleanup crews right now are you know working on gaming out the spill with bales of hay back together with wire with fish sized chunks of gravel and you know vacuuming up the coagulant with they are

pouring a chemical industry the coagulant comes together and in the vacuum it up with this other machine they're working on the cleanup process right now as of as of right now even though all the coal is larry spilled into the kanada river that is not going towards any intake for just a water supplies so the smell itself and i hate to cut you off but you're talking about that licorice smell that was enough to close down a few schools even in these in these last couple of weeks but i want to ask you you know since we've seen these spills west virginia lawmakers have passed a bill regulating chemical storage and requiring that west virginia's water treatment plants have a secondary water intake point why weren't these measures already in place and why do you think this bill going to do enough to protect us from jinyan from from water being poisoned in the future. it will definitely be an improvement if the house version of that building. you know like you said there will be stipulations in place where it will be a second water itself three to five days water to be set aside and case of

emergency now they say if these provisions were in place on january ninth we might have been able to do the bullet three hundred thousand people having the water. but i think this bill is ultimately going to fall short because it's addressing a symptomatic. of a larger problem a larger problem is that you know these bills are always going to keep happen intil the state department of environmental protection really steps in and starts to do the right they're starting to do it and i mean on the question of accountability and who's going to be held responsible for this let's talk about freedom industries that's the company that was behind that original spill back in january and it's to the company itself has filed for bankruptcy can you break down there's also a conflict of interest here concerning the company that bought out the company and the law firm representing it can you give us a breakdown of that conflict of interest. yeah it's a really shady situation and i'm surprised that no one's been put it and to be quite honest you know eight days after the still have that on january seventeenth

jay clifford forced to his older freedom industry and another company called chemistry holdings l.l.c. he opened up another company eight days later called mountaineer funding l.l.c. now right after filing for chapter eleven bankruptcy which by the way is the unity from over twenty five cities lawsuits and one federal lawsuit after filing for bankruptcy an hour later they filed an emergency motion for the better in protection so on that on that agreement and basically making this agreement to get five million dollars in loans to keep them in operation while they're doing the bankruptcy now that agreement that they filed an emergency motion for as cheap places to sign one place for freedom industries and the other is for your funding which is that ban corporations the company itself that's doing the lending it's called w.v. fund the l.l.c. which has no incorporation records and either west virginia or pennsylvania so it appears on the surface that a phantom corporation is set up by friends owners loan money during the bankruptcy

and asked that conflict of interest that you spoke about you know the law firm that's representing freedom industries is called it's called mcguire woods maguire was also represent a temp stream which is which is acquired by freedom industries it also represented bros but mining which is all owned by j. clifford forest so this one guy j. clifford force is in charge of all of these corporations and it's actually a violation of federal law for a company that has and the best interest in previous companies to represent a firm during a bankruptcy this is this is really outrageous and i can't like you said i can't believe that there's nobody that's you know been really held accountable for this it seems that the company itself is being shielded against any sort of punitive punitive damages are just hiding behind this bankruptcy but i want to ask you about this lawsuit there's there's a class action lawsuit filed by by residents of west virginia what options do they have left to you know for accountability the people in west virginia that were

affected by the spill. sure so those west virginians they're suing the department of environmental protection for failure to regulate coal industry and they have the right to do that under section seven thirty three of the surface mining control and reclamation that calls. section seven thirty three of that bill that law allows for citizens to basically suit their state regulatory agency that from charge regulating the binding and you know ensuring there are environmental controls proving that they have not done so in which case they can supersede that stage regulatory autonomy and the federal e.p.a. can step in and do the regulating that the state was and so. what are the odds of that call because i mean you've written about the ties with west virginia coal with west virginia politicians like governor already and joe mansion so do you think that the this reliance that politicians have in the state has on big coal is going

to have an outcome on that or to what extent is that going to have an impact. i think i think the state and you know governor earl ray tomblin and senator joe manchin are doing everything in their power to stop that regulation from happening precisely because people like jake like reporters donated to governor thomas camping the jenkins the patriot coal doing to governor thomas camping out financial resources which acquired massey energy which is responsible for. coal blast that killed over two dozen miners they gave money to this government so this this whole administration is in the pocket of the coal industry so i think and tell the federal government steps in and really starts to regulate the state because the state won't do it so i think until that happens you're not going to see much in the way of accountability at the state level that's that's really a shame and i want to ask you about another another aspect of this that it doesn't surprise me it sounds too absurd to actually be true the the koch brothers charles

and david koch actually might be connected to these chemicals bills this is something that you've been writing about yourself can you explain that connection. yes cook industries since two thousand and five even to company called georgia pacific and georgia pacific manufactures the line of chemicals that freedom industries used for coal processing in over seven states you know west virginia virginia kentucky all of it from michigan and minnesota now the koch brothers not only do they own georgia pacific but here's the really twisted part they also own a company called hills resources funnels resources makes a product called tariff alec acid which is used and water bottles kind of plastic and so you know i've called the bottled water satiation and i'm trying to get numbers and they said no one had been paid for january when the spill happened until march but i'm i've got a very strong hunch that water bottle sales skyrocketed after the spill and even

though koch industries is a privately owned company so it's not treated i can't look at their stock but i would i would imagine that clinton's resort probably making a lot of money because of all the new water water bottles that are being bought and manufactured when it wouldn't come is as too big of a shock there call we're almost out of time but i wanted to ask you you know being on the ground in west virginia and getting a chance to talk to folks there are people that are so reliant on the coal industry in the state that are maybe starting to reconsider that maybe starting to see this is a different way and how they're thinking about the future of their state in the future of the coal industry in this when what sort of sense are you getting from the people there. you know one guy i talked to you in van west virginia about an hour south of charleston she worked in the coal industry its entire life span we worked with her once during their entire life even today he still loves me told me coal is what makes this day. but even he told me that you know it's not looking likely that coal is going to have much of

a future unless for ginia you know given this latest bill another woman i talked to in that same community she said that coal really doesn't have much in the future anymore and anyone's eyes that were opened already opened by the water being what we'll call unfortunately we're out of time but we do want to thank you for taking the time to join us today and thanks for being our eyes on the ground in west virginia coal gives investigative reporter with occupy dot com thank you thank you many. coming up i'll talk about a more taboo side of presidents they say don't. know cholesterol pianist depression. these concerts to work still and improve your life. are you the same. form those that's. running your.

hearts has. told you my language as well but i will only react to situations i have read the reports and let you know what is the no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point i come on to say. the security at a car is on the docket no god. no thank you no more weasel words when you made a direct question be prepared for a change when you run should be ready for a. printout of speech and little down to freedom to cost.

dramas that can't be ignored. story others. places change the world right. the picture. from a good long. look. i . see days presidents day most of the american public working american public that means a well deserved day off for what is today really commemorate on theory were supposed to be celebrating george washington's birthday but that's actually february twenty second the holiday really honors is the entirety of washington's presidency because

aside from the success of the american revolution and the establishment of america's first republic washington's greatest achievement is marked by something he didn't do seek a third term as president c. washington could have been king of a brand new country on the american continent but instead gave up his power after two four year terms all in the name of democracy and indeed this is an amazing gesture worth commemorating but while school kids across the nation may be assigning students schools across the nation might be citing students to write about their favorite presidents the focus is not likely to be on the hidden history behind the father founding fathers pristine facade as always there is much more to washington than meets the textbook. now i want to be clear my intention is not to be subversive subversive about america's founding fathers it's simply more important that history is looked at in full with the good and the bad and most importantly the truth so let's start with the white house america's symbol of the presidency a beautiful mansion located at sixteen hundred pennsylvania avenue but built almost

entirely on the backs of slaves that's right not only was the white house built by slave labor it was also home to countless black slaves held in bondage and while the first republic was founded under the banner of freedom dignity and the infallible notion that says all men are created equal as many as twelve of america's forty four presidents have been slave owners even george washington himself who wrote prolifically against the institution of slavery was not immune to its evils see a law called the gradual abolition act was passed in pennsylvania in seven hundred eighty which allowed slaves brought into this state to apply to apply for freedom if they were there for longer than six months in order to circumvent this act washington would rotate the time his slave spent in the state going against his own convictions against the horrific practice in fact one of washington's own slaves oh name maria judge was said to be given away as a present to martha washington's granddaughter and at the end of his second term but judge ran away before that could happen to live out the rest of her days as

a free woman and in doing so changed the course of american history. journalists and authors of the time ran with the story and became one of the first inspirations for the abolition movement it's not just the hollowed institutions like the white house or the presidency that are connected to slavery it's nearly every single facet of this country's history and ironically presidents day fall smack dab in the middle of black history month which is why it's perhaps more important that we remember and reflect upon an edited version of history only then can we come to grips with the tortured history that has shaped this country for centuries and apply that historical knowledge to solving the country's current social racial and economic injustices so by all means celebrate the men who put revolutionary ideas into action but just as importantly don't forget about those who truly built this country. i

here in the west we grew up we grew up learning about a particular narrative about the middle east and at the crux of that narrative is the decades old conflict between the palestinians and the israelis according to the western media whenever israel launches a military assault it's in self-defense against palestine so the vicious cycle of violence goes on in the conflict continues but according to one social critic and journalist ferrari shepherd there is no conflict simply put there is only occupation and with that comes total oppression and control of nearly every aspect of life in palestine shepherd just got back from the region and wrote a viral article for the huffington post about the myth of the conflict and how the western media gets it wrong but he's not supportable journalist he's also editor in chief of stop being famous a music blog dedicated to in-depth interviews with some of the biggest names in music today and covering a wide variety of social issues earlier today for our stop by the studio and i first asked him about another story he's been writing about check out. i want to

ask about something that you posted very recently on stop being famous which is this open letter to d.m.'s you know in light of him wanting to box george zimmerman you were saying that this is sort of a mockery of a tragedy so you know what kind of brought it were brought this about what made you inclined to write this piece mainly brought the. piece that i made that are excuse me that i wrote was almost a it was like i was vomiting it was involuntary i couldn't hold it in i was thinking like you know i've been a fan for many years and i know where he was coming from in terms of saying yeah i'll take him on for the black rays or whatever paycheck or whatever it may be but i don't think that he was taken into account. of the implications that it made. is this a joke is this a side show this is trayvon martin his body is this is dead we're talking about a day teenager in the ground and his mother has to suffer every day while the

killer is out free and posing for pictures and painting i mean it's disgusting that this is what you know it comes to in the media in this country everything gets turned into a reality t.v. show like i mean even the positive things like trying to go to mars people are trying to turn that into a real. but i want to get your take on this other case michael dunn in florida and you know he was he was found guilty of attempted murder of the other kids but not of the actual boy who was jordan davis the actual boy who was who was murdered do you are you then surprised anymore when you when you hear stories like this i mean do you see these as signs of just institutionalized racism i'm not surprised and i see it as a sign of institutionalized racism but that's not that's not all i see. i take it personally because i grew up in a neighborhood you know in new york chicago where as a black man this is

a black young teen it was almost as if i didn't belong anywhere everywhere i went there was a police officer there was a y.m.c.a. director there was someone to tell me what are you doing here why are you standing here actually had laws to say you do a mob action and you're standing in a group of three or more black people what are you doing so for this for this jury so deliver to kind of be indecisive is this a human life you know did he get this done take a life or was it like. you know right and it's a jury of you you'd assume you know that they would of course know better but you know i have you here you were talking about your website i can't help but ask you about this viral article that you wrote recently about your trip to israel palestine and it's it's titled i traveled to palestine and discovered. there is no israeli palestinian conflict of course this entire notion completely flies in the face of everything that we've learned about can you help put into context what you mean by this. is this is i say this simple travel to israel palestine

palestine israel some might say and i was really shocked the ironic part about what has happened since i posted want to publish the article is went viral di run in part is that i didn't expect it to go viral you know because i thought that it was something everyone knew already even though you know i know differently that we don't get that narrative we don't get to see what is actually going on in the west bank what's going on in gaza we only see you know horrific scenes either that or this one dimensional terrorist thing or a militant thing you never get to see the day to day to day life of a palestinian and i think that is definitely dangerous and that was like the calls of writing this was to say ok we all know the narrative and everyone in western

society knows the narrative of the terrorists you know. the name oh my god but they they don't they never stop to see why some of these catastrophes are happening you know and i think this is part of the human eyes in someone to say that you don't have a voice you're not a person anymore. you know we can do to an insurgent we could kill an insurgent and there will be no nothing said about it no one will care about you because you're not a person you're a militant so these were very violent like these the terrorists the militant used to be communists right it is the definition of these words as well right because these are the the terminology that we hear. a combat ease of combat agee's of militant age. really all that means is that you're what twelve years or older and running around a field in your you know subject to be the target of a drone strike no it did you're absolutely right and i wanted to ask you about you

know you've you got a lot of flak as well for this article that you wrote and you recently went on post live and you were asked about you know maybe not giving the full context of the story we already in the west we already know the story of you know israel says the we're being bred in in these like you know palestinians they just want to blow up buses and i know that story i think that anyone could turn on you know any major new station and see that story where we don't see is the why is the why is this happening and what's really going on i don't think that there's a counterargument to colonialism to slavery to how to in closing people in a neighborhood whether it be through gentrification or a wall that's almost thirty feet tall have a soldiers on every corner i don't think that there's an argument that can counteract that you know unless you have it having been there what do you see as

being the i mean look you have the you have the solution in your hands what do you see as being because it's such a complicated issue and it's so central to the middle eastern politics and to what every one else in the region believes do you see the two state solution still being attainable do you see people moving well beyond that and what would the what a way to finally get equity equality the human dignity that palestinians deserve how do you get there without a two state solution. throughout history there is there's been you know the two state solution thing brought well especially in the united states will you say with the native americans they'll say ok all right we've got slaughtering each other enough let's stop and now let's let's let's talk about a partition let's try to do this you have this and you have this and then what usually happens is. is that the natives or the smaller people without the money and the power their space in agency just starts to shrink and shrink and shrink until

it's all reservation. you know so i really can't speak on like a solution i don't know a solution other than something that has to happen i don't want to say but spiritually inside the hearts and the minds of israelis ok i do see that you know there are that's one thing i didn't get to touch on in the piece which is that it's more was with the complexities of the society there are palestinians with money who you know you would call them high class but this oppressed ok and there's also israelis who really see that want to see the other side of the story. society is shaped around that narrative as it is a revolution of consciousness that we need and it's need right here in the united states as well israel's closest ally you know a majority of people here still have u.s.

aid everywhere you so much. all right that's our show guys thanks for joining me back tomorrow to break the set all over again good night. for the rest of us he. would sleep in. the. club. when i close my eyes i see people. you know sometimes i think itself is

a face covered by a must be. those people in both sides of the barricades with. sometimes it feels as if all of ukraine is no. one of the new. face. her. pleasure to have you with us here today.

the g. twenty fourteen promises we alternate in the exhilarating of winter sports in our team each year so join me and use an hour and make of an hour and the rest of our local news team for sochi twenty four take. on.

a transit route to vnukovo airport your best way to the heart of moscow. same sex limits the kansas house of representatives waves through legislation the would have enshrined in law the right to discriminate against homosexuals. the u.s. agrees to provide medical treatment to a russian pilot suffering severe chest pains in jail after a very strong demands from moscow's foreign ministry. it will survive it all if only my son came home only r.t. international talking to the prisoners mother to find out how the family is coping with the ordeal. and sliding on to those. russian as bobsledders winning gold to push the host nation now into second place to the winter olympics medal table look at how the duo prepared for victory.