today on r t they are the few and the proud but one former marine isn't exactly pleased with his government and he took his complaints to facebook and was detained for doing it we'll speak to the marines attorney. and these days passengers are expected to have some thick skin when it comes to airport security screening coming up we'll tell you why a man's t. shirt got him kicked off a flight. and if you're having a hard time booking a hotel room for the upcoming r. and c. convention in tampa you're in luck police are clearing seventeen hundred jail beds all for the protesters they plan to arrest will show you how free speech is being kept on a short leash. it's

thursday august twenty thirty pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v. but we begin this hour with a former marine who was detained at a psychiatric ward for his facebook posts today a judge ordered the release of twenty six year old brandon routh old he was sent away for posting anti government messages on his facebook page the police and f.b.i. raided his virginia home mid august and interrogated him about his online activity he was later transported to a psych ward against his will but a judge today said there is no basis to hold him at the psych ward so why was he ever detained in the first place earlier i was joined by john white had an attorney for the marine and got his reaction to the judge's order take a listen well we were. actually a bit surprised that this is very difficult to navigate civil commitments were what happened here last week last thursday. we struggled with driving in front of his

house he was out on the front porch and we had a short sale and started talking said what's up guys they said oh she. subconscious version of things on your facebook page while he was trying to explain itself they surround a name and then went ahead and handcuffed him and took him away with him in police car i said what's the crime is that you really committed a crime or not charging with a crime and they're not going to charge him with a crime it was this facebook post that talking to a psychiatric ward and the other fifteen minutes psychological examination had a hearing monday and the special justice who's a lawyer rule that he's a thirty another thirty days. to be in the hospital for evaluation and so we have to feel that a judge today a circuit judge ruled that there was really no factual basis you set for to keeping the psychiatric or what happened was he was playing a game on facebook essentially private grouping his brother and his sister and they were quoting song lyrics from a root cultural members i never listen to the group i read the lyrics summer.

because that are violent lyrics but you know the beatles had a role in. mind but anyway so that was the basis is free speech. and by the way they couldn't get a search warrant because he didn't commit a crime and so the search is on they will they will realize he owns the weapon ok can you john describe more the nature facebook post that started that controversy i read posts were interpreted as terrorist or is there anything that you saw that you posted that fits that description. well one of the one of the callers was up your right to start my act but you gotta understand he was talking to his brother and sister in the gang called mr illuminati it was a game ever play and somehow the government got down loans that and again as authorized to go to rather for a dot org i write articles on surveillance the private corporations are giving over authorized the permission to the police so anything you do on facebook is got to go

to the police we know that but they conduct surveillance and that's what happened but he targeted no one he's a decorated marine we've been to iraq afghanistan and he's a combat engineer so he owns two businesses in richmond virginia he's a upstanding man is community a decorated marine he owns the weapons so it is hard to know what he he's uncertain about the government he's around all libertarian did he have any violent history none he's never seen a psychotic he's never been on drugs the only time he's ever seen a psychotic this is when they put him in this mill institution last thursday so then why was he the tane in the first place i mean what basis was there to justify him being sent to a psychiatric ward all we know is this facebook post they said some people complained about five people is what they listed at the hearing monday and people basically he didn't know except for one person so what this means is it can happen to anybody i mean there are twenty thousand civil commitment to virginia alone each

year so what happened here and it was really key and really important as mother went on facebook and started talking about this case and my son has been taken away as someone contacted us and we provide a little advance most people never get that so they disappear in these institutions now is this the norm i mean does this happen often that a former marine will be sent to a psychiatric ward for saying things like this or is this unprecedented i said though there are about twenty thousand of these civil commitment to are genuine loan each year but what happened the other night the veterans groups cons. i think many of crossed the country and said there routinely they're getting complaints of veterans who have come back from afghanistan or iraq the f.b.i. and have been investigating them because of the political views you know if you remember a couple years ago the department all s.q.r.t. issued two memos a left wing and right wing extremism in the right wing extremism best rooms were listed as threats to america so there seems to be this idea that that friends are

some kind of threat that it's a little unnerving if you're in the veterans groups are very very upset seems a little bit ironic that that's what specifically be considered a threat considering they had one thought are some of them had once fought to defend the country. here's the point i've been telling constitutional cases for forty years i said this is the first one against me the greeks they they did not charge the man with a crime they just picked him up to arrest him and took him away no crime i know that you had said before that this is an attack on its first amendment rights do you think do marines are former marines have some kind of special obligation to censor what they say or what they post on line i don't think anybody in america has has a duty to do that i think if you're concerned about your government and he is he should speak out the other right the thing is he people like this because most americans don't do it they're too busy watching sporting events or whatever they're doing

this guy here is concerned this country needs speaking out and i got him in trouble but again i said question is this america do we still have first amendment rights if a judge today said we do. john what is next for your client there we're talking to brandon and his mother right now about a possible civil lawsuit against the government for damages they put him through they put this man through hell. and that was attorney john whitehead. well this week we've been reporting on the number of u.s. service members killed in the war in iraq that number has topped two thousand this fact has virtually been ignored by the mainstream media but they're not the only ones remaining silent about the war four years ago senator barack obama and senator john mccain both laid out plans for ramping up and then winding down the wars in iraq and afghanistan fast forward to today two thousand and twelve and now president obama and mitt romney are locked in a battle and the war in afghanistan doesn't seem to be on the radar today at the white house press briefing our team white house correspondent christine friends out

was called on here's her question about the war in afghanistan the president got instead of leaving time whole lot about education policy we haven't heard much of down the plan the next four years for the war in afghanistan so i don't want to have to partner since first of all what is the plan for the next four years and second of all there's some chatter that the reason that hasn't been discussed that is governor romney have. essentially three. so i can't speak for governor romney i mean i think that he has been critical of what the president has made very explicit is his strategy and his policy in afghanistan which is having. having kept his promise to end the war in iraq and bring our troops home. he has refocused he refocused attention on the effort in afghanistan which after all.

we entered u.s. troops entered because of the attacks on the united states on september eleventh two thousand and one he refocused attention he plussed up our forces there he developed a strategy that made clear that our number one priority the reason why we are in afghanistan is because of al qaida and that our number one objective. for our mission in afghanistan is to just. dismantle and ultimately defeat al qaeda. those white house spokesman jay carney answering the question providing information about the objectives and afghanistan but very few details about the actual plan for moving the u.s. forward. also had on our team even if you pass an airport security with flying colors you still could get kicked off the plane for looking suspicious ahead one man's story about how his anti t.s.a. t. shirt got him booted from a flight. that's

one of american power continues. on things in our country.

might actually be time revolution. and it turns out that a particular group of starbucks has a surprising him really you laura. booted from a flight for wearing a silly t. shirt and that's exactly what a thirty one year old doctor a student says happened to him at the airport and both fellow new york are rigid says it was his shirt that caused an airline supervisor to pull him from a flight forcing him to rent a car and find his own way back home this is the shirt that he says sparked it all as you can see it has a mock department of homeland security seal around it are words. zero m g z o m g terrorists an alert level blood red run run take your shoes off or take off your

shoes their region did pass t.s.a. security it was the pilot and airline personnel that decided he couldn't fly despite passing extensive security and as a blogger region details the whole ordeal from being banned from flying to the searching of his belongings to the interrogations that followed but he believes this is about more than just his t. shirt to discuss his art to correspond or among the lindo joins us now from l.a. hi ramon so is this yet another example of freedoms being compromised in the name of security or is this a necessary precaution. that's definitely the buzz around the internet today and this story's only getting a lot of attention here in the u.s. and across the world from people who see this increased security at airports and border crossings as just really part of an over expenditure on national security

and really an eroding of our civil liberties and as you mentioned a lot of people think that this is really part of you know part of the national security apparatus taking away our freedoms now as you mentioned it wasn't even t.s.a. who stopped our r g two was actually delta airlines r.g.t. had already been through an extensive t.s.a. search and he got to the gate in delta told them that some of the passengers in the pilot didn't feel comfortable with his shirt and when we saw from his shirt i mean he's obviously making a joke of just what he sees as too much national security expenditures and really this fear mongering that goes on on a daily basis when it comes to terrorism but obviously delta didn't find the joke in it the pilot himself told the crew that he didn't want on the plane and they ended up having to take a plane the next day so and this is after several several searches he even changed

his shirt so despite the fact that he went away went ahead and change his wardrobe went through several searches it's it's quite surprising this they still didn't let him on simply because the pilot said oh i don't want that guy on there so i mean he did go to that extent if he went there t.s.a. and he wasn't found to be a dangerous how there wasn't really any plausible or was there any plausible reason to fear him being on that plane. that's right. besides you know how ridiculous he thinks that this is the fact that you know delta thought that his shirt was inappropriate and was scaring passengers and he also believes that this is really part of a bigger problem of him driving or flying while brownie believes that this is another case of racial profiling and he points to the case of last year when a couple of muslim scholars were taken off of a delta flight because the pilot said that. he did not feel comfortable with them

on the flight and we are getting new reports from homeland security that there have been several reports a racial profiling happening ports in newark boston and even in hawaii so definitely he's pointing towards a bigger problem but many people bring up the fact that when it comes down to it these even though it was dealt in this case which stopped them in many cases it's t.s.a. who is really becoming too intrusive into people's personal belongings and to their personal business and i'm kind of going along with that want to read the tweet they hear obviously very frustrated after the whole ordeal not being able to fly home and then the whole process this is what the man tweeted quote mock the security charade or offend racists by being brown and delta won't let you fly in this prince of the whole issue that you were just touching upon of racial profiling and we've

kind of covered a extensively of how you know over and new york the n.y.p.d. blatantly racial profiles muslims as part of their counter terrorism program are meant to what extent are muslims or other minorities profiled within our airports. well that's right we have to remember that i mean to say the sort of just extensive security that we've been seeing at airports since nine eleven has been hotly debated you know in the media and even congress last you know congress has really been very critical about how our money is being spent during this debate we must remember that many more conservative tough on crime pundits and lawmakers really pointed towards the israeli model where security personnel there practiced behavioral profiling and really homeland security is under a lot of scrutiny right now because this practice was going on at boston's airport where they were supposedly profiling behavior turned out that in many cases they

were just really. minority passengers who they figured would be easy targets may have some sort of criminal history so that's why right now many of these t.s.a. screeners are going through new training because to many people this behavioral profiling is really just another excuse to racially profile and not really stop terrorism and want to bring up this poll according to a recent gallup poll the t.s.a. has not such a decimal approval rating here in the u.s. it's at fifty four per sat right now but that's higher than president obama's fifty three percent rating and congress is sixteen percent approval rating pretty bad there by someone that so people seem to at least a good amount of people don't mind the t.s.a. to a certain extent but when people hate the t.s.a. they really hate that i mean who could forget this example.

really it's just john. kerry she meets your figure so much my government like the you know your story so we do this we can do that here but if you touch my junk going to have your rest i tell you the last time i flew to afghanistan i got manually raped by a guy who was the general wasn't sure but making sure is one thing this guy it seemed to me what it was. all right i suppose a couple of extreme examples there are people very you know upset with their t.s.a. experience at what point do the american people say enough is enough this has gone too far. well that's right i mean just egregious examples of small children and even the elderly just being searched so closely and it really does go to the point

was you know it was what is a legal right to search and in you know search your bags and this is really it is really interesting that people have a favorable. you know view of the t.s.a. given the fact that they are becoming much much more intrusive and it's really going to be really interesting what the tipping point is when because we've already seen protests people showing up naked to protest the t.s.a. so it's really going to be interesting where the tipping point is where people are funny going to start fighting back against this intrusion of privacy. thanks so much for coming on the show and weighing and that was our t. correspondent from on glenda of thousands of students taking to the series in quebec canada protesting tuition hikes demonstrators say it's a renewal of the protests we saw last spring where told things got chaotic in the area with police pepper spraying the crowd and students flooding the sciri the

demonstrations are ahead of callbacks general election to be held on september fourth voters will decide a premier jean charest liberal party is going to be reelected he has run on a plan to increase tuition fees over eighty two percent over the next seven years organizers of wednesday its protest said it was the largest planned demonstration seen during an electoral campaign and it's a sign that the protest movement is making a comeback there we'll keep you updated on how it all plays out. well the republican national convention is just around the corner now and as speakers hone their speeches the city of tampa is preparing for widespread protests and they're apparently doing this by clearing jail cell beds in anticipation of mass arrests the sheriff of hillsborough county has ordered seventeen hundred prison beds to be cleared that means that relocating some inmates to handle the many arrests they plan on making so what does this mean for protestors freedom of speech and are

there already plans to silence the to discuss this kristin lair and kelly benjamin both participants for occupy tampa join us now welcome there so your reaction to this news seventeen hundred beds cleared to make way for jailed protesters. well i think it's interesting that the only thought that we see in the media from the blaze is about you know. how did. you know not of not of exactly what is the board. and i mean we do have a quote from the mayor that i want to read he says quote there will be arrests the question is how many we are prepared to handle any number of our n.c. related arrests through our orient road jail we are committed to due process in the rule of law regarding r. and c.

related arrests we have procedures and policies in place to ensure an orderly and lawful process for anyone arrested so i mean what do you think about that you mentioned that a little bit earlier that there just seems to be this focus on being able to control the protests do you think that they have the effort is being missed directed i went to the l.g. legal observer training recently and learns that in the state of florida. you know it's a common to turn off the camera. you have to turn off the camera and. with all the event regulations i really don't know what they mean by control the proton but i'm not sure you know what kind of you know the size of the matter is this is the stage spectacles that the republican party is showing its. service with a very clear message and they don't want anything to interfere with that message so that they're making sure that they're doing everything possible that makes average

people who have a grievance to air with the republican party in trying to keep them out of sight out of mind and they will violate people's rights and put them in jail in order to make sure that that message gets out there to the american public and that their gender is the one percent their agenda of destroying the middle class and giving that they're the largest misallocation of resources and putting that large wealth confluence in the hands of the people at the top to make sure that that in this goes out there and then they don't care where they violate you know here on the ground that's the joy of people commute samples very peaceful they want to get their voices out there and the grievances and that's what this country is founded upon and they're trying to make it out to be that dissent is unpatriotic or dissent is somehow criminal and they're going to put people in jail and violate people's rights and this is happening. at every political conventions in this go on these and this is nothing new that's happening and it's just unfortunate that the mayor has used rhetoric like a protest get out of hand we're going to brutalize them in the past and i think

that's very unfortunate for democracy built on the free exchange of ideas this is not a robust dialogue that's taking place this is the crafted message that they're pumping out in the wings apostles' possum as an example of the damocles of a long history of this conduct especially when it comes to occupying just this last friday we saw them pulling people over and over and searching the harassing intimidating. back earlier than i had terrible stories. absolute resentment already here now kelli there had mentioned that this is nothing new and wanted to bring up something to fix here that kind of highlight the way things have kind of played out at past republican national committee of the r n c in new york in two thousand and four there were eighteen hundred arrests over seventy million dollars spent on security back in two thousand and eight the r. and c. in minneapolis over eight hundred arrests were made over seventy eight million

dollars spent on security and now looking to see that is coming up in just a few days they spent fifty million dollars for security and that's just from the federal government so gentlemen is this do you think this is money well spent. the drive to see your. city. is one of the most if not cities in the nation we have them to hide you know amount or closes in on a boy in the nation's. neighborhoods that are desolate. predatory lending and we're having with me and you know is this money going down to the communities we're seeing millions of dollars being spent on landscaping on shrubbery on live being in areas that are already doing pretty good in the. rivers are or are removed from the job to a neighbor who's struggling with this crisis i think that's really the story of america read. this or do you buy it or the one percent is already used for the

people with these products and it's not true that the amount of money that. is. and maybe people should be up in arms about this and i know that these are some of the issues you plan to bring to the forefront forefront excuse me during our pupae of tampa want to ask you both since the convention is so close what is the more allover there for occupy tampa. it's been much better than it has been the last month or two and all kinds of new people new babies but that the park. our general assembly that exploded. it's really motivating just after the convention of over the city has found a way to kick the growth around the bill from the park using code enforcement. which is then leaving the park it's been a debate for a while but. there's a thirty there which is exciting. all right and i want to ask you now that it is so

close kelly i go ask you what exactly do you have planned for the convention. obvious never marches and rallies planned from the beginning the very first action taking place on sunday is the world's largest party i kid you not the house being billed the republican party has taken over the job in the bill that's with the dems they raise think petersburg it is going to be a march in community visual taking place on that night on sunday and then all the way from monday morning action in a major march on two major marches on monday from downtown one organized by the coalition marching the r t the second one march organized by the poor people's economic human rights and focusing on economic issues tuesday visible to question marks taking place in our city since or does exist outside of. focusing on the fact that the republican party has made an effort

a concerted effort and they reveal this to be make sure that they don't want black and brown people showing up at the polls because the polls and not the party in this has been going on longer or with our government was elected trying to hurt the voter rolls and they've been doing this in two thousand with the famous hanging chad and the voter purges all the way from two thousand or two thousand and eight and meet again today to make sure that people in minority communities don't show up at the polls and that's one of the ways it will sway in the trends there's about voter fraud but. zero point one. actually. there's actually when when they organized labor these actions. you know the final day of the convention where they coordinate the romney king the one percent their nominee. and then there were actions taken by all of on the job starting gun to bank capital might be able to get more information right but we do have a correspondent that is going to keep

a close eye over there on the ground and panda to see how things play out gentlemen thank you so much for coming on the show. and telling us all about what you have in the works that was tristan lior and kelly benjamin both are participants in occupy tampa and that's going to do it for this hour but for more on the stories we covered head on over to our you tube channel that is youtube dot com slash r t america you can also check out our website our teeth dot com slash usa and you can also follow me on twitter at liz wall back here at ten pm.