ostrom limits who or how accountable the russian government is to its people in fact i would say that it's not i think people are happy in those cities where new stadiums were built or old stadiums were upgraded these were will be the places for people to use and i think all the russian people in general think that the expenses even if they are very high were worth it much worth then on other issues the big expenditures are illiquid by the government people did have fun and they will have wonderful memories and i don't think expenditures will be issue and i agree that it will not give a boost to the economy certainly not ok and we talked earlier on the human rights issues maria i mean human rights watch says that the world cup was a lost opportunity that football's governing body could have used the event as some woman leverage over the kremlin do you agree with that. well no i don't think

so our i think always should look at these things separate and indeed a country any country is several things at the same time it's not totally focused on one or the other in especially a country as large and diverse as russia has all of it it has people who are really happy to will be open to the world into in jury the grand of the end to show the openness and by the way in his opening words before the world cup which instead we open our country and it would open our hearts to you in a sense this was true for those weeks but at the same time there is politics and there is domestic politics and there's a crackdown on freedoms in liberty is. of course there is a very very difficult problem of their relations with the west if the recent nato summit is any indication the perception of russia has not changed because of this extremely successful world cup the nato summit was hailed during the world cup in

the final statement of the summit is absolutely the same as far as the perception of russia in the west is concerned it list of accusations russia seeing is a threat the west totally unwilling to recognize that any responsibility for the current confrontation dangerous confrontation is on the west itself ok let's throw the discussion forward to twenty twenty two russia's president vladimir putin has passed the ball to the next world cup host castle of the country's leader shakes i mean boom pani joined putin and feet as present as an official handover ceremony at the kremlin on sunday will be the first country in the middle east to host the world cup and the games will be held in the cooler months of november and december daria man says he's confident that twenty twenty two will be a success. but cottle has been under an economic blockade for more than a year saudi arabia u.a.e.

egypt and bahrain qatar platic ties last june it organizers say this is had very little impact on preparations jonica has more. let's say old stadium behave will host both the opening game and the final and when it's finished in around two years' time it will seat around eighty thousand spectators now with the tournament being moved to december it also means those fans will avoid the kind of summer heat that we're experiencing today as part of its winning bid council promise to take apart many of the stadium sat the end of the world cup and send sections to developing countries to help them grow the game of course that's only part of the legacy cattles leaders and well cup organizes a still hoping football can bring this region closer together and i hope what lessons should cattle take away from russia because cattle hosting also has kind of controversy attached to it well i think that's one of the main things is ensuring

sounds actually have something to do i think a lot of nuns were surprised and brushed by the ability to see new sights travel the country and to experience a new thing so actually it's it's actually cheap in the mental pain knowing that perhaps as many as much tourist infrastructure in katsav as well there will be questions almost as always about the availability of alcohol but any bus or even there the retched the restrictions in place but it is actually about the travel which i think fans will notice saying cats are russia as being very challenging at times to go through moscow even when your stats are around the country and perhaps the big thing that stands for most of the cats are is that you don't have to fly anywhere and actually the just equally it should be simpler for them absolutely i mean the big question is how do you keep all these people entertained them build a castle have what has what it takes to be as amazing as promising. well i think laura that the hague the big challenge that. qatar faces i mean

the thing about russia was that fans from approach there was some trepidation some concerns about hooliganism but when they got there they found the russians very welcoming very opening so that was a pleasant surprise and yes the travel was challenging but they got to see this enormous country and it was exciting i think the difficulty with with doha and i don't i don't want to knock the city it's got some fabulous architecture has got a wonderful museum of islamic art but there isn't that much going on and if you think about british tourists who go to dubai they get the full treatment in terms of all of the available tourist sites i'm not sure that the law is the same as the same capability that that's going to be a real issue and the alcohol as rob mentioned that's another issue one can't imagine a world cup without gallons and gallons of beer being consumed by by fans particularly it is

a english fans so yeah there are i think they're going to be big challenges on that front i think it's going to be a challenge to in terms of the football because if you think about it they're playing in in november and december that's going to really interrupt the a professional leagues the premier league for example a lot of players went went to russia from the premier league and i'm not sure that fans here are going to be that tickled about seeing their teams and their season disrupted by by this solution to the issue of the heat in the summer moving it into into november and december but would have made a difference do you think if they'd made a joint regional bid something like we're seeing in twenty twenty six the u.s. canada and mexico if we'd had some kind of region wide world cup twenty in twenty. i think not as much of a much thought in the genesis of the discussions before they actually launch the fed but i don't and people were too keen on it's always did lead to this singular chatter out there

a joint bid across the region to actually help spread the burden of the stadiums i think a lot of people do quests and why and if capital needs to spend the money building so many stadiums when it does not have the need for the necessary afterwards obviously what you're going to say is some of them would be broken down and that the parts that will be spread out to clean parts of africa but actually the building is not required so there is stress on the logistics and infrastructure in capital the fact there is only the want to force and there are. really at the hotels around and there was going to be built up to accommodate tens of thousands of fans and the teams and the officials was actually that burden would have been spread out across the region and perhaps who knows maybe the issues that we've seen in the last year with the boycott by the neighbors would not happen if they were actually part of a unified world cup they have to deliver in france when you have to have quite a thought isn't it maria one of the controversies of course migrant workers' rights

there was a similar issue being faced in russia wasn't there and that the spotlight being shown on the workers' rights especially the construction workers the construction workers who building the stadiums did that make any difference. well actually as a matter of fact the problem of migrant workers in russia has become less acute in recent years and i would say it less acute than it is in europe right now thing is that we have this problem and. i'm sorry to say ratio ethnic sentiments were really high and i'm talking here about twenty thirteen for instance when the mejor alexion in moscow were in long the racial alliance both as far as the incumbent campaign is concerned in that of his opponent but since then well for two reasons one of them being that the russian economy in general is on decline so we need less migrant workers workforce in that there have become less of an irritant to relabel in big urban centers in the other is an extension of crimea which kind of overshadowed the

ethnic nationalism and replaced it by state nationalists more call it imperial and nationalist as you like so the sentiment the negative sentiment tow it people with different. experience different features different colors have not been that acute but just in the last minute that we have the euphoria of the event rubs off do we see a return then to all the major issues that russia faces when it looks out of the world . yeah i think we do i think that russia will still have to contend with all of those issues and the world and europe will have to contend with with russia the challenges haven't gone away the world cup was a respite it was a break we all enjoyed it to reflect but the real world comes back in and intervenes and there are many many issues many areas of friction not least of which is syria and during the world cup the russians and the basher us assad they secured

a significant victory which consolidates assad and really secure is him in the long term as the syrian leader these are not times that are going to go away those issues those frictions will remain and i think that football is something you enjoy for the time but the real world comes back and and will continue to challenge us and indeed enjoyable for a time it was many thanks indeed for our guests for joining us today maria lipman bill law and rob paris. and thank you to you for watching you can see the program again any time by visiting our website as al-jazeera dot com for the discussion to go as well facebook page that's facebook dot com for slash a.j. inside story you can also join the conversation on twitter handle is at a.j. inside story from me laura kyle i'm the whole team here despite you will we are going to

be a we're. about fifty thousand people were arrested under a policing strategy known as stop and frisk the car got a ball and here it was a guy coming behind me and kicking him out back how many of your children gotten caught in this trap i have seven sons and six of them have been arrested for drug charges so me guess the war maybe take off last week is what thoughts lead down for you to the atmosphere the police with the bad guys exploring the dockside of american justice the system with job and on al-jazeera. egypt is now china's biggest trading partner in africa more than ten thousand chinese are living

in cairo i wanted to see the permits and september one thousand nine hundred five i came with my friends to egypt many started a small traders but are now successful in business shipped to you and i began to do business in two thousand and three or two thousand and four at a time it was small but then it began to expand al-jazeera world meets the growing chinese community in egypt egypt made in china on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera will bring in the news and current affairs that matter to. al-jazeera. to solve they aren't equal is worth millions of dollars to the nepalese they are living god. one east investigates the fight to reclaim the poles stolen idols on how to zero.

you're watching gold reserves the whole rob and all these are all top news stories a group of displaced syrians have approached the border fence between syria and the israeli occupied golan heights waving white flags girlhood never. for the israeli soldiers called out to the group to move back from the phones prompting some to turn back to nearby refugee camps it's full the syrians were attempting to seek help for centuries following the strikes in the area of when it took stephanie deca house more someone to resettle. that group of one hundred or so syrian in turn the displaced getting closer to that fence israel's fence with the occupied golan heights the israeli army is calling over loudspeakers for them to move back because

certainly the situation for people inside syria has been desperate the borders remain closed israel's borders and jordan's borders remain closed there is an active campaign going on by the syrian army backed by russia to take those areas back from the rebels that the u.n. estimates around one hundred sixty thousand people have been displaced because of the fighting and they have nowhere to go there's another concern that people have been living under rebel control for years is repercussion measures by the syrian government there activists in these areas there are journalists their families are simply afraid of what will happen to them when government forces take over the villages where they've been living and this is something that's been happening on a daily basis so it just highlights the desperation of the people inside syria they are now getting close to the fence with israel israel has made it very clear they will not be allowing any syrian internally displaced into israel it will however

provide humanitarian aid which it has been doing but it is the first time in awhile that we're seeing people getting this close to the facts meanwhile israel is tightening its siege almost two million people living in goals alone further restricting the flow of goods into the territory it's planning to burn. all fuel imports through the. crossing while food and medicine will need permission to go through kind of asylum is the sole commercial crossing into gaza it's vital for the flow of fuel necessary for people who only get up to six hours of electricity per day maybe as coast guard has rescued one hundred fifty eight african migrants and refugees from a boat bound for europe thirty four women and eight children were among those on board saved off libya's northern coast the vessel was taken to a landing point in the city of. u.s. president donald trump has arrived home to severe criticism after siding with president vladimir putin of russia on accusations of election meddling speaking

after their summit in finland trying to cast doubt on its own intelligence agencies which found evidence of interference. in the european union and japan have signed a free trade deal that will eliminate nearly all terrorists presenting a united front as the trumpet ministration parts of trade barriers is the biggest deal to date creating a trading zone covering six hundred million people a nearly a third of the global economy a day after warning the u.s. china and russia again starting a trade war the european council chief says this agreement sends a very clear message. we are putting can play with the large earth bailout the role trade deal ever this is the largest of. both for the rules based international order at the time when the questioning dissolved that. we are finding a clear message that then together against but they actually are u.k.

based investigative agency has obtained documents revealing an expensive lobbying effort by the united arab emirates and britain and the us the campaign tried to influence media coverage of the arab spring and discredit the muslim brotherhood and cattle. the official u.k. group the campaign for breaks it in twenty sixteen has been fined eighty thousand dollars for breaking spending rules electoral officials say a vote to leave work with another campaign group without declaring it they also exceeded legal spending limits however the organization says there's no evidence it did anything wrong and described the allegations as politically motivated those were the headlines about with more news in half an hour here on al-jazeera next it's searching for steel to stay with us.

there's a new book with. you. and me. and . everything that american troops have done in iraq all the fighting all the die the bleeding and the building and the training and the partnering. all of it has led. to this moment.

you deserve better than parents and corruption and torturing. you deserve to live as free people and i assure every citizen of a wreck your nation will soon be for. its ten years since america invaded iraq. ten years and over one hundred twenty thousand dead among them over four thousand four hundred american soldiers. this documentary tells one of the great untold stories of the iraq war how the u.s. administration funded a deadly sectarian paramilitary force to fight those threatening the american presence. it was a decision that had field

a sectarian civil war that ripped iraq apart. at its height. three years later three thousand bodies a month was showing up on the streets of iraq. this is also the story of the nam the pentagon sent in to organize and train those paramilitary squads. he's a veteran of america's so-called death the wars stretching back to vietnam and salvador . this man was so important to the pentagon that the then defense secretary donald rumsfeld still fit to forward his past no memos to the president and the vice president to president george w. bush c. c. vice president richard b. cheney from donald rumsfeld the attached memo is from

a person we have sent into iraq from time to time sensually to work with the iraqi police. he is smart tough and a keen observer none the less you have said you like texture and this is texture. he did have much higher clearance than the rest of us did and he would make very graphic to meetings with the secretary of defense and meetings in the white house. who were shot. by the way in a room in the library interviewing studio and i looking around i see blood everywhere. so who is james steele and why did the pentagon choose him to go to iraq. the conflict in which over fifty eight thousand u.s. soldiers died is where james steel was first introduced to country insurgency as an

alternative way of combating a guerrilla uprising. still served in the vietnam war in the black course regiment from one thousand nine hundred sixty eight to nine hundred sixty nine he was described by general george patton jr as the best troop commander in his regiment. but a vietnam shaped his formative military career it was in the war against leftwing insurgents in el salvador that james dear secured his reputation as the country insurgency specialist. steel arrived in el salvador in one thousand nine hundred four as the leader of the us mil group a group of u.s. military advisors to the salvadoran army. todd greentree got to know james steele

when he was working in the u.s. embassy in el salvador at the time. colonel steele as the no good commander was in charge of special forces teams the training teams that were out of brigade headquarters. the u.s. was trying to defeat a guerrilla insurgency and american ex-pats strange this of a door and security forces in the dark arts of counterinsurgency some of these salvadoran paramilitary units were effectively death squads. celery in a case deal was a u.s. drug enforcement agent who was involved in training these paramilitaries. he was widely acknowledged for his efforts. james steele in salvador. very military died very disciplined his decorations. medals and stuff that was given to him by the u.s.

military and the salvadoran military were surrounding his office so i was very impressed with colonel steel. dr george because i got to know and like james when he visited salvador to write a ph d. thesis on u.s. military strategy in central america. he was totally committed to defeating the guerrilla insurgency in el salvador he used to discuss how he traveled around to the military bases where u.s. trainers were based he talked about the importance of building human intelligence information as opposed to just technical information i don't think he had any hesitations about obtaining information by very rough forms that were being carried out by the salvadoran armed forces under the eyes of u.s. military trainers. steele was the chief american country insurgency expert on the ground in el salvador a figure of

a new almost authority to the door in military of the mill group commander in el salvador nothing moves with his authority. and it was due eradicate the guerrilla movement it's very well written through history that there were major massacres being conducted. we put these allegations to retired colonel steele and have received no reply. by the end of the civil war at least seventy five thousand salvadoran civilians have died and one million refugees have fled the country the salvadoran military. who are to the advance of the guerrillas leading some in washington to believe the u.s. advisory role was a success. so much so that even david petraeus then an ambitious thirty three year

old major visited the door to study this country insurgency campaign the young patris even reportedly stayed in steele's house while their. eighteen years later in baghdad but now general petraeus would use steele's expertise to fight the iraqi insurgency. the architects of the iraq war did not expect a violent uprising so they started training a regular police force for what they thought would be a mostly peaceful transition to a western style democracy they brought in retired police men like douglas brand and jerry back to teach the basics of good civil policing. we were moving two thousand and three with six policemen six american police officers this small group was an equal to the enormous task they were given. to train. and policeman

was a sort of five to seven year project but they wanted it done in. the man seen here in the navy bullet proof vest cardroom was installed as the iraqi leader of this new civic police force. hovering in the background is the mysterious figure of james steele observing and evaluating the situation sending his justified reports back to u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld. still had arrived in baghdad in two thousand and three just after the invasion describing himself as an energy consultant. this is the only known video footage of james steele as a civilian he had no place in the military chain of command yet he exercised enormous power in iraq. the man on his left is the special forces colonel

james coffman he reported directly to general petraeus. up initially the security situation in iraq was relatively stable and the task of training the police continues but then everything changed. the intensity of the sunni insurgency surprised the americans. and u.s. soldiers started being killed in increasing numbers. of flag draped coffins were being shipped home with a nominal regularity. the war was becoming unpopular in the united states. george bush. two

thousand and four reelection was being threatened by the crisis in iraq. american law so jazz were dying at the hands of sunni muslims who had lost the most from the fall of saddam. decided to the old enemies of saddam and his sunni supporters as the shia militias. saddam had killed tens of thousands of shia during his rule and now the shia militias were only too happy to help the americans put down the sunni uprising. it was classic counterinsurgency. paul wolfowitz and not the policy change before a senate committee. approach to those militias is to try over time to integrate them into new iraqi security forces shia militia from all over the country came in truckloads to baghdad to join the new special police commandos they were enraged by suicide bombings of shia civilians under stress nations and kidnappings by sunni

insurgents and militants it was their time and our opportunity to take revenge upon former regime elements that. iraq was on the path towards a sectarian civil war. the u.s. defense secretary donald rumsfeld confirmed the new policing strategy in may two thousand and four reading about how they were trying to make efforts placing iraqi militia to handle insurgents interacting you had a discussion with general petraeus yesterday i had a briefing today from a man named steele who has been out there working with the security forces and doing a wonderful job civilian. james steele or the counter insurgency ex-pat was now the man of the moment. his job would be to build a police commando force. the police units would increasingly be made up of members

of shia militias like the badr brigades. that job was to hunt down sunni insurgents and their sympathizers like out salvador it would be a bloody and brutal business. there was no place in this new regime for a conventional police chief cardroom. he was offered a new posting at the united nations in new york. james steele was clearing house. each of them for joe. klock oh well you know. and why do you work on. our home. it was also the end of the line for douglas brand and rumsfeld decided that police training in the future would be dealt with by military people. that was

a direct instruction from rumsfeld. and we had a need for some group on the street to restore order and this is where that third force concept came from this paramilitary special police commando unit. they operate under a more under rules of engagement which is a military term. rather than the rule of law. the last time i saw stews when rumsfeld visited and very was. rumsfeld's choice to take overall command of this new policing strategy with a military star in the making. general david petraeus was much admired by the american media. the commandos would become the cutting edge of this ambitious

general's war against the insurgents you know i've spent a little bit of time at the where you were training the police commandos and i got the strong impression that you're putting a lot of priority on the police force today well that helped them develop these special police units some of them or their own initiative initially and great initiatives like the special police commandos which they now have nine battalions of those forces eight of which are in active operations right now. they were taught by the general but that he was just as good to be as been on the bus that must be in. there was the shot or you mr. talbot seen here that james steele was a sunni iraqi general who had been imprisoned by saddam. he now headed the special

police commandos which were financed from a two billion dollars fund controlled by general petraeus. with. the reports from are. are doing or. should. you. call. it was the first time the americans could work with a significant iraqi force that knew the lay of the land and where to find the insurgents senior advisers studio and kaufman directed the sects for the insurgents . with james side on top it's commandos grew into a five thousand strong force with a fearful reputation on the streets of iraq. still made

a strong impression with the high level even battle hardened iraqis who worked with . us and also to learn. more and the mashad and so on. that the. we believe the. wrong kind of.