banks making a profit off of kicking you out of your house so that's a big thing that we are starting to work on is helping people block their homes from being foreclosed we also have a general assembly is being organized around the city so i think there's one being planned for mount pleasant which would be people coming together who are from the community who have grievances with the government they're going to get together and talk about what to do. well president obama today signed an executive order freezing all assets of the iranian government and banks held in the united states the white house says this is a response to just sept of practices on the part of iranian banks but many view this as an attempt to further isolate iran as criticism against iran's nuclear program continues to mount as well now israel is stepping up threats against iran and some experts warn that israel could attack iran possibly within the next ninety days president obama says the goal is to resolve this diplomatically but much of the rhetoric by high ranking officials in several countries seems to point to at

least some preparation for the possibility of war now i spoke earlier about iran with the director of international studies at trinity college the jaipur shot and he explained how the atlantic world in some ways has already waged war against iran on three fronts he says diplomatic economic and covert take a listen. well the diplomatic one is very easy to explore because since the early do thousands the united states has tried to create it diplomatically we have around iran the centerpiece of that where was india and india and iran have a very long standing relationship and what the united states did was to promise india in nuclear deal you are not that india is not a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty india in one thousand ninety eight illegally exploded five nuclear devices and yet the united states went to

india in the early to thousands and said we will bring you out of the the nuclear sanctions court and we will provide for you access to nuclear material from the new peers suppliers group if you vote against iran in the two thousand and five meeting of the international atomic energy agency and this is precisely what happened in nuclear deal was struck with india india came out of the newbie accord and even though it's not a signatory to the nuclear nonproliferation treaty which iran is india voted against iran in the meetings twice on the side of the united states so that was the diplomatic war that the united states has been conducting since the early two thousand the core of what war is rather striking because very few people are talking about the assassinations of iranian scientists or senior scientists killed in the last two and

a half years most recently on january eleventh it thirty two air old nuclear physicist was she was killed on the streets of tehran in broad daylight now this is striking because the un did release a very definite statement the nonaligned movement has released a statement condemning the assassination and scientists but there's been no word from the. powers condemning this act of terrorism in the streets of tehran and according to my sources scientists in iran are now few full of going out say conducting the every day of business after one of the scientists was shot sitting in his car we didn't do because his daughter from a daycare center that means ordinary activities have become very fine do scientists this is a violation of the right to freedom of movement of intellectuals in iran today it's to me that we heard very little too you know in terms of an investigation into that

and there's a lot of speculation about who might be behind that i want to talk to them about just what we've seen very recently over the last few days these increased sanctions i know we also saw dispute between the i.a.e.a. the international atomic energy agency the inspectors and the iranian government basically those inspectors actually left the country after apparently not being allowed to examine certain elements of the nuclear program and of course we've also seen you know today the executive order signed by president obama to talk a little bit about these very recent events and what you think is most significant here well there are two things one is the economic sanctions on december thirty first the obama administration signed in a series of very tough economic sanctions sanctioning the central bank making it difficult for third party countries to do trades with iran the european union joined the united states used sanctions which are to come into effect on june twenty ninth the upshot of this has been that three countries china turkey and

india are very terrified because forty five percent of you know onion oil is bored by china india and turkey the chinese and indians have already promised the iranians to circumvent the dollar and do before you write me an oil using either gold or a third party. currency perhaps the repeat or perhaps the yuan currently india uses turkish banks you know to do exchange with iran there's a lot of pressure on the turkish banks to not allow india to do these trades there's a lot of pressure on these countries are economically the riyadh the main currency in iran has lost its value by seventy percent you know it's a very dramatic thing for dairy people conditions of life and i'm not good on the question of the nuclear debate between the inspectors and the iranian government if one looks broadly at questions of inspection there is only is in normal confronted

asian between. any foreign in investigators and a sovereign country that is not something spectacular one should not make too much of of the fact that they are having a dispute and we should mention to their they're planning to return i want to later this month to just kind of continuing this discussion v.j. on the money aspect of this and it's not just freezing iran's off assets here from what i understand this is the u.s. also sort of selling their willingness to punish other foreign financial institutions that do business with iran any dangers and as well you know remember this is not a you and authorized sanctions regime so countries are not therefore and under any obligation to follow what are essentially european and american sanctions you know so there's no legal you know an issue meant for india or china to so-called rick the american sanctions but what the united states is pressuring these countries on

is if they continue to do trades with iran the united states will punish them for its trades with say india oh it's trades with china the issue is the united states is not currently in a position to punish china so this is a lot of smoke in the water you know that is being put out there that china. these are playing this very close to their chest they have been meeting the indians they've been discussing things with the turks to see if they can create so good exemptions to the american saying sions so one should not come to this question of sanctions believing that the united states here is the biggest dog at the table all right and finally we just have a little bit of time left but i've got to say you know there you turn on any station and there's a discussion about iran and there are some people who say that war with iran is not only imminent that it's actually a good idea critics of the critics say iran doesn't have that much conventional military capability and wouldn't be able to retaliate other than with their oil so

might as well strike them what's your response to this sort of way of thinking there are seventy eight million people that live in the islamic republic of iran and i'm afraid there is a very cavalier sentiment in the world where people talk about things like we're not going to attack you know you know as if there is a sort of god view available to certain people about the killing of others when seventy eight million people are held hostage like this i find it unforgivable it's a very uncivilized way to approach questions of diplomacy and international relations i have no respect for people who talk so you know simply and easily about killing other people i think that they have lost control of their own rationality i think that's a really good point and fortunately in this era of twenty four hour cable networks a lot of times what you just hear is a ten second sound bite a lot of them sort of fear mongering and that's what's being put out there right

now i always appreciate your insight director of international studies at trinity college thank you. well i want to talk for a moment about what's going on on the ground in egypt in just a couple days egypt will mark the one year anniversary since their longtime leader president hosni mubarak stepped down after initially refusing and after months. of protest and demands by the people of egypt it was seen as a victory for democracy the cries of the people being answered but despite parliamentary elections a peaceful democratic society is not exactly what the people of egypt are experiencing these days since the fall of mubarak the country has been ruled by the egyptian military and lately more and more violence has erupted on the streets there we just saw last week more than seventy people killed following a soccer match many of those simply trampled upon as anger now mounts with questions about where the police were and why they weren't getting involved now the

relationship between the u.s. and egypt also now at its most fragile after an announcement by the military led government that it would put forty three non-governmental organization workers on trial nineteen of those are americans accused of cordoning illegal activity and setting up branches of international organizations in egypt without a license they prevented all of them from leaving the country one of those americans is the son of an obama administration cabinet member so this announcement that ngo workers will be tried is kind of a slap in the face to washington and top u.s. officials are now threatening to cut aid to egypt egypt by the way receives more than one and a half billion dollars from the u.s. government more than any other country other than israel now on one hand this money you could say was used to buy friendship to keep egypt and israel on peaceful terms a lot of people are now keeping their eye on what happens next since that financial aid has been leverage for the united states a threat to cut that aid could dissolve previous deals made between the two

countries. one more thing though few people are talking about the history of this this anger towards these so-called pro-democracy groups it's not new the us has for decades been determined to spend money and resources on groups that set up camps in other countries and work with people on forwarding the us agenda in those countries in many ways it's resulted in the taking down of leaders or parties who disagree with the u.s. now in late december egyptian authorities broke into the offices of some of the ngos there and confiscated many of their materials the ngos say they're in the country to help but in many cases there are people who are and eventually hurt now with this current criminal investigation perhaps it's good to think about what's really behind these groups and to have an honest conversation about just whose agenda they're carrying out well that's going to do it here for us now but for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa you should also

check out our youtube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america and you can follow me on twitter at christine for example but for now i hope you have a great night. culture is the same of you i can tell if i can build on our journey home of the old war and tell the folks in search of nourishment terminations and sovereignty this is what many scots say they want realistic is an independent scotland would appeal for. download the official anti up location to go on the phone all i pod touch from the queues our. lunch on t.v. life on the go. video on demand on t.v.'s mine gold costs an r.s.s. feeds now in the palm of your. question on the

dot com. world the. science technology innovation all the lives developments from around russia we've got the future covered. more news today violence has once again fled up the fees are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. china corporations are today.

and you can. follow me in welcoming cross-talk i'm peter lavelle in search of national determination and sovereignty this is what many scots say they want a realistic is an independent scotland would it be a viable state or is this all

a ploy with the scots looking for a better deal within the e.u. . and. start. to cross the uk scotland's potential sovereignty i'm joined by david kopel in denver he's an adjunct professor of advance constitutional law at denver university in edinburgh we have kenneth gibson he's a scottish national party politician and member of the scottish parliament and in london we crossed to william bayne he is labor m.p. for glasgow north east and shadow minister for scotland tory gentlemen crossed the girls in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want but first i had to go to david in denver as a constitutionally legally david what kind of case does scotland have to become a sovereign state to have to express its national determination. well they have the same right that people everywhere in the world do which is the the right to rule themselves so if the people of scotland vote in

a fair referendum for independence then then that would be their right just as the people of ireland with somewhat more trouble were. recognized as independent and the people of taiwan wife wise have the same rights of self-determination everyone in the world has the right of self-determination i mean that doesn't mean they david doesn't mean they p.s.k. doesn't mean they get myself as i'm a nation that doesn't mean they get self-determination does it well that the nice thing is if you're part of the united kingdom which is a. democratic nation with freedom of the press and lots of tolerance for political dissent you've got a better chance of achieving it than the people of taiwan do or the country that's trying to deny them self-determination is a rather rip aisha's imperialist nasty country that would invade them should they ever actually formally assert their what is there now de facto independence ok william i don't think that you would assess that england would invade scotland if

and when the looks like it's a matter of time when scotland has a referendum in two thousand and fourteen to have independence what is your attitude towards that would it be a viable state is it legal is it the right thing to do. any state can survive the question is how you prosper best and my belief is we do that better within the united kingdom there are clear benefits of being part of the united kingdom's financial system provides we know who's going to regulate the banks we have a currency which is stable we have provisions for public spending which are democratic i think there are enormous disadvantages in breaking some of those institutions up just to reform them to create a new currency union which apparently is the policy of the s.n.p. but i think we also share so much history we share a welfare state yesterday m.p.'s from across the united kingdom were opposing government cuts to disability benefits to benefits for cancer patients we share the

b b c we we have a great influence in the world or pearman and membership of the un security council these are great advantages that mean being part of the union and being part of britain is good for scotland ok ken if i go to you i mean i guess really the glue the real question for you as a scot is that you know you want independence so that's why it's a good opening close case right i mean we just heard from david about go a self-determination william says that you have a mutual benefit but the scots have a voice so well that they want to go their own way and will they go their own way. we do have a voice and over the next thirty three months we will take your eating the arguments for independence but scholars who in history traditions assume culture and we see no reason why scotland cannot be as prosperous an independent nation as for example norway the netherlands denmark so many other countries in europe which are relatively small in terms of population but are democratic have

a high quality of life and high standard of living and under the. party after thirteen years of the rule the gap between a twenty percent richest and to a percent purist was a way to stay in the we see diesel i think we can do a better job in scoring will of our own resources and then what's important is that we will take decisions for ourselves and you know not. so far as we know all we know is an aegis oversea increased every year go ahead william here kenneth child poverty has increased well examined has been in government it's gone up every single year the economy is growing less of less quickly in scotland in the last four years than the u.k. average and before that where there was a labor administration holiday grew more quickly so i think the picture is a bit more closely that's likely issues aside i mean this is an eating. well look at the figures and i'm sure i'm sure the viewers will be able to judge the figures from themselves they're publicly available but let's let's look at this issue the last five years ago it was it wasn't so close the u.k.

only once in the last five years of an economic. growth you know there's too many losses and even lower in scotland than the u.k. average those figures are going to be determined ok gentlemen i'm going to jump in with your reasons why so many gentlemen let me jump in here david i guess is was the interest here ok this is look like these two people should be together because look at all of the different the. well just despite some as some important differences they have what's sort of sad for me as an outsider it is is how much they haven't in common when we heard. professor bain talk about what's what's so great about being part of the united kingdom he talks about the b.b.c. and the welfare state doesn't even mention the great history of great britain as the country that spread freedom in so many places in the world and including saving civilization from hitler both of them were talking about the welfare state and what

i think they both failed to realise and they were there are reasonable they're good representatives of the labor party and of the scottish national party which are both more or less socialist parties and have woken up to the fact that they've run out of other people's money and that if they're trying to make this issue about self-determination for the scottish people about who's going to more effectively fleece a to give money to be what i what i would wish they would both be talking about that is completely new and this is an issue of scottish independence and i know you hear about but don't anyone have what about the people of scotland right now why why is neither of you talking about things that could bring more self-determination to the scottish people right now like letting them elect police boards the health boards have direct votes on self government. to. actually there are no a letter is like they'll have this is going to tell you where i will you to jump in go ahead william in london go ahead ok the key issue i think is growth i mean what

we need to collectively as a group of political parties is come up with policies that are going to break away from the sort of get rich quick of capitalism that we've seen in too many countries in the g twenty and across the world in favor of a longer term investment in many ways our economy needs to become rather more like germany's we need to invest for the long term we are arguing for a state investment bank that would be able to get investment into the green industries and to tourism and to other sectors i think we've got to change our whole model of growth and i think we do that best within the united kingdom rather than going through the expense and the trauma of setting up a separate state so i think that is the key response i would have to david's point i think the way that we will empower the scottish people is to an economy that works better for them that produces more jobs and more secure more social justice as a result ok ken if there's a big argument it seems to think i'd like to ask you there's a big argument is that there's a big argument in this debate is that the scots have to be cognizant insensitive to

the the sensibilities of the of the welsh and of the english of the irish do you think that's fair i mean it's incumbent upon you to convince your fellow members in the union that you want to go on your own way or do you think it's just a matter of a democratic process where you have the right to vote in you vote on independence. well i think the issue which the united nations recognize is up to scottish people decide their own future but we are the first ones that has tried to reach out to other parts of the need to make it clear an independent school and very good friend to england northern ireland and wales and indeed other countries in europe we have no enemies in the world we are not a country that seeks conflict with anyone the great thing about the independence struggle in scotland is there's never even been so much as a nose bleed and i may disagree on many of the points but the argument is done through the democratic process and democratic channels and we want strong to be independent so that we can attract and would investment but also the difference in really nice he thinks london news best for what's in schools interest we think the

people of scotland know best and just as you wouldn't want your next door neighbor taking decisions on your behalf we do one angle and even with the best will in the world decisions on behalf of scotland and this remember is an incorporating you know it's not a union of equals scotland is very much a subordinate partner we have less than a tenth of english population and decisions political decisions will be made on behalf of the majority within you key england and scotland basically if we make those decisions on those decisions will ultimately be better for scotland whether it's a government which is left of center as a professor seems to imagine or indeed one which i believe would be one that supports a mixed economy and is more social democratic rather than socialist william why not have two united kingdom as neighbors ok as equals that is you know is can it was pointing out why can't you have that you can still have the same currency if you don't throw it out throw them out of the the pound you have the same queen scotland pays for the defense issues why not equals. well i think that's

a false point i mean i think that the key issue is precisely what you mentioned the economy i mean let's consider what alex salmond is proposing here his preference is for a currency union with the united kingdom now we can see across across the sea another currency in the euro and we know what chancellor merkel last week said that free proper currency union you need to have fiscal union taxes and spending being coordinated across the different countries within the union you also need fiscal and political union and she also said that you need a common treasury and know what is being discussed today by the n.c.a.a. agrees with this is easily you want the better willy's base and i think of england well. as things the cd you think should be in charge in europe is that we're saying well let's you know i mean as well i would hope that i would hope that we have more stimulus or be seen as a half of the government and germany and this is an end drawing up the fiscal rules of europe as i hope that francois are all on if he wins the french presidential

election this me will do but the reality is that what we've seen in the in the eurozone are very harsh and fierce fiscal rules and the fact is if i like someone wins this referendum he would be doing a deal to drop similar fiscal rules with george osborne it doesn't sound much like a independence from a tory tax and spend policy to me nor indeed think it would be for the scottish people. cases no one since because the bank of scotland has been independent to china so since nine hundred ninety seven and did it even in previous generations when the file and under still go independence they will still pop steadily for many or if i'm going to i want to jump in here gentlemen we're going to go to a short break and after that short break we'll continue or to our discussion on the fate of scott stayed with our. good. and. want to.

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welcome back to the wrong time you know about to remind you we're talking about the independence of scotland. ok. ok david if i go back to you in denver and a recent poll gives the following numbers fifty two percent to thirty two percent english voters favored maximum devolution from scotland or independents a bigger margin of support then the s. and p. s.n.p. in scotland itself i mean it's really interesting it seems we're having talking about it leads right here in many ways a lot of it one and one trend that is really moving in the u.k. is that the english are feeling more english and less british at least that's what some data is showing i mean is it a matter of and leads and institutions that want to keep this together devoid to what people actually think why i think the opinion polls whether in scotland or the itself ok fair to show the.