up to mom so presentation on pressure from its western vodkas see where his main opposition group will attend peace talks in geneva aimed at binding a political way out a little conflict also in the stories that shape this week. warms up the polls and today should give the american people greater confidence that their rights are being protected the american president promises to restrain the surveillance habits of the n.s.a. but critics say the proposed reforms while. also the international criminal court may soon see twelve british military officials in the dog for the first time in the history of accusations a woo crimes committed by troops during the iraq war. displaying their record breaking court stole the winter games and dispelling

concerns over intrusive security the russian president speaks to journalists just a few weeks before the song made. the latest news on the week's top stories you're watching the weekly seem to national with me your national thanks for joining us syria's main opposition group hamas finally said it will attend peace talks in geneva after months of hesitation they made the decision just a few days before the summit has achieved to begin the opposition however insists they were move all of bashar al assad from power it remains its only priority. looks back now with a sweeps diplomatic twists and turns. 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 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 swaying 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 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 bears the diplomatic breach moved to moscow which was visited by syria and iran's chief diplomats the mosque has confirmed it will be agreed and after much debate so has the opposition but still in question is a once producing region it's quite a widespread acceptance that it's a key player in the region and boy. for syria you've got this going over there.

the syrian coalition's hesitation on traveling to geneva far they expose the deep divisions within the rebel camp see when presidential adviser say nash and donna who was with the country's delegation mosca this week said the opposition in exile has little to do with the people living in syria this part is first of all they have and they have been living outside for so many years they are kind of. you know are brode the whole do not know what the syrian people are going through and second i think because of the source of finance i think many of them are receiving finances from different parties but anyone who lives with the syrian people who wants the interest of the syrian people to be above everything else would give the most priority to stopping this terrorism that is this throwing the lives of the

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 something else and the interest being an ally for other forces. another key player in the region whose participation in this syria peace talks is up in the air is iran russia and the u.n. won't run motions and is sending mixed signals former french prime minister dominic double pan has explained why he thinks it's critical that iran take spot run should be as much as possible part of the talks because you want is a very regional important players i believe the dialogue that the international community is having with the rod on the nuclear question is a very important one we should try to go forward and settled and if we can have you run the board in discussing the current crisis of the region we'd of course we will

be much more efficient how can we solve the iraqi crisis. how can we solve the syrian crisis without europe 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 there is no solution to be the least. starting from monday i'll see will bring you a special preview of the long awaited geneva two talks plans don't miss the coverage of the event from wednesday. after three hours of. just over one hundred. lomas see and common sense come together with one. war is not the answer. does peace have a chance. a huge anticipated address from barack

obama on the future of n.s.a. surveillance this week was widely criticized as failing to push forward any out show reforms the agency will continue its while but with several strictures on it succeed as his authorities will now need judicial approval to top someone's followed and foreign leaders of u.s. allies will no longer be the targets of espionage and a day set which has gathered will no longer be stored by the government although there was no explanation that as to what will happen to it and critics say these measures will change nothing it 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 we're learning more as every week goes by about what they're collecting in terms of text messages and e-mails and and the minute data and it's it's voluminous and the president is is not

can admit in that everything is been done wrong is not proposing to stop doing it is not suggesting we restore the fourth amendment to the constitution he is suggesting that this will continue and it will be reformed perhaps in part someday but he claims it's been a great step forward i don't see it the n.s.a.'s toxics caused outrage across the wild many have compared his successes to the full scale espana the cold war era our correspondent piece on of the looks and the similarities. on finding out that the united states attempt to private mobile phone and cool confronted president obama 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 and 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 during the cold war. 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 edward snowden's leaks about the shape than 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 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 with ears to listen in normally 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 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 indices 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 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 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 lessons yet they relied too much on technology that technology might let you locate a person or listen to their calls 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 over germany. still ahead here this hour russian officials behind the fences have gone tandem obey a delegation from moscow given access to the last russian citizen being kept that they reminded washington of its fulfilled promise to shut down the facility one. street renovation plans in rural spain triggered clashes with police across the country as protesters blame the government for wasting their scarce finance that and much more later this hour. told british military officials could soon

be tried in the international criminal court for war crimes of the iraq war have submitted a dossier accusing forces of numerous cases of abuse and torture but the u.k. is fighting hard to prevent their servicemen from facing the they tribunals aussie's play by car reports now 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 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 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 stuff cia 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 their point 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. 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. no 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 the war 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 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 ali boyko r.t. london. the majority of the contents of the reports are kept away from the eyes of the public however some extracts have seen the light the dossier contains reports of killings beatings rape and virus torture methods that u.k. forces allegedly used on detained in iraq is the families of inmates were also reportedly targeted the eight year old son a one man was allegedly slapped by an officer when his father was arrested and the seine being interrogated claimed soldiers threatens to rape his sister and we spoke to a legal adviser the european center for constitutional and human rights who coauthored the dossier about these accusations. 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 not all 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 when we need to after the break stay with us here in. there is so little self reflection on the part of both them eric and public and the american decision makers i wonder why is that we are not all saw as a country of three hundred fifteen million people very self-absorbed

we are. slated from the world by two large oceans. we're trying to think of foreign policy is something we do to other people rather than that it's something we participate in. dramas that can't be ignored to. stories others the few who still notice. the faces changing the world lights now. to picture posted days leaves. from around the globe. look to.

your washing the we can all see international welcome back when the social winter olympics now just a few weeks away president vladimir putin spoke to foreign and russian members of the media he was keen to dispel concerns about security as well as to discuss some of the challenges of hosting the brand under farmer has more now from they see as i mean pixies. these games are the most expensive in the limping history and five times the original price tag but mr putin did stress that over the last five years so cheap was the biggest building site in the world all the venues had to be built from scratch and with huge infrastructural development in terms of roads and rail links and he said because of that it was expected things would go over budget but he said where overspend has not been justified action has been taken and people have actually lost their jobs including a russian olympic committee member who was in charge of the ski jump facility which went six and a half times over budget and he was fired however mr putin did say that there was

no corruption among government officials about the evidence was presented it would be investigated russia's law against gay propaganda to mine is rose a lot of calls to boycott the olympics from abroad so this issue was also mentioned it was and again he stressed that homosexuality is not a crime in russia but he did say that calls for a boycott on the games on this topic was a throwback to old style thinking which he did not think was helpful and he said that he thought that the worst still people in the west they were looking to restrain emerging countries in the that had become global competitors and you also drew a parallel with china saying they also experienced call for a boycott in the run up to the beijing games back in two thousand and eight and finally security and how it will affect big games is of course what worries many people that what were the president's comments on that. it is

a major issue particularly after the new year bombings in volgograd he did say that forty thousand troops and police are on duty in and around the search area at the moment he did say it was necessary but he also did stress that they would do all they could to make sure that they would not be too intrusive for members of the public and all these people would come to such a. try and enjoy the games my own experience i was walking along the promenade yesterday and on the horizon was a warship and yes you do see small persones of place on the streets and also regular police write checks but i wouldn't describe it as overbearing in fact i would say that i think many people will find it reassuring certainly at the moment with around three weeks to go before the start of the guides. and later today i'll see international revisits the record breaking relay all the game symbol the olympic torch. deliberate torch is on its epic journey to such.

one hundred twenty three days. through two thousand and nine hundred two cities of russia. relayed by fourteen thousand people or sixty five thousand women. in a record setting trip by land air sea and others face. olympic torch relay. m r t r two dot com i. go on tunnel they detention camp finally allowed to visit by russian officials after more than ten years of diplomatic negotiations the delegation from moscow visited the last russian citizen being held in the county they were told his case will be reviewed by the u.s. military in the near future and rima dia has more now for us from washington. visit 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 to the miracles. that we insist that his words and legitimate interests. would be 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. . violent protests are asia across spain this week dozens of acts of this were arrested after clashes with police as protest swept through nearly fifty states is travel was triggered in the northern town of burgas over a multimillion dollar plan to rebuild local infrastructure protests aside being money would be better spent on social needs ultra two year recession and despite the renovation being cancelled the protests went on because of the overall discontent with the government according to one political analyst. the

demonstrators say that they will continue. protesting against this project because they they still don't believe that is going to be the reason why people are so angry specifically because it doesn't fit with the current situation of austerity of cutbacks in services this is an area which has suffered from those cutbacks in public services recently so people they say they prefer to other schools and hospitals rather than politics this is the very conservative c.t.s. this is the other small city in space never happens something like that in a city like hudler so this is probably. one of the symptoms of of how problematic is speed to situation on the whole the whole of space. to gaza has been sprayed during clashes with the police in the ukrainian capital what turns of thousands of opposition supporters are gathered in this central square they want to initiate a road of no confidence against the parliament and the president activists say

a new set of rules put forward this week is aimed at making it easier to prosecute demonstrators nationwide running accompanied by fierce clashes with riot police began nearly two months about up to present in college a deal with the. and after the break on all seem to national it was a pond with house stocks on a bike. 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 not the other way around. 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 certainly not in congress knows when something is against the constitution or should 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 times in office but just to make the world a better place and finished with the world uttering now reg and what needs to happen for american foreign policy to become more pragmatic and in touch with reality well to discuss that i'm now joined by kathleen wynne a distinguished american diplomat who also served in various capacities in this state. and defense department's ambassador freeman it's

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 foreign policy we get a lot of responses from and graham merican is hard to use as few as bashing and maybe my being a russian invited some of those accusations but your an american e.u. 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 particular 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 my service for the u.s. government. own view of myself as an american patriot and criticism of our government's policies now many of the policies that you are an alarmist 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 continentals three of three hundred and fifteen million people very self-absorbed.