states is the occupy movement so what will victory look like and how will it finally be achieved chris hedges joins me now as a journalist and contributed truthdig the author of numerous books including his latest the world as it is dispatches on the myth of human progress chris was also featured in one of our installments of conversations of great minds which can be seen at the website conversations of great minds dot com chris welcome thank you from where you sit today ones what's the endgame in all this depression revolution a decade of recession. well. i think we have to acknowledge that absolutely nothing is being done to address the severe issue of climate change and the disruption to the ecosystem which will have dramatic economic and political effects throughout the globe. one of the engines that has been pushing the protests throughout the middle east is of course the rise in commodity prices we increased in price by over one hundred percent during last year along with other staples as well and when you're living on two dollars a day. and over half of that income goes to feed your fa

told the war through war correspondent chris hedges. chris hedges is an american author journalist former war correspondent and respected expert on middle east politics the pulitzer prize winner is also a man who is suing the us president and secretary of defense will be talking about that and a range of other issues as mr hedges joins me now for a one on one interview thank you very much for sitting down with r.t. sure we have seen a lot of violence and instability over the past couple of years the arab spring foreign intervention in libya uncontrollable debt problems and riots in the u.s. and throughout europe threats of global recession how do you think these political and economic crises feed off of one another and keep that momentum going well it's all the same crisis which is the collapse of globalization it doesn't work anymore and it manifests itself through the rise of commodity prices forty seven million americans live in poverty they're not spending half of their income on food but they're now spending about thirty five perce

the case was actually called the hedges v obama and joining me to discuss this is chris hedges himself author and pilger prize winning reporter and senior fellow at the nation institute he's also the author of several books including the world as it is just balances on the myth of human progress hey there chris i know you've probably had a busy day thanks for being on the show i guess just tell me what does this ruling mean for this country in other words how is today different than yesterday. well it's huge because it invalidates a law that was of course signed by the president new years eve and permitted the u.s. military for i mean overturning about two hundred years of domestic law to engage in domestic policing to seize u.s. citizens to hold them in military facilities including our are sure penal colonies to strip them of due process and to detain them in the language of section ten twenty one which is the section we challenge in till the end of hostilities whenever that is and i guess in an age of permanent war that's a really long time so it is really really important ruling ve

but later this hour we speak with all three war correspondent chris hedges these things there's no point in pushing for the ouster of syria's president when there's no organized opposition in the country right now. i don't think anyone in the muslim world thinks that we care much about human rights or democracy we have since the first gulf war planted military bases some the size of small cities i think there is at this point absolutely no credibility i'm talking about within the middle east when the united states claims that it would like to bring liberty or democracy to syria my feeling is that everything should be pushed through to create some kind of a ceasefire rather than pass a resolution that calls for assad's removal or resolution. that calls for intervention or anything else there's no real formal opposition. you know it's a sort of a mess and they just went through this and libya. police in bahrain entertained the head of the country's center for human rights without providing any explanation. who's known for his firm opposition to the ruling regime was arrested just as iraq t

say opens up all kinds of scary a possibility as we had one of the plaintiffs in this case on chris hedges not too long ago here's what he had to say about this it removes due process for anybody who is deemed not much else to terrorist but to have contact with these associated forces that's not a term that's defined it's nebulous it's quite a frightening piece of legislation. so plaintive sphere that even reporting terrorists could be considered grounds for being detained under this law and the judge acknowledged the danger of some of that language can you talk about the dangers of this kind of vague language in the legislation. definitely you know one of the things people try to do when they try to. basically say that we were wrong to bring this to the poor that have no merits is say that the n.c.a.a. is just an extension of the a you a map in some respects it's not and judge forest made it quite clear yesterday that that's not the case this section a section ten twenty one goes much farther than they ever did it clues such vague and such for ongoing bridge that it didn't seem dangerous

s indefinite detention last breath commented on you tube to chris hedges noam chomsky and others who stood up against this law on behalf of all true american patriots thank you and a stranger sound a very astute viewer said chris appears to be incorrect on the vote which is listed as ninety three to six with one absent vote bernie sanders voted no according to the record please correct me if i'm wrong we want to say no you're actually not wrong according to congressional records of bernie sanders of vermont did in fact vote against the n.d.a. and finally for a little fun richard adkins and tweeted out us why isn't atheel on a show called the christine show and christine standing in for alona redo the graphics of the show title just because alone i was on a short vacation i'm not sure she would appreciate that that's going to do it for tonight's you said it i read it alone i will be back with more later in the week. now coming up later in the break we'll continue our discussion on nato protest in chicago with joel carre an occupied chicago tribune editor and contributor he won't want

networking alternative one that keeps your personal information safe and then we'll speak with chris hedges plaintiff in the suit because of federal court judge to overturn the indefinite detention provision of the n.d.a. just last night i have all that and more for you tonight including a dose of happy hour but first let's take a look at what the mainstream media decided to miss. over once we can think shows like law and order or even judge judy but there's something about drama in the courtroom that seems to captivate american audiences sometimes it's tearful witnesses sometimes it's those closing arguments that hit home there's the suspense is the jury deliberates even if at the end of the day the ruling in most cases it doesn't really impact most people watching just those few people involved in the case and still here's what you probably got your fill of from the cable networks today. closing arguments happening right now in the john edwards corruption trial the fate of john edwards could be in the hands of the jury as early as tomorrow today's round comes down to a month of emotionall

also chris hedges was concerned about the effects that this might have on journalists. what he said. >> i, as a foreign correspondent had had direct contact with 17 organizations on that list from hamas to hezbollah to the ppk. and the language is amorphous, anybody who substantially supports not only the taliban or al-qaeda. >> she kept asking over and over again, wait can you prove them wrong that this law won't apply to juroralists. and one of the plaintiffs in that case joins us right now. thank you so much for joining us and thank you for bringing this case forward and winning it. [ laughter ] >> thank you. thanks for having me today. >> all right. so first of all tell us why you were so concerned about the law. >> well, because of the activities in which i'm engaged. i'm regularly fighting for our constitutional rights, and i was living under increasing fear simply because that's what i do. and that's unacceptable. and i first approached chris hedges and his lawyers to amend this to become a multi-plaintiff suit because so many people around the world are really w

to take action and we did led by a group of journalists whistleblowers and activists including chris hedges noam chomsky and daniel ellsberg a lawsuit was filed against president obama arguing that the indefinite provision was unconstitutional specifically the lawsuit argue that journalists and whistleblowers operating well within their first amendment rights to free press could be locked up forever if they had interviewed or associated with terrorist networks while covering a story and it was on these grounds the judge catherine forrest agreed and struck down the provision saying the statute issue places the public at undue risk of having their speech chilled for the purported protection from al qaeda the taliban and foreign terrorist organizations so for now indefinite detention is dead but if we the people who are not terrified little men like bush and cheney don't keep the pressure on our lawmakers then indefinite detention will surely return right now a new version of the end is being debated in congress and brave members on both sides of the aisle are arguing that there should be no i

and more on syria in just a few minutes in our interview with author and war correspondent chris hedges he things are there's no point in pushing for the toppling of syria's president assad when there's no organized opposition in the country. fifty two meters. more than a thousand tons it's. skin thickness thirty centimeters the guinness record. commemorating the battle of stalingrad. the motherland called. on our teeth. six. six. six. s. .