>> in terms of bahrain. think it's very important that we move ttake advantage of this situation that has developed now to get something serious going. although, the government in bahrain now may be more reluctant to do it. >> exactly >> and so we've got a negative development in north africa, in libya, and you've got a negative development in bahrain, and the situation looks very different than it did two weeks ago, which was much more promising. >> rose: the regime at that time seemed to be willing to find some common ground. >> right. >> rose: there doesn't seem to be much it interest in doing that now. let's talk about syria for a moment to put it in the equation. >> i think there are a number of what i call dogs that haven't barked yet, the countries haven't seen, and what you might expect, given where things are, in syria, the pal territories, there hasn't been much yet. i think in syria, we're seeing-- there have been a number of protests in the last 24 hours that have been met with quite quick and ma

in this program, confrontation in bahrain. protestors set up road blocks in the capital as 1,000 saudi troops enter the country, and the u.n. security council discusses a no-fly zone over libya but nothing is agreed. member states are too divided. there's been a third big explosion at the fukushima power plant in japan which was badly damaged by friday's earthquake and tsunami. a four-fold increase in radiation levels has been released into the air surrounding the plant. the prime minister said everyone within 20 kilometers of the plant should leave the area immediately. >> the bottom of the screen concerns the latest grave development, a third explosion in as many days at the stricken fukushima installation, and this time, officials fear some radiation may have leaked out. >> number 2 reactor at 6:14 a.m., there was a blast heard near the suppression pool, and the pressure began to fall in the suppression pool. we are continuing the water injection into the pressure vessels but the operators not directly engaged in this opera

navy has already begun evacuating their base in bahrain and u.s. officials have called for restraint but not chosen a side or made any mention of the saudis troops so how long can this political game pro on here to discuss it with me is christopher swift fellow at the university of virginia center for national security law professor thanks so much for joining us tonight pleasure to be back now today hillary clinton is in cairo she's touring toher square and she is talking about how wonderful this is how great the sea has come to egypt is it a little odd the ball she's touring tahrir square they're completely ignoring what's going on in pearl square or would you say she's completely ignoring what's going on and where in fact the secretary of state was interviewed about the situation in bahrain and she used the words wrong track now the words wrong track in diplomatic speak mean oh my god what are you thinking right and the concern here is that what was a domestic dispute in bahrain between the majority shia community and majority sunni lead has now

earth from bahrain but you can see that the shape majority is forced into the little five percent of this already tiny oil rich kingdom you know . the transparency that comes with the proliferation of the internet and social media has given people the fortitude in the vision to effect regime changes and rightly so and if you look at these images again you'll see that they highlight the golf courses yachts. horse tracks these are all that while palaces the many royal palaces throughout the country in the ninety five percent of the land that the royal family occupies they also highlight you know these big palaces they often ask how did he get it because according to the constitution of bahrain the the resources of the nation are the ownership of the state the state owns the resources the people own the resources but it looks like from google earth that it exposes the lie that in fact a small family occupies an owns ninety five percent of the wealth of the nation so we have these royalty of these oligarchs around the world controlling ninety five percent of the wealth of most nations or

and the peasants fight amongst each other for the little scrabble heaps of it and in fact in bahrain you have the shits are split in half one half is negotiating with the monarchy and the other half isn't you know this brings us to america wisconsin firefighter spark move your money moment. so on the day that the bill passed the wisconsin assembly effectively ending fifty years of collective bargaining in wisconsin hundreds of firefighters walked across the street from the wisconsin capitol and stood outside the marshall is leave bank m. and i bank and one by one they close their accounts and withdrew their life savings totaling approximately one hundred ninety thousand dollars so these hundreds of firemen and one hundred ninety thousand dollars now the bank itself why they were targeting a bank is this bank is one of the biggest backers of scott walker the governor and the bank received two billion dollars in tarp funds they have not paid this back the bank is about to be sold off to canada into which of course. in this transaction something will happen that they'll never have to pa

divide within islam the shia and sunni the saudi invasion and suppression of the shia majority in bahrain again highlights how sectarian differences can inflame passions and impact the geopolitical water in the arab world and how will these divisions be played out as the arab awakening continuous. can. discuss the prospects for the arab awakening i'm joined by juan cole in ann arbor he's a professor of history at the university of michigan in cairo we go to he somehow or he is a fellow at the center for research in ethnic relations at the university of warwick and in san francisco we cross to steven schwartz he is the executive director of the center for islamic pluralism and another member of our cross-talk team in the hunger all right gentlemen this is cross talk you can jump in anytime you want one can you give me your impressions what is the importance the geopolitical importance and maybe the religious importance as well of the so the saudi incursion into bahrain to suppress what people say suppressing the majority shia population in that island. well i think there are two dimensions

or is very close to bahrain separated only by a small strip of water is majority shia just as bahrain is. and overseen by a majority sunni population so that almost certainly is a major factor causing the saudis to say, you know what? we need to go in therein nip this thing in the bud. we need to snuff out any prospect for a real revolution in bahrain which could create problems for us. >> warner: now how engaged do you expect this force to become against the protesters? today there was no engagement between the two but the protests are strong and yesterday they beat back the riot police, the bahrainy riot police. could you see these gulf troops firing on bahrainy protestors? >> obviously one of the reasons that i think that the saudis decide to go in is that it is from their perspective important to demonstrate to the bahrainees that they're not going to allow this to go so far. protestors just like those in many other countries believe that their own army is unlikely to fire on them because the soldiers are of the same people. you introduce a foreign force and that element is absent

saudi arabia has sent troops into bahrain.how big a threat are the protests in bahrain for its neighbor? >> i do not think there is a big threat, but the saudis see the shiite protests as a sign of iranian influence in this country which is virtually a saudi protectorate. that is why i intervened. it is iran. it is not the shiites. >> iran is closely watching events in bahrain. the think this could draw to run into conflict? >> not for the time being. iran is preoccupied with the domestic situation and the americans are still in iraq. next year, the situation will change after the american withdrawal, and i think we will see an runyan reaction, because it is an anti-iranian move by the saudis. they think they have time. >> we seem to be witnessing gaddafi gaining control over libya again, and now this crackdown on protests in bahrain and other parts of the arab world, a crackdown on the democratic process. do you think this is an end to these democratic protests? >> it is not an end. their protests in other countries that are

from external invasion or from extra or forces trying to invade bahrain the way that they've invited the saudis on this particular occasion is really about a domestic affair so it stands to be quite dubious on legal grounds and that's something that will need to be investigated by the authorities in the region whether or not an agreement that was done for protection against external threats can be used to essentially quell a domestic dispute that there's also something to be said about you know downplaying the sectarian nature of this the the way that the opposition has been formed to them but here in even amongst the shia that are protesting at the present time are divided into different groups the largest grouping to a proper are actually looking for a constitutional monarchy as your previous guest said and there's a smaller set of groups but smaller in number that are actually calling for a republic all together to. demand that the royal family step down within the bahraini government as well there are different forces at play between the different parts of government and they don

situation radically different from what's transpired in tunisia egypt yemen bahrain qatar saudi arabia underground contraries one hundred what was happening in the arab countries has nothing to do with what is going on in libya and those countries there are peoples protest against the authorities there are people here with the mounting of the revolutionary leadership remains in implements the power of the people. david it seems those are kind of dangerous words because it looks like mr gadhafi and we were i guess we can all well imagine his regime hasn't really learned very much what's happened over the last few weeks in his country still blaming outside forces here i mean this is creating such a deadlock they don't and i agree maybe i stand corrected maybe we are on the endgame of something maybe the endgame of some what some people call rebels in in libya but the libyan people are probably probably not going to be satisfied with a rule moving forward after what forty one years and after what he's does he's done to his people his military has done and probably will do in the immediate

the final words of this purported peaceful protesters in bahrain. before he appears to be shot allegedly by buffer a new security forces since martial law was declared this week the bahraini government has crackdown on pro-democracy protesters clearing them out of pearl square where they've been demonstrating. and viral videos though the details can't be confirmed have been surfacing on the internet appearing to show police shooting protesters. point blank it's reminiscent of another uprising against an autocrat i want to address the situation in libya when images and reports of violence against protesters they could doppies hands in libya reach the u.s. we saw the president take a stand. as. early on president obama called her plans for a no fly zone over libya now here at the united nations the security council has since taken the lead on that but meanwhile the united states has already sent warships along with humanitarian aid in libya's direction it's tough economic sanctions on the country essentially freezing it out of u.s. banking systems and

bahrain? yemen?f the united states military is attacking to protect civilians in libya, why not yemen and bahrain? >> a very big part of libya has been the arab league vote to establish a no-fly zone and the coalition partners coming into play. >> what is the logic? >> in terms of -- >> other civilians being killed in other country where the u.s. has an interest. >> i think we have to be very careful to treat every country differently. certainly, there's a tremendous change going on right now throughout the middle east. including in bahrain. bahrain is a much different situation than libya. we haven't had a relationship with libya for a long, long time. the bahrainis and that country has been a critical ally for decades. we're working hard to support a peaceful resolution there as tragic as it has been. and we decry the violence that's occurred there. i just think the approach there needs to be different. >> do you think the libyans have the wherewithal to retaliate against the u.s. and its allies --

we'll be back shortly with an update on the turmoil in bahrain. this break allows your public television station to ask for your support. that support helps keep programs like ours on the air. >> ifill: for those stations not taking a pledge break, we have the story of a plant native to california that scientists thought had disappeared. the report was produced by kqed- san francisco, and is narrated by don mahoney, curator with the san francisco botanical garden society. >> manzanita has always been somewhat of a mystery. it went extinct in the wild. finding a plant has always been a holy grail. we're in the southern edge of golden gate park in the california native garden in the san francisco botanical garden. manzanitas are the iconic plant of california. there are probably roughly 50 species of manzanitas in california. in the rest of the world there are probably only two or three species. so california is the hot bed of manzanitas. we have them growing from on the beach all the way to the high sierra. in spanish manzanita means little apple.

government and to get calm and order in bahrain and help both the bahrain government and people to reachch is for the best for bahrain people. >> white house made it clear today it doesn't consider the troop movement an invasion of bahrain. spokesperson says the united states is asking the monarchy to exercise restraint. bahrain is important u.s. ally naval fleet based there. united states is also concerned that iran will exploit the instability going on. protestors deny that they are being influenced by the shi'a ruled nation. >>> suicide bomber has killed nearly 3 dozen people at army recruiting center in northern afghanistan. at least 42 people are hurt. many victims include children. taliban sent out text message to the media taking responsibility for the bombing. >>> back home. comedian lost his job quacking on tv after sending out a series of offensive tweets. >> afflack afflack. >> afflack insurance fired comedian gilbert god forehead today as voice of signature duck. godfried tweeted several joke about his the earthquake and tsunami in japan. afflack said quote gilbert recent com

bahrain, it's already in the streets.essed, and paid off by economic interest dmes dickally. but that's the crisis. you'll have leadership changes there with the aging leadership of sooner rather than later, and concern that what's happening in libya could also destabilize egypt and tunisia and what gains are being made. >> where is president obama this weekend? he's in south america. we have pictures of him arriving in brazil. a lot of questions, jim mi miklaszews miklaszewski, about the president's leadership passivity in the face of japan or libya, perhaps in the latter case that's been erased given what he's ordered here. but here he is riding out this initial weekend in brazil? he wasn't even the one to announce the beginning of hostilities. >> it's clear the white house has tried to distance itself of being in the lead of the political and diplomatic surge to send u.s. forces and a coalition into libya. but i can tell you that, in all the discussions with senior u.s. military and pentagon officials, they say that pr

government and the governments of bahrain it seems to be a strong one the u.s. has six thousand troops in the country and i know you've argued that the u.s. can stop this what's going on there and has a responsibility to what will it mean if the u.s. does not. basically means they're the ideal we believe in the ideal of democracy justice human rights self-determination sort of governance all the ideals that they were planning fathers fought for. i think somehow we just believe bill good for us and not good for. him and it means also that we value a tiny ruling family that is not more than. three thousand members all over. hundreds of thousands of people today under the threat of being basically attacked brutally by a foreign force by an occupying force and. came to a level where we allow occupation when we don't even call an occupation as an occupation you know your forces are in bahrain without the consent of the people of korea it's like you me i mean it's like we are allowing. another force come into this country and then we don't call better application we c

said anything any whispers on bahrain there. well there have been statements released on bahrain there have been statements from concerned about saudi arabian forces now in the country also statements from the human rights person at the u.n. who has said that they're very concerned about breaking international law concerned about reports of killings concerned about reports that hospitals have been taken over and about the possible human rights violations but beyond words we haven't heard much we're going to learn thanks so much for filling us in. this month an eighty six year old man who lives here in d.c. heard banging on his apartment door before he could unlock it a group of police officers knock that door down and eighty six year old robert smith with it they didn't realize they had the wrong apartment they call the ambulance first minute and apparently they never even apologized for this mistake and rape is never example of police brutality in america of excessive force where it's not needed but why do we see the media talk

violence in bahrain. do we follow the same thing that we're going to protect the protestors at any cost? >> lehrer: that's the question, is it not? >> obviously you can't intervene everywhere. you don't conclude that you interfere nowhere. you have to make a judgment. what are the circumstances? and this particular case, once it became clear that there was a significant uprising in libya and once it became clear that qaddafi was setting out to crush it and to crush it absolutely brutally, not to respond to that would not only be morally dubious but it would be politically questionable because its after effects would be felt in bahrain in yemen, perhaps even in egypt. and elsewhere. we have tunisia, algeria and so forth. remember, the arab league came out quite clearly in opposing what he was doing. so we had no choice. now how we go on from here is a difficult question. we have to define our objectives. my own gut feeling is that now that we're engaged, we have to make certain that the outcome is not a di

and conversation in bahrain. protesters set up roadblocks as 1000 at saudi troops entered the country. hello. millions in the parts of northeast japan hammered by last week's quake and tsunami have spent their fourth night without food, water, electricity, or gas. at least 500,000 people have been left homeless, but even now, much is still unknown. communications are still down in many areas. about 2000 bodies have been found washed ashore. half of them in a town that was flattened by the water. as japan struggles to deal with an emergency, fears are growing about the safety of the fukushima daiichi power plant. we have this from the edge of the nuclear exclusion zone. >> inside the plant, workers are trying to avert a nuclear catastrophe. but today, a second explosion. this time at reactor no. 3. the blast was huge. there was believed to be a buildup of hydrogen. just hours before, people living nearby were trying to leave by any means possible. this was just 3 miles from the site. those who ignored earlier warn

geopolitical importance and maybe the religious importance as well of the so the saudi incursion into bahrain to suppress what people say suppressing the majority shia population in that island. well i think there are two dimensions here one is that you had these massive demonstrations and battering the object of which was to force constitutional change the batteries ruled is an absolute monarchy there is an appointed senate an upper house there's an elected lower house of forty seats but the districts are gerrymandered so as to make sure that the shiite majority doesn't get a majority in the lower house so one of the things that is being demanded here is that the better a monarchy move towards being a constitutional monarchy observe a rule of law and allow the majority population to express itself at the polls and to live with that to live with outcome of that so that's one dimension here and i think that's the more important one than the security an issue because the. rain are not demanding a shiite government they're not demanding an overthrow of the sunni government there they're demandin

mean it's taken back a few months we have tunisia we have egypt ok then we have the crackdown in bahrain we have so the arabia suddenly disappears more or less from western media it is essentially invaded another country and shut off the protest movement there and now we have libya and mr gadhafi well a very colorful figure i can look at all of our ages here we know him quite well he's been brought into the cold and now he's back in the deep freeze here and mr gadhafi the new hitler of the region if i can use that term he's become very convenient for a lot of interests number one slow down the the reform movement the democratic reform movement in the arab world we have again western intervention in a muslim country and we have dictatorships that are saying well who had stood that the military is back to to create order where there is chaos and you know libya is the epicenter what do you think of that narrative of my being too extreme. no i don't think so at all i think that one of the reasons that obama has gone into libya is to distract people from the fact that the united states suppor

supports most of these dictators and certainly we don't want to have any sort of comparison with bahrain where we are supporting the government against the protesters and we do i mean in the military and intervention in libya here i mean there was no public debate at least in the united states very little in europe i mean i can remember all of many of the the wars all twenty three of the military interventions and wars since the collapse of the soviet union and this one there was no debate in the united states whatsoever we just woke up he said one morning and we have another military operation in the in the in the arab world i mean so they really can't even circus circumvented what bush did bush started from scratch drummed up a war and this time it was not even a media debate about it. that's right this is really unprecedented obama has built upon the usurpations of previous presidents and gone into libya without any approval from congress without any consultation really from congress and when he was running for president in two thousand and seven he said that the president has no righ

saudi arabia has sent troops into bahrain. how big a threat are the protests in bahrain for its neighbor? >> i do not think there is a big threat, but the saudis see the shiite protests as a sign of iranian influence in this country which is virtually a saudi protectorate. that is why i intervened. it is iran. it is not the shiites. >> iran is closely watching events in bahrain. the think this could draw to run into conflict? >> not for the time being. iran is preoccupied with the domestic situation and the americans are still in iraq. next year, the situation will change after the american withdrawal, and i think we will see an runyan reaction, because it is an anti-iranian move by the saudis. they think they have time. >> we seem to be witnessing gaddafi gaining control over libya again, and now this crackdown on protests in bahrain and other parts of the arab world, a crackdown on the democratic process. do you think this is an end to these democratic protests? >> it is not an end. their protests in other countries that are

the sudan over the last decade or so what about bahrain today why aren't why isn't there just a huge storm you know let's go protect these poor people they've been rising up for our freedoms looking for help lead pleading for help and no one helps them militarily no one intervenes for them but when we have a group of unknown people and i'm sorry i'm not going to let these rebels off in libya until we know who we are who they are i mean you had the mujahideen you had cos of oh you had you know because these were not nice people and we knew we knew it at the time and we knew it after the fact so and kind of what you're saying jumping in way too quick before we know what's going on so humanitarian aid is only useful when it has a geo political interest in my being too cynical no and humanitarian to even use the term humanitarian aid when you're talking about bombs is ridiculous this is not like we're sending them food or or some kind of real aid we are killing people and we're killing people on both sides we're killing libyan government troops who are defending their own country i mean