rain into puerto rico. >> welcome to al jazeera i'm john siegenthaler here are the headlines. the senate foreign relations committee is giving president obama the go ahead for a limited strike against syria. the resolution would limit any action to 60 to 90 days and prohibit u.s. troops on the ground in syria. two democrats voted against it. house speerp john boehner will not be meeting with diplomats, not clear if the diplomats will try to meet other members of congress. army private bradley manning who now wants to be called chelsea

wants opresidential pardon. the white house said last month his request will be considered like any other. manning is serving a 35 year sentence for the biggest leak of u.s. secrets in history. walmart did not meet the worker demands by labor day. are to reinstate the workers after a walk out in june. those are the headlines, i'm john siegenthaler. america tonight is next, you can catch the latest news on aljazeera.com. eastern time. >> on america tonight. an uphill battle. team obama one step closer to getting support for a strike on syria. >> this is an imperfect situation.

there are no good options here. >> also ahead. america tonight's special contributor, soledad o'brien in a rare interview, with jeanne claude duvalier. >> we were called the pearl of the antilles. you could walk around port o prince without being assaulted. >> is the navajo nation selling its soul ? good evening and welcome to america tonight.

i'm joie chen. thank you for being with us. president obama continued his long slog forward this time in sweden. pressing his strike against syria on the world image santa. meanwhile, he sent his top military men to do battle with congress on capitol hill. where the sell seems most difficult is with the american people. it risks damaging america's credibility if it doesn't get behind his plan. but the secretary of state and defense flanked with the joint chiefs chairman, what the administration's administration's end game really is. tom reno drilling chuck hagel. >> it has to be the business because you're making decisions to go into war and put american lives at risk.

so it's a simple concept. you either trust or do not trust. >> the calendar continues to tick. the senate plans to come into session on friday. john boehner says he will vote in favor. the resolution could be taken up in the house as early as next week. but even in the wake of two grueling days of administration testimony before two grueling panels, they are not satisfied with the answers quite yet. >> this is a civil war going on as i've previously said. really you've got bad guys on both sides. >> there are no good guys on this, you've got al qaeda on one side an iran and hezbollah as well as russia so where are the good guys and who is in control if we do have a regime change? >> i came here with an open mind

to hear the argument of why we should strike syria. and still the administration has failed to tell me the direct threat to the united states of america. >> those doubts reflect the skepticism outside the beltway as well. sheila macvicar, constituents who are unified against the president's plan. >> the part of upstate new york that locals call the northern country, that's the district of republican congressman tom reed. representative reed has spent the last two days hosting a series of town halls, what he calls listening sessions, to hear what his constituents have to say. i caught up him in the town of oleon. >> i want to listen to the people in the district. i want to get your input because i truly believe to represent this district in washington you

need olisten to people. >> the average american people, the regular joes out there. and janes, i think we have a better sense of where this country needs to go in this situation. we're sick to death of wars. and we're going to get ourselves embroiled in this. you need to start listening, and i think you're doing it, listen to the american people don't listen to the bozos of the nsa and the state department. we're not going to get taken care of by lobbing missiles into some second world country. keep us out of war. >> if you want to get elected next september, go ahead and vote for this. i will see to you you have a primary fight if you stick to this. >> all in favor of authorizing the use of force in syria please

raise your hand. all opposed to military force in syria, raise your hand. >> unanimous vote there, joie. in other districts across the united states people who are coming forward and meeting with their congressmen, having these open sessions are finding people very impassioned and very concerned about what the united states might find itself in if a resolution is passed and military action was carried out against syria. >> is there much sympathy for people in syria who have been involved in chemical attacks glm there is a lot of sympathy. people i talked to today suggested they didn't know who was responsible for that attack. but there is this very strong sense of war weariness. we are at the end of two very long wars and that is reflected in those communities. former military service

personnel and where there are families who have active service members now in their families. >> sheila macvicar our correspondent following up. thanks so much. we'll hear more from congressman reed. he's going to try odecide how he should vote. last night al jazeera's investigative unit are brought us a report on the special mission on benghazi, libya, four americans were killed including the ambassador christopher stephens, last night the investigation, josh bernstein broke this story and joins us again tonight. josh what have you heard in the aftermath of your reporting? >> joie, it is a highly critical report, a spokesperson has declined our repeated requests for comment. he would only say that the report is currently under review. >> the

29-page report faults the u.s. department of state for a lack of accountability in exposing department glows to an unacceptable amount of risk. we caught up with secretary of state john kerry as he was preparing to testify before congress. >> mr. secretary do you have an opportunity to answer questions about this report? >> not right now. >> are you concerned about diplomatic facilities in places like beirut currently don't meet security standards? lives are being put at risk. >> the report highlights systematic security failures within department of state. waivers have become commonplace. every facility had an immediate need for an intelligence analyst and previous security recommendations had been largely irg in order. a five member panel recommends the department create a new position to

oversee diplomatic security. >> i just don't think that is needed. >> but that recommendation has been met with criticism by a former ambassador who served in libya and was personal friends with chris stevens who was killed in the benghazi attacks. >> how many decisions have to be made at the undersecretary level, i think the state department has are more than enough undersecretaries now. high threat areas like beirut are still not up to code. >> given the current situation in syria how important is diplomatic security in places like beirut? >> security is very important. if they are not meeting standards after 30 years that's terrible. >> the report concludes the department needs to undergo a cultural shift. if not lives will remain at risk. the ambassador raises a curious

point, too many security gets in the way of diplomacy, these ambassadors and their employees need to get out in the field, meet with assets, meet with sources in the field. if they can't leave the embassy they can't do their job. >> but clearly the panel has to disagree, josh. the. >> they do, pluses anden minuses to that. the ambassador says that intelligence features tend to be myopic. if the diplomacy can't take place they can't do their jobs and foreign officers understand the risks. >> and the point that he made about the inman report from 30 years ago, that didn't produce response. how would this report make real change? >> and that's the panel's concern. the panel's concern is that they will take this report and then they'll implement something but then it fades away.

>> josh bernstein thanks so much. exclusive report here. when america tonight returns baby doc is back. america tonight's special reporter pm eastern time . we will be right back. ♪

>> and welcome back. as if haiti didn't have enough to deal with.about now everyone's watching the courts consider whether its notorious forl former ruler jean-claude duvalier, the big surprise is

what baby doc himself has to say. america tonight's special correspondent soledad o'brien traveled to haiti where she met with the former ruler. >> this is the exactly the floolg. >> bobby duvall is a survivor. he served eight months at fort dumage haiti's most notorious prison and lived to talk about it. >> i counted 20 that died. >> in the eight months you were here? >> in the eight months, yeah. >> deu duvall, was tortured under the rule of jean-claude dux dux, bab duvalier, baby doc.

he is alive today because president carter sent a list of 13 people he wanted freed from prison. >> they sent him a leader with 13 names on it and i was one of the last three alive. that's how i got out. >> so the list had 13 people on it and there were only three living. ten others had died. >> today what remains of fort dumaje is a crumbling testament to haiti's history. when duvalier lived richly among haiti's poor. the duvalier regime ended when baby doc was out offed in 1986 and fled to europe to escape the accusations of his victims. so how is it possible that jean-claude duvalier is back and free to walk the streets of haiti once again?

i asked duvalier to join me to talk about his future and haiti's. >> the lawyer for the former president jean-claude duvalier called us up and said there is a place where we might be able to meet up with the former president. we are heading there now to see if we can get an interview with him. >> ah, president. >> mr. president. yes. >> we met at the peak of a hilltop restaurant in haiti's capital. no body guards, no entour an, just his lawyer. >> most people accused of mass murder aren't able to walk away free, like big shots. >> this is a man accused of thousands of killings. of systematic torture. of being a brutal dictator. and he's just being treated with

all the respect of a high dignitary. >> duvalier wouldn't answer most questions. but tells me haiti is worse today than when he ran the country. [ in french ] >> we were called the pearl of the antilles. there was security. people worked. you could walk around port o prince like anybody else. >> paramilitary thugs who are killing people. >> gary pee aerope pierre pierre is a graduate of the school of journalism. >> a perfect time, nobody would worry about what he did, that's why he came back when he did. >> pierre pierre says michelle

martelli is not eager to see duvalier prosecuted for crimes against humanity. he has asked members of his administration. >> bobbie duvall says he didn't believe it first when rumors spread that duvalier returned. >> i didn't think that any day he would even take the chance of coming back that way, you know, but he did. i mean haiti is the land of surprises and sure that was a surprise to us. >> so when you testified, in court, how hard was that? >> rough. >> at 62 years old, jean-claude duvalier appears a shadow of his former self. his suits are expensive but he's noticeably frail. he's back says his lawyer to help his country. >> he's been living all these

years thinking about haiti. when the earthquake came and he heard about suffering of the people and everything, he said no matter what. i don't care what happened to me me. or will happen to me, i'm going ocome back to our country. and that's it. i mean, and he came back. >> people don't really know why he came back. but the best guess actually is that he ran out of money. when duvalier left the country, he took with him an estimated founder to $900 million. and 25 years later he had spent almost all of that money except for $6 million that is left in switzerland but that the swiss government has impounded. >> in february 2010 the court in switzerland released more than $4 million to jean-claude

duvalier and his family. but haiti with help from human rights watch brought a criminal charge against duvalier on charges of corruption and human rights violations. so far the release of the money has been blocked. the first judge to hear the charges said the case against duvalier should be dropped. the appeals court should decide sometime this fall whether to overturn that ruling and remove the charges . renald george is not so confident. >> why not? >> because we have the good laws on our side. >> the point is to try. for people like bobby duvall and the other victims, to say our rights have been violated, we want justice. >> bobby duvall says testifying in court against duvalier is a victory of sorts.

he carries with him the death of a friend behind bars. >> i just took and i put him on the side, just to try, what are you doing, you know , you be and he died. >> why does that story make you cry? why is that one in particular, you've told me a lot of stories today. why is that one? >> well, he is friend. he used to teach me how to fish. you know? and he was an innocent guy. he was just a peasant, you know, a guy who fished. so when i lost him like that, it was rough. >> do these memories come back to you all the time? >> all the time. all the time. and i'm just trying to find closure, you know. but it's -- i still

ca cannot give me closure. i don't know what will give me closure. maybe never, i don't know. >> there may be comfort of survivors of duvalier's regime to know that the man who was an iron fifthed ruler is today a shadow of his former self. >> special correspondent soledad o'brien is with us. what is going to happen? >> if the haitian justice system pursues these charges, in fact the interamerican court is going to pursue these charges and they are not going to be as hospitable to duvalier, duffelis they say, it was responsible for gross and systemic abuses. they put that on the record.

one expects that if the haitian court doesn't go forward they certainly will. >> we cannot note the difference in his -- help but note the difference in his appearance. >> he's fine. if you go and see him he wears expensive suits so it disguises that he is a very frail -- >> physically frail. >> he cannot move very easily. he cabinet turn his head independent of turning his boyd. if he wants to talk to you, he has to shift his body. he's 62 years old. he looks like a man easily in his 80s. they don't officially talk about that. >> do you notice anything in his speech or cognition? >> he definitely understands the conversation. if he doesn't want to answer a question, he says it is done. we are not talking about it. he doesn't speak above a low

whisper, mumble and clearly his health is compromised. >> why did he agree with an interview with you? >> he thinks his chance he are good. they said they will sit down for a full no holds barred imru interview. and until then we'll just talk a little bit. >> you think about the pictures from the time he left haiti and the mob scene there. when you were with him was there any signs of crowds either for or against him coming out? >> there have been some crowds of the court dates, some people said those were crowds that they in fact paid to be there. crowds that maybe his lawyers paid to show there's support for the former president coming back into the country. no, there were no crowds, no on tour an whatsoever. the population of haiti is a

very young population. they don't really feel -- >> witness to history? >> right. many whose families were devastated 50 duvalier regime left the country. >> and had many issues to deal with. >> many say that, let's move on and we have many things that should be front and center on the agenda. do you go and investigate preval -- >> and the immediate problems post-earthquake in the community. and what would help these? >> you know that is a great question and i don't -- and he doesn't elaborate on that. i think he's got this philosophy which is in a nutshell is it was all better when i ran things. and as one of our guests said yes that is a typical response when you've been out offed. it was much better -- ousted. clearly.

i don't think he has any real agenda for how the country could be berth. i asked him are you back to run for president again? obviously the election in haiti is a big issue, shut back down immediately. we will not discuss that. >> interesting. soledad o'brien our special correspondent. thanks very much for doing that, we are looking forward to other reports did you while you were in haiti. that is still to come. still to come president obama travels to president putin's turf. why some critics say the school is setting the kids up for failure.

>> and now, a snapshot of stories making headlines on america tonight. walmart employees in 15 cities are gearing up for a national day of protest on thursday. after the retail giant failed to meet their demands. the union-backed campaign is rallying for more money and reverse terminations for workers who protested in a june strike. after serving only one month of his life sentence, ariel castro is found dead in his ohio

prison cell today. it was a death by hanging. he pled guilty of 930 counts of rape . chelsea mannin manning formerly known as bradley manning, chelsea says she wants to serve her 35 year prison sentence as a woman. leaders will meet in st. petersburg russia, now the shadow of syria and frayed u.s. russian relation he hang over the gathering. it began well with agreements on sanctions against iran. on wto membership for russia and on a treaty to reduce nuclear arms.

but since putin resumed his presidency in 2012 relations have chilled. there was the ban on american adoptions of russian children. the recently passed antigay laws, asylum for whistle blower edward snowden and the syrian situation. i say officially they're not there. but the rebels known as el nusra they are a unit of al qaeda. kerry and others know this. i don't like seeing this. we communicate with them, and eschew they're decent people. he lies and knows he lies. >> obama is coming to st. petersburg after cancelling a moscow meeting with putin that had been scheduled for today. their meeting at the g-20 summit

already looking awkward, now the meeting takes on new tension. considering whether there is really any conflict at all, professor antoine fenassen joins us to shed some light on something that seems as a chilling meeting between the presidents. what do you think? >> there has been plenty of problems between the united states and russia but there is absolutely nothing that cannot be negotiated and dealt with by two leaders who are remarkably unemotional and very cool-headed. both of them have a reputation for being very practical and pragmatic. >> even syria with that looming on the horizon? >> well syria is a problem. but i think there is a concerted media sort of storm around this. syria is not a russia versus the west problem. syria is a problem of divided nations within themselves and as

we saw by the decision of the british parliament, it is by no means a given most states would support the action he. >> in a day when russian legislators tried to speak with congress, speaker boehner said sorry, no conversation necessary here. tensions obviously exist. >> certainly, and superpower countries but there seems to be a concerted effort to change the narrative into some sort of cold war language which really should not be used. it is a very simplistic way of organizing populations, that they would not otherwise support. it is a way to simplify imlex issues of bringing them back to the cold war era where things used to be simpler. you knew who the enemy was, the conflict was black versus white

which is no longer the case in the middle east. >> do you think that is an american media concept? for example in russia would there be such a presentation that perhaps this is going to be an uncomfortable session? >> unfortunately it happens on both sides of the ocean. not an exclusive american tendency. in russia it often suits politicians as presenting the united states as a shadowy force, to oversimplify matters and to convince people to support, convince public opinion to support things that -- >> it goes beyond syria with edward snowden, the conflict that is played out in the russian media and the u.s. media, this kind of conflict is seeing something that could put a damper on the relationship. >> absolutely, there is yet another problem that is appeared, that could be dealt with. the russians have offered him asylum for one year and putin is

explicitly about that. remember snowden is not the same thing as the many spies who had defected to the respective sides of the cold war back then. he was not working for the russians nor was he selling secrets for money. so again, this is a new phenomenon, a post-cold war phenomenon that i don't think politicians have found a language to understanding yet. >> it is interesting for all of us to watch. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> during his visit to russia president obama will meet with gay activists. there has been call for boycotting the russian olympics next year, social propaganda it's called among minors in russia. the goal was to reverse declining birth rates and protect children from unhealthy information.

the lgbt, report from moscow. >> when i realized i was olesbian i started to search for info on how to stop being a lesbian. i was already a teenager with problems. i learned this was something for life, i was upset, not for long, i decided to come to terms with it. then i met anna my girlfriend. when we started a family i realized for some time that my family is absolutely unprotected that if i die, even if i leave a written will anna will have to pay a huge tax and others will be able to argue over my things. she won't be able to make decisions for me. i started wondering why nobody is protecting us and why so many people come out on the street.

at one point anna and i were in a restaurant and i suggested we should go to the gay parade. so we got there and we were there for about 30 seconds holding a rainbow flag and some guy came up grabbed our aflag and pulled it. i turned around to see what was happening with anna and i found astrong punch on the side of my head and i immediately lost hearing. i was very, very scared. the hatred has been initiated by the current authorities because they need it. for years russia has been returning to the trirbled values. the church is coming closer to the state. >> the aggressive part of the case is the homosexual community. these were not the first oprofess against those people. those were these people who actually tried to radically aggressively problem gate their ideas and their influence on the streets,

before the other places. ♪ >> the russian society is capable of understanding that the west has gone wrong. that the western way of placing the so-called sexual minorities in the society is one of the things which is getting the western civilization to its end. it can just disappear. we're experiencing an aggressive influence from the west aimed at early sexualization of children. some programs of sex education, some ideas which are being propagated through some media through some websites their attempt to tell to the minors to the children and young adults that any form of sexual behavior is good, acceptable, natural,

et cetera, et cetera. >> the most horrible thing about this law is that for the first time in russian legislative history it creates a category of inferior people. it says that propaganda is spreading information about equivalence of traditional and nontraditional relations. this bans saying that being a homosexual is normal, not a disease not a perversion. this is not satan's curse, we are not de demons. you play -- if you come out you may get shot at or killed. >> i was work for them like so guys i'm gay, and i'm the same human being like you. like you, like president like

member of, all members of russian parliament and all of you and i was fired, i didn't leave. i was fired by sms. it was your statistician or something like that and it was very cave because i received many thousands of letters of support. i have never felt that -- russian jtsd ma is very european. i worried about two years ago, because now i'm often gay and too many crazy people in russia, and it's really state policy to make something against gay people here. >> first, there's no official position on the gay issue in russia. violence against gays is inadmissible but also media campaigns against certain politicians

and certain in russia who advocated for this law, i think these media campaigns are also nasty. they are unfair. >> i would like to say that this law has nothing to do with any gays, this was officially adopted and signed into law by putin in the beginning of june. suddenly some wise hat, somewhere in washington or new york or london, asked that i think absurd question. away what happens to the gay athletes when they come to the olympic games? the answer is nothing is going to happen to them. >> nikolai lishkof. when we try to organize public protest this is a very big problem because we always have to face the police arrest. we always have to face violence

from the antigay protestors. >> they started to break into the door, they were hoping probably to get inside as fast as possible so there's no media, that their working day didn't start yet, they just wanted to do it very, very fast, that's why they did it at 7:00 in the morning. i guess they were looking for electronic devices. that's what everything was taken out of the possible everywhere. they just destroyed everything. >> the challenges facing gay russians in their own words. and now. a look ahead at tomorrow's america tonight. a secretive mormon offshoot. a man known as the prophet still rules with an iron grip. >> it's a whole new life for these young children. simple pleasures like eating

watermelon on a hot arizona afternoon. even playing with toys were things forbidden to them until a few months ago. their mother ruby jessup was married to a much older man. >> did you fear that you wouldn't see your children ever again? >> oh, definitely, definitely. because the church up there have a new rule that if one parent leaves those kids, the church, owns those kids. >> members of the reclusive religion fold this man, warren jeffs, a man who had 78 wives, 2 dozen under the age of 18. >> it is a very oppressive atmosphere, ruled by a man who is in

prison, warren jeffs who rules the clan from prison. >> still to come on america tonight. the fight over energy is dwighting the navajo nation. >> we don't really exist anymore. the rest of the world is progressing forward with other technology. >> that's after a break. [[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours.

pm eastern time . we will be right back. ♪

there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real. >> and welcome back. it is a stark choice between protecting native traditions and preserving a community's future.

for the navajo nation it might mean mining the past. we get the story from casey kaufman. >> they are some of the most iconic landscapes of america. far off the beaten paths, is another side of the navajo nation. where energy companies dig up the land in search of minerals. this coal mine is one mile away from cynthia dixon's home. she lives here without electricity or running water. she says those are the small part of her problems. >> i got sheep buried out there, lambs that they got sick. sick from. maybe from the blasting or that gray dust that they were eating. and lost about 15 lambs in one month. >> but it's not just the livestock cynthia's worried about. she says living here has taken a toll on her own health too. >> sometimes we get runny nose

even when we don't have a cold we get runny nose and cough and sometimes feel nauseated. >> so when bhp bellitin announced they were pulling out, was good news for cynthia, and soon there was a new investor the navajo nation itself, her own tribe. >> this is all about money. nobody cares about whose health is going down or who's got health problems. >> tribe officials say they can turn a profit of almost $200 million a year, that is an important increase in revenue with a are government dealing with 40% unemployment. >> none of the mine workers would speak to us on camera but offcamera, truck drivers make more than $30 an hour and sometimes extended families of more than ten people depend on that one

salary. lorenzo represents the tribe,. >> the advantage starts with 100 years of resource that you own. and that generates revenue. it generates the jobs. it generates sustainability and a future. >> that's a future these young environmentalmentallists don't want. started his own solar energy company. he believes coal is dirty and past its prime and also tribal values. >> it's keeping us in an era that doesn't really exist anymore. the rest of the world is progressing forward with other technology. they're advancing in different ways of becoming more efficient and the navajo nation then

decides to invest into coal, into something that's already been mined and seems like it's on its last leg you know, especially the way society is moving towards becoming more fundamentally green. that's something that the navajo people always brease embraced, being one with nature, and counteracts with what we believe and what we were actually brought up to hold as sacred. >> tribal elders are not opposed to renewable energy. >> if the wind is not blowing, the turbine is not producing any energy. if the sun is not out, solar energy is obsolete. we need stable forms of energy for the navajo nation. in a larger scope. we're talking about sovereignty exercised to its fullest. this is actually putting us on a

plane that we have never been before as an indian nation. this way we can say we have our coal mine. do you want to buy some coal? >> colleen coolie documents the environmental effect of coal mining. she says increasing federal regulations will require expensive operations like waste management and restoration. she says that will be done by the power plant that buys the coal but colleen is skeptical based on prior experience. >> doing things on our land, mining, development, they come in and do their business and then they try to promise they're going to clean it up but they don't. they get up and leave, they pay the communities a certain amount of money, they provide jobs for a certain amount of time but we're usually left with the cleanup. >> at times it's too much for cynthia dixon.

she sees the land dug up every day and the coal dust makes her sick. >> sometimes i regret moving out here. >> but this is her ancestral land. it's been in her family for generations and she can't forget her father's parting words. >> take care of the land. don't let nobody take the land away from you. that was his last words and he passed. i always remember that. >> no matter what happens cynthia says she's staying put but very soon her unwelcome neighbor might not be an international mining company, it might be her own tribal government. >> report from casey kaufman. coming up, the story of a small town newspaper where all news is good news and is hot off the press.

>> welcome to al jazeera. i'm thomas drayton. here are the top story. the senate has deci decided to e president obama the go ahead. bipartisan vote 10 to 7. 5 democrats and two democrats voted against it. at a news conference in stockholm the president said that the red line that assad must not craws was an international red resign not his red line.