John McCain (Win McNamee / Getty Images / AFP)

 Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said that an amendment to a US immigration bill would cause the US to have the “most militarized border” since the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

A bipartisan amendment to the “Gang of Eight” immigration bill would double the number of Border Patrol agents from 20,000 to 40,000, fund construction of 700 miles of fencing along the US-Mexico border, and provide billions of dollars for advanced surveillance equipment.

Many Republican lawmakers have refused to support the immigration reform bill as it currently stands, arguing that it does little to enforce the border. The Senate advanced an amendment to the legislation with a 67-27 vote last Monday, winning significant support from Republican lawmakers and instilling hope that the immigration reform bill could make it through the upper chamber. But although the amendment would strengthen the border, it would also rival the security at the former Berlin Wall, McCain said in a CNN interview.

"The legislation concerning beefed up border security removes any validity to the argument that border security is not sufficient," McCain said of the amendment, which was authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) and John Hoeven (R-N.D.).

"I mean this is not only sufficient, it is well over-sufficient,” he added. “We'll be the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall. That's why I think this amendment was very important.”

The most secure version of the Berlin Wall, which formerly served to prevent emigration from East Germany, was reinforced with a smooth pipe to make it difficult to scale. It was surrounded by mesh fencing, trenches, barbed wire, attack dogs, and beds of nails under balconies that were hanging over the border. Border security guards were stationed at 116 watchtowers and 20 bunkers, and received “shoot to kill” orders if anyone tried to illegally cross it.

According to the Centre for Contemporary History, 136 deaths have been attributed to border crossing attempts at the Berlin Wall. And although the US-Mexico border would use different security methods than East Germany, it would be the most secure since the fall of the Berlin Wall – a comparison that McCain believes would garner support for the amendment. 

"This is a border security measure which I think should suffice to satisfy any critic and it is a tough way forward and it is a way forward, a tough way forward so that we can resolve this and bring 11 million people out of the shadows," McCain said.

If the amendment is passed and the reform bill implemented, the US border fence would be seven times as long as the Berlin Wall and have four times as many agents to guard it.  

Along with exposing widespread international surveillance, Edward Snowden has revealed how exactly the US is financing its military ambitions, according to Max Keiser.

RT: Surely not even you can make any kind of link between the Snowden saga and the US economy?

Max Keiser: The American economy runs on the confidence, confidence that the world accepts the US dollar as world reserve currency, confidence that the US bond market will remain the standard. And what we are seeing is a sell-off in a bond market and a sell-off in the stock market, because confidence in the US and its ability to maintain a global empire through interest rates and the Central Bank policy is crumbling before the world’s very eyes. What’s interesting is that Edward Snowden worked for Booz Allen. Booz Allen allegedly along with a few other companies are the masterminds behind LIBOR market rigging, energy market rigging, FOREX market rigging. And this is really the fuel that keeps the American military empire going, because the American economy itself cannot support its military ambitions so they’ve resorted to market manipulation and the kind of intelligence that Edward Snowden is able to aggregate is key to manipulating markets in ways that make Booz Allen, allegedly, the channel for billions and billions of dollars into America’s military campaigns. And this is really about money, markets and manipulations. It’s not about security.  It’s not to do with anything that the White House says. Remember, the White House is a puppet of Wall Street, Booz Allen, the hedge funds and the financial interests of the corrupt bankers.        

RT: Can you also give us an idea of how some of those big companies like Google, or Facebook could actually benefit from this surveillance program PRISM? Is there financial a financial gain from them? 

MK: Absolutely, because all of the manipulation involves rigging the indexes. And the indexes are all data-sensitive. So, if you can manipulate the data, you can manipulate the indexes and you manipulate the markets. And if you have advanced knowledge of that inside information you can make billions of dollars of front-running, high-frequency trading, algorithmic trading. And, of course, all the banks on the Wall Street are in on this and all the banks in the UK. It’s very telling that the foreign minister of Ecuador said that, look “you are talking about us extraditing Edward Snowden, what about bringing back those bankers we asked you to bring back to Ecuador who we caught rigging and terrorizing our market?” What about the Icelandic bankers that have been asked by the government of Iceland to be extradited back to Iceland that are being held in the UK? What about these other instances where banking terrorists are being sheltered in the US and the UK? They’re not responding to extradition agreements. So this’s all about financial legerdemain, unfortunately, Americans don’t have enough money to fight their wars anymore so they have to resort to snooping, data-gathering, and market manipulation. 

RT: What about the diplomatic fallout? We’ve seen tensions between China and Washington but that of course leads to economic tension. Could that impact trade between the two? 

MK: I hope Russia, China, and Ecuador stand up to the financial terrorists in America and Britain. Stay the course. Don’t give in and don’t appease the financial terrorists on Wall Street. 

RT: But how could a small country like Ecuador stand up to a giant like America, where there is indeed trade between the two? 

MK: What Edward Snowden has proved is that if you live a principled life and stay true to your convictions then you can change the world. 

RT: Are we going to see financial fallout between China and the US? 

MK: Well China has got a fantastic card to play, one trillion US dollars that they can dump on the market anytime and jack interest rates up five or six points, which would throw the real estate market back into collapse. China is pulling the strings here and China has all the cards to play. America is the biggest debtor nation in the world. Look at the bond market today, it’s selling off spectacularly all over the world because confidence in the American hologram of finance is collapsing. They flipped the switch. They see that the emperor has clothes. They see that there’s no underlying economic activity to support the military and financial occupations emanating from the US. It’s game over!

President Barack Obama’s approval rating has dropped from 53 to 45 percent in the past month, with 61 percent of US poll respondents criticizing his handling of domestic government spying in wake of the NSA surveillance scandal. The latest national CNN poll offers evidence that the president is suffering the political consequences of the National Security Agency’s spy tactics, which were first revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden this month. The president’s approval rating is now the lowest it has been in more than a year and a half, with the majority of Americans expressing ill feelings toward Obama. Fifty percent of poll respondents said they do not believe Obama is honest and trustworthy, 54 percent disapprove of his job handling, and 61 percent disapprove of the way he’s handling US government surveillance, according to the CNN/ORC International survey. About 60 percent of respondents also said that the US government is so large and powerful that it endangers American freedoms. Obama’s disapproval rating has been on the rise for months, increasing from 51 percent in January to 54 percent in April and 57 percent in June. “The drop in Obama’s support is fueled by a dramatic 17-point decline over the past month among people under 30, who, along with black Americans, had been the most loyal part of the Obama coalition,” CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said in the news agency’s release of the findings. Obama’s approval rating among independent voters plummeted by 10 points in the last month, with only 37 percent agreeing with his job handling and 61 percent disapproving of it this month. Holland believes the significant drop in Obama’s support comes as a result of recent government scandals, including the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups, the Justice Department’s criminal pursuit of journalists, and the revelation of the NSA’s extensive surveillance program. “It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama’s standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well,” he told CNN. Former President George W. Bush came under scrutiny for government surveillance when he was in office, but Obama’s disapproval rating is now lower than his predecessor’s. About 52 percent of Americans disapproved of Bush’s handling of government surveillance of US citizens in 2006, which is 9 points lower than the 61 percent who felt that way about Obama today. But criticism of the Obama administration stretches beyond the US. The president has lost significant support in Europe, particularly in France, Germany, and Italy. Obama is likely to face tough questions about the NSA’s data collection program from policymakers at this year’s G-8 Summit in Ireland. Peter Schaar, Germany’s freedom of information commissioner, told Reuters that he plans to ask questions “regarding these monstrous allegations of total monitoring of various telecommunications and Internet services.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said she would bring up the topic with Obama while he is in Europe this week. “The most upset party in all of this, I think, is the Germans,” Michael J. Geary, an assistant professor at Maastricht University, told the National Journal. “The Germans were the most snooped-upon country, apparently, in March. In a country where memories of the former East German Stasi are still quite fresh, the response has been quite critical.” Markus Ferber, a member of Merkel’s Bavarian sister party and a member of the European Parliament, last week accused Washington of using “American-style Stasi methods.” “I thought this era had ended when the DDR fell,” he said, referring the German Democratic Republic. Obama’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is equally likely to culminate in a discussion about the NSA’s surveillance program, especially since recent documents uncovered the agency’s interception of classified communications of former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. The unraveling of the NSA’s surveillance program has taken a hard hit at Obama’s reputation, both domestically and internationally. And as Obama meets with European leaders this week, he will likely face further criticism for a program that has thrust the discussion of government spying onto the global stage. “We certainly understand that, like the United States, countries in Europe have significant interests in privacy and civil liberties,” Ben Rhodes of the National Security Council told the National Journal. And with the majority of Americans disapproving of their president’s job handling and European leaders publicly condemning Obama, the administration will face tough questions at the G-8 Summit and beyond.