coming up on r.t.e. and washington d.c. multiple people fatally shot at the navy yard the headquarters is a work place for about three thousand employees and is the largest of the navy's five system commands more on this breaking news ahead and the u.s. and russia have struck a deal to have the syrian government remove its chemical weapons by two thousand and fourteen at the same time the u.n. has released a report on the use of chemical weapons but do we know who was responsible for their use details coming up and it's been five years since the collapse of the lehman brothers investment bank and the bailout of ai g. that caused a crisis that included the government's bailouts of the big banks and helped create the too big to fail phrase that we all know today we'll take a look back at what we've learned later in the show.

it's monday september sixteenth five pm in washington d.c. i'm a mere a david and you're watching our t.v. . gunshots rang out this morning at the u.s. navy yard in washington d.c. killing several people and injuring many others at least thirteen people have been killed at the naval sea systems command headquarters including a d.c. police officer and another law enforcement officer plus alleged shooter aaron alexis who also died at the scene of this mass shooting the navy yard was established back in seven hundred ninety nine and is the oldest navy installation it's the residence of the chief of naval operations and it's responsible for weapons development among other functions there are about sixteen thousand civilian and military employees who work in the complex with three thousand employees in that specific building and the yard has about two point two million square feet of

office space and total president obama addressed the tragedy during his speech today. we are confronting yet another mass shooting and today it happened on a military installation in our nation's capital it's a shooting that targeted our military and civilian personnel. these are men and women who were going to work doing their job protecting all of us so what happened today at the u.s. navy yard while our sam sacks is there right now with the latest sam we have a picture of one of the alleged shooters aaron alexis who is now deceased what do we know about the gunman who has perpetrated the. we don't know much and police are still trying to gather more information on the suspect the suspected gunman aaron alexis thirty four year old from fort worth texas former navy reservist and military contractor we're here right now on m.

street which is still closed down were a few blocks away from the navy yard where nine hours ago roughly nine hours ago there was a mass shooting here the death toll has now risen to thirteen people and that includes the suspected shooter aaron alexis police are still trying to determine whether alexis acted alone there were reports earlier today that there might be two other suspects a light skinned male in a dark skinned male in military uniform we've since learned that police have identified the light skinned male in military uniform and he's no longer a suspect but there's still this other suspect that's out on the loose and as a result police are still telling people around the area to remain indoors and that this is still very much an active criminal investigation and sam have any of the employees been able to leave or are they still on lockdown at this point. both you hours ago we started probably about an hour and a half ago we started seeing stream of people leaving the navy yard walking this way these were all the people who are still stuck inside when the shooting with

a lot of people were able to flee the building others who had to stay in shelter in place and they were there for about eight hours and we caught up with one individual who was actually in the building where the shooting took place and here's what he had to say. and i came in a little late and was coming in the main entrance and as i was going up to the office area or what i thought was a lock to fall into the ground landing at the or didn't you know that's just me and then you know couple friends i seen kind of spooked him and then after that maybe and fifteen seconds i heard another couple which i didn't think you know. but they're going you can't really tell if you you know you did what expecting to hear them say. so really. we heard. we heard from people coming our way a lot of confusion people weren't sure what exactly was going on but a lot of relief and a lot of tired people leaving the navy yard now after being locked in place for

a game up to eight hours both during the shooting and now long after the shooting has ended. and sam you have been there all day since since the morning when the attack took place around eight thirty you've been speaking to a lot of people on the ground can you tell me about some of the other eyewitness accounts you've been able to gather while there. sure well as you said this is a very large building three thousand people work here so we caught up with a few people who were there when the shooting took place one of them was a commander in the navy a man by the name of tim gyrus he was in a nearby building when he heard the shots ring out he fled down with someone else here was what he had to say to the military in general in the navy we're trained for combat operations away from here you know with the away team we go off and fight other wars in other locations we don't do it here. so seen somebody die in front of you here where you work at is more of a relationship of you talking to god are you realizing just how fragile life is and

how random it is and how quickly you're here and you're not because you could easily to meet a guy who got hit as opposed to the guy standing next to me. so so we also talked to more witnesses we talked to a woman who was in the tampa tyria the time the shooting she said she heard four loud shots appalls than a series of another loud shots and she then fled into a secure area basically if you can imagine the way this building looks you walk into the first floor there's a giant atrium and then you look up in there several floors in from those floors there's balconies it's believe that there shooter was on the fourth floor shooting down down into this atrium area also spoke with some other eyewitnesses and people who work in the building about the security of the building they all said that they thought this building was very secure you need special clearance cards to get into the building but if you have this clearance card you can enter the building you don't have to go through additional security like a magnetometer or any other. metal detector determine whether or not you have weapons i talk with someone who said they do random checks to make sure people

aren't carrying weapons but other than that if you have the card you can enter the building and it's believed that the suspect aaron alexis acquired at one of these security clearance cards from someone who works here and was able to gain access into the building that way but still a lot of questions that need to be answered and sam do we know anything at this point about motive there have been reports that this may have been a disgruntled employee he is or reason to believe that there is a larger motive at hand. yeah i think it's certainly too early to tell about a motive here when a lot of police briefings here they said they have no idea what the motive is they're going to probably know that we have the suspect aaron alexis in texas are going to be going back and seeing what sort of behavior he'd been engaged in the last few weeks but as for this location i mean this is this is the navy yard it's been around since seventeen ninety nine is the oldest shores in the navy these buildings that house the chief of naval operations of the naval sea systems command

but mostly this is about. ship acquisitions ship contracts you see a lot of contractors going out of the building as well as military personnel. but really trying to figure out what sort of motive might have influenced this guy to go in and commit these this horrific killings would be speculation at this point well that was our tease sand sacks. and now we turn to syria on saturday the united states and russia reached a diplomatic agreement that calls for syria's arsenal of chemical weapons to be removed or destroyed by the middle of two thousand and fourteen the announcement came on the third day of talks in geneva between secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov where the agreement focused on the specific framework to rid syria of its chemical weapons the united states and russia are committed to the elimination of syrian chemical weapons in the soonest and safest manner we agreed that syria must submit within

a week. not in thirty days but in one week it comprehensively listing and additional details will be addressed regarding that in the coming days. the framework mandates that a list must be available in one week that includes the kinds and quantities of syria's chemical munitions along with the location of their storage and production sites as part of the agreement russia have been pushing for the united states to take military action off the table however the obama administration has refused saying that the u.s. would move forward unilaterally if syria fails to comply with the latest deal we will maintain our military posture in the region to keep the pressure on the assad regime and if diplomacy fails the united states and the international community must remain prepared to act but one role will be un plain and forcing this agreement to talk about that along with the latest developments i was joined earlier by our teas marina porter nyasha began by explaining the timeline that's

been set. well as you are ready mention this deal brokered by russia and the u.s. requires the syrian government to hand over a complete list of its chemical arsenal within one week and have the entire arsenal destroyed by the middle of next year the middle of twenty fourteen in the meantime . russia the u.s. and other power players are supposed to be trying to bring both parties to the negotiating table for the geneva two meeting for the peace talks where they're supposed to be a transitional government formed with then called at the crisis this civil war in syria up until this point the opposition the rebels in syria have not agreed to come to the negotiating table i think all parties involved are hoping that with this deal brokered maybe we will now see members of the syrian government members of the syrian opposition come to the table so they can discuss a transition they can discuss a way to lead syria back to peace will considering this would be you know one of

the most challenging undertakings in the history of arms control does this seem like this timeline might be a bit ambitious to some it does seem like this timeline is a bit ambitious looks critics say that this is not going to be possible many skeptics believe for the government of bashar al assad will not disclose all of the areas where they have chemical weapons will not be upfront about it others say listen this is the best agreement we've seen thus far throughout this ongoing civil war in syria that as you know more than two and a half years let's remember just a week ago we get a half ago we were discussing the potential u.s. military strikes against syria the syrian government that many believe could have led to a wider wider conflict a conflict that went beyond the borders of syria so many believe that this deal that was brokered clearly averted

a military strike that seemed so him in. so so it does seem like in many ways that at this point you have the syrian government complying with the international community a way that would hope that would comply for quite a while and marina talk about the actual role of the u.n. what role are they going to play in the removal of these weapons from syria or the u.n. security council is expected to draft a resolution for this syrian deal in the coming days now france britain and the united states they're all seeking our strong text what they mean by strong is a resolution under chapter seven now any resolution under chapter seven could allow for military intervention in this case military intervention if syria fails to hand over its chemical weapons or if the international community believes that syria is not complying with the deal that the united states and russia has now brokered so this is now a sticking point because while some thought that the u.s.

would not be spearheading a military strike against syria it seems as though that option has not completely been taken off the table and we are running out of time but i do understand the u.n. released a report a weapons report today can you talk very briefly about what that report entailed is very important the report released by u.n. inspectors does confirm and says that there is clear and convincing evidence that chemical weapons were used on a relatively large scale in syria on august twenty first but the report does not answer the key question of who launched the attack now the inspector said the environmental chemical and medical samples collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface to surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in syria to kill hundreds of people secretary-general ban ki moon says the unequivocal and objective conclusion of chemical weapons use in syria amounts to a war crime and perpetrators must be held accountable the un chief says that this

is the most. confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilian civilians since saddam hussein used them in nineteen ninety eight thousand nine hundred eighty eight forgive me so at this point to your leaders the united nations saying the perpetrators must be held accountable but this this report does not point the finger of who was responsible for launching that chemical attack on august twenty first while lots of new and very significant developments thank you so much marina for coming and breaking it all down r.t. correspondent marina portnoy. well u.s. military strikes on syria may have been averted at least for the time being however the civil war on the ground continues with the conflict only escalating and recent days case in point darius a suburb of damascus that has been completely abandoned by its residents now the only people remaining are army soldiers and rebel fighters artie's maria if an ocean is on the ground syria and brings us this report. now in there and just

a few kilometers from the central damascus it used to be a nice and beautiful very picturesque town where the population of up to three hundred thousand people but it's been torn by questions between the governmental forces and the rebels rebels two years now the result you can see everything is ruined the residents left the only people we can meet here either the army all the militants. fighting against my guys. the now we're going with the army to one of their operations. there are a is south of the capital is sponsoring a powerful militant belt around damascus known as eastern ghouta the scene of recent fierce clashes it is also where a chemical attack last month brought international resonance in its wake all weapons smuggled to syria through jordan in the south come through here providing local militants with a secure supply line for. this

is what the syrian war looks like today the urban battlefield provides dense cover and a network of underground tunnels also shields the militants there is no defined front line and you don't know when your enemies will change. your numbers hold you say they could be snipers there and they pulled curtains like this one just to protect to prevent snipers from seeing what's going on here. this simple system helps save many lives every day where he doesn't work soldiers just wrong. in forty minutes with travel from one district to another we follow the army as you

can see through. the buildings through the holes in the walls like the swan hall the swan they're everywhere. forms of. morning. work life. in this war snipers are from both sides of the frontline. is what they do most of the time waiting for the enemy. to get in office assures me the map and the updates every day this is where we are the militants are in this building the army liberates the town street by street building by building very slowly and very carefully. with just a dress. promising it will be seen sometimes they leave. but sometimes

we have no other choice but the quote of an american strong seems to be on the back burner at least for now but syrian civil war goes on and on. damascus suburbs syria. and in financial news sunday it marked the fifth anniversary of the collapse of the lehman brothers investment bank in two thousand and eight the firm filed for chapter eleven bankruptcy protection following the massive exodus of its clients drastic losses and its stocks and a major downgrading of its assets by credit rating agencies it marks the largest bankruptcy filing in u.s. history and its demise became the catalyst of a major global financial meltdown and which the government shelled out seven hundred billion dollars to bail out the big banks at the same time today marks five years since the federal reserve authorized a bailout loan of up to eighty five billion dollars to the insurance company ai g.

president obama observed the anniversary by speaking to the american people while he sought to make the case that we're experiencing an economic turnaround even he had to acknowledge that there is currently a huge economic inequality gap. as even though our businesses are creating new jobs that have broken record profits the top one percent of americans so called twenty percent of the nation's income last year while the average worker isn't seeing a raise at all well here to talk about some of the lessons learned and why that gap persists is william black associate professor of economics and law at the university of missouri kansas city he's also the author of the best way to rob a bank is to own one and he's also a white collar criminality just and former financial regulator thanks for joining me now you are a white collar criminal just what is the mindset on wall street that created this financial crisis in the first place oh making money. is the key thing about accounting control fraud is in the words of the nobel prize winner in economics

george ecker law it's a sure thing you are mathematically guaranteed to report record profits they're fictional but there you are report record profits in the near term with modern executive compensation the senior officers will instantly being made wealthy the bank will suffer catastrophic losses but the controlling officers will walk away wealthy as they did at lehmann brothers where they walked away as you know hundreds of millions or even billionaires. and recently you know new york times article laid out the inside talks of the security exchange commission's deliberations on whether to charge the executive of lehman brothers and after some back and forth they concluded that suing the banks executive would just be legally unjustified do you agree with that conclusion. no and i've done a couple of columns on this the commission did not decide that

a particular inforce an employer decided that and he didn't decide according to the report that there wasn't fraud he decided a more technical thing that it wasn't material except that he's not the expert on that and the experts in the agency disagreed with him and the other folks were clearly right and he was wrong so it's an outrageous abuse. and it is symptomatic of what's happened under the bush and obama administration where we have the largest frauds in history making the elites wealthier than ever in history and not a single only banker is even being tried much less in prison for the fraud that drove the prices and of course we know that no senior executives that any bank was ever charged and this month the month of september marks the statute of limitations for any of the crimes these executives could have been charged with

so do you think that this will have a long term effect on our economy or on the way wall street executives conduct business yeah one clarification there is another law that allows if the victim isn't insured institution like a bank or a savings and loan so we actually could for another five years bring many of these cases because the banks did suffer losses but there is no clear effort to bring those cases and what it's all meant is we've just shown that you can get wealthy through fraud with absolute immunity well you know think what that would do in the blue collar steer if we said hey if you rob homes there no one will prosecute you ever and you can keep all the money people would rob a lot of homes and that would produce terrible things well that's six. actually what's going to cause in the white collar spear it's going to cause bigger nastier crises as soon as we actually get

a stronger recovery but as your lead in pointed out we have not had a strong recovery at any time since the lehman failure and in the year of financial investigator and you did work on the savings and loan crisis which resulted in more than a thousand prosecutions how was the investigative response to the financial crisis in two thousand and eight different. completely different first the key thing after recognize is that banks won't make a criminal referral against their own c.e.o. that can only come from the government we recognize that back in the savings and loan crisis and so our agency the office of thrift supervision they don't for thirty thousand criminal referrals that as you said this led not just to prosecutions it led to over a thousand felony convictions just in cases designated as major and we hyper prioritize the cases to go after the top one hundred fraud schemes to six hundred

worst individuals we had a ninety percent conviction rate against them in the current crisis which is over seventy times larger both in terms of losses and fraud the same agency the office of thrift supervision made zero criminal referrals the office of the comptroller currency which is supposed to regulate the largest national banks in america made zero criminal referrals we believe that the federal reserve made zero criminal referrals the federal deposit insurance corporation was smart enough to refuse to answer journalist questions as to how many referrals they made bill i well i didn't i didn't want to jump in very quickly because we're running out of time and i want to get one last question in there you know if you look at wall street now it's clearly doing very well and so if a healthy wall street is supposed to mean a healthy economy why haven't we seen it translate yet into more jobs more housing opportunities and less foreclosures because a healthy wall street doesn't mean

a healthy economy wall street is back to what it was at the peak of the bubble about forty percent of total corporate profits it is an incredible parasite that reduces economic growth. while sat at bill black thank you so much for coming on associate professor of economics and law at the university of missouri kansas city thank you thank you. yesterday on a.b.c.'s this week president obama spoke about the upcoming debt ceiling talks he made it clear that he would not negotiate with congressional republicans over the u.s. government's borrowing limit however technically the u.s. already met its borrowing limit back in may causing the treasury department to resort to extraordinary measures to pay the government's bills archies parian boring has a full breakdown on what those extraordinary measures are. as congress prepares himself for a big debate on raising the debt ceiling there's one thing to keep in mind the u.s.

already hit the borrowing limit on may nineteenth of this year u.s. treasury is legally only allowed to rack up sixteen point seven trillion dollars in debt but have for the nagel's a way to legally spend an additional two hundred sixty billion dollars using what's called extraordinary measures and the letter to speaker boehner treasury secretary jack lew explains what extraordinary measures he's utilizing the government securities investment fund or the g. fund is a retirement account for federal employees it contains about forty percent of all thrift savings plans balances there are four point six million civil employees and uniformed service members who have t.s.p. retirement accounts and congress has granted the treasury the statutory authority to suspend reinvestment of all or part of the balance of the g. fund and other words the treasury is borrowing from the retirement accounts of servicemen and women however in that same letter it also states that after the debt

limit impasse have ended the g. fund it's made whole congress has the full authority to raise the debt ceiling and they've done so seventy eight times since nine hundred sixty but since two thousand and eleven the issue has become much more politically difficult congress is not obligated to raise the debt ceiling and if they don't with these funds be paid back this is one example of extraordinary measures the treasury is using to continue to fund the government after hitting the debt limit other funds that are part of these extraordinary measures include the civil service retirement and disability fund and the postal service retiree's health benefits find economists jim rickards has this to say about these extraordinary measures no one wants to do have to fold no one's talking serious with the full but the point is the treasury can pay the. and pray the pay the interest and principal on the day just not pay other things this notion that there's

a hard she only wants you have you to fall in that is false i mean the white house the treasury putting that out there it's simply not true you can pay the debt and perhaps not pay other things until you resolve the issue with congress now that's a great outcome to pretty lousy cash management by the treasury does have a force ability. so while the debt ceiling is a false construct the retirement and disability funds being used for these extraordinary measures are very real in washington d.c. perry and boring r.t. . well there may now be a solution for those video gaming addicts out there and not to kick the habit but rather to hide it one thirty five year old new york city man named james that was starting to become a little wary that his massive video game collection was sending the wrong message he said when people came over it started looking like an eyesore it left an impression that you weren't growing up and didn't have any in bishan but instead of cutting down the collection bit just decided to camouflage the objects of his

affection with phony book covers that's right he replaced every videogame case with a plastic book like one and his discovery quickly turned into a business as james that now sells these covers online so others seeking the same fix so just like that instead of looking like an avid video gamer you can look like an avid reader it's a small change that's guaranteed to do wonders for men in the dating world and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered today go to youtube dot com slash r t america and check out our website r t dot com slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir a david and i'll see you right back here at eight thanks for watching. it's a problem it was terrible they come up very hard to make outlets

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