let. me. are. you close. to calling in the reinforcements to the azerbaijanis the protesters are getting some much needed support after occupy wall street protesters marched over two hundred miles all to deliver a message from lawmakers they aren't backing down. and when there's something wrong with the u.s. financial system we're going to call not the super committee so now that the three ring circus is over is the american financial system as it were a lamb that. we should. be. rather.

well. we're going to confront the you. pressing the wrong but as american journalist is kicked out of the national press club for asking tough questions but isn't that the journalist's job or is american media used to being subservient to people in power. and it's one step forward two steps back this after another day of chaos in the streets of cairo so the death toll rises in the military a violent crackdown on protesters of the revolution first that. it's tuesday november twenty second seven pm in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching our t.v. well a group of occupiers have gone to great lengths to get their message out about two

dozen protesters are out of their journey of more than two hundred miles today they started out in zuccotti park in the big apple and arrived this afternoon at the occupy d.c. count and macpherson square. for. last. year they are celebrating their arrival after the two week journey they plan their date of arrival today to coincide with the day before the super committee's deadline now that they're here protesters say they plan to spread their message throughout the nation's capital. but of course by now the super committee already announced their failure as a compromise on a plan plan to negotiate a one point two trillion dollar cuts to spending failed both sides not budging other themes as long wants to cut spending the other wants to raise taxes so it seems congress can't rise above their political agendas for the greater good of the two hundred now the finger pointing begins take a look at them a bit. no deal the bipartisan panel fails to come up with

a plan to cut one point two trillion dollars from the federal deficit the whole she super committee was. misconceived there are still too many republicans in congress refused to listen to the voices we've been couple of hours so who is going to take the blame and there are a lot of people who do not just blame one side. now while lawmakers and the media like play the blame game what are the consequences of all of this jennifer the paul a staff writer for the fiscal times was here to talk all about it i asked her if this is a case of politics of our country here's wishing i had to say i would say so i mean but at the end the same time you know the super committee was set up and it almost seemed from the start when they first started out they had these super powers that were in five maybe they can move past these ideological differences taxes and entitlements but that just wasn't the case and a lot of people were meant to do was sort of a missed opportunity again we saw this missed opportunity on the debt ceiling debate where they couldn't forge a grand bargain so. i think both parties are to play in that they did put the

politics ahead of the country here. and you know why is it so hard to compromise could it be that they're it's to their political benefit not to compromise well when you have the election coming out in two thousand and twelve and a lot of people are saying that at the end of the day no deal is better than a bad deal filled with some unpopular mandates that need wouldn't goodwell from their constituents so. that that's what we're dealing with ok and you said before that some say that it was due from the beginning so why even have this super committee in the first place while they have to give someone the in the duty to find savings again this was created out of the august at ceiling deal to find it is a one point two trillion dollars in deficit savings and. the other part of it is even though they did feel there will be consequence is potential in the economy that we have these automatic triggers set in place that. are set to go in place in

twenty thirteen ok. that is supposed to be the consequence of this scale negotiations these across the board cuts but now they're talking about removing that punishment as punishment that was imposed on themselves and now they're like well we didn't do it so now let's just get rid of the punishment so i mean it seems like a waste of time well it's not clear that they will be removed i know president barack obama had said yesterday he would veto any efforts to water down those cuts i know that senator mccain and buck mckeon on the house armed services had said you know there are working to stave off the defense cuts but you know right now all the congress is looking towards a couple of things so besides those cuts that go into place in two thousand and thirteen there's the jobless benefits the extension of that there's the payroll tax cut this also has to be extended by the end of december so. i guess we're going to put the sequester cuts on hold for

a minute and then look towards the next month and see if we can extend these tax cuts and i know the president have been calling on congress today to get a vote going on the payroll tax cut ok let's say these across the board cuts would happen as a result of these failed negotiations look kind of an impact of would the american people see as a result of these cuts well specifically for defense because about half would go to defense about six hundred billion dollars and the defense secretary leon panetta has already said it would be catastrophic and the other would come from. domestic programs so i'm sure there would be some belt tightening and people would feel the effects but. ok jennifer thank you so much for your thoughts on all of this. jennifer the paul saffo writer for the fiscal times. well the u.s. has iran with laura thanks but do sanctions really work or is this the latest between washington and her.

thanks. to the police corruption. test nobody seems to know. that i never have a straight face but for every argument that they're being overly dramatic.

i'm laurie mr. white. crime. only ron is facing fresh thank sions today the u.s. u.k. and canada have announced new financial and energy sanctions against the country as

a whole and it's time to stop iran from developing a suspected nuclear weapons program this comes after a controversial report came out from the un's watchdog which supposedly shows evidence that iran is pursuing nuclear ambitions meanwhile syria now the united as the next country to face things sions this is the u.s. puts pressure on syria to hold military operations against civilians and advocates human rights in the country the un human rights committee today passed a resolution condemning syria's crackdown on protesters no mention in the resolution of sanctions but it's thought that if syria doesn't listen up that's going to be the next step with each new country to face sanctions what is the point of them and what do they really accomplish jim all of the a policy director for the national iranian american council was here in studio to help sort things out i asked him how effective these new things and really are here at the state. you stations are going to foot the bill the u.s.

has run out of things to sanction inside of iran and it's really an exercise in projecting toughness not really pursuing real solutions and you know this is not the first time that iran has faced sanctions how successful i have to be saying she has been in the past. well iran has been under thirty years of sanctions so the entire structure of the iranian economy is based around sanctions being in place and so the sanctions that you saw put in place yesterday they are a very short step from total sanctions on the iranian central bank and what we're finding now is that we've run out of other things a sanction and so we may actually end up sanctioning iranian oil exports and for the first time actually saying something something that could impact us here in the u.s. economies in europe economies around the world so we're going to find out that sanctions

actually come with a cost not just to ordinary people inside of the country that are being sanctioned who certainly do suffer under these measures more so than the government does but they're also going to start impacting ordinary people around the world and in addition to iran syria is now in line to face sanctions similar to what we saw and libya the syrian ambassador is calling the u.n. resolution an act of war he says that aims to affect the independence of their political decision making and it's stopping them from moving ahead in their national political agenda as. we go to the implication of applying sanctions to syria now. i think when a country or in this case the u.n. is applying sanctions there has to be a record a recognition of the limitations of the leverage the sanctions can provide you know in this case i'm not sure if there are levers that can be pulled with regard to syria that could actually affect the decision making of the syrian government i

think that we have to recognize once we've sanctioned ourselves out of having leverage and figure out ways to either get leverage or pursue negotiated agreements in the case of syria i think that a lot of people are watching this situation scratching their heads trying to figure out what what can be done to resolve this standoff to end the human rights abuses that are happening. in the case of iran i think it is it is a different situation but this reliance on sanctions as sort of the end all be all can really put policies into a sort of sleep walk right and you know with these roles. are that meant to put pressure on iran is it possible that putting these sanctions on countries can make matters worse then increase tension between countries in the case in this case what you see is sort of a self-perpetuating cycle a vicious cycle in which one side ratchets up pressure and then the other side

ratchet up pressure. you know the i.a.e.a. report reveals you know or doesn't reveal. certain problems with iran's nuclear investigations some of its research that it's doing that's met by u.s. sanctions the whole point of this back and forth is supposed to be for one side side to get leverage and get a deal get a diplomatic deal stuff it's this doesn't escalate out of control and ended war what you see is that the type of sanctions that are being put in place don't encourage anybody to come to table iran going to be able to withstand the sanctions the u.s. political system is going to to continue. to reward policy makers who put sanctions in place and so we just continue to see a cycle that really has no end in sight until something something bad happens and we end up in a military confrontation ok so if not sanctioned then what is the answer well i

think that there have been a number of poses that been put forward that we need to pursue aggressively the unit the u.s. internationally needs to pursue aggressive when we need to come to the recognition that the goshi ations are a gift to iran and go to asia or in the interests necessarily of iran there in the interest of the u.s. and the international community we have a lot to lose and a lot if the status quo remains and what again if we can figure out a way out so i think that some of the proposals one of them took place there's been talks of some sort of swap for. you ronny in which uranium that they've enriched up to a certain level twenty percent and sort of getting getting the ball rolling on negotiations through that mechanism there's also been a poser put forward that would involve you know reducing sanctions in exchange for so certain iranian concessions related to its nuclear program we need to be aggressively pursuing those in our national interests and unfortunately the

political system just isn't rewarding people who are doing that but if we really want to resolve this that's what we have to do john thank you so much for your thoughts on this that was jim all of the the policy director for the national iranian american council. and a former u.s. senator is quite outspoken on this issue and many other issues micro val alaska says the drumming up war with iran is dangerous not only to the region and the world security because daniel bushell sat down with a former senator take a listen after you got elected president. a lot of progressives felt that an obama campaign that he was going to be transparent and we're going to have a new level of democracy he was asked the question as to whether or not they would be a possibility that we would begin and best occasions of the invasion of iraq iraq by george bush which was a crime it was

a it was an absolute crime and what was brought will bomb the sponsor or we don't book by that means we don't want community american citizens to see what happened because you may turn around and accuse us of doing the same thing well it's even worse than not it's not an accusation and he has been doing exactly the same thing as george bush did here most people aren't aware the fact that last year the obama administration chased out of the united states expulse them over five hundred thousand people expulse from the united states i mean if if we had a media that was that all honest this would have been a front page this it has been hotly discussed here obama is raising a billion dollars for his reelection campaign and he's made a statement which woods demonstrates what little respect he has for the people he's made a statement we're not going to take any money from special interest well i'll tell

you the billion dollars is coming from special interest. and and so he can tell you looking right at you the with gearing up to attack iraq how serious is that the irresponsibility of netanyahu and the lies not i don't have to i'm not telling you anything new circles he says he's a liar so in my humble status as a private citizen that i tell you that netanyahu is a liar is not nothing new but he is a liar because he's made statements about iran that are out so literally ridiculous and all it is is to create the fear for the people within israel he is part of the george bush syndrome that is create a bunker mentality and create fear because with fear you can make people do almost anything in a representative society and that's what they're doing in israel israel has the

finest group of peace advocates right within whenever i speak about israel i always quote israeli citizens i don't quote knowledge that i pick up anywhere because they are the best critics read koretz and the you'll see what they think of the government and so this this whole ginning up a war with iran very dangerous because iran is not syria not lebanon iran is a proud nation and they have missile capabilities they won't have nuclear capabilities but they have missile capabilities that they can rain down on television now i can tell you if they are attacked they will attack back and an israel is so vulnerable and so small that they will retaliate villiers' nukes to retaliate if they can't suffer to be destroyed they'll use the n. solution so they nuke iran what do you think pocket stands going to do with its

nukes. what do you think japan china is going to do what do you think the united states is going to do in retaliation i mean you could start a third world do clear war but you're responsibly attacking iran the best way to solve the problem with iran and leave them alone they eventually build a democracy that we americans destroyed with the british leave. and the people will develop it democracy and new theocracy while the ocker cities are on the path. and that was former u.s. senator mike rowe bell if you'd like to see this interview in its entirety. and from cracking down on countries in the middle east to cracking down on the media here in d.c. the u.s. prides itself on its freedoms freedom of speech being one of them until someone

asks a tough question and it's even worse when a person is not part of the mainstream media the saudi prince recently spoke at the national press club here in the nation's capital and journalist sam who's seen it put the opportunity to ask him some tough questions take a look at what michigan is regina. well and that is really the olders and that is what we can actually comes from here. we do like to come and speak here to give a speech. so later that day he got a letter informing him that he is banned from the press club so is there an attempt to silence certain voices and certain viewpoints and the media earlier i spoke to the man himself communications director of the institute for public accuracy sam who scening and he set the scene for me. flight has a question about the role of the saudi regime. and they did the rain there at the

center of kind of revolutions in the middle east on the side in the stick regime obviously suppressing its own people so people are asking questions about the legitimacy of the syrian regime i thought it was only fair to ask for about the legitimacy of the saudi regime and so and then you were and what happened after that what the executive director got into my face because the prince as he likes to call oneself. asked me if i've been to saudi arabia and i thought this was a typical politician and. i said what's your legitimacy i'm not going to doesn't matter if i've been to saudi arabia what's your legitimacy the answer again i said what's your legitimacy in the second drug got into my face trying to get me to shut up at that point i had some words with him outside as i left he grabbed my arm at one point and then i got a letter saying that i was suspended from the press corps print two weeks and what was the reason you were given for it's always dangerous behavior i was guilty of boisterous and unseemly behavior as best as i can determine and the so-called

ethics committee is not telling me about other cases everything is confidential to the press club which is supposed to be this monument to the first amendment conducting all of its ethics probes in secret apparently and i've just been speaking but other members apparently stuff that people who swear at the border have been charged with occasionally but it's never as far as i can tell when applied to a journalistic situation so boisterous behavior do you think that as a justified reason what you call your behavior boisterously that what i what i learned what i was guilty of was asking tough questions autocratic political officials allied with the united states. that's my prime practice and turn them against somebody who went into the establishment and you know i. there stand that you've asked tough questions before our national press club one of the last times i

was with. iranian leader mahmoud othman energi i didn't actually get any questions in there because there were so many other people who were tripping over themselves to ask him so many tough questions would you say that they're equally as tough as the questions you were asking the saudi press that's my memory i haven't actually reviewed but that's my memory i mean i certainly have been there have been other occasions where i've asked tough questions of somebody like the neo nazi. from austria he was at a press club and he wanted to go but before that obviously he was at the press club and i asked him and they let me have like four follow ups because he's not somebody who's part of the establishment so they were fine with me asking him a bunch of tough questions without any constraints and they actually can gradually the moderator who is the same moderator here came up and congratulated me you know afterwards for my good work so it depends on who the target is apparently so do you think there's unspoken rules about who gets the tough questions and who doesn't yeah i think it's people who are allied with the establishment get their soft

treatment because the president wants to make sure that they keep coming you know they want access and they can't think of a more creative way of getting access rather than asking easy questions and i think all politicians leaders. and indeed all the leaders of movements and so i want to be subjected to tough questions so what do you think this has to say about the media and the freedom of speech and the last day i think the journalism needs to be reinvented i mean one of my main project is with the institute for public eye curacy and i put out critical material and i ask tough questions at the press club another project i had was called washington state com where i go on sunday morning to all of the sunday morning talk shows where the politicians go when they get asked but now questions and they give just for answers when they step outside their . more cameras there and they are some of the same but no questions and i go there with a camera man and so when i ask them actual tough questions and i think that we need

to come to a new journalism where tough questions are asked and where politicians and others around accountable for their words i mean is anybody held accountable for their lies about the iraqi w m d's in the you know twenty other issues no it's just more of the same and it just keeps rolling along and when you set up structures where people are accountable where their words no longer matter if they've deceived so many times about so many things well we hope you keep those tough questions coming thank you so much for sharing your story with us that was communications director of the institute for public accuracies and senior. but we turn now to egypt where a revolution is brewing thirty three people confirmed that at least fifteen hundred injured that toll is expected to rise as police start firing live ammunition at protesters are accused policy clear as me i have the tahrir storm. the crowd is

just wailing people have been arriving since the early hours of this morning and at the same time they shall send the cries are getting louder and louder all you hear behind me is essentially people saying eat they calling on mahmoud time trial week who is the head of the army here that has been looting this country since favorite to step down now i've just returned from ahmed mahmoud street is just a short distance away from here and that is where all the trash is continue between the security personnel and the protesters behind me you'll hear the ambulances they feed firing nonstop the injured and the dying because we're hearing that the number of those who have been killed continues to mount speaking to medics they say that they've lost count of how many people they feel the same now i was on the street it was a makeshift clinic to the one side in deep imation can explore astafy is where behind me there are people literally dragging others over their shoulders to these clinics most of the people are suffering from smoke inhalation as i'm speaking to you

there's a strong smell of tear gas in the air the police have been firing tear gas they've been firing rubber bullets and these are the these guys here have the look was deafening sound of gunfire now a short time ago mohamed tantawi gave and i have a phrase in which he tried to meet some of the protesters demands among the points he made is that they would be a presidential election before june and next june he also said that he had accepted the resignation of his interim government but that they would remain in power until such time that a new government was up and running he also said that all military trials would be stopped with the exception of a few he also said that the military council was ready to quit and to go back to its original role which is essentially that of defending the country if that was something that the people's heads aside and certainly listening to protesters is something that they want and they want it immediately time sorry also made the point that he was highly offended. by the criticism that the army was cheating and

was being the souls of the egyptian people he said that this was simply untrue they believe that the army is coming to the party much today all this talk about an interim government they say detract attention from the fact that the army that they actually want to step down and interim government is pretty meaningless in that context now mohamed el baradei who heads up the political party here and whose whole city form a head of the international atomic energy agency has indicated that he would be prepared to become the next prime minister and be tossed with forming the next government but he says that this is only on condition that he is given absolute control over any decisions he has to make it seems as if this is the way the country's going to move forward but i think it's worth pointing out that all baradei is a much more popular figure on the international stage in fact if all families have an issue most people have actually not even heard of him on the radio also has the support of the waist of the international community and that's something that most

people here will take heed of because of course mubarak was criticized for his close ties with the united states so people here are saying that any kind of discourse any kind of discussion any kind of solutions being offered from the military ought to be taken with suspicion because really it will at the end of the day still be the same people pulling the strings at the same time the military council has been holding for all the course of the tameness even crisis talks with a cross victim of political parties to try and get out of the situation they calling it a government of national raisky that's what they said they want to set up a call going again to protesters on the streets to return home and she way to help build an egypt that would be free of violence but that's exactly the course the protesters here are saying and they say the only way for to be achieved is for the army to step down. and i was honored to have paula flair with the latest on the ground in egypt well that doesn't.