>> you in is al jazeera america i'm tony harris from new york. a black man died after a police officer put him in a choke hold. a halt of a scheduled death of a texas prisoner, whose lawyer said he's too mentally ill to be executed. and an irbag recall that can

explode and send metal flying. >> we begin with breaking news. a grand jury fails to indict a white police officer who put a black man in a chokehold. it's good to see you again, leo. first of all, are you surprised at all by this decision? >> i'm not, necessarily. even though we see on the video the one officer execute choke hold, it does not mean that he was culpable. >> it seems that the officer, the choke hold equals erik

garner's death. >> we have to look at the evidence that the ground jury was privy to. also look at the eyes of eric garner. the fact that we're i wear of the asphyxia, i allowing him to be i in a prone position by his own weighs, it becomes difficult for the individual to inhale and take a breath. thus the complaints of being unable to breathe. >> i think i've asked you this question before. it seems that we've had a discussion about this question of the officers. eric garner on six different

occasions said, i can't breathe, i can't breathe. shouldn't they have allowed him to breathe? >> yes, in all the training there is training at a high level. the officers should have knowing the size of this individual. the fact that he was struggling, the fact that he was mentioning that he was having difficulty, we're trained to put him on his side, and even to sit him up to allow him to take a full breath. >> you're saying that officers are trained to behave differently than the situation we're watching now than evidenced by those officers acting in the moment. there is different training available. >> i'm saying they were train: nypd has been trained in how to properly address an issue that has the potential for positional asphyxia. that is, and i don't have video

that shows the aftermath of eric garner, if he was allowed to lie broken face down, he's going to have tremendous difficulty. the officer should have known to get him up right, get him breathing, tend to his medical needs. but i have to point out that eric garner was asked to submit to arrest, he refused to so, and they felt it necessary to bring him down to subdue him. >> apparently over cigarettes. the sale of loose cigarettes. >> yes, it doesn't mean that he should have died. there is no doubt in my mind that there are more avenues of negotiation or discussion, but the officer felt it necessary at that timing to hands on. they could have used some other adjuncts to subdue him. they could have waited for additional back up.

but they chose to subdue him and force him into an arrest situation. he continued to resist. he continued to refuse the lawful orders of the officers regardless of the severity of the action that he was being accused of, he was still being placed under arrest, it was a lawful arrest. >> you just made me think of this, why not wait longer? why not wait for more officers? why the takedown decision in that moment at that time? why not simply wait for more officers, and the presence of overwhelming force may have brought out a different outcome. >> yes, in hindsight, and we talked about this last week in the case of darren wilson in ferguson, in the heat of the moment, knowing what you know as the situation is progressing i saw eric garner when i first saw

this tape some months ago that his back was to the wall. being a very, very large individual, he certainly had the opportunity to be dangerous and difficult to subdue. >> right, right. >> yes, the officers could have waited. that certainly was within their toolbox, and nypd, being one of the greatest law enforcement agencies in the world, certainly has the amount of people that did respond once they went hands on. >> okay. leo, boy, just watching this again. leo, i want to read the statement from the mayor of new york, bill de blasio, and i have a question for you. new yoryou. we trust tha

>> what are your thoughts moving forward on this? i think we know there, there are going to be demonstrations. talk about the new york police department and it's ability to handle what will certainly be an outpooring of emotions over the next day or two. >> the issue here goes back to police tactics. it goes back to community relations. you, i, and others have talked about that law enforcement-community relations that has to be restored. this is not about race specifically, but because of the incidents that have occurred over an oh short period of time they're using them over a call to reform law enforcement and law enforcement tactics. i think that our attorney general and the president could be more supportive of law enforcement, especially our attorney general, and it should also be recognized that with

nearly 900,000 law enforcement officers nationwide and millions of interactions, millions of interactions with the public every year we talk about one or two cases. yes, these are heinous case where is two people are dead, and maybe that could have been avoided. i don't know. >> i want to get to that. i want to get to that in just a moment, and we'll spend time with you here. what is your issue with the attorney general? >> it seems to me, and it seems to many in the law enforcement community that the attorney general and some of the comments made are flaming--flaming the--fueling the flames of discontent rather than saying, hey listen, we're a nation of laws. as attorney general i have sworn an oath to up hold the laws. i'll continue to look at ways that we can be more constructive in our public relations, if

there are training issues we're going look into those issues. we hear your concerns. our ears are open, but we'll work collaboratively with law enforcement to make a difference. >> let's go back to the video. the choke hold was banned years ago by the new york police department, yet, that's what we're going to see here. that's what happened here. doesn't that speak at least to criminal negligence in this case? and i don't know if that was one of the charges available to this grand jury. it must speaking is to you. does it speak to criminal negligence? >> the fact that you use a coke hold ban, it's a policy of nba not to employ choke holds in the heat of the moment with that large of an individual, should

that officer have used a choke hold to subdue him? absolutely not, especially when it's outside of the boundaries of policy. but you see throughout the video that eric garner continued to repel any attempts to subdue him. he could have said, give me the double cuffs. i'm a big guy. let's not have a fight. but he didn't. for a misdemeanor-type offense he should have acquiesced to the orders of the arrest. he didn't. it doesn't mine that the choke hold itself, i know what the autopsy says, but positional asphyxia and some of thed adjuncts or efforts to his resistence could have caused injury to his neckier. we've all been hands on. that choke hold is something

that they employ all the time for submission. in this case he didn't pass out from the choke hold. he passed out from positional asphyxia. >> let's go to the entire timeline, on july 19th the nypd stripped officer pantalio from his gun and badge. is that standard procedure or is there something more to this? >> they may have said they saw the chokehold, and they said, hey, that's banned. while we conduct our investigation we're going to take you off the street. we're going to take your gun and ba badge away. that's a pretty hefty step. in other situations you see where they're simply not working. they take them off the road and put them on a desk job, or send

them home because that's the best over all. politics comes in to this a little bit. in this case there was use of a banned hands-on method that the commissioner and others chose to take him off the street, take his gun and badge away. >> i want to be clear on what you're saying to me here. on august first from the timeline here the new york city medical examiner ruled the homicide to be by choke hold. i hear you agreeing with the idea that it should not be used. but did i hear you saying that he did not die from choke hold but positional asphyxia. >> that's correct. >> what is the difference here? >> the difference is the crushing of the larynx. the windpipe may not have of death, especially if they tried to intubate him afterwards.

it would have been hard to find. that injury to the windpipe was caused solely by the choke hold, and the medical examiner may have not taken in account the full spectrum of the entire situation, the totality of circumstances, but did he talk about the attending causes, that being his health. that being his weight, and a few other factors that i read about. is it a homicide? well, he died because they were on top of him even from his positional asphyxia. certainly i can see the medical examiner calling it homicide. but it's a criminally negligence homicide, well, the grand jury says no. >> one more, and thanksgiving for your time and patience on this. explain to my from a police

perspective how a violated police policy that results in a death, does it necessarily lead to a criminal indictment? >> again, totality of exercises. it's also banned to take an hour and a half lunch. bad analogy. >> but you ban the choke hold because it can kill people? >> because it can cause unnecessary injury, not necessarily death. you know, we didn't see someone striking him in the windpipe that would damage it so much. again, let's use our personal experience in wrestling, fighting and ufc that we see on tv all the time. they're doing much, much worse. so you look at the totality of

circumstances to mr. garner, who is an extremely big guy, physically huge. my guess, 330 pounds or more. now to two much smaller officers are trying to subdue him. they're asking him, ordering him to acquiesce to arrest, he doesn't. now they decide to take him down to the ground. to even the ability to subdue him. and maybe forgot their training. these are officers who are still going to face departmental charges, certainly civil liability. >> oh, yes. >> that will come into it because that have violation of nypd policy. >> that's a good place to leave it. leo. thanks for your people. leo mcguire. former sheriff of bergen county, new jersey. good to talk to you. we'll give a look at the timeline here.

key events in the eric garner case. there was a case between garner and officer daniel pantaleo. garner was pronounced dead at the hospital. pantaleo was stripped of his gun and badge. and then they suspended four emts and workers without pay. august 1st it was ruled a death by choke hold. in late september a grand jury began hearing evidence against officer panteleo and on october 13th, a new york counsel man criminalized the use of the choke hold by nypd officer. robert, i believe you've heard a lot of that conversation with

leo, but let me start here. are you surprised at all by this decision? >> well, no, unfortunately, i'm not surprised because this type of decision is par for the course as it relates to police officers and african-americans. i listened to your guest, and with all due respect and i try to be as respectful as i can, he's just flat out wrong when he's talking about positional asphyxia. the medical examiner has a number of options he can place on that autopsy. positional asphyxia. that didn't happen here. he said it was due specifically to the choke hold. you clued right in to this thing. chokeholds are improper. they've been outlawed by nypd or reduced to an elimination by protocol, yet they're using it, and you have a man that is employed on, and he said, i

can't breathe. i can't breathe. i can't breathe. and he dies. you're tell meg there is no indictment, no criminal behavior, not even criminally negligent homicide. >> robert, as we just mentioned, it was a question that i asked leo a moment ago, and i'll ask it again. the choke hold was banned years ago by nypd. how is it that you didn't get an indictment in this case. this surprises me. >> we don't get an indictment in this case the same reason we don't get the an indictment in scores of other races. incidents. race is. we saw the choke hold, we saw

the improper behavior we saw a man die before our eyes. and yet it wasn't enough for a grand jury to say that he didn't deserve to tigers and there was some criminal behavior here. what would it take to be able to indict a police officer who kills an african-american man. >> robert, i need you to explain this because i know a lot of people are saying the same thing, that race is a factor here. in your way of thinking, as someone who works in this field, explain to me how race is a factor and plays out in this particular case? >> well, in this particular case what it comes counse down to, tony, is devaluation of african-american life, and as animals who have to be subdued. as more dangerous than anybody else. then you don't have the same

empathy as someone who looks like you or is from your community. i have to suggest to you that given all the data that we have now, with this information, they tend to bear out what i'm saying more than anything else. the fact of the matter is you have african-americans who are killed at an alarming rate. 12-year-old who is are shot in the streets, an alarming rate. it just doesn't happen to the general white community. we got to find a way to explain it. unfortunately the history of this county has been where you cannot find a rational explanation in law and procedure, it will generally come down to an irrational fear caused by race. >> appreciate it. hopefully you can get in to talk to us later in the set today. thanks for your time now. a lot of people reacting to the grand jury decision on social media. ines has a look at that for us.

>> reporter: blogger elon james white. he said, i'm an idiot. i'm advised. i thought a coroner ruling it it a homicide and a video of the encounter would mean something. antonio french, who you recognize that name, right, tony, from ferguson. he writes this must end. we cannot continue to have an entire group of americans who can be killed without consequence or legal recourse. chris rotherham writing this one was on film, and this picture being tweeted out by dwayne davi saying erci, his life mattered. this is his death and his death matters. >> keith paul, i think he ran for public office here in new york city, we should try to get him on our program. maybe you can help us with that,

ines. >> will do. >> we'll have much more on the grand jury decision coming up, but first it's airbags have been exploding. but manufacturer takata said it does not need to issue a national recall. that coming up next.

>> less than ten hours before text was set to execute scott paneti, an appeals court granted a stay of execution. his lawyers say he's too mentally ill for capital punishment, and that his execution would be unconstitutional. heidheidi zhou castro, this should give the courts a little more time to consider this question. >> that's right, the question is whether scott panetti is legally competent. his attorney said that his illness changes and he's sicker than before. >> scott panetti will live mother day. the fifth circuit court of appeals will stay the execution

pending further order of the court to allow us to fully consider the late arriving and complex legal issues. >> he was hospitalized more than a dozen times. then in 1992 he shot and killed his wife's parents. >> he did so believing that this was a fight between good and evil, and in killing them he was getting rid of the devil. >> but that defense never made it into evidence because panetti was allowed to represent himself as trial. he dressed as a cowboy, and tried to subpoena god and jfk and told an alter ego named sergeant was responsible for the murders. >> he has the strongest form of schizophrenia that i've ever seen. >> reporter: he said that

panetti did not have an understanding of his punishment. >> in my opinion he did not understand why he was being put to death. he thought he was being put to death for preaching the word of the gospel. >> panetti said they're grateful. he argue th that it would amount to cruel and unusual punishment. that question is still before the u.s. supreme court. now what makes this case unique different from other executions that i've covered is the ground swell of support. there have been u.n. experts, evangelical leaders who have all said that this man's life should be spared. >> heidi zhou castro for us in huntsville, texas. thank you. japanese auto bag maker takata refused to issue a nationwide recall of its faulty driver side airbags. the company said that it's not

necessary. only in areas where there is high humidity is at risk. takata executives faced difficult questions on capitol hill. lisa stark has more on this. what is takata's rationale for not doing a nationwide recall, and did members of congress buy it? the answer to that is no. >> they did not, and they wanted to know the rationale of what takata executives who told them that the current problem is with older airbags in areas of high humidity, hot temperatures, so there is no reason for a nationwide recall. but law enforcements were really skeptical. one of them said if i live in northern florida my airbags are recalled but if i live in georgia, it is not? here is california representative harry waxman.

>> the confusing contrary and sometimes purely nonsensical information that comes from takata is confusing to drivers. they don't know if their cars are safe. this confusion is ex-as per baited by the different ways that auto manufacturers are handling the situation. . >> it will go for that nationwide recall, and that will be a help because most of the cars affected are from honda, but they will push for a broader recall yet. >> we're falling breaking news of a grand jury decides not to indict in the case of erik garner, a black man who died after a white police officer put him in a choke hold. we'll hear what the congressional leaders say in just a moment.

>> a new york city grand jury announced two and a half hours ago now that it will not indict a white police officer for the death of another unarmed black man in july. eric garner died when officer pantaleo put him in a choke hold, in violation to nypd policy. >> a human being was killed. he was surrounded by policemen. no one else touched him. and the grand jury did not say that he committed suicide. they didn't say what happened. that's why it's important that the district attorney has the obligation to bring the information to the american penal to see how they could have

possibly stretched the imagination to reach that decision. >> let's bring in glen martin, founder of just leadership usa. are you surprised at all by the decision? >> not very surprised. while we keep looking at these individual cases and hoping for the right outcome the truth is it's the entire system that is not working. whether it happens in ferguson or new york, we're going to see the same outcome. >> what does that mean? >> our criminal justice system in the united states, everyone is looking at the choke hold grip on eric garner, and that's important, but that has been on people of color and poor people for hundreds of years in the united states. the outcomes that we're see something from a system that creates space for this sort of behavior to happen to people of color, people who don't have resources to depend themselves and get away with it. >> look at this, and what do you see here when you look at this

video? i see a moment when there is a moment for discretion here when he's saying, i can't breathe, i can't breathe. one, two, three, four five police officers. in the shot. there's the fifth. there is a moment here it seems to me, when you watch that video based on the comments you just made, what do you see? >> i see a criminal justice system that lacks compassion. i see a criminal justice system that has made a decision on the criminality of the person targeted. i see a system that leaves no room for alternatives to an approach towards a person who allegedly has broken the law. >> yet we have a former chief who was on a few moments ago who told that's there is room for discretion, that training that police officers get allows for an even different outcome than the one we're seeing here. that there is room for a different set of procedures to

be brought to bear on someone like eric garner. >> i think train something important. but we're talking about a paramilitary organization, an organization easily influenced by leadership. an organization that is easily influenced by values instilled in the organization. whether it's nypd, ferguson, or many of the other police departments around the country, especially those that police poor communities and communities of color there is no space that the person they're targeting is perhaps not the right person or the heavy handed use that we s see. >> do you think a different outcome here if officer pantealeo is not white but african-american? is it the training that all officers get regardless of race? every script i read its white officer, it's white officer. >> that's where we get ourselves in trouble.

if we focus on the individual case it's a good conversation to start talk about the system. but if we only label the one officer as racist, to me it doesn't play into the conversation. he's part of an over all system that allows this sort of behavior. >> isn't that training? doesn't that comment speak to better training? training against profiling. >> i think cultural competence. >> cultural competency. >> what does that mean? >> you're coming in to increase public safety. the narrative we're hearing now if you don't want the police officer there you must not care about public safety. when mayor bloomberg was being pushed hard on sto stop and frisk the response was not to

put police officers in certain communities. but that's not what we're asking for. talk to me about the mayor. we're talking about the mayor to hold a press conference, and we know at the heart of this there is going to be the call for peace. >> the mayor canceled a bill signing event he had this afternoon an headed straight to staten island where he'll have a media availability to describe it, and take questions and meet with members of clergy in staten island, and talk about the frustration that a lot of people have for the way the verdict went down, but asking people if they're going to protest, do it peacefully. but there is more information that is coming out from daniel pantaleo's lawyer to give us more information why the grand jury did what it did. officer daniel pantaleo was one of the last to speak, and he was

going to be indicted unless he agreed to testify. when he testified, what he told the panel was that he thought he was doing his job. he was following the training that he had no intention of hurting eric garner. the way he was holding garner he didn't even consider that to be a choke hold but following the training that he thought. what that did for the grand jury according to pantaleo's lawyer, you have to show intent. but then the question comes what about the other charge, reckless endangerment, that is where some of the controversy will come. even if pantaleo testifies and says i thought i was following my training. if you know, if you have a sense of what you're doing might injury the person, you can stilling charged with reckless endangerment. why then didn't at least 12 members say okay, we're not going to charge him with murder

or homicide, there was no intent, but we can charge him with reckless endangerment. even though he thought he was doing his training, he was doing something that he could easily conclude would lead to injury. >> look, the choke hold was banned. >> the choke hold was banned. but a few weeks ago there was indication that the officer was going to suggest that he was doing a legal hold that he learned in his training, and that opened the door that the jury could make a separate decision. but let's look at venue. this is staten island, this is where the majority of law enforcement live and reside. and you have a jury who is much more sympathetic to them. >> and the person who did the videography of this, that person was indicted by a grand jury in staten island over gun charge. he said, look, the police alleged that he fired a gun improperly. it came remarkably a few weeks

after he took this video. he said this is retribution because i captured something that they didn't want. but in staten island they decided this guy on gun charges when they don't decide other people in similar charges in the community. >> the joke is you can indict a ham sandwich. you have to ask questions about what happened here. >> wait a minute. i don't know what the population or demographics of staten island are. >> a lot lighter than you and i. >> would there be african-americans, you suspect, on this grand jury? >> 23 members of the grand jury because the grand jury rules will not disclose race or sex. >> here's the question that i have for you, most police officers in this country never draw their weapon. they're never involved in a police-involved shooting of this nature. there are two things that come to mind. first of all, is it possible that a false narrative is being created here.

we're grabbing these high-profile cases, this eric garner case, and we can have a debate about that, ferguson, trayvon martin, on and on. but does that create the narrative that it's open season on african-americans, and turns them into reality television? is there a problem here that we're creating a false narrative that is open season on african-americans when we know that most police officers never draw their service weapon? >> look, i have an older brother who is a member of the u.s. marshal, and carries a weapon day in and day out. there are many who just go and do their job. but it's quite the opposite. i think social media, access to cameras on cells and so on help expose american to what people of color and poor people have been saying for many years in the united states. so whether it's creating a pattern that may not be as prevalent that may sound, it's actually unimportant. we're having a discussion about

it. we're having a debate about it, and hopefully we'll get some change as a result. there is value in it whether it's made up in media or no, i think there is value in it. >> part of that debate has been framed the last couple of days, by the mayor or the police commissioner has been a desire to take some of the sting out of what they feared was the result. it was just yesterday releasing the latest crime statistics showing that crimes have gone down. robbers have gone down by 14%. grand larceny is down by 13%. he pointed out stop and frisk has gone down by-- >> hugely controversial program. >> so in 2011685000 incidents of stop and frisk. bill de blasio in his run for mayor comes out against stop and frisk. a lot of democrats running for mayor did not. then amidst the debecauseio campaign, that fuels de blasio's

political rise. this is what triggered it, de blasio said he would not suggest that choke holds be made illegal. it's up to the police department whether they want to do this, but it should not be against the law because he wants to leave it up to individual police office officers. that sliver to the grand jury leapt on to it, and even though there is not a law against it, and therefore we cannot bring a charge based on that. >> appreciate it. thank you both. appreciate it. we'll get to some other news for the top of the hour. secretary of state john kerry said that the u.s.-led coalition against isil is making strides, but a lot of work is left to do. he met with top diplomats that launched more than a thousand airstrikes against isil, but those on the ground still have not seen a lot of progress. tim friend has more were

brussels. >> reporter: the coalition assertion that it's making progress against isil would be treated with skepticism here as they wait for the next attack. a small team of doctors and nurses providing the only remaining medical services in the syrian border town of kobane is preparing for a new surge of admissions as fighting intensifies. a single aid station is all that left after two of three medical facilities were destroyed when isil struck the town in september. those holding isil at bay receive treatment here. >> now as the situation permits we'll find other places where we can hospitalize the injured because we know that the number will increase, and more injured will come. we have to be ready. the most important thing for us is to have an operating room.

>> they insist they're making progress in military operations, cutting off finance and supplies as well as flow to supplies to isil. but there is a long way to go as the secretary of state admitted. >> we have made already significant progress in two and a half months. but we also acknowledge there is a lot more work yet to be done. daesh is still perpetrating terrible crimes. but there was a consensus that the momentum, which it had exhibited two and a half months ago, has been halted. >> mr. kerry refused to comment on reports that iran had flown a bombing mission against isil over iraq. the iraqi prime minister, who was also here, spoke of isil's global threat. >> the challenge that we're face

something not only the challenge of police, but the whole world. this is the most criminal organization that has committed atrocities in iraq and syria, and we have to stop them. >> the medics in kobane don't need to be told how urgent that task is. tim friend, al jazeera, brussels. >> meanwhile the pentagon confirms that iran is also conducting airstrikes against isil in iraq, the u.s. and iran both say they're not partnering in the operations. jamie mcintyre is live for us in washington. what more do we know about iran's operation at this point? >> well, tony, about a week ago al jazeera caught on video what appeared to be american made f 4 phantom jet. that's significant because the f-4 was sold to iran in the days of the shah, and only a couple of couples in the region fly those, including turkey, which

the united states knows is not conducting airstrikes in iraq. military experts say looking at the plane it's clear that it's an iranian plane, and the pentagon is not confirming that, but privately they're saying yes, they're well aware that iran is conducting some airstrikes in support of forces on the ground. they're trying to retake areas in iraq, but they insist they're not coordinating with the iranians. >> why all this bending over backwards, this posturing to deny that the country are coordinating here? >> in a sense they're coordinating. iran is coordinating with iraq. the u.s. is coordinating with iraq, which is a sovereign country. they have to deacon flick these planes where they fly at the same time. it's tantamount to coordinating the airstrikes just for safety measures. although through an intermediateaire. the united states is really wary of any sort of alliance with

iran at a it has accused in the past meddling with internal affairs with iraq, and siding with the iraqi shia against the iraqi sunni, the minority in iraq. so the u.s. really want to keep an arm's distance, but even secretary kerry admitted that he said if iran is conducting these strikes, it would an positive thing. >> jamie mcintyre for us in washington. a new lawsuit filed against comedian bill cosby. the woman behind it claims that the comedian molested her 40 years ago when she was underage. >> here we go, the woman claims that she and a friend on a movie set, she was 15. he was 37. now 40 years later she's not only going public, she's suing it's comedian. this is the first time that the rent wave of accusations against bill cosby has resulted in legal action. it's the latest storyline to play out in the cosby sex abuse

allegations. the woman claims the actor and comedian molested her when she was 15. judy huff's law enforcement describes the 15% in a friend meeting crosby, 37 at the time, on a movie set. a week later they met cos cost by where thecosby again, and he forced her to perform a sex act. this latest victim can move forward under a special california law, which allows an extended statute of limitations if the assault took place while the victim was a minor, and it's brought within three years that the victim now an adult realized there are psychological consequences. >> huff is the latest in a series of women to come forward

in recent weeks. claiming that in her dealings with the comedian years ago, he drugged and raped them and touched them inappropriately. >> i had one glass of wine. the next thing i knew i was coming to. the next thing i remember is waking up in bed naked next to cosby. >> i had been sexually assaulted by this man. >> in 2005 cosby was yo sued by a staffer, alleged that the comedian drugged and sexual assaulted her. that case was settled out of court. >> any celebrity who is alleged to have done something as awful as this says if you can beat it in court, beat it in court. >> forcing the cancellation of shows on his comedy tour and prompting netflix and nbc to

shelf programs. saying in a statement i have always wanted to do what would be the best interest of the university and students, and on wednesday the university of massachusetts asked the 77-year-old comedian to step down as honorary co-chair man of the school's fundraising campaign. cosby agreed. >> once again he has never been criminally charged stemming from any of the sex abuse allegations. he and his lawyers have denounced all allegations as unfound: in california criminal charges can only be filed in the most serious sexual assault if the crime occurred in 1988 or later. so it does not apply in this case. >> coming up on al jazeera america we'll have much more on the breaking news of a grand jury decision not to indict the police officer involved in the

eric garner case. and part two of our investigation into burn pits that may have threatened the health of thousands of troops.

>> america tonight sheila mcvicar has our report. >> reporter: there he goes. for years in afghanistan and iraq the u.s. military burned its trash. everything from garbage to chemicals to tires to plastics and more. in smoldering burn pits. burn pits that by law should have been put out of business. a law designed to protect the health of service men and women, and the contractors working along side them. >> if you have over 100 people at a base, and you're there for more than 90 days, you need to start developing plans to get rid of your burn spits. >> gene was tasked with inspecting of how the u.s. spent its money in afghanistan. the department of defense had a legal obligation to invest in incinerators. incinerators that burn trash at highe less pollution.

not only did it not follow the law, it wasted $20 million of taxpayers dollars. >> they understand the difference between using incinerators and burn pits, what they don't understand how do you properly get this done, and how do you hold people accountable for when they screw up? >> let's bring in sheila mcvicar for us. where were these incinerators not used? >> that's the $20 million question, certainly in the case of afghanistan. the incinerators were ordered. they were shipped, in many cases they were delivered to bases. in many cases they were never installed. in some places they were installed incorrectly. and through all of this the special inspector general, did you pay the contractor? yes, they did pay the contractor, even though the contractor did not complete the

work that they said they would do, the contractor got paid. >> so who has been held accountable for all this? >> well, that, indeed, that's the other $20 million question. so they have said to the u.s. army corps of engineers, well, are you going to take a look at this? they said yes, they'll take a look. they came back and completely exonerated everyone involved. so the special inspectors office again asks the u.s. army corps of engineers take another look, and they're waiting to hear from them. it may be what goes forward has to happen in the courts through civil lawsuit that have been filed against the contractor in iraq an on behalf of contract workers and on behalf of some veterans. >> sheila mcvicar. you can see the entire report, that's at 9:00 p.m. eastern time tonight. we're following breaking news for you. the grand jury decides not to

indict when a black man dice when a white officers puts him in a choke hold. we have live pictures for you there. and the president just addressed a decision, more on that coming up next.

>> the streets of philadelphia where protests are happening right now after a grand jury decided not to indict the officer caught on camera flipping an unarmed eric garner in a choke hold. president obama came out to discuss the eric garner grand jury decision. he echoed the feelings of congressional officials that the mistrust between minority communities and authorities is a national problem not a local one. >> men and women put on an

uniform to protect us. they have a right to come home, just like we do from our jobs. that there is real crime out there that they've got to tackle day in and day out. but they're only going to be their job effectively if everybody has confidence in the system. right now, unfortunately, we're seeing too many instance where is people don't have confidence that folks are treated fairly. in some cases those may be misperceptions, but in some cases that's a reality. it is incumbent by all of us as americans regardless of race, region, faith, that we recognize this is an american problem and not just a black problem or a brown problem or a native american problem. this is an american problem. when anybody in this country is not being treated equally under the law, that's a problem.

>> president obama from moments ago. a lot of people reacting as you can well imagine. ines is with us again. what are people saying? >> tony, let's start with mc who writes: >> that should an banned choke hold. it's not illegal. there is no law against it. where i can i'll change it because then folks start thinking it's one thing where it's not. >> and chris kluwe said: >> ines thank you.

we'll come back to new york once the mayor begins to speak. let's send it to ray suarez for inside story in washington, d.c. >> the war in syria has chased millions of people from their homes. now one of the refugees' most important lifelines, the world food program says it's out of money. it's inside story. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. mi