putting their guard up the u.s. may like to tout the idea of a nuclear free world but it isn't practicing what it preaches so ten years after the u.s. pulled out of the anti-ballistic missile treaty with russia what. it's been blatant hypocrisy or something. and the time person of the year goes to the protester from egypt to the u.k. the us to libya unrest has spread like a wildfire around the world so who are these protesters and why are some treated like heroes when others are treated like villains.

and speaking of protests it looks like the u.s. is moving right on down its checklist of foreign enemies next stop syria for bashar al assad is clinging on to power we'll ask if syria is on its way to becoming a libya two point zero. the friendship with him coming wins big in body the two are getting along with the opposite sex sort of. and as protests happen around the world and leave it to the mainstream media to miss the real headlines like these outlets are more concerned with getting the story out first over getting it right. is wednesday december fourteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our team well this week marks the tenth anniversary of the u.s. withdrawal from the anti-ballistic missile treaty and to that. one ten years ago

the bush administration withdrew from the a.b.m. treaty a cornerstone of cold war agreement which limited the superpowers ambitions to beef up their nuclear arsenals by guaranteeing that neither would develop means to defend against a missile attack so we want to talk about what this step has meant for global security and also about the more recent push by the us of establishing an anti-ballistic missile shield that many russians consider to threaten their security president dmitri medvedev you're married member just recently said its creation would lead to russia pulling out of the start treaty to dig deeper into all of this ivan eland is here ivan is a senior fellow at the independent institute and i mean let's first talk about this ten year anniversary and really how this event how the u.s. pulling out of the treaty has shaped the last ten years. well i think it's added. it's mainly political at this point because the u.s. missile defense the national system doesn't work very well they've kind of accelerated the deployment of it before it's ready so the national system is not

really affected anything or much because the the russians have plenty of warheads to counter and now there's a new issue and that's the missile defense system that they're building in europe to get to that's designed to counter iran well the russians of course are suspicious that this may be directed at them it probably isn't but it's a it's a political problem for them because it's it's in their backyard and i think that's interfering with the relationship so it's more of a political issue i think than the actual threatening of russians to turn at this point because these systems are just not that good. let's go first to to pull out from the treaty i want to know if there has been besides the u.s. and russia if there had been global consequences of that pullout from the treaty around the world if other countries have been affected by that sort of split well i

think it it's a political symbol that the u.s. is not. really concerned about reducing on off ends of arms defense of arms and often of arms are really linked especially between russia and the u.s. because you don't want to threaten the other side's often said missiles with defensive missiles so defensive weapon sounds you know and provocative but actually defensive systems can be very provocative so i think this is a message to other countries really the united states and russia are the only people that have the technology to do this now so it's mainly an a military issue between them but it's a political issue by showing other countries that were not serious about disarmament now of course the start treaty was a. of. development between the two countries in the reset in relations as a lot of people write and i think that nothing should be done to to damage that and i think this quest for missile defense it has really been

a republican issue but now is creeping into both parties are afraid to touch this for electoral reasons but they could i mean your average voter is not going to vote on whether there's a missile defense or not they're going to vote on the economy so this is a it's a political issue because ronald reagan really resurrected this thing in the eighty's and it's been a republican party. issue to fulfill his legacy even though the system is vastly scaled down and doesn't even resemble what he had originally. proposed space based defense grandiose scheme it's down to land based systems now that i've been around reagan is the sweet heart of the republican party these days but perhaps that's why his ideas and his eye things are being resurrected but but i do want to talk about this missile defense shield that you say it's in europe russian leaders are worried that it is aimed at them that it is

a security issue for them you say it's not but they do have a right to be upset about it but the people who argue against that they say you know what there's plenty of missile defense shield all over europe there's plenty in israel why the distinct location then if russia shouldn't be worried well i think the location probably has to do does have to do with iranian missiles but the real problem is do we really need this at all that is to say the united states and europe i mean iran's missiles are a threat but we deterred maoist china from. using nuclear weapons in chairman mao directly threatened to nuke the united states now iran has never done that and iran may stop short of good. a nuclear weapon and be like japan where they can assemble this at the last minute so we don't know where ron is going so i think the threat can be deterred i mean the us has thousands of warheads and it protects

europe what you can argue with should be done or not but nevertheless does with the thousands of warheads so iran is not going to watch an attack on the united states probably because it'll be incinerated entire country will be incinerated with a small portion of the u.s. arsenal so i think this defense system is really unnecessary and therefore it's an unnecessarily provoking the russians as well and speaking of relations between the two countries let's talk about something that had been even more recently and that is the elections that took place in russia there was a lot of different you know ways that there's a different perspective a lot of to ripple had based on the results of those elections based on the protests of those elections we saw senator john mccain tweet that the arab spring was knocking at russia's door. there's been a little tension you could say between the two countries based on the elections there do you think this will have any. you know effect on the relations between the two countries well i think it already has there's been harsh words between

secretary of state hillary clinton and blatter mir putin about this issue and even if you're for democracy in the spread of human rights as i am used to i still question whether we need to go in a very public way and tell other countries about that jimmy carter tried that and he got pushed back the chinese clamp down on dissidents other countries did when he mentioned perhaps it's better to talk about these things privately if the u.s. has concerns rather than be the aggressive public defender and guardian of democracy and human rights so i think people could argue that we don't like countries meddling in our elections we have laws and restrictions against that but . of course the u.s. funds groups in various countries and i think that's unnecessarily provocative i wish the people well but it's a russian issue. to deal with i think that i was there i mean that stone to i think

it can be argued that there's enough problems in the u.s. election system especially coming up with redistricting and changing the photo id laws in the next few months even there's enough problems here that should be focused on by people in the u.s. that they don't need to go to other countries and tell them what to do. but let's just talk about there are people who say that all of these things the elections least of all that the pullout from the treaty ten years ago the missile shield that this is looking more and more and this is not my words but this is what some people say that this is looking more and more like the start of a new cold war between the two countries what do you have to say for people who say that well i think that's probably a bit of an exaggeration but i do think the u.s. has continued a containment policy against the russians and the russians. are like any other great power concerned about the countries around them and the united states is forcing itself into central central asia and the former east bloc poland czech

republic. hungry remaining even ukraine so i think if you were sitting on the other side of that you would say well why does the united states need to do that it's halfway across the world this isn't the u.s. fear of influence this is russia's sphere of influence and therefore i think. the same with china i think other countries look at this and say well listen you're on our front door and back door we're not on your front door and back door and i think americans to be able to see that sometimes that our forces are forward in europe in asia and you know there is some. residual cold war mentality there i don't think it's a full blown cold war but i think there's certainly a mentality in the united states that russia and china are still not completely on our side that that definitely whisperings about when you listen to some of what lawmakers say on capitol hill here hill here a very interesting thing a fellow at the independent institute ivan eland thanks so much for thinking of the

studio. well now let's turn it to the person that time magazine deems the person of the year there were whispers it may have been steve jobs but no this year time chose the protester kind of an interesting visual for the protester but in many ways the choice makes perfect sense from the arab spring to the crisis in the euro zone to occupy wall street the protester has come to embody what much of two thousand and eleven has been about fighting whether violently or not for change so we want to take a look at a few of this year's protests that we see significant and examine what they've resulted in and talk about what connects them and what sets them apart let's begin with egypt and more specifically the mass protests in tahrir square now the reasons ranged from widespread poverty to anger at the thirty year reign of egyptian president hosni mubarak protesters most of them peaceful came to embody the arab spring positive are to step down the protests was embraced by the american media

and government alike but fast forward to today after months of military rule egyptians voted propelling two parties to power the formerly banned muslim brotherhood and their more radical religious brother in the salah fees raising the very real prospect of a conservative theocracy emerging on to libya now where the country split in half between moammar gadhafi loyalists and those who the west dubbed rebel fighters in the midst of this civil war the u.s. and nato forces stepped in with airstrikes and aid for those who offer who oppose gadhafi never mind that many of them were islam is and had ties to al qaeda a national transitional council was formed and in october colonel moammar gadhafi was dragged into the street and brutally killed now you don't hear too much about libya now but the fight continues there with near daily battles between factions jockeying for power. as spring turned into summer

a twenty nine year old man in tottenham england is shot and killed by police and investigation later revealed it was a mistake a peaceful protest following that shooting turned into what much of the western world referred to as riots and to be sure over the course of a week more than three thousand people were arrested five killed and several stores buildings and cars were vandalized the mass media was full of talk of mobs greed and a lack of moral compass but little was said about anger frustration and a loss of faith in the system then came a movement that is still ongoing occupy wall street it started with a group of a few hundred gathering to protest the corruption of a system in which the one percent or most wealthy and powerful in america make the rules and the other ninety nine percent lose out occupy wall street spread around the country and around the world here in the us harsh and squares were occupied by peaceful protesters for months they were met with police brutality in the form of

pepper spray tear gas and rubber bullets and the mainstream media who called them dirty hippies with no clear message just a few days ago we saw protest in russia people who expressed anger about the recent elections there that landed the united russia party back with the majority of power the us media covered it as the arab spring on russia shores reporters goshdarn a resurgence of the liberal opposition completely ignoring the very ugly nationalist and anti semitic leading among many. and finally on to syria where protests are still ongoing now you hear a lot of talk on the mainstream media about the protests and about the five thousand people who have reportedly been killed but there's little mention that this is actually part of an ongoing civil war protestors there are armed and are battling the government the divide very much along sectarian lines sunni sunni's versus shiites most recently a former official with the f.b.i. is reporting u.s.

and nato forces have already landed just outside of syria and are planning to train the militants to overthrow the regime regime of president bashar al assad critics say this move will fuel the civil war and give an excuse for a future intervention so we want to delve into this there were of course many more protests this year but let's focus specifically on these and to do just that i spoke just a little while ago to asia times correspondent pepe escobar and i started off by keeping it really simple i asked him what a guy in to wear square and a guy in moscow have in common here's what he said. it's very hard to make a synthesis of the global movement in fact this is now acute by the world but basically this is the beginning of the end of neo liberalism as we know it durable capitalism financial capitalism and the people who are proving this are not they're not even the one percent they are there's zero zero point one percent in fact i

guessed seven billion so this is a movement of the seven billion most of them are young and most of them are connected and a great deal have a very good education as well so in moscow into rear square in bahrain in some streets in latin america or even in hong kong or even in asia as well they are all fighting for the same saying we want to fight for another world is possible this is something a kind of slogan that came out with the world social forum then years ago but the world social forum never became a movement the world wild movement it took to the zia any took terrier square for the movement to go to europe to madrid and then from madrid to the us and from the us it went all over the world in fact so this is the new generation it's the educated but it's also the excluded that people who are not part of these banquets

which we are living in a becher's bank with all of us in fact are in iran's build the rolling stones in the sixty's and my first reaction when i saw occupied was this is the new may sixty eight well remembered that make well here we actually have a when you saw the front cover of time magazine i don't know if you noticed it not only is the president there a protester but it is a woman who has his face is covered his head is covered looks like you know perhaps he's coming from an arab country what what do you think about the fact that they chose this visual to end by oh if a protester. at least this time to head off for that time magazine concept and for the execution of never being a fan of time magazine i was more rolling stone if you know what i mean anyway my first impression was this is a woman in the rain and she was in front of the tour around about in the rain she's an educated shiite woman like some some i mean called i was in contact with some of

them in fact she was probably arrested off towards her movement is going nowhere because the repression was or renders did not only destroyed the poor roundabouts which was the graphic symbol of the protest movement in bahrain that they evaded mosques they arrested doctors so the repression in bahrain which is the untouchable in terms of western media we cannot we can't talk about libya we can talk about syria nowadays but nobody talks about that arena anymore any my view this was one of the strongest protests of all the arab different arab strings and then repression which was coordinated between the g.c.c. countries and we direct intervention by saudi arabia prove to all of us that the saudis are at the top of the counter revolution against these protests and you know you mentioned syria and you say you know it has been covered and it has to an

extent but not very much is certainly more than bahrain but on one hand let's talk about the coverage of syria on one hand there's this talk by a lot of western media this need for assad to step down the need to protect the poor citizens in syria it can sound at times i think a lot of people think like the pre libya rhetoric on the other hand you know russia and china have already vowed to veto any sort of u.n. security council resolution so break this down for me kind of the two sides with where we are right now in with syria well this stakes in syria are so much higher compared to libya because this is a. don't wreck it's. that direct clash between the u.s. and nato on one side and russia and china on the one you know on the other side much more than it was in libya in libya russia and china and even that the other brics and germany as well they said ok maybe this is not the red line yet let's give them the benefit of the dolls i mean the french the brits and the americans

the you will happen the country was destroyed not in an iraqi style extent but this most of it destroyed the infrastructure is destroyed in syria you cannot do that because first of all they're going to have to fight the real army even if they're not very competent but they are battle hardened there's been two wars in the middle east the syrian army it's a smaller country there's more population you cannot simply landing invasion is out of the question because the needle go all over the place the repercussions to turkey to jordan to iraq to saudi arabia so nato plan is to foment civil war and that's it's like it was exactly what they were doing some of us broke a few weeks ago this story that there's a command and control center in southern turkey and i'll see bill edmonds former f.b.i. whistle blower in her website she broke an amazing story this week which was not picked up by american media off course because there's a gag order you cannot talk about these things they are troops now at the syrian

jordanian border and these troops are clearly from iraq where obama standing is that the war is over no it's not over now it's a counter-insurgency war in iraq this war will go on for a long time because the u.s. does not want an iraq there is supposed to rent i want to listen for a moment i think it's important you brought this up that there are troops that have been seen right along the border there and i want to take a minute and listen to secretary of state hillary clinton meeting with the syrian national council last week. ok obviously a democratic transition includes more than removing because regime. it means setting syria on the path of. the rule of law and protecting the universal rights all citizens regardless of sacked or ethnicity or gender. so i mean you already mentioned forces said to be along the border there

what is going on in terms of the state department and what what's being planned sort of behind closed doors from what you understand. look when it's hard to disagree with pivotal what hillary clinton just said but what she didn't say is the real story and watch it didn't say is we want to bring this regime down we went through change but we still don't know how to do it so made to a splendid fact is to subcontract this civil war basically to turkey and the turks just a simpson that a lot of us have been discussing over the past few weeks what would you start is a must they're all they have a foreign policy that implies they won't create any problems with any of their neighbors this is their foreign place for the past eight years in fact and now they're creating a problem we have direct neighbor the castle it's free trade agreement between turkey and syria they're losing money you know people in turkey who do businesses

are they losing money it's then i'd shooting yourself in the foot the fact and they're trying to please they don't with being at let's say at the forefront of a war because of their own interests as well they would love to set up for instance a kurd area inside syria so the kurds you know not the idea in thirty would migrate to this whole tone of this area inside syria and turkey would get rid of their kurdish problem this is good politically crazy it's not going to happen because the syrians would never allow it the only way to do this between fayed syria and nobody's crazy to you know in the middle of a transatlantic crisis it cannot make financial and moral cultural nobody is going to invest in that new land war in the middle east have a way that we've gone from libya bahrain and syria now let's let's talk a little bit about saudi arabia i want to talk about

a story very few people have heard anything about a saudi arabian woman and her sixty's was recently beheaded they're charged with a crime. of sorcery now authorities who who arrested her say that she had tricked people into thinking that she could treat their illnesses charging them hundreds of dollars per session now you may remember a little while back while in iran when there was talk of a woman being stoned to death for the crime of adultery the public outcry was immediate and widespread and the story absolutely dominated the cable networks. to germany and. outcries against the imminent execution of shock you may mohamad. a forty three year old mother of two convicted in two thousand and six of committing adultery in iran so this is part of a clip from c.n.n. that this story was all over the mainstream media when it was a woman in iran that woman's life ended up being spared in part

a result of so much outrage so a simple question for you where was the outrage for the saudi arabian woman. well deadstick graphic metaphor for anybody who cares to look at it of the double standards by the us and nato iran is a full evil they are part of the axis of evil and how to solve they are our bastards so we cannot criticize them this story of this woman in fact it goes way beyond what he has been leaked if you if you follow the saudi arabian press nobody even talks about it the b.b.c. tried any trepidation and some saudi bloggers are some middle eastern brothers are advancing what i sink is the moral lesson what really happened she's a faith healer but she is a woman she is poor she is in the lowest rank over social strata in saudi arabia and because she is a healer and she was having some success she was in fact going

a guest is a very but your article society male dominated and the clerics in saudi arabia had to do something because their power was being undermined but this is very complicated to explain to a western audience who want to do a three paragraph strike so nobody talks about it and the cases in iran the second a case it was amazing remember travelling in the middle of italy in the interleave villages in front of the preface sure you had huge photos of saki mace of we have to free her from those crazy people in iran those crazy ayatollah it's not because we in the west simply we refuse to understand the other according to their cultural background according to their beliefs and we only criticize one side of the a on their side of it is the shiites in general be day in iran iraq has been a lot allows in syria but they soon as they get away with literally murder as they

got away with murder in iraq for a long time and just like the house of solid and al khalifa in bahrain. well we spoke a little earlier in the show about the post-election protests in moscow how they were viewed by the western media as a huge uprising there well arty's on a saskia churkin to compare the coverage of that to the coverage of the protests here at home namely occupy wall street she found that media outlets have been very choosy about what to cover and what to ignore i spoke to her a short while ago from our studios in new york it's definitely something many u.s. skeptics or certainly expecting that the t.v. channels in russia try to ignore these protests that they would try to pretend like they never happened but that certainly has not been the case we know that the big state owned network have certainly been following the protests on the ground we know that there were even anchors who refused to carry out news shows in case those protests were not covered so this is certainly something that's been important to

russian journalists and not only on t.v. but also alternative media the protests that have been going on and the elections themselves have been the number one discussed topic in russia both saw on the internet and on t.v. screens for sure and i know you mentioned this in your report but i think it bears kind of going a little bit into detail about and this is the aspect of these nationalist flags flying while you know some of the mainstream networks were interviewing people on the ground without putting it in context context at all some people would compare these nationalist flags to confederate flags to just ignore that seems a little strange. well you know christine we talk about the time magazine person of the year today if we had to pick a topic for the mean stream media the topic of the year for them that would certainly be loving one protester and hating the other the issue of marginalization of some protesters as a really significant problem because we have been seeing so many people that occupy

wall street marginalized the media would go down there they would find one questionable questionably looking person and then they would spin stories around that as if this was proof of the fact that the people protesting were in fact marginals but on the other hand when it comes to coverage of the russian protests we have seen in the report that we bring a bring up and in others cases where reporters would be interviewing people and showing these flags that were sort of in the background but they didn't explain what this was and we did see that there were quite in fact many flags carried around by nationalist groups and what those groups are are anti jewish russia for russia for russia for russians anti-gay groups and so on and of course this is something that is in fact something that's very marginal value of course the mainstream media covering from the united in moscow for the united states really failed to mention some of those examples another great.