Scores of rockets on the syrian city of homs as the assad regime celebrated army day. Margaret warner gets the latest on the bloody civil war from nprs deborah amos. Brown Law Enforcement bids farewell to f. B. I. Director Robert Mueller. Ray suarez explores the transformation of the bureau after the 911 attacks. Woodruff and we hear from two u. S. Senators leading the push to keep the militarys Sexual Assault cases in the chain of command. Gwen ifill talks to New Hampshire republican kelly ayotte and missouri democrat claire mccaskill. The other side has wanted to make this argument about victims vs. Uniforms. Thats a false premise. This argument is about how we can protect victims the best. Woodruff thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Brown the drama over disclosures of u. S. Surveillance programs took a major new turn today, in russia. The man at the center of the story was allowed to go free for the First Time Since arriving there in june. Edward snowdens lawyer confirmed the news to reporters today at the moscow airport. translated yes, i have arrived in the airport so that a member of the Immigration Service could give him a document that grants him temporary asylum in the territory of the russian federation. I have just seen him off, and he has left the airport to go to a safe location. Brown the National Security agency leaker had been in limbo in the airports transit zone for more than a month. He managed to flee in a taxi, eluding the media throng that had camped there for weeks. Snowden will now be able to travel freely throughout russia, but his lawyer said his exact whereabouts are being kept secret for security reasons. translated he will choose his place of residence himself. He can live in a hotel, or an apartment. As he is one of the most wanted people on earth, he will be making sure his place of residence is absolutely safe. Brown snowden released his own statement through the anti secrecy group wikileaks, which has a Legal Adviser traveling with him. The statement read, in part u. S. Officials had demanded snowden be returned home to face espionage charges, for leaking information about the n. S. A. s secret surveillance of phone and internet communications. But russian president Vladimir Putin refused to expel him and one of putins aides downplayed todays development, insisting this issue isnt significant enough to have an impact on political relations. But in washington, white house spokesman jay carney said snowdens release has u. S. Officials weighing whether to cancel president obamas planned summit with putin next month. We will obviously be in contact with russian authorities, expressing our extreme disappointment in this decision and making the case clearly that there is absolute legal justification for mr. Snowden to be returned to the United States where he is under indictment on three charges felony charges. Brown meanwhile, the president met privately with a Bipartisan Group of house and Senate Lawmakers to address concerns about the n. S. A. s surveillance programs. Back in russia, snowden now has a grant of asylum for at least a year. That can be extended indefinitely, and he even has the right to seek russian citizenship. A short time ago i spoke to paul sonne of the wall street journal in moscow. Paul, thanks for joining us. How much of a surprise was this in moscow . I wasnt a particular surprise. There was a lot of writing on the wall here that the kremlin was going to make this decision and the real question is why was the kremlin predisposed to granting Edward Snowden asylum . Theres probably a number of factors at play there. One of those is that russia is conscious of double standards here. It feels like the west and the u. S. Wouldnt necessarily be predisposed to expel a russian Asylum Seeker so they shouldnt necessarily expel a u. S. Asylum seeker. I think theres an element that this would play well among the more nationalist elements of governor putins con stitch whensy and theres an element here of just whos boss. This is an ability of one of those moments where Vladimir Putin can show he has the upper hand and that can play well among his constituency. Brown an aide to president putin played down the potential for any impact on u. S. russia relations. What do you make of that . I think what you see is both the u. S. And russia trying to do two things at once here one is to say, you know, we really want this guy or were not handing this guy over and then the thing thats underlining that is comments coming from both sides saying we dont want this to affect our relations. So what russia is saying is we cant give him back to you, were going to keep him here and the white house is saying you have to hand him over. But on the other hand we want to deal with things like syria and disarmament and over north korea, iran. We dont want that to upset the diplomacy weve been working on in the last couple months. Brown on the american side, how much anger are you picking up in washington and in moscow from the embassy or other americans . So i think whats interesting is that jay carney today, the white house spokesman, didnt say anything that much stronger than hed been saying throughout the entire snowden affair since snowden arrived here in late june. He said the white house is extremely disappointed but they dont want to cut off relations with russia. He did say this may call into question the summit that has been planned in moscow in Early September between Vladimir Putin and barack obama. But in terms of any other retribution or response, you know, we arent seeing an escalated level of rhetoric from the white house, though we have seen some of that from congress, especially from republican senators. Brown your difference russian officials is that theyre not particularly worried about the summit or g20 meeting being impactd . I think there is a real possibility that barack obama is not going to come to the summit in Early September, that he was planning on attending with Vladimir Putin which is the head of 2 t g20 summit in st. Petersburg. And i think you have to look at two reasons for that one is if he comes here and he appears to be shaking hands with president putin and Edward Snowden is nearby somewhere else that doesnt make him look good to the american public. But the other thing that i think a lot of people are missing here is that its possible there are not going to be resulted from that summit and it doesnt behoove president obama from coming here and have yet another awkward meeting or press conference with president putin like he had in Northern Ireland a month ago where he doesnt have any results to show. It doesnt seem like the u. S. And russia are making any progress in syria. It doesnt have anything to show for disarmament, the speech that barack obama made in berlin a couple of weeks ago was met with a tepid response here in moscow so part of this is a calculation on the white houses part that not only will this look bad if Edward Snowden is in Barack Obamas airspace while hes here its also that they just might not have anything to show for that summit. Brown what happens next for snowden . Is there an expectation there that this oneyear grant of asylum means something that could stretch on without limit . I would not necessarily take the oneyear limit of this temporary asylum to be the amount of time that snowden is going to spend in russia. That is a renewable period. He could be here indefinitely and from what what his lawyer is saying its looking like hell be seeing here for the foreseeable future. In terms of what hes doing, where he is, those questions remain unanswered. His lawyer has been coy about where hes planning to live, where he went today after he got in the taxi outside of the airport and, you know, hes saying that we dont want to give out that information because this is obviously a wanted alleged u. S. Criminal and he has serious safety concerns so were going to not disclose where hell be staying in moscow. So it remains to be seen what hes going to be doing here. The head of one of russias Biggest Social Networks came out today and offered him a job as a programmer but one of the main things we know is that the requirement for giving him asylum, president putin said he needed to stop his political activities. He couldnt continue to be a thorn in the side of the u. S. Government while in russia. So whatever he does its probably not going to be a public role. Brown paul sonne of the wall street journal in moscow, thanks so much. Thanks. Woodruff we continue our look at government surveillance with a debate among former officials from the n. S. A. , in just a moment. Also ahead on the newshour the bloodshed continues in the syrian civil war; Robert Muellers mark on the f. B. I. And senators mccaskill and ayotte on curbing military Sexual Assaults. But first, the other news of the day. Heres kwame holman. Holman ariel castro who held three women captive and raped them repeatedly, over a decade, was sentenced to life without parole today, plus 1,000 years. One of his victims, michelle knight, addressed the hearing. She told castro she spent eleven years in hell, but now, has her life back. From this moment on i will not let you define me or affect who i am, you will. I will live on. You will die a little everyday as you think of the 11 years of atrocities you inflicted on us. Holman castro then delivered a rambling statement. He acknowledged what he did was wrong but insisted most of the sex he had with the three women was consensual. I just wanted to clear the record that i am not a monster. I didnt prey on these women, i just acted on sexual instincts because of my sexual addiction. As god is my witness, i never beat these women, like they are trying to say that i did. I never tortured them holman last week, castro pleaded guilty to more than 900 counts, including kidnapping, rape and murder, for beating and starving one of his captives until she miscarried. In afghanistan, nato opened an investigation after weapons fire from u. S. Helicopter mistakenly killed five Afghan Police officers overnight. Two others were wounded during the operation in nangarhar province, in the eastern part of the country. Afghan special forces called for air support during a clash with taliban fighters at a police checkpoint. The u. S. Helicopter engaged and apparently fired on the wrong target. The u. S. May end the use of drone attacks in pakistan in the near future. Secretary of state john kerry told pakistani t. V. Today that he hopes its going to be very, very soon. He met with new Prime Minister nawar sharif and announced the u. S. And pakistan will resume a full partnership, including highlevel talks on security. Kerry acknowledged u. S. Drone attacks and other issues have roiled relations with pakistan since 2011. I think we came here today, both the Prime Minister and myself, with a commitment that we cannot allow events that might divide us in a small way to distract from the common values and the common interests that unite us in big ways. Kerry also addressed the political crisis in egypt. The Obama Administration has declined to say the military ouster of president Mohammed Morsi was a coup. Kerry said the military did not take over, but in his words is restoring democracy. He said millions of egyptians asked the armed forces to intervene. Egypts interior ministry offered safe passage today to thousands of morsi supporters, if they end two large sitins in cairo. The offer came a day after the interim cabinet ordered police to breakup the demonstrations, but gave no timetable. Even so, there was no sign today the protesters plan to move on, despite the risk of new bloodshed. Instead, the Muslim Brotherhood called for a mass march tomorrow. Charges of Election Fraud echoed across zimbabwe today, as votes were counted in yesterdays president ial contest. The opposition charged the outcome has been fixed by robert mugabe, the 89yearold president whos led the country for 33 years. We have a report from neil connery of independent television news. Reporter as the results from zimbabwes elections slowly emerged, the anger of whats been condemned as a monumental fraud soon became clear. The Opposition Leader attacking what he said was a rigged ballot. This has been a huge fuss. This election has been marred by illegal violations which task legitimacy. It is our view that this election is null and void. Reporter the suspected mugabe supporters were bussed in to vote on election day to a constituency where they dont live. They were challenged by an opposition m. P. Who has now lost his seat. Robert mugabes party says its burr treat opposition but observers estimate as many as one million voters were denied their democratic right. The elections were seriously compromised by a systematic effort to disenfranchise urban voters, up to a million persons. Reporter with the counting here nearly complete, theres a growing air of resignation that these official results will be anything but a true reflection of the voters wishes. The opposition say theyre incensed by the voterigging they claim has taken place. Outside the oppositions headquarters we saw a Police Presence for much of the day. After 33 years in power, Robert Mugabes rule goes on and the hopes of those who dare to dream change was coming to zimbabwe have been deflated. Holman a number of u. S. Embassies and consulates worldwide will be closed sunday in the face of a possible terror threat. The state Department Said today its being done out of an abundance of caution, and is based on unspecified information. The embassies may be closed for more than one day, depending on how serious the threat is judged to be. President obama has chosen a new leader for the Internal Revenue service. The nominee announced today is john koskinen, a retired corporate and Government Official whos managed a number of organizations in crisis. The i. R. S. Has been under fire for singling out Tea Party Groups and others for extra scrutiny when they seek tax exempt status. On wall street, upbeat reports on manufacturing in china and the u. S. Drove stocks to new highs. The s p 500 closed above 1700 for the first time. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 128 points to close at 15,628. The nasdaq rose 49 points to close at 3,675. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to judy. Woodruff and we pick up on the continuing fallout from the revelations of former n. S. A. Contractor Edward Snowden. Last night we debated the role of teignorurveillance approves the governments requests to gather intelligence information on americans. Tonight, we have a conversation with three former n. S. A. Officials a former Inspector General and two n. S. A. Veterans who blew the whistle on what they say were abuses and mismanagement at the secret government Intelligence Agency. William binney worked at the n. S. A. For over three decades as a mathematician, where he designed systems for collecting and analyzing large amounts of data. He retired in 2001. And russell tice had a two decade career with the n. S. A. Where he focused on collection and analysis. He says he was fired in 2005 after calling on congress to provide greater protection to whistleblowers. He claims the n. S. A. Tapped the phone of high level Government Officials and the news media ten years ago. The United States, at that time, was using satellites to spy on american citizens. At that time, it was news organizations, the state department including colin powell, and an awful lot of senior military people and industrial types. This was in 2002, 2003 time frame. The n. S. A. Were targeting individuals, judges in the Supreme Court. I held in my hand judge alitos targeting information for his phone and his staff and his family. Woodruff so binney what was your sense of who was being targeted and why they were being targeted . What was being collected in other words . Well i wasnt aware of specific targeting like russ was. I just saw the inputs were including hundreds of millions of phone calls of us citizens every day. So virtually there wasnt anybody who wasnt a part of this collection of information. So virtually you can target anyone in this country that you wanted. Woodruff both binney and tice suspect that today, the n. S. A. Is doing more than just collecting metadata on calls made in the u. S. They both point to this cnn interview by former f. B. I. Counterterrorism agent tim clemente, days after the Boston Marathon bombing. Clemente was asked if the government ha