apud whistleblower costs father doubts on the chemical weapons watchdogs investigation into the alleged ooma chemical attack in syria claiming he faced intimidation. in the euro it was very complex the police's job or job and his foreign minister talks about a new plan that's cool and says america is done as the global policeman has comments calling on the fust day of the new next security conference. and to many political ways rove has a key ally of french president drops out of the paris mail will race following the meet office sex tape. those are your headlines this hour as many want to sell it and many will stories so take a peek up next that it's the big picture. this

week our troops stationed in tough neighborhoods around the world are caught in the political crossfire here at home but 1st the patriot act sailed through congress after 911 now it is about to expire. i'm home and cook in washington this is the big picture. when this did not get much media coverage the new expiration date is march 15th will congress really up the patriot act should they let's ask. author of

battlefield america the war on the american people and a government of wolves the emerging american police state constitutional attorney rutherford institute president syndicated columnist and host of the podcast freedom under fire john w. whitehead and we also welcome the author of everyone's crazy except you and me and i'm not so sure about you america's favorite contrarian cuts loose legal and media analyst and r.t.e. contributor lionel gentleman welcome back to the big picture thank you thank you in the foggy fearful aftermath of 911 only one u.s. senator voted against the patriot act wisconsin democrat russ feingold urge that even as america addresses the demanding security challenges before us we must strive mightily also to guard our values and basic rights and he warned that preserving our freedom is one of the main reasons we are now engaged in this new

war on terrorism we will lose that war without firing a shot if we sacrifice the liberties of the american people lionel and then john in that order have the noble sounding usa patriot act and post 911 government surveillance and enforcement tactics cost us the way of life that our founders promised. yes thank you very much now of course that was the best introduction ever remember there's also an inverse proportionality between the name of the act and its utility the patriot act no child left behind clean water you know it's going to be a problem when it's called the patriot act and you want to vote against it this was one of the worst days in our history throw this in with the alien and sedition act 2 i mean you name it to the the the fugitive slave act it sounds terrific but america has been in the freedom spiral since that day why because we

were conned into thinking that after 911 we could legislate our way to freedom and to prosperity and to safety and it was a lot well john how about it we were scared back then right. you can be scared again the gentleman is correct constitution is the most important thing here in the key provision is our 4th amendment which has been gutted by the way and then what it requires is if the government investigation you come to your home look for your records they had to have probable cause which is some evidence that you're doing something illegal or on your way to doing something illegal under the patriot act now it doesn't matter anymore they have national security letters now or an f.b.i. agent just on the say so of another agent not a judge on a warrant where they used to have you have to go before a judge to get a warrant to go get some ice papers now an agent says yeah this guy may be suspicious so they'll get all your papers and if you have jack they can arrest you

they can go to your bank they can go to your library research what you're reading what you're doing get all your medical records they can go to your bank and you can't the bank and the officials in those situations cannot tell you that you're being investigated so what we've opened up here is what i would call as a total suspect society a nation under total surveillance and in my books i call it the palace of america i call it the. trying to a concentration camp and if you do the wrong thing and some of them f.b.i. agent doesn't like you whatever they're monitoring religious institutions are setting in audiences and watching what you're doing so we've come down a road here i would say yes we're in a we're in the mess that it's going to be unless the american people they say they love freedom and they're freedom fighters i think it's time to fight this thing back and not i worry about the kids of the future they're not i don't know what's going on when they're pulled aside and arrested well you know when you speak as you

just have there's a lot about what ought to be but the last time you were here john you told me a chilling story that i'd like you to repeat for our viewers about a client who suffered from so called operation vigilant eagle tell that story. yeah operation vision egoless program was set up under obama basic president obama they watch all returning veterans and again it's under the patriot act in all their electronic gadgets they watch everything from what you buy on amazon or whatever but this particular guy was a marine 26 year old marine to the jogging early in the morning come back to his home oh saturday morning in have his shirt or whatever was typing at his home business he heard all these things boys around his house he went near richmond virginia by the way he went out looked outside there were cop cars pulling up there were people in black suits with their little ties running up toward the house he opens the door and say what's up in the police in the the agents in the suits they

would department homeland security agents said well we're concerned about your facebook posts he was criticizing president obama for his executive order he said mamma should be arrested he was playing a weird video game believe it or not the f.b.i. download everything watched everything that they asked him to step outside he did not own a weapon by the way this is key and they couldn't arrest him is on they didn't have a warrant he stepped outside they grabbed him slammed him against a fence and took him to the jail he had a 5 minute examination. under a psychiatrist he was a 911 truth and the psychiatrist said because the 911 truth or he was a 1000000 stable and he was given a short hearing put them in hospital wow civil commitment it was amazing i didn't understand the civil commitment but 1500000 people are estimated to disappear and middle hospitals every year in america and then most people don't know that and they can't get out his mother called me crying she called every little every organization alone in defending him we went to court and got him out the week a judge really should have been there in the 1st place but that's the type of same

we're going to see happening in $20000.00 alone in virginia disappear each year out $1500000.00 ashley and some of them in 18 years the future we're facing well is say the future but 18 years ago this is 2000 to the tom cruise thriller minority report depicted what's now nonchalantly called predictive policing watch this and remember . ok just what's coming double homicide one male one female killing white 47 from intel or is. placing you under arrest for future murder sir mark superman to send you to earth can be seen. the future is now lionel every time i ask you about a future privacy threat you interrupt and tell me that happened 5 years ago is the patriot act that a neat permanently out of the bottle. oh absolutely in fact what predates one and today it's that movie was going on in the u.k.

years ago what they were doing is they were looking at a lot of day that they would say and not to asli based upon where there are and what time of year and we can go nowhere to go into certain places because crime will happen and they sadly it was pretextual let me explain what one thing very quickly one of the things that we're doing is is that we are we society is trying to recategorize information so i had something interesting he said in the old days the 4th amendment talked about papers seizures going into your home and taking something today gentlemen will be do is the government said we don't want your voice per se but we want your data we want your met today that we want where you've been not communicative not not testimonial not conversations but where you've been what you've tapped into what what you hit on your keyboard in the light not to mention by virtue of a lot of the the the phone protocols that you've signed into when you had to accept the terms of this and we're updating this you oftentimes consented to this and all

of this data just goes into this huge repository where later on it can be cold called reviewed in the light so the the nature of data collection today is unlike nothing we've seen in the past so a lot of times people again what will answer the question i've got nothing to hide and if you want to look at my phone to stop the next 911 or bin laden be my guest the biggest problem gentlemen i submit is our national our ignorance and our constitutional torpor and there's this insouciance that we have where we figure we don't need this this gets no way this is so was sidetracked these are different times quid the you get about 911 truth there is an ok if you're going to make an album going to break a few waves that's the problem well or our feelings yeah i. you're right about giving away consent none of us read all of that small font stuff on the great page

we just check except at the bottom john the right grumbles about the deep state same question i asked lionel is the state now so deep that nothing congress does will constrain big brother. i think i don't think you can now because google amazon facebook all work for the government i mean how many people realize that in october zaka berg was in the white house 2 times having dinner with donald trump. there is a total merging of the corporate corporations with the state we have a corporate status what mussolini by the way fascist called corporatism so now all the everything you're doing on facebook internet it's all going into government files they're creating algorithms and you're being watched by robots essentially but the point is that something can be done about this i mean on the local level because police at least now have sting ray devices in their cars that act as fake cell phones are they drive in front of people's houses and my house or whoever

houses and download all you have or may show your laptop and your cell phone so they're watching everything you can stop that locally i mean you have an 80000 swat team right now where cops are bashing through people's doors and milena it up from 3180 people getting killed up to 500 dollars a day kids are getting killed i mean this is what's happening in america and we're not resisting any of it so you can do it all local level but again the so-called deep state which is by the way the corporations working with the government to control the populace and one thing the government wants basically they want total control but they want your money they want to control you they want you and me up all the time and if you don't you can wind up in jail these days folks i mean they're less than people in some states for not paying their medical bills right away so we've gone into a whole new phase predictive policing everything that philip k. dick by the way the great scientists science i offer basically predicted it's all come true folks well i think you make a good point about local john because back home where i live in rhode island my

state rep is effort to require police to have a warrant before they use that sting ray device john whitehead and lionel thank you for stepping into the big picture i appreciate your time. i thank you sir coming up despite outr. rage from every direction president trump doubles down on calling traumatic brain injuries headaches we will talk to one who has suffered and is dedicated to helping veterans this is the big picture on r.t. america. we know in psychology that the more people are told that they can't or shouldn't do

something whether it's sexual or otherwise the more it makes them want to do it so trying new things violating taboos are some of the most common and pervasive elements in our sexual fantasies. this is nothing new york open with not a movement to put in your circles one astute. and you know move for the new much for clues of little interest in the region when they're. looking. at. the white in good part of the new year already one of the it seems that you know it may seem to trace. t.v. . that that. join me every thursday on the alec simon show and i'll be speaking to guest of the

world the politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. impeachment should be behind us although lindsey graham now wants to turn the tables and subpoena the whistleblower in the ukraine scandal fortunately cooler senate republican heads are eager to move on and one urgent issue is a painful one we have been following all along veteran suicides which number some 20 each day and some people think that number is low senator john bozeman an arkansas republican notes that just this month in arkansas alone a veteran of the national guard along with 2 current national guard members and

a member of the army reserve took their own lives our approach simply isn't working as impeachment seemed to stall other activity the senate veterans affairs committee unanimously approved legislation to fund suicide prevention and emergency care through v.a. grants to nonprofits and community programs step in the right direction or too little too late let's ask matthew hoh a former united states marine and pentagon and state department official now a senior fellow at the center for international policy and he's a certified peer support specialist for mental health and substance abuse disorder and as matthew when i talk you're going to see a phone number at the bottom of your screen for the veterans crisis hotline if you are hearing this show is a pod cast that number is 800. 2738255

matthew what's being called the mission the act will expand comprehensive assistance for family caregivers which until it's past has only been available to veteran seriously injured in the line of duty on or after september 11th 2001 but these wounds run deep and many of the vets who are taking their lives served long ago correct. oh absolutely holland and thanks for having me on and thanks for continuing to talk about this yet the wounds of war invisible wounds of war posttraumatic stress disorder moral injury and now as we're seeing traumatic brain injury. don't get better with time they can be managed with their p. with professional care with lifestyle changes however they stay with you for your entire life as you and i have discussed before. this notion

that. as time goes on it sure gets better has been disproved by studies but also by the knowledge we have that you know men who are in their seventy's sixty's and seventy's who are vietnam veterans who fought 50 years ago or still killing themselves at rates $3.00 to $4.00 times higher than their civilian peers in world war 2 veterans you know so many have died off now because of the time it's been 75 years since the end of that war but we still see world war 2 veterans who are in their eighty's and ninety's. killing themselves and there was one study done a number of years ago that showed that that rate of suicide was 4 times higher than that for men their own age who didn't go to war so you're absolutely right holland in bringing this up that in mentioning it in this way that it doesn't get better with time the only way it can be managed is when professional care is

involved when family and friends are involved and when the severity of the invisible wound is truly understood following the iranian missile strike against the assad air base in iraq president trump weighed in on reports that 34 service members suffered traumatic brain injuries here's what the president said. that. they had headaches and a couple of other things but i would say you and i could report it is not very serious no i don't consider them very serious injuries relative to other injuries and i've seen no i do not consider that to be that injuries no through that has got a sting. simply as a man who doesn't know what he's talking about. you know and where do you blame him for this him where do you blame his advisors in the people at the v.a. the people the department the fence the people at national instance the health who should be advising him i don't think his ignorance on this issue runs much

deeper than the ignorance of most americans it is a these are invisible wounds these are wounds that. are not seen you can even see these wounds by putting someone into an m.r.i. machine the hairs in the brain are so microscopic that the only way you could actually see this wound to see these types of brain injuries is when the person is dead and the head is cracked open and an examination is done of the brain up until that time you cannot actually physically say this person has a brain injury the only way you're able to diagnose it is through the symptoms as well as to through certain experiences the person may have had in this case explosive blast the other thing holland that is so important as understanding why this ignorance exists about traumatic brain injury is because these types of brain

injuries caused by explosive blasts are relatively new in the sense that they are more common in this is because in these wars in iraq and in afghanistan. we the united states forces or we have such body armor and we have such vehicle armor that we are surviving things that previous generations of soldiers of war fighters would have been killed in that we are basically getting up and dusting ourselves off from explosive blasts that would have easily killed any of our counterparts in wars previous to this and you see this in such by knowing such information too as that in the 1st and 2nd world war the ratio of killed to wounded was about one in the killed was about $2.00 to $1.00 so for every 2 soldiers wounded there was one killed but time korea comes around and into vietnam that

ratio is now 3 to one in these wars the ratio is 10 to one in iraq and afghanistan because vehicle and body armor improved as well as medical and care improved even more the ratio of wounded to killed was 12 to one and in many cases those of us who were hit by these roadside bombs or by mortar blasts or other types of explosions are an even counted as wounded because we have at that time no visible signs of wound so that's why the v.a. says about 20 percent of the 2700000 men and women who have gone and fought in iraq and afghanistan have traumatic brain injury i mean when you do the math on that right that comes out to well over $500000.00 of us who have this form of traumatic brain injury because again we survived explosions that previous generations would not have survived that is an interesting irony that kia is better

so the numbers don't compare it's apples and oranges now right that that's the right in the fact is that even there's even studies have shown that our helmets cause the problem because the blast will go up into the helmet and then. we'll get basically trapped inside the helmet and bounce off the top of the helmet into the head so our helmets which protect us and survive and protect us and help us survive from a lot of other things like fragmentation i know guys who've gotten shot in hit in the helmet and you know it may be making this issue worse for veterans who are surviving the war and coming home and of course i want to put out there that you've got to also consider about the iraqis and the afghans themselves right who have none of this protection and what they're going through right we're speaking with veteran and veterans advocate matthew hoh our servicemen and women are loyal and resolute and they follow the chain of command but how does stuff like

this from their commander in chief play with those in uniform and among vets it's got to be demoralizing to the folks who are in forward positions. i think it does you know when i came back from my 2nd deployment from iraq in 2007 we still had no real understanding of these issues and i had marines because we were combat engineers so we went out and we looked for these roadside bombs. we have metal detectors and we looked for land mines and booby traps and things like that in the ground and i am marines who had been in vehicles that were hit by explosions 91011 times and every time they walked away and we came home in 2007 there was hardly any screening there was hardly any care we were basically asked do you feel ok and of course because you know these kids are marines they're going to say yes i've course i feel 5 so i mean so maybe 15 years ago it may have been

understandable for the commander in chief to make these comments but now it's completely unacceptable he made those comments the fact that like i said maybe you could blame it on the fact he wasn't advised well that his ignorance was like most americans ignorance on this issue but now however many weeks after he has said this he still has not come back and said hey i'm sorry i made a mistake. i mean when one is trying to do that but you would you would think that to respect the men and women that he is keeping in these wars he would have the wear athol to make to to realize his error in this but it certainly does affect us because if you yourself are not suffering from these types of wound then you certainly do know someone else who is and you see the effect that that has on just not on that person who can no longer function like they once functioned who can no longer live a life like they used to live because of all the problems these bring on but also

the way it destroys is absolutely rips apart relationships families friendships work situations communities except for matthew we are showing on screen the number for the veterans crisis hotline and for those who are listening to this is a pod cast 802738255 i have about a minute left but i got to ask you for those who are watching or listening who may be veterans or friends or family members what are the warning signs well you know that there are a number of manifestations one of the things interesting about these types of injuries is that there are so it's very similar but it's not the same as what the football players are going through where the injury may have occurred you know a couple of decades ago and now it's surfacing so maybe 101520 years afterwards you

start to you still start to see this in migraines and headaches and confusion and a lack of ability to focus billet in anger issues or a big one and extreme fatigue and if you're experiencing these things you need to go and talk to your doctor about it and all of that one is you need to make you know exactly you need to bring your your folks in your family or friends in if they're reluctant to go because it's. a lot of us are macho we're tough guys well we can we can get through this right at the u. i always appreciate you and you are always welcome on the show talking about this important topic please come again thank you and thank you for watching the big picture if your cable company does not have our a t america cut that cord we're live at youtube dot com slash r t america and if you have directv we're channel 321 on pluto t.v. channel 279 if you have the dish dish we're 280 there and all of our shows are

available at any time anywhere on our new or double t.v. app you can get it free in the app store or on google play and of course we're on demand that you tube dot com slash the big picture r e t m holland cook in washington and at holland cook on twitter where if you follow me i'll follow you question more. little. little. caylee.

little. little. little. sleepy little. little.

and very well may continue watching on since last. lovely girl in mexico on the big for the palm tree slaying of the monkeys chattering special guest with us today alex petroff see i. bit fear a they're rocking it out in the mining space.