launched from brandenburg air force base this morning. the president is at the white house that today meeting with colombian president. later, he hosted a reception t for a and lesbian pride month. on the justice david souter's last day, a decision is expected on the reverse discrimination case. it is one of the cases the high court is dealing with before the justices began their summer break and david souter retires. nomination hearings for sunni @ sotomayor began july 13th. those are some of the latest headlines. this audit weekend, discover an unfamiliar sight of our nation's

first president, we are live from george washington's firm that -- mount vernon estate. join our 3 our conversation sunday live on in japs, beginning at noon eastern. how c-span funded? donations may be? i have no idea. >> government? >> i don't know. >> how c-span funded? 30 years ago, america's cable companies created c-span as a public service, a private business initiative, no government mandate, no government money. file sharing has wreaked havoc on our business. tonight on the communicators, digital music, the internet and copyright policy. >> one of the goals is to have

more responsibility for the service they're providing. chairman of universal music publishing group is tonight at 8 eastern on the communicators on cspan2. what watch booktv on primetime all this week on cspan2. tonight at 8:30 p.m. eastern, ben jones at the great color -- green caller economy. and joe scarborough, the last best hope and travel writer with the opened right -- opened road. >> washington journal continues. host: peter brooks is a national

security fellow at the heritage foundation, there is a report looking at the commission of prevention of weapons of mass destruction proliferation and terrorism. this commission was put together in 2008. guest: i am not a member of this commission. it is -- headed by bob graham. in the standard commission has been extended. they have been extended for a few more months. host: they deliver their report to president bush last -- late last year and testify before congress early this year. what is the focus today? guest: they are doing a great

job. the commission has been extended, both senators will join us today to talk about their finding. they will also talk about their recommendations that they made to the president and congress last year. what is interesting is that there really want to get involved in public our reach. -- public of reach. utreach. they said, by 2013 that the u.s. would experience a terrorist wmd attack. they had over -- they met with over two hundred 50 individuals and held hearings. they spent six months with nine commissioners, involved in an intensive research and fact-

finding operation. they had staff and they came to the sort of conclusions, that they felt this would likely happen. you would have to ask them particular. host: when they came to president bush and then before congress, what is the role of congress? what do they want to see congress do? guest: this is an offshoot of the 9/11 commission. they set this up and they recommend go to -- people go to preventwmd.com. they feel there should be a high level individual either in the vice president's office that

would look at this issue in particular, that would look at the issue of wmd terrorism. there is a whole list of different recommendations. host: is part of your concern or their concern is that here we are, almost eight years from september 11th and the concern is winning? guest: i certainly am complacent. 2013 is four years away, that shows a little bit of urgency. one of our biggest challenges is not the only issue of wmd, but we are almost eight years away from the terrible days of september 11th. many people have put this behind them because we have not had

another attack. terrorism does exist around the world. bin laden said he thought it was a religious duty to get his hands on 8 w monday. host: was any part of their report classified and visible by congress? guest: i don't know. the original report came out in a book form called world at risk. i have no doubt that they probably had access to classified information that would allow them to make their judgment. that is very important. host: kansas city on our

independent line. caller: i think considering that it is coming from the heritage foundation, this is more fear mongering from the right. 9/11 happen, it was the terrorist jackpot. we are sacrificing to fear mongering. host: this is a bipartisan commission. guest: jim talent, former republican senator, bob graham a former democratic congressman. this is not something that heritage did. this is the complacency that i am worried about. people think we are out of the woods on this. i still believe that al qaeda and others in the cross hairs

host. the program elite -- begins at 11:00 a.m.. host: which portland? caller: portland oregon. do you think that 9/11 -- there is confusion about that. everyone saying a lot of stories. what do you think? my last and final statement would be, why would we want to listen to the republicans when it was their policies that got us into the problems that we have now?

guest: i don't think 9/11 was a conspiracy at all. i don't understand the conspiracy theories. nearly 3000 people from 80 countries died. there is a real threat out there. there still is a threat. if you read, you'll see that terrorism is still a problem around the world. host: part of the commission's report deals with biological weapons. guest: by a weapons are a concern today. -- bioweapons, these are so common these days. they are worried that this is a virus or bacteria, it is a germ that keeps on giving. it can move between people.

just to the sars episode in china. this all -- influence the type of disease that started in hong kong and killed 1000 people. the concern is that you can spread a biological weapon, and we wouldn't even know that it has been spread. it can be done clandestinely, and all of a sudden you have a lot of people sick. think about how the swine flu has spread. host: on the issue of terrorism, take the anthrax issue. is that you from eight years later as an incident of domestic terrorism? guest: we still don't know who did it. september 18th is when the first letters appeared. my understanding is we still do not know how that was perpetrated. we don't know exactly who. that is one of the advantages of a buyout weapons attack.

this is one of the things that there were most concerned about. this is -- this can be done clandestinely. it is relatively inexpensive compared to other weapons of mass destruction. they feel that this is a major threat. caller: i have a question regarding, does the united states get flak from iran and other countries, when they can easily make the argument that the u.s. is the only nation that uses weapons of mass destruction on a massive scale,

like the drop on japan? guest: it is true that the u.s. is one of the originating country iies, one of the five countries that had it originally. these countries sometimes to complain about this issue. north korea signed a treaty, iranian signed on to that same treaty. they said that we will on the pursuit nuclear issues for peaceful purposes. not for weapons. north korea has change their course on that and many people believe that iran will. this treaty didn't exist until the early 1970's.

host: the language of the wmd commission, the recommendation was that the next in ministration -- administration must drop the iran and north korea nuclear weapons program. guest: i think that is very important. we need the ability to defend ourself. 10 years ago, we had six countries with nuclear weapons, today we have nine and perhaps a 10th one, iran, knocking on the door. that is a critical issue. the iranian one is critical. no. 3 is difficult. the bush administration has tried to negotiate with them.

host: north carolina on our democrats line. caller: about this terrorism thing, with this thing about north korea. when clinton was in the chair he made it clear to north korea that they would not get a nuclear bomb. he said we will newt you guys. when push came in the chair -- bush came in, he let them get the bomb. they have been talking for years. china has not said anything. if you want to be frank about it, we spent a lot of time on

this and they will get the bombs anyway. if they have money, they have it. they have russia, china, there is nothing we can do. guest: proliferation problem is critical. we have to be able to defend ourselves. i don't believe that bill clinton that i recall said that. there was an agreement called the frame work, where they try to cap the north korean plutonium and weapons program. unfortunately, in early 2002, we started to believe that north korea had eight iranian-based program and that made things much more difficult. many people believe that they started cheating for years and to that agreement. the bush administration did set

up a round table for talking about north korea's nuclear program trying to get a complete and verifiable return to move them back away from their nuclear weapons capability. i think it was an appropriate gesture. north korea deck -- detonated weapons earlier this year. many people think that north korea does not want to move away from the nuclear program. it would be a very different country if it were for the nuclear weapons. host: texas on the republican line. caller: what do you think baxter

international and the live virus in multiple locations between december 2008 and february, 2009? the swine flu virus? guest: i have no knowledge of that? with the color is getting an is the importance of being able to secure -- the challenge with bioweapons, is if it is so pervasive today for weapons. there is also the concern that the pathogens can fall into the wrong hands. we talk about 1995, there was eight domesday book from japan. they released gases in the subway and many people died. they also tried to attack u.s. installations and government facilities and they were unsuccessful.

this has been tried before. there is concern, we still have the 2001 anthrax issue we don't know about. there is concern that these pathogens are secure, but obviously it overseas where terrorists can get their hands on it. host: what is the biggest concern? nuclear devices? guest: nuclear proliferation among nations. proliferation in general is a major concern, the more likely it will fall into the more -- from people. if you have groups interested in getting their hands on it, like al qaeda, you have a major problem. i think this group has pointed out that bioweapons is a very likely possibility of these things get into the wrong hands. nuclear weapons are harder to get your hands on. 2007, the israelis destroyed a

nuclear facility in -- in north korea. there are challenges on a number of fronts. they are much more sophisticated. don't forget about chemical weapons also. we have seen them used. saddam hussein use them against his own people. we cannot forget about any of them. radiological weapons are something that could happen, not concerned 8 wmd, -- wmd, but we can't forget about it. host: organ, independent -- oregon, on the independent line. caller: when cheney made his debut he made it at the heritage foundation.

i feel a lot safer with barack obama then i would with mccain in office. host: florida on our democrats line. caller: i would like to let the people know and i am sure you are aware of this, that bush gave billions of dollars to someone through -- to develop and flu virus several years ago. then they give them another $3 million to develop a vaccine for it. we are developing these weapons here in this country through our military. i think that is scary. you are saying how we have to be careful of all of this. we are the ones developing all of this stuff. we developed all of this stuff.

guest: i am not aware of that accusation. i think 10 million people died from the spanish influence of in 1918. the accusation regarding u.s. developing a vaccine, some pathogens are capped live with the ability to develop vaccines. i am not aware of anyone developing bioweapons. the military has a vaccine for anthrax, for -- as an example. host: on the idea of developing nuclear weapons, in the wall street journal this morning, assistant secretary richard perle, they'd write about the nuclear deterrent, about the

stockpile of nuclear weapons and they call for the u.s. to improve its stockpile. that caller was calling about an concerned about u.s. developing nuclear weapons. guest: nuclear deterrence is a part of our strategy. people are saying that it is a bit more complicated, things like developing missiles that have greater options. during the '70s we developed a doctor and called mutual assured destruction. there are many ways of going at this problem. if you want to prevent proliferation of these weapons which will make better use of

them less likely. you want to maintain a deterrent force. when you are checking about terrorist groups, are they the turbo? --deterrable? can you feature them? there is concerned about us still having that capability as part of our national security as an offensive nuclear force. we have to be able to defend ourselves. you want to go out there and try to prevent their proliferation, demand for them is also another issue. host: the report deals with pakistan. they write that the next president should write a comprehensive policy for pakistan, 11 east terror -- eliminate terrorist activities

and secure nuclear and biological materials. how does this alter this scenario there? guest: i don't think it changed at all. i think it is on boss spot on. this is a country that teeters back and forth on the edge. they also have a significant nuclear arsenal. most people say that if we are ever going to see another nucleate earth -- nuclear change it would probably be india and pakistan. host: what do we know about how safe the pakistan nuclear arsenal is? guest: pakistan tells us that is

safe, that is under the control of the military. if the government were to collapse, we are not sure if they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands. the idea is not to get it into the wrong hands. caller: with regard to your comment, the previous caller alleging -- you need to educate yourself. get the dvd called killer flew. --killer flu.

our country is getting ready to try to force us to be inoculated with vaccines with swine flu, which is obviously a biological creation. guest: i did say that we need to develop vaccines to these pathogens. the idea that we were developing large amounts of biological weapons -- i am not familiar with that story. the fact is i know we developed vaccines to protect our military and also appear -- people here

in the west. the idea that we are developing biological weapons is not right. caller: i was just kind of wondering. i have a couple of points to make. terrorists use the media to create the propaganda, they kill innocent people, if we take that and look at what judith miller new york times did when they worked up lies about iraq, is that a terrorist act? then we look at the fact that we have never had a reason to invade iraq, yet we went into iraq to kill millions of people, and there were no wmd's.

and what the lady said about vaccinations. you can refuse those vaccinations, because hhs has essentially has companies to manufacture vaccines. you can just say if this harms me, what can i do? guest: in terms of this commission, which will be at heritage at 11:00 a.m., they are moving beyond iraq. they are talking about wmd's. they believe there are real challenges out there. i think it is important that the american public pay attention to this issue and not become confused about our own security. we are still in the cro