for the visit. i mean didn't turn all disputes and divisions a serious national coalition finally agreeing stratton's geneva peace talks at some points or perhaps reject the conference. forms are proposing today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being productive the u.s. president assures americans that the n.s.a.'s use of wholesale private data will be arraigned in but critics say the long awaited announcement is seriously lacking in substance it's. also the sound of torture as the sainz and even sexual assault which are seen a miniature figures they're accused to widespread abuse during the iraq war which began in two thousand and three and could stand trial in the hague. on top moscow officials gain access to gun tunnel day in

a bid to win the release of the only russian inmate held in the facility they also joined the chorus of voices calling for an end to the prison. the latest news on the week's top stories we're watching all change in national with me. and over i want welcome to the program. following months of uncertainty syria is main opposition body in exile has finally decided to meet face to face with the assad government at wednesday's geneva two conference this is the first time the scions 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 talks and try to impose preconditions for the blocs participation in the meeting fuelling the internal disarray in the body right before the decision the country's foreign minister offered

a prisoner swap with the rebels can offer ports now on the latest from syria's diplomatic front. with time running out before the start of 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 of the end 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 we wouldn't be 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 to allow humanitarian aid. it's washington even turned around its stance on iran saying it could also take part in the conference so long as it supported previous

international agreements on syria they keep our swing the foundation for me what you are on the same page when it comes to the most important issues are the same can't be said about some western nations who may be risking it all for half 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 the moscow has confirmed it will be

agreed 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 tool for syria you've got this going on r.t. . the coalition explained a last minute decision to attend the geneva talks saying it wanted to ensure it will be supported by fighters on the ground but the rain presidential adviser is saying a shutdown things the blocks internal dispute shows it's alienating people inside the country. these parties first of all they have been living outside for so many years they are kind of. bros who do not know what the syrian people voted through and second i think because of the source of finance i think many of them are deceiving finances from different parts do but anyone who lives with this is and people who want the interest of the syrian people to be above the thing as

would give the most priority to stopping this terrorism that is destroying the lives of the sudan people i believe it's a question of what is the one the proudest is is it the sea that people and syria and its territorial integrity or is it some personal interest being an ally for other forces and not the political play in the region his participation is in there is a run with russia on the yuan urging tehran's presence but washington sending mixed signals and hillary mann leverage an expert on iran and american foreign policy things the you want to say is not serious about getting a political settlement in the syrian conflict. i think it's very clear if you want to have any kind of a serious process. get started at geneva a serious process that might actually have some chance ever produce a little political settlement to this terrible conflict you need to have all

relevant parties at the table and that means you need to have iran. i think the problem is the obama administration is still not really serious about wanting a political settlement in syria and basically they just they can't get over the idea that if you could just get president assad out of office it would be this terrible blow to iran is regional position they just can't let go of that of that fantasy that they've indulged for almost three years now. after three years of. over one hundred. lomas see and common sense come together with one. war is not the answer. does peace have a chance. to military officials could face

trial in the international criminal court after victims of the iraq war submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous a souls and torture they were just government projects or on occasions oh she's point to point to reports now from. 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 a two hundred and fifty page dossier presented by a human rights organization and a british law firm contains allegations of beatings of electrocution smoke executions and sexual assault committed by u.k. forces and according to the office 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 they're put says that british military commanders knew that their forces were committing war crimes and moreover that their civilians to parry as cautiously ignored such information at their disposal but the u.k. foreign secretary william hague has already firmly rejected the suggestion that those at the top here 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 were doing enough the point of this is simply that they still haven't done enough there are right now. no at the international criminal court two heads of state one of them the 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 or people who should have control 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 ali boy kerry r.t.

london. the continent of the dossiers held in secrecy although some extracts have seen the light on both witness accounts made public are alarming so among the abuses reported sings electrocutions virus kinds of sexual humiliation and even rape the family members of inmates were also allegedly threatened by british troops and in at least one case harmed one of the victims said after being beaten his eight year old son was also injured by an officer reports from a not that witness such as that while he was interrogated soldiers threatens to rape his sister and arrest his elderly parents and we spoke to a legal adviser to the european center for constitutional and human rights which coauthored the dossier. evidence shows that it's not only about individual and single cases and incidents it's really a systematic pattern of reparative acts which are cured and finding in our

report or communication to the i.c.c. it's mars and single isolated incidents it's now is a 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 international courts have to step in ahead of these still shelling because russia's president vladimir putin has said down for an in-depth interview about the games with american british chinese and russian journalists and he's and you're from i told my colleague who are we so shy about the key points raised. mr putin said it was important to remain defiant and he actually told reporters if we allow ourselves to show weakness and fear it means we will help the terrorists we 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 sochi at the moment in the run up to the sky. but mr putin did stress that they are necessary but they would do all they could not to be too intrusive or conspicuous obvious taking a walk along the promenade yesterday and you can quite clearly see a warship on the horizon and there are a small number of police patrols. the streets and there are also frequent police checks but i wouldn't say it was overbearing 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. russians are laura against 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 a lot of may prove who was interviewed by these various networks what they have to

say on bad his response again was to stress the fact that homosexuality was not a criminal offense in russia he said that calls for a boycott of the saudi 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 paging going through people who are calling for a boycott of that one so you want to underline the point he said that look around the world there are seventy countries actually ban homosexuality he pointed out that there are three states the united states of america including. existed than 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 roy but he did say that he hoped that all the athletes would be competitive and give their rule my own personal point of view is that i do think they will get more than the three gold medals they got in vancouver that was a poor performance but they finish eleventh in the medals table but despite having home with volunteers they will have to go some to try and beat the likes of norway canada and germany he was the main leaders in winter sports at the moment. i new blood for us i'm going to relations as washington tries to new a president karzai into signing a crucial security deal eight civilians most of them children are killed in a naysayer raid that he's howell's our head for you to the break. there is so little self reflection on the part of both the american public and the american decision makers i wonder why is that we are. country of three hundred

and fifteen million people very self-absorbed we or. saluted from the world by two large oceans. we're trying to think of foreign policy is something we do to other people rather than something we participate in. right see. first strike. and i think that you're.

this is the weekly on r.t. international welcome back the drip drip of secret information fed into the media by whistleblower edward snowden seems to have forced the hand of u.s. president barack obama this week s. he said he wants still rein in the exigencies of the far reaching n.s.a. obama announced there would be no more spying on foreign leaders friendly to the uighurs and limits were placed on how tros of collected data are used authorities would also need a court all day 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 change a little. 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 is 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 virtue basically said well we will do it in a it's all fair way and don't worry about it i mean there were just no real guarantees that. the global spread of america's all seeing eyes have cost taxpayers a pretty penny as well the actual figures are as you'd expect top secret but it is some leaked information that leaves the lid on a spy spending so these so-called blank budget reportedly amounts to fifty two point six billion dollars for twenty thirteen out of that over ten billion went to the n.s.a. its funding has grown by half in the decade yet the surveillance methods are only used in terrorist detection seven point five percent of the time. so the

n.s.a. is by no means the spy agency to have seriously overreached its a mandate and as peter all of a found out with advances in technology in my spine can easily get out of hand. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and gloom urkel confronted president obama with this claim. formal 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 quote if it's 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 to this can now assume this is exactly as illegal as some of the tactics that the stasi used to employ it is a breach of human rights but the government machine is so powerful that you can't stop it edward 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 high up on top of the ominously named 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 well it's abundant now but back in the day this post with ears to listen in normally private phone calls of thousands of citizens in both the east and the west of the city. then it was thousands of calls now it's millions sometimes tens of millions of data connections that are tracked and logged in the movie 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. even those who were working in counterintelligence in the west were ours even they said it we were pretty good even then the fear of being listened into was taken seriously as one former officer charged with looking into nato told us human those fyrst my superior officer is there any technology we have that they can use to stop eavesdropping on my calls yeah answer yes 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're cautious about the quality of the information collected for dozens yet they relied 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 dubbed two

point zero by critics looks set to continue for some time yet peter all of the r.t. germany. and stake in moscow officials more than a decade to get permission to visit the only russian citizen can behind bars at gun time obey the delegation was told his case will be reviewed in the near future russia says the notorious prison and violate the basic rights of detainees and should be closed down our correspondent rima handy here has more now from washington. visit aims at securing the release of the only russian nationals held at the detention center for over twelve years without charge revealed. the human rights commissioner reiterated russia's position on the detention center in guantanamo bay in his meetings with officials from the defense department and from the department of state he said russia's position is that this

detention center be closed down as soon as possible this 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 a visit was to meet with with those citizens and to convey the message to the american representatives of americans. that we insist there of hubris and legitimate. quickly taken care of back in two thousand and eight barack obama the us 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. . i'm gonna stand has accused the u.s. forces of killing eight civilians seven of them children during an. 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 to screw shell for america as it would see a portion of its troops stay in the country pons the main was told later this year foreign policy analyst payne says afghanistan is just another country destroyed by the us military and the show. that's always the argument that the foreign powers make they always make it sound like they're invading a country just because they care so much about the people that are under attack but all over the world you can see the fruits of us foreign intervention in these kind of massacres are really built in to foreign interventions you can see it wherever this happens whether in the middle east africa asia anywhere the result is poverty

misery suffering they've never improve the lives of the people of the people have the right to run their own country a president karzai if he represents the afghan people should be demanding that reparations be paid to the people of afghanistan for the so many crimes that have been committed there for all the people killed for all the lives lost for all the poverty and misery created by u.s. intervention and those reparations shouldn't come from ordinary working class americans it ought to come from halliburton it ought to come from general electric and all the military contractors that have made so much money off of the destruction of the people in afghanistan and so many other countries in the world mounting civilian casualties from american miniature operations as one of the key reasons the u.s. going to security punk's is on shaky ground washington's dropped pushes for thousands of its soldiers to remain in afghanistan after that cold but mission and later this year although the role is supposed to support local forces the u.s. open since troops to be able to carry out attacks and a raid i'm going holmes or while being immune to prosecution president karzai is

reluctant to approve the deal demanding an end to as strikes as a precondition for any agreement. and there right after the break on all seem to national it's one of the ponds with house life. because you don't states is the big dog the only hyper power and the cultural driving force of globalization it takes a lot of flak 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 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 see against america near universal belief in the constitution is actually something truly exceptional about america but that's just my opinion.

hello and welcome to well the party. it's hard to find a country whose foreign policy has oscillated more between idealism and cynicism than that of the united states many american presidents began their terms in office with blah just to make the world a better place and finished with the world uttering now right dan what needs to happen for american foreign policy to become more pragmatic and in touch with reality while to discuss that i'm now joined by caspar eamon a distinguished american diplomat who also served in various capacities in the state and defense department's ambassador three minutes a great privilege to have you on the show i'm glad to be here you know every time when we try to examine the u.s. foreign policy we get a lot of responses from and graham merican her accuser has a few as bashing and maybe my being

a russian invited some of those accusations by your an american the you gave thirty years of your lives to the service of your country and yet some of your views on the american foreign policy a pretty solid bring i wonder how do you distinguish between critical thinking and criticism and is it possible to avoid criticism while applying critical thinking to american role in foreign affairs the united states has a democracy and one of the responsibilities of citizens as i see it is to speak out and try to influence policy and that's particularly the case when the policies that are being followed are either unrealistic or counterproductive. and in the middle east in particular u.s. policy has been pretty consistently counterproductive in recent years so i don't see a contradiction at all between. service for the u.s. government. view of myself as an american patriot and criticism of our

government's policies now many of the policies that bureau i. analyzed in your book america's misadventures in the middle east tend to have some sort of recurring patterns you know some of the mistakes tend to be made over and over again and yet i think. there is so little self reflection on the part of both the american public and the american decision makers i wonder why is that we are a continental sized country of three hundred and fifteen million people very self-absorbed we are. slated from the world by two large oceans. we tend to think of foreign policy is something we do to other people rather than to something we participate in with them or that they do to us so there's a particularly since the end of.