well joining me now are encrypted link from falls church virginia is someone who is colin powell's chief of staff and sam adams award winner laurie wilkinson retired colonel thanks for coming on the show i just going to last because we played a sound bite there would you recognize that israel has nuclear weapons because obviously there is a continued denial of that fact from the u.s. government now of course they do at least part of the technology they stole from us with the acquiescence i think of limited base johnson then present the united states in the sixty's they have nuclear weapons let's just quickly go to the situation in kashmir because while the most of the media are interested in the talks in hanoi and and the lawyer giving evidence in your country what is your take on the kashmir situation and why it suddenly flared up given your background as a chief of staff this is an extremely dangerous situation even in two thousand and two when we took great interest in the situation between pakistan and india and

dispatched some high level diplomats there to deal with it they didn't actually fly aircrafts attack aircraft against each other and of course now we have a pakistani air defense battery every shot down an indian fighter and we have any impala apparently being albuquerque started so this is more dangerous even the two thousand and two although he did release larry and i mean you can see that that might be enough for some people's interest for there to be. unfriendly relations between delhi and islam about. of course there is always in someone's interest for states like that to be fighting one another obviously when you achieve this stuff the political wing of hezbollah was recognized as a political wing of the sea they have members of parliament in the parliament in beirut in lebanon britain has now said that the has been a politicians in lebanon designated terrorists are these that what they want the

parliament to agree to what would he make of the well the british were the only ones who along with the nefarious and catastrophic invasion of iraq in two thousand and three also so i would expect no less from the british had the term administration made that decision a few months ago has been a just gave going underground a statement saying the free british people news support and continue to cover crimes of terrorism in syria iraq yemen by taking this decision the u.k. government is insulted the emotions and will of the lebanese people who consider as will are political in popular power that has been widely represented in the parliament and the current government so kind of a kind of victory fez will of being gamed by this kind of censorship and banning and designation as terrorist i think so i think the rest of the world at least half of it or better understands that when you're up against a state that has the latest and modern military equipment and behind it the greatest military power on the face of the earth the united states you have

a couple of choices you can not launder and beat a slave or you can take means to oppose that modern military power and that is what as a law has done that is what hamas has done it's understandable i'm going back to my military professional roots i learned when i was being briefed on al qaida at the joint special operations command of fort bragg in our country back in two thousand and one right after nine eleven and i remember the colonel's words very vividly i said what's that second briefing you have over there against the wall because he just finished rich. you know now he said all that's has will and i said yes and he said yes you don't want to mess with them they're the number one terrorist organization of the world in terms of capability they make al-qaeda look like i care is but and here come the sttng or but they are not opposed to the united states unless we are in their face in their area on their land and territory so

let's not mess with did you offer them about the apparent mismatch that the united states was against al-qaeda and at the same time against a group fighting al-qaeda and certainly reasoned recent actions in syria show as buller in the vanguard against isis day as an al-qaeda even more strange right now and so on iraq's between riyadh and israel that even extends to hama didn't manuel the most evil man on the face of the earth in my view and bibi netanyahu and others in the israeli government well obviously we invited saudi ambassador london on the programming of it does come on the program i'm sure he would deny any charge of being evil but certainly as regards israel the united nations in the past few days claimed that israel fired and wounded more than six thousand palestinians a protests in that crimes that amount ma'am out to be crimes against humanity i should say four israeli soldiers were injured in the protests last year and much publicized there about the united nations

a. verdict on what israel did to civilians to the disable to journalists and to help what has not a lot in our corporately influenced in our own media and media that is influenced from the new york times to national public radio orginally by the israeli lobby you're not going to hear too much that might smack of some criticism i'm really worried about the long term security of israel which i am concerned very much concerned because. all the actions that are taking place right now both domestically here in this country and as you just saw numerated some in israel in the west bank in gaza. so forth are undermining israel's long term security not security there's begun an increasingly dramatic erosion of support even amongst you ish americans as i pointed out ok young jewish americans for this position doing nothing and hearing no evil see no evil and speaking of

evil i'm really worried about israel's future sisk security krystle be because its leadership right now doesn't seem to understand that it is itself undermining israel's long term security and over here in britain i should say people criticizing the israel lobby tend to be attacked as n.c.c. mites so do you think it will israel's the policies will continue to affect the us presidential elections i think it will but not so dramatically as in the past as i said i think that influence is all in all the control and so shankar i think the president of the armed action for defense of democracies which is a foreign agent operating in the united states under the rules the seas of the u.a.e. and israel even he said the other day that old shit canard about anti semitism a orcon anymore because a lot of people are seeing her it has nothing to do with anti semitism and with bernie sanders it has nothing to do with a decent semitism for a par excellence it has to do with what i was just talking about it's a very complex security arrangement the united states is involved in we just built

our first base in israel for example ok i'm sure you're not going to say that one quite oh this previously unknown venezuelan politician has a big a low b. than a pac but when you are at the state department was venezuela on your radar as it is now as obviously an enemy of the united states you mecha roger noriega otto reich who couldn't get himself confirmed in the calmest sector western hemisphere affairs record roger could elliot abrams and others we were hacked practicing what i would call not in one nine hundred fifty three long at most a day to day ta we were practicing a more sophisticated more. modern up to date today taht we were pushing chavez we were pushing the opposition we were trying to overthrow go shopping as dick cheney ran us national security and arm palsy from two thousand and want to two thousand and five and for example when your ministry of foreign affairs approached the state department along with france and germany and was bringing a message for from being

a job in tehran that said let's talk land let's even talk about nuclear weapons ballistic missiles terrorism and so forth and we started them at the state department secretary powell didn't even see them he sent rich armitage down to see them and then them rich armitage turned them over to john bolton the number three man at the state turn them over to him and bolton essentially listen to him and told to go away do you think then that. israel has anything to the venezuela to do with venezuela because why is one white oh so keen on talking about israel venezuela ties i think israel probably has a hand in almost any place first of all generally speaking where arms are being so . it bats were way above its weight in terms of population and so forth with regard to selling arms to almost anyone in the world who buy them and it also has a long record of giving us a port in areas where we might want to conduct a word operations and we might not want to expose ourselves so blatantly as we

would otherwise so before anyone gets too pessimistic listening to this conversation. they have foreign minister venezuela said the other day that he has had long meetings with elliott abrams obviously previously convicted of war crimes in the western hemisphere and abrams the trams only two misdemeanors for which he was pardoned by president bush quite well the point is that area that's a set that elliott abrams the current one to venezuela is going to buy the whole trump. they've had conversations and they. had a long meeting something hopeful there and the fact that something in private may not be something that can be shed in public i certainly hope so i know that leopoldo lopez is the real power behind white oak white oak probably has what nine members of the national assembly i mean what a strange beast to select to be our representative as he quote represents a don't soil people unquote he certainly doesn't leopoldo lopez as our about him

that said i would rather see mexico ergo either hope. anyone almost in their offering good offices decides us but if this is to be also north a the united states is going to be a mediator in this god forbid it should be through a clue or civil war or both afghanistan iraq syria my god haven't we learned our lesson hasn't the world learned a lesson from our learning our less ally i hope this is not something that is a medieval to military power the venezuelans need to take care of this on their own art and if there is any military power to use it needs to be venezuela. doesn't have either civil war there would be quite bloody but outside intervention does nothing but exacerbate the situation whether seana russia or the united sates ok but just about just one final question now it's one year ago since the british government says the russians use w m d against someone in this country and that to

be a putin raise the specter of the cuban missile crisis with respect to the withdrawal of the trump administration from the i n f nuclear treaty how dangerous to think well that is the atomic that atomic bolton the doomsday clock that they run i think it's a two minutes to midnight now which it was in one thousand nine hundred two over sixty two to nuclear missile crisis i think they're right and for a whole panoply of reasons i think we're closer to an exchange of nuclear weapons kashmir for example today then we've been since nine hundred sixty two and the withdrawal from the i n f treaty without it. we should have sat down we should have sat down with. let's have a multilateral discussion at least the three parties russia china and united states and let's expand that we need a new nuclear arms control more effective nuclear arms control not less which i thank you very much after the break have a good amateur investigative journalist managed to id three russian spies one year

on since all three we speak to a former russian intelligence officer all the civil coming up a bunch of going underground. join me every thursday on the alex salmond show and i'll be speaking to guest of the world the politics sports business i'm showbusiness i'll see that. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next the multiple different clubs on one hand it is logical to sit in the home fields where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and a fresh perspective i'm used to surprising and i saw one on t.v. think. i'm going to talk about

football not the or else you can think i was going to go. by the way what is it that's lying here. the maturity to. go in and you may never get over. my teenage gang rules here. i do want to remove. my good. name.

and melanie when. i'm looking. through. life expectancy in america is plummeting if you look at the chart it's shocking to look at almost every other country it's kind of inching up on one side of the chart and then as an outlier is the united states it's way over here it's all crashing down from the drug from having junk food having junk culture having it's junk politics and fake news it's all fake and fake doesn't sustain life and you see it in the numbers it's clear. welcome back well if nuclear tensions between washington and moscow easing because

of the i.m.f. treaty one year ago it looked like britain was going to war with russia it's really . by script all of his daughter were allegedly poisoned in schools were in the west of england u.k. authorities claim the direct chemical weapon was used and that it in. advertently also killed british national and mother of three dawn sturgis pop there and a policeman were also allegedly poisoned charlie rowley told us i don't recognize the two suspects but i want to see the brought to justice it is progress to see the suspects identified in the screen case but we need to make sure that these people are also held accountable for dorms mudda but no one has been held truly accountable drazen may said she'd seen evidence that it was the russians who julie did i did but u.k. defense secretary gavin williamson was unequivocal this is. true closest. do. we respond. to sure

he was widely ridiculed but except for b.b.c. and reuters journalists no one knows what actually happened to sergei screwball and his daughter yulia scribal was interviewed still without consular access by the reuters news agency if there's not enough to see a school bus or stores if it was noble much. you've got the in question give us points about some. evening when you those are anymore the providing to come in the sun except that no one has access to her or her father those suspected of committing the crime because of c.c.t.v. footage showing them strolling around the city of seoul as we did turn up on our t.v. interviewed by r.t. boss margarita simonyan though she asked whether they really just went to saul's re because it was a wonderful city to speak because i'm going to follow but i'm sure we'll see each other through or. any of the some or. some

ministers who are. on the i mean you're going to go over to europe on this new new day and i remember her she made. me a scream you know for the votes to go we could go on because i mean you've. seen me just sad. someone paid me a total bill didn't include me to the interview and i was greeted with astonishment around the world with apologies just as we get the drill who flies from moscow just to see it then came a torrent of revelations that had internet conspiracy theorists to be repeating lines from the dallas book depository why do timelines of all match how was it that the first to find and treat this cripples on a bench just happened to be the chief nursing officer of the british army we on this program last legendary pulitzer prize winner who has uncovered conspiracies from my lai to abu ghraib he has not investigated the story but said this i've written about it so yes my something i have written the story i always had about it

from my friends in america is. those two were helping your british intelligence services with information about the russian mafia that's what they were doing here in other words the people that would high on the list that would want to hurt them would be the russian mafia russians but not the russian gov to read the script. i mean that was the understanding and there's also been some reporting in europe of it that it's been pretty much wiped widespread there was a story about the same after same thing that they were actually were doing work for the marriage for the british intelligence committee activities i mean there is a big russian mafia let's face it well joining me now is espionage story and and former k.g.b. operative alexander vassilyev alexander thanks for coming on you joined the k.g.b. is letting me a putin graduated so maybe europe in stooge what would putin got out of trying to kill people in britain using chemical weapons that could be traced to russia well not financially i think that's very official narrative has been accused is total

rubbish and there are several points for any importance and in very fishel narrative which do far. commonsense and elementary logic there's a girl from from the book. as i said putin would never authorize it on the you for the world cup in russia russian risk of huge amount of money in the world cup and to kill and create to create such a scandal international scandal that would be totally stupid now let's go to the parish the level to the stall guards bar bar sugar from the throat let me ask you let's suppose you want to poison sort of your script all unfolds barry. how would you do that would you go in broad daylight what's what if anything is i don't know what in that second guessing so you're basically second guessing the british government and what the prime minister dres may said said very clearly that it was

it was russia that's why all those diplomats were expelled and why countless experts and certainly the media here specially using this belling cat personality guinn's his research as show knew they were. i mean just to interrupt you these two were interviewed on our t.v. saying that they were there to see souls greek drill. i mean and not only the intelligence mission by the russian government does anyone really believe that no i don't i think that. they thought interview was a brilliant job. but it is old for one of the original how well it is it's because a good journalist it's sold them they were first told it gave them a chance to speak and. to me that into or is one of the reasons

why i don't believe their group offices why because you're for the your group offices your hero for russian harlee to create a soldier's post under by portion. they would never have to do that. kills over russia respected people in russia that interview was totally humiliating for them they would never have to do that. that's why that i believe that there are no group officers and there are another other reasons all experts say that. that corporation poison and i perish and was conducted on the very on the harley on professional level but experts in this country say that well it's just because they're idiots or excuse me. over russian special services veterans from russia people who started at military academies hard to create the soldiers that it is really yeah no i understand that but it was the view he had presumably the view of

the intelligence services here which then feed information to theresa may and ministers is but actually since the fullness of the union when you were being trained it is that incompetent in putin's russia i don't think so if you talk if you look at the let's say and separation of in crimea in two thousand and fourteen it was mostly done by well russian special services well we're my way out of your bones an egalitarian that but from the military point of view that was a brilliant operation home when the people who actually killed khomeini put in says no one was what was killed no one and the russian media there are well the reason a case may be but we're talking about maybe about one person. or none right let's compare this operation the whole peninsula was taken back from

ukraine no one was killed i think it was a brilliant operation was done by by the russian special services guy but on the other hand yes the russian you know don't know how the russians call those guys would you get the polite people ok but surely there's been a degree of incompetence on in the putin administration in foreign policy losing ukraine allowing i don't know a major attack in libya i mean that that have been cases. all of that kind and also i have to ask you is russia is it prepared for the networks like the integrity initiative which has been exposed to my five and six. with journalist to think tanks including some links to the bed and get organization. in this country the levels of. disparate russia and anger at russia. are new all time high based on the on the certainty that russia was behind the script well i wouldn't i think that the british public and the british media are different things

i talked to or british people ordinary british people of all the the case when you times these are the official narrative doesn't play very well at the even for a normal for an ordinary civilian with common sense right now about building kits and all this stuff which i don't call evidence i call it stuff. from britain that i think brilliant get my have a serious problem with their russian partner the insider. i think. is their website and educator or the op or that website name is on the brow hold of doesn't impress me as an independent and impartial journalist or among the brotherhood of is a leading member over this sort of director movement she is not a journalist she's a pretty sure. figure there are two movement was created created in two thousand

and eight by a liberal politicians like bodies nympho for sport of and if you action they are open iterations this is liberal opposition and you put in the positions we shouldn't take it seriously that in the past few days the insider that website says that the third demand the betting cat is about and the identified was in catalonia before the referendum there in. written before the bricks at referendum that this is all part of putin's grand plan to use these grue g.r.u. offices to disrupt and destroy western european democracy i think that people should come so it would be interesting to compare. the inside the website what they say both the third man and the bin in that website. they seem different things been in good sense to both the third man that they don't know which role what role he played if any you know they're sold by the case and the poisoning of

the script both they and they don't know where the hue was and full spirit at that time. they inside the website says that she is definitely a criminal that she definitely was in wolf in the poisoning of this great post and she definitely was in salzburg it looks like of inside he's. more a ticket and maybe political maturity to know this story i'm betting that i don't know much about betting i don't know who is financing it we've invited as he begins the head of bell and get on this program i think the members of his stuff will try to get this program banned but we will try to get him on alexander thank you so much that's it for the show will be back on wednesday thirty five years to the day of the miners strike described by jeremy cauldrons top advisor seamus milne as having no real parallel in size duration or impact he didn't.

yes so all this is all the truth.

and what. i see people who are afraid. some women. purposes. is the color of their skin. their white skin. doing drugs my nephew drugs my sister spent doing drugs it was like an epidemic of drug abuse america's public enemy number one in the united states is drug abuse. users in the prison population so we started treating sick people people who are addicted to these drugs like criminals. the war on drugs.

there are countless numbers of people who are in prison for. minor minor offenders in the drug trade it's a lot watching your children grow up in miss you in waves and say by day as you're walking out of a business it's just it doesn't get easier. join me every first day on the alex simon chill and i'll be speaking to us of the world of politics sports business i'm show business i'll see you then.

an offshoot of the al qaeda terror group stages a deadly surprise attack in syria as the u.s. offers a million dollar reward for information on a solid lot of. staying in syria heavy fighting resumes as u.s. backed kurdish forces close in on islamic states last stronghold that's despite don't trump having already announced victory over eisold numerous times in the past few months. i'd like to see as broad a coalition as we can put together to replace the replace the whole corrupt regime the u.s. national security adviser eyes an international coalition.