to make ordinary iranians suffer at the same time you see senior american officials and politicians constantly calling for the assassination of iranian scientists of iranian military commanders of politicians and the constant threat of attacking and bombing the country so really the problem lies with the united states the maneuvers in the persian gulf are basically to show the united states that iran is strong and can protect themselves and it is basically the only way in which to force the united states to recognize that certain lines just simply shouldn't be crossed if the americans and its allies try to make the iranian economy suffocate the iranians will have no option but to respond in a sea of severe manner this is a region where an extraordinarily large amount of oil and gas. goes through and if

there is insecurity in the region it's not just the strait of hormuz if there is a conflict in the persian gulf tankers who will be at risk that oil installations will be at risk war as hell and this instability will go beyond the persian gulf it will i think of oil exports and gas exports will be at risk in central asia and throughout the middle east and there will be a lot of backlash from the public throughout the region. well as a showdown in the gulf brews we're asking what you think you know states wants to get from a conflict with iran just log on to r.t. dot com and let us know your opinion so far almost a half of you believe in there because of the dominance in the middle east of a quarter respondents say the u.s. is interested in the water cripple china's new material imports nineteen percent say washington is only interested in ensuring israel's security and just a few if you think a conflict with iran would be a boost for american arms exports were pinioned. go to r.t. dot com and have your say. well civil rights groups have criticised the presence of

bomber of a controversial defense bill he's authorized the military to indefinitely detain terror suspects without charge or trial unprecedented in u.s. history bamma said he had serious concerns about parts of the law and its pledge that would be applied in full to americans the rights advocates of describing the bill is a blight on his legacy comes as the chorus going ton of bay prison remains open despite the president's prediction about to shut it down by the beginning of the twenty ted surf landers from the international action center says the new bill violates basic democratic rights the u.s. claims to fight for around the world. there is this threat massed attention without trial without charges being held by the u.s. military who previously could not legally operate within the u.s. only around the world the u.s.

says that they're speaking for democracy around the world for human rights around the world well really the u.s. borders are a form of absolute terror there's no other way of explaining secret rendition torture kidnapping targeted assassination drone attacks on countries which the u.s. is not even in a declared war this is coming at a time of new struggles here in the u.s. at a time when there has been a mass movement the occupy wall street movement in more than a hundred cities across the country and every one of those occupy movements were shut down illegally by the police both president obama has violated the very places he made to shut down guantanamo to expand and open the rights here and that you have an even more reactionary thing pledging more wars expanded agenda of broad and against the rights of working people right here. and all this is in

a time of great economic crisis and arj for millions of people right here a huge how to list meltdown of the economy rising unemployment and homelessness and new struggles the arab league says the syrian government has withdrawn heavy weapons from cities across the country and freed about three hundred thousand prisoners but all we know is ation says that security forces are still shooting at protesters and has demanded they stop immediately at least one hundred fifty people have been killed since i'll be observers arrived last tuesday their mission is to broker a peace plan for the country for estimates more than five thousand of them killed by state forces in on the rest since march last month the lustrous agreed to end its crackdown on anti-government groups takes a position on these prisoners patrick kennedy said the website for glasgow

thinks however that the unrest is also being manipulated western culture is an ally's backing insurgent groups to get regime change. so-called human rights reports are definitely skewed in favor of whatever the current western policies coming out of the us or london and paris and what they would like to see happen in syria which is many. people in the u.s. state department and the u.k. foreign office and the un want to frame this argument is that assad is having a crackdown on dissidents these are not dissidents these are in some cases armed insurgent and they're being backed in a material way by the u.s. and by some of these countries who actually are in the league could talk are also has an interest in regime change in this country libya has sent al-qaeda fighters

under the command of their tripoli governor to go and fight in syria this contravenes all united name and laws ok and if the u.s. is actively involved in supporting this then they are culpable in international court. still to come this hour barking at ten years of the euro. they can't bring themselves to admit that it was a mistake and so i'm afraid we risk the very thing they purport to fear which is a disorderly breakup of the euro caused by having tried to keep it together for too long the route is often jubilant for millions of era peers who enter twenty twelve of the currency that's failed to live up to expectations as bleak prospects ahead. and israeli secrets may soon become rather more public because turkey plans to launch a brand new satellite soon even taking pictures of the points new want to see. or some other world news in brief for you down in first to south sudan where the

u.n. has advised villages to leave from advancing fighters or rival tribes turn of people in the center of the clashes on saturday when they were forced from their homes as a local hospital and several other buildings were set on fire government says deploying police officers and troops to the town the look to bring the conflict on the control around a thousand people have died in clashes over the past few months spot by cattle raids. police in bahrain have clashed with hundreds of demonstrators after flew over a fifteen year old protest over a gray area the opposition claims a teenager was hit by a tear gas canister close range over the authorities did later raise questions about the circumstances of the day and said it would investigate at least thirty five people were left dead in the bahraini unrest during twenty nineteen klink police officers killed as protesters attacked security forces. south korea's president is offering the north's new leader kim jong il new talks if

he agrees to suspend its leader said in a new year's speech that the korean peninsula is at a turning point you want to get to future provocation from the north korea walked out of new. talks in two thousand and eight after objecting to the south request to inspect its atomic facilities the comments come just after kim jong un was named ruling party leader for the death of his father in december. the third and final round of elections for the lower house of parliament kicks off in egypt on tuesday and it's for more than forty parties or proceeds even though the country remains under military literalist parties are expected to win a majority. muslim brotherhood freedom and justice party from previous two rounds sixty percent of its elections are the first since the uprising that ousted president hosni mubarak from three decades ago. he faces charges of killing more

than eight hundred protesters revolution. and the us authorities have arrested a man suspected wave of awesome attacks. since last friday the suspect has allegedly set fifty vehicles on fire races and. buildings in and around hollywood the fires have caused two million dollars in damage. no new year's celebrations for many people in the euro zone were reined in due to the tough current economic climate many predicting for the financial misery twenty twelve will see a severe test for the euro as it fights for survival a single currency is now in circulation for decades but it leaves millions of europeans anything but optimistic as artie's reports.

the birth of an ambitious project a common currency celebrated with the less than big bang. theory the beginning of the strong europe there you know. very severe war that very few. here ten years down the road the euro is not in the best of shape. a spiralling sovereign debt crisis credit downgrades rising interest rates tens of millions unemployed budget cuts and violent protests. the euro is growing undergoing the worst crisis it has ever been and obviously the founders of the of the euro did not hope that this would happen for what began as a step towards a united europe has become a race against time with the leaders scrambling to keep it together. euro skeptics

have long argued that the euro was flawed from the start pursuing a political dream above all else well they say lumping together polar opposite economies like that of greece and germany into a monetary union could never work. rationality has been thrown out of the window in their pursuit of this goal and when they are reaping the consequences of a couple that with internal squabbles and deadlocks there has to be from somewhere that some economic entity that is credible is going to back every euro zone and there are only two or three entities that can do that what is european central bank. the other is basically the german government and neither of them right now are willing to do it but this exhibit shows the journey of the european union and the creation of the single currency with documented events in history that explain why it would have been appealing to decision makers at the time so much so the crux of the fundamentals may have been overlooked or ignored which brings us to this

point ten years after the creation of the euro its appeal has waned and despite last ditch efforts to save it its future is still uncertain in the spirit of the new year we asked for some predictions but one can be sure of is that this crisis is going to be a long and bumpy road however if you would ask me do you think that the euro would still exist in ten years time my answer would be yes they can't bring themselves to admit that it was a mistake and so i'm afraid we risk the very thing they purport to fear which is a disorderly breakup of the euro caused by having tried to keep it together for too long downgrades almost certainly i think you'll see a french downgrade i still think this is solvable if the political will is shown in certain member states to allow for what is called solidarity in europe and if not if not we are in for a huge huge recession in europe simply my prediction that at least greece will

leave the euro in the next year and what happens beyond that is unpredictable euro watchers may have divergent views of the single currencies future but it seems whichever way the euro goes it won't be painless does or cilia r.t. brussels. for more news and analysis always available online at r.t. dot com has some of what's lined up for you this out to discover more about the leading lights of the bolshoi theater and as the father of the not crack up who celebrated his eighty fifth birthday today. also find out more about the first newspaper ever printed in russia which was created on the order of peter the great this day three centuries ago we thought about it at r.t. dot com and then forget you can watch our best videos allow you to try. to.

download the official altie application to your phone oh i pod touch from the top story. on the go. video on demand tease my old girls and street now in the palm of your. question on the dot com. now the modern world of satellite imaging isn't only able to give us a glimpse into most parts of the globe until now israel has been protected from closeup images but a new turkish satellite will soon put an end to the country's zoom in back of the

turks prepare to launch their high tech satellite israel fair is being watched and is worried about its security. their reports. israel's leaders are worried and they've good reason to be in just a matter of months they'll be nothing stopping satellite companies from getting up close and personal. who. think you'll do things. to enable me to. lose. until now only the americans had the technology capable of taking images greater than two meters per pixel resolution and american law stopped us companies from distribution the pictures the americans very sensitive security bureau and scrutiny that plays along with it which means even with google earth one can zoom into israel but only so far look at specific parts of israel many of them

will come out of them any other place in the world that i've checked but that's about to change turkey is putting the finishing touches to a military satellite it plans to launch within the next two years the gawked took satellite will be capable of taking the very pictures tel aviv doesn't want distributed and there are no american star legal qualms in turkey about upsetting its photosensitive neighbor to people sold directly or invaded for some of these injury you know was off israel and that's the fear here especially because tensions between tel aviv a day and who are are at an all time low and eight footer attempt on gaza two years ago that left nine two x. did and his expulsion of the israeli ambassador has tel aviv nervously weighing its options the irony is that it was not so long ago that the gawked took satellite would have spelled good news for israel the two countries cooperated extensively often sharing military intelligence but whereas turkey was once israel's of closest

ally in the muslim world today it is ankara that is asserting itself without a television as a powerful player in the region to his trying to really not to be granted the special. server. used to have a saying in the military and ignored the playground of. different countries everyone should abide the same laws should have the same standards one satellite is barely enough to put israel's picture shy world in a spin but this is not a country that wants its neighbors knowing its business especially with an arab world in flux and israel fast losing former friends policy r t the veil on israel. one of the first promises made by president obama way first came to power back in two thousand and eight was to close the controversial guantanamo bay detention center four years later it's still there now are to talk to the sentence former chief prosecutor commissions and speaks of his huge disappointment.

we're sitting down with morris davis a man of a very interesting career he was the chief prosecutor for the military tribunals. in two thousand and seven he resigned over his objection to the use of evidence obtained by torture and to what he saw as growing political interference in those military tribunals now he says although president obama promised to shut down guantanamo he doesn't have the using colonel davis his own terms the balls to do

that colonel davis could you clarify that latest statement for us or he was elected i was thrilled you know that he took office the first thing he did was sign an order. closing guantanamo within one year of his order which was signed in january of two thousand and nine and we're sitting here today. most still open the military commissions have resumed. in my view the president just didn't have the balls to follow through with doing the right thing do you think it's because when he became president he would learn things that he had known before he learned things that he didn't know before or he faced a bigger obstacle than he anticipated. you know saying you know the slogan close guantanamo sounds fairly simple actually following through and doing it is a much more difficult process you know they're saying the reason we're not shutting down guantanamo is because we don't know what to do with him. paining detainee

other countries don't want to have them well you know we haven't helped ourselves in that front of the weaker is for instance the chinese muslims that were cleared years ago is not being a threat to the us we beg two dozen countries to help us out they're not a threat take the weavers. and a few did a few countries did a couple of years ago a judge here in washington d.c. ordered the weavers released and brought to the us and suddenly our government said oh no they're too dangerous we can't have them in the u.s. while we begged other countries to help us out and take some of the detainees we've never been willing to take one or so so we're a little hypocritical on that front colonel davis you were the chief prosecutor at guantanamo i want to know how did you go from being an advocate of the process to being a hardline critic of the practices i took the job as chief prosecutor in september of two thousand and five and i believed at the time and did for most of my tenure that we were committed to having full fair and open trials my policy had been we

were not going to use any evidence obtained by waterboarding or any of the other enhanced interrogation techniques that most people call torture and i had support above me for doing that then in the summer of two thousand and seven some new people came in and said wait a minute president bush said we don't torture so president bush says we don't torture who are you to say that we do and we've got all this information that was collected that you're not using you need to get in there and use it and that was when i felt the our commitment to full fair and open trials had diminished and i submitted my resignation what would you say to those who claim the difference between president obama and president bush as far as their anti-terrorism policy is bush would tell the suspects torture them prosecute them president obama just kills them doesn't have to go into all that detention trouble let's certainly i think there are some facts to say. that perception. said candidate

obama said all the right things about justice and american values and closing guantanamo and doing away with military commissions and upholding the rule of law and then once he gets in office you know he didn't just embrace the bush policies he kissed him on the lips and ran with them and his advanced them further than president bush ever did by killing an american with a drone strike in yemen. correct which is just. astounding that an american president can make the unilateral decision but an american citizen for an american president to make the unilateral decision that a civilian agency the cia. would go to another country and launch an military operation fire a missile and kill american and bystanders it would just anwar all the walkie that was killed or four people killed that day. i'm not aware of any legal justification for that i think it's called murder to kill another human being deliberately

without legal justification are drones becoming the new arm of the us justice you know there's nothing wrong with per se with drones i mean just another weapon system is basically an airplane with a pilot sitting in a in a lounge chair rather than the cockpit it's how they're used to that concerns me. if they're being used to avoid. complying with the law and giving people due process and their day in court and that's a sad chapter in america's history if that's what we're doing. you know we've always our strength for two hundred years was the law not turning our back on it's you know it's great when we're the country that has the drones it may not be quite as great when other countries have that same capability that are used against us and. crossing another border launching an office of attack often conducted by the cia which is a civilian. agency they you know they're not they're not the military they don't

have combatant immunity and put it for the president to send them out to conduct military operations. it's just unprecedented on a different president obama during his next presidential campaign again promises to shut down guantanamo and says well this time yes we will and yes we can would you believe and i believe president obama the first time he told me he was going to close guantanamo i had recently retired from the military when he was running for president and for the first time in my adult life i got to participate in a campaign you know the military stays out of politics. but in the. campaign i went door to door campaigning for him somebody came in my yard on fire and i put up another one so i believed in the hope and change that he promised you know what you're saying reminds me someone wisely said it's useless to hold the person to anything he says while he is in love. or running for office

or all three at the same time even worse. you know i've seen his lips move before and say the right words i'll believe it when i see it thanks for the. news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images seeing from the streets of canada.

roger clinton goes down. squandered money. abandoning move. what is now. more new sixty square kilometers an environmental devastation and those who are still surprisingly online i'm finding are just. it's getting bad out here. but i'm not saying hardly any birds squirrels you know. darts you know i don't know what's going on here. concrete monarchy. the close up team has been to stop first place to the most ambitious football club in the world. now argy goes to the far east where the timber industry affects the legendary siberian tigers where the

ancient native community loses its way in the modern world. and where the country's mental well starts its way across the ocean. comes to the hamas creature russia blows up.

it watching headlines for. tests was long range missiles during naval drills in the persian gulf and says it's prepared to hit back time becomes as western to impose sanctions targeting its sectors of tehran threatens to keep oil supply route. in the us the president authorizes a terrorist suspects charged. with defense. supplying his legacy. plus the conflict in syria takes a new twist. say the regime forces back. strong holds.

warns that still snipers firing on protesters. those are the headlines up next valen his guests predict what's in store for the world in twenty twelve stay with us crosstalk is next. and. welcome to. what does the year two thousand and twelve hold for the world. the year before.