Specials

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Today wraps up an early round of free trade negotiations in Melbourne, Australia. Eight countries are working toward a deal that would cover the Asia Pacific region. The Transpacific Partnership Trade deal would impact 470 million people in the eight countries with a combined GDP of around $16 trillion. Those countries are Australia, Peru, Vietnam, Chile, Singapore, New Zealand and Brunei. Also joining the talks is the United States – in what could be the first trade agreement of the Obama Administration.

We’re joined by Lori Wallach. She’s the director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch division, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington DC.

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Vice President Joe Biden is in the Middle East this week to promote a restarting of the stalled peace talks in the region. Today, he met with President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah. But the meeting was dominated with Tuesday's news from Israel that it had approved and planned to move forward with the construction of 1,600 homes in East Jerusalem. The building violates international law and is widely condemned by the international community. It came just hours after Biden had met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. Now, the announcement appears to threaten the peace talks even before they are set to begin.

To get a deeper look at these events, we're joined by Phyllis Bennis, fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies and author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer.

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Memos released this week reveal that during the Bush Administration, congressional leaders blocked attempts to oversee the CIA program of torture and rendition and knew about the agency's plan to destroy video tapes of interrogation sessions. The documents were released on Monday as a result of a FOIA request by several human rights groups, including the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Saudi Arabia today in an effort to gather support for negotiations with the Taliban.  Some experts say Saudi Arabia could be influential in reaching Taliban leaders. Saudi Arabia was an early supporter of the Taliban and one of the few nations to recognize the Taliban while they were in power. The strategy of offering monetary incentives and a political role to the Taliban in order to end the conflict in Afghanistan received widespread support during last week's London conference.

But the plan is not without critics. Today we continue our two part series looking at the new strategy with Inge Frykland. She's an international development consultant who has worked in Afghanistan with the United Nations Development Program and US Agency for International Development.

A federal study released on Thursday has documented - for the first time - direct complaints of sexual victimization of youths held in juvenile detention. The report is the result of a survey mandated by the Prison Rape Elimination Act. Shannon Young spoke with Allen Beck, senior statistical adviser of the Bureau of Justice Statics at the Department of Justice. He's also the lead author of the report.  This is the extended version of the interview.

One day after a federal grand jury indicted suspected terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the White House announced the release of a declassified report detailing the failures of various intelligence and security agencies in stopping the would-be suicide bomber aboard a plane bound for Detroit.

Since the botched Christmas Day attack, information has surfaced that law enforcement officials in various agencies and countries knew Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a person of interest. According to the Chicago Tribune, US Border security officials had already planned to question Abdulmutallab when he landed in Detroit after discovering intelligence on him in a federal database. The president has called the incident a systemic failure.

"I'm directing that intelligence reports, especially those involving potential threats to the United States be distributed more rapidly and more widely.  We can't sit on information that could protect the American people."

Abdulmutallab was indicted on 6 counts, including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and attempted murder. His arraignment is scheduled for Friday.

In addition to releasing the intelligence report today, the White House answered questions from the public. National Security Council Chief of Staff Denis McDonough took questions this afternoon via the White House's Facebook page.

FSRN's Andrew Stelzer interviewed several of our international correspondents for the documentary, Press Freedom on the Front Lines. Here is the uncut tape from his interview with our correspondent in Gaza, Rami Almeghari.