Will this fall on deaf ears . [ laughing ] wait a minute. Whew hes already banned large soda moved to move styrofoam containers and junk food in hospital and convinced 21 companies to voluntarily reduce sodium levels in foods. From butter ball cold cuts to heinz ketchup to some starbucks breakfast sandwiches. You can still buy sodiyummy pork wrapped in salt, dare to die from. When will it end . When will enough be enough . What will he ban next on the list of things that really annoyed my grandmother. If youre taking suggestions um duvet covers. Its hard to get them in there. No more. Michael have a great night folks. Well see you back here monday. The young turks are next. Welcome to the young turks, everybody. Today, the white house responds. Senator its literally three sentences long and he says that the answer to your question about can americans be killed on u. S. Soil, and the answer is no. Are you satisfied . Well tell you thats called a tease all right also, interact. We had apparently death squads and torture skills tied to general petraeus. The man on his left is his clip rater, colonel James Coffman. He reported directly to general David Petraeus who funded this Police Commando force from a multibillion dollars fund. Thats an Amazing Store from the guardian and bbc. Dont miss that. Rick scott with an epic flipflop on obamacare. Your decision on medicaid is called a classic bait and switch. I thought to make sure we did the right thing. Oh, gosh, weve got a tea party guest furious with scott on the show today. Hows that for fun . Anybody know what time it is, oh, you know it, its go time. Cenk so yesterday, of course, we had a bit have a filibuster by rand paul, only 13 hours or so, and it was over the nomination of john brennan. After about 13 hours, rand paul said well, you know, ive run into a bit of an issue here. Basically every had to go to the bathroom, so he ended the filibuster. Did he prove his point get what he wanted . First of all was john brennan affirmed . Totally. Ayes are 63, the nays 34. The nomination is concerned. 6334 only three democrats two departments and an independent voted with the republicans to deny brennan the nomination but they were not successful. Brennan will be the new head of the c. I. A. And continue drone strikes that kill people we have no idea were killing signature strikes where we dont know the identity of people we are killing. Double taps that would kill First Responders and detaining a citizen without a trial. If you think brennans on your side, it depends what side youre on. Senator Patrick Leahy said cenk now, understand that what hes saying is that the administration has secret law. In a democracy that should be abhorrent, unacceptable. Lay he is saying you cant have secret law used to execute u. S. Citizens and we cant even check in on that law. The question rand paul focused on was can you kill u. S. Citizens on u. S. So i am without a trial and guess what . Attorney general eric holder came in and said you know what, it seemed we were saying you could, but all of a sudden, not so much. He says cenk that was not an additional question, that was the core question. He put in a couple of qualifiers there to have wiggle room as an attorney, of course be so they probably can kill u. S. Citizens on u. S. Soil under different circumstances. Rand paul when asking about it seem somewhat satisfied with the answer. Are you satisfied . Im quite happy with the answer. Im disappointed it took a month and a half and root canal to get it. Thats what ive been asking all along. Cenk lets bring in a couple of experts, Andrew Kirell and colonel morris davis was chief prosecutor at gitmo restored with 25 Years Service with the air force and assistant professor at howard law school. Great to have you both here. So andrew, let me actually start with you on this. So did rand paul get the answer that he was looking for and in that sense was the filibuster effective . Well, he says he got the answer hes looking for. He was on fox and i think megan kelley read the answer. He said hooray, this is the answer i wanted. As you said in the intro this is a lot of legalese in the letter that makes it clear there are going to be circumstances he can use the drone strikes is there a nonweaponnized drone strike, there is wiggle room. It was a massive jet is it your, the entire filibuster was a great way to bring attention to this issue. In effect, that will keep obama accountable for a little longer, and future president s. Cenk colonel davis youre of course the lawyer, the chief prosecutor at gitmo eric holder gave the answer we just quoted there in terms of what they could do with a drone strike in a noncombat situation in the sufficient. The day before, he said this cenk so, what is the answer that the administration is giving no can they use drones to kill u. S. Citizens on u. S. Soil or can they not given those two different answers . I dont think we can afford to sit back and just say the attorney general has acknowledged the question for the administration. If you recall back during libya with the war powers act the administration shopped around and the Justice Department didnt give the answer they wanted. The Defense Department didnt give the answer they wanted. They went to the state department to get harold cove to let them circumvent the war powers act. Just because the attorney general has said no to drone strikes, thats not binding on the president. I would feel much better hearing it from the commanderinchief himself. Cenk you know, of course, he doesnt do that. In fact, he almost never gets asked about it by the press. He got asked in a google hangout once, which is kind of funny. Heres another spokesperson trying to clarify it, jay carney. Lets see if he clarifies it any further. The president has not and would not use drone strikes on american citizens on american sail. The issue isnt the technology. The method does not change the law. Cenk is that a sufficient answer andrew . By the way, does it make it that much of a difference if they can execute u. S. Citizens abroad. Is it any better to execute you when you go to vacation in london, instead of here in the u. S. . Thats a key a very important point to make, is that i think the fight that rand paul didnt focus on enough is this had is not just about striking on u. S. Soil. I think he may be outside of the United States, but its not just ok when its outside of the soil. Theres american citizens who deserve a trial especially a 16yearold, the son that associated with no one that happened to be terrorist. Effectively, he was saying no, president obama has never used drone strikes on america which is not answering the question, really. Its frustrating, but at the same time, you know. Cenk right now colonel davis the thing that gets me is when people say all the time in defending president obamas drone strikes and use the republicans defense of bush using similar actions saying what are you doing defending terrorists. Isnt the question how do we know theyre terrorists . Yeah, i mean, just taking the president s word for it, which he told us during the state of the union dont just take my word for it is a bit of a stretch. Youre right if you look at the, particularly, using the signature strikes, we dont even know exactly who were killing. It just looks like theyre doing something suspicious and thats enough to launch an attack. You know, cenk, they tell you as you get older you get more sentimental. Theres been two occasions in the last several weeks i got a lurch in my throat. When the lady stood up in the brennan hearing it made me question by i dont have that courage. Then rand paul doing an oldfashioned filibuster to call attention to this issue. I mean, it gives me hope that theres still some courage out there to stand up for liberty. Cenk yeah, i people the same way about rand pauls filibuster, for which ive gotten a lot of heat from democrats. A lot of them did not show up for that filibuster. Some republicans angry at rand paul for doing the filibuster, including lindsey graham. To my republican colleagues, i dont remember any of you coming down here suggesting that president bush was going to kill anybody with a drone. I dont even remember the harshest critics of president bush on the democratic side. They had a drama over him back then. What is it all of a sudden that this Drone Program has gotten every republican so spun up . What are we up to here . People are astonished that president obama senator mccain are doing the same things president bush did. Im not os stan issued. I congratulate him for having the good judgment to understand that were at war. Cenk heres a republican who is supposed to be a lawyer, by the way, and served at one in the armed forces, saying whether bush or obama you just have to trust the executive that hes got the right guy and if were at war, he can execute anyone he likes. Is that disappointing whether coming from a democratic or a republican . Oh, yeah. You should never put faith in a politician to be jury, judge or executioner. Even though obama is charismatic, im not a fan of his, but i know a lot of people who are. Graham and mccain, should web surprised that graham is the guy who in 2011 during the debates over indefinite detention said if theres a suspected american suspected of terrorism who asks for a lawyer, you say shut up, youre an enemy combatant. Mccain has never seen a war he doesnt like. These are two that are going to love the expansion of executive authority. He was right in the sense that democrats didnt speak up during bush because bush in 2002 killed an american citizen with a drone strike. Nobody really spoke up about it. I think probably rand paul was the only guy who cared about it at the time. Cenk the upside is, guys, we have conservatives liberals and libertarians agreeing for the first time in a long time, and real bipartisan agreement here in opposition to both the bush and Obama Administration in protecting the constitution. Thats a good moment, at least. On drew, and certainly davis thank you so much for joining us, really appreciate it. Thank you. Sure. Cenk now when we come back, unfortunately more disastrous news from the war we had in iraq. Turns out was we knew there were death squads and torture skills. We may have been coordinating with them all the way up to an including general petraeus. This is the only known video of steele, a shadowy figure, always in the background, observing, evaluating. The man on his left is colonel James Coffman his collaborator. Billy zane stars in barabbas. Coming in march to reelz. To find reelz in your area, go to reelz. Com [ male announcer ] its red lobsters lobsterfest our Largest Selection of lobster entrees like lobster lovers dream or new grilled lobster and lobster tacos. Come in now and sea food differently. Visit redlobster. Com now for an exclusive 10 coupon on two lobsterfest entrees. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Cenk were back on the young turks. The guardian and bbcar abic collaborated on a 15 month collaboration on death squads and torture cells in iraq. James steele and James Coffman were certainly aware of what was happening and seemed to condone it. Some of that had was tied all the way up to general petraeus. Let me show you a documentary called james steele, americas mystery man in iraq. This is one of the great Untold Stories of the iraq war how just over a year after the invasion, the United States funded Police Commando force that set up a network of torture centers to fight the insurgents. This is also the story of james steele the veteran of americas dirty war in el salvador. He was chosen by the Bush Administration to work with general David Petraeus to organize these Paramilitary Police commanders. Cenk the carnage was devastating. In el salvador, 75,000 people had been killed when we set up the right wing death squads. In iraq, 110,000 killed. Its not like this guy is effective. Hes horribly ineffective as he starts civil war after civil war. One of the iraqi generals on the ground said each one referring to these Detention Centers was made up of an intelligence officer. This committee confess like using electricity or hangling him jump side down. More from the documentary. I see blood everywhere. There were these terrible screams, somebody shouting allah, allah. It wasnt religious ecstasy. These were screams of pain and terror. Cenk its not just the journalists, u. S. Troops witnessed it. The 69th armored soldier said cenk all right now let me bring in one of the reporters from the guardian who worked on this piece now a journalist for the center for investigative reporting. Great to have you with us on the young turks. Hey cenk, how are you . Cenk good, james steel was involved with the contras and right wingers including rumsfeld think he is a hero. Why do they think that and what does he actually do . This man has had a fascinating career. We looked at where he started his military career. He started with a recon unit in vietnam. From there he quickly excelled and was deployed in el salvador as head of the military group commander, in charge of all the Counter Insurgency units that we went in and helped train in el salvador during their civil war there, wimp as we know now was incredibly bloody. Youll see in the documentary that cheney, during his 2004 Vice President ial debate with edwards references that war as a success and says the lines, you know, what were doing in iraq now we did in el salvador 20 years ago and made sure we trained local Police Forces and units and they can get their problems under control and we did a great job there. By all accounts, steeles stint in el salvador was seen as a success. During that time, he got involved in the irancontra scandal, referenced in ollie norths diary. He reached a setback at this point, but then, a few years later, ends up in panama, head of south com and ends up being in charge of forces there when we depose the leader of panama in the early 1990s. He ended up working as an energy cant enron chesapeake energy, and then we see him back again. He becomes a coin goto guy in iraq. If you watch the film, youll see rumsfeld and wolfe wits speak highly of him publicly and rumsfeld, some of the stuff we got from his own website where he talked about what a great job steele is doing and how he moves in and out of countries from time to time keeping an eye on things. Cenk they have a curious standard for success. Is it that dick cheney thinks that ok, i dont care about the 75,000 dead in el salvador, finally, weve got a right wing government and its stabilize so here cares about the dead, same thing in iraq, or is this chaos somehow part of the plan . I mean, why do they celebrate it . Why take a guy that you know started a civil war in el salvador and had all those People Killed and bring him to iraq . Do they want him to do that . I think we forget that at the time in 2004, 2005, theres an election going on, and we had just handed over to the iraqis after our win there and we had a police force and an army to train. People forget that thats actually the first thing that petraeus was actually put in charge of really in iraq was c pat and c mat the military and police retaining. Obviously petraeus is a coin guy. Hes about Counter Insurgency, so there, you know, the ministry of interior was kind of the hub of all this, where the special police units were based out of. They were highly trained squads. They werent, you know, the normal foot soldiers and police. It was kind of they were having to deal with in 2004. These were highly trained guys there before sadaam and after sadaam. They needed these guys to take control. It was a lets take control policy that came about. That comes through in the cabled and logs that we look at, and even rumsfelds memos. Cenk its bizarre because they didnt really take control, they had a tremendous chaos if the time that they were there. I dont know that they got lucky at the end and it stablized or thats what they do, blood letting, kill hundreds of thousands of people and say aha we won. You quote a medic based in is samara cenk so, now these soldiers on the ground, obviously know, but do you know that colonel steele and colonel coffman were aware of this clear torture that was happening, and are you sure that theyre connected to general petraeus . We definitely know theyre connected with general petraeus. These guys were the senior advisers for the training commandos and general petraeus was in charge of the specific training at the time. Rumsfelds letter, he lets them in on what petraeus is doing with the special Police Commandos. This is part of a special initiative. With rewards to what they knew, when we interviewed, it took us a long time to kind of focus this in on where those Detention Centers were, north of baghdad and in the Triangle North of baghdad. Neil smith was opposite the Library Complex used as a detention center. He said it was widely known. They could hear the screams at night. Everybody knew what was going on that in that place. With regards to coffman and steele themselves, general muntada recalls one of many incidents where the door to where a detainee is being tortured is open, and the door is just calmly closed, coffman and steele in the room there. When we asked how do you know if he knew, like maybe he didnt know what was going on, referring to petraeus. He was saying, you know, there was screaming, torture going on all the time there. He eventually had to leave the unit and leave iraq in fear for his life, because this was a particular unit th