our reporters. coming up on our to iraq faces a crisis as violence grows baghdad experience a suicide bombing while another city falls under the control of radical militants the latest on the fighting and what it means for u.s. foreign policy in the region ahead. and a new turn in the syrian conflict syrian rebels have abandoned the city of homs but the war torn nation's future remains on clear an inside look at that coming up. and in d.c. space x. is the latest spacecraft is on display the dragon the two is designed to carry you want to ask for a nonstarter earth's orbit and beyond we'll give you an up close look at the future of space travel later in the show.

it's wednesday june eleventh four pm in washington d.c. i mean you're a david and you're watching r.t. america we begin today with the latest in iraq a suicide bomber has blown himself up a mist a gathering of people and baghdad's shiite slum of sadr city killing at least fifteen people meanwhile islamist insurgents have seized to create a city that situated one hundred fifty miles north of the capital this is a major gain for islamist rebels who just yesterday captured the city of mosul to crete which has a population of about two hundred sixty thousand people is the hometown of former iraqi leader saddam hussein insurgents represent a group known as isis or the islamic state of iraq and the levant to talk about the security situation along with the very latest in foreign affairs making headlines i want to bring in right. hired marine jake deliberate oh he's

a political researcher at the university of birmingham in the u.k. jake thanks for coming on thank you for having me ari so let's be clear about the insurgents we're talking about here who are the people that really make up isis and what's the extent of their control in iraq and then in the neighboring countries isis is primarily a group of domestic iraqis and syrians but however huge contingency of foreign fighters as well they have penetrated local groups local armed groups and manipulated them to be a part of their cause which is the disintegration of the modern iraq in the modern syrian state the toppling of the assad regime getting rid of the maliki government and installing some sort of extremist pseudo taliban asks type state they are nefarious they have they do not they're not favored by many iraqis in fact are recent polls indicate that iraqis do not support isis however what's interesting is about insurgencies in general is that they're able to gain power and they're able

to manipulate local societies if the government is weak in their territory so what we've seen over the last twenty four hours as isis has taken over mosul and tikrit is that the government is weak the government's military is backing down from this fight and the people generally speaking don't in those neighborhoods don't support the government either it's not that they support isis but however the government's weak and it can't protect the people and this is an offshoot of al qaeda this is this al qaeda in iraq that was. always organization in two thousand and two that was basically united states was navigating while it's doing its counterinsurgency with petraeus that organization has manipulated and molded through different branding and arguments internally but isis is the new al qaeda in iraq more or less ok and this week we've seen two different cities seized by islamic insurgents that you mentioned were coming off may which is the deadliest month so.

far in twenty fourteen for the country and a lot of people have attributed this turmoil just to the elections you know obviously we've got this political upheaval i mean do you think on politics at all we're going to start to see the violence draw back or do you think it might just know or know that the violence is going to continue it's on the uprisings and on the decline the couple in reasons we know that the first thing is going back a few years the maliki government isolated and continued to alienate the sunni population which the former the partnership between the sa which was the awakening from two thousand and two thousand and nine the government had a sort of general partnership political partnership there that ensured iraqi security and ensured a sort of partnership generally between the shia and the sunni through a series of political brash and brazen decisions that the maliki government did they isolate the sunni's even more going back to saddam days and just to quote i'm a total solder he said that essentially the al qaeda is everywhere in the streets if it's not for the they. would rip the country apart and it had been twenty

thirteen now we are twenty fourteen the savoie is pulling back not protecting the people the government is weak now you're seeing her isis run rampant throughout the city throughout the countryside and it's only going to continue to get worse and now we see maliki likely about to secure a third term is there anything the united states can do you are they sort of you have to resign to basically working with him the united states really is impaired in any sort of malleable tangible efforts of can give some money it can give some training of some weapons but in terms of assisting the government in pushing off these rebels and government reform the united states is really impaired number one because we obviously we didn't have the sofa to keep our troops in post two thousand and eleven and on top of that we don't have the political stature within the middle east you remember hundreds of thousands of iraqis suffered under the occupation not merely because of what we did but it's because of what we didn't do and so the iraqi. remember that they're not going to support u.s.

presence again so unless there's some sort of other you know magical event you know you know a third party intervention from saudi arabia or something it's highly unlikely that the united states can do anything tangible to stop the violence and to support the government seems to be a pretty severe gridlock i want to translate transition to some other iraq related news after nearly seven years of legal limbo a federal court is finally taking a look at whether four americans are criminally responsible for the deaths of fourteen iraqis and the blackwater incident of course are you surprised that it's taken this long to really work itself through the courts and finally be heard by a federal court and decide once and for all now the blackwater case is interesting because they were armed soldiers are are there armed contractors operating as soldiers in a conflict zone in which the law was very great at the time it took a series of rulings this series of arguments on behalf of the government on behalf

of pressure political pressure from the iraqi government and on behalf of sorts obviously pollute politicians succumbing to certain pressures so i'm surprised that we're actually at a court case now by i think it's more than likely that they're going to come out is guilty and i think there's some sort of problems that are going to occur in terms of sentencing because how is it how do we have precedent for a situation like this because it is it's a new precedent yet of course and lastly i only have about forty five seconds left but i want to get your take on the prisoner swap of the five get most detainees with bergdahl senator or excuse me not senator defense secretary chuck hagel appeared before the house armed services committee today let's take a listen to him being challenged for not informing congress thirty days prior to the deal. did you or did you not notify congress within the thirty day time frame yes or no no what i was oh sure yes or no all right no does the administration intend to violate the notice requirements of section ten thirty five of the india a

and section eight eighty one eleven of the d.o.d. appropriation act in future transfers. not unless. you know he is of course defending the last minute deal a lot of lawmakers are angered over what happened do you think that our reach here is overhyped a little bit or warranted we just knew because. criticizing the president or supporting minute situation like this for the sake of not buying into political grandstanding which is occurring on both sides generally speaking the president's decision is legally arguable for one major reason is because the proper authorities when congress had been notified of an ongoing dialogue about this for some time this didn't something happen overnight magically oh we didn't know about it that's not what occurred there was an ongoing debate it was an ongoing discussion congress did know about it and as a result when the presence of the pull the trigger he's legally covered in this regard the big concern here about the exchange is what does

a what does one the united states gain out of this and what does that set for precedent for future political negotiations insurgencies and islamic in our movements are occurring across the world they're only on the rise or out of decline what's the say the next our movement captures another person sets up another awkward situation where it states a set to negotiate for one person over five thugs this is precedent set this is a bad sign for our political standing in the world and also it gives other armed groups fuel for capture and negotiations all right jake delivered a retired marine and political researcher at the university of birmingham thank you thank you. peace talks between the syrian government and the opposition could take place as early as this week as comes just after opposition fighters were forced out of their last stronghold in homs a city that's been ravaged by years of war artie's maria is on the ground in homs with more. these a new sound that's hanging over the city of homes the place in the shallow

a bomb have to dialogue with the government the rebels left what they considered their capital and clashes stopped holmes's old town the militants last stronghold it's from here that they withdrew following the green meant with u.s. forces and this is what's left after months of fierce clashes after months of their resistance the most a shop someone's home everything is destroyed everything in the rooms but those who were forced to flee and no slowly returning for the first time yes it's relatively safe here and people want to be in the place they still class as their final letter i just came back from the market where good thing god does become possible up to high ranking military and civil figures accepted the advances from the very people in targeting them they're desperate as his best word to describe the situation in which the rebels initiated how dawson the syrian police major was among the

negotiators of the war but just a year ago he was hit by a bullet fired from the rebel side it left him disabled and doctors say he may never fully recover but he still calls for forgiveness. most of them are young people who get influenced by fanatic shakes and islamic clerics who have the extremist ideology that is alien to syrian society i motivated them by money that came from the gulf countries mostly and all this was supported by western and israeli intelligence we need to help our guys who became victims of all this we speak with a major in what's become a kind of rehab center for x. minutes and it's around twelve hundred of them were brought to the school after they surrendered university teachers and religious leaders whose families suffered in the war now talk to former military is helping them reintegrate. most of them say they were forced to take up arms all of them are denied of a killing anyone that they were it's are impossible to verify. they used to give us

lessons to explain to us that the regime is in for jobs that the regime is attacking muslims and we have to fight. we visit comes just days after syria's first presidential elections in decades this man tells us he voted for son the person who he was fighting against just weeks ago. syrian reconciliation is assets initiative but he wants to rebuild our peace and have that. hamza who may have once targeted people in syrian army uniform could soon be wearing it himself as part of the rehab program the twenty two year old could be sent to serve in the country's army and there is no way that i will kill any of my brothers my religion and my work killed my former brothers in arms of the i do not want to kill or hurt anybody it's certain that those behind this are a consolation initiative say the important thing is to encourage other militants

still resisting and there are many of them to lay down their arms and what remains the only district in the city of homes still held by the rebels there fishel say they are not less than three thousand and the army is here nearby and also surrounding the area and they are ready for an operation any moment but the rest of violence there too. in three villages around town some other syrian provinces the situation is similar but it was a known way to go before peace is returned here the total high today that syria is a pleased to have you down the wrong track. may feel shotty from homes in syria. a shooting at an oregon high school yesterday has the country reeling over yet another tragedy spurred by a gun in the hands of a teenager police say the suspect fifteen year old jared michael padgett had an assault rifle and gun and several magazines when he opened fire at a gym at reynolds high school in troutdale police say an autopsy determined that

padgett died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound after the attack one student fourteen year old amelia hoffman was killed in the boys' locker room the incident in oregon marks the seventy fourth shooting on a school campus since the december two thousand and twelve mass shooting in newtown connecticut and the thirty seven school shootings so far in two thousand and fourteen these numbers are coming from every town for gun safety and gun control advocacy group and these numbers may even be low since they are compiled from media reports which may not cover every incident of the seventy four shootings on the list thirty five took place at a college or university and thirty nine occurred in k. through twelve schools and students are reported across thirty one states as math shows the locations of the incidents with some arrows representing sights of multiple shootings topping the list is atlanta georgia which saw ten shootings on school campuses in the last year and

a half rounding out the top five were florida tennessee north carolina and california not all of these shootings however are mass shootings and not every incident results in death or injury every town identifies a school shooting as when a firearm was discharged inside a school building or on school or campus grounds as documented in publicly reported news accounts president obama tried to pass gun control legislation after the shootings at newtown but a watered down version of the bill failed to become the law. so do you know how many federal workers have permits to carry guns the numbers might actually surprise you are dishonest you're going to has more on who's packing heat. think of agencies like the fish and wildlife service and the food and drug administration they don't sound like they have the most aggressive missions out there do they well it's offices like these that have reportedly been part of a curious trend to increase their possession of ammunition for example the u.s.

postal service is one of the agencies in the u.s. stocking up on small arms ammunition why go figure for reasons why we question the u.s. department of agriculture also reportedly requested three hundred twenty two. caliber so machine guns last year the u.s. social security administration placed an order to pull one hundred seventy four thousand rounds of hollow point bullets the mission statement of the federal agency does not indicate why they want any animal at all let alone so much raising lots of questions about why an agency specializing in servicing seers would require gunpower the agency explained that this wasn't by any means an intention to defend themselves against senior citizens but rather for the office of the inspector general where agents investigate social security fraud and other crimes another scandal that had sent the internet was involved the national oceanic and atmospheric administration which oversees the national weather service while its fisheries office of law enforcement reportedly requested forty six thousand rounds

of bullets no less officially this was to protect marine resources and be able to reinforce international treaties both concerns over the last two years have been peaking about an increased militarisation of local police departments throughout the west as well as a record high number of guns possessed privately throughout the country agencies focused on postal services helping out the elderly and overlooking fisheries and oceans life make an unexpected group to make it into the wide list of those being able to get a hold of weapons in the u.s. and especially if you're going to new york. and now to eastern ukraine where the new president petro poroshenko has ordered the creation of evacuation corridors to help civilians escape fighting between and separatists and government forces who is trying to gain russia's backing for a peace plan in the east ordered his security chiefs to create the routes to stop the casualties that are happening in the heavily afflicted areas for more on the

very latest let's go to our tease policy lier. for. six weeks on and with more than forty soldiers did military operation continues the army is in a pitched battle with anti-government activists but it's also struggling to keep itself together. that's a tough one but now they're sending me to war calling on me to kill people in long just like me more and more soldiers are refusing to obey orders and despite a kid's full military mobilization in march bookwork mint has all but dried up whereas once they used to be for drafting officers in lugansk today there's only one and it's quiet they won't let us inside with the cameras i spoke with a clock and he said there hasn't been any kind of recruitment here for weeks i asked to speak with a person in charge but was told that he's taken early retirement.

last month then acting president turchynov signed a decree calling on all men aged eighteen to twenty five to enroll those who did not list in jail but this young man is prepared to risk even more he's not only ignored his call up he's now fighting against the very army in which he is meant to serve. but go to draft letter on the third of march that said i should go to the army i refused i didn't even go to the drafting center i'm not going to fight against my own people we have spirit ideals patriotism they don't have that they're any good orders and money but others did on said the call to serve a decision they now have a great maria's son is twenty years old he was drafted a year ago and disserving in western ukraine she's worried that because he comes from the east he himself will be seen as the enemy of the hippies who hoard i want him home this is the lowest possible we are missing him we are really missing him.

the army use it to like food and ammunition and a sense of purpose and as the casualty count climbs it will become harder and harder to convince young men they should put their lives on the line for a cause many don't believe in point of sphere anti eastern ukraine. it's hard to believe but in january of one nine hundred sixty one the united states almost nuked itself that's actually true according to a recently declassified report published by the national security archive the us air force and an incident in which two atomic bombs were released after a b. fifty two plane carrying them went into a tailspin during a routine test flight one of the two bombs on board was actually in an armed setting by the time it hit the ground near goldsboro north carolina and it should have detonated but it was spared because of one low voltage switch failed to activate properly this near nuclear explosion first surfaced back in september when

investigative journalist eric schlosser obtained government documents that were later published in his book called command and control discuss this incident a little bit more i want to bring in our team producer tyrell fire out there so first of all give us an idea as to the extent of the damage that really could have taken place here if this all of this would have gone off in north carolina and the fallout alone would have hit washington baltimore philadelphia and all the way up to new york city we're talking millions of lives have been put at risk you're also talking about a four megaton bomb which is equivalent about four million tons of t.n.t. there are million tons of t.n.t. that's two hundred sixty times more powerful than the bomb that was dropped on hiroshima was incredible amount of damage and destruction could have happened because of this incident it's incredible never missed it just by happenstance that

this didn't happen it's just a technical failure basically i should have gone. just block eric schlosser the investigative journalist who researched this quite heavily for his book found that there are at least seven hundred noteworthy incidents involving nuclear weapons that took place between nine hundred fifty eight and nine hundred sixty eight just a ten year period and the public doesn't know about any of these should come as a shock the rate at which these are happening i mean i think it should come as a shock to any u.s. citizen just how i mean this makes it seem how inept we are in dealing with nuclear nuclear weapons and we need to hold our government accountable to the most powerful weapons on earth and have seven hundred incidences you know over the course of these years i can understand back in the cold war the secrecy involved you know we're competing with the russians at the time we don't want them to think we're in that we also don't want to panic citizens you know how kind of how many mistakes were making with these weapons but we need to have accountability with this across the board because it's still happening today absolutely and to talk about what's

happening today outside of the mishap of that meeting nuclear bombs there's been a host of other issues that different nuclear missile bases do you talk about some of the you know the most recent examples of security breaches well i mean just last year security forces a u.s. nuclear base in montana failed to recapture stolen nuclear weapon it's a drill that they would run in terms of like ok you know we're running this drill about what would happen if someone still if they failed to recapture it in the drill you know the air force called it a critical deficiency which is probably the biggest understatement of the year the pentagon also removed a commander in charge of four hundred fifty minute men missiles at the pentagon concluded that he drank too much and was a trip to russia was boarding with suspect women you know the air force also then fired nine commander commanders for a cheating scandal and where that involved the emergency war codes and these proficiency test for the emergency war orders so you know they're basically handing

out answers so they could continue to pass each test without actually really test. an r.v. ill trained we don't we don't know what is going on what's happening is that in the air force right now there's a lot of low morale because of the focus on terrorism you know they know that there's no room for advancement there's just it's low morale they don't really you know a lot of these dogs soldiers out there a lot of these you know air force you know folks are just you know they are just kind of feeling lost in their jobs so they're getting lax in their duty it just so happens again lax in their duty with new nuclear weapons. is very concerning is very concerning anyway as we run out of time to tire of into our thinking about it . all right space travelers get ready for a new ride to you on musk has revealed his latest space venture the dragon the company behind the magic space x. has been in the private space exploration business for twelve years however the dragon is the company's first spacecraft capable of bringing humans to the international space station and taking them back to earth

a new space capsule had its grand reveal here in washington d.c. last night artie's mega lopez was there and she brings us a story. it's a tell tale into the future of space exploration space x. c.e.o. elon musk is heading from coast to coast showing off the dragon to council a state of the art space craft with an interior that looks more like a tesla car than something to carry astronauts into the great unknown. musk and his team ship the capsule across the country to show d.c. elites it could be possible within a few years to bring a crew to the international space station and even beyond that some members of the public for even allowed inside representative dana rohrbacher was one of a handful of congress members to visit the dragon to here's how he describes it this is always a really cool rohrbacher believes it's time for private companies to take over and

lead the way in space innovation what we have here whether it is an example of where government and the private sector can work together give them the goal and let them go for it in the future i see more private sector involvement seven crew members will fit inside this new improved capsule it features an eight a super draco engines that will help land the spacecraft at the exact point that it actually took off from with the perception of a helicopter so theoretically this capsule will be able to be reused the same day that it lay out musk says this feature is an absolute must if space travel is going to become more affordable in the future but it also has traditional parachutes on board in case anything goes wrong that is a twenty first century space ship should last. something else remarkable about those engines this is also what will be the first fully printed. so

this is a it's printed in canals for a special high strength alloy that's right printed because it was more cost effective for the space x. team to figure out a way to three d. print the engine as a whole rather than create tools to build the engine by hand. another major difference between dragon to and its predecessor to the current version one makes use of be counted on that's on the space station greg version two is capable of docking or totally without the use of the arm while space x. has not yet tested whether they will be able to bring the dragon to safely back to earth just last month you on musk announced that the reusable rocket that will be used to propel the dragon two out of earth's orbit made a successful soft landing in its first test off of cape cod the dragon two is expected to make its first unmanned test flight by two thousand and fifteen and launch a crew into space by twenty sixteen so it looks like the next great space race is

kicking into gear but this time instead of countries competing it's private companies that are expanding human reach into the depths of space according to safely back here on earth meghan lopez r.t. . a dozen for now i mean david. well. technology innovation all the developments around russia. the future are covered. we welcome aaron nate and abby martin to be terrific hosts on the our team network. it's going to give you a different perspective give me one stock tip i'll never i'll give you the information you make the decision don't worry about how breaking the said we're going to mind it's a revolution of ideas and consciousness and frustrated with the system and struggling problems with would be described as angry i think i'm

a strong. leader single. lead. the try to. pluck people. like you are the sort of thing everybody. know well. like but he. was sick sick linsky says the templates to live sometimes for nothing. just. looks like just he still can still be just if you see the stage

it looked to be. but speech was still. live. bob woodward harrison and aide has the day off today's headlines student debt the average two thousand and fourteen graduate student loans thirty three thousand dollars according to an analyst an analysis of government data by advisers that makes today's graduate.