over investors' guard. call today eight hundred two five seven goal. today on our it's here with the bad weather out of the way the republican national convention is in full swing in tampa but not everyone is singing mitt romney's praises coming up arts he asks maine's delegates of the r. and c. is bending the rules. and from bad to worse the situation in syria is on the verge of becoming an all out civil war and it's forcing the local community to consider getting involved now a new report suggest you braun is sending troops said ahead we'll find out if intervention is inevitable. it's tuesday august twenty eighth six pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching our t.v.

. we're going to see evening in tampa florida where the republican national convention is underway slated to speak is mitt romney's wife ann and a jersey governor chris christie. just a short time ago artie's christine shot this video with her camera phone inside the r. and c. along with some cheering you have to listen closely for some booing over how the delegations are being seated most notably in maine during tonight's speech as they're not expected to mention what's happening what's been happening with the political process of actually nominating their candidate mitt romney but we do want to tell you more about it our team white house correspondent christine for that was in tampa for more on this story christine tell us more about what you're seeing and hearing over there. i tell you well as i don't know if i've ever seen anything like it and to be totally honest i'm not sure of the r n c was expecting what happened

to happen what you had here was the chairman of the republican national committee rense priebus call a vote to adopt new national party rules when that was asked he asked for simply eyes or nose and from where i was sitting it seemed to me of the delegates voting on the floor who said no we're voting on a whole lot louder and with more nose than those who said i but of course chairman priebus said the eyes have it without really any discussion really really interesting and it wasn't just maine there only twenty four delegates from maine that vote already taken fourteen votes went to romney ten went to ron paul but really the texas delegation which is absolutely enormous some of the ron paul supporters but this is such a bigger thing liz than just ron paul this is about an entirely new set of rules being adopted that will shift sort of the grassroots political message in so many states that really brings you know delegates who don't support the same person but of course was as you know national conventions are about unity about coming

together for one candidate it's certainly the opposite of what we saw just a few minutes ago that video that i shot with my i phone down there not just brewing but people calling point of order people really you know not happy with the way things are going on here but i do want to focus for a second on maine these are delegates who many of them came here thinking they would be seated and in fact they were not seated we spoke to them just a few days ago about what they've been going through the last week. of the thousands of ron paul supporters who attended his weekend rally a few of them are here on business political business mike wallace is here as a delegate from the state of maine and has spent the last week involved in a bitter fight quietly unfolding in the shadows there's a lot. integrity with throwing away their incentives i mean donation the republican national committee's rules committee and credentials committee has gotten involved

as well and succeeded in dismantling something delegates say is theirs they basically decided to unseat all of our delegates and then they reappointed twenty new delegates and twenty new alternates they did they did keep ten of our delegates and ten of our alternates based got stripped of half of our delegates for paul supporters and this is the way small battles were supposed to be won at a grassroots level and by following a little known rules in america's sometimes confusing political process but the rules ron paul himself says seem irrelevant to those in charge they've been bending the rules and breaking the rules and rewriting rules for too long that's what we have to stop from happening twenty one year old ashley ryan has become one of the highest profile faces in this fight and spoke about the consequences at this weekend's rally in the best case scenario delegates will be awarded proportionately . in the worst case scenario every state could become winner take all.

delegates say it could undermine democracy as we know it turning each political party from a big tent with many ideas to a small group of political insiders who call all the shots in tampa christine for example archie. and i should tell you that the main delegates who thought they would be seated and were not they were in the stands today cheering along with everyone else booing along i should say about the things that they did just that they didn't agree with also those maine delegates the ten delegates who did get to cast their vote for ron paul as soon as that vote was taken they unified walked off the floor together so really interesting what we're seeing here is the ron paul presence is still really being felt that i should say that roll call vote now wrapped up mitt romney is the official nominee we can stop calling him the presumed presumptive nominee he's now the official nominee for the

republican party list so interesting how it's playing out there were saying as you had mentioned that these these conventions are supposed to be this show of unity sounds like there is some kind of a split there has there ever been tension like this at a convention. well as i have been alive that long but you know people are talking about you know the one nine hundred sixty s. i think one hundred sixty four the very goldwater days there pointing to his son was at the ron paul rally over the weekend and spoke a little bit about it but by the time you get to the national convention of course we watched those debates i watched every one of them where it got contentious between the candidates between all the candidates who wanted to become the republican presidential nominee but by the time you get to this point we are not far out from election day this is when they want to show unity and so it was really sick. rising i think you could see chairman priebus getting pretty frustrated that

he couldn't really calm down his people and get them all to just sort of join the party now what do you think does it seem like the g.o.p. establishment is trying to censor them or or what is the feeling that you're getting speaking to these delegates that support ron paul. well again you know no matter what going forward listen no matter what the polls are saying right now it's going to be a tough fight is going to be a close race between mitt romney and president obama and so they really want to have as many people behind their candidate as possible but what you do see and what i've heard time and time again you know actually ryan saying this should be a party with you know of a chance and a lot of ideas within that tent we're not you know. people with only one or two ideas people have a lot of things that they believe in and a lot of reasons of it they're members of the republican party and she's worried a whole lot of other people that i spoke to are very worried that this is simply going to become a party for political insiders the part of the power they worry will become more

and more concentrated so you know that expression all politics is local there were that's not going to be the case anymore that all politics will now be from the top down with the man with the most money when now this is the first day since it got postponed due to tropical storm isaac how do the paul life plan to continue getting their voices out in the coming days their voices proving to be quite loud as we're seeing the way it played out today. well i've got to say was what took place today was sort of what everything in the last week was leading up to this roll call the delegates still hoping at the last moment they could get a rule passed on the floor that would change it and allow the original delegates of maine to be seated again that's in happened the vote is taken mitt romney is the official nominee and that's going to be the storyline that you're going to hear but i do have to say ron paul supporters are everywhere ron paul himself was on the can

the convention floor a few hours ago this morning and certainly was very well received a lot of people cheering for him chanting for him that's what happens you know basically anywhere where he goes that his followers his disciples as i like to call him know where he's going to be and we see outside as well before holding ron paul signs wearing ron paul t. shirts they say they're going to continue the movement they say they're going to continue to do so now of course spreading his messages but also trying to rally support for his son senator rand paul from kentucky to try to keep. the dream and the revolution as they call it alive christine thanks so much for keeping us updated over there and that was our team white house correspondent christine for that. but he turned out to ask the question when does the punishment fit the crime the punishment i'm talking about involve u.s. troops and their actions in two high profile cases and afghanistan one case

involving marines urinating on corpses and the other case deals with u.s. soldiers burning copies of the koran r t was the one of the first networks to report on the video showing four marines urinating on the bodies of what appears to be three dead taliban insurgents as you can see the marines are in full combat gear this video set off a firestorm of controversy here in the u.s. . almost members of the military and political world quickly apologized but others cheered on their actions including conservative radio host and c.n.n. contributor dana lash can someone explain to me if there's supposed to be a scandal that someone pees on the corpse of a taliban fighter someone who was this is part of an organization murdered over three thousand americans i dropped due to that's me though when our team started reporting on this video it quickly proved to be a device our on line comment section on you to create for and against the

actions of the marines but back to the punishment for those involved the one will face no discipline at all the other three have pleaded guilty and will receive a permanent mark on their records that will impact any future promotions or reenlistment so basically a slap on the wrist the u.s. military has also handed down punishment for the burning of korans back in february when news of the burning of the crowns leaked that touched off several days of rioting in attacks on u.s. troops at baghran base in north coble afghan president hamid karzai called on a public trial for the soldiers involved but that is not going to happen that's because the army has found no ill intent in the koran burning so no criminal charges will be filed those soldiers however will face administrative discipline which could mean a cut in pay or a demotion so back to the question when does the punishment fit the crime and after nearly eleven years in afghanistan it appears the actions by the u.s.

aren't winning the hearts and minds of locals their. own update now on the marine that was sent to a psych ward for his facebook posts as we reported last week twenty six year old brandon routh was sent to a psychiatric ward for controversial posts to his page. will not violate my right. you are looking at video of local authorities and the f.b.i. arrested outside of his virginia home and. peers to be confused asking the authorities what committed the f.b.i. found as opposed to be anti american and terrorists and nature but last week a judge found that there was no legal basis to hold in the war in that war against his will so what does this mean for freedom of speech in the us for the latest on this case i was joined by john whitehead the marines attorney take a look. at the ruling we go next

a great victory for first. we did talk to brenda he was here yesterday we discussed . a legal case of rice actually gets the authorities or the government so he's thinking about that i think that's a real possibility i think we need to hold these people accountable this is someone posting things facebook there are no specific threats to any kind of individuals and i mean this is a as i said on the internet every day i thought about revolution in fact most of the stuff he was going to were song lyrics from a group called soul members a canadian rap. i mean i told people of the day to quote guys like john the are some of the older do that in the older days to talk about revolution these days so but what it says is that they are watching facebook stories or watching facebook they are conducting surveillance it's a very dangerous trend now rabaa wasn't charged with any crime. how are authorities any able to justify sending him away. under

a civil commitment statute were genuine almost every state has what we found is getting in this case about twenty thousand people plus each year virginia disappear like this authorities arrive arrive arrest them and take them away to another susan here brenda rob the other guy on the internet started yelling about it alerted us we got most people you never know about the fact is getting in this case i've had hundreds of people call me that this is happen to across the united states but here's the weird thing mainly veterans i don't know why that maybe if people remember back in two thousand and nine janet the policy issue to men was called right wing extremism that leslie best rooms were mentioned in those extremist memos so for some reason our government weirdly so unworthy of this ration seems to think better is or extraneous so they might be targeting veterans now this has been argued as a first amendment issue want to take

a listen now from brandon routh himself hand describing some of the controversial posts that were on his facebook page the line that i posted on my facebook wall and sharpen up my son michael and i'm here server head and what i actually meant was that this you know is what we call a metaphor because he sees me as a metaphor exactly. now in addition to that i do want to bring attention john to some of these other controversial posts i want to bring them up there one of them there are men and women in positions in power within our government corrupt bureaucrats corrupt judges and police nazis in the marine corps iraq obama and your communist cabinet. we have another one there fran if you are unaware of the great amount of evil perpetrated by the american government i suggest you take take your had out of the sand the day of reckoning is almost at hand and one more there the

revolution is upon us i'm starting the revolution i'm done waiting now john some of the as they are they do raise eyebrows to say the least. when you say those those kinds of comments would get some kind of a reaction i mean they do raise but here's the key the first is written as change bastard who wrote it said to protect minority against the majority when he was talking about people who speak out so i mean i see this stuff all over the internet so they're going to have to start rounding up a lot of people and some of the stuff again sounds like john lennon song revolution i mean can you quote people the internet these days that are extremist sure a question is what is it straight mr obviously the government thinks these statements are extreme but larissa king says something very similar this by the way i'm a big market picking fan so i think today martin is the king could get rounded up

some of the things he's there and he talked about a revolution and by the way the perpetrator very good revolution of a right not by the way ran around does not own a weapon and as he does that interview which i can duck you just the clip he says he's nonviolent revolution is talking about a cultural revolution ok and we listen to are your interview there and you have described it as a metaphor i want to ask you how then do you draw the line where the line between the threats and the metaphor how can authorities tell the difference. well the difference is you talk are you targeting somebody i mean i'm going to internet and say hey i'd like to chop those off in fact i've seen some clips three so at least someone really clips on only internet of all these top show hosts are saying with time to cut their heads off and. want to go down the throat of the president i mean so a lot of people are dissatisfied with the day the question is how to parse between

what is real what was love you know they're doing background check of the scale a decorated marine of this ultra standing members you know he doesn't even own a weapon i mean what's he going to poke somebody on but you know the ploy or he's been doing that stuff for a long time and obviously if you go around the road robertson roundabout and you know the folks right away those were all dangerous all right you know there's been a lot of discussion lately about domestic terrorism in large part due to tragedies like the one we saw most recently the sikh temple shooting over in wisconsin and then jazz had said that a way to monitor suspects is through social media and this is what has happening in this case they they were monitoring his facebook do you think authorities taking that step as is crossing the line. well i think they're going to conduct surveillance on american citizens the fourth amendment requires a that you have credible evidence someone's doing something illegal it has to be particularly. conducting surveillance well as for the memo if you don't have

a search warrant they hear they did not have a search warrant nor an arrest warrant they're arresting and taking away and put him in a mental hospital if this is a real threat sure the authorities should or i discuss this but here again they have not charged with a crime is that we called both the f.b.i. and the place they said he committed a crime and we with well why did you rusty in the first place why when you just want to go up and talk to them line vehicles off and down the street as if he was getting ready to blow up the trade towers so the facts here the police say he did not commit a crime so why was he arrested ok i do want to play a clip from another clip from brandon rob where he is kind of reflecting on the whole ordeal that happened. i never imagined that there would be problems to the degree that we have or or things going on that that are easy easy to find if you're told to go look for them. very specifically the rampant abuse of

executive orders. a lot of people both the left on the political level put a right a concern about executive or here's the president dictatorial power absolutely i mean it literally gives the president a bill to write his own laws and that's what he's doing that's not only what's going on in this nation don i want to ask you looking at the wider implications of this case what does that mean for our first amendment rights and why should americans be concerned about this case well first of all what's good about brendan here rather rob is that he actually has done something nice he's doing in the first amendment allows that but i felt people this the freshman just doesn't allow this it tells us if you think your government's going the wrong direction is on speak up and says we can petition our government for a redress of grievances so i think that the the bigger picture here is. it's time to speak up all right on these issues all time margaret oh exactly bars are written on president obama's kill list i'm opposed to all but. i think our goal

is moving in a dangerous direction but so does the a.c.l.u. and various right wing groups all groups that i work with the left and the right so there's the i work with the constitution project in washington d.c. we're all concerned is this in the amount of about forty different groups we're often certain about these things and here we have random robs the no they don't come arrest maybe i'm to belittle probably or some of these other people that were they show you know groups like that i know rob is an easy target to say this civil commitment to rivendell many people disappeared his mother got a facebook and started yelling about it we know about it but i would concern about the civil commitment i think it's very very dangerous all right john thank you so much for coming on the show and. the latest on this case that was attorney john white had thank you. for the bloodshed continues in syria as a civil war grips the country the united states now considering taking military

action president obama put pressure on assad. but you wouldn't know that the u.s. is on the brink of a military conflict watching the mainstream headlines the tropical storm isaac churning out in the gulf of mexico gaining strength taking aim at the gulf coast potentially headed toward new orleans and then there is the republican national convention is my privilege to proclaim the two thousand and twelve republican national convention. and called to order. were quite literally looking at a hurricane here in florida we're looking at a political hurricane in our own country we are looking at a spiritual hurricane in our land. baker is the founder and editor in chief of who what why dot com and author of the book family of secrets ross recently wrote an article for the business insider and titled syria we learn a lot from the small stuff and he joins us now to discuss this issue in syria so

russ welcome to the show first of all it looks like right now in the media it's r. and c. coverage all the time and we're not saying it's not important but do you think that some of the major news outlets are failing to give syria the coverage that it deserves right now. i do one of the things we pointed out at who what why dot com is a little known speech given by general wesley clark which he reveals that he was told back in two thousand and one that the pentagon had a plan for the united states to invade seven countries in five years that story we put it out it did go around the internet but all of the mainstream news organizations ignored it and this is very important because it puts syria on a list that no it was a priority to get rid of the assad regime long before there was any kind of uprising and i think that's very very important and that tells us

a lot about the propaganda effort that is going on to sway americans to support what is being presented as a simply a domestic uprising very against a regime that is we are told is committing humanitarian violations so you think that it was the u.s. intent to change its frame all along why do you think that well again i'm just quoting general wesley clark the former commando commander of nato he is certainly a known and respected figure with this would have to be and he was making that up he says that in two thousand and one he was visiting the pentagon shortly after the nine eleven attacks and he was told explicitly by a staffer of the joint chiefs that they had received a memo citing and listing actually seven different countries that were going to be targets now i don't have any independent information but i think that we ought to take it seriously why is it that when general clark speaks out. he has ignored

it when generals who are with the official version of things they are given a tremendous amount of attention so you see the evidence that the end tent was there what would be the motivation behind that why well you know i think there are a lot of different ones as you know. well in my book family secrets i interviewed george w. bush's ghost writer who would feel that way back in two thousand and nine long before the war with iraq long before the weapons of mass destruction issue and long before even of the nine eleven attacks george w. bush was privately confiding to his writing partner that he hoped to invade iraq now as i reveal in family secrets that his reason was a very simple and rather callous one that he understood that presidents generally went up in the polls when they were involved in a brief and successful military adventure so that was one shocking revelation

but a general clark was was given a different impression and that was that other is within the establishment had determined that. following the collapse of the soviet union that there was a window in which some of these military strategists felt there was an opportunity to roll up the so-called so old soviet client states places like syria and iraq in libya that had their own foreign policies and that in many cases were friendly to the soviet union in that they perceived that there was a window of a certain number of years before another country be at the new russia or china or some other emerged as a formidable superpower to it which would then make it impossible to go ahead and remove these regimes ok and you have this article in the business insider you wrote recently saying that the news media has a terrible job of providing contacts what do you mean by that. well so the examples

they cite by the way the business insider which is a great publication reprints things that appear on who what why dot com which is our own website and look for people to visit it in any case there are a number of examples that we cite just run by a few for you there was as as you recall there was the bombing the suicide bombing of the bus in both gary where the israeli tourists were killed and immediately that was pinned on. in iran and there are so-called surrogates has been in in lebanon on although no evidence having merged in the media sort of reported that almost as a fact and that went all over the world yet in that same time frame the the consulate of syria in kazakhstan was bombed two floors of the building were wiped out we have a picture of it you can see on who what why and this story didn't appear anywhere

and you know from an objective journalistic standpoint we should be covering all of these things and it gives the public a very very different impression if we're being told all the time that iran or syria or something are endangering our security in the security of people from other countries and we're not being told that there is this war going on that syria itself is the victim of a kind of terrorism and that's our point that there's that example in this article we give we give other examples we give examples of where we are being told for example there was a french journalist by the name of shield jacques he was killed early this year we were initially told that he was killed by the syrian government it turns out there was a cover up he was actually killed by friendly fire so-called from the syrian rebels and the french government cover that up and now we see that the french government is the leader of the coalition actually calling for

a. a new government in exile of the rebels in other words they're pushing to see. assad's deport you so the fact that we're not being told who actually did why did these situations are very crucial it's a kind of a propaganda effort to to distract and give the public the wrong impression and we're not taking sides here what we're doing is we're advocating for on this pure journalism where the public gets told what is going on without any kind of it you know and. love to keep this conversation going but we are we're getting to the end of the show really appreciate you coming on about was ross baker founder and editor in chief of who what why dot com and author of the book family of secrets well that's going to wrap it up for now but for more on the stories we cover check out our you tube channel you tube dot com slash artsy america or you can head on over to our web site r t v dot com slash usa and you can follow me on.