foxnews.com and follow us on twitter at jer@fnc. hope to see you right here next week. fox news alert, a bloody attack rocking the capital city of kenya. new video in of adults and children running for their lives. look at this. we're learning that several gunmen stormed an upscale shopping center firing ak-47s, throwing grenades, allegedly targeting non-muslims. and the state department says that americans may be among the injured. so we're going to keep close tabs on that. hello, everybody. >> welcome to a brand new "america's news headquarters." the red cross says nearly two dozen people are dead and that number is expected to rise. right now the associated press

is reporting the somali militant group has claimed responsibility for the attack. let's bring in now fox's conor powell who is following the developments from our mideast bureau. >> reporter: well, it was a violent and bloody day today in nairobi and appears kenyan police now have the situation under control but it's not entirely clear if the entire fighting is over. we believe at least one of the gunmen is in custody right now. several appear have been killed or at least injured severely. we don't know if they are all either dead or in custody right now. there still might be some out there. the group that is saying that they are responsible for the attack say they still have fighters in the mall, the police have given the indication it's under control. now it began earlier today around noon local time in nairobi as gunmen stormed an upscale shopping mall in the heart of nairobi's international community. witnesses say the gunmen were carrying ak-47 rivals and throwing grenades and were

targeting nonmuslims and westerners telling muslims to leave a food court area before opening fire there. fox news has learned that a shopping mall was owned by a wealthy israeli businessman. we don't know the motive behind the attack. east africa, of course, is home to several al qaeda-linked groups that operate in the region. the somali militant organization which appears behind today's attack has previously vowed to attack nairobi after kenya sent troops into somalia two years ago. now east africa, of course, is no stranger to terror attacks. more than 200 people were killed in 1998 when al qaeda bombed u.s. embassies in nairobi and in neighboring tanzania. violence is common, has been common all the more so when kenya has gotten more involved in somalia. for right now, we are hearing that at least 30 people have been killed and possibly some americans have either been killed or injured. >> conor powell, thank you very

much for that update there. and now for more on the rampage in nairobi, let's bring in a former official with the state department. and christian, you just heard conor say it's al shabab, they're claiming responsibility for that. according to the "associated press." and this is in part because you know, christian, kenya sent troops in to somalia to help control the chaos there, much of which is the chaos at the head of the al shabab. starting there, what does this say about al qaeda in general? if al qaeda is still standing strong or if it's the arm there in somalia, al shabab arm that has maintained the strength. >> well, i think it's important to note that al shabab maintains an ability to act. it was set back in somalia. at one point, looked like it was going to take over the last few blocks of mogadishu. that was all that was left of the non-islamist controlled part

of somalia. and that's been pushed back. i think it's important also to remember and this reminds us that there's more to the islamist political movement and its terrorist vanguard then just al qaeda. and so we're seeing in places like north africa, we're seeing in syria it's the front. and now in east africa, once again, seeing al shabab. so there are all of these groups in cahoots with al qaeda. >> when you talk about those groups, naturally as americans, we want to bring the focus here for a moment. it begs to ask the question, can those groups as you say -- as they're in cahoots, can they work in concert to have a formidable attack on america? >> al shabab has not demonstrated an ability to act outside of its own region yet. never say never, it's been a long time since the strike on the u.s. homeland so you always worry about that. i think what's more concerning is just the steady political

inroads they're making throughout east and also islamists making inroads in west africa. had to invade recently to dislodge islamists there. this is a problem where we haven't gotten a handle on the political dimension. and as far as concerns for americans, i think the biggest threat is to americans traveling because this looks as though westerners, israelis were particularly targeted. >> right. and in that area, there's an upscale area in nairobi, a lot of very upscale affluent kenyans live there. and it is a place where many go, many of them working at the u.n. over there. you've got 44 million people there in kenya, 83% christian, 11% muslim and you have eyewitnesss there at the mall saying those gunmen before they opened fire and threw grenades into the mall, they said muslims get out. let's talk about that component of this site here, if you would, christian. >> right, it seems as though the

islamists are trying to create a division between the muslim and christian community. this is sort of their m.o. whether it's just, you know, islamists trying to separate muslims from christians or within islam different sects, different sectarian struggles. this is part of the political and violent military effort that they are undertaking. and, you know, we've seen it again and it's not just, of course, in africa, goes all the way to southern thailand and some precincts far away. >> how do you put a cap on the chaos, christian? >> it's very hard. i think at the end of the day, something grappled with in the bush administration unsuccessfully and the u.s. government has that difficulty addressing is the political and ideological component of the struggle. we knew in the cold war it wasn't just the red army that was the problem, it was the communist ideology. and so we did things to undermine that ideology. it's been more difficult for us to do that with islamism, which

is the political philosophy of unifying mosque and state. part of that is a concern that fighting islamism is fighting islam, even though i'd argue they're very different things. things we're still struggling with. >> before i let you go, i want to remind people, these pictures we're looking at here, this is an upscale mall, people. these are people like you and me who might want to visit a mall on a saturday afternoon and you've got people whose lives have been taken, they've just gone there to shop and that's what people have to remember. yes, it's far away, it's not happening in our backyard and, god forbid it happens in our backyard, but there are people involved. >> absolutely. christian, thanks very much. let's mbu on now. another fox news alert on a surge of violence in iraq. dozens of people are now dead after a series of attacks there including a funeral bombing. in baghdad, a driver driving a car full of explosives into a

tent packed with mourners and that killed more than 50 people in a shiite neighborhood and another attack at a police headquarters leaving several officers dead. and we're learning three nato soldiers there were killed in the province not far from kabul. reports say the soldiers were shot by a man wearing the uniform of an afghan security forces. no word yet if any troops were involved. now to washington, d.c. where the countdown, of course, is on, nine days until a possible government shutdown. and a few weeks from possible government default. that is unless deals are struck on the budget, health care, the debt ceiling, republican-dominated house approving a stopgap plan to keep the government running but it strips funding from obama care, at least the house side, the senate unlikely to approve the house plan. and the white house will

certainly not do that. president obama saying today he will not allow the affordable health care act to be held hostage by the republican party. all right. coming up, veterans putting their military training to work here at home. it's a new kind of mission, recovery and building in disaster zones. we have the story of how they're helping to clean up flood-ravaged colorado. and it has been more than a year since terrorist attacks claimed the lives of four americans in benghazi, libya, including the ambassador there and relatives, they want answers. >> one silly question i have is every time i see this on tv, i see these bloody fingerprints crawling down a wall of that benghazi place. and i keep asking everybody, are there -- do those belong to my son? and nobody has told me anything. when you have diabetes like i do,

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time for a quick check of the headlines now. lawyers for five gitmo prisoners now fighting hacked e-mails in their request to put off the 9/11 terror trail. prosecutors say they've heard it all before. last time it was accusations of the government eavesdropping on private meetings. no trial date has been set. u.s. airways now remain the most fee hungry domestic airline. the ranking is based on airfare watchdogs new fee chart, which weighs fees ordinary passengers pay. and at least 22 people killed in a rampage in kenya. witnesses say gunmen stormed a shopping mall, told muslims to leave and opened fire on the remaining crowd. big new developments this week in the investigation into the benghazi terror attack, including gripping testimony

from relatives of two of the victims. it has been more than a year since the attack in libya left four americans dead including the ambassador chris stevens. no arrests have been made. no one responsible for consulate security has been held accountable. pat smith mother of shawn smith took the floor at this week's senate hearing pleading for answers she says she was promised by president obama and his administration. >> i was told a few things and they were all lies. obama and hillary and panetta and biden and susan all came up to me at the casket ceremony. every one of them came up to me, gave me a big hug and i asked them what happened, please tell me. and every one of them says, it was the video. and we all know that it wasn't the video even at that time they

knew it wasn't the video. so they all lied to me. but what they said was i will check up on it and get back to you for sure. and you know how many times i heard from them? none. i don't count. people of america don't count. the only thing that counts is their own selves and their own jobs and the people involved in this get suspended for a short time, paid the whole time and rehired or whatever it is they do. i want to know what happened to my son. why can't these people tell me this? >> well, that is a great question. joining us now house oversight committee member congressman pat meehan. congressman, she's got a point, doesn't she? and isn't it inexplicable if not incompetent for this review board, which appears now to be incredibly biased never to have interviewed the top accountable

person, hillary clinton? >> well, let's start with the testimony which was gripping from patricia smith and, of course, what she was most concerned about were the face-to-face representations made to her at this site of her son's own casket and promises made by the president, the vice president, the secretary of state and the head of the department of defense. that they would give her answers. they misled her. in her opinion, it was her testimony. they lied to her and failed to follow up. and her -- >> do you -- >> the word most gripping -- i don't trust the government. >> do you think hillary clinton lied? because we now know that the white house and the department of state knew within 12 hours of the attack that, in fact, this had nothing to do with a video that, in fact, it was a terrorist attack and, yet, for days hillary clinton said otherwise as you heard, you know, the victim's mother talk about. did hillary clinton lie? >> well, certainly with regard

to the idea this was driven by the video which is what mrs. smith was asking. that was -- that's been proven to be false. if hillary clinton's her testimony, she said it was -- >> did she lie under oath, congressman? >> well, she didn't lie under oath i'm aware of because nobody's been able to put her under oath in the sense of asking the kinds of tough questions that the arb should've asked her. in fact, nobody took testimony on this review board of hillary clinton. that was one of the questions that was raised, why not? >> the other question is, where was the president in all of this and the arb never interviewed the president. never even asked him. we know that he was not in contact after 6:00 p.m. with the secretary of defense. and we assume he went to bed. well, americans were under sieged being slaughtered and others were injured. shouldn't he have been interviewed, as well? and doesn't that suggest to you that this arb board just plain

incompetent? >> well, the appropriate question from the arb do work their way up the line. and that was what we were trying to establish was that they stopped at a point in which they drew conclusions, put all the responsibilities down below when, in fact, real critical decisions were made by people who have not been held accountable. people back here in washington, and i demonstrated there have been that the very individual has discussed issues exactly like the closure of our embassies overseas directly with the secretary of state in the past. was the testimony of the undersecretary kennedy that on a daily basis he monitored issues in overseas. and the idea that nobody asked what he discussed with the secretary of state clinton and what the president do. >> don't you want to know why

these people were not rescued? we have talked to experts who said they could have been rescued. this went on for many, many hours. this attack. 700 special ops ex-members sent a letter saying as much. gregory hicks who is the former deputy chief of the mission said they could have been saved. yet, nobody's really ever asked president obama or anybody in the administration why you didn't do it. why didn't you save these people? >> well, there certainly are questions and there's a lot of facts people have put up about whether, in fact, they could have gotten there in time. you heard the testimony. what struck me was the testimony from tyrone woods' father in which he was -- he says himself that he's been told by others who are there who would, again, not appeared to have been interviewed that they were told three times not to stand down from the annex, not to go there,

and tyrone woods disregarded that because he knew his colleagues were in peril and he did respond, gave his life because of it. there is the testimony of woods that others have told him that they were told to stand down. that was right next door to the facility. and those are the reasons that we want to hear from people who appeared not to have been interviewed. >> congressman -- >> by this 30-second hard out. is this a cover up and is it blatant? >> well it is certainly not a thorough investigation in the way that it was advertised. that's the key. they have been relying on this as if it was a dispassionate -- >> you don't want to call it a cover up. how come you don't want to call it a cover up? >> well, you know, you can call it a cover up. >> why don't you call it a cover up. that's what i am asking. >> i want to see accountability. i think they are asking questions, but they are failing to ask the right people the questions all the way to the top.

>> and it has been a year which is ridiculous. congressman, thank you for being with us. we appreciate it. we will be right back. don't go away.

>> welcome back. a newly declassified document describes how close the u.s. came to a nuclear disaster. it was january 1961 in america near the height of the cold war with russia. one of our nearly four mega ton hydrogen bombs nearly detonated, one on u.s. soil, when a b52 bomber broke up in flight over golds burrow, north carolina. it sent two h-bomb tots ground. only a single safety switch

averting the catastrophe. that would have been 260 times more powerful than the one that flattened hiroshima. >> can you believe it? >> that makes your skin crawl. that's what you are dealing with when you deal with chemical weapons of any sort. >> atomic weapons. it is chilling stuff. terror at a shopping mall in kenya. gunmen allegedly targeting nonmuslims and killing nearly two dozen people and the state department saying americans may have been hurt. new details are coming in right now. a live report is just three minutes away. >> that's our breaking news story of the day. you definitely want to stick around for those details. >> we will be right back. don't go away.

fox news alert, an attack halfway around the world targeting nonmuslims. several storming a shopping center in nairobi. firing ak-47's and throwing grenades into the crowd and sending men, women and children running for cover. and now we are learning that americans may have been among the injured. hello, everybody. welcome to a new hour inside america's news headquarters. >> i'm air they will nestle. arthel. it left 22 dead and more injured. the horror in a country besieged by islamist terrorists. and there are new details

coming in right now. connor powell has more from our mideast bureau. connor? >> the worst of the violence seems to be over as authorities in kenya seem to have the situation under control. we are just getting word and one of the gunmen was in custody and the police had taken him into custody and he has died of his gun wounds, gunshot wounds that he suffered during the shootout. right now it is not believed the kenyan police have any of the shooters in custody. we know several have been killed and one just died here minutes ago. we are also hearing from the state department that the american citizens may have been involved in terms of being at the shopping mall or affected by the violence that took place in nairobi. it started around noon as gunmen stormed an upscale and popular shopping mall in the international and western upscale community. witnesses say the gunman rushed into the shopping mall and were carrying ak-47 rifles and throwing grenades and

targeting nonmuslims and westerners. at the time they were rushing this mall there was a children's event going on in this mall. this was a busy mall and a lot of people out on a saturday afternoon. the attackers even told muslims to leave a food court area before they opened fire on the civilians that were in this mall. now, fox news has learned the owner of the mall was an israeli businessman. we don't know if he was the target. the group is an al-qaeda-linked group and they will take responsibility for the attack. two years ago the canyon -- the kenyan groups tried to put down alshabab. we believe they have launched the attack in response. we are also hearing in the last few minutes that they say there will be no negotiations and there will be more attacks. they aren't claiming responsibility for the attack, but it is not clear if these are al-shabab linked groups.

a lot of information is coming in, but the worst of the fighting is over. there are fears that americans were either injured or possibly killed. but we are still waiting on some type of confirmation from the state department. they are obviously still trying to get information as it is now nighttime in nairobi and things are still a little bit hectic and chaotic. a lot of information is coming in as we await more information. >> connor powell, we will get back with you when you have more details to give us. thank you so much, connor. >> nine days, that's all of the time the government has left to pay its bills. capitol hill is in the middle of a heated budget battle. it is angry there on capitol hill. the house is passing the stop gap spending bill yesterday. it it does keep the government running through mid-december, but the catch is it won't fund obamacare. it is called de funding. well now it is on to the

democratic-held senate. and leaders there say the leaders don't stand a chance. molly is live with more on this. molly, harry reid is giving his best imitation of a a mortician when he said dead, dead, dead. >> president obama may agree. republicans though they will not win on this one. they will not stop obamacare, the affordable care act. even though the republican controlled house passed a bill yesterday to fund the government , but not to provide money for obamacare. now it is the senate's turn to weigh in and he indicated that the senate will have his back. the house republicans are accused of steering the government toward a shutdown. >> there is also a faction on the far right of the republican party who have convinced their leadership to threaten a government shutdown if they can't shut off the affordable care act. some are actually willing to plunge america into default if they can't de fund the affordable care act.

think about that. they would actually plunge this country back into recession all to deny the basic security of health care to millions of americans. >> top senate democrat harry reid has the votes to add obamacare funding to the bill and then send it back to the house. likely at the last minute. it is to force house republicans to act quickly as the clock ticks down to a shutdown. texas senator ted cruise is open to the idea of filibustering senator reid's efforts. >> i will use any and all procedural means available. we don't know for sure how harry reid will tee this up, but rest assured that i will use any and all procedural means we have in front of us. >> now there is a separate issue of raising the debt ceiling limit. they are opposed to another increase. they called house republican speaker john boehner last night and say the limit needs to go up and he, obama, was

not going to negotiate over that. greg? >> i talked to three pros on capitol hill yesterday. they said, look, this is just a charade. really it is to get to mid-october for the second deadline on the debt ceiling. instead of de fund, it is going to be delayed and that all of this is nothing more than political mummary. what do you think. >> that's how things work. it is going to the brink and then pulling back. we feed on it in washington and you are probably right. that's what we will see all fall long. funding or de funding obamacare and it will fall mont. >> thank you look up the definition of a peric, it means a short-term win and a long-term loss. that could be what the republicans are looking at.

molly, thanks very much. art? what do you think? you have the look on your face. >> i do. i will move on. let's stick to the script. president obama is arguing the bop is holding -- the gop is holding the government, his signature plan and the american people hostage to stick it to him. they want the death of the affordable health care act, listen. >> unfortunately right now the debate going on in congress is not meeting the test of health for middle class families. they are not focused on you. they are focused on politics. they are focused on trying to mess with me. if congress doesn't pass the debt ceiling in the next few weeks the united states will default on its obligations.

that's never happened in american history. basically america becomes a dead beat. they want to threaten default to make sure that tens of millions of americans continue not to have health care. it would cut basic health care services for tens of millions of seniors on medicare already. that's what house republicans are fighting for. now they have gone beyond holding congress hostage. they are holding the whole country hostage jie. joining me now is david hawkings, the senior editor of "roll call." do you think there is anything valid in the president's assertions? >> that has become personal, i do. with every modern president who has won a second term, the party on the other side becomes really sort of frustrated and annoyed with the guy. we saw that with the republicans headed out for president bill clinton personally and the democrats had it out for president george w. bush by the fifth and 6th year of the

presidency. it has become personal for them. there is absolutely a faction of the -- the president is right. their objective is to weaken him and make sure he does not go down as one of our better or even decent presidents. i am not sure that is the majority of the faction on the republican side. i think there is just as many people on the republican side who have a genuine commitment to the notion that obamacare is a terrible law and it really needs to be taken off the books as soon as possible. so it is a one-two punch, but there are two factions there. >> and the faction the president is talking about is the far right faction. is there anyway, david, to avoid a government shutdown, increase the nation's credit card limit, if you will, without de funding obamacare? >> i don't see how the republicans are going to be able to pull this off, no i don't. i do think that we are now seven or eight days away, and it is next monday night, the 30th when the government

runs out of spending authority. i think there is a strong argument to be made that there are enough of these junior republican so-called tea party lawmakers that were not around 18 years ago, the last time the government actually shutdown who need to have it proved to them impair rickly that a shutdown does not work for them in the long run. they will insist on this strategy until the government shuts down at least briefly because they have been threatening this since many got here three or four years ago, and they are not going to rest until they test this theory they can bring the president to heal on this. i don't think he is showing any opening at all to yielding in anyway. >> david, if this is the game of stalling that quite frankly the american people are sick of. at what point this far right faction -- if they try to stick it to the president and thus who ever falls along the way side along with that, i

mean how is this really going to play out? you have the senate and they will send it back to the house with reasonable cuts, with obamacare. what does the house do? again i think you agree that nobody and is go -- nobody is going to let the government shutdown. >> i think maybe i miss spoke. i think there is a chance that when this bill comes back from the senate, what we expect is that the democratic leader, senator reid, will allow the debate in the senate to last long enough so that the bill doesn't come back to the house until sometime next weekend and maybe even late next weekend. there is only a short amount of time before the deadline for the republicans to make their next move. >> right, and then we are at the 11th hour like we always are. >> i think there will be a strong push by most conservative republicans to go right back to where they were yesterday. to take the bill and put the de de -- the de fund obamacare

back. that would happen with not enough time left but for the government to shutdown at least briefly and the senate would -- the game is called legislative ping-pong and they would do what they are about to do this week, strip out the de fund obamacare and send it back. i think after doing that once and seeing the public reaction, that is when i think john boehner might be hoping these revolutionaries, these tea party insurgent junior conservatives will realize the strategy didn't work and will allow it to pass. >> let me understand if what you are suggesting. i have to go, but perhaps you are saying speaker boehner says you are not listening to me. have i been trying to coral the troops and get them on board with this plan. we will have to let this go down to the wire. you will have to get your hand slapped by the public and then you will learn your lesson we can't keep playing games like this. >> i think that might be his only viable alternative. and tell his members, remember as we have just been talking

about, you have two more chances to attack this problem. you have the debt limit sometime between the end of october and early november and then remember this is a temporary funding measure that only lasts until two sundays before christmas. they can fight it yet again. >> david hawking, my head hurts. >> mine too. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> david, so on point because the people we have been talking to say that, yes, this is a charade. it is going to the second deadline instead of de fund its delay. so all of this is a bit of a tease, if you will. >> people are over it, to put it lightly. >> and republicans are now being to pay attention to the polling data, oh so important. in the meantime, new developments in the investigation of the security firm that per formed background checks on the navy yard shooter, aaron alexis. the nsa leaker ed snowden. now thought to have misled

officials about the quality of the work, assuming it was work. this as former employees come out with certainly -- personal stories of heavy workloads. elizabeth prann from washington. >> the private company that has grown to be the biggest private contractor handling background checks for the government is called u.s. investigation services or usis. just months ago the same company was on defense after reports surfaced it was responsible for granting clearance to nsa leak erred ward snowden. edward snowden. they say any fault lies in the government, specifically the office of personal management. that's the agency that accepted findings without asking for more investigations. they say contractors are overwhelmed with requests from federal contractors. that sounds reminisce september of the voices in june when employees came forward to say they were flooded with cases. critics say the number continues to grow. >> there are several million

of those around the world. i just think when we have gotten so big we are not sure what we are doing and of course stuff will fall through the cracks. >> reporter: the justice department -- gite justice department and congress alike are vighting the thorough -- are investigating the thoroughness. they want to know how access was granted to aaron alexis. >> how well is the individual background check and security clearance itself being accomplished? they will have plenty of evidence to determine what the quality of the work is and how systemic the problem s. they should be able to get after it and fix it. >> in the wake of the incident lawmakers say there needs to be a thorough review to find inadequate practices while hiring the federal contractors. back to you. >> a wet weekend shaping up for much of the country. heavy rain is targeting areas from the northwest to the gulf states. meanwhile flood advisories are in affect for parts of nebraska as floodwaters move from colorado.

they are talking about now the city of ogalala seeing the brunt of it. but it appears the worst may be over. janice dean is live from the fox weather center. we have our fingers crossed. what is the update? >> we are seeing heavy moisture into the northeast and the gulf coast as this frontal system continues to push eastward. the heaviest of rain along the gulf coast as we get a lot of tropical moisture along this front. we could easily get one to four inches, but you can see on our forecast map, look at new orleans in and around this area. that spot could receive four to five inches in a short period of time. flood advisory ropes for parts of lieu -- advisories are up for parts of louisiana and the panhandle. i want to go back and see where we could seattle the potential for more showers and thunderstorms. this will happen tomorrow. just a heads up because we are still into a rescue phase here around the denver and boulder area. as we get into sunday we will

watch the potential for showers and thunderstorms. it won't be a total washout as we head into the new workweek. things will dry out. a heads up for sunday because we are still watching that situation. also this is china. we have a typhoon that would be a category 3 storm with winds of 125 miles per hour. this could be one of the top five storms to hit hong kong in the last 50 years. hong kong of course has a population of over seven million people. this is going to be a major event over the next 48 hours as this storm barrels toward the hong kong region. we will keep you up-to-date. arthel, back to you. >> that's not a good looking weather shot there. gosh, it is huge. all right, janice dean, thank you very much for that update. >> keep a watch on that. all of those highrises in hong kong? not to mention the island of taiwan that is jam packed. >> again, it is regular folks living there. i would like to

point that out. we in america think they are far away, but they are not. a group of veterans used to seeing lives destroyed by war, well they are on a new rebuild in areas like this one in colorado hit hard by the deadly flooding. they are volunteering to risk their lives once again. aiding in rescues and recovery and clean up and giving hope to people who thought they had lost everything. will -- will carr is live in our newsroom. what a great group of people to do this. tell us about it. >> that's right. these veterans are swarming in areas that need as much help as it can get. overnight we found out there were four new oil spills in the area and that's because these floodwaters have hit several areas. the flood killed seven people and there are still 60 people unaccounted for. this group of former members

of the military have shown up. since the earthquake in haiti in 2010, team rubicon has picked up thousands of volunteers, mostly veterans, who go to the disaster areas. they identify the areas that need the most help and go to work. they found the conditions are similar to a war zone they fought in in afghanistan and iraq. think about it, there is chaos and limited resources and the death and destruction. members of team rubicon take the traits they learn on the battlefield and use those to help save lives and rebuild communities. >> you can see progress. you can see that you are affecting and touching people's lives. i think that is extremely important to the individual veteran as well. over the last 10 years, in iraq and afghanistan, progress is hard to identify. >> team rubicon has helped not only those communities, but it is helping those veterans get to use those unique skill sets

they picked up on the battlefield. so far they have responded to earthquakes to tornadoes and to the floods like you have seen in colorado. they conducted 14 missions in all. they are not the only organization helping. the red cross tells us that over the weekend they plan to deliver 17 truck loads of food all across the region. and those people tell us right now, greg, they will take any help they can get. back to you. >> good for those vets. congratulations to them and we will wish them well. will, thanks. >> always doing good work. >> what is it about vets? they are more thoughtful than the rest of us. >> green patriots for sure. it appears that syria could be losing some allies over the use of chemical weapons on its own people. so is assad cheating on his obligations to hand over the arsonal? >> and an outrage in the capital -- the murder capital of america. you know where that is. a suspect is still on the loose after shooting more than

a dozen people including a 3-year-old child. now the city of rahm emanuel is calling on its people to call them. >> wherever there is an absence of morals there will be a presence of violence. it is very, very important if we know of anything, if we know the shooter, if we know the people he hangs with, if we know any information, it is important that we turn that information over to the police.

new outrage over gun violence in chicago. this after a 3-year-old boy was among 13 people caught in the cross fire of what police believe was a gang-related shooting. the suspect still on the loose. it is just one of the latest tragedies in the city now known as the murder capital of america. 500 homicides were reported last year alone. 87% of them committed with guns. murders were up 16% in 2012 compared to 2011. brian is live from our newsroom with more. brian? >> arthel, chicago is and has been involved in a gang violence war for years. but the mass shooting wounding

13 victims ages 3 to 41 at a local park during a pick up basketball game has violent-rear we residents shocked and upset. rahm emanuel and religious leaders gathering at a peace rally last night in honor of the victims including the 3-year-old. he was shot in the face while at the park with his mother. all of the victims mir miraculously are expected to survive and are recovering in local hospitals. both the mayor and the police super inen it dent -- superintendent are calling for laws that ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines. >> we cannot allow children in the city of chicago and will not allow children in the city of chicago to have their youthfulness, their optimism, their hope taken from them. that's what gun violence does. >> police say at least one gunman opened fire at cornal square park in chicago. the gunman spraying bullets as

residents and families enjoyed an evening at the park. at least 10 ambulances are responding as wounded victims laid on the basketball court. >> it was chaos and confusion. there were bodies and there were -- i mean, it was madness. that's what i saw. i have never seen anything so chaotic and mad in my whole life. it was unreal. >> police have made no arrests yet, but they believe the shooting is gang-related. over the last year the chicago police department has added extra foot patrols into about 20 so-called violent i'm -- impact zones. unfortunately cornell square park is three miles outside of one of those -- three blocks outside of one of those zones. >> thank you for that report. >> sad story for chicago. the housing market nationwide is hitting new highs. is it really now the best time to buy? we are going to tell you what you should know before taking the plunge and signing on the dotted line.

>> and the u.s. is not buying the assad regime's excuse that they gas gassed their own. now they could be dropping support over the chemical weapons.

while it looks like russia could soon end its friendship with syria, there is a new report that said the kremlin may drop its regime if it was certain that assad was cheating on giving up chemical weapons. the first deadline handing over a disclosure of their arsonal yesterday which they long denied. and the real question is will they hand it all over? joining us, the ceo of spekamin league. assad is a heinous human being who committed atrocious crimes

against humanity and gassing women and children and innocent people. and now all of a sudden he is a statesman. does it seem to you as if the obama administration endorses that? >> as i wrote last week, greg, what is growing on in syria can be expressed in six words. assad deployed chemical weapons and won. >> if you think about it, just a year ago or less we were talking about the assad regime must go and he was going to be deposed. instead we now have assad in power and they deployed chemical weapons. let's get rid of chemical weapons and because of secretary kerry's gaff about us, we will be okay with them giving up chemical weapons. he says, oh, okay, i will give up my chemical weapons. i don't believe russia will take any action against assad what so ever.

whatsoever. they seized upon kerry's gaff and what putin is trying to do quite frankly is ensure that assad stays in power. he is working with iran and syria to create what amounts to a shiite access. basically it is to counter what they see as the u.s.-influenced, sunni dominated nations of saudi arabia and others. >> it is accidental and extemporaneous foreign policy by president obama and has the president really lost sight, assuming he ever had sight, of the middle eastern foreign policy goals which especially means stoping iran from gaining nuclear weapons? >> stoping iran from gaining nuclear weapons and secure israel and combat terrorism. those are the three goals, none of which were advanced by nuclear strike on syria and certainly none of which are advanced by out sourcing our diplomacy to vladimir putin. we don't have a strategy as

you say. the obama administration doesn't have a script and we are lure -- lurching from one to the other. the full crop is energy and oil. talking about taking down pressure on iran or caving to russia and their demands, we should be talking about increasing the pressure. the u.s. has the capacity to do that. we are the world's largest oil consumer and on the way to being the biggest producer. >> doesn't russia enormously benefit from instability in the oil prices and to that extent, isn't putin sort of using the inscrew pew los kgb tactics he did in his former life. in his former life? >> absolutely. this is no secret. putin made it quite clear that the russian economy was going to be based on extracting more oil and gas out of the ground? >> that was going to be the base of their economy. and what has he done? he has used gas to black mail

europe, the former soviet satellite companies. he has made no secret of the fact that he wants to dominate the world or become much stronger in the world with oil as a key component of that. as he creates the shiite access, think about it. you will have russia and iran potentially combined with iraq. there is a real danger that iraq could fall under the influence of this group of nations and then if saudi arabia should fall or be overtaken, that really puts putin in an extremely dangerous position vis-a-vis the western world. >> i am out of time. give me a 20-second answer. are you convinced that that region of the world doesn't take this president seriously and will not take the u.s. seriously until obama leaves office? >> well i would hope that isn't the case. >> what do you think? >> well, what i think is that the obama administration has an anti-american energy

strategy. they would rather our oil, the oil from canada be burned from china where there are lax emission standards in the u.s. where we have rigorous environmental standards. they are not, woulding to drill offshore. they are not prepared to open the strategic oil petroleum preserve. i would tell them this coming week in new york, look, guys, if you don't play ball, if you don't stop aiding assad we will open the spicket and -- >> we could. >> i was going to say it is a different scenario than when we conceived it on the 70s. we are on the verge of becoming if obama doesn't stop it, the world's largest energy producer. we have billions of barrels of coal and we have some fund frght university and they have developed a clean coal technology that actually works and we are not putting

everything we can into scaling that. i mean it is ridiculous. we have this -- the democrats talk about soft power. here is the ultimate soft power, the american energy leverage. we need to tell the russian dashes dash. >> we could be the biggest energy producer in the world. we could be self-sufficient and enormously powerful in that raw raw -- in that regime. we are out of time and great to see you and thank you so much. >> thank you. the crisis in syria has pulled focus from other bouts of unspeakable violence in the middle east including a masacre in iraq. the tragedy is sparking new calls for the u.s. to intervene. david lee miller has more from new york. >> it was a masacre that the world greeted with silence. whippet controversy about -- while there was continue veer see -- controversy in syria, there were camps where people were killed.

this video recorded on september 1st shows iraqi-backed forces committing the slaughter and iraq denies the allegations. among the dead his 56-year-old father. >> they were there to execute. they were not there to scare people off. they had targets and they shot every single one of my friends and my father's friends and my father in the head. >> those killed were members of an iranian opposition group called the mek, the people's army. they sided with saddam hussein during the iraq-iran war. one is considered a terrorist organization in the u.s., many security experts say the mek in a positive light. >> it is a group that is in favor of a democratic iran. an iran with a gender equality and a iran that is nonnuclear. they are on our side on all key issues. most importantly over the last 10 years they have been the best source of information that we get out of iran. >> the september attack targeting mek members took place despite a 2003 commitment from the u.s. that

the group would be given protected status under the convention. when the u.s. ended its occupation iraq took the responsibility for keeping them safe. iraqis might have pulled the trigger, some say the blame rests with tehran. >> what people in the united states should know is iraq has become a client state of iran. the person running iraq right now is the ayatollah. >> relatives of those killed believe the u.s. should do more to protect the more than 3,000 mek members still living in iraq. amir, who lost his father, says the best solution is allowing them to relocate. >> we want to make sure they are in a country in either europe or the united states that can ensure that they get medical supplies, that they get proper food, that they are properly taken care of and they can lead a normal life. >> in addition to those killed, supporters claim several people were kidnapped. an allegation that iraqi officials deny.

they fear the missing members will be transferred to iran where they will be executed. in new york, david lee miller, fox news. have you noticed home sales are on the rise these days? >> yes, they are. this is good news. it depends on your personal finances. >> it depends on how you play in the market. at the highest level now in six years. is now a good time to make an offer on that dream home you always wanted? what you need to know coming up next.

well, the housing market is on the up -- up swing in hundreds of counties in the country. carolyn joins us now. everyone's finances are different so how do you know if it is a good time for you to buy or sell?

>> absolutely. it really does depend on your personal situation. the biggest question that families need to look at in whether they are going to buy or sell is what can they afford. what can they afford? theyed need to run their numbers. it plays a big part in this equation. one of the issues besides interest rates rising slightly is that many american families still can't get a mortgage because of the employment situation. >> i want to get to that in a second, but i want to ask you, what is the general rule of thumb on how much net income, talking about your take home pay you should allocate for your mortgage and insurance and don't forget the property taxes. >> absolutely. a lot of times people under estimate that and it is a great question. what we found in an advisor

you is it may be education and it may be business expenses and you may need to reduce that number so 25 to 30% is the general rule of thumb. it is something i am telling my clients is you may want to be more conservative and put a little bit into your retirement fund. this is a crisis waiting to happen. people are not saving enough. >> we talk about these numbers. buying the home is the american dream. renting can perhaps prevent financial nightmares. how do you know if it is better to rent versus buy? >> again you have to look at this overall picture. so many times people have no idea, air they will -- arthel what is coming in and what is going out. what you have to do is track your numbers over several months. say two, three months what are your real numbers and what are your long-term goals. demographics are playing a

huge part in the change of the american landscape, if you will. 10,000 baby boomers per day are retiring or reaching retirement age. that plays a picture as well. are you renting or are you buying? >> carolyn, i need a short answer on this. if are you trying to get a loan or buy a house, what job history do you need? >> you need two years of steady employment. that is creating problems. people are working differently these days, part-time, independent contractors, but look for two years steady. >> appreciate your being sasinct with that one. thank you. >> what you factor in all of the property taxes people pay, mostly for education, it is almost insane. >> it goes to -- usually it is well spent, but are you right. it is a lot of money and people don't factor that in. that's how they get underwater. oh wait. i think it goes to good use. >> live and learn. education is very important,

you are right. attorneys for aaron hernandez are calling the evidence against him circumstance shall in his murder case. well, what does that really mean for prosecutors? are they smoking something? what about the defense? our legal team is really good, and they will be here in just a moment.

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football star aaron hernandez says the case against his client is circumstance shall. oh yeah, like that's a bad thing. he also predicts that he will be exonerated. hernandez, the former new england patriot is being held without bail after pleading not guilty to murder. let's bring our legal panel to talk about the strength of circumstance shall evidence in a case like this. david schwartz seems to think that circumstance shall evidence is nonsense and never works. keisha evans is really smart and she knows that circumstance shall evidence is some of the most important and available evidence of all, right? >> you are absolutely right. most criminal cases are based on circumstance shall evidence. >> exactly. >> if you have direct evidence most people will take a plea and say you know what, you got me. i did it. in this situation i think there is enough circumstance shall evidence. you have two people saying hernandez was in the vehicle

and they heard gunshots and then this guy was there. >> you wake up and you look and see that a it snowed. >> who's side are you on? >> always on her side. >> the bottom line is i believe circumstance shall evidence is some of the strongest evidence a prosecutor can have. but they have to prove that it is the prosecution's burden to prove each and every link of that circumstance shall chain is proven. if there is a missing link there is no case. >> there is no missing link. >> the jury must have put it up on the screen. 4 tour caliber casings match the murder weapon which is tied to hernandez. surveillance video puts him at the scene and text messages and cell phone messages put him as the killer with the victim. the victim's sister i'm implicates hernandez. and dna evidence places hernandez at the murder scene. but that is just circumstance shall evidence. >> i think you made overwelming case that

hernandez was at the scene. however, that is not hernandez pulling the trigger, and that is not hernandez committing the murder. >> but there is more than enough to prove that he is the one who did it. have you four people in the car, two guys got out. hernandez is left with the victim. who else did it? and then all of this other evidence. >> you know, what let's assume that all three of these guys who were charged point their finger at each other. the jury can conclude that they were all in on it together and they were all guilty. >> ortiz is now cooperating for the prosecution. if you think he is a credible, cooperating witness i have a bridge to sell you. maybe he committed the murder. maybe wallace. >> the bad guys always hang out with bad guys so snitches are nefarious characters, aren't they? >> there was motive involved where hernandez was upset with the victim for frat niecessing with people he didn't like and there is a motive there.

>> and they are also apparently tieing him to a double homicide that took place a couple years earlier so there is that. >> that is a separate case completely. we will see where that case goes and that won't come into this case. >> it could. pattern of conduct. >> i was certainly -- if i was the defense i will not put you on my jury. there is no question about it. this case will be won and lost -- >> it will be a jury conviction. >> why do you say that? >> because of the overwhelming evidence. i know this prior murder may not come in because you can't have prejudicial information, but it is too many facts going against him. there is too much circumstance shall evidence against hernandez. >> i do wonder it he can get a fair trial. >> that will be a huge issue whether or not he could get a fair trial. and certainly that's where jury selection will come in of the it will take a lot longer, but you know what? there could be a path to an acquital here and there could be reasonable doubt. >> every defense attorney we

have to believe that otherwise we wouldn't be good attorneys. >> it comes down to the attorneys and we have two of the best. thank you for being with us. she wins on this one. you lose. >> what a shock. >> have you won one of these? >> with you, i have nef won. have i never won. >> thanks so much. >> that's because he is a smart man, smart man, that's all i'm saying. that does it for us. >> thanks for being with us. a healthy you with carol is coming up next. check it out and hope you have a great weekend, everybody. we will be back tomorrow. >> we will be back today at 6:00 p.m. eastern. >> oh, okay. >> two hours. we will be back io hours.

i have been on the cover of more than 700 magazines and movies. the world for photo but i wasn't always the healthiest person. i struggled with my weight and fatigue and pressures of my career. i realized it was time to change so i learned about the importance of good health. i am not a doctor. i am just like every person watching this show and i want to help make a healthy you. welcome to "a healthy you." cancer, a business as well as a disease? maybe there is more than one way to tackle this health scare. you won't want to miss this. also,