oh still fighting and bombings continue to rip syria same's president bashar al assad in power as opposition forces hit close to home meanwhile the international community is desperately fighting artie's one of the only networks every order in syria and over you an exclusive report from the embattled country. we should have a political system work candidate can claim to be the working people while that same person the secretly betting against america through tax avoidance and tax haven abuse democrats in congress tell mitt romney to show them the money tax free current return that is but it's just another case of the pot calling the kettle

black it looks like transparency isn't congress's strong suit we'll tell you why. the u.s. military officials crandon during the wiki leaks info drop they sure aren't going to like what's coming next the hacktivist group anonymous has set up its own file sharing website so what can we expect from the web site paranoia. it's thursday july nineteenth seven pm in washington you see i'm having martin and you're watching our team. violence continues to rage on in syria this time hitting closer to the assad regime than ever before a bomb has detonated inside the syrian national security building yesterday killing multiple top assad's security chiefs including president bashar al assad's brother in law who's often hailed a serious second president and the u.n. security council resolution that would have slapped new sanctions on the syrian

regime has been vetoed by russia and china unlike many mainstream outlets that report on syria's civil war from the country comfort of their country's newsrooms are two has been on the ground in syria covering the conflict firsthand rif and osha has more from damascus. the news about blasts has come at a very tough time for the syrian capital in the last four days damascus has been seen for what the opposition and free syrian army have dubbed the final battle for damascus a decisive battle for the syrian capital shootings have been heard in very different parts of the syrian capital also seen black smoke drifting over the city skyline and we've also been hearing helicopters not only flying over one of the oldest continuously inhabited capitals in the world but also firing we can see some smoke even now in actually many different neighborhoods of damascus many countries have closed their embassies here in syria one half withdrawn all personnel in this

neighborhood alone turkish embassy over the saudi embassy this is the building of american embassy tallon embassies these embassies have all suspended their work overseas companies have also have a creator their stuff foreigners no longer feel safe here in the syrian capital and they have fled but ordinary syrians don't have the same choice the world has come to their door and they have nowhere to run and they're trying to organize their everyday life waiting for this nightmare to end one of the most important rule for these days in the syrian capital is not to go to the cities troubled areas where the clashes between the rebels and the army still continue and the names of these neighborhoods are very well known to everybody here might have be then. well know. it's too dangerous but damascus is a very big city with a population of around two million people maybe these days even more with old displaced families from homes and other at the center of the uprising from all across the country shelter now here in the capital and in some neighborhoods you

can see pictures that you don't at all expect to see in the capital of a country and golf with war or like this family alone picnics really very peaceful pictures so one can flick has been raging for seventeen months already people say this tired exhausted but they also say that life must go on my phone or should not be from damascus in syria as i mentioned earlier the un security council failed to pass a resolution that would have threatened sanctions against syria's leadership for more on what happened without u.n. resolution earlier i was joined by court order to correspondent maria. well the reason russia and china both use their veto power on this western draft resolution is because they said that it put all the pressure and called for sanctions on just the syrian government russia said that in order for there to be a national transition council created in syria there needs to be i dial log between the syrian government and the syrian opposition that is what kofi annan six point

peace plan calls for and of course you know russia's position is that if the international community is only putting the pressure and consequences on the syrian government and threatening the syrian government with sanctions if it doesn't meet its requirements of a cease fire and other other items laid out in the kofi annan six point peace plan then the armed opposition is not incentivized in any way to come to a negotiating table with the syrian government and at the end of the day russia and china said that we need to get both parties at a table to begin a dialogue to put their weapons down and begin a dialogue if the security council is just only punishing one side than that is not going to happen clearly it does not put a good light on the situation when the security council can't even agree and come to a consensus but i think they still are trying to hammer out a way figure out a way to extend the u.n. supervision mission in syria which expires in less than twenty four hours. what

will happen when that expires marina. well abbie when that expires if the security council does not extend the mandate the not means the united nations is not going to have any any of its own observers in the ground to verify and observe mediate what is taking place in syria even though they suspended activities in mid june mid june there is still a force of three hundred unarmed un observers in there that are supposed to least be observing verifying and reporting back to the united nations if you pull the only international group from syria that's in there what does the international community have left in terms of being able to posit in some way moderate the circumstance. it does seem or in a the opposition movement is growing. in light of the assassinations that happened yesterday that it's kind of a turning point so if they are indeed growing in their force shouldn't be up to the

international community to really enter intervene and help this transition in a peaceful way. many have argued that many have criticized including the u.s. france and britain today criticize russia and china directly condemn their vetoes saying that more than ten thousand people in syria have died since the uprising began seventeen months ago and the international community needs to do something it's a humanitarian issue that is clear the red cross the international red cross said this is now a full blown civil war taking place in syria and russia has taken the position so has china and we should mention south africa and protestant because they have stained from the vote today and security council those were countries said that there is blame to be put on both sides taking part in the violence in syria russia by no means is defending the syrian government in any way at all but the position that russia is taking is that military intervention doesn't necessarily bring peace

and make the situation better and russia china and many other countries point to the circumstance of libya that took place last year there was you know there was first sanctions and then a no fly zone and then military intervention into libya and libya right now many would argue is not in a better place than it was before khadafi was removed and western countries you know invaded with with its military might so at this point russia says there needs to be a better option it can't just be with bombs flying from the sky it has to be getting both parties that are participating in the fighting in syria at a point where they could sit down and at least negotiate for a transitional government. where when lavrov said the military intervention in syria would lead to an impasse. where you're saying you're you know that it might become another libya do you think he means by that. yeah i think might be what he meant the foreign minister lavrov said a lot of comments with respect to syria in the past few days but we you know we do

know that russia has made a position that this is western countries are fighting a major geo political battle in the field of syria that doesn't have everything to do with the syrian people many believe that you know there's a bigger picture there's a larger picture here and that picture has to do with iran and the battle that's taking place is encroaching and moving more around iran and it's about western countries wanting to have some argue more influence in that region in the middle east and if that the syrian government the bashar al assad's government is removed then western countries that have more major influence and it's iran left standing that is a thought and a put a position in many countries have taken that this is about geo political positions that western countries are you know loyal to this isn't just about humanitarian reasons in syria that's an argument many have made so this is a very complicated matter and we have to understand that syria is in

a very fragile area geographically in the middle east and so that's why we're not reaching we're not seeing consensus by the international community but they are trying to hammer out a way to get this supervision mission extended technically for just thirty days that is something the security council is discussing now and might be voting on by tomorrow but clearly a lot of countries are still butting heads over this issue it is a very complicated issue does seem like there's no violence is escalating by the day. those are two correspondent arena portnoy. all right so we just talked about the severity of the situation in syria which will no doubt have an impact on the two thousand and twelve elections but that's not the only thing obama's having to contend with his bid for reelection is also on track to be outspent by the romney campaign a first for any company president and it seems like mitt romney has plenty of money to go around both in his political and personal life thing is we may never know

about it until now every presidential candidate has revealed their tax documents but mitt romney refuses which has democrats really in with the rhetoric he wants you to show your papers but he won't show us scenes and if you know joe biden you know he's quick to talk and even quicker to act he did release his taxes for public scrutiny and fact we have joe biden for taxes right here but seems like democratic senators durbin and levon want more transparency from public figures this is what durbin had to say on the senate floor yesterday in reference to a new piece of legislation selectively titled the financial disclosure to reduce tax haven abuse act that's why i introduced the financial disclosure to reduce tax haven abuse act of two thousand and twelve i introduced this months ago it would require candidates for federal office and certain federal employees to disclose any

financial interest they or their spouses have in an offshore tax haven we should have a political system work candidate can claim to champion working people while that same person is secretly betting against america through tax of void and sin tax haven abuse. now without this bill the american people will not know whether a candidate is taking advantage of foreign tax havens to avoid paying his or her for sure the irony of all this of course is that while few representatives are calling for more transparency on tax documents so severely dealing with presidential candidates it seems like they aren't willing to do it themselves in fact only seventeen out of the five hundred thirty five members of congress have disclosed their own records total to be fair thirteen of those people were democrats but this isn't even a drop in the bucket when it comes to all of congress so where is the transparency and government and why are some pressure to reveal their tax returns while others

downright refuse to break all this down i'm joined now by well we're only on preference or at howard university. thanks for joining me thank you so what is the big deal with a president not wanting to show his tax returns well i think in this climate in this day and age with individuals now in politics making unbelievable amounts of money it is embarrassing to for many individuals such as mitt romney to be talking about the common man and to be talking to people to be talking about the middle class when he earns more in interest in a month then many people are making in a year and so it it this whole issue of whether or not the particular politician is out of touch with reality and out of touch with the common person is a big problem if you remember former president george bush going to a grocery store and not even being familiar with with with scanning machines and

a.t.m. cards because you know he's just so far removed from that reality that it it's a it makes you wonder how can a person legislate on the basic issues of the day if they're so far removed from the root from the realities. the common person remember bush also didn't know the price of a loaf of bread is that on a milk. show that you know this does seem like it's politically motivated it's aimed at you know romney would you say that this is a politically motivated just kind of attack on the republican establishment well i think the timing of it is politically motivated but at the same time i think it's definitely necessary it's i believe it is important for americans to understand the interests that their elected representatives are are representing and where do they get their money how much money do they actually have and where is that

money. being being being housed this is supposed to be about. were a representative democracy and so this is about elected representatives speaking to our interests and so full disclosure. to be sure that these individuals are engaging in behaviors that they disguise as being in the public interest but actually wind up being in their own personal interest is very very important if we had known more about former vice president dick cheney's financial withholdings we would know more about his motivations as it related to kellogg brown and root and how much money he made off of the off of the the invasion of afghanistan the invasion of iraq if we had known about former president bush's financial withholdings we would know about his interest in the car well group and how much money did george bush make off of the invasion of iraq and afghanistan so these

things to me are very very important i don't think that senator levin goes far enough because he talks about presidential candidates but we also need to understand what a vice presidential candidate is going to be what their financials are what our i mean as you mentioned before seventeen out of exact of the numbers are now or is threat now that now now for for example for the democrats to be calling for this and then d.n.c. chair and congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz not even wanting to disclose her her line answers let's hear that really ok right from her. are you the best attack dog on this particular issue considering you've never released your income taxes absolutely i'm not running for president mitt romney is running for president are hardly decisional don't know are you not i by all of financial disclosure required under the law mitt romney is actually the first candidate in modern history to to only release one year of a tax return so what message is this sending you know the dancy chair on debbie

wasserman schultz is a hypocrite because because she has not said that. mitt romney is violating the law what he's doing is not following common practice so what she needs to do is come off of her high horse and if she wants mitt romney to release his tax returns then she should have no problem releasing hers and for her to say it again i understand her legal argument is valid but this is a political issue not a legal issue so if she what's good for the goose is good for the gander if she wants mitt romney to release his tax returns when he is legally not required to do so and she does do the same thing she would advocate all every elected representative etc now maybe maybe as a rule as a member of congress or of the senate maybe they don't have to go back ten years but but in this particular issue since she is the one making the request that she

needs to follow her own her own her a lodging and let's take a look at some of the figures just in the administration and general. and members of obama's staff we have thirty six members of president obama's staff are delinquent with their federal taxes total and taxes owed eight hundred thirty three thousand dollars and total taxes owed by all active and retired federal employees and military personnel well over three million dollars i mean. what kind of example do you think it's that's when you know here's the average american struggling to pay their bills and the i.r.s. is coming down hard on you you know you better believe that you better watch out of you skip out on your income taxes and here you go i mean to got yourself a tax evader i was just going to say timothy geithner is a tax evaders and if i was a tax evader i would not be sitting at this in this seat talking to you right now there is a double standard in this country and unfortunately there aren't enough middle class americans that are outraged about this. to make to make this the issue that

it that it needs to be this timothy geitner should not be sitting in the seat that this statute have been such an embarrassment to the administration that they should have found someone else other than timothy geithner. to fill that seat it's a it's you know if you go back to and this is an issue also as a release of the republicans if you go back to some of the founding documents of this country if you go back to fit the federalist papers and federalist number ten james madison was concerned about factions he was concerned about interest groups that were going to have a greater personal interest in legislation than what was in the best interest of the american people and this is really what we're what we're what we're getting to the crux to so for those conservatives who want to be strict constructionists and read the constitution for what is for this is an issue that they should be championing because this gets to the core of what james madison and many of the

other founding fathers were really all about they were about public service they were back when the country was founded they weren't expecting congressman to serve eighteen twenty twenty two years and develop personal wealth off of the issues that they legislate this was of that's why. members of congress are for two years that's why senator served for her for sixteen why do you think there is this double standard then with i mean when they're allowed to kind of get away with doing things that the average american isn't because those who pay the piper call the tune so those now who are in legislative positions have been writing law for their own benefit and they have been benefiting many of them have been benefiting financially at incredible rates well above what the average american citizen is making and and many of them aren't paying the. a fair share of

taxes so this is clearly a case of many in congress who are looking at their personal best interest and legislating in the public interest it is a very interesting double standard and thanks so much for coming on my pleasure neal linus. howard university professor willett wilmer leon. when tensions rising by the day in syria much light isn't put on the regime's dealings with the recent release of syria gate the some two point five million e-mails in the new us wiki leaks communication dump the emails are said not to only highlight communications relating to the assad regime but also to expose the popper state of western rhetoric and actions against the region but the infamous leaks from the whistleblower organization may be coming to a halt that's because wiki leaks is nearly out of cash the group says its funds will run out a couple of months unless donations drastically increase the organization has had

difficulties raising funds since visa master card and pay pal among others have caved to the u.s. government pressure to pull its avenues to donate through which many have decried as an act of corporate censorship to counteract the financial blockade wiki leaks is now saying it can accept cash donations through a french nonprofit rerouting money through francis fund for the defense of net neutrality meanwhile for mount one month now julian assange has been held up in the ecuadorian embassy in london still awaiting on the decision to grant him asylum before he made the move to seek asylum he stated in an r.t. that the us was working on a secret indictment against him for extradition. right at this u.s. grand jury which is being investigated. and it appears that the secret indictment which were used to try to extort states at the same time. but i have a case of the supreme court here in great britain which used to be the house of

lords. and you know if you but if i'm not successful in will be extradited to sweden imprisoned immediately without charge so i can't be charged. if indeed a staunch is extracted to sweden chances are that it wouldn't be long before he ended up in u.s. custody facing the same charges to that of private bradley manning who nearly after eight hundred days of sitting in a military prison is finally having a pretrial hearing at fort meade but for now everything rests on ecuador shoulders president rafael correa atta and his administration has said little about if and when asylum would be granted i could ors foreign ministry says lawyers are studying the political and legal implications of this high profile case before making any decisions you know when it comes to the fate of julia songe patients as more than a virtue it's all we have is a global community awaits a decision. paranoia and might not sound like the name of

a trusted source for government leaks otherwise known as potentially alarming research anonymous intelligence agency paranoia is the new web face of anonymous with wiki leaks slowing down in the lack of impact from anonymous hacks members of the loose hacktivist collective decided to launch a wiki leaks esque website to host massive data leaks and user friendly fashion so one of those made for wiki leaks the internet and the future of transparency bear brown founder of project pm joined us earlier to talk more about the site here's his take well it's one of these things that come out of anonymous. that are very heartening this is exactly what's needed what they do essentially is sort of provide one more option for those who have acquired information whistleblowers or otherwise want to assimilate something. in which they know that that information will be very liberally released to the public as opposed to some of the.

some of the decisions which exist which have been controversial in the lead community slowly believe portions of you know it's all different. in different time of the page and. what they've done so far and they're also pretty good start they not only have a least large group of e-mails from a company called data but i've also gone through categorize them by by you know by topic and. found some of the more important interesting leaks is made made them into detention stuff something that really needs to be done in a million barmen which leaders after war. yeah you just mentioned it does seem in the past that the leaks have been done where it's just a massive amount of information that it's just almost impossible to sort through or takes a very long time so what they're doing is more kind of categorizing making it more user friendly for people to really access the data. yeah and we'll exist on the

same thing that in some releases this is just you know this is you know not everyone is going to sin that leads to wiki leaks and this is by some other option it also sort of acts. in addition to leaking aspects they also do a couple of the more technical sort of background things that you don't. exist in leaks like very emails making sure those are available because you know someone has to do that and they've stepped forward and done that which is. very hard and also hosting a. b.m.r. which he. does so it's very similar information on the past releases regarding telephones you know so what we've seen mostly with anonymous so far are these people who are claiming to be anonymous is these really high profile hacks takedowns this is different now this is this is where people are submitting information to then right. and that's that stuff only one of you all can expose all

us so are they are they do you know if they are going to be hosting any sort of hacking that they do themselves or is this most likely to be within you know that legal parameters where it's just their their their receivers that information that people get them. i don't know i don't have any indication one way or the other if you know. if what their plans off the future i think that's playing out by here there are still people and when you call anonymous who do most of them sends on quiet information of public that that belongs in the public eye by whatever means they choose to do so and when that happens all this is and there's a number of options they have and this would be one of those options paranoid and if they do so they would be you know generally assurance this would be released perhaps in a different way that i might. that my that might occur because someone else or they don't put themselves entirely you know one of the important things here is that there is there's a lot of sort of monday dynamics to go into making sure that information not only

gets dumped and just you know added to the great you know ocean information already exists but also receives attention from the journalists who are willing to make use of them selfs. verite it seems like like a great idea if to supporters of wiki leaks who say you know that's that's great let's get another web site out there the more the merrier more options for people to submit to but it does seem like there is some members of anonymous who are at odds with the wiki leaks or at least their twitters that there was kind of some words spoken between the two people who are running the twitters or reckonings and saying it's irresponsible for you to be kind of doing this without really secure measures to do so why do you think that they're kind of at odds about this new site where these incidents have been allowed. to go play it in this case you know one person who has access. to the issue that interview should

paranoia by name but i don't it's hard for us to i was you know with paranoid people around the time that happened and they were kind of used so the fact is that there are always were expanding its options by which you know options a bigger submitters will have huge you're right now anyone can use it and you know use a dummy e-mail accounts and use whatever method. so it's obvious to twitter all this and oftentimes. discussion on these issues but sometimes these conflicts arise and someone responds to bait and it's unfortunate but it happens i was bear brown founder of project pm and that does it for now for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash our team america are check out our website our to dot com slash usa you also follow me on twitter at abby martin we'll see right back here in a half hour.