losing its top status. this is a huge issue. that we can do. something pretty profound showing u.s. marines desecrating afghan bodies sparked fears it's actually helping terrorists groups new members. you're watching artie's weekly news review welcome to the program now tensions between iran and the united states increased dramatically this week tehran blames the west for orchestrating the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists on wednesday america is also pushing hard for an oil export embargo on iran and its nuclear program the terror round threatening to block a vital maritime trade route in response is going to chicken has the story. the cold run of tension between iran and the west is simmering. it seems the slightest

the increase of heat could make it boil over into an all out confrontation. but where will be that boiling point the point of no return we're getting closer and closer to war with iran the iranians are playing with fire problems in a crisis if you get where any small thing can really set it off and it doesn't quote washington that the international nuclear watchdog is on site closely monitoring iran's nuclear activities are they trying to develop a nuclear weapon no but we know that they're trying to develop a nuclear capability and that's what concerns us and our red line to iran is do not develop a nuclear weapon iran's main source of livelihood is oil export is in danger the u.s. is imposing fresh sanctions that will dramatically complicate transactions through iran's central bank iran is also close to losing europe as

a customer the reason that this is happening is that this is the logical conclusion of our current strategy against iran we have sanctions in place with no diplomacy the only way that that and is through confrontation cornered by crippling sanctions iran threatens to block the strait of hormuz a vital oil artery through which a sixth of the world's oil is shipped the u.s. replied by moving its fifth fleet to the region and saying if iran goes for it they will attack experts say the policy of isolating iran may lead to other threats from tehran and the possibility that one day they will go through with their threats but washington signals that it's ready or it wants everybody to believe that it's ready could weigh if we had to without using nuclear weapons ourselves take out their their nuclear capability well i certainly want them to believe that that's the case well is that i absolutely want them to believe that that secretary would you add anything to that some believe. it's just a war of words and neither side will go for an all out conflict considering what it

is that it will be for the whole region frankly speaking this tension is artificial it doesn't have to happen it doesn't need to exist the iranians would do themselves an enormous favor by saying less. and we would do ourselves a favor by ignoring most of it all of this i sadly i think is connected to israel and the israeli fear of iran for rhetorical reasons more than military ones it may be a war of words but actions are already showing thousands of u.s. troops are being deployed to israel an american citizen has been sentenced to death in iran's convicted of espionage iran might feel cornered and therefore make drastic moves right now it's in a war of words but one bullet shot and the powder keg can blow up the question is what's going to provide that deadly spark i'm going to check our reporting from

washington our team. well another country under increasing international pressure is syria with qatar's ruler proposing sending arab troops to the country to stop the violence there shake. me is the first leader of the country to call for military intervention qatar which is a u.s. ally has been one of the strongest advocates of regime change across the arab world despite being a monarchy itself international affairs consultant told r.t. that arab countries doctrine syria. is critical. now south is clearly not what you would call a democratic leader but within the context he should be not the worst country around my dad i believe he's doing i mean the arab league represent a factory in the united arab emirates saudi arabia. there are few do monarchies and they are not the ones that should point a finger and whether there is an international conspiracy where there are elements

that point out to me is part of it i think it's more complex than just that there is also genuine popular revolt but it is absolutely sure that there are elements from outside who are taking abusing whatever there is living among the syrian people for their own purposes that is absolutely. for turkey also stepped up pressure on its neighbor at the beginning of the week. takes a look now at why syria's one time is now advocating sending troops. with the bloody status quo in the syrian crisis maintained for months he is a growing and firelands may start spreading beyond the country's borders especially with his close neighbor turkey once a close friend too but now a harsh critic of damascus on. syria's first priority should be to listen to its people and meet their demands not to denounce others instead of massacring its

people we should listen to them. so glitter glue is a harsh critic himself but he's criticizing the turkish government and korea is on the side with the free syrian army and the syrian national council and military and diplomatic forces aimed and overthrowing the regime of bashar al assad it supports a buffer zone and a humanitarian corridor which some fear could bring turkish troops to syrian soil what does that mean according to international law it means aggression against a country it means war but any intervention would be different from the one in libya since russia and china have made it clear no more no fly zone resolutions which means the role of regional players like turkey increases dramatically but for new claims and korea's behavior is irresponsible and risky it has larger implications beyond the context of turkey syria as such the situation in

syria must be handled with great care by all powers and unfortunately i don't see that. especially the part of our government or hand works with a middle eastern studies center based in and kyra it's sponsored by the turkish foreign ministry to help shape policy and its opinion on syria it's clear syria is killing their own people. not always that's clear nobody has objectively information what is going on in syria the center specialists haven't been to syria for over here it means the picture they paint for officials in ankara is unlikely to be an accurate one the technology changing you know when you look at the photographs or the videos coming from these governorates you can easily see that there is something going on but the sources of these videos are often questionable so it's easy to be misled and get

a false picture of what's really happening but there does. it's to researchers from coming to firm conclusions military operations this is the last option which turkey does not want to see but this is an option that may have declared it doesn't welcome a military solution to the syrian crisis but turkey hasn't ruled it out either plain and if if the reason massive migration from its troubled neighbor turkey says it will have to protect its own people and fish really and cry and cease it wants peace and stability in the region its troops are already just kilometers from the border with syria. turkey. but on r.t. later we hear from jean shop the author of dictatorship to democracy described by some as the blueprint for nonviolent revolutions but coming up this hour we ask him whether his concept actually lives up to reality. as they move to a civil war foreign intervention in syria many many many more were there it's

pretty clear that the syrian opposition absolutely refuses to talk to the government don't you think it deepens the crisis adds to the violence do you go with the ship you have to throw it out but that situation basically rules out nonviolent struggle that you were talking about it provokes while it is causing the regime. used violence maybe. so people should be dying in the name of revolution is that what you're saying you seem to have believed. the only means are powerful quick to the country or no i just see a bloody mess instead of the ideal makes nonviolence surge that you're writing about in the book. europe's debt management got a cold shower from a major ratings agency this week essentially being told that the austerity they're

imposing on people isn't working standard and poor's lowered nine countries scores france and austria to their top or aaa status the action around the euro zone has been mixed with some expressing disbelief others like jenny's foreign minister calling for europe to have its own ratings agency. there is a long road ahead when it comes to rebuilding besta confidence there's now a nervous wait to see how world stock markets will respond one day john laughlin for democracy in cooperation. says europe's leaders have become accustomed to blame eight hundred agencies for their troubles. downgrading shows that those strongest countries are not as strong as we thought they were even austria has been downgraded so this idea that the core europe can somehow save the periphery even that is not tenable and it's true that these agencies are not above reproach they've made a lot of mistakes in the past and goodness knows the financial services industry

including the ratings agencies is far from perfect but i think that european leaders are being completely paranoid when they blame the ratings agencies for their problems any fool can see that there is a massive debt problem in europe the fact is there's been a lull in the crisis but that was really to do with the christmas and new year holidays they have assessed the situation and they have come to the conclusion so many other people that the situation in the eurozone is untenable and i think when the euro finally collapses as it will do surely within i would think probably the next year that we will see just this announcement that downgrading of france and as having been one of the decisive moments. for germany came out of the downgrade sweep unscathed to keeping its aaa rating and investment analysts see that as a significant power shift in the eurozone and the situation in france as finances is that they've basically been borrowing money on their every year budget since the

mid one nine hundred seventy i mean it's absolutely ludicrous and unfortunately all good things must come to an end and actually they've only been lucky because of economic growth in europe as a whole and the fact that there are economic powerhouses being struck to the ultimate power out of europe which is germany and that's why this is such an emotional moment to the european experiment because not everyone across the border into germany from france is going to be looking down on their neighbors and saying why should we germany and up being alone amongst a very elite club of nations that have got their aaa the top credit rating and indeed our french partners the germans are going to see it is no longer the perfect bride it's tarnished goods. with r.t. well still ahead this hour time for a change amid the turbulence. near you weeks after the deadly riots started parliamentary posing months ahead of schedule. and

turning away from technology airport security guys probably good friends to sniff out potential trouble travelers. now a leak to american intelligence report shows that the war in afghanistan isn't stone made the taliban determined to make a comeback as soon as nato troops leave the fourteen maybe with your date but an american think tank on peace in afghanistan believes the actual pullout will take far longer. it has been ten years that has not unified the country i said should have been it looks like there is no chance for the americans to see a government standing on its feet however this could prolong americans be honest on for quite a number of years i would say and the years are unknown at this time but it looks

like it's going to be a long time because there's a corrupt government cannot function in the way that it is right now the fact is that there's a friction in the white house right now that some more say no basically the pentagon going to treat is the one that's calling up that same day you know we should not really her rush and pull out fast as we can. pull a fresh scandal involving the u.s. military isn't helping stability in the country a group of american marines a film to hear in a team on the corpses of pentagon fighters have been identified and punished as promised but it's doing that will to quell the growing disgust felt around the well this week and to the experts say it could mean that west soldiers company serving in afghanistan will end up paying the price so let's not forget that the americans came to understand with the explicit objective also off transforming this country into a more humane country into a democracy and we are seeing happening right now with the appearance of this kind

of a video it's the opposite and it is having an impact let's not forget that this is a region where religious values are really very deep deeply entrenched and the way you treat bodies and the way you treated dead it's something that is treated very secretly here and with this video you can you can rest assured that this will have an impact in terms of the kind of reaction the kind of backlash to this will generate this video will generate against the very. the american soldiers who are there right now in afghanistan it really in danger is their life so it is fair to say that with this video surfacing the lives of american soldiers in afghanistan have become more let's say in a more precarious situation than they were before this video and the video also triggered phase it's waiting coverage more young people to join the tell about an al qaida afghanistan war veteran and jake to the bento says that coupled with

previous abuses this latest scandal is simply helping terrorists recruit new members just to remind people of a few incidents that occurred a while back there was the burning of the koran that happened with you know jerry jones and then there was the grave incident and before then there was the decision to invade iraq that had nothing to do with nine eleven so all of these these situations pile on and they add up and what happens is al-qaeda and other terrorist organizations and then using this video and they put it in their recruiting videos and up on you tube across the jihad web channels and they end up reading anti-american sentiment this is the hugest recruitment for al qaida that we can do what it can do and nobody in the united states military is trained to pee on dead people this is the behavior of ill discipline soldiers under my opinion are probably also separate from of severe amount of p.t.s.d.

for a long ended war and what happens when you so for me t.f.t. you and dehumanizing other human beings in the battlefield it's and it's unfathomable how pathetic this is become because the war hasn't been brought to an end like obama said he was going to do and what we're seeing abu ghraib has happened twice now in afghanistan. everyone in america is outraged by what film doing is r.t. is online contributor on the c.n.n. news channel praised the troops actions. saying she would do the same in their situation. the world's most notorious prison ten years old this week but on a base anniversary was marked with worldwide protests fresh calls for president obama to keep his election promise to shut it down but since washington has now passed a law definite detention of anyone it deems a terror threat the calls to close guantanamo seem to be falling on deaf ears smith

reports one zero zero zero zero one zero zero zero abdullah i am absolutely today is probably just another day for the inmates of guantanamo bay they may not even know that people around the world are campaigning for them but as far afield as london demonstrations are held to demand the release of the hundred seventy one men still held without trial in the cuban camp after ten years one of those men is shaka oma who's earned a dubious distinction of being the last british resident held in guantanamo he was in afghanistan or nine eleven he says doing charity work digging wells and building a girls' school in kabul. when the u.s. invasion began almost went into hiding from an increasingly wary northern alliance but his freedom didn't last shuckers supporters maintain he was sold for a bounty went into the hands of the northern alliance so the warlords basically and

they actually thought oh the americans my goodness it will save me from the torture that he's had lots of torture by them but no he was transported to and back he has remains despite president obama's original election pledge to close guantanamo altogether. despite being cleared for release and despite being a legal permanent resident in the u.k. with family here in london which includes one son he's never even seen and far from moving closer to being freed shuckers supporters see worrying developments in the u.s. is attitude to extrajudicial detention obama recently signed the national defense authorization act which places domestic terror investigations into the hands of the military and extends a ban on transferring prisoners out of there i'm very sorry indeed president obama for reasons of a. lack of political will or he would say complete inability to deliver

has not. lived up to that promise and indeed it is now bracing to book american citizens into trials in military commissions which are very far from being fair trials with. the british government has requested the release of but there's been no movement on the case since two thousand and seven meanwhile as his family grows up without him he lives out his life in a tiny windowless cell not knowing whether he can ever expect to be released laura smith london. protests but almost. all detainees there. will to close the jail. this is a political problem in a democracy when certain people are playing with fear the republican party is

basically playing on fear to influence their constituents and in the face of that fear the adama ministration hasn't had the courage to oppose it or the courage to get the job done other things like the economy have seem more important it's a shame it's a challenge in a democracy and we need to continue to fight to have this close it's a stain on the reputation the united states is a horrible place. but i explore all of our stories in depth on our websites with much more lined up r.t. dot com it was ninety three titanic sent passengers aboard the luxury cruise liner which ran aground off the tongue coast leaving three people dead and dozens still missing. and in the final for the most brilliant the probe that's been circling the earth for several weeks to achieve the right it should come down shortly implicitly discover more r.t. don't come.

people in kazakhstan are heading to the polls the parliamentary election was april but president dissolved the one party parliament in the autumn and brought the date forward elections come a month after the deadly riots in this if you've been to emergencies to place sixteen people were killed dozens injured and striking workers clashed with security forces over the day but experts say the early poll shows that of qualities realize the time to change is now. in general i think the president wants to have more here he wants to have more dialogue between. our studies in many ways an exception for central asia because it was

a relative economic success story. the political resume regime is march soft there on the in neighboring uzbekistan it's certainly not democratic as the regime in kyrgyzstan but on the other hand kyrgyzstan. which has likely avoided so it was a real. really a successful country until now not a very typical for this region but of course you know the same that we see in kyrgyzstan i think that every quarter the same tranz may reveal themselves and cut off tunnels so the government and the body of power presenters are buying they're trying to. preempt any sort of destabilisation before it indeed rocks the country that's why they have only elections and that's why they try to react to the challengers. every new day

while the next hour here in r.t. venezuela's leader may often be demonized by the u.s. but there's a very different attitude among americans themselves. it being generous to give us what comes out of the air and out charge so could you really have ill feelings against their. words once you know china's i think helps americans from feeling the cold this winter. airport security is a worldwide worry that often relies on the latest high tech equipment to keep us safe but peter all of the reports now on how man's best friend is barking in the face of technology man's four legged friends on the front line in the fight against terror these dogs are a special breed part musky part jackal and it's their acute sense of smell which makes them perfect for sniffing out explosives in ports. it turns out to do all the

canines it's the jackal that has the best sense of smell to call to use that to improve the sense of smell in dawgs. their husky her it it means that they can handle temperatures as low as minus seventy degrees centigrade while the jackal side of the family provides them with equally impressive abilities in the heat. as an experiment we took these hybrids to the united arab emirates where they were able to work in forty two degrees centigrade ordinary dogs wouldn't be able to handle. the silly move dogs have two hundred and twenty million smell receptors forty four times more than a human this allows them to detect even trace amounts of explosive material making them invaluable for airports looking to put passengers at their ease as they are not ever working with these dogs among passengers makes people feel more secure in the airport as for accuracy we've even detected gun powder residue on the clothes of hunters returning home. a false alarm is detected

in less than north point five percent of searches making the dogs far more reliable than the best manmade detection device much of that is down to the breeding but a lot of training is required before they are ready to work amongst the public so well it doesn't take the dog long to find what was hidden underneath my seat but it's all well and good doing it here on the training grounds but how will they fare in the busy atmosphere of an international airport on an average day over one hundred thousand people pass through this terminal a cherry mitzvah airport plenty of distractions making it the perfect place to conduct a test this bike here contains around three grams of plastic explosive i'm going to go and hide somewhere here in the terminal while florida tries to track me down. it's about sniffing me out finally chewed nose searching every nook and cranny in

which a potentially dangerous package could be hidden some passengers don't even notice that their parts are investigation. sure enough she finds me trying to check in for a flight oh. well it's all good. no matter how hard you try to hide if you have explosives these amazing animals will find you. r.t. moscow. but the back of their mind headlines in a couple of minutes take away. this

is art. to reclaim the american dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth that out of many we all want that war we breathe we hope. to me the american dream is to live in peace and prosperity and freedom and a government under socialism is not a government of free. you have very motivated out cross the country who are activists who are willing to fight for what they think is right for themselves but in fact this border.

we are counting. properly drowning and i think it's threatening. it's cutting off our. it's making real democracy. all but impossible. the stories that shaped this week tensions between iran and the u.s. intensified with tehran naming the west the killing fields scientists what washington is threatening action if iran blocks. the pending sanctions. becomes the first arab league member to pull troops to be sent to syria to tackle the ongoing violence that the proposal has been labeled people coming from and want to keep regime change elsewhere.