we don't even realize how much of a police state the united states has become a former cia officer who blew the whistle on america's torture program and is now waiting to serve two and a half years in prison talks to our t. about what he believes is behind the sentence. as the french stop its military operation in mali a success we bring you some chilling stories from the three week long battle

against islamist. syria is threatening to retaliate for an israeli air strike on its territory while its ally iran says they'll be repercussions over the attack. it's three pm in moscow six am in washington you're watching r t with me and he said now a former cia officer turned whistle blower sentenced to two and a half years behind bars is waiting to start his jail time john kerry kiriakou i should say was the first official to publicly confirm the agency's use of waterboarding and condemn it as torture and he was convicted for revealing a covert officer's identity to a journalist although in one of his final interviews before being locked away he

tells r t his crime was simply 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 and 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. but john kiriakou was also a guest on abbe martin's pray king was sent here in our t. don't miss the extensive interview details of the case and its implications throughout the day.

do you think that the the real people who oversaw codified torture john yoo alberto gonzales and donald rumsfeld shouldn't they be the ones sitting in prison john think 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 where the attorneys that papered over it with with crazed legal analysis or the man who who destroyed evidence of the torture in the tapes. france's howling its military mission against islamist rebels in mali a success but three week long intervention has also created more havoc in the conflict torn country and some chilling stories are emerging as a local reporter gonzalo wanted told r.t. . never saw that out of us as betty ellis 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 jihadist arrived sweeping south towards the capital by mark and the french intervention left a pile of debris in 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 rich 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 be this is just one example of the terror that the conflict is putting mali and civilians through plaguing 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. fresh back mali and government forces are increasingly accused of atrocities during the conflict with the rebels on r.t. dot com you can see an exclusive report on this as well as images allegedly showing evidence of war crimes by the troops and we also have more stories from people on the ground about hate how they are living through the western led battle against islamists. u.s. president barack obama has picked for the country's next defense secretary has gone out of his way to persuade the senate he's the right man for the job when attacked for his previous fears and statements at the confirmation hearing chuck hagel made it clear he will act in accordance with white house policies if his candidacy is approved are just going to to can listen to the sashayed which brought some heated

discussion but 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 as one of the senators put it 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 all options are on the table with 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 vague 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 in gauge mood is clearly in our interest that's not negotiation engagement is not appeasement engagement is not sure under so no direct negotiations with iran here's another example of how chuck

hagel had to walk back on some of his. 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 during this confirmation hearing he noted that i. that 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 it was like torture watching the hearing because it seemed as if the senators were not there to question chuck hagel 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. now we're always interested in your view on the topics we're covering head to r.t. dot com and vote today in our online poll let us know what you think hegel stance on iran and why it has become more hawkish here's some of the choices that we've put up for you the first is perhaps now it is a viable a viable bet that iran will be struck that it's been a genuine change in position perhaps it's a ploy to counter that criticism of being anti israeli or does it not matter at all he won't have any influence on iran policy maybe lastly is it proving his very own claim that no one can in fact stand up to the jewish lobby let's take a look at how opinions are divided so far about how of our viewers that voted think that it doesn't fact prove the israeli lobby power how strong it is

hegel's given it a third of so say it makes no difference around twenty percent a little less than that say that is a ploy to counter the criticism that he's anti israeli and the smallest amount of voting that it's a genuine change in stance like i said head on to our to dot com and vote today we want to know what you think on this issue now whatever prompted the change in hay goes rhetoric clearly there's been a difference many experts believe even if he wants to change u.s. forest 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 to mizzen was there with shutting down gitmo and ending 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 the 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 bakers 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 on to the people the fear of reducing the budget of the military so i'm absolutely confident that whoever is secretary of defense will have a very very loose pocketbook to spend to keep spinning us into having a rocket carrying a communication satellite has fallen into the pacific ocean shortly after blasting off from a sea based launch site and it's reported the rocket went off course immediately after takeoff artie's you've got to get off reports. the zenith rocket with the u.s. communications satellite on board blasted off from the odyssey floating platform to went off course almost immediately and its engines were switched off and it did

into the pacific somewhere along the equator less than a minute after takeoff now on the equator the earth's rotation speed provides an additional booster rocket so they could carry more weight and when it comes to launching from floating platforms besides looking or some there are advantages and disadvantages like there's a minimal risk of rockets falling down on inhabited areas but waves could be a problem in fact there is speculation that that could have been the case this time is a collaboration between russia in their gear and to us boring companies they've been working together since one thousand nine hundred five thirty four successful launches well this was supposed to be the first launch in two thousand and thirteen . still ahead for you this hour the catholic church in germany loses worshippers that have more and more alleged cases of child abuse by priests the headline.

was we report on the risks of genetically modified food but why it's made producers might not have anything to worry about that and more after a break. the . world lead. sorry it's technology innovation all the it's developments from around russia we've gone to the huge earth covered. you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize that everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harvey welcome to the big picture.

he is he. he is. the. government no longer represents the people and the people who are going to take the term. we. may not be a revolution in the traditional. the way i cut.

cut cut cut cut. cut cut. cut. cut cut. cut. mission. critical three. three. three. three. three. video for your media. free media. wealthy british. time to write limericks with.

the. market. find out what's really happening to the global economy is a report on r.t. . coming up to seventeen minutes past the hour here in moscow here with our team syria and iran are threatening to retaliate against israel for a rare air strike on syrian territory syria claims israeli warplanes hit a military research center near damascus killing two well the u.s. says the jets targeted a military convoy heading from neighboring lebanon artie's paul the slayer is monitoring developments from tel aviv. 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 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 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 iranian academic and political analyst mohammad marandi says israel should take iran's warning of repercussions seriously. 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 now

to other international news this hour a bomb blast in northwestern town has killed at least nine people and injured over thirty outside a mosque in the town of hangal according to local media the attack took place as worshippers were exiting after friday prayers no group has said says it carried out the attack the town of hangal is close to pakistan semi autonomous tribal region with a strong taliban and al qaeda presence. an explosion has killed twenty five people and left more than one hundred injured at the mexico city headquarters of pemex the state owned oil company the 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 natural gas facility in north mexico left thirty people dead.

government opposition in egypt is calling for further mass protests on friday that's despite reaching an agreement with the muslim brotherhood to renounce violence at demonstrations across the country the condemnation came at a meeting attended by government officials as well as heads of liberal and secular opposition movements at least sixty people have been killed in demonstrations marking the second anniversary of president mubarak's. and a standoff between police and a man holding a five year old child hostage in a bunker in rural alabama has entered its fourth 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 this is affected kidnapper is a retired sixty five year old truck driver the boy is apparently on. in germany the catholic church has dropped an independent investigation into child abuse allegations the accusations came to light in twenty ten and resulted in

a drastic decline in the number of worshippers attending church you may find some of the details in peter all over his report disturbing. the abuse of trust the destruction of faith the theft of innocence. in one nine hundred seventy nine 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 and willingness 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 no it's very difficult to get to a sentence because their weaknesses sometimes died in between the memory has got lost and so those attempts to get. to have a trial usually fail christina vi first 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 after ten years also the 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. is causing problems to them as well now they are 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 not to be brought back into the flock and then. moving in 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. and one for jaime for wilfrid that trust has been lost he says he will never set foot in a church again 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. there's more news for you online including on guard that's a real ledge of the martial law are doing its army to prepare for war head to r.t. dot com to see if the korean peninsula is on the brink of a military conflict. what's internet users be where millions of devices are now in danger of being an easy path for hackers due to a software malfunction that's been known about for some time. activists have protested outside a shareholder meeting at the headquarters of one of america's notorious genetically modified food producers monsanto protested monsanto protesters i should say demanded more transparency in the company's labeling and business practices that's

amid concerns over the safety of g.m. crops but adam evening our chair holder in monsanto believes as long as such companies financially support politicians and the risks could be brushed under the carpet. these chemicals may be what's causing higher rates of cancer and that's what is the asian nations across the globe we note that it caused tumors in rats that were fed won't. food studies last year i was it will speak during the meeting and this meeting is closed to the public and we one of the things the recipe for is in the future this is live streamed people around the world care about what's going into the food they don't want to own months into stock i only bought stocks like. the company knows already about their genetically modified crops which many say food activists believe make us more rely on herbicides and chemicals that they come

but he also sells the. companies give here 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. that it's not the politicians are not going to prioritize rejecting crops. peter lavelle's here in a couple of minutes with the latest edition of crosstalk. download

the official publication so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just doesn't do so now with your mobile device so you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere.

hello and welcome to cross talk or all things are considered i'm peter lavelle on forgetting iraq largely ignored by the media mainstream iraq is faced with a number of serious fault lines growing authoritarianism corruption separatism and politike. fragmentation this can hardly be the legacy washington wanted but it formally ended military occupation on top of this that debt appears to be crafting its own not a western form paul. to cross talk iraq i'm joined by pepe escobar and some paolo he is a journalist and author in london we have sammy ramadani he is the senior lecturer in sociology at london metropolitan university and in jerusalem we crossed amir javedanfar he is a middle east expert. in effect.