omissions for now in the palm of your. time so the want to comes to preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon i will take no options off the table and i mean what i say. president obama talks tough to a pro israel crowd trying to break the ice in frosty relations between himself and prime minister netanyahu but what are cozy relationship with israel in another war for u.s. troops tonight we ask who's really running the show. are you surprised cheerfulness by screaming he's pushing some solutions to the ground they keep us and still speak to us three months in which they could fish and it fits and while the jewish lobby

cries foul over iran's nuclear program human rights groups are outraged over the treatment of palestinian prisoners i can israel inmates are now starving themselves craving for love the justice the country reaches we'll show you what so-called administrative detention really looks like. and the results are in bottom of the winds russia's presidential election thousands of security cameras monitor the elections bringing more fairness to the voting in the country than ever before and you candid camera moment twenty twelve u.s. elections approach you barring something russia. good evening it's monday march fifth seven pm in washington d.c. and christine for is out there watching our team. well things the clock is ticking that's according to many leaders here both in the united states and in israel as

well as much of the mainstream media that something must be done soon about iran's alleged nuclear program iran was the central topic at this year's american israel public affairs committee conference apac hosted multiple high profile speakers including president obama israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will speak this evening but earlier today the two leaders met to continue the discussion r.t. as well as well have more on a pact and what the presence of some of these high profile leaders may mean for the world. it's an annual tradition of more than thirteen thousand people gathering in the nation's capital for the american israel public affairs committee annual conference it gives people from all over the country a chance to come and really revitalize their approach it is very important the united states will back off israel and indeed it is an entity united state is committed to back in israel well apac is considered to be one of

the most powerful lobbying groups in america and they host this conference each year showcasing american israeli unity just how much power it group has over u.s. foreign policy there is controversy speaking at the conference president obama reiterated america's dedicated to fostering strong ties with its closest ally the want to come to preventing iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. i will take no options off the table and i mean what i say. that it was all over it's american false statements like that make the world wonder is war with iran just around the corner. and the israelis are pushing us into a regional war that. does help cataclysmic potential apac support for jewish voice for peace and many jewish americans are in the fight of

peace were not on the side of a no the reward protesters outside of the convention say israel and apac are dragging america into war with iran position held by many antiwar groups. to drive their record but they're also protesting the lobbying groups enormous impact on u.s. politics politicians know that if they attempt to speak up on this issue they're going to be not just vilified they're going to be defeated apac affiliated groups pump exorbitant amounts of money into political campaigns in a meeting in the white house israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu told obama that israel and america stand together we are you and you are us which are good and while netanyahu stressed israel will always be a master of its own fate obama insists the united states will always have israel's back when it comes to israel secure this after israel has warned they will launch

an attack against iran without giving the u.s. notice atack tag a lot of power and a lot of that is due to the fact that congress and the media. just eats it all up so the question remains with israel ramping up pro-war rhetoric and america dedicated to supporting them is another war in the middle east all. but inevitable in washington this law r.t. . all right so we want to take a deeper look at the extent to which israel drives us foreign policy and earlier mass blumenthal writing fellow with the nation institute stopped by our studios to give us his perspective. with respect to iran it's driving it right now but it's not driving it to its as far as it wants to it's not able to move the red lines to where it wants to go we heard benjamin netanyahu tell barack obama you're you and your us i mean it's

a bizarre statement but it means we're basically our interests are the same that is not true with respect to iran iran poses no threat to the united states militarily and four and the obama administration is acting on assessments from the cia from the military and intelligence apparatus that tell him that that a war with iran would be disastrous israel is seeking to use the u.s. as its proxy to attack iran through a pac and what a pac is doing in congress right now is it's given congress an ask meaning they're asking congress to authorize a resolution declaring that the red lines should move meaning that the u.s. will go to war if iran crosses these red lines and the red lines will be that iran has nuclear capacity and not a nuclear weapon and obama has said iran has to get a nuclear weapon before we decide to act militarily so they're not the u.s. is not them and they are not us there seems to be that is an important distinction

to make between the two countries and their interests and what they said sort of the outline is we do hear a lot of course from. you know leaders in israel we hear a lot from apac and some of the voices that they sort of put out into the public to make their case we don't often hear from iran so i think it's important to put this out i know a little more than a week ago iran's supreme leader ali how many i gave a foreign policy speech and as part of that speech he addressed the issue of nuclear weapons and here's what he said he said the iranian nation has never pursued and will never pursue nuclear weapons there is no doubt that the decision makers in these countries opposing us know well that iran is not after nuclear weapons because the islamic republic logically religiously and theoretically considers the possession of nuclear weapons a grave sin. and believes the proliferation of such weapons is senseless. what do you think i mean is company lying i think the iranian regime i would agree with anyone who says that it's a terrible authoritarian regime and that they're not fully cooperating with the

international atomic energy association which israel refuses to allow inspections from israel also refuses to sign the nonproliferation treaty but. according to u.s. joint chiefs chairman martin dempsey iran has practical concerns it is going to act in its own best interests own best interest is not to launch a nuclear strike on israel even tinier pardo the head of the israeli mossad intelligence service says that and may are dead on the former head of the most has said that so it's really benjamin netanyahu and acting through a pac which is like their shadow government in washington to alter american policy and move against american interests and they've already done that with sanctions the obama administration has fought sanctioning iran central bank because they knew that it would raise gas prices and oil prices inside the u.s. congress passed it one hundred to nothing this apac resolution and now we have high gas prices and americans don't really understand why and now they're pushing us war

for israel they're atack so you're saying that iran is now. you know a sincerely genuinely nice kind country that you believe that they're not pursuing nuclear weapons they they may be pursuing nuclear capacity all i know is they're not complying with the i.a.e.a. and that they even according to senior members of the military intelligence establishment in israel and the united states are not inclined to attack israel or the us is about regional power it's about consolidating consolidating their role as a regional power and i think that order israeli government that was more clever might have allowed them to get nuclear capacity so they could portray themselves as this little big. in the middle east with netanyahu and seems so messianic and so influenced by a neo conservative line of thinking that he's taking israel down this path of self-destruction. hyping war rhetoric and pushing the united states attempting to corral the united states into

a war that could be catastrophic according to the world renowned economist nouriel roubini a war that could cause a global recession that this is not good for israeli interests either and i think there are a lot of players in the u.s. itself that are concerned about exactly what you just said that the neo cons are sort of pushing this engender i want to pull up something that just in case you missed it was a full page ad today in the washington post and we'll put it up on the screen basically a picture here of president obama and netanyahu and various quotes here by top officials current and former secretaries of defense the chairman of the joint chiefs all essentially saying the consequences of attacking iran are too grave now is not the time asking the president to resist the pressure for a war with iran. and wondering what kind of impact do you think visuals like this these full page ads in the newspaper i mean do you think that people will start to realize hey there's another perspective here than what we're hearing from you know senators john mccain lindsey graham and joe lieberman what's important to make the case against war in public and barack obama has not made the case for diplomacy

enough with george w. bush was making the case for the war with iraq he made sixteen major speeches before the war began barack obama has mentioned diplomacy for the first time. at apec so that's that's significant but what we're seeing is a constant drumbeat for war it's influencing american opinion a pew poll that just came out of public opinion shows that most americans say they don't know very much about the dispute over iranian nuclear weapons and they're not getting information from the mainstream media and at the same time most americans say they favor a military strike on iran that's incredibly dangerous apac is capitalizing on american ignorance and the media's dereliction of its duty to inform the public about what this means and who are. players influencing this drive to war and certainly many aspects on this road in this drive to war that we could probably talk about for another hour i want to take this in a different perspective so i want to keep you here and not talk about it so let's turn to another story now something not to being discussed at apac but it is

bringing about quite a bit of discussion as well as criticism for israel and that is the practice of administrative detention basically the practice of holding people in prison for months or even years without charge or trial and the issue is gaining more widespread attention internationally after a palestinian man came close to death after a sixty six day hunger strike a protest against his own imprisonment but more so against israel's practices in general let's go to a report now put together by our correspondent arena and then i'd like to bring back max to talk about this part of our. father wishes she could forget the day she was arrested but it's a memory that just won't fade i think the day of. the soldiers came to her house around to my husband out of the bathroom and running away there were many of them all of the guards they all acted like animals. that israeli authorities had already arrested hundred eighty times before believing him to be active within the

palestinian islamic jihad a group israel regards as terrorist how they had none was put under administrative detention meaning no trial and no charges being brought a practice widely used by israel in prisons like this one but hundreds of palestinians are being held suspected of terrorism but accused of not doing their prison can last for years with no formal charges being brought against them but detention can last up to six months but there is no limit on how many times it can be renewed at the moment more than three hundred thousand are in the street of detention but during the height of the second intifada uprising just over a decade ago thousands were put in jail without trial many of them youths like of their i.z.'s who was just sixteen when he was arrested. or used to frighten us terrify especially creaming is pushing us unfortunately. it keeps us in cells for two or three months in order to take confessions by force we were so frightened. of

three young person who suddenly finds himself in jail israel insists is doing nothing wrong and that it's necessary to protect informers identities but human rights groups both here and abroad beg to differ slightly good not only is extreme but also because israeli authorities applied all too liberally towards palestinians it's one of the basic moral principles that we you know that our society is founded on and if you deny a person's right to freedom you have to have a very good case you have to have a trial and you have to let them defend themselves against these accusations. when palestinians are placed under administer the of attention they're not told what they're suspected of personal charge sheet and there's no trial as long as family now awaits his release in april a lot of service you never know what it's like with hunger strikes it could end well of the same time you cannot explain to your children whether a father looks on me see when they saw him on his hospital he cried. how did

non-surgical his sixty six day hunger strike was not in self interest but to draw attention to other palestinians in similar circumstances is a hospital the moment unable to walk and is being fed intravenously but there is already talk of moving him back to prison when he recovers his lawyers say that at least his shackles have been ticking off even if only for the time being illegals quality israel and the west bank. so again hotter and case is just one of many has hunger strike calling attention to a larger problem of people being arrested and held without charge or trial no opportunity to defend themselves now there is a growing movement with various efforts to protest and a straight attention again this was something not right after the attack and has not been while a widely dealt with are publicly discussed among prominent israeli leaders so i want to bring back the little back into this discussion max i know you've actually spent time at this prison this affair military prison talk about what it's like and

who gets arrested and prepare a fair a military prison is a prison for primarily palestinian political prisoners who are arrested by israel in the occupied west bank affair military prison is situated on highway four forty three which is in israeli's only road it is an apartheid road and the practice of administrative detention is consistent with the israeli practice of apartheid in its relationship with the indigenous palestinian population i have a friend who is in a fair military prison in bus them to me he comes from a village called now be selling you saw some footage from that in the occupied west bank they have been organizing an armed protests in an armed resistance because the settlement has been planted basically on their land it's taken their only well it's taking their land and bus them to me is a leader of this resistance movement first what israel does and not be is they arrest the children so they arrested a fourteen year old boy named islam to me in his own bed dragged him out of bed and

then psychologically tortured him in a fair a military prison frighten them at five in the morning and got him to issue wild confessions including that there was an al qaeda cell in this village and they use that information to arrest people who are the village elders like sometimes mimi who has organized this a significantly nonviolent movement they were in the israeli army has responded with pure force killing another member of this village shooting him in the face at point blank range with tear gas mustafa to. me and dozens of me lingers in our fair military prison like so many other palestinians and still waiting for his trial still waiting to be charged with something and legally speaking one of the arguments that the israeli justice system seems to give is you know they can't they don't have to give this evidence to the prisoners they don't have to tell them what they're going to be the evidence that's going to be brought forth against them so that those prisoners can defend themselves they say because sometimes they get it in cohorts with other palestinians whose you know they can be put in danger if they

gave that information talk a little bit about sort of the legal back and forth and how you think this changes it's secret evidence it's actually a practice that's been normalized in the united states against muslim americans and israel uses it to convict palestinians without them even seeing the evidence presented against them in over a military prison and in military prisons in the west bank there is a ninety nine point nine seven percent conviction rate of palestinians and so you basically have israel ruling over two million people with an undemocratic system with no interest in giving up control over them and that's the problem that apac is faced with and that's why it's using so many propaganda it's propaganda stick techniques to either silence this conversation suppress it or put lipstick on a pig but it seems to me max i mean. certainly you have kind of your top officials not addressing that there is a lot of discontent within israel even within a lot of people that live in israel. about these practices saying like something

needs to change here or else it's going to get bad i think that the israeli public there is a sector of the israeli public of a few hundred people who are directly protesting these policies there is it's a large much larger sector that doesn't like them but complies with them and participates in the army but the israeli public has elected the knesset that is. authorizing legislating apartheid for instance they. recently banned west bank palestinians from marrying in uniting with palestinians inside who are citizens of israel this is the only technically democratic country if to the extent that it is a democracy that has this practice of the israeli supreme court which is supposed to be the bastion of liberalism in israel validated the israeli supreme court recently validated the practice of using of taking palestinian land in the occupied west bank and making that into israeli quarries so the occupation is being legislated democratically through israel and we can conclude that the israeli

public supports it to some degree and certainly we appreciate your perspective especially having been there on the ground knowing people inside of this present an important discussion i think that needs to be had not just with us here but also you know while we have some of these major leaders in town from israel maybe they should take the time to rest that probably not going to happen right now and ask them involve writing fellow at the nation institute thank you so much. well i had on our tail russia's election results are and one clear victor and dozens of candid camera moments at polling stations i'll show you what the u.s. electoral system can learn now.

the council encounter. is this state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. well you may have heard that over the weekend where the russian elections autumn or putin was the winner and there were also some changes in the process this year including a three hundred million dollars program to help monitor elections with more than ninety thousand cameras installed at polling stations around the country this

wasn't part of our response for calls by many for more free and fair elections there and as our g. correspondents wrong will tell you who discovered having those cameras installed at the voting centers met were given an opportunity to catch people if they were breaking the rules and also meant hours of some pretty good entertainment. it wasn't only about the winner idea. to lose it. but the lections were also about these video cameras here but to make them play and transparent and ensure a key gave us our the unexpected intertainment from ordinary russians. these people became the true reality stars of the election even though the world was watching closely a good no one was looking. president elect about it had web cameras

installed in almost ninety one thousand stations across the country now he wanted to make sure that the elections were transparent and with patent those cameras cause almost thirteen billion rubles what he didn't bargain for was that the cameras would give us a glimpse of other people's lives are one the country from chechnya to tumen. there's a certain voyeurism behind anonymous filming. to really enjoy big brother watching . the extensive monitoring plan exhausted many of russia's resources this police officer decided she needed time out from the watchful cameras capturing her every. now this video has over two hundred thousand hits on you tube showcasing michael jackson's ono movie walk brought back to life you see an observer looking at this man and he put on

a show for the cameras and for us. this election was one of many firsts and it was a unique in fact polling stations recorded over five hundred years worth of streaming live video these videos can be found on you tube as well as will not let site as. i would never be called dancing on screen.

so don't look pretty. much. all right so kind of a follow up at something new this year and earlier i spoke to a blogger and journalist tim curry who told me what he thought about these new web cameras as well as the public reaction. oh those elections well it's definitely a mixed bag you know i person in a lot of people who feel that there's been a travesty that this is the beating over of lucian and i feel and i know a lot of people who are very satisfied by it so it's kind of a split but there's also living life through the moscow filter and in moscow there's a lot more people who are maybe more liberal they have a more sort of look to the west more is sort of like a past year or like of moral principles and all that so there is sort of that i phone crowd that is more present in moscow than other places but you know it's hard to say but don't think that that's one thing we can compare the united states with

russia is there a united states there could be some goofy aspects to the electoral process and in russia there are two big united states everyone believes that every time and russia they never believe it ever so it's a lot of a question of faith and a lot of noise and what about these web cams i mean here in the u.s. were pretty technologically advanced country and yet the voting machines that we have and most of those machines they were somehow able to offer voters a printout of who they selected at the end it was barely more than a decade ago we were stuck with nine months of too close to call because of hanging chads i mean what do you think about the technology here and about these web cams we just showed this report and then in russia do you think they benefit us here. yeah in a way it would but it's very hard to implement see that for the differences in russia as a federal electoral system so basically the federal government here has the power to make elections the same everywhere to cameras the translucent bins for the ballot all that but in america the elections are power reserved to the states which

allows every state to conduct elections pretty much as they see fit you know what i mean and that's part of the problem because i thought it was for the united states that the same parties don't always appear on the ballots so the one thing is there there might be a need to be some kind of major legislation maybe even perhaps an amendment i dare say amend the constitution which is usually blasphemy but something that would say that the states have to pick a solid method so that each state at least at least in each state everything is done exactly the same in every place because having some with the paper some with the diebold machines which are very i don't risque to say the least you can't mix systems it's just absolutely confusing and it's not as clear as the print the ballots who it's not just the voting process itself tend of course they've found changes in the electoral system here in the united states i know that in the past year fourteen states here of already passed measures to make voting a little more strict some places will require voter id others are scaling back on

the early voting even others make it so convicted felons can vote even after getting out of prison on counting i know any sort of blog about your experiences in russia. all the elections going to about what do you think about some of these changes. well i could tell you about the convicted felon things that's absolutely ridiculous because once you serve your time you're done and you get it for a clean slate so that's absolutely absurd and it's very anti-american at its core but nowadays you know who cares about the constitution cares about laws. about some other things it's hard to say it again it goes back to a problem where it's like every little community can kind of do it the way it wants to and that's kind of part of the problem. you know i think people really need to demand more it's really a push of the people because if people demanded that every ballot were the same parties and states it probably would be that way but no one cares you know they need even recently as two thousand bush took it with the minority the vote in

a very close race that was decided by the supreme court which is written over in the constitution in a law that the supreme court which is the president that i could find maybe i'm an idiot i apologize i wouldn't if i am so that's absolutely bizarre and people really just need to demand more and maybe that's one thing that the russians could feel proud of is the people here who feel slighted are at least kind of trying to do something to overshadow the people doing the occupy protest america they are doing a lot about election interesting point spread out there i know you had an interesting perspective on growing up in ohio but i didn't like him and being a knockout thanks so much blogger and journalist tim kirby. and for now that's going to do it for more on the stories we covered and go to our team dot com slash usa and they're going to find stories we don't always have time to get to on air today our intrepid red team is working on a story about a speech attorney general eric holder delivered sunday at northwestern university specifying the legal justifications behind.