anymore but somehow they were designated as threats and from speech around the world we face rogue regimes terrorist groups and rivals like china and russia that challenge our interests our economy and i have advice in confronting these horrible dangers we know that weakness is the surest path to conflict and matched power is the surest means to our true and great effects i was just watching our mainstream coverage earlier and the only criticism big had wellies foreign policy wise was that he was apparently too soft on russia and you know the united states requires to have major enemies to justify the seven hundred billion dollar defense budget which is actually one point one trillion if you break it down so these are all important noises for the president to make the state of the union to sort of shore up support from the defense bloc as it were to

chinese it does ring a bit cold war ish to russia however we're beyond cold in terms of the cold war the rhetoric is much more aggressive much more pursuit for us the agenda is much more pernicious and it's become a centerpiece of u.s. partisan politics the whole russia gate issue donald trump also announced that he'd signed an executive order to keep the quantum obey detention center open as the spy get mo becoming notorious for various human rights abuses including two terms pretty decisive barack obama vowed to close the facility back in two thousand and nine but never delivered on that promise. in the past we have foolishly released hundreds and hundreds of dangerous. only to meet them again on the battlefield including the isis leader. who we

captured who we had who we released. so today i'm keeping another promise i just shy. prior to walking in an order directing secretary to reexamine our military detention policy and to keep open the detention facilities in guantanamo bay. when crime came into power he said not only that he believes torture works he's going to fill guantanamo up the only reason why i can say this is because there's no precedent for people being prosecuted for war crimes and i think it's important that this would praise the said the war crimes carried out in kuantan immobile graham and all the other detention for the cities by the americans in fact recently now for the first time i think in recent history the i.c.c. the international criminal court is finally investigating some of the abuses that the americans carried out in afghanistan and perhaps later in kuantan them and it's

an unprecedented move so to be saying that at a time when this investigation is taking place that i'm going to keep quantum open is an affront to the very notion of justice. the russian hacking group fund seabirds is claiming that the canadian olympic committee covered up a positive doping test of its national poll vault champion prior to the rio olympics earlier my colleague erin discussed the details with artie's really bitter end. well it looks like an raising e-mail exchange supposedly between the people from the canadian olympic committee and also their national body that is responsible for sports ethics some pretty disappointing tactics in there it looked like attempts to play down an anti-doping rule violation and some corkey damage control around the summer olympics in rio and here is the athlete at the center of this what can you tell us about him well it's all of the case of the former pole

vault champion from canada his name is shawn barber prior to rio he had tested positive for cocaine but instead of being thrown out of the olympics after several and turned all disciplinary proceedings with that in canada he was allowed to go and moreover this case was hidden from the international olympic committee for a while he was not permitted to disclose shaun sue wish and prior to or during the games we do not condone this behavior sure has apologized for his mistake and poor judgment. now for a moment just bear in mind all the treatment that the russian olympic athletes have been getting and listen to how shawn barber was cleared to basically what he did was claimed at the hearings that he had in the haled or ingested the cocaine during a sexual intercourse with someone he called

a professional woman she found him allegedly on a craigslist ad and the cocaine was transferred when a kiss happened so canadian officials were happy to let him go and keep the odyssey in the dark about this by the way just for your information the pole vaulter and came out as gay a few months after the olympics and said that he was proud of it very interesting i have presumed the i.o.c. has taken this on very seriously well i can tell you it was too late to take this seriously they couldn't do anything about that when they found out but apparently some people at the i.o.c. weren't so happy with the situation president thomas allegedly called the ruling a decision that was influenced by national interests but in the meantime if we go back to the e-mails some top canadian sports officials appear to have been trying

to do everything to make sure that this case doesn't get any further attention including legal attention and if you look at the wording it suggests that anyone who's concerned or anyone who's just even trying to ask questions about this is doing something terribly wrong it does not seem right that this is being suggested publicly would have an independent determined that the athlete was a new fool in this case. and the i.o.c. had the right to appeal the decision of the time and none of them did well this is the point where i once again want to mention all the russian olympic bans well everyone has their own understanding of the words double standards. we discussed the issue with professor of sociology at aston university ellis cashmore he believes there's a double standard at work given that russia's athletes have been banned even

without testing positive for doping what is novel of course is this apparent relaxation of warder's rule of strict liability warders premise with all of its other rules regarding drugs is that the individual athlete is slowly responsible for his or her own body as if you're in a bar and somebody spiked shore drink your responsible for it even if you'd left your drink on guarded while you went to the toilet or something like that or turned your back your the perpetrator of the crime russian athletes have been banned from competing even without giving any kind of positive don't test at all being guilty by association so there is this kind of striking difference between the treatment that russian athletes are being given and those that have been afforded to north american athletes the looming only one hundred sixty nine russian athletes will be

invited to the games that out of almost five hundred they were nischelle he put on the list russian president vladimir putin has apologized to the athletes saying the country failed to protect them but you know better than anyone else how hard it is to gain victories in modern scored how much effort you need and it's two times harder when sport is mixed with events unfamiliar to sport politics we apologize for not managing to protect you from that r.t. talked exclusively to a number of russian olympic hopefuls who heard from the president. so you're going to there is a certain amount of pressure on all of us of course it's quite a complicated situation are really want to do my best want to overcome my anxiety and distance myself from all the stir the media is causing around us now i want to address our fans i want them to be more kind and to keep supporting us no matter what i need to forget about our desire to win forget that everyone is against us

and just continue doing our job. within ourselves we know what country were present it matters what we feel not what we wear just so you know you have hard feelings for those who weren't allowed to participate even though they were innocent and maybe we're still a bit angry about that. as afghan and u.s. forces have increased their attacks against militant strongholds in afghanistan civilians are finding themselves caught in the crossfire in their own homes. islamic state militants came here the government then dropped off a leaflet to warn us so we fled our village and then the americans were martyred and destroyed these houses we demand the government help us. the three villages who were killed did not belong to i saw all the taliban they were in their houses during the bombardment a man a woman and their son were killed in that incident. we were on

our way villagers said the u.s. forces were coming here then we continue our trip tour it's a central district during this time they bombed us there were eleven of us and vehicle on the i survived theater ten people including my appearance in cousin were all killed. the latest statistics from the u.s. air force makes the situation clear in the last year the united states dropped more than four thousand bombs in afghanistan and since august alone the u.s. has carried out twice as many as strikes as in the previous two years combine american military forces insist that they take every precaution to avoid civilian casualties. i discussed this story now in more depth with nicholas davies he's the author of blood on our hands the american invasion and destruction of iraq nicholas that the civilian deaths we're talking about in afghanistan they're quite terrifying the numbers tripled since two thousand and fifteen the obvious question is why is this happening. well i think we

have to take take those put those figures in proper perspective because the figures that we hear from the u.n. that are widely reported are only the numbers confirmed in completed investigations by the u.n. so this is really probably a very very small fraction of the total number of civilians who have really being killed in afghanistan over the last sixteen years. and you know this this war is just raging on. the number of airstrikes is yes it's a lot more than in twenty fifteen and twenty sixteen but that figure of four thousand bombs dropped in the last year that's actually about average for the last sixteen years there's been a total of sixty seven roughly sixty seven thousand bombs and missiles dropped on

afghanistan in that time and you know the physicians physicians for social responsibility did a report called body count about two years ago they estimated total civilian casualties between one hundred six thousand and one hundred seventy thousand that's just civilians not counting competence and that's probably that also is probably a very conservative estimate this this war has been variously a nightmare for civilians in afghanistan we've witnessed in the last month in some really horrific terrorist attacks so many people have been killed in those in afghanistan why do you think we're seeing what seems to be adding an uptick in those is it perhaps a response to the bombing campaign. yes i'm sure they yes

the taliban is is fighting back. you know by the means that are available to them and in fact it's the taliban that has been making progress since. u.s. troops most u.s. troops were withdrawn in twenty fourteen. and so now yes there are operating successfully in cabo they are they now control completely control fourteen district capitals around the country and and according to a survey by the b.b.c. the taliban is now active in seventy percent of the country. it was in august on interim balances new strategy in afghanistan what you strategy i mean forgive me if i'm wrong it seems to boil down to just more bombs more airstrikes is it achieving anything how would you assess it well no because it's still just

more of the same it's exactly what they've been doing. this level of bombing four thousand bombs in a year for the last two or three years of the bush administration and the first three or four years of the obama administration this is exe that's the same level of bombing four to five thousand bombs every year that's about a hundred hundred bombs a week. year in year out. you know five or six years there and you know this is not a war that can be won. by by the us and if it's afghan allies you say they can't win this if washington was to pull out what would happen in the void how would the afghan forces cope against the taliban another likes. well the official u.s.

and afghan government policy is actually not to win the war or to militarily defeat the taliban what they have been saying for years is that their strategy is to degrade the taliban to the point where the taliban will come and negotiate and agree to some kind of political compromise but of course now for the past two or three years the taliban has been gaining ground so of course the u.s. does not want to sit down and negotiate with the taliban from a position of weakness but that ultimately is what has to happen for the sake of all these thousands hundreds of thousands of people now who have been killed nicholas good to speak to appreciate your time and your views my guest nicholas davies author of blood on our hands the american invasion

a destruction of iraq. on to other news israeli legal activists a father lawsuit against two new zealanders one of whom is jewish herself and that's because they apparently influence the pop star lord to cancel a planned begin to live on this policy or as the story. late last year the new zealand pop star norwood announce that she was canceling a performance that she was scheduled to have given here in tel aviv in june of this year now it seems as if her announcement was made following an open publication of acorn by two new zealanders urging her to boycott the country lord posted her response on her twitter feed noted been speaking with many people about this and considering our options thank you for advocating me i am learning all the time to now is really activists are suing those two new zealanders in what appears to be the first lawsuit filed under its controversial israeli anti boycott law the law

goes back to two thousand and eleven and it could open the door to civil lawsuits against those calling for a boycott of his role including of lands it's occupied if it can be proven that that call knowingly to a boycott now of the law is part of the israeli government's way to try and deal with the boycott sanctions and disinvestment movement there has been growing traction against israel in recent years it does allow the courts to impose damages against defendants now critics of the law of course argue that it stifles freedom of speech and freedom of expression. after much anticipation from football fans the english club leeds united i'm very old it's new burj only to receive loads of criticism quickly caved in and is now living supporters choose a different design in a public vote. the

is.

ok you got it today that is all from a i have to go now out you probably knots but anyway no need to worry sean thomas will bring you right up to date at the top of their. home. is this is hotter than kentucky. over all of this rube boyce says if you work in st fanny's where you. mean. a co money city it was only the snow cone mines left. the jobs are gone all the coal mines of said. i'd. love to see these people the survivors of

disappearing before their eyes. i remember thinking when i was younger that if anything ever happened to the coal mines here that it would become a ghost town but i never thought in a million years i would see that and it's happened it's happened. across europe municipalities are taking their water supply back from private companies to meet people this is a simple song alone even some company elsewhere though they invited private companies to take over the utilities anybody tell us the rope was allowed to miss you guys you got. to quote them out

of it for you. brought up locals are ready to stand up for the basic human right of access to water it's about water but it's also over much more and more it's about the hurt and the redistribution of. their day down towards the one. below and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle the release the memo moment is upon us republicans are billing it as some kind of silver bullet revealing political corruption at the highest levels of the department of justice and f.b.i. to democrats on the other hand and their supporters in the liberal media

distraction finally the public will decide. cross knocking released the memo i'm joined by my guests least granahan in washington he's an investigative journalist and a co-host for faultlines on radio sputnik also in washington we have james chatteris he's a former advisor to the u.s. senate republican leadership and in los angeles we cross to ha goodman he's a columnist and journalist pup. which in the huffington post salon the hill and other publications right gentlemen crossed liberals in fact that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate a.j. as usual you got up early as for this for this program god bless you glad to have you with us all right we have our heads beginning to roll we have entered mccabe out. rosenstein next in who else and talk about the state of denial in the liberal media go ahead ha it's good to see again it's great to be

here well the obama white house illegally spied on trump since two thousand and fifteen this is according to the guardian g c h q was sending information to the u.s. intelligence committee community about trump associates this is before the alleged russian hacking of the d.n.c. this is before all the facebook posts apparently gave swing states to try and this is before the russian hacking narrative there is no crime that trump is said to have committed so they've been spying on trump illegally susan rice on mask names illegally and they try to find information on trump associates even though trump has never been accused of a crime and he's not the subject of a crime they haven't found any evidence and it's been since two thousand and fifteen the mullah probe is completely partisan and it was a result of james comey squeezy memos. russia never interfered in the election

to the point of giving the election to anyone what took place was it was a one point two billion dollar loss from hillary clinton and to cover up the loss we know that there was an insurance policy so peter struck in the text messages stated well i spoke to andrew mccabe and now mccabe is out. and we can't we can't. question whether or not we have to have an insurance policy if in the event that trump wins then you have speedo struck ok all right. ha you got a lot of material right there let me go to james here i mean ha's got it down cold here the facts here but james i mean the fact of the matter is that we're going to actually see what's behind the curtain here how the obama justice department and f.b.i. operated as they went through the election cycle this is the real scandal here

because if you look at all of these things peter struck his girlfriend and all these things with andy's office and all that there's nothing about russia they're absolutely zip go ahead james. that's have sure a little really right what we're really talking about i think the key word here is conspiracy there was a conspiracy with and organs of the of the federal government particularly the f.b.i. i understand there's some reference to the cia in this memo as well we'll have to see if it's in there or not but i think if you look at the hysteria with which the democrats have been opposing release of this memo and also the distraction that the media has been pursuing to take away the attention of this memo if you go to the three networks or m s n b c or or c.n.n. they don't lead with talk about this memo they talk about trump once thought about firing muller it's the saturnine massacre all over again it's attempt to deflect deflect from the real news which is this thing which i expect in short order we will see what's what and i think i do think some other heads will roll out just

because you know it's interesting you know the the non news event is news i mean what kind of world are they living and i know what kind of well actually they live in a very intellectually corrupt unmoral world that's what i think you're in a legal you had christopher ray came out of his office and kind of wandered up i guess it was to the capitol and he looked at this memo here and reports say that he was surprised or shocked i don't remember the exact world word why in the world. the head of the f.b.i. surprised about material that the deal way in the f.b.i. gave to congress i have to wonder what's going on with the head of the f.b.i. if he is shocked and we all are in a very worrisome place here go ahead lee well let's talk about the real problem here the problem is not rogue agents the problem is institutional the problem is i'll use the term deep state you could also call it the persistent state it is not a shock at all that the cia is involved in this because the fact is whoever is in

the white house whoever is in congress there is a persistent group of people who stay from administration to administration it's an unelected fourth branch of government and that's what's happening this is an institutional thing and whatever you think of donald trump whatever you think of his policies i don't trump supporter but if you don't like him. it doesn't make any difference he was clearly an outsider who the deep state the persistent state was very very worried about and part of that apparatus is also the media i cover a lot of white house press briefings let's flash back to last spring over and over and over again i was in that room in the white house press briefing room when trump came out and said that i was that i was wiretapped he said it remember that the media activism he was a crazy person and it was five days of questioning and i remember every media outlet was tag team each other hey you asked this all asked that now cut to the

last week i was in three briefings last week at the white house and i was there the first time a question was asked about releasing this memo i had sat through a number of briefings it had already been on social media right and it had already been out by the way why was it on social media because over one hundred republican congressmen looked at it it's not russian when one hundred republican congressman look at something and go we think this should come out it's going to resonate through particularly republican social media a little part of it is going on in your listening audience i mean you're going to get needs to cover it up oh well yeah because they're complicit in h a i mean this is this is about i was going to say you watching him it's the b.b.c. and c.n.n. and they're terrified of this memo i mean watching them go blue in the face but what about national security what about what about this it's trump's fault i mean they don't even want i mean i thought sunshine was the best cure here i mean that was an old liberal mantra at least way i was growing up ok i mean they want to

continue to live in darkness where they bring the public with them every single night go ahead ha well there's a reason why fusion g.p.s. and buzz feed are being sued by three russian bankers an entrepreneur i think trumps lawyers suing fusion g.p.s. . the cia was. nonsense and it was a fantasy maybe bill clinton's fantasy who knows it was complete and utter nonsense gossip hearsay derived from russian sources so so the collusion is actually the d.n.c. and hillary clinton purchasing the dust for around nine million dollars in fees to the law firm that clinton used. the congress should ask for an itemized report to find out how much was actually paid for this nonsense used for feisal war and so that's what. the memo it's all about as it were getting all about gossip and

hearsay being used tony you just mentioned. you just mentioned going to james here you remember when the quote unquote trump dossier russia ducey it came out how everybody wanted to shop it around after buzz feed let it go everybody wanted to shop and look at this look at that mazing amazing of course they were a bunch of fools they didn't even know what they were reading i read it and thought this is ridiculous from the get go but when it comes to a memo about information that the d.o.j. in the f.b.i. have cole aided and made available to these investigations these committees here liberal media doesn't want to say a word about it except for it will be a danger to national security you know what the liberal media is the danger to national security go ahead james that's right and that's why i'm reserving my let's say excitement and celebration over the release of this memo when it comes out it's going to be a silver bullet to shut this down yes i think some of the cancer may be cut out of

.