with us today, michael duffy with "time magazine," the bbc's katty kay, nbc's norah o'donnell and the "atlantic"'s" andrew sullivan. there was little president obama could do to help japan with the catastrophe of biblical proportions. he's been under pressure to go first on social security and also to lead the charge on libya. we'll take them one at a time. first libya, the u.n.'s action calmed the week's-long drum beat for a no-fly zone over libya. obama waited for europe and the arab league, aware that americans are reluctant to take on another fight in the arab world. and as a consequence to 2012, perhaps a political upside to backing the freedom fighters but on the downside, there's always a risk of getting blamed. the president said, i'm not going to be point man on libya. he said i'm going to stay back and get the pack ahead of me. >> he did. the problem looking irresolute has gone away for the moment. he got the u.n. security council which does not move like a s.w.a.t. team normally and he got the russians and chinese to abstain. he got the cease-fire out of qaddafi. but there'

teacher night fresh fun get across libya as the country spirals toward civil war incumbent while michael duffy is attempting to be getting control of key oil rich areas in the east of the two thousand people of reportedly been killed just move in a fortnight. and as international calls to end the violence grows louder this fresh concern over the mounting possibility of u.s. intervention now washington's gathering naval and marine forces near the libyan border. hillary clinton says the u.s. is fighting a losing and information war with global media outlets including r.t. the us state department wants billions of dollars from congress to step up its propaganda efforts against the digital swims twenty two forty five pm eastern time what a company else it's twenty two forty five couldn't run joining us now from the support staff and i believe you've got some update from ice hockey playoffs that's right kevin not four teams now wait said their rivals in the conference semifinals of the kontinental hockey league could be one more club joining up yet so yeah that's right so we're waiting for confirma

blind even trying to solve the political problems you should not bomb the civilians from aircrafts michael duffy did and ghastly in the in the mid february and after that russia immediately supported the nineteen seven zero zero resolution arm of the united nations imposing sanctions against it could buffer regime we did not repeated nine hundred seventy three resolution and russian president was very clear in his statements. your appointment to this new. russian president and boy for african visit mean there it's kremlin that russia wants to be more and more involved in african affairs that we want to maybe to catch up with china that has been involved in african affairs very closely for for the last like at least a decade they've been there they're there and we're well we're not china turkey iran india indonesia malaysia all the european nations the united states of america we can we can continue that list and the russia being a global power has global interests so of course we have to be present in africa we have a good heritage in africa we have really good background in many countries of af

fresh fire fights break out across libya as the country spirals towards civil war incumbent while michael duffy is attempting to regain control of key oil rich areas east over two thousand people have reportedly been killed during the fall by the fight for it. and as international calls to end the violence going louder this fresh concern now of the mounting possibility of u.s. intervention washington is covering naval and marine forces near the minimum border . and hillary clinton says the u.s. is fighting and losing an information war with global media outlets including. the u.s. state department billions of dollars from congress to step up its propaganda efforts against the digital onslaught twenty forty five now thanks to you. what about with more of those stories the quarter of an hour's time but let's catch up with roman he's got leads from the school's road and evening to you speaking i'm talking about ice hockey tonight things heating up in the care show playoffs well that's right kevin the garden cup final is a little over a month away so any surprises in store that's the key in well we

court discussion this time as well the foreign power was really designed to be an inch without michael duffy. we'll. bring you the latest in science and technology from the realms. of the future. ok. hello in the well from the crosstalk i'm peter lavelle the battle for libya is the so-called humanitarian intervention there so noble and straightforward most intervention lead to military occupation in human suffering and is the libyan scenario a new template for disaster. we can. discuss what's happening in libya i'm joined by david gibbs in tucson he's a professor of history and government at the university of arizona in london we have i bet she is a senior lecturer in international relations at the university of kent and in beirut we cross the aisle a question he's a professor of political science at the american university of beirut and another member of our crosstalk team you know in the hunger all right focus is cross talk means you can jump in anytime you want if i could go to london first to know if how would you describe events being played out now in libya because i've been covering t

powers are frozen the accounts are more michael duffy and other senior figures in libya's government the u.s. alone has blocked thirty billion dollars the largest amount of four assets ever seized in an american sanctioned action list are reports history suggests libya may never see its money again after the international crap. as violence continues in libya the u.s. sends warships and more troops in that direction fueling speculation of a military intervention and meanwhile western countries may have already launched a war against colonel moammar gadhafi as north african regime most countries could see. the freezing over. act of war for the weapons here the foreign assets of either libya the country or khadafi and his family that some estimate to be almost one hundred billion dollars it's believed to be spread across the globe oriel money invested through the country's sovereign wealth fund everything from a stake in the company that owns the financial times newspaper to land near the spanish resort town of marbury are being developed into homes and the golf course to the oil compan

especially if civilians can be claimed to be killed or shown to be killed by of course michael duffy i mean if the other side kills them then there won't be usual good. casualties so that they can say we have to do something to stop gadhafi from killing his own people that's the slogan and there isn't enough evidence yet that that is exactly what is happening so i think they're simply waiting and provoking provoking that bloodshed that will give them the excuse to act. international studies expert says a pro war advocates in washington are pushing a military agenda in their. in libya unlike egypt and in other parts of the arab world you do see a regional civil war between the eastern quad and the western but that is how the struggle has been going for the last twenty years and indeed it is now intensified militarily so it makes perfect sense to me that this is going to be a stand out resolution has again been taken by get out these troops i of course don't even believe that the people in the east should propose to move their forces to what the west this is a conflict which is here to

war is clearly not intricately and just clearly we still media has been a little too quick to michael duffy so both sides have a propaganda will this cause is the funding way around the street if you want to see the long live video feed. tripoli. international pressure is growing gales colonel gadhafi was the u.k. and france to be drafting a u.n. resolution to impose a no fly zone but that has to get the backing of the fifteen members of the security council arches lower and explains what the move would mean. no fly zone is very much what it says on the tin it's which planes are allowed to fly essentially and what it would mean is that it would give the allied planes the right to shoot down anything that took off inside libya we do know. and france is said to be drafting a u.n. resolution for a no fly zone and william hague the foreign secretary here says that he's working closely with his partners on what he's calling a contingency basis on elements of the resolution for a no fly zone and we've heard from the foreign office source that it's only going to be used in the case that it's neede

with the twenty four hours a day well michael duffy has launched widespread offenses with reports of live ammunition and strikes used to reclaim control over the eastern part of libya and lead the country not to bloody battles the british government has confirmed his troops on standby for deployment to the area as news comes in that u.s. warships carrying the remains the poet create fears over a possible intervention increase among libyans as. was discovered. are you hearing that there's a lot of serious fighting predominantly in eastern libya the cities where the fighting is concentrated hours away which is some fifty kilometers from the capital tripoli and ras north which is an oil rich port having said that though it's very difficult to ascertain exactly who is in control in each of these destinations it really depends on which media you access according to western media most of the east of the country is firmly in the hands of rebels but we're hearing a very different tune from the government spokespeople and from official libyan a state media on the one hand while the fighting i

it's clearly not in tripoli and just as clearly waste in media has been a little too quick to michael duffy so you see i see. asia times correspondent pepe escobar says the majority of the media coverage isn't reflecting how you and u.s. leaders might involve informing the new libyan government. we don't know what kind of low position light you. have actually read these appears because in this history legal radio. you find it absolutely everybody from the progressive lawyer secular people to islam is keeping a low profile so nobody knows what who knew it. could actually go. in the minds of the people deciding stuff in washington in brussels and london or in paris ok if we go there we broke up the next government would be in charge of your son africa will be close to egypt you close to tunisia algeria will be controlling the region nato will be in place this means the west called trolls in north africa so that's that's the real game that you won't see is all out to mainstream media for. they're not getting involved directly the u.s. has helped create environment that gave the people in the a

what we hear it is firmly back in the hands of rebels it is now two weeks of violence and one michael duffy is losing control over the eastern half of his country but he has vowed to stay in power and continue fighting against this backdrop it is becoming increasingly imaginable that there could be some kind of foreign intervention in libya the u.s. has released and warships that have reached the mediterranean and are making their way towards libya we're hearing that four hundred u.s. soldiers are in the mediterranean right now ready to board these warships at the same time the british prime minister david cameron of course what a no fly zone there are many there in the international community who are against this including the arab league as well as russia they say that it creates a scenario where you have to have some kind of short term solution being put on the table but no long term prognosis in terms of how this will play out we are hearing the same from locals here they are against any kind of international intervention. with opposition leaders saying as much as they said that it will

some of the statements we saw coming out of bush and today there we saw the british military st michael duffy remains a legitimate target because he is the hero of the army here now at the same time the questions in terms of how this will end up being answered here by saying either in a stalemate or in some kind of a failed state where you would see the rebels perhaps holding on to power in the east and gadhafi remaining entrepreneur in the ways that people are asking the question whether indeed this is in the best interests of libya party's policy or interpretations also reporting from the war zone online to. try to do these with things above her head while reporting over the last twenty four hours we're also hearing from the reuters news agency two news coming in of a new explosions heard in tripoli tonight anti aircraft fire being keep up today with the very latest blog as well on our web site r.t. your column. also all you tube channels or dramatic video footage of the bombardment of libya plus much more take a look at youtube dot com slash r t. two. news today violence has once again fla

war is clearly not in tripoli and just as clearly based in media has been a little too quick to michael duffy r.t. tripoli. international pressure is mounting on gadhafi with the u.s. considering military intervention and the u.k. and france drafting a no fly zone resolution for the u.n. and amid this came some embarrassing off the record remarks from u.s. officials that is going to go on as more. defense secretary robert gates landed in afghanistan through translator the top u.s. commander general david petraeus who greeted mr gates at the airport joking quote welcome back sir flying a little bigger plane than normal you're going to log some attacks on leave you or something and of quote the u.s. defense secretary responded to the comment by laughing and said quote yeah exactly well apparently the two gentlemen were unaware of the open microphone the world is now guessing whether that was just a joke or there was a kernel of truth a lot of people thought that was a highly inappropriate joke mind you this comes from america's top military man although the official position of the u.s. is in o