coming up on our team more u.k. spying a new report reveals that britain's intelligence agency intercepted and stored webcam images from millions of yahoo users with a little help of course from the n.s.a. the latest on that ahead and another member of the cuban five group is released from u.s. custody the five men were convicted back in two thousand and one on spying charges coleman they've been hailed as heroes a look at the history of the cuban five coming up. and in california king city officers face charges of car theft six of the city's top officers have been arrested for their involvement in a car impounded scheme more on the police corruption later in the show.

it's thursday february twenty seventh five pm in washington d.c. and we're a david and you're watching our team america. we begin today with the news that britain's intelligence agency the g.c. h.q. has been collecting images from webcam conversations conducted by yahoo users this is all according to documents released by former government contractor edward snowden and obtained by the guardian the report reveals the details of a surveillance program called optic nerve and which the g c h q was collecting and storing these images and large quantities all with the support of the u.s. national security agency now in a statement to r.t. yahoo has said we were not aware of nor would we condone this reported activity this report represents a whole new level of violation of our users privacy that is completely unacceptable to talk

a little bit more about how this program was carried out earlier i spoke with our tease sarah furthur in london i first asked her how the g c h q was collecting this information was this is done via web and british intelligence agency g c h key aided by the n.s.a. have the program code named. and they were essentially collecting still images from millions of accounts one point eight million accounts and saving them to agency databases and how was this information supposed to be used. well the system it appears busies for experiments an automated facial recognition now is used to monitor not just t.c.h. keys existing targets but also to discover new targets of interest and save the searches could be used to try to find terrorist suspects or criminals but it was

also making use of multiple anonymous user i.d.'s so skipping up a huge bulk data from what could potentially be completely innocent eases and did b g c h q distinguish between which of those users were suspected of wrongdoing and those who weren't suspected of wrongdoing. it appears not and i think that's really what's causing such outrage here is that it seems that g.c. h.q. were able to access many images completely indiscriminately the information was collected in bold largely anonymous he's i.d.'s as we said detailed in these documents and that also means that they have been unable to filter out information between us all u.k. citizens say no distinctions made there as we said indiscriminately collecting this information and of course that's what has caused so much concern and so much anger from a lot of users already absolutely and of course also we're learning that scores of

sexually explicit material in particular was inadvertently collected after realising this did the g c h q make any attempts whatsoever to prevent the collection or storage of that kind of content. c.h.p. certainly getting a little bit more than i think they were bargaining for their rather quickly display being their discovery as they say a surprising number of people use web cam conversations to show intimate parts of their body and apparently the documents saying three to eleven percent of the images contained undesirable needed he was one social media commenting on the revelations so eloquently put it c.c.t.v. on the street g c h e in your sheets but of course not a laughing matter at school because despite this it seems that g c h q a didn't make any attempt to prevent the collection all the storage of these explicit images they did eventually it seems come to

a compromise by excluding images from this facial recognition program that didn't actually include faces so eventually they did manage to filter out some of the images coming three but it seems not much effort was made in the collection or in the storage of these very personal images now considering of both the u.s. and the u.k. are part of the five eyes and therefore they share intelligence is it safe to assume the n.s.a. has had access to the who web cam storage and all of these images. it's pretty unclear at this point exactly how much access they had to t. these yahoo web cam images of course that is a question a lot of people including need imagine you are here themselves are going to be really pushing to get the answer on that it does seem that policy documents were available to n.s.a. analysts throughout really seen information sharing and as he said this optic nerve named program. aeration but they were aided certainly by the n.s.a.

said that is going to be something that is going to be being looked at very closely right now and there are this particular program optic nerve interestingly only focused on yahoo users is there any reason why the agency used yahoo instead of say google well from the documents that have been released say for it seems that you are he is this is certainly the most wide scale in the targeting that some of the documents do also appear to detail interest in the potential capabilities of the x. box three sixty's connect camera saying that generated normal web cam traffic so again it seems possible that they they were in this program looking to perhaps expand it to other areas as well as that wide scale yahoo web cam imaging all right certainly a lot of outrage over this r.t. correspondent sara firth thanks for your reporting. and the world's eyes have been focused on the found political changes unfolding in ukraine's capital of kiev in

recent months but it seems now the attention is shifting to the crimean peninsula where dozens of gunmen raised the russian flag over parliament today the conflict is now raising concerns over a possible separatist from delhi and that's dividing the region r t v gore picking up has a story. a lot who are born to play. here in the crimea national slogans are being shouted alongside for a washerwoman's they share the same lens but definitely not the same political views. there was no whistle no role we all came out today to show that without our approval no does not will be made we see the crimea as a part of aggression on the majority of people here who support russia in the u.s.s.r. the crimea belongs to the russian soviet republic until nine hundred fifty four

when the then soviet leadership decided to transfer it to the administration of soviet ukraine and when the u.s.s.r. collapsed in one thousand nine hundred one under crimea was left as a part of independent ukraine but for the last few centuries many ethnic russians have been living on these lands alongside minorities including the muslim crimean taught ours really the crimea always used to be russian and was passed over to the crane on mosul it's time for justice to prevail in the square in front of the a local administration building here in cities that all had. the right guy all the force people to go see the city if you are pro ukrainian or pro russian with a russian flag or ukrainian flag here and the tensions i received the boiling point . even though i knew somebody thinks that i would most. the crimean tartars has been siding with the ukrainian nationalist but they were never able to agree on the march i was about to talk to one of our own crimean tartar government as it was

with the idea was too far fetched at this point however nationalism is far more important than the logic of the majority here are expecting the local radio authorities to exercise the political will in ethnic offered in europe to break out . you go to school for tea reporting from the grainier. and headlines across the u.s. and europe are speculating that russia is on the brink of getting involved in crimea some are directly linking russia's snap military drills with the tense situation on the peninsula russian military officials have denied there is any connection saying the maneuvers are being held hundreds of miles away and are simply routine artie's hoosick half an hour brings us more on how the west is responding to the situation . nato defense ministers are expressing a lot of concern over ukraine as well as their perception of the kremlin's response the nato secretary general anders fogh rasmussen called on russia not to do

anything that would quote escalate tension or create a misunderstanding he told a meeting of the nato ukraine commission in brussels the latest developments in the crimea were quote dangerous and irresponsible also raising the alarm of the new german defense minister now she weighed in at her very first to the nato summit in brussels let's take a quick listen to the situation in the ukraine particularly in crimea fills us with great concerns that it is of the utmost importance that we prevent a breakup of the ukraine and that special forces in the country are strengthened so a lot of concern about whether ukraine remains in one piece or not the russian foreign ministry meanwhile issuing a statement in response to all this saying that the nato defense ministers were sending a quote wrong signal in their statements urging all sides to refrain from making what moscow referred to as provocative statements and this alarm not just coming from the nato ministers but reflected in the western press as well the news has certainly made front page headlines with

a lot of speculation that moscow's decision to hold military drills is linked somehow to the unrest that's a notion which the russian defense minister sergei scheuer who disputed saying that the emergency military drills were routine and largely unrelated to the developments in the ukraine he did go want to say that russia is of course closely monitoring the developments there and there as well as around the russia's black sea fleet which remember is based in the crimea. that was our t.v. correspondent lucy kept enough. and a second member of the cuban five spy ring was released today from a u.s. prison after spending more than fifteen years behind bars fifty year old fernando gonzales known to u.s. authorities by his alias ruben champa completed his sentence today in safford arizona according to the u.s. attorney's office when solace has been turned over to immigration officials for deportation to cuba the five men who make up the cuban five were convicted in two

thousand and one in miami for spying the first of the cuban five to be released was renee called solace he finished his prison sentence in two thousand and eleven but spent more than a year on probation in the u.s. until a judge allowed him to return to cuba now earlier i spoke with artie's nicholas o'donovan from our miami bureau and i first asked him to explain what the cuban five were charged with back in two thousand and one. well actually that trial begun in november of two thousand it was a very long and complex process as you can imagine that went on for seven months it all happened here in miami and from the very beginning the legal teams defending the cuban five fault for a change of venue because as we all know the south florida is a stronghold for the cuban exile that didn't happen and the jury found them guilty of all twenty six counts including conspiracy to commit espionage conspiracy to commit murder and acting as agents of a foreign government here in the united states and besides the trial lasted several

months the very well surprise was just announced in a few minutes then in december two thousand and one all five members of the group received different sentences and renee gonzalez the already out got nineteen in fifteen years but don't you get it all and i wanted out i mean i got life in prison and get out of that and then they received two life sentences to be served consecutively and what have the cuban government's response been over the years this is gone on for you now is so long what what's their response then to this incarceration. it's been going on since ninety ninety eight and basically the cuban government has always had a different position a very different point of view and what they've always said is that the team was an antiterrorist unit whose mission was to avoid any violent action coming from miami based groups against the castro regime so they have version is very different that the group was never targets in the u.s.

military but miami cuban exile groups know in addition we have recently heard from the cuban officials that washington simply lacks the will to end this case once and for all and they directly accuse the u.s. officials of bribing journalists to inflate the story and create a negative view of the cuban five in the public eye here in the u.s. so a very strong position from lebanon also a very different one from the one we hear from washington and it was it's not only the cuban government but also the cuban people both abroad and in the u.s. in miami where you are they've long lobbied for the release we're now seeing the second to be released fernando gonzalez. but they do you think it's because of those afeard sad that he's finally being released. well first of all you're absolutely right it's not only the cuban officials but the cuban people around the world the lobby in for their release and we've also heard mr international criticizing the u.s. necessarily punitive actions toward some of the cuban five to not granting visas to

their relatives so that they could come and visit them here in the u.s. the united nations commission of human rights stated also that the trial did not take place in the climate of objectivity in impartiality that is required in order to confirm the standards of a fair trial so there has been a lot of pressure but honestly both renee and fernando gonzalez have completed their sentences and they just got the standard reduction for good conduct so i don't think in these two cases you know the effort was was was was heard no but activists while they insist that they're going to keep on fighting for those three members of the group still in prison we have seen some reductions in two of those cases so some efforts have definitely been heard in washington there and nicholas is there any sentiment and the reaction to all of this that this could be a step toward better u.s. cuban relations. or better u.s. cuban relations that is a very very deep and complex probe problem no it's not only you know the many

crossed interests between these two countries but because there is a such a large and strong cuban community living herein the us and specifically here in miami or south florida that many times you know one gets the sensation that this can just get in the way of any possible improvement but as i say it is such a deep problem and we do try to tendon find you know a turning point that would trigger a change but i don't really think the relations will change due to a single issue it's more a matter of will and of compromise absolutely well ali our time for our team nicholas o'donovan from our miami studio thank you. and two former guantanamo bay detainees have asked a french judge to subpoena a former prison commander they accuse of overseeing their alleged torture mazhar saussy and rodman jalali are french citizens who were both captured by u.s. authorities in khandahar afghanistan they were held by american authorities and get

most from late two thousand and one to two thousand and four i was then they were released back to france in a report submitted to the judge of the high court in paris the former detainees allege that major general geoffrey miller carried out a quote authorized and systematic plan of torture and ill treatment on persons deprived of their freedom without any charge and without the basic rights of any detainee miller became the commander of guantanamo in late two thousand and two just after the bush administration approved enhanced interrogation techniques those techniques included placing detainees in stress positions stripping them and exposing them to extreme heat and cold but the complaint notes that miller carried those tactics out even after then secretary of defense donald rumsfeld drew permission to use the most controversial interrogation practices now the united

states has yet to issue a public response on the case one tunnel remains open more than twelve years after it began holding suspects despite president obama's efforts to close it. and more than a third of the police officers in the small california town of king city have been arrested this is all but their involvement in a scheme to steal impounded cars belonging to poor families who are often latino immigrants in fact one of the police officers was promised he could keep one vehicle for every ten to fifteen vehicles he steered towards a towing company for more insight on this earlier i spoke with artie's ramon go lindo i first asked him to talk about how this. really operated romero well residents of this small town of king city had been complaining that police had been taking their cars for years but this investigation involving the monterey county district attorney's office and the f.b.i. just started about six months ago now in the criminal complaint it's alleges that

a sergeant there in king city between two thousand and ten and two thousand and thirteen had towed in impounded more than two hundred vehicles and as you mentioned injured in the introduction for every ten to fifteen that he would bring to the law he would get one in return now the part of the problem is that most of the cars that he was impounded were being sent to just one tow yard nearly ninety percent of all the impounded cars were going to this one tow yard problem is that this also happens to belong to the brother of the police chief there in king city so things did seem a little strange their ultimate lee the district attorney did step in ultimately arresting six officers and a civilian obviously a small conflict of interest there with that telling company of a talk about what these police officers are being charged with right now sure the most serious charges are bribery and embezzlement all felony charges which carry up

to four years with each count and you know this is a very bizarre seemed to try and pull and really think they could get away with that the prosecutor and the case has even said that he's considering charging officers with hate crimes you know anything about that how this could be considered a hate crime. sure the lead prosecutor in this case who was considering hate crime charges against some of these officers the problem was that a lot of the cars that were taken were taken from latino families that come from disadvantaged areas there in the city at the end of the day proving racial animus in the court of law is very difficult and or similarly the d.a.'s office decided that it wasn't so much of a racial thing more of a thing where the police were just targeting the most vulnerable vulnerable people in this community many of which had very few financial resources and many of them just didn't speak english and as i understand it authorities said that while they

were investigating the end mishal initial crimes they some of the crosse some other illegal activity do you know anything about that right well one of the officers which was arrested this week is being charged with possession an assault rifle an illegal sed illegal storage of a weapon very tough gun laws here in california another officer was charged with making criminal threats against a resident there in king city and the district attorney this week mentioned that the investigation is ongoing so we could see more arrests come in in the coming days and weeks so i have to wait and see but i mean i want to you know shift attention to one particular police officer or former police officer that was arrested former police chief nick nick about d.v. as he's coming under scrutiny this is not the first time that. he's sort of come under pressure what's his history. yeah the former chief back in two thousand and

ten he was put on leave he was accused of showing up to a crime scene drug actually a murder scene and stepping in in some blood and also putting down his coffee cup there potentially contaminating the scene now those charges he was ultimately cleared him but he received a vote of no confidence from the police union police officer saying there that he had a retaliated against them or to merely his trouble tenure ended last year when he retired but he's still getting paid by the city and interestingly king city is not the only california city making headlines this week at a san diego police department chief also stepped down and missed allegations of sexual misconduct by police officers and his force what's the latest on that case and we only have about thirty seconds left sure well officially william lansdown his last day is tomorrow since two thousand and eleven at least nine officers there

have been accused of a range of crimes in misconduct from rape to sexual battery to dui the most serious lately was one of serve is facing several charges of sexual battery automatically. he said that this was in the cause for his resignation have a new police chief has been named police did not return my phone calls for comment however she's been there it's the first female chief in the city but however she's been there for decades so it's. still a lot of questions as to whether someone who's been in the system for so long could really reform a police department that's seen quite a bit of misconduct in the last few years misconduct is becoming more and more frequent it seems and the state of california artie's vermont glendale or l.a. studio thank you. you bet. and still ahead here on our t.v. today in d.c. members of the tea party celebrate their group's fifty year since its birth the

movement has had a huge impact on american politics the sights and sounds of the day's rally after the break. or so. here the finish line of the marathon. that's. what we're hearing. the. state. very hard to. get her back with that her right there.

to. the to the and believe it or not the tea party is celebrating its fifth year today the political party is one of the largest groups in the grassroots conservative movement members gathered today here in washington d.c. to celebrate its influence on the current political. why mitt so is the tea party still on top or could it be losing its steam artie's perry and boring has the story

but the party is celebrating their fifth anniversary today at a rally in washington d.c. hosted by the tea party speech areas they fell between seven and nine hundred tickets by what we saw the people in attendance the average age of sixty five seventy years old so it is an older crowd here however they do have some of the most popular voices within the tea party movement speaking here today including senators rand paul and ted cruz and michele bachmann and representative jim jordan i spoke earlier with mark levin and i asked him what's the biggest motivating force behind the tea party today you have millions of individuals who love their country who do the want to fundamentally transform who believe in liberty and private property rights and the rule of law and so this is why we have a tea party movement a conservative constitutional movement and that's our heritage and they're trying to protect and preserve our heritage so the tea party fill has a very active voice in washington d.c. and the tea party patriots are operating on three sets of values one a constitutionally limited government fiscal responsibility and free market

economics one member of this organization has taken and the visual initiative is cindy pew and she's looking to oust a very influential voice by the end of this year twenty fourteen is going to be an absolutely fantastic year the tea party movement has been inspired by so many in every state from the grassroots and we have most definitely the potential to add more constitutional conservatives in congress and a really exciting opportunity before us that everyone here is fired up about to replace harry reid as as majority leader it was in two thousand and nine when a group of constitutional conservative got together to speak out against the stimulus packages in the bailout and the cronyism that came out of washington that almost wrecked our economy to form what's now today the tea party it seems that

five years later the tea party catalyst still hot washington d.c. perry and boring party. and speaking of the tea party tonight politicking with larry king will feature an interview with ralph nader activist and former presidential candidate tonight's episode focuses on the possibility of a third party surge in politics and here's a snippet of what's to come what do you make of the tea party. though there are more than one tea party original tea party we have really small business professional libertarians and they could have been part of this left right coalition they were critical of the patriot critical of nafta critical of bloated military budget critical of corporate welfare and bailouts of wall street but the republican right especially in congress sort of hijacked it some think tanks here in washington sort of hijacked it took the label and put it on the. extreme

corporatists politicians here in washington and i think there's quite a bit of resentment back home among some of the purer tea party people who had more of a ron paul libertarian approach. for that and more tonight at nine pm tonight here on our team america. and welcome to planet party nasa says its kepler telescope has discovered a whopping seven hundred fifteen planets outside our solar system by far the biggest batch of planets ever unveiled and once the discovery of the seven hundred additional celestial bodies pushes the number of planets discovered in the galaxy to about seventeen hundred nasa says ninety five percent of the planets discovered are smaller than neptune but keep in mind that tuna is about four times the size of earth so we're still talking about big discoveries here but perhaps the most interesting part of this is that four of those planets fall in what nasa calls the

zone and that means those planets may actually have the make up to support life so for all of you life on mars fans out there seems like there's a couple more planets to cast your hopes on. and that does it for now i'm near a david. and a society. i'm sick corporations mind. and . all that all about money and i've actually like for politicians write the laws and rightly. right. here in just two. days.