we. are lucky. they are. so. syria pledges to retaliate to all his close ally iran ones of diet consequences after israel launches a bombing raid on a target near damascus also. i took a strong stance and a very public one and that's what got me into trouble. to expose america's torture program and got thirty months for doing so coming up a decorated cia better man who turned against the agency tells of his predicament

on our team. that still unique footage surfaces of allege atrocities committed by mali and troops in tongues freshly taken from islam is this as reports of civilian casualties remain hard to obtain and fronts up plans avoid military had to local troops. and the british prime minister david cameron defines warnings of an eminent threat g u k interests and travels to libya where he has pledged to help train the countries that stretched security forces. you're watching r t a live from moscow with me say first. the frozen video footage apparently showing israeli planes. bombing syria's military research

facility has appeared on the internet the video was uploaded to the web by activists who are thought to be from a district close to the target and shows bright flashes in the night sky loud bangs were heard at the site shortly after midnight on wednesday tell of these days correspondent has more. now we are hearing from syria that israel did launch a military strike inside their country israel has not commented neither confirming nor denying these reports the syrian ambassador to lebanon did say that it was not clear when ever tell you would happen and that it was up to the powers that be to decide on such decisive action but he did say that it was an option and that it was and would be a surprise now the iranian foreign minister has also stated that this israeli attack has serious implications for the israeli city of tel aviv and those are indeed quite harsh warnings what we understand from syria from syria and sources is

that the israelis hit a research center not far from the capital city of damascus and that at least two unsigned workers were killed there are also reports that the strike hit a convoy of weapons that was making its way from syria to lebanon now washington reportedly was warned by israel obvious intention to strike inside syria this kind of comment coming from a high ranking american official who has spoken on condition that he not be named it is important to mention that a couple of months ago iran's revolutionary guard did say that assad had friends in the region who had not yet entered the fray the quote was that these frames were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria earlier this month israel deployed its i am going defense missile system to its border with syria and that this of a growing concern that they could be some kind of use of chemical weapon. as i

mentioned earlier we have no comment yet from tel aviv there also has been no comment from washington moscow has said if indeed these reports are accurate that the israelis did strike inside syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter the arab league for its side has slammed israel for these alleged strikes saying that they are a flagrant act of aggression and a glaring violation of syria's sovereignty. for more twenty four seven updates on the reported israeli bombing as well as opinions from inside the middle east check out policy twitter feed in one of our latest screens she citing the hebrew medias which says a syrian rebel group has actually claimed responsibility for the attack on the military research center near damascus. i spoke to professor sayid mohammad marandi iranian academic and political analyst he says that israel should be concerned about iran's possible answer to the strikes in syria and iran and say the israelis

are going to face serious consequences iranians have many means to hurt israelis to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support. countries or bodies that could could make life for israelis more difficult of course he ran the world the syrian sovereignty and i think that the americans and israelis should take this seriously because the iranians through soft power and other means have made life very difficult for american americans and their allies in the region over the past decade as we saw in iraq and afghanistan and in lebanon. a lively and heated session in the u.s. senator joe lieberman's pick for defense secretary goes before lawmakers as a confirmation starts with a vocal protests already coming from the israeli lobby that still aids.

thirty his own government's warnings to the winch british prime minister david cameron has touched on in tripoli for surprise visit he promised to stand by libya as it rebuilds even as his own foreign office warned britons of going through true threat as to its embassies they aim to end reform has more on what the pm hopes to achieve. did arrive initially very tight security and then he stressed that he wanted britain to try and beef up security in libya and try and help it improve its own economy there's no doubting that things have deteriorated in this country since twenty eleven when mr cameron last made his visit here just starve to the overthrow of colonel gadhafi the new libyan government is struggling with a lack of resources it's also struggling to its authority over militias and on top of this recently the british government admitted that there was

a threat to its own embassy in tripoli and that it had advised british nationals to leave benghazi because of security concerns so mr cameron is well aware that there are problems and no doubt he will be talking about these when he meets with the libyan prime minister and the president during the rest of his visit but there was one telling moment today because apart from all this he did make a fifteen minute walk about around martyrs square which was the center of the revolution and he did come in from algeria today in his visit to our jeery was of a similar purpose really he was trying to show that britain has support for this country and he also made reference to algeria today and also talked about the terrorist attack at the gas plant there which saw which saw thirty seven foreigners killed you mention that that was a reminder that what happens in other countries affects us at home too so i suppose putting it simply he's trying to show that britain still cares about these two countries mr cameron does have his critics though there are those that claim that really what he's trying to do is protect britain's own interests after all libya

and syria are among the top five producing all countries in africa. let's get more perspective now on the prime minister's visit with ben harris queeny chair of tory think tank the. now mr harris queeny why would the prime minister ignore his own foreign ministry as travel warnings then and go to libya it's a volatile area why was this visit so important for him. well firstly i don't think david cameron is ignoring the foreign office advice david cameron's visit to libya is of course under very different circumstances to most british citizens that may be in libya or maybe visiting libya he went there with very high security and rightly so and so he's of course in doing so acknowledging the curacy wrist but also acknowledging the importance of showing british support for democracy in libya and showing that britain remains steadfast in its commitment to the libyan

democracy but also acknowledging that democracy in its infancy is a very difficult process and it's it's a process that takes a long time to get to the final destination we last heard the prime minister pledging support for libya fifteen months ago during his previous visit the not all that much has changed for the better and many things have gotten worse so what's the difference this time. i think i come back to that to the last point i made i don't think anyone thought this would be easy. there has to be an acknowledgement of the difficulties of the fractious nature of libyan society and as david cameron himself said often the removal of a dictatorial government exposes other functions in society and we certainly shouldn't be big norrin them but i think the important part of his message is that both david cameron the government of the united kingdom and the european union nato

powers are very keen to support the process towards libyan democracy to help train security forces to ensure that libya remain secure country and its economy grows many of us are asking why he traveled to algeria specifically after such there's been attacking to hold hostages taken in the desert are the we you know cameron now proclaims that a new tighter security and defense relationship with the country is is is what he's trying to you know to to gun out for but really what's we're looking at mali right now looking what was going on in libya and all geria volatile areas. regions that they won't go into mali but now they have and it almost seems like everybody is asking isn't what's happening in mali really what's happening is that the back flow of what happened in libya. well i've been doing anyway other than yourself you being what i'm arguing you. with dave david cameron himself made the point in his

visit to. that that we are entering into a generational struggle and where the growth of al-qaeda has been limited in countries like afghanistan it has grown in north africa and so the arrival of the sort of terrorist acts and the rest in northern africa in northern africa is i think to be expected and that's what david cameron has said i think the reason for his visit there is is to show the support that britain and the u.k. government wants to give northern african countries that wish to tradition to democracy although not necessarily in military terms there are other ways we can give support training is one advice on on economic growth is is another and i think that's the line david cameron wants to play at the moment would you say let's talk

about his interests in libya b.p. british petroleum is due to start drilling in libya soon could that have had something to do with it all full. well i mean as you'll be well aware tony blair had a very close relationship or a close relationship certainly with with colonel gadhafi and arrangements were made at that time with with british petroleum so if anything the transition to democracy and the uprising in libya has made it more difficult for western and particularly british companies to operate in libya so i think what david cameron is looking for is a return to to economic. growth and stability in north africa that we we thought we began to see just after the revolution but as stagnated is the nation has had certain fractious elements exposed and of course those interests seen that libya algeria in the top five of africa's all produces together pumping out eighty

five percent of the continent's black gold do you maintain that britain's interest in them has nothing to do with that i mean we are rich in this facing some economic tough times right now so are we moving back to north africa for that. no certainly not because as i said the british petroleum and other oil companies had interests in libya before. the colonel gadhafi but now that their own genes are having changed seems to be easier for your government to go back and say well we've helped in the region changes so now we can come in and start talking about how we can work together again because that's how it looks like from now actually the else is sitting. well while i don't think it does look like that because actually it's more difficult it's more difficult to do business in libya after the revolt but. i think the important point is that whilst tony blair felt that he could deal with

colonel gadhafi david cameron didn't feel that the united kingdom could acceptably go on dealing with a sponsor of terrorism and so even though it would make it more difficult for british companies to trade in libya in the short term he felt that it was it was important to support the revolution it certainly hasn't made it easier for british companies quite the opposite cameron has said the terror must be fought to with quote everything at our disposal end quote terrorism very ambiguous term these days isn't it some syrian rebels are terrorists yet the west backs their cause where do we draw the line i'm sorry could you repeat that i don't sometimes cameron said that terror must be fought with quote he said this everything at our disposal now terror is a very ambiguous word to these days some syrian rebels are terrorists yet the west backs the accords so where do we draw the line in terms of who do we call

terrorists and who do we not call terrorists well al qaeda is clearly a terrorist organization that is so syria. and the rev i think that's the way governor made those comments he was he was referring specifically to. or made those comments in light of what happened in algeria and and that makes the point very clearly that british lives were lost in algeria. so there's not only threats to lives abroad but there's also threats of lives at home because where al-qaeda training centers have been subdued in afghanistan they've now moved to northern africa that's what david cameron means when he talks about terrorism is this increase meant of of helping algerian gems of militaries is this part of him saying we're here with you we're looking out for you anyway is that money going to come from in terms of the u.k.

the budget the military budget to keep from being fleshly yet he's proclaiming all these things to the libyan amelle jerry and so where's the money going to come from just briefly. when it comes to training and the sharing of intelligence resources there may not be a great cost to that but what david cameron is saying is not saying we're going to send troops into into algeria or indeed mali in large numbers what he's saying is that we want to support in terms of information in terms of training and i think that's these are things that come at a relatively low cost to the united kingdom and to the european union into nato but kind of a relatively high value in the countries in question then harry screamy chair of the tory think tank of the ball at the ball group thank you for your time. thank you right well david cameron splashed out a broad it's a different story at home british taxpayer. hikes further

complicating what some say is an already bloated texas didn't feed in the u.k. so that's coming up short. technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew. her was the big.

news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. showing operation through the day. oh you're watching our team a decorated cia veteran turned to talk to a whistle blowing agency outcast is now awaiting a summons to start a prison sentence john kiriakou was one of the first to confirm the existence of washington's waterboarding program and has been sent to jail for two and a half years for revealing the name of an undercover agent speaking to r.t. he himself said his true crime was speaking against the government. first of all my

case was not about leaking my case was about torture when i blew the whistle on torture in december of two thousand and seven the justice to department here in the united states began investigating me and never stopped investigating me until they were able to patch together. charge and force me into taking a plea agreement and i'll add another thing to when i took the plea in october of last year the judge said that she thought the plea was was fair and appropriate but once the courtroom was packed full of reporters last friday she decided that it was not long enough and if she had had the ability to she would have given me ten years you have called it ironic that the first person to be convicted with regards to the torture program is the man who actually shed light on it do you believe the abbot is who put the program together will ever face justice. i don't actually i think that president obama just like president bush has made

a conscious decision to allow the torturers to allow the people who conceived of of the torture and implemented the policy to allow the people who destroyed the evidence of the torture and the attorneys who used specious legal analysis to approve of the torture to walk free and i think that once that decision has been made that's the end of it and nobody will be prosecuted except me it's no secret that obama's administration has been especially harsh on whistle blow was but can be u.s.l. ford leniency in the security sensitive times we'll see this is i think this is exactly what the problem is in this post nine eleven atmosphere that we find ourselves in we have been losing our civil liberties incrementally over the last decade to the point where we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become you know ten years ago the thought of the national security agency spying on american citizens and intercepting their

emails would have been anathema to americans and now it's just part of normal business. the idea that that our government would be using drone aircraft to assassinate american citizens who have never seen the inside of a courtroom who have never been charged with a crime they have not had due process which is their constitutional right would have been unthinkable and it's something now that happens every every so often every few weeks every few months and there is no public outrage i think this is a very dangerous development. israel must move all over the half a million settlers out of palestine so there's a fresh view when human rights report dubbed a biased and counterproductive by tell of the investigation see so a growing settlement russia could be seen as a war quite details just ahead. r.t.

has managed to get exclusive footage of what's believed to be atrocities committed by the mali an army in a town liberated from islamist rebels with the help of french forces and information on civilian casualties in mali has been notably scarce we spoke to a local journalist gonzalo one show who told us of the originals of the disturbing tape. as we continue moving north and find reports of extrajudicial killings and evidence of crimes we have heard of the murder of a few citizens by mali and soldiers in the town of silver not only did they kill them they shoved their bodies into the drinking water well ok today in the center of the town like in the rest of the population watch rules are hearing of cases where people are being prosecuted for trying to earn a living under the rule of militants all sixteen year old adama says he was unknowingly employed as a cook and butler by jihadists who is now being accused of terrorism. after i started working as a cook in the town of do when i went to surveyor there i met an old man and i asked

him for a drink of water he said that he won't share water with terrorists i said that i was in a terrorist and i was just thirsty then i was put into prison i am no terrorist i didn't even know that i was working with militants i only realized that through the rumors i started hearing and then when everyone went on to the frontline i was just cooking food for them no one even talked to me i think persecution zoë also reportedly becoming widespread in the area of arabs and said to be persecuted on charges of allegedly collaborating with the militants you know the government and the french troops are fighting against our contacts in timbuktu also told us that shops belonging to arabs are being looted. the french officer retaking the final wages city of condell from the slum as say they will soon not leave mali handing operations over to government troops divinest international consultant and former deputy speaker of the belgian politician says this is a bad idea considering the lack of discipline and funding in the west african

nation. what i hear now is how this surprises me i mean first of all the million army does hold a grudge against the people who asked them from the northern part of the country and secondly the soldiers of very low grade and at very little armaments at such as a they're not really a regular army in that sense there's only. hardly a state apparatus functioning how can you really just a people and examine what they do you can't you just ground nick underlying that so the only thing you can do correctly is if you think people might be terrorist is hold them and arrest them and detain them but you certainly are doing this kind of extra judicial executions but eternally surprises me that this is going on right now this country needs support yes this country needs honor but why is it that this help only comes in the form of military invasions that's a basic question usually we should ask ourselves. and there are also fears of

sectarian revenge attacks in mali following the french led military campaign more on this as well as images from the conflict on country on r.t. dot com. but the top story now israel's alleged air strikes in syria to talk more about it i'm joined live by germany based journalist manual oxen writer now why one of the israel launches a serious research facility mr olson writer. well good evening so much for this first question because it shows how all. being in europe and also in the west we are asking why i would use raila taking research center israel by the ways claiming it was a boy delivering rockets to hezbollah but we haven't seen what it is trail a picket well i think it is fair that they can settle this thing that israel attacked is over in country that well. that country and very conventional war

if. this is we wouldn't it would discuss the aim we want this because we were discussed that this was open war it. so you're saying that israel attacked a servant country but yet they keeping silent on the issue was going to get them to talk now that yes that's it also for israel went big jake seems to be silent at first but already now american newspapers at the washington post they said they thought upon reaching that it was a new strain. so i think this is the real way and maybe we can expect some more attacks and contributor for people for syria why has syria sailed to provide any videos or photographs from the side to support this claim. well this of course would be a queer she should ask the syrians but anyway i don't think that we should ask.

for calls with us or meet us at the point is the price is really that we should discuss the issue why are. some of which didn't take you straight first you know that there is a ceasefire since one nine hundred seventy three between syria and israel now. and i miss from the west any call on this what is happening i think russia was the only state it was condemning this effect there was nothing from the west pure silence and really really really a shaming for the west embarrassed in the west so i'm asking you then why do you think if at all it did happen this attack did happen or why did they attack that particular site. well this have several reasons first of all is that the syrian media that it. used to be attacked already in the past by the so called rebel forces by the simple there was a force but they were not successful. the fewer the syrians that made it like that

now are you throwing the baby out the rebels if you can change that research then of what about what it's going to do i don't know i wasn't there but what is for sure is that my and also the rebels are the intention of these really what might be the so-called armed opposition and damascus is threatening a revenge attack how destructive could it be given that the state is being dragged into a bloody and exhausting civil war. the danger is no real behind this region you may not now edge in turkey but where the later will be ours and soldiers and the system we have know in this region a lot of army from all over the road waiting for action and what you. were to begin to hear ears playing with the choir and little boy rich the rich of war in the region and much more also so i think the. dangerous situation right now

manuel oxon write a german journalist thank you for sharing your thoughts on the subject. the u.s. senate has started a confirmation hearing for one of president obama's most controversial choices for a key job in his team job hey gold nominated to be the new defense secretary has been under fire for his stance on iran and is accused of being anti israel artie's gannets as you can explain why certain political groups a so opposed to his candidacy chuck hagel has been under attack since his name was floated as president obama's pick for the defense secretary position it would see attack ads on all major u.s. t.v. channels saying what a terrible defense secretary chuck hagel would be also our december and much of january they've been running these ads you know between commercials of beauty products or prescription drugs and whatnot so somewhere between those you could catch.