if they are developing this oh my goodness bragging over the carbon are going to come to open in our building right along the boardwalk here come on irene really live shots and talk of a dish going through her in the street didn't media storm from the tropical but you decide. and constant gun fire certainly combined with the question of who the rebels really are plus the massive stockpile of bra uranium left behind equal to a post gadhafi libya so what is the end game and how will this chemical reaction balance out. and it's getting

serious from the ongoing violence to the president's newest lead we will have the latest on syria and what's tearing this country of ours. the folks in washington to make decisions based on what's best for the country that's what we know what's best for any political party or special interest so will president obama and members of congress listen to his own advice or will obama continue playing games of the economic ball is thrown back into his work we want to know where does the buck stop . it after and it's monday august twenty ninth four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster your botching r t well hurricane irene came and went five million people lost power tragically twenty nine people died and seven billion dollars of damage has reportedly been done but. despite all that was it worth all of the hype

and wall to wall coverage twenty four seven on the mainstream media cable news network over the weekend for what in new england did not amount to a hurricane but a tropical storm did not produce devastating floods in new york city and here in washington d.c. for much nonevent one columnist asked if a category five intensity debate was swirling around a category one storm it's a question we have as we look at these highlights from the media storm now to the debate on whether this storm measured up to all of the coverage of this has the makings of just the hurricane of our lifestyle expected to gain that much more power oh crazy powerful than. the call. my wife maybe good for the emergency kit with her and yes i'll admit i've been a little bit of a bad boy didn't pay attention but for getting worse every single minute even the past twenty minutes that i've been out here received anything like you i did talking to

a resident that was around the corner now he told me that he's been for twenty five years and never seen anything like it either some are questioning whether this was overreaction if there's a bear outside your door and i see it while saving to give you a new responsible doesn't mean the bear is going to get in there and get you but you need to know that it's we're a competition for reporters than a lot of big takeaways including one guy who reported that the sea foam was caused by hurricane irene now believed to be raw sewage in his livestock we think that that probably took the cake but it also took the mainstream media away from other actual humanitarian crises going on like what our correspondent maria the notion of reports is going on in tripoli libya where she's reporting she has the latest also on the rebels and their firm stand against colonel norman gunston colonel moammar gadhafi. what we're hearing here in tripoli from the rebels makes their position absolutely clear they will no be any negotiations with gadhafi and all they can provide him they say is safety and trial the rebels' information minister. has.

even if gadhafi personally called him and asks for negotiations he will not never talk to him he has added that the rebels are not negotiating with the criminals and with the killers and prison not talks that is a had for the embattled colonel earlier. duffy is government spokesperson most able again has sent a message to the rebels about his readiness to hold talks with the rebels on forming the traditional government has even sad that khadafi appoints his third son saadi to leave these negotiations but we have to say that khadafi is not right now in a position to negotiate he's not in a strong position at all because the rattles are progress and while well this statement comes just a week after the assault on the libyan capital tripoli as a result they are virtually controlling most of this city they are actually right

now controlling most of the can treat as well the situation here in tripoli i would describe this situation as humanitarian disaster the tripoli council has said that from sixty to seventy percent of all residents of the libyan capital don't have enough water and electricity. due to technical problems they say interest ties in the south related to fight scenes on the streets the city indeed faces severe shortages of food and medicine as well and it's tricity even here in corinthia hotel where we are staying and where most of the foreign journalists are staying there is no water and this is a water free day here in this illustration is very complicated and people are struggling and meanwhile there are still a lot of questions about just. these rebels in charge of libya are and what will happen to libya's chemical weapon stockpiles libya has one hundreds of tons of raw uranium which can be used and processed in nuclear bombs and also has

a rebel leadership the reportedly has all elements and maybe a scary formula as the report of laurent lore and that makes the case. tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire aggressive and celebration and on the outskirts of the capital stockpiles of chemical weapons nato know very little about the people who might come to power in tripoli so now if you've got this cache of of weapons of mass destruction then again people really don't know what. and if this is fully into the people i mean the situation is potentially disastrous despite the heavy presence of rebels in tripoli the chemical stockpile appears still to be in the hands of what's left of its government that's both good and bad news following a series of meetings in two thousand and three more rockets we agreed to allow weapons inspectors into libya the first step towards abandoning his w m d program

in return for a normalizing of relations with the u.k. and u.s. but he wouldn't use all move the material but now thanks in part to nato support of the rebels on the back foot and may feel he has nothing to lose by disregarding that agreement could cry victory or martyrdom will strike an omen to those who know his weapons potential given the violations of. national territory of libya by nato led rebel forces i think that the idea that he would be able to these types of these would be off the table at this point and certainly he was quoted as seen in early july that he would be willing to strike out europe if tripoli was attacked so i think it's a fair assumption to say that if there is that capability that he would be looking at that option at this point in any way but the alternative rebel control of chemical weapons is arguably worse according to many some of the rebel factions

have links to al qaida arab commentator abdel bari atwan says the west. got itself into this trouble now it has to decide how it will figure it out and the options aren't attractive we knew that the majority of the people who are fighting are muslim extremists so how their people is going to be those people after the removing of chemical i believe there. will be more promoting. fear there are some indications nato is considering putting peacekeeping troops on the ground in libya regional experts warned that could be seen by parts of the free libya movement as an act of aggression but having supported the rebel movement nato must now deal with the consequences even if that's w m d armed islamic extremists nor and its whole team of london. it's an interesting question and here to talk

about where this libyan scenario could lead is conn hallinan he's a columnist for foreign policy in focus thanks for being here so i just want to start off with these problems pepe escobar was on this show on friday he's an asia times correspondent and he is reporting that a large the newly appointed commander of the tripoli military council is now that that's something that over the weekend we saw the u.k.'s independent also called him the founder of the libyan affiliate of al qaeda after the nine eleven attacks who to your knowledge is in charge of libya right now. no idea whose drugs it will be and i think that the asia times reporting on this seems very slow seems very solid and escobar has done a good job i think i'll sort of following out what the targets are by going back to originally the mujahideen in afghanistan and then in iraq. the jailing of some of these people the release of some of these people i mean that

seems to be a curious solidly research and i mean i think that i just think you're going to have a hornet's nest here and i think the west went into this with i don't like the keystone crusaders or something that is a distinct through and they thought it was going to be over quickly and now they've got the situation which i don't see that there's any way they're legal is not going to end up having to put troops on the ground and that's going to be a whole different ball of wax well i want to get to that but going back to you said you think that the past of ours reporting a solid before all of this gadhafi and the u.s. were having a period and the years before the civil war where gadhafi agreed to give up buttons of mass destruction and libya and us were united against common enemies in the war on terror now this is also resurface kind of a new with new wiki leaks u.s. cables that revealed it's very. it from u.s. lawmakers with gadhafi but going back to where we are now did the u.s.

backing of the rubbles hand power over to the very people that the u.s. with biting against in the war on terror i think it probably has and i think this is one of these unintended consequences you know sort of blow back operation not unlike what the united states period in afghanistan when the soviet union was in afghanistan it created these much of again they fought against the well to soviets they eventually so use withdrew and then those same will to be seen clear points against the world trade towers and the pentagon i think it's i think we have you know sort of nursed opinion to impose steel in this case and and i think this is this is what's going to happen i hope not but i don't see and how it's going to move in any other direction as a u.s. taxpayer which i'm assuming you are because you're sitting there in berkeley california do you accept that the united states you as

a taxpayer paid to send these drones to libya paid to back their rivals and now the leader could be that al qaeda after that and could lead to you having to pay to put boots on the ground well it will be very interesting to see what eventually comes out of this because the war in libya is not popular and the war in afghanistan is very unpopular war in iraq was largely in popular afghanistan there's overwhelming opposition to the war kuli sense that the u.s. government is in in such terrible financial shape so we've spent up to a billion dollars now on this libya operation and at the same count recruiting damage cation we're cutting back on transportation eccentric i think cashiers are very upset i don't know if they know what to do about this point because there really isn't a whole lot of will turn it yourself here but we do have a situation. where we cannot maintain

a situation that we have basically kept going since the cold war and by that scenario what exactly do you mean. well i mean that the united states has for the past sixty years felt that if it is to have political or economic influence and particular country were region it also has to have a military footprint and i think what people need to do is to see that this is the first nato operation in africa and that this goes back to documents during the bush administration which called for the creation of an african command which course has been done which calls for an invasion of an african country not using troops but the air power and maybe all of these things have been done they have to do venturing with control of resources and right now africa is up for grabs you mentioned that in your writing and that that you believe the control of resources and oil fuels u.s.

involvement somewhere like libya but with what we're discussing over the al-qaeda elements that could be leading libya right now what does the u.s. stand to gain at this point. it's not clear you know our creator has been hyped a great deal i mean the it is to our benefit to turn our height into be acquittal of the red army i mean a sort of military jargon uk it is it it's more like an ideology it's not really an organisation so the people need to be very careful here and when people throw the term occupied around it doesn't mean that you have some again logons lieutenants are are running it well u.s. has been saying that the whole crowd is active in northern nigeria it's no evidence that they're active in northern nigeria every time the united states wants to step into a situation they say well our kind is that they're there for all we have to fight terrorism therefore we have to get it well people need to be careful here right and

they really quickly guess because of course it's also dealing with an amount of iraq and violence what do you think all of this means for syria as violence continues there do you think that there could be any u.s. western involvement. it's possible i would be doubtful syria is a bigger country if the opposition in syria doesn't hold it e.g. a graphical area but that is a possibility i mean who would have thought for instance a year ago there to united states and france and britain would be involved in a war in libya so what i would say was siri is i don't think it's quite the same as libya doesn't have the oil. but at the same time that is a possibility and then you're going to get dominos spreading out across the landscape i don't know where it's going to go and there is of course all the

disagreement among the un security council the countries not agreeing on a resolution to have very different ideas about how to approach syria so that's also a fight. it will likely go for part of that was created by what they did and in libya because the united nations passed a resolution to protect civilians the french and british and the americans took that resolution and went for regime change why do you have countries like russia saying hey well well pump the brakes we need you i think a different kind of resolution i'm so sorry we're out of time we're going to leave it there for now but i appreciate your insight that was columnist for foreign policy in focus on how women thank you ram now exactly what is going on in syria has been difficult to confirm largely because of access is just one of the reasons but in this conflict in reports artie's arena gluco headed to the town of latakia to dig up and make sense of the evidence he found there of unrest and fighting. look here is a special significance for syria and for the president bashar lasted his father is

from a village near the city in which the population is predominantly elevate just like the rest of the province the process began here in march of this here this is one of the main buildings this is one of the main squares in the city of latakia where the syria tell headquarters located on the right in the middle of it syria tell us a company telephone company which was owned by one of the cousins of the president and the protesters expressed their hatred towards the regime by looting the place and then burning it violence returned to the talking again just a couple of weeks ago claiming more than thirty lives and to government protests broke out in the sunni part of the city officials said they were battling with armed groups which they say have infiltrated the area now what's the story here the story goes according to the protesters according to the opposition answer majority of the midwestern media sources is that there were warships stationed right here in this bay and there were shelling the sunni part of the town which is all along the

coastline right over there and the middle of that part of the town is the palestinian camp but you have to keep in mind that according to the u.s. administration who are obviously monitoring the situation there were no warships stationed in this bay on the seventeenth of august or earlier on the surface it seems to be life as usual but once you take a closer look signs of unrest come through so we got to the sunni part of the town and there are no signs of any fire coming from the side of the seat where supposedly ships were there definitely signs of battle you can see by the bullet holes in the walls. of the. forces so. some buildings were damaged but not significant some people unwilling to speak on camera gave us views critical of the assad regime saying the government is to blame for failing to deliver a five month old promises. reforms this they say forced the people out of the streets stirring up protests the reluctance of people to be interviewed may not be

surprising given that we were accompanied by unarmed military escorts throughout our trip from a talk in syria it isn't always go karts. and still ahead right here on our team we've got a new chair for the council of economic advisers and a possibility of a new jobs plan thanks to president obama but with nine percent unemployment going on two years is this change the economy can believe and. it really has put a picture of me when i was like nine years old i didn't get all the fruit. i confess and i am a total ghetto friends that i love driving because he is economically and pretty. but he was kind of a bit yesterday. i'm very proud of the role that arjun she

has played. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions come to the breakthrough that's already been made who can you trust no one will is imbue it with a global missionary see where we had a state controlled capitalism it's called sessions when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. welcome back well president obama today tapped a new chair for his council of economic advisers if announcement just ahead of a big speech monday or obama is reportedly planning to unveil a new jobs plan these are five partisan ideas that ought to be the kind of

proposals that everybody can get behind no matter what your political affiliation might be so my hope and expectation is that we can put country before party and get something done for the american people. fair enough but obama while he may be known for his hope the american people don't seem to have a lot of it right now after two years of around nine percent unemployment and after witnessing the political wrangling of the debt ceiling debate a gallup poll showed approval of the president's handling of the us economy talk to a new low of twenty six percent in the aftermath this of course after a battle which cost the country its aaa credit rating was downgraded because of politicians inability to put country before party but these very politicians now look like they may be the only hope for an economy teetering on recession or in recession depending on how you can you talk to and federal reserve chairman ben bernanke is why he hinted there will be no new plans for the federal reserve to

take action in the economy he said that in his speech friday for now at least he tossed the ball back to obama and congress instead for solutions but he didn't call for a better process he said the country would be well served by a better process for making fiscal decisions yeah that's kind of a no brainer but here to help us figure out if that is even possible given what we've seen this month doug campbell former staff economist on president obama's council of economic advisers he helped repair the president's daily economic briefing he's also a ph d. candidate at the university of california davis thanks so much for being with us doug nice to see you so if you absolutely so obama let's first talk about his appointment of alan krueger he is going to replace austin goolsbee if everything goes as planned he's touted as a labor economist with expertise in unemployment at a time when obama is about to roll out this jobs plan but as journalist mark ames

said today he wrote that this guy is larry summers favorite tennis partner and i think the point of getting at is that this new appointee represents the kind of it's dalgleish mitt d.c. elite so the way you see it does he mark a big departure from past obama economic advisors or can we just fix that kind of more of the same. right well the key for me loring is that of all the president's economic advisers so far i would actually have the most the strongest liberal credentials of any of them and recall that even though christina romer and larry summers were good friends they often disagreed on economic policy and christina romer by the way was actually the kind of an economic moderate until until the debates of two thousand and nine and two thousand and ten when suddenly she found herself on the liberal wing of the economic policy debate in the administration about the policies in this morning so the key for him was whether alan krueger it

would have a voice within the administration so nice contacts within the industry and are actually telling me that i want to present a great relationship with president obama so i think. i went through this moment in history is as come it has arrived the question for me is how do you move forward in advising the president on a number of key policies as you write and that will happen and that will likely have to wait and see but one thing that came out friday morning and gave them were negative speech he didn't hand it narconon did is in which a lot of people thought that he was going to instead he said that long term unemployment is going to remain a challenge have to be a priority but he passed the buck back to political leaders for fiscal solutions so if he writes our fiscal policies really the only thing to deal with the country's economic problems at this point. well let's let's just take it a step back really quickly so the problem right now is that we are in what economists call a balance sheet recession right households borrowed too much during the housing bubble and since then once the bubble crashed they found out that they were worth

much less than they thought they were at the time so what. what households all tried to do was to save a lot in this note that no one was spending and so what the government needs to do is to find a way to help households. you know shore up their balance sheets best way to do this is with fiscal policy right. now unfortunately i think it doesn't take an expert to know that the fiscal policy given the current composition of the house of representatives this is utterly unlikely to pass congress right and so in short ben bernanke he was utterly wrong to try to pass the buck that right the president ought to get the blame or credit kind of unfairly for how the economy is performing the key though is it's actually the federal reserve which has much more influence over the short term prospects of the economy been any other factor but time so i but what would you say that they can do at this point because you know people such

as nobel prize winning economist joseph stiglitz say hey q.e. two didn't work that money didn't go where it was supposed to it went overseas that liquidity went places where you can get a higher return on your investment so why would you do more quantitative easing when it hasn't worked. right so i would actually argue that it has worked and that if you look at how prices respond in the market to more quantitative easing to. how the currency markets responded every time quantitative easing has been tried it succeeded in lowering the yield on treasury and fixated on lowering the value of the dollar to things which which need to happen are necessary and sufficient conditions for it you can see working so that it actually has a number of options disposable it does cut the just three house to the rate that the federal reserve paid today i'm holding excess reserves at the at the fed. it

does also use language in a more vigorous way to promise to hold rates a look at the euro two point two five percent through the middle of two thousand and thirteen no matter what for example there are a number of options the federal reserve has isn't ready yet so you don't buy it that the federal reserve is out of borrowing as some people think not at all and you shouldn't either oh well i don't think that ben bernanke is going to do anything right now if his speech is any indication on friday so is there anything that the federal government can do that is politically plausible given the lack of political will to to agree on anything when it comes to fiscal policy right well the key for me is to look in c.e.o. alan krueger respond on three key policy front which don't necessarily involve the house of representatives the first is on housing the ministrations and uses the fact of control over fannie and freddie to allow millions of homeowners whose mortgages are guaranteed by denny and freddie to refinance their mortgages and put

more money in their pockets that's helping households rebuild their balance sheet the second is on the. currency policy to the u.s. treasury so reverses a strong dollar policy and it's a look at. i don't know how to get china to revalue their currency you know developing countries now are spending more than a trillion dollars a year to building up their board reserves in order to manipulate their own currency because of this but you could argue that's what the united states has done with quantitative easing with with lowering the value of the dollar as well right well the difference is quite easy to be using with was aimed at domestic monetary policy where it is these these actions by china and other countries are just manipulating its currency to china while it's buying three hundred billion dollars worth of u.s. treasuries each fiscal quarter has also been raising its domestic interest rates

which kind of counteracts the stimulant impacts of keeping its currency rate low and sort it's completely beggar thy neighbor rights which it seems like the united states policymakers attempt to make. changes that way or put pressure on but i have a feeling it might be largely political and we don't actually see that we're at a time to discuss that further even though i would love to but just yes or no doug you really think that there is any physical solution that will be done right now if you had to make a prediction that would be dramatic i cannot see the still solution any time in the near future and i don't really know description would be well to look do well to look for other options but don't involve but it's ok well that's kind of the difficult of all how does the outlay that we certainly appreciate you coming on the show that was done campbell former staff economist on president obama's council of economic advisers and a ph d. candidate at the university of california in business and that is going to do it for now for more of the stories we covered at our c dot com slash.