we think that a court of bombing will sort of matter but in fact i think they will find that it will last far longer than they have gambled for so has the white house laid out a clear strategy for libya or is this just a page from the history books only the yugoslavia nine hundred ninety nine. and sarah pailin done it huckabee romney and barbour to so does the road to twenty twelve always pastor is real. disaster images that make the world stand still always the case of japan what if the media isn't there to disasters still happen.

if thursday march twenty fourth seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz now you're watching our team today marks the twelfth anniversary of the nato bombings in yugoslavia it was of course a different time then but with the recent military outburst of the west against libya it's hard not to draw some parallels between the two attacks are going to analyzes the wars past and present. in march seasons change sunshine invites americans onto the streets american politicians invite themselves to foreign countries. march nine hundred ninety nine the u.s. and its nato allies former yugoslavia armed forces joined our nato allies in airstrikes against serbian forces responsible for the brutality in kosovo march two thousand and eleven america's next democratic president and

a new coalition of the willing attack libya u.n. security council passed a strong resolution but the man's and to the violence against. it authorizes the use of force yes that's the way it was sanctioned by the un security council in contrast to the bombings of the slavia there was no such greenlighted in one thousand nine hundred ninety when the bombings were led by nido the first time the military alliance attacked a sovereign nation a non nato member causing no threat to the group similarly libya poses no external threat and there are other striking parallels between the conduct of these wars the enemy then slaughtered on the loss of each job to news hitler the enemy up to date the eccentric one market and power for over forty years has not just got afi is this joined by you're not dressed freak show he modernized leave me out for a while now similarly villainize by the us how could. these to step down from

power elite go now and back then getting rid of a leader no longer favored by the west taking sides with questionable opposition in what started as a civil war what we're seeing is of course fledged war including attempting to kill the head of state of the targeted country and other leaders of the government that again was you know a page from the yugoslav book of twelve years ago. what is the world or not only not much the official reason for western involvement a so-called humanitarian mission a term coined and bombings of nine hundred ninety nine if you believe it's who you say look at all if either of us is going to say that people. essentially that was the grounds for the. war it was a rationale still relied upon but widely questioned you do know there's a rescue as with all this is a. war that is of

a particularly good to see if. somebody who hears. the engine of that machine pulled but in now a no fly zone code poor area while. fueled and libya by the additional all necessary measures called for war where the line between the enemy in a foreign land and its civilians afton gets blurred it did in yugoslavia with thousands of people killed and close to one million displaced after the war when they did account they found the us nato bombs had destroyed fourteen serbia fourteen tanks what they heard also by four hundred and thirty seven schools a similar scenario is now predicted in libya obama vows the anti could argue war will last these not weeks that was the field plan and yugoslavia bombing lasted two and a half months the fact that a quick bit of bombing will sort the matter out but in fact i think they will find

that it will last far longer than they have gambled for twelve years on serbia still remembers the losses inflicted by u.s. nato bombings the u.s. is now involved and it's worth attack of a foreign nation in the same twelve years it's. all right so from two evil dictators two to three minutes here in crises we're just connecting some historical dots here but we should talk about this all deeper so in montreal canada we go to michel chossudovsky editor of global research start say all right michelle first off clearly we're not the only ones drawing these parallels between libya and the former yugoslavia you know the white house has a lot of intelligence on this what do you think the administration of things is doing differently this time. well first of all we have to understand this. in a sense to guide. us all subsequent humanitarian

bombings the way they did it in one thousand nine hundred nine i recall it well here's a girl i was involved in. actually at the very much there is that they had. a very detailed list of targets and in fact these were called legitimate military targets but they also included. shares t.v. stations schools and seventeenth century churches that is called monuments so that when not the. three humanitarian operation to save civilians the very act of bombing the straw is lie and destroys a country and i from the reports that we're getting from libya that is exactly what is happening the bombings are not strictly directed against military targets they go they are they are also bombing hospitals we had. a couple of reports

of course the media is not covering. what is actually going all the girl in libya we're just taking with this connection we shall i mean i'm wondering what you think people you know who live in the area of the former yugoslavia that if they have found the u.s. involvement twelve years ago today. well a lot of a lot of people in the serbian community drawing those parallels and a lot of people who who analyze the growing those thurles i should mention there's another there's another the invention of this whole thing. the pretext for intervention in yugoslavia was to come to the rescue of people. and to support the costs of all liberation already. and what they were saying is that it was committing atrocities it turned out it was the possible liberation army links up to organized crime for the drug trade which was in fact responsible for

those a thousand things so they came in at least we have it it's aggression. we want to support a humanitarian undertaking we are siding with the cost of the liberation army even though they knew at the time that because of our liberation of libya was not only connected to the through the talian bulkier but it was also doing talk with al qaida. those those parallels have two people or we don't even go to what this opposition is i think it's. i think we have to analyze it but we know there has been acknowledged by western media that there are members of. quite a group which is an affiliate of al qaeda which has integrated the opposition it is thought to be a secular but nonetheless it's also there all right so you're saying twelve years

ago the u.s. got involved in this mission to side with the k.l.a. you're saying the k.l.a. actually worked with maybe were supported by al qaida i think some people would even draw this connection today i mean we think about gadhafi saying time and time again that he is fighting i was falling in line so if he's fighting us on bin ladin and the u.s. . is fighting him does that mean that we're on the same side as a solid along i don't. because the care if i say well is. no reliable source i'm quoting c n n l c n n. newsroom for a couple of days ago they said. more or less the debate i'm not quoting exactly said we don't know those guys ult ok what about the opposition and they also acknowledge that there were. elements within that's all his issues though i can

tell you that in yugoslavia in those you know if you know everybody was against the bombings here population even those that were close to the loss of it were against the poems i would suspect that everybody including members of the opposition opposed to this military operation is something that we have documented because they were there were groups within gulf position which were actually saying that they didn't want any kind of military intervention and that this was their war. they didn't see these bombings as helping their cause i guess i'm confused a little bit just to clarify michel i mean are you saying that what happened back twelve years ago in the former yugoslavia the that is seen today as somewhat of a success because in fact you know i didn't knock milosevic out when they said it when it took years they said it would take weeks and the bombing ever went on i think seventy eight days and the yugoslav federal army you know sort of the the

enemy it was undefeated so i guess i'm confused i mean are you saying that that looking back that people in this country actually see that as an effort that was successful well look at the sort of the successor of the point of view of the. coterie of some twenty five million people period of whether it was seven. as it was the new first lot of years starting in that early ninety's that was the same scenario with balls. of covert support of the bosnian muslim without it is about. it's also false i won't get into the details of what happens what has happened course the federation of yugoslavia no i speak of the up into six countries six countries though that was the results of the support the insurgency is. we know all that because it has been mentioned by u.s.

official sources that they were also like to see libya carved up into one or two or three separate countries and. of course the issue there is strategic and economic the game through to all of the oil reserves certainly will be interesting to see what happens especially as we watch these negotiations between nato and the u.n. as they work to try to take this over and shelter director of the center for research on globalization and owner of global research that's ca now on to an invasion of a different kind the invasion into israel by could be presidential candidate and the theory united states there are palin is the latest one but she follows rudy giuliani mike huckabee mitt romney haley barbour and george pataki and visits to the holy land all over the last few months are doing more or less hours in our new york studio and learned all of that of that wishing your credentials in tel aviv is as vital as a thumping right here in new hampshire. it certainly seems so but though in the

case of sarah palin her people said the trip was personal and not political but yet it was the american jewish coalition who was in talks with her for her to make this trip and they report that they've made requests to all of the republican politicians who have been rumored or said to have possibly be contenders in the two thousand and twelve presidential elections to make trips to israel to be they meet with israeli leaders they take pictures with benjamin netanyahu so the real question is why is it so important for these politicians to be hobnobbing with the prime minister of another country when dave not even so much has announced their candidacy for president her home. ah. the pilgrimage of presidential hopefuls. the western wall a photo op with netanyahu will all first stops ahead of a possible run for the u.s. top spot in some ways i think of israel as the new iowa you know it's like sort of the indicator that you're running for president is

a trip to israel but why go all the way to tell of the in search of the holy grail that's a rite of passage for presidential candidates. money jewish and pro israel money accounts for between one quarter and one third of all donations to the major political parties some estimate higher and one former congresswoman put it this way what the executive branch what the legislative branch pro israel federal campaign contributions amounted to more than eleven point seven million dollars in two thousand and ten leaving other foreign and defense policy contributions along with human rights women's issues and the environment and gun rights donations in the dust and this power of the purse has built a reputation in washington for the most powerful pro israel political group in the country i think what a pack of done best has impressed upon candidates and upon elected officials that

they can punish people who vote the wrong way and that they can reward people who work the right way rumblings of which could be heard at the height of tensions between the white house and israel over settlements last spring and the way some members talked about president obama's fate i think he may very well be a one term president he now in the last few months we've seen a parade of g.o.p. thaller titian's through the bully land a stance of leaders lose their foreign policy credentials how to be romney giuliani barbour and most recently of course paling who is known for her uncompromising support for the state of israel but who is known in the u.s. when it comes. the international attitude by our infamous lack of it you can actually see russia from land here in alaska and it's candidates like pailin are hoping to gain insight into the middle east it doesn't take a political analyst to see a major part of the picture is missing someone cerebellar what she thought about

the west bank she says should all use wells fargo but critics argue an accurate view of the issues is just not really the point just grows from google tourism incomes for instance. from her presidential for americans. reason and a broader perspective might not matter much to the future of u.s. foreign policy i mean when the people of the united states job representation when it comes to their value versus how you pro israel lobby so all of this helps to explain why first stop on the international tour is it say china with its rise in the world it's taking us bonds or russia which the u.s. is trying to reset relations with or saudi arabia with the planned u.s. sales of sixty billion dollars in arms to counter rerun or even the u.k. which is the other part of the so-called special relationship but instead wide potential presidents on the surface looking to boost their foreign policy street

fred bypass all of these other countries and head straight to the stone in just one laura lister r.t. new york present interesting point lauren brings up there is a lot of allies certainly israel is one of them are important one let's talk about this it seems to be a hot trend of course that we are getting into that almost election period we are seeing mostly republicans but of course there's some obvious reasons for that but harlow about it also i'm curious if you can explain who funds these trips. absolutely yeah right now we're seeing a lot of republican candidates because of course obama will be up for reelection in two thousand and twelve but analysts assure me that candidates from both sides of the aisle make these journeys and in fact democrats seem to be more reliant on money from the pro israel lobby according to statistics less conservative numbers than the ones that i cited in my report in two thousand and six in the washington post indicate that the democratic presidential candidates and party rely on private

jewish money for up to sixty percent of their private donations so quite a sizable number and that's thirty five percent for republicans and when you consider that the jewish population in the united states is less than three percent that's quite a sizable number coming from a minority of the population now it's hard to pays for these trips in many cases it is the jewish political organization the republican jewish coalition i mentioned was in talks of cent pale and she actually went through a christian group which was a source of some controversy by a board member from the r.g.c. j.c. david frum wrote a blog about that now haley barbour was sent by the r.j. seat back in two thousand and seven that romney was according to israel's israeli publication mitt romney and his most recent trip was paid for by a pac so you can see that these the pro israel lobby does pay to get these candidates over there one let's talk about what these candidates or potential could

be candidates do once they get to israel benjamin netanyahu seems more than willing to meet with anyone who comes over lots of photo opportunities and perhaps closed door discussions surrounding one thing you don't see as many of them visiting the west bank or gaza you want to talk about this little more. yeah that is something that you don't see and not something that many activists argue is a huge issue i mean even general petraeus you heard say last year that america is pro israel stance and the perception of being more heavily supporting of israel in the mideast peace process by the arab world was a challenge for him and doing his job as the commander of that area so clearly this is an issue the palestinian issue is something that united states lawmakers according to activists absolutely need to understand and you don't see them going into the palestinian territories at all and we're somewhere like gaza you have people reporting it to be

a humanitarian crisis and essentially occupied territory but yet you have u.s. politicians not even having an understanding of what that means and really kind of case in point driving at home sarah palin reportedly tried to go to bethlehem but she and her group that organized the trip as a deli didn't know that that wasn't in israel just showing that she did it how little understanding she really has of the dynamics the true dynamics in the region well wait a minute lauren she can see russia from her backyard. she can but you certainly can't see palestine and it doesn't seem like she got any better of a vision of it on this last trip there israel are a real briefly lauren i remember there was a woman who reported she implied or said that he can punish people who go the wrong way on talk about what you think she might have meant. she meant it very literally and one of the ways which she said the apac is done this in the past have been reported to you as by heavily funding opponents of candidates that they want to see

out of one case where this is reported to have happened with with cynthia mckinney who you saw in my report she was a u.s. congresswoman and american jewish money poured into to her opponent ineffectually about so i found believe that she was not reelected now this also is believed by some to have played a role and why george h.w. bush wasn't elected he went head to head in ninety two with israeli leadership over the issue of settlements and some believe that that lost him his second term a second term all right laura lester from our new york studio and earlier i spoke to the editor of counterpunch alexander coburn i asked him why the road to the white house doesn't seem complete without a trip to israel here's his take on our compulsion controlled by. you know factional groups obviously i mean look at these really lobbied the miami cubans for example about a huge influence on american foreign policy since the late fifty's because it's an important electoral state the jewish vote in new york in california was extremely

important politically for every political candidate who has star has to be president of the united states aspires to be a member of the u.s. congress has to deal with the israeli lobby. and the organizations that report to represent but look let's broaden this a little bit can you make any comparisons in terms of what other groups get this kind of treatment these kind of visits i mean christian right in this country muslims another country or do we think that israel is sort of at the top when it comes to these visits that are becoming i mean i wouldn't say mandatory. oh he managed three years other important lobbies for you could start with the defense industrial complex why is the defense budget higher than it's ever been even though the u.s. military is smaller and there's no longer the soviet union to justify the all the expense. that's a hook into the israeli lobby by the way but no it's one of the most powerful lobbies in the united states no question about it i want to also say terrorism

throughout the show we've been talking a lot about the situation and libya i'm just wondering here take i certainly it's very interesting to see i just thinking back when i saw the way that the english reacted not the leaders but the public reacted when you know great britain sort of went side by side with us in iraq now great britain seems to be instigating in some ways what's going on in libya i think like david cameron's been pretty gung ho even now the public there remains pretty overwhelmingly against it do you have any insight into this well i would have said the french would have been put perhaps as important even maybe more important than they were tish because he was softer also cozy whose popularity in france is around twenty percent right now who was the one who certainly amazingly recognized the benghazi rebels as the legitimate government of libya this is an extraordinary event i forget somebody

said that sarkozy was not only launching vons perhaps launching his reelection campaign i thought that was really interesting always trying to save his political neck but in this country people talk about oil i don't think oil is a factor in this at all in this country the inspire is of the i think utterly insane military venture probably as stupid as anything since napoleon tried to invade russia or an agent well it's absolutely amazingly stupid is because you had what we call liberal interventionist law b. which was. you know. rice in the u.n. hillary clinton and the advisor in. samantha power in the white house who were pushing for intervention at a certain point obama felt that he was politically exposed and although i don't believe obama was keen on intervention at all as long as the us military or secretary of defense gates they felt they had to go along of course the joke is

that eastern libya is basically the people who were the rebels they provided in the iraq war more young man to commit suicide against us in iraq than any other country and i was alexander cockburn editor of counterpunch. so i have a r t a picture is worth a thousand words so when it comes to reporting on disasters where are the words without the pictures of destruction that story. let's not forget that we had an apartheid right here.

i think. we never got that it says they're safe get ready because their freedom. you know that saying you got to see it to believe it like japan's earthquake and tsunami that had been at the forefront of american news was dramatic pictures of chaos and distress. but what you probably didn't hear about today was a seven point zero earthquake that shook me on our last night but in the age of technology work images everything a lack of dramatic images could mean the difference between coverage and well we

have our r.v. correspondent i reach into parts. images the truth the world tragedy life twenty four seven. leading news outlets deployed their best journalists to cover the disaster in japan and the hearts of billions of viewers worldwide have gone out to those japanese who fell victim to the earthquake and deadly tsunami what makes great television images that make the viewer sympathize and feel the tragedy of the people caught up in a natural disaster but when there is a lack of such images streaming live from all screens the sorrow of millions can go almost unnoticed let's look back at the earthquake in pakistan it killed more than seventy five thousand people in two thousand and five while the world's media did notice that tragedy the coverage was nothing as intense as we're seeing now in japan some in the business say japan being a high tech country means coverage is

a short words less developed nations like pakistan get much less media attention the world probably got less of the story in some of those other countries because they don't have they didn't have the technology they didn't have the cameras that were right there like they weren't japan from different countries dozens of different angles and saw the waves coming in which is the kind of footage in our business unfortunately that is the dream to be able to get that kind of footage and you don't get that in some of the other third world countries you just see the aftermath the shots of the aftermath of a psych loan that hit mine mark three years ago or horrifying more than hundred one . hundred and thirty eight thousand people were killed the government of mine more limited access to foreign journalists and there were no live pictures from the disaster zone and as it happens in the news business very quickly the story die

down if there is a disaster in the middle of africa subsaharan africa it's always rich you won't have the same kind of images that you have subject matter where he is at twenty four seven operation that's why this ship bed is so huge in terms of whole world but coverage because there are cameras absolutely everywhere it depends if this was in china i would say western china for instance you have probably one pence of the coverage because the images are not there the earthquake in the session one province in china killed around sixty eight thousand people and again the coverage was limited and so therefore was world interest in the disaster their human tragedy whether in japan or china or chile deserves sympathy but more often than not the attention span of world news channels depends on which tragedy makes that appellate decision i'm going to check on reporting from washington our team and that.