locked on inside wales amid fears of an attack maybe club on the upcoming nature summit as protesters flock to the cities that will be. up next year in r.t.e. of the martin investigates global spy wars it breaking this it do stay with. guys i'm happy martin and this is breaking the set over the past few weeks and many detroit residents have gone thirsty out of the city decided to shut off water services for more than fifteen thousand people due to delinquent bills but just sixty miles south of detroit the city of toledo ohio is dealing with its own water crisis for entirely different reasons see over the weekend five hundred thousand people were warned not to drink their tap water thanks to an enormous toxic algae bloom in lake erie the main source of toledo's drinking water while this type of

algae growth is naturally occurring the scope and size of this particular bloom could almost certainly be blamed on human activity see algae feeds on phosphorus and nitrogen which is heavily president agricultural runoff from farms and sewage and considering that the great lakes alliance as they made tens of billions of gallons of untreated sewage flows into the great lakes every year it's certainly no surprise that we're now seeing these mass algae blooms cover large swathes of lake erie but not to worry just today the mayor of toledo michael collins declared that the water is safe to drink. very thirsty right. here to tell you that it did a great job. but despite columns and willingness to drink the water this is a problem that won't be going away anytime soon considering that it's only been getting a belge bloom season so unless we start heavily invested in the sewage treatment

infrastructure and drastically restructure the operating procedures of the factory farms then we're likely to see this discussed in toxic problem bloom up again and again and it's great that. the. a. very hard. look. at how to act that are there.

well it's clear that no one is immune from spine these days whether you're joe the plumber or a resident of the bahamas or if you're on your way to becoming president of the united states in fact the spine is getting so i handed out government institutions are actually spying on each other just to stave off bad press so while the senate was busy drafting a report on the cia's involvement in torture and rendition under the bush administration cia officials were busy spying on those investigating them remembers senator dianne feinstein how to use the agency of spying on committee staffers back in march but the agency denied any involvement until now when cia inspector general david funk we made it clear that agency tech specialists had improperly i. stake a hacked database that only committee staff is permitted to use now larry asli lawmakers are up in arms over the spine it seems like they don't really like it

when their communications are being monitored several committee members are even calling for cia director john brennan's resignation citing the hacking of senate leaders illegal and in violation of the constitution's requirement of separation of powers another member of the committee senator angus king added quote we're the only people watching these organizations and if we can't rely on the information that we're given as being accurate then it makes a mockery of the entire oversight function. but don't worry brennan has a solution of his own create a whole other oversight committee within the cia to monitor itself yeah right now as crazy as it is for government officials to be spying on each other at the end of the day it's distracting us from what the real issue is the cia torture program yes the same program that brought you waterboarding rendition and black sites and while the six thousand page senate report has yet to be made public statements by

lawmakers who have seen it already painting a grim grim picture committee chairwoman dianne feinstein has called the report shellene adding that the use of rendition and torture is quote far more systematic and widespread than we thought senator ron wyden added to the american people will be profoundly disturbed about what will be revealed in this report were understandably there's been a lot of pressure on the white house to respond to the findings as well and that's exactly what president obama did at a recent press conference an extremely professional and serious manner. in the immediate aftermath of nine eleven. we did some things that were wrong. we did a whole lot of things that were right. but we tortured some folks. we torture and some folks really dude look i know how much you love to use the word folks to try to resonate with average americans but this isn't something to take

lightly and torture is the last thing that should be casually minimized but while obama tries to shrug off the systematic use of torture as u.s. policy other than other government officials are still actually defending it like senator saxby chambliss said that the cia is enhanced interrogation tactics one value bowl in destructing terrorist plots and brain now some of them a lot and unfortunately the flippin way politicians are responding to the findings of the cia torture report leaves little hope for any accountability on behalf of the torturers and as far as the cia's spying on the senate at least senator is going to agree to be outraged on that so apparently we shouldn't hold our breath for them to care about waterboarding until lawmakers are subjected to that too.

in america's overworked society millions of us simply do not get enough sleep and while the detrimental health effects of sleep deprivation are well documented a new study shows that lack of sleep may also be a social justice issue according to researchers at the university of california irvine sleep deprivation is at least partially responsible for the creation of falls memories and this phenomenon drastic consequences for the reliability of eyewitness testimony in criminal trials so to discuss this groundbreaking new study i was joined earlier by a doctoral candidate and the lead researcher of that study stephen friend and i started by asking him about the largest misconceptions we have about memory. i think there's a misconception in that memory operates something like a tape recorder if we. already experiences that we have and we can and just access that information but really memory operates a little bit differently every time we remember something we reconstruct memory in

part based on the things that we've seen and experienced but also using information that we learned since then and stereotypes and expectations that we have among many other things so rather than thinking of memory as a recording that we can play back. researchers in this area have come to understand memory as more of a creative reconstructive process that is subject to other influences outside influences like suggestion and talk about the experiment in which you asked participants about seen video footage of flight ninety three crashed on nine eleven which doesn't exist and what the outcome of that study was this is our new research looking at the effects of sleep deprivation on false memories and in our first study we found that people who reported getting less than five hours of sleep the night before the experiment were more likely to mistakenly claim that they had seen

a video footage of the plane crash in pennsylvania on september eleventh. we suggested to the barges of pins that there was video footage of the actual impact of the actual crash taken by a witness on the ground and we asked them if they had seen it and we found the people who were reporting not getting enough sleep the night before were tend to be more likely to make that kind of mistake so in a second study we wanted to experimentally test that idea so we randomly assigned participants to stay awake all night in the lab so a full night of sleep deprivation or we had them sleeping in bedrooms in the lab and in the morning we gave them what's called a misinformation procedure so we. a series of photographs depicting a crime it was a man who stole a woman's wallet and hid it in his jacket pocket later we had the barges means read

narratives describing what they had seen but with key pieces of misinformation so for instance. put the woman's wallet in his pants pocket and finally we gave them a memory test and we were interested in how often did people incorporate that misinformation into their memories for the original photographs and when we found it was that people who had been sleep deprived all night were significantly more likely to do that people who had been sleep deprived were more likely to have false memories of the photograph they had seen and stephen in a recent article for huffington post about this study you say that this information is meant to parallel a very common situation in the real world we see an event later we may encounter suggestive or misleading information and finally were asked to recount the memory three stages of this information procedure and coding misinformation. were designed to model this real world process explained in layman's terms these three stages and

kind of how this would apply in a real life scenario. well memory researchers are sort of interested in all of the processes that have to do with remembering an event so when we see and experience something we in code some information to memory so we're interested in the first stage of memory being the encoding. second people have intervals of time before they ever are asked to recall their memories where they may be exposed to different types of information so they may hear other witnesses talking they may learn more information about the event that they saw and later they may be asked to recall what they saw and it's a point that people may incorporate some of the information that they learned to. after the event into their memory so these three stages are important to memory researchers because in the real world we see things and we have experiences

later we're often exposed to other information that might be contradictory and finally we're often asked to repeat our memory for example in a court. and steven all of us reform our memory every day with new knowledge and experience and a lot of us are sleep deprived as well why do these findings matter in terms of the criminal justice system. well i think for many juries and lay people memory evidence or eye witness evidence is very compelling if someone says you know i'll never forget that face i saw him and he was the one who did it people tend to find that pretty convincing pretty compelling but what we know from decades of research is that memory really is not that reliable that we really need to take into consideration factors that influence the reliability of an eye witnesses memory so. there's really a divide between what we know from the research and what people tend to assume

about the reliability of memory and i think that's where the problem often comes in several hundred people have been exonerated or proven innocent after they were convicted in the last say twenty years since d.n.a. evidence has been available for people to evaluate old convictions so we know of at least several hundred people who were wrongfully convicted and we know that now because d.n.a. evidence has either proven that someone else did the crime or that they're innocent but that's just the tip of the iceberg. there's really no way of knowing exactly how many people have been wrongfully convicted but we know that it's very likely a huge problem and when you take. well look at the cases of people who have been exonerated. one of the leading causes of wrongful conviction seems to be faulty eyewitness testimony or eyewitness misidentifications so we know that memory

issues are leading are contributing strongly to this problem of wrongful convictions and i mean hopefully the way that witness testimony is collected and the way that suspects are interrogated will be reformed but considering the fact that people are getting less sleep on average in our modern overwork culture what kind of dangers do we collectively face as a society with such a lack of breast stephen. well yeah i mean as you said sleep deprivation the prevalence of sleep deprivation and chronic sleep deprivation seems to be on the rise and people are getting less sleep on average and so i think that has implications for all kinds of contexts where the accuracy of memory is really important and there's going to have really severe consequences for instance when a clinician is making decisions about their patient based on their memory for their patients history. or again in criminal justice context where

a person's memory is being used as evidence. against someone and the stakes are really high think that's where we need to be worried about something like sleep deprivation especially now that we have some new evidence showing that it can increase people suggestibility thank you so much for your incredible insight lead researcher on this new study stephen friend a doctoral candidate the part of psychology and social behavior at u.c. irvine really appreciate coming. thank you so much abbie. coming up i'll speak with renowned academic and activist norman finkelstein about the latest. state.

gender trying to symbolize the gender madness in swedish. because i found this. project financed with seventy thousand euros to investigate from a gender perspective. it's been nearly four weeks since israel launched operation protect the badge against the gaza strip more than eight hundred palestinians have been killed getting four

hundred children according to latest figures from the gazan health ministry while three civilians and sixty four soldiers have been killed on the israeli side at the time of this broadcast and on sunday israeli shells hit yet another un school killing ten people among the three thousand or so displaced taking refuge there this marks the third un shelter hit in the last ten days prompting the state department to issue a rare statement of condemnation against israel calling the strike quote scrapes full but just forty eight hours earlier congress demonstrated its united support of israel by nearly unanimously approving another two hundred twenty five million dollars for the country's iron dome missile defense system this approval despite the fact that the united nations estimates that more than the recorders the palestinians killed in the campaign have been. it's now just in the last couple hours we're again hearing reports that all sides have agreed to a seventy two hour cease fire although thus far every cease fire has completely

failed and over the weekend the rising palestinian death toll incited a massive global demand stray sions from france to australia to call for an end to the bloodshed including tens of thousands right here on the streets of washington d.c. so to discuss these developments i'm joined now by author and activist norman finkelstein thank you so much for coming on norman. my pleasure millions of people all around the world protested the wanted cause over the weekend you yourself were arrested at a recent rally that you helped organize can you break down the circumstances that led to your arrest. i had been watching the massacre and. my computer screen. turning the information and also trying to answer a lot of e-mail as i was getting on and five i felt sitting in front of the computer screen didn't rise to the ok sheehan of the massacre that was unfolding and so pretty much on the spur of the moment it was time to get arrested. put out

of the cool about twelve noon should i recall exactly what prompted me to make that decision i have a colleague harvard university names i wrote she's the world's leading authority and gaza's economy she spent a lot of time there she also happens to be jewish she's the daughter of a survivor of auschwitz concentration camp and she had been sending me and many others these e-mails of the horror of horrors that were unfolding and finally after israel struck a hospital and also the playground near shiva hospital and several more of the children were killed she described what happened and then she wrote the and i want to vomit and that really struck me. here was a very elegant culture educated. harvard trained and also she teaches at harvard and she didn't use any fancy words and the rhetorical curly

cues she just said i want to vomit and when i saw that i decided you know i want to vomit also short of vomiting i'm going to get myself arrested so i put out the cool for the next day to meet a twelve o'clock about one hundred fifty people who showed up and twenty six twenty five others alongside my so we got arrested in front of the israeli mission and obama has come out saying that it's heartbreaking what's happened in gaza but norman despite this helpless detachment he's projecting a new snowden document reveals that israeli aggression would not be possible without direct and evolving from the n.s.a. working with israel's intelligence to monitor and target palestinians what does the u.s. have to gain by providing intelligence and tactical support to israel. or the fact of the matter is and everybody should be aware of it. in the new gaza massacre

could not have happened without president obama president obama was the enabler each day when he went out on to a news conference or wherever he was speaking and he said israel has the right to defend itself each day he said israel has the right to defend itself he gave israel a green light to continue the massacre as it happened as israel. skule did its terror bombing in gaza targeting one you one shelter after another un shelter after another un shoulder the international outcry in particular from the un the fishy was even including amazingly banki moon finally put obama an extremely embarrassing situation and he discovered amazingly after eight hundred people were killed and gaza. was reduced to rubble hospitals were targeted schools were targeted mosques were targeted but suddenly he discovered because of the international outcry that

the. israel was committing atrocities in gaza and that was curtains and that he had to and he had to and the ground invasion and of course they were they released that state of condemnation of israel's bombing of that u.n. school but converse land capitol hill there was just that unanimous vote to give israel two hundred twenty five million more dollars even the most progressive members of congress voted in favor of this norman when it comes to israel where does this stranglehold over our politicians come from. well i think when they come first of all there are multiple sources of u.s. support for israel certainly there is the issue the domestic issue the issue the domestic issue of the israel lobby. also an overall tip of the to what are called radical islamists or jihad this fairly or not hamas is assimilated to groups like isis. and so they are considered

fair game for israel is basically israel's murder and also i think there was a hope on the part of president obama and secretary of state kerry that if hamas military defeat were inflicted on hamas that means president abbas the palestinian authority would then have a free hand to sign any agreement that the u.s. government proposed to. the palestinian authority are basically collaborators not basically they are collaborator and they still have the problem of the more militant resistance namely hamas but the hope was is if israel disabled hamas then the power. collaborators the palestinian authority would then have a free hand to basically surrender to israel and sign to carry for peace proposal

and of course it all kind of stems back to the hamas election i mean according to a two thousand a wiki leaks cable after hamas was elected israel's official policy was to keep gaza connally on the brink of collapse and functioning at the lowest level possible consistent with avoiding a humanitarian crisis i want to get your opinion on why israel wants to keep gaza from having any chance of economic development and also not fees on meds analysis that that they have solved is to take over gaza's natural gas reserves that could amount to four billion dollars. you know i don't think you know you know politics has its own independence or autonomy and everything in politics is reducible to economics that's kind of crude the reason the israel imposed a blockade on gaza the heart of this illegal merciless blockade on gaza. blockade back then in two thousand and six. prevented palestinians in gaza from even having chocolate chips and baby chicks i mean that's

the way that's how ruthless it was for the purpose was perfectly clear they wanted to transmit the message to the gazans that so long as you. stay in office we're going to make life intolerable miserable slow death for you so if you want this blockade lifted you have to one way or another rid yourself of hamas and norman let's talk about solutions here you've been a vocal opponent of boycott divestment sanctions movement which encourages divestment from israeli corporations that kind of pressure help and apartheid in south africa and i wanted to get your criticism. you know i think that's a misnomer i've never been opposed to board. with a small be a small d. and. small this long before b. the scam along i was actively involved for example in the divestment movement in the various church groups for example the presbyterian church. is not just

a tactic it's not just boycotts divestments sanctions be the sins of political program as they emphasize they say b.d.s. is not just about boycotting x. we have a political program and the political program says it's based on international law and that calls for ending the occupation equal rights of palestinians in israel. implementation of the palestinian right of return now it's true all three of those rights are anchored in international law but israel's existence as a state is also an international law and you can pick and choose with international law you can say for example i have the right to walk at the green but i make gnostic on the red if you have a right to walk at the green it's because you have an obligation to stop at the red b. the says it takes no position on israel will be take no position on israel then you

know holding international law international law is very clear israel is a state under international law it's a member state of the united nations so you have either two choices one you can say i don't give a damn about international law this is what i demand or you can say is be the does we respect international law and all of our demands are anchored in national law will be take god position as i do and as b.d.s. formally does then you also have to recognize that israel is a state under international law and we've just heard of all parties of course agreeing to this new cease fire let's talk about lasting peace in the region you've advocated for a two state solution in the past do you still stand by given everything that's happened and i expect it to realistically be implemented alongside the israeli government's policy. palestinians we have about a minute left i don't advocate anything it's not my place to advocate first of all i'm not a palestinian second of all i'm not an israeli and third of all i live in new york

city i don't live anywhere near the affected regions i don't advocate anything when i advocate is if you say you're anchored in international law and we have to see what international law is number two anyone who is involved in politics knows that you have to politics it's not about personal preferences if you asked my personal preference i would say i don't believe in two states i don't believe in one state i happen not to believe in any state so i'm an old fashioned leftist in that regard but politics is not about what you prefer it's not about what i prefer politics is about a realistic assessment of the balance of forces in the world and a realistic assessment of the balance of political a horses in the world. thank you note and will tell you thank you and for trying to time thanks so much for watching be sure to follow me on twitter at a martin join me tomorrow and break the sad all over again.