iran is different. i would say your average sailor probably doesn't have a good view of this nuanced view. a lot of them are based upon their interaction with the iranians themselves when they pass them on the water which is in some cases very professional and other cases the revolutionary guard is very nervous. the u.s. military does i think a very good job trying to condition ships and talking naval issues and most likely army or air force but ships before they deploy, a series of workouts to kind of put them in the mindset of okay is this both hostile or is not hostile? is that the smuggler or revolutionary guard but? is he out there to tweak your nose and not really start a war or not? so we try very hard to get people conditioned to this environment. it is a tricky situation. there is no doubt about it. and with no diplomatic relations. last year, at least according to the press accounts the supreme leader rejected a hotline between their two navies which would have perhaps helped defuse the proble

/iran story. um, the cold war, in some ways i think, is a useful analogy because there's pieces of this relationship that have that kind of coercive, is set the limit, signal each other, don't go any farther, etc. , and yet you can still -- you know, at least in the cold war there was also a political conversation that was going on, a political conversation that didn't suggest we were best friends, that we had very different world views, but we at least had a channel in which we could communicate and try to not misunderstand each other's intentions. and in the cold war i would say that the goal was very much to avoid a catastrophic war, but that certainly this was, you know, framed as we are adversaries, we have very different goals for the international system. the trick with iran is that it's an asymmetric relationship. they're not a peer adversary. they never will be. and they understand that, i think. so, therefore, they are more likely to interpret our intentions as hostile even if we think w

-iran story. the cold war in some ways it's a useful analysis because there's pieces of the relationship that have the scholer says set the limit, signal each other, don't go any further account et cetera, get at least in the cold war there was also a political conversation going on they didn't suggest her best friends come into a very different worldviews, but we at least have a channel in which we could communicate and try do not misunderstand each other's intentions. the cold war a typical was very much to avoid the catastrophic war, but that certainly this was framed spr adversaries. we have different goals for the international system. the trip with iran is it's an asymmetric relationship. they are not a peer adversary and they never will be and they understand them. so therefore they are more likely to interpret our intentions of hostile come even if we think we're just managing the problem, they are more likely to perceive it as having disproportionate adverse effect on them. so let's fast-

there is only way to make sure that iron iran -- iran stops completely the nuclear weapons. that's to promise them that within 48 hours of iranian use by iran or by one of the surrogates, the city of tehran will be destroyed and the holy city of guam will be destroyed. that announcement now has been kept per pettily as a promise will make the iran nuclear weapon useless. >> indeed we have a proposition to intimidate the iranians out of it. can that be done? >> i don't think so. [inaudible] i think that what we have seen over time is the more that iran is pressurered and threatened the more aggressive and beledge rant the regime becomes. if there's one lesson we should take away in the less decade iran doesn't respond to pressure in a way that is constructive. and so i think that this approach would be very counter productive. >> that makes the question, what was the iranians respond to? >> well, i think that awhile ago, they were responding to collaborative efforts in afghanistan, and there have been several commentaries written over the last several weeks that corporation o

all over north was taking the funds from selling arms to iran to use to fund the contras. in. nicaragua you got it and now we make iran out to be the bad guy but here we were exchanging arms with them why do you think the world is ok with that well because america is a hypocrisy do you think that the world knows that this is a apocryphally. i guess we know a little bit about it but sometimes i find us to be very naive and we are not really enough to wear over everything that's going on out there they were in a war with iraq so you know we we thought that they were they were they good relative good guy. and iraq was the you know the bad guys you know it's just the whole it's ridiculous if we change our definition of it who's good and who's bad to suit our needs whenever doesn't that kind of make good and bad relative and meaningless absolutely it's almost thirty years ago so there and thirty years someone can go from being an ally to an enemy well unfortunately that happens yeah so we should probably be more careful with whom we give arms to that is a very good observation

lawmakers are playing a game of political hot potato with iran one side of the aisle accusing the other of sympathizing with the so-called rogue nation i'll give you the latest example and ask what this finger pointing really achieves. was one small stuff for the u.s. one a huge opportunity for china despite the mars rover landing nasa is taking a back seat in space exploration china aims for the stars so is this the makings of the next great space race. and nasa isn't the only one taking a backseat congress seems to be taking a vacation from tackling the u.s. unemployment problem all their constituents suffer coming up we'll show you how big the disconnect is between congress and the people they claim to represent. is monday august sixth four pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for you're watching our t.v. . the washington post broke a big story today it turns out after serving as president obama's two thousand and eight campaign manager david plouffe accepted a one hundred thousand dollars speaking fee from a company that does business with the government of iran the company is a subs

-iran crisis: a primer." when we come back, we will look at national politics, the ryan- from the plan, medicare, medicaid, sos. stay with us. ♪ [music break] ♪ [music break] >> "too old to work." this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with nermeen shaikh. >> we turn now to social security, which celebrated its 77th anniversary on tuesday. president franklin roosevelt first signed social security into law on august 14, 1935, at a time when about half of america's senior citizens lived in poverty. >> today, a large part fulfilled. the civilization of the past 100 years with its startling industrial changes more and more making life and secure. young people have come to wonder what would be there a lot when it came to old age. the man with a job has wondered how long the job would last. this social security measure gives at least some protection to 30 million citizens who will reap direct benefits through the unemployment compensation, through old age pensions,

selling weapons to iran and funneling money to rebels in nicaragua r.t. correspondent ben will wrap takes us through a timeline of the scandal. remember that time the united states sold weapons to the iranian government in a weapons exchange for hostages deal in spite of an embargo against selling arms to iran i'm talking about the iran contra scandal this scandal resulted in the single largest short term drop in approval ratings for any us president in american history so here's what happened we know from declassified documents and what became known as the reagan doctrine that the contras who were in the early one nine hundred eighty s. battling the cuban backed sandinistas and you were as president reagan once put it the moral equivalent of our founding fathers under the reagan doctrine the cia trained and assisted the contras and other anti-communist groups across the globe this was a challenge for the reagan administration however because the democrat controlled congress at the time opposed any us government involvement in iraq still reagan insisted t

lawmakers are playing a game of political hot potato with iran one side of the aisle accusing the other of sympathizing with the so-called rogue nation we'll give you the latest example and ask what this finger pointing really achieves plus it's one small step for the u.s. one huge opportunity for china despite the mars rover landing nasa is taking a back seat in space exploration while china aims for the stars so is this the makings of the next great space race. as nasa isn't the only one taking a backseat for so many struggling to find a way out of economic ruin there seems to be no end in sight but those elected to help not even addressing the problem coming up will show you how big the disconnect is between congress and the people they claim to represent. the good evening it's monday august sixth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out and you're watching r t. whole big story today on the front page of the washington post it's an article about president obama's two thousand and eight campaign manager david plouffe and how he has links or supposedly inks to iran plus appa

we don't ship anything to iran but we also prevent other countries from shipping items to iran or buying oil from iran and so this is just becoming. a bigger and bigger embargo that we're putting on and you had mentioned the human rights violations can you elaborate on that well congress passed a targeted human rights saying sions against iranian regime officials who were guilty of human rights abuses they did this a couple of years ago the obama administration has put sanctions on these officials their financial restrictions their travel restrictions and frankly i think that this is the type of sanction that actually is beneficial to actually target the folks who are behind some of the abuses but in this new bill they're basically doubling down on that and this is a kind of a small piecemeal part of the bill whereas the majority of what the bill does is actually impose these restrictions that are blocking medicine from getting into iran that are blocking food and humanitarian products from getting into iran there isolating iranian students who want to study abroad and so when you actual

but iran is subject to u.s. economic sanctions, so far trying -- so sanctions can be scrutinized and rejected altogether. but it is alleged that standard chartered had what would have been an iranian lake. if true, the consequences could be used. >> @ net -- material amounts of the business is in u.s. currency and if it were to use it -- to lose its u.s. banking license, it's possible they would no longer be able to continue in that activity. >> standard chartered strongly reject the allegations and says 99.9% of its iranian transactions meet u.s. regulations. it seemed surprised by all this. they launched their own review into compliance to a half years ago and says it has been keeping the u.s. authorities that to date on its progress. but in 2006, a senior executive warned of serious or even catastrophic damage to the group. a london executive said to have respond you (bleep) can't tell us and the rest of the world we are not going to deal with the iranians. >> at the white house says the u.s. administration i

makes rules regarding iran there are always exceptions to those rules. look the hip pocket see here right now is that level eleven because for instance even mr obama himself is somebody who if you look into his campaign donations is taking money from a designated foreign terrorist group the m e k which is an iranian exile group that is dedicated to overthrowing the iranian government but relies on terror to accomplish its goals mr obama here is one of a number of officials including officials working for the romney campaign who is taking the same speaker's fees from this group from a group that is designated a terrorist group in order to advance their political agenda and at the end of the day it's money that's driving these things it's politics it's you know with the any case sample it's not getting the same type of scrutiny because this is an organization that supposedly wants to overthrow the iranian government and because of that because iran is this bogeyman the enemy of our enemy is our friend so somebody like dana rohrbacher can go ahead and speak

heard of the iran contra scandal. sorry no i haven't no you haven't i state no i have not heard. something big he know yes yes do you member it was about what was it about you remember. nuclear weapons i believe iran is but the army going in and trying to do for the oil is and it was about all over north was taking the funds from selling arms to iran to use to fund the contras. in nicaragua you got it and now we make iran out to be the bad guy but here we were exchanging arms with them why do you think the world is ok with that well because america is a hypocrisy do you think that the world knows that this is a have progress the. i guess we know a little bit about it but sometimes i find us to be very naive and we are not really enough to wear over everything that's going on out there they were in a war with iraq so you know what we thought that they were they were the good relative good. and iraq was the you know the bad you know it's just the whole it's ridiculous if we change our definition of it who's good and who

to iran yeas energy sector. it targets specialize financial messaging services to the central bank of iran. mr. speaker, in 1995, the late former secretary of state, warren christopher, said in terms of its organization, programs, procurement and covert activities, iran is pursuing the classic route to nuclear weapons which has been followed by almost all states that have recently sought a nuclear capability. that was in 1995. secretary christopher added, there is no room for complacency. will congress pass the iran-libya sanctions act in 1996? that law, now call the iran sanctions act, sought to target iran's economic lifeline, its energy sector, and deny tehran the financial resources to pursue its nuclear ambition, to sponsor violent islamic group and to dominate the region. regrettably, just a couple years after enactment of that law, the clinton administration issued a blanket waiver of energy sector sanctions that has been continued by successive administrations. in 1996 u.s. concerns were not shared by ou

weighs into iran over its. patients is one skeleton in the closet seems to have been forgotten the iran contra affair was one of the biggest scandals of the reagan presidency revelations of washington being breaking an arms embargo on iran following the end of the capitol hill hearings into the case exactly twenty five years ago president reagan took full responsibility for what he called things he was unaware of but two and a half decades later the full extent of his involvement and his awareness remain unclear the man who broke the story robert parry fears there are still too many details that will never see the light of day. what you saw here was the failure of the institutions of washington to get control of these things there had been an effort in the seventy's after watergate after the exposures of cia abuses to bring some constraints on to this process and then you saw the iran contra scandal it was the first test case really would congress really hold the president to task in make sure that he couldn't

they immediately say over iran and its nuclear issue america started to be successful with iran and to be opposed to shut it shut down its nuclear program. then we must follow the isolation but here we have one hundred twenty countries zero in on terror on seems to me who's being isolated here this is the fun part about the story really of henri because you know in my book for example if somebody invites a party and one hundred twenty people show up i don't think that's isolation the people who are not going are being isolated in this case it's the united states and the west and you know we know of course that all of these countries are in fact supporting what's going on and they are discussing nuclear nonproliferation in iran that the u.s. is complaining about so that's right so that you know they're talking about nuclear proliferation which as you said is a big subject that america always zeroes in on the crosshairs but also that of syria iran saying that with this group of the not aligned movement they want to work together to get a solution on syria or that america or the u.n. t

before we get into how iran is helping the syrian regime to power, first explain why iran is helping syria's president. guest: great to be here. it isseful to have context. iran and syria's alliance is not a natural bond. it is a strategic alliance between two authoritarian regimes. the alliance began in 1980 and what happened was that the ruler of siri at that time was a great adversary of saddam hussein in iraq. saddam hussein had just invaded iran. this kind of the got the relationship between the two sites. it was an addition -- initially a tactical alliance based on saddam hussein. overtime, their relationship took on on new life. in the last decade or two, it has been sustained by what i would call a mutual contempt for israel and fear of the u.s. now, syria has become iran's regional ally and most consistent global ally. very importantly, it provides iran a key geographical link to hezbollah in lebanon, which is an important shiite militia. host: we have a map of syrian -- we have a map of syria. talk about the resistance that has been thrown around iran's chief national -- i

politically motivated the verdict from iran on a new u.n. report claiming to have evidence that the country has doubled its nuclear capacity . but first mitt romney has been outlining more of his policy plans as he accepted his nomination as the republican candidate for the u.s. presidency he once more stressed his aggressive views toward some nations including russia but with a reputation for changing his stance they could be hard to tell how trustworthy years and started going to church can explains. mitt romney is now officially barack obama's opponent for the white house and he's talking tough throwing rocks well verbal rocks not only the president but also nations at the republican convention where he accepted his nomination mr romney did not fail to once again highlight his any masorti towards russia he criticized the president for not being hard enough in his view on russia when it comes to missile defense mitt romney says under his administration quote mr putin will see less flexibility and more backbone and of quote and of course th

and the course says iran and western nations absolutely iran was the prime target of the nine eleven in the series of nine eleven wars that followed it and the zionists the hardline zionist the wolfowitz crowd here in america are very unhappy that they haven't been able to go after iran they tried everything to win including stealing to clear weapons from the u.s. air force base in mind that north dakota in august two thousand and seven and so far they failed to push the cooler heads in the u.s. military into a crazed perhaps suicidal attack on iran but they're still trying and that is kind of the end game here and it's really too bad that they've dragged the obama administration and its allies in the u.s. military into a situation where they might actually get into a big shooting war in the middle east is going to ask you about obama is that real political pressure for him to do something now serious blame the u.s. will monkey on its internal politics namely because of the election year for president obama as the under pressure by the republicans to do something now. well of course

and iran's foreign minister rings the opening bell of the world's nonaligned summit into iran which will see a third of united nation members take part the decision of the un's chief to join the conference has not been welcomed by nato and its allies which have been accused of trying to play down the meetings importance. because they have alliance next it's our interview and today we're talking to foreign affairs expert and left wing politicians but i can lend stance on a range of international issues including syria libya and iran. as one of the world's major economic and political power houses germany has a lot of influence which it can exert over global situations not to talk with me a little bit more about what germany is doing on the global stage right now i'm joined by. the foreign policy spokesperson for the left body here in germany thanks very much speaking to. syria is of course the major flashpoint in the world right now what's germany's view on the situation the moment i would love to know what my position is in syria and i think i'm the only side i can take that those people

fist of iran's revolution guard corps. the so called protectors of the iranian regime. >> the irgy and iranian elite have for many years purchased and sought the finest of western goods. because of petro dollars they had the ability to purchase these goods. >> life is becoming harder for iranian business. though president ahmadinejad denies it much of the world community accuses iran of pursuing nuclear weapons. the treasure which unai and others caused porsche to close its tehran showroom. currently, fiat is under pressure to stop doing business there. in may, fiat announced it was suspending sales there. >> has it become more difficult for the rich iranians to get their happens on cars or are whatever else they buy? >> it is more difficult. but if you want it they will find a way of getting it to you. >> most often through the united arab emrates just across the gulf from iran. >> the emrates because of very historic trading route has been a key trading partner both legally and illegally for many years. there still is il

know results of fresh nuclear talks between iran and the un's energy watchdog which says to rand's not cooperating enough put faces criticism itself for being biased. if you just joined us this is r.t. live from moscow my name's kevin owen it's ten pm here now the catholic church is pressing charges against three german copycats of the russian punk band pussy riot after they disrupted a service in cologne cathedral the trio of activists could now face a prison sentence that's longer than the one given to the moscow counterparts last week verdict on pussy riot sparked a wave of condemnation abroad including from germany peter all of it takes up the story. two men and one woman all in their early twenty's they interrupted a mass service that was taking place in cologne chanting free pussy riot decked out in the the garish balaklava some brightly colored clothes that have become synonymous with the the russian punk rock collective calling for these three people calling for the freedom of the three women that were sentenced to two years in jail for hooliganism motivated by religious hatred

nuclear talks breakdown with iran. we asked mitt romney what he would do as president. is it worth going to war to stop an iranian nuclear weapon? one of the greatest athletes of all time is banned from sport. armen keteyian reports and we'll talk to the head of the agency that says lance armstrong cheated. and our friday feature. "on the road" with steve hartman. why did steve go to sandusky, ohio? >> i don't want to say it's all because of me, but it is all because of me. this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley reporting tonight from birmingham, michigan. >> pelley: good evening, we're coming to you from the town square in birmingham where we caught up today with mitt romney. more on that in a moment. but we will begin the broadcast tonight with another mass shooting in america-- this time in the heart of new york city. it left two people dead, including the alleged gunman and nine others wounded. elaine quijano has the story. >> reporter: the gunfire erupted just after 9:00 a.m. at the peak of the morning rush. it began when 58-year-old jeffrey johnson walke

/iran relations on nuclear issues. without progress toward a nuclear settlement, the trajectories of the u.s., israel, iran, though they are not settled could lead to military confrontation. i'd like to go on and talk more about why we've reached these conclusions. what is the current situation? the add ming station has a two-track policy of engagement and pressure. and in the last two years engagement has largely taken the form of negotiations, and the pressure of sanctions, what one might call active measures. obama has made clear that all options are on the table with one exception. and that exception is containment. and the u.s. -- and he's made clear the u.s. red line is it moves by iran to actually weaponize to nuclear capabilities. its nuclear capabilities would cross them. in the short term, we think, therefore, that the prospects for any movement is not great, particularly before the u.s. elections. the situation is, the p-5 plus one has asked for suspension of enrichment. and the third con condition is cessat

threatening more and more in conflict with iran traveling to attack the nuclear sites within iran and with the threat growing by the day and i'm still not confident that these were really keeping at bay until november. it's very difficult for me to think about getting more contact with iran but at the same time there's the spread of military attack on iran interior and might. seem to back off the talks that started so hopefully in moscow for example earlier this year so. the problem is that we're not having syria as a problem alone we're not having he said iran is a problem and rone we have turkey because conflict is escalating everything at the same time so where do you see the future of this argument between israel and iran if tel aviv would be rational. i would be happy and think nothing's going to happen because i think military on the. cookie nearly suicidal for israel. considering that with all the change in egypt in the neighboring countries the tech like this you don't know how to how the region would react and if netanyahu the rational would be happy and safe and think no the

election the war drums against iran they're going to start beating those again and got hyping up the conflict with iran the fifth fleet is a really important piece on the chess board for the united states so obviously bahrain is going to do whatever washington says but this isn't direct contradiction to hillary clinton who's parading around with the friends of syria and the arab league and talking about them about democracy while the us is funding al qaeda farmers in syria so it doesn't make it there's no a lot of hypocrisy is coming out of washington and you look at the situation in bahrain which is very ugly now the rain has a majority shia population it's ruled by a sunni monarchy if these protests continue how difficult will it be for the regime to hold on to power it's going to be increasingly difficult in the coming months and i'll tell you why because you know look look at iran has been being bullied for the last sort of eight eight years nine years arguably thirty years if you want to go all the way back to nine hundred seventy nine but you know the shiite population in bahra

iran is key in solving problems in the middle east so says the un secretary general now in tehran while washington aims to downplay the meeting of states not aligned to the u.s. or nato. and ukraine's former prime minister will not walk free as the country's high court rejects her appeal against a seven year sentence for abusing. international news live from moscow city center this is r t with me rule received a number of tough choices facing the eurozone struggling southern states as they battle to stay afloat germany has praised italy's efforts to reform as chancellor merkel has been meeting technocrat prime minister mario monti monti is seeking to help to curb soaring boring costs he's also praised germany for improving governance in the euro zone but more bailouts may be on the cards spain's leader was waiting for action from europe central bank before deciding whether to ask for help but one of its regions catalonia has meantime run out of money. and i.m.f. inspectors are in portugal to rule if the country has tightened its belt enough to receive more cash in may it was forced into

has resisted a nuclear iran. israel has listened to mr. obama, openly criticize israel more for building homes in their capital city than he has openly criticized mahmoud ahmadinejad for building nuclear weapons with which to threaten the entire free world. in fact, mr. speaker, they have watched this administration systematically scrub references that jerusalem even is the capital of israel. consequently i believe israel has known for some time that they can no longer trust the obama administration to act in their best interest, mr. speaker. they know that mr. obama has waited so long that if israel acts now to defend their own nation, and all of us incidentally, that they will suffer far more damaging response from their radical regimes that surround them than they otherwise would have. israel knows that if they wait much longer to attack, the iranian nuclear facilities may well be -- may well be beyond their conventional military capability. israel desperately needs america and her greater ability to attack he

and iran's stance on nuclear weapons. it was co-hosted by the middle east institute, and it is about an hour and a half. >> good afternoon. my name is daniel serwer, and it is a real pleasure to welcome you to this middle east institute event announcing a middle east institute scholar publication called "prospects for u.s. on the nuclear issue in the year ahead." i find this a remarkably clear, straightforward, and very useful analysis of the situation. one that avoids any of the pitfalls of the journalistic treatment of this issue in washington today. it is a particular pleasure that i was asked to moderate this panel, if i have any qualifications for that role, it is not actually my time at the u.s. institute of peace, which is displayed in the biography, but rather that i spent seven years abroad as a science counsellor in the american embassies, preventing technology from going to potential proliferators, and three years managing one of the energy offices in the state department. we have a wonderful panel to bid that

i have circled that reaches from iran and iraq from syria and into lebanon. >> iran does not want to see this shiite access destroyed. syria is iran's most of for the arab world. so to iran does not want a change in government there. >> saudi arabia and qatar are supplying the syrian rebels with money and weapons and cooperating with turkey and the united states. washington, too, has repeatedly called for assad to resign, a step that would be a major blow to iran. >> the west and its allies are hoping that a new regime will take over in this area that promotes pro-western policies and alliance itself more with saudi arabia. but russia and china does not want to do the west a favor by giving up on bashar assad and watching syria go to the west, so to speak. >> the intense saudi arabia and rivalry makes mahmoud ahmadinejad's visit to the summit in mecca especially surprising. >> the u.s. and israel are heading down a road that could end in war with a view towards iran. saudi arabia wants to distance itself from that event, and that is why it invited iran to the summit. and iran's leade