Skip to main content

tv   [untitled]    March 18, 2011 4:00pm-4:30pm EDT

4:00 pm
he starts on t.v. don't come. to. the world in turmoil as everyone awaits the next move in libya why is there a blind eye turned bad they all rain and what exactly makes a good da feels so different from the rest will take a look at america's foreign policy polls the some are now calling hypocrisy. and japan on the brink of a churn noble like disaster is it really possible to prevent a for full scale nuclear disaster with so few resources. and while libya and japan are in turmoil president obama heads south to a more stable and growing region latin america because this now be
4:01 pm
a game of catch up. it's friday march eighteenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for is out there watching our team so i want to start now with the situation in libya as we told you yesterday the united nations approved a resolution to impose a no fly zone there moammar gadhafi has called for a cease fire since that happened but it's unclear whether what that actually means as reports of violence there continue and now we're hearing reports that france and great britain may be getting ready to send planes to the area even sooner than expected will start off today with an inside look for marty's pulse leader. i was certainly hearing that rebels feel it's a little more than a contradiction they simply do not believe the gadhafi regime they say that they will not heed the ceasefire call it point to the fact that clashes still continue
4:02 pm
in the east of the west of the country we know that in the town of misrata which is some two hundred kilometers from benghazi which is the rebel stronghold there were receiving reports of people who have been killed among them children clashes that also continue in the town of agita beer which is a little bit closer to benghazi we've heard unconfirmed reports that there have been two explosions outside the capital city of tripoli now the foreign minister certainly surprised the international community mr mousavi who so when he did that libya would be implementing a cease fire immediately he said that they would be this is station of all military activities he said that the government had a responsibility to protect humanitarian assistance to provide humanitarian assistance to protect human life to provide protection to foreign assets and foreign citizens he also called a full open dialogue now the international community particularly the e.u. was struggling to make sense of what libyan foreign minister meant and what the position of the gadhafi government is you need to remember that it is less than twenty four hours ago that gadhafi sons sake i'll just say that one of this would
4:03 pm
be over within forty eight hours and he certainly was alluding to move violence and more protests and more military action on the ground we're hearing from france that they are remain cautious we're hearing from london that exactly needs to be judged by his actions and not by his words and we're hearing from the u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton that the international community is still going to go ahead with implicit implementing this no fly zone she to say that only even can gadhafi be judged in terms of what his real motives are the rebels who are really do support the call for a no fly zone but even they are particularly cautious and they are against that no fly zone being enlarged to mean something with the question being asked is if if no fly zone does not work if indeed a no fly zone is not able to stop. the gadhafi regime from punted from continuing with to these military activities what will be the next step and expose has been banking the question of when exactly will this no fly zone be implemented we still
4:04 pm
have no timeframe how long will it continue for will it. libya who exactly will be involved and who will have the chain of command now we are hearing parallels being made with the situation in the operations in iraq and afghanistan here to the core is for civilians to be taken care of but as we saw in iraq in afghanistan and lot of innocent people died and as we've heard from germany which was one of the countries to abstain from voting on this u.n. resolution they say it carries considerable dangers and risks the same course and was voiced by the russian ambassador to the united nations russia of course another country who abstained from that u.n. resolution problem that is in essence a whole range of questions raised by the russian federation and other security council members. questions which were both concrete and it was about questions regarding how we're going to fly zone not being forced and the rules of engagement and limits to the use of force provisions were introduced into the text potentially
4:05 pm
opening the door to large scale military intervention responsibility for the inevitable humanitarian consequences and the excessive use of outside force in libya with a full fair and square on the shoulders of those who might undertake such actions if this happens then not only the civilian population of libya. holding peace and security for the whole region if. there's a need to avoid such destabilizing. so that does raise concerns back to the question of where exactly all this no fly zone and many unanswered questions many fears a lot of concern and certainly a feeling of uncertainty here in libya that was already correspondent polis where from tripoli libya. president obama spoke about this matter in libya this afternoon and said in no uncertain terms that if the dolphin does not back down but the u.n. security council resolution will be enforced through military action he used his office threat against rebel forces to try to make his case take
4:06 pm
a listen and just yesterday speaking of the city of benghazi. the city of roughly seven hundred thousand people he threatened call we will have no mercy and no pity no mercy on his own citizens all right so listening to president obama's speech and thinking bigger about this we've got to ask why libya why not get involved in other countries also in dire situations where the help answer that question we go to michelle shuts it off the editor of global research joining us from montreal canada. hey there michelle let's talk about this decision by the u.s. as one of the members of the u.n. security council to support a no fly zone in libya and perhaps why is it first from the reaction to what's going on elsewhere like they in ivory coast or bahrain or yemen. well over first i think we have to understand that this is not really a no fly zone or
4:07 pm
a no fly zone in fact implies a bombing campaign and preparations are ongoing i think the timing of this operation at this stage we can't really make any clear statements although we have we have the statements nearby by france and britain to that effect that i think well should be understood first of all this intervention even though it is adopted on the. you were you when hospices is organization of international norm you colors and we go into a country and start barking the hell out of the place our low pretext that you're coming to good rescue of civilians and since when has president obama come to the rescue of civilians he's got a lot of power to start with drone attacks he's killing people in iraq. and those are and not to mention. so that the credibility of the west and starts it's
4:08 pm
very it's very weak another aspect is that nowhere in this resolution do they actually mention the fact that we're dealing not with a protest vote but with an armed insurrection and consequently this involves a confrontation between the two sides as an arms embargo but that arms and apply to aren't shipment to the rebels it doesn't imply. it doesn't imply assistance which u.s. and allied special forces have been granting the rebels right from the outset so from my standpoint and from the standpoint of international law this is interference in the affairs of a sovereign country i could be like a puppy and not at the stock issue now but the other aspect which is very serious and we have. to really analyze it is that this is of all what theatre we have
4:09 pm
three one of those and so the pay is that after all our truth is a rug three this palace and four is gold africa. because this but the possibilities of the escalation of the. office contemplate is not only an accompanying it is also a groan i wanted as they use has you brought up so many points michel and i want to just touch upon one of them that you made it sort of to dig deeper into that to it this idea it's not just an idea i think it's a fact that libya is a sovereign country and that when you have a sovereign country it's not in the interest of states to get involved in al places to get involved in these internal affairs so why is nobody talking about this why was this not a consideration when making this decision well going to. china and russia have now been statements to the fact that good i think level that they are
4:10 pm
opposed to this bill which means they didn't exercise a draw at the united nations security council they prefer to have syrian job and it's also said we are not going in there we're not going to be involved in a military operation i think that was a very good solves on the part of juggling and other. brazil israel love scenes and once again the bric countries seem to be sticking together and of course germany here too but i do want to talk about the countries actually leading the charge in this effort great britain and france any idea michelle you know we've heard that they may send in planes even sooner than tomorrow and the idea what these two countries are up to what their reasoning is for being so in favor of this move. well look here has three point five percent of global oil reserves. and it has the cheapest oil the in the middle east as low as one dollar a barrel according suddenness limits and. the trauma field because what this oil
4:11 pm
now i think consists. of nature and loads of radiation because they also canadian forces as well from different countries is the trophy because oil is oil and gas and what these countries are and all that is is what kind of watch are they going to share the spoils of war i should mention that china also wants at significant oil interests in libya products are good so the insurrection so this is good this is part of the battle of is the battle for oil it's not us it's government humanitarian war and you don't come to the so the rescue of civilians by folding because that's precisely where you can get so-called collateral damage which is is really to get rid of the civilians thinking of collateral damage michel i want to draw some other comparisons here we've got a situation that just happened in north waziristan pakistan right on the border there between afghanistan and pakistan this was a u.s.
4:12 pm
drone attack that killed forty one people and you know a lot of times that when a the u.s. government or other governments come out with reasonings for a no fly zone or other they cite as you said the humanitarian reasoning how can they say that in one breath and then we've got the drone attacks happening just hours ago yesterday it's double standards i mean they've killed all over the million people in iraq they called tell us they're coming to the rescue of civilians it is absolute nonsense and. the situation in buffalo is very very serious and we even have reports that chemical weapons are being your second against against the naacp and not violent protest movement and then you have the fifth fleet which is is there. and they didn't intervene they didn't even after they didn't even tell them you're killing people they just let it happen. the country is the gulf states saudi arabia are part of this coalition they have already they've adopted an arab league. organization of african unity so that can
4:13 pm
affect i think the western military alliance what it wants also is to have these other countries do the dirty work for all of egypt as it is of bringing weapons in . saudi arabia has has a lot of of us the three hard all of those actions in fact would be integrated into nato you with states or us defense systems so that in fact the whole lives just six of this war would be controlled by nato even if it were saudi arabia who sends a gone out of a fighter bombers into into a disastrous. box we have a big bust on the stand and well uptick opinion understands we are all of the above all wars theater in north africa. it's very difficult to predict how it will unfolds but when you see it go find zone and all the measures that needs military
4:14 pm
intervention and that means war and that means civilian casualties and you know a lot michel i don't think you're the only one that thinks this that a couple recent polls just came out that show even the majority of americans in in some cases depending on the wording of the poll seventy four percent oppose the u.s. getting involved in libya a lot of them seeing this as to what just what you said it is the start of what could be a war of some sorts michel chossudovsky editor for global research that cia. and now into chaos of a different kinds the chaos the devastation and increase in fear in japan that's happening with the nuclear situation there of course and with each new report and each new update there seems to be signs that this disaster is getting worse and not better with each passing day artie's i've or bennett is in japan and brings us this report. right now they're still trying to reconnect power to the site so they can get those cooling systems up and running and bring the temperature down inside the
4:15 pm
reactor seems like the only way they're now going to prevent or could be a real nuclear disaster now focusing on reactor number two because this morning they actually saw smoke rising from the reactor they don't know what the cause was about i don't think it was an explosion because that wasn't heard clearly the temperature inside is very hot or they've already managed to do was to lay a power cable from the main bridge a kilometer long cable to try and restore power but they haven't managed to connect over yet the radiation is very high still and also the outer casing of the reactor the containment vessel was badly damaged in the explosion that happened earlier this week now in the meantime they are trying everything they can to try to keep the temperature down to try and cool the reactors there. off of the first four actually had explosions since the earthquake for example yesterday at reactor number three they doused in sixty four tons of water from the cops from above and
4:16 pm
water cannons from below in the early hours of this morning fire department they sent thirty of their fire engines that were throwing everything they got is the head of the u.n. nuclear watchdog the international atomic energy agency who's in tokyo right now meeting with the japanese prime minister he came out and said that to prevent this turning into a full scale nuclear disaster they're going to have to cooperate with the international help that government spokesman at least they've done who's the chief cabinet secretary has come out and said that although there are very high radiation readings in some places he says and it doesn't pose a direct negative effect to one's health because in these places it's not coming into direct human contact however a number of countries actually believe this and what they're doing is actually warning their citizens not to go within fifty kilometers off of a nuclear power plant whereas the japanese government has imposed an exclusion zone of twenty kilometers tell. thirty to stay away yesterday and i will top the coast
4:17 pm
a little bit from took you up the east coast towards from we the guy you can turn to see what residence. this is the town of o.-r. i-a around halfway between tokyo and fukushima i'm still a hundred fifty kilometers south of the nuclear power plant but already the radiation levels here over double that of those in tokyo the geiger counter i've got just started beeping wildly and shortcuts are not point five my proceeds per hour it's not harmful to one's health especially just yet but it is certainly a concern so much so that the army has started to hand out these face masks here but people are wearing these and they're going to here look very afraid of the radiation who can do very much wanted well we can do is call the media and trust accountant this. the tsunami did actually come in this far inland with the town escape most of the damage however since the earthquake they've been without drinking water here in the residents have to come and fill up water they need from
4:18 pm
points like this in the town set up by the army further up the coast it's a similar story we've been travelling along this road for the last ten fifteen kilometers looking for a place to have lunch but none of the restaurants are open. it will take you know the week until we can open with electricity because we can't do anything we don't. this is the start of japan's ravaged east coast norine life started there bridges lie strewn all over the place a wall collapsed over here thousands of fallen down such as the force of the tsunami this is also what are we going to turn back because they die the counties reading the highest it has been all day one point zero four might receive its plan how important here is that i won't be able to live here anymore and this is my home obviously i feared for my health for the radiation but it's not just about that i'm afraid i will be able to come back here we're only around a hundred and twenty kilometers south of fukushima power plant now if the wind
4:19 pm
blows this way and even worse if the rain comes in the radiation will sort arrive to inforce. when i was r c correspondent i've or bennett reporting from nagasaki japan and the president obama of course is monitoring the situation and he also came outfront to say there's no indication that the united states should be concerned about any spread of radiation to this country the president now is on his way to a different part of the world he said into latin america to brazil to visit brazil el salvador and chile so what is this is that all about for more on that i'm joined by deborah james the director of international programs of the center for economic and policy research and there are let's talk about this and one hand president obama seems to be on a mission to you know sort of stay relevant to let these countries know hey we're here we're interested perhaps in future business endeavors but there's is that underlying aspect of china of the fact that china has done so much so many multibillion dollar contracts he's helped brazil grow immensely china has so is
4:20 pm
this about competition or is this about future business well i certainly don't think that the obama administration is going to frame it as competition but it's very clear china became the biggest foreign investor in latin america last year and the way that the obama administration has framed this trip is really about opening up new markets and expanding the u.s. presence in markets in brazil we have to keep in mind that we in the united states because of i think republican opposition were not able to do a stimulus program that would have been adequate to jumpstart our economy given the crash experience and so because of that the obama administration has announced a policy of doubling exports by two think twenty fifteen and what that means really is that we're sort of asking the rest of the world to bail us out because we weren't able to do it domestically and brazil they see is an emerging market and a place they can help us do that so the entire framing of the administration around the strip really has been around trying to place more u.s.
4:21 pm
products in markets in brazil i think from the brazilian point of view it's a little striking because they actually went from a very big trade. in two thousand and six to a very big trade deficit with the united states so this is not sort of a perspective that's necessarily going to resonate with them i think they have a lot of other issues on their agenda that's what i was going to say i mean it seems that this is not a totally new idea trying to do business and improve relations with these countries it seems that in the past in the past recent past that latin american countries have said you know washington you might have been a big deal in the past but not so much now yes i think it's really striking in the last five or ten years how much latin america has become a region that is quite independent in terms of its foreign policy from the united states it is notable actually that america is more independent from the u.s. than is europe at this point and if you look at a number of the key issues on brazil's agenda for this trip as well as some of the key foreign policy issues grizel has taken a different stance from the united states on many of the key ones we can go over
4:22 pm
and it really is striking it's not sort of the time of you know ten or twenty years ago do you think he has a good chance on this visit then to try to win their hearts and minds while their top priority really for this trip i think has to do with getting u.s. support for a seat for brazil on the u.n. security council and as you know the very powerful foreign minister of brazil celso amorim actually published an op ed this week saying this is a great opportunity for the united states to do that sort of it's time for the security council to become more relevant to today's power dynamics globally and brazil really does deserve a seat it's unclear whether obama will announce that but i think if you look at many of the different policies just take what's happening right now with libya there was a vote on the security council this week and brazil abstained along with many of them urging market countries that's something the u.s. would have liked to have seen support on i think i don't think the united states was happy last year in november when brazil announced that it was going to be recognizing palestine as a state that's something that ruffled
4:23 pm
a lot of feathers within the foreign policy establishment in congress here in the united states i don't thing. there was obviously a very big problem last year when brazil worked together with turkey to negotiate a nuclear arrangement with iran to try to come up with a solution that did cause some ruffling of others in the united states as well and that's just on the big international issues i mean when you look at what's happening within the region you know brazil has been unwilling to criticize the democratically elected government of venezuela this is something that he's. a ministration u.s. is very much asked him to do the latin americans have asked for the united states and take a serious look and have some policy changes regarding cuba and the u.s. has thus far you know refused to do so so why i'm so glad you brought that up because i do want to talk a little bit about venezuela now and i. have spoken of a lot lately especially because joseph kennedy has this ad out in which he talks about thanking venezuela for giving them or oil for this project to give it to low
4:24 pm
income homes so i want to take a look one of our correspondents our t k one ford took a look at this oil coming from there and sort of the commotion that it's causing here on capitol hill. with the dorothy day house every day is about doing a lot with a little notice when someone needed vegetables bread salvaged from the trash heap canned food donated at christmas that must last year and feed twenty five formerly homeless families live under duress the group sharing meals parenting support and heat up until three years ago heating oil was the shelters biggest expense looking at the thermostat was something in burmese in dreaded co wait a little longer do we have that many into it it's so expensive kathy boylan has lived and worked here for more than a decade helping homeless mothers back on their feet with a budget of a thousand dollars per month we try on a shoestring to keep this home for twenty people at the moment functioning
4:25 pm
so when citizens energy offered her free he'd. well from venezuela she took it and that's how much we had to pay for three thousand and twenty dollars so it's more than three quarters of our our budget is paid by citizens and citizens energy is a nonprofit chaired by joe kennedy for six years it's distributed donated venezuelan heating oil to the poor in twenty five u.s. states and joe help is on the way heating oil of course my friends as well but after a diplomatic freeze that sent venezuela's ambassador packing two months ago the only thing heating up between venezuela and the us is the thermostat republican congressman publicly denounce kennedy he should not allow his name to be associated with a crack in latin america who is bent on talking about your job as bent on destroying the foundation of what america stands for but back didn't call for an embargo under
4:26 pm
forty billion dollars in trade the u.s. has with the chavez government a congressman i. was all of the sort of grants to call for an embargo or. venezuelan oil and i just think that it's interesting that one organization that he's chosen to quit in his gun fight is a little nonprofit or for big oil companies like google philips exxon mobil and chevron texaco to stop selling ten billion dollars a year worth of venezuelan oil they're able to fund all of these congress people because of the profits that they're making and they could be using some of the profits to help the poor just one sick go to stop giving it away even as president obama announced two point five billion dollars in cuts to america's own low income heating oil assistance program following a diplomatic spat washington in caracas remain without each other's ambassadors in
4:27 pm
their countries but with arm rests the revolution in the middle east americans may be forced to depend more i'm going to swear in oil as these families already do kill and ford r.t. washington d.c. . all right deborah james kalan just said americans may be forced to rely more on venezuelan oil certainly not what congress people on the hill like honey mack want to talk about this. fight this battle that's brewing over venezuelan oil i think it's interesting because we're just kind of the first announced this program do you really get a call to domestic oil companies as well that people in the northeast needed support they were having a very difficult time in the crisis and they needed some help and there were actually no u.s. corporations that came through which is pretty striking considering that the american taxpayer actually forked over billions of dollars in subsidies to these big multinational oil companies every year then as well as oil company came through and i think for the people who are actually affected by this program they love it
quote
4:28 pm
and they continue to depend on it and to need it and to make good use of the subsidy so it's really striking how a politician like honey mack who you know is is in this very conservative district . in selling doesn't need anything while but it really shows the extent to which he would be willing to use them as well as a political punching bag rather than look at what is the interest of the american people which is obviously having good relations with the country to sell it i want to talk about that as well a little more and especially get back to this visit that president obama's making to latin america obviously he's not going to venezuela there are several reasons for this but i want to know if you want to get your take what do you think it says that the new president brazil dilma rousseff is meeting with obama first even though she and her predecessor have had decent relations with them as well and she has not yet met with hu tolerance. i think this is that you know it's been scheduled for this time i don't think it's a big indicator it's very clear that brazil has
4:29 pm
a very strong relationship with venezuela they've consistently defended their countries democratic practice it's very interesting that they have put a very big premium on integration within south america so just last week that when a sword at the union of south american countries came into existence and this is very clearly a process of regional integration that does not include the united states it's not necessarily meant to be against the united states but it's reasonable that the countries of south america have their own political association and that is a very big priority for brazil so i think she's going to continue that all these presidents are different none of them is the same you know we have one who is an indigenous person another who's an economist another who has a populist military background you know they're different but they do have a common goal of having an independent foreign policy and developing their economies and i think about took a share deborah james director of the international program center for economic and policy research and.

48 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on