Ifill plus, a traditional ally puts the u. S. On notice, as saudi arabia criticizes the Obama Administration for failing to intervene in syria. Those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. United healthcare online at uhc. Com. The william and flora hewlett foundation, working to solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the latest look at the u. S. Economy raised new concerns today. The Labor Department reported employers added a net of 148 thousand jobs september, well below expectations. The Unemployment Rate did drop a tenth of a point to 7. 2 , as more people stopped looking for work. Paul solman takes a closer look at whats behind the numbers, later in the program. The jobs report helped wall street gain some ground. Stocks rose on hopes that the Federal Reserve will continue economic stimulus efforts. The Dow Jones Industrial average added 75 points to close at 15,467. The nasdaq rose nine points to close at 3929. The s p 500 closed at a record high for the fourth straight session. A pair of human Rights Groups zeroed in today on attacks by unmanned u. S. Drones and civilian casualties. Amnesty international and Human Rights Watch focused on drone strikes in pakistan and yemen. They said the resulting civilian deaths may be tantamount to war crimes in some cases. Well explore the issue in detail, right after the news summary. Efforts to begin peace talks in the Syrian Civil War have run into a roadblock. The Westernbacked Syrian National Coalition laid down several conditions today. Its leader said president Bashar Alassad must be excluded from any new government and hardline islamist rebels must be kept out of peace talks. In turn, secretary of state john kerry advised caution. Woodruff kerry said hes still optimistic that the Rebel Coalition will agree to take part in talks with the assad regime, starting in late november. The oil kingdom of brunei will soon be under islamic criminal law. The ruling sultan announced today that enforcement of the sharia penal code will begin in six months. Penalties include amputations for convicted thieves and stoning for those who commit adultery. Brunei already bans the sale of alcohol and evangelism by other religions. In australia, firefighters made more progress today thanks to cooler temperatures and light rain. 60 wildfires were still burning in New South Wales on the outskirts of sydney. Officials said crews deliberately merged two massive fires, hoping to corral them before the winds and heat get worse again. The latest predictions are indicating that we may have made a significant inroad into just how far these fires are likely to advance over the next 24 and 48 hours. I just dont know how far theyre going to run yet, but none of us know how far theyre going to run yet. But what we do snow that together we have done everything we can to limit just how far those fires run. Woodruff so far, one person has died in the fires, and at least 208 homes have been destroyed. Facebook announced today its working on new ways to warn users about graphic violence on its site. The social media giant issued the statement after an uproar over videos that show beheadings. Facebook banned such videos in may, but recently lifted the prohibition. About one billion people worldwide use facebook. Commuters in the San Francisco bay area are getting back to normal, after a fourday rail strike ended. The Bay Area RapidTransit System, bart, began operating again this morning. That was welcome news for thousands of people whod been forced to find other ways to work. Relief came last night when leaders from the Transit System and its unions struck a deal. Woodruff the talks between this offer is more than we wanted to pay but silt also a new path in terms of our partnership with our workers and helps us to deliver the bart service for the future. We will go back to work and continue our efforts to keep the bay area moving. We did not want to strike and were glad to have a tentative agreement that we feel will work for all parties. Woodruff the talks between bart and the unions lasted six months, and also included an earlier strike, back in july. The u. S. Internal Revenue Service paid out more than 110 billion in tax credits over the past decade to people who didnt qualify. The agencys Inspector General reported today the payments were earned income tax credits intended for the working poor. But, he found, onefifth of all such payments were made in error. He blamed both dishonest tax preparers and the complexity of the tax credit. Also ahead on the newshour, a deeper look at claims u. S. Drones killed civilians; the anemic employment picture; the future of the Republican Party; rising tensions with saudi arabia over syria; hunting a nightmare bacteria; and jonathan leethem discuses his latest novel. Ifill now, we return to two Human Rights Group reports that target u. S. Strikes abroad. Even the names attached to the unmanned planes known as drones are fearsome. Predators. Operated remotefully skies high above their targets drones have become a critical tool in the u. S. War on al qaeda. This is especially flew the North Waziristan region of pakistan which lies along its border with afghanistan. There, in this village, Amnesty International says a 68yearold man was killed a year ago as he harvested vegetables. The family said he was targeted by two hellfire missiles fired by an invisible drone. According to amnesty, its one of many such incidents. Weve researched as much as we can nine cases out of the 45 that we identified between january, twelve, and august, 2013. We tried our very hardest to stick to the facts. We tried to cob trait information we gathered and to analyze it against satellite imagery, photographs, video, and other sources. The most challenging situation we had to face was the complete and utter secrecy of the u. S. Authorities. Ifill Amnesty International says the pakistani government and nongovernmental organizations on the ground estimate there have been nearly 350 drone strikes in pakistan since 2004. Critics argue president obama has failed to make good on his promise to limit strikes that result in unintentional casualties. He said this in may. And before any strike is taken there must be near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured. The highest standard we can set. Fill till the drone strikes have sparked protest in pakistan and in yemen where Human Rights Watch carried out its own investigation reporting that dozens of civilians were killed by u. S. Strikes. Many yemenis told us they now fear the United States more than they fear al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. These strikes are also stoking anger in the villages where people are hit every man, woman and child has seen images of charred bodies, of body parts, of vehicles that are turned into twisted masses. Reporter the groups contend the killings may amount to war crimes but at the white house today spokesman jay carney rejected any such conclusion. To the extent these reports claim the u. S. Has acted contrary to International Law we would strongly disagree. The administration has repeatedly emphasized the extraordinary care we take to make sure counterterrorism actions are in accordance with all applicable laws. Ifill pakistani Prime Minister that what sharif, now visiting washington, is expected to pursue the drone issue when he meets with president obama tomorrow. Joining me now to discuss drone attacks overseas are Mustafa Qadri, the author of the Amnesty International report. And retired Major General charles dunlap, director of the center on law, ethics and National Security at duke university. I want to start with you, Mustafa Qadri by asking how do you quantify strikes the u. S. Wont confirm. Thats a really good question. The problem is, this is a region which is so remote, so lawless and a program thats so secretive that even finding the details of nine strikes out of 47 inform the last 18 months is very difficult. So even just getting information about a couple of strikes is a great achievement. Ifill how did you it . Basically we have a developed team, independent researchers, people trusted by us who have worked on human right issues with us. We get them go to these regions, talk to local people in an environment where theyre trusted, they feel safe, basically they can those facts, any gaps in it we go back. We treat this information initially very keptally. After weve got the information and were confident with what weve got we compare it with audio material, satellite, traffic imagery. The report we have is based on thoroughly researched testimony. Ifill mr. Dunlap, do you trust the numbers . The way theyve gathered their information . Well, i think you take the thank you very much for having me on the program and let me just say at the outset any death of an innocent human sbg a tragedy. But the you look at page 10 i think it reveals the basic problems with the report. They hired local nationals to begin with, they admit its not a comprehensive survey of drone strikes in pakistan. They hired local nationals and they specifically say that the people that they talked to were those who were anxious to make known the human cost of drones. People selfselected into it. If you look at footnotes of the report, they say that while they tried to interview women and children but, you know, too hard to do so those theres very few participants who are women and children. It indicates how difficult it is to get this kind of information and so ifill so youre saying the numbers dont stand up and therefore theres not a problem or just that the problem is not provable . What im saying is that i dont find statistics in the report to be definitive to the number of casualties. I mean, i think that they did what they can but the fact of the matter is, its extremely difficult to gather that information in that area so they presume to know more than what the u. S. Government knows with all its other access to information and Technological Capabilities about who was on the ground. I want to emphasize lets not forget that International Law doesnt require no civilian casualties. It only requires that they not be excessive in trolgs the military advantage anticipated. Ifill thats the a version i want to ask of mr. Qadri here. How do you know when you cross the line of what is a justified strike, a justified attack on suspected terrorists and crossing the line into war rimes or extra judicial execution. Its a really important point. Lets be quite clear here. Were talking about a grandmother who was killed in front of her grandchildren. We dont see knews justified. International law is very clear on this situation. Weve said very clearly some drone strikes might be lawful. Some under the law of where, International Law you can kill civilians. If its incident toole a military objective and so forth. But in that strike, for example, chow that be justified. In our opinion this is clearly an unlawful killing. Just to also respond to some of the things that our guest mentioned, we dont pretend to have all the information but on this point about us claiming to know more than the u. S. , its quite different than that. We are actually being far more open about what we have and being very honest about it than the u. S. Government. In fact, the u. S. Government has not shown us anything. In terms of selfselecting the people weve spoken to, if our guest had looked at our work in the region in any detail hed know that our same team, our same people will give a massive report last year on abuses by the taliban, abuses by the military there. Theyre not selfselecting anything. We deliberately made sure we talked about the local abuses last year and then talked about drone this is year. You know, we cant pretend to have all the answers, but we found one key problem, which is people have been killed unlawfully. Ifill mr. Dunlap, is the u. S. Being transparent enough about what it is and is not doing . I think its being as transparent as Amnesty International was in their report. If you again, im just quoting from report of the people that they said that they interviewed people who wanted to bring the light the human costs of the Drone Program. Evidently they didnt want to speak with anybody who want to bring to light the absence of the human Drone Program because we know the u. N. Statistics out of afghanistan, 75 to 80 of the civilians who are killed are killed we antigovernment forces like that taliban and al qaeda. As to the particular incident that my fellow guest references. On the same page that they accuse the u. S. Government of a possible war crime they admit that they dont know what the rationale was. I suspect or one might surmise that it was either an error and errors do happen or the individual was not the target but someone else was the target and as International Law does provide that as long as the civilian casualties meaning the innocent civilian casualties are not excessive its not in violation of International Law. Fill bill that is the alternative pardon me jooplt, i want to get one more question in here. What is the alternative to trying to get if we know there are bad guys afoot and drones are imprecise in your world view then what is the alternative . Lets be very clear were not saying stop drones. Were saying use them in a lawful way. The u. S. Is not using them in a lawful way. Were talking also about the very major ally of the u. S. , pakistan. We said very clearly in our report that spz failing in its duty firstly to get the perpetrators of abuses in that region, real serious security threats and also enforcement rights of its own people there. There is a middle way. We dont have to worry, have a discussion about drones. In fact, theres something in the middle which is use drones, fine, lawful, but it has to be part of a wider strategy. And should part of that wider strategy be there should be some effort to reduce the possibility of civilian casual sneeze absolutely. And an enormous amount of effort has gone into that. If you look at the new american foundations statistics youll see the number of civilian deaths have gone down dramatically. In fact, theyre reporting zero for this year, contrary to what Amnesty International has reported. But in fairness to Amnesty International, when you read the report, they do put a lot of caveats and limitations and mays and maybes and so forth in it. It doesnt match the headlines we see coming out. Ifill well have to leave it there. Major general charles dunlap, jr. , and Mustafa Qadri, thank you both very much. Thank you. Thank you. Lets turn back to the jobs picture and new information suggesting hiring could be slowing down. Newshour economics correspondent paul solman looks at the latest labor report, part of his ongoing reporting making sense of financial news. It is jobs tuesday. 148,000. The rate drops to 7. 2. Reporter fewer jobs than hoped for and an employment rate that changed little as the bureau of labor statistics put it. In short, this mornings job numbers reflect another month of anemic growth. Like most of its fellow economists, it seems, harvards Richard Freeman was unimpressed. Its typical of the numbers weve been seeing over the last couple years, small improvements in jobs. Not enough to bring us back to a stronger economy and the government sector keeps into slightly declining, not as much as it was. Private sector balancing that out with jobs. But were still a very weak labor market. Reporter unsurprisingly, jason fuhrman, the president s chief economist, sounded a more upbeat note. Weve had 43 straight months of job growth but the Unemployment Rate has come down steadily. We just cant be satisfied with where it is. Reporter the problem is, the threemonth average of 143 3,000 new jobs since july is well below the 182,000 average of the prior three months and economist freeman sees troubling trends behind the headlines. The 21 teen Unemployment Rate, for instance. The Unemployment Rate is higher than it has been for a long, long time. Remains high. The employment rate remains low and it looks as if among 16 to 19yearolds theyve lost about 10 Percentage Points of jobs. Theres no evidence that were going recovery to where we were before the wall street. If plunge and ensuing recession. Reporter nor is there evidence that those without jobs are getting them more quickly. The average length of unemployment remains at 37 weeks. And thats the longest weve ever add in a recovery. Reporter of course, it was also stalled by government furloughs. So we ask what effect, if a