need to mention syria, because human rights activists are saying at least 17 civilians were killed in a prodemocracy rally that was held today. this is just one day after the president warning against more violence by the assad government. what does this do to what s currently going on with our relationship? reporter: it s a good demonstration of how little influence, really, the white house, the u.s. has over syria and president assad. unlike egypt, where there was a longstanding and really close relationship between the u.s. and the egyptian military. so the u.s. and the president felt confident in saying, you know, that mubarak had to go, or in it libya, for example, when the president said moammar gadhafi had to go, that was an easy call, because nato was behind these military operations. and quite frankly, the tripoli, the gadhafi libyan military just doesn t stand up against nato and u.s. military forces.
and spare at least one threatened illinois town. the move would flood missouri farmland. missouri s attorney general is asking the u.s. supreme court to review a federal court ruling that gave officials permission to blow up that levee. we head now overseas where the libyan government says a nato air strike has killed one of moammar gadhafi s sons, 29-year-old saif al arab. it says three of gadhafi s grandchild also died. a nato official says airplanes targeted a command and control facility but he says there is no evidence to support the claim that gadhafi s son or grandchildren were killed. the violence in syria is starting to drive some of the people out of their country there. president beshear al asad s government has been cracking down on prodemocracy demonstrators. hundreds of syrians have crossed the border into turkey. there are also reports of syrian refugees crossing into lebanon.
it seems so far to be going in an okay direction. jon: you ve got the egyptian military essentially in charge of things right now and for the foreseeable future. the question is will there be an islamist government in egypt? that s right, that s the elephant in the room and what people are concerned about, that egypt will either align itself with iran or replicate an iranian style theocracy which would be a bad development. the islamists are very unlikely to win any elections scheduled for this fall. they are planning to take advantage of disappointment and mailaise, to use the tools of democracy to destroy democracy. we need a policy to undermine islamists and help the prodemocracy forces and head that off.
depart refrained from openly calling for regime change. it has got a total of six shows. one of them called towards change. it s a bold electronic stroke in a country where the regime has the media in a strongle hold. we spoke to the chief editor. it s pro democracy. it is a sensitive subject. promotes democratic awareness
why do you think no one caught this before. i think people people have the expectation. you go into barnes and noble and you buy a book in the non-fiction section you have an expectation that it s actually true, you know? in this case it turned out to be not the case. there are thousands of authors who do stick to the truth. all right. peter, thank you so much. we appreciate your perspective on this. a prodemocracy tv channel from london into syria now. we re investigating its ties to the united states. president obama s tax return, it is now public. we re going to find out what s behind the substantial change in his income. and funerals and protests in syria where opposition groups say that government required help. nice. a consumers digest best buy three years in a row.