tonight on our t.v. ron paul makes big moves in the republican presidential race winning twelve of thirteen delegates in minnesota it's all part of his shifting strategy that could cause problems for mitt romney at the r. and c. convention in florida we'll tell you what to expect. massive unrest and dozens of arrests as police and protesters clashing chicago will give you a wrap of of the nato summit that's coming to a close for the next two days will meet the first as it was and then with president corazon or international partners to chart the next phase of the transition in

afghanistan. while protesters clashed outside inside the summit world leaders were busy discussing a way out of afghanistan how much headway did they make and when will the troops come home for good some answers ahead. and monday may twenty fourth seven pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wall and you're watching r t well a victory for ron paul the texas congressman swept the state of minnesota and the republican party convention there take a look at these headlines from over the weekend ron paul wins minnesota big ron paul backs up racks up delegates in minnesota supporter when senate nomination ron paul supporters claim twelve of thirteen national at large delegates ron paul still competing continues his delegate winning streak in minnesota ron paul supporters

dominate minnesota g.o.p. convention so what's next that's right the dark horse in the republican presidential race ron paul won twelve of the thirteen delegates lot so now in total thirty two of minnesota's forty national delegates to the republican convention will go to paul now this is a huge win for paul supporters especially after the presidential candidate announced he would stop campaigning in states due to lack of funding so what does this mean for paul's campaign. and his supporters joining us now to talk more about this is austin peterson he is the director of production for freedom works welcome to the show. so what do you make of this ron paul victory rumors of ron paul's death have been greatly exaggerated you know that he won twelve of thirteen of the state delegates and as you said he actually has thirty three out of forty so that's a grand majority of the state of minnesota that will be going to the national convention to support ron paul i think thirty people is enough by itself to make

a little bit of noise not to mention all the delegates that could exist from other states that he's won i believe it's five states colorado maine minnesota and some other states as well louisiana that he's won in but it does prove that there will be a sizable contingent of ron paul supporters of the tampa convention certainly that seems to be this seems to indicate that but you know a lot of people right now are saying given the fact that ron paul looks like he won't win the nomination they're saying that it's romney who has secured this at this point they're asking what are these delegate what are they trying to achieve now by voting for him well ron paul's delegates can win a variety of victories they can go in they can change the national conversation by changing affecting the platform they can deny romney majority votes in several of the votes that occurred during the republican national convention so there's all sorts of trouble that the least is can vote for the for the majority of the establishment g.o.p. there's all sorts of battles that can be won and the major ones would be those that

would affect platform changes toward things like auditing the federal reserve toning down some of the provisions of the national defense authorization act and some of the things that we might be able to get concessions from the romney camp so he has stopped actively not to one of them made the announcement he stopped actively campaigning in states states that haven't yet held primaries instead he is now focusing on this delegate strategy what happened in minnesota is that evidence that his strategy is working yeah i think so and i think that this sort of like idea that he's not campaigning in. primary states it was sort of a feint to get some of the romney people to think oh it's all over maybe get them to stay home so that they don't have to work as hard to get votes and then what happens is the actually increase ron paul would increase his vote total but i think what happens now is that ron paul's delegates have to hunker down they have to play a bunker strategy that got us to quiet some of these delegates are overtly romney supporters from what they've said they have to pledge to support mitt romney but they're actually ron paul supporters underneath i know that

a lot of people the romney campaign even said that they're terrified of that so we'll have to see what happens in tampa but we won't know until we get there interest saying well you know many paul supporters that i've spoken to a lot of them say that it's not necessarily about winning a but more about ron paul's mass age but you think about that well i think we are winning i think that we've won a lot of battles in the last five years i think we've woken up the entire american people to the idea of what is a libertarian so there are a lot of victories that have been won there was an audit of the fed a few years ago we did find out who got the bailout money we found out that mcdonald's was a primary recipient recipient of some of the bailout money in two thousand and eight so there was a victory there it wasn't audited it was a watered down bill wasn't the entire audit of the fed but there have been victories that are won and i think that there are big victories to come on the horizon as well and so some of his victory is there another goal of ron paul supporters say there is to change the discussion within the republican party to what do you to what extent do you think that he has achieved that we will i think

that he has caused a lot of republicans to start taking a good harsh critical view of the federal reserve and ben bernanke is monetary policy that has been a continuation of the greenspan monetary policy the inflationary monetary policy that is still in the savings of retired people in the poor people who have tried to save their money and they see themselves not able to keep up with the cost of the rising cost of goods this is now a standard republican talking point to criticize the federal reserve and to take a look at the monetary policy it's no longer just about tax cuts it's now about what's the problem with our money why is it losing value why is that why. travel overseas all of a sudden i can't get the same string theory that i used to ten years ago so i think the republican party is changing in our direction it's coming through the lens of monetary policy and from there it's going to be a short stair step into things like civil liberties and foreign policy as well and those are the themes the common thread that we see coming from ron paul timidly is that this is a big victory for ron paul and his supporters what it what does it mean for his

campaign this victory in minnesota well i think it means that his campaign continues to go on and that you know his supporters who were doing what they were going to do no matter what are going to continue to do it i mean there was a little bit i think there was a little bit of disappointment when they heard this announcement from the paul campaign that he wouldn't continue to go after you know wins in the primaries and the mainstream media sort of trumpeted that but then when the police just came back in minnesota they came back strong and it sort of reinvigorated all the grassroots and we're ready for battle again all right so he's won minnesota took on minnesota what is next in iraq policy strategy well i can't really tell you that because then we wouldn't have it we wouldn't win the strategy so i think ron paul continues to win delegates in states that have yet to vote there are a few state conventions that come up that are delegates still to be won romney does not have the the one thousand one hundred forty four that are required to give him the nomination so there's no reason for politics to go and stay home they're still battles to be won. and i can tell you are a polystyrene yourself if he doesn't win if he does not take care of this this

nomination and he is not on the ballot what than would people like you do who would you vote for that's a really great question i talked to a lot of libertarians about that some libertarian say i would absolutely not vote for anyone besides ron paul some libertarian say that they might vote for gary johnson. tend to i'm a very compromising person even though i'm a radical libertarian there are certain circumstances under which i would vote for mitt romney if for example the ron paul delegates are not disenfranchised at the tampa convention if there are significant platform changes made. in the libertarian direction if romney reaches out to ron paul's coalitions and says we want to include these people in the republican party and we want to have them be a part of the republican party going forward that might be the thing that would say to a libertarian who is not such a you know a total radical that they would say all right then this is worth working for this is worth this is worth spending my time on to continue to reform the g.o.p. but if the romney delegates disenfranchise the ron paul delegates if they push us out of the party if they continue to make trouble for us well then you can bet that

a lot of libertarians and probably myself are going to go vote for gary johnson and we will denied the g.o.p. the presidency this year will focus on the senate in the house to put in republican majority and we'll fight another four years until we can come back in twenty sixteen with the candidate we really want well looks like you have your plan down thank you very much that was peter said he is the actor the director of production for freedom works. still ahead on r t you got rowdy and violent and chicago over the weekend. r t is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like. russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us.

pepper spray that just burns your eyes right right i mean it's like a derivative of actual pepper it's a food product essentially. this is much stronger than anything you'd be by a lot of. thousands of times stronger than any kind of ever put you know. a lot of american power continues. things that. might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a killer drink at starbucks has a surprising. chaos

and chicago as thousands of protesters clashed with police at an anson nato demonstration and it turned violent take a look at this. group. of protesters threw bottles and other objects of police decked out in riot gear using but toms against them dozens have reportedly been arrested meanwhile iraq and afghanistan war veterans joined the protest hurling their medals toward the convention center where nato officials are meeting an hour to correspond on a saucy it is in the thick of all the action in chicago to bring us the latest. she called under siege. the last couple of days have seen oceans of protesters

thousands marching under a blistering sun to vent their anger at the military alliance who are opposed to no because. this rally fronted by iraq and afghan war vets feeling betrayed by the system ruined their lives i am after a minute of silence for those who perished in westwood wars. well rick's list we're seeing the clashes began as protesters try to get through the barricades that the police have raided on their way to the convention center. it was chaos but times people shoved and dragged police thrown onto their knees bleeding faces right . one officer stabbed dozens of protesters arrested someday use these men made consider this conduct that they engaged in today unbecoming of the dignity that is demanded of them by their station hundreds and hundreds of police not just in

riot gear but military armor with guns and but tons that they willingly deploy on people. a day truly or a smaller but louder march also took to the streets it's an ad a capitalist march i'm sure everyone here hopes to start a revolution they're calling it the chicago spring like the arab spring. signs ripped off crowds clashed with police but times and police whites used to block off the crowds with more blood in the chaos. he dove a million dollars spent on new gear for chicago police a war breaks out with outraged americans fighting for change at home while he was president is busy hosting the summit and the future of warfare abroad incessant jerking our t.v. chicago they're in. for an update on what's occurring on the streets of chicago i was joined earlier by r t correspondent honest. well it's right now we're standing

on the avenue where the much of thousands took place on sunday we saw thousands and thousands of people walking down in this downtown area in chicago we're also about two miles from the convention center where the delegates are still meeting as we know of course the protesters were kept quiet far away and as we saw obviously there was a reason for that from where the delegates are holding the nato summit what it did up happening was they got a couple of blocks away from the convention center and there were about three or four lines of police including police on horseback including police with riot gear trying to block them off from getting closer to the convention center after a ceremony of the veterans throwing their medals into the sort of the direction of the convention center there was a moment of silence like you saw in that report and all of a sudden all of a sudden the clashes began the protesters and the police were slamming into each other but tons were flying around people were falling into the ground it definitely

got quite intense what ended up happening was police started issuing warnings that they might have to use chemicals on the protesters there were rumors going through the crowd that people should put in plugs to avoid getting hurt by the sound cannons that would possibly be used by the police this did not happen there was no tear gas no i l. rads used but there was definitely quite a bit of violence like you saw in that report big clashes hundreds of protesters hundreds of police and da about forty five people were arrested the latest that we know right now is that the majority of those protesters have been released but about ten of them have been charged with felonies and. find common chicago there was another action earlier today where protesters marched to the boeing headquarters and held some sort of action there but it was not definitely not nearly as. while and big as the protests that we saw over the weekend and so on as i say what's the mood like today and things kind of simmer down over there. it's

definitely simmer down the nato leaders are still here they're still in chicago meeting there are as i mentioned there was action earlier today there are still groups of protesters kind of going around town but we really are getting a sense that because of all the insanity really that went over that took place over the weekend people have kind of calmed down the protesters cording to them did all they could to try to get their message across including with the peaceful march and these clashes where they tried to get through so now things are on the calmer side this of course comes after weeks of actions taking place here with the culmination that took place yesterday and on saturday all right an answer and sanity is aware that you described the crackdown between police and protesters things turned really chaotic on a safiya what exactly where they protesting and what were they trying to achieve. will is i mean all of the protesters gathered here there were smaller actions directed at certain issues we saw nurses march protesting against hospitals being

shut down there was smaller action against corporations there were protesters outside the cities the. mayor's office and home there was all sorts of action taking place but generally everybody has gathered here for these protests and marches people are here to protest nato as an organization as a military block all of these protesters are saying while nato is spending billions and billions of dollars on war including in afghanistan which is now it's gone on for over a decade these people are saying it's not the time to put an end to this warfare they're saying along the lines of the occupy wall street movement corporations are getting bailed out wars are being literally washing billions of dollars down the drain yet all of these people are going on hard and that's one of the biggest concerns all these protesters that were out here over the weekend so things are wrapping up today as part of this as far as the summit goes what to expect today.

well what you expect today are possibly further smaller actions we are not expecting any sort of violence to break out today we have to say of course that one of the marches at least that we attended that you saw in that report that took place on saturday was not something that was known in advance something that was known about in advance and that's what some of the violence broke out so we're going to wait and see how events unravel if there are some sort of on sanctions on sort of documented protests taking place that are not expected there could be some sort of action taking place like that but we're not hearing anything along all along those lines as of yet iran associate thanks for it thanks very much for keeping us updated over there in chicago that was our team correspondent on a some theater kinda. well from students to veterans to journalists the anti nato protests has brought together thousands of people from all walks of life one of those journalists is jay meyerson he's

a contributor for truthout dot org he joined us earlier today for more on these protests i first asked him what nato policies they're protesting against. sure well i think it's wrong to think of this as protesting policies as much as protesting a sort of widespread system right so since the end of the cold war nato has lost its place on death row which was protecting the world from the very mean soviet and now what it's essentially used as is the armed wing of the globalizing expansion of capital under the supervision of the unit polar world led by the united states right so every war is a just a police intervention every war the civil war that we're liberating people and and as a result the united states and its allies in nato essentially have impunity to go around the world invading wherever and whenever it suits the business interests that run the government so rather than thinking of nato as policies or specific nato wars

the idea of a sort of global police unit you know that sort of enjoys a cloak of internationalism i think that is really the focus of these protesters because these nato actions have been shown not to further human flourishing and global community but rather to maximize the profits of the very wealthy at the expense of the already very poor and addition to that the nato summit is happening right where you are there in chicago and it's not very decision to hold the pros at the summit in chicago that outrages protesters is that correct yeah that's right so mayor emanuel of course this is the sort of political home town of the president and so he and his former chief of staff the current mayor rahm emanuel thought pretty hard to bring the summit to chicago and sort of increase the prestige of the city in the eyes of the international community the problem is that it's costing the city tens of millions perhaps hundreds of millions of dollars to hold this

thing at a time when as as you we been discussing over the last few days some pretty bad austerity has been going down in the city in. getting the closure of six out of the twelve city mental health facilities so at a time when people are really really struggling and require a lot of assistance including veterans plagued with p.t.s.d. and people who've traumatically lost their jobs for no apparent fault of their own they could really use some assistance we're closing that down in order to spend a lot of city money on bringing these wealthy dignitaries and essentially trumpeting the imperial prowess of the united states and a i know that you've been there covering this and chicago why do you make of the abbey a police presence there we only saw a lot of that video of swarms of police and riot gear really cracking down. it was an awful sight to behold i mean it really did look as though they were dressed for a situation like steria or gods are something and they're in chicago this

supposedly american liberals second city and as as a things in itself so is but you know as we've seen it sort of part and parcel of the way that this is in says now treated in the united states. the more radicalism bubbles up because of the sort of increasing fallout of this kind of globalization of corporate capitalism the more the system has to work to suppress that and especially in the post nine eleven era where everywhere you look there's a terrorist and terrorism is the reason for everything we do we found that domestic policing has acquired a distinctly military flavor largely because of federal funding from the department of homeland security trickling down into these various police forces and also training insubordination between them so we see that this especially in new york where i'm from has affected communities of color impoverished communities the muslim community with the spying apparatus and of course dissidents you know all

across the country especially since two thousand and eleven and even more frequently since occupy wall street began we've seen police the especially heavy handed and employ increasingly intimidating technology against what is largely peaceful dissent and ultimately one of the ante natal protesters hoping to a chance. well there is a sense in this because there's a sort of pride in nato because it grew out of the coalition that defeated fascism eisenhower was the first. general it was thought of as protecting democracy and free. and really as it is currently formulated the protesters are saying that it is vastly more destructive than it is helpful and they're trying to get that word out i mean a lot when when that group of protesters attempted to essentially proceed through the police line what they were trying to do was shut down the summit right. and

because the social distancing between the leaders who are making decisions militarily and in all other ways between them and the civilians of this country has grown so great that the options for petition legislation. thorough representation are so diminished that protesters have to turn to demonstrating that the sheer fact of their disenfranchisement from the decision making process by attempting to do things like shut down constitution and i want to talk a little bit about the recent developments what happened today inside the summit president obama at the nato summit today kind of for a firm the commitment to end the war in afghanistan and transition military operations over to the afghans at an effort to bring the very unpopular war to a close is this in line with what protesters want or is it not enough it would it would be nice if it were immediate i mean michael hastings who the journalist who

wrote this wonderful book the operators about the. war in afghanistan said that it's been decided that the war's going to be over we're sort of in a holding pattern but in the meantime a lot of people are going to die and are going to be forced into a lot of misery and suffering because of this there's also a sense in which like i just read the other day the afghan ministry of mind long term. business plan through twenty fifteen which is when we are set to be there through in order to deal with the more than one trillion dollars worth of minerals that were just discovered in afghanistan in two thousand and ten which general petraeus at the time said showed a stunning potential so part of this is trying to figure out a way that we can exit with. while having captured a lot of this wealth for american corporations and european corporations without having to support the afghan people part of the debate in the nato summit was about how we're going to finance you know afghanistan sovereignty and the sort of

rebuilding of the state after it has been so thoroughly demolished over the last ten years of war and occupation and the united states which spent one hundred billion dollars a year during the surge in afghanistan is pledging two billion dollars a year thereafter and that's the largest pledge that's come in from the international community so the decisions to draw down military operations in afghanistan are probably welcome but given their context it really is just a continuation of the same sort of pattern of global hegemony that we've been watching since the end of the cold war right interesting jay thank you for keeping us updated over that was jay a meyerson a contributor for truthout dot org well we saw the clashes at the nato summit between protesters and police but this unease began even before the summit dead four days before the summit even began three men were arrested for allegedly plotting to fire bomb president obama's campaign headquarters chicago mayor rahm emanuel's home as well as police stations and squad cars across the city the three

men you see here are twenty two year old brian church twenty seven year old jared chase and twenty four year old brant vincent that betterly they were arrested last wednesday after police asked a judge for a search warrant police say they found written plans for assembling pipe bombs and confiscated mortar gun swords a a crossbow. throwing star ninja knives and blades with brass knuckles the men of it now been formally charged with conspiring to commit acts of terrorism at a high profile locations this was hailed as a success across headlines but police now admit that the group was infiltrated by undercover agents a well before the men made it to chicago but the new allegations accuse police of and trapping the men and encouraging them in a bomb making effort take a look at this it's a video attorneys say is of the same three men being pulled over by police as they drove into chicago shows police a verbal

e intimidating the man it is hard to hear so listen closely. you will. get it somewhere between. the lines of the. they're already. doing. so as you just heard police were not afraid to tell them what they thought of protesters and what they want to do to them and yesterday another two men sebastian cynical whitson mark knew him were charged with terror charges not related to the nato three and once again police are accused of entrapping these men. now it remains to be seen whether these men are innocent or guilty but the question now is

how far are law enforcement officials allowed to go to protect national interests and where is the line between stopping criminal acts and creating criminals many can argue that the men had it coming but other others say it was the police who planted a violent seed in these men's head and that without their involvement the plans would never have gotten this far. and we're going to leave it off at that that's going to do it for now for more on the stories we covered you can go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check it out our website it's r t dot com slash usa we'll be right back here in a half hour. with. welcome to the alone the show will get the real headlines with none the worse the problem with the mainstream media today is that they're completely disconnected from the viewers and what actually matters to those viewers and so that's why young people just don't watch t.v. anymore if they were.