Censors conservative view. Documents weve obtained it raised serious questions about whether these companies are neutral platforms for publishers with an editorial agenda. Watching or 2 international bring your line news update from our studio here in moscow welcome to the program. First we start with breaking news this hour as wiki leaks cofounder Julian Assange will not face a full u. S. Extradition hearing until february of next year a protest against his possible extradition is currently under way in front of westminster my guest rates court in london stateside songe faces more than 175 years in prison for publishing classified documents we go straight now to our tease saudia edwards dusty for more on this shes outside the courthouse for us. What is happening there right now. Well it really was crunch time for you in the sun just this extradition request was being hurt here at Westminster Magistrates Court though he was given a glimmer of hope he will not face the full extradition until february of next year and 2020 its understood that a 5 day hearing will take place at a later date off to february the 24th which his lawyers have agreed to that timetable now of course it to follow indeed yesterday the u. K. s home secretary such as shafiq signing that crucial order that paves the way for this edition of procedure now he believes that this was the skewing the right course of justice but protesters and activists here outside westminster much to say school think that this is not the course of justice in fact completely goes against justice and simply they believe that this is the gangs freedom of expression. Prize in that there are more journalists here come. To me Investigative Journalism is under now we should be released and i think this know enough people will realize this is such an attack im freezing the race and also just to do everything for the right of us to know whats going on the things that he exposed the american model machine thats what we should be checking for june an essential because the global peace prize was one where you let it be expose a little lot of crimes of the state. So well today it might be slightly more symbolic in terms of laying out the procedures and the very next step it does actually set the ball rolling towards extradition to the United States for 2 innocent we know in the United States theyve been directed to on to 17 counts under the espionage act for. Classified documents related to the iraq war on the war in afghanistan but also one of conspiracy to hack a government computer to actually these secret classified documents now if found guilty he would pick. Invicta been facing a prison sentence of over 175 years behind bars and while some say his crimes his socalled alleged crimes are for whistle blowing and indeed producing enough still Security Risk and threat many say that he will not face a fair trial in the United States and thats an opinion thats been held also by the wiki leaks editor in chief. I do believe that we are going to win this with legal arguments there is no chance that julian will get a fair trial here in the u. K. Or in the u. S. Of course unless theres a change of reporting that people actually start speaking out were not talking about a prosecution were talking about a persecution. Opposed to an assault or start back into the public on earlier this year in april when he was pulled out of the Ecuadorian Embassy by British Police he was for a long amount of time in fact 2 and a whole 1000 days which is the sum amount of 7 years in that confinement he was of course seeking political asylum that he then moved to belmarsh prison where he was serving out his 50 week sentence for skipping fell in 20 trials now this is actually a video from inside that belmarsh prison that was obtained by our right for me which is the video agency and in this footage you can see your innocence looking someone may see it didnt get it so its known that hes not a dramatic amount of weight not something that his father has voiced concerns of earlier this week and we know that he was also sent to the medical ward in a prison that but on top of all of this is not just the United States wants to decide hes also wanted for swedish prosecutors for allegations of Sexual Assault something of course good asuncion selfimage need to know i think he also believes its a pretext to extradite him to the United States now i am actually joined now by somebody who was inside that courtroom its a leading journalist patrick headings and hes also the editor in chief of 20. A full century why a project thank you very much for joining us can you just bring us up to speed about what happened in the courtroom today mainly today this was a procedural hearing so nothing was decided or say the state laid out its case in terms of the extradition order from the United States and said that technically the u. S. Actually dition order is in order and everything is in compliance as far as the British State is concerned so that was established and then the schedule is laid out so that the key dates Going Forward are going to be the Case Management hearing on october 21st and this is where theyre going to lay out whats going to happen over the next 10 or 12 weeks and youre very very very well so and after that this could stretch into the end of february so in the United States also has dates in which it must present all of its evidence as well in terms of the extradition so of the defense is asking for more time because of the complexity of this case and joining us on himself made the comment via video link that he hasnt even read the full indictments yet mind you theyve only just received the documents from the us only yesterday but hes and hes has to have documents posted to him according to julius on himself see all the see if hit by if they did lengthen how is he looking what is healthy looking like at the moment i would say his health looks physically vastly improved there was a video that was leaked online a couple we last week or 2 weeks ago where he was underweight severely underweight he has gained some weight back his is hair was home to well he has a beard so he looks like hes put on a little bit of weight mentally hes compas meant to still though he was struggling i think to hear what the court was saying and process everything so in such a short space of time and so yeah so physically better mentally hes clearly been under some duress you can tell hes not his fluid. Self not so quick on his feet as usual but i think thats because he was trying to process everything that was coming through this small video pipeline so many concerns the activist jenison campaign is have is that he will not face a photon in the United States what are your comments on that. Theres certainly a strong argument to be made it didnt seem like the British Government was going to contest the us claims today because its a procedural hearing and it doesnt look like theyre going to be in objections the home secretary has signed the extra destroyed effectively rubber stamped and what that means is that the government has already put its cards on the table it will not stand in the way of the court if the court rules to extradite Julie Saunders to america so theyve theyve made theyve established their political position early the British Government has so whether thats going to be to their advantage or not Going Forward remains to be seen because theres still some more discovery more arguments are going to be made possibly witnesses or evidence going to be submitted during this process as it goes into 2020 or so the governments are the sort of state disposition this particular government so whether that was a wise move or not strategically but its also going to put pressure on the judiciary as well oh theyve already rubber stamp that decision and just finally as a meeting jennas yourself what does this mean for the freedom of expression not just here but internationally this this this issue is absolutely pivotal in terms of freedom of the press this is a universal issue not just in america not just in britain but universally because the United States is effectively exerting universal jurisdiction over non us citizens non us Media Outlets do doing something that journalists do every day which is to get classified information in the which is in the Public Interest and to publish it and the United States is saying this is a crime internationally and we will exert international universal jurisdiction and hunt down to apprehend detain and pull to the us to extradite people. Were not even u. S. Citizens for this crime of exposing flaws in u. S. National security or embarrassing the United States or as the government said today when it read out the case putting you know lives at risk of u. S. Agents human intelligence and so forth all of these things that are quite arbitrary accusations so the United States is trying to make the claim that this harm has somehow been done or even hypothetically been done because there is no evidence thats ever been brought forward right back to the case of Bradley Manning no Chelsea Manning that any u. S. Agents were harmed in the field the u. S. Government had plenty of opportunities to bring some of the evidence forward during that military case trial with with manning and they didnt all they brought forward was hypotheticals you know and this is going to be a big big fundamental problem with the u. S. Case stock toy its very impressive in terms of its size but its really its relying heavily on reframing and redefining julius on as a a spy a cyber terrorist and not a journalist and wiki leaks as a hostile Foreign Intelligence Agency and not a media outlet that reframing is essential in how the u. S. Is presenting this case against the songs with you lou thank you very much for joining us thinking about as you can see here out west this of Magistrates Court many people often said the case the way to an associate being treated i said will have very specific concerns about whats to come next. Arties sharia edward stasi outside westminster mike straights court joined by him Patrick Henningsen there they keep both. Americas claim that iran attacked 2 oil tankers in the gulf of oman has had doubt cast on it and there washington presented a video of what it claimed were iranians removing an unexploded mine from one of the vessels the tanks owner though says that his crew reported flying projectiles hitting at. More than a good day with the crew say they were hit by a flying object we dont think it could have been a bomb attached to the boat. As mentioned the u. S. Military Central Command has released a video showing what it claims is an Iranian Military patrol boat removing an unexploded mine from one of the tankers. Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani has accused the u. S. Of destabilizing peace and security in the middle east secretary of state mike pump said washingtons assessment that iran is culpable was based on intelligence adding that no one else in the region had the capacity to carry out such an attack Islamic Republic of iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the gulf of oman no proxy Group Operating in the area has the resources and proficiency to act with such a high degree of sophistication. Over the last 2 years the u. S. Has been implementing an aggressive approach violating International Law and using its financial and military clout this poses a serious threat to the region and to Global Security the Iranian Foreign minister is a brand of the claim that iran is behind the attacks sabotage diplomacy the u. S. Has a sense that missile destroyers to the region there on denies any involvement in the attacks and has questioned the timing of the incidents and reports. So there were 2 tankers that were hit. Really hard to get a vote on but i want to know. From one of them to from both of you to. Your brothers and i want company here to go and hes been pretty quiet garners your. Own group of everybody the book by the book the doc was good as civil but that appeared in the system when the did it will get on the. Lets go over the facts now the 1st one belongs to John Frederick so hes a long time norwegian trading partner of iran his relationship with iran goes back to the 1980 s. One biography even refers to him as the ayatollah as lifeline so at a time when washington is using all kinds of pressure to try and stop or running an oil exports it really doesnt make sense for iran to then lash out and attack one of its oldest friends now the 2nd oil tanker to be hit is even more interesting this is a japanese owned chemical tanker and it was hit at the same time that japans Prime Minister shinzo ave was in tehran meeting with irans Supreme Leader is that. Iran from the ancient times of the persian empire into the present day has been the great country of the middle east and will remain so i mean the future so were to believe that at the time that iran was making nice with japan while japan was helping them to find ways to help their oil exports keep flowing despite us. Sanctions that iran then turns around and decides to bomb a japanese vessel in fact iran has been rather nice to the United States in the last few days a us resident who is charged with espionage was just released as a gesture of goodwill so why would they then choose this moment to fire tar paedos in the gulf of oman the Iranian Foreign minister judge and zarif is describing these events as suspicious reports of the tax on japan related to time cues occurred while pm was meeting with ayatollah for extensive and friendly talks suspicious doesnt begin to describe what likely transpired this morning while iran is struggling to keep its nuclear deal intact and keep its economy afloat by selling its most prized resources on the International Market like bomb peo would have us believe they then flipped out and torpedo their 2 key Business Partners now why exactly would iran do that well because theyre the bad guys of course dont ask too many questions caleb mop and r. T. New york iran says it sent a group of experts to check whether its safe for the rescue crew to return to the tankers the 2 vessels caught fire and one of the worlds key oil routes in the strait of hormuz is the only way in and out of the gulf the incident prompted the oil prices to surge tehran has threatened to shut the waterway in response to the u. S. And waivers on Iranian Oil Imports last month for oil vessels that were sometimes near the same strategic straight back then the u. S. Also pointed the finger at iran and sent an Aircraft Carrier group last bombers to the region and may iran said it would renege some of its commitments under the nuclear deal unilaterally abandoned by the u. S. After washington impose sanctions this escalation sparked fears of a confrontation but both nations say they do not want to war. Lets get some reaction now from a presser affirmation by our president of the Jerusalem Institute pursuit strategy and security now the japanese crew paint a very different picture to what the u. S. Is. Saying which version do you find more possible. Its difficult to say we dont have the fact is americans will produce some evidence. Of course its likely that the iranians have sabotaged the ships because. They are under american pressure. Change strategies they dont want to outwait president. And feelings of poor shows they try to. Impress americans that they have some nuisance value and they can do trouble. In order to affect the flow of an important strategic commodity like oil weve had harsh words from both the us and iran over this situation do you see this escalating further. I dont think neither side really wants an escalation but possibility of making a mistake or miscalculation and then one of the sites. Decide to use more false and then well see a military complication between the United States and iran. Do you think that the role can be confident theyll be an independent investigation into what really has happened here. Im not sure that any investigation will really be able to come out was it was a clear result basically as our suspicions against the iranians which of course create additional tensions between the United States and iran and well see what follows. Now this of is of course the 2nd incident involving oil tankers in the region as of late do you think that the 2 are likely connected. It is very possible it seems to me that even hes signaling the west xit eat despite the fact that they can open the whole movie states if they are in south closing it means im able to buy. To not be able to bypass whole new straits and this is why weve seen actions. Since it is a gulf of oman is well it is in a pipeline going form northeast saudi arabia to the red sea so t