Transcripts For WMPT PBS NewsHour 20131003

We were able to get out at that time because the incident had just occurred and then we went outside to try and find out what was going on. We know now this started at the white house and this chase went up constitution avenue about a mile away, ended up at the capitol before the gunfire erupted or at least thats the gunfire that killed this woman. Do you have any sense of what the timeline was other than that . Because by the time it got to you, this was well under way. Not much except that we know it all happened very quickly. This was a highspeed chase so the latency between leaving the white house and arriving here on the Capitol Grounds with the chase, im speculating a bit, gwen, but it could not have been very long. When you watch the video as i know you have its a high speed chase, about two miles down pennsylvania avenue, a little bit less from 15th and pennsylvania at the white house to the Capitol Grounds a few feet from where im standing. So on the order of minutes. Ifill most people outside of washington may not realize how many different Law Enforcement organizations are involved in Something Like this. As far as you know, the people involved in this case, in this shooting were the Capitol Police right . Thats true except there were other Police Organizations involved giving chase from the white house remember. There was uniformed secret service. At a certain point d. C. Metro police were involved. I cant tell you exactly when but apparently there was at least one d. C. Metro car somewhere in the chase. U. S. Park police were involved and the u. S. Capitol police. Ifill and the one officer who was down is a park sflifr as far as i know. And were hearing that officer was injured when the cruise evertruck a barrier or some object. That car is still down here on constitution avl not far from where im standing. Its mangled really badly. Apparently in a high speed moment it struck some immovable object, maybe a barrier or tree or something else, not sure. But it does not appear to have been struck by the suspect because the i saw the suspects car, its relatively unscathed. Not completely unscathed but dit nod cause the damage on that mangled cruiser. How about the suspects car, were you able to see that . I was from a bit of a distance down the block but i was able to see it and ive seen it, of course, in better photographs from some of my colleagues. Damaged, yes, but not mangled like a highspeed impact like the cruiser was. Ifill were hearing tonight that the driver who was killed was a woman and that there was a oneyearold child in the car and that they appear at least there were connecticut plates on the car. Have you heard anything more on that . A 34yearold woman were told with connecticut plates. I dont have much more than what you have. The police have confirmed that much. I will say this about the officer who is injured. Were hearing that Senate Majority leader harry reid has had a phone call with this officer who is conscious and in hospital and apparently doing okay. Harry reid himself as a young man in the early 60s was a Capitol Police officer when he was in law school. He came up here and was an officer for money at that time so hes like everybody here, has a lot of affection for the Capitol Police so apparently got off the phone with that officer and reported through a spokesman that the officer is doing okay. Ifill of course, youve been on capitol hill covering the Big Government shutdown. The Capitol Police, are they affected by this . The affected . Gwen, im sorry to say this kind of thing happens periodically. Not necessarily shots fired or people dying but its a fairly regular occurrence that people run barriers or roll through in a highspeed fashion. Shutdowns and lockdowns and shelter in place scenarios arent all that uncommon. So affected and phased i wouldnt say so. I think theyre probably affected when one of their own is injured ifill todd, what i spent whether theyre being paid for their work this week. I beg your pardon. U. S. Capitol police on back pay right now. Which is to say theyre not being paid at the moment. Theyre essential so theyre working, not getting paychecks, expect to be paid once there is a solution to this Government Shutdown, they would be back paid to october 1. Ifill and congress is back at work tonight . Both the house and senate have adjourn sod when you say back at work in a manner of speaking. There were house votes today, show votes. There is no agreement. You mentioned maybe movement on debt limit, im sure youll talk about that but were waiting around a lot for a deal and this incident today has really brought a lot of that into stark relief. Ifill well be talking about all of that later in the program. Todd zwillich, thanks so much. Pleasure. Woodruff in other news, the incident outside the capitol diverted attention, for a time, from the ongoing drama over the Government Shutdown. Negotiations were at a standstill, as president obama and House Speaker john boehner fired verbal volleys back and forth. Well have more on this after the news summary. The Labor Department announced today it will not release the september jobs report tomorrow, because of the shutdown. Meanwhile, wall street lost ground on worries about the stalemate in washington. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 136 points to close at 14,996. The nasdaq fell more than 40 points to close at 3,774. After the market closed, twitter released filing documents on its initial Public Offering of stock. It said it hopes to raise 1 billion. At least 114 people died early today when a crowded boat sank near a tiny italian island. Many scores more were missing and feared dead. The vessel went down in the mediterranean off the island of lampedusa with up to 500 african migrants on board. Matt fry of independent Television News filed this report. Some of the images may be disturbing. Reporter they have been fishing bodies out of the waters since dawn. So far no children and only three of the estimated one hundred women on board have been saved. The head of the rescue team had never seen anything as bad as this. translated this was dramatic and tragic from every point of view. Among the victims were many children. Its horrible, they had new shoes, signs of hope. It is really devastating. Reporter the cause of the tragedy seemed to have been a fire on board the ship, lit by the passengers to try and alert nearby vessels that their engine had broken. translated the first witness reports we heard three hours ago, suggest that the boat caught fire and because of this everyone pushed forward which caused the boat to overturn and reporter the dead came mainly from eritrea. Like tens of thousands of others they undertake this costly odyssey in search of a more prosperous life in europe. The final stage of their journey, the short crossing by boat to lampedusa, should be the easiest. In rome the pope expressed his profound grief for the victims today. translated the word disgrace comes to mind, its a disgrace applause reporter the disgrace of desperation that drives families to risk their lives in search of a better one. It was precisely to highlight this that pope francis traveled to lampedusa in july. Until today the victims of this very modern migration had often remained invisible to the wider world. A few days ago, this was the grisly scene on a beach in sicily when 13 migrants also mainly from eritrea and egypt drowned just yards away from shore. Woodruff in syria, six major rebel groups demanded today that other factions stop fighting each other over a key border town near turkey. A group tied to alqaeda has been battling fighters affiliated with a westernbacked group. Its the latest example of deepening divisions within rebel ranks. More on this, later in the program. Secretary of state john kerry is defending diplomatic openings to iran, over its nuclear program. He addressed the issue today for the First Time Since israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against trusting irans new president. On a visit to tokyo, kerry said the u. S. Has to find out if tehrans nuclear efforts can be stopped by peaceful means. We have an obligation. It would be diplomatic malpractice of the worst order not to examine every possibility of whether or not you can achieve that, before you ask people to take military action to do what you have to do in order to prevent something from happening. Ifill at the same time, kerry said the u. S. Wont be played for suckers. In washington, the chief u. S. Nuclear negotiator, wendy sherman, said only concrete and verifiable actions by iran will bring relief from economic sanctions. Russia evacuated its embassy in libya today, a day after it was attacked by an armed mob. The assault followed the death of a Libyan Air Force officer, allegedly at the hands of a russian woman. One of the attackers was killed, but none of the russian staff was injured. Embassy officials and their families crossed the border into tunisia today, and will fly to moscow tomorrow. 13 members of the Internet Hacking Group anonymous are facing a federal indictment in virginia. The hackers allegedly attacked government agencies, financial institutions, and other major organizations. Court documents say it was all part of a campaign dubbed operation payback. The u. S. Gulf coast has begun preparing for possible evacuations, now that Tropical Storm karen has formed off mexico. Its the first named tropical system to threaten the u. S. Mainland this year and could grow into a hurricane as it moves northward. Alerts have been posted from Southeast Louisiana to the florida panhandle. Still to come on the newshour one of the republicans ready to deal on the federal budget; the debt ceiling dilemma; military veterans addicted to painkillers and the al qaeda fighters in syria. Ifill the third day of the Government Shutdown was another day without progress on capitol hill. As a second major fiscal deadline drew near. Newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman begins our coverage. My simple message today is call a vote. Call a vote 8÷ reporter the president used a stop today at a maryland Construction Firm to blame the shutdown squarely on House Speaker john boehner. And, he challenged the speaker to bring up a government funding bill with no partisan strings attached. The only thing that is keeping the government shut down; the only thing preventing people from going back to work, and basic Research Starting back up, farmers and Small Business owners getting their loans the only thing thats preventing all that from happening, right now, today, in the next five minutes, is that Speaker John Boehner wont even let the bill get a yes or no vote, because he doesnt want to anger the extremists in his party. Reporter the speaker fired back in a statement, saying the president is taking a mywayor thehighway approach, by rejecting any changes to the Health Care Law. The longdistance exchange came after the president met face to face with boehner and the other congressional leaders wednesday evening. Afterward, boehner summed up things this way. We had a nice conversation, a light conversation, but at some point weve got to allow the process that our founders gave us to work out. I would hope that the president and my democratic colleagues in the senate would listen to the American People and sit down and have a serious discussion above resolving these differences. Reporter today, the senates democratic majority leader harry reid said his side is ready for that serious discussion, but only after House Republicans give way on the spending bill. Open the government and well negotiate with you on anything you want to negotiate with. I outlined anything that hed want to talk about. Discretionary spending, health care, anything you want to talk about with health care that includes obamacare. But open the government; get the debt ceiling out of here. Reporter as reid suggested, the shutdown standoff already is merging, at least rhetorically, with the deadline two weeks off, when the government will hit its Borrowing Limit and could default on its debts. In a report today, the Treasury Department said the economic effects of a default have the potential to be catastrophic. The president made clear again today that lifting the debt limit is not up for debate. There will be no negotiations over this. applause the American People are not pawns in some political game. You dont get to demand some ransom in exchange for keeping the government running. You dont get to demand some ransom for keeping the economy running. Reporter through his spokesman, boehner gave the assurance the country will not default, but also said any increase must include spending cuts and other provisions. In the meantime, with the shutdown in its third day, House Republicans advanced smaller spending bills to fund veterans programs and salaries for National Guard members. Other measures, passed last night, would finance d. C. Government operations, National Parks and the National Institutes of health. House majority leader eric cantor were trying to find the things that we can agree on in common where there is a majority vote, in both houses. Certainly, the pediatric medical research, medical research for Clinical Trials is something, given the circumstances that i think we ought to get done. Harry reid ought to take it up today. Reporter democrats again dismissed the plan as nothing but a political gimmick and the shutdown remained in place. Ifill with each side accusing the other of extremism, extortion and plain old political stubbornness, there are a lonely few still calling for some sort of compromise. Among them, Pennsylvania Republican charlie dent, who joins us from the house now. Welcome, congressman. So you have called for a clean, unadorned budget bill to be passed, which is not what your leadership talking about. Why are you calling for that . Well, first, let me say very clearly i, like many of my colleagues in the house on the republican side of the aisle, have very serious objections to the Health Care Law. I voted to repeal it deshgs fund it, delay it. Ive done everything but freak see it. But i do think late in the day on sunday that it was imperative that we pass a clean funding bill to keep the government running. I thought once weve reached that final vote that dealt with the Health Benefits and the individual mandate even though i support the policy i felt at that point if we sent that to the senate that would have guaranteed a Government Shutdown. Thats where i parted ways with some of my republican colleagues but that said i do believe its imperative that we do have a clean funding bill to fund the government. That was the intent of the Republican Leadership all along but obviously there were a few dozen folks in the House Republican conference who werent prepared to vote for a clean bill and thats why were in the situation were in right now. Ifill those same two dozen folks are saying that you would basically be caving in, giving up, if you were, to do what youre suggesting. What you saying to them . I would say absolutely not. It was the intent of the leadership to pass a resolution to fund the government and have a discussion with the administration and the senate with respect to some of the Health Care Law provisions that we found objectionable and other perhaps entitlement changes, the sequester, and have those discussions in the context of the debt ceiling. Understanding that at the end of this process its acceptable to not unacceptable to not maintain the full faith and credit of the United States government. Of course well have to raise the debt ceiling but its appropriate to have discussions surrounding those debt ceiling issues. Ifill what kind of reaction are you getting from your constituents from lehigh valley, pennsylvania . Most of my constituents, i think, share my view that while we have very serious concerns and misgivings with the Health Care Law that we did not want to shut the government down to make that particular point. So i think many of my constituents do agree with me that this Health Care Law has all sorts of problems and many of them would like to see it repeeled or replace ord changed or fixed but they also understand we have an obligation to govern. That we have to fund the government. As a member of congress i have an affirmative obligation to govern and get things done. Im a member of the appropriations committee. I always said im on the one committee that has to get something done every year. We have to fund the government and if we fail in that very basic responsibility the American Public loses trust in the institution of government and its leaders. Its simply an unacceptable place to be. The speaker is telling members he has no intention of not getting the debt ceiling limit raised and that would be kind of a breakthrough at this point. But what are the people what are you hearing within your caucus about the willing to deal on just that looming problem . Some of us are working in a very bipartisan manner. Im working with a good friend, representative ron kind from wisconsin, a democrat. He and a Like Minded Group of republicans and democrats offered a suggestion to break the logjam, at least on the government funding piece. What we said, why dont repeel the medical device tax, fund the government for six months at the sequestered level as requested by the republicans and pay for the repeal of the medical device tax something the democrats want to a pension smoothing or stabilization mechanism. I thought that was a winwinwin for everybody. Ifill how was that received . Among the republicans and democrats it will not be well received on the far left because folks say we dont want to make any changes to the Health Care Law and the folks on the extreme right will say well, anything short of a defund or delay is unacceptable. And what were saying is this is an incremental progress, the democrats are acknowledge a defect with the law, this very onerous medical device tax and republicans are going to be able to get some incremental change. And the democrats get a victory here, too, in that we would pay for in the a responsible way that i believe would be broadly embraced by members of both parties. Ifill you have been been quoted as saying theres been a lot of bringsmanship and showmanship going on. Would you say its on your side of the aisle or the other side of the aisle . Theres a lot of blame to go around. I think members of both parties and the American Public are tired of the bringsmanship, tired of being taken to the edge and in this case weve gone over it with respect to the Government Shutdown. So i get tired of it and frustrated. I think this whole Government Shutdown could have been averted had some cooler heads prevailed. The senator from texas with all due respect raised a lot of expectations, i believe unrealistically. Ifill youre talking about senator ted cruz. Yeah. So the house passed the bill to defund the Health Care Law, obamacare, and the senator was unable to deliver the votes. The votes to defund it. So and i think we all knew that going in and once that occurred then swreshd stepped back and said okay, now lets get the government funded and then we can continue to debate with the deficiencys of the Health Care Law and there are many on another day and another occasion but outside of the context of funding the government. Ifill lets talk about what it would take to get cooler heads to prevail. If, as you say, senator cruz has urged people toward the brink and there are members of the house who enjoy being on the brink or at least have not rejected being on the brink what does it take to pull you back at this point . The reality of the house of representatives is this in the House Republican conference there are 232 members and i believe somewhere between 180 to 200 on any given day are prepared to affirmatively govern this country and want to be part of whatever the solution is. There are a few dozen who dont share that same sense of governance so moving forward i believe the house is going to have to form Bipartisan Coalitions to enact mustpass pieces of legislation. We saw that this year with the fisk, Hurricane Relief and sandy. And my district was hit hard by sandy. I was out of power as well as 500,000 of my constituents. Violence against women act. It happened with the no budget no pay when we first extended the debt ceiling with 200 republicans and the balance were democrats. Ifill but in this case not with the majority of the majority party, the hastert rule they call it. I hope there would be a majority of the majority but we have to fund the government with as Many Republican votes as we can and same with the debt ceiling, were going to need a Bipartisan Coalition and im hoping there will be a strong support for both of these measures from both parties when we get to that final vote. Thats the one that matters. Ifill Pennsylvania Republican charlie dent. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me. Woodruff lets take a closer look now at these questions surrounding the federal debt limit and whats at stake. In its report today, the Treasury Department warned that should the government default on its debt obligations later this month, the Economic Impact could be widespread. It said, quote, credit markets could freeze, the value of the dollar could plummet, Interest Rates could skyrocket and there might be a financial crisis and recession that could echo the events of 2008 or worse. Well discuss whats behind those warnings in a moment. But lets start with some explanation about the debt ceiling. Annie lowrey is a reporter for the New York Times and joins us now. Welcome back to the program. Remind us what is the debt ceiling, why is it there . Why is it needed . So its a kind of secondary check on the amount that congress is spending. Thats what its designed to be. So every Year Congress decides the amount of deficit or surpluses theyre going to run by deciding how much theyll spend and how much theyll take in in taxes and in the event theyre running in the red as they generally are treasury takes them and sells bonds on the bond market. So a debt limit is the cap on the total value of bonds treasury can sell. But the issue if that if the treasury cant raise that limit by itself, it Needs Congress to do it, if they dont have enough money to pay the bills they need to issue those bonds, they cant right now so it looks like they might have a cash crunch. The. Woodruff treasury has announced in the last few days that they expect the debt ceiling is going to be reached on october 17, thats just two weeks from now. What happens if that ceiling is not raised . If it isnt raised, it would have cash on hand, money coming in from tax receipts but that would be it theyd have no other way to pay the countrys bills so starting on that date or sometime after that they wouldnt have enough money to pay the bills everyday and the United States would miss about 30 of its obligations in perpetuity until congress raised the ceiling again. Woodruff explain to us the difference between meeting obligations in say making Social Security payments, benefits, paying salaries of government workers versus making those bonds payments that are due. So treasury makes literally millions of payments a day and so just as you described, some of them go to Social Security recipients. Some of them go to states. Some of them go to contractors and then some of them go to bond holders who say, hey, i bought a tenyear bond ten years ago, i want my money back now. So the issue is it would be really bad if treasury didnt manage to meet some of its payments to states or Social Security recipients but they could basically say, you know what . Were going to be forced to pay you later. That would be awful but it probably wouldnt be catastrophic. The issue with the bonds is that if treasury didnt pay the bondholders back or the coupon payments its required to make on those bonds they would be declared in default and it would basically throw a lot of sand into the gears of the entire Financial System and you would have had a financial crisis. Not just a small financial crisis but the mother of all financial crises because treasuries are so important to the functioning of Financial Markets. Woodruff and, in fact, what you just said is the kind of language treasury used today when it put out a this warning that said it that has potential to be catastrophic. It goes back and cites what happened in 2011 when congress flirted with not raising the debt ceiling. What did it say some of the consequences might be . So barring costs in some case borrowing costs in some cases rose. Consumer confidence and Business Confidence plunged. The stock market took a hit which is obviously bad for businesses. Its also bad because it reduces household wet so you have that kind of weflt wrefkt people felt like they were poorer, they spent less and theres some evidence that it slowed the recovery down and the higher borrowing costs ended up costing the country billions of dollars even though they didnt actually get into an actual cash crunch situation. Woodruff so the people you talk to, annie lowry, the treasury paint this is dire picture saying that what could happen would be something even worse than what happened in 2008 with the financial collapse and recession. The people you talk to take that seriously. Yeah, absolutely. So even just getting close to the limit would probably send waves of panic through the market. Gettinging up to the limit, to the point treasury couldnt pay bills would be really bad and the prospect that treasury would not pay bondholders is just absolutely terrifying. Theres some idea that treasury is forced to put bond holders first in order to keep the Financial Markets calm but its not clear that they have the technical ability to the do that. Part of the issue here is that the United States has never actually gone down this road. Nobody exactly knows how this all would play all but the worstcase scenarios are really, really frightening and even just getting close is going to send fear us there the market. Woodruff there has been conversation and i think you used the word priorities what do we know about how the government could decide what its priorities were if Something Like this happened. In terms of what to pay. We dont know that much about it. The best information that we have coming from a treasury Inspector General report and that indicates that treasury thinks probably the best option would be delaying some payments like we were talking about to maybe states or other folks that it needs to pay back and saying, you know, once the dealt limit is raised again well get your money to you. But the idea that they could change their Computer Systems fast enough in order to make that workable is something thats a real question mark. Treasury itself has said that they think that missing any payments would be just about as bad as defaults. They think of that as default. They said think they of prioritization, putting bond holders first wouldnt be workable even though Market Participants think that in the case that they had to they would do that. Woodruff quickly, the white house made a point today of saying the president on his own would not raise the debt ceiling thaichlt dont believe he has the authority to do that. I gather theres not much dispute about that. No. Some folks have said that the 14th amendment grants him the authority to go ahead and pay the bills even though the debt limit hasnt been raised. Let treasury start issuing new debt. The administration has outright rejected that approach. Other administrations in the future might not but the Obama Administration is not going to do that. Woodruff annie lowrey with the New York Times, thank you very much. Thanks for having me. Ifill next, a troubling account of the consequences of overprescribing addictive painkillers to veterans. The death rate from overdoses of those drugs at Veterans Affairs hospitals is twice the national average. But data shows the v. A. Continues to prescribe increasing amounts of narcotic painkillers to many patients. Our story comes from the center for investigative reporting. The correspondent is aaron glantz. Reporter u. S. Army specialist Jeffrey Waggoner received a funeral with full military honors. He was medically evacuated out of afghanistan in 2007, after he sustained a groin injury when a rocket propelled grenade exploded during a housetohouse search. But thats not what killed him. Waggoner survived his deployment. He died back home. In this motel, just hours after being discharged from a department of Veterans Affairs hospital in oregon. While recovering from his wounds, waggoners mental state deteriorated. He became addicted to painkillers. And the army sent him to the detox center at this v. A. Hospital in roseburg to get clean. But the hospital continued to give him narcotics and after two months they released him with a massive cocktail of drugs, including 12 tablets of the painkiller oxycodone. Since jeffs death his father greg has been trying to piece together what happened. I couldnt believe the amount of medications that were being prescribed to him. Reporter after he left the hospital, jeff went to the nearby motel. He picked up a sixpack of beer. He checked into a room. Has a couple of beers. Decides hes hungry and he goes next door to a restaurant next to the motel, orders up a plate of nachos and another beer and then becomes very groggy, reporter the Surveillance Footage shows what happened next. Jeff fumbles with the keys to his room, barely able to stand. He nods, then lurches forward and collapses. Waggoner lay on the floor for an hour until the paramedics arrived. They tried to revive him, but it was too late. The state medical examiners report stated that in addition to the two beers, jeff consumed eight oxycodone pills along with tranquilizers and muscle relaxers that he got from the v. A. Greg waggoner has never watched the video. He believes the v. A. Was complicit in his sons death. The last thing you would think is that you have a child in the hospital trying to get care, that somebody would call at your door and tell you that he passed away. Reporter since waggoners death five years ago, the roseburg hospitals narcotic prescription rate has continued to rise. We tried to interview the hospital director but our request was denied. Last year, doctors in roseburg wrote more opiate prescriptions per patient than any v. A. Hospital in the country, according to data obtained by the center for investigative reporting. The center analyzed 12 years of prescription data from the v. A. And found that prescriptions per patient for four highly addictive painkillers have surged by 270 since the war in afghanistan began, far outstripping the increase in patients. Reporter dr. Stephen xenakis is a psychiatrist and retired Army Brigadier general. He says the data shows the agency is overmedicating patients as it struggles to keep up with their need for complex treatment. Theyre working in these clinics, theyre very busy, theyve got time constraints, theyve got pressures, and giving a prescription which they know how to do, and theyre trained to do, is almost, its a default. Reporter xenakis says that prescription opiates actually hurt most veterans, rather than help them. If youve been exposed to a number of blasts and are already feeling the effects of the blasts and then you add a medication for pain like an opiate, thats going to make your thinking problems even worse, and not only that, youre going to feel more depressed. Reporter the v. A. Has known about this problem for years in 2011, v. A. Researchers published a study showing the fatal overdose rate among v. A. Patients is nearly double the national average. And four years ago the agency adopted regulations designed to get doctors to use alternatives to prescription opiates. We spent a month trying to get someone from the v. A. To go on the record about prescription painkillers, but no one would talk to us. I want to get back to over medication. Reporter the issue is drawing interest on capitol hill. In march, dr. Robert petzel, the v. A. s undersecretary for health, testified before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs. Let me deal first with opioides, which is the most dangerous in my mind of our over medication issues. Reporter petzel says the v. A. Uses opiates only as a last resort. When youre not able to manage the pain in any other way, its opioides. And then there are very careful protocols about how that prescribing should be done. Reporter but the data shows the rate of prescriptions for opiates continues to rise. And across the country, we found veterans locked in a life and death struggle, addicted to painkillers they got from the v. A. Reporter in newport, new hampshire, tim fazio is trying to stay clean. Fazio is a marine corps veteran who served in iraq and afghanistan. Two years after he came home, he went to the v. A. For help. Since then, v. A. Doctors have provided him with nearly 4,000 oxycodone pills. I thought the painkillers were okay because the doctors were prescribing them to me. If the doctors are giving it to me, im going to take it, you know, and i mean, if it makes me feel good, im going to take 15 of them, you know what i mean . Reporter fazio deployed to fallujah and he survived a threeday firefight in afghanistan. He wasnt severely wounded in the war. He says he took the pills to blot out the guilt and shame of surviving when so many of his fellow marines died after coming home. His medical records show the v. A. Knew he was an addict, and yet continued to dole out more opiates. At tims family home in western massachusetts, his father mike fazio has built a basement shrine to his familys military legacy. This is my son tim. When he this is when he got out of boot camp, he was so proud. Reporter fazio says his sons life started spiraling out of control, after tims best friend from the marine corps died. He encouraged tim to get help at the local v. A. Hospital where doctors loaded him up on painkillers. That was the beginning and the end for him. Reporter tim was addicted and overdosed again and again. His parents kicked him out and he moved in with eric demetrion, another former marine. The two fed each others addictions, and when they ran out of pills, they bought heroin. Eventually, tim realized he needed to move out. Three months later, demetrion was dead of an overdose. Today, fazio is living with his girlfriend. Hes been clean for six months now, but staying off opiates hasnt been easy. In july after a violent confrontation landed him in a v. A. Emergency room he was shocked when an Agency Doctor again prescribed oxycodone. Tim says he filled the prescription and then stared at the bottle. I opened it a couple of times a day for probably three or four days to take one out. I said, if i take this, im not going to be living where i am now. Im going to be off and running again. Theyre going to send me on my way. So i flushed it. Reporter with his mind no longer deadened by opiates, flashbacks and anxiety make him angry and explosive. And so, despite that recent history, fazio still turns to the v. A. For help. Hes up early this morning, waiting for a shuttle to take him to the v. A. My goal is to figure out where this rage, anxiety and all this is coming from when ive been sober. I got to figure out where that comes from and how to cope with that, i guess. Reporter the department of Veterans Affairs remains a refuge for tim, he says its a place where he can surround himself with other veterans, men and women who have survived war, only to battle addiction at home. Ifill this story was originally part of a new investigative radio pilot called reveal, that airs this week on many public radio stations. Reveal is produced by the center for investigative reporting and prx. You can find a link to their related online material on our website. Woodruff and we turn to the conflict in syria. The United Nations reported encouraging initial progress as International Inspectors embarked on the second day of a mission to get rid of syrias chemical arsenal. But as ray suarez reports, the countrys war rages on. Suarez rebels from the Westernbacked Free Syrian Army fought Government Forces on the outskirts of damascus today. But to the north, at the key town of azaz, near the turkish border, it was rebel on rebel. Fighters aligned with the Free Syrian Army battled to retake azaz from the Islamic State of iraq and the levant. That group, formerly al qaeda in iraq, seized the town last month. Overnight, six other factions, including islamists, called for the alqaeda group to withdraw. They said, we consider them above spilling the blood of muslims. It all highlighted growing fissures within rebel ranks as hardline islamists expand their role in the syrian war. What do we know about the opposition . Suarez last month, at a u. S. Senate hearing, secretary of state john kerry was questioned on that very point about the radicals gaining sway. The opposition has increasingly become more defined by its moderation, more defined by the breadth of its membership and more defined by its adherence to some, you know, democratic process. Suarez despite kerrys claim, the westernbacked umbrella group, the Syrian National council, suffered a blow just three weeks later. On september 24, alnusra and other radical factions signed a letter rejecting the councils leadership. translated the brigades and battalions call on all military and civilian forces to unite under a clear islamic framework based on sharia law, which should be the sole source of legislation. Suarez the head of the Syrian National council shot back last week at the United Nations. translated in reality, when there was a disgreement, alnusra didnt recognize the coalition, and we dont want recognition from them. I believe you wont be concerned suarez now, the islamists are actively seeking to consolidate their hold in parts of northern and eastern syria, where theyre strongest. Thereve been reports of jihadists instituting sharia law and carrying out public executions. For more on the fractures among secular and islamist opponents of syrian president Bashar Alassad and how much military support the u. S. Is actually giving to the opposition, im joined by. Greg miller, a reporter for the washington post. And andrew tabler, a senior fellow at the washington institute. Andrew, the rivalries and resentments between secular and islamist fighters have long been well known in this two and a half year war, but is the blossoming of that resentment into open warfare something new . It is. There have been skirmishs in the past but the activities around the saz and the growing tensions between the extremists and those in the main line opposition have been exacerbated by a few things frustrations following the chemical weapons use by the regime in august but also real frustration with the opposition coalition. Particularly the political operatives who exist abroad and those are the main line yoounts which are inside of the country fighting the assad regime. The. Suarez if theyre fighting each other does it benefit the assad regime . It certainly does. It divides their ranks but makes it clearer to see whos on the further right end of the sort of spectrum of groups within syria and who is more moderate and towards the left and i expect this is going to go on for some time. Suarez isnt this really in some ways just a prestaging of an eventual war in syria . Because these groups have very different visions about the future of the country, dont they . Particularly the announcement on the 24th of last month was concerning the establishment of and the end goal of an Islamic State within syria which is not goal of the Syrian Opposition coalition which is the Main Coalition that the United States backs. Suarez greg miller, we saw senator john kerry a few moments ago endorsing the idea of helping them, defending the opposition. What kind of aid is the United States giving to forces in syria and does it amount to much . It doesnt amount to pa whole lot. It has increased over the last couple months. Weve we know that the white house approved expanded aid to the moderate Opposition Forces some time ago but it took months for that to trickle into syria so the c. I. A. Is providing Light Weapons to moderate groups and training at bases in jordan but on such a small, small scale that even officials who are involved in this program think it borders on inconsequential. So are they trying to ramp it up to something more consequential . Well, the developments over the past month or two have sent out sort of alarms and so theres now been an effort by the c. I. A. To ramp up support to the moderate groups because they had been losing so much mow men numb the fight and ground to the harder line islamists. So the agency has sent Additional Paramilitary teams in to speed up this training theyre engaged in in jordan but again, it will only lead to perhaps a couple hundred trained fighters per month emerging from these camps. And theyre flowing into a fight that is so much bigger that those numbers are just not going to amount to much. Suarez because the future is so hard to contemplate, are there actually american official interests in a continued stalemate . That maybe assad should lose but not right away . I think that part of what is defined the c. I. A. s mission is that the administration is seeking a political settlement eventually which sort of hinges on an eventual stalemate among these warring factions instead of a clear and powerful victor in the end and so part of this is the agency given the resources and authorities to bolster these moderate groups enough to that they can hang on and not lose but stopping short of giving them what they would need well short of what they would need to win. Suarez andrew, we saw the prepared videos that the rebel forces make of themselves. Who are these guys . They syrians or coming in from other countries . It depends. Most are syrians, but increasingly over time as the moderate groups havent been sufficiently supported by the United States and other countries those more radical groups and foreign fighters from the arab gulf, from russia, chechens, even west yearners have streamed to syria. Its very easy to get to syria. Its unlike afghanistan which is very hard to reach so theyre coming into syria and picking up weapons to fight the assad regime and fighting alongside of Syrian Forces so they dont necessarily join the Syrian Forces but they fight alongside them. The one Biggest Group is the Islamic State of iraq. Suarez is it important, greg who they are, where theyre coming from . Does it create an x factor in this war that its not just syrians fighting it anymore . Well, obviously its very important the syrians. I mean, even these Islamist Groups are going to Great Lengths to try to brand themselves as syrian even as many of their fighters and much of their capabilities stems from their ability to import fighters with deep experience from iraq and elsewhere but it also matters to the United States and to this administration which for whom a worstcase scenario is a chaotic state in the the end in which you have an attraction for jihadists from other countries and a place where its hard for the United States or anybody else to suppress that threat. Suarez as you mentioned, syria is a porous place but it also borders a large number of countries. When you look at syria is the state of the war in some ways dependent on which neighboring country theyre near when theyre fighting . Whether its getting supplies in or who the combatants are . Of course. You have the United States has Close Relationships with count these are regard that this as critical to their future the beyond what the future holds for you are the ski syria and jordan are working closely with the United States and the c. I. A. On these programs to try to support these moderate groups. Suarez andrew, the Turkish Parliament has decided to send its selfgranted ability to intervene in syria. Ask s that a significant development. Its hard to say. On the one hand yes it would seem to give Legal Authority to the Turkish Armed forces to intervene as they would see fit but the problem is really part of what effort . There suspect any kind of organized effort coming from the United States targeting the assad regime in order to get assad to step aside. As long as that happens, turkey and neighboring countries will be rell sent to get involved militarily. Suarez but a nato force on the ground changes the calculus, doesnt it . I think it does. If the turks completely intervened that would be one thing but short of a massive plan to get assad to step aside that would be less and less likely. Andrew tabler, greg miller, yes merngs thank you both. Thank you. Ifill finally tonight, National Book award winner Alice Woodruff again, the major developments of the day a violent incident erupted in downtown washington, when a woman with a oneyearold child tried to drive her car into a barricade near the white house. That sparked a highspeed chase to the u. S. Capitol. This evening, d. C. Police cheif cathy lanier said secret Service Officers and later, Capitol Police fired on the car at different points. As of right now we do know there were shots fired in at least two locations during this pursuit. The pursuit was from 15th and e down to 100 block of maryland avenue. So the pursuit went several blocks, involved both United States secret service and United States Capitol Police. Right now the suspect in the vehicle we do know was struck by gunfire at this point has been pronounced. So the suspect has been pronounced at this point. The child is approximately a year old and is in Good Condition and in protective custody. Ifill police gave out no other details about the woman. Also today, day three of the federal Government Shutdown yields no sign of progress toward a resolution. And at least 114 african migrants died when a crowded boat sank near a tiny italian island. Online, better to make decisions about your financial future while your mind is still sharp. Thats the advice from one of our regular business guest contributors on the making sense page. You can find that and more at newshour dot pbs. Org. Woodruff and thats the newshour for tonight. On friday well have the latest on the congressional standoff over the budget. Im judy woodruff. Ifill and im again ifill. See you tomorrow evening with david brooks and e. J. Di on. For all of us at the pbs newshour. Thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by 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. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org stocks fell on worries that china might. Announcer the new pbs for ipad app. Youll never know what youll find. [dog barks] announcer available now in the app store. This is night nightly busi report with Tyler Mathisen and susie gharib brought to you by. Thestreet. Com, financial tools for an ever changing financial world. Our dividend stock advisor guides and generate income during a period of low Interest Rates. We a we are thestreet. Com. Wary in washington, magnifying the tensions over the gridlock surrounding the Government Shutdown and a looming possible default of u. S. Debt and that sends investors running for cover. Dancing on the ceiling, what does happen if the u. S. Doesnt raise the debt limit and defaults . Well look at the ramifications. And innovative ways how hospitals and drugstores are looking to improve health care, well talk to the president of cvs Minute Clinic that and more on this very busy thursday, october 3rd. Good evening everyone im sue herrera filling in for Tyler Mathisen. Im susie gharib. Forget the government shut down. Today it was about the looming debt crisis. Words coming from the u. S. Treasury today saying a default on the nations debt could be quote catastrophic. A scenario the treasury says will be worse than the recession were emerging from and pushed the markets sharply lower by the open. By midday there was slight relief after john boehner would not allow the u. S. To default. Boehner spokesperson says the speaker maintains the u. S. Will not default. That brought stocks back momentarily and if that werent enough, may ham outside the u. S. Capital after police shot and killed a woman who tried to ram her car through security barricades at the white house and then exchanged gunfire with the police. All and all, it looked like it ended like this after the market closed. The dow fell 136 points closing just before the psychologically important 15,000 threshold the nasdaq lost 40 and s p off 15. Unless Congress Settles the debt ceiling crisis within the next two weeks, the u. S. Treasury will reach the limit on october 15th. What then . Good evening. Markets turned their attention today beyond the Government Shutdown to what happens if the debt ceiling is breached and the government can no longer borrow . Is what we know, in that event Government Spending has to equal revenue plus the cash on hand. What that likely maybe means is Government Spending will fall by a third of 108 billiondollar spending in the first month, a contraction of the economy. The economy will be smaller because there will be less Government Spending. What e conn miconomiest believe spending. The dollar could plunge, the stock market could plunge with it and Interest Rates are seen higher in that event. What they are worried about, what is possible here is a global recession as the effect of a weaker u. S. Economy is felt in countries around the world and a potential massive disruption in Financial Markets. The Treasury Department warning of catastrophic consequences in the event the debt ceiling is breached and they are saying there could be a financial crisis that could rival or be worse than the 200 8 financial crisis, looking to the debt ceiling breach which would happen about october 17th according to current estimates and they dont like what they say. For nightly business report, im steve lease man. Lets not forget there is a partial government shut down in the third day and furlough of 800,000 federal workers. One major defense contractor, United Technologies announcing planning to furlough thousands of employees if the shutdown drags into next week. It might not be alone. Dominic chew has more. Reporter the shut down got real. Aerospace and defense contract tomorrow United Technologies released a statement that says it expects to furlough around 2,000 workers on monday, october 7th