in a tour as u.s. security contractor formerly known as blackwater banned from iraq over allegations of killing civilians now plans to cash in on the country's uncertain future with a comeback under another rebranded name. the birthplace of libya's rebellion hits boiling point again as tens of thousands in benghazi protest against their new government and the secrecy surrounding its policies. russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to cause of us has been stuck at the border for over twenty four hours after being stopped by the police in a move that moscow says is a clear sign of the e.u. exceeding its authority in the region top stories this hour.

international news and comment live from moscow twenty four hours a day this is. u.s. troops prepare to leave iraq thousands of contractors a moving in to make a buck in the country devastated by war and one of them is the world's most infamous mercenary companies formerly known as blackwater the firm was once banned from iraq over allegations of indiscriminate shooting at civilians but now it's trying to wash away the bloody taint by rebranding itself for a second time it's not to be called academy and r.t. shaun thomas reports now from that. well companies construction companies companies that will. help the country rebuild all of those companies are going to need their own security as well and one of the companies that wants a piece of. a controversial name blackwater under

a different name now known as academy now. expelled from the country in two thousand and seven has of its dubious. questionable tactics especially after the massacre at square where seventeen civilians were killed after this incident the iraqi government suspended their business license to do business in the country of iraq after the tried to reinvent themselves and come back under the guise of x. services and now it looks like the company is trying to reinvent themselves again so that they can get a piece of this contracting pie now let me give you one example as to the types of contracts that this new academy company is interested in. security cooperation is expected to have two hundred military personnel stay back to help train iraqi special forces and the iraqi military in addition to do you two hundred military personnel there's seven hundred contractors civilian contractors expected

to stay as well to have the rocky military academy wants a little bit of that pie it is expected but beyond that it is expected that all of these companies coming into the country as the u.s. pulls out they're going to need their own security services as well and academy wants to make sure that they get in on the ground floor as the u.s. troops leave of course interesting development information company blackwater trying to come back to iraq after having been expelled in two thousand and seven after questionable practices in baghdad sean thomas our team. will suspect jack rice a cia officer who's done extensive research into the operations in iraq and he says that whether the companies blame for having an awful lot of blood on his hands it's still likely to get new contracts in the country. they have very deep pockets and they also have very very good connections you can call this company anything that you like whether it's blackwater whether it's the whether it's academy whether it's john smith it doesn't make any difference the sad part is though is that if you go

to a restaurant and you have a bad meal just because they change their name on the front door doesn't mean the food is going to be any good when you have this close relationship between essentially mercenary groups they're not u.s. government or european or brits or german or anybody else these are actually independent companies that you hired to do things that you don't want to do the real question is the ability to control them and the americans did not do this very well that one of the biggest problems that they had was i think they didn't want to they wanted to be able to show a lot certain things to these guys and say don't do this my problem is that there is a certain culture that blackwater has and you can change a couple of the guys at the top of the heap they're hiring the same kinds of people who are doing the very same way they're doing much of the same work and the leadership comes from the same places with the same connection so my fear is the failures of the past and they have been dramatic will continue into the future. well with all eyes now on how iraq will fare on its own after u.s.

forces pulled out we look at bachata the war began richard perle one of the chief architects of the us will shed with auti his views on the justifications and failings behind the invasion of iraq in the interview is coming away later the sound. stead of turning things over to the iraqis more or less immediately we got involved in an occupation and occupations are never popular and the fact that we were an occupying power was very important in the development of the insurgency against the occupation. the streets of benghazi in libya once a. again the focal point for crowds of angry libyans only this time they're protesting against the country's new government for two days tens of thousands of protesters have been demanding more transparency and honesty from the national

transitional council demonstrators are infuriated by secrecy surrounding the country's decision making and finances the city of benghazi the nato rebellion began and ultimately ended forty years of colonel gadhafi is wrong patrick a's report of the online magazine spite told me earlier that libyan people have finally realized the m.t.c. fall short of representing their interests the national transitional council was never actually really part of democratically forward libya anyway they were never on the streets really fighting for the with the libyan people against gadhafi a lot of them in fact you know of a country at the time waiting to almost be helicoptered in when it was safe enough to enter tripoli it was made up of gadhafi cronies people who were basically cherry picked by the west as being people to represent the libyan people now we have a situation where the libyan people are so you have got a minute these people don't represent of we don't even really know who they are.

two months after the end of the civil war in libya changes are expected in almost all areas of life there but in one of the most important parts of the country's future education the serious doubt that change will be for the best given a record high literacy rate reached under gadhafi is rule some parents now oppose a total tearing up of the curriculum and the imposition of new values on the children artie's of some of the ports. it's a new day in the new libya but it starts with an old. students assemble different classes to see a new flag be wasted and to sing a new national. revolution the rich tricolor the humor is a flashback to the preview now for iran with a few verses week to represent a notion of the country's recently. duration of decades and a get out this will leave us students were expected to memorize long passages from his brain will ever question that and it looks like this tradition may continue on

this evening with us of us while this children are too young to understand the meaning of the bloody history of the new route wish they were out of there already expected to know it by heart next comes a speech that an ambiguous lay explains who are the heroes of the new libya the were rebels to talk how to gain freedom they told us to how the had high they don't just enough our country this is the only new material students in this triple a school have learned since september regular classes like math or chemistry are suspended until january when the new curriculum is expected to be introduced minutes but it will include will definitely introduce foreign languages into the curriculum now kids will start studying english from the first grade because they have to be prepared for university and again in the meantime the students are preoccupied with making drawings into kits to commemorate the february seventeenth

revolution teachers here say they try their best to explain to students what has happened in libya over the past few months in this that nobody tells us what to tell students who are free to say whatever we want we don't say bad things about gadhafi in fact we don't talk about him at all here as they say sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words to get our families and carpet dug just a year ago adorn the principal's office is now strategically placed in front of the door several hundred copies of his green book from the local library have been thrown away the forty two years of his rule that how bring libya's literacy rates from twenty six to about ninety percent is a distant memory he did it just sinks but what she didn't pass it was for britain it. here they are no you don't people don't talk about what you now want. to talk about but what you did in the past eight months here in. america out

of two hundred fifty students that attended this school a year ago half are still absent some fled the country others were pulled down by their parents who disagree with the new values taught here those who laugh and roundest traitors yes. i think it's. catchy now when i know something. about the good. well the study of english was banned under going after words like freedom and revolution a familiar to every first grader here but when asked what's the difference between gaddafi is due me here it's literally man's power of the masses only be a new democracy both students and teachers aren't lost i don't actually know the answer to that question because it's in a boycott artsy ship. from the arab spring to occupy wall street the protest has been making history throughout two thousand and eleven so says america's time magazine baggers boiled over into the streets all over the world even resulting in

regime change in some places and has been closely watching the unexpected recipient of this year's the person of the year on a travel to north africa the middle east and then the us europe and even russia just click onto r.t. dot com where it will all become clear for you also on our website. the return of the king russia's martial arts legend feared or goes to japan to challenge one of its top forces can find out what the man known as the last emperor is up against dot com a website. moscow says the european union is abusing its mandate in kosovo by holding a russian convoy carrying humanitarian aid to serbs in kosovo it is still stuck at

a checkpoint in the border area after being stopped by e.u. controlled police as r.t.c. god the reports for serbs in the country this delay will mean a critical shortage of vital supplies. a humanitarian mission turned international scandal more than two dozen russian trucks filled with food and household items destined for serbian cost of i was stopped on the border of the disputed territory by albanian officials members of you lex a police mission operated by the e.u. to stop it was an entirely political decision because it was blackmailing him according to the russian side looks official demanded an order for the aid to be let through the convoy needed to be a score to him to serbia and kosovo albanian forces or it could end the course or through no bain administered checkpoint zarine. being asked to comply with these conditions were being forced to recognize institutions in the news or russia or

serbia accept and which exceed the un mandate for kosovo and that this is a new chapter in a crisis that has rocked kosovo since the summer the territory has been controlled by ethnic albanians since a bloody conflict in one thousand nine hundred nine this by declaring independence in two thousand and eight kosovo is still home to more than one hundred thousand serbs and albanians tried to impose their border controls under so i've been part of the territory in july the serb minority put up barricades during their bond with serbia would be broken and a foreign authority would be imposed upon them since then there have been constant clashes broken up by temporary agreements for many serbs stopping the humanitarian mission as in others by of muscle flexing but albanian border officials while the trucks remain trapped on the border and the driver said the inside the situation within serbia and kosovo continues to be grave this isn't a spice it from red cross says that nearly half of all serbs in kosovo need aid to

survive. she misses this house regularly just sixteen people living inside it all refugees driven out of their homes in one thousand nine hundred nine now when you. were three sisters. our husbands go out every morning to do our jobs they're no parent and once for refugees some days they'll bring back five euros sometimes nothing today we may have food on the table tomorrow maybe not it's not done to moscow prishtina and belgrade to deal with the political fallout meanwhile down on the ground the standoff is taking a tangible toll on the minority leader of the artsy kosovo. and eagle continues to monitor the situation on the trouble border and you can follow his twitter updates to stay on top of the story and we can see on screen one of his latest tweets the reports of the second russian aid convoy is on its way from romania to kosovo with everyone wondering if this one will be allowed to pass

you can follow the developments there at r.t. underscore com. the greek economy already teetering on the brink has taken another turn for the worse that's the verdict coming from international monetary fund officials austerity inspectors visited the country to check whether it's meeting the conditions set up by international creditors if the demands all fulfilled is greece get a second lifeline of one hundred thirty billion euros raj m.e.p.

and lloyd leader of the u.k. independence party says the hands of iran's own struggle is a tide well they're trapped within the bloc. don't forget that politicians will always defend the status quo they will always tell you that if what we have now doesn't continue to exist the sky will fall in they'll be family and pestilence they will all be a complete disaster we've seen this before many times over the years the reality is that the breakdown of the euro came ashore would be tough because many many european banks would go bust and probably have to be nationalized but as we've seen with iceland who back in two thousand and eight let some of their banks go bust except it was a situation three years on the. going back to growth i think the biggest threat we face now in europe is to keep countries like greece and portugal and ireland and possibly even spain and italy to trapped inside an economic prison stripped of their democracy i mean literally the governments of greece and italy were removed

by these bully boys in brussels the bigger threat is they stay inside this thing and they die a slow economic death and they finish up with unemployment figures that are so high that there is even a risk that europe returns to extremism and maybe even fascism so let's get the bad news out of the way let's have the break and you know what a few months of the world see very it will seem very much rosier. you for hours than artie's cross-talk is taking on the organizations whose decisions trigger roller coaster rides on the markets because of unease gets a debate in the rating agencies and that's coming up in the next hour here on. the issue of the problems with trying to make the ratings better through issuing from having fines or having a system of penalties is that people like richard just say well we should just get rid of ratings altogether because they're obviously conflicted and stupid let's get rid of them but you know what they're just plays in that place is not only really

agencies in a sense because we don't get stronger i marry. his themselves because you have these voices saying let's get rid of richard well that's mischaracterizing my position a little because i didn't say let's get rid of ratings of course we need ratings i said let's get you know let's not tinker with a system that's so broken in terms of its incentives. now let's have a quick look at what else is making news around the world tens of thousands of gazans took to the streets in gaza city on wednesday to celebrate the twenty fourth anniversary of the ruling hamas faction demonstrators showed support for the movement ahead of the parliamentary election slated for the coming spring a must to control over the gaza strip in the two thousand and seven election after political infighting with the western backed palestinian movement fatah and agreement to hold a vote and form a unity government was reached in late november as the first steps towards

a curry sponsored reconciliation deal signed early this year. new amateur footage of surface which appears to show the ongoing conflict in syria where activists another twenty five people have been killed flames and black smoke was seen rising from a building in the eastern city of homs on tuesday night syrians have closed their businesses over recent days as part of a general strike an estimated five thousand have been killed since protests began but that's disputed by damascus which says the figure is biased and based only on the word of rebels. u.s. defense secretary says that american troops and afghan forces have reached a turning point in the ten year war against the taliban he spoke at a joint news conference with afghan president hamid karzai who stressed that despite all of the answers it's too early to declare victory and if people are still in danger the u.s. is planning to withdraw its combat troops from the country by twenty fourteen when the pullout is a source

a major international concern with many countries promising to help afghanistan afterwards russia and india are among them and they should strive to boost their efforts in the region well that's the view of the indian prime minister manmohan singh who is coming to moscow for a three day visit on thursday. that they should withdraw is a decision that can be taken only by the of kong armoring and here on. what. that. afghanistan is left to frame fight it sell both militarily hand in dealing with its economic challenges i think you and i did uncertainty russia and india are neighbors of understand we have great peace in order to progress and prosperity of the of on people and i would do when we have been thing extending between our two countries that scenario need to intensify over

cooperation in years to come particularly if the withdrawal of forces takes place as planned two thousand and fourteen. and another deadline is looming for u.s. troops next r.t. talks to one of the original architects of the iraq war what's been achieved as the u.s. counts down to the pullout date at the end of this month state with r.t. for that.

i. were sitting down with one of the most controversial figures in the u.s. politics he was existent to secretary of defense under president reagan he was carolyn of the defense policy board under george w. bush and man who is seen by many as one of the chief architects of the war in iraq richard perle mr perle thank you very much for joining us what do you think washington's plans are with regard to iraq could we see another case for war being built against iran will the united states. who is hoping that iran will see the light to. its nuclear weapons program but whether in the end we you or someone else decides that force is necessary to stop the nuclear weapons

program i can't say you're speculating on intentions as as it happened in iraq i mean the international atomic energy agency report said that iran might have the technology to build a nuclear an atomic weapon if it wants to but it's a long way to actually accusing a country of building a nuclear weapon isn't it well i'm willing to accuse iran of building nuclear weapons i don't think there's any question about it to build the missiles that only makes sense if they carry nuclear warheads they are paid in the normal scores internationally by insisting you know. reaching nuclear material well the thing is the war in iraq is pretty much undermine the credibility of the u.s. when it comes to starting wars and justifying wars and you were one of the key one of the chief architects of the iraq war and the allegation that many are making is that you. including by members of the bush administration is that you were looking

for any kind of thing to intelligence to justify an invasion no it's not true. we were looking for intelligence that would shed some light. on some important questions like does have weapons of mass destruction is he in contact with terrorists what are the risks involved in revealing him in place after nine eleven when we discovered that we could be terribly vulnerable but the the belief that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destructions was not based on any one intelligence informant it was mostly based on the fact that we knew a lot about things that saddam had acquired for example the chemicals that you would need to put together if the administration really believed that saddam had weapons of mass destruction they wouldn't have attacked iraq i mean what if the guy pushed the button right it's simple logic that suggest that they'd ministration

knew that he had nothing that's why they went for it it's not. that's just not true and it's not logical i've. we would leave it be too dangerous to attack if he actually had a well we believe that he had chemical and biological weapons and we took enormous precautions to deal with that so that every american who went into iraq was equipped to deal with a chemical weapons attack which we expected to happen and it didn't happen why doesn't anybody attack north korea i mean they they have a bomb. why doesn't anybody attack north korea well because everybody knows they have the bombs way right where we are we don't attack everyone who has a nuclear weapon that's. that's clear i think there's a pretty good case for trying to change the regime. in north

korea. i don't think you could do that by bombing north korea do you think iraq's vast oil reserves had nothing to do with the decision to go to iraq i don't believe that. we went into iraq because iraq has a world with that's the question iraq has a world to be sure and if we need oil from iraq we'll buy it we don't seize other people's oil fields and send the oil back to the united states we buy oil we import roughly half of our oil so what you're saying you couldn't afford having said on who's saying getting rich and powerful considering to hated america it wasn't just rich and powerful it's a question of what behavior one could anticipate and he had invaded kuwait as we know he had invaded iraq as we know country saying the u.s. also has a messianic belief or faith superiority over other countries i wouldn't use the

word messianic but. we're proud of what we've accomplished if you're self defense makes people angry or makes you hate are you right to defend yourself i have to say we are right to defend ourselves even if one of the consequences will seem time or terror even if some people side to become terrorists because they don't like the fact that we've defended ourselves what's the alternative seems to be a vicious circle well it's it's not a pleasant thing what do you do not defend yourself thank you for the avis or your welcome. it's brand new trisha's and this is products on the price of healthy eating. meat to test the sleep toxicity allergenicity immune response lower nutrition and for

environmental contamination don't you feel like a lab brought some consider the experiment each human treatment i believe significant differences between the g.m. felt that they both had their own chia pet but they weren't treated so well themselves one question means one carrier if you ask one question you could be uncertain and you might or might not be able to publish it but that's the end of your career. move just so. just.

to get. home.