political instability which will subsequently lead to to. the syrian government destabilizing syria as a nation state we have to understand that syria is is perhaps the only remaining secular state in the world as it stands already is that some of the pieces grow because the countries of the arab league you know the gulf states saudi arabia well of the way they are they have a. whole system is based on authoritarian rule and the office is the one happy sect some of the gulf states and saudi arabia. let's us mr just ask if i can interrupt for a moment i mean it is very hard as an american to sort of. wrap one's mind around this because we're talking about the opposition in syria we're talking about

sunni's who have been a immensely radicalized over the past few years we're talking about the rise potentially if these folks come into power of an islamist regime islamist power similar to what we've seen in libya even in egypt and i just don't it's very difficult understand why the u.s. would be interested in that we saw the blowback effect from doing that with a cell that our fights with the soviets in afghanistan why in the world would the us want a repeat of that i thought that radical islam was supposedly what we're fighting a war against it's absurd but. the united states since the soviet war has supported. these islamist organizations in fact. we know that of carter was a creation of the cia it's documented and it's the knowledge. of what is not. well we saw it in libya where they spend. forces which will grow right from day one

british special forces they integrated. paramilitary organizations which were tied to the libyan islamic fighting group which is another qaeda affiliated organization we know that some of. the most of the forces dollop in syria of. their bills of brotherhoods protected by turkey they're receiving heavy weaponry so we're not dealing with the protest movement or all the opposition within let's say with the confines of our of the whole society and this this agenda of destabilizing countries by promoting sectarian warfare is something which is well known and understood. the united states and its foreign policy stance supports you know it supports political

islam you can see the model so you read in the gulf states libya is a transition to go to a slightly government the same thing in tunis you know. we have a predominant role of of the muslim brotherhood in egypt so in egypt where we also supported mubarak for many years because it was convenient but you know it's hard for instance that israel it was weird to talk about the previous segment as a huge ally of the us a destabilize syria could be an immensely dangerous even annex essential for to israel so again it doesn't seem like there would be m.-n. sort of blowback to to to the u.s. by undermining stability in syria. well let us look back you know states has always supported our current governments we can look at the very good look at it believes that sub-saharan africa where they have interests they've always supported dictators doll they support democracy or proxy developers it's what they

don't like about syria is that syria is not a proxy us state it's all the like with washington so it's not a big all those it's a secular government it's a country of tremendous religious tolerance like i was. only last year. perhaps it is in fact you know it it is the cradle of civilization out what is happening is an attempt of both attempts by big toe and now the united states and israel to destabilize this government they've been joining that point you know it's obvious this is nothing new the two thousand and six war all level of the endgame was supposed to be serious so that when dealt with something which is nine hundred fifty seven. there was a good chance by the latest states. to destabilize syria so it this document was recently declassified and i could quote from the documents professor

unfortunately we're out of time but. i'm sure we'd be thrilled to have to hear what you want to quote next time but thank you so much for your time there of course at a sort of difficult to see how an islamic regime would be supplying to the u.s. but at the same time as you've mentioned there is a history of these kinds of things south a lot to discuss here and that was sad michel chossudovsky director at the center for research on globalization thank you very. now the pictures are familiar regimes cracking down on protesters but this time they're coming down for bahrain activists trying to mark the one year anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising were dispersed by heavy heavily armed police forces artie's i've been reports the weapons and tactics may have actually come from the u.k. . tear gas and stun grenades supposedly the work of a reformed police force but one year on since the first anti-government protests

were crushed in bahrain it seems not much has changed the only difference now the crackdown has been planned by one of britain's former top cops john yates used to be assistant commissioner of london's metropolitan police he now works for bahrain's monarchy which says he's there to oversee police reforms the police have borrowed a behavior despicably the latest trick is to throw cans of tear gas into the homes of people they don't like shut the doors and people have died choking to death tear gas or use out of doors and i think for the british police officer all over stuart's is retired to be associated anyway with his it's role yes resign from scotland yard last year and early fix him of the phone hacking scandal he popped up in bahrain in december as part of the regime's p.r. campaign to clean up its image a campaign pushed hard it seems by yeats himself he recently told the daily telegraph his new charges had a well rehearsed plan for the anniversary of the uprising adding the concept of

reasonable reaction to provocation has been reinforced. as for the uprising itself he said this isn't organized protests it's just vandalism rioting on the streets claims hotly disputed by london's bahraini community i mean when you get thousands and thousands of. demanding their rights. you seem to forget that sixty five or sixty five people actually died from police brutality activists in bahrain insist their protest was peaceful their aim to reach the iconic pole roundabout in the capital manama they say they were met by tanks toxic gas and rubber bullets what we witnessed on the ground is not. the front or from what the impact has previously but it's been extended through the toxic gases and use of poisoning. mr jong as contributing we should

see a positive things on the ground what we are seeing today is nothing acceptable it may not just be british tactics bahrain's easing but weapons to government figures show the u.k. sold over one million pounds worth of rifles and artillery equipment to bahrain from july to september last year long after blood was spilled that's despite insisting all licenses had been revoked as for yates his contract runs until april by which time he hopes to put in place concrete reforms on this evidence that seems a long way off either bennett's r.t. london. well capital account is up next on our teaser let's check in with the host with the most lauren lyster to see what's up on her agenda today lauren what you got cooking for us lucy we have a great show i heard you talking a little bit about iran and about kind of the military implications of all of that

we're going to talk about oil and these sanctions i'm sure you saw all of the reports today about what iran is or isn't doing about cutting off oil to europe we're going to look at it yeah the consequences of sanctions from the west this one consequences it's about time we look at them and how they're exactly worth it to people on the streets of greece who cannot pay for gas and are in a depression or people in the u.s. who are struggling economically why do they want higher oil prices because of some threat that may or may not be in iran we really want to break that down also the eurozone crisis ok it's been going on we see more turmoil about whether this bailout of greece is going to get done or not we're going to talk about what this means for democracy and what this means. we are already seeing far right nationalist parties or at least one in greece that is gaining steam that is increasing in the polls in popularity so what are the consequences of the chaos that we've seen on the streets there that maybe the technocrats and the bureaucrats

in the european parliament are talking about well really interesting stuff and i certainly hope the viewers stay tuned in especially on that oil issue because again you know that embargo is supposed to come anyway so countries have had to figure out some way to deal with the cost of of that oil in advance anyhow so please do tune in to catch lauren lister's capital account now that does it for now for more on the stories we've covered his go to r.t. dot com slash a say and follow me on twitter at lucy and of one word we'll be back in half an hour.

more news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. giant corporations are on the day.

good afternoon and welcome to capital account i'm laurin mr here in washington d.c. here are your headlines for february fifteenth two thousand and twelve europe is shrinking at least the economy is italy's things into recession the eurozone contract for the first time since the second quarter of two thousand and nine. is reportedly going to help with the bailout athens appears to be bowing to ministers additional demands over their bailout but at what cost for the country for europe and for democracy are we going to see a revolution we'll hear from european m.e.p.

nigel farage on that and iran cuts crude to european nations preempting saying since we did they will they are they are conflicting reports as far confusion as oil prices have hit a six month high earlier today of a hundred twenty dollar a barrel oil up until now there has been talk but yeah there are real consequences to sanctions a price to pay for saying since for cutting off oil we'll look at all of those and despite the tough economic times here in the u.s. there are entire counties in the u.s. where the median household incomes are six figures i guess one of the top fifteen are all around the nation's capital how's that for social welfare let's get to today's capital account.

so reports of iran cutting oil exports to europe caused quite an uproar today this is what press t.v. and iranian news network is saying now last time we checked in response to the latest sanctions imposed by the e.u. against iran's energy and banking sectors the islamic republic says it is cutting oil exports to six european countries now earlier reported the press t.v. issued a breaking news alert that iran had already cut oil exports to those six european countries now since then the iranian oil ministry denied it later reportedly said they could not confirm or deny it iran's official news agency said iran warned him of those european countries about this so a lot of confusion needless to say wall crude oil hit a six month high of nearly one hundred twenty dollars a barrel now there are fears of course that are wrong could preempt the embargo

which is going to go through july first based on what the e.u. voted into place so yeah there are consequences and costs to saying there are costs to cutting off oil maybe it's a time to take a harder look at what those consequences are we certainly want to we have dr levy here he's an authority on energy especially while he's also c.i.a.o. of lead capital management an author of this book red alert how china's growing prosperity threatens the way of american life dr levy it's nice to see you thanks for being on the show today thank you so much lorne yeah let's get straight let's get straight to this ok obviously there are concerns over iran possibly halting oil exports to europe we saw that with the reports that came out today but this is something that you have approved to begin july first already my question to you why wouldn't iran want to do this this is seems like a pretty little logical way that they would want to retaliate. well i think that

for personal i don't think it's really a grave threat i think fungible they will be able to europeans will be able to find oil in other places i think the message here is that iran is telling the world they're going to play hardball they're not going to be backed into a corner and they are not going to give in to worldwide demands that they stop their nuclear development and what really worries me is i really don't see a middle game never mind the end game as far as the west goes in dealing with this situation and iran i don't know exactly what we can do i think iran has made it abundantly clear that whatever sanctions were willing to impose they're going to power it those signals and they're going to come back strong i don't think that there's a media threat of a cutoff to europe i think even if there were we have plenty of oil in the strategic petroleum reserves both here and in europe to make up for any temporary

shortfall but. and rand i don't think can afford to stop pumping oil because their economy is in total shambles from what i hear hyperinflation a trash currency twenty percent interest rates let's get to some of these things that you're talking about more in depth when you talk about sanctions and we don't know what iran is planning as far as cutting off oil what they're going to do but does the fact that they're hinting at cutting off oil to europe at this point to show that they're not concerned about finding a customer for their oil in the past you've said that china could pick up the slack . yeah china if china someone else will pick up the slack what really worries me right now is that there are raining and rainy in the elections this year also us elections this year the economy is in total shambles it almost seems and i hope this ends well i mean there's a tremendous amount of complacency out there lauren that this is just another one of those stand offs and nothing bad will happen but you know iran is right near

saudi arabia and there's a lot of shiites in saudi arabia that are protesting now and they're very instrumental in saudi oil production and iran you know has these. these nuclear plants under the ground very very deep under the ground and it's not so easy to take them out i mean you know for whatever it's worth israel cannot take them out despite the threats it would take a massive amount of bombing and you know you know heaven forbid it might even take a nuclear device to get to those to those nuclear facilities and if that happened goodness knows i mean you're really opening up pandora's box i mean even if the west started bombing iran very aggressively. in saudi arabia are going to get very very upset extremely upset and i don't i think will be letting out of the box something that we really may not be able to control i mean the arab spring sort of

prove that i mean what's going on in syria right now what happened in egypt what happened in libya what happened in tunisia iran you know has to do something to maintain civil control but i mean they already had a battle against protesters and with an election coming up dr levy i know he had to go ahead and finish. i'm sorry. it seems to me they may almost be daring us to try something and that really really worries me well and you're talking about the worst case scenario of war which it seems like there is evidence that there could be some kind of military conflict i want to back up i want to talk about the impact of these sanctions you're saying that iran will find a customer for their oil you're saying that europe will find another place to buy their oil but we've seen oil prices rise as a result of the concerns surrounding this so what will this ichy aside from possibly higher oil prices for people in the u.s. and europe who are sanctioning iran. you know it will achieve i guess peace of

mind that iran may not be able to develop a nuclear weapon but you know frankly our options may be very very limited as far as that goes i mean higher or oil prices ironically are good for rahm right and they're terrible for the u.s. economy i mean these kinds of headwinds have been one of the reasons you alluded at the top of the show to high median incomes in this in parts of this country but overall median real incomes are back to where they were in the one nine hundred ninety s. absolutely a big reason a big reason for that have been these sky high oil prices i mean or used to trade at twenty dollars a barrel i mean yes it's down from one forty one fifty but it's still over one hundred dollars a barrel and we may be looking at four five dollars price gasoline this summer so you know high oil prices are exactly what this country doesn't need at this point and ironically will help the middle east including iran so then dr williams i'm

going to be here for a second so then what is the point these sanctions clearly for the average american or the average greek where they're in a depression poverty is a greater threat to them then whether or not iran may or may not be developing a nuclear weapon. it is you know you're absolutely right and if we are engaged in sanctions we'd better have a middle and an end game that justifies what we're doing and part of the end game should be prices returning or at least not continuing to climb and i'm absolutely not convinced that we have that middle or end game the only thing i'm convinced about is that it's going to be extremely difficult to military means to really take out the iranian nuclear facilities very very difficult so i'm not sure that we do know what we're doing and that really is what worries me the most to be very honest with you if i was convinced we had a plan that took us you know to the point where ram would be producing oil. at full

capacity again and the middle east would be relatively calm i would sleep well that night but these are not conditions like that i mean i can give you so many dire scenarios you'll have trouble going to sleep at night i mean there are a lot of plausible dire scenarios out there including our attacking iran and what that would do to the rest of the middle east including the shia population that i mentioned before in saudi arabia i mean this is no this is a huge very very big deal and when i read the press reports and i see analysts saying well you know they'll shut down the straits of hormuz for you know maybe five or ten days we'll be able to make that up with the strategic petroleum reserves i get nervous i mean no one is taking this stuff very seriously i mean we all know from reading history if your economy is in shambles one thing that gets you out of it or may get people united behind you would be a war i mean iran may be daring us to attack them or attack their nuclear

facilities. it could be that i'm not saying it is but i don't see any semblance laura none whatsoever that we've really thought this out thoroughly and that is very alarming ok sitting here in washington i. i don't want a war i don't want higher prices i think that americans support that to a majority of americans in a c.n.n. poll that just came out they don't want any kind of force against iran they want diplomatic or economic action that sixty percent twenty two percent say no action should be taken so why should average americans or europeans be forced to pay for this. they should not i mean they absolutely should not get any more involved than they already are and they should try and do this in a if you know once you put a military option on the table and i think the secretary of defense did the other day or at least he said we wouldn't take it off the table once you go down that

slope and once you actually an active military option i mean all bets are off i mean we should have learned that in the wreck i mean should we label i wish we did i wish i had assurance that we did the politicians talk about why this is all necessary and even though many people don't support it is this because these people are in an elite stratosphere where they it's necessary maybe for them for political reasons they're facing reelection or to please their constituents or or whatever but these decisions won't affect them they're not the people that are going to be crippled by higher oil prices or have their kids sent off to war for that matter. well i mean it depends how high oil prices go i mean you could make a scenario and i'm not saying it's likely or probable but it's not impossible where you know or oil prices go to any number you can pick two fifty three hundred if we do something in iran and that cripples or shuts down a rainy an oil i mean a rainy an oil is just shut down for whatever reasons and it affects saudi arabia

see that's the elephant in the room i mean everybody's looking at israel and existential threat to israel and that's serious i agree i think we should support israel with everyone in every way we can but the elephant in the room is not israel the elephant in the room right now is saudi arabia and if we attack iran just very local focused on those nuclear facilities it's going to have to be with major bombs i hope not nuclear but you cannot rule that out and you have to reason that scoring because of massive stirrings in saudi arabia i mean saudi arabia is you know it's not amusing from you know what is affected so many other arab countries in the past year or two you know the arab spring saudi arabia bought off a lot of people but that's a good point major attack on a rant. on iran lots of really good points we're totally out of time but it's really been a pleasure to talk to you a lot of really horrible scenarios it sounds like what i am glad that people are

hearing hopefully that will help avoid some of them i appreciate being on the show that was dr steven levy he is author and. capital management. and still ahead what will be the consequences of the kind of european leadership we've been seeing in greece managing the debt crisis we spoke to nigel farage about the risk of political assassinations revolution and the rise of extreme nationalist political parties but first their closing market numbers. it's the same. people calling like you said for free and fair elections. and we're still reporting from

the land where you can hear behind me loud explosions and. i mean. they gave you a. just burned your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially i i this is much stronger than anything in your bio absolutely thousands of times more stronger than any one of the harbor you ever put in your.

welcome back today was supposed to be a meeting of e.u. finance ministers to push through that bailout of greece's government this is of course after the greek parliament passed through extremely tough austerity measures while athens literally burned all around them outside and riots were going on in the streets now the greek prime minister said about that that that kind of violence had no place in a democratic country but european member of parliament nigel farage question that entire premise and european parliament today. democratic country with

a democratically elected prime minister he's been appointed by you guys agree susan read through democracy now through a choice three four decision feelings about things that until the greeks. and the troika has reportedly told greek leaders that needs more assurances and it's getting them antinous some modest an influence a very influential greek member of parliament wrote a letter to troika creditors committing himself to austerity this is after he alarmed euro zone leaders when he said he may seek to renegotiate the terms of the bailout after elections also adding insult to injury german finance minister wolfgang schauble said in a radio interview that nothing short of a techno craddick government like that of monti's in italy may be required to stem the crisis in greece great politicians are going along with creditors did.