carrying out brutal operations inside the war torn country back in two thousand and fifteen according to the investigation the mercenaries were employed by spear operations group a company registered in delaware and founded by abraham golan gary an israeli security contractor who lives near pittsburgh golan admitted to buzz feed that there was a targeted assassination program in yemen i was running it we did it it was sanctioned by the u.a.e. within the coalition one of the targets of the controversial program was on soft i'll email a prominent local leader of the islamist political party allah is law and while the u.a.e. considers al is law to be a terrorist organization buzz feed reporter aram roston writes that many experts insist that al islam was one of those one of the whose members as one of nobel peace prize is no terror group they say it's a legitimate political party that threatens the u.a.e. not through violence but by speaking out against its ambitions in yemen these revelations have now brought the speculation of possible war crimes charges to the

forefront because just security points out it is a crime for a u.s. citizen to commit certain violations of international humanitarian law including murder the deliberate killing of civilians such as political leaders and clerics those targets are not collateral damage and their deaths are not incident to a lawful attack so with mercenaries assassination programs and war crimes on the docket i think it sounds like a good day to start watching the hawks. it looks like. it's really. like you but i got. to think we.

are watching the harps i am tired robot joining me that they discuss these mercenaries is the one of the only. journalist i'm so you wrote of a great project max thank you for coming on the day this is a hell of an interesting fascinating story that we're only now kind of getting given the history of mercenary use in the war on terror and the cruelty of the yemeni war does this kind of marriage of the two at all surprising as well i mean this is actually kind of an unusual story given a complex political relationships of the party and the u.a.e. the u.a.e. first of all hired this group through a palestinian figure named mohammed dahlan who is basically a proper long time project of the cia he was supposed to be the strong man who would rule gaza before hamas won elections in the gaza strip and took a centrally assumed control in two thousand and six was a rival of hamas and mahmoud abbas who controlled the west bank so he was exiled

and became kind of a fixer for the u.a.e. with his great contacts with the cia and the u.s. and he hired the spear operations group to carry out this operation against the al islam party which is not al-qaeda they are not affiliated with transnational terrorism they are a group a political party that is playing a role in yemeni politics as a representative of the muslim brotherhood which the u.a.e. and saudi arabia typically see as one. if there are key adversaries the muslim brotherhood wants an islamic republican model the u.a.e. and the saudis are threatened by that because they want an islamic monarchy and so they feel challenged at the same time in yemen the saudis in the u.a.e. have been assisted by the islam he's in their campaign to take the southern city of god and from the who so the it's like he's were actually allies of convenience with the d's and the saudis and then the go ahead and carry out this assassination

campaign because of a lot of factors the a slice and the people in the south in general in yemen who are sunni are getting tired of seeing these foreign invaders come in and take over their sea parts sea ports like the m.r.i. adiz there's pressure to get them out these assassinations of been revealed by this immorality group and we're going to see more fish years on the ground between us law and its supporters who are a key part of the saudi u.a.e. coalition and that actually is going to this story could actually change the dynamics of the war in yemen i think that's what's significant here that's really incredible and you know one of the things but but jumped out to be in the story too is the idea that ok you have u.s. citizens former you know ex-military cia. and israeli sound and israelis you know when they're going over they're not under the cover of the united states this wasn't a mercenary group bought by the united states and sent over these this is guys

bought by a foreign entity the u.a.e. that raises more crime questions because you know when you hear of assassination attempts on political leaders and clerics and things of that nature that these guys did nor admitting to even in the article. you know is there a real possibility that someone could bring war crimes against them give them a good our justice department i don't expect them to but could very well i mean theoretically you would think that there could be some kind of sanctioning of the spear operations group which operates out of delaware. a lot of groups operate out of delaware it is run by an israeli mercenary and the israelis have mastered the art of targeted assassination but i mean we have to just consider the relationships here as i mentioned mohammed dahlan contracted the spear operations group don is a long time cia asset and before he was trying to carry out this targeted assassination of the muslim brotherhood party in yemen he was working with the

israelis probably with cia cooperation to carry out assassinations against the what the party that's considered the muslim brotherhood party in palestine hamas so my point is the u.s. clearly must have known that this kind of thing was taking place and that really gives a lot of impunity to the amorality s. who own half of k. street and have hired like every lobbying firm in washington you know one of the interesting things that kind of also comes out of this on a ridge of this quote that i came across is is from go in the head of the spirit who talked about the head of the stairs operation he told buzz feed his team was responsible for a lot of these high profile cessation of and he argued that the u.s. needs a mercenary assassination program similar to the model he deployed actually stated i just want there to be debate maybe i'm a monster maybe i should be in jail maybe i'm a bad guy but i'm right yeah. this is i mean should we already have

a drone assassination program we already have our own special forces all over the world assassinating people in the darkest of night should we now bring in mercenaries to do there should we go for what you know where prince and all that mess is something that should even be on the table or even be debated i mean this guy's just like a used car salesman who selling death he doesn't actually care about this the consequences on the ground the consequences on the ground have been the exact opposite of what the war on terror was supposed to achieve al qaeda. in the arabian peninsula has expanded massively as a result of the saudi u.a.e. campaign that the us is supporting they have just grown so much as a result of it so all and then i talked about the consequences that this exposé will have in making things worse for the coalition again so you know this this this israeli mercenary is just selling his own company he doesn't care about what's happening in the real mentioned erik prince i mean erik prince is basically running

the private army erik prince is also very close to the trump administration his family are longtime republican donors the prince brooke is in family so there's another connection which leads back to my point of impunity that for abraham golan to come in here and basically put a bomb in front of a political party's headquarters you know he feels like he's going to have all the latitude he wants to do that given the u.s.a.'s connections in washington but quickly a little bit of time left i just want to ask you one final thing it's interesting when you know with everybody talking about the journalist has disappeared pretty much more like murder you know. speaking allege of the hands of the saudi saudis and this story comes out it's interesting that we're not seeing a lot yet on this story getting the same kind of you know recognition to think that's because of the fact that it's we have so many more ties and so many intelligence ties and move into the u.a.e. well if you could make a member of the party or one of the u.s.

targets a columnist at the washington post i think a lot of people would start to care in this town i mean it's how many yemenis died before we all of the sudden started caring in washington about saudi arabia's barbarism in the middle east so that's that we're really looking at with is someone who actually had connections in washington who was a permanent resident of the u.s. being assassinated as so many other people were dissidents and common yemenis by saudi arabia are going to start thank you so much always a pleasure having you as we're having a great great talk today all right. brother one who has driven on the highways and byways of the united states and taken the time to look up from their smartphones you probably have come across the ubiquitous speed reader road sign you know the one that tells you how fast you're actually going down the road and forces you to check your mario andretti at the door in the school zones well apparently this road safety device has now been confiscated by the surveillance states of america to serve a much more big brother based purpose artie's rachel blevins has more of those digital

signs that show how fast you are driving may actually be recording your license plate for a government database this alarming information comes from privacy advocates who are warning about a program headed up by the drug enforcement administration we have all seen the signs on the side of the road that compare the speed you were driving to the current speed limit but apparently those signs are now being outfitted with license plate readers as a result of a partnership between the da and a private company in arizona a government press release revealed that are you two systems incorporated has agreed to outfit its radar speed display trailers with mobile license plate reading platforms this practice is part of the d a's national ice and slate reader program according to the department the program is quote a federation of independent federal state law and tribal law enforcement license

plate readers they are all linked into cooperative system which is designed to enhance the ability of law enforcement agencies to target drug traffickers but how do you feel knowing that your license plate number could be in a secret government database even if the only thing you are guilty of is driving past the wrong sign and investigative researcher for the electronic frontier foundation told courts that he sees this program as quote un-american because the government is collecting data on all of the people who drive cars. the signs even if they have never committed a crime he said he sees this practice as yet another form of government enough surveillance now in response to programs like this one a bipartisan group of assembly members the new york recently introduced a bill that would prohibit the state from creating databases that compile footage from license plate readers audio video and facial recognition records for now the

recent revelations about a secret government surveillance will make many americans take a second look when they pass a digital sign on the side of the road telling them that they're speeding in washington rachel blevins r t. now as we head into our break watchers don't forget to let us know what you think of the topics we've covered on facebook and twitter see our poll shows that are dot com coming up ecuador is laying down a new set of rules of would you expect her to join the sun and racial justice activist in a song supporter randy credico will join us to discuss and then there is a new breakthrough in cancer research that just may salvage us cuban relations don't want to miss that states who are watching the hawks.

don't have faith in this government official a president i don't have faith in the system. i've got it i'm too liberal the system does not decide for people like me. as long as they. defend the poor here for different reasons but also job loss to home. most people in philadelphia are only about two paychecks away from homelessness.

join me every thursday on the elec simon chill and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. those are the loans decade russia's foreign policy has been deeply related to the united states. when the american political reality became stranger than fiction. as the bilateral relations to give thanks to normal see exactly should. join us back on line talk watchers well sort of the ecuadorian embassy has

reportedly partially restored internet access for the wiki leaks founder who has been living in asylum inside the embassy since two thousand and twelve but not without a catch according to an embassy memo published monday on the ecuadorian website. newsweek and others are reporting that ecuador demands that the void interfering with the internal affairs of other states or damaging those relations with other nations there was on online activity the memo went on to demand that both he and his guests are banned from using unauthorized equipment in the embassy and that assad must keep his bathroom clean and take care of his cat even went so far as to threaten to confiscate the cat and take it to an animal shelter if not properly cared for if a failed to comply with these new rules the memo goes on to state that that could lead to the term a nation of the diplomatic asylum granted by the ecuadorian state this would put a songe out of the embassy and at the mercy of the british government which is still seeking his arrest for skipping bail on

a now dropped allegation of rape by swedish authorities not to mention the possible deportation of the united states for releasing half a million secret files on the wars in afghanistan and iraq joining us now to discuss these latest twists and turns in the fate of julian long. time supporter and ritual justice activist randy credico thank you grammy for coming on always a pleasure hey it's great and you know max blumenthal's a tough act to follow you there know that you've got max and credico on the same show you're definitely going to be on the list already speaking of lists what should we make of this latest move by. is this the makings of a pretense to remove from the embassy or is this simply nothing more than a landlord asking attended to be respectful let me let me get the cat litter out of the way i was there last year three times i got a taste of that cat eats better than i do all right cat is running around the cats in great shape so that is a canard to complete garbage and the place is

a macula it really is it looks like a five star hotel that the two rooms that are very small like adjoining tollbooths very small and he's that thing is so clean and for them to throw that out and for some of these hack reporters for a.p. to take that and run with it is complete nonsense and so let that's out of the way the question about the lists this ridiculous list you know to get into ike i wouldn't be able to visit him right now i got in the last year i had to do was give him my passport dig in it was a day in advance that they notified the security that i was coming and the passport that said now it's like it's amazing that not even linda miranda would be able to get into the embassy with the conditions that they've imposed on gas visiting him so it really is you know unbelievable. and ridiculous the conditions to get in and all of the other stuff the restrictions on the

internet the. restrictions on what is he supposed to do he's a journalist you can't cover political affairs what's a sports writer now is going to cover cricket and football. you know so he's a journalist you can't tell him that he can't practice journalism that's one of the things i caught a water skier about is you know the stipulation that a songs can use the wire five but only for personal use so they must not interfere with the internal affairs of other states is not a son she like ordering le bron james the no longer played basketball what you said he's a journalist at this point anything a song does given his kind of icon and celebrity and all about what he's done everything he does or so politically could be deemed interfering with the state's internal e-mails or internal to her bron james the liberal and james a good analogy i was going to say since we're in baseball season right now it be like giving a pitcher a glove and a bog keep him in the bullpen your star closer because he is

a star closer he is the finest journalists out there he has never committed a crime i'm looking at something right now by eliot engel and this is one of the reasons why i do not like the democrats eliot engel who is a representative from the bronx in the cherry mannered district are right and his campaign have has been influenced by foreign governments he has written a letter to linda rendell saying how upset he is that every stored mr a songes ability to communicate he's upset with that and so please get him out of there is basically what he is saying otherwise you're going to jeopardize future relations with our our attempts to help you out and narco trafficking and all this other garbage police state stuff that they want to send down there so this is from eliot engel that democrat right here instance that out today and it's one of the reasons why yes i despise trump but you know what do the democrats have to offer other than

this nonsense this garbage they're acting like you know this is this just is a kind of a soft extraordinary rendition is what is happening to mr assad's in.