to any mash on their former m i five intelligence officer who says whistleblowers in the u.s. and not receiving fair treatment i think we have to await the outcome of his trial of his case just to see what the actual facts might be however it does raise some interesting concerns one of course the overreliance of the u.s. intelligence agencies on contracting out their work and the huge amounts of money that are there by paid to contractors usually friends of whatever administration is in power secondly of course we have to think about what actually happens to whistleblowers in the u.s. because they've had a really rough time those coming out of the intelligence agencies over the last decade and the americans say they have this procedure where whistleblowers can conveys their concerns and they will be properly addressed and yet we see time and time again that they're not so i think we need also to consider what might be the best path for whistleblowers to have confidence that if they have concerns about crime or about corruption they will be heard. the investigation will occur those

who might be needed to be held to account will be held to account but the whistleblower will not be penalized and it appears from this case the whistleblower yet again has been penalized. russia is at its again that's the claim in a new article in the u.s. magazine the atlantic it says the kremlin her staff it cites very early on meddling in the upcoming midterm elections. the russian government has one overriding objective with regards to the united states to weaken america so that it loses its will and ability to counter russian objectives the article goes on to explain russia's three step plan to break american democracy first take russian hackers and get them to interfere seconds by corrupt us politicians and support those who think favorably of peace in the atlantic believes this very channel helps undermine democracy by inviting on guests who death to be different they named brandon stryker as an example he's the founder of a movement encouraging democrats to walk away from the party that they love to take

a pass to forget we own the only one he talks to well i i myself was a lifelong liberal democratic voter i would say kind of a democrat by default because i'm a gay man and i think that the expectation for a lot of minority groups is that we are supposed to vote democrat and that we are supposed to be liberals friends drake is spent years as a liberal he now says he's concerned by what the left has become well before the election i was already starting to feel uncomfortable with where we were headed in terms of identity politics and p.c. culture. political commentator lionel told us what he thinks is driving such a rush of to cool off. nobody ever calls these people to task they are paid for by volume or how many likes to do you get how many clicks hey that was a great article factually incorrect. factually

a baseless and also the mentality just feeding frenzy of this this monster this mob this monster that you must feed constantly with us no rush no nato no bad guy no boogie man so there's many reasons why the book he made the straw man the specter the evil image of russia must be maintained because it fills because somebody talked about the time the power of nightmares it was a wonderful b.b.c. documentary and you need something to fear you need something and historically in this post in the cold war a red baiting this russo phobic hysteria feeds into this is well and there's an audience for it. now the protests have erupted in the gaza strip with palestinian demonstrators demanding attend or they call the hey man in israel the crowds can be seen to spy for large amounts of smoke and take out the great to much of its hand

on the israeli gaza border started back in march up to one hundred seventeen civilians being killed was a base reporter during house the latest details i list in you is going to need to approach has for the twenty first friday that israelis can see in you do fire tear gas canisters and live ammunition on the palestinian protesters. the situation now is the escalating as the palestinian protesters are trying to bring you to bring some tires to clear the vision of those ready snipers that israeli forces continue to fire more to gas canisters on the palestinian protesters to disperse them and to keep them away from the front at least two palestinians injured in that very very. condition as you see palestinians are are bracing the palestinian flag. throwing stones on the israeli snipers and this is how the palestinians have been constant doing. the snipers and the israeli forces oh my god look i mean if you don't

you just got to start being fired that gun on the palestinian protesters and i you see it's time to be fired on the part of student protesters where. just us are being fired from god directions as you see the place is filled with looks like everyone is suffocating from it you're just wired this is also one of the injuries are from the tear gas fired just right now with little or. no fines for the first time i see this there is no fence where the palestinian protesters hide that may be due to break the funds was probably just. hardship. as that palestinians have that ability to break up fence. forces that are shooting live ammunition on the part of. every one is going back. meanwhile the israeli

defense forces say the response of their troops to palestinians trying to break through the fence was in accordance with standard operating procedures a palestinian journalist has been arrested by the israel defense forces for filming soldiers and allegedly inciting violence darley live streams two videos on facebook really soldiers operating in ramallah filming i.d.f. soldiers is illegal in israel filming an officer with intent to undermine the spirit of the army is punishable by up to five years in jail the i.d.f. adds that the man they arrested was inciting violence against the state of israel on the army. the man filmed and edited videos of i.d.f. troops during the course of their operational activities while encouraging violence towards them and incited attacks directed at the state of israel and i.d.f. troops. and we were sleeping when we heard

a knock at the door in the middle of the night we woke up and opened the door they told us their soldiers they asked me whose house is it i said it's muhammad ali and then they asked who lives upstairs i said it's ali dharavi so they went upstairs and arrested him he told me mom don't be afraid i hope i won't stay there for long and she's not guilty i'm sure he's not we went to the court and they told us they were prolong his detention staying in the region palestinian rap and see gaza has risen to fame after filming a music video during the great smarter for ten he dedicated the song to his friend a journalist killed during that march. will send a message like oh. oh. i'm . gonna go back and i.

just want to. just you know we just were alone in the world. i mean yes of course the most was just my own stuff and it just seemed like they really just saw my music here because uncle we got it so it was easy for them. still to come on the program a young girl in the us has gained the attention of top politicians who are protesting during the pledge of allegiance the details on that and more after show craig.

the conspiracy theory that they're all want to. forget about the back of the bus just. because they want to rush limbaugh wonder bread and. tell you that.

welcome back to the program. he was reportedly reprimanded during the pledge of allegiance has won the support of hillary clinton the former presidential candidates tweeted that it takes courage to express disagreements within justice and have an ear old mariana taylor hypes more people will join her. it's important to stand up with. it but you know. the kind of. what it is that you meant by the people making. marianna said she was inspired by an american football quarterback during the national anthem before a game in two thousand and sixteen to protest against racial inequality and police brutality his silent protest soon spread among other athletes and this provoked a fiery political debates which reached all the way for the white house but you

love to see one of these in a phone. when somebody disrespects our flag to say get that son of a. right out start that was not against our anthem or our flag that was actually kneeling is a reference position responding to the girl's me the american civil rights union edged schools to guarantee students the freedom of speech without punishment meanwhile the girl's school has issued a statement saying it's not aware of any students being disciplined for such behavior but marianna says head teachers shouts at her and she left the classroom in tears earlier we discussed the issue with john leighton the former missouri republican and richard goodstein former adviser to the hillary clinton presidential campaign. football is about football schools about school and if you have a protest protest in a constructive way this girl can write letters to the editor she can arrange

a little march but protesting in your classroom to irritate your classmate mates and virtue signal and that's what she's being taught mom's teaching her mom is so proud you're taking to the streets is that bothersome to people is that annoying to people when you get when you get arrested disproportionately when you get shot disproportionately when you get put in jail just proportionally that's not just annoying that's totally ruining your life so the fact you're taking to the streets is not merely disruptive you're trying to make a point in less you have a goal and something that you actually have a path to accomplish then you're just disrupting you're just being an antagonist to your fellow athletes or the fans or in this case to her classmates what if she was going to make her stand peace on earth and you know will we ever get to the point where there's no discrimination no there are bigoted people let's stipulate that there are people who are bigoted they will be bigoted forever donald trump is giving them

a voice but the fact of the matter is it's not to say it's wrong for them to basically stand up for what they believe in that's what this little girl was doing that's all the democratic party the united states gets her power on dividing people and separating us versus them there's class warfare gender warfare they want to show that everybody's got a reason for injustice and they need to vote democrat to war in order to fix it and that's all this is it's just it's pure politics and hillary hillary clinton got millions more votes than donald trump to and her campaign theme was being together not dividing people she wasn't mocking handicapped people she wasn't telling punch him in the jaw and i'll pay your legal bills that's not what her team was searching was about bringing people together. the wedding of a country's foreign minister which would normally generate many headlines but it seems that's not the case if the thetan that's a man on the guest list that's precisely what's happening in austria and saturday

not everyone's happy about it. have more details. president vladimir putin will be the guest of honor at the wedding of austrian foreign minister. and businessman wolfgang milingo at the luxury venue that they'll be getting married up just to the south of garth's in austria president putin is expected to arrive by plane early morning on saturday he'll be then traveling by helicopter to the place where the wedding is taking place there is talk of a carriage ride also going on but i think that might be more for the happy couple and not something that mr putin will be taking part in from the austrian side they've confirmed that the usual security protocol will be in place for the arrival of a guest or a visitor of the stature of the russian president but it his arrival in his saying is acceptance of the invitation has provoked a controversial reaction lot of the press across austria and across europe saying what does this mean of putin's extended an invitation to the wedding of

a cabinet member of an e.u. nation well what we've seen for in reaction terms is from the head chef of the place where the events taking place well he says he wants a selfie with the russian president however we've also heard is from a green party m.e.p. in austria saying that the fact that mrs is can i still invited vladimir putin in the first place means that she needs to step down from her position in the foreign ministry for mr nigel bears responsibility for this and should he order to avert any bad consequences for austria immediately resign if she does not do so voluntarily chancellor because should today suggest to the president that he sack been confirmed that the invite was extended back in june while vladimir putin was on a visit to vienna he's making this is part of a stop off on route here to lynn for an important meeting with german chancellor angela merkel rest social appearance though from vladimir putin in western europe

in recent times since twenty. fourteen and since relations between the west and russia took a downturn over the ongoing situation in ukraine we haven't seen much of them coming to places like austria like germany in fact on social visits that the austrian foreign ministry of says that this is clearly private visit. you know journalists in attendance that will be no politics discussed that's sometimes easier said than done especially when austrian chancellor. is also on the invite list almost certainly he will meet with vladimir putin at some point during the wedding it's unknown of course what they will be discussing there but when it comes to the relationship between austria and russia it's certainly been far warmer than most other western european nations in fact if you look at the script poisoning case just recently vienna was one of the few russian capitals not to expel any

russian diplomats over that but while it's certainly a private affair well vladimir putin is in austria at this wedding it's very much a business affair later in the day for him it's unlikely we're going to see any pictures from that wedding of lot of me appeared on the dance floor beginning into the night because around six pm he's due to be here in berlin where he'll be meeting with german chancellor angela merkel. clayborne use that day for this hour a day and forget to check out r.t. dot com for more on any of our stories coming today. play. the be.

the best. you know world a big part of newton's law and conspiracy it's time to wake up to dig deeper to hit the stories that mainstream media refuses to tell more than ever we need to be smarter we need to stop slamming the door on the bad and shouting past each other it's time for critical thinking it's time to fight for the middle for the truth the time is now for watching closely watching the hawks.

have been saying the numbers mean something they matter the us is over one trillion dollars in debt more than ten white collar crimes happen each day. eighty five percent of global wealth he longs to be ultra rich eight point six percent market saw a thirty percent rise last year some with four hundred to five hundred trades per second per second and bitcoin rose to twenty thousand dollars. china is building a two point one billion dollar a i industrial park but don't let the numbers overwhelm. the only number you need to remember is one one business shows you can afford to miss the one and only boom bust.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lawwell a trumpy in kind of view it is an understatement to say donald trump is an unconventional and an orthodox political figure his critics do have a point when they say trump appears to be harsher with allies than with real or imagined enemies then there's the middle east and iran why is trump so obsessed with terrain. across talking a trumpy and kind of view i'm joined by my guest peter ford in london he's a former british ambassador to syria and rein in washington we have james jaharis he's a former u.s. diplomat and former advisor to u.s. senate republican leadership and in new york we have richard murphy he is a former u.s. career in basad or to syria and currently an adjunct scholar at the middle east institute right gentlemen crossed rules in effect that means you can jump in

anytime you want i always appreciated james let me go to you first in washington because you've rapidly become the donald trump sure for me you i know you're a supporter of the president and you have a great foreign policy expertise so i want to see if we can kind of. unpack a few things here for example i give the president with north korea if something could happen there it's very very complicated the parlay is going to be long and hard but i think it takes a lot of courage to engage that unlike past administrations. in europe with his european allies through and nato tough love there i think he's doing absolutely the right things you want to be protected ok if russia is such a terrible threat but want to pay for it ok it's. pretty simple but then the wrinkle comes in james i mean the middle east i mean the trump administration is embrace israel and saudi arabia much more than passage ministrations iran is are

are again on target with the rhetoric and the planning and all of that i don't see any rhyme or reason to it all can you is there a silver bullet for you to give me to make me understand it go ahead james. well let me draw an analogy to start with peter people of notice that trump since the day he took office even before has been under siege from people in the intelligence community i think that's one reason why he and the sun the moon and the stars to the pentagon he had to have somebody who was on his side when we put it to the international context that you just raised look we've got clients and i do call them clients of not satellites in europe in the far east like south korea and japan i think he can afford to kick them around but we come to the middle east and talk about israel and saudi arabia i don't think there's so much our clients as where their client given the kind of influence the israelis and the saudis have in this town it's not so easy to cross them so i think he is proceeding much more carefully

there just as he indulges the pentagon i think he's indulging those countries but we're going to have to see now he can turn the corner especially if he can work out something with mr putin on syria with regard to essentially keeping the israelis and the iranians away from each other near the golan heights we might have the beginning of something constructive in that region but that's going to be a very tough road to hoe i think ok it's interesting peter what weigh in on that too because i guess if you do i restate my first question in a much shorter version is that trump is showing flexibility in some areas here in other areas these things these seem far more rigid how do you see it i mean particularly in the region of the middle east in iran go ahead peter. well i think the key. humility but i think it does help him in america. meaning. you and i

don't much my fellow i thought nation is the opposite vention is let's recall you know the america. the america committee tried to keep america. out of the war world war two yeah and this period the spirit of john quincy adams who advise the gay and the america going abroad in truth the truth lay this tradition to which trump hark back and which appeal thought much i think through middle america and he seems to be consistent in that and almost all his moves can be interpreted in that spirit whether it pulling back from korea pulling back from nato the overreach in europe. the middle east is

a little bit different but maybe come back we will come back to that ok richard i mean ok good considering what we just heard from james and peter i think both of them would agree that you know and i like how james put it you know indulging the pentagon i mean the pentagon's got a lot of money right now ok but what does that money for and a lot of people would say is for possible or continued military interventions which the president ran against during the campaign and now we have massive arms sales so you radiate saudi arabia and israel here and there seems to be a lot of ambiguity about what the u.s. policy is these a v syria how do you one tie all this go ahead richard. i don't think. serious situation is well understood or has been well understood for the percival years we made a mistake there's no other word for it back in two thousand and eleven assuming that the regime was very fragile and about to be blown away.

it managed to survive and then it was bolstered by russian supported a rainy and support in the following years but that mistake colored. washington javert tubes that. you had heard about. during obama's. do not get involved in yet another middle east of the war. richard you're absolutely right and that's exactly where i want to go here james they ok all of all of us are kind of more or less on the same page here but then how do you account for the bellicose attitude towards iran and i think richard's right donald trump knows enough about history is that that he doesn't want to be a president that's brought down by a foreign war that he really doesn't want to get involved in i mean cheri i mean he's old enough to know what happened to lyndon johnson for example or george bush jr with iraq he doesn't want to have that around his collar but james you know using sanctions to intimidate friends and foes not to import

a rainy unoiled i mean i again you know you and you look at the american allies in the region saudi arabia and israel which would love to see some kind of regime change or instability that's probably their first priority i mean this seems the kind of go counter what trump pianism is all about when it comes when it goes to foreign policy james. absolutely clearly and i think peter is right absolutely it's america first policy i wouldn't call it isolation ism i would simply call it a sovereigntists policy however there is one big fat exception and that is the middle east we don't have an america first policy in the middle east we have a saudi arabia and israel first policy in the middle east i don't know whether that represents where mr trump really wants to go or whether it is like i said an analogy to the pentagon whether he's indulging the realities that exist so he can do something else if he can get us out of syria i don't expect us to admit we made

a mistake in syria of course we did a tragic horrible mistake but in politics people don't admit mistakes if he can slip us out of syria somehow the real question is will he take the bait on what has to be the red line that israel and saudi arabia want regime change in iran and if he goes down that road it's the end of his predecessor presidency he needs to understand that he ends up as george w. bush if he goes down that road may be a lot worse i frankly don't think he's going to do that but he's certainly got a lot of people both foreign and domestic pushing him in that direction and right now he's indulging them the question is whether he will follow through with that i hope he doesn't you know peter one of the things i've noticed that's unique about this presidency. tweeting a sign is that i think serious people and not just pundits that are partisan one way or another i mean i listen to trump speeches particularly when he goes to the base and there's just a heck of a lot of hyperbole and it's kind of baked in for me ok i'm trying to understand the

basis of what he's saying because well most of what he talks about is themself ok that's the trump way but i just have to wonder when you look at his foreign policy views i see that a lot of it is bluster because and i'm kind of agreeing with james here in the bark is really there but there's not always the follow up i mean with syria. we really don't know what's going on there they're not really saying very much because i think there's going to be a withdrawal but i mean could we look at the bluster towards iran is this kind of bluster to keep the saudis and the israelis happy go ahead peter. yes i think it's primarily to keep the lead and the israeli lobby in the u.s. happy because look at it this way trump has already got a lot of enemies back home that's what you're new theat. he's got the security bait on his back he got everybody on his back he cannot afford all of

the israel lobby on his back so this combined with the fact that he has family links with israel push to thim in the direction of being an iran hawk. now this is scary. to get dragged down that path we may be in for a very bumpy ride indeed. but i heard that his heart is in it. that it opportunistic and dictated by his standing domestically in the u.s. he can't have too many enemies at the same time you know the rich are reflective i think that's quite fascinating because i'm really you know you could have all the bluster you want against iran but it does keep the israelis and the saudis happy and it's one it's one issue he doesn't really want to deal with right now because of the litany of trade issues nato north korea meeting with.