if there was more reason. to terrorism the role that is to take it out to. a decade since saddam hussein's regime collapsed in iraq we speak to the u.s. soldier who carried out the symbolic toppling of the dictator's statue. but he still feels remote with escalating sectarian violence and fighting for resources we report from could one of iraq's most dangerous places where people live in constant fear of attacks. and wiki leaks publishes over a million u.s. diplomatic cables from the kitchen in whistleblower juvie in the songes latest project to open up global geopolitics.

and i welcome good to have your company you're watching r.t. coming to you live from moscow with me andrey farm. now iraq's marking ten years since the overthrow of saddam hussein when baghdad fell to the u.s. led invasion a decade on and the country remains unstable more than two hundred civilians have been killed and over eight hundred wounded in the past month alone a situation that many a tribute to america's presence in the country after a massive loss of life and no weapons of mass destruction found was it all worth it artie's miniport i spoke to one man who had a very who had very different hopes on the day or acts leader was deposed. exactly ten years ago a u.s. marine from new york city made international headlines for his actions in baghdad edward chen tied a large noose around a massive statue of saddam hussein wrapped the face of that statue of an american flag before that monument was eventually toppled right now i am joined by mr chen

for a one on one conversation on thank you for speaking with archie today oh you're welcome ten years have passed since that that that moment where you essentially became a symbol for the u.s. occupation and invasion in iraq you were twenty three at the time when you climb that statue what you know about the iraq war now that you do know that all army when i know dollars does not turn years longer than expected. they're still struggling to. rebuild their country to have a stable government are your feelings different now than they were ten years ago in terms of your intentions to motivate a personal in the room. when you know when you were going to war two thousand and three i did i thought. it was a very forward was the master which is already. solved you know i'd like to believe

that in the. words of one stabilize the region. for american troops. there is no deal or innocent officer. only knows for our mark on democracy speaking of american interests that american democracy. why not statue of saddam hussein and wrap the face of the statue in an american flag looking back on your actions do you think that it was the propre thing to do us as a foreigner coming in invading a country climbing the statue of a man who was the leader of that country and wrapping the face an american flag. iraqi civil war see that as a symbol occupation. you know but you know my reasons are the reason why we didn't know it was for us we would have been in iraq for. over a month. and the fire got to baghdad and we were hoping that it would be the market

under the old law to go home to my family and i was a wanted to us but we have seen america fly for so long as i went out to attach to a chain around the backs of people satchel now. so you know when i want to go out there he was like oh but you know when you get out there you know sort of boards the colors and i was ok you know i do like to walk tall and so i get up there and i'm like i don't know i don't want to use the word flag and. kind of stuff my jacket i pulled it out with the word just bluebonnets is going to work for me. to spare you know i mean you know the reason we do just to show you kind of something want to push on the country just the way a spur of the moment more than forty five hundred soldiers have reportedly lost their lives. in the war in iraq and tens of. thousands maybe hundreds of thousands of iraqis have been killed and they were born to it. is this what you envisioned

when when you i mean when question now there are any of us in a vision but. you know when it comes to war. expect the unexpected. it's. often our vision. what you know about us foreign policy now that you didn't know that we're not we're not going to tell the truth but what happens because that's what it's going to harvard sucking on the tallest man who has just come out some of the republican we're going to war. through you know he'll control the oil without a region of course we're not just going to come out and and how many people are going to sign up to risk their lives as an actor was actually but you know what it was you know we're the most sorry here we do we're told you know. we hold you know this you know this right says i mean you know it's we're going to last we're there you know we're going to follow on or in front bravely you know to the course of the country and from what he thinks the war was for him i personally

think it was for. us to know how good a foothold there to receive was a region you know i don't believe. you tell me that it was for you to love isn't that mass destruction souls lives lost as does not work that robs you know you know today there was still no weapons to be found is it is it worth it just for the u.s. to to have a foothold in the region is it worth of all those lives i do. don't know be worth to. controvert that. if there was more reason there's a lot of the doctors in the world that has to be taken out to work was part of the reason i look for the reason is because the how can are not. to resist now we're just. at work thank you very much for your time. while

another iraq war veteran and yates told r.t. that washington's main reasons for going into the conflict were financial my job i was actually i was a public affairs specialist in the military that's their name for a journalist my role was to basically make the war sound really wonderful to those of us who are fighting it to keep morale of course i knew that saddam didn't have weapons of mass destruction because i had been following the news coming out of that following the reports and i knew it wasn't you know really about liberation as soon as i saw huge mess that we made to the infrastructure in iraq and the fact that still to this day corporations that received these j enormous contracts to rebuild iraq's infrastructure still haven't done that and they don't even know where the money that's gone i believe. or affectedly with the oil to those big

oil efficiently american oil. has really ever really been the main picture. the stability promised by nato forces is no way to be seen in places like cook attacks and bombings have increased in the oil rich city a sense of ethnic and political tension over resources in the disputed area many iraqis say they still feel unsafe in a country free from saddam's dictatorship as they see catherine of reports. the iraq war is supposed to be over but these pictures tell a different story chaos and confusion the aftermath of yet another deadly blast here in cure cooper. this oil rich city has been described as a fault line a symbol for the country's most intractable woes escalating violence the conflict among ethnic and religious groups and the fight over iraq's resources. getting

there was our first challenge a group of kurdish soldiers had agreed to take us in both baghdad and the kurds lay claim to care coop and are sparring over control aside from the danger those entering from the kurdish side need special permission to get past the iraqi checkpoints when habit. roadblocks and concrete barriers define the new iraq checkpoints like this one are a dominant feature of life and they are everywhere aside from the household they're also a frequent target of attacks for us it was a blatant visual reminder of a country still very much at war. inside your kook we drive quickly to avoid danger we're told to look out for black b.m.w. is apparently they've become a favorite for iraq's insurgents who didn't pick the best day to come to roadside bombs exploded here earlier that morning around the same time that baghdad was rocked by a series of deadly blasts but it's been a flashpoint for years now and in the city center it's clear that life doesn't stop just because of the threats we were expecting empty streets but people continued to

go about their business as normal vendors and busy families did their shopping beneath the surface there are scars. an incredibly dangerous place. after the city without the help of a military escort residents here say that attacks could happen at any time in any place in fact it's not really safe to stay here for too long so let's get inside. we need car want to his family there kurds who say they're happy that saddam is gone but their fear of political repression has been replaced by fear of the unknown. you know. we don't know who the enemy is or women next bomb will go off but it's a daily fears we've got used to it i do small things to feel safer like driving with all the car windows down that way if there's a blast at least the glass won't hurt us. such precautions didn't help sixty year old mahmoud who says that a decade of war has ruined iraq he happened to be in the wrong place at the long

time a bomb blast went off injuring his leg for him daily life has become a painful struggle just about the only. benefit did the your bring democracy only explosions shootings and kidnappings people should feel free to go out and come back safely where is that a job where i can leave but there's no guarantee i'll come back a lot of the soldiers. no it's not about the sectarian differences unfortunately it's book the black the oil and behind this oil is the hidden interests of politicians pawns in a political game playing with their livelihoods and lives for conflicts not of their own making the iraqis we met didn't hate their neighbors or care about who controls the oil just like fall off they simply want the peace of mind of knowing they can go out and return to their loved ones alive to seek out and of r.t.

kirkuk iraq. the us attempted to rebuild iraq following the two thousand and three invasion spending billions of dollars on various reconstruction projects medical work a doctor. says that while america has invested heavily into iraq it's intentional use of dangerous weapons has left severe lasting effects across the country. it's clear that though the u.s. spoke of their help provided to iraq after the invasion notably reconstruction education investments and their so-called help resulted in the use of weapons banned by article fifty three of the geneva convention it prohibits any kind of weapon which if used where there is more war can affect the areas environment climate and water resources the things that occurred in one thousand nine hundred one and then in two thousand and three are true catastrophe all types of munitions were used including dispenser weapons boss present munitions depleted uranium and

chemical weapons all these types of weapons were used intentionally and on a mass scale in iraq this testino to weapons had disastrous effects in terms of environmental contamination not to be compared even with hiroshima. this is by no means an exaggeration this is not my opinion you can look up human rights watch and the world health organization the records on the internet radiological monitoring what do they held on the end. the national level points out radioactive contamination of southern central and even northern areas of iraq and despite repeated calls and all the reports published by iraqi scientists the us turned a blind eye on the issue that the worst part is that milly's government and all those that were in power. bear arms against those raising concerns of chemical and radioactive contamination yeah i guess they feel indebted to the invaders that all ministers and government officials are not entitled to speak freely on this issue

there is a ban on any relevant scientific research been published even in the u.s. this ban comes from either the administration in washington or from the pentagon and is binding even for our scientists. whether another casualty of the war in iraq is the country's cultural heritage archaeologists an architect of that is sand fathi says many artifacts were destroyed and others plundered but the us ignoring his coals to help. in some palaces pure gold bullion there were found and some of them were planted i'm sure that everything was stored in the central and other banks sent to the us without any documentation and is now kept in archives those are of course not of historical value but huge amounts of documents representing historical importance that cannot be assigned a monetary value were taken by the us the iraqi government was trying to get them back but the american administration wanted to strike

a deal and return only half of the documents occupying forces protected only some objects such as the ministry of petroleum industry that had a strategic use for washington although they did admit that they played a leading role in destroying many historical objects one of the examples was the city of babylon that was occupied and said to be an area of responsibility for a polish military contingent the poles cause a lot of damage to the area by using heavy engineering with tanks helicopters and digging underground communication trenches and american off already given in significant sum of money about twenty million dollars to the restoration projects that and limit the impact of the occupation by a few years ago during a conference in paris in which many high ranking representatives of the u.s. state department and other key officials took part that i personally asked the u.s. to release one billion dollars at least one billion dollars to carry out restoration work but they ignored my request and this is just one of the numerous examples of their destructive actions that went unnoticed by the iraqi museum for

example was plundered before their very eyes at the plundering lasted for three days without the occupation forces stepping in at all that. being ensconced in the ecuadorian embassy for over nine months hasn't stopped using the signed his whistle blowing mission he's unveiled what's called project k. on the wiki leaks website containing over one point seven million u.s. diplomatic cables from the one nine hundred seventy s. examines what is in the documents which is stange calls the most significant geopolitical publication ever. they've released a massive new database of u.s. diplomatic cables that date back to the one nine hundred seventy s. so this was a time when henry kissinger was u.s. secretary of secretary of state and a lot of the cables are either two or from him now judy and

a son says that although the documents are all material what wiki leaks have done is they've made it very user friendly so it's a big database you can actually go in and you can search through these cables you can mix of even made an interactive map that sites how many times each country is mentioned in these cables practically every single country in the world is in there now according to julian assange the u.s. administration can't be trusted with controlling its own history so he's had to come along and do this controls the president controls and he controls the past controls the future and that is because it's a vital role that history plays in deciding our interpretation of what is happening in the world the period of the one nine hundred seventy s. in diplomacy is referred to as the big bang this is when the international order came to be the most incriminating cables are likely to be the ones that

reveal the relationships that the u.s. administration had with some very dictatorial regimes back in the one nine hundred seventy s. we've got franco's spain pinochet's chile the genitor ruled greece they're all known to have committed appalling crimes with the support of the american administration and perhaps the most illustrative quotation within this huge release of cables comes from henry kissinger himself now he's quoted as saying the illegal we do immediately the unconstitutional takes a little longer in a conversation with a turkish from a separate official now so many critics that's one line that will. speak volumes about us foreign policy and we've already seen reports actually that site wiki leaks saying that the vatican may have collaborated with the us in supporting the pinochet coup in chile which we all know saw a very bloody regime come to power there's already

a scandal in india over the release of the new cables as the late prime minister rajiv gandhi may have been a middleman for a swedish company trying to sell weapons to india there are also unconfirmed reports that cables are going to reveal that under cia orders the swedish secret police was spying on its left leaning citizens these reports are yet to be confirmed and there is another very big scandal where there are unconfirmed reports that unreleased cables are going to reveal that call built the current foreign minister for sweden was in fact an informer for the cia from the nineteen seventies for many people the way in which they've revealed the jew ality of us foreign policy will be very illustrative of the way that u.s. foreign policy may be functioning today so on the outside we've got a lot of talk about human rights and democracy but behind closed doors and in these

private cables it looks to be like a much more complicated and often darker situation. well sweden's foreign minister is denying reports linking him to the cia saying that they are part of a smear campaign which will quickly fall apart although having since been this declassified the data gathered in project used to be virtually inaccessible hidden between secrecy and complexities juden the sanj describe it well thanks to wiki leaks it is now easily available we're trying to show you have on their website. if you go to public library of u.s. diplomacy kissinger cables you can browse by creation date classification or handling restrictions or just enter a keyword chile for example is the keyword we're going to introduce here you can specify your search and choose the most secretive documents marked notice that does stand for no distribution or only which means our eyes only and if we press the

button you should get over seventy documents of come up there revealing washington's role in chile in politics in the mid nine hundred seventy s. you can also just browse the notice or eyes only sections and find plenty of classified material there for you on a range of issues from the nine hundred sixty nine cambodia bombing to the nine hundred seventy four. invasion of cyprus so we can expect a person kristinn hrafnsson did tell kevin zero in a bit earlier how the u.s. should be thankful for the great job that they have done. because it is dedicated to bringing historical records to the public attention when there is an attempt to keep them hidden although these documents have been declassified excuse dreamy difficult to approach them and assess them in their current format only in the national archives so what we did was to gather together with help and and publish

them in a searchable database a very robust database and merge them with the two hundred fifty thousand a u.s. diplomatic cables that we published under the cable gates and it's extremely important to have results in front of me chris what kind of response from expect from washington as you said these are not strictly speaking classified anymore but you kind of collated them all together to make them easier to get hold of is washington talk i'm certain of any of this well i haven't heard of any response from the earth already here in washington of course they should be very pleased that we're doing the job that they should be doing themselves so maybe you should apply for some funds and continue his work from the us government and they should actually focus on one tension of supporting over a concert of continuing of this unprecedented relents is an attempt to prosecute julian assigns and all the members of that we can use team. and you can keep across wiki leaks truth seeking mission at r.t. dot com there we explain why during the sand it is project cave the most

significant geo political publication that is ever existed and you can also join our online discussion. plus truth on trial ongoing coverage online of the british struggler bradley manning who exposed military secrets to wiki leaks and could face twenty b.n. in jail. some of the world's main news now tributes are being paid to britain's first female prime minister margaret thatcher who died on monday aged eighty seven the news was met with an onslaught of mixed reactions from morning to celebrations nicknamed the iron lady she led britain for nine hundred seventy nine thousand nine hundred ninety deeply divided the public she'll be remembered for repelling argentina's alton's invasion but also her hardline on social cutbacks in tackling trade unions leading to the tories miners' strike nineteen eighty-four. syria has rejected the un secretary general's chemical weapons probe team which is

awaiting deployment in cyprus it was initially invited by syria to investigate the march nineteenth attack near aleppo but thank you means reported suggestion of a supplementary nationwide probe has brought the mission to a stark holt syria's foreign ministry says it's too similar to the un backed iraqi nuclear weapons accusations which concluded with the notorious american led invasion. but your attempts to broker a deal between serbia and its breakaway kosovo province have failed it was to normalize ties between the two regions asking belgrade to cede its hold over northern kosova in exchange for e.u. membership talks the stumbling block was a lack of guarantees to protect the minority in the region belgrade doesn't recognize cause of his independence and into ethnic tensions played. the region. fascisms dark role in world history is doing little to hold back in you generation

of black in italy the governments try to hand out radical elements but the far right still managing to draw support from economically embattled italians nationwide as a renegotiation explains. this is the house of italy's modern day fascists and imposing building in rome it stood empty until ten years ago members of the ca's a pound movement barged through the doors put up their flag and became squatters after a decade of fruitless attempts neither the police nor the country's judicial system have managed to push the fascist movement out if anything members of cars abound say they are growing ever stronger. when fascism is mentioned and stirs memory and conjures images of a bleak past there's a season that comes to mind is mostly me or two but what i'm a fascist in italy refused to have any association with macabre pasts. she's more foremost fascism is

a way to govern the economy and the country so we can all be responsible for what was happening some seventeen years ago i can't judge events of the past since i wasn't alive back then so i can't be judged for things that happened that far back . recent research by the open society foundation looked more closely at members of cars abound their results showed that unlike similar going to swear in europe most supporters of the movement cite the economy corruption and unemployment as the main reasons for joining the party because about the moment i get the main idea it's really sovereignty we're against pan-european tendencies we're against a dictatorial europe because for example because we don't want the production of italian goods to move to other countries historians aren't surprised by such developments yet some. leave the trend isn't as worrying or as widespread as some would like to believe. as a historian i can say such movements gain popularity during

a crisis but i want to say because the pound is incredibly popular their percentage during the elections was not even one percent but today's low numbers aren't discouraging the movements leaders who believe most italians secretly support their goals and share their ideals but they're simply too afraid to voice such views. there's been a growing interest in the last few years as a far right party and we didn't get many votes during the election but we now have a chance to make t.v. appearances so more people can find out about our ideas and what we have to walk on . the far right resurgence of a country with a troubling fascist history it's now up to italy's political leaders to ask whether they are the ones pushing people towards extremist ideas not out of rebellion or ignorance but out of desperation. grow. up next find out who reigns in russian football at the moment and catch up on all the week's top

international sports story it's a cake walk. ten years ago baghdad was over. ten years political in

fighting terrorism and economic decay. in iraq a rise. until april ninth.