flexing its muscles all quite a horse of battles over swathes of iraq while washington funnels on tuesday forces for what's predicted to be a bloody counterattack. with a month before the winter olympics down to the host city it's putting a prior to the un security to make sure the games are made safe and undisturbed. last are confidential and the ease leaders has never been to a new poll at least in the hard hit areas of the new world where governments just grabbing for solutions to an entrenched economic crisis. thanks.

everyone welcome to you if you're just joining us here on r.t. international it's good to have your company with us this afternoon you're watching me to say on the wiki the black flag of al qaeda was this week raised over true iraqi cities which are now under the control of jihadists bent on creating a new islamic nation but the real bloodletting is yet to begin one experts say rocky on the and tribal militias mobilized and prepared to counter attack these gana chittick and reports. they run on chaos emboldened by the fighting in syria these are all qaeda linked militants overran parts of iraq including the city of fallujah we have said earlier that the syria story soon will actually go into iraq and this is what we were warning about chaos in neighboring syria deepened as the u.s.

and its allies threaten the syrian government sending the signal to the rebels to fight on to the detriment of a political outcome islamic groups have now taken over the opposition movement there and have even chased the western backed leader of the free syrian army out of the country. beason asked you the real leave it alone because if you kick it they're going to come out and bite you and that's what we did when we invaded iraq you know three and it can bite not just somewhere far in a war zone but here in the u.s. american intelligence and counterterrorism officials now say islamic extremist groups in syria with ties talk to a recruiting and training americans who have traveled there to get them to carry out attacks when they return home there are dozens of extremist islamist forces that are operating both inside syria and over the syrian borders iraq has been a breeding ground for extremists since the u.s. invasion now residents of other parts of the country are bracing themselves for the

iraqi army's assault as it attempts to drive militants out of seized areas the u.s. is supplying hellfire missiles and other weapons to help the iraqi government in the fight the last thing for needs is more missiles we heard the u.s. government say they decimated al qaeda is needed but the groups that continue their cause expand and what they thrive on best is chaos the u.s. backed chaos to iraq and in syria washington support for armed opposition has benefited extremists in washington i'm going to check on our quiz. they had a script now said to be in control of a loser and ramadi is the islamic state of iraq and the levant also known as isis it's seen as a formidable fighting force and its militants among the maze of radical cells in syria isis and sell the dates back to the early years of the iraq war it was formed in april two thousand and four by sunni insurgents and soon after

a pledge allegiance to bin laden two years later it was rebranded as the islamic state of iraq in two thousand and thirteen its military successes against assad again did strong influence in syria which saw a way to add levant to its name and of course in the latest developments the group has taken control of illusia and other parts of the province in iraq and proclaimed and islamic state now more perspective now on the group and what it's aiming for in iraq with andrus like a go a former danish intelligence officer who served they could have you with us this afternoon the capture of the city's what does it tell us about how powerful al qaeda has grown well basically i think it turns a lot more about how weak the iraqi government and iraqi government forces are because the fighting ability of the of the isis for instance is very strong but

very contained true to localized battles where the iraqi army really are supposed to be in control of the car but it is the. think it shows a lot more about the the willingness of the isis to fight. the lack of credibility towards the iraqi army and the united states that said it was equipping the iraqi army to you know against potential offenses like this but if the united states couldn't eradicate al qaeda what chance is the iraqi people or the iraqi army have. well this battle isn't about equipment far from it this is this battle is about stamina and one thing the isis rebels this is stamina that they want to to continue fighting and the iraqi army really hasn't got a chance to fight these militias two and two or two ready kate them and.

i think that that this battle cannot be won on the ballot ground it has to be solved by negotiation two years ago president obama told to the world that al qaeda was on the run and now it would seem that al qaeda has more i mean does it have support in iraq you've been there what are the people saying they are they sympathetic to was it and why has all kind of gain so much momentum after that last that two years after the two years president obama mentioned that to the world well in my opinion the kyra has never been on the run it might have been downscaling due to pressure but once this pressure is lifted the organization is is back in full force and it uses these. pulses to regain its strength. prior to the invasion of iraq there weren't really any al qaeda in in iraq there were a small group called the answer which were actually being fought. saddam hussein's

try to eradicate it but since we're unable to find a weapons of mass destruction a lot of media coverage was given to the al qaeda in iraq because there was one of the reasons why we originally went. but al qaida hasn't been on the run in iraq and the and the general public is not. prole. i would say but they are certainly not pro the iraqi army as well as iraqi security forces and this is due to the highly concentration of shia militias within these armed forces so much of the shoes sunni population and big parts of the shia population who are not sympathetic to the militias do not fear or feel any confidence to you reckon security forces and therefore. reduce lack of credibility to the iraqi security forces the al qaeda is. given some room to maneuver that anders kai go in for my

danish intelligence officer who's joining us there giving us his perspective on what's happening in iraq thank you. u.s. of ghana stand relations up heard under more strain stalling negotiations of a security deal which washington sees as essential are here it was american troops accidentally kill a toddler mistaking him for militant that story is coming up. so she the host city of the twenty fourteen winter olympics is seeing one of the biggest security operations in the game's history tens of thousands of police officers have been deployed in access to the area strictly monitored with the aim of preventing any disruption when events begin archies paul scott takes a look. the twenty second olympic winter games in two thousand and fourteen i wore the to defeat b.

of thirteen. as soon as russia's black sea resort was awarded the game seven years ago. as a question the choice of host city such as close proximity to the volatile caucasus region was they argued a cause for concern. and the recent twin terror attacks in volgograd some seven hundred kilometers from sochi every ignited some of those worries organizers say security has been their main priority since day one from the very beginning of the construction phase the state that sort is made those to prepare the special measures to stop them from the screening of their own materials checking in all the venues and preparing incredible measures of the security to provide this safe environment here with less than a month to go now until the games begin tight security measures are already in place around forty thousand police and security offices are expected to be on

patrol all sales of dangerous hunting equipment a bond for the duration of the games there's also a controlled stretching sixty kilometers along the coast and twenty five kilometers inland and encompassing all venues so. in terms of security sochi is a special case because this whole area it's authorized visit is only there are security details from a number of countries including the u.k. and u.s. working here. and those security forces will be coming together to protect places like this is the brand new purpose built train station in the olympic village is going to be one of the main transport hubs during the games moving thousands of spectators. we have cameras into crumbs that connect you with the engineer and the police present train stations and on the train security is pretty tight. with the bulk of the work now complete with all venues and transport networks built and

tested sochi is now just waiting for the sporting world to descend. altie tsotsi. the traditional olympic torch relay has been a collection our first ever so this time around it's been taking to the north pole underwater into a pin's base and r.p. has followed it all the way one of the torches even ended up in our studio but to my colleague lindsey friend james brown. this is my. personal torch it's as you can see very one of the car and souvenir let me let me have a look at it i mean this this is not light by any means heavy in this respect but yeah it is what two kilos about four actually really yeah i'm going to. hold that it up that is heavy quite and this is a better record breaking relay for the olympic torch going places it's never been before you were following it which one of the milestones do you think was the last

memorable are important i think for me i've been to several going to by car was amazing they took the torch down under water into my car so you had the burning flare torches specially made them pass very impressive on the water and then flew the torch back with with a man with a jet pack on to the on to the shore very good video so that it was it was a sight to be seen but it's there was one amazing moment and a real once in a lifetime moment was going with the torch to the north pole you see on t.v. and you read it and then you think wow that must be really must be very interesting never going to go there and then this opportunity came up to go on this nuclear ice breaker he's huge. ship can cut through to me to think. it's fueled by two gigantic reaction. to this is it which is a strange feeling in it so yeah i would stand by. but we were going to go to the

north pole with the flame and we made a. lesson for hope that it was a world record pace and rowing in the middle of the whole anoints with the liberty torch in the north pole for the very first time in history. we've got the highlights of the olympic torch is journey across russia on our website check out the follow the flame section where you're also allowed to come for a radiation spread the despite efforts to contain the hazardous lead readings have had eight times the japanese government safety standards even at the edges of the contaminated zone more on that story online. also while you're there you can schools take the fingerprints of over a million students a third of those without their parents' consent official say it's done for the sake of security parents and civil liberties groups are questioning the methods that and more stories on our t.v. dot com. many europeans blame the e.u.

politicians will be a difficult economic predicament that's according to a new continent wide poll the new stats that show very low approval ratings will get you leadership in the economically devastated space for example more people than ever before think that the top politicians have done a poor job through the financial crisis ireland has seen a strong believe in each new order way by increasing financial hardship they seventy percent of people used to approve but that's now come down to half of that and any risk at the u.k. just under a third now think of that the leadership is doing a good job. and as public faith in institutions a device to record levels in economic lee hardy countries governments have been asserting and selling of the family silver to pay their debts art is

a cellular reports. it's been dubbed the great european fire sale in a bid for cash these are just some of what's been up for grabs but even funds raised from headline grabbing deals might not be enough like six greek island sold for eight point five million euros an italian island sold for two point nine million exclusive rights to use the coliseums image on their products for fifteen years twenty five million euros don't have a debt in the euro zone is greater now than it was a year ago and some of the sales have led to public anger and frustration bestselling history and culture there selling beauty things a priceless and they've attached a price tag to it i think that's absolutely reprehensible there's absolutely no guarantee that that privatization will help consumers which will and one of the most surprising items recently put on the market was citizenship for a little over a million euros you get a maltese passport and therefore become an e.u.

says it a move that's been put on hold as two thirds of the public at opposition leaders cry foul. in the same legal. which. has meant a huge international dunnit which was uncalled for because more go to date has one of the lowest rates of unemployment in the whole european union it's a question of principle over citizenship should not be pulled out on say proponents of privatization see it as a necessity for either nations that are in dire straits but also warned that by europe at a bargain may not be as much of a jackpot as one might think if i were investor i wouldn't be buying many of these things all of these countries have serious political risks for any kind of foreign investor anybody trying to. buy a house and italy has to reckon with the possibility that ten twenty years down the line a government is just going to nationalize whatever they whatever they want to nationalize

but for what it's worth this sale continues. still coming up for you blue gold rush water what becomes of these souls to sing ties between nations where report on what of what's going on in the middle east and disputes calls for you gold that's up to the shop way. drugs some of the sixty percent of imports came from illegal fishing. the european union is ironically taking fish from some of the poorest nations on earth so this is a very serious and very urgent problem that needs immediate international action. on the be territorial waters they fish they load the fish into the ships and leave for.

illegal fishing just taking the bread out of our mouths. first. and i think. reporters. welcome back bad news for washington came out of afghanistan this week a top american negotiators that it was highly unlikely a new security agreement would be reached before the afghan presidential elections

in april the deal they have signed would allow a portion of u.s. troops remain in the country of libya. fishel withdrawal letter later this year tensions between washington and kabul have been aggravated recently after american soldiers killed a toddler making mistaking the child for a militant and former british lieutenant colonel richard williams a says that in this difficult period it's also crucial how the afghan government copes with internal problems. what we try to achieve is to set the conditions whereby government can be. the way we. think. if those conditions are certain easily yes then what we're likely to see is a compromise between what kabul wants and the taliban wants which will see afghanistan not along over the next period of time perhaps the next ten years but that in

itself won't be any great strategic victory if we want to call it that or any great strategic outcome for a long time all and guess have held the potential to make a break relations between nations but now it's often a much more widespread commodity causing diplomatic disputes walter i look at the this map that we have for you here all those little brit dots now those are what we're calling gold for a reason it's got quite a sources of course to almost two hundred incidents of the one nine hundred fifty s. the disputes range from protests all the way to deadly confrontations r.d.s. policia dives into one of the ongoing causes or one of them rather than the friction in the middle east. the bible tells us that within a short distance from here jesus turned water into wine two thousand years later the great american might be turning the wine back into water bubby caballo has been

living in the golan heights for over thirty years each day he attends to seventy odd in orchards keeping his wine in a center that was once a syrian bunker he is proud of the wine he produces but knows that in the absence of water none of this would be possible but i don't know usually water is important because it's the second main resource that we have other than the land. needs water and without it you will destroy all the crops and destroy all of the farming here it can turn the golan heights into a desert and it's not just about the golan heights rainwater from its catchment feeds into the river jordan providing a third of israel's water supply the disputed region was seized from syria after the six day war and residents of the golan remember that water was a key issue in the conflict and one of the stands here understands the importance of the work that all the water supply of israel because every door was raining here all but one is prone to the security of god so we can say that it is and must.

respect the resolve to have football over what the fall says it's a worldwide rule that whoever controls the water controls the land but the problem is in some places there's very little water to go around bring you have the common waterfalls shared by several foreign nations there's always the possibility of clash of riches conflicts that should be manageable was spread out of control and examples of possible conflicts are plentiful syria's major water sources travel through turkey and iraq making it vulnerable while jordan is reliant on a river with syria bill today egypt. also recently expressed concern of a countries using the upper now to generate electric power in the dry landscape of the middle east water is a prize more precious than diamonds in its absence famine and drought are quick to

follow but this is a region that very seldom needs an excuse for war and water shortages might just tip the balance here r.t. in the golan heights middle east affairs journalist and bill del wish things politicians and willingness to share vital resources are pushing the world towards a new conflict as the population grew and as agricultural growth is always. what it is when dealing probably will reach bordeaux hardly any fresh water leave the plant that could be averted if the idea i was exploring a while back the water bank i.e. the rivers or water resources should among the nations if we can quantify the usage of it what use for agriculture what you wish for and what you wish for a party of the nation and compensate each other by sort of making the water dollar or daughter pound or whatever and then be quantify it into more cooperative

projects but without giving giving human nature and nature of politicians i probably not very optimistic. to get a small business off the ground to need the backing of a bank but choose carefully because some i accused of exactly having entrepreneurial interests at heart miss being to me did too british a businessman who found the lender more predatory than protective. chris richardson and ernie bernstein used to own this hotel but not anymore three years ago out of the blue they say their bank took it from them nat west. hotel this hotel beyond me here these hours always will be and it will be coming back if there's justice in this country these guys will be arrested. and we will be giving this back in two thousand and ten chris and ernie had a loan from now west to do up the coniston hotel and conference center in north

kent they were just eleven days from opening when their bank manager told them there was a problem releasing the latest tranche of their loan. and that is the last we've ever heard of. we have not heard from him later the owners learnt the bank was saying they'd run out of money despite having one point six million pounds of their agreed loan left now west then revalue to the hotel it just a for a third of its original price so the hotel found itself in administration from where it was snapped up by west register the bank's property. the kicker r.b.s. and its subsidiary now west are majority owned by the taxpayer but it's a ruse r.b.s. has been accused of many times over lawrence tomlinson is a small business advisor to the government his recent report exposes the seemingly duplicitous nature of banking operations my report focuses on r.b.s.

and what we're saying is that restructuring division georgi acted in a way that the businesses that they were supposed to be helping get back to health . put into distress for the benefit of the bank we actually see. has it's own property company called west register and we're seeing r.b.s. owning those customers property after they've been in. us tomlinson's report is twenty pages of examples and findings under headings like engineering or defaults and extensive fees in response r.b.s. said in a statement no evidence had been provided to support the allegation that the bank had systematically profited on the backs of their customers and they'd be looking into it fully christened ernie's hotel is now a thriving business fitted out exactly as they left it but it belongs to the bank

and their lives have been destroyed which put me from a very wealthy man back on tax credits. more family suffered heavily through this. bank's property company in the hotel my wife's birthday last year. she sadly. got cancer and march this year and she thought in my. life for three three girls that one answers and justice determined to fight back chris and ernie cling to the idea that one day they'll walk through these doors owners of the hotel again laura smith artie kent coming up next a look at illegal industrial fishing in west africa. when

a country experiences a tragedy like the recent terrorism in volgograd the ex question is what to do about it i mean we have to do something right let's never let a good tragedy go to waste one do a member recommends getting rid of the moratorium on the death penalty for various groups including terrorists because the death penalty is the perfect way to punish a suicide bomber also this duma member failed to mention high level cryptic kratz in the government as those who could possibly face the firing squad perhaps that was just an honest oversight i'm not against the death penalty in some rare instances but punishing terrorists after the fact doesn't bring victims back the focus needs to be on the source of terrorism soldiers can play around all day with weapons because the government gives them a salary weapons and training some people are recruiting arming and training new terrorists you don't need to usher in a massive surveillance state to stop terrorism or go death penalty crazy what you need to do is hit the funding and training source hard if you can i mean how many of you guys out there could make a remotely detonated bomb a c. four on your own without help almost none of you see for doesn't grow on trees

someone pays for it but that's just my opinion. of the.