Transcripts For ALJAZAM America Tonight 20131015

Street is optimistic about a deal. The do you opened in negative territory, finishing 64 points. An al qaeda figure arrives in new york to face federal terrorism charges. Abu anas al liby was captured in a military raid in libya on 5 october. Hes accused of planning and conducting several surveillance for the u. S. Embassy bombings in east africa. Those are the headlines. See you back here. America tonight is up next. Remember, you can get the latest news on aljazeera. Com on america tonight a very different Death Penalty debate than youve heard before. Is Quality Control needed in the executioners final cocktail. We are not talking about whether the person will wake up with an illness. We are talking about killing a person. Also shut down, day 14. The key players step up. Are they closing in on an end to the impasse . And the price of progress. A Pennsylvania Community blessed by newfound riches faces tough choices about their future. Youre getting it from both sides. Yes, the coal mine there and the fracking up there. Good evening, thank you for being with us. Im joie chen. We begin with a new term on a longstanding issue the Death Penalty, 30 people have been executed in the United States by lethal injection a toxic cocktail of drugs are injected into the prisoner. Drugs to stop the muscle and heart have other uses as well. Pharmaceutical companies create them and doctors give drugs to help patients in other situations. Therein lies a moral dilemma for drug makers. The debate led to a shortage and questions to the Justice System about how to deliver the ultimate penalty. America tonight gets our report from correspondent chris bury. In 1990 warren hill was serving a life sentence at Georgia State penitentary for killing his girlfriend when he beat a fellow inmate to death. He was sentenced to die. It took his lawyers 23 years to exhaust his appeals. Prosecutors eventually prevailed. A final date for hill to be put to death was set for past summer, july 19th. The method lethal injection. On the eve of his execution hills lawyers scrambled up the steps of the courthouse. Theyll trial a last tactic, a legal hale mary, demanding the state reveal what drugs it planned to use to kill him. Georgias stock of the lethal injection drug expired six months earlier. State officials refused to reveal what they planned to use. Georgia is not alone. States across the country are running out of key drugs used in executions. It is no fluke. The pipeline is running dry because of a londonbased antideath group called reprieve. They launched a campaign to stop european and americanauthorised manufacturers selling sodium thiopental and another leethal injection drug pentobarbital for executions. We worked with companies. They didnt know their drugs would be used in executions. They wanted to prevent that happening. Mayo fao, reprieves Deputy Director says the companies were afraid of the stigma associated with executions. Its an ethical, pr and commercial problem. By 2011 a Danish Company lundbeck and hospira haired in illinois decided to stop shipping the drugs to american prisons. State prison officials scrambled to obtain drugs from unapproved specialty pharmacies overseas. Nebraska was preparing for its first execution in decades. Inmate michael ryan was sentenced to die for a 1985 double murder. After 34 years of unsuccessful appeals, his execution date was march 6, 2012. At nebraska state penitentary prison officials were unable to require the drugs for the first scheduled execution after abolishing the electric share. The chief farmcyst tells us she was ordered to obtain it outside the country, meaning it would have been a violation of fda rules. Diane booker, who left her job in 2011 asked us not to show her face. What exactly did your boss ask you to do . Acquire sodium thiopental by any means possible. You took that to mean. Outside the United States, any country that would sell it to us. Because it was not legal here. The left manufacturer in the United States stopped making it yes. What was your response . If you can get it overseas, you cant use it, its not fda approved. You couldnt use it for an execution. The former top pharmacist at the prison said corrections officials ignored her suggestions and obtained the drug from india, without fda permission. Did they bypassour pharmacy to do it. Absolutely. Was it illegal . Yes, it was. Diane bookers she was fired after speaking out. Nebraska officials would not comment on her termination. Booker was vindicated by a federal court ruling in july finding sodium thiopental and other drugs must come from companies registered with the fda and be reviewed for safety. After the ruling nebraskas Supreme Court put a halt to pending executions. Nebraska and other states finding foreign sources drying up are scrambling for ways around the shortage. Missouri had planned to use a drug called propofol, the powerful anaesthetic that killed Michael Jackson for an execution later this month. That drug, used in surgery, has never been tried in an execution. Missouris governor ordered a stay, after Missouri Society of anaesthesiologists asked the state to reconsider, fearing the controversy could cause a shortage of propofol for medical purposes to save lives. Advocates of the Death Penalty aopponents of Capital Punishment are playing political games by focussing on lethal injunction drugs for political issues uch. People are putting pressure on pharmacies not to supply the drugs. Theres no good reason for them not to. Its a matter of people not agreeing to the law looking for ways to obstruct their enforcement. Some states like georgia are fighting back. The state tried to keep its plans secret. Lawyers for convicted killer warren hill argued the public would have no way of knowing how the state was executing prisoners, or if the lethal concoction was safe. This would be the first execution using a compounded pharmacyproduced dose of pentobarbital. It is not fda approved. Thats a new factor here. The prosecution scoffed at those safety concerns. They are alleging that their threatened harm is he could receive pentobarbital, it would cause him harm. We are talking about 5,000 milligrams of pentobarbital. 200 to 300 are used to put you under for, you know, surgery. 5,000 milligrams we are not talking about whether or not this person is going to wake up with an illness. We are talking about killing a person. So whether theres a contaminant in it, whether you could go into shock is irrelevant. Finally the prosecution released one document a heavily redacted lab report. But the states insistence on secrecy backfired. The court is aware. Judge gail tuson ruled that georgias attempt to make state secret on the drugs was an improper attempt to bypass the courts and ruled that warren hill would likely prevail with his claim that georgias secrecy law is unconstitutional. Hills lawyers celebrated a huge legal victory. It was a victory for reprieve. They plan to keep the pressure on by exposing the compound pharmacies states are turning to. Compound pharmacies dont adhere to standards that the Manufacturing Industry have to adhere to. You have a clear discrepancy in potential quality of the drugs you have. When it comes to Quality Control in terms of the ingredients and the process leading to an execution, if you make it secret. You are in grave danger of causing an execution that could be tortuous. That is unconstitutional, even in the u. S. For condemned inmates, including warren hill in georgia and michael ryan in nebraska, the campaign against Capital Punishment stalled their executions and forced prisons across the country to the edge, skirting the the law to carry out the ultimate punnicment. That report from correspondent chris bury. Following up in new york, deborah denn, a law professor at fordham university, and has written on the u. S. Lethal injection practices joins us. I appreciate you being with us. I want to talk about the misconceptions about the Death Penalty, and how it is applied. The kinds of drugs that are used, and how its administered even. Is it normally done by a physician . No, its not done by a physician. We dont know who is doing the executions. Typically it can be a volunteer in a prison. I did surveys showing that. We dont know. That is secret as well. The kinds of drugs used there is not a federally mandated mix, for example. Absolutely not. These are staterun agencies that are administering these drugs. Particularly in the case of florida, you mentioned previously that the mix is the sort of thing that americans might find shocking. Well, they might find it shocking on a number of levels. First of all, these are drugs that could not be used to oouthanise an animal. That would be cruel. These are drugs not used to kill anyone ever, and so they have no idea how this is going to affect the person, and number three, we dont know the people who will be applying these drugs what is their training, et cetera. Its a high risk procedure. There was a prosecutor in chriss report who raised that point though, that, you know, the attempt here is not to help a patient get well when these drugs are used. If the outcome is the same, does it matter what products you use. Absolutely, that prosecutor, assuming that people die when the drugs are injected into them, but we dont know that. Its a big unknown. When you have unskilled people injecting even a large supply of drugs, we have instances where a drug doesnt enter the system because they are leaking out of somebodys arm. Theres problems where we dont know that people get the drugs. I remember a time when the electric chair was part of the lexicon in terms of Death Penalty use. At the time lethal injection was introduced, that it was to be more humane. It was supposed to be more humane. From the getgo, lethal injection has been problematic. From the first execution. The problem was initially there was so much secrecy involved that attorneys couldnt get enough information to challenge. We are seeing the same secrecy now. Talk to us about the problem of states, local jurisdictions having to go abroad or to compounding pharmacies. Talk about the challenge here of making sure that you are getting what you intend to get. There has been a nationwide drug shortage in the United States generally. Adding to that challenges showing as the report says, 2011, 2010, that these manufacturers were being revealed, they dont want to sell the druction to the department of drugs to the department of corrections, and they cant go to europe because they are not fda approved. They are backed into a corner. The new strategy for them is to go to compounding pharmacies. They are problematic. There is no fda regulation of compounding pharmacies, and state regulations are highly variable. Theres little oversight. In addition to the fact that compounding pharmacies are not supposed to be making drugs for this particular purpose. They are supposed to be making drugs for people who have an individualised problem with a drug. In other words, an ingredient is missing or Something Like that. And they are doctor prescribed. Lets talk about a solution for the states. Is there a way for them to go forward. Whatever you think about the Death Penalty, theres someones obligation to carry out the instructions of the state. Its hard to know what states are going to do. This is the same story representing itself. Every time states try to use a new drug, there are high risks associated with the drugs. They are typically inmate problems with the drugs, and we see problems and executions. When the pharmacy is revealed, theres litigation in the pharmacy, and it ends up not wanting to provide that drug. Its gone over and over, repeating itself. We appreciate your coming in and giving your insight. Fordham University Law professor deborah denn. After the break some new signs of optimism. Will congress and the president rescue the government from defaulting on its debt. If not, what is the worse that can happen . We rain down the looming debt ceiling and get some definitions after this. Here in the Nations Capital the big question remains deal or no deal. The partial Government Shutdown is in week three. Thursday is the deadline to raise the borrowing limit. Senator republican and democrat leaders say they are close to a deal. Maybe, well see. Mike viqueira joins us with the latest. What is happening . Senate leaders are correct, they are close to a deal in the senate. Its the house that could stand in the way and take us part the default deadline this many economists, not to mention government officials at the white house warn could be catastrophic. Behind the scenes a lot of activity. If you were in the capital its an exciting place to be. Mobs of us followed mitch mcconnell, harry reid back and forth. They did a shuttle diplomacy. Democrats met with democrats, and republicans with democrats. Everywhere said the right thing, that they were close to a deal. Theres two main Points Funding the government through january 15th, raising the ceiling until mid february, when well have to go through the exercise again. It would take the country through the holidays and break a 3weekold deadlock. If it passes the senate and the house its a big if. The same divisions that brought us to the brink are still existing. If you look at what tea party republicans, conservatives, are saying in the hour, theres no guarantee that it will pass there. If republicans are not willing to set aside some of their party san concerns to do what is right for the country, we stand a chance of defaulting. Perhaps tomorrow will be a bright day. We are not there yet, we hope it will be. We saw president obama. He has a message policy that hes following. He went to marthas table, feeds the homeless, he went to business. People there were volunteering, furloughed government workers, pressing the point, trying to keep the pressure on as negotiations continue. So what goes on tonight . Is there more conversation tonight . This is the way washington works. Negotiations are a sensitive point. We learned that the president called the congressional leaders in the white house for a meeting. Almost as quickly the meeting was cancelled, not because there was an impasse or continuing imparks but they were making impasse, but they were making progress in the talks. They didnt want to blow the deal. Allimportant meetings between the house republicans, and senate republicans. Theyll go through the detail and see if it will fly. A delay on the group event, cumbiyah event. Is there an indication that the president will call leaders back . Today the problem was it was not soup yet. The president will call them back. A big danger i said this at the top is house republicans, and what will they do. The clock is ticking. The senate, if they have the votes, they can do anything. They dont have the votes right now. If you do the tick tabbing in the procedural rigger mar owl going into senate proceedings, it could take us past the thursday deadline, october 17th deadline, past the time the government can take the measures from possibility defaulting on the debt. Then the house is a separate question. We are by no means, as a nation, out of the woods yet when it comes to this crisis. Mike viqueira, our white house correspondent, staying up late with us. We need more education about the debt ceiling education, many of us have questions and confusion about the term and what it means to the economy is and us, our personal economies. Joining us is professor peter morici, economist at the smith school of business, to help us get through the answers. People toss the language around as though we understand it. We want to make it clear what we are talking about so all of us can get a bit of education on this. We have given you frequently asked questions the first one what is the debt ceiling . Its a statutory limit on the amount of u. S. Bonds that may be outstanding. Each year the government borrows money, adding to the debt. Theres a statutory limit as to how much that debt can be. We say deficit debt, they are not interchangeable terms. The deficit is how much is taken in each year. The debt is the accumulation of that over all years. Question number two theres a lot of misconinterpretation about this who holds this debt . I hear often people say the chinese hold all of our debt. Is that true . No, theres 17 billion in debt sorry, trillion in debt. About 5 trillion is held by the government, the Social Security trust fund, for example. The 12 trillion held by the public some by the chinese, japanese, a lot by foreign Central Banks because they back their currency with dollars. The rest investours mutual funds, money making funds, retirees. Its not simply. When you look at the graphic its sorted out in different ways than people expect. Theres no majority holder. Question number three is the debt going up. Absolutely. Theres a 750 billion deficit this year. The debt will go up by 750 billion. When we hear from the white house, this notion that the debt ceiling increase is to pay off debts that have been incurred, is that true or false. Not. The existing debt finances money spent that wasnt raised in taxes. The to raise the debt ceiling is necessary for the president to spend more than he takes in. If you dont raise it, it comes down to a balanced budget. The white house prefers not to put it in those terms, they dont want to say they are not interested in a balanced budget. Question number four who gets paid . That is a good question. People said, cant we decide to pay Veterans Benefits or Social Security . The government takes in 80 of the money it needs to cover expense, the rest is broaded. It comes down to what 80 of the 100 do you pay. We can pay the interest on the debt and not default. Its not mandatory that we default. Its 23 million on the debt held by the public. The rest will have to be apportioned out. It could come down to, if you like, paying everybody 0. 80 in the government. The Government Employees get four day as pay instead of five. Social security 85 . One way or another it will be spent. Can we set priorities. Absolutely. Unless priorities are set, they hold the money. He doesnt pay bills at all. In paying bills hes deciding or setting priorities. He said over and over i cant set priorities. Its nonsense, hell set priorities, hell take the money in and not spend at all. People say its a complex operation. I can do it for them, they dont want to. Ill do it for 1 a day. Its not hard. Jacob lieu is the chief Financial Officer of the United States. If he was the chief Financial Officer of g. E. Hed find a way. Maybe g. E. Could loan them a chief Financial Officer so we could have a competent treasury secretary. For him to say he cant prioritise is to say, im not up to the job. We heard from madam lagarde from the international montry fund a lot of serve. What is the global fall out going to be if we dont meet the debt . Jacob lieu can pay the interest and use scare tactics to shake down the house. If they get up thursday and friday morning and say guess what, we have a backup plan. This is how we are going to see that the debt doesnt default. If people make the interest payments, as they roll over existing bonds it will calm markets. If they do Something Like im afraid barack obama is going do, that is everybody gets 80 , ill pay 80 of the interest well be in default. At this point the bond holders around the world, the Central Banks, chinese what have you lose confident, will demand higher interest and the structure of debt around the world collapses because everything it indexed off the u. S. Debt. Its considered to be trouble free, risk proof. All other bonds are set against the u. S. Debt. They pay more interest. Certainly a lot to learn in the whole thing. We should go back to your class and study. Thank you very much professor peter morici from the university of maryland, with us. Coming up here on america the government shut down departmenting local governments coast to coast, but particularly here in the Nations Capital. How are we facing it . Well break out the local government situation and the shutdown coming up next. Snoop welcome back. We turn back to the partial Government Shutdown. It can be argued that the District Of Columbia has been harder hit than other u. S. Cities. Due to an 1870 law, the antideficiency act, dcs budget is subject to congress. Locally raised tax dollars koog be spent with the approval of capital hill. Dc mayor claims hospitals are affected and a multimillion payment to the transit service. Vincent orange is in our studio. Explain this to us. A lot of people around the country have trouble understanding how the dc budget is related to the federal government. I know your experience is in finance, you are a cpa and a lawyer. Help us to understand what this means. Its relatively simple. The District Of Columbia generates 7 billion, its our money. Tax receipts. Yes. Collection of revenue. It comes from dc residents that pay taxes. Now, imagine you have 7 billion this your pocket, your money, but you cant spend it. Its our money. We made the money. We cant spend it until Congress Approves the budget. Its like every other city in america, every other state. They are able to control the funds. Thats the reason why last year the citizens of the District Of Columbia passed a law called budget economy giving us control to spend our dollars and we would not be subject to the federal budget process. We are caught up in something we have no control of. What makes it hurtful is that we dont have a person in the heptives. We dont have house of representatives. We dont have two senators advocating on our behalf. We are on the sidelines, yet we have 7 billion in our pocket. We can pay our bills and take care of the citizens in the District Of Columbia and provide the federal government some services. We do have nonvoting members. They have nothing to trade. We have no representation in the senate. Although we provide 21 billion in federal tax revenues to the federal government, we are larger than wyoming and ver month, we pay more taxes than 19 other states, we do not have a full voice in congress. We are held captive, on the sidelines while they are working out the issues. How tourists might see this in the district is interesting. We noticed in the last few days after the president s suggestion that some states in new york ponied up money so the statue of liberty could be reopened. Utah hoped up money to the federal government, so its National Parks could be opened up. In the district you dont have the authority to do that . We dont have the authority to do that. We are disappointed right now with the entire process, because there was a resolution to provide the District Of Columbia the opportunity to spend our money, yet its caught up in the political debate. Unfortunately majority leader reid and president of the United States, president obama did not agree to that resolution being passed, which would free us from the federal shut down. With us being democrats and those being the democratic leaders, we are hurt by that. Mayor gray was right, to stand up and advocate on behalf of the 630,000 citizens in the district to say, that is our money. How much does it cost to run the sydney. 20 million a day. What is paying for that . I dont see garbage piling up. We have a rainy day fund. We had about 140 million that we are utilising now, and there may be additional funds. Emergency funds will come to an end and well be back to the dollars we have them, but they havent been aprop rited and if we spend well be in violation of federal law. Bills will be paid that are due tomorrow, out of the emergency fund. Thats correct. We are holding payments to the medicaid providers, we are not issuing tax refunds, and have not made payments to the metro. We have to be selective in what we pay. Theres a limited amount of dollars available from the doing si fund. Its an emergency fund. This fund was not designed to run the entire government, and make all the payments. We are doing making those payments necessary to keep the government afloat. At the soiment. You made decision, what about child care. Metro, medicaid, tax refund issues. If you hit the lottery today you cant get paid until we get our allotment of dollars, aappropriated dollars. The mayor said all my employees are essential, thats what keeps things moving. The mayor indicated we are essential employees. We are not going down that path at the moment. That would be a different avenue. Central employees, we can spend our dollars, but we are not sure that we are on safe ground with that particular position. Right now we are spending our contingency funds, which has nothing to do with the definition of what is essential. We say it is an emergency, something that does not happen. How many days . Maybe a week. Everything will come to a head unless the federal government gets their act together. Im told that we are on the verge of a break through. We heard that. That the democrats and republicans are talking and the white house, hopefully theyll dom to a solution come to a solution. We want everyone to know that the District Of Columbia is not a federal agency, we are not a National Parks service, we are the District Of Columbia, we want the right to spend our money. A lot of people say the problems in the city come from outside. Absolutely. The District Of Columbia are doing well financially. I appreciate you being with us. Dc Council Member Vincent Orange with us tonight. Coming up Energy Independence but at what cost. Well talk about that. Ill visit with one Pennsylvania Community that has been split over fracking and its effects. Thats next. A new word barely heard about by the Energy Industry a decade ago is wellknown. Fracking. It mixes water and chemicals to fracture rock and force out natural gas and oil. Fracking allows Energy Companies to get at immense natural gas deposits in the United States, sparking a drilling boom. Natural Gas Companies point out it is cleaner burning fuels and abundant domestically. We wanted to understand the impacts on community. I travelled to Greene County, to consider a place rich in reserves and full of worry about the future. Cattle graze on a mix of grasses and greens. Here on sandra browns farm in Greene County, in the southwestern corner of pennsylvania. Brown says its a great time to be selling organic beef. Theres much more demand than i can supply. You might wonder why shes put her farm on the market. How much is it up for sale for . 449. Thats a 3800 square foot house, b b and 45 acres, a pond, a wood barn i mean, so, its a beautiful place. But brown is selling because she worries it wont stay a beautiful place. Her farm is sandwiched between a proposed coal operation and natural gas drilling. Greene countys lush hills can feel a wealth of energyriches below, a confluence of appalachian coal and an enormous gas reserve called the marcellus shale. You are getting it from both sides. Yes, the coal mining is going down there and the fracking is going on up there. Down the road from browns farm a community has disappeared the village of holbrook. The homes brought by a coal company stand vacant to make way for a longhaul coal mine. It empanels a quarter mile wide and a mile long. Half a mile away, tucked at the end of a dirt road on the far side of a corrigated steel tunnel is the childs family home, directly over the proposed coal mine. They call it hummingbird hollow. Photographer terry childs lives here with his mum, among the last holdouts in the area, waiting on the front porch as Development Moves ever closer. That Little Village used to be holbrook. It was a typy town, you know tiny town, you know, i had 20 or 30 friends. There was a couple of of stores, a post office. Now theres nothing. Its a ghost town. Pretty much. Towns and villages are disappearing. I love the outdoors, and the land. To know that its being destroyed its going to be destroyed. Greene countys energy boom has already changed the landscape. Here is a longwall mine outside waynes burg, the county seat. Natural gas Drilling Operations dot the hilltops. Pipelines cut across the rolling terrain. And the trucks hauling fresh water, waste water, and heavy equipment. Everywhere signs of change. Even as Greene Countys population is declining, employment is up. As Companies Continue to buy up land to make way for more mining. Greene county commissioner chuck morris. They are upset. It is the home they built. Theres memories and stuff there. At the same time they are compensated well enough to find a good place to live relatively nearby. I have seen so many neighbours go through the agony of this because they didnt want to leave. But they cant really stay and fight. I mean, if they dont have the moo means, the lawyers on retainer that the Big Companies have. They sell. This is a map of the underground. Greene county Officials Say they dont know how many homes are vacant or have been torn down. The website citydata. Com says that there are almost 500 fewer owneroccupied homes or condos in 2010, compared to a decade earlier. During that time Greene County home owners saw their Property Values increase. On everything, up 50 . A profit that is hard to resist. But most surface openers, as they are known, do not own the mineral rights beneath their properties. For those that do, gas rights can be worth 3,000 an acre or more. Plus royalties. Terry childs tries to capture the changes all around him. He took these pictures over a few months, showing a natural gas well going in near his home. You can see how they level the top of the hill, then the first of the rig comes in, drilling. Its a process going on across Greene County. This map shows marcellus shale in the country from 2006. Theres plenty of Hometown Pride in Greene County. And no shortage of cheer leaders for what is known as the marcellus shale play. A penn state surface in marcellus shale county found supporters of gas extraction outnumbered opponents 2 1. A some changes for everyone. The stimulation to the economy is phenomenal. Half of those surveyed expect the drilling will damage the environment. I think that some people are making a lot of money, but i think in the long run it will hurt the environment than what its worth to the community. A few years ago this was a man made lake in ryerson state park, up the road from sandra browns farm. It had to be drained when mining made the ground unstable. Consol energy promised to spend 36 million to restore the lake in return for the right to drill for gas beneath the park. Sandra brown tests her own water, worried about contamination from the fracking operation uphill. Part of the thing we do is to say the goal is to return the land better than when we got it. The extraction stuff is take it and run. I dont know how long you can keep doing that. Commissioner chuck morris says the extraction stuff is a matter of supply and demand. We have an asset, you know. We have coal. The same with marcellus shale gas. It provides employment, good incomes so that people can live in nice homes, buy nice things. While doing that, provide resource to the other parts of the country. That doesnt seem like a bad thing to me. Its very short sited. If people dont think that will not bite them in the arse. They are sorely mistaken. Working towards Energy Independence, and perhaps paying the price down the road. During our visit to Greene County we heard a phrase i had not encountered before. Sacrifice zone. The thinking is Greene County is so rich in energy wealth, gas and oil, that a handful of residents will stick around, the rest will move off and let the valuable fuel power the rest of the nations needs. Well condition our series fracking boom and head to Lone Star State where everything is said to be bigger, but does that mean better when this comes to fracking . Well get more of that report from sheila on tomorrow Nights Program on america tonight. Well take a break and return soon. Nearly two million muslims gathered to play on mt arafat marking the beginning of handling. Al jazeeras correspondent joins the people on their journey. This is the mount of mercy, its been the focal point of arafat, where pilgrims spend the day in prayer and contemplation. For muslims arafat is a reminder of the day of judgment when they believe theyll stand on a plain similar to this for a final judgment. This is why arafat is considered the highlight of handling. Wherever you go here, you will see people invoking god and seeking forgiveness. This man came from the u. S. Of jewish ancestry, raised a christian, he converted to islam two years ago. All pilgrims here wear the simple white dress, all markers of social status disappearing. A friend of mine who started learning about islam was not herself a muslim, but started teaching me things. I started with that. Then my heart opened more and more. He hopes once he gets home, hell try to convince family and friends he made the right choice. My family has concerns and issues. They recognise that i have a deep connection with god, with the one god and believe that people have no idea what islam is. Originally from texas he lives in california. His biggest challenge is the changed misconceptions in america about islam. Its unfortunate that the media in the states has portrayedi islam as it is. Theres no connection between terrorism and islam. As the day draws to an end many continue their prayers in the spot where millions say prove et mohammed delivered his last surman. He hopes to visit more countries and discover the true meaning of islam. That report from al jazeeras correspondent. Finally well take a look at war photography. Theres a new exhibit taking visitors on a journey through two senturies of Armed Conflict what do the photos leave out and what is their ultimate purpose. The exhibition describes the relationship between this subject war, and the role of photography in communicating about what happens during the war time. Its a story of 185 years of history of from the mexicanamerican war to the present day. How important or critically important the photograph is in crystallising moments that may not be seen by people who never experience war at first hand. Im louie palu, a photo journalist. I spent up to five years in kandahar, afghanistan, covering the war there. I think that photos are kind of like a doubleedged sword, right. On one hand you can engage with the critical crucial topic and not be traumatised relative to being there with the photographs of war. Really, the two key things that i realise that are missing from a photograph are the true experience of combat. Number one, is smell. The smell of death, and the sound of war, the screaming, holerring, gunfire, explosions. Im trying to give an entry point for people to learn. If you just traumatise people, it negates that. Photography to a great extent by defining events and a single image runs the risk of oversimplifying something that actually has origins that cannot be contained in the image. Joe rosenthals photograph for the Associated Press of the raising of the American Flag on mt. Suribachi is a fascinating story. It became an important image for the u. S. Military to shore up american support for the war effort which was flagging at the time. Whats often not told is the story of the men who raised the flag, and who through no intention of their own, became symbols of american triumph. Several of them, the ones that survived were taken off the island, came back to the United States and were forced to march around the country being symbols of american history. What bothered me about the photograph, as much as i think it is important i dont know who any of marines are raising the flag. I thought, who are the guys . Are they anonymous gis. I want to know their names, where they are from. When they might have been killed, who did they do back to. The photograph we chose to be the signature image in washington is a portrait of a marine sergeant by louie palu. Its a simply port rate. A view may overlook it. But if you look closely what you viewer sees is the experience of war in a single expression. The portrait shows a soldier who returned from patrol. The marine is exhausted, has sweat and dirt caked on his face, and his eyes look vaguely haunted. In a single glance louie palu summed up the seriousness of war, what it is, more generally speaking for generations of young soldiers who go into combat. I felt like i wanted to engage personally and psychologically with the people i was photographing. I had been toying with portraits, i wanted photographs that look at you, and that you confronted looking at them. There are many photographs of war that have been forgotten because they are too visually pleasing. On the other hand, images that resonate that last over time, that stay in our minds are perfectly composed. They have elements of what we regard as beauty. Our eyes are drawn in. Even though it might show something horrifying, if it shows it in a distinctive, unusual and beautiful way, it can have a greater hold on our imagination. No single image will change the reality that war happens. On the other hand, what we found is that the presence of images that show events otherwise unknown, otherwise unrecorded and undepicted can change how wars unfold. You never know when, but at some point an amazing symbolic image will be made. We often assume that photography lost its unique power in the age of video, but we have found again and again over the last century is that photography retains the special power. Some incredible images there. That exhibit was at the Brooklyn Museum starting november 8th. A reminder to viewers. On tuesday, well continue our series on the fracking view. Well go to west texas, home to one of the largest oil and zas producing areas. Well show how the boom could make some towns go bust when it comes to order. If you want to comment on any sto stories log on to the website aljazeera. Com americatonight. Tell us about what you have seen and what youd like to see. Join the conversation on facebook or twitter. Thanks, have a good night. The president is not letting we have already had a damaging effect on our country because of the touchdown. That damage would be greatly magnified if we dont make sure the government pays its bills and that has to be decide third degree week. As i said the president is not letting the newfound feeling of by part an ship stop him from keeping Pressure Congress to get ideal done before thursdays debt ceiling deadline. An alleged al qaeda figure suspected in taking part of the 1998 bombings of u. S. Embassies in south africa will physicia fe