welcome to Sputnik orbiting the world
with me George Galloway and meet Cathy
any deal which makes mr. Netanyahu as
mad as hell and not going to take it
anymore sounds like a deal worth
supporting and privately at least the
feudal dictatorship of Saudi Arabia is
furious to the worst reactionary
backwoodsman in the US Congress are up
in arms and their media has immediately
come to heel though Fox News
characteristically well-informed told
their audience that Obama had made a
nuclear deal with Iraq now that would be
news but that doesn't mean the deal
between the p5 plus 1 and Iran is
necessarily good in itself neither does
it mean it will be without regional
ramifications joining us now to discuss
the historic eid agreement is Muhammad
Kamali of cosmic campaign against
sanctions and military intervention in
Iran well it looks like the sanctions
are coming to an end and there's not
likely now to be a military intervention
I suppose that puts your organization
out of business well I hope so I wish I
was that optimistic I think there's
still a long way off before the
sanctions at least are actually removed
the military threats I think are largely
irrelevant now and they have been for
quite some time but the sanctions regime
is still in place it's still at least
six months before they are actually
lifted from from from the time that's
that this agreement actually enters
practice so I tell the viewers what kind
of sanctions were talking about the
sanctions were extremely comprehensive
its arranged from from a preventing Iran
from selling its petroleum its oil from
from its refineries to insurance to
banking to even some medical equipments
to it was comprehensive it was too until
he figures telecommunications recently
Aaron off from the world the TV stations
exactly there was lots of TV stations
and you know satellite channels which
which which were under the pretext that
they were actually connected to the
Iranian government they were cut off for
now so it was quite comprehensive to to
to the effect that even ordinary
Iranians which has nothing to do not
just with the nuclear program but also
nothing to do with the Iranian
government's nothing to do with any
governmental organization whatsoever
David also affected the Iranian students
for example could not transfer money
from Iran to to where they were studying
if they were studying abroad you had an
issue where a lot of patients in Iranian
hospitals could not get the medication
that they needed in time and all of that
sort of contributed to the suffering of
ordinary Iranians but at the same time I
think they after a while there came a
sense that in fact Iran should and
should continue to rely on its own
internal resources in order to overcome
those sanctions I think that's that's a
very important point that need to be
needs to be stressed because the Iranian
sort of felt that you know this is this
is how it's going to be for for quite a
while so let's let's necessity being the
mother of invention that has been the
case for Iran's military for much longer
than than the more recent sanctions for
example where a lot of a lot of efforts
that Iranians had done on military
advancements largely defensive of course
had been home drunk and and of course
the nuclear file that we discussed as
part of this agreement that's a prime
example of where the international
community kind of prevented Iran as a
sovereign country to to collaborate with
other countries which had previously
developed their nuclear programs to kind
of obtain technological advancements to
to create a program side because you're
almost prevented from that then they had
to do this on their own and that
contributed to a large-scale nuclear
program which included from enrichment
from building reactors and so on a lot
of countries for example do not even go
down the enrichment routes because they
have free access to open market
international markets they can just
precious enriched uranium of fuel for
their reactors
because Iran was precisely because he
was under sanction and it was prevented
from buying enriched uranium for its
civilian nuclear program unjustly of
course they resorted to building their
own internal indigenous law of
unintended consequences what let's look
at the political context now it's a
major failure for Netanyahu that this
deal has been reached the British
Foreign Secretary this week said
something I've never had a british
foreign secretary ever say namely that
no agreement would have satisfied israel
and stating boldly that israel wanted to
have a continuation of a state of
tension but that was not in the
interests of the region and not in
British interests a very decisive break
I absolutely between Britain and Israel
so he's mad as hell he has a lot of
friends in the US Congress how do you
evaluate their capabilities of
scuppering this deal I think the
Israelis will try the best but the kind
of maybe they are they're blind to this
maybe they simply ignore it the fact
that they have become quite irrelevant
in this in this topic I mean the first
thing that came out of the Israelis was
was that you know they they are not part
of this this deal and in itself it's
there's there's a sort of arrogance
associated with that but if you look at
it in in practice that means that they
are kind of isolating themselves inside
Iran one reads that the Revolutionary
Guard and the if you like the most Ellis
revolutionaries in Iran are not happy
what's their capability of scarring the
deal I think they are they we have to we
have to differentiate between the
rhetoric and what they do in practice
rhetoric is something you can you can
define your audience and then you know
target your rhetoric based on that but
but in practice they are absolutely
behind it and they have they have many
many times before the deal was actually
reached expressed their support of
course
it sort of expressed their red lines and
that sort of thing similar to Iran's
supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei as
well but they have been largely
supporting not just of the deal because
the final text only came out a few days
ago but but also of the negotiating team
as well and that's that's extremely
important so they put their trust in the
negotiating team and they publicly
expressed that trust rowhani's
administration also benefited in a sense
from this deal in a sense that it kind
of unified Iran's various factions from
from right to left in supporting the
deal as a national project not just a
certain outcome that that was you know a
result of rouhani's election as well so
and it's also important to realize that
this the negotiations and the deal did
not start in Vienna three weeks ago it
did not even start with the rowhani's
presidency it kind of gave it a new
momentum of course but the whole reason
why the agreement was reached I think is
is because we have a new situation in
the Middle East as a whole and in the
world in a sense where as you mentioned
the case of Israel there's a lot of a
reasonableness sort of prevailing in the
sense that's you know there's a
divergence from Israeli interest and
Western interest where a lot of
countries including the United States
have finally realized that in fact it is
not there in their interest to support
blindly support Israeli policies in the
Middle East blindly support even even
Saudi policies in the Middle East and
this is one step towards that goal that
were the United States and other
European countries as well as China and
Russia of course they kind of distancing
themselves from from Israel and the
long-term ramifications are much more
huge than their than the details of this
this this deal I think overall the deal
we could we could argue about the
details of it you know whether it is an
actual you know in Iran's actually
interest or not but in the long term I
think it's it's without a doubt a
testament to Iran's negotiating
capabilities and the new situation that
we are facing in the Middle East where
Iran has has been recognized as a major
regional player where
cannot be avoided any longer and the US
policy of supporting Israelis and Saudis
over the many decades has kind of
resulted in a situation that we see from
Isis from from from the situation that
recently and the chaos that we see in
Syria and Iraq so they are kind of
distancing themselves from from from
this and sort of moving into a new
chapter we're only at the beginning of
this new chapter says we can only remain
hopeful I think it's the right direction
if you like I was wondering indeed how
this deal is going to translate for the
daily last Iranians as well as Iran's
position in the region I think Ron's
positioning the region has already
improved quite a lot not just because of
the deer because of it the deal was a
sort of a final stamp on this but before
that because Iran's position had
improved a lot that's that's how the
deal was reached in a sense otherwise
there was there would be no way the
world powers would actually sit with
Iran and you know you had security
council resolutions where you know it
was saying that you either a dismantle
your enrichment program or these
sanctions will continue Iran not only
kept not only you know negotiated
lifting of sanctions but also kept its
enrichment program which is a very very
significant lot more trade international
Chancellor Lee I think I think even
before the deal was reached a lot of
investment firms a lot of multinationals
kind of lined up and there have been
trips to Iran more recently not actual
trade but trips sort of fact-finding how
they are going to get back into this
market it's a huge market 80 million
population it's it's a very diverse
economy unlike a lot of other countries
in in the Middle East not only oil but
also it's it's a massive country as you
know because of that diverse economy I
think there's a lot of potential for a
lot of companies not just multinationals
or small businesses to kind of
cooperating in the Iranian market as
well and there is there is a sense that
this will sort of provides Iranian
expats an opportunity to return to Iran
as well so whether they are businessmen
or i can t make some elephants
that's that's kind of an overall you
know world moment because we're running
out of time which of Iran's allies in
the region may now be ditched Bashar
al-assad has bola Hamas the
revolutionaries in Yemen under the line
will any of those now be ditched I don't
think so no I don't think so if anything
this deal is is is more reason that
Iran's positions not just with regards
to its nuclear program but in in the
middle east's have been I've been
vindicated it's it's it's a testament
that in fact those positions where
cracks in fact those who Iran supported
were actually you know had legitimate
concerns whether it is in Syria you know
it's it's a realization that the United
said recently whereas Iran has been
saying this for a long time that the
alternative to I said is as Isis exactly
it doesn't mean that I said is perfect
but it means that the alternative to use
Isis you you want to topple topple him
and his regime you know what will you be
left with I think that's that's the
practical question they ron has had from
the beginning it's it's not the free
syrian army of those sort of sort of
moderate rebels which whatever that
moderate hearty disaster I'm and uh
we've run out of time but a fascinating
tour of the horizon thanks very much for
coming on the sonic coming up after this
break it's a tale of two traitors and
they're very different punishment
Chelsea Manning and David Petraeus don't
miss it
I'll come back to Sputnik Chelsea
Manning and her WikiLeaks comrades we
attended Julian Assange's 44th birthday
party last night in the Ecuador embassy
under siege will be judged by history as
the most heroic of whistleblowers David
Petraeus whistle was blown rather by his
secret lover and for a commercial book
deal he was the former chief of the US
Armed Forces whilst Manning was a humble
foot soldier Petraeus was an immoral
cheating liar Manning an honest teller
of uncomfortable truths Manning will
probably never see daylight again
Petraeus has never spent a day behind
bars joining us now is Oliver cycles of
queer friends of chelsea manning Oliver
welcome to the sputnik tell the viewers
if you will just exactly what Chelsea
Manning is in prison for well Josie
Manning she was a private intelligence
analyst in the US Army and she was she
joined the army a very young age she was
21 22 at the time she in 2009 was
stationed in near Baghdad at Forward
Operating Base hammer as an intelligence
analyst looking she had access to two
intelligence networks while she was
there and really during her time doing
the analysis of that information and and
giving it to troops on the ground she
very quickly realized that the war was
was not as it seemed to people back in
the states and to the west rest of the
coalition countries and she was seeing
innocent people being arrested being
tortured being killed unless completely
unnecessarily and when you're behaving
like that in a country when your
military is behaving like that in
country you are not going to win hearts
and minds so she decided well she first
spoked her superiors and they told her
to get lost they weren't interested so
finally she felt she had no option
really and but to go to the New York
Times and The Washington Post approached
them with the information that she'd
she'd got from these
intelligence networks they did not
respond to her unfortunately for them
because these were the biggest really
the biggest scoop since we had Daniel
Ellsberg and with the Pentagon Papers so
they lost a big one there and
unsurprisingly after that they denied
that Josie had tried to contact them
unfortunately she was chatting to online
to a gentleman called Adrian lamo who's
an infamous hacker named for hacking
Microsoft Yahoo and the New York Times
and I think that's why Chelsea reached
out to him because she felt she was
doing something that she could only talk
to a very few people about and she
trusted him to have the hacking skills
that he knew how they could communicate
together using encrypted technology so
that Chelsea Manning wouldn't be
exposing herself unfortunately Adrian
lamo turned out to be a bit of a snitch
and turned on Chelsea he has a
reputation for being a bit of a likes
the attention of me did the media shall
we say so it's very likely to the
authorities yes for a bit of limelight
for himself because the the revelations
that she made and our collaboration with
WikiLeaks will go down in history a
man's little one in particular the
helicopter footage where the controller
says light them up and the helicopters
machine guns proceed to light up a large
number of civilians and children who are
lit up all right they are incinerated to
death for absolutely no reason yeah just
a kind of shooting range yeah i mean i
look like a video game yes exactly not
an issue i mean i've played those kind
of video games with friends together in
a house and exactly the same kind of
language is being used yell it's let's
get them you know but and but there for
them that's real life you know but
they're treating Eliza
making real death and you know that
collateral murder video is was really
one of the deciding moment for Chelsea
when she saw that because 12 people were
killed in that action two children were
seriously a young girl was shot in the
stomach and it was because really they
that this Apache helicopter that saw
them was a mile away they can really see
anything they mistook a camera bag of
one of the Reuters journalists for a gun
they didn't even bother to try and get
close and get proper confirmation
incidentally one of the first Army
soldiers on the ground to arrive at the
scene came across this just absolute
carnage a chap called Ethan McCord saw
that saw what happened saw this girl
with her you know half a stomach blown
away and this has destroyed his life he
shortly afterwards tried to commit
suicide while he was in the military he
was discharged given no help whatsoever
went home with fantasies of killing his
own family became a serious alcoholic
and again tried to kill himself what
feel me but they haven't filled chassis
she's writing now absa for she's got you
yep she said got net op head in Guardian
she publishes every few weeks and I
really recommend people read her stuff
it's fascinating gives you an insight
into what she's going through as a trans
women in a male you know military prison
um why why they got are still in the
mill militarist and to be honest that's
not one of the things I've known that
she's requested to be moved into a
female prison I know that she she wanted
the holman hormone replacement therapy
to begin and this is a first for the US
military this is something they have
denied all trans people who had been
held by the military they've refused
them treatment cuz he's in a military
presence of all right yeah because if
she was in a kind of state prison she
would get this treatment is she in
solitary
in that wasn't no she when she was first
being held this is pretrial conditions
before she was the troll came to take
place this is during 2011 she was held
for about 11 months at Quantico Marine
base and the condition she was kept in
work were absolutely awful I mean she
was she was put on suicide watch and was
woken up every five minutes this is 24
hours a day every five minutes someone
would open the hatch and say are you
okay and Chelsea would have to respond
yes I'm okay and that would happen 24
hours a day every five minutes there was
all lights were left on all nights 24
hours she had to get up at 5am go to bed
at ten a.m. Oh 10pm sorry and during the
day she was not allowed to lie down she
could only really stand or sit she told
a crime to people right draw does she
receive mill yep she's a Fort
Leavenworth now in Kansas and it's
possible to write to her if you go to
the Bradley Manning support network
website they like cake you later the
address because they dress has sometimes
change states worth worth keep I think
that's a good idea everyone should do
that let's all send our solidarity
messages to chelsea manning Fort
Leavenworth prison she is serving 35
years yeah whilst David Petraeus who was
the head of the whole shooting that he's
a he's a four-star general and also
joins her if they're exactly the CIA he
got two years probation I mean if either
of them are traitors he's a much bigger
traitor and his betrayal was for
commercial or sexual purposes yeah got
two years probation that must be very
hard for you to take yes and as well
because before Chelsea Manning was
convicted there was there's a record
quite famous recording of president
obama fundraiser saying that chelsea
manning is guilty and you know this is
completely illegal for him to
because he's to judge the kids its kind
of and that's exerting pressure maybe
you know the judge has seen this and
think so well that you know he's the
president of United States if I want my
career to go anywhere and maybe I should
make sure that his his judgment becomes
the judgment and Petraeus Obama again
said you know oh you know there's not
have enough evidence to prove that
betrayus as he's well known now as
various yes and damaged national
security any in any way in incidentally
robert gates former defense secretary
said that Josie Manning had not damaged
national security would not change US
foreign policy and if anything had just
embarrassed the US thats thats aspetta
cuz that's the truth of it but
embarrassment on a on a global and
gigantic skill yeah and if they're not
embarrassed doesn't isn't the half of it
shin ought to be the natural response of
any decent person in the united states
yeah yeah this was being done in their
name using their tax dollars and in
pursuit of their foreign policy goals
now tell us about a queer friends of
Chelsea Manning it's an unusual name 1
i'm glad to be associated with but tell
us about it well we set up in a light
2010 really and the aim really was too
because at the time Chelsea was you know
known as formerly known as Bradley
Manning a gay man so we said we set this
up to kind of really raise the profile
of chelsea in the in the queer community
so we were attending and has that worked
as there a deal of sympathy uh we've
noticed as the years progressed that
there is much more sort of awareness the
first couple of years we were doing a
london prior manchester pride and going
to various events that a lot of people
are asking well who is who is this
person we don't know but now you know we
went on london pride we're now getting
huge cheers very few people are asking
whoo-hoo chelsea manning is so it's
really working and the word is getting
out there and thanks to thanks to you
and Artie Sputnik that and they sat on
our it's our honor to host you and the
campaign and we'll make sure the contact
details are on the screen Oliver stick
thanks very much and now it's your turn
to tell us what you think through the
portals of social media what's rattling
Gayatri so Iran deal or no deal arch
mall abdul-jabbar answers it's a mixed
bag I believe it's more about us
interest dollar sign in Iran's national
resources all know however a good deal
and twit perene says we believe that a
deal will be a win-win and no deal will
just delay in waste efforts of all okay
and when it comes to chelsea manning vs
Petraeus or betrayus Clara contra says
Chelsea's 35 years are a badge of honor
for her and a disgrace to us SS Petraeus
two years probation and takes answers
Manning Jill's for exposing
mass-murdering heroes in US Army cocky
alright that's all we've got for this
week which alas means that's the end of
the show stay in touch with us on
twitter at RT underscores picnic on
facebook let's put Nick on Russia today
goodbye from me Gayatri I'm from me
George Galloway it's been marvelous
you