the threat of an imminent western attack on syria seems to be receding britain's prime minister is right now facing opposition to tap plans in parliament president obama's under pressure to get congress' approval. although washington accuses president asad of using chemicals on civilians r t looks at america's own murky past from deadly agent orange in viet nam to depleted uranium in iraq. after dozens of convicted sex offenders in britain get themselves taken off a police watch list our team talks to one child abuse victim who fears for the public's safety.

this is r.t. coming to life from the russian capital marina joshing welcome to the program how the u.s. and british drive to launch a military operation against syria has come up against new hurdles both abroad and at home and westminster parliament is meeting right now and prime minister cameron is up against kept ical m.p.'s trying to get their approval for action let's now take a listen to what happens these weapons must not be used and president assad has in my view crossed that line and there should be consequences this was the first significant use of chemical weapons this century and taken together with the previous fourteen small scale attacks is the only instance of regular and indiscriminate use of chemical weapons by a state against its own people for at least one hundred years interfering in another country's affairs should don't be undertaken except in the most exceptional circumstances it must be as my own little friend just said a humanitarian catastrophe and it must be a last resort but by any. this is

a humanitarian catastrophe and if there are no consequences for it there is nothing to stop our sad and other dictators from using these weapons again and again as i've said doing nothing is a choice it's a choice with consequences and these consequences in my view would not just be about president assad and his future use of chemical weapons decades of painstaking work to construct an international system of rules and checks to prevent the use of chemical weapons and to destroy stockpiles will be undone the global consensus against the use of chemical weapons will be fatally on route one hundred year to boo will be breached people ask about the british national interest is it not in the british national interest that rules about chemical weapons are upheld in my view of course it is and that is why i believe we shouldn't stand idly by the judge right i'm grateful to the prime minister and notwithstanding the differences i have with him on the issue of timing and his approach to conflict can i bring up the issue of consequence well the earlier the un security council failed to agree on how to act by britain says even without

a mandate an attack would be justified of humanitarian grounds well we're now joined by our team is laura smith live with us from london well laura we've just heard british prime minister david cameron addressing a parliament and a heated debate there so how much unity is there in fact on this issue. well not very much actually certainly going into the debates david cameron would have thought very carefully about what he's going to say because he's got to say something pretty special to carry and he's behind him on this motion as you say that it will carry on through the afternoon and into the evening they'll vote on the motion that the prime minister's had to backtrack quite significantly during the course of the last twenty four thirty six hours the motion that was going to be debated the softening was originally on military action but cameron knew that he wasn't going to get the votes on that he knew that labor m.p.'s the opposition m.p.'s would not back him and he also knew that seventy of his own members of parliament weren't going to back the motion either so now this mission is about

a strong humanitarian response it's significantly watered down but it still includes of course a clause on military intervention in principle so that may be what gives a lot of m.p.'s pause for thought even on this new motion opposition m.p.'s the labor party has already indicated that it's not going to back the prime minister so you'll have to carry a lot of his own party with him in order to pass the motion cameron also has agreed in the last thirty six hours that he will wait for the results of this un report on alleged use of chemical weapons and he will also go back to the un security council to see if you can get a mandate for intervening in syria but then again the prime minister's office says that it would be legal under humanitarian doctrine to launch a strike on syria even without the agreement of the un security council so. it is the first of two on syria the second will take place after the after the results of

the un probe have come in but david cameron really has to carry m.p.'s with him here otherwise who knows what will happen with the second vote in the future well as debates go on in parliament i mean what is the public attitude towards the crisis and the potential strike. oh it's very divided in fact we've had we've had in the last day we've had military former military chiefs literally queuing up to talk about their reservations to express their concerns about military strikes in syria we heard from the former head of the british army general lord down that he was very instrumental in iraq and afghanistan he says that even the use of chemical weapons doesn't constitute an open invitation to the international community to intervene in a country's internal affairs and we've also heard here on our t.v. from lord west who's a former minister and first the lord he says we must put diplomacy before military action just because you go in intending to do one thing doesn't mean that it

actually works out like that let's hear what he had to say. was going to use a limited surgical strike is all my experience of war is to find that you have a lot of unintended consequences you think you're just going to do one little thing but actually things then happen and expounds are we not at all convinced that attack would actually help the condition of the people within within syria. and then we had from former senior naval officers rear admiral chris parry he says instead of real crease missiles we should be sending diplomatic cruise missiles and also that there's a problem of legitimacy we need to carry the u.n. including russia and china along with any action that they're going to take and if you are thinking of going to war you have to be absolutely sure of the legitimacy and even so there's no guarantee that it's going to work let's hear that. worst case scenario is that military force is used it doesn't have any effect on the situation whatsoever and we have an escalation both within the country within the

region i'm afraid once the military are misused in these circumstances politicians tend to lose control of the situation and they then spend the next few years catching up. and of course the military chiefs the only ones to express reservations there's been a couple of polls done of ordinary people one in the daily telegraph that said that just nine percent of people in the u.k. want to see any kind of military action in syria and the other one saying that twenty five percent of people would be behind military strikes so not. a positive picture in terms of military intervention in syria here in the u.k. . laura thanks very much indeed for bringing us this update from london laura smith there well in the u.s. a growing number of american lawmakers are urging barack obama to get congressional approval and to explain the objectives of planned attack the u.s. leader who squarely blames last week's chemical assault on regime forces says

a strike will send a strong warning to president well it's likely to mean assaults on key syrian military assets and this map shows you the air fields used by syrian jets well there is speculation that they will bear the brunt of any attack with cruise missiles targeting warplanes and runways as for who will be doing the firing well u.s. air bases are located to the north and south of the country while american distorters at attack submarines are to the west along with a british air base president obama says there is still no decision on whether the plans will give the go ahead but officials are making it clear that military action can be launched without u.n. security council approval. reports now from the region on the latest developments. what we're hearing from both residents and opposition forces who say that assad's army has evacuated most of its personnel from military and security headquarters inside the capital city this is of course in preparation for any kind of possible

western led military intervention at the same time we are receiving reports that army units in near the capital have started confiscating heavy truck trailers and these will be used to transport heavy weaponry from one location to another we are also receiving reports that assad's and naval forces have started docking alongside commercial ships in tears that are usually used for commercial traffic now here in lebanon itself the situation of course is extremely fluid and we're hearing from a hizbollah leader that the movement will not stand idle showed damascus come under fire from the waist we're receiving reports that as of yet are not confirmed that russia is carrying out a rotation of its naval forces in the mediterranean sea and increasingly we're hearing from all political forces that there needs to be a united nations mandate before there can be any kind of military action we're

hearing this from the u.n. peace envoy brahimi at the same time russia saying that the united states is jumping the gun and that there needs to be the findings of this u.n. investigating team before any conclusions can be drawn you have a stalemate situation at the united nations security council a draft resolution was put forward but behind the scenes both russia and china have voiced their opposition to it so certainly not a consensus in terms of the international community and that might be part of the reason why the latest word from the american president barack obama is that he hasn't yet made a decision as to whether or not to launch military action inside syria. while we get more views from the u.k. shortly from seamus milne who's a columnist. and associate editor with the guardian newspaper later in the program in the meantime while the british parliament stands divided over whether to strike at syria washington claims there's a moral reason to attack but as our reports the use of chemical weapons was of no

concern in the wars that the u.s. waged in the past will be advised you may find some of the images in this report disturbing. wagging its finger of moral authority the u.s. began laying the groundwork for syrian intervention on monday let me be clear the indiscriminate slaughter of civilians the killing of women and children and innocent bystanders by chemical weapons is a moral obscenity the obscenity of chemical weapons is something us secretary of state john kerry a vietnam veteran is very familiar with five decades ago america used agent orange during the vietnam war reportedly spraying more than twenty million gallons of the chemical weapon and other herbicides over parts of southern vietnam and along the borders of neighboring laos and cambodia it had the side effects of being terribly you know toxic and it caused lots of birth defects and terrible terrible effects of the genetic nature. exposed to it the herbicides were reportedly contaminated with

dioxin a deadly compound that remains toxic for decades and causes birth defects cancer and other illnesses the vietnam red cross estimates that agent orange has affected three million people spanning three generations including at least one hundred fifty thousand children born with severe birth defects since the war ended in one nine hundred seventy five the u.s. often and its foreign policy particularly is quick to blame others for things that it itself and does and this is known around the world as there the double standard of the united states the moral and political hypocrisy of washington in iraq america's chemical weapons legacy will be remembered for generations to come since the two thousand and three invasion experts say the number of iraqi children born with birth defects has skyrocketed some babies born without eyes others without limbs in full lucia researchers can't provide statistics saying there's too many cases to report scientists link the epidemic to citizens exposure to white

phosphorus and depleted uranium toxic. weapons reportedly used by u.s. soldiers who invaded the country all of the genetic damage effects that we see in iraq in my opinion were caused by iranian weapons depleted uranium weapons and also you know undefeated uranium weapons of a new type and these a really terrible weapons these are all weapons which have absolutely destroyed the genetic integrity of the population of iraq depleted uranium is a radioactive element that engineers say increases the penetration capacity of shells it's believed to have a shelf life of some four billion years and is otherwise known as the silent murder that never stops killing there is a clear reason that the world has banned entirely the use of chemical weapons there is a reason the international community has set a clear standard and why many countries have taken major steps to eradicate these

weapons while washington continues lecturing damascus a team of u.n. investigators is in syria trying to verify if chemical weapons were used if so what kind in the meantime if the u.s. does launch a unilateral military strike against syria without u.n. approval then the country policing the world will be in clear violation of international law reporting from new york marine upper nyack r.t. while some of the u.k.'s rapists and child abusers have managed to be taken off the list of sex a fan or we'll tell you why in just a moment here on r.t. .

choose your language. appealing make it with zero in federal custody still some of . the consents to. choose the opinions the great. choose the stories but if you. choose. to. welcome back you're watching r.t. britain tries to keep tabs on its sixty thousand sex offenders by keeping

a register of who and where the are but dozens including rapists and child abusers have managed to get off that list by successfully claiming their rights were being breached are just boyko explains why. the truly horrific crime as a child paul was sexually abused by a family friend from the age of eight years old his torture continued until he was sixteen so. brazenly kernan does kill people i lived in constant terror of my own mind flashbacks are times throughout my life in the age of sixteen paul managed to turn his life around and now counsels others who like him went through the trauma of sexual abuse many victims say that the knowledge that therefore my attackers will be under constant police monitoring even when released from prison is a reassurance that they won't be able to strike again but over the past year

a number of convicted sex offenders have applied to come off the u.k. sex offenders register claiming they no longer pose a threat to society if a serious sex offender serves more than thirteen months for their crime the supposed to stay on the register for the rest of their lives police will monitor their whereabouts the inform local schools hospitals and potential employers about their existence within the community bought according to human rights laws it's a breach of criminals rights to keep them on the register indefinitely without the chance of appeal the register is a list that isn't made public detailing for the police all those convicted of a crime under the sexual offenses act in england and wales it includes a range of criminals from convicted rapists and paedophiles to under-age minors who have consensual sex following a change in human rights law last year forty three sex offenders were removed from the register after successful appeals i think it's

a very perverse understanding of human rights to put sex offenders before their victims before potential victims i think the implications will mean a lot more offending but one children's charity says that the police need to remove those who are no longer pose a threat in. or to focus on monitoring the police pick offenders i'm not pretending by the way that victims don't think this is the generally speaking that this would be troubling to them but in terms of my concern of protecting future victims from possible future risk we need the police to concentrate their resources on the guys that have the highest risk if they judge these forty three individuals do not represent a future risk i don't want the police wasting any more time with the former victims a concerned day the list of those taken off the register includes eight rapists and twenty seven child sex attackers the people that i i talked to and counsel with are absolutely dumbfounded that paranoids is that their news

a perpetrator has been let off that list you are reading and you are going back to being that wasn't all that hard work that poor person actually worked so hard to move forward has now just going to have to it's all undone because they've got to go through it again and they've also got to go through the torment they know that individual could potentially hurt some other child experts in the field of psychology say that questions remain over whether sex offenders can ever be rehabilitated is a prison. where the sense friend is treatment program is run i've been asked we're going to these these these inmates and they said we know what to say we know how to get by we know how we can. what we need to say to prove we are being rehabilitated even if we're not the u.k. home office wasn't in favor of diverting but the supremes court held the rights of sex offenders are looking for something to charge judges referred to article eight of the european convention on human rights to creating that even former sex

criminals deserve the chance for private and family life she looked in two thousand and ten when the first two people who actually appealed and used the human rights act they were to child sex offenders. it just tells you a lot that these people want the register a my worry and my concern is because they were access. true paula says that his abused robbed him of his childhood and for a long time the desire to keep on living as well you know i beg to anybody that says that they have a human right just think of your child just think of your grandchild and think how would you feel if that child basically was murdered emotion from such a young age. arty london. and we're turning now to our top story on going diplomatic struggles over what's next for syria let's get a u.k. view on how the country plans to go forward seamus milne is joining me now is a columnist and associate editor for the guardian newspaper thank you so much for

joining us here on r.t. well as we speak the debate in parliament is going on so what do you expect from it today and specifically how much support will david cameron get. well he's have to water down this motion that's being put to parliament at the moment here in london to such a point where it doesn't really give any force and doesn't give authorization for military action there will have to be a second vote which they're trying to rush through perhaps at the weekend which would authorize military action i think the reason is because both among his own m.p.'s conservative m.p.'s and liberal democrats in the governing coalition and perhaps more significantly among the labor party the opposition party there has been a lot of opposition to the planned military attack on syria so that's why the whole pattern of today's debate has being changed and whatever happens today's motion

which will probably be passed it doesn't affect the final outcome that will be decided later. well as we know while the un investigators are still in the country working to find out whether a chemical weapons were used or not and that but they can only establish if a chemical attack took place but not who's to blame and that case will the u.k. wait for the security council like russia wants or push for military action anyway . well that's been one of the arguments that's been taking place here over the last twenty four forty eight hours with the opposition the labor party but also governing party m.p.'s pushing for more u.n. involvement for proper evidence about what actually took place and for the un inspectors to be able to finish their work in damascus which of course the united states was pressing the u.n. earlier this week to stop and halt their operations and pull them out now the british government today has released its intelligence summary about why it

believes the regime was responsible for last week's a chemical attack if that's indeed what it was and as as expected although they say that it's highly likely they say the intelligence is only limited on actually what took place so i don't think that's going to satisfy people who are skeptical about the action or hostile or critical of it and it's not going to clearly convince people at the united nations and as you say the weapons inspectors can only establish whether or not a chemical attack took place and if so what kind of agents were used i mean that would already be a step forward but i don't think the british government like the united states and france are going to be limited by what happens at the united nations because they know that it's likely on the basis of the limited evidence there is so far that russia and china will veto. a motion which would indorse military action while the

number ten said that a strike would be illegal on humanitarian grounds without u.n. security council approval but on the other hand why was there no such humanitarian motion earlier in the two years in which thousands have died in the country in battles between the rebels and. regime forces. well of course none of the big powers and the permanent members of the security council have been able to agree on the syrian conflict the united states france and britain have to a growing extent supported the armed rebel movement and russia and to a certain extent china stood behind the syrian government with iran and so of course there's been no agreement about how to what kind of action could be taken but i think what really is missing from this debate at the moment is a serious focus on bringing the entire conflict to an end because the problem for

most syrians is not chemical weapons however gruesome that may have been on this or even other occasions the problem is the huge scale of conflict death and destruction that has taken place in syria in what has become an increasing the vicious sectarian war involving a whole range of different forces and what's needed is pressure on all the parties and all their international sponsors to bring this conflict to an end to have a cease fire and a negotiated settlement supported by all the players and i think that's what's missing from this discussion really and the pressure needs to be brought to bear on all the major powers to try and achieve that that negotiation or that is why their own case scenario reza what you know the syrian president said today that his country will defend itself should there be a military campaign there so in your view how is damascus most likely to respond briefly if you. well one of the risks of this action and one of the reasons people oppose it not only that it won't achieve what it's aiming to do but will actually

increase killing and spread the war but that not only the syrian government but its supporters both states and non-state actors in the region may well take retaliatory action both against the states launching the attack the attacks but also against other allied states in the region like israel and that's the risk one of the risks we have in this threatened attack on syria of a spreading of the war and an increase not a decrease in the level of killing death and destruction. shamus melancholy as an associate editor for the guardian newspaper talking to us live from london thank you so much sir for your views thank you thanks. and at r.t. dot com we outline a courtroom battle between washington and tehran with iran preparing to sue the united states for masterminding the nineteen fifty three coup that toppled the country's democratically elected leadership plus. a billion dollar deals are signed

in a record number of participants said as leading russian and foreign air space companies brazil and they are cutting edge aircraft at the annual max air show in the moscow region. and an update on the world's made news for me in about thirty minutes before that the true story of cuban spying and intrigue in miami. is the media leave us so we leave the media by the sea motions she sure. all your party years ago. for shoes that no one is asking with again that you deserve answers from it's all politics. are today. from the labor a point of view all what kind of impact. on

a population as. we have no improvement in the deficit or the debt situation in the end you have to grow to get out of debt you know if i'm unemployed i complain my life people if countries aren't working with complicated debts so it's a downward spiral in all strategy which i think we need to reconsider. is it is it's. just. it is easy to. say.

when i was sleeping it was around six am. what i remember hearing like someone breaking the law. although you know i was surrounded by people with machine guns helmets stuff you see in movies. they examined my mouth seemed to many james bond movies i thought i had signed up there. they told me i was under arrest i asked for they said you know. cubans busted here in the united states flying for fidel are they terrorists or freedom fighters

. you know the cubans. were they those guys that played the u.s. in the semifinals of the pan american games in the basketball term cuba five a cuban five were definitive coaching against terrorists the other cuban five other that's also been americans. haven't ever heard about the cuban five they're that rock band right. i mean you know to cubans i want. you want to find out ok. ok the police are looking for you to deal with the terrorist groups in miami's of exiles planning attacks on the cuban people and foreign citizens inside cuba the cuban five every right to defend the cuban revolution the cuban revolution before my time.