coming up on r t an inside look at the plight of religious minorities in iraq and syria plus new information is coming out about the treatment of the executed journalist james foley an update on the isis crisis ahead. and the cries continue into an alleged invasion in ukraine by russian soldiers nato allies say they have proof while russia continues to deny involvement either way a humanitarian crisis continues as thousands are caught in the process fire more on that coming up. and images from ferguson missouri bring back memories of war zones after an op war over the militarization of police forces in ferguson and across the

country will some of those departments these scaling back we'll take a look at that later in the show. it's friday august twenty ninth five pm in washington d.c. i mean you're a david and you're watching r t america. american intelligence and law enforcement agencies have now identified nearly a dozen americans who have traveled to syria to fight for the islamic state also known as isis the extremist group has seized broad swaths of territory in recent months and with that they've also attracted more foreign fighters the numbers reported vary but thousands of isis fighters are now fought to hold western passports meanwhile we're just learning that at least four hostages held in syria by isis were water boarded after being captured that's according to

a report put out by the washington post freelance journalist james foley was apparently one of those hostages before waterboarding using a model similar to that of what the cia used to torture suspected terrorists after nine eleven and despite u.s. aid drops that took place earlier this month thousands of years edis are still facing a dire humanitarian situation many are scattered in refugee camps while others have been kidnapped or killed at the hands of isis is edis represent an anxious religious minority in iraq and therefore are a prime target for an extremist group that's looking to form a purely islamic state but that it's have to eliminate religious minorities is not only happening in iraq you can also see it just across the border with christians in syria where groups like al-qaeda and isis now control broad swaths of territory according to a recently released report from the state department persecution of christians in syria is part of the worst displacement of religious minorities in recent history

the conditions for christians in syria is something that virginia state senator richard black has long been outspoken about in fact back in may the senator wrote an open letter to president bush arlo's saad thanking him for his quote horowitz rescue of christians in the letter he said i pray that the syrian armed forces will continue. to exhibit extraordinary gallantry in the war against terrorists please convey my personal thinks to the syrian arab army and air force for protecting all patriotic syrians including the religious minorities who face death at the hands of foreign jihad this given the growth of isis and recent months should the u.s. throw more support behind president assad to discuss this i was joined earlier by senator richard black and i first asked him to talk about why he felt compelled to write this letter. well i've been a little bit like like the boy who said the emperor has no clothes the whole world

has been sort of in a state of group think where no one is willing to to break out and begin to look at things in a very realistic manner i wrote a letter to president assad that said essentially two things first. the syrian forces had swept the column on mountain range where there are many villages that are occupied by christians and i thanked him for the very courageous battles of the syrian army that liberated the christians including thirteen nuns who had been held as human hostages. so that was number one as thanking him for the rescue of the christians number two is i told him that i could not explain how the united states which

suffered three thousand deaths people who were who were sent to a fiery death on nine eleven how we could then come out in support of al qaida which was the very group that murder all of these americans so those were the two things i talked about with president assad and do you believe that actually showing support for president assad will translate into greater protections for these christians. well i think i'm very concerned about the christians in the middle east. there were a great number of christians who managed to survive for centuries and centuries until we began to take aggressive action towards different countries in the mideast. we have had a tremendous loss of christians in iraq we we almost had

a tremendous loss in egypt until fortunately president el-sisi took over and he is very much a protector of the christians there. in syria. president assad and his father before him have both been steadfast protectors of the christian community and. so by by reinforcing what his army did to rescue the christians this was this was my way of trying to to reinforce those are first because the christians are under enormous pressure in the middle east today. while the u.s. has a longstanding record of supporting countries at that uphold human rights how do you expect the u.s. to really support the assad regime considering it has

a pretty dire human rights record. well the the human rights record is. it's a combination of of truth meth and propaganda i thank the who are very close observers of what's going on in syria i have come to believe that the server and gas attack in good in the suburbs of damascus was in fact launched by rebels who were working in coordination with the turkish government. there have been some actual lent articles reported seymour hersh road very fine article called the red line in the rat line in which he discussed the the rebels' use of the serin gas attack as a pretext to trigger american bombing of syria and i think even

even a public commentator like rush limbaugh has come out very public away and said look the the serin gas attacks were not initiated by by the syrian government they were in fact initiated by the rebels so it it within those that small group of people who truly focus on syria there's now a realisation that. we have aligned ourselves with people who deliberately killed thirteen hundred innocent people in the demonstratives suburbs and these are the rebels i believe it was al nusra that actually carried out the the syrian gas attack al nusra is an affiliate of al qaida the group big killed three thousand americans i was virginia state senator richard black. and now to

ukraine u.n. high commissioner for human rights navi pillay called on all parties involved in the conflict to immediately and the hostilities before more civilians suffer me one report published today puts the blame for serious human rights violations not only on the rebels but also on the ukrainian army and other pro-government forces the commissioner said quote deliberate targeting of civilians is a violation of international humanitarian law and more must be done to protect them meanwhile today the ukrainian army subjected the city of donetsk to yet another bombardment artie's all asleep is on the ground in eastern ukraine with more. we hear and what was a small mark a slight in the city center updates as you can see the rocket has hit the whole slice of the whole facade of the building people it was killed one way came at the local bus station you see that awful but it's

a little bloody it looks bloody looks a little tough to look for. your security particularly but if you're one person last night may be covered with his sheeting we can all sit there and the answer is in the distance going up and. to give you some specific this is the point. that this is to be understood by the star says a woman lying. on the ground here and he's been killed she was the worst case and this small store she was hit by the impact i'll be walking in the long. hall for bodies being blown away and we're waiting now for an ambulance to come and take you to the moon you don't need to book your book the bowler or the smokies no look if women use one this is this is one of the residential buildings that has been hit people are coming back now to clean up their apartments and to see what it means this is

a bomb shelter everything here which is top of my door non nobody's inside at the moment but immediately also to the rockets way into people came time to push them through their girders nurture this with the earth as large as they were didn't serve source the material with. it is now the sound of incoming artillery so we can get out of here what some people are telling us is that is an army barracks in the vicinity and they think that the ukrainian army was aiming for better rather than these residential buildings points here on t.v. downtown donates. and today the rebels agreed to provide a humanitarian corridor for ukrainian government forces who are now surrounded by and have separatists this came after russian president vladimir putin asked the anti kiev forces to avoid quote senseless loss of human lives and let ukrainian soldiers leave the combat zone meanwhile president obama said that the u.s. and its major western allies will consider imposing new tougher sanctions on russia

at the upcoming nato summit in the u.k. the members of the north atlantic alliance will discuss amongst other things their joint strategy towards the country the u.s. and the e.u. continue to blame moscow for providing direct help to the separatist movement and some reports yesterday even suggested that russia was conducting a military invasion of ukraine r t is going to check again as more. panic alert in western media after key if tweeted that russia invaded ukraine when reports started coming in that fighting broke out between the rebels and ukrainian forces in the port town of. many were quick to claim that it's russia's doing what seems to be happening on the ground however is that russian troops of pushing in from russia photos of tanks emerged to social media with nothing to suggest that they were operated by russian soldiers kill you put out this video claiming it's

a russian tank. but while journalists were grappling with the new developments and struggling with the pronunciation of the town that was supposedly being invaded this is no bus got u.s. and nato officials pushed ahead with accusing russia of deploying more than one thousand troops and heavy artillery into ukraine last week ukraine called russia's delivery of humanitarian aid into eastern ukraine an invasion this week accuse moscow of quote unquote a full scale invasion the western media that is generally not putting much distinction between rebels and washer quickly picked up that side of the story that is despite the fact that this thursday the ois sea which is now monitoring the russian border with ukraine said they saw no evidence of russian troops and tanks crossing the border the u.n. said it could not independently verify the reports of the russian invasion but a u.n. security council meeting was called upon where its western members push to hold

russia responsible russia stop this conflict at least two thousand two hundred twenty people including twenty three children have died in the conflict in eastern ukraine but we've never heard the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. call on key to stop bombing its own people in washington i'm going to check out our team. all right i'm also. a million dollar lawsuit has officially been been filed in missouri seeking compensation for excessive force by police and ferguson according to the lawsuit that excessive force is defined as false arrest assault and battery a lawsuit was filed by three out of state lawyers who participated in the protests and they are legit the excessive force was the result of negligent supervision a violation of their constitutional rights this news came just as dozens of progressive organizations gathered in front of the white house yesterday to deliver

the signatures of more than five hundred thousand people americans from across the country signed a petition that calls for changes to policing nationwide along with of course the accountability from michael brown. to discuss this and the recent criticism of the pentagon program that funds these police departments i was joined earlier by michael shank professor at george mason university and co-author of a recent report on police militarization i first asked him how it's determined which equipment goes where to which police department. they actually don't determine it's a pretty simple process let's say you're a police chief of a small town like roanoke rapids north carolina sixteen thousand people live there all they really have to do is apply online there's a one page form they say we want to end up in the pentagon is able to give away almost twenty thousand rounds from the war zone from iraq and afghanistan they've given maybe a thousand so far along with one hundred thousand sold weapons but it's pretty

simple process there's not a needs assessment there's very little accountability after they get it and they have to use it within the mean there's no justification that a police department has to put forward for needing a tank correct so you see towns across the country getting equipment that they actually don't even need for example a small town in georgia getting in boats and scuba gear but there's no water nearby so there's no needs assessment whatsoever why do they get it why do they believe they need this. that's arguable as to why they think they need it perhaps they want to show off their toys you see a lot of pictures across the country of police chiefs stand in front of them wraps or mine is just an ambush protected vehicles very proud perhaps they're watching the military overseas and learning lessons they're thinking that we can do a shock and awe approach in america but this is a serious threat to the american way of life small town america will no longer be the same thanks to this militarism and i am i correct in saying that a large portion of that budget has gone to rule cities smaller police departments

across the country big and small but the stories of small towns are becoming more and more ubiquitous four billion has been given by the pentagon in surplus equipment the town only has to pay for the delivery but then they have to pay for maintenance and so taxpayers are bearing the cost going forward of roughly twenty to forty thousand just to do maintenance on a seven hundred thousand dollars vehicle and i don't think this is something a lot of people think about at all you know. well yeah absolutely and as i mentioned we're now starting to hear a lot of criticism over the program we've seen community leaders speak out we're now seeing lawsuits and i'm assuming we're going to start seeing more of those what do you make of the public outcry i mean is this a signal that we're turning a page here with an incredible. opportunity based on very unfortunate circumstances in ferguson because we've been working this defense committee on national legislation we're also working to his case and for the last year but of course people who participate in our time saw armored tanks come down the street armored personnel carriers and routes in response but seattle to veto protests also saw the same so this is very much a tipping point so i'm very heartened by the outcry congressman hank johnson in the

house leading a bill that's now bipartisan one hundred one lavatory republican you can see the senate and and i want to ask you about that because you co-wrote a paper with rep payne johnson called stop treating america like a war zone can you can you tell me what kind of recommendations are put forward in the legislation we will prohibit the following and so tanks humvees armored personnel carriers and like we've mentioned assault weapons grenade launchers anything that looks sounds like a military were prohibited anything else coming from the war zone the more benign nature whether it's an unarmored drone or helicopter for surveillance that can pass through but the really armored stuff we're prohibiting now that's only four billion worth of surplus that's gone to police police can get armor to militarize by another program in department of homeland security terrorism grants are given to police the police then buy new equipment which is handy for the defense industry because they're supplying new equipment and thirty four billion has been given to the d h s program so the militarization of a small town america can either happen through the do chess program or through the

pentagon program so are you tackling that as well or we will get there we decided to take a piece that we could chew initially and it looks like senator mccaskill and senator coburn are all over it is a lot absolutely and given what we're seeing on a community level do you think we're actually see something pass i know that this is supposed to be presented in september that's right introduced in september we think so it's bipartisan i think people are very upset with what is also the swat of the cation of america you're seeing one hundred fifty swat reads a day by departments like department of education who's using a swat team to just issue a warrant a simple warrant so i think people are very upset and this is the tipping point that. incredible and just recently we heard that the davis city council in california told its police department that it had sixty days to come up with a plan to get rid of its own rap and i guess you know they're following to some community pressure do you think we're going to see police departments maybe scale back a little bit on their own or perhaps you know implement new programs body cameras

it cetera do you think that they'll take their own initiatives to do that at san jose police department just so that they're going to give their back to the pentagon so good news there i think there's been enough bad news about the waste fraud and abuse in this program people so in police chiefs county sheriff selling their assault weapons online on e bay or giving them away to friends so there's been enough bad press that i think they'll be forced to do the right thing all right michael shank george mason university professor thank you so much for coming on and weighing in on that is critically. new research could shed some light on why the reaction to the crisis in ferguson may have been so polarized along racial lines research suggests it couldn't be because most white americans have almost exclusively white social networks according to a survey by the public religion research institute three quarters of whites have entirely white social networks without any minority presence taking on hypothetical from a group of one hundred friends each researchers found that in

a white americans social networking on average ninety one of those one hundred friends would be white with the equivalent of one minority friend of various groups all african-americans social networks were eighty three percent black with an average of eight percent white friends all that also shows significant social segregation it does mean that while black americans have ten times as many black friends as why white americans have ninety one times as many white friends as black robert johnson says this research clarifies why stories like those of michael brown or trayvon martin seem alien to the white american experience because those are quote not stories most whites are socially positioned to hear. all right and here are some of the other stories we're covering for you that you may have missed starting out in denver the police department there hopes to become the first department in the country to have body cameras on all of their patrol and traffic

officers by twenty fifty mm cameras will record audio and video of every exchange and conflict between the police force and civilians but all of that will come with a price tag of one point five million dollars and nasa the latest design for a deep space rocket is set to blast off for the first time in twenty team the space launch system has been in the works for three years and will eventually want to cruise to mars by the twenty thirty's the s.l.s. will be able to carry more weight to go further than any launch system ever before but it too will come with a heavy price tag seven billion dollars over a four year period and to the gulf coast nine years ago today the area braced itself as hurricane katrina created the most expansive hurricane in u.s. history about one hundred eight billion dollars worth of damage years later the effects of the storm are still being felt the u.s. census bureau says the population of twenty eight their team was only seventy eight

percent of the city's population in two thousand and a third of renters may pay more than half of their pretax income on rent and utilities. and before we go don't forget to tune in at nine pm for larry king now tonight's show is a panel discussion on the state of faith in america in this clip larry's challenging dr michael beckwith about hostility towards atheists believe it was all supposed to be the giving and loving you don't atheists do absolutely does matter fact i used to be one when i was in college i had the record for converting christians and atheism in a college campus so it was i was raised in a christian household and then i grew out of it and then. i was a devout i was a devout atheist then when i later on in school i had a counter with what i called love beauty i didn't call it god because i didn't

believe in god but the presence was so profound and so real that it altered my character and and now i can use the word god again but it's not the same god that you read about in the bible the koran is not a superman in the sky you know there's a presence of love and beauty and intelligence so those who are believers whether they're christian you muslims there is there is forgiveness within that particular faith but you will agree that it's a large group of believers who hate i would agree with their immature. so tune in at nine pm tonight here on our to america that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to you tube dot com slash r t america and check out our web site r t dot com slash usa and follow me on twitter and amir a david. dramas

that can't be ignored. story others in the. world. picture. from around the. globe. the solution to this. is being suggested to the list of numbers of the.

candidates for the prophecy of war and issues actually back to new doesn't do too much for ad revenue my own tech agriculture giant piece on a seventy six year old american farmer in the studio fallout do you think this is going to create for the cia do you think this is what's triggering a great america is the largest economy in the world it's also the largest debtor nation in the history of the world breaking the set is mostly of alternatives to the status quo want a good deal of points on the elliptic or the american dream the next they were just trying to survive it's time for americans and lawmakers are forced to wake up and start talking about the real causes a problem. really

under the two civil unrest according to new research and according to hungry people rioting in thailand and venezuela right now and that reality might be something americans experienced first hand sooner than they realize right now in the u.s. forty nine million americans are already dealing with food insecurity one in seven americans rely on food banks a quarter of the american military needs outside assistance to feed their families and of course minorities are facing serious under issues this is happening in a country with a wal-mart on every corner but stocks to the brim with cheap carbs and while this is happening food costs continue to rise at alarming rates according to forbes the

price of food in the u.s. has spiked to its highest rate in three years people are now paying much more for staples like meat eggs coffee butter you name it it costs more recent droughts are partly to blame for the rising prices but the stas latest round of food regulations can also share the blame because there are a total circle of doma first we've got this capitalist system that encourages corporations to make really and how the cheap food to maximize profits for investors so our food makers make crap food then we all get fat then the government studies why we're all fat and comes up with regulations like food makers need to reduce the amount of sodium in their products yet you need to watch your salt intake but forcing hamburger. helpers to report their box of barf isn't going to solve our reasoning crisis it's just going to drive up the cost of hamburger helper as it offsets the cost of complying with regulations and in turn hamburger helper

is going to contain even crappier ingredients and that the circle of regulatory domes is completed. another factor in rising food costs is the us to regulation as commodities markets that's according to a study from the new england complex systems and suit in cambridge and it's that study that makes the direst a prediction for the us using plain simple nat and data charts they've come to a clear conclusion that when food prices rise as much as they have been in the us then people start rioting just as they already are in other parts of the world see all that unrest in ferguson that just happened that's nothing compared to what can happen when millions of people really start feeling the effects of hunger that's a level of civil unrest that our crap food system is only going to feed.