coming up on r t a new report shows that the n.s.a. and f.b.i. spied on five prominent muslim americans the latest on that with one of the men spied on just ahead. and water may be one of the world's most precious resources but drought contamination and price hikes across the u.s. this year have made water much more valuable more on our water woes coming up. and the natural gas extraction process known as fracking remains a hot button issue oklahoma has experienced more earthquakes with fracking while in pennsylvania locals thought thoughts on it are actually very mixed more on that later in the show.

that's wednesday july ninth four pm in washington d.c. i'm lindsey france you're watching r.t. america. we now know the names and faces of five prominent muslim americans revealed by the intercept whose e-mails were covertly monitored by the national security agency and the f.b.i. they aren't the only ones documents leaked by n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden reveal seven thousand four hundred eighty five e-mail addresses that were allegedly monitored for six years between two thousand and two and two thousand and eight many of the addresses appear to belong to foreigners the government believes are linked to terrorist organizations but the five americans named by the intercept are all prominent in their fields and deny any involvement with terrorism they include assumed for civil rights attorney faisal gill a pakistani born warrior and republican party operative who served in the department of homeland security knew how to. the executive director of the council

on american islamic relations hooshang amirahmadi an iranian american professor of political analyst and i gotta say a former professor and palestinian rights activists the office of the director of national intelligence and the department of justice have released a joint statement in response to the revelations stating it is entirely false that the u.s. intelligence agency conducts electronic surveillance of political religious or activist figures soley because they disagree with public policies or criticize the government or for exercising constitutional rights earlier i was joined here in the studio by one of the men on that list for as an attorney he has represented clients in terrorism related cases and i asked him if this alone could have flagged him up to the f.b.i. . that is probably a good start but there are hundreds if not thousands of lawyers who are representing people in the same cases when i walk into a courtroom in one of the cases there were forty different law firms i don't think

any of them are on this list being tapped a bill jeffreys whose son in law casey cooper is now a federal judge here in d.c. he represented saudi princes i don't see him on this list and there was another former bush administration official viet dinh he's not on that list he was representing the saudi bankers are the saudi businessmen same cases exact same cases that i was representing other people in and my cases are all over the country i have salvadoran immigrant right now seventeen year old young men who fled gang violence in his hometown representing him in the asylum case. civil rights cases all over and i just can't have i can't believe it's any one particular client. and i don't know if it's my religion my national origin i mean i can to speculate i don't know your name my name has a lot to do with it now let's talk about i recent statement issued from the office of the director of national intelligence now a court order to spy on you can only have been issued if probable cause is

established that you are an agent of a foreign power a terrorist a spy or someone who takes orders from a foreign power so which are you it's like asking when i stop beating my wife really none of the above and if the government were listening actually for watching the e-mails or whatever they're doing for the last three of those three have your period that the snowden documents reveal they'll know that i'm none of the above they would know day one. i don't even know how to speak the language of a spy or a terrorist there's nothing in my background which would make me unless my mom and dad when they brought when will i was born here when they when i was born in st louis they somehow made me a candidate the movie which they would have exposed that by though and at this point you almost got to get a little bit creative to figure out why you would you would be put on that. from what you're telling me now i also have five other men who are part of this report from the intercept are muslim americans how much do you think your religious beliefs came into play. that's an exam question it's not my religious beliefs

because being a muslim i think whether you're a secular muslim practicing muslim like myself or not practicing muslim i think the fact that you're a muslim you've been in the heights of government power i work for a member of congress to the white house all the time for official meetings a white house would come to us we had secretaries is the deputy secretary at the time attorney general holder deputy attorney general holder at the time was in our office talking to my boss ironically about the border talking about border issues we had the secretary of the v.a. togo west in our office talking about you can't we all believe this about what long waiting lists for veterans for health care to fit in south texas so these are the issues that i'm about this is what i worked on for the government and this what i worked on as a private lawyer and for me to then be targeted there's really no other explanation now how did you find out your monitor i bet you've been asked this by friends and family over and over tell us about the process of finding out you were on this list

and you and your family's reaction. there is two times i was monitored as many people know i was involved in a litigation against the government back in two thousand and four where my lawyers and lawyers that had worked with me for a client gave me a copy of the transcript of phone conversations myself and others that have been in august or september two thousand and four that was the first time that happened to me this time it was a surprise but not as much of a surprise because i was told that my e-mail address which ironically i don't use that much showed up on a list of classified documents there was no indication that my e-mails were read or that they were even gathered but when the editor john cook at the intercept was clint greenwald the publication run by pierre omidyar the founder of e bay called need. and said that we have this information and ironically when they interviewed me here in washington d.c. at their studio they told me that i might run into somebody and lo and behold my former law partner festival was there and he and i had that pulled shot looked in

our face like what are we doing here. that's absolutely the the situation you talked about actually i'd like to talk about that a bit this obviously isn't the first time you've been spied on you were actually in the middle of suing the government over prior improper surveillance while they were also looking at these communications in a prior case the justice department said you were just swept up in calls from a suspect it was looking at this time around do you think that you were being directly targeted or do you think you were just against that again i haven't seen the original documents that edward snowden disclosed i have no interest in seeing them i've not asked to see them they're probably still classified but i've been told by the editor and by the journalist who interviewed me along with glenn greenwald's colleagues that there was a pfizer warrant for me for my e-mail address whether it was particularized for my information but i know enough about the secret files

a court if they don't just appear in thin air there is a hell of an agent that makes a request for it there are lawyers who review it they're presented before a judge a lifetime appointed judge you don't know it's a judge's time and for somebody to go through that effort means i was somewhat targeted you know it was iowans going in for you know going for me personally or of the profile let's find these civil rights lawyers who are suing the government who are winning who are taking on the government would very difficult cases and have a pretty good track record let's find out what these guys are doing and possibly who are who are muslim and then you know do you did you ever think that maybe they just wanted to find some dirt on you to maybe hold against you in some sort of. dare i say a hollywood style blackmail situation where they could find out information that would maybe scare you from from pursuing what you've been pursuing i've done or cardio not for me personally it wouldn't surprise me that any government would do that and i'm not i'm on my own government there i come from a country where india in these countries also do

a lot of dirty work with the state and local level so. i can't imagine that it happened to be personally but the professionals that i deal with in law enforcement wouldn't do this as far as i can go well i had to ask i mean it does it does make you a bit curious now before you found out that you're being spied on this time around did you follow the n.s.a. route revelations and edward snowden and what he was doing very closely i have friends who work in the government they're not allowed to look at wiki leaks i was looking at every we could leave for upload and so yes i've been following these these these disclosures for some time and when the disclosures came out i believe there's a story in january february about what's called the section two one five the metadata when those came out in a big way congress moved quickly to try to make that illegal they haven't passed anything it but i dislike to think that this new disk these new disclosures will also let congress take a look at this and say you know this enough is enough we're spending way too much

money on this system it's not protecting america in the same efficient way other systems do and who has time to read and collect all these e-mails and phone calls yeah at the end of the day it's not just privacy it's also money which the government likes to to move quickly on how did how does it feel to know your emails were read like personally just to know that your information your private and professional communications were read by all these guys it's very troubling it's like a peeping tom was caught crossed or across. the hall or across the road from my house i mean it's violates your privacy the people you e-mail the people who e-mail you your family and there's a lot of things in an e-mail that can be taken out of context or will put a smiley face after something maybe say a bad joke off color joke which you shouldn't do that is your job might be somebody else i want to me and i didn't relate to the person how do you say something like that who knows what you want to politically correct enough in your private

correspondence as do you do you plan to address this issue with the government at all well. directly under to work with people that i know four of the three of the other people of the five of us who are profiled are very good friends of mine and i'll consult with them on what they plan to do i'm a lawyer i'll look into it as a legal strategy but i think the solution here is for a groundswell of public outrage capitol hill having a hearing of passing some legislation to rein this in in using the appropriations process the power of the purse to really tell the administration look i think us went too far maybe not with us we're for it when i would first look ill but at least with a lot of other revelations which keep drip drip drip that's right they just keep coming out all right thank you very much player awesome guy for thank you very much for joining us and thank you lindsey well the man who leaked the documents about all of this mass surveillance is seeking to extend his time in russia edward snowden has asked that his asylum in the country be extended for another year it's scheduled to run out on july thirty first sudden first arrived in moscow on june

twenty fourth of last year via hong kong after fleeing the u.s. russia granted him asylum aug first and an exclusive interview with n.b.c. news in may he was asked about hiding out in russia here's what he had to say. the reality is i never intended to end up in russia i had a flight booked to cuba on words to latin america and i was stopped because the united states government decided to revoke my passport and tripped me and moscow airport snowden told n.b.c. he'd like to return to the u.s. if the option was on the table but he's wanted by the u.s. on espionage and theft of government property charges and fears of course conviction the decision to extend snowden's asylum will be made by russia's federal immigration service. well germany in the united states haven't had the happiest of relationships in recent years after it was revealed that the n.s.a. had been listening in on chancellor angela merkel's cell phone now the white house is red faced yet again after president obama was left in the dark over a rather sensitive fact before recent phone call with mark all according to an

article in the new york times one day before this phone call took place a german intelligence worker was arrested in berlin turns out he's suspected of being a double agent working for the u.s. president obama obviously didn't mention this during a phone call he wasn't aware markel didn't address it either but just when things couldn't get any more awkward between the two allies german police are reportedly investigating yet another new case of espionage this time involving a defense ministry employee suspected of spying for washington parties peter all of our has been following this story. on wednesday morning federal prosecutors raided the home and office of a defense ministry employee here in berlin they were looking for evidence that this particular employee may have been passing information on to the united states now this prompted the u.s. ambassador to the lesson to be summoned to the foreign ministry to talk more about this and there's an ongoing investigation to try and kill these allegations but

it's not the first time this is happened in fact just last week an employee of security services here in germany that was arrested and being charged with passing documents to the united states on to the n.s.a. in exchange for cash he's waiting trial is an ongoing investigation into just what happened so pull the united states doesn't deny that particular security service employee hired given them any classified documents and it's all continuing to unfold surely over the next few months and perhaps even longer it's not just here in europe that we've seen the united states getting caught out on this new thing that is our correspondent here all of our well the next.

the following is a severe thunderstorm watch announcement from the national weather service the national weather service has issued severe thunderstorm watch number four hundred seven effective until ten pm this watching cruz the following counties in delaware kent and newcastle and cecil maryland in the following counties in new jersey burlington capitan cumberland gloucester hundred in missouri mind within salem in the following counties in pennsylvania bronx box chester delaware montgomery in philadelphia in the following marine locations delaware bay waters north of the east point new jersey despite the beach delaware and chesapeake bay north of pools island maryland remember a severe thunderstorm watch means that conditions are favorable for the development

of severe weather including large hail and damaging winds and close to the rush area while severe weather may not be imminent present should remain alert to rapidly changing weather conditions and listen to later statements and possible warnings stay tuned to no weather radio commercial radio and television outlets internet sources for the latest severe weather information repeating severe thunderstorm watch number four hundred seven has been issued from four fifteen pm until ten pm for the following counties in delaware canton new castle and cecil maryland in the following counties in new jersey burlington camden cumberland grafter hundred in missouri mind weapon salem in the following counties in pennsylvania bronx box chester delaware montgomery in philadelphia in the following marine locations delaware bay waters north of east point new jersey despite a beach delaware and chesapeake bay north of tools island maryland. a you can see it looks like a ghost town it's not just shops banks the strings have closed doors.

post offices to have shot so has the local police office a group of men gathers next to bank in the center of the old workers' lining to take out cash on payday they don't trust the banks not keen to speak to journalists either. you can see people do not want to take that angry nervous it's understandable rich notion. is in ukraine. so i had here on our t.v. drop contamination and price hikes across the u.s. this year have made water a much more valuable resource i look at that after the break. i'm marinating in the financial world. to talk to series to goldman i mean i'm starting to see very slowly take you through. this new life there are good and there are but.

and january a massive chemical spill contaminated the water supply for hundreds of thousands of residents in west virginia now freedom industries the company behind the ten thousand gallon spill of industrial chemicals is being taken to task for its negligence archies making lopez has more on the story. six months after a massive chemical spill poison the elk river in west virginia dual use in the water with the exception of using to slow shipping or fire protection the company responsible for the disaster is finally being fined the penalty for contaminating

the water of three hundred thousand charleston residents i don't have a to watch of the first day they generally are off is that my hill we don't have nothing we have one case left so how are you going with the water couple days it's going to like kroger and other stuff and every time i get there i just miss it it's terrible and it's scary just eleven thousand dollars regulators with the occupational safety and health administration find the now bankrupt company for failing to have a liquid tight wall surrounding the tank and for lacking proper railing on an elevated platform near the tank that money however is just a drop in the bucket to the true economic and environmental damage caused by the contamination. how could the governor or anybody else of responsibility allow something like this where you bring in chemicals. when they get away they threaten a livelihood of the people west virginia however it seems public anger has calmed down since the water was deemed safe only seventy eight claims have been filed

against freedom industries since the spill happened long term consequences of the chemical leak are still being evaluated meanwhile the cleanup continues as freedom industries gets ready to finally tear down the troublesome tanks for good but charleston isn't the only city dealing with a manmade water crisis. four hundred miles to the north detroit residents are facing shut off for delinquent water bill payments how am i supposed to wash my child how am i supposed to shower myself since march the city's water and sewer department has sent out forty six thousand notices and cut the water of some fifteen thousand residents now the department says it's going after businesses that zero thirty three point eight million dollars in past due what we hoped would happen is that those notices would encourage people to reach out to us and make arrangements make down payments get out a payment plan get work with so we can work with them to try to work out something equitable this week they want to department announced it has one million dollars in

donated funds available for helping struggling families but the shutoffs continue with anybody can come up with a way that we can make the detroit drinking water is good as it is right now. for pennies on the dollar will want to listen unfortunately this is not the case on the other side of the country instead of manmade water shortages mother nature has dried up lakes across california and one of the worst droughts in the state's history the drought here is probably going to cost our ranch in just hard red winter wheat alone three to four hundred thousand dollars. because we grow about three thousand acres of wheat it will probably not harvest any of it despite concerns over this historic drought in the five months since an emergency was declared californians have cut their consumption by only five percent newly proposed regulations could find residents up to five hundred dollars for wasteful water use but until something changes federal meteorologists say the state is two

years away from running out of water completely in nearby nevada the situation isn't much better lake mead water levels have hit historic lows this week the reservoir sits at thirty nine percent full and the projection for the foreseeable future isn't much brighter the overall price of water increased seven percent in two thousand and thirteen as compared to the previous year which is a twenty five percent raise from two thousand and ten and it looks like that number is only expected to grow in the near future so it looks like the u.s. could be in hot water in coming years if it doesn't work harder to conserve and protect this valuable resource reporting in washington i met in lopez r.t. . hydraulic fracturing or fracking a method of drilling for natural gas beneath shale rock is one for increased earthquakes in a number of u.s. states with residents finding their house foundations unstable and complaining their water wells are contaminated but one town is so strapped for cash it's considering breaking out the drills to inject funds into its empty coffers so

what's worse unstable bedrock or unstable local economies when election reports. fracking has been a hot button word in the media the last few years and mire medalists were largely the group that most people thought of when you think of the anti fracking movement but now in oklahoma it's the town's people who are speaking up as they may have to make a tough choice between the state's biggest industry or earthquakes many are calling the two hundred plus earthquakes the state of oklahoma has experienced in the last year manmade shakers due to the heavy fracking within the state deep marcellus shale fracking drilled over a mile down into the earth and injects water and other chemicals to release precious resources like oil and gas but it's not the act of fracking itself that may be causing the nearly twenty five hundred quakes in the last five years making oklahoma surpassed california as a hotbed of seismic activity nope it's the disposal of the wastewater byproduct of

fracking over eighty percent of homes in the state of oklahoma are within ten miles of a drilling site or wastewater disposal well wells that are almost as deep as the fracking sites themselves so how does one choose between collecting a paycheck putting food on the table and having the ground beneath you literally shaking for people in the county of warren pennsylvania it's a no brainer in pennsylvania more shallow drilling around a thousand feet deep into shale rock to release natural gas is more prevalent fracking find friends in pennsylvania a state who has remained in an economic slump fracking an oil field jobs are the biggest employers in that state as well now i was joined earlier by mike collins president of collins drilling in the town of sugar grove pennsylvania mr collins

said that in his town fracking is just a way of life for the locals and has a great economic effect they won't tell me it was true. it in one of the biggest industries in the middle between then in the logging industry it was probably the majority that you had then you had the trickle down effect there were even a glove manufacturer it was living in a space when we were slow in the oil industry a slow and slow man with industry and it was raining and. things of hardware stores you slow were slow. and even uniform. we. were forms of the minimum thanks. very much a price everybody in the oil industry slowed a whole industry and ire is slow the whole of the six everybody while mr collins told me that they weren't experiencing any tremors in his part of the

country he said that the state would be harder hit if fracking went away from washington manila chan. the detroit based rap group known as insane clown posse or i.c.p. has some rather guard followers known as juggalos careful not to confuse that with another word for a brother of on guard profession the juggalos emphasis on the you are known for their tattoos face paint and the love for i.c.p. music but they've also been classified as a gang by the feds according to a two thousand and eleven as the i report and it's going to stay that way according to u.s. district court judge and initially the gang didn't sit too well with the rap metal duo who along with the american civil liberties union brought a lawsuit against the f.b.i. and the justice department they claim their constitutional rights of free speech and due process were violated by the report in the judge's fourteen page opinion he stated that his court does not recommend any particular course of action for local

law enforcement to follow and said operates on a descriptive rather than prescriptive assessment of nationwide gang trends the group called the ruling un-american and says they will continue to fight the clearance of the juggalos of the gang title a boom bust is coming up next here on r t aaron eight joins us now for a quick preview what's up erin highlands you think you know coming up on boom bust chris of martin's that is on the show the brains behind pete prosperity dot com sat down with me to discuss his series the crash course and boom bust favorite gin young only only in the program as well and she's one of the founders and of the foundation the big bandish and she's live on the program and she's bringing us all the latest and greatest from the world a big point it's all coming up so stay tuned so we thanks a lot ira thank you doesn't everybody four of the stories we cover to go to youtube dot com forward slash our to america and check out our website r t dot com forward slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at lindsay france stay tuned boom bust

is coming up next. oh. look it was a problem very hard to make a plan to get along here is a plane log cabin that has sex with her grandparents place let's play. list the i'm playing. well i'm a little bit. of

a. problem . for the new england journal more than a watch and a new knowledge base tigers are like you know alone and. plenty.