the u.s. military will provide or the u.s. will provide military aid to syria's rebels claiming it is evidence the assad regime used chemical weapons moscow calling washington's reasoning flawed. plans to develop a part in it is the end goal that caused weeks of protests across turkey have been frozen but no clear agreement on how to prevent anti-government demonstrations from continuing. as iranians elect a new leader we take a look at the controversial legacy left behind by the nation's outgoing president mahmoud ahmadinejad.

seven pm in moscow i'm matt trezise good to have you with us here on our t.v. our top story washington will put lethal weapons in the hands of syrian rebels it's concluded that the assad regime has used chemical weapons albi it quote on a small scale and so offer more help to those fighting in artie's marina porton i has more from new york. this is quite a game changer being announced by the obama administration what we know is that the u.s. has decided that it will provide military support to syrian rebels but u.s. officials would not specify what that support will involve the national security council that the pfizer ben rhodes says that the new assistance to the syrian rebels will be different from the non-lethal communications type of equipment that the u.s. has given before and this of course leads many to believe that the united states will now be arming the syrian opposition now these decisions are being made after the u.s. intelligence community has independently concluded that the syrian government has used chemical weapons including the nerve agent gas sarin on

a small scale against the opposition however washington so far has failed to disclose what specific evidence they have what has led them to make these conclusions and this announcement but this is counter to what a chief u.n. investigator said just two months ago during our investigation for crimes against humanity and war crimes. we collect its weakness to money. the made to appear that some chemical weapons were used in particular. in what was. what appear on. to our investigation that was used by openings by the ribbons and we have no known indication that tool is the government. government has used chemical weapons but

i want to be the. first the first indication we got. to the use of never open in the united states decision now is to provide more military support to the syrian opposition comes ahead of a peace conference that's supposed to take place geneva at the end of this month or be they have then next month that conference was organized by the united states and russia and it was aiming to get both sides from syria to come together at the table and talk about how there could be a transitional government forms and ultimately and the ongoing violence that's been taking place in syria according to the united nations ninety three thousand people have been killed since this civil war began more than two years ago we should note that many experts have indicated that and believe and argue that adding more arms

to such a heavily violent conflict that's ongoing in syria would actually fuel an arms race it would make the circumstance there the environment there so much more dangerous but as we see from the the announcements made by the obama administration that washington plans to aid rebels militarily and they won't give specifics but it looks as though that the united states will be arming the syrian opposition washington says it's shared its evidence was several allies including russia but the head of the state duma's foreign affairs committee thinks the findings aren't convincing. if you understood what that was then we have no reliable confirmation the asset government used chemical weapons because the us national security council that made this announcement cites intelligence reports the problem is that one time the bush administration also cited intelligence to prove to the entire world that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction as we

all know this became the basis for aggression against iraq and for iraq's occupation but no weapons were found there neither nuclear material nor chemical weapons civic a so how can we trust these empty phrases after iraq it's completely impossible but this is part of the us political line aimed at toppling the asset government yesterday in the new book the religious school in human in geneva the u.n. human rights council is considering a new resolution on syria the document condemning violations by opposition groups as well as government forces for more on this let's go to geneva where i'm joined by russia's ambassador to the united nations there alexei bardach and thank you for joining us here on our to you so we understand that this resolution places the majority of blame for the atrocities and human rights violations on syria's government forces forces of the assad regime do you think that's fair. just now ago another resolution on syria was supposed to by the un human rights council

on this resolution is imbalanced and counterproductive it actually undermines the efforts to convene the conference on syria on syrian settlement and we'll have a lot of evidence which testifies that. position extremist opposition forces are committing terrible crimes horrible crimes exhibit. murders. taking hostages son saw and so forth and thank you for you too you journalist school collected this evidence and we're trying to make it public here in geneva and as far as russia is concerned with think that both sides are not angels in syria and the old commit crimes but. this vicious circle of. violence could be only broken by convening the international conference on syria now moscow saying it's against the authorization of cross border humanitarian

operations why is that if it's a humanitarian operation aimed at helping people. russia is providing a lot of aid to syrian people through the through by literal channels sound also helping. the united nations high commission for refugees and red cross but we do believe that this. assistance should be provided according to the international norms and principles otherwise it will undermine this over a need to enter atauro integrity of a state including syria that's the reason one who i wear against provision of assistance to the so-called liberated territories which are controlled by the position without consent of damascus russia has stated unilateral economic sanctions would further aggravate the situation in syria and lead to more human

rights violations do you stand by that statement. you see we are skeptical in principle rather skeptical about sanctions especially unilateral sanctions and in case of syria and it is already. was was announced by the independent investigation committee on syria this sanctions unilateral introduced by the united states by the e.u. and other countries they negatively influence the conditions of the syrian people and it's a strange situation when some of our partners are. introducing unilateral sanctions against syria and at the same time supply international aid to them it seems that they do not recognize what their rights and is doing way of the left is doing the

contra things. like say bardolph again thanks very much for your time here on r.t. . a plan for a u.s. plan for a limited no fly zone over syria has also been drawn up it would be costly up to fifty million dollars a day and unlikely to affect the situation on the ground but the white house thinks it's necessary in order to reduce the risks of arming the rebels a restricted area could stretch up to forty kilometers into syria that's one hundred kilometers shy of the syrian capital damascus even without a no fly zone washington could send arms through in through jordan with patriot air defense batteries and f. sixteen fighter jets already deployed there let's discuss more on this with michael maloof a former pentagon official thanks very much for joining us here on r t so washington says as it has used chemical weapons and that have long said that was a red line in this conflict do you think that we can trust their conclusions as a conclusions at this point is there enough evidence to have that red line be

crossed. well in my view we have to be very skeptical i was in the pentagon at the time that intelligence assessments were made regarding iraq and its w m d programs weapons of mass destruction and we know what the results were a trillion dollars later forty five hundred lives and we. had nothing nothing to show for it and there were and there was no w m d so i think it's a very skeptical thing and as previous commentators have pointed out we've got to u.s. intelligence assessments have got to be looked at very very carefully and this actually goes against the u.n. . preliminary determinations and i might add i was in damascus recently spoke for an hour and a half with the syrian prime minister and he says why would we be gassing our own people he says the the shells that were that were fired into aleppo which had alleged. sarin gas killed fifteen. syrian military

people said why would be killing our own people and he pointed out that a lot of this gas came in from turkey and it too to the opposition members who were firing it into aleppo in order to cast blame onto damascus and i think because there is so much controversy over the origin of these. of the gas i think that really is going to really need to be handled very very cautiously i don't i think the u.s. decision to arm is a very very dangerous move it will definitely lead to uncontrollable sectarian violence as a result and it actually could have an impact i believe on convening the geneva two meeting which the united states and russia were supposed to chair i think the

united states is really acting on that at the big. qatar and saudi arabia in order to push the sunni wahhabi agenda into a syria and ultimately into lebanon and this is this is very very dangerous but do you think that any indication of weapons of mass destruction is enough to apply tougher measures in this case on either side of the pens upon who fired it it depends upon who who launched the the gas there is evidence that and this is also from the united nations a very rather impartial group that looked at it and they they claim it came from the opposition they have a capability and i think the intelligence assessment of course we haven't i haven't been able to see because it's classified but i think it really needs to be looked at very very carefully and scrutinized and questioned very very seriously in light of our previous experience in iraq now what do you think is the significance of the timing of the operations. well the timing was to.

give the opposition. a little bit of backbone and and because they are desperate the tide has turned in favor of the assad government and i think that the timing of this is meant to try to boost morale but the problem is how do you the opposition is so fractured how do you determine who will get the arms and so that it doesn't get into the hands of the foreign fighters the al nusra the al qaeda types there's no guarantee about this and that's why i believe it's going to prolong a conflict it's gotten to the point now where there's a war that there's a. united states just likes to get engaged in every single war now the problem is if the united states decides to do this with arms so will britain so will france and it's going to be an arms market out there and it's going to you know there will

be no way to control the flow of arms as a consequence of this determination and i think the administration would be very. the very very cautiously and in fact hold up because there is no guarantee that these weapons will get into. the hands of opposition members who are supposed to be. working with. who are not foreign fighters frankly there are more than fifty thousand foreign fighters out there in syria fighting right now and there's actually the ones who are leading the battles for the most part and when i was in syria i talked to a number of. armed opposition members who actually turned in their arms because and still remained as the opposition and that was just fine with the government just so people aren't shooting at them and they're willing to sit down the government's willing sit down with the riff with the opposition and talk and work out reforms

but it's clear that the u.s. agenda is for regime change and this is really working the agenda of saudi arabia and qatar and they're the ones who are financing this it was qatar that financed the recent slaughter of sixty one. in syria recently and a lot of those were women and children unfortunately we have to leave it there michael maloof thanks very much for your time sure. we use reacted to washington. with some skepticism. has more on the. statement that came out today from the spokesman of catherine ashton office is that the e.u. would like to have a u. when mission to have to have independent investigation whether or not the use of chemical weapons really did take place they want independent verification of the facts presented by the united states that is happening in syria now that they are

in constant contact with washington and also they said that while this u.n. mission has been authorized they are still waiting to be granted access on the ground they did point out indicate the importance of getting an independent verification on the ground with facts on the ground for them to be able to make a decision now this is generally reflective of the opinion of most of the e.u. countries if we remember is made or was this decision that they made on whether or not to extend the arms embargo to syria twenty five out of twenty seven nations were against that idea including germany very reluctant to get involved militarily we know that the u.k. and france were the two countries that were really heavily pushing for non extension of that arms embargo however what's interesting to see is that the statement coming out today from the u.k. and france looks to be like a scaled back on their initial aggression on the issue we have a statement from downing street they're saying that the u.k. government has not decided yet whether to arm the syrian rebels of the are asking

that the assad government allow grad unrestricted access to the u.n. investigation team going back to that statement of the e.u. and france had also said in reply to with suggestions of a no fly zone to be established france had said that such a no fly zone in syria. the approval of the u.n. security council with the race that any intervention had with the approval of the international community and they say that this. is unlikely so for now there was no clear indication coming from the new what next step in terms of action they want to take all of them are saying they want to wait for more information and what's interesting again is a stale back of the u.k. and frances statements on these on foreign ministers will be meeting about a week's time to discuss this further and still to come on r t in a couple of minutes as the u.k. reportedly blocks alyssa laura word snowden from going to the country of the cia man's revelations looks set to test relations between the u.s.

and china details still to go. when the president does it means it's not illegal these are the words of richard nixon barack obama appears to be saying the same defending massive you would chronic surveillance of citizens all over the world defenders of prism in some form and claim these programs protect lives but who is looking out for protecting our rights.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations rule the day. thanks for staying with us nineteen minutes past the hour plans to develop a parkin is stand bowled out calls and weeks of protests across turkey have been put on hold and left to a court to decide with their legal five people though died in the often violent demonstrations the decision coming after prime minister enda one held a meeting with the activists although there was no agreement on how to end the discontent protests started because of a plan to cut down trees and build barracks in gezi park they soon devolved into anti-government demonstrations with crowds rallying against the prime minister the european parliament heavily criticized turkey for its disproportionate and

excessive use of force against protesters jason jones editor in chief of the things that was angry at the government will continue to demonstrate despite the decision over the park. there's a court injunction to stop the construction in gezi park and essentially what it came down to was the government saying that they would not step in to stop that process and they would let the courts handle it from here so we we have a pause in the action but by no means is it over we see a lot of opposition party groups that have come together under this one particular cause but within that group of people you see a splintering of very very differing causes the anticapitalist muslims the socialists the. various representative groups from every friend. out there they don't think that the conflict is going to just go away i would i would hope that they can find a peaceful way to get life back to normal and to get people at the table talking to

one another however as i mentioned those marginal groups that are there these are professional protesters they protest all the time they're generally ready for a fight so i don't think that those people are going to just walk away. cia whistleblower edward snowden reportedly been stopped from flying to the u.k. with airlines ordered to keep him from boarding the man who lifted the lid on the u.s. secret service activities being pursued by d.c. which wants to prosecute him for his latest revelation he told a hong kong newspaper the u.s. has repeatedly hacking into chinese computer networks he claims the u.s. has been hitting hundreds of targets in hong kong and on the mainland since zero nine this particularly sensitive because washington has constantly accused beijing of being behind a series of cyber attacks on its government departments the future of the

whistleblower remains unclear as washington is piecing together charges against him some experts though think china will stand by snowden. he had months to sink it over he's already called tact with lawyers and human rights organizations in hong kong he studied home called law yes there is an extradition treaty between homecoming and us before the ninety ninety seven and those works but this is a very special case now china is that directly told me she is already supporting stole that lexus think it took them a few days to make up their minds remember there was a three day holiday in china so start it should be right the chinese sense it and they are watching us fully cooked in your reaction in hong kong watching public opinion reaction in sino way bulled the chinese blogs and the equivalent of twitter and they know they see the groundswell of support to smolder the e.c. to double standards of although it's trying to impose

a wooden willy cyberwarfare dialogue when this comes both ways and yes they're going to support snowden no doubt remember you can find most of our stories also what our team dot com including questionable confessions of a young man telling police in bahrain he was a hired hit man but only after allegedly being tortured into saying it according to human rights activists plus. because of the plane crash that killed during the guerin the first man in space revealed to the public for the first time go to r.t. dot com to find out what actually happened. security tight across iran as people head to the polls to choose a successor to mahmoud ahmadinejad who is ending his second and final term i was don't expect much change in the country's political spectrum mainly because all the candidates say they are loyal to the supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei or he's worried if an ocean has more from tehran. iran supreme leader even on the parents photos today the country chooses its next president i hope you have been to see

high telecom and he has just constance ballot you know who is no no one. who he voted for you can see many journalists are here who've been foreign reporters many have come to iran to cover the event and most of them are reporting on the show today with the supreme leader has cost over the country's politics and today's events my colleagues and that's going to go through offering a choice for days vote will unlikely to bring in their radical change to the country all together the rustics candidates in today's race but of course no one can say a fixed point who's likely to win opinion polls predict iran off but as it sat there were these leaflets we found distributed on the streets of tehran the future president of iran should believe in god be able to protect the country from its enemies have high moral standards and have a good plan to improve the country's economic situation here's our report on where aftermath is as legacy leaves the islamic republic akbar has been in real estate

business for years and iran when we ask him to summarize the legacy of president ahmadinejad he talks about the turn if you can bear is that right side increased by a hundred percent since last year we have no hope for the future of the economy is better than it's getting worse one of the president's promises after taking office in two thousand and five was to make iran's vast oil revenues felt at the dining table of every single family was he leaves behind is a country hit by the worst financial crisis in the years as much as the us some who say it's not what it is just who's to blame for the downturn under sanctions were tough recently and it's hard to keep afloat for the president you know people ensure that iran is able to resist international pressure the iranian economy has been hit hard by strain of ever tougher sanctions imposed successively by the e.u. the u.n. and the u.s. over accuse ations the countries trying to develop nuclear weapon something which

was never approved as a lot of ahmadinejad's has been able to stand up to the whole world over wrongs nuclear program. and the country's better off for it and of a battle the departure in libya will be remembered for is his rhetoric about israel and iran six resident relations reached the point when even war seemed very possible and while ahmadinejad has not exactly been friendly towards israel the way facts have been gentle devout him has done more damage to his reputation than his own words years ago a statement was mistakenly streamlet it to him which was inequity translated as israel must be wiped off the face of the map actual words were that israel must vanish from the arena of time and didn't even belong to one ishant anyway tother the objective is to make up with the new judge in a village he stands for universal rights where every country would have an equal say but some powers want nothing but dominance and they focused on blocking the

name of our president stick one of this year's presidential candidates doesn't agree say korea during the two thousand and nine elections campaign he criticized his advisors and they were off to race sort of the best and most honest way to get the power and. the deadly protests that raged across the country after the elections are also thought to have undermined our image the result many people were frightened of other let me not talk about my job at all. even those who don't totally support a when you say there is little he can actually do here according to our constitution the supreme leader has much more powers in this country almost every step the president takes should be supervised and blessed by the ayatollah so despite all the controversies surrounding president ahmadinejad it looks like iran will continue to be a force in the region and therefore will remain the fornace side of the u.s. and its allies mahmoud ahmadinejad's eight here presidency provides mixed feelings

a very controversial leader he was equally hated the worship here in iran has been made. didn't send them to friends over and all of the day is over but his legacy will cost a shadow over the next president some time. tehran iran. up next our exclusive interview with whistleblower julian assange stay with us. you know when i was in school they would tell us stories about that other goofy economic system in the eastern bloc and about why it was doomed to fail they tell us how terrified communist bureaucrats would work very hard to give the illusion of a fish and see when their bosses were in town essentially out of fear they would try to convince the state that everything was just fine they promise of

a fresh coat of paint on some stuff bump up their numbers in the books and get employees to put a smile on for the cameras so they wouldn't lose their jobs yeah this our teachers told us was a sign of true doomed economics rolling the clock forward twenty or thirty years the bosses of the current global economic system are in town and many locations around the upcoming g eight summit in northern ireland are doing their best to hide their economic downturn from the media according to our t.v. news the government of northern ireland has spent two million pounds dealing with derelict buildings some of these buildings have simply been knocked out but some have been spruced up like butcher shops with images of meat stuck over the windows to hide their barren interiors or the now famous local office supply store which contains no office supplies at all but it sure doesn't look nice and i guess that's what counts spending two million pounds to hide economic downturn from the g eight and other eyes whether than spending it actually you know improving the local economy seems like doomed economic practices to me but that's just my opinion.

download the official publication so choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites. if you're away from your television just doesn't sit well with your mobile device so you can watch on t.v. and it's. time anyway. with us now a man who knows what it's like to blow the whistle in a big time way and incur the wrath of washington at the same time julian assange he joins us on broadband from the ecuadorian embassy in london julian thank you are so much for taking time to be with us much appreciated thanks for the line there for a few minutes as well. the first thing to you really i guess what does it feel like

what do you feel like when you see this news that that's come out about mr snowden over the last couple of days yes you empathize here. not the way i empathize having been through a very similar situation myself but we're trying to actively support through this interview or in other ways. snowden's plight back in october last year i published a book called cypherpunks calling for exactly the sorts of actions in relation to the mass surveillance tape that has developed in the united states and in the west more broadly exactly what mr snowden is doing so it's it's very pleasing to see such concrete proof presented before the public will he end up though in a similar position do you think at the end of the day. on the run you feel like avoiding prosecution from the u.s.

. well already we have seen that the department of justice united states has taken up the issue i was been many calls for his prosecution he's family has been raided in holland lou by police already so yes he will be subject to prosecution by united states for years i'm certain of that. you claim to be in contact with snowden lately could you tell us how recently that was and can you tell us anything more about what he had to say to you well we never discuss sourcing issues what we said is that we were in contact we use snowden's people in relation to the various support and advice we can give him we heard a line twenty two press call for president putin's press secretary that if mr snowden wanted it russia may can say that giving him shelter who do you think you'd ask for it i think he would be well advised to consider that. you'd be

advised to. try and find a similar offer in south america. these are countries that for south america it's quite clear where they are you logically aligned to put that extensive experience with the united states and dominate the united states and south america is one of the countries where there is both table intercepts by the national security agency revealed in mr snowden's papers and ninety nine percent of south america is communications with the world with europe with russia with asia we do everyone posses for united states and he said today by the national security agency so latin america has a real personal if you like interest in what's going on and of course russia understands this game. and peered understands this game for a long time now i'm sure that. once on a was on the table in such an awful thing it would not would not be rescinded. you

bradley manning now i do it snowden do you think between you will you've made some headway in the war of attrition if you like with governments who are keeping things secret or does it still depression at night maybe it's an amazing time. just three years after the late bradley manning revelations with bradley manning in trial possibly. continue to believe expected to go for another live in weeks and the snowden revelations come out after. i and i many others had called for the exactly such revelations to expose the surveillance state so i think we're winning i think that's. part of a new international politic that is developing the internet has put many many people in contact with each other and when people are in contact with each other when they communicating with or with each other they naturally fold in. a body politic and it's just finding its feet and the first sort of two principles to fall

out of that is one freedom of speech and two no message i answered communications this is a body politic funded site founded on communication so the values of protecting the rights to communicate and protecting the privacy of communication are the first two natural values to fall out of that interaction of. now over two billion people on the internet so it's an interesting time on the other hand. we see the emissions of the big u.s. tech companies like google facebook microsoft yahoo. now scott which is owned by mark self into this surveillance system over. two point three billion deceptions a month for the month a month for the month of march revealed just for the united states alone. so worldwide perhaps ten twenty billion interceptions. by this is them

that is a vost sprawling. transnational surveillance system the question is can this new collaboration of people in these new ideas new values and this technology which we're using today which needs people to get a good value and good principle. is that capable of battling the lockheed martin's and the googles and the national security agencies of the world but time will tell julie and you've seen a lot you don't appear to be shocked a boat was any of what's come out over the last week by prism the n.s.a. as any bit shocked by the scale of it the total integration is something that i wasn't aware of. people who have been deeply involved in this business and in studying it and researching it and publishing documents about it. where

a way of most of the snowden revelations but in a thousand pieces from one court case here from the whistle blow there from the late document here it was thousand different revelations looking closely at black budgets and so on putting all this together. and so so those people deeply involved it's not surprising that we. have written about this but. what is surprising is to see such clear direct proof in simple documents. in court orders secret court orders by united states for mass interception and the various different forms of mass interception from when they're from. the high tech companies from fiber optic lines from of arisan another carries the united states these are rolled into mish together now into one system that information into one system. is surprising and i guess the flip side to this considering how long it's

reporting to be going on for since two thousand and six or so and considering how many people would have been involved are you surprised at all this hadn't come to light that there have been earlier whistleblowers coming out of the woodwork yes i am to crack down on whistle blowers has been very public and i think that escape people would be good i mean there's ways to do it without ending up like. props the way bradley manning is going to go or snowden i mean most sources reveal information perfectly fine i mean that where don't we thousands and yet we only know. to the head problems and it's alleged he says people study talk to informants so that we don't see all the people who are if you like getting away with a successful activity because they're invisible because they remain anonymous what we see is the people who wind up with difficulties they become very visible very

visible because the u.s. government and others likes to hold them up as a symbol of what will happen to you if you act but at the same time they're also visible because the media and their supporters hold them up as a symbol of virtue and to receive treatment so unfortunately these people become very very prominent but they're in fact in them and i don't know how much more to do and how much danger could they be and we know your predicament your current plight we feel that i guess most reports say that the money is going to be made an example of the feel like we heard mr snowden saying he was worried just a couple of days ago about his nearest and dearest his girlfriend his family all the people whistleblowers that you know that are really skid right now many sources are quite scared i mean we've seen colleagues of mine have even stated publicly

that their sources are reluctant to talk because of the crackdown against bradley manning and that's what that whole trial is trying to achieve it's trying to set the precedent for the communicating with the media is the same as communicating with me and that's a death penalty or face. an outrageous president he works like this they allege the present manning communicated with the media organization wiki leaks we then communicated with the public and with other media organizations and amongst the public there exists. was no obligation that bradley manning was intending to communicate with out with al-qaeda did directly. communicate without hate or anything like that that is not an allegation against him in the court the prosecution does not contain to show that what so ever what it alleges is that al qaeda like everyone else in the world read which he reads. now we

know that bin laden has also recommended bob woodward books and reads the new york times this is of no consequence whatsoever he probably had doctors use. in his compound so that sort of argument means that any. communications and information to the media can be prosecuted for aiding the enemy and as a result. sentenced to this. and that's the really it's the end of the security journalism united states if the president is that bush just wanted to ask you about you still holed up in the ecuadorian embassy given the clampdown that might come down now when whistleblowers often what we've seen over the last couple of days what do you think you'll personal chances are not walking free anytime soon what keeps you going what keeps us going is the worldwide support that we have which is really quite extraordinary yes we see bits of the banking go ok it's called that about ninety five percent of its finances but we have worldwide support so even

five percent is. five percent is not nothing the u.k. government has admitted to spent five million dollars in the past ten months on surveilling these embassy in relation to me completely awfully disproportionate that's an offense to you kate. people can see to the geopolitics that things are starting to change politically you know strayer. political party now according to the government's own polling outfit has between twenty five and twenty eight percent of the vote in the elections in september during the songs thank you for your time and thank you for being on r.t. international. preparations for the first woman cause when it was strictly classified. even her

own mother knew nothing of the imminent extraterrestrial voyage during his second dog which there was a terrifying and unexpected emotions. one wrong move on the secret and may never have returned. she laid some of the regulars lisa vine to an assassination attempt to secure the five right at my side of the car nine bullets were found on the my seat valentino telescope a seagull in space on aussie. the

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