today violence is once again flared up. and these are the images the world has been seeing from the streets of canada as. chilling corporations rule the day. osama bin laden may be dead but does that mean mission accomplished for the obama administration we'll look into what the killing of us i mean not enemy number one could mean for the war in afghanistan. and america's number one enemy it certainly isn't it's only me now the target is off of bin laden some are accusing the u.s. and nato of targeting moammar gadhafi we'll explore the issue of mission creep in libya. and if the fortieth anniversary of the biggest mass arrests in u.s. history when you're lead to ten thousand vietnam war protesters ended up behind

bars but with several wars and a faltering economy topping the agenda today why aren't more people taking their message to the streets. let's say ten years the. freest. environment for the press in the world so i mean well does it now why don't you tell that's of the journalists arrested for exercising a very right to free speech as the globe celebrates world press freedom day we'll look into some of the obstacles facing reporters here in the states. good evening it's tuesday may third eight pm here in washington d.c. i'm lucy cough enough and you're watching our t.v. . and bin laden is dead the man whose actions had a significant impact on u.s. foreign policy and domestic policy over the past decade is now gone what comes next

what is bin laden's death mean for the increasingly unpopular war in afghanistan or the seemingly endless war on terror and earlier i posed this question to matthew hoh a former marine corps captain and state department officer who actually became the highest level diplomatic official to quit over the war in afghanistan here's what he had to say. year after year for us five or six years the war has gotten worse every year the more troops we spend afghanistan the more money we spend afghanistan insurgency gets larger and the karzai government loses support which results in the violence getting worse and worse and the you can see that literally among any metric you look at so these ideas that somehow are making progress in afghanistan or. you know i mean there's nothing more to say about them about their lives bin laden's death brings closure or at least some degree of closure to nine eleven and hopefully back closure the american public may feel now may turn into

a political movement that may force members of congress to push for a change in strategy and maybe we'll see a change in in our policy in afghanistan started going saw our troops back home as a former u.s. official who is really privy to a lot of the discussions that are going on in the calculus behind start a conference in afghanistan explain to me if the purported purpose of going into afghanistan in the beginning was to deny al qaeda safe haven to chase bin laden down and get the modern why today in twenty a lot then are the taliban in afghanistan and then we worth the thousands of troops that we have on the ground in the trillions of dollars or something yeah it's a difficult question and that's one of the reasons why i resigned my position from state department afghanistan was because of that because but we were fighting were fighting taliban were fighting these were all pashtuns for most part real pashtuns who are fighting us because we're taking part in someone else's civil war so it's a complex question i think this goes back to american domestic politics this goes

back to president obama running against senator mccain in two thousand and eight he had to prove that he was for a democrat for a black democrat he could be a good commander in chief and he was going to he had been president obama was right on iraq we should have gone in but he's going to be right now afghanistan he's going to win the good war and i think this stems back to then is this escalate. of the conflict and so here we are now nearly three years after you know senator obama said he would escalate the war and win it we're stuck again in a stalemate and it was martin that will talk a little bit about your personal experience and what is it you reference domestic politics that sort of affected the thinking on the war pinpoint that for me is that the generals here in washington at the pentagon didn't understand the cultural situation the political situation in iraq what specifically was the connection i think you had. what we had is we had this doctrine of counterinsurgency that

had more or less united states military had performed in central in latin america in earlier parts this year performed in vietnam and in resurrect it in iraq however what happened was we did the surge in iraq beginning to intercept it at the same time because of other events many of them political such as the sunni awakening or the solder side of the army's cease fire. stability started coming back and violence dropped quite a bit we took that as a validation of our doctrine and so what we brought over to afghanistan to win the war was this structure of counterinsurgency that we're going to show up that we're going to add more troops we're going to do things differently when the power of the government all those good tens of connect the population to the government however we misread the conflict there this is the civil war the war that predated us me and we entered into the conflict in september of two thousand and one and you know we

completely right and justified to do so and we entered into a with me going on for twenty years when we had to do some of the civil war so that we did was we took one side out power put the other side in power never addressed you know why because of the conflict and so i think it was our misreading of what was occurring there are misreading that the taliban while we probably don't agree with many other tenets many. their leaders are absolutely despicable people. represent one side in a conflict it's that misreading and decide misinterpreted or potations of the conflict is why we're in this stalemate or this quagmire right now that is matthew hoh senior fellow or fellow at the center for international policy and also the director of the afghanistan study group. how the death of osama bin laden in a secret u.s. raid in pakistan has captured the world's attention in the process overshadowing our disturbing development in libya this week and you know we need omagh bombing of moammar gadhafi is home found near tripoli on saturday killed his twenty nine year old son as well as three of his grandchildren all under the age of twelve now that

he was reportedly inside the compound at the time of the attack prompting some to accuse nato over overstepping its u.n. mandate in libya are to correspondent kelli arena who show reports. it was a death the buried under the barrage of breaking news we've been leader moammar gadhafi is twenty nine year old son and three grandchildren were reportedly killed by nato airstrike on saturday night all children were said to be under twelve years old but within twenty four hours the u.s. president and nouns the death of the world's number one terrorist news which overshadowed anything coming from libya the idea of extra judicial assassinations just days after nato that attempted to assassinate gadhafi and ended up killing his son and grandchildren once again we see another type of extra judicial assassination going on which of course is an international war crime but in this case it's so it's ok because it's the bogeyman that everyone loves to hate. the

coalition commanders have protested they are in full compliance with the u.n. security council resolution on libya and only target military objects insisting they're not targeting any one person in particular this despite two recent airstrikes targeting known whereabouts of qaddafi this was an attack on a billiard structure this was a personal compound a murder free was bridge or one of this. well i think it very long way did anybody with any fear associated with you know if they really want to get near him and you know. this was all a crime but of course being a libya carol is almost all of the nato countries are committing war crimes every single day attacking civilian targets killing civilians. the bombings the sports riots with gadhafi supporters the storming the italian and

british embassies and protests and some believe should the coalition forces continue in their chosen course in libya the situation will go from bad to worse nato's activity in sicily strengthened the loyalty. he's in the resolve of supporters for each dropped on tripoli and other gadhafi loyalists strongholds it's just the psychology of war anywhere when you. are resisting group their resolve gets stronger and is history shows the situation in libya many full force already familiar to western politicians we have to give full credit to the u.s. political establishment and military establishment have been always very creative in finding anything first it was a saudi you know and was it was the russian federation and even some of the saddam hussein and the use of course we have. next one income you never

rises also has expressed concern over the size of the libya various times saying the coalition is using excessive force but promises from countries like russia china and india are going to be noticed by the west and will need to decide when it's all so much gold who knows how many more lives will be lost it goes through r.t. moscow. so for the death of libyan leader moammar gadhafi son and three grandchildren simply unfortunate cases of collateral damage to the killings be evidence of nato mission creep in libya for more we're joined by alan cooperman a professor of public affairs at the university of texas in austin and also the author of this look here the limits of humanitarian intervention professor thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today i want to get right to the story how do you interpret the killings of gadhafi son and three grandchildren this weekend accidental or evidence of something a little bit more. well it's two possibilities either we that is the nato

coalition thought that cut off it was there and they were trying to take him out and instead they killed his son and three of his grandchildren and that's one possibility the other possibility is that nato story is true that they thought it was really a command center or a command bunker and they hit it and in that case the intelligence was terrible given that in fact it was a residence for civilians and including the children grandchildren khadafi my and my point is that in the first place if you were trying to assassinate it off that's really illegitimate or a mission that is authorized only to protect civilians on the other hand if it was an attempt to hit a bunker and then they built these very high level civilians then nato should apologize or if it was ill advised or still implement you know way the needle made

a mistake in my opinion it should apologize so instead of need it was doing is going to then they think this is just fine this is just a myth it's unfortunate this happened but no big deal do you think that the mission and nato has gotten out of hand has it actually gotten gone beyond the nato mandate the resolution one thousand from the great. it's gone well past mandate you know a long time ago it's one thing if you're really trying to protect civilians you might hit libyan forces on the frontline but the idea of hitting retreating libyan forces be a good ping it's. old so you can still see. some skeptical viewers who may be watching this might say you know then off he is a bad guy he's responsible for the deaths of many many civilians or some civilians

so what if some of his family members are killed isn't that off the responsible for the deaths of others professor canary oh i think we're having some technical issues so we'll see if we can get professor kuperman back to speak with us but for now i think we're going to move on to a different story now land of the free home of the first amendment the united states of america is supposed to be of beacon for the rest of the world or so at least has been the rhetoric of our politicians for much of the past century now you may have a difficult time shopping for a hallmark card in honor of this holiday but today may third is actually world press freedom day and to market sobering statistic according to the latest global rankings of press freedom released by the freedom house foundation the united states came in a twenty second ranking behind the likes of palauan dora st lucia even the marshall islands now granted it could be worse but since one said it could be worse becomes something to strive for as arduous christine for the reports freedom of the press

isn't guaranteed when it comes to us. yes it might be but back out. it's brains there's a pillar of american democracy the cornerstone of the free society. freedom of the press united states has the. freest. environment for the press in the world sorry i got it from. my journalists have been under attack anyone ited states their first amendment rights violated their status as the washstand of democracy dismissed i myself have been arrested as a member of the press i've seen other pressure arrested and they do the same thing they state move away from this area even though you have a right to be there then one should move where they want you to go they still go ahead. and arrest you while some journalists are arrested while covering an

assignment i did cross the street i'm not ok there's have been detained heading to an assignment. during the two thousand two world bank meetings hundreds were arrested including journalists like deborah kahn it's hard. and. journalists say they're censored by the police because the press captures their treatment of demonstrators they know the media is a serious check and balance against government tyranny sometimes it even gets is that. at this protest in new york police officers steal reporters cameras. covering demonstrations is one thing. challenging america's so-called war on terror is another just ask him with surprise when he correspondent james rising

subpoenaed by the justice department over confidential sources he could face jail time the more direct part is to frighten people in the government from talking and it's to have a chilling effect on potential whistleblowers in the government to make them realize that you know there's a big brother out there that will get them if they step out of line with the leaks founder julian assange labeled quote a high tech terrorist by vice president joe biden for publishing leaked u.s. government documents and a video showing u.s. helicopter pilots shooting unarmed reporters in iraq he could be charged with espionage a move that is setting a dangerous precedent according to the committee to protect journalists the notion that somebody could be prosecuted for disseminating information under the espionage act in our view would open the door for subsequent prosecutions potentially augur or through i mean the list of prosecution of journalists doesn't concern everyone

hears and courts are taking questions at the conservative political action conference what do you mean knowing that there are jail journalists i think there should be more in jail. i want the u.s. proclaims its press free this kind of repression has to stop we have to be able to report to ensure. but we live in a democratic society every media criticism of the establishment. when detained in the united states journalists are usually held for a few hours charged and then released but when arrested while covering u.s. military operations abroad the consequences can be much more severe sometimes even deadly join us for that segment tomorrow in washington christine frizz out r t now earlier i discussed this issue with jeff cohen journalism professor at ithaca college and also the author of this book air cable news comes we have a graphic. cable news confidential my misadventures in corporate media here's part

of that interview. but what shocked me when i worked at cable television news at m.s.n. d.c. and elsewhere is how timid journalists were at this country and usually the words that happens to you if you do independent reporting is you don't get a promotion or our rights in this country turn alist weren't for giant conglomerates there are money comes in from giant corporations that are the advertisers and i mean look what happened in san francisco last week where a reporter from the chronicle took out her when she was a reporter from the san francisco chronicle about obama fundraiser she takes out her camera or her cell phone and records of protest against obama by obama supporters about bradley manning the alleged wakey wakey sleeker who's been mistreated in custody in our media that he was told she'd be cold out of

the clueless the next when reporters do get outside of the pack that's when they run into trouble that's when amy goodman gets arrested at the republican convention in two thousand and eight that's when her two producers for democracy now are pretty aggressively arrested and charged with felonies felony riot charges you know there's a great story where amy is talking to a mainstream reporter at the two thousand and eight convention amy goodman a democracy now in the mainstream reporters this gee i didn't get arrested and amy says what were you out there covering the protests and he says no i haven't left the building and amy then quotes woody allen who says ninety five percent of life is just showing up i mean you know if you if you really get harassed in this country or arrested if you're a journalist if you are in the wrong place you're out of line you're out of place if you follow along with the she at your dock to you don't step out of line you'll be pampered in privilege that is contrary in other words the reporters that act as

independent journalists sometimes get in trouble with their bosses sometimes even with a lot. but if you if you don't step out of place out of line then you generally are papered privileged in the society we always colorful analysis from jeff cohen professor of journalism at ithaca college and author of cable news conference. now forty years ago today more than thirty thousand protesters descended on washington determined to shut down the u.s. government and and the war in vietnam and the police well they reacted by the end of the time for them and by the time the demonstrations came to an end really ten thousand protesters ended up behind bars are peaceful and ford has more on the meeting protests. washington d.c. . may third one thousand nine hundred seventy one more than two hundred thousand protesters in veterans converge in the capital to demand an end to the war in

vietnam the idea was to shut the city down because the war wouldn't stop and the only way to stop the war was to was to stop the government and that was the slogan of the demonstration and that was by putting their bodies on the road and blocking traffic at the back or was there because camera rolling i mean what this circle looked like i may third one hundred seventy one were back in seventy one you know a lot of the people were staying around dupont circle you know actually i was living there off of new hampshire and street and so it was just a block or two to be here and there were just thousands of people that would just converge and then we would disappear back in for spaces and we knew the turf and we knew the alley way so but the spite that i mean more i think on mad more than thirteen thousand people were arrested it was the largest arrest in the history probably in one day. in the united states. police used tear gas and

clubs to disperse protesters then president richard nixon called in the military. robert klotz was a police captain i think and later the eighty second airborne came in and helicopter. and i was assigned as a law with the commanding general of the eighty second airborne and paratroopers landed at the national monument. protesters wouldn't back down people trying everything to end the war and nothing would end it and so this was like one of the last ditch efforts and in a sense it was almost like an indian tribal sort of like you know the image of maybe they were sitting bull sitting you know part of a massacre so for us it was the last stand the last stand of dignity you know. trying to end the war. and and we willing to abandon people willing to you know put their lives on the line to do that. by eight am on may third police had arrested

more than two thousand people we had made plans as to where we were going to be prisoners when they were arrested you line arena was one place the redskin practice for which was down by our of a stadium was another there was several places where you could put a lot of people and that's where they were taken. when they were arrested by the end of the gate more than seven thousand have been arrested the largest number of arrests in us history was the spirit like it was incredible i mean you can see when the police wade into the crowd at the justice department with their sticks and their mason and then from that you know someone starts dancing and then all of a sudden everyone is standing everyone standing together and it was the same spirit here where they had incarcerated people where they threw them into a practice field like this you know people have to sort of prove their own deal

with finding food and keeping warm and. and from that people went back to their house houses went back to their communities and and spread out around them and i was trying to let the legacy of that whole experience it was a last. antiwar demonstration but it's it was the beginning of the end for the war. both plots and backers say they haven't seen the magnitude of protests and pressure brought to bear on government since meeting despite america's decade long war in afghanistan and eight year presence in iraq but i don't know whether it has to do with an all volunteer army were people not being. drafted into the service nowadays there are less people affected by those wars that were affected by the previous wars in afghanistan.

i don't know but you just you're not getting the numbers. that we used to get for those kind of. forty years ago the protesters filled the stats are going to memorial bridge on the national mall to take the nixon administration to task and question the legitimacy of the us war in vietnam but today the wars in iraq and afghanistan continue the people are now in the streets here in washington like they used to be killing ford artsy washington d.c. so what has changed between the one nine hundred seventy s. and today and why is it that the mass protest movements of that era seem to peter out well earlier i spoke to adam coker show host of adam vs the man and i asked him why he thinks fewer people are taking their concerns to the streets as part of his response. it is very different different because of the actions of the government it's taken to suppress dissent in this country and take by contrast what's happened

in egypt in the way the protests were allowed to happen there because the least there was some respect for the freedom of assembly here in the united states and i don't have that on this right right ok no i mean they did a very clumsily but here in the united states by contrast we have the best repression that money can buy we have literally the best i mean the tear gas that they were using an agent came from here believe me the cops here know how to use it better than the cops in egypt too and that kind of oppression that we see here you know i've seen it firsthand i've been thrown to the ground by cops i've been arrested a couple dozen times but doing things that are entirely legal so there's a certain mentality here that's different i don't think it's because the sentiments not there the eye of the dissatisfaction here in the united states is stronger than it's ever been maybe you don't have the swirl of the counterculture around of the feet in the sixty's but really the substance of that decided to dissent right now i think is stronger and deeper even than it was then but for people like us who would be organizing rallies and protests there's a certain like well let's do the math can we be more effective communicate in other

ways online so there's some times when we use that to your advantage or sometimes when you just go around it but if you look at what happened in western illinois university this past weekend they had a they can do you can even have a party for you have a cell or not freedom of speech not free no dissent freedom of assembly so what happened i left around in west in illinois there was that there was a big block party huge thousands of students it looked like on the sidewalks on the streets and and they sent in riot cops in a line to marge down the street because they're college students on the street oh my gosh and they pulled out the sound cannon they actually use the sound cannon and tear gas not on dissenting protesting on college students who are having a party and if you can even assemble to have a good time but when the going to some of the protest us it's time to kick in in the end aren't. because on one hand you know if if if more people took to the street that runs i think you could argue that if there's enough people out in the

streets perhaps that then some sort of message would be sent to the politicians to to the police officers to those in power at the same time you're saying that sort of seeing these kinds of violent crackdowns and sort of excessive excessive use the force crackdown will really providing people from even leaving the house my first place i think right now we're seeing the the politicians are going to do whatever they can to suppress dissent and keep things looking like keep the illusion of that we have going in the united states here of a two party system that really doesn't is divorced from the base of that system and they're doing everything they can to maintain the solution that the people are unhappy with their representation they have so i don't i mean your personal experiences have really made you understand sort of what is wrong with this country you are a veteran you've experienced these that these kind of suppressions i would argue that a lot of americans might be frustrated with what's going on but i don't know if folks are really at that level of really wanting to take it to the street and the second kind of change i wonder if you know could your judgment be clouded by maybe being

around more people who are after those who are used to serving on to the streets in getting their message for all it's but it's taken down a notch i mean regardless of whether you think that sentiment is there or not whatever sentiment is there the expression of it is taken down a huge notch because i can tell you from prison experience organizing protests and rallies when you need a permit not that you should because the permits right there in the first amendment of the constitution the united states of america but when you need a permit to keep the police from just taking you out of a space like you know here in d.c. if you want to organize a protest or rally on the mall we have one a dozen different law enforcement agencies in the district you have to talk to three or four of on you know you've got to fill forms get to all the paperwork and then you get and all of these hurdles that have been raised it's not just the violence suppression it's all the ways that we have been corralled into free speech zones. and that that was adam cowshed the host of adam vs the man which you can catch right here on our team and unfortunately that doesn't for this evening's newscast as always for more.