you'll friends maybe probably even you. know let's return to our top story let's just recap what we're speaking about this hour the czech republic's president has said a small amount of the nerve agent nava chalke was produced and stored in his country in recent years before being destroyed moscow says it's waiting for the international community's reaction claiming it undermines the u.k.'s case that orchestra did the poisoning of sergei and junia script in march let's bring in peter kirk and peter is a security consultant who also studied chemistry and biochemistry and if we could just start with your lottery talents just for a moment and not to perhaps bog the audience done too much but it is important this aspect isn't it because according to the u.n. chemical weapons watchdogs director general fifty to one hundred grams of liquid nerve agent were used in salt spray fifty to one hundred what you draw from not do

the injuries sustained tally with a quantity of lethal chemical. i should point out that my studying of chemistry and our chemistry of many years ago now but in general terms fifty two hundred milligrams it doesn't sound very much but it's actually sort of fifty two hundred grams a doesn't sound like a lot. but it is in chemical terms it's a huge amount and in terms of the amount of something the amount of a toxin of any sort needed to have an impact on the body it's very very significant now struck me as very high obviously the purity of substances comes into the interplay as while i understand they've they've there's been some sort of announcement from the. the official international organization. i think they are saying that the amount necessary to create the symptoms that were seen is probably more milligrams rather than grams and that sounds far more realistic to me yeah it

is the u.n. chemical weapons watch i just just to say the director general is saying that it is fifty to one hundred grams of a little nervous as you rightly say an o.p.c. w. spokes person sees the amount of the nerve agent used in salt three cannot be established and that it might be milligrams why there's a scrap and see do you think. i've no idea you'd have to look at the background behind the figures that the different people in the different organizations are announcing where if they where they started from they started from a sample they started from the known impact of various amounts of of the material on the human body or what the difficulty we've got with all these nerve agents is the impacts on the human body is not very well known for obvious reasons you can't have human trials to see what the impact is on the human body and so quite a lot of the information that's available is sort of extrapolated from the impacts

on on various animals maybe and things like that and so the data isn't particularly solid and deep behind these sorts of estimates so far as the investigations concerned however this is all a bit of a red herring and it will not be impacting on the investigating officers in solsbury to any significant extent. they'll be interested in knowing what caused the illness and injury which appears to be reasonably well established a reasonable level of agreement about it and then where it might have come from will obviously be a lot of inquiry but the actual sort of purity or the amount other than if it's a large amount then that narrows down how it might have been and listed. but if we're talking about milligrams then there is pretty much all the different ways of administering it are still going to be employed yeah i mentioned you mentioned where it came from that's going to be has to be a big point now after the czech republic saying that it had actually produced

novacek in its country isn't it russia ses it's waiting for other countries to reveal that they were to use novacek type agents on their soil as well how likely do you think other nations would come forward. whether they come forward or not is another matter i mean are come of this in the same way that the investigating officer the same investigating officer in. will be coming at it which is where where we're not experts is the senior investigating officer an investigation in an expert in the things that are happening whether that's to do with an obvious short rally or whether far more commonly it's to do with things like d.n.a. profiling or any any other particular aspects of your murder investigation or attempted murder investigation so your reliance on the experts so you get to be quite good at asking experts questions. and asking for the logic and the rationale and the reasoning behind it and i don't for a moment suppose the. has been thinking hang on this is only ever going to possibly

come from one source in the white arkansas and right from the beginning i would be incredibly surprised if nobody else in the world synthesised at least small amounts of this material once its existence became known if you apply the logic if one state has got this to use as a weapon it would be negligent of another state not to try and synthesize some of it or obtain some of it to then establish how they can defend themselves against it so just simple logic suggests that there will be multiple sources and a lot of questions there at cedar isn't there still to answer peter kirk and security management consultant always appreciate you coming on the program thank you. thank you. now i want to bring you know to what's happening right now in fact that they got israel border where protests are now entering their sixth week the long running rallies are known as the great march returned announcing what is widely viewed as israel's occupation of gaza the protesters are calling

for the right to move back to their relatives were displaced from the one nine hundred forty eight almost fifty people die during april including two palestinian journalists who were covering the rallies over fifteen hundred people are reported to have been injured in recent weeks israel has been reportedly repeatedly excuse me accused of using excessive force against protesters these really army meanwhile says that its duty is to protect is really people not allowed demonstrators to break through this fence. just a related theme to this to mark world press freedom day the u.s. state department spokeswoman has been rallying against the persecution and silencing of journalists but when asked she seemed unwilling to denounce the recent killings of palestinian journalists in gaza. we urge accountability for the murder of journalists in malta mexico russia and slovakia and the apparent assassination of a b.b.c.

passionate reporter in afghanistan on monday would you also condemn the recent deaths of journalists and also in the gaza strip i don't have and i don't have all the details i mean investigation but i will say you know we always are saddened by the loss of life and that israel does have a right to defend itself of the background to this last month two palestinian journalists were killed by israeli defense forces while reporting on protests and gaza both were reportedly shot with life despite wearing vests and helmets identifying themselves as members of the press the u.s. state department say's the incidents in gases should be investigated by israel however washington has taken a different approach to the recent probe into the alleged chemical attack in syria when the us launched air strikes on the country before any official probe have taken place journalist dave lindorff believes we're seeing a case of double standards. in the united states is really using double talk here they are they know that the israelis targeted these journalists they were wearing

press written across both sides front and back and they were reporting on a peaceful protest and the shooting of unarmed citizens and the israelis didn't want the reports out so that killed the poor of the reporters it was not self-defense of israel these killings of palestinian journalists was deliberate and the u.s. won't condemn it it's a total double standard on the way the american military says it's under attack from chinese lasers in africa and remember the iraqi man who threw his shoes at president george w. bush he's now running for office those stories after this. but

politicians do something to. put themselves on the line. to get accepted or rejected. so when you want to be president and should. somehow want to listen. to the right to be close it's like the four three in the morning can't be good. i'm interested always in the logs in the. first six.

twenty minutes into the program welcome american military forces in the african nation of djibouti are coming under attack from blinding chinese lasers the pentagon is latest statements also came with an urgent notice of extreme caution for its military in africa. this activity trysts threat to our air. we have formally to march. and we've changed. it's a serious matter and so we're taking in various years now chinese military observers say that the beams could be used simply to scare birds off of the airfield or to disrupt the activities of spider owens they also point out that china is a signatory of the protocol on blinding laser weapons which outlaws the use of equipment that could cause permanent blindness this is china's only overseas military base located in the african country of djibouti just

a few kilometers away from a very strategic u.s. military base now you can bet with two key military setups so close together the two geo political rivals are looking for any possible secret info they can get from each other they've even admitted as much we have taken we are taking significant steps on the counter-intelligence side so that we have all the defenses that we need there's no doubt about that that's general wald house or the top commander of u.s. military forces in africa now the u.s. military is all over the continent engaging in anti terror operations flying drones propping up aligned governments but while the houser admits that china is doing something in africa that the usa is not doing very well investing look we'll never outspend the chinese on the continent and that's i guess the point i was trying to make china has been an effort on the african continent for quite some time but we as a combatant command have not dealt with it in terms of a strategic interest and we're in the we're taking baby steps in that regard africa

as part of china's one belt one road initiative a twenty first century silk road of sorts enabling countries to trade with each other china has set up a t.v. project for rural africans they've built all kinds of railroad and sharing economic access to remote parts of the continent and among english speaking africans what country. do they want to study in the u.s. or the u.k. nope it's the people's republic of china yes the usa certainly has the upper hand in africa i want to comes to flying drones or deploying troops when it comes to something else winning the trust and friendship of the african people china is way far ahead. artsy new york. an iraqi man who became famous for throwing his shoes then u.s. president george w. bush is about to embark on a political career of his own muntadhar is running for the iraqi parliament in next week's election having returned to his country just two months ago it's a decade on from when former president bush taunted the u.s.

invasion of iraq to crowds and back that. eighty was a t.v. journalist at the time and after his stunt he was arrested and convicted for assault on a foreign leader he was sentenced to three years in prison but released after nine months so he been moved to lebanon and set up a humanitarian organization to help iraqi war victims following his stunt he became a hero for many iraqis and coincidentally so did his chute after separation from its owner it quickly became a symbol of protest against this imprisonment the company making the shoes even renamed the model by the bush and it was briefly honored with a bronze statue up in iraqi war footage we spoke to mr allison aubrey about the incident and his political ambitions. our coverage about purposeful what happened was this i was arrested along with my

brother we were left in solitary confinement for three days we were only released after i went on a hunger strike without water for three days i told them i'd rather die than stay in prison they broke my teeth my nose my leg electrocuted me and whipped me even broke a table or a chair over my back i don't know as i was blindfolded and this was something i've never experienced before about the torture by the or thirty's by the rule of law good. luck and look what the bottom line i thought i had to change the miserable state of affairs in iraq i did not consult anyone on that it was a personal decision that i took after a long deliberation the george bush incident is in the past and it's history now our history remember that when the americans invaded iraq and some iraqis were on their side but others beat them with it but i did not and will not exploit this

incident with people who have been putting up posters on the street showing me throwing a shoe at george bush that most of these have been taken down and i reject that because this is not part of my campaign to hold. a special dates in the russian calendar is fast approaching on the ninth of may the country will celebrate victory day ahead of the event r.t. has been along to rehearsals of the annual military parade that marks the end of the second world war. to come. even know. you want. me to slit my soul. but to. be.

nice people like this this minute a great it's nothing like any other before the stomach area being no more the first song and we are going through i'd love a. rock just makes perfect place to vent seemingly simple maneuvers like this one still being told that simple when there are dozens of vehicles involved and they all have to be in sync that's why most of those main streets have been built told all these pieces to refine them anew for. this a.p.c. is designed to absorb explosive damage from landmines and it all will deflect even

using ground now it's not the only vehicle to be making the first show at this year's parade so let me give you a chill. please on monday june will be shown to the public official who would have those times at the parade they were initially being designed as the purely reconnaissance aircraft but now they can carry bombs too. and finally how about this jam and they says the red square no. this is not a blog over your holywood blockbuster but rather this tank support it will also be for the first time featured a parade on the red square so now this is of course is just to me a taste of what to expect the actual parade to do you in the ninth of may and have a look yourself what we've got a protest. he or she down off a live from our global news with this is artsy stay with us nine for more great

programs. join me every thursday on the alex i'm unsure when i'll be speaking to guest of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then. global war hawks sell you on the idea that dropping bombs brings police to the chicken hawks forcing you to fight the battles they don't need. to do stocks products tell you that will be gossip and probably by itself the most important news today. off of advertising telling me you are not cool enough to buy their products. the all the hawks that we along with all

the one. hello and welcome to crossfire all things are considered i'm peter lavelle after sixty eight years the two koreas are on the verge of signing a peace treaty a donald trump summit is in the works is peace coming to the korean peninsula well it's possible the foreign policy blog and the corporate media are less enthusiastic after all conflict is very business model.

crosstalk in the korean peninsula i'm joined by my guest and washington he is a senior fellow at the institute for china america studies also in washington we have john merrow he is former chief of the north east asia division of the bureau of intelligence and research at the u.s. state department as well as author of korea the peninsular origins of the war and in new york we cross to daniel loves our he is an author and freelance journalist who writes frequently about the middle east eastern europe and the us constitution right gentlemen cross-like rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate so let me go to you first in washington if you look at the mainstream media and particularly the cable stations all the focus on the. korean peninsula is directed towards this summit that may have with the north korean leader but really i think that's what's more important happening this week and if the two koreas coming together how does this change the situation on the peninsula if north korea and south korea can find some kind of meaningful and let me stress

meaningful reproach moment go ahead in washington. let me in response to your question later. right over here that the real credit for this situation the opportunity that we have today is because of president moon in south korea you know if we had a the same all the conservative south korean government in place today what would have happened is kim jong un would have gone through with his condense testing schedule and then after that he would have gone straight into his bunker emerging from time to time with grave threats and snarly garley threats to blow everything up the fact of the matter is that mungy is the person who has been able to tease kim jong il kim jong un out into the sunshine and has open and shown him a pathway to global integration and as well as not south reconciliation. in the

south korean progressive government has a lead this process for reconsideration which has dramatically altered the dynamics on the on the korean peninsula of course the olympics also have helped and therefore it is north and south they extend that they leave the process that they would have dragged the other parties along including the united states credit allies with the peninsula parties ok john let me go to you more or less the same question here because the dynamic changes considerably if there is a peace between the two koreas after sixty eight years makes started coming to some kind of defense and security measures that both can accept then regime change as it were that we hear so many people talking about in in the washington foreign policy blob that kind of is taken off the table because that would not be in south korea's interests go ahead john in washington. right peter well i think i think you

overstated it a little bit i do give president moon a lot of credit but i think the main credit i never thought i would say that i know obviously belongs to donald trump i know you're going to say that. this this this this is this is the man who said he he wanted nothing more than to sit down and have a hamburger with kim jong un and looks like he's going to get his chance right now there are apparently still cia people liaison people behind in pyongyang at least according to the south korean media and people are hard at work and mr pump aoe is the guy that's been running this. formerly from his post as cia director but hopefully in a few days as secretary of state so i think i would agree the president deserves a lot of credit and certainly with a progressive government a lot of things are possible that weren't underpass can conservative regimes but i

think we have to give president trump his do as well and i just i just hope things go ok it's a topsy topsy turvy world exactly and you know and i'm very happy that this process is going on let me go to daniel i don't care who gets the credit i think that is really low on the hierarchy a bit of an important see are getting peace on that peninsula where you have the most heavily armed border in the world after sixty eight years he considerable american military presence is there and the chinese have come in and in ways that i think we'll find out in the future they were very constructive here it's the result that counts most importantly go ahead daniel well. let me speak up for ken jiang on which i think it's played his cards extremely well. is not in the door a political endorsement of him by any means but he is a very smart yeah player yeah and he has done a very. he's you know he's the kind of you know seize control of the opening seize

the opening that trump corded him and has really run with it i think it's it's a pretty impressive performance ok let's go back to washington so i think what's really important here i mean it's good to get down to really the details here because we have a do you need arise south korea i'm sorry korean peninsula means north and south so that means that american nukes would not be allowed there i mean this is the kind of opening that i think the north korean leader was looking for he's looking for a grand bargain and you know what folks he's been asking for a grand bargain for a while and i think he had to go through all of the theatrical of the missiles and the launches and you know all of the heated rhetoric back and forth this was the opening that he was looking for and it was a south korean leader that opened the door and we got a nod from donald trump i mean we'll find out where it goes so you know it really

gets down to the details of what that means because we know all along north korea wants security guarantees maybe russia and china can be guarin tours of that go ahead sort of been in washington. absolutely correct on that i mean the devil is in the details in terms of how do you go about staging nuclearization in terms of how that process works out the mechanics of that process but you're absolutely correct on that point with regard to denuclearize the nuclearization that it is not just a north korean of it needs to be a peninsula fair let me throw out a useful principle which might be useful here both in terms of denuclearization as well as in reduction of conventional forces in terms on the peninsula and in terms of the hostilities that are there in terms of denuclearization we're talking of course complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization of north korea they can have a civil nuclear program which you ken. civil nuclear program which will be very intrusively

watched over by the i.a.e.a. full scope see if gods etc etc but what that means for south korea is that of course they have this civil of very extensive civil nuclear program but there will be no strategic forces on their territory and they want to even be an extended deterrent to south korea provided by the us so long as there is complete nuclearization of the north now the parallel fact which north and south korea frankly need to work out because the nuclearization is essentially a topic of discussion between north korea and the united states with regard to conventional forces what the disposition of the end of the day needs to be that the peninsula is is kind of insulated from the larger the geopolitics off the north east asia south the south korea has already shown that it is not in not terribly interested in getting into things like

a regional ballistic missile shield well it's not interesting i'm going to eilat for a line we're going to final we're going to find actually let's yeah we're going to find out just how far the pentagon wants to go along with it john let me go to you because if you get if you look at the mainstream media and the punditry that we are bombarded with all of the time and the mainstream media is really not on board here is it just because they don't want to see succeed at anything or in the military industrial complex i mean south korea and the and that region of the world is a nice. trough for arms in the us as a vast military establishment there and that needs to be paid for i mean there's a combination of these things here and go ahead john in washington. well you know i peter i don't know that's that's that's kind of hard to say what i will say is this i think what has happened is that we have now gotten a de facto freeze for freeze this was the proposal you have that was made by moscow

and beijing years ago and i wrote on this subject about a year and a half ago and i got excoriated now for saying that but this is what it is this is what is now de facto in place and so this is this is a big deal it is you know the u.s. the u.s. military exercises this year the joint us are ok exercises are a shadow of their former self last year we had three aircraft carrier battle groups participating this year it's one small aircraft it's really an assault ship with a short takeoff and landing jape third f. thirty five so it's a huge deal now there are huge military asymmetries on the peninsula which are going to be astronomically difficult to resolve so we may get a start in these in these discussions when the two korean leaders may meet they may

in a few days they may even declare and then to yes the korean war or at least hostilities but it's going to take a lot of tough slogging to work through some of these details and to particularly to put in place the security guarantees which i think the north koreans are going to insist on to go forward daniel let me go to you i mean the security guarantees that's what it's always been about and i'm glad that john mentioned the freeze for freeze because that's been around for a while nobody in the mainstream media says that where that idea comes from but i can tell you if you go to last year during the security council you could see the russian and chinese ambassador at length go through that. process here daniel before we go to the break go ahead in new york. well i just want to remind your viewers that that in two thousand and two george w. bush virtually declared war on north korea which he somehow blamed for nine eleven but north korea was well.