freeboard you for your media projects free media don carty dot com. coming up on our t.v. in new york world leaders are gathering for the united nations general assembly how much of the conversation will focus on the crisis in syria and the chemical weapons attacks we'll take a look at that and more up ahead and kenya's capital of nairobi a terrorist attack on an upscale mall has left dozens dead so will the u.s. ramp up the fight against the group of four of leave behind the attack al-shabaab more on the attack coming up and for the u.s. private prison industry another man behind bars means more money in the bank many private prisons have quotas to keep most or all prison beds filled up more in the industry that combines money and bars later and tonight show.

it's monday september twenty third five pm in washington d.c. i'm meghan lopez and you are watching r t well world leaders are gathered in new york city this week for the sixty eighth annual united nations general assembly and this meeting could not have come at a more important time the war in syria and a potential u.s. strike will undoubtedly command the spotlight at the conference along with the recent u.n. report detailing chemical weapons used in the country also we are on the lookout for a potential warming of relations between the u.s. and iran now it is then a sort of tradition in recent years for the american delegation to get up and walk out right in front of a former iranian president mahmoud ahmadinejad's speech but this year could be different iranian president hassan rouhani has taken numerous steps to demonstrate his commitment to. policy such as the leasing

a handful of the country's most notorious political prisoners and those are the only issues that make right now is the opportune time to meet this is also the first time a new resent actual results could come from the meeting now and that's because many of the big players at the u.n. right now are fresh out of elections so they don't have to worry about politics now they can concentrate on the issues here to tell us more about what to expect from this meeting our chief correspondent on the stasi a chocolate on a stasia what should we be looking forward to in terms of big headlines and who should we be watching when we can you know you just presented a great summary of some of the issues that are bound to come out of the you when this week certainly syria is the top of this agenda as major world powers namely russia in the u.s. continue meeting round the clock talking around the clock trying to find a good next step which would be the u.n. security council resolution that they need to vote on in order to continue with

this plan to have syria bring its chemical weapons under international control so whether or not tangible results come out of that is a certainly a huge headline that we're going to be watching of course sort of tension between countries like brazil and by the venezuela with the united states those speeches are going to be interesting to observe major one that a lot of analysts are looking out for is what exactly is going to happen in terms of iran and the us with the new iranian president coming here to new york might there be a meeting might there not be a meeting might there be a handshake or you know a wink certainly something that might shed more light on what kind of relationship and turn the iranian u.s. relations might take in the time to come certainly we're expecting almost two hundred speeches to take place in new york thousands of bilateral meetings and you know we're certainly going to be bringing all the details to our viewers and it's just going to be this huge array of issues that we're coming up with we're expecting to see in the days to come up now on a stylus is usually when are you injured. a meeting happens in new york it's very

exciting but really very little actually comes out of it what's the environment like surrounding the u.n.g.a. this year well it's certainly yet again a diplomatic beehive lots of delegations here with you know it's over one hundred nineteen countries presented in the united nations general assembly and we're hearing that reportedly countries like nigeria for example are bringing in as many as reportedly six hundred delegates so certainly a crazy buzz around the u.n. g.a. this year as as is the case every year but we did hear from bonn ki-moon that the turnout is unprecedented the first and biggest turnout in u.n. history according to the secretary general and you know what's of money being pumped into security crazy traffic everywhere the environment is certainly as is as insane as it is every year but we are expecting the issues that we have just outlined to be a little more productive and in the diplomatic sense that hopefully in the previous years and as you had mentioned a little bit earlier nasiriyah one of the biggest issues is syria what have you

been hearing about some possible resolutions or have we heard anything yet right while i may definitely you know syria at the top of the agenda here at the u.n. this week we do know that tomorrow on tuesday russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and his u.s. counterpart john kerry of course are going to be meeting syria will be at the top of the issues discussed will certainly as the united nations security council has been working around the clock to bang out a resolution on syria so this idea of syria handing over its chemical weapons to the internet. mentioned through a document passed at the security council and a further steps could be taken for an actual political transition to take place while the potential use of military force by the united states does remain in the air so it's high time that specific steps are taken and that we are expecting for that to take place in the nearest time to the security council and at the u.n. more generally and as we had both alluded to a little bit earlier this could be

a very monumental year for u.s. and iranian tensions to warm up we have been hearing a lot of speculation about president obama meeting with possibly meeting with an iranian delegation is there any truth to that rumor right there's certainly lots of reports about this lots of statements that u.s. officials have said it's certainly an option we don't do know that nothing has been scheduled yet but both leaders will be here will their presence here take the shape of a particular meeting that's unlikely because a lot of the leaders schedules are worked out a long time in advance but a certain you know nod or certain warm up and we're certainly going to see exactly what kind of mood there is between iran and the u.s. in the speeches that are going to be made and it is both the u.s. president and the rainy and president speaking tomorrow at the u.n. so as early as tomorrow afternoon we should be able to tell whether or not there is some kind of thaw forming in this whether or not a meeting takes place analysts you know one journalist certainly are looking out for that but it's still under wraps very much under wraps and in recent years on

a stasia many people have criticized the role of the u.n. in the world even bunking moon has gone on the record criticizing it with the serious standoff between the u.s. and russia but considering the fact that some of the most important people are not in election year ten we expect to actually see some type of progress come out of this. well you know one person that would come to mind is of course u.s. president barack obama because last year he was in the middle lection season and he was kind of stepping carefully when it came to certain issues this year we have already heard pretty intense rhetoric coming from him especially when it comes to syria certainly with the idea of using military force even without the backing of the international community so at this point at least when it comes to the biggest issue being syria whether or not he's going to use this is an opportunity to use more tough words is quite unlikely since the u.s. and russia so far have been able to find a common area to work on which is exactly what they're doing now so it's unlikely

that any leader in this case particular crisis would take a more i guess aggressive approach it's very interesting obviously this is a meeting of some of the biggest minds in the world will be very interesting to see what comes out of it and how tensions warm up are actually cool down r.t. correspondent ana stasi are reporting for us from the u.n. . well in nairobi kenya heavy gunfire sent journalist sense of millions scrambling for a third day in a row as government forces squared off with militants at a local mall the gunfight started saturday afternoon at the westgate shopping mall or a group of ten to fifteen militants walked in to introduce it and began firing on shoppers the kenyan red cross says that at least sixty two people have been killed and one hundred seventy five others have been injured including five americans al shabaab posted a list of nine people it says took part in the mall attack three of those people

are american citizens it's a claim that the f.b.i. is currently investigating but lawmakers are already alarmed about also bob's influence in the united states that's extremely deadly organisation very well trained and is one of the only or kind of affiliates which actually has actively recruited here in the united states there's at least forty to fifty somalia murders are gone from the united states to somalia to be trained the number there are many carol but there are still alive so i would assume that the f.b.i. and local law enforcement are looking into the somali american community very leads are indicating as usual where sources and resources to make sure that there's no follow up the terms. i spoke earlier with honey on madhu day writer at my huffington post dot com who wanted some more detail about also bob and the threats the group poses to american interests. disenchanted a group of extremists started an extremist group that didn't have

a militant strategy at first but then when they recruited to a group that took advantage of the power vacuum in somalia and then they started recruiting locally and after the war in somalia a lot of solace left to do around the world to be safer and nigeria and around africa a lot of them came to the united states and europe and they've build these strong communities a lot of them are successful people who are part of the communities where they live however some of them we still maintain ties to back home and we see the tragedies back home and all the drama and to try to blame it around to the powers of the world and then you see a few cases of them to get recruited in the field and emitted to defend their homeland and you know as we know that there is a global jihad network that's happy to pick a new recruit and for them to somalia seem to be the perfect constituency because you have to drive and essentially there's a lot of brainwashing there's a lot to fixing like zeeshan going on and for that they managed to succeed locally and. cinci to be

a threat to their neighboring their neighbors in africa sub some parts of the work and as i understand it one of the fundamentals of al-shabaab are open global jihad or that's seriously what they've been preaching in recent years can you talk about this in a little bit more broad context because a lot of people tend to acquaint al qaeda with some of these other terrorist organizations but there are similarities and also differences i might correct essentially you are correct the reality is the shabab is not a one group there are more than one group and faction among them the century there is the international leg of the shabab movement which is the link to al qaida desire here and they are part of the global jihad they have a lineage to somalia but a lot of them are more deployed jelly just a little quieter and their methods and usually they are violent methods as we see but they're also the local ones the local ones who care about the local government services and things like that they're still extremists not mr. it's violent and in the past throughout this year there was an inner struggle between the two factions

of the group and the reality ended by the international faction of culture bob is now essentially in control to the local communities and somalia you know these guys are just imports they're not really from the community they are just there to cause shenanigans and make the place a tougher place to live and the local government is trying to work to work against them with coalition with other countries as you see kenya the buffer zone in southern somalia that and that sort of supported by the world community just because they do want to spill over into the african region and the african command and african united states command in africa is really keeping a close that does to groups we don't hear much of that action but there is a lot of activities in yemen to hunt some of their leaders in in yemen and that's one of the issues that the u.s. has been very active on as far as domestically you know the united states here will be stepping up their game against these groups here and they look at recruits in

places where ever they have their communities like in minnesota or again and they would be doing a lot of wiretapping and things to just make sure they prevent these things from happening especially and the domestic threat would be a major concern for the united states honey i'm glad you brought that up this domestic issue because as you say they have influence locally and internationally but they also have employers right here in the united states i know peter king just mentioned how can you talk about the influence that they have within the united states how large it is and should the american citizens be concerned that this means more security more surveillance and that's a legitimate question there hell it is there is a large community of somalis once flew to the minnesota through their ports and everyone essentially is from somalia that hardworking people the lovely the smile you know they live the american dream however you have people living on the margin who really think like oh the motherland are struggling we need to make this right but these people. usually they're not very successful in their life and they just

pick up terrorism and extremism they spend a great time at the local mosque with their own people and then they get brainwashed but the greater somali community is a very affluent community here in the united states but again the n.s.a. and other other entities in the united states would be happy to use that as an excuse to do more surveillance on the people and there is ground to actually spierer you know monitor these activities as we know the new york new york police is very active in this front there is the cia there's a lot of people who are there's a lot at stake here and i think the shabab is a perfect group for them to to to go after especially because there is networks believe that oregon bomber few years ago at a christmas tree had some links to the al shabab group and that's one of the biggest concern was at the time but now i think as more time goes and they step up their game in the international stage now the morning kenya and causes a lot of people to be raising questions and i don't want to the biggest things that

really stuck out to me when i was reading and researching about al-shabaab was that last week a report filed in a court case in new york eastern district allege that all shabaab is or was recently operating a research and development department in order to research and obtain chemical weapons now how credible is this threat should americans be worried given the volatility in the region given the voluntarily volatility in syria that these people could actually get their hands on chemical weapons i mean as far as the somali community this sort of like look at the language they don't speak arabic they're not very like they are arabic by name but they're mean different allegiance to the world but they're a little bit away from that community and the concern is syria syria goes the situation goes south there is a lot of stockpiles of weapons that you would not be able to count and you know there are there is who buy these weapons and. board to another place and then boom you get some major weapons the ship has it and you know chemical weapons dirty

little much space to operate there just you know you don't either have training it just and surely something that could be conducted in a small operation and that would provide for them supplies for arms and weapons but i think that's one of the biggest concern for the united states not necessarily the deal like what the regime is doing in syria but the fear that the after what will happen with all these weapons i mean look at the libyan scenario there is a lot of worries for what is leaked out of the country and go into the wrong places and that's why essentially the united states refused to provide arms and publicity stunt they said yes they would give their arms but the reality they have not given the amount of just because they don't know where these weapons will end this is not likely going to vanish after four after the regime in syria folds if it does that was honey all madhu writer at the huffington post dot com. well for decades the united states has been an important financial backer of egypt the u.s. sent of billions of dollars in aid to depose ruler hosni mubarak during his reign

and continue to support the country through the interim government headed by mohamed morsi it looks like now despite the continual change in leadership and the instability in the country the u.s. will honor its commitment to send five hundred million dollars in aid to egypt each year the u.s. spends sends one point five billion dollars in aid to the country one point three billion of which is spent on military assistance the rest is considered economic assistance because such a large amount is spent on the military which backed the overthrow of morsi american lawmakers have been vocal about halting this money flow even president obama's top security aides have recommended suspending the money however with the end of the fiscal year fast approaching and you state department memo sent to congress outlines the administration's intentions to give the money to egypt after all the department says. is that much of the cash will be used to compensate

american companies for so-called wind up costs to help them end assistance programs in the country though we have yet to see where it actually goes and we will keep a close eye here at r t at where it heads up. well we've talked a lot here on our t.v. about prison pipelines as well as private prisons otherwise known as for profit prisons these private institutions are supposed to be more cost effective and safer than other government run facilities but what happens when lower crime means these companies miss their bottom line the answer is that taxpayers foot the bill a new report by a group known as in the public interest describes the prison bed occupancy guarantees cause that is included in private prison contracts take a look at this of the contracts contracts that the group reviewed it found that sixty five percent contained these occupancy guarantees meaning the state promised is these businesses that their prison will stay eighty to one hundred percent full

at all times or else taxpayers will pay for every get bad it that is not filled these are prison businesses after all but this does raise serious concerns about who the state chooses to lock up and where are to correspondent joining me short time ago from the incarceration capital of the country california and i first asked him if he could explain just how large the private prison industry really is. sure well according to congress nearly twenty percent of the inmates in federal lockup are in privately run facilities about thirty years ago that was less than two percent and when it comes to the top three private prison corporations c.c.a. the correction corporations of america the geo group and g c they say that they have the capacity to hold nearly two hundred thousand inmates so and a lot of times these contracts which they negotiate with governments last three to

five years and in some case they've been it's been reported that they've even tried to negotiate contracts as long as twenty years with governments now can you give us a little bit more detail about these occupancy guarantees and how these guarantees have actually added extra cost to the tax and public that's right well when he's not good these contracts are negotiated between governments and these private prison companies the private prison companies require that the their these facilities be nearly full capacity so that means as you mentioned injured into the introduction sometimes they can negotiate a capacity of eighty percent eighty percent to one hundred percent required so just to give you an example of how this works in the in the real world in colorado where there is this requirement to have a certain amount of prisoners in these private facilities sometimes a stay has to move in mates from state run prisons to these private facilities so

the taxpayer is on the hook to pay for the. it's to reduce these deficits so these private companies offer that quick fix however in the long run many times these private companies are plagued with cost overruns and safety issues and then you have situations like here in california where the same prison department is is having to deal with overcrowding and one of the solutions to deal with that overriding has to has been to send inmates to private facilities now i know there are some cases where the state governments actually agreed to signing on this amendment to allow this guarantee bridge

contract does it all come down to money here i mean what's the reasoning behind that absolutely well similar complaints about these contracts or that they're behind closed doors again going back to the example of colorado where some critical lawmakers say that the governor c.c.a. and lobbyists. did this deal behind closed doors arguing that this was going to be beneficial to local economies they didn't want to close down these private facilities claiming that it would've killed jobs at a time when the state is still recovering from recession and obviously ramon these private prisons are without problems are they. absolutely well just this year c.c.a. prison and i don't who was held in contempt because he couldn't deal with its overcrowding and staffing issues that prison has been called

a gladiator training center by said by some of the prisoners that we've also heard of cases allegations of abuse at c.c.a. centers that are contracted through homeland security and there was a terrible case of inmates escaping from a privately run arizona facility who eventually murdered a couple after the escape so these private facilities are not without controversy and kind of seems like one of those situations where they're damned if they do and damned if they don't they either have low crime and they have to pay a lot or they have high crime and they fell all the beds are to correspondent ramon go in there reporting to us from l.a. thank you you bet well they call themselves the freedom fighters over the weekend dozens gathered in chant to leave virginia to take part in the liberty political action conference where people like ron and rand paul just to name asha and mark stanford took turns to talk about what's wrong with america's political system today artie's perry and boring had a chance to catch up with a few of these people and she brings us

a wrap up of the weekend's events. former congressman and defeated republican presidential nominee ron paul refuses to let his campaign die. last week he hosted the liberty political action conference for alpaca where he brought together the biggest names in the liberty movement they call themselves the freedom fighters and are working to end over the government and take over the white house his strategy begins with grassroots education you have to change people's minds before you can change the people in washington and that is what's happening right now and that's why we should be excited representative thomas massie a freshman at freedom fighter explains from the end side how members of congress become voting so to speak humans are are frail individuals are frail beings and that's what you have in congress are four hundred thirty five frail human beings who have all the same emotions and feelings that you have and that they use

all of those emotions to influence you and one of the ways that they will try and convince you to vote a certain way when you're up there if you've whipped. or whipped undecided they bring you into a classified briefing now you've been in with special knowledge and so it's ok if ninety nine percent of your constituents say to do one thing and you decide something else because now you have the special knowledge and that's how you start becoming a zombie when they start convention to do these things representative of justin amash the man who almost succeeded into funding the national security agency is upset with how secretive the government is about certain programs he says he has been lied to and classified briefings these intelligence committees are supposed to oversee the executive branch they're supposed to work for congress and they're supposed to work for you and frankly you have people on both sides of the aisle who are working together to prevent members of congress from having this information and it has to stop senator rand paul who is rumored to be their presidential

nominee says you wouldn't believe. the measures the government has to spy on americans we now have drones that are the size of a mosquito we have drones that can fly up and stick your window and look inside your house are they saying they need no warrant for that my guess is they won't say that but we really need to figure this out but the freedom fighters have a strategy to stop the government secrets and serving lines the kind of things that they are trying to hide can't be hidden forever their biggest tool consists of leveraging education that with technology today we have an opportunity to take technology and use it and get around the government and get to the people and get the people to resist and object to what our governments have been doing and best again of journalist and then someone explains how it works you have alternative media who is putting the information out you have social media that ensures that so you have a distribution platform and you have content creators those two things together are

not controlled by one into t.v. and so you know it's kind of all over the place but that's a good thing it allows for information to pass a much more freely and a representative a march says it's a fact and i've been using social media to get the word technology to overcome. rampaul believes if republicans would embrace these libertarian aspects they could win the white house too if we want to transformational event a transformational election republicans become the dominant party we could become the right to privacy we could become the private party of privacy the party doesn't believe in big government surveillance they even have organizations that train candidates who support principles of civil liberties who is can she chair of the pennsylvania republican liberty caucus has a strong message for stablish many republicans you can continue to ignore us at your peril you will be around that much longer if you're going to continue to hold on to the old paradigm of politics things are changing and shifting the freedom fighters are positioning themselves to take over the republican party and are

becoming more popular among the public it's pretty exciting to see kind of that that whole liberty movement exploding the way that it is and defeat those who just won't listen to some zombies are just too far gone you can't help them ron paul is a liberty movement is spreading like wildfire and since the fire has sparked there is no putting it out whether it's grassroots training educational programs or campaigning this movement is deep rooted and has on the limited possibilities and chantilly virginia area and boring party. and now a special programming note for you over the past two months i have been conducting an in-depth investigation into the growing popularity of synthetic drugs we've spoken to families affected by the drugs legislators trying to ban it chemist specialists the da and more here's a sneak peek at what my team and i have uncovered. the moment when he walked into the house he looked fine half an hour later he jumped into his

car and people were calling nine one one thing we see a car going one hundred miles an hour now on the road needing to get out of traffic his car only ended and there. was a horrible rendering to a beautiful life. you could have been america you could have been to. and the impact of these dangerous goes beyond the human factor tune into our t.v. all this week to find out what synthetic marijuana is who is behind it why it is so hard to regulate and how terrorism ties into all of this it's unlike any media coverage that you have ever seen on the issue so don't miss it but that's going to do it for now i'm meghan lopez see you right back here at eight pm.

the news today violence is once again flared up. these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada. operations around. the world.