greetings and sal you take. after this weekend i'm afraid i just have to say it my friends politics and professional wrestling i was sensually become pretty much the same thing you got your faces and you've got your heels you've got your factions you even have your managers in ring ballets and just like professional wrestling most of the characters you see on t.v. are being manipulated and created by the one percent who owns the business all in an effort to get you to par ways with your money and your free time modern politics today even runs the same story lines as professional wrestling take the recent headline making peace agreement signed over the weekend between the united states

and the taliban that turned out to be pure w w e and you had your faces in the form of mike palm pale in the trumpet ministration and then you had your your heels in the form of the taliban just like every contract siting on a w w w e violence erupted before the ink even had time to dry political reports that just hours after united states signed what was billed as a historic deal with the taliban to end the 19 year long war in afghanistan fighting had resumed between the taliban and the afghan security forces marking an end to the reduction in violence that paved the way for the agreement that was signed on saturday see that's the real world equivalent of the fiend putting daniel bryan through a table after signing the deal that's the real world version except tragically in this real world version the violence after that the address isn't staged and actual lives are at stake as historian and writer stephen worth time points out america's

fantasies of what it could achieve in the war even after it became a washington cliche of the war had no military solution consigned thousands to needless deaths. this is no peace deal my friends this is just more of the tricks designed to confuse you distract you and ultimately steal your tax dollars from the military industrial complex and your vote for the put up puppet politicians and that my friends is why we are watching hawks. on a cd you st. leger so let's see. this is your choice just state i'll see you slice this great city slaves systemic deceptions late show which. some real. world women are watching arks i am tired and i'm

a me to me joy thing pure wrestling this week i'm watching the sun in this contract it is that mean we could fight or a prize but not really because i think that there was a certain level of the president trying to once again shift the media narrative we saw all of the coverage of the coronavirus than what was happening with the markets and president trump you know he's thinking in campaign mode all this year and what better thing to say then oh i have this deal that's obama yeah i brought peace to afghanistan i ended the mighty near long war 1819 year old long which realistically all of the people coming out and criticizing this saying really it's just a piece of paper it really will have no real effect on the outcome of this war the war is still going to be fought i mean representative barbara lee out of california misstatement on her web page she said this so-called peace deal is anything but it leaves thousands of troops in afghanistan and lacks the critical investments in peace building human centered development or government governance reform needed to

actually rebuild afghanistan and representative lee is probably one of my favorite people in the black caucus i think she's 100 percent correct here because what president trump has done is something that he does often this is a piece of symbolism he knows that this this has no. there is nothing that is going to actually bridge the taliban in the united states and i don't think that that was what he was trying to do what it seems that he's trying to do is make you believe that that's what is happening and as much as he can push it in as much as his people can go around and you know shout in their echo chambers then it's a win for him because there are a lot of folks who just aren't digging deep enough into this and as you know talking about the taliban working with his son in law to try to ensure that he has some middle east policy that can not necessarily have legs but can at least get into the media cycle is what he's been known to do when i think that after a while people were asking where is this policy because as you can recall he's been talking about this taliban deal for the past 2 and a half years and it's interesting to note to the right now they talk about we're bringing all these troops home and things like that when really the deal is the way

it seems will still leave about 2 thirds of u.s. forces there are no longer going to be fighting the taliban the taliban are just going to be there for counterterrorism purposes they are battling. in the detail but this is such really puts everything back to roughly the same number of troops that were there from came into office i mean it's again it's a stalemate exactly he shifted priorities and he's not actually removing troops and i think that you know that it's something that is problematic to tell people because it is literally a lot but in addition to that if you feel like there are more troops that need to be there for counterterrorism reasons why not just come out and say that don't tell people that the troops are coming home when that is factually incorrect it's complete it's complete fallacy and again i think you may have been there on the head it's election year politics politicking in electioneering what you what they want you to believe at the end of the day is that look at all these accomplishments i did i handled the coronavirus i brought peace to afghanistan but at the end of the day none of that's going to be true and none of it's going to hold water for

a long period of time because that's what politics is today it's wrestling. on the show the bad guys the good guys fight each other but then they'll go home and eat dinner later you know they'll go home and go to the same restaurant they get paid by this. same big political benefactors at the end of the day promises made promises broken that's most definitely most definitely true they're just gets over must. be conservative political action conference c pac came to a close on saturday after bringing thousands of maga supporters to d.c. under the banner of the u.s. versus socialism trip administration officials like vice president pitts and secretary of state might pump aoe join trump's reelection campaign top brass in the duel better suited for comedy central dominance still at the annual conservative circus there was no shortage of lies and comedy descending on the nation's capital last week. amid all of the jeering racism geared at preserving isolationist

policies and anti immigrant sentiment from agenda of dismantling women's reproductive rights and spreading stories about gun grabbing democrats coming to your most prized possessions there might be a deeper story here to break down the republican party annual gathering of white this is redacted tonight correspondent anders lee anders hey welcome back those that was brave to go and spend some days at sea packer a there are those not so brave when you look like i do yes it was soul sucking but you have a beard which can be very injured so i got to say look the biggest leaving to come out of sleep in this gathering of conventions very political but the biggest theme was kind of you know america versus the evils of socialism right. there pretty much lumping all democrats together as socialists is this characterization fair i mean after all the only the only actual social would assume the race is bernie sanders democratic socialist. and the democratic party doesn't really seem to love him that

much anyway so who did you mean is this help me understand what the pm was for this year right well i think the the rights of the republican party are prepared to run against socialism in the general election and when you talk to people have packed there's not really a clear consistent understanding of what that means and i think that's also the case with the democratic party except for bernie sanders who does have a clear message for what he means but if you have another nominee like joe biden is going to make the discussion about socialism is going to try and tara biden with that label and there's not going to be really a clear response because that's not at the same time biden is trying to get sanders supporters he will be if he wins the nomination but also not run as a socialist so they don't really i think know what to do if sanders wins the nomination because for so many decades republicans are used to just running against big government and social. and now that you have somebody who's actually saying

yeah i i want that i am a socialist there kind of an exercise crisis right i like how you can lead into my next question can we break down socialism just a bit here because there is a big difference between democratic socialism the branding of the as well as barney thing interests versus socialism in its historical context when we think about countries in latin america and a lot of the a lot of what i think the branding of the republican party is right now when they talk about socialism does this type of separation need to be made more evident by democrats or is the will or are they going to be at a loss in terms of fighting back against the republican rhetoric yeah well i think the 1st step is to actually take them up on the issue and not try to dodge it but actually say this is what i mean by socialism and you're right it's all it often goes back to venezuela and places like better poor countries you know because unfortunately when no matter what kind of system you have in the 3rd world it's going to be bad you know it's going to be really tough to to improve standards of living when you have an economy that's you know suffered under years of imperialism

so what i think sanders is trying to do is conjecture lies it in a 1st world context you know he talks a lot about scandinavia which you know conservatives will try to hit back and say like oh they're actually a capitalist country well if you look at the facts there's actually more state control over the norwegian economy and i'm a little biased on you really yes this is where i get the phone. but there's actually more state control over the region economy than there is over the venezuelan economy so that's something that i think only someone like bernie is prepared to an argument only he's prepared to make you know i want to ask you because you know you've got a big audience around the world international audience right now who you know they're looking from the outside and i mean a lot of us citizens across the country don't really understand what it's like to walk the halls of a major convention in washington and what kind of you know. and what it is to be there so i ask you you know what what not only surprised you but describe what the

whole mess is like you think yeah it's you know it's a coalition of i think this is what conservatism fundamentally is it's a coalition of people who have a vested interest in the status quo and not changing things whether it's the economy making things more gala turning the economy or gender equality racial equality they want to preserve things it's a coalition of them and people who might benefit from some changes in the society but are just confused you know there's a lot of mixture of cranks and sort of corporate goons that's kind of what it is and i think historically conservatism has been a reaction to the left the left has fought for minutes with tory issues and conservatism is really kind of fungible because it's no it's not always changing its position to whatever the opposite of the left is doing so it's really just. is that and that's i think that's kind of the existential crisis right now with c pac

they don't they know they're against socialism but it's hard to kind of be really adamantly pro-capitalism when we've seen what it's done over the past you know it's not it's a tough so even for storage conservatives you know across the country and things like that it's going to be a tough sell when everyone is feeling the brunt of unrestrained capitalism from the last few years. back of gotten a lot more politically laden heavy from the white house than we've seen in previous years yeah i mean being an undergrad 'd 2008 if you bought it was going to think that with that everybody was strong libertarian green right people who want to hear about the free markets they want to fill your campaign books so when we see see pag now we see that there are you know the president's top brass people from his administration people from his campaign there are folks who are really trying to set the agenda for the republican party do you think that this is that that that was the right use of his efforts and his time because the president was there as well as was the vice president as was the secretary of state were also in the midst of a. corona virus spread markets were plunging more and more diverse and young voters

are expected to come out during this campaign cycle in this election cycle that we've probably seen in history we know that the more that happens the list advantages that is will republicans do you think that that was a great bit of time that with a smart thing for the president to engage in considering the fact that there are so many other buyers right now they haven't done yeah well of course as a citizen of the country i wish she was dealing with other things although you know maybe it's probably better to leave it to someone else but. i think from a political perspective you know as you mentioned just 4 years ago there was some sentiment that would be allowed in the spaces like pac and that was not the case here you know i jokingly asked a couple of people you supported trump or bill weld you know i think point 3 percent in the republican primary and everybody's pretty much on the on the trump train so i think there is some political benefit to consolidating his base disciplining people who may have been skeptical of him but yeah in terms of a feeling to a broader public will say i don't know if that's going to be

a factor it's kind of looks like he was planning to resume yeah we're going to be on the whole you all agree fantastic and respect you so much for braving. out his coverage on redacted later this week of believe you over a great piece. friday if you check it out thanks as we're going to record watchers don't forget to let us know what you think of governor social media be sure to sign up for our exclusive newsletter at least slash watching the hawks you can also start watching the hawks on demand through the brand new portable t.v. app which is a billboard smart problems the google play and the apple app store by searching portable t.v. coming up cia whistleblower jeffrey sterling joins us to discuss his brand new book on the wanted spy you do not want to miss this interview to watch in the.

thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the country's military and the decision. every came to a complete. the day that i was right. you know hold a shot kill me and i see how it destroyed. any screamed at me in. my own arm and he write me. if you take into account that women don't report because of the extreme retaliation and it's probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us military rape is a very very traumatizing happen but i've never seen trauma like i've seen women who are veterans who suffered military sexual trauma rape is more likely to get the victim punished and be offended and almost 10 year career or chose very invested in

and i gave a sex offender who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is simply an issue of violence male sexual predators for the large part of whoever is there to prey upon whether that's a man or woman. whistleblowers are a vital part of our democracy they can serve as a check the power uncover wrongdoing and bring to light some of the dark behaviors a powerful people as much as we're taught about protecting these breaks souls and the integrity of the information they bring forward what the wars are where we see . of heroes in fact they are suffering from great losses just for telling the truth

and making our democracy live up to its creed case in point former cia agent jeffrey sterling sterling joined the cia in 1903 and just 2 years later was promoted to operations officer in the cia's near east and south asia division focusing his efforts on iraq he later recruited iranian nationals as agents for the cia as part of a secret operation involving iran's weapons capacity being a civil servant committed to his job of protecting democracy sterling did what we are all expected when we see wrongdoing he raised concerns in march 2003 he communicated with the senate intelligence committee about a poorly executed and dangerous operation merlin a cia led covert operation that was supposed to slow down iran's nuclear program he blew the whistle. sterling had been in contact with journalist james risen and was thought to be a key source for his book the state of war detailing america's botched covert operation to disarm iran's nuclear capacity through

a series of trace phone calls and intercepted communications sterling was pegged as the inside source for risings book in december of 22 in the us government filed an indictment against sterling with charges ranging from obstruction of justice to an otherwise disclosure of national defense of permission without supporting evidence sterling was charged under the espionage act fighting key evidence that persuaded a jury to convict sterling on $911.00 counts as intercepted records and emails but this communication only showed sterling and drive and had talked with each other the records did not disclose anything about the content of their conversations sterling pled not guilty but was convicted on january 26th 2015. he was sentenced to 3 and a half years with a judge arguing that he deserved a much harsher penalty while serving time sterling was denied medical attention for heart conditions placed in solitary confinement and threatened by officers jeffrey

sterling author of the book unwanted spot the persecution of an american whistleblower joins us now to share more about his story and the stain legacy of operation berlin welcome jeffrey. thank you for having me on jeffery and it's a great honor having you on and i do and before we get started do want to thank you for standing up and speaking and speaking the truth that you knew i think is very honorable blown the whistle and things like that thank you so much for what you did and what you sacrificed for all of us. i want to start by saying you know why was operation moral and a complete failure and to what and do you think your role in whistleblowing served to kind of solidify it as one of the cia's biggest biggest blunders at the end of the day. that well when i came into operation merlin and it had been going for some time before my involvement i was assured of all the safeguards and that it was approved by the highest levels of government. and background on the operation as had been said it was designed to slow down the iranian program to gain

a nuclear weapon well during the process all of the safeguards that i was told about turned out to be false. and so i felt that it was going to be actually something that would enhance or speed up the iranian efforts to gain a nuclear weapon as opposed to hamper them so i made the appropriate reach out to individuals within the organization within the cia and i was basically told to shut up then i did eventually go to actually both the senate and house intelligence committees while. mr sterling your book that i wanted to spy has everything that tale of a career civil servant and minority rising through the ranks at a time where it was almost unbelievable that someone who looked like you could be in the position that you were in establishing yourself and really taking control.

to also shedding light on something that you felt was your duty in a highly controversial and dangerous american foreign policy project can you tell us more about what inspired you to write this book you dealt with a lot in your book there are details of chapters of your like like being a child without a village and a man without a country how be things impacted you. well to me you're writing a book it was just about the journey that i've taken and for me there's always been that racial aspect of the despite my trying to avoid that or trying to combat it there's been racial aspects and racial hinderances throughout my life just because of the color of my skin so i was facing that growing up in a segregated town in missouri i faced it in social aspects of just growing up because i chose to do things that were not expected of me because i was black but i was determined to just be myself through everything and i stayed to

that mantra through growing up in a small town through college through law school and certainly in absolutely while i was with the cia so the book is about a journey and i think there are some things about it i think there's a lot of things about it that maybe americans don't know about their country and things that go on and particularly with regard to whistleblowers as i've said before whistleblowers are people and citizens just like everybody else and they love and have concern for their country and decide to stand up for their country and take a step tremendous risk to disclose and uncover wrongdoing by our government officials you know you took huge risks and i think you're going were tragically really punished harshly harshly when anyone looking at your case at least a mile pretty would feel like you know this is this is some place where you know the government and the powers that be really kind of sudden oh we want to punish this man and i think it would not. only for blowing the whistle but i think also if

you mention you're also with a few people to bring up some of the issues of race that were taking place at the agency itself what were some of those issues and what advice do you have for whistleblowers and future whistleblowers in stepping forward you know looking at your old life and giving them the best advice you can. for me i mean there there is certainly the aspect of the merlin operation mirlande point that i was a little against but there is also as you said the racial issues that i was facing at the cia while i was there and trying to and thinking that i'm raising in the ranks in handling my career i didn't realize in that you know i did realize that i was not receiving the same treatment as other officers not the same opportunities the same tools to do my job i asked my supervisors why and they point blank told me the cia having no compunction in saying what he saw and what's on its mind told me that i kind of stood out as a big black guy speaking farsi. i mean that was

a shock to me as an organization that i had established myself as a good a very good clandestine case officer but as i tried to move up in my career they didn't notice the color of my skin and that's when i my response to that was when when did you notice i was black and why does it matter. i took the step to fight against that discrimination because i had had enough that was not me i wasn't going to stand by and be treated that way i mean i went to law school i know what the laws are there and just leave in the history of this country equal treatment and i decided to fight knowing that there may be risks but i felt i had the law on my side and of course my discrimination case was dismissed because the courts agreed with the prosecution that it posed a threat to the national security of the united states and i still find out just

a. raising just to say that that an african-american standing up for civil rights in this country is a threat to our national security. but that's all within my character that i'm not going to stand by and see something especially happening to me or something that i'm involved in and say nothing when i can see wrongdoing going on that was the same for me with regard to operation merlin and with regard to any other whistleblowers i think if you stay true to yourself you stay true to the integrity that you have. there may be tremendous risk with regard to whistle blowing but or choosing to stand up but to me as if with going to trial i knew i wasn't going to plead to something i didn't do i wouldn't be able to face myself in the mirror and like who i saw staring back at me if i had pled to something i didn't do and that was the same for me through operation merlin and the racial. discrimination that i was facing at the agency i couldn't stand by in the

face of wrongdoing and do nothing i think if you stay true anyone who knows there is wrongdoing going on and is wavering on whether to make that choice to whistle blow i think stay true to yourself stay true to the integrity that got you to where you are and that lets you see that something is wrong there there may be risk that maybe i'm not the poster child for who will blowers but. at the end of the day you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and know you at least tried to do the right thing well i would say i would say mr sterling i would say that you are definitely a post trial been a poster child for strength and in my opinion doing the right thing i want to thank you so much for what you did and also for writing this book definitely everyone check it out on want to spy the persecution of american whistleblower jeffrey sterling thank you so much for joining us today thank you for having me on powerful stuff we're jeffery so deep so fresh dating at the same time on the road well

everybody that is our show remember everyone in this world is so important always remember in this world we're not told we're loved enough so i tell you all i love you i am tired and i'm in chicago keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night everybody. live . leg. length. legs. play. live.

live . live. live. oh. please. live. lists lists lists. lists.

and a very warm welcome to you watching us inside us. time after time to repeat the same mantra sustainability it's very important it's accelerating transitions to sustainable transport sustainability stay in her manner more equitable and sustainable well. they claim their production is completely hama's. because. companies want us to feel good about buying their products while the damage is being done far away and this is something just as he went on even as i made much. since i moved to do nieminen and. understood so when.

the path is clear and for us a democratic hopefuls has 2 candidates amy called which are and could put a judge to drop out of the race for the 2020 presidential election. the taliban says it will resume operations against afghanistan's security forces after the country's president refused to commit to a peace a deal between a u.s. and it when the group elsewhere. freeze warnings of a threat to its national security as turkey allows thousands of desperate asylum seekers to mass along the country's a shared border afghans accusing ancora of exploiting refugees in pursuit.