in states and started it's age of humiliation and the sale of opium took on colossal proportions and lead to the horrible deaths of millions of ordinary chinese a floor shooting down what is called a weather balloon that drifted over us territory. despite numerous assurances that it did not to pose a threat to america, also the power less than a teaspoon of dry hand for a little bit about this amount. this is just about the amount of a teaspoon. we have 1st hand description of biological weapons. factories on wheels and on rails both that have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent iraqis for the is cynthia pushed the invasion of iraq at the u. n. we continue off special coverage of the legacy behind the devastating war. a former chief,

un weapons inspector to iraq examining the real goals of washington in the conflict . the 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 was, and the more successful we inspectors became disarming. iraq, the more threat we posed to the american policy and an iraqi journalist, $23.00 issues that then president george w bush became a symbol of protest against us invasion across the world. he told us his methods to the man responsible for thousands of iraqi death. i wish 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 sunday and that means is the weekly here on international law. peter scott,

and here are some of the top stories from the week just gone. welcome to the program. and we start off with beijing, which is condemned to the us attack on a chinese balloon that had been drifting over the u. s. for several days, despite his previous claim so that the balloon was not capable of surveillance and did not pose a thrust. china re stromey dissatisfied with the us attack on the chinese, on monday, ship and voices, it's protests. we have repeatedly informed the u. s. side that the balloon is designed purely for civilian use, an accidentally across the u. s. borders. in such circumstances, the u. s. use of force is an obvious reaction and a violation of international practice. finally, after days of deliberation and us find 2 jets of short time, what they claim is a chinese spy bloom. beijing 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 you as president joe biden told jan this 30 a. successfully took it down. and i want to accomplish on our aviators or did it

and we'll have more to report on a little later. thank you. bye bye. now on tuesday, i'm a recommendation from you was funny and that's why the whole that is through the down or wednesday i was like the recommend day said to me that way to look take this place to do some 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, or was he says, indefinitely postponed. but by using a set now is the time for co heads. and it continues to insist on diplomacy, some politicians and media in the u. s. have hiked it up to attack and 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 semantics. spect, in situations in a cool headed and prudent manner. well, i think just in another statement since by

a blinking counselor, his visit page in his head, china is never violated the territory of space over 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 beijing in a twist. now, the pentagon is now claiming that chinese spy, balloons flew over us territory, or at least 3 caves and occasions under the trumpet ministration. now, the former u. s. defense sexy mar, 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 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 failed to protect american national security. that's i would 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? and why didn't we know about it? robert o'brien, larry, this is one of those things i've ever seen in american diplomacy. we sped trillions and trillions of dollars on hardware, on soldiers, on airman, on sailors. and we can't do anything about it. why was allowed to go clear across the country for so many days? if you look at this, national security is one of the biggest things that any country can do. it is a function of government. we see that the by the administration knew about this balloon days ago, and it seems that there was an opportunity when it was coming over islands in alaska that we could have taken it down. now of course, china denies that the balloon was carrying out 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,

the claims of the threat posed by china, something of double standards, let's not forget, it was just last that the us house of representatives speak. nancy pelosi and flame tensions with a provocative visit to taiwan, which beijing said was in breach of the one chime 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 in 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 focus, with the security part with brittany radio 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 to nelson wong,

who's the vice chairman of the shanghai center full impact and international studies. and he says that china doesn't need to use balloons to spawn america. this is apparently not a pleasant incident, but i don't believe it is wise for anybody to make a big fuss on it 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 fails, 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 about diplomats but now put to test now it's been 20 years since the us invasion of iraq count here. it's r t we are continuing our special coverage of the anniversary, examining the devastation on destabilization the war coals 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. hm . we with

with well today also most 20 years since the then us secretary of state pushed military action in iraq at the un security council. an episode well known for his display of a vile 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 eastern nation claims that

baghdad. 9 was stock piling, illegal weapons and developing its nuclear program war 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 a mast 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 teaspoonful 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. so then became instead victim to sectarian terrorism. for all of this, i express more sorrow, regret, and apology, that you may have know will complete the other world leaders sense something foul from the get go, which is why powell thought fit to give his speech. in the 1st place, france, germany and russia all decided they would vote against the u. s. s hawkish initiatives that the united nations voted on for and then is creek. the world is close to war. my question was in still, as it does, is the threat coming from the iraqi dictator justify a war to the war which will kill thousands of children and women and men 1000. that my answer is no. don't tell us what is your 4 stars, no matter what? the circumstances know?

because we consider at this time that there is no place for going towards the object of the old one moment, which is the disarmament of iraq. lilian, the approach if iraq, the military action against iraq mistake already sat by the humanitarian side of the shadows. because on top of that, the un former chief weapons inspector to iraq. scott ritter said direct capability to weapons of mass destruction had been eliminated by december of 9998. it's no wonder writer, saw pals, accusations against baghdad, as relying only on circumstantial evidence. how just keeps hitting you with circumstantial evidence. and he confuses people. and he lied, he lied the people, he misled people. fabricating evidence, lying killing, hundreds of thousands of people and other stark reminder of the length washington is willing to go to the success of its foreign policy agenda. is that steak or 20 years on? we asked scott ritter what was behind paul's claims of the un security council. the

former chief un weapons inspector to iraq. these washington never had any intention to let the experts do that job. direct development was apartment the last thing the us wanted. i was brought in to help create an intelligence organization that would assist the special commission in 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 iraq. 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 dressed 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 stains,

going to let weapons inspectors back in. i one i succeeded. and so when i came out, this exact opposite feels like inspectors are going to be allowed back in. 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, kitchen specters out again, if a rec 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, the world was blind. which means that when colin powell gave his presentation to the united nations security council in february of 2003 made, it wasn't just misleading. it was deliberately misleading. he knew what he was

saying was false. as a result, we went to war. well, 5 years after the beginning of the iraq occupation by us forces, then president george w bush, probably visited baghdad. but the residence of the waltz on country did not give him the welcome they. he apparently counted on as the former president's how to duck the infamous shoes thrown in his direction. ah, with just a fun. and 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, than the prime minister of spain, who participated in the war, berlusconi, et cetera. and then it became a symbol of protest and the face of every tyrant. and anyone who wants to colonize, ah, when ah, margins it is up and 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, thump. 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 in the american occupation. the imprisonment of those who resisted. this is

a painful and disturbing memory for any with for i mean, we woke up at dawn when the bombs began falling on baghdad. it was a shock and off strategy. there was actually shock. what could we do initially? i thought about my family, my studies, and everything else 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 do justify occupation. even if there is a dictated 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 american south? 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 and just

mm minutes 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, terminated my contract, and the owner said he was afraid they will freeze his money in europe for being supported by meat 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 u. s. 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 prevail. ah, the hurtful fact is that bush ended up of victory. 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 wish 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. for those are just some of

the stories from the decades long conflicts and of course will be bringing more throughout the next 2 months in our special coverage of the 20th anniversary of one of america's longest wars. ah, ukraine agreed to the immense records in part to buy time to rearm with us the admission by ex ukrainian president johnson paras jenko in an interview with the bbc. do you know what the success of the miss grimace ish? m. a russia has not fulfilled any of their points. this document gave you quaint 8 years to build an army and economy, and the global pro ukrainian anti puting coalition. for the rest of the agreements commenced to was signed in february 2015, following nearly a year of bloody conflict in the dumbass. initial agreements involved more autonomy

provided for people of danielle campbell guns and a complete ceasefire over none of those conditions were destined to be implemented as both sides disagreed on the order of actions after the agreement was reached. in february 2022, ukraine's foreign minister to metro could ever openly stated that the implementation of the agreements was impossible under those conditions and on february 22nd last year. but you may, 15th said they no longer exist for a number of leaders involved. enjoy not those agreements admitted that they also intended to help ukraine by time and posters. military to 2014 minsk agreement was an attempt to give the crane time ukraine use this time to become stronger. as you can see today, the ukraine of 20142015 is not the ukraine of to day. since 2014, ukraine has strengthened its military posture. it is the merit of the minsk agreements to have given the ukrainian army this opportunity. thus the time that prudent thought was an asset for him turned out to be in fact,

an opportunity for the ukrainians. let's go live now to anthony webber, political commentator, anthony. good afternoon sir. thanks for joining us. oh, no, no, it will. it doesn't seem surprising, excuse me, that does negotiations on the court could be used by both sides to build up the military and plan for basically every eventuality. but are you surprised the percent american alarmed admitted this publicly? well, i am surprised because it shows a lot of d plus, etc, and makes one not have confidence in the future. agreements are sort a good thing for the point of view of if you just half of them. so the ukraine conflicts or you've just had some summary of what happened with the iraq or i'm the interesting part of the paycheck. she said it was a wrong decision. b point even salty and look at all the to courtesy which runs on

where i think those of us in the united kingdom we've got to learn the lessons from what happened in the rock. and in respect of you've tried, we got to look at 2 things. what's in the united kingdom's interests, and what's in the interest of the world or bank court superior. it's not, not in the interest of united kingdom are to take the, sorry, of you crying in this form for it's uh, the best thing. ready would be for the united kingdom, c, b mutual. and we have got a real problem ma'am. you've got people like francois holmes and joe merkel and sort of saying very, very, act, she didn't have the best of intentions with the midst agreements. and of course, we know that some is the breaking of that meets agreement, primarily by train, which is boss about the,

the conflict. so it really means that there's any one way forward for russia. i'm not is clearly to have also met victory because they, they can't go by any so called piece agreement because it appears to be up. i did what just to play devil's advocate, anthony. some would argue that from ukraine's point of view, merkel and alon seems to be improving rights in as your business biggest, conventional war since the 2nd world war. he states that well, she just got to look at her wash, was this act, she happens. and if you look at the top bass region, ah, since 2014, that has been a continuous breaking all the meant to gray member of the shelling of that on bus region. ah, car continues to diary i'm been,

i think estimate. so maybe even up to 14000 casualties and this seems to be just to let her bombing of civilians are very military ah, benefit to a. i mean, it does seem all sorry that mice that the media in the, in the west is not reporting on this or the reports leaking on isolated cases where there's been a fall out with russian strike song. the crying where they've been a very small amounts. are casualties where they've been, greatly exaggerated. i'm one of the problem. he says, because the, the media in the united kingdom, in good shape is probably much shar, pass supporting be great, but as fast as in press points, a, b, r,

that's the one represented by the government. ah, the public is just not given the full facts about what's going on. i'm by act, she told lies, which is, is very sad indeed, but that's exactly what we had with the iraq war and a and the it's, it's, it's as austin situation because we've had our former prime minister barak. johnson consented with his warm. ready ongoing, and this is not just cost the people at the pride, a russia, a lot of extra lives out east pools are well hit him on that. sorry. and both of them have been faint, 1000000 in african refugees for the prying hands on 850000 or 30 saw in the you k cost of united kingdom, $1500000000.00 that he year ah, the, the media in the by started say that russia has,

in fact the largest number brack pj's, which is about 3900000. bah, 90 site. but if it wasn't for before, were partners to browse johnson messing up the peace table which was repeated to babe and sign back in april last year. that would be no way met as money refugees, i'm sorry, may not a few 1000000 displaced persons as well. ready so you were happy, a terrible situation would for disarming of the price. i mean, any one we have with any strategic or military sentence with realize that it's impossible for the crime track she, when this phone broke. so all that's happening is that the primary young man in protect upping is, is calendar by global as fast i didn't address ah, but they don't are, she can.