Nsa surveillance continue. The Senate Intelligence hearing, top spies were grilled over overreach of americansdata. The sights and sounds of that hearing later in the show. It is friday, september 20 seven, 5 00 p. M. In washington, d. C. And youre watching rt. We start with a historic conversation between president obama and the iranian president. The white house confirmed the two men spoke with each other over the phone about the nuclear deal. This marks the first time a u. S. President and an iranian leader have spoken in more than 30 years. The president addressed the significance of this call. The very fact that this was the first to medication between an american and iranian president since 1979 underscores the deep mistrust between our countries but it indicates the prospect of moving beyond that difficult history. At the u. N. In new york city, it has been a busy week for the General Assembly. The diplomats labors are starting to bear fruit. Thursday evening we learned the five permanent members have agreed to a draft resolution put forward by the u. S. And russia that compels syria to give up its chemical weapons stockpiles. An official vote may come as soon as this evening. Throughout these negotiations the main point of contention centered on Chapter Seven measures which allow for military and nonmilitary actions. Three of the five members of the Security Council of the u. S. , france, and the u. K. Wanted a resolution to contain Chapter Seven measures as punishment if syria fails to hand over its chemical weapons. The other permanent members, russia and china opposed any Chapter Seven measures. The agreedupon draft resolution does not contain any Chapter Seven measures meaning that if syria does not comply, the u. N. Will have to pass a second measure to approve any military or nonmilitary action flick strikes or sanctions. Where do things go from here . Our correspondent has been covering the General Assembly all week. We are now expecting it to be voted on shortly. What led to it am a what is the timeline, and what happens next . This resolution is seen as a diplomatic rate through because for weeks if not days, if not months, the u. S. And russia were in a deadlock in terms of how to proceed when it comes to syria because of the u. S. Insistence that the use of force should be included in the Security Council resolution whereas russia was against the idea and with this latest breakthrough that happened on thursday, we now are expecting the Security Council to vote on this later this evening. It will not include the clause of use of force, something that is seen in the major as a major development. This is something that the u. S. Was pushing strongly for. Where we stand as after this resolution is voted on by the Security Council, we will be looking forward to a geneva conference were all parties involved and negotiators will try to proceed with a political transition taking place in syria in a peaceful diplomatic manner hoping that all sides will be able to negotiate this process calmly and politically. In terms of the timeline how much is going to will it take to serve this crisis is a huge question that remains but where going to have to wait and see. This is definitely a Big Development because countries have been butting heads over this for very long time. You spoke exclusively with the syrian foreign minister today. How is syria planning to carry out what they have signed up to in terms of the chemical weapons being put under International Control western mark all this is being done under a tight watch of experts from the u. N. And the International Community being the key negotiators that came up with this agreement, namely russia and the u. S. We do know that speaking with the syrian foreign minister today, he did tell us that the Syrian Government is happy to do this but they are concerned that terrorist groups being supplied support from the outside from neighboring countries would get in the way of this to try to hinder this operation. Take a listen to what he told us. Under the existing circumstances of war on the ground ongoing, how much in control is the Syrian Government of their chemical arsenal . We control the chemical arsenal. We are worried that the terrorist group also has chemical weapons. They want to use it to show the west that syria is not committed to its commitments. We also discussed with the syrian foreign minister whether or not the threats and the u. S. That were coming earlier or something that what kind of impact this had on the decision to hand over these chemical weapons. Listen to our conversation about that. When syria does hand over its chemical weapons, do you think there is still a possibility of a threat from the west that would remain . Always the threat from the west is remaining. But before they are using this threat indirectly [inaudible] we take in our account that any country which is not yielding to the american will or russia, it is under a threat. Why do you think there is so much doubt in the west the Syrian Government will comply with what is agreed with handing over these weapons . There is antisyrian [inaudible] even before starting to execute our obligation they started to put doubts. You heard that there is some kind of the believes there is some kind of antisyrian plan. This is the more official position. He believes the timeline in solving the syrian situation depends on the amount of outside impact and outside support that the opposition has been getting on the ground. Rt has been covering the town of mulula. Did the syrian foreign minister have anything to say about this town . It is 40 miles away from damascus where they have a very large christian population. Christians were targeted by the rebels. We did ask the syrian foreign minister the situation is today and whether or not this place in particular is being held by the government. This is what he told us. They are trying to find ways [indiscernible] theyre doing massacres against the christians. Our army is defending them. The situation on the ground remains extremely complicated but there are hopes that with these diplomate develop mens here, should the International Committee be a step closer to finding the local situation they are looking for on the ground. Also we have seen the iranian president every day talking with reporters or speaking. We have this phone call between him and the president president. What this means is there ran iran seems to be an issue. A major change of tone. This happened, the first dialogue between these two president s in over three decades. Certainly with the new iranian president he has had lots of face time in new york city. He has had plenty of meetings, plenty of media appearances where he has been his address to the new United Nations the United Nations, we have been ready to communicate and we want to get rid of all concerns about our uranian uranium enrichment program. The previous iranian president s fiery personality [inaudible] it seems like it is helping. He said iran will propose a solution to the five members of the council. We might see some breakthroughs in october as well. With the u. N. General Assembly Still in full swing new york city is playing host to the worlds diplomats. What does it take to be a representative of america to the rest of the world . To get one of those ambassadorships. The answer, a lot of cash. Last week president obama announced his pick for the highly coveted spot of u. S. Ambassador to canada. His name is bruce heyman and if confirmed he will be joining the administration not as a career politician or a Foreign Service officer but a career investment banker. He is a golden Goldman Sachs investor making his money as a managing director for the private Wealth Management group. What kinds of qualifications does he have that merits the top dip the medic spot . According to canadian newspapers, he has done trade in canada. With the country being his regional focus. There is one other small qualification that is important to note. He has been one of obamas top bundlers are fundraisers for his president ial campaigns. Both bruce heyman and his wife started giving to obama in 2007 and even hosted a fundraiser in their home that year. During the 2012 campaign they took it one step further by serving on obamas National Finance committee. Together they collect it and contributed 1. 7 million to th. As a thank you for that support he got an ambassadorship. According to a bloomberg report released this summer, these donor turned ambassador appointments are becoming Standard Practice in washington. While obama once pledged that he would not let money rule his administration, a review of his appointees five years into his presidency shows that the big donors are landing the top overseas assignments. In fact since obama entered his second term, posted in italy, belgium, spain, and the u. K. Have all gone to top haying supporters. At least 26 of his current and nominated ambassadors were major contributors giving at least 13 point 6 million to the president , the democratic party, and congressional candidates. White house spokesman josh earnest has defended these picks saying obama chose some distinguished americans to represent our country and foreign capitals. None of them were chosen because they supported the campaign and none of them should have been ruled out just because they did. It is not only the donor that is seemingly getting a return favor. It is the president as well. Not surprisingly these donor ambassadors happen to also be some of the wealthiest ambassadors and according to bloomberg matteucci keep their top spots there continuing to donate the big bucks. Internal financial documents show that these ambassadors have contributed around 21. 6 million. While the practice of assigning Campaign Supporters to diplomatic posts is not unique to this presidency, obamas quick implementation of this tradition has disappointed state department veterans. In a statement, the american Foreign Service association said, now is the time to end this oil system and the de facto threeyear rental of ambassadorships. The appointment of noncareer individuals however accomplished to lead americas most important dramatic asians abroad should be exceptional and circumscribed, not the routine practice it has become over the last three decades. It does not appear that president obama will be heeding that advice anytime soon. While the majority of appointees still come from the Foreign Service, big donors are next in line to take those top spots. Nerves are beginning to fray as the Government Shutdown creeps closer. On thursday republican senator bob corker took to the senate floor and criticized his colleagues for grandstanding and delaying the votes necessary to avert a Government Shutdown. I was over at the house and talk to numbers of the leadership there. They would like to get the piece of legislation from the senate over there as quickly as possible so they could respond but it is my understanding again relative to this vote tonight happening tomorrow instead, is that my two colleagues who i respect have sent out emails around the world and turned this into a show possibly and therefore they want people around the world to watch may be them and others on the senate floor and that is taking priority over getting legislation that to the house so they can take action before the countrys government shuts down. Ultimately they lost this battle and the Senate Passed its plan to keep the government funded. Unlike the house plan passed last week it heaps obamacare funded as well. It is up to House Republicans to make a choice and they have until monday night to make it. They can cave on obamacare and except the spending bill and keep the government open although doing so would speed would damage john raynors credibility in his party. Or House Republicans can tell the senate now, stand firm on obamacare and plunge the government into shutdown. Given the time constraints and vote breakdowns, this is the most likely scenario. If you plan it to visit the National Park next week it is probably best to consider reconsider those plans. There will be another huge political fight with Enormous Economic implications just a few weeks later. Between the treasury says it will no longer be able to pay its bills until the debt limit is raised. Republicans in Congress Want concessions to any increase. Concessions like a oneyear delay to obamacare. And automatic approval of the keystone xl pipeline and a rollback of epa regulations. President obama said they will not happen. We see it we could see a repeat of the debt limit fight when markets tumbled and the america was downgraded. We know that the shutdown in 1995 and 1996 cost the government over 1 billion and so did the delegate fight in 2011. I spoke earlier with peter schiff, the ceo and chief globals dreaded just at euro pacific capital. I asked him why deficit hawks are threatening such costly consequences in their efforts to reduce the deficit. The real consequence, the real cost is raising the debt limit. Think of how many times we have raised the debt limit over the years and think of all the Additional Debt that has been piled onto the u. S. Economy that u. S. Citizens are responsible for repaying. That is what i am concerned about. It is the cost of the added debt and i would much rather see a nonincrease in the debt ceiling even if it means we have some temporarily temporary losses associated with some partial; shutdown. That kind of pain is greater than the pain we will have to endure because we raised the debt ceiling repeatedly. It is estimated that i have to percent point increase that could stem from a default would cost about 75 billion a year. That means higher erring costs for homeowners, five car buyers, you name it. I get that we need this chicago boy shock treatment but there are millions who could be put into financial ruin. Interest rates will go up eventually. The more debt we pile on now, the more we increase the debt ceiling today, the higher Interest Rates are going to go tomorrow. You have the president framing it for political reasons but he says we need to raise the debt ceiling because america always pays its bills. No. We have to raise the debt ceiling because we never pay our bills. We cannot afford to pay our bills. Instead we want to raise the debt ceiling so we can borrow more money instead of paying our bills. The threat is if we do not raise the debt ceiling in the world will realize how broke we are because if we cannot borrow more money, then we have to default. That day of reckoning is coming eventually anyway and the longer we put it off, the worse it is going to be so lets do with it now. Doesnt this come down to austerity, though . You want to reduce the debt, the president has since he took office has reduced the deficit faster than any rate in 63 years. Those are the facts. In 2012 it is seven percent. It has not declined at fastin 63 years. If you want to spin it that way you can make lemonade out of lemons. If the kid was getting fs all the time and then he brought home a d and that is a huge improvement from where i was, wait until you see how bad it will get in this economic downturn. I think the improvement in the deficit is related to the artificial recovery that has been generated by the qa qe. We will go act a recession if the fed begins to taper. If we do not we are rolling over. We saw the government having to bail out one point 5 billion for the fha for some of those mortgage losses. They will add up and they only the fha but fannie and freddie again. As the economies turned south and Interest Rates rise, the temporary improvement in the budget deficit will turn around and we are going to look at annual budget deficits north of 1 trillion treat we could be looking at deficits on the order of one point five dollars trillion 1. 5 trillion dollars to two 2 trillion. Theres an opportunity for investors to make a lot of money whenever that happens with a market downturn. Do you see any personal gain or in letting the markets tumble as a result of a debt limit rake through . They are not going to unfortunately they will raise the debt ceiling. This is all theater. This is political theater. The politicians want to get the American Public to believe that the worst thing that can happen is that the government stop are owing and stop spending. Theyre going to create a phony crisis and they will save us from it. The borrowing and the continuous raising of the debt ceiling. Why dont these politicians just put up a bill to eliminate the debt ceiling, what is the purpose of having a debt ceiling if we raise it every time we get to it as nobody wants to vote to eliminate the debt ceiling because they want to pretend they care about the debt but Everyone Wants and increase. If you want to look at the markets if the markets are selling off on the false crisis that we might not increase the debt ceiling, there is opportunities because we now theyre going to increase the debt ceiling but ultimately, the biggest crisis does not come because we failed to raise the debt ceiling but because we do raise it and we repeatedly raise it and that is why the country is rogue. There is some talk about getting rid of the debt limit. Even if the president were to use the 14th amendment solution as Speaker Nancy Pelosi has suggested he do. That would by default get rid of the debt limit. About a month ago a baby panda was born at the national zoo. We are in these critical 100 days and we did not even name the panda. It would cut the time and risk the panda. Have you no heart . The government has the money they collect in taxes which is still over 2 trillion year. I am sure somewhere out of that revenue they can find enough money to keep this can do alive. What i would like to see the government do is get rid of all the programs and the spending that are not necessary and deal with the entitlements. They can cut government spending. The government does not have to shut down. The cost of operating the government including the zoo where that panda is is tiny. It is a small part of the budget. Most of what the government does, it takes money from some people and gives it to other people who did not earn it and generally does not belong so if they cannot keep borrowing money than the redistribution of wealth has to stop and those parts of government can be wound down but the essential Government Services that we all appreciate and that we pay our taxes to get, they are not going to have to be interrupted. It is the government that chooses to highlight the few things that government does that we want to try to protect all the things that government does that we do not want and we do not need. It is all about prioritizing those payments for the baby panda probably ahead of food stamps and stuff. Thank you. On thursday the nations top spies, the director of National Intelligence and Keith Alexander testified in front of the Senate Intelligence committee. They were met by one of the harshest critics of the nsas activities, senator ron wyden who wanted to know if they were tracking americans through their cell phone data. You and i and a dozen senators have asked in the past whether the nsa has ever collected or made any plans to collect americans cell site information in bulk. You might remember when senator wyden asked a direct question about spying. Does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans . No, sir. It does not. Not wittingly. It was later revealed by Edward Snowden possibly text that clapper was lnd senator wydededen knew that. Here is another direct question. The nsa has learned its lesson because here was general alexander being very careful with his answer. On july 25, director clapper provided an unclassified written response as well as a classified supplement with additional detail. Allow me to reaffirm what was stated in that unclassified response. Under section 215, an essay is not receiving cell site location data and has no current plans to do so. I think we are familiar with it. That is not the question i am asking. I am asking, has the nsa ever collected or ever made any plans to collect americans cell site information. We have not gotten the answer. In a public setting the nsa has told senator ron wyden and the rest of us something specific, that they are not currently tracking americans cell site location data under section 215 but in a classified setting the nsa could have told senator wyden Something Else about tracking different. Wyden may be desperately getting the nsa to repeat it in a public setting but alexander will not take the bait. What i do not want to do is put out an ad on classified for them anything that is classified. General, if youre responding to my question by not answering it because you think that is a classified matter, that is certainly your right. We will continue to export that because i believe this is something the American People have a right to know whether the nsa has ever collected or made plans to click collect cell site information. If you have a detention paid attention, you can reason that senator wyden is warning the American People that the nsa is collecting information. W we just have to wait for Edward Snowden to confirm it. This affirmation was contained in a letter by george ellard. The nsas office of Inspector General that on the subjects en trance, he cleared six addresses email addresses billing to a former girlfriend. Hollywood tells us dating us by his cool. Did the nsa tells us not so much. You can follow me on twitter. We will see you back here at 8 p. M. Thanks for watching. Welcome to nhk. Im in tokyo. U. S. President barack obama said hes spoken by phone with his iranian counterpart. They had the first conversation between american and iranian leaders in more than 30 years. Just now i spoke othe phone with president of the Islamic Republic of iran. The two of us discussed our ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Irans Nuclear program. Obama said he promised his country would not develop nuclear