in this case it was betrayed told only up from his own al-jazeera. there on the intake of this is al jazeera live from london where we're following a major development in the us only jamal khashoggi case senior says it has have now been briefed by cia chief gina housefull on capitol hill she's one of the few western officials to have heard or your recordings from inside the saudi consulate in istanbul where she was killed so that has emerged from that meeting unified in their assessment of what they towed and all coming to a similar conclusion that the saudi crown prince mohammed bin ordered her murder

and must be held to account they said the time has come for the trumpet ministration to condemn saudi arabia for the murder or congress will act i have zero question that the crown prince m.b.'s ordered the killing monitored the killing knew exactly what was happening planted in advance if he was in front of a jury you would be convicted in thirty minutes guilty. so. the question is what we do about that. mike hanna joins us live from capitol hill in washington d.c. mike oxycontin nation from the senators. very much so eight senators went into that meeting with the house bill to house pull eight emerged and all were in complete agreement that the crown prince mohammed bin solomon was directly involved in the murder of jamal khashoggi and certainly this is a bipartisan matter present at that meeting with the chairman of all the national

security committees as well as the ranking senators and each of those committees so both democrats and republicans present there and one of the strongest reactions came from a very strong supporter of president trump and some time gulf partner lindsey graham this is what he had to say. i want to make sure that saudi arabia is put on notice that business as usual has come to an end for me no not look at the kingdom the same way that i used to look at it i will not support arms sales until all responsible for the death of mr show give brought then brought to justice. yes and i will no longer. support the war in yemen as constructive. so what is the next step do you think from congress on this. well we're going to see in the senate intense discussion in the next few days as to exactly what form of legislation

should be debated now there is already a bill up for debate in the senate that has to do with sanctions against saudi arabia with regard to its operations in yemen a suspension of all weapons sales now that bill has already been drawn up but we're hearing from a number of senators that they want something else or something added into that particular legislation in particular we've heard from senator graham that he wants legislation specifically aimed at proclaiming the guilt of the crown prince mohammed bin salmon that he wants as a specific part of legislation perhaps even a single bill by itself but other senators want broader legislation they want to see sanctions imposed against saudi arabia and importantly as well they want a full application of the global magnitsky act now this has already been invoked by the senate in a letter to president trump in terms of that act he is mandated to

investigate the murder of jamal khashoggi then to report back to congress as to the results of that investigation and then he has to mandated sanctions to be imposed against all of those individuals responsible and indeed if there is found to be state complicity the state as well so the senate is going to be discussing exactly what form the legislation will take the only thing that's absolutely clear at the moment is given the mood of senators emerging from that briefing there is definitely going to be some form of legislation in coming days how unusual was it to hear the kind of comments so that we heard from larry graham that that essentially it was what sounded like a call for regime change in saudi arabia. yes he was very very strong on the subject once again indicative of the anger among all of these senators at above what the heard in the briefing from jena high school but senators are making clear that there is some kind of division here the question was asked of

how can you take action against the crown prince separate him away from the state from saudi arabia this is one of the matters that will be discussed within the senate among senators in terms of should sanctions be imposed on individuals should it be imposed on the state as a whole if so how do you separate it out one must remember too that the whole issue of sanctions against saudi arabia are in no way premature marcus showed g.'s murder there was great discomfort in the senate about that ongoing study war in yemen there was great discomfort about the role that the u.s. has been playing in that war in terms of providing the weapons to fight it in terms of refueling saudi jets in the sky so that was already underway the murder of jamal khashoggi absolutely governments to pinion in the senate we saw that bill the yemen bill passed last week that was by a massive majority by sixty three to thirty seven senators unprecedented in the way

the bilateral nature of the agreement on that particular bill so we are seeing a senate that has been divided in many ways we've seen divisions on a lot of issues and of the trump administration but on this particular issue there is great unity in terms of direction now where the division occurs is about exactly what to do what will be the wording of the legislation that is passed that is something that will be discussed debated but very quickly as worldly because the indications are that the senate wants to move very very quickly on this so we are talking about coming days rather than weeks mike hanna thank you very much indeed. or to anybody who joins me from outside the saudi consulate in istanbul turkey from the moment that the murder became apparent was keen to keep the pressure up wasn't it on saudi arabia so presumably they'll be pleased to see this this kind of reaction from the senators after the cia briefing. i think very much so there you

see this is backing up what they've said from day one that this was a premeditated coordinated murder and it was done from the various high they've never mentioned. by name in public they've said merely that this murder goes to the very doorstep of the saudi royal court but in private they've been quite clear saying that this leads to the saudi crown prince most definitely they've been dripping information leaking excerpts from these audio recordings from the saudi consulate and it gives the strong circumstantial evidence pointing to must have been some and they also now hope i think that this leads to pressure on saudi arabia to comply and cooperate with their investigation which so far as reached a dead end of going as far as they can in turkey they want the access to the eleven people that have been charged in saudi that the saudis say they are facing charges five of them we understand are facing the death penalty but beyond that we know

nothing else so turkey wants answers to some very important questions who ordered the murder and also they want to know where the remains of jamal khashoggi are because so far there's no indication where they've ended up so they want those answers now they believe i think with what's happening they will get some pressure some are meant to him to get those answers. that you mentioned that turkey has made a direct connection with and they haven't been summoned and now the senators have do you think turkey will continue to stick to that line of sort of hinting it's linked to him but not saying it outright or you think they might change their tune of it. i think they be very clear to differentiate between the murder inquiry and business with a regional power they want to separate those two matters but as far as the murder is concerned they're very concerned that you know this happened on their in their country it happened on their watch and they have a moral responsibility also they know they have to carry on and do business with saudi arabia whether or not that's mohamed bin salman remains to be seen but they

know they have to work together but they want answers and they think what's happening at the moment is that the saudis a shielding mohammed bin solomon and that also that's being helped by president trump so these three seventy eight senators coming out today and saying you know it's all fingers point towards the saudi crown prince has given them a major boost and they hope now this investigation could take some momentum. and just remind us where we are with the investigation what you say it's essentially stalled what have they achieved so far with it well basically they they've got recordings from taken from the saudi consulate which shows that there was discussions about the murder before during and after they have evidence about suitcases being purchased which probably then carried were carried out an under diplomatic privilege but beyond that there they reached a dead end because they need to be able to talk to the suspects they want them to be brought in extradited to turkey that's probably not going to happen because of

diplomatic privilege and they want some answers but they're not getting anywhere so as far as they're concerned there is for the going as far as they can at the moment but they've been very careful not to name mohammed bin solomon and it's interesting to know that what's going on behind the scenes because they have to get on they have to connect both of them a very important in regional politics and they've got to carry on no matter what happens in this whether or not that goes on with mama bin salman remains to be seen taking that thank you very much indeed let's just to remind ourselves now of the reaction on capitol hill among senators who attended that briefing by the cia chief as unfortunate. i think they they feel like this is something that's come in past because the administration has not spoken to this in a way that. they've spoken to it in a manner that really give them immunity and so what the message is to him and those around him is that you can go around killing journalist. countries like the united

states can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you killed a journalist and by the way they as you know rendition and other people and tortured other people that have been their dissidents. so the message we've sent to them is. is one that calls him to continue on the path that he's on and i'm sure other actors in the region. will take note of that so somehow or another it's unfortunate and again i'm continuing to urge the administration. to themselves speak to this in the appropriate manner. what you want. this is got to be strongly condemned by the administration strongly condemn and then there's got to be a price to pay for what has happened. i know that they have to have exactly the same intelligence that we have and there's no way that anybody with a straight face could say there's any question about what has happened. joins us

live from washington d.c. well what kind of response can we expect from the white house to will this. probably silence we don't often he see the white house press secretary give briefings under past administrations it was a daily occurrence that's not the case here and we heard this from senator bob corker about a week ago when the senate first took up the vote and passed a resolution to basically demand that the u.s. get out of yemen and that vote was sixty three to thirty seven now the president has given no indication that he's going to take a corkers offer to do something more so that the senate and the house don't intervene the president has indicated that he will veto any legislation that they come up with he did put out a statement that he talked to basically the senate see what they have to say as long as it goes along the principles he laid out which is that there should be no repercussions for the crown prince of saudi arabia so now we wait and see basically what the senate comes up with what they decide to vote on there are three options

they could end the war in yemen they could and arm sales they could sanction up throughout the saudi government including possibly even the crown prince so we'll see what they've decided what can get the majority of the votes and then the question is can it pass the house now we know that members of the leadership of the house is currently run by republicans have said they too want to hear from the cia director so they're likely to have a hearing but obviously the first bill will probably come out of the senate see if it passes the house and if that is the case if the president goes ahead with this start to veto it a sixty three to thirty seven vote it's a fairly good indication at least preliminarily that the senate could possibly override a veto but that's by no means a done deal what's important here is not just what they come up with but the number of votes they get about the position that it puts. in matteson and they came out and said that there wasn't a direct link between the killing of and. this is kind of followed the line that the white house was taking does that put them in an animal

can position going forward if it. i think it could potentially one of the things that was interesting one of the more remember memorable lines was from one of the senators came out and said they said there was no smoking gun but there was a smoking saw obviously referring to the bone saw that was brought to the consulate you know i think what we were probably going to see what we heard from lindsey graham and he some people on twitter saying he said the quiet part out loud but he basically said if they were for a democrat president i probably you know all over them for this but i think they were probably just being good soldiers so there seems to be an understanding at least from the senators who spoke that if the secretary of defense and secretary of state are going to stay in the good graces of the president who does tend to do some impulsive firings that it's best that they towed the white house policy which is this didn't have anything to do with the crown prince mohammed bin solomon other senators are probably going to be at least from the opposition less likely to forgive them because remember they came before the full senate and gave this

information and now these eight have seen these intelligence they're likely to be talking to the other senators maybe not giving them all the information but it general sense of what they heard so there could be outrage from the democrats but i don't expect the republicans will take up that cause and thank you very much. own consent to lindsey graham who has just mentioned there has has been a major critic of the saudi crown prince let's listen to what he had to say about briefing saudi arabia's strategic l.-a. and their relationship is worth saving but not at all cost. will do more damage to our standing in the world and our national security by lowering the dealing with him. m.b.'s the crown prince is a wrecking ball. i think he's complicit in the murder mystery shogi to the highest level possible i think the behavior before the cause shogi murder was beyond

disturbing and i cannot see him being a reliable partner to the united states saudi arabia and in the us are two different entities. the saudi government is going to. be in the hands of this man. for a long time to come up and it very difficult to be able to do business because i think he's crazy to. think he is dangerous and he has put their relationship at risk. well middle east analyst bill lloyd joins me now in the studio thanks for coming in just on that last point to what looks like a kind of cool for regime change in saudi arabia if it doesn't go down the route that the senate is a go and where does that leave the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia well i guess that's a bit of an impasse donald trump has signaled that he's going to stand by him when

psalm on but really what particular lindsey graham has said is remarkable and he's called moments among the crown prince the the man who effectively runs saudi arabia crazy and he's also made the point that saudi arabia is not in b.s. this is one some of the dollar trump was trying to stitch together and hold together i think the question is for trump is is it politically damaging for me to continue to stand by this man he is looking now at his run for a second term and i think that's what he's probably weighing up and if i don't trump decides that mom been someone is going to do him damage in any serious way he will cut him loose and if that happens then i think in some man is in very very serious trouble and in terms of saudi arabia itself they would have been hoping by now this story would have gone away or died down at least and it hasn't what are the options for them i mean they've so far they've they've put some on back out in the in the public domain he's been the g. twenty there's been no sign of apparently kind of keeping his wings or anything

what do they do next on the basis of these sentences and then you think yeah i think that the whole one as a g. twenty move was was quite a bold statement because mom and someone had faced off a lot of criticism justifiably because he is very much involved in the murder of one hundred but he went out there and he and it kind of tough to doat i think the expectation was we can now draw a line and put this terrible business behind us but what's happened of course is that if anything it has exploded now when he was in buenos aires all of the senior roles were gathered in riyadh for a wedding. no one did anything they could have they were there but they they didn't i think they're still waiting and there's no one individual that strong enough to actually try and push. some on the side he's very very powerful still we should not forget that but his power erodes evaporates really if donald trump turns his back on now what about the others most of the other international leaders

who express sort of outrage originate about the whole business but they've been back shaking his hand or at least dealing with him. do you think there's any kind of appetite internationally to try and put more pressure on moment in selma or yes i think there is i think that europeans in particular watching closely how he behaved to certainly yes of course they did shake his hand but he was rather cold shoulder and there was that remarkable exchange with emmanuel mccraw where some mom was being very sort of no no i'm ok and you're not listening to me this is serious and unless you have a full and independent and transparent investigation which of course you cannot because he's the man responsible for the murder then you're in serious trouble and and he didn't seem to get that it did let's go back to the cia and why you know house bill was in the senate i mean was she pleased to be given this information percentages would you think it was would be a degree of reluctance what's your take on that i don't think she was reluctant i

think that from the moment she came back from istanbul or from franco rather and seen the evidence from istanbul that she knew what the story was and i think that trump has been casting aspersions on the intelligence community virtually since he became president was this in one sense a payback possibly because they have all of the information all of the evidence and yet she was prevented by the former head of the cia mike from peo and madison trump from going and speaking to the senators in some ways i think that was a political miscalculation on the part of trump because that only then raise. yes the n.t. so when she went into a select group of senators but very important senators it kind of i think blew up in trump and particularly pompous face because you know he comes from the cia and they must feel that he's bad let them down what does it mean that it isn't doesn't it the pumpin masses have had to stand there and say we think we don't think there is a direct link and the census of said no one all that well on is that when one can stand

of a straight face and said there isn't so it undermines that position a bit doesn't it absolutely and these are people that really needs to support him so two of his key allies in the white house have not been completely undermined by . powerful senators in the republican party particularly and i think more widely undermined seen as people who are prepared to do the bidding of trump at the expense of the integrity of the intelligence service and really at the broader expense as lindsey graham was handing of the best interest of the united states you know on that i mean they've they've they've linked that kind of the idea that if there is impunity then the the world becomes a more dangerous place how does that resonate with kind of today's america i mean do you think that do you think that that message is going to be one that the senators will that will want to congress actually with this important will know well i think they will link this to you and i think that it's indisputable that

yemen has made the whole region much more unsafe and i think that there will be a serious push now to really resolve the yemen crisis the existential threat that mom been summoned poses i think is probably one that the average american is not going to grasp at this stage but again it appoints to how. terribly vulnerable he has become and really his only ally now in the west is very erratic presidents who could do more with a wrong to the wind because we've seen the throw lots of his own people under the bus well not really that i think so much indeed bill bruford. thank you. oh let us democratic senator bob menendez was also in that cia briefing he's calling for further sanctions against saudi arabia i am now more convinced than i was before and i was pretty convinced that in fact the united states must have a strong response to both the war in yemen as well

as the killing of the united states permanent president and journalists enjoy. and only a strong response by the united states will send a clear and unequivocal message that such actions are not acceptable in the world's stage and i think that's more important than ever and i hope that senator graham and my legislation which would create a real set of consequences mandatory global make netsky a series of sanctions beyond those that exists would be a very strong answer to what has happened. joel rubin is the president of the washington strategy group he joins us via skype from washington d.c. it's been interesting isn't it that the senators don't necessarily would agree on how and what the next steps exactly have to be what do you think they should do to be effective on this. so that is typical in a legislative process but right now what has happened is unprecedented in american

foreign policy rarely do we see a congress from both sides of the aisle so strongly rebuke the president on a core national security concerns so next steps are going to be driven in many ways by the calendar and and here in washington the congressional calendar is only only as a couple more weeks at the high end in this congress and then there's a new congress so some senators like sarah corker he'll be gone after this month he's retiring he may want to move a bill some legislation either on the appropriations bill or potentially with the yemen war powers resolution to try to move that through congress to the president desk and that is what could really mobilize and catalyze unity of action once some type of legislation some piece is actually on the floor and what are the likely had the president changing his position on the question. it's

a very complicated thing to understand right now where the president is coming from because he did have this cia assessment weeks ago so what the senators are reacting to today is not new information so the white house has had weeks to try to figure out what it is they want to do and they have stayed the course i think personally that when the new congress comes in there will be hearings in the house because the republicans are unlikely to do carries in the senate on this issue and those hearings kids strayed off of the quiz shows a topic directly in c. questions of who was communicating with him with saudi arabia what were the messages between jarrett cushion or in the white house and him and mama been some under intense he week period after democracy or she's killing and these could become very uncomfortable and at that point will really see whether or not president trump has the staying power to keep rejecting what is

a consensus view now or if he's willing to take the political hits to him and his family that will be continuing most likely in the next congress how unusual is it in your experience that an issue like this should continue to course for the white house i mean. to the journalists and the senate as no one has kind of given up on the story in a way that perhaps they might have done on on other issues. that's right this is clearly a surprise i served in the senate i also served in the state department in handling the house of representatives for secretary of state kerry and political issues coming go and sometimes of course national security importance they would maintain like the iran nuclear deal which had a long shelf life clearly but it was a policy issue this is a very discrete political issue with human rights ramifications but it's it's how it's played out it's sort of brought together all the strains of concern about

president trumps foreign policy is closeness to saudi arabia and the the opacity of that relationship questions about iran questions about frankly what is the american position in the middle east going forward and because of that because turkey as a third player in this drama has continually let out information and because the bungling of the message early on and the inability of saudi arabia to come clean early on it led to doubts about what happened that's why this hasn't gone away and now it's a political issue for president trump and he has congress early staging an argument opposed to him which makes for great drama and means that it is not going to go away any time soon and what about they have their share of yemen and we know that some of the senate has unlinking the affair with their support or not or lack of support for the war in yemen but if there is a peace process ongoing in the next few days does that then take the heat off saudi

arabia on that particular issue and and give the president sort of a space on the on the mannequins on nonissue. well we've seen on the on the yemen catastrophe. from a washington perspective over the past year or so a growing momentum of opposition to american military support for saudi arabia's efforts there and that has game momentum independently of the khashoggi affair but now they could show she fair has sort of brought it all together in a very specific individual and example that can really enable senators to clarify for voters and constituents and the media what is it stage here so regarding yemen if the peace process evolves properly that's one question but what's america's role and we saw the senate week ago bipartisan vote opposing a continued american role in that war there will be

a floor vote this week possibly early next week about it and the american people are looking at saudi arabia differently now and wondering why are we supporting this kind of a government in this war that's leading to millions of people being starts so the momentum is only going to grow for american pressure to end this and that is going to have an impact on the ground and it's going to have an impact on the drop in ministrations policy joel rubin thank you very much indeed for your thoughts and such i thank you. joins us live from washington d.c. so betty just kind of the picture of just how much pressure at present and this but also other issues and that meant. he is under tremendous pressure and just to give you a sense of how this is playing out in the united states since president trump became president no story sticks because he's constantly tweeting out different things that are very controversial or making statements or lying and then people spend all

their time talking about that the murder of jamal khashoggi has not disappeared from the headlines this could be in part because he was very well known and well liked in washington d.c. among powerful intellectual elites as they're called he was a member for the washington post they're not letting this story out of the headlines and they're not alone new york times all the major papers it's constantly on their websites constantly in print if you turn on cable news right now chances are you're going to see a story about the senators reacting to good jamal khashoggi so the president would like to see he's made it clear that he's made his decision time to move on that's not happening and it doesn't look like it is going to happen so the fact that they're covering it ok you might be thinking well of course the cover of the center spoke today there's an enormous amount of news happening in the united states right now there is the dow is down more than seven hundred points we're waiting to hear from the special counsel robert muller so there's a lot of news going on this hasn't faded from the headlines which tells me it's not

going to see how hayden thank you very much a quick recap this breaking news this our senior senator is in the usa the time has come for the trumpet ministration to condemn saudi arabia for the merger. or congress will act cia chief gina hospital has been briefing senate is on capitol hill she's one of the few western officials have heard already a recording this from inside the saudi consulate in istanbul she was killed senators who emerged from the meeting seemed unified in their segment of what she had to say saudi crown prince mohammed bin soundman. and must be held to account. or publicans had a to chat session he says that must be a price to pay for the killing i have zero question in my mind that the crown prince m.b.'s ordered the killing monitor detailing knew exactly what was happening

planned in advance if he was in front of a jury you would be convicted in thirty minutes guilty. so. the question is what we do about that. i want to make sure that saudi arabia is put on notice that business as usual has come to an end for me i will not look at the kingdom the same way that i used to look at it i will not support arms sales until all responsible for the death of mr shogi have brought them brought to justice. yes and i will no longer. support the war in yemen as constructed. and a quick reminder you can always catch up with always tori's we're reporting on by checking out our website address that is al-jazeera dot com on the back in the round house last time with the news out of france more now says all season. because we're not just tentative as we sort of. rights not being fined.

and three to be stripped away. on the seventh anniversary of the richness of the rights that stand up. stand up for human rights. control the holiday inn and you control the the region around and that's why it was such a bloody battle. the important thing if you were walking around in beirut was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday inn. the bottle of adi in complete its do division all the beadle into two sectors east and west beirut.

but also puts us bullish on the on our stuff so you. can club me from. the most powerful building in the system from it is the holidays. warmer tells our buildings that function as normal hotels but often in the context of real instability. beirut once a jewel in the mediterranean but then torn apart by war. this is the sea front

of the lebanese capital today around three decades after the end of the civil war. the devastating conflict lasted for fifteen years this street was the green line dividing beirut into east and west. dominating the front line was this concrete skeleton what was once the holiday and. its walls still patted by the scars of war a grotesque witness to the years of separation killing and destruction. of. at find i missed tell me on i'm a painter and architectural activist from england and i lived in beirut for about eight years. i'm particularly inspired by the

memories and the feelings the emotions that embedded in the war the buildings and beirut. the most powerful building in the city from it is the holiday inn. it's so famous and so iconic it's like a joint wish. remains in the center of the city election results sky. the holiday inn is still a stark reminder of war wounds that have yet to heal even today. the thirteenth of april nineteenth. five was the official start date of the violence. but this was a proxy conflict fought during the cold war era. on

one side lebanese right wing parties backed by the united states aiming to expel armed palestinian groups from lebannon. on the other left wing parties are allied with the p.l.o. and backed by the soviet union who saw the right wing christians as an extension of israeli and american influence in lebanon. only two weeks off to beirut erupted the south vietnamese capital saigon fell to the communists ending over nineteen years of conflict in vietnam television's first war. now came levanon. armies of reporters and war photographers moved from southeast asia to the middle east and began to occupy beirut hotel rooms filled up with news crews and

a new chapter of the cold war began. most of the correspondents t.v. crews and photographers checked into this hotel the commodore a safe haven in the west of the city. every day they would set off from here for downtown beirut for the main hotel district where the holiday inn was the front line. the holiday inn was a war were tell in the sense that it was part of an urban battle a battle between two factions of the strategic heights but it wasn't a press or a tail so none of the journalists covering the war to be interested in the whole of the holiday inn became one of the first significant physical manifestations of the . of the conflict. my name is kenneth morris and professor of european history and one of my key research interests in the history of world. war were tales are

buildings that function as normal hotels but often in the context of real instability so i look at a new minister tales study of us holiday invaders commodore but also the hotel europe on belfast for example the leader palace in nicosia cyprus all of these hotels have continued to function throughout this pedia of instability some are within the real midst of an urban conflict. a war hotel emerges out of the history where journalists over a long period before wars start have somehow find it a congenial place to be a watering hole convenient near the center of activity in the city where the politics happens where the culture happens where you meet people the hotels which made beirut the tourist center of the middle east i'm jonathan demme will be and i've long been a reporter reporting from all over the world and therefore i've been in wars and most memorable amongst these was the experience of reporting from the lebanese

civil war in the one nine hundred seventy s. this was once the richest part of the richest city in the middle east i first went to lebanon in nine hundred seventy two as a young reporter my very first article for a magazine here called the new statesman in which i effectively said this place is waiting to blow or it needs is a spark because of the complexity of this very small country surrounded by competing nations. from the one nine hundred fifty s. to the early seventy's beirut was a magnet for the international pleasure seeking elite. they roots hotel district was at the heart of its luxury tourism economy making it a favorite jetsetter destination.

one we speak about beirut's golden age as the switzerland of the middle east we are actually talking about an area the old town district that is the very specific product of a precise geopolitical project. my name is sarah freeganism i'm a political geographer based at the university of birmingham i am interested in hotels and urban conflict. all day in came quite late in the day. united seventy four it was open and it came quite late in the day in two days or tell district which was considered a playground for celebrities and politicians and diplomats and spa is. the hotel district started life in the one nine hundred twenty s.

when the st george opened. for four decades it was one of the most prestigious hotels on the mediterranean. during the cold war in the one nine hundred fifty s. and sixty's the bar of the said george was described as a revolving door of information. the british double agent can philby was a regular. he operated on the cover as a foreign journalist and on the thirtieth of january nine hundred sixty three was spotted for the last time at the bar in the senate george before disappearing in beirut and reappearing a few months later in moscow. and. more smart hotels sprang up including the phoenicia even more luxurious than the st george. but when the holiday inn arrived in one nine hundred seventy four it was not only the tallest but also the last to open before the civil war broke out.

i remember the experience of the phoenicia and i went to the holiday inn different scales of the hotel but both of them pretty luxury hotels the phoenicia was very grand indeed. was a holiday inn but a very upmarket holiday inn so there was plenty of chrome plenty of silver plenty of gold colored drapes it was done very much in the style that the arab world likes. the lisa rose. and i still had a fair saddle to soften the holly but i let me come soldiers over there he had a bill and he lived nearly seven hundred seventy three sort of early embers. this friend or lonely day indiana came shirley really believe me. that

he bet the fair. land the city. has a good hello and. a short man believe it had a bill and he can feel it inside me though really be elaborately bleach. and i can leave it to another contaminate bizarrely who will mr shade of medical work to him as an about home. can only be levied on what a sheriff best been of some work and animals hold on i will not approve the creation of a seal and the scenery be allowed walk on. artist tom young wanted to get inside the building today but to do that he had to get permission not only from the owners but from the lebanese army which still controls it as a strategically sensitive location young man wanted to indulge his passion painting

i finally got the chance to go inside and my my my immediate feeling was one of just overwhelming emotion i felt sad i felt i felt horror but i felt amazement. when i started my projects for the holiday inn and so i started painting it from the outside from many viewpoints. and then i discovered that it's the parents of a very good friend of mine but i have to refer parents sammy and. actually not only live next to the holiday inn and have a fantastic view of it from their balcony and they're possibly one of the very few

people in lebanon who had their wedding reception dinner in the holiday inn. somehow. one hundred forty. years from. now and it's awareness and let's put some of you out of office i mean again it's in my blood how to believe you all knowledge then began in the theater and more anomaly awfully. german as though it were not in other words. or a catholic and it had. on the last second and again that would that fit had the economic demands i was in so horne my love. that is something mechanized and had that had a feel good in the swing of machine shop on with the machinery it was it of a diplomat i think i've.

lived here about last hour. and the sun i look at that idea of i never got back to see if i. can there that comes here. when then. the national economic laws ian. lee nick and wanted so remember only they're in or why they were there. quite a bit at the heart of men. only then. seeing the building from a distance you understand its context within the city and what it must have meant in the civil war. or use this very bright red which expresses this blood that's been spilled that violent enough. hate anger and

every time i slash. the paint it's a way of going through that anger and that violence and honoring that and i also raise it as if that itself is the erosion of memory. when the civil war started in april nine hundred seventy five the p.l.o. when the lebanese national movement for the maronite christian fundamentalist party . the violence was triggered by the so-called bus incident on the thirteenth of april when fighters from the phalange party opened fire on a bus carrying palestinians as it drove through their stronghold of anal romani. twenty six palestinians were killed and dozens wounded unleashing what became a living hell on the streets of beirut which spread rapidly throughout lebanon. there was street fighting and shelling. there were snipers and kidnappings and

sectarian massacres across the religious divide. the christian phalangist militias were based in east beirut but gradually took control of the main downtown streets in the west of the city the strategic port and the hotel district including the cent george the phoenicia the hilton and the holiday inn. on the twenty fourth of october nine hundred seventy five leftwing muslim militias and palestinian armed groups under the umbrella of the national movement launched a massive offensive to try and regain control of the hotel district which straddled east and west. with the battle of the hotel's one nine hundred seventy five one nine hundred seventy six was was simply a battle for control of the strategic heights and who controlled the strategic

heights kids essentially dictate terms so controlling these buildings in the hotel district the high rise buildings became extremely important for the militias. which in. central. only well over that and when i was hit by the sun's orders will release. the militia fighters started moving upwards and they started going on top of towers one e's bush on more and other one is only day and. a few days into the battle of the hotels the guests are completely abandon the entire district and evacuated to the neighboring mediterranean island of cyprus.

soon after the upper floors of the holiday inn were set on fire by intensive shelling. the fighting on the ground spread into what was called sector four where the phalangist had begun using the helton as a sniper base in the days leading up to the start of the civil war the beirut hilton had been preparing for its grand opening but that never took place. instead militias on both sides checked in the for any v.i.p. guests. this rare archive video shows the moment when left wing fighters seized the lobby of the hilton after the phalangist had withdrawn to their positions in the holiday inn. the important thing if you were walking around in beirut was not to be in the line of fire from the holiday inn.

my name is tim for well and i was the b.b.c.'s middle east correspondent in beirut in the seventy's eighty's ninety's i was in beirut during the so much of the lebanese civil war my remember once trying to get down to the holiday and to try and make some sort of effort. get into it to interview the phalangists and just as i was getting to the point in an area called i'm or i see where you would come right round the corner into the face of the. gunfire started and i scuttled back there was a dead body lying up the street. it was all rather sinister i fled back to the hotel i'm afraid it wasn't one of my braver days but did some people did get across to the holiday inn. on the twenty eighth of march nine hundred seventy six the so-called lebanese and palestinian joint forces launched their strongest attack

yet against the frontline just in the hotel district. their aim was to control all key positions there but especially the highly strategic holiday and. control the holiday inn and you control the region around so you took the holiday in if you possibly could and that's why it was such a bloody battle. the holiday and then it surrounds blades for three days as opposing militias vying for control. no one knew which way the fighting was going not even the lebanese and foreign journalists who reported on the national movements first incursion into the hotel lobby. fair to any year before. be anyone has i haven't known for a moment sure i want to be. a

small group of christian phalangist sigman is to hide inside the hotel killed a senior national movement commander before making their way up to the top on the twenty fourth floor. on the record. can block me from. the study. is out of fear brought in a mass motion would talk a lot. to say you had always thought well you don't like the. the images of the sniper dropping twenty four floors

to his death on the street and there's the militia celebrating for the cameras have become symbols of the form of the holiday. sudar bottles that happened the room by room floor by floor stair by stair. the bottle of oddity incompleted the division of beirut through the green line into two sectors east and west beirut and these partition remained over the course of the two funnelling diag and it passed by. no one will ever know how many heroes died here in the holiday inn the battle lasted three days and three nights and there were no prisoners at the end. jonathan dimbleby reported on several overseas wars for british commercial broadcaster i.t.v. and was one of the first foreign journalists to enter the holiday inn and document

the aftermath of the fighting there smoldering ruins of what had been this very popular resort hotel and he looked at it and thought. this is what we do to one another. there's a hotel and now it's a shelf total show. light bulbs hanging down of all war wires chairs smashed up a piano that was in there which somehow it's has survived the chandelier is all like this broken as a sort of looking bizarrely. like gargoyles staring down at what humanity had done to itself below the vision it will not be a surprising vision but it was surprising that that could happen in beirut.

the green line of course in the civil war was a place where flowers and trees grew abundant and seven several fronts to that but it's also a way of envisioning some brighter future kind of sense of hope that might spring up in the ruins of the past. today around three decades on from the end of the civil war the complexity of lebannon sectarianism and the geopolitics of the region mean that the country and its people are still struggling to recover from its effects. the majority of the hotel district has been rebuilt. the enormous shell of the holiday

inn still towers over downtown awaiting its fate. no more green line for it to look down on today. but the monument to fifteen years of struggle continues to attract visitors historians artists and filmmakers all seeking to understand the events of the seventy's and eighty's. more than any other ravaged building surviving the conflict it surely deserves the title war hotel.

singapore is being accused of expanding its coastline with illegally dredged satins of some of the islands off the coast of indonesia and literally vanished it's a big business will go into syria when they will take the say on their own thought the sand is are fair game to say with beautiful beach but behind it is something that's not so proud of the tragedy is that people are just not aware and ecological investigation into a global emergency sand was on al-jazeera. to cope with driving in kabul you need nerves of steel and a strong heart the afghan capital has some of the most challenging driving conditions anywhere even though women are allowed to drive by law many men say culturally it is wrong that they are. there are lots of men he verby abuse you they block your car motorcyclists right alongside shouting bad things no one helps us

when the taliban were in control women were forbidden to drive but outside of the main cities it is rare even now to see a woman behind the wheel society is changing albeit slowly but the women drivers of afghanistan there was a long road ahead before they are fully accepted. this is al jazeera. hello i'm not entail and this is the al jazeera news hour live from london coming up. if he was in front of a jury you would be convicted in thirty minutes u.s. senators emerged from a briefing by the.