from bad to worse the civil unrest in syria is propelling the middle east into crisis mode and deepening the divide in terms of an international response will bring you the latest information coming out of the region and question the accuracy of the news americans are getting about the middle east from iraq to syria. plus the u.s. tightens its grip on these so-called rogue nation threatening iran with yet another round of sanctions but who do these sanctions really affect and is it all just empty rhetoric we'll pose that question to the policy director of the national iranian american council. and bradley manning is finally getting his day in port the twenty four year old private first class accused of leaking hundreds of

classified military documents is in pretrial hearings this week does he stand a chance against the strong arm of the u.s. justice system. it's wednesday july eighteenth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t. well as civil rest grips syria. doesn't look like there is an end in sight that's after syrian officials top syrian officials are killed they include the defense minister the deputy defense minister security advisor and assad's brother in law now it's unclear whether the a suicide bomber or a remote explosive device was used in the explosion and as violence rages on in the region we want to take a look at just how the conflict is being covered and how the media is shaping public perception of what's going on there especially after

a new poll that shows that public perception of conflicts are broad is just plain wrong take a look at this sixty three percent of republicans polled still believe there were weapons of mass destruction in iraq now that's a big difference from democrats and independents a much smaller number believe in that mistruth. now when it comes to syria top government leaders here and says that the u.s. is not intervening militarily but according to the new york times there is a lot the u.s. is doing behind the scenes the state department has authorized fifteen million dollars and non-lethal aid to opposition groups the u.s. is reviewing options for sending cia officers to the region to aid the opposition reportedly cia officers are operating in southern turkey and also the u.s. is considering providing satellite imagery and aerial surveillance and intelligence on syrian troop movements to the opposition so it's no secret that the opposition

is being armed but who exactly is giving them away well it's unclear but if they turn to their neighbors iraq has a huge stockpile to donate that's thanks to the u.s. and the billions of dollars taxpayer dollars being spent that was spent on weapons there and now the u.s. is leaving and they plan to leave behind a treasure trove of military equipment from the huffington post quote the giveaways include enormous elaborate military bases and vast amounts of military equipment that will be turned over to the iraqis mostly just to save the expense of bringing it home those bases didn't come cheap construction costs exceeded two point four billion dollars according to an analysis of pentagon the annual pentagon report by the congressional research service. so what do we really know about what's happening in the country and is a diplomatic solution possible at this point joining me now is called dokken feld

he is the director of advocacy at the project on middle east democracy welcome call so i want to start off talking about what's going on today or what has been postponed over at the u.n. security council tell us more about this resolution that the u.n. security council in the council that is being backed by the west or the main debated the security council now is is when you when renewing the mission if there's going to be penalties and sanctions behind it course this point i think that the west is looking for teeth behind that one includes economic sanctions possible arms embargo and so on and that's what they're really pushing for their russian counterparts you know this is really different from what the proposal from china and russia they are refusing to get to come on board with the west proposal talk about the difference between their proposal and why russia and china are

refusing to back this for well essentially the russian chinese proposal is an extension of what we've had in the past few weeks in syria it's extending the mandate of the current mission but if there's not compliance is not having any sort of penalties to go along with it so that's the main difference that the west is really pushing for some teeth behind this that if there is not compliance that there's going to be very tough penalties including sanctions and other actions now several high profile deaths just happened within the assad regime what are they what are the implications of that could that mean that an end to the conflict is any closer well i think today's the high level says the nations are really important today i mean of course we haven't seen the sort of level of sophistication the attacks by the free syrian army the opposition that they haven't been able to reach these high level officials also in a purely strategic sense makes it much more difficult for the series. security forces to wage attacks against the opposition and it may provide

a window opening that they're able to take territory that they're able to wage more successful attacks within damascus itself and so on and could be a major turning point in this conflict. in terms of the last resolution of the resistance to this is there a fear that it could lead to should it pass could lead to military intervention in the region well i think that is the fear and that's the hold up from china russia and some of the other countries that they don't want to see a sort of libyan precedent set by this that opens that sort of level and the same time i think there's other concerns here in the u.s. that would hold back any sort of intervention as a number of steps as you mentioned intelligence sharing other sorts of trainings things happening on the borders that fall short of that i think we're much more likely to see those kind of steps happen before you see any large scale intervention so. we brought up earlier that the u.s. is saying that we're not going to intervene militarily but there are these things there that are kind of going on kind of more under the radar so it's not as direct

but there is i mean we have cia members of the cia over just across the border so i mean and that case is a kind of the kind of like a more covert intervention well i think at this point that's the kind of options they're looking and i think the major push here was when when the assad regime started moving its chemical weapons really scared a lot of people particularly here in congress and they were really pushing our defense officials to come up with contingency plans come up with short of full scale intervention and this is one of many solutions that they pressed when presented with. russians and russia's foreign minister has warned that the west that supporting the rebels there whether it's covertly or through this through this resolution will only intensify the civil war the. why does he make that argument well the i mean it's a very real concern i think what we've seen so far is the assad regime hasn't used

everything that the they have in their capabilities against the opposition and if the free syrian army were to start receiving some increase in equipment and so on the regime would respond. in the kind of things that they're willing to do so i think in the short term yes you'll see definitely an increase in violence and much more of a civil war type scenario now as things intensify over there in syria the red cross has officially declared that there is this civil war there and want to bring the implications of this now what that would do is allow parties to use appropriate force to achieve their arms it forms a basis for war crime prosecutions and that would mean that international humanitarian law apply throughout the country so talk a little bit more about that i mean just you know being formally declared being in a state of

a civil war what exactly that means and how could that how that could pave the way for more for more intervention from from the outside well i think the main thing is the does is very much push things in the direction of an i.c.c. indictment this is something that's really been in discussion for several months now and a lot of officials have suggested well we should hold off on one pursuing of his regime through the i.c.c. so that we could give him a nexus so that we can negotiate a political solution of this with this sort of classification from the i.c.r.c. starts to build a case that can be used against him and his officials so i think we'll be going down the road much sooner than expected now russia and china are now facing a lot of pressure from the west to kind of cave and come on board and support the resolution that is backed by the west and as things get bloodier and as things intensify over there. i mean do you think that russia and china could be convinced to back that resolution i think it's possible i don't know that they're willing to

go that far just now but i think especially with the high level cessna nations this morning that sends a very clear signal that the. sinking ship in the countries around the world are looking to change their strategies much sooner than expected so it creates a an opportunity for the u.s. to make their case more effectively and i didn't want to mention the u.s. just it's sending the pentagon has announced they are sending this aircraft carrier to the region it's the u.s.s. john c. stennis i think that we have a photo of it there it is we're looking at it now so that's not making its way over there i mean what message could that be said during that that where we have this making its way over there right now i mean i mean what message is that sending over to syria i think that message is most clearly directed at iran and the kind of rising tensions we've seen you know announcements of these d. mining operations or threats to close the strait but also in relation to syria is

sort of sending a signal you know not to get involved in any any further or to be sending any any kind of increased support to the syrian regime and to put that physical presence there as a threat. so amid all this do you think at this point that a diplomatic solution is even possible. i think it is i think essentially at this point events on the ground are sort of overtaking the political conversation at the u.n. and washington and things may be moving much quicker especially with the kind of dramatic turn of events today a sudden in some of his some parts of his regime may there be persuaded to leave or you'll see a kind of mass increase in defections i think you know it definitely lends to the idea that the regime is internally crumbling and that a diplomatic solution may be possible to hasten the process right call thank you so much. coming on the show we're going to be keeping a close eye on the way things play out over there in syria that was cold bach

infeld he's the director of advocacy advocacy at the project middle east democracy . well the u.s. heading iran with more sanctions the treasury department has announced new sanctions against eleven companies they say are operating on as a front on the behalf of the iranian government now the u.s. is valentines ratchet up pressure on iran it's all an attempt to put an end to iran's controversial nuclear program but what are the true implications of these sanctions or what do they actually accomplish to discuss this jamal a deep policy director for the national iranian american council joins us now welcome jamal pleasure to have you on the show so the us all that he has sanctions in place what do these new sanctions do the fact the matter is there's really not a whole lot left to sanction so the new sanctions they add some new names to the list of entities that are already sentient most of the names that are actually

listed have already been saying because we have measures against all of the financial institutions inside of iran so really what this does is it's sort of a warning shot to other financial institutes around the world to say look we're starting to crack down on every entity inside of iran so you need to pull out completely from any operations you may still have remaining in the country and so these sanctions are in addition to ones that are already exist and the goal here is to break down iran's nuclear program. is there any indication that these existing sanctions in fact achieve that well the sanctions they've been sold as a means to not just contain iran's nuclear progress but also so as a way to diplomatically and this crisis and to bring iran to the table that's what the administration that's what the advocates of sanctions say but what we're finding is that when we actually came to the. able with iran iran ians were ready to make a deal they actually put on the table were willing to and or freeze or richmond

twenty percent which is the most provocative element of its nuclear program in exchange for the us leveraging some of its sanctions and really what happened was we talked we you know the u.s. said we think these sanctions are working so well we're actually going to double down on them and so there was an opportunity for sort of an interim deal and we decided that this ancients were too valuable to give up so now we have to ask ourselves are we committed to this track of sanctions for sanctions sake and if that's the case what is the real goal of the sanctions i think a lot of people in washington are starting to think that the goal is regime change and the idea is we can impose enough punishment inside of the country on ordinary iranians that somehow they're going to be compelled to rise up against the regime which you know iranians are not happy with the regime punishing them through these sanctions is not the way to to capitalize on that unhappiness and it's interesting

that you bring up regime change because some members of washington are finding other ways to justify their want to bring this this quote from the treasury it states the identifications highlight iran's attempt to evade saying shines through the use of front companies as well as its attempts to conceal its tanker fleet by repainting reflag or disabling g.p.s. devices so i mean what do you make of that accusation iran using these companies as a as front company it's it's well it's true and that's really the situation we have is we're playing whack a mole with the iranian regime. you know they're going to find ways to evade the sanctions we learned under the previous sanctions regime that looked a lot like the one we have against iran the ones against saddam in iraq that the regime. finds a way to evade the sanctions and ordinary people are the ones who can't find

a way to evade them and end up suffering and so when we have the treasury you know sort of playing these games with the iranians ok we as you say nations you figure out a way to avoid them by flagging. foreign ships or fly your own ships under foreign flags or figuring out ways to smuggle in smuggle out oil things like that we can do that forever but what we're finding is that these tensions are starting to escalate out of control we're seeing this back and forth between the u.s. and iran. is going beyond just sanctions but is actually starting to take on these military dimensions and i'm concerned that we're not to be able to continue to play this game of whack a mole indefinitely or we're going to end up in a confrontation as you had mentioned a lot of times these sanctions go beyond their attend intended effects and end up affecting you know the everyday citizens any of rock and i had read today that they're affecting food prices food prices there in iran are skyrocketing because of these sanctions can you talk more about that about how these sanctions and

affecting you know the everyday citizens what they've done is they have severely impacted the price of basic goods the price of food things like that and that's not just the same as it also is the iranian government the government's mismanagement of the economy they've done a pretty good job of making these sanctions have as big an impact as possible but what the sanctions have done i mean sanctions have been in place for thirty years against iran and what we really have any ron is a sanctions economy and so you don't have a strong middle class a strong private sector you have you know industry and commercial activity dominated by the i.r.g.c. the revolutionary guard corps the iranian government the state sponsored entities and so while with the escalation of sanctions food prices have gone through the roof. you know increasingly private business is forced out of out of the economy but g.c. . the iranian government is doing fine and it's getting so bad that we're actually seeing that these sanctions are having an impact here in the united states they're

just going to mention that we did a story not too long ago about apple refusing to sell i pads and other devices to iranian americans so those those those sanctions are reaching your audience americans american citizens and you know on one hand there's an issue of discrimination you know the civil rights here in the united states we are claiming to with these sanctions we have human rights sanctions we have all these sanctions we claim to be supporting basic human rights around the world and particularly in iran when the seychelles themselves are causing civil rights here in the united states to be violated more than that we have in which you know iranian americans want to ship medicine to family and family that is sick in the wrong and they've been able to do this over the years but now there's certain medical products are not available in iran due in part to the sanctions and people who were shipping them to iran previously are now being turned away at post offices and being told

look you can't ship medical products to iran you can't ship medicine to a sick relative because of the sanctions. i don't understand the point of that to me sounds like collective punishment yeah i mean it sounds like i think this is going a lot further than what they intended. to do you would you say that i mean overhearing a lot of this rhetoric you know and a lot of fear is about iran developing its nuclear program is there a danger that iran's technical capabilities are exaggerated or are blown out of proportion well they're trying to build capabilities have been blown out of proportion by a lot of folks who are eager for more hawkish measures the fact of the matter is iran has a nuclear program and has not made a decision to actually weaponize that program now i believe that they want to get as close as possible too. you know to a threshold where they could develop a weapon i don't think however they would actually cross that threshold unless

provoked and so that's why when we talk about escalation by sanctions or possible military action we're really talking about pushing iran's decision makers into making this decision that we don't want them to make which is to actually develop a nuclear weapon and saying it's provoking them to go ahead and develop that nuclear program it's really it's creating it's it's almost guaranteeing that which we hope to present prevent which is iran developing a nuclear weapon there's still time we can still use diplomacy but the more we escalate the more the decision makers in iran are pushed to actually pursue this this path of weaponization and it's extremely dangerous and we've got to find a way to switch switch paths so new saying that sanctions sanctions when it comes to iran they just keep coming i mean how can we expect iran to react to this increased pressure well i think unfortunately you know iran is not well

equipped to deescalate the situation in iran when they are saying or if there is an assassination inside of iran or if there is a. virus that's put into iran's computers the stuxnet virus things like this iran responds in kind that's actually that's a decision that they made a while ago that instead of seeking compromise if they were provoked they're going to provoke back and so already we see that they don't have a lot of options to respond other than these extremely dangerous provocative you know either military maneuvers or threats to the mind the strait of hormuz through which a lot of the world's energy supplies move through or they've even threatened to you know increase the level at which they enrich uranium to closer to a weapons grade getting them closer to the the threshold and they're using the excuse we're going to build. these nuclear powered submarines or nuclear powered ships these are all actions that are derived from from us actions and actions of

you know the israelis who are also conducting these. bombings inside of iran and then the other thing that iran has done and you know we don't have the facts the evidence yet but there seems to be indications that there was an attack in bulgaria today the israelis are point the finger ready to go on i frankly wouldn't be surprised if you were on was behind those attacks and this is a tit for tat the minute we find a way to deescalate then we can actually start to prevent iran from taking these actions but as long as we continue down this road they're going to continue to do the exact same thing that we're doing against them. a lot of elements at play here jamal thank you so much for coming to the studio and getting it at that jamal of the he's the policy director of the national iranian american council. also had on our t.v. that pretrial hearings are underway for bradley manning the private first class accused of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military documents so that

the alleged the enemy of the state have a chance at a fair trial that's coming up next. in a line of american power continue. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a killer drug or starbucks has a surprising radio. would you. look into the loan if so you'll get the real headlines with none of them are the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers and are what actually matters to those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they want news they go online and read it but we're trying to take those

stories that people actually care about and transfer them back to t.v. . oh pretrial hearings underway in the case of army private bradley manning he is accused of leaking massive amounts of classified information to the whistle blowing web site wiki leaks he's charged with aiding the enemy are the correspondent abbie maher and joined us earlier to tell us of anything noteworthy that occurred today take a listen. today you know this is day three of what will be a five day pretrial hearing for private bradley manning who's coming up on eight hundred days of military jail now liz being held without charges what happened today mostly was an assessment of impact of the f.b.i. assessment of reno was this really a threat to national security a lot of definition of terms flying around what is deemed classified what isn't classified as we know bradley is being charged under the espionage act for transmitting classified information the problem is the espionage act only purpose

only is designed about because of information and then we already know that the collateral murder video was not classified and you know with the defense actually withholding the hundreds of thousands of documents it is a little hard right now to to actually deem was this really a threat to national security if so how exactly did that happen another thing that they're doing today is actually selecting the jury pool and doing some pretty questionable for the jury pool there as you know and you know you'd be hard pressed to find someone especially not our specially in the military who hasn't heard of this case the pretty popular case some everyone's heard of you know bradley manning wiki leaks so there's a lot of speculation that there could be pre-determined biases within the jury selection so you have the judge as seen you know also gender identity issues issues about don't ask don't tell since we know that bradley manning is gay. and also just about activism what they think about whistleblowers so there's a lot of

a lot of things going on today but you know as this trial has kind of dragged on liz there are a lot of secret meetings between the defense the prosecution and the judge have lagged on for some time coming to souls and doing a live blog today from the hearing but so far things have been dragging on pretty slowly here all right now you had mentioned earlier these documents that are being withheld i think you meant to say the prosecution is a way of holding those documents and you know as you mentioned things are going to be dragging these pretrial hearings hearing seem to be dragging and he's been imprisoned for over two years now and can this be seen as another delay and manning getting a fair trial. yeah i think a lot of people would say that was and i think that's why the you have glenn greenwald come to sola joining us on signing on to open up this court hearing right now they have kept everything pretty locked down in secret other not releasing any

of the court documents the journalists were reporting on not to take everything noted by hand not even on a laptop so it is very secretive there's no transcript of even the court proceedings going on release to the public so this is all going to be very locked down and yeah it is going to delay a lot of the proceedings and people are just saying open this up i mean it's already been he's already been held for eight hundred days without without charges and this kind of going along with the whole julian a song and you know since june nineteenth there's been an ecuadorian embassy held. once again afraid of extradition to the united states where he could face similar charges i mean these are very serious charges that we're talking about here aiding the enemy and when the prosecution is withholding so many documents that would outline how exactly he did a the enemy it is very difficult to tell of this point a lot of speculation flying around with both sides now you had mentioned before the difficulty in selecting

a jury for this because of these predisposition these pre-determined predispositions i mean add this point is a fair trial even possible. i mean some would say that that it is some would say that it is and i mean it depends on what side you're talking to here liz defense is saying it isn't fair when you're withholding so much of the evidence that would determine the outcome of what the charges are and then you have the prosecution saying it's not up to us to say you know that he released classified documents that's already a given but at the same time as i said before the espionage act he is the in charge of the soundtrack for for releasing classified documents but the main thing that he that really is noteworthy here is that collateral murder video which wasn't classified so you know a lot of people are just saying how long is this going to drag on for how long are

you guys going to keep things secret from us when there's you know these deals going on or not deals that i mean secret meetings of prosecution defense and the judge that are kind of lagging at all these kind of redefining the terms and also you know when you have a military tribunal and everyone is involved that's in the military they could have preconceived biases and i think that's really what people are worried about at this point is what people think about the case if people have biases against what what he did or did not do also you have president obama coming out and saying you know he's guilty he broke the law michael mullen coming out and saying he has blood on his hands i mean these are high level officials already making pre-determined cases against private bradley manning so when you have these people kind of already shaping the narrative and you know exerting their outside influence on the case it is going to court going to influence the people involved and i think that's what people are really worried about here right abbie thanks so much for keeping.