you're watching r t from moscow at midnight tonight president obama introduces curbs on the n.s.a.'s bulk phone data collection program but there's concern the surveillance is not being scaled back enough. syria says it's ready to unite with moderate rebel groups in the fight against hardline radicals according to the country's foreign minister who's in moscow ahead of the peace talks. and scotland please stay britain's foreign secretary on a charm offensive to convince undecided scots not to quit the u.k. as the months take to a decisive referendum. good

morning i'm kevin though in this is our to international law top story this president obama's outlined a few changes to how america conducts its controversial surveillance tactics which it ensnared millions of people's phone calls texts and e-mails around the globe but there was still praise no less for the n.s.a. and its importance to security even though we admitted it had made mistakes when important i listened into what barack obama had to say. u.s. president barack obama was expected to really introduce some sweeping reforms on and say surveillance that did not happen instead the u.s. president defended and applauded and applauded the job of the national security agency and made it clear that the indiscriminate collection of everyone's mehta data will continue obama's so-called reforms did not address the prism program which allows the n.s.a. to monitor everyone's online at city including e-mails chats web searches and video calls us president also didn't address the n.s.a.'s counter encryption activities

or any geo location information that the agency may have or may be collecting so what's changing here's what's changing obama doesn't want the government to control the metal data storage anymore proposing that phone logs belonging to all americans be moved into the hands of a third party the u.s. president says that his attorney general eric holder and other intelligence officials will cross to a war on who should hold the metadata announcing various options in late march so this essentially means that the same u.s. officials who spearheaded and authorized the expansion of america's surveillance practices are now in charge with curbing their own authority also effective immediately obama says that the n.s.a. will now have to get permission from the foreign intelligence surveillance court known as every time it wants to query or access the phone records database that is compiled but we have to keep in mind that the free support is a secret or it's hearings are closed to the public and records of proceedings are

classified so many critics would say that the n.s.a. is not going to have a hard time making requests to support for each time it wants to access someone's metadata now the u.s. president insists that the efforts that the n.s.a. has made over the past decade have prevented multiple attacks and saved innocent lives around the world but a study actually. at least this week by the new american foundation actually concluded the opposite it found that the bulk data collection by the n.s.a. has had no discernible impact on preventing acts of terrorism so right now the bomber can make whatever claims he wants but the study and the research is not supporting his words a correspondent new york city there well president obama described his reforms as concrete and substantial. and therefore ordering a transition that will end the section two fifteen bulk metadata program as it currently exists. president's much anticipated speech left those who've been

pushing for crucially detergents reforms though somewhat disillusioned let's find out what activists swanson's got think better bomb his proposals he joins me live other things thanks for being with us would you agree that it is n.s.a. reform is indeed the end of the day substantial as he put it or not. i would not i wouldn't call it a reform i would call it the ongoing normalization of the outrageous policy of violating the fourth amendment on an enormous scale sucking up data on people who for whom there is no probable cause and no warrant has been issued and and then claiming that we need to trust them we need to trust them not to abuse those powers despite the fact that they have been abusing them and have been lying to us about this and. are prosecuting whistleblowers including the whistleblower who compelled the president to hold this so-called debate in which there was no debate partner

and in which he would not have held otherwise but he claims it's been a great step forward i don't see it i think there's a parallel here as as many people immediately pointed out to to the closure of guantanamo. death camp you know the president says he'd like to reform the abuses of the n.s.a. but he doesn't propose to to do it why do you think he chose to focus so much on phone data collection is the main problem because there's a lot more information being collected in lot of other places apart from that isn't it. there is we're learning more as every week goes by about what they're collecting in terms of text messages and e-mails and metadata and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not can admitting that anything has been done wrong is not proposing to stop doing it is not suggesting we restore the fourth amendment to the constitution he's

suggesting that this will continue and it will be reformed perhaps in part someday and possibly in part by having private corporations be paid our money to own our data against our rights or only partially doing that and partially having the government continue with it and we may or may not be told what the solution ends up being but we cannot trust these people there's a story in the news today about numerous u.s. government officials with security clearance who would like to have edward snowden murdered and we are supposed to trust these people are going through a person that is papers and effects in violation let's try to look a little bit of bright new city for the most pessimistic view let's look at a. lot of. to look at it that way president. need to establish an independent supervisor in the foreign intelligence surveillance court that's going to help no.

well the foreign intelligence surveillance court was such a rubber stamp up until george w. bush's administration began violating it and circumventing it that most observers had a hard time understanding why they would bother going around it and of course it was to set up these these projects of mass surveillance and to claim that you're going to suck up all the data and. corporation to store it but then promise not to look at it unless you really really have to buy your own judgment or buy the judgment of a court that's been a rubber stamp for decades it doesn't persuade me that we should acquiesce in tossing out an important right that's been in the u.s. constitution from the beginning congress should get involved the courts should really get involved in the people should get involved and and there wasn't much of that in this speech from the executive branch. of national policy unless we chose

fillets knight thanks for your time. on the global spread of america's all seeing eyes of cost taxpayers a pretty penny to cause the actual figures as you'd expect top top secret but here's a little bit of leaked information that lifts a little bit of a little spice spending in a way that we put together the so-called black budget reportedly amounts to there it goes fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of over ten billion went to the n.s.a. in fact it's funny is grow by a staggering fifty three percent in a decade yet sources say terrorist attack should methods really making use of the n.s.a. surveillance capabilities just seven point five percent of the time raises the question doesn't it over why it needs all those billions got to can next that looks into the effectiveness of american spy agencies. three years the u.s. government had been hiding its dragnet surveillance of entire nations under the national security rug in fear of another nine eleven americans had no idea of just how pervasive the government spying program became but following edward snowden's

revelations lice came to the surface does the n.s.a. collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans. no sir. we know of at least. fifty threats that have been averted because of this information. there is only one case why this was useful somebody somebody thought maybe five hundred dollars to somalia to an al qaeda affiliate not to be encouraged but even in that case the government wait of two months to investigate this case so you know the idea that this is kind of critical to stopping terrorism is overblown public policy group the new america foundation has analyzed hundreds of terrorism related cases and says traditional investigative methods such as the use of informants in tips work best. the n.s.a. sweeping surveillance did nothing to prevent the bombings in boston last year even

despite multiple tips from abroad concerning one of the perpetrators the president's own surveillance policy review board has concluded the n.s.a. bulk data collection was quote not essential to preventing attacks the head of the n.s.a. was eventually pressed to admit that the government had exaggerated the effectiveness of the program would you grant that fifty four cases a keep getting cited by the administration for not all plots how the verge of war my thirteen had some nexus to us do you agree with that yes or no. yes the obama administration found itself in hot water when edward snowden revealed that the n.s.a. was busy spying on allies and trading partners and not just terrorists the n.s.a. has built a vast new center into you talk to store people's private data and much of it will have nothing to do with terry's what we're doing is said to catering to tele tarion procedures which is gathering information about all the individuals in the world.

thousands have been taking to the streets to protest against what they see is their government becoming big brother when in the wake of nine eleven the patriot act are fading and hands to privacy many americans thought at least they'd be safe but with recent revelations in that tradeoff is on the question in washington i'm going to shut down our case. you will get more analysis of the promise and i say reform we want you to had told website out so you don't also long as well we got details of fresh leaks revealing that the u.s. and u.k. have been harvesting millions of text messages worldwide every day. to be in the. on. the syrian government says it's ready for a limited ceasefire with rebel fighters as well as a prisoner swap the foreign minister announced a readiness to cooperate with moderate opposition groups against radical islamists

of her meeting with his moscow counterpart but the same time sort of 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 under those who consider it the only legitimate representative of the syrian people which does not correlate to the real political situations all of them need to consider the role they're playing in preparing the geneva two peace conference your opposition syrian national coalition for its parts meeting in istanbul to decide whether it will attend next week's peace talks it's sort of decision will be announced on saturday meantime former french prime minister dominique de villepin spoke to r.t. head to geneva two he told us that dropping all preconditions here is essential for any dialogue to take place. i believe we have two problems today one is we need of caused the opposition to take part in this discussion because how can we

have any settlement without having everybody around the table but also we have within the opposition a very strong. very strong fights between the two parts of the political opposition and the jihadists are fighting very strongly on the ground while i think we should take away the jihadist all the people that are behind al qaeda and we should not focus on the problem of assad that we should not have any preview condition. before starting this political discussion the i really believe that iran should be as much as possible part of the talks because you were uneasy very regional players and if we can have you run on board in discussing the crit crisis of the region we'd of course we will be much more efficient but a day after calling syria a magnet for terrorists and extremists u.s.

secretary of state john kerry is now blaming it all on president assad. he himself has even been funding some of those extremists even purposefully ceding some territory to them in order to make them more of a problem so we can make the argument that he is somehow the protector against them nobody is going to be fooled america's top diplomat with speaking barrett in a news conference in washington earlier friday to political analyst eric draitser told me the u.s. may be trying to divert attention from its own faults. the united states has backed itself into a diplomatic corner on the one hand they've been funding funding and funneling weapons to the extremists that if they infiltrated into syria on the other hand they claim to be playing diplomatic matchmaker as if they're going to somehow resolve the crisis so what you're seeing is this sort of dual diplomacy but this is all collapsing because as assad is regaining control of territory and as the world opinion has shifted against the jihadi elements and against those backing them the

united states is forced to then put the blame on to assad is sort of a pot calling the kettle black situation it's exactly midnight here in moscow just a couple of minutes time we're going to looking at the tough choice facing the scottish people later this year who is willing who in the ongoing battle for independence is what after the break. good lumber tour. was able to build the world's most sophisticated. fortunately doesn't sound anything mission to teach creation why it should care about. this is why you should watch only. the. technology innovation all the developments around russia.

the future covered. dramas that can be ignored. stories others refuse to know so. this is changing the world right now. to picture. from around the globe. looking. over the next eight months scotland's pondering whether or not to cut the cold with britain and the heavyweights of westminster therefore willing the northern neighbors to stay as far as the public is concerned are the decisions far from a done deal looks to be an easy choice the scots are going 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 say part of the focus of today's analysis is britain's extensive diplomatic network and how much scotland benefits from it said 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's 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 that 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. well the boy will probably depend on scottish campaign a gordon kemp told me of scotland can go to the whatever the westminster scare tactics scotland is a wealthy nation we're just not a wealthy society and the reason for that is that we have for the last thirty two years generated more time in every single year. but that money doesn't stay here it's actually taken from scotland given to the treasury in westminster and then a small budget comes up to scotland for us to spend if we had been investing in scotland then we don't actually have a much better economy than we actually have right no so on can more than afford to be independent westminster politicians in the no campaign would see that they are bluffing they're trying to create a to scaremonger the scottish public into not making a decision that would be of

a huge benefit to them and the reason they're doing this is because there is no positive case for scotland to stay within the union. talk to build a new future news that you can build from scratch in just twenty four hours on our website california scientists say the next generation will be three d. printers can put a roof over your head in one day if the technology they're studying right now follows a promise they can do it plus as well the computer hackers are itching to get in the kitchen it seems they're branching out from p.c.'s sold stuff small household appliances everything from high fives to. careful when you open the fridge. i think.

russia has dug a stand republican the caucuses several injuries have been reported there were the latest is going off well the incident happened near one of the restaurants in the dagestani capital city of first an unidentified person fired a grenade launcher at the restaurant and then when police and other security services arrived at the scene a parked car exploded and nine people are reported to have been injured but thankfully no one was killed in this incident police say the bomb was not packed with things like nails and other elements to increase the number of casualties so they say most likely this is a case of underworld violence rather than a terror attack is situated around five hundred kilometers away from source here which is getting ready to host the winter olympics due to start in less than a month the city was visited by the president earlier on friday who wants to get reassured the security

a ring around the city and the olympic venues to ensure the safety of the athletes and spectators. you go pers kind of this is our senior international live from moscow to keep it major vent like the winter olympics were like clockwork you need all the top venues and world class athletes to make that happen you need a small army of helpers to in the saatchi twenty fourteen recruits and getting a presidential pep talk is a farmer. but that meeting was also an opportunity for a question and answer session and one particular question of note came from a forum volunteer he was asked why did the official track suits 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 stressed 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'll get your name right you know you against now what was his message to you all. mr putin says their own begins is holiday for everyone but volunteers first taters for four resistors 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 friends 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 and as we heard there 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 smile 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 color track six. andrew farmer. december in bahrain so hundreds of rallies suppressed and hundreds of campaigns including young people arrested findings collated indeed by the country's opposition party document the lengths gone to him cracking down on protests calling for greater freedoms and equality in the sunni led kingdom out of more than seven hundred protests last month in fact four hundred it seems were brutally dispersed by the security forces there were almost two

hundred arrests made with raids being the most common tactic used by police those raids often carried out at night and in all cases the security forces refused apparently to produce that warrants little paul also reveals cases of vandalism torture and other heavy handed methods handed by the authorities in fact almost four hundred cases the crackdown on dissent took the form of collective punishment i spoke to human rights advocate side had the undersell he told me that he holds out little hope of his aim of achieving a true constitutional monarchy anytime soon though. the violation. remain lots of people 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 if 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. for the night speak stories a suicide attack in the afghan capital killed thirteen a bomber blew himself up at a restaurant that foreigners are thought to be among the victims the restaurant authorities go to a lot officials say guards killed two other attackers as well to try to storm the venue is proper diplomats and afghan officials as well update from thailand's capital as in jude days of intense mass anti government action and seen twenty eight injured now by a bomb the device was thrown from a derelict building onto a truck carrying protesters at least eight people have died as well since the unrest first began in november the latest shutdown bangkok movements the road to ministry located but the prime minister said insisting the only solution to the crisis would be for be reason lection. thanks for being with us next news update

thirty three minutes time next after the break to t.v. titans go head to head larry king meets legendary american newsman dan rather in politic. because he doubted states is the big dog the only hyper power and the cultural driving force of globalization it takes a lot of flack i mean globalization means the whole world gets hollywood and hot dogs and not the other way around so let's take a break from the negativity and talk about something truly amazing about america and as a guy who lives in moscow i could say that the constitution of the united states is something truly amazing in russia there is constant talk about needing a new national idea

a new ideology or political theory or big changes to the russian constitution and so on and it's hard for people in america understand this but twice in the twentieth century the system that russians gave their lives for collapsed and the current constitution was written quickly after a period of violence and said collapse not after a glorious victory now you see why people here aren't exactly memorizing amendments and founding fathers quotes here in america there are debates between liberals and conservatives but almost everyone believes the constitution and it is america's greatest strength there is a national idea that is a sacred document with a list of rules as almost universally agreed upon everyone with half a brain on the street but sadly not in congress knows when something is against the constitution or should i say against america near universal belief in the constitution is actually something truly exceptional about america but that's just my opinion.

on the politicking with larry king one of my favorite people a legendary newsman dan rather what does he expect with the president and the president's political opponents in the years ahead as you see parallels between the bridge controversy surrounding new jersey governor chris christie and the watergate scandal that brought down was an issue and plus how far would he go to get a story. it's all next on politicking with larry king. on the politicking he's a best selling author he was one hell of a white house correspondent one of the best anchors.