>> good evening everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. john mccain says the president's policy is damaging the u.s. in the region. my interview with senator mccain and the reaction from the white house. hundreds of thousands in west virginia still can't drink the water and new information about the company that caused that spill. >> creentd, too young to -- katrina, too young to remember the hurricane. and the hudson miracle, five years from the spectacular landing, new ways to prevention birds from bringing down planes.

we begin tonight with major developments on the foreign policy front. a senate intelligence committee report blames the state department an the pentagon from failing to protect the u.s. consulate in benghazi. better security may have stopped the september 2012 attack that killed chris stevens and three other americans. in egypt a vote on constitutional referendum was peaceful. voter turnout was high, in spite of the muslim brotherhood call for a boycott. 75 people dead dozens of others injured, six car bombs explode he in and around baghdad this morning in predominantly shia neighborhoods. senator john mccain has been an outspoken critic, the

situation with the iraqi prime minister yesterday and today i asked him about that meeting. >> it was kind of bleak actually john because the deputy prime minister who you know is a sunni made a very strong case that maliki has been really alienating the sunnies for a long time in a variety of ways. and he made the point that a lot of us have made, that it's fine for us to give equipment and military assistance and even technical assistance and things like that but maliki has got to reach out to the sunni, there's got to be a sunni awakening, because he has alien ated the population which spills over to al qaeda as you know. >> is iraq a lost cause? what should the u.s. be doing?

>> i think we should send people there who he respects, david petraeus is the first example, give him advice and counsel, make it clear that we want to assist him with what he needs to gain military control but there's got to be national reconciliation. there's got to be the sons of anbar there. we lost 96 brave soldiers and marines in the second battle of fallujah. 600 wounded and now in fallujah there are vehicles driving around with black flags. that is an abject dismal failure of maliki, also of the united states because we did not leave a residual force. >> is president obama responsible for that? >> absolutely. >> based on what you said now other than logistical support, we're not sending troops back?

>> no we can't. we have got this assistance that he needs contingent upon a broadcast program of national reconciliation. rehiring of the sunni young people, reconciling with the sheiks that are still important, and also, a number of measures that would bring the economy up in these areas which have not profited at all from their enormous oil revenues that they have received. >> you are on the record as saying president obama has not handled egypt well, has abandoned libya, neglected syria, you had strong words with iraq as well, so obviously i guess you wouldn't gif the president very good grades when it comes to the middle east. >> i think it's very obvious that meticulous the middle east america is declining in influence and on the wane and people are making their own accommodations for the departure of the united states. whether it be for hamid karzai

or the saudis who have completely lost any trust in us. yesterday something unusual happened i'm sure you saw it where the defense minister of israel basically insulted our secretary of state and the prime minister of israel did not repudiate him. >> what does that tell you? >> that tells me that the united states influence is dramatically waning and they've lost confidence in us so therefore they have decided to go their own way. best example is the saudis are helping the resistance in syria without involving themselves with us. karzai is looking at a neighborhood absent u.s. presence. maliki has done the things he has done. libya we should have helped and didn't. egypt is now adopting a constitution that basically enshrines the superiority of the

military in every way and they're going to have an insurnltcinsurntcyinsurgency on. >> joining us is mike viqueria. mike. >> it's very interesting. the white house in response to similar criticism of john boehner and others, would point out the contradiction or the inherent contradiction in what john mccain is saying about that residual force in anbar, ramadi, the deepest darkest days of a very unpopular war. john mccain says the united states and president obama in particular should have come oto april agreement with nouri al-maliki. there is a who-shot-john aspect

of this. mccain says it is absolutely untrue that the iraqis rejected the american proposal. the administration says no in fact they wanted to do it. it was the iraqi parliament who would not go along, for a lot of reasons, exposure to u.s. troops, and they would be tried in american courts and at the same time, in response to your question john senator mccain says american troops cannot go back into iraq. if there was a force of 10,000 or 12,000 or whatever force of residual force senator mccain would have been advocating, could they do to stop the violence in anbar province? exactly who wants to send american troops to be fighting and dying? the sectarian violence in fallujah and anbar province,

what difference would 10,000 make with the response that was given by jay carney to criticism much like has been leveled by john mccain here this evening. >> what do the implications with afghanistan say in the negotiations with hamid karzai? >> there is so much going on with john kerry and his shuttle diplomacy to come to some sort of agreement between the palestinians and the israelis, the immediate implications perhaps most pertinent in afghanistan where the united states is playing this game of chicken with hamid karzai about a similar agreement after american combat troops leave that role at the end of 2014, at the end of this year. karzai says he does not want to sign what the white house has put on the table. the council of elders has gone

along with what the white house has put on the table. essentially it becomes this are the lessons of iraq a warning to hamid karzai, look could potentially happen in afghanistan and to your own security? look you don't want to be exposed to the same sort of criticism that john mccain is leveling at you unless you leave your forces here on my terms. so it is a very delicate situation and meanwhile administration forces warn that a decision is going to have to be made very soon by karzai. they're not budging john. >> mike viqueria, thanks mieb. a massive spending plan is moving forward, 1.1 trillion spending bill. a senate vote is expected by the end of the week. libby casey joins us from capitol hill. what is in this spending bill? >> pretty much everything except

for mandatory programs, social security and medicare and the like. every other government program is part of this massive spending project. over half goes to military, the rest of it is epa to the irs. that is one of the agencies that takes a hit in this budget. there is always winners and losers when the budget comes along. one of the winners, head start, that early childhood development gets a bit of a boost. there was attempt by going after the federal health care law, known as obamacare, there is a reduction to one of the health care law's programs. in the end a bipartisan effort and the appropriators on both sides have been touting it as a moment as an example of how they were able to work together. just 67 no-votes, just a huge

number of passage, more than 350 voting for it. that's significant because tea party conservatives were pushing for a no vote. this could be seen as a victory for house speaker boehner. it is likely to get passage in the senate, and they have a deadline of saturday. we expect spending until at least next fall taking care of in washington. >> any prospects of it moving forward or is it dead in the water? >> it really only goes so far just getting a basic spending package done is a fairly modest success. unemployment insurance isn't anything that the legislators were able to come to agreement on. how unemployment benefits would be paid for? and it's a political wrangling because republicans say they're not given enough of a chance by

senate majority leader harry reid to allow their amendments their proposals to come up whereas leader reid says hire are some suggestions you can get on board with these. they weren't able to find any resolution. the house and senate are expected to be out next week, we won't see this come up until late january, 1.3, 1.4 million americans are relying on this long range program, they're not getting it now. >> libby thank you. now the massive fraud investigation, how they operate nuclear missiles and others are accused of knowing bit and looking the other way. david shuster is following the investigation. >> they are at the heart of america's strategy of deterrence. intercontinental ballistic missiles. head of the air force along with the service chief of staff

revealed that 34 air force officers at malstrom air force in moontd are now under investigation for drug use and cheating on exams. in charge of the land based nuclear icbms. >> this is absolutely unacceptable behavior and it is completely contrary to our core values in the air force. as everybody knows the number one core value is integrity. >> 16 officers shared the answers of a monthly test by texting them to each other. another 18 knew about the cheating but failed to report it. >> we have decertified all 34 officers involved. they are restricted for missile duty, the level of their individual involvement will continual. >> the command and control system for u.s. nuclear missiles dates back to the 1950s. but to this day nearly 600 air force officers oversees the

missiles, nearly 5% of the nuclear force has been caught in the cheating scandal. air force officials insist the mission has not been compromised. >> i want you to know based on everything i know today i have great confidence in the security and the effectiveness of our icbm force. >> still, the secretary announced that all remaining icbm officers will be retested by the end of the week. the air force has long been concerned about the tedious and potentially boring fact of, the affairs says two officers in montana were accused of drug use and stripped of their responsibilities, ten other officers are facing drug investigations as well. but drug and cheating infractions are considered especially sensitive, as the air

force officials underscored from the pentagon the officers responsible for those missiles have no major for error. david shuster, al jazeera. >> coming up next new violations, the company being blamed for the chemical spill in west virginia is cited again. plus texas tremors, could fracking be causing a series of earthquakes?

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>> now to a mystery in a small texas town about 50 miles northwest of dallas. what is causing a string of earthquakes in the past two months, more than 30, including two just this last week. mark schneider reports. >> azel is a quiet texas town of around 11,000 people. at least it used to be quiet. >> the dogs would bark. >> an earthquake, about 2.5 to 3 magnitude. not enough to cause damage but

the people have had enough. >> suddenly 30 in the same area. >> who is going to cover the issue if we fail to act right now. >> calling open the texas railroad commission which regulates drilling to look into the cause of these quakes. it is. >> well i can see their point. i can see why they're frustrated where it could get worse. >> billy caldwell is an independent geological consultant and professor who specialized in the oil and gas field for 60 years. >> this is a fault trend. >> caldwell points out there are three fault lines near azel. he says in recent decades there's been little to no earthquake activity here. >> i think if my theory is correct that we ought to consider pumping less and pumping slower and see if that

helps. >> how would that be received by the oil and gas companies? >> not well. it would slow down everything. >> at monday night's town hall meeting dozens of residents decided they're going to jump on a bus next week go down to the state capitol in austin and try oput pressure on state leaders to get something done sooner. they think it's too early for that. >> we are hiring a seismologist. the railroad commission is flil fully aware of the -- fully aware of the problem. i don't think it's time bring out the pitch forks yet. >> i think people are overreacting. i don't think it's got anything to do with the oil field. >> but if it does geologists say people don't have to fear a massive quake. this kind of work in the oil and gas fields can't cause one. meanwhile the u.s. geological

survey is determining exactly where the quakes are coming from. >> toxic chemicals spilled woo the elk river and it could be several days before the water is safe again. the state's attorney general says he wants to make sure this thing doesn't happen again. more for ashha rfer quaraishi. >> consider these photographs popping up on social media, supposedly showing the water still cloudy. schools are still shut down and families are still asking, is the water safe? >> it's terrible we don't know how long it will be. we'll be without everything. >> the investigation into what went wrong why and how is just

beginning and it centers around freedom industries, where the first signs of the disaster started with the smell of licorice. authorities found a hole in a containment law, large enough for achemical used in processing coal to trickle out into the elk river. inspectors hadn't checked that portion of the plant since 2001. after the spill, freedom industries moved the it found several violations including no record of employee training since 2004. no record of quarterly site inspections, a failure to store drums containing materials that have the potential to contaminate groundwater, no effective secondary containment. in other words nowhere for the chemical to collect if there's a leak. the report of the leak are shocking, regulations are lacking and that protecting industries not the people often

comes first. ash-h rarvetion quarashi, al jazeera new york. >> global sex abuse scandal in the church. 48 page report says the church is not fully disclosing cases of the abuse. the report says the church continues to harbor abusers and still denies accountability. a new committee set up by the pope to look into the issue is to meet with the u.n. tomorrow. david closi joins us from st. louis, he is the national director of the survivors network of those abused by priests or snap. welcome david good to see you. >> thank you john. >> what sort of job has the pope done so far addressing this issue? >> he's done virtually nothing unfortunately. he has shown a willingness to

break with tradition and to make compassionate gestures in a lot of other ways but in essence when it comes to the abuse of children and the coverup of those crimes 11 months into his papacy, unfortunately pope francis has done virtually nothing. >> forced to release documents i believe in the chicago area you had documents released recently regarding supposedly all the documents the diocese had regarding sex abuse in the church. would that help if other diocese were able to do that or not? >> oh, absolutely, absolutely that would help. you know, you can't heal from cancer, unless you root it all out of your body. and the church can't heal and victims can't heal and kids won't be protected unless the full truth of this crisis is disclosed. not just the names of those who committed the crimes but also the names of those higher

officials who conceal those crimes. this kind of disclosure is incredibly important, although it happens only when external forces insist on this kind of disclosure. >> what about the group the pope has set up that's going to meet with the u.n? >> we're very encouraged by the united nations which is trying to hold the vatican officials accountable for a treaty they've signed about the rights of children. the pope's new panel we're not so excited about frankly. it's more of a study commission and it's still being formed and frankly that's not at all what kids neetd need at this point. -- need at this point. catholic officials for centuries have hidden predators and moved them around. they don't need a study panel. they know what's right, they know that every one of these officials should be turned over to law enforcement.

not continue to study this decades-long crisis. >> well explain this to me. so the pope has been both praised and criticized for making some changes recently regarding the direction of the catholic church focusing on the poor trying to work from the bottom-up instead of from the top-down. why not, why suspect the pope addressing this issue, why do you think this issue is different? >> well, that's a terrific question john. i wish i knew the answer. i think in part it's because he comes from the developing world from argentina where this crisis is still very much underneath the radar screen. bishops in the north america, in europe and to some extent in australia they've been forced because of brave victims and determined law enforcement and aggressive journalism, those bishops in the developed world have been forced to deal with

clergy sex crimes and coverups. but especially in poorer countries and developing countries bishops can sweep this under the rug and so they don't really have to deal with it and this is the world this pope has come out of. >> i know you studied this carefully, but do you have a sense of how much we don't know? >> oh absolutely. in the united states there are now 6,000 proven admitor credibly accused child molesting catholic priests, 6 thousand but we think that barely scratches the surface. unfortunately victims always have always will come forward decades late, too late to take criminal or civil action. in the rest of the world literally 5% of the problem has been publicly disclosed. 95% i think remains hidden. that's tragic because it means kids are still being molested

today, and secret documents should be in the hands of law enforcement. >> david it's good to have you on the program. >> appreciate it john. >> growing up on the guferl coast not knowing about life before hurricane katrina. plus, state of the union. what senator john mccain wants to hear from the. president.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. here are our top stories. trillion dollar budget bill, the house passed today, now going to the senate. the bill funds nearly every agency in the government from airports to the cost of war. airport scandal. 34 nuclear officers disciplined for their alleged cheating on readiness test.

34 additional officers are under investigation for drug use. egypt, election, of a constitution. results are expected within the next few days and the military supported charter is expected to be approved. al jazeera is covering this story and continuing to call for the immediate release of five of its journalists who are still being detairched in egypt. producers mohamed fahmy, baher mohamed and correspondent peter greste have been held, accused of joining a terrorist group, allegations al jazeera say are fabricated. earlier this week senator john mccain tweeted this, his support for those journalists. now tonight, mention that we appreciate your support for the detained colleagues in ybor

city. and i want in jeebility. ybor city. egypt. is this vote a sham? >> it's not so much a sham as it is a throw back to the mobarak government, an autonomous government within egypt. that is not a real democracy as you know. second, there is still significant following for the muslim brotherhood, if you are going to a reconciliation

between the government and those who are in disagreement, many of the leaders of the tahrir square are now in jail. many of the liberals who wanted a more liberal society have now been in prison. thousands have been in prison. that's not way the path forward to democracy and in this day and age you can't do that and get away with it. they're facing another algeria if they're not careful. >> you've been to syria, you've seen what's going on there and there's a lot of talk about the rebel movement there and the impact of al qaeda. is this the beginning of al qaeda, the resurgence of al qaeda in a way we have never seen before? >> yes, to this degree. that these al qaeda elements have -- with lots of foreign fighters have alienated many of these groups as well as the free syrian army. there has been a backlash and an

alliance of some of these islamist groups and the free syrian army. they are in a hell of a fight. the problem is you have got our guys fighting two fights, bashar al-assad and this isis. they are not fighting against bashar al-assad, they are trying to consolidate their position and bashar al-assad has got as thetic approval. this has all got to do with the fact that we didn't give them the aid they needed and they convinced 5,000 hezbollah to come into the country and tip the scales. the idea that you are going to go into geneva and talk bashar al-assad into peace talks is foolishness. >> what account united states do

to help that? >> to help some of these countries, it is regional conflict. lebanon is terribly strained, jordan is overwhelmed with refugees, even turkey and the kurdish sections of iraq, sunni shia iran saudi conflict is a regional conflict. by the way those of us who study history remind there's some parallels in what happened in the 1930s when everybody stood by and watched these things happen. what can we do? obviously we have to help the jordannians with the refugee problem. lebanon beefing up the lebanese army and helping them forward with the democratic process. it gets worse every day. but we've also most of all got to restore the perception that the united states of america is engaged. that does not mean troops on the

ground but there are many, many things we can do. and by the way for example, the deputy prime minister of iraq told me that the iranians were far more influential in iraq than united states of america is. that is a sad commentary, when we lost so many american lives if our effort there. >> finally we've got the state of the union coming up about.what do you want to hear from the president of the united states? >> well, he's going otalk about unemployment insurance and he's going to talk about minimum wage and he's going to talk about good schools. i wish to god he would say, "my fellow americans there's now 130,000 people who have been slaughtered, millions have been displaced, children everywhere in these refugee camps. it is an ongoing tragedy that is destabilizing the whole region and we're going ohave to have some of your tax dollars and some of your engagement in the

middle east not only from a humanitarian standpoint but this conflict is bound to spread and sooner at a than later, sooner rather than later the united states is going to pay a heavy price for its noninvolvement." that's what i would like the president of the united states to say. >> shooting at a middle school in new mexico, 12-year-old suspect planned the attack but shot his two victims at random. 13-year-old girl is in stable condition 11-year-old boy is in critical condition. this afternoon the new mexico governor praised the man who disarmed the suspect. >> mr. masterson begins to talk to him to put it down. the young man put the gun down and raised his hands. >> about 1500 people attended a

prayer vigil for the victims last night. civil liberties groups are calling it the biggest settlement in history. new york city agreed to pay almost $18 million to settle hundreds of lawsuits that were filed after police arrested nearly 2,000 people mostly protestors but also journalists observers and bystanders during the republican convention. the deal still needs a judge's approval and would give each plaintiff about $6400. lets head to washington, d.c, joie chen telling us what's coming up. joie. >> the water woes in west virginia are continuing. a lot of speculation about the safety issues. >> chemical spills on the river bank that polluted their

drinking water. some of the requirements are taking a toll on the health of individuals, unusual symptoms have begun to appear in emergency rooms. with public distress running high, officials are questioning the regulatory environment which allowed this to happen and what it means about their future. tonight, health concerns as we go to charleston. we talk to one doctor about what she's seen and what she is worried about now. our correspondent christophe putzel will follow up on his story that's coming up on "america tonight". >> being eight, the lives of eight-year-olds. tonight the unique view of third graders in new orleans. they are too young to remember hurricane katrina but still is learning good lessons. >> what city were you born? >> troy lawson teaches third great in new orleans. >> spell it the best way you

know how. >> many students are eight years old and were born the year that hurricane katrina changed the big easy. >> some of them weren't born, some of them are a couple years old. they still have a story. >> real strong winds and lots of water. >> i think you see mostly damage everything. >> like water was -- like the water was strong, too strong and in places like homes over and stuff. >> every child has their own learned version of the storm. >> 10,000 -- >> evacuees. >> evacuees had taken shelter. >> being eight is who you are and where you came from, learning about the world at large that time takes shape. >> a lot of them were born right after katrina or they were in their mommy's tummies.

they don't remember it. >> hurricane katrina has or will shape their lives, parents siblings, many evacuated flooded out neighborhoods like this only to return and some of their stories are remarkable. >> they were like telling me that i was born in hurricane katrina. i came out of my mama's stomach when hurricane katrina was happening. >> you guys were born all over the united states. >> eight-year-old anthony taps family fled to a shelter in new orleans where his mother gave birth to him. >> we was in a shelter and my sister had jumped on my ca cousn because she got scared. >> for principal ah manta shelton, she and her staff were left behind. >> their mothers were pregnant with them during katrina are

suffering the effects of their mothers being under high stress. people were literally trying to run for their lives. >> from the -- >> breached. >> breached levee to rooftops. >> as these boys and girls grow they will take with them the lfns learned from an epic -- lessons learned from an epic storm. robert ray, new orleans. >> it's been five years since captain sully lanced a plane on the hudson river. parents will soon be getting refunds for some of the things their kids downloaded.

>> hello, i'm meteorologist kevin corriveau, we saw a lot of fog in the northeast and new york city. take a look at manhattan bridge just at sunset. at jfk we saw some delays. tomorrow we'll have a front come through and with that front we do expect some flishz. the -- flurries. not too much of a big problem there. saturday, sunday temperatures are going to be dropping but we're going to have plenty of sunshine especially as we go towards the weekend and towards next week we do expect those temperatures to come back up. now temperature wise let's talk about this in the north central part of the united states.

we are talking about blizzard warnings in effect here for north and south dakota over torts parts of wisconsin and minnesota as well. big big problem there. what does it mean? it means we'll see the gusting of winds over 30 miles per hour. how quickly those snow showers push across the region. here's the actual definition, more than six inches of snow, 35 mile-per-hour winds or greater temperatures well into the freezing marks and with a wind chill this means minus 20 or minus 30° for them.

interit has been five years since the miracle on the hudson, and captain sully sullenberger.

, he told air traffic control, we're going to end up in the hudson river and so they did with all 155 passengers and crew members on board, safe. our science and technology correspondent jake ward is standing by. jake, five years later how dangerous of those bird strikes still today? >> well, bird strikes remain a tremendous problem. there are still between 7 and 9,000 bird strikes a year. you wouldn't think a bird could really do much damage to a plane that weighs 7 tons but the truth is, birds have come right through the windshield and of course have gone right into the engines which brought down that plane. it's gone so far that the makers of jet engines use what are called chicken guns to fire

poultry through full scale models of the engines to make sure they can withstand the impact. it is prevalent in the industry now. >> how much have airlines done more than they did five years ago? >> certain airlines and certain airptsd have gotten the problem under control. the idea was to eradicate wildlife around an airport and they would deploy hunters to do so. but like san francisco airport, they are hiring wildlife biologists who help them determine what attracts and what repels wildlife. assign runway safety experts to go up and down the runway to scare off the birds. it is a full time job to keep them off them but it's also getting into the point where they are bringing in drones and

falcons. they are putting an incredible amount of resource 52 a problem that no one took all that seriously until captain sullenberger brought it to our attention. >> how about the airports themselves, is there anything they can do with the airplanes that can really make a difference or not? >> the design of the engines have changed over time and there are a few radical ideas on the books for basically sort of chicken proof engines but it is not something you can control. the migratory patterns of birds and the architecture of the birds will be dangerous to planes in some way but those planes are getting more and more resilient and there are a lot of procedures and sort of practices that pilots go through in their training to deal with it. but this is going to be with us as long as birds are with us so this is a problem for the industry. >> jake, thank you,. the winter olympics in sochi

begin in just 23 days. one colorado town will have a lot to be proud of. paul beban has the story from steamboat springs. >> forgot football. this is how they do friday night lights in steamboat springs. the kids line up and launch themselves into the darkness. saturday morning it's time for speed camp. ♪ >> and saturday afternoon a cross country race. for all these kids, this is base camp. the steamboat springs winter sports club at howellson hill. it is a place to play meet and compete. it may be humbling compared to big sister steamboat but around here, howellson is built out of dirt and dreams. on these slopes they've been

quietly cranking out olympians for 20 years. johnny spillane says winning is not what this is all about. >> first and foremost, it is a place for kids to go have fun skiing. >> in the vancouver olympics. >> winter sports club produces so many good athletes because all the kids are having fun. you can't be successful in any sport without enjoying what you do. >> this is the history of ski town? >> yes, this is the man who founded it all, carl howellson. >> generation after generation, 96 olympians and counting. >> they become coaches and so your mentors are olympians and

you can touch and feel that olympic spirit. >> brothers brian and tad fletcher are on their way to sochi. mom penny says, this is more than medals. >> to come here and to train and to learn sportsman ship, their morals. their ethics. their goals in life. >> make no mistake, these boys and girls have visions of olympic glory. >> my hero says the first year getting to jump in the olympics. >> do you guys dream of having your own flag in this room some day day? >> it would be cool to go to the olympics. >> each flag represents one olympic appearance by a sports club athlete. proof that here more than anywhere else, olympic dreeps really do take flight. you can see, they run an

after-school program. there is a jumping competition, so they're going to have the lights on. you can see the olympic spirit, the town getting more and more excited as these heroes get ready to head towards sochi. >> chris thinks his support of same sex marriage got him cut from the nfl.

>> well, apple has agreed to refund millions of dollars to the parents are children who bought apps without getting mom or dad's perms. didn't do enough to stop the kids from making the unauthorized position. apple agreed to refund more than $32 million to angry parents. one mother complained her daughter was aim to spend $2600 on apps without her parents' permission. an nfl player says he lost his job because he spoke out in support of marriage equality and he believes it was completely worth it. michael eaves joins us with that story. michael. >> sports as a platform for

social issues, that continues to be the case today. multiple media outlets say that mike zimmer will take over for leslie fraser, also recently called a coward by former vikings punting chris cluey. so uncomfortable with cluey being outing spoken on lgbt issues that they decided to not resign him. i asked him to outline the reason why they were so dead set against rehiring him. >> maryland state delegate member for one stifling brendan amadeo's right to free speech and why he cared so much, why are you trying to keep other people from enjoying rights that the rest of the country can enjoy. after that was when i started

experiencing a pattern of behavior from my special teams coach in terms of homophobic remarks and not treating me in the right way and i didn't think it was going to lead me to being fired until the vikings drafted a punter in the fifth round, despite never telling me, hey your numbers aren't good, you're not punting up to par. we're going otry replace you -- to try oreplace you. my stats were where they had ever been. >> when you came out in support of marriage equality and other lgbt issues it could adversely affect your career? >> yeah, i knew it could. this issuing is i believe more important than a children's game to be frank. it's you know i love playing football, i had a lot of fun playing it but at the end of the day it is a bunch of grown men running around playing a children's game for a lot of

money and i tend to think that basic human rights are slightly more important than that. >> since the letter as you mentioned went viral i assume there would be support and some questions of your claims. what types of reactions have you experienced the most since that release? >> it's been varied. i've had a lot of support. like you said there's a lot of people that have said thank you for speaking out, thank you for bringing the stuff to light and i've had people say hey you're just bitter because you're not playing anymore, you're trying to get your name in the media, you're trying to get attention. and i wouldn't wish this type of media attention on anyone, it's not exactly fun. but i say to them you can look at my stats, you can look at my numbers, they have always been consistent over the years, the vikings have always been happy with them, i got a nice contract with my punting statistics. the only thing that changed between 2012 and 2013 was i started speaking out on the issue of same sex rights.

we are looking at this through hindsight and it is very easy with hindsight to say, you have should have gone to the owner, he has your back, you should have protected yourself. but at the time i still thought i was going to play for the vikings. i didn't know they were going to cut me until april of the next year when they drafted a punter at the fifth round. that's when i put this in the dead spin letter. looking back this is something i shouldn't have been cut for the teem -- team what's the reason here? gathering all the evidence, okay this is the reason. >> john ziggy wolf is the owner. he has now launched a full fledged investigation of the allegations. i asked cluey if he would still be in the nfl if he were gay

instead of a straight male in support of the gay issues. >> and you'll explain about the hat too? i wondered about the hat. we'll find out later at 11:00. 76 miles west of new orleans a monster sinkhole has grown to 26 acres. started two years ago in bayou corn after a salt mine collapsed. the huge hole is destroying a levee. coming up tonight on al jazeera america, 11:00 eastern time, more on my conversation with john mccain, and criticisms of secretary of state john kerry and peace efforts. plus, the answer to an age old question why do birds fly in a v formation? the familiar shape minimizes

energy use. those stories an more. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler in new york. these are the top stories. 34 nuclear officers suspended for their alleged cheating on proficiency test. 34 others have been implicated in an illegal drug ring. president obama was talking about job creation during a trip onorth carolina, he was there to announce anew manufacturing program that was meant to boost the state's economy. blamed for a toxic spill in west virginia, freedom industries was cited at another facility.