government protesters clashed with police all of this is unfolding as arab league observers prepare to arrive in that war torn country. it's wednesday december twenty first four pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r.t. well from assassinated scientists to down drones to mysterious explosions some argue that the u.s. and israel are already in a covert war with iran and from the rhetoric we are hearing from the republican presidential candidates and government leaders it seems there it seems that there is a plus for an all out war with the country take a look i think our goal should be replacement of uranium dictatorship that madman to keep iran from having a nuclear weapon the right response to that would have been to go in immediately after gone down and destroy if we have an avowed mad man who uses that nuclear

weapon to wipe nations off the face of the earth iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat. i would say to the government iran today you have a very short time to solve this on your own and if you don't we will solve it for you and we frankly couldn't care less what the rest of the world thinks but i think the iranians have to believe as well that i put it without leadership believe that america would consider taking military option we may be past the point of no return in the sense that iran does have inside the country everything it needs to produce a nuclear weapon the maximum covert operations. to block and disrupt the iranian program including taking out their scientists including breaking up their systems all of that covertly all of the denial will take everything at our disposal to make sure that are. ron does not have

a nuclear weapon would i go to war to stop them from getting a nuclear weapon if that's if that ultimately was what necessary they're one of the four state sponsors of terror in the world there are training camps shihad is training camps in central and south america they're working with the drug cartels and they are plenty of assaults on the united states that's what we know is going on right now. so it seems the u.s. is eager to engage in another war the justification this time being that iran is developing their nuclear weapons program and now the mainstream media is adding fuel to the fire and pushing that other countries to the list of terrorism contenders it's all things to a documentary that portrays venezuela cuba and iran as seeming up in mexico it's a plot terrorist attack attacks against u.s. interests here is a peek into that documentary titled the iranian threat it's produced by spanish language corporation univision. what univision investigation reveals in

a conspiracy against the u.s. government. in mexico will. be. showing latin america has become the new front line in. washington. and its sound bites host. global. well we should add that univision who produced that documentary is owned by israeli american media mogul haim saban but this documentary is being taken quite seriously by some right wing u.s. lawmakers it's being used as yet another weapon against iran providing justification for going to war with the country so what is behind the documentary and is this another attempt to keep the drums of war beating against iran want to talk about this i want to bring in a lawyer and author eva golinger she joins me now from new york welcome eva so this

documentary is stirring a lot of controversy how credible is it. well so far it has zero credibility because none of the accusations presented in the documentary have been corroborated by any kind of other evidence in fact the state department commented on the documentary and also said that they had no evidence to back up any of the claims made in that report and again these are accusations that we have seen reiterated over the past few years not just against iran but also against venezuela and a lot of it has to do with the fact that in latin america many countries including venezuela but including others have been opening it relations with iran and gauging in more relations with iran but on a purely commercial interest egypt level nothing having to do with any kind of plots to overthrow or to attack the united states well what this documentary does

is try to point out that there is some kind of a plot could there be an agenda behind it and if so what is that agenda and who is behind it. there is an agenda behind it there's an absolutely no question about that the agenda behind it of course is to further justify any kind of aggression against iran the more you talk about you know the iranian threat is now just south of the border it's close to home it's right here trying to get into the united states i mean that that scares people into thinking that they need to act immediately in order to prevent that threat and remember that the doctrine of preventive warfare preemptive warfare is still in effect and still could be employed by the u.s. government and the obama administration has said that all options against iran are still on the table so when they talk about bringing this the rainy and threat closer to the u.s. border and that it's operating all these different iranian intelligence operatives agency is. you know are training terrorists in latin america and and are preparing

some kind of attack on the u.s. that's really drumming up the war machine against against iran and at the same time we're seeing you know in the case of venezuela that of course they've been trying to pull venezuela into the picture here because obviously the government of chavez is not a friend of the united states washington has made that very clear obama in fact gave an interview to a venezuelan newspaper just this week and talked about venezuela in a very negative sense and made some pretty meddling comments that provoked a reaction out of caracas and president chavez and and indicated again that washington plans to maintain this kind of tension with venezuela while it tries to attempt to provoke either some kind of regime change in venice well itself or to justify some kind of aggression against venezuela based on all of this pumped up you know accusation against venezuela against iran against cuba that there is some kind of terrorist plot being being prepared against the u.s.

and none of that whatsoever has ever been founded on any kind of real evidence and i want to ask you if the. part of a state sponsor of terrorism as this new part of this axis of evil what are the greater implications of that both political and economic because the u.s. is a major purchase our oil from venezuela so what would the greater implications be of this. well venezuela first of all as a country with the largest oil reserves on the planet and of course it's very close to the united states to major supplier of oil to the united states it owns venezuela owns the citgo gas corporation which is all throughout the united states and additionally has several oil refineries in the united states mainly in texas and louisiana it would have huge implications if the u.s. put venezuela on the list of state sponsors of terror which is an initiative that many right wing republicans in congress have been pushing for for several years now

and what it would do is basically break relations between the two countries right now relations are frozen but commercial relations continue diplomatic relations are frozen but if if commercial relations were to be broken well imagine i mean if today the price of gasoline is over three dollars a gallon it would shoot up at probably over ten dollars a gallon if relations were broken with venezuela because you know it's one of the principal suppliers of of oil and gas to the country and again it would also cause a lot of regional discontent and rest venezuela is not perceived by any other country in this region or around the world as any kind of threat it's only washington that's that's really been trying to portray venezuela in that kind of way well it's interesting to hear how this could have negative economic negative in economic impact on us here in the united states even i wanted to take a moment to listen to what hans blix the former head of the international atomic energy agency had to say about comparing iraq and iran and their potential to

develop nuclear weapons mr blix he led the u.n. weapons inspection team and iraq prior to the war. well there are some similarities in the. escalation of the language and the threats. that we had in the case of iraq and now having case of iran on the other hand we must remember that in the case of iraq they talked about. weapons that in fact did not exists today they are talking about iranian intentions that may or may or may not exist so how would you compare iraq and iran in terms of their capacity to develop nuclear weapons and could we see any rock situation unfolding now and iran. well it certainly couldn't be similar exactly to what happened in iraq i think iran has developed

a much larger defense capacity and again we don't at this stage see any kind of nuclear warhead development nuclear arms development also the iranian government has been very clear that they are pursuing nuclear energy but for peaceful means and that's within their right and it is within their right as it is within the right of any country around the world and i think again we have to look at the hypocrisy on this issue because remember israel is a country that has a substantial amount of nuclear arms and you know it's gone largely overlooked intentionally by countries like the united states even though it's something that also places that region and the world at danger and there are other countries that are actively developing nuclear weapons who are not being targeted by the united states again this is another issue the u.s. is looking to provoke rheem regime change to overthrow an unfriendly government that doesn't serve its interests and that's why it's thrown venezuela sort of into the picture because you know it doesn't washington doesn't like chavez they'd

rather see amount of power if they could just tack him on to some other issue like this one with iran they could just take them all out you know with one military conflict or with one act of aggression i think it's extremely dangerous that the u.s. continues with that kind of policy quickly. lastly i want to ask you with this war rhetoric that we are hearing is that is a policy being abandoned. it seems as though the u.s. government banned the diplomacy long ago i mean look at what happened there earlier this year in the case of libya that was another war that was justified based on falsity is i mean we was a case where they tried to say we're protecting the population the end they ended up killing thousands of libyans and destroying the country with the goal really of assassinating moammar gadhafi and so yes and we've seen in the case of iraq you know there are weapons of mass destruction that never existed i mean using some

kind of issue that could spark. fear mainly in amongst public opinion that would then be used to justify this type of aggression and the u.s. isn't looking in the in the case of an assailant as a major example of that chavez administration has been very open to respectful dialogue with the united states but not the u.s. government looking to impose its agenda on venezuela and that's what we're seeing with the u.s. is not looking to engage respectfully and respecting the sovereignty of other nations it's looking to impose its agenda and if they can't have it that way then they're going to use the military option either thank you so much for weighing in on this that was lawyer and author under. well still ahead on r t occupy wall street protesters claim their movement is being infiltrated by the cia and while the agency is denying any involvement should the cia change its acronym to see why instead that story coming up next.

well as the cia behind the intense occupy wall street crackdown we may never know for sure as the agency is not divulging any information on the subject by law the cia is not allowed to be involved in domestic matters only foreign intelligence issues but after seeing the organized almost military response to the demonstrations throughout the nation some are raising eyebrows as to what is behind the crackdown and who exactly is involved a lot agency d.c. based partnership for civil justice filed a request to the cia to get some answers but their request was denied now this raises many questions and to help me answer them i am joined by varied in hillard executive director of the partnership for civil justice fund welcome era when you were a classmate of this information from the cia under the freedom of information act what response did you get well it's more of a hidden hole your book we had fired of on it happens we filed the partition for

civil justice fund filed a series of freedom of information demands against different government agencies when we saw this quick succession of victims and crackdowns on occupy encampments around the country and the central intelligence agency agency is one of the agencies that we ask that they release records that are in their possession related to the occupy movement in the involvement that they may have now there are a number of responses they could be given but the response they gave us is. extremely disturbing they wrote back saying that they would refuse to process the request basically on the grounds that if the cia had any involvement it would have been illegal for it to have involvement and therefore their records system is not constructed in a way that they could possibly search for their involvement and they refuse to process the request but aren't they by law under the freedom of information act require it to come up with these documents if they have them yes and they could've

written back saying they were conducting a search they could have written back saying they conducted a search and found nothing if there was nothing to find but what is it that they have to hide instead they wrote back they cited their authorizations under the law in the fact that they're not supposed to be engaged in domestic intelligence activity and then responded by saying therefore we won't process your request and that we are incapable of properly searching for any evidence of our committee now i know that this is on the heels of the associated press reports that have come out where they did their own investigative reports into the cia's involvement with the n.y.p.d. and then why p.b. in new york city's been as we know ground zero for occupy wall street now. after their response they're not giving you these documents do you think that they're trying to hide his records if they have them apparently they are trying to hide him i mean why not write back and say that they're conducting the search or that they conducted a search and if they genuinely didn't have anything they didn't have anything but

they wrote back and said they would refuse to process the request so what indication obviously something raised a suspicion where you wanted to get this information what indication are we seeing that the cia was in fact involved in the crackdown at these protests throughout the country well what we have seen is around the country in quick succession there was there were crackdowns in addictions all around the united states we know that there's been coordination because there's been admissions from different government officials that there was coordination among different. mayors offices employees agencies and they discuss talking points and tactics for dealing with the occupy movement and there's a real question as to federal involvement i mean i don't think anyone would credibly suggest that the federal government is not a value even it's not looking at is not considering how to deal with this massive movement taking over the united states and inspiring people worldwide of course they are so we have simply asked the cia and other federal agencies to turn over and make public their documents related to any coordination or involvement they

have had in these crackdowns and that's where the partnership for civil justice fund is trying to obtain right now so if the cia is involved that raises a lot of serious or legal questions because that breaches both the departmental code and national legislation could we talk about the legal implications of this shore while the cia you know has a very ugly history of the united states of domestic surveillance going from certainly throughout the war or the civil rights movement and it was exposed during the cointelpro period in the in the church committee hearings and the cia had operation chaos and other mechanisms where they were directly spying on people in the antiwar movement in the black liberation movement and that conduct is barred by law but as we've seen obviously the u.s. intelligence agencies have really run aggressively wild over people's fundamental rights both in the united states and worldwide in the last decade and we've seen no

effort from the government or this administration to restrain them the fact that the cia is operating in with the n.y.p.d. in new york city raises very significant issues as to whether or not they are currently at this moment in violation of fundamental laws restricting their conduct and we want to know what role they have with the occupy movement now we are dealing with the cia so they so who would be tasked with investigating the cia because obviously they can't investigate themselves so well with that well that. like well this is always a problem women agencies you know then turn to police themselves they're not very successful at it there are one way to do it is what we're doing is for the public to make a demand and for the public and the population to insist that the government make public its records that people have a right to know what the government of the united states is doing and that's the step that we've taken that's the first step to make these demands if we need to go to court to obtain information and to try and get a judicial order for seeing the government to open its records then we well we

don't think that the government of the united states has a right to keep secret books on the people the united states saying you are prepared to take legal action against the cia i guess we are now i understand that you also filed similar request with other agencies yes we have filed requests with the department of homeland security we have filed them with the f.b.i. with the park service and the department of justice as well we're also finally requests all around the united states with local municipalities and police agencies and mary's offices to get information on their coordination as well as they're dealing with the federal law enforcement authorities any response yet from those agencies we are actually getting some documents we expect shortly from the district of columbia and we expect others to also be producing or refusing to produce and if they do we are prepared to take legal action to get this material and really quickly want to ask you what the response that we are seeing from this occupy wall street demonstrations out why the feds would get involved and why we saw such a strong almost military response to the movement well it's true we're seeing

a military paramilitary response from police agencies in the united states and as i said this is a movement that's really inspiring people it's putting front and center of the fundamental injustices in society in the united states and around the world and people are demanding change and that's when change happens when you see huge numbers of people taking to the streets and refusing to take no for an answer the government is really going to have to look at that and decide how they can handle it or if they can handle it because people have demands right now in those demands are not going to go away by. thank you so much for weighing in on this that was mara. he is the executive director of the partnership for civil justice funds thank you so much. well coming up the death toll continues to rise in syria clashes between anti-government protesters and police intensify coming up we'll tell you the one thing neighboring countries and the western world are being asked to do to stop feeling the flames of the potential civil war. into

the only way. to do the work to bring justice or accountability. i have every right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i think taxes. i would characterize obama as a charismatic. american exceptionalism. hard is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us.

we've turned out to the ask leading crisis in syria syria's opposition is divided over whether they need military help from outside to fight against their government this after the country saw some of the fiercest battles in the nine month old crisis dozens of troops and anti regime protesters are reported to have been killed in the latest clashes across the country the arab league is expected to send an advance team within the next few days it's hope this will help and put an end to the conflicts sara furthur is on the ground there to bring us the latest. and advanced team from the arab league is expected to arrive in the country tomorrow that's the head of the observer mission that's expected here at the end of the month and of course that mission can come a moment t.c. really has both sides of the conflict accounts at the death toll rising all the time in the city of homs the other day that's the main opposition city where we see

say much of the fighting breaking out was here with their excess in parts of the city where the fighting is much more concentrated and we went to travel today spas it is the key dangerous but even the polls we were visiting with daily life the struggling on you could hear the sounds of heavy gunfire breaking out across the city the government of course and still maintaining the fighting and militant movement the opposition saying that the government had been operating a crackdown policy on the protesters now i spoke to the foreign ministry spokesman the other day he was saying that what's needed now from outside countries is that no one should be adding fuel to this fire and again he called for dialogue to be pushed in the situation if the outside warrant a neighboring country but he. wants to help sort of get out of the crisis what we need is to help and provide the good offices to push the opposition was seeing

north to say yes to the you know we're going to come out on one thing but to discuss everything that are not there who are you know what are discussion we are afraid of democracy now here in the capital of damascus the cities are may be largely felt safe from the conflict but here at the moment the signs that the economic sanctions that were imposed on the country by the arab league last month taking effect now taking the monkey around to see the deeds of the kicking out there be sure you see that g. today sanctions and power cuts around the city they would complement the full citations would put in place have now become much more frequent and last a fair bit longer as well. that was r t correspondent sara firth reporting from damascus and for the latest on what's happening in syria visit our web site dot com well capital account is up next on our t.v.

let's check in with lauren lister to see what's on the agenda today laura well liz as you well know the holidays are here happy holidays do you think you and santa claus is coming to town the question really is in what form is it in stock market rallies like we saw yesterday well bill gross pointed that out but said hey wait a minute there is a cold winter ahead we're going to look at lives where that winter chill is really going to come from also we know the u.s. politicians they love to use china as a little whipping boy however i have a guest who says hey santa claus is chinese and we are going to talk about why it's going to be a great show you don't want to miss it well that is look forward to that holiday version of the capital account coming up next but that does it for now for more of the stories we covered go to artsy dot com slash usa and check out our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america you can also follow me on twitter as well

the capital account with lauren lyster is up next. culture is that so much i'm afraid we're going to make we need to get a lot of people very unremarkable again one who came to the next kasich of north korea's do you believe her again highlights the acute insecurity on the korean peninsula and beyond. the swiss the plant that was responsible for causing the world's worst industrial disaster and now it had been abandoned in a condition where it had become a source of pollution of the most recent study that was done shows that this water pollution and spread of. food continued to be more than hundred thousand

people in. groups working with the children see the children to be ten times more likely to be born with birth defects in children in the rest of the country. going to see as little as five hundred dollars for lifelong into these. unpunished. down the official auntie obligation to go on the phone on called touch from the. lights on the go. video on demand. old calls and says feed now in the palm of your. questions on the dot com.

good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm lauren lyster here in washington d.c. and as the u.s. gears up for the holiday days we have seen the signs we've seen the christmas tree lighting we've certainly seen the black friday shopping day ham. right ok. so one question remains where is santa claus coming from china well we'll speak with author professor and least she'll make the case and speaking of holiday cheer pimco bon titan bill gross tweeted about stan.