i. i don't. syria pledges to retaliate while it's close on iran warns of dark consequences after israel launches a bombing raid on a target and. also. i took a strong stance and a very public one and that's what got me into trouble he exposed america's torture program and got thirty months behind bars for doing so i decorated cia veteran who

turned against the agency tells r.t. of his predicament. unique footage surfaces of alleged atrocities committed by money and troops as reports on civilian casualties remain hard to obtain french plans for military handed it to local troops. and british prime minister david cameron defies warnings of an imminent threat to u.k. interests and travels to libya edge to help train the country's stretched security forces. news and much more twenty four hours a day this is r.t. syria has threatened to take action against israel whose fighter jets allegedly violated the country's airspace by bombing a military research complex close to damascus. meanwhile the u.s.

has warned syria not to transfer weapons to lebanon's militant group has been art that's as american officials claim that israeli jets had bombed and weapons convoy inside syria while the first video footage apparently showing israeli planes bombing the research facility has appeared on the internet it was uploaded to the web by activists who were thought to be from a district close to the target and shows bright flashes in the night sky parties has the details now from tel aviv. 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 syrian sources is that the israelis hit a research center not far from the capital city of damascus and that at least two on site workers were killed there are also reports that the strike hit a convoy of weapons that was making its way from syria to lebanon and now washington reportedly was warned by israel of its 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 friends were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria earlier this month israel deployed its i am going to fence in the south system to its border with

syria and that this of a growing concern that they could be some kind of use of chemical weapons as i mentioned earlier we have no comment yet from the tail of a little stiffly no comment from washington moscow has said if indeed these reports are accurate that these raids did strike inside syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter the arab league for its side has slammed is role for these alleged strikes saying that they are a flagrant act of aggression and a glaring violation of syria's sovereignty. wallace there reporting there well conn hallinan a contributing editor at the foreign policy in focus says israel is creating chaos on purpose shifting the spotlight from other hotspots. the israelis have always kind of maintain their power in the middle east by keeping people

fighting with one another or are keeping a level of tension very high they have used invasions of lebanon in the past to do that they've been threatening iran if they attack syria at this point you create a sort of chaos in the middle east for instance what does the arab league do in this case the arab league has come out and condemned the attack at the same time the arab league is supporting the overthrow of the asada regime you've got a country that recognizes that high levels of tension create conditions in which the israelis can continue. to recall an ization or the colonization of the west bank and can basically teach themselves out of the spotlight intros of the crisis in syria in iran they make a bombing attack they step back they take no credit for it chaos ensued.

well earlier i spoke to side mohammad marandi in a rainy and i could demick and political analyst he says that israel is should be concerned about iran's a possible answer to the strike in syria. say it is rare these are going to face serious consequences the iranians have many means to hurt the 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 course iran in world affairs and 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 or while

israel has taken a step closer to confrontation its border with syria because he used to receive harsh criticism over its settlement activity that supported the oppression u.n. report says it's violating palestinian human rights un human rights council says israel must move all of its hard for a million settlers from the occupied territories east to roost live in the west bank details just ahead. a decorated cia veteran turned torture whistleblower and agency outcast is now awaiting a summons to start a prison sentence john korea who was one of the first to confirm the existence of washington's controversial waterboarding program that's been sent to jail for two and a half years for revealing the name of an undercover agent we're talking to r.t. he himself said his true crime was speaking out 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 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 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. now i live in a heated session in the u.s. senate as president obama's secretary of defense makes an apparent u. turn saying that possible military action against iran is on the table and still ahead. he has gained exclusive footage of what's believed to be atrocities committed by the mahdi an army in a town liberated from his midst rebels with the help of french forces and information on civilian casualties in la he has been scarce and he spoke to local

jenniskens either one chap who told us of the origins of the disturbing tape as we continue moving north we find reports of extrajudicial killings and evidence of war crimes we have heard of the murder of a few citizens by mali and soldiers in the town of savant not only did they kill them they shove their bodies into the drinking water well located in the center of the town making the rest of the population watch rule so hearing of cases where people are being prosecuted for trying to earn a living under the rule of militants sixteen year old adama says he was unknowingly employed as a cook and butler by jihadists and 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 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 is also reportedly becoming widespread in the area 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. 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 torn country at r.t. dot com. well throwing his own government's warnings to the winds british prime minister david cameron has touched down in tripoli for a surprise visit he promised to stand by libya as it rebuilds even as his own foreign office won't britons of a growing threat to its embassies that ati's under former 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 after the overthrow of colonel gadhafi new libyan government is struggling with a lack of resources is 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 he mentioned 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 algeria are among the top five producing all countries in africa and reform of that now earlier my colleague to bring spoke to ben harris quinn the chair of a conservative think tank the boat group who insisted that david cameron's a visit to the obeah was a move in to support democracy in the country. 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 that wish to tradition to democracy although not necessarily in military terms there are other ways we can give support libya algeria in the top five of africa's oil producers 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 british petroleum and other oil companies had interests in libya before. the colonel gadhafi but now that they own genes that hasn't changed is it 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 we looks like from no actually ready else the sitting. well what will i do think it doesn't 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 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 well al-qaeda is clearly a terrorist organization that is and the rebels in the same way if i ever made those comments he was he was referring specifically to. or made those comments in light of what happened in algeria 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. well david cameron goes abroad it's a different story at home but as taxpayers a crowd found amid revelations of u.t. hikes and the complicated what some say already bloated tax system in the u.k. is coming up shortly. you. won't believe. me it's technology innovation all the latest developments from around russia we've got the huge earth 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 realize everything you thought you. are welcome to the big picture.

if you. talk about more world news for you. president obama's nominee for the country's next defense secretary has gone out of his way to persuade the senate he's fully committed to inventing iran from developing nuclear weapons and the confirmation hearing chuck hagel is positions on the majority of issues with the white house

well he's got to and has been listening to the session which turned into deflection of rather than just defense. chuck hagel tried so hard to get the job you could see from the line of questioning that he was subjected to that the congress would never confirm him for the job unless he swore to defend all of washington's as one of the senators put it core foreign policy beliefs and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge those core foreign policy beliefs it was quite an exhausting hearing considering the senators were asking almost the same questions and roughly eighty percent of them had to do with chuck hagel previous statements on as well and it won there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point you thought they were confirming him as defense secretary for israel and here is an example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of his previous statements at one time he said and this has become a famous quote the political reality is that the jewish lobby intimidates a lot of people up here i've always argued against some of the dumb things they do

because i don't think it's in the interest of israel and of quote and here's chuck hagel during the confirmation hearing noted that i. did i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret i mean do your use of intimidation. i should have used influence. i think would have been more appropriate i should not have said dumb or stupid. because i understand appreciate there are different views in these things to those who believed mr haider was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he claimed he was he offered a correction a very vague one and he blurted as much as he could take a listen i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engage engagement is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagements not sure under one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in

a private conversation senator hagel told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously talking. boated against sanctions but today's charcoal says when he was against sections those were different times. we've got a different situation unilateral sanctions because we've already got strong international sanctions should be considered you know i think the president's right to consider those i would support that and of course he had to repeat several times that all options are on the table including a strike on iran an option that he previously called. it was sponsible he of course went on to japan defend the administration's pivot to asia and all other policies and that's not much of a surprise because a defense secretary supposed to carry out the president's policies that's his job but to those who thought that chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy that definitely didn't happen during this hearing and the main

accusation brought up again chuck hagel was that quote he is out of the mainstream yet senators use the word mainstream a number of times during the hearing and chuck hagel had to bend backwards to show that mainstream is where he belongs the u.n. human rights council has released a report saying israel must move all certain this out of palestinian territories the paper says the settlements are a violation of human rights destroying palestinians property and crops driving them off their land israel has refused to cooperate with the investigation according to reports biased and counterproductive to peace efforts human rights activist and blogger roy my own sister the vivid is a routing its own credibility. israel has been complaining for many years that it's being singled out by various un organs. the human rights council one of the things that it was formed to do was to have a more equitable process which had the same level of scrutiny for all you would

members and although this report did single out israel its boycott of the human rights council is comprehensive it refuse to participate in review process which every other un member tends anybody israel attended four years ago and that undermines not only israel's international position but the whole human rights process in general. more news for you one dot com a craving for cold energy hungry china is almost as much carbon play year as the rest of the world combined levels of pollution the country skyrocketing that's online feel. that presidential candidate has been seriously wounded in an assassination attempt sixty four year old tradition has been hospitalized after the gunman shot him twice for this and other stories on our web site. britain's government has raised

taxes twice as fast as cutting them according to a new report putting a damper on david cameron's pledge to create a lower tax country where figures show almost three hundred duty hikes from the ruling coalition further complicate an already notorious system and he's going to boycott it takes up the story. by the end of this parliament the u.k. public will have seen cuts to some one hundred and nineteen various taxes that all sounds great but for a government that's promised to create a lower tax country news that they've actually increased some two hundred ninety nine all the taxes might be somewhat confusing the brits assume going to see an extra levy on carbon dioxide emissions that means energy bills are going to go up they're also going to see an increase in air passenger duty which means more expensive air travel and then some of the recent changes to u.k. tax law quite simply bizarre revenue and customs recently increased to be eighty

for hairdressers renting a chair in a salon and then who can forget the recent. good scandal when u.k. tax code stated that a pasty would only be taxed if it was sold at above ambient temperatures critics say the system is simply too chaotic britain has one of the most complex times. jobs increases prices and it lowers wages so the time when families are struggling with the rising cost of living. many tax increases. difficult for them it's clear that the british government is in desperate need of cash to deal with the dismal public finances which means that by trimming a little bit of tax here and adding more tax burden that by twenty fifteen the u.k. treasury hopes to get an extra eighty four billion pounds in tax compared with the year before they came to power but critics say that once again is the british

public which ends up out of pocket. artsy london. britain's happy with their leaders financial policies in france tens of thousands of public sector workers to the streets in the strike pay rises three. as long a salary freeze means almost a million civil servants struggling at minimum wages and in greece workers have gone on a two day strike with hundreds on the streets protesting against austerity measures that will make a deep cuts to their pay doctors support workers and public transport staff to part of a number of different demonstrations across the greek capital. fourteen year old and a teacher have been shot on to a middle school city of atlanta teenager was taken to hospital medics say he's now conscious and alert the suspect who is reportedly also a student at the school has been taken into custody as a second incident of gun violence in the past few days the shooting in an arizona office leaving one dead and two others wounded and gun control debate has taken

center stage in the country after the deadly connecticut elementary school massacre twenty six lives in december. debate surrounding genetically modified foods has been sparked once again in the u.s. one of america's leading g.m.o. giants is facing a protest calling for it to come clean on its production lines where we are i spoke to monsanto shareholder adam i didn't get he says as long as companies such as monsanto financially support politicians there's no chance for an in-depth investigation. these chemicals may be what's causing higher rates of cancer in industrialized nation nations across the globe we know it cause tumors in rats that were fed in long term food studies last year i was it was feet during the meeting and this meeting is closed to the public and we one of the things are asking for is in the future that this be live streamed you know people around the world care about what's going into the food they may not want to own monsanto stock i only buy

the stock so i could speak of the shareholder leaving the company knows already about there are genetically modified crops which many say food activists believe make us more reliant on herbicides and chemicals that they come and he also sells the genome companies give he massive donations to politicians on an annual basis they are very active in the political system so by spending tens of millions of dollars even hundreds of millions of dollars on elections. the it's not the politicians are not going to prioritize rejecting crops. next is breaking a set of i mean not.

you know i can kind of sort of understand the mindset of an evil dictator i have trouble understanding what is going on or maybe not going on in the minds of the terrified cogs who believe all the propaganda give up all their rights for the losing of safety to coach jerry seinfeld who are these people well maybe some of them may be working at your local school braindead bureaucracy zombies at a pennsylvania school suspended a kindergartner note kindergartner as a terrorist threat because she threatened to shoot another student with a gun that shoots soap bubbles i guess this was all a mix up because the girl she wanted to shoot didn't understand that it was in reference to bubbles and not bullets children in kindergarten can often misunderstand things but the administration of the school seems to be no smarter than six year olds immediately going into total panic mode guess what this is hardly the first time that something like this has happened remember the kid who pointed a piece of chicken at a teacher and said bang the thing is that the real terrorism of the event is that the mental sleeves of fear propaganda that work at these schools are raising

a generation of children to be just like them somebody shoot me with a bubble gun that's just my opinion. to live on one hundred thirty three bucks a month for food i should try it because you know how bad the less and less. i mean . i. really miss. her it's. worse she. was sick of it. all what.