recorded and revealed security services release a tape of a cia agent. to get a russian officer to turn against his country. inmates at guantanamo bay a reporting escalating harassment saying that being subjected to painful and degrading searches for reasons as petty as the telephone. is. the cup of nations eager to cash in on. china and india getting a stronger voice when it comes to carving up the region. security of the sanctity of the u.s. government turns up to a mass surveillance operation targeting journalists with the white house national security as the be all and top stories this.

online on screen international news and comment live from a studio center here in moscow you haven't been really suggesting a cia agent called here in moscow was trying to persuade a russian security officer to provide classified information. has all the details. as more details offer the latest spying scandal between moscow and washington continue to emerge we've managed to obtain audio recordings of what the federal security service claims were phone conversations between the undercover cia officer and the person he was hoping to recruit. more to the process talk a subordinate you want to store attack us because of more just at the bottom of a million dollars of course it all happened late on monday night in one of moscow's

city parks where an undercover cia officer officially working in moscow as an american diplomat was hoping to meet an officer of one of russia's security services who he was working to recruit and here is where the classic spy story begins the man brought to the meeting several wigs including one on him tens of thousands of your all in cash map of the city and the cheapest and most simplest form you can possibly find and pretty much throw away right after using resume we've the one used in these phone conversations but despite all the kind of large and the spy tricks obviously he didn't know that he was under surveillance by the f.s.b. for the past two years and that the man who was hoping to recruit would be the same one to him but just before that happened here's a piece of what seems to be the last phone conversation he had.

of park. so you have a obviously that didn't turn out very well for the undercover cia a officer and the f.s.b. has also released. note that he also had along with them with instructions apparently to recruit agents on how to connect with the center he had included registering a separate to g. mail account which would be used specifically for the connection with the center and had in. about salaries that this person would receive receive which would reach up to one million u.s. dollars a year plus bonuses depending on the importance of the information that he would pass along to the american side now after he was temporarily detained the man was passed over back to american authorities has been announced persona non grata in russia and as we boarded now to be getting ready to return to the united states nor

fishel reaction from washington but we do know that u.s. ambassador in russia michael mcfaul did make a visit to the foreign ministry earlier today but no details have been released of that russian officials have been voicing outrage with what happened saying that the leaders of the two countries have been working to develop and improve relations and there's been progress around the syria issue on how to deal with that and now the scandal here in sochi where the russian president is one of his advisors told us that it's really surprising that it happened now despite orders from the leaders of both countries to their security services to work together on one side rather than against each other the exposure of these cia spy in moscow has failed to move the political arena because the may just in the media instead you unfortunate spy is now being ridiculed for his outdated equipment in clumsy methods and he's going to

all the media hype. the reaction in the media is a mix of irony and disbelief you hear comments like oh i didn't know spies wrote instructions or they will point out ryan fogle spy kids you know with the waves and the map and the money and washington post writes that the kid looks like cheap costume shop regalia so amid all these giggles you have comments raising doubts as to whether this was a cia operative on a mission the disbelief is generally based on this it looks too clumsy for the cia the cheap structure is but the fact of the matter is that the guy was caught wearing that wig and there are photos of him in that wake then you have others pointing at the fact that there was such a detailed photo and video material of the operation and trying to build some theories on that so it's actually standard practice for the russian security service to record the operation in detail when they catch someone red handed then they choose or not choose to share it with the media of course so our colleagues

here are having both laughs and doubts about this story but then there were laughs and doubts when the russian f.s.b. discovered the fake rock that was used by british secret services to aspire to russia back in two thousand and six british authorities denied the allegations six years later the former chief of staff to prime minister tony blair admitted that they were in fact true it was a fake rock with a transmitter inside planted in some park apparently spies would approach it with their laptops that it allowed to receive and send information at that time the story was ridiculed made it no less true though and f.s.b. official reportedly revealed that in general there was a similar incident when an american spy was also deported from the country and glenn will turn in a home of the he's in the british intelligence analysts do you think this espionage game between moscow and washington will go on on and. it is a great success for the f.s.b. the russian domestic security service what fairly fail to do is

follow a set of rules which the cia has always had it's called the moscow rules it requires you very the pattern of your behavior your constantly told what is happening remember that to separate state john kerry is currently meeting so gay lover of the russian foreign minister. this is going to be a most embarrassing encounter as far as the americans are concerned lover of war have a smile on his face as the great game will in this particular instance russia has scored america has lost but make no bones about it there will be a few recalls at the moment and before we know relations through back to normal and as i say. the cia will replace only with another intelligence officer

and the game will continue. online we've collected a selection of top spying scandals of the twenty first century involving the u.s. and russia you can head to r.t. dot com for the background of all of this. a simple telephone call with lawyers now costs guantanamo inmates degrading body search according to prisoners they allege that authorities are determined to stop the outside world learning about the desperate situation they're up to eighty percent of inmates at the detention facility and now on the hunger strike that is marking its ninety ninth day well for more on the situation then it's talk to the spokes person of the u.s. military authority that oversees guantanamo navy captain robert duran mr brown. almost to the fifteenth you declared that the hunger strike wasn't a total wide spread and the lawyers were declaring and i quote him outright full suits and gross exaggeration so all these lawyers still doing that now at this stage won't be outright false perpetrating today are the new

allegations regarding the search procedures for a phone call to the paper where one attorney was claiming that we were doing cavity searches and strip searches and that's nonsense one of the camp. what we call a full risk which is the pat down search not unlike you to experience going through airport security if you are selected for secondary screening in the united states it's quick it's not foreclosing on and it's not in. the lawyers it's not the detainees job to tell the truth the lawyers just repeat what it became and say that all of the allegations are false what about the allegations over many years i want to let me ask you about the allegations about the unsafe and inhumane forced feeding all of those prisoners who are on hunger strike do you deny

that. well there's the policy of the united states it's true life for lawful means we currently have a hundred hunger strikers today we have currently thirty who are. doing and tara lee said that's using a liquid nutrition supplement. most of them when they're ordered to do that go compliantly and take it. you know they sit down day they walk with us they go there they take it they're completely a percentage about a third need to be taken to their their feeding but it's not a it's a procedure that's done in hospitals and nursing homes every day. it's not it's not done to harass them but it's done kids sustain life so let me just ask you. to sustain life but we've been hearing from the medical justice network who is saying that don't deserve accuse of the looting in torture and that at the camp and that's been agreed on by the world medical association and the un. yes and we disagree

with them it's a matter of national policy our courts of up held that. sustaining life she lawful means lawful and we we will have a medical protocol where we evaluate detainees based on their weight loss and co-morbidity. we we allow them to hunger strike that if they get to about eighty five percent below that below eighty five percent of body weight some damage can be down we will do the involuntary feeding and we do that because. of two reasons one not all hunger strikers in a situation like this do you think of their own volition there's tremendous peer pressure there's tremendous religious and military pressure that you will hunger strike to the death and the matter of autonomy unlike someone who you know if they

were by their own want to commit suicide or hunger strike on their own to protest we don't know that they're making that decision on their own so our policy is to preserve life the other thing is that now i'm going to ask you another question sorry i've got to ask you this the reports about you punishing in makes the vomiting all say strapping prisoners in chad or indeed isolating them in cells with extreme temperatures why are you doing this i actually punishing these prisoners for protesting. you know all of those allegations are false they're not they're not being subject to extreme temperatures are not being denied food and water they're kept in a humane and hearing from. these allegations not from the prisoners but from the laws themselves members of the legal profession have been telling t.v. channel about these appalling conditions and yet you deny them some of these have

seen these condition and they've been they've been saying don't say now again for eleven years we get visited by the i.c.r.c. . none of the abuse allegations have been ever said scant she hated. the oversight of our commander. you know we couldn't operate this place for eleven years what kind of incredible allegations that they keep playing over and over it's just not true so why these people going on hunger strike why are they going on hunger strike i know indefinite detention is one psychological matter for them but the conditions is that not another reason why they go on hunger strike. no the conditions are as good as they can possibly be you know they had satellite television and they had communal living that all kinds of good things but the big thing is if you are mining my boss's boss general kelly testified before congress more frustrated detained people don't want to be detained even confessed murderers

would rather not be in prison but detained people don't want to be detained they had fallen off the news radar completely they weren't a matter of distraction during the two thousand and twelve election they want brought up. at any point in the media and i believe that they acted together cherubs an event to say this is what will create outrage over they started in mid february saying there were hundreds hunger strikers when there were only six well that number built over time and ignore the hundred today so they've accomplished their media goal but they haven't asked us to correct any conditions in the camp all they want is media attention they want to restart the process of transferring out and to the extent that they have achieved that mission they have the president is talking about it are senators talking about it diplomats are talking about it and yet and yet the media is now talking about the potential all

prisoners now dying using the conditions of fine perhaps maybe the t.v. cameras in and show that conditions are good and they're all watching satellite t.v. but clearly this is not doing the reputation of the place and you are going to the united states how you're going to end this how are you going to end this crisis now . c.n.n. and here this week if you watched c.n.n. they were in the camp this morning watching for a call at five this morning for morning prayer a qualitative caney. from your your producers are welcome to come carol rosenberg of the niamey herald today here more than sixty town and truck care facility you term future yourself robert duran i really appreciate your time here and thank you very much indeed for talking to us live robert duran spokesperson for guantanamo bay thank you. hunger strike despair pushed to the limit. the other. one hundred one ton of detainees are screaming for justice. where is the

end for good. i'll be back after a short break with. science technology innovation all the developments from around russia. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else you hear or see some other part of it and realize everything you thought. i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

download the official publication to yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorite. if you're away from your television just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. and use continues here in all to european and international donors a pledge more than three billion euros towards rebuilding war torn mali at a conference in brussels and even crisis stricken greece has chipped in stumping up fifty thousand euros the french government says it hopes to bring security to a country still plagued by violence almost half a year after french troops were deployed to push back rebels says he has more now

from brussels. we know that france has been very much involved in the country especially in the beginning of the year when it launched a military operation into the country saying that they were there to fight off islamist militants away from key cities now france is also in the middle of withdrawing some four thousand troops from the country however it does plan to keep about a thousand troops in sin that what is seen as a long term a kind of posting in the country we have been speaking to some experts who are very familiar with counterinsurgency efforts and have had firsthand experience with them and they've told us here on our team that it's very difficult for counterinsurgency operations to be a short kind of war because as you drive out militants from key cities they do have a tendency to just keep coming back so there is a question of whether security is really in place to do. any military intervention creates is that you chase the terrorists from one place they move they withdraw or they consolidate somewhere else where they are less likely to retire living areas

of the state of chaos sort of the nato intervention. place they're going to get out but it is just they can see. the weapons their assets they. are whites because they know that sooner or later the intervention forces whether the french in mali where it is not guys who are sitting right there the occupiers the french foreign minister insists that security is largely in place in the country however critics do question the extent of the kind of stability the mali may be seeing at the moment now there is no argument among everybody involved that a stable mali is in the interest of a secure region the regional security however there is that question of how sustainable and how effective the efforts have been so far there are also plans of having elections in the country in july if and when that does happen what kind of a democracy and system will be put in pull facing some of those militant threats

it's not one hundred percent out of the a country. to society there journalist in africa specialist johnson is with me now to talk more about this other funding for money three billion euros it's a huge sum of money that's being put forward here but is cash enough to rebuild a country. well firstly what the cost signals is that mali the society as a whole has crumbled that is what it justifies but it also shows that. the french are also concerned concerned that the militants are still a threat france for mali a threat for its neighbors and also concerned that it could easily spill to europe so the financing is a kneejerk reaction want to support the government of mali but also to signify that mali's infrastructures are weak and they need significant top lift feeling that the addressing the issues of poverty inequality and justice can only justify the

reasons why islamists can make that place a haven and why the local population sometimes can show some level of resentment and of course the the long of the the french state on the ground with tension resistance can become a problem so it's. not just once again throwing all this money at the country will achieve a stable democratic and prosperous country if that's the aim isn't it and when you do that well that's the six million dollar question the money is there. it's going to take a long time but we already know that mali has a history of corruption we poor governance is a problem and what we do know is that the longer it goes on the lonely it takes two . to stabilize mali the issues that we've seen in places like somalia. about issues that we've seen in niger we look around can become apparent in mali where

long after the money itself has been spent and gone it was back to where they spent properly or not what exactly it's all about for is a country with a history of corruption of the poor the other way how can you be sure the money is going to go to the right people. well that's a very difficult and tall order for the europeans who have actually made this pledge but it's because they're concerned they're worried but also it's also sense the signals that africans themselves cannot resolve their own problems which is why i support the african union efforts which which calls for stability helps governance and above all which is why the they've got troop numbers on the ground and they've got to start showing physically on the ground that they have the capacity and capabilities to help the modern people and good of course the the bomb is still then they're frequent in the country's north is it not premature to talk about rebuilding a country one is still so unstable. well it's not just mali being unstable it's surrounded by fragile states and five just as call for fact our problem so that and

i'm not of course when you have mali which is likely to implode or explode the refugee crisis becomes a problem the issues around the impact on on the neighboring countries because that's more to account and their own weakness because of their own vulnerability so yes the it is a difficult one is it's a it's a it's a three sixty degree cycle problem which is not going to go away until until you address the fundamentals while people on happy governance poverty equality question of jobs those fundamentally the problem as a whole is never truly going to go away and the true winners would be the europeans who are there usually for gold in your us a good incentive but more so as you know the french economy is clearly not doing very well at the moment and there's no on would have difficulty trying to sell to the french public the justifying the reasons why the french have got to stay in mali good to talk to you thank you very much indeed for your interesting thoughts there journalist in africa specialist johnson life on r.t. thanks. the u.s.

justice department is on the back foot defending its massive spoil peroration against the associated press news agency about one hundred journalists and editors have their phones tapped for months with the revelations sparking widespread outrage what is less war has been following the scandal it's being called an unprecedented government intrusion the justice department secretly collected two months of telephone records from the associated press and its reporters. a.p. believes this story prompted the secret investigation the cia uncovered a plot to bomb a u.s. bound airliner a plot originated in yemen and was carried out by al qaeda they arabian peninsula by reporting this al qaeda was put on notice that the cia had an inside look at their activities be a piece as the justice department did not say why they needed the information but says among the nearly two dozen telephone records collected at least five of them

were from reporters working on the story in question. i've been a prosecutor since the one nine hundred seventy six and i have to say that this is among if not the most serious it is within the top two or three most serious leaks that never see it put the american people at risk eric holder announced today that he was recusing himself from this a.p. investigation by prominent news agency condemned the government's actions in a letter to holder yesterday they could be no possible justification for such an overbroad collection of the telephone communications of the associated press. these records potentially disclose information about the a.p. sixty's and operations that the government has no conceivable rights to know now the a.p. is asking for an explanation as to why the government pulled reporters' phone records without notifying them the worry now is the effect the news will have on the media and its sources i think the effect on the media has already been felt i mean you have sources that are being shut down doors just being shut in people's

faces now that was probably the intention the intention was to scare. the turn off the faucet in other words from leaks in the wake of the controversy white house press secretary jay carney reiterated the obama administration's dedication to transparency he believes strongly in the need for the press to be unfettered in its pursuit of investigative journalism he also believes strongly as a citizen and as president in the need to ensure that classified information is not leaked because it can endanger our national security interests there's a balance between transparency and national security has been a delicate one since nine eleven the obama administration has a history of aggressively going after whistleblowers prosecuting more people for leaking classified information than any other administration combined and washington was wall r.t. . competition over the arctic savalas natural resources the countries hardly

associated with the north pole are joining forces with four other nations that have been awarded permanent observer status to the council news editor of course he explains this cold calculation. what we witnessed today at the arctic council in meeting was what some are calling an asian rush to participate in the group that the arctic council oversees the arctic area and the receding ice flows have opened up shipping routes for asian nations particular to take advantage of and there's also a lot of interest in the mineral resources specifically in the arctic area the us survey in two thousand and eight estimated that twenty two percent of the earth's oil and gas was under the arctic bad trouble is people aren't really sure how to divide it up so we've had strong proposals that the arctic be divided according to long to shoot or to close coastline exposure to the to the arctic area but there's also been a suggestion from the u.s. which is a permanent member of the council to an international zone be created free for all

if you will a lot of people fear that that would open a pandora's box certainly the countries would who border the arctic region feel that might let players into the arctic area who don't necessarily have the best interests of the indigenous people of the arctic at heart. the u.s. plan funnily enough. finds echoes in china's stance towards the arctic where they they now call themselves a near arctic nation and they would be delighted if the arctic was opened up and allowed exploration from nonspecifically arctic nations to get involved the interest in china in particular from china in particular but also from singapore which also join the council today is a major trading how they can shorten the transport time to european markets for the i phones the i pads the televisions and what comes from the asian markets to europe they can shorten that travel time or transport time by at least a week if not two weeks and this would basically help increase profit margins for those who would be interested on the other hand there are resources as well and the

chinese as you know are very eager to. secure resources on a global basis we've seen their work in africa and i think probably was we'd see continuation of that policy in the arctic. francis slipped back into recession with the entire economy of the european union shrinking last quarter the news is being met bleakly in paris where president for so on and is battling record low ratings well for some inside perspective on this news let's talk to school bell he's in and of. these websites well and inherited an economy didn't he on the brink so can he really be blamed for this recession. absolutely i mean for sure it can be blamed for lacking a credible reform plan. could you see where the frost really needs is a set of structural reforms in like reforming the national penson pension system or the national as care or the label those and what we see no.

higher public spending how you're borrowing and higher regulation that will not. keep france out of the crisis. and the french economy it's been underperforming for years now so the problem is deeper than politics and austerity then yes exactly i mean you you have not seen a balanced budget since the year one thousand nine hundred seventy four and. i mean so we are not looking at congenital crazes but at the structural. we are looking at a structural problem and when you took about a structural problem what you need is structural reforms to restore competitiveness and what about the economic solution to all of this obviously growth was one area that all and really wanted to pursue against very much but lynne's advice but also a stereotype that's important because it got to make massive cutbacks so so as you

go really very badly wrong here. you see what we saw in france was not a stereotype but what we call in france. they would say is force the stereotype forces first thirty if your higher taxes pay a public hearing and say public spending in order to achieve growth is that exactly and you know this is precisely the the kind of bad solution that was implemented by the previous governments including mr sarkozy's foreign so clearly it goes nowhere and the current. you know for four years with the average french worker is taxed at fifty seven percent the. proportion of public debt. in the g.d.p. is a ninety eight percent so clearly we should look the other way and consider structural reforms lower taxes lower back spending and lower but it could make it

very difficult isn't it for the french to look the other way because france is always enjoyed the good times doesn't it and obviously without making sacrifices most of the other european countries are having to sacrifice to france is really going to have to do that now isn't it and yet it won't be popular for all and it's already suffering a ratings last year to generate i mean the whole country is living beyond belief it means the good news is economic performance and popular two things that are totally disconnected i mean you can't always be most popular even if your macro economic policy is really really bad as looking as you can blame somebody else for your poor performance in that case mr hold on the spray me the eurozone recession alex really good to talk to you thank you very much and dave your thoughts on this for the called upon his website thanks. right some other international stories in brief this hour before the business news the u.n.

general assembly has condemned the forces of syrian president bashar al assad in a new resolution the motion was brought by catherine other arab nations and adopted by a large majority this is rebels in syria launched an all out assault on the prison in aleppo that holds four thousand prisoners many of them political activists fighters reportedly used to car bombs to blow through the main wall. a series of bomb blasts of struck across iraq killing at least fifteen people and injuring dozens more attacks took place next to government buildings in that city to the point where two car bombs exploded killing ten people suicide bomber on a motorcycle later hit a police checkpoint in the city north of baghdad killing one security officer. was probably just time now for the business news with natasha. the statistics of course show that the still plenty of recent to be concerned about the state of the global economy and yet the equity markets don't seem to be reacting to this bad news what's going on well there's so much cash being pumped into the system that the

markets have pretty much no place to go but hire but the situation russia is very different equities are down and i'll tell you why in the business after the break thanks.

speak your language was i mean my view or not of the. program says documentaries and spanish what matters to you. they will turn to bangalore stories. spanish find out more visit. it's thirty five minutes past ten pm here in moscow welcome to business with me that the shi'ites go the european economy is doing worse than expected the latest data shows the g.d.p. dropped zero point two percent in the first quarter missing the mark six consecutive quarters of weakness that means it's the euro zone's a longest slump really and spain both saw their economies drop half

a percent germany's growth was above the line but barely up zero point one percent as the international monetary fund on the world bank began their spring meeting in washington the i.m.f. cuts the growth forecast for the eurozone. this year two zero point three percent but you would not know any of this if you look at the european equity markets let's see the numbers both the footsie and that acts on wednesday were actually expanding their gains trading at the highest level since june two thousand and eight the week european growth numbers are not really facing the traders they seem to have a positive spin on even the worst of the news we growth no problem that raises hopes that the e.c.b. would consider injecting more cash into the system that's how the thinking goes now the european currency seems to be more sensitive to the bad news it has dropped to its lowest level to the dollar and more than a month on the latest g.d.p.

data the ruble was mixed to the major currencies on wednesday on wall street shares were trading higher at last check and that's despite the weak manufacturing data again the same story traders bet that this weakness will mean that the fed reserve will hold off on scaling back its stimulus can russia the markets were continuing to demonstrate their striking divergence from the global markets they finished when the one day session in the red with the r.t.s. shedding more than one and a half percent those indices closed below the psychologically important levels of one thousand four hundred points indeed over russia no longer seems to be the darling of the international investment funds they've been moving their money elsewhere for the past eleven weeks as a result russia lost billions of dollars overall about twenty six billion dollars have left the country in the first quarter and valuations reflect that trend the equity markets in japan the united states are reaching new highs while russia is my

sex is down about five percent so far this year now some believe the poor macroeconomic picture is to blame others even go as far as to say that russia has entered into a technical risk. i asked daniel falters for any sense of capital in london why russia is no undervalued. when we look at the valuations in russia we do buy some stocks are looking very cheap at least when you look at them the main valuation metrics and so on and those tend to be the companies the big state owned companies of the big oil and gas companies the companies that are growing more slowly in russia and where investors are maybe a bit uncertain about the taxation and regulatory environment going forwards and russia on the other hand what we've seen is that. consumer focused companies companies in the internet so the retail sector and so on that more normal valuations more in line with their peers in the emerging market

universe but better growth stories but clearer stories for investors and they're prepared to pay are for those kinds of names in russia so it's really a split market because the big big. natural resource companies cheaply and a higher valuation for the clear growth stocks in russia despite these a low valuations it seems like the international investment funds have been taking money out of russia and as a result of course russia is losing out in a big way what is the main reason for that what do you think really scares them i don't think it bursts on the solely of russia but what supports what they're doing at the moment is that being opportunistic what they're saying is that at the moment it's no longer just the famous markets there's still russia india and china that are growing quickly in fact you can get quite good growth now after the u.s. so that at the moment putting more money to work in the u.s. . now later on this year cuts russia will start grow

a bit more quickly again that's what we're expecting here nation's capital and then we would imagine that some but money will start to come back into russia particularly if we go. some movement on the reform process some some of the reports that we expect to become a bit investors' minds but do you think it might have something to do with the fundamentals because as you mentioned the european and the u.s. economies seem to be on their path to recovery yet in russia were actually seeing basically a spiral into what could be called a recession the fact some economists here say that russia has entered into a technical recession so do you think that that's a major factor the russian economy afloat quite dramatically we had first quarter growth of just over one percent of the economy year on year that's more growth growth for russia versus what we've seen in the previous years however we are expecting growth to actually recover over the remaining quarters of the year we're

expecting around two to three percent growth for russia in pretty thirteen as a whole but some of that disgraceful and you've got the the european union in recession at the moment now what the slowing economy in russia is that is a number that with obviously have all positive come down significantly you also have the government which has been cutting some that's budget expenditure this year and also we have a sense by which is maintaining a quite tight month in policy at the moment but we also had we've had basically to do with the agricultural harvest and we expect in the second top of the year interest rates in russia should start to come down we'll get a better harvest that we had last year and a stabilization or perhaps even slight recovery of your post going it's going to be year should allow the quantity to grow we think the full year by two to three percent so a slowdown in the first in the first half of the year and a gradual recovery in the second half. well that brings you up to date on all the latest and business up next after a short break we'll speak with a former u.s.

diplomat brini key thing who is a vocal protester of the spiraling violence in iraq. giving peace a chance this may or may not be the case when it comes to the fate of syria russian peace plan to end a civil war is being reconsider are the u.s. and its gulf oh i serious or is this a ploy to merely intensify the conflict. secret laboratory was able to build a most sophisticated. tim's mission to teach creation why it should care about humans and. this is why you should care only. despair push a nearly one hundred guantanamo detainees are screaming for justice. where is the

end for good. and. people from all over the world eager to help. what does it take to become a volunteer at russia's premier museum of the son of louvers director come here. from one of the camps to. behind the scenes of the. thank. you thank.

you. thank. you. but with me now is brady case playing a former u.s. diplomat who resigned over the invasion of iraq in two thousand and three in a sense written a book called diplomacy lessons really isn't for an unloved super pac thank you very much for joining us here the title of your book an on love superpower how has that changed for america since the publication it's clear that over the past six years the image of the united states in the world has improved quite a bit

a lot of that as the election of barack obama a man who. could who obviously reflected more of the better side of of america's diversity. a second element was the growing obviousness of the fact that the problems of the world are not created by the united states the united states contributes to some problems contributes to solving other problems but this the shrinking role of the united states as a sole superpower has made the us more popular rather than the us i think well since your resignation over the invasion of iraq in two thousand and three there's been a lot of u.s. led intervention around the world this being the instances of libya pressure being put on syria has been involvement in afghanistan and in pakistan so on reflection is your resignation actually achieved anything the point in leaving was to raise the domestic political cost of an absolutely stupid policy and i contributed in

a small way to doing that unfortunately. it is you know it is a fundamental fact of diplomatic life that domestic politics always trumps foreign national interests you know in every country in the world and in the us actually does better than many countries in this respect but there is a an internal mechanism in every country that exaggerates the ability the the prestige the influence the competence of a country in intervening outside its borders. and the the us. is driven or rather most of the various interests that drive us foreign policy are motivated by reasonably you know beneficent motives combined with this self interest that they may not even recognize but the the results tend to be poor but.

not always and there tends to be a short term logic in the situation which is that we can talk about in detail if you want but when you did resign you were treated as a dissenter as an i just. did the u.s. state treat you then and how have they treated you since the state department by and large treated me very well but very cautiously that is to say. a lot of people who quietly agreed with me sent very quiet messages. not through official channels to say so but the state department had completely correctly there was a very minor efforts you know essentially from the think tank establishment to say pay no attention to this man he's just another you know the malcontent but but by and large. what i said was allowed to speak for itself. other

services are much more vindictive the intelligence services if if you dissent in the cia or the n.s.a. they will use these draconian secrecy laws to persecute you well before you quit you did express your dissatisfaction about what was going on what is the policy making and decision making process i mean who has the final decision and is it actually very inflexible it depends on the issue in minor issues that are not of major domestic political importance the state department policy process is is pretty good the job of the state department is to balance all of the conflicting interests with large issues like the iraq war. the reason i did not really protest in advance was it was clear to all of us in the state department of the decision had been taken by the white house and imposed and there was no room for

discussion on that issue the state department had been completely marginalized there even colin powell who you know had serious reservations and fought and was essentially stomped all over by by cheney by rumsfeld by well who by a weak president who allowed himself to be manipulated by people who were savvier than he but despite all that you would say in your opinion that it is the white house that makes the final call ultimately it is the white house yes and the the difficulty is the president the united states is not an expert on foreign policy he's someone whose instincts you know tend to be very sound but his instincts are formed by the the the domestic policy process. and it did george

w. bush was completely correct that war is popular at home he was a catastrophic president until september eleventh two thousand and one where even though he handled it badly the mere fact of a crisis that he was handling made him reelected boy and no one punished him for the iraq war in two thousand and four even though it was already by then a disastrous war ok let's talk about the current president at the moment president barack obama do you feel that there is a way forward for the u.s. and russia to work together to solve the crisis in syria. the u.s. and russia have a lot of interests in common and. i do hope that that. domestic politics in both countries will be put to the side to allow the serious discussions to take place my own instinct is you know to stay out of it as much as

possible aware that even the most well intentioned humanitarian intervention has side effects that can be tremendously destructive but obviously the u.s. and russia need to be talking need to be figuring out ways that they can put pressure on all sides in a coordinated way to push for a negotiated solution that isolates the the radical islamists as far as possible well it is complicated but one issue that isn't complicated is the use of drones and they you seem pakistan's you think president obama would change the policy. to be frank that's my biggest disappointment with president obama that he accepted the politically convenient logic that the problem of terrorism is one that can be personalized identify this person take him out and buy extra judicial means and the problem will be solved and

that's obviously not true the the major direct cost of the drone campaign in pakistan is to deal idjit allies the government of pakistan in the eyes of its own people a government that cannot you know. keep its own house in order and allows foreigners to to watch trains is a government that people see as weak and incapable of protecting the national interest america needs a strong legitimate government of pakistan because that country is a very dangerous mess with problems all around it. and so i am completely against drone strikes partly because they do not solve the problem of terrorism even terrorism directed against us secondly they they make pakistan more unstable and we want a stable pakistan so i mean not to be too simplistic but you think if pakistan

could put a stronger government in power then the u.s. would not use drones is that a fair assessment a strong legitimate pakistani government would not tolerate drones but also we would not need to use drones it's a chicken and egg situation but. i would say the united states should have a much less visible presence not only in pakistan but throughout the middle east we should go back to traditional diplomacy. you know close private engagement through embassies but. the idea that the u.s. military can be affected cost effective diplomats in the region as it has proved to be wrong one time my birthday is another contentious issue you do you think that president obama will close that well he promised to close it he tried to close it

congress would not let him close it. there is this psychosis about terrorism that terrorists are intrinsically evil people who are sort of contagious like lepers who if you let them out into the world they will infect everything around them and this is nonsense you know some of the people in guantanamo were a few of them were innocent most of them were simply you know people caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with an ideology that had pushed them into doing something that was you know fatally dangerous that there. the united states government has lost so much from this violation of its own constitutional standards. you know it would be better to let them all go even give them a kalashnikov as when you let them go but you cannot persuade the u.s. congress of that for three superstition reason you know the superstitious reasons

fundamentally now in the in the region is the whole we've got problems in the north of the mediterranean economically and politically we've got a lot of two more oil in the south. do you feel there is any solution to this in when g. feel that things might improve we're currently living in a world where the in balance between resources and population has put massive stress on democratic institutions a lot of those institutions seem to be failing at the moment. we need to recognise the direct link between having the resources to distribute and making consensus based government possible. and not my hope is that it technological change and political progress will go together to inject new

resources into into the region enough to buy the kind of consensus required for democratic government i know that's kind of abstract but if that doesn't happen we will see. this breakdown on all sides getting worse and so we need to address it directly at a global level. fascinating to see thank you very much for your thoughts thank you .

modern russia was built on coal. fields for its factories. coke for its steel to mark gold is it more than heat for its people. join me james brown to meet them in to spend their lives underground and work in one of the world's most dangerous professions. for. the woodlands. hearts of coal on naughty. dangerous experiments on prisoners they want to make money and they have healthy guinea pigs in the regular society they're not able to use prisoners anymore they wish they could. drug tests on human guinea pigs. paid to

pop the deadly pills he didn't pass away he was killed. he didn't pass away they let him down. is pharmacy really about helping people. choose your language. of holy week over though in federal court today still some of the. treatments that the consensus didn't. choose the opinions that invigorating to. choose the stories that entire life choose access to often.

recorded and revealed that security services in moscow release of tape of a cia agent millions to get a russian officer against his country. inmates at guantanamo bay are reporting escalating harassment saying that being subjected to painful and degrading searches for reasons as heavy as a telephone call to learn noise r.t. also hears from the spokesman of the detention center who tells a very different story. the club of nations eager to cash in on which is growing bigger china and india are now getting a stronger voice when it comes to carving up the region. and security over sanctity the u.s. government owns up to a massive surveillance operation targeting journalists with the white house trumpeting national security as the be all and end all.