if you want a lot of the tension you could try to like streak the united nations nobody said let's not rule that out just yet after all this year's general assembly is just getting started but in order to move forward we'll take a look back at the good the bad and well the downright bizarre that have come out of past meetings plus this. ultimately it is the israelis and the palestinians who must live side by side. as obama urges world leaders to stay out of the israeli palestinian conflict at the u.n. at least american diplomats work to veto a palestinian bid for statehood will shed light on how many say the u.s. is in a critical when it comes to peace and freedom. you know that the old beach boys

song oh miranda you know. anyway. i think really it's a great read so what exactly makes you think that senator come along as we explore by the political elites are eager to beat those drums of war against iran. as protesters chant injustice aquatics down to the execution of troy davis so in the eleventh hour will the u.s. murder a potentially innocent man and what does this mean for the u.s. as ability to lecture the world's a morality. and wasteful government spending from a new president air force base to a mob museum tax payer money is definitely hard work and it does not stop there.

good evening it's wednesday september twenty first five pm here in washington d.c. i'm lauren lester and you watch. we begin today with our coverage of the sixty sixth united nations general assembly now this morning we heard from president obama of the u.s. of course who in the midst of u.s. wars in afghanistan and iraq but more specific to obama the nato combat mission in libya that he greenlighted for the u.s. well he talked a lot about peace the pursuit of peace peace is more than just the absence of war a lasting peace. he says heart 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 yes it certainly does seem so president obama and also when talking about conflicts in the arab world he urged sanctions for syria while he took a much more cautious approach you could say to u.s. allies yemen and bahrain and also as a bid for a vote on palestinian statehood builds up at the u.n. obama said it's not the bodies role to get involved in this wall tens of thousands of palestinians seem to disagree and rallied for this in palestine also one hundred twenty of the un's one hundred ninety three members already recognized as a college of palestine as a state outside of the u.n. now his speech of course is coming to a year after obama stood at that very same podium pledging hopes for brokering middle east peace giving palestine statehood by now we'll get to all of this about

the u.n. g.a. this year and the latest updates but first a look back at the most memorable moments of u.n.g.a. past. if only these walls could talk. pumped out 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 of a confrontational to the surprising to be outright wacky b. when he will damage never fails to impress what happens right here becomes a mirror image of what an engaging game politics heavy over one hundred ninety members make up the general assembly to get attention we have to get creative if you want a lot of attention and you could try to like streak the united nations nobody nobody has 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 you tricks that have not been performed here yet i think it's one that i remember the most i mean

it was could i think with who i guess will never be back again so this becomes memorable because it's a collector's item now his long speech in tearing up tearing up the u.n. charter and falling asleep so we're just record your course you're out of court. you are trying to describe the constitution. the record holder for speech like an indian and boy in the fifty's nobody remembers what he said but they remember that he went on for eight and a half hours exhausted that diplomat collapsed at the podium only to return and carry on the un is really on its own by its member states it's not really anyone's role to you know the west and grabs you know you've got to when they're up there they can go as long as they want they can also see whatever they want and accusations often go flying towards the us vs them ok. thank you. and it's may as of sesame street today

and from the us the greatest obstacle to this future is that your ruler said chosen to deny you liberty and the media obsessed. creating legends out of bill's performance. from she could clad carla bruni becoming a headliner for the simple act of showing our. leader nikita khrushchev running allegedly banging his shoe against the podium he had a grave for colonial slavery which means bury people the better half a century later the story is rumored to be a favorite among tourists visiting the u.n. the soviet leader son says the episode is a legend as the ship banging is never captured on video to the. media confused over the t.v. . how all. for mold. you could believe in the. word as deed officials pull out so-called facts spying accusations backed up by wooden so you.

don't need to invade iraq nonexistent repost of mass destruction but we're giving you our faction conclusions based on solid intelligence the key point and go. because you have the programs. and just to so who are you would. do you with the fierceness clearly not who are into this international political stage drama year after year is the number one guest to. our team. and to talk about this year's drama so much has already unfolded today david swanson he is a campaigner for roots action as you can see by a shirt he's quite an activist for appreciate you being here so let's get to president obama's speech that he delivered today he was up there basically saying

he doesn't think the u.s. should be involved in a vote on palestinian statehood happy when last year he was up there saying by this time there would be a palestinian state because of middle east negotiations which the u.s. is obviously a big part of that has happened is this is an embarrassment or is it more than enough for the u.s. well i think it's the creation of another myth if this is remembered as a moment when a president a peace prize winner came and spoke for peace and spoke for palestine that would be as as you know accurate as remembering a shoe that didn't happen. you know you can't say this country may have statehood what all only that the approval of another country that is illegally blockading piece of its territory and it's absolutely outrageous i mean if china were blocked . in a large chunk of the united states and we could have statehood with their permission i mean nobody would stand for it but it gets it's double standards and it's worse than that in that you have the vast majority of the nations of the world ready to

give statehood to palestine and you have united states with veto power say no it's up to us we know better than the entire world and yet you see the united states according to reports it appears working very hard on the sidelines to make it so this doesn't go to a vote so that they don't have to veto and so that nobody loses face any best case you know the u.s. not losing face according to them i would imagine but what about the u.s. his role in the world does this more of a declining u.s. influence will we're seeing a gradual decline in u.s. influence including this handing over somewhat of imperialism to the nato members in europe in terms of the libya war on that we're going to see an ongoing decline in u.s. imperialism what we have seen some of its last gasps under obama we have seen story this week new bases for drones in africa and asia we have missile bases being put

in surrounding russia we have navy bases been put in next to china we have this incredible escalation of militarism and here he comes and gives a speech about peace it's exactly what i wanted to ask you about you have that report have expanded as you have nato saying that it's going to extend the mission in libya for three more months how do you balance that with obama going up there saying peace he calling for a million times not a million but you stop plenty of examples and i report well in stressing that you can't just go for it you have to fight and kill for it and you know back before world war two with the idea that gave us the color green and pact which bans all war period it is still the law of the land was that you can't use war to get rid of war you have to start making war the united nations was always flawed it was always . we will ban wars except those we deem defensive and those we authorize and if you have a distortion of power within the united nations and you have a war making state with troops in one hundred seventy seven nations and slicing up

the globe into different commands and a military that could be cut by eighty percent and still be the world's largest if you have that kind of influence you're going to have wars get authorized and so you're going to have a president come up there and with total hypocrisy say wars are brought upon us including by nations possessing weapons he said your brand cannot demonstrate that its program is peaceful just like iraq couldn't demonstrate that it no longer had anthrax we sold it you know that's that's the justification for war in this mindset and that's how you get peace ok so you're comparing this to past presidents today because you made the comparison to iraq and we have it which was bush obviously and you have obama with iran so do you see this as more of the same or do you see this as kind of a watershed moment where the united states is losing its authority in the world it's it's continuing as under bush and cheney to lose its respect to lose its power

to lose its influence but it's accel rating i think under obama as it did under bush it's compounded but you know obama to get up there and say i was handed two wars and now we have a different a different course set we have six wars and we have operations in dozens of countries this is a continuation we're still in iraq we're still in afghanistan and we have libya which is obama starting that wasn't a bush war that was obama there greenlighted that as far as double standards for a president who is out there portraying himself as fair how do you balance that with calling for sanctions in syria but yet a more cautious approach and bahrain and yemen. well it's hypocritical you know bahrain is our good friend so we hope that they get better and stop the abuses that we've greenlighted the saudis and our own our own forces to tolerate and and i predict that bahrain is hosting a naval fleet for the united states i mean it's pure hypocrisy this taters are on

notice rock obama said after listing a series of nations which included nations we've bombed because their dictators turned against us policy and tunisia and egypt whose people turned against them because they obeyed u.s. policy and it's the this is the notice that dictators are on but it's very not old in the presentation from the president however we have you in studio to clear up everything that you didn't hear in obama's speech thank you david it's nice to see you know that david swanson a campaigner i roots action now every year when has its punching bags and for the u.s. that has often been iran now we even heard this year republican presidential candidate michele bachmann call on president obama to block iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad from speaking at the united nations at all she accused him of violating the u.n. charter and international law now in fact it is actually michele bachmann who is calling for the violation of law the site of the u.n.

is international territory and because of that the u.s. is obligated to allow access for leaders even if michele bachmann doesn't like them but to get to the bottom of exactly why iran is such a target for the u.s. and what this could lead to christine for as outbreaks that all down. just about everywhere you look around and it continues to develop nuclear weapons someone whether politician or pundit are 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 war. and 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 a country supported stations program that's designed to stop the punishment is. aimed at stopping the iranians from doing something we 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 patrol runs may first and our allies curse compares president obama's attitude toward iran to bush and cheney's policy toward iraq they want to punish they want to make a case against iraq they didn't like the politics. and so we made a case about nuclear weapons we are if you remember they were talking about mushroom clouds and i 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 iran is in a very perilous position and it's obvious that the crosshairs are on them squarely

if anyone wants to know how it would begin to 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 bomb iran. 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 and afghanistan than the iraqis and the afghanistan's half. this 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. just think of how many nuclear weapons surround iran the chinese are there the indians the pakistan is there is really for the united states is there all these countries china has nuclear weapons why wouldn't it be 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 you were right in the. number one village. by this is the. first. last year the group united against nuclear iran with these posters all over new york city perpetuating the idea of iran american policy needs enemies we need bad guys we need this these threats because these threats justify an expansion of military spending they justify you know the voices of the military and hawkish congressman was even more 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 proconsul or if it is simply propaganda. in washington

christine for sound r.t. . to get to the bottom of exactly what christine was talking about our team will actually sit down with iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad to hear from him and to speak for iran what you don't always hear in the u.s. mainstream media are key correspondent marina will speak with him tonight i will air tomorrow you will not want to miss it so pay attention to that now president obama earlier today took the podium at the u.n. and he also preached about human rights in his speech we have those who abuse human rights from traveling to work on. we search for those who travel on human rights abroad and we will always serve as a voice for those who saw him and yet as he made those very statements and accused other countries such as iran for not recognizing the rights of its people one man

in the u.s. believed to be innocent by many awaits the death at the hands of the state troy davis a black man found guilty of killing a white police officer off duty in georgia he's scheduled to be killed by lethal injection tonight at seven this 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 there. was no. now there were five arrests reported according to our crew that was out there these protests going on just as troy davis is scheduled to be executed tonight despite no physical evidence in his case that he committed a crime no d.n.a. evidence and seven of the nine witnesses in the case recanted five say they were coerced now the georgia pardons board rejected a last minute appeal wednesday to hold his execution to help us figure out where

human rights comes into play in this case i spoke to political comedian blogger and filmmaker katie how to start things off i asked her a simple question big picture what does the handling of this case say 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 in 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. 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 about all means. use trebly was true through as

a substitute for a life of the taken away and there's more with this the son was alive would do that troy davis so this is a kind of moral outrage is one of the is a. wall of water you know weakens america'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's gathered allies who aren't against capital punishment or the death penalty for instance you had desmond tutu and a colt 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 worked on legislation making it harder to overturn the

death penalty and he sees this as a really unfair and not a sin it is. an example of guilt i mean he himself someone who's such an advocate of the death penalty that he works on making it harder to overturn death 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 the man then sylvester coles 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 want to 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 contacts in the united states this is a state case of course but do you think he 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 discuss but to encourage people to intervene and save the life of troy davis and 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 walkup watershed moment and again it's raised questions for people who aren't against the death penalty i'm myself i'm against the death penalty in syria and in practice but i really respect these people who are again poor for in theory but

realize that in practice we know it's racist we know it's class as 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 we will get more into the race issue later at seven we have a guest on that in the league solution of shabazz you won't want to miss it but that was political comedian blogger and filmmaker katie helper now the country is fourteen point seven trillion dollars in debt if we want to switch gears and talk about the economic problems nine percent of americans are unemployed and that's being conservative government spending is on the chopping block so we hear and what is taxpayer money going to do well how about a new prison air force base in afghanistan at a cost of twenty five to one hundred million dollars to house about two thousand detainees the government just started soliciting bids for that afghanistan the

country the united states is supposed to be getting out of and let's look here at home in the united states how about a mob museum taxpayers have shelled out a combined sixteen point two million dollars to go towards a museum in las vegas dedicated to the mob so to sort out. how all of this is possible david williams president of the tax payers protection alliance thank you for being here thank you so let's just break it down why are taxpayers and more importantly how are taxpayers footing the bill for this mob museum well what's happened is we've spent all of this money and there is no oversight so for years we're spending money on every sort of project and now we see a lot of these vacation destination like the mob museum that's got sixteen million dollars over the years and during the stimulus debate there is fifty five million dollars that was supposed to go to las vegas and the mayor said i want to use part of that for the mob museum for congress said hold on a second enough is enough and we're going to pass

a law you can't spend stimulus money on museums but they're still building this mob museum in las vegas and not only is it a waste of money but they're having some really bizarre things in this museum they have the wall the same found times they massacre they have the blood stained wall and the bullet riddled wall from the south st valentine's day massacre and guess what the mob museum is going to open up on valentine's day two thousand and twelve well that is sheriff fitting in quite poetic but it's not just the mob museum this is symptomatic of a broader problem what is it that's allowing these kinds of things to happen what happens is if you're a member of congress and you send money back home your current favor with your constituents and first lady is a national museum and library in canton ohio representative ruff regular sent millions of dollars back home to his district to build this library not because that this is the best place in the country to do it but because his wife asked him to do it and one of the library in that district has already the pro football hall

of fame so they already have want to traction there but he wanted a legacy from self and a couple years afterwards he left congress but now his wife is on the board his daughter works for the library so you can see how this is just pork barrel politics at its worst pork barrel politics at its worst so here's my question for you. what who is it congressman currying favor with by approving one hundred million dollar prison on air base to be built when the u.s. is leaving afghanistan well that's an excellent question and i would love to know just exactly why one hundred million dollars is being spent on that sort of prison and whether or not that's could be spent wisely is that really the amount that we need have there been studies do we know that it's not going to really only cost twenty five million and there's seventy five million dollars in fluff there so that really the inspector general needs to get involved and they're leaving a lot more audits on every sort of construction project not only in this country but also abroad what is going on that that's not happening because there are

numerous reports of contractor waste and abuse in say afghanistan but then the program doesn't get wound down in fact it gets ramped up i think some people are afraid to criticize military spending because if they. don't say it if you criticize it then you're un-american well just we need to give the soldiers what they need but we don't always do that just spending a lot of money doesn't mean we're giving them what they need i remember in iraq there was i think four billion dollars i just disappeared not in a project it was cash because the power. and it's really some people during the course of war like i said are hesitant to say well we have to look at what we're spending and the contractors know that they know that there's. no oversight so they get away with it you follow this closely is there anything that indicates that that's going to change the absolutely not because as long as contractors can get away with it the damages and what they get let's say they're

found guilty and they waste let's say one hundred million dollars it might be five or ten million dollar fine that's a great return on investment if you're a contractor is a good one hundred million dollar contract only pay five or ten million in damage. so there really is no one center right now not to defraud the government and in fact there was a report indicating that actually contractors or u.s. officials rather are basically incentivized to spend more money as long as it can be accounted for but we can't get into that now there's not enough time but i certainly appreciate you helping us figure out why taxpayer money is going to a mob museum among other things thank you that was david williams president of taxpayers protection alliance and that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered go to our team dot com slash usa took over you tube page to its you tube dot com slash america you can follow me on twitter at lauren lyster and come back here for more news at seven o'clock.