for the wonders of mass destruction saul's lives lost and stuff and i worked in the u.s. soldier who pulled the star-spangled banner over the iconic statue of saddam hussein speaks to a decade after the fall of baghdad. ordinary iraqis struggled to cope with sectarian violence political instability economic woes and the aftermath of the weapons unleashed by the u.s. military also. the president. and he controls the controls the future of wiki leaks publishes over one point seven million u.s. diplomatic records from the kissinger era revealing washington's past involvement with dictatorships and showing its present day policies and unite.

if you just joined us kevin owen here live with you at eight pm moscow time from r.t. and first off deadly suicide bombings and political uncertainty now the realities of everyday life for millions of iraqis but it's something few of them imagined when they were cheering the symbolic toppling of saddam hussein's statue in baghdad a decade ago. met the u.s. soldier who played a key part in that historic moment he says the reasons for invading iraq don't justify the lives lost. 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 parties 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 know that all army what i know about all those ten years longer than i expected. to still struggling to rebuild their country to have a stable government why not statue of saddam hussein and wrap the face of the satchel in an american flag looking back on your actions do you think 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. maybe you know iraqi civil war suit as a symbol waukesha. you know but you know my reasons are the reasons that one reads it is you know it was for us we were there in iraq for all of them all.

the fire got to bury the old and i believe you're going to rule we're going to go home from i was with one of those who have seen our to fly for so long the reason we do just to show any kind of sense of want to push on a country is just more of a spur of the moment what you know about us foreign policy now that to know that we know not to be told she. is because times are hard or something. the tallest man who has just come outside of the public will go to war. through you know be able to control the oil without a region of course not just is going to come out and and how many people are going to sign up to risk their lives it was exactly exactly where most every day we do what we're told and. we hope that you know this you know this right says our maintenance will go once we're there you know we're going to follow on or what he thinks the war was for i personally think it was for.

us to you know had been a foothold here it's mostly 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 is does not work that robson all you know today there was still no weapons to be found you don't know b. what worth it was to. free a country of a dictator yes but that if that was all reason then there's a lot of dictators and the rules that used to be taken out to hope that i would was part of the reason i look for the right reason is because of how can i not in a way. it would be to say. to resist now we're justified. thank you very much for your time. after crippling the infrastructure of iraq during the invasion the us went on to spend tens of billions of dollars on reconstruction efforts but today life for iraqis is a daily struggle in washington admits that it cannot account for

a large share of the rebuilding funds meantime the scars left by america's tools of destruction are clear to see the list to be initiatives includes cluster bombs which scatter hundreds of small deadly bomb metz when they detonated also the use of depleted uranium in american shells an incendiary white phosphorous bombs that were dropped on for back in two thousand and four were among the most controversial doctor. says the use of such weapons left severe and lasting effects you may find some of the pictures coming up disturbing. it's clear that though the u.s. spoke of their help provided to iraq after the invasion notably reconstruction education and investments 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 war can affect the areas environment climate and water resources 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 past present munitions depleted uranium and chemical weapons all these types of weapons were used intentionally and on a mass scale in iraq this testino of 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 in world health organization reports on the internet radiological monitoring was held on the international level points of radioactive contamination of southern central and in the northern areas of iraq and despite repeated calls to reports published by iraqi scientists the u.s. turned a blind eye on the issue let's get some more thoughts now on this tenth anniversary and talk to journalist a middle east expert at a risk is joining us from beirut hi there ali well as i say ten years on a very opportune time to look back isn't it the iraqi prime minister says the

country is better off now than it ever was true or false do you think. yes that was that was his opinion in an editorial on composed today that our country is better off i think that in some perspectives it might be better off in another perspective is that it might not be of course during the reign of saddam hussein there was no doubt dictatorship. torture us as a nation's people lived in fear many iraqis who i talked to in particular those from the shia are second also those curves from the kurdish sects speak about the sufferings which they suffered from the hardships which i had there in jaw on the other hand now after the toppling of saddam hussein we have to mention the occupation which led to a lot of deaths the emergence of car the the emergence of al qaida by the way and it's going to iraq was a result of the american presence in that country and now i think especially with

the after the eruption of the syrian crisis we have sectarianism once again coming into war invading iraq we had that before on the the leadership of the car the point man car we are now it's returning so i think that iraq is just in general i think is unlucky always witnessing bad days the difficulties however vary from time to time but we feel want to sum up in general i think that iraq right now despite all the difficulties still does have the chance to win as an important player especially in foreign policy in the syrian issue would already is playing a role and don't forget that it's a growing oil export or i think the second according to opec so there still is a potential for iraq to further develop so maybe the ousting of saddam hussein was or will be in the long term benefits of this country where no of the one of the

people that live there that we've been reporting on that having the daily problems going to feel the benefits though when do you think this is going to have this light at the end the totally possibly talking about. well i think you know the big crisis the big dilemma facing the region right now not just in iraq but also in this korea war i am now in lebanon on in syria as well the big dilemma is sectarianism now i think that maybe iraq is very vulnerable to sectarianism juta the presence of our car that we just heard today in our senior official speaking about a new title being given the islamic state in iraq and believe onto referring to. both syria and iraq so. this issue of sectarianism i think what is needed to address this is that some countries need to change their behavior and here i must

point there are first and foremost two two countries or maybe three actually saudi arabia turkey and qatar the same three countries which we can highlight when it comes to the syrian crisis in particular saudi arabia and turkey appear to be happy to have a sectarian angle in their poll in the policies which they pursue and i think that it will be up to some of the allies of these countries and here i have to point out to the u.s. i think that the u.s. if it wants to see stability as it says it must use its leverage with turkey and saudi arabia to put an end to the sectarian agenda because. this sectarian agenda and these policies being pursued by the states are triggering or fueling this sectarianism which are which we are seeing particularly for example the protests which we saw in the iraqi province of the bar which is known to have a lot of the car the affiliates so what it comes down to in the end is that some as i said some countries in the persian gulf have to change their policies and there

are jungle which is based on fueling sectarianism partly to weaken the islamic republic of iran and we know iraq is a strong ally of iran is purely hypothetical but if saddam hussein had still been in power today would we still be safely sectarian problems or not. i'm not sure you would have seen sectarian problems but i think what you would have sexually is that iran would be would have been on the immense isolation i think that the beneficiary and this is something which was well known i think to most scholars the primary beneficiary of the ousting of saddam hussein was indeed iran now look at how one of iran's allies bashar al assad is facing difficulties if saddam hussein would have been now in there. in power at the time where this crisis was going on in syria i would presume one hundred percent that saddam hussein would have stood against syria in order also to weaken iran he would have joined with these persian gulf arab countries so i think that the that the change which

occurred in the ousting of saddam hussein or the toppling of saddam hussein has a big significance when you take into consideration the developments which have taken place nowadays the current foreign policy big issues first and foremost syria and the attempts to weaken iran i think that the presence of newly maliki has given iran some power to withstand this campaign which is being launched again against it including the big campaign against which is targeting syria your analysis there in our beirut studio. the city of kirkuk has become a hotbed of instability in posts iraq and there's a. reports next some locals say the fear of the late dictators been replaced by a greater fear of the unknown. 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 kirkuk. this oil rich city has been described as a raucous a symbol of 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 a sin 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 have it. roadblocks and concrete barriers defined the new iraq checkpoints like this one are a dominant feature of life and they are everywhere aside from the house they're also 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. 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 kirkuk has 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 seemed busy families did their shopping beneath the surface there are scars today kirkuk continues to be an incredibly dangerous place. after the city without the help of a military escort residents here say that attacks have happened 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 moot who says that a decade of war has ruined iraq he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time in a bomb blast went off injuring his leg for him daily life has become a painful struggle for somebody and. i guess what benefit did the war bring democracy only explosions shootings and kidnappings people should feel free to go out and come back safely where is that i can leave but there's no guarantee i'll come back a lot of soldiers you know it's not about the sectarian differences unfortunately it's both the black or 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 all they simply want the peace of mind of knowing they can go out and return to their loved ones alive who seek out r.t. iraq. still ahead here this hour a sensational history lesson for the world's top whistleblower we delve into the nearly two million diplomatic cables published by julian assange which put america's foreign policy view is. this coming up so. well with. its technology innovation all the latest developments

around russia we've got the future covered.

international airport in the very heart of moscow. trapped in the door an embassy for over nine months but still fighting to blow the lid on global politics with talk about julian massage now he's released over one point seven million u.s. diplomatic cables from the nineteen seventies which he's dubbed the most significant geopolitical publication ever. has been examining wiki leaks biggest release today according to julian assange and the u.s. administration com to be trusted with controlling its own history so he's had to come along and do this he controls the president controls and he controls the past controls the future and that is because of the 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 modern 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 jointer ruled greece they're all known to have committed appalling crimes with the support of the. 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 cypriot official now so many critics that's one line that will speak volumes about u.s. 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 is 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 of sweden was in fact an informant for the cia from the nineteen seventies for many people the way in which they revealed the giufà let's see 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. polly boycott all these files and they had been declassified used to be virtually inaccessible hidden between secrecy and complexity is julian the sunshine self described it but thanks to wiki leaks it's now just a click away new organization spokesman kristen have france and told me a bit earlier that the u.s. should be grateful for the great job they've 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 to suit stream it difficult to approach them and assess them in their current format only in the national archives so what we did was to regard it as

a gather with help and publish them in a searchable database a very robust database merge them with the two hundred fifty thousand u.s. diplomatic cables that we published under the cable gates and extremely important to have results in public domain 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 their neighbors well i haven't heard of any response from the earth already here in washington of course they should be very pleased that we are doing the job that they should be doing themselves so maybe you should apply for some funds and continue mission work from the us government and they should actually focus on what engineers reporting over a concert of continuing of this unprecedented. attempt to prosecute julian assigns and all the members of that we can use team or critics have accused wiki leaks of going soft with the kissinger cables saying the dated records are much of

a leak but as london based r.t. contributor afshin rattansi told me their publication could have a major impact. these are incredibly relevant cables they weren't able to be searched and the mainstream media doesn't like what wiki leaks is doing which is dedicated as far as. anyone interested in journalism i think would say is the powerless against the powerful one doesn't have to doubt why the united states doesn't want these cables searchable because they detail very clearly a horrific time in u.s. foreign policy these are stories that reverberate even today and if we do what we have to do is look at egypt for instance because the ramadan war there the seventy three kissinger's role in trying to spark that off to try and destroy arab unity and we're living with those consequences today project k. is hardly going to cause is it a reaction like the outcry that sparked the collateral murder video showing the u.s. helicopter attacking civilians there in iraq i would actually just be there we can

tell whether it'll have the same impact as the so-called collateral murder video because there will be research is out there who is unemployed journalists out there will be able to find out stories and correlate the facts that come out in these cable releases with other facts to reveal other elements of u.s. foreign policy that he had to we didn't know. now at r.t. dot com we're asking you to share your thoughts about wiki leaks so-called kissinger files we want you to go online tell us what you think the revelations. whether make a difference or not you go this way telling us so far the biggest response. there goes sixty three percent that's two percent up from last year as well say the latest batch of published cables reveal more dirty secrets behind us politics this hour twenty three percent of you just about under a quarter believe it simply confirms that all countries are so into high just under ten feet there are eight percent think the whole publication being blown out of proportion just to get attention the minority this out six percent suspect wiki

leaks is trying to dupe the public with fake information thanks for your thoughts r.t. dot com is the place where you can make that change all night. no. also on our web site r t congressman welcome predictions for air travelers if you're a nervous flyer scientists say passengers should brace themselves for a sharp increase in flight turbulence why we'll explain online and online social networking could get tax evaders in trouble as the u.s. internal revenue service decides to provide all the web in search of clues left by tax cheat. update on korea now head of the united nations ban ki moon says any wrong moves could make the situation of the korean peninsula spiral out of control this comes as north korea tells all foreign workers and tourists in the neighboring south that they should have vacuum just in case you clear war breaks analysts don't believe the kick the communist state will actually attack but the u.s. says it is on standby in the pacific ready to intercept pyongyang as ballistic

missiles if they come japan's placed a battery of missile interceptors in central tokyo to guard against any possible rocket tesco in that way meantime north korea has pulled out its workers from the joint industrial zone run together with seoul it's a breadwinner for the thousands of north citizens that work there the south korean government has tried to defuse the situation saying the door for dialogue is still open we'll keep you posted. a powerful earthquake hit iran's pushchair province which is home to the country's only nuclear power station it was a six point three quake it's left at least thirty people dead injured hundreds more officials say the nuclear plant itself is not damaged but dozens of villages near the quake's epicenter have been left in ruins tremors were felt across the gulf in qatar bahrain and dubai. following a legal appeals over the hunger strike at guantanamo bay the u.s. government began now to shed more light on the detainee's protests lawyers for the

captives and now big notified whether their clients are being force fed or not but a tourist u.s. military facility it makes began to starve themselves over two months ago because of conditions on the indefinite detention without charge u.s. officials say forty two are refusing all food but lawyers claim that figure is way . this is the home of the kaiser report and it's after the break.

he became a symbol of the nine hundred ninety s. he personified the russian mafia in the kremlin. he was a twentieth century arrest buton. in just a few years he rose from junior was a multi-billion and senior politician. is declining was as rapid as his meteoric rise and ended in exile his death is now as mysterious as his life. better. max kaiser this is the kaiser reporting no this past week in the u.k.

the chancellor of the exchequer george osborne suggested that welfare benefits were in some way responsible for turning a man into a mass murdering child killer who killed six of his children by arson this episode that has a reporter we asked the same as quantitative easing and decades of sponging off the taxpayer turned banks into bloated yobbish addicks and has are indulging them with immunity from justice for a fraudulent misselling of derivatives and interest rate rigging turned bankers into serial wealth confiscated as unable to pass a single dime on the street without wanting to steal it and mass murdering arsonists burning down financial markets around the world why why why just because just because they stacey heard what was happening was happening was happening state herbert apparently that's what happens when you become a welfare bum you just want to burn down things yes right in the city of london you get a few nickels in your pocket or if you buy.