now my twitter-cot belongs to the ages. behold, i tweet. >> i know you were working on that all night. do try to improvise in the future. >> yeah. do i have to wear a hat while tweeting? >> a tweet hat? it's recommended. >> and i don't get a separate device just for tweeting, other than that hand that you described, the tweet hand? >> no, you can use it on any platform whatsoever. >> i have to get a platform? >> you need a platform and a hat. or a mortarboard hat that can serve as a platform. >> i got that when i got my degree at cornell. >> there you go. you're already serving your audience. >> i forgot my standup terminology. >> the main reason have you to twitter is because maddow is doing it. >> for a long time. 2,654 follower. >> that's very quick. isn't that fun to watch? >> it is. >> spend the whole next show watching that. >> like i really need to boost my ego at all. >> you and me both. >> john hodge man, teacher of twitter, great thanks. >> i'm glad to be able to help you. when i am your youth correspondent, you have problems. >> that's cannot can't for this the 2,544th day since the previous president declared mission accomplished in iraq. good night and good luck. now why tom coburn will ever regret calling her emotional, here with ice running through her veins, rachel maddow. good evening, rachel. >> keith, i'm simultaneously so hysterical about, you know, everything, but also very distracted because i'm trying to follow you on twitter right now and i can't get through the traffic. >> wow. well, good luck to you. >> thank you. thank you, keith. and thanks to you at home for tuning in tonight. we're coming to you tonight from orlando, florida. and we can report some new outrage over c street tonight. the outrage is coming from c street. we will try to figure out how that's possible. senator tom "c street" coburn has declared himself a hero for cutting people off of their inemployment benefits and also called me emotional for calling him out on that. an analysis is forthcoming parole vided i can hold it together. and our geekiest moment of geek ever is going to happen, all ahead this forthcoming hour. but we begin with president obama making history in prague. signing on to a landmark agreement with russian president dmitry medvedev to cut both country's nuclear arsenals. the treaty the two presidents signed today commit both us and russia to cutting the number of nuclear war heads by a third. it's the biggest nuclear arms treaty in a generation. for president obama it's also a major component of what he appears to want to be his signature foreign policy accomplishment. the reduction of the nuclear threat to both the united states and the world. the cold war is over, the threat now is nuclear terrorism and rogue states, and recognizing and neutralizing that threat has been barack obama's passion since his time in the senate. now as president he is prioritizing it. meanwhile as the president was taking on that heavy task on the world stage today, the opposition party back here at home has tried to figure out who will lead them in the next election against president obama. today was day one of the southern republican leadership conference, this year being held in new orleans. it's an all weekend long affair running through sunday. it's being billed as the most prominent republican event until the 2012 convention. newt gingrich and daughter of a former vice president liz cheney, before the weekend's over, attendees will hear speeches from almost every republican who's been mentioned even once for running for 2012, including sarah palin, bobby jindal, rick "gee your hair smells terrific" perry, tim pawlenty, lots of them. rnc chairman michael steele is also scheduled to speak. everyone very much looking forward to that. and, of course, there's a sean hannity book signing. wouldn't be complete without it. while the foreign policy work of the presidency and the political work of those who would hope to take over the presidency in the next election precedes a pace, today's headlines are a reminder that news does not always fit well on to the political axis. if you watched the second edition of this show you would have seen a very different show than our first run, which airpla aired at 9:00 p.m. as soon as we finished the first edition of our show, news broke of a disturbance on board a plane from washington, d.c., to denver. for that first hour or so, the story had a lot of worrying components. early reporting was that a man from qatar's embassy in washington tried to light a device from the plane's bathroom while it was in the air and that man was subdued by at least one u.s. air marshal. we were left with a much less dire portrait of what had actually happened on that plane, the diplomat had not been trying to light an explosive device. he didn't have an explosive device. there was no explosive device on the plane. he was apparently smoking in the plane's bathroom. he subsequently was involved in some sort of confrontation with a u.s. marshal on board of plane. that resulted in the scene we saw last night. the plane, having been surrounded by f-16s and emergency vehicles at denver international airport. by the time today's news cycle came around, the story was not only not as worrying anymore, it was almost the subject of ridicule. >> when all is said and done, authorities look at this as just a phenomenal act of stupidity? >> that's a good way to put it. a number of top officials, nobody was laughing at this joke. >> it's unclear whether or not he was joking or if there was a possible language barrier. >> that's an unfortunate language barrier if that was the case. >> a more unfortunate joke. >> smoking on a plane. >> so people like me undeterred from smoking in the bathroom, and then, you know, when i open the door and i say, hee, hee, hee, my foot was hot, you know. >> it was almost a punch line today. which was pretty much warranted by the way the news turned after those initial scary reports. then there were further new developments today. we learned why this diplomat from qatar was going to denver in the first place, to meet with a man named ali al-marri, he is also from qatar. why is this name ringing a bell? he was arrested in 2001, declared by the united states to be an enemy combatant, held without charges for more than five years before eventually being moved into the criminal justice system and pleading guilty to terrorism charges last year. he is now being held at the supermax prison in colorado. the diplomat from last night's smoking in the bathroom incident was scheduled to meet with mr. al-marri in prison at 11:00 a.m. today. there's no reason to suspect that meeting was anything other than what it was billed as. if you are an american arrested and imprisoned overseas, under the geneva convention, officials from an american consulate get to visit you. likewise, if you are a foreigner arrested in the u.s., consulate officials from your country get to visit you here. mr. al-marri specifically has been getting visits from qatari officials since the middle of last year. nevertheless, cue the political freakout in four, three, two -- yeah. joining us now is charles swift. mr. swift is a former judge advocate general and lieutenant commander in the united states navy. he represented salam hamdan. thank you so much for being here. >> i'm really glad to join you, rachel. >> in terms of what i said about the kons lar visits, on his way to visit mr. al-marri at the supermax in colorado, do all foreign-born prisoners in this country have the right to those visits? is that true everywhere? >> that is true. you got one thing wrong, the wrong treaty. it's not the geneva conventions, it's the vienna convention on kons lar, but it's also the treaty signed by the yut and ratified by the senate. and, yes, all foreign nationals, not foreign born, it's whether you're a citizen of a foreign country. >> do you agree with my characterization, although i apologize for mentioning the wrong convention, do you agree with the characterization that they are essentially normal regular and routine, this is not something that should jump out as a red flag because he was getting these visits? >> it's absolutely normal. the right has been absolutely recognized by the supreme court in several fairly historic cases in the last decade. and those visits go on around the united states every day. they also go on around the world where we visit our citizens with our konslar officers. >> one congressman suggested he pay the united states back caused by the actions by this diplomat. is there an accepted protocol for dealing with incidents like this? >> presuming, and i would assume he does, have diplomatic immunity, normally there's not a payback. what happened is the individual is recalled to their country. qatar is embarrassed. he goes home. but under diplomatic relations around the world, we give our diplomats receive immunity from prosecution, and we give that same benefit to the diplomats that come to the united states. that's what happens. >> despite the rather routine nature of these arrangements as you're describing it, today, just this afternoon, we're already seeing some sort of pundit quacker, trying to say the visit is a red flag. do you see the difference between the politics and justice issues here? because broadly speaking even people involved in politics don't really understand how detainees are treated, how prisoners are treated, how the justice system works. >> and, yes, absolutely. and this crankup of fear and other parts prevent the system from working. and it's been going on now since president obama took office, is that this constant quackery on things that are very routine and the law and handling of situations which have all been handled properly, is spun out of control. and it makes it impossible to do your job if the law and the methodologies in which we operate are constantly under attack. and we're not under attack, mind you, the procedures are under attack. >> in terms of those procedures that you think are sort of unjustly under attack, would you include among them reading miranda rights, for example, to people who are under arrest? i expect that we're going to get people attacking the idea of kons lar visits, what else would you put on that list? >> handling a criminal case in a criminal court in federal court. trying terrorists in federal criminal courts when we've been extraordinarily successful. the intelligent methodologies that work. instead we argue for a lawless regime that has absolutely no history of being effective. and all of that comes out each time when one of these situations happens. and we make a mountain out of a mole hill. while i think it was stupid to smoke in a bathroom, what happens afterwards is extraordinarily absurd. >> charles swift is a former judge advocate attorney and lieutenant commander in the united states navy. mr. swift, thank you very much for your time tonight. appreciate it. >> you're very welcome. if you were a congressman paying way below market rent for a swanky d.c. apartment and you were paying that way below market rent because your rent was subsidized by a secretive religious group, would you step up and defend your insultingly low rent and claim you're being victimized by anybody asking you about it? you might, and in one case, you just did. details next with our friend jeff charlotte. our garage. if you're shopping for a new car, we invite you to put us to the test. and may the best car win. that keep you cool and dry have now inspired stayfree® to create a whole new level of comfort when it comes to your period. only stayfree® ultra thins have thermocontrol™. designed with the comfort of athletic fabrics in mind, stayfree® with thermocontrol™ quickly wicks moisture away for exceptional dryness. so you stay incredibly comfortable no matter where your day takes you. stay dry. stay cool. with thermocontrol™ only from stayfree®. it's another thing to back it up. the chevy 5-year/100,000 mile transferable powertrain warranty. with roadside assistance and courtesy transportation, it's the best coverage in america. in the world according to senator tom coburn, he is a courageous hero for cutting off benefits for unemployed people and i have made him out to be a demon, just because i'm so emotional i can't keep myself from making hysterical accusations based purely on emotion. the cold, coming up. national car rental? that's my choice. because with national, i roll past the counter... and choose any car in the aisle. choosing your own car? now that's a good call. go national. go like a pro. mayo's always saying how real it is. we agree. it's real... boring. ♪ are you up for some sandwich-kicking flavor? are you miracle whip? as we've reported, the ethics watch dog crew filed a complaint with the ethics committee against sam brownback of kansas, tom coburn of oklahoma, jim demint of south carolina, john ensign of nevada. also republican congressman zach wamp and health schuler, bart stupak and doyle. the allegation is all of these men paid or are still paying below market rates for their housing in washington. reportedly $600 a month in 2002 and also reportedly $950 a month last year. all these men live or have lived at c street, a 12-bedroom, nine bathroom town house with housekeeping services and meal services available. it's run by a secretive christian organization known as the family. this ethics filing has led to a bunch of local press coverage in these politicians' hometown newspapers. and one of the targeted congressmen is now lashing out. congressman jerry moran is quoted today, telling a student who asked him about c street that any complaints about him living at c street are rooted in, quote, a national effort to exclude matters of faith by public servants. he added that, quote, i don't think that my interest in studying the bible with other colleagues of mine in congress ought to be seen as anything but good, or at least personal. agreed. one's interest in studying anything, including the bible, is emphatically personal. but no one's complaining about jerry moran's bible studying. the complaint is about his rent. about the evidence that he is an elected official, getting his rent subsidized and he's not reporting that subsidy either as income to the irs or as a gift, like he's supposed to as congress. it's not religion at i issue it is ethics and money. the threat that's at the root of ethics and money, corruption. bible study away, congressman. who's paying your rent? in his own defense, he tried to downplay his living circumstances, quote, i have a small bedroom and a bath i share with other people. he also says his rent is market based, not subsidized, and he says he brought his own bed with him to c street. as to the merit of his claim that he is paying what anyone else living in a 12 bedroom nine bathroom town house with housekeeping and meal services would pay, as to the merit of that claim, let's turn to someone who has actually been inside the house on c street, jeff charlotte, author of "the family." jeff, nice to see you again. thanks for joining us. >> hi, rachel. good to talk to you. >> i assume that you haven't been, and i haven't been, neither of us have been in representative moran's bedroom. but from what you've seen and what you've been able to report about the facilities at c street, do you believe that he and these other members of congress were really paying market based rent? >> oh, absolutely not. it's a beautiful place, and in fact, you go in there, as you mention there's maid service, there's a cook, they're hosting diplomatic meetings there. they're not bringing in ambassadors to sit on jerry moran's box spring. it's a luxury place. the fact is they know that. if you go back in 2002, lewis sheldon, christian right leader, said a lot of congressmen don't have $1500 to pay for rent, to c street does that for them. for those who are members of the fellowship, it provides this subsidized housing. >> when we talked to senator coburn's office about this, his spokesman defended the rent situation for senator coburn by saying he hasn't received subsidized rent, he pays more than $10,000 a year for a room and bathroom only. that works out to like 830 bucks a month, still incredibly cheap for a room in a fancy town house with meals and housekeeping. but other people who lived at c street or who live there now keep saying this. it's just this room. i just have this one room there. is it your understanding they have access to awl the common space of this giant mansion too? >> yeah. there's a big, beautiful big screen tv down in the main common space, there's a beautiful dining room used for hosting formal banquets, there's a lovely breakfast nook, also used as a conference room. there's a beautiful kitchen. it's really a space that almost doubles as a conference center. and also doubles, frankly, as a hangout for washington congressman zach wamp, said this is the place to hang out, talk policy, watch sports. i recently spoke to a young woman, a young evangelical woman, thought she was going to do an internship in washington, found herself recruited into c street and turning down sheets for john ensign and she said it really sort of galled her that it wasn't just those congressmen, it was also people like oliver north hanging around and she was expected to be at their beck and call. >> and just to be clear, people who think they're getting internships are providing essentially maid services at no cost to the members of congress for maintaining these facilities that they live in? >> sure. and there's men who are part of the family who live at the house where i lived for a while called ivan walt, when i went over there. i was told my job was to be there as a servant for these congressmen. so, you know, whether tom coburn is paying $800 or twice that, that's the best bargain in washington. >> finally, jeff, briefly, any reaction from anybody in the family that you can report as to this complaint by crew, the complaint to the irs by these clergy members in ohio who are upset about the tax stat us and ethical status of these members of congress living there? >> very puzzling reaction. i managed to get tim koh, i wanted to talk to him about the complaint, get his perspective and represent him fairly. his first response was he didn't know them from adam, then said he did try to talk to them, despite the foundation's official response is they have nothing to do with c street. then he said he decided they were crazy because they expected him to apparently abide by some standard of transparency, to allow a reporter in the room for that conversation, and he said that's just crazy, that he should be expected to be publicly accountable. >> while he's subsidizing the rent of members of congress. jeff sharlet, author of "the family," thank you so much for your time, and your just invaluable reporting on this, jeff. really appreciate it. >> thank you, rachel. so yesterday one of the leading c streeters, senator tom coburn of oklahoma, went after me out of the blue and accused me of being overly emotional. and, of course, he's right. i am a hysterically flighty girl, and i couldn't even finish my segment about him last night. i had a good cry, a pint of haagen-dazs, i will try to hold it together. no promises on the crying thing. this one is. ♪ new purefitness... from crystal light. ♪ the first fitness drink with no artificial sweeteners, flavors, or preservatives. ♪ new purefitness... from crystal light. a pure way to water your body. ze from crystal light. harb somewhere in america... the slightest breeze harbors immense power. the tallest buildings leave the lightest footprints. a fifty-ton train makes barely a mark on the environment. and a country facing climate change finds climate solutions. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. ah! silver one. that's not a volkswagen. ♪ [ tires screech ] ♪ [ sighs ] ♪ that's two for doubting. [ chuckles ] you hit like my sister. really? i'd like to meet her. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen cc. award-winning design starting under $28,000. it's a whole new volkswagen, and a whole new game. across the country tonight, hundreds of thousands of americans who are out of work will be going to bed lying awake, wondering how to put food on the table and take care of themselves and their families. how to pay the mortgage or the rent, now that they're not only unemployed but their unemployment benefits have been unexpectedly cut. it's not just a nice thing to do, it's one of the most stimulative things the government can spend money on. with a horribly high unemployment rate and a lot of families and people in desperate need now, keeping unemployment benefits going is a no-brainer. even top republicans have pledged their party is in favor of extending unemployment benefits. but it turns out they're really not. republican senator jim bunning, single handedly stopped the extension of unemployment benefits last month, at one point yelling on the floor of the senate, tough -- that ends in "it" and starts with shh. now it's tom coburn of oklahoma. for close to three weeks now, mr. coburn has objected to the senate passing and extension of unemployment benefits. he has done so with the ostensibly principled basis that these benefits are not explicitly paid for. >> i'm going to stand up every time, we must pay for it, rather than charge it to our children. >> we must pay for it, rather than charge it to our children. that is the hill that senator coburn is planting his flag on right now. he told the hill newspaper that he would object not just to unemployment benefits but to every future spending measure, that isn't, in his words, paid for. which is neat. and would be totally principled, if not for senator coburn's history of voting for plenty of things that aren't paid for. in 2005, for example, mr. coburn had no problem voting in favor of an emergency war separate mental by that directed $82 billion unpaid for dollars toward the ongoing wars in iraq and afghanistan. perhaps sensing the hypocrisy in that, senator coburn has more recently tried to explain away that vote by saying, well, he was new to the senate then at that time. >> well, that was, i think it was the first year i was here. but go look at who hadn't. i've not voted for one since, because it wasn't paid for. >> i've not voted for one since. not voted for one since. except for that other one he voted for. mr. coburn also voted for the emergency war supplemental bill in 2006, which is also a multi billion dollar bill that was not paid for. see? there it is. coburn, r, oklahoma. yea. he also voted for the bank bailout. he voted for tax cuts that just got tacked on to the deficit without offsets. he has done this a lot. earlier in the year when voting on pay as you go rules, the concept he says he supports of not spending without offsetting the spending except in emergencies, senator, everything must be paid for coburn voted no on that. senator, everything must be paid for, voted no on the legislation that requires stuff to be paid for. so when senator coburn says he is blocking unemployment benefits or blocking funldsing for wounded veterans care givers like he did last year, or anything else he now says he's going to block, not because he wants to block those things but because of his unyielding principle that he won't vote for anything that isn't paid for, when he says that, he doesn't really mean it. he's voted for plenty that wasn't paid for. but the senator has not let that hypocritical record get in the way of feeling great about himself for standing on his fake principles. he told the hill newspaper about himself yesterday, quote, the easiest thing in the world is to pass this bill unpaid for. but consider the millions of americans whose financial futures would be damaged versus the relatively small amount of people who will be affected by this delay. now, you tell me which vote takes the most courage. here's a hint. if you're complimenting yourself on your own courage, something else might be at work here other than just your sheer, selfless humbled bravery. last summer, you may recall, his house mate, senator john ensign admitted to having an extramarital affair with his staffer's wife, who was also his staffer. you may also recall senator coburn got wrapped up right in the midof that whole thing because of allegations that he secretly helped negotiate a cash payoff. essentially hush money to be paid by john ensign to the mistress and her family. at the time, mr. coburn categorically denied doing any such thing. he told reporters, quote, i never made any assessment of paying anybody anything. those are untruths. those are absolute untruths. that was mr. coburn's official line. until he finally decided to come clean to the "new york times" a few months later. acknowledging to the "times" in october that he was in fact mr. ensign's affair intermediary despite his vee amendment self-righteous categorical denials of that. senator coburn was in fact the personal negotiator for senator ensign and the hush money discussions with the mistress's lawyer. in fact, mr. coburn is the one who personally rejected an $8.5 million request from the mistress' lawyer describing it as ridiculous. despite being up to his eyeballs in the classy, classy details of this deal by a married sitting senator to pay off his secret mistress who he was still sleeping with at the time, senator coburn found it in his heart to cast himself again as the upstanding heroic man of virtue who no one should dare question about his involvement in what he definitely was involved in. he told reporters in july, quote, i was counseling senator ensign as a physician and as an ordained deacon. that is privileged communication that i will never reveal to anybody. not to the ethics committee. not to a court of law. not to anybody. it's heroic, right? tom coburn providing mistress payoff haggling services in his capacity as a deacon. in providing object at the time cal and gynecologic advice to john ensign, bravely refusing to disclose anything on those. he about faced on that too. he told "the new york times" how stupid ensign had been and how his judgment had been impaired by his arrogance. so much for never disclosing anything to anybody. mr. coburn's time living at c street has also put him at the center of an ethics and irs complaint concerning that house. it alleges that c street residents like senator coburn have been receiving way below market value, subsidized rent for a long time now. instead of paying about $4,000 a month, which seems to be the going rate for the kinds of digs and kinds of services that c street residents receive, they've only reportedly been paying $950 a month. a spokesman for senator coburn confirming to us that he pays not much more than $10,000 per year. which would be about $833 per month. senator spokesman's statement to us is that he pays more than $10,000 a year. now, perhaps as a result of all of our questions about this, senator coburn has now gone out of the blue after me, gone after the way that i have talked about him and these problems on this show. mr. coburn told the website thedailycaller, look at rachel maddow. she comes at me on the basis of emotion. she demonizes me. i don't want conservatives to win if they operate on the level -- we hurt ourselves and our arguments. i am historically histrionic. he is so calm, so cool. so even keeled. >> i can't tell you how worried i am about what this bill is going to do to my senior patients. i have a message for you. you're going to die soon. what the american people want to pray is that somebody can't make the vote tonight. that's what they ought to pray. >> i have been known to burst into tears randomly just for fun. but senator coburn is the guy urging people to pray that a fellow senator might die or at least be incapacitated ahead of the health reform vote last summer, last december. before that we heard him telling seniors that they're going to die if health reform passes. during the senate confirmation hearing for supreme court jeef chief justice john roberts in 2005, senator coburn, who again now accuses me of being too emotional, managed to pick his head up from the crossword puzzle he was working on during the hearing, long enough to give this assessment of our current politics. >> when i ponder our country and its greatness, its weaknesses, its potential, my heart aches for less divisiveness. less polarization. less finger pointing. less bitterness. less mindless partisanship. which at times sounds almost hateful to the ear of americans. >> noble sentiment. hard to take from the guy who prays for fellow senators to die ahead of votes and tells seniors they're going to die because of health reform. senator, i understand you are an emotional guy. i don't begrudge you that. i actually sort of admire that. but i think you might be projecting here. i don't feel at all emotional about you. i just want to know how you can stop people's desperately needed unemployment benefits by claiming a moral high ground principle of not voting for things that aren't paid for when you voted for plenty of things that aren't paid for. i want to know, senator, who pays your rent. if you just live in this humble one bedroom and one bathroom, i want to know what room you were sitting in at c street when you were john ensign's financial negotiator for secretly paying off his mistress. it's not personal, senator. i feel no emotion about it. i am reporting on your record. and this is what that feels like. she needs: omnaris. (troops) omnaris! to the nose. (general) omnaris works differently than many other allergy medications. omnaris fights nasal allergy symptoms that occur from allergic inflammation... relieve those symptoms with omnaris. side effects may include headache, nosebleed and sore throat. her nose is at ease. we have lift off. (general) remember omnaris! ask your doctor. in the battle against nasal allergy symptoms, omnaris combats the cause. with my buddy mike, who is a terrible, terrible dancer. he's actually right behind... what up, mike? hey, dude! [ laughs ] yeah, this is how he dances. uhhh! [ laughs ] it's, uh, haunting. anyway, while i was away, the e-trade machine... thanks, martha. ...worked its technomagic, triggered my stop loss orders, saved me a pantload! [ pilot ] please fasten your seatbelts. dad? no, mike, that's the pilot. he's making an announcement! dad? ugh. [ male announcer ] upgrade to first class investing technology at e-trade. that's right, 97%. which means you can talk, text, email or go online from almost anywhere. so whether you're in portland, oregon, or portland, maine... washington, d.c., or seattle, washington, or somewhere in between, at&t has the coverage you need. hopefully that sheds a little light on the subject. ♪ a man in texas has been indicted and charged with possession of an illegal firearm or destructive device. the destructive device in this case was allegedly a bomb. his name is larry eugene north. he's suspected of planting 36 explosive devices in mailboxes in east texas. the last ten of which were pipe bombs. thankfully no one was injury injured in any of these incidents. on the morning of april 7th, 2010 mr. north was observed placing such a device in a collection mailbox. a search of his vehicle revealed an additional destructive device. an agent told the associate press said he was motivated but enspecified anger with the government. this follows the arrests of people who have been threatening house speaker nancy pelosi, senator patty murray and house republican whip eric cantor, not to mention the arrest of nine members of the michigan hutaree, who plotted to kill a law enforcement officer and wage war on the u.s. government. the judge in mr. north's case has ordered a psychiatric evaluation. we will stay on this story for you. [ tires screech ] ♪ [ sighs ] ♪ that's two for doubting. [ chuckles ] you hit like my sister. really? i'd like to meet her. [ male announcer ] the volkswagen cc. award-winning design starting under $28,000. it's a whole new volkswagen, and a whole new game. - sure, cake or pie? - pie. - apple or cherry? - cherry. oil or cream? oil or cream? cream. some use hydrogenated oil. reddi-wip uses real dairy cream. nothing's more real than reddi-wip. somewhere in america... the slightest breeze harbors immense power. the tallest buildings leave the lightest footprints. a fifty-ton train makes barely a mark on the environment. and a country facing climate change finds climate solutions. somewhere in america, we've already answered some of the nation's toughest questions. and the over sixty thousand people of siemens are ready to do it again. siemens. answers. like 100% whole grain, the way triscuit does, you always end up with something delicious. ♪ triscuit. weave some goodness. tonight's moment of geek is so geeky that even geeks are likely to say, dude, that's some geeky geekiness. we will actually be discussing the periodic table of elements. the periodic table. the periodic table, yes! it's coming up. has gingko for memory and concentration. plus support for heart health. ( crowd roars ) that's a great call. one a day men's. so, at national, i go right past the counter... and you get to choose any car in the aisle. choose any car? you cannot be serious! okay. seriously, you choose. go national. go like a pro. less than a week after hurricane katrina struck the city of new orleans on sunday morning, september 4th, 2005, an nbc news camera crew was on a bridge over the industrial canal when they heard something on the next bridge over. police officers in a rental truck not marked as a police vehicle, firing their weapons at something. impossible to tell what from this news crew's vantage point. within hours new orleans police were giving their version of events. they said a gang of armed men shot at police first and police had returned fire. a very different story emerged later. the people on the dan zinger bridge that day were unarmed, crossing the bridge apparently to try to find food and a safe place to stay, as their city drowned. but a police call came in saying officers were being shot at on this bridge. they weren't, but seven officers responded to that call. and when the smoke cleared two, civilians were dead, four wounded. none of the victims were armed. one of the seven officers there pled guilty to help cover up those shootings. he is the third officer in the past month to plead guilty covering up with what happened on those shootings on the bridge. a coverup that involved a planted gun, falsified police reports, phony witnesses and lying to a state grand jury. in the course of entering his guilty plea, prosecutors revealed michael hunter's -- they revealed his chilling account of what happened after the police began firing. according to the account, quote, defend hunter saw several civilians who appeared to be unarmed injured and subdued. sergeant a suddenly leaned over the concrete barrier, held out his assault rifle and in a sweeping motion fired repeatedly at the civilians lying wounded on the ground. the indictment describes what happened when officer hunter and sergeant a drove to the other side of the bridge in pursuit of three men running away from the scene. one of the men was a severely mentally disabled man named ronald madison. officer hunter's account continues as follows. officer a, without warning, fired a shotgun at ronald madison's back as madison ran away. as ronald madison lay dying on the pavement, sergeant a ran down the bridge toward ronald and asked an officer if ronald was one of them. when the officer applied in the affirmative, sergeant a began kicking or stomping ronald mad son with his foot. he was 40 years old and later died, as did 19 year old james brazette. all were wounded on the bridge that day. murder charges were brought in this case initially. they were dropped in 2008. there is now some speculation those murder charges may resurface. travis macle has been covering the story of the shooting since 2005. he's an investigative reporter with nbc's new orleans affiliate wdsu. he's also a new orleans native. thank you very much for joining us. >> thanks for having me, rachel. >> what's the broad context of what was happening on the bridge that day? how many people were on the bridge that day? what do we know about what they were doing? >> well, it seems right now that they were trying to get out of new orleans. we all know that new orleans was under water. conditions were not good. times were dire. this is when communication was completely cut off. this is just a couple of days after the storm. it's believed now that these people were just looking for a dry place, a safe place to go, possibly air lift or a ride out of the city of new orleans. it was painted in a different light in these police reports. in the police reports, officers initially said that the people on the bridge were armed and were firing at them. now, defense attorneys for the police officers involved in this still stand by that story. they stand by the fact that these officers had to retaliate because they were fired at first. but as you just pointed out, several officers have now flipped and are working with the government saying that they falsified their report and that a lot of what happened on that bridge was made up to protect these officers who are in their own words out of line. >> well, what was the source of the reported police call that officers were being shot at on that bridge? has that ever been cleared up? and has it ever been proven that officers were ever shot at? >> you know, it's unknown at that point. obviously defense attorneys for the officers, they were offic n danzinger seven -- michael hunt has since pleaded guilty. the other maintain they have done nothing wrong. as for the police call, there's a lot of questions on how this call came in. it came in as officers in jeopardy, shot fired. i know you've been showing the video. it says officers jumped into the truck. officers didn't have a lot of easy ways to get around. they were commandeering anything they could get. from that video, they started shooting. they say they were fired at first. like i said, police reports say they were fired at first. now the court documents that have been revealed prove a different story and tell a different story, as these officers are now starting to plead guilty and work with the government in admitting they falsified the police reports and that these civilians were, in fact, unarmed. >> travis, it's not just that the story is changing, it is that we are learning about this cover-up. it was an elaborate cover-up. planting evidence and fake witnesses being invented. with so much effort put into this cover-up effort, why did it fall apart? how did it start to fall apart? >> the feds started looking at it. i think they started squeezing a lot of people. they really started asking some hard, difficult questions. a lot of things didn't add up you. you know, we should point out that two other officers, mike loman and jeff lerman pled guilty. they had late night meetings so they could get stories straight to tell prosecutors to make sure it was above board and make sure these officers were protecting their jobs with what these officers say was not the case. these three officers who have since pled guilty. there are a lot of questions. but the case started to fall apart when federal prosecutors started digging into this. >> i understand one of the victims' -- brother of the 40-year-old man who was killed, was arrested in new orleans in connection with this shooting. what happened in this case? >> he was initially arrested at the scene for attempted murder of police officers. in fact, that turned out not to be true. those charges were later dropped. it turns out his brother was the mentally handicapped man who unfortunately was killed that day on the bridge. it seems like they were trying to get help in getting out of the city of new orleans. those charges against mr. madison have been dropped. you talk about the fact that the powers of the city of new orleans are handling this. a lot of people in new orleans are shocked. they have can't believe this is going on. new orleans is a city that sometimes has distrust in its police department. this only lends itself to that. they have 1,500 police are, the bulk of them law-abiding cops. it gives a black eye. most people in the city of new orleans feel to the entire police department. >> thank you very much for your reporting on this. appreciate your time. coming up you on "countdown" keith finally and properly jinz tw joins twitter. hey, mayor white. how you doing? great. come on in. would you like to see our new police department? yeah, all right. this way. and here it is. completely networked. so, anything happening, suz? she's all good. oh, my gosh. is that my car? 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[ female announcer ] people with stomach ulcers or other conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, may affect how plavix works. tell your doctor all the medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. ♪ could open a world of wonder ? ♪ ♪ so sensory ♪ so satisfying ♪ the discovery ♪ never seems to stop ♪ ♪ it's the magic friskies ♪ ♪ makes happen ♪ every day ♪ in so many ways ♪ friskies ♪ feed the senses that was the pizza guy! and baby, he was messy. come on. you said you bought a digiorno. but the pizza came with cheesy breadsticks. breadsticks? i guess there was a pizza guy. yes there was... me. ( laughs ) new digiorno pizza & breadsticks. unbelievable fresh-baked taste, now with a full order of soft, cheesy breadsticks. taste. believe. it's not delivery. it's digiorno pizza & breadsticks. she found the box. maybe 'cause you left it right on the counter. tonight's moment of geek is about this. in case it's not totally clear, it is a tattoo of the periodic table of elements, the chart that hangs in every high school lab and on every high school textbook. there is the famous song about the periodic table which we found last week, hidden inside the ipad version of the periodic table. ♪ >> tom lehrer may have to add another verse or two. this guy with the tattoo clearly got that since 1959. even he may be headed back to the