big brother is watching the middle east the independent newspaper says the u.k. is running a secret snooping station intercepting e-mails phone calls and web traffic. syria's opposition says it will allow access to the site of an alleged mass chemical attack near damascus russia's request stassi looks at how terrorist groups are taking advantage of the chaos being calls. brace for more on rest in egypt for new protests a day after the pros leader hosni mubarak was let out of prison anger among muslim brotherhood supporters our top stories this hour.

international news live from our studio center here in moscow which now just turned ten pm this is r.t. the u.k. has reportedly been operating a secret data gathering base in the middle east part of a one and a half billion dollar investment in global surveillance britain's independent newspaper claims it changed its information from edward snowden's leaks but the n.s.a. whistleblower himself says he has not released any information linked to these allegations what is your smith has the details. well the independent friday morning published an article that says came from leaks made by edward snowden about this secret internet monitoring station a base in the middle east to intercept all sorts of internet traffic in the middle east and then hostile towards western intelligence agencies basically what it does is taps into internet cables that run into the the sea extracts that they set and then passes it to the h.q. here in the u.k. and to the n.s.a.

in the states is particularly valuable according to the independent because it can access cables that apos between submarines to very sensitive data and it's called the dog to work day which is designed to. intercept global digital pictures of the world email text and everything they were able to hold a million miles old people in the world the fact that running under the sea or over the world would make our old world and i think that even though we. think will be the key every time that you know we're going to work and we're going to go we take all. the cables and make sure that very well we show you a map of how the cables lie you can see that a lot of them make landfall in the u.k. those transatlantic ones so the u.k. is very important in this operations need now says that this week didn't come from him atoll and glenn greenwald in the guardian says that it's the type of disclosure

it's exactly the type of disclosure that the journalists working with snowden have deliberately avoided given that it relates to middle east surveillance and the potential impact that that could have on surveillance operations that then did release that wolf notion says that he thinks it was the british government itself he says that the government is trying to trying to make out that the leaks from the generally harmful across the board not in the public interest across the board and that these they're doing that by deliberately releasing the information themselves and pretending that it comes from. in order to discredit him that he's working directly with. the very moment that there's been. tension of his heart there. for the weekend and the government's trying to tell the court that the release of this information is not in the public interest it could potentially be dangerous he is a disclosure that could potentially be dangerous so it really fits in according to the guardian and to snowden himself with what the government's trying to do.

learning more about the massive collection of data but what exactly does it mean for the average citizen. with whom to contact with and you will be able to identify all that can because partners and also the type of communications. party examines what exactly intelligence agencies can find out your life a little later in the program. the syrian opposition says it will guarantee safe access for u.n. investigators to inspect the site of an alleged chemical attack the statement follows demands from russia a u.n. official is also expected in damascus on saturday to negotiate government permission to look into the reported assault well earlier i discussed how the opposition's latest statement will affect the investigation with ortiz only in a good discussion. i have to understand that this statement came from the syrian

national council which is essentially based in turkey and it's a bunch of men in suits and they're notoriously disjointed there has been a lot of criticism about their actions they can't seem to come to an agreement at the same time we also have to understand that we're talking about syria which is at this point penetrated by a whole number of rebel fighters a lot of who are actually associated with al qaida who are not exactly working together with the s.n.c. so this is the can say yes of course come in and take a look and actually they're insisting that the u.n. inspectors have to call and take a look and do their investigation within the next forty eight hours it's absolutely vital but the same time there is no guarantee that they will actually provide safe access considering that this is the area where the fighting continues between his forces and the rebel forces and of course u.n. inspection team in the country for a few days anyway looking at previous reports for hysterics but what sort of progress was it made any developments not entirely because you have to understand

that these are these reports that they are now investigating came a month ago right on the very similar circumstances again they were coming from the syrian opposition takes it took them several months for the u.s. for the team of the u.n. inspectors to get there but the irony is that we still have absolutely no credible support to those statements as well in fact russian minister of foreign affairs said that there has been a rocket fired indeed on wednesday but it was very similar to a rocket that was fired by the syrian opposition some months ago and that rocket was indeed laden. with a chemical agent of unknown origin and just finally what is the international. is behind this alleged chemical a lobbyist like russia for example there are some countries that are calling on immediate investigation they're saying the u.n. should pay very close attention to these reports of bloodshed there have been some studies which insist that u.n. security council should immediately look into this into the into the abyss. and if

the chemical attacks are proven to have taken place then the u.n. should use force on syria and russia again reiterated their point that this is absolutely unacceptable to exert this kind of pressure on the syrian government which by the way seems to appear as if they are absolutely willing to walk up to cooperate with the u.n. inspection team in terms. of the town and minister of foreign affairs of russia has actually said that this looks like another wave of antigovernment syrian propaganda which is essentially being perpetrated by the syrian opposition. meanwhile pressure on the syrian government is being made by america insisting that the rebels are not capable of carrying out such attacks michael maloof he's a former senior security policy analysts in the office of the u.s. secretary of defense he says the media has been largely distracted by unfair find reports coming from the opposition the syrian government has actually called upon the u.n. to investigate but they cannot. open up areas that are under the opposition control

they can certainly. ask that the u.n. come in and look at whatever documentation they might have so i think that this is a very serious development and what's happening is that the regular media is just assuming that it's the it's the syrian government when in fact they're being fed information from the opposition so i think everyone has to be very careful and certainly policymakers need to be very careful before they take any action it's going to be very very difficult to really get to the bottom of this latest episode well the turmoil in syria and across the region is proving fertile ground for radical it's groups and that's adding a new dimension to the u.s. war on terror is what he's got to check on now explains. while washington says he has crippled al qaeda in afghanistan and pakistan wising from the ashes of the arab

spring is new all different affiliated groups metastasizing in the middle east and africa feeling more and more comfortable in countries torn apart by terror in the north of syria in the territories presumably controlled by the rebels the al qaeda affiliated is planning to announce an islamic state terror is not the only way they're winning support their exercising its soft power to somewhere between preaching terror here you see militants doing some ice cream diplomacy with children and sponsored ice cream contests for kids what could be more innocent. minded or affiliated groups feel very comfortable in the post revolution chaos of libya in iraq after a decade of civil war still stages terror on a regular basis in less than a week more than two thousand prisoners many of them all qaeda fighters have escaped from prisons in iraq libya and pakistan those were violent raids around the same time washington closed almost two dozen of its missions in the middle east and

africa fearing some major terrorist attack and yet at the same time washington says this as a result of the enormous pressure we've put on the group we have eliminated all of al qaeda senior leadership in afghanistan and pakistan and because the current leaders leaders of al qaeda core so worried about their personal safety they are far less able to plan attacks the question some ask is how can washington simultaneously be sole paranoid about the war on terror and be so dismissive of the threat of terror at the same time in different countries the u.s. has repeated we put the threat of terror on the backburner for some greater goal in of ghana's than the goal was to defeat the soviet union the u.s. directly helped al qaeda and bin laden there in iraq the goal was to get rid of saddam hussein there was no al qaeda in iraq before the civil war broke out fall. slowing the u.s. invasion now in syria the greater goal is to remove assad from power to offer what

helping al-qaeda directly or indirectly become that tradeoff that the west was willing to make to achieve a greater goal or whatever it was but having made the trade up the u.s. would then spend decades fighting what it had sparked in washington i'm going to check out well card has been embracing the media to promote itself recently by launching an online magazine even allegedly attempting to advertise itself twitter really this month an account purportedly belonging to the terrorist group asked its followers for p.r. ideas but the campaign was torn apart by trolls security analyst jim burger urged social networks to bombard the accounts with mocking tweets now one of them included a proposal to release a film entitled dude where's my car bomb another user advised al-qaeda to use more cats in their videos also suggestion to open a fast food chain called jihad joes and among other ideas was to sell as a bin laden's porn collection on

e bay when all this trolling cause the account to be suspended but beyond the humor column cavell the author of exporting made in america democracy believes that the us is paying the price for allowing al qaeda to exist in the first place. al qaeda is merely an instrument that the united states. developed your loans and facilitated. the argentines in afghanistan we funded the foreign mercenaries these jihadists are a security agency and believe there are so still it that they can manipulate these your heart as. to their own ends but it's a sort of copper turtle isn't that many of the hottest should be aware of because they see them as easily manipulable but as we saw with also general orders to those along the attacks on the united states and other attacks that is

not the case. this is all to live here in the twenty four hours a day coming up after the break this hour protests in egypt continue but the u.s. is determined to continue providing aid to the divided country but president obama saying stopping it won't prevent bloodshed the details in just a few minutes plus a story. interview. cut cut. cut. cut. cut.

cut. cut cut. cut. right to the sea. search string. and i think your. reporters. instrumental ellerbee in the little. play. he continues here on r t isn't a supporter of the ousted mohamed morsi gathered for fresh rallies across egypt after friday prayers hundreds took to the streets in karo for what the muslim brotherhood dubbed a friday of martyrs well despite the return of the military to. power in egypt

president barack obama has said while the u.s. is reevaluating its relationship with the country it is unlikely he will cut aid he said quote i think what most americans would say is that we have to be very careful about being seen as aiding and abetting actions that we think run contrary to our values and our ideals at this point we've got to take a look and see what's in the long term interests of the egyptian people what's in the long term interests of the united states well for more on this i'm now joined by defense consultant moeen. what do you make of the bombers statement well they need to ensure by not cutting aid to the military they need to ensure that the suez canal remains open and also security for israel so in effect the military have never relinquish power the elections are brought morsi to power are

what while just to show. the military of ruled continuous least since one thousand nine hundred fifty s. . never given up power to any civilian government since solved gyptian people are fooling themselves if they think there's a civilian government that would be allowed to rule in place of the military but the pentagon has recently canceled some military drills and also delayed some plans for some fighter planes to be delivered to egypt is that not in indication of a change in relationship somewhere they're not at all does that it's just trying to fall the citizens of egypt to say that they're concerned about what is being going on the toppling of morsi and his detention as a result. back they'll resume normal relations as soon as the civilians sort of go back home you know or stop protesting

but the military and the united states government have had a very cozy relationship for four decades so that's that's not going to change at all so the military will stay in power this isn't an interim government leading to some sort of democratic process and you. know not even if they bring a civilian in a suit remember mubarak wore a suit before he wore a suit but essentially these are military men. who are in power and even if a civilian government came into power they have to do as the military says or once and as long as they are pro western or u.s. government will be allowed to remain in power as soon as they start speaking out or try to exert their own ideas then they'll be toppled. as well as morsi so know that the military of been in power for decades and martial law is been imposed for decades so the military don't see any change in circumstances but

the government needs to rely on aid doesn't it because the economy is in dire straits tourism is collapse it's got worse during morse's ten years so economically how can it sustain itself without help from abroad. it can't it can't it needs u.s. military aid. which also i presume is a civilian aid as well but. as long as the americans are ensuring that they have a friend in power they will provide aid and this is why they're not canceling aid at all. and makes it clear that he's supporting or the u.s. government is supporting the president of the military being in power so yes absolutely essential for the well being of the country far thanks so much your thoughts good to talk to you live here on r.t. route thank you. thank you for time now to look at some of the stories online team

has prepared for you today all inferno a monster blaze swallows a tanker in eastern siberia injuring some and causing devastation you can watch this spectacular footage on in motion page right now. plus honor bound to defend freedom but apparently not freedom of the written word on top of most prison banned detainees from reading russian classic the gulag archipelago leading to accusations of america's ignoring its own values on the women you can find out more on t.v. dot com it's online all the time. two bombs have gone off in mosques in lebanon killing forty two people and injuring three hundred fifty others the explosions in tripoli came during friday prayers with some suggestion clerics who are staunch supporters of the syrian opposition may have been the targets the country's prime minister has condemned the attacks and says it shows just how dangerous the situation in lebanon is well let's get more now from

political analyst kummel was me who is in beirut colonel who do you think could have been behind these attacks and what would the motive be. well at this point we really cannot speculate a lot of people have probably a motive. there's a lot of speculation could be israeli it be somebody who wanted sectarian fight alone or could be some people claiming the syrian anybody is a suspect but so far what we see at this point we see a lot are a lot of zation was no real evidence i doubted that the syrian is behind what happened or hizbullah is behind what happened even that's all the acquisition i think somebody maybe the same people who actually put explosion in the suburbs of beirut and there are no now who they are and their affiliation they're the one behind what is taking place in tripoli but at this

point we have to wait and see i think the country is going into a very very rough road ahead there is fear of sectarian war and that been emerging i heard. that comment and the speeches that came after the explosion at the rhetoric is very high but the evidence is still not there so you have to leave this is an indication perhaps. this is an indication as you say the fears of sectarian war breaking out but why the clerics in particular assuming that they were the targets in this all the all clerics that influential. oh they are in tripoli very very influential and they rule the streets of tripoli and they've been ruling that street for a very long time and they've been a major element in support in the opposition for the regime of bashar assad for a very long time the arms have been smuggled from tripoli into syria

and a lot of fire those came from that area fighting against the regime of bashar al assad so this really is an indication. of this so this really is an indication that the crisis in syria now could well spread beyond its borders and into the region yes it's very very true because the same now we have we we have hezbollah fighting inside syria and that's very clear it's been declared by the leadership of luck the future movement and its affiliation those islamists are fighting but they haven't declared that there are fighting but there is a war that is taking place but inside syria now the fear that war is actually will move to lebanon but i have to tell you i doubt that anything will happen in the large scale even if there are friction here and there are explosions here and there my asked amid. the situation will still be under control and if something can

happen will be will be to be very short period of time because i think the lebanese should have learned their lesson not to have a sectarian fight in lebanon a couple was and thank you very much indeed for your thoughts live here on r.t. . leaked german security documents are showing the country doesn't trust the new windows eight system fearing it provides the n.s.a. with remote access and that's according to one of the country's newspapers although the german government denies it earlier reports indicated the country was a major target for u.s. intelligence well let's remind you just how much data is being collected here what the n.s.a. has been more active in germany than in any other e.u. state targeting up to half a billion data connections every month phone calls e-mails mobile phone messages and web chat logs all of that data eventually made its way to n.s.a.

headquarters in washington but when apparently allows this leak indicate they work with the n.s.a. no questions asked on a regular day up to thirty million german connections or watched and that could double during particularly busy times now how much and how exactly is the average citizen affected by this artie's peter oliver finds out. should the average person be concerned about their online information being stored by security services you can analyze a person's social graph as it's called so you will know with whom this prisoner is in contact with and you will be able to identify all the communication partners and also the type of communication so often and out in respect to events in germany the country's highest court ruled that storing data on citizens was unconstitutional however leaked documents show very close ties between the german b.m.d.

and the n.s.a. with information on germans being passed from one to the other all in the name of security says the woman at the top not good since it's impossible to have security without inconveniences those involved in data protection say these inconveniences have now gone too far and we had suspicions that such a scheme was in place but not the sheer the mere extent of this regular and and. unwarranted and disproportionate measures that are taking place taken place by foreign intelligence services and we definitely need limits and effective and transparent controls the major worry for the individual is that a system that we are told is there to protect society has been used to keep the indiscriminate what we do online this is tim is not working for law enforcement this is no our catching rock to us this is about taking all of our communication

and allowing to identify our communication. it's fairly common practice for an employer to check out a prospective employee on social networks to find out more about who they are about to hire however the level of information gathered by security services is in a different league entirely with this level of information you could see. exactly who people call in email on a regular basis see that's a doctor the employer may think this guy's going to have too many sick days and go elsewhere using information that's supposed to be confidential on social networking sites like facebook people freely give away information about themselves but long after you've clicked like on a web page or even search for something online that information follows you like a shadow they will know what you have been in the last three four or five years maybe what you have been interested in through all the time or you might not even

remember yourself would you have been looking on google but this isn't well no. peter all of. that brings us to twenty seven minutes past the hour now in the russian capital but with a news team with more in just over half an hour from now in the meantime after the break it's safe he said talking to marine le pen the french right wing and nationalists politician a special interview after the break. they say geo politics is a lot like a schoolyard and while obama snubbing a meeting with the president of russia to in theory punish him for the stone incident sounds kind of amateur that is the kind of stuff the girl you did when

you're sixteen would do cancel a date just to show you how much your feelings are hurt let's not mistake this cancelled meeting with cutting off diplomatic relations which is the total rejection of any form of discussion with another country which really isn't a bold and possibly dangerous but a cold message but obama did was more like a minor annoyance he knows that he will talk to putin again in the near future i mean how are they not going to talk at the next g eight summit what is he just going to have to hide behind merkel the whole time and hope it works out or ducked behind the shrimp cocktail whatever here's a russian accent one could argue that to appease republicans he had to do something to look strong after the student but this grandstanding just comes across a silly passing something like a new jackson verda commandment yeah that is how you could shows people that you're really mad even if your anger is irrational because still pretty much did the right thing but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to sophie and co i'm sophie shevardnadze and today we're looking at friend's son its new leading figures after we are said the margins of the politics met him up then came served in a presidential race last year this woman is definitely gaining a stronger footing with her people and her ideas are quite controversial. one simple logical outsider now breathing down the neck of the establishment challenging patriarchy and politics popularity rising is also joblessness europe. multiculturalism graveyard where social unrest is rife.