amid internal disputes. syria's national coalition finally agrees to attend. today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being the u.s. president to assure americans that the. data will be reined in but critics say. torture beatings and even sexual assaults british senior military figures are accused of widespread abuse during the iraq war which began in two thousand and three and they could end up standing trial in the hague. to officials gain access to

guantanamo bay all in a bid to win the release of the only russian inmate held in the facility join the chorus of voices. welcome to the program. with the weekly. headlines following months of uncertainty syria's main opposition body in exile has finally decided to meet face to face with the government at a. conference and this is the first time the science will be in the same room struggling to strike a roadmap for peace some key groups and members of the syrian national coalition had previously rejected and tried to impose preconditions for the blocs participation in the me. eating thereby fueling the internal disarray in the body

and right before the decision the country's foreign minister offered a prisoner swap with the rebels. is going off now with the latest from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of the geneva two conference on syria it was a busy week for global diplomacy it's our hope that in the face to face meeting of the regime and the opposition will be the beginning of the beginning. and to this unspeakable conflict never before have russia and the us been so united over syria holding damascus and the rebels both responsible for atrocities standing together for a political solution and going further still. supposedly going to try to send the signals to all the syrian sides on the need to establish localized ceasefires to consider the lists of prisoners of war including civilians and also used to allow humanitarian aid. washington even turn around its stance on iran saying it could

also take part in the conference so long as it supported previous international agreements on syria to keep our swing the foundation for he would say you are on the same page when it comes to the most important issues the same can be said about some western nations who may be risking it all off and perhaps right now just one wrong move is enough to bring down this diplomatic house of cards such as the mixed signals sent from france to the rebels who themselves took the whole week to decide whether they'll take part. we don't have the assad regime on one side and terrorists on the other it is the regime that is fueling terrorism. such statements may be music to their ears but these are cynical statements the western military alliance has been recruiting right from the outset and it's confirmed by numerous. reliable sources from pairs the diplomatic bitch move to moscow which was visited

by syria and iran's chief diplomats now my focus has confirmed it will be agreed with and after much debate so has the opposition but still in question is iran's participation by widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and vital to peaceful solution for syria he was going to r.t. . and analyst eric draitser says the u.s. may actually be trying to divert attention from its own role deep inside the conflict. the united states has backed itself into a diplomatic corner on the one hand they've been funneling funding and funneling weapons to the extremists that have 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 another potential player in the region whose participation is in the air out of iran with russia and the u.n. . presence in washington sending mixed signals french prime minister dominique de villepin says it's crucial that iran takes part in the conference. should be as much as possible part of the talks because you want he's a very regional players i believe the dialogue that the international community. on the nuclear question is a very important one we should try to go forward and settle and if we can board in discussing the current crisis of the region we cause we will be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crises how can we solve the syrian crisis with iran and that's why i really believe that the dialogue with this country is

important and we should really take into account the fact that without having you run a border days no solution in the middle east. now in the meantime a u.k. . after three years of. over one hundred thousand. little missy and common sense come together with one. war is not d.h. . does peace have a chance. it's aussie international life from moscow a top military officials could face trial in the international criminal court after victims of the iraq war submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous assaults and torture of the british government though rejecting all allegations. fall the report from london.

up until now the international criminal court at the hague had mostly tried to african dictators and tyrants but the i.c.c. has been asked to investigate thousands of allegations of war crimes committed by british forces in iraq could two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization a british law firm contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by u.k. forces and according to the all says of this report the finger of blame extends to the very heart of the british government at the time so the head of the british army the former defense secretary and the former defense minister could face prosecution for what this dossier calls systemic war crimes there are many hundreds of cases where the people have been interviewed in the provided reports about this abuse and it varies from what people might think are.

relatively mundane examples of abuse to really quite appalling physical violence there of course says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that their civilian superiors cautiously ignored such information at their disposal but the u.k.'s foreign secretary william hague has already firmly rejected the suggestion that those at the top pair in westminster knew what was taking place on the ground in iraq we reject allegations of systematic abuse but whether all substantiated allegations of things going wrong these things have been or are being investigated that does not require references to the international criminal court the position of the british government has constantly been or we're doing enough the point of this is simply that they still haven't done enough there are right. now at the international criminal court two

heads of state one of them a sitting head of state of kenya and the other the former head of state of called d'ivoire they're both on trial at the international criminal court not for getting their hands bloody they didn't do anything themselves but people under their authority are people they should have controlled were committing the crimes so if it's good enough for the african countries it should be good enough for the u.k. to the international criminal court has come under increasing pressure to act against war crimes committed by western countries it's now up to the prosecutor at the i.c.c. to go through the claims of abuse and to decide whether to call high ranking british officials into the dock at the hague probably boy artsy and. the content of the dossier is held in secrecy although some extracts have come to light and those witness accounts made public are rather alarming among the abuses reported beatings electrocutions various kinds of sexual humiliation even is going

as far as outright rape and the family members of inmates were also allegedly threatened by british troops and in the least one case they were harmed and one of the victims said off to being beaten is an eight year old son was also injured by an officer who reports from another witness suggest that while he was interrogated soldiers threatened to rape his sister and arrest and detain his elderly parents we spoke to a legal adviser at the european center of a constitutional and human rights which actually coauthored the dossier. evidence shows that it's not only about individual single cases and incidents it's really a systematic pattern of acts which are. finding in our report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's now is the time because the u.k. had ten years to investigate to prosecute the direct perpetrators but also the

higher ups. in the u.k. ten years and there are still hardly any prosecutions in the country so now it's simply the time that the international courts have to step in. the international is coming to you live from moscow thank you for joining us today as the source the winter olympics draw ever closer russia's president vladimir putin sat down for an in-depth interview about the games with american british chinese and russian journalists more on some of the key points first cross live to r.t. is andrew farmer there in sochi good to see you today of course are security one of the top issues that putin was asked about what did he have to say. well yes it is a major issue these games particularly after the new year bombings in volgograd but mr putin said it was important to remain defiant and he actually told reporters if we allow ourselves to show weakness in fear it means we will help its terrorists he also went on to say that it was important that the international community work

together to try to defeat terrorism now there are something like forty thousand police and troops deployed in and around the moment in the run up to these games but mr putin did stress that they would they are necessary but they would do all they could not to be too intrusive or can speak. your word which is what you're behind right there we're seeing a small troop of security guys walking past you right now what is the security presence like at the moment i mean is it intrusive at all if there is. a calming effect. well i wouldn't say so i was taking a walk along the promenade yesterday and you can quite clearly see a warship on the horizon and there are staying here a small number of police patrols that do all the streets and there are also frequent police checks but i wouldn't say it was a bit bearing and i do feel that some people might actually say it's very reassuring although i would expect the numbers to increase as we near the start of

the games in three weeks time. rushes are laura guns gay propaganda to minors are certainly raised calls around the world for a boycott of the olympics or certainly there are various news outlets media organizations that are really hammering this issue you doubt it was an issue that was touched down again when a lot of may prove who was interviewed by these various networks what they have to say on bad. well his response again was to stress the fact that homosexuality was not a criminal offense in russia he said that call for a boycott of the sochi games over this topic was actually a throwback to an old style of thinking that was harmful he went on to say that in the west some people do still try to restrain emerging countries that is seen as global competitors in the east and he said that china actually went through a similar sort of experience in the run up to the beijing games and people were calling for a boycott of that one too and to underline the point he said that look around the

world there are seventy countries that actually ban homosexuality he pointed out that there are three states the united states of america including texas that banned homosexuality but he said look we don't talk about this and we asked and he asked the question why we only concentrating on russia vladimir putin also talking about russia's chances to win any medals or any predictions on his part and you. know he did stop short of making any predictions actually really. but he did say that he hoped that all the athletes would be competitive and give their all my own personal point of view is that i do think they will get more than the three gold medals they got in bank that was a poor performance but they finished eleventh in the medals table but despite having home advantage they will have to go to try and beat the likes of norway canada and germany you are the main leaders in winter sports at the moment. i hate to say it i mean we're talking about the winter olympics in sochi here but i can

see people behind you walk here and there's another one right there two of them with ambrose over their heads is that kind of weather going to have a bad effect on the winter olympics. well i should point out i'm in the center of sochi the moment and the events that will take place in and around the coastal cluster are begin door events so we don't have to worry about that and even though it's something like eight degrees here forty kilometers away up over the mountains it's minus twenty two at the moment in this plenty of snow there and that's where the skiing events will take place so there's no need to worry ours are all looking good for the winter olympics and you farmer thank you. all right i still to come last to come here on r.t. international today for example i new blow for u.s. afghan relations as washington tries to lure president karzai into signing a crucial security deal eight civilians most of them children killed in a nato raid those details just ahead.

of the plane. deal limbic spirit travels with the flame from its place in greece. join james brown for an elemental and epic journey around russia and beyond. where i want to go.

thanks for joining us here on r.t. international the drip drip of secret information fed into the media by whistleblower edward snowden seems to force the hand of the u.s. president barack obama this week he said he wants to rein in the activities of the far reaching n.s.a. obama announced there would be no more spying on foreign leaders friendly to america and limits will be placed on hold tros of collected data or used or already is will also need a court order if they want to run a check on a phone number using the n.s.a. as extensive data critics however say the measures to be introduced will end up

changing very little well i think the speech was a few baby steps in the right direction but it was a lot of i dissembled lean and certainly it was a reassurance to the n.s.a. and its employees that they have been doing the right thing he talked really focus was on the two fifteen telephone metadata program that is just one of dozens of massive our collections 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 called this fire program that just fire program was collecting all tax calls literally hundreds of thousands of text calls every day are going into the n.s.a.'s vacuum it's gigantic hoover. now the global spread of america's all seeing eyes of cost taxpayers a pretty penny as well the actual figures are as you would expect top secret but

here are some leaked information that lifts the lid on the spy spending the so-called black box that reportedly amounts to fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion. has grown by heart in a decade yet a surveillance methods are only used in terrorist detection seven point five percent of the time and the n.s.a. is by no means the first spy agency to have seriously overreached his mandate as artie's peter all of a found out with advances in technology mass spying can easily get far out of her. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and gillum urkel confronted president obama with this claim. former offices in the east german secret police which was known as the stars of

a warning for the n.s.a. if they think must surveillance is the solution to a nation's problems who quoted even the best qualified and most advanced secret service cannot save the state we showed you that away from the professed shock of the politicians at the n.s.a. spying ability how does it compare with the actions of the east german secret services cheering the cold war as can now as to elude this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stars are used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it i read would snowden's leaks about the shape and scope of n.s.a. surveillance show in germany as one of the top targets for u.s. snooping again. on top of the communist leaning to devil's mountain life the remnants of the last major n.s.a. spying program to look into the private lives of the people of berlin or its

abundant now but back in the day this post was used to listen in on the private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the fifty then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged with them electronically mukesh the way they do it now is much more intensive your web browsing history credit cards they can build a profile on you way easier than was ever possible in my day. didn't have access to this type of technology they rely on developing personal contacts manderson's even those who are working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said it we were pretty good even then the fear of being listened into is taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us human those fires my superior off. is there any technology that they can use to stop eavesdropping on my

calls you just don't pick it up these veterans of the spy game might be impressed by the capabilities of the n.s.a. but they cautious about the quality of the information collected for lessons yet they rely too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their cause it doesn't let you know what they think with the usa doing all it can to justify its intelligence gathering the operation. two point zero by critics but since you continue for some time yet peter all over germany. it's taken moscow officials more than a decade to get permission to visit the only russian citizen kept behind bars at guantanamo bay the delegation was told his case will be reviewed in the near future russia says the notorious prison violates the basic rights of detainees and should be closed down our correspondent. has more from washington visit

securing the release of the only russian national held at the detention center for over twelve years without charge reveal. the human rights commissioner reiterated russia's position on the detention center in guantanamo bay and his meetings with officials from the defense department and from the department of state he said that russia's position is that this detention center be closed down as soon as possible those detention the mere existence he said of this detention center is in violation of human rights and international law the most important probably. element of the visit was to meet with the there was a visit and to convey that message to the american representatives to the americans . that we insist they heard his words. legitimate. quickly taken care of back in two thousand and eight barack obama the u.s.

president promised to shut down the detention center multiple times he said that he wasn't able to fulfill his promise because of the congress which. a number of occasions has vast laws to make it harder and harder for the u.s. administration to either transfer. detainees to other countries or to bring them back to the u.s. and try them on u.s. soil which has left the u.s. administration really in political limbo because this detention center has has seen the image and reputation of the u.s. and despite official reports the hunger strike had one condom obey that it had stopped in december human rights officials claiming the number of inmates still protesting is thirty three military officials are refusing to release any new data or of course they say the release of new information actually detracts from the more important issues like the welfare of detainees and the safety of its troops clive smith lawyer for several guantanamo detainees. the force feeding

techniques. if a prisoner from camp six which is the least camp goes on hunger strike they automatically get transferred not just to count five but to count five record which really has been the most stupidest of place in all of kuantan of prisoners of how little steals and denied the most basic human rights just as a punishment for going on strike but force feeding techniques a very much action unfortunately against the very abusive force feeding techniques so for example and i've witnessed some of the very used to leave the tubes up the prisoners noses to put so much they're still pulling those tubes out every single time tries to forcing them back out each time there's still that forcing far too much food too quickly into the prison american prison so if you assert courageous carry on doing it it really is horrendous what's not. afghanistan has accused the

u.s. forces of killing eight civilians seven of them children during an anti taliban night raid on a house it's one of the many incidents to have tested relations between the nations as washington increasingly loses the argument as to why kabul should sign a security deal and the agreement is crucial for america as it would see a portion of its troops stay in that country after the main withdrawal later this year some analysts think this violence against citizens but any accord in jeopardy . does if it is an example of why the afghan government is so adamant about this in advance like this make it less likely that the u.s. and the afghan government will be able to reach an agreement the u.s. would be happy to keep trying to keep troops there on their terms that their government will be happy to key. u.s. troops here on kind of you know magical unicorn fantasy terms that they never kill civilians they never joined again the afghan government doesn't like those two

things are in contradiction the u.s. forces then magically do what the afghan government wants and doesn't do but the afghan government people don't want those u.s. forces those magical us forces don't exist. from outer space to the depths of the abyss coming up for you a special report on the epic voyage of the saatchi twenty fourteen olympic flame. 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 that 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 the 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 a 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 the work electoral campaigns are a big money affair so it's no surprise that people like you or me can't get into the lawmaking 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 . it was supposed to be just another news or of course although admittedly for a special occasion it was one hundred twenty three days before the start of the winter olympic games in sochi and i was in greece for the lighting of the olympic

flame the ruins of one of the most famous monuments of ancient greece the site of the very first olympic games stones like this would have been part of the temple. the. temple. it.