series' threatening to retaliate for an israeli air strike inside its territory while its ally iran says there will be repercussions over that time. as the french tab its military operation in mali as a success will bring you some trimming stories from this three week long battle against aids leavitt's. and a former cia officer who blew the whistle on america's torture program on days now waiting to turn to half years in prison talks dossier about what he believes is behind his sentence. international news and comment live from moscow this is all she with me hello and welcome to the program. see where and duran us rushing in to retaliate against

israel for a strike on syrian territory syria claims israeli warplanes hit a military research center near damascus killing to do while the u.s. says the jets targeted a military convoy heading for neighboring lebanon also has promised liaise monitoring developments from for us. 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 deputy 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 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 obvious intention to strike inside syria this kind of comment coming from a high ranking american official who spoke 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 for ins in the region who had not yet entered the fray the quote was that these planes were poised to strike out in case there was an intervention in syria but we have no comment yet from television also has been no comment from washington moscow has said if indeed these raids did strike inside syrian territory it is a gross violation of the united nations charter. from during an academic and political analyst. iran is warning of repercussions serious.

but it's important is that the united states knew about their strike before hand they did nothing about it the european union as usual so is silent about it there is no condemnation for killing syrians two for bombing the country for of course iran will defend syrian sovereignty the iranians have many means to hurt the israelis and to punish the israelis it doesn't necessarily mean that they have to be involved directly they could. support countries or bodies that could make life for israelis more difficult. france is hailing its military mission against islamist rebels in mali as a success but their three week long intervention has also created more the conflict all country. stories are managing as local reporter gonzalo told. a grocer that asked what if. the war became

a real nightmare for the people of this small city in the segura region it was one of the first places bombed by french warplanes before more jihadists arrived sweeping south towards the capital by marco the french intervention left a pile of debris and ashes that's just the visible traces of the war they left it civilians who were left with the scars that will last a lifetime one family paid a deep price for this conflict against the islamist terrorists one of the family sons was killed by a jihadist soldier inside his own home. my brother was attacked by a group of militants the ridge children among them he started running and got back into our house but they followed him one of the children fired at him but minutes and then another insurgent shot him inside the house my brother fell and was riddled with bullets we laid his body in the house we couldn't bury him because we were afraid to go outside. just me this is just one example of the terror that the conflict is putting mali and civilians through plague and the weakest the most no

one was surprised when india bali once jihadist troops arrived it was discovered that the majority of the military were heavily armed child soldiers. so the french banks mollen government forces are increasingly accused of atrocities during the conflict with the rebels and dot com you'll find some exclusive images already showing evidence of war crimes by troops and we also have new stories from people on the ground about how they are living through the western lead the battle against islam that's dot com is that dress. a former cia officer turned whistle blower sentenced to turn the whole thing is behind bars awaiting to start his jail time john kiriakou was the first official to publicly confront the agency's use of waterboarding and condemn it as torture however he also becomes the first official to go to prison over the torture program so under a plea bargain deal it was convicted for revealing

a covert officers identity and talking to r.c. his says he's his true crime is 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 in intercepting their emails would have. been anathema to americans and now it's just a 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 and john kiriakou was also a guest on of the muleteers breaking the said here on r c sound don't miss the exclusive interview details of the case and its implications later today. do you think that the real people who oversaw codified torture john you are broken solace

donald rumsfeld shouldn't they be the ones sitting in prison they should be the ones and there are others even if you just put aside the people who actually did the day to day torture what about the people who conceived of the policy and who implemented the policy were the attorneys that papered over it with with crazed legal analysis or the man who who destroyed evidence of the torture in the tapes. us president barack obama's pick for the country's next defense secretary has gone out of a's way to persuade the senate he's the right man for the job when attacked for his previous few statements at the confirmation hearing chuck hagel made it clear he will act in accordance with white house policies if he's kind of the say is approved and can listen to the session which brought some heated discussion but

a little hope of change. chuck hagel bent backwards to show how mainstream his views are the senators kept accusing him of not being mainstream enough and they kept using the word mainstream over and over again during this hearing chuck hagel has walked back on a number of positions he had taken earlier he kept apologizing again and again and chuck hagel went to great lengths to show that he is in no way going to challenge washington's 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 israel and iran there was so much mentioning of israel that at some point they were confirming him as secretary of defense for israel i couldn't count how many times he said. the regards to iran again and again saying a strike on iran is an option an option that he had previously called irresponsible

by the way here's what chuck hagel kept repeating throughout the hearing get the united nations behind you get the international sanctions behind you keep military options on the table if the military option is the only option it's the only option one of the senators pointed out during the hearing that in a private conversation senator hagel recently told him that he thought sanctions didn't work and previously chuck hagel voted against sanctions but today's chuck hagel as we found out during this hearing is for sanctions to those who believe mr haye go was in favor of direct negotiations with iran as he had previously claimed he was he offered a correction a very big one he tried to blur his response as much as he could here's what he said i don't have a problem with engaging i think great powers engaging engagement is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not a peace meant engagements not surrender so no direct negotiations with iran here's

another example of how chuck hagel had to walk back on some of his previous statements at one time he said and this is 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 is world and of quote here's chuck hagel there ring this confirmation hearing he noted that i. that i should have used another term and i'm sorry and i regret it 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 it was like torture watching the hearing because it seemed as if this. senators were not there to question sharky go but they were there to break him because they kept going back to his

previous statements and pushing and pushing until he said what they wanted to hear and he did it so whoever thought chuck hagel was going to offer a new outlook on u.s. foreign policy after this hearing would seriously doubt that. of course are always interested in your view on the topics we cover and if you had to r.t. dot com and vote in our online poll to let us know why you think hegel's stance on iran has become more hawkish you will say this so here are some of the options you can offer so we offer you so admitting a strike on iran is a viable option and a genuine a genuine change of position of heart of chuck hagel also a ploy a ploy to counter criticism of being anti israeli also his change of stance doesn't matter as he wouldn't have influence on iranian policy anyway and the last one it proves his own claim that no one can stand up to the jewish lobby and let's now see the opinion and how it's divided so find out so almost

a whole the voters think hey girls given given in to be pressured to jewish lobby pressure a said believe his opinion doesn't make any difference anyway and a little less state it's just a ploy to get the job and only a tiny minority of you think that he has genuinely changed his position so you can go to r.t. dot com and vote under whatever prompt is the change in the hague rules or rhetoric many experts believe even if he wants to change u.s. foreign policy he'll struggle to do so. when president obama was elected in two thousand and a we you know the same kind of hope tim is in was there with shutting down get no naming these wars and fighting the right kind of wars but then we find out when you know after the deal is done after the elections are over the nomination process is over we continue with our war footing around the world no matter what the politicians come before those cameras and tell you what they are the key factors are that we need to take care of it be a social safety nets or the economy or or jobs being created in this country the

united states will always have money for two things you can be rest assured bankers and bullets we already see the headlines coming out of the mainstream media talking about the sequester and how this is going to get our military we will have nonstop propaganda being a bombarded out of the people the fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that every secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spending us into oblivion. and ahead for you this hour the conflict in germany. nor will it all just cases of child abuse by priests hit the headlines. also nice a report on the risk of genetically modified food that's why its main producers might not have anything to worry about after the break.

well with. technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. you know how 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 don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture. more news today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the

world has been seeing from the streets of canada. the giant corporations rule the day. no longer represents the. people are going to take. away our.

this is also you live from moscow welcome back in germany a worshippers that turning their backs on the catholic church with a number of us and visa falling rapidly a perceived lack of action of the claims of child abuse is just one reason that this marks the church dropped and investigation into alleged sexual abuse cases committed by priests and you might find some of the details and piece of all of his report disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine when i was invited to his house he locked the doors and forced me to drink what i now know was alcohol. he asked me what i thought of his penis which was a wrecked then the priest made me perform oral sex on him. the catholic church in germany is facing a crisis attendances dropped significantly over the past few years according to the

central committee of german catholics one hundred eighty thousand parishioners stopped going to mass in twenty ten alone many citing church hierarchy unwillingness to do enough about claims of abuse like the ones made by wilfred the priest at the center of this particular scandal is now being moved to a different parish while this church where its alleged abuses took place remains closed to worshippers but just how difficult is it to bring a criminal prosecution in cases like this if those people go to court now it's very difficult to get to a sentence because the richness is sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get to have a trial usually fail christina fifer had been in charge of an extensive study into abuse in the german catholic church dating back as far as nineteen forty five his

research claims that the church destroyed files on priests involved in abuse up to ten years also that twelve hundred victims were paid hush money not to reveal what happened to them he was dismissed after a dispute with senior clergy over what information would be made public the scandal that this research is no not going to be finished. it's causing problems to them as well now they're losing members because of the new headlines of the last few weeks there are those within the church that recognize the importance of transparency if lapsed catholics are to be brought back into the flock. a woman in new york really going to when we do not make things clear there will always be an aftertaste that something is being covered up this will harm attempts to get people into church because it is a bad foundation for trust and all belief is based on trust. for wilfrid

that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot to the church a good he's committed to getting compensation for himself and those others who claim they were abused by people who were supposed to be in a position of responsibility peter all over r.t. germany. and some other international news this hour an explosion i suppose twenty five be left more than one hundred injured at the mexico city has called has of pemex the state owned all company it figures have been confirmed on the company's twitter account some people reportedly remain trapped inside the building local media say a gas leak may have caused the blast in september an explosion at the company's not your gas facility in northern mexico that's thirty people dead. politicians from across egypt's political spectrum have renounced widespread violence seen at protests across the country agreement came out amazing attended by

leaders of the muslim brotherhood as well as the heads of the liberal and secular opposition movement it was called as president morsi cut short his trip to germany because of the ongoing unrest at home without securing any financial backing from delhi in. a standoff between police and demand holding a five year old child hostage in a bunker in a rural alabama has entered and his first day the boy was taken earlier this week when a gunman shot dead a school bus driver after he refused to let the youngster off the vehicle the suspected kid is a retired a sixty five year old truck driver the boys are apparently unharmed. the u.k. prime minister is promising to stand by libya and improve its economy pledges of support come despite britain's old economy going through a tough time so david cameron has made a surprise visit to the north african country defying security warnings from his

own foreign office is one of africa's leading all producers and critics say the u.k. has interests in the country are all of bob barr gold blood and gold so claims my colleague say discussed with ben harris quiney from a conservative think tank the group. the reason for his visit there is is to show the support the 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 libya algeria in the top five of africa of 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 certainly not british petroleum and other oil companies had interests in libya before. the colonel gadhafi but now that they are and 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. 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 rev i think it's a limited number of 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 a threat to lives at home because where al-qaeda training centers have been subdued in afghanistan they've now moved to northern africa. and there's more news for you online including on god and north korea and that poses machine door. to prepare for war so do you have to alter dot com to see if the korean peninsula is on the brink of a military conflict. and also that internet users be wed millions of devices and now in danger of being an easy pick for. function that's been out about for some time.

as have protested outside a shareholder meeting at the headquarters a one of america's notorious genetically modified food producers monsanto protesters demanded more transparency in the company's labeling research on the business practices and made concerns over the safety of g.m. crops but adam i didn't a shareholder in monsanto believes as well that such companies financially supported politicians and the risk could be brushed under the carpet. these chemicals may be what's causing higher rates of cancer in industrialization nations across the globe we know that it causes tumors in rats that were fed in long term food studies last year i was it will speak during the meeting and this meeting is close to the public and we one of the things are asking for is in the future this speed live streamed people around the world care about what's going into the food they may not want to own monsanto stock i only bought the stock so i could speak at the shareholder meeting 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 the company also sells the genome companies give he massive donations food 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. it's not that politicians are not going to prioritize rejecting crops and coming up in just a couple of minutes. that's about.