election process that we just had in the previous election that has caused a great deal of this i think soul searching inside the us so we've come now to the share of the trump russia story you said yourself there's no hard evidence yet yet of trump straight on collision with russia so why does the public believe it to be a fax and the media in america reports that as a fact of also. i hope the american people or the media don't believe it as a fact sophie i i see it as the facts are clear that for whatever reason then i question why the russian intelligence services. attacked our system so aggressively but i think that as a fact i don't i don't think that's the nihil the question then is what did that do and what impact did that have on the results of the election and for what reason did russian intelligence conduct that activity i don't have the answers to those

questions and i won't speculate because i think that would be irresponsible i think we have to determine what happened and then decide what happened on the basis of the evidence and i don't think we're there yet for him that's the thing i don't know that anyone has presented the evidence and then the facts have been presented to the public by intelligence agencies american public has been misled intentionally or not by its intelligence community many times like i am i'm thinking w m d's in iraq for instance since the consequences of that are still felt fifteen years or so why every wholehearted face in what the intelligence is telling them about russia now especially what you're saying it's a fact but every time russia asks to show them the facts they they they are unable to provide them. just like with iraq i think that's a legitimate i think that's a legitimate accusation sophy to the extent that it puts pressure on the u.s.

intelligence community to do something it's hard to do which is to present the if you will the secret facts or the story i don't even know frankly the secret story because i don't have a reason i need to know that as a retired cia officer however if they do present the facts there's a risk of of compromising what we call sources and our methods which would of course not not be good so the question is how much evidence should be provided to the american people i'm personally and i stress this is my personal view an advocate of declassifying as much information as possible and presenting it to the american people and to present. to the russian government i think we really need to initiate a process that we negotiate and then to this kind of aggressive cyber hacking and interference in our one another's domestic affairs if president putin believes the

u.s. is interfering in russian domestic affairs or internal affairs it's not a good approach to interfere in our affairs in order to get us to stop doing it so i think it's in the interest of both sides a sit down and and talk this over and try to avoid a repetition of what happened in two thousand and sixteen in the future. ok let's take a short break right now and when we're back we'll continue talking to cia veteran ralph larson discovered a spy agencies position the mits today squalls tension states and. seemed wrong. wrong just don't. let you get to see

out of this thing comes to educate and in detroit equals betrayal. when so many find themselves worlds apart and we choose to look for common ground. when lawmakers manufacture consent to instant of public wealth. when the ruling classes protect themselves. with the financial merry go round to listen to the one percent told. us tonight we can all middle of the room sit. around the real news room. join me every

thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guests of the world of politics small business i'm show business i'll see you then. international recognition with the help of israel at least in the world of zoos. to listen to you if you believe this is my complicity is going to suddenly only be . done. with. the only palestinian gets the most hopeful is jerusalem counterparts i don't think those who are on the vision. and that's. going to compete in the gaza as you do more.

to come. close. to physically soon if you see all of you get missteps and. now we're back with the cia battering role for what larsen former top cia official

and a two decade better and also agency tell you about the spy bureau's role in today's united states internal and external policy so rolf michael powell has just recently met had so fresh us intelligence verus to protect the american people as he put it so hostile with the rick threat naming sanctions aside russia and the u.s. are still programatic enough to work together on some issues right. well that's right sophia it's really important that professionals in the intelligence business not cease cooperation even at the hardest times we have a long history between the u.s. and russia that goes back in the soviet days of setting aside our most grievous complaints against one another to cooperate in areas like counterterrorism and sometimes on counterintelligence and other issues that impact on both on our bilateral relations and i applaud the recent meeting of the three russian intelligence. visits chiefs in washington with director pompei and others i think

it's a great move toward to reinforce the idea that we must continue to cooperate in areas of common interest to both countries now obviously the congress is up in arms as an american intelligence she was meeting why would the law makers be against is if it does bring tangible results in the fight against terrorism. well i know some people in congress and i interact quite a bit with congress too if you will inform and advise specifically on the areas that we need to talk with one another to continue keeping our country safe both of our countries that's in american interest to not see any russians die in terrorist attacks as it is in russian interest to prevent any terrorist attacks in the united states or elsewhere in the world so i don't think there's any dispute on that in congress and i think maybe some of the posturing is frankly political as opposed to substantive i haven't heard anyone say we shouldn't be talking to one

another on counterterrorism issues democrat senator chuck schumer has demanded publicly naming everyone who had contact with their russian intelligence delegation and we want that sort of all across the board disclosure being damaging for the nation. yes i think it sends the wrong message if if i were to talk to senator schumer i would i would certainly urge him not to politicize you talked about politicizing intelligence earlier this would be an example of it if we don't do this cooperation with it but between one another in areas such as. exchanging information and analysis on the terrorist groups and their activity whether it's in syria or around the world in the caucasus in them in the u.s. we should all be fired so we have to have the courage to do that it's in my experience of i was involved in the earliest if you will lays on work between the

u.s. and russia at the time of the breakup of the soviet union and i don't recall a time when three intelligence chiefs all came together to washington such as just happen and so i take it as a very positive signal of a desire to do more and i hope both sides can find the strength to do that. and this is just a chance for politicians to loughton t.v. friendly blaming spies right and left because on the other hand surely they must care about the actual issues of national security right yes i hope so and i have i have a deep respect for senator schumer and i i quote i would question this based on what i've seen in the media and i hope behind it all it's not a seriously questioning why we would be doing this at this time i would also add that again this is a somewhat unorthodox few for someone like me i'm not a believer in applying sanctions to people that are doing their jobs we have

a long history of of trying to avoid that sort of politicization of intelligence so i think we try to have to try to find out find a way to deescalate the politicization of intelligence activity it would help again if both sides particularly in this case i would have to put more pressure on the russian side to stop interfering in domestic affairs with intelligence activity and that would set a better environment to deescalate the rising tensions on a political level that the fact that intelligence committees on capitol hill haven't been briefed about this mean that they administration has no trust in congress. i don't think i would go that far sophia i think it reflects the very sharp political dividing lines right now in our country and not just between the democrats and republicans but between within the parties themselves i think the democrats are struggling to reestablish their identity to

decide what part or wing of the democratic party will move forward into the next election cycles and i think the republican party is trying to decide how much it supports the president some do some don't as you know i'm not the true betraying any secrets here so i think there is there are various conflict intentions and instabilities within both parties again having watched this for much of my over sixty years i have seen other times in our country when we've seen just as confused and dazed and we generally emerge out of it stronger than we enter that so i'm overall confident that we'll get out of this phase that we're in stronger than we were before we entered it so one terror attack has already been prevented thanks to the cia sharing intelligence with moscow and put it has personally thanked the americans for their help in that how does that work what the intelligence agencies i mean how do you coppery it on some matters when there is general mistrust and

hostility i mean how do you know you're not being caught think that's a great question and i love that question. yeah well i love the question because it gets back to the heart of what we are what i hope we are and what we strive to be and even on our on the days we don't we don't reach this ethics i would call it of intelligence our basic motto our basic if you will standard is we have a duty to warn we have a duty to warn anybody anywhere in the world if they might their lives might be threatened by terrorist activity and of course in my time at cia working in counterterrorism i personally instructed my officers to analyze and then provide the russian government with information that i believe prevented attacks on russian citizens during my time so i consider that a high one of our best days any time we help one another prevent attacks where people might be killed obviously and so that's that's a great story and as we've done it before this is just fortunately on this occasion

there's a little bit of recognition that it happened and i think that's a good thing so do you think the recent pentagon military doctrine shift from the war on terror to great power while great with china and russia given higher priority now means that the cia's anti terror effort will fall to her. i don't think so sophia because terrorism is not going away we fact i'm a little worried right now because every time there's been a relative lull in activity such as we've seen since a little bit of reduction of conflict in syria recently there's been a rebound and then the terrorists every merged in a new form so i'm not in any way believer in the idea that we were past this threat of terrorism i think at the same time the great power rivalry doesn't necessarily imply that we're enemies again or that we're back to a cold war i think in a way whether you're that you apply this idea of rivalry to china or russia it's

a recognition that both countries should be taken seriously and that their interests are sometimes a threat to the united states but i would describe it more as competition than adversarial. i've heard former cia officials lament the fact that the agency has fewer resources now than sure in the cold war but does new technology like the n.s.a. surveillance mean that fewer people are needed at the agency anyway. i generally am not a person that believes that intelligence resources are insufficient i think we have plenty of resources and we have to be smarter in how we go about things as you as you indicated technology helps leverage we can leverage technology as afore we call a force multiplier that makes us stronger there are other ways to do it too i don't think numbers is often the way to attack a problem i think we need smart people we need people who have the authorities they

need the resources they need to do their jobs but i don't think the numbers indicate whether we have enough coverage in other words i believe or the u.s. intelligence community we have some we have sixteen different intelligence and it is within the what we call our intelligence community we have plenty of capability i think where we need to make more efforts is in how we decide what we do and then being more efficient in going about our missions so will the agency have less need for gathering old fashioned cold war style human intelligence like i don't know talking to someone or infiltrating a guerrilla camp control like hacking is dropping on phone conversations intercepting e-mails spying would. replace the human intelligence component. well you're talking to an old school person so i don't feel i need to reform my thinking at this point my life so i'd have to answer you by saying there's always room there's been room for of thousands of years for old spice old fashioned espionage

spies go back to biblical times and you know as long as there are humans on the earth there's a need to know what our if you will competitors and adversaries are thinking and human spies will never be replaced by cyber or hacking or any other carrier drones or any other technology in fact in the one nine hundred ninety s. in my view are the us intelligence can community became too enamored with what i call the national technical means whether that was satellites or other things to replace human intelligence we thought the world changed after the collapse of the soviet union and it had we're still living in the same world i was born in the one nine hundred fifty four so i believe to answer your question we're always going to need understanding of adversaries and even some of our friends plans and intentions because by having that knowledge will make better decisions and also if you like more technology progresses we're typewriters and old special letters are the safest thing out there still anyway as well thank you so much as it is and to your i

thank you so much for this interview this wonderful insight always show you all the best of luck were talking to ralph larsen two decades cia veteran former moscow station chief about the cia's relationship with the trumpet ministration and its role in today's counting quilt that said for the senate. next. in america a college degree requires a great deal. paying

a decade's long debt. studying so hard it requires trust to. go through humiliation to enter an elite society. and paci dead sometimes quite literally. want other true colors of universities in the u.s. . here's what people have been saying about rejecting the night was actually just full on awesome the only show i go out of my way to punch you know what it is that really packs a punch at least yampa is the john oliver of r t america is doing the same we are apparently better than two thousand. and c. people you never heard of love redacted tonight not the president of the world bank hey i'm going to write it seriously send us an e-mail.

i'm going to. russia more and the seventy one people who died in sunday's plane crash near moscow the passenger airliner came down just minutes after takeoff leaving no survivors. u.s. admits a part of the local forces the trains in syria is fleeing to join a conflict against washington's ally turkey. and russian athletes are secure the. second a medal at the winter olympics in south korea taking silver in team figure skating but some athletes have criticized the russians a medal winning performance. are

broadcasting live direct from our citizen moscow this is our two international i'm sean thomas certainly glad to have you with us all right russia's mourning of the seventy one people killed in a plane crash on sunday the original passenger jet went down minutes after taking off from moscow there were no survivors there's now been over twenty four hours since the crash and we're learning more about the passengers on board the ill fated plane this was the harrowing reaction of one grieving mother who lost her only son in the tragedy. most of her. looks in the. works. and. close a little bit. this woman and her

daughter were also on board not the youngest victim was just five years old. stawicki is also someone who caught the flight it was his thirty third birthday he was on his way home to celebrate with family here's how some of those affected are coming to terms with the tragedy. she will cut the feathers. this sunday until tonight she's got a new shred of safety which we would but i need. to do so with this it's illegal but it. is that.

there are truths you say to people. continue to. increase in your country one hundred one says. now the flights of final seconds were captured by a security camera thought to be installed on a nearby house and the crash is visible at the top of the picture followed by a powerful explosion you can also see black smoke rising investigators have confirmed that the plane exploded on impact and not in the air. and a large scale recovery operation was launched on sunday involving hundreds of emergency service workers and vehicles but it has been extremely difficult to locate debris due to the weather conditions archies but i've got to have it on the

ground for us at the site of the wreckage. the search and recovery operation continuing it is even nearing its conclusion according to the latest statement we've heard from the emergency services they've searched twenty five of the thirty square heck this where the plane and its stay bre believed to have been through about over but as you see one of the biggest problems here is the weather and the snow it's getting colder and colder and they've had to bring in a lot of specialized equipment especially stuff to melt the snow heat cannons as they call them here in russia they're also hundreds and hundreds of rescuers here they're working in shifts through that some can rest while others sift through the snow in the wreckage and day breed but booth black boxes have now been found and investigators should have everything they need to rebuild point by point that stake

off the short flight and to find out whatever it was exactly that koos this fatal tragedy. washington has admitted some of the kurdish forces it trains in syria are shifting to fight against one of america's own allies turkey is currently on the offensive in northern syria against groups it deems as terrorists are she's killed martin has more on the tensions currently playing out in syria u.s. secretary of defense james mattis has confirmed that u.s. armed kurdish forces in the ass d.f. have been relocating to the northern parts of syria to protect territory from turkey. the destruction of was going on up enough and right now which is drawing off some of the syrian democratic forces the see the snuff and under attack so that is causing the police their attention to shift. now the kurds and turkey are both

key u.s. allies in the region however there's been tension between all three of them in recent months now we've heard of how the usa has been arming the kurdish forces and providing them with weapons now and car has been quite upset by this action they consider this to be the arming of terrorists now at this point we do have a statement from james mattis confirming that he believes there are legitimate security concerns on turkey's part about these kurdish forces that have been armed by the united states. to work with and there is of disagreements which is how do we take them on as he was rapidly as possible they have a legitimate security concern and we do not dismiss one bits of them now there has been escalating tension between the united states and turkey especially in the aftermath of an announcement from the united states that it intended to create a thirty thousand strong border force to protect syria's border with turkey now

u.s. leaders backtracked from those comments but that hasn't stopped turkey from being quite upset by these remarks now we've recently seen the beginning of operation olive branch and this is turkish forces moving into syria to fight against the kurds to allies of the united states clashing with each other in syria as the tensions escalate we're even hearing calls to rename the street on which the u.s. embassy in turkey is capital is located there are calls to rename the street olive branch after operation olive branch the turkish operation to go into syria and fight against the kurdish forces armed by the united states there seems to be quite a bit of contradiction in the words and statements of u.s. leaders and there seems. the rising tension between all three parties the usa turkey and the kurdish forces. the rift between turkey and the us could deepen further over another region in northern syria beach which turkey is targeting in

the next part of its military operation currently u.s. troops are stationed there opening up the possibility of a direct confrontation. a middle east expert where this conflict now the big elephant in the room is members and that's why they invited states is still on the ground they do have troops and in that case if they do not with drove the troops and advisers from this region then uncle or says that reportedly the president here threatens that he's going to go ahead with this operation and member in case this happens i think there will be a kind of militaristic and that could lead to more tension if not a military standoff between the united states and that could lead to a major discoloration to more. on the ground that would lead to more alinea ating and more isolating of the united states and it seems

ancora is not looking to ease tensions with washington for the time being the turkish government has even renamed the street where the u.s. embassy is located in the capital it will now be called olive branch named after anchor as military operation which has seen u.s. trained kurds moving across the region to fight against turkey. nearly four months after its liberation from islamic state people from the syrian city of rock are slowly returning to what is left of their homes but many buildings in the city remain riddled with land mines and booby traps and local say they have been left to take on the reconstruction by themselves. we were forced to leave our homes because of eisele when we returned we found everything with rubble look at all the devastation rock is

a ghost city we're living in the midst of destruction we feel completely abandoned everything around has been destroyed or a human rights watch has called for international support in clearing the rubble and demining rocka it says almost five hundred civilians were injured in the three months after the liberation and many were killed in its report the organization also highlighted the growing risk of more civilians being killed as people return to the devastated city who are a counterterrorism program director at human rights watch spoke to us on the group's findings i think you just described to you what i saw in iraq residents are very desperate to go and check on their home homes and because of the high risk and because a few working offer to these very many young men you can go to a couple of us in the city and who are about fifty dollars you can hire people to go.