international in the very heart of moscow. actions and motives of the boston marathon bombing suspects the one who was captured by police says the attack was inspired by u.s. wars in iraq and afghanistan well investigators arrive in russia to get more information on his brother's visit here last year. nato feels the pinch with financial troubles biting the military budgets of its european allies and the u.s. is struggling with a disproportionate responsibility to fund the defense. and here are the we are following the ongoing hunger strike in guantanamo bay prison which is. third month now as the u.s. is sending more medics there as officials say overhaul of all the inmates are refusing for.

a pleasure to have you with us here on r.t. today. live in moscow with your global twenty four hour news america's wars in iraq and afghanistan motivated the worst attack on u.s. soil in more than a decade that's what the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombings has told investigators. also claim that he and his brother acted alone in carrying out the twin blasts more from boston and. as the nineteen year old boston bombing suspect joe hart's her naiads condition improves from serious to fair he's beginning to reveal information to investigators from what we're hearing on the ground according to official search has said that the motive behind the two bombings that took place on monday april fifteenth for the wars you what the u.s. has been fighting in iraq and afghanistan according to officials are now it has

also said that him and his brother were self radhika lies he allegedly says that the two brothers were not involved and were not in contact with any foreign extremist groups and that they learned everything themselves by basically going online and learning how to build build the bombs through the internet he has also said that his older brother to milan started i have who was twenty six years old at the time of the bombings is according to joe hart the mastermind behind the attacks that they carried out now here in boston right now obviously as this investigation continues the barricades of the area that was cordoned off at the finishing line of the boston marathon are being removed we know that the eight year old victim of the bombings has been laid to rest here on tuesday and earlier boston the hospitals also announced that the number of people injured has risen up from over one hundred

seventy five to two hundred and sixty people now as this information comes in in terms of just hard being able to share more of course we have to remind our viewers that he is that he has been charged with the use of weapons of mass destruction as well as malicious destruction of property resulting in death and what this means is that your heart's her knife is now faced with a death penalty or any number of years behind bars including being imprisoned for life he's also faced with a fine of two hundred fifty thousand u.s. dollars and obviously he's being treated. is a federal criminal right now although they were talking earlier about the possibility of trying him in a military tribunal but the white house has revoked this option it's also important to mention that of course the f.b.i. now is being grilled about their knowledge of the older brother tamerlan star night of traveling to russia back in two thousand and twelve because of course according

to our knowledge russian officials advised the united states to look into his identity to see whether or not he could possibly be involved with any kind of extremist radical groups and the f.b.i. back then two years ago deemed him not dangerous and freedom up and of course has been receiving major criticism here in boston and throughout the united states with people saying that possibly maybe this attack could have been prevented we're continuing reporting from the ground as the story develops and especially if you're going to party boston massachusetts now the u.s. officials have meanwhile traveled to dr stone where they interviewed the suspects parents and a gathering information about tom milans visit there in twenty twelve meanwhile a local resident was able to capture the dramatic shootout between the two boston bombing suspects and police. used another pressure cooker bomb similar to the devices that detonated during the marathon a place that was being handcuffed when his younger brother ran him over while

fleeing from the scene or was eventually found hiding in a boat in a residential neighborhood after a wide scale manhunt for the founder of media why do charlie mcgrath thinks washington is creating enemies because of the way it conducts its war on terror. radicalizing the world seems to be what we're really good at right now getting people angry at this nation certainly seems to be a valid argument that is going to be brought before us in the puter we've been waging a war on terror for over a decade we've destabilized how many countries and we're killing how many nationals that have nothing to do with terrorism whatsoever. and we're doing it for reasons that the american people been lied to overrate about weapons of mass destruction and so on so ken this lead to people becoming hostile towards the west how can it not in fact the columbia law school's human rights institute six months ago came out the report showing a that obama is exponentially increased the number of drone strikes since he's been president but it didn't ninety eight percent of the casualties and drone strikes

are civilian so it's fifty civilians killed for every one so-called high value target that's being killed the notion we want peace with the rest of the world well that's all we're that's all talk when the cameras are on and the cameras are off the drones why and people die and in the wake of the boston bombings the chechen militant commander. has been interviewed by c.n.n. he did not deny that the brothers who were ethnic chechens have any ties to militant groups and bit earlier in the program i spoke to our teams are going to go about wise i was given a platform on international media. he's living in london he's actually really well known person out there his cause is being supported by none other than vanessa redgrave a prominent. he actually happens to be an actor himself and you can tell that he's made quite quite a switch from the old days when you say fifteen years ago when he was a field commander you know you see him

a bearded man dressed in fatigues in calif. military wear and now he's wearing a nice dress suits with a tie and why is he known as a terrorist because he's known for his connection to heart of who was the mastermind behind several of the terror attacks which happened in in russia particularly the theater siege in the north in two thousand and two russia has actually presented documents that have supported evidence against in this particular instance and get his extradition was refused to russia first by denmark and then by the united kingdom in part of the interview the presenter translates a beautiful four and actually refers to some of the militants as boy does that she refers to the terror suspects of in the boston bombing as these boys take for example the new york times headline which made waves in the news world the headline read far from war torn homeland trying to fit in i mean god is sympathetic to the

to the terror. martyrs or freedom fighters absolutely and also portrays the image of chechnya as the absolutely ravaged country that's pretty much what you would see happening in iraq or afghanistan whereas if you look at the capital of grozny in chechnya today you would you would be amazed you would think it's or sydney or any other extremely civilized inhabited very minor i would say peaceful town or city even. what exactly separates an act of terror from any other type of violent attack that's the question people develop poses to his guests on cross talk of course in the wake of the boston bombings for now a quick preview. why it's possible terrorism but aurora sandy hook to sign in columbine not the muslim community in america today in fact is asking the same very question that why are some things labeled terrorism or says another which is not but more importantly the discussion that is going on in the dinner tables on the

dinner tables these days among muslim families is that why is it that always a non muslim when somebody goes to war or sandy hold that they're all is insane but when a muslim commits an act of terrorism that they're all is perfectly fine psychologically i completely disagree the definition of terrorism that we get here to certainly in north america is three forward first it should involve a non-state actor that is an individual or a group secondly that targeting the violence should be directed against civilians some kind of a civilian target and third third should be some kind of a political aim and it's the that last point that last part of the definition which separates the boston attack from the other ones which you just mentioned.

although i do stick around here on r.t. the full edition of course talk is coming your way in about twenty minutes from now . for the meantime as our european countries wrestle with their budget deficits and slash their military spending it's becoming harder for nato to stay afloat now the alliance is top officer has slammed the e.u. allies for quote getting a free ride and while leaving the u.s. to bear the burden of the defense finances now crisis hit nato states have already chopped more than forty five billion dollars from the alliance is treasury that's the equivalent of germany's entire annual military budget now the number of european troops in the u.s. led bloc though has also plummeted from two point five million in two thousand now to one point eight six million and while the u.s. is also trimming its own military costs its share of the budget has still risen to seventy five percent of the total and as artists are silly reports from brussels concerns over nato's viability continue to grow. the nato secretary general anders

fogh rasmussen had actually come out and warned its partners against the danger of more defense spending cuts as we've already seen especially from its european partners so this opinion was also echoed by the former u.s. defense secretary robert gates he said that if this trend does continue to be alliance it could be in danger of moving into what he called a collective military irrelevant so there's the question of whether nato will actually still be relevant given the decrease in its capabilities and there are signals coming from the u.s. that they are not keen on continuing the kind of partnership with this sort of inequality and also looking at the u.s. his own budget costs as well as its shift in priority especially after we've heard that pivot to asia so they have their own concerns so they're questioning the kind of reliance the kind of partnership that they have especially with european countries moving forward they're also facing some lack of enthusiasm from the

european members of just germany for instance was very eager to contribute to any military operation so we're getting. the nato secretary general has come out saying that the capability of nato will be impacted and there is a question of critics on the actual relevance of the alliance. there's not much enthusiasm from its members to contribute or to to give more. into the alliance of moving forward. right that defense budgets have been steadily declining across the nato alliance its overall average trying to one point six percent last year with. their own goals of spending two percent of g.d.p. friends. this report. the organization was created to counter the soviet union with soviet union long gone it has to keep easy over the years nato has gone from being a defense organization to becoming an offensive force with

a missions that go far beyond north america and europe they refer to those ambitions as out of area operations which have included of ghana's stand in libya now part of nato the very powerful part which includes the u.s. the u.k. and france pretty much see those out of area operations as the future of the organization but. suzi has to go global it doesn't sync well with all twenty eight members of the alliance who know they will have to foot the bill the lack of consensus showed when germany by far europe's strongest nation refused to provide resources for nato as lead bombings two years ago back then nato has gone beyond its un mandate which was to protect civilians it has effectively created a power vacuum in which all kinds of extremists have flourished since then not to mention the destruction of the country's infrastructure but it was not just the un mandate with nato has gone beyond its own core principle of the organization which is to stick to protecting its members the long war in of staying has made europe

question the alliances mission there time and time again even now as nato forces prepared to withdraw many feared that what they are leaving behind is a security vacuum which promises it of aid that may never be fulfilled as the u.s. is pivoting to asia there's talk among nato members about a wider partnership like to get japan and australia more involved both have already made significant contributions to nato and not just those countries so with the organization growing there is another concern that nato may eventually be tempted to present itself as the whole of the international community when it's not and it may said grounds for lateral actions in the future ignoring the broader international community the president is there and nato bombings of yugoslavia in the one nine hundred ninety s. some believe that campaign contributed to the mindset that led to the war in iraq the kind of mindset that the international community the you when can be bypassed at the will of one or two a powerful countries in washington i'm going to shut down. nato has been trying to

review its military spending and biting austerity by introducing its quote smart defense strategy last year it's a based on pooling and sharing when partners are supposed to decide what they want to specialize in along with targeted spending on areas of common interest while for more analysis on that i'm now joined by james a gold guy a former member of the national security council joining us here live on r.t. a pleasure to see you today sir thank you very much for joining us the the whole smart defense strategy urging a country to join forces instead of carrying out ta separately. quite frankly are there truly any joint military interests left for nato these days well i've done are there are joint interests the problem is with the notion of smart defense first of all it gives rise to the notion that nato has been doing up to now is dumb defense which i don't think is the case. that the effort to

be smarter is really a reaction to the reality of the financial crisis and the continued cuts that you've just referred to and the fact that it we have to remain robust and it does have to pull resources because when you look at europe as a whole europe as a whole does spend a significant amount on defense which even if there are problems in individual countries europe as a whole does still have a large number of. people when you when you are not europe as a whole i'm sorry to jump in here but you bring up europe as a whole that i many many are aware that certainly there's a good number of a euro zone members the e.u. family members who are struggling financially massive national deficits hard austerity measures it is it possible that nato is failing to inspire to motivate these countries to to spend more on their on their military budgets or is it but perhaps that now in this day and age european allies they have more more common interests more things to worry about for example austerity. well it's hard to spend

money when you're in the middle of a financial crisis and you're trying to get yourself out of a financial crisis i think you know that the other issue that europeans face is that many europeans just don't see major threats out there that they need to respond to so it's very difficult to go to people who aren't under siege and say you should spend more on defense. the fact the matter is that europe has been very successful at eliminating conflicts in europe in recent decades that was the whole point of the european project and i'm sure there are many people that say there are many people there that say that a lot of the missions by nato are traditionally actually led by the united states and then for example in the postie factual coalition of the willing where certain european allies are brought on board as well isn't it unfair that the u.s. should pick up more of the tab if indeed most of nato is campaigns are being led and dictated by washington perhaps well you know it's has been the leader of nato and united states over the decades has been willing to bear

a disproportionate share of the burden the burden sharing issue is not new the united states is always complaining that the europeans aren't doing enough and i do think that if the united states wants the europeans to do more united states needs to and they will do europeans to have a greater voice in what nato does and doesn't do but you have to secretary gates former secretary of defense gates said a while back and you quoted that if the ally allies can't get together on understanding what their common interests are and how to respond to global threats that the alliance will simply become more and more irrelevant because nowadays we're basically we have an unconventional war on terror apparently long gone are the days of conventional warfare a.m.b. meeting each other head to head on a battlefield is it possible with no clear enemy to fight and not enough money does the modern world still need to nato. well we've seen over the last twenty years that there have been situations that have arisen and nato has responded to the

balkans in the one nine hundred ninety s. with the war in afghanistan libya where the international community turned to nato to respond to the situation in libya because there's no other institution in the world that can respond in that way so for all the problems nato has there's no other institution in the world that can do what nader does there's no other institution in the world that can do what nato does but it is nato truly inspiring peace around the world that we have been covering a story here at r.t. today so many international professional analysts saying that for example the western led war on terror actually inspired she hottest to group together against the west rather than sowing the seeds of peace around the world how would you read into that well the problem is that the problem of terrorism which we all face is something that has to be addressed in a variety of ways there is important things that financial assistance development can do in countries to help those countries try to develop in ways that they're

less prone to terrorist activities but we know even in countries that are doing well terrorists emerge these these these individuals who are responsible for the boston bombings lived here in the united states and so it requires a multifaceted response and occasionally that response is going to need to be military in nature to stop attacks from occurring or certainly when you bring up the issue of the war on terror there are many that agree with you and say that it has to be a global effort to tackle what is an unconventional war on a global scale but you've actually been advocating closer cooperation between russia and nato why is that. well the problem for nato is that as an alliance of just europeans and united states and canada it's limited in the kind of legitimacy it can have in the coverage you can have to deal with events around the world the threats that we all face are global in nature of their they're not just

specific to your particular reach and specific issue area and nato needs to expand its cooperation with other democracies around the world and each to expand its cooperation with important countries like russia and china without which nato is simply not going to be as effective as it otherwise might be used as it was all right james old guy a former member of the national security council joining us live here on out is he a great pleasure thank you very much for sharing your time with us today thanks for having me great pleasure are we all watching all to you live from moscow still to come for you this al about a hunger for freedom one tonne of a hunger strike barrow's what's going into its third month now and for the detainees are now totally involved as lawyers say the prisoners are suffering regular abuse from prison guns.

the international airport in the very heart of moscow. thanks for joining us here on r.t. on rule received the u.s. is sending more medics to tend to the rising number of hunger striking detainees at guantanamo bay officials say more than half of the one hundred and sixty six captives there have all now joined in the protest sixteen detainees are being force fed to prevent death from starvation six are in a military hospital in a critical condition lawyers have said the total number of hunger strikers has been much higher all along the protest was spot though by alleged mistreatment by prison guards with some detainees increasingly desperate because they're being held indefinitely without charge a law professor jonathan hafetz says the crisis won't end until the demands of the captives are met. the hunger strike says military officials themselves have

acknowledged are triggered at the bottom by the system of indefinite detention and the prolonged think about you know course aeration without trial of individuals and it's not surprising that the u.s. is stepping up its its operations because it's no it doesn't want you know it doesn't want individuals to die at one time or because it's going to again i think you know throw into into light the real power to start relief the real problems that want to animal the way forward though is to you know is two and a system of indefinite detention to repatriate individuals who. are not can be charged with crimes and the the the few that are going to be charged should be put before a court and given a trial that's the that's the only way forward that's the only long term solution to the problem otherwise we're going to continue to see hunger strikes you know look again at and things will continue to happen unless the us puts. puts these measures into place at this point it's just it's just politics that are politics

and a lack of political courage a lack of commitment to principles. and i mean while in london there are many that have gathered in the city to protest against the last u.k. resident being held in guantanamo bay prison people are demanding the release of shock there's also joined the hunger strike he's been twice cleared for release by u.s. authorities but that was before washington introduced a new obstacle whereby the secretary of defense has to certify that britain is a safe place for him to return to that he will not commit any further crimes lawyer clive stafford smith says the us legal system simply pretends what's going on at the facility just doesn't happen. when a prisoner doesn't exactly what they're told the six being dressed up you notice if they're in their outfits come and basically beat him up to make him do it to the floor and check it describes how this one guy who's three hundred pounds who sits

on them sometimes in these in the stomach and i've seen the bruises on him from this process this is happening to him all the time right now because they have a process where anything he asks for they won't just give it to and they send c. said if he wants a bottle of water they send the goods in if he wants his medicine and they send him the more he told me last i took turns because it's just not asking for his medication anymore because he doesn't want to get to get it every time i'm there and this comes up to the admiral in charge of the general in charge i've never yet got a reply from them i'm in the best one can do is complain loudly and tell the world when you get out what you see in the hopes that this shames them because unfortunately the federal judge. in charge of the cases ruled just last week that he has no jurisdiction to order the military to behave better under the

circumstances. it's nearly time for cross talk but for now the russian opposition leader alexina valmy has gone. on trial over a better woman charges he faces up to ten years behind bars for allegedly stealing half a million dollars' worth of timber from a state owned company he insists though it's all a stitch up and the case against him is purely political parties you've got a pretty good office been following the proceedings but it's you know only has once again pleaded not guilty adding that he assures his innocence will be proven to the court meanwhile his lawyers have large an objection to the judge accusing him of taking the side of the prosecution the objection was denied along with their appeals to reschedule the hearing and to send the case back to the prosecutor's office and they've been saying they're not being given enough time to properly go through all the documents and that the case itself was put together with the various irregularities but exactly a week ago the defense did manage to reschedule the hearing and they've openly said that. tactic to deal with a stall and attract as much media attention this possible and in that sense they

have been quite successful similar as exactly a week ago that courtroom spanked with journalists in the wiley is one of the most controversial opposition bloggers in the country and he became widely known due to his online anticorruption projects he's a few years critic of the kremlin and became one of the leaders of the opposition during last year's mass protest he's also known for his a link to for his link to a russian nationalists and the authorities are accusing him of organizing a criminal scheme to steal you are on the half a million dollars worth of timber from a state company allegedly back in two thousand and nine when he was the aide to the local governor in cuba of found guilty he may be looking at up to ten years behind bars of what and his supporters. are denying all the accusations and are saying that this case is purely political. parties are you going for forty right there all right as promised opinions clash heated debate.