oh. right over the counter. cold in an outbuilding brown along the boardwalk here. the foam just recurred hurricane irene may have passed but the media coverage is still raging on so with this storm blown out of proportion and what about the news you didn't see during the flood of hurricane coverage. and it's an arms race libya edition as rebels russell's power from pro-government forces this scavenger hunt is on to locate libya's chemical weapons stockpiles and even nato is searching high and low to find them so who is getting warmer to the location and who will be left out in the cold when all is said and done.

plus same syria different days violence and unrest continuing in this country meanwhile president bashir assad is the fourth of the lifting media censorship and giving foreign journalists more access so will the truth finally come out well we'll bring you the latest from inside the country. and the folks in washington to make decisions based on what's best for the country that's well know what's best for any political party or special interest hey some people talk about what the country elected you for so with president obama's shiny new economic adviser will his administration stop playing dodge ball and get to fifty in the country. good evening it's monday august twenty. eight pm here in washington d.c.

i'm lauren lyster your watching our teeth 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 worth all of the hype and wall to wall coverage twenty four seven on the mainstream media cable networks that we saw over the weekend for what in the end in new england didn't amount to a hurricane but a tropical storm didn't produce devastating floods in new york city as was anticipated and in washington d.c. as i can attest it was pretty much a nonevent one columnist asked if a category five intensity debate was swirling around a category one storm it's a question that merits looking at the evidence so here are some highlights of the media storm. well this has the makings of just the hurricane of our life expected to gain that much more power oh crazy powerful.

way for me to go through the few murders and seek you with here and yes i'll admit i was being a little bit of a bad boy i didn't pay attention i spent getting worse every single minute it was some sort of organic matter i guess trying to enter something in between with sand and salt i don't know you know. it doesn't smell great some are questioning whether this was overreaction because there's a door and i see you while so you think you are responsible doesn't mean the bear is going to get in there get you but you do know that it. may be but the streakers look like they were doing all right and at the end of the day there was the competition for reporter live shots including the one guy you saw who reported from the phone that's actually believed to be raw sewage but with all of that competition even though that i may of one all of this took away from the mainstream media coverage of other major news like humanitarian disasters our correspondent.

there is an on going on right now in tripoli libya where she's reporting remember libya the country the u.s. has been flying drones over dropping bombs back in the rebels and ousting colonel moammar gadhafi still going on she has the latest on the rebels firm stand against gadhafi take a look 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 said that if even if gadhafi personally called him and asks me to go she says he will not never talk to him he has added to the rebels and the negotiation with the criminals and with the killers and present not talks but as i had for the investor colonel earlier. duffy is government spokesperson most able again has sent a message to the rebels at odds his readiness to hold talks with the rebels on

forming the traditional government has even sad that gadhafi appoints his third son saadi to lead these negotiations but we have to say that gadhafi is not right now in a position to negotiate he's not in a strong position at all because the radicals are progressing quite well this statement comes just a week after the assault on the libyan capital tripoli as a result their version of control in most of this city they're actually right now controlling most of the country 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. fear

hotel where we are staying and where most of the foreign journalists are staying there is no water and this is the third day water free day here in this speech it is very complicated and people are struggling. with maria the notion in libya now if everyone tries to with just what is next united nations reportedly have already drafted a plan it would lead to my next guest in our city press you broke the story now the report for it are proposing two hundred military observers for libya to get a ball by national force one hundred ninety u.n. police it outlines a plan for elections within the next nine months and an interim government before that earlier i spoke with journalist matthew lee and to start up i asked him just under what mandy the u.n. is operating with this proposal for libya now here's what he said. right now they really don't have a mandate that's what was so surprising when i was able to get this document i mean

when when the resolution one thousand nine hundred three was passed which authorized no fly zone and protection of civilians in libya the u.n. was assigned a role to somehow coordinate or at least receive notification of that they really abdicated that role basically nato you know did what it wanted the french drop in weapons into the mountains and then sort of i guess to sort of wreak either reclaim its lead or its relevance the u.n. under secretary general ban ki moon started this planning process but it's all been done behind closed doors he appointed a british diplomat ian martin to do it and the result is a is a document that doesn't present different alternatives that great basically presents one alternative which is it could easily have just been written in the state department or in the foreign office in the u.k. and this is the un's plan so good they have authority to implement this because of course since the resolution one nine hundred seventy three with passed we've seen the tail wielding members of the united nations say that nato has gone too far and gone beyond the resolution. sure that was said and as you probably noticed they

didn't actually start the you know the dropping of weapons and the unfreezing of funds the most recent fight at the un has been whether un frozen libyan funds can be handed over to the national transitional council since they're not the u.n. itself hasn't recognized them yet and basically the u.s. just the nest that and called them the relevant authorities but is providing them with the funds but i'll just give you an example they do they really don't have a mandate and in fact in some places this ten page martin plan says things like we can do this without getting a new mandate from the security council i.e. we can move peacekeepers from missions that already exist and put them in there we can send military advisors there was what there's one line where they just say they don't say this is controversial at all they say the security council's protection of civilians mandate implemented by nato does not end with the fall of the khadafi government and therefore nato would continue to have some responsibilities this is what i found surprising because that's a controversial statement that's

a that's certainly the position of some countries but the idea that ban ki-moon would take that as his position without any equivocation is probably wrong so is there any indication ethyl by that would be and who is behind that because as you mentioned you said that this could very well and then aid from the state department or you know the united kingdom foreign ministry how did that happen. i mean i think the reason the you know the the thinking of the point of this guy called ian martin is a long time british. u.n. official he served in nepal and timor leste i mean i know i mean he's a nice guy but it seems like he wasn't clear on that that he sort of mistook kind of kind of. you in the un wants to have a role in libya i mean there are various un agencies like even the un office of drugs and crime is in the reporters wanted to send people and so is you n.d.p. so he sort of he sort of harness the energy of kind of bureaucrats that just want to be in the center of action and see it see livy as this sort of great opportunity

only. even as careerist a sort of fourth for themselves but it ends up being an agenda that really takes sides and i think that that would ever since it came out they tried to deny they tried to say to me it's not a u.n. document now they said it's a working document but my own reporting among among the people that prepared it is not only is this document a sort of a a take it or leave it this is a u.n. plan even when the u.n. was purporting to try to mediate between the rebels and the could i think government of the time the u.n. just showed up and said here's our idea instead of like listening to all sides who knows whether the mediation could have been successful but they sent this guy called and it's sort of i think this is not a fine day for u.n. diplomacy or even handedness and what's on the sea at one time the african union with seen as providing a good solution for diplomacy in libya now we see that the african union is largely left out of this united nations plan is there a fallout from that or one that's expected. sure i mean there is i think that most

in the most recent fight south africa for example took issue with this idea of turning over libyan money to the t.n.c. at the same time and i think that they've kind of lost the p.r. battle in the sense that you know they went to great pains to say you know the they are not on the side of could see that it's just a matter of following their procedures but the way the way many people within the u.n. see it and i think that they have some basis to say it is that the u.n. kind of uses the african union when it's convenient for example it's an african union peacekeeping mission in somalia because it's too dangerous for the other u.n. contingents but the the where the african union agrees with the u.n. there the afternoon of you is given a lot of play but where it doesn't it for example in ivory coast where the you know the french and other powers wanted to inforce a pretty close election result and go out they just did it they didn't really give any space to this african union mediation same thing took place on libya now i know a lot of people that think the african union is you know should have been against go should be against gadhafi but the reality is you can't have it both ways you

can't say that you respect the african union when they agree with you and then totally blow them off when they don't or you can and i can just get double standard that was a journalistic intercity press dot com and the mile still a lot of questions about just who these rebels in charge of libya right now are and what will happen to live yes chemical weapons stockpiles libya has hundreds of tons of raw uranium which can be processed and used and nuclear bombs and also have the rebel leadership that reportedly has al qaeda elements it may sound scary and our team is reporter laura and that finds just what kind of a formula this creates. tripoli a city in chaos there's constant gunfire both aggressive and celebration and on the outskirts of the capital stockpiles of chemical weapons nature know very little about the people who might come to power. you know if you've got this cache of

weapons of mass destruction that people really don't know what. 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 moammar gadhafi agreed to allow weapons inspectors into libya the first step towards a bands of a w m d program in return for a normalizing of relations with the u.k. and us they agree that he wouldn't use all move material but now thanks in part to nato in support of the rebels he's on the back foot and may feel he has nothing to lose by disregarding that agreement 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 needle led rebel forces i think that idea that he would be beholden to these types of. grievance would be after people at this point and certainly he was quoted as saying in early july but 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 no capability that he would be looking at options 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 commentator abdel bari atwan says that when. to go to itself into this trouble now it has to decide how it will figure it out and the options attractive we knew. your a few of the people i think are muslim extremists so you could could do with those people are there any model of i believe if you would be more than.

perfect there are some indications nato is considering putting peacekeeping troops on the ground in libya we gen experts warn that could be seen by parts of the free libya movement as an act of aggression but having supported the rebel movement they too must now deal with the consequences even if that. islamic extremists. it's a scary thought but earlier i spoke with khan helena to find out just how likely it is he's a columnist for foreign policy in focus we talked about libya i told him one of our guests asia times correspondent ted de escobar maybe you saw that on friday he reported to us that. the newly appointed commander of the tripoli military council is an al-qaeda asset this is a report that british newspapers also echoed over the weekend so i asked him to his knowledge who is in charge of libya right now here's his response. no idea who's

a georgia movie i think that the asia times reporting on this seems very sober seems very solid and and their medical bar has done a good job i think are 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 very solidly research and i think that i just think you're going to have a hornet's nest here now and i think the west went into this with i don't know like a keystone crusaders or something that is a distinct through and they thought it was going to be over quickly and now they they've got the situation which i don't see that there's any way that 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 that have asked of ours our parting as solid before all of this gadhafi and us were having a period and the years before the civil war were khadafi agreed to get out 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 reveal this visit from u.s. lawmakers with gadhafi but going back to where we are now did the u.s. backing of the rebels hand power over to the very people that the u.s. was fighting against in the winds there i think it probably has and i think this is one of these unintended consequences you know sort of blow back operation not unlike with the united states period in afghanistan when the soviet union was in afghanistan to create these not to be big for against the go to soviets they were.

eventually so yes we grew and the low single should be seen clear close against the world trade towers. 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 a new direction that was calling us for foreign policy in focus conn hallinan now what is this all mean for syria exactly what has been going on in syria has been difficult to confirm for one because access has been limited but now r t reporter there are going to blue skies she says that president bashar al assad has announced a new law lifting censorship and granting freedom of expression making it easier for foreign journalists to operate in the country so amidst conflicting accounts that have come from syria she headed to the town of latakia to clear them up take a look. let out he bears a special significance for syria and for the president bashar

a loss of his father is from a village near the city in which the population is predominantly great just like the rest of the province the protests 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 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 her talking 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 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 me western media sources is that there were a warship 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 scene where supposedly ships were there differently signs of battle you can see by the bullet holes in the walls in the market. forces so. some buildings were damaged. some people unwilling to speak on camera gave us spews critical of the assad regime saying the government is to blame for failing to deliver on five month old promises. reforms this the city for the people. to remove protests the reluctance of people to be interviewed may not be

surprising given that we were accompanied by norm deuterium scoops the road or troop for more talk in syria. parts. meanwhile here in the u.s. a different battle going on the one over the economy and today president obama tapped a new chair for his council of economic advisers to help him with it and this announcement comes ahead of a big speech on monday where it's anticipated that obama ball unveil a new jobs plan politicians like obama and members of congress now look like perhaps the only hope to help an economy teetering on recession or in recession depending on who you talk to since federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he hinted on friday that there will be no new plans for the federal reserve to act he said that in his speech on friday now he tossed the ball back to obama and congress for solutions instead calling for a better process he said quote the country would be involved served by a better process for fiscal decisions so to help us figure out if that is even

possible i spoke with economist and radio host richard wolfe in the course of our conversation i asked him if the federal reserve act and if leaders in both congress and the white house won't either because of political stalemates like we've seen in the debt ceiling debate where are we as a country the u.s. headed here's what he said. i think we're already in something of the in-between between the great recession which is what people want to call it and a depression which is what it is will 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 stocks and it boosts the stock market but it doesn't touch the mass of people you know we have an economic policy in america today that used to be called

trickle down help the people at the top and you hope with benefits trickle down we've been doing it for three years they never trickle down the alternative is to help the people at the bottom with job to keep their almost 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 you think the problem is crony capitalism is that what you would attribute it here if you had here. 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 to 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 fall apart 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 at a time that i guess i'm looking for a yes or now do you largely brandt 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 and put people to work back their integrate their passions and you blame obama for not doing that. no i don't think he's shown much leadership but he is on like 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 1930'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 heroic says 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 american people see that there's not much coming in the way of leadership and that was richard wolffe economist and radio host of the economic update and be

a i ninety nine point five if you want to catch it saturdays at noon now for a different perspective earlier i spoke with doug campbell he is a former staff economist on president obama's council of economic advisors also a ph d. candidate at the university of california in davis now unlike richard wolffe doug believes that quantitative easing actually has not only worked but that the federal reserve has plenty of options to try to get the economy back on track listen. 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 treasuries you think it is on lowering the value of the dollar to things which which need to happen are necessary and sufficient conditions for duty work and so that it actually has a number of options disposable it does cut the discount rate to cut the rate the

federal reserve pays today i'm holding excess reserves at the at the head. they could also use language in a more vigorous way to promise to hold rates a lot at 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 better ones are pads. 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 to look and see how alan krueger responded on three key policy front which don't necessarily involve the house of representatives the first is on housing the

ministration can use this to back the control over fannie and freddie to allow millions of homeowners whose mortgages are guaranteed by benny and freddie to refinance their mortgages and put more money in their pockets but helping households rebuild their balance sheet the second is on. currency policy for the u.s. treasury showed reverse and strong dollar policy and it's a look at. all the while to get china to revalue the developing countries now are spending more than a trillion dollars a year building up their borders or in order to manipulate their own currency. 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 but what was different quantitative easing was was aimed at domestic monetary policy where these these action by china and other countries are just manipulating its currency to china

while it's buying three hundred billion dollars worth of u.s. treasury each fiscal quarter has also been raising it and dig into the story which kind of trying to revive the stimulus in taxes keeping its currency rates low and short it's completely back about a neighbor that was dug campbell former staff economist on president obama's council of economic advisers who helped prepare a daily briefing he's also an economics ph d. candidate at the university of california and a bit and that is going to do it for now for more on the stories we cover go to our t.v. dot com slash usa you can check out our you tube page at youtube dot com slash r t america you can go there now to check out my soul length interviews with both economists richard well as well as doug campbell they both weighed in on what impact they see this new top chief economic adviser to obama as having they have both different takes on that as you saw in their analysis of quantitative easing.