today on our t.v. 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 r t asked maine's delegates in the r. and c. is then in the rules. plus a former marine detained and sent to a psychiatric ward all for writing anti-government comments on facebook is this a form of terror prevention or the latest assault on free speech we'll speak to the marines lawyer. 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 global community to consider getting involved now a new report suggests iran is sending troops. we'll find out if intervention is

inevitable. we begin 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 present 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 are two white house correspondent christine for as i 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 are 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 less 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 ten years 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 salvage 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 is

a lack of. integrity with the way they are and. i mean delegation 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 re appointed twenty new delegates and twenty two alternates they did they did keep ten of our delegates and ten of our alternates get the 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 no 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 zero 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 ron paul's presence is still really being felt but 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 haven't been alive that long but you know people are talking about you know the one nine hundred sixty s. i think nine 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 live 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 tent 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 that 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 power they worry will become more and more concentrated so 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 wins 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 liz 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 and 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 them know where he's going to be outside as well deepa holding ron paul signs wearing ron paul t. shirts so 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 as he 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 divisive issue our online comment section on you tube created a heated debate both for and against the actions of the marines 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 crimes leaked that touched off several days of rioting in attacks on u.s. troops at baghran base in north couple 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 there. we turn now to an update to the marine that was sent to a psych ward for his facebook posts as reported last week twenty six year old brandon routh was sent to a psychiatric ward for his controversial post to his page. not violate my rights. well you are looking at video of local authorities and the f.b.i. are wrapping up his virginia home on aug sixteenth appears to be confused asking the authorities what crime he has committed the f.b.i. found is supposed to be anti-american and closed paris and nature but last week a judge found that there was no legal basis to hold in the ward against his will so

what does this mean for freedom of speech in the us for more on this case john whitehead the marines attorney joins us now don welcome i want to ask you what is the latest in this case what is next for brandon. the ruling we go next a great victory for first and then we did talk to brenda he was here all day yesterday we discussed. a legal case of rice actually gets the authorities here the government so he's thinking about that i think that's a real possibility i think we need to hold these people accountable as this is someone posting things those 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 group i mean like i told people to be dangerous to quote guys like john the are some of the older dude back in the other day 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 we're genyen almost every state has what we found is getting into this case about twenty thousand people plus each year in virginia disappear like this authorities drive arriva arrest them and take them away too and then assertion here brenda rob the other guy on the internet started yelling about it alerted us we got about what most people you never know about flash 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 and leslie best friends were mentioned in those

extremist memos so for some reason our government weirdly so under the ministrations seemed to think better these are extremists 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 and the line that i posted on my facebook wall was sharp enough my son michael and i'm here server head and what i actually meant was that it was you know what we call a metaphor because excuse me metaphor exactly now in addition to that i do want to bring attention to some of these other controversial posts i want to bring them up there. one of them their dear men and women in positions in power within our government corrupt bureaucrats corrupt judges and police nazis in the marine corps

barack obama and your communist cabinets we have another one their friends if you are unaware of the great amount of evil perpetrated by the american government i suggest you take you take your head 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 am 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 meaning they didn't raise the. here's the key the first amendment is written as james bassett 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

a john lennon song revolution i mean can you quote people the internet these days that are extremists sure a question is what does it stream is 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 around to the some of the things he's there and he talked about a revolution and about the way the perpetrator very good revolution of. by the way brand iraq does not own a weapon and as if that interview which i can duck you just the clip from it he says he's nonviolent revolution is talking about a cultural revolution ok we listen to are your interview there and you describe it as a metaphor i want to ask you how do you draw the line where the line between a threat and a metaphor how can authorities tell the difference. well there was this huge car you targeting somebody may not be going in and say hey i'd like to talk as though

in fact that seems unclear street play someone really. only internet of all these talk show hosts are saying it's time to cut their heads off as. those girls want to go as i was told in the prison i mean so a lot of people are just as well i was governor is the basic question is how to parse between what is real what is the background check of this veil a decorated marine of this honor of standing members given that he doesn't even own a weapon name was he going to post somebody on but the point is he's been doing this stuff for a long time and i'm going to say if you go around the rather obvious time around the about a million of 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 and wisconsin and they just had said that a way to monitor suspects is through social media and this is what hat is happening in this case they they were monitoring his facebook do you think authorities taking

that step is it is crossing the line. well i think if you go 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 were well why did you rusty in the first place was when you just want to go up and talk to they mind the it was all up 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 for another clip from brandon robert who 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 abuses executive orders oh yes a lot of people most of the left on the political level put a right of concern about exacting or here's a president dictatorial power absolutely i mean the head literally gives the president is going 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 brenden here rather rob is that he actually has done something east he's doing in the first amendment allows it but i tell people this the punishment just doesn't allow this it tells us if you think your government's going the wrong

direction is signs that 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 that. i think our goal is moving in a dangerous direction but so does the a.c.l.u. and various right wing groups all rooms i work with all the left in the right so there's the i work with the constitution project out of 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 this i know rob is an easy target to say in this civil commitment to rivendell many people disappeared his mother got a facebook and started yelling about it we know about it but i will concerned about the civil commitment i think it's very very dangerous all right john thank you so

much for coming on the show and bringing up the latest on this case that lead attorney john whitehead thank you. well bloodshed in continues in syria as a civil war grips the country the united states is now considering taking military action french president francois hollande has called for the syrian rebels to form a provisional government president obama has also put pressure on the regime and emphasize that military intervention is not off the table so it looks like the west is on the brink of another military conflict but you wouldn't know it 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 in session and called to order. we're 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. well to answer the question of whether or not the mainstream media is failing to give syria proper coverage i was joined by ressa baker founder and editor in chief of who what why dot com and author of the buck family of secrets he also recently wrote an article for business insider and titled syria what we can learn we can learn a lot from the small stuff take a look. i do one of the things we pointed out at who. 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 and that story we put it out it did go around the internet but all of the mainstream news organizations ignored it this is very important because it puts syria on

a list that was 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 it 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. and can to change its frame all along why do you think that well again i'm just quoting general wesley clark the former commando of a commander of nato is as certainly a known and respected figure it would this would mean that he was making that up the 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 is ignored the 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 intent was there what would be the motivation behind that why well i think there are a lot of different ones as you. in my book family secrets i interviewed george w. bush's ghostwriter who will 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 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 of secrets that his reason was

a very simple and rather callous one that he understood that presidents generally went out to 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 others 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 old soviet client states places like syria and iraq and libya that had their own war and policies and that in many cases were friendly to the soviet union and that they perceive that there was a window of a certain number of years before another country be it 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 you have this article in the business insider you are out

recently saying that the news media has a parable job of providing contacts what do you mean by that. well so the examples i 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 web site i love 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 bulgaria where the israeli tourists were killed and immediately that was pinned on. the iran and their so-called surrogates will lie in in lebanon although no evidence that emerged 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 and the security of people from other countries and we're not being told that there is a 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 it was a french journalist by the name of jack 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 an exile of the rebels in other words they're pushing to see hasten assad's departure so the fact that we're not being told who actually did what of these situations is 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 is pure journalism where the public gets told what is going on without any kind of an agenda. left to keep the conversation going but we are we're getting to the end of the show really appreciate you coming on balance russ baker founder and editor in chief of who what why dot com and author of the book family of secrets that's going to wrap it up for this hour.