as for the wonders of mass destruction saul's lives lost and does not work to the us soldier who pulled the star-spangled banner over the iconic statue of saddam hussein speaks to r.t. a decade after the fall of baghdad. meanwhile the iraqi struggle to cope with sectarian violence political instability economic woes and the aftermath of the weapons unleashed by the u.s. military also. the polls the president falls. and he controls the past controls the future of wiki leaks publishers 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 in a new light. they've

just joined us live from the r t new central eleven it's kevin owen a very good to have you company this hour. deadly suicide bombings and political uncertainty now the every day realities of life for millions of iraqis but it's something few of them imagined when they were cheering that symbolic toppling of saddam hussein's statue in baghdad a decade ago. the u.s. soldier indeed who played a key part in that historic moment he told us 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 r.t.

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 didn't know that all army were no dollars is not ten years longer than we expected all those still struggling to rebuild their country to have a stable government 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 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 wrapping the face an american flag. maybe you know iraqi civil war suit as a symbol on. you know what you know my reasons are the reasons the war we didn't

know was for us we would have been in iraq for all of them all. the fire got to bury the old and we walked into the room going to go home for found and 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're know not to be told she. is because times are hard or something. the tallest man has just come out so the public will just go to war. through you know be able to control the oil without a region of course not just going to come out and and how many people are going to sign up to risk their lives it was exactly exactly where most very here we do what we're told and. we hope that you know this you know this right says our maintenance

we're going last word there you know we're going to fight of honor but he thinks the war was for i personally think it was for. us to you know get a foothold here it's in was he 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 robs and all today still no weapons to be found you don't know be what weren't there was to. free a country of a dictator yes but that was all reason there's a lot of dictators in the world that used to be taken out to hope that i would it was one of the reason i look for the right reason is because i how can i not in a way. it would be to say. to resist now we're justified. and we're chen thank you very much for your time. interesting isn't it here that soldier ten years on well after crippling the infrastructure of iraq during the invasion the u.s.

then went on to spend tens of billions of dollars on reconstruction efforts but today life for the rockies is still a daily struggle and washington admits that it can account for a large share of the rebuilding firms meanwhile the scars left by america's tools of destruction are clear to see a list of munitions including cluster bombs that scatter hundreds of small deadly bomb mets' when detonated also the use of depleted uranium in american shells and incendiary white phosphorous bombs dropped on for 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 images coming up upsetting. 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 in the plane dispenser weapons prospers ammunitions depleted uranium and chemical weapons all these types of weapons were used intentionally and on a mass scale in iraq this testing out 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 held on the international level radioactive contamination of southern central in the northern areas of iraq and despite repeated calls to reports published by iraqi scientists the us turned a blind eye on the issue. when michael prisoner took part in that invasion as a u.s.

soldier he was prepared to fight and die defending his country but the reality of what he experienced brought about a drastic change of heart as he explained to me just a bit earlier this evening. witnessing all of the lies told by the bush administration really crumble in front of our faces and the main thing being interactions with the iraqi people who we were told we were liberating who we were told would be happy that we were coming into their country and seeing what was being done to them and how they opposed our presence there and also realizing that the people that we were told were our enemies people we were told we should be fighting were exactly like my friends and family and neighbors here at home and that i had so much in common with them you know i was being told by the multimillionaire politicians that we are the enemy and that we had to fight them interrogations that i witnessed and took part in were truly terrifying and humiliating experiences for the iraqis who were detained any amount of torture

is a crime when you're doing it to innocent people in my experience working in interrogations is that ninety nine percent of the people that we anteroom gated and terrorized and humiliated in those cells had done absolutely nothing wrong were picked up at random and did not deserve to be in jail the greatest atrocity of the modern era i mean over a million people dead and millions millions more whose lives were destroyed but we can see very very clearly now that the only reason that the u.s. wants an invasion and occupation of iraq is because of her acts nationalized oil because it was an independent country that would not bow down to the dictates of the u.s. government and not establishing a base of u.s. interests in the region could allow the banks and corporations in the united states to exert dominance over the anti region which is very profitable for a very small group of people the war in iraq was a war for the rich at the expense of millions of people in the united states and

millions of people in iraq. well the city of kirkuk speak of a hotbed to instability in post saddam iraq these days. reports make some locals say the fear of the late dictator has 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 was 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 kook and are sparring over control aside from the danger those

entering from the kurdish side need special permission to get past the iraqi checkpoints we inhabit. road blocks 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's 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 that shortly 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 mood who says that a decade of war has ruined iraq he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time 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 your 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 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 they simply want the peace of mind of knowing they can go out and return to their loved ones alive lucy caffein of r.t. iraq.

still ahead for you this hour a sensational history lesson for the world's top whistleblower we delve into the daily two million diplomatic cables published by julian assange which put america's foreign policy of years past the spotlight. world. science technology innovation all the developments around russia we've got the future covered. thank.

the international airport in the very heart of moscow. again trucked to the ecuadorian embassy for over nine months for still fighting to blow the lid on global politics we're talking julian assange now he's released of a one point seven million u.s. diplomatic cables that from the one nine hundred seventy s. which he's dubbed the most significant geo political publication ever. has been examining wiki leaks biggest release to date them. according to julian assange the

us administration can't 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 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 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 u.s. foreign policy and we've already seen reports actually that site wiki leaks saying that the vatican may have collaborated with the u.s. 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 of sweden was in fact an informant for the cia from the nineteen seventies for many people the way in which they've 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 while the critics accuse wiki leaks of going soft with these questions you cable saying the dated records there for much of a leak but is london to start

a contributor should returns explains makes the 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 us 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 years and years roll 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 in iraq i would actually just be there we can't 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. well that's what i should return to thinks what do you think that's what i ask you one line tonight what you think these kissinger files go online tell us what you think the going to be making much difference or not this is what you're telling us so far as you can see there the majority sixty three percent percent think it's going to expose more u.s. dirty linen as it's put twenty three percent of you there believe it simply confirms that all countries have got something to hide eight percent this is one percent up from last think we hold publications being blown out of proportion just to get attention a minority six percent think that wiki leaks is trying to dupe the public with fake information you can tell us what you think again r.t. dot com always good to hear from you and also online as well tonight some unwelcome

predictions for air travelers if you're nervous. scientists say passengers should brace themselves for a sharp increase in flight turbulence why if you guess it will tell you more r.t. dot com and online to social networking could get tax evaders in trouble was the u.s. internal revenue service decides to. search of clues left by tax cheats they leave no stone unturned. we speak your language. use programs and documentaries in spanish matters to you breaking news the alternative angles keep these stories. for you here. in troy the spanish find out more visit. reporting next another new banking crisis may be festering in the eurozone despite

the slovenian prime minister denying that his country could seek a bailout. say discuss this very issue with. business and artie's news editor of across. tost come up with one point three billion dollars in order to sort out their banking crisis that i did with my man that actually creates a three percent of their g.d.p. their economy already i contracted by two percent last year so it just gives you an idea of what the economy the situation is that the my name is the banking sector and the problem is that being told you need to recapitalize your banks that's exactly what cyprus was told the thing is they don't have the money to do that they can't afford to do that let me just jump on what yes it is size here it's what do you make of this woman sees about a billion is measured looks familiar to. me thinks the lady doth protest too much i think might apply here i think you know what i'm seeing is the same old same old from the troika from brussels the same old kind of mismanagement i tell you if i

had a hundred thousand sitting in this living in baghdad right now i'd be pretty happy man but i'd be heading down to the cash machine with a big bag making was this reports they will only see these basically said to be slovenian banking system has misread the cost of recapitalizing so there was no where they came to gave us is one point three billion dollars i think it is called yeah yeah yeah the o.e.c.d. has come out has basically said. this could be a whole hell of a lot more and it's this fits the bill it fits the bill of the of all of the better as we've seen with argentina with cyprus either with with spain seen with portugal that the powers that be don't want to and that we're going to face and they'll say everything's fine everything's fine everything's fine until of course it's too late and then we enter a situation like cyprus where suddenly there's a lockdown on privately held accounts there's an unprecedented rate going on while at the same time brussels mandarins are saying no no this was a one off who's to blame is it the banking sector is it is it this day i mean what

a lot of people are saying is about the country never privatized the banks of the three top banks the biggest ones they create or this money these toxic loans and they're also to all of this is to actually just put it live. which they're calling state run debt consolidation agency so you take it all out of the big banks so that they can then start lending to businesses and be completely clean and transparent and just put in the bank these are the same guys the o.e.c.d. these are the same guys that are in april two thousand and eight so the irish banking system quote unquote was well capitalized and profitable so we can never be too sure about how we are actually how efficient these guys card so i can tell you that the bombs are basically saying no thank you very much and they're actually performing the same as and i suspect in a slow the peripheral countries in there about five percent which is danger zones the i bet has said that if the lawmakers continue to push measures on the economic for these countries on the economic depression they're not going nowhere just

putting so much pressure on the economy instead of the actual problem they drastically overestimated the impact of a star exactly exactly. as an economic measure as an economic just again underestimated the impact of austerity. dangerously explosive social device. well we're following closely what happens in slovenia over the coming weeks and months what we're following minute by minute next though there united nations ban ki moon says any wrong moves could make the situation on the korean peninsula spiral out of control this coming as north korea has now told all foreign tourists in neighboring south that they should evacuate just in case you clear war breaks out over the next twenty four hours now the list don't believe the communist state will actually attack but the u.s. nonetheless is on standby in the pacific ready to intercept pyongyang and ballistic missiles japan has placed a battery of missile interceptors in central tokyo to to guard against any possible rocket threat and north korea has also pulled its workers from the joint industrial zone that run together with sole breadwinner as it is as well for thousands of the

north citizens the south korean government for its parts try to diffuse the situation it's still saying that the door for dialogue is open keeping a close eye on that know the next twenty four hours. more world news a powerful earthquake sit around the bushehr province it's home to the country's only nuclear power station if that name rang a bell the six point three magnitude shock has left at least thirty seven people dead now that figures been climbing all my and hundreds more injured officials though say that nuclear plant itself is not damaged dozens of villages near the quake epicenter of the left in ruins tremors were felt across the gulf and cut rain and dubai. after a barrel of legal appeals over the hunger strike at guantanamo bay the u.s. government's got more now to shed some more light on the detainees protests lawyers for the captives and i've been notified whether or not their clients are being force fed at the notorious u.s. military facility it makes began to starve themselves over two months ago because

of conditions and their indefinite detention without charge u.s. officials are saying forty two people are refusing all food but lawyers claim that figure is much higher. eleven twenty six moscow time thank you for being with us when we come back the mother love for the people by the banks is most kaiser in his latest kaiser report.

wealthy british style. market why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mike stronger or a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines. two kinds a report. download . stream quality and enjoy your

favorite. if you're away from your television. with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. . and. 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 reportedly f. the same as quantitative easing in decades of sponging off the taxpayer turned banks into bloated yobbish addicks. and has our indulging them with immunity from justice for fraudulent misselling of derivatives and interest rate rigging turned

bankers into serial wealth confiscate or is 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 hey stacey heard what was happening was having a mishap was dazed 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 a few pounds and become arsonists like this guy if it's a good point he's accused of burning down assassin killing his kids the same thing as the leaders of h. h. boss or the h.s.b.c. barclays lloyds royal bank of scotland an arsonist or murderers they can't you know they're sick they're on the tit of the government or they say here that teat and it's all bad from there well george osborne of this guy mick phil pot he said that he asked whether the taxpayer should be subsidizing these sort of lifestyles.