live from moscow at eleven pm this is r.t. tonight over sixty people are killed in iraq is al-qaeda linked forces step up their brutal campaign with a wave of bombings targeting crowd its neighbors. are now attempting to look at syria and from there they'll spring throughout the entire region puts you right smack at the foot of southern europe former pentagon official talks to r.t. about where it is expansion is heading. and president obama is accused of directly encouraging u.s. intelligence to spy on chancellor merkel's phone calls a claim that the n.s.a. vigorously denies.

ever know him very good to have you company this hour about our top story then a series of bomb attacks across iraq left at least sixty six dead and dozens more wounded most of the blast targeted shia muslim districts around the capital baghdad the iraqi government blames the daily onslaught on sunni islam is linked to al qaeda let's take a look at how the terrorist network became so powerful on the news all here well based in afghanistan from one thousand nine hundred six to two thousand and one al qaeda was under the protection of the taliban it was also present in pakistan to the jihadist group began a rapid expansion then after washington launched its war on terror and sponsor those awful attacks of nine eleven prompted by the u.s. invasion in iraq the country's radical islamists then turned to al qaeda in two thousand and four by two thousand and seven a powerful terror network united under the name al-qaeda in the islamic magreb started expanding through north africa the yemeni and so. the branches then merged

two years later in two thousand and nine to form al qaeda in the arabian peninsula the network's been gaining ground since across the region since the arab spring unfolded with new cells emerging in the countries gripped by unrest syria but one of course where radicals are now fighting against the regime we report about almost daily artie's garniture can investigate. u.s. intelligence officials speaking anonymously of course say they're not concerned that al qaeda affiliated groups in syria are shifting some of their focus from toppling bashar al saw it to launching external operations against the west one u.s. lawmaker pointed out that's exactly what happened even ganesan which. they are now focused on fighting assad but very soon they'll be focused on something else we have michael here former pentagon official with me mr maloof where are the groups headed in your opinion the. through our. forces that are there.

are now attempting to look at syria in the long term to be under a caliphate and their spring throughout the entire region when you look at a map of the whole area streams from the arabian peninsula to all the way across north africa and into the magreb puts you right. at the foot of southern europe and that is. the strategy is to ultimately move into europe according to various estimates more than ten thousand committed members are operating just along syria's eastern border with iraq it's reported to be more than the number of jihad based in iraq during the u.s. led occupation worth mentioning it was the u.s. invasion that brought terror into iraq this graph from the national consortium for the study of terrorism and responses to terrorism shows the spike of terrorist attacks in iraq following the u.s. invasion the u.s.

now shrugs at all these terror that iraq has to deal with every day calling it well pains of democracy similar attitude the u.s. helped to kill qaddafi now the country is involved in chaos and terror again you hear pains of democracy but as these extremist groups in different countries become more and more organized as a network it's difficult to ignore them. monster it spreading through the region the west thinks drones are the perfect tool to deal with terrorists they say drones are the solution but on the receiving end those drone strikes are seen as acts of terror when they kill innocent people and they help terrorists recruit more terrorists most recently to report came out by amnesty international and human rights watch they looked into u.s. strikes in pakistan and yemen human rights watch found that in the strikes that they have investigated seventy percent of those who died were civilians washington says they've decimated al qaeda leadership but it seems al-qaeda has metastasized

and continue spreading with drawn strikes and brewing civil wars in washington i'm going to check out. where we discuss the situation with journalist broadcaster neil clark who believes the u.s. is imploding interested in his influence in the region the fact is that if al qaeda didn't exist it have to be invented it serves an awful lot of good purposes for united states to push its agenda around the world if the us was really serious about al qaeda and wanted to deal with it they would do they wouldn't be supporting al-qaeda in syria they would be wanting a secular regime in syria to be toppled that they wouldn't be wanting regime change in libya would be well clark also said worsley term all iraq's directly linked to the rise of. syria. but it's no coincidence that there's been a huge spike in violence in syria and in iraq at the same time al-qaeda groups are going from iraq to syria from syria to iraq the whole region is in turmoil because of the united states policies and this is not a mistake it is

a mistake to think it's a mistake if you like because whenever the neo-cons come on to talk about iraq of course they very rarely want to talk about iraq they always like to claim that well tony blair and george bush wanted well but they've made a few mistakes along the way that's nonsense the whole of the exercise was to destroy iraq as a functioning country to make never again be a threat to regional powers that the us backs in that region the same with syria. those jihadist militants keep up their war of attrition against syria's government a growing number of civilians are volunteering for military service. my family worries not but nothing is more precious than our country their homeland where i was really. coming up we meet a woman who's putting her life on the line to defend her family and her country. president obama is facing some of barassi revelations in the german media reports that say the us president had full knowledge that the n.s.a.

was tapping chancellor merkel's mobile phone despite his claims to the contrary he was allegedly briefed by the head of the n.s.a. about the scheme back in twenty ten and even ordered a full dossier on the german leader well merkel made her outrage clear in a recent phone call to a bomber she said such monitoring practices would be a breach of trust have confirmed the chancellor also said that spying among friends simply doesn't work now apparently barber apologized insisted he had no previous knowledge that the n.s.a. been tracking her vocal had been targeted by the agency for over a decade according to the latest leaked documents though european leaders are no pushing for a new spy code of conduct with the u.s. but fred roeder from the international advocacy group young voices says that that would be unlikely to restrain the n.s.a. i don't think that these proposed spy treaties are no spy laws will have a big impact these secret surveillance agencies have grown to an extent that that's

really hard to control that basically you would need to have to have really cut down all these surveillance agencies such as the n.s.a. or the cia to make actually actually sure that they don't have the power and the resources anymore to snoop on everyone around the world. well made her rage clear in a recent phone call to a bomber she said she's monitoring practice was said will be a breach of trust i've told you that already ok right let's move on and talk to the seven diet darling a lawmaker with germany's left party to go as you joining us on the line are those seven thanks for your time german intelligence officials are heading to washington later this week to talk about the spying allegations in a delegation of emmy pays a go in there as well is going to make a difference though no i don't think the difference is only that it becomes. obvious that obama lied to the german public and one cannot believe that obama doesn't know everything about the spying attacks

because i cannot believe that the secret security services of the u.s. are acting on their own on such a delicate matter i mean a promise says he didn't know about it the latest reports from his officials say he didn't know about it but why didn't obama know about it he's the guy at the top surely you would have thought that these things at such a high level. snooping against such a high level person wouldn't have been kept from him would you. well ok as i said i cannot believe that obama didn't know anything about this spying. because the security services they don't work on their own it's more than obvious that obama knew everything about this spying attack but that she doesn't not only knew about it that she ordered the taping of leading politicians in europe and worldwide and this is

a really big scandal because this so-called superpower that's why i don't think that the security services work on their own we called about a superpower the us united states of america that obama that she ordered this and this is really big scandal brings into question as well what the german intelligence services were doing here or what they called of god i mean we hear that it was the american embassy in berlin was used to do some of this to gather some of the information how come very didn't know about it well i i am asking myself and i think the real question is. that machall or if america really did know about it because we do have a lot of remains on the security issues with the u.s. united states and i cannot believe that the german intelligence services. and chancellor merkel didn't know anything about this by

a terrorist or at least some suspicions may be released if you have some suspicions pervert's the case and if we're going to try and follow that reasoning through why she's sort of a complete opposite in public. i have no idea about why she didn't say anything before the story came out about the spiegel and the news magazines but i can imagine that it's going to be a really big problem for macro because she cannot be ahead of the government if it comes out that he she knew that millions of peoples and citizens were spied of by the u.s. security services because michael as a chancellor of the germans she has to protect the human rights and she has protect the citizens of germany and she has to try to protect democratic civil rangy of the

people in germany seven will go on the loyalists just take a minute to talk about. we're hearing now that million sixty million phone calls just one month were traced harvested the information on them why would america need to be looking at what springs doing it says may i give us the story out about america have a signal in the phone calls in spain that's just broken today why would america be wanting to focus in on spain particularly. well i don't know why should they. focusing on spain or in germany or in france the only thing that is a fact that the united states of america they are violating human rights they are violating diplomatic relation relations with the a member state and this has to be stopped and. we do not not

need any new agreements on the security issues or security cooperation with yes we have to stop and end all this dirty ugly security corporations with us and us has to close their military bases in europe and especially in germany i think this is what we have to do in the next case of final term second sparing germany from sweden struggling the u.s. ambassadors recently to explain what's been going on here how bad how good transatlantic relations between these countries at the moment there has been released serious damage on the diplomatic relations with the u.s. and i think macro all along and all the others in europe they cannot go on after this otherwise they would betray all the citizens in germany and in the european union member states ok frank you have a small. german improved from the last part appreciated. the n.s.a.

leaks have been piling up and war revelations are expected but what impact will they have that's what we're asking of you is in our latest web poll taken part if you have let's see how it pans out she way over half of you have voted fifty nine percent of some fifty five last hour expect politicians to make more promises on respecting previously but no action is going to follow almost a quarter say was lost on predict public anger over the n.s.a.'s practices will rise following on from the recent stop watching us rally in washington we were covering sixty percent. say further leaks will have no real impact does the public i don't know get shocked by the news like this we're getting immune to it maybe in the minority it's down to just one percent down from to expect to see real steps to curb surveillance so pretty gloomy outlook there for most of you to r.t. dot com still plenty of time to vote throughout the evening it's always good to hear from you. coming up a surprising solution to london's housing shortage could be on its way. with

predictions of the housing crisis with rents at an all time high in the u.k. right now and we're going to be telling you why some people it's finding a way. and instead turning to the. story much more after the break. two years after the forced ouster of gadhafi forces libya stands at the abyss the lack of a strong central government weak rule of law and endless violence in the country.

watch with weapons has resulted in libya facing failed state status add to this the presence of islamic militants can things get any worse in libya. we speak your language anything about the war not against. the music programs and documentaries and spanish what matters to you breaking news the alternative angle is keeping these stories. for you here. in the spanish to find out more visit actuality. is the syrian conflict continues to shatter civilian lives someone decided to take matters into their own hands party's policy met one young mother who's chosen to fight for her country's future miriam is getting ready for work like women around

the world she enjoys putting on makeup before heading to the office but miriam's job is a little different to most the twenty three year old is heading to the syrian frontline it gives me great satisfaction being able to defend my country against terrorists who want to destroy it. it's strange to find women here in the line of fire even more so because marion is a mother her sons are just four and six years old. and i signed up because of them i'm not afraid any move because i've stopped worrying where in a state of. but if we day miriam sees the reality of war more than one hundred thousand people most of them civilians killed the people who lived in these homes were her friends and family all of them have fled most of them will never return i . am most afraid when the letter bombs fall in our posts and there is shrapnel if you days ago the terrorists launched rocket to town checkpoint the rockets are not

accurate sadly they had a civilian building and many people died were rescued a few and carried them to hospital this used to be a school playground but children's laughter has long been drowned out by the whistling of bullets. and i was kidnapped twice the last time for two months they arrested me when i was in civilian clothes this is back to doug was cooperating with the army i denied it and luckily they eventually let me go but the risks facing a woman in uniform are often far greater than for her male counterparts several of miriam's female colleagues have been killed while held hostage often it's nothing more than luck that separates the living from the did my family worries a lot but nothing is more precious than our country our homeland where i was raised it's true my children are very precious very important but my country is a move. and despite the price it's a job she's proud to wake up to each day and the balance of women have been in the

syrian army since the seventy's there's even a special military college for them but usually their jobs are administrative and logistic desperate times however cord for desperate measures pointlessly r.t. damascus. syrian government spin taking steps to ease tensions over next month's geneva peace talks unveiling a plan to destroy its chemical arsenal in line with an international deadline however nineteen opposition groups refusing to take part in those negotiations political analysts. think space is simply not part of their agenda. naturally some of those groups that work under the auspices of the various regional powers and players and those who have no interest in the international climate were in agreement has been said between the. different players in the steves to the russian people you to get back to the political resolution of

the conflict. syrian rebels have even resorted to blackmail sending threats to the nation of supporting the geneva peace talks now something that the russian foreign minister sergey lavrov condemned as outrageous in his latest speech he also addressed the long running controversy between russia and the united states expressing frustration over nato refusal to make any compromise on the missile defense system is developing in europe and he go piskun off got more. foreign minister does say that moscow is ready for a compromise on the a missile defense system issue but at the same time he says it's not going to pretend that it's ok with all the talks that nothing could be changed in the american scheme and still no legal guarantees from washington that the system would not be against russia really this has been one of the biggest problems in the relations between the two countries in two thousand and ten russia and nato agreed to work together on european missile defense but these talks pretty much have been

frozen because there are still no legal guarantees from washington for a few years now moscow has been calling for the destruction of a unified into missile defense system where each member would share the responsibility for the safety of others saying that otherwise and without legal guarantees it would see it as a threat to its national security so it's really been one of the hottest topics in the relations between moscow and washington in the meantime the construction of one of the elements of the american anti missile shield in europe has started to romania on monday and that base will start operating by around twenty twenty five. couple stories about online and dozens of saudi arabian women caused a stir over the weekend by defying a ban on female drivers one man inspired by the campaign came up with this.

well bob marley he ate that clips gone viral over the past two days gathering over three million hits on you tube and drawing on prisoners attention to the woman's fight for their rights you watch it to get a full backstory on our web site and also it's a dog call a security flaw in the state department electronic communication system gives hackers a simple back door to highly sensitive information apparently again this is disturbing rate going to catch up more on that song line r.t. the. final touches being made to the olympic facilities in salt she was just over three months to go now before the twenty forty winter games russia's president is just been there as well and met the new head of the international olympic committee president putin said his assurances were given to all guests and competitors that will be made to feel welcome and comfortable at the event regardless of their race or sexual orientation artie's poor scott has more president vladimir putin began his day by evening and you are transport hubs in the city and the new president of the international olympic committee the president has assured. us back from the

i.o.c. that the venues will indeed be ready on time even the venue for the opening ceremony which is our county having a roof installed there have also been those concerns in a recent months about russia's what's known as the gay propaganda law there have been campaigns to possibly even boycott the sort of the winter olympics president vladimir putin has laid some of those for some of these fees today. will do everything to ensure that all competitors and guests at the winter olympics in sochi feel comfortable regardless of race or sexual orientation the olympic torch relay is continuing its journey its one hundred twenty three days it's going to last of course started in moscow on october the seventh it's going to cross all three regions in russia it's hoped that anyone who wants to be able to see the olympic flame on its journey will be able to do so it's going to be transported by various different methods as we know by book by car by plane and even by reindeer

and of course it is set to go to the international space station as well you know and so just one hundred days to go starting tuesday before the winter olympics kick off in sochi here in our team will bring you all the action as it happens. one hundred days remaining. days of flying. just like you are. soaring rental costs are putting a strain on working londoners these days and they're being blamed for the rise in homelessness in the british capital too but charities now come up with a very novel solution to the problem sarah firth investigate when addressing the issue of the political housing one london charities being thinking outside the box but when it comes to the solution it's a little insight that counts meet them i pads the shipping container doubles as

a low cost. renting in london is particularly expensive and once again we're seeing rents hit record high so we're going to go take a look inside and see what this is all about. thank you very much for having us yes this is my yeah this is the my. desk here inside the my pants been designed to provide those who need it most with affordable independent living and just seventy five pounds a week the my i pad certainly cheap by london standards i think it's difficult for anybody right now to get. comfortable accommodation and a good price without you know paying extortionate amounts of the projects the brainchild of timothy payne. that this is essentially this is

a shipping container full time this is a shipping. bread you discover over a great big boat the projects already received planning permission and funding is expected to come from the greater london authority initially this project will be soley for young people the charity works with society just takes the. takes the cop out from under them because the moment they get into work the can't afford to live in a hostel and they can't afford to live anywhere else because doesn't make any moral or any economic sense. as an idea. is brilliantly innovative it's been designed as a quick bit nervous planning permission for thirty more things to be built next year but predictions that if bracing continues at its current rate of building then by twenty twenty and we face a shortfall of two million homes in the u.k. so you can see the scale of the problem and it's why what started out as

a local temporary solution could end up becoming a more permanent fixture so artsy london. you stories in brief no tonight in the south of france police have used buttons and tear gas to disperse a crowd of seven hundred on the right side to this clashes erupted during a protest against an upcoming bullfighting festival spanish style craters held in many towns in southern france and dozens of schools offer a total trading as well. israeli air force one missile launches amid all the gaza strip just hours after palestinian militants fired two rockets across the border israel managed to destroy one of those missiles another fell into the sea there's been no injuries reported tensions of flared though despite that apparent concession from israel the country's unveiled a list of twenty six palestinian prisoners to be freed as part of a u.s. brokered deal into restarting peace talks. thanks for your company our next news bulleted in thirty two minutes time up next libya is on the brink of

a new civil war two years after the overthrow of colonel gadhafi people of ellen his latest guests debate the reasons for that in crosstalk. world. technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. maybe you need to review economic ups and downs in the final months day belong to the deal and the rest because it's going to take it will be

a briefly company. is a. blow and welcome to cross talk all things are considered i'm peter lavelle two years after the force ouster of gadhafi by nato forces libya stands at the abyss the locke.