yes. i mean you. stay with us here on our t.v. it's now seventeen minutes past the hour still plenty more to come in the program including this with less than fifty days to go we take a look at the current political climate in a rush ahead of the presidential elections in march. but first europe and the u.s. have expressed their willingness to return to talks with iran over its controversial nuclear program despite this the e.u. is seemingly set to prove an embargo on iranian oil france even says the time to avoid military intervention is running out for the u.s. this week it strengthened its presence in the region sending a second aircraft carrier to the arabian sea reportedly planning to sail through the strait of hormuz which iran has threatened to block in response to sanctions the straits a strategic waterway which the majority of oil exports from the gulf to the west pass through brian becker from the antiwar answer coalition thinks washington may be deliberately escalating the situation to create the pretext for regime change.

the united states government has created an artificial crisis that's first and foremost it's a manufactured crisis iran is complying with the i.a.e.a. iran does not have a nuclear weapon iran is not threaten its neighbors iran has not started a war with any of its neighbors israel on the other hand has hundreds of nuclear weapons and unlike the run refuses to sign the nuclear nonproliferation treaty does not allow. inspectors into its country so there's not really a nuclear menace or a nuclear danger from iran and so what is the cause what's the cause of the crisis of the artificial crisis the real goal is the united states government has embarked on a course of extreme economic aggression against iran with the hope that by creating economic suffering economic isolation economic misery that part of the population will rise up or become disenfranchised with the government so that the u.s. can do as it has in history carry out regime change relations between london and

tehran took another hit this week iran said to signal a decision to kick its english language news channel press t.v. off british airwaves was a clear example of censorship the official reason cited for a vote in the channel's license or a breach of broadcasting rules over editorial control and failure to pay a fine imposed last year press t.v. says it's been silence for its dissenting views it thinks it was targeted for its critical coverage of issues ranging from the cost of the british royal wedding to last year's london riots through a recent you k. based author and media analyst things press t.v. was another victim of an ongoing campaign against iran. if this had been separated from geopolitics then no this would not have happened and some other kind of sanction would have been would have been made and the deal would have been struck so i think the press t.v. has been viewed through geopolitical terms and that is the breakdown of relations between britain and iran at the end of the day i think that most of the criticisms

of press t.v. ad been due to its coverage because you know it sees the middle east very differently for example than the mainstream media in britain repeatedly comes up pro israeli groups repeatedly complain about it we know very well that the british government at the very highest level was discussing with the american ambassador how to limit press t.v.'s output in britain so now what we've got is we've got a real limiting of dialogue in the me in the british media and i think that's a tragedy and sydney a tragedy at a time when british relations are at their lowest ebb for a long long period. the u.s. congress has recalled two controversial anti-piracy bills this week after a massive internet blackout and hacker attacks on government websites millions of net users and web giants including we keep p.d.f. and google joined together to stand against the proposed legislation that was dubbed sopa and pipa if passed the bills would have allowed media conglomerates and

copyright holders to shut down large parts of the web at the same time the anonymous hacker group retaliated against the shutdown of the file sharing site mega upload claiming to have brought down the f.b.i. and white house sites in response barrett brown who's worked with anonymous on various operations and is sometimes seen as the face of the group believes the mega upload shutdown shows that the government can take action even without the new laws in place. the problem and the track record and all go. it's such that giving them power to do one thing is almost always interpreted by themselves as a means of power. so and the way that you know the rate on megaupload cards in this opens it shows that even without already in place here they are already arresting and resting the owners megaupload and shutting it down and in the future. there will be a number of other. military. situation it's worse

in the grass and stones that were and the notable civil war in the us. more than a million people visit our web site r.t. dot com to get more information on sopa and people you can join then and let us know your opinion on the two controversial bills and what else is available online at our team dot com. take a look now at some other stories making headlines across the globe in a farewell speech yemen's president ali abdullah saleh apologized for his mistakes and said it's time to hand over power he's leaving the country to have medical treatment in the u.s. yemen's parliament recently approved immunity from prosecution for asylum who's been accused of suppressing protests and ordering the deaths of demonstrators he is not expected to return to the country. another bombing on saturday night in the northern nigerian state of balochi has killed eleven people including several police and army personnel patrolling a checkpoint two churches in the area also attacked meanwhile the death toll from a series of bombings in kaino friday now exceeding one hundred seventy and

continuing to rise is a lot a sect boko haram claims responsibility for the majority of violence plaguing northern nigeria since christmas. this week russia's seen a build up of political debate ahead of the march presidential race why of all caps and candidates are lighting up with water near putin setting out his vision for the country and some members of the public stepping up their efforts to ensure a transparent ballot parties are in english go has more but just under fifty days before the march presidential election and major campaign is still simmering in the candidate's headquarters mr putin decided to unleash his powers of persuasion on the electorate and nonpublic speak for change he's decided to be more scholarly picking up the pen for the first in a series of articles outlining his vision for the future of russia what he's calling for economy to be built. the gravitation away from dependence on oil high spending welcoming political dialogue in the

strengthening of civil society in russia putin however said people should concentrate on just what candidates are promising to do rather than the theater of personalities we need extended dialogue about priorities about long term choices national perspective and development this article is an invitation to such dialogue and it's important to say that prime minister has never denied the possibility of establishing such a dialogue and they just become friends his ravenous and this is what is making people take the initiative into their own hands this week some of the most prominent participants of december's post-election protests who together to form the league of constituents where should the new public mood has blossomed people are showing a desire to make an educated vote to know where their votes are going on the understanding that the country needs competitive politics those behind the new group are quick to point out they're not going to turn into

a political party but due to become a major support group for anyone wanting to make a difference with their vote i didn't have the political activists are nothing. without this type of unity found public support there to help them are the key to public support is the media and that's where conclusion found he's talked to in the crowd criticizing one of russia's most popular radio stations and. for being too protester in its coverage the prime minister told its editor in chief not to take offense of his words since you don't get mad when you come to me with liquid crap from dawn till dusk on at the government. all seem to realize they have to think fast and act quickly in order to get the ball rolling with the presidential elections just around the corner. which some say lasted for years the political life in russia and roaring in will go if you go r t. be back in a few moments with a recap of the week's headlines stay with us.

more news today violence has once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are only day. lines in the oceans would be soo much brighter than a few new moon about someone from phones to christian. means for instance on t.v. don't come. wealthy british style. that's not on the.

market why not. come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report. twelve thirty am in moscow these are your r.t. headlines arab league officials say the observer mission in syria that expired this week will be extended for another month the number of monitors also stepped up this despite criticism from the syrian opposition that wants to see the u.n. step in. creation of oats in favor of joining the e.u. despite the issue previously sparking protests and some violent clashes this as the bloc itself continues to be shaken by anti austerity rallies with people in romania

now raising wising up against their about. other stories that shape the week tensions around tehran's nuclear program stirred further by the new plans to impose an embargo on iranian oil and the us building its warships presence in the region. and the power of the internet in action i'm not. of online backlash over u.s. plans to extend web censorship lead to business spent you know pending anti-piracy legislation. when it comes to big money and u.s. politics lobbyists are the one who know exactly how it works jack used to be one until he was convicted of conspiracy and mail fraud for his role in an extensive corruption case he now tells us why he thinks washington is corrupt to the core of the interview coming up. i. am sitting down with jack abraham off once the most powerful lobbyist in washington

referred to as the man who bought washington he brought government officials in order to gain political support for his clients in two thousand and six he was convicted of ripping off his clients jack abramoff served three and a half years in prison guilty of conspiracy fraud and tax evasion mr abrams thank you very much for coming since your release from jail you've been very vocal about corruption in washington i read your book and i got a sense of your frustration about the fact that while you were sent to jail people involved in the same corrupt practices are sitting pretty in their offices on capitol hill well i'm a mom is frustrated that people didn't go to jail or prison and prison is not fun and i wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy but i guess what i'm frustrated about is that when they had my hearings and trials and when i was sent off there was a big exclamation and celebration here that they cleaned up washington but in fact

they didn't clean up washington and so when i came out you have to rethinking my life and what i was involved in i decided that they want to clean up washington and i would help them figure out exactly how to do it during that senate hearing when you were publicly bashed by the senate is what were you thinking what were your thoughts as you faced the distinguished panel well i probably was thinking they were a little less distinguished than others were thinking i was reminded continually by every word out of their mill that they were among the many who participated in some of the corruption that they were accusing me of when one of the senators a senator campbell was accusing me of corruption and me wrecking the democratic system i was thinking back to the breakfast. i had with him a couple years before where i handed him checks from my clients as contributions and he said that they would never have a problem with his committee so i was thinking that basically about each of them i

didn't know a lot of them personally because i had people working for me had a staff of about forty lobbyists and some of them knew the people who work for me but. i found the whole thing to be hypocritical it was a kangaroo court and it was a show people say you were a tory it seems your ability to buy members of congress how did you do that i don't think i was necessarily except on the margins much different than most of what goes on here but what happens here and what's on portion in which what i did in terms of pushing over the lines even of this activity is lobbyists and people want something from congress raise money for congressmen give money to congressmen in terms of political contributions by meals for them take them golfing take them on trips take them to sporting events and i probably did more of it than most did and i pushed over certain lines that are in the sand and broke the law but it's something that

goes on far too often in washington you want to say that and i found it very very interesting that that once you just a moment you offered a job to a congressional staffer you own them right there was no greater control that people could have over congressional offices than to have the head of that office know that they're going to come in a few months to come work for a lobbying firm from that minute on those people are focused on that lobbying from their clients and it's not just me i saw it all over tell me it's not something i bet it it's something i noticed and something that i propose now to get rid of by banning people who work on capitol hill who are members of congress from ever joining the lobbying industry or the influence industry in america what did your clients want by investing in politics by investing in you well mostly my clients one of the federal government not to. get all over the back and tax them and that. their businesses most the lobbying is deep keeping the government from doing things to industries and to companies and likely going to help them avoid to the exact day

or night when i got presented in a bunch of indian tribes and the way i got into it the first representation i had with the tribes was to stop the federal government from putting a thirty percent tax over the gross revenues of their gambling industry and what was interesting about your case it was not just politicians who cheated but also you cheated your clients namely those indian tribes with gambling interests who paid humanely and so what i thought was what i did was what i pled guilty to was some of the efforts that we did for the clients in their states worse to stop their competition from taking away their markets they would crash their competition yes we would attack their competition and we would do everything we could to keep them from invading the market of our client and that's normal in america fortunately for better or for worse that's not something we we made up we're going to have any regrets about doing that well at the end of the day i regret using the political process as a weapon against competitors because at the end of the day i don't think the government should be used like that i didn't have

a problem with that then and i shouldn't even if we're talking about millions of dollars in contributions it's still peanuts for any big corporation it's a tiny fraction of what they make did you get a sense of how powerless average americans are when the interest so big guys like that are at stake on capitol hill well americans have a very tough time competing with these special interests special interests come in with a lot of money and you're right it's miniscule amounts of money compared to what they could do and some of them do a lot of money but it's still a small amount the problems the average citizen is not engaged politically and when they're able to bring in money and influence members of congress to vote on things that are not good for the country and not good for the general interest because somebody with a special interest you. pushing on it that's where the problem starts so what i propose in my book and the effort that i've been engaged in since i've gotten out of prison is a way to separate money out of politics here and basically to say that if you're

a lobbyist or you're somebody who's trying to get something from the government here you may not give a dollar politically of any kind and that's one of the four things that i've proposed to clean up the system i think it's very important because the end of the day political contributions if i give you something if you're a congressman and i give you a contribution and i want something from you that contribution may not be cold a bribe but it is a broad at the end of the day how many members of congress are involved in corruption like that in bribery like that well i mean ultimately every member of congress is taking a check contribution from a lobbyist or from a company or from a union or anyone who needs or get something from washington whether it's conscious or not they're involved in it alternately you can't accept something from somebody without unless you're at it all doing well yes absolutely they all do and what i'm saying is you can't as a human being if somebody gives you something you're going to feel gratitude and

even if you don't do with that person once right there and you say look you can't buy my vote for two thousand dollars and most of them say that of course but the issue is if you do something nice for me in my heart i'm going to have to fuel a little bit better about you and what i'm saying is that is the moment of the problem if you're a public servant with all the crimes that you committed there's still a sense that you were used as a poster boy a kind of a scapegoat for the corrupt system that is very much alive and kicking i want to ask you about the supreme court decision from almost two years ago that allows on limited campaign contributions lobbyist must be really happy about that decision aren't they some are some are and i think the decision was for the most part very good the decision basically said that people shouldn't have the right to get money constricted i don't have a problem with that what i have a problem with the. people who want something back giving money even a dollar that's the difference with with me now corporations the problem with corporations the reason why are contradicting yourself you were just talking about

how any contribution can be seen as bribery and now you're saying no being able to funnel as much money as you want these perfectly fine in today's politics no i don't think so i think people should have the right to get think i've been fairly consistent night and not to expect anything in return one on one and why should you expect something in return there are a lot of people who give money in this country by the way because they like the ideology of the candidate they like the candidate themselves they're not going in there and asking for a grant or a tax break or or a contract most people don't do that but it still contradicts what you were saying a few moments ago and that is with any form of contribution especially a big contribution an elected official finds themselves in a situation when they told their benefactors if somebody is worth a trillion dollars they live in some form in kansas and they never have any contact with any congressman ever and they see some congressman they love they want to give him a million dollars because they think they're fantastic and they never ask for a thing from that person i personally think that's all right they have been very

hard to track down who asked possibly i've talked i've talked to law enforcement about this about my ideas and once the laws are set in place i think that they are capable of figuring it out that decision only created a further complication in my view in the sense that it brought corporations them as a possible donor to political efforts and again don't you think it effectively legalize this corruption in washington i think corruption is legal in washington right now thousands of people took to the streets across america to say no to jack paper amounts to saying no to corrupt politics in washington do you think there is a chance that action like that that awareness like that can change anything i think the occupy wall street movement had behind it some good in the problem is that they didn't organize themselves like the tea party mood. it did which was politically tea party movement had a dramatic impact on the last election and probably will still miss an election and i've spoken to the occupy people quite a lot and i told them that until they get themselves organized politically they're

not going to be meaningful because in america street protests don't really meaning that people don't like street protests in america first of all the destructive there's vandalizing there's unsanitary things that go on and most americas the repelled by that what most americans will respect is political activism an organization on the left or on the right now i think that there is anger out there and i think we don't have a money to hire a lot of. well that might not be a bad thing but. you know american people don't need lobby is they need to organize themselves i think that in america getting into first of all class and b. i think is very dangerous we've seen that every great. tele tarion movement in certainly in the twentieth century started with class and instead of class and be able to focus themselves not on those who succeed but those who choose to succeed in the sense of using the government and using the state to make their lives easier

to make more money and there are plenty of those that get it like like i did like i help my clients do and like every lobbyist helps their clients do importunately had it not being for that jail time would you have been just as we panting as you are now if i hadn't had the fall if i hadn't had been destroyed i would love to sit here and tell you i would have all my own come to how bad this was and you know i should have been doing and i should have been involved in that kind of lobbying but i'm not going to lie to you i would never thought that i thought i was doing the right thing that's the sad part of it all for me so as i look back i would have stopped i would have still been doing it instead of sitting here with you i'd be sitting on capitol hill negotiating something for one of my clients it took my getting killed for me to come to the realisation that i should have been there what do you plan to do. in the process of. possibly one amp with a t.v. show thank you.

it's easy to.

see. other stories that shaped the week tensions around tehran's nuclear program stirred further by new plans to impose an embargo on iranian oil and the us building its warship presence in the region. for a show vote in favor of joining the e.u. despite the issue previously sparking protests and violent clashes this as a bloc itself continues to be shaken by anti stary rallies with people in romania now rising up. there government. tensions around iran's nuclear program stirred further by new plans to impose

a cargo water rising oil and the u.s. building its worth your presence in the region. the power of the internet in action a massive online backlash over u.s. plans to expand web censorship we do this is a spreadsheet of pending anti privacy laws. sports news next with kate stay with us here on r.t. . hello welcome to the sports and here's what's coming up. easy does it rafael nadal and roger federer coast into the quarter finals of this train open. while different strokes kim clijsters comes back from the brink while carline defines a second set fight back to reach the last eight. and show time east meets west

once again in the annual all star extravaganza in front of a sellout arena in latvian capital. to test a tennis and second seed rough on the doll has beaten fellow spaniard philip the on our life path in straight sets to book a place in the quarterfinals of the australian open the two thousand and nine champion was broken only ones as he eased to a six four six four six two victory against his misfiring davis cup team mates ok thank you thank you to you on course there is a moment all little remorse after knocking out these off. for a number of days one of my best friends and. that's the game that's a sport and you understand that so. i gave in this. everybody wants to win everybody wants to have. you want to finish the match with the was a better result than the motions i simulate you know it's happens very often nothing that.