russia's envoy to the un accuses the global chemical weapons watchdog of becoming highly politicized after a leaked document appears to contradict the o.p.c. probe into a chemical attack in syria. french intelligence busy chiefs that question 3 journalists over a link to detail in the use of weapons in the saudi and bombing of yemen. and an austrian province of sparks controversy by introducing some strict rules of conduct for refugees supposedly to help them integrate. the latest on the story you can head to our t.v. dot com the man the myth the legend himself mr kevin owen he'll be here about an hour's time with a look at your news but stay with us now for cross talk discussing u.s. national security adviser john bolton's saber rattling in the middle east.

hello and welcome to cross talk where all things considered i'm peter lavelle is donald trump's national security advisor john bolton a clear and present danger to america and the world is saber rattling in the middle east particularly against iran should concern us we are forced to ask a fundamental question is colton the primary architect of trump's foreign policy. talking john bolton i'm joined by my guest brian becker in washington he's the director. the answer coalition as well as host of loud and clear daily new show on

radio sputnik also in washington we have gareth porter he's an independent investigative journalist and historian as well as author of manufactured crisis the untold story of the iran nuclear scare and in boston we cross to max abrams he's a professor at northeastern university as well as author of the new book rules for rebels the science of victory in militant history brilliant title cross talk rules in effect that means you can jump in anytime you want i always appreciate brian i called john bolton a clear and present threat to the united states in the world would you concur brian . yes i think president bolton oh i mean national security adviser. is. a clear and present danger for people around the world and for the united states i mean just look at this record i mean john bolton was one of the architects of the iraq invasion bolton rumsfeld and cheney all of them thought the iraqis were going

to run out into the streets and put flowers in the end of the gun barrels of american troops instead they went into armed resistance even those who certainly opposed saddam hussein went into armed resistance because guess what people actually don't like foreign powers no matter how big or strong or powerful. to invade their country to bomb them and to occupy them john bolton is an architect of war everywhere this man is a lunatic and i and i say that advisedly i mean right now what they're doing is pushing for a new confrontation with iran a country of 90000000 people a country that has for minimal military forces he's he's reasserting the monroe doctrine from 815 to carry out regime change an illegal act against venezuela he was the individual who sabotaged trump's desire for peace on the korean peninsula john bolton is a militarist. he's the imperialist i mean this man belongs in the 19th century with

rudyard kipling and the others to europe brazenly talked about they had the advantages of colonialism bet's john bolton gareth keep going keep going i think ok max jump vandenberg go ahead you know i mean there are very real similarities i mean the actual personnel what was overlapping in john bolton between the 2003 rocky asian and what's going on with the wrong and there were many many missteps with iraq but the the previous guest highlighted in important point and that is this assumption that when america decides to escalate 1 against him a so-called regime there is this conviction and it's part of american exceptionalism that the international community will come aboard that there might be some initial christian students but when the united states to clear its policy

of going after the latest dictator 1st assumption that the rest of the world will come along and that did not happen with iraq and it's certainly not happening with the rot now quite the opposite i mean let's be honest iran is not a perfect country in fact it's one of the least popular countries in the world but it took. you know go after iran for the international community to unprecedented fashion rallied around the iranian government and so. rather than isolating iran it's actually helping iran internationally and so if you look on twitter for example what you see is you know hundreds thousands of people calling out all him and saying that. this post and

this smoking go this quote. you're running and there really doesn't seem to be. it's manufactured consent here i'm let me go to gareth because that's exactly what it is here i mean if you look at the parallels with iraq in 2003 and iran in 200-1000 are remarkable we have leaks coming out it looks like bolton may be giving these leaks out about. threats that you know have come to the american intelligence communities attention but we can't tell you who that with that was certainly an echo of 2003 but you know gareth i remember you know the media said we would never let this happen to us again we we we muffed it we made a mistake we'll never do it again they're doing it again with gusto they the if you look at the cable stations they're all very pro-war rachel maddow even on her own program praised john bolton's and talked about his humanity i mean this is getting

orwellian gareth's in washington. it is it is getting orwellian no question about it and it simply underlines the total bankruptcy of this entire state apparatus and the accompanying media apparatus and political elite that have made this possible but and i don't disagree with anything that anybody has said thus far but i think i must point out that the problem that we have specifically with regard to the greatest danger of war today which is u.s. policy toward iran is not just by john bolton this is a policy that was cooked up. between the united states and israel good point before john points and became the national security adviser. this with this began with a joint us israel working group that was set up in december of 2017

they have continued to meet and indeed as i have pointed out. in a story that i published last week this was the genesis in all likelihood i think there's very strong evidence that this was the genesis of the bolton pronunciamentos on may 5th that said that the iranians that they had this intelligence they didn't call it intelligence but this information that iran intended to carry out attacks against american and or allied. targets and this was precisely the point that was being discussed in the us israel working group that met in april in mid april as revealed by barak revealed a leading israeli journalist on national security so i think we're up against a much larger problem that really the any war movement and the media have so far

simply not addressed it all ok let's address something that we haven't actually i don't know i want to i want to but i just want to address something that we haven't talked about yet brian where is donald trump in all of this. donald trump i think i may be actually annoyed with john bolton yeah as. not be a great geo strategic thinker that everyone thought he was actually believe john bolton in the case of venezuela. january 23rd one who almost no venezuelans knew his name announced that he was the president john bolton was the one who told donald trump hey this is going to work we're going to go with their oh it's going to be regime change and it didn't work and then february 23rd it was going to work again at the at the colombian venezuelan border that didn't work and then there was the april 30th uprising that didn't work so donald trump is looking like maybe he

has egg on his face and that's something that donald trump actually cares about i want to go back though real quick that to the iran issue just think there is a geo strategic divide within the u.s. establishment barack obama initiated the negotiations for the joint comprehensive plan of action the iran nuclear arms deal he invested a lot of political capital in it it was sort of a minority opinion but eventually they got the agreement through now that bolton and trump and pompei all have sabotaged that agreement ripped it up said it was the worst deal ever there aren't democrats coming to the fore saying look this was barack obama's signature foreign policy achievement we're going to defend it so you hear biden and even bernie sanders they're basically mute about this question so i think it speaks to gary there was a geo strategic difference but trump represents the majority sentiment in the plasma behind you is the capital of the united states and it's a house full of cowards ok max you wanted to jump in go ahead. you know the

building up of that it is true that trump is deviating from obama on iran particularly with respect to the nuclear question or whatever the nuclear development however in a way this you know trump is in a way continuing obama's policy particularly in yemen yemen is taking increasing importance because it looks like the correct wire to go after iran might be who things and people often forget because there was hardly any discussion of this in mainstream american media but the obama administration was very much interested in helping the saudis pursue their campaign against iran by attacking who teased him and other innocent people in yemen and so enough sense there's a continuation and to build on what top mr porter said it is certainly true that

boy in is in love with israel and arguably representing israel but equally true is that there is very little daylight now in terms of u.s. mideast policy between the saudis in these real right so there's been a tremendous amount of u.s. deference in washington not only to. you know but also to to riyadh and and in fact be the policy in yemen of going after the hoodies which is taking on increased importance that's mainly a knob to the soft ok i'm going to go to a short break here and after at short break we'll continue our discussion on john bolton and trumps foreign policy stay with art.

petersburg international economic forum is a unique. business world. over the last 21 years the forum has become a leading global platform for discussing the key economic issues facing russia emerging markets and the world thousands of business community members attend a forum to address today's vital issues. special forum coverage on r.t. . yes of course to see on his attorney for you. or anyone who was there with. you which is. because of me will it take you to your day that i. got to go to

police you post it's with me it's yes that's good. that's the ticket. if you have to. finish if you. give. me. welcome to cross talk we're all things considered i'm peter lavelle to remind you we're discussing john bolton and trumps foreign policy. and let me go back to gareth in washington i have a pet theory and been sticking with it for the last couple of months and the theory is this is that trump is basically outsourced his foreign policy to bolton in pompei oh with the with the don't start

a new war basically you can do whatever you want ok and it seems to be playing out that way and i want to echo what brian was saying is that when he was told that this was my word a cakewalk in venezuela and it didn't turn out to be a cakewalk then i think that you know that he showed some public frustration mildly criticizing what was a backhanded compliment in a way so gareth do you think my theory is has any holds water go ahead. yeah i think that that's absolutely true but i'd like to just go back to the point that max was making before the break about the who he is and they trigger point or a triggering mechanism for bolton and the war conspiracy that we now see underway i think the point that really needs to be underlined here that the media has totally missed in its coverage of this whole iran kerfuffle is that what bolton did in

that statement in early may was to add a whole new category of contingencies in which or or for which the trumpet ministration he's saying would retaliate directly against iran were there to be a quote proxy force attack against against us but i guarantee against israeli or or suit saudi targets yeah that's why the who these could be a trigger but get that that you but that doesn't that tells me that the trumpet ministration or at least john bolton in might might pump a you are trying to talk the united states into a war that's what it sounds like gareth. well absolutely i mean they are citing an example is the tanker the oil tankers that were supposedly sabotaged i think they were sabotaged and then we have dan coats coming in with this inane statement saying well this is the m.o. of iran we have every reason to think that they did it that is absolutely

ridiculous i mean this was of course not in the interests of iran it's exactly the opposite and whose interest is it in well it's the saudis and particularly the israelis the israelis of course have the capability of naval covert operation seal teams that they have used in the past for operations they could easily affix a limpet mine on a ship so that it wouldn't sink but that it would show a big gash on it or a good or maybe a license or maybe not have every reason to believe it was just a collision ok i mean it could be it could be that i mean because they're not giving us information to make draw conclusions you brian the same question that you know it seems to me that this is trumps gambit here because he you know what however you feel about donald trump i still believe that he has that metaphorical. and will open his pocket and he's checking off all of his promises he's really fanatical about that and he said that he would not start

a new war and i think he wants to keep his his word on that there you know but when you when you give like an arsonist like bolton in charge you know this is where the tension is because bolton i don't i don't think he has any idea what trump means by america 1st at all ok bolton has a mission and it's not to pursue a trump in ministration foreign policy because we really don't know what that is 2 years in go ahead brian. here john here's some matches be sure you don't like that next yelling on fire i agree with you and you know the point that you're. making is is an important one george w. bush basically subcontracted his mideast foreign policy out to dick cheney i mean cheney would stop by the oval office and he was about to give a speech basically sort of laying out why the u.s. was going to go to war against iraq and bush would look up according to the reports

and say oh you're going to be really tough right and cheney would say yeah i'm going to be really tough on other words george w. bush had a hands off approach just basically subcontract in his foreign policy out to these neo cons donald trump has done the same thing perhaps he i mean there's a lot of issues that are underway right now trump seems to be focused on the struggle against china again he's getting a lot of support from the democratic party adam schiff today came out saying that it was very welcome what donald trump was doing about while way so he could he could win over the democrats by being hard line on a number of these issues say to bolton pompei oh yeah go for it just don't start a war but again that's a very dangerous assumption because richard this is unlike pompei you and the israelis would be very happy to start a war and absolute max the question goes i just jump in on this ok real quick eric go ahead. gary. you know this is this is precisely what. you know the problem is with bolton the relationship between bolton and trump

i mean you know the one of the huge rumors in washington now is that trump really is very angry with bolton and wants to get rid of him but the we've got 2 problems one the big problem is that trumps personality is that he acts the tough guy but he's really really soft and he has a tough time dealing with people who are you know tough tough guys who know how to appeal to him and he has that problem clearly with bolton and the 2nd thing is that the longer he delays the more the easier it is for bolton to start a process of escalation which makes it more difficult for him to turn it around so that's the real danger i think that we face you know max i thought you make such an excellent point because a lot of the smart people and i think moon of alabama is a great place to read about some of these things

a very smart analysis there that the the point of deescalation might have already passed and that's what we have to really worry about because i don't think i don't think trump wants a war with iran i mean the iranian certainly don't but now we're in the area we're an accident can happen or somebody will exaggerate an event to say this is a red line here this is this this is it's like august 1918 all over again max go ahead. the president is not in control and so i do not think that he could bring in what's going on he doesn't control what. they are saying. you know it's not just rhetoric alone this this rhetoric could buy them to the united states and clip pressure on washington d.c. to respond to the range of potential provocations because they expanded almost indefinitely so it could be. that hezbollah

attacked northern israel it could be some or you know who keep drones into saudi arabia it could be some kind of a mysterious sabotage attack on where you know we don't really know who the culprits are it could be a militia group in iraq you know but the rhetoric is growing in there will be growing expectations perhaps by the american public to really respond forcefully and so that's why i think that the ad trying to do with you know independent media have really needs to take each of these allegations really seriously i'm going to trap to ask him whether or not it's true that you rather what's responsible and to ask the question even if you go on word of the response

is that. you have occasions is it worth is it actually pose a direct threat to u.s. national security and in general the answer of course is not it brian you know you've been on this program many many times and we have always been largely in agreement on things and we're all i know we're in agreement is that why do they think it's going to work this time if we go down this path of. complex because the people that are running this have an amazing record almost complete 100 percent failure record when it approaches regime changes like this here they have nothing to run on except for failure but this time is good to be different really how can they think that way go ahead brian. the policy makers in washington like bolton like pompei and including the democratic party who are sort of the tail to there now they're working under this agreement that america may be an empire in decline

but by applying maximum pressure on all of its so-called enemies or adversaries it will get them to crumble and so we see i think bolton is working out of the playbook of ronald reagan in the in the 1980 s. when they ratcheted up the arms race against the soviet union thinking that well look they they will go we might go bankrupt from this but they'll go bankrupt 1st and i think when you look at what's going on in china in venezuela now against iran we have a maximum pressure strategy and i think what they have behind them is this concept we are the greatest military power in the world we may no longer be the greatest economic power but this power we can assert and exert and that's our only ticket bride that's why you know composition is it worked what is it worked ok so you have the greatest military on the planet isn't where does it work ok they don't get the results they want to get we're going to keep going it worked in grenada with.

their mom can't work there all right blah blah blah that's my point is i know you and i doubt i'm i'm agreeing with i know your gram agreeing with you. i raise originated as an irony yes it doesn't work but there's no consequences these people act with impunity over and over again why aren't any of them in jail they're not even. fired they're actually going around making speeches and making lots of money in spite of the fact that they had iraq libya so many other failed policies that killed literally hundreds of thousands or perhaps millions of people people absolute impunity that's why i. got there and didn't jump in. the reason for the impunity is that there is such vested interests in this society in the political system in the bureaucracy in the media in the political elite that it's impossible for people to face the truth it's

a matter of denial on the basis of a huge interest that they have of various of various sorts that's what we're up against ok i'm going to give the last word to max go ahead maggie austin go ahead but max in boston there are no historical examples of the u.s. led regime change in the muslim world working you know well there are arguably cases outside of the muslim world but not in the muslim world of regime change in the fifty's against iran churned up top huge global iraq was a failure in libya was a failure oh i would also include syria it wasn't please regime change but it was a regime change effort in terms of arming the rebels and so when you see situations like this where there is no empirical need to think that the policy will be successful oh it points to ideology is the drive advisor i had it points to

ideological possession and that no gentlemen we've run out of time many thanks and i guess in washington and in boston and thanks to our viewers for watching us here darkie see you next time and remember ross topples. after the previous stage of my career was over everyone wondered what i was going to do next that the ball different clips on one hand it is logical to sit on fields where everything is familiar on the other i wanted a new challenge and a fresh. perspective i'm used to surprising people. i'm going to talk about football not for you or else you can think i was going to

go. by the way what is the french line here. since. i am reluctant to give credit to the president trying for just about anything but by action in a way when he said at the beginning of his presidency that he'd be open to what to one state or a 2 state solution whatever these rising dolphins going to agree on i think that was actually a smart thing to say given the legacy of american fulsome support for israel the expansion essentially over the decades given the kind of political culture and political system that israel has developed there really isn't a way to negotiate something between palestinians and israelis.

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