>> we'll be following this story every step of the way. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. remember, you can always follow what's going on here in the situation room on twitter. just tweet me @wolfblitzer. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. outfront next, the man who leaked the details about the nsa's top secret surveillance plan is hiding out in hong kong. is he a threat to sell out america to china? one of the reporters who met him face to face joins us tonight. plus jury selection begins in the george zimmerman trial. how one of his closest friends could hurt him during the trial. we have an exclusive report on that. and apple with a huge announcement today. we have the details and of course whether it will be enough. let's go outfront. good evening, everyone, i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, hero or threat to national security?

it's the crucial question. what were edward snowden's true motivations for giving journalists the details of a highly classified american surveillance program? according to snowden, he's a whistle blower. he did it because he believes, quote, the government has granted itself power it is not entitled to. >> the public needs to decide whether these programs and policies are right or wrong, and i'm willing to go on the record to defend the authenticity of them and say i didn't change these. i didn't modify the story. this is the truth. this is what's happening. you should decide whether we need to be doing this. >> but not everyone thinks snowden's actions were in the best interests of this country. congressman peter king called snowden a defector, a very crucial word. he said what snowden did was dangerous. so do snowden's motivations add up? one of the journalists who broke this story and met with snowden face to face in hong kong and joins us obviously this morning in hong kong. good to talk to you.

really appreciate you taking the time. i know you've done a lot of travel to have this meeting and this face-to-face with edward snowden. do you at this point know anything about what his end game was, where he planned to go, why he did this? >> in his preparations, he's very careful preparing for the leaking of the documents and preparing to come out. it was all very detailed. he had been thinking about it for years. but this next phase, the phase we're in now, he was almost vague about it. i don't think he actually knew or even cared that much. his main objective was to get the information about the level of surveillance out into the public domain and then beyond that, he didn't care. he knows he can't go back to america. he knows his relationship with his family is not going to be the same again. i don't know what's going to happen to his partner. so for him, he's now looking at

the options. maybe he seeks asylum in someplace like iceland. maybe he becomes involved in a long, protracted legal process in hong kong. maybe the chinese will take him, he's not sure. but i probably suspect there will be a long drawn-out legal process here in hong kong. >> it's just interesting, ewen because it would seem to me if you were going to do something like, this you think through those options. what am i going to do next, what am i going to do if they come after me. that that would be part of the thought process. i'm just trying to put myself in his shoes. do you think from talking to him that his motives were completely pure? that this really was a i just want information and transparency, the government is doing the wrong thing. are you confident in that from talking to him? >> reporter: i think the question that you raise is a good one. why come to hong kong. it's got an extradition treaty with america. it's not the safest place.

at any time the authorities in beijing could swoop down and take him. if he wants to go to iceland, why not go to iceland in the first place and leak the documents and conduct -- come out there. so your question is a good one. but i believe his motivation is pure. i spent the best part of the last week trying to establish is this guy a fantacist, is he for real. after half an hour, i was fairly convinced that yes, he was for real. as the week went on i thought this is somebody who's very idealistic, has a lot of courage. it's not something you see that often these days. >> interesting. you had that face-to-face time so if that's your impression, that's powerful. there are reports, ewen, that he out of the blue checked out of the hong kong hotel where he's staying and has now disappeared. do you have any idea where he is and how he plans to do some

basic things, like get enough money to move around? >> i don't know his location now. i know he's still in hong kong. he disappeared, i suppose that's accurate, and he's been in the hotel room in downtown hong kong for the best part of three weeks. he almost never left, maybe three times but just briefly. he had his meals taken to the hotel room. so he was -- i think he almost expected the knock on the door and it didn't come. once the media descended when he came out, i think he thought that isn't stable anymore. the media at least are going to find me so he went to another location. as of yesterday morning, he was still in that hotel. as of yesterday afternoon, he had gone. >> he had gone. of course everyone now, the crucial question now is where is he. thanks to ewen joining us live from hong kong. gordon chang, author of the "coming collapse of china."

gordon, you just heard ewen talking about it. why hong kong? if he's thought about it for years, you think about your escape plan on some level. hong kong has an extradition treaty with the u.s. they can kick him right out. why would you pick hong kong? >> he said that he picked hong kong because it is one of the few places in the world that has both the capability and the will to resist the u.s. it's a great question. why would you -- if you're running from uncle sam, why do you go to a place that has an extradition agreement with us? so obviously he thinks that there is somebody that can protect him. the only somebody that can protect him in hong kong is china. so clearly what he's trying to do, he's trying to trade information. for instance, in that video with the guardian, he talks about all the stuff that he has not yet disclosed. what he's doing is saying to beijing, look, i can tell you this if you protect me. if you make sure that hong kong doesn't -- >> so i have this information, so basically becoming a spy, an informant for china? >> it's basically treason.

>> mm-hmm. >> there's no question about what he's doing. i can't look into his mind, i don't know. but objectively from what he's doing, he's doing everything that you would do if you were going to try to trade information with beijing. >> so when ewen is saying he feels like he was idealistic and those were his motives, you're saying at this point you don't buy it? >> look, he could be idealistic, but guy burgess, all those guys in england had these really idealized notions of the soviet union. this guy probably has idealized notions of china. he said china is not an enemy n of the united states in that interview. he said it doesn't matter, i can trade information with them, they're our friends. this is just a really bad story and it's going to get worse. >> that's a pretty amazing thing to say. chris lawrence joins us from the pentagon. gordon, i wanted to bring chris in. chris, i know you've been looking into this. how could this person or any person being getting all this top secret clearance to get all this information that he had? he's one of half a million

contractors, half a million according to your reporting, who have top secret clearance. i mean that seems incredible. >> reporter: it's a big number. i mean there's a million contractors with clearance, half a million have the top secret clearance, erin. i spoke with a former nsa official who went through that same background check that snowden would have gone through. he said it's pretty extensive. you fill out a form, you have to list your finances, your foreign contacts, you list your friends, your family. then the investigators come in and interview those people that you listed. they develop from those interviews even more people to talk to, so they may be going as deep as three to four degrees of separation from the person that they're initially looking at. they look at your social media sites. the one thing they don't look at is political affiliations. i've heard it said that snowden contributed to ron paul's campaign. the official said that wouldn't even come into play. but they're using all the information they do get and

bring that to bear in the polygraph test. they're looking for haonestyhon trust woworthiness and things l that. he said they have to redo it every five years. people's attitudes change, their social circles change and it's possible, without knowing anything about snowden personally, he said it's possible that perhaps he sailed through his background check with flying colors and then his attitude changed once he got to work. >> that's, of course, a crucial question for this country to ask, wherever you fall on this issue, whether you think he was a hero or something more sinister. i do want to give you some information we have just coming in here. a southwest airlines flight from los angeles to austin, we're showing it right now a live picture on the runway, has been diverted to phoenix because of a possible threat. this is a live picture from our affiliate kpnx. again, the fact that it has been diverted here on the runway in phoenix due to a threat is according to the phoenix sky harbor international airport. they have put this on their

official facebook page. law enforcement officials in los angeles requested assistance from phoenix to check out the possible threat. the plane has now been isolated. it is not parked near a terminal. flights at sky harbor are arriving and departing as scheduled but we'll keep you updated on the story when we get an answer as to what is happening on board that southwest aircraft right now. we're just learning about the mental health of a man accused of killing five people during a sudden shooting spree in santa monica, california. the crucial question, how did he get a gun in a state with one of the toughest gun laws in the united states of america. plus comedian russell brand gets serious. he comes outfront to talk about the situation in turkey. and then america is under attack. by ants. they're coming and they're going to eat your phone. this is no joke. and we have dramatic video of a building implosion. that is tonight's shoutout. we shall share. if there was a pill

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our second story outfront, armed and mentally ill. tonight we are learning the suspect accused of killing five people during friday's shooting spree in santa monica suffered from mental health issues. a law enforcement official telling cnn that the 23-year-old was hospitalized a couple of years ago for allegedly talking about harming someone. this raises the question yet again in this country that has been asked after these horrific recent mass shootings, do lawmakers need to focus more on mental illness when it comes to stopping gun violence. outfront tonight, radio show host stephanie miller and our contributor, rian.

people with mental illnesses have been able to get access to semiautomatic i feels. james holmes, adam lanza, jared loughner. all of these people it appears very clearly had mental issues. what should the gun control debate be right now, keeping guns away from the mentally ill or limiting the sale of semiautomatics? >> i think both, erin. i remember the last -- in newtown, we all said i think we all need to get away from our entrenched positions. it is mental health and guns clearly. but i think we need to point out that the vast majority of mentally ill people, erin, do not hurt anybody. in fact in newtown the debate was the vast majority of people with as berger's are much more likely to hurt themselves than anyone else so we have to be careful about demonizing just the mentally ill. i think it is a deadly combination of mentally ill people getting access to -- this

guy had zillions of rounds. an ar-15 type weapon again. so i think we have to look at every part of it. >> he did have 1300 rounds of ammunition. >> yeah, it's obscene. it's also true that a week ago you had the senator from michigan, democratic senator from michigan at the white house conference on mental health and she has legislation that is backed by marco rubio and roy blount and action on mental health has been supported by a number of other republicans like john cornyn of texas, who don't favor having tighter restrictions on assault weapons but who did say, look, we need more resources for community mental health centers. we need more resources for teachers to detect these problems. in my view had you taken that action on mental health, that would have gone much further because that's an area where republicans and democrats are eager to work together. you actually weren't able to get the compromise that we needed to get something done.

>> stephanie. >> guess what really helps get some stuff done on mental health, the affordable care act, which every republican voted against. they have voted to repeal 37 times. i'm just reading an article -- >> that's another thing about mental health. there are many other things too so if the affordable care act has other negative consequences, well, we have to take that into account as well. mental health is a complicated issue -- >> it expands mental health. every republican voted against it. every republican voted against it. >> it undermined the growth prospects of this country and do a lot of damage. >> which is a fair but separate conversation. i don't want to get into a debate on the affordable care acts. backgrounds checks is something that i know democrats have been pushing for. by the way, the majority of americans support. in this case, though, it appears that this man, this young man, had been hospitalized a couple of years ago. we talked to the state of california. they're very clear. if you have been taken into custody, or admitted to a designated facility, which he was, for a period of five years

you can't get a gun. so he, at least this suggests, would never have passed a background check. but he got a gun anyway. that's my point. background checks don't necessarily stop this. >> well, you know, erin, again, this is what happens. in every single case someone goes, oh, well this wouldn't have stopped that or that wouldn't have stopped that. couldn't all of this help? again, republicans have voted repeatedly to cut funding for mental health. so i'm just saying, yes, it is all a piece, but the problem is the gun lobby makes sure that guns are never any part of the discussion. even background checks, which as you just said a huge majority of the american people are for. i mean how can we not even get that done at a minimum. >> i believe we had a conversation of background checks for many months and ultimately it floundered. why did it flounder? because there's a deep difference between folks who live in cities and suburbs and those who live in rural america and we happen to have a political system that empowers people who live in rural areas so you have to respect their opinions. i think that if you look at

mental health, there actually was a pretty broad bipartisan consensus that something could be done yet we had a distracting conversation exclusively about assault weapons that i think was very foolish. >> there's also a quarter of adult americans suffer from mental health every year. so if we were to start saying we're just going to deal with that, to stephanie's point, you demonize those people or sigma ties those people. >> this is not about sigmatizing people, it's about getting people the help they need. even if we expand funding for mental health, we are not going to prevent every incident of this kind there. has to be some level of maturity and restraint. legislation is not going to solve all of these problems. there's always going to be this kind of danger in a free society. but we can take steps to mitigate this danger by getting people the health treatment they need. >> thanks very much to both of you. we appreciate it. as always, we know a lot of you care about this issue. let us know what you think on twitter and our facebook page. still to come, george zimmerman's trial is now

formally under way, a trial the world will be watching. the friend who advised him on buying a gun might hurt him in court. we have a special and exclusive report on him. and apple's big announcement. >> can't innovate any more my ass. announcer ] in your lifetime, you will lose 3 sets of keys 4 cell phones 7 socks and 6 weeks of sleep but one thing you don't want to lose is any more teeth. if you wear a partial, you are almost twice as likely to lose your supporting teeth. new poligrip and polident for partials 'seal and protect' helps minimize stress, which may damage supporting teeth, by stabilizing your partial. and 'clean and protect' kills odor-causing bacteria. care for your partial. help protect your natural teeth.

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our third story outfront, core changes for apple. so today the company unveiled what tim cook calls the biggest change to apple's mobile operating system since the introduction of the iphone. that's a big deal. you just heard him say to critics, we can't innovate

anymore? my -- yeah. the company also rolled out a redesigned macbook air and and itunes radio. but is this enough to boost apple's buzz? outfront tonight, molly wood, she covers consumer electronics for c-net. i guess the big question is did the company go far enough? when we played that little sound bite of cook, he's defensive about a lot of the criticism the company has been getting for not being as edgy and innovative as it used to be. >> yeah, they are definitely on the defensive. i know they are frustrated. tim cook has said that he's frustrated about the company's stock price slide and i have to say that today's event was, you know in football terms, it was sort of a workmanlike performance, they moved the ball forward but there were no fireworks. there wasn't anything so dramatic that you'll see a big spike in that stock price tomorrow, no way. >> the stock price, this was a

company that became the biggest company in america and just kept going and going and going. everybody wanted to buy it. over the past year, the stock has fallen 20%. samsu samsung, samsung galaxies, for example, has gained more than 12%. do investors really think samsung is a more innovative company than apple now? >> you know, i don't know that it's so much about innovation as it is about expectations. samsung with those galaxy phones has surpassed the iphone in terms of global sales but also the expectation of apple is that they are a company that has changed the world twice over legitimately with the pc and then with the iphone. it's really hard to keep being the company that changes the world. and so they may be doing very solid product improvements. today was definitely -- we saw improvements, we just didn't see massive innovation, despite what they said on stage. >> this is sort of like, hey, apple, meet microsoft. you used to make fun of them, right? but they get it done. they just aren't that sexy.

>> exactly. and they have got a ton of money. >> and they do have a lot of money. what about the radio service? that's a totally different thing. we're going into offering these new services, radio competing against new companies. is that smart or a random shot in the dark? >> you know, it's kind of, again, that's almost a natural evolution of itunes that frankly should have been there for years. you could only buy music with apple's music service while the entire industry was moving towards streaming and apple didn't have any streaming. so to me this is sort of an add-on that if anything completes the product. it's not an evolution or any better than any of the competition. so it felt like, again, they got it done. i'll give them a passing grade but i'm not going give them that much more based on what i saw today. >> thank you very much, appreciate it. still to come, the man who shot and killed trayvon martin is getting his day in court and the world is watching. but one of george zimmerman's closest friends could hurt his defense. we have an exclusive report. plus comedian russell brand comes outfront getting serious.

and america under attack by these. this is a closeup of a very powerful pincer. look at those jaws. that is an ant that is coming for you. it's monday.

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welcome back. we start the second half of our show with stories where we focus on our reporting from the front

lines, so i want to begin in philadelphia tonight where a judge has denied bail for a crane operator charged with six counts of involuntary manslaughter in last week's building collapse. we're also learning more tonight about the lead-up to the collapse. a spokeswoman for the city's licenses and inspections department tells outfront the contractors are required to contact the city for an inspection prior to the start of a demolition. in this case, the contractor did not, failed to contact the city. and an arial castro, the man who allegedly held three women captive ten years. castro is set to be arraigned on wednesday. among the charges, 139 counts of rape and 177 counts of kidnapping. the indictment alleges castro used chains, tape and a vacuum cord to restrain the women. cnn legal analyst paul callan tells us castro is likely to enter a plea of not guilty but

that could be changed to insanity in the future depending on the defense's strategy. about a month ago you may remember we told you with great joy about a giant rubber duck docked in hong kong that was captivating people of all ages. how could this not captivate you? well, you know what? we became a little obsessed with the story and we have learned tonight outfront that the united states is getting a rubber duck of its own. beginning on september 27th, we can report the rubber duck will make its american debut in pittsburgh during the pittsburgh international festival of firsts. i guess it's the first inflatable yellow duck that is that big in america. anyway, the question is how is hong kong going to get the duck here? are they going to deflate the duck and send it over? that's what you would think, right? you can't sail the duck across the pacific. the answer is this. the exec tells us a new duck is made for every city so the artist has already sent pittsburgh the plans for a 40-foot tall, 35-foot wide duck.

and the company contracted to build this duck, well, the inflatable artist who built last year's floating duck, andrew carnegie, of course. it has been 676 days since the u.s. lost its top credit rating. what are we doing to get it back? we're just a step closer and this is a significant development. we celebrate that standard & poor's today raised its outlook on the american government's credit rating to stable from negative. the rating is still aa plus. we don't have aaa back but raising it means there is a less than one in three chance the agency will cut the rating any time soon. so let's keep going, guys. however you want to get there. cut spending rates, taxes, we're not going to get involved in that, let's just do it. now, the trayvon martin murder trial is under way. today george zimmerman came face to face with the potential jurors who could decide if he'll go to prison for killing 17-year-old trayvon martin. so for a lot of today, here's what happened. lawyers from both sides began the task of narrowing down a pool of 500 potential jurors.

they need to get to just half a dozen with four alternates. a potential panelist had to answer a questionnaire that from our understanding focused on race and what they had heard about the case. outfront now, trayvon family attorney, benjamin crump. it's been a while but i want to ask you about this because this jury selection process is crucial. 500 people. a lot of jurors may have been exposed to information in the media that is not going to be admissible in court because of all the coverage this case has received over the past year. for example, text messages that have come out about trayvon martin's alleged marijuana use. those are not going to be admissible in court but many jurors may have been exposed to them. how do you think those sorts of things will impact whether this is a fair trial? >> well, trayvon's parents believe in the jury system. they have faith that the jury will follow the court's instruction and the law and base their verdict on the evidence. and that being said, erin, absolutely all that irrelevant

information that was released by the defense team to taint and pollute the jury pool hopefully won't be successful and the jury will give a verdict that's fair based on the evidence. >> in terms of the verdict, zimmerman's brother came out and talked about why he thinks his brother will be acquitted. i wanted to play you his main reason. here he is. >> i can tell you as a family we're very confident in the outcome of the case and we're very confident that the state will not be able to meet its burden. it's a two-fold burden here in florida. not only do they have to prove that this was a murder as they allege. they also have to prove simultaneously that it could not have been self defense. >> that obviously, mr. crump, is the difficulty, right? >> this is not a hard case, erin. this is not a complicated case. if you would change the dynamics and you had a 28-year-old black man get out of his car and chase an unarmed white teenager and shoot and kill him, nobody would say this is a difficult case. the evidence is overwhelming to

hold george zimmerman accountable for killing trayvon martin. the only thing his family prays is that the jury just follows that evidence. it is all there and the evidence is george zimmerman's words himself. go back and listen to his many inconsistencies, his physical impossibilities how he said this happened. >> well, but to your point on that, what about other inconsistencies. you're apparently going to have to answer questions under oath about witness number eight. for our viewers that's the young woman who is believed to be on the phone with trayvon martin moments before his death who heard him calling out for help, right? she could be a crucial witness. >> she's not the star witness. george zimmerman is the star witness. but i can address that, erin. >> let me make sure so viewers understand the background on her. she claimed to be in the hospital on the day of his funeral but that turned out to be a lie so her credibility has also been called into question. >> well, erin, witness number eight allegedly told an untruth about whether she went -- was in the hospital so she wouldn't

have to go to a funeral and see trayvon dead. george zimmerman allegedly told untruths about why he shot and killed trayvon martin causing him to be dead. which one is more relevant? the jury will have to decide that, and i think once they think about those two things, it will be rather clear what's relevant and what's not. >> all right, benjamin crump, it's always good to talk to you and thank you very much for taking the time. one of george zimmerman's best friends could also complicate zimmerman's defense. mark osterman came to his aid the night that he shot and killed trayvon martin. the account that he says zimmerman told him about what happened that night doesn't add up to some of zimmerman's later statements. david mattingly is outfront with the story. >> reporter: when george zimmerman was worried about an aggressive neighborhood dog in 2009, he decided to buy a gun and went to his friend, mark osterman, for help. >> did he tell you why he wanted this gun? >> no. he didn't tell me why. >> did it seem like he was

afraid? >> no. >> that something may have happened? >> no. the thing was, was he had felt that once he gets married -- once you get married he said that he possibly changed his perspective in life and that he was responsible not just for himself anymore but for his wife. >> reporter: osterman, a federal law enforcement officer, helped zimmerman weigh the pros and cons before he settled on a thin lightweight 9 millimeter. it was easy to conceal, easy to carry, and acting on osterman's advice, zimmerman carried it everywhere. >> always. he carried it always. i -- the one thing i did tell him for the reason for doing that is if it is on your person, it can't be anywhere else. >> reporter: it was on zimmerman's person the night he encountered trayvon martin. and he told osterman how martin grabbed the gun during their fight. >> according to what he told me was when the head bashing on the

concrete stopped and trayvon reached for the firearm that was at his side, grabbed ahold of it, that snapped him out of that and he snapped out of that tunnel vision. he was able to smack the hand away from the firearm and that's when he drew the firearm and fired. >> reporter: osterman wrote about it in a book quoting zimmerman. somehow i broke his grip on the gun where the guy grabbed it between the rear sight and the hammer. i got the gun in my hand, raised it towards the guy's chest and pulled the trigger. and this is where the problem lies for george zimmerman. because comments quoted by his friend, osterman, do not match what zimmerman told police. listen to what he says as he walks investigators through the crime scene. >> and he reached for it, but i felt his arm going down by my side and i grabbed it and just grabbed my firearm and i shot him one time. >> reporter: in multiple recorded interviews, zimmerman

never tells police that trayvon martin ever touched his gun. >> i felt him take one hand off my mouth and slide it down my chest and i just pinched his arm and i grabbed my gun and aimed it at him and fired one shot. >> reporter: dna testing seems to agree. there was no trace of trayvon martin's dna on the gun's grip. prosecutors list osterman's book with zimmerman's conflicting account as potential evidence, possibly to challenge zimmerman's credibility. as for his connection to the gun zimmerman was carrying, osterman says it's hard to answer the question does he feel regret. >> so i would wish it would have never happened. however, the reason why george had it, it was not for malice. he didn't have it to go out and commit a crime of hunting someone down and harming them. it was for self protection. and i'm glad that that firearm

was used to protect george. >> and, david, so if he really is george zimmerman's best friend, how does mark feel at this point talking about your reporting being a possible witness for the prosecution? >> reporter: not only is he on the prosecution's witness list, he's also on a list for the defense. but as far as what he has to tell them, he says it's possible he may have got it wrong, but in his mind the idea of someone grabbing a gun or grabbing for a gun, he says he doesn't see a difference here and he still believes that his friend, george zimmerman, was defending himself. >> david mattingly, thank you very much. so as you know, every night we take a look outside the day's top stories for something we call the outfront outtake and tonight it's about the crazy ants, because they are a coming. yes, this is their technical scientific name for the species of ants. the tawny crazy ant is from south america. tawny must come from its lovely,

reddish, spindly hairs. look at those teeth. first spotted in the u.s. in houston in 2002. the species has now spread to florida, mississippi and louisiana. the tawny crazy ant is very invasive, infesting homes, vehicles and phones. yes, phones. just last year the crazy ant caused $150 million worth of damage in electronics in texas alone. yes, they go in and eat your phone. people we spoke to think it's either the heat or the magnetic field they're attracted to. i don't know but this is an amazing natural selection. there's a lot of phones around to eat. so the crazy ant squeezes inside smartphones and laptops and munches on the wiring. it's really good for a while. sometimes they get electrocuted. when that happens, that's not the end of it. it may be for that one little tawny ant but when the ant dies it lets off a special stink that attracts other crazy ants because there's good food in there. then the entire device is full of ants and they eat it all up

before they get electrocuted. it's a huge problem with no end in sight because the pesticides that kill most ant species do not work on the crazy ants. now, despite all of the problems, i can't decide how i feel about these ants. sure, they keem like a biological weapon that emanated from the pits of hell talk about axis of evil, right? maybe they're heaven scent. it's the universe's way of telling our society chill out, people, you should talk on the phone a little less, you don't need to talk so much, put it down, turn it off. you know what, i'm rooting for the ants. still to come, actor, comedian and activist russell brands gets serious. he joins us next. first, tonight's shoutout. this is incredible. this is a building implosion. it's on new york city's governor's island blown up over the weekend. look at that. that's how it should be done, people. it used to house coast guard families but hadn't been used since 1996. it wasn't up to code. so they decided to destroy it. our shoutout goes to the demolition experts because they brought down that 45-year-old

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russell brand. actor, comedian, activist. like us here at outfront, brand has been paying a lot of attention t what's been happening in turkey right now with anti-government protests. today they continued for the 11th day running. turkish riot police fired tear gas in an attempt to disperse hundreds of protesters. this unrest has been continuing despite an agreement from turkey's prime minister to meet with the leaders of the protest on wednesday. russell brand joins me now live and in living color here in the u.s. great to see you. you tweeted back on june 3rd about what happens happening on turkey and a lot of people were surprised. you wrote our leaders, our trusted servants, not our masters. you're nobody for being an actor. i know you've been to turkey and your representatives say they didn't know you had any real attachment to the country before this, but it's important to you. why? >> well, i have been to turkey but i have no particular affiliation with that nation. but the principles for which they are protesting i happen to agree with in that public space

was being reclaimed for corporate use. their government not behaving in accordance with their principles under which they were elected and a powerful symbol of the turkish people has been in their minds to some degree desecrated. >> the president of turkey was democratically elected and now you have these protests. so for someone like you trying to decide to take a stand on an issue, how do you make that decision? are they going about this the right way by having protests or not? >> erin, yes. i think protesting and activism and direct action where appropriate and when nonviolent i think is very, very positive. it's not like making a decision to take a stand. maybe i'd feel a bit different if they had come to the square and start kicking off. i've been tweeting a few things because i happen to generally agree with people being active against governments that are owe pressing them and not correctly

representing them, particularly in an issue where public space is being taken. particularly where a regime is owe pressing people in a way where people feel like they have had enough. i don't think this is only happening >> it does seem like it's happening everywhere about. >> this was an op ed you wrote about beheading. >> op ed. >> an opinion column. we call them op eds. >> i just learned a new word. >> it's all slang. >> i did an op ed. i'll do one in a minute. >> you wrote about it, and -- >> in an op ed, you were talking about the horrific beheading that happened in london. you got a lot of criticism for this. >> did i? >> you did. >> why do you think that? >> you look a little like a

mugshot. >> i knew it myself. that face isnnoying to see. i can't tell you -- >> well, i think what happens, when something of this nature occurs, a tragic violent event, immediately offwards, a narrative is formed, blame is designated. opinions we feel around us. i think it's important not to generate more conflict, particularly if the conflict generated fulfills the agenda of the perpetrator of the crime. i thought the fellow that did that crazy murder, afterwards, if he knew mosques were getting burned, he would think brilliant. this is a successful hate -- that doesn't seem to help anybody. also, i think the people that are powerful, be they powerful media conglomerations like this one we're currently on right now, or the people that govern us, they have an interest in people on the lower rungs of society, i mean us.

the opposed, against one another for very -- reasons of varying security. i'm not saying the murder isn't tragic and awful, i'm just saying we don't necessarily need to take the stated reason a person says they kill someone that seriously. >> this is a serious issue you deal with in britain. we're dealing with it in the u.s. you're dealing with it in a more tangible way, which is the role of muslims in society, right? and whether they can be anticipated integrated or not. >> i'm not dealing with that, i think you can integrate and incorporate anybody as long as those people are peaceful and loving. i don't think there's anything in islamic faith that predisposes people toward acts of violence and the people i know that are muslim are cool. that's not the deciding factor. i think by constantly exacerbating our awareness, by heightening our awareness, it causes conflict. the majority of all people -- i

say the extreme people on the christian right, extreme muslims, get the extreme everybody. >> put them all in a room. >> let them go to some crazy island and do extreme stuff. >> the rest of us would chill out. >> it would be a much better world, i say that's a solution. >> we probably shouldn't do it. as a theory, it's okay. >> just explain, people look at you, they know you as an actor, comedian, but yet you're choosing to speak out on these issues, how come? >> because i care about those things and comedians, some say the function of a comedian is to bring humorous information into public consciousness. just telling jokes, i don't have any direct solutions other than the one in my own life, which is treat people kindly, and try not to put my own selfish urges ahead of compassion. >> thank you very much. it's a pleasure to meet you. thanks for coming in. >> thanks for coming having me

on your show. >> good luck in tehran. >> let's check in with anderson cooper with a look at what's coming up on ac 360. we have much more on how edward snowden earned trust of the intelligence community and then spilled its secrets. should snowden be prosecuted. we'll speak with jeffrey toobin and jeffrey assange. before this surveillance video was taken of a heavily armed gunman about to open fire on santa monica college, he carjacked a woman to drive him right to the campus. my exclusive interview of what those moments were like. those stories and tonight's

ridiculist. a lot more at the top of the hour. a preview of my trip to tehran that russell just mentioned is out front next. this day calls you. to fight chronic osteoarthritis pain. to fight chronic low back pain. to take action. to take the next step. today, you will know you did something for your pain. cymbalta can help. cymbalta is a pain reliever fda-approved to manage chronic musculoskeletal pain. one non-narcotic pill a day, every day, can help reduce this pain. tell your doctor right away if your mood worsens, you have unusual changes in mood or behavior or thoughts of suicide. anti-depressants can increase these in children, teens, and young adults. cymbalta is not for children under 18. people taking maois, linezolid or thioridazine or with

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with more choices and fewer calories... america's beverage companies are delivering. rye ran is at the center of almost every international story. the government surveillance of americans is kind of about iran. the national security agency

shows that in march of this year, in one month, the agency collected 97 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide. the country from where most of that intel against was gathered, iran. that is 14 billion reports in one month alone. is the american government paranoid about iran or is there more to it. the presidential election for the country is on friday, and so many crucial issues from nuclear power to syria's civil war depend on it, it matters for america. any of the seven candidates make a difference in high iran is run? almost every single one, they have close ties to the supreme leader. one of the favorites is the current negotiator whose slogan is no compromise, no submission, only jilili. a cleric has talked about constructive interaction with the world, what does that mean? we're going to be there.

it's a special live from iran, we'll see you live from tehran. finally tonight, you get to pick what cnn covers. go to cnn.com/changethelist, people the five stories you think need to change the most and we'll send john sutter to cover the story. "ac 360" starts right now. thanks, good evening, everyone. we have new reporting that might shed light on how quickly authorities knew about that massive intelligence leak. they may have been on to edward snowden before his leaked information from published. julian assange is seeking asiylm in ecuador. later a 360 exclusive, a woman describing terror on friday, a gunman opens fire on others and her, and jumps in her car and says drive. her close encounter with