from cairo to libya to palestine protesters are gathering outside u.s. embassies burning flags and shouting anti-american slogans the u.s. ambassador to libya is dead and middle east relations are getting worse the latest ahead. plus the death of one of one hundred mowbray's the longest lasting tenants has raised questions as to why he was in the detention facility at all coming up we'll sort through the details of this case with former guantanamo bay official colonel morris davis. and get ready for round two of the face of fight house republicans debated today whether or not to reopen the bush administration's warrantless wiretapping program as democrats and republicans consider surveillance

measures r t is keeping a close eye. it is wednesday september twelfth five pm in washington d.c. i'm christine for and you're watching our t.v. . well let's begin with the latest on an attack in benghazi libya that killed four americans including a u.s. ambassador ambassador christopher stevens and the others were killed at the american consulate tuesday night as they were trying to evacuate staff there and they were attacked by a group apparently protesting an american made video posted on you tube that ridicules islams prophet muhammad though we're getting a whole new batch of information about other possible motives it's also now been confirmed that u.s. surveillance drones have been sent to benghazi to try to find those responsible for the attacks president obama reacted to the killing this morning and vowed to take

action make no mistake we will work with the libyan government to bring to justice the killers who attacked our people since our founding the united states has been a nation the respects all faiths we reject all efforts to denigrate the religious beliefs of others but there is absolutely no justification to this type of senseless violence none well today we want to take a broader look at libya the relationship the united states and its allies has with libya and especially at the uprising that took place there last year that resulted in the death of colonel moammar gadhafi and the end of his regime now the rebels there they were funded and supplies like supplied by countries including france italy and great britain and the united states despite some pretty clear red flags how many red flags well let's take a look at the uprising itself most of those involved those rebels they were hiding

their faces did we ever know who the rebels were who was desperate to overthrow colonel gadhafi and why and we were of course told it was because of freedom but taking an honest look back many of these men were actually terrorists here's asia times correspondent pepe escobar speaking on r.t. a little more than a year ago. my name is abdul hakim. and he is an al qaeda assett he was struck by the cia after nine eleven he was friends with zarko when he was captured in mostly asian two thousand and three he will store today in bangkok where i lived at the time you know one of those extremely rendition cia prisons in bangkok he was sent back to the libyans he made a deal with saif al islam in two thousand and nine he was released and now he's the military commander of trip. so you get this information from more than a year ago that a cia prisoner a former detainee at guantanamo bay actually headed up a group of those rebels in libya that the u.s.

and its allies support it by the way these issues are nothing new similar ones weren't counted encountered in the ninety's in afghanistan when the west was celebrating an anti soviet freedom fighter that you just might recognize is the headline from the independent in december of one thousand nine hundred three and that is of course osama bin laden you can see for yourself the headline and i don't think i need to explain to you who some of the line is especially one day after september eleventh joining me to discuss this further is rima dia arabic correspondent and rima let's start with some new information that we are getting this you tube video obviously very controversial you found an article a little earlier in the day that from the wall street journal that was sort of went into detail about who was behind this film a man named sam bassil but now we're finding out this man that might not exist what can you tell us absolutely everybody was circled a lot of people were circulating a new york times article this morning that coded the wall street journal saying

that this person sam bassil is behind the film about prophet mohammad basically. raise money about five million five million dollars from one hundred and it does say in the article jewish donors to produce the documentary it is an israeli american and he's an israeli american real estate developer from california shortly afterwards everybody was looking up but you know was looking for this person and shortly afterwards some people are saying that in the records of california real estate developers this person does not exist then later on in the day people are saying that he's not in israel citizen this person does not exist apparently and therefore they're posing questions on the documentary. itself is this a documentary that was actually intended to talk about the life of mohammad from their perspective or just the documentary or a film to inspire maybe. because they know whoever made this film that

we simply still don't know who these people are they knew that this is their reaction and maybe this was the motive all along that they actually upload these trailers about the you know of the documentary that we haven't seen yet and anyway this. another example are saying is for a five million dollars film certainly that's a small budget when you look at some other hollywood budgets but when you look at this this trailer it doesn't look like it cost much money at all to make its you know sort of what a lot of people would call low budge and now there's reports coming out one just came out in the atlantic i believe that said the this name according to a consultant on the film was actually santa still it was some sort of symbol or code name for something name maybe even for i think the reason this film got a lot of attention is because terry jones the phrase to actually thread and then

later on burnt one of the copies of the koran in his church promoted the documentary otherwise nobody would have heard about it they're basically serving the purpose of promoting this film by talking about it these days and. you know subsequently the process that took place afterwards and different countries and so we talk about what happened tuesday night with bassett or in libya and his death the death of three other americans we should also say several other libyans were also killed some libyan diplomats say about ten. were killed in the attack as well. so there's there's also talk now of the washington post came out with an article that this is an attack that's been planned for for quite some time certainly this is a developing story. we don't know exactly what we're going to learn in the coming hours in the coming days but talk to me a little bit about how you know the communities that you follow on twitter the arab

communities here in the united states and around the world how are they reacting. it seems as if the world is dividing over this again just like it divided over what happened with the paintings of the danish painter. you know some time ago the world is dividing over this and you say when on the one hand you see a lot of people saying yes this is the work of their hands they one thing they happen to them otherwise they would not allow the production of this film and we have to understand the mentality of these people they do not. i think necessarily that you know people can actually produce a documentary without the permission of the government without the permission of the you know of the higher authorities of the country you know just like it happens of their countries so if they think that this is permitted by their countries and therefore they should be punished the whole country should be punished for their specially the authorities and these embassies are the authorities are really

resonating so that so so a lot of people are not looking at this as sort of a fringe group you know even if it is a legitimate movie made by a legitimate person they're not looking at as sort of a fringe opinion they're looking at it as representative of what an entire country thinks exactly because let's say many i mean in many arab countries right now if you want to produce a documentary you have to get the permission of the authorities there to film in specific places you know sometimes even about the idea itself has to go through authorities because you know if it's offensive to some group or not offensive to other groups they have to approve it or not approve it in that case so they believe that this is not just a group that does not have do necessarily be a certain group that produced this documentary this is a country and the country needs to be punished for this and you know you just cannot blame them for not knowing any better so while there are these groups who

believe that this is the work of their hands yes they should have seen this coming by allowing the production of this documentary you have all the intellectuals in the arab world who are standing and i did against this saying that this is a violent act this is a vicious act you just simply do not start killing people because one group decided to produce something that you you know deem as offensive especially because a lot of people have not even seen the documentary and a lot of people are saying on facebook on twitter on different websites that we have to prevent this documentary of this these trailers from circulating on the web meaning that people are even not. you know a lot of to see these over the trailer i want to broaden this so i think it's really important to look at this not just this as a single act but it's important to shed a little bit of light on a story that has just developed and forgotten and that is what exactly is happening in libya right now the u.s. role it certainly had a role earlier we've now learned that there are marines boots on the ground in

libya now that have arrived there to try to deal with finding out more information about this. what's the government been like since gadhafi was killed but let me just start by commenting on the troops on the ground that many will see as occupation and a lot of people will see a resemblance in iraq you know what happened that the u.s. has invaded their country exactly a lot of them will see this as you know because you'll let's. reverse or do this differently if the attack happened in the u.s. will the u.s. allow foreign troops to come and investigate the attack on their soil no and therefore these people will will think that the u.s. is basically repeating history this is what happened in iraq this is what happened in afghanistan and maybe this is and this is self fulfilling prophecy a lot of people were saying that the u.s. actually helped libya because they want to invade that country because they want to control its resources and now this is basically what i mean not necessarily what's

happening but this is you know for them they're going to say this is exactly what's happening right now and as far as we know if that's absolutely not what's happening but it was interesting i should point out when for the president spoke at the white house this morning you know it wasn't a press conference but one of the journalists there did yell out a question mr president is this an act of war and i think it is important as you say to point out that this is sort of the perspective that some people are going to have again a very developing changing story by the moment as we found out you've been in this field covering these issues for years and years now so it's great to have your insight r.t.r. but correspondent thanks so much. i want to talk now about an inmate at guantanamo bay who was found dead over the weekend in his cell this was one of the first detainees taken to the prison back in two thousand and two odd non farhan abdulla latif was from yemen and at the time of his arrest on the border of pakistan and

afghanistan he told authorities he was seeking medical treatment for a head injury for the military claimed he was actually an al qaeda recruit now not once but twice he was approved to be released once in two thousand and six and then in two thousand and eight the senate up getting rejected by the u.s. supreme court of the details of how he died they've not been released yet but he had attempted suicide in the past and his lawyers say he spent long periods of time confined to the prisons psychiatric ward to speak more about this i was joined earlier by colonel morris davis a retired air force attorney and former prosecutor i'm going to animal day here's his take. you know i think one thing the american public or the public at large doesn't understand i guess are one hundred sixty seven living men still at guantanamo in detention the majority of those men and been cleared for transfer there are people that see the department of justice the defense department have reviewed and determined we don't intend to charge them with anything we don't

believe they present an imminent threat and we don't want to keep them but they're still going ton of move largely because of their citizenship well that's what i was going to say more than half of those one kind of all are from yemen and you know these are men who they don't have control over their nationality and they also don't have control over the situation in their country but the reason that they're not being sent back is because of the political climate there i mean let's broaden this i mean does this sort of paint a future picture for what we can expect for those men that are getting well unfortunately i'm afraid you know it's been more than a decade that many have been confined like. the t.v. was just one example he's been there for ten and a half years as you mentioned he's been cleared twice during the bush administration to be transferred out yet you know ten if years later he was still there and i think there are a number of other people who are in similar circumstances that are incarcerated for more than a decade solely because of their citizenship which i would imagine if an american

was being detained overseas by another country soley because he or she was an american we'd be a little upset about it colonel davis i want to do something that i don't think i've ever done before and that is to read it part of a poem this is actually a poem written by a non latif is called the hunger strike poem as we know he states several hunger strikes and i found this on the center for the study of human rights in the americas basically he wrote quote there are artists of torture they are artists of pain and fatigue they are artists of insults and humiliation where is the world to save us from torture where is the world to save us from the fire and the sadness. where is the world to save the hunger strikers and colonel davis let me ask you where is the world why aren't more actions being taken to deal with what's gone on here especially considering that not latif is not the only person that is presumed to be you know for all intents and purposes innocent. unfortunately i think for the

american public after nine eleven america changed we used to be the land of the free in the home of the brave and we became the constrained in the cowardly and i think for the last decade levon years now the american public by and large has said do what you gotta do to keep me safe and i don't really care what you do know referring to our government so you know if you go back a dozen years americans who are opposed to torture now a majority are in favor we're opposed to indefinite detention other in favor so the it's interesting how during the bush administration what so many opposed during the obama administration so many now except that i'm afraid there are people that are stuck in this alice in wonderland like environment where they can spend more than a decade without ever being charged actually being cleared to be released and not just by the military you know. teeth had to pay vs hearing before a judge here in washington d.c. judge kennedy who found that the government made a preponderance of evidence standard says not proof beyond a reasonable doubt that he committed a crime but just fifty point one percent of the evidence could not support that he

needed to be detained at guantanamo force the obama administration appealed that decision the d.c. circuit court of appeals here in washington lee figured really kewl to miti in the supreme court decision that gave the detainees right the right to habeas and they literally killed the teeth who gave up hope after more than a decade let's talk about the d.c. circuit court of appeals because this is an important piece of this puzzle and it's an important piece of i think a lot of puzzles that we're going to see that we have seen this from what i understand is a three judge panel. traditionally very conservative what is their role as you know any case is wasn't there a judges that make up the d.c. circuit now they sit in panels of three the d.c. circuit you know the the facade that are part of the facade was we want this to be a military proceeding there's a court of appeals of the armed forces which is the normal appellate court for the

military but i was around in two thousand and six when the military commissions act was being drafted. the politicians didn't trust the normal military system the court of appeals for the armed forces they viewed the d.c. circuit as being more reliable but this is a military case yet this man was arrested by the military and dealt with in a military court how can that then go to this d.c. court of appeals well there again they were selected to handle all the detainees cases because they were viewed as being the most reliable trust for the court and if you look at their record at the supreme court the ninth circuit in california tends to get reversed more often than any other circuit the d.c. circuit does the best of the supreme court because they're the most conservative and predictable therefore all these cases go through civilian channels and not through military channels. latif was the ninth detainee to have died in custody.

have there any have there been any changes or has anything been done to sort of deal with the fact that this is happening that nine people have died behind bars or i haven't seen a lot of effort on the part of the obama administration to you know said he want to close guantanamo this is neverless he said that it's closing by attrition not by deliberate effort of ahmed ministration but you know it's ironic you know the military commissions that the president bush created back in november of two thousand and one and almost eleven years now they've completed six cases and fifty percent more have died on tottenham and then have been convicted and sentenced in guantanamo this is a tough situation no colonel davis because between you know the political situation in yemen where the majority of these detainees are from the political situation in other countries a question has arisen and that is you know if one hundred modu close where would these detainees go the innocent ones the guilty ones whatever have there been any

ideas put forth that you tend to think are valid a lot of other countries have helped out and taken some of the detainees over the years move. on from seven hundred seventy nine men down to one hundred sixty seven and a handful as you mentioned nine have died but most have been transferred either to their home country or to another country but a lot of the countries that we've approached over the years said look you know why don't you help yourselves out and take one yourself we have never taken a single detainees from guantanamo here to the u.s. yet we beg other countries to help us out and take them in congress you know is made it much more difficult in the far right who have really pandered to this decade of fear have forbidden any of the detainees from coming to the u.s. so i think one positive step we could take is. we had to go first and take a few ourselves with the weavers for instance there's a community here in washington that was willing to take them in i once i remember there was a there was a prison in illinois that right to take them and get the funding to do that. i'm

being told one of the al qaeda members al qaeda number two i believe that was killed on monday was a former inmate at guantanamo bay anything that you've seen happen i mean clearly we know president obama said as candidate obama several times that he plan to close it what's the reason that you think that he hasn't i think it's been a lack of political will i mean nobody's going to get elected on november the sixth saying i stood up for the rights of detainees in military detention i mean that's just not a doesn't look good on a bumper sticker is not going to win so there's no value in taking the political risk and i think he took office with good intentions he encountered opposition from the far right you know dick cheney and liz cheney in that crowd who said you're either with us or you're with the terrorists and at the time the economy was crashing health care reform was his top priority and i just don't think he saw any value in putting a political capital behind following up on his promise to close guantanamo well we

sure do always appreciate having you here you certainly have a firsthand look at exactly what the conditions are like there going home of a colonel morris davis retired air force attorney and now a professor at howard university school of law thanks so much for. well the u.s. house of representatives has just voted to reauthorize the foreign intelligence surveillance act or essentially this extends the government's power to warrantless wiretap americans for another five years the vote was three a one to one eighteen mostly along party lines but with more than seventy democrats voting in favor of it and fewer than ten republicans voting against it the bill was discussed for about an hour today under a closed rule which means no amendments were able to be offered there's a minor issue though there's a whole lot of the both we and they those who voted for it don't know about it like for example how many americans will be surveilled or how who is surveilled is determined i'm joined by alan butler now appellate advocacy council with ethic and

alan let's talk about the significance of this i mean what does this mean well basically what it means is that it moves along the pfizer reauthorization moves along through the process the sun hasn't yet voted to reauthorize the bill so that still needs to happen but you know at this point as you mentioned no amendments have been offered and so the type of you know reporting oversight and privacy protections that are necessary to really make this law you know uphold civil liberties have not yet been introduced we should mention that is something that a lot of people don't know which is that pfizer was first passed back in one nine hundred seventy eight by jimmy carter but changed a lot under the bush administration post nine eleven talk a little bit about some of the most important elements that were added to this piece of legislation sure well the first amendments act of two thousand and eight which is being voted on today by the house to reauthorize change the face of system in a significant way so far as the way that the fight so have worked since the one nine

hundred seventy s. was that agents of foreign powers and foreign powers who were abroad and not domestic could be targeted. with a warrant from the face of court and that warrant basically was granted upon the government. inferring that an individual some reasonable suspicion that the individual was abroad and not a u.s. person but what the f.a.a. added was a system a program matic surveillance where the government could apply for authorization to conduct a program of surveillance whereby they would collect in large number of communications and subject to certain minimisation and targeting procedures they would collect those communications in the hopes that they would target foreign person or persons but not identified persons right i think that's really important you know it just seems to me allan it's a post nine eleven world yesterday was the anniversary of those attacks on nine eleven that really changed a lot of the way this country conducts business i guess you could say but it seems

that what we saw today is congress wanting to continue to tighten the screws here on this rather contentious piece of legislation. when when does this change when can we go back to it no five so world well i think part of the problem is the lack of information so you saw a lot in the debates on the floor today of talk but no real facts i mean part of the problem here is that we have a lack of public reporting and accountability for the system there's a lot of questions and not a lot of answers and i think that we need those answers to really have a real realistic discussion about the progression of this law i think that's a really important point to and there have been a couple people journalists who've you know filed freedom of information act request try to get some details i know that this when this was up for discussion. before you know senator ron wyden wanted some information a long time member of the senate intelligence committee. but that information is not being public and yet this is

a piece of legislation that will affect all citizens how is this possible i mean is this not going against the fourth amendment to the constitution i think part of the problem is that we haven't been able to answer that question i mean we have a court case that's going to the supreme court your challenge this year challenging . yes and that's clapper versus amnesty and that case could theoretically get kicked by the supreme court before it even gets to the merits of that question before it even is allowed to ask the question of whether votes for the moment the individuals in that case you know could theoretically have their decision reversed if the supreme court finds that they haven't provided enough information to show that their rights have been violated so really a lack of public information here is hindering not only you know the public's understanding of the system but judicial review as well how do we get from point a to point b. and point a is two thousand and five the new york times article came out disclosing exactly what this warrantless wiretapping was the entire program and from what i understand

they actually had this information in two thousand and four and held off on publishing it we think they waited until after the election so they published this people are outraged i remember when this came out it was shocking people couldn't believe that this would happen but you know it's still you know was in place voted on in two thousand and eight here we are in two thousand and twelve how did we get to this point where it just sort of gets pushed through i think a lot of where's the outrage i think it's shocking because what's happening in the debate is people are representing that you know there's no problem there's no problem whatsoever but i think there is a problem the problem is that we don't have any information about how many u.s. persons communications have been intercepted under this authority and you know how did we get here i think it was a slow process you know sort of like turning up the heat and the water boiling slowly i think that there was an urgency after two thousand and five to sort of provide some foreign intelligence authority when there was a sense you know post two thousand and five that that some capabilities had been

lost and those were necessary to sort of fight terrorism but in the reauthorization sweep i think we went a bit too far and then we've had a lack of oversight and public information available to sort of push back against the. system when president obama ran for president he spoke out against warrantless wire top tapping and yet he seems to be in favor of the bill this time around it's a difficult question and but it's an important one for having americans to think about which is how does the president and you know future leaders as well sort of navigate these murky waters of you know keeping the country safe and also allowing americans to maintain their civil liberties i think it's difficult but i think that you know the senate version of this bill currently actually has a number of substantial amendment sort of an added to increase oversight and accountability and even public reporting and i think that in a so far the administration's stance has been reauthorize the bill which there's

you know a decent amount of agreement on that this is a that there are some necessary tools under fire but the question is you know how do we shape the law how do we shape the requirements for oversight in reporting and how do we provide more notice and information to the public i think those are all really really good questions and i think that it's very hard and i think that the most important thing that you know that. we have to point out today is that there's such little information about this and yet it just passed in the house of representatives alan butler appellate advocacy council with epic appreciate having you on the show thanks for well that's going to do it for us for now but for more on the stories we covered go to youtube dot com slash r t america or check out our website r t dot com slash usa they actually just wrote an article about the passage of fice and what it means you can also follow me on twitter at christine for that we're going to be back here at eight o'clock eastern time.