years. america's war in iraq will be over it may be over and but will it be mission accomplished as the commander in chief promises to withdraw all u.s. troops from iraq by the end of the year what does this mean for the future there and our troops on the leaving because iraq's leaders have told the u.s. has overstayed their welcome. whether. for external intervention and while the role of nato. rebels in benghazi may not have been able to achieve. but what happened to nato was original purpose in libya to protect civilians not to kill gadhafi but with the libyan leader dead will the new government be what these external forces had in mind r t is on the ground in tripoli. there is a bad state of civil liberties some of the obama administration has a ton say is even worse than under the bush administration some of the former president's prisoners to guantanamo bay where many were tortured is this president

stepping up the game by skipping the torture and just going straight for the kill. it's friday october twenty first seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine freeze out there watching our team the top story this evening the united states will withdraw all troops from iraq by the end of this year president obama says all troops other than about one hundred sixty active duty soldiers attached to the u.s. embassy will be out of the country before christmas the last american soldier will call cross the border out of iraq with their gold. proud of their success and knowing that he murdered people stand united in our support for troops. that is where it is military of which iraq will end this isn't largely

a result of iraqi leaders refusal to give u.s. troops immunity from prosecution in iraqi courts and the americans have refused to stay without it and there has been talk that all of the forty thousand or so troops in iraq right now about three or four thousand would stay to help with the training however iraqi prime minister nuri al maliki told president obama there just weren't enough votes by the iraqi parliament to allow such a thing and getting out of iraq certainly a promise made by a candidate barack obama when many people say propelled him to pass hillary clinton back in the primary who he constantly reminded people voted to authorize that war in the first place so we want to dig deep into both the history of this and look ahead to the future and what it means on a global scale to help me do that earlier i spoke to right gerar blogger and iraqi american political activist i want to get his take on the announcement and i asked him exactly what this means for the iraqi people here's his take. it is

a very important milestone i think you are in journal and have been waiting for this is the last eight years you want to hear this u.s. military occupation is or what it's all for all and it is a major step and what i'd better than. it's a start and action in the u.s. as well because as you mentioned going to about arc obama promised us audiences and taxpayers that he will end this war and bring all the troops on before the end of this year now unfortunately while this is a very good step in the action it does not necessarily mean the end of the u.s. involvement and intervention in iraq because the u.s. is planning to keep it on sixteen thousand person and under the speed the patent fears are going about private contractors that from what i understand there's no guarantee that those private contractors will have immunity either i mean do you think they'll actually still stay without you know that protection that half of

them have or the sixty thousand are expected to be private contractors and it seems that. we're not grant them immunity immunity talks are not over yet there is one last attempt that the u.s. been going and the state department are trying to implement which is keeping all of these forces and contractors under existing existing agreement between iraq and the needle and this agreement was actually sent to the iraqi parliament last week in the parliament is on recess until the twentieth so we would see the parliament would have between november twentieth and the end of the year to debate and maybe the best of the best that it means that the u.s. will be able to be a few hundreds or even thousands of military contractors and troops with some immunities i want to talk about our what mission green in terms of this relationship between the u.s. and iraq today it's. to me everything i'm seeing and hearing the u.s.

actually wanted to keep several thousand troops there to help with the training and the iraqi leaders simply said no. i want to know what you said what you think this says about the relationship between the two countries and is this just simply a matter of the u.s. over saying it's welcomed or is this you know too many incidents that we have covered certainly as journalists throughout the last decade almost of incidents like the aggregate prison scandal like homs in the. cases of u.s. military personnel killing innocent civilians what was this a result of i think overall occupant. keeping some u.s. three moves through the new iraq you're using. just u.s. weapons it would be hard against don't think munity because as you mentioned that have been a long list of crimes that were committed killing civilians with no accountability and so the government although they would like to actually give them immunity is so

much public pressure and go to so much more limited pretty resistant to the idea of granting immunity to the u.s. troops because of the so many crimes that were committed and i do want to remind some people and put up some facts and figures of the actual cost of war take a look at these figures those serving in the u.s. military in iraq came home injured from iraq more than thirty two thousand also u.s. military deaths in iraq almost forty five hundred can't forget though the big the biggest figure fifty thousand iraqi civilian deaths most people estimate that number to be much higher closer to one million civilian deaths simply tallied from two thousand and five and on another thing to consider is the actual monetary early caught monetary cost of war more than eight hundred billion dollars possibly with for that for the united states of the three important. look right right what do we

take from these numbers if we take the us intervention and occupation of iraq has been stopped good is not victory to claim there's nothing to look back it has been a disaster to not have happened it's a disaster of death and destruction and the us has been a part of iraq's problem in the last thought since the intervention subtle very hard because the us is ending its and that was because i think this will help iraqis move forward and put the truck on the right track to what what do we see in the coming months in the next year in iraq in terms of violence in terms of government there is nothing substantial i don't think the change will come dispersed good is no magic wand in dealing with the situation in iraq we're talking about two decades of death and destruction sanctions and complete the station in iraq i think the country will need a decade or two to go back but i think the first step in but i can is being foreign

intervention from especially the us when we will of course are take a look and see what happens in there in the coming months and the next year or so raids around longer and iraqi american political activist thanks so much and to libya now where many libyans are celebrating the death of a dictator colonel moammar gadhafi of course killed yesterday after forty two years in power western leaders say now that gadhafi is dead a transition to democracy and now again what's next in that region is anything clear and even though nato is expected to end its bombing campaign in libya. correspondent guy images you can report their business there may just be beginning . hillary clinton on a surprise visit to tripoli days before the killing of the ousted libyan leader where she was quoted as saying the u.s. hopes to seek out the children were captured soon raise the captured scenario might have put could out in the awful rejection leader's truth or those of iraq's saddam

hussein but a trial over comments about he didn't pan out here and even more controversy that there's the fact that he was very congenial for defeat european powers for the u.s. if you went to the hague you would spill the beans about all the dirty deals there are this for real politic it's we in the west in a developing country like libya nobody wanted that median transitional government official say funnel to doubt he was born adding up the grain underneath the road in open country site near the city of sirte please don't shoot was allegedly heard at the site many going out similarities to the capture of saddam hussein he was discovered in a small underground pulled concealed next to farm buildings near his own hometown but unlike sadam who was captured alive by u.s. forces colonel gadhafi was reportedly shot dead by lead in france national authorities not without the help of the u.s.

an american defense official claimed a u.s. predator drone along with a french fighter jet hit could obvious convoy thursday morning as they were trying to escape effectively handing them over to the lead in forces on the ground there are still unanswered questions about what happened to the colonel qadhafi how was he killed all to be. but clearly i think what a lot for external intervention and all of nato. rebels in benghazi may not have been able to achieve their objective nato's do my mandate was to protect libyan civilians but it quickly became to get rid of gadhafi and cop a government which is now in power only thanks to this. support of the allied forces and i think we'll see. not a new democracy in libya but a new reorganization of the libyan political and economic. institutions for the benefit of those who brought the national transition council to power it will be

for the benefit of the united states oil companies for the benefit of the british and the french and perhaps the italian oil companies they're the big winners here in the meantime western leaders are celebrating leave us transition to democracy we're offering a single u.s. service member on the ground we achieved our objective but the u.s. president did not mention his celebrate where speech was schools are legion still the needle strikes widespread violations of human rights are reported in today's league there is no water. there is no. medication using oxygen in the hospital they don't turn the situation into. because i feel i can assure you. if you see. schools move through the city now it's it's it's disaster it's supposed to. leave here is now brimming with weapons expert sakes premiss of most likely gotten their hands on

the vast armories left on tended as for leave us transition to democracy the people who are now in power there have not been chosen by believing people and many libyans here that when the time comes to vote the choice will have already been made for them i'm going to check our reporting from washington r.t. this is short time ago our own unease and now we arrived on the ground in libya she is in tripoli and joins me live right now hi there anything i know you just got there a little while ago but i want to get your take what are you seeing what's the mood like on the ground there. well the mood is celebrate story lots of people out with three sets of horns horns being honk lots of lights on but i have to say it's definitely a different feeling than when we saw barak in egypt ousted were people were out on the main square singing playing their guitars crying on their knees here it's people out with semi automatic and automatic weapons plainclothes people sitting in

the air and there's still a feeling of chaos here the n.c.c. which is the national transition committee announced that the official liberation ceremony will take place later today on saturday at least here in libya in benghazi which of course is the rebel stronghold not here in tripoli and there are rumors that that's perhaps because just a couple of days there were shootouts here between and to see troops and gadhafi whilst in there we don't see the us out in the streets there are critics who do feel that they are somewhere hiding and that it's not quite a very secure situation here in the capital like i said but really the mood certainly is suburbs where lots of people here in tripoli happy that daffy is finally gone certainly an interesting time there i want to get your take and he's that president obama has made sure to point out that the u.s. was by no means in charge these last six or seven months that this was a unified front and if anyone is taking the lead it was taking the lead in this it was british prime minister david cameron and french president nicolas sarkozy

however seems to me the u.s. has certainly spent a lot of money on this lot of weapons whose war was this really what what is the mindset of people where you are. well it of course depends who you ask a lot of people here are fans of obama and the west obviously because they're being told at least that but that's who save them really that's who provided them with weapons i think it was vice president joe biden who said today that some two billion dollars went into this so-called humanitarian mission here and obama today kind of praising the fact that there were no ground soldiers here in tripoli and in the rest of of libya during this mission but a lot of money has gone into this like you said a lot of weapons and certainly the experts and analysts that we've been speaking to around the world are talking about the libyan oil there's no secret that it has the largest oil reserves here in africa and it's not an accident that the west of course is is now going to be doing very well it's expected with the national

transition committee a lot of those leaders are probably going to be perhaps elected or somehow come into office so this is far from the end of the mission even though the u.n. security council is now looking into officially end the no fly zone the question of what's next for libya certainly remains far from answered yeah really really interesting point i mean i want to mention you talked about people firing weapons into the air people honking horns we can hear that all the way here so it is certainly a loud and chaotic situation let's look ahead to the future of course this is still very new but what do you expect you have been covering the arab spring for us going from country to country you mentioned you were in egypt what do you expect things to look like when we think of where the arab spring started we must remember it was in tunisia a lot since their time for this weekend and and i ninety one you know chance really that islam ists will win in these elections talk about that and i know it's loud there and what you may expect what the world may expect to see happen in libya in

terms of a future government there. well first of all i just want to point out that it will be interesting to see how global media covers the elections in tunisia because of these killing and i think it's fair to say that the mainstream media won't be talking very much about those to metion elections they'll be talking about these afi throughout the weekend for up on throughout the year really in terms of tunisia there certainly in tunisia egypt and libya if you take three countries completely different atmosphere is one thing that they all have in common is chaos that can happen after these so-called democracies begin their new life it's unusual like you said it's expected a sense of hard line islamists will take control of the country in egypt it's expected that the muslim brotherhood will rush was declared a terrorist organization will get thirty percent of the parliament in november and here the main fear not so much out about the islamists although certainly people are talking about that with the main fear is that we're going to see some kind of tribal war break out and a power struggle so people here on the streets of tripoli as you can hear

celebrating with their automatic weapons certainly not thinking about what's next for them how is this destroyed infrastructure of the country i mean the standard of living here in libya during good taffy was one of the highest in africa certainly the highest in north africa how are these people going to the most they realize that gadhafi is gone but perhaps democracy and stability hasn't come to the country if it does come it's certainly not going to come quick i think that's a pretty fair statement oh all right and he's now a giving us her take what it looks like on the ground also learning some good perspective there about libya about the arab spring r.t. correspondent lisa now eight joining us from tripoli. libya of course one of many examples in which a dictator was taken down was killed with the help of the u.s. government but how common is this and here's the question why not instead capture moammar gadhafi or for that matter osama bin laden or are more all along why not

question them try them and then decide the punishment well that is what happened after all with saddam hussein and with other prisoners still being held are to correspondent marina poor diet takes a look at this change and what it means. long before he became a us president or a nobel peace prize winner rocco palmo was a constitutional law professor we have never been more energized. thank. a civil liberties champion turned charismatic candidate who vowed to reverse the abuses and policies of his predecessor george w. bush nearly three years later many civil rights advocates who once cheered yes we can are finding themselves saying no you can't not only is there vomit ministration blocked torture accountability and refuse to investigate and prosecute but kuantan a most open there are one hundred seventy one men still there it's been more than

eight months since someone has been released from guantanamo and that's the longest time since one time i was opened. he's basically maintained indefinite detention has revived military commissions. and as we've seen as well he has expanded targeted killings so they've increased under the obama administration many fold and he's even authorize the killing of a u.s. citizen so you know i think yeah we're in a you know there is a bad state of civil liberties and the obama administration world renowned author and scholar chomsky believes the obama administration has changed gears and accelerated a legal practice into overdrive. with bush or was it was to keep. whatever. we put them one time or program for the perth and printed word. for clinton for obama.

one another is the targeting drone killing of anwar locky an american born cleric u.s. drone strikes during obama's first two years in office have exceeded the total carried out during bush's tenure president obama described the walking as the leader of external operations for all qaeda in the arabian peninsula human rights groups which voiced international opposition against bush counterterrorism policies have quickly condemned the a lockie killing journalist jeremy scahill says obama's policies have drifted far from his political roots a president mccain doing the exact same thing that a president obama is doing would have been denounced by a lot of liberals and so were a lot of those dangerous moments in u.s.

history and we saw it a bit with clinton in the ninety's where a democrat who campaigned on a pledge to change but you know the country of the world has actually pushed a right wing agenda further forward than a republican republican could have if they remained in power or they took power or expanded power as obama gears up for his reelection campaign civil liberty groups that believed his words the first time around are now left to judge the commander in chief on his actual america's democracy is represented by a president who studied and taught the rule of law and is now armed with a duty to carry it out but critics say as long as obama raised by his own rules the constitution and his promise of change both i mean compromise or not artsy new york it is a subject matter with many ways to look at many things to talk about so a little while ago i spoke a lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer he is the senior fellow at the center for the advance for advanced offense studies i asked him to weigh in on this change in

strategy under president obama. well it's their last report was exactly right there are huge violations of law and this is just getting worse and let me be very clear i'm i'm a conservative and i am against the targeted unmitigated killing of individuals really u.s. citizens or not for the very fact that if you kill them they can't talk and let me tell you some more a lot he would have been a treasure trove of information and let me say this to be very clear there's no reason we could have not captured in yemen as a purpose of environment that is military terms or we can do whatever the heck we want to folks i've talked to the special operations community have told me they'd prefer they prefer if captured these guys for the intel by you really kill them so why on earth will president obama be authorizing the summary assassination of u.s. citizens let me give you this little blurb there are at least four other u.s. citizens on the kill capture list so you've got to wonder what's going on and i

just aramis calles so her friend even though we're not a size inspector he's got he's completely right if this was a republican president we would have everybody up in arms about it the fact that we have a liberal doing it somehow makes it ok which really in my mind makes it it just terrible why you ask the question why why are these leaders and these people not being captured certainly a lot of theories out there one of which is that well we can't find a consequence honna we're trying to shut that down a lot of different theories about this but i do want to talk about this in terms of libya a little while ago we showed a report in which the times correspondent have to ask of our side gadhafi i mean you say our locky duffy also knew a whole lot was what he had been put on trial he could've aired a lot of dirty laundry secret deals perhaps between the west and libya a lot of details still murky about exactly how he died how could offer a guide but it seemed to be the goal why do you think the u.s.

didn't try him well look there was a current exchange. like a donkey after nine eleven and this was somewhat revealed in the we can reach documents for there was clear relationship between western intelligence service that included the us intelligence and libyan intelligence and all the stupid libyans are trying to gain favor like helping us with the war on terror in my judgment that meant they were doing things like enhanced interrogation things that we still like carping about and obviously he would have said look why are you trying to when i try to help you in this regard obviously some of you didn't want come out and frankly you know i'm not going to shed i'm going to lose any sleep about it duffy big he is a bad guy he was a mad you know a madman but with that said either we stand for rule of law and process or we don't the other thing that's very intimate at this point in time i hold here in my hand the current suit against president obama for a violation of the war powers act is as determined by congress i was on the hill

just yesterday talking with the staffers involved in this action so clearly there are a whole range of things which obviously as president obama could and should know as a quote unquote a constitutional scholar but apparently it just doesn't matter which again to me is is something we all need to be concerned about as citizens of this nation you either you live by the rule of law or you don't and if you know there's a stripper slope which i think we're going to pay then just president obama goes i mean in making this decision to kill these people from going lot into all naki to gadhafi i mean is that president obama's is that under his jurisdiction it's a does he and he alone have his finger on the kill button well yes the answer the simple answer is absolutely having run these operations at least sort of what we call black operations for twenty five years you don't have anything done at this magnitude without clear signature authority by the president oh no it's going to

die and this president says a barely go do it now where i find. right and there's no legal there's nothing in congressional law title ten title fifty and you title titles which allow us to do essentially either warfare or untold collection or sas nation i think gives him a story there's some murky group on the national security council which supposedly manages the cold so-called kill capture list so this is the issue this administration claimed to be the most transparent in history well there are and this is another example of where if you really do have an issue you need to bring it up and show the american people why we're doing this family tony we're out of time wanted to talk to a little bit about iraq that big announcement today but thanks so much for joining us i get insight there lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer senior fellow at the center for advanced defense studies so i think here is now as week five of the occupy wall street protests come to an end there are no signs of this movement slowing down and facts and many ways it continues to gain steam as more and more

americans sympathize with the movement and today a new group of protesters are taking a page from the occupy wall street handbook. the . dozens rallied outside the harlem police precinct to protest and mikey's stop and frisk tactics the protesters led by karl dicks spokesperson for the revolution the communist party as well as all the answer was cornell let's say new york police practices are racist and unfair archie was in the middle of the action when police decided to arrest activists during a peaceful protest a video you see here at least taken cornel west and called into custody along with the us now these protests come just two days before the end you know the national day of protest against police brutality and for more on police brutality as well as the militarization of police out the occupy wall street protests make sure to stay tuned for our eight pm newscast because iraq war veteran sergeant mark thomas about

why he's so angry with the new york police department and that is going to do it for now but for more on the stories we covered cards you got columns lives usa also check out our you tube page you tube dot com slash r.t. america thanks so much for watching i'm christine freeze out will be back at it o'clock. meatier. i'm.

reading the police corruption of. nobody seems to know. i never operate the case but hardly argument that they're being overly dramatic. actress lindsay low in fact he's just a child that is when that nothing people are suggesting she's up for no she says she's a one stop.