daily beast the intelligence gathered was from a conference call between more than twenty high level al qaeda operatives you heard me right a conference call between al qaeda. it's crazy but think about it a lot of the revelation of the n.s.a. spying on every line of communication on the planet doesn't make total sense that terrorists would use conference call dot com to plot the next big terrorist attack but i kid but if you already think this is ridiculous just wait because it gets even better because according to one official the terrorist call was quote like a meeting of the legion of doom you know the cartoon group of villains who fight the justice league so now the government's comparing al-qaeda to cartoon villains book even if this cartoon call actually happened one day when the government leaked this to the press member edward snowden edward snowden was charged with espionage for the leaking information about the n.s.a. is dragnet surveillance program why because the government said they would expose

how the n.s.a. conduct surveillance of potential terrorists thereby crippling efforts to fight terrorism so by that logic the government's creating espionage against themselves if this work reality is giving you a headache to join me and let's break this that. i . know it seems like every day i'm hearing about another case of police overstepping their authority if you a quick update on the most recent cases of agree just abuse nationwide. yes there are many other options the officer has a subdue a suspect other than using deadly force but even though the cop has so called other non-lethal methods to apprehend suspects oftentimes it's these tactics that are abuse the most and this was a story about a whole different array of different people who were victimized by police so not

jump to the end so i'm going to talk about one of them the case of israel hernandez an eighteen year old honor student an artist who was caught spray painting an old store front when police confronted hernandez he did what most teenagers would probably do when he ran so officers proceeded to use a taser gun on him to make the arrest yesterday and as lay on the ground what is to say that officers were celebrating their catch with high fives but hernandez never got up and soon after he was pronounced dead. a report from the medical examiner's office still pending on how the taser actually killed the young teenager but one thing remains clear that is how this young man died and it's far from an isolated incident they so you recently reported that at least five hundred and forty one taser related deaths have occurred since two thousand and one it's a stat that should make us reconsider how overuse these so-called non-lethal weapons really are really though whether it be a taser or gun this is about the need for trigger happy cops to face accountability

and no not a democrat demotion or paid leave i'm talking about actually serving hard jail time because killing someone while dressed in blue shouldn't tell you about the law. ever seen anything like. the civil war tearing syria apart is being labeled by many as the worst humanitarian crisis of the twenty first century the conflict has officially reached over one hundred thousand dead since the violence broke out over two years ago resulting in millions of syrian refugees moreover syria's geographic and political fortunes has also caused an international standoff between global powers and regional alliances so her talk more about syria the potential for u.s. involvement in another war and the need for cooler heads to prevail i'm joined by antiwar activist organizer with the answer coalition. i thank you so much for

having you so much eugene you didn't get an update about where syria's civil war stands right now because it seems like every day more is escalating on the ground well certainly the war as well it could be escalating it's been a bit of a stalemate recently we saw that yesterday one of the primary rebel groups the free syrian army claimed a victory in aleppo the government is also claiming victory so it certainly seems that what we saw a few months ago where the government was able to turn the tide against the rebels which seemed they were sort of marching inexorably towards big. that stabilization has continued with the government at least apparently having the upper hand in the rebels occasionally being able to get certain victories but not changing the strategic equation but with many people of course as you mentioned continuing today . and i think when we hear the term rebels and the government really understand all of the different rebel factions there are so many can you break down a little bit about what these factions are which faction is the most prominent amongst the rebel forces of course well yes it is very confusing because the free syrian army which is what the united states consistently says they're supporting it sort of the primary rebel army as it were is really

a collection of different types of fighters that have you know a variety of different things some that are affiliated with political parties and religious movements like the muslim brotherhood some that are based on neighborhood region where this city there are also some that are just sort of generally secular cobbled together in different ways and then on the other hand in sort of the most effective form of fighters which everyone is has put forward or groups like. the islamic state of syria and which are some people call them salafi groups some people call them jihad as groups but i believe it's a little bit of a slur towards the muslim people but nevertheless that are drawn from this mill you have individuals that support this hardline interpretation of islam and that have drawn in a number of foreign fighters from around the world libya egypt tunisia afghanistan russia all over who have the same philosophy and they sort of have taken a very critical role and have been called by even the united states is the most effective fighting force and in june we heard obama say that we are viciously declaring arm the rebels of course we know that by proxy they've been armed by the

us for a long long time what does that mean i mean what stage is the armenian right now can you give us a little sense of what that actually entails and certainly well the united states they're trying to sort of keep a wrap on it but what they have been saying when they said they're officially arming the rebels is that they were sending a large amount of quote unquote small arms rifles that sort of thing as well as things that have been flowing in from europe and sort of through europe and america the gulf states shoulder to shoulder fired rockets that can take out tanks or be used against. and things of that nature so it's still primarily sort of a small arms kind of thing i mean they're not sending them you know huge large missiles but it's huge hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of tons of this type of equipment plus the so-called non-lethal aid which includes communications equipment and all of us know in the twenty first century particularly on the battlefield those who have the communications and electronic advantage are often able to gain the upper hand so even though it's called non-lethal it's used to coordinate the war effort well you know as you mentioned of course we know that very radical islamic groups are fighting alongside the rebels people have called them al qaeda

that's unquestionable how is the u.s. making sure that these arms are not getting in the hands of these groups well they are making sure i mean they're just saying that they're making sure and they are setting up these bases in turkey and jordan that are run by cia agents that are supposed to be vetting quote unquote vetting individuals but as has been shown through a number of different media stories and reporters in the area arms are flowing that are coming from the united states and are coming from the west are flowing to these these organizations and these groups that are affiliated even by the united states government saying that they are affiliated with al qaeda and the war effort is really intensely intertwined we just saw the rebels claim a major victory by taking over an airbase in aleppo now that was a joint operation of the free syrian army and other so-called al-qaeda forces who played one of the biggest key roles and so we see that the united states is claiming that they're differentiating but really they're just trying to pour as many arms into the conflict zone as they can to attempt to overthrow the assad regime which has been the stated desire of the u.s. government for some time regime change in syria why and i think this all begs the

question why because when people look at the syria situation and they look at the rest of the war on terror when they see the u.s. pouring billions if not trillions over the course of the last decade to fight al qaeda worldwide yet sponsor al qaeda in syria what is with syria why what is this end goal here that the u.s. has been you know certainly well you know is geostrategic i mean what we basically see in syria and we have to take the long view i mean. united states has targeted iraq iran which they have not overthrown and now syria and so clearly the united states is trying to target any sort of independent nationalistic regime that isn't totally pliant and compliant with the united states and the western nations in this crucial region of the world which obviously contains a significant amount of oil it's the world's crossroads a very important area the united states doesn't want any government in there that they basically can control or at least at key moments pressure to do the things they want them to do so starting with the war in iraq the united states has been marching on in the middle east attempting to eliminate these independent

nationalist regimes and they were hoping to do so in syria just by fomenting a civil war and that strategy has been unsuccessful raid and of course that using the chemical weapons even as a justification is a bizarre considering how we use chemical weapons frequently why is chemical weapons a justification to invade and occupy a sovereign nation is beyond me eugene what will happen if the rebels do defeat assad what can we expect to see in the country and then what i think what we should expect to see is something that have something similar to what happened in libya with the country basically splinters apart while all these factions fighting each other for supremacy some small turf battles some larger battles for broader control over oil rigs and things like that i think will certainly break out and also if we see as we've seen in libya or will start to flow out of syria all over the rest of the world really significantly destabilize things and accelerate other conflicts so i think if we were to see the rebels win it wouldn't just be a clean cut victory where some great new government with been established itself

and right because we've seen that rock in libya exactly what you have. there and i want to mention really quickly cia deputy director michael morrell said it would be a huge win for al qaeda and like you just said where these weapons and to go they're obviously to get hands of people we don't necessarily want them to also on top of that the chemical arsenal you know they claim to have would be up for grabs that's according to morrell with russia giving aid to assad regime with the u.s. giving aid to the. rubbles what do you think's going to happen now that russia has granted snowden asylum due there's going to fact already a very tense relationship on the ground in syria between these two superpowers oh i think most definitely i mean i think what we've seen despite the whole conversation about a reset of relations with russia the united states is not pursuing a strategy of detente as it were and the russians of course i mean they have different interest in this conflict and i think the asylum given to snowden just adds to the syria issue and a number of other sort of geo strategic linchpins where the two sides disagree so i think certainly this will continue and the snowden issue to degrade relations

between the two countries particularly since the united states congress and the republican party which have such a bellicose attitude towards russia continue to push and push and push on the obama administration to demonize and isolate russia or attempt to at least i think the situation is really hard for a lot of people who look at syria and say oh my god it's a humanitarian crisis it's horrifying how many people have died how many people lost their lives for this geo political chess game what can people do to help the people of syria without investing in either side of this military battle well certainly people and i'm sure they're already doing it to invest in humanitarian efforts within the independent groups but i think by and large people here in the united states in particular need to start standing up and standing up aggressively against these attempts by the united states to intervene in the affairs of other nations i mean it was the united states were really the gulf states under the umbrella in the aegis of the united states and other western countries that poured arms into syria and turning this into a terrible violent civil war real morass of desperation and ultimately it's these

broader the broader impulse lying behind these policies the desire to push these core geo strategic interests no matter what the cost to the people of any particular region that we have to stand up against we have to fight against to give the syrian people and other people a chance to reclaim their own future and destiny because if we don't we can almost be sure to expect the same thing that's happened iraq libya all these countries we really need to stand up against the military industrial complex and their takeover of the planet thank you so much organizer for the answer coalition always happy to be here. you. don't go away you guys when we come back we'll fill you in on everything alec and i for you to anniversary convention in chicago.

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today i'd like to wish a happy birthday to an organization that's contributed so much to humanity called alec the american legislative exchange council and when i say contribute i actually mean destroy because of the course of its existence the group has crafted some of the most damaging legislation on the books side with the infamous stand your ground as an act of law in florida that allows for the use of deadly for. self defense has produced some of the most controversial murder acquittals this nation has ever seen but that's just a snippet of the destructive laws alec has sponsored over the years the organization has also made its name by pushing voter suppression laws some of these bills include restricted id requirements flashing down early voting hours you residency restrictions and even more roadblocks for mass voter registrations but all of that comes as little surprise if you know who whole way rich is co-founder of alec check out what he had to say about voting back in one thousand eight

hundred. how many of our questions have what i call vote goosen grown good government they want everybody to vote. i don't want everybody to vote elections are not won by a majority of people they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now as a matter of fact our leverage in the elections why can't it like goes up populist goes down. gee that's a comforting thought apparently it's not about voter turn out it's about voter turn down and if you one of the most important principles of a democracy but it's not just voters have been under attack by this organization it's workers and the alec is credited with introducing more than one hundred anti worker bills in thirty one different states in just the last two years alone these bills are aimed at crushing unions weakening overtime pay and blocking local governments from passing the laws that increase the minimum wage so you see our

cars had quite the list of accomplishments and right now they're celebrating all of them at the organization's fortieth annual conference in chicago so to gain some insight on what's actually taking place behind closed doors and why you and i should compare i spoke earlier with someone who's there right now brendan fisher general counsel at the center for media and democracy i first asked him to explain what's going down at this year's conference. this is alex fortieth anniversary staved were founded in one thousand seventy three have been holding several meetings per year every year since then for the past four decades this meeting is dangerous cargo which is actually where they were initially found it and. this is the east of the meetings where the to work gets done where corporations come together with state legislators to push an agenda to promote model bills that benefit the corporate bottom line to legislators take them out for meals take in

the lavish parties and really promote the corporate control over state law and policy that we've seen for for decades and let's talk about that that's fear of control sphere of influence your organization the center for media and democracy just released a report that identifies four hundred sixty six alick bills introduced in two thousand and thirteen alone talk about the sphere of influence organization really wields sure so we we did. did release a new report today we found four hundred sixty six bills introduced in aid to cross the country and really in just the first six months of twenty thirteen just the first half of two thousand and thirteen which is a fairly astounding number when you get down to it and this is not actually even all of the alec model bills that have been introduced we looked at four separate areas the alec education bill the alec tort reform bills the worker's rights bills and the alec environmental bills. and we know that we missed some and the numbers

are actually probably much much higher but what these bills do when you look at them in the aggregate is you really can see the extent of corporate influence over law and policy in many cases these bills are being introduced by legislators without giving any indication that the bills came from alec or that the bills were initially drafted by corporate interests or voted on by corporate interests and that they benefit the the corporate bottom line if you're in the state and the bills are getting introduced and passed into law in many cases you would have no idea that they're part of this broader right wing agenda being coordinated in many cases at these meetings that the meeting that's happening right now in chicago. in many cases do you would realize that alec is ninety percent corporate funded that almost all of its funding comes from the corporate members that stand to benefit from the introduction of this of this model legislation and right now don't huge problem i want you to actually go over some examples of some of the most alarming bills that we. sure joe i think one of them with alarming is the what alan calls

the electricity freedom act this is a bill to repeal the renewable portfolio standard most states have these standards on the books they require that utility companies provide a certain percentage of electricity or energy from renewable sources and they slowly ramp up ramp up the percentage has to be have to be provided by rituals over over time. the renewable portfolio standard have been enormously successful both in . demand for new levels and also spring investment creating new green jobs even mean even in deep breath deep red states these standards have been really successful but this affects the profits of alex polluter members like coke into your peabody energy or the coal industry so alan has been putting a lot of effort into getting this electricity freedom act introduced and passed into law they spend a lot of resources on it twenty thirteen but they were unsuccessful you win in north carolina which as i think most of your most of your of viewers probably know

has been a conduit for the elec agenda in terms of voting rights in terms of workers' rights right terms of they are going with a lot of the moral mondays almost a thousand arrests so far just in that state it's astounding now you mention alex funding is ninety percent corporate what kind of corporations are we talking about here sure well you know that so that bill that i mentioned actually did not pass in north carolina which was shocking and which is a good indication of really just how extreme it is so alec is really upping this this push this at this meeting deciding to try around to to repeal renewable portfolio standard so alex funding comes from in many cases it comes from the same members that are going to benefit from the passage of the electricity pritam act or other efforts to repeal renewable portfolio standard. aleksey presented itself of the membership organization of membership be counted among members of both legislators and private sector members but the legislators pay just fifty dollars a year to join corporations pay tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars

a year to join alec join a task force a sponsor meetings sponsor workshops and act as legislators and push their agenda and in many cases to legislators who are attending these meetings are doing so on the corporate dime they're getting the travel expenses paid for by the corporations that stand to benefit from debt from these same legislators introducing model legislation. so that you can really see these these these payments of travel expenses. is and hotel rooms and slates to be to be almost a bribe as a as a payment in exchange for advancing out agenda in exchange for a dent in the corporate the corporate agenda yes and and of course operating as a five a one c three nonprofit and by extension abbott charity of course they can get away with this insane lobbying effort really is a lobbying organization the kind of the guys that's something else let's talk about what they're doing now i mean more people of course are starting to learn about al

experiment in the wake of trayvon martin's stand your ground laws are they taking any measures to become even more secretive and there have been yeah absolutely when you mention there are charity which means that all of these tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars that are being paid to join alec and access legislators that's actually a tax write off so we as taxpayers are essentially subsidizing. corporations to lobby and access legislators through alec it's really very much a very it's really quite the scheme their charitable status has been challenge three very credible complaints we filed a supplemental letter this this week noting that they're underreporting to gifts that they're providing to legislators. but could you repeat that last part of the question again i'm going to add now i read that they're actually taking more measures to try to hide the legislative process of the bills and public documents that people can access yeah that's that's absolutely right so this is alex fortieth anniversary which means that dave existed for four decades for the most part

without anyone really noticing and that change in two thousand and eleven when a whistleblower came to the organized organization i work with the center for media and democracy with over eight hundred of alex previously secret model bills and with those bills you could begin to connect the dots begin to recognize just how much influence alec has had over or a lot of policy for a really long time. and how it has not done well in the sunlight they have not responded well to the sort of transparency or forty nine. major corporations have dropped their alec membership in the past year alec is very much become a liability for a lot of the legislative members and as we've seen with the protests outside today a lot of people are really unhappy once it by what alec is and how it operates. so we've seen a lot of new renewed efforts to remain secret to continue operating in the dark. so in addition to just a secret the secretive nature of these meetings press are not allowed inside i know a number of reporters who try getting press credentials out of this meeting and

they were they were turned away there were a few is. they've also begun stamping their documents with a disclaimer asserting immunity from every state's open records law they're claiming that they don't need to abide by the oil law is the freedom of information laws that every state that most states have enacted to make make sure that legislators are acting on behalf of their constituents that they're acting in an accountable and transparent way legislators attend these meetings in their official capacity they're attending as legislators not as private individuals so everything that's going out of these meetings should be public record and you really think they'll run and i can't believe that they're doing that you know to sum it up we have about thirty seconds left but where can people find out more about how to stop alec sure so we are suing over over this open records issue but you can buy more on our website n.p.r. watched or p r w a t c h dot org and alex those dot org a l e c e x.

pos e d dot org thank you so much for being out there today reporting from the front lines of the spy brandon fisher general counsel at the center for media democracy thanks for your time that to travel me. so as you heard him four hundred sixty six bills have been introduced this year no think about it for one second alex has been in existence for forty years just imagine how much influence it's had over the policies that determine the way you and i live and what's most scary is that it's being done in secret and at the guise of some innocuous charities that the majority of americans don't even know what's really happening and that's why we need to keep a critical eye on alec and never stop question that's a real motives you guys up for the show today thank you so much for watching and don't forget to join me all over again to break to that tomorrow have a great night and then follow me on twitter you guys out in march if you want to

see what i'm doing when i'm not on the show have a great night. a little.

this is a. sit. and like colleagues and i will never shake mr so i just feel his hands i considered him a war criminal and the police took. it out of a. little

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for your media project a free media. shock and a free. brutal attacks on kurdish civilians in syria. what's happening in the ethnic enclaves and now plagued by radical ists. foreign and defense ministers from russia and the us to search for a solution to the syrian violence and the first meeting since the diplomatic. relations. and the roots the arab spring we look at the ongoing democratic struggle for stability in the arab world more than two yes' after the uprisings.