top stories here in r.t. a major antiwar march outside the nato summit in chicago turns violent with a rather dozen activists injured and many more arrested after clashes with police. the violence contagion spreads further into lebanon deadly street clashes between opponents and supporters of the neighboring syrian regime reach the streets of beirut. and that i'm approaching unveils a new cabinet made up of maybe new ministers but some familiar faces make a return to. what next in the program we talked to former canadian diplomat peter

dale scott who focuses on current u.s. foreign policy. a forward diplomat a poet and a prominent antiwar advocate peter dale scott is joining us now on r.t. thank you very much for your time sir. i'm not sure many americans realize that democracy and freedom have become very toxic and often misused wars in diplomatic language why do you think such a concept as democracy is being so grossly misused. well i think it's true that specially in the last fifteen twenty years that america has used the slogans of democracy and freedom as a way of expanding their sphere of influence in the world and so you get these color revolutions for example sometimes you can't judge all of them in the same this is sometimes there is a basis

a popular basis for example we have these the two foundations one rip democrat one republican doing what the cia used to do putting money into other countries elections that i think is quite inappropriate yes i would like to see more democracy and freedom in the in the world but it has to be talked to this it has to grow out of the country in question and it's not something that you can sort of blast in and then finally you have libya which is a scandal that was done in the name of the libyan spring but that was totally pushed from outside and from the very beginning it was violent it wasn't a popular. military drills came in with support and training from both sides so we're seeing a lot of social change and some of it is good and some of it is partly good and bad

and some of it i think i think that history is going to judge the libyan saying very. from a very negative assessment of what was that against gadhafi i wasn't libya just this past december and what i hear at heart from many people is that they're waiting in the visage the libyan revolution is that everything in the country will stay the same they will get the same social benefits they really enjoy the same standard of living but the only thing that would change is that gadhafi would be gone and i think. sometimes that american foreign policy makers suffer from the same degree of idealism do you think it's really idealism or the lack of any serious analysis or consideration on the part of the people who make these decisions to throw full us weight behind any particular movement but i think the big difference between british interventions in the third were in

american interventions is that the british at least usually knew the languages of the countries they went into they had a certain degree of knowledge i think american policies are usually dictated by. ignorance in the case of libya for example i think that the americans who got involved and the french they did with the idea that everybody hated gadhafi and. all you had to do was give a little push to a popular uprising and poof. free would be gone and for the duffy had a great deal of support tribal support but not just private support because of the social programs which. were progressing. so the result. of chaos which to which we don't really see at this point and so i think it's the holes i'm hoping that at some point

americans will get sick and tired of these nasty interventions which blow up in their face i mean iraq and i think most americans wish they had never heard of iraq syria is now law and have lines and the united states has been very open about its desire to see bashar assad step down yeah what i would like to ask here is it's assume that we all assume that and it's true that syria doesn't have a very long track record the. political pluralism but this is a country that's long been proud of its religious diversity and tolerance and this is also solid say a measure of democracy it's a yearning for the country to have and already we see syria suffering a great deal from islamic militancy and their recent. explosions in damascus is another example of that my question to you is when you consider pragmatically when

you consider. interest in the region wouldn't it be better for the u.s. interest for the interest of israel to deal with off a chronic but predictable regimes rather than groups that you can absolutely never predict that future actions will have i do agree with you i talk about deep politics about the things we don't see in the newspapers but i've read more than one more than one place that u.s. special forces went into syria as early thinker last december before the before the syrian spring and were already training resistance groups and techniques of the street. so that america was stirring up the pot you know that. american foreign policy has taken

a very bad turn since we called nine eleven the september eleventh two thousand and one attacks and we know for a fact that the cheney who is the vice president the power man in the regime donald rumsfeld the secretary of defense their response to nine eleven immediately the words we have to go after all of these countries that are. area. one of the countries that was back in this is septa. tobar in two thousand and one they named afghanistan but they named their rat iraq was number one afghanistan somalia libya and syria. what do all these countries have in common well i think we have to see that at one point in the past they had been states allied with russia in the soviet union and that it looked like

a concerted effort to replace area of soviet influence with an area of american influence we have a general wesley clark who was in the pentagon in one nine hundred ninety one through two thousand and one and it's he who has told us about there was a plan to go after all these countries which we've now seen being implemented and one of the people who talked about the plan stalker he talked about the window of opportunity now that the soviet union is gone russia would be too confused state to be able to resist so that all of this should be done quickly so it was very sinister a play for pure dominance in the world and i don't think there's much popular support in the american people for this it was a group of neo con the say were special clique's. oil companies they had their

interests in global domination and i'm very disappointed that the american people haven't done more to stop this because it's become very dangerous to the world and it's you're suggesting dangerous to the interests of the really interests of the americans as well i'd like to ask a question about journalism american journalism and particle act what i find very strange is that on one hand that that idea of the tradition of critical thinking is very strong in american journalism but when you are dealing with a country's who is in. just are not allied with the interest of the united states say whether it's libya or syria russia iran and at least calgon it is very easy and it takes very little time for american journalists to demonize those countries iran there is a very good example of that often was a good example of my question to you what's the problem here is the lie is is it

the lack of critical thinking on the part of american media or probably on the part of the american audience who is taking those things so lightly well i think the problem is not the problem of the journalists but there have been structural changes in the american media that are very relevant here and there's been a lot of concentration of ownership a lot of overlap between the corporations that only. own the other corporations so that then there's a rule of advertising for. you don't have when we had the vietnam war we had. american journalists in vietnam we started telling the truth about how badly that war was going we didn't have that in iraq because the journalists were in bed and besides the newspapers had changed so much they weren't interested in playing that kind of role you're getting

a kind of corporate superstructure american society in which the media the financial interests and the defense industry and the oil companies are all part of one huge conglomerate it's very important for the future of the globe to have good communications that means we have to have good journalism and it's a great problem that the american corporate superstructure of the media is is less and less amenable to object. and finally from asking about. us presidential elections franchise just a few months away as so far they have heard very little if any debate on foreign policy issues and my question is whether it is because american people at all or simply don't care about what is being done abroad on that behalf there is

you know in america very long time to tradition of by a bipartisan foreign policy the trouble is that right now american foreign policy ought to be very controversial we're doing things which are way below what traditionally americans. would do so it should be debated but. it's the same big money that contributes to both parties and there are some issues which you are allowed to debate health care is being debated certainly very energetically but the question of whether we should be in afghanistan is not being debated and it makes me tear my hair because i feel it should be and we even have a big occupy movement in america even the occupy movement doesn't seem to be very interesting and. we did of course in the vietnam era have

a very strong powerful and he war movement perhaps the biggest of the world had ever seen up to that time we have nothing like that in america now largely because the pentagon has so carefully strategize how to prevent a war movement from emerging thank you very much for the times thank you. he's. just so to speak.

to see if. i am as. admission. could take three. three. three. three. two three. old free broadcast. media projects free media. wealthy british style.

markets. to the global economy. to. the nato summit in chicago and. many more rested with. spreads further into lebanon deadly street clashes between opponents and supporters of the neighboring syrian regime the streets of beirut. and. many new. faces to make a return to. fifteen minutes from now with me and me to sports is next with.

hello welcome to the sports there's until the headlines simply the best russia's ice hockey stars return home as world champions popped up trashing slovakia six two in helsinki. while the king of clay rafael nadal beat top ranked number djokovic in straight sets to play a record six italian open title with a week to go before the french open. and i think victory maria sharapova comes from a set and for love down against the french open champion minogue to dramatically retain the title in rome. but first russia's triumphant ice hockey team have returned to moscow after beating slovakia six two in the world championship final in helsinki to finish the tournament as the only unbeaten side the team was greeted by dozens of founds achieve the messier airport with many of the players wearing their shirts and gold medals well the red machine gave russia their third world crown in five years and did it in style with ten wins from ten games at the

tournament held in finland and sweden the afterwards they dedicated their triumph to the late locomotive yaroslavl side which was tragically killed in a plane crash last september. so invisible will forward their way to the plane. but it will look old when your mom or your. environment to see if it's well supported or well this is a great success for a russian hoggett is grosser just for all three of. the last two years you know there were already told you about his new porsche and obviously the art we want to gold and. the what expression of the speaker or russian dumper. well russia were the top seeds and overwhelming favorites but got off to a wonderful start conserving a goal to capture is there no custom they said but alexander semin equalized midway through the opening period for alexander alexei cut i think that made it three one

zero then swiftly netted his second of russia's fourth and then turned provider early in the third to set up to have a pop so all caught up pulled one back to find two but it's just getting malkin made it six late on to wrap up victory and finish as the tournament's most valuable player. in football now in russia coach take out the cancer's defend the bet as it's gears absence from their euro two thousand and twelve squad is a huge loss but the dutchman praised midfielder his mile off has joined the squad despite pressure from his sporting side to stay an extra couple of days in there's been much of an important reports. it was the hottest day of the year in russia so fair that the temperature rising too much fifty degrees below the deck of the countess feeling the heat more than most as he has a number of selection dilemma's ahead of him firstly has to finish it down to twenty three players all user has a number of questions concerning his teammates defense russia suffered

a hammer blow on sunday after the news but experienced defender of silly but it will be ruled out of the euro two thousand and twelve championships after he's failed to recover from a fine injury and head coach to cover accounts will be praying that his side doesn't pick up any more injuries especially in defense and that's really besides problem position it is huge he was a sure stance of a national team who are not blessed with a number of great central defenders. it's up to the team to try and make up for british loss suggesting the camp is in good spirits at the moment it's only the start and there is a long way to go. to perform well then this will certainly help to live to see his mood and we will certainly be supporting him all the way into this series absences . opens the door for a number of new players. for every injury like the make it or not and run one shot on earth could affect the following one place but now both are almost certain to be on the plane to poland possession is not just all like him deserve to be called up

earlier but now due to vassilis injury i have a great chance of making the euros i feel really sorry for massively as no one wants to pick up an injury at this time your point there were only twenty four players on the training pitch today as pay pose for their team photo however that number is soon going to write a twenty five with marriage a smile of resisting pressure from his club sporting lisbon to stage a film an advertisement and arriving to join up with the russian national team squad. for latest news on mary's mother. he will come with. something no problems by him. but he decision to go so good i mean you must be quite pleased about that play i want to show you the ones with russia. fall of us with under a week to go into at the cat has to name its final squat of a year of oppression the place to became an interest deduction is certainly on its

failure to secure themselves a spot in the playing to. richard for eternity. tennis now and rafael nadal has beaten well number one novak djokovic for the second straight time to capture a record sixth italian open crown after a rain delay the final by a day in rome the spaniard won it seven five six three as the serbian made forty one unforced errors including a double fault on the last point to hunt down his forty nine square title along with a record twenty first masters program they take also gives the spaniard enough points to overtake roger federer into second spot in the world rankings. i did things very well that when i when i had the chance to. hit the forehand i did what i had to the bend i think i ran at my movements today was really would not sell a happy about my game i'm sure but they were here on this. dream and i.

finished that like our system like this is great but everybody. and on sunday maria sharapova produced a stunning comeback to retain her italian open title against french open champion li na the russian went into the final in form after winning in stuttgart last month but lost the first set six four and looked down and i don't mean she twelve games to love in a second but somehow the world number two clawed her way back maintaining her big groundstrokes to eventually take it six four to level the match and saving a match point in the process oh she forged ahead in the decider after winning off eight games on the trot but not only was not to be written off as mentally she did once again the chinese run in from four one down to force a tie break but then tantalizingly the clouds gathered and rain stopped play for two hours however didn't let it upset her rhythm on her return to the clay she picked up from where she left off winning the break seven five to take the match title so the russian heads into next week's french open is one of the favorites not

only is that the time to. do swings because of the weather conditions so you start the match and you know you feel like you're playing really well then you stop and you go off the court you come on and then things just change for some reason you know your opponent starts playing better has time to regroup but this was a situation which you just have a tiebreaker to play so doesn't really matter what your coach is her anyone tells you is this about really focusing and point trying to overcome the. gulf now and belgium's nicol i call surrey's the world match play champion after a win on the final hole against northern ireland's graeme mcdowell well calls started impressively sinking this part for eagle at the sun and from this point onwards the belgian never found himself behind the woman down did square the match on several occasions including here at the fourteenth when he blurted out he didn't challenge for the lead and by the last hole to cuts to win it's. his second

victory on the european tour and seven hundred thousand dollars and a place in the world's top fifty for the first time. and it also went down to the final hole in texas where jason dufner signed a twenty five foot birdie at the eighteenth hole to win the byron nelson championship beating dickey pride by a single shot just over a million dollars in prize money. now to the n.b.a. in the san antonio spurs have reached the western conference final after a four nil series sweep of the l.a. clippers the spurs one their latest game one hundred two points to ninety nine to complete the white wash your face either oklahoma city thunder or the l.a. lakers in the western conference final and in sunday's other game the miami heat before the indiana pacers to tie their best of seven contests to apiece and i'll meet again on tuesday. and finally there are one hundred days to go until the start of the paralympic games in london where record audiences are predicted and the

russian team are hoping for their best ever medal haul and one cost which has more . with the opening ceremony of the paralympic games only one hundred days away the british embassy in the russian capital staged a commemorative event in the ronald mcdonald sports center for kids with disabilities is just one of many such events organized by the u.k.'s diplomatic mission in russia we are working very closely with a parliamentary committee we see them often and this is a pleasure i believe specific project with schools inside baseball. in the event recently and we have this event here today and we just want to make sure that we take being the host for the paralympics to work closely with you will federation head the paralympic movement in russia has come a long way from the days when people with disabilities were practically shunned by society and saw get symes now they're viewed as top athletes and their own rights

with some among the favorites to clinch podium places in london while the russians are largely unrivaled in the winter games other nations aren't in the summer paralympic sports do you have some pretty unsettled the competition in some sports is very strong because there are three times more participants than and unfortunately for various reasons fresh is not true present in every offense china will be one of the favorites in london because of the strong government program and of course the hosts who will turn out in huge numbers about what we'll do our best you know these young men and women could be russia's medal hopes for the future but artsy young to compete at this year's summer games sporting glory could still lie ahead for them as interest at the paralympic box office continues to grow as. the upcoming sporting extravaganza promises to be one of the best extended history as according to british to the record over one million tickets have already been sold

that's certainly something to live up to down there are russian which are very big sell off in a couple of years or months off regards the last call. on us all this. the .

russia would be.