the man accused of being behind one of the largest leaks of u.s. army data goes before court but critics of the process say it's just a ploy to cover up government crimes. and israel dismisses global concerns over a potential military escalation in the rao with the rand saying it alone will decide whether to launch a strike on the islamic republic. hello it's midnight here in moscow and now you're watching r t live with me kevin oh in our top story this very early friday morning the u.n. seeking to send its humanitarian chief to syria to secure a delivery to civilians caught up in the fighting the international bodies also preparing to investigate the country's officials over allegations they've committed crimes against humanity correspondent in damascus rif nationals been keeping across developments on the ground for. according to r.t.

sources here in syria the fighting in the besieged city of homs is now over with the army taking control of the city we've been hearing initial reports from our sources here that there has been a ceasefire agreement between the free syrian army and governmental forces in the area but it hasn't been confirmed of course we are receiving all the reports from other sources such as opposition groups opposition activists or london based syrian observatory for human rise about resume challen about clashes continuing in the city of homs this report a very hard to be very far out and it's also very hard to find out exactly who is behind these reports and all these people on the ground all they are reporting from abroad while these conflicting reports about what's going on here come and made a rise in exile and rising pressure from the international community to the regime of president bashar assad we with this question is resumed about possible military intervention as a solution to the country's ongoing crisis. time to change tactics with

fighting in homes on its third week the syrian opposition based abroad and its foreign supporters seem to have run out of patience the foreign military solution to the country's crisis always considered as a last resort might now become a realistic scenario we are really close to seeing this military intervention as the only solution there are two evils military intervention a protracted civil war the opposition outside they have contact with the external powers and they don't have contact with the with the with the syrian the syrian people very core of this can be manipulated mujahid not his real name has been fighting the assad regime for months he went to all protests and spent many days in jail but now he says the crisis has gone too far. as for me i give up actually because the this is not just this is not just. a war we are

losing we are losing buddies and even if the regime in this engine started to go we really didn't give up me and i'm ready to give up and it will be waiting for the for the promises but not everyone is ready to compromise with the death of two journalists and homes an american war reporter and a french photographer pressure from overseas has become more tangible we need to the international community needs to do more to help the the syrian people but there are fears that this helping hand may also be carrying weapons we should consider every option ranging from sanctuaries to seeing that weapons are brought to the hands of those who are resisting us so they can defend themselves look here in syria the home of position seems to strongly oppose the

idea of foreign help. we don't want any interference from abroad these countries may think that they can use this for their own interests for the syrian people will not allow that but to be able to resist strong political reforms are needed and with a vote on constitutional reform around the corner may here certain any military intervention that will derail the political process aimed at ending the crisis refinishing r.t. damascus syria. dr marcus papadopoulos is an analyst from britain the politics first online magazine he told us attempts by western states to stir up rebels in syria may cause the middle east purdah keg to finally explode political dialogue is the only solution to the conflict in syria any conflict in the middle east has the potential to turn the entire region into a vast firestorm and the fact that the american and british government are

implicitly encouraging the syrian opposition is only making things worse in syria and it's only groups all to more casualties and more tragedies the way in which western media is betraying the conflict in syria could this could be mistakenly taken for a hollywood film whereby it's good versus evil in the real world however we know that no conflict is over black and white and what we're seeing is a concerted effort by western governments and western media to bring down president assad and what we need to bear in mind is that this is not the first time we've seen this happen this way the western media portrayed conflicts in the past clearly establishes a relationship between western governments and western major they work very closely together we saw this in the wars in the former yugoslavia we saw this leading up to the invasion of iraq and we also saw it last year in libya this is r t coming up a bit later in the program mr to stickle nightmare europe's financial troubles are

predicted to get even worse as the bloc prepares to flood athens with more taxpayer cash intended to repay previous e.u. learns and. election fever grips russia as thousands of people come out on the streets of moscow to show their support for the various british dental candidates. a u.s. soldier accused of the largest leak of state secrets in american history has been officially charged in court among the data he suspected of releasing this footage of u.s. soldiers firing on civilians and that is christine for reports next the system behind the trials being blamed for covering up crimes and punishing those who speak out. nearly two years in waiting much of it in solitary confinement. among the twenty two charges filed against him aiding the enemy violating the

espionage act and illegally transferring classified data to an unauthorized source wiki leaks. part of that was this video showing u.s. army pilots killing unarmed civilians including two voyagers employees a video that had been classified by the u.s. military though the government accountability project just. it never should have been you can't also cannot go around classifying criminal activity that is not proper classification and i haven't heard a single person claim that what the collateral murder video showed was not war crime a sentiment manning seems to agree with in an online chat conversation he said he hoped his putting the information out there would prompt worldwide discussion i want people to see the truth regardless of who they are because without explanation you cannot make informed decisions as public a short time later bradley manning was arrested in the process becoming one of the

clearest symbols to date of a new set of standards a system that now works against those who report wrongdoing and protects those doing the wrong quite often in the name of national security the pendulum right now is still very much a post nine eleven time national hysteria and limited civil rights and liberties and she would no doubt was the justice department whistleblower in the case of the so-called american taliban john walker lindh i had advised not to interrogate him without an attorney and not to torture him and when i blew the whistle i ended up being put under criminal investigation where further to the state morrison which i'm licensed as a lawyer and put on the no fly list but it always wasn't. this way in two thousand and two the time magazine person of the year was the whistleblowers and although the government tried to have him put away for life daniel ellsberg was hailed as a hero by the public for leaking information that became known as the pentagon papers classified documents he helped author that revealed what was actually

happening in vietnam. what he revealed to the public is what the public should have known from the government itself important knowledge and important knowledge now often stifled both on and off the battlefield and the military or from women is sexually assaulted or of years or even rate she starts to go through the chain of command which will actually harm her and stead of helping her outside of the military policies are also being drawn up to protect corporations the so-called whistle blower improvement act if passed would actually harm whistleblowers requiring them to report misconduct to their employer first before going to any regulatory agencies it would also remove any incentives to do so our government and . businesses are so intricately linked as hard to tell them apart both now working harder than ever to keep their secrets out of the public eye in washington

christine for zero r.t. . has more thoughts own brother manning's trial and so to kevin zeese he's an attorney and director of the coma america group also part of the bradley manning support group as well i gather thanks so much for being with us along from new york there what did it take so long to bring charges against manning do you think. well you the major reason it took so long is because of the materials involved they were you know very careful about the secret nature materials the classified nature but that's the excuse they give i think the real reason was they wanted to break bradley manning the one year of solitary confined was totally inappropriate the only purpose i can imagine for that is to break him to get him to plead guilty and perhaps a given implicate julius on leaks i think that was really the purpose and i think that this whole delay was unnecessary and really was used as a weapon against manning a songe if what you say is true that they intended to break in do you think they

did at the end of the day. no not at all in fact least a very strong. lawyer said he survived the solitary confinement well a lot of us worked very hard to get him out of solitary confinement took a great deal of pressure from the people the state department who won one one of the top officials resigned lawyers around the country president obama there are protests constantly quantico where is he now is in the he's being held in the brig where it's more appropriate he's in a quad with three other prisoners each has their own cell they share a common area and he has to go out there three hours a day and also has meals with with the population so that's why he should have been treated in the beginning the mistreatments on this we talked about in this trial what he will brief personally. hearing he's going to face you think it'll be a fair hearing considering it'll be in front of a military court and a jury of offices. it's almost impossible president obama has already announced

that bradley manning is guilty president obama is the commander in chief the judge the jurors the prosecutor we work in our court works under president obama's command i can't imagine anyone that corum thing they'll have much for career if they find bradley manning not guilty so far the article thirty two which is a poor hearing was a kangaroo court they were denying information that bradley manning needs for his defense it looks like it's a railroad job a kangaroo court trying to set an example and and prevent anyone else from being a future bradley manning. one of the dangers in ethics though all such leaks abuse and revealing classified information you know it can jeopardize lives no matter how you look at it easy ethically right to treat whistleblower as as heroes. well in this case there's been no evidence of a national security harm in fact former sec or defense robert gates said as much they've been several internal reviews that the manning defense team isn't trying to get the government refused provide them i assume because it would help bradley manning the documents that were classified should not have been classified as your

initial report showed that collateral murder video should not have been classified as just covering up war crimes there's been no indication at all that these low level secrets even were properly classified one thing that manning's lawyer want to do is to cross-examine the people who desired to classify these documents to show they were misclassified if they didn't harm national security they should have been secret to begin with and manning should be accused of releasing classified documents that should have been classified in the first place kevin briefly how is this case going to change things how will the laws regarding whistle blowing change off to the bradley manning case do you think. well that's a good question and it's going to have to see how this case goes i think what they're trying to do is really send examples barely men they were tortured for a year with solitary confinement they given a phony article thirty two hearing that was a kangaroo court with a biased hearing officer i hope the. court martial goes better for manning but if they continue to railroad him through this that we set an example for

a future of people in the military to cover up work crimes rather than expose them so i think that's what the goal is because they don't want to see workarounds exposed or involved in wars all around the world for you sake of the time to be on the program kevin zeese there joining us from new york thank you. tel aviv says deciding whether to strike iran is israel's decision alone dismissing international warnings that a military attack would be disastrous for the region israel's strong rhetoric grew louder after the latest u.n. atomic watchdog mission to the islamic republic fails to ease some western concerns of accuses to route of trying to create nuclear weapons and aims to wipe out iran's atomic facilities before they could pose a threat to israel's security this is the u.s. and its allies stress the tough economic sanctions imposed on to run need more time to work however as it is pretty streeter found out there are many factors that could impede their progress. the message is clear if iran's intransigence continues it will face increasing pressure and isolation the left is branding up the pressure

on new delhi to follow its lead in stopping imports of iranian oil and dealing with its central bank but india refuses to follow suit you it is not possible for india to pick you need to. use the. you don. yes you can only. grow. a good member of their marketing is a former u.s. state department official said that india's failure to stand with the west on the oil embargo is a slap in the face for the united states and raises questions about india's ability to lead but despite all that indian officials won't budge on the issue india is a ranga largest oil customer with an annual trade of twelve billion dollars officials here in new delhi are negotiating with their counterparts in tehran to continue that trade using rupees instead of dollars to get around the western think sions. and it's not just india ignoring the west's wishes with four asian countries

collectively buying two thirds of iran's oil while the e.u. is just twenty percent whether the sanctions work or not is walk in guess consent these are sanctions imposed by the united states the european union they didn't consult us from the impose these sanctions so it's that's the american problem not ours issues the welfare of our people and their energy needs that's why many say they think sions will be totally ineffective if the asian giants won't play ball countries which are sort of for holding out of the future are the near term sanctions would not bite it on sufficiently enough to achieve restraint countries objective if india and china were not to come on board e.u. us think they're designed to isolate iran but if asia won't play that game the question arises what will or can the west do next preassure either r.t. new delhi india. the streets of moscow were flooded with people on thursday gather to show their support for the candidates running for the upcoming presidency tens

of thousands turned up for mass rallies in a spike of political activity out of next month's election he's correspondent peter oliver attended the largest demonstration. both thursday seeing a day of rallies in support of various political candidates of the president across moscow today is a public holiday meaning that lots of people off work and able to come out on the streets largest rallies taking place this is amongst the pro blood to me of putin for president supporters many thousands of people gathered here inside the luzhniki stadium this is the usually the the home of top level football matches today it's been taken over by politics now originally the organizers had wanted to hold this event. square which is right next door to the kremlin however they said that around one hundred thousand people could turn up but it's just too many people to have a right in the center of downtown moscow would have brought the city to a standstill. so they put they've held it here somewhere that's used to hosting

this type of capacity of people but this wasn't the only event taking place today you know we also saw the supporters of. the well veteran firebrand politician in the leader of the liberal democratic party now there was also a demonstration a rally from the supporters of the communist party as well as other smaller groups as well since the parliamentary elections in december of last year we've seen a real spike in political activism here in russia following those elections there was mass protests here in moscow as well as elsewhere around the country and that's really continued through lots of things going on ahead of those elections that are taking place on the fourth of march just over a weeks ago as i say political activism very much at fever pitch here in russia full coverage for us of course as the election draws near and moving in all those results as well full coverage from acidity. zero growth

a continued recession and more austerity that's the latest economic forecast for the e.u. as predicted by the european commission itself the latest figures are especially worrying given growing skepticism over the impact of the second bailout for greece major financial players already come out and said it simply won't stop a greek default more makers in athens of also passed a debt swap law now with private investors that's a razor hundred seven billion euros of the country's debt the parliament's now set to pass further measures as protesters gather outside costers dizziness professor of law at the university of london says that these cuts will only drain greece further thanks. in large. to destroy or. push people on why they leave accounts. off the obvious feet as the what. we have to do person by. employment fifty percent unemployment over here was a huge increase in hong kong to knock out such

a phenomenon of course a huge increase in suicide how much more born it will be a fruit as well as it because we want you to solve these measures which have been implemented in order to do it for all the germans and the fruits people to give them to get some of the credit it's nothing to do. the greek people want is under these measures is precisely. what it is a small bed with these problems. coming up in a couple of minutes some of your own are to most casual stacy her but a frank and conventional discussion about the messy state of world finances these days the closer report than on a very shortly tonight. here of london candidate ken livingstone has sparked a new outrage after telling an audience hang a baker oh week until the others improve the news is nature's way of taking care of the banker overpopulation they're a cancer they're

a parasite ken livingstone is correct hang a banker a week until they get the fricken message. that's coming up next our recovery our top stories here in ten minutes mean time with me kevin owen before that r t heading to damascus next to discuss the ongoing political crisis in syria with alexei pushkov he's head of the russian foreign affairs committee.

during your meeting with president assad you pointed out that russia supports only going to reform in syria and it goes as foreign intervention in syria's affairs will moscow stance remain a scene how would you comment on the recent statements by the secretary general of the arab league below a moscow and been shown signs that their position might. you know the most. obviously we're going to get off the statement made by the arab league's representative expresses nothing but his own opinion so far i see nothing that could make moscow in beijing change the firm stance on the issue expressed in the recent vote on the resolution on syria and so on in which they called for urging

both sides of the conflict to stop using force rather than only the pro regime forces because i think we currently have every reason to believe the russian delegation will continue its attempts to persuade the outside government to adjust their approach was the with respect to the use of military force when dispersing opposition groups on the other hand those with the ability to influence the armed groups who should use it to ensure the violence is not regarded as the only way out of the conflict. scenario we have to avoid is this if driven by some factors that government decides to restrict the use of force and the other side should not be able to use it to their advantage this is happened before when the government troops were ordered back to the barracks at the request of the arab league in other words during the work of its mission from the shows the rebel groups used the opportunity to mount an offensive.

friends of syria in tunisia. and on what do you expect from that it manually. yeah. there's also the show as to whether some i think moscow refused to take part in that meeting because judging by the statements we've heard on the format of the so-called friends of syria club it will soon be formed with the sole purpose of that conference is not to find a way out of the current situation but to promote the idea that the conflicts can only be resolved if i sadly it is i have met with mr assad himself the foreign minister of a parliamentary speaker and with representatives of two opposition organization is i have to say that i did not get the impression that it is the people versus asaad in this with. the situation is different because there are a faction of the people is indeed opposing the regime while the other support mr

our side of the sun quite actively reservoir yet another faction does not want syria to show into chaos or to force a support the regime passively but you are clearly not on the side of the on the insurgents or the special actually they do not support the i.j.a. outside interference sitting in the situation therefore is not simple it's not lack and white race the current regime will be the armed insurgents who have been stepping up their efforts to get to the top of the regime these efforts are supported by foreign states is that when you both arms shipments and i believe financially or soon will it be a third party as we have learned from the example of egypt the young when representatives of the gulf monarchies which as far as i know you do not have a single democratic institution star complaining about our son's regime being undemocratic and if i believe that undermines the political and moral legitimacy

and i would say of the friends of syria is it a club of serious friends or a club of people who want bashar assad gone a particular person that is the. question we have to ask. the answer which to me is quite obvious have been the reason the moscow chose not to take part in the conference. but the what do you think military intervention easier or realistic option in the world countries that are to syrian opposition. as there is so critical of all the muscular here from the meetings i attended in damascus i got the impression that there is no such thing as a united syrian opposition there is the syrian national council with its seat in istanbul turkey which opposes the very idea of negotiating with the regime or shown israel it seems this council was it created specifically to promote the idea of

military intervention as a sort of however well according to other syrian opposition organizations it has very little influence in syria and it's very weakly we're presented with only one serious political scene as these it is only one of the opposition groups comprised of syrians now have no. presence in the country there are other grievers each one viewing itself as the most significant but again according to a representative of the opposition these organizations have no control over the whole insurgency in other words the opposition is very fragmented and your goals are different and they are desperate to a point because the situation feels like a dead end so i mean the authorities are pursuing their own goals. the armed opposition has use its own goals and it's very hard to upset this negative

stability as it is i would call it in order to begin a political process that would change the regime and at the same time reconcile the regime of syrian society. to ensure that it was. culture is the same us you are going to try to build on our journey home of the was all worth trying to from some even new boss same as the old boss this could very well describe what has happened in yemen after an uncontested presidential election what does the future.

of. russia going to be soon which brightened a few more about someone from phones to christians. whose friends don't talk t.v. don't come. thirty moscow times the top stories from our tape tightening the noose around the syrian regime further calls for miller.