to be around the inmates because for them we are everything to hate for them we are enemies by definition. with the blockades and the demonstrations spreading across france are two charlotte dubinsky has been tracking developments we all day number nine this is the second week over a nationwide protests and we understand that at least seventy prisons are blockaded yet again today now they started over a week ago because three security guards at a prison in the north of france were attacked by an inmate a convicted terrorist now since that attack took place in these protests have been happening they have been more assaults in attacks on prison guards in prisons in france heeding to prison guards who were attacks on sunday evening now that the prison guards say that they would is incredibly dangerous they feel is sometimes to go to work they fear for their lives because of the types of prisoners that they

dealing with they say that in some prisons like that largest prison in europe that sometimes the inmates refuse to go back to their jails and this is a prison with a high number apparently of radicalized inmates so these are just some of the concerns that the security guards have they also say that they are very very under starved with the suggestion that sometimes in that largest prison in europe there is only one security guard for every ninety in mate now i've been talking to some of the security guards would be lining that other concerns. natalia to go our work is very dangerous where with tins of aggression and experience violence which is not taken into consideration by the government the process of how they want to go that has become more and more difficult for us to act i'm seeing physical aggression towards my colleagues every day it happens every time we open the doors even supported. we denounce the working indications of our colleagues in the prison

the security conditions the numerous acts of aggression against them we want salaries to be increased for those who face such risks of work as well as an increase in personnel and better security so what all the demands of the prison guards well they say they want more than the one thousand jobs that they've already been offered over the next four years and by the justice minister they also say that they want radicalized prisoners to be isolated in prisons for their safety and they want to have more security services available to deal with situations we also know that the president might go on this said that he will unveil a grand plan at the end of next month to reform the entire prison system in france but that still more than a month away and the question is ease action needed sooner the prison guards who remain blockading so many of the prisons in france say it is needed sooner because they need to have more secure conditions to work in immediately. the massacre at

a hotel in afghanistan has raised concerns over the security situation that story and much more still to come. with this manufactured incentive to stick to the public will. when the right wing closest to protect themselves. in the final. to ignore middle of the roots to. call it my enemy here every year again better pick one of the nine hundred talk to

brock here that this was their year twenty seventh day to go to all kinds of crazy eyes and yeah it's sure. our experiencing a bit of a fall back. welcome back this is our t. international now the pentagon has responded to turkish concerns over u.s. support for kurdish forces in northern syria a spokesperson issued the following statement. if the us backed forces. carry out military operations of any kind that are not specifically focused on isis they will not have coalition support let's say for example a unit. say hey we will no longer fight isis and we are going to support

our brothers in a free and they are not our partners anymore. last week in the us announced it would help to train a thirty thousand strong kurdish led border force in syria turkey considers the kurdish why p.g. to be a terrorist group and has a stepped up its military offensive in the area dozens of people have been killed in the operation including civilians you've heard from covering. it former adviser to iran's nuclear negotiation team he believes the us using the kurdish forces is using the kurdish forces for its own agenda the united states has used. kurdish chess pieces to. geopolitical interests in the region. demonstrating much. kurds own interests and this latest. the trail

of the kurdish forces. basically washington's or really on playbook while the presidents of russia and turkey have held a phone conversation to discuss the turkish military offensive fundament putin expressed his hope that the operation will only target terrorists and will not harm the territorial integrity of syria saying abi went on to tell us that he believes russia has a vital role to play in the area. russia has some rapport with the kurdish forces in the north and northwest in syria. one can only hold the mosque or will utilize all its resources. be sent to including the. to the syrian border would do so not only unilaterally by those in tandem with other regional powers. or the turkish offensive in syria is causing tensions as far

afield as germany on monday a brawl erupted at hanover airport between pro kurdish activists and turkish passengers almost two hundred people were involved was it was it was i ought i was it was now turkey began its latest offensive against kurdish fighters in northern syria at the end of last week it views them as terrorists and is concerned about their growing power in the region political commentator joe darwish told us that washington which is allied to both needs to

help the two sides work towards a solution. kurds would find themselves powerless against the might of turkey as we have seen in the unfortunate scenes from frankfurt and probably other places it could actually spill over and affect europe affect people who think they are far away it's very very hard actually to read the american foreign policy at the moment first the americans have to explain to their allies that our world what is there is rather easy and the policy on the street wish. to the world actually to have a peaceful settlement in syria and keep to be. rooted would be a political integrity of syria as a nation state as this one and number two do the actually and want to end the conflict and see peace not. one of the largest consulting firms in the world ernst

and young has been accused of multiple illegal dealings you are done off as the story. the story hidden in the court papers filed by this auditor against his ex bosses could be one of the grandest smuggling scams greed money laundering and back door dealings measured in billions of dollars. is accusing one of the world's biggest auditing firms of covering up the tracks over dubai precious metals megacorp act one. ernst and young for an audit inspectors come to dubai and the first thing they see is a pile of moroccan gold buyers casually bundled up on a desk stacks of gold at a gold refinery could be business as usual except these buyers are literally painted silver in order to sneak them into dubai four to five tons of gold gold bars coated silver smuggled out of more cool arriving in dubai he declared as gold when the team found the discussed it with with colucci the admitted this is the

way of doing business with the with these moroccan suppliers inspectors do some more digging and what they reveal brings us to act two some of the precious metal in colossi scoffers could be blood gold shuffling through papers auditor's discover the refinery was more than happy to shake hands with small mining operations in sudan and the democratic republic of congo apparently colossi asked for no licenses offering cash in hand in exchange for gold proceeds from surge sales in conflict torn countries are known to directly fuel gang wars which are responsible for hundreds of civilian deaths soldiers naam group leaders saying control of the gold mines is a way to money guns and power for forty two of the ruthlessly of them targeting civilians in the process so ernst and young employees calm through colossus cash transactions that's when we get to act three apparently the company deals in cash

almost as much as in conventional bank transfers. that billions of dollars go into a legal black hole impossible to trace so the auditor's diligently record every failure of the dubai giant but there's no pattern the back for them from the boss we requested a meeting with the babies to get it or when they realized that we're not going to alter our findings or change them they went ahead and. changed it on good lines in such a way that our findings and also in their conclusions will not be made public ernst and young have denied allegations they were in cahoots with the group the dubai refinery is still in business saying there's been no material impact on their ability to operate or trade i'm just rehired the man who led the team and expose the alleged wrongdoings says the audit ing giant branded him a troublemaker and sacked him so is blowing the whistle a noble thing or just

a falls there and in this saga it's left up to the court. of r.t. . the u.s. state department has confirmed that several americans were killed in saturday's attack on a hotel in the afghan capital kabul local officials say twenty two people died in the overnight siege by taliban militants. those people had no mercy it was anybody who came in front of them shot at. best basically it was you know most of.

the exact number of american casualties is not yet known the victims also include citizens of ukraine venezuela kazakhstan and germany most were working for a private afghan airline political consultant lou rockwell believes the u.s. military presence is after aggravating the situation in afghanistan. but already talked about sending in more troops and more planes and other weapons so i think this is just for a further unfortunate back down from the campaign promises he made he said some very good things about getting out of afghanistan that the u.s. had no business there and then of course as soon as he was elected he switched and is now stepping up the war in afghanistan and the afghan government itself said that it would only last a few months if the u.s. pulled out there's a hint that the afghan government maybe they ought to go with the u.s. troops and have new people come in so that why why is the u.s.

killing all these people spending trillions of dollars in afghanistan to have a very unpopular government in power. it's terrible these people were killed i don't think we have any idea how many afghan civilians have been killed in the seventeen years with this war the u.s. needs to get out get out of afghanistan get out of syria what the needs to be done here at home leave other people's alone. leave their countries alone stop killing people all over the world and expecting to be loved would. be double car bombing has claimed the lives of at least thirty three people in the libyan city of benghazi the first blast took place outside a mosque in the city center as people were leaving evening prayers on tuesday after mogens the services arrived at the scene a second explosion went off according to officials of the victims include military personnel so far no group has claimed responsibility. russia's defense minister has revealed that talks are under way with several

nations on the purchase of a state of the art russian missile defense system are to go comments. it's acknowledged as one of the best air defense systems out there it can strike eighty targets at a time at a range of four hundred kilometers even if they're travelling at five kilometers a second i'm always about to say an hour but no a second so perhaps that's why there is high demand as four hundred isn't developed technology still on the drawing board or sitting in a dusty warehouse it's on active duty in syria protecting russian units there.

the russian army's top man hasn't revealed the names of the system's next buyers but he did mention the regions the middle east and southeast asia he's touring that part of the world right now mr scheuer who says whenever he's talking to army bosses from other countries there's always discussion about buying russia's defense technology so soon we'll find out who is next in line for the f. four hundred i say next because turkey has already got a contract and when they signed the papers it was big news sure that's a nato member washington's key ally that's counting on russian engineering to keep its safe somewhere else that military might is all but dependent on america is saudi arabia but a few months ago the saudis and the russians agreed on an ass four hundred deal as

well china is getting it and india too let's see if the name of the next customer comes as a surprise. i got does it for me this i'll be back with more news in thirty three minutes. please. bring peace to the chicken hawks. are they going. to stop spreading tell you that. they. think you are not cool enough to fight. the hawks. hey everybody i'm stephen ball. test hollywood guy you know suspects every proud

american first of all i'm just george bush and our visa to suggest this is my buddy max famous financial guru well just a little bit different i'm not. going to find out there are no windows up with all the drama happening in our country and i'm shooting the blood have spun me every day americans come home and look for the store to bridge the gap this is the great american people. but rather the sand. out all over them white house. and out of this that i know are more trustworthy and our brother democrats that are the fourth down because of that.

i'm going to let them but i don't cut him any cut can keep an eye on what i have seen as a child for twelve fall that it will never take up. the load then now mind my michelle the downside of. the only and mind the. members of the hey. get this whole food place choice for you john the i knew you didn't pay i think time in syria says elaine is she ought to have a. model for that in africa will fuck around with mr hague for a gym and then boil the whole thing that are fat in the course. of the.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle days ago the u.s. secretary of defense james mattis updated and revived america's global defense strategy it is a dark vision of the world and calls for a massive defense spending what he calls a defense strategy critics say is a blueprint for wars without it. sucking endless wars i'm joined by my guest michael in washington he is a professor of strategy at the johns hopkins university also in washington we have christopher wayne he is a former army police sergeant iraq war veteran and contributor to the hill newspaper and in person bill we cross to philip giraldi he is

a former cia counterterrorism specialist who is now executive director of the council for the national interest or a generally crosstalk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you wanted i always appreciated philip let me go to you first and percival i read the report and i and i will repeat what i said in my introduction i found it to be rather dark vision of the world is less about defense strategy then preserving or advancing had gemini around the world and i find it remarkably lacking in any kind of discussion of international law go ahead philip. well yes i mean international law did not enter into it yeah it is not a as it describes itself a defense strategy it's an often strategy and essentially what it does it takes away any genuine threats against the united states and against the american people like isis and its shifts the defense burden onto being competitive with other

countries in the world most specifically russia and china and the centrally it creates a. case if you want to call it that for spending vast amounts of more money on defense basically to promote american interests which have nothing whatsoever to do with defending the country ok well that was my reading as well michael weigh in on that ok of course and i think we would all agree that the united states has the an adversarial relationship with russia and china i can accept that they all have their own national interests and they will pursue them wherever the way shifting away from terrorism taking away even talk of the climate i got this feeling we did a point we're going back into the nineteenth century of great power struggles here but difference is these powers have nuclear weapons go ahead michael. well this is primarily an exercise in strategic rhetoric and as such it lays out

a kind of highly aggressive ceremonial strategy what you might call a fierce face strategy and that is simply because the u.s. has entered a historical period where its leadership is declining and will eventually find itself say like spain did in the early seventeenth century in a position where it can no longer orchestrate the kind of hedge i'm on extatic this that hit had come to define itself on and so my sense is the u.s. is staking out highly aggressive histrionics and theater in order to maintain others' fear and in order to cloak the increasing insecurity that we feel because as as you said peter although we are pursuing

a kind of endless war strategy that spain found out in the seventeenth century endless war feeds on itself and at the very end of that you're kind of used up and that's where we are now we're entering into a kind of twilight period that may last as long as it did for spain as long as forty years before we finally give up and say well we can't do this anymore ok chris or let me read some of the words from james mattis when he was introducing the report here but i found quite bewildering here to those who threaten america's experiment in democracy if you challenges you it will be your longest and worst day so what does this have to do with national security i mean who is attacking america's democracy other than the democratic party cheating bernie sanders and possibly the d.o.j. trying to undermine in a legally elected president of united states i find it really quite galling that the defense secretary is talking about democracy when one can make the supposition

that it's very challenge in the u.s. itself go ahead christopher. sure i think that you know secretary madison is a marine he understands war i understand war and i think that taking this position he's asserting himself he's establishing a tenner on the on the global stage and we're just sort of stating the obvious that these are global powers on the on the end of a long history i mean post world war two the main power players have in some ways stayed the same but the u.s. role has expanded i actually look at this a little bit differently in reverse and i think we want to the u.s. is focusing on nucular deterrence and the idea of this strategy is focused back on deterring nuclear powers namely north korea from continuing to be aggressive while reducing endless war i think we've seen i think russia and the united states as both seen the experience of endless combat with forces that are sort of magic things like isis you know we there's ways to control those without having those

endless conflicts so it's a recalibration focused on principled security networks in asia and preventing those kinds of conflicts and yes china and russia are powerful nation states they're sovereign and and those who are the traditional you know sort of power players and so we're just focused on the basics ok you know philip can i read to you some more own words from the from the secretary quote we will develop it during coalitions to consolidate gains we have made gains i repeat gains we've made in afghanistan iraq syria and elsewhere to support the lasting defeat of tears as we sever their sources of strength and counter bear about iran i mean gains i don't know what he's talking about whatsoever the candidate trump said that he didn't want to go down the path of nation building well the united states now is involved in nation building in part of syria ok that it path is being continued here i can't see any gains in the countries that i just mentioned i don't know what he's talking about. you know i don't either i think that he's completely delusional if there's

another comment in the report or by mattis where he said the report basically says and confusion by the russians chinese and iranians between civic issues and military issues now what country in the world has has confused civic and military issues more than the united states so i really don't get this i think that there's certainly have been no gains nothing but disasters in those countries that he cited and there's other stuff in this report i'm sorry it's not a conventional allaying gallup of american strategy moving forward. it's this is more so a a a ticket for mischief on the part of the. administration and if there's a if we go to the issue of nuclear weapons obviously nuclear weapons should be a major issue and there's a common here that basically says that the in the report that the united states

when confronted with with the issues of national importance like the standard of living of americans will be able to use nuclear weapons in a first strike capacity and this is quite incredible stuff and that's a good in that kit includes countries that do not have those kinds of weapons i would like to point out is well ok you know michael you know i'm really kind of confused here is that and i want to ask the same question of christopher is it is this donald trump's foreign policy because it's very it's stark contrast to what he ran on ok everything that's going on right now from from yemen to syria again. in being targeted here i mean it seems to be such a continuation there doesn't seem to matter who's the president of the united states it's the deep state that decides who our enemies are and how they will be dealt with

a. ok because i do i can't the contrast is so great that i've never seen it from a candidate to a president in my lifetime go ahead michael. well candidates get captured when they move from the campaign and from their own voice however authentic or inauthentic it is and then they get a subservient into the imperial worldview of the imperial city and the courtiers or the deep state if you want to call it that instead reshape their worldview and in many ways the over arching sensibility in washington today in terms of strategy is one of tremendous anxiety and insecurity now and so a grandstanding strategy a grandstanding strategy that looks like it's doing things that looks aggressive like the war on isis it's all a wonderful kind of demonstration and display the u.s. is not going to risk a big war with either china or russia but it will grandstand hence the ten thousand

or so barrett fifty caliber sniper rifles to ukraine is grandstanding the same with rocket man in north korea it's a way of the u.s. boasting forcefully but what i would bring home i think is the contrast between forceful boasting of trump and the very much more successful forceful boasting of teddy roosevelt and the difference is that teddy roosevelt was announcing america's debut on the world stage and america had forty percent of the world's manufacturing today it's absolutely the opposite in terms of trends and direction ok let me go to christopher christie year in iraq war veteran i mean if i could just ask you personally i mean it seems like we have a continuation of this mentality of empire in i mean for iraq it's been a disaster for afghanistan it's always a disaster.