be clean saying bill tied it up themselves but won't be fooled into leaving. and ukraine's former. position leader yulia tymoshenko faces a new criminal charges just two days after she was sent to jail for seven years of abuse in power while in office over a deal with russia has sparked public outrage and harsh international criticism from moscow the e.u. . today's vietnam war veteran richard dinoire who heads the search for thousands of american soldiers who never came home from conflicts abroad. culture is that so much you're going to make it a lot of people a variant of bad luck of the euro crisis it is a high noon moment for a euro zone looking for to stave off another recession call juggling indebted

sovereigns flew and. hello again to welcome to spotlight the interview show r t m m today my guest on the show is richard norton a veteran say war goes on until its last victim is buried thousands of soldiers america sent overseas are still missing but hope dies last and families are p.o.w.'s and m.i.a. still waiting for their beloved to return home in america the veterans of foreign wars of innovation deal with problems of the servicemen including assistance with searches of the missing how was it going on and always sharing experience let's ask the commander in chief how the americans veterans of foreign wars are richard good

morning to. both russia and the u.s. to caught in a number of conflicts across the world world war two the vietnam war and various military operations in all parts of the globe cost both countries thousands of missing soldiers after the iron curtain fell joins russia u.s. commission on the prisoners of war and missing in action was created its primary objective is to clarify the fate of both russian and american servicemen missing military conflicts in the past and the present. home is no i welcome to the show thank you. thank you very much for being with us thank you al so great to be here thank you very much great to how you are first of all our learned to ask you about the room the veterans of foreign wars association your association playing in what you call the full accounting mission it's aimed at recovering the traces of more than eighty thousand american servicemen those still

missing is that true that is true well i've got to before i answer your question i would like to thank the russian government very much for appointing a co-chair recently to the u.s. russian commission for p.o.w.'s. we work together jointly and we appreciate their commitment by appointing this co-chair to answer your question yes we are advocates for the recovery and identification of p.o.w. m.i.a.'s we actually travel to many countries russia being one of them and we are part of a joint as i said the joint commission we have a joint commission with russia on that and we visit recovery sites recently i was in cambodia i went to a recovery site where the four young american soldiers went down in during vietnam and they were working to recover those remains we also visit china to try to get assistance from the chinese government as well so we are very very active in this

issue we take it very very seriously and of course the purpose is to get closure to many families who have lost loved ones of world war two to the present so so you do really would collect on the ground really as the we do we do every country they have to visit with well we we visit taiwan we visit china we visit russia and primarily those countries and of course we also visit southeast asia where the actual many of the vietnam remains still there and but of course we're also interested in world war two and korea as well we'd like to get into north korea. possibly your government might be able to help us do that then i heard that the russian the russian official rest of the fish was they they volunteered to be a sort of a middleman to try to talk the koreans correcting you into the country absolutely never there remains of the absolutely how successful have the russians well we're not there yet but i've heard rumors that things are getting better is all we're

hoping the near future that we may be able to we were in there in the ninety's for a short period of time and we then we were asked to leave. well we know that it's good to come back to north korea this will be a breakthrough i mean i know it's a little of this will be what we call a grassroots like getting the country together absolutely we still have a thousand. missing in action that have not been accounted for and we're very concerned about finding out. whether what happened when we talk a thousand tens of thousands of american soldiers still missing from world war two this definitely isn't europe it should be most mostly the pacific because in europe i think i think i think most of the most of the people killed in you have been recovered it is a try when i don't know the statistics exact statistics but i would i would say that you're probably correct on that we have recently just found some world war two remains in the pacific theater there's approx seventy odd thousand still

unaccounted for and i would like to add to that it was the vietnam veterans who started the movement for the recovery of p.o.w.'s my way which of course we went back and also it advocated for recovery of the world war two as well so it was my generation and the war that i was involved in that actually was is responsible for starting this movement you started this interview by mentioning by thanking the russians by pulling for appointing this lady you quoted in that pretty hard. and i didn't mention her name because i i think i know if i will run as a. we're going to see some growth. for you folks but. except communicating with with koreans what else do russians are russia's ready to do to help you in and if you feel your mission well i know that the russians have a great deal of concerns in recovering some of their m.i.a.'s in afghanistan and

obviously they are hoping that we can help them doing that on the other hand it's a reciprocal thing basically this commission one hand helps the other. i understand i just found out today myself i met with the federation and they mentioned to me that we actually saw some russians went to our laboratory in hawaii and we assisted them and gave them some d.n.a. kits and show them some of the ways that we had done a five remains and so forth so my answer would be that it's a reciprocal thing this ways that they can help us with the north korea issue in this way that we can help them maybe in afghanistan and other places as well i would be i would be frank with you i know that the joint russia u.s. commission on p.o.w. m.i.a.'s was was founded back in ninety ninety two mistaken but but today is the first time that i hear about it really in the news so why is that why is it has it

that kept such low profile i mean you knew news ones i'm not really sure i don't know whether it which government possibly didn't have as much commitment to that issue but we're certainly not worried about that now because. certainly russia has come through and committed themselves by appointing a co-chair and in our government is going to be funding the they are part they are part of the commission so i think we're on the right road now. i can't really say too much about what happened at the pats but ok you mentioned the russians that may line too. to find them missing soldiers soldiers missing in afghanistan do you think the americans will be ready to really assists russian groups and russian delegation on entering have gathered stone on their land and digging in for looking for as we have well this of course being in a veterans organization i'm not a politician and i was

a professional marine professional soldier. professional soldiers are not politicians and so i can't speak for my government but i would say that i would like to think yes. because there's much to be gained by working together and so i'm hopeful that both governments will take this commitment seriously yes what is the the w. doing good sit main room. in the supporting the the families of the. there are there is m.i.a. groups in our country and to basically we support them by keeping them abreast of what the efforts that we. are doing at the current time we also. advocate for them with the defense. office deep d.p.m. all and by doing so i think that gives them hope that things will be done i think

we give them hope i am glad i said that i think we do give them hope they know that we're advocating for them we we won't let this issue die i think that if there were it was an advocacy time does make people forget and we don't want to forget we want to make sure that everyone is accounted for the you said the soldiers are not politicians but you have to you you have to get engaged in politics to tell the yes we do about what i want i guess what i'm saying is we don't take sides and we don't but we do have to lobby to lobby and probably certainly you have to you have to be political yourselves i mean to in to a certain degree do you do involve raising money for those people who. where it all comes from the phones that the government well. the. i would say the m i miss the missing in action groups in america probably get their own donations and so forth that as we do. we get our own funding from ray

a funding from fundraisers membership. dues. corporate donations and so forth all of that. form of finance and so forth and most of those m.i.a. groups have the same type of benefactors and all of the government what extent is the government in gauged in helping in giving money to the people to the families that need help the government funds the d.p.m. or wafa yes's of which is part of the department of defense and all of the activities of the office in hawaii field crews a go while fun recovery missions and so forth that's all funded by the government and of course we lobby to make sure that they continue to fund that and that's our role i should say do you do you have a long of people a lot of families that approach you with with specific questions specific requests . i don't know just how many families to contact us i'm sure there's many to do

what is going on or what is being done where are we now in this endeavor i'm sure that our washington office gets calls and that i don't know how many i haven't got a count on that but yes and if they did we would certainly try to find the information for the may answer. says richard there neuer commander in chief of the american veterans of foreign wars organization spotlight will be back shortly will take a break right now and then please join us again here on russia today spotlight will continue it's a week. from the days of the manhattan project and nine hundred forty two the university of

california has been involved through the science of its provision and scientists and their relationship to the university you see since day one has been in charge of researching designing and testing nuclear weapons and to some extent producing weapons every single on nuclear weapon incident is arsenal was designed by university of california. we don't warm domes. to university of california who was selected as the contract because the army needed scientists of their versity positions. a group of protesters interrupted a university of california border regions meeting to demand the school's severed ties with the nation's nuclear weapons program.

a. lot. welcome back to spotlight i'm al green knob and just a reminder that my guest on the show today is richard dinora commander in chief of

the american veterans of foreign wars organization. richard we were talking about veterans being nonpolitical and this is true i mean i mean i agree and i am a veteran myself but watching the current news coming from the united states the process the occupy the wall street movement you know long before we see a lot of war veterans engaged taking part in these protests well it doesn't make them automatically political but it shows us that they are politically active for and what i want to ask is is on the veterans really important for the u.s. government do you think that the government will certainly take into account what the veterans hampson have to say is a demonstration becoming more serious more more.

important when the official see the vets there on the street to answer your question i would say yes and i would say we are currently involved in a war in afghanistan and we were just recently getting out of iraq and we have a great large percentage of veterans that are homeless and we have a large percentage of veterans that are unemployed and so it's an economical thing a centrally and their protest on shore the ones that you're referring to is an economic protest they want work they want homes they want to get off the street they want to go on with the. lives and i would say they want to be productive citizens. nearly one half well at least more than a third of the americans that took part in the afghan war and also in the war in iraq believe that these wars weren't worth the money spent on the war itself

do you think that the opinion of those veterans are pretty young people will it somehow influence the whole withdrawal strategy. i don't i can't speak for our government as far as their they come up with with this strategy i do know that i believe our president said that we he was going to be removing people out of afghanistan i think by two. thousand and twelve i think it was or something like that next year but of course every person whether they serve in the military and i was entitled to their opinion and is entitled to their political philosophy all i can say is that we don't endorse candidates we don't support the candidates we stay away from that and their view on the war whether it was worthwhile or whether it wasn't or whether it was too costly and not is as is theirs and they they are entitled to have it. the new veterans the young veterans people coming back from

the afghan war in iraq war are on the facing the same problems that your generation with facing i mean guys that were thirty from vietnam all of these new wars are have something in particular i think that they're facing the same problems that the vietnam veteran faced with exception. more people are separating the war from the warrior and they're appreciating the service that these young people have given their country yeah this was different than the oh absolutely no question about it it was an unchanged propaganda i think i think so when i when it when i was saying when i say yes propaganda i think the news media distorted a lot of the war and and people seem to. group the war and the warrior together and they blamed the war when he was doing what his country asked him to do this is this is understandable because what we remember about the vietnam war is the deer hunter the epic. movies like that but hollywood contributed

to the total to now you know even wants to put to an end you think you know about the war right one. why do we see films movies of this accountability today than you were going to war is different well i think that people understand maybe there's been better communication better publicity but i think they seem to understand that there is a war on terrorism. there were two buildings in new york that went down and nearly three thousand people along with the pentagon died on that particular day and i think they see the necessity of having some kind of a common front against terrorism. but they don't obviously the cost is something to consider out which you elaborated to earlier but in vietnam i guess they did not see the necessity of it i can't speak for the people who are against or against it

i fought in vietnam i'm a proud vietnam veteran i'm not going to you know i'm not going to say that i'm ashamed of anything that i did i answered my country's call and most vietnam veterans if not all feel that way we're proud of what what we did i think society today feels differently and now i get many people saying it's many years later but thank you for your service society has changed their outlook somewhat. many veterans suffer through the through the swiss does it would those the v.f.w. the the man help them overcome overcome this this kind of disease and help them adapt to to to to normal we do we direct them to the. the help that they need we have the v.f.w. had service officers or a veterans' advocates in em just about every federal get building in every major city in the country and those veterans who have problems need medical care i need

assistance with disability compensation we are prepared to help them absolutely who are returning. from war for many soldiers means having to cope with post-traumatic stress life even the demeter has more impact. the course traumatic stress disorder p.t.s.d. was born after the war in vietnam u.s. veterans found it difficult to read just for civilian life after all they've gone through in russia the show started to be talked about after its military campaigns in the ghana stand and later. remain who still lubov remembers how he was sent to change in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine here when i was a boy the focus in the city that was our first battles were of course we were scared to lose size militants were shelling us and it's also terrible to see your friends some dead others injured and crying for help now

a veteran of many missions remonde says he's first but was a nightmare that will stay with him for the rest of his life likewise many veterans of the u.s. led was in iraq and afghanistan have faced significant physical emotional and fruition all these ruptures after they'd come back home or when their clash back sore or nightmares there really isn't any control or try to but there really isn't . and so here they're still shaking your your heart racing your mind is going you know needing miles minute and. you know complete loss of control us scientists have recently discovered a protein that could lead to the development of a drug that helps erase traumatic memories but working on these kind of you might take these are even decades meanwhile veterans often have to call alone and not all

of them are ready to shed the bitter memories or ask for help. developing drugs that would a raise bits of memories this of course something on the future but if we talk about today. if we talk about specific ways of helping those guys yes settled in the in the peaceful world what's what do you think personally is the best way the best three happy program group therapy group there it seems. after i left the marine corps i spent twenty two years in the marine corps i spent twenty years in veterans advocacy and many of the veterans who came into me with p.t.s.d. or psychological problems the v.a. has these group therapy they call them vet centers their group therapy centers and they just sit around and talk and they have a clinical psychologist or a clinical social worker that kind of leads the group and most of them that i've ever talked to that have participated in that have found that very rewarding so so

so these sort of help each other and this psychology sort of like that like a talk show host like you know out of them community like the well is that true yeah yeah. but isn't were it's strange that that that it's easier for them to be in a group of people who are. whole or like human and it's not better for them to be in a group of just ordinary people have to be know they need to be in a group with those that have a similar circumstance a similar account each of the books in exactly that how does help them to normal life well i think it possibly i quote i can't speak for every one of them but i would say that they probably find that hey this guy's got the same problem i have and he's making it he's he's dealing with it i can do that too and i think it's something on that on that vein if you. are i'm a veteran myself and you want and i do remember my so feeling any post-traumatic stress disorder did you well i was very fortunate first of all i didn't serve in

the infantry i served in combat support i spent thirteen months in vietnam i was not out in the bush as as they say therefore i did not kill anyone and i didn't see anybody. it killed and i was very fortunate i was very very very fortunate so you think it depends on i'm actually when you use the exact way do you know because i was in the air force i mean right i also didn't see anybody die but i think i'm saying and some people say well a marine you must have been and you are bad you must the same people die and some do some don't and it depends on what your role is and your job mine was to make sure that the infantry got the ammunition and that they needed in order to fight their war and i was very fortunate that i didn't have to have some of the experiences that some of those who is painful isn't it for people like you when you return back. because he did used to it so quickly i mean you get these couple of use you get used to that this is you don't know and when you come back to normal

life there is certainly in a just it doesn't seem normal that he will ya i spent twenty two years in the marine corps and i was thirty nine when i retired and there was certainly an adjustment and the adjustment is difficult because military life is best what it is it's a way of life and if there is an adjustment but for the not anywhere near the type of adjustment that someone that was in the infantry was unnaturally was in hard combat you know thank you thank you very much surprised to be with us and just i remind you that my guest on the show today was richard for doing laundry in chief of the american veterans of foreign wars and that's it for now for all of parklife will be back with you until then r.t. and take care thank you.

tension and crisis intensifies even to syria as activists say nineteen more have died in a new crackdown on anti-government protests after three thousand to civilian deaths already split in the country is underlined by huge crowds of rallies in the capital damascus to support president assad despite increasing international pressure against an. anti wall street protesters bring their campaign right to the doorsteps of american billionaires as anti-corporate rallies continue to swell and let's we report on how mayor michael bloomberg has been that literally given the brush off by demonstrators after asking them to vacate their camp in a park so it can be cleaned. and ukraine's former prime minister and opposition leader yulia tymoshenko faces a new criminal charges.