so essentially chris hedges filed suit with her attorneys and i approached chris hedges because i was worried and i strategized over this i really wanted a judge to see the forest for the trees and sorry no pun intended on catherine the forest but that's that is the case this was very strategic i pick people who together with all tell a piece of the story has started occupy london and occupy london was designated a terrorist group officially aleck's o'brien being targeted by the cyber security firm which is contracted with the dio dean trying to link her organization to muslim extremists myself with my work with wiki leaks and this other stuff dan ellsberg our whistleblower and who had dealt very closely with bradley manning together we kind of make up this evolving tribe of people who were you know were civil liberties advocates were independent journalists were hacktivists and computer prodigies you know aaron swartz was part of our case. and together we are all standing witness to what the what the u.s. government has done and become since nine eleven and because we're standing wit

case hedges versus obama mr chris hedges himself. as a former new york times war correspondent pulitzer prize winner who spent nearly two decades reporting in central america the middle east africa and the balkans spies prolific resume of outstanding journalism hedges is precisely the kind of person i could fall subject to and it is indefinite detention clause you see chris represents one of many journalists who often have to embed themselves with groups that the government has deemed terrorists to get the full story so take a look at my exclusive interview with journalist chris hedges where he talks about the lawsuit and why every american should care about it. chris thanks so much for sitting down with me you know why why is the government holding this line that the n.b.a. is no different than they were that and that when it's obviously much more broad in its language well that was the central argument that the government lawyers made in the southern district court of new york that this was a centrally not extending the powers of th

so essentially chris hedges filed suit with her attorneys and i approached chris hedges because i was worried and i strategized over this i really wanted a judge to see the forest for the trees and sorry no pun intended on catherine the forest but that's that is the case this was very strategic i pick people who together with all tell a piece of the story has you know started occupy london and occupy london was designated a terrorist group officially alexei o'brien being targeted by the cyber security firm which is contracted with the dio dean trying to link her organization to muslim extremists myself with my work with wiki leaks and this other stuff dan ellsberg our whistleblower and who had dealt very closely with bradley manning together we kind of make up this evolving tribe of people who you know were civil liberties advocates were independent journalists were hacktivists and computer prodigies you know aaron swartz was part of our case. and together we are all standing witness to what the what the u.s. government has done and become since nine eleven and because we're standing

so essentially chris hedges filed suit with her attorneys and i approached chris have to because i was worried and i strategized over this i really wanted a judge to see the forest for the trees and sorry no pun intended on catherine the forest but that's that is the case this was very strategic i pick people who together with all tell a piece of the story have you know started occupy london and occupy london was designated a terrorist group officially aleck's o'brien being targeted by the cyber security firm which is contracted with the dio dean trying to link her organization to muslim extremists myself and my work with wiki leaks and this other stuff dan ellsberg our whistleblower and who had dealt very closely with bradley manning together we kind of make up this evolving tribe of people who you know were civil liberties advocates were independent journalists were hacktivists and computer prodigies you know aaron swartz was part of our case. and together we are all standing witness to what the what the u.s. government has done and become since nine eleven and because we're standing

deemed terrorists to get the full story so take a look at my exclusive interview with journalist chris hedges where he talks about the lawsuit and why every american should care about it. chris thanks so much for sitting down with me you know why why is the government holding this line that the n.b.a. is no different than they were that and that when it's obviously much more broad in its language well that was the central argument that the government lawyers made in the southern district court of new york that this was essentially not extending the powers of the government but. reinforcing existing powers now you know i've read a you m.-f. several times it's very clear that this is a vast extent extension of government authority allowing government to detain us citizens or use the military to detain us citizens strip them of due process hold them in military facilities indefinitely that is just not in the. and i think that we're seeing and we just saw the release. of a memo sixteen page white paper on drone attacks which looks like it was written by a first year law student i mean it you know

case hedges versus obama mr chris hedges himself is a former new york times war correspondent pulitzer prize winner who spent nearly two decades reporting in central america the middle east africa and the balkans spies prolific resume about standing journalism hedges is precisely the kind of person i could fall subject to and days indefinite detention quads is it chris represents one of many journalists who often have to embed themselves with groups that the government has deemed terrorists to get the full story so take a look at my exclusive interview with journalist chris hedges where he talks about the lawsuit and why every american should care about it. chris thanks so much for sitting down with me you know why why is the government holding this line that the n.b.a. is no different than they were that and that one it's obviously much more broad in its language well that was the central argument that the government lawyers made in the southern district court of new york that this was a centrally not extending the powers of the government but. reinforcing existing powers now you know

at devry.edu. ♪ ♪ cenk: we're talking to chris hedges, were you ever his latest books, he's the lead in what's being called the magnificent seven suing president obama. chris, i wanted to ask you about your claim that the national defense authorization action and what's in it could lead to totalitarianism. isn't that taking it too far? >> this, it overturns 200 years of domestic law prohibiting the military from carrying out policing duties. it allows the military to carry out extraordinary rendition of u.s. citizens and hold them indefinitely without any kind of legal recourse. this is really a giant step towards the destruction of what's left of our sort of anemic democracy. it is a major major assault on, i think our most cherished constitutional right the right to due process the right to a trial. cenk: chris you covered a lot of dictatorships in your time as a foreign correspondent. you say some of this reminds you of it. obviously, those situations were much worse than what we have today here in the sufficient, but what reminds you of those dictatorships? >> empowering the milit

and a pulitzer prize-winning journalist chris hedges. we end today with their remarks. case is known as hedges vs. obama. michael moore began by responding to a question about how he got involved. >> i have been involved in this sort of thing for a very long time. in general, in terms of these issues, i was the chair of the american civil liberties union influence. i was 19 or 20 years old. what chris said in the last panel here about the corporate couldn't talk, something i've been talking or try to talk about for a couple of decades since roger and me, that something was afoot and we're going to have our democratic way absconded with. i agree with him that it has been successful. but i remain an optimist because i know history and i know coup d'etats the successful efforts were eventually overthrown. i want to use that word "overthrown" publicly tonight so this can be replayed at my trial. [applause] [phone rings] should we get that? who ordered the pizza? >> really, let's ignore it. >> i have had to deal with the issue of the police tried to suppress information or ca

stripping of our most fundamental rights which brings me the most recent interview i just did with chris hedges journalist author and main plaintiff in a lawsuit against obama and others are suing the administration over a section of the national defense authorization act that grants the military the right to indefinitely detain u.s. citizens without charge or trial this has been an issue i've covered a lot on the show since it first launched and this particular episode about the n.b.a. was an exposé on the dangers of this law and the importance of this case here's a clip from that interview. in the historical narrative of america in the short brief history of our nation lincoln f.d.r. you know when he authorized the brief internment of japanese people i mean all these things were very brief periods and they were reinstated it seems like to have the n.d.a. ten plus years after an event where there's really no threat i mean and now it's coupled with the surveillance state profiting off the erosion of our society i mean how are we in some way too far gone you're right you're talking about. period

i feel like we are at a turning point i mean chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for. the future to tell a tarion state of the of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance. alexa do want to ask you i mean definite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know that a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the new talk about why the n.b.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named shi'i who reported that it wasn't in fact yemenis c

i feel like we are at a turning point i mean chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for. the future to terry in state of the of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance sure aloso do want to ask you i mean indefinite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know that a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the new talk about why the n.b.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named abdullah who reported that it wasn't in fact yemen

i feel like we are at a turning point i mean chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for you know the future tarion state of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance sure alexa do want to ask you i mean indefinite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know that a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the can you talk about why the n.b.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named abdullah who reported that it wasn't in fact yemen

a legal case working its way through the courts right now that's being led by journalist named chris hedges and some others that gets to the heart of that very good at the end. and there's a lot of concern that's come from frankly all political spectrum you've had folks on the right associate with the tea party movement who've been very concerned about their view comments by the i'm obama administration that at times have referred to them as being terrorists may be joking maybe not but when you use these terms they have a lot of meeting and when you start to associate these terms that are vaguely defined with the ability to use lethal force creates a lot of a lot of concerns a lot of challenges and it gets back to what you were just saying about this is a very broad expanse of use a power and lying and you know the way that these suspects are treated in these situations you know they're not indicted they're not charged with any crime what do you make of this or do you do you find this lack of due process troubling certainly you know previously there's been some speeches about this process a

native american reservations that are affected hanford is just another example of what journalist chris hedges refers to as one of capitalisms sacrifice zones which he describes as quote areas that have been destroyed for quarterly profit and we're talking about environmentally destroyed communities destroyed human beings destroyed families destroyed and because there are no impediments left these sacrifices zones are just going to continue to spread outward. the idea here is just like human beings as human beings just like the natural resources of our planet have become commodities to be exploited and abused the end result of which is collapse and the current trajectory this is unavoidable this exploitation is the byproduct of predatory capitalism just at the look at the most and areas of the country where natural resources abound and political influence is most scarce places like the coal mines about. where the profits made on the backs of the laborers fill the pockets of the rich coal barons who live far from the contaminated soils degradative waters and polluted air look the damage that ha

i feel like we are at a turning point i mean chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for. the future to tarion state of the of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance sure alexa do want to ask you i mean indefinite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know that a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the can you talk about why the n.b.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named abdul shi'i who reported that it wasn't in fact

i feel like we are at a turning point i mean chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for. the future tarion state of the of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance. alexa i do want to ask you i mean indefinite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know the a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the new talk about why the n.b.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named abdul shi'i who reported that it wasn't in fact yemenis cl

american citizens without due process while the lawyer lawsuits made plaintiffs is journalist chris hedges the case is also being fought by revolution through founder pandering bolen pentagon papers whistleblower daniel ellsberg. author noam chomsky and many others yesterday i heard the second round of oral arguments against the white house is that keil to a decree made by a judge who agreed with the plaintiffs on the n.b.a. is on constitutionality so today you'll see my exclusive interviews with the plaintiffs and more so stay tuned for a very important break in the set of. looks like. you've never seen anything oh like. oh .

i feel like we are at a turning point and chris hedges one of the other plaintiff has talked about this. we always have options because liberty you know resides in the individual's free will regardless of one's circumstances so we can dissent and you can do tons of things in relation to this particular egregious law and other laws. but i think that fundamentally this is really the test case for you know the future tarion state of the of america or if we're going to actually return to our values and principles that ensure a stable and just democratic governance sure alyssa do want to ask you i mean indefinite detention without due process in itself is a terrifying prospect but i know that a lot of people like thomas drake john kiriakou are speaking out of against the talk about why the n.d.a. is especially dangerous to whistleblowers people who speak out against government wrongdoing. well you know you were talking about drones at the start of the program you know i think about cluster bombs in yemen and there was a journalist named abdullah who reported that it wasn't in fact yemenis cl

stripping of our most fundamental rights which brings me the most recent interview i just did with chris hedges journalist author and main plaintiff in a lawsuit against obama and others are suing the administration over a section of the national defense authorization act that grants the military the right to indefinitely detain u.s. citizens without charge or trial this has been an issue i've covered a lot on the show since it first launched and this particular episode about the n.b.a. was an exposé on the dangers of this law and the importance of this case here's a clip from that interview. in the historical narrative of america in the short brief history of our nation lincoln f.d.r. you know when he authorized the brief internment of japanese people i mean all these things were very brief periods and they were reinstated it seems like to have the n.d.a. ten plus years after an event where there's really no threat i mean and now it's coupled with the surveillance state profiting off the erosion of our society i mean how are we in some way too far gone you're right you're talking about. period

i'm going to do the progressive state of the union tonight and then we're going to have chris hedgeslk about the national defense authorization act. >> michael: now that i'm gone there is nobody there to protect our poor president. you and chris it sound like a good show. have a good time tonight and have a good time on the state of the union. >> cenk: thanks, michael. >> michael: now for a look at the best of the rest. the stories that i don't want you progressives to miss on this tuesday evening. we're giving you some state of the union trivia. being a plus one at the state of the union is an honor and privilege. willbut let's be real. michelle obama's guest 102 desalene victor. she waited over six hours to cast her vote. she's 102 years old and she waited six hours. this is a reminder that fixing our voting system should be a big priority. and luis gutierrez will bring an undocumented worker and father of two american-born sons. he faces deportation after driving without a license. the deportation guidelines are support to deport criminals not deporting people like sÁnchez, who is

a group including noam chomsky and chris hedges are suing the obama administration of the controversialprovision in the meant national defense authorization detention of journalists who interact with certain groups. the justice department asked an appeals court to reveal a decision blocking the indefinite detention saying the ruling would hamper its ability to fight terrorism. the obama administration has already won an emergency freeze of the ruling of the case is appealed. plaintiffs, the pentagon whistle-blower, spoke outside the courthouse wednesday. >> we're trying to get people across the country to stand with us because this is a thin line between our most fundamental civil liberties. the ndaa rolls back our rights. it is really basic. if your for the as constitution, you should support our case. >> our constitution has been under assault for 10 years now. they said there were not torture anyone. now they're open toopenly proclaiming that. >> to hear our full interview with daniel ellsberg, go to democracynow.org. the main umbrella group for immigrant youth activists is calling f

chris hedges, director, part of a team at the new york times who won a pulitzer prize. >> i have greatdmiration for him. >> says he is talking to someone u.s. deems terrorist, he could end up in jail himself as a journalist. known chomsky, cornel west, yourself -- >> has been identified earlier as a spokesperson from wikileaks, bradley manning right now is on trial in military court with the absurd and unconstitutional charge of aiding the enemy without any element of intent, merely that his information would get to obama -- am sorry, to osama bin laden or al qaeda eventually, thus making it in effect a terrorist organization. but giving it to wikileaks is like saying wikileaks is the enemy he is aiding and affecting. simply by associating with jake, whom i've got to do, or supporting wikileaks and manning as i do, it is very clear that my speech, my first amendment activities in support of their activities can be interpreted by the vague, broad terms of this unconstitutional 1021b2 section of the ndaa as "substantial support" to an association says it with terrorism. it makes a possib

i remember reading a story by chris hedges in "the new york times" about the kosovo liberation army, and i thought it was just, you know, a couple of cousins from the bronx who decided to put on military uniforms and parade around the street. i think initially it really was nothing more than that. but because of the frustration that was building up in the albanian community and the response of the kla as an alternative to the pacifist approach, it increasingly started to gain influence. the u.s. government was rather keen to find out who was the kla, and with ambassador holbrooke we would have monthly lunches at bruno's restaurant on east 58th street where we would bring together the albanian-american community. when weren't there one evening, i was told that albanian-americans -- including a very strong group from texas -- showed up, and they put $1.8 million in cash on the table in order to procure weapons for the kla. you know, our meetings were more fact finding. there was one fellow named dino, a member of the diaspora from new york, who was known to be particularly close to the

now what's important to know is that the buyer is a hedge fund led by investor chris hansen and microsoftause following the news, california's the senate leader darrell steinburg who represents sacramento wrote a letter to the state department that controls state contracts asking for information about how much the state spends on microsoft products. he demanded to know, do we have contracts with them, are we giving them money, are they using the money we're giving them basically to turn around and take one of our great state assets. >> so if you do this, we're going to do that. >> val. we're going to dig right in there steinburg can't control the contracts but he can put punish on the country. >> it's a big loss not only for sacramento but all of us, i think the average salary is is 7 1/2 million, that's a lot of taxes heading to seattle. >> they're estimated to be about $7 million a. >>> yeah that's not all f of it. california has a funky rule if players come from out of state to play games in state they have to pay payroll tax ins california, so there is that 13% income of taxable peopl

. >> reporter: chris, his adviser and many others say they didn't know that these investments were really kind of a hedged, the sort of risky investment that can go bad fast. >> i wouldn't have invested, it wasn't for me. >> reporter: as it all came crashing down in 2008, e-mails like this showed the level of anger and panic within citigroup's ranks. my integrity has always meant more to me than anything else, wrote a financial adviser in despair. i trusted you, i trusted the fund manager, i trusted citi. on one of the angry conference calls, an adviser named jennifer krauss summed it up. >> the clients got duped. >> reporter: jack was not at the alternative investment wing when mat and falcon were sold. he insists his duties were administrati administrative. >> i was aware of things that were going on. i learned a great deal about the financial products. but i wasn't designing them and i wasn't opining on them. >> reporter: but it was there for the implosion and the aftermath, a time when advisers were begging citibank to do the right thing and make customers whole. but instead of offering full refunds,

chris. you have loopholes, right now, a guy making $3 million at one end of the hall, managing a hedge funds 20% and the guy at the other ends of the hall, managing and insurance company, pays north of 35%, that is dumb, we had a moderate middle, have e balanced approach to fix the loopholes an gain revenue and continue to focus on getting at the waste tom coburn and i agree about. >> chris: we are beginning to run out of time. a couple of other issues: the nomination of chuck hagel to be defense secretary, comes up this week. senator mccaskill, you are a member of armed services and voted for hagel in committee. i want to play, though, one of a number of rocky moments that he had during his hearing. >> i support the president's strong position on containment. >> i have been handed a note that i misspoke and said, i supported the president's position on containment. if i said that, it meant to say, that i -- his position on containment, we don't have a position on containment. >> to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment. which is, we do not favor containme

chris. you have some loopholes. right now a guy making $3 million at one end of the hall managing a hedge fund pays 20% and the guy at the other end of the hall making 3 million managing an insurance company pays north of 35%. that's dumb. we need to come together in the moderate middle and have a balanced approach that fixes loopholes and gains some revenue but continue to focus atgeting at the waste that tom cow burn and i agree about. >> chris: running out of time. i want to talk about a couple of ore issue. the nomination of chuck hagel to be defense secretary comes up this week. senator mccaskill, you voted for hagel in committee. i want to play one of a number of rocky moments he had during h his hearing. >> i support the president's strong position on co containm. i have just been handed a note that i misspoke and said i supported the president's position on containment. if i said that, i meant to say that i obviously his position on containment we don't have a position on containment. >> just to make sure your correction is clear, we do have a position on containment which is that we do not favor containment.