syria's sons government troops will stop all military operations on thursday morning and accordance with the u.n. brokered deadline for a ceasefire with the opposition fighters. then british prime minister turns his tour of asia into a weapons sales pitch seeking arms deals with nations in the pacific a move many see as an attempt to undermine china's growing cooperation plus. you know if you could prefer and that's fine but not coming to the bone as worries over the state of spain's finances intensified along with fears that there will be a need for a bailout critics say resorting to more all sturdy cuts will just aggravate the

crisis. next the latest edition of the on our show where among other things she looks at the first death penalty trial coming out one talking all day stay with us . welcome to the lower show where we get the real headlines with none of the mersey if you live in washington d.c. doubts and i are going to speak with marcy wheeler about the birth death penalty trial coming up and giving up media organizations want into the discussions of elena sherry's torture can be made public that is everybody talks about the new agreement on night raids between the u.s. and afghanistan we're going to break down the real details and highlight all the loopholes which make you wonder how much is really going to change and there are a lot of headlines out there asking of cispa is the new sopa so we're going to take

a detailed look at this bill show you how it is and isn't likely defeated copyright legislation all that morphy tonight including this of happy hour but first take a look at what the mainstream media has decided to. pounce been kind of a big day politically right rick santorum officially dropped out of the presidential race and even though both newt gingrich and ron paul are still in the race most republicans have resigned to admitting that they think a candidate in the general election is going to be mitt romney not because they want to me just because that's the way it's probably going to have to be but anyway one of the things we've consistently heard the media go crazy about and which you know will hold me get worse as the election nears is mitt romney's record of being a serial flip flopper. you think romney is a flip flopper right now mitt romney's stated position is that he would absolutely

support a constitutional amendment to make birth control illegal when confronted with opposition today he said he does not want to make birth control illegal brahmi went the other direction in other words he went from taking. positions more progressive mainstream positions earlier on and now switching to more extreme conservative positions to please the republican base mitt romney has once again contradicted mitt romney. running about mitt romney saying you have a flip flop or you know the two men caught in one body i think you hit a reset button for the fall campaign everything changes it's almost like you know triscuit you can kind of shake it up and we start all over again is it fair to say that this is getting so much pickup because it feeds into an existing narrative in criticism about governor romney that go change his position it took a little more than an hour for him to commit his latest flip flop and consistency matters i mean mitt romney has the challenge of not being consistent and it really

matters in politics. but here's the thing if you're going to be running to be the president of the united states and you have a serious consistency problem issue it's probably fair game as an attack line. there's something about the way that the media approaches this whole thing that really bothers me when it comes to president obama's flip flops and perhaps some of the worst of his flip flops the mainstream media is essentially silent and this isn't a right versus left thing either i mean sure i miss n.b.c. take that a lot easier on the president and fox news dedicates literally every minute of their newscast every day to blaming everything on obama but even fox is usually focusing on fabricated issues take gas prices right even though they defended president bush when he was in office and they rose and he they said that he had no control over gas prices going up well when those prices are going up under obama that it's clearly directly his fault but the thing is there are issues of civil liberties there's the rule of law there's transparency all of which this former

constitutional law professor has flip flopped on and all of which are regularly ignored by the mainstream media now we constantly talk about the obama administration's war on whistleblowers on this show about the fact that under his administration already six people have been charged under the espionage act that's in three years and that's more times than ever before in our history and yet one can say on president obama's campaign website as his issues before he was elected well take a look at this says protect whistleblowers often the best source of information about waste fraud and abuse in government is an existing government and be committed to public integrity and willing to speak out such acts of courage and patriotism which can sometimes save lives often save taxpayer dollars who should be encouraged rather than stifled we need to empower federal employees as watchdogs of wrongdoings and partners in performance and barack obama will strengthen it whistleblower laws to protect federal workers expose that waste fraud and abuse of

authority in the government obama will ensure that federal agencies expedite the process for reviewing whistleblower claims and whistleblowers have full access to courts and due process so they had to listen to the say it and get a look at a graphic but all of that. quite an earful quite a mouthful about the obama campaign's had occasion to whistleblowers and yet look at what he's done now as president i would call that a flip flop but thing is that it's not just the president himself that suffer from this right it's those around him as well those working in his administration some of those used to be the loudest critics of the bush administration along with obama when it came to the war on terror and how we conducted ourselves and that includes waging war based on lies secret prisons rendition torture guantanamo bay all things in violation of international laws understanding of human rights and all things greatly damaged our reputation so for a minute here let's point out harold koh he's a state department legal adviser under the obama administration also

a former dean of the law school and he was really vocal in talking about the damage that had been done under george w. bush six years of defining ocean entirely through the lens of the war on terror has damaged your human rights reputation given cover to abuses committed by her knowledge and blunted orderly criticized by leaders of the world. the next administration whether the democratic or republican will have the burden of repairing this reputation to build but i call up the sources of warsaw our. now code all so referred to president bush as the torturer in chief just you know and so a new profile of co by tarmac alvey tries to asco how it is that he's now become one of the most vocal supporters and pushers of the obama administration's drone war which points out the coach told the new york times reporter in two thousand and two and the policy of targeted killings seemed to violate the government's

longstanding bed on assassination and if you want to know what he told her when she asked why he changed his mind he said quote i have never changed my mind not from before i was in the government or after considering that close to a number of public talks was actually the first administration official to public to talk about the cia's drone program and an assassination list all of that doesn't seem to quite line up it's a flip flop plain and simple but these are the kinds of flipflops that are the most dangerous this has to do with the constitution the rule of law the fundamental limits that are put on executive power so even one of the most influential international law experts changes his mind on drones and targeted killing execution without due process that's only over in trouble one former constitutional law professor no longer thinks the prosecuting whistleblowers under espionage act steps away from values of free speech well things aren't good and yet these flip flops the mainstream media never really seems to care much about these other flip flops

but they choose to miss. yesterday we spoke about the upcoming trial of khalid sheikh mohammed and the four alleged coconspirators of the nine eleven plot now in the trial happens it'll take place in a military commission and his words danger room reported yesterday. the government is trying to get around having to talk about torture thanks to a plea deal struck with another detainee khan who's going to testify but this week they're proceedings that guantanamo bay in the case of. on the shiri he's alleged to have orchestrated the bombing of the u.s.s. cole and october of two thousand and so this is going to be the first death penalty trial at gitmo and the government is already trying to feel it in secrecy which is why a first amendment attorney is currently on his way to guantanamo to speak on behalf of a number of media organizations to have the first ever testimony by captive about cia

interrogations be made open to the press so is their hope yes but torture will be publicly addressed will join me to discuss it as marcy wheeler blogger at mt we'll marcy thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess before we get into what's going on in guantanamo bay right now coming up you wrote about harold koh and his foot plopping as well and so i guess just real quick give me your you know your take on that situation the fact that he claims he never changed his mind. what was interesting to me about it was the profound it very clear that he was always sure he was right so when he first came into the obama administration was pushing everybody else up because he kept saying no you stupid military people don't know what you're talking about and that's as much what i'm concerned about as his flip flop because people who believe they are always right and are also the ones who are reviewing these these targeted killings without any review by a judge chances are good they're not really reviewing evidence with any distance

with any humility with any. you know they know they're right and so i think it's it's really troubling to see that he kind of is bulldozing everybody else and denies that he's flip flopped denies that he's changed his mind on these issues but it's a pity because you know he used to be a great outspoken person on this he also by the way used to criticize his former student john you yell which is another curious interesting detail. unfortunate i guess you could say to say the least in that case but let's move on to time of day in the case of ana cheri to i know that they haven't said that they will let him testify on the stand but how big of a deal with this if they actually allowed him to testify if he was able to talk about you know his interrogation of the cia as the press was allowed to be there

and publicly hear a report of heinecke. well it's not even i mean at issue is whether he's going to be able to testify publicly about why he doesn't want to be shackled when he meets with his lawyers so it's not like he's saying i want to be able to testify about the time one of your interrogators threaten me with a gun i want to be able to testify about. the times you water boarded me what he wants to be able what his lawyers want to be able to testify about what journalists what should be public is main well be a fairly circumscribed part of his treatment just that he was shackled at all times and now be shackled makes it very difficult for him to cooperate and help his lawyers defend him but it's you know you talked about obama's administration trying to say how they've improved l. of these things the current regime. has a website and they like to say the transparency you can get but you know this

new cherry all of his treatment has already ben evidence of it has been released in the c.i. a report in memos in reporting on the investigation into his treatment he actually spent quite a bit of time investigating basically the death threats used against him and so we know about his treatment already and yet the government is really trying to prevent . him from being able to voice it. and we're going to read about that because that's a good point right that's of the most i think one of us important points to bring out here is the fact that we've already seen as a lot of these documents have been declassified what has actually happened to him and so you know the government is going to try to say that this is a matter of national security with the sort of out there you know then why do you think they'll be able to convince the dud. you know who knows with each it

should be it should be a no brainer i suspect there's there are even more worried about the precedent this would set because of course as you said college mohamed is next up and his treatment you know sure is the one that got us into legal problems machinery is the one where we issued a death threat which even john you said was not legal so you know there are reasons why they're embarrassed about a serious treatment another thing about an issue richard we actually don't know is why he is waterboarding was not effective even when dick cheney says oh yeah waterboarding was effective he's only ever talked about khalid sheikh mohammed and abu zubaydah nobody's ever claimed but it sure is waterboarding was a fact and so you know there are details that they might be afraid to come out but i also suspect that they're very worried that if we shiri is allowed to testify about these things publicly then it sets a precedent and college mohamed would be able to well let's say that they actually

get to have their way right that missionary doesn't get sized by about any of this in the case of khalid shaikh muhammad that they'll get this guy with a plea deal and that'll be enough is testimony that'll be enough evidence for the judge then are there any other cases that you think you know whether it still might be a chance or does it just become a closed book because the issue of torture has got to go by completely on addressed at these military commissions that are where the death penalty is the issue of guantanamo. well certainly with the military commissions i think that would you know if if if the trials of sharing and khalid sheikh mohammed go forward without any mention of the brutal torture that they survived then i don't expect that you would hear it i mean you've heard about the rape threats with omar hotter earlier so you would find you know you would hear details like that but i but i suspect that the the the detainees they're really worried about the legality of the torture

i suspect that we would never hear that and then we're really looking at the international community and things like the polish investigation. all right marci well thanks so much for joining us tonight and i guess we're going to have to wait and see but you know i think there's there's a lot of hope on one hand you have media organizations sending first time to lawyers down there and people are talking about it but you know it will be unfortunate i think if if all this goes by and it all gets to be completely swept under the rug thanks so much and. are just ahead of the show show and tell and a deal and us led night raids in afghanistan being held up as a milestone of the transition but the deal isn't as black and white as it seems we're going to talk about the potential loopholes of the court. orders that say much of the reason that i mean to me

a lot of people in the areas i use the answer to this is one way to describe chinese truly amazing a sense on the international stage but with success comes true. all right time for show and tell once night's program last week we spoke with michelle alexander author of the new jim crow about the millions of americans who could no longer vote due to felony convictions often for years after their release so we asked if you think that palin's should lose their right to vote while they're in for isn't or after their release let's go to parties for treason essentially find out what you have to say. out of the streets of d.c.

to tell people the nation's capital what our viewers had to say on twitter facebook and you tube and see what comments we should keep or delete. do you think that palin should have the right to vote while in prison and then after their release i'm going to read your response from chris on facebook he said depending on the crime there should be a period after release where the person can vote but ultimately if you're going to be allowed to live in a society as a free person you should have the right to vote if you can't vote you might as well stay in prison do you want to keep it or delete it. the part of society should be able to voice your opinions. i don't think that's a life lifelong punishment but i do want to keep it or delete it i think we should keep that we might have you know people who are in jail who are innocent right i think you know our prisoners need to be treated in a humane way they're still citizens of the country my room side on twitter said palin should lose the right to vote while incarcerated and should have the right

reinstated after time is served do you want to keep looking at bernie madoff. they should be allowed to vote you know once you've served your time you should zeeshan surfer in the voting booth. i read your response from jeff he thinks that felons should be allowed to vote however could you imagine how politicians would try and distance themselves from the polls if they were the most popular candidate among felons right now i really believe they delete it when you present i mean you give me you give up your bright they should we can keep it. on because there are still people a lot of people that we talk to and who wrote in. while in prison should not have the right but then after prison they should be granted that right to to go. all right thanks for the responses and here's our next question for you earlier in the show we spoke about the obama administration's flip flops when it comes to the

war on terror so why do you think that from obama himself to harold koh so many administration officials change their views once they get into power let us know you think on facebook twitter and you tube and who knows your response just might make it on air. i was past sunday the u.s. and afghanistan finally reached a deal on night raids very contentious part of the war effort that's led to civilian casualties anti-american sentiment public attacks from president hamid karzai who's long called for control of these crates now to give you some perspective on just how often they're conducted according to military spokesmen just since last december there have been more than three hundred and fifty so that's about three raids every single night so in this new deal afghan forces are given the lead role in ration and a warrant from an afghan court is required within seventy two hours of the rape and americans will not have the right to question detainees so this is being sold as a massive transition but the thing is that there are still

a lot of loopholes and exceptions in the scale so how much do we really expect to change joining me to discuss is retired lieutenant colonel anthony shaffer senior fellow for the center for advanced studies and impact america also author of the book operation dark heart tony thanks for joining us tonight and so like i said we got some of the details there you have to get a warrant right they have to be led by afghan forces although they can still call upon the u.s. forces for any kind of help that they might need but what are some of the loopholes here. well one of the things that we've done for a long time was essentially a special operations guys out about working in remote villages and one of the points you just kind of made just by the way you presented it using the same successfully three hundred i think it's just not a good idea and so we will continue to have special operations guys doing things and remote areas doing what i guess they would be called rape studiedly but obviously going to be checking people out doing things i have some experience in

this market people read my book operation dark heart there's two chapters devoted to us doing. an interrogation of a u.s. citizen which was rolled up during the night raid and one of these that sort of things and an area near the pakistani border so i think. you know there's an agreement even though i think there's a process going forward will be certain elements of the u.s. military special operations who will continue to do things as they need to and i'd like to believe with a great deal more care and focus than what you've seen with the conventional forces yeah i mean some of the other things too is that i say that you know you but you still will need this war and however unless you feel like there is an immediate threat but you know exactly why i don't know how often they're going to feel like there is an immediate threat and this has applied to the special ops forces but you know how many other things are going on other operations that might be. you know cia trained or something else well that's a good point and obviously there's other elements out there which i'm sure our

government has nature will be not so tied to this and his reasons for that i don't see them all but you know this is a war and for what it's worth they're going after primarily al-qaeda even though i think i just pretty much left the state so to speak it's all in pakistan but that's what they're primarily looking for and of course leadership we're noting. the taliban in the mountains primarily this morning so i think you can see practical measures taken by our military to matter what. especially when you put it in terms of what is military necessity and if you see an enemy run into a house you're not going to wait for a warrant and i guess you know one of the things will have to see is how this is applied at the operational level and i think you know was know within two months if it's working or not i don't think it going to work very well rightly. well you know you mention of course the fact that there's not really a whole lot of al qaeda left in afghanistan anymore i think when i heard secretary defense leon panetta say maybe a couple dozen at most and so you know then you really have to start talking about

the fact that this is still the aft pak region and the operations are drone strikes going on within pakistan and so just last week actually back in defense minister said in an interview that you know after twenty fourteen afghan soil is not going to be used to conduct operations happening in other countries and basically saying that you can't launch friends from afghanistan. you know some things are said all the time how serious do you think about threat is oh well i think it's not practical basically we know that the issue is really kind of a stand you not talk about this but on air and author any are kind of left in pakistan we know that most of the issues related to why the only one is combat effective for the past eight years because the leadership of the taliban to your country no we're leadership. you know a lot more you will be protected in some form in pakistan so as long as that exists

we're not going to make progress sustainable progress in afghanistan and the idea that we know the issues to stand we're going to leave afghanistan that's the only place we can ration directly for so i think again this is a an issue which i think people are trying to talk about and put a good face on for that by the fact this is an election year i think personal moment is gene want these issues to be minimized but frankly operationally it's not going to matter frankly i see as making afghanistan some form indefinitely but one of the things they're trying to agree upon right now is this strategic agreement and of course coming to a deal on a night raids was a key element of that and now they want to get this entire agreement signed before the nato summit coming up this may here in the u.s. but so you know what of what we know so far about this for teaching agreement to from what i've seen. basically it commits the u.s. and many respects not troops wise but you know it's helping afghanistan right for ten years and they have to get all of their other nato allies to also commit to

continuing to fund afghan security forces something that's going to work latter first nato continuing i have already backed way out i think i see more nato moving in that direction we're going to us there are enormous the pentagon. has center for new american security in particular who has continues to press the idea of having an indefinite presence and that we ought to stay there and slug it out we've seen this was the o'hanlon in the press talk about all this nonsense and so you still have a very strong group of leaders in the pentagon pushing for essentially a conventional force footprint and ultimately it's not practical i think it's silly we know from our experience here that trying to make the afghans more like us just doesn't work and what you're seeing is the karzai government and the fissures in the government trying to get a state because they know since we leave so it's our duty as a doorstop coming they're going to be in trouble so i think they're going to try to

preserve their control of the afghan government for what it's worth as long as they can they do that they have to have us there us in particular nato if they can in some form i don't think it's practical i just don't see our staying past twenty fourteen and a and e. for beyond special operations and i wonder what the public would say about that too considering that really addison's it shifted so much but i want to go before we go tony i want to switch topics really quick so a lot of people out there you know were angered were shocked when it turned out that there was a u.s. drone that was shot down over iranian airspace that they now have in their position then you get this report in the washington post yesterday that in fact since the bush administration there have been thrown spying into iranian airspace all the time some have gone six hundred miles in you know i guess that within the national security circles how well known is that. well we've known for a while that grows specially those types are still strong has been used in the region frankly there is against any country in the middle east you care to talk

about look they've been using is the pakistanis regarding some of their sites pakistanis know what they don't like so it's a practical measure that we have employed to look at what's actually there some of these places not easy to get to i'm a human intelligence officer it's hard to even you know basically spies on the ground to go to some these places so you've got to use whatever you can the iranian thing is something that clearly you're right they watched what was going on and i'm one of those my sources told me it made me of pretty sure that the iranians brought that that one down and learn how to penetrate a data stream and the appropriate time to hold the land so i think you know there's been a lot of oil in national t.v. about the fact that the us would be it raining figured it out so we've got to be careful about how we do it but is going to go on and i think that's practically one of the only ways were to find out about some of the things actually ongoing in the interior of iran. hi tony thanks for joining us tonight thank you. so confident well after this get right into jail for breaking the law preparations

just by their own laws clinton parents and of course the first sentence of corporations guilty of the same crime. wealthy british style. market finance come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with mikes cars are fun no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our cheap. emission free cretaceous freek.