For power in the world of big Sports League team el suggest american officials were allegedly pushing for the world antidoping agencys independence from olympic chiefs so they could unilaterally apply punitive measures. A very warm welcome youre watching r. T. International with me they keep good to have you with us this hour now the u. S. Army is looking for help to access and responds to foreign social media platforms with a system so sophisticated it can even understand and use land are to discover the ads online the Software Needs to interpret the sentiment within a social media post on distinguish between negative and positive false the russian and. Korean are among the languages targeted they must translate from them and back to them the pentagon wants replies to retain the original tone their request comes from the United StatesArmy Intelligence and security command well lets not discuss this interesting slide with our guest for m i five Intelligence Officer listener sean thank you for coming on the program for is what do you think the need would be for such software. Well obviously. The most obvious interpretation would be that this is a pushback against the allegations that have been made consistently for the last eighteen months about socalled russian troll forms influencing elections across the west and its interesting to see that the languages that theyre advertising for are the blog which of iran and of course north korea and russia so that would be a bit of a sort of give away about which countries they want to be targeting having said that though the timing is interesting because for sure the west has been running these socalled troll farms against other countries as well for a long time so are they just trying to expand their operations by developing this new software or are they trying to disingenuously suggest to people that actually have done it before only the big bad russians the big bad chinese have run troll farms and theyre beginning to develop the software so i think its an interesting question for i would say as well personally the first time i became aware of the concept of troll farms and astroturfing which is creating fake grassroots movements commenting on line was over a decade ago and that was actually coming out of israel so all our countries do this. Was a big mystery isnt it where there is such software would be threats or whether it would be for snooping what do you think. I think its one to try and influence peoples attitudes certain issues of course so that can potentially be a threat i mean. Its what americans been saying about the socalled russian hacking of the American Election last year but yes it can be used for snooping too and interestingly it was only a couple weeks ago i think that we can leaks revealed a program. From d. C. H. Q. Which is the u. K. Government Communications Headquarters are listening post which was actually doing the same sort of trolling and developing the same sort of software between the years two thousand and nine two thousand and ten so britain certainly has been doing exactly the same thing for almost a decade as well. And this request it comes from the United StatesArmy Intelligence and security command which collects intelligence for combat operations so how would this new software be useful in that respect. Well i mean we know that america has this. Kill this that is signed off by the american president every Tuesday Morning where they can go out and target a socalled terrorist suspects across north africa across central asia across the middle east and take them out with drone strikes there is no due process there is no rule of law and this is just what the intelligence agencies assessed to be problematic people who might well be involved in terrorist attacks attacks in the future and they are assessed natives and weve seen this Drone Program take out whole villages Village Councils wedding parties right across great swathes of the planet so theyre beginning to use this new algorithmic software in this way that can potentially target people i think people need to be even more frightened across creates with the planet. As you said before you know the u. S. Has continually accused russia of using bots and trolls on trees to influence us on social media isnt this just an attempt to do exactly the same and it is that we see in double standards here. Of course double standards as i said up at the front of this interview wonderfully just expanding a preexisting program so if you see h. Q. In the u. K. Has been doing this since. Two thousand and nine theres no doubt that the n. S. A. In america will have been doing the same sort of thing so they might might just be trying to recruit and expand an existing program or they might be disingenuous or trying to indicate that of course theyve never done it before but theyre having to do it now in response to the so called russian troll farms and these regional ponds or whatever so its interesting timing particularly after we hear revealing what shes been getting up to very interesting thanks for that and initial information my five Intelligence Officer thanks a lot. Now video has surfaced online allegedly showing a u. S. Service member taking a shot at a passing truck in afghanistan the incident was seen among a number of clips edited together which were uploaded and later deleted by an Anonymous User this helmet camera footage shows the person firing from a military vehicle at the camp of a truck it was passing its not known whether anybody in the truck was injured the action is confirmed violates military rules of engagement and how the us Afghan Alliance the video is believed to have been filmed last year during an anti eisel operation in eastern afghan province according to the u. S. Central command an investigation into the case is that under way weve requested further comment and well bring you updates as soon as we get when. Ok lets fossilised to our second guest of the day now mr Charles Shoebridge a security expert and former u. K. Counterterrorism Intelligence Officer thank you for coming on the program mr shubrick now unconfirmed at this point could those actions by the u. S. Servicemen be justified in any way. Well the short answer is yes they could be but that doesnt say they are justified i speak as a former army officer as well of course actually taken part in military operations and of course you have to look at what the context of this is this isnt to defend whats happened here it appears indefensible but this is a nine second clip and we have to acknowledge that we dont know what happened before this video clip and we dont know what happened afterwards its difficult to see what could justify this just what appears to be an act of bravado an act of assault really on this person whos driving this truck but it may be conceivably for example this truck perhaps even inadvertently went through a checkpoint for example and this is one way to bring that vehicle to a halt we just dont know without more but certainly on the face of it it appears to be just a very casual disregard of the feelings and indeed the safety of people involved in countries such as afghanistan and weve seen elsewhere of course that plays right into the hands of groups such as isis alqaeda and of course the taliban who want to rid their countries in this case afghanistan of american troops so its a propaganda Information Warfare catastrophe if you like for the u. S. Regardless of the circumstances and i should out of course that from a technical perspective when you slow down the video here you can see that its very likely that this was a shock and it was being used and it was being used to fire up quite probably nonlethal rounds thats to say. The pellets or plastic pellets Something Like that but nonetheless extremely dangerous and extremely foolhardy act to undertake if confirms what sort of impact do you think that an incident could have on u. S. Afghan time. But it just demonstrates this resource so often in iraq with far more we dont know the outcome of this video in terms of what the effect on a truck driver was he may have crashed later on he may have even never known to actually he was being opened fire on from the passengers truck he could have thought perhaps a stone was kicked up and smashed his window. But unfortunately this situation is that i think that the fact in this case for example you say or we suspect that this video was shot on operations in afghanistan its surprising i think to anybody its taken partly its kind of operations that this soldier would even have his weapon loaded with what is effectively an anti riots ammunition because it would be useless if that against taliban or isis attacking them that suggests of course that this ammunition has been loaded into this weapon specifically to target vehicles and afghans in this way and that in turn might suggest that this is far more common occurrence than this one video would suggest and that means that there are really problems as we know as we saw in iraq for example especially with private military contractors live little ammunition was being used just against iraqi civilians in a very similar way and the effect on relationships with the local population and the governors of those populations and of course the intelligence agencies of the afghan state and so on is catastrophic because americans of course american troops say that they are in this country to protect the afghan population and theyre in their interest in advancing democracy and so on all of the reasons that are put out why american troops are in these countries but for propaganda purposes this is a gift to isis the taliban and so on who which say that actually americans are there oppressive conquerors and occupiers and dont have the interests of their local population at heart and of course you point out and people would say what this soldier be happy. If that had been done to his father or his brother driving a truck in United States and of course the answer to that is obvious chaucer bridge security expert and former u. K. Counterterrorism Intelligence Officer thank you for your time. And we can exchange has been granted an ecuadorian id card and what some are seeing as an attempted step towards ending his five year confinement in the countrys London Embassy arties laura smith has the details but after a while of nothing no movement from inside the Ecuadorian Embassy theres been a series of developments in the last twenty four hours really and i saw a photograph of himself in an ecuadorian football shirt which gave rise to a lot of speculation about what that could mean he generally doesnt do things unless they mean something and then we saw reports surfacing from quito which said that he had received a National Identity number so hes been entered into the tax register essentially which is something that will only happen to citizens of ecuador through the strong suggestion is that from this National Identity number he will then possibly get a passport we went onto the streets of quito to see how people that felt about it because he does need human rights support and i think thats what the government will give him there is also a health issue because we know hes enclosed in a very small space there are many things that cross my mind is he healthy enough to stay there the muslim middle of the first is to use a refugee policy and support him in this way this follows a statement earlier this week from the foreign minister of ecuador saying that the situation of our sons living here in the embassy is unsustainable and asking for the first time for a third Party Mediator either another country or another person to see if they could help to resolve this issue with a person cant live in those conditions forever. Were considering the option of mediation. Of said that could be done fire resistant country or individual. No solution is. Without International Corporations or without that if the u. K. Which has expressed interest in finding one and its no wonder that she wants a resolution because of course its been five and a half years since our phones first went into the embassy behind me course there have been developments in his case along the line most notably possibly last year we didnt drop the investigation into that sex allegations against him but the u. K. Authorities still say that if he sets foot outside this embassy they will arrest him because he of course jumped bail when he went into the embassy and wiki leaks still fears and on which extradition to the United States so what were seeing ecuador making moves quite concerted moves to try and resolve the situation but the u. K. Government still remains intractable on the issue even after all this time its very unclear when and what will be the ending of this. The u. K. Foreign office has refused a request from i could or to grow into a stones diplomatic immunity and a letter to r t the f c o stressed it would not discuss the matter except to say the case would only be resolved if a thong leaves the embassy and faces justice we spoke with wiki leaks supporter clarke starkly who believes there is no legitimate reason a song should feel the need to remain in the Embassy Sweden has dropped its investigation completely the u. S. Apparel has. It was completely arbitrary and unlawful detention and so and thats been going on for almost two years now but theyve said that and for this to continue on this is only costly for the one Police Department and is futile its theres no good reason it seems now that the only reason that they would continue to. Keep signs in the embassy is for fear that he would be extradited to the u. S. Well later this hour ecuador will hold a press conference on the case of Julian Assange and well be bringing you that live so do stay with us for that. Iraqs Security Services are forcing refugees to leave camps and return to their homes that despite them being in unsafe areas as according to a new report by the Un Refugee Agency is says more than thirteen thousand families have been forced back to dangerous thoroughness those who returned faced a whole host of problems from tribal conflicts to booby traps left by fleeing Islamic State fighters the report also says at least fourteen people have been killed as a result of these forced returns we spoke to refugees in a camp about their fears of going back home. We moved to this camp three years ago we dont want to return to our home yet were afraid of tribes our houses are destroyed we have no place to live the fields with it houses a looted even the ones are torn out of the walls ms lots of booby traps five days ago our neighbors there started to find some water something went off and now their kids are in hospital is so scary that. There are very few people from a village who returned home theres nothing left there no electricity and water supply doesnt work we may return in the future but only when the area would be suitable for moving. The iraqi Prime Minister has denied refugees are being forced to return to unsafe areas he says its misinformation spread by his political rivals. Lets further discuss this now with our guest cross live to you doesnt mean car oxfam deputy country director in iraq and welcome to the program mr min car now what do you make of this u. N. Report which claims the iraq your thirtys are conducting large scale forced returns of internally displaced people to dangerous areas can you sources on the ground confirm this. Well its very difficult to confirm the report was what we see but there are definitely trends of many people going back to areas where services are not provided. And many other International Organizations has been have been asking. Government and all of the actors to make sure that the return is dignified informed and voluntary that suki asked by the International Humanitarian organizations to the government and all of the security and military actors because things that return of the displaced population need to be informed voluntary dignified and most importantly equipped or going to impart a little with basic services being provided in the areas of return. Among other things is claims that baghdad is best trying to secure a favorable result in the upcoming election in may do you think that this could be the case. Well oxfam is a humanitarian organization the work we do on the ground the engagement was a community is is heavily focused on the needs the observation of the political environment for for us is based on the facts and of. Announcements and position made by the different Political Parties of the government so im afraid i cant really get into a speculation of what would be the reason behind. What what what your what youre calling to be presenting for being used for political ends or look toward an interest and a stand and you work with people on the ground can you tell us more about what the main dangers are that people have faced thing when they were turning home to their homes in iraq. Well many of these areas have been have been controlled by isis many of these areas have witnessed. Military operations so very major risk is the unexploded ordinance is the improvised explosive devices that could have been put by isis or any other or any other group involved in the in the fighting but the key danger that the feel of people being attacked by. Sleeping isis or or people who are affiliated with isis and wants to do to do it eventually positions after the military operations concluded by. Limiting the presence of visible presence of isis in the majority of the. Territories of you know. The largest the architect italys we spoke to some people you maybe you heard earlier in our in our program who are living in a in camps and are terrified to return home because they fear tribes they say their village has been flattened theres no electricity no fields nothing there for them they are dead they dont want to go home how much time will it take before their homes are livable again. Well thats a very difficult question to to to answer its definitely going to take extensive time the reconstruction work need to start as soon as possible and thats something that the Iraqi Government would need to lead but wouldnt be able to fund and maintain and operate on its own the level of destruction in most of the areas which were which were under isis control and following the military operations have witnessed heavy destruction homes demolished areas where the basic services are not functional water elec to the city or scars or at least with the with the very basic supply so its a long process a solution is needed we look forward and we hope that the kuwait conference which is planned in info