26/12/2015 Reporters

Hello and welcome to Reporters, I'm Tim Willcox here at the

BBC's headquarters in central London.

In this special edition of the programme, we are looking

back at some of the best reports from the last year.

Jeremy Bowen reported from the front line in Damascus,

as the conflict ranged and hopes for any prospect of peace faded.

It is one thing for people, politicians who are a very long

way from here, to talk about some kind of a deal to end the war,

but viewed from the battlefield, that

At the height of the ebola outbreak, our correspondent joined

a West African Red Cross team in their grim and relentless fight

Inside the black box, as a former CIA chief told the BBC

the organisation did torture people after 9-11 and our correspondent

tried out some of the controversial interrogation

30 years after the first Back To The Future film,

our correspondent asks what predictions they got wrong

It is fuelling the world's refugee crisis and fuelling Islamic State's

brittle insurgency. The conflict in Syria than to its fifth year that is

as intense as ever. More than 250,000 people have been killed and

many have fled the country. 7 million are displaced in Syria. As

the world debates whether it's like to make a difference, diplomacy is

drowned out by the intensity of the battle on the ground. Jeremy Bowen

went to the front line in Damascus, where government and rebel positions

were just 100 metres apart. His report contains distressing images.

This man has a short drive to work. He commands a sector of the front

line that runs along a busy and Bentley 's cop-mac densely populated

area. A couple of minutes away is another man, one of the capital's

key battle grounds. These men are from the elite Republican guard.

Hundreds of yards of military positions have been carved out of

the wreckage of homes. The people who lived here escaped with their

memories and not much else. The colonel and his men said they are

patriots fighting terrorists. He rejects that they target civilians.

The claim is that more civilians are killed by the Syrian army than any

other force. This is propaganda. It is lies. We were brought up not to

harm peaceful civilians and we only kill people BBC holding a weapon

with our own eyes. -- who are holding a weapon. Close by are rebel

positions. The colonel also said that any civilians near armed rebels

must be supporting them. The army has attacked repeatedly. Its

soldiers have not been able to force the rebels further from the city

centre. The Army has the heavier weapons, they pound the suburbs held

by director 's -- held by the rebels were many civilian still live. This

is what it is light from the rebels said on the receiving end. Until the

war ends, Syria will go on exporting violence and refugees. It's shock

waves have rocked Syria's neighbours and now they are reaching Europe.

This is why half of Syria's population has fled and why millions

of parents want to get their children out of the country. Rebel

fighters launch new attacks. The war depth and flows but no side has a

decisive edge. To get one, the rebels have dug tunnels under army

positions and the Army has been blowing them up.

The war has gone underground, the Syrian army dug into this 800 metre

tunnel which it says was part of a rebel plan to attack the city

centre. If armed rebels broke through here, they could be in the

heart of the massacres in minutes. They put the sand bags there because

on the other side there are mines to stop their opponents moving up the

tunnel and what they want is for the blast to be channelled back towards

the people coming towards them. This area Republican guard officers said

it help them fight jihadists instead of funding rebel groups. What should

Britain do? Britain should stop supporting the terrorists. They are

giving the terrorists a cover to protect them. Now we are becoming

like Afghanistan. It is one thing for people, politicians are long way

from here, to talk about some kind of deal to end the war, but viewed

from the battlefield that looks further away than ever. A dynamic of

war has taken over in Syria, not politics or diplomacy. Across

Damascus, you can hear the war. Syria is that the epicentre of

Middle Eastern turmoil. Power cuts mean that the nights are dark and so

is the future. From the war in Syria to the bowler

outbreak in West Africa. Sierra Leone suffered the most where the

epidemic lasted for 18 months and killed nearly 4000 people. -- ebola

outbreak. The country was declared free of the disease in November, but

it has left a lasting legacy of fear and loss. At the height of the

outbreak, our correspondent spent some time with a team from the Red

Cross. You may find her report distressing.

The body collectors of Freetown getting ready for another harrowing

day at work. They have been doing this for months now. Beneath the

suits are teachers, students, ordinary people who are volunteering

to take on those aren't relentless fight against ebola. This is just as

important. Talking to the community so they understand why removing

bodies this way is so important. We have to tell them the dangers of

this epidemic, because people are still denying. Have to tell them

that it is real and they have to follow the principles. The team

braced themselves and head in. This man died this morning. The team had

been inside to get samples to confirm whether this was ebola, but

almost every death has to be treated as if it is ebola. If it is

confirmed, the rest of the Trinity remains at risk. -- the rest of the

community. In the next village there is a heartbreaking scene, a

three-week-old baby died late last night. Health workers say it is

unlikely to be ebola, but they cannot take any risks. It is

difficult work? It is very difficult but we have to do it. How many

bodies have you collected? Hundreds of bodies. When you go home to you

think about your day and had dreams about what you have seen? Sometimes.

Sometimes I pray before I go to bed, sometimes I think about things that

I go with my day. Another home and another body and another distraught

daughter. This man died after showing classic symptoms of Ebola.

This is the fourth body that the burial team have come to collect in

as many hours. It is the body of-year-old man. He complained of

feeling unwell over the weekend then bit last night he was dead. This is

how the PAN is at the main cemetery. -- this is how the day ends. The

baby is laid to rest with his father offering a quiet prayer.

The former executive director of the CIA told the BBC that the CIA did

torture people in detention programme set up after 9-11. It is

the first admission of its kind. The CIA has always said the

interrogation methods did not amount to torture because they had been

legally approved by the White House. Our correspondent has been

investigating the CIA interrogation techniques.

This man was snatched out of Pakistan in 2003 and taken to a

secret jail in Afghanistan. He drew us an outline of the prison. He was

heard Scott back held in the first cell and the ninth cell was the

torture room. Inside it were two boxes. The man was put into the

smallpox. You cannot imagine how small and tight the box was to put a

human being into. There were some holes on both sides and a report

things through them such as sticks. -- they would put things through

them. For the first time in public, a military trainer recreated the CIA

interrogation techniques. They adopted the techniques from a

military programme that he worked from that hot soldiers how to resist

torture. Get in the box. I agreed to be subjected to some of the

techniques to see how bad they were. This is going to be mined over

matter. After two minutes in the box it was hot and claustrophobic. I

have all my body weight on my hands because my feet hurt. Then came a

disturbing noise. Two minutes later and it was all I could take. Stop,

let me out. I lasted 12 minutes. One of the detainees was held in a box

like this for 29 hours over three weeks. The CIA detention and

interrogation programme under President Bush set up 11 secret

prisons around the world. In a series of controversial legal memos

at the time, White House lawyers approved the techniques saying that

they did not meet the definition of torture. This CIA former executive

director was asked by the BBC if you thought that water boarding and

stress positions were torture. Do you acknowledge this is torture? It

is supposed to make him as uncomfortable as possible. I am

comfortable with saying that. We were told by legal authorities that

we can torture people. This CIA water boarding procedure means that

the put people into a state of controlled drowning. They also did

this. It is called Walling. It is designed to shock and overpower the

inmate. A Senate committee condemned the CIA programme is an effective

but it says that harsh interrogations got intelligence that

stop terror plots. As America comes to terms with its past, there are

many still support what is openly called torture.

Urbanisation is changing the face of modern-day China. The government's

rebuilding programme has seen new city spin up across the country on

an epic scale and the master plan is to turn hundreds of millions of

farmers and to city workers and consumers to drive the next stage of

economic growth. For the past ten years, our correspondent has

reported on white horse Village as it transforms from a tiny farming

humidity into a huge city. -- a tiny farming community.

The transformation of White Horse Village. Part of the biggest

urbanisation in human history. It is the story of modern China. Turning

farmers into city people. A government driven plan for progress.

When we first started filming here, China was a two speed country,

wealthy coastal cities and this, subsistence farmers. Joining the

story of modern China has been a hard journey for the people of White

Horse Village. Every tower block was built on what was someone's home or

their fields. The villagers were not allowed to

stand in the way of progress. White Horse Village is now just a memory,

like thousands of other rural communities across China. A new

school for an ardent generation. Consumers that the government hopes

will fuel China's economic growth. But not everyone is a winner in the

new city. These citizens feel they have no voice. Their destinies are

dictated to them by a government that does not listen. This man has

learned to adapt to change and he has moved the family to twice to

make way for the city. He likes what he sees.

He would like to be buried up here with his ancestors. Soon a Rio --

soon a real way will be built here and the family will have to move

again. Even the dead are not immune from China's story of unstoppable

change. Finally, does the 21st of October 2015 sound familiar? That is

probably because you watch the film Back To The Future two. Hover boards

and flatscreen TVs were just some of the things that the producers and

imagined as part of their future world. Now as there sci-fi vision

arrives in our lifetime, our correspondent looked at what the

film writing wrong. -- what the film got right and what it go wrong.

About time. This is a 1981 Back To The Future DeLorean. Up comes the

wing and there is my white jackets. I will put this on so I can drive

the car. Here is the most important piece of kit on the car, the nuclear

reactor. That is powered by fuel that is vegetables and rubbish.

Inside is another vital thing which is the flux capacitor. This is

powered by the nuclear energy and it pushes the car through the sound

barrier. That is flashing away. Here we go.

It is Peter Snow. Why can he not use a bicycle like everyone else. It is

hard to steer this thing. This is the anniversary of Back To The

Future, but if the film was right we should've flying cars, hover boards

and engines powered by rubbish. It has not worked out like this.

Forecasting technology is very difficult. It is somewhat easier

than forecasting society. For example, we have forecasts from

Arthur C Clarke in which he forecast the Internet. He says that we will

have computers in our rooms and they will be connected all around the

world, which is an amazing forecast. That was exciting. Professor, click,

jumping, we have company. -- quick. I think we are being chased. We are

being chased by a green van. There may be a terrorist involved. It is

extremely exciting because we now have opened doors to working with

nano materials. Nano material is just very thin? I trust materials

that you cannot see with your eye. To have a car like this you need to

have the very fast release of energy and super capacitors are one of

those applications. There is a lot of hope in nano materials because

super capacitors require high surface area and the fast release of

energy and this is what these materials could potentially deliver.

BBC health and safety have fixed it so that this car will only go

through the town barrier at 33 mph. -- go through the time barrier.

How did they think we are at predicting the future? I think

people are terrible and forecasting the future on the whole and experts

are worse than Lehmann. If you have normal people want economic growth

is going to be like in the next five years they get it better than the

experts. They think things are going to get battered? The World Bank

announced last week that extreme poverty in the world is down to 10%

and up to 60% when I was born. We're seeing the most magnificent

improvements in human living standards and that is because of

innovation. It is because of technology and ways that we live.

There is every reason to think that preserves will continue. -- that

that process will continue. How am I meant to play that? I trust this

place will still be here when I get back.

That is all from the special addition of Reporters looking back

at the best reports of the year. For me and the team in London, goodbye.

-- from me. Sadly the weather has been quite

brittle this Boxing Day are crossed certain parts of the United Kingdom.

Heavy