libya's most wanted man used to be its most sought after but as rebels toppled tripoli the tides are turning against moammar gadhafi and k. street is paving the way for libya to go from the rebels to richard. the you tube it's not credible an eye witness account is not credible to come on this round and shout help they're killing us next door. these are not credible ways to assess the situation plus the eyes have it in the age of camera phones there's nothing to hide except maybe the truth so are the graphic images coming out of syria are authentic or does the camera lie. this is obama is getting some serious are in are on

vacation this week but also a lot of bad he are so we'll her top shelf martinis be a recipe for disaster for her husband's reelection campaign. plus sealed with a hershey's kiss guest workers for a famous chocolate factory say they're not having the sweet time they were promised in fact it is downright bitter. evening it's thursday august twenty fifth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching r.t. . starting tonight with libya where there is still no sign of the libyan dictator colonel moammar gadhafi but some information has come out about just how deep the ties are and work between he and some of the most high powered government officials turns out it was just two years ago that

a team of washington's best known hawks visited libya and a show of great friendship and unity also back to august two thousand and nine where just released we. leaks cables give an in-depth account of senators john mccain lindsey graham and joe lieberman meeting with the gulf you son to discuss a long term bilateral relationship between the two countries and a promise that the u.s. would provide arms and military gear to the country and take seriously its requests to be treated with more respect fast forward to today as we know these are the same three lawmakers who have said the u.s. should have provided more weapons more support to the rebels to help take down gadhafi and this is interesting too it's not just the lawmakers. who can't take who can't make up their minds about moammar gadhafi the libyan dictator it's also the lobbyist here in washington they are in the same boat according to the national journal. it says influence peddlers who once worked for the libyan leader moammar

gadhafi regime are scrambling to publicly sever ties with the strongman of their competitors are helping his country's rebels gain a valuable foothold in washington the same article also shows that there's two lobbying firms here patton boggs and the harbor group that have signed on with the libyan transitional national council which the u.s. canada britain spain and germany now recognize as the country's legitimate government both firms it says worse to help the council gain that recognition after being retained this spring so it seems to me whichever way the political wind is blowing here in washington a whole lot of time money and resources go into shaping the way the world views our friends as well as our enemies as well as perhaps our friend to me is to make more sense of this earlier i spoke to milou in innocence the foreign policy analyst for the cato institute i started off by asking her her thoughts on whether the current

animosity against a former friend in this case libya was different or just par for the course for u.s. foreign policy here's her take. the recurring pattern we've seen this not only just during the arab spring and since nine eleven but all actually just all the way throughout the cold war and in fact this particular situation is very reminiscent of how the united states served trying to court the taliban regime in afghanistan during the one nine hundred ninety s. for unocal pipeline deal through central asia and of course the taliban wasn't privy to that they didn't really understand what exactly the west was doing because we were both condemning the regime and then through a sort of covert channels trying to operate with them and trying to sort of secure oil and natural gas arrangements with the regime and this is sort of again what we see now in libya so this is a recurring theme and it sort of exposes the united states to see and i don't question the notion that president obama and u.s. officials do genuinely care about human rights around the world it's a problem when we suspend that criticism toward the regimes that we do sort of have

a favor with such as the saudis such as bahrain centers in yemen where we have specific strategic interests involved and we don't ever criticize what they do and this is definitely the case when you see the appraising now in bahrain where we actually sort of gave a wink and a nod to the saudis to crack a lot of schools even though of course they were cracking schools in the shia regime there and we wanted to sort of you know put that to rest even though we're telling the shiite regime in iran to overthrow their regime so definitely exposing the hypocrisy of u.s. foreign policy right it seems like you were in favor of human rights and were in favor thirty years as long as it serves the interests here what about this idea though that these these three senators mccain graham and lieberman you know they are the loudest voices at least that i've heard it on the sunday talk shows the cable networks on the floor of the steps of the senate calling for more weapons apologizing that the fall of gadhafi took so long these are the same people that were you know buddy buddy with his son just two years ago do you think that's that

well i think it's understandable in the sense that all these people sort of change you know with the with the prevailing political winds in washington as you mentioned in your intro but again it sort of exposes the double standards that we have. totally ongoing when u.s. foreign policy i think it's unfortunate of course but i think we must understand that our interests lie in not separating ideals and interests but sort of focusing on where our interests and ideals sort of intertwine around the world and it's unfortunate because we end up actually promoting a great deal of the animosity that spurs a lot of the passive and active support for terrorism that of course has blowback against the united states let's talk about what i think sometimes we here in washington have just sort of accepted as part of the political game and that is the whole idea of lobbyists in washington working for every cause whether it be for you know a better environment or tobacco regulations or as we have now seen a lot of these lobbying firms right here right down the street from our studios are working or working to boost the reputation of moammar gadhafi now severing ties

and other firms kind of saying hey we're going to go support and give a good message to the t.n.c. what about this close relationship and how so much is controlled from our little bubble here well there's a great deal of money to be made in nation building as we've seen in iraq and afghanistan of course those go to the more well connected industries and individuals that are that have relations either with the white house or with capitals and with in western europe but again coming back to this notion of pull back in this notion that you know our actions today in the create future enemies and i think a lot of what you read in the arab press now especially in you know in the middle east and north africa there's this feeling that yes thank you so much nato for helping us become liberated but now yankee go home and i think there's also this sort of narrative that if we overstate or welcome it'll be sort of sort of feed this broader narrative that this was sort of a pretext for western imperialism and i think unfortunately we open ourselves to that criticism as a result of sort of overstating our welcome and obviously has a chance even said they're going to be opening up libya's oil and natural gas

interests to the western oil companies so this all is very bizarre and it's unfortunate because we are essentially undermining the very principles that we purport to. but what about the challenges that you see i know we've been talking a lot here on r.t. and i read extensively about the t.n.c. the transitional national council how it is made up of so many different factions and how a lot of these factions disagree about just about everything except wanting to see khadafi go what happens when gadhafi goes he's already gone in terms of that p.r. war in terms of the lobbyist here in washington what sides do they choose then when this one group that they purport to be supporting turns into many groups your guess is as good as mine it's really unfortunate but the euphoria in the western media it's a bit presumptuous because we don't know what's going to come next we don't know what will follow could off we we don't even know if the t.n.c. really represents the interest of all the libyan people so again this is sort of reminiscent of two dozen three with the fall of saddam hussein's statue certainly

many people are happy that gadhafi is gone and that saddam hussein is gone but now the real work will begin and we don't know what will come next you mention the word hypocrisy a few times as far as this country and u.s. foreign policy i think is important to point out too this is not as far as the lobbyist are concerned and the changing message is in the sort of fair weather friendships this isn't just one party certainly we saw bill clinton come into office as president and say you know china's human rights record should be tied to you know how much they're given by this country and then you know on his way out it seems that he you know under his presidency china really really moved up in terms of trade the same thing with jimmy carter or with ronald reagan and other countries as far as hypocrisy goes to what extent are other countries aware of this i mean do they. in assistance i mean i think that we can certainly engage diplomatically with the various authoritarian regimes i mean that's just part of diplomacy that's part of statecraft it's a question of as you mentioned earlier with mubarak who are actively supporting

a regime that is ruthlessly suppressing in their internal dissidents as you see with khadafi now we were basically remain on the sideline until the u.n. authorize the intervention for nato and so i think that's where the hope hopper see kind of comes into play in the state craft and that's when it exposes again some of the hypocrisy of this sort of notion that it will it will what's interesting also is that the western press isn't talking about the soap opera so this is something that we should also be discussing here in this in this conversation but i think unfortunately a lot of the political debates within washington are so focused on the ideals the principles of values that america so likes to export those ideals can be spun whichever way you want i mean you know we say go invade libya in the name of human rights but that's not exactly the full story or even most of the story i mean i think that's important to point out absolutely absolutely i mean if you notice just the broad spectrum of obama's foreign policy you know drone attacks in pakistan have increased for a full of an hour there's talk about creating a base within the middle east for even more german strikes in yemen and somalia so

certainly the question of human rights goes out the window of course one when it comes to our strategic interests and we don't talk about the afghan civilians who are killed as a result of the training for the afghan forces that we support or the you know the iraqi leader that we support al maliki who is essentially turn the country back into a police state so it's unfortunate but it's a part of statecraft what do you see just kind of honing in on libya what do you see as one or two of the greatest challenges from this point forward regarding the u.s. relationship regarding the u.s. methods i think the first thing would be the potential again for blowback of the potential of just this could all backfire in this is something that we we didn't really see in the one nine hundred eighty s. until essentially nine eleven so this could be five years ten years fifteen years down the line we may not know and also again this idea that we can create or sort of rebuild countries from the bottom up. this is this is something that we've encountered in iraq and afghanistan i think it's and when i and many other countries before that i mean exactly forgotten that it's easy to topple governments

it's very difficult to rebuild them from the bottom up certainly very interesting and great to have you heard this is certainly an expertise of yours and we appreciate you weighing in and sharing your insight senate foreign policy analyst for the cato institute so it appears it's not just the u.s. that maintains fairweather friendships leaders of other nato countries have changed their tune as well regarding who signed to be on this is becoming particularly true in regards to the future of libya and the future of oil in libya correspondent there a firth is in rome and breaks down the game of seduction italians are hoping to win in a post gadhafi libya. kill to the hostage was and you'll strike oil whether or not that's things true but it comes to libya well it's going to play a pivotal role in the countries. we have to be restruck interest me. the western interest. to join. the rebels why don't we.

leave the government interest to restart selling oil and it's possible the stranger to the concept of friends with benefit of being quick to k.z. up to the new transitional council and biting the public face of the group now from egypt will go to italy it's. he was good at these closest european allies when the latest bombing campaign began back in april probably switch sides began courting the rebels in full the wall almost a third of its leaves daily energy needs were imported from libya an oil giant any with the largest for operating in the country because many here have been doing all they can to safeguard these contracts but the if they will be able to maintain these previously close business ties is by no means a given in a post that in libya the seats are likely extremely uncertain and there are little guarantees one of the biggest problems italy and other western countries since the

beginning of the war has been a struggle to adequately understand the internal workings of the rebels themselves . among the rebels there are many factions mr tunisian people. and many chiefs of these groups of rebels and from the politicians with gadhafi and then we completely change their face we went with the wind as they say anything and i think they are corrupt politician it. could be cursorily on a number of occasions three business connections among the gay she returned from a fact finding trip to libya with a handwritten letter she says was written by gadhafi to berlusconi in it he allegedly says he was surprised by your decision to join the coalition against libya especially after we signed a friendship and cooperation treaty between our two sides the cittie he's referring to he was signed just two months before the libyan uprising the letter goes on to

ask why did you join our enemies or that any diplomatic dialogue or investigation berlusconi now seems tediously making it was that maybe the final chapter of the many feared conflicts will continue i would dare to say this stuff if you talk. to . among the rebels there is no such. census in both instances both in italy and in terms of the. needy. actually the person you talk to. would be. with the foreign media now italy along with many in the way could well find previous lucrative relations they turn out to be just as good as the rainfall the french there are the. and while the rebels are taking over tripoli the u.s. and some countries are calling for an arms embargo against syria following what has

become a violent crackdown there but no foreign journalists allowed inside the country the reports that do come out are both scarce and hard to verify as a result the way it is perceived from the outside appears to be one sided as artie's maria financial reports began to run for part of the morning so this is how the world has been watching the unrest in syria through mobile phone cameras i want to footage from the war stricken country has flooded international news or rather blooded. killings an execution supposedly at the hands of president our sons military suman cell phones have become a trademark of the regime syrian officials those seized the scenes are staged through the you tube is not credible and eye witness account is not credible after come on now and shout help they're killing us next door. these are not credible ways to assess the situation the un has condemned over the violence against his

people for damascus emphasizes from a far until recently u.n. mission has crossed the syrian border as a correspondent with saudi a rather than raised that are being a national news channel in syria he says because he was claiming self-defense this image i look at the goodwill in my thinking is great band foreign journalists and in fact finding missions from the coming in and they don't allow us to work can i just take a camera and go filming even here in the mask and you should and i would never wait till the government made a statement ten million reporters in the country like everyone has a phone why should they wait for the local access to information many people have used their cell phones to film what's been happening and to share it with the rest of the world. but this what went against censorship is a double edged sword while mobile video and give anyone a voice and perhaps help save lives it can just as well be used to transform the truth and that could come at the cost of people's lives. not his real name

as the man behind the camera is a freelance journalist currently working for a western media outlet i cannot tell more and he doesn't want his face to be on screen hiding the truth about himself he tries to reveal the truth of another kind yeah. i'm from italy but what's going on. that there are some armed forces on the ground that are going to believe you while. that's a group of forces are killing. unarmed. civilians and. broached the mocker here in freedom i am muslim isn't afraid of being thrown in jail has been there three times already. his afraid of being killed or friends in the room where. this person was filming it was the only one who was

certain. brokers and those are very peripheral syrian state t.v. brings their evidence to support their leader. it was what i did they should be cheerful mother crying over her boy apparently there they said that he was in homes but here it is same picture indeed it was made in the right in the person named they can be on the side but they just play one of the most oppressive regimes in the world food in the past has never been serious strongpoint because this is all we ask all we are is for the truth to come out for both sides of the story to be told not just one side all the time the fact that not as many foreign journalists are allowed in. the western world once does not give the rights to the western world to grab any story. and put it as to what does allude to be among

the leaders goals in this conflict the press is not just a bit of coverage it's a war and as in every war the goal is to we. are to the mosque of syria and switching gears now to a story of perception here in the us and how important it is or isn't when it comes to the way the country views what the president and his family do in their spare time there's a new form of attacks that have been launched against the woman whose approval rating is usually in the eightieth or ninetieth percentile the first lady michelle obama and the attacks kids are in the form of a string of articles and criticisms the most notable perhaps the daily mail a british tabloid and the u.s. tabloid the national enquirer and reports that michelle obama is quote a vacation junking that she's been indulging in five star hotels where she gets expensive massages and alcohol that she has spent allegedly more than ten million

dollars of us taxpayer money and has been going on wild shopping sprees according to the secret sources this has made her husband absolutely furious at his wife's out of control spending now earlier i spoke to t.j. walker the managing editor editor of daily national dot com i asked him if this is really a p.r. disaster and here is his response. yes it is a disaster and now when it came to all of the trips two years ago a year ago you could just write off all the criticism is as right wing ranting the same sort of people who were talking about that we're talking about the whole birth certificate nonsense but now we have a serious problem for obama we're three years into the presidency unemployment is sky high you've got so many liberals and progressives very angry at obama for giving all street everything it wanted in the bailout for not really regulating banks for extending bush tax cuts to the rich and now to see him spending so much

time cautionary is like martha's vineyard and the wife location around it's really starting to cut a lot of liberals and progressives his base that's going to hurt but i mean it in terms of these pictures and what we're seeing i mean certainly a camera always follows obama and the first lady wherever they go i mean these are people who let's be honest it whichever party or any is are hard what is the hardworking family who has to deal with the wrath of you know a public that you know could put them in danger at points and do they not deserve to vacation should they be you know saying in trailer parks that what's the deal here i mean are they just going to two nicer places or should they be staying in the white house all year long which frankly you know i think people work too much they don't work as well but you know what should they be doing what should the message be showing for first of all this president has taken a lot fewer vacation days than bush or reagan people sometimes forget that but the

visuals are important when ronald reagan was on vacation you saw him physically clearing brush. making with his axe chopping away it wasn't just being with rich famous hollywood celebrities that so there is a three years thing then they should just go somewhere different if the. then where should they be going in fad of art as they now about get about gatlinburg i mean when i grew up we went to myrtle beach south carolina we played goofy go through the waters it's we went to the arcade something a little more middle class and we're in a nation where everyone seems so fixated on the wealthy and everyone's trying to be donald trump and i think you have a huge huge base of people in this country tens of millions of unemployed for one democratic voters number two who feel like the whole national debate is old skewed around should we cut the wealthiest taxes you know ten percent or fifty percent no

one's really looking out for average income people and obama does not help himself when he and his wife seem to just love jetsetting around with the rich and famous t.j. i mean when the obama did it the obama's are not now nor were they before they were in the white house and middle class average people they have always been the fastball they've worked hard why would they go to myrtle beach you know which from what i know is strip clubs and trailer parks you know maybe three nice beach areas . you know why would they go there when it seems like that would be a harder area as well to secure with all the you know security detail they have to bring down well but but you only have to go back a couple of years in the obama's were not in fact wealthy they were in fact middle class or upper middle class but when they were in you know living in chicago presumably they occasionally went to you know maybe perhaps back in acar i back and eyelet are places that were

a little closer the problem with this particular location martha's vineyard is it is known as just the hot bed of the wealthiest people the biggest celebrities and you can say i'm jealous because i didn't get invited to go this summer but still it isn't. good symbolism when you're a democratic president and you have unemployment approaching double digit level is just doesn't show a lot of sympathy. and that was t.j. walker daily national managing editor of daily national dot com and from michelle obama's sweet ride to a bitter reality for guest workers coming to the u.s. imagine this you're in your home country be it nigeria romania china the ukraine you're young and ambitious and you're presented with the opportunity to travel to earn money to meet other students from around the world to be culturally enlightened and learn english all in america so you save thousands of dollars for

a visa you pack your suitcase and arrive only to find out those promises have melted away instead your summer vacation will consist of really only one thing you being used for cheap labor and this is a scenario that played out as the hershey distribution center and pennsylvania and earlier i spoke to one of those student guest workers visiting from china her name is trista lee and i asked her to tell me a little bit about her personal story and what led her here take a listen i work. to join a. program with day one means that. we were going to make some money. and we'll have enough money to travel around to see. you real america so you would make enough money to travel around the country and feel the different cities here. did that happen. not really because.

we came here we were put to work in. fact packed up her she chocolate every day and we lived happy. we packed. every day in that kind of factory it wasn't hard work when you said you were lifting boxes what kind of things were you doing is pretty hard for me because the boxes usually i really have meat and we have to grab chop but from one box to another sometimes we have to back have meat boxes so the power so this kind of job the strategy are for me and i have problems with my health at the moment i know so this is where you are and from what i understand a lot of other students have been doing you know this or not. to my.

other work mates who come to our right with the same arm i can drink but i wear a distinct for situation and from what i understand as a result of that poor situation a bunch of students got together signed a petition and staged a walkout at the plant tell me what happened with that well. since this is not a god we want so finally we decide that we need to stand out to speak out to choose to our american people the way either should know what we are doing in america this summer so while we signed a petition and we walked out and. we went on strike actually we have been off strike now chris i have you ever been to america before business or first time this is my first line what is your impression of this

country well all. before i came i expect the american that i know well a punk choice translate oh. nice environment. that was what i. well go after i came here saying i was put into a factory. but it's not what i want so i feel pretty bad and it's the point that i was forced to leave a guest worker from china whose summer vacation did not turn out as you hoped not going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered go to our t. don't cons last usa or you tube dot com slash r t america also follow me on twitter at frenzy i'm christine for sound. you.