They would set a terrible precedent the aim is to prevent whistleblowers from telling the truth and journalists from giving them a platform. So what this burst round of extradition hearing is coming to a close and more on the way i think its time to get the who the what the where and the why why we still can as we start watching the hawks if you want to know whats going on a city street you want to see. Him so youd like to see see the grass is always state ill see you roll slice mass graves see displays systemic deception is the late show which i will be bringing up the field as. Well call it on the watching dogs. And i want. To bring us on the ground insights into the assads extradition hearings we were joined earlier by journalist 3 cut deed in london who had been inside the courtroom following the case as it went on we started by asking him what he feels after witnessing the hearings firsthand what is the biggest story coming out of the courtroom. I think the big. Perspective i didnt want to take personally but kind of having sat through the hearings this week or this past week it became very apparent to me that it seems to me this seems to be that the result is already set in stone regardless of the lawyers arguments those sort of very clear signs of corruption and. Kind of lack of following of the jew process you know i can give you some examples of this but i guess one very telling case im sure everyone can sort of read it read about in the newspapers and the media we had this incident where julian stood up in the courtroom half a year to kind of complain about the lack of confidential time he was getting with his lawyers you know there was reports say it didnt you know strip searched multiple times and he held in 5 different Holding Cells in his legal papers tape taken away from him so we had an afternoon in the courtroom where you know the lawyers were made a petition for him to come and sit in the next you know next to the lawyers in the benches to remove him out of this glass stock that hes been sitting in the back in the back of the courtroom you know where hes not able to hear the proceedings not you not able to take part. In you know we had about 2 or 3 hours of legal discussion about this where the lawyers present the evidence in precedence for other cases where defendants were able to sit with their lawyers. And despite all these arguments despite the prosecution saying they had no problems with Julian Assange sitting with his lawyers. The judges district judge nessa braced she essentially read off of a piece of paper that was already with her prior to that evenings arguments it was like. Her decision had already been made so it was a very clear sign to those in the courtroom that you know this is you know not a case. Process is being followed unfortunately while and the crux of this case where i found it depends dean is proving that astonish me is being persecuted by the United States for political reasons and not criminal with us because according to the expedition treaty between the u. K. And the u. S. Extradition rules out political bent how objective has the found is it depends in been in making that case. Well this again its a very similar situation where this is precisely the the argument that the defense relied on and discussed in court they said that this is clearly a political offense numerous examples of this. The judge didnt you know didnt seem to be moved by these arguments despite the extradition treaty as this political. Political safeguard in for you know Political Prisoners which in this case clearly is you know we can discuss some of the things going on with. Former congressman rohrbacher her in the new director of National IntelligenceRick Grinnell donald trump all these people these figures are involved in this but. Nonetheless the lawyers didnt know the sort of the judge didnt seem to be able to move by those arguments whereas on the other hand the u. S. Prosecution is arguing that. You know the political system Political Prisoners safeguards that are in place in the treaty should not apply in this case even though almost every u. S. Extradition treaty in the world has this political safeguard its in the u. N. You know model treaty example of what you know what treaty should look like its in the interpol conventions on treaties. And you know the judge seem to be fairly happy with this with this argument whereas you know its all those completely nonsensical to really have a extradition request that is trying to ignore the actual extradition treaty that its based upon the. Judge gave the prosecution very little pushback on this but you know gave a lot of resistance to the defense lawyers for saying a very basic legal all the extradition should follow the rules of the extradition treaty or should follow the rules of the European Court of human rights which you know makes similar a similar arguments against political extraditions you know im not a lawyer and im definitely not a solicitor in the u. K. But to me its a kind of obvious i mean to anyone looking at this case that this is a Political Base case thats not really about crime its about going after assad for his political inspired actions at the end of the day i mean its kind of ridiculous to me is that not i mean just from someone outside looking in that the way it was proceeding here and for those of us not familiar with u. K. Courts and how they operate you know is this kind of is the operations inside the courtroom true typical of what you normally see in these kind of cases. I mean i have a kind of attended to many extradition hearings other than this one but i think its very clear to say that what is going on is ridiculous you know i was speaking to lots of journalists in and around the court room and you know theyre all discussing how theyre you know bringing up the case with that taxi drivers or you know as im making their way to court and you know sort of just to base a person off the street was able to say that whats going on with Julian Assange is ridiculous i dont think theres any controversy about that but i think its a clear sign of whats going on. In the u. K. And in the west in general that we seem to be youll. Kind of ruling society this for say lack of a better word is seems to be very happy to kind of disregard due process and basic rule of law just to kind of secure this prosecution. Is setting a very very dangerous precedent i believe. And to rick. Where do you where do you think these hearings go from here what is the consensus so far on whether or not assad will be extradited to the u. S. What is still very difficult to say its going to be a very long process which i think thats something a lot of people need to be aware of so were going to have 3 more weeks of evidence in may and the thats going to be the bulk of the evidence. But regardless of the outcome of what happens in may this will be appealed you know if if the prosecution wins its case you know julians lawyers will be appealing and if the u. S. Government you know loses extradition requests they will be appealing i think its going to be a 2 or 3 year process. But you know i think personally i think the only solution to this is going to be a political solution we need pressure from the outside to kind of say this is clearly a political case this is clearly someone whos not ever committed any crimes they are journalist and if if we kind of pretend that all countries are based on these principles of democracy in open access to information the absolutely no reason for him to be in prison the way he is. Going to be a Court Watchers dont forget to let us know what you think of the topics weve covered our social media and be sure to sign up for our exclusive newsletter at least slash watching you can also start watching those arcs on the mail through the brand new portable t. V. Out available on smartphones through google play at the Apple App Store by searching portable t. V. A dark industry comes to life in los angeles every night. Dozens of women sells abilities on the streets many of them underage. Los Angeles Police reveal a taste of their daily challenge. If youre going to exploit for a child here in los angeles they were going to come out to see officers going undercover as 6 workers and customers to fight the 6 trades. Is your media a reflection of reality. In a world transformed. What will make you feel safe. Isolation full community. Are you going the right way or are you being led. By the way. What is true what is faith. In the world corrupted you need to descend. To join us in the depths. Or remain in the shallows. Everything of collapsing against the dollar. So how long will that last probably not a long time because. As weve seen during brain woods or through the plaza toward of the 1980 s. Theres going to have to be a global coordinated sit down to rearrange the global 4 x. Market rearrange the global currency grid and the dollar is not the thing were going to have to match it against because that runaway balli when the dollar is whats causing this deflation and thats whats causing the global depression part 2. Im going to fulfill the repeated purposes oh politics to the people and promise to be you know weve all pots be. Pretty rough. A little. Pretty good. Now you want to 1st correct that. No. Balls. 5 to stand up as a nation some which says sure to be a cement dust up over at the. Ocean as a little shes a monk for the for the fluids of the trip improved for. Nature my p. C. P. I didnt do enough to try to accomplish magick for the. Purpose. It was because the global world d was going to have to close to this need so that in your voice you just did must have looked like the promise of a movie and you spoke of the family and you fighting under the sofa or come out. On the west coast in a portion of about 4 to 6 months because of the sound. 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 of powerful people as much as were taught about protecting these brave souls and the integrity of the information they bring forward whistleblowers are wearily 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 promote its 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 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 rising 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 authorized disclosure of National Defense of her mation 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 with a nod 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 operation marilyn welcome geoffrey. Thank you for having me on jeffery and its a great honor having you on and i didnt before we get started to 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 then i did eventually go to actually both the senate and house intelligence committees while while. Mr sterling your book that i wanted 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 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 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 you know future whistleblowers and 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 was also as you said the racial issues that i was facing at the cia while i was there and trying to win thinking that im raising in the ranks in handling my career i didnt realize it and that i 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 he saw in 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 courts 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. On that with 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 were 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 this was the same for me through operation merlin in the racial. Discrimination that 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 state 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 whistleblowers 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 been 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 unwanted spy the persecution of american whistleblower jeffrey sterling thank you so much for joining us today thank you for having me on. Wow everybody well that at the end of the day thats our show man thats. The powerful stuff were jeffery seso deep so frustrating at the same time on the right well everybody that is our show remember everyone in this world its important to remember in this world were not told the were loved enough so i tell you all i love you i am tyro been terrific. Keep are watching all those hawks all parents have a great day and my. Blushes and i think she chewed the cheek a total more she cut a hole close to the team yorkie set its chance does that always sting against. The. Beautiful girls you know i said you needed a cliche you got a use of it i was caught but im counting that in the scheme to show. For the true leadership hes. Given to us but to the south korean his are still some of the come forward summed up by. The mummy approachable british mr west i am all sure because. Each simulating civilization would be able to run using a tiny fraction of its resources. Hundreds of thousands millions of runs through all of Human History almost all. Beings with our kinds of experiences. Were going to simulate that once rather than on simulated ones and conditional that there are good we should think fearful of that one of the simulated ones. A fairly super cool porsche with a little tractor there was a News New York at the sun in china to start with you shirtless to achieve if we just look you feel and i ministrys for a while for your clothing or just now dont i do it is maybe unfocused but i will push the fat so foolishly rimming to get us no. Good looks and systems can make us. Seem wrong when all we all just dont all. Get to say power is they become advocates and engagement equals betrayal. When so many find themselves worlds apart we choose to look for common ground. Trade and investment to become magic spells to conjugate economic development. Most people think about trade they think about goods and services being exchanged between countries and the investor a chapter of a trade agreement is about something very different but what one investment leads to toxic manufacturing that destroys sacred sites all ruins the environment. That means. Local communities that are being poisoned jack if they do anything that the company feels is interrupting their profits they can do serious. National zoo take on the whole nation still of morris is trying to use i. S. T. s to stop glorifying from implementing new tobacco regulations aimed at cutting domestic smoking rates a French Company soon egypt because egypt resists minimum wage democratic choice trump Corporate Law joint says we try to find. 6 am ready for the morning here in moscow in the headlines for most of the international the coronavirus death toll in italy overtake the start of china in one city the army is drafted in to help transport coffins out of the area. Moscows starts building a new hospital complex outside the city to treat 19 patients its due to be up and running in less than a month. Britains National Health service braces for a surge in coronavirus patients with the number of new cases almost doubling by the day. Kevin over here in the russian capital stay with our various social media for the latest from us 247 well keep you posted as best we can headline update for you in an hours time meantime between now