i'm ray suarez. on the occasion of the acquittal of hosni mubarak, we're looking at egypt this time on the program. 168,000 pages of evidence, photographic images of protesters , the court dropped many of the charges against the man who ruled egypt. in contrast to al jazeera journalist who is were arrested and tried in egypt, mohamed fahmy, bader mohammed, and peter greste, they'll they will have been in prison for almost and year and are charged with helping the banned muslim brotherhood. as noted before the break there are still problems in tunisia with corruption, and the need for transparency. one thing that makes it stand out is when the islamic party lost it's second election it went into opposition. this is not something that has happened in the arab world. >> no, it hasn't. however, you have to look at them as how their stubbornness while in government produced these negative consequences , and those who remain, continue to protest in small pockets. >> do they live to talk about it. >> in ord

i'm ray suarez. >> thbetween the presidencies of hosni mubarak and if a tal fattah al sisi, the rise of the previously barely tolerated muslim brotherhood, the president from the brotherhood, a and then overthrow, bannings, jailings, and new elections. like mubarak before him, al sisi traded in his uniform for a business suit. over the past week the former president mubarak and a collection of his officials were cleared of charges stemming from the ending days of his long rule. did egypt pass through the fire of revolution only to end up in the same place? >> tarir square, now the scene of fighting and frustration. an eruption of anger saturday following the announcement that ousted leader hosni mubarak no longer faces murder charges tied to the 2011 protest. >> we don't deserve this. we don't deserve such such a verdict after four years. >> to residents of cairo it is more of a disappointment. it's a symbol another sign political and societal changes once dreamed off may be fading away. >> who kille

i'm ray suarez. the year end is a convention in the news business but it is an useful one. it gives audience and reporters a chance to look at how eventful a year has been before we talk about the new day. 7billion human beings have a remarkable capacity for making news. 2014 was striking. the eyes of the islamic state in the iraq and levant. something close to civil war in ukraine's east. india's narendra modi in nigeria, boko haram moves to attack and pitch battle all as oil plummets in price causing serious headaches. like every year you can look back and say that was a time. >> one of the biggest moments for u.s. foreign policy in 2014 august 7th, president barack obama announcing the u.s.' mission to degrade and destroy the islamic state in iraq and the levant or isil. with the help of international coalition. the strength of the relatively new force took iraq and the region by spruce. iraq's prime minister nouri al-maliki stepped down. syria began to deteriorate into one of the worse civil wars

i'm ray suarez. as a society we're nervously circling the deathment. sometimes ready to reopen cases if there is suspension of mistaken verdict. and now can someone who is mentally disabled be taken to the death chamber. are there people who are incable of reasoning? incapable of knowing the consequences of their actions, incapable of exercising something that we would call intent in such a way that ending their lives is unjust? that's our focus this time on inside story. >> reporter: capital punishment is legal in 32 states. a new report from the death penalty information station found a new low in death againsts and executions. just 35 people were put to death this year. meanwhile, 72 people were sentenced to death, the lowest number in the modern era of the death penalty dating back to 1974. also in play, the mental health and mental capacity of inmates. according to the report, mellow disabilities loomed as an emerging issue in 2014 the supreme court has ruled it uninstitutional to execute the me

hello, i'm ray suarez. there is a law against using the internet to launch physical threats against another person. the constitution does guarantee free speech rights but not in an unlimited way. year after year we have debates about just where the lines and limits are. can you make a first person shooter video game that allows the player to target barack and michelle obama? can you show military service people in action, as a sergeant generation ago tell people you were an officer and won decoration for valor or combat that you never earned? once more we asked the supreme court to step in and decide the legality of behavior that didn't exist when the framers did their work in the 1780s. james madison didn't have an ex wife or a facebook page. >>> the internet makes it easy to give anyone a piece of your mind and share it with the world in an instant. but if your words are aggressive or even threatening where's the line between free speech and crime? monday the supreme court heard the case of elonis versus

i'm ray suarez. the senate intelligence committee's majority has received a massive report detailing the torture of prisoners held in the years after the terrorist attacks in new york and washington. even as the public was being assured that terrorist suspects were not being tortured the report says they were. the catalog of abuse visited on the detainees including men who turned out to know nothing makes distressing reading. the debate now has moved to what happens once of interrogation program has been made public. does the u.s. move to prosecute those responsible for the torture it is, for the cover up and lies that kept it from the white house and congress. >> on the eve of international human rights day u.n. specialist scolded over the intelligence gathering post 9/11. he urged it's now time to take action. the individuals responsible for the criminal conspiracy revealed in today's report must be brought to justice, and must face criminal penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime. int

i'm ray suarez. the millions fleeing the destroyed cities and towns of syria have put a heavy burden on the country's neighbors. lebanon, jordan and turkey are now the reluctant homes to instant cities of temporary shelters. these are in many cases countries struggling to take care of their own people when an emergency drags on, becomes something more than a burst of dislocation. the difficulties will only grow. the united nations' world food program said that it can't forward to feed world refugees any more, and needs infusions of new cash to defend off hunger in the camps as winter begins to tighten it's grip. nearly 2 million syrian refugees who manage to flee the violence of civil war and find safety in neighboring countries are now in serious danger of going hungry this winter. >> it has declared the suspension of the assistance. the assistance for refugees, in lebanon, turkey and egypt, they have faced funding constraints in recent months and have been appealing from donors for funding. >> typi

. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. you know you've got a problem when your central bank raises interest rates 6.5% overnight to 17%, and your currency still continues to tumble. it would be tough for any country, but the russian industry is anemic, and at the same time the amount of money they're making from something the world does want to buy--oil--is collapsing. russian's imported goods will zoom in price as the christmas and holidays approach, russians are flocking to buy consumer goods before the prices jump. meanwhile the government is pushing down reserved trying to support the ruble. now it's look line the bad 'ol days in russian, the 1990's. >> reporter: the russian ruble is in trouble. russia's central bank suffered a massive interest rate hike. the central bank said in a statement, the ruble plummeted a quarter of its value. and in the past year the ruble has depreciated 50% against the dollar. it settled at one point at a low of 72 rubles. the drop is attributed to ongoing western sanctions because of russi

i'm ray suarez. there are religious and ethnic minorities scattered across the middle east. in mean cases members of communities thousands of years old. christians in lebanon, syria and egypt, jews, samaritans and the yazidis an off shoot from the ancient religion. as isil tightens it's grip it brings a particular level of abuse against those who proclaim against all odds of their airport faith. >> this is the scene in early august. thousands of yazidi trapped on mount sinjar, surrounded by isil fighters. the seen, which raised fears of genocide was one of the reasons president barack obama launched airstrikes against isil. >> i directed our military to take strikes at isil convoys should they move towards the city. >> in the past few days the kurdish fighting force, the peshmerga, has almost retaken the town of sinjar with the help of the yazidi fighters. while this will relief the yazidis, a new report out from amnesty international called "escape from hell," torture and sexual slavery of yazidi gi

hello, i'm ray suarez. a barrel of oil, 42 gallons of crude now costs $57. just a couple of months ago that same 42 gallons cost $106. if you drive a lot it was like getting a raise. if you're a corporate or national income based on how much you can get for that barrel, yo you just got a raise. with christmas shopping americans. >> i'm glad it keeps going down. we have enough insurance, and everything we have to take care of, gas is the least of our worries. >> in the last six months oil prices have dropped 35%. when oil was down $80 a barrel, we asked our guests how low oil could go before we should start to worry. >> are there best cases and worst cases we should be looking at over the next year or two. goldman sachs is at $70 a barrel all next year. >> one of the things that we never do on a show is predict. but i would say lower. >> lower than $70. >> yes. >> the lowest since 2009, it's about the law of supply and demand. there is too much supply, and prices have continued to fall since saudi arabia convinced opec to keep pumping at current levels rather

i'm ray suarez. since the partition of the british empire in india pakistan has had a divided soul. those divisions have become more acute in recent years as the growth of a religiously orthodox country within a country has been tolerated by a more secular more modern state. with an untable and unraveling of afghanistan on the front tear and a fast growing confident india on another events have pulled pakistan in multiple directions. has the audacious murder of 130 boys and girls in a school operated as a water shed moment, clearing away the ambiguity of the taliban, introducing clarity amid the bloodshed and horror? >> an attack killed more than 140 people. 132 of them children, and stunned the country and turned public opinion roundly against the taliban pakistan. which claimed responsibility for the attack as retribution for military separations against the group. as parents bury their children, pakistan is taking action. pakistani ground forces killed up 70 militants in the northwest tribal areas

hello i'm ray suarez. the millions fleeing the destroyed cities and towns of syria have put a heavy bette bun the country's neighbors. jordan turkey and lebanon are struggling to take care of their own people when an emergency continues on, the difficulties of staining these people will only grow. the eurnts worl eurnt united nations world food program, as winter begins to tighten its grip. nearly 2 million syria refugees who managed to flee the violence of civil war and find safety in neighboring countries are now in serious danger of going hungry this winter. funding for the u.n. world food program's vouchers, have dried up just as the bitter cold has set in. >> special assistance for syrian refugees because of funding complaints. wsp has been facing crisis for months and has been appealing to donors for funding. >> works like a debit card in local grocery stores. but with the surge of global crises and people in need wfp has struggled to keep up with the cost and now can't afford to top up the cards. >>

i'm ray suarez. the legal, moral, political dimensions of the continued operation of the detention camp for terrorist suspects at guantanamo bay naval base. just recently six prisoners were transferred to uruguay on south america's east coast. joining us now, the representative of detainees early in the war. the former prosecutor in the department of justice's counter terrorism section, she's currently counsel, and representative of 18 guantanamo detainees. courtney, do the international convention differ when you're talking of a guerrilla army of a no longer sovereign government. >> they're describing them as unprivilege enemy of we ledge republicans. that's the what is used now. >> would that extend to a soldier fighting for the government. >> not just a nation-state but other legal aspects such as wearing uniform, openly carrying your arm, not attacking civilians, not attacking red cross workers, not attacking ngos, all of which not particularly detainees at guantanamo bay, but all of which in a a

i'm ray suarez. one of the final chapters of the cold war, two countries glare at each other across the florida state just moved a lot closer to resolution. president obama extolled engagement over confrontation promised to work with congress to end the laws which sought to punish and isolate the island of cuba, a close american neighbor and communist country for more than 50 years. it sounds like a lot is going to change, and very, very quickly. >> today we're making these changes because it is the right thing to do. to the cuban people america extends a hand of friendship. some of you have looked to us as a source of hope. we will continue to shine a light of freedom. we can never erase the history between us, but we believe that you should be empowered to live with dignity and self determination. >> pratt baracpresident barack obama said it would restore full diplomatic relations with cuba, all of it a dramatic change in a policy that has not moved in 50 years. and in the president's view has oh d

i'm ray suarez. the u.s. government entities that work this out has less and less his station about pointing the finger of blame at north korea as the source of the devastating hack of sony pictures. the forced entry, the threat, the embarrassing public disclosure of private material. the president has united states has expressed his concern. the hack has been described as a security problem for the u.s. there is even talk of putting north korea on the list of state sponsor of terrorists. in what way is the north korean computer attack different? worrying, threatening? that's our focus this time on the program. >> i don't think it was an act of war. i think it was an act of cyber vandalism that was very costly and we take it seriously. >> should the government have done more when it appeared as blackmail from an attorney state? that's the question. confirmed that north korea was behind the most emgear racing corporate hacks of the year. this is not a sony security problem. this is a national security

i'm ray suarez. that was senator john mccain on the senate floor where he explains hi his questions towards the report. the debate on the release made it sound like the value of information garnered was just a matter of opinion. is it? mark, there are some voices saying no, that's not true. we did get valuable things. and john mccain calling in to question whether anything worthwhile was found out. >> i think there is an issue here that will have to be sorted out. that is that the c.i.a. has maintained that these harsh interrogations were not in and of themselves for the purpose of ex-practicing information but rather to create come compliance and submission. i think it will require careful reading to see that bore out, and in fact, if that is what happened. secondly, i'm concerned that the people writing this report may not really understand the business of intelligence analysis. you know, how you put together an analytic mosaic. i fear what i read so far in the public discourse so far that the imag

i'm ray suarez. there are only about 140 men held at the detention camp at guantanamo bay navy base, but that does not stop it from being the most expensive prison in the world. even with the slow attrition in population, there are plans on the drawing board for spending $69 million for a new high security lock up on the eastern tip of cuba. in the recently passed 1 trillion-dollar spending plan for 2015, congress was shore to include a prohibition of transferring detainees to the u.s. plai mainland. there are occasional trials. occasional transfers and never ending arguments over the law, security, human rights, force feeding, and the future. in early disease six prisoners werdecember six prisoners were taken to uruguay. and they will all begin new lives at refugees. >> he's hopeful now that he's out and free with proper medical care here in uruguay he can get better and rebuild his life. >> reporter: these six were never charged, and cleared to leave the prison back in 2009. but not until uruguay c

i'm ray suarez. these most recent traditions of the u.s. government is such a contentious bunch. deadlines have been blown. sequestration gun. the government shutdown. time after time congress set deadlines for itself with consequences thought to be so lousy it would force them to come to an agreement, and they still didn't manage to get it done. but not this time. more than 1 trillion-dollar of government spending is spelled out in a massive new ominous bill. and you could not hear the muffled cheers over the recriminations. less than three hours before midnight. >> live, if we don't get finished today we're going to be here until christmas. >> this is a bill that we should vote for. this bill needs to pass. >> the representatives dodged another shutdown, passing a 1 trillion-dollar spending measure nicknamed the romney bus. it includes a continuing resolution, a c.r. >> what they're looking for is practical governance and willingness to compromise. that's what this bill will do. >> others criticize

hello, i'm ray suarez. the country tries to get to the bottom of terrorist plots, we come through long and heated debate whether what is now known should ever become public, and now it has. the thrust of the report boils down to this. people were tortured contrary to the repeated assertions that it was worse than people let on, and it didn't work and when responsible branches of the government tried to find out what went on, they were often lied to. >> the report received today looks at c.i.a.'s detention of 119 individuals and use of coercive techniques in some cases amount no torture. >> the practices used by the united states after '9, long in the making, politically charged, it reports previously undisclosed techniques used by the c.i.a. the report found that the interrogations of c.i.a. detainees were brutal, and far worse than the c.i.a. represented to policymakers and others. it accuses the c.i.a. of using interrogation technique such as violent threats to a prisoner's families, including the threat

i'm ray suarez. when the team that puts inside story together for you day after day talked about the big stories of 2014, race as an american flash point came up plenty. not only in the shootings of michael brown, eric garner, tamir rice and others, but the legal process and backlash that followed. more than half a century after the final vestiges of jim crow were torn down, housing education, voting, it was illustrated again and again in in 2014 that there is more than one way to look at america. an opportunity and rights, personal safety on the streets. >> this was the scene earlier in december in new york city. washington, d.c. chicago, and oakland. in cities across the country people took to the streets to protest the decisions of two grand juries not to indict police officers in the deaths of two unarmed african-american men. >> what comes as we've seen in recent days in our criminal justice system too many americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap of professed ideals and how laws

i am ray suarez.years as a street reporter i spent a lot of time with police. at crime scenes, perp walks, some officers seem to have a knack for avoiding escalation, while some other officers had a tendency to make their authority paramount. more than the maintenance of order or the pursuit of suspects. the unwillingness of a grand jury in new york to indict a police officer after a homicide provides a revealing reference point. a minor infraction was suspected, a man who did not want to be arrested, but was not responding with violent resistence. in a matter of seconds, eric garner was on the floor, his head pressed to the pavement, four officers swarming his prone body. was officer daniel pantaleo really given no other choice but to respond to garner as he did? would another valid response have ended with garner not dieing and the law still enforced on staten island? >> all lives must be valued. all lives. mr. garner's death is one of several recent incidents across our great country that have test

i am ray suarez.arrel of oil, 42-gallons of crude now costs about $57. just a couple of months ago, that same 42-gallons cost $106. if you drive a lot, it was like getting a raise. if you are corporate or national income is based on how much you can get for that barrel, you just got a cut in pay. close to 50%. what the tumbling price of crude does in an inter naturally connected world economy where christmas shopping americans iranian generals, venezuelan bureaucrats and chinese factory owners all are feeling the effects of cheap oil. oil prices have been falling at record speeds this year. to the delight of many american drivers. >> i am glad it keeps going down, like we got enough bills and insurance and everything else to take care of. gas should be the least of our worries. >> in the last six months, oil prices have dropped 45%. in october, when the price of oil was down to around $80 a barrel, we asked our guest, professor of international business how low oil could go before we should start to w

i am ray suarez.the world journalists are harassed arrested, even killed. in many cases what the people targeting them could call a crime, is very simple, they tell the stories powerful people don't want told. three al jazerra journal i haves, were arrested tried and sen tested to long prison terms for trying to cover the banned political party that only a few months earlier in 2013, had been running egypt. today on the one-year anniversary of their arrest. we are devoting this edition of "inside story" to the continued imprisonment of the peter getter mohamed fahmy and bahar mohamed and to say once again to the audience in the united states and around the world journalist is not a crime. buzzing newsrooms came to a standstill monday marking one year since al jazerra journalists peter greste, mohamed fahmy and bahar me hommie he had were detained odd terrorism charges in egypt. al jazerra condemns the sentencing arguing it is a journalist's job to get all sides of the store and it's channel is objecti

i am ray suarez. forces try to extract a kidnap kick victim somewhere in the world the stakes aren't just high for the u.s. president and the armed forces the governments in nominal control of the territories where gorillas, rebels and terrorists operate end up being a stake hold third mission. sometimes reluctantly. still with us, christopher volunteers former lead negotiator for the fbi's international kidnapping response team. is ma a them eny political analyst and christopher swift. professor of security studies. sama, would the yemeni government have had a role in green lighting a mission like this? or is this something that the united states would just pull off on its own? >> i doubt that that's something that the u.s. pull off on its own, the yemeni government is considered an ali of the united states. all of the drones that are happening in yemen, sometimes i do believe that the government is not full aware of what's happening with the drones but the president has come to the united states and