political prisoners. whether the winter olympics should be.

terrorism rather. a pleasure to have you with us here on the program. what you say otherwise you could. best that's apparently the message the saudi authorities or. the country's prisons are packed with. by some estimates more than thirty thousand for the crackdown has exposed a chasm within the ruling family as well. to saudi prince. who became a dissident himself taking a stand against the. the government is obviously scared of the arab

revolutions and they responded as they usually do then by resorting to oppression violence arbitrary law and arrests but the easiest thing they can do is deprive you of your salary or fire you altogether that the ruling regime is not guarded by justice and this is especially true of the ministry of interior there is no independent judiciary that has both police and the prosecutor's office are countable to the interior ministry the ministries officials investigate crimes they call them crimes related to freedom of speech so they fabricate evidence but don't allow people to have attorneys things like that happen all over the place they even put people under arrest for an indefinite amount of time even if a court rules to release such a criminal or the ministry of interior keeps him in prison even though there is a court order to release him there have even been killings killings and as for the

external opposition saudi intelligence forces by means people abroad there is no safety inside or outside the country could you describe these people who oppose the royal family and what are their goals opposition used to demand wider people's representation in governing bodies more rights and freedom but the authorities reacted with violence and persecution instead of a dialogue and now the opposition wants this regime gone but we both know that despite the numerous human rights violations in saudi arabia your country seldom faces straight decision from the west and from the united states in particular when senior u.s. officials meet with their saudi counterparts basically economy any critical comments from washington. what the white house certainly does maintain a longstanding alliance with the leaders of saudi arabia cemented by common interests in the middle east to that end there are classified contacts between area

the. the u.s. administration in recent time they've been employed to step up the government administered reforms but those reforms are not driven by the elites desire to empower the people of the kingdom that instead they are merely urged by reforms that the regime might fall unless it reforms itself oppression is widespread in saudi arabia there is no free speech no freedom of expression corruption is rampant in all areas from the level bureaucrats to hiring officials in every civil servant is very skillful in using bribes in their operations. now despite saudi arabia's firm drive to tighten the noose around the necks of political activists at home it's still freely preaching liberal ideas and tolerance to others. lindsay france now taking a look at why exactly this political line is being widely labeled as hypocritical. as saudi arabia violently squashes the voice of any opposition we see it sitting front and center in discussions of the democratic transition of power within other countries such as syria on the one hand it reportedly ships arms to the opposition

in syria on the other hand peaceful opposition in saudi arabia is answered with prison sentences torture even death for people whose voice their own opinion in fact in october two thousand and twelve amnesty international calls on the saudi authorities to stop using excessive force against pro-democracy protesters here are just a few examples from this year alone on june seventeenth meet cliff mari was convicted of sewing discord and other offenses through writings and exposure of human rights abuses he got five years in prison june twenty fourth seven men were convicted of inciting protest illegal gatherings and breaking allegiance with the king mostly by joining facebook pages and posting messages they each got between five and ten years in prison then we've got editor rafe badawi convicted of insulting islam and authorities through his website and during television interviews he was sentenced to seven years in prison and six hundred lashes in these conditions anyone with something substantial to say about the government society or religion would be

blamed for keeping a low profile and this is where the man being called the saudi of songe comes in no one knows who he is what he looks like or where he lives his prolific tweets denouncing the ruling family as corrupt and enriching themselves from government coffers have earned him over a million followers he is known only as much to heat i spoke with him over google chat to find out why he stays in hiding because it's not for safety i asked him why you remains anonymous he said ironically and on anybody boost his credibility and courage as people to follow him and talk about his stories without worrying i ask if this meant that people could pay less attention to his biography and more attention to his message he pointed out the regime can destroy your credibility easily. and deter people from dealing with you if your identity is public. to heat is forced underground a new monarchie backed religious diversity center has launched its own charm

offensive in vienna according to its mission statement it encourages dialogue among followers of different religions and cultures king abdullah has also announced a donation of one hundred million to set up a united nations center for fighting terrorism one of its four pillars is to prevent conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism and ensuring respect for human rights so while the kings clerics preach a hardline form of islam that often becomes a breeding ground for extremism saudi arabia is assuming a moral high ground in advising other nations in transitional democracy. and in the meantime germany's facing an avalanche of criticism over its hefty arms deals with saudi arabia and other gulf nations who can't exactly boast of having better human rights records than that of riyadh now berlin's weapons exports of the gulf monarchies have almost tripled in two years let's have a look we're talking five hundred seventy million euros in twenty eleven to almost a billion and a half in twenty twelve and angle merkel's government has approved weapons exports

now of more than eight hundred million euros in the first half of this year that suggesting the levels will continue to grow in the six countries in the region that berlin sells weapons to saudi arabia bahrain kuwait qatar oman the u.a.e. as well as several of which as we know have seen government crackdowns on anti regime protesters since the arab spring now saudi arabia by far is the biggest buyer arms exports last year worth one point two four billion euros and activists also claim that german made small firearms ammunition and military vehicles were commonly used by middle eastern and north african regimes to suppress peaceful demonstrations now adam kugel from human rights watch and he believes that foreign players should drop their business deals and perhaps think twice before supplying gulf monarchies with such a levels of high tech weapons. western countries in general should look at the widespread crackdown that's going on against human rights political and pro reform

activists going on in the country when they make these deals they should these governments that have good relationships with the saudis should make it clear that what they're doing. is really goes against the pro reform agenda that king abdullah has been trumpeting since he came to power in two thousand and five what we've seen in the last at least i could say in two thousand and thirteen is an increasing crackdown we've seen many high profile convictions over the last few months women's rights activists are uni and with the way they are got ten months in prison for merely trying to assist a woman who was in distress who claimed that she was she was not being provided enough food to live and they they went to her house to try to help her and the police arrested her so we're seeing a widespread campaign against anyone who speaks out against the policies of the. current government and any activist who calls for human rights reforms and political reforms and i think that these western countries that have military

relationships or other relationships with saudi arabia should make clear that this is unacceptable behavior. by ten minutes past the hour here in moscow russia's interior minister has said there'll be no discrimination against gay people coming to watch or even dissipate in the saatchi winter olympics that's the latest response to pressure put on the country by the west an l g b t community which is calling for a boycott of the games and they're protesting that a new law or against nontraditional sexual relations propaganda to minors and earlier on the program here at r.t. we invited a panel of guests for an in-depth discussion of the issue. we are an international community bonded by the homophobia that affects all of us and what we have to do is take a stand against the fact that the government is actually preventing education rather than propaganda that is desperately needed phial people who are growing up lesbian and gay growing up with prejudice this causes death it causes distress anti gay

bullying is terrific but it also is deep in issues because of course it is starting to silence the liberals the good people in russia who would normally be allies of lesbian and gay people because of course they don't speak out so it's not just the bigots that homophobes that it's giving more power to silent think it's good allies so i think we need to take an international stand what to talk about it's a political commentator alexander classified there in london as well as the recent levada poll recently saying that more than half of russian support the law and conservative traditions alexander your thoughts on that well i heard that those two thirds are actually who were supporting the war but that me tell you something about the liberal lobby here and the gay lobby as well we've heard none none existing debate about gay marriage same sex marriage the debate was suppressed by the liberal elite nobody was allowed to say anything the moment you questioned you know whether it's

a wise thing to do you were immediately accused of being homophobic i think it's time for the gay community to realize you cannot prevent other people from creating their own views and in london you know of one also one complete and total implodes total intolerance by the gear by the liberal elites that not allow this political correctness has turned into censorship in your proxy from l.g. bt sport is it right to boycott the olympics no it's not trying to completely control such a lame piece because. it's. don't deserve such a treatment in the modern history of the movement we had to boycotts. nine hundred eighty and in the early one nine hundred eighty four so slaves couldn't compete in a competitive atmosphere for twelve years it's not their fault the we haven't to get legislation in russia my opinion is that the limbic must be there is no place

for boycotts for liam biggest and their call all the friendly countries and national teams to raise their rainbow flags and to march to the opening ceremony parade holding hand by hand meant to be the man and we would move in order to show their solidarity within the community doesn't the olympics then become not about sport and about the l g b t community but well according to the article picture our . huge sport is a human right so and the limbic spirit of peace and friendship can stand together with any form of discrimination including discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation let's be honest be very clear brother this is being used as a cliche across the world calling this an anti gay law and russia it is actually an amendment prohibiting gay propaganda to minors the way the law is being portrayed

in the west i just want to go through some of the things and also the delayed reaction to the law it went into effect june thirtieth the first big headlines we started to hear was on july twenty first in the new york times putin declares war on homosexuals is that the case know the independent homophobic laws lead to attacks on gay young men russes war on gays and the list goes on it's not being represented for the war as it is whether or not the law is good or bad we can debate ultimately at the end of the day we're talking a limp dick charter that of the sport of winter olympics and all of the countries and i think this gets forgotten have signed in a limb picked. orator which states that there is no kind of demonstration or political religious or racial propaganda allowed to any olympic sites venues or other areas which in london it was mentioning how this was compared to the holocaust of the jews martin andrews's here you are a cultural correspondent here in moscow it's not a fair comparison do you think well first of all not just the arts and culture

correspond i mean gay man living in russia have been for eight years so i understand the differences between living in london and living in moscow and first of all i think the law is wrong the law is bad and it should be cherry and so i think the timing for the russian government with such coming up is terrible however there's a little thing called section twenty eight which margaret thatcher brought in in one thousand nine hundred eight which was a similar law for the protection of children which went all the way into two thousand and three so first of all even though that was in place in the u.k. the gay community went along with the lifestyle to the gay marriage that we have today which is a great thing so that if therefore does not prove that even though it was a law that was put in the wrong place actually culture actually nurtured itself as as basically a scouse journalist here i know the reality of life and i just wanted to put to stop the styria you know it doesn't snow all year round there's a simmering active thriving gay community in russia and indeed in sochi when i was filming there last week there was one that. i thank you joining us here on our team today still to come for you on the program continues the tragic talking the

bloodshed in iraq and as the death toll by the day worldwide concern over the country's future is growing and washington places a ten million dollars bounty on the chief in iraq we'll bring you expert opinion a bit later in the program. plus a doing away with the international monetary fund hungry pays back its huge debt ahead of schedule hoping to be rid of meddling in its that and much more of the headlines after this break.

we speak your language. news programs and documentaries in spanish what matters to you. a little tonnage of angles stories. that the spanish. visit. this immediately so we may be. privacy motions your. party years ago. questions that no one is asking with the guests that you deserve answers from. politics only on our team. welcome to the program here on our. nearly time for cross talk however for now more

leaked documents obtained from edward snowden earlier this year are shedding further light on america's global surveillance network the latest papers offer a tiered list of washington's top targets for spying though what's especially surprising is that the e.u. in america's eyes ranks just behind the likes of china russia and iran so what is peter all of a filed this report on the tears of espionage. the latest information to come out about the n.s.a. spying scandal is being published in news magazine here in germany now the. documents that were leaked by edward snowden and dated from april of this year now those documents outlining just the extent of how the united states was spying on e.u. countries now the twenty eight member states it says were looked at in terms of foreign policy international trade and economic stability all of those apparently security

related but those were the the areas in which the n.s.a. pursued the hardest now there's also spying taking place and information being gathered with regards to technology and energy as well now also revealed in these documents that have been put forward in news magazine show a breakdown of the countries which the n.s.a. targeted the most now they split into a couple of key is of importance now in the in the top to have countries like china russia iran pakistan and north korea but just underneath that you have countries like germany france and japan all nations that consider themselves allies in close allies at that of the united states now these revelations as they continue to come out from those huge bundles and bundles and bundles of information that edward snowden brought with them when he when he fled from the national security agency from the contractors that he was working with continued to turn up

a treasure trove of information about just what was going on and these most recent documents seem to back up previous leaked documents that showed that the n.s.a. was spying on the e.u. e.u. offices both in brussels as well as around the world now when those when that information was released and should be able magazine a few months ago well that caused outrage across europe and we're seeing more of that now as these latest revelations come out that the e.u. was seen as a key target for spying by the united states. and i listen to shift gears here on r.t. to iraq al-qaeda has claimed responsibility for saturday's massive string of bombings that battered the country killing more than ninety people since the beginning of the month more than three hundred have died in the country and a figure that's fast approaching the total for the entirety of august last year also this july was the deadliest since two thousand and eight with monthly losses on a level not seen in years and marked

a tangle investigate of the consequences of the u.s. led military campaign in iraq he thinks the war simply made the country fertile grounds for breeding terrorism kind of ironic that the us now have to chase al qaeda in iraq while before the war al-qaeda was almost totally absent from the country so i do think it says something about the details of the military interventions brought about it says something about the fact that when you destroy a country obviously all kinds of terrorist groups armed groups will be free to act in any way they like let's be honest i mean there's no way just a bounty will solve the problem of terrorism in iraq terrorism is not for just by repression it's followed by giving basic services like giving health care through the rockies by giving a decent education system those things should be guaranteed the destruction brought about by war has. totally destroyed any form of health care i mean at a decent level at least. now a tide of the international monetary fund's meddling the hungarian government has

paid off its twenty billion euro debt ahead of showed you all lawmakers are now calling on the i.m.f. to pack up and leave and budapest's been in the global financial body for years over what the government termed a quote do you interference. to shift the reports. this family can now enjoy picking a pram for their soon to be born child when the global recession reached the country they struggled to repay their mortgage but thanks to a government support program their flat now belongs to them and they've saved at least ten thousand euro. to their. to call situation. is now quite strong. there are lots of steps but look at hungary's economy of late and you'll be hard pressed to find much to be optimistic about the economy is now fading better than during the recession but still most of the important development figures are in negative territory while

inflation is even higher than in the crisis years the country's opposition firmly believes hungry would stagnate without a high good reason to be c.p.i. . funds and this is very important ninety seven percent of the new developments today finance from money however seeing what's happening in greece and spain budapest is not keen on grabbing the hands of the international lenders and in this case it goes beyond merely the bravado rhetoric often voiced by the country's prime minister. thirty steps between the building of the national bank of hungary and the head office of the international monetary fund in budapest but that is as close as they get a letter from one building to another at the end of july said that hungary no longer required the services of the i.m.f. and that its employees must leave the country as soon as possible the country's deputy economics minister is tight lipped on any kind of open to still a t towards brussels or the knowledge is that what the e.u.

bureaucrats are offering is not the past his message is we can handle it on our own but a greece that level is according to g.d.p. after two hundred structuring and averaging is hundred sixty percent in hungary to present the european. averages know about eighty five per cent we are able to foreign and public that are on the market have to introduce the reference which make the country more competitive and that is what we have done in the last couple of years and i think they are a good basis to do have an independent economic policy next year hungary will host parliamentary elections and some say the hardline stance with the e.u. may be part of a political campaign by the right we leaders ship but analysts are not ruling out that should government be reelected the prime minister may take his standoff with brussels to a completely new level by initiating a referendum on leaving the ropy and union all together. auntie reporting from

budapest in hungary ok world update time here on out so you know and to bradley manning you stand the chance of being a nobel peace prize winner and the awards committee says it's received a petition backed with one hundred thousand signatures and the army private guilty last month of multiple counts of espionage for its role in sharing classified material with the secrecy website wiki leaks and manning's court martial currently in its sentencing phase and he's facing a maximum of ninety years in jail. egyptian police press for storming two major sit ins by the supporters of the ousted president mohamed morsi in cairo to avoid bloodshed earlier on monday the army extended the detention of the former leader for another fifteen days protesters have already spent more than a month in the camp gearing up to resist the police again. now a message worth millions of dollars lost among the airwaves the u.s.

has been trying to transmit its word of democracy for cuba for decades with little result even using a special broadcast plane that didn't really work and even though no one's listening america keeps the program alive. reports. old habits die hard having spent decades unsuccessfully attempting to undermine the cuban government the u.s. keeps trying washington finds a t.v. channel and a radio station that specifically target a cuban audience with programming that features prominent cuban dissidents you are doing the kind of power to the germans and projects like toward democracy which the channel's website advertises as a how to guide for transitioning from dictatorship to democracy all done in the hopes that one day the communist leadership in cuba will fall how soon do you think that's going. well i hope so i'm probably three years we need to work really hard

maybe the martine media are working very hard but the cuban public remains largely unaware of their efforts which have you ever heard of radio marti no i know nothing about it. the marquee itself acknowledges the limited reach of its radio and t.v. programs we'll have for any way to reach with the information in the general queue of people became government jams the martys radio and t.v. signals to circumvent that the u.s. has employed a variety of methods one of them errol martini a plane that had been flying over cuba to transmit u.s. broadcasts the u.s. broadcasting board of governors that oversees iraq marty has asked congress to discontinue the program two years in a row admitting it has been a failure it's hard to believe we're still wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on beaming a jam t.v. signal fewer than one percent of cubans can see from an airplane to the oil and i

did time when u.s. lawmakers cut funding on social programs for a low workers at a time when we hear calls to defund u.s. public radio and television washington still spends millions of dollars every year on a media operation to overthrow the cuban government in washington i'm going to check on. but i thank you for joining us here on our team tonight on real research they are now ten souse me eleven thirty pm in moscow and crosstalk in just a second. the u.s. government project arrow marty has been in place for twenty years this project was designed to break the media monopoly of cuban television by putting u.s. government propaganda up to t.v. screens this injection of american t.v.

works with a blimp and a c one thirty military plane working in tandem you know this would actually be a major achievement in the history of technology if it actually worked this program which over the years has built up a billion taxpayer dollars simply does not work but continues to exist despite the cuban government completely blocking the transmission the official logic of continuing the program is that it would send a bad message to the cuban government if they stopped brilliance and action but the big question is who gives the u.s. government the right to propagandize cuba is just because they have a different lifestyle doesn't mean it is wrong and the u.s. government does has the right to destroy it and even if cubans on mass actually do hate their system then it is their job to change cuba not the military industrial complex and its cronies in washington but that's just my opinion.