terrorists game on - anonymous threats, a full-scale digital assault. >> you were threatened with rape, murder, your husband was threatened. >> did you see the threats - they said who, what, why, where. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was central. destroy the woman critiquing them. >> "america tonight"s adam may, how the open forum of the internet created a backlash against those that dared to speak up tuning in - research that could mean a break through for children with early signs of autism. michael oku on the effort to reach into their world and break the silence before it's too late. good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. what the c.i.a. did in response to 9/11 as we learnt from the senate report is nothing short of shocking. the brutality described in the hundreds of pages far worse, the lives far more serious than anyone suspected. not only that, but the bitter truth, the report concludes, is that the torture was pointless, it did not stop a single plot and while the c.i.a. claims it helped to track down osama bin laden, in the end it produced little of value. we begin with al jazeera contributor lindsay moran, who is a former c.i.a. officer on what led the agency down a tortuous path. >> we have to work the dark side, spend time in the shadios in the intelligent world >> reporter: it was that remark by dick cheney, made after the 9/11 attacks that came to define how the bush administration would conduct the war on terror. at the time the notion of going to the dark side raised few eyebrows. with the wreckage at the world trade center smouldering, few americans were in the mood to ask questions. >> after 9/11, the country was in a fog after the scope of al qaeda's threat. >> reporter: bruce has been a critic of the detainee policy. >> we have an al-qaeda group attacking the united states of america. we'll get them, we'll crush them. that was captured in part by president bush's statement in the aftermath of the attacks that you are either with us or against us. >> less than a month after 9/11, the war in afghanistan started. looking for a place to imprison captured taliban and al qaeda fighters, the bush administration settled on the u.s. military base at guantanamo bay, cuba. >> guantanamo bay has a curious legal status, it's not part of the sovereign territory of the united states. the idea was if we are detaining prisoners on territory that is not sovereign in the united states, our federal judges wouldn't be able to issue a writ of hapius corpus. >> reporter: it's like a legal no man's land. >> a twilight zone. >> reporter: gitmo was seen as secretive and out of the way, an ideal place to integrate terrorists. the first arrived in january 2002. donald rumsfeld made a visit to the base. >> al qaeda is not a country, they are a terror network. it would be a misunderstanding of the geneva convention if one considered al qaeda a terrorist network to be an army. >> rumsfeld's view that the detainees were not entitled to the protection afforded prisoners of war is ratified by the department of justice, and by the white house. that was the first of several major decisions, which many believed led to the abuse and torture of detainees. in december 2002 the bush administration made another big decision regarding the detainees. secretary rums felled authorised -- rumsfeld authorised several methods. at the bottom of the memo he questions why making the detainees stand in stress positions was off limits saying "i stand eight to 10 hours a day." in question detainees the c.i.a. used confinement in a box, sleep depravation and waterboarding, a technique in which the subject is made to feel that they are drawn. the self-professed architect of inch was water boarded 183 teems. another al qaeda operative was water boarded 83 times. >> these enhanced interrogation techniques were modelled after what the chinese used in the korean war to elicit false confessions. it shows you the craziness that happened after 9/11. >> so what kind of twisted legal manoeuvring took place within the bush administration that ultimately led to a justification of the enhanced interrogation techniques and methods? >> well, you need to begin with the base lines, that we had laws that prohibited torture. the intent of the enhanced interrogation techniques isn't to inflilent harm and suffering, it's to get an answer to a question. >> in 2003, the culture at gitmo made its way overseas. late that year, the general travelled to iraq. there he began to train the soldiers running the abu ghraib prison. bagram air base in afghanistan was another prison where detainees were held, sometimes with fatal results. >> right now there are eight known cases of deaths of detainees in afghanistan. all the cases are being investigated or have been investigated to some degree or another. nonetheless, the harsh treatment of the detainees went largely unnoticed. that is, until april 2004. >> it was this picture and dozens of others that prompted an investigation by the u.s. army. >> it was '60 minutes", and the "new yorker magazine", that probing the image of abu ghraib. images of american soldiers abusing detainees horrified the world. here is another it 'em from -- item from 2004. it's an email about what was seen: facing a backlash president bush was forced to defend his administration against accusations of torture, not just at abu ghraib and gitmo, but cia black sites around the world. >> when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on america, you bet we're going to detain them. and you bet we are going to question them. >> in 2006 bush issued an order allowing the c.i.a. to continue using many harsh methods, including waterboarding. >> in january 2009. in a first act of president, president obama signed an order to ban the use of torture and close the guantanamo bay prison. today the prison continues to operate. still holding 136 detainees. >> lindsay rejoins us on the set. given your experience in the c.i.a. and what you saw in the report, does anything you saw here surprise you? >> nothing surprises me. i have to say i was a little saddened by some aspects when dianne fienstein was giving the executive summary. she refers to a number of c.i.a. officers who voiced questions about the programme. >> concerns. >> concerns, questions, evocation, and indicated that all of those concerns were kind of swept under the carpet. they were silent. it brought me back to a time, to what it's like to work for that organization. i left the agency in 2003. >> so right in the midst of all that. >> right in the midst. >> i was not privy to details of what was going on at guantanamo, beyond what was talked about in hushed tones in the hallways, and, you know, i remember a friend telling me so and so is back from guantanamo, and bragging about what we are doing to the guys down there. i remember thinking i'm glad i'm on my way out of here. >> let's talk about this. former senior integrator in both iraq wars and you've been an terrorism officer, you understand and have been concerned and critical about the programs. i guess that the pursuant of this is after everything we have learnt about the programmes, did they work? >> well, that's - i think this report lays out graphically that it doesn't work. if they do, it's sporadic and unreliable. it's morally reprehensible. there'd have to be an operational relevance to go there. the fact that the brutality and the ipp effectiveness had been hidden is inexcusable. we see that interrogation is a tough thing, a tactic. we've got to be hard, it may have to be brutal. does it go against what we believe to think that there's any way to do this, except to be as hard on the bad guys, or as hard as possible. >> all the hand wringing at the agency about the release of this summary - while they said it was because they were afraid it would put c.i.a. operatives or agents at risk, i think it was that it debunked this life boat that they've been clinging to that this was effective. we had to do this, we had to do this to keep americans safe. and the summary suggests that no, we didn't have to do it. a colossal waste of time. degrading our standing in the world. what is going to happen now? >> we need to move interrogation into the 21st century. this is the opportunity to do so. >> what will it take to do that? >> that's an excellent question. we spend billions on intelligence and imagery. one thing said is that interrogations - it is essential to security. let's spend 5-10 million on research, to understand and remind our craft. >> if the senior leader of i.s.i.l. is picked up today. what kind of interrogation will he get. >> my suggestion is you talk to mark fallon, bob mc-fallon and others, who have done that, they tabbed to terrorist over and over effectively, and never once threatened them. >> and gotten answers. >> and got the information. the fact that they got information is well documented because all those people are in prison. >> i think the american public has been sold on a mythical idea that there's detainee who has some kind of ticking time bomb information, and in order to get that out of him, you have to torture him. and it's - it's farcical. it's unrealistic. a large part of the american public brought into that. that's in part because the c.i.a. made that case for many years. as a human collector of intelligence, you are not trained to integrate. we are trained to get more bees with honey, to make friends with people, build will bonds. it has been proved to be an effective way of getting someone to give you what you want. >> to underscore the point both of you have worked in intelligence. we appreciate you both being with us. thank you both very much when we return, the ground shifts to the big one... >> we have known for decades that these buildings need to be retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do something about it is much more difficult. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on southern california, fault lines and shaking sense into l.a.'s leaders about getting ready for a worst case scenario later in the hour - head games. a plea for moderation, and why that provoked a fiercer backlash against the women targeted by gamer gangs. the city of angels sits on shaky ground, that part is well-known. now los angeles is set to embark on a huge project to shore up thousands of buildings, fragile water and communication lines millions will need when the next big one comes. that's the plan. l.a.'s mayor has not identified where the millions needed will come from. as "america tonight"s michael oku reports it will be a massive under taking, in a region that last saw its last major quake 20 years ago. >> i felt a giant picked up my house, ripped it out of the earth and shook it. >> reporter: in the pre-dawn headquarters of january 17th, 1934, susan and her family woke up to a nightmare. a large quake more powerful than anyway the southern californian native experienced. >> my husband grabbed my daughter, we went to leave the house and tried to get out of the front door. so much had fallen, that we couldn't escape. >> reporter: when the shaking stopped, 57 people were dead. property damage exceeded $20 billion, making the northridge earthquake one of the deadliest and most expensive in u.s. history. >> you can see we had to take it down to the frame of the house. >> reporter: aslin's family lost their dream home and spent the next six months living in the driveway. some fared worse, including one man who committed suicide. 20 years on, memories haunt this woman, but they believe the county is not prepared for a big quake if it strikes. the devastation massive, given the fault lines that carve the region. their main concern older buildings not yet upgraded to withstand a violent quake. among them so-called soft-story structures that lack sheer walls at their base. mid rise steel buildings with poor welding or concrete structures like these. >> we expect to see some of these buildings just collapse. >> tom heaton is the director of the earthquake engineering research center at the california institute of technology. >> if it was in the day time people would be in the offices and not many would survive. there are literally hundreds of buildings out there that could collapse in that case. >> earlier this year heaton co-authored a study using computer models to indicate how buildings would perform in moderate motions. >> buildings with concrete columns and no walls at all - there's plenty of them - those are the ones we are worried about. >> what you are saying is hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting residents might live in homes that are highly susceptibility to a major earthquake now. >> i think it's correct. we have known for decades that the buildings need to be retrofitt retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do something about it is difficult. how much of the details to believe here is still being debated. >> by some estimates, a strong earthquake could level between 6-10,000 soft story structures alone, threatening tens of thousands of people. we are not just talking about ordinary residential and office buildings. dozens of l.a.'s prominent structures are in jeopardy, from the icons off hollywood. to some of the towers that line the myer abbingle mile. -- miracle mile. after years of inia city -- inertia city officials are waking up thanks to media and research released around the 20th anniversary of northridge. in january eric gar setty, mayor, tapped seismologi [s] [t] lucy gowns to prepare the second largest city for a meeting with the big one. >> i wouldn't call it denial that we have quakes. they are inevitable. they don't get what that means. >> reporter: known as the earthquake lady, jones has the task of identifying l.a.'s critical infrastructural risks and marching resources to fix them. >> reporter: with so much to be done, what are the priorities? >> you can't live or run a business without water. lose of it is bad. >> reporter: joan says that the four main aqueducts that feedwater into los angeles cross a major fault line and are likely to break in a large quake. it could take between 12-18 months to repair the aqueducts, leaving millions dependent on whatever reserves are available. >> if you look back in time, it took san francisco 40 years to get back to the level of economic activity in 1905, after the 190 # earthquake. >> to be clear, you are saying that an earthquake in southern calve today could destroy the economy? >> it could, yes. it could take it down to so far we'd lose more than half of our population. if we don't have water for six months, how long are you willing to stay when you haven't had a shower. >> people have been lulled into complacency. when you look at how societies deal with earthquakes, california, a year after we get legs leaks through. more than a year passes, it losses out to other priorities, it's too far in the future. that's a reason i'm excited with what we are doing about l.a. this is the first time ever we have a focussed effort on seismic resilience about a bigger threat. >> studying earthquakes was excitable. >> yes. >> reporter: you're a scientist. do you get nervous? >> what makes me nervous is the way people respond to the earthquakes. i would love to have a big quake in a place like this, so i can experience it and not worry about it. what you worry about is what human instruction does during the earthquake. >> earthquake. whenever the next big one strikes, tom heatan wants to -- heaton wants to give people a head start. he is pushing for funding that would alert people in los angeles to a coming earthquake. before they have felt it. >> that's the good new, the bad news is that it happens quickly. we are talking about seconds, tens of seconds. >> i keep choose by the bed. i don't want to walk over glass. >> there was no time to lose. with their home crumbling around them, her family found a path to safety. >> what is it like to come back to this loam. >> it brings back a lot of memories. >> they have since moved to a new neighbourhood that as sin says is less vulnerable to earthquakes. she has more peace of mind. she will never forget the lessons of northridge. >> ahead on "america tonight", inside gamer-gate. the world of misonly ni, brutality and trolls, and how even in the open forum of the internet, some voices are silenced. >> you were threatened with rape, murder, your husband was threatened. >> did you see the threats? they said who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. it was to destroy a woman crete eking them. >> adam may with one of the gamer-gate targets. and why she's speaking out later, an autism intervention, and an attempt to save someone very young, and whether it could lead to autism. now, a snapshot of stories paying headlines on -- making headlines on "america tonight". wreckage from mh17 arrived on the shoreline of nigeria. the dutch government will lead the investigation amid calls that the united nations should take over. >> police are stepping up security at places of worship across new york city, after a knife-wielding man burst into a brooklyn synagogue and somebody stabbed a person in the head hundreds marched in berkeley california protesting a disagreements not to in -- decision not to indict a white police officer over the death of an unarmed black man. many protesters blocked a train and highway. no serious injuries were reported. you have heard of them "call of duty", "assassin's creed', "grand theft auto" - 59% of americans are regular players. as gaming goes increasingly mainstream, a darker side of the industry is emerging. "america tonight"s adam may reports on the growing cultural conflict that is gamer gate and some images are graphic. >> we are having a war, that is on hold for years. >> breanna is a warrior. a designer in a male world. she created a game. >> i wanted to tell a story where women were the heroes, the same way men got be heroes. once the domain of adolescent boys and me, the appeal is shifting. half of all gamers are women. most games are designed by men. and critics like wu are calling out game designers for the way they portray women. >> you have 30 years of this traditional male gamer told that he is the center of the universe. women, when we exist, are sex symbols. now that women are gaming you see that about to change. it's making people uncomfortable. >> wu is a lightening rod for gamers, who see the criticisms as an attack on their identity. she says that she was forced to flee her home after receiving death threats from angry gamers. you were threatened with rape and murder, and your husband to have his genitals cut off. >> did you see it. they showed who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. they were going to destroy the woman critiquing them. >> let her go. >> no. >> reporter: another sharp critic of male-dominated game design is anita. >> the sexually identified female bodies are designed to function as environmental texture is titillating players. >> easy, maybe tonight i'll give you a taste on the house. >> her youtube series accusing game designers of misogamy unleashed a hate-filled backlash. one person created a game allowing users to virtually punch her in the face. she had cancelled a speaking appearance at utah state after someone threatened the deadliest shooting in american history, railing against what feminist lies and moistens have done to the men of america. much of the vitriol superiors on twitter hashtag, gamer gate. originally created by gamers concerned with fair gaming reviews, it has grown into a loose movement. >> gamer-gate is like a nut that you are dragging through the ocean. i think it kind of picks up the worst gamers possible. >> basically you are creating a really angry anonymous mob, and i think you can't control a mob. so far three women say they have been forced to leave their homes, targeted by an onslaught of online threats. >> it's dumbfounding if you are looking at it from the outside. you sit and think but we are talking about video games, and you are threatening to rape and kill her for talking about video games. >> can you hear me. >> deanna studies the role of women in technology and is part of a task force working with twitter to reduce the harass the of twitter on social media. >> people can disagree with you - that's okay. they cannot or should not be able to say i'm going to come rape you and kill you. that is where we start to cross the line a little bit. >> she attributes some of the viciousness of gamer gate to the fact that the gamer community feels under attack. >> when we find a community and culture that we fit into that we love that we are passionate about, that makes us feel good for messed up reasons like beating up prostitutes on grand theft auto, we hold on to that. if someone comes in and says hey, part of what you are doing is not okay. people will react in horrible culturally sanctioned ways. >> "america tonight" was given a rare glimpse into the minds of those who consider themselves part of gamer gate. although they say no one here has ever threatened anyone. >> any group of people large enough - there's going to be, like, some people that take it too far. they share a passion for video games. >> you guys are way into it. what is it about video games, why are you into this? >> if i'm stressed out, i play a game. you mellow base line that you return to. >> reporter: they downplay the impact of sex and violence. >> it's fantasy, it's relaxing. anyone can do or join. you can include all of new york city in a video game. you can get lost in that. >> this man's new york city apartment is a shrine to his favourite superhero. together he and his friends are lost in the world of "grand theft auto-5." how much money would you say you guys have spent on video games over the last few years. would you give me a ballpark. >> thousands of dollars. >> each game when it comes out is $60 triple a. >> video games have grown to a $100 billion industry, overtaking motion picture movie sales. video gaming press is powerful. a bad review can make or break a game. when gaming publications print articles about gamer gate, with titles like "gamers are over", and "it's a horrible time to consider yourself a gamer", tensions in regard. >> a lot of people were offended. it was an assumption that anyone that played video games was misogynistic and oppressing women. they say gamer gait's name is to keep games free of political sworn 27 march. >> if you say you can't have this in a game because it offends this group, and you can't have this, it seems a slippery slope. where would we stop. >> reporter: anita came out with criticism that specifically women are oversexualized. and then what is your rehabilitation to what she had to say. >> i watched her videos. it seemed a little bias to me personally. >> when she started to get involved in video games. guess what. her head hit millions. the fact that she's under desperation feeds her popularity. she goes the media "i'm a victim." >> reporter: brianna faces charges. >> some supporters accused you of exaggerating the claims, speaking about them too much because you are trying to drum up publicity. >> everything i said is accurate. the reason i talked about this is someone has to take a stand. this keeps happening over and over again. >> i'll answer any question in the world that anyone has about anything - leadership, dynamics of working in this male-dominated space. >> reporter: in an industry where 90% of gamers are male, she hopes to provide cover for female game developers. >> the thing that is at stake is women being in game development or not. as an industry, we have o choice. we can keep our head in the sand or address the issue, making the industry a safe place to work. >> reporter: if you support gamer-gate, does that make you a bad guy. >> right now the outcome of gamer gate is terrorism. i think the movement itself is unredeemable. >> there's no indication they are logging off soon. i don't have experiences in my life where i cared about something and i wanted to stand up for it. video games have been under a lot of heat. i don't want to see them change. >> let's get the car and run someone over. >> reporter: the battle for video games is far from game over. and it's not game over in any stretch of the imagination, the issue of online threats and harassment has gone to the u.s. supreme court. they heard arguments on another case, and it could decide the laws recording this across the nation. >> all these things keep happening. right now, today, we are looking at a case where the woman who accused men at a frat party at the university of virginia, on the internet someone is trying to identify her. this is going to the question of id and the internet. >> it's a lot like what we see in gamer gate. and it's called developing, where you try -- ddoxing, where you try to identify someone. generally in a rape case mainstream media will not identify that person, but you have trolls digging for information and they put it out there. you see that. >> you talk about the hate speech. >> it's not necessarily who you think that it is putting out nasty messages. there's a scas where there was an individual receiving this, found out that they were teenagers and called their mother. >> called mum. >> yes, but the situation raises questions about the issue of internet and anonymity. on twitter people can get online. profiles don't have to be verified. who do you know who you are talking to. big questions that we may get resolution, depending how the supreme court rules. >> adam may, thank you so much right after the break, a treatment that could change life for millions of american families of chin, living with autism. >> why do you think this was successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms may be a powerful point to work. some symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on what could be a break through for the very young. and tomorrow on "america tonight", a different watershed. unions in dozens of states, but the fight for same-sex marriage is not over. adam may was an interview with a couple who wish to marry, could redefine same-sex marriage across the country. that's next week on "america tonight". unions in dozens of states, but more than 2 million americans live with autism. the c.b.c. reports that the rate has been rising. at the same time the treatments are improving of the there is one that holds promise. some are calling it a cure. "america tonight"s michael oku on an intensive programme that is giving parents hope. >> reporter: like most 4-year-old boys, noah loves to bounce on the trampoline, playing card games and exploring the furniture. when he was an infant his behaviour had his mother worried. >> i felt he wasn't as engaged, smiling or reciprocating. we were worried, concerned we were going down that road. >> that road was autism. christian and his mother had been down it before. their two older sons, justin and simon are autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic. and i have to imagine it was no less - i don't know, a sad feeling to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> autism now affects one in 68 american children. but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that is according to research from the u.c., davis mine institute. three years ago christian brought her kids here to participate in a study of children with autistic siblings. >> mel was in a high risk grouch. he had two siblings that had it. he was a boy. children in a group have a 50% chance of developing autism. he was in the highest risk group and showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noah when he was nine months old. detecting tell-tale signs, not responding to his name. >> noah, noah. noah. >> reporter: not mirroring gestures. >> can you do that? can you do that. >> here is where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high-risk babies might help. so she started training a small group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours a day of doing therapy with their children. we are talking about interactive techniques that would feel natural to anyone doing these, i think. >> reporter: natural, except what is natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage, pause and wait for the songs, wait for him to look up, vocalise and be there to reinforce any form of communication. if you have children with autism, they are not reenforing you to continue to do those things. as a parent, you want to make them happy. it's more natural with a child with autism to let them play. >> reporter: at a risk of oversimplifying this, it's almost like you compel yourself to be in his face all the time. >> totally. but to make it complicated, you have to step back and wait for a response. >> reporter: rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. results were remarkable. >> we looked at the data. for the first 12 weeks things are going downward a little bit. it's like withwhat is that?" we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onslaught of autism. after the first three months of slow down. they just turned a corner. you look at the data and every child shows a turn in the developmental line, no matter what we are monitoring. and it goes up into - for almost every baby, the normal range. >> by 15 months noah started engaging. his language started coming, and i just - i remember thinking "i think he's getting this." by 18 months the infant siblings said they didn't see any concerns any more, either. >> reporter: is noah showing signs of autism today? >> no. >> reporter: none? >> no. >> do you know what a squirrel is named? lucy. >> reporter: today noah interacts with everyone. six out of seven children shed autism symptoms and hit milestones. why do you think this was successful? >> first of all young brains are incredible aready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. some later symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism, who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, and the messages stop coming because the child left the circle of the family. >> the intervention appears potent. of course, you know, as the authors are aware, there are some limitations. the biggest one being there were only seven children, and that they really didn't have a large well-matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> reporter: deborah from the university of connecticut says rogers results are promising but shouldn't be interpreted as a cure. while some older children overcome autism symptoms, their brains don't function likes those of typical children. >> the optimal outcome kids who could be described as recovered were not using the same brain areas as the typical kids. they were apparently compensating by overactivating other areas of the brain. so for that one reason, if no other, i wouldn't say it's likely that the kids were cured. >> reporter: whether or not the intervention cured these kids, it changed lives. >> the idea of a cure for autism - it kind of dependents on what you mean. we don't have biological tests that predict and diagnose autism. we look at the behaviour. autism is a disability, impairing every day function. so if you don't have an impairment in your every day function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for christian, she is hopeful noah will stay symptom free and is turning her attention to her youngest child, 9-month-old lucy. they are at the mind institute for an evaluation. >> at the end, good news. lucy's not showing early signs. >> terrific. >> reporter: i got to imagine there's something bittersweet about this. had you known about this earlier when you had the two other kids, you might have been able to engage in them in the same way. hindsight, right. it's hard. it's a hard place. we try not to go there too much. it would have been beneficial for justin. he didn't start until he was four. earlier intervention for him, as an infant, if i had known what i knew now, he'd probably struggle a lot less. >> reporter: rogers expects autism therapies to improve. to get more precise, like treatments for different cancers or infections. until then, she'll continue to guide parents with a tool she has. when parents ask me about that. what are the chances that we can get rid of autism. we say this is what i want for your child, for them to feel successful and confident and loved. happy with his or her life. is that enough. that's all i want for any of my children. let's focus on that. are >> reporter: are you confident one day there'll be a cure, and it could be connected to the treatment? >> i - i think so. i think we are getting closer. i think i - i would love to say yes. i think that this - this opens a lot of doors that's nice to see. joining us now is dr paul wong from autism speaks, the organization works on advocacy and science about autism. it is tough to consider this anything near a cure. we are talking about a small number of kids that they have worked with. and the idea that a child could be identified at nine months. >> this was really amazing research. if you talk to professor rogers, she'd be circumspect saying that kids like noah. she wouldn't say they were diagnosed with autism at nine months, they were showing signs, and when you have two older brothers diagnosed with autism, he was at high risk to have autism. because he was at rick and because the other -- at risk, and because the other six kids were at high risk, they came in to see if they could help. they found positive results for six out of the seven. >> has the professor says we don't have by logical tests to screen for autism. is there progress on that front? >> that is tough slogging. autism is a behavioural diagnosis. we base it on what the child is like, how they act - their language, social interactions. it's like a number of other diagnosis. depression, schizophrenia. we don't have biological tests. >> your organization has been involved in helping to create some tracking, right? >> some sort of tracking, sorry. >> an attempt to find a test for autism. >> yes, absolutely. we want to find early diving north-eastics, whether they are behavioural or medical tests that could find the kids as early as possible. and then the reason why dr rogers work is important, once you find them you need to find something to offer them. you need more work on early interventions. >> are you seeing that what works best is a behavioural therapy? >> that's what we have now, is the educational and behavioural therapies, focussing on language, the social interactions, they are the best-proven things. dr rogers research is early. she'd be the first to tell you we need to replicate the works. >> it's promising and important works that she and others in the u.s. and england are working on similar approaches. >> ahead in our final segment, the story behind the bear. who does not love him. winnie the poo's canadian connection next. [ ♪ music ] finally from us this hour - a bedtime story. generations of us all around the world know and love pooh bear. he is among the most popular children's book. it turns out that he or she has a secret and a past. the bear's tale from al jazeera's daniel lak in toronto. [ singing ] >> reporter: one of the best-known most-loved characters in children's literature was inspired by a real bear, acquired a century ago in canada. >> august 19, 2014, left by train. >> the pet was called winnie, after winnepeg. he took her to britain, where she became a regimental mascot. later it was housed at the london zoo, where she came to the attention of author aa milne and young son christopher robin. the rest is history. >> when i was a kid they used to say that. whenever anyone told the story, they said they'd have to tell the story. winnie the poo was my great grand bear. >> reporter: an exhibit of photos and diaries opened in toronto. they satellitele known, neglected recollects in a family attic. they are on display and online. a chronicle on how real life can lead to captivating literature. the appeal of childhood as a retreat, a place that they go back to and think of fondly and reflect on. the book really manages to epit somize that. >> the exhibit comes as the world marks the centenary, the outbreak of world war i. the popularity a counterweight to the horrors of the conflict. a soldier enreaching the lives of generations. >> lindsay is passing on the family story and tales of winnie the poo to her 2-year-old son cole. he is becoming aware of the family's role in the books that he's learnt to love. >> $20 for a fair. who'd have think it. that's it for us n "america tonight". if you would like to comment on the stories. log on to the website and join the conversation with us on twitter or facebook. goodnight. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. a stain on our values - the senate report on the c.i.a. and torture sparks passionate debate and a new alert to law enforce. in the u.s. an obama care architect apologises to congress, and elephants threatened with extinction because of the ivory trade. how terror groups may be benefitting i'm antonio mora,
they said who, what, why, where. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was central. them. >> "america tonight"s adam may, how the open forum of the internet created a backlash against those that dared to speak up tuning in - research that could mean a break through for children with early signs of autism. michael oku on the effort to reach into their world and break the silence before it's too late. good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. what the c.i.a. did in response to 9/11 as we learnt from the senate report is nothing short of shocking. the brutality described in the hundreds of pages far worse, the lives far more serious than anyone suspected. not only that, but the bitter truth, the report concludes, is that the torture was pointless, it did not stop a single plot and while the c.i.a. claims it helped to track down osama bin laden, in the end it produced little of value. we begin with al jazeera contributor lindsay moran, who is a former c.i.a. officer on what led the agency down a tortuous path. >> we have to work the dark side, spend time in the shadios in the intelligent world >> reporter: it was that remark by dick cheney, made after the 9/11 attacks that came to define how the bush administration would conduct the war on terror. at the time the notion of going to the dark side raised few eyebrows. with the wreckage at the world trade center smouldering, few americans were in the mood to ask questions. >> after 9/11, the country was in a fog after the scope of al qaeda's threat. >> reporter: bruce has been a critic of the detainee policy. >> we have an al-qaeda group attacking the united states of america. we'll get them, we'll crush them. that was captured in part by president bush's statement in the aftermath of the attacks that you are either with us or against us. >> less than a month after 9/11, the war in afghanistan started. looking for a place to imprison captured taliban and al qaeda fighters, the bush administration settled on the u.s. military base at guantanamo bay, cuba. >> guantanamo bay has a curious legal status, it's not part of the sovereign territory of the united states. the idea was if we are detaining prisoners on territory that is not sovereign in the united states, our federal judges wouldn't be able to issue a writ of hapius corpus. >> reporter: it's like a legal no man's land. >> a twilight zone. >> reporter: gitmo was seen as secretive and out of the way, an ideal place to integrate terrorists. the first arrived in january 2002. donald rumsfeld made a visit to the base. >> al qaeda is not a country, they are a terror network. it would be a misunderstanding of the geneva convention if one considered al qaeda a terrorist network to be an army. >> rumsfeld's view that the detainees were not entitled to the protection afforded prisoners of war is ratified by the department of justice, and by the white house. that was the first of several major decisions, which many believed led to the abuse and torture of detainees. in december 2002 the bush administration made another big decision regarding the detainees. secretary rums felled authorised -- rumsfeld authorised several methods. at the bottom of the memo he questions why making the detainees stand in stress positions was off limits saying "i stand eight to 10 hours a day." in question detainees the c.i.a. used confinement in a box, sleep depravation and waterboarding, a technique in which the subject is made to feel that they are drawn. the self-professed architect of inch was water boarded 183 teems. another al qaeda operative was water boarded 83 times. >> these enhanced interrogation techniques were modelled after what the chinese used in the korean war to elicit false confessions. it shows you the craziness that happened after 9/11. >> so what kind of twisted legal manoeuvring took place within the bush administration that ultimately led to a justification of the enhanced methods? >> well, you need to begin with the base lines, that we had laws that prohibited torture. the intent of the enhanced interrogation techniques isn't to inflilent harm and suffering, question. >> in 2003, the culture at gitmo made its way overseas. late that year, the general travelled to iraq. there he began to train the soldiers running the abu ghraib prison. bagram air base in afghanistan was another prison where detainees were held, sometimes with fatal results. >> right now there are eight known cases of deaths of detainees in afghanistan. all the cases are being investigated or have been investigated to some degree or another. nonetheless, the harsh treatment of the detainees went largely unnoticed. that is, until april 2004. >> it was this picture and dozens of others that prompted army. >> it was '60 minutes", and the "new yorker magazine", that probing the image of abu ghraib. images of american soldiers abusing detainees horrified the world. here is another it 'em from -- item from 2004. it's an email about what was seen: facing a backlash president bush was forced to defend his administration against accusations of torture, not just at abu ghraib and gitmo, but cia black sites around the world. >> when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on america, you bet we're going to detain them. and you bet we are going to question them. >> in 2006 bush issued an order allowing the c.i.a. to continue using many harsh methods, including waterboarding. >> in january 2009. in a first act of president, president obama signed an order to ban the use of torture and close the guantanamo bay prison. today the prison continues to operate. still holding 136 detainees. >> lindsay rejoins us on the set. given your experience in the c.i.a. and what you saw in the report, does anything you saw here surprise you? >> nothing surprises me. i have to say i was a little saddened by some aspects when dianne fienstein was giving the executive summary. she refers to a number of c.i.a. officers who voiced questions about the programme. >> concerns. >> concerns, questions, evocation, and indicated that all of those concerns were kind of swept under the carpet. they were silent. it brought me back to a time, to what it's like to work for that organization. i left the agency in 2003. that. >> right in the midst. >> i was not privy to details of what was going on at guantanamo, beyond what was talked about in hushed tones in the hallways, and, you know, i remember a friend telling me so and so is back from guantanamo, and bragging about what we are doing to the guys down there. i remember thinking i'm glad i'm on my way out of here. >> let's talk about this. former senior integrator in both iraq wars and you've been an terrorism officer, you understand and have been concerned and critical about the programs. i guess that the pursuant of this is after everything we have learnt about the programmes, did they work? >> well, that's - i think this report lays out graphically that it doesn't work. if they do, it's sporadic and unreliable. it's morally reprehensible. there'd have to be an operational relevance to go there. the fact that the brutality and the ipp effectiveness had been hidden is inexcusable. we see that interrogation is a tough thing, a tactic. we've got to be hard, it may have to be brutal. does it go against what we believe to think that there's any way to do this, except to be as hard on the bad guys, or as hard as possible. >> all the hand wringing at the agency about the release of this summary - while they said it was because they were afraid it would put c.i.a. operatives or agents at risk, i think it was that it debunked this life boat that they've been clinging to that this was effective. we had to do this, we had to do this to keep americans safe. and the summary suggests that no, we didn't have to do it. a colossal waste of time. degrading our standing in the world. what is going to happen now? >> we need to move interrogation into the 21st century. so. >> what will it take to do that? >> that's an excellent question. we spend billions on intelligence and imagery. one thing said is that interrogations - it is essential to security. let's spend 5-10 million on research, to understand and remind our craft. >> if the senior leader of i.s.i.l. is picked up today. what kind of interrogation will he get. >> my suggestion is you talk to mark fallon, bob mc-fallon and others, who have done that, they tabbed to terrorist over and over effectively, and never once threatened them. >> and gotten answers. >> and got the information. the fact that they got information is well documented prison. >> i think the american public has been sold on a mythical idea that there's detainee who has some kind of ticking time bomb information, and in order to get that out of him, you have to torture him. and it's - it's farcical. it's unrealistic. a large part of the american public brought into that. that's in part because the c.i.a. made that case for many years. as a human collector of intelligence, you are not trained to integrate. we are trained to get more bees with honey, to make friends with people, build will bonds. it has been proved to be an effective way of getting someone to give you what you want. >> to underscore the point both of you have worked in intelligence. we appreciate you both being with us. thank you both very much when we return, the ground shifts to the big one... >> we have known for decades that these buildings need to be retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do difficult. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on southern california, fault lines and shaking sense into l.a.'s leaders about getting ready for a worst case scenario later in the hour - head games. a plea for moderation, and why that provoked a fiercer backlash against the women targeted by gamer gangs. >> you know how they say that everybody has a purpose in life? well, at one time i felt that selling cocaine was my purpose. >> we were starving just looking for a way to succeed. >> the first time that i seen rock cocaine was 1980. >> the murder rate was sky-high. >> south of the ten freeway was kind of a no-man's land. >> he said, "ya know, we're selling it to the blacks, you go into these neighborhoods, there's no cops, you can sell to who every you want and when they start killing each other no body cares. >> i was going through like a million dollars worth of drugs just about every day. >> that's like gold! we can make a fortune. >> he was maybe the biggest guy in la. >> freeway rick was getting his dope from a very big operator. i think we're into something that's bigger than us, something we really can't deal with. >> they had been trafficking on behalf of the united states government. >> she could prove what she was saying. >>♪ crack in the system the city of angels sits on shaky ground, that part is well-known. now los angeles is set to embark on a huge project to shore up thousands of buildings, fragile water and communication lines millions will need when the next big one comes. that's the plan. l.a.'s mayor has not identified where the millions needed will come from. as "america tonight"s michael oku reports it will be a massive under taking, in a region that last saw its last major quake 20 years ago. >> i felt a giant picked up my house, ripped it out of the earth and shook it. >> reporter: in the pre-dawn headquarters of january 17th, 1934, susan and her family woke up to a nightmare. a large quake more powerful than anyway the southern californian native experienced. >> my husband grabbed my daughter, we went to leave the house and tried to get out of the front door. so much had fallen, that we couldn't escape. >> reporter: when the shaking stopped, 57 people were dead. property damage exceeded $20 billion, making the northridge earthquake one of the deadliest and most history. >> you can see we had to take it down to the frame of the house. >> reporter: aslin's family lost their dream home and spent the next six months living in the driveway. some fared worse, including one man who committed suicide. 20 years on, memories haunt this woman, but they believe the county is not prepared for a big quake if it strikes. the devastation massive, given the fault lines that carve the region. their main concern older buildings not yet upgraded to withstand a violent quake. among them so-called soft-story structures that lack sheer walls at their base. mid rise steel buildings with poor welding or concrete structures like these. >> we expect to see some of these buildings just collapse. >> tom heaton is the director of the earthquake engineering research center at the california technology. >> if it was in the day time people would be in the offices and not many would survive. there are literally hundreds of buildings out there that could collapse in that case. >> earlier this year heaton co-authored a study using computer models to indicate how buildings would perform in moderate motions. >> buildings with concrete columns and no walls at all - there's plenty of them - those about. >> what you are saying is hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting residents might live in homes that are highly susceptibility to a major earthquake now. >> i think it's correct. we have known for decades that the buildings need to b retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do something about it is difficult. how much of the details to debated. >> by some estimates, a strong earthquake could level between 6-10,000 soft story structures alone, threatening tens of thousands of people. we are not just talking about ordinary residential and office buildings. dozens of l.a.'s prominent structures are in jeopardy, from the icons off hollywood. to some of the towers that line the myer abbingle mile. -- miracle mile. after years of inia city -- inertia city officials are waking up thanks to media and research released around the 20th anniversary of northridge. in january eric gar setty, mayor, tapped seismologi [s] [t] lucy gowns to prepare the second largest city for a meeting with the big one. >> i wouldn't call it denial that we have quakes. they are inevitable. they don't get what that means. >> reporter: known as the earthquake lady, jones has the task of identifying l.a.'s critical infrastructural risks and marching them. >> reporter: with so much to be done, what are the priorities? >> you can't live or run a business without water. lose of it is bad. >> reporter: joan says that the four main aqueducts that feedwater into los angeles cross a major fault line and are likely to break in a large quake. it could take between 12-18 months to repair the aqueducts, leaving millions dependent on whatever reserves are available. >> if you look back in time, it took san francisco 40 years to get back to the level of economic activity in 1905, after the 190 # earthquake. >> to be clear, you are saying that an earthquake in southern economy? >> it could, yes. it could take it down to so far we'd lose more than half of our population. if we don't have water for six months, how long are you willing shower. >> people have been lulled into complacency. when you look at how societies deal with earthquakes, california, a year after we get legs leaks through. more than a year passes, it losses out to other priorities, it's too far in the future. that's a reason i'm excited with what we are doing about l.a. this is the first time ever we have a focussed effort on seismic resilience about a bigger threat. >> studying earthquakes excitable. >> yes. >> reporter: you're a scientist. do you get nervous? >> what makes me nervous is the way people respond to the earthquakes. i would love to have a big quake in a place like this, so i can experience it and not worry about it. what you worry about is what human instruction does during the earthquake. >> earthquake. whenever the next big one strikes, tom heatan wants to -- heaton wants to give people a head start. he is pushing for funding that would alert people in los angeles to a coming earthquake. before they have felt it. >> that's the good new, the bad news is that it happens quickly. we are talking about seconds, tens of seconds. >> i keep choose by the bed. i don't want to walk over glass. >> there was no time to lose. with their home crumbling around them, her family found a path to safety. >> what is it like to come back to this loam. memories. >> they have since moved to a new neighbourhood that as sin says is less vulnerable to earthquakes. she has more peace of mind. she will never forget the lessons of northridge. >> ahead on "america tonight", inside gamer-gate. the world of misonly ni, brutality and trolls, and how even in the open forum of the silenced. >> you were threatened with threatened. >> did you see the threats? they said who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. it was to destroy a woman crete eking them. >> adam may with one of the gamer-gate targets. and why she's speaking out later, an autism intervention, and an attempt to save someone very young, and whether it could lead to >> beyond the verdict and on the streets >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police >> a fault lines special investigation >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor >> courageous and in depth... >> it's a target you can't get rid of... >> the untold story... >> who do you protect? >> ...of what's really going on in ferguson >> they were so angry because it could have been them >> fault lines, ferguson: race and justice in the u.s. one hour special only on al jazeera america >> a conflict that started 100 year ago, some say, never ended... revealing... untold stories of the valor... >> they opened fire on the english officers... >> sacrifice... >> i order you to die... >> and ultimate betrayal... drawing lines in the sand that would shape the middle east and frame the conflict today >> world war one: through arab eyes continues episode three: the new middle east on al jazeera america now, a snapshot of stories paying headlines on -- making headlines on "america tonight". wreckage from mh17 arrived on the shoreline of nigeria. the dutch government will lead the investigation amid calls that the united nations should take over. >> police are stepping up security at places of worship across new york city, after a knife-wielding man burst into a brooklyn synagogue and somebody stabbed a person in the head hundreds marched in berkeley california protesting a disagreements not to in -- decision not to indict a white police officer over the death of an unarmed black man. many protesters blocked a train and highway. reported. you have heard of them "call of duty", "assassin's creed', "grand theft auto" - 59% of americans are regular players. as gaming goes increasingly mainstream, a darker side of the industry is emerging. "america tonight"s adam may reports on the growing cultural conflict that is gamer gate and some images are graphic. >> we are having a war, that is on hold for years. >> breanna is a warrior. a designer in a male world. she created a game. >> i wanted to tell a story where women were the heroes, the same way men got be heroes. once the domain of adolescent boys and me, the appeal is shifting. half of all gamers are women. most games are designed by men. and critics like wu are calling out game designers for the way they portray women. >> you have 30 years of this traditional male gamer told that he is the center of the universe. women, when we exist, are sex symbols. now that women are gaming you see that about to change. uncomfortable. >> wu is a lightening rod for gamers, who see the criticisms as an attack on their identity. she says that she was forced to flee her home after receiving death threats from angry gamers. you were threatened with rape and murder, and your husband to have his genitals cut off. >> did you see it. they showed who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. they were going to destroy the woman critiquing them. >> let her go. >> no. >> reporter: another sharp critic of male-dominated game design is anita. >> the sexually identified female bodies are designed to function as environmental texture is titillating players. >> easy, maybe tonight i'll give you a taste on the house. >> her youtube series accusing game designers of misogamy unleashed a hate-filled backlash. one person created a game allowing users to virtually punch her in the face. she had cancelled a speaking appearance at utah state after someone threatened the deadliest shooting in american history, railing against what feminist lies and moistens have done to the men of america. much of the vitriol superiors on twitter hashtag, gamer gate. originally created by gamers concerned with fair gaming reviews, it has grown into a loose movement. >> gamer-gate is like a nut that you are dragging through the ocean. i think it kind of picks up the worst gamers possible. >> basically you are creating a really angry anonymous mob, and i think you can't control a mob. so far three women say they have been forced to leave their homes, targeted by an onslaught of online threats. >> it's dumbfounding if you are looking at it from the outside. you sit and think but we are talking about video games, and you are threatening to rape and games. >> can you hear me. >> deanna studies the role of women in technology and is part of a task force working with twitter to reduce the harass the of twitter on social media. >> people can disagree with you - that's okay. they cannot or should not be able to say i'm going to come rape you and kill you. that is where we start to cross the line a little bit. >> she attributes some of the viciousness of gamer gate to the fact that the gamer community feels under attack. >> when we find a community and culture that we fit into that we love that we are passionate about, that makes us feel good for messed up reasons like beating up prostitutes on grand theft auto, we hold on to that. if someone comes in and says hey, part of what you are doing is not okay. people will react in horrible culturally sanctioned ways. >> "america tonight" was given a rare glimpse into the minds of those who consider themselves part of gamer gate. although they say no one here has ever threatened anyone. >> any group of people large enough - there's going to be, like, some people that take it too far. they share a passion for video games. >> you guys are way into it. what is it about video games, why are you into this? >> if i'm stressed out, i play a game. you mellow base line that you return to. >> reporter: they downplay the impact of sex and violence. >> it's fantasy, it's relaxing. anyone can do or join. you can include all of new york city in a video game. you can get lost in that. >> this man's new york city apartment is a shrine to his favourite superhero. together he and his friends are lost in the world of "grand theft auto-5." how much money would you say you guys have spent on video games over the last few years. would you give me a ballpark. >> thousands of dollars. >> each game when it comes out is $60 triple a. >> video games have grown to a $100 billion industry, overtaking motion picture movie sales. video gaming press is powerful. a bad review can make or break a game. when gaming publications print articles about gamer gate, with titles like "gamers are over", and "it's a horrible time to consider yourself a gamer", tensions in regard. >> a lot of people were offended. it was an assumption that anyone that played video games was misogynistic and oppressing women. they say gamer gait's name is to keep games free of political sworn 27 march. >> if you say you can't have this in a game because it offends this group, and you can't have this, it seems a slippery slope. where would we stop. >> reporter: anita came out with criticism that specifically women are oversexualized. and then what is your rehabilitation to what she had to say. >> i watched her videos. personally. >> when she started to get involved in video games. guess what. her head hit millions. the fact that she's under desperation feeds her popularity. she goes the media "i'm victim." charges. >> some supporters accused you of exaggerating the claims, speaking about them too much because you are trying to drum up publicity. >> everything i said is accurate. the reason i talked about this is someone has to take a stand. this keeps happening over and over again. >> i'll answer any question in the world that anyone has about anything - leadership, dynamics of working in this male-dominated space. >> reporter: in an industry where 90% of gamers are male, she hopes to provide cover for female game developers. >> the thing that is at stake is women being in game development or not. as an industry, we have o choice. we can keep our head in the sand or address the issue, making the industry a safe place to work. >> reporter: if you support gamer-gate, does that make you a bad guy. >> right now the outcome of gamer gate is terrorism. i think the movement itself is unredeemable. >> there's no indication they are logging off soon. i don't have experiences in my life where i cared about something and i wanted to stand up for it. video games have been under a lot of heat. i don't want to see them change. >> let's get the car and run someone over. >> reporter: the battle for video games is far from game over. and it's not game over in any stretch of the imagination, the issue of online threats and harassment has gone to the u.s. supreme court. they heard arguments on another case, and it could decide the nation. >> all these things keep happening. right now, today, we are looking at a case where the woman who accused men at a frat party at the university of virginia, on the internet someone is trying to identify her. this is going to the question of id and the internet. >> it's a lot like what we see in gamer gate. and it's called developing, where you try -- ddoxing,where you try to identify someone. generally in a rape case mainstream media will not identify that person, but you have trolls digging for information and they put it out there. you see that. speech. >> it's not necessarily who you think that it is putting out nasty messages. there's a scas where there was an individual receiving this, found out that they were mother. >> called mum. >> yes, but the situation raises questions about the issue of internet and anonymity. on twitter people can get online. profiles don't have to be verified. who do you know who you are talking to. big questions that we may get resolution, depending how the supreme court rules. >> adam may, thank you so much right after the break, a treatment that could change life for millions of american autism. successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms may be a powerful point to work. some symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on what could be a break through for the very young. and tomorrow on "america tonight", a different watershed. unions in dozens of states, but the fight for same-sex marriage is not over. adam may was an interview with a couple who wish to marry, could redefine same-sex marriage across the country. that's next week on "america tonight". more than 2 million americans live with autism. the c.b.c. reports that the rate has been rising. at the same time the treatments are improving of the there is one that holds promise. some are calling it a cure. "america tonight"s michael oku on an intensive programme that is giving parents hope. >> reporter: like most 4-year-old boys, noah loves to bounce on the trampoline, playing card games and exploring the furniture. when he was an infant his worried. >> i felt he wasn't as engaged, smiling or reciprocating. we were worried, concerned we were going down that road. >> that road was autism. christian and his mother had been down it before. their two older sons, justin and simon are autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic. and i have to imagine it was no less - i don't know, a sad feeling to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> autism now affects one in 68 american children. but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that is according to research from the u.c., davis mine institute. three years ago christian brought her kids here to participate in a study of children with autistic siblings. >> mel was in a high risk grouch. he had two siblings that had it. he was a boy. children in a group have a 50% chance of developing autism. he was in the highest risk group and showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noah when he was nine months old. detecting tell-tale signs, not responding to his name. noah. >> reporter: not mirroring gestures. >> can you do that? can you do that. >> here is where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high-risk babies might help. so she started training a small group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours a day of doing therapy with their children. we are talking about interactive techniques that would feel think. >> reporter: natural, except what is natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage, pause and wait for the songs, wait for him to look up, vocalise and be there to reinforce any form of communication. if you have children with autism, they are not reenforing you to continue to do those things. as a parent, you want to make them happy. it's more natural with a child with autism to let them play. >> reporter: at a risk of oversimplifying this, it's almost like you compel yourself to be in his face all the time. >> totally. but to make it complicated, you response. >> reporter: rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. results were remarkable. >> we looked at the data. for the first 12 weeks things are going downward a little bit. it's like withwhat is that?" we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onslaught of autism. after the first three months of slow down. they just turned a corner. you look at the data and every child shows a turn in the developmental line, no matter what we are monitoring. and it goes up into - for almost every baby, the normal range. >> by 15 months noah started engaging. his language started coming, and i just - i remember thinking "i think he's getting this." by 18 months the infant siblings said they didn't see any concerns any more, either. >> reporter: is noah showing signs of autism today? >> no. >> reporter: none? >> no. >> do you know what a squirrel is named? lucy. >> reporter: today noah interacts with everyone. six out of seven children shed autism symptoms and hit milestones. successful? >> first of all young brains are incredible aready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. some later symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism, who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, and the messages stop coming because the child left the circle of the family. potent. of course, you know, as the authors are aware, there are some limitations. the biggest one being there were only seven children, and that they really didn't have a large well-matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> reporter: deborah from the university of connecticut says rogers results are promising but shouldn't be interpreted as a cure. while some older children overcome autism symptoms, their brains don't function likes those of typical children. >> the optimal outcome kids who could be described as recovered were not using the same brain areas as the typical kids. they were apparently compensating by overactivating other areas of the brain. so for that one reason, if no other, i wouldn't say it's likely that the kids were cured. >> reporter: whether or not the intervention cured these kids, it changed lives. >> the idea of a cure for autism - it kind of dependents on what you mean. we don't have biological tests that predict and diagnose autism. we look at the behaviour. autism is a disability, impairing every day function. so if you don't have an impairment in your every day function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for christian, she is hopeful noah will stay symptom free and is turning her attention to her youngest child, 9-month-old lucy. they are at the mind institute for an evaluation. >> at the end, good news. lucy's not showing early signs. >> terrific. >> reporter: i got to imagine there's something bittersweet about this. had you known about this earlier when you had the two other kids, you might have been able to engage in them in the same way. hindsight, right. it's hard. it's a hard place. we try not to go there too much. it would have been beneficial for justin. he didn't start until he was four. earlier intervention for him, as an infant, if i had known what i knew now, he'd probably struggle a lot less. >> reporter: rogers expects autism therapies to improve. to get more precise, like treatments for different cancers or infections. until then, she'll continue to guide parents with a tool she has. when parents ask me about that. what are the chances that we can get rid of autism. we say this is what i want for your child, for them to feel successful and confident and loved. happy with his or her life. is that enough. that's all i want for any of my children. let's focus on that. are >> reporter: are you confident one day there'll be a cure, and treatment? >> i - i think so. i think we are getting closer. i think i - i would love to say yes. i think that this - this opens a lot of doors that's nice to see. joining us now is dr paul wong from autism speaks, the organization works on advocacy and science about autism. it is tough to consider this anything near a cure. we are talking about a small number of kids that they have worked with. and the idea that a child could be identified at nine months. >> this was really amazing research. if you talk to professor rogers, she'd be circumspect saying that kids like noah. she wouldn't say they were diagnosed with autism at nine months, they were showing signs, and when you have two older brothers diagnosed with autism, he was at high risk to have autism. because he was at rick and because the other -- at risk, and because the other six kids were at high risk, they came in to see if they could help. they found positive results for six out of the seven. >> has the professor says we don't have by logical tests to screen for autism. is there progress on that front? >> that is tough slogging. autism is a behavioural diagnosis. we base it on what the child is like, how they act - their language, social interactions. it's like a number of other diagnosis. depression, schizophrenia. we don't have biological tests. >> your organization has been involved in helping to create some tracking, right? >> some sort of tracking, sorry. autism. >> yes, absolutely. we want to find early diving north-eastics, whether they are behavioural or medical tests that could find the kids as early as possible. and then the reason why dr rogers work is important, once you find them you need to find something to offer them. interventions. >> are you seeing that what therapy? >> that's what we have now, is the educational and behavioural therapies, focussing on language, the social interactions, they are the best-proven things. dr rogers research is early. she'd be the first to tell you we need to replicate the works. >> it's promising and important works that she and others in the u.s. and england are working on similar approaches. >> ahead in our final segment, the story behind the bear. who does not love him. winnie the poo's canadian connection next. >> changes need to be made so that more women can stay in the pool and rise to the top >> political scientist anne-marie slaughter shares her provocative viewpoints about women >> we need to rethink the arc of careers... >> and international issues >> the united states has to use force in a way that has lots of partners... >> every saturday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera, only on al jazeera america [ ♪ music ] finally from us this hour - a bedtime story. generations of us all around the world know and love pooh bear. he is among the most popular children's book. it turns out that he or she has a secret and a past. the bear's tale from al jazeera's [ singing ] >> reporter: one of the best-known most-loved characters in children's literature was inspired by a real bear, acquired a century ago in canada. >> august 19, train. >> the pet was called winnie, after winnepeg. he took her to britain, where she became a regimental mascot. later it was housed at the london zoo, where she came to the attention of author aa milne and young son christopher robin. the rest is history. >> when i was a kid they used to say that. whenever anyone told the story, they said they'd have to tell the story. winnie the poo was my great grand bear. >> reporter: an exhibit of photos and diaries opened in toronto. they satellitele known, neglected recollects in a family attic. they are on display and online. a chronicle on how real life can lead to captivating literature. the appeal of childhood as a retreat, a place that they go back to and think of fondly and reflect on. the book really manages to epit somize that. >> the exhibit comes as the world marks the centenary, the outbreak of world war i. the popularity a counterweight to the horrors of the conflict. a soldier enreaching the lives of generations. >> lindsay is passing on the family story and tales of winnie the poo to her 2-year-old son cole. he is becoming aware of the family's role in the books that he's learnt to love. >> $20 for a fair. who'd have think it. that's it for us n "america tonight". if you would like to comment on the stories. log on to the website and join the conversation with us on twitter or facebook. goodnight. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. teach for america is supposed to educate poor children. >> schools where kids need grade teaching the most. >> can unprepared teachers make a difference? >> why are we sending them teachers with 5 weeks of training? a stain on our values - the senate report on the c.i.a. and torture sparks passionate debate and a new alert to law enforce. in the u.s. an obama care architect apologises to congress, and elephants threatened with extinction because of the ivory trade. how terror groups may be benefitting i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this", those stories
game on - anonymous threats, a full-scale digital assault. >> you were threatened with threatened. >> did you see the threats - they said who, what, why, where. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was central. them. >> "america tonight"s adam may, how the open forum of the internet created a backlash against those that dared to speak up tuning in - research that could mean a break through for children with early signs of autism. michael oku on the effort to reach into their world and break the silence before it's too late. good evening, thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. what the c.i.a. did in response to 9/11 as we learnt from the senate report is nothing short of shocking. the brutality described in the hundreds of pages far worse, the lives far more serious than anyone suspected. not only that, but the bitter truth, the report concludes, is that the torture was pointless, it did not stop a single plot and while the c.i.a. claims it helped to track down osama bin laden, in the end it produced little of value. we begin with al jazeera contributor lindsay moran, who is a former c.i.a. officer on what led the agency down a tortuous path. >> we have to work the dark side, spend time in the shadios in the intelligent world >> reporter: it was that remark by dick cheney, made after the 9/11 attacks that came to define how the bush administration would conduct the war on terror. at the time the notion of going to the dark side raised few eyebrows. with the wreckage at the world trade center smouldering, few americans were in the mood to ask questions. >> after 9/11, the country was in a fog after the scope of al qaeda's threat. >> reporter: bruce has been a critic of the detainee policy. >> we have an al-qaeda group attacking the united states of america. we'll get them, we'll crush them. that was captured in part by president bush's statement in the aftermath of the attacks that you are either with us or against us. >> less than a month after 9/11, the war in afghanistan started. looking for a place to imprison captured taliban and al qaeda fighters, the bush administration settled on the u.s. military base at guantanamo bay, cuba. >> guantanamo bay has a curious legal status, it's not part of the sovereign territory of the united states. the idea was if we are detaining prisoners on territory that is not sovereign in the united states, our federal judges wouldn't be able to issue a writ of hapius corpus. >> reporter: it's like a legal no man's land. >> a twilight zone. >> reporter: gitmo was seen as secretive and out of the way, an ideal place to integrate terrorists. the first arrived in january 2002. donald rumsfeld made a visit to the base. >> al qaeda is not a country, they are a terror network. it would be a misunderstanding of the geneva convention if one considered al qaeda a terrorist network to be an army. >> rumsfeld's view that the detainees were not entitled to the protection afforded prisoners of war is ratified by the department of justice, and by the white house. that was the first of several major decisions, which many believed led to the abuse and torture of detainees. in december 2002 the bush administration made another big decision regarding the detainees. secretary rums felled authorised -- rumsfeld authorised several methods. at the bottom of the memo he questions why making the detainees stand in stress positions was off limits saying "i stand eight to 10 hours a day." in question detainees the c.i.a. used confinement in a box, sleep depravation and waterboarding, a technique in which the subject is made to feel that they are drawn. the self-professed architect of inch was water boarded 183 teems. another al qaeda operative was water boarded 83 times. >> these enhanced interrogation techniques were modelled after what the chinese used in the korean war to elicit false confessions. it shows you the craziness that happened after 9/11. >> so what kind of twisted legal manoeuvring took place within the bush administration that ultimately led to a justification of the enhanced methods? >> well, you need to begin with the base lines, that we had laws that prohibited torture. the intent of the enhanced interrogation techniques isn't to inflilent harm and suffering, question. >> in 2003, the culture at gitmo made its way overseas. late that year, the general travelled to iraq. there he began to train the soldiers running the abu ghraib prison. bagram air base in afghanistan was another prison where detainees were held, sometimes with fatal results. >> right now there are eight known cases of deaths of detainees in afghanistan. all the cases are being investigated or have been investigated to some degree or another. nonetheless, the harsh treatment of the detainees went largely unnoticed. that is, until april 2004. >> it was this picture and dozens of others that prompted army. >> it was '60 minutes", and the "new yorker magazine", that probing the image of abu ghraib. images of american soldiers abusing detainees horrified the world. here is another it 'em from -- item from 2004. it's an email about what was seen: facing a backlash president bush was forced to defend his administration against accusations of torture, not just at abu ghraib and gitmo, but cia black sites around the world. >> when we find somebody who may have information regarding a potential attack on america, you bet we're going to detain them. and you bet we are going to question them. >> in 2006 bush issued an order allowing the c.i.a. to continue using many harsh methods, including waterboarding. >> in january 2009. in a first act of president, president obama signed an order to ban the use of torture and close the guantanamo bay prison. today the prison continues to operate. still holding 136 detainees. >> lindsay rejoins us on the set. given your experience in the c.i.a. and what you saw in the report, does anything you saw here surprise you? >> nothing surprises me. i have to say i was a little saddened by some aspects when dianne fienstein was giving the executive summary. she refers to a number of c.i.a. officers who voiced questions about the programme. >> concerns. >> concerns, questions, evocation, and indicated that all of those concerns were kind of swept under the carpet. they were silent. it brought me back to a time, to what it's like to work for that organization. i left the agency in 2003. that. >> right in the midst. >> i was not privy to details of what was going on at guantanamo, beyond what was talked about in hushed tones in the hallways, and, you know, i remember a friend telling me so and so is back from guantanamo, and bragging about what we are doing to the guys down there. i remember thinking i'm glad i'm on my way out of here. >> let's talk about this. former senior integrator in both iraq wars and you've been an terrorism officer, you understand and have been concerned and critical about the programs. i guess that the pursuant of this is after everything we have learnt about the programmes, did they work? >> well, that's - i think this report lays out graphically that it doesn't work. if they do, it's sporadic and unreliable. it's morally reprehensible. there'd have to be an operational relevance to go there. the fact that the brutality and the ipp effectiveness had been hidden is inexcusable. we see that interrogation is a tough thing, a tactic. we've got to be hard, it may have to be brutal. does it go against what we believe to think that there's any way to do this, except to be as hard on the bad guys, or as hard as possible. >> all the hand wringing at the agency about the release of this summary - while they said it was because they were afraid it would put c.i.a. operatives or agents at risk, i think it was that it debunked this life boat that they've been clinging to that this was effective. we had to do this, we had to do this to keep americans safe. and the summary suggests that no, we didn't have to do it. a colossal waste of time. degrading our standing in the world. what is going to happen now? >> we need to move interrogation into the 21st century. so. >> what will it take to do that? >> that's an excellent question. we spend billions on intelligence and imagery. one thing said is that interrogations - it is essential to security. let's spend 5-10 million on research, to understand and remind our craft. >> if the senior leader of i.s.i.l. is picked up today. what kind of interrogation will he get. >> my suggestion is you talk to mark fallon, bob mc-fallon and others, who have done that, they tabbed to terrorist over and over effectively, and never once threatened them. >> and gotten answers. >> and got the information. the fact that they got information is well documented prison. >> i think the american public has been sold on a mythical idea that there's detainee who has some kind of ticking time bomb information, and in order to get that out of him, you have to torture him. and it's - it's farcical. it's unrealistic. a large part of the american public brought into that. that's in part because the c.i.a. made that case for many years. as a human collector of intelligence, you are not trained to integrate. we are trained to get more bees with honey, to make friends with people, build will bonds. it has been proved to be an effective way of getting someone to give you what you want. >> to underscore the point both of you have worked in intelligence. we appreciate you both being with us. thank you both very much when we return, the ground shifts to the big one... >> we have known for decades that these buildings need to be retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do difficult. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on southern california, fault lines and shaking sense into l.a.'s leaders about getting ready for a worst case scenario later in the hour - head games. a plea for moderation, and why that provoked a fiercer backlash against the women targeted by gamer gangs. >> a conflict that started 100 year ago, some say, never ended... revealing... untold stories of the valor... >> they opened fire on the english officers... >> sacrifice... >> i order you to die... >> and ultimate betrayal... drawing lines in the sand that would shape the middle east and frame the conflict today >> world war one: through arab eyes continues episode three: the new middle east on al jazeera america >> a deal went against they're own government >> egypt mismanaged it's gas industry >> taking the country to the brink of economic ruin >> this is because of a corrupt deal to an assigned to basically support two dodgy businessmen an israeli one, and an egyptian one... >> al jazeera exposes those who made a fortune betraying an entire nation >> you don't feel you owe an explanation to the egyptian people? >> no...no.. >> al jazeera investigates egypt's lost power on al jazeera america the city of angels sits on shaky ground, that part is well-known. now los angeles is set to embark on a huge project to shore up thousands of buildings, fragile water and communication lines millions will need when the next big one comes. that's the plan. l.a.'s mayor has not identified where the millions needed will come from. as "america tonight"s michael oku reports it will be a massive under taking, in a region that last saw its last major quake 20 years ago. >> i felt a giant picked up my house, ripped it out of the earth and shook it. >> reporter: in the pre-dawn headquarters of january 17th, 1934, susan and her family woke up to a nightmare. a large quake more powerful than anyway the southern californian native experienced. >> my husband grabbed my daughter, we went to leave the house and tried to get out of the front door. so much had fallen, that we couldn't escape. >> reporter: when the shaking stopped, 57 people were dead. property damage exceeded $20 billion, making the northridge earthquake one of the deadliest and most history. >> you can see we had to take it down to the frame of the house. >> reporter: aslin's family lost their dream home and spent the next six months living in the driveway. some fared worse, including one man who committed suicide. 20 years on, memories haunt this woman, but they believe the county is not prepared for a big quake if it strikes. the devastation massive, given the fault lines that carve the region. their main concern older buildings not yet upgraded to withstand a violent quake. among them so-called soft-story structures that lack sheer walls at their base. mid rise steel buildings with poor welding or concrete structures like these. >> we expect to see some of these buildings just collapse. >> tom heaton is the director of the earthquake engineering research center at the california technology. >> if it was in the day time people would be in the offices and not many would survive. there are literally hundreds of buildings out there that could collapse in that case. >> earlier this year heaton co-authored a study using computer models to indicate how buildings would perform in moderate motions. >> buildings with concrete columns and no walls at all - there's plenty of them - those about. >> what you are saying is hundreds, if not hundreds of thousands of unsuspecting residents might live in homes that are highly susceptibility to a major earthquake now. >> i think it's correct. we have known for decades that the buildings need to b retrofitted, retired. finding the political will to do something about it is difficult. how much of the details to debated. >> by some estimates, a strong earthquake could level between 6-10,000 soft story structures alone, threatening tens of thousands of people. we are not just talking about ordinary residential and office buildings. dozens of l.a.'s prominent structures are in jeopardy, from the icons off hollywood. to some of the towers that line the myer abbingle mile. -- miracle mile. after years of inia city -- inertia city officials are waking up thanks to media and research released around the 20th anniversary of northridge. in january eric gar setty, mayor, tapped seismologi [s] [t] lucy gowns to prepare the second largest city for a meeting with the big one. >> i wouldn't call it denial that we have quakes. they are inevitable. they don't get what that means. >> reporter: known as the earthquake lady, jones has the task of identifying l.a.'s critical infrastructural risks and marching them. >> reporter: with so much to be done, what are the priorities? >> you can't live or run a business without water. lose of it is bad. >> reporter: joan says that the four main aqueducts that feedwater into los angeles cross a major fault line and are likely to break in a large quake. it could take between 12-18 months to repair the aqueducts, leaving millions dependent on whatever reserves are available. >> if you look back in time, it took san francisco 40 years to get back to the level of economic activity in 1905, after the 190 # earthquake. >> to be clear, you are saying that an earthquake in southern economy? >> it could, yes. it could take it down to so far we'd lose more than half of our population. if we don't have water for six months, how long are you willing shower. >> people have been lulled into complacency. when you look at how societies deal with earthquakes, california, a year after we get legs leaks through. more than a year passes, it losses out to other priorities, it's too far in the future. that's a reason i'm excited with what we are doing about l.a. this is the first time ever we have a focussed effort on seismic resilience about a bigger threat. >> studying earthquakes excitable. >> yes. >> reporter: you're a scientist. do you get nervous? >> what makes me nervous is the way people respond to the earthquakes. i would love to have a big quake in a place like this, so i can experience it and not worry about it. what you worry about is what human instruction does during the earthquake. >> earthquake. whenever the next big one strikes, tom heatan wants to -- heaton wants to give people a head start. he is pushing for funding that would alert people in los angeles to a coming earthquake. before they have felt it. >> that's the good new, the bad news is that it happens quickly. we are talking about seconds, tens of seconds. >> i keep choose by the bed. i don't want to walk over glass. >> there was no time to lose. with their home crumbling around them, her family found a path to safety. >> what is it like to come back to this loam. memories. >> they have since moved to a new neighbourhood that as sin says is less vulnerable to earthquakes. she has more peace of mind. she will never forget the lessons of northridge. >> ahead on "america tonight", inside gamer-gate. the world of misonly ni, brutality and trolls, and how even in the open forum of the silenced. >> you were threatened with threatened. >> did you see the threats? they said who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. it was to destroy a woman crete eking them. >> adam may with one of the gamer-gate targets. and why she's speaking out later, an autism intervention, and an attempt to save someone very young, and whether it could lead to >> beyond the verdict and on the streets >> there's been another teenager shot and killed by the police >> a fault lines special investigation >> there's a general distrust of this prosecutor >> courageous and in depth... >> it's a target you can't get rid of... >> the untold story... >> who do you protect? >> ...of what's really going on in ferguson >> they were so angry because it could have been them >> fault lines, ferguson: race and justice in the u.s. one hour special only on al jazeera america >> next tuesday, the landmark series concludes. >> i'm on a mission that i have to keep this business going. >> an intimate look at middle class families. >> i panicked because, how we gonna pay that? >> the issues we face. >> there's no way to pay for it. >> fighting to survive. >> she's like my role model... as in perseverance. >> building a better future. >> it's coming together little by little. >> real life solutions you can't afford to miss. >> we're making it the best that we can. >> "america's middle class - rebuilding the dream". >> next tuesday. >> 7:00 eastern. >> only on al jazeera america. now, a snapshot of stories paying headlines on -- making headlines on "america tonight". wreckage from mh17 arrived on the shoreline of nigeria. the dutch government will lead the investigation amid calls that the united nations should take over. >> police are stepping up security at places of worship across new york city, after a knife-wielding man burst into a brooklyn synagogue and somebody stabbed a person in the head hundreds marched in berkeley california protesting a disagreements not to in -- decision not to indict a white police officer over the death of an unarmed black man. many protesters blocked a train and highway. reported. you have heard of them "call of duty", "assassin's creed', "grand theft auto" - 59% of americans are regular players. as gaming goes increasingly mainstream, a darker side of the industry is emerging. "america tonight"s adam may reports on the growing cultural conflict that is gamer gate and some images are graphic. >> we are having a war, that is on hold for years. >> breanna is a warrior. a designer in a male world. she created a game. >> i wanted to tell a story where women were the heroes, the same way men got be heroes. once the domain of adolescent boys and me, the appeal is shifting. half of all gamers are women. most games are designed by men. and critics like wu are calling out game designers for the way they portray women. >> you have 30 years of this traditional male gamer told that he is the center of the universe. women, when we exist, are sex symbols. now that women are gaming you see that about to change. uncomfortable. >> wu is a lightening rod for gamers, who see the criticisms as an attack on their identity. she says that she was forced to flee her home after receiving death threats from angry gamers. you were threatened with rape and murder, and your husband to have his genitals cut off. >> did you see it. they showed who, what, why, where and when. they were going to murder me and my husband. the goal was simple. they were going to destroy the woman critiquing them. >> let her go. >> no. >> reporter: another sharp critic of male-dominated game design is anita. >> the sexually identified female bodies are designed to function as environmental texture is titillating players. >> easy, maybe tonight i'll give you a taste on the house. >> her youtube series accusing game designers of misogamy unleashed a hate-filled backlash. one person created a game allowing users to virtually punch her in the face. she had cancelled a speaking appearance at utah state after someone threatened the deadliest shooting in american history, railing against what feminist lies and moistens have done to the men of america. much of the vitriol superiors on twitter hashtag, gamer gate. originally created by gamers concerned with fair gaming reviews, it has grown into a loose movement. >> gamer-gate is like a nut that you are dragging through the ocean. i think it kind of picks up the worst gamers possible. >> basically you are creating a really angry anonymous mob, and i think you can't control a mob. so far three women say they have been forced to leave their homes, targeted by an onslaught of online threats. >> it's dumbfounding if you are looking at it from the outside. you sit and think but we are talking about video games, and you are threatening to rape and games. >> can you hear me. >> deanna studies the role of women in technology and is part of a task force working with twitter to reduce the harass the of twitter on social media. >> people can disagree with you - that's okay. they cannot or should not be able to say i'm going to come rape you and kill you. that is where we start to cross the line a little bit. >> she attributes some of the viciousness of gamer gate to the fact that the gamer community feels under attack. >> when we find a community and culture that we fit into that we love that we are passionate about, that makes us feel good for messed up reasons like beating up prostitutes on grand theft auto, we hold on to that. if someone comes in and says hey, part of what you are doing is not okay. people will react in horrible culturally sanctioned ways. >> "america tonight" was given a rare glimpse into the minds of those who consider themselves part of gamer gate. although they say no one here has ever threatened anyone. >> any group of people large enough - there's going to be, like, some people that take it too far. they share a passion for video games. >> you guys are way into it. what is it about video games, why are you into this? >> if i'm stressed out, i play a game. you mellow base line that you return to. >> reporter: they downplay the impact of sex and violence. >> it's fantasy, it's relaxing. anyone can do or join. you can include all of new york city in a video game. you can get lost in that. >> this man's new york city apartment is a shrine to his favourite superhero. together he and his friends are lost in the world of "grand theft auto-5." how much money would you say you guys have spent on video games over the last few years. would you give me a ballpark. >> thousands of dollars. >> each game when it comes out is $60 triple a. >> video games have grown to a $100 billion industry, overtaking motion picture movie sales. video gaming press is powerful. a bad review can make or break a game. when gaming publications print articles about gamer gate, with titles like "gamers are over", and "it's a horrible time to consider yourself a gamer", tensions in regard. >> a lot of people were offended. it was an assumption that anyone that played video games was misogynistic and oppressing women. they say gamer gait's name is to keep games free of political sworn 27 march. >> if you say you can't have this in a game because it offends this group, and you can't have this, it seems a slippery slope. where would we stop. >> reporter: anita came out with criticism that specifically women are oversexualized. and then what is your rehabilitation to what she had to say. >> i watched her videos. personally. >> when she started to get involved in video games. guess what. her head hit millions. the fact that she's under desperation feeds her popularity. she goes the media "i'm victim." charges. >> some supporters accused you of exaggerating the claims, speaking about them too much because you are trying to drum up publicity. >> everything i said is accurate. the reason i talked about this is someone has to take a stand. this keeps happening over and over again. >> i'll answer any question in the world that anyone has about anything - leadership, dynamics of working in this male-dominated space. >> reporter: in an industry where 90% of gamers are male, she hopes to provide cover for female game developers. >> the thing that is at stake is women being in game development or not. as an industry, we have o choice. we can keep our head in the sand or address the issue, making the industry a safe place to work. >> reporter: if you support gamer-gate, does that make you a bad guy. >> right now the outcome of gamer gate is terrorism. i think the movement itself is unredeemable. >> there's no indication they are logging off soon. i don't have experiences in my life where i cared about something and i wanted to stand up for it. video games have been under a lot of heat. i don't want to see them change. >> let's get the car and run someone over. >> reporter: the battle for video games is far from game over. and it's not game over in any stretch of the imagination, the issue of online threats and harassment has gone to the u.s. supreme court. they heard arguments on another case, and it could decide the nation. >> all these things keep happening. right now, today, we are looking at a case where the woman who accused men at a frat party at the university of virginia, on the internet someone is trying to identify her. this is going to the question of id and the internet. >> it's a lot like what we see in gamer gate. and it's called developing, where you try -- ddoxing,where you try to identify someone. generally in a rape case mainstream media will not identify that person, but you have trolls digging for information and they put it out there. you see that. speech. >> it's not necessarily who you think that it is putting out nasty messages. there's a scas where there was an individual receiving this, found out that they were mother. >> called mum. >> yes, but the situation raises questions about the issue of internet and anonymity. on twitter people can get online. profiles don't have to be verified. who do you know who you are talking to. big questions that we may get resolution, depending how the supreme court rules. >> adam may, thank you so much right after the break, a treatment that could change life for millions of american autism. successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms may be a powerful point to work. some symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. >> "america tonight"s michael oku on what could be a break through for the very young. and tomorrow on "america tonight", a different watershed. unions in dozens of states, but the fight for same-sex marriage is not over. adam may was an interview with a couple who wish to marry, could redefine same-sex marriage across the country. that's next week on "america tonight". more than 2 million americans live with autism. the c.b.c. reports that the rate has been rising. at the same time the treatments are improving of the there is one that holds promise. some are calling it a cure. "america tonight"s michael oku on an intensive programme that is giving parents hope. >> reporter: like most 4-year-old boys, noah loves to bounce on the trampoline, playing card games and exploring the furniture. when he was an infant his worried. >> i felt he wasn't as engaged, smiling or reciprocating. we were worried, concerned we were going down that road. >> that road was autism. christian and his mother had been down it before. their two older sons, justin and simon are autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic. and i have to imagine it was no less - i don't know, a sad feeling to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> autism now affects one in 68 american children. but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that is according to research from the u.c., davis mine institute. three years ago christian brought her kids here to participate in a study of children with autistic siblings. >> mel was in a high risk grouch. he had two siblings that had it. he was a boy. children in a group have a 50% chance of developing autism. he was in the highest risk group and showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noah when he was nine months old. detecting tell-tale signs, not responding to his name. noah. >> reporter: not mirroring gestures. >> can you do that? can you do that. >> here is where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high-risk babies might help. so she started training a small group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours a day of doing therapy with their children. we are talking about interactive techniques that would feel think. >> reporter: natural, except what is natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage, pause and wait for the songs, wait for him to look up, vocalise and be there to reinforce any form of communication. if you have children with autism, they are not reenforing you to continue to do those things. as a parent, you want to make them happy. it's more natural with a child with autism to let them play. >> reporter: at a risk of oversimplifying this, it's almost like you compel yourself to be in his face all the time. >> totally. but to make it complicated, you response. >> reporter: rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. results were remarkable. >> we looked at the data. for the first 12 weeks things are going downward a little bit. it's like withwhat is that?" we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onslaught of autism. after the first three months of slow down. they just turned a corner. you look at the data and every child shows a turn in the developmental line, no matter what we are monitoring. and it goes up into - for almost every baby, the normal range. >> by 15 months noah started engaging. his language started coming, and i just - i remember thinking "i think he's getting this." by 18 months the infant siblings said they didn't see any concerns any more, either. >> reporter: is noah showing signs of autism today? >> no. >> reporter: none? >> no. >> do you know what a squirrel is named? lucy. >> reporter: today noah interacts with everyone. six out of seven children shed autism symptoms and hit milestones. successful? >> first of all young brains are incredible aready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. some later symptoms may be consequences of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism, who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, and the messages stop coming because the child left the circle of the family. potent. of course, you know, as the authors are aware, there are some limitations. the biggest one being there were only seven children, and that they really didn't have a large well-matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> reporter: deborah from the university of connecticut says rogers results are promising but shouldn't be interpreted as a cure. while some older children overcome autism symptoms, their brains don't function likes those of typical children. >> the optimal outcome kids who could be described as recovered were not using the same brain areas as the typical kids. they were apparently compensating by overactivating other areas of the brain. so for that one reason, if no other, i wouldn't say it's likely that the kids were cured. >> reporter: whether or not the intervention cured these kids, it changed lives. >> the idea of a cure for autism - it kind of dependents on what you mean. we don't have biological tests that predict and diagnose autism. we look at the behaviour. autism is a disability, impairing every day function. so if you don't have an impairment in your every day function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for christian, she is hopeful noah will stay symptom free and is turning her attention to her youngest child, 9-month-old lucy. they are at the mind institute for an evaluation. >> at the end, good news. lucy's not showing early signs. >> terrific. >> reporter: i got to imagine there's something bittersweet about this. had you known about this earlier when you had the two other kids, you might have been able to engage in them in the same way. hindsight, right. it's hard. it's a hard place. we try not to go there too much. it would have been beneficial for justin. he didn't start until he was four. earlier intervention for him, as an infant, if i had known what i knew now, he'd probably struggle a lot less. >> reporter: rogers expects autism therapies to improve. to get more precise, like treatments for different cancers or infections. until then, she'll continue to guide parents with a tool she has. when parents ask me about that. what are the chances that we can get rid of autism. we say this is what i want for your child, for them to feel successful and confident and loved. happy with his or her life. is that enough. that's all i want for any of my children. let's focus on that. are >> reporter: are you confident one day there'll be a cure, and treatment? >> i - i think so. i think we are getting closer. i think i - i would love to say yes. i think that this - this opens a lot of doors that's nice to see. joining us now is dr paul wong from autism speaks, the organization works on advocacy and science about autism. it is tough to consider this anything near a cure. we are talking about a small number of kids that they have worked with. and the idea that a child could be identified at nine months. >> this was really amazing research. if you talk to professor rogers, she'd be circumspect saying that kids like noah. she wouldn't say they were diagnosed with autism at nine months, they were showing signs, and when you have two older brothers diagnosed with autism, he was at high risk to have autism. because he was at rick and because the other -- at risk, and because the other six kids were at high risk, they came in to see if they could help. they found positive results for six out of the seven. >> has the professor says we don't have by logical tests to screen for autism. is there progress on that front? >> that is tough slogging. autism is a behavioural diagnosis. we base it on what the child is like, how they act - their language, social interactions. it's like a number of other diagnosis. depression, schizophrenia. we don't have biological tests. >> your organization has been involved in helping to create some tracking, right? >> some sort of tracking, sorry. autism. >> yes, absolutely. we want to find early diving north-eastics, whether they are behavioural or medical tests that could find the kids as early as possible. and then the reason why dr rogers work is important, once you find them you need to find something to offer them. interventions. >> are you seeing that what therapy? >> that's what we have now, is the educational and behavioural therapies, focussing on language, the social interactions, they are the best-proven things. dr rogers research is early. she'd be the first to tell you we need to replicate the works. >> it's promising and important works that she and others in the u.s. and england are working on similar approaches. >> ahead in our final segment, the story behind the bear. who does not love him. winnie the poo's canadian connection next. >> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america [ ♪ music ] finally from us this hour - a bedtime story. generations of us all around the world know and love pooh bear. he is among the most popular children's book. it turns out that he or she has a secret and a past. the bear's tale from al jazeera's [ singing ] >> reporter: one of the best-known most-loved characters in children's literature was inspired by a real bear, acquired a century ago in canada. >> august 19, train. >> the pet was called winnie, after winnepeg. he took her to britain, where she became a regimental mascot. later it was housed at the london zoo, where she came to the attention of author aa milne and young son christopher robin. the rest is history. >> when i was a kid they used to say that. whenever anyone told the story, they said they'd have to tell the story. winnie the poo was my great grand bear. >> reporter: an exhibit of photos and diaries opened in toronto. they satellitele known, neglected recollects in a family attic. they are on display and online. a chronicle on how real life can lead to captivating literature. the appeal of childhood as a retreat, a place that they go back to and think of fondly and reflect on. the book really manages to epit somize that. >> the exhibit comes as the world marks the centenary, the outbreak of world war i. the popularity a counterweight to the horrors of the conflict. a soldier enreaching the lives of generations. >> lindsay is passing on the family story and tales of winnie the poo to her 2-year-old son cole. he is becoming aware of the family's role in the books that he's learnt to love. >> $20 for a fair. who'd have think it. that's it for us n "america tonight". if you would like to comment on the stories. log on to the website and join the conversation with us on twitter or facebook. goodnight. we'll have more of "america tonight" tomorrow. teach for america is supposed to educate poor children. >> schools where kids need grade teaching the most. >> can unprepared teachers make a difference? >> why are we sending them teachers with 5 weeks of training? >> announcer: this is al jazeera. hello, welcome to the newshour, i'm here in doha, these are the top stories on al jazeera. secret prisons and torture did not work - the u.s. senate report slams the c.i.a.'s interrogation techniques. [ explosion ] iraq asks for more help from the u.s. in the fight against i.s.i.l. a special report on the iraqi forces battling the group lisa zimmermann's president-
eric garner chokehold case. and a report regarding eliminating autism. accountability emerging after a senate report revealed harsh c.i.a. interrogation practices, many call torture. many believe criminal charges should be brought against american officials. one senator called the c.i.a. direct arrest liar and said he should quit. but despite thousands of pages of evidence it's unlikely that anyone will be prosecuted. >> reporter: senator mark udall, democrat of colorado, who sits on the intelligence committee, has long been critical of the c.i.a. and it's director john brennan saying that brennan and the c.i.a. are continue to go willfully provide inaccurate information and misrepresent how ineffective torture is. mark udall said the c.i.a. is lying. >> it's bad enough not to prosecute these officials, but to reward or promote them and risk the enter great o integrity of the u.s. government is incomprehensible. the president needs to purge his administration of high-level officials instrumental in the running of this program. >> it was not the first time that mark udall has called for john brennan to resign as head of the c.i.a. he called for it over the summer when the c.i.a. was accused of searching computers to compile this explosive report. they said they were not digging into the computers, and then later recanted this statement. mark udall is using his last major moments in washington to rail against the c.i.a. >> libby, how is the white house responding to these calls for accountability? >> well, they're focusing on what president obama did when he first came in to office. he banned these so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, and the president and his staffers keep pointing back to that. josh earnest was asked about further accountability, and he pointed out that the department of justice did investigate this. they closed that investigation back in 2012, and basically earnest said that it's not the white house who should be the one digging in to the past. >> there is a process in place that is administered by career professionals who did what they were supposed to do in taking a careful look at this, and they reached their own conclusions, and the president certainly believes firmly in their confidence and in the system. >> and now earnest notes that it's not the president who looks in to the criminality of what the people in the c.i.a. may have done, but that's not enough to many critics, who say there needs to be some form of accountability. >> libby casey for us. appreciate it. thank you. there have been questions about international courts stepping in if the u.s. does not prosecute cases of torture. but that is unlikely even though the u.s. healt helped to draft and side the convention against torture. all but 31 nations signed on since it was adopted in 1984. ten nations have signed on but have not ratified the agreement. the u.s. said that the treaty only applies to actions inside it's borders. but article 5 says actions carried out in guantanamo are part of the statute. roxana saberi spoke today to one of the men widely believed to be one of the so-called architects of the program. >> reporter: i reached james mitchell by phone in florida. he told me he could not confirm or deny if he was one of the two psychologists referred to in the report. but he criticized the report and praised the c.i.a. interrogators saying they did the best they could to protect americans. the report refers several times to two psychologists who helped the c.i.a. in the use of brutal interrogation. the report said it devised the enhanced interrogation techniq techniques including nudity, waterboarding and slamming detainees into walls. in identifying the contractors, their real names are reported as james mitching and bruce jensen, both former military psychologists. in a phone interfer interview with al jazeera, he said they were not through in realtime and men and women in the c.i.a. without confirming or denying that i was part of that interrogation program gave their lives to support the u.s. in our conversation he refused to confirm he was one of the architects of the program. he said people think i am. i'm not acknowledging it one way or another. he talks about the benefits of waterboarding. >> does waterboarding constitute torture. you can do it in a way so the person experiences less further on. >> reporter: some threatened to quic quit but the two psychologists insist that al nashiri and other prisoners were holding on to information. the two psychologists had no experience as interrogators, yet they personally oversaw and conducted interrogation using the techniques they had devised. mitchell said he has experience and training in interrogators, he said the c.i.a. men and women did the best they could. so i applaud them. >> reporter: he said his phone has been ringing off the hook today. the senate report said that the two psychologists began a company that took over the c.i.a. program and the c.i.a. paid them $81 million. >> roxana saberi for us. congress is running out of time to pass a bill to fund the government. the current authorization expires tomorrow night. the bill on the table right now funds most of the government through next september, but it only funds the homeland security department through february 27th, and it contains a number of controversial policy provisions. al jazeera's political correspondent michael shure, there he is. michael, does funding homeland security for only a few months here mean we will see a battle over the president's immigration actions early next year? >> yes, it would guarantee that and it's why it's not an omnib omnibus. it is continuing bill that will take us through september of next year. you'll remember i told you this lame duck session is not going to be such a lame duck session. there is a lot going on right now. that part of it, that funding of the--the department of homeland security has everything to do with the president's executive action on immigration because it is the department of homeland security that will ultimately be in charge of enforcing that. the white house is saying you take us through february. that's fine. but we need this to go on. we know that you'll have a new republican congress in control in washington by february, and they are going to try to dismantle that and override it. but the president thinks that, and the white house think that and he is a lot of democrats think it will be up and running already. it will be very difficult preliminarily and technically to get that stopped. >> i would be surprised if the republicans are going to take the position that they're going to withhold money from security and background checks and other elements that are critical to homeland security just in protest over the president taking executive action that is consistent with the kind of actions taken by presidents in the past. >> that's just it. you sea josh earnest saying, that's exactly what will happen, what republicans will have to support. if you want to shut the department of homeland security down, be our guest. that means there is going to be no border enforcement or processing of immigrants at all. it will be a very difficult thing for republicans to do if they're involved in that way. >> yes, it will be tough. the bill also contains policy writers that are causing controversy on capitol hill. what are they? >> well, there are two in particular that aside from the homeland security that we just talked about, and the executive action. one of them, and i just got off the phone about senator elizabeth warren's office, this part of it, they have said they have confirmed that the senator will not support this bill should this be in it going fubbed. that's a roll back of the dodd frank regulation on derivatives training. the republicans want to tear that apart piece by piece as well. that is going to give a lot of fodder to wall street. and secondly, there is a campaign finance part of the bill. it's a rider in there that increases from $77,000 that an individual can give now--i'm sorry from $92,500 to $777,000. a huge difference in the amount of money that an individual can give to a political party. a lot of that money is restricted in the way its spent on political conventions, on office renovations it's a tremendous amount of money for one person to give. then of course have a lot of influence in washington. >> what is the likelihood that this bill will actually brass? >> if it were up right now i would say that it's unlikely. i think the republicans are too many within boehner's caucus that don't want to see any extension. they want to deal with obama's executive action today. they don't want to put it off until february for reasons we talked about, and there are a number of democrats who won't support that, senator warren, and senator van holland said that he will not support it either because there is too much between campaign finances and the go dodd frank, it will be very tough. >> good to see you. good to talk to you. thank you. new tensions in the middle east to tell you about. a palestinian minister ziad abu aeu ein dade after confrontation with israeli police officers in the west bank. nick schifrin with us in israel. i understand this confrontation happened during a protest against land confiscation? >> reporter: yes, that's absolutely right. tonight there is a lot of tension here, tony in jerusalem, in the occupied west bank, in are a mala where this protest took place to calm some of the tension right now we're waiting for an unusual autopsy by jordanian officials. abu ein was a popular man who died doing what he pent his life doing. >> from the very beginning this protest was personal. palestinians demonstrating against land confiscated by israel. israeli police firing tear gas to disperse protesters protecting nearby jewish outposts. in the middle palestinian ministers, eyewitnesses tell al jazeera an israeli police officer struck him in the chest, and then put his hands around abu ein's neck. minutes later he was out of breath. >> they attacked us. a soldier tells another man to go away. abu ein dismisses him and continues with what would be his final words. >> this is the occupation and they're stopping the palestinians from their rights. they attacked us immediately before anyon anyone threw a stone or attacked them. >> immediately after the interview abu ein feels faint. he lies down and clutches his chest. he begins to lose consciousness. they begin to administer first aid. who did this? you did this, and now you try to save him? >> the palestinians try to get him to the hospital. the protesters carry him towards an ambulance, place him on a gurney, and he would never regain consciousness. by the time his family arrived at the hospital he was dead. tonight his sister told me he decide a martyr. >> in the end he paid with his life because settlers and soldiers didn't like he raised his voice. >> reporter: defense minister released a statement saying, quote, the event in which ziad abu ein died is under investigation by the idf. we express sorrow over his death. some palestinian officials want the coordination to end, and president mahmood a abbas called it a murder. abu ein was a popular figure. he was taken prisoner and released in a prisoner swap. >> he fight for the freedom of his country. he fight for the freedom of palestine, for the palestinian rights. >> palestinians say they're used to civilians dieing in clashes with israeli forces, but this was a minister. it was supposed to be a peaceful protest. >> abu ein's funeral will take place tomorrow. and it will clearly be an event that will increase tensions between israelis and palestinians. >> nick schifrin for us in jerusalem. thank you. a call for action today on the steps of new york city hall. the so-called day of action comes as protesters nationwide demand their voices be heard. in light of the grand jury's decision last week not to indict the police officer involved in eric garner's death. paul beban joins us now. the group has a list of demands for city leaders. maybe you can run through just a few for us. >> absolutely, tony. right now actually behind us at this gathering and on city hall steps. russell simmons is speaking about these issues on behalf of this group calling itself the justice league nyca coalition of community groups as you mentioned that has come together in the wake of the grand jury decision not to indict the officer involved in the death of eric garner. one of the first demands is that officer pantaleo, the officer who put eric garner in a chokehold, be fired. after that they're asking for a broad array of reform to police in the new york system. policies, community outreach to educate people and officers of how these kinds of interactions can be de-escalated. they're asking for meetings with bill de blasio, attorney general eric snyder, and governor andrew cuomo to discuss these issues. they say they're going to be here until those demands are met. >> paul beban for us in new york city, thank you. attorney general eric holder said that the justice department will investigate the deaths of eric garner and michael brown, but most legal eggs percent say that the officers will not see criminal charges. >> reporter: the law was intended to protect newly freed african-americans from illegal treatment by law enforcement officers. recently it has been used successfully to prosecute police, and contrary to conventional wisdom of many legal experts we met a formal prosecutor who believes that it might apply to the garner case. >> i'm here to announce that the justice department will proceed with a federal rights investigation into about garner's death. >> reporter: it was the second time in three months that attorney general eric holder said that the federal government would investigate a police officer in the death of an african-american man. the federal justice system has dealt with this kind of case before. march 3, 1991, after a high-speed chase a video camera caught the police beating of rodney king of los angeles. a state jury acquitted all four officers of all charges. >> we the jury in the above entitled action find the defendant lawrence m. powell not guilty. >> reporter: that verdict triggered riots in los angeles. and it resulted in a civil rights case that brought convictions against two of the officers. >> what does the federal prosecutor have to do in order to just bring charges of civil rights violations against a police officer. >> well, they have to show that the officer acted willfully to violate the civil rights, the rights to be free of unreasonable force. >> reporter: police officer panaleo's attorney said that he was resisting arrest. >> as soon as officer pantaleo wrapped his right arm under garner's right arm and then his left arm around his neck, garner put his hands up and palms open to say that he's not fighting. he's not resisting. the immediate and very aggressive jump to a chokehold is what makes this case a federal crime. >> and what about the police defense that if garner could speak he could breathe. >> he's clearly in respiratory distress, and the officers should have taken steps to help him breathe. they should have sat him up, monitored his breathing and gotten immediate medical attention. >> leventhal said that the case against darren wilson, who shot and killed michael brown, might be tough for prosecute since there is no video, and many questions remain unanswered. but for eric garner's death in leventhal's opinion, there is no question. >> with the evidence being as strong as it is, with that video being what it is, to me it's as clear as day that this is unreasonable, unjustifiable force. >> the investigation into garner's death is being conducted by an attorney's office in brooklyn. they would not say whether a grand jury has been impaneled to say if the police officer should go on trial. >> detroit's bankruptcy ends today. how the city aims to make good on $7 billion in debt. and protesters in hong kong told to clear out before police do it for them. >> the c.i.a. torture report cost the government $40 million partially due to push back from the agency. now we're learning more about just how much money was paid out to run the interrogation program. thomas? >> according to the senate report the c.i.a. program called hundreds of millions of dollars to operate and in many cases the c.i.a. spared no expense telling its officers to make wish lists of what they needed, and reminding them to think big. it was a c.i.a. wish list that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. reading through the report many amounts are blacked out, but it's clear that money flowed freely. one agent remarked that his office had more money than they could spend. they had facilities costing more than $300 million. the report highlights a payment to a country that housed a facility. a relationship that caused ongoing difficulties for the c.i.a. the c.i.a. eventually gave millions of dollars to the country after which it was reported that there was flexibility with regard to the number of detainees at the facility. among the other big cost a multi million dollar contract awarded to a company created by two retired u.s. aforce psychologists who played key roles in implementing the program. >> in 2005 the two contractors formed a company specifically for the purpose of expanding their work with the c.i.a. for '05 to '08 the c.i.a. outsourced almost all aspects of its detention and interrogation program to this country as part of a contract valued as more than $180 million. ultimately not all contract options were exercised. however, the c.i.a. has paid these two contractors and their companies more than $80 million. >> according to the report the two men had never worked as interrogators, and didn't have a background in terrorism yet they designed most of the methods used. the report also highlights how the c.i.a. paid out $1.1 million to cover legal expenses for the company and it's employees. government investigators were told about how the c.i.a. provided millions of dollars to build and maintain secret detention sites in foreign countries, including two facilities that were never used. suspects that were mistakenly detained were paid off after they were released and instructed not to speak about the experience. one prisoner receiving $18,000 at the time of his release. one person told investigators that payments of more than $1 million were made without any paperwork, in cash, out of boxes containing hundred dollars bills adding we never counted it. >> according to the report the checkbook was clearly wide open here. in addition to the gifts of foreign government there is was employee rewards and one case of c.i.a. officer received a cash reward of $2,500 for simply doing a great job. >> that's great to follow the money always reveals so. thomas, appreciate it. thank you. one of the psychologists you just heard thomas mention is widely believed to be james mitchell. let's bring in vice news jason leopold. he conducted an interview in which mitchell spoke out about the inter gas station program. the whole interfere i interview is online for people to take a look and judge for themselves. why won't mitchell come out and discuss his role in the program? >> great question. he really does want to discuss his role in the program, but he is bound by a non-disclosure agreement that the c.i.a. and the justice department forced him to sign. during our interview you could tell that he really wanted to get into details, particularly allegations that he did not have any experience. allegations that he personally water borde water-boarded prisoners, but he can't talk about that. he fears if he says anything about the program and confirms his role in the program, that he'll be prosecuted. >> does he really believe that the justice department or the c.i.a. would go after him on discussing his role in a program because of this non-disclosure when it is clear at this point that no one seemingly involved in this program is going to be prosecuted? >> he does believe that, and he believes the justice department would do that, and perhaps a criminal referral would be made. he sees this report and everything surrounding the discussions about the torture program very partisan. he sees it as democrats trying to rewrite history. he says conclusions drawn in the report is fiction. he feels if he were to break his non-disclosure and discuss it, then the democrats in the justice department, attorney general eric holder would go after him. perhaps dianne feinstein would make a criminal referral. he has been very cautious. but he has revealed quite a bit in this interview. >> then didn't he already in violation? hhe puts the news corporation in an awkward situation. he won't talk about is in any detail but he'll criticize the findings of the report that is critical of the program he designed? >> yes, and this is a 25-minute interview. at the end of the interview he talks about what happened after 9/11, and how he made a phone call to someone who is, quote, managing his contract, saying something should be done. the response he received was, well, how can we ask anyone to do something if you're not willing to do it yourself? he said that he was willing to help. when that statement was made he did something. this is what he did after 9/11. it leaves no doubt in my mind, certainly, that he is th the architect of the program. he has been named before by journalists and human rights groups in previous investigations that took a close look at this program, at the techniques, how the c.i.a. came to use these survival evasion resistence, how to avoid torture if captured by an enemy, and james mitchell discusses that in quite a bit of detail in this interview. >> i'm confused by this. he was not--i'm assuming--he was not called to testify before the senate intelligence committee, correct? >> he said that he actually wanted to speak with them. he wished that they would have identified him by name because then he felt that that would give him some leverage to get the justice department and c.i.a. to close out that jon disclosure. >> jason, thank you. in amon hong kong more than two months of pro-democracy protests coming to an end. rob mcbride now reports from hong kong. >> reporter: a tank made out to trash guards the approach to this site. neither it nor the barricades will stop the police when they come. the self-styled umbrella square is where the movement began. it is where it will likely end. on december 28th thousands surged past police lines to block one of hong kong's busiest highways. >> it's just a new day for hong kong. >> reporter: activist henry chung was among the first to protest. over two months on he's still here and waiting for arrested when the police move in. >> i do not believe in the last day. >> kelly has an eight-year-old son to return home to, and she's packing up. she, too, believes this is the start of a larger campaign, and there will be more actions. >> yes, there will be. i don't know when but welcome back. >> reporter: with the hours ticking away many hong kong people have been coming to witness and document the flurry relinquishing cultural movement that has accompanied politics. >> it's sad that this will be lost and become history. but people's awareness of democracy has been sparked. >> as the movement becomes increasingly marred in clashes and infighting and falling support, what has started as an autumn of discontent has lumbered into a winter of dashed hopes. >> "time" magazine's person of the year is not a person at all. the magazine chose to honor all the different people who have taken on ebola. the editor write when governments were not equipped to step in individuals stepped in to do the job. sierrsierra leone has overtaken liberia with the most ebola cases. the country has reduced the number of new cases from 100 per day to 10 per day. promising new therapy that could eliminate signs of autism. some say it could be a breakthrough. plus the journalist who used disney movies to reach out to his autistic son. plus a new policy cracking done on how players handle themselves on and off the field. >> for the first time researchers say they can treat early signs of autism in babies as young as six months old could help eliminate signs of the disorder. here is a look at autism by the numbers. it affects one in 68 american children. children with an autistic sibling the risk goes up to one in five. but researchers say intervening at a young age may be the answer. al jazeera's michael owe cool has the details. >> reporter: like most four-year-old boys noah likes to jump on the trampoline, playing cards games and exploring the furniture. but when he was an infant, he had his mother worried. >> he was not engaging, smiling or reciprocating. we were worried. we were sure we are going down that road. >> reporter: that road was autism, and they had been down it before. their wh two older sons are both autistic. >> noah is in a high risk group for autism because he has two siblings who have it, and he's a boy. >> reporter: sally rogers evaluated noah when he was nine months old. detecting the tell tale early signs. not responding to his name. not mirroring her gestures. but here's where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high risk babies might help. so she started training a small group of parents. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage him and pause and wait for once you learn the songs, wait for him to look up at me, vocalize and be there to reinforce any form of communication. rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. the results were remarkable. >> after that first three months of a slow down, the babies in our study turned a corner and right up into for almost every baby's normal range. >> is noah showing any signs of autism today? >> no, none. >> six out of the seven children in the study shed their autism symptoms and were hitting normal developpal milestones. >> this intervention appears to be very potent. of course, the authors are well aware there are limitations. the biggest one being there were only seven children, and that they really didn't have a large, well-matched control group. >> reporter: debra fein said that the results were promising you, but they should not be interpreted as a cure. >> a cure depends on what you mean. if you don't have an impairment in your every day function it's hard to say that somebody has autism. >> do you feel confident that one day there will be a cure, and that cure may very well be connected to this treatment? >> i think so. i think we're getting closer. i would love to say yes. this opens a lot of doors. >> al jazeera, sacramento, california. >> many children with autism tend to focus on things like video games. and in the case of owen its classic disney movies. but his family said those movies are exactly what helped them to reach their son. in memory euro "life animated" he revealed how his family used situations to help owen connect to real life. we're live from cambridge, massachusetts. it is good to see you. thanks for being on the program. >> nice to be here. >> what are your thoughts on this research outlined in the report. on a small number of children. five of the seven children treated with this early intervention program showed no signs of autism today. what are your thoughts? >> well look, it's a very promising, as debra fein said, preliminary. i know sally rogers. she is an eminent researcher, clinician, and really a leader, and it's going to cause a great deal of positive interests. what is interesting as i see it what we did with owen and what sally is doing with those kids, they're cousins a bit. it's identifying as early as possible that there is an issue, and then trying to live inside the kid. create ways to pull them out. she has developed a model that seems to be effective. we have to improvise ours over 20 years, but the key is to try to help the self-directed energies of the kid be something that you can tap, grab, hold. that's what they're doing there as well as using where the kid is, the tests that the kid is doing, day-to-day life, and finding ways to connect, and find ways to appreciate interaction with other human beings early as the brain is being shaped, in crucial early days. >> how did you learn that your son owen could be reached through the characters in the disney movies? >> he is a late on-set kid. they feel that they vanish, the autism has it's on set somewhere between 18 months and 36 months. so he was chatting away at two. i love you. let's get ice cream, and by three he lost all language. but what he loved before and after the on set of the autism was something that all kids love during that period. the disney movies. owen liked that before and after, and he would keep watching the movies over and over again and he would start to murmur gibberish. he starts to measurer just your voice for the little mermaid, and before they would say this is gibberish. they don't understand what they're saying. it's like a parrot. but when he's six and a half his brother gets emotional at a birthday party. owen is only uttering two or three sentences at that point. he walks in the kitchen and says walter does not want to grow up like mogley or peter pan. that night we realized he had memorized dozens of disney animated movies. if you throw him a line he will throw you back the next line. he would outrun you quickly but he knew them all. the question is does he really understand what these words mean, and over time we realized he did. he had learned to understand them as owen talks about now because he watched the movies, listened to the sounds, and the vivid expressions created a decoding device for him to make sense of what he was hearing. >> there is a great video available online produced by the folks over at "the new york times" that is terrific about your relationship with your son. you know, he is a young adult now. how is he doing? >> he's doing great. he'll always be autistic. i don't think its stalled or broken. it's a way of being. i'm not sure that we'll ever been at a place where he's cured. but he lives in a self-supported life. he paints the disney animated characters in andy warhol color spanishs. he has a job at toys "r" us. >> that's terrific. >> he's on his way to the independent life, which has always been his dream. and let me just say there are many kids coming to us who have affinities of all kinds. it could be disney, an may, black and whites of the 40's, anything. we tell parents to get in that affinity with them. learn to speak the language of that affinity and you see their underlying capabilities, and eventually you'll be able to express love to them and express that love back, and in a way you're helping them be more like themselves in an independent way rather than more like you, and their passion we find is a pathway, they're choosing these deep interests for a reason. maybe the way their brain works and satisfied, and the key is to help them follow their own path. eventually these paths all lead to sun light. they want to connect. they use these affinities to get to you and all the things that matter. >> ron. >> it's a very hopeful time. >> what a story. what a story. and the story continues. ron with us from cambridge, massachusetts. good to talk to you. thank you, sir. still to come on the program. protesting against a tax on tap water. people in ireland are furious, and now they have folks from detroit joining their fight. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. now that a senate committee has laid bare the graphic details of inter gas station methods used by the c.i.a. after 9/11, the calls for prosecution to the operators involved and their bosses are screaming out. was the law broken in the name of national security, and should anyone face punishment? we're live with that at the top of the hour. >> tive tell you an embarrassing incident. the nfl announced a new personal conduct policy and it calls for tough standards and strict punishment for anyone in the league who violates those rules. >> highly anticipated. >> yes. >> and people are already criticizing it. after admitting his mistakes in handling the ray rice i want, roger goodell promised improvement to the league's policy. he revealed what he called a revised and strengthened policy, which was approved by all 32 league owners. the league implemented the policies. appeals will continue to be heard by the commissioner and it will be an automatic six-game suspension for violations of assault, domestic violence or child abuse. it comes after several players most notably ray rice and adrian peterson. teams, players, coaches and owners including colts owners when was arrested for driving under the influence of pain pills. >> it is better associated with the nfl. being part of the nfl is a privilege. it is not a right. the measures adopted today up hold that principle. >> while all 32 team owners endorsed the changes, the union contends any alteration should be collectively bargained. the biggest concern is roger goodell having the final say over appeals process. >> we gave that a lot of thought, and the reason is that that's the one person that understands what's important long-term interests of the game. owners can have specific interests. players can, but the commissioner is looking at the long-term best interest of the game. that's what separates us. >> now kraft said that the owners and the commissioners they did consider using an independent arbitrator in the future, but they felt anyone could water down the league's best interest. in other words they want one of their own making that final call. >> michael, thank you. >> like i said, people already criticizing. >> yes, it is a plan to cut costs by charging for tap water. people across ireland demonstrated against the government plan and the protesters are gaining traction on social media. ines is here with that. >> reporter: yes, tony, people are protesting about this because as of 2015 households will have to pay up to $250 per year. a group of activists from detroit traveled to ireland. >> i came to support dublin in their fight, in their fight for water pap because water is a human right. i'm living proof that your water can be disconnected. when it is disconnected, how are you going to survive on a daily basis. >> from dublin to detroit, water is a human right. >> they've been coming up with innovative ways online. >> irish water is not for sale. >> reporter: so this video has gone viral. hundreds of thousands of viewe viewers. >> this is good. this will for a while. ines, appreciate it. that is all of our time for this news hour. i'm tony harris. if you would like information on any of the stories from this news hour, there it is, www.aljazeera.com. www.aljazeera.com. inside story with ray suarez is next. >> the argument about whether to release the so-called torture report is over. it's now moving to what we do with the information now that it's public. to prosecute or not. it's inside story. >> hello, i'm ray suarez. the senate intelligence
>> on "america tonight": the weekend edition. stunning confessions from the fortress of faith. a blockbuster report backs up about conclusions of an "america tonight" investigation into the flagship university of christian fundamentalism and how it dealt with victims of sexual assault. >> it confirmed my worst nightmare. it was something about me, in my thoughts. >> "america tonight's" sarah hoye met victims, who received abuse confirmed the pain of their assaults. and now a follow up as bob jones university officials admit they made mistakes. game on. a full on sexual assault. >> you were threatened by rape, murder. your husband was threatened. >> who what why where and when they were going to murder my husband. it was to personally destroy the woman that was critiquing them. >> "america tonight's" adam may on game esh gate. gamer gate. a backlash against those who dared to speak up. and tuning in. new research that could mean break through for children with very early signs of autism. michael okwu on efforts to reach into their world and break the silence before it's too late. ♪ ♪ >> good evening, thanks for joining us. we're "america tonight," the weekend edition i'm joie chen. flagship university of christian fundamentalism, allegations seemed stunning almost unbelievable. leaders at bob jones university blamed sex assault victims for their abuse shaming many into walking away. but now a blockbuster review, confirming what "america tonight's" sarah hoye's first investigation reported, that sex assault victims at bju suffered a second time at the hands of those they were supposed to help. >> i think they should have not heaped more shame on me because i was already filled to the brim with shame. i didn't need anymore. >> reporter: katy landry is putting the piece is of her life back together. it's been nearly a decade since she left the bob jones university the flagship of christian fundamentalist education. and she says a place that fails rape victims like herself. >> i love my teachers, i love the school. i'm not sorry i went there. but what i am sorry about is that they seem -- they seem so unwilling to acknowledge when they've done wrong. >> reporter: so here's the so-called fortress of faith. bob jones university in greenville, south carolina. there's almost 4,000 students who go here to this private college. the teachings follow a pretty literal teachings of the be bible, the tenets are pretty strict, no watching tv, no hand holding. and a little bit could get you kicked out. >> she was working for an ambulance r company. when she was raped. >> i felt the prick of a needle and he came over and took my cloafts off. clothes off. i could still speak i was telling him no and he remained . i could feel the tears but i couldn't wipe the tears away. >> landry returned to work. >> he raped me again. two weeks later i left for my freshman year at bob jones university. >> raised in a conservativ conservativemenonnite university. >> i didn't understand why he had picked me, i thought there must have been something about me . was it something that he saw that said it was okay to do this to her, was there something inside of me? and then, i thought if he could see it, does that mean other people can see it as well? and i just -- i needed help. i needed help really bad. >> she was referred to jim berg for counseling. the dean of students at the time. but she says he blamed her for the assault. >> he asked me if i had been smoking pot. and i really -- i started to get this almost dizzy feeling. and then he asked me if i had been impure with this man, had i had relations with this man. and i kept telling him no to all these questions. but he either didn't believe me or he hadn't heard or he wasn't going to help me. and he said we have to find the sin in your life that caused your raich. anrape. and i just ran. i ran out the steps of the administration building and he confirmed my worst nightmare. it was something i had done. it was something about me. it was my thought. >> now 31, landry said she wanted to come forward when she learned other students at bob jones shared her experience. in 2011, a bob jones trustee resigned when news reports surfaced that he had allegedly covered up the rape of a 15-year-old girl and forced her to confess her sin in front of her fundamentalist church. godly response to abuse in the christian environment to conduct an investigation into the school's sexual abuse reports. grace, a grandson had spent the last two years talking to victims, students, faculty and administrators. 50 self-identified victims have come forward to tell their stories to grace investigators. one survey-taker commented women and girls are taught they must confess the part of sexual abuse they enjoyed that they probably enticed their abuser. according to the independent report survey takers were also discouraged for making police reports. with one commenter saying she was told it's best not to make a big deal about this for good of the school. some of the assaults took place on campus. some didn't. but bju students who come forward says there's a culture of victim-blaming by school counselors and administrators. before the report was made public on thursday bju president steve pettit said he was sorry, we didn't live up to their expectations. we failed to honor our own core values. those surveyed for the report describe bju's response to their abuse as hurtful and the school's culture as blaming and disparaging. this former students asked we conceal her identity out of fear of retaliation. while growing up she says a family member repeatedly raped her. >> i grew up in a very conservative christian home. and one of the things that we were taught was to obey. and i didn't understand what this was. i didn't even know what sex was at that point. didn't know any anatomical terms. nothing. all i knew was that it hurt. and that i didn't like it. >> when she started at bob jones in the late 2000s, she thought she would finally be able to get help. she was referred to professor pat berg for counseling, the wife of jim berg, the former dean of students who counseled katy landry. she was told the repeated rapes were her own fault. >> she talked about my sin regarding it. one example would be she would repeatedly say that if i had ever experienced pleasure at any point while he was doing this to me, that that was sin that i needed to repent of. i remember her looking at me, and saying "you know that the nightmares are your own fault. because you're choosing to replay pornographic thoughts in your mind." >> during the investigation grace reviewed a number of materials including court documents and e-mails from pat berg calling the former student to call her rapist and ask for forgiveness. >> you being advised i think it would be best to say to him that since you have been at bju this year god has been working in your heart. god has shown you that you were wrong, not to forgive him, as christ has forgiven you. >> i had to ask to forgive him. >> forgive you for what? >> because i had surveilled for not asking him to forgive me. >> she had to call her are apist. >> it was so incredibly hard. picking up that phone and calling him was one of the most gut-wrenchingly hard things that i ever had to do. it didn't bring me healing, it didn't bring me closure. it's like sticking a knife inside and twisting it further. >> jim and pat are noarc known r their counseling on and off campus. >> this is why we say, you do what you do because you are what you are. to change what you go you must cooperate with god to change what you are. >> the grace report recommends that jim berg be banned from counseling entirely and that the campus bookstore be stripped of all materials associated with him. this former student continued with counseling at bob jones despite the unsettling nature of the sessions. >> the reason i continued to go is because i was still so desperate for some ray of light, for something to help me better. if this is what my life is going to feel like i don't want to live anymore. >> finally, after graduating she took matters to her own hands and reported the rape to police. he was convicted of rape of a child under 12 years of age. >> if you had told me that dark day when i walked out of his office with no hope that one day my rapist would be convicted and sentenced to prison that i would be little a stable, successful life and that i would be healing from my abuse i would never have been able to believe you. but those are the miracles that i have seen my god do. >> reporter: others have taken the hard step to come forward are waiting with a hope and a prayer change will come. >> some day i would like to see a world where universities, churches, schools, families, friends, stand alongside the victim. and not cover up the abuse. >> reporter: sarah hoye, al jazeera. >> after the break: sandwich shop workers in a serious pickle. >> i can't work at a gas station. i can't work at a mom and pop shop. i can't work at subway, panera, anything like that. >> a controversial worker that keeps even low wage workers in line. can they be forced to sign? it could have been them >> fault lines, ferguson: race and justice in the u.s. one hour special only on al jazeera america >> talk about being sandwiched in. workers at the bottom of the pay scale with few options for employment now some facing an extra challenge. tough legal documents that include so-called no-compete clauses that keep them from moving on to other jobs. some workers there are fighting back. in an "america tonight" exclusive, correspondent christof putzel talk to two workers in their first ever interview about what keeps them on the sandwich line. >> this is the jimmy john's blt, there is nothing anyone that would consider a mystery unless you are jimmy john's. to them this simple sandwich is a trade secret to be protected at all cost. for kaitlin and emily, that mindset has placed a virtual job lock on their job prospects. emily is an significant manager at a store near chicago. her hourly pay amounts to less than minimum wage. until recently, kaitlin also worked at a local jimmy john's. we met them at a nearby restaurant. >> we wouldn't be able to work here. >> you wouldn't? >> no, end of discussion. they have a list of sandwiches. >> kaitlin is talking about this. an agreement which all jimmy john's workers must sign. for two years it forbids former employees from working at a place that derives more than 10% of its revenue from switches. >> you're not allowed to work? >> yeah, so waiting tables is pretty much out of the question, i guess. >> and is this a place you'd like to work? >> yeah, i'm sure people would tip well here. >> under the jimmy john's agreement, caitd lyn kaitlin any can't work for any food establishment in any capacity. not just employee, but owner, investor, advisor. this map shows how limited their job prospects are. anywhere there's red they can't work for a competing business. >> i can't work at a gas station. i can't work at a plom and pop shop. i can't work at subway, panera, anything like that. anything that basically serves sandwiches. >> for kaitlin and emily, jimmy john's was an entry level job. both would like a higher paying job. this lawsuit is the first of its kind and this is first television interview. >> why do you think they had you sign the noncompete agreement? >> well it's to make sure you don't share trade secrets but how much really is in a trade secret about making a blt? >> reporter: did you think anything of it when you signed it? >> i assumed you know it was all necessary. i knew i had to fill out the w-2s, i had to sign my name on the dotted line. i just needed that job. >> hello, jimmy john's. >> jimmy john's here. >> what took you so long? >> jimmy john's is one of the biggest restaurants changes in america. employing more than 80,000 workers. the average in store worker makes about $8 an hour. it's also one of the fastest growing chains. there are now more than 2,000 jimmy john's stores located in 44 states. the sandwich maker's national footprint has big consequences for its former employees. remember for two years they can't work within three miles of a jimmy john's anywhere. >> a noncompete provision makes life even more difficult for a demographic that is already struggling. >> kathleen chavez is the attorney representing kaitlin and emily. she says noncompetition agreements not only limit future employment opportunities but the ability to negotiate for better pay while still on the job. kaitlin and emily says jimmy john's has denied them promotions and raises. >> i don't know why anyone would have a nobody skilled employee sign on a noncompete agreement. >> you don't know why? >> it's baffling. the only reason would be to somehow box them in and control them. it's a way of controlling individuals and essentially subjecting them to whatever employment practices you want. >> jimmy john's declined our request for an on camera interview. we followed up with an comeal e. why do they have to sign? they declined that request as well. workers from hairstylists to summer camp counselors to yoga instructors are now being required to sign such documents. that's gotten the attention of congress. >> limit workers options and force them to stay in low wage work. >> congresswoman linda sanchez as well as 36 of her colleagues recently wrote the federal trade commission and the department of labor asking them to investigate. >> i thereto it was ridiculous. you are talking about workers on probably the lowest end of the pay scale. these are not corporate executives that have inside information and trade secrets. and it's using fear and intimidation to try to control what employee choices are. >> as for kaitlin and emily, both would like to go away to college. kaitlin recently got engaged and wants to become a vet. emily's thinking of pursuing a degree in social work. as students, a part time job would help them with college expenses. >> i want to try to leave and try to find something different but i feel like scared to leave. i don't know if i'll be able to find anything else. >> whether i was thinking of leaving the -- when i was thinking of leaving the first couple of times i was looking at other service-industry jobs and then i would have the reminder over my shoulder that i can't leave. >> we're being treated like we're property of the company. essentially like we can only work there and all the experience we have there is useless anywhere else. you're just a tool for them. >> reporter: now because of jimmy john's even a job in the college cafeteria could be out of the question. christof putzel, al jazeera, chicago. >> ahead on "america tonight": inside gamer-gate. the word of misogyny brutality and trolls and how even in the open forum of the internet some voices are silenced. >> you were threatened with rape, murder, your husband was threatened. >> who what where when and how. they were going to ruin me. the woman who was critiquing me. >> "america tonight"'s adam may and one of gamer gate's critics why she is speaking out. and whether this could lead to a cure for autism. dime of the clients. >> greed... >> bernie was stealing every nickel but he wasn't trading anything. >> ... and entitlement. >> you took my grandchildren's future away from them. >> you've heard of them of course, call of duty, assassins creed, grad theft auto, blockbuster games that have become household names. last year they spent $22 billion on games. but as gaming goes increasingly mainstream a darker side of the industry's also emerging. "america tonight's" adam may reports on the culture called gamergate. some of the images in his report are graphic. >> we are having a full on war and it's a war that has been put on hold for years. >> brianna wu is one of the warriors. a female video game designer in mostly male world. she created revolution 360. a game of women protagonists. women are heroes like men are in other games. >> once the domain of adolescent boys and men, the appeal is shifting, nearly half of gamers today are women but most games are still designed by men and critics like wu are calling out game designers for way they portray women. if. >> you have 30 years of this traditional male gamer being told he is the center of the universe. women when we exist are sex symbols. now that women are gaming, you're seeing all of that start to change. it's making all these people over here very uncomfortable. >> but wu has also become a lightning rod for gamers who see these criticisms as an attack on their identity. she says she was forced to flee her home after receiving death threats from angry gamers. >> you were threatened with rape, you were threatened with murder, your husband was threatened to be killed and cut his genitals off. >> you see these threats? they said who what why where and when they were going to murder me and my husband. >> the goal was simple, to destroy the woman who was critiquing the them. >> had you here for the whore? >> no. >> anita sarkissian. >> these are designed to function as environmental texture while titillating males. this is the essence of what -- >> accusing game designers of misogyny unleashed a hate-filled backlash. one person crated a game allowing users to virtually punch her in the face. sarkissian also cancelled a personal appearance in utah state, railing against what feminist lies and poison have done to the men of america. much of the vitriol appears on gamer gate. it has grown into a loose movement, associated with the worst of online harassment of women. gamergate is like a nut that you're dragging through the ocean. and it kind of picks up the worst gamers possible. you're basically creating this really angry anonymous mob. and i think you can't control a mob. >> so far, three women say they have been forced to leave their homes targeted by an onslaught of online threats. >> it's dumbfounding, when you are looking at it, we're talking about video games and you're threatening to rape and kill her for talking about video games. >> can you hear me? >> deanna zant stirred thnt stue of women in technological. to reduce women on social media. >> that's okay, they cannot or should not be able to say i'm going to come rape you and kill you. you know, that's where we start to cross the line a little bit. >> reporter: she attributes some of the viciousness of gamergate to the fact that the gamer community feels under attack. >> when we find a culture that we fit into, that makes us feel good even for messed up reasons like beating up pursuit prostitn grand theft auto, people are going to react in really horrible culturally sanctioned, frankly, ways. >> too bad she followed up. >> "america tonight" was given a rare glimpse into the mind of those who consider themselves part of gamergate. although they say no one here has never threatened anyone. >> any group large enough, there's always going to be a portion who take it too far. >> they share a passion for video games. >> you guys are really into this right? why are you into this? >> i get stressed out, i go play video games, it's a medical low baseline you can return to. >> they down play the sex and violence. >> it can be catharsis. it is very relaxing. it is something anyone can do, anyone can join. you can include all of new york city. you can get lost in that. >> joe's new york city apartment is a shrine to his favorite, giganta. he and his friends are lost in grand theft auto 5. >> how much do you say you would spend on video games every year? >> probably $4,000 everyyear. >> each game after it comes out is $60 for a aaa. >> video games have grown into a $100 billion industry. overtaking motion picture movie sales. video gaming press is powerful. a bad review can make or break a game. so when gaming milks printed articles about gamer gate, with titles gamers are over, and it's a horrible time to consider yourself a gamer tensions flared. >> people were pretty offended. it was a flat-out assumption that anyone who played games were misogynistic. >> which they fear could lead to censorship. >> if you start saying you can't have this in a game because it offends this group and you can't have this to me it seems like a slippery slope. like where would we stop? >> anita sarkissian has come up with a number of criticisms like women are oversexualized in these games. what do you feel she had to say? >> i watched some of her videos and it seemed a bit biased personally. >> when she started getting involved in video games, guess what her hits were in the millions. she goes to the media and she's like oh i'm a victim. >> brianna wu has also faced these charges. >> some gamergate supporters have accused o you of exaggerate rating, because you're trying to drum up publicity about your game. >> everything i've said is absolutely accurate. the reason i talk about this is somebody has to take a stand. this scenes happening over and over and over again. i will answer any question anyone has about anything. working this this male dominated space. >> an industry where 90% of game designers are male, wu hopes that acting as a role model and speaking out against online harassment she'll provide cover for other female game developers. >> the thing at stake is women being in game development or not being in game development. and as an industry we have a choice right now. we can keep our head in the sand or we can address this issue and kind of make the industry a safe place for women to work. >> if you support gairmin gamers that automatically make you one of the bad guys? >> right now the outcome of gamergate i use this word cautiously, it's terrorism against women. i think the venue itself is unredeemable. >> there's no indication that gamers are logging off any time soon. >> like i really wanted to stand up for it, video games have been under a lot of heat and i don't want to see them changed. >> the battle for the future of video games is far from game-over. adam may, al jazeera, new york. >> right after the break, a treatment that could change life for millions of americans with children living with autism. >> why do you think this was successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second: being able to work at the beginning symptoms may be particularly powerful point to work. because some later symptoms may actually be consequences of early symptoms. >> "america tonight's" michael okwu, on what could be a break through for the very young. >> good evening everyone i'm thomas drayton in new york. braiking news out of sydney australia. hostage situation started just before 10:00 a.m., that would be 6:00 p.m. l local standard time. they have blocked off the streets as you can see right there. this is from australian television news service 7. nearby buildings have been evacuated. we understand hostages are standing at windows with their hands up. this is at a lindt chocolate factory. once again breaking news out of sydney australia i tonight, a major police operation, several people inside a chocolate and cafe have been seen with their arms in the air. an ardent man is holding hostages. these images coming in from australian television. hundreds of armed police have sealed off martin place, sydney business district. new south wales have asked people to avoid the area. sid inopera house has been evacuated and we understand the air space has been shut down. we'll continue to follow the situation at 8:00 p.m. stay with us. fp >> it can be a frightening andi. more than 2 million americans now live with autism and the rate's been rising steadily for the last decade. at the same time, though, treessmenttreatments have been g with one suggesting it's a cure. "america tonight's" michael okwu now on an intensive treatment program that's giving some parents hope. >> like most four-year-old boys, noah hinson loves bouncing on the trampoline, playing card games with his siblings and exploring things. but when he was an infant, he had his mother worried. >> i felt like he wasn't engaging, we were pretty sure we were going down that road. >> that road was autism. kristin and her husband an air force pilot had been down it before. their two older sons are both autistic. >> had you a couple children already who were autistic. and i have to imagine that it was no less, i don't know, a sad feeling. >> yeah. >> to experience that. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> autism now affects one in 68 american children. but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that's according to research from the u.c. davis mind institute. three years ago kristin brought her kids here to participate in a study of children with autistic siblings. >> parallel is in a high risk because he has two siblings who already have it and he is a boy. children in that constellation has 50% risk factor for developing the disease himself, he was in the highest risk group and he showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noah when he was nine months old. detecting the telltale early signs. not responding to his name. >> noah, noah. >> not mirroring her gestures. >> can you do that? can you do that? >> but here's where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intervention with high risk babies might help. >> model and by giving it to you instead of just taking it. >> so she started training a small group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours a day of doing therapy with their children. we were talking about some focused interactive techniques that really would feel pretty natural to anybody doing these, i think. >> natural, except what's natural for autistic babies, is not to respond. >> they taught me kind of how to use the songs to engage him and pause and wait for once he learned the songs wait for him to look up at me or vocalize or be there to reinforce any form of communication. if you have children with autism, it's -- they're not reinforcing you to continue to do those things and as a parent you want to make them happy. it's more natural for a child with autism to let them play. >> at the risk of oversimplifying this, it is like you are compelling yourself to be in his face all the time. >> totally. but you wait for the response. >> the group evaluated noah and the other babies for the first 12 weeks. things were remarkable. >> things were going downward a little bit and we're like oh what's that? we know that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onset of autism. in the first three months of the little bit of slow down, the babies in our study turned the corner. if you look at the data and every single child shows this turn in their developmental lines. no matter what, the lines go up for almost every baby the normal range. >> by 15 months noah was -- he just started engaging. his language started coming. and i just -- i remember just thinking, i think he's getting this. by 18 months, the infant sibling center, they didn't see really any concerns anymore, either. >> the is noah showing -- is noah shoag any signs of autism now? >> no. >> none? >> none. >> today noaaie naturall noah ih everyone. hitting normal developmental milestones. >> why do you think this was successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms may be particularly powerful point to work. because some later symptoms may actually be consequences of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while, the environment around that child changes. and the messages stop coming because the child has left the circle of the family. >> this intervention appears to be very poe potent. of course, the authors are well aware there are some limitations, the biggest one being that there were only seven children and that they really didn't have a large, well matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> debra fine at the university of connecticut says rogers' results are promising but shouldn't be interpreted as a cure. she has found that while older children do overcome autism, their brains do not function as regular kids. >> the optimal kids, were not using the same brain areas as the typical kids. they were apparently compensating by overacting other areas of the brain. so for that one reason if not the other, i wouldn't say it was likely that these kids were cured. >> whether or not the intervention cured these kids it has changed lives. >> the idea of a cure for autism it kind of depends on what you mean. we don't have biological tests that predict and diagnose autism. we look at behavior. and autism is a disability. it impairs everyday function. so if you don't have an impairment in your everyday function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> as for kristin hinson, she is hopeful noah will tur stay probm free. she is turning her attention to nine month old lucy. at the end, good news. lucy's not showing any early signs. >> terrific! >> i got to imagine there's something bittersweet about this. had you known about this earlier when you had your two other kids you polite have been able to engage them in the same way. >> sure, yep. hindsight, right? we've -- it's hard, it's a hard place that we try not to go there too much but it would have been very beneficial for justin, especially. he didn't start receiving therapy until he was four. so earlier intervention for him, especially as an infant i think, really if i had known what i know now, i think he'd probably be struggling a lot less. >> what's native land do you remember? >> home land. >> rooj ersrogers says she expes autism to improve. to get treatment like for cancer or infections. but until then, she will continue. >> what are the chances that we can get rid of autism? i say this is what i want for your child. i want for your child to feel successful and competent and loved and happy with his or her life. is that enough? absolutely it is all i want for any of my children. i say well let's focus on that. >> are you pretty confident that one day there will be a cure and that cure may very well be connected to this treatment? >> i think so. i think we're getting closer. i think i would love to say yes. i think that this -- this oppositopensa lot of doors. >> michael okwu, al jazeera, sacramento, california. >> when we return, another view of autism from the prince of the promenade. he inspired others to live independently. now his friends and family must say good-bye. we remembered brandon kramer coming up. >> police are pressing the use of body cameras. "america tonight's" michael okwu visits one of the first departments in the nation to use them. will they make a difference? >> the death toll could be much higher than anyone known. >> posing as a buyer... >> ...people ready then... >> mr. president >> who should answer for those people >> before the break we told you about a groundbreaking effort to fight autism in children. we end this hour though with the look at the life of a man who grew to adulthood with autism. he had other health problems, and recently passed away, not before blazing a trail for others with autism. "america tonight's" chris bury brings us his story. >> in santa monica, the community honored its own. >> there's a lot of tears, a lot of heart. >> brandon kramer made a distinctive unusual mark here, standing up with others with autism. >> it disturbed me a little bit, he was a clipper fan and i'm a laker fan. >> and they took notice. local activist jerry rubin organized the service. >> it was the right thing to do. if santa monica promenade were a three block long island, it could rightfully and properly being named brandon kramer island. this was brandon kramer's world in many ways. >> in a visit last february, brandon kramer gave "america tonight" a tour of his world. >> what is this promenade? >> it's easy for me because i can walk everywhere and it's nice. >> good place for you to be independent. >> exactly. everything for me to do. >> brandon spent his days walking the crowded streets of santa monica because epileptic seizures left him unable to work. fewer than one in ten awe autisc individuals work. >> i would see him daily on the promenade when i either walked or rode the bike down the promenade and he would make a bee line to me with a smile, tell me what was going on on the promenade. >> he would always gravitate towards us and it was such an amazing person, such an amazing man, to see how happy and content he was with his life despite his challenges. so he always brought hope to everyone that he touched. >> thanks for letting us come to your apartment. >> you're welcome. >> appreciate it. brandon lived here in a small but cozy apartment in a public housing project. >> this is my stereo and entertainment center. >> your entertainment center is right here, nice. >> my chair and my bed and my light and my computer table. >> oh nice! >> on his own for 16 years, brandon treasured his independence. >> yes, i like it a lot because i can like come and go as i please. i feel happier. >> you don't have to worry about anyone checking on you, you're your own man. >> exactly. >> one of his favors was this bright red button from a tv commercial. he said it brightened his mood. >> that was easy. >> that was easy. >> and then i have this too. >> but things were not easy for are brandon or his mother amalia. as a newborn he was tiny barely five pounds and by the time brandon was a toddler his mother knew he wasn't developing like other children. >> i noticed his speech or lack of it. words would come out. jumbled. i thought it would be good to pus him in nursery school. when i did that, the teacher said, he won't play with anybody, he plays by himself and he does one thing over and over and over been. >> by the time brandon was 9 he was having seizures, the diagnosis, epilepsy. back then the doctor urged his mother to keep it secret. but brandon struggled in school, socially an easy target for bullies. >> he wanted to play basketball but his eye hand coordination was so poor that he had very slow movement and therefore, couldn't make a basket couldn't catch the ball and the kids were smart. they knew he couldn't catch the ball so they would throw it in his face and he couldn't stop it in time. he had broken his nose several times. >> eventually brandon was diagnosed with autism. >> can't make a friend, had communication difficulty. >> had all the attributes of an autistic person? >> every single one. i remember being so relieved and yet saddened at the same time. >> for a amalia, some provide se support until age 22. then the families are on their own. >> what's it like for parents of autistic children when that educational support suddenly ends? >> parents are scared to death. the number 1 question is: what will happen to my children? or my child after reply husband and i die? >> an i rpt sf. >> over the last 10 years, cases have exploded by 40%. that means a tidal wave is on the way, half a million in 10 years. brandon's mother is on a mission to help others carve out a path to independence. at a conference in orlando, more than 1,000 parents and professionals showed up to hear a keynote speech. >> how could we be anything else, we are codependent. we allow our children to grow. they'll have a better life now than after we are gone. >> reporter: and after living on his own for years, brandon had advice for others dealing with autism. what do you say to other autistic adults who are a little worried about leaving mum and dad and going off on their own, what do you tell them? >> i tell them look at me, look at what i have done. >> reporter: last month brandon died in his sleep, aged 41. >> he came here to serve a purpose. he came here to show people that when you are different, you can still be accepted and be beautiful. he came here to live an independent lifestyle. he concurred it. it was his mission. he did a good job. and he left in peace. >> reporter: here in a community that accepted brandon and all his quirks, he left a lasting impression, serving as a model for other autistic when and women, able to live on their own, as adults we remember brandon kramer, and history for independence. that's "america tonight", if you would like to comment on stories seen, log on to the website aljazeera.com/americatonight. you can meet the team and look ahead at stories we are working on now, and tell us what you'd like to see on the programme. you can join a conversation on us at any time on twitter or facebook. goodnight, and we'll have more "america tonight" this week. good evening, everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. we are beginning with breaking news at this hour. an armed man is holding several people hostage at a cafe in the central business district of sydney as we look live here. witnesses say hostages are standing near windows in a chocolate shop with their hands up. a black and white flag with arabic writing is on display, the affiliation has not been confirmed. police station, however, confirm the surrounding area has been evte
what will happen to my children after my husband and i die? what will happen to them as an adult? >> an "america tonight" special report living with autism. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. autism was first formally identified in the 1940s although doctors had long seen children with its characteristic behaviors. in the decades since science has advanced its understanding of autism. more than 2 million americans are now identified as living on the autistic spectrum. but there remains controversy over what causes the disorder, how it's treated or even if there should be a cure. "america tonight's" michael okwu begins the report, with a family that knows too well about living with awe autism. >> most four-year-old boys, noah hinson likes playing and exploring the furniture. but when he was an infant -- >> by 12 months we were getting pretty worried. we were pretty sure we were going down that road. >> reporter: that road was autism. and kristin and hers husband neil an air force pilot had been down it before. their two older sons, ten-year-old justin and seven-year-old simon are both autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic yet i have to imagine it was no less, i don't know, a sad feeling. >> yes. >> to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> reporter: autism now affects 1 in 68 american children but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that's according to research from the u.s. u.c. davis mind institute. two years ago kristin brought her children here to enter into a study of high risk children. >> children in that constellation have a 50% chance of developing autism themselves. that is highest risk group we know. he was in the highest risk group and he showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noaaie when he was nine months old detecting the telltale signs not responding to his names. >> noah, noah, noah. >> not mirroring her gestures. >> can you do that? did you do that? >> reporter: but here's where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high risk babies might help. >> giving him the model instead of just taking it. >> so she started training osmall group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours of therapy with their children. we were talking about some focused interactive techniques that really would feel pretty natural oanyone doing these i think. >> reporter: except what's natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage him and once he learned the songs to vocalize and to reinforce any kind of communication. if you have children with autism they're not reinforcing you to continue to do those things and as a parent you want to make them happy. it is more natural with a child with autism to just let them play. >> reporter: at the risk of over-simplifying this, it's like you are compelled to be in his face all the time. >> totally totally. but you step back and wait for the response. >> rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. the results were remarkable. >> as we looked at the data for first 12 weeks things are going like downward a little bit and it's oh what's that? because we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onset of autism. but then after that first three months of a little bit of slow down, the babies in our study they like turned a corner. you looked at the data and every single child shows this turn in their developmental lines no matter what we were monitoring, starts to go zip right up as for every baby the normal range. >> by 15 months noah just started engaging. his language started coming. i remember thinking, i think he's getting this. by 18 months the infant sibling study, they didn't see really any concerns anymore either. >> is noah showing any signs of autism today? >> no. >> none? >> none. >> this girl is named lucy. >> today noah naturally interacts with everyone. in fact six out of the seven children in the study shed their autism symptoms and were hitting normal developmental milestones. >> why do you think this was successful? >> first of all young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. because some later symptoms may actually be consequence is of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, the messages stop coming because the child has left the circle of the family. >> this intervention appears to be very potent. of course as the authors are well aware, there are some limitations, the biggest being there were only seven children and that they really didn't have a large well matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> debra fine at the university of connecticut says rogers' results are promising but should not be interpreted as a cure. she has found that while older children do overcome autism symptoms their brains still don't react the way as typical children. >> they weren't using the same brain areas as typically kids. they were overcompensating using other areas of the brain. for that reason over any other i would say it's not likely the these kids were cured. >> whether it has cured the children it has changed lives. >> it depends on what you mean. we don't have biological test that the predict and diagnose autism. it is a disability that impairs everyday function. so if you don't have an impairment in your everyday function it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for kristin hinson she is hoping that noah will remain symptom free. with her latest child nine month old lucy, good news, lucy is not showing any signs. >> i got to say this is bittersweet. had you known this before you had your two other kids you might have been able to engage them in the same way. >> yep sure, hindsight it's a hard place we try not to go there too much. but it would have been very beneficial for justin. especially he didn't start receiving therapy until he was four. so earlier intervention for him especially as an infant, i think really if i would have known what i know now i think he would be probably struggling a lot less. >> do you know native land, do you remember? >> home land. >> she expects autism therapies to continue to improve to get more precise like treatments for different cancers or infections but until then, she says she'll continue to guide parents with the tools she has. >> when parents ask me about what are the chances that my child, we can get rid of autism, i say you know this is what i want for your child. i want your child to feel successful and competent and loved. they say absolutely that's what i want for any of my children. i say let's focus on that. >> are you pretty confident that one day there will be a cure and one day that cure may be connected to this treatment? >> i think so. i think we're getting closer. i would love to say yes. i think that this opens a lot of doors. >> michael okwu, al jazeera sacramento california. >> next here, breaking the silence. >> siri can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> sirisiri speaks, what that means to children with autism. autism. >> for many people living with autism the simple act of connecting can be a challenge. thoughts ideas fears can ail be concealed by the disorder. now there's an increasing evidence that technology can make a difference. here is "america tonight's" christof putzel. >> reporter: like so many children with autism, 13-year-old gus snowdon has difficulty communicating with others. except for one unusual friend. >> hi. >> hi. >> hello siri. >> hello. >> except the iphone's assistant. last year gus discovered he could have conversations with siri and the two haven't stopped chatting since. >> reporter: what is your most favorite thing to talk to siri about? >> i've always talked to siri about everything. >> he's been a loving child. his desire to connect with people is profound. his ability to connect with people is limited. >> reporter: gus's mom judith says his introduction to siri was by accident. >> i was reading like buzz feed has 21 things to do with your iphone. that was one of those lists, one of those things, ask siri what planes are above your head. gus happened to be doing something else in the world. i said, why would anyone need to know this? he said, so you know who you're waving at mommy. >> 1500. >> did you ever look up in the sky and wonder? >> i do yes. >> his endless questions are frustrating to his mother but not to siri. >> what bus is are running today? >> there was a huge amount of time where he was and still is anxious about thunder and lightning. so to be talking about scattered thunderstorms versus isolated thunderstorms i could only do it for ten minutes but siri could do it for an hour if that's what he wanted and siri could give him answers to things i couldn't being not a meteorologist. >> how is the weather this week? >> nice weather coming up this week. >> what do you know about the people who developed siri. >> nice thing i heard about is, theone of the people who developed it, the man from norway, it was named after a beautiful young girl from norway, a weather-woman. one wonders about his predilections, whether he is somewhere on the spectrum himself. >> getting information about train schedules and the weather is just a small part of what siri has given gus but what has begun as a way to fet answers has developed into a dialogue. something that gus doesn't have with anyone else. >> we don't give much thought to the talking the back and forth conversation that this personal assistant is capable of. so you know i just hear him i'd be passing his room and he would be going how are you doing today? >> reporter: to siri? >> she would answer very well thank you. that kind of conversation. and he would ask her for things. and the time that struck me like after a week he was spending a fair amount of time talking the with siri, he said, "you're such a nice computer and you always help me" and he says, "can i help you?" she answered back, "i have very few needs. >> at least he asked. >> the most viewed article of the month. >> what god to me are the number of not just parents of autistic kids but the number of autistic people who wrote to me too about their experiences with technology. and with how at different times in their life they've gotten a little bit of solace out of these machines. >> siri and technology represent maybe a nonjudgmental type of individual or interactive device. so you know, there's not those complex social nuances. >> reporter: dan smith is the senior director of discovery neuroscience as autism speaks, an advocacy organization. >> doesn't require that you adhere to all of the norms that dominate in the world verbal and nonverbal when you are speaking to another person. >> autism speaks is so interested by siri's telephone they have put together a grant to ship ipads to parents with children who have autism. >> it's yours! >> we decided to do the ipad give-away program because of the atint that a lot of individuals with autism have towards technology and their receptivity to it. not to mention its increasing use for skills teaching learning, all sorts of things. >> how much has siri changed his interactions with everyday people? >> well, i'll tell you this: without wanting to tout siri as this great miracle cure, it's not. but since he has had siri in his life he for the first time he asked to have a play date. he asked to have another child over here. and i think it might be partially because he's more comfortable with just back and fort conversation. >> do i get frustrated at you siri? >> i can't really say. >> do i get angry at you? >> no comment. >> technologies like siri are only going to get better and better more interactive nor intuitive, maybe not just the black and white conversations you have with siri now. there will be other things on our phones that are much more sophisticated than siri is right now, other robots and technological inventions that take us to the next level. >> reporter: but right now gus is happy with siri. >> can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> christof putzel, al jazeera new york. >> next up, age old dilemma with a twist. how to get your kid to make it on their own to families with autism. >> in this country, the number of children identified as living with autism has nearly doubled in just the last 15 years. the bigger challenge though lies ahead as those autistic children grow up to be adults. "america tonight's" chris bury met a man who back a model to those living on their own. >> in a visit last february brandon kramer gave "america tonight" a guided tour of his world as an autistic adult. >> this is my entertainment center and my chair and my bed and my light. and another -- my computer table and -- >> oh, nice. >> reporter: on his own for 16 years. brandon treasured his independence. >> yes, i like it a lot because i can like come and go as i please. i don't have to worry about -- and i just feel happier. >> and you don't have to worry about somebody checking up on you, you're your own man. >> exactly. >> one of his favorite gadgets was this bright red button. famous from a television commercial. they said it brightens his mood. >> that was easy. >> and i have this too. >> but things were not easy for brandon or his mother amalia. as a newborn he was tiny, barely five pounds and from the time brandon was a toddler his mother knew he wasn't developing like other children. >> i noticed his speech or lack of it. words would come out jumbled mixed up. i thought though when he was two and a half it would be really a good thing for me to put him in preschool or nursery school. and whether i did that, the teacher said, he won't play with anybody. he just plays on the side by himself. are and he doesand he does one thing over and over and over again. >> reporter: by the time brandon was nine he was having seizures the diagnosis epilepsy. his mother was counseled to keep it secret. but brandon wanted to play sports in school. he was bullied by other students. >> he wanted to play basketball but his eye hand coordination was poor, couldn't make a basket, couldn't catch the ball. the kids were smart they knew he couldn't catch the ball. they would throw it at his face and he couldn't stop it in time, they broke his nose several times. >> and eventually, he was diagnosed as autistic. >> he had every single symptom. i felt relieved yet saddened at the same time. >> support typically ends after high school, most states stop support at age 18. some states including california, provide support until 22. then parents are on their own. >> what's it like when that educational support suddenly ends? >> parents are scared to death. the number one question is: what will happen to my children, or my child after my husband and i die. and along comes with that, is well what will happen to him as an adult? >> in california, more than 70,000 individuals have been diagnosed with autism. most of them are children. and over the last ten years the number of cases across the country has exploded by more than 80%. that means a tidal wave of autistic adults are on the way. nearly half a million over the next ten years. brandon's mother is on a mission to help other parents help their autistic children carve out a path to independence. >> i have such an admiration to those of you who have blazed the trail for the rest of us. >> at a recent conference in atlanta, thousands showed up to hear her keynote speech. >> a lot of us become stuck like glue. how can we be anything else? we're co-dependent. we allow our children to grow and maybe one day go. they'll have a better life now than after we're gone. >> thank you how are you doing? >> flies to see you. >> now amalia star has made a career of counseling parents ever autistic children who are entering adulthood. >> they'll get there when they get there. it will be perfect timing maybe not for us but for them. >> our children will live 75% of their lifetime as adults and much of that time is without us. our job whether they're two years old and newly diagnosed or they're 22, our job is to help those children reach maximum independence. that's our job. our next job after that is to learn the art of letting go. >> and after living on his own for so many years brandon had some advice for others, dealing with autism. >> what do you say to other autistic adults who are a little worried about maybe leaving mop and dad anmomand dad an going off on their own? >> i tell them, look at me, maybe you can do it too. >> chris bury santa monica, california. if. >> that's our program. go to aljazeera.com/americatonight. come back and we'll have more of "america tonight". >> the truth about taxes in america. politicians love to call to deep cuts to court voters but it all back fires when services are cut too. i'll talk to the man conservative power broker grover norquist. >> what you're seeing here is the front line and
a state of emergency remains in effect. >> the volcano is very unstable and could erupt again. it is an eruption, larger lava flows and explosions that could put people's life at risk. >> at calbuco continued to belch ash, here volunteers distributed food and water to those trying to salvage their belongings. or simply find their pets. thee could yous are sitting in what 48 hours ago were lush green pastures now they and other life stock are also being evacuated. engaging. his language started coming. i remember just thinking, i think he's getting this. >> breaking the silence, when autism and innovation meet. >> hi. >> hi. >> hello siri. >> hello. >> and letting go. the search for support, when children grow up. >> parents are scared to death. the number one question is: what will happen to my children after my husband and i die? what will happen to them as an adult? >> an "america tonight" special report, living with autism. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. autism was first formally identified in the 1940s although doctors had long seen children behaviors. in the decades since science has advanced its understanding of autism. more than 2 million americans are now identified as living on the autistic spectrum. but there remains controversy over what causes the disorder, how it's treated or even if there should be a cure. "america tonight's" michael okwu begins the report, with a family that knows too well about living with awe autism. >> most four-year-old boys noah hinson likes playing and exploring the furniture. but when he was an infant -- >> by 12 months we were getting pretty worried. we were pretty sure we were going down that road. >> reporter: that road was autism. and kristin and hers husband neil an air force pilot had been down it before. their two older sons ten-year-old justin and seven-year-old simon are both autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic yet i have to imagine it was no less i don't know, a sad feeling. >> yes. >> to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> reporter: autism now affects 1 in 68 american children but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that's according to research from the u.s. u.c. davis mind institute. two years ago, kristin brought her children here to enter into a study of high risk children. >> children in that constellation have a 50% chance of developing autism themselves. that is highest risk group we know. he was in the highest risk group and he showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noaaie when he was nine months old, detecting the telltale signs, not responding to his names. >> noah, noah, noah. >> not mirroring her gestures. >> can you do that? did you do that? >> reporter: but here's where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high risk babies might help. >> giving him the model instead of just taking it. >> so she started training osmall group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours of therapy with their children. we were talking about some focused interactive techniques that really would feel pretty natural oanyone doing these i think. >> reporter: except what's natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage him, and once he learned the songs, to vocalize communication. if you have children with autism they're not reinforcing you to continue to do those things and as a parent you want to make them happy. it is more natural with a child with autism to just let them play. >> reporter: at the risk of over-simplifying this, it's like you are compelled to be in his face all the time. >> totally totally. but you step back and wait for the response. >> rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. the results were remarkable. >> as we looked at the data for first 12 weeks things are going like downward a little bit and it's oh what's that? because we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onset of autism. but then after that first three months of a little bit of slow down, the babies in our study they like turned a corner. you looked at the data and every single child shows this turn in their developmental lines no matter what we were monitoring starts to go zip right up as for every baby the normal range. >> by 15 months noah just started engaging. his language started coming. i remember thinking, i think he's getting this. by 18 months the infant sibling study, they didn't see really any concerns anymore either. >> is noah showing any signs of autism today? >> no. >> none? >> none. >> this girl is named lucy. >> today noah naturally interacts with everyone. in fact six out of the seven children in the study shed their autism symptoms and were hitting normal developmental milestones. successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. because some later symptoms may actually be consequence is of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, the messages stop coming because the child has left the circle of the family. >> this intervention appears to be very potent. of course as the authors are well aware, there are some limitations, the biggest being there were only seven children and that they really didn't have a large well matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> debra fine at the university of connecticut says rogers' results are promising but should not be interpreted as a cure. she has found that while older children do overcome autism symptoms, their brains still don't react the way as typical children. >> they weren't using the same brain areas as typically kids. they were overcompensating using other areas of the brain. for that reason over any other i would say it's not likely the these kids were cured. >> whether it has cured the children, it has changed lives. >> it depends on what you mean. we don't have biological test that the predict and diagnose autism. it is a disability that impairs everyday function. so if you don't have an impairment in your everyday function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for kristin hinson she is hoping that noah will remain symptom free. with her latest child, nine month old lucy, good news, lucy is not showing any signs. >> i got to say this is bittersweet. had you known this before you had your two other kids you might have been able to engage them in the same way. >> yep, sure, hindsight, it's a hard place, we try not to go there too much. but it would have been very beneficial for justin. especially, he didn't start receiving therapy until he was four. so earlier intervention for him especially as an infant, i think really if i would have known what i know now i think he would be probably struggling a lot less. >> do you know native land, do you remember? >> home land. >> she expects autism therapies to continue to improve, to get more precise, like treatments for different cancers or infections but until then, she says she'll continue to guide parents with the tools she has. >> when parents ask me about what are the chances that my child, we can get rid of autism, i say you know this is what i want for your child. i want your child to feel successful and competent and loved. they say absolutely that's what i want for any of my children. i say let's focus on that. >> are you pretty confident that one day there will be a cure and one day that cure may be connected to this treatment? >> i think so. i think we're getting closer. i would love to say yes. i think that this opens a lot of doors . >> michael okwu, al jazeera sacramento california. >> next here, breaking the silence. >> siri can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> sirisiri speaks, what that means >> for many people, living with autism the simple act of connecting can be a challenge. thoughts ideas fears can ail be concealed by the disorder. now there's an increasing evidence that technology can make a difference. here is "america tonight's" christof putzel. >> reporter: like so many children with autism 13-year-old gus snowdon has difficulty communicating with others. except for one unusual friend. >> hi. >> hi. >> hello siri. >> hello. >> except the iphone's assistant. last year gus discovered he could have conversations with siri and the two haven't stopped chatting since. >> reporter: what is your most favorite thing to talk to siri about? >> i've always talked to siri about everything. >> he's been a loving child. his desire to connect with people is profound. his ability to connect with people is limited. >> reporter: gus's mom judith says his introduction to siri was by accident. >> i was reading like buzz feed has 21 things to do with your iphone. that was one of those list s, one of those things, ask siri what planes are above your head. gus happened to be doing something else in the world. i said why would anyone need to know this? he said, so you know who you're waving at >> 1500. >> did you ever look up in the sky and wonder? >> i do yes. >> his endless questions are frustrating to his mother but not to siri. >> what bus is are running today? >> there was a huge amount of time where he was and still is anxious about thunder and lightning. so to be talking about scattered thunderstorms versus isolated thunderstorms i could only do it for ten minutes but siri could do it for an hour if that's what he wanted and siri could give him answers to things i couldn't being not a meteorologist. >> how is the weather this week? >> nice weather coming up this week. >> what do you know about the people who developed siri. >> nice thing i heard about is the one of the people who developed it, the man from norway, it was named after a beautiful young girl from norway, a weather-woman. one wonders about his predilections, whether he is somewhere on the spectrum himself. >> getting information about train schedules and the weather is just a small part of what siri has given gus but what has begun as a way to fet answers has developed into a dialogue. something that gus doesn't have with anyone else. >> we don't give much thought to the talking, the back and forth conversation that this personal assistant is capable of. so you know i just hear him, i'd be passing his room and he would be going, how are you doing today? >> reporter: to siri? >> she would answer very well thank you. that kind of conversation. and he would ask her for things. and the time that struck me like after a week he was spending a fair amount of time talking the with siri, he said, "you're such a nice computer and you always help me" and he says, "can i help you?" she answered back, "i have very few needs. >> at least he asked. >> the most viewed article of the month. >> what god to me are the number of not just parents of autistic kids but the number of autistic people who wrote to me too about their experiences with technology. and with how at different times in their life they've gotten a little bit of solace out of these machines. >> siri and technology represent maybe a nonjudgmental type of individual, or interactive device. so you know, there's not those complex social nuances. >> reporter: dan smith is the senior director of discovery neuroscience as autism speaks an advocacy organization. >> doesn't require that you adhere to all of the norms that dominate in the world, verbal and nonverbal when you are speaking to another person. >> autism speaks is so interested by siri's telephone they have put together a grant to ship ipads to parents with children who have autism . >> it's yours! >> we decided to do the ipad give-away program because of the atint that a lot of individuals with autism have towards technology and their receptivity to it. not to mention its increasing use for skills teaching learning, all sorts of things. >> how much has siri changed his interactions with everyday people? >> well, i'll tell you this: without wanting to tout siri as this great miracle cure, it's not. but since he has had siri in his life he for the first time he asked to have a play date. he asked to have another child over here. and i think it might be partially because he's more comfortable with just back and fort conversation. >> do i get frustrated at you siri? >> i can't really say. >> do i get angry at you? >> no comment. >> technologies like siri are only going to get better and better more interactive, nor intuitive, maybe not just the black and white conversations you have with siri now. there will be other things on our phones that are much more sophisticated than siri is right now, other robots and technological inventions that take us to the next level. >> reporter: but right now gus is happy with siri. >> can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> christof putzel, al jazeera new york. >> next up, age old dilemma with a twist. how to get your kid to make it on their own, to families with autism. met a man who back a model to those living on their own. >> in a visit last february brandon kramer gave "america tonight" a guided tour of his world as an autistic adult. >> this is my entertainment center and my chair and my bed and my light. and another -- my computer table and -- >> oh, nice. >> reporter: on his own for 16 years. brandon treasured his independence. >> yes, i like it a lot because i can like come and go as i please. i don't have to worry about -- and i just feel happier. >> and you don't have to worry about somebody checking up on you, you're your own man. >> exactly. >> one of his favorite gadgets was this bright red button. famous from a television commercial. they said it brightens his mood. >> that was easy. >> and i have this too. >> but things were not easy for brandon or his mother amalia. as a newborn he was tiny, barely five pounds and from the time brandon was a toddler, his mother knew he wasn't developing like other children. >> i noticed his speech or lack of it. words would come out jumbled mixed up. i thought though when he was two and a half it would be really a good thing for me to put him in preschool or nursery school. and whether i did that, the teacher said, he won't play with anybody. he just plays on the side by himself. are and he doesand he does one thing over and over and over again. >> reporter: by the time brandon was nine he was having seizures, the diagnosis, epilepsy. his mother was counseled to keep it secret. but brandon wanted to play sports in school. he was bullied by other students. >> he wanted to play basketball but his eye hand coordination was poor, couldn't make a basket, couldn't catch the ball. the kids were smart, they knew he couldn't catch the ball. they would throw it at his face and he couldn't stop it in time, they broke his nose several times. >> and eventually, he was diagnosed as autistic. >> he had every single symptom. i felt relieved yet saddened at the same time. >> support typically ends after high school, most states stop support at age 18. some states including california, provide support until 22. then parents are on their own. >> what's it like when that educational support suddenly ends? >> parents are scared to death. the number one question is: what will happen to my children, or my child, after my husband and i die. and along comes, with that, is well what will happen to him as an adult? >> in california, more than 70,000 individuals have been diagnosed with autism. most of them are children. and over the last ten years the number of cases across the country has exploded by more than 80%. that means a tidal wave of autistic adults are on the way. nearly half a million over the next ten years. brandon's mother is on a mission to help other parents help their autistic children carve out a path to independence. >> i have such an admiration to those of you who have blazed the trail for the rest of us. >> at a recent conference in atlanta, thousands showed up to hear her keynote speech. >> a lot of us become stuck like glue. how can we be anything else? we're co-dependent. we allow our children to grow and maybe one day go. they'll have a better life now than after we're gone. >> thank you, how are you doing? >> flies to see you. >> now amalia star has made a career of counseling parents ever autistic children who are entering adulthood. >> they'll get there when they get there. it will be perfect timing maybe not for us but for them. >> our children will live 75% of their lifetime as adults and much of that time is without us. our job whether they're two years old and newly diagnosed or they're 22, our job is to help those children reach maximum independence. that's our job. our next job after that is to learn the art of letting go. >> and after living on his own for so many years, brandon had some advice for others, dealing with autism. >> what do you say to other autistic adults who are a little worried about maybe leaving mop and dad anmomand dad an going off on their own? >> i tell them, look at me maybe you can do it too. >> chris bury , santa monica california. if. >> that's our program. go to aljazeera.com/americatonight. come back and we'll have more of "america tonight". >> fall of saigon, forty years later. >> we have no idea how many were killed. >> unanswered questions, a botched withdrawal lives lost. examining the impact that still resonates today. a special report starts tuesday, 10:00 eastern. on al jazeera america. more migrants are rescued as an italian court orders two suspected traffickers to remain in jail. hello, welcome to al jazeera live from doha, i'm shiulie ghosh. call for yemen
>> an "america tonight" special report, living with autism. thanks for joining us, i'm joie chen. autism was first formally identified in the 1940s although doctors had long seen children behaviors. in the decades since science has advanced its understanding of autism. more than 2 million americans are now identified as living on the autistic spectrum. but there remains controversy over what causes the disorder, how it's treated or even if there should be a cure. "america tonight's" michael okwu begins the report, with a family that knows too well about living with awe autism. >> most four-year-old boys noah hinson likes playing and exploring the furniture. but when he was an infant -- >> by 12 months we were getting pretty worried. we were pretty sure we were going down that road. >> reporter: that road was autism. and kristin and hers husband neil an air force pilot had been down it before. their two older sons ten-year-old justin and seven-year-old simon are both autistic. >> you had a couple of children already who were autistic yet i have to imagine it was no less i don't know, a sad feeling. >> yes. >> to experience this. >> definitely. it was hard. it was hard. >> reporter: autism now affects 1 in 68 american children but for kids with an autistic sibling the risk goes up dramatically to one in five. that's according to research from the u.s. u.c. davis mind institute. two years ago, kristin brought her children here to enter into a study of high risk children. >> children in that constellation have a 50% chance of developing autism themselves. that is highest risk group we know. he was in the highest risk group and he showed early signs. >> professor sally rogers evaluated noaaie when he was nine months old, detecting the telltale signs, not responding to his names. >> noah, noah, noah. >> not mirroring her gestures. >> can you do that? did you do that? >> reporter: but here's where things take a turn. rogers was also embarking on a groundbreaking study to see whether intensive intervention with high risk babies might help. >> giving him the model instead of just taking it. >> so she started training osmall group of parents. >> we were not talking with parents about spending hours of therapy with their children. we were talking about some focused interactive techniques that really would feel pretty natural oanyone doing these i think. >> reporter: except what's natural for autistic babies is not to respond. >> they taught me how to use the songs to engage him, and once he learned the songs, to vocalize communication. if you have children with autism they're not reinforcing you to continue to do those things and as a parent you want to make them happy. it is more natural with a child with autism to just let them play. >> reporter: at the risk of over-simplifying this, it's like you are compelled to be in his face all the time. >> totally totally. but you step back and wait for the response. >> rogers and her colleagues evaluated noah and the other babies every 12 weeks until they were three. the results were remarkable. >> as we looked at the data for first 12 weeks things are going like downward a little bit and it's oh what's that? because we know that that pattern is the pattern that is the beginning or the precursor of the onset of autism. but then after that first three months of a little bit of slow down, the babies in our study they like turned a corner. you looked at the data and every single child shows this turn in their developmental lines no matter what we were monitoring starts to go zip right up as for every baby the normal range. >> by 15 months noah just started engaging. his language started coming. i remember thinking, i think he's getting this. by 18 months the infant sibling study, they didn't see really any concerns anymore either. >> is noah showing any signs of autism today? >> no. >> none? >> none. >> this girl is named lucy. >> today noah naturally interacts with everyone. in fact six out of the seven children in the study shed their autism symptoms and were hitting normal developmental milestones. successful? >> first of all, young brains are incredibly ready for learning. second, being able to work at the beginning symptoms, may be particularly powerful point to work. because some later symptoms may actually be consequence is of early symptoms. third, autism changes the social environment. a child who has autism who is not initiating interaction with parents, after a while the environment around that child changes, the messages stop coming because the child has left the circle of the family. >> this intervention appears to be very potent. of course as the authors are well aware, there are some limitations, the biggest being there were only seven children and that they really didn't have a large well matched control group to see how similar kids would have done without the intervention. >> debra fine at the university of connecticut says rogers' results are promising but should not be interpreted as a cure. she has found that while older children do overcome autism symptoms, their brains still don't react the way as typical children. >> they weren't using the same brain areas as typically kids. they were overcompensating using other areas of the brain. for that reason over any other i would say it's not likely the these kids were cured. >> whether it has cured the children, it has changed lives. >> it depends on what you mean. we don't have biological test that the predict and diagnose autism. it is a disability that impairs everyday function. so if you don't have an impairment in your everyday function, it's pretty hard to say somebody has autism. >> reporter: as for kristin hinson she is hoping that noah will remain symptom free. with her latest child, nine month old lucy, good news, lucy is not showing any signs. >> i got to say this is bittersweet. had you known this before you had your two other kids you might have been able to engage them in the same way. >> yep, sure, hindsight, it's a hard place, we try not to go there too much. but it would have been very beneficial for justin. especially, he didn't start receiving therapy until he was four. so earlier intervention for him especially as an infant, i think really if i would have known what i know now i think he would be probably struggling a lot less. >> do you know native land, do you remember? >> home land. >> she expects autism therapies to continue to improve, to get more precise, like treatments for different cancers or infections but until then, she says she'll continue to guide parents with the tools she has. >> when parents ask me about what are the chances that my child, we can get rid of autism, i say you know this is what i want for your child. i want your child to feel successful and competent and loved. they say absolutely that's what i want for any of my children. i say let's focus on that. >> are you pretty confident that one day there will be a cure and one day that cure may be connected to this treatment? >> i think so. i think we're getting closer. i would love to say yes. i think that this opens a lot of doors . >> michael okwu, al jazeera sacramento california. >> next here, breaking the silence. >> siri can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> sirisiri speaks, what that means >> monday. >> it's crazy money that you can make here. >> behind america's oil boom. >> it's a ticking time bomb. >> uncovering shocking working conditions. >> do you know what chemicals have been in that tank? >> and the deadly human cost. >> my big brother didn't wake up the next day. >> "faultlines". al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today they will be arrested. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning investigative series. "faultlines": death on the bakken shale. monday, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> part of al jazeera america's >> special month long evironmental focus fragile planet >> al jazeera america brings you a first hand look at the environmental issues, and new understanding of our changing world. >> it's the very beginning >> this was a storm of the decade >>...hurricane... >> we can save species... >> our special month long focus, fragile planet >> the new al jazeera america primetime. get the real news you've been looking for. at 7:00, a thorough wrap-up of the day's events. then at 8:00, john seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. and at 9:00, get a global perspective on the news. weeknights on al jazeera america. >> for many people, living with autism the simple act of connecting can be a challenge. thoughts ideas fears can ail be concealed by the disorder. now there's an increasing evidence that technology can make a difference. here is "america tonight's" christof putzel. >> reporter: like so many children with autism 13-year-old gus snowdon has difficulty communicating with others. except for one unusual friend. >> hi. >> hi. >> hello siri. >> hello. >> except the iphone's assistant. last year gus discovered he could have conversations with siri and the two haven't stopped chatting since. >> reporter: what is your most favorite thing to talk to siri about? >> i've always talked to siri about everything. >> he's been a loving child. his desire to connect with people is profound. his ability to connect with people is limited. >> reporter: gus's mom judith says his introduction to siri was by accident. >> i was reading like buzz feed has 21 things to do with your iphone. that was one of those list s, one of those things, ask siri what planes are above your head. gus happened to be doing something else in the world. i said why would anyone need to know this? he said, so you know who you're waving at >> 1500. >> did you ever look up in the sky and wonder? >> i do yes. >> his endless questions are frustrating to his mother but not to siri. >> what bus is are running today? >> there was a huge amount of time where he was and still is anxious about thunder and lightning. so to be talking about scattered thunderstorms versus isolated thunderstorms i could only do it for ten minutes but siri could do it for an hour if that's what he wanted and siri could give him answers to things i couldn't being not a meteorologist. >> how is the weather this week? >> nice weather coming up this week. >> what do you know about the people who developed siri. >> nice thing i heard about is the one of the people who developed it, the man from norway, it was named after a beautiful young girl from norway, a weather-woman. one wonders about his predilections, whether he is somewhere on the spectrum himself. >> getting information about train schedules and the weather is just a small part of what siri has given gus but what has begun as a way to fet answers has developed into a dialogue. something that gus doesn't have with anyone else. >> we don't give much thought to the talking, the back and forth conversation that this personal assistant is capable of. so you know i just hear him, i'd be passing his room and he would be going, how are you doing today? >> reporter: to siri? >> she would answer very well thank you. that kind of conversation. and he would ask her for things. and the time that struck me like after a week he was spending a fair amount of time talking the with siri, he said, "you're such a nice computer and you always help me" and he says, "can i help you?" she answered back, "i have very few needs. >> at least he asked. >> the most viewed article of the month. >> what god to me are the number of not just parents of autistic kids but the number of autistic people who wrote to me too about their experiences with technology. and with how at different times in their life they've gotten a little bit of solace out of these machines. >> siri and technology represent maybe a nonjudgmental type of individual, or interactive device. so you know, there's not those complex social nuances. >> reporter: dan smith is the senior director of discovery neuroscience as autism speaks an advocacy organization. >> doesn't require that you adhere to all of the norms that dominate in the world, verbal and nonverbal when you are speaking to another person. >> autism speaks is so interested by siri's telephone they have put together a grant to ship ipads to parents with children who have autism . >> it's yours! >> we decided to do the ipad give-away program because of the atint that a lot of individuals with autism have towards technology and their receptivity to it. not to mention its increasing use for skills teaching learning, all sorts of things. >> how much has siri changed his interactions with everyday people? >> well, i'll tell you this: without wanting to tout siri as this great miracle cure, it's not. but since he has had siri in his life he for the first time he asked to have a play date. he asked to have another child over here. and i think it might be partially because he's more comfortable with just back and fort conversation. >> do i get frustrated at you siri? >> i can't really say. >> do i get angry at you? >> no comment. >> technologies like siri are only going to get better and better more interactive, nor intuitive, maybe not just the black and white conversations you have with siri now. there will be other things on our phones that are much more sophisticated than siri is right now, other robots and technological inventions that take us to the next level. >> reporter: but right now gus is happy with siri. >> can i marry you? >> i'm not the marrying kind. >> christof putzel, al jazeera new york. >> next up, age old dilemma with a twist. how to get your kid to make it on their own, to families with autism. >> it's a new day. >> another chance. >> i will be strong. >> i can't get bent down because my family's lookin' at me. >> i will rise. >> i will fight. >> i will never give up. >> you're gonna go to school so you don't have to go war. >> hard earned pride. hard earned respect. hard earned future. >> we can not afford for one of us to lose a job. we're just a family that's trying to make it. >> a real look at the american dream. "hard earned". premiers sunday, may 3rd 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> in this country, the number of children identified as living with autism has nearly doubled in just the last 15 years. the bigger challenge though lies ahead as those autistic children grow up to be adults. "america tonight's" chris bury met a man who back a model to those living on their own. >> in a visit last february brandon kramer gave "america tonight" a guided tour of his world as an autistic adult. >> this is my entertainment center and my chair and my bed and my light. and another -- my computer table and -- >> oh, nice. >> reporter: on his own for 16 years. brandon treasured his independence. >> yes, i like it a lot because i can like come and go as i please. i don't have to worry about -- and i just feel happier. >> and you don't have to worry about somebody checking up on you, you're your own man. >> exactly. >> one of his favorite gadgets was this bright red button. famous from a television commercial. they said it brightens his mood. >> that was easy. >> and i have this too. >> but things were not easy for brandon or his mother amalia. as a newborn he was tiny, barely five pounds and from the time brandon was a toddler, his mother knew he wasn't developing like other children. >> i noticed his speech or lack of it. words would come out jumbled mixed up. i thought though when he was two and a half it would be really a good thing for me to put him in preschool or nursery school. and whether i did that, the teacher said, he won't play with anybody. he just plays on the side by himself. are and he doesand he does one thing over and over and over again. >> reporter: by the time brandon was nine he was having seizures, the diagnosis, epilepsy. his mother was counseled to keep it secret. but brandon wanted to play sports in school. he was bullied by other students. >> he wanted to play basketball but his eye hand coordination was poor, couldn't make a basket, couldn't catch the ball. the kids were smart, they knew he couldn't catch the ball. they would throw it at his face and he couldn't stop it in time, they broke his nose several times. >> and eventually, he was diagnosed as autistic. >> he had every single symptom. i felt relieved yet saddened at the same time. >> support typically ends after high school, most states stop support at age 18. some states including california, provide support until 22. then parents are on their own. >> what's it like when that educational support suddenly ends? >> parents are scared to death. the number one question is: what will happen to my children, or my child, after my husband and i die. and along comes, with that, is well what will happen to him as an adult? >> in california, more than 70,000 individuals have been diagnosed with autism. most of them are children. and over the last ten years the number of cases across the country has exploded by more than 80%. that means a tidal wave of autistic adults are on the way. nearly half a million over the next ten years. brandon's mother is on a mission to help other parents help their autistic children carve out a path to independence. >> i have such an admiration to those of you who have blazed the trail for the rest of us. >> at a recent conference in atlanta, thousands showed up to hear her keynote speech. >> a lot of us become stuck like glue. how can we be anything else? we're co-dependent. we allow our children to grow and maybe one day go. they'll have a better life now than after we're gone. >> thank you, how are you doing? >> flies to see you. >> now amalia star has made a career of counseling parents ever autistic children who are entering adulthood. >> they'll get there when they get there. it will be perfect timing maybe not for us but for them. >> our children will live 75% of their lifetime as adults and much of that time is without us. our job whether they're two years old and newly diagnosed or they're 22, our job is to help those children reach maximum independence. that's our job. our next job after that is to learn the art of letting go. >> and after living on his own for so many years, brandon had some advice for others, dealing with autism. >> what do you say to other autistic adults who are a little worried about maybe leaving mop and dad anmomand dad an going off on their own? >> i tell them, look at me maybe you can do it too. >> chris bury , santa monica california. if. >> that's our program. go to aljazeera.com/americatonight. come back and we'll have more of "america tonight". >> fall of saigon, forty years later. >> we have no idea how many were killed. >> unanswered questions, a botched withdrawal lives lost. examining the impact that still resonates today. a special report starts tuesday, 10:00 eastern. on al jazeera america. nepal is shaken by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake with trefrs felt across india. ♪ ♪ hello for duh ho, earn, i am kamal santa maria live from doha. desperate to cross land and see samardzija he to reach europe. the polls open in togo, will the president win another turn and continue his family's 28-year dynasty. world leaders meet in turkey to mark the 100th anniversary of one of the bloodiest battles of
has caught up. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> schieffer: good evening, i'm bob schieffer. since the horrible tape surfaced yesterday, a baltimore ravens running back ray rice beating his then-fiance, there's been a torrent of criticism that the national football league had been insensitive to the whole issue of domestic violence. rice was fired by the ravens and suspended indefinitely but not permanently by the league, but questions have been building about how much the league knew and when officials knew it. late today, commissioner roger goodell gave his first interview, and norah o'donnell of "cbs this morning, "got it. norah. >> reporter: bob, commissioner roger goodell was adamant that no one, he says, in the nfl had seen this second videotape before monday. he called it new evidence, and he said it's the reason they decided to suspend ray rice indefinitely. when did you first learn about this second tape? >> yesterday morning. i got into the office, and our staff had come to me and said there's no evidence. there's a video that you need to see. and i watched it then. >> reporter: did you know that a second tape existed? >> well, we had not seen any videotape of what occurred in the elevator. we assumed that there was a video. we asked for video. but we were never granted that opportunity. >> reporter: so did anyone in the nfl see the second videotape before monday? >> no. >> reporter: no one in the nfl. >> no one in the nfl, to my knowledge, and i've been asked that same question, and the answer to that is no. >> reporter: how is it that the nfl couldn't get their hand on this second tape, but a web site called tmz could? >> well, i don't know how tmz, or any other web site gets their information. we are particularly reliant on law enforcement. that's the most reliable. it's the most credible. and we don't seek to get that information from sources that are not credible. >> reporter: the question becomes did the nfl drop the ball ors of the nfl willfully ignorant about what was on this tape? >> well, we certainly didn't know what was on the tape, but we have been very open and honest, and i have, also, from two weeks ago, when i acknowledged that we didn't get this right. that's my responsibility, and i'm accountable for that. >> reporter: but what changed? i mean, on the first tape, she was lying unconscious on the ground being drabd out. did you really need to see a videotape of ray rice punching her in the face to make this decision? >> no. we certainly didn't. and i will tell you that what we saw on the first videotape was troubling to us in and of itself. but what we saw yesterday was extremely clear, is extremely graphic, and it was sickening. and that's why we took the action we took yesterday. >> reporter: what does that mean that he was suspended indefinitely? does that mean ray rice will never play in the nfl again? >> i don't rule that out. but he would have to make sure that we are fully confident that he is addressing this issue clearly. he has paid a price for the actions that he's already taken. >> schieffer: so ray rice could return to football possibly? >> reporter: well, you heard the commissioner say, "i don't rule that out." he clearly would have to show that he's taken some additional steps, so that's clearly going to get some attention. >> schieffer: and the commissioner's own status, did he say anything about that? >> reporter: well, there have been some calls for commissioner goodell to step down. i asked film if he feels like his job is on the line. and he said, "no, i'm use to the criticism. i'm used to that. every day i have to earn my stripes," he said. >> schieffer: thank you very much, norah. >> reporter: thanks, bob. >> schieffer: and you can see much more of norah's interview with commissioner goodell first thing tomorrow on "cbs this morning." the woman that rice assaulted is now his wife, janay palmer. today she essentially told everyone to butt out out. on instagram she defended rice. he lashed out at the media and to the public writing:, "to make us relive the moment in our lives that we regret every day is a horrible thing. to take something away from the man i love just to gain ratings is horrific." well, that video has focused attention on domestic violence, but too often it goes unreported. elaine quijano found many victims feel they have no choice but to stay with an abusive partner, and we caution you, some of the images in her report are disturbing. >> reporter: this is what happened to 38-year-old angela brower the day she tried to leave her abusive boyfriend. >> he punched me in the eye with every bit of force he had and it knocked me unconscious roasht the beating left brower with multiple bruises, a broken nose and broken eye socket. the tennessee woman posted pictures of her injury on facebook. >> it helped me to see what the man i loved had done to me, and then after all the responses i got and all of the messages and-- and all of the other women responding the way they did, i continued to put my pictures on facebook to make other women aware that this is not what love looks like. >> reporter: every minute, 20 americans are victims of physical violence by a partner or spouse. that's 10 million people a year, according to the cdc. 85% of them are women. lil corcoralil corcoran runs a s shelter in northern new jersey. you don't like it when people ask, "why did she say?" why don't you like it when people ask that question. >> when we join in that sort of pile-on, we're kind of just reinforcing this idea that there must be something wrong with her, she must be stupid. why can't she figure this out? and i like to see the focus change on what's wrong with him? why does he do this? if someone pushes him to the point where he feels he needs to hit them, why doesn't he leave? >> reporter: corcoran says the most dangerous time for a woman in an abusive relationship is the period when she tries to leave. it's why angela brower believes her boyfriend tried to kill her. >> i would tell any woman that the first sign of abuse, walk away. because it never gets any better. it always gets worse with each occurrence. >> reporter: victims' advocates tell us many women do leave their abusers, but they stress, before leaving, there has to be a safety plan in place, bob, so the situation doesn't go from dangerous to deadly. >> schieffer: all right, well, thanks, elaine. president obama will address the nation tomorrow evening about his strategy for defeating isis. that is the sunni muslim group that's been carrying out a campaign of terror across iraq and syria and beheaded two american journalists. the president briefed the leaders of congress at the white house today in advance of the speech. we have a series of reports tonight. first chief white house correspondent major garrett. major. >> reporter: bob, in a 70-minute meeting, president obama told the congressional leaders he has all the legal authority he needs to carry out his strategy against isis and doesn't need a congressional vote but he did ask congress in the coming days to give him $500 million and the legal authority to train syrian fighters battling isis within that country. afterwards, house speaker john boehner said he would support air strikes targeting isis leaders and sending more u.s. military advisers to iraq. the pentagon has recommended both to the president. now, tomorrow's speech appears short on specifics. there will be no timetable for defeating isis and no cost estimates for the emerging military campaign. the president may use the address to announce an expansion of the air war into syria. he's been considering that option for the better part of two weeks. bob, senior white house officials stress that u.s. military action alone will not defeat isis. the united states will need help from a still-evolving international coalition that will include the iraqi government, the syrian rebels, kind of out-matched militarily and underarmed; and help from neighboring countries, including but not limited to turkey, saudi arabia, and the united arab emirates. >> schieffer: okay, major, thank you. the united states was drawn back into iraq when isis began to overrun kurdistan in the north. the massacre of refugees and the threat to the kurdish capital erbil triggered the u.s. air strikes against isis targets. scott pelley is in erbil tonight on assignment for "60 minutes." scott. >> pelley: bob, tonight, the kurdish government here is asking the united states to greatly expand the air strikes and to rush heavy weapons into the fight. we spoke to the head of intelligence for the kurdish government, a man who knows isis better than just about anyone. masrour barzani's intelligence service helps pick the targets for u.s. pilots in support of kurdish forces on the ground. are the u.s. air strikes now enough to defeat isis? >> i think it's very useful and we are very thankful to everything that the u.s. is doing so far, but i don't think it's enough. we believe that the strikes should target the nerve system and the leadership of isis, wherever they may be. >> pelley: i think you're talking about syria. >> even in syria. >> pelley: you would like to see u.s. air strikes in syria. >> we do, yes. >> pelley: barzani told us the kurds are talking to the white house about major support for the kurdish army, known as the peshmerga. >> we are asking the united states that they should help the peshmergas with heavy armament. >> pelley: are we talking about tank tanks and artillery? >> why not, yes, tanks, helicopters, heavy armaments, because these are very important. >> pelley: mraps are armored troop carriers and the peshmerga we met looked like they could use them. there was evidence of a battle won, but all of the weapons they reloaded were light-- no artillery, no effective armor. you can imagine how they feel about the sound of american jets. >> thank you, america. thank you, obama. >> pelley: iraq had been building a future, but its aspirations are now occupied by a past it cannot escape. we found families, what's left of them, running from isis' brand of religious extremism. nadia told us the men of her village were herded behind a school. there was shooting, and a boy came to tell the women what he saw. what did the little boy say? "all the men were being killed but we didn't believe him because he was just a little boy." with the men, more than 100 in a mass grave, nadia told us the women were loded into dump trucks and taken to a city to be given away as prize prizes to is soldiers. she escaped. she told us, "my friends are all captive. i don't know anything about my brothers. but most of all, i want my mother. tell them i just want my mother." as the intelligence minister said at the beginning of the story, the safe haven for isis is centered in syria. one of the most experienced reporters in the region is holly williams, and she is on the syrian-turkish border for us tonight where she is finding a change in the support for isis there. holly. >> reporter: scott, there has been a dramatic change since early this year. when we spoke to syrians in this area back then, many of them told us that they supported isis because it was fighting against the syrian regime. they said that isis was trying to help people and that it wasn't using violence to enforce strict islamic law. but that has now all changed. many syrians are now simply too frightened to speak to us for fear of retribution, and when they do talk about isis they mention executions and beatings, and many syrians now say while they still hate the syrian president bashar al assad, isis is much worse than his regime ever was. >> pelley: thanks, holly. and now with the rest of the day's news, we'll leave erbil, iraq, and return to bob schieffer in new york. bob. >> schieffer: thank you very much, scott. cbs news will bring live coverage of the president's address tomorrow night at 9:00 eastern time, 8:00 central, that is 6:00 in the west. well, apple is betting customers will leave their credit cards at home and do their shopping with their phones but are they secure? and the supermoon rises when the cbs evening news continues. you know.... there's a more enjoyable way to get your fiber. try phillips fiber good gummies. they're delicious and an excellent source of fiber to help support regularity. mmmm. these are good! the tasty side of fiber. from phillips denturthan real teeth.erent they're about ten times softer and have surface pores where bacteria can multiply. polident kills 99.99% of odor-causing bacteria and helps dissolve stains. for a cleaner, fresher, brighter denture everyday. finally, the purple pill,hr the #1 prescribed acid blocking brand, comes without a prescription for frequent heartburn. get complete protection. nexium level protection™ ♪ [music] defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep. >> schieffer: it is always big news when apple rolls out a new product, and today was no exception. a new iphone was introduced, but john blackstone tells us that was not the star of the show. >> it is the next chapter in apple's story, and here it is. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: what apple c.e.o. tim cook unveiled today isn't calls the iwatch, it is the apple watch. so far, smart watches on the market have met with limited success. tech analyst tim barjarin. they haven't been big sellers. >> part of it is most of the smart watches on the market today have been for geeks. they really don't have a lot of style. >> reporter: the apple watch will have style, but it will work only in conjunction with apple's iphone. >> iphone 6. >> reporter: with the iphone 6 unveiled today, apple adds yet another feature. >> and now i'd like to talk about an entirely new category of service, and it's all about the wallet. >> reporter: apple wants the iphone to replace credit cards. the company is launching a mobile payment system that would allow consumers to make purchases simply by tapping their phones. but it comes just a week after the company's icloud service was linked to the theft of nude photos of jennifer lawrence and other female celebritys. is it going to be tough to convince consumers to pay with their phone? industry analyst ross rubin says what the company calls apple pay can be more secure than credit cards. >> your credit card number is never it wily transmitted. apple pay comes up with a temporary number for use on a case-by-case base. >> reporter: apple says credit card issuers like visa, mastered card, and american express have all agreed to use the mobile payment system along with major banks and large retailers, including macy's and whole foods. the missing link, bob, may be willing consumers. >> schieffer: another john, thank you. a major highway in nevada could remain closed for days because of severe flooding. a truck driver shot this video yesterday while he was stuck on interstate 15 after a torrential rain. someone waded out to help passengers in that van and was swept beneath it. moments later the van went into a ravine. incredibly, everyone survived with only minor injuries. a killer shark killed a swimmer and stayed around after the attack. that's coming up next. while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can ease arthritis symptoms but if you have arthritis, this can be difficult. prescription celebrex can help relieve arthritis pain, so your body can stay in motion. because just one 200mg celebrex a day can provide 24 hour relief for many with arthritis pain and inflammation. plus, in clinical studies, celebrex is proven to improve daily physical function so moving is easier. and it's not a narcotic. you and your doctor should balance the benefits with the risks. all prescription nsaids, like celebrex, ibuprofen, naproxen and meloxicam have the same cardiovascular warning. they all may increase the chance of heart attack or stroke, which can lead to death. this chance increases if you have heart disease or risk factors such as high blood pressure or when nsaids are taken for long periods. nsaids, like celebrex, increase the chance of serious skin or allergic reactions, or stomach and intestine problems, such as bleeding and ulcers, which can occur without warning and may cause death. patients also taking aspirin and the elderly are at increased risk for stomach bleeding and ulcers. don't take celebrex if you have bleeding in the stomach or intestine, or had an asthma attack, hives, other allergies to aspirin, nsaids or sulfonamides. get help right away if you have swelling of the face or throat, or trouble breathing. tell your doctor your medical history. and ask your doctor about celebrex. for a body in motion. and now celebrex may be available for as little as $4 a month. terms and conditions apply. to learn more, go to celebrex.com. i'm j-e-f-f and i have copd. i'm l-i-s-a and i have copd, but i don't want my breathing problems to get in the way of hosting my book club. that's why i asked my doctor about b-r-e-o. once-daily breo ellipta helps increase airflow from the lungs for a full 24 hours. and breo helps reduce symptom flare-ups that last several days and require oral steroids, antibiotics, or hospital stay. breo is not for asthma. breo contains a type of medicine that increases risk of death in people with asthma. it is not known if this risk is increased in copd. breo won't replace rescue inhalers for sudden copd symptoms and should not be used more than once a day. breo may increase your risk of pneumonia, thrush, osteoporosis, and some eye problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking breo. ask your doctor about b-r-e-o for copd. first prescription free at mybreo.com ♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. >> schieffer: a shark killed a swimmer today in eastern australia. the shark, believed to be a great white, was still swimming in byron bay hours later. beaches were closed. the attack happened just a few yards from shore. another swimmer pulled the man out, but he'd lost too much blood and could not be saved. tonight is your last chance this year to see a superman. that's when the moon is full and closest to earth. last night, people climbed a cliff in sydney, australia to get a better look. this was the view in speerts burg and over the golden dome at the university of notre dame. this is also the harvest moon because it is so close to the start of fall. the white house posted this photo of the president saying good-bye to a retiring secret service agent and his wife in the oval office. what a keepsake it's going to be for them. and especially for their young son who can tell all his friends for years to come about his visit to the seat of power. what these children are doing may help a whole lot of other kids lead better lives. that story is next. they think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. i wish... please, please, please, please, please. [ male announcer ] the wish we wish above all...is health. so we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. expanded minuteclinic, for walk-in medical care. and created programs that encourage people to take their medications regularly. introducing cvs health. a new purpose. a new promise... to help all those wishes come true. cvs health. because health is everything. cvs health. this is a map of the pressure points on my feet. i have flat feet. i learned where the stress was at the dr.scholl's foot mapping center. then i got my number, which matched the custom fit orthotic inserts with the right support. go to drscholls.com for locations and save $10 i'm a believer. when your favorite food starts a fight fight back fast with tums. relief that neutralizes acid on contact... ...and goes to work in seconds. ♪ tum, tum tum tum tums! try great tasting tums chewy delights. yummy. and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. has a new easy-to-swallowt coating...s for daily use so the nutrients for your eyes, heart and brain go down easier. for a limited time, get your four-dollar coupon at centrum.com. this is charlie. his long day of doing it himself starts with back pain... and a choice. take 4 advil in a day or just 2 aleve for all day relief. honey, you did it! baby laughs! >> schieffer: we're ending tonight with some promising news about children and autism. dr. jon lapook tells us about a new study out today that points to the importance of early detection and treatment. >> reporter: at first glance, diego and emilio aguilar look like typical brothers. but at age two, diego was diagnosed with autism. so when emilio reached six months, his parents, carmen and saul, had him tested. >> we were told that emilio was showing delays across the board. that same pain in my heart came back. >> reporter: developmental milestones can zero widely among infants, especially before 12 months. but researchers have flagged certain behaviors that may be early signs, such as staring at objects with unusual focus. abnormal repetitive behaviors. and delayed communication and interaction like poor eye contact. sally rogers and her team at the mind institute in sacramento studied search infants ages 7-15 months with severe symptoms of autism but no official diagnosis, to help measure the effects of intervention months or even years earlier than usual. >> they tended to have a pretty neutral facial expression. these were quiet babies who if they vocalized at all, didn't really vocalize in a social way. >> reporter: over a 12-week period parents were trained to help their children better engage with the world. by age three, one developed autism, another had a mild form, but five had no symptoms. emilio of one of them. >> i don't know what would have happened to emilio had we not participated in the intervention. what i do know is that our son does not have a diagnosis of autism, and is an amazing four-year-old. >> reporter: much more study will be needed to see if this approach truly makes a difference, but the agular family isn't asking for proof. dr. jon lapook, cbs news, new york. >> schieffer: and a reminder, you can see more of norah o'donnell's interview with nfl commissioner roger goodell tomorrow on "cbs this morning." for scott pelley, i'm bob schieffer. good night. the ray rice story is everywhere, we examine the media reaction and dr. phil helps us decipher why ray's wife is defending him today. the press just paid ray and his wife a visit. >> domestic violence victims often blame themselves. >> the other video, their wedding day, shot just months after this video. >> very disturbing. >> it's a shame it took seeing it for it to become as big of an issue. also tonight, nancy o'dell's heart to heart conversation with oprah we friday. >> what would you consider being one of your biggest mistakes? >> i got in a lot of trouble. >> we're with britney and we're asking her about her breakup. >> my life is an open book to the tabloids. >> her sexy new venture. and
good evening. the difficult to watch video of a football player punching a woman and knocking her out cold inside a hotel elevator tonight remains at the center of a growing conversation and controversy about domestic abuse and the big business that happens to be america's favorite sport, the nfl. and while it is hard to watch, it's also hard to believe the nfl never saw it until the rest of us did just yesterday. but the commissioner says tonight that is the case. and he now knows that every aspect of this case is being looked at all over again because of the widely held view that this was both a failure of the justice system and a failure of the sport. it's where we begin again tonight with josh elliott. he's live with us at nbc sports network headquarters. good evening. >> reporter: good evening to you, brian. roger goodell reiterated late today that league officials never saw the video showing the altercation between ray rice and his now wife janay until monday, but the firestorm that tape has generated has the nfl scrambling still. football fans across the country reacting to the video showing the violent altercation between ray rice and his then-fiancee put their anger on display today. a fury directed at rice and the nfl. the collective rallying cry -- too little too late. videos such as this surfaced on social media of fans burning ray rice jerseys. and that wasn't all. nike, one of rice's sponsors terminated its contract with them. while the ravens as well as major sporting goods chain such as kicks and model's announced an exchange program allowing fans to return unwanted rice jerseys. >> the give to ray rice. >> reporter: the video game maker announced it was pulling rice's image from its madden football game. as players we must speak up, stand up for what's right. this is way bigger than football. don't be blind to what's really important. while ray rice's wife janay rice was angry as well but for a different reason. posting on instagram in part, this is our life. what don't you all get. if your intentions were to hurt us, embarrass us, make us feel alone, take all happiness away, you've succeeded on so many levels. and for the first time since the tape's release nfl commissioner roger goodell addressed the burgeoning crisis in an interview with cbs news. >> we had not seen any videotape of what occur in the elevator. >> reporter: still a torrent of headlines from around the country today are calling for goodell to go. >> the nfl was not thinking about women first, the nfl was not thinking about domestic violence first. the nfl was thinking about business and the law first and as a result they're in big, big trouble. >> reporter: the nfl has spent millions marketing the game to gain more female fans. now 45% of the total fan base. many of them now say they are fans no more. >> the nfl is so big and so powerful, it took their own fans to bring them around to the realization that they had really messed this up badly. they're going to have to take leadership on this issue to win those fans back. >> reporter: now, former baltimore raven ray rice broke his silence today issuing a statement saying he has to stay strong for his family. he also told nbc news that he's hired a public relations firm and will have more to say later when he says he feels the time is right. >> josh elliott, nbc sports headquarters starting us off again. now the other big aspect of this story and that's domestic abuse. according to the cdc one in three american women will have experienced some form of domestic abuse at some point in their lifetime. this very high profile incident has started something of a national conversation about a topic that, of course, is very personal to so many americans and that includes our own tamron hall who is with us tonight. >> reporter: good to see you. it is personal for millions of families including my own and for those who advocate on be half of domestic abuse survivors. but this conversation today proves something. you don't have to be personally affected to know that this is a public crisis. 4.7 million women are victims of physical assault by an intimate partner each year with women aged 18 to 24 most at risk. only 55% of the cases of domestic violence are ever reported to police. >> and he slapped me on the bed and duct taped me. >> reporter: i recently sat down with a group of strong women who are the faces behind the numbers like sheena. she and her daughter were abused. >> he then grabbed my daughter's thigh and just squeezed it with the same pressure that he was skreezing my neck. >> reporter: in 2004 my own sister was found dead in her home. while no one was ever brought to justice police told my family all signs pointed to domestic violence. sadly, she is not alone. today the hashtag why i stayed was trending on twitter. >> she may stay because she believes it's better to keep her family together. she may stay because she loves the abuser. there are a lot of complicated reasons why people may stay. >> reporter: then senator now vice president joe biden introduced the violence against women act which was signed into law 20 years ago. it allows funding for shelters, gives prosecutors and police more power and allows an order of protection to follow a person state to state. >> the one regret i have is we call it domestic violence, as if it's a domesticated cat. it's the most vicious form of violence there is because not only the physical scars are left, the psychological scars that are left. >> reporter: and since 1996, the national hotline for domestic violence received 3 million calls, brian. that means on the line with the woman asking for help. who answered? someone who was there. >> tamron, we appreciate you being here tonight because it is so personal. tamron hall with us in the studio tonight. we shift gears to our other major story this evening. the president preparing to address the nation tomorrow evening to prepare the american people for a long campaign to destroy the terrorist group isis. "the wall street journal" poll reveals nearly half of americans think we are less safe than we were before 9/11. that's the highest since we started asking this question back in 2002. our senior white house correspondent chris jansing on the north lawn of the white house where the president met with congressional leaders about this isis threat earlier today. chris, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. that meeting lasted almost an hour and a senior white house official has just told me that the president asked for one specific thing from congressional leaders and that's the authority to train the syrian opposition. it would require a congressional vote and, although he didn't get a commitment in the meeting, house speaker john boehner issued a statement saying he would support the president if he would support the military in a training and advisory role. time is of the essence. they believe right now they can get a buy-in from other counties in the region to help. they've been working toward that. also in that meeting, the president did not ask leaders to vote to authorize military action. he doesn't think he needs that. and sources say he didn't ask for additional funding for the isis operation either. he did outline the speech he's going to deliver tomorrow night to the american people and the scheduling in primetime does raise the stakes. it points to both the seriousness of the threat and awareness of the white house that it's making people increasingly nervous. >> chris jansing at the white house tonight. we'll see you back there tomorrow night. our moderator of "meet the press" and political director chuck todd with us here in new york with more on the new poll numbers. >> the spike in the 9/11 fear all comes from the coverage of the beheadings of the two american journalists. the most followed news story that we've tracked in five years. and that's where the anxiety level comes from. and that's why we've seen such a flip on somehow we now want to see intervention in syria. 61% in our poll say they'd like to see military action including 33% who would like to see us send combat troops. talk about a flip. a year ago talking about military strikes in syria. only 21% wanted to do that because it didn't impact americans. that was about chemical weapons and assad. the stakes for the president tonight he's got a major political problem on his hands. just 32% approve of the job he's been doing. 62% disapprove. it's a huge spike this summer and it's all about what has raped to be unsteadiness in handling this isis crisis. >> we'll have answers tomorrow night. our whole team will be on the air tomorrow night with live coverage of the president's address to the nation. again 9:00 p.m. eastern time here on this nbc station. now to business news, and it is tech season in the business world. and for apple today that meant product rollout day including the first all-new product in the post steve jobs era of ceo tim cook. the apple watch. jacob rascon was there for the announcements. good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening, it was a major moment for apple and ceo tim cook. a lot on the line here. a lot to prove. and with a handful of new products, the apple event seals to have lived up to the hype. the test now becomes will consumers buy it. >> good morning! >> reporter: departing from tradition, apple ceo tim cook skipped the apple company updates. >> everything's great. >> reporter: and jumped right into what he called the greatest phones in the world. >> these are the new iphones. >> reporter: the biggest change might be the bigger sizes. then there's the faster processor, improved cameras, more user friendly text message options and a host of other one-ups. >> we have one more thing. >> reporter: cook has been criticized for not producing a truly original apple product since iconic apple co-founder steve jobs' passing. today he answered his critics with the apple watch. >> amazing what you can do from your wrist. >> they've been under pressure for not innovating. i think you can just feel morale in the company on this front rising. >> >> reporter: it comes in different colors and sizes and wristbands. apple says it's their most personal product ever. and there was something else. both phones and the watch come with apple pay, a mobile payment system that apple hopes will eventually replace your wallet. >> google has had it in various android phones for a while but people haven't wanted to use it that much. the apple brand and the marketing machine will probably give them the best chance that anybody's had yet to actually make this work. >> reporter: the eyes of the world were trained on apple today. >> apple watch -- >> reporter: and while the laundry list of new ithings will impress the masses, the tech giant still has a lot to prove. the question is will consumers buy it? >> what's the new thing? >> reporter: cook told brian williams during product development that's what apple's all about. >> our whole role in life is to give you something you didn't know you wanted and then once you get it, you can't imagine your life without it. >> reporter: and, of course, how can you get this apple watch? it comes out early next year starting at 349. both of the iphones you can start to preorder on friday. and brian, people are already lining up to buy them. >> something you didn't know you wanted. those words reverberate. jacob, thanks. tonight the threat of severe weather and flash flooding continues in the american midwest. torrential rain, tornado watches in several states and to the west parts of arizona, nevada still under water. a nearly 30-mile stretch of i-15 north of vegas remains shut down. at one point cameras caught a van washed away by rushing water. this is a major artery between las vegas and salt lake blocked. officials say it could remain that way for several more days. still ahead for us on a tuesday evening, diagnosing autism earlier than ever before. how a small group of parents were actually able to reduce the symptoms in their children, guarded excitement tonight in the autism spectrum community. and later a fairytale cinderella story. a young woman about to make history. ♪ [music] defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. easily absorbed calcium plus d. beauty is bone deep. crestor lowered bad cholesterol in it's a fact. high-risk patients more than lipitor. bad cholesterol... you're going down! yeah! lowering cholesterol is a big deal, especially if you have high cholesterol plus any of these risk factors, because you could be at increased risk for plaque buildup in your arteries over time. so, when diet and exercise aren't enough to lower cholesterol, adding crestor can help. i'm down with crestor! crestor is not right for everyone, like people with liver disease or women who are nursing, pregnant, or may become pregnant. tell your doctor about other medicines you're taking. call your doctor right away if you have muscle pain or weakness, feel unusually tired; have loss of appetite, upper belly pain, dark urine or yellowing of skin or eyes. these could be signs of rare but serious side effects. are you down with crestor!? ask your doctor if crestor could help you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. ♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. as we said before the break tonight a groundbreaking but small new study is offering hope to so many families that just may be there could be a way to reduce the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder if you catch them early enough. the numbers as we've reported are stagger iing. 1 in 68 kids now diagnosed in the spectrum. this new study is a small one and it's prelimary but could lead to significant changes in the way parents flag those symptoms and then help their children. we get help from our national correspondent kate snow. >> reporter: as a baby isabel was unusually fixated on objects. >> say good morning, isabel. she wouldn't turn to look at me. still just be looking at the bars on her crib as if i wasn't there. >> reporter: so when her parents heard about the work sally rogers was doing they moved the family to northern california to be part of her study of seven infants. like isabel, the babies all showed early signs of autism, not seeking a parents's attention or interacting, abnormal repetitive behaviors or fixations, not making age-appropriate sounds like mama or dada. for 12 years researchers taught the parents how to read cues. >> parents aren't asking how where do i find therapists for my child. their very first questions to us are always what can we do. we learn to pick up on just a little glance op her eyes away or a tiny frown. >> reporter: when the infants made sounds, their parents were coached to celebrate, to reinforce that communicating matters. reading with their child in front of them instead of in the lap became a way to force eye contact. the change in isabel was dramatic. >> december of 2011 she was 8 or 9 months and that was a very typical look just kind of disengaged. and then this is april of 2012 and that -- i mean -- that makes me want to cry just looking at it. it's just light-years beyond where she was. >> reporter: isabel is 3 now, an age when many toddlers are just beinging diagnosed. of all infants six caught up on learning skills and language, a hopeful sign, but every child with autism is different. >> i think parents should be reassured that the earlier we start intervention the better but it's never too late. >> reporter: these methods need to be tested again in larger studies but even this pilot study offers encouragement that perhaps very early intervention can make a difference. >> this was a small study, big, big results and big news tonight. kate snow, thanks. we're back after a break in a moment with news about changing tastes in this country. what americans are eating less of and drinking more of. for over a decade, doctors have been prescribing nexium to patients just like you. for many, prescription nexium helps heal acid-related erosions in the lining of the esophagus. there is risk of bone fracture and low magnesium levels. side effects may include headache, abdominal pain, and diarrhea. if you have persistent diarrhea, contact your doctor right away. other serious stomach conditions may exist. avoid if you take clopidogrel. nexium 40 mg is only available by prescription. talk to your doctor. for free home delivery, enroll in nexium direct today. lots of them, right? but when you try to get one by using your travel rewards card miles... those seats mysteriously vanish. why? all the flights you want are blacked out. or they hit you up for some outrageous number of miles. switch to the venture card from capital one. with venture, use your miles on any airline, any flight, any time. no blackout dates. and with every purchase you'll earn unlimited double miles. now we're getting somewhere. what's in your wallet? so i got dr. scholl's massaging and gel work insoles. red. now we're getting somewhere. they absorb the shock of working on my feet all day. i feel energized! i'm a believer. dr. scholl's massaging gel work insoles. i'm a believer! has a new easy-to-swallow coating... so the nutrients for your eyes, heart and brain go down easier. for a limited time, get your four-dollar coupon at centrum.com. and other car insurance companies? yes. but you're progressive and they're them. -yes. -but they're here. -yes. -are you... -there? -yes. -no. -are you them? i'm me. but the lowest rate is from them. -yes. -so them's best rate is... here. so where are them? -aren't them here? -i already asked you that. -when? -feels like a while ago. want to take it from the top? rates for us and them. now that's progressive. call or click today. when folks think about wthey think salmon and energy. but the energy bp produces up here creates something else as well: jobs all over america. engineering and innovation jobs. advanced safety systems & technology. shipping and manufacturing. across the united states, bp supports more than a quarter million jobs. when we set up operation in one part of the country, people in other parts go to work. that's not a coincidence. it's one more part of our commitment to america. home depot is dealing with what will likely be the largest breach of credit card information in retailing history. it's feared 60 million accounts were exposed. home depot's been scrambling to get on top of this and reassure customers. today the attorneys general of four separate states launched an investigation into the data breach. economic trends to report starting with job openings. they remain at their highest levels in 13 years. hiring is the highest pace in seven years but a rising tide not lifting all boats. mcdonald's has posted its worst sales decline in a decade. down by much more overseas than they are here, and we don't know what this says about us either, but the u.s. has overtaken france as the largest consumer of wine on the planet. americans are producing more wine and drinking more of it than the french. a tip of the hat to our friend ann compton over at abc news. retiring today 41 years to the day after starting her career as a correspondent. she has covered seven presidents, traveled to all 50 states and along the way she and her husband raised four children. and trust me, ann made life better for all of us who covered the traveling white house. thanks to her consistently good company, high energy and good cheer. so to our friend ann, we say well done, congratulations, and enjoy grandparenting. well, a little kid has been recorded for posterity and forever just by being a little kid. there was president obama saying good-bye to an outgoing secret service agent and his wife when their son did a face plant on the soft and inviting couch there in the oval office. his family now gets to cherish this photo forever and blow it up during his rehearsal dinner. when we come back, a fairy tale beginning for a young woman who's already made history. apples fall, but the apples of your cheeks don't have to. defy gravity. juvéderm voluma® is the only fda-approved injectable gel to instantly add volume to your cheek area. as you age, cheeks can lose volume. voluma adds volume creating contour and lift for a more youthful profile. for up to two years. temporary side effects include tenderness, swelling, firmness, lumps, bumps, bruising, pain, redness, discoloration and itching. ask your doctor. juvéderm voluma®. defy gravity. and cialis for daily use helps you be ready anytime the moment is right. cialis is also the only daily ed tablet approved to treat symptoms of bph, like needing to go frequently. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions and medicines, and ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain, as it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. do not drink alcohol in excess. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backache or muscle ache. to avoid long term injury, get medical help right away for an erection lasting more than four hours. if you have any sudden decrease or loss in hearing or vision, or any allergic reactions like rash, hives, swelling of the lips, tongue or throat, or difficulty breathing or swallowing, stop taking cialis and get medical help right away. ask your doctor about cialis for daily use and a free 30-tablet trial. do you have something for pain? i have bayer aspirin. i'm not having a heart attack, it's my back. i mean bayer back & body. it works great for pain. bayer back & body provides effective relief for your tough pain. better? yeah...thanks for the tip! dad,thank you mom for said this oftprotecting my future.you. thank you for being my hero and my dad. military families are uniquely thankful for many things, the legacy of usaa auto insurance could be one of them. if you're a current or former military member or their family, get an auto insurance quote and see why 92% of our members plan to stay for life. last night here we talked about horton who came to be known for his uncanny ability to hear a who. tonight we have the story about another icon of our childhood, cinderella. and the opening tonight on broadway of a landmark rodgers & hammerstein production that's all about magic and history. we get our report tonight from rehema ellis. >> reporter: it's the newest look for an ageless story. ♪ cinderella >> reporter: starting tonight keke palmer is the first african-american woman to step into cinderella's shoes on broadway. >> i didn't think it was possible because i didn't even think being an actress was possible. >> reporter: when the rodgers & hammerstein producers saw her, it was magic. >> when she walked in and started singing and reading the lines, it was just love. she had everything we were looking for. >> pterodactyl. >> reporter: since her 2006 breakout role in "akeelah and the bee" she's been someone to watch. from nickelodeon to several other movies. >> try to have a little fun. >> reporter: now at 21, she's the nation's youngest talk show host with her own program on b.e.t. ♪ in the arms of my love >> reporter: when palmer got the call for broadway she says she was overwhelmed. >> i don't even know how to describe this feeling. i was just very -- this is crazy. this is crazy, girl! >> reporter: but she says this is more than just a role. >> this is the dress. >> reporter: oh. >> when cinderella turns into cinderella. >> reporter: the play "cinderella" is also about encouraging girls to broaden their expectations. >> young black girls that think that certain things aren't possible. it's good for them just to be able to see someone that looks like them and lets them know it's possible. but just because you have never seen it doesn't mean that you can't be it. >> reporter: keke palmer, a young woman living a cinderella dream. ♪ in my own little corner >> reporter: on broadway. ♪ in my own little chair ♪ i can be whatever i want to be ♪ >> reporter: rehema ellis, nbc news, new york. beautiful story to end on for this tuesday night. thank you for being here with us. i'm brian williams. we'll leave you tonight with what you might have seen if you had a cloudless sky where you live last night. last of the supermoons this year, the harvest moon. usually a harbinger of cold weather. look back for you here tonight night. new pop star cat fight. taylor swift versus katy perry. >> taylor publicly takes a shot and katy bites back. now on "extra." taylor swift's new song about her enemy. is she talking about katy perry? what sparked the feud, and how katy just threw gasoline on the fire. melissa rivers getting some retail therapy after joan's funeral. plus, howard stern's wife beth today on the tense moments before howard's unforgettable tribute. >> he really wanted to make joan proud. the first pics of ray rice and his wife as she speaks out about the shocking beatdown. >> why she's defending him and who she's blaming for ruining their lives. all new britney. super sexy project. >> you're going to be sleeping with a lot of people. >> i don't know about that. then, jen aniston in a see-through lbd. >> and kendall jenner's rocking the sheer look too at new york fashion week. plus, jane fonda on her new body of work. >> talking about a big boob job. >> this is "extra" at universal