today on our t.v. an investigation into the attack on benghazi gets political lawmakers on the hill grilled a state department official about how the attack happened and why the u.s. wasn't more prepared ahead we'll sort through what we know now was misinformation. and if the u.s. it was a boa constrictor you can bet that iran would be its prey now president obama is tightening sanctions yet again on the so-called rogue nation trying to squeeze out the country's nuclear program but who are these sanctions really hurting and more importantly who might be be hoping. that wal-mart might be the best at slashing

prices but according to its employees that's not the only thing the company is rolling back on workers in nearly a dozen cities are now protesting demanding better wages and working conditions we'll take you to the picket line. is wednesday october tenth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching r t. let's begin on capitol hill where today the first congressional hearing on the attacks in benghazi libya are still under way the house oversight and government reform committee held a hearing and questioned to say your state department officials the former head of the security at the united states embassy in tripoli and the former head of an american military team assigned to provide security at the embassy u.s. security officer eric nordstrom said he personally had sent two cables to the u.s.

state department while he was stationed in libya here he is speaking at the hearing a little earlier today i had not seen an attack of such ferocity in intensity previously in libya nor in my time with the diplomatic security service i'm concerned that this attack signals a new security reality many more details about what happened that evening of september eleventh in benghazi emerge today with a focus on who knew what and when and why certain decisions regarding security in libya were made the bottom line here those claims that the attacks that killed ambassador chris stevens were the result of a protest gone awry are false the u.s. state department now says there was no protest what happened on the night of september eleventh had nothing to do with a controversial offensive video called the innocence of muslims and had everything to do with a group of armed armed men who came into the compound where the benghazi consulate

was based and after being unable to get to ambassador stevens directly while they set the building on fire and acid are still stevens most likely we know now died of smoke inhalation we do want to.

the jet after the turkish foreign minister says that his intelligence services had intelligence that suggested that there was non-civilian cargo on board as they say this is a developing story we'll bring you all the latest as it comes to us here in latest pictures on the screen as well all right thanks very much peter will become in berkshire later and updating our viewers throughout the night any of them. coming time turkey's nato cohort the united states has wasted no time beefing up its armed presence on syria's doorstep defense secretary leon panetta has confirmed he said troops to the jordan syria border stand simply to enhance jordan's capabilities in

case violence spills over out his gun if you can as more from washington. according to defense secretary leon panetta they sent the troops to jordan syrian border in case violence escalates in syria and spills over the border leon panetta did not go into details as to how many troops and so on but another u.s. defense official speaking on condition of anonymity said the forces are made up of one hundred military personnel and other personnel who stayed on in jordan after attending an annual exercise in may and several dozen more have flown in since they're operating from the joint u.s. jordanian military center north of that americans have used for years and the news about u.s. military personnel so close to syria that is boots on the ground of course suggests an escalation in the u.s. military involvement in the conflict even as washington pushes back on any suggestion of a direct intervention in syria but jordan is not the only place where the u.s.

has military presence if we look at syria and the u.s. military presence in the region we see that syria is pretty much surrounded militarily at this latest development with u.s. troops in jordan comes with the u.s. election presidential election less than a month away at a time when mitt romney his challenger is criticizing the president for not being aggressive enough for quote unquote sitting on the sidelines for missing the opportunity to topple assad and quote deliver a bad defeat to iran yes he actually said that so it's not clear whether this latest announcement about jordan is the administration's way of showing teeth in these in this election campaign or whether an intervention in syria is really coming soon one of the reasons why the rebels refuse to settle for a negotiated solution through dialogue is the signal that they get that sense that support is on the way that there will be an intervention but everybody understands

without a negotiating so was negotiated solution the bloodshed will continue so the signals that the rebels are getting including the news about u.s. troops standing by across the border could be making it much harder to come to that negotiated solution. a correspondent in washington d.c. independent journalist mel bowie thinks border protection is just a pretext to press harder for a change of the syrian regime throughout the duration of the conflict in syria we've heard a lot of talk about the creation of humanitarian corridors or buffer zones along the turkish border and now we're hearing reports of the same being established on the jordanian border fence a believe that is what the american personnel in jordan are there to do one needs to acknowledge the fact that this is not the policy of the turkish government nor is it the policy of the jordanian government the u.s. think tank the brookings institute in march two thousand and twelve published a report titled assessing regime change options and syria for that specifically

cite the creation of a buffer zone or a humanitarian corridor as a means to base certain rebel groups in the region to project force of the syrian government in an attempt to topple it so that it appears to be what it's playing out at the moment. or the big stories that they know moscow appeals court freed one of the jailed members of the notorious pussy riot but upheld the two year sentence for the two others the three women were convicted in august of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred for performing a song packed with obscenity at russia's main orthodox cathedral has got the details from outside the court. what are the bands members you could see in the some would say that she walked for e from citicorp hair she was released on probation throughout the trial and the appeal the women have maintained that they didn't mean to offend anybody and that there was a protest it was a political protest against. however during the trial the court found no political

motive to the stunt that took place back in february in the christ the savior of the jail in moscow they said it was in fact. motivated by religious hatred now today speculation has been mounting over a growing rift among the percy riot clan because we saw this one band members switched defense teams so here's my report on the story. a media frenzy one that breaks out any pussy riot court hearing the same old faces as supporters and critics gathered for the herring after emerging from her successful appeal everyone wanted a piece of the one band member released on probation but you could be in a somewhat savage remain tight lipped leaving her lawyers to do the talking. i'm very happy that i managed to help a person but i just did my job. last week so now freed band member fired her

original legal team her new defense change strategy arguing in court that their client didn't take part in the now notorious punk prayer in more main orthodox cathedral she was in fact chewed out by gods before she got the chance to join her band mates and their so-called protest start that argument was accepted by the court some trial observers believe that the strategy of the original pussy riot defense team wasn't to reduce the women sentences but rather to expose flaws in russia's judicial system for all the world to see by switching to lawyers that focus. on her personal case some might say that she walked out of court free today while her fellow band members went back to jail some would say rich i think she decided to get some real lawyers the won't be fighting in order to humiliate russia in the face of the west but to actually free her one major russian concert

organizers says they've been flooded with calls from foreign promoters offering to organize a pussy riot world tour that could earn up to six hundred million euros western and russian celebrities have called for the women's release amnesty international considers them prisoners of conscience free pussy riot t. shirts are all the rage it was quite normal that's the way you attract attention. there was a look that famous pop stars around the world look at the way but i was dressed look at that they'll look at all the others. we can do as well is that all we can do something different and they hated the idea of going into the cathedral and singing the songs because that. would in fact be something reduce with the media circus in full swing and the concert requests pouring in brand percy riot isn't set to go away any time soon polly boyko r t moscow

investigative journalist tony gosling told us the resulting popularity in vandalism in the wake of the band's trial raises a big question over who's really benefited from the sentence. let's not forget what else is going on around the world around this case because you have got loads of problems at the in a way you know part of the punishment is to stop these people cashing in on the free published this published there's been two prizes awarded to these people one from the lennon oh no fun which is a prize for peace which i find incredible since this has been such a divisive case the other is the luther prize which has been awarded by the city of wittenberg which is where protestantism started and what's happened is the city has awarded the prize for the people of the city and they are protesting against that saying you know we don't actually indoors this sacrilege i think there's something really a bit sad about a band an organization that defines itself by the opposition to the church and it's quite clear through this court case that's what this is about we've even had the

desecration of orthodox crosses across eastern europe in different parts of eastern europe in support of pussy riot so this is actually about i think an attack on the cathedral an attack on the church. britain's prime minister's speech trying to rally his party faithful by keeping for more cuts but david cameron is conservative crowd pleaser it's in stark contrast with austerity weary voters whose anger is echoing throughout europe. plus. the israeli prime minister called the shot for the parliamentary election with one eye on a stereotype and the other on a rabbit hole that after a break. it's perched atop a giant rock and the view from the ball scrubland stretches as far as the eye can see. for a city that all of siberia for centuries. it lost its economic importance even

before it was bypassed by the child so bare in railway but the ball's cremains a spiritual. scenes like these are a yearly occurrence thousands of also ducks worshippers and blessid will to commemorate the baptism of jesus. in the fifteen eighty s. the russians had only just conquered siberia taking it from the muslims. surrounded by enemies to ball supposed to be their stronghold constructed on top of the city but soon enough it became an economic hub siberian fire was the oil of its time bringing in a third of all russia's state revenues put the location head of the shoes for the russians the russian crowds who led

a revolt against the tsar and eight hundred twenty five known as the decembrists will stand there and drove. there they created a replica high society adopting the latest fashions as soon as they came out or at least once they made it from paris to siberia. but the city also served up some bit of irony for the russian royal family after the bolshevik revolution. this is the office was nicholas the second spend most of the last year of his life his whole family had been exiled here they were the fairly comfortable existence this was a big house but they weren't allowed to see visitors or go outside themselves leading the ordinary normal countryside life style they even had thoughts of a scape but within the year the czar and his family would be dead.

question is that so much of an oldish huge decision to try to mark what syria the civil war we've been in the deadly reality of seeing this conflict spill over into the entire region as much of the point for the current. would be soon which brightened if you need someone from france to pressure. needs to start on t.v. dot com.

as if british prime minister david cameron didn't have enough to do tackling recession these days and spending cuts as well no reason to watch his back apparently london mayor boris johnson is capturing the public and his party's minds even overshadowing his beleaguered leader of the conservatives conference started or smith reports them from birmingham. he's still got these great. hair which he referred to that david cameron has made a joke of he said if he was a mop then david cameron was the broom sweeping out the economy and some have said in fact that camera action now there are critics of this method of sanctions and a lot of times they're pointing to historic examples they're pointing for example to iraq they say the sanctions didn't take food off saddam hussein's table they didn't make his family live any less large than they did they point to countries like burma zimbabwe you know top leaders there were not directly impacted by sanctions only the people are but you know why then is there so much support for

this we talked about this legislation passing i think it was back in august in the house that vote was four hundred twenty one to six for further sanctions so why is there so much support for this method you know it seems like the only thing that washington in congress is able to do is pass the sections and the reason is that you know you have very powerful groups lobbying for these for these sanctions you have groups like a pac in the you know that against nuclear iran and foundation for defense of democracies and because there's not a very strong opposition who say hold on a second we've done the same since we've reached this inflection point there needs to be a real investment in diplomacy if we don't want this to go to war without that counter counter of voice members of congress people in the senate they all seem to think that this is a decision of you know all we can do you're on is more sanctions until the time

runs out and we have to go to war. what is the impact we talk about the impact on the iranian people you know who have nothing to do with you know the policies of their governorship but what will be the eventual impact if this continues on the u.s. in terms of you know geopolitics. well a long term the best way out of this is a negotiated agreement that also create space inside of iran so that ordinary people can can decide their own destiny for themselves for the united states if we continue to do this we're looking at the same trajectory we had with saddam where ordinary people were punished civil society completely closed up you had massive humanitarian suffering and in the end a dictatorship was actually entrenched not removed and eventually united states ended up in this disastrous military fiasco and that's the direction we're heading unless we can figure out how to change course certainly very interesting and i think you're right it's very interesting at a time when this country is so divided that one of the few things they can sort of rally together on is hurting the people of iran very interesting thanks as always

for being on the show jamal is the policy director of the national iranian american council we want to update you now on a story that we've been following pretty closely here at r.t. there's massive protests held by employees of wal-mart they started small and have now happened all across the country we're talking about places like dallas texas seattle san francisco miami los angeles chicago orlando and more also today wal-mart held its shareholder meeting in bentonville arkansas and outside of that meeting striking retail and warehouse workers came out to voice their concerns they called on the company above all to improve working conditions now we have video from today of a protest in more laurel maryland it's important to note most of the workers out there temporary workers here they get paid low wages most of them don't have benefits many say they were promised hours and they don't get them and they often put themselves in danger as working conditions just to work here's what they're

asking for. we have to survive to really more than minimum wages we need to live in wages so that we can you know be able to support family be able to pay our rent be able to buy groceries be able to take that families out and so they can have family trips and memories of. workers and they want the company not only to negotiate but to stop retaliating against workers who speak out or try to organize and last night wal-mart workers voted to step up demonstrations on get this black friday what is the most busy day of the year at wal-mart and other stores like it black friday so imagine the power that these employees might have if they decide not to show up to work so that's in the plans down the road but first and foremost they want to negotiate so let's talk now to labor journalist josh adelson a contributor at salon dot com he's been covering this josh pretty much since day one and we just heard from one employee what else are these workers asking for so

since our rulers begin organizing last year in two thousand the level you've been raising concerns about the staffing i'm reporting today it's a line about a worker talks about how we can be good out in a bargain bin in the summer after the chocolate factory and what the just because there weren't enough workers to put the food out before that to get out onto the shelves so staffing wages benefits the focus of the strikes has been the retaliation at least say workers faced after the reason these concerns were as i mean that's certainly has been a major concern and we have to remember i mean this is not a company where you have unionized workers they don't get the same basic rights as other corporations where workers are organized but talk a little bit about from your reporting the ways in which some of these employees have been punished. so i've interviewed workers for salon who were terminated

either directly or through being told that they wouldn't be able to get medical leave who were disciplined i talked to a worker for example who said that on the lunch break he was on lunch another worker was a lunch so they talked about this other worker getting involved in our wal-mart a manager was watching the entire time and immediately when that other worker went back to work he was taken to the office and accused of stealing time and fired another worker talked about having cameras taking pictures of his work station all the time and then getting the final written warning for something that he had done because one manager told him to and that another manager claimed was against the rules in terms of how he marked in the product so there are dozens of allegations like this that have been made that suggest that much the same way that wal-mart historically has responded to explicit union drives a stake in the same approach to these workers in our wal-mart getting together

locally to address issues internationally to call for a change in the company yeah i mean i think even internationally there's a lot going on i know that one of the stories i think it was in quebec canada they tried to unionize it and they were getting close and wal-mart ended up closing down the store and you know a little later on opening up a new star with all their workers so it's really interesting when you when you take a deeper look at what's going on any knowledge of josh legal action what's in the works in terms of lawsuits against wal-mart well the dukes versus wal-mart lawsuit which was the largest class action ever which the supreme court halted on the grounds that wal-mart is advocates said was too big to sue that lawsuit in effect has been broken up into state lawsuits around wage discrimination in those are proceeding the national organization of women is one of the organizations that has linked arms very closely with our wal-mart and says it's ready to be out on black. friday side by side with workers telling customers they should go shop somewhere

else instead now on the labor front there are dozens of charges against the company with the national labor relations board that's a long and difficult process but those charges do actually give the workers somewhat greater legal protection in going on strike than if they had only gone on strike over the fact that they have poverty wages and don't have health insurance i gotta say though josh a lot of critics are looking at what's going on what these employees are doing and they're saying you know this is going to be air traffic control strike to point out we are of course living in a time of a tough economy it will be easier than ever for wal-mart to replace these workers if they decide to strike i mean what's your response to people who say this. well the workers are taking a risk that's part of why in fifty years that wal-mart has existed and been totally nonunion in the us you've never seen a strike by multiple wal-mart store workers until last week now we've seen two so it is a risk now legally they've been careful in the united food and commercials workers

union which works closely with our walmart clearly has been careful that's i think part of why everything in the messaging around the strike is emphasized retaliation because it's illegal to replace workers who are out on the strength that's about unfair labor practices the law actually protects nonunion workers to go out on strike one of the ridiculous things about u.s. law though is that if not for the unfair labor practices the company could replace those workers now what the workers are saying though is illegal longest are saying is even if it would be illegal to replace these workers that's not really what's going to constrain wal-mart well are these going to be much more constrained by questions of public relations and questions of how it's going to affect the organizing if they think bring the hammer down on some workers will inflame others then they're less likely to do it but if they think that they can terrify enough workers by coming down on some people that they can snuff this out i would expect

that they would do it based on what's happened in the past so we don't know yet how wal-mart will be insane that question and we should make clear this started not by the people who work at the cash register is or green at the door of wal-mart these are people who work sort of as a contractor for the contractors of wal-mart people who actually are in there manufacturing some of the products and in the factories is that still the case today. so this weekend was the end of the most recent strike by warehouse workers but as you say there is a strike by eight seafood workers who supply to wal-mart in june and in the second week of september warehouse workers in california and illinois who on paper don't work for will learn but are subject to wal-mart supply chains will emerge budgeting they went on strike and there was a truly unusual victory that warehouse workers won in illinois where they won four people their jobs back they said had been fired because they were involved in

organizing. payment. we are out of time about i really want to thank you for your insight here labor journalist josh adelson with salon dot com and that is going to do it for us here for this hour but for more on the stories we cover go to youtube dot com slash our team america. download the official ati application to cell phone choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. t.v. is not required to watch all its he only needs your mobile device to watch on t.v. any time of the.

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