i had to go through this brought home. right over the top in that very district all the hotels and and our buildings right along the boardwalk here. come on irene really live shots in toxic showing streakers in the street to the mainstream media storm trump the tropical storm itself you decide. to miss the onslaught of gunfire in tripoli there's a massive stockpile of raw uranium to doff be left behind so what kind of chemical reaction could this trigger and what is the endgame. and it's getting serious from the ongoing violence to the international community's

reaction we'll have the latest from the country of syria and beyond and what appears to be tearing it apart from. the folks in washington to make decisions based on what's best for the country that's right now what's best for any political party or special interest so will president obama listen to his own advice or will we continue to see game playing as the economic ball is thrown back into the administration's support we want to know where does the buck stop. it evening it's monday august twenty ninth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster there watching r.t. well hurricane irene came and went five million lost power tragically thirty two people died and seven billion dollars of damage has reportedly been done but was it really worth all. all the hype and bald of all coverage twenty four seven on the

mainstream media cable networks 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 as expected and in washington d.c. was pretty much a nonevent from what i could tell from here so one columnist asked if a category five intensity debate was swirling around a category one storm these are the highlights from the mainstream media coverage that they've got a great question this has the makings of just the hurricane of our lifestyle expect us again that much more power oh crazy powerful time. the call. my wife maybe good morning she can with care and yes i'll admit i was being a little bit of a bad boy but for getting worse every single minute it's not some sort of organic battery i guess plankton or something and then with sand and salt i tell you firsthand if it doesn't smell great some are questioning whether this was

overreaction if there's a bear outside your door and i see it while saving thank you and you're responsible doesn't mean the bear is going to get in there and you can but you should need to know that it's we're now in competition for reporter live shots including the one guy you saw recorded from the phone now believed to be raw sewage well he may have won that contest but all of this took the mainstream media away from other major news like day the humanitarian crisis that our correspondent maria open ocean of reports is going on in tripoli libya where she's been reporting remember libya the country the u.s. has been flying drones over to back the rebels and ousting colonel moammar gadhafi that's going on she has the latest from the rebels and their firm and on khadafi. what we're hearing here in tripoli from the rubbles makes their position absolutely clear it will no be any negotiations with gadhafi and all the can provide him they

say is safety and trial the rebels information minister. has said even if gadhafi personally calls 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 treason not talks but as i had called him battled 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 his third son saadi to leave these negotiations would we have to say that it is not right now in a position to negotiate he's not in a strong position at all because the rattles our progress and quite well this statement comes just a week after the assault on the libyan capital tripoli as a result they are virtually control in 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 emphasizing that it's not related to fight scenes on the streets the city indeed faces severe shortages of food and medicine as well and electricity even here in corinthia hotel where we are staying and where most of the foreign journalists are staying there is no water and this day water free day here in this future is very complicated and people are struggling and meanwhile there are still a lot of questions about. just who these rebels in charge of libya are and what will happen to libya's chemical weapons stockpiles libya to remind you how hundreds of tons of raw uranium which can be processed and used and nuclear bombs also

a rebel leadership that reportedly has al qaeda elements it could be a scary formula as arky reported war and it makes the case. tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire both aggressive and celebration and on the outskirts of the capital stockpiles of chemical weapons they too know very little about the people who might come to power. so now if you've got these caches of weapons of mass destruction then again people really don't know what. and if this is falling 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 market that we agreed to allow weapons inspectors inside 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. he wouldn't use all move the material but now thanks in part to nato support of the rebels he's on the back foot and may feel he has nothing to lose by disregarding that agreement could cry victory or martyrdom will strike an ominous note 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 beholden to these types of. would be off the table at this point and certainly he was caught in a scene in early july and that he would be willing to straighten out 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 anyway 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 what. it's got itself into this trouble now it has to decide how it will figure it out and the options aren't attractive we know that you know the majority of the people who are fighting prepare for it are muslim extremists so how good people is going to be those people are very mobile of clinical benefit i believe there. will be more problematic than there are barriers 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 lore and it's our team of london. it's an interesting question and here to talk about where this libyan scenario

could lead is con holland and he's a columnist for foreign policy in focus thanks for being here so i just want to start off with these rebels pepe escobar was on this show on friday he's an asia times correspondent and he is reporting that abdel hiking the 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. think appendant also call 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 i hold no idea who's in georgia of libya and i think that the asia times reporting on this seems very serious seems very solid and. has done a good job i think of 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 very solidly research and i think that i just think you're going to have a hornet's nest here and i think that 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 ladle 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 of the u.s. were having a period of reproach mom and the years before this civil war were khadafi agreed to give up weapons of mass destruction and libya and us were united against common enemies in the war on terror now this is also resurfaced kind of a new with new wiki leaks u.s. cables that reveal this 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 fighting 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 to like what the united states did in afghanistan when the soviet union was in afghanistan it created these much and he before against the go to soviets they eventually so you sweep through and then those same would you became flew airplanes 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 in and i think this is this is what's going to happen i hope not but i don't see you know 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 asked 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 popular war in iraq was largely in popular vote afghanistan there's overwhelming opposition to the war particularly sense that girl 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 we're cutting damage cation we're cutting back on transportation eccentric i think taxpayers are very upset i don't know if they know what to do about it at 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. the need that the united states has for the past sixty years felt that if it is to have political or economic influence in a particular country or region it also has to have a military for print 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 of course has been done which calls for an invasion of an african country not using troops but the air power navy all of these things have been done they have to do eventually with control of resources and right now africa is up for grabs you mentioned that you're writing down that that you believe the control of resources and oil fuels the 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 is the u.s. stance again at this point. it's not clear you know our qaida has been hyped a great deal i mean the it is to our benefit to turn our hired into people who have a lot of the red army i mean is a sort of military jargon it is if it's more like an ideology it's not really an organization so i think people need to be very careful here and when people through term are around it doesn't mean that you have there osama bin laden's lieutenants are are running at us and saying that the al qaeda is active in northern nigeria it's no evidence that they're actually been 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 terror. therefore we have to get involved people need to be careful. and they

really quickly just because syria of course is also dealing with an amount of iraq and violence what do you think all of this needs for syria as violence continues there do you think that there could be any u.s. western involvement. if it's possible i would be doubtful syria is a bigger country if the opposition in syria doesn't hold any geographical area but use the possibility i mean who would have thought for instance a year ago that the united states and france and britain would be involved in a war in libya so what i would say was siri is i believe it's the same as libya doesn't everyone. but at the same time there is a possibility. then you're going to get dominoes 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 u.n. security council the countries not agreeing on a resolution i have very different ideas about how to approach syria so that's also a fight that will likely and probably part of that was created by with the you know in libya because the united nations passed a resolution to protect civilians and the french and the british and the americans took that resolution and one for regime change which is why you have countries like russia saying hey we're pumping brakes we need you going to 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 calmness for foreign policy in focus on helen now though as you heard we can analyze syria all we want the reality is exactly what has been going on in the country has been difficult to confirm for a while because access has been limited but amidst all of these conflicting reports we've seen artie's arena glues go headed to the town of latakia to dig up and make sense of the evidence she can find of unrest and fighting. let's talk to bears

a special significance for syria and for the president bashar lassoed 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 year this is one of the main buildings this is one of the main squares in the city of latakia syria tell headquarters located on the right in the middle of this 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 returns of attack yet again just a couple of weeks ago claiming more than thirty lives and government protests broke out in the sunni part of the city officials said they were about killing 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 me western media sources is that there were worship stations right here in this bay

and they were selling the sunny 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 secured mine that's according to the u.s. administration who are obviously monitoring the situation there were no warships stationed in this base 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 sea were supposed worship's were there differently signs of battle you can see by the bullet holes in the walls of the. store. so. some buildings were damaged. 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 on our of month old promises of. informs this they say force that people

are storing 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 for more talk in syria even got arts and. still ahead here on our t.v. got a new chair for the council of economic advisers and the possibility of a new jobs plan thanks to president obama but with two years about nine percent unemployment is this change the economy can believe in. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so if you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and here's you some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't i'm sorry welcome to the big picture.

welcome back president obama today well he tapped a new chair for his council of economic advisers this announcement comes just ahead of a big speech monday where obama is reportedly planning to unveil a new jobs plan here a few details these are bipartisan ideas that ought to be the kind of proposal 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 murdered people so that is hope and while obama 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 after that a gallup poll showed approval of the president's handling of the u.s. economy has dropped to a new low of twenty six percent that was in the aftermath of a battle which of course got the country's credit rating downgraded in part because of politicians inability to put country before party but these very politicians now look like they may be perhaps the only hope for an economy teetering on recession or in recession depending on who you talk to this is because after friday we learned that federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he doesn't have any plans right now it doesn't appear to take action for the federal reserve to act at least for now that was according to a speech friday he tossed the ball back to obama in congress for fiscal solutions

instead pointing out that hey this country maybe needs a better process he said the country would be well served by a better process for making this call decisions all right maybe perhaps but here to help me figure out if that is even possible richard wolffe economist and radio host of the economic update with richard roth that's on i ninety nine point five and saturday's at noons of be sure to check it out thank you for being on our show so my first question just because it happened today obama's tap this new guy alan krueger as his new economic chief he replaces austin goldsby or will he's touted as a labor economist at a time when obama is about to roll out what appears to be a new jobs plan we're anticipating do you see this is any real change in the administration's policies though with this new guy. i'm afraid not. it is nice to see an economist rather than a business school professor which is what goolsbee was but the mr krueger professor

krueger has been to be kind to him a rather than the. economist over his lifetime he doesn't take big chances he stays pretty much in the middle of it would be highly out of character for him to break with the president or with what's been going on and unfortunately a break is what we need for two to three years now president obama has been saying that his program to deal with unemployment is to provide incentives and stimulus for the private sector to hire people that clearly has not worked and what we need is to have the courage to break in there and have the government really do something but mr krueger and mr bernanke you have really made it clear that we cannot expect that from the government and so i would be surprised if obama says anything much different from what he's been saying speaking of more of the same though and you mentioned ben bernanke e.u. argue that we're just going to see more of the same without

a reserve policies and that seems to be the big takeaway from friday's speech that bernie every did not indicate that he will do anything new at this point he passed the buck back to a sense of the administration saying hey we need fiscal solutions to get out of long term unemployment and some of these major problems do you agree with them or disagree. but i think that he is quietly limited by two things the federal reserve is an agency whose job it is to increase the money supply and to bring down interest rates as a way to stimulate the economy they've done massive amounts of that and it doesn't suffice so they would like to get some help from the fiscal side from the treasury in terms of stimulating the economy that way but the gridlock between republicans and democrats and their own willingness of obama to push in that area means it's not going to come from there so basically bernanke he was throwing up his hands and saying well we'll just wait basically and hope that the economy comes back

which in a basic way has been the policy now for three years and the fact that it doesn't work seems not to be a sufficient frightening prospect for these politicians and leaders to do something but i think they're making a terrible mistake because the costs of this delay of not doing anything are very very severe and are impacting the majority of the american people in ways that are going to have impact on our country for years into the future so then if the federal reserve and going to act and if leaders in congress and administration are going to act where are we having compassion recession. i think we're already in something of a of a in between between the great recession which what people want to call it and the depression which is what it is what it last this long and hurts this many people we don't want to face as a nation that we're now in the fifth year of an economic downturn for the mass of

the people the irony is even if the federal reserve pumps up the money some more quantitative easing number three this would be that hasn't worked in the past it boosts bank stocks and they goose the stock market but it doesn't touch the mass of people i think the real clear in here is the hope that wages come down far enough that the businesses go out of business and sell off their equipment at low prices until it becomes so cheap to hire people and so cheap to buy equipment that business men and women will begin to use the profit motive to get the economy going again now is a high action of hope and it is the hope of it's the hope of that scenario will play out i think it's the hope of the people who run the society both the political and business leaders they don't want to pay the price they don't want to pay the taxes to get the system going they don't want to pay the taxes that would allow the

government to hire people and build it from the bottom up you know we have an economic policy in america today that used to be called trickle down you help the people at the top and you hope the benefits trickle down we've been doing it for three years may never trickle down the alternative is to help the people at the bottom with jobs to keep their all means to get higher wages and hope that goes up they don't want to pay the price for this the business community and the wealthy so they hope the problem solves itself very very dangerous failed for the last four years no prospect of it succeeding now so are you saying the problem is crony capitalism is that what you would attribute it to or you you had. you could call it that it's the desire of those who have made a bundle over the last forty years to get through this crisis without paying the price and could put the burden of the bailouts of the banks of the crisis itself on the mass of people to have the conversation always about shall we cut social

security shall we take away medicare shall we take away medicaid to have the whole conversation about the burden on the parents of the people rather than on themselves you know the history of empires is not that they fall apart when they are attacked from without they thought of when they can't internally recognize and address their problems we're in a situation in this country where we face that danger to us is going to go by the way that roman empire i think that we're closer to that than at any time in my lifetime we are unwilling and unable to take the steps that need to be done we can't even replicate what franklin roosevelt did the last time we were in a mess like this when he created and filled eleven million jobs when he created social security when he really helped from the bottom we don't have the political forces to make our politicians do it and the wealthy and the corporations don't

want it so we're not doing it and our problems get worse so then we're almost out of time and i guess i'm looking for a yes or now do you largely grant blame president obama for that because you mentioned f.d.r. and he was known for a number of executive orders and using his power as president to put people to work back during the great depression so do you blame obama for not doing that. no i don't think he's shown much leadership but he unlike roosevelt doesn't have a powerful labor movement pushing him he doesn't have a strong socialist and communist party as we had in the one nine hundred thirty s. pushing him so his pressure comes from the business community from the wealthy who fund all of our politicians now so it would take much more heroism on his part than it took for roosevelt to move in that direction having said that i am not very impressed with what he's doing he keeps talking about things nothing much changes and i think his poll numbers reflect that the america.