Suarez a new report says the National Security agency can access a large swath of all u. S. Internet traffic, including the content of emails. Margaret warner digs into the details. Ifill and we continue our look back at the march on washington 50 years on. Tonight, reflections from one of its organizers, congresswoman Eleanor Holmes norton. It was startling to see so many people come. And i remember standing at the Lincoln Memorial, looking out. Look, looking out was what was the sight for me, because i could not see the last person. Ifill thats all ahead on tonights newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by 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. Suarez the Syrian Government pounded rebel areas outside the capital, damascus, early today, and antigovernment activists said some rockets included chemical weapons that killed hundreds of people. children shouting crying women and children shielded their faces with handkerchiefs. While victims writhing in pain gasped for air,some foaming at the mouth. These amateur videos all posted on social media websites and cannot be independently verified showed scores of bodies filling clinic floors and hallways. All showed little signs of visible injuries. One local doctors account translated it is a huge crisis, the number of victims is very high, we have ran out of atropine and hydrocortisone. I have carried in my own hands around 50 dead children. The gas was losing its effect after half an hour, but unfortunately people went down to the basements, and because the gas is heavy, it reached the basements, and as a result, the number of wounded increased. Suarez its all evidence, Syrian Opposition leaders in turkey say, of the governments gassing of its own civilians, in what could be one of the deadliest incidents in the twoyearlong syrian conflict. The faces of terrorists that Bashar Alassad is targeting. This massacre puts the world on attention, it really sends a message to all International Organizations to the number of crimes this regime is willing to commit. Suarez but back in damascus, a military spokesman denied the allegations. translated the Media Channels of sedition and misinformation who shed syrian blood have lied as usual that the Syrian Arab Army used chemical weapons in the suburbs of damascus today. The general leadership of the Army Confirms these allegations are completely false and are a part of the dirty media war that is led by some countries through the media against syria. Suarez the purported attack comes amid reports that assad forces have regained major swaths of territory in the country in recent weeks and just days after a 20 member United NationsInspection Team arrived in syria to investigate three other possible chemical weapon incidents. In washington, the Obama Administration expressed alarm at news of the attack, but White House Deputy press secretary josh earnest stopped short of confirming details, instead calling on a u. N. Backed investigation. There is an Investigation Team on the ground in syria right and we are hopeful that the assad regime will follow through on what they have claimed previously. And give the investigators access to the sites, the opportunity to interview witnesses, the opportunity to collect physical samples, and other things that would help them reach a credible determination about what exactly occurred. Suarez world leaders, including britain and germanys Foreign Ministers and u. N. Secretary general ban ki moon expressed shock at the chemical weapons allegations and called for a thorough investigation. As did russia , which has protected the assad regime by vetoing u. N. Sanctions aimed at ending the violence. But in a statement its Foreign Ministry spokesman suggested the incident could be a provocation by the opposition, saying the u. N. Security council did meet in emergency session late today to discuss the days events. All this as thousands of syrians continue to stream over the borders everyday of neighboring countries of iraq and jordan, trying to escape the ongoing violence. For more on the possible chemical attack, im joined by jeffrey white, a former Senior Analyst at the Defense Intelligence agency, now at the Washington Institute for near east policy and amy smithson, a senior fellow at the James Martin Center for nonproliferation studies. Jeffre terrible. The state of the civil war in syria . Well, unbelievably, it continues to escalate, right . It looks like the regime conducted this operation using a fairly significant amount ofcht demonstrates once again that the regime will go as far as it need to win this war. Significance of the location, so close to damascus . These were areas, east guta and western guta in the damascus suburbs that the rebels have held and controlled for a long time. Series of extended offensives to get the rebels out of these areas unsuccessfully. Its also , personnel, tanks, and so on in these offenses. So it looks to me like the regime is trying to make a Decisive Action here and force the rebels out. Suarez amy s, several european Foreign Ministers today said theyre going to wait until theres verification of what they saw in that video. The Turkish Foreign minister spokesman said he saw all he needed to see, this was clearly a chemical attack. When video like this arrives of uncertain provenance, you dont know who shot it, you dont know who the people are in the video, how do you determine whether its the real thing . Well, the last incident that the world saw where there were chemical casualties on this scale was saddam husseins attack in 1988 against a small town, kurdish village. There werent cell phones arouns of images. The only pictures ive ever seen of that are still photographs. As anywhere else in the world of an incident of this magnitude. So all signs are pointing to damascus and this is something that happened within the last 24 hours. That may hinge on the verifiability, the authenticity of these images, how do you satisfy yourself that you know what youre seeing, it happened, how many casualties there are . Well, i think the casualty total will become clearer with the passage of time. These people were taken to several different hospitals and even makeshift facilities. And its really impossible to know from just video images what specific chemical was involved. These symptoms that youre seeing, the twitching, the pinpoint pew tills, sometimes convulsing are consistent with exposure to toxic chemicals. Not necessarily just sarin or v. X. , the class i can warfare agents. And the inspectors that are there have samples samples thate able to determine that if theyre let out of the hotel. Suarez well, thats a good point. The inspection regime oftn involves negotiations before the team arrives about what theyre going to be able to see, where theyre going to be able to go. When an incident happens once theyre already on the ground, can you renegotiate the terms when theyre incountry . You. The Syrian Government certainly has demonstrated over the past several years that in any negotiations over any access like this its a very difficult partner in those negotiations. As possible the activity of any human team operating inside syria. It puts conditions on what they can do. It rejects proposals that they make to take inspectiontype actions when it feels like it doesnt want that to happen. So theres no guarantee that the u. N. Inspectors will be able to see anything outside of their hotel room. The regime clearly has a Significant Interest in denying access to this area. If they do, it will be a sign that they are, in fact, guilty of this particular action. Sus syria a signatory of any treaties that limit the production and use of chemical weapons . Chemical weapons convenn which does just that. But 188 other nations are. And this is the treaty that outlaws the use not just of sarin and v. X. But of any toxic chemical for military purposes. And i agree with mr. White that it looks like a concentratedpre. This is something that a commander who is knowledgeable in ideal conditions for having a gas hang in the same area. If you did this in the middle of the day is wind is likely to blow it away. In these predawn hours itscoold the gas will just stay where its fired. Fairly small number of players in syria who would even be able to carry out an attack like this . Very different from previous incident which is the casualty totals were rather small and maybe one device was used to deliver it. This is coordinated e predawn hours in a quantity of material thats probably inconsistent with anything other than somebody whos been making this stuff and has a delivery capability that can put that much on the target in that short signatory, but the world is full of them. Including some of the most able nations on the planet. Are they on the hook for some kind of response if a nonsignatory violates the terms of that treaty . I think theyre on the hook in terms of the morality of the situation and the and the circumstances of whats going on there. I dont know if theyre rd to do anything by any of the any of the protocols or whatever but certainly theres a moral obligation to take action here. , probably by the syrian so theres going to be pressure to take action not just to punish for what happened here but to prevent any further action along these lines. Convention requires ever state that signs it to agree to provide assistance in the event that any other member is threatened with or understood goes an attack. Now, syrias not a member, butn decency here which is one of the reasons why ive encouraged countries to provide defensive equipment not just to the Syrian Rebels but to the syrian civilians. Suarez its pretty hard to defend against this kind of thing, isnt it . Well, a gas mask will go a long way to help. And its not ideal. Ideally you would be able to provide them with a defensive garb that covers you all over. But prior to 1991 war israel equipped its entire civilian population with gas masks and what you could see in these films was that the syrian civilians were trying to decontaminate the victims, to wash their skin which would help reduce the possible effects there. So gas masks and some sers coaching about how to decontaminate and decontaminate fast will reduce the amount of it wont eliminate it. Suarez amy smithson, jeffrey white, thank you both. Ifill still to come on the newshour Bradley Manning gets 35 years in jail; how the n. S. A. Spies on Internet Activity and Eleanor Holmes norton looks back at the march on washington. But first, with the other news of the day. Heres kwame holman. Holman an Egyptian Court today ordered the release of expresident hosni mubarak. A hearing was held at tora prison, where the ailing 85yearold has been detained for two years. Once freed, hell be placed under house arrest on orders of egypts prime minister. Mubarak also faces charges of failing to prevent the deaths of protesters in the 2011 uprising that ousted him from power. Meanwhile the European Union held emergency talks on the egyptian crisis in brussels. Its Foreign Policy chief, catherine ashton, said the e. U. Member nations strongly condemn the recent spate of violence between the interim government and supporters of the muslim brotherhood. Weve agreed, as well, to review the issue of our assistance to egypt with the understanding of assistance to the most vulnerable groups and to Civil Society must continue. Member states have agreed to suspend export licences to egypt of any equipment used for internal repression, and to reassess their export licenses covered by the e. U. Common position. Holman the u. S. Still is weighing whether to suspend some of its 1. 5 billion in the soldier accused in the fort hood, texas shooting rampage rested his case today without presenting a defense. Army major nidal hasan who elected to represent himself did not testify or call any witnesses. Hasan is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 32 at the military base in 2009. Closing arguments are set to begin tomorrow. If convicted, hasan could face the death penalty. Staff Sergeant Robert bales faced relatives of the 16 afghan civilians he killed in a 2011 attack. Nine family members were flown from afghanistan for the sentencing hearing at joint base lewismcchord outside seattle. One man described the impact of losing 11 family members in the attack. Bales pleaded guilty in june to avoid the death penalty. The jury will decide whether his life sentence will include a chance for parole. The month of july saw a big boost to existing home sales. They jumped 6. 5 the fastest pace in more than three years. But for stocks on wall street, that bright spot didnt outweigh news from the Federal Reserve that it could end its massive bondbuying program soon. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 105 points to close at 14,897. The nasdaq fell more than 13 points to close above 3,599. The last set of four secret audio recordings made in president nixons white house was released today by the National Archives and records administration. It covers a three month span ending july 12, 1973 the day before the existence of the secret recordings, ordered by nixon, was revealed. The period includes a soviet summit, the end of the vietnam war and the watergate scandal. In this excerpt, president nixon speaks to thengovernor of california Ronald Reagan on april 30, 1973. Thats the day the president gave a National Address after firing two top aides as the watergate scandal intensified. Holman the recordings released today run 340 hours. Some 3,700 hours of conversations were taped. 700 hours remain sealed for National Security and privacy reasons. The longtime host of nprs piano jazz program Marian Mcpartland has died at her home in long island, new york. The britishborn jazz pianist reached an audience of millions over her four decades on the air. She interviewed and played duets with many of the worlds greatest musicians. She received a lifetime grammy award in 2004. Marian mcpartland was 95 years old. Those are some of the days major stories. Now, back to gwen. Ifill private Bradley Manningthe army soldier responsible for the largest classifed data leak in u. S. History was sentenced today to 35 years in military prison. Manning who provided the website wikileaks with hundreds of thousands of secret military and diplomatic documents was flanked by his attorneys as military judge colonel denise lind announced the punishment without explanation during a brief hearing this morning. Mannings attorney david coombs spoke to reporters afterwards. Pfc. Manning was one of the brave americans who was not willing to remain silent. Instead he decided to provide us with information that he believed would spark reforms, would spark debate, and he provided us with information he the world. the time to end brads suffering is now. The time for our president to focus on protecting whistleblowers, instead of punishing them is now. Im joined now by Charlie Savage who has been covering the manning trial for the new york times. It is the lor sentence ever handed down in the involving the leak of government secrets to the news media to be reported to the public. Ifill so were also talking about a reduction in rank as well as dishonorable discharge. Does that add to the sting as well . To the lowest rank of private and a dishonorable discharge was expected and is sort of a minor thing. The 35year prison sentens the important factor. A Staggering Amount of time compared to other sentences that convicted leakers. Sentences can you draw the link to here . Well, you have to remember that there have been very few convictions of people for leaking information for public consumption at all in this country. The first time that happened was in 1985 or 84 where a former navy analyst was sentenced to two years. And it was so rare that him because it was sort of unfair that this one guy had been convicted for something that happens all the time. Under this administration, of course, that weve seen, as has been well documented, a flurry, a crackdown on leaking. There have been a few cases. One resulted in the sentence of one year probation and community service. Prison. Prison. And so 35 years is a categorical of course, the scale of private mannings leaks was also unlike ifill but they were asking. For more. They were asking for 60 years, right . Which would have been made themless eligible for parole in such a short amount of time . The prosecutors were, indeed, asking for 60 years. Sought to convict him on a charge that could result in a life sentence and private manning himself unilaterally pled guilty to charges that would put him behind bars up to 20 year. So 35 years splits the difference between that 20 and that 60. My understanding of the military justice system, which is a little bit different than the federal criminal justice system, is that any sentence over 30 years makes one eligible for parole after ten years. And so an even longer sentence might not have changed the outcome if someday he gets out on parole when he becomes eligible for it, which is a big if. H