tonight president obama reduces curbs on the n.s.a.'s bulk phone data collection program but there's concern the surveillance isn't being scaled back enough and breaking news headlines now other headlines tonight syria says it's ready to unite with moderate rebel groups in the fight against hardline radicals in the country's foreign minister who syria moscow ahead of the peace talks. and scotland please stay britain's foreign secretary is on the charm offensive to convince undecided scots not to quit as the months stick to a decisive referendum. they were giving she is just past nine pm here in moscow big news from washington

tonight that within the past few minutes president obama has finished in fact has been outlining reforms about america's controversial surveillance tactics which it ensnared millions of people's phone calls texts and e-mails around the globe after praising the n.s.a. and its importance to security admitted the mistakes had been made its collection of private data to report has been listening in to what barack obama had to say so far in new york they're high so that speech just finished went on for a mine hour or so what do you have to say briefly. but what we do know is that u.s. president barack obama believes that the practice of metadata collection is very important and he says it will continue but what the u.s. president wants is to possibly change the hands that holds everyone's call records u.s. president is considering maybe having a third party store everyone's information currently the national security agency is collecting and storing every america's made of data on

a daily basis some private phone call phone companies have already rejected that idea saying they don't want the liability they don't want the blowback but this is something that is being considered now the u.s. president says his attorney general eric holder and others will craft a report on who should hold the metadata and the options will be announced in late march when it comes to spying on foreign friends allies like german chancellor angela merkel president obama says unless there is compelling evidence u.s. intelligence officials will not be listening on the phone calls or reading the e-mails of america's friends obama said he's also calling for a public advocate panel to be appointed to the court and also there was some mention of possibly requiring the n.s.a. to get permission from the foreign intelligence intelligence surveillance surveillance court which i mention the files of court every time it wants to access . its metadata database that's something that is still up in the air it was

recommended to president obama but we should mention to our viewers here that the fire support is a secret or it's hearings are closed to the public records of the proceedings are classified during its thirty three year history the phrase a court has reportedly granted nearly thirty four thousand warrants and only denied eleven requests it is seen as a court that rubber stamps whatever u.s. intelligence officials want to do so we'll see what happens with this phase of court even if there is a public advocate hand. appointed to what we might not know what this public advocate panel thinks of the pfizer court and we should mention lastly any changes that are made to the n.s.a.'s intelligence programs its data gathering the medicare other metal data gathering the spying any changes need to be approved by the u.s. congress a body of lawmakers in the united states that currently has a thirteen percent approval rating because americans are so frustrated with their

lack of productivity so right now obama scorpion for nearly an hour about n.s.a. reforms but it doesn't make clear how much is really significantly going to change in terms of protecting americans privacy and the ongoing spying of their personal information yes raised a lot of questions here always raise more questions that isn't it isn't it we're going to get a lot of sort of the view to pick this apart. thanks for listening and giving us your first thoughts about that from new york city that things have so much more important or a correspondent over america or president also asked the congress to establish an independent privacy defender in the federal courts who crease the supervision of intelligence work lawmakers on capitol hill are divided over where the spying programs boundaries should be democratic congressman rush holt proposed his own bill for reining in the n.s.a. there he comes now we don't want those who are doing the surveillance to be the

very same ones who decide who the bad guys are. the debates over the role of the n.s.a. is diluted the usual partisan rivalry between democrats and republicans with bills to fed this surveillance and calls for restraint coming from both sides let's talk now to a former f.b.i. agent coleen rowley joining us on the line hi coley nice to see you again as a few months before you were here in moscow last was in it i'm you've been listening in i guess carefully there for the last hour or so a bomber dedicated a huge part of the speech to defending important necessity of intelligence but was he justifying what the n.s.a. did here or was the against it. raised as our correspondent was saying more questions that it's it's uncertain it well i think the speech was a few baby steps in the right direction but it was a lot of i dissembled lane and certainly it was a reassurance to the n.s.a. and its employees that they have been doing the right thing nor in you know way

a lot of it was just to find this massive if you want to call it a bulk collection or massive fine or even more accurate ernest's that was turned on after nine eleven for what i could gather for it i was listening in as well as best i could over the last hour or so were on air as well it seemed to me that he didn't know specifically talk about text or phone calls or messaging facebook information stuff that could be gleaned from that i was talking about data from both calls to read anything into that or not. that's exactly right he talked really focus was on the two fifteen telephone metadata program that is just one of dozens of massive collections again the n.s.a. is the model was collected all nothing in obama's speech put any rain rain the end this collected all approach and yesterday that there was a big revelation of our call dish fire program the fire program was collecting all

text calls literally hundreds of thousands of text calls every day are going into the n.s.a.'s collect vacuum it's giant gigantic hoover that's taking taking place it was actually very sad in a way to watch obama turned the revolutionary founding fathers on its head who actually fired the revolution in order to against king george's spine and he kind of turned that around saying that paul revere himself was a spy. you know there was nothing there about the person pieces well what about can she sleep easier tonight. if she's going to be spied on next time he'll bring a first or maybe directly to her face what she may be keeping from him. well actually if anybody would be the one that they would be very careful about turning on to spy on it would be angela merkel knowing knows how many other heads of state might fall into this little more are there any more who serve what about her. well

i you know the thing is what's the check on this because again obama is very sour on whistleblowers and so even if he was fine his very best friends even if there is a new martin luther king jr in this country that they are spying on by bike washing this ability to get the truth out which he did in the speech it's going to be affectively the same regime as before. so small steps made here you think more could have moved much more could've been done though yeah well that's right i mean releasing the feis opinions is is fine and actually the the a judge having to ok the wherry of the metadata is a good step although you should note that that's only reasonable suspicion so very very low threshold for clearing this many of the other problems that exist in this collected all approach and the potential for abuse have gone on addressed and i

think we would you know he's saying that we'll have review panels we'll have john podesta his friend you know look at the big data programs well that's that's basically punting and if it's internal if it's the d.n.i. actually he gave power to the d.n.i. which is clapper who lied to congress already by having this all done internally is just stayed a full solution to the rest of the world to ordinary citizens around the world to foreign heads of state and to the american public that he's doing something. all right colin rowley former f.b.i. agent was simpler yourself just last line she there but thanks for getting very much the bulk of what you had to say was clearly very good bright let's talk to claire moodie no she gets more comment on it technology writer from london hi there glenn you're live on r.t. international there you are my name is kevin owen thanks take the time to be with us you can hear me. your initial thoughts i guess you were listening across to war

i had to say over the last hour or so there in washington damage limitation could more have been done. much more i was struck how completely very full of loopholes it was i agree with the last speaker that everything's been punted into the long grass he said i'm going to set up a committee to do this i've asked this department to look at this everything's in the future we just don't know what he's really promised and so i was very disappointed there was probably nothing concrete in there for example as far as the metadata collection is concerned he announced grandly well we're going to stop doing this that i haven't actually decided how we're going to stop doing that so obviously the details matter there similarly in terms of the spying on the rest of the world it is very important to note that foreigners have far fewer rights than the u.s. citizens on that he basically said well we will do it in a sort of fair way and don't worry about it i mean there were just no real guarantees there and we talked about more transparency more clarity but look these operations are clandestine anyway so out of those two things go together. well i

mean transparency yes but how deep is that transparency i mean politicians claim to be transparent but it's the reality that you've got to see and so far we've seen really no transparency and unfortunately president obama has shown sort of a real enemy of transparency he's actually prosecuted and hunted down whistleblowers more than any other presidents i mean every snowden isn't the first he's just the last in a long series so he hasn't got a very good record on transparency for sort of course this already came to light because of edward snowden it makes you want it would have gone on for years otherwise maybe if it wasn't for him what about foreign leaders i mean the real big embarrassment he had was there was this spying on germany the spying on leaders around the world. should they talked about it with the last question can they sleep easier at night of a fake this. bridges are being made well built here or made again or not

well i think they can sleep easier night but not for the right reasons basically president obama has said i recognized i got caught and i won't do it again but i think what we do know is that little people will know you and me are still on their list the leaders may get off it but we're still there and the guarantees that he's given are basically worthless i mean it's everything is subject to national security needs so if they need it it will come in and take it and that's the really worrying thing glenn thanks for your time claire moodie technology writer the thanks been live on our to appreciate it. the global spread of america's all seeing eyes have cost taxpayers a pretty penny to the actual figures are as you'd expect top secret but some leaked information has lifted a little of the lid anyway on spy spending the so-called black budget reportedly amounts for fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion went specifically to the n.s.a. its funding friends grown a staggering fifty three percent of the decade yet sources say terrorist attacks

should methods only involve the n.s.a. surveillance about seven point five percent of the time interesting dynamics there of how it's money what's happening well for more analysis of barack obama's n.s.a. reform we invite you to head to our web site as well r.t. dot com and also online because a fresh leaf feeling that the u.s. and u.k. have been harvesting millions of mobile phone text messages worldwide every day really was talking about how cold it was talking about just now. so be following that story up throughout the night nerve a big piece of news we're following the syrian government says it's ready for a limited ceasefire with rebel fighters as well as a prisoner swap maybe now the foreign minister announced a readiness to cooperate with moderate opposition groups against radical islam is after a meeting with his counterpart here in moscow at the same time sergei lavrov raised

the issue of the opposition taking part in next week's peace conference. i believe all those who are backing the syrian national coalition and those who consider it the only legitimate representative of the syrian people which does not correlate to the real political situation all of them need to consider the role they're playing in preparing the geneva two peace conference the opposition syrian national coalition is meeting in istanbul to decide whether or not it will attend next week's peace talks it for the decision will be announced on saturday political analyst chris bambery believes the s.n.c. doesn't have the capacity though to represent syria's opposition to. the truth is the syrian national council do not represent those people no fighting in syria against the government and the syrian national council cannot really speak no for the opposition in total and we have the american secretary john kerry desperately pleading with them to come to geneva but the same time many of those people engaged

in the fighting who are radicalizing as a consequence of all this and are looking toward to hardly take groups reject any role for the geneva talks or not want to go to geneva so the syrian national council are caught if you wait between the back of the united states and there are people who represent in syria the opposition who are inclusive become disenchanted from that process and i think today they are known for by the acid regime the offer of a cease fire in the web or will put the onus on them as well not just to go to geneva but will they respond to this gesture by its so word acquiring a cease fire or the news that matter is coming up in a few minutes reporting on bahrain december has seen hundreds of rallies suppressed and hundreds of people arrested there we've got a closer look at the opposition's findings and what's happening there right after this quick break.

local papers are a. very hard to take. that back with her take care.

of. seventeen minutes past nine now at night here in moscow over the next eight months scotland's pondering whether or not to cut a cold with britain her and the heavyweights of westminster therefore trying to woo the northern neighbors to stay as far as the public is concerned the decisions fall from a done deal though polly boyd could next looks at the an easy choice the scots have got to make. westminster's new scotland analysis paper set out the british government's position on why scotland is better off within the united kingdom so part of the focus of today's analysis is britain's extensive diplomatic network and how much scotland benefits from it so the document even goes as far as reminding

scots about some of the relatively modern day in pleasures that they enjoy as british citizens such as consular services when they travel abroad which they might be taking for granted at the moment and of course william hague was keen to remind scots that should they vote for independence there their membership within the european union would have to be renegotiated nor would they be able to use the pound and of course you also spoke about the u.k. protecting scottish business interests for example the world famous scotch whiskey and the salmon industry protecting it from excessive taxation and so forth but today scotland analysis comes off the scottish government produced its white paper back in november which propagated why scotland should vote yes to independence it was somewhat of a road map by the scottish government despite everything that william hague said today about scotland being better off within the united kingdom the white paper

back in november argued that independence would boost scotland international profile it would deliver new opportunities for exports and it also said that scotland has contributed more tax per head of population than the u.k. suggesting that scotland is certainly wealthy enough to go it alone but what we're seeing is two very big campaigns getting very much bigger in the run up to the historic vote on the eighteenth of september and i suspect that you case foreign secretary william hague is going to be making a few more trips up to scotland it's all part of westminster's intensified no campaign in the run up to the vote is going to see celebrities sports stars and business figures with scots to vote no to independence on the eighteenth of september. or talking as pop stars the for as old as me remember if not you might want to look up on maybe recopied yourself in this next guest let's see how the yes scotland movement plans to counter the westminister romancing scottish musician

independence campaigner kane told is he sure scotland will be way better off on its own to some extent a kind of truth can annoy instance of people william hague coming up to scotland and talking about all the difficulties of scotland being an international separate nations the incidentally william hague thought that five years after the scottish parliament was founded in one thousand nine hundred would be in a disaster situation actually doing extremely well for scotland over the last forty years has contributed more to the u.k. than they've taken over in social benefits we have actually a net contributor if you include oil and you include all the natural assets of scotland so number one will essentially really economically viable to go forward for independence but it's not just about being viable and it's not just about being the same as the westminster government who would want to those policies that progress and we look not just to mainland europe you'd be welcoming a very obvious european member with an independent scotland but we're looking to

scandinavia look into those small countries that have the best indicators of wellbeing economy society through the world any any anything from the economics and to the cia index would would recognize these are countries to emulate that's what scotland's benchmark against is the best in the world not really a rather broken record from the westminster problem. online for most big technology news one a house want to build it quickly i'm talking about within a day with details of a very different future at r.t. dot com we're telling a instructor so from scratch in just twenty four hours california scientists say it will be a reality very soon with his next generation giant three d. printer. also to the computer hackers who are itching to get into your kitchen it seems they branching out from p.c.'s they're now targeting smart household appliances everything from high fives to fridge years.

december in bahrain saw hundreds of rallies suppressed and hundreds of people including mine is arrested findings collated by the country's opposition party document the links gone to in cracking down on protests calling for greater freedoms and equality in the sunni led kingdom instead of the news will see how those figures stack up out of more than seven hundred protests last month four hundred were brutally suppressed by the security forces and forces and dispersed there are almost two hundred arrests made in fact with raids being the most common tactic used by police those raids often were carried out at night and in all cases the security forces refused to prove that they had warrants apparently the report also reveals cases of vandalism torture and other heavy handed treatment by the authorities in almost four hundred cases the crackdown on dissent took the form of collective punishment human rights advocates. he spoke to me says that he holds out little hope of achieving a true constitutional monarchy any time soon. the violation.

remain lots of are arrested and detained vandalism torture is still ongoing while the authority are denying that they are torturing people in the investigation rooms but actually it is ongoing practice the constitutional monarchy is our aim and our goal we are going to work is the author of the respect the opposition demands and consider what's going on in the region it will be achieved but not recently let's say it will take years unfortunately. update from thailand's carpet which is in two days of intense mass anti government action and this thing twenty eight injured by a bomb now a device was thrown from a derelict building onto a truck carrying protestors at least eight people have died since the unrest first began in november the latest. movement seen roads and ministries located but the prime minister insists that the only solution to the crisis will be elections in

february we're following that story. a bomb has derailed a trade in central pakistan is killed at least five several carriages came off the tracks when the blast struck on route from the shower in the north to corruption in the south it's unclear who was behind the attack but the pakistani taliban say they were not involved. to give a major event like the winter olympics running like clockwork you need more than a top class where news and world class athletes to make all that happen indeed you need a small army of helpers as is often the case in all walks of life and the sochi twenty fourteen recruits have been getting a presidential pep talk to boot parties and to farmers more. but that meeting was also an opportunity for a question and answer session and one particular question of note came from a former volunteer he was asked why did the official tracksuits for saatchi contain the rainbow colors of russia is against gay propaganda well mr putin initially

jokes saying he did not design the tracksuits but then on a serious note pointed out that it was a law against gay propaganda to minors and also stress that being gay in russia is not a criminal offense but he also had plenty more to talk about in that meeting he joins me now i get your name right you're against now what was his message to you. mr for this says their own begins is holiday for everyone but twenty years first dictators for for resisters for the country for people who are going to avoid them but for us it's. quite hard and i say and that makes the question why have you become a volunteer because it's many months hard work and it's also one paid. for military is very important because you give something to a country and you get something back you get experience you get friend to get a lot of things actually a lot of skills and i think it's very important for everyone of you is just one of

twenty five thousand volunteers it sounds like a huge number actually they are the chosen few because organizers did receive applications from one hundred fifty thousand people from all around the world and over the majority of volunteers are russian the rest are made up from people from or from around about sixty different countries as we've heard that they do have different responsibilities in general they're here to meet and greet the athletes as well as the delegates as well as members of the public and also help them find their way around sochi but other responsibilities do include things like translating press conferences and also escorting athletes to doping control so there's a lot for them to think about and do more importantly all of them do have a very nice. because they do and will try their best to make us all feel very welcome and he won't miss them either because they will be wearing those like the colored tracks. stuff back in about thirty minutes time with more reaction to president obama shake a civilian spying tactics and whether it goes far enough plenty of that to come

after the break though about ins in x. with breaking the set. the majority of congress are now millionaires for the first time in history according to the center for responsive politics which sounds pretty insulting when the average american is not doing so well financially this seems bad like a bunch of rich guys rule the country which they kind of do but one could argue that congress isn't rich enough first off due to inflation a billion dollars is not as much as it used to be especially the cost of a campaign to get in the congress costs around one million six hundred thousand dollars so yeah a million dollars of net worth may sound pretty rich to you or me but the expensive game of us politics these guys can't even afford the costs related to getting a work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it is no surprise that people like you or me can't get into

the law making business without selling at least a little piece of our souls to someone who has very deep pockets so again the problem isn't that congressmen are wealthy it is that many of them have to get constant financing in order to maintain their positions and as you average folks know once you're in debt they've got you by the throat well that's just my opinion . of the evening to you i'm having martin and this is a break in the set but here's a story that sure to keep you up at night according to findings just released by the air force thirty four officers at malmstrom air force base in montana were just cut cheating on a proficiency exam or at our rights are cheating on a test isn't really that bad i mean we've all done it except i forgot to mention

one small thing miles from houses bowl a stick missiles in the officers caught cheating were taken to test a nuclear launch procedure. here's but if that's not enough to make you want to cower under a table don't worry it gets worse the whole reason this cheating scandal came to light in the first place is because the air force launched an investigation into drug use among officers at the base and discovered the cheating through their text messages so nice know that rob ford and alex rodriguez are apparently guarding the nation's nuclear arsenal but at the very least we know that the nuclear launch codes are extremely complicated and hard to crack right actually no you see according to dr bruce blair former nuclear missile launch officer up until nine hundred seventy seven the launch code to set off nukes was wait for it zero zero zero zero zero zero zero zero yep eight zeros in a row don't worry i'm sure by now the air force has changed that code to one two.