and the dog whoever bless the united states of america. now you might think that standing ovation was for a popular u.s. politician will think again as israel's prime minister would congress we ask whether this foreign leader could be more popular than america's own president. and walnuts and yahoo stole the show on the hill and the israeli palestinian conflict continues to dominate headlines let's not forget about the rest of the action in the region we're going to get an updated look at u.s. mercenaries in the u.a.e. as well as the rising violence in yemen. and from yemen's american policy to aftab

what is wrong with the pentagon's actual policy in afghanistan and its congress reconsiders aid to pakistan china and because of its friendly ties with islam a body. and brics countries fight to make the head of the i.m.f. and on european something that's never happened before so will the brics be able to build anew with this position. good evening it's tuesday may twenty fourth eight pm here in washington d.c. . and you're watching our team now just a few hours ago here in washington this was the scene in a packed house chamber on capitol hill take a look. god forever bless the united states of america. that's right president barack obama the leader of the united states of america addressed the oh i'm sorry it wasn't president obama that is the israeli prime

minister benjamin netanyahu my bad you see all that wild applause must have really just throw me off my game so let's try this again the israeli prime minister's speech they had all of the trappings of a state of the union address by a president to live soaring approval ratings in fact netanyahu got twenty nine standing ovations from lawmakers compare that with the twenty five president obama god during his death in january speech now earlier i spoke with jeremy scahill he's a national security correspondent for the nation magazine and i first asked kerry for his thoughts on netanyahu is goober welcome reception in congress take a look. he had at least thirty or forty standing ovations depending on who you ask for warmer reception than president obama has received certainly from the republicans but you could argue also from the democrats it seems as we enter the political season here in the united states that you know b.b. could could potentially get the nomination for either the democratic or republican party i mean it's really it's incredible the amount of enthusiasm that is grown on

benjamin netanyahu particularly in light of the fact that he made the outrageous statement that the only free air herbs are those that are living in israel. actually went so far as to say that israel is not like the belgians in the congo like the british in india which i required no you're israelis and doing exactly what the world sees you do which is condemned regularly by many nations around the world except the united states oh yeah i mean i love this we go from you know where obama is touting his the u.s. role in helping to see the building in the in the arab spring chair bibi essentially getting this rolling reception here on capitol hill but pivoting to blackwater in on this program last week talked at length about the sort of legal issues associated with erik princes new ventures as you've written yourself his new company what was it reflexive reflex reaction but lots of reactions or are too hard

chair right hopefully it's not going to the same kind of reflects the reaction that they had an unfortunate tragedy in the slaughter of iraqi civilians and this new center square a you've written recently that lawmakers are now taking up this issue they have written a letter to secretary of state hillary clinton what indication if any do you have that congress need be able to do something about this and that the state department even is paying attention to the issue right i mean first of all the number of lawmakers in the u.s. that have made this even remotely an issue you can pretty much on one hand. and the fact is that it really is locked up the people like representative jan schakowsky of illinois. i was on the intelligence committee and john conyers will course is a stalwart of many progressive causes in the congress to even raise this issue and what the lawmakers said in their letter was basically a request for hillary clinton to explain whether or not erik prince necessary licenses from the u.s. state department to provide these kinds of services to a foreign government technically when someone like erik prince or

a company like blackwater or whatever he wants to call it these days runs to export the kinds of training services or armed services that air for instance export into the united arab emirates and remember erik prince is a navy seal who's have access to very sensitive secret u.s. operations was allowed to go into cia headquarters under president bush look at operational intelligence and then offer his services there whether or not he got a license for that is up for debate right now and we'll see how hillary clinton responds blackwater has been fined in the past for not obtaining those licenses so we'll have to see what happens but i don't have any illusions about anyone in the congress making this a central issue i mean basically people don't care because it has no no positive impact on their ability to raise campaign cash no no one is pouring money into the coffers of antiwar congresspeople or people to stand up to the war industry and knowing what you know that erik prince and about the state department and you had any sense that could this really have happened without anyone's knowledge whatsoever i mean i have

a hard time believing that but i mean we have we have an indication from the reporting of the comments in the new york times from an unnamed administration official that the obama administration was in fact aware that erik prince was offering these types of services and united arab emirates you know i have tamed a speech that erik prince gave in late two thousand and nine in front of a military audience in his home state of michigan in which erik prince laid out his vision for the united states to send small teams of mercenaries into countries in the neighborhood of iran with the express intent of countering what erik prince called iran's creeping influence. and whipping up shia revolts in the middle east so erik prince seems to be making good on that whether or not it was sanctioned by the obama administration would really require probing from people on in congress and not just the five people that wrote this letter it would require committees with subpoena power going after them and that was that didn't happen even when the democrats were in control so i think it's going to be left to the usual suspects

who do make this and regularly and that's case of the neo cons down to bomb iran then i guess our individual citizens will get to stare out the rest they're wonderful at development they're living on c.n.n. i know it said until they completely different topic but it really does look at the situation is reaching a critical mass there and i know you've reported on this issue extensively and i just want to know what you make of the u.s. response so far i mean we saw hillary clinton expressing deep disappointment and sol as if it was some sort of a child and not a dictator or essentially a client of the united states they support it for years and do you think they're actually serious about backing up their calls for him to go well i mean even even as you and i are speaking right now about hillary clinton's reaction or the white house's reaction the fact is that there are scores of u.s. special operations forces that are inside yemen right now training ali abdullah saleh is counterterrorism units the fact is that for more than a decade now the u.s. approach to yemen has been almost exclusively through the lens of who the yemenis

allow is to kill inside their country just a few days after the raid on osama bin laden's compound in pakistan the u.s. attempt to kill an american citizen named anwar locky who's been in yemen for some time he's an american born cleric who is now living in yemen it's families. and so what we're seeing now with the chaos that is spreading throughout the capital of yemen is in part a failed u.s. policy that was obsessive we model focused on counterterrorism and diplomacy nothing to alleviate the suffering of the yemeni people instead of worrying in. millions upon millions of dollars and sensitive training to gruel and murderous forces controlled by yemen's president so you know ali abdullah saleh is is famous for a number of things in yemen not the least of which is his ability to get around the resigning once he's done not resigning so you know the u.s. response is it's almost laughable if it wasn't so deadly right now and what's your

sense of whether the focus is only going to intensify on counterterrorism efforts in yemen in light of the fact that not gotten was killed and now they're sort of casting a lighter net and fighting al qaeda wherever and wherever i guess the battle needs to be taken to have you know i would be very careful in pretending that i knew the answer to that what i will say is that if there is chaos and instability that spreads across yemen and if the threat of a country dividing becomes real the u.s. could respond by withdrawing pulling out and seeing where the flames burned and where it could respond by saying here's our opportunity to jump into chaos and bugger off a bunch of people that that we want to hit so you know i think that the u.s. could go in any number of directions but certainly a lot has been made about this group. that operates and yemen that is by most estimates three hundred to five hundred people strong and there's a lot of agitating on capitol hill for the u.s. to go after these individuals in a more aggressive way ali abdullah saleh is staying in power means they can

continue to hit these guys ali ability leaving power could open the door even wider for the u.s. to go in and it's very very dangerous i think for the u.s. to consider boots on the ground in a more extensive way than they already exist and i was jeremy scahill the national security correspondent for the nation magazine and also author of proc black. now after the resignation of its managing director dominic struck on the international monetary fund has been racing to find his replacement and many say that french finance minister christine lagarde is the front runner and she's been described by many as a financial rock star of. orts but perhaps more importantly she's a european but leaders of the brics countries of course that is brazil russia india china and south africa they want to do away with all of that they want to scrap what they call obsolete unwritten conventions and they say that it's time for the world's largest developed developing economies to see one of their own at the helm of the i.m.f. so it is a time for

a new era in global finance well joining me now to discuss this is robert naiman he's the policy director at just foreign policy robert thank you so much for joining us it's great to have you back now the brics countries as you well know represent nearly three billion people these are the rising powers of the new era and some say that it's really time to move beyond the era of western control of the i.m.f. what do you make of it. well it's not just these countries you know. people been campaigning for i.m.f. reform reform of the i.m.f. world there for years from around the world including in the west have criticized this arrangement the big back to the founding of the institutions in one thousand forty four where at the end of the i.m.f. as european the head of the world bank is american this is a very unpopular convention in the global south outside of the g seven countries. partly because it's so we have been observant on space but also because

it symbolizes the domination of the institutions by the finance ministry of the the g seven countries and of course those twenty years ministries are in turn dominated by of their bags the bags of these countries basically u.s. and western european banks seem spectacularly in european crisis where the so-called rescue packages have been totally tilted towards the interests of the western european banks and against the interests of the majority of the people so many people around the world think this not just these countries question is where there are. these these countries and people who think like them can win this issue with the short run it's not obvious statement it's great great step forward and back find it highly unusual amistad it is it is how i live in usual time unprecedented in history the i.m.f. and the world bank if you compare this for example the world trade organization

it's now been true for some years their countries in the global south ever worked together to advance their interests against the countries of western europe north america and we haven't seen this in the case of the i.m.f. so this is an important first step we may not see its fruit this round we don't we wanted to see these countries. we're going izing a successful coalition to block western europe. in this round but going forward this could be a sign of things to come not just in terms of who normally means these institutions after all the real decisions are often mean elsewhere not but in the g seven finance ministers. in the actual policies whether it will continue to see pasties by the i.m.f. there are as one former i.m.f. insider described in the guardian talking about the can receive christine legarde

of the total bank protection plan total big. player and that's been the policy so far we've seen the consequences of that increase about portugal and ireland and christine the growth comes the next. i think the short run what you expect. more of the same as long as they can sustain it it's not obvious you know greece. and the edge of. default and perhaps even leaving europe so they may not be able to maintain these policies but the trend is for them to continue to try and what do you think is behind this sort of unusual more aggressive than normal statement event that it's reflective of again sort of a new era do you think it will go back and sort of see this as their as a significant turning point where the world did sort of step away from this u.s. oriented european oriented world view or do you think that's a reflection of her just folks being fed up with the with the current policies at

the bank well i think this book if you look at good grass a range of institutions the new shoes he seem a countries stepping forward when the united need the united states britain and france with nato when into the invasion of libya subsume countries issued a statement of criticism saying. i knew it was going to be on the u.n. security council. countries have been criticism critical of u.s. and western europe in the world trade organization so this is definitely part of a trend. of these countries trying to certain starts in the world suit against western europe you know seeds but also specifically of course there is a trend of increasing criticism of you know i don't know if i'm wrong policies in particular but russia and brazil are countries that suffered tremendously

under i.m.f. assays and children one thousand nine hundred ninety s. when they went through crises much like the crises the greece is going through today and they eventually pulled out of the i.m.f. framework temporarily suffer tremendously but then both countries had restoration of of growth so these are countries that if it actually repudiating of your place of the united monetary fund and still there are natural leaders for a movement against these policies and very briefly i don't want to get too technical here but if we do see. the heavens opened up and we do see here someone from the brics countries take over us at the helm of the i.m.f. we still have here a controlling nearly thirty six percent out of the voting shares in the united states sixteen point something so would that still change would it be more of. just a symbolic change or what the voting shares also change along with that. well this is a longstanding issues about

a year is there is an agreement in principle to readjust the years for the changes in the world economy relative rise of countries like brazil and china and the roles of all of the countries like europe but this is a slow process i think the the bigger story is. how aggressive countries like brazil are going to be brazil and china southern countries working together recruiting others and trying to leave because europe in the us and has led in the past not just because of their voting shares but you cuz of their determination and conventionally what other countries in the global south really didn't fight inside of us institutional care contender for western europe and us to go there certainly is certainly aggressive rhetoric and we're going to be seen whether the action will follow but it's an interesting development and as always great to have your analysis that is robert naiman policy director at just

foreign policy now with the discovery of osama bin laden right on your pakistan's knows the country's value as an ally to the us has come under scrutiny and pakistan has gotten more than twenty billion u.s. dollars since nine eleven making the third largest recipient of american foreign aid forced outrage lawmakers on capitol hill as the hill seem to have just now discovered this whole issue just now learning that they've been sending a money to a country that's not exactly the closest of allies but they're saying no more take a lesson america stand is must recognize united states does not get out playing tricks. now that was senator lugar's warning to pakistan at last week's senate foreign relations hearing there was another hearing on the issue this morning but all american lawmakers debate pakistan's worth as an ally china has made it clear that its support for as long as there to stay from giving pakistan fifty fighter jets to plans to build a military base for pakistan's navy beijing is reaffirming its friendship loud and

clear so what does all of this mean and where does that leave the united states but earlier i spoke with asia times correspondent pepe escobar and here's part of our conversation. well china pakistan have been close allies for almost sixty years now in fact yes commemorating sixty years of very very close ties so to understand what's going on at the moment number one but history public opinion is with america interference and it has even even cause for the bad lot in killing could be could be. or they could be pashtuns in the tribal areas they could be business many karachi you need it so the roots roshan of elko way because she seems to be covering washington and not in islamabad he's spread out everywhere so china. very carefully so on opportunity to step in and start to really manage the relationship took to get islamabad even closer to breaching number one the next

moments in kazakhstan there's going to be a meeting of the shanghai cooperation organization what could happen and you could be a thunderbolt if it really happens and spak is there will be admitted as a full member of the us your so you know minute show this means that pakistan will be part of the asian eight or ten i can imagine how this is going to be viewed in the west especially in washington who are specially our favored our hawks here in washington but that raises the broader question i mean have we equipped era where the united states is sort of the dominant ally of all of these countries and the dominant power i mean to listen to the rhetoric from some of these folks on capitol hill it's as if you know if the americans withdraw that they're going to be even saying to pakistan that said pakistan is french i screwed but that's not really the case is that but the problem is certain i would say just so both of those you have that passes for the u.s. congress. back east and work as an extremely complex and for

a joke and treat the have bootable ration relationships and yet you know me which i would have to manage the relationship with the have. closer relationships are working with the central asian countries in even trying to get closer to we read as well but to some of our look at number two apart i was going to say the first rather remember this week because this is going to be essential for the next weeks months in use this is a spur to go where you can see it's a good guy who just there area of pakistan dick cheney who's brut already approached you know either missing or koreans managed a port so no mater the lease is going to expire and pakistan is what the chinese not only can manage to work but as you say. the other what does that mean not only that you're going to happen cheney's ships you know the chinese military chinese pakistani joint military mission the arabian sea but this is absolutely crucial

knew why there would be a crucial derby in the kikes like a water pipeline works what i usually start because it's part of the guideline that will come from europe to pakistan to the pipeline they're going to build it and a chinese step then to say look instead of going oh do we need to wind it will ruin it. so then we build an extension ourselves from pakistan to china so you can imagine china we produce the energy from the military front and on to diplomatic front and saw this rise of people in us with the little bit of pakistan are so desperate which is such as ironic because remember you know we are already a lot of the hawks on the hell are ready see china as the number one military threat even though the united states spends six times more than china on its military and more than the entire rest of the world combined so what's your sense i mean did you did the americans see this as some sort of a giant threat or are they understanding that hey perhaps there's you know the

political and economic realities of today i bet when i say it isn't the sole influential power here you know but the saying is we. we have roast try to understand going to washington really sake you term so well because sooner in the long run the number one threat to america generally and that's only one china that's why when the i.m.f. remember that request of the i.m.f. last month before did an extra scramble their dream did by two thousand and sixteen china's going to be the number one economic power is what the chinese are already counting on it. how to deal with this possible possibility so good trying to. be going to do within the next few years to try to slow the chinese don't you can't we are america's largest creditors but no radio no way to become a good. economic power and we'll look with them to pick countries be more or less

crude true to foreign policy agenda they're going to be even more influential inside the i.m.f. because for talking to us reading the chinese best and this is the next leader of the chinese so it took them one week to analyze the future so no it's is wrong kristie like you are i don't it european that weight has to be robust so you know any. rate i watch you go six about it it's still the pentagon's full spectrum dominance structuring we need to go through the world our space in cyberspace and has a number one competitor china but he still don't know how to do it now but i know that you're a reporter but i want you to put on your elected an american politician hat for a moment here and you know at the end of the day because of the fact that pakistan has nuclear weapons the americans are not going to just completely withdraw all that funding to pakistan they have a very vested interest in maintaining good ties with that country as broken as they may be so what would you do i mean would you continue to send aid or current levels

would you try to i don't know more financial deals how would you reject their relationship so that it is less broken essentially. look there's one. ok the top of my head one personality you get american generals maybe two people will intervene in afghanistan and yes you people who do next months ago sexten early were at a table ok let's agree on a package to serve the afghanistan conflict so if we were of the regional players and be certain. major players are always in favor of analysis from pepe escobar correspondent at the asia times. now in roughly two months president barack obama is expected to announce the beginning of the end of america's longest war and with one hundred thousand u.s. troops on the ground at a cost of more than one hundred twenty billion dollars a year the war in afghanistan has certainly taken a serious toll on united states but what about the people of afghanistan the one

who is of the ones whose voices are hardly ever heard of the shouting of the pundits and generals and lawmakers now earlier i was joined by one such voice ours award out is an afghan american blogger and here's part of my conversation with her . and then the whole goal was obviously to locate osama bin laden. and bring down al qaeda and you know it's hollow gone but obviously we now realize and discover that some of them and have been hiding out in pakistan so now obviously our our you know our foreign policy objectives obviously shifted to pakistan so but your troops are there and i mean here so much from from different they don't see that there is a divide within the administration and people who are involved in afghanistan americans that is where you know on one hand we're fighting this war on terror and it's a military conflicts on the other hand do americans have a responsibility to essentially nation build in afghanistan to build schools and civil society and so on and so forth and as an afghan american what's your take and

do you want to see americans doing that well actually i believe you know it's up to the afghans in afghanistan to really they need to begin uniting and. just rebuild their own lives that's up to the united states however we did you know the united states that invaded afghanistan and we can't just leave the country and ruin the country i believe afghanistan would be susceptible to you know just just perhaps simply civil war. because of the fact that you know we have a government that you have a bad government and so you have a lot of these disparities amongst the ethnic lines look at it's down and so there's a lot of there's a lot to. deal with and unfortunately if we just leave right now i feel like the country clubs would be like another vietnam although at the same time you can almost say the united states is in part responsible for

a lie but corruption is as bad as it is for why the central government is so weak i mean we're the same people that we're arming the dean at the time against the soviets and so what's your take on. do you think people are angry about the us. presence there i mean. i definitely believe so you have afghans in afghanistan that are very. american they understand that they're here to help us however you have a lot of the tribal areas in the south especially but that you know the americans because it's actually attracted far more you know attacks from the insurgents it's increased violence you have all these you know you d's and roadside bombs far more civilian casualties so i feel a day or resenting the americans and so you know but then you do have the advantage also in the callable appreciate the american presence however however it does need to they need to begin transitioning the process but not so quickly needs to

obviously it's just a systematic you know process and how far should nation building or democracy building go i mean should americans be americans be spending u.s. taxpayer dollars on building up schools and civil societies when they're seen as an occupying force well you see. there's there has been so much and that's gone it's especially government contracts and there's been so a lot of fraud a lot of lack of regulation we don't know where those millions of dollars went to there have been schools bill clinton no longer exist. we don't know what what happened there hasn't been any nation building and yet all of our tax dollars and got into this country which is why a lot of americans resent this war and we haven't seen any progress so i feel like if the united states is going to continue to invest any more than we already have then there needs to be far more regulation it's a far more oversight and told that there is really essentially just them doing this for.