seventh two thousand and one the war in afghanistan began as a counter strike for nine eleven atrocities masterminded from the country by osama bin laden retired army general stanley mcchrystal said the u.s. began the occupation with a frighteningly simplistic view and still have no idea how to end the conflict successfully meantime in the war zone american bases are still expanding providing it's full time personnel with all the comforts of home jason visited by a grab for r.t. . if the united states is drawing its troops from afghanistan why is its largest base getting bigger with us live forces over at the teleported late two thousand and one bug a mere field is little more than a flight tower in a cracked runway since then the former soviet base in the plains north of the afghan capital has grown into a small city that's helped over twenty five thousand full time personnel fleets of military cargo aircraft with enough equals to cross traffic jams in the expansion is no way aided by scores of contractors u.s. military engineers are constructing new housing and storage facilities to make room

for even more many more hardware after sending an extra thirty thousand troops to afghanistan last year president obama started bringing them home this summer but with afghan forces struggling to stand alone it's likely that less will leave than planned and bases like this one are going to shrink anytime soon. at least there are plenty of home comforts for soldiers staying on for tough you know long deployments they can shop for everything from flat screen t.v.'s to fine jewelry enjoy a cappuccino or grab some take at the new pizza hut franchise and if they're tired of working out in the gym they're free to go to the salon for a hair cut in the sides although some officials have tried to limit such amenities calling them a distraction from the war the troops are happy to have them and these are extremely. useful if even the latter then have a case that the right. local afghan merchants are also glad to have the extra business both inside and outside the wire without agrement

a soldier's my business would be nothing we like having them here but not everyone agrees deadly taliban rocket attacks are on the rise and as the base becomes more and more crowded the threat to those living inside multiplies no matter how high its walls become everyone gets a close call when you this can just get this much equipment personnel can solve it into one tight spot get close it's going to destroy something or someone. xemu beautiful due to time this is. just a month. from. general john allen one of the military's top brass said u.s. troops will still be in the country even after the twenty fourteen deadline that have been announced by nato and the white house ruthless insurgent attacks have been increasing in recent months with several high profile assassinations and shootouts in the heart of the capital kabul itself civilian casualties in the country are also on the rise to discuss the outcome so far the ongoing military campaign this talk michael prison he's a veteran of the iraq war and leader of antiwar coalition march forward that's

a prisoner thanks ever so much for being on the program we really appreciate you taking the time now as i just said you are one of those people who oppose the war but surely i say to you the u.s. i do something did after nine eleven. well you know that's the entire pretext for the war in afghanistan right as the retaliation for the nine eleven attacks i think people should pay very close attention to a poll that was done relatively relatively recently in afghanistan that found that among young afghan men ninety two percent had never even heard of the nine eleven and of course it's a big secret by the u.s. government that immediately after the nine eleven attacks the taliban government offered to arrest an extra day been wired in to face trial and even the pentagon itself says there is roughly fifty al qaeda operatives operating in afghanistan which as you know the size of a football team which is actually ridiculous to think we need over one hundred thousand soldiers to fight that all right so let's try and pick this apart let's talk first of all why more than ninety percent of young afghans don't know about

the whole supposed cause of this in the first place why is that. as far as the u.s. is concerned. well it's because they had absolutely nothing to do with the attacks and of course that's something that the u.s. government of course does not want the people of the united states to know because they want to convince them that the people that are dying every single day the dozens of civilians that are killed the night raids and drone attacks and bombings every single day in afghanistan the tens of thousands who have been killed they want the american public to believe that these people are terrorists that are responsible for the nine eleven attacks one fact they're just regular people living in afghanistan who just happen to live in a country that is strategically located in an oil rich resource rich region and want to scream and pour into a wall street and to u.s. military dominance many people say well there was a real opportunity for the u.s. to change the situation after the taliban fell from power back in two thousand and one to say washington's that are the real chances in the well you know i think the

resistance which has grown every single year and afghanistan two are now worth there's record casualties there's record numbers of soldiers losing their legs being killed in combat and also record civilian casualties this is because year after year there has been growing widespread opposition among the afghan people to the foreign occupation and so the growing resistance isn't because you know the u.s. military screwed up at the regrowing resistance is because the u.s. military is occupying the country killing civilians every single day and making lives miserable for the afghan people who are seeing as a widespread national rebellion against the occupation not just by the taliban but by the pentagon's own numbers a hundreds if not over over a thousand different armed resistance organizations that are fighting to expel the foreign occupation it's an important thing in. the miserable life of most people i mean so much money has been poured into these billions of dollars in foreign aid but yet the law doesn't go. no i mean life expectancy in afghanistan is forty two i

mean they have the second highest infant mortality rate in the entire world and roughly fifty percent of the population is living in extreme poverty and suffering of dying of starvation but there are billions of dollars flowing into that country where that money is going to build u.s. bases u.s. administrative center is because that's the only interest the u.s. government has in afghanistan it's not helping the afghan people it's not bringing democracy it's not protecting our friends and family here in the united states it's having another outpost of u.s. military interest in what is the most important region of the world for the u.s. empire because of its resources and because of the position next to so many other rising powers and oil rich country but what's the prognosis. what's the message that they're trying to send one of those insurgents going to go from here on in do you think. well the attacks that occurred on the anniversary of nine eleven and actually many of the dramatic spectacular attacks that have

happened. in recent history i mean this is the resistance forces showing that they are the ones that are in control they are the ones that have the upper hand and even the generals and the politicians admit themselves that they cannot win with militarily in afghanistan while they're telling all of these soldiers that they must fight and die to defeat this evil enemy that we have to drive from political power line because all they're doing is using these soldiers as bargaining chip because the white house itself admit that the only solution is a negotiated settlement with the taliban inviting them into political power in the government so all of the soldiers who are dying who are losing their legs are not dying for the reasons that they're told because they're trying to destroy terrorism or drive out the taliban they're dying so the politicians can get an upper hand at the bargaining table so they can work out the different business and military deals that they hope to win which is only in the interests of the very rich in the united states at the expense of everyone else. to go to leave thank you so much for being

on the program a veteran of the war as you are the leader of the coalition for would. american. target. should feel the food of the u.s. mission. the mission to bring peace and stability. but you don't have to change. let's look at the big news story today that continues echoes from the occupy wall street protests have breached the american capital chanting the movement's message crowds march through downtown washington d.c. the demonstration started as a simple sit in in front of the new york stock exchange really quickly getting support all over the country more rallies followed in chicago boston some francisco in los angeles activists saying they are fed up with breaking the backs of work

while bonuses flow into the pockets of already wealthy wall street bankers now wednesday police used pepper spray and baton to disperse tens of thousands of people who are moving from the wall street early we spoke to occupy wall street activists you know tomorrow who gave us his experience of being beaten by police he also told us that a lack of definite demands of the movement is in fact its strength. i think actually there's an interesting contrast in the police response i've been around since i've had friends pepper spray. it's intense i haven't seen much this i haven't seen this. all but. i think it reflects fear there's an incredible strength from not having a career was the right answer. this moment is a little bit different i don't really think this one has to come up with its own

the last this articulation to me our foundation which goes through the grassroots organizations and movements. forest service added regular selves i think that's verbal harleston time and we have enormous potential to really build a movement for both creating an alternative structure and cycle to carve out the space for that's the. meantime across the atlantic the u.k. has become the latest nation to feel the pinch the global financial crisis ratings giant moody's downgraded twelve of britain's financial firms and banks it comes off the bank of england chief said the country's economy to disclose point since the one hundred thirty s. if not ever british euro m.p. godfrey bloom says the chancellor of the exchequer is policy of printing more cash will lead to disaster he's inventing money electronically out of absolutely nowhere it's called quantitative easing but actually it's counterfeiting money it's doomed to failure it always fails it's failed in the pos it's never been successful if it

was successful why doesn't he give money printing machines to every family in the united kingdom that they could put in their attic and print money whenever they want to go and buy something it props up the banks for a little bit longer but it doesn't do much else ordinary people don't get it and what it actually has the terrible effect of it degrades the currency currency pound notes or any of a medium of exchange you know flooding the market with them isn't going to actually help the economy atoll and of course it depresses truly interest rates which means old people pensions people on fixed income old suffer from this quantitative easing and of course further down the road it must end in inflation the equivalent of what the chances of actually doing a magic wall stop on a shore on a deserted island. in their own leg because there's nothing else to it nothing else to eat all that's happening is that they are creating money to buy their own debts it's actually in any other walk of life it would be illegal and you'd go to prison

for it. culture blew me peace bring to us there this is r.t. international live from moscow coming up this hour the battle for libya to gadhafi fighters launched a major assault on the colonel's hometown of sirte world made his humanitarian bombing the country raises concerns for the civilians it claims to be protecting. russian prosecutors are said to have the fresh charges to key suspects in the murder of prominent journalist anna politkovskaya five years ago she was gunned down in her apartment block here in moscow but while the case has drawn worldwide attention now once you have been convicted for the murder. of a met politkovskaya family who still want to see justice done. for police who worked on this day five years ago it was a murder of a woman huff way through their shift at around four pm for a very political it was hard way through her pregnancy when she got a call her mother had been shot dead outside her apartment it was

a watershed moment and there is life before and after. when you miley i was well aware what kind of journalism my mother was into she would ok janelle they say if something happens to me documents are the money's here here are all the numbers to call but we never really took it seriously i was four months pregnant the family was full of hope and my mother promised that after her first grandchild was born she would stop going to chechnya and take up quite a journalistic work. but quiet journalistic work is not something you would associate on the political scale with best to get it corrupt security officials and exposed to human rights violations she help people when there are cases in the highest courts in russia and in strasbourg but the irony is that five years later your own murder still remains unpunished will get us there have been different periods in the process both busy went in people were arrested almost simultaneously

in two thousand and seven and passive when nothing was happening however the events of recent months give us certain optimism for a successful ending successful in terms of finding the mastermind of the murder i can tell you if the investigation was as active five years ago as it is now by this time we would have had more evidence. or the twenty eleven has indeed been a turning point in may prosecutors named a man who is believed to have pulled the trigger the stomach mood of was arrested in chechnya off to years on the run and belgium and shortly afterwards investigators announced they were close just solving one of the most high profile slayings in recent russian memory. a former high ranking police official dimitri publishing co was a middleman for money agreed to organize a criminal mob consisting of four people to carry out the assassination he kept. provided the perpetrator with

a gun and would organize other members of the group we also have other information about the alleged mastermind of the killing but it's too premature to release that information. you know virgie as yet aware on the political scale worked up until her death has been carrying out its own investigation into the journalists manta the newspapers deputy editor says it's good that interest in the case is so high both in russia and abroad but it's bad when it turns into pressure on prosecutors but it's much more with the influence period before we still believe that the four people who were my brothers and their friend who were injured and were acquitted in two thousand and nine would know or in some way linked to this murder but you cannot clean the chords theory for the record it was a lack of solid evidence presented in court and always happened because there was a public pressure on the prosecution to rush to judgment we think that even their arrests were too premature dominico. the russians supreme court unknown

to the acquittal verdict of two thousand and nine and ordered a reopening of the investigation it's a significant part of the joining but it's certainly not the end one of the biggest challenges for investigators at this point is to find other suspects who are now on the run outside the country but just like on the political square herself her family and colleagues will never give up as they strive to find the truth it takes very little to describe someone's death in case of on the political just a dozen words on a piece of stone but these journalists life and her legacy could never feet and a forty by forty marble plates. it is the actual art. libyan fighters have launched a final attack on colonel gadhafi hometown of sirte reports say the interim government troops have now largely taken the city but they're still meeting pockets

of heavy resistance hundreds of vehicles pouring into the outskirts as the city's pounded as with heavy shelling. thousands of civilians have left many more are thought to have remained this all comes after colonel gadhafi and all the message urged libyans to resist the interim leaders the civil war that's now claimed thousands of lives was joined by nato wandering u.n. mandate to protect civilians but as the out of lawyers association president told r.t. the mounting death toll proves nato's intentions were not peaceful. you have to remember that the resolution of the u.n. was in fact only come find to a no fly zones to imposing a no fly zones it was there to protect civilians and the end of the day we end up with nato actually going to war against the people of libya obviously the dictatorship which prevailed there is no reason to declare war on the people off libya by nato i think the usa britain france and the western powers are hiding now

behind nato so that no one can point a finger but the figures of the casualties caused by nato bombing is really mounting i think nato is continuing its war against the libyan people albeit that they got rid of the dictatorship but we seem to be heading to the same exercise they have done in iraq and i think russia was right in taking the position of this of the syria because we don't want a repeat performance whereby the un took the position in iraq and then took the position in the u. n. is not there to change regimes it may protect humanitarian purposes it might protect civilians it might stop wars but it is definitely not to change regimes. present but it was again stated that russia will not support anyone most aleutian to impose sanctions on syria he said it's not up to the un or nato to decide the political course a country should follow and he said go pers can offer us more. president you did it

for explain that russia strongly criticizes the ongoing violence in syria it supports the idea that the country is in desperate need of democratic reform it also thinks that if the current of gordie's will not be able to create this change then we will have to go but we need to be there for stress that this will have to be the choice of the syrian people and not a result of some foreign military intervention similar to how the vents are unfolding probably in libya and since draft resolution on syria backed by the west did not exclude the chances of foreign military intervention russia had to block it that it is a loose resolutions alters didn't take our concerns into account worse they declined to simply to kozel to station there would be no external military interference in the conflict this means only one thing our partners in the un security council do not rule out a replay of the libyan scenario although they said more than once that they clearly understood syria is very different to libya russia will continue resisting attempts

to legitimize unilateral sanctions through the u.n. security council the danger overthrow political regimes the u.n. was not created for that meanwhile the violence in syria continues according to the leaders figures coming out of the year one nearly three thousand people have lost their lives throughout the entire conflict the west says that it will continue applying pressure on syrian authorities while russia hopes that the country will be able to conduct peaceful democratic reforms on its own always almost a website as well tonight addicted to crime in russia considers jailing drug users to. take. the report well i don't mind if you're interested also lost in translation a russian flash mob on twitter celebrating prime minister putin the birthday has thrown the online community into a state of confusion. for yourself on our website. twenty

two. moscow time will news in brief this year's nobel peace prize will be awarded jointly to three women's rights activists trying to get men and liberia among them of the liberian president ellen johnson sirleaf the laureates were praised for their nonviolent struggle for women's rights and participation in the peace process is the nobel committee wants to send a message that will bring an end to women suppression around the world. a pakistani doctor could be charged with high treason for allegedly assisting the cia operation to kill osama bin ladden state investigators claim shall kill after it be operated a fake vaccination program to gather d.n.a. samples of the city where the al qaeda head was killed. claims the u.s. violated its sovereignty by carrying out the un sanctioned mission to take out bin laden on the second of may. chilean police a brutally lashed out at protesters demanding educational reform police in riot gear surrounded students in a sense central city square using water cannon and tear gas to push back demonstrators who were chanting the slogan united and stronger clash left several

injured and student groups who eventually forced to disperse it's the latest escalation in protesters and police and confrontation that's lasted several months . in the sport can be a little bit later this hour forced retirement at just twenty five years old sad news for former world number one tennis star le dinara safina more details on that for you tonight it's just over twenty minutes but catch up on the latest business this hour next. thank you carol euro zone's a sovereign debt crisis is causing problems far beyond the borders of the countries directly involved russia which has a balanced budget and healthy reserves has been hit hard in its latest report the international monetary fund says the best way to get rid of this vulnerability is to diversify away from energy. we would recommend as we have always recommend that every effort be made to be less dependent on the oil and gas sectors so policy

priority to emphasize all other industries in particular the manufacturing sector a return to competitiveness through exports and so forth russia has plenty of access to technology educated labor force all the ingredients necessary to relaunch its manufacturing sector like all other advanced economies so that the first priority second we think that russia might want to continue for sizing stronger public finances the government has set a target of four point seven percent. deficit that is a very valid target which would make the russian economy a lot more resilient you know if you. move to the markets now while is up. against the brant is twenty six cents. thirty eight cents per barrel and this is on the back of an unemployment report which is out in the united states figures for

september the economy added one hundred three thousand new jobs that's way above expectations the dow jones therefore up half a percent but the unemployment rate still stands at nine point one percent in the world's largest economy these are the closing figures in europe most of the steam of the rally was lost by the end of the up just to point two percent the dax point five percent but we have to remember that wednesday and thursday were very positive days bank stocks were low at the end of the session that's after moody's downgraded the credit rating of twelve u.k. financial firms including lloyds royal bank of scotland and done better u.k. . and this is the growing picture in a rush much more positive the r.t.s. is up three percent to my six two and a half percent however the week overall was negative if we look at the main a movie. the mad souls and energy stocks were higher magill up five percent bear

producer carly is among the main gainers at the close up more than seven percent that's on news of a two and a half billion dollar buyback and alexander lifting that i've seen multiple wraps up the week straight. we were closing a little bit about for the opening of the week while. for last three days was significant let's say let's try to call the truly we see like three percent growth of the day and still it seems that so the market sentiment remains cautious we see the wall that it is still in place we see it to school probably be in place for the next two weeks while still markets reacting quite well to consolidate its. efforts of receive the bank of england and other european authorities to get through the crisis everybody's thinking about as often al but you know we've got with them one more story russia's burbank is considering buying the turkish unit of troubled french belgian group dexia it's

a struggling to cope with its exposure to greek debt and is considering an asset sale source as banks a deciding factor will be the price of the assets but the acquisition would be consistent with the bank's well publicized plan to expand in central and eastern europe and russia's top diamond producer al were also planning to hold an i.p.o. at the end of twenty twelve all just soon after president of. the state plans to privatized seven to ten percent of the company also says now also this restructuring now in preparation for listing and promises to show fantastic results . in europe now in news pre-crisis volatile time we are in the ideal situation we are sitting on a big stack of money capitalization is better than before the two thousand and eight crisis and all sales volumes should champions performance in the coming days we will publish or two thousand and eleven first half report and we will post such figures as the company has never seen in its history because kevin is next with the

headlines on r.t. to stay with us. even the books of this ancient land the sacred. magic is the essence of life. whether it is a buddhist prayer. or

a shamanistic which are. on the crossroads of two religions. faith is strong and spirit is hard. it was created to serve public interests to inform and to entertain. these days there's nothing easier than opening a new media outlet but there is nothing harder than revoking its license in case of corruption. when jasmine. san antonio ways can try to be the problem. you can involve in a community where you have one large corporation controlling the daily newspaper radio stations television stations the cable outlets you told me that that sounds like democracy public opinion versus f.c.c.

broadcast blues marching. from the international front evening here top stories america's former top commander in afghanistan says that only halfway to reaching their goals have no idea how to end the mission successfully the comments coming to actually ten years after washington launched its bloody war in the country. growing antiwar street protests at the u.s. capitol as thousands expressed fury over tax dollars being used to bolster big business activists say they're fed up with breaking their backs that work bonuses flow into the pockets of the already wealthy banker. and russian prosecutors prepared to handle more charges for the murder of journalist anna politkovskaya was shot dead in moscow five years ago no one's yet been convicted of the killings but authorities say they are close to.