welcome to al jazeera, i'm john siegenthaler. here are the headlines. the obama administration says it is certain chemical weapons were used in syria, and blames the syrian government for the attack. the white house has promised an intelligence report on the attack this week. the syrian government has, again, denied the accusations. >> translator: we are all hearing the drums of war being beaten around us. if these countries are willing to launch an aggression or military act against syria, i believe the pretext of chemical weapons is false. and i challenge, i dare them to produce any single piece of evidence.

inspectors from the un are still in syria looking for weapons. one of the largest wildfires in california history has moved deeper into the yosemite national park. the rim fire covers about 280 square miles, the fire is threatening more than 4500 homes in the area. water in the nearby reservoir is still safe so far. those are the headlines at that hour. "america tonight" is next on al jazeera. i'll see you back here at 11:00 eastern time, 8 pacific. ♪ on "america tonight," building the case for action against syria, u.s. forces stand ready to go now what is next? a spike in temperatures forces a time-out.

the hid endangers for young athletes, and what can save them. >> we helped him up and started walking back to school, and the fell once again. and timeless words scrawled on scraps, how the letter from birmingham jail lead to a revolutionary moment in american history. >> the letter was a call to the national conscious of america. ♪ and good evening. thanks for being with us. i'm joie chen. a showdown looms with washington

tonight that western powers are gearing up for some kind of military strike against the government of bashar al-assad. tell us what all of this means. and what is going to happen next? >> the white house insists that the president has not yet made a decision to go ahead with military strikes. you would not know that from the rhetoric with -- from the white house, and vice president biden saying the syrian regime needs to be held accountable. [ no audio ]

>> obviously we're having some technical problems. sheila maybe you can explain some of what we have heard through the day. we saw vice president biden speaking. what was his message today? >> basically, again, very, very strong language and dropped the little qualifier that secretary of state kerry used yesterday, telling this audience that there was absolutely no deniability that the syrian regime was responsible and that the syrian regime needed to be held accountable. again, very strong words coming from the u.s. administration, aimed straight at damascus and syrian's allies. at the same time we have the build up or collection of military assets in the eastern mediterranean and in the arabian gulf. >> what kinds of resources could the u.s. draw on? >> there are air bases throughout that region. in turkey and greece where nato

has asked for permission to use the base. in cyprus, and ua f16s left over at the jordan/syrian border. in addition to that, we have got at least three u.s. cruise missile carrying destroyers in the eastern mediterranean, probably a mismile-carrying submarine. british and french assets coming into position. so they are drawing together the assets they would need to carry out a very limited short, sharp attack against syria. >> i'm going to ask you to stand by here. joining us now is a man who certainly understands u.s. diplomatic decision making. we're joined by ambassador chris hill. he was an ambassador in iraq,

and has been in many hot spots in the world. can you talk us to about the kind of buildup and what diplomatic buildup there would need for the united states? >> i think the obama administration has made a decision it wants to move forward. clearly the russians are not with us on this one, so i think failing a un security counsel resolution, they will try to make the coalition as brood as possible, so i expect that secretary kerry and others are burning up the phone lines today, trying to make sure we have brood support from allies and partners around the world. as for the actual information, i'm sure they are busy trying to put that in a form that does not jeopardize sources and methods. they don't want to say, well, we overheard this or at that,

because then that will reveal how they were able to get the information, but it is pretty clear from vice president biden today and secretary kerry yesterday that we seem to have the goods on the assad regime with respect to the use of banned weapons. >> ambassador maybe you can help us with diplomatic speech. explain to us what needs to happen, what sort of justification the u.s. would need to make if it were to move forward with a military strike. >> ideally you have a un security counsel resolution, but that seems to be beyond the pail right now, so i think you -- you would invoke statutes such as self-defense, and also the responsibility to protect. so i think this will be probably something along the lines of the latter, that is the responsibility to protect, the responsibility not to sit around

when people's rights are being terribly trot upon in this case having chemical weapons spread out over civilians, murdering all kinds of people. >> when you think about the diplomatic effects and the importance of handling consequences before they actually happen, can you talk about the current position of such players as iran or russia, which has been fairly forceful in saying such language as catastrophic problems if the u.s. is to move forward. >> well, the russians have kind of matched us in terms of our verbiage to be sure. whether the russians would want to turn this into a full blown u.s. russian crisis, or u.s., french, et cetera versus the russians, i'm not sure they want to do that. i think iran doesn't want to get

up to its eyeballs in this. they have a lot of problems internally. so i think the overall betting is that probably they won't -- you know, jump into this thing. but when you start dropping bombs you never know what is really going to happen. i recall when we started the air operations against the serbs, a number of people said he would give in a few days. he turned very, very stub burn and that bombing went on for some 77 days. >> ambassador hill, sheila mcvicor, i'm wondering what you think happens sort of in the aftermath of this. we'll being told this is a short, maybe 24 to 72-hour campaign focused not on regime change, i'm wondering what this changes on the ground when the bombing campaign finishes.

what it changes for the people, the rebels, and the regime. >> usually when someone gets bombed they don't become suddenly pliant and say i guess we were wrong, thank you for pointing that out. instead they turn very, very delidgea delidgeant, and i would expect them to launch more attacks against rebel forces or civilians near rebel forces. i doubt they would really roll out chemical weapons again. i think the real purpose is to punish them for the use of chemical weapons and really try to create a deterrent, but to do that, they are going to have to hit them pretty hard. don't expect this to be a pin prick bombing. i think this will be really

substantial. that said i don't think it is coordinated with rebels on the ground in a way they could see territorial changes, nor do i think it can help bring this horrific conflict to an end. until there is a sustained diplomatic process to start articulating what is the political future of syria going to be? and we seem to be a long way away from that stage. >> sheila, we were talking about just what the ambassador refers to and that is when the u.s. makes a decision to make a move like this, there is always that unintended consequence that you are going to throw the balance of powers to one side or the other. in this case likely to be seen as the rebel side. >> correct. in this case as we said there is no intention of regime change, and as you walk through what the administration is suggesting it is planning, i think you can see

how limited in scope these attacks may prove to be. >> in houston today before an audience of american veterans, vice president biden continued to press the administration's moral case for intervention in syria. >> the president believes and i believe that those who use chemical weapons against defenseless men, women, and children should and must be held accountable. >> and internationally a coalition of the willing began to come together. britain, france, canada, all have pledged support. meeting in an emergency segment, members of the arab league condemned what they called a hey announce crime of the regime. the u.s. has four cruise missile-carrying destroyers and probably a submarine in the

eastern mediterranean. more u.s. warships, including aircraft carriering are in the arabian gulf area. in the past 24 hours there has been a reported increase in activity at the british base. in cooperation with syrian rebels, target lists have been drawn up. chemical weapons storage sites are not on the list out of concern that air strikes could release poison gas and harm more people. instead weapons delivery systems like rocket launchers will be targeted. they are talking about a sharp, sharp campaign, using cruise missiles and air-born weapons that can be fired from outside syrian air space. in cooperation with sir ran rebels, target sites have been

drawn up. the u.s. and its allies are aim for command and control and weapon's delivery systems like rocket launchers. around the capitol of damascus, targets could include the military air base, the headquarters of the fourth brigade. the headquartersover the republican guard, and the special forces. planners could also target missile bases. the goal is limited. elizabeth is an list who travels often to syria and meets with the rebels. >> i think right now there is a lot of hope and optimism that this is the final straw that will put the u.s. into greater intervention on their behalf. and allow for the opposition to effect the balance of power on

the ground right now. >> if the u.s. and its allies choose not to go against syrian air power, what will be the effect and the response on the ground? >> i think it will generate a lot of resentment, i think the people really do see this as a turning point. and if something is not done to actually stop the regime's ability to kill civilians, there will be massive amounts of outrage, not only by the opposition, but kind of the population at large. >> as one analyst said to me today, ifs the strikes are really just about the use of chemical weapons, the next day all of the problems of syria will remain. 20% of the population are now refugees. one third of them are children. more than 100,000 people are dead and twice that number are wounded, and the balance of power will remain unchanged. >> thank you very much, sheila

and ambassador hill. merck tonight will continue after a break.

would probably be very good at that also. that is it for al-jazeera america. ♪ and welcome back. late summer heat wave has prompted many schools across the country to cancel sporting events. heat stroke is a leading cause of death among athletes, and it is a particular concern for high school football players and their parents at this time of year. one high school in georgia set up new rules after a devastating loss for their team.

>> reporter: it's at the edge of locust grove high school football field just out of atlanta, where glen jones has the best view. his son was forrest jones, number 71 on the football team. a determined kid with endless drive. >> he was a hard worker. he just went after it. >> reporter: forrest never played in a game, but his teammates insist he is always on the field. >> every time i came out on this field, i can feel forth rerest . >> he was a great person. oh, my god. he was special. >> head up, good. >> reporter: two summers ago after practice on a humid overcast summer day, the 235 pound high school sophomore fell down on his way to the locker room. >> they walks down through here,

and between the tree and the light pole here is where they say he collapsed the first time. >> we helped him up and started walking back to the school, and he fell once again. and i thought he was just tired like the rest of us. >> reporter: did you think this has got to be heat related. >> yes, ma'am. that was the first thought in my mind. they said he poured water over his head. took a drink and poured it over his head, and then collapsed there. >> reporter: his had just come home from a week long football camp. >> his urine was real dark, like brownish colored, and where everybody else was comfortable in the house, he would be sweating, and that went on for like a week. so there were signs, but we didn't know what they were. we just thought he had a fever

or something. >> reporter: forrest spent eight days in the hospital, his kidneys slowly failing. >> he woke up for a second, and he said daddy i'm falling. i knew from then on that he wasn't going to make it. i miss everything about him. everything. >> i just didn't want to lose him. we fight we have adversity out here, but at the end of the day we're still best friends and brothers, and i just hate to lose people like that. >> red, hit! >> reporter: after his dead they implemented new rules. only 11 states have instituted

official guidelines to prevent heat stroke, the third leading cause of sudden death among athletes. this has been the worst five years in heat-related deaths since 1975. >> your body starts to almost cook internally. so unless you implement cooling methods, your internal organs will start to fail. if you treat them immediately you can stop that from happening, but if you don't that's when the complications and deaths occur. >> reporter: she studies at an institution named after an nfl player who died in 1991. >> i'm going to get this head piece on you. >> reporter: the heat chamber is at 99 degrees with a humidity

level at just 20%. >> your temperature is about 99.6. so danger zone is once you hit 104. >> reporter: dr. stern monsters -- monsters my temperatures while i exercise for 20 minutes. as soon as i started to run, i could feel the heat. ten minutes on the treadmill wasn't pleasant. >> three, two, one. >> reporter: but the time i finished my temperature was 101. >> you raised 1.3 degrees fahrenheit. >> imagine if i was doing drills or things like that with a football team. >> right. >> reporter: dr. stern says athletes should get plenty of water and rest breaks. the survival rate is good if an athlete can be immersed in cold water or ice immediately after a

collapse. that is more important than getting in an ambulance. back at the high school a pair of angel wings now sits next to the field where forrest had hoped to play. in a way he is still with them on the field, in the huddle, and in the hearts of the people who loved him. >> i buried my mother and my father, nothing like . . . [ sighs ] >> nothing like burr rig your son. >> real heart break there. the cdc tells us that two out of three kids show up to practice at least significantly dehydrated. student athletes also account for close to 50% of all heat-related injuries. dr. sterns rejoins us from the university of connecticut. doctor when we hear the father's story, realizing that he missed so many signs in his son, can

you give us a run down on what we should be look for as parents? what are the warning signs? >> definitely. we use two criteria. the first is a body temperature over 104 degrees. but the first thing what people see is the central nervous system dysfunction. someone is confused disoriented, irritable. if they start to collapse, that's when we really start to recognize heat stroke and start to be concerned. so if any of those symptoms show up that's when the red flags start going off. >> how do you measure that? is it's -- essential for teams to have a thermometer out on the field? >> definitely. we need a body temperature and the cns dysfunction systems. we need a rectal thermometer because that's the only accurate

device we can use, and once we have that body temperature and see it is over 104, we go straight to our treatment. >> so when you talk about cns, you are talk about irritability, confusion? >> yeah, basically the athlete will look kind of out of it. they may collapse. any of those symptoms are really -- are very serious. >> all right. and we have seen some of the tips then about taking preventative measures at the bottom of our screen. other suggestions that you have? you know, getting the fluids in? planning ahead? >> yep. definitely. planning your workouts so they are either really early in the morning or later in the afternoon. making sure athletes have water before, during and aver exercise. decreasing the intensity, and make sure that athletes are climateized to the heat, and this process takes about ten to

14 days, but having the body climateized to the heat means you can cope with the heat. >> when you say climatize, you mean practice in those conditions, work your way up to it? >> yep. yes. exactly. it's a progressive -- yes, progressive steps that allow your body to actually adapt and make changes to better cope with heat. >> all right. dr. rebecca sterns thanks very much for being with us and giving us that incite. >> thank you for having me. coming up here, they are pick up where the u.s. forces left off. afghanistan most elite special forces unit, an exclusive look next on "america tonight." ç]

♪ and now a snapshot of stories making headlines on "america tonight." no thanks to the lunch money. schools are turning down federal funds for healthy lunches. kids just didn't like the food. $11 billion in food aide was able, but the cafeteria said it wasn't enough to make up for those dumped lunches.

a fresh start for sandy hook elementary students. newtown will vote soon on demolishing and rebuilding at the site of the december massacre. following up on that enormous wildfire in california. crews have it 20% contained but the wildfire has consumed an area larger than chicago. it is still quite close to the reservoir which supplies waters to people in the san francisco bay area. al jazeera is the first team to gain contact with the afghan special forces. next year all foreign combat troops are scheduled to leave afghanistan. al jazeera jane ferguson follows one commander, defending his own country for the first time.

>> reporter: the major carries with him enormous responsibility every day. at just 29, he is constantly on call to raid suspected taliban hideouts, and end deadly attacks in his country's capitol. he is the commander of several hundred of afghanistan's most elite special forces. known as the crisis response units. it's a role he feels he was made for. >> i don't see myself being a guy who goes to work at 8:00 and comes back at 4:00 p.m. i'm motivated by this -- this -- this team of people that they just want to fight not only for their country, but also for each other. >> reporter: the job has taken him around the world for training at some of the best military colleges. [ applause ] >> reporter: last year he graduated from ranger school in the u.s., but refuses to be typecast as a western afghan.

>> i have also been an afghan, and will be an afghan always. >> reporter: being afghan is key to his role. his men still need foreign mentors to assist them. but the fight is increasingly afghan on afghan. al jazeera got exclusive access with the special forces and were invited to witness the fight. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: and this is what the fight against the teleban looks like today. the special forces stormed this house in the province hunting quickly for taliban members. within seconds they arrest a man. they are looking for a bomb maker. just tell me what is going on he pleads. these people have been taken by complete surprise.

but the come -- compound is huge and every staircase and room after room must be searched. they find a bag of fertilizer for both farming and making exclosives. the house is full of women and children. there are few men around. so they go to a mosque nearby. several men are found sleeping there. one could be who they are look for. the afghans move cautiously making him lift his shirt to check for a suicide vest. his phone has the sill card removed, a tactic often used by the teleban to avoid being tracked. this raid is an in urban area, so the soldiers drove to the house in darkness. often they have to take a helicopter into dangerous taliban territory and walk for kilometers to avoid detection.

all of the lights seen here are infrared. that house with the lights on is the target house for these soldiers. they have hiked through the night and they believe a senior taliban commander is in there. men are interrogated. the house searched and intelligence gathered. the major is happy with the result. >> basically we have detained everybody around the compound that we were looking for, and we're doing the screening trying to find out who is our right guy. we have a pretty good idea who we're looking for. >> reporter: and you'll stay here until you know in >> pretty much. >> reporter: head back to the capitol with the suspect, their work is done for the night. the suspected taliban members will be handed over to the judges. their fate is now in the hands

of the state. but that is a huge challenge for these men. many of the taliban members they capture are later released. allegation of taliban fighters bribing their way out of jail are common. at other times a political favor sets them free. the major sometimes meets them again on other raids. >> it's frustrated because you arrest a guy two months ago, with a lot of convicting evidence on -- on him, and then two months later you see him again in another compound. then it's -- it's frustrating. you know, what are you doing here? we arrested you two months ago with mines and bombs. >> reporter: he says he is so determined to stop them, he would rather see them dead then let them have the opportunity to buy their freedom. >> next time i'll kill you. you know, jthat's what keeps the men and myself motivated.

as long as we just keep going, then that's fine. if i keep them away for two months, i'll go every two months after them. >> reporter: going after them could be more difficult in the future. for these men the withdrawal of foreign forces is complicated. how to hand the capability over to the afghans is still unresolved. the country's exspy chief who has worked closely with the cia in the past says they will need that help. >> when it comes to high morale fighting, motivation, those elements are there. what are the missing elements that cripples their ability to replace u.s., is intelligence, surveillance, and recognizance capabilities. so the americans have not yet

started [ inaudible ] to afghan special forces. >> reporter: every mission still involves foreign mentors. even the gunners on this helicopter are american. raids are monitored from drones with cameras, and only the mentors can call in u.s. air support. just to get into a target house like this, these afghan forces rely on surveillance and reconnaissance from the u.s. military. they can do the best job possible on the ground, but without the intelligence of where to go, they won't be as effective as they are now. the major says that is something they may have to learn to live with. >> i don't believe we can mention entirely self-sufficient due to the situation in afghanistan because it has to be a brood comprehensive support to all of the other organizations in the country. for example, the air support, the intelligence support, the

judicial services, so a strike unit cannot really operate on its own, no matter how good and capable it is. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: a bigger problem, unless pakistan takes part in serious negotiations, afghan forces won't be able to win. pakistan is often accused of sheltering the taliban and their allies. >> can the afghan army defeat pakistan? no. but we can defeat the taliban and we do it every day. what happens the next day, another group from another country comes into afghanistan. >> reporter: those coming in sometimes threaten these men's familiar list. the lead pilot on one mission did not wish to be identified

but had to move his family abroad after death threats were brought against his children. >> i brought them to the airport and moved them to the other location. i changed their location three or four times, and then i found a place for them to stay. >> reporter: this can be a controversial job for muslims but the major believes the denttive of the taliban is not real. >> that's not really islam the way they fight. it's extremism. it's radicalism. it's the way they are being motivated to fight is -- is nowhere that i have studied islam. the suicide bombing, the attacks in the city to kill innocent people, that's not acceptable in any religion i would say. >> reporter: he is determined to keep fighting regardless of the risks he faces in the field, and the challenges his men face as they fight this war increasingly by themselves.

they are the country's most elite fighters, and they know if they can't do the job, no one can. >> an exclusive report from al jazeera's jane ferguson. when we return, history written on scraps. >> and it's so friendetic about it that he has written on paper towels and toilet paper. >> meet the man who smuggled out what became known as the letter from a birmingham jail.

♪ sure that stories don't escape them. >> every day a storm of views. >> meet the man who smuggled out

>> meet the man who smuggled out ♪ it is an emotional week here in washington as the city marks the 50th anniversary of dr. martin luther king jr's i have a dream speech. which was delivered on the steps of the lincoln memorial. but there was another message from dr. king that historians agree set in motion a revolutionary movement, one which lead to the march on washington. tonight the story of the letter from a birmingham jail. >> when you were coming to birmingham in 1963, you were coming to ku klux klan country.

birmingham had nor unsolved bombings of negro homes and churches than any other city in the nation. the ku klux klan and racial segregationalists were not about to let some negro preacher from atlanta or some group of demonstrators either in birmingham or outside the state to come and change their way of life. this is our place. this is our power. how dare you come in and want to take -- share our power from us. >> it was some very dark days in birmingham, alabama. >> in birmingham then the police was the back person niggers fear. >> they had intimidated the working black people, and dr. king knew that. the movement was stagnated. it was dead. >> i'm going to say to you, wait a minute birmingham, somebody has got to have some sense in

birmingham. >> dr. martin luther king was invited to come to birmingham to help with the situation. >> as difficult as it is, we must meet hate with love. >> we would also meet at 16th street baptist church. that was the meeting place for dr. king. ♪ i'm on my way >> it was always firey meetings with a lot of good singing, a lot of good friends. ♪ i'm on my way ♪ i'm on my way ♪ to freedom at last >> dr. king was arrested on good friday april 12th, 1963. he was jailed for parading without a permit. so dr. king is in jail, and i don't know how many, but a substantial number of people, young people particularly in jail -- when i say young people,

i'm talking about kids 14 to 18. there may have been some younger, but 14 to 18, and being in jail overnight is one thing, but being in jail more than one or two nights became a major issue. i think the first time i visited him may have been that saturday. as i approached the jail, i had the burden of being identified as quote, dr. king's new york lawyer. so the parents, as i went in to see dr. king, they were shouting at me. attorney jones get our kids out of jail. and the reason they were upset was that we didn't have the money, sufficient money to bail at that time. at the end of the day, they would say, well, dr. king he lead this demonstration, got these kids in jail, and then his organization didn't even have the resources to bail them out.

i went in to tell dr. king, we have a major issue on our hands, martin -- doctor, i said. well, much to my surprise, he virtually dismissed me. he said have you seen this? i said what is this? and he holds up a newspaper, and in that newspaper there's a full page ad signed by eight prominent white clergymen from birmingham. he was angry. he was hurt. but he was motivated like i had never seen him motivated. he had an old newspaper and all of the blank spaces where there's not text or ads, he has written, and he's so frenetic about it that he has written on paper towels and toilet paper. and he said take these out and get these typed.

take them to dr. walker to get them typed. let me say parenthetically here. wyatt walker must have been 30 something at the time. very charismatic and handsome man. >> i am wyatt t walker, the former chief of staff to martin luther king, and author and historian. dr. king said if we can break birmingham we can break the south, and that's what happened. >> martin gives me these scraps of paper. i put them in my shirt, and took them out to wyatt walker. >> we were in a room in the motel, they brought these pieces of paper to me. i was the only one in birmingham who would read dr. king's chicken scratch writing as we described it.

so it was my task to translate it, and my personal secretary, maggie king had the responsibility of typing it as i translated it. >> she is alleged to have said he may be a great speaker, but he can't write. because his handwriting was very difficult. >> we worked late into the night and early morning, and she was exhausted, and i remember picking her up, moving her to a chair, and i continued write -- typing the last part of it. it took the better part of two evenings. the lawyers came by the motel and i gave them what we had done. >> i didn't pay any attention to the letter. okay? didn't even think about it. it was not in my mind until i suddenly learned they think the quakers were going to publish the letter in one of their

newsletters, and that the letter, using today's terminology, the letter went viral. >> i think it was the most important document of the 20th century. very much like the gettiesberg address, and it became the great [ inaudible ] of our movement. >> my dear fellow clergymen while confined here in the birmingham city jail, i came across your recent statement calling our present activities unwise and untimely. >> you deploy the demonstrations that take place in birmingham, but your statements i am sorry to say failed to express a similar concern about the conditions that brought about demonstrations. >> it is unfortunate that demonstrations are take place in birmingham, but it is even more

unfortunate that the city's white power structure left the negro community with no alternative. >> when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six year old daughter why she cannot go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and you see tears welling up in to her little eyes when she is told that fun town is closed to colored people. >> when you take a cross-country drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable coners of your automobile because no motel will accept you, when you were humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white men and colored, when your first name becomes nigger and your middle name becomes boy, and your last name becomes john,

when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of nobodiness, then you will understand why it is difficult to wait. ♪ there's nothing you can do, to turn me around ♪ ♪ to turn my around >> all of that came from his heart. he wanted white america to see what they were doing. he wanted white america to see how hurtful it was. >> the letter was a national call to the conscious of america using the real life, real time reality of birmingham as its template. birmingham then became the spark that ignited the prairie fire of negro resistance which was transformed into negro revolution. >> dr. martin luther king's, jr.

unmatched delivery and his timeless words as we well know made history. still to come, the man we just introduced you to, clarence jones shares a little known fact about dr. king's iconic speech. hot it all came together is coming up next. ç]

♪ exactly 50 years ago this evening, not far from here, washington's famed willard hotel, a young black preacher sat trying to write a speech. the words didn't come to him that night, instead it wasn't until the next afternoon as he stood before hundreds of thousands of people on the great mall that the preacher found a way to tell america about his dream. today i met dr. clarence jones who is a lawyer, a counselor, sometimes a cure your, and i asked him how martin luther k g king, jr. found those mighty words. >> i would like you to bring me back to august 27th, '50 years

ago at the willard hotel. >> dr. king was in the hotel in a suite working on the speech with his wife. he had given considerable thought about the direction or -- not specifically the exact words, but the direction, the -- >> you had taken some notes for him? >> well, i had taken some notes. the notes which i had taken were really notes which incorporated previous discussions we had had. i already had written down in long hand some suggested paragraphs, textual words that he might consider using. what i wrote was not some clarence jones creativity i wrote a summary -- i put it in a

way that could be used in a speech. he says clarence. thank you very much. i'll take the notes, and i'm going upstairs and counsel with the lord to finish my speech in the room with my wife. so the next day i'm standing 50 feet behind him. and i'm listening, and my ear is tracking what he's saying, and i'm saying to myself, i said oh, my god, i said oh, i guess -- i guess he decided to -- to use the suggested text. and i wasn't surprised -- because i was saying to myself, in the interest of time he felt comfortable, he wasn't using something new, and as was his custom he seamlessly add on to the paragraph i suggested, he seamlessly added on his own paragraph, and at some point when he is speaking from the text of that which i had

written -- by the way that which i had written really constituted the first seven paragraphs of the speech thereafter it was his paragraphs. at that point when he's speaking his paragraphs had been seamlessly connected to the ones i wrote. [ inaudible ] jackson shouted to him, tell him about the dream martin. tell them about the dream. and i saw him respond to her call by moving the prepared text he was writing to the left side of the lectern, grabbed the lectern, looked out to all of these people, and i said these people don't know it, but they are about ready to go to church. >> and they did. >> and they did. >> and then you heard the words. >> and then i heard him speak. >> i have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its

creed. we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. [ cheers and applause ] >> i had seen the speech many times but on this occasion it's as if some force came down and took over the body of the martin king that i knew and heard. he was speaking in a way that i had never ever heard him speak, and never heard him speak that way before, ever. >> but what was that first moment like? what were the first words you heard that you thought here it comes? >> it was the tone of his voice, and it was when he -- when he -- he was challenging the establishment of segregation, because he says, i have a dream that one day, right down in the

red hills of georgia and in alabama, okay, the great, great grand sons of slaves and slave owners will sit down to the table together. i may not be there, but i have a dream one day that this will occur. >> dr. clarence b jones as we look to tomorrow and the 50th anniversary of the speech that changed america. join us for live coverage tomorrow starting at 2:00 p.m. if you would like to comment on any story you have seen tonight, log on to aljazeera.com/americatonight. have a good evening, and we'll see you back here tomorrow. ♪

welcome to al jazeera, i'm john siegenthaler. here are the headlines. the obama administration says it is certain chemical weapons were used in syria, and blames the syrian government for the attack. the white house has promised an intelligence report on the attack later this week. >> translator: we are all hearing the drums of war being beat around us, if the countries are willing to launch a military act against syria, i believe the pretext of chemical weapons is false, baseless and groundless. and as i said, i challenge, i dare them to produce one single piece of evidence. inspectors from the un are