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 bean putting daniel bryan through a table after signing the deal thats the real world version 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 hogs. On a city street. That are so youd like to see that this is your choice just state and see a rolls royce gracie say did slaves systemic dissent says so but she would be so. Welcome on watching our entire rover and im obese across so many to either pure wrestling this week and watching the signing this contract it is the means we could fight or a private not really because i think 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 my 13 year 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 some of 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 one term came into office i mean its again its a stalemate exactly he shifted priorities and he was 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 none of thats going to be true and none of its going to hold water for a long period of time because thats what politics is today its wrestling the after close poll on the show a lot of 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 the pack came to a close on saturday after bringing thousands of maga supporters to d. C. Under the banner of the u. S. Versus socialism trouble ministration officials like Vice President pence and secretary of state my campaign 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 an anti immigrant sentiment from agenda of dismantling womens reproductive rights and spreading stories about gun grabbing democrats coming for your most prized possessions there might be a deeper story here to break down the path the Republican Partys annual gathering of whiteness is redacted tonight correspondent Anders Lee Anders welcome back those that was brave to go and some of the some days its the pack right there thats not so brave when you look like i do yes that was true it was all suck but you do have a beard which can be dangerous. So i got to say look the biggest theme to come out of the package in this gathering of conventions very political but the biggest the most kind of you know. Vs 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 birds democratic socialist. And the Democratic Party doesnt really seem to love them that much anyway so why did you leave is this to help me understand what the pm was perceived as youre right why 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 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 socialism and now that you have somebody whos actually saying yeah i i want that i am a socialist there kind of an existential crisis right i like how you kind of 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 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 i mean a lot of us citizens across the country dont really understand what its like to walk the halls of a major Convention Like c pac and 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 was 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 he has 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 yeah 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 back and that was not the case here you know i jokingly asked a couple of people. Well you know i think 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 in terms of a appealing 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 were going to grab it imo you all agree fantastic and respect you so much for braving. Check out his coverage on redacted later this week a believe you have a great piece. Friday for you check it out thanks and were going to dont forget to let us know what you would cover over 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 and 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 underwater spy you do not want to miss this. Watching. In the United States president ial candidates debate the future of the u. S. And the world. But to get into the burning questions of this election cycle. Every week. Student trade was money universal basic. And. Catch up with whats front running this sunday exclusively. So of american men and women choose to serve in the countrys military and the decision. Every song came to a complete. The day that i was right. You know told to shut up kill me and i see how it destroyed my life any screamed at me and he made me come in and you grab 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 military rape is a very very traumatizing happen but ive never seen trauma like ive seen women who are veterans who have suffered military sexual trauma reporting 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 thats a man or when. 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 were taught about protecting these breaks souls and the integrity of the information they bring forward what the wars are where we think it is heroes in fact they are operating losses just for telling the truth and making our democracy live up to its great 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 iran 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 merlin a cia led covert operation that was supposed to slow down Irans 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 americas botched covert operation to disarm Irans 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 record 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 the 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 same legacy of operation merlin welcome jeffrey. Thank you for having me on jeffery and its a great honor having you on and before we could start i do want to thank you for standing up and speaking and speaking the truth that you knew i think is very honorable blowing 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 and 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 a 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 life like being a child without a village and a man without a country how have these things impacted you. Well timea writing the 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 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 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 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. For me. I mean there there is certainly the aspect of the merlin operation merlin point that i whistle blow 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 infer anything 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 tony 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 and like who i saw staring back at me if i had pled to something i didnt do and it was the same for me through operation merlin and the racial. Discrimination i 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 that maybe im 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 danced 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 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 inter and im in chicago keep on watching all those hawks out there and have a great day and night everybody. You know we talk a lot on the show many years about economy and currencies and what makes a currency usually what makes a currency a scarcity for example gold is a currency its money because its scarce thats the primary reason people use it as money keynesian economics or socialism is usually unworkable because the people who are organizing it think that well you can just print all the money you need you need a program print more money theres socialism for banks on wall street as was pointed out recently one of the big president ial debates you know a bank gets in trouble just print more money well whats the ultimate scarce commodity what is the ultimate scarce commodity think about it what is the ultimate scarce commodity. I. Mean you know what to do to keep good number when you need to complete moment to moment duncan to pull. Them out of all the use in the. Culture and the arc of the conflict our young. People. And peddles movements and i want to put you on that we would love. To find out. Something to motivate to you all to see. Some some of it to. Go to show some. Locals to the reporter to be able to please a little musical with the most. The greek border with. Access for thousands of refugees. People to. The border. Thanks. Joe biden president. To Democratic Candidates drop out of the us president ial race ahead of super tuesday putting that money want to favorite joe biden and what seen as a push to oust the front runner. Up key question questioned in the rush