whether that march will lead well for that let's turn to investigative journalist and historian gareth porter who is with us in our studios here in error thank you before we sort of get into. the nuances in the u.s. administration's policy towards the issue try to help me sort of dig through the rhetoric here because everyone each side israel their radiance the americans are sort of playing this game of bluffing of you know talking tough there is a lot of that going on no question about it i mean the iranian move to threaten to cut off exports of crude oil to european countries nothing first time they've done it and of course it's the logical thing for them to do because it is a bargaining tool for them to try to get greece spain and. italy particularly the three major european countries which do import large amounts of oil from from iran to pull back and say well maybe we can figure out a way to avoid a cut off of our and in. of our dealings with iran are struggling economically they're struggling economically and this gives iran obvious bargaining chip which the iranians are the ones who ar

best to get to journalist and historian gareth porter thank you very much indeed for sharing your views about it. so the second presidential candidate alec joy has been hospitalized after police tried to escort her to a prosecutor's office for questioning she is being called as a witness on a case brought after a time on the country's central election commission last year joy it was one of the frontrunners of last november's disputed election which was an old by the a set in supreme court number of violations and she had been planning to hold her inauguration on friday despite the fact that the fresh elections o.-g. to be held next month and they actually had of the republic called her actual attempted south acetic is the former georgian republic that gained independence into thousand and eight following every more with georgia ati's a kind of boycott the latest. in the rumble last. the city held its first post war presidential elections the results of later cancelled by the central election commission of violations of the new elections are now scheduled to take place on march twenty fi

after dragging on for nearly a year those talks are now breaking down when about a journalist gareth porter broke that story and he joins me now. let's get to the crux of it what's what's really holding up the talks here and how does that relate to u.s. policy issues closely related which are clearly at the center of the sort of the crux of the talks were the failure to go toward an agreement or the night raids by u.s. special operations forces and the continued u.s. detention and holding of afghan prisoners for one group periods of time. the president. hamid karzai has made it clear that he would continue to insist that both of those issues have to be resolved in favor of afghan sovereignty which is the issue that he's raising as a general principle on both those counts before he will agree to station u.s. troops permanently however he's really in a fix because he knows that he needs u.s. support big time he needs very large infusions of both military and economic assistance but you. also needs u.s. military protection as much as he can get and really the only thing that the united states

strained relations between karzai and his western backers over a mounting death toll journalistic gareth porter thinks that foreign expansion is to blame for the growing number of casualties. this is the price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on at best imperfect intelligence and worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and mistakes that are made which will result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the television has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops and part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of the response has been to lay more and more i d's this is the primary way that the television has been able to find to kill u.s. nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops and a more expert opinion on u.s. actions in afghanistan on our website for you at r.t. dot com they can also find out about america's massive defense costs for example by the

wherever you turn so thank you very much for shedding some balance light on this issue and that was gareth porter investigative journalist and historian well syria's embattled president bashar al assad today announced a referendum on a new constitution that would be held in just eleven days time this came amid reports of escalating violence across the country now amendments to the constitution work key demands by opposition groups at the start of the uprising but rebels now say they'll accept nothing less than assad's departure some also question how a nationwide vote could be held at a time when violence on both sides continues to plague the country michel chossudovsky is directs the center for research and globalization and explains. i think the question we have is. what is the likelihood of success of that referendum in a country which is characterized by by war terrorist acts this referendum can take place under present conditions that's absolutely a possibility one would have to pass by and there that the these terrorists that it's a very small should withdraw that so that i have not very op

already tense relations between cars and washington amid a mounting civilian death toll journalist gareth porter thinks that foreign actions are to blame for the growing number of casualties. this is the price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on at best imperfect intelligence and worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and mistakes that are made which will result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the taliban has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of their response has been to lay more and more i d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find to kill u.s. nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops. time to update you now on more news in brief from around the world it's eleven minutes since i've been killed and over a dozen wounded in pakistan after local security forces fired art

afghanistan more than a hundred thousand of civilians have died since the two thousand and one invasion gareth porter has more. this is the price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on at best imperfect intelligence and it worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of the local situations and mistakes that are that are often made. which really result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the telephone has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. and nato troops and part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of that response has been to lay more and more i e d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find to kill u.s. and nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops so really that is the primary form of military pressure they have on u.s. nato forces they're not going to give it up and that has grown because the war itself has grown as u.s. and nato troops have increased in th

tense relations between khan's i'm washington and the mounting civilian death toll journalist gareth porter thinks that foreign actions are to blame for the growing number of casualties this is the price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on at best imperfect intelligence and at worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and mistakes that are made which will result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the tele band has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of that response has been to lay more and more i d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find.

and his western allies amid mounting afghan death toll investigative historian and journalist gareth porter says the expansion of us and regular troops in afghanistan is to blame for the growing number of civilian deaths. price that afghanistan pays for having foreign troops on its soil troops which carry out operations that are based on best imperfect intelligence and worse simply lack of fundamental knowledge of local situations and the stakes that are made which will result in innocent people being killed completely unnecessarily the numbers are growing clearly because the television has continued to expand its operations in response to the growth of u.s. nato troops part of the taliban response and i would say the single biggest part of the response has been to lay more and more i e d's this is the primary way that the taliban has been able to find to kill u.s. nato troops and even more so to wound seriously u.s. and nato troops now we can lease has in the past published manning more afghan war revelations which were allegedly obtained from u.s. army private bradley manning the twenty f

countries a provocative move but also a logical one according to journalist gareth porter whom i spoke to earlier today. in the iranian move to threaten to cut off exports of crude oil to european countries not the first time they've done it and of course it's a logical for thing for them to do because it is a bargaining tool for them to try to get greece spain and. italy particularly the three major european countries which do import large amounts of oil from from iran to pull back and say well maybe we can figure out a way to avoid a cut off of our and ending of our dealings with iran are struggling economically or struggling economically and this gives iran an obvious bargaining chip which the iranians are the ones who are going to always play their bargaining chips they are the world's greatest bargainers it's not for nothing that we talk about persian rugs they're the original persian rug salesman and they always want to hold off or hold on to the bargaining chips until they can play them when the timing is right and i think they now feel this is the time to do it so that what acc