now. we have breaking news. a police crackdown on protesters picking up again over the last several hours in turkey, now spreading to turkey's capital. this is taksim square in istanbul. what began as a protest last month as a protest bulldozing a park nearby has evolved into something bigger. what you're seeing has ebbed and flowed throughout the evening. police moving in, then regrouping. many protesters leaving. some digging in. the situation heating up again within the past hour or so. as we said, there are now reports of unrest on the streets of ankar, firing tear gas overnight, toward apparent protesters as armored vehicles cleared makeshift barricades along the streets. the latest chapter here in taksim square is still unfolding. police moved into the square, some of what you'll see and hear

in the individual we're about to show you are not gunshots but protesters setting off small fireworks and the small of tear gas canisters firing. much of what you'll see and hear is chaos with our correspondents right in the middle of it. >> reporter: there were tens of thousands of demonstrators. who were peaceful. again, we were standing right here when something like an altercation seemed to broken out. >> we don't know what sparked this police move. there was an altercation. they've been seeing that all day, so no specific reason why that itself would be the trigger of much an enormous response by police. i'm just letting you see the fireworks going off behind me now. it's unclear if it's celebratory or being fired at the police as part of the protests. we're seeing people run away now, scattering.

it's not quite why we haven't heard the crack of tear gas again. but they're moving. there we are. so much of the danger of people in these situations that caused that fear of mass panic where people run in a direction for unknown reasons. here's the banging again. >> right now i'm in the very front of the park. you can see people trying to help us out, because of the tear gas. the entire front part of the park has been cleared out because of the intensity of what was just fired in. people are angry and infuriated at the way the government has been handling all of this. but it's become a bit of a routine. tear gas is fired in. people clear out, then they move right back in.

>> just a couple of seconds ago, a minute, a massive volley of tear gas from the police in that direction. and now one, two, three, i'm going to have to put this gas mask on i'm afraid. >> this has been going on for hours now. the situation continues to unfold. are want damon and nick paton walsh are out there. our correspondents are still on the scene and they join us now, along with christiane amanpour. she recently interviewed the turkish prime minister. nick, explain your vantage point, where you are in relationship to where arwa is and what's happening right now. >> reporter: right behind me, anderson, just as you started talking, we've seen these fired towards police for much of the night. it seems to be the weapon of choice. i'll give you a moment to listen

to this. it appears to be the weapon of choice of protesters. the situation down the street closest to me, we're talking about a square here in a park. arwa, when we saw her earlier, she was on the far side. i'm on the near side. down the left, police earlier on the evening made a substantial -- they pushed a lot of armored trucks, water cannons, pushing everybody back. in the last half hour, protesters seem to have crept back up that road. and that i think is where those fireworks were fired from. so it begs the question, what is the police strategy here? how do they intend to retain control of the territory as they push forward? we've been asking this question for much of the night. hard to really understand exactly what their final game plan is. tear gas now being released in that area.

that is the standard tactic, when they see up position, they fire these enormous volleys of tear gas cannons. they drift across the square, often blowing with the prevailing winds into our position here. i'm hearing the shouts of protesters right now behind me down that road. we had thought that much of that protest had been pushed back, but we saw some of the armored water cannon trucks move in, in fact firewater cannons into gezi park itself. we're just now having seen for about two hours pretty much calm in this larger part of taksim square, as the police used bulldozers, collecting debris, the barricades and leftovers, sending them off. things appear to have been under control, but now we saw those fireworks and there's clearly a bit of fight left. >> nick, we have been watching bulldozers move in, as well as

columns of police. are they not occupying and holding territory, the police, once they have taken it? or you say protesters, in some cases, are moving back. how is that possible? >> reporter: if you can imagine a square that is the park. on one side of the square, closest towards the main streets of this massive turkish city, they're clearing away the debris, the main street here in istanbul here. the two side roads that go down the sides of that particular park, they still seem to be contested. that's where arwa was early on. what's closer to me here, there are still protesters there. i believe that they're small in number. it's hard to see the scale of number. i'm seeing flags again near the barricades too. so, yes, as you point out, anderson, the confusing thing has been the absence of a police

strategy to retain control of territory. it may be they're lacking in numbers, or if by doing that, they would end up in continued confrontation with protesters. a loud bang behind me here. sometimes that is a plus stun grenade. sometimes tear gas. that did sound more like a firework. hard to fell at this particular point. but continued clashes. they seem to be firing down the far road away from me here on the other side of the park. police you can now see moving in down that far road. i've been down there last night. there were buses in the way for the barricades. it heads down to one of the hotels of istanbul. but after those moments of calm, again, we're hearing blasts here in the very heart of istanbul. 19 hours now of this. hard to understand why police would want it to go on this long. >> extraordinary images to watch when you know what turkey is normally like.

at 3:07, 3:08 a.m. turkey time in the morning. nick has been standing there 18, 19 hours. i want to check in with arwa damon, who i believe is on the other side of if square. arwa, explain where you are in relation to nick and what are you seeing right now. >> reporter: i am on the other side of the square from where nick is. and we are holed up inside a hotel that has kindly opened its doors to us and dozens of other demonstrators have even set up a makeshift clinic here. i can barely see the park that is less than 20 feet across the street from me, because the smoke from the tear gas is so thick at this point in time. nick has the vantage point on this, but the demonstrators have been occupying, they were

clashing with riot police down the street, and then there were an intense, intense volley of tear gas. causing complete chaos, pandemonium, people running into the hotel. then we saw the army vehicles driving down the street, pushing all of the barricades away. there were a handful of demonstrators that went back out and now the tear gas. starts up once again. shoved underneath the door. they're not letting anyone out. >> arwa, i want to show our viewers what you experienced and the people around you experienced just a few moments ago before we went on air. let's take a look at that. >> reporter: they're rallying around one another, as well. you see a lot of them pouring this white liquid into each

other's eyes. that's actually an anti-acid that they mix with water that helps ease the sting, ease the burn. while the riot police have not entered the park itself, the tear gas is now landing inside the park. this is another view. if i just move around here, forward, where those clashes were taking place between the demonstrators and the riot police. [ indiscernible ] some of the demonstrators trying to push their way forward right now. they'll run forward sometimes and grab the tear gas canisters and lob them right back.

they've been screaming "be careful" to one another. when you see this happening -- also, you get the people who are inside the camp down. because it's so densely populated here -- it's so densely populated here and the tear gas canisters do -- [ indistinct yelling ] >> be careful! >> reporter: you can see in front of our cameras right now,

some of the demonstrators are trying to collect stones -- >> arwa, in terms of what we're looking at, i want to continue looking at this video, let's look at it full screen. you don't knee to see what's going on. you're wearing the gas mask, so it's hard to understand what you're saying. explain exactly where that street is, and then what happens in this video. >> reporter: so that particular video you're watching, that is actually the same street that nick has the vantage point on. i'm currently on the other side of the park. >> and what happened -- we just saw video of a guy dropping to the ground. >> reporter: and we had to move back. and then we were unable -- we were unable to move back adequately enough. they ended up evacuating the park with the demonstrators,

coming to the other street on the completely separate direction. and that area, too, commanded a phenomenally intense volley of tear gas. so right now we're inside the hotel. i can still see the tear gas billowing ever parts of the park right now. >> arwa, let me -- arwa, we see protesters in this video. because we're still watching the video from moments ago. it looks like a protester drops to the ground. they looked like they're picking up tear gas canisters, throwing it back at the police. has that area now been cleared? >> reporter: we actually moved away from that area into another park. since this happened, the protesters clear out when the tear gas gets fired in. then they slowly trickle back. that's what we're seeing

happening in the area that we're in right now. >> okay. >> reporter: and that, of course, has enlisted yet another heavy bombardment of tear gas. a lot of these protesters, anderson, they really came up just wanting to highlight one thing, that they would consider themselves a -- but they feel as if they do go out and stand with the others that they are in the busy parks themselves. most of them are people, they're professionals. they go to work in the day and demonstrate at night. everyone is so shocked and angry how the government is handling all of this. >> that was arwa damon. we have to take a short break. we'll be joined by christiane amanpour in just a moment. also, professor fouad ajami. all our correspondents in the region. we're going to take a short break. we'll be right back.

welcome back. you're looking at taksim square in the middle of istanbul. police moved in with tear gas and water cannons, this is obviously early today. we've began seeing armored

trucks pushing people back, protesters launching fireworks. arwa damon, nick paton walsh on the front lines. christiane amanpour joining us now. also is professor fouad ajami, senior fellow at stanford university. you've been talking to turkish officials all day. what do you make of this? >> well, i think there's obviously one huge question, i mean, to state the obvious, how is this going to end? all sides have their backs to the wall. there's no sense of how there's going to be any kind of common ground reached. prime minister erdogan started all of this -- not started all of it, but once it started, started calling them rift raft and now he's trying to make a distinction between legitimate protesters and vandals. there's going to be a meeting tomorrow, but now what i'm told is this is going to be a singer, artist and actor, people close to the government, that have

nothing to do with the protesters. how is that going to change? what i was also told by a chief adviser to prime minister erdogan this evening, there are designated areas of protest, gezi park where people are reporting from, i was told is going to remain a protest zone. >> gezi park is just -- >> yeah, it's just a few steps above taksim square. and the police are not meant to enter there. what we saw in taksim square was also announced by the mayor tonight who said people, stay away for your open safety. we are going to clear the square. the police are use unremitting efforts day and night to clear the square. >> you have lived there. what is this about and what do you make of this? >> this is the biggest civil disobedience we've seen in turkey in a generation. there are a few fringe groups, communists, socialists that have

mo mollotov cocktails, but for the most part, this is a young generation of turks, guys i know like rock guitarists that just smoked pot all day, who has been out, mobilized somehow grassroots out of nowhere, out of frustration towards their prime minister and telling them how to live their lives. >> so something has changed? >> something has snapped in this society, and what is making it worse and what is astounding is the insults that have been hurled against this prime minister against these young people who really have never cared about politics before and who just want to be herd and feel so -- i'm hearing so people -- they're being pushed to the fringes. >> what i don't understand, how much widespread support do the people in that square have? >> entire neighborhoods at 9:00 at night, and granted, they tend

to be more middle class and secular, ring out with the banging of pots and pans every night at 9:00. that's been going on for more than a week. i've never seen behavior like that in turkey. >> we just have video from ankara, let's take a look at that, as i'm seeing it for the first time. police responding again with tear gas. water cannons in ankara. fouad ajami is also joining us. a lot of people will think back to tahrir square. is this different from that? >> i really believe it's very different in many ways. ivan watson knows turkey much better than i could. i was just there and had the chance, it was just by accident, i was coming back. this is a moment of truth for prime minister erdogan, obviously. and the circumstances under which leaders lose the mandate,

they are always mysterious. society can put up with a leader for many years. it can tolerate his eccentricity and then it snaps. this like tahrir square, i don't think so. when you look at what happened in egypt and you were there in the middle of it, something like 800 egyptians fell in that protest. this is nothing like that. let's give erdogan his due. he had come to power through the ballot box. he's won three elections since 2002. he's not mubarak. he's a man brought to power by the ballot box. he's a tough guy. but toughness just isn't good enough. he has the character of the neighborhood of the istanbul that he comes from.

he's a tough guy. this is a circumstance when toughness just isn't good enough. >> i think professor ajami is absolutely right in terms of his particular character. he is known as a fighter. remember, he was the mayor of istanbul before this. just this evening, an official told me, everybody is wondering about erdogan, and erdogan himself says i'm not going to change. now, is this going to be the moment of truth and how is this going to all fallout? but what we also need to remember, according to, let's say, the former foreign minister of england said to me today, if this had happened to erdogan there would have been no blood crush. so there are protests. he said i just draw a line between being insulted. i'm not sure exact think what that difference is. people say that erdogan has

developed a new authoritarian streak. i asked him is the prime minister off limits when it comes to criticism? he said, no, no, i'm criticized all the time. but i draw a line between being insulted. you know, they put a huge number of journalists in jail. there's very little space for political dissent and people have become after three terms sort of angry. >> he's calling some of these people terrorists, and in turkey, terrorists -- you can get jailed. >> there are broad definitions of terrorist in turkey. it's deeply problematic. it means somebody can write something and they get detained. so a lot of these kids who have been out criticizing their prime minister in ways they never have before are very frightened. that when he succeeds perhaps in

subduing the protests in the streets that he's going to come back, he has a reputation for being vindictive, coming back and rounding people up for the things they've written and posted, and a number of tweeters in the port city, more than 30 were detained and are now starting to face charges for inciting violence over social media, which the prime minister has called a menace to society. >> this is live pictures from istanbul. nick paton walsh is there, nick, what are you seeing? looks like police moving in? >> reporter: well, it's hard to tell, anderson, when you see movements of police, that's simply shift changes. police have been doing very long hours here. whether that marks some new progress on the ground. the last 10, 15 minutes, the focus on clearing this area. but there is still that pocket of protests down the left-hand side of the park.

it seems to be substantial. it's hard to tell given the distance in the dark down there. police are not moving against them. when we first spoke to you earlier, anderson, you saw the fireworks emanating from that direction. so clearly that's something the police will have to deal with. they want to have control of the perimeter around gezi park before dawn. in about 2 1/2 hours from now. but we are seeing continued activity in central taksim. bulldozers moving in, collecting debris, removing the barricades. i think that's what police want to achieve as quickly as possible. clearing the concrete space. they've still got this issue of protesters. once they push them back, simply return to their original position, no matter how much damage they've done to the barricades with police bulldozers. >> and then, of course, as you said, perhaps during daylight hours which is a few hours away. everyone, stay with us. our story continues. protesters are in turkey. also back in washington, new reaction in the white house ahead.

if you're just joining us, we're following the breaking news in turkey. police are cracking down on protesters in central istanbul. and also a reaction in ankara. in taksim square, bulldozers, armored vehicles, water cannons. this is what it looked like. you can hear pops of tear gas canisters being fired, police firing water cannons, stun grenades at protesters. the clashes have ebbed and flowed throughout the evening,

18, 19 hours. what began as an environmental protest has grown to a much larger protest against the prime minister erdogan. the white house has urged protesters and police in turkey to restrain from violence. the national security council continues to follow events in turkey with concern. back to our panel, christiane amanpour. dan loathian. dan, how concerned is the white house? based on what they're seeing in turkey, a key ally? >> they are very concerned. the white house, as you pointed out, have been watching the developments there. they're concerned about the fact that some of these protesters have been targeted, the violence there. that they have not been given the freedom of protesting with having that freedom of expression there in turkey. so there's concern about that. there's concern about the white house putting out a statement earlier this evening talking to that point. but as you also pointed out, turkey is a key ally in the region. very important for this

administration, from an economic standpoint, but even beyond that. so the hope is that this can be corrected through dialogue. the white house in a statement this evening talking about the importance of resolving this through dialogue. that these protests will no longer be violent. that's the hope from the white house. >> obviously, christiane, turkey is a key player in the region with what's going on in syria, lebanon and elsewhere. >> it's impossible to overstate the importance of turkey for the region and the west. it's a clear nato ally. it supported the united states in every peacekeeping operation. and of course, regarding syria, that's the latest. it used to be with israeli as well until there was a mess over the gaza flotilla as we all know. but here's an irony. the prime minister, along with president obama and others, have been calling for bashar assad to

step down. step down, mr. assad, well, you can imagine the glee with which this is being used and watched in syria. so all of this is -- that might be a little amusing, but it's not the bigger question. because this is a vital cog in the stability of that region. >> fouad ajami is also joining us. fouad, i think it was a turkish official that christiane interviewed earlier was comparing this to occupied wall street and police putting down demonstrators in new york in the occupied wall street movement. is it similar to that, in your opinion? >> no, not at all. this is a different political crisis. but i do want to say something about the statements coming out of the white house. the piety concerned. we want peace and order in the states of istanbul and ankara.

that's standard, boilerplate. the fundamental point about the relationship between the prime minister and president obama was really laid bare some fortnight ago when the prime minister of turkey came to washington. he came with this hope that he can convince president obama to step into the breach on syria. he wanted president obama to give him cover, because the truth is, in turkey, in turkey, the policy of erdogan towards the city, the activism towards syria is unpopular. people don't want to be involved in the syrian crisis. so erdogan came to washington in the hope that he would have his back covered by president obama. he got nothing of the sort. he went home, and i think this is really -- it's really about that in terms of u.s./turkish relations. if he is in trouble on some policies, i think president obama bears a fair measure of the blame for this. >> ivan watson, what happens at dawn? what happens in the day tomorrow? these protesters are still out there.

they haven't been all grounded up. a lot of people have been injured over the last month or so. thousands have been injured, some killed. but what happens? >> well, we've seen this cycle before. istanbul was quiet for five, six days in between rounds of violence. people start to go back to work, some of these protesters go back. and then by evening, the violence starts up again. and the clashes start again in the side streets. a very important thing to note, this is not just istanbul, the largest city. the riot police have been gassing and spraying demonstrators in the capital ankara night after night after night in the past week. there somebody clashes in the port city of ismere. there have been clashes in other cities. this is much bigger, though the focal point is istanbul. and i don't really see a way out of this impasse. christiane amanpour was saying both sides with their backs

against the walls. the demonstrators don't have a party or a movement. it is people who have just been driven to the point saying we're -- off at the government. there's not a way to negotiate with, again, the prime minister has demonized these people again and again. he's taken a page from the playbook of middle eastern dictators by claiming there's a conspiracy against him to overthrow him and has named individual companies that have expressed sympathy for the demonstrators and singled him out. >> is this getting coverage in turkey? because i'm getting tweets they're seeing penguin documents. >> my colleagues in the turkish media are terrified of this government and of this prime minister. they're very afraid of criticizing him. they have been -- their credibility has been hurt terribly by this crisis because there was so little coverage of

this because news channels were showing cooking shows and documentaries about penguins rather than showing what is happening in the largest city in the country. so not only by putting pressure on the media, he's losing the legitimacy and credibility of other institutions in turkey. >> our correspondents are still on both sides of that square covering all of the conflict. we'll continue to check in with them. our panel, thank you all. we'll dig deeper into the implications for the u.s. from national security analyst fred townsend. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide to help you better understand what medicare is all about.

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remarkable events out of turkey this evening at this hour. it's about 3:41 a.m. in the morning in istanbul. joining knee is cnn international security analyst fran townsend. also on the streets nick paton walsh who has been with us for 18 hours. nick, give us a quick update on where things are in the square. >> reporter: sure, anderson. to continue cleanup there, you can see some of the people trying to clean away the debris there. in the luminous-striped uniform. one important development here on the road closest to me here, we have seen police moving in, using tear gas, water cannons to push protesters back. the police have since withdrawn, and we're now seeing a breakaway group of protesters moving up that road, chanting a few

moments ago. clearly a standoff. a bit of energy left in the protests. i've been watching this now for 20 hours. they really aren't letting up. it's going to be difficult for police to finally dislodge them on that road closest to me, anderson. >> fran, we had professor fouad ajami on a short time ago, critical of the obama administration saying they're watching this with concern is sort of boilerplate. it is a difficult situation. this is a key ally for the united states in this region. >> no, that's exactly right. prime minister erdogan is at a critical moment. so the administration is right, they have to signal to turkey that they're watching. but at this moment, erdogan, if he oversteps his bounds, the administration has to leave itself some room here. i mean, look, ivan said something very important earlier. the notion that prime minister erdogan is referring to these protesters as terrorists that means something. and it certainly means something inside turkey. it means something to the security forces because of how brutally they deal with the kurdish movement and the terrorist movement there, and

their willingness to use force. remember as well, that erdogan has had an uneven relationship with his security forces. the question is how long as we've seen in other countries, how long will the security forces support the prime minister in this effort against the protesters and how brutal are they willing to become with them. you know, right now, we're seeing tear gas and water guns, but there's a real potential for escalation. >> and, again, you can't underestimate how volatile this region is right now with syria and what's happening in northern lebanon and elsewhere. >> that's right. erdogan is facing something of a political crisis. you heard fouad ajami talk about the prime minister's concerns that he would have expressed to president obama during his visit. he didn't get the kind of support. we're seeing an escalating crisis in syria, and so that puts the prime minister really in a difficult position domestically.

and i'm not sure that americans really appreciate -- this is a domestic political situation that we're seeing play out that has international ramifications because of the strength of this nato ally. >> it is interesting to see how this has gone from a protest over a park in taking down of trees and putting up development in their park area, into voicing of frustrations with the leadership, voicing frustrations with the style of rule, though he has been democratically elected and it's his third term. >> that's right. it is his third term, right. we see whether it's american presidents -- when you're re-elected and second term presidents make many controversial appointments because they don't have to face re-election. prime minister erdogan is a tough guy. you've heard him described as being notoriously tough. this is -- the real leadership here is -- does he have the political will and stamina to

deescalate before it goes -- because i don't think it's in his political interest to allow this to continue the way it is. he ought to be looking for a way out. he ought to be looking for a way to sort of take the passion out of this thing and reduce the violence. >> fran townsend, appreciate you being with us. we'll continue updating throughout the evening on this story. also, late word on the edward snowden leak investigation. what he could be facing if and when he's found and what kind of charges a leading lawmaker says reporters should face for helping him.

welcome back. edward snowden may have dropped off the radar since leaking the existence of u.s. intelligence gathering operations, but the repercussions are plain to see and growing. the american civil liberties union today suing the directors of the fbi and nsa seeking to block the program that "snatches every american's address book." each denies providing the government direct access to their servers. each by the way, denies providing the government direct access to their servers. snowden's girlfriend says she is, in her words, adrift in a sea of chaos. lindsay mills is her name. she describes herself as a pole dancing superhero says she's typing on a stream keyboard saying my whole world has opened and closed at once, leaving me

lost at sea without a compass. there are already briefings in washington, charges being considered. let's get the latest from miguel marquez in hawaii where snowden works. so what is the latest? >> reporter: well, we do know there were two police officers, two law enforcement officials that went to his house last wednesday. we do know that one of them was a federal official. but it does not sound at this point that they knew that snowden was missing and they knew somebody had leaked documents because they had gone to the feds prior to the publication of those documents seeking response from them. so that link had not been made. >> have they gone through his belongings or had he taken them out of his house?

>> reporter: that is a huge question. his house was packed. his garage at least was packed to the very ceiling with boxes, say neighbors. all of that disappeared, including his girlfriend. cnn did speak to her father a short time ago who says she's holding up, says that snowden is a deep believer and a very good guy and sends him his love, as well. but all of those belongings have gone somewhere, to a storage facility here perhaps or perhaps back home. but it's not clear that a warrant has been served on them. for authorities to get their hands on them. >> and i know "the guardian" reports that snowden's girlfriend was completely in the dark about his activities? >> reporter: yes. he was completely guarded. he apparently has his computers, his hard drives, all that information that the feds want to get their hands on, all of that appears to be wherever he is right now. >> miguel marquez, thank you very much. the beach looks very nice. house members got a closed-door briefing today from the national security agency. they take up the affair on thursday. battle lines are being drawn. senator ron wyden of oregon

calling for hearings, saying the american people, in his words, have a right to expect straight answers from the intelligence leadership and doesn't think they're getting them now. his democratic colleague dianne feinstein continues to defend the programs as necessary and proper. both she and john boehner calling edward snowden a traitor. so does republican congressman peter king who shares the seat on house committee on counterintelligence and terrorism. your colleague called this guy snowden a traitor. do you think that's true? do you think he's a traitor? >> i think he's either a defector or a traitor, take your pick. what he's done will put american lives at risk. i don't know how he can live with himself. so traitor is as good as term as any. i think he's violated the espionage act. >> can you say specifically how he has damaged national security or put the lives of americans at risk? because in the wake of the

wikileaks revelations a couple years ago, there were a lot of allegations made, and then kind of months down the road, then the secretary of defense came forward and said, well, actually, the damage, it was embarrassing but there really went that level of damage that we had thought. what specifically do you think has harmed national security with these nsa revelations? >> well, i can speak generally which is also specifically, i believe that al qaeda and its allies now know with great ex t exactitudt of what we're doing and how we're doing it. they monitor everything we do. they could not have been aware of a number of the details that come out. that to me is putting american lives at risk. just on this alone by giving the enemy such detail about what we are doing, that enables them to adjust their strategies and tactics and that is very damaging to america. >> as far as reporters who helped reveal these programs, do you believe that something should happen to them.

should they be punished, as well? >> actually, if they willingly knew that this was classified information, i think action should be taken, especially on something of this magnitude. i know the whole issue of leaks has been gone into, but something of this magnitude, there is an obligation both moral and legal, i believe, against a reporter disclosing something which would so severely compromise national security. as a practical matter, i guess there have been in the past several of years, a number of reporters who have been prosecuted under it. so the answer is yes to your question. >> i want to play a quick exchange between senator ron wyden and james clapper. i just want to play that for the viewers. >> sure. >> does the nsa collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of americans? >> no, sir. >> it does not? >> not wittingly. >> do you -- is that a factual

statement as far as you're concerned? >> let me just say i think director clapper was in an unwinnable position there. no matter what he said, he would have compromised national security. if i were advocating to him, i'd say that we're not collecting information on individuals. we're collecting information on phone numbers. i realize that's a technicality. that would be the legal rationale used. anderson, this is like asking someone on june 4 or june 5, 1944, are we planning d-day in two days? what do you say? the fact that my understanding is that senator wyden in asking that question knew what the answer was. this was already discussed in a classified setting. when you're asked something in public about something which is so classified and so sensitive, it really put director clapper in an unwinnable position. i shouldn't say unwinnable. untenable almost. >> congressman peter king, appreciate your time. we'll be right back with the latest from turkey.

looking at live pictures from taksim square. in central istanbul. heavy earth moving equipment, armored vehicles. heavy police presence. it is tense, but apparently calm right now at the moment. it's been anything but for much of the day. it's been hours of utter chaos since late afternoon when police first moved in. the violence has spread to the capital ankara.

no real common ground or signs of it between protesters and the government. it's anyone's guess what tomorrow will bring. dawn is a couple hours from now. we'll continue to bring you the latest throughout the day. that does it for us. "early start" begins now. have a good day. fire after fire after fire. colorado burning. homes in flames. treacherous conditions. thousands of evacuated as the battle rages overnight. we are live. crackdown, tear gas, water cannons. an all-night battle. we're live in the middle of the chaos on the streets, as key u.s. allies erupt overnight. and who are these guys? the nba finals take an unlikely turn. the spurs pummel the heat. but you'll never guess the players giving lebron james a headache this morning. good morning, everyone, welcome to "early start." i'm john