>> thousands of children killed, millions displaced. the humanitarien crisis in syria descends into chaos. after arrests in the u.s. and italy, how powerful is the mafia today? >> a former marine decides the best way to fight terrorism is to fight extreme poverty. >> despite hundreds of billions of year, the government fails the test on mental health. >> welcome to consider this. here's more on what's ahead.

>> the on going civil war in syria. >> president obama called the peace talks frustrating. >> syria must meet its commitments and russia has a responsibility to make sure it complies. >> we are making much progress. >> the group wants an islamic state in syria fighting against the regime. >> the jihadists are more ruthless than assad's regime. >> f.b.i. agents teaming up. >> two dozen arrests. >> they brought down accused mob leaders on both sides of the atlantic. >> millions of egyptians came to the streets. >> people are gathering in the largest demonstrations against president mubarak. >> this did he have's any definitions. >> we begin with a passionate cry for help for the syrian people and remarkable pictures from the heart of the con applicant between the moderate

opposition and one of the countries most radical groups. while peace talks weren't nowhere tuesday, "the new york times" published an opinion peace entitled use force to save starving syrians. the authors call for just that, writing: >> for more, i'm joined by co author of that opinion piece in the times. he's associate professor and director of the center for middle east studies at the joseph korbel studies in denver. >> you write that 800,000 people are under siege in syria. another article quotes a dutch priest saying people are going mad from hunger. just how bad have things gotten for innocent syrians?

>> it's gotten bad and getting worse. the point is that unless the international community steps up, the worst is yet to come. i mean, we've had almost three years of conflict characterized by war crimes, crimes against humanity, chemical weapons, the targeting of children and now on top of all of these atrocities, we have a kneel or starve policy and that's going to continue until the international community does something about it. >> what do you want the u.s. and international community to do? >> i think to use all the normal mechanisms available to the international community to get the u.n. to pass a resolution,

send a clear message to the assad regime that unless it lifts those sieges and allows humanitarien access then the international community is prepared to use force. of course the key obstacle, this is not a new argument. this has been debated for several months and russia has consistently blocked and threatened to veto any action that involves coercive measures. we take it one step further. we're of the view this given the immense humanitarien suffering in syria today, if russia vetoes another resolution we need to invoke the doctrine to do something. >> value put seems to be too busy watching figure skating in

sochi to wary about starving people. even if they agree, would that solve the humanitarien crisis? >> no, there would have to be an organized systemic effort to ensure continuous sort of access to -- by humanitarien aid workers into these sieges, besieged cities. it would have to be sophisticated and something that would involve at least this immediate problem. it's pretty clear that putin is going to veto any proposed resolution, then the ball is back in the court of the international community. is the international community going to simply sort of allow vladimir putin and bashar al assad to have veto power over whether hundreds of thousands of syrians eat or not? it's time to take it one step further. i hope that the opinion piece we wrote will put this issue on the

agenda, force countries in the world, primarily the united states, but also european countries to not allow russia to continue to play an obstructionist role with respect to the lives of hundreds of thousands of syrians. >> talking about the u.s. and europe, this is what president obama had to say speaking at length about syria on tuesday with the french president: >> i always reserve the right to exercise military action on behalf of america's national security interests, but that has to be deployed wisely. i think what we saw with respect to the chemical weapons situation was an example of the judicious wise use of possible military action. >> do you agree that the president's threat to strike the chemical weapons and or the threat of going in and attacking was successful and that it could be tried again? we have heard all the stories about barrel bombs being dropped

on syrian civilians and people still being killed by assad, just not with chemical weapons. >> certainly it was successful in terms of giving assad to give up or at least attempted to give up chemical weapons, that he claimed he didn't have or use was largely because of the threat of force. those chemical weapons were responsible for at most 1% of the atrocities. since last september, since the use of chemical weapons, tens of thousands of syrians have died, you mentioned barrel bombs being dropped from helicopters and they are allowed to fly precisely because obama decided not to strike syria and take out assad's air force and as a consequence, we have i amments humanitarien suffering. obama needs to be challenged on this issue, needs to be pushed and needs to be sort of, you know, presented with the predictable consequences of his

broadly failed policy on syria. >> there's so much war weariness in the united states, how much involvement would the u.s. have to have? >> the argument has to change, of course. now we're see that go syria's no longer simply a humanitarien cries. it's become a national security and global security crisis. europe is deeply concerned about the influx of some of its muslim residents into syria joining radical groups, the point wing that what's going to happen when these people return to europe? in other words, syria today is the new afghanistan. the director of national intelligence just the other day sent 7,000 foreign fighters, the head of homeland security has said syria is a national security concern for the united states, so the national security argument have to be invoked. i that i that's what obama has

to come to terms win terms of making an argument for why syria matters not only for stability in the middle east but now increasingly for global security. >> it's because the worst refugee crisis in the world. there's anger toward the west from mod receipts who are not happy the west didn't intervene and the more extremist groups could represent it as the u.s. and western nations coming in as crusader nations attacking muslims. >> they certainly with him do that. if obama were to shift policy and intervene in a significant way, to arm the moderate syrian opposition, take out assad's air force, show that after three years of standing on the sidelines we are intervening on behalf of the interests of the syrian people, we want to deeply support their right to self determination, we are going to get radical groups condemning the united states for being an

imperial power, but also rally support particularly from the syrian people who have been becking the united states to come to their rescue, free them from this fascist regime so something needs to save these people from starving. thanks for your time. >> we have some remarkable pictures that are part of that pbs report showing the chaos between the opposition and radicals,s islamic state of iraq in syria, entering the country on three occasion to say get this report. we're going to show you covering moderate forces in a joint assault on an isis compound in a strategic syrian town. >> he leads his men towards the

base. he orders them to surround it. one of the fighters films the battle. a sniper covers the rebels as they advance. [ gunfire ] [ explosions ] >> the men move in. >> for more, i'm joined by front

line correspondent in an exclusive front line report. it will be available on line at pbs.org. the north of syria is one of the most chaotic parts of the civil war in jair and it really is one of the most dangerous parts of the world right now, the extremist islamic group isis is in control. how did you get into the area? >> it was simply that i wasn't invited by the rebels to cover some kind of action on the ground, how isis was growing up and controlling the northern areas of syria. it was very dangerous, because many journalists were kidnapped in the past few months, and nothing about them. the point that isis was controlling many towns and

village along the borders and there was no way to avoid the check points, so we had to avoid them sometimes by driving through farm lands and other times claiming we are battalions or we are fighters, so the situation was very dangerous and risky, but i was believing that the story worth, you know, to tell and i decided to go and get this mission. >> syria is the most dangerous place in the world right now for journalists and the northern part certainly the motor dangerous part within syria. the video we just showed is an offensive launch by moderate syrian rebels against the extremists. how successful was it? >> it was very surprising that they were able to take the areas

back and in two weeks, most of the areas were controlled in about two weeks. the resistance was water weak, the rebels expecting big battles, but it was the first experience for isis fighters. they didn't expect maybe the kind of fighting back from the rebels. >> from the mod receipts. did the mod relates just really haven't been helped much from the west. they haven't been getting arms. how much help do they need? >> how much help do they need to continue the battle? >> i mean, when they started the battle, they didn't get anything. this is what i saw, not just heard from them, and they were

first to embark in this battle, because if isis was going to continue more and control more areas, they were going to be stuck between the regime forces and the jihadist belong to isis and they had to do this battle for the future i think is going to be hard battle, because we can't forget that the mod receipts are fighting the regime, as well, so it's very hard for them to fight in two fronts without any kind of strong support. >> right, they're fighting on two front. >> why did you go back? you were gone and shelled on a recent trip. >> yeah, that was one year ago and it was by the regime forces attack. i don't know, i survived and the team with me and the fighters, so i was lucky enough to

survive, actually, because it was a strong attack, and after that, i decided to continue my coverage, because i was doing that before to get the truth out, and since i survived it, so it's a good sign for me to continue my currently. >> you snuck into the town that isis sees before the rebel attack and had a local person shoot the video of an isis rally. what happened there and why were you afraid to shoot the rally yourself. >> it wasn't that i was afraid. i was in the same place of the rally and i was with local fighters, and i tried to with my camera, but was 15 meters away from the stage, so i asked the fighters to go and find an area, they said it's dangerous for you. they will figure that because you are not local and they will do something with you, so after

a few minutes discussing, they advice me to give my camera to a local guy and there was some guy agreed to do that and we had that foot only. >> i know you've witnessed terrible brutality, at least 11,000 children dead, thousands orphaned. millions displaced or have become refugees in countries around syria. we saw those recent horrible pictures of torture allegedly by the regime. what do you want the world to know about what's happening in your country? >> partly i was doing this story to show that there are civilians are suffering so much not only because of the extremists who are growing up in the ground, but because of the regime shelling and the attacks from aircraft, it does not exclude anybody, and this is the same

thing happening since three years, and for me, i'm doing this story hoping that the international committee will get inside syria to do something in syria and to get to part of this war to stop it or to push, you know, some side to peaceful talks, you know, and ending, you know, with what's the same people want since the revolution started. >> hope to go alleviate some of the suffering there, thank you for joining us. the front line report, syria's second front is debuting tonight. check your local listings for the time, also available at pbs.org. >> with a big crackdown here and italy, what's the state of the mafia today? our social media correspondent

is tracking stories on the web. >> washington state takes a strong stance on the death penalty. i'll tell you more coming up. tell us what you think, join us on the show on twitter, facebook and google plus pages. ♪

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before.

>> a major mob takedown in new york city has swept up several members of crime families. the alleged new york families and crime syndicate in italy were busted for numerous offenses. court papers read like a screen play detailing a plot to smuggle cocaine but stuffing it in fish and pineapples. the conventional wisdom is that the american mafia is a shadow of its former self, but is it? >> it's good to be in something from the ground floor. i came too late for that, i know. but lately, i'm getting the feel that i came in at the end, the best is over. >> joining us now from orange county, california is michael a former columbo family captain who served eight years in prison for racketeering. in 1986, he made foreign magazine's list of the

wealthiest mafia leaders in the world and portrayed in goodfellas. he has renounced organized crime and is an author. prosecutors say the aim of the parties was to build a bridge of criminality, drugs and corruption stretching from south america to italy back to new york. what does this tell but the state of the new york mafia? >> it certainly is not in the same condition it was when i left it in the 1980's, but goes to show you, i always say this, we won't see their demise in our lifetime. these are a resourceful group and they keep building, every time the government eases up on them a little bit, they continue to build and get stronger. >> so we heard in that little clip that tony sow bran plan know talking about the end of the mafia. you think the characterization that their decimated and weak is not true? >> it's been weakened. all the new laws that came about

in the 1980's certainly did a lot of damage. back in my day, they had 12 or 1400 f.b.i. agents in new york alone that were assigned to all five families. according to what i heard recently, that number is down to now 200. that gives guys on the street the chance to build up again and they're pretty resourceful. i doubt we've seen their demise. >> the gap bean know family was historically linked to the italian family, but eclipsed by this alliance with the crime syndicate and now the operation that police crackdown on today, according to the court documents, is huge. it was transatlantic drug trafficking involving mexican drug cartels with cocaine in guiuan in a, involved canada, the u.s., italy, shipping containers that apparently had $7 million in cocaine stuffed in pineapples and coconut milk

ended up being seized in malaysia. does the size of this enterprise surprise you? >> not really. back in my day, it was the pizza connection, i was familiar with that operation, and i was in jail with many of them during the 1980s. again, these guys are very, very resourceful. they have a good network. drugs is a major, and there's still strong demand for it. none of this surprises me. sometimes we look at some of the movies and on sopranos especially, these guys are depicted at not very bright, but that's just not true. there are a lot of guys that are pretty intelligent and resourceful and now how to get things done. >> the syndicate is considered vicious. pope francis recently addressed the brutality, referring to there was an execution style hit that killed three people, including a 3-year-old boy and he asked for the people who did that to come further and repent.

the crime syndicate is alleged to have killed a rival and then feed him -- then having fed him to pigs. who are these guys? >> well again, this is nothing new. back in my day, we had a policy that we never heard women or children. we wouldn't go after law enforcement, that was hands off. we beat them in court if anything, but it's always been different in italy. they go after prosecutors, after families. it's a brutal group, and this is nothing new. i mean it's been operating that way as far back as i can rahm. >> how has the american mob focused shifted since your days? >> back in my day, we had a bigger network, we were strong in the unions, we were spread out a lot differently. the government did a good job in

taking a lot of that away he is verbally in new york where we had union control all over the country and they deplete that had to a great degree even though there is some involvement. these guys being resourceful, they're always in the gambling business, they'll always be sherlocking money, trying to move in on legitimate business in anyway they can. that's the difference between the mafia here in the united states is that we integrated into the entire fabric of society from politics down to major business right down to the street where a lot of other groups that were built around the drug business, but we had influence on every level of society and that's why we've prospered really for the last 100 years in this country. >> michael, thank you for coming on the show and for your in sight. >> thank you. >> switching topics now. after every mass shooting in the u.s., the conversation inevitably turns to gun control with only passing reference to

mental illness. one prominent psychiatrist said more than half of the mass shootings in modern history have been committed by people with severe mental illness and could have been prevented if treatment were veil. join us now is the doctor, the author of american psychos, how the federal government destroyed the mental illness treatment system, likely the most prominent schizophrenia researcher in america has authored books and is the founder of the treatment advocacy center. great to have you with us, doctor, american psychosis, the name of the book, but the title doesn't just refer to people who suffer from mental illness. you describe the federal government's effort to deal with mental illness starting with letting the mentally ill out of state hospitals. you describe what was done there then as an egregious error. >> it's not clear whose crazy.

people with schizophrenia obviously qualify, but the government, the way we have emptied the hospitals without providing treatment qualifies at crazy, too. >> your sister was a sitsen frommic. >> that's true, she developed it as the age of 17, died three years ago. she was in the hospital for about 25 years. she had a severe case and unfortunately, we still don't have treatments that will allow people to live completely normally. >> 60 minutes spoke to a number of parents who were struggling to get their kids help, often going to the emergency room for that and they spoke about how pervasive the stigma is. >> what is the difference between being the mother of a child who has mental illness and the mother of a child who might have heart disease or cancer? >> sympathy. >> empathy. >> casseroles. >> it's hard to hear that. is stigma still a huge issue. does your family experience

this? you do write a lot about rosemary kennedy and how stigma affected the way the kennedys dealt with her mental illness. >> we're talking about the 1940's and 1950's, certainly stigma was a huge issue, less of an issue now, but it still is there. if the kennedys had gotten proper treatment for their daughter, probably they had not have had her lo both mazed and a lot of it was stigma that forced her to hide her and not be public about what was wrong. >> you have gotten criticism for saying that most of these shooters are mentally ill because some advocates make people think that all mentally impeople are violent. clearly, the mental health system is failing to identify these people or to identify them and then connect them with law enforcement in a way that these shootings can be prevented. >> let me be clear. most people with severe mental illness are not violent.

there's a small number, usually with schizophrenia or man i can epressive, bipolar disorder and almost always untreated. if we treated these people, we would not have these mass shootings. half of caused by mentally ill people who are not being treated. >> let's talk about the whole issue of how the federal government has failed us. there was this horrible case in virginia recently. state senator craig deeds was stabbed multiple times by his son. he tried to get the son help. he ended up being released because there weren't enough psychiatric beds available. how big of a problem is that? >> it's a huge problem. it's not only the federal government, but the state government. state governments have closed down the hospitals in an attempt to save money and therefore when even someone like a state senator, like senator deeds could not get a bed for his son when he clearly needed it and

ended up tragically, we see these every day, you just don't see them in the news because their fathers are not senators. >> what can be done? i know you are in favor of less stringent rules on in voluntary hospitallation and say in your book the freedom to be insane is a cruel hoax perpetrated on those who cannot think clearly by those who will not think clearly. critics will think easier involuntary hospitalization might lead to fewer people seeking help. >> there's no evidence for that whatsoever. the people who are involuntarily hospitalized, the majority of them retrospectively will acknowledge that it was necessary. it's a myth that if you have involuntary treatment laws that people won't seek treatment. it's very important to realize it's only a small number who need to be involuntary hospitalized. these are the people who don't know they're sick and these are

the people who end up in jail and commit crimes and end up homeless on the streets. we are not talking about a large number of people but those who need the treatment need the treatment and often it has to be with jib voluntary hospitalization. >> you talk about how so many mentally ill people ending up on the streets and in hospitals and this phenomenal cost to society. >> it is a huge cost and a cost that i don't think we necessarily need to pay. we are actually better off in the past when we had more hospital beds. now there's simply not enough beds for the people who need them and therefore people get turned away when they need treatment. >> how would you suggest that we proceed then with more flexible involuntary hospitalizations. >> i would put the responsibility first of all back with the states. the federal government has really messed up the system on it.

sixty, 70 years ago, it was a state responsibility. i would put the responsibility back to the states and hold them responsible. state legislature and the governors on it. secondly, you do need enough beds. thirdly for the small number of people who don't know they're sick and have demonstrated dangerousness, they do need to be treated involuntary on an out patient commitment. you can live in the community, but you must take your medicine, that's the condition for living in the community. >> so many important points raised by the book, the american psychosis, how the government destroyed the mental treatment system. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> time to see what's trending on aljazeera america's website. >> the governor of washington state said tuesday that he'll suspend the death penalty. speaking at a news conference, the governor said he used to be in favor of the death penalty but after months of meeting with family members of victims, prosecutors and law enforcement has changed his position.

>> a system that does not detour crime, cost citizens millions of dollars more than life imprisonment without parole is uncertain in its application, is not right. you can say it's not moral, but i can say it's not right. >> he is not reversing sentences or releasing anyone from prison but won't sign any death penalty cases that come to his desk. the state has sentenced 32 people to death, one man was set free and 18 others sentences converted to life in prison. nine men await execution in washington. >> now to your reaction on our facebook page, al says:

>> you can read more at the website. back to you. >> straight ahead, how one marine's experiences in iraq led him to a different fight in the war on terror. >> three years later, the egyptian revolution.

al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on

facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. >> are western governments taking the right steps to fight the emergence of terrorism? drones fire from skies, all to little avail. our next guest has taken a different approach to ending terrorism, setting his sights on an altogether different foe, extreme poverty. >> there are bad people in this world, and there always will be. we need our armed force to say protect us from those people, but terrorists rely on an endless supply of desperate people living in extreme poverty with no other options in life. the only chance we have to see the end of terrorism is to end extreme poverty.

>> we're joined here in new york by jake, a former u.s. marine who has made it his mission to fight extreme poverty throughout the world, just returning from his organization setting up its second program. great to have you here. see ago farmer in iraq get killed inspired you to set up your group? >> that's correct, i was one of the leading unit in the invasion and i had an awakening experience in combat with that farmer. in the beginning days of the war as we moved north, a lot of the iraqi army had been retreating to make a final stand in baghdad and they were recruiting poor farmers basically saying your children are starving, if you fight these guys, we'll feet your families, make sure the kids get to school. we were fighting these guys by the hundreds and thousands.

>> after see that go and what they went through, you decided that you wanted to fight extreme poverty, that was the way you thought you could make a difference and combat terrorism. extreme poverty is defined as people who live on less than $1.25 a day. you see it differently. >> it's not just us. there's a growing movement now that extreme poverty is a lack of basic resources, but it's more than that. extreme poverty really is about a lack of meaningful choices for basic human rights. we're not the only ones thinking this. there are brilliant minds out there who are really making a strong statement now that poverty is about a lack of resources, but it's also about this lack of choices. desperate people do desperate things to protect their families. >> why do you think fighting extreme poverty is going to lead to a victory over terrorism or at least to fight terrorism. >> absolutely. i believe poverty doesn't cause

terrorism, but that i believe extreme poverty, taking away choices, creating desperation fuels the movements of terrorism and insurgency and general global instability around the world. if we can take away that desperation, we take away the fuel that gross these movements. that's got to be the central component in the strategy to fight, taking both military action and global involvement. >> what are you trying to do? >> we are trying to build the world's first integrated self sustains and self scaling development model to fight post. we have approached agriculture health care education and economic development and we actually build a for-profit company that over time becomes profitable, those profits end up paying for the non-profit work in these communities over time, so it's independent of donations. >> it's training people to take control of their lives, it's. >> absolutely. >> don't give them a fish, team them how to fish.

>> we believe it's really important for solutions to last, the local people have to own them. they have to be part of creating these solutions with us. when we're gone, long after when these solutions break, they know how to fix them because they helped build them. >> you had your first project in kenya and moved to ethiopia. how are things going in kenya. >> going great, we are two years out, right now five years into our project, full exit in seven years. we have a staff of 300 henians running the program and they are basically advisors at this point, building skills there specifically around project management. >> you have kenyans working for you. where does the money come from to get this going? >> high net worth investors, silicon valley here and in manhattan, non-traditional donors for this field.

>> you were in kenya when the terrorists, the horrible terrorists act at the mall and nairobi happened. what were the people you were working with say about that? >> you know, there's always going to be bad people in this word, not all terrorists are recruited out of desperation and hunger. i think al shabab, the proponents of that attack do a lot of recruiting from the poor areas in kenya. there was a piece done in january about that specifically, one of the greatest recruiting pools for al-qaeda and al shabab come from extremely poor village. >> one of the things that struck me as i was reading about what you're doing is that the money that you get, you do funnel it back into these communities many times in the form of loans and that you've had almost 100% repayment. >> yeah, it's phenomenal. we, the folks we're working with are brave, resourceful individuals. it's about building their

integrity back, about building up their self-esteem so they believe that they could do this on their own. a lot of that is not about a handout, it's giving them a loan that they can repay. they have the desire and drive to be able to pay that back because they believe in themselves and they're part of the solution. >> what are you doing now? >> we just finished building our agriculture program. we learn fertilizer and seed to farmers, teach them to properly use those using best economic practices from around the world and supervise them in the implementation of those in put to say dramatically increase crop yields. >> what are your long term hopes? how many countries can you be in? >> we have a big vision. we hope to bring about the end of extreme poverty. we can do this in our time today. i think the world has built a glass ceiling on the problem of extreme poverty, not thinking we can accomplish it but we have the power to do it within our time today. our job is to work ourselves out

of a job. >> the people are tremendously grateful? >> absolutely. they're great partners and friends and family of mine at this point. >> it must be incredibly satisfying and obviously a terrific thing that do you and i wish you the best of luck. great to have you on the show. >> thank you. >> straight ahead, we go to the dogs, and increasingly implicit westminster kennel club show. >> a look at the change in egypt and where the country is today three years after hosni mubarek was deposed.

>> today we bring you a doggone data dive. the westminster kennel club is the second longest consecutively held sporting event in the u.s. after the kentucky derby. this year, it led mixed breeds compete. the dog show saw dogs from all 50 states, had more than one foreign entries. 190 breeds and varieties competed. the wire fox terrier is without question the most successful single breed in the competition's history, winning best in show a record 13 times. this is the prime event of the year for dogs and it doesn't come cheap. there's major primping. a dog must look its best. they all have handlers and there even is such a thing as a dog. ist. advertising can run $100,000. total cost to show your dog

leading up to westminster could be $250,000. the pay back could come in the form of breeding fees and there is unquestionably big cash in canines. coming up, tracking the big changes in egypt through an oscar nominated lens on history.

>> the arc of history bends toward justice, the road there is rarely smooth. we continue our series on oscar nominated documentaries with the square, a firsthand account of the uprisings in egypts tahrir square. the rootiestors euphoria when president hosni mubarek was ousted. >> these people know what issues they want to build and know how to build it instinctively. we need an end to that process, the army needs to step aside.

>> he directed it and he produced it, they join us today. the square is streaming on netflix and in theaters throughout the country. i know the film is so powerful when you first did it, but you had to add on to it after you finished it because of what happened last summer with the overthrow of morsi. the last time we spoke to you,

you talked about the people you had spoken to in egypt and they felt egypt was in a dark place but despite the military takeover they were grateful for what happened in tahrir square and did not think egypt was go back to what it was like under mubarak. how do people in the documentary feel about how things are in egypt now. >> speaking with all of them, they all feel like this is a long struggle, a struggle for change in any country around the world, if you look at the struggle for apartheid, against apartheid, the struggle for civil rights in this country, it's a long struggle, and we are three years into it. what we can do with art is to basically show that we need to respect humanity and human beings on all sides of -- in all egyptians should be respected, regardless of political background. i think all of our characters feel that way and continue to

struggle for human rights, freedom of expression and social justice. >> your film depicts the urgent nature of the protest. what exactly are they able to do now, the people that he was just talking about who are still fighting for western democracy? where do they stand now, what are they doing day to day? >> i think that, you know, i think that everybody who tasted that feeling of freedom, that everybody who felt that voice, that power in that square, you know, and those who call tahrir home are not going to give up. what was born in that square was a sense of dignity, for the first time, egyptians felt that they could be the authors of their future. i think that right now, there is a, you know, there i see the dedicated few that's committed to -- committed to claim their sense of authorship to the future of the country.

i think that any force that's come in since the revolution has started that has not understood that has failed, as we've seen. i think it's an on going struggle, but i stay optimistic, because i believe in the relentlessness of this dedicated few. >> now, the square isn't approved for public screenings i understand egyptian, but people are getting to see it. what's the response now. >> i think it's been incredible to see this. i think that once again, we've seen that egyptians are, you know especially theun egyptians are going to take things into their own hands, and people are, it's been all over, pirated in different ways, and it's been fantastic, because i think it's create add lot of debate, a lot of confidences, the overwhelming support, amount of comments on the film are positive, there are people who claim it's more to one -- some people say it's more on the brotherhood, others say

it's more on the army. i think that it's creating debate is healthy. in egypt, we've been living moment to moment to moment and haven't had a chance to reflect on how we got here and where we're going. where we're extremely excited and optimistic that the film will be shown, the young people will continue to shape the count are. >> you were operated for a film called the control room, the trial of three journalists charged in this case, accused of having links to a terrorist organization and spreading false news, it's been 44 days since our crew was detained and aljazeera rejects all the charges and continues to demand the unconditional release of its staff. now, the bbc is reporting that there are 16,687 political detainees since morsi was ousted and political analysts have told

aljazeera that egypt is witnesses the most repressive period in its history. are things worse than under mubarak? >> one of your aljazeera journalists is a dear, dear friend of ours, i actually went to high school with him so personally know that the accusations against him are not true, and so, there are definitely a lot of people in this tumultuous time being arrested and accused of things. i do think this is a long struggle. i think that something happened, though, when protestors took to the streets and saw the results of people power. there's a genie let out of the bottle and won't be put back in. on the streets, we are still struggling for change. the human rights lawyer in the film is on the front lines

fighting for people to get out of prison every single day. what this film does is it represents the voices of people that are struggling for a better future for egypt, and the fact that it has had international recognition, has been nominated for an oscar shows that this struggle is still continue to go touch the hearts and minds of people halfway across the world. if this is our small contribution to what is happening right now in egypt and for a better future for egypt, then, you know, we hope that it will be able to make a small difference. >> the divisions are still tremendous, as we mentioned, tuesday marked three years since mubarak stepped down, the egyptian government wouldn't grant access to the square, today to people, there are reports of human rights abuses, but there's been a lot of terrorism, a real resurgence in terrorism there. where does egypt stand today? many still think it's better than they were under morsi and vice versa. >> to look at egypt in just the

current moment is to fail to understand what's happening, as we've seen time and time again, this revolution operates, it comes in waves. when the incident happened where army tanks ran over a protest in october and it was a peaceful protest at the time, the protest movement was crushed that there wasn't an immediate public reaction with millions of people down to the street and we felt that we had almost lost everything. a few months later, we saw the huge resurgence of another wave of the revolution. i think that it's an on going struggle that's going to continue to happen. i think that we also have to realize that what's happening in egypt is also part of a global struggle. when we see, you know, we just showed the film to the square in kiev there and it was unbelievable to see the reactions and then it was dubbed in ukrainian, spread virally, it

had incredible response. the government of ukraine came out and said publicly they're against this film, know there's a blot against the government. all it did was make people want to watch it more. what's happening in different squares around the world, ear in this moment where people power is trying to rewrite the social contract, break free of the story we've been told where a youth led movement is trying to say we are no longer going to submit to these stories we've been told, we're going to be the authors of the future. i think that that will and interconnective battle that we face now is going to be very difficult to beat if these governments remain in those archaic constructs where they still think they have control, still think that repression of tree dom rights and stopping the right to assemble can work. this will lead to the end of governments who continue this process. >> it's in theaters across the country. thank you very much for your time and best of luck at the

oscars. >> thank you. >> the show may be over, but the conversation continues at our website, on facebook and google plus. you can also find us on twitter. we'll see you next time. michael dunn >> good evening, everyone, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. >> another ice storm sweeping across the south. with planes grounded, roads impassable and warnings of mass power outages. >> 18 patients at one hospital exposed to an increwable disease. what went wrong in the operating room. >> ray of light - pilots blinded by raisers, the surge in incidents and the mission to find the