polling stations open across america as voters flock to decide their future leader after a bitterly fought campaign fears over fraud mount as the polls and now go digital. gives a voice to the candidates ignored by the media at home who are calling for an end to america's two party domination. plus on the second day of devils week in greece a nationwide strike freezes the country as the makers prepared to vote through new cuts crucial for. moscow claims high tech american weapons are reaching rebels in syria accuses the western media of flawed reporting about russia's arms sales.

live from moscow this is our with me rule received and welcome to the program. now the to our top story here on our boat that's affecting every nation on earth of course the u.s. presidential election. now the vote has only just begun although early voting has been taking place for several weeks now the polls can't separate barack obama and mitt romney they are essentially still neck and neck but alongside the two front runners many others who were running won not given a voice in the media so what's he given the platform they need. the notion that we've been the country that stood up to the bully as opposed to being a bully it's

a growing police state quite obviously we can end the failed racist war on drugs downsize the military and the drone wars bring the troops home let's stop with our military interventions let's get out of afghanistan tomorrow thirty thousand drones flying over the united states what are they flying over the united states for in the unemployment and jumpstart the green economy that spells an end to climate change and makes wars for oil obsolete but what was rather striking about that debate was how different the proposals put forward were from those of obama and romney he's gotten a report on just what it could be you what it could mean that is when it comes to a third party and what the third party might have to offer. listen to presidential candidates who know very well you know perfectly well that they don't stand a chance to win this election but they screw their hats in the ring because they claimed the two parties were public and democratic have conspired to leave

americans with no choice or with an illusion of choice as they say joel stein from the green party and gary johnson from the libertarian party debated in our studio this monday night but it was not a debate simply against the two party system listening to how these alternative candidates argued on the economy could see how dramatically opposite their views are. on the subject it was a heated debate on the role of the government the libertarian candidate for instance was arguing that the u.s. should get rid of all taxes except the federal consumption tax but on foreign policy they demonstrated a similar view both offering views distinctly alternative to those of romney and barack obama who we deserve a foreign policy based on international law human rights and diplomacy unfortunately we currently have an international policy based on wars for oil and the use of brute military force as

a tool of foreign policy we're funding the syrian insurgents quarter of the syrian insurgents are just potus did we not learn our lessons when it came to afghanistan and the fact that we bankrolled osama bin laden and how did that turn out look there are unintended consequences to our military interventions always worse than better campaign financing is becoming a huge issue here especially with the supreme court ruling which now allows corporations to funnel as much money as they want into political campaigns which makes it virtually impossible for someone without the backing of the big party machines to win an election the news cycle here in america is entirely focused on the two parties americans know very little if anything about alternative candidates when green party's jill stein was the west. protesting outside the place where president obama and mitt romney debated in mid october it went completely ignored by the media here so it seems the party's solution is to black out alternative voices and to convince the american people that they have no other choice but obama

and mitt romney and the mainstream media here are very much part of that black card . corresponding gun they can write their well voting underway across the eastern u.s. is already hitting trouble the army's been called in to help set up mobile polling stations in areas devastated by last week's superstorm of course we're talking about superstorm sandy election lawsuits already being filed in four and monitors in iowa are being told if they so much as come close to voting stations they will be arrested that's of course live now to auntie's more important standing by for us now brothers in the program it's good to see you today the voting is so far how's it going. well so far polls have opened in parts of the u.s. as a matter of fact already on my way to work i was just passing one voting location and there were dozens of members of the army national guard position to across the street from

a voting location on twenty fifth and lexington avenue now here in new york city in the aftermath of hurricane sandy and all the damage and devastation caused sixty polling locations have been moved it's not clear whether all new yorkers know where they should be going also army trucks are being set up in areas of new york that are still without power let's remember hundreds of thousands of new yorkers lost power last week and this week at least one hundred thousand are still without power and electricity making it very difficult for people to cast their ballots or get to the proper voting locations in new jersey because of the devastation caused by hurricane sandy government officials are now allowing residents. fax their votes to vote online now some cyber security experts believe that this could turn into a disaster because u.s. cyber security is not strong enough to prevent identity theft to prevent votes from

being deleted to prevent vote from being wiped out or changed now as i've been discussing the situation in new york and new jersey there are other problems there are currently rising in oregon there's already been allegations of voter fraud and ballot temporary in florida a lawsuit has already been filed for early voting suppression in nevada the democrats have been used have been accused of registering illegal immigrants to vote now we're just you know a few hours into election day here in the u.s. clearly a lot of problems are rising up people are heading to the polls on this big day a day where americans will of either vote to keep us president obama in office or his republican rival mitt romney may actually take over and win the presidency of the u.s. but despite hurricane sandy and all the damage she has caused in the past week

america's election system has been swirling around with controversy for more than a decade now and for more on that story we turn to our teams on the. you elected me to tell you the truth honesty is the best policy while maybe not in u.s. elections two words define why people hate america double standard on everything in this presidential election season these two words are back in full swing the basic definition of a double standard is a rule or principle unfairly applied in different ways to different people or groups let's find out if this is relevant to the u.s. election system from questionable voter id regulations to shorten to early voting time slots to gerrymandering rejoicing congressional district lines to free. certain party laws affecting voters' rights are passed left and right and vary state by state you have an error this video shows how easy it is to attempt to steal attorney general eric holder's vote when an idea is not required actually

forgot my id. yet places the do ask for government issued photo id in effect over ten percent of americans that simply don't have one there is an attempt to prevent large numbers of people from actually exercising the ballot election monitors usually serve the purpose of keeping track of in discrepancies and while the us likes to keep a close eye on the way elections are handled abroad even the carter center which grows a rod and does the great we're monitoring the elections. refuses the monitoring us election it's on the grounds of the basic standards of the integrity when election ideals are not met elsewhere criticism runs rampant elections in venezuela elections in iran elections in russia. the press will go to town on any sign that the outcome was fixed and while nitpicking abroad is all the rage the elephant in the room remains unnoticed at home our policymakers and to

a great extent our media and and trickle down to the american people have literally the literally think that the rest of the world is stupid that they don't see it that everybody naturally house to admit admired us that we're great and it's not the case well obvious flaws are met with a deaf ear and here in and year out a flawed election process continues to be the first vote cast in the u.s. and if the party new york. or at a more international perspective on the vote now with ali risk an expert on middle east joining us live here on the it's a pleasure to see you today so as we're talking about the u.s. election of course the biggest story in the news today or the most when world will doubtless be watching the vote who's the candidate do you think obama or romney. well i think it's very clear the orientation or the inclination of the muslims is to vote for obama before we began this interview i was speaking with one of the

arab american colleagues in washington who told me that basically all of the or a majority of the muslim americans are voting for barack obama which is nothing surprising i believe although or bomber has continued with the double standard policy with respect to the israeli palestinian issue although he has continued the unwavering american support for israel the basic belief amongst the american muslims and even amongst muslims here in the middle east is an obama to the least extent is the less of two evils because we all know the rhetoric which has been used by romney or romney has basically could be a billion dollars to buy that he was reading right by the likud party romney has also criticized or bombers have extended a hand towards iran although obama has also imposed very harsh sanctions on the islamic republic and we also have to know the advisers some of the advisors romney has such as dan senor for example who is very close to aipac also john bolton and

we all know who john bolton represents we all know his his policies and his perspective so for all these reasons it is clear that the muslim world and also particularly the muslims in the other states of america will be voting for obama and in a close election by this one these muslim votes in america might have a very big say in who emerges as the victor indeed they i mean they certainly could have the power to swing the vote perhaps as you say towards obama again just to generalize a little bit you are saying or suggesting that typically speaking the average muslim is leaving more towards obama than romney but of course the relations between islam and the u.s. are not exactly rosy at their word especially with that. film we had a couple of months ago in hollywood there was essentially mocking the prophet mohammad did you think either of the candidates obama or romney can help to fill the void in relations. well if any one of the through is going to do that it's more possible than the my perspective that obama could accomplish that there

are many reasons first of all obama is a second term president hence who will have more of a free hand romney will be a first term president and not just the i just mentioned two of the advisers who surround romney don't forget that the political party base of the republicans includes a high percentage of evangelical christians who have been i don't you call connection with israel and an anti islamic ideology if i could say you have to add to that the fact of the one of romney's all the biggest campaign contributor for romney and his children sheldon adelson is a close friend of the our whole right wing israeli are close to the likud so it's only a one sided job if only those who are very very clear it's been very clear now for more than four years asserting that obama and netanyahu are not famous friends we've seen romney certainly pandering more towards israel during his campaign over the past couple of months before it got out of time mr brisk i must ask you one

quick question the issue of afghanistan the graveyard of empires a place where mitt romney wants to keep the wall going your thoughts on that. well with respect to american military intervention and american military warfare i even believe that romney although he has this hawkish policy i think that romney also will be forced to reconsider any american military warfare any american military steps because basically the american public is fed up with any wars whatsoever how romney in the when it comes to wars and the military option for example when it comes to the military option on iran even he have sort of softened his stance so what with respect to military activity i think both candidates will stop any military zation approach would say so if i just have time what remains then it which of the two candidates will go towards a supplement to the wars of the old with russia with iran with respect to syria who will go towards dual making or making agreements both of them will not resort to

military action in my perspective but one of them might result from making deals or agreements and that would be all balm of the reasons i mentioned before so if obama does get reelected there storm is a possibility that we could reach settlements and agreements which could put an end to violence and to stalemates and maybe bring about a better situation for their own when i was in there often i'll say even barack obama said to dimitri medvedev months ago in washington d.c. just just hold on a president who gets a second term as a president who can get things accomplished early risk an expert on middle east affairs thanks for coming on our team today thank you. we will be continuing our extensive coverage here on r.t. as the vote progresses tackling issues that you won't be hearing addressed on mainstream networks step to date on the elections here and on our web site r.t. dot com. the six america votes for its next president. who takes the wheel as the u.s. drives into the field to. get the news the mainstream missives with up close

election coverage the u.s. election up close. and r.t. dot com. usually the police and occupy protesters are like oil and water but in atlanta they've come together to save the house of a former detective jacqueline barber unfortunately ms barber lost a lot of money battling cancer and was facing eviction which she turned to occupy homes for help so far she's managed to stay in her home despite it being sold out from under her feet but the main thing is that her fight to stay in her home has become like a bridge between two groups who are usually at each other's throats the police and occupiers the thing is the cruel economic practices can affect us all even retired

police like ms barber i know there are some irresponsible people who buy things they can't pay for any of the police have to do something about them but they shouldn't throw you out of your home that you've paid for for years just for getting cancer no one shift to live with the constant fear that their home will be taken away after years and years of payment just because they got sick and america i thought we believed in private property not eternally rented from big banks but that's just my opinion. i mean. i'm the host of the. winter olympics.

thanks for joining us here today our moscow and russia's foreign minister says sophisticated american surface to air missiles are making their way into the hands of rebel militias in syria he also accused the western media of twisting the facts in its reporting of the civil war. the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov

speaking in the jordanian capital of amman has warned against western powers supplying syrian opposition fighters with illegal weapons he says that russia has evidence as well as information that the fighters are being supplied with high tech a face of equipment more than fifty stingers a county in the hands of the bull fighters and the equipment is u.s. made now in iraq also said that he was very surprised to find out that the b.b.c. says it has information that russia is supplying syria with weapons of mass destruction he said it was amazing to hear from a correspondent of such over suspected corporation such claims being made at the same time he did say that russia was finishing its arms shipment to damascus and that these were deals that were made and old contracts but that the distinction needs to be made that these are only defensive weapons weapons that are not being used in the conflict by comparison with the type of weapons that are making it into the opposition fighters today that are fueling the conflict on the ground you have

also said that russia's position is clear that they need to be talks between the syrian government and the opposition he said it is up to syrians to decide for themselves who they want in the transitional government and he warned against making from the outside now comments come as the syrian opposition meets in doha what we do know is that the meeting is aimed at bringing the opposition together but certainly the u.s. has previously suggested that it would hand pick some of the candidates for this new united opposition what we are seeing is washington taking an active part in forming this new body there are already reports within the opposition with some members claiming that the reshuffle has not been done properly and that what we've seen is old names merely being replaced by new names who really have the same political position there is growing concern of what will evolve in syria will be much the same as what happened in libya where western countries recognize the opposition as the only egypt in the government and then launched military action. the concern is that by not recognizing the syrian president bashar assad wish to

nations will be given great a freedom to do what they want next country. and more on the effort surrounding the syrian crisis now joined live by. the director and founder of the french center for intelligence studies. so good to see you today sir thank you very much for coming on the program we're talking about the issue of syrian rebels getting their hands on high tech american weapons are they coming straight from washington or exactly how the syrian rebels getting their hands on such sophisticated weapons or are you it's too early to know exactly between perfectly know that all these rebel groups i mean most of them. they receive the strong support from the american government directly sometimes at the most of the turkey channel as well as. the channel so it's very difficult to know exactly what kind of very modern weapons are they receive but. the matter of the strong support coming from the u.s.

so indeed indeed if these are high tech weapons are basically being funneled through from places like turkey or cuts are surely surely these countries and states would be concerned about these weapons falling into the wrong hands i.e. terrorists you know this is a this is a big problem for turkey for instance and more and more in the political now i think you have people who are complaining in the crimean istra because the they think that the cleveland card and part of what will happen in the next when the salafist groups who are operating in syria may be decide to choose who to act against turkish government maybe who are in. dangerous increase game and builds the u.s. in syria now syrian opposition factions are currently holding talks in qatar on forging a common front what will be the new face of syria's opposition after the reshuffle do you think it's just a case of just reshuffling the same furniture in the same house or no i think it's something. you know it's a kind of a paradox because step by step and i go between the two lead us begin to understand

the play drawn cards they realize that the national security council has no that you know efficiency it doesn't represent the real internal opposition it's our group are of absolutely no efficiency like like the like it was in libya years ago and they realize also that there are more and more pretreated and by jihadists so they put a strong pressure on the national student council to ask them to broaden their organisation and i think they should have also the big pressure on the qatar because the meeting was in there and you know the cattery were absolutely not in favor and such and it was just regarding what you've said here the us actually have any sway have any influence about the meeting ongoing in qatar well i think they don't know exactly which way to go for the time being because they begin to understand that the path they have been following for the past month is not

a good one so maybe they begin to understand the military groups the rebels out of absolutely no resume to the gain or resume the game's a syrian army and they begin to understand maybe in the coming months they will have to talk again with the shuttle and this is why on one hand they are probably giving new weapons to the rebellion on the other and they begin that maybe they should prepare something different to talk with a new kind of opposition group and also maybe with the regime eric i'm running very very long time here a quick last question for you are russia has accused the b.b.c. of false reporting of a moscow's arms sales to syria is a possible the b.b.c. is purposely twisting the facts. well i don't know exactly what i know this information but i don't know exactly what is behind but one thing i'm sure of is that the b.b.c. as well as you know as well as c.n.n. is part of the disinformation so i go. this is the serious information i don't see

even fun part of the game for any reason for what rush hour was one of my district to do so yes i think it's something crazy and i think it will be dropped from the. right every joke when you say you're the director and founder of the french center for intelligent studies a pleasure to have you on our to today. well still to come for you here on the program a top level reshuffles in the russian government corruption scandal claims the head of the country's defense ministry amid allegations the embezzlement has left a one hundred million dollar hole in the nation's budget. and billions of dollars are at stake for the british prime minister on a low key arms sales to the gulf states david cameron's a me to sell around one hundred typhoon fighter jets to clients with controversial records on human rights. reports. in the past the british prime minister has spoken about how britain's interests line up holding the country's values but it was all interests and no talk of values when david cameron touched

down in dubai he's going to be trying to sell over one hundred u.k. typhoon fighter jets to the leaders of the united arab emirates and saudi arabia that's despite concerns about person pedaling fighter jets to regimes with questionable human rights records david cameron says he's happy to discuss human rights as well as lucrative contracts with countries that he calls old partners but it looks like talk about human rights is familiar rhetoric to justify a long standing tradition of toys to less than squeaky clean gulf states sandhurst military academy behind me last year accepted a three million pound donation from the kingdom of bahrain inside these gates offices train in the new bahrain sports hall even though the bahraini government

launched a brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters last yeah scientist even said the bahraini government in flushing letter thanking them for their generosity the three million pound gift was hardly a break with tradition but it's part of a long standing relationship of reciprocal favors between the bahraini monarchy and strains within the british establishment so it looks like talk of british values is good p.r. when it comes to defending trade links and good relations with countries whose human rights records some would call into question. r t. much more news a study by few at our website dot com. warning sign in london that hundreds of members of the movement. of the. government marking guy fawkes night with protests in the capital. plus a close call for iran and israeli documentary reveals how it was all set to strike

terror on back in two thousand and ten more on that on our web site. greece has been brought to a standstill by general strikes on the second day of what's being called devil's week it's a week of public action in protest of a new austerity package about to be voted on by the parliament and the center of our correspondent. well the forty eight hour general strike is well and truly underway here in greece we seem souses of people coming out onto the streets of athens to voice their anger against the latest round of austerity measures that's being put forward by prime ministers so maurice now that will be voted on in parliament on whedon's day it's around serious team point five billion euros worth of savings those savings taking the form of of budget cuts also of tax rises also we expect to see the the age of retirement rice and pensions cuts all of these

things angering the people of greece and seeing them out on the streets to demonstrate against it now it's more than likely that that latest round of austerity measures will be passed one of the reasons why it will be passed is because if greece doesn't pass it then they're not going to get the next round of bailout money that they need so very much now that's just over thirty one billion euros worth of bailout money and they've been told by the three main creditors that they have to slash more from the deficit they have to make more savings and this is why they've they've put forward this this nativist package for thirteen point five billion euros worth of savings and it's not expected to be an easy thing no as they say it should pass but it should be a very tight vote in the parliament and all that leaves people wondering is well even if this does pass will it be enough politicians on site in order to implement these latest savings are starting.