and on the eighth anniversary of the us along with the world's poor m d c is hosting this conference for the first time but who is speaking at the forum and do they really represent the entire islamic world. i would be very reluctant to cut defense spending until we see really how these two conflicts were and are going to come out well don't worry senator mccain because the u.s. is leading the world in military spending we're going to talk about why some americans may not want this dubious honor. and radiation levels in japan to

catch up to those at chernobyl but could another hauser's crisis be on the horizon we're going to investigate whether nato is using it using depleted uranium weapons in libya. it was such a gigantic achievement for all humanity and the reactions of course were very proud of their role in this. and houston we have a golden celebration fifty years ago today russia launched the first man into space we're going to have more on the inspirational like to see a cosmic here again. welcome back it's tuesday april twelfth eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy capuano and you're watching r.t. . now for the first time in the eight year history of this annual event washington d.c. is hosting the u.s. as long with world forum and the event seeks to address issues critical to arabs

and muslims and to usher in more understanding between the u.s. and the arabic world now the timing does seem just right revolutions and unrest spread across the middle east and north africa and the libyan war continues to rage now and in tensions between the u.s. as pakistan the list of pressing issues just goes on but to the speakers at this forum really represents the arab world or is it a carefully selected progress through a group that only shows one perspective well joining me now to discuss this from morocco is units of john muhammad he's chief analyst as at is a policy dot com you know it's great to have you back thank you so much if we look at some of the names at this event mr brzezinski madeleine albright senator mccain and officials from qatar advise from turkey iraq iraq member of parliament who's missing from this guest list and what does that say to you about american efforts to engage with the muslim world. well. it signifies a continuation. of

a long term policy the united states dating back to the post-war were two. national objectives that are being realized increase of principled participation. that would include all for instance from the muslim world then initially they were concerned with arab nationalism what we should really look at is who is funding and promoting this event it's the it's a cooperative endeavor between the current state and what's known as the saban center for mideast policy which is founded by a notorious science who wants to get he's a one issue type of guy and my issue is israel so they're very sound that represents brookings and they're formulates the speakers whom all of the speakers you mention like madeline albright steves outs and since the. whole of these individuals are on the payroll wilkens it is the intention of trying to mold these

arab uprisings in a direction that is conducive to the national interest of america from the perspective of the saban center the national interest of america or conflated to mean and actually represent the national interests of the israeli state so essentially it is a zionist lobby that is trying to infiltrate and time through the anger and meddle in the recent developments in the muslim world and try to prop up we can again reach work out with her as expressed in the muslim world is not allowed to carry at a truly democratic situation. last year when hillary clinton addressed this forum talked a little bit about promising to close guantanamo bay at the president also addressed a four minute video message where he promised him daily lives of muslims in america now fast forward to today get really spell open we've had these ridiculous mccarthyite muslim radical radicalization here in barneys do you have

a sense that these broken promises might resonate louder are broader where people really do pay attention to these kinds of empty words. well look that's very conclusive not aerated the issuing. world opinion poll that stated that americans were generally and bush said it in support of the arab uprisings and democracy in the arab world they have to convince the people that they have been advocating on behalf of democracy now for three years and sort of rewriting history instead of him occupation has been the stated goal but the stated goal of american foreign policy is to present democracy rhetorically but then to practice something altogether different expressed by george keenan. coming out of the. truman administration as a task that we can develop a series of relationships which won't permit the u.s.

government to maintain a position of accumulation of enormous amounts of wealth versus population when the united states came out of work through it into a thirty percent of the world's wealth but only six percent of the world's population they tried to maintain that disparity one of the major ways they did so was to pretend as though they were promoting democracy and sort of will sound idealism but in actuality promote greater fear promote authoritarianism and that's essentially what obama has sort of mastered but as you can see the reason that there were a quickness speaking at this event this year and that were obama recorded a very short visit with us is predominantly due to the fact that obama has failed with regard to his rhetorical approach to the muslim world and he's widely hated all over the muslim world and we pay attention to the people on the ground and not the east that are in bed with the american empire but i would have to disagree with you because i think i don't think it's the cut and dry i don't think that i merican is just want to promote dictatorships i think that's absurd i think that and the

fact that matter are. economic and i think that we talked on this program i like to talk more about it that's our that's sort of military industrial complex the role that contractors have at the pentagon have. perpetuating the war machine even though the enemy of the original enemy the u.s.s.r. is no longer they are no longer a threat you know it's the sort of mentality that's that stuck in a cold war era but if we move on a little bit trying to make us more personal he used to live in the states you've left the states as one some muslim american how do you feel this president represents you and how do you feel this country represents you. the american population just like in the arab world when we talk about a disconnect between the propping up of the leak and the promotion of public opinion there is a complete disconnect between policy implementation and between the public opinion of the american population it's completely the state and that's the problem is there is an intentional propping up of cater ships and authoritarianism because

they are afraid of the public opinion that is represented by the muslim world just like they're afraid of the public opinion that is represented by the american citizenry which wants health care for its people which once the dismantlement of empire which wants a president that really represents change they can believe then instead of rhetorical corrodes they want a real sense of change and as a consequence of this false rhetorical change absent real practice you can see the disintegration of the empire but they are still capable of utilizing immense chords and immense ideological mechanisms of retaining control and that's what we see playing out is the beginning of a war ideological war in the muslim world for the sake of advocating you know where will policies which are it can to the neo imperialism you talk about imbedding be really scary industrial complex and if i was that it remain at war but also in propping up the dollar as the global reserve currency and making sure that the

regimes that replaced mubarak the regime badly grace may not be the regime that really replaced apparently a year or two neo liberal no one can go to the i.m.f. for a bailout and create the embeddedness that keeps them in the control of the american economic sphere all of these things are akin to empire an empire cannot stand democracy how broad and then at the end when it starts to lose control of the periphery it starts to oppress and turn ugly and so that's what you see going on going i think really is because the empire is now functioning it is attacking its own citizenry now i'm trying to make them pay for the consequences of the equation of empire well. because from the strategic blunder that was the iraq war all right . this islamic conference is a good sign through our year long unfortunately we're out of time i think we might have to have you back on to discuss this thank you so much that was yunus of mohammad cheap analyst of islam policy dot com now as that reduction dominates the political debate here in washington d.c. lawmakers are pushing for massive cuts to the u.s.

budget but one area that is likely to escape the cutting frenzy is a sacred cow of military spending which according to a new report grew by a stunning eighty one percent since two thousand and one so how are u.s. taxpayers reacting to a trend that shows no sign of letting up or to scale and ford reports. but. plenty is on the u.s. chopping block this week health care education infrastructure. was. everything that is except for the pentagon my greatest fear is that in economic tough times the people will see the defense budget as the place to solve the nation's deficit problems i would be very reluctant to cut defense spending until we see really how these two conflicts were and are going to come out

worldwide military spending increased by twenty point six billion dollars in two thousand and ten and one thousand point six billion of that was the u.s. alone according to the stockholm international peace research institute the u.s. very much sees itself as a global military power it's the only global military. power. so it perceives its security interests as encompassing the whole world. the u.s. has spent one hundred eighty nine or two hundred thirty five years at war in two thousand and ten the us spent more on its military than the next ten highest countries combined. both presidents bush and obama have ripped of the wars defense spending in the us has increased eighty one percent since two thousand what this seems to reflect a bipartisan prioritization of military and military conceptions of security even in the face of such difficult economic times an american earning the federal

minimum wage and working forty hours a week fifty two weeks a year can expect to earn a little over fifteen thousand dollars this year well below the poverty line they can also expect to pay more than five hundred dollars directly to the pentagon and american earning fifty thousand dollars a year will see their income. over two thousand of them go directly to america's wars they thought go to controlling the oil fields and rolling the profits back. on track those tax dollars also go to maintaining over one thousand u.s. bases in sites world by as well as the pentagon's she one hundred thirty four golf courses. fifty one percent of americans polled would rather cut military spending and sacrifice social programs needs children poor women and homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we are every program is being cut is

just fraudulent in obscene fraud to put it on the ground remembering the old employed. they say they feel betrayed by a president was elected and promises to end war where doing all these wars and they don't even want us there and i think that right there is i'm upset with obama i need a reset button you know we need to change right we need the obama administration to do the right thing stop this attention to continuous military buildup at the four cents of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to tighten its belt you know in florida r.t. washington d.c. . in japan today raise the severity of its nuclear crisis to level seven on par with each other noble disaster the specter of lethal fallout from the fukushima

nuclear reactor has rightly captured rebels attention but there could also be an unreported disaster unfolding in north africa as fresh fighting rocked libya today where hostilities continue there are mountain questions as to whether the west is again using depleted uranium weapons in its aerial assault artie's they can has the story even. these leave young men cheer on top of a tank hit by coalition forces unaware of the silent killer they could be breathing in as they celebrate though the western coalition denies using depleted uranium in bombings in the country others say there is a good chance weapons with the highly poisonous radioactive element have been used that kind of damage. is a really good chance that with the new round i'm about ninety percent sure that was a deal. that's reduced to anybody who's on it is going to. expose or

who or what will the wind blowing. that means the particles are in the air. he all these people and scores were exposed to lisa stary served in the u.s. military during the first gulf war in the early ninety's ninety clearing up battlefield in kuwait back then the u.s. dropped more than three hundred and fifty tons of depleted uranium over kuwait and iraq pictures of bombing some levy a scene all too familiar you see how there's touches of bread that's the burning. out instead of a chorus for you and you've got the flaring bottle that's a do you explosion it polluted your brain him in military terms is highly efficient relatively cheap and powerful enough to penetrate the heaviest armor needle flatly denies its use in libya even though dui and human rights commission has called for a ban countries who have receipts to sign up includes the u.s. the u.k.

friends and destroys the smallest particles of uranium nano particles are the most dangerous ones being hailed they get into the blood and can spread into any organ including the heart grain liver or a particle penetrate your cell tissue this is when you get all kinds of genetic mutations and people in the rack or example regain that contaminated air every day and i say there's no way to fight it in fallujah in iraq where the u.s. dropped thousands of succeeded uranium rounds after the two thousand and three invasion a quarter of all babies are born with a range of her rendez abnormalities higher rates of cancer leukemia and infant mortality of being found fear that after the it comic bombs were dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki the u.s. and the british military admitted widespread use of depleted uranium in bombing dossier ninety ninety five a legacy so today with cancer and leukemia rates several times higher than normal

because for medical confirmation all round flu. iraq that the health effects of the radium are there and we see it's rather radical saudi arabia kuwait afghanistan somalia the balkans and again our c.n.n. movement into libya dr dog rocky was a leading specialist in the cleanup after the gulf war says there is no way of actually decontaminating affected areas i was given a written memoranda lie about to help in a bomb a party or a mission he himself was exposed to depleted uranium almost all of the members of his team are now dead from fear that the suffering of those bombs in areas where there will be no western troops will go on notice nothing happens in. all respects because. that's and it's. everybody's.

nations and so forth i don't think anyone included you rhenium has the hoff life of war and the house billion years hence its description by some as the silent killer that will never stop killing. ganesh or john r. t. washington d.c. so could a silent killer be raring it's ugly head in libya and what sort of toxic legacy would leave behind and earlier i discussed this issue with former u.s. marine kenneth o'keefe he gave us a personal account of how depleted uranium affect him during the gulf war. i didn't know anything about it when i when i was in the marines back in the early ninety's and i only found out about it later and realized that you know i was in the areas where this stuff was used and my ex-wife actually had a couple of miscarriages by me and i at that point i started to realize that i might very well have inhaled some of these fragments and my wife actually our two and a half year old son was born to two months early

a couple years back and i can tell you that there was some fear of what i have seen happening to the iraqi people i've been surprised for and southern iraq i visited the children's hospital down there and i have seen the effects they have photo album after photo album of these babies that don't even look human and i think that the use of depleted uranium is pretty much the definition and definition of crime against humanity the sad reality is that using nguyen the so-called heroes i was called a hero as were all of us and the first gulf war we are nothing more than cannon fodder and that's the reality they use experimental drugs on us during the gulf war of which i was a participant they gave us experimental drugs so it's not just even do you we're talking about the same thing that adolf hitler did to the jews and gypsies was done to us by our own government radiation experiments have also been done on us troops and so to even think that the high ranking officials in charge of the us military

care at all about the troops is pure fantasy they don't care about the lower ranking troops at all and they use us in the most obscene of ways and when we come home and have health problems or mental problems or losing our homes does the government help us no they do not so why would we live under the illusion that the high ranking officials care about us they do not they don't care about us and they certainly don't care about the enemy why would we believe the commanders in the theater there why would we believe anyone in the high ranking positions of us. government the israeli government the british government i mean they are all patent lawyers and for us to think they wouldn't use these munitions would be beyond i even say of course they will and of course to do everything to cover it up as they always do and the bottom line is until people become more dialed in and actually start caring about this issue i it's going to continue and the thing that really is

important to realize is as i think your report really made clear these are just fragments they pick up and actually can be lifted up into the upper atmosphere and blown into the jet stream and actually reach destinations thousands and thousands of miles away so this stuff is spreading all around the planet this is seriously a crime against humanity and it is high time that international law is finally once and for all applied and those that are giving the orders to use this stuff are held to account. that was kind of o'keefe the former managing director the current managing director for the center any project. now today marks the world wide celebration of a monumental heat fifty years ago so good cause not eureka carin boarded his boss stuck one spacecraft and blasted off into the last unexplored frontier in the twenty seven year old made history of the first human being in space and i shared in a new era of exploration artie's marina part i report on how this global inspiration

is being celebrated right here in the united states. i store accomplishment by one brave soviet cosmetics commemorated at the united nations fifty years later i got him first man in space for the exhibit unveiled to a crowd of probably one hundred guests among them americans honoring a cold war era fun whose achievements in becoming the first man in orbit delivered you just these phrases victory to the u.s.s.r. i thought it was fantastic and i thought it was about time and i was very jealous that this is absolutely are. case for soviet science and technology and it's nice. from the russian perspective absolutely that the russians opened up space for the rest of the world still images and film documents eureka's darren's preparation for the first flight the world theme upon his return and the grail for further soviet victories followed over the next three decades it was the first post to this

russian first person to go into space as our research first. and there really are things to be proud is this an instance where. the guernsey monumental achievement is now officially marked worldwide the u.n. general assembly has adopted a resolution declaring a free the twelfth the international day of human spaceflight just south of the international stage. new york is hosting a juris night game dance party to mark the anniversary american fans clad in costumes. have been carrying the last security think he is seen as a hero because what he did with something nobody had ever done before nobody knew what would happen whether he would come back in one hundred eight minutes the twenty seven year old orbiting the planet and return to earth as an international hero in the nation's capital officials attending

a gathering of the russian embassy spoke of darren's inspirational feats now as a result we have become incredible partners on the international space station i think you know what he started we now try to finish with the international space station and then subsequently will explore beyond the earth orbit together it was a jag a make a cheetah for all humanity and the records of course we're very proud of their role in this and having him be the first person yuri gagarin's courage and curiosity blazed the path for cars menards around the globe outer space. odyssey may seem like something of a common occurrence today five decades ago the world was free choice sing as a soviet legend went where no man went before were enough artsy in new york well new york city is not the only city to celebrate yuri's night in fact are from it since launching in two thousand and one just a venture has morphed into an annual worldwide party to celebrate their parents'

first flight into space now earlier i spoke with the mastermind of the creator behind of global bash the red or white sides and she gave me an inside look at all the fun planned for this evening. we're going to. help you need to bring together the americans on the russian side and when i found out that if you care an anniversary in the shuttle anniversary shared a common day i think it would be a perfect opportunity to help spread our message of you know space is something that can make us all feel part of the same home planet and it's your birthday too isn't it. sometimes like often all the. planning of the day is remember is the happy birthday you know although the cold war is obviously history unfortunately politics do sometimes get in the way of as important events and so i wonder did you get any flack for focusing on. what essentially was a russian historical accomplishment as opposed to i don't know that the man on the

moon or something that's a little bit more focused on american thing. but sensible thing you know why not john lennon night why not alan shepard you know. and i can appreciate that you know the how much effort those explorers and those pioneers put into the cold war you know and the space race i can understand where they're coming from. but we're actually trying to transcend all of that and just look at the first human flesh and say hey you know. human beings who went to space and he told us and we you know we run the scope of your insight you know we embrace and celebrate all species you know who blazed the trail for us to begin to be where we are today so there really is a human accomplishment i have to agree with you there. you know june is going to see the last u.s. shot a launch which point unfortunately nasa space ships will set off not for the stars but for a bunch of museums across the country are you worried about the implications for

the next generation of space explorers i mean could this hurt the future of space travel. well there's always that risk but i think that just makes it all the more important for our generation to step up and really say this is a boring which is something we want to see through something we want to make happen and do the work to change this growing industry to make sure that these opportunities to travel the base don't just appear to talk a little bit i know i know your husband's involved in private space travel talk a little bit about the role that the commercial space industry could have been sort of supplementing or expanding on where governments maybe cannot necessarily afford to to continue to get the leaders in space. for those want to sustainable that you always have to make sure you have a commercial baby that's you know helping keep your industry growing. beyond just a commercial government customer so having creating a market for writing new services based on the commercial market really help it be

more self-sustaining which we're really excited about and there's a number of companies in that space who are working to make. like an orbital flight a little bit to the general public and i think that's really the most exciting thing and that's. what in our lifetime in the long term is really going to be where the excitement and i know that a few years back you have plans to be the world's first couple to honeymoon in space and i'm not sure whether that took place but perhaps there are an anniversary celebration that you might be planning on celebrating in space. and i think it's a slice that we're really on virgin galactic out of the big kind and we still didn't read all that we've been married now for a couple years you're still will be regular this is a good excuse to expect expend a honeymoon period of our marriage oh look at this best really exciting and if you give yourself a little bit what can we expect from a tonight celebration tonight celebration. but we're really excited here in l.a.

we have an event of the bigger at the service more of which is a part of the beautiful. filippi for space lovers and we're going to have all been there a number of other a number of other celebrities will be doing a little bit of a live shot out there during our webcast. during nap after audience eight o'clock by the way going on now all through the night but that's another beacon. and then around the world there's all kinds of things went on in moscow there was a grand gala and we've got over five hundred events in all also the continent in over twenty countries in our space in an article. from everywhere from afghanistan to venezuela it's really an extraordinary human achievement well you heard the lady a read of whitesides creator furious night celebrating from again offensive and as well unfortunately that doesn't for now in about half an hour you'll.