tv BBC World News America PBS September 6, 2013 2:30pm-3:01pm PDT
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we put our extended global network to work for a wide range of companies, from small businesses to major corporations. what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news." >> it is a tough sell at the g 20. president obama tries to drum up military support. busy hearing from their constituents. john mccain gets an earful on the people of arizona. hitler's as adolf bodyguard. we look back at the life of rochus misch.
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welcome to our viewers on public television in america and around the globe. world leaders are heading home from the g 20 summit in russia with decisions whether to take military action against syria. despite private talks between president obama and president hooton, america and russia came no closer to resolving their differences. this contains some disturbing images. more divided than ever over syria's chemical weapons, the leaders split into two camps. president obama leading one side against a formidable foe, the russian president. one opponent is india. argentina as well as south china.and
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alongside them, others were still uneasy at military action without united nations approval. vladimir putin sounded more convinced than ever as that it was rebels behind the attack. >> the so-called chemical weapons attack, it was a provocation by the rebels who were hoping it would lead to or help from those countries who have been backing them. that is the whole point of this provocation. and 10 of, the u.s. its allies jointly called for a strong international response to an attack which the evidence suggested assad carried out. joining the u.s. and u.k. were turkey and australia, saudi italy, canada, japan, and spain, france, and south korea. not germany.
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no one is doubting a chemical attack in syria killing children and take place, it is who to blame and how to respond that is causing such heated disputes. >> delivering chemical weapons against children is not something we do. -- we do not do it against kids. we have to stand up for that principle. >> good afternoon, everybody. x for all of the intense lobbying behind the scenes with david cameron doing his part, the backing for u.s. military action does not seem to have worked. over, important to win isn't it a serious setback? >> i do not think that is in the slightest bit surprising. what struck me in the debate
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about serial last night is those countries making the argument that we should uphold the international cap do on chemical weapons had the best arguments, best argumentse and greatest support. , upsettingt putin america's plans is probably what he wanted. for barack obama, it is a disappointment and a worry. >> for more on the diplomatic hurdles facing the u.s., i spoke with the senior director at the white house security council. he is now at the atlantic council. 11 of the says countries -- barack obama says 11 of the countries support a strong response. >> i think it means different things to different countries.
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some countries will participate in any military operation. others think the concept is good. others think using chemical weapons was a bad idea, but they will not go anywhere near supporting the operation. >> what impact will this d bates -- will this debate have fun president assad? >> it gives them a lot more time to do things to complicate the operation diplomatically and militarily? assad and his forces are moving some of the old targets around. u.s. to outg the more targets to the military plan. this is unfolding day by day. new assets are moving on the military side. >> what does it mean losing the surprise element? -- one of thence
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-- a very swift and severe retaliatory blow as well as uncertainty as to the exact nature of that attack. i think we have lost a little bit of those elements because it is not a surprise. it is playing out in very slow motion. assad is getting more and more time to minimize the damage. >> how does it look to our allies? >> it is an unfolding thing. this is playing out over a period of 10 days. it is another cost of going to the congress for what had initially been planned as a very limited and short duration operation. the president is very good at communicating. when he gives this speech on tuesday, i would not be surprised if he brings around a lot of people. >> do you think it really will be clinical?
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>> we are bringing -- a lot of assets. from what i can tell, it is getting bigger by the day. that is what is needed. if you want to send assad a message, it really needs to be a very serious military operation. >> you say the president is persuasive, what if he does not persuade congress? >> it is a difficult conundrum. president clinton also launched an operation in 1999 after being turned down in the u.s. congress. when president obama said on saturday he has decided there will be in operation, but he will go to congress, those two things are in his head. >> thank you very much for joining us. the critical vote is looming in congress. many members are holding town hall meetings to get there
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constituents views. he has found a lawmakers are getting quite the careful. >> far from the politics of washington and the talk of war, it is a different landscape out west. this is where the gunslinger wyatt earp took his vengeance and killed in the name of justice. arizona is the republican heartland. they like their guns and their freedom. most supported the iraq war and they have repeatedly voted for john mccain. old maverick lost touch with the changing space in a nation tired of the war on terror? to see if they really want to be involved in another war in the middle east. stop, a veteran social
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club. michael was shot in vietnam. he is antiwar. >> it is very difficult for me to sanction anything like syria. i have seen too many young men die. unnecessarily. >> many said no. the u.s. should not strike syria. >> i have mixed feelings on it. child, i would want someone to help me. i am also concerned about our military personnel. senators and congressmen are going out and meeting with people. for john mccain, a town hall meeting is a chance to persuade
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the skeptical. >> we need to stay out of this. you think you speak for the majority? i talk to men and women in the military all the time. >> he thinks men and women just are not informed. >> to hecklers were removed from the room. >> the only voice of support from syrian americans. killer. is a thinks action on syria -- inaction on syria makes weak.s. appear this is a big disconnect between you and the people. >> there is a big disconnect between me and a lot of the
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people. that is why i communicate with them. at its fight i have town hall meetings. i know today some of those people took what i said and are haveting it and may changed their views. others may not. across the war weary america suggests that getting a vote through congress is not going to be easy. they seem against president obama and senator mccain. next up, airtime with a local right-wing shock jock. >> is there anyone out there supporting john mccain? this is embarrassing. nobody speaking in support of intervention. i used my five minutes to asked why. becauseeason why is
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they are not behind obama. they do not trust the administration. bikers are a straight talking and eclectic crowd. >> if our allies were behind us, i would be a little bit more for it. the fact that they are not, i do not want to go in there alone. and taked to go in care of business in afghanistan after 9/11. on this journey and disrupting the whole muslim community is the wrong move. republicans and liberals, libertarians, they said the same. are reading uprs for action, but still going nowhere. -- revving up for action, but still going nowhere.
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time to vote in australia. on saturday, the people will pick the country's next prime minister. tony abbott leads the coalition opposition. he is thought to be head of the ruling labour party. the slowing economy and unpopular carbon tax. it does not feel too much like an australian winter of discontent. after decades of growth and an economy that has been the envy of the world, you would think the mood would be sunny. you would be wrong. >> it feels like we are at the end of good times. >> everything is pretty good.
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nothis is the man who says as good as they used to be. he may not look like a prime , but the conservative opposition leader is favored to win. he is british-born, trained as a catholic priest and studied at oxford. an occasional slip of the tongue. this is tony on big brother. on the campaign trail, he he laid out his conservative credentials. he is anti-gay marriage, skeptical about climate change, but above all, has attacked the
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labour government on his economic record. >> if you want the government which gets it when it comes to the economy, and you've got to change the current government. this campaign is coming to a close, but throughout it, he has been asking a simple question. do australians think the country is in a better place than six years ago? the polls suggest the answer is no. the priment, minister, has tried to keep a spring in his step, but his message that australia is doing relatively well and the globally tough economic times has perhaps been harder for voters to grasp. labor has been damaged by infighting.
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the woman who ousted him as prime minister a few years ago. gloomy, but not too if the polls are to be believed, australians are looking for a change and that would mean a shift to the right. tony abbott is on the rise and kevin rudd is fighting to avoid a wipeout. >> the question we all want to know, will they swing it? you are watching bbc world news america. as if white house did not have enough to worry about, a weak jobs report. more details have emerged of a phone call made by a driver spain. horrific crash in he is heard telling a colleague that he was traveling at 190 kilometers per hour instead of 80. the driver and the train company
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are being investigated. >> the aftermath of july's train crash, which killed 79 people in northern spain. the moment caught on cctv and the train derailed on a bend. the driver emerged injured and ,overed in blood, but earlier he called a colleague for help. the transcript of the call had previously been heard by investigators in court. this is the first time we have heard the voice of the driver, full of panic.
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his mother died in the crash. >> i feel he is just a human being that believes he has made a mistake. he told the safety team how dangerous the bench was and there were not enough warning signs. , whye speed of the train there was no automatic braking system, which has since been installed, to form the focus of a long investigation. looks like good news, the unemployment rate has dropped to 7.3%. , many havee deeper
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simply stopped looking for work. the figures have added more uncertainty to the economic picture. i discussed it allith an economs reporter f t wall street journal. can you explain this paradox? rise before going flat again. >> the jobs numbers were clear indication that we have not really taken off in terms of economic growth. we are struggling for years into the recovery in creating a sustainably high number of jobs and expanding beyond this very poor pace we have been at. for the economy, it was not very good. the market responded a little better because it has been going through some convulsions in recent months about the federal reserve. this sent some people thinking that maybe the fed is not going to pull back just yet.
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out remains to be seen. -- that remains to be seen. >> do we want the fed to pull back? >> you want the fed to be pulling back in an unambiguously strong economy because then, it is a rising tide for everyone and you have a much better outlook. the fed has been concerned about a number of other things. it is concerned about financial dislocation and a number of fed officials are trying to figure out how they can start to wean the market off of their support. is a very big question. hownother big question, about this debate over air strikes against syria? >> the potential for airstrikes, the buildup to military action and the debate adds another layer of uncertainty into the economic outlook. it really makes people pull back
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and question there will be some trouble over the horizon. that is what we have seen before leading up to american strikes and libya. in advance of the iraq war in 2003 and 1991. it leads to uncertainty. the market tends to take off and the economy tends to pick off, but it is a huge restraint. >> have about the politics on capitol hill? >> we do have a debate. most people thought the month of september would be focused on coming up with some type of an agreement on the budget. raising the federal debt limit so we do not go through that type of crisis again. it does not look like we will see much progress on either of those in the coming weeks. you have a number of flashpoints that are coming up on the economic landscape that are not
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being dealt with and it creates the potential for a big moment of crisis. >> thank you so much for joining us. he was one of the last people to bear witness to add off hitler's dying regime -- adolf hitler's dying regime. died today at the age of 96. he said working along hitler was the happiest time in his life. >> the battle for berlin in the dying days of world war ii as the allies close in, hitler takes refuge underground. among his bodyguards, rochus misch, his phone operator, a loyal servant. he was amaintained simple man, not a monster.
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was eventually captured and ransacked by soviet soldiers. rochus misch was inside when the propaganda chief poisoned their six children and he was there his hitler, after marrying mistress, killed himself. i watched as they wrapped hitler up. his legs were sticking out. someone shouted to me, hurry upstairs, they are burning the boss. i decided not to go. i was scared i would be killed for being one of the last witnesses. >> millions of others had already died, many in death camps. he claimed he knew concentration camps existed, but not the crimes committed there. >> when you see it now, when
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they say we did not know anything about it, that sort of thing needs organizing. .nbelievable >> astonishingly, his wife is jewish. when herghter was 10 father was released from a russian prison camp. he never accepted the truth about his wife. >> i will not believe that. he will not believe that. but i know it's from my grandmother. >> he was among the last of the generation that could not accept what had been done in their name . modern germany has moved on. hitler's bunker is long gone. >> hitler's henchmen and his jewish wife.
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that brings today's broadcast to a close. for constant updates, from all of us here, thank you for watching. >> make sense of international news -- at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu, newman's own foundation, giving all profits to charity and pursuing the common good for over 30 years, and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture new ventures and help provide
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captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> woodruff: president obama ran into stiff opposition from key world leaders to his plan for a military strike on syria. good evening. i'm judy woodruff. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. on the newshour tonight, we get an update on the fight for support abroad, and votes here at home, as the senate formally introduced a bill to use military force. >> woodruff: then, the worrying side of the jobs picture in the u.s. paul solman digs into today's employment figures. >> brown: your emails, online bank transactions and more-- privacy tools keep all of that data secure. but hari sreenivasan dissects new revelations saying the n.s.a. can crack those codes. >> woodruff: and we return to syria, starting with two looks at its impact on the middle east.
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