The some readings and sal you take. After this weekend im afraid i just have to say it my friends politics and professional wrestling i was sensually become pretty much the same thing youve got your faces and youve got your heels youve 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 of the form of the taliban and just like every contract signing on a w w w e violence erupted before the ink even had time to dry political reports that just hours of the United States signed what was billed as a Historic Deal with the taliban to end the main 1000 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 thats the real world equivalent of the scene putting daniel bryan through a table after signing the deal thats the real world burgeon except tragically in this real world version the violence after that the tricks isnt staged and actual lives are at stake as historian and writer Stephen Wirth time points out americas 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 for the military Industrial Complex and your vote for the put up puppet politicians and that my friends is why we are watching the hawks. In the city streets. That are so youd like to see that this is your choice just state and see rolls royce gracie say did slaves systemic deception is so but shes. So. Welcome on the watching ox i am tired and im obese across so many to either pure wrestling this week and watching the signing this d contract it is that mean we could fight or a private 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 hes thinking in Campaign Mode all this year and what better thing to say then oh i have this deal thats 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 theyre criticizing this saying really its just a piece of paper it really will have no real effect on the outcome of this one. The war still going to be fought i mean representative barbara lee out of california believe so the statement on her web page she said this socalled peace deal is anything but it leaves thousands of troops in afghanistan and lacks the critical investments in peace building Human Centered Development or gov governance reform needed to actually rebuild afghanistan and representative lee is probably one of my favorite people in the black caucus i think shes 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 real teeth there is nothing that is going to actually bridge the taliban 8 in the United States i dont think that that was what he was trying to do what it seems that hes trying to do is make people believe that thats whats 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 its a win for him because there are a lot of folks who just arent 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 the middle east policy that can not necessarily have legs but can at least get into the media cycle is what hes been known to do when they think that after a while people are asking where is this policy because as you can recall hes been talking about this taliban deal for the past would have years its interesting to know to the you know right now the target while were 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 current u. S. Forces there theyre just no longer going to be fighting the taliban and taliban theyre just going to be there for counterterrorism purposes with a vastly. In the detail but this is such a leap puts everything back to roughly the same number of troops that were there when trump came into office i mean its again its a stalemate exactly he shifted priorities and he is not actually removing troops and i think that you know that its 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 there is troops that need to be there for counterterrorism reasons why not just come out and say that you dont tell people that the troops are coming. Home when that is factually incorrect its complete its complete fallacy and again i think you may have been there on the head of its 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 its none of its going to be true and none of it is going to hold water for a long period of time because thats what politics is today its wrestling of the africa lets put on the show live the bad guys the good guys fight each other but then theyll go home and eat dinner later you know they go home and go out to the same restaurants they get paid by the same big political benefactors at the end of the day promises made promises broken thats most definitely most definitely true man just gets under my skin. Because several 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. Forces socialism trouble ministration officials like Vice President pence and secretary of state might come pale join trumps Reelection Campaign top brass in the duel better suited for Comedy Central diamond silk at the annual conservative circus there was no shortage of law and comedy descending on the Nations Capital last week. Amid all of the jeering racism geared at preserving isolationist policies that anti immigrant sentiment from agenda of dismantling womens 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 is redacted tonight correspondent Anders Lee Anders hey welcome back those that was brave to go to 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 do have a beard which can be very interesting so i got to say look the biggest theme 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 to its berty center is democratic socialist. And the Democratic Party doesnt really seem to love them that much anyway so why did you leave 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 had packed theres not really a clear consistent understanding of what that means and i think thats 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 tar biden with that label and theres not going to be really a clear response because thats 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 dont 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 whos actually saying yeah i i want that i am a socialist there kind of an exercise crisis 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 as well as Bernie Sanders versus socialism in its Historical Context when we think about countries in latin america 6 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 that 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 youre right its all it often goes back to venezuela and places like that or poor countries you know because unfortunately when no matter what kind of system you have in the 3rd world its going to be bad you know its going to be really tough to to improve standards of living when when you have an economy thats 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 theyre actually a capitalist country well if you look at the facts theres actually more state control over the norwegian economy and im a little biased on allegiant you really yes this is where i get the phone. But theres actually more state control over the region economy than there is over the venezuelan economy so thats something that i think only someone like bernie is prepared to an argument only hes prepared to make you know i want to ask you because you know youve got a big audience around the World International audience right now who you know theyre looking from the outside and even a lot of us citizens across the country dont really understand what its like to walk the halls of a major Convention Like c. Packard washington and what that like kind of you know with what it is to be there so i ask you you know what what not only surprised you but describe what that whole mess is like you think yeah its you know its a coalition of and i think this is what conservatism fundamentally is is a coalition of people who have a vested interest in the status quo and not changing things whether its the economy making things more turning the economy or gender equality racial equality they want to preserve things its a coalition of them and people who might benefit from some changes in the society but are just confused you know theres a lot of men. Cranks and sort of corporate goons thats 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 its always changing its position to whatever the opposite of the left is doing so its really just time is that and thats i think thats kind of the existential crisis right now with the pact they dont they know theyre against socialism but its hard to kind of be really adamantly procapitalism when weve seen what its done over the past its not its a tough so even for storage conservatives you know across the country and things like that its 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 weve seen in previous years yeah i remember being an undergrad 2008 everybody was going to think that but that everybody was strong libertarian green right people who want to hear about the free markets they want to steal 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 well as the secretary of state were also in the midst of the Coronavirus 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 weve probably seen in history we know that the more that happens the list advantages that is for 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 theres so many other buyers right now they havent done yet well of course as a citizen of the country i wish she was dealing with other things although you know maybe its 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 into space and pac and that was not the case here you know i jokingly asked a couple of people i explored trumper bill well you know i think bowling at point 3 percent in the republican primary and everybodys 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 it terms of a feeling to a broader public will say i dont know if thats going to be that effective its kind of looks like he was playing to his own crowd yeah were going to grab a imo you all agree fantastic and respect you so much for braving. Check out his coverage on redacted tonight later this week a believe you have a great piece you have a friday at 8 pm friday if you check it out thanks as were going to record watchers dont forget to let us know what you think of the topics would cover the 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 available on smart problems the google play and the Apple App Store by searching portable t. V. Coming up cia whistleblower jeffrey sterlings joins us to discuss his brand new book underwater spy you do not want to miss this sort of fate to the watching the. Thousands of american men and women choose to serve in the countrys military and the decision. Every. Be instructed told you. Coldish kill me i would destroy. Any screamed at me in. My arm and he write me. If you take into account that women dont report because of the extreme retaliation and its probably somewhere near about half a 1000000 women have now been sexually assaulted in the us. Its a very very traumatizing. But ive never seen trauma like. Women who are veterans who suffered military sexual trauma. Victims punished. And. Who was not even put to justice or put on the registry this is simply an issue of. Male sexual predators for the large part whoever is there whether thats when. Whistleblowers are a vital part of our democracy they can serve as a check to power uncover wrongdoing and bring to light some of the dark behaviors a powerful people as much as were taught about protecting these brave souls and the integrity of the information they bring forward what the wars are warily seen as 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 cias 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 irans 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 merely a cia led covert operation that was supposed to slow down Irans Nuclear program. He blew the whistle stirling had been in contact with journalist james risen and was thought to be a key source for his book the state of war detailing americas botched covert operation to disarm Irans Nuclear capacity through a series of traced phone calls and intercepted communications sterling was pegged as the inside source for rice and 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 merlin welcome jeffrey. Thank you for having me on jeffery and its a great honor having you on 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 merlin a complete failure and to what and do you think your role in whistleblowing served to kind of solidify it as one of the cias 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 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 form in your book there are details of chapters of your life like being a child without a village and a man without a country how these things impacted you. Well to mia writing a book it was just about the journey that ive taken and for me theres always been that racial aspect of the despite my trying to avoid that all or trying to combat it theres 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 misery i faced it in the all 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 that 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 theres a lot of things about it that maybe americans dont know about their country and things that go on and particularly with regard to whistleblowers as ive 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 that tremendous risk to disclose and uncover wrongdoing by our government officials you know you took huge risks and i think youre 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 boring the whistle but i think also as you mentioned you were also with a few people to bring up some of the issues of race that were taken place at the agency itself what were some of those issues and what advice do you have for whistleblowers in future whistleblowers in stepping forward you know looking at your old life and giving them the best advice you can. You know. For me i mean there there is certainly the aspect of the merlin operation mirlande point that i was a little bit 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 sinking that im raising in the ranks in handling my career i didnt 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 is tone it whats 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 didnt notice the color of my skin and thats 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 wasnt 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 as the court agreed with the prosecution that it posed a threat to the National Security of the United States and i still find out just amazing just to say that that an africanamerican standing up for civil rights in this country is a threat to our National Security. But thats all within my character that im not going to stand by and see something especially happening to me or something that im 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 wasnt going to plead to something i didnt do i wouldnt be able to face myself in the mirror in like who i saw staring back at me if i had pled to something i didnt do and that was the same for me through operation merlin in the racial. Discrimination that it was facing at the agency i couldnt 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 and maybe im not the poster child for who will go as 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 dunst 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 were jeffery are 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 were not told were loved enough so i tell you all i love you i am tired of interest and im in chicago keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night everybody. Thats geysers financial survival bill they say money to the relatives clergy abuse it this is a central plank support dying of blindness i dont call them right now so stop the. So what weve got to do is identify the threats that we have its crazy isnt for him to let it be an arms race is on all sides spearing Dramatic Development only personally im going to resist i dont see how that strategy will be successful very critical time time to sit down and talk. Hes now gone for the big do 50. 0 when he could number 2 number one with no kids who didnt complete moment to moment dont going to. See him all the good that percent of all the use in the. Concerts was in the uk of the conflict our young. People. Didnt misunderstand i dont know for you all that he would have loved this moment through playing out to play news or. Something to motivate to you all to be overseen so some of it to. Go to show some. Locals to the world put him in a Hospital Mission a little musical with a mushroom. Is a new. Plan to perform for the supernatural mean are just. 2. President ial race ahead of. Putting their money. A furious. Border with turkey which is allowing. People to desperation political. Will resume