politics, sport, business, i'm show business. i'll see you then. mm ah, breaking news from i'd say the associated press news agency report that a pentagon probe has found no misconduct or negligence in the box to us drone strike on cobble earlier this year. the attack left 10 civilians dead, including 7 children, also headlining this hour, the u. s. medicines watchdog backs pfizer despite a whistleblower report in the british medical journal, alleging serious flaws in the companies coven vaccine testing. and us democrats suffer a surprising defeat and a pivotal governance election in virginia, widely considered a major test for biden's presidency. ah,

hello, live and worldwide. this is, archie internationals world news at 11 with me calling back. we can start breaking news. this our, the associated press news agency is reporting that a u. s. defense department investigation has found no misconduct or negligence in the mistake and us drone strike on cobble earlier this year. the strike left 10 civilians dead including 7 children. now we have asked for a response from the pentagon. we'll let you know. as soon as they reply, dar corresponded more, i guess day of is across all this forest. more at this drone strike. it was the last violent act in a largely failed 20 years. but it's nobody's fault. so what did this investigation say? well, essentially, and apparently because we haven't seen it ourselves yet. the pentagon says it claims that it isn't guilty, that it was all down to execution. there is a communication breakdown for which no one in particular is guilty these a general errors that, that happened at the time and because of circumstances because of what was happening on the ground in cobble at the time. again,

the full report is allegedly classified for security reasons, but the parts have been made available, apparently for journalists. and that they, they say here that they need to be put on people 22 of whom were, were directly involved in the stone strike, which at the time, by the way, mock miley the head, the pentagon, called a righteous strike. and eventually we realised that it was a disaster blue . busy ah, the pentagon has allegedly concluded all this independent review as they say that

all of those involves everyone that they had the interview that they believed at the time that they will a gentleman, he targeting an imminent threat. they also claim in this, in this report that they, they tracked this aid work that was killed to work for a u. s. aid company. they tracked him over a period of many hours and they believed that the time that he was trafficking explosives and now they, they also say that quote, the drew strike must be viewed in the context of the environment. and we were there at the time our team, the environment was a disaster. it was absolute chaos. there was no plan for any one. u. s. presence and capital at the time was confined to the airport, the international airport of, of cavil with thousands, tens of thousands of people trying to get in with the evacuation. a winding down after the terror attack on the 26th of august, which, which killed the 11 or 13. so american troops as well as a 170 others,

afghans. after that, there was, there was fear, it was everywhere among the population among the u. s. troops, and perhaps the of the pentagon argues that we should all view this in the context of that fear that nobody knew what was coming next that everyone was on read, learn that everyone expected another attack, another tags to take place. so this report doesn't recommend any disciplinary measures, any disciplinary action, which may be bitter news for the relatives of those who were kill asthma cardona was, i will keep demanding that each person who has committed a crime here must be convicted and punished with the due process of law, it's unfair if a person commits a crime and then a different person is brought to court to answer, the criminal must be punished, no scapegoats. if americans committed a crime, they must be brought to justice. the united states government previously claim that it would make condolence payments to the relatives of,

of those killed the 10 people, 3 adults and 7 children. the last we talk to them, nobody had so much as called them officials were talking about. nevertheless, the, the report also comes along with 3 recommendations to make sure that these sorts of incidents that they don't happen again. and the civilians are less likely to die as a result of these, as shrugs. but for now it's, it's business as usual. nothing's, nothing's changed because these are, after all, only recommendations. going to talk about some of those recommendations cause a little bit eyebrow rating to say the least. okay, for now the america as they are. thank you for that. let's get some thoughts on this. now them with the former us marine corps intelligence officer, scott racer, welcome back to r t. r. critics already questioning how such a botched attack could involve no misconduct and no negligence. it's all down to a. com. sarah, how do you say it? well 1st of all, well, without it seeing the full report,

it's very difficult to talk about misconduct. i'm going to give the benefit of the doubt to everybody involved in this a tragic incident that they were acting in good faith. um, that doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't negligence. oh, clearly, there is a problem when an american drone fires a missile that strikes a vehicle that has been miss identified and kills 10 innocent civilians, 7 of whom are children. this is not and cannot ever be viewed as a situation as normal a. so there there's a, there's a problem here. um, how was this vehicle identified? what exactly led the u. s. to say this is a car belonging to ice. ok. that's getting ready to carry out a terrorist attack. clearly the car was not involved with either isis kenny or

going to be involved in a terrorist attack. so right off the bat, there's a mistake in target identification right up front. that's negligent. i had to tell you as a marine, if i miss identified a target on the field of battle in cold fire in on it the result in the deaths of civilians i would be held to account. i could even be treated in with criminal de glen. i even though i thought i might be doing the right thing, i violated procedures what procedures were in place to ensure that proper identification took place. was there a is simultaneous to the video that was being collected? was there signals, intelligence cell phone activity, who was in charge of assessing this, who was doing the linguistic quality control checks? were they, you know, we now here, although they were just picking up cooking oil. how do you miss identify cooking oil with explosives? who's a imagery analyst making that call?

was this purely a military decision, or was, as some reports indicate the cia likewise involved? what did the cia have to say about this? bottom line is there is nothing but negligence here from the beginning when they identified or miss identified the target to the in when the decision was made to pull the trigger. i can't see a single, legitimate reason to go forward. and yet everybody did go forward and if they're not being honest about it and saying that mistakes are made and this is going to happen again. well, this is the thing covered with in the report. i just mentioned some of the recommendations that come from this that says that those are their finger on the trigger. shouldn't a full victim to a confirmation bias, they should have a mindful moment. secondly, there should be some personnel before it. these decisions are made somebody with a checklist and a clipper. it sounds like and then after that this should also be procedures improve to make sure children on involved, i think in 2021. presumably, technology and weaponry is moved on enough to be able to see that there are

children in a car by now before you know, to rock it at them. doesn't it make it look like the ethereal system is being blamed here, but nobody's actually going to do anything apart from making a stiff memo about it? well, the interesting thing is they act as if this was the 1st time an am to 9 reaper drone had fired a missile. um, you know, in, in counterterrorism activities. nafta, anisette, it's, it was the 1st time. oh yeah, i could hear see, busy people say a maybe when he saw with a check board to go through things. maybe we need to take a pause for the cause moment before we pull the trigger, maybe x, y, and z. this is the 1000th time, the 2005 we've been doing this for a long time. there are no excuses. no excuses now said again, no excuses for not having the procedures in place that they claim. we might think about next time. have them already in place. this isn't the 1st time we fired a missile that's killed civilians. it isn't the 2nd time,

3rd time for time. it's the 100 times. and the reality is the united states, as known for some time now that the procedures it has in place, it carry out counterterrorism strikes in a real world, you know, real time a event are not sufficient to the task that we kill civilians. and yet we went for it anyways because there was political pressure being placed on the military to be seen as doing something that's not in the report. i'd like to know what pressure was, company, national security advisor, what pressure was being placed by the civilian leadership on the military leadership. there might have influenced the people who did pull the trigger act without putting in place any of these measures which should have already in place. what realistically can be that he's already pointed out, it was a chaotic situation. any military force would have been under immense pressure and unbearable challenges during those final days of that chaotic pullout. but even the

apples left had a general in this review says that even if communication want better on this bombing was question, it still might not have prevented it so realistically, feasibly, what can be put in place to try and make sure it doesn't happen again. well, it's all due respect to those who say this was a chaotic moment. i'm marines don't have chaotic moments in combat. we train for this, this is what we do. having 13 military members die audio and 8 any explosion is normal. it's not an unusual event. people dose all roll up and play dead, start crying in a corner and panicking. the military knows how to behave in this environment. the military didn't panic, a civilian leadership said, that's what's being missed here. and i'll also say this, you know, this one missile, the harm dismissal cars with the good that could have transpired, had it hit the right target. the difference between the 2 or 2 great,

it's high time, the u. s. realizes that we cannot go around firing missiles in the blind, that the game that we get from killing the odd terrorist here and there does not outweigh the harm that comes when we repeatedly kill civilians. we need to start considering the utility and the efficacy of using arm drones in this role. maybe it's time we say no. instead of saying yes, when the, when the opportunity comes to fire missile at a presume, terrorist target i was going to get your experience on this skull. thanks so much for to a nice again from the u. s. i marine corps intended itself as a scott with a good story. and we've covered this tragic attack in detail over the past few months with relatives of the victims sharing their emotional responses with us . we also examined the wider issue of civilian deaths in afghanistan. of us i thought the sandals belong to malika. she was very close to me. i looked

her so much. she always told me to buy ice cream. us military forces conducted an unmanned over the horizon airstrike on a vehicle known to be an imminent isis k threat. on the morning of the bombing, she came and kissed me and said, good morning, father. it was our last meeting. i will never see her again. ah, my name is a monarch muddy. i'm the head of the family that has lost 10 of its members. it was around $430.00 p. m. i left for the market and on the way i met my elder brother who was driving back home. we talked a little then he left to go home and i crossed the road to go to the other side. i just crossed the road and i heard an explosion. my daughter later told me that she saw a smaller craft, a drone, moving around in a circle which then fired

a missile that hit our home. i turned to look what i thought of that was dust and smoke like it was a terrible scene. my wife was shutting not her house was on fire. ah, there were parts of children's bodies. it was so bloody and gruesome. i went into my home on fun, my brother and a nephew. they were critically injured but still alive and breathing. they later died in hospital. my brother and 9 others were killed in this horrific attack. my brother's daughter, who was soon to get married, also lost her life. another relative was also here, a guest. she was killed to, ah. as bos maya loves cosmetics, she likes painting a nail so that she like dolls very much. the main cause of the instant was the

american president planning this attack without any evidence and destroying our family. it was a catastrophe. good. ringback ringback ah, the president is made clear to his commanders that they should stuff and nothing to make isis pay for the death of those american service members at the cobble airport . oh my god. they say, i says k lived in this house in this house were these children members of ice is a stupid thought without any proof, without any investigation. they attacked us and killed our children, and we will never forgive them. ah no other fellows our entire families and chunk, it's being so painful for us mentally. we are not in

a stable condition while the women are dead silent, they don't speak to wanna. we left out devastated home and now live in my sister's place. it's so painful to visit it because we could see our children dying there. some of the people accusing us of having contact with this law mich state. the americans who bombed our family, seeing we'd been preparing an attack on them, their complete and utter liars, ah . ringback after the incident, no authorities came here to investigate. nobody asked us what happened here and no one helped. no one came here to morally support us. this is not a mistake of america, this is a crime scene. we've lost their children. they count returned to us. so at the mister owner should be restored by a fur investigation into the incident. johnny,

we aussie international community to investigate is incident. ah, make no mistake. no military on the face of the earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than united states military. and nobody wants to see innocent life taken. ah, i'm happy that the americans have left afghanistan. they came because of their own goals and humiliated my country. americans not achieved anything in afghanistan. america has failed in afghanistan, america and it is made all people miserable. more and more of a headline news now on the us food and drug administration says it still has the full confidence in phases covey testing. the regulate,

a statement comes off to the british medical journal, published a whistleblowers report, claiming that serious flaws and the company's corona virus, faxing trials last year of a company in question. ventana was a contract carrying out 3rd stage vaccine clinical trials for pfizer. of the $44000.00 trial participants in total batavia worked with around a 1000. the whistle blow up brook jackson was the regional director of the organization at the time of the consent she raised while working on ben topya's trials include pull lap management and data integrity, as well as neglecting patient safety. jackson says that even trial participants who suffered adverse side effects were not monitored. she had, she was fired the same day that she raised her concerns, and the u. s. authorities are refusing to investigate within hours, jackson received an e mail from the f. d, a thanking her for her concerns and notifying her that the f. d. a could not comment on any investigation that might result. a few days later, jackson received

a call from an f da inspector to discuss her report, but was told that no further information could be provided. she heard nothing further in relation to her report. we've contacted pfizer and bent harvey of her comments on the claims as well as further questions for the us food and drug administration. we'll let you know if they respond. meantime, we did hear from microbiologist, doctor simon clark, who's concerned that the whistle blowers claims could damage public confidence in vaccines. but he is trouble and, or potential problem with, with the how this article in the british medical journal is that it will affect or could affect public confidence in the vaccines when really shouldn't mistakes, do her own. i. but it's important to, to, to acknowledge that when you know a mistake is happened, you report it new, acknowledge it, and deal with it. this could happen with any that said, not just relaxing. people should remember that many, many millions of people around the world that have this vaccine. and it's effective and it's safe. us democrats have suffered

a pivotal defeat in the state of virginia losing a governor's election there for the 1st time into terms which widely seen as a blow to joe biden and a damning judgment on his presidency. corresponding, caleb more been explained, democrats are quite shaken up by the earthquake results of the race for governor in the state of virginia glen, yanking the republican candidate one. now this is a state where joe biden defeated donald trump and a solid 10 points back in 2020. but now that state seems to be shifting into the republican camp. land junkin was victorious, the democrat was defeated. quite a shake up in the state of virginia. here's some of what we heard. that is a 5 alarm fire. somebody and i opened mccollugh scans was there was recall of put it this way to me about an hour ago is a blood beth. this is your live vote right now. where are there counties where it,

because is under performing, nor them by more than oh, my god. now some democrats think that this could be related to the falling poll numbers of joe biden. joe biden is not doing well, a number of americans disapprove of him, his approval rating. is it around 42 percent? and many look at the situation in virginia as one opportunity where voters stepped up and tried to register their discontent with how biden has led the country. clearly the presidents drop in favorability made it very difficult for the democratic nominee to stay above water. now $7.10 americans say that they don't like the direction in which biden is leading the united states and a poll conducted among democrats and independents who are democrat leaning. this poll came out and said that 40 percent of them think that their own party might do better to not nominate joe biden for reelection in 2024. but instead to pick another candidate. now this defeat or terry mcauliffe,

a mainstream democrat located in the state of virginia, a long time figure in virginia. politics has been quite a blow. you'll recall that in the lead up to the vote that happened tuesday. both the president and vice president traveled to virginia and emphasized how in, in this election was virginian will in large part determine what happens is 202220240 seems like this was an opportunity for voters to register their discontent. there's a lot of rising frustration with the biden administration over the unpopular cold and vaccine mandates over stagnation and inflation in the economy. and over the issue of the afghan pull out, which was very chaotic and in the lead up to the vote. national democratic party figures like president joe biden and vice president com layer, went to virginia to emphasize the importance of this election. they presented voters in virginia with their agenda, and it appears

a lot of them did not like what they heard. naulty, i talked to republican richard black, who's a former member of the virginia state senate. he says, the democrats defeat is an ominous sign for them with elections coming up in other key state. we sort of are let miss task for the nation of what, what you can expect. ironically, people always look at virginia to see what is likely to happen in the future. but in new jersey, which people don't even pay attention to the republican is neck and neck. up there, and that's such a heavily blue area that nobody even normally, thanks about it. so it just shows a tremendous weakness in the democratic side. and what has happened here. loudon county is where i live and where i've represented there has been an uprising of the people against policies, and this was not something dictated by the young can campaign or by the republican

party. but it's just individual parents. much of it is focused on the issue of schools. some of it is on the backseat mandates. some of it is on the shut down of businesses. but key to the most burning issue is critical race theory. the fact that it's in a single year, we went from a 10 point advantage for my to a to point loss for mccall. you know, you're looking at 12 point shift in one state, that's blue leading. and if you translate that to other states across the nation, it, it really forecasts a wipe out for democrat congressmen running in next year's election residents in the u. s. city of minneapolis voted against the bid to get rid of the

local police and replace the with supposedly more benign public safety officials. the proposal came off to the murder of george floyd last year and cited nationwide protests and demands to defend the police. ah ah. a recent poll show that people still have an unfavourable view of the police in the city. however, many more people would not like the number of officers to be produced and that's

a position that's especially strong in the black community. how the refusal to vote against local police may be linked to city, surging, violent crime amid officers staffing shortages are of already been significantly more homicides in 10 months this year than in the whole of 20. 19. it comes after the city counts in 2020 voted to dismantle the local police and slash its budget. but this resulted in a lawsuit from residence, including former city councilor, don samuels, he went to court order against the council, forcing it to recruit more offices. how don samuels joint is now, as i said, is a city counselor in minneapolis from 2003 to 2015, also ran for mayor a few years ago as well. welcome to our team. could have you with us. how confident were you? good. how confident are you that the vote was going to go this way that the people of minneapolis wouldn't choose to disband their police? yeah, we were not confident at all because largely the conversation around the issue was

held in social media. and then of course was a well funded campaign funded by folks outside of the city. largely. and so there was a lot of written material and printed material that was lavishly done, or people brought in from outside the city to canvas. and so you had this sense that there was a real well in activity that was well resource. in addition to that, we knew that we had many folks who consider themselves allies of the community who wanted to see police, police and change. and for them, the attractive language back to us as it was of any kind of plan, was very seductive to people who were emotionally responding to the death of george floyd and wanted to see police change. so when you put those things together,

there was a sense that the community could have been layered into a position to get rid of the police department, which would have been disastrous for us here in the city as a whole. but certainly the african american community where crime is at an all time high and children are being killed in an unprecedented rates and woundings and naming and carjackings and just a general sense of trauma. so in our community, don't that other parts of the city might not have been as aware of because it probably then that, that well old campaign machine that you've just outlined that this vote this referendum isn't necessarily going to draw a line under this trouble that this movement isn't going to be buried, it could come back again. if heaven forbid, there's another incident or certain section of the community feels the minneapolis

police isn't representing them or is targeting them? well, it did the, the, the groups that started the yes for movement as we call it, which is z b for the, for the charter change on that, that they, they movement itself was funded by about a 1000000 and a half dollars. and so there were a lot of, it was a lot of money to work with, but they, the founding groups have upwards of $30000000.00 that they were able to strategically raise very quickly after george floyd died. as a lot of that energy and anxiety around floyd's death, created this influx of dollars here and in the city more than 80 percent of it from outside to fundies group. so there is a lot of money. and so the, there is a capacity for sustained work and, and effort. i'm not sure how that energy will be focused in the future. but if it

is been contributed to the work for change to focusing attention on the police department and monitoring progress and advocating for one kind of change or another, that's reasonable, that would be very welcome. and because there are many other parts of the united states that i cobalt, minneapolis has been going through lots of anti police campaigning. but all so, coupled with a writing crime during the pandemic that do you think that may be campaigns like yours to mal, do try and derail these def, on the police campaigns, could be more successful elsewhere. yes, one of the reasons that minneapolis was so important to this, to the national movement that this group is a part of is that it was a majority white city. and so it was a testing ground for a city of r, l g, which is most as a country to see how it would work here. and so i think that this

significant victory, which is, you know, i think 50.