>> coming up, the white house rams the pressure to strike syria. today, it won support from top congressional leaders. still, many others are not convinced it is the right thing to do. a live report from capitol hill in just a moment. and at&t and the dea are creating big controversy, bigger than the nsa schedule, in fact. the telecom giant has been handing over loads of data to the government. more coming up. it has been months since the

deadly fertilizer plant explosion in west, texas. but even with discoveries of the plant pot lack of regulations, five other facilities containing the same chemical that caused the deadly blast have turned away fire marshals. more on today's show. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> hello, it is tuesday, said tempora third, 5 p.m. -- september 3, 5 p.m. in washington. will congress vote for military intervention in syria? capitol hill where the secretary of state, secretary of defense and the joint chiefs met to discuss the situation. president obama announced on saturday that congress would convene after a long weekend to discuss the syrian matter. today, he met with two

congressional heads in the white house cabinet room, and had this to say. >> the fact that i have had a chance to speak to many of you and congress as a whole is taking this issue with the soberness and seriousness that it deserves is greatly appreciated. i think it indicates the decision for us to present this -- vindicates the decision for us to present this decision to congress. >> john boehner said today that he backed president barack obama's call for military action. he said "the use of chemical weapons is a barbarous act. it is pretty clear to me that the united nations is unable to take action." meanwhile, in an exclusive interview with a french newspaper, syrian president bashar al-assad challenged the united states to come up with a single piece of evidence that he used chemical weapons. he said, "the middle east is a powder keg, and today, the fuse

is getting shorter. we have challenged the united states and france to provide a single piece of proof." today, top members of the cabinet testified before the senate foreign relations committee to make the case for intervention in syria. the chairman of the senate foreign relations committee, bob menendez, explained off-camera to the secretary of state why you would vote in favor of intervention. >> this weekend, i was of the soccer tournament and i had a group of moms, to me and say senator, we saw those pictures. they are horrific. i cannot imagine the devastation those parents must feel about their children, but why us? why us? i ask you, would you tell them that we would be more secure or less secure by the actions that

are being considered, for which the president has asked for the authorization of the use of force? >> our chief political correspondent was on the hill. i asked him what the main concerns of senators were and whether it is possible to gauge their support? >> this is the first in aries of hearings this week relate -- in a series of hearings this week related to military intervention in syria. in the senate, there is generally more support than in the house. you saw that today. senator menendez and senator corker showed support for the president's plan. you really only have senator rand paul and joe manchin showing concerns about military intervention. senator corker said, why serious? what is it about syria that if

we don't attack them over using chemical weapons, how does that harm our national interests? john kerry said this in response. >> we know bashar al-assad would read hours ebbing away or our silence as an invitation to use those -- our stepping away or our silence as an invitation to use those weapons with impunity. and in creating impunity, we would be creating opportunity for other terrorist to create their own weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. >> in other words, if we don't strike, it might embolden future date haters or ayatollahs. -- future dictators or ayatollahs. there was no specific mention to limiting boots on the ground, u.s. boots on the ground. he pressed senator kerry and kerry finally said, look, we are not going to do boots on the ground. >> sam, what is the schedule

over the next week or two coup, and what is the timeframe here? when will votes be held and how soon would we see a strike if we do see one? >> well, today we have the senate hearing. there is going to be, in the house, a foreign relations committee hearing tomorrow. then there will be a series of classified hearings where members can look at all of the evidence presented and some of the war plans the administration has drawn up. congress is not fully back in session until next week. we will probably have more hearings and then some votes. congressional leaders have rom is an early vote on -- have promised an early vote on this. you can assume that once the vote passes, you would see an attack right after that. >> here is the authorization, which says in part "the president is authorized to use the armed forces of the united

states as determined to be necessary and appropriate." what are the chances that this war authorization can pass congress? >> well, it remains to be seen. in the senate, it is likely to pass. in the house, not so sure. senator rand paul said he is 50- 50. you can see some crossover from the vote last month. you also have republicans like peter king who generally support this kind of action, but are upset that the president is even going to congress to begin with. he might have a battle to get this through the house. if it does not pass the house, the president might even still have wiggle room to strike on his own. nothing is going to be brought to the floor that is going to fail. leadership is going to make sure the house is not going to vote

down something. you can imagine two weeks ago, the president saying look, i tried to get congress on board. it is paralyzed. and then decide to go alone. that all remains to be seen. >> like you just said, the president has been getting criticized for even going to congress with this. members of congress like senator john mccain and peter king have argued that he has the power to act without congress, so why even ask for congressional authorization to begin with? what do you think about this? >> that is a good question. i think the fact that the u.k. had a vote on this and it was voted down last week, francis get drilling a vote on this the coming days, i think -- france is scheduling a vote on this in the coming days, i think optically, the president feels he will look stronger with congress's support, but he has

not made it clear he is not willing to go it alone if congress does not support him on this. anytime you are going to engage in military strikes against another nation, it could turn messy. i think he wants as much support as possible, especially since other countries are not lining up behind us either. >> in los angeles, antiwar demonstrators took to the streets on saturday in protest of the proposed u.s. military strike in syria. hundreds marched in downtown los angeles in a mostly peaceful demonstration. our correspondent was covering the protest and brings us all the latest. >> here in los angeles, a massive amount of people have taken to the streets to rally against u.s. intervention in syria. earlier, president obama said he was going to wait for congress to give him approval to intervene militarily. that is not much comfort to the people here. a lot of them are very skeptical

about the evidence the u.s. government has presented to show chemical weapon use in syria. >> we don't believe the lie of chemical weapons. >> the obama administration has said they confirmed that a side used chemical weapons, but the united states has not been in there. the united nations is in there and they have not confirmed anything yet. >> they cannot produce evidence to justify the attack. they do not have international support for the attack. they do not have to mastech support for the attack. they are trying to figure out -- do not have domestic support for the attack. they are trying to figure out what to do and that is why it is important for people to be in the streets. >> as you know, a single man did it in tokyo, in the subway. >> the prospect of intervention

is especially troubling for syrian americans and other americans of middle eastern dissent who still have troubling memories of past interventions. >> we know what happened in iraq. it is not fair at all. >> [indiscernible] >> this rally was among several held in the u.s. and around the world. in los angeles, rt. >> in other news, we knew the national security agency was not the only government agency keeping piles of telephone data on subscribers, but now, things to new documents obtained by peace activist, we now know that the drug enforcement agency has been keeping track of every

call that goes through and at&t switch, dating as far back as 1987. that data goes back further than the nsa records. it includes location information. telephone company employees are actually paid by the government to sit alongside dea and supply them with data. the american civil liberties union says this raises fourth amendment concerns. however, the justice department says hemisphere merely streamlines the process of getting access to records maintained by the phone company. i was joined by the executive director of the national lawyers guild. i ask could put this database into context. >> revelations of hemisphere are rather breathtaking, given the scope of the records that at&t is making accessible to dea agents. by the fact that the government is actually paying at&t employees to sit next to police officers and agents and assist

them in their job, they are using administrative subpoenas, which are not run by a judge. a few years ago, the justice department inspector general said the fbi has been abusing administrative subpoenas, using them, saying they are necessary in the war on terrorism. i think the trouble with this program is that the government is paying at&t to do things the government would not lawfully be able to access it felt. -- itself. it is relying on corporations and there is no oversight to the process. >> in your opinion, is this legal? >> i think the nsa's buying and hummus your skirts -- nsa spying and hemisphere skirts the law. being able to access records of phone calls from two decades

ago, and doing it without judicial war and and oversight, to me, makes it very questionable legally. even that the fbi itself has said that the inspector general's have said that it is misused, i think that is cause for alarm. >> one proposal on capitol hill was to have arrived at companies rather than government agencies -- private companies rather than government agencies store data. how does this revelation compromise that solution? >> we have seen such a close partnership between government fees and operations -- government agencies and private corporations. the problem is, industry is not accountable to the strictures of the u.s. constitution and unreasonable searches and seizures, and we do not want to give them carte blanche to hold our records and possibly tamper with them. we also want to make sure that

if they were with the government, -- work with the government, there is proper transparency and oversight protections so that they are accountable to the people. >> a report showed that the dea was using an american citizen data from databases like this and then at scaring the trail of evidence or hang a trial -- of securing -- obscuring the trail of evidence during trial. does that compromise the right to a free and fair trial? >> absolutely. it is creating a fiction about how that evidence was gathered. the violates the right to a fair trial. it violates the right of the person involved to confront the sources of how that information was gathered. that is troubling, and i think the revelations of this latest program raise the question, if the dea is using administrative

subpoenas, how many other government agencies are? we know they have then, through the patriot act, for years, to gather information to arsenal information, medical -- personal information, medical records, financial records. i think day by day we are seeing more of this exposed. >> how can we as citizens protect our privacy while using a cell phone? >> well, if you are concerned about location privacy, if you have the kind of cell phone you can remove the battery from, do that. if you are concerned about listening in, remove the battery. i think the real lesson is to keep rings private, you cannot have a conversation on -- keep

things private, you cannot have a conversation on a cell phone or a computer. just be aware that all of that data is being collected, sold to third parties, and used somewhere in the future, and that is troublesome. >> enqueue. in the mid-atlantic it has been quite -- thank you. in the mid atlantic, it has been quite a grim scene after dead dolphins started washing up on shore. genetic tests .2 a virus playing -- point to a virus playing a major role in dolphin fatalities. >> 9 a.m., and most beachgoers are just waking up in the tourist town of virginia beach, but the response team is already in action. >> this is by far the most serious event i have ever seen. >> his group is responsible for sea life recovery in the entire

state of virginia. they have been working on the ministry of dead dolphins washing up on the shores of the atlantic. they are responding to a call from a local resident. >> we have no live reports on animals today. >> a team of three packs a genetics kit into a trunk and head out. a 20 minute drive takes them to a remote part of the beach. there, halfway on shore, our first head dolphin of the day. >> it is a boy, age unknown, a whole carcass. >> immediately, the group gets to work, measuring the dolphin, counting teeth and assigning it a number. >> this guy is probably older. he has worn teeth. especially given the size, i would say he is older. >> it is a site that would sadden most beachgoers, but for

these researchers, it is an opportunity to get to the bottom of the debts. another call comes in. another dead dolphin reported. the team heads out to find it. up and down the east coast, hundreds of dead dolphins have been washing up on shore, particularly here in virginia beach. experts simply don't know what is causing these hundreds of dolphins to die, but scientists say the dolphins in particular are a good measure of the health of the ocean, so having all these carcasses wash up on shore is not a good sign. >> they are mammals just like you and i. it is debit dating to see. certainly -- devastating to see. certainly, it is not a good sign. >> back at the lab, the group begins an autopsy to find possible answers. scientists have been flying in from across the country to help. the smell here is almost

indescribable, a mixture of fish and rotting flesh. the smell sticks to your clothing thanks to a thick blanket of humidity. over 200 carcasses have washed up on virginia shores this summer, four times the amount of reviews years, but after months of tireless research, -- of previous years, but after months of tireless research, ocean scientist's think they may have an answer. >> we know that the a's -- we know that these animals are exposed to a lot of different pollutants in the water. they are stressed as a result of that. whether that has implications in this event, it is way too early to tell. >> it is the same disease that killed over 700 dolphins between 1987-1989.

but there is little scientist can do to stop the spread of the disease. >> this is a wild animal population that spends its entire life at sea, living underwater. it is impossible for us to do anything out there to alleviate this. >> even if it is the more bill of virus, all scientist can do is wait for the dolphins to wash up on shore. there will be plenty more before this disease runs its course. >> yury -- you may remember this april explosion at a west, texas fertilizer factory. this blast, which killed 15, injured more than 200 others, and caused significant damage to the town, has an lamed on the ammonium nitrate stored at the facility. -- has in blamed on the ammonium nitrate stored at the facility.

five facilities have told inspectors to stay away. as you can see from this map from green peas, chemical plants are located all over the country -- greenpeace, high-risk chemical plants are located all over the country. however, marshall's cannot force their way into businesses or conduct unannounced inspections in the lone star state. five facilities just won't let the inspectors in, and neither has one of the railroad companies that transports the chemicals. connolly declined to name the factories that won't let him in. he said "in their defense, they may have a very good reason. go the people -- reason." the people who live near these factories might want to learn what that reason it is. are you interested in learning

the latest on workers rights struggles yet go tune in tonight for "labor picture." tune in for this special post- labor day programming. landowners in north carolina may soon be forced to sell energy companies the rights to the natural gas needs their properties. in raleigh, state officials approved a nonbinding proposal. however, environmentalists argue that fracking violations force homeowners to sell whether or not they want to. a representative of the blue ridge environmental defense league join me to discuss the tremendous pressure on homeowners to sell their property. >> i have been following this

issue almost since its inception with the study group. what was decided last wednesday, essentially, was to keep a law that was put in place in 1945, that was designed for conventional gas and oil development, which is very different than the hydraulic fracking that we are talking about today, designed to protect landowners from their next-door neighbor sucking their resource out from under the ground. that does not happen in a tight shale situation. there is some question about whether we even needed to retain this law or not. what can happen now is that if your neighbors, the gas companies and the government decide that you are in a drilling area and they need your piece of the pie, so to speak,

to make things more cost- effective, to prevent waste, as they say, they can force you into selling whether you want to or not. for whatever reason, whether you want to wait until the price goes up, whether you would like to save that for your children or grandchildren, or whether you have a moral reason for not doing so. this study group could have recommended that we repeal the statute, and they did not do so. they have let the door wide open for the oil and gas industry to come in and make people sell their gas whether they want to or not. >> at this point, this is a nonbinding proposal, not law. what steps need to be taken for this to become law?

>> my understanding is some pieces of it will go to the energy commission for incorporation into some of the rule sets that have an developing. the north carolina department of natural resources will be taking the -- taking the recommendation to our legislature. it is anybody's guess what will happen at that point. i want to point out that this does two things beside establishing the ability for this violation of property rights to occur. it also gives the gas companies a big stick to approach people when they are considering whether they want to lease or not to say, you can either lease now or we can make you. it is just patently unfair. you know, there are even folks who have leased their land to gas companies already who don't feel that it is right for them

to be able to tell their neighbors what to do. it is very sad. it was a very, very disturbing session. >> the newspaper said this has a very good chance of becoming law. what do you think? >> like i said, all bets are off. it would be my feeling that conservatives in particular, property rights proponents and others, would be very, very concerned about this. eminent domain comes with the gas issue, but this is a little different because this is a private industry that is going to the government, using the might and blessing of the government to take -- they do reimburse you -- but to make you sell your resource whether you

want to or not. you can not reimburse people for peace of mind. you are talking about folks's home. in this county in particular, you are talking about the few controlling the many. it is very concerning. i work really closely with landowners in that area. >> a major argument for fracking is that it will generate jobs in north carolina. what is your response to this? >> i feel like that argument is overblown. we have a small resource here. we have a small claim. additionally, a lot of the jobs are transient. folks come into town and do what they are here to do. they are contract workers, and when they are done, they leave. from what i have read and what i have studied, i don't feel it is going to be a long-lasting, in any economic development

strategy for north carolina, and it is going to have negative cost, such as road damage, infrastructure problems, social services and so on that may not be considered. it is really hard to think that it is going to be a big moneymaker for the state. >> that was teresa vick from the blue ridge environmental defense league. that does it for now. for more on the studies we have covered, you can go to youtube.com/rt america. i will see you back here at 8:00. thanks for watching.

hello and welcome to "newsline." u.s. president barack obama has been trying for more than a week to rally support for an attack on syria. he's tried to persuade lawmakers alone and in group privately and publicly. now he has won the backing of some of the most influential