another conflict in that part of the world. and that too is understandable. >> the comments of defense secretary leon panetta testifying on capitol hill before the senate armed services committee, with taking questions on the issues surrounding syria. welcome to our one of "washington today" here on c-span radio. i'm steve scully. thanks for being with us. the defense department pushing back for fresh demands for u.s. military involvement in syria as a way to end president assad's deadly crackdown on his people. the panel's top republican, you'll hear in just a second, senator john mccain of arizona saying that the estimated 7500 dead and the bloodshed in syria calls for u.s. leadership, leadership that president clinton showed in the bosnia war in the 1990s and that president obama showed in libya last year. we'll have more on this story in just a moment. mean, news from eric wassen pointing out that tomorrow eric cantor is going to meet behind

closed doors to talk about the budget. he writes that he, congressman kantor will be meeting with budget committee members to settle internal republican fights over 2013 spending limits. republicans point out remain at odds today over whether to keep the discretionary spending levels that were set in the august debt ceiling deal with the white house or to cut spending more deeply in the 2013 resolution. conservatives in eric cantor's conference are pushing for deeper cuts. again, the hill newspaper reporting that this closed door meet willing take place tomorrow here in washington. well, on to politics. the republicans who competed in super tuesday are continuing with their campaigns, despite a new call from rick santorum supporters for newt gingrich to drop out. newt gingrich, the former house speaker, was the winner in georgia yesterday. rick santorum winning three states, and mitt romney winning six states, including his home state of massachusetts. newt gingrich tell saying he is not convinced that rick santorum could beat mitt romney head to head. meanwhile, the mitt romney

campaign saying that his republican rivals don't have much of a chance of catching him. the campaign releasing a memo saying even though mitt romney lost four of the ten states in super tuesday, he did win ohio by less than a percentage point, he is still far ahead in the race for convention delegates. however, senior romney aides are not identifying any upcoming states in which mitt romney is likely to win. the next round of contests kansas this weekend and the next two weeks southern primaries in alabama and mississippi. and then on to illinois on march 20th. into april, primaries in states like pennsylvania, the home state for rick santorum. and then california in early june. well, let's turn to our lead story in the testimony today of defense secretary leon panetta with questions from senator john mccain. any u.s. military action according to the defense secretary will come with a lot of risk. that was the message of leon panetta. he was joined by the chair of the joint chiefs of staff, general martin dempsey. they spoke before the senate panel and discussed serious

sophisticated air defenses, its extensive stockpile of chemical weapons, and saying that this situation, the situation in syria very different from the one in libya. >> the president said yesterday he has taken no options off the table, mr. panetta in the case of syria. you said in your opening statement that includes, quote, potential military options if necessary. you said in your statement. and yet admiral and the general stated there had been no contingency planning either nato or centcom. will there be some contingency planning? >> we have looked at a number of options that could be involved here. we have not done the detailed planning because we are waiting for the direction of the president to do that. >> the president? mr. secretary, president obama issued a presidential directive stating, quote, the prevention

of mass atrocities is, quote, the presidential directive, a core national security interest the united states. that's the administration's policy. with at least 7,500 and possibly more than 10,000 dead, with assad using tanks, quote, gaining momentum according to general matus, would you agree that atrocities have occurred and are occurring in syria? >> i don't think there is any question that we're experiencing mass atrocities there. >> so the president said yesterday he is taking no options off the table, and you said in your opening statement that, in quotes, as i mentioned potential military options if necessary. can you tell us how much longer the killing would have to continue? how many additional civilian lives would have to be lost in order to convince you that military measures of this kind that we are proposing necessary to end the killing and enforce,

how many more would have to die? 10,000 more? 20,000 more? how many more? >> i think the question, as you stated more, senator, is the effort to try to build an international consensus as to what action we do take. that makes the most sense. what doesn't make sense is to take unilateral action at this point. as secretary of defense, before i recommend that we put our sons and daughters in uniform in harm's way, i've got make very sure that we know what the mission is. i've got to make very sure that we know whether we can achieve that mission, at what price, and whether or not it will make matters better or worse. those are the considerations that i have to engage in. and obviously, the administration believes that every effort ought to be made to deal with those concerns in the international setting to try to build the kind of international consensus that worked in libya, and that can work in syria if we can develop that.

>> well, let me tell you what is wrong with your statement. you don't mention american leadership. americans should lead in this. america should be standing up. america should be building coalitions. we shouldn't have statements like, quote, that we are not going to intervene, no matter what the situation is, such as been at least up until now the statements by the administration and the president. in past experiences, those that i mentioned before, america has led. yes, it has been multilateral and multinational, as is absolutely vital. we're not leading, mr. secretary. >> the questions from john mccain, the 2008 presidential republican candidate to leon panetta, the defense secretary. senator mccain is the ranking republican on the senate armed services committee. the entire hearing on our website at c-span.org, part of our video library. cnn reporting that the united nations emergency relief chief

was in syria today, meeting with top officials and getting a chance to briefly visit at least one area that has been ravaged by weeks of government attacks. after having complained about the regime that would not let her into the country where the government has been fighting to crush a year-long uprising, valerie amos today did meet with the foreign minister in syria to talk about the situation on the ground, especially in towns like homs, and today at the state department, secretary of state hillary clinton who was joined by the polish foreign minister in washington was taking questions about syria and the latest developments. >> thank you, madam secretary. you talked about syria and increasing the pressure on the regime. beyond just increasing the pressure, can you talk about tangible ways that you're working on to help the opposition? specifically, secretary panetta had just told a congressional panel that you're looking to provide technical assistance and

humanitarian assistance. if you flesh that out a little bit. and there has been a call by many senators to arm the opposition and get militarily involved. i'm wondering if you could -- do you feel a lot of pressure on the hill to do that? and if you could speak to whether that's in the offing. thank you. >> elise, we have pressure coming from all directions, not only one direction. but what we're trying to do, and i think the president was very clear on that in his press conference yesterday is to do everything we can to support the opposition which is not yet as unified and focused either inside or outside syria as we hope it could become. we are working to build a stronger international coalition of support for taking action on

the humanitarian level, on the political transition that needs to come in syria, and we believe that it is a matter of time. we can't put an exact time frame on when, but we think that assad and his regime will not be able to survive. so we do think it's appropriate to help the opposition. but where we're focused on is how we help them be more unified, communicate more clearly, have a message to all their syrian counterparts who are not yet convinced that it's in their interests for assad to go. and, you know, i think that it's -- we recognize. it's a challenging situation, but i don't know that it's useful for me to go into any greater detail than what the president said yesterday, and what secretary panetta and

general dempsey are testifying publicly to today. >> the comments of the secretary of state hillary clinton at the state department. she held a news conference joined by the polish foreign minister, and was asked of course about the developing story in syria. joining us live here in washington for some perspective is dr. steven hideman, the senior adviser at the u.s. institute of peace. thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. >> dr. hydeman, what are the viable options? we have some including senator mccain calling for airstrikes. we have the white house, including the president saying yesterday that the drumbeat of war needs to slow down, we need to give some time to negotiate all of this in terms of what syria is doing. what are the options? >> if you're talking about viable options for addressesing the humanitarian consequences of the violence in syria, i think we have a number of steps that the united states could take that would not require military intervention. there are international actors on the and you, including the

international red cross there is the syrian red crescent there are nonprofit organizations involved in humanitarian assistance, all of which are poised and ready to move in to syria as soon as the opportunity arises. what has been missing thus far is an agreement from the syrian government that it will provide access for the organizations to offer humanitarian assistance. there is now reports coming out of syria that the government has agreed to permit some of these groups to begin working on a part-time basis two hours a day. but clearly, we need to do much, much more than that. on the other hand, what we have to think about, if we look at military options is whether those are actually going to provide us with the basis for delivering humanitarian assistance at some of the advocates of military intervention claim, or whether they'll simply escalate the violence further and make targets out of humanitarian relief workers in ways that

could actually exacerbate the conditions on the ground. >> if we could, let's broaden out this whole geopolitical situation in the middle east. because we just saw the apec conference here in washington that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu calling on the u.s. to put more pressure on iran. and you have the direct connection between iran and syria. so can you thread the needle in all of this and kind of outline what potential danger or flash points we can see in the next few months? >> well, syria sits right at the intersection of a number of critical strategic rivalries. and one of them concerns the regional balance of power rivalry between iran and its allies in the region, saudi arabia, moderate arab states, their allies, as well as the united states. and i think the u.s. would like to see iran's influence in the region diminished. whether that constitutes an adequate justification for

becoming more deeply involved in syria, however, i think is a fairly dubious proposition. i'm not at all persuaded that the success of the syrian revolution would mean that syria's foreign policy orientation would pivot in a pro western direction. and if that's the assumption on which those who want us to become more deeply involve ready arguing, i think we need to be very, very careful about that. >> we're talking with steven heydemann of the washington institute of peace. reporting tonight just exactly what the syrian government has, the weapons, the potential of chemical weapons. can you outline based on your information of the military capacity of syria, and if we did invoke air strikes, what we possibly could face? >> syria has one of the largest armies in the world, especially considering that it's a country with a population of only about 26 million they're somewhere around 300,000 men under arms. it's a conscript army.

it has a very large armored capacity with one of the largest numbers of tanks in the world in particular. it has very sophisticated anti-aircraft capacity, and it has a -- an air force which i think is modest and would probably not pose as much of a threat if we were to try to move toward a no-fly zone than some of the other armaments in the syrian -- in the syrian inventory might. but -- but what is most important to keep in mind i think in assessing the syrian military is that it has consistently held together throughout this year of uprising in a fashion that i think has been surprising to many people who expected that it would splinter and fracture as the uprising continued over time. so we do seem to be confronting a coherent, well-organized and thus far at least fairly effective military on the part

of the syrian government. and one that would take significant effort on the part of the west and its allies if we were to try to suppress it. >> we're talking with dr. steven heydemann of the washington institute of waste. what is the white house talking about internally as we go back to the earlier question about options, maybe building an international coalition, or trying to let this thing play out. i suspect one would include management of a no-fly zone without putting boots on the ground. i suspect another might be

supporting the creation of safe havens along syria's border with turkey and jordan. and i suspect a third would include the creation of a humanitarian corridor protected by allied military units, either with turkish support or with support from some other country closer to the ground. so i have a feeling that when the white house says to the pentagon begin to pull some plans together, those are the kinds of things that it's talking about. i don't think, however, that we should look at this exercise in planning as suggesting that we're anywhere near a decision point on undertaking any of those initiatives. i think secretary panetta's cautions about the risks involved in military intervention are very well taken. and i would certainly hope that we move very slowly and very deliberately in thinking about the consequences of any kind of move like that before we were to step in. >> many in the west remain surprised that president assad

has been able to stay in power. how has he been able to do that? >> he has retained the loyalty and support of the critical pillars of his regime -- the security services and in particular those units of the military in which loyalists are most likely to be located, to serve. that includes the republican guard and the fourth battalion. he has -- he has populated those branches of his security services in the military with largely with people drawn from his own sectarian community, the alowai community of syria. and he has depicted the struggle against the protesters as an existential struggle, as a struggle against gangs, against terrorists. so he has worked very hard to

support tension in which his supporters believe if he were to fall, syria would find itself plunged into chaos. that's been a very tough narrative for the supporters of the uprising to deal with to overcome. and it's helped hold some of his critical regime pillars together. >> steven heydemann who is with the institute of peace here in washington, d.c., thanks for you time. >> thank you. >> this is "washington today" heard coast-to-coast on xm 119 and simulcast on c-span three. we're also on the web at c-spanradio.org. the president today traveling to north carolina, a key battleground state, a state that the obama campaign hopes to win again in 2012. today the president talking about gas prices to auto workers in north carolina as his campaign doubles down on efforts to frame republicans as out of touch with problems of the middle class. that's the story tonight from "the l.a. time," traveling with

the president to north carolina. the president complained that republicans in congress have not gotten behind his proposal to cut subsidies for big oil companies. here is a portion of what the president had to say earlier today in north carolina. >> a lot of you may have to drive a distance to work. higher gas prices are like a tax straight out of your paycheck. and for companies that operate a whole fleet of trucks, the higher costs can make a big difference in terms of the profitability of the company. now here is the thing, though. this is not the first time we have seen gas prices spike. it's been happening for years. every year about this time, gas starts spiking up. and everybody starts wondering how high is it going to go. and every year politicians start talking when gas prices go up.

they get out on the campaign trail, and you and i both know there are no quick fixes to this problem. but listening to them, you would think there were. as a country that has has 2% o world's oil reserves but uses 20% of the world's oil, i am going to repeat that. we've got 2% of the world oil reserves, we use 20%. what that means is, as much as we're doing to increase oil production, we're not going to be able to drill our way out of the problem of high gas prices. anybody who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about or they aren't telling you the truth. here is the truth. if we are going to control our energy future, then we've got to have an all of the above strategy. we've got to develop every source of american energy, not just oil and gas but wind power and solar power, nuclear power,

biofuels. we need to invest in the technology that will help us useless oil in our cars and our trucks. in our buildings. in our factories. that's the only solution to the challenge because as we start using less that lowers the demand. prices come down. it's pretty straightforward. that's the only solution to this challenge. and that's the strategy that we've now been pursuing for the last three years. and i'm proud to say we've made progress. since i took office, america's dependence on foreign oil has gone down every singing year. in fact in 2010, it went under 50% for the first niem 13 years. are you -- you wouldn't know it from listening to some of these folks out here. some of these folks.

[ laughter ] but a key part of our energy strategy has been to increase safe, responsible oil production here at home and under my administration, america is producing more oil today than any time in the last eight years. >> the president earlier today in mount holly, north carolina at a truck manufacturing plant by the daimler company. he spoke to auto workers there and some familiar themes about the issue of gas prices. some prices averaging between $3.75 and to $4 and in parts of california, premium unleaded going for as high as $6 a gallon. senator mitch mcconnell from the senate floor earlier today. >> when it comes to the rising cost of gas at the pump, it's my view that the administration's policies are actually designed on purpose. to bring about higher gas pries. a view that shouldn't be the least bit controversial given the fact that the president's own energy secretary suggested

on a couple of occasions now that his goal certainly isn't to drive gas prices down. for the president's part, he often says that americans should judge him not only by his words but on his deeds. when it comes to gas prices, i've pointed out that the president continues to lend -- is granting fewer leases on public land for oil drilling. he's encouraged countries like brazil to move forward with their own off shore drilling projects, continues to impose burdensome regulations on the domestic energy sector that will further drive up the cost of gasoline for the consumer. has repeatedly proposed raising taxes on the energy sector which we all know would only drive up gas prices even higher. and finally, has flatly rejected the keystone excel pipeline. all of these things helped to drive up the cost of gas and increase our dependence on

foreign oil. so the president can't claim to have a comprehensive approach to energy because he doesn't. simply doesn't. and at a time he says he does, the american people should remember one word. keystone. keystone. another thing they might want to do is play a clip of the press conference the president held just yesterday. ask about whether he actually wants gas prices to go up, the president's facetious attempt only served to confirm the premise. it was the president's admission that rising gas prices hurt the economy that betrayed the administration's attempt to have it both ways on this issue. because of higher gas prices hurt the economy, why in the world is the administration calling for higher taxes on energy manufacturers? we know these taxes would drive up the price at the pump and send jobs overseas. the congressional research service said that. if the president want to drive prices down, he should stop call

for these increases in taxes. look, if the president wants americans to think he's serious about lowering gas prices, he's got to do more than simply say that no president -- and this is what he said yesterday. no president would want higher gas prices in an election year. no president would want higher gas prices in an election year. well, what about other years? would they want them in other years? it's only in election years that it's a problem? he's got to get serious about changing his policies. and he might want to consider an energy secretary that's more committed to helping the american people than in helping the administration's buddies in the solar business. >> the comments of senator mitch mcconnell on the senate floor earlier in the day. by the way, in case you're interested there's a website called california gas prices.com. california has the highest gas prices in the nation. hawaii is second. the average price in california about $4.33.

but for premium unleaded, for example the chevron station on west olympic boulevard will cost you $6.19 to fill up your tank, per gallon. get the information online at california gas prices.com. this is "washington today" on c-span radio. in other news today, the dow up 78 closing at is 12,837. nasdaq was up 25 and s&p was up 9. according to the federal reserve americans stepped up borrowing in january to buy more cars and attend school. consumer borrowing rose by almost $18 billion. that followed similar gains in december and november. the gains for those three months were the large he's in a decade. helped consumer borrowing climb to $2.5 trillion that nearly matches the pre-recession borrowing level. the obama administration is for the first time citing vatican city as a potential hub for

money laundering. the state department's annual international narcotics control strategy report identifies vatican city as one of 68 countries or jurs dicks of concern for money laundering or financial crimes. the vatican is on the list because it isn't clear whether a year-old anti-money laundering regime is effective. the report places belgium, ireland, portugal and south korea also on this list, identifying countries that may be vulnerable to money laundering. a u.s. house panel has approved legislation that would allow holocaust survivors to sue people -- for policies confiscated during the nazi era. it was by a voice vote. it would allow access to courts and force companies in germany and italy to disclose lists of policies held bijous before world war ii. the bill said in many cases,

insurance company records and archives are the only proof of existence of many policies. survivors contend they could be owed $20 billion for the loss of family members. a warning from noaa about the sun. it could disrupt airplane flights. the sun erupted last night and the effects could -- should start smacking the earth late wednesday night, late tonight close to midnight. they say it's the biggest storm from the sun in five years and it is growing. the magnetic storm has potential to trip electrical power grids. back with more "washington today". this week, author timothy winer discusses his historical narrative, enemies, a history of the fbi. the book details the fbi's 100-year hidden history of war

against terrorists, spies and any person or group deemed subversive. they'll talk about secretly taped conversations with president kennedy, johnson and nixon. author of the book, enemies, a history of the fbi. this sunday on q and a. 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span raid dwroe. it's half past the hour. news from the louisville courier-journal reporting on a hearing that took place in washington earlier today. the top emergency management official from fema saying that more kentucky counties damaged by the storms last week could be added to the federal disaster declaration making them eligible for federal aid. congress rogers from the fifth congressional district in kentucky and the chair of the house appropriations committee. he told craig fugate there are a number of