alone. and i'm really happy for. the special one. the u.s. led attack on syria is a gross violation of international law furthermore western public still have not been presented with the syrian government used any chemical weapons a new phase of the syrian proxy war is need go sleeping opened another war of choice. one past the last two there was a healthy person on the. flight to sam's and over the four c. of the operation so the dog. initially

wanted a place or a sunk cost but the budget. deal being three years forward has not asked how long that will. walk you stop talking to the salvation. army new sound the softly melted ballet speech and faultless she. actually measured out a model of the kind of there is much to be and. welcome back today the un's organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons meets in the hague over the suspected chemical attack in syria but why have nato powers already made up their minds and why does donald trump such a vocal opponent of president obama's desire to bomb syria now seek war i'm now

joined by veteran and virginia state senator dick black dick thanks for joining us so what's changed trump to be now just beginning to sound more and more like hillary clinton on syria. i think he has he has been forced by these allegations of russian collusion to become more and more bellicose just to prove that he really is not working with the russians. unfortunately he's now surrounded himself by a war cabinet john bolton is the most recent and extraordinarily bellicose individual and it's unfortunate i think we had the the bush obama doctrine now it's becoming the bush obama trump doctrine which is regime change provocative wars wars of aggression and not i speak as a wounded combat veteran i've been in some of the most fierce combat and in our

lifetimes in america but i'm very much opposed to what we're doing can you cite you sympathize with them a president in the oval office being handed the pictures every few hours of dead children and being told you must act well i sympathize to some extent but honest lay he promised us that he was very good at selecting people and the people he has surrounded himself with are not of good quality they are not people who who desire to reduce tensions and to avoid war it was a few years ago now that the u.n. war crimes commission was colored will point to claim that strong concrete suspicion was that she had of rebel use of chemical weapons do you believe the chemical weapons attack could have been stage oh i think absolutely it was i'm a career prosecutor i spent a half of my career i ended up in the pentagon as the chief of the criminal law

division of one of the things when you're looking at crimes you look at motive there was utterly no motive there was no benefit what. so over or president assad to to conduct an attack he had essentially. been victorious in duma he was now bussing the terrorists out of there they had a arrangement an agreement and then an interesting way that at the last moment the terrorists said well we have a truce for a day or so to work out some details and the syrians agreed yes of course we could do that and that was the point at which the this claimed chemical attack occurred now we we do not know that there was a chemical attack because a doctor from one of the and from the principal of the principal hospital in duma

said we have not had any patients presented or or admitted to the hospital which symptoms of gas poisoning so it appears very strongly as though this was simply a rooms that was concocted by by the terrorists in order to bring the united states u.k. france and others into the war against this very small country of syria that's fought for eight years against the entire western world ok but discussions and then suddenly in the media i'm sure to believe in the u.s. augusta gains the red crescent in the u.n. and believe dudley's the al qaeda linked white helmets you don't believe them. the white house but our you know if you look at them they're proven to be and

a propaganda arm of al qaeda and you may recall al qaeda hijacked four jetliners flew them into the twin towers and the pentagon in two thousand and one killed three thousand americans slaughtered them and now they have become our principal source of intelligence for what's going on. and why we rely on them at all i believe was the way helmets up honestly funded by the british taxpayer well you know there are a lot of things that are planted by the british by the united states we have been sending a gargantuan amount of high tech weapons to the terrorists and we had a leaked report from the defense intelligence agency in two thousand and thirteen that said that we were indiscriminately supplying all rebel groups including

specifically isis and al qaida and so it doesn't surprise me we have been engaged in a propaganda war to condense our own people that what we are doing is fighting against syria and instead of fighting for the jihadist terrorists there is considerable opposition here in britain. to what teresa mayes saying in support of donald trump now how is that base that you know that republican base going to react then to a war. i think there is very little enthusiasm people tend to accept what they hear the media the media over here as is have a way censored even social media is beginning to be censored and i think also the united states has been continuously at war for seventeen years that is longer than world war one world war two and the vietnam war all combine i don't think there's

going to be much benefit for traum for terrorists and may or mar crown for i'm going to america will i think in the end if they if they conduct a war i think it's going to backfire on them politically and i think the people of turn on them just finally you're a soldier you know that trump is arguably also surrounded himself with some soldiers you don't think general mathis and general kelly have either think these people are going to be telling him the kinds of things you just be telling me something that no journalist has ever questioned they've never said. we always see these pictures of children of babies and so forth why don't we see pictures of anime she hardest who have been killed by poison gas certain lay there are tens of thousands of isis and al qaida and all of their

all of the all of them are related they're like drug cartels there are ideas dover throw the country to murder all of the non extremists and why are they not targeted by syria if syria feel so desperate that they have to use poison gas knowing that it's going to bring down the wrath of the world why would they do it after they've won the war after they won the battle in new mom and why would they use it against civilians instead of military. no one will ask that question the media simply censors that question because i think the reporters know what's good for them if you ask that question you may not be on the phone the staff to to ask the. president any questions in the future so as

a thank you well as the phrase world war three appears more frequently in the mainstream media of nato nations methods of warfare are being discussed at the un in geneva specifically the rise of killer robots joining me now from geneva human rights watch is bonnie daugherty associate director at the conflict in civilian protection department of the harvard law school buddy thanks for joining us so they said well the media too will care about surgical strikes what could be more surgical than the room wolf. who are concerned about robot warfare what we call fully autonomous weapons or these weapons would select a target and fire on it without here choosing the. they would have the we would be turning over life and death decisions to machines these weapons raise a host of moral ethical legal security concerns and that's what we're here to discuss at the un this week greater concerns than the existing ones about drone warfare. they raise different issues i think drones are question largely about how

they use this is a weapon system that could be is inherently problematic and we believe should be preemptively banned before they even come into existence before the genie is out of the bottle and this is a concern for all sides state actors as well because of the proliferation perhaps being leading to the use by militant political factions in forms of asymmetric warfare. you know one of our major concerns is on the security front that these weapons could proliferate as you say to states to non-state armed groups to range of parties one group is referred to them as the clash in a cost of tomorrow and there be even less control if once we disperse these things across the world it was you know it just those like fictional characters dr strangelove that might say surely. a strike by one of these systems might not be as bad as humans after all humans have killed tens of millions of

people in the past hundred years. sure and there is there are people argue that robots could be more more responsible or more accurate i guess than than humans but there's widespread agreement actually at this meeting in the un that the use of force should be retained human control should be retained over the use of force and i think that that if there's one message that's come out to me clearly from the this meeting of which there are wide representation in the world is that general principle of human control is important you see there's some glitzy videos on you tube from contractors' and so forth during the great power and ingenuity of these weapon systems much less about the hack ability of these systems do you think that they are essentially like all computer systems hackable. any computer system is hackable and that's a get another reason we're concerned about them is there a liability once once they're released a party could hack it

a group that it could connections could break and once that happens it's their actions becoming foreseeable and again once they have once it's done forseeable it's hard to hold anyone or any human responsible for what they do so that's yet another concern i mean in the syria conflict we've seen. those older generations or even drones being used what sort of time scale are you and your colleagues in geneva discussing some some people have argued that they are inevitable and that as i say scientists have argued this these could be developed in a matter of years however we don't think they are inevitable we think it's not too late for the countries of the world to take preemptive action and to stop them before they are developed for their produce before they are deployed and that's what we're calling on states to do here at the u.n. in geneva view the broom is that people have been finding cluster bombs in yemen british cluster bombs long after the treaties that govern there used let alone land

mines whatever you come up with that the u.n. is it actually much use when it comes to stopping these. well no treaty as is treaties are important not only for the standards they set but for implementation well any law can be broken the laws against murder are broken that does not mean they don't set a really important international standard for the use of force and the for example the convention cluster munitions has there been no. clear violations by countries that have joined the treaty and have also. set a stigma against using that and well as i say there are always rogue actors that. violate the principles i think that internationally has been demonstrated to have a significant effect and that's the kind of effect you want to have here there's a another preemptive treaty another ban on blinding lasers that was adopted in the one nine hundred ninety s. and that has kept those type of weapons which would permanently blind soldiers or

civilians from being used and that's the that kind of action has been effective and we think that will be effective in this case as well if you failed is the fifth time i understand the u.n. is debating in discussing these issues could we see a he may perhaps cyber army that could hack these systems or they don't work in any case neutralizing the threat the roots. perhaps the more effectively than the united nations itself. that's an interesting question i'm not an expert in cyber and cyber warfare actually is not my specialty but cyber warfare has raised many concerns in other circles so using cyber to defeat fully autonomous weapons i don't think is the is the best route to go and i'm also encouraged by the momentum that's built this week it is the fifth time the un states have convened at the un about this issue but things are starting to get more formalized and and state positions are becoming more clear and i think states are taking action so we hope they will

succeed here if not here somewhere else. thank you and that's it for the show will be back on wednesday when u.k. prime minister of tourism a was officially said you'll return to the house of commons to answer questions from jeremy called until then people talked about social media will feel when say thirty six years to the day eleven year old schoolboy stephen mcdonell me was shot in the head by the british army in belfast stephen was just one of the deaths mainly of children killed by plastic rooms no british soldier or member of the r.u.c. to this day has ever been prosecuted. this isn't the insidious entrance when the u.s. military moved out the sixty first birthday. and now

a whole generation of fatherless children is growing up here. paid that. they be like you like. that so. there's the who you are going to use. you for a night. answer is known that now and that it's real or. that's it that you want my god. you can take the gilliver but you can't take the little girl. no woman you know. oh i love doing that. if you.

four men are sitting in a car when the fit gets shot in the hand. all four have different versions of what happened one of them is on the death row there's no way he could have done it there's no possible way because they did not shoot around a corner. you never know what's around the corner you never know was in the pub even to walk into a nice excitement is that not knowing that's where the adrenaline in much comes from. and you can easily move on definition and the extremes will support. the violence is a part and it's almost

a schizophrenia. where you can do all these things and behave badly. important people of course qualify that all. the more so for the last. one this may be an unfair in their role. in the thought. i would roll the window if i figure out a really beautiful down down with. meaning in reason is that beneath if you don't involve this constantly evolving. oh oh.

yeah . i care. about other. artes headline news the u.s. raises the threat of more sanctions on russia over moscow's support for the syrian government but after america and its allies took military action against damascus on unconfirmed claims of a chemical attack. british prime minister seems to have some explaining to do when parliament reconvenes later on monday theresa may didn't seek approval for the attack on syria. in other news r.t.e. speaks exclusively to an italian journalist who's living under a mafia death threat for his investigations into organized crime. the moment there are. five carabineers are you following me day and night.

the german music industry handing out a top award to a rap duo notorious for their anti semitic lyrics. monday afternoon. and this is out international's world news update from moscow welcome to the program first for you the united states is threatening russia with new sanctions over syria it follows a combined assault by america and its allies against the assad government the u.s. envoy to the united nations said russia will face new restrictions over its support for damascus. so you will think that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary mineta will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with a quote that related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is

going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it as nikki haley mentioned the proposed sanctions would hit russian companies that deal with the syrian government the planned restrictions on the strike on syria as ending an alleged chemical weapons program that one of the targets of the u.s. led attack was a research facility near damascus the syrian government says it was a civilian object we spoke to a technician who worked there who said that the international chemical weapons waterdog and checked the sent to several times and found no signs of any violations . he said that you can see that nothing has happened here i've been here myself since five am there are no signs of chemical warfare agents this is a civilian facility and drugs and chemicals production technology was developed here for peaceful economic purposes o.p.c. w. visited this facility several times carrying out several thorough inspections the

organization received a lot of help in its work and so did the members of its teams there was even a special place on this site allocated for the o.p.c. w. so they could collect and package samples taken from places that had to be inspected just to remind you in the early hours of saturday morning the combined forces of the u.s. the u.k. and france pounded misawa air strikes on syria the allies say the assault came in response to an alleged chemical attack in the syrian city of doom a week earlier western countries blame the attack on the assad government though no solid evidence has been provided yet. russia slammed the u.s. led strikes on syria as an act of aggression and called a u.n.

security council meeting at the weekend their moscow propose a draft resolution calling for members to condemn the attack as a violation of international law it also demanded the u.s. and its allies to cease their aggression against syria and allow the o.p.c. w. to conduct a thorough investigation but after a heated encounter the draft was quashed. local arizona washington and london but chose to ignore all calls for sanity you have nothing but disdain for the u.n. charter and the security council which you're using in your illicit aims but the un charter wasn't conceived to protect criminals our action absolutely corresponds to the goals and values of proclaiming in the charter the us and its allies continue to show blatant neglect of international law i will take no lessons mr president international from russia you don't treat the security council seriously you don't work to its guidelines i don't talk to others and you don't consult it's time for tom and did last night the united states is locked and loaded. when our

president draws a red line our president enforces the red line the us and it is really due to shoot and it's long loaded with sand and concern to hear we know that they have aircraft several hours old smart new sorrows and a nuclear weapons also know now we also know they have these damning point a national law we are prepared to sustain this pressure if the syrian regime is fullish enough to test our will to produce dimmers little is this how you want affairs to be conducted now this is hooliganism or not minor hooliganism super bowl since we are talking about the major nuclear powers. the syrian government the assaulters barbaric accusing america the u.k. and france of igniting tension in the region here's how people in damascus reacted to the attacks. to be kind and to strike on syria was treacherous but it's given syrians the determination to overcome terrorism it was an aggressive assault on

syria our beloved country. we've been living in this crisis for seven years now such a strike one affect us at all and our country will improve in general so how does a man and if he strikes me as something it's the moral bankruptcy and feeling of the west and the terrorists. feels like we have something inside there prohibits us from being afraid you can see how people go to the market and out in the streets no one has been affected or felt any fear strikes have drawn anger at home as well with thousands across america rallying against the assault but as i need to set the explains the president might not need public approval but a distraction instead. big in the public eye as a world leader is no easy task especially when things aren't going your way one day you will know is home is being raided by the f.b.i. the next you are trying to hush up book tours which could threaten your reputation but in times of means that always to divert attention then sometimes the best ideas

are right in front of you on t.v. if the president and france and the u.k. decide to strike syria don't you think that story would be a bigger story than khomeini's book gets released on tuesday. a short time ago are you ordered to launch precision strikes or targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities of syrian dictator for sure. it can be so effective few people will actually see through it but i want to say this raid is meant to distract from his other problems what it's called operation desert storm e. president trouble paled the missile strike in syria is perfectly executed but it could be argued this was instead peste. timed and that's what's for him before the media branded trump as russia's puppet shaking off

reputation calls for drastic measures and fifty nine tomahawk cruise missiles launched at a syrian air force base did just that in the same he gave his popularity of boost but also a big pat on the back from the media we see these beautiful pictures at night i am tempted to quote the great leonard cohen i'm guided by the beauty of our weapons what change last night i think. became president of the united states i think this was actually a big moment president trump isn't the fess to employ such tactics in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight bill clinton's decision to bomb iraq coincided with him facing impeachment at the time this all to the shadowed him lying and oath in relation to the monica lewinsky affair. i did not have sexual relations with that woman miss lewinsky to strike military and security targets in iraq they are joined by british forces their mission is to attack iraq's nuclear chemical and biological

weapons programs saddam hussein most not be allowed to threaten his neighbors are the world with nuclear arms poison gas or biological weapons now any aircraft fired everywhere i remember. who can forget the actual operation desert storm launched by president george h.w. bush when the economy in recession the gulf war boosted its his approval ratings. have therefore directed to reject the iraqi army from kuwait. which. is president i can report to the nation aggression is defeated the war is over. you don't have to look too far back in history to see world leaders employing distraction tactics so also self this question. well what dominates an international media narrative the possibility of a global war or the domestic troubles of

a western country you want me to produce your war not a war it's a project we need a theme song some visuals we need to know it's a pageant well to ask how the media affects trump's decision is to ask how water affects of fish truck lives and breathes by media ratings approval there is a long tradition of presidents in domestic political trouble using international crises to distract the public and it certainly could be a minimum you have to think that to have the side effect of military action so in terms of the attack on the syria that we saw over the weekend it does seem it's a distraction that gives the president something to talk about other than stormy daniels and the other issues that he's contending with after the the rifling of his personal lawyers offices of british prime minister.