rob reynolds, al jazeera, pasadena, california. >> lee roy have good to see you again. i know you spent six months on the space station more than a decade ago. did you think then that it would keep expanding and turn 15 and still be going strong? >> oh absolutely. the space station was slated for final completion of assembly in 2011 which we met. and so it's no surprise to me that it's continuing to go. and it's very important to keep it going because in order to get to mars we need to solve the biggest technical problems which are biomedical. so we need the station to prove the countermeasures, develop and test the countermeasures that we are going to use to keep the astronauts healthy on such a mission. >> it is the blueprint for are space exploration, without it travel to mars is not possible? >> we could send a crew the mars but a lot of the biomedical questions would notte not be kn. there are issues we only discovers when we started flying iss. that vision impairment problem, we had not seen that before in the shuttle program. what's going to happen to people as w

for more rob reynolds is in los angeles for us. hi there rob. he appeared via video link.alk us through what happened. >> this was a very sort of preliminary legal hearing. the judge informed robert lewis dear and his defense attorney who has been appointed by the state, a public defender of the charges he will be facing including first degree murder and attempted murder. he asked dear if he understood everything that had been said in the courtroom and dear said simply i have no questions. that was pretty much the gist of it. the next meeting will be on the 9th of december, the flex court hearing, that is, and it's expected that since this has been described as an enormous crime scene with dozens and dozens and dozens of witnesses to be interviewed that it will take quite a long time for investigation to proceed, and that will have an effect on any eventually trial fo -- eventual trial for the defendant, robert lewis dear. the campaign ongoing the republican and democratic front runners have all condemned the shootings at the colorado clinic but there has been atmosphere o

for more let's cross to rob reynolds. he has appeared by video link as we see there.hat have we learned about him? >> at this video link preliminary hearing where robert lewis dear was advised of the charges against him he had almost nothing to say. at one point the judge asked him if he had any questions, he said no questions, after this brief hearing, was led back to his cell. he has a criminal record but it's not anything on the order of this sort of violence that occurred on friday last. he was involved in a domestic violence dispute several years ago, in north carolina. and in south carolina was accused of being a peeping tom for peering into a woman's windows. but other than that, he's known as a loner, he lived by himself in a cabin or a trailer, a distance from colorado springs. neighbors who had chance encountered with him said he hand he out pal threats criticizing president obama. >> rob, this isn't the first name:00 that the issue of bootion haabortion has promptedg reaction and a political reaction as well. >> reporter: indeed there has been a long histor

rob reynolds has more from washington. >> reporter: the spy jonathan j. pollard left a federal prison in north carolina under cover of darkness. his parole was 30 years to the day after his arrest of selling a vast trove of highly classified intelligence to israel. pollard later appeared in new york accompanied by his wife esther, who he married while in prison. he must check in with a parole officer weekly and may not leave the u.s. for five years. his came back a cause celeb in israel and in some sections of american jewish community. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu hailed the release. >> someone who raised this case before successive u.s. presidents many times, i longed for this day, and now after three long and difficult decades, jonathan is being released. >> many think he was punished to harshly. >> he served many years in prison with no real thing written and it's about time. >> reporter: over the course of 18 months, pollard, a civilian analyst delivered tens of thousands of top secret, classified documents to israeli agents in washingto

the first crew moved in 220 people lived there and there are questions now about its future and rob reynoldsorter: 400 kilometers above the earth they spent a seven hour space walk doing maintenance and repairs, it's a constant task for the six-member international crew to keep the international space station in working order in the harsh environment of outer space. mission commander scott kellie completed seven months on the station, a record for a u.s. astronaut. >> obviously as things age over time we will have more maintenance requirements but the good news is we plan for that and a lot of spare parts and spare parts outside and have plans for changing those things and you know keeping this space station flying a long time into the future. >> reporter: as a floating space laboratory the iss has been the scene of thousands of successful experiments in the unique conditions of micro gravity and just how long the iss will remain in orbit is a political and economic question. the iss is a joint project of the u.s., russia, japan and the european union, funding for the effort while stable is

rob reynolds reports now from austin. >> at an islamic school and mosque in austin, texas, children play without a care. but many of their parents and other adults in the muslim community were jolted when texas governor greg abbott said syrian refugees fleeing civil war were not welcome in this state. he told president obama not to send any syrians to texas for fear they might include operatives loyal to the islamic state. this woman said that the governor is misinformed. >> these are people who are running away from isil, destroyed by isil. they're really victims. i don't see how these families we can portray them as being terrorists. >> there are a handful of recent syrian refugees in austin, but all those we contacted declining to interviewed, afraid relatives back home might suffer repercussions if they spoke out publicly. but all refugees are screened by several government agencies are before they are allowed to settle in the u.s. >> we know and we're given assurances that any refugee that comes into our community has been fully vetted by the federal government through the departmen

as rob reynolds reports. >> reporter: 400 kilometers above the earth, astronauts did a 7-hour spacewalk doing repairs. a constant task for the crew to keep the space station in working order in the harsh environment of space. mission commander scott kelly completed 7 months on the station, a record for a u.s. astronaut. >> but, you know, as things age, over time we'll have maintenance. we planned for that. we have a lot of spares on board. plans for changing those things and keeping it flying into the future. >> as a floating spacelabor tri. it has been the seen of experiments. how long the i.s.s. will remain in orbit is a political and economic kevin. the i.s.s. is a joint project. u.s., russia, japan and the european union. funding, while stable, is not growing. political friction between the u.s. and russia over ukraine caused russia to suggest u.s. astronauts would not be allowed to fly on its rockets. currently the only way to get to the i.s.s. issues have been smoothed over and russia says it will participate for now. some space scientists suggest money spent may be better dedicat

rob reynolds >>> the president of the central african republic is calling on the u.n. to do more to end a wave of violence. it has killed at least 90 people since september. peace keepers haven't been able to stop malitias from killing each other. those behind the violence should be brought to justice. paris and nigeria is saying a lack of funding is damaging the free education. with more than 10 million children out of school, experts are predicting a crisis in the year to come. >> reporter: like many girls our age, her dream is to be a doctor. she came to this private school to chase that dream because her parents can afford it. >> this school has a good facilities of which it can guide me towards getting my own ambition. >> reporter: at a public school, her friend is also chasing a similar dream, but she has a tougher challenge because of her parents' financial standing. >> that's what they can afford to do for me and i'm happy for that because they do all their best to see that i'med indicated. >> reporter: her parents would rather see her in a private school. faci

rob reynolds reports. >> reporter: at this islamic school and mosque in austin, texas, children play care, but many adults in the muslim community were jolted when the texas governor said syrian refugees fleeing civil war were not welcome in this state. abbott told president barack obama not to send any syrians to texas for fear that they might include operatives loyal to the islamic state. the school principal who was born in syria, says the governor is misinformed. >> reporter: these are families that are running away from isil. literally isis has destroyed half of syria, so they are really victims. >> reporter: there are a handful of recent syrian refugees in austin, but all of those we contacted declined to be interviewed, afraid that relatives back home right suffer repercussions. but the head of the refugee help agency in austin said all refugees are screened by several government agencies before they are allowed to settle in the u.s. >> we know, and we are given assurances that any refugee that comes into our community has been fully vetted by the federal government through th

let's get the latest from rob reynolds.l us more about what is really an extraordinary case this one. >> reporter: well the prosecutor in the case called it one of the ten worst cases of espionage in u.s. history. the amount of material that joseph pallard provided to israeli agents is really astonishing. he was as you mentioned a naval intelligence analyst, and he worked in a -- a workplace that gave him access to all sorts of military intelligence, cia documents, nsa documents, all of that sort of thing. and this was 1985, of course, in the midst of one of the more heated periods of the cold war. so all of this material, which would have filled a large room according to prosecutors was handed over to the israelis by jonathan pallard an american citizen, and he did it for money. he was paid well by the israelis and lived a lifestyle he and his wife lived a lifestyle well above their means, but press release his prison cell and with the help of supporters he orchestrated a very large scale public relations campaign convinci

rob reynolds reports from austin. >> reporter: at an islamic school and mosque in austin, texas, childreny without a care, but of their parents and other adults were jolted when the governor said syrian refugees were not welcome in this state. abbott told president barack obama not to send any syrians to texas for fear they might include operatives loyal to the islamic state. this woman was born in syria and says the governor is misinformed. >> literally isis has destroyed half of syria, so they are really victims. so i don't see how we can portray them as being terrorists. >> reporter: there are a handful of refugees in austin, but they all declined interviews. but the head of the refugees help agency in austin said all refugees are screened by several government agencies before they are allowed to settle in the u.s. >> we know, and we are given assurances that any refugee that comes into our community has been fully vetted by the federal government through the department of homeland security, and all of the appropriate security checks. >> reporter: so far the u.s. has taken in only abou

. >> live now to washington and our correspondent robert reynolds. rob, in terms of having served his time behind bars, how much damage did he cause? >> an enormous amount of damage, and in fact, it's still highly classified, so peter, we don't really know the extent of the damage. we do know that pollard transferred thousands and thousands of documents, literally documents that would fill a room to the israelis, and he took advantage of very sloppy security at the agency where he worked, part of the naval intelligence service that allowed him to literally stuff classified documents into his briefcase and just saunter out, when he would then turn them over to the israelis, who would photo copy them and pollard would return these documents later on, as he wished. as i said, it's not known exactly what damage he did, but in a memorandum to the sentencing judge back in 1987, the then defense secretary tear casper wine burger wrote it's difficult for me to conceive of a greater harm to national security than that caused by pollard in view of the breadth, cri