coming up on r t the debate on capitol hill continues over a potential u.s. strike on syria this while the war torn nation of syria remains in a growing state of chaos the latest updates up ahead also the california state senate overwhelmingly boats to reject indefinite detention and meantime the highest court in the nation is considering hearing a lawsuit challenging the n.b.a. a complete update coming out. all. college students at one new york city university are saying no way to military recruiters and former high ranking military officers on their campus and more about events cuny and today show.

it's wednesday september fourth four pm in washington d.c. i'm sam sax and you're watching our team and we begin in stockholm sweden where today president obama was asked to again make the case for military strikes in syria could you describe the dynamic to be a nobel peace price winner and getting ready to attack syria i would refer you to the speech that i gave. when i received the nobel prize. and i think i started the speech by saying that compared to previous recipients i was certainly not worthy. the question though that all of us face not just me. our citizens face not just political leaders is at what point do we say we

need to confront. actions that are violating our common humanity meanwhile the president's plans for congress to approve military strikes are unraveling on tuesday night the senate foreign relations committee released its strapped of an authorization for force in syria it narrows the much broader authorization submitted to congress by the white house over the weekend senate's plan imposes a sixty day limit on any military operations in syria and it explicitly for bed's deployment of u.s. troops on the ground in syria and just within the hour the senate foreign relations committee passed their resolution in a ten to seven vote the next step is to piece together sixty votes in the full senate to move the resolute resolution forward and hold a full vote on it next week but then it goes to the house of representatives where its prospects are dim or today the house foreign relations committee staged hearing

number two on syria summoning secretary of state john kerry defense secretary chuck hagel and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff general martin dempsey to the hill for the second day in a row to make that case for u.s. intervention and these john kerry faced off against skeptical lawmakers. this will not stop the butchering in the killing that takes place over there so what is the purpose what is the endgame here where is the imminent danger to the united states i have spoken to hundreds of constituents this represents about three hundred e-mails that moffat's has got and not a one not a one member in my district in south carolina or the e-mails of people that have contacted my office they go to syria and fight this regime so far most members of the house of representatives who have taken a stance on syria are opposed to military strikes so where is all of this headed in our military strikes really the appropriate response to alleged breaches of

international law or discuss this i am joined by stephen schlesinger political commentator and author of the book act of creation the founding of the united nations stephen welcome to the show thank you for having me now i want to sort off by playing a clip of what senator rand paul told r.t. yesterday about how he thinks congress is getting duped by the white house take a look part of the problem here though is in my biggest complain about it is you know i want to be proud of the president for bringing this forward but then they say well they won't adamantly say they're going to adhere to congressional verdict so is the vote just feed or is it just pretend and that's a pretty important thing if the president wants credit for believing in current question authority and coming forward with us he needs to say yes the binding absolutely i would never go to war if i lose the vote but it's telling that they're not willing to say that we think stephen do you think this is all theater in a way. no i think that the president genuinely wants the support of congress

because he's on a sticky wicket i mean frankly the american people don't support action on syria he doesn't have the support of the united nations the arab league is lukewarm nato has been silent so congress is the only kind of stable institution which could give him some sort of legal authority for what he's doing but there will be a real dilemma if he doesn't get that congressional vote in support of his action today the president said he didn't come up with the red line that the world came up with a red line when it signed on to for example the chemical weapons convention and other treaties so really what is an appropriate response when nations violate these conventions is it a military strike. listen i think he's genuine in being concerned about enforcing the issue of chemical weapons and the so-called international norm it's just that this is the wrong place and the wrong time to enforce it we don't want to get

involved in a civil war in syria which has no end no relationship to our national security so this is not the right place to do it as it is the middle east is a tinderbox it's a bug it's already exploding if americans. endorse a missile strike in the way that the president has outlined we're going to have tremendous kind of outburst of a man and a americanism throughout that region and we just can't afford any more turmoil that is going to afflict that area and also our foreign policy well what do you make of arguments that have been made by secretary of state kerry and secretary of defense hagel that if we don't respond to these actions that it will embolden future bow doctors to use similar weapons which will threaten the national security interest of the united states and other allies around the world you know when ronald reagan

lost one hundred thirty seven marines in lebanon back in one thousand nine hundred two he withdrew them right away he did not talk about enforcing. norms of that sort because he did not see that as an act of weakness on the american it's on the side of the american presidency he saw that as a tactical measure to sustain our national interests over the long run if the president simply changes his mind or says the so-called red line that he drew last year no longer applies today because circumstances have changed i think people will accept that i don't think they will hold out against them and i don't think they were regarded the presidency is necessarily a weak one given the administration has previously demanded that assad must go. plus the initial very broad authorization for force that they submitted to congress over the weekend and if you include the calls from senator mccain that there should be more authority to bolster the opposition is it fair to assume that this goes

beyond chemical weapons and that this is more about tilting the balance in the syrian civil war in favor of the opposition not according to the president the president says this is going to be a kind of neutral strike simply to punish the syrian government for the use of chemical weapons but in fact this is the danger once you send those missiles in let's say the effect is immediate and it does require a lot of activity by the syrian government you that yet you are then going to have voices in this country saying well let's complete the job let's wipe the regime out it's tottering at this point or on the contrary if it doesn't work if in fact it doesn't stop assad from using chemical weapons in the future we're going to have further demands at this country to send more missiles in and finally send ground troops in in order to enforce the norm so either way it's a loser in my in my estimation right or it's

a precarious situation where we're moving into trying to walk the line of punishing punishing the assad government for using this and also not getting involved in this sort of civil war in toppling the government but we're out of time stephen schlesinger political commentator and author of act of creation thank you thank you and while the rhetorical fights on capitol hill continue the actual bloody fighting continues on the streets of syria what is the latest on the civil war there as power players around the world consider consider intervening on their own large he is one of the few news networks with a reporter on the ground in syria we go there now for the latest from artie's marina. those who come this evening to this huge mountain just outside damascus quote themselves as human shields that's often america's president barack obama said the u.s. should take a military response to what's going on in syria they chose this year in mountains

because it tastes as a symbol of damascus and of syria as well but also because it is a very important place strategically it's home to many security chimichurri buildings that situation as it is expected to be targeted these people don't know actually as the rest of the population is about is the entire international community don't know since no one knows if the missiles will strike but they say failed state till it's needed. to be. whipped up to some of these people that say that they are different ages different backgrounds and social status they have actually have little in common except for one thing that unites them and that is their will to demonstrate to show their anger at the plan of the current state strike their country and raiding their banners we can understand actually that they want to send.

students who are here to show this we belong to syria this country is strong because of its people and its leadership not of the great subtlety of resistance not ignore the fact we express our loyalty to my country my thanks to the american threats who probably don't want what they did in the rocker but the chemical weapons claims to be done and i ask them to other people to get us here tonight joey. said that even if they miss out start slowly to. reform shall cease from the masses syria. their one word we've heard use. by the president again and again when discussing military options in syria is the word proportional as in there needs to be a proportional response to syrian president bashar al assad's alleged use of chemical weapons but what exactly does a proportional u.s. response mean especially when syria hasn't actually attacked the us artie's lives

wall with more. over one hundred thousand dead and the bloody syrian civil war a chemical attack blamed on the assad government appears to be a rad line the military plan that has been developed by our joint chiefs and that i believe is appropriate is proportional it is limited in this case the administration sees proportional as limited intervention through airstrikes no boots on the ground with the goal of deterring assad from using chemical weapons regime change according to the administration is not the goal if i say is arrogant enough and i would say foolish enough to retaliate to the consequences of his own criminal activity. the united states and our allies have ample ways to make him regret that decision the call for action in syria comes two years after

a multi-state military intervention in libya the united states and british forces fired dozens of cruise missiles at the north african country coalition forces and force a no fly zone this all in an effort to crack down on libyan leader moammar gadhafi there's some things that a no fly zone can do. in terms of air traffic. and things that it can't do in terms of low low flying helicopter. activity for example the operation aided the rebels and destroyed key targets here libyan rebels rest in the bed of the ousted leader's palace international intervention lasted until the gruesome death of the longtime libyan leader oh oh oh oh oh oh oh oh. oh oh oh in addition to libya the calls for military involvement in syria have prompted fears of another ordeal like iraq but full fledged invasion

lasted for nearly a decade resulted in hundreds of thousands of iraqi deaths and over four thousand american deaths well past conflicts show that military intervention is not a guarantee for peace and democracy the world has seen that when intervention adds violence remains a part of daily life as the country struggles to pick up the pieces it's perhaps why most u.s. citizens now are weary of getting involved in another conflict and washington live all are taking now only some news regarding indefinite detention this week the california state senate unanimously voted thirty seven to zero to reject the federal government's indefinite detention powers as prescribed by the national defense authorization act. nearly two years ago. the measure reads quote it is the policy of this state to refuse to provide material support for or to participate in

any way with the implementation within the state of any federal law that purports to authors or authorize indefinite detention of a person within california it was previously passed by the california state assembly as well ultimately if the measure is signed into law by california governor jerry brown it would make it very difficult for the federal government to use its indefinite detention powers at least in the state of california elsewhere the main plaintiffs in a long legal battle against the n.b.a.'s indefinite detention provision are planning to file paperwork in the coming days to have their case heard before the united states supreme court this would be the last remaining legal challenge available to critics of indefinite detention after a u.s. court of appeals ruled last year that plaintiffs alok standing to challenge the wall joining me now for the latest on this fight tangerine bolen founder of revolution truth in a plaintive in this and a case tangerine welcome and let's start in california assuming governor brown

signs this measure into law how effective might it be incurred tailing the government's indefinite detention powers especially if other states passed similar legislation. well it's a great question and i have a two part answer the first is it's back to just in that all these groups have come together to buy this and and congress is taking it seriously so. you know i think that helps move move us down to the end go a little closer to really be n.d.a. it's also full of loopholes and this most significantly loophole that i saw was an over reliance on corpus a.b.s. caresses a measure of last resort so it can be indefinitely detained and help for a long time before the government actually honors he vs corpus that could be ten fifteen twenty years so it's kind of meaning less and the issue with the n.c.a.a. is the suspension of due process all of our rights not just against forcing corpus . it's going to end at well let's move on to the other avenue that you guys are sort of working here and that is asking the supreme court to hear your case what

are you hoping to hear from the high court in response. well first of all that they take the case they don't have to you know it's a little bit worrisome because as we've seen the judiciary even all the way up to the supreme court has tended to defer to the executive on it while we're in this endless war on terror so they don't have to take a case they could say that this is all settled this is the international laws of war and this is what congress decided we're not touching it we have obviously they do take a cave and that they take these constitutional issues seriously there were two issues we brought forth of births and amendments again their free speech freedom of association and due process we raised really significant really pertinent questions all along the road as you know last year rewind and even go kills court agreed that we raise very very tricky questions so that the supreme court ought to take this case many lawsuits against the government spying on americans have been tossed out after courts ruled that they didn't have standing since they couldn't prove they

were actually spied on that's now changed in light of n.s.a. revelations we'll probably see a lot more lawsuits can't come out what new information may come to light what sort of action might be taken by the government that could help your case and give plaintiffs against the n.d.a. standing at the appeals court so that they didn't have. you know that's such a great question and i'm glad you asked it as you know i had chris that is also was part of the clapper case one of the journalists that ailes and they lost on standing grounds precisely what you described they couldn't prove that they were being spied on well now we can't so you know it's a roundabout thing but this can affect our case positively and that the government can't quite so easily squirm out of this and say well you can't prove anything so you have no standing in our case it's really really absurd we were denied standing because you have to be indefinitely detained before we could have standing well sometimes it definitely detained that there secretly you know most often secretly arrested and there are there are held secretly somewhere we don't know where they are deny access to an attorney no phone calls to family or friends and it's legal

now to hold them for as long as this government wishes there's no way that you can find those people so you know absurdities abound and hopefully we're going to continue to get judges like judge katherine katherine forest who really can see this all out assault on the u.s. constitution and start to roll it back leon from state governments to the supreme court to now congress which is working on a new n.b.a. right now is there an opportunity during that process to rein in these powers what should people know during this coming to. well you know there are several senators senators and congressmen and women who are really fighting to rope a spot but their operatives are being rejected at every turn people and by the democrat democratic and republican parties are holding them there in their tracks and rejecting the amendment so i totally apply my friends and colleagues who are fighting this in the in congress just like they do those who are fighting health

warning and state why no vacation efforts and i think what needs to happen though is every one of us sort of has this that carries here we need you know and it's broken institutions broken due to judiciary whatnot and politics whatnot so we need to fight on every france and the congressional fight matters but right now is looking rather pessimistic it will should be an interesting few months ahead those ten dream bolen founder of revolutionary revolution truth and in india a plaintive thank you thank you what's going on at cuny the city university of new york in light of the recent hiring of retired or retired general david petraeus and a new center named after colin powell as well as the return of army r o t c to campus for the first time since one nine hundred seventy one students there are thinking that the military industrial complex has wrapped its tentacles around their school and that they're there he even for intellectual education is turning hyper militarized students held demonstrations expressing their discontent with

military brass fires and the return of the r.t.c. . it's a sign of the military's this unit cuny because this is not only does it come in the midst of. the appointment of david petraeus. the renaming of the c.c.n.y. building to the call in college and. the presence of military recruiters in various military contracts a cuny this is just all part of the push to make uni. more. fertile ground for recruitment for working class students to fight imperialist war i was joined earlier by another cuny student worried about the military station of a school vasco i began by asking him what he thinks is behind the recent embrace of america's military at his school. well i think it's time to recruit more people

more officers cuny you know historically as a working class institution there's been many many i mean right now majority people you know personalities people of color of from the new york city community as well as international students i mean for the most the majority overall and right now it seems that with the u.s. with the u.s. empire in the klein they want you know they want to be they need they need more people and in especially in recruiting in cuny it's more getting officers right people come out of college can become officers you know than have a college degree or people struggling with student. i think those things could this go beyond just recruiting i mean in recent decades we've seen schools become bastions of for example new liberal economics kind of right wing economics we've seen very wealthy businessman invest huge amounts of money in universities and have control little bit over the curriculum in the one nine hundred seventy s.

the chamber of commerce employed a strategy to have more business friendly faculty installed on university campuses it was all about changing the way the next generation thinks about business you see that going on with changing the way the next generation thinks about our military. most definitely most the from them glad you brought that up i mean right now i mean focus on the military aspects of that but i agree with you hundred percent it's more than that it's a lot more than just recruiting people who has to do with the business aspect i mean the new liberalization i mean to me was free for a long time in its inception and seventy sixty started to implement a wishing since then and especially i mean the ended open admissions in the ninety's and since then especially now with the increase in tuition i mean a protest by a few years ago in two thousand and eleven but i mean the new liberalization of the university is prevalent i mean cuny i think all over the united states with charter schools i mean most of the public high schools a lot of them are being you know many high schools that were under funded are. you know over then called failing relabel that failing after they won the funded and

then i'm not they have charter schools. and at the collegiate level in cuny they have you know massive amounts of like me a little grew near liberalization they have to pass the ways initiative which on the one hand it helps transfer credits which does help students but on the other hand and for a large part like you said they centralized the curriculum you know and i think you need this is mrs clinton going to be controlled nobody administration and thus the board of trustees the board just these are you know for the most the wrong cuny and for the most part they're financier's. a lot of universities and this is just to push back a little bit universities across the country employ former military they allow are o.t.c. on campus is the only difference here that we're talking about a very high profile military like general petraeus like center named after general powell i mean is it the fact that there's are such high profile names that are drawing a lot more attention to the story than it would to other universities definitely

definitely i mean what they're doing is like on the one hand they want to you know the shifting people need to become the new officers right to kuney along with you know in high school is having the new grunts right there is this the many high school recruiters i schools who want to bring in people like david petraeus they rename is not just the sensor by the way is not just a sensor by the way it's it's now. the school it's the other social science the vision in city college has become the colin powell school. so they're definitely promoting these figures i mean. friends they see college he's the example what they want for you know the students they want this is a person grew up working class and then you know became one of the figureheads for us imperialism you know they put you know. similarly also and you know immigrant came here and moved up to the ranks a lot of universities there are

a breeding ground for defense technologies that are used by the military do you think that's an appropriate role for universities to play this part in warfare research we have just about a minute left. definitely not definitely not i mean why are they working cuny revolutionary student coordinating committee that is our goal not just to see the institution but we also want to change the content of an educate education because most of the sciences are going to you know researching drone warfare new military science rather than doing making you know giving science i hope people just isn't this just real quick last few seconds what are you asking q need to do in response to your protests you want cuny number one to kick out david petraeus. give it of our own c.c. as well and we want the board of trustees to step down and we want to go on to be ran by the faculty the students and of course the community dr vass crys a member of the committee you're going to militarization of cutie thank you thanks

a lot and that will do it for now i'm sam sachs and we'll see you back here at five pm. i know c.n.n. and the. fox news have taken some lots lately but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close it's like. it's because once politicians and the mainstream media work side by side. you actually. we have a different. because the news of the world just is not this funny. because.

of the jokes will handle them. they were ready to do anything for their country to leave. the country more than yourself. they were in the hands of the state now. remembering the past. however good people. are good people. silent. but would prefer not to be sometimes i feel like. i should have died over there are. the photos. i saw of some people who died and. there is

cheaper than.

lipping .