around the clock around the world this is r.t. live in moscow at least twenty seven people have reportedly been killed by security forces across syria on wednesday it's been confirmed that a french television journalist died in a rocket explosion the first time a foreign reporter has been killed in syria since the uprising began in march this bashar al assad has spoken to supporters in damascus for the second time in twenty four hours reiterating his dismissal of calls to step down and this is the feel and has the latest now from the syrian capital. some reports the figures that hundreds of thousands of people who attended in the us or at least many tens of thousands of people there and of course. addressed the crowd amongst the people there was a huge surge forward of the people towards the president in his speech he mentioned that he very much wanted to be amongst the people and there were many young people

that there was a large mix of different ethnic and religious backgrounds of course the syrian government has been accused by media organizations and others being unfair regime because it is led by. a religious minority inside syria. and today there were many different religious and ethnic groups of people represented including so means kristie. meaning many different people so that there was really an impressive actually show of unity amongst the syrian people from all different walks of life one of the five things that people seem very keen to express here is that outrage in particular. who they accuse of fabricating news reports of what is happening inside the country and they also express a lot of anger towards the u.s.

president barack obama for president sarkozy who they accused of supporting the stabilization of their country and in contrast they see the countries such as russia have been much more neutral during this conflict condemning all five for any violence. professor of international relations more calm and told me earlier that he thinks there's clearly a foreign desire to intervene in syria which means the regime supporters are choosing the lesser of two evils boy sticking with. but the problem for president assad is that the main centers of resistance to him are based around the borders and that also however is a sign of the limitations on the support for an armed insurrection against him that it really depends upon getting money weapons and even perhaps personnel across the border from lebanon and turkey and to some extent from jordan so we have a kind of standoff president assad has lost the support of the armed opposition her support we don't really know what ordinary people feel but i think one of the

themes of president assad is trying to do is to say do you want to see debian style civil war and chaos or would you or to see this or that happened in iraq a few years ago and that's quite a powerful argument for people not necessary to be diehard supporters and certainly not to want to see themselves die in a brutal civil conflict that could spiral out of control. still ahead here in r.t. scouting for suspects buffington most of you who are stereotyping the stereotype that is the matrix and what a lot of fun with it just for you know we're just about to see what it was. why police in britain are under fire for stopping and searching you tube they deemed suspicious. but also still to come this hour all eyes are on the u.s. in israel after a car bomb kills one of the brightest minds in iran's nuclear industry. a story still to come but first today marks ten years since the first prisoners were sent

to america's most notorious prison in cuba one time obeying and after a decade the detention center remains on the wrong side of the law with its harsh interrogation process is an alleged use of torture barack obama promised to close it but instead the president has now signed a new law authorizing the indefinite detention of terror suspects christine for zell has this report from this is me. repeatedly but i'm going to close guantanamo and i will follow through on that promise is broken it is it mr. policy to try to close guantanamo we have certainly run into opposition the problem is he doesn't have a plan to do that or at least what to do with terror suspects they are suspects like moroc or not captured in pakistan in two thousand and one while working for an ngo that helps young people get off drugs he was sent to guantanamo and tortured for five years. after i had seen a couple things got a couple couple of people got killed in front of me some of them got just keep on

his head through until he died and so the other one he was hanging on saying until he was forced to confess he was a member of al qaeda and he told them time and time again he was not it was freezing call it was during winter. and i had no clothes on so i was hanging there for many days when the interrogator came he pulled me back down and he going to sign on every time when i said no he just made like this and. it's stories like this that draw fears condemnation even from within north america when one of the most powerful that we're democracies is behaving with promoting you know illegal practices and abusing human rights that undermines the cause of human rights everywhere on the planet it is this hypocrisy that others say leads us enemies to more action not less i think the number one recruiting tool for zawahiri and bin

laden before he was killed was gone tara and colonel morris davis former prosecutor add one ton of obey resigned after being ordered to use information obtained during torture he said he was hopeful things would change under president obama he didn't just embrace the bush policies he kissed him on the lips and ran with them many believe the prospect of closing guantanamo bay will now be much more difficult thanks to the passage of the national defense authorization act by congress it was signed into law by president obama on december third. the first now within our bill provisions that allow the military to indefinitely detain anyone it considers to be a terrorism suspect without charge or trial and with this increased leniency no doubt increased space to hold those prisoners will be needed but the end clearly you know is a major roadblock in this passage really was the death knell for attempts to close guantanamo and i think we're stuck with president obama will forever be known as the president who signed indefinite detention without charge or trial into law even

applying it to american citizens no person and military uniform ever volunteer the rooms are less than to the military for the purpose of taking action against american service it's to protect american citizens protecting american citizens the reason given for guantanamo bay in the first place but ten years later it is having the opposite effect still the ones temporary solution now looking more and more like a permanent fixture in washington christine for sound r t. let's now get some more reaction from human rights watch counterterrorism council. she is in the u.s. capitol so it remains open despite obama's pledge to shut it down but many would argue that it is at least justified having that prison outside the u.s. where dangerous terror suspects can be kept back i mean what other options are there in fighting terror want to know is

a symbol of lawlessness and i don't think lawlessness is ever an option there are very good options very effective options for fighting terrorism and that includes prosecuting people in u.s. federal courts in the last ten years the u.s. federal courts have prosecuted over four hundred terrorism suspects in that in that same time in guantanamo only six people have been prosecuted so therefore why is the civilian justice system seen as being ineffective to deal with terror suspects in the states. i think some of it is politics i think that there is a fear that terrorism suspects inside the us will generate some sort of terrorist activity but in fact the numbers make clear hundreds of terrorism suspects are arrested and tried in the u.s. all the time so there isn't any increased risk and i think that people are afraid of the legal system when in fact the legal system is what keeps us safe. aside from the legal treatment that the cases where there's

a military or civilian case against a suspect a terrorist suspect what about the way they're being treated at the moment in guantanamo many would say the policy is actually made a number of achievements the ousting of saddam hussein the killing of bin laden didn't the interrogation interrogation of suspects while being detained actually helped bring about some of those successes there's absolutely no evidence of that as soon as a lot of those killed a number of people claim that evidence for his location was obtained by waterboarding but that's been completely debunked it's simply not true when you obtain information through harsh interrogation techniques or through torture very very often it's completely false and even if some of it is accurate it wastes an incredible amount of time and resources as people try to track down that information and find out whether it's accurate safe lawful humane interrogation techniques are what actually work. looks as if it's here to stay for a while you being from human rights watch your expertise on this matter do you

think that all the public scrutiny and the international criticism and of course the domestic criticism do you think there will be anything different in the way detainees will be handled in the future there. well what we hope is that one tunnel will close and it is clear that it is not about to close any time soon the u.s. congress has made it very difficult the president signed into law the restrictions that make it very difficult nevertheless guantanamo remains a national security threat it provides terrorist recruiters with the opportunity to proclaim that the u.s. is is an entity that people should be upset about that should be attacked of course that's not true but as long as guantanamo remains open remains a symbol of lawlessness it is imperative that it close and i do think that the president has the tools to work towards closure even now and in the future and just very briefly the u.s. is reputation on human rights on this just in what way will there be an impact on its reputation his image from the us and for example in the future just very

briefly i think there's a huge impact u.s. allies have said they will not provide information to be used against detainees who would be prosecuted in guantanamo whereas they will if they will be prosecuted in u.s. federal courts the continued existence of guantanamo really harms the u.s. reputation and its ability to protect its citizens andrea thanks so much your thoughts and your process live in washington. well one of iran's top nuclear scientists has been killed in a car bombing in the capital tehran stuffer amid the russian reportedly supervised a department at the iranian enrichment plant your thought is a pointed the finger at israel and the us the bomber ministration is denying any role in the death of the russian is the fourth atomic scientist to be killed in iran since two thousand and ten almost two years ago another physicist linked to the country's nuclear program died in a similar explosion tensions between iran and the west are growing rapidly as the

us is already slapped around with more financial and oil sanctions and the e.u. plans to follow suit russia road europe not to aggravate the situation by following in america's footsteps let's talk more now on this with eric margolis is a want columnist who's in toronto canada where the white house says it had absolutely nothing to do with this eric the killing but iran is still blaming the u.s. and israel is that a fair accusation well. i think it is. the likely culprits either israel or did the killing. and the united states certainly didn't condemn israel for doing it. it's a major financial so it was real well you know this is gives us a sense of deja vu because back six the. egypt was trying to blow up a series of medium range missiles with german and austrian sciences and

the. campaign in neighboring. egypt and in europe there was quite successful kill the number and spirit of where the wrists ok but was it's except well well lists particular campaign of assassinating scientists will list actually affect the country's nuclear program clearly there is an intent to derail it will it work. but it will it may slow things down because of the death of key personnel but it won't end them because iran is a big country as a large country of sciences it will continue the work i'm surprised in fact that these attacks have not invited reigning in retaliation against these suspects it is certainly an international crime violence and an international. issue has not been raised to the u.n. security council which it should be because it's not always legal but sending

viruses such as was done to iran to stocks that virus could have sabotaged of the injured nuclear installation and brought an explosion or contamination police of nuclear materials i would contend that it large to large areas surprise no retaliation you say if there is retaliation what form could it take obviously we've seen. the. tensions in the strain of the whole movie straight but we're television could take another form couldn't after particularly this assassination of well it could be could be directed against this really or american scientific personality. that's in the region and i think the iranians are just very anxious to get revenge but they're being cautious now because as you mentioned more or it seems not so far away in the gulf of merican forces and massing and there are a growing threats of war against iran do you really believe all this rhetoric could

lead to conflict where i do it's not absolute by any means the united states is not eager to go to war against iran but is beating us government the obama administration pushed pushed very hard by us congress unanimously behind the work which show it will not be financed by raising taxes well anyway. pentagon i know from talking to them not actions from one of their scripts then they're. going to want another war. because once you're on your run it's challenging and now it's almost defying the us to do something in can be shown up. just briefly to iran challenging the us but do you believe that iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapon just finally. i don't watch it was a long time i believe iraq distracted to build up its technology to be able to make

a nuclear weapon if it has to or will not go to the stage of actually producing nuclear well it's always good to talk to eric eric margolis what correspondent columnist lived there in toronto in canada thanks for your thoughts actually. british police have been accused of crossing the line when it comes up holding law and order by stopping and searching people they deem in any way suspicious those are most often considered to be up to no good by authorities believe there's one reason behind it and that is skin color parties either but. this is supposed to prevent terrorism police in britain have free rein to stop and search anyone they deem suspicious but what constitutes suspicious is hugely controversial no stopped a young black men and police still can't escape accusations of racism even from inside parliament. police will argue that it's because the people are typically looking for comfort sick social economic backgrounds that starts to look very much

like racial profiling it's certainly true that these people are often massively disproportionately stopped all the boys at this youth club in north london have been stopped and searched some on several occasions all for being in the wrong place at the wrong time and they say for having the wrong skin color. or stop because they were not topical. was when they stopped us to explain is. this terrible because big news in recent attacks attacks to say that there was this big issue stopping the car. and the reality was the kid. who was in the car i think it was mostly the stereotyping or stereotype but if he made track change but a lot of politicking going on with that just for you know well it just opens out and it was the way it was stabbings a frequent in this part of london carte blanche for police to stop and search whoever they want they can be in public sometimes physical poorly explained and

often humiliating some brass in those in the middle of the streets or from the person. they were passed just because of the bus. or whatever or when the law came into force in two thousand and one police didn't even need a reason to stop and search europe finally ruled this illegal early last year forcing concessions from the government since then stop and searches have decreased by ninety percent but the problem still exists in theory there are strict limitations to stop and search the power is going to be used in a specific area fourteen days before he was twenty eight but in practice all that means nothing the powers can simply be renewed on expired which is why the whole of london has been a stop and search zone for the last ten years police now don't even need to record the suspect. name any injury they suffer all the outcome of a search the government says it'll reduce paperwork but it leaves it wide open for

a peek targeting and physical abuse kyle runs the youth center to use been stopped repeatedly suspects are entitled to a receipt but few know this and kyle says police are often reluctant to make any record but most often search it's. kind of crime refuse to give to sleep. and they say i've heard excuses we don't have no we have to go to the station to get and if i still start to argue the case someone i don't know bad enough to give me a form in the end of it but if you do target young people police used to have similar powers in the one nine hundred eighty s. but they were scrapped after racial targeting provoked massive riots some saw the august riots as history repeating itself but one of the things of course it was a nice thing about the place to. stop and. an instance of a place certainly institutionally against young people and the probably

institutionally racist as well. eighty five percent of writers cited anger of police as their reason for violence in a recent study by the guardian newspaper a fact the government can no longer ignore it's prompted home secretary theresa may to launch a review of how stop and search powers a used car when it r.t. london. now to me is making headlines around the world first to nigeria and the government has warned that the nation's fuel supply could lead to anarchy as demonstrations went on for a third day nine people have been killed since monday what has become the longest nationwide strike in nigeria's history it comes after the government ended a popular fuel subsidy leading to an increase in gas and transportation costs throughout nation unions about to keep up the indefinite strike until the subsidy is restored. and us occupy wall street protesters have moved back into. new york's zuccotti park after barricades were lifted this comes after civil liberties groups sent letters to the city say the barriers broke zoning laws the blockades were put

in place after demonstrators were evicted from the area two months ago will supply movement has been marred by accusations of police brutality since it began last september. the turning prime minister mario monti says his country no longer poses a threat of contagion to the rest of the euro zone painful but vital reforms. the german chancellor angela merkel praised italy's efforts in imposing austerity measures to avert a disaster monti warned of protests breaking out in italy if its reforms are not acknowledge successful has agreed on a new tax on financial transactions pushed by merkel but only if it's applied to the entire european union this comes as the struggle to contain its debt crisis with many states believed to be back in recession so that brings up to date for the moment i'll be back with headlines for you in about ten minutes from now in the meantime marty talks to the former chief prosecutor at guantanamo colonel morris davis who shed light on some of the methods used at the cuban base camp and

explains why he resigned stay with us for that. you're. sitting down with morris davis a man of a very interesting career he was the chief prosecutor for the military tribunals of one tunnel bay 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 about the latest statement where i'm sure 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 and one time a most still open the military commissions have resumed and in my view the president just didn't have the balls to follow through with doing the right thing in 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 the remaining detainees other countries don't want to have them well you know we haven't helped ourselves in that front of the wiggers for instance the chinese muslims that were cleared years ago is not being a threat to the u.s.

we beg two dozen countries to help us out they're not a threat. weekers and 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. so 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 hard lying 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 that 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 did telling the suspects torture them prosecute them president obama just kills them doesn't have to go into all that detention trouble less certainly i think there's some. facts to support that perception. is that candidate obama you know 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 has

advanced them for. other than president bush ever did like killing an american with a drone strike in yemen the bonior. correct which is just astounding that an american president can make the unilateral decision that an american saying it was a really bad guy he deserved it bad guys need to die there are a lot of other people i could put on that list 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 op eds a 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 u.s. justice and there's nothing wrong with it 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 so if we're if the administration is choosing it if it has a choice between kill or capture and they're choosing kill just because that's the easy route and that's a sad commentary on america in two thousand and eleven thanks for the interview sir .

if they shoot something inappropriate for public they can easily be shot by. casualties of war ok. i wish he would have never happened but it has. been a war a t.v. camera becomes an unnecessary what destroys their own safety all foreign nationals including journalists and inspectors should leave. and it's clear what happens with such witnesses i got on my site. many checks. her says shooting on r t.

if. someone from finest impression is. for instance on t.v. dot com. good to have you with us this is the live in moscow top stories now the syrian president claims he's still in control and will soon crush what he's branded a foreign funded insurgency but international pressure on bashar al assad to step down is mounting as more civilian deaths are reported across the country. and ten years on in america's infamous prison guantanamo bay is still open with many inmates alleging abuse and torture that now debate rages over whether barack obama's new detention or to hold people indefinitely without trial or charge would ensure the center remains in.