punished for the massacre two other private american security companies were contracted to carry out interrogations at the notorious abu ghraib prison in iraq a name synonymous now with her with acumen rights violations including torture rape and murder the us supreme court recently threw out a lawsuit alleging abuse of prisoners by the contractors. in afghanistan it's reported that human rights violations and even killings are committed by security firms on a regular basis to an extent set to undermine coalition forces counterinsurgency efforts they'll start firing at anything that moves they'll injure or kill innocent afghans and they'll destroy property we're getting fairly consistent complaints about them everybody knows somebody who's been shot by the contract is. the lack of accountability has forced the united nations working group on mercenaries to push for specific international measures to regulate their activities especially now as

u.s. military forces withdraw from iraq and afghanistan the number of contractors is set to grow dramatically u.s. . source many of the military and security functions to meet and security companies they are not related in that they are not control and this is what we have extremely concerned that what we're calling is for right relation at the national and at the international level so that. companies are accountable but washington is reluctant to lead an international body regulate their activities saying it will find ways to hold contractors accountable but so far the u.s. justice system has largely failed to do so we're seeing around the world cases of kidnapping rape murder. and we see very very only very rare cases in which states are actually

a criminal investigation or prosecution or sing out of. what experts say further privatization of war is convenient for the american government because among other reasons it doesn't have to justify the deaths of troops at home the president whoever the president may be can get us involved in conflicts only using uniform forces to do the official fighting and then thousands and thousands of contractors to do the unofficial fighting that's under the radar screen that isn't covered by the media now here is a quote we cannot win a fight for hearts and minds when we outsource critical missions took on accountable contractors and of quote that's what senator obama said before he became president but apparently as a president now he thinks differently. the contractors role in america's wars bound to increase and with the victims of their crimes still begging for justice i'm going to reporting from washington. for more on how private armies operate in war

zones we could talk to derek crowe who's the political director of the brave new foundation thanks very much for joining us now in your group's documentary called we think of gaddis and you say that more troops in afghanistan equals catastrophe but as we were just reporting despite the u.s. gradually pulling out combat troops you have private contractors moving in does this make any difference at all. i think it makes a very dangerous situation actually and one of the things that's been brought up as you mentioned in your previous piece was the total lack of accountability and transparency for these account for these contractors actions and in fact it's worse than just the fact that they're operating in kind of a jurisdictional no fly zone where it's not clear who would prosecute or investigate crimes they commit the state department which has control over these contractors is actively fighting other arms of the u.s. government that are trying to provide oversight such as the special inspectors for reconstruction in iraq in afghanistan so not only are these contractors not

accountable on international law level they're also not being held accountable inside the united states government ok let's talk about the motivation though i mean you were mentioning earlier in the story as you heard that by doing so their actions a keep their actions under the radar but why do you think the u.s. wants to keep these private armies on the ground in iraq in afghanistan instead of regular troops are there any other reason aside from that that has been mentioned well it's simply politically easier to use them i mean these folks are not the people that you see held up as as kind of paragons of american patriotism they're not uniform troops they are private for profit contractors and they are much much easier for a president to use politically because they're not who we typically think of as the troops or our brave men and women on the ground that would like to talk about it with reference to regular forces and so because of that and because they're a private company operating in kind of a jurisdictional black box you don't have the embarrassment usually i guess that

you would if u.s. soldiers were on the ground in these conflicts far beyond the usual mandate and they are there since they're not as accountable as u.s. forces to the u.s. government into the american people they're able to get away with a lot more and so presidents tend to want to use them ok let's talk about what you mentioned earlier that that by putting in more private contractors it creates a dangerous situation will there a lot of. well documented allegations that these private contractors have been semen rights killing citizens in war zones on the ground zero do you think that this reputation pushes people towards the taliban absolutely it absolutely does i mean it switching to iraq for a second if no one thinks that what happened in the source square helps the u.s. counterinsurgency strategy right any time any foreign force goes in and kills locals either through mistake or through over aggression or things like that it absolutely damages u.s. security and what the united states is trying to achieve in any of these countries

but it's worse when those actions occur and in the local see that because there are these high paid mercenaries that there is no accountability that absolutely enrages people and it should it should in a rage both the people in the countries where it happens and it should in rage the people here in the united states use tax dollars are paying for it and in whose name those actions being taken now they're just very briefly now despite the a lengthy trials and investigations we see no one's been convicted of the killings why is it so hard to get justice for those civilians well it's because these companies operate in a very shady jurisdiction i mean they're not troops so they don't fall under the uniform code of military justice in the not prosecuted that way but they're also not in countries that have strong enough judicial systems to actually take them for go toe to toe with the united states to take them and try them so what's happening is these guys commit these crimes the company even ships the person who commits the crime to some other country where they can't be touched by local officials and they just basically keep them on this vicious cycle where eventually they are oftentimes

brought back into theater but they're just kept out of hands of authorities just by moving and so what you have is this cycle of non accountability that allows these companies to keep behaving in agreed just ways without any real accountability ok thank you very much derek crowe their political director from the brave new foundation thank you you. thank. now the mayor of the a volatile afghan city of kandahar has been assassinated after a suicide bomber detonated explosives hidden in his turban well it's the latest in a series of killings targeting the country's top officials and earlier this month president karzai half brother as well as a senior aide were gunned down in separate attacks former afghan m.p. delane sultanzoy says nato is possibly withdrawing troops prematurely the schedule of transfer of security as well as well just to the afghan forces and these. incidents are making one thing very vividly visible

and that is how does this transition take hold and whether the afghan security forces and the afghan responsible units would be ready to take over i think there's no guarantee that this trend of nato transfer will continue smoothly i i can see. reversals a time in in the future perhaps certain provinces are so volatile and so critical that they may have to delays some of the transfers we should not operate on schedule as they should operate on realities on the ground here and those in washington and in europe should be secondary to the civilian population population is ignored both by water and by civilian reconstruction and that's what counts but unfortunately priorities every time there's

a war is where the priority is during wars are and success not on civilian people who are really the. main thing that we should pay attention to. and a short while here on r t you are in kid where they're keeping the faith church leaders from former soviet states have gathered together to mark welshness adoption of christianity. now were jailed associate of convicted oil tycoon may have had a ski has been denied parole and will stay in custody at a hearing in northern russia but on dividends wife and daughter raid an emotional plea for his early release claiming he's already served half term but the judge ruled that is not eligible to be let out of prison and his a former business partner. were jailed for fraud and tax evasion. well they're both due for release in twenty six to. now norway's intelligence service says there's

no evidence that under his bravery is connected to far right extremists in the way or elsewhere well the thirty two year old who admits killing seventy six people last friday claims he is part of a wider mission well his lawyer insists brevik is insane and didn't know what he was doing. laura emmet reports his anti immigration message is one that has chilling echoes across europe. and ethnic hatred that led to the slaughter of scores of innocent young people to prevent the massacre to which he freely admits was a justified strike against the political left for supporting open borders and multiculturalism and even though the staunchest of hardliners condemn brave fix horrific actions anti immigration sentiment is growing across europe other groups all express their condolences and then are quick and separate themselves from are also quick to lay blame left wing politicians which they say are responsible

because they allowed immigration happen and effectively pushed the sky to the edge it's a cry that many feel is not being heard by european governments as people show their discontent voting increasingly for previously marginal anti immigration parties and joining street movements like the anti islamic english defense league. of course it will have groups who are satisfied and we will have other groups who say that the governments are not doing enough they are not discussing the issues enough. in this going forward in the future i think there's more the attacks will bring this topic into the center of the attention again and they will force. officials as well as public to focus on these issues again the move towards nationalism is pound european as well as the b.n.p. making gains in the u.k. holland's controversial good builders now leads the country's third largest

political party running on an anti islam platform nationalists the true friends redrew the political landscape this year when they won nearly twenty percent of the vote the danish people's party has also embraced anti immigration policies successfully lobbying for denmark to close its previously open borders with germany and. there's grass roots support for briefing to disturbingly depicted on the internet by some extremists as a hero three thousand people voted for his video manifesto one you cheap and his group knights templar became a popular search topic on google i'm quite concerned that there are a lot of individuals. first of all resonate with. i'm very concerned that you see other people copycatting these types of attacks in

the coming months or coming years politicians including germany's angela merkel and britain's david cameron have already said multiculturalism has failed now the leaders of western europe have to stop their disenfranchised cities becoming a breeding ground for far right. who lit the fuse and those brave it claims to have been involved with the english defense league which is to protect england from what it calls a wave of islamic the case said the e.t.l. denies the lake but political analysts are saying if the attacks in norway don't prompt an honest appraisal of the issues surrounding immigration that could further frustrate the european public and create more space for potentially violent far right groups to expanded all over europe. r.t. london. britain now officially recognizes libya's rebels as the legitimate government and was expelled colonel gaddafi is diplomats it's also unfreezing one

hundred fifty million dollars of libyan oil assets to help fund the rebels well tripoli insists evolve not enter peace talks to one of the four month last civil war until nato stops its airstrikes or u.s. talks with the rebels in benghazi also making little progress towards a cease fire professor mark alderman from oxford university thinks there won't be the dramatical lapse of good officer. in which mental expects. traditionally britain has recognized governments not on the basis of whether we like them or not but on what will they control the territory of the state counted after a reign of lost control of parts of libya but clearly the rebels don't control it yet so this is a study in a new precedent and capture of the dangerous one the other problem is that the rebels are on the ground soon to stall even with the nato bombing raids and if you remember when this started more than four months ago we were told it would be much for weeks rather months and so i suspect really what william hague british foreign

secretary is doing is really having a symbolic act to try to show that somehow or other we're still in charge of the situation but i think the situation is increasingly unpredictable the real problem for military is that unless they have a lucky strike as they tried several times i think to decapitate or without injuring by bombing places where those naughty wards and the chances are that the won't be a dramatic collapse of his regime now it survived the first shock impact and so now the question is will the rebels have sufficient resources to push on through half months more fighting it difficult to avoid the conclusion that the crisis in the regime certain great deal of the toils and one of the problems has been that the rebels thought that very quickly they would get hold of the oil assets to turn all exports into money have been able to operate the oil fields the tour for if they need money to maintain their forces because they they need money for the social services such as well but also they need money release of buy support from i'm afraid one subterranean aspect of this conflict is feed side pays for must make you

have a lot about colonel gadhafi and his brother over look how hard the rebels fight in return for cash and of course there's a cash flow they don't want and this is one reason why canada is also who are better motivated maybe better paid have actually been able to resist rather more effectively comparison london expected in practice the symbolic decision to recognize the rebels kick out cut off his dick march from london mosques live in a deep and indeed a strategic crisis or the nato countries but by. now russia has harshly criticized america's decision to impose travel restrictions on a group of russian officials linked to the case of a lawyer who died in jail said game of netsky died after spending almost a year in a russian prison while awaiting trial for tax evasion. could all this across a story for us hi there you go or so what has spurred this reaction from the u.s. . while washington says that this so-called blacklist is

a consequence of what it says was a violation of city mother needs or rights just to remind you it was a lawyer who worked with a large foreign investment fund here in russia he was accused of organizing a huge money laundering scheme was arrested died in prison before having been found guilty and now and his family members supporters and several human rights groups put together a list of people who would be say are connected to his death it's not clear whether the blacklist is exactly the same as that one but it is reported that around sixty people are on it including some senior russian police officials agents of the federal security service a lawyer so the doctors and others washington says that it has the full right to deny access to the united states to people who are connected to the human rights violations while there's been a fierce reaction of trauma

a russian foreign ministry here in moscow they say first of all washington is informed of all of the steps and measures being taken to investigate the circumstances of so you might need skis death there are actually several investigations being held at the moment they are monitored by president need to be just also the foreign ministry says that none of the people all of this a list have been found guilty by a court of any human rights violations but most importantly moscow says that this is an unfriendly act which. trust between a russia and the united states and there's also promise. for almost. all right we'll wait for that then gore thank you very much reporting there. well you can head to argue dot com for more on the news you need around the clock at all right now to investigate the rise in suicides in post tsunami japan as thousands

find it too much to cope with the aftermath of the disaster. and the rush of the bad hunt for husbands with women outnumber men by millions report and then unusual matrimonial agenda all that r t v dot com. religious leaders from post soviet nations are uniting in ukraine to celebrate the christianisation of ancient russia while ukraine's capital kiev used to be the center of the ancient state want to turn to arthur doxie more than a thousand years ago. following the colorful festivities. the head of the russian orthodox church bought the out of the real has a right to the ukrainian capital kiev to take part in the celebrations along with his counterpart from georgia and the head of the russian orthodox church in ukraine . it's been exactly one thousand and twenty three years since this part of the world adopted orthodox christianity now when sharkey real arrived at the

liturgy in front of the. monument in kiev the central monument dedicated to the baptism to the adoption of christianity in this part of the world he was greeted by tens of thousands of people who were chanting that. is the real well clearly this shows that the the attitude towards the russian in ukraine is still very warm and he is being greeted here with much respect of has been named as one of the single capitals of the russian orthodox church along with moscow and st petersburg it is interesting because of course capital of a sovereign state of ukraine and this means that the russian orthodox church goes beyond borders to unite the clergy of the space it is a large scale celebration which is being held in the capitals of ukraine belarus and russia kiev minsk and moscow when they stand at the celebration events will be

happening within the next couple of days with concerts large concerts culminating the festivities in the three capitals and around five minutes time a baltic states struggle to shake off its past the first look at the business nice with. welcome to business thanks for joining me russia's leading gold producer partners gold has been taken over by its london based subsidiary called then you company under the name of point is called international started trading on the london stock exchange on wednesday my lover from the capital says the unusual reverse takeover could impact a new group. this is a reverse takeover. gold which is a limited company has gone and bought out his parents which is fairly unusual and it looks like he wants to continue doing that as a process to expand going forward this kind of reverse takeover can dampen

shareholder value in the in the near term and shareholder performance as well and having looked at the recent performance of. gold there has been the performer has royals fairly considerably despite the price of gold increasing on the upside. russia is planning to put fifteen percent of its oil champion up for sale next year it could become the biggest privatization deal in the nation's history on the current market conditions the stake is valued at fourteen billion dollars the government says it is also weighing plans to sell its entire stake of seventy five percent by two thousand and seventeen it also plans to divest holdings and diamond produce a. bag raising around thirty six million dollars now let's take a look at the markets gold is trading lower this hour however prices still high as investors are looking for safe haven uncertainty over u.s. debt resolution silver is trading at around forty dollars per ounce now meanwhile

wrangling over the u.s. debt ceiling keeps all of the red light sweet is losing one dollar fifty six cents this hour and u.s. stocks have polling as lawmakers remain at august over how to avoid a debt default i decline in orders for manufactured goods orders is also pushing stocks lower energy stocks retreat with a broad equities market but shares of conoco phillips solid and excellent stood their ground up the things updates. markets in europe finished in the red the footsie fell one point two percent and the docs shed one point three percent banking stocks that the footsie lower employees banking group barclay's and world bank of scotland fell between four and three percent up from goldman sachs downgraded the european banking sector. here in russia markets retreated from earlier games with the my six losing just under a percentage of the close spoil fell investors were cautious throughout the day avoiding risky moves ahead of economic reports and critical decision making in the

u.s. now let's take a look at some individual moves on the mind six we see oil majors that ended in the red amid we could crude lukoil down one and a quarter of a percent however precious metal miners were among the main gainers of the day helped by a stronger gold medals finished almost. two percent of the black banking stocks were also hired to be gain around half a percent supported by news it may soon acquire another twenty percent of bank of moscow so gay so that all from deutsche bank sums up the motor. serial work or foot market nothing is going on the market is rather boring but i thought it was for this first of all seasonal factor and the second factor is that investors take with us the position and the wait for us that issue to be resolved but there are some way to do those talks which move first of all i know i told the sun so to the division of gold and silver i'm moving higher and there we see the

month growth are you such focus probably michael also gave the ball to three percent on the new so you can still see. the positive and also the stake of moral clarity and monetize you saw results in the problem reviews that that's the latest we have for you here on business or to join me in forty five minutes.

limited. it's. just simply. vanished.

welcome back here's a recap of the main stories here an r.t. that's organists american security firm blackwater goes on trial but for overbilling the government for killing civilians in iraq despite claims of atrocities against innocent people the u.s. resorts to using more contractors on foreign missions. the region intelligence says the far right suspect would be terrorist attacks that claimed seventy six lives acted alone but europe's growing nationalistic mood is the big

fear of more violence elsewhere. britain is officially recognizing libya's opposition as the country's legitimate leaders and it is stepping up the diplomatic offensive against colonel gadhafi it's also on freezing one hundred fifty million dollars of libyan oil assets to help fund the rebels. now takes you to a corner of the baltics that spent the past two decades tackling its soviet legacy that's coming up next. the noose is the capital of lithuania the city changed hands many times during the twentieth century after world war one the poles were in charge then during the second world war nazi germany took control when the soviet army drove the fascists out of the baltics the city became if you a nice couple of months again of the country join the soviet union. they like

saying in russia we liberated the lithuanian people from that scene germany so that i added the following yes you did but you didn't bother to leave afterwards should we. when perestroika go to underway in the late one nine hundred eighty s. it was one of the first soviet republics to demand independence. was far as we are concerned a phone uses the capital notes moscow as the way as has been on whale a b. in the future. the confrontation between the soviet empire is weakening senta of the rebellious baltic republic resulted in street clashes. fourteen people were crushed by tanks hundreds were. that the town came to hold to in my legless call between the caterpillar tracks i realized then that there was no escape other than death. if you a new one its independence in one thousand nine hundred one.