a slight banging you in your story, i shoot you a new ball. i used to miss dog. you seem to need a joke. ah, china slammed the us for shooting down its weather balloon, which floated over us territory. despite its numerous warnings that the airship does not pose any threat to american security. also, i had less than a teaspoon of dry and to write a little bit about this amount. this is just about the amount of a teaspoon. we have 1st and description of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails flies that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis, 20 years since the u. s. push the invasion of iraq at the un. we continue our

special coverage of the legacy left behind the devastating war. a former chief, un weapons inspector rack unveiled through both of washington in the conflict. united states government had no intention allowing the inspectors to do their job. the united states was going to go to war with iraq regardless regardless, it doesn't matter what the truth watch and the more successful we inspectors who came in disarming iraq. the more threat we posed to the american policy and iraqi journalists, early shoes that then president george w bush, became a symbol of protest against us invasion across the world. he told us give message to the man responsible for thousands of iraqi dad. i wished to say to former u. s. president bush that i wish to see you in prison before you die. and if that does not happen, i wish before i die to see you face real condemnation. with

good morning for marquis international studios in moscow, and welcome to the week late with the hour and weeks most pressing you stories from all around. i'm fear, realized about beijing has condemned the us attack on a chinese balloon, which had been floating over u. s. territory for several days, despite its previous warning that the balloon is not capable of surveillance and does not pose any threats. china is strongly dissatisfied with the us attack on a chinese, on mondays ship and voices its protest. we have repeatedly informed the us side that the balloons designed purely for civilian use, an accidental across the us borders. such circumstances. the u. s. use of force is an obvious overreaction and a violation of international practice. finally, after days of deliberation and doubt, us find 2 jets of short time. what they claim is a chinese spy bloomed by aging, of course denies this. it says that it was a web whether observation balloon,

although there is some confusion over whose recommendation it was to, to shoot down the balloon and listen to what us president joe biden told jan this successfully took it down. and i want a complimentary graders who did it, and we'll have more to report on a little later. thank you. what they say by the same a recommendation from you was funny and that's why the whole that is through the down or wednesday i was like the recommended to me. let's wait to look take this place to do it. some are already asking questions over the timing of the incident. it came just ahead of a time visit by the us to stay on the blink and to churn. and now that was subsequently cancelled. it was, he says, indefinitely postponed, but beijing said now is the time for co heads and it continues to insist on diplomacy. some politicians and media in the us have hiked it up to attack in smith, china. the chinese side is firmly opposed to that one of the tasks, of

a diplomatic teams on both sides is to properly manage bilateral relations, particularly to manage some on expected situations in a cool headed and prudent manner. well, i think just in another statement since by a blink and cancel his visit page in his head, china is never violate to the territory and s face of another sovereign country. but of course, the u. s. and western media has wasted no time in ratcheting up the anti china rhetoric and the supposed threat posed by, by aging in a twist. now, the pentagon is now claiming that chinese spy balloons flew over u. s. territory, or at least 3 occasion occasions under the trump administration. now, our former u. s. defense sexy more casper said. he was surprised by this statement from the pentagon and he said he was never informed of such incidents during his time in, in office. but we now have a former u. s. defense and military officials have described the latest incident as embarrassing, especially given that the u. s. is the world's leading military power and

opposition. republican party members have now they've got on the offensive, and they've accused biden of not acting decisively enough, and they say that he's fail to protect american national security. let's have a listen to what they've said. i friend robert o'brien, former national security adviser. why aren't we taking action to deal with this in widen? we know a bad at robert o'brien, larry, this is one of those embarrassing things i've ever seen. and in american diplomacy, we sped trillions and trillions of dollars on hardware and soldiers on airmen, on sailors. and we can't do anything about it. why was this allowed to go clear across the country for so many days? if you look at this, national security is one of these things that any country can do. it is a core function of government. we see that the by the administration knew about this sir balloon days ago. and it seems that there was an opportunity when i was coming over islands in alaska that we could have taken it down now,

cause china denies that the balloon was carrying out term surveillance. and the u. s. navy is currently searching for the wreckage of the balloon. we can expect to hear more from that over the coming coming hours. but the, i'm the or the, the claims of the threat posed by china or something of double standards. let's not forget, it was just last summer that the us house of representatives speak. and nancy pelosi inflamed tensions with a provocative visit to taiwan, which term beijing said was in breach of the one china policy, which of course is supported by washington, which has also flooded the island with billions of dollars in arms. i think reco spending levels and bite and himself has threatened military action to defend taiwan from china. and the u. s. has continue to say, oh, battle ships down the south china sea and is accused itself of undermining regional stability with the signing of the o. because packed with the security packed with britain, australia in 2021,

which is containing china's military power. but of course, this latest incident is a new blow to the already tense us china relations. earlier we spoke with nelson wong by sherman of the shanghai center for rim pad, and international studies uses china has no need to use such balloons as surveillance devices. this is apparently not a pleasant incident, but i don't believe it is. why is for anybody to make a big fuss up there because the chinese government has confirmed in the 1st place that this below all this ship or exactly what you call it, is from china. and china feels regret for its intended entry into u. s. s. space china has enough satellites already in china wants to do any surveillance. why should they use the pollutants,

which are so big and so obvious. now, i don't think this connection makes any sense. so let's see. i mean, we're all have to watch and see. but whatever the case, i think the wisdom of both countries, leaders and i've all depressed and now put to test ah, it's been 20 years since the u. s. invasion of iraq and here at r t, we continue special coverage of the anniversary. examining the devastation and d stabilization, the war caused throughout the middle east. at this hour, american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq, to free its people. and to defend the world from great awe

. with food and sleep with to day also marks 20 years since then. you are secretary of state pushed military out in iraq at the un security council. an episode well known for his display of a vial in an attempt to prove allegations of the existence of weapons of mass destruction in iraq. that claim later proved to be false. one of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on racks. biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological

agents. we have 1st hand descriptions of biological weapons, factories on wheels and on rails. it felt like justifying an invasion of iraq to the world. mattered that much to the u. s. though, after all, then president george w bush already had plans to invade the sovereign middle east or nation claims that baghdad was stock piling, illegal weapons and developing its nuclear program. war a plenty, and the catch fear, phrase, weapons of mass destruction had already been popularized. evidence, however, was either lacking or in powells case, fabricated like the vile of white powder he so confidently waved in the world's face. as he accused saddam hussein of having amassed titanic reserves of chemical weapons when a rack finally admitted. having these weapons in 1995, the quantities were vast. less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax,

a little bit about this amount. this is just about the amount of a teaspoon. less than a t spoonful of dry anthrax in an envelope shut down the united states senate in the fall of 2001. this forced several 100 people to undergo emergency medical treatment and killed 2 postal workers. powell pointed the finger at faulty intelligence after it became clear that there was no merits to america's accusations. he said he was very disappointed. i'm very concerned when i made that presentation in february 2003. it was based on the best information that the central intelligence agency made available to me. but it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate in wrong and in some cases, deliberately misleading. and for that i am disappointed and i regret it. oh, how quickly the u. s. is closest ally jumped into the blood bath at washington's command, but when all was said and done, former british prime minister tony blair said it was all in good faith since the

west needed to bring down evil saddam after tried to deflect blame. though blair also said he was very sorry, i did not mislead this country. i made a decision in good faith on the information i had at the time. and i believe that it is better that we took that decision and a nation whose people we wanted to set free and secure from the evil of sedan, became instead victim to sectarian terrorism. for all of this, i expressed more sorrow, regret, and the policy that you may have know will complete. other world leaders sensed something foul from the get go, which is why powell sought fit to give his speech. in the 1st place, france, germany and russia all decided they would vote against the u. s. as hawkish initiatives at the united nations devoted to them for urban thoroughness creek,

the world is close to war. my question was in still us as is the threat coming from the iraqi dictator justify war, a war which will kill thousands of children, women and men 1000. my answer is no. kalika, sweated shuffle stalls, no matter what the circumstances will vote no. because we consider at this time that there is no police for going to war to achieve the object of that. we all want at the moment, which is a disarmament over the rock william the accept route, direct military action against iraq is a huge political mistake. i already sat above the humanitarian side of the issue of this castle. on top of that, the u. n's, former chief weapons inspector to iraq, scott ritter said iraq's capability to have weapons of mass destruction had been eliminated by december of 1998. it's no wonder writer, saw paolo's, accusations against baghdad, as relying only on circumstantial evidence. powell just keeps hitting you with circumstantial evidence and he confuses people and he lied. he lied to people. he

misled people. fabricating evidence, lying killing, hundreds of thousands of people. another stark reminder of the lengths washington is willing to go to the success of its foreign policy agenda is at stake. and 20 years after the u. s. invasion of iraq, we asked scott ritter what was behind paul's claim at the un security council. the former chief, un weapons inspector, ter, rod, says washington never had any intention to let the experts do their job as their racks. disarmament was the last thing the u. s. wanted in reality i was brought in to help create an intelligence organization that would assist the special commission and evaluating the accuracy of the iraqi declarations about what weapons of mass destruction they had. you see, i thought that the mission of the special commission was to disarm i. rec, and, and we worked in

a very assiduous manner to carry out that mission. but it turned out that the disarmament of iraq was the last thing the united states wanted. the united states was going to go to war with iraq regardless. regardless, it doesn't matter what the truth was. so i addressed the iraqi parliament. they gave a speech that wasn't pre screened, and as a speech, a said, if you don't let weapons inspectors back in your country will be destroyed. you have to let them back in without any pre conditions. said some sans, going to let weapons inspectors back. and i, one i succeeded and so when i came out is the exact opposite. feels like inspectors are going to be la back. and i said, yes, you can't talk about going to war with iraq unless you allow the inspectors to complete their job. if i rec, kicks inspectors out again. if a wreck doesn't cooperate, then you have justification to accuse a rack of bad stuff. but you must let the inspectors do their job. on the, maybe i was a little naive. maybe the iraqis were because the united states government had no intention allowing the inspectors to do their job. the bottom line is, america's policy wasn't disarmament. but regime change,

and the more successful we inspectors became in disarming iraq. the more threat we posed to the american policy of regime change and so when weapons inspection teams left iraq in $1098.00, the world was blind. which means that when colin powell gave his presentation to the united nations security council in february of 2003, it wasn't just misleading. it was deliberately misleading. he knew what he was saying was false. and as a result, we went to war 5 years after the beginning of the iraq occupation by us forces than president george w bush proudly visited baghdad. but grateful residence of the war torn country did not give him the welcome. he apparently counted on, as the former president had to duck from the infamous shoes thrown at his face. ah

ah ah phone. if you looked at his face yellow and twitching, you could see the embarrassment he was so scared from. so i don't think his smile was normal as for the shoes. i demanded them when i was with the investigating judge. i told him you can do whatever you want with me, but i want my shoes. the next day he told me that the shoes had been destroyed in case they contained explosives. but when i was transferred to court for my trial, ordered by an iraqi army division, the divisions commander sat beside me. he asked me, do you know why they destroyed the shoes? i told him i heard they did so because they feared they contained explosives. he said, no, i was there as a security guard for the president. and they said that they were destroyed so that

they would not turn into a symbol. everyone who participated in the occupation of iraq and supported the occupation of iraq shared the fate of george bush in this makes me happy. a group of beneficiaries of the american occupation said that the shoot throwing incident shows us as undeveloped people. but on the 2nd day, there was a rally outside the white house, with people carrying shoes and hitting pictures of the former president bush. later it was the prime minister of australia, john howard, then the prime minister of spain, who participated in the war, berlusconi, et cetera. and then it became a symbol of protest in the face of every tyrant. and anyone who wants to colonize earth, ah, when ah, to live in autism, they separated the body from the soul,

removing the skin from the flesh and the flesh from the bone. they have other methods, like electrocution, beating, flogging and breaking bones, thought. what i went through may be less than what others have been through in the rocky detention facilities after the invasion. the hardest memory was when i was with other detainees, because i saw the inequality, the innocent people, and victims of the secret informants and the american occupation. the imprisonment of those who resisted. this is a painful and disturbing memory for anyone with food. with a key, we woke up at dawn when the bombs began falling on baghdad. it was a shock and awe strategy. there was actually shock. what could we do initially? i thought about my family, my studies and everything else. it remains

a bad memory with more memories coming after the american soldier does not defend his land and fights in a land that has thousands of miles away from his country. therefore, they know for sure that they are wrong. we see it in their eyes when they interrogated and detained us. they were either very aggressive to justify their existence on your land, or very shy, trying not to look at you while saying they are wrong, many occupants, when we told them you are occupying our country, couldn't respond. they just shook their heads as if to say, what can we do whoa. once an american journalist asked me a question, was in saddam hussein's dictatorship, tough, but based on logic and common sense. one can say that vicious dictatorships worldwide do justify occupation. even if there is a dictator, the earth is full of dictatorships and oppressors. did america invade iraq for the

benefit of iraq or to topple saddam hussein and to whom will america hand over power to the marines? are a group of corrupt people brought in by america itself. many iraqis did not welcome the americans, even though at the time to be honest, there was injustice fear and dictatorial authoritarian system that was trying to control everything. yet the situation doesn't give us the right to rejoice about the occupation. at least some had said that the occupation, as well as regime at the time, was unjust. ah minute. it's doing un security council. the united nations are too weak to play their real role . even the european union, which america views as a poor, old man on the verge of falling, who dares to hold america accountable? since 2009, i had the idea of establishing an organization in geneva to provide relief to the victims of the occupation and hold iraq's killers accountable. imagine even the tv

channel where i worked for terminated my contract and the owner said he was afraid they will freeze his money in europe for being supported by me or supporting i returned to iraq trying my best. it was my dream to collect the signatures of all iraqis who are affected by the invasion in order to file a lawsuit against the vice president in his team. i hope that the stream will one day be fulfilled. ah. my fellow americans, major combat operations and iraq have ended in the battle of iraq. the united states and our allies have prevailed. oh, i'm done with the hurtful fact is that bush ended up a victor like caesar. he walked past his soldiers to hide the signs of the invasion

. he committed that the mission was accomplished. but at that moment the mission of destroying iraq began the mission. bringing your act back to the middle ages began . we know very well that he is a liar and continues to life because his mission iraq has not yet been completed. i wished to say to former u. s. president bush, that i wish to see you in prison before you die. and if that does not happen, i wish before i die to see you face real condemnation. these are just some of the stories from the decades long conflict. we will be bringing you more throughout the next 2 months in our special coverage of the 20th anniversary of one of america's longest wars. ah no dearest foreign minister has praised the anti corruption policy of the current

president of the country, which has helped to start repatriation of a large amount of loot that was stolen out of the country. that's as the president warned of the possible sponsorship of insecurity and nigeria by foreign countries. one can clearly see how these foreign countries took on the weak part of nigeria, like chat, where we have crude oil reserves and coals series. ma'am, there with consistent attacks to actualize their devilish motives. the country's president noted the exceptional work of the some forest state governor in opposing foreign interference near the lake chad region saying that most local governments near the lake were in the hands of terrorists when he came to power with most now free in stability remains a key issue for nigeria, northern provinces or security forces are fighting a 13 year war against to hottest and criminal malicious. now nigeria is facing new security challenges as they prepare for

a presidential election at the end of february. one already accompanied by militant attacks on a polling station africa's largest crude oil producer also faces a worsening shortage of petroleum products as locals q 4 hours for petrol, with the new national currency swap, adding to the turbulence we spoke to nigeria as 2023 presidential candidate, adamo gar, by the 2nd, who thinks that cutting off all links with more and interests will make the country more stable? institute teacher into the web facility. now, what region the dominant do you have to do? it is it you would do in french speaking with other companies. so it's a very important for us to take vince draw mitchells to protect our border for me to portion of these turn on his interest. not mere pencil just to block off on the on of or people or we for the next election that is coming into the country. once nigeria house more and a link would fall into that domain,

it's how the condo gaseous. then it moves up. nigeria have become the most trouble, most robust 1st. what was going to let you know how sticking it brought to griddle to drain even debriefs completely. just wanted to assume from you again when you do, you have thought up for this. this is clear. we have been order was to want these are interested in of course, if not generic will bring it over to them that it should be established. toys get out the we have some forces that are coming from devoted while to officially the bridge that may be interested in just to plug in the drill. so we have to, to get a strong brought the middle to prevent people getting into the hands of told is musky, you know, as of fighting ideology. meanwhile renewed a devil more important interest. ah, the white house has brushed aside the question of palestine military occupation. that's it made us secretary of stay anthony blankets. recent visit for talks with palestinian president mahmoud abbas

a bush and the under occupation. so let me say a couple of things in the point, and i believe i do not occupy what is the status that you give the house to use, right this moment. what kind of saturday at said the recent period. i seen a start talking about the recent period. i am saying about legally all the game austin and the wish back. what is their status? so i understand the question we're asking, and i, as we've said previously, it is vital for both sides to take action to prevent even greater loss and we condemn any violence, escalation or provocation. the u. s. secretary of state's visit to the region provoked mass protests in palestine. whoa will sit to the street to express their anger at a legit biased by the u. s. foreign palestine. hearing banners and flags we heard from people in garza who say, blankets visit is meaningless with no practical arrangements to me made. and i will

is that we're here to express your opposition of lincoln's visit, which is part of the unlimited your support for israeli occupation. carrying out aggressive actions against palestinians. the u. s. p has nothing to lip service to the palestinians and the visit comes with the newest pressure on the leadership of palestine to roll back the recent moves mainly, a hold of coordination was really security bodies said america or it is crystal clear that the american policy has always been very hostile towards the philistine in people. this polish has been completely biased in favor of israel. obviously such a policy is based on supporting israel against the palistine and people. anita said he and held in america has always been known as the incubator for israel. and many, all the children is here on the walls blinking comes here and content to jerusalem . chatelle to his ratish co dog body posting a youth carry elecom on the country blanket did belt, condemned an engineer who ordered crime against the cedars adrenal. according to the special coordinator for the middle east peace process,

2022 was the deadliest here for the palestinians. in the west bank, since records began in 2005 more than a 100 attacks, were committed against palestinian civilians by israeli forces last year. in contrast, israeli official to claim the country faced an unprecedented terror wave from palestine since the beginning of 2022. meanwhile, the palestinian health minister gave an exclusive interview to our teeth where she despised issues like the house systems crisis is really restrictive. the occupation and much more to get more on this story and other news head over to r c dot com for the latest updates. that was the weekly with the hour and weeks, most vital news stories for more updates go to r t dot com. thanks for tuning and we'll see you again at the top of the hour. ah

ah ah ah ah, ah, none of what is me spoken by the united states all by you when he's actually that fighting a war, essentially to prove when the better done the surgeon. so russian follower, once again in, in this region and saw that it was one of the borders limit.