from cairo to libya to palestine protesters are gathering outside u.s. embassies around the world at burning flags and shouting into american slogans the u.s. ambassador to libya is dead and middle east relations are getting worse the latest coming up ahead. plus the death of one one time obeys the longest lasting tenants has raised questions as to why he was in the detention facility at all coming up will sort through the details of this case the former guantanamo bay official colonel morris davis. and get ready for round two of the feis a fight house republicans voted today to reopen the bush administration's

warrantless wiretapping program what does this mean for your privacy archie is keeping a close eye on the development. began it's wednesday september twelfth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm christine frizz out and you are watching our. let's begin with the story of an inmate at guantanamo bay who was found dead over the weekend in his cell one of the first detainees taken to the prison in two thousand and two. odd none farhan abdulla teef 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 though the military claimed he was an al qaeda recruit twice his release had been recommended once in two thousand and six and then in two thousand and eight but it was later rejected by the u.s. supreme court and the details of how he died have not yet been released but he had

attempted suicide in the past and his lawyers say he spent long periods of time confined to the prison psychiatric ward to speak more about this i was joined earlier by colonel morris davis a retired air force attorney and former prosecutor a quantum obey here's his take. you know i think one thing the american public or the public large doesn't understand i guess are one hundred sixty seven living men still at guantanamo in detention the majority of those men of 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 i guantanamo 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 nonmilitary foods just one example has been there for ten and a half years as you mentioned they've been cleared twice during the bush administration to be transferred out yet you noted in that years later he was still there and i think there are a number of other people were 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 solely 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 a 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 insult 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 unless he is not the only person that is presumed to be you know for all intensive 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 levin 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 for him 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 another 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. latif had to pay vs hearing before a judge here in washington d.c. judge kennedy who found that the government could meet 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 appeal the decision of the d.c. circuit court of appeals here in washington the figurative lee killed to miti in the supreme court decision that gave the detainees right the right to habeas and they literally have 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 wasn't there eight judges that make up the d.c. circuit now they sit in panels of three the d.c. circuit you know the the facade or a 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 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 trustworthy 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 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 that seems natural if he said that it's closing by attrition not

by deliberate effort of the obama administration 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 it gone tom of 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 mo did 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 you know 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 up 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 you know 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 to take a few ourselves with the weavers for instance there's a community here in washington that was willing to take them in i went on i remember there was a there was a prison in illinois that right happy 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 you know it 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 you 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 were like there going on a monday colonel morris davis retired air force attorney and now a professor at howard university school of law thanks so much for. well a short time ago just a few blocks from our studios several people gathered to remember the four

americans who lost their lives in libya tuesday night including of u.s. ambassador it is a story with developments that continue to change in terms of why and how this could have happened it was said initially to be a response to an offensive video posted on you tube by an american filmmaker that ridiculed islams prophet mohammed new information has come out though that the attack was planned for much longer and that there may or may not have been a full film and the filmmaker may or may not have been who we thought it was what we do know is that ambassador jake christopher stevens was pronounced dead at the hospital and at this hour the president obama has sent u.s. surveillance drones and a group of marines into the country to investigate here's president obama earlier this morning reacting to the killing and vowing 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 were just 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 of 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 are funded and supplies supplied by countries including france italy a great britain and the united states despite some critical pretty clear red flags how many red flags was take a look at the uprising itself most of those involved who call themselves rebels they had their faces did we ever know who the rebels were who were so desperate to overthrow colonel gadhafi and why we were told it was for freedom but taking an honest look back many of these men they were terrorists here's asia times

correspondent pepe escobar speaking on r.t. a year ago. dual head came. in and he. s. that he was struck by the cia after nine eleven he was friends with zarko when he was captured in mostly asia in two thousand and three he was tortured in bangkok where i lived at that time you know one of those extremely ring dition cia prisons in bangkok he was sent back to the libyans he made that deal with saif al islam in two thousand and nine he was released and now he's the military commander of trip. so again this information from more than a year ago that one of those leading the rebel group was a cia prisoner a former detainee at guantanamo bay and that he headed up this group in tripoli and it was supported you know by the united states and its allies now i've got to say that these issues are not new similar issues were encountered in afghanistan back in the one nine hundred ninety s.

when the west was celebrating an anti soviet freedom fighter that you just may recognize there's a headline from the independent in december of one thousand nine hundred three and that warrior who's putting his troops on the road to peace is of course osama bin laden do i need to explain who that is one day after september eleventh no i don't think i do well joining me to discuss this further is walid farris advisor to anti-terrorism caucus of the united states congress and the author of the coming revolution will for the freedom in the middle east thanks so much for joining us i want to talk first about what's happening now reinforces have landed in libya c.n.n. is now reporting that the u.s. is moving two navy ships with tomahawk missiles to the area is there a war about to begin. look this is always what happens after a major strike against u.s. interests occurs the president the administration will have to do something because he made a statement that we would have exert retribution now will we be successful or not

that's a different question remember the attacks against the embassies in east africa in one thousand and eight there was a reply by the administration that did not and did and that provoked later on the loddon retaliated against the u.s. so we are now in its cycle of the hardest attacking us and probably other than us western interests around the region and the u.s. trying to respond to that. it's interesting on quite a few of the arabic news websites today people in the region you know around libya they're reporting that they feel like they're being occupied or invaded you know first you know there was afghanistan and iraq and now it's libya now even if that is not what's happening here do you think the u.s. is doing a good enough job of communicating what's going on what the problem has been with the administration is that when the arab spring began and we discussed it on our team many times the early wave was made by civil society by youth the google people

april six women minorities that was the beginning and fortunately washington chose to ally itself let me say partner with the muslim brotherhood in egypt for example would not in tunisia and in libya as you said in the introduction the rebels were diverse you had secular former girl crabs former ambassadors former military offshoot of the regime and the islamised unfortunately we chose to partner with the islamic thinking that they are going to stab allies north africa look who the extreme among the islamic you know are doing in targeting us the our embassies and let's be really clear of course no information that we know of so far about who exactly was behind this attack on the u.s. ambassador mr stevens or or those other three americans or the various libyans who were killed there no information on. they were but i think it's an important point you bring up walid in terms of what has happened in the last year or so in libya with the united states with our allies. in terms of this relationship i mean talk

a little bit about. you know where the relationship stands now with the u.s. government with the french government the british government and you know the libyan the libyan government as it is now well look the u.s. administration and of course our allies in europe western allies need to are going to be surprised by not just this attack but by the widening expression of extremist i mean those who attacked the embassy in cairo these salafist you hottest extreme of course but that the allies of the sitting government of egypt and we are going to be reviewing the decision to send another package of foreign aid we send about one point five to one point eight billion dollars to egypt meanwhile the president of egypt muslim brotherhood. mr morsi has been changing the structure of the army of egypt replacing his own supporters so this administration and and over the next administration are going to be facing tremendous problems in two thousand and

thirteen in the region. and it's really really murky waters wallington to navigate for any government because there are so many factors here. you know some of them stem from long before you were i were alive and some of them stem from from recent history and a changing of the guard and change post arab spring what do you think though are the most important things that leaders you know that president obama today whoever the next president is whether it's president obama or mitt romney that they need to take into account when making decisions about libya and egypt in my list first of all the sitting president and the next president will have first of all to explain very well to the american public who explained very well what are the forces in the arab spring so that one chunk of people very diverse those who are islamic those who are secular arab nationalists boxes that everybody that number two we need to choose whether our partners in the region we need to link up with civil society i

mean the arab spring was about civil society don't have a policy to empower women and minorities and labor and that middle class we talk about it here but we don't apply it in full in foreign policy and thirdly we want to make sure that we are not sending the wrong signal to the region i mean excessive military activity without engaging with civil society that's what the extremists are going to be taking advantage of and do you have you have just mentioned websites and media that united states and we should mention of course throughout libya today there have been several rallies several gatherings that have showed support to the u.s. that it showed support for u.s. ambassador stevens even cuba as you know condemned these attacks so you know we shouldn't say you know that everyone is looking on this in the same way but there are several countries around the world that have been protesting this video that no one really knows where this came from or what it's all about. talk a little bit about what you see going forward in terms of what has become really

overnight some pretty big dissonance. it's a big difference on the one hand but on the other hand i just mention it that's very important there is a rallying you know against those extremist including from within libya do we know for example united states that in the last that displayed of that action in libya the seculars won but yet they don't have tower because the militias on the ground would have the weapons actually the weapons that we sent them and the weapons that they captured from gadhafi was the hottest so what we need to do basically is to identify the forces on the ground inside libya lawmakers and civil society empower them send them before and second thing we need to do internationally is to widen the coalition i mean the u.s. cannot be known as this business we've had the europeans the indians the brazilians the russians are interested and the arab moderates as well to create an international coalition and to isolate the extremists you know i want to take a look at some media coverage that was shown here in the united states shortly

after gadhafi was captured on that day breaking news out of libya reports that deposed the dictator moammar gadhafi is dead the libyan fighters say they have defeated the last forces loyal to more market off forty two years of terror seemingly ended just hours ago and there is the picture that is being circulated that is purported to be moammar gadhafi tripoli of celebration so what appears to be the end of a brutal era this is a huge day for the rebel forces the revolutionary forces in libya a huge day the end of a brutal era. do you think that you know what was communicated by the mainstream media here in the united states. you know did a good enough job in portraying what was actually happening on the ground there. really you just showed it just heard it every revolution has stages i mean look at the french revolution lasted thirty years from one bloody wave to another bloody

way of every revolution in russia and in the middle east what we need to have been able to do was to locate those forces that are really ready to move liberal democracy as a really ready to move at least to some form of democracy doesn't have to be american or european libyan democracy and then work with them what was done was to subcontract basically politics in libya to whether the rebels were and we didn't have a good idea i mean government is not has a good idea about those rebels so the most organized the better trained and weaponized in this case the militia the jihadi militia are the ones who are now having the control over national security in libya all right certainly again a developing story a changing story every hour we seem to learn new details appreciate having your insight here walid phares advisor to the antiterrorism caucus of the u.s. congress also author of the coming revolution struggle for freedom in the middle east thanks so much thank you well earlier today the house of representatives voted

to reauthorize the foreign intelligence surveillance act or face the sense of what this does it extends the government's power to warrantless wiretap americans for another five years the vote was three zero one two 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 close rule which means that no amendments were able to be offered and there's a minor issue that there's a whole lot that both we and they don't know about it a couple questions how many americans will be surveilled or how who is surveilled is determined earlier i was joined by alan butler appellate advocacy council with epic to talk more about that recent. 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 mention 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 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 that 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 the fights the way that the fight so had 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 confirming 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 a 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. and. when when does this change when can we go back to it no feisal 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 that 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 violence 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 the lack of public information here is hindering not only you know the public's understanding of the system but judicial review as well how did 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 out. 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 some capabilities have 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 and that was alan butler appellate advocacy council with epic. well when it comes to internet entities the coming to government pressure twitter seems to be

the last holdout refusing time and time again to cooperate with authorities demanding information from them but now a judge in new york says twitter must produce tweets from a protester involved in the occupy wall street movement the protesters name is malcolm harrison he was charged with disorderly conduct along with about seven hundred others for his actions on october first twenty eleven this was the day you may remember that the brooklyn bridge was blocked by the protesters it was also the day the public started paying attention to occupy wall street harrison and others say they were simply following police orders when they were led on to the bridge before being arrested now the courts are trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened twitter though is not going down without a fight they've appealed to the ruling saying harris says tweets are protected by the fourth amendment because quote the government in minutes that it cannot publicly access them thus establishing that the defendant maintains maintains a reason.