damascus inspectors access to the site of an alleged chemical attack the u.s. says it has little government carried out but russia is warning against forced assumptions. also this week military whistleblower bradley manning requests a presidential pardon after being sentenced to thirty five years in jail for the biggest leak in america's history plus. he will face the. british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it. to law the editor of the guardian newspaper reveals how he was pressured to destroy files he received from n.s.a. whistleblower edward snowden our top stories this hour.

the leading stories from the last seven days and the latest developments this is the weekly here. damascus has given u.n. inspectors permission to access the site of an alleged mass chemical attack this is the u.s. says it's almost certain the assad government carried out the assault and pledged a serious response alongside its ally the u.k. middle east correspondent is following the growing tensions. well damascus has agreed to allow u.n. investigators access to the scene of the alleged chemical attack but the point needs to be made that while the damascus says it will do its maximum to ensure safe passage for the investigations the actual territory is held and then so ultimately it will be the rebel forces who determine whether or not the u.n. investigators have the access that they require we're just hearing however from the

united states who says that this now comes too late we are however hearing from the u.n. that they will regardless begin their investigation come monday now this comes as the united states says it has very little doubt that damascus was behind this chemical strike the u.s. intelligence basing these claims on the number of reported deaths we're hearing that upwards of one hundred of one hundred people were in fact killed it also is basing these claims on the types of injuries and on eyewitness reports these kind of discussions are emerging from a meeting of the american president barack obama with his security advisers we know that he's been prevented with a review of possible options in terms of american response if indeed there has been the use of chemical weaponry president obama has repeatedly said that if assad uses chemical weapons that would be a green light that would be a red line in terms of which american and foreign intervention would be justified

now all of this comes as the you in moves its naval forces in the mediterranean closer to the syrian coast and we are hearing from the united states that it would be prepared to strike if indeed called upon to do so this comes as syrian state television is reporting that syrian soldiers entered a number of tunnels in a damascus suburb that had been used by rebel fighters and there they found evidence of chemical waste there were empty shells that had mocked on them made in saudi arabia and saudi arabia of course being a very vocal critic of. the syrian president bashar assad there seems to be a lot of reports and evidence that the rebels in fact are responsible for carrying out these chemical attacks but let me make the point that all the footage we're witnessing and all the reports that are circulating online are as of yet i'm verified the rebels for themselves are vowing revenge we have heard from and columnist for a leader in an audi recording that's also been posted online saying that in revenge

they will fire a thousand rockets at the assad regime. poorness live there while the russian foreign ministry is worried about the pressure being put on assad's government the moment despite the u.n. investigation into the alleged use of chemicals having not even started yet sean thomas has more on moscow's reaction. russia is urging caution to the west saying that assigning blame to soon over the alleged use of chemical weapons in syria would be a tragic mistake in fact in a statement released on sunday the foreign ministry did not mention the u.s. by name but i'm going to read what they said it says we strongly urge those who in trying to impose their opinion on u.n. experts ahead of the results of an investigation announce the possibility of military action against syria to exercise discretion and not make tragic mistakes now again they did not mention the u.s. but this comes as a broke obama has met with his security advisers as well as his military advisers

and even spoken to the prime minister of the u.k. cameron and basically saying that they are prepared to use military action making sure they know what is on the table there but president obama has not made a decision as of yet now russia has suggested that in these situations it can be tricky to decide who is actually responsible in has said that it might even be the rebels who are responsible for a chemical attack if in fact a chemical attack has actually happened and in a separate less formal statement russian officials said on sunday that we've seen all of this before in fact discussing the situation in iraq back in the bush administration saying the u.s. administration pointed to weapons of mass destruction which were never found in iraq but that led to an occupation and invasion ten years plus of united states involvement in the country so russian officials are urging caution saying that the world community does not want to see

a repeat of this situation in syria and is basically asking the west to hold off until the u. and investigation has taken place and they know more about the situation. auntie shawn thomas there and despite harsh rhetoric against the syrian government and the u.s. military waiting for a green light to attack it appears americans don't want an intervention here's what the latest poll is just revealed to us nine percent of the u.s. citizens who were taking part in the survey want their president to act what about sixty percent say that america should stay away from this civil war when asked about washington's support for the opposition about one tenth said that a bomb should do more for the rebels than just arming them while almost ninety percent don't want america to help the opposition in any way and meanwhile medical charity doctors without borders say they have received more than three thousand patients suffering from intoxication on wednesday when the chemical assault was reported three hundred fifty five of them died but exactly who was behind the

attack is still hard to verify and so far the u.s. and its allies have assumed assad is to blame well for more on this let's talk to antiwar activist richard becker from the coalition richard so how can the u.s. and indeed the u.k. be so sure that the assad government is to blame when all the assumptions are based on the numbers of people affected and the symptoms. well of course they're not sure at all what they're doing is where they did a lot and years ago it was reported in the infamous downing street memo said this fixing the intelligence around the objective the u.s. and the british and french are leading the way in seeking to overturn the government of. bashar al assad a partner and you know it's just and comprehensive i think to almost anyone who thinks logically that the syrian government would launch a poison gas attack at the very time that u.n. investigators are in the country investigating an earlier reported use of nerve gas

in that country so we are really there the u.s. is doing what it wants to do saying what it wants to say to try to mobilize public opinion in the united states to justify a potential intervention but the it's had government hasn't helped it has it not by allowing immediate access to this site and some of saying that indeed the evidence could have been destroyed by now. you know it's something that we need to look into because in the earlier conditions that the u.n. wanted to put out in syria for the investigators going there in the in the previous occasion was that they had to grant access to the entire country to the investigators and that is also reminiscent of the conditions that the u.s. and. a yugoslavia back in one thousand nine hundred ninety nine that yugoslavia would not accept and then then it was used as a justification to launch the war against yugoslavia so i think we don't need to

know the details about that but right now the assad government is saying that it's going to be granting access to the site which is an area that has a heavy opposition. but of course if the assad government is to blame then the suspicion lies with the rebels why would any element to all of the opposition want to launch chemical weapons where would they get them from and what would it actually achieve. well there's a lot of weapons out there in the world and there are a lot of suppliers for the rebels rebel groups at this point so i don't think it would be a great obstacle for them to to obtain the weapons and why would they want to do it they would want to do it because they cannot win the war without outside intervention that is becoming very clear the government forces have advanced in the last six months or more and so they in order to win require what they require with the opposition required in libya that is a nato intervention

a very bad when they get that now richard because the you can the u.s. is saying they will now be at serious response we're seeing a military build up of course in the region is that really likely then the intervention could happen in the rebels will get what they want well you know the we have to experience the threat we have to take seriously the movement of naval forces of the sixth fleet and british and probably other forces in the region i don't think that there is a decision that's been made yet i think there's a deep division at the top in the united states as well as the opposition the overwhelming opposition among the public that you mentioned earlier to this kind of intervention and and the opposition at the top comes because they don't know where this will lead by a very clearly the aim is that a nation over the entire region and elimination us wishes to eliminate the independent government of syria and along with this build up of military presence from the u.s. we've also learned that the rebels have received

a massive shipment of arms just in the last three days what do you read into the timing of that. well there is an escalation going on there's no question about it we have to see these. as connected as related to each other and as a strategy to try to reverse the course that the war has taken and where the government has made very significant gains and to try to stamp out the after to bring down. the independent government of syria and you watch this richard becker thanks very much indeed for joining us great to talk to here on r.t. while international tensions are running high as the pentagon moves naval forces closer to syria despite obama being cautious over an intervention so what do those preparations for attack usually mean well tell us what you think on our website or t dot com and these are the results this hour so far we can see here on the screen while the majority will most hoff of those who voted so far say that washington wants to divert americans away from the current domestic problems there around

thirty percent think that the pentagon is ready to strike no matter what a bomber says about being cautious and fourteen percent say that the u.s. wants some sort of political leverage over chemical arms and this ongoing u.n. investigation and the minority the eleven percent think that the pentagon is readying for an attack just in case not going to come because you've got a. right to see. first strike. and i think that you're. on the recorder's twitter. instagram i. would be in the. whistleblower bradley manning was sentenced to thirty five years in prison this

week he was responsible for the massive leak of classified data that exposed alleged american war crimes in iraq and afghanistan the former army private is now hoping for a poem from the u.s. president manning addressed a letter to a bomber insisting he acted out of love for his country seeking to protect the values and ideals of the united states soldier also said he would gladly pay the price for living in a free american society but as it is going to teach cohen reports it's the debate over his or hers personal issue there is no grabbing headlines bradley manning sentence of thirty five years behind bars has set a non-person dennet punishment threshold for whistleblowers bradley manning should be walking the streets and being treated for who use a whistleblower who exposed war crimes in iraq afghanistan secret war in yemen and the other corruption of the governments the us supported bradley manning supporters gathered outside the white house to call for the president to pardon the whistleblower the supporters of bradley manning say what's at stake here is not

just manning teacher but also the future of journalism and the public's right to be informed on the actions that their government is taking on their behalf manning's defense team has submitted a request for a pardon but there seems to be little chance that it will be granted that the government's ongoing crackdown on whistleblowers under the current administration and unauthorized leak to the media of classified information is viewed as being tantamount to aiding the enemy. the government wide crackdown on whistleblowers and the extension of this crackdown to journalists threatens to stifle the flow of information that is vital to our public but the media in the us has largely failed to stand up for bradley manning government officials and t.v. pundits all but convicted the whistleblower even before any trial took place who cares whether the army killed some innocent people or not over in iraq you know we don't want to we don't want to be a part of that we it's very uncomfortable so if it's

a complex issue and it's uncomfortable americans generally will pull back from it allows the media to fill that gap and portray bradley manning as a traitor manning's own personality has grabbed more headlines than the shoes that he uncovered and the day after sentencing manning's six became the main story who is healthy this week bradley manning announced that he wants to spend the rest of his life as a female and asked to be referred to as chelsea manning one of the defense psychiatry at trial testified that manning has narcissistic tendencies and i wonder if there's anything to that in the sense that she's announcing this in this very big public way no i think this is really trying to let people have the answer that they wanted she never really wanted this to be public to begin with and when the information came out you need to understand the she gave it to her in a limo in a very private setting and a one on one chat never expecting this to be public now that it is unfortunately

you have to deal with it in a public manner chelsea manning's attorney also said his client never wanted personal issues to become the main story and overshadow the debate that the whistleblower wanted to start through the leaks in washington i'm going to check up . on the live here most because this is the weekly after a quick break we take a look at the latest allegations against the n.s.a. coming from top secret documents leaked by edward snowden stay with us for that some of the stores. what defines a country's success. faceless figures of economic growth the. standard of living.

weekly continues here in r.t.

it very nearly eighteen minutes past the hour in the russian capital as a new leak from whistleblower edward snowden today says that the national security agency has been listening in on the united nations artie's miniport in new york has the details on this latest revelation. america's national security agency allegedly cracked the encryption guarding the united nations' internal video conferencing system that's according to german newspaper der spiegel the publication says that the n.s.a. surveillance of the united nations took place last summer and really after happening into the video system america's spy agency had allegedly boosted its number its number of such decrypted communications from twelve to four hundred and fifty eight now for anyone who doesn't already know this spying on the united nations is illegal under international law der spiegel also reports that the u.s. maintains a monitoring program called the special collection service in over eighty embassies and consulates around the world often without the knowledge of the host country now

many may be wondering why is it that the united states would want to spy on the united nations would spy on its allies because as as we've been reporting and as us president barack obama said himself recently the n.s.a. is in place to protect america's security and target only potential terrorists what we do with it or some mechanisms where we can track a full member or e-mail address that we know is connected to. now it's unclear how spying on the united nations and international partners coincides with america's war on terror if anything what many critics are saying is that what may come out of the n.s.a. is worldwide surveillance is a loss in confidence and reliability in the united states because you have to think about it if you have a friend that you trust to find out is always spying on you is listening to what

you're saying is watching what you're doing is reading what you're typing does that relationship still stay strong and that is a question that is clearly coming to light not only following this report but those questions have been coming to light over past months ever since edward snowden blew the whistle on n.s.a. spying programs. these were important well let's see what does daughter thinks about this development she's a member of the european parliament behalf of the swedish part party and joins me live now from brussels and we're spying on the u.n. violate international law so how do you think the organization is going to react to this revelation. well i hope that they will have the courage to react strongly against distributions because ultimately it's very damaging to the trust in the world or that you know this is nothing that this kind of secrets do you think the u.s. could again by listening in to the u.n. . absolute sure exactly which agency of the united nations the.

united nations this a lot of things but terror threats and generally been described as anything from copyright infringement to actual making of the problems that could be harming to peace people's physical integrity and so we have a very vague understanding in international law today of international discourse of how we make policy especially in western europe and in the united states we don't know what we mean by the war it's like two weeks ago i heard in sweden that copyright infringement can be avoided then what is more actually is that this war and is stuck with the united states is trying to stop the united nations we don't know because we have there's absolutely no logic to how they're using the word who or. what about the idea that the n.s.a. has already been allegedly spying on the e.u. along with these latest revelations of just what sort of effect does that help america's reputation here in brussels and is there anything any legislation that we

could see europe setting up in order to shield itself from the n.s.a. . oh sure we could make a good data protection regulation and we are discussing nuclear data protection their connection in the european union however the national security debates around the data protection of nation are now incredibly tough and it seems that european political leaders are not as willing to. date steps to safeguard the trust and confidence in public networks and internet newsgroups that maybe we as citizens would like for them to indicate but so in general what we see in europe is a mishmash of outrage statements and political inaction but they took action not just ask you data protection isn't something that your party exactly champions it i mean you're about allowing downloaded content to be used by anybody and to break the copyright laws so that contradictory to what you know what's what but what's likely different to what the n.s.a. is doing. what's the difference between having

a massive surveillance program for everyone on the entire planet and you seen cultural groups to engage in social activists with activities with others that's a major difference i think we need to think about the need for information is power and knowledge is power and so what we want is the system in which that power is somehow balanced copyright strikes that balance in completely the wrong way and out of protection law in the european union us also proven to strike that balance in completely the wrong we as citizens need to be empowered to do on the station in a way such that we can make claims and exercise power over ourselves or our identities and the way that we interact with other people and eighteen advocate an equal right to form a solicitor election reform is perfectly consistent inside of that general idea information is power and we need to balance out the power. of media thanks for that for to talk to me under stuff a member of the european parliament the swedish power party live in brussels thank you for joining us here in our take. well now the leak that all reporter marina

portnoy was talking about a little earlier came from germany but britain's guardian newspaper has published many of edward snowden's previous revelations and that led to the government forcing them to destroy secret files because they feared they could fall into the wrong hands if the papers service are hacked but the documents what even stored on there and there were other copies cilia has more. you've had your fun now with time to return to the documents so the unnamed government official to the newspaper editor it could be the stuff of movies only it isn't we were faced effectively with it all to make time for the british government that if we didn't hand back the material or destroy it they would be too law in recent months the guardian newspaper has come to be known as the paper that's been exposing secret material from a trove of information passed on to web by former contractor of the national security agency edward snowden but in recent days the editor of the newspaper is

also publicized what have gone on a behind closed doors here how security officials had ended up in the basement of their offices overseeing the destruction of hard drives and computers which contained the very information the paper has been exposing a bizarre turn of events salary richards says that came all the way up from the prime minister's office once it was obvious that they would be going to law. i would rather destroy the copy than hand it back to them or allow the courts to freeze our reporting and i was happy to destroy it because it was not going to inhibit our reporting we would simply do the problem erica not from london the twenty first century possibility in a highly digital and connected world the revelation by rusbridger came just a day after the detention of david miranda part of the guardian journalist and glenn greenwald the journalist who had broken the story of snowden's leaks and the same materials miranda was detained under the u. case terrorism act and was held in question for nine hours at heathrow airport it

caused an outcry among politicians and journalists and even david anderson the independent reviewer of terrorism laws who demanded an explanation prompting the u.k. home office to go on the offensive the government and the police have a duty to protect the public and our national security those who oppose this sort of action need to think about what they can do if they were. want to protect the public to tell the public what it is they're protecting them from a generalized statement about terrorism in general doesn't really do the trick you've got to be able to say well the information he's got would endangered the public for the following reasons you've got to have reasons for it no such reasons have been advanced miranda's detention as well as the destruction of computers and the guardian's basement has one of britain's most respected newspapers in the spotlight the story teller has become the story this is a very damaging moment actually for britain's reputation for free speech being laid

bare the way that the british state is very prepared to use terrorism legislation to use accusations of terrorism in order to shut down what looks to be journalistic practice healthy investigative journalism with some of pointed to be noticeably lackluster response from the country's other newspapers following his revelations especially considering that press appears to be at stake the business of reporting securely and having confidential sources is becoming difficult in these documents there is the stated ambition to scoop up everything and store it all to the internet this is a language that's being used internally to search celia r.t.e. london. now to some of the stories making headlines around the world germany's top euro skeptic politician on stage during a rally in bremen unknown assailants armed with knives jumped on burned look as he was making a speech of the anti euro campaign event some two dozen others then sprayed the

audience with pepper spray and tear gas his party which once the euro abolished has been the subject of several attacks in the last two months. another day of attacks in iraq have claimed the lives of forty one people in eight separate incidents the most deadly was in the northern city of mosul where eleven died in a car bomb explosion last and five other cities including three in the capital killed civilians and left dozens injured authorities blame insurgents for the bloodshed but have not named any group in particular. about with a news team with morphine just a half and half now in the mean time the price one african nation is paying for turning a few heads at the international monetary fund that's a special report after this short 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 stoughton 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 her feelings are hurt let's not mistake this cancel 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 in 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 as 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 around.