The Alyona Show: Scandalous Monday
The whistleblower site WikiLeaks gained international notoriety earlier this year when they released the Collateral Damage video of a helicopter attack in Baghdad in 2007 in which civilians and two Reuters journalists were killed. We interviewed WikiLaks co-founder Julian Assange on the day the video was released and now news comes out that federal officials have arrested an army intelligence analyst, 22- year-old specialist Bradley Manning, who bragged about leaking classified videos and documents to an ex-hacker online, after which the hacker turned him in to the FBI. Manning, who apparently was arrested two weeks ago at a base in Iraq, is being held in Kuwait without any formal charges filed at this time. Alyona talks with Cenk Uygur of the Young Turks in our studio to get his take on this debacle.
Then, the war in Afghanistan has reached its 104th month, officially making it the longest American war in history, surpassing Vietnam which lasted 103 months. But does the length of time mean we're any closer to success? It doesn't seem like it, and yet no protestors were on the streets today, saying this war has gone on too long. Could it be not only that Americans don't care about wars that don't affect them personally, but also because Afghanistan lived in the Iraq war's shadow? Jake Diliberto, a veteran and leader of Rethink Afghanistan discusses.
Later, this month the US debt reached the 13 trillion mark and now the IMF is projecting that US debt will overcome GDP by 2012. Britain's new prime minister, David Cameron, has announced that austerity measures will impact the country for decades in order to handle their debt, so how does their situation differ from that of the US? And, is Goldman Sachs now the global scapegoat? Even China is now speaking out against them. So what does it all mean? Joining Alyona to hash it out is RT Correspondent Lauren Lyster.
Finally, leave it to Texas to come up with a plan for illegal immigrants. The Texas Nationalist Movement has decided to just send them all to Washington, DC. They're going to give any illegal alien who wants it a free, one-way bus ticket to the nation's capitol. Alyona asks Daniel Miller, the president of the Texas Nationalist Movement, why he wants all the illegal immigrants in Texas to head to Washington, instead of home.