>> from our studios in new york, this is "charlie rose." >> we begin with the crisis in iraq. sunni militants expand their control over northern and western iraq. over the weekend extremist group known as isis capture strategic

border crossings with jordan and syria. secondary estate john kerry met with iraqi prime minister maliki to discuss the prices the iraq leader had been criticized for fanning the flames of sectarianism. secretary kerry spoke following the meeting. >> the very future of iraq depends on choices that will be made in the next days and weeks, and the future of iraq depends primarily on the ability of iraq leaders to come together and take a stand united against isis. not next week, not next month, but now. >> joining me now is dexter filkins from "the new yorker." no one knows the story better than him. his latest feature in the magazine is called, "what we left behind in iraq." thank you. i know you, how many years have you spent on this story?

>> i went in after when we invaded. 2003. not before. >> 10 years ago. but you never left the story. you have this interest coinciding with an interest in iran and other places. >> when we left, the united states finally departed in december 2011. i had a bad feeling. i felt like this thing that we had built and spent so many lives in so much money building didn't seem permanent to me. i did go back. very recently. i saw maliki in february. you could just tell it was waiting for one good blow and it would start to come apart. >> meaning the extent to which

maliki versus sunni was taking place? >> i think so. the thing that i did not realize when i did that piece on maliki, he has been fighting the war since he was 17 years old. this is all he knows. in 2003 andd it , when we him to persuaded him to become prime minister, he said all the right things. but, clearly he has been fighting the same war that he was always fighting. the war against the sunnis. these are the oppressors, these are the people who kept us down for so many years. now it is done. i am going to crush those people. that is his attitude. when he sees a sunni iraq he, he

he compares it to al qaeda. it is just interesting listening to secretary kerry. he is there for a reason. >> the reason is? >> there is an election in april. they have informed the new government yet. he is the caretaker. they have to form a new government. up until this happened, it was probably going to be maliki? , ihink it secretary kerry think he is pushing people in the other direction. this is me talking. i think the white house is trying to get somebody else. that maliki is to sectarian. he is responsible for a lot of this. his time is up.

>> he seemed to indicate he was aware of the problem, it in the public statements that he has made. >> i think that is right. ,he word on the street ayatollah, the leader of the he has lost confidence in maliki. if that is true, if word gets is probablyill, he not going to be hanging on. he will try to hang on. it is going to try to take a lot to get him out of there. his opponents, all the other shiites, the kurds, the sunnis, they cannot did together. they have proven time and again. as long as they cannot get together maliki stays. this could take a long time. they have insurgents outside of baghdad. it is a tough situation. >> he is depending on the

militias that were part of the scene? >> yes. >> they have their own reasons for doing that. saw,e iraqi army, as we horrible performance. this was something the americans were intimately involved in building. we trained this enormous army. know until the moment comes. the moment came. i think it was for divisions out of 14 that disappeared. >> you must be surprised about how good isis are. >> i don't know how good they are. >> they seem to have an organization. number two they go into these towns and rob the bank. >> cs. >> then they do some things that say we are going to be different. >> they do.

isis reputation is her rent is. -- her rent is. they don't talk nice. they cut things off on the get into town. approachingey were the town with bullhorns and say we are coming, and the army would disappear. iraq hesituations, soldiers in baghdad were coming to work without their uniforms on. the more easy it is to throw them away. times, iraqw york forces called ineffective. >> that to me is the real thing. everybody is assuming president obama is going to order air strikes. assuming we have targets and

know where the people are. to what end? i don't think the iraq army is in any position to go back into these places. are they going to fight their way in? thislace where you see wasn't for lucia -- falluja. they didn't fight their way back in. they started shelling civilians. that is what they do. this is going to be a long game. -- ink the only >> a long game. what do they need to figure out? >> iraq is breaking up as we speak. you are talking about something close to an effective partition of the country. unless the central government can reassert control, there is not a lot of evidence that they can. one thing that might start to work overtime as we have seen in the past, these guys will fight each other.

isis, couple of days ago, who were unified against a gun battle, that is what happened in 2006 and 2007. they started fighting each other. we took advantage. >> paralleled the surge. >> fortuitously. there is no quick fix to this i don't think. my sense is that the white house understands that. >> therefore? it is their sense, their conclusion that the answer is probably not military. if it is military, it is a small percentage. the answer is political. >> what is a political decision that can stop isis? >> i don't isis is going to come into baghdad. they would get wiped out. isis knows that.

what you're going to see happen now that isis and the other insurgents have more or less ,aken control of the heartland you will see a kind of stalemate. it is going to be a long game. you are talking about a long time, maybe the iraq he government will reassert control. the long-term has to be political. the country stays partitioned. likes the three choices, >-- >> the three choices. a pro-iranian country, malicious coming in. 2, a division of the country. 3, somehow through some means, because of this and others, tople wake up just in time have some kind of coalition that allows for the sunnis and shia

to live together and form a government. whatat what --it is not ki was doing. that is the political solution. >> yes. he doesn't come out and give big speeches. he speaks quietly. he is enormously influential. he is kind of like the pope. i hate to use that analogy. he is the leader of the shiites in iraq. they listened. he has always shown himself to be a person of great generosity. he is not somebody who is whe after thellings american invasion. he understands that there has to be an approach between these two groups. the problem is the dynamic. wars have a way of running off on their own. you mentioned the shiite

militia. he should've called for all able-bodied men to fight the insurgents. >> he is still as you point out in iran. isthese militia, whether it saddam's militia, they are big. they are basically controlled by the iranians. it gives them a huge lever here. once this takes off, every household in iraq has an ak-47 in his. everybody does. when you tell every able-bodied iraqi male to fight, it is rock 'n roll. he could get out of control. thatat is the significance they can patrol the borders with syria? >> that that's all baghdad from

those two countries. also, it is a measure of how thisly and effectively vanguard force has moved. is a measure that it is not just isis. isis is a bunch of sociopaths and psychopaths. they are in that group. they make panic videos. >> it looks like isis is continuing to advance and gain control of more territory. and therefore getting more money to pay more soldiers. >> yes. like said what way does the president say, omar god -- oh my god, what do i do? what is the advice? seek a political settlement question wer? >> no. this enormous swath of territory just becomes this place for

lunatics and guns together. not unlike 9/11. he cannot allow that. it is a threat to the united states. there are hundreds of insurgents. they are going to be very well-trained and battle hardened. i think what you will seeing, and what is happening as we speak, the white house, as soon as this happens, they ordered all sorts of surveillance to start looking at the area. they're looking for targets. that is what they are doing. think secretary kerry indicated that some of the airstrikes cannot wait for the formation of a new government. my guess is we are going to see that pretty soon. a even if there has not been

coalition of any kind. >> any time they've had to do this it has taken all. faster.ey will move it was a fractured company -- country when we went into it. we try to help together with these feeble democracy plus occupations. we will coax everybody along. there's only so much we can do. >> what is the criticism that people like dick cheney and john bolton are making? >> they say the following. they say we have the war one. when the american troops left, at the end of 2011, the war was over. his eye off the

ball. he took all the american troops out. then it went to help. that is the argument. we should've left some people behind. >> we could've made a better effort and a cushioning that deal? >> yes. that is the argument they make. for that particular group of guys to make. it is a bit much. behind us getting into that war. as we remember we got in on basically justification it turned out to be false. ishink that the argument that we should have left some people behind. the americans, the trust has been broken in iraq. crocker, the ambassador to iraq, and asked her and her diplomat. he said the trouble is we built -- elves

[inaudible] the system didn't work anymore. in 2003 we destroy the iraqi estate and we spent 8.5 years trying to build a new win. it turns out it did not work very well. what is her obligation? that is what the president is winning at the moment. >> thank you for coming. back in a moment, stay with us. ♪

>> we continue with the news from egypt. three al jazeera journalists have been convicted and sentenced on charges of conspiring with the muslim brotherhood. the verdicts have drawn widespread condemnation. they came after the secretary of state express confidence in u.s.-egypt relations. today the secretary kerry said this. "the conviction is a chilling and your connie and sentence. when i heard the verdict i was so concerned about it am a disappointed in it, i picked up the telephone and talk to the foreign minister of egypt and registered our displeasure at

this kind of verdict." in a conversation on may 1, i spoke with the egyptian foreign minister about the case against al jazeera. i have to raise a question. those of us in the world of journalism are very concerned about this. >> i appreciate that. i appreciate that. i understand. >> i want to put it front and center. >> i accept that. you haven't done this even in your system. our president sent letters to the families of two of the accused. >> i'm aware of that. >> even though he is a judge, he wanted to assure them that there would be due process, he said he couldn't interfere in the process, but let me add a piece of information which is why i love coming on your show. there hasn't been a single case since then.

this case is valid. it will be dealt with by the courts. i have no comment on the substance of it. but there hasn't been a single case since then. >> why is that? >> because there is a determination by the government to try and do, to ensure that unless there is a real direct evidence for criminal offense, try to give journalists as much space as you can as a government. we issued a statement from the cabinet saying that we guarantee the security and protection for foreign journalists. and we will allow them to do their work professionally. we asked them to please go and get your journalistic passes so that when you are pursuing your profession, and you are in the middle of a demonstration here and there, or a sensitive event, and a policeman addresses you,

you have the pass. let's try to move forward and try to do better. but i tell you again, if a journalist commits a crime, he does not have immunity. >> i don't think journalists ask for immunity. >> that is exactly my point. i'm being very candid with you. >> there are many people who sit at a comfortable desk in new york city, and risk their lives. >> that is why i'm saying we have bent over backwards to ensure that these things don't happen as far as we can assure that they don't, and that you can work secure and safely. you have to be in difficult situations to cover the news. >> joining me in new york is ehab al-shihabi, the interim ceo al jazeera america. from cutter is al jazeera english correspondent sue turton. she was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in absentia earlier today. i am pleased to have both of them on this program. tell me exactly the events leading to this arrest and what is transpiring since then before we go to sue.

>> sue will know better than i do. what inspired this, our team in egypt, they were doing their work. they were covering the way they cover any war in any country of the world. they have been covering in egypt, and after that, what i heard at that time, they have been in jail for many months. the sad day come a shocking day, our journalists who i know personally, they've been sentenced for seven years and 10 years. this is a crime, not just against al jazeera, but against all the media. this is a crime against the freedom of press. this is really a danger situation in my mind to freedom of the press. although we are very sad, on the other hand this will make us stronger. we are determined to make sure

that our journalists will be free. the whole world is standing behind us. >> give us the background on this. you were sentenced in absentia. how did this come about? why are they bringing these charges? what do they hope to gain? explain to america and international audience what is happening. but we should start from when i went back to cairo last september. i went back to cover the african union conference were they discussing the chances america might get involved in syria at the time. as i was live from the conference, our bureau was rated by security services and equipment was taken. it was closed down. from that moment on we went dark. i became the special correspondent for security reasons. weeks.sted for

doing interviews where we didn't put our faces on camera or our names. eventually i said to the boss, will we have to go back to properly reporting in egypt. let's try and see if we are ok. real crackdown of the media. the domestic media in egypt has been virtually silent in speaking out other way than backing the government. the international media was still trying to do its work. we went back on air and we started to try and report. it seem like we were going to be ok. i then left in early november and was anchoring from dale harr and reporting that the muslim brotherhood had been aided terrorist organization. this the president, change with the coup last year. there we are sitting there on aboutmas day talking

the implications, ramifications of this move. four days later, he would be arrested himself with our other two colleagues and thrown in prison. which is where they have been for 177 days. that is the background. what we were trying to do was cover egypt. show all sides. we try to show all sides. we have no allegiance to any group. we have no reason to back one group above another group. the narrative in egypt is dictated to by the government. they don't want to hear anybody give any other side of the narrative. now we have the court case that has gone on where they have tried to put evidence against us frank, they have not put any evidence to prove we aided or abetted this terrorist organization they deem the muslim brotherhood. andin no way do we step out

put false news out to do with egypt. in spite of that, the sherry in egypt decided that we are guilty. in spite of the fact that the world has watched and seen no evidence. they decided we are guilty. we are in this dreadful position that my colleagues are facing between seven years and 10 years in prison. the rest of us have this sentence hanging over us. did you have good representation during the hearing? >> we had a legal team. they did their best. there was little to defend. there was no evidence. some video they found on the , youdrives in the rooms have a hard drive yourself. it has all sorts of stuff on it. horses hard drive had galloping around. he had pictures of his family on

holiday. this was shown in court. all of this is ridiculous. supposeto prove this iteris guilt we had. there was nothing on those hard drives to prove any of this. most of it wasn't even al jazeera footage. they had nothing to defend. and nothing to react against. they did a good job brady stood up and said this is a trial of journalism. jazeera.ot just al it is the freedom of the press in egypt. egypt brought in a new constitution. it very much put freedom of the speech infreedom of the center of the constitution. they are the ones saying that they on the roadmap to democracy. they are the ones that have heralded this is a pillar of democracy brady peller is in ruins. likes how much pressure has been brought to bear on the russian government?

of pressure. i was in d.c.. i talked to the state department. they were promising they were doing a block behind the scenes. they could see that this is about the freedom of origin. the australian government is, for the egyptian government to recognize this is no way civilized society acts. i don't know if you saw john kerry statement. >> i have it in front of me. >> it was lacking in diplomatic language. he sounds quite angry. it seems to me reading between the lines that he may be got a promise when he was cairo that with the money released, the military aid being given back to egypt, things would be going in a positive direction for our guys in the court today.

it really sounds like that is turned on its head. you may see the end of it he uses the word heart and in that speech. maybe it is what they are looking for. you have put our guys in this position. maybe now you come along and pardon them and let them go. >> to you think they have singled out his ear because they were more upset by al jazeera's coverage of the muslim brotherhood that anybody else? >> al jazeera arabic is the most watched arabic channel in the arabic world. al jazeera english, we were trying to give all sides of the story. i don't think we pushed one group head of another. i've been a reporter for 25 years. i don't have any allegiance to any group. i have no reason to stand by one group or another. we don'tay the same --

push one side more than other side. we are still trying to get all sides of the story. there is a huge crackdown going on in all of the media in egypt. the domestic press told the government line. we don't speak out against or they are in trouble. the international press, i would are muted now. they know that they really do run the risk if they start to push back those boundaries and interview people that the government does not want them to. or explore the points of view. they run the risk of being rounded up and put in prison next our guys. >> it is having a chilling effect in your judgment. >> a huge chilling effect. are considering closing their own bureaus in cairo. has are aghast at what happened today. the broadcasters like us about

the egyptian government would recognize this wasn't their image -- wasn't doing their image any good. it wasn't proving they were on the road met democracy. to be frank, their tourism industry has flatlined. to be honest with you if somebody said to me should be gone holiday to egypt, say no. if you have a conscious you shouldn't. notice how they're treating journalists, muslim brotherhood supporters who are now being put in prison, both their own citizens. have,al attitude they that they don't deserve to what is going on in their own country because they are silencing any free press. >> do think this has anything to do with the fact that al jazeera is from qatar?

>> we can't shy away from that. it is on the record. qatar is supportive of the muslim brotherhood and support mohammed morsi. isn'te qatar government al jazeera english. when i turn up on a story i say it like i see it and like i hear it. i don't speak for anybody else. i am a journalist. i hope, with integrity. i try to be a fair and balanced journalist my whole career. there is no way anybody is going to make me their mouthpiece. i would stand by our guys in prison say the same thing. we are independent journalists from a well respected news channel and we are just trying to tell like it is. >> clearly anybody who knows of you and listens to you this evening knows all the things that you just spoke of are an

accurate reflection of who you are and how you report. the question was whether the egyptian government is upset atar government and took it out on al jazeera? >> i am sure that is in the mixed. it must be in the next. there is a huge crack in on the media. anybody that gives an alternative point of view, al jazeera is still doing that. yes, we are funded by the qatari government. there is no love lost between the two nations at the moment. i am sure we are a victim of that as well. it is much more complicated than just that. it. has to be part of >> john kerry statement is in front of me. today's conviction is a chilling and taccone and -- draconian sentence. are registered are serious displeasure at the berdych.

-- berdych. s not reflected any conversation that he might have had with the president about this. it is wanting to talk to the foreign minister. it is another thing to talk to the president. likes indie. the channels of communication between the state department and the egyptian presidential palace, and the government, have been opened. there have been frank discussions for months. that was the message i was getting. i don't know. does anybody believe that the egyptian judicial system is independent of the government? independent of the president? we look back now and see what has happened today and it doesn't seem to be the case. as people keep saying today, are you going to appeal? if we appeal they are looking to trust in the same judicial system. it would that things will change in the future or do we believe

that there is the hand of the president and the head of a government in the judicial system? why bother appealing a federal we think? we have few options left over. should be call for a pardon? that will be the president. the president doesn't mind pardons. journalists noted that its coverage is more neutral than its arabic sister network, both the journalists appear to have been cut up in the broader campaign against al jazeera as a whole. does that resonate? >> i can only speak for al jazeera english. i don't speak for al jazeera arabic. arabic office had closed. the had to pull out. there had been threats against them. we were the only ones still in

town. if they were looking to round anybody up, maybe that is why they look for us. bruntwe are bearing the of this. david kirkpatrick is right. we try to stay down the middle. that is the way we report. recognizethey had to we are al jazeera english. s broad and expert brecon i didn't even know the difference. they were brought in as experts per they were supposed to be saying who did what and who said what. it was a travesty of justice to think that these people put forward any evidence that any way prove the charges against them. wexford we go from here? -- >> where do we go from here? >> we have our journalists in jail. we now, our mission is to rally the whole world to free our journalist.

glaxo to the statement of the secretary of state and the four mr. of australia. you seem to have strong statement coming from them. >> it is a strong statement. we need to rally the whole media. first of all, it is fundamental. this is a crime against the media. this is not a crime only against al jazeera. al jazeera journalist the been in jail. any media outlet they suffer the same consequence. albany to do, we need to put more pressure on egypt. we need all organizations, all the government to keep continuous pressure on egypt. president al jazeera have in cairo today? >> we have no reporting presence. it is impossible. we can't operate if there. it is impossible to step foot in the country because

we have these charges leveled against us. now, ify to go there any my colleagues, there is no way they can operate freely at the moment. all we can do is stand back, look from afar, and we have no way of really reporting properly from cairo. charge goes away, and our guys are free. john kerry said he gave me a strong sense of his commitment to a reevaluation of human rights legislation and a reevaluation of the judicial process. any comment on that? >> no. american government has been very supportive. they have tried to keep negotiations open with egyptian government. even when the egyptian government has been handing out hundreds of death sentences to muslim brotherhood supporters.

whether you back the muslim brotherhood or not. to give a death sentence to somebody who believes in a group doesn't sit right with anybody. i recognize and respect the fact that john kerry is still trying to negotiate with the egyptian government. for all our benefits come at the end of the day, whatever is being said by the egyptian government, whatever promises they're making, they are not following through. >> thank you for joining us. i know we have you up late. i thank you for coming to give us some insight into this troubling case. >> my pleasure. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> back in a moment, stay with us.

fouad ajami died on sunday. he was 68 years old. his close friend said nobody ever combine the virtues of idealism and realism quite the way fouad did. he believed in the idea of freedom and democracy in the arab world and had no illusions whatsoever about the obstacles that stood in the way of his progressive dream. his first book in 1981 spoke of dissent from the pervading myths about arab politics. it exposed the limitations of islamism, nationalism, and marxism, and called for various arab societies to take responsibility for their own integrity and social progress. fouad ajami authored over 400 essays on american arab politics, international history, and he was a prominent influence of the american understanding of israeli palestinian conflict, and the bosnian war and genocide. he advised high-ranking american officials on the war on iraq and the arab spring. heat of the arab world should make peace with israel and count it as their friend. he was born in a lebanese

village and became an american. he was a longtime friend of the program and me where he appeared more than 40 times. i will remember him with a selection from conversations we had at this table over the years. >> have you been right about iraq? if not totally, how not? >> that is a tough one. it was at this desk you would ask this question in this way. have i been right? i don't think anyone is right about iraq. iraq has been full of surprises. it surprised everyone. it surprised people who launched the world. it surprised liberals. it surprised the hawk who thought that iraq would redeem the best hopes. i don't really, looking back on what i wrote, looking back on the logic of the war and the logic that i subscribe to, i

wasn't one of the people who were beating the drums of war. the war came. i was a 9/11 person. that is what i was working on. the arab attacks on america of 9/11. the iraq war was launched. i caught up with the war. and i followed the war. i went to iraq because i didn't want to write about the war from a distance. i plunge myself into the war. i thought i had some advantages that, the advantages of languages. we are invested in the arab world, but many of our people who write about the world know very little about that culture. i felt i had that advantage at least. i have just tried my best to understand this war. i am sympathetic. i think it is a noble effort. my friend once said he thought the war was morally right and politically wrong. then he asked me, what would you say if you or to have a big sound but about the war? it is a noble war.

the question will be, will it be a noble success? or noble failure? sometimes a noble effort can also fail. i think we have tried to make sense of this war, and i have tried my best to just simply chronicle the war, the iraqis, and write about them. this book is full of iraqis. whether it is something of an attempt to follow the iraqis. we owe the arab world no apology for anything. the terror attacks on 9/11 committee from the heart of arab society. we did this over and over again. these terror attacks were not printed tax. they came from the mainstream of arab society. going into iraq when we upended the regime of saddam hussein, we

overthrew a terrorist territory. -- airborne route had the league of arab states, they ofer offered a word sympathy. were indifferent to the victims of saddam hussein, they shed no tear for them. >> saddam is gone. now you have this extraordinary sectarian violence. >> we can criticize what is going on in iraq. ,here is a line in this book resorting to violence, where men are not angels. , aided by thes forces of the sunni arabs in the arab world around iraq, they have no apologies to offer.

they did the reverse. they began this war against the shia. sparedny was many sectarian killing. you are right. if you take a look at the shia, how do you know there is a better sectarian in iraq? they now have their own militias. their own brigade. they've come into the fight. these are terrible soldiers. darkness,orces of bigotry. dabble in sectarian violence. the president of the country said some of the arab leaders in , theytheir responsibility never reined in their community and understood that having this regime, you don't turn around and unleash violence against the shia. thatcouple of images

framed the iraq war for me, in 2003, the fall of the statue. i hate to refer to something related to you. we did that program from washington that very day about the fall of the statue. that was one moment for the arabs. another one was in december. a month later. was flushed out of his spider hole. herbst could see the fraud -- the arabs could see the fraud. i think it was not a very easy war. i think my colleagues have mapped out the problems. it was something michael said which i sympathize with. you could, there is a quotation i like from ambassador crocker who said in the end, how we

leave, and what we leave behind will be much more important than how we came. we can argue that how we came. it is what we leave behind that is the test. >> that is what john is talking about. >> the war has been a terrible disappointment. in many ways. , i suppose, we have given liberty to the majority of the iraqis. there is no doubt about that. ornoble in your judgment, noble success? >> it is a noble war. i don't think it is a catastrophic failure. i don't think it is a brilliant success. i happen to know from the prime minister, and watching the leadership of this man, the appetite that has grown, he has become a dictator, it is not what those of us who thought

well of the war would have expected. wars have these kinds of ends. we have these outcomes people can predict. the song ofrom rain, we spent year after year after year watching thunderous lightning clouds with no rain, and wanes like storms which would neither pass as a storm nor like quiet, we wake up in fear of them. >> i'm glad you read this. s, they areiraqi very poetic people. poets and perfect which is an alien tradition to the goal. , what isk iraqis the best poem? the song of rain, 1960. this gifted man.

. open the book with it it is about the song of rain. we expect rain, rain. every year they still hunger. iraq has been living on the expectation of deliverance. there is a metaphor in this book. this is the unique part of the book. the policy angle or one of the great poet says this is a metaphor for iraq. he says he grew up on a piece of ground, and the euphrates river was nearby. of as always the promise better future. the country rich with oil and , and yetth agriculture it is right. remains whether an american led invasion and occupation will lead to the deliverance. >> you ask a fundamental question.

jordan, thisfrom rocky piece of ground that had nothing except government ability, and you fly from jordan to baghdad him a here is this country in iraq, that should be the one that is highly developed where you fly from kuwait. you look at the condition of iraq and compared to the condition, and you can see what dictatorship did to iraq. laboratory difficult with difficult experiment a lot of nobility built into the enterprise. it is that the book tries to capture. that is what i'm delighted that --adn't thought rain, waiting for rain. waiting for deliverance. the gift comes from america. people don't like the gift

handed by a foreigner. the regime has no script. we are playing it by ear. the elements of contingency, the fire,man sets himself on and history changes. aboutou said something the strategy, i smiled. i'm reminded of an egyptian jug. -- joke. when work -- he asked the driver, he said, he came to a crossroad. the driver said what do i do? should i turn?ay always to the left.

after that, always to the right. then don't move. that is the strategy. don't move. mubarak.the we have always talked about pushing him for reform. he is a survivor and a wily ma'am. he will hope he can ride out the storm. shots.y calls the , he stays at the good grace of the army. , who died at the age of 68. ♪

>> this is "taking stock" for tuesday, june 24, 2014. i am pimm fox. today's theme is wipeout. the u.s. highway trust fund could get wiped out. it spends -- sends money to states for road repair. why all this revenue is drying up. and could bananas be wiped out? we will talk about a disease that poses a serious threat to the global banana supply that iterates more than a billion dollars a year. he is the grandson of the famous explorer jacques cousteau.