coming up on our t.v. u.n. general assembly weighs in on syria's chemical weapons all indication show that deep seated tensions between the u.s. and iran may now be unwinding the latest updates on today's events ahead in the u.s. and thetic marijuana is usually sold with a nod or goofy brand name but what it can do to the human body is no laughing matter a look at this terrible facts of these substances in a special r.t. investigation and a columbia university professor attacked by more than twenty people all because they thought he was muslim we'll take a look at this case and whether the trend of islam a phobia is growing in the u.s. all later in the show.

it's tuesday september twenty fourth four pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david and you're watching our t.v. we begin today with the un general assembly world leaders from one hundred and ninety three countries have descended on new york city for their annual meeting this week this morning president obama addressed the assembly and pushed for a u.n. security council resolution that enforces syria's cooperation however syria was not the only foreign policy issue on the president's agenda he also addressed nuclear proliferation and iran to discuss more on the highlights coming out of the u.n. today i'm joined now by our t's on a stasia tricky now who is in new york following all the developments thanks so much for joining me now obama spoke for about fifteen minutes this morning and he did spend a good portion of that time talking about syria tell us more about that address and what he had to say. well i mean i'm a speech was certainly syria was at the top of the agenda when it came to this

address particularly like you mentioned other foreign policy issues including potential progress in really in the relationship with iran including future developments when it comes to these really palestinian question but certainly syria and what obama called the need for a strong resolution on syria and terms of the latest international community attempts to try to get syria's chemical weapons under international control obama again reiterated how important it is to make sure this resolution happens and this is what he had to say on that the syrian government took a first step by giving an accounting of it so. now there must be a strong security council resolution to verify that this regime is keeping its commitments and there must be consequences if they fail to do so if we cannot agree even on this that it will show that the united nations is incapable of forcing the

most basic of international laws. well obama calls for prompt votes on a resolution we have to keep in mind that the united nations security council has been and is working around the clock to present be able to vote on such a document and of course importantly the key disagreement remains the potential use of force and kind of sanctions that can be used against the assad regime if it does not comply with the text that the security council will be voting on and this remains kind of a dividing point between russia and the united states but we do know that later today a meeting between russian foreign minister sergei lavrov and john kerry is taking place on the sidelines of the united nations and we are hoping that some kind of more progress will be announced when it comes to this resolution that will allow hope to ensure political transition when it comes to syria how soon we can expect this text is a question we are hearing that it could happen sometime this week you know but it's

the matter of russia and the u.s. figuring out the question of force and how to move on forward and whether to implement the chapter seven of the u.n. charter in this text we're waiting to see what that happens if that happens and of course we will be following that we'll probably talk to you about that later on but there is a lot of speculation going on around a possible meeting between president obama and iranian president hassan rouhani are you seeing any indication of this on the ground over there. right i mean are there certainly been because of the certain hands that iran has been sending with its newly elected president to the united states that a potential thaw could happen there was a lot of analysts and journalists were watching closely whether or not a possible meeting might take place we have heard very recently that in fact no such meeting is scheduled and that it won't be taking place but we do know that kerry will be meeting with has iranian counterpart the foreign minister of iran later on in the week tentatively this will happen on thursday so yes there are certain indications with iran saying that they would like to see progress when it

comes to the west and the western countries and in retaliation to that in obama's speech earlier today we did hear that the diplomatic door is open if iran is willing to walk through it but what the u.s. wants to see is iran not just talk the talk but walk the walk and stick to its promises take a listen to obama's statement on that we should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the iranian people while giving the world confidence that the iranian program is peaceful but to succeed conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verify. after all it's the iranian government's choices that have led to the conference of sanctions that are currently in place. well certainly if no meeting between obama and rouhani is taking place this week we will be keeping

a close eye on the meeting between kerry and the iranian foreign minister because it is likely and this is unusual for them to meet face to face considering the tensions over the last several decades absolutely will quincey dentally rouhani is also addressing the u.n. general assembly today what can we expect out of that speech well that's certainly something that expected that is expected to be very curious in the sense that this will be the first time that rouhani will be addressing the united nations general assembly as iran's new president we have to remember that over the last eight years it was mahmoud ahmadinejad with quite a controversial personality and controversial status here in the united states and that the u.n. g.a. he's certainly year after year been causing much outrage with his controversial statements and feisty behavior every time we would see u.s. and western delegations walk out of the general assembly hall to watch show that they're ignoring the what they thought are absurdities that he had to say so this year we are expecting later today this speech to be made and

a much more. moderate approach when it comes to the united states this is certainly something that everybody is expecting a kind of revival to be shown publicly within the united nations general assembly hall want to see how we look forward to many more updates from you later on in the evening on the stasi of turkey not r.t. correspondent. it wasn't too long ago that we learned through a series of disclosures that the u.s. national security agency had been spying on both the leaders and citizens of several countries one of those countries brazil took these revelations very seriously so much so that brazilian president dilma rousseff actually canceled a state visit to washington d.c. earlier this month and president received an let her message die easily and fact she had the world watching this morning as she addressed this very issue and her opening speech at the u.n. general assembly artie's sam sachs has more it didn't take long for the recent n.s.a. leaks to dog president obama in the united states at today's u.n.

general assembly debate in new york city or maybe very first speaker the day was brazilian president dilma rousseff who recently canceled a meeting with president obama and devoted a third of her speech to bashing mrs mask global surveillance operations stem the flow of what we have before was a surprise and is a serious case of violation of human rights and civil liberties a case of invasion and capture of confidential secret information pertaining to business activities and above all a case of disrespect to national sovereignty the national sovereignty of my country we have to let the u.s. government know about our protest by demanding explanations apologies and guarantees that such acts so procedures will never be repeated again she even went a step further and urged the u.n. to join brazil in building a new internet framework that protects the privacy and sovereignty of all nations

as well as you up example and still will put forth. any of that establishing a multilateral civil framework. full internet governance and use as well as measures to ensure an effective protection of the data and information trafficking through the internet is heading into today's un general assembly debate there have been a series of diplomatic dust ups between the white house and various south american nations all since edward snowden began disclosing the n.s.a.'s activities on that continent there was last week's tussle over air space in which dennis whalen president nicolas maduro claimed the united states committed a serious offense by not granting permission for his plane to enter u.s. airspace in route to china the united states said the bennetts waylaid didn't provide enough notice of course there was also an incident last july when bolivian president evo morales had his plane forced to land in vienna what he called an imperial skyjacking after was believed that the plane may be harboring edward

snowden it wasn't and latin america grew enraged by the actions with cuba calling it in an acceptable and unjustifiable act that offends latin america and the caribbean an ecuadorian president rafael correa urging fellow south american leaders to quote take action ultimately though the white house wasn't interested in addressing the n.s.a. controversy and still a forty five minute speech today before the u.n. president obama didn't mention the n.s.a. one time but despite the silence the white house understands there may be economic consequences for its mass spying on both hostile and friendly nations brazilian president dilma rousseff canceling her planned october meeting with the white house may have caused boeing a four billion dollar fighter jet contract and other latin american nations like bolivia ecuador and venezuela all carry on very important trade relations with the united states that could be in danger as more n.s.a.

secrets are exposed reporting from the white house in washington d.c. same sex our team. and a new information on the story that started a national conversation on press freedom the justice department now says that a former f.b.i. agent will plead guilty to reaching information about a for oil the bomb threat to the associated press donald sackville been agreed to a sentence of three years and seven months for the leak as part of a plea agreement filed in the u.s. district court of indiana part of the sentence will be serving time for separate child pornography charges in may of two thousand and twelve the a.p. reported on an operation in which the u.s. intercepted a bomb from al qaeda in yemen according to a september court filing the a.p. received information from sackville been a government contractor who had top secret clearance the news agency had agreed to hold the story at the request of the government that the a.p. printed it before receiving an official go ahead the obama administration said the

leak compromise national security and that's when the justice department proceeded to secretly subpoena the phone records of countless a.p. journalists over the course of two months in two thousand and twelve the subpoena along with the justice department monitoring of fox news reporter james rosen it's readmitted a discussion amongst press defenders who call this activity overly intrusive and a threat to free speech however the justice department is now pointing to this latest case as proof that the subpoena of the reporters' phone records is useful in identifying government leakers. it's labeled as popery marked with the faces of popular cartoon characters and sold on store shelves across the country synthetic marijuana is rapidly becoming a public health emergency earlier this year dozens of people flooded into emergency rooms in colorado tennessee kansas and georgia after smoking a bad batch of fake weed and at least three people died just today the mother of

one thousand year old nick colbert filed a lawsuit in colorado springs against the store that sold her son a faithful batch back in two thousand and eleven. however stephanie colbert is not the first mother to experience such a tragedy tomorrow the senate caucus on international narcotics control will hold a hearing on capitol hill to talk about the dangers of these substances but before then our t. correspondent megan lopez brings us the story of three families dealing with the real consequences of synthetic marijuana i never heard them done it marijuana and sure how do the day after my son. was at my friend's house and i got a phone call and i was told that my son had died and our son is. no different than any other child here for the county he was a straight a student played baseball everything by the books and then unfortunately

you know somebody there introduced him more well however he got involved it was old downhill from there i bought it and i tried it and then i got the. market and then i bought my own and then i were making like a half. three families thousands of miles apart but all linked by a dangerous drug these are the stories of tristen cantor an athlete who was getting ready to head to college and leave our a seventeen year old known for a funky hair colors and backstopping or the adventurer who loves no boarding his dog and his family three stories three very different outcomes. it goes by many names i've not heard climber and mr knight spice k two scooby snacks it's also known as synthetic marijuana or more formally synthetic canal benoit's a designer drug where chemicals are created in

a lab and sprayed on herbs and sold in stores synthetic because it's meant to mimic the effects of actual marijuana these drugs can be purchased in gas stations and convenience stores cleverly marked as potpourri with a label on the back that reads not for human consumption but don't let the label fool you that's exactly what this product is for just ask the parents of tristen kantor their son began experimenting with drugs when he was fifteen after years of trying to get clean he turned to synthetic canal benoit's as a safe alternative because not only is it easily accessible this stuff doesn't show up on drug tests. teen or mother finding the package is the in can package is and we don't know what they were they were just their son's way to get a high a high that turned out to be more dangerous than tristen originally thought kristen told us had numerous occasions where he was in the in

a vehicle with with other people not driving but he had become almost paralyzed and couldn't move under the influence of synthetic marijuana he's now in rehab and on the road to recovery he's planning to go to college in the spring but for him lee bowers family recovery wasn't as easy emily had been smoking synthetic. marijuana for months until one day her body couldn't take it anymore she didn't know where. she was making any it's. broken into a wall of they found that she had multiple strokes that damaged seventy percent of her brain and told her family she would remain in a vegetative state what was that moment like when you decided that you were going to stop medication they were going to stop the tubes yes that was the heart of. america not about. law and at first emily had no control of her arms or legs and she was blind now she's back at school and

learning to walk again the family believes in milly's preexisting condition combined with the synthetic canal benoit almost took their daughter's life where are you getting it from the corner store of course when one of your friends went to buy it did they make them show it day was it pretty easily accessible i didn't make until right here in. paranoia anxiety rapid heart rate trouble breathing hallucinations all of these are real effects that doctors have reported in just two thousand and ten alone the drug was linked to over eleven thousand four hundred emergency room visits it's russian roulette you don't know what you're going to get is a statistic karen doctor knows by heart karen says her son max only trying synthetic marijuana one time and it cost him his life the store owner actually

talked them into purchasing the product and he was with his friends who drove him home. smoked she dropped him off she said that when he walked into the house he looked fine. i guess a few minutes later he didn't feel so fine and. half an hour later he jumped into his car and drove one hundred miles down roads and people who are calling nine one one and saying there you see a car gone hundred miles an hour down the road weaving in and out of traffic and the romps out of the road making corners why interventional lee his car landed in the house and he flew eighty feet through the air and landed in the house and i max's death is a reality the dop in our family confronts every day it's still painful when it's

it's it's a different life when life is different without masks he was my best friend. my life and completely changed was an horrible ending to a beautiful life one in nine high school seniors admitting to trying synthetic canal benoit's in two thousand and eleven according to a survey by the university of michigan and karen fears it won't be long before there are more deaths as a result of these dangerous chemicals max was a perfect son he did all the right things he made one mistake and it killed him and if it can happen to max it could happen to everybody at any it in washington meghan lopez r.t. . and a columbia university professor was assaulted this past saturday while walking in upper manhattan dr prob saying who is sikh and wears a turban and the beard was attacked by multiple suspects who shouted anti muslim

statements just before knocking him down and punching him numerous times in the face the new york police department says it is investigating this as a hate crime since nine eleven there have been a spate of attacks in new york and around the country on sikhs who have been mistaken as muslims and in fact just last year a white supremacist named wade michael page went on a shooting rampage at a sikh temple in oak creek wisconsin killing six people and wounding four others it's all part of a growing trend toward islamophobia and you don't have to go all the way to wisconsin to find it right here in washington d.c. numerous elected representatives have said disparaging remarks about islam often as a result of ignorance about the religion to talk to me about this trend and the factors that may be contributing to this growth i'm joined by uber heem hooper communications director for the council on american islamic relations eve for him thank you so much for joining me first of all of course put this incident into

context for us how often are we seeing attacks like this on muslim sikhs or any other people that are perceived as muslims well members of the sikh community are often targeted unfortunately because sikh men wear turbans and they often wear very long beards and bigots not being brain surgeons they associate turbans and beards with muslims so we see it quite often we we've come to the assistance of sikhs who have been attacked on a number of occasions a number of cases in california california elderly sikh man out for a walk be moon shot and killed one of the first deaths after nine eleven was a sikh man shot to death in the aftermath of the nine eleven terror attack so we've seen this unfortunately too often and we saw it in this. as well the individual was called osama in other words osama bin ladden called a terrorist but we see that same day a muslim woman at

a pro-democracy rally in times square in new york was similarly called a terrorist and hit by an individual who was arrested in we're working on that case as well it's an unfortunately growing phenomenon and we as a muslim community we're very tiny minority we can't combat or challenge growing islamophobia all by ourselves we have to do it in coalition with others of course and so i'm talking a little bit more about the trend toward islamophobia i know that over twenty states have at least attempted to pass bills against adopting sharia law. is this a rational fear of islam like we growing we've seen this in a number of states nationwide where right wing anti muslim extremists in state legislatures take a template promoted by a right wing anti muslim extremist name named david you rochelle me here as a template for these laws they introduce them in the state legislature drum up fear

against islam and muslims sometimes they pass sometimes they don't i think their real intent is to promote anti muslim hysteria and this is one vehicle for doing it it's like passing a law to outlaw unicorns but if you can scare enough people promoted enough anti muslim hysteria. at least they feel they're having some impact it's a negative impact but that seems to be what they want and of course we hear a lot of anti muslim right directly coming from politicians so many of our congressional leaders are a number not too long ago hearing rep peter king call for hearings on the islamization of america and then recently we heard senator lindsey graham talk about the phrase allow akbar let's take a listen to what he said. allah akbar. associate with the war chant it doesn't it's not exclusively owned by al-qaeda obscene people kill al qaeda guys in yellow bar but it is when somebody yells i log bar in the mideast duck it is not like hey how

you doing lindsay it is not you know it is so war chant so he says it's like uttering a word chant first of all for people that don't know can you explain what this phrase. means god is great it's one of the most common phrases uttered by muslims every time you you pray here saying it every day in your daily life years saying it just thank god as senator mccain correctly mentioned when this issue was first promoted by again by the right wing the right wing pundits and extremists are constantly manufacturing these false controversies and then it becomes a viral thing on the internet you know it's utter nonsense but people believe it and they're willing to believe and and so the follow up to that is how does rhetoric like this coming from politicians really impact the way that americans are formulating their their attitudes towards the muslim american community or research

consistently shows up to one third of americans have active hostility towards islam now that's not a majority but that's a pretty sizable minority and we find through our research that it's almost always due to ignorance of islam and muslims i got to hate call from a lady yesterday and she was spouting these lie about islam about muslims i said look. i'm telling you that what you're basing your beliefs on our lives are you willing to change what you believe said no i said well if you're not willing to acknowledge that what you're basing your beliefs are lies what can i do you know i commend you for trying it's hard to all of these individual people we don't have a lot of time left but i want to get your thoughts on the somali the small incident that happened it seems that a lot of somali americans here in the united states are really trying to disassociate themselves now from terrorism they're going to great lengths to do that i just want to get your thoughts on you know basically what do you think this

really says about the fear that muslim americans have about you know the kind of backlash that. might be coming well i think we're in times of crisis we're less concerned about the backlash and we're more concerned about our nation's security like after the boston marathon bombings there were some backlash incidents but the main concern is stop these kinds of things from happening repudiate any acts of terrorism in any form by whoever does that there's no cause that can justify these kinds of acts and then worry about any potential backlash absolutely will thank you so much for coming on and and giving us all your insight we'll have to have you back soon evoking hooper communications director for the council on american islamic relations thank you you thank. do you want to get a little bummed out over not getting more twitter followers ok you may not have millions of followers but if you can at least verify that they're real you may be a step ahead because it's apparently a huge issue for

a lot of big names take michelle obama and her at michelle obama account according to the twitter analytics application status people thirty seven percent of the first ladies five million twitter followers are considered fake thirty five percent of her followers are inactive and just twenty eight percent are considered real the analytics website says it determines us by looking at the twitter accounts that are always the followers and never the followed that's combined with a few other metrics to confirm that the account is indeed fake so while we compare klout scores with our fellow tweeters we might want to keep in mind that some of us are not as popular as we seem well that does it for now for more on the stories we covered today go to youtube dot com forward slash r t america and check out our web site r t dot com forward slash usa you can also follow me on twitter at amir david see right back here at five.

technology innovation. developments around. the future however. when he walked into the house he looked fine half an hour later he jumped to his car and people who are calling nine one one. see a car going hundred miles an hour no road traffic his car only ended and there. was an order to a beautiful life. you could hear but america because he happened to.

yes. hundreds of people that want to. work cleaning up something that is quite simply a mess. the president did not keep his promise. two years later one time i was still operating. could shutting the door on that detention center really and the trauma of one timeout. and can the closing of a prison really liberate those at once held captive.

it's not that i feel lonely if i am lonely and who could possibly understand what i have experienced in guantanamo when i talk about it who is most. no one is able to imagine. and the flag flew over camp delta and guantanamo bay cuba where you know the detainees are housed. to honor all those service members and civilian who have lost their lives during the global war on terrorism and those who continue to fan the ideals of freedom and democracy throughout the world so i really appreciate that because i very much enjoyed serving my country.