once they found not guilty, the case of the seal team 10 captured the al-qaeda leader at fallujah who's responsible for hanging the four american bodies off a bridge in fallujah, that infamous atrocity that was seen around the world, the cameras -- five years later they capture the guy behind it. it was a flawless operation to deter demand without firing a shot. it reads like a thriller, the chapter on how they caught him. but the guy behind it says you're in big trouble the they said why? the prisoner has a bloody wrists. that was a year and half of legal starting. the seals or exonoree. many then decided after the been subjected to this degree of legal scrutiny, they didn't want to sign up for another tour. that taxpayers lost millions of dollars of training investment in each of these men. this is something we need to think about. is yes, we need to protect the rights of human rights of prisoners, we all slept realize that al-qaeda in manuals with captured in afghanistan and the place is train people to make false reports in order to tie up our military and red tape to keep our warfi

and when they were ordered to stop, then the situation in fallujah spiraled downward. certain insurgents ended up seizing the city -- seizing the city and holding it until the second battle of fallujah in november 2004, which killed 2000 surgeons and about half of the city and the process. we didn't take advantage of the opportunities that we had there in the spring 2004. for military successes on the battlefield. instead we withdrew from the city. we withdrew our forces from the basis inside baghdad and other cities and put them on the periphery. i know in baghdad we went to four major forward operating bases on the first degree of the city. this was a major mistake. it was predicated on the u.s. central command believe. is belief that we were a virus that infected iraqi society and the longer that we were positioned among the iraqis in their cities, the more antibodies in the form of insurgency we would create. that we were the problem, not the iraqis. the problem is when we withdrew from the city, no matter how many mounted patrol's we launched in the ford operating

of baghdad and government troops have been battling mentions that since january when they seized fallujah and ramadi so far iraq's military has been unable to retake the area from the al qaeda linked. up next one also international it's the latest edition of the technology i'm days and no use in the u.k. will be enjoying the company of i'm sure returns he and his show going to go. in an unofficial no other official referendum eighty nine percent of residents of venice and its surrounding area voted for independence from mother italy but bafflingly the majority of voters want the legendary city to remain part of both the e.u. and nato i don't want to be insulting these people but do they even understand what the word independence means so you don't want rolled telling you what to do would take your tax money but if brussels does it then that's just jim dandy also

i've described one approach, and that was the massive invasion of fallujah in 2004. another approach was h.r. mcmasters' approach with the third army cavalry regiment in 2005. faced with a similar problem, insurgents that controlled the center of the city, he didn't attack it. instead, he surrounded it, he isolated it and then slowly, bit by bit, he cleared it. and then to hold it, he positioned his forces in iraqi police and army inside the city in smaller outposts to make sure that the insurgents could not rise up again and control the terrain. and by doing this, he substantially altered the dynamic of the battle. it was great example of counterinsurgency warfare, but it was just one unit among many. nevertheless, it was pretty clear that attacking iraqi cities to save them was not the answer, and fallujah -- the second battle of fallujah -- was the end of that what i call the kinetic road. this period of the war spiraling downward but not be at a crisis point ended in february of 2006 with the destruction of the shrine, probably the fourth holiest shrine in shia i

on january twenty fourth teena the shelling began after the iraqi government lost control of fallujah to al qaida and rebel fighters according to the united nations more than thirty thousand families have fled the area in the past two weeks but tens of thousands are trapped in the crossfire it was ten years ago that the people fled their homes when u.s. forces pushed into the city during the second siege of fallujah this march of the bloodiest urban battle since the vietnam war and the first time the u.s. military fought primarily against insurgents rather than iraqi government forces this crucial areas located just thirty five miles from the capital city of baghdad when families were turned home after the siege ten years ago they found their neighborhoods decimated thousands of buildings were destroyed now the citizens of the lucia are in their second exodus most refugees have gone to the sunni region. others are in the shiite holy city of karbala the un has been providing aid to those affected by the fighting and are despite the challenges posed by the deteriorating security environ

i talked about one approach in fallujah and another one was up in another area in 2005. faced with a similar problem, faced insurgency in the city, but he didn't attack it. he cleared it, and then positioned his forces inside the city and smaller combat outpost to make sure they could not rise up again. he altered the dynamic of the battle there. it was a great example of counter warfare but only one unit among many. talking iraqi cities to save them wasn't the answer. this period of the war spiraling downward but not a crisis point ended in february of 2006 with the destruction of the forth holiest shrine. they understood the shiites outnumbered everyone and they could outvote and eventually gain power in iraq. but after this incident with this major shrine destroyed, they said if there iraq government can't defend the religion, the faithful will. and that is all that was needed for them to rise up. they torched sunnis mosques and kidnapped and tortured them drove them from their home. in the western part of iraq, al qaeda was gaining control of the provinces according

. >> what we were able to do is be able to watch a town the size of fallujah all the time to see theities on the ground and figure out who was doing bad things. this generation of the system is actually designed solely for law enforcement purposes. >> 192 pixel camera system is mounted to an aircraft. the aircraft flies over a city, and shifts. the higher pixels allow the camera lens to shoot a wider area. about 25 square miles at a time. an on-board computer program formats the image, then the photographs are transferred to a mobile site, where analysts study it. >> all right i'm heading out for a drive around dayton. as far as i know, i'm being surveilled from up above, but i don't see any airplanes up there. >> from persistent airplane systems in dayton, ohio i put the system's tracking abilities to a test in real time. >> we have lindsay, following her to her car what we'll do is then watch the car and see where she goes. here she turns left onto patterson boulevard. our assessment is that she's acting a little bit suspicious. she doesn't appear to know exactly the area that well

general hospital hit with artillery shells the conservation center of environmental and reserves in fallujah told turned out he believes the iraqi government is carrying out crimes against humanity and file reports with the international criminal court. but the iraqi prime minister said he wanted to lose the residence to expel al qaeda fighters or face and military assaults. maliki is a shiite muslim and has little support in this sunni dominated the region. what this means the leaders the layout will not commence at the colony was at nights in the crisis by keeping most of its forces out of her money and pollution of allowing local tried to push al qaeda militants out of the two cities. when the us led iraq in two thousand eleven for the abomination and the military reins back to iraq when our security situation has deteriorated the twenty thirteen and the deadliest year in the country since the war the washington d c perry and boring rt. such a rush an owl and paralympics kicked off over the weekend us has already started racking up medals including a bronze and women standing down help an

i talked about one approach in fallujah and another one was up in another area in 2005. faced with a similar problem, faced insurgency in the city, but he didn't attack it. he cleared it, and then positioned his forces inside the city and smaller combat outpost to make sure they could not rise up again. he altered the dynamic of the battle there. it was a great example of counter warfare but only one unit among many. talking iraqi cities to save them wasn't the answer. this period of the war spiraling downward but not a crisis point ended in february of 2006 with the destruction of the forth holiest shrine. they understood the shiites outnumbered everyone and they could outvote and eventually gain power in iraq. but after this incident with this major shrine destroyed, they said if there iraq government can't defend the religion, the faithful will. and that is all that was needed for them to rise up. they torched sunnis mosques and kidnapped and tortured them drove them from their home. in the western part of iraq, al qaeda was gaining control of the provinces according

bombings across central iraq and clashes near the militant held city of fallujah have killed at least forty two people a string of explosions in part because at a marketplace all the hallmarks of al qaeda on the sunni insurgency last year iraq saw its highest death toll since the worst two years of the u.s. led occupation with well over a thousand people killed since the start of twenty fourteen. now syria's delegation to the united nations led by a longtime supporter of president bashar assad is coming under unwelcome scrutiny from the u.s. authorities the delegates a bomb from straying beyond a forty kilometer perimeter with a new york city there in the good company of north korea in a rainy and diplomats read the full story on our web site also you dot com. china plans to fight its ever rising levels of pollution with the planes the details of the mission are online for you. right to see. first rate. and i think you're. on our reporters. and. i. could be in the. now the winter paralympic games are kicking off in sochi later today with the flame soon to be later on the black sea coa

troops back into iraq after fallujah fell several weeks ago. they are all about keeping u.s. troops extended past when we pulled them out of iraq. now we're having a debate in afghanistan where the administration looks like they want to go to zero. they're all about keeping troops in afghanistan yet when it comes to paying people, there's no money. this would have gone to help a lot of returning veterans get inside the v.a., lower the back log and helped kids have better g.i. bill benefits frankly. >> this is so important, senator john mccain and lindsay graham, both of whom filibustered this bill yesterday, that overseas contingency fund, that money would have been spent if we had stayed, right? no one would have voted no and choked off funds to continue occupation in iraq, no one would have choked off funds to continue occupation in afghanistan. >> they would have had to have done another supplemental. they would have spent billions and billions and billions of dollars more. there's complete hypocrisy. we're now drawing down, finally after 14 years of war and so many vetera

military provided material assistance to help iraq's fight against al-qaeda in fallujah. the emotional cost was far higher. more than 4800 coalition forces were killed including nearly 4500 americans, 1500 u.s. contractors died and more than 100 coalition troops and contractors have been injured. iraqi civilians have suffered most in terms of engineers and deaths. since the conflict began 11 years ago, more than 100,000 iraqis have been killed. exact estimates very wildly because there aren't reliable official figures on casualties. the war did achieve some of its goals. iraqi dictator saddam hussein was captured in 2003. he was convicted and executed. iraq is a democracy, free elections for the country's national assembly in january, 2005 were widely celebrated. pictures of those who had just voted with purple inked fingers were a point of pride for coalition forces and iraqis. however, peaceful democracy has proven extremely difficult to achieve and sectarian violence continues to this day. >> coming up, a very controversial suggestion. should women focus as much on get

. >> when i read the news that al qaeda had taken over fallujah and the rest of the anbar province, it me extremely angry and frustrated. >> they sacrificed their lives because america asked them to, and now this group vets for t e freedom fears the administration is putting us all at risk. in a letter they wrote, quote, mr. president n five short years you have managed to gut our military, dismiss clear and present threats and leave america's image and stature in tatters. joining me this morning a former marine, kurt lundquist. thank you for joining us this morning. >> thank you for having me. >> you joined the marine corps in 2001. you have seen this from the beginning of the war on terror, how did it make you feel when you saw the al qaeda flag in fallujah and iraq? >> it made me furious. i spent seven months of my life trying to make that part of the world a better place. and to see that work kind of reverse over the course of five years is extremely frustrating. >> what message does that send to the rest of the world about america's willingness to confront its enemies? >> you know

with numerous outings yesterday at the same guys who when confronted creating local difficulties of fallujah iraq it's the same story and what he's doing today is that he's calling me into the bizarre me to maintain. pull you into the country. so the more insidious pending anti iraq with the same financial backers as islamist terrorists atkinson area meaning saudi arabia and others in the area. this brings us back to barack obama's visit later this month before our visit obama i think there is no problem continued. i lost interest loans. an automobile i knew not the end. tuesday is still weak and the distance events this is speaking about the house as a canadian house was always some people are one of them is like. and it would be issued. she our homes. i have yet to win elections. because we have a majority of shiites in iraq and he can win. addiction is the tv when this for a little bit. and i need to view the photos don't see any entity with a florist in iraq unfortunately know that you understand that it was an interesting analogy prevent price. because now we have more than one hundred

>> how do you assess the straint and/or weaknesses in iraq, seeing in flaw gsh -- fallujah. >> they have not aloined with them the way they did in 2006. this is the good news. they know that al-qaeda, nothing good will come of aligning with al-qaeda, and what's happened is the alliance that we created with the pride broke down, but they have not gone back to the supporting al-qaeda either. they are more on the sidelines of fighting for themselves, really. survival. i don't think al-qaeda will ever be able to create a safe haven in western iraq. they -- every time they try to take and hold ground, they position themselves such that can be combated with some other military force and defeated. on the other hand, the situation throughout iraq will continue to spiral downward with car bombs, suicide bombings, and political violence until you have dense resolution among the elites and buy-in among the elites that the best way forward is the political way forward and not violence way forward. >> you were critical of the general, who, obviously, is sitting darg the war, the concept of the war th

and, so, it's fragile, and that's what's happened in fallujah and ramadi and so forth is this resurgence of the sectarianism in its most violent form. now there is -- that's complicated by the way in which, unfortunately, the government has chosen to govern without an inclusivity that's necessary, without resolving some of the age old issues of the constitution and the oil and so forth, the oil revenues. then, of course, you have the kerds cutting their own deals on the side with turkey or elsewhere, and there's just a lot of tensions pulling at each other. so it's very fragile right now. it's a fragile moment. you have flights coming out of iran which we continually talk to the prime minister about. the need that should be stopped. they're not. there's an occasional inspection, which is a phony inspection in which people are tipped off and it doesn't really do anything. so we're pushing very hard. we have an outstanding ambassador. ambassador beacroft on the ground. we have an outstanding secretary who is constantly out there working very, very hard at this personally. vice president bi

bial tactics in both locations, and as i mentioned, the degree of violence in iraq, in plater in fallujah, has risen to a level not seen for several years. >> thank you. my time is up. >> senator flake. >> thank you, thank you, all, for your service. secretary burns, with regard to the sanctions announced today, visa restrictions, how effective do you expect those to be, unless our european partners move ahead with financial sanctions of their own or sanctions on assets or dealing with that that somehow -- what can you tells about what europe is doing at this point or the e.u.? >> well, certainly, senator. i think steps close to the executive order that the president signed as well as the visa bans in effect are significant steps, but you're absolutely right. we've have more impact if we do more with european partners. the e.u. leaders meet riling now, looking seriously at concrete actions they can take. they have taken some already against ukrainian individuals with regard to travel and asset forfeitures, but they are looking at further serious steps they can take. .. to be annexed or so

do you personally feel seen the radical factions that you were told to fight retake cities like fallujahand ramadi. well i think that what does certainly shows is that while the war in iraq might be over the war on the iraqi people is far from over and the country is devastated the infrastructure is devastated when i got to ramadi it was an active city it had a couple hundred thousand people there was a sukkah marketplace there was different communities of various class structure and by the time i left it was a it was bombed to the ground potholed with bullet holes burning trash in the streets no access to utilities no access to clean water no access to trash or any things like that and so by the time i left we could see that the entire infrastructure had been destroyed and so certainly there's going to be increased violence in that and then when you add into the fact that us being there and the soldiers being there is just heightened mean. secular conflict that's going on and creating even more strife between different factions within the area then that was there before now you've got a

west of baghdad government troops have been battling militants there since january when they seized fallujah and ramadi so far iraqi forces are unable to retake that air. and so it seems continuing the hunt for remains of the missing malaysian airlines flight it's believed it could have run out of fuel earlier than thought before crashing into the indian ocean that was spotted from the west of australia has yet to be recovered the flight disappeared three weeks ago two hundred thirty nine onboard. and fading for ninety people still missing after a devastating landslide hit the u.s. state of washington authorities found another body in the debris on friday a rain soaked hillside collapsed last week unleashing walls of mud and flattening dozens of homes officials say the number of fatalities could rise substantially the presumed death toll so far twenty seven. thank you for sharing your saturday with us here on r.t. international. up next technology updates. thanks for watching. play. by marinate join me on pertinent that impartial and financial reporting commentary contributes and much much.

deceiving both us and them for twenty years now i do this i don't understand what the bandar in fallujahslack is doing hang on alan crimean peninsula it's clear why not. should be a russian and touch her flags but what on earth does by daring have to do with crimea it's beyond comprehension all of us see supine been there and as a traitor a fascist even more interesting though that the flag was raised right beside the crimean tatar flats that can only mean that they support nationalism and they support been there at some five hundred thousand dollars that they could over the whole of ukraine i was putin waiting for the russians will be purged from crimea in any case down with fascism i. have. be. together here moral support for our guys the soldiers of the book of riot police by being here we want to show them that they are not physically and morally that they have been abandoned and that we will never desert them in this cruel world where so many people are trying to make them look bad we want to declare to the world we won't surrender all the good guys to all of us to police officers a

today marks a decade since the gruesome killings of four private security contractors in fallujah iraq the four men were shot in an ambush in march two thousand and four and burned in their vehicles by an angry mob which hung their mutilated bodies from a bridge. the video taken from the scene is extremely graphic the images became a symbol of the instability and unrest that would highlight the entire u.s. mission in iraq currently iraq is importing american weapons supplies and you guessed it private contractors to keep the developing incursion at bay if you're wondering those contractors many of them anyway used to be the same folks hired by the u.s. department of defense according to the wall street journal about five thousand contractors are supporting the american diplomatic mission in iraq more than a third of those are americans over the next few months the u.s. government is expected to begin sending more than six billion dollars in military equipment to iraq the latest deal includes twenty four apache attack helicopters made by boeing and nearly five hundred hellfire missiles

bombings across central iraq and clashes near the militant held city of fallujah have killed at least forty two people a string of explosions in part cars and at a marketplace all the hallmarks of al qaeda and the sunni insurgency last year iraq so its highest death toll since the worst years of the u.s. led occupation with well over a thousand people killed since the start of two thousand and fourteen. what are you all watching r t international and politicking with larry king is coming up in a few minutes. ukrainians literally in the crosshairs delete telephone conversation revealing even officials learned members of the opposition and hired snipers to kill innocent bystanders and police is being largely ignored by the western mainstream the e.u. in washington intern near disco they continue to drive offense. against a backdrop of global tension i recently interviewed his holiness the dalai lama who shares his view of the unrest in the world today including the crisis in ukraine any tells us about his meeting with president obama and why he's breaking nearly four hundred years of po