coming up this hour on our t.v. across the middle east and around the world protests are flaring up against the u.s. for an anti islam film for you the latest developments and take a look at the issue of american foreign aid in the region and those aren't the only protests our she is keeping an eye on today. occupy wall street is celebrating its one year anniversary and gone are the days when the protesters were just missed by the media and defeat and drug abusers ahead

we'll show you where the movement came from and where it's headed. it is monday september seventeenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out and you are watching our t.v. . we're going to get today with the massive protests taking place across the middle east and north africa after last tuesday's attack on the u.s. embassy in libya which ended in the deaths of four americans including a u.s. ambassador protests have been spreading throughout the region there are conflicting reports regarding the source of the anger from a low budget offensive film to overall frustration with the west u.s. embassies around the world are on high alert and non-essential u.s.

government personnel from embassies in places like sudan and tunisia have been asked to evacuate in beirut lebanon today a massive protest put on by has the law and our two correspondent lucy cavanagh has been there covering it and joins us now live. from what i understand unlike some of these other protests the one where you are actually hasn't gotten violent tell us what you've been witnessing. yeah well it's certainly not the kind of protest where you about your american passport per se and wave it around but yeah i mean it does stand out in stark contrast to some of the other uprisings we've seen across the muslim world it was one of the largest protests we've seen to date but of course this was taking place and daria this is this is largely a neighborhood in southern beirut it's hezbollah territory this was ordered to an organized by hezbollah we even saw. organization the militant organizations leader come out today surprising many to speak briefly before the crowd for about fifteen

minutes house and those are all really even though the pictures are pretty interesting in the sense that there was a massive turnout it's really more of a political calculation than than anything this is different from the types of protests we saw here in tripoli in the northern part. of lebanon where the largely sunni groups sort of spontaneously took to the streets and are targeting several u.s. fast food chains there it's also quite different from what we've seen across the other countries because again hezbollah here really is more than just. militia organization this is a political force and they don't do things whatever whatever your opinion may be of the organization the u.s. of course considers considers it to be a terrorist organization this is a rational political actor and there is no vested interest in it to sort of repeat the kind of violence that we've seen in other countries in fact being able to pull off such a such a large rally without any incidents of violence and i didn't see anything like that really is

a chance for the organization to say to the west look you know we're really unhappy with what you've been doing with your policies with this movie but hey we can take to the streets peacefully and you know manage the situation down there so it was quite interesting but there's also there's no lebanese forces no no police officers in the area it's all hezbollah. militants sort of guarding guarding the area which is a pretty. the discerning experience for someone who hasn't been to that area before the i mean we've been showing these pictures and it looks like an absolutely massive protest we also today have heard reports of u.s. diplomats in beirut destroying classified documents what's their concern what do you know about this. yeah i mean though the information is murky at the moment it does seem that this is more of a precaution precautionary move sort of and in fact i don't think it's just taking place in lebanon we've heard that other embassies may be going to considering similar actions but the reality of their concern of course is that the embassy could get storms the reality of the situation and we drove past the u.s. embassy here this is

a heavily heavily fortified area there were several tanks outside of it will drop by this morning and you also have lebanese lebanese citizens guarding military citizens guarding the outside perimeter so a storm something like that don't have to clash with the lebanese i don't know i don't really think we would see that happen and moreover again i mean the more radical elements within this country. are thought to be located in the largely sunni dominated areas not so much in beirut so i doubt that we will see this kind of violence escalate if the political situation doesn't change if we see something for example an attack on iran then i think the situation could be a lot more dangerous for the u.s. . and elsewhere and so perhaps that's a precautionary move for other considerations i guess i'm just wondering i mean have you had a chance to speak to some people some of the people on the ground there and what are they telling you. well instead of me retelling it why don't we play

a sound bite that i think we have for you ok. we believe and i think you know the. rhythm of the companies that somehow. this. jesus this whatever you got a. lot of people. so it's quite interesting i mean we've seen the discussion here a lot of the people that i've spoken to you've heard this man and gentleman that the has been a rally this morning they really feel that this is actually a human rights issue for them they feel that the u.s. should have done more to prevent this video from spreading he had said in a separate interview with us to the american should apologize to the muslim world for allowing this video to be spread of course this also gets into free speech rights but when we asked him about that and that's the opinion of many of the people that we spoke to they said what free speech i mean something like this is

really seen as a personal insult not just to the people but to their religion as a whole and it sort of harps on some of these sectarian divides in this. western sentiment that's that's steeped in religious belief there really could be a dangerous sort of blowback for the u.s. of if it continues but again we do have something called free speech that's a really tricky situation i want to switch gears from my last question to you were we are running out of time but when you were here with us in washington i know that you traveled around the country covering occupy wall street you've covered u.s. politics in depth as well what role do you think these recent attacks in this unrest will play in the upcoming election. to be honest with you chrissy if the election was taking place in the next week or two i think it would play a massive role but it's not and as we all know in politics a day in a week could be as you know year in the electoral terms i think it really depends on the situation on the ground at the moment where people go to the polls and you know the old clinton crit it's the economy stupid i think still applies to us as

voters on the ground in the united states are probably going to be more concerned with pocket book issues things that they feel affect them directly and personally and not so much you know wave of anti-american sentiment that's largely spurned by a movie that you know very few people would stand out and say hey i support the specific thing so it depends it depends on how things play out but i think it would take a little bit more for this specific wave of protests to actually upset the balance of the election foreign policy in general yeah there's a lot to debate there but specifically i think we're going to be seeing good wine it's not even october yet but your sentiments that you just raise there lucy whether it will be the economy or foreign policy that will take a center stage that is something that we're going to talk about a whole lot more in this show but for now i want to thank you lucy always great to see you are two correspondent lucy cavanagh beirut lebanon. well there is a whole lot more to discuss when it comes to these events in the middle east and

north africa and how u.s. foreign policy relates to that we want to take more now of a bird's eye view and connect some of the dots in terms of what we've seen over the last seven days and also what we've seen over the last few years and decades i'm joined now by r.t. correspondent rima. to tell us more and rima let's put aside you know some of these specific events for a moment and talk more broadly about these events and what they mean on a larger scale well first of all i would say that these events these are arab nations who are very sentimental very emotional they saw something happening they saw the film being produced and they want to protest this and take it out to the street was their only way to protest this so because they are very sentimental we've seen this happen before they demonstrated against the burning of the koran in base in afghanistan they demonstrated against the cartoon as the

danish cartoonist who depict the prophet mohammad we've seen that happen before and it also died just as quickly as it started and just there's fiercely as this started so we don't know what's going to happen when it comes that this might just be another example of how the arabs show their feelings towards something that is happening on the ground. right now the other thing is a lot of it has to do with what's going on in the arab world at the moment the process the arab spring or whatever you want to call it the revolutions they've brought a lot of these revolutions wrote islamist governments to power. people expected that those governments will probably act differently when they see something like this happening to their. prophet none of this have happened these governments act that exactly as the previous governments did they stopped the

process they actually shot fired at people a lot of people were killed in these process and people are probably angrier you know more angry know that those governments that they brought to power through revolution have done exactly what the previous government's done and i think that just adds a lot of fuel to the fire that is burning in the arab world at the moment i'm certainly lends some interesting to perspective to some of those people who believed for example in egypt when you saw you know the muslim brotherhood take power that things would change significantly that so far they haven't necessarily again though it's only been a few days but remind want to look at this also in a different way much of the violence that's taking place around the world right now is taking place in countries that frankly the united states has given quite a bit of aid to financial and military aid and we've put together a map so i just want to put that up on the screen for you and for our viewers to

show a little bit of how that breaks down. you know these are some of the countries that we've given to afghanistan twenty billion dollars egypt three billion libya thirty two million pakistan four point six five billion so so here you have quite a few countries and the amount of money that is given. and yet in most of these countries. u.s. people from the u.s. americans are not. are they're certainly not guaranteed safety they're not guaranteed safety in their own country but there's they're not a lot of them don't feel secure especially at this moment talk a little bit about that relation relationship of money and what the return on the investment has been. a lot of people would that even call it an investment in the arab world they would give it all kinds of different names definitely not an investment a lot of people see i was just reading an article today about the foreign investment in the arab world and a lot of people including the this article called it the new occupation to control

or the new way to control the arab world through foreign aid to these countries many people see this aid coming to the arab world from one hand and. being taken away from them from a different hand meaning that these are countries a lot of the countries either produce oil and therefore a lot of the aid money doesn't make any sense to them why would you give aid to libya for instance a country that produces a lot of oil that can basically actually give away money to other countries in need a lot of these people see that these or this aid assistance the word translates into arabic by the way just means that the u.s. is trying to meddle into their own countries into their own affairs by way of trying to give you money whether through military to support the military or to support the social. non-government organizations they are that's you think people

who live there or do you think they have a sense a how much money is being spent in their country and b. where it's going you know the answer is simple a lot of people have not seen this money we're not talking about money that goes directly into people's pockets we're talking about money that goes either to the military organizations of the military complexes in those countries or that goes to n.g.o.s and i want to make a distinction here because the people on the ground in the arab world make this distinction they see the foreign aid that goes to the military industries in their own countries the military institutions of their country as something that may be. serry but on the other hand they see the mill the assistance or the aid that comes through organisations as something that they have to question and we've seen that happen before even before the revolution started we've seen a lot of people questioning why are we're receiving why are we receiving

a lot of money through organisations that have basically held nothing or have not contributed a whole lot to the country and when you're talking to systems people see that they want to see changes on the ground they have not seen the poverty is the same absolute so it's the question is whose hands is that money actually going to an important question but we are out of time great to have you on our air of a correspondent remodelled thanks so much one year ago today hundreds of people gathered outside of wall street in new york city and staging protests staged a protest against big banks corporate greed and the fast growing gap in inequality around the country they call the wealthiest people the one percent and everyone else the ninety nine percent they stayed day and night in manhattan zuccotti park and within a few days there were similar protests in every major city in this country and in other countries as well and the hundreds turned into thousands of course has

covered this since day one so we want to take a look at what's next for occupy wall street we've got on a saucy a church going to live in our new york studio and in our los angeles studio artie's ramon go indo and honest as they let me begin with you today in honor of the one year anniversary hundreds of people came back to new york and from what i'm told by nine o'clock this morning there were reports that one hundred people had already been arrested just talk a little bit about what you've seen transpire over the day. christine it really is you know time flies i can't really believe it's already been a year it seems like only yesterday we were down in the financial district on a chilly autumn saturday waiting to see exactly what occupy wall street would turn into and i have to tell you certainly nobody even the protesters on day one many of them were not even sure what kind of shape and form this movement would take and i'm sure we're not even aware that it would last as long as it has now yes today we're seeing the marking of the one year anniversary of occupy people started

descending towards the wall street area towards the financial district people were gathered outside the new york stock exchange throughout the day there have been already hundreds of people marching in the streets of the city some of them based in zuccotti park some of them taking part in different action throughout the city we can confirm right now that so far there have been one hundred forty six arrests just in new york city just today and of course the day is only really beginning more people are still gathering so we're going to have to wait and see exactly how many more arrests take place something that seems inevitable considering the amount of tension that is taking place on the ground right now as we speak because protesters are still very much disappointed that their message is not being listened to by officials in new york and in the united states let's go now to ramona ramona there's a little bit of a shift you could say in some of the goals of occupy wall street and first there was a whole lot of talk of you know issues like money and politics but where you are i

know we saw quite a few you know occupy our homes protests that have produced concrete results talk a little bit about the evolution as you have witnessed it on the west coast. that's absolutely right christine we've definitely seen occupy wall street go from that massive encounter in that we saw in downtown los angeles to more localized protests and as you mentioned the occupy homes campaign which has been quite successful in keeping in troubled homeowners in their home right now occupiers are currently occupying a home in the san fernando valley the family there got an addiction notice and for the past three weeks occupiers have set up camp there and have been able to deter the sheriff from from taking the house pretty much and they've also been able to you know join forces with other community groups church groups to also put pressure on the city and banks to renegotiate with homeowners so there's definitely been a large success in that and just overall in the west coast document has been

actually quite successful in pushing municipalities to practice better their business pressuring them to really do business with banks that are not out there for closing on people unfairly so although we are not seeing that mass. movement in the streets that massive kammen downtown we're definitely seeing some small successes in the communities around california and the west coast and we should say as well that you know even since that time over the last year the mainstream media would you do not acknowledge the movement really at first has started to do countless stories about topics like the growing gap in inequality in this country inequality will most likely also be one of the main themes in november election on a southie the talk about some of the results that you have covered this since the first day you've been on the ground you've spoken to countless people what do they feel have been some of the biggest successes in new york. well you know kristie not just not just in new york but in the united states of course the occupy wall street

movement flourished over this country and one of the biggest successes that i think most people are talking about on this one year anniversary is the fact that this movement started national dialogue and this is something that's being underlined by everybody because years into the aftermath of the financial collapse in the united states people were feeling that the issues of accountability of wall street of politicians sleeping in the same bed with wall street and corporations still funding and sponsoring politicians were issues that were not being addressed and just kind of brushed aside ever since the economic collapse took place and what occupy wall street did to many supporters is bring back this conversation bring out this outrage that these were things that have still not been tackled and certainly we have seen you know varied results of exactly how some of the issues that occupy wall street has been pushing for have been addressed but it's curious to note here that despite the sort of sarcasm and irony with which the mainstream media has

largely been treating the occupy wall street movement even today i've seen reports in the mainstream newspapers calling it a feisty little movement while for many of the people who support this occupy wall street movement in the united states has done a lot more than just be feisty out on the streets and even the politicians who many of whom refused to really come out and say that they do understand the concerns of the occupy wall street movement many experts say that we're seeing them right now today the democrats mostly using the occupy wall street message in their election campaign so these are issues that are not just alien to the united states and many people of some are willing to admit this others are not but this still continues to underline the fact that occupy wall street did bring this conversation out into the light yes certainly honest a whole lot of people would have been surprised six months eight months ago if you would have told them on the one year anniversary this movement would be alive and well would. again dropped quite a few a few people to the streets but also would have shifted the conversation and ramon

i want to talk to you about another shift in that conversation and that is about debt relief that really for individuals i know that occupy also called massive attention to the student loan debt in this country. this is sort of the way the past that the movement has been on for the last few months do you think this strategy has been more effective to them to talk more about debt. well that has been affected because we have to remember that occupy the new mint has gathered very mainstream support early on i mean the message is that of wealth inequality were very popular is just that many in the mainstream america just didn't agree with their tactics and what we were seeing in occupy were demonstrators who had never been activists before they were you know white middle class college graduates who all of a sudden found themselves with tens of thousands of dollars in callers day yet

being unable to find a job so really this issue of debt whether it be college loans or mortgage there was really able to solidify a lot of support because such a growing number of people were affected by this issue so in that sense it has been you know a great governessing force on cause capice is but also in neighborhoods which previously were middle class and are really feeling the effects of the mortgage crisis which is still raging years after you know that wall street crash and we can't forget another issue that occupy has really shined a light on in this country is police brutality this is an issue that if you talk to people in certain neighborhoods in cities around this country they say this isn't thing they have experienced for decades however when you see for example people getting hit with police baton in the middle of the streets of new york city when you see student protesters having pepper spray at the university of california at

berkeley sprayed in their face you know at a length this close this has been a great surprise to many people not to want to ask you this last question in terms of police brutality and the role that occupy has played in exposing this. christine occupy has played a major role in exposing this of course we've seen police brutality really run rampant and some of the most gruesome footage we've seen and our crews have filmed is just really something you don't expect to see in the united states and that's something that people have not seen in the u.s. for years if we remember some of the you know the episodes that you mentioned women being pepper sprayed in the face students sitting down being pepper sprayed while they're sitting and not moving the hundreds of arrests that we've seen taken place so one that comes to mind is on the brooklyn bridge over seven hundred people arrested brutality people dragged around on may day we're seeing tens of thousands of people really flooding the streets of new york faced with the tongs in chicago

for one during the anti nato protests we've seen police officers use bicycles to try to stop the protesters from crossing barricades really insane footage that we've seen throughout the year in oakland for example one we saw our war veterans a war veteran being injured into unconsciousness by the clashes with police this is something that has been just really rampant something very unexpected for many americans i'm sure and something that unfortunately we're still seeing today where there is a major disconnect between the way the officials and the protesters are confronting each other and the police really not letting the message of the protesters get across are even when people are not necessarily doing anything that's not law abiding very good points raised are to correspond honest to an article respondent ramon glenda thanks so much we're going to talk now about the one issue that was supposed to take precedence over all others in november's election if i can turn of

the economy around in three years we're looking at a one term proposition and he's right the outcome of this election will determine our economic future not just for the next year or the next two years but maybe for the next decade. well despite tens of thousands of americans struggling with unemployment underemployment and massive debt the recent attacks abroad are raising the possibility that it might not be the economy but foreign policy that takes center stage in november as election with tuesday's unprecedented attack on the u.s. embassy in libya and the widespread violence that's ensued things are changing let's remember the last time a u.s. ambassador was killed was back in one thousand nine hundred nine in afghanistan despite intervention in libya last year that the u.s. both encouraged and took part in it's become clear that americans even those serving at the highest level are not safe there but there may be that and that may be the case in other countries as well and questions are now emerging about the

right track when it comes to foreign policy what it is and whether or not the united states has been on it. now there have been believed threats and dangers and how they've been responded to in the best manner possible when intervention in other countries has taken place what have been the reasons and the results and how does it impact things at home now historically there is a comparison to be made with the jimmy carter presidency but not as many on the right are hoping that obama's will be a one term presidency there are very real dots to connect how the election of the night of one nine hundred eighty the economy was faltering as well but a whole lot of president carter's attention was focused on the crisis in tehran that's where more than fifty americans were taken hostage after students and militants supporting the iranian revolution took over the american embassy there those hostages were not released for more than a year despite an attempt by the carter administration to try to rescue them in april of one thousand nine hundred that mission was canceled after an equipment

failure. as our team was withdrawing to my order to do so two of our american. collided on the ground following a refueling operation in a remote doesn't location in the river there was no fighting there was no combat but to my regret think of the crew the other two which collided were killed many side this incident as the beginning of the end of the carter presidency so now we face a similar moment but not just for president obama both the president and his opponent mitt romney must come up with concrete solutions with a detailed map of how to navigate the situation in the best way possible and how to lead the united states to a place that puts it on the right side of history that's going to do it for now we will be back here in a half hour thanks so much for watching. three

. three. three. three. three. three. video for your media. c.d.o. done hard time.