the scottish politician called for the assets of journalists working for russia's sport big news agency to be seized running the organization problems through this comes off the sporting published leaked documents suggesting the u.k. is funding a think tank aiming to anti russian sentiment across europe but of the six x. alleged. on the scandal deepens over an award winning general boards are you stories were exposed by our knowledge we stole readers donations collected on behalf of the teacher and his own. thanks for joining us on a large international i'm going to walk ins review watson arts are very welcome on

the program with us this. hour scottish lawmaker has called for drastic action against alleged russian propaganda cold hamilton says the assets of russians working for the sport nick music see should be seized across the story is an internet based radio station whose u.k. headquarters are up in edge him in scotland and this liberal democrat m.s.p. alex quill hamilton has told the sunday times that any russians who live in scotland and engage in what he calls information warfare against britain or to destabilize britain should have their assets seized take a listen to what he had to say to the sunday times. organizations such as you can are to pump propaganda backed by vladimir putin and have been complicit in the cover up of events from human rights breaches to the russian invasion of crimea and

other countries have taken a tougher line on the assets of russian nationals than we have in the u.k. the u.k. government must look again at what can be done that is pretty harsh rhetoric but that would have been a hit if the sunday times hadn't printed it along with the photographs of all the people that work in sputnik up in edinburgh it reads a bit like a wall of shame editorially there doesn't seem any reason for those photographs to be that other than sort of the newspaper outing these people as sort of being involved in anti british activities it almost reads a bit like an incitement to violence in terms of why the spotlight has foreland on the radio station up in edinburgh and sputnik well it appears that some of the reporting that they've been doing has been rubbing politicians up the wrong way in

particular the radio station just like r.t. has reported on the leaked integrity initiative documents and they happen to reveal that the u.k. foreign office happens to be funding and anti russian public influence campaign through a british think tank and that's been quite a major story both for sputnik and for c. but the times article has already written off these leaks these documents about integrity initiative because they say that they come from russian hackers two of the journalists named in the times article gave us their reactions to the story i didn't receive a new request from the taunts to use my name and proof oil in the north with the they did so overall i would say that the new. there's been foolish and disrespectful to the style of sputnik and r.t. and that it forms part of the ongoing and to russia done to purchase a to buy the government as a deflection tactic from bragg's it and other issues and initially it was it was

a bit of a shock on the other hand it's kind of hardly surprising given the anti russian sentiment there is you know travel in all your key newspapers just say and we expose this integrity initiative which ruffled a few feathers people are not too happy about it and then we saw this times article carpark and make the claim that somehow this explosion of the integrity initiative by an r.t.c. suggests that it was a russian hack of the anonymous integrity initiative documents so it's i mean it's just ridiculous not nice to see your picture up there with your name except and under the headline of being part of a crime when stooge but never had and we know that we've done nothing wrong and i would say that this very much into keys that we're doing something right here and we did send several requests to international media organizations for their views on the story and whether times article met ethical standards we're still waiting

for any response and the russian embassy in london in the meantime says that publishing journalist data the times is following the example of a controversial new korean website called peacemaker the site posts the personal data of those it considers to be enemies of the state some of the people who appeared on the list were later murdered journalist daniel clarke says the times article is part of a long running campaign against russian media outlets. the sunday times and it says the paper the times have waged a war against russian media which is operating lawfully in this country in the u.k. for a number of years now and the intention or the aim is quite clear they want to get sputnik closed down and they want to get r.t. taken off there in the u.k. that's very very clear and they will do anything to try to further that that you know what's been happening is it's i would good for us call it harassment i think putting the pictures the photographs of people who work on a in a newspaper like that i think is tantamount to incitement almost it might put those

people's lives in danger people who work for russian media british journalist who work i think are in threat persecuted and i think that you know we've got to stand up against this years of. mccarthyism on steroids really what we've got at the moment. and it's articles on russia other times frequently sites ben memo defense fellow with the atlantic council has posted numerous anti russian tweets in the most latest article also talks about alleged violations by r t and the possibility of sanctions against this channel as that r.t. only emphasizes the kremlin's position while giving a little airtime to critics numers name has already appeared in documents showing his alleged links to the integrity initiative group spreading anti russian sentiment is not alone though the leaks papers suggest that the u.k. funded charity has been using journalists across europe to stir up anti russian feelings were against the of investigates. if shady were an

organization it would be integrity initiative low and behold an army of propagandists disguised as anti propagandists whose job is to malign the slander be it states ideas people even british politicians our investigation has found wiring evidence the shadowy programs official twitter account has been used to attack or been the labor party and their fresh us one three quoted newspaper article calling corbin a useful idiot that goes on to state he's open visceral anti-press tinnies and how the kremlin of course as surely as if he had been secretly peddling westminster tattle for money you can imagine the shock mr coburn must have felt when he learned through these leaks that integrity knishes eve had not brazen to defame him well funded by the british government no less but slandering german corben opposition

politicians isn't their only job with integrity initiative which is working to counter dissin from asian overseas by bringing together groups of experts to analyze and discuss the problem posed by russian this information the government is funding this initiative with the early two million pounds this financial year but funding covers its activity outside the u.k. and it has not found any activity within the u.k. the hacktivist group anonymous has leaked details on the operation integrity initiative functions by setting up independent clusters candidates seem to be hand-picked big plus a few influential charismatic but the chief requirement seems to be you've got to really hate russia the integrity initiative was set up to bring to the attention of politicians policy may. opinion leaders and other interested parties the threat

posed by russia to democratic institutions in the united kingdom across europe and north america now here is what's been bugging me personally if these white knights and self professed fighters for the truth of what they say they are why are they hiding why are they trying to stay in the shadows anonymity of the team remains paramount as our activity increases we will no doubt attract unwanted attention irregardless he is how their class the system works see you have an article in the french le monde a harsh attack on alleged russian propaganda in france the author the french professor happens to be part of integrity initiative french cluster at least according to the leaked lists and gets paid to trash talk russia they even boosted their grand plans when visited by who found the institute of

statecraft which birth integrity initiative in italy and the atlantic council published a big study with help from an editor of less very influential italian newspaper surprise more bashing russia it became increasingly evident in twenty sixteen that russian strategic narrative sometimes including dissent from asian and conspiracy theories were systematically spread in italy by the vast network of pro and five s websites and social media accounts not so much of a surprise it's called winnie is also listed as a member of the italian cluster and also gets paid for his work unfortunately according to an internal integrity initiative memo their peers to be a shortage of russian propaganda in italy. in a do it appears that the promotion of a strategy to spread disinformation and to influence the italian political opinions

has been limited and came much more from national populist boxes rather than from russia what foreign country strange isn't it how they choose to keep that part secret we can go on and on about other clusters but you get the point had they gritty initiative even targets are us here at r t according to the leaked documents they have people presumably who they paid to report r.t. to off gone the british media regulator ofcom actually publishes complaints statistics only if over ten complaints didn't make that list it seems like integrity nishi of not audience members convinced of calm to go off to sea we've all noticed how anti russian sentiment in the media has soared over the last years and saw as still we now know one of the reasons but above all these

leaks and in my view tear the mosques off the bol that fights russian propaganda as they claim and what's underneath is ugly we asked the u.k. foreign office to comment on the integrity initiative allegations we were told that the claims were being spread by kremlin news channels as part of a russian misinformation campaign politics professor piers robinson told us why he thinks the u.k. government has taken such an interest in the russian media. it seems to be just as much about promoting insuring up official u.k. policy towards russia as it is about actually countering any russian threat the u.k. government and other western governments in the us in recent years have had increasing difficulty persuading enough of their populations as to the legitimacy of the

foreign policies that they have been pursuing and at the same time western countries have been going through a period of political crisis an economic crisis and i think a lot of this drive is as much about trying to shore up shakey official narratives and trying to shore up political systems in a situation of political crisis as it is actually about countering russian propaganda or i think i would suspect that's a little bit of an excuse here that really what's going on the problems much closer to hard. new revelations have emerged on a german award winning reporter who was exposed last week as a fraud last rolo sure sue was fired from the magazine allegedly stole reader's donations for people featured in his articles and included all front syrian children shall do is q has the story. not just being accused now of being

a purveyor of fake and fictitious news he's actually now being accused of embezzling money as a result of his stories the story but it clear that this relates to is one from two thousand and sixteen he told a heart wrenching tale about two syrian all phones a brother and a sister they were living hundreds of miles apart in different cities in two after escaping syria and they would dreaming of a life together a life together in germany and he urged his readers to donate money to try and help these two siblings his brother and his sister make their dreams come true and to get them to germany where the money was funneled into his private account and while it's not known how much actually went in there this spiegel is now investigating the claims that he actually embezzled that money because it turns out according to a turkish photographer who was working with him on this story that one of the children didn't even exist and the second one the brother who did exist was

actually living with his mother in turkey and was and often so now dispy go as far as a criminal complaint looking into that embezzle mint possibly of money. as a reaction to that story now to speak also used its front page this week to say its sorry to its readers for the fake news that it's been publishing for many many years this house is shattered the worst thing that can happen to a print media outlet has happened to us for years we allowed for reports to go to print for us it's particularly horrifying that managed to deceive us for so long without being uncovered well in the fallout of this scandal dispy girl is now facing other accusations notably one from the u.s. ambassador to germany who's accused the magazine of having anti american bias. you. his policies and certain segments of the american people it's clear that we

were targeted by institutional bias the anti american bias that the magazine has exploded since the election of president trump so worked out to speak all for a number of years and he was considered to be such an excellent journalist that the magazine decided to make him stuff in two thousand and seventeen he's won many accolades both in germany early internationally for his work including just this december he was given through german reporters association prize and back in two thousand and fourteen he even was named by c.n.n. as being journalist of the year we just spiegel is admitting that at least fourteen of his articles were fictitious they were fake it's now looking deeper into his other articles and it could be that the scale of to his deceit is far far deeper than we already know following those accusations from the us ambassador on

spiegel's perceived anti americanism which shot at the scribe in the report that the magazine has apologized to all american citizens who may have been insulted and slandered by reports spiegel however says that it does not have an overall u.s. bias political commentator and publisher told us washington's focusing only on the fake stories that don't fit its narrative turning a blind eye to the rest. they take those stories that make america look bad and take those john list who are most critical and do not care on those people and those journalist who did fake stories about syria and most of the stories about syria and this war there were fake and were lies and america it's of course just taking those who don't distort their their present politics policy they do with the politics of america first america only america great and whatever

. they don't they just don't care anymore whether it is very obvious or whether it is not obvious and gunman has fired shots at a restaurant in brussels as security chiefs warn of potential terror attacks across europe we'll bring you more on that right after this short break.

so what we've got to do is identify the threats that we have it's crazy confrontation let it be an arms race. theory dramatic development the only and. i don't see that strategy will be successful very critical. usage. welcome back to the program of fears a growing of terror attacks in europe after a man with an assault rifle opened fire in a restaurant in a wealthy district of brussels police found three bullet holes in the window the restaurant though no injuries have been reported the restaurant has been closed

while police investigate the incidents or thirty's have not yet identified the suspect. is also on alert after the u.s. state department issued a statement warning its citizens of a terror threat there washington says that tourist hot spots and public areas as well. confusion also remains over last week's incident at gatwick in the u.k. reports of a drone shut down the country's second largest airport there police are now saying there may not have been a drone after all and the two suspects have been released just off of the incident britain security minister ben wallace warned that terror group al qaida is was seargent and planning spectacular air attacks. ahead of interpol is also warning of a new wave of terrorism in europe as radical islamists are released from prison the consonance been targeted for attacks in the christmas period for years now most recently a gunman opened fire on a christmas market in france that was just two weeks ago.

we spoke to a former british intelligence officer and a machine on she thinks that western military interventions have contributed to the current fears of a terrorist attack. whereas you look at the warning going out to barcelona from the u.s. state department that would indicate potentially that they have specific information

specific intelligence that there might be some sort of operation planned there although warning tourist they were going on buses and going to major tourist transport hubs i fail to see how that's going to potentially stop some sort of attack and it would probably just potentially frighten the tourists i think the support and encouragement that was tacitly given by certain western countries to the terrorists in syria allows them to build a base and sunny isis had a foothold in the benghazi region and if al qaeda is resurgent then they are going to have the same so the whole of north africa now is a mess and that was created by nato intervention and this is what's led partly to the migrant crisis across europe and this is leading again to terrorist bases that could then strike out against europe. or u.s. aircraft carrier has entered the persian gulf for the first time since two thousand and one accompanied by a fleet of other warships and washington has called this a show of force against iran. maybe showing that you're committed to rezone

stability you cross the world. bridge and you know it's very economically important area for the tour and so we're going to continue to go wherever we can internationally national waters and we're going to you know your presence iran is now threatening to block the strait of hormuz the only exit from the gulf a third of all oil trade passes through that strait iran's elite revolutionary guard military force have been conducting drills the other straight for over a week now it's been reported a drawing in ships of launch the drone of missiles close to the carrier over iran denies these claims. this comes amid rising tensions between iran and the us off to washington withdrew from the twenty fifteen nuclear agreement and reinstated sanctions president trump dubbed the deal the worst ever for the commander of reign in revolutionary guards muhammad ali to far east said that the u.s. the performance of warships in the gulf is merely

a gesture aimed at giving its allies a false sense of security a professor of political science at the university of tehran gave us his views on the story. it's part of a larger strategy of the trumpet ministration trying to pressure iran i mean this administration since taking into office nearly two years ago has been trying to pressure iran via sanction via threats and now bringing an aircraft carrier very near to iranian waters is very provocative i think the significance is. right now are things more of a threat rather than an actual military confrontation and i think the drills in the persian gulf are essentially trying to demonstrate both to the americans and to the israelis that the rain in forces are prepared we have to remember that from the rain in perspective the americans in the past two decades have it tied to of iran's neighbors afghanistan and iraq and the only. tool that you want has

as a deterrent for an american attack ad is to have a strong military that allows for the sour join us again out for a moscow time for the right stop boats up next though it's cross talk. to. us.

the greek riots occupy wall street arab spring these are the beginnings of the. of the protest across europe today it was all connected it's all based on the exact same concept of bankers printing too much money creating this wealth thing come gap and it's a delayed or deferred riot you know it's true that they their violence was baked into the cake and now leaders like that are getting their just desserts. my seven years doing drugs my nephews was still in drugs my sister just weren't doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse started going after the users in the prison population who are we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals while i was on the hill. the war on drugs was

a mistake there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. sins for owner minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up and miss you in waves in saved by daddy as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. i had a great education a good job and a family that loved me. i never had to worry about how i would eat some where i would sleep. but i'm facing christmas alone on the streets of london. while you look to be. on. the story like you only. believe you know to snowden who still give up food for the homeless. as you don't really feel like a human being you know. and then. the guy just came

over to me saw me in. his book. no one's ever no one has ever had. never even heard about.

a low in welcome to cross talk for all things considered i'm peter lavelle the us senate strongly rebuke saudi arabia over the show be murder and calls for an end to the american involvement in the war on yemen is this a defining moment for this bilateral relationship will so-called values trump hard

political realities. across liking saudi arabia i'm joined by my guest hussein in sun the he's a yemeni journalist in riyadh we have made it bram he is a us sodhi relations expert and in brighton we cross to catherine schachter she is a senior analyst with bio on center all right cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want and i always appreciate your command let me go to you first in riyadh how are you reacting to the rebuke from the u.s. senate was quite strong unanimous when it came to close shogi and the majority when it came to america's at least how the senate sees america's role your countries led war against yemen so what's the reaction there your reaction and if you just want to repeat the government's reaction that's all right as well go ahead and riyadh well definitely.