toxic smoke that's blanketed moscow finally lifts but the record heat wave is showing no signs of abating hundreds of wildfires still burning in western and central russia with flames now reaching areas contaminated by the sheer noble nuclear disaster officials say not to panic as the pollution remains deep in the soil. as russia struggles with a fire in drought the country's grain export has been temporarily stopped to secure domestic needs there's fears that more crops could be lost in the heat and flames prompting global grain prices to skyrocket. and could be making a comeback in iraq by attracting former u.s. sympathizers with the promise of high wages militia leaders say they're capitalizing on the u.s. troop withdrawal and continuing political instability. up next the alone to show follows up on our report that al qaeda may be buying their way back into a rocky hearts and minds coming your way in just a moment. welcome

to the lower show where we get the real headlines and under the mercy are coming live out of washington d.c. and today we'll address the war in iraq just as obama announced the on schedule withdrawal of troops in the region a new reports is coming out saying that al qaeda is already working its way back into the pockets of iraqis i'll speak with colonel lawrence wilkerson and ask him if this shows that betrays a strategy might not be the success that officials have touted it to be also today marks the first day of ramadan so as muslims prepare to celebrate they face increasing islamophobia from their fellow americans so we're going to find out why the u.s. is caught up in this fear and who's fueling xenophobic attitude and is it just me or does it seem like people in d.c. are saying some pretty outrageous comments these days we're going to find out why press secretary robert gibbs accuse the political left of being on drugs and what

that professional left had to say to that radio host and wonkette blogger sarah betting casa will join me for that discussion and then we're going to take another in-depth look at our economy the fed says we're in trouble so after weeks of speculation is this confirmation that we really are doomed well as business insiders gregory white for his opinion on the state of the economy and all be joined by relationship expert diana falzone i'll get her opinion on everything from snooki cozying up to john mccain to eminem angry on his new music video which some say glamorizes domestic violence that's all the end of the show now let's move on to today's top story. just a week after obama gave a speech touting the end of the iraq war and the on time withdrawal of american troops comes news that al qaeda is already in that and according to the guardian has already begun enticing former sunni allies to rejoin their forces by paying

them more than they currently receive from the government and those particular forces are known as the sons of iraq the same group of rebels and david petraeus embraced as a tool to fight militants inhale the success story so what do you make of the u.s. departure and of petraeus a strategy that everything goes back to the way it was seven years ago doesn't prove that money and not the promises of democracy are the way to win hearts and minds well earlier i spoke with colonel lawrence wilkerson retired retired colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell and i first asked him if he was at all surprise that al qaeda was already making its lift return. to comments on the one watery the brain trust for osama bin laden would be saying that. you're not sure if it's even true absolutely one of the things that bin laden has been very clear about is that his desire was to suck the united states into the middle east afghanistan first and then iraq he's done that we've complied with everything that

his chief strategist when i was a water he wanted we've come and we're now marred down which is exactly what bin laden mourn and so you could defeat us just as the mujahedeen defeated the soviet union. the second dimension of it in the first mention is is it true is it just a stratagem by them the second dimension is i wouldn't care personally if al qaeda came back to iraq because the iraqis will devastate the iraqis do not like al-qaeda the iraqis had as much to do with catching and killing their kawi al qaida interaction ruthless leader in the beginning as did the united states they all drive. but these are rocky is that we're talking about. are these sons of iraq the ones that the u.s. worked with whom i have to working with them because they also wanted to write fight the militants fight al qaeda that's what became the success story for america but it was david petraeus call it a success story but here you're back in my first response again is this the sunni

element now describable the political process and describable the way the united states has abandoned it in that political process and is now saying threatening that it's going to live so for the al qaida again if it were to do so would be a temporary lines ok well you know i mean there you're i think the political instability definitely has a large part to do with the but what i'm curious about who is the entire. idea of paying these people off i mean these guys get three hundred dollars a month and that's what they first were paid by the u.s. now that's what they're being paid by the iraqi government we have the largest military in the world our budget for next year is seven hundred billion dollars can reap not really afford to pay these guys more well to outspend al qaeda look at what we're spending in afghanistan where we're trying to do just that i'm not sure we're doing it very smartly but we're trying to buy drug lords were drawn about allegiance we're trying to buy intelligence and everything else it doesn't work unless you have

a strategy to implement that is complemented by your purchases and frankly i don't see still in both feeders afghanistan and iraq a strategy other then hope and pray and leave well that's the thing is to trace a strategy although it's been held a success as a success do you think that it might have been failed from the get go because there's never been a long term strategy it's always been to come in perhaps pacified to be able to leave with what looks like a dignified exit but there's no long term strategy frankly the only long term strategy that would work or that would have a at least a reasonable chance of working is the kind of strategy we had in south korea and that is that we stay for at least a generation perhaps a half century and we ensure that what is in process when we bring some sort of stability and peace to the area endures i don't see the american people supporting that kind of presence in iraq so i'm not sure that you can effect

a strategy that will work in the time that remains and so i don't i don't necessarily blame them for doing what they can before they know inevitably they have to get out and you know you say you don't see it working in iraq in the american people supporting it there and same thing with afghanistan at least in afghanistan longer than look at another oddity or theater there i think in many. respects not necessarily a number of casualties and so forth though that's on the increase big time. it's just a different place completely from iraq comparing them demographically population wise in other words to ray wise and everything and even in terms of the literacy of the people it's just there is no comparison afghanistan is truly a quagmire into which we are pouring billions of dollars and blood and the lives of our men and women now i want to talk about since we're talking about the billions of dollars that were pouring into this war and the amount of money it that it takes

i mean one million dollars a year per soldier i just don't understand how that's sustainable but now we finally have defense secretary robert gates talking about proposing ideas to cut the defense budget and of course everybody is up in arms here but i want to get your take on the parts that he wants to cut for example the joint forces command is that something that is necessary that is needed to have something that should be wiped off the map let me be a heretic here i as a colonel in the united states army working for the marine corps said that the joint forces command or as it was known before that the atlantic once the cold war was over should have gone away period but we did was we created something in order to keep it standing up in order to keep its flag and then we transitioned into the quote joint forces command unquote which is a gravy boat for contractors that's all it is joint forces command could go away tomorrow and the effectiveness of the united states military would be improved not

diminished but if this is where the supposed grave you bowl for contractors as you say is that possible to really cut it out of the map because it's a good question how many contractors do we have in afghanistan in iran look at the government's pay and look at the congressman from the norfolk area the soft kerry and elsewhere in virginia who are going to fight this tooth and i don't see you happy around the buddies who are going to help them on the armed services committees in particular because they see this is. and we're in a very job deficient environment right now with no signs of improving so they're going to be very reluctant to cut something out that creates thousands of jobs in a very serious area well something i found interesting is the fact that he wants to reduce the number of generals and admirals a secret baddish for this i mean these are the bare rule in the highest ranks that that every entire entourage is their security detail their drivers their assistants who obviously cost the taxpayer a lot of money but how do you just get rid of a general every secretary of defense since i was in the military for thirty one

years has tried to do this remember vividly caspar weinberger tried to do it. it is almost impossible to do because the military and in special the army steals its ranks and says we need every man we need every man you could cut thirty percent of the general officers the united states army and again the efficiency and effectiveness of the army would go up not be diminished well the thing that i found actually the most amazing here was that there was a quote from pentagon officials who said that they could never recall a time when a major command was shut down in just vanished off the books they're just used to them popping up that's right new ones popping up every couple of months they don't know what it is to have something cut and taken away so do you think robbery case is going to be successful here. i don't think you'll probably fare any better than any other sector defense but i do believe because of the circumstances and the times the financial and economic crisis and so forth and because of his bona fida

is now it well established he has a better chance than previous secretaries and for one this lonely person is cheering for the kind of workers and thank you so much for being here i'm cheering for him as well so you know hopefully he can lose a little see the result of that hopefully someday thanks so much thank you for having me. just ahead on the show days after the google horizon deal has been announced. the internet shite is now finding itself in even more hot water over privacy and anonymity writes on the web details on that straight ahead and as the islamic holy month kicks off so do a lot of anti muslim campaigns across the u.s. so we'll look into the growing problem of islamophobia as soon as we come back the . first tree removal call the clear cut. second the exclusive

plans to meet. her remains are revealed in the she. wanted so. badly she's. on it. every month we give you the future we help you understand how we'll get there and what tomorrow brings the best in science and technology from across russia and around the world join knowledge on r.g.p. . we've got a special day in history for you this evening we take you back twenty six years when the comments of then president ronald reagan caused quite a panic take a list. today about.

him grabbing a minute. yeah reagan made that comment back in one thousand nine hundred eighty four walls testing a microphone before a scheduled radio address so it was supposed to be a joke and at his first press at first his press aide laughed the ones that were in attendance but that comment it did unnerve some others who why was the president of the united states joking about something like that keep in mind the comment came in the middle of the cold war with the soviet union some people actually thought the nuclear war could have broken out in a matter of five minutes you know it goes to show you how much things can change when i can't imagine the outcry of this type of an incident what happened today so let's just say thank god we didn't have the twenty four hour news cycle back then and it goes to show you what a difference again twenty six years really can make. well i guess google doesn't

mind being in the spotlight these days even if they're getting bad press and the company isn't getting enough negative criticism for their google horizon deal people went nuts when they heard that an executive for the internet giants bought a drone yet those same planes of the military uses to spy on the tap militants abroad well now one of those is in the hands of one of the heads of google scary or apparently they're just trying to ease everyone's worries by saying that this big wig bought the drone for his personal use because he just happens to have a fascination with robotics but come on and it was a great i'm going to assume a google is probably going to use it for their street view in the u.s. and now they have the perfect technology to do it without you know anyone catching them so all i can say is this google executive is extremely lucky that his name hasn't yet been released to the public otherwise we'd be using all of their own tools like google earth and street view to find his house there and we really then

could see if the guy has a land to take up collecting drones a weekend hobby and if that doesn't make google look bad enough well the c.e.o. eric schmidt was quoted at a tech conference recently saying the following he said the only way to manage this is true transparency and no anonymity in a word of asynchronous threats world scuse me it's too dangerous for there not to be some way to identify you we need a verified name service for people and check out this interview from c n b c where he actually defended those statements. but if you're trying to commit a terrible evil crime it's not god vs that you should be able to do so with complete anonymity there are no systems in our society which allow you to do that judges insist on masking who the perpetrator were was. great schmidt so should we assume that everybody on the internet is committing some sort of crime what if somebody just wants to check their email or have a hard. this little chat session called me crazy but it sounds like google has some

tricks up their sleeve and this is just a suggestion but maybe they need a better p.r. department to to filter out all of those outrageous comments and actions or else google might go under or at least you know if they were in a company that was bigger than god then maybe they would i think you guys get my point. now today marks the start of an important month for muslims ramadan is a time when they practice patience and refrain from meeting where they ask for forgiveness and pray for guidance as r.t. correspondent to head hafiz reports the muslim community must also face another issue in america that's that is the growing fear of islam. it's just another day of the week for most of us the lowdown for muslims worldwide is the first day of the islamic holy month of ramadan. fasting during ramadan teaches you generosity it teaches you to be kind and generous to those who are less fortunate.

to come here to buy the so we can eat. when we breaking or fast them and all the essential oils like dates are actually selling out here at the elemental supermarket in northern virginia where muslim americans from all over the region have flocked to by traditional foods and middle eastern good imported for the holy month of ramadan in fact well the most important part is how well meat how well meat is actually selling out here al manar people are preparing for the breaking of the fast. but it's not easy for muslims in america says egyptian born a bus kinder ramadan like you know like for us here you know you have seen a gracious one from the other similar but it's not this scene in. the islamic holy month falls during a sensitive time for muslims in america this year the uproar over the building of an islamic center near ground zero has contributed to the rise in islamophobia

nationwide and we've had cases where you know extremist groups are told to go and lay hands on mosques during ramadan or to harass worshippers during ramadan we've seen unfortunately a number of recent cases where. worshipers of mosques around the country have been harassed the muslim terrorists that brought down the towers and the pentagon and was going to take out the white house in the capitol building were inspired by jihad those who harbored anti muslim feelings in the past sometimes just kept the selves but i think now with the tea party movement they feel that there is some kind of legitimacy given to these feelings and they are free to express them and get support from them by a social movement and that's a very disturbing trend after slavery and there was a lot of racism toward african-americans so now it's it's seems to be islam.

but on the. back of the anti islam campaigns and actions around the country are not bothering these muslims so. the only thing on their mind is family food and gearing up for the first day of the most sacred month of the year jan hoffa's r t washington d.c. . now if you would ask the u.s. state department there is no such thing as the fear of islam in america this is the most welcoming most tolerant most friendly place on earth at least that's what they want the rest of the world to believe according to state department officials in months they sell the man behind the plans for the islamic center near the site of nine eleven is taking a government sponsored short trip to qatar bahrain and the united arab emirates the purpose is to talk about muslim life in america and religious tolerance and i'm normally i would have absolutely no problem with that but don't you think the

timing here is just a little bit odd that while one of the largest debates in the u.s. right now centers over hate and fear surrounding the building of a mosque not even on but just near the site of nine eleven the main he'd be telling people in the middle east how religiously talk. all over into america it is that's a good time for that especially since a certain number of lawmakers are also opposing this trip because they think that endorsers extremism and doesn't represent the american people the taxpayers who would be funding it forgive me if i sound a little cynical but it just doesn't seem like he'd be painting the proper picture for these people so perhaps the state department would be better suited to finding people to teach religious tolerance here at home including to its own lawmakers before they send message yours abroad to talk about how peachy keen everything his right here it just doesn't seem right. on that note we do have to ask why

islamophobia in america is on the rise why zina phobia is on the rise why politicians are using the people's fears to their advantage and making them worse it's almost as if islamophobia has become the new communism the new red scare so why is it working well joining me here in studio is honeyman whom blogger at best i live from phoenix is dr president and founder of the american islamic forum for democracy gentlemen thank you both for being here i'll start with you first why do you. agree with our statements here do you think that islamophobia really is on the rise in america i agree with you and i think it's the larger picture now isn't a phobia where it's not just muslims or the. you know and he's on where the good doctor is and you have the issues with an american to do with racism toward the president obama so you can see there is a lot of elite issue for many communities but the muslim community certainly have seen more than a fair share of the hate to where they were they were members now it's not just or

that's true you are in fact in arizona right now where that which is the center of this immigration debate a lot of people are calling this the summer of fear in america that people are just whipped up into a frenzy and i think as long as you said you know muslims might be the easiest target here but it goes also for immigrants and do you think politicians are using that to their advantage that people really are so scared of politicians are playing on that. i really have to do a bit exception with some of the generalizations that have been made and then you know i really believe that there are some serious issues related to for example the immigration issue regarding the rule of law regarding their wishing who is and who is not simply as you probably didn't think when you're talking about islamophobia my family's been here i was born in the us we've had struggles with building mosques we built a mosque in wisconsin and ninety to one that was not met with some difficulty and then a bill because of our constitution and yes we were very involved in education and

ultimately it got built i don't think you know i think that media is obviously playing a lot more attention to this and not to mention we has muslims it's easy it's so shocking things often say there were victims and oh my gosh there's always some hope but what islam will forget we're we're being attacked and yes there are terrible things happening such as the burning of the koran in florida but the church that's doing that that's very offensive and you know they started burning toros before the whole cause happened however seeing that we are have to look at what the symptom is and this symptom is coming from i believe muslims diverting their attention from actually dealing with the disease that we have to deal with which is political islam and if you look at the last twelve months of the busiest time of radical islamist attacks against america from the dollar sign of the times square bomber in on it we have to deal with that reality if we're going to start to melt away some of the fears that are legitimate that is happening among americans

that it's not a fear of islam but of the eight i think he is somewhat appropriate fear of radical islam so political islam is radical islam these are the people that are extremists and so is the muslim community not doing enough to differentiate themselves from these people so that americans understand that not every muslim is a terrorist i first want to start then wish dr jasser more than kerry in fairness because the fair. from a dan where there's a lot about mubarak there's a lot of muslims who observe this day and you know we are a lot of us are part of this american society we came to this land because of the great things it offers in terms of tolerance and freedom of speech but now we feel that there is two hands now there is the one hand that markets freedom of speech freedom of religion your cool do whatever you want to do but then in the other hand when they try to do a morse in new york you know ok there are sensitive issues about the new york but that doesn't justify all the reactions and racism from politicians and what's not

but the other thing is tennessee why is tennessee having a hard time they're building a mosque there i don't understand i mean there's one point. one point five billion muslims around the world you know there is like nidal hasan these guys you know and i'm sure the good doctor as he promotes in his site where he talks about oh let's separate which we religion and state we love it it's good but then when it comes to islam now he's preaching the other way which is like oh we should not have this mosque because you know what the government said governor. the mayor of the city said ok we're going to let this mosque and this is freedom of religion we don't stay does not interfere but now you have the crazies and the right wingers and the politicians with a lot of moral failings i don't want to have to name their names so what you're. saying is you don't want them the mosque there. near the ground level why is that. oh he's mischaracterizing my point what i said is we are i've actually been in support of the mosque that was controversial wisconsin should boycott in tennessee

and elsewhere the issue we had with the mosque at ground zero is that it's not just a mosque if it was just a humble mosque there's even a mosque closer than that one which is right next to it that was pretty much destroyed that nobody had a problem with this structure is not about a mosque it's a political statement of one hundred million dollars that they haven't even it will even confirm that it's coming from foreign monies and if it truly was a characteristic of american new yorkers it would be domestically funded from your butt their money from abroad from countries like qatar from countries like saudi god knows where they want to see where the i disagree with you about the foreign sources count on qatar going to the u.s. having billion dollars under the internet as comes the structure of political islam globally and does not reflect religious freedom but actually a global political movement that has had an influence of part of radicals like me thought my son at any moment lucky and others great agree with that i totally disagree because one thing if one of these guys in new york are trying to build

a mosque have one should have doubt that they have any links there would be a problem on their way to guantanamo bay there's more than there is about a million us just doing everything they can to make sure that everyone see if i cannot send twenty five dollars for my mom without having to go through all these hoops and i'm sure you know these things america's a great we have always said that it's been good to us but they get there are people in the margin who definitely don't really matter that much i mean what's what's the big deed every year was still you actually one second every you actually got a quick check on the evidence you were sent a guy he has you know a cultural center a culture program sport what's the problem do you have with new yorkers i mean i'm not from new york i don't speak for them if they need a place to be at why should we worry about you know you see what this is casting a shadow on a cemetery on a memorial it should be an interfaith building and i'll tell you talk about the spirit of ramadan as i began my festive day i want. to see us spend our resources on culture terrorism fighting al qaida and making this country safer and helping

poverty and building good you kishen not building a hundred million dollar ostentatious structure that is going to have swimming pools and auditoriums and just be a showcase which i think is a waste of money it's not only does money already much in the american style he got to admit to when building joint council ostentatious structure like you'd like to call it you know what i wanted to know but here's my point is like so you want the small and most must not have a go on this that the point i mean you're happy with a small but i don't want your research center to fight the idea is if you support it all we want about all of that you know you know the lobbying of the defense an arm of the homeland security department everything that is supposed to be working toward counterterrorism in since nine eleven john unfortunately had to go and we got it i want to go in as any problems you know it's got i was so isn't cut out you know where the u.s. have a huge military base cut over supposed to get scared i don't like the government they're probably not a big fan of theirs but come on they're friends of the united states so we can be like i'm going to scare me oh i speeds out of jobs are because you have or we have

to go janet thank you very much thank you governor your opinions on this tonight time for a break but coming up just ahead our tool time winner involves the son of a former vice president trying to talk tough and high from political scandal we'll tell you why ben quayle wants to knock the hell out of washington in just a moment and the left reeling at a white house spokesman spokesman robert gibbs well ask why some politicians and their close advisers aren't held accountable for some of their of the top comments .