we think that a quick bit of bombing will sort of matter out but in fact i think they will find that it will last far longer than they have gone before so what has the white house figured out a clear strategy for libya or could this be a page from the history books only it's the yugoslavia one thousand nine hundred nine. and sarah palin's done it huckabee romney and barbara to so does the road to twenty twelve always pass through israel. disaster images that make the world stand still was the case with japan but what if the media isn't there disasters still happen.

it's thursday march twenty fourth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out there watching r.t. well today marks the twelfth anniversary of the nato bombings in yugoslavia it was a different time but with the recent military outburst of the west against libya it's hard not to draw some parallels between the two attacks on a saucer churkin analyzes the wars past and present. in march seasons change sunshine invites americans onto the streets american politicians invite themselves to foreign countries. and march ninety ninety nine the u.s. and its nato allies yugoslavia armed forces joined our nato allies in airstrikes against serbian forces responsible for the kosovo march two thousand and eleven.

next democratic president and a new coalition of the willing attacked libya the u.n. security council passed a strong resolution that demands and to the violence against. it authorizes the use of force to deal with the same ship by the one security council in contrast to the bombings of the sabia there was no such greenlighted nine hundred ninety nine in the bombings were led by nido the first time a military alliance atop the sovereign he showed a non-lethal member posing 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 of them slaughtered on the loss of edge jobs to music lovers the enemy of today the eccentric one market and power for over forty years as we just got afi is this joy dressed freak show he modernized leave us for a while now similarly villainize to pry the us. these to step down from

power and we've gone now and back then getting rid of a leader no longer favored by the west taking sides with a questionable opposition in what started as a civil war what we're seeing is a poor fledged war including attempting to kill the head of state of the targeted country and other leaders of the government that again is you know a page from the yugoslav bloc of twelve years ago. what is the world learn not only not much the official reason for western involvement and so-called humanitarian mission a term coined amid bombings of nine hundred ninety nine you know it's who you say really believe that this is going to save its people. essentially that was. all it was a rationale still relied upon quite widely questioned you do not address you as with all those it is. also that it is. ridiculous here.

this is very real here is. the engine of that machine for then and now a no fly zone code for aerial bar. if you will that libya why be additional all necessary measures called for war where the line between the enemy in a foreign land and its civilians afternoon gets blurred it did in yugoslavia with thousands of people killed and close to one million displaced after the war when they did a count they found the us nato bombs had destroyed fourteen tanks and serbia fourteen tanks but they had also by four hundred and thirty seven schools a similar scenario is now predicted in libya obama vows the anti you could argue war will last these are not weeks that was the field plan in yugoslavia bombing blasted months we could get 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 gone before twelve years on serbia still remembers the losses inflicted by u.s. nato bombings the us is now involved in its fourth attack of a foreign nation in the same twelve years and. all right so from two evil dictators to humanitarian crises we're just connecting some historical dots here but we should talk about this a little deeper there is one man who calls what's happening in libya quote about in science fiction movie written by political scientists that man is the publisher of the trends journal and director of the trans research institute gerald celente and earlier he told me that the u.s. will make up any excuse to attack countries of their choosing. what makes good off the different that the dictator in yemen i'll give you an example of the hypocrisy on the same day that obama announced that we were going to go into libya so fifty

people were killed in yemen i didn't hear about the over throw in that for the government is same day the united states sent in a predator drone missile into pakistan if you want it's also about brutality and killed some thirty eight innocent people in this state against those suspected militant targets that they hit so infrequently and so all the it is is the united states doing what it's become accustomed to do and that is an attack any country wants to at any time for any reason that it could make up and the new reason that they made up is perfectly orwellian humanitarian crisis so you kill people to solve the humanitarian crisis and you take dictators out that you don't like because really what's behind this and i've said it before with the united states be in iraq if their major export was broccoli or would they be in libya if they weren't

holding on to those sweet is the crude oil on the planet and carol we should mention you know we've been following on some new developments are happening as we speak reports that nato forces will in fact take command of the mission in libya but i've got to point out here whether or not that does happen in the coming minutes or hours the negotiations have been a little hairy still some major differences in principle between nato members and i also want to show sort of what we've been seeing leading up to this point some blatant finger pointing much of it from turkey to france now here's a quote from turkey's prime minister saying the following i wish to those who only see oil gold mines and underground treasures when they look in libya's direction would see the region through glow. losses of conscious from now on sort of playing it gerald to what you were just talking about what do you make of this and also of you know what's happening next there nato is a code word for the united states they've changed the date change the language

every time you read a new york times or any of these other so-called papers of record when people get killed or there are strikes in afghanistan that kill innocent people they always use the term nato it's mostly the us and yes the prime minister of turkey is one hundred percent correct again the hypocrisy is before our very own eyes look what's go on in the ivory coast as we have a look what's going on in the sudan as we speak look what's going on in bahrain with this happens to be as we speak and you don't hear hillary clinton say we have to take out those tyrants no it's about the bottom line and that's all it's ever about it's not about a humanitarian crisis and besides that it's a civil war and it's none of the united states business here it's talking about the

republicans and the democrats about balancing the budget in the u.s. as if just blowing away probably a billion bucks a week bombing another country how about fixing up detroit whose population has declined from two million to about seven hundred thousand how about sixteen camden now this is just war and wars are racking sudden and gerald i mean it it's very easy to say everything that's wrong here but what you had to you know five minutes with president obama well how would you advise him on what's going on here but it's not advising him on anything i've made this very clear and over and over again if you want to see the problems in the end. i did states obama is part of it it's called harvard princeton. bullets bombs and banks these are the people that run the country and i'm not making this up is rhetoric take

a look at the supreme court oh really supreme isn't it audit in the elder you look at wall street you look at the people in the administration and the greed ministration before that the war that so that's what's going on and these are the people that are in charge who's the head of the federal reserve over princeton man no this is all it is they're members of the club and this is the dirty business that's a club dogs switching gears here jerrold i want to talk about sales of new homes that report came out recently that shows last month they fell sales fell to new homes fell to the lowest level on record dating back nearly fifty years and i really thought things were supposed to be getting better on the housing front let's look at the housing front what propped it up the last time for them they gave that eight thousand and ten thousand dollars tax break to the home buyers and then they made it to anybody first was purged gone and then look who's supporting all of this

it's we the people of the united states with backing all the loans fannie mae freddie mac. the f.h.a. so no this is only a temporary boost we said this from the beginning when the money game would run out the real estate market in the rest of the economy would collapse and that's what we're seeing and let's not forget that the boom that happened because of the fake money that digital money printed out of thin air when they lowered interest rates to forty six year lows beginning in two thousand and one if you will the housing boom that's what the recovery was all about let me ask you this carol this is happening obviously this important official report but i'm wondering how many take on by you know where i live here in d.c. . we there doesn't seem to be as much of a issue with new home sales you know where you live in the sea i read outs that go that's where they create jobs do you look at that the quiet of federal jobs is what

about eight million of it was since the great recession began there's always been any declined at all so that's the business of government is to build more federal government that's why i was the prices they will they're they take a trip to cincinnati you'll have a lovely time it was vegas so that's where you go lapses or have with them gerald celente a publisher of the trends journal and director of the trends research institute now on to an invasion of a different kind the invasion into israel by could be presidential candidates from these here united states sarah palin is the latest one but she follows rudy giuliani mike huckabee mitt romney hillary barber and george pataki in visits to the holy land all over the last few months laura lester is in our new york city oh and lauren it's almost as if establishing your credentials and tell of the visit is vital as say something 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 today 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 did not even so much as announce their candidacy for president her home. the pilgrimage of presidential hopefuls. the western wall a photo op with netanyahu 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 that you're running for president why go all the way to

tel aviv in search of the holy grail a club rite of passage or presidential candidate. who is mostly about 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 they want the executive branch they 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 the environment and gun rights donations in the dust and the 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 fun vests 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 vote the right way rumblings of which could be heard at the height of tension between the white house and israel over settlements last spring and the way some members talked about president obama's state i think he might very well be a one term president. now in the last few months we've seen a parade of g.o.p. politicians through the holy land a sensibly to boost their foreign policy credentials huckabee romney giuliani barbour and most recently of course the parent who is known for her compromise in 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 if 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 asked sarah palin what she thought about the west bank she goes in or use wells fargo but critics argue an accurate

view of the issues is just not really the point just grows from the poor. comes. from her presidential for another. reason and a broader perspective might not matter much to the future of u.s. foreign policy anyway the people of the united states don't yeah sure representation when it comes to their value versus how you of the pro israel lobby so all of this helps to explain why first stop on the international tour is that say china with its rise in the world is 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

creds bypass all of these other countries and head straight to the stone in just one laura lister r t new york such an interesting point lauren brings up there is a lot of allies certainly israel is one of them not important one more let's talk about this it seems to be a hot trend of course we are getting into that almost election period where singles they republicans and of course there's some obvious reasons for that but talk a little bit about that and 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 from 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 as far as who pays for these trips in many cases it is the jewish political organizations the the republican jewish coalition i mentioned was in talks to send pailin she actually went through a christian group which was a source of some controversy by a board member from the r. g.'s j c david frum wrote a blog about that now haley barbour was said by the r j c back in two thousand and seven mitt romney was according to an israeli puppet exe's israeli publication mitt romney and his most recent trip was paid for by apac so you can see that these the pro israel lobby does pay to get these candidates over there well 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 closer discussions surrounding that but one thing you don't see as many of them visiting the west bank or gaza you want to talk about this a little more. yeah that is something that you don't see and that's something that many activists argue is it 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 a 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 yet 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 that home sarah palin reportedly tried to go to bethlehem but she and her group that organized the trip evidently didn't know that that wasn't in israel just showing. 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 she certainly can't see palestine and it doesn't seem like she got any better a vision of it on this last trip there to israel a real briefly lauren i remember there was a woman in your report she implied or said that they can punish people who vote the wrong way to talk about what you think she might have meant. she meant it very literally and one of the ways which she said that a package done this in the past or been reported to is 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's and you saw in my report she was a u.s. congresswoman and american jewish money poured into to her opponent and essentially that's why some believe that she was not reelected now that's also believed by some folks 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 think it's out of israel here's his take another compelled to exert control. you know functional group so obviously i mean we ought to talk about the israeli lobby the miami cuban street something 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 and telephone use extremely

important politically there for every political candidate to her spy is to be president of the united states for stars to be a member of the u.s. congress has to deal with the israeli lobby and the organization for to represent let's broaden this a little bit i 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 you 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 they've been mandatory for years other important lobbies where 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 that'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 switch carriers

and throughout the show we've been talking a lot about the situation and libya i was wondering here take i certainly it's very interesting to see i'm just thinking back when i saw the way that the english reacted and 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 feel like david cameron's been pretty gung ho even know the public there remains pretty overwhelmingly against it you have any insight into that well i would have said the french would have been perhaps as important even maybe more important than they were dished because it was after all sarkozy was popularity in france is around twenty percent right now who is the one who suddenly amazingly recognized that benghazi rebels as the legitimate government of libya this is an extraordinary event i forget and for some

it's somebody said that sarkozy was not only launching bombs but perhaps launching his reelection campaign i thought that was really interesting trying to save his political neck but in this country people talk about a loyal i don't think oil is a factor in this the toll in this country the installer is this i think actually insane military adventure probably as stupid as anything sinister poleon tried to invade russia or an eighteen well it's absolutely amazingly stupid is because you had what we call liberal interventionist lobby which was. you know. rice and the u.n. hillary clinton. the advisory and 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 are the rebels they provided in the iraq war young men to commit suicide against us in iraq than any other country now alexander cockburn editor of counterpunch. so i have here on our team a picture is worth a thousand words so when it comes to reporting on disasters where are the words without the pictures destruction that story coming up next.

you know sometimes you see a story and. you think you understand it and then something else here sees some other part of it and realize that everything. is a big. you know not saying you've got a theater believe it like japan's earthquake and tsunami that have been at the forefront of american news with dramatic pictures of chaos and distress well what you might not know is that today there was a seven point zero earthquake that shook my am our last night but in the age of technology where image is everything a lack of dramatic images crimean the difference between coverage and while i am r r g correspondent i notice you can't report. images the truth the world tragedy for

life twenty four seven leading news outlets deployed the 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 our 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 the 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 they didn't have the technology didn't have the cameras that were right there like they weren't shapin from different 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 can see the aftermath the shots of the aftermath of a psych loan that hit mine mark three years ago or horrifying more than one hundred thirty eight thousand people were killed the government of mine more limited access to four internal lists 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 in sub-saharan africa it's always let you go and

have the same kind of images that you have subject back where he is a twenty four seven operation that's why this tsunami in japan is so huge in terms of full coverage because there are cameras absolutely everywhere in japan if this was in china i would say western china for instance you have probably one parent's of the coverage because the images are not there the earthquake in this issue 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 of their human tragedy right there in japan with china chile deserves sympathy but more often than not the attention span of world news channels depends on which tragedy makes better television i'm going to check on reporting from washington arcane certainly very interesting to think about if there's no cameras will there be coverage and forcing her out of time but for more on this.