Skip to main content

tv   CNN Newsroom  CNN  November 14, 2010 1:00am-2:00am EST

1:00 am
>> larry: let's dance this out, guys. >> woo! ♪ ♪ >> larry: you to go, girl! -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com she's getting $15,000 to bring out to them. if the police are told, they'll kill her chirp and her husband. she is petrified. >> a vicious crime in a tranquil connecticut suburb. >> it is evil incarnate. >> two suspects whose actions
1:01 am
were beyond brutal. >> he swung the bat as hard as he could. before they tied anybody up, before the fire was set, joshua tried to kill dr. petit on the couch. >> i'm randi kaye in cheshire, connecticut. what happened to a wife, a husband and their two daughters in a home that became a house of horror, and terror. pure evil, the killings in connecticut. for the petit family in this quiet connecticut suburb, there was never any hint of the violence that was to come. >> the epitome of the all-american family. a beautiful mother, and two beautiful daughters. >> never any clue their vibrant
1:02 am
home on sorghum hill drive would soon become a house of horrors. their last day together as a family was a classic summer sunday. dr. william petit, a prominent connecticut doctor, played golf with his dad. earlier that day, his wife of 22 years, jennifer hawke-petit, and her daughter michaela, 11, had gone grocery shopping at this stop-and-shop supermarket. >> the younger daughter, michaela, was going to make a special dinner for her family. so she and mrs. petit went to the stop-and-shop here in town. >> the older daughter, hayley, 17, had just graduated from miss porter's school. she wanted to be a doctor like her dad. as jennifer hawke-petit, a pediatric nurse, drove back from the supermarket, she had no idea
1:03 am
she was being watched. watched, police say, by two career criminals paroled from prison just weeks before. within hours, their worlds would collide. >> i also liken it to what marauding armies do to countries when they take over, raping and pillageing. that's kind of what happened in that house. >> the two men allegedly watching mrs. hawke-petit and her daughter are joshua komisarjevsky and steven hayes. between them, they've been arrested nearly 50 times. on hayes' rap sheet, illegal possession of a firearm, burglary and forgery. komisarjevsky, 30, has a criminal past that includes 20 arrests for burglary and larceny. a connecticut judge once called him a cold, calculating predator.
1:04 am
he started breaking into homes at 13. but rarely stole anything. reportedly just listened to the sounds of the sleeping family. and page through family photos. true crime author brian mcdonald wrote a book about this case and received 20 letters from komisarjevsky. >> his parents are fervent christians. everything about his early life was about his christianity. he was part of this -- the christian brigade, which is like the boy scouts. but yet very early on in his life, 13, there was this evil side of him that had to be nurtured, or explored. >> komisarjevsky grew up on a 65-acre estate less than two miles from the petit family. he was adopted as an infant. as a young boy, he says he was brutally raped by another foster child taken in by his family. >> he said that he was forcibly
1:05 am
raped. he made it absolutely clear in his letters to me that it wasn't exposing, or fondling or anything like that, that it was, i believe he said merciless rape. that made him think that all of this religious dogma that he was being force-fed was all garbage. >> in this letter, mcdonald said komisarjevsky details the alleged assault. these are my first memories. i was 5 going on 6. month upon month, my personal hell went unnoticed at the hands of an older foster kid. >> humanity is cruel. >> mcdonald reads from the letter as komisarjevsky refers to him of this child. >> stripping in sin, learned at an early age, the art of repression. god is all knowing, all powerful, and did nothing to protect this child. >> komisarjevsky and hayes, who both have a history of drugs,
1:06 am
first met a year and a half before the crime. here at the halfway house in hartford, connecticut. they were roommates for four months. they had gone their separate ways for a while, until police say hayes called komisarjevsky. he needed help stealing money. komisarjevsky, who mcdonald says has an obsession with young girls, spotted 11-year-old michaela petit in the grocery store parking lot with her mother. and chose then as their next robbery target. they followed them to learn where they lived, then went home. hours later, komisarjevsky was giving his daughter a bath, and reading her a bedtime story. police say hayes then texted him. i'm chomping at the bit to get started. need a margarita soon, hayes wrote. komisarjevsky responded, i'm putting kid to bed. hold your horses.
1:07 am
hayes, dude, the horses want to get loose. lol. >> what kind of fantasies they had is some kind of fantasy they had during their life. >> around 3:00 a.m., the morning of july 23rd, 2007, investigators say komisarjevsky and hayes entered the petit's home through an unlocked door. dr. petit is asleep in a chair downstairs in a sun room. komisarjevsky, police say, beats him bloody with a baseball bat. before both suspects secure his hands and feet, and tie him to a pole in the basement. >> he told me he swung the bat as hard as he could. he tried to kill this man. before anything else happened in the house. >> dr. petit's wife and daughters are next.
1:08 am
[ male announcer ] every day thousands of people are switching from tylenol to advil. to learn more and get your special offer, go to takeadvil.com. take action. take advil. my professor at berkeley asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands.
1:09 am
[ male announcer ] what does it take to excel in today's business world? our professors know. because they've been there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room, they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead. devry university's keller graduate school of management. learn how to grow the business of you at keller.edu. that advertise flights for 25,000 miles? but when you call... let me check. oh fudge, nothing without a big miles upcharge. it's either pay their miles upcharges or connect through mooseneck!
1:10 am
[ freezing ] i can't feel my feet. we switched to the venture card from capital one -- so no more games. let's go see those grandkids. [ male announcer ] don't pay miles upcharges. don't play games. get the flight you want with the venture card at capitalone.com. [ loving it ] help! what's in your wallet? [ ted ] for years, i was just a brewer. until one of the guys brought in some fresh bread that he'd made from our pale ale. and from that first bite, i knew my business would never be the same. [ male announcer ] when businesses see an opportunity to grow, the hartford is there. protecting their property and helping them plan their employees' retirement. ♪ beer or bread? [ male announcer ] see how the hartford helps businesses at achievewhatsahead.com.
1:11 am
it's the middle of the night, july 23rd, 2007. suspects steven hayes and joshua komisarjevsky are inside the petit home. police say komisarjevsky goes upstairs, surprises the girls and their mother, tying them to their beds. they then search the house for money. around 7:00 a.m., four hours after they enter the house, steven hayes leaves to buy a few jugs of gasoline. that's him paying for it, captured on this security camera video at this gas station about four miles from the house.
1:12 am
"in session" reporter beth karas, a former new york city prosecut prosecutor, followed the case. >> they had already planned to do something with the gasoline, or hayes wouldn't have been sent out to get four gallons of gasoline. >> when hayes returns, police say both men find a checkbook reportedly showing more than a $20,000 balance. with threats, they force mrs. hawke-petit to drive to the bank. you're watching a wife, a mother, in a desperate attempt to save her family. that's jennifer hawke-petit on this bank security camera video, in the small town of cheshire, connecticut. her husband, beaten, bound and gagged, is being held hostage, along with her two daughters, michaela, 11, and hayley, 17. mrs. hawke-petit tells the bank teller she needs to withdraw $15,000, ransom money. it is 9:17 a.m. she tries to remain calm. one of the two suspects, steven
1:13 am
hayes, is waiting outside. the teller alerts the bank manager, who quietly calls 911. >> we have a lady who is in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house. the people are in the car outside the bank, she's getting $15,000, that if the police are told, they will kill the children and the husband. she is petrified. >> minutes later mrs. hawke-petit leaves the bank with the ransom money. >> they told her they would hurt anybody if she got back there with the money. she believes them. i think she's walking out now. she's walking out now. >> police are dispatched to surround the house. they're ordered not to approach the house. it's protocol in a hostage situation, the police will explain later. they'll also say they had no reason to believe anyone was in immediate danger.
1:14 am
>> i think they get criticized either way. i know that this is something that's going to haunt them for the rest of their lives. >> what police don't know is that joshua komisarjevsky has already sexually assaulted the youngest daughter, michaela. true crime author brian mcdonald received letters from komisarjevsky after the attack. >> he said that he masturbated on her. he said he took her clothes off and masturbated on her. then he made her take a shower afterwards. >> after the two men, hayes and komisarjevsky, the picture has been based on the evidence that we know about, that komisarjevsky was the one who did it more for a thrill. >> when hayes returns from the bank with michaela's mother, investigators say komisarjevsky "get his hands dirty" by sexually assaulting mrs.
1:15 am
hawke-petit. while the police are outside, he rapes and strangles her. by now it's nearly 10:00 a.m., seven hours of terror. dr. petit recalls a sinister voice shouting to him in the basement, don't worry, it's all going to be over in a couple of minutes. in a burst of adrenaline, the desperate husband and father frees himself from his basement prison. he crawls to a neighbor's driveway, bleeding badly, and calls out for help. by now, nearly 40 minutes have passed since the bank manager called 911. remember the gasoline hayes was seen buying earlier that morning? investigators say the suspects used it to douse the home with the girls tied to their beds. what they do next, according to investigators, is pure evil. nearly impossible to comprehend for the officers outside.
1:16 am
>> they hear some screams. and then the place goes up in flames. >> hayes and komisarjevsky attempt to get away in the family's suv. they smash right into the waiting police cruisers. inside police find jennifer hawke-petit's body on the living room floor. hayley's body is at the top of the stairs. she had managed to free herself but collapsed from the smoke. michaela's body was still tied to her bed. >> when you look at how this happened, and why, and the torment that this family went through, and the way they died at the end, in my 24 years in the criminal justice system, this is one of the few cases that gave me a nightmare. >> after seven horrific hours inside the petits' home, joshua
1:17 am
komisarjevsky and steven hayes are finally taken into custody, charged with sexual assault, and murder. dr. william petit, the only survivor, has lost his beautiful wife and his two girls. soon he will face the men accused of killing his family. ♪
1:18 am
♪ i was young and i was stupid ♪ i had just turned 17 ♪ a harmonica and a box guitar ♪ ♪ in a canvas-covered wagon stuffed... ♪ [ male announcer ] while the world's been waiting on the electric car, maybe the whole time, the electric car has been waiting for this... the wattstation from ge. it's going to change the way we get to where we all want to go. ♪ i didn't think much of it till i took it apart ♪ with beauty... ♪ ...and brains. ♪ a phone that gets you to the stuff you love faster.
1:19 am
only from at&t. rethink possible.
1:20 am
josh ka komisarjevsky and steven hayes face the death penalty for capital murder. in the home invasion of the
1:21 am
petit family, where jennifer hawke-petit was strangled and her daughters left to die in a fire, police say the suspects set. komisarjevsky and hayes may have been partners in crime, but they are to be tried separately in new haven superior court. steven hayes first. hayes' lawyer is trying to spare him the death penalty. >> hayes always said that komisarjevsky injected violence into this. that they were just going to get some money, get some jewelry. >> public defender thomas olman concedes in his opening statement what is known steven hayes kills and assaults mrs. petit, adding, no one was supposed to be hurt. >> jennifer hawke-petit wanted to believe that these men who had been holding her and her children and husband hostage for about six hours at that point, from 3:00 in the morning until
1:22 am
9:00 when the bank opened, that they were not going to hurt them. >> in court, dr. william petit, the only survivor, comes face to face with one of his family's alleged killers. >> i think my testimony stands as truthful testimony. and beyond that, i really don't want to dignify the ravings of a sociopath who appears to be a pathological liar as well. >> dr. petit recounts waking up with blood gushing from his head. i felt something warm running down the front of my face, he tells jurors. he told the court the two suspects had a gun. that one said to the other, "if he moves, put two bullets in him." next, investigators share what they found on komisarjevsky's cell phone. images of the sexual assault on petit's youngest daughter.
1:23 am
some jurors begin to weep. dr. petit leaves the courtroom. true crime author brian mcdonald received 20 letters from joshua komisarjevsky in prison. and interviewed him three times. >> did he talk to you about taking photos of michaela? >> yes. >> what did he tell you about what he did to her? >> he said he took very suggestive pictures of michaela, and he was going to use them, he said, to blackmail dr. petit. >> on the stand, investigators play out the victim's final hours. some of the most gripping testimony comes from an investigator who testifies hayes had sex with mrs. hawke-petit after he killed her. >> i still can't wrap my head around this. it is evil incarnate. >> steven hayes' defense lawyer tries to convince the jury his
1:24 am
client killed hawke-petit at the request of joshua komisarjevsky. but pages from komisarjevsky's prison diary, misspellings and all, presented in court seemed to suggest otherwise. komisarjevsky writes, when steve took the life of mrs. petit, he brought both of us to a whole different level. this was no longer just a simple robbery. and in a surreal passage, komisarjevsky calls dr. petit a coward, who ran away when he felt his own life was threatened, and left his wife and children to die at the hands of madmen. >> his comments about dr. petit are quite interesting. and inflammatory. some commentators have suggested that they really are an attempt to traumatize the last person left in the house, to retraumatize him in some way, so he can still assert control over
1:25 am
him. >> if these self-described madmen did kill three members of the petit family, the question is, why? >> i think he saw michaela that day at the stop-and-shop, get into the mother's suv, i think he followed her home because of that. i think he marked that house because of that. >> you mean she was the target? >> yeah. >> in closing, hayes' defense team told the jury things just got out of control. a psychologist testified that hayes was so filled with remorse after the murders, he wanted the state to kill him. after deliberating for four days, a jury gave him his wish. and dr. william petit met with the reporters. >> michaela was an 11-year-old little girl, you know? torture and killed in her own bedroom, surrounded by stuffed animals. hayley had a great future.
1:26 am
>> in court, steven hayes was silent as the death penalty was read. komisarjevsky is scheduled to go to trial in january. the house at sorghum hill drive is gone now. raised about a year or so after the killings and the fire. in its place, a memorial garden, tended year-round with loving care. the physical reminders of what happened here are gone, but the memories remain. of acts so vicious, many call them pure evil. . in pursuit of this goal, lexus developed the world's most advanced driving simulator, where a real driver in a real car can react to real situations without real consequences.
1:27 am
the breakthroughs we innovate here may someday make all cars safer. this is the pursuit of tomorrow. this is the pursuit of perfection. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] at&t and blackberry have teamed up to keep your business moving. blackberry torch now just $99.99. only from at&t. rethink possible. when we all become doers. when our mittens double as work gloves. and we turn every room into a project. but this year, let's trim the budget. get some help from martha stewart that we can't get anywhere else. and spread our money as far as our cheer. ♪
1:28 am
more saving. more doing. that's the power of the home depot. we're lowering the cost of bright spirits. trade any light string for 3 bucks off a new led set.
1:29 am
hello, everyone,i'mdon lemon. an icon in myanmar has been free from house arrest. aung san suu kyi walked out of
1:30 am
her home a free woman on saturday. the nobel peace prize laureate has been in prison or confined to her home for 15 of the past 21 years. she's expected to speak to her supporters on sunday. medical workers in haiti are appalled at the number of patients dying and being hospitalized in the ongoing cholera outbreak. the death toll is at least 800, with more than 12,000 hospitalized. the leader of doctors without borders says his staff is now seeing seven times the number of patients they did just three days ago. those are your headlines this hour. i'm don lemon, keeping you informed. cnn, the most trusted name in news. i'm trying to find out americans' feelings on the death penalty. >> i'm for it in the most heinous of cases. >> eye for an eye, i think. >> are you familiar with the case in connecticut? >> yes. >> you support it in that case? >> yes. >> life in prison. >> definitely they should be in
1:31 am
some kind of prison. >> well, thanks for going out on a limb. >> we've got so many people in jail, that's falsely accused. >> how many people are actually in prison on the death penalty clogging up our system? >> all for it. >> all for it. >> it's been five days since justice was served in the petit murder case. three days since students riot in london. two days since the passengers on a luxurious carnival cruise got to take a hot shower. we're about to tear through all of it. welcome to "what the week." >> the man behind one of the most terrific crimes in the past decade heading to death row. >> steven hayes -- >> dr. petit even with today's sentences, there is no such thing as closure. >> the hole in your soul is still there. >> president obama in india delivering a message of
1:32 am
cooperation, hoping to return with something that americans desperately need -- jobs. >> he flew from india to jakarta. >> former president bush is back in the spotlight. he's written a book. it's called "decision points." >> i'm going to be dead when they finally figure it out. >> he's back. conan o'brien returning to the air more than nine months after he was booted from the "tonight show." >> everybody's been wondering what the mystery plume off the california coast is. now the pentagon says "we have no evidence to suggest that this was anything other than a contrail." >> we're told about 40,000 students have been demonstrating. >> trying to get in. >> the chairman of the bipartisan deficit commission calling for tax increases. >> it will truly destroy this country. >> veteran day ceremonies. vice president joe biden placing a wreath at the tomb of the unknowns. >> help is arriving for a
1:33 am
carnival cruise ship. >> passengers finally starting to get off this thing. >> the president will arrive in japan. >> the g-20, mefgt of the world's economic powers, with no major break-throughs. >> those are the biggest stories of the week. here are the five things you need to know. number five, after eight months of political stalemate, iraq has a new government. under the deal prime minister nuri al maliki remains in power. the latest word is the speaker of the iraqi parliament is locked in a massive power struggle with none other than nancy pelosi. new rules to protect you from the credit card fees. to recoup that money, some companies tacked new fees onto checking accounts for things like printing checks and mailing out statements that say essentially you're being charged for us mailing out this statement. number three, this week, a european drugmaker says it's developing a pill with a
1:34 am
microchip inside. it will eventually track your temperature, heart rate and body movement. there are privacy concerns because the chip broadcasts that info via blue tooth or wi-fi for anyone to see. for those of you taking levitra, there's double worry, because you've potentially got an antenna. after the printer cartridge terrorist plot, now ink cartridges over 16 ounces are banned from inbound u.s. passenger flights. most people see this as a waste of the tsa's time. and others see this as a last-ditch jab at printers by the powerful pen and pencil lobby. number one, amazon.com got a barrage of complaints after listing this book "the pedophile's guide to love and pleasure." amazon refused to remove it saying it doesn't censure, but guess what, it got taken down. you did it. you see something you don't like, something that isn't right obviously, take action. don't just complain, do
1:35 am
something. stand up and do something. you've got a voice. you used it this week. all right. well, every year protesters flip out over the g-20 convention. what are they freaking out over and what is the g-20 anyway? i'll break it down for you next. [ male announcer ] if you've had a heart attack caused by a completely blocked artery, another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death
1:36 am
by helping to keep blood platelets from sticking together and forming dangerous clots. ask your doctor if plavix is right for you. protection that helps save lives. certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, reduce the effect of plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop taking plavix without talking to your doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding should not use plavix. taking plavix alone or with some other medicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your doctor when planning surgery. tell your doctor all medicines you take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weakness or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than 2 weeks after starting plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur.
1:37 am
1:38 am
welcome back. let's take a look at this picture. that's the g-20 meeting in south korea this week. talk about a good looking picture. that might even be fridge-worthy. who are these people? why do they meet and how on earth does it affect me and you? it's the subject of today's "you are here." when i hear g-20, all i think of is bingo, and some old lady winning 20 bucks at the vfw. g-20 stands for a group of 20. so who are the 20? all right. there they are. they're actually really representatives from 19
1:39 am
countries, plus the european union. together they make up 90% of the world's gross national product, 80% of the world trade and two-thirds of the world's population. how long has it been around? the first g-20 meeting was 11 years ago in berlin. now, the first summit with heads of state, that was in 2008. you probably remember this is the group that got together at the height of the financial crisis to try to take steps to prevent another one. so what happened at this g-20 summit? i asked cnn's ali velshi to sum it up. here's what he told me. he said president obama didn't get what he wanted and the participating countries punted on any agreement of nanything substantial. the white house said it would trade $10 billion in exports and 70,000 american jobs, but it didn't happen. meaning no jobs. although some critics said it would have been a net loss of jobs. oh, those critics.
1:40 am
and speaking of critics, you know, all of those protesters at all these summits? what's their deal? well, a lot of them believe even though the g-20 include developing nations, it's still only the rich and powerful and all these countries represented at these meetings. where it's no one's job to speak out for the poor. and that's where we are. all right. well, veterans day was thursday. but what does that mean to you? i hit the street to find out, and that sneks. is next. ♪ [ male announcer ] at ge capital, we're out there every day with clients like jetblue -- financing their fleet, sharing our expertise, and working with people who are changing the face of business in america. after 25 years in the aviation business, i kind of feel like if you're not having fun at what you do, then you've got the wrong job. my landing was better than yours. no, it wasn't. yes, it was. was not. yes, it was. what do you think?
1:41 am
take one of the big ones out? nah. [ male announcer ] what does it take to excel in today's business world? our professors know. because they've been there. and they work closely with business leaders to develop curriculum to meet the needs of top businesses. which means when our graduates walk in the room, they're not only prepared... they're prepared to lead. devry university's keller graduate school of management. learn how to grow the business of you at keller.edu. [ technician ] are you busy? management just sent over these new technical manuals. they need you to translate them into portuguese. by tomorrow. [ male announcer ] ducati knows it's better for xerox to manage their global publications.
1:42 am
so they can focus on building amazing bikes. with xerox, you're ready for real business.
1:43 am
1:44 am
so this week our nation celebrated veterans day by taking off from work, puttering around the yard and maybe catching up on the last seen of "glee." not me, maybe you. do any of us do anything anymore on veterans day to show support our troops. does slapping a yellow ribbon on your car and mailinging a package cut it? can i crash your lunch a little bit? what day is today? >> today's thursday. >> mm-hmm. >> veterans day. >> he knew. do you support our troops? >> yes. >> everybody tell me happy veterans day. >> i served in the navy for 20 years. >> what does this day mean to you? >> i've been retired for ten years. but people still come up and say, thank you for serving. that means a lot. >> do you know any veterans?
1:45 am
>> yes, i do. >> who? >> for one, me. >> you're a veteran? >> yes, sir. >> you're 19. >> afghanistan. >> you were in afghanistan? >> six months. >> really? >> what do you need when you're over there? >> anything from home that shows that you have folks back here that actually care about the troops overseas. >> do you think we do enough right now legislatively for veterans coming back from iraq and afghanistan? >> not really. >> no. >> we need to do more. we're not doing anything for them right now. we need to get our veterans out from under bridges living in boxes. >> that's a tough question. >> not really. but can you ever do enough. >> i think we're doing a lot, but there might be something more. >> you're an 18-year-old kid. you barely know anything about life. look at you. you just started shaving. are you joining the military? >> yes. joining the army. >> you're joining the army? good luck to you, man. for your future service. do five push-ups right now.
1:46 am
he's joining the military. three, four, five! keep doing them, man. good luck. thank you. thank you. the truth is, our best intentions and deepest thanks no matter how sincere do little to support our veterans. it requires legislation to protect our returning service men and women. i'm joined by one former serviceman, foreign service officer and marine corps captain. now the director of the afghan study group. the first u.s. official to resign from his position in the state department in protest over the war in afghanistan. matt, you were out there. you served as a military member. you served as a civilian member. you got out. a lot of men and women are still there. and as you've said, a lot of them will never come back. what can we do for the lucky ones, the ones that don't come home in body bags, the ones that carry the war with them mentally and physically long after they leave the battlefield?
1:47 am
are we doing enough? >> i don't think so. if you look at the number of vets unemployed, the number of vets seeking treatment for ptsd, if you look at the fairly shameful voting record of many members of congress on veterans' issues, and the fact that veterans' issues did not come up in the recent midterm elections, i think we have a long way to go to help our vets, and to ensure that they're given the care, treatment and the respect that they deserve. >> matthew, this week we learned that news has leaked that the president and his administration and the pentagon, they're backing off the july 2011 date announced last december, and we could be in afghanistan until 2014. you're the director of the afghanistan study group. i've read the study that you've come out with. what do you think about this latest news, that we could be there a total of, what, 14, 15
1:48 am
years? what's your assessment of that? >> well, the first thing i think everyone needs to ask is, what does that get us? if we are successful four years from now, in subjugating southern and eastern afghanistan, how does that make us safer, how does it affect al qaeda. look at the evidence of how al qaeda has operated over the last ten years, and you'll see that they're an organization that operates through individuals and small cells that are found around the world. that won't be affected by the presence of our large numbers of our combat troops occupying southern and eastern afghanistan. also, too, we need to consider the cost. if we continue at this tempo, if we continue at this pace, we will be looking at a cost of about 2,500 american and coalition lives, thousands more afghan lives, and roughly half a trillion dollars if we continue at this pace up until 2014. >> why not give this plan, this
1:49 am
new leader general petraeus some time to let it work? >> because the plan is really not that different than what we've been doing for the last five years or so in afghanistan. since 2004, 2000 a, we've been doing counterinsurgency in afghanistan. if your viewers have not seen the flip ex streppo, a great film. it shows what life is like for an infantryman in afghanistan. also, you'll see -- they'll see they're doing counterinsurgency and the film was done three and a half years ago. if you look at it, we have increased, and i want to say we, nato, and u.s., have increased troops by a factor of five-fold, since 2005. and every year as we increase troops, literally doubling troops every year in afghanistan for the last five years, all we see is an increase in violence, increase in the taliban, and
1:50 am
decrease in support for the karzai government. so this strategy has not been effective. we've not seen results that have been of benefit, offer have lessened the conflict. so it is time to readjust our strategy. and i'm not saying cut and run, we're advocating for a strategy that will bring about stability in afghanistan. >> matthew, director of the afghan study group. find them online. thanks for your service. happy be lated veterans day. great to talk to you. >> thank you. a wide range of ideas to draw down the national deficit. one of the proposed reductions is to cut the military spending by 10%. that's a lot when you think about how much we spend. the cuts will affect our fighting men and women and their mission. here to explain how is michael o'hanlan. he specializes in the u.s. defense strategy, the use of
1:51 am
military force. when we talk about defense spending and budget cuts, we're throwing around a lot of big numbers that can muddle our understanding of the situation. we're a nation at war. humanize these budget cuts for us. what about the people that work in the military and industrial complex here at home? that's a lot of jobs. >> right. great question. and credit to you for getting this debate going so promptly before this full report is even all the way out. i think to answer your question, to try to specify a little bit of where the money goes right now, there are two big chunks of money. as you're probably aware. there's about $550 billion a year, which is essentially the core defense budget. the peacetime budget. just to raise the military, to buy the weapons, to pay the salaries of people who would be in the uniforms of the united states government anyway. whether we were in afghanistan and iraq, or not. then there's another almost $200 billion that we're spending on the wars. including iraq. but mostly now afghanistan.
1:52 am
so 550 plus 175. but separate those two pieces. because the commission that you referred to is really thinking primarily about the first bigger number. the 550. the war debate is a separate debate. about how fast to downsize. obviously it's related. but it's really separate. the 10% cut is from that core, or peacetime budget that's going to be there whether or not we're in afghanistan. and as you say, 10% is a fair chunk. but if we do it carefully, i think that's more or less doable without hurting the people in uniform. if we have to wait, though, for a couple more years to really get it going, because we've got to start downsizing in afghanistan before we can make these cuts in good conscience. >> if you put aside the wars, and that's hard to do, but you hear the right and the left, they both talk about, and you're talking about peacetime, we have military bases in over 100 countries. what about taking some of them, bringing them home? how much would that cut? is it all a reasonable reality
1:53 am
in any way? >> it's a great question. but the answer is, you don't save a lot of money unless when they come home they're demobilized and no longer part of the military. i'm not talking about kicking individual people out. there's a natural attrition rate in the military. a couple hundred thousand people leave per year. all of have to do is reduce the recruiting and you downsize the military without requiring any individual to leave. so i'm not talking about that. but if you disband their unit when they come home, you save a lot of money. if you just bring them back from a base that's already been well established, and sometimes partially paid for by the foreign government, like in japan or germany where we have the two largest nonwartime military presence operations abroad, you don't save that much. you have to reduce the operations themselves, iraq and afghanistan, or reduce the size of the military. or you have to change the way we modernize them through new weaponry. the bases established in
1:54 am
peacetime is not going to save you much money. >> not enough time, would love to keep talking to you. this is an issue that's so tough to take a look at for liberals and conservatives, but one we need to take a realistic at, which you do. we appreciate you have joining us. >> thanks. what does an iron man suit and football coach have in common? i'll tell you next. [ male announcer ] the next big thing from lexus is not a car. it's the idea that a car that will never have an accident may be possible. in pursuit of this goal, lexus developed the world's most advanced driving simulator, where a real driver in a real car can react to real situations without real consequences. the breakthroughs we innovate here may someday make all cars safer. this is the pursuit of tomorrow. this is the pursuit of perfection. my professor at berkeley
1:55 am
asked me if i wanted to change the world. i said "sure." "well, let's grow some algae." and that's what started it. exxonmobil and synthetic genomics have built a new facility to identify the most productive strains of algae. algae are amazing little critters. they secrete oil, which we could turn into biofuels. they also absorb co2. we're hoping to supplement the fuels that we use in our vehicles, and to do this at a large enough scale to someday help meet the world's energy demands. [ exclaims ] ...with...stage presence. ♪ a new phone with dolby surround sound speakers. only from at&t. rethink possible.
1:56 am
1:57 am
1:58 am
each week people do great things. sometimes it makes the news, sometimes it doesn't. i like to give a shout out every week to people doing things that make them way better than me. this is dr. bill hagbaum. one of the doctors and nurses who came out of retirement to volunteer at clinic by the bay, dedicated to treating low-income residents. they could all be crocheting and watching the price is right. instead, they help save lives. doctor, you're way better than me. moving on, this is guy. guy's daughter suffers from schizophrenia. he's running across the country to raise money and awareness for the disease.
1:59 am
in 140 days. i run when i'm being chased. guy, you are way better than me. great job. moving on. this is steven kinsey. steven is a 12-year-old battling nonhodgkins lymphoma. he fulfilled his dream last weekend of assisting coaching the boise state broncos. and the team won. this year i coached my 5-year-old daughter's t-ball team to 0-8 record. but it wasn't my fault. they didn't have their heart in it. i wanted to honor all of our veterans today. my producer ed told me it wasn't possible to show everyone's name and face on the screen. but this is paul, after serving six years in the army as a platoon leader, he now represents soldiers of the nonpartisan, nonprofit iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. a huge thank you to all of our soldiers for the sacrifices they make. so paul, you're representing all of them with your beautifulld

186 Views

info Stream Only

Uploaded by TV Archive on