if you want a lot of attention you could try to like streak the united nations nobody said let's not ruled out just yet after all this years general assembly is just getting started but in order to move forward we take a look back at the good the bad and well the downright bizarre has come out of these meetings in the past plus this. and as a palestinian bid to be recognized as a us state at the un build up and us work so that doesn't happen protests build up outside of the debates these you're looking at are orthodox jews protesting against israel both you went on what's going on that you won't see inside the walls of u.n. headquarters. you know the old beach boys song bomb iran.

everywhere you go. i think really it's a great read so what exactly makes you think that senator come along as we explore why the political elite seem eager to beat the drums of war against iran. as protesters chant injustice the clock ticking down to the execution of troy davis so in the eleventh hour will be us murder a potentially innocent man and what is due to the u.s. his ability to lecture on the more rally to the rest of the world. good evening it's wednesday september twenty first four pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lyster and you're watching our t.v.

. now we begin today with our coverage of the sixty six you know. good nations general assembly and this morning we heard from u.s. president barack obama who in the midst of us wars in afghanistan and iraq but more specific to obama the nato combat mission in libya which he greenlighted for the u.s. he talked a lot about peace pursuit of peace peace is more than just the absence of war a lasting peace. he says hurt people can live in sustained freedom. and security even as we proclaim our love for peace and our hatred of war. he says hard this is hard now when talking about conflicts in the arab world he urged sanctions

for syria taking a tough stance well he took a much more cautious approach to u.s. allies yemen and bahrain and of course there's a bid for a vote on palestinian membership builds up at the u.n. obama said it's not the bodies roll while tens of thousands of palestinians this agree and are rallying for it today in palestine and one hundred twenty of the un's one hundred ninety three member states already recognize palestine as a state now his speech comes a year after obama stood at that very same podium pledging hopes for brokering middle east peace giving palestine statehood by this time obviously that hasn't happened and will get into all the latest from the u.n.g.a. debates that began today but first let's look back at the most memorable moments of u.n. gas' past. if only these walls could talk. about pumped up wow factor and center stage drama would be their story every year for

about ten days the united nations becomes a mecca for world leaders for a confrontational to be surprising to be out white blackie be you when she will be mentioned never feels too impressed what happens right here becomes a mirror image of what an engaging game politics i mean over one hundred ninety members make up the general assembly to get attention leaders have to get creative if you want a lot of attention you could try to like streak the united nations nobody's done that yet nobody's come in but naked with the gold on their back i mean so far none of this has happened but i wouldn't rule it out in the future that's one of few tricks that have not been performed here yet i think that one that i remember the most i mean there was could i see with who i guess will never be back here again so it becomes memorable because it's a collector's item now his long speech of tearing up tearing up the u.n. charter and falling asleep so we're just record your course you're right corn but you are my hard. disk of the constitution the concept of the record holder for

speech length and indian envoy in the fifty's nobody remembers what he said but they remember that he went on for eight and a half hours exhausted the diplomat collapsed at the podium only to return and carry on the un is really on its own by its member states so it's not really anyone's role to you know be kind a western and grabs you know you've got to when they're up there or they can go as long as they want they can also see whatever they want and accusations often go flying towards the us yes even then ok. thank you. for raising here and say as assessor still today and from the us the greatest obstacle to this future is that your rulers have chosen to deny you liberty and the media. creating legends out of these performances from she could clad carla bruni becoming a headliner for the simple act of showing our society leader nikita khrushchev

allegedly banging his shoe against the podium. for colonial slavery which should be buried deep the better half a century later the story is were to be a favorite among tourists visiting the un the some people leader so on says the episode is a legend as the shoe banging is never captured on video through the. use of the t.v. . all. you could be. to showcase work as deed officials pull out so-called facts sparring accusations backed up by wooden seal. the need to invade iraq nonexistent rep and of mass destruction we're giving you our factions inclusions based on solid intelligence the key players.

it was you who. just so you would. do you would have fierceness clearly not for into this international political stage drama year after year as the number one guest to r.s.v.p. and r.t. . now you have a highlight for the past but here to talk about what's going to go down as this year's most memorable moment or moment are to correspondent and i thought theater and i started i think before i get it if areas that we just kind of your back story all of the ad takes that have gone on at u.n. g.a. historically this is your fourth u.n. g.a. how does this year stack up compared to others as far as highlights show attractions. well you know lauren it's really interesting how the united nations general assembly sessions really always become a great reflection of what goes on throughout the world how countries are crocker waiting and not managing to cooperate with each other of course one of the might

mean highlights this year is that the face of the arab world has really become completely different in the aftermath of all the uprisings that took place in the arab world one of the means show man that traditionally became sort of the clown of the of the spectacle gadhafi is not here this year he's not here being followed by his female bodyguards he's not here trying to build up tents at central park and he's certainly not here ripping up the u.n. charter which some are seeing sort of as an example of be careful what you wish for he was here attacking the international community and he's no longer here now the other you know interesting personality of course ahmadinejad who is traditionally attacked every time he steps foot in new york city there are already of course a billboard against him in times square but he has not delivered a speech yet and has kind of been laying low for now you know one of the mean differences also is that last year there was no need for international scandal that

the international community was watching tightly whereas this year of course we have the whole palestinian israeli stalemates and also looking sort of inside the united states we have to note that comparing to last year's in two thousand and nine president barack obama descended on to new york city a sort of the it was a new leader of change telling the world what to do last year already in two thousand and ten he was here already downplayed his character for the international community he was trying to win internet political points ahead of a midterm election and of course this year really the united states' image is much weaker than it was in the previous years because of these really palestinian make that the u.s. has been leading really trying to spare have these negotiations and barack obama. briefing on his lowest approval rating ever a thirty nine percent i want to talk a little bit more about that and it's awful because we heard from president obama this morning and you talked about the israeli palestinian stalemate last year when

obama went to the podium he made a pledge calling for peace in the middle east saying that this year by this time there could and should be a state of palestine is recognized now fast forward and he's standing up there that obviously hasn't happened and he's there saying as a big buildup for a palestinian vote to be recognized at the u.n. to be a member you know it is building up you have obama standing there saying it's not the u.n. job people are saying this is an embarrassment but is it more than that. you know lauren it definitely is an embarrassing situation for the u.s. like you said obama was here saying that palestine will be a member of the international community a recognized member by two thousand and eleven and this is really the lead us and best example of u.s. backtracking and palestinian officials have told us in interviews that spiegel leave that this is really an example of backstabbing because we do know of course that the u.s. has said that this mean issue of this year palestine trying to push for

a bid for recognize statehood within the united nations within the security council and the united states saying that if this is the case it will veto any resolution of recognition of palestine by the security council and we know that the united states has been working very hard behind closed doors trying to avoid palestine presenting this bid to the u.n. we do know that obama abbas are going to be meeting later on today whether or not this is going to rewrite the way things are going right now is certainly a big question it's very unlikely since palestine really seems to be such on achieving the goal of being officially recognized at the united nations either through the security council or through the general assembly now if you just quickly you're talking about the behind the scenes and the united states really working so that this doesn't go to a vote what really at stake is at stake here for the u.s. is it about saving face. you know largely so lauren because we know that the united states is trying to be the main mediate mediator between israel and palestine for

decades and obama ever since becoming president of the us has been trying to make that his mean winning point throughout his presidency and now we are realizing that is very far from the case because palestine is seems to be fed up from trying to be mediated by other countries and they want to have official recognition at the security council which would give them a fully officially recognized position much stronger for further negotiations with israel we do know of course that like we mentioned if the u.s. vetoes of the security council decision palestine is likely to go through the general assembly this would not this would be more of a symbolic recognition and not and would make them sort of observer members but it would still give great access to do you want institutions and that's something they certainly want to be able to have a stronger stronger position really want to comes to dealing with israel and other countries as well and i thought that outside of the u.n. g.a.

debate there are always protests today there was the durban three protests which we had video of if we were running that and also. the orthodox jews against zionism were protesting how do the protest back up compared to years past. well you know there is certainly every single year the u.n. g.a. session kicks off any sort of self-respect activist group deems it necessary and important to come out onto the streets and really voice their opinions we've seen like you said those protests as well as really a bunch of different other ones there have been anti bush protests we're expecting and really the georgian president protests we're seeing progress really against israel pro palestinian against palestinian so certainly a lot of different organizations coming out onto the streets and causing quite a stir here outside the united nations and i've pushed protests in as many years later yes actually. much of the mainstream media has been trying to present

it as sort of the mean poster boy of evil we have seen there was a sort of behind the scenes gathering of bush and some of his former friends there was quite small protest against him calling him a war criminal but still for some people he is still really someone they're not willing to appreciate and still want to have him see him be holed up held accountable for his his presidency interesting and now you mention the media frenzy and a lot of the mainstream media attention has been paid to the palestinian bed and obama's speech today how does the press attention compare to past years. you know traditionally what we see with the with american mainstream media is that they're here really abuzz while the president is here and then really tend to disperse once in these last years kind of wraps up his main agenda but we do know that there's as many as two thousand journalists approximately who have been credentialed for the u.n.g.a. there's certainly a major frenzy as many as at least twenty satellite trucks outside the united

nations today and you know there's over one hundred ninety countries within the united nations general assembly on all of them have their own press covering their sort of national events really definitely this is the busiest time of the year for the international and american media at some point as well and we'll have to wait and see at all those satellite trucks packed up as soon as obama has done kind of at the u.n. g.a. after today i really appreciate that report that was our to correspondent and south africa. now as you heard anastasio say every un has its punching bags and for the u.s. that has often been iran i should mention now we even heard republican presidential candidate michele bachmann yesterday calling on president obama of block iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad from speaking at the united nations all accusing him of violating the u.n. charter and international law now in fact it is bachmann calling for the violation of the law this side of the u.n. is actually international territory and because of that the u.s.

is obligated to allow access for leaders even if michele bachmann doesn't like them now to get to the bottom though of just why iran is such a target for the u.s. for politicians and what this could lead to christine breaks it all down for us. just about everywhere you look at iran and it continues to develop nuclear weapons someone whether politician or pundit controlled by the fanatical regime is beating the drums of war how close are we to the point of no return well i think we may be past the point of no return in the sense that iran does have inside the country everything it needs to produce a nuclear weapon that point of no return often exaggerated according to journalist seymour hersh whose in-depth articles recently this one in the new yorker have illustrated time and time again the lack of evidence of a nuclear threat from iran the rhetoric though has resulted in widespread support for harsh actions against the country we support

a sanctions program that's the sign to stop the punishment is. aimed at stopping the iranians from doing something you know we know they're not doing sanctions called for repeatedly by the obama administration so let me be clear iran's nuclear and ballistic missile activity poses a real threat not just to the united states but the roads neighbors and our allies hers compares president obama's added to draw iran to. bush and cheney's policy toward iraq they want to punish they wanted to make a case against iraq i did my politics. so we made a case about nuclear weapons we were talking about mushroom clouds make a case to go to war. and to war america when. many worry it could happen as well in iran if rhetoric becomes reality you ran is that a good perilous position and it's obvious that the crosshairs are on them squarely if anyone wants to know how it would begin look no further than those hoping to

have their finger on the but here's john mccain four years ago that old beach boys song. and history does in fact repeat itself with the greatest threat to the security the world is a nuclear iran iran is a country that has killed more american men and women in uniform in iraq in afghanistan than the iraqis and the afghanistan's have. this just last month g.o.p. presidential debate in iowa they are one of the four state sponsors of terror in the world only one candidate strayed from the script to texas congressman ron paul just think of how many nuclear weapons surrounding iraq the chinese are there the indians or the pakistan is they are these realities are they are the united states is there all these countries china has nuclear weapons we have one tipping natural that they might want to weapons there'd be internationally they'd be given more

respect but one man given very little respect and us iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad number one villain for somebody this is. the last year the group united against nuclear iran with these posters up all over new york city perpetuating the idea of a hostile iran american policy needs enemies we need bad guys we need this these. threats because these threats just a thought i an expansion of military spending they justify you know the voices of the of the military and hawkish congressman even while the rest of the economy is sinking the military industrial complex grows and grows and grows in other words war is good business but it may also be good business to take a closer look at the way the narrative unfolds this time around to ask when you hear the drums of war being beaten yet again if it is in fact a matter of preparedness and for constant or if it is simply propaganda. in

washington christine for sound r.t. now to get a response from iran on all of those things are to you will go straight to the source r.t. correspondent in new york marina will sit down with the iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad tonight archie will air that interview in its entirety tomorrow so you will not want to miss i guarantee you're not going to see anything like it us mainstream media news now president obama earlier today also when he took the podium at the u.n. preached about human rights here's a little bit we have those who abuse human rights from traveling to work of we should those who travel on human rights and grow up and we will always serve as a voice for those who are and yet as he made those very statements and accuses other countries like iran for example of not recognizing the rights of its people one man believed to be innocent by many awaits death at the hands of the state the

united states being that state he's tried gave us a black man found guilty of killing a white police officer in georgia he's scheduled to be killed by legal lethal injection tonight at seven this is despite a number of appeals calls from amnesty international the pope president jimmy carter as well as hundreds of protesters some right here in washington d.c. today that you see behind me. just try to just go forward with the two words feel for you but. now five of them were arrested as for troy davis he's scheduled to be executed despite no physical evidence that he committed the crime no d.n.a. evidence of course that means and seven of the nine witnesses in his case recanted five say they were coerced now the georgia pardons border jetted a last minute appeal wednesday to haul davis' execution to help us figure out where

human rights comes into play in this case political comedian blogger and filmmaker katie holmes katie thanks for being here now you've been writing about and i'm curious big picture what do you think this case says about the u.s. is respect for human rights i think that it's a real embarrassing fact that we have the death penalty in this country that's supposed to be the land of freedom and liberty and then really interesting statistic is that the five countries that killed the most people executed most people are china north korea yemen and the united states is on that list and that just gives you an idea of how my anti human rights we are when it comes to the death penalty i mean the fact that we're on a list with those countries who we the united states are constantly condemning for their human rights abuses should say something it's certainly a double standard by any account here's what reverend jesse jackson had to say that all means you should lawyers tried it was so true as

a substitute for a life that was taken away and there's more with this that someone is alive would do that than troy davis so this is a crowd of more well outrages little of this and it's a national disgrace to. the world is watching and we can get murtha's moral authority around the world so do you agree with him that this weekend's the u.s. is moral authority around the world. oh i totally agree i think this is one of the biggest embarrassments i mean it's literally a question of life and death and what's so extraordinary about this case is that it . is who aren't against capital punishment the death penalty for instance you had desmond tutu and the pope speaking out against the execution of troy davis but you also have someone like the former director of the f.b.i. you have bob barr who was the congressman of georgia who's a republican he himself works on legislation making it harder to overturn the death

penalty and he sees this as a really unfair and not definitive. example of guilt i mean he said he himself someone who's such an advocate of the death penalty that he works on making it harder to overturn. penalty sentences he realizes that troy davis is either in a sense or he's certainly not guilty beyond reasonable doubt and there's someone out there who probably did do it and more people have come forward and said that someone else a man named phil bester calls has done it and people have said troy davis has done it and you know we like to talk about how much respect we have for life and some people especially on the right talk about erring on the side of life why would we want to err on the side of life when it comes to literally life and death and the human being's life and what's the harm the very worst the person stays on. for life without parole i don't understand why we wouldn't want to err on the side

of safety and caution in life it's a very good question so then let's get into what you think could be the solution president obama for example could only pardon federal comics in the united states this is a state case of course but do you think you should be doing something exerting pressure somewhere. i mean i think that amnesty international has a bunch of numbers and faxes and e-mails that you can reach out to to voice your. not discussed although it's hard not to voice your disgust but to encourage people to intervene and save the life of troy davis i think that what this case really shows us is that even if you believe in the death penalty in theory you can't support it in the united states without supporting the execution of innocent people and i think this is a really a wall of water moment and again it's it's raised questions for people who aren't against the death penalty i myself am against the death penalty in theory and in practice but i really respect these people who are again who are for in seery but

realize that in practice we know it's racist we know it's class it's we know it's applied unfairly just last week a man received a stay of execution because basically he was convicted the jury was told that he was more likely to commit a violent crime again because of his race there's no question that it's a racist classist. penalty and in fact the race of the witness is what determines whether or not usually whether or not you go to jail if the i'm feeling if you get the death penalty when the victim is white then you're more likely to be sentenced to death and there have been two hundred seventy three exonerations of people using d.n.a. evidence and seventeen of those people have been on death row now that doesn't mean that the system's working those are the cases that we know about but by definition it's difficult to discover who's. who's innocent behind bars because it's so hard to get those investigations going on of course after your you're executed it's very

hard for people to put their resources and time into proving that you were innocent when there are so many other people who you need to defend and get off death row but we know of at least ten people who have been executed and were innocent which is very shocking alarming at the same time the death penalty is still allowed in the united states and in. still legal so in this case as an example what would you do because you have the governor in georgia is actually not allowed to commute sentences which is not the case in any state in other states many states the governor can the president can't grant clemency he's not allowed to do that for federal convicts what what should how did you can write to the d.a. and ask him to cancel the warrant for his death the thing is in cases like this everyone's going to say they can't do anything on their hands and that's the problem but people can always do more than say they can so and on the onus lies with for authority in this country with the president i mean he is the leader of this country i think it's not a question of authority and it's a question of

a systemic problem this isn't just about troy davis as he himself said this isn't just about what it was he said this is about all the people who came before him and after me the problem is this isn't an isolated incident we live in a country where the justice system does not self correct and this is why we can't have the death penalty we need a moratorium and this is why you have the governor of illinois who is for the death penalty instituting a moratorium because he realizes that the possibility of innocent executing innocent people is real and it's there and it's just so scary i mean you had it is true and it was and i'm sorry there's a little delay in new york and with those cases it was journalism students were finding evidence that these death row you know convicts were innocent not why the governor did it obviously this is a much broader problem you have for davis who despite all of the appeals processes that he has exhausted there are still doubts and he is still sentenced her is still scheduled to be executed i appreciate you coming on the show and talking about all

of the issues that are coming into play there that are much broader than just one man that was political comedian blogger and filmmaker katie helper thanks so much. and he's sure to join us in thirty minutes coming up all knew it was to be an american means to pay taxes of course but when the economy is failing how can one justify taxpayer money going to things such as oh say a mob museum a sixteen million dollar mob museum to be exact that's the government share the federal government share oh and this haven't even been built and it keeps getting better bob or an air force base is getting a facelift in the form of a one hundred million dollar prison i thought the u.s. was supposedly pulling out of afghanistan let's lower u.s. government wasteful spending all new in thirty minutes and that is going to do it for now though for more on the stories we cover go to archie dot com slash usa you can check out our you tube page it's youtube dot com slash r t america.