hey, i hope you join us one hour from now. a special edition of "360." a special edition of "360." "piers morgan live" starts now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com this is "piers morgan live." i'm wolf blitzer in for piers. welcome to the viewers in the united states and around the world. the senate committee will take up a bill tomorrow that will authorization the president of the united states to use

military force in syria. property posed resolution limits the augtozigs to 60 days with a 30-day deadline with no u.s. troops to be included on the ground in syria. all this on the day the crucial hearings began on the power of the president si. president obama marshalling big guns trying to make the case for a strike on syria. >> forcing assad to change his calculations about his ability to act with impunity can contribute to his realization that he cannot gas or shoot his way out of his predicament. >> but assad must be held accountable for using these weapons in the international community. >> so will president obama get the votes he needs from the congress? >> i believe we cannot close our eyes to this clear violation of long-standing international

norms. >> let's have a real debate in this country and not a meaningless debate. >> the clock clearly ticking tonight, showdown syria. we're going to begin with the big story, critically important news with one senator who was front and center at the hearings today before the foreign relations committee. listen this heated exchange between chris murphy and secretary of state john kerry. >> now we have this most recent use of weapons of mass destruction and contra vengs of nearly 100 years of prohibition of their use. >> that's not the dispute -- >> but the dispute is -- >> the ability of the military to be influenced -- >> no, no, the dispute is what are you prepared to do about it? that's the dispute. >> senator murphy is joining us now. senator murphy, we have the text, the chairman of the committee, your chairman

released this actual text of the resolution. you will have to vote on tomorrow. it says the president is aughtizaugh authorized to use the arm forces of the united states as he determines to be used and appropriate in a limited and tailored manner against legitimate military targets in syria only to one respond to use of weapons of mass destruction by the syrian government in the conflict in syria and two, detear syria's use of such weapons in order to protect the military security of the interests of the united states and protect our allies and three, degrade syria's capacity to use such weapons in the future. are you going to vote in favor or against the resolution? >> that text is only a few minutes old, so i think i'll take the evening and morning to review it. as you heard in that chapin x change with secretary kerry, i'm a skeptic this is the right way to go. i think secretary kerry made a

strong case we have probably a national security imperative in syria. the second question you have to ask is still outstanding for many of us, including me, can we really make a difference? is an air strike going to make the situation better for the syrians and can we stop the situation from escalating into the region? ultimately, i don't know that you can answer question to the second question. i've been a skeptic and i'll look at this language overnight. i'm still yet to be persuade that we frankly can make a difference even if there is a co-her rent rational to get involved. >> secretary kerry said if the u.s. did not respond to syria's alleged use of chemical weapons, it would send a powerful signal to so many of america's enemies, not only in syria by iran and north korea, hasballah and dangers jordan, turkey, israel.

what do you say to that argument? >> i said this to him today, i think syria and iran for instance, are different circumstances. i don't think a rejection of a mission in syria compels us to sit by idly if iran pursue as new clear weapon like what we've seen in syria. they are not apples and apples and ultimately, we'll make an individual decision. i think american people need to be consulted. if we want to rally them around action to stop iran from getting a new clear weapon, then we maybe have to pay attention to what they say here, and i worry that publicly everyone is war weary and will get more tired if we go into syria and will make it more difficult if we need to take steps from preventing iran from having a nuclear weapon. >> john mccain said he thinks he

has a commitment from president obama to start sending lethal weapons to the rebels in syria. the president made that commitment in principle a few months ago, still hasn't done it but looks like it is beginning now. are you on board at least with the united states supplying arms to the rebels? >> well, i'm not in part because i still don't think we have a good hand on who the rebels are. agageneral dempsey said today i open session the rebel groups are not ready to leave today because in part al qaeda infiltrated big parts of the opposition opposition a lie yenls. i think we'll be arming some people who have very distinct interests from those of the united states. that's al qaeda. so i think there is still so many questions to be asked here. i think the president will get his vote tomorrow. i think the foreign relations committee will vote in approval probably by a wide margin of the resolution. i may not go with the majority.

>> thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. let's bring in two congressman from opposite sides of the isle. adam shift, he says the current proposal is too broad. peter king is the chairman of the counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee in the house he says the president has the authority to act even if congress votes now. first of all, congressman king, what do you make of this draft resolution that the senate foreign relations committee has come up with giving the president the authority to strike in a limited way over the next 60 days with an option of adding another 30 days, if necessary? >> yeah, obviously, i have to look at it more carefully but based on what i've seen and heard tonight, i would vote for it. i support the president taking action. i'm similar to john mccain if we take action, it has to be meaningful a, otherwise a cosmetic appeal but served no

long-term purpose. so i would support a strong attempt to degrade the weapons capacity of both chemical weapons and the delivery systems of syria. >> congressman shift, the leverala -- military targets in syria. would you vote for this resolution? >> well, i think the senate language is a step in the right direction. i'll have to look further and one issue i'm concerned about is they say no boots on the ground. i want to make sure the resolution made that abunt dentally clear unless we have to rescue someone. i think no one wants to see us turn this into a boots on the ground situation or further entangle us in the civil war. it's movement in the right direction. the other issue, i think, wolf, can we put together a coalition to enforce this international norm?

it's very important the united states not be scene as acting alone here and i think that there are plenty of international partners who should step forward but there is an open question whether they will. >> tell us congressman king, why you think it was a mistake for the president to come to congress. you would have wanted him to use executive authority and get the job done without congress, is that right? >> well, going back oever the last 30, 40 years presidents have acted and regan and president clinton acted six times with bombing attacks during his presidency. president eisenhower to the 1950s. the point i was really trying to make, excuse me, was that the president did this the last moment. if he knew a year ago the red line was drawn on chemical weapons, the he intended to bring congress in, that should have been the plans from the start. instead, he said nothing about congress. he said we're ready to go. gave in indication congress would be involved and at the

very last moment rc, seemed lik cover for him, he said he would have congress involved. if he intended to have them involved he should have brought them in early on so it didn't look like flenching which to me causes lack of credibility on his part and ultimately, on the country's part because he's commander in chief. but he has a constitutional right to launch the attacks. >> congressman shift, do you want to respond to that? >> i think the president was right to come to congress as a member of the branch with the power to declare war i think was the right decision. more than that i think it was the right to terms of getting the country behind the action to under take it. it will be important that the american people are behind what the president does, that the congress is behind it and not seen as acting alone as he pointed out that, will strengthen his hand in staring

down bashar al-assad. here you have a group of libertarian unwilling to support it. no easy task but an important responsibility to weigh it and vote accordingly. >> speaking of libertarian isolationest, senator ran paul is one of them. king, republican presidential candidate in 2016 he had a very testy exchange with secretary kerry. i'll play the clip. >> the president is asking for the authority to do a limited action that will degrade the capacity of a tyrant whose been using chemical weapons to kill his own people. >> i think by doing so -- >> it's limited. it's limited. >> by doing so you announce your goal is not winning and i think the last 50 years of secretaries of defense would say -- >> senator, people ask do you want to go to war in syria?

of course not. everybody, 100% of americans would say no. we say no. we don't want to go to war in syria, either. the president is not asking you to go to war. he's not asking you to declare war or send one american troop to war. >> how significant, congressman king, is the ran paul wing now of the republican party who basically want to stay out of the foreign affairs? >> i think it's increasingly dangerous isolation swing in the party. i think it's very dangerous to the party and country. we can have honest differences whether we should go to war and engage in combat. those are legitimate. ran paul comes with withdrawal from the world perspective. i think republicans got rid of that with charles lynnburg in the 1930s. if the president wanted to get congress involved, he should have said so from the start because doing it at the last minute looked like panic.

all week jay carney said he didn't need congressional support but doing it at the 11th hour sends the wrong message. >> you can respond and i want you to respond congressman shift, i'll put up a poll, abc washington news poll on launching military strikes against the syrian government. a lot of americans are opposed 59%. look at this opposed 36% support. if you're going to do it, you have to convince a lot of americans this is the right thing to do, because there is an enormous amount of skepticism of iraq and afghanistan. >> that's right. they have a case they have to take to the american people and the president has the capability of doing that. i've been urging the white house to speak directly in a prime time address and outline why this is so important, why this is important to the national security interest, why we have to draw bright line when it

comes to the use of chemical weapons and hold a dictator that gases his own people accountable. that case is yet to be made and the polls are reflective of that. to respond to peter, i think that in part the president was responding to what a lot of members of congress demands, that he come before the congress and consult with us and bring this to a vote. it's hard to hold the president to fault when so many members of congress weighed in and said this is exactly what we want you to do. it strengthens his hand ultimately if this is approved answer cushionty and i think he was also responding to what a great many members of the party, both parties democrats and republicans were calling on him to do and that is bring this to a vote. >> yeah, it's going -- there is going to be a vote that will pass in the senate foreign relations committee tomorrow, almost certainly will pass in the senate. the key is the house of representatives because there are not only republicans but plenty of democrats skeptical. congressman shift and king, thanks very much for joining us.

>> you bet. up next, as the president gathers for support on strikes in syria, does he risk getting drawn into an all-out war. i'll ask a top military man that spent years in syria and later, what john mccain was really doing during the hearings. check it out. usual please. thank you very much. ok guys, i'm back. i need a template of a template. oh my gosh. i've never even seen this record, i've only read about it in books. yeah we can get some peanut...that is huge. please don't judge the amount of peanut butter we are getting. from prepaid to platinum, cashback and more membership has a card for every character. i'm carrie brownstein and i get to be whoever i want. this is what membership is. this is what membership does.

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♪ [ male announcer ] bob's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. thank you, mr. secretary. committee will be in order. committee will be in order. >> we don't want -- >> ask please to restore order. >> that was a co-founder, the foreign committee will take up a bill tomorrow to authorize military strikes on syria. that's the breaking news we're follow thing hour. joining us to discuss what is going on, a cnn military analyst, former air in damascus

and traveled extensively throughout syria as an observer of the air defense and military operations colonel. thanks for joining us. one line in the resolution the committee is going to consider tomorrow and i assume it will pass, the authority granted in section two does not authorize the use of united states armed forces on the ground in syria for the purpose of combat operations for the purpose of combat operations. when you hear that, as a military man, what does that say to you? >> i think that authorizes him to conduct any kind of covert action he would like to use the central intelligence agency, u.s. special forces, that sort of thing but not to put regular u.s. forces on the ground. >> and that's what they want to hear everybody seems to say no boots on the ground. so that's the language in this draft resolution that will be considered tomorrow that basically makes that point. but here is the question that so many people are worried about, the u.s. will go in with a very

limited tailored operation, shall we say, tomahawk cruise missiles, but what if there is unforeseen problems and what if the u.s. has to go with troops on the ground? that's a possibility, isn't snit. >> that's a concern. what happens after the first strike you don't hit everything you want, you go back for the second strike and decide well we didn't get everything, we have to do something different. maybe then we bring in manned aircraft, lose a couple aircraft and then have to go in and rescue the pilots. this has a way of just, we call this mission creep. it has a way of expanding more and more. so there is always that risk and that's why i think you're looking at a lot of people saying you want to make sure there is no -- or anything but just these cruise missile strikes. >> when the language in the resolution says that it will be a limited and tailored operation designed to detour syria's use of these weapons and degrade syria's capacity to use such weapons in the future, explain

from the military perspective what that suggests to you. >> well, that's a very difficult passage because i think the chances of going after the chemical weapons delivery systems, which were rocket launchers and he's got thousands of them all over the country, we're going after the weapons themselves will probably be too difficult to do. the chemical weapons are a valuable asset for the syrian regime. they got them stored in very hardened facilities that a cruise missile won't be able to do. you need bunker busters for that. or if they lovmovlovemove them different locations. they spent years digging in tunnels and caves. i watched them do this. it's a shell game. they will move them to where we can't get them. i think we have to pick another target set. how broad is the definition of systems to deliver or systems that will affect the delivery? could you extend that to mean

air fields, aircraft? it depends on the interpretation of what that means. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> sure. joining us, a man that advised three republican presidents, one democrat the foreign relations and author of the important book "foreign policy begins at home." what do you make of this draft resolution? i think you had a chance to go through it. i'm sure it will pass in the foreign relations committee and the senate but what does it say to you? >> well, you know, i'm not in favor of the resolution both in principle and specifics -- >>? >> because the president had all the authority he needed and it introduces real questions of first of all it only allows 90 days and then you need another resolution. so you're building uncertainty into america's staying power. it will put constraints on what it is we can do and the price of gaining congressional support is

going to be to remove or da lute the threat. so what it takes to win in congress and what it takes, if you will, to achieve your goals in the theater. i also think it establishes a precedent not just for president obama but for all of his successors and i think in this world we need to have greater flexibility and a greater reliability both to reassure our friends and throaten our foes. >> because when you say it only allows 90 days, 60 days with another extension of 30. most americans hear 90 days and think this will be tailored and limited, they were under the assumption, i'm sure most americans were under the assumption you send in tomahawk cruise missiles and get the job done in a week or ten days, if that. that would be an extensive operation. 90 days seems like a long time. >> the initial strike could last several days and get it done

quickly. we don't know if there is subsequent syrian chemical weapons use or what other responses they may make. it ties the president's hands and raises questions about what the united states is prepared to do say on day 91. is the president going to have to go back to congress and go through the entire process once again? is that the sort of thing we want to institutionalize? i would say not. >> what do you think of the people surrounding the president? national security team, we saw them of three appearing today before the senate, secretary of state and defense and chairman of the joint chief, what do you think of that national security team, the team advising the president? >> what matters is the president. he's the commander in chief -- >> but he relies on advice from top advisors. >> they are paid to give advice, he's not paid to accept it. it seems most of the initiative for this 11th hour change in the policy came from the president

himself. i can't read his mind. i can't tell you what may have stimulated it, but at the end of the day this is the decision he made and his aids essentially solute and fall in line. i think it made it difficult for the secretary of state who is leaning far forward in his skis, making a passionate case for the united states, infligting real pain and hurt on the syrians and 24 hours later what was interdeuced by the president is this pause as we see if we can't get congressional support and you yourself raised the issue, if the president can get support from a conditional resolution in the senate, what happens when he moves to the house? then what happens if he can't get support? is it the united states does in we have a foreign policy crisis or we have a constitutional crisis. that's not a choice i would welcome. >> i sense that stunning rejection in the british parliament of david cam mono, the prime minister's resolution,

that was a shock to everyone here in washington and britain around the world that may have had a significant impact on the president's decision to pause, take a deep breath, go back to congress, discuss it, debate it, see what they want to come up with. richard, stay with me for a moment. we'll continue our conversation. we have much more to talk about. the strikes on syria, potentially some critics say it could wind up helping ali qaeda. much more when we come back.

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we need to send to syria and to the world, to dictators and terrorist and allies and civilians alike the unmistakable message that when the united states of america and the world say never again, we don't mean sometimes. we don't mean somewhere, never means never. >> a fiery john kerry today making the case for u.s. military strikes on syria, very tough talk but is that the best option. back with me richard hass the president of the counsel of foreign relations. what happened to the coalition the u.s. would like to get involved in another arab country like syria? >> the short answer, as you know, wolf, it won't happen. the coalition would include a few arab countries, possibly france most likely turkey, maybe australia, south korea but essentially it would be a small

coalition of the willing without un backing possibly with some but not even clearly that nato backing. the arab league won't formally do it. so the legit ma see, if you will, of this will have to be implicit in the crisis itself. people that believe this use of chemical weapons cannot go unanswered. >> if using chemical weapons against your own people as the u.s. says bashar al-assad did is such a house momentous event in world history, shall we say, how is it possible that the nato allies are not united, especially when one nato ally turk keey borders syria? >> it's 25 years after the end of the cold war. the original rational for the alliance is disappeared and what you have there is a degree of many countries of war wariness and anti-american central to the

british vote. you have all the bad feelings, if you will, that were the results of iraq, and all of it has come together and you simply don't have the kind of natural support and tstra t interest. >> what is what president obama doing is sending a signal to syria and iran. >> it is to send a signal of any would be user of mass destruction, iran, north korea, what have you but in the case of iran specifically, this is the other country to whom the united states has set a red line. the president, as people know, said several times the goal is not to contain iran with nuclear weapons, but prevent iran from obtaining them. the president has essentially allowed the red line to syria to be somewhat ignored and what he

has to do is find a way to send the message to iran that you shouldn't read into this and think we didn't mean what we said when we said things to you. >> it's hard to believe over the past 2.5 years during this civil war in syria, more than 100,000 people have been killed, hundreds of thousands have been injured and 2 million refugees have gone to lebanon for example and millions more displaced internally within syria and now all of a sudden, 2.5 years later, people are starting to really pay attention. are you surprised it has taken so long for the world to wake up to the horror of what is going on in syria? >> look, there has always been a degree of selective response to humanitarian crisis and this is where war weariness kicks in. back to what the united states should do, any air strike against syria would strengthen the norm against chemical

weapons use but hurt the government if the united states took out the ability to use air force. we can do that by attacking the air force. if the united states were to make good on the pledge to provide serious arms, to selected elements of the opposition, i say senator mccain and others add vocated that wou tilt the battle field. this will be a long process, and the decision to potentially use force in response to the chemical use thanks policy can't bear anything like the full boreden of the policy if your goal is to take the humanitarian nightmare that is contemporary syria. let's talk more about tomorrow's vote on the syria resolution before the senate foreign relations committee. joining us the author of "syria,

the fall of the house of assad." also joining us marvin calb, author of the book "the road to war" the senior fellow at the brookings institutional, as well. thanks to both of you for coming in. david, let me start with you. you know bashar al-assad, you met his father. you understand what is going through his mind right now. when he sees this debate unfolding in the united states, how worried should he really be that he's about to get crushed, if you will, by u.s. tomahawk cruise missiles? >> well, i'm not sure i completely understand what he's thinking right now. he's somewhat of a changed person from when i knew him. i don't think he's panicking. he's obviously quite concerned, and i think in the immediate term thinking about three things like the colonel said, getting assets out of the way and

secondly seems to have launched something of a public relations campaign, which they don't do very well, by the way. they see the open debate. they see what happened in britain. they see the polls in the united states that shows the american public doesn't want to intervene in syria in a meaningful way. they think they can influence that and thirdly, we must not forget he's fighting an active civil war and trying not to focus on the u.s. -- on a u.s. strike more than they have to because they have to maintain -- they have to maintain their forces and poisture against the rebel forces. >> how important are the hearings, the debate taking place in the senate and start taking place in the house of representatives, the eventual votes? >> these debates are terribly important, and they are important because they provide the american people and the

representatives of the american people with an opportunity of moving in on what has been an essentially presidential responsibility to declare war, to act on war, and to do it essentially on his own. because really, since world war ii, one president after another accumulated power, enormous power to take the country into war. he very rarely has stopped to ask the congress to come along. this president has done that in much the same way the president lynn done johnson did it, the two bush presidencies did it and a number of the other presidents did not, including ronald reagan. so as these presidents have accumulated more power, now with an all volunteered military force, they are commanders in chief and can do what they want. this president is now asking the congress to do what the constitutional had in mind from the very beginning that on the

question of war and that's where we are, wolf, on the edge of war, all of the people ought to be part of that decision, and that means that congressmen, senators, house of representatives, everybody has to make up his mind, has to make the decision and do it. >> important historic perspective. david, we heard from the secretary of state, he said it onned sunday talk shows with gloria borger on state of the union, making the comparison between bashar al-assad and hitler. he used gas to kill jews and now bashar al-assad has done it over the past few days. let me play the little clip for you. >> was used by adolph hitler to gas millions of jews.

it was used by saddam hussain to gas iraqis and his own -- iranians and his own people and now it has been used by bashar al-assad. three people in all of history. >> he studied optometry in london for a couple years and trust into this job when his dad di died hafez al-assad. someone who studied bashar al-assad, is he another hitler? >> no, i don't think so the way we understand it. i think secretary kerry is trying to make the case to the american people, and if you compare somebody to hitler that's the worst comparison you can have and trying to influence the debate on this and congress and polls and american public. you compare someone to hitler or saddam hussain, it's someone you cannot accept or compelled to

over throw. i know it's hard to reconcile this person that many of us knew at one time and many of us thought was something of a hope for syria and had a different type of background as you said, a licensed ophthalmologist and he was always -- he was considered by everyone who knew him as humble and unpreten shows. how did this happen? i think the key is is that he became much more comfortable with power, which is not bad. if you become more comfortable with power and aauthoritative, maintaining that particly system, i think all on us many on us inside and outside syria hoped he would change the athor tar yin system but it changed him. >> i'm going to ask david and marvin to stand by. marvin, i'll ask you how the american news media is handling

this. also, john mccain takes a gymb gamble on syria. much more on that, as well.

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i don't believe that we should have given up so easily on using the united nations -- >> we haven't given up -- >> yes, we have. we haven't taken russia to task.

we haven't taken china to task, and that's what we should be pointing out at this point. >> another heated moment from today's debate in the senate of foreign relations committee. back with me, david lesh his book entitled "syria the fall of the house of assad" and the author of the book "the road to war, commitments honored and betrayed." you studied for years and used to work for nbc news as a diplomatic correspondent. how do you think the u.s. media is doing in the build up? >> wolf, one of the things the media tries to do is to simply survive and that means that you do whatever is necessary to stay with the story, to run with the story, even on occasion to push the story. for me a central issue right now is the examination of this question, what is a presidential

commitment? when a president says something in the current media environment, it becomes the word not only of the president but of the united states of america. what is the president going to do? does he have the credibility? did he think through what he had in mind when he made a commitment? the word itself is loaded, and we're at the edge of a war possibly because a president a year or so ago said there is a red line and you cannot cross it on the use of chemical weapons. the media will do the best it can, but this is a tough environment for any journalist. >> david, if the bashar al-assad were to fall, no indication he's about to fall any time soon, but if he were to fall, is there a possibility that al qaeda could emerge as the new leadership of syria? >> i don't think right now. now the longer this conflict goes on, i think their chances of fishing in troubled waters and gaining an advantage on the

battle field increases. but right now, no. i mean, syria, you know, 75% most of them i think would be described as conservative muslims, not necessarily jahsdest. opposition people to whom i've spoke don't really have a concern about that right now but certainly, in the future if this starts to fracture in syria, something like that could happen. >> david lesh thanks for joining us. marvin, thanks to you, as well. there was one pretty surprising moment during the senate of foreign relations committee hearing today. cameras caught senator john mccain with something other than syria on his iphone. i asked him about it afterwards. >> as much as i like to am always listening and wrapped attention constantly with remarks of my colleagues over

3.5 hour period, occasionally i get a little bored and so i resorted, but the worst thing about it is i lost thousands on dollars in this game. >> he was playing a little poker on his iphone. he was joking, of course, about losing thousands of dollars, that would be fake dollars but senator mccain always blunt coming forward, acknowledging he was playing poker, at least a little bit, during that hearing. up next, we'll continue to discuss what is going none syria. also, the unraveling of the mystery of the flag that was raised at ground zero. what happened to it after 9/11? i'll talk to the former temperature firefight top firefighter, the man who was there, that's coming up.

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huddle around the computer and he brings up this photo. >> and that popped out because of the flag. everything had this grayish-blue tint to it. and there you saw the red, white and blue. >> and i sat there and i said that's an incredible picture. danielle was standing behind me, she said that's not a picture, it's an icon. >> an icon indeed. that flag raised by three firefighters, the subject of a new cnn documentary premiering tomorrow night, entitled "the flag." next wednesday marks 12 years since the terror attacks. but that flag has not been seen sense. so where is it now? thomas was the new york city fire commissioner on 9/11 and is joining us right now. thank you very much for coming in. first of all, what is your most vivid memory of the rubble at the world trade center on 9/11? because you were there, and that flag certainly became a symbol. >> it was the enormity of it i

think, wolf. when we got there, it just started to see the people that were trying to help us with buckets. it reminded me of slaves building the pyramids thousands of years ago. it was just something until we could get heavy equipment in, the idea of rescuing people was very difficult because stuff was so heavy and dense we couldn't move it. >> what made that photo the memory of that tragic day in 2001? >> everybody was looking for hope. the first night we met with experts who said we would find no one, we couldn't rescue anybody because of the weight and the impact of the building collapsing. and we needed hope. something like that picture came out i think thursday after september 11, just two days. it gave everybody a symbol that we were going to be there, we were going to be there as long as was necessary and we were

going to rescue people if we could, and if not, we were going to try to do what was right and recover the remains of not just our heroes but all the innocents that died that day. >> a lot of people said they saw that flag at yankee stadium, aboard aircraft carriers. but where was that real flag? >> we'll never know, i guess. unless you guys figured it out. we thought we had it a couple of days after when the mayor asked us to give it to him. so the admiral could bring it on the aircraft carrier. we thought we sent the right one over there. even that one has disappeared, the one they signed and the one that was flown. i think it was probably an innocent mystery, probably removed by firefighters who didn't want to desecrate it. they were probably just trying to put fire out, so they removed the flag and put it somewhere.

it wasn't on anyone's mind. it was two days before it was in "the post." so people were worried about rescuing their brother, and innocent people. so it wasn't a big priority. >> thomas, thank you very much for all your help. thanks for everything you did. you'll have to watch our documentary tomorrow nishgght " flag." we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] some things are designed to draw crowds. ♪ ♪ others are designed to leave them behind. ♪ the all-new 2014 lexus is.

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that's all for us tonight. one programming note, jake tapper will be back here 11:00 p.m. eastern an hour from now with special live report, "crisis in syria, the debate begins." anderson cooper "360" starts right now. good evening everyone. welcome to a special edition of "ac 360." i'm anderson cooper, for this hour, we'll dig deeper into the issues before congress. the question lawmakers and the american people are asking right now, should the united states launch a military strike against syria for the chemical weapons attack that killed 1400 people, hundreds that were children? we'll talk about what's at stake as the region and the world wait for what is next. we begin with the breaking news tonight, multi