tv Americas Newsroom FOX News April 23, 2015 6:00am-8:01am PDT
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things. >> democrats are happy -- >> democrats did not go there to be potted plants like harry reid treated them. we're seeing the results of letting them work. they're working 43% more work days in the senate thus far this year. bill: thank you, guys. good morning, everyone. breaking news on growing scandal surrounding the clinton campaign. we're learning of a potential quid pro quo between rush that and state department with hillary clinton at center of it all. follow us here. it gets complicated. we say good mornings, i'm bill hemmer. welcome to "america's newsroom." martha: i'm martha maccallum. journalists at fox news immediately began to follow the money and connect dots after learning about claims made in this upcoming book "clinton cash." we now know the state department under hillary clinton's control signed off on a deal that would allow russia to buy a uranium company. bill: all this as money continued to flow into the clinton foundation and a lot of
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money too. from a charity connected to the chairman of that uranium company. byron york, chief political correspondent, "washington examiner," fox news contributor, here to help us go through this. this story byron, involves big money and national security. >> big money foreign influence in national security, absolutely. it all revolves around uranium which is a strategic asset. the united states generates about 20% of its electrical power from nuclear sources. we don't have enough of it. it is a strategic asset. for a foreign company to buy part of the u.s. uranium supply requires government approval. it requires approval specifically of the secretary of state. what we have is a company in russia, that wants to buy this this uranium company and this is something that requires government approval. and they get the approval. they get the approval of hillary clinton, but comes after the company has donated millions of dollars to the clinton
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foundation. and by the way, after the company paid $500,000 for a single speech for bill clinton to give in moscow. bill: just reminder. this is one of many stories right, about contributions to the clinton foundation and bill clinton specifically. but this one involves a russian conglomerate, vladmir putin, to an extent and big u.s. interests in uranium? >> yes. remember that when hillary clinton became secretary of state the white house actually forced her to sign a memorandum saying that the clinton foundation, of which her husband was the head would not accept donations from foreign governments. but it didn't say anything about foreign companies and individuals. in these cases there is real blurring of the lines between some foreign governments and companies involved. and the question here, and we don't know the answer right now, the question here is, was there a link between these millions of dollars that the people who wanted permission to buy this american uranium source between the millions of dollars they
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gave the clinton foundation and the fact that the u.s. government including hillary clinton gave them approval to do that. bill: this is what the clinton team said so far. no one it has ever produced it says, a shred of evidence supporting that theory that hillary clinton took action as secretary of state to support interests of donors to the clinton foundation. to suggest the:state department undersecretary clinton had influence of the sale of uranium is in entirely baseless. >> they will have to answer this more detail than it has. the clinton foundation did not disclose millions of dollars we are talking about came from russian sources. why did that happen? hillary clinton will not be able to get by with issuing a general denial of this, plus
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denunciation of the author of the book "clinton cash," peter schweizer. she will have to address these allegations in detail. bill: essential question. was it money that helped move the process forward? that is, that is the essential issue now? >> it's a question we don't know the answer to right now. bill: byron, thank you. byron york leading our coverage in washington d.c. as we move through this here is martha. >> thank you, bill. martha: we'll have in depth report and our own analysis digging deep into the allegations against hillary clinton. bret bayh will join us at 10:00 in "america's newsroom." he is anchoring a powerful special that airs tomorrow evening on fox news reporting. that follows the clinton money trail. there are a lot of moving parts here. tangled web that heirs 10 p.m. on the fox news channel. we'll show you a good chunk of that documentary piece beginning at 10:00 hour. you will get a sneak-peek.
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bill: you're running this promo on our network. you see it at home or in the office. did they cash in and sellout. we'll try to answer that for you. five minutes past the hour. house speaker john boehner said the obama administration has made it virtually impossible to get facts on benghazi terror attack. the final house report on benghazi may not come out until 2016. that is the middle of the presidential election year. hillary clinton's team saying that delay is all about politics. the benghazi select committee chair, trey gowdy denies that claim. says he wants the report out much sooner. >> that assumes that the report would be critical of her. i don't make that assumption. because we're still in the process of gathering facts. if the report is not critical of her, then she would probably want it to come out closer to the election but it is not going to come out in the middle of 2016. i hope it doesn't come out in 2016 period. i hope we're done before the end of this year. and i say hope, because there are certain variables that i can not control.
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bill: this certainly four americans murdered in the attack on the u.s. consulate in benghazi on september 11th including our ambassador at the time in libya. martha: swinging over to another big story right now. we are getting report this is morning that the saudi-led coalition is once again hitting the houthi positions inside of yemen. according to these reports at least 20 airstrikes happened throughout yemen according to residents on the ground there. obviously a volatile situation because as you remember the united states had claimed that those airstrikes would be stopping all around the same time we talked about these ships that were gathering u.s. ships gathering on the coast of yemen. so meanwhile we are now hearing that the iranian warships on the move that are near that southern coast of yemen are there as we speak and all of this comes just days after the united states announced that it would send our own roosevelt aircraft carrier which really made a big statement to that area. let's sort all this out with peter doocy live at the white house for us this morning.
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what are you hearing about the movement right now of these iranian ships peter? >> reporter: martha we have some brand new information to report. the iranian ships appear to have changed course and speed overnight and pentagon officials are telling us that the ships are headed northeast, they think in the direction of home. so those ships, iranian ships have turned around. and that is brand new information just in the last few minutes. and you remember the pentagon officials had feared that this nine-ship convoy was bringing advanced weapons to yemen for houthi rebels trying to overthrow the government there. that is why the uss roosevelt battle group was sent to keep a watchful eye on the air iranian ships. the potential hostile vessels heading home that is according to multiple reports in the pentagon. they want to see how the high seas stand up and evolve right this minute definitely evolving. martha: there may have been why the reluctance to administration
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talking about what the roosevelt was tag in that area. talk of back and forth whether it was clearing shipping lanes or to send a very strong statement. it appears either way that looks like what i had did peter. >> reporter: exactly. exactly. martha: thank you very much peter doocy joining from us the white house. bill: martha, let's take our viewers closely on this part of the world we've been watching for some time. specifically now the country of yemen located in strategic part of the world on the southern edge of saudi arabia. over past several days starting in the persian gulf we watched the uss theodore roosevelt steam its way out of persian gulf and join 11 other warships as it moved along this coast past the coast of oman and yemen where it is parked off water, international waters off the coast of yemen. what we don't know what was happening there with a dozen u.s. ships and nine ships in the iranian fleet that peter doocy talked about, what is happening specifically down here. there are several ports but there is one major port and that
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is aden's where the cole was bombed in late 2000 october of that year. aden's support here and strategic area, the bottom of the red sea as it meets the gulf of aden, you see this choke point right here? that is minimum of 20 miles across. there has been a lot of concern whether or not that was the strategic area that the iranians were going for. what tehran said over the past 24 hours the only reason their fleet was there because they were protecting against pirates. is that the case? what have they done now? they said yesterday they would stay for three months. based on report from pentagon and peter doocy are they heading out of that area? it's a big confusing mess as we talked about here. if they docked what do they have? what are they delivering? and are they surface-to-air missiles that would help the houthis fight back? right now we don't know. martha: couple days ago the white house said the strikes were stopping from the coalition at yemen and saudis would no longer do airstrikes. we saw airstrikes continue in
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spite of that claim. they appear to be continuing more today. how the white house feels about that we'll be asked at today's briefing. bill: one wrong move and that thing's a mess. martha: to this before you labor department releasing new jobless numbers as they do every thursday. americans filing for unemployment rose slightly to seasonally adjusts of 295,000. more evidence that companies are cutting fewer jobs but the labor force participation rate continues to be at a historic low. bill: another black eye for the secret service. this involves president george h.w. bush. what the agency reportedly failed to do. we'll bring that story for you. martha: a volcano erupts first time in who years. look at those pictures. plumes of ash from the sky and people running everywhere. bill: a plane nosedives at thousands of feet per minute. >> just a sense not knowing what is going to happen to you. i don't even know the feeling, i
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can't even remember if i was flying forward or being pushed back. i remember a sense of calm coming over me at that point. so, what brings you to jersey? well, geico's the #1 auto insurer in new jersey, new york and connecticut. so i just came by to say "thanks." #1, huh? that's great. here you go. a little token of appreciation. oh, that's... that's... that's great... now i'd say you probably need a large. geico.
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replaced until late last year. the secret service tried compensating extra agent to papa troll around the president's property. bill: did they mislead the gains made on ground in iraq an syria. some say this map is better assessment. shows the ground gained since the airstrikes started. we have the author of the book trust betrayed, barack obama hillary clinton and selling out of america's national security. sir, good morning. welcome here to "america's newsroom." >> good morning bill. great to be with you again. bill: why would the pentagon put out a map that was not accurate? what would that do? >> you know, you're seeing more of this administration where they show what they want the american people to see for domestic political considerations. kind of disingenuous. the map doesn't show the gains isis made during the pinprick strikes.
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house leadership speaker boehner said it very well, we need a robust strategy, not just poking them in the eyes. it is really disingenuous to not show the actual gains isis has made. bill: in the full picture of things, isis stated it is in print, it needs to gain and hold territory, and apparently it is doing that? >> that's absolutely true. look we, many people many, smarter than me said, look we can't if we're going to send people over there, we can't do it with just airstrikes alone. if we send men and women into harm's way our american forces that's what we decide to do, we need allow them to beat the enemy into submission, period. bill: do you think that is happening? i read where one expert said they have been very minimally challenged. is that the case so far? >> i think so. i think that you're seeing that. seeing sort of pinprick strikes. they're advancing around it. we're looking at ramadi where a place i know very intimately well being over there. you're seeing that taken over.
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you're seeing the leadership under the pentagon and administration saying no big deal saying that is not that strategic which is very disingenuous. bill: why do you think the administration would not go after them full bore? >> i think you're seeing a pattern from this administration to do as little as possible, to show they're doing something. at the same time, you're seeing the disintegration of nation states all over the middle east. you're seeing larger areas for terrorist havens than probably ever before. you know like i said, the speaker said you need to have a robust strategy. there are two battlefields. there is a physical one we need to make sure we're bet beating enemy into submission. we have online one. which american people know isis is threat to national security because of lone wolf attacks. you have to be on both battlefields. you need to be online disrupting overwhelming and rendering insignificant isis's message online as well as fizz call battlefield. bill: we put a poll out to ask
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the american public. how are things going against the fight of islamic extremists. look at two bottom numbers. for a total of 63%. i assume from your answers we're probably in the 63%? >> no doubt about it. this administration has done a very poor job in national security. i write extensively in my book. the american people understand intuitively there is a threat. online threat could spurn lone wolf attacks. we can't give up our freedoms. there is not 100% security on the homeland. we should take the fight to the enemy both battlefields physically and online as well. bill: if that strategy we're watching right now does not change, what comes of that then? >> i think unfortunately you will see attacks on our homeland. that really stinks of course. like i said, 9/11, you had transnational actors like al qaeda who inflicted more damage than a nation-state of
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japan in world war ii. so americans know intuitively we have a threat. we he expect our leaders to protect us, both on those battlefields. we need comprehensive strategy. we need the president to lead or the next president to lead on both battlefields online as well as physically. bill: you write as navy seal you learn quickly to be clear-eyed about needs and challenges of each mission. it is in your book, trust betrayed. scott, good to have you here. >> thank you bill. bill: martha. martha: former cia director david petraeus is due in court today for his sentencing. the details of his plea agreement. what happens to the former head of the cia. bill: there is new polling on 2016 revealing which republican hopeful could potentially be the best matchup against hillary clinton. now who is it? we'll tell you. don't move
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people ship all kinds of things. but what if that thing is a few hundred thousand doses of flu vaccine. that need to be kept at 41 degrees. while being shipped to a country where it's 90 degrees. in the shade. sound hard? yeah. does that mean people in laos shouldn't get their vaccine? we didn't think so. from figuring it out to getting it done, we're here to help.
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bill: a skywest flight forced to make an emergency landing in buffalo after three people lost consciousness on board. that flight carried 75 people to heart for the connecticut out of chicago. pilot was not sure if there was air pressure problem, descending as fast as 7,000 feet per minute. >> things started to get more panicky. seems like there was some emergency that was happening that was not just medical. they said there was loss of cabin pressure. they asked us to tighten our seatbelts and we nosedived until we leveled out at 10,000 feet. that was pretty darn scary. bill: i bet it was. crews found no problem with the plane but the investigation is still ongoing. martha: big day for former cia director david petraeus. he will be sentenced this
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afternoon. the retired army general agreed to pleading guilty mishandling classified information and leaking military secrets to his biography and mistress. the misdemeanor carries a maximum sentence up to a year in prison. jonathan serrie is live from our u.s. district court in charlotte north carolina. jonathan reality how likely is it that petraeus will do anytime from this? >> reporter: it is highly unlikely, martha because petroleum petrais worked out a plea agreement with prosecutors. he is expected to plead guilty to one count ever unauthorized removal and retention of classified material. it is a misdemeanor in theory carries a maximum sentence of one year in prison but up to one hundred thousand fine. as part of the plea agreement signed in february petraeus and prosecution will recommend the judge sentence the retired four-star general to two years probation instead of prison time. it will order him to pay a fine
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of $40,000. martha. martha: what are people saying saying whether or not the punishment fits what he did? >> reporter: depends what he talks to. critics say the sentence recommended today for petraeus is not nearly as severe as some of the s sentences imposed on others who have been caught leaking sensitive information especially during the obama administration. petraeus is accused of sharing top secret information with his biographer paula broadwell who he admitted to having extramarital affair. petraeus shared eight black notebooks he compiled leading international officerses in afghanistan. the books reportedly contained classified information on identities of covert operatives and secret codes and war strategy. petraeus's defenders say none of the sensitive information was published in broadwell's book on petraeus. his decorated military career leading forces in afghanistan and iraq should be taken into consideration. martha. martha: jonathan, thanks. bill: new poll numbers released
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consist. bill: from europe, french authorities say terror threat has never been hire. five terror plots have been authoritied since january. amy kellogg live in london. what is going on there amy? >> reporter: yeah, bill the terror threat level in paris has been at its highest since january since the attacks on "charlie hebdo" and the kosher supermarket happened. the army is out in force in unprecedented numbers guarding sensitive sites, bill. because the interior minister said the terror threat level has
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has unamplified and unprecedented nature. jihadist wrecked his supposed plot shootings himself by mistake. he said this is the first time christians were targeted specifically by jihadists in france. over 1500 were identified involvement in terror networks. 440 actually made their way to syria. after the attacks on "charlie hebdo" and the kobe kosher market, the security around synagogues and mosques were beefed up but not around churches. he is believed to have killed this 32-year-old fitness ininstructor who came to paris to do a pilates course. she was probably in the wrong place at wrong time. he wanted to steal her car. it was mystery why she was the actual victim here. bill: what more do we know about
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the suspect? >> the 24 algerian spent a lot of time in france and was a computer science student in paris. now he is in the in the hospital now. he is being questioned by police. they want to find out if he had any complies. -- accomplices. what is most chilling bill are the reports that he traveled to syria last year. when he came back police questioned him for four days. he admitted going. he was suspected meeting with extremists there. even though he was on the watch list, he went again to turkey came back questioned again. still authorities were not able to find anything really significant on him. so he continued on. and when they searched his student apartment yesterday they found all sorts of literature isis and al qaeda related again this plot apparently coming from someone in syria, asking him to attack two churches in paris. bill: thank you amy kellogg on the story. breaking news out of london today. >> want to bring this to you.
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chelsea clinton responded for first time to questions from fox news today about donations that the clinton foundation has accepted from foreign nations including saudi arabia and here is her response. let's play some of it. i can show you the rest. >> we have always partnered with governments, ngos foundation who believe the work we do is important. so whether that is around women and girls or small farmers or injectible personal contraceptives we talked about earlier. so what the clinton foundation has said we will be, kind of even more transparent. martha: we'll be even more transparent from now on. we will disclose quarterly funding instead of annually. in my role as vice-chair she went on to say i have responsibility. i believe this is the right thing to do. we won't take any new funding but we will not affect any work already in progress. she is the first of the clinton family, doug to make any response today in the wake much
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this "new york times" piece that came out this morning. she is referring to specifically money from saudi arabia and from ukraine. >> sure. martha: what does that response tell you? >> it is going part of the way. candidly in a presidential campaign as somebody who was advisor to bill clinton, i would say stop taking money from foreign governments now, period. it is issue of appearance. even if they don't believe it is issue of substance. i don't think there is schonekasal link between contributions and policy, notwithstanding times attar kel and with politics and appearance an even propriety they should stop taking. >> isn't that not an admission then what you were doing in the past may have been unconnect call at very least. >> no, i don't think so. it is appearance -- martha: should have done appearance of conflict of interest when she became secretary of state if that was concern. >> she did and started taking money again, which to me there was mistake. martha: there were instances in the article money given to the foundation by this canadian
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businessman was not disclosed on clinton global initiative documents. so they were supposed to report all of the money they got. so what this article in the "new york times" found was that canadian businessman who was all in the center of this whole deal to sell these uranium mining rights to russia, gave the cgi money that never showed up on their documents. then they paid bill clinton $500,000 for a speech. >> there is no link between any government decisions and those contributions suspect as they may appear to you and many other. >> well the truth is, we're talking about two separate entities here. you have the clinton foundation and you have the clinton global initiative which is subsidiary of the clinton foundation. they have been able to manuever money between those two organizations in very secretive way for a very long time and they never had to disclose anything. donors expenditures, nothing. it is all been highly secretive. look, you talk about propriety and possible conflicts of
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interest. from the beginning, a normal candidate a normal person coming in as secretary of state would have said, we are stopping all of these foreign donations foreign governments, shadowy characters. we're not accepting any of that money for that very reason because it might look bad, it might be appearance -- martha: of conflict. >> correct. in the clinton case, martha, the appearance of conflicts of interests was actually like an invitation. it was actually a attractive for these people to donate and attractive for the clintons to take the money. martha: the stakes are very high obviously for all of this doug, for the whole family. because remember bill clinton one reasons founding this foundation after his presidency to turn around his reputation. >> right. martha: to make him a global statesman. for him the stakes are very high. for chelsea who is now involved, her name is on the foundation as well. all of the stakes here are extremely high. which is very clear. you know, even as secretary of state you know, the russian
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papers were heralding how excited they were they would be global leader in energy after this went down. >> correct. martha: so the reset button allowed russia to basically i am claim global energy dominance. so even on a purely policy level as secretary of state that looks like a failure. >> well, look the reset clearly, martha was a failure given what the russians have done in ukraine. right now the russians aren't claiming any dominance in world energy markets given decline in price of oil but i think ultimately we're in a political campaign and the clintons have to make decisions. martha: of the world's uranium deposits and mining under their jurisdiction and making money off of it. let's move on to the impact of the election and move on to the polls to see how hillary stacks up against marco rubio. these are latest numbers we've seen. so okay, this is the other poll that we have here. so this is who would you vote for today if you are, these are republicans that were asked this question. you have got marco rubio at 15%
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leading the pack in this. we'll see how he stacks up against hillary clinton where he stacks up better than any of the other potential opponents, still lower, but lower by only go points. jeb bush down by seven against hillary clinton. what do you make of it? >> here is the problem. hillary clinton is arguably still dominant. she doesn't have any legitimate challengers yet. that might change. the problem is that the worst and most problematic scandals for any candidate are the ones that reinforce preexisting negative notions about that candidate. that is why the clinton cache foundation money and that scandal, private email and private server, that scandal are essentially serving as tipping points, who said i may have liked her or trusted her in the past but i'm growing to give her a shot because it is her turn first woman. martha: so hard to right that ship. >> but these scandals, martha serve as tipping points for a lot of voters, i was already
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clinton fatigue. this reinforces that the clint tongs are corrupt greedy serial liars and i just can't take it. martha: let's look at democrats doug. 60% say they would support hillary clinton. i would point out this wassen april 17 to 21. the tail end of this polling does reflect some of this story. i don't know that it is fully in the bloodstream yet for these people. >> it probably isn't but hillary is in a very strong position with democrats. i think real news against rubio and other republicans, they're within single digits or marco rubio's case margin of error. with a majority saying that hillary clinton is not honest and trust worthy, that is a huge 54, that is a huge concern to the clinton campaign as her numbers decline. that to me is the greatest worry they face. >> that is the tipping point that i was referring to. martha: guys, thank you so much. doug and monica, always good to have you you.
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>> thanks, martha. martha: bill? bill: martha we have more breaking news. word from the white house. president in 22 minutes 10:00 a.m. eastern time. said to make a statement on killing of two innocent americans held by al qaeda in eastern afghanistan. statement by the press secretary, tremendous sorrow we recently conclude ad u.s. government counterterrorism operation in this year killed two innocent hostages held by al qaeda. their names dr. warren weinstein, an american held by al qaeda since 2011. an italian, held by al qaeda since 2012. they also believed two other americans recently killed in u.s. government counterterrorism operations in the same part of that country. they include ahmed faro u.k., american al qaeda leader killed in the same operation that resulted in the deaths of dr. weinstein and giovanniy3
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laporto. they concluded adam gadahn, american from california became prominent member of california, also killed in january likely however in a separate u.s. government counterterrorism operation. the president will address this in minutes. we'll take you live to the press briefing room at the white house when that happens. quick break here. back in a moment. when laquinta.com sends craig wilson a ready for you alert the second his room is ready, ya know what he becomes? great proposal! let'stalk more over golf. great. how about over tennis? even better. a game changer! the ready for you alert, only at laquinta.com.
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podium shortly. bill: there are new concerns that the administration is sending mixed messages on iran amid reports that iranian warships moving in position off the southern coast of yemen. that deployment coming only days after the u.s. announced it would send its own warships to the same waters. republican senator ben sasse how the of senate homeland security committee. welcome to "america's newsroom." >> good morning. bill: a report from the white house pentagon 45 minutes ago, our peter doocey suggested that iranian warships are on the move again, this time to the northeast which might suggest they're moving out of waters they went to 24 hours ago about. do you have anything on that? what would you add? >> we have several reports and not confirming details. it points to the larger point how strange it is to constantly
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silo conversations on the iranian nuclear deal and iran is the largest state sponsor of terror. they're trying to destablize at least five of their neighbors at the present time. nebraskans look at this and say, what is going on in washington, d.c. where you can pretend you trust the iranians on a nuke negotiation where at the same time they're trying to foment discord and instability across a whole region. bill: react to this iranian news agency said the purpose of these warships will protect iran's cargo ships and iran's oil tankers against pirates. now piracy has been known to happen in that part of the world for several years but when you hear tehran say that, what do you think? >> yeah. the idea that tehran is on the side of the rule of law is laughable to anybody who is following the situation. there are two big broad bundles of bad guys in the middle east. you have sunni jihadists, that are non-state actors trying to do things like we see isil doing, taking over northwestern
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iraq and eastern syria at the present. and that is horrific but the long term threat in the region comes from iran that is funding shia militias that detablize all of their reason on. -- region. americans get that and surprising washington, d.c. is so delusional it can talk itself into a situation where it wants to advance a ridiculously shortsighted move to allow iran to become a nuclear threshold state. it doesn't make sense. bill: while you're talking senator we have screen left the press briefing room there at the white house where the president's will make a comment about this counterterrorism operation that took place back in january some four months ago, perhaps there is a comment about iran when it happens. react to the "fox news" polling that came out last night. here's the first one. we asked whether or not on this nuclear deal, is the president too soft or striking a right balance? a clear majority 51% say he is being too soft. what do you think about that? >> yeah, i've been traveling my
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state of nebraska and kinds of questions nebraskans ask do we trust iran? over the course of the last 36 years there has been bipartisan consensus in this country republicans, democrats since the carter administration all agood we can not have a nuclear armed iran. the obama administration is unique in four decades of history thinking that you can trust them and okay for them to have uranium enrichment capabilities. what you have in your poll is what i experienced in nebraska. nobody thinks the president is taking tough enough stand in my state. bill nuclear neaping shun with iran is the right thing to do or people in nebraska say what about that? >> iran has about 19,000 centrifuges trying to enrich uranium right now. the obama administration started by saying they would get them down to 1000. now they're talking about 6,000. when you ask people in nebraska how many centrifuges should iran
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have to enrich nuclear material? the answer is zero. republicans and democrats are united in real america. only in washington, d.c. is a deal this bad have any momentum. bill: why then, explain this, is the administration pursuing it with such vigor? >> i think it is really hard to understand what presidents sometimes do when they're in legacy mode but we should be clear. iranians mean the world ill. the iranian state that has nuclear weapons will stimulate an arms race in the middle east. it will be the end of the nuclear non-proliferation treaty. if you have iranian nukes many of our allies are understandably going to want to have nukes as well because they don't trust iran, they shouldn't trust iran. if there are nuclear weapons in the middle east i believe they will be eventually used. we'll look back on the moment and we will get renegotiated from such a position of weakness. bill: there is another deadline coming up 2 1/2 months in june. i don't know if they will hit the deadline. i don't know if it goes to july, august, six months after that.
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but do you think the president is willing right now to sign something, whatever that is? >> unfortunately the president regularly frames this debate if there are only two choices. you're either for taking whatever deal the ayatollah will grant to america or you're for immediate war. that's silly. the obvious real choice is to have a third choice which you negotiate from a position of strength and let the iranians know that the u.s. has no intentions allowing them to become a nuclear threshold state. if we did that, we would have the potential of actually achieving the goals we've had for the last 36 years. sadly looks like the president is willing to accept a really terrible deal that just punts the can down the road to the next presidential situation post-2017. whoever that president is will have to take adult actions and lead an american conversation how we get to a world where iran is not a nuclear power. bill: thank you, republican senator from nebraska, ben sasse. appreciate your time from capitol hill. thank you, sir. we're watching screen left as
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well from the white house in the briefing room there, martha. martha: you can see the crowd gathering in the briefing room at the white house. we're waiting for president obama. he will make a statement in about ten minutes. the statement comes in the wake of the announcement that says two hostages an american, warren weinstein, an italian giovanni loporto killed that why sent to kill two u.s.-born members of al qaeda. they were successful on that count. the loss of these hostages is obviously a very sorrowful moment. the white house is about to speak about that the president will step to the podium in about ten minutes. we'll take you there live.
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martha: waiting for the president to speak in white house briefing room. peter doocy standing by as we wait for the president to come out. we expect he will make a statement about two hostages that were killed in a hostage situation that killed out two long sought american-born al qaeda operatives as well. peter? >> reporter: martha in the last 15 minutes or so just got word, two innocent hostages american warren weinstein and italian giovanni lo porto were killed in a drone strike in the pakistan border region. they say they have no reason to suspect that either hostage was there but this is very troubling, martha because warren weinstein's family for the last several years he has been held by al qaeda since 2011, for last several years they would pop up every few months to beg the united states government to do more to get warren weinstein home. but now, we find out that warren weinstein has been killed by a drone strike. that is what president obama will come out and explain any
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minute. martha: yeah. talk a little bit about the two operatives who were hit successfully as, part of this operation as well, peter. >> reporter: our understanding so far that one of the al qaeda, american al qaeda, ahmed faruq was killed in this same operation, the same drone strike in the afghan, pakistan border area. that the two innocent hostages were killed at. the other one, adam gadahn was killed in a different u.s. counter terror operation. they're not saying specifically it was a drone strike in the information that we have, but two americans one good guy, one bad guy along with an innocent tall can killed in the same drone strike. the white house though already martha, no words can fully express our regret over this terrible tragedy. so that gives you a little bit of a hint of the tone that we might hear from president obama because it is rare that you hear the united states government the white house, the president's office come out and say we made a mistake and there is no word
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to express our regret. that is, that is strong martha. martha: a lot of discussion about intelligence on the ground and how good we are at knowing what is on the ground in these drone strike operations. adam gadahn was born in ore bonn. he was born in -- in oregon. we will have a lot more. bill: we'll join the president in the briefing room as our coverage continues right after this. and stay awake during the day. this is called non-24. learn more by calling 844-824-2424. or visit your24info.com. [ male announcer ] meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards ruining jill's credit and her dream of retirement. every year, millions of people just like you experience how a little personal information
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martha: president obama's about to make a statement about innocent hostages who were killed during counterterrorism operations. the white house released a statement that is expressing sorrow for the deaths resulting from previously classified operations, all this happened back in january. welcome, everybody, brand new hour of "america's newsroom," i'm martha maccallum. bill: and i'm bill hemmer. the victims include an american and italian hostage as well as two other americans working on
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behalf of al-qaeda. the white house now conducting a review to understand exactly what happened. martha: we're taking a look at all of the information that we're getting here. adam gadahn, who was one of the people whose name is probably very familiar to you he was known as azam the more than. he was born in 1978 in california. his parents lived there, and he was raised by his paternal grandparents who were jewish. at some point he left the country and went to join al-qaeda. and became, basically, an interpreter, a spockman, one of their media operators because he was an american, obviously, and he was one of the first americans we had any indication was working with al-qaeda. and that's why he became so well known to americans. this hit happened back in january. and we also know that mr. weinstein who had been pleading with and his family had been pleading with the government to figure out a way to get him released, in 2012 there was a proof of life video
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that was released, some excerpts from the 13 minute video that he gave said to president obama you are now in your second term as president of the united states, and that means you can make hard decisions without worrying about your re-election. he says, if anyone in the obama government can understand my predicament, it is yourself. i hope that one day soon i will be able to thank you as a free man. bill: when adam gadahn first came onto the scene, he was an american speaker talking the way he was and in a part of the world he was, he left california in 1998, moved to pakistan. his father says the last contact he had with his son was 13 years ago. that was 2002. in may of 2004, the fbi released gadahn's name and said he was part of this al-qaeda cell and then ayman al-zawahiri made an introduction nine years ago on video, the last time we heard from adam gadahn was
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august of 2013 when he praised the killing of our u.s. ambassador in libya, chris stevens, and urged wealthy muslims to offer militants rewards so they can kill others. and now adam gadahn is dead himself in an operation in eastern afghanistan. want to bring in the special report anchor, bret baier, to help us along with this coverage. bret, this is one thing we did not see coming today. >> no, we didn't. and, obviously, this operation is not just this week. all of this happened back in january, so it's interesting that it is coming out today. the president is going to speak about it. it's significant that adam gadahn according to u.s. officials, is killed. as you talked about, he's essentially been a spokesperson for al-qaeda but was also american. and, you know you bring up the whole killing of the cleric in yemen by a drone, and you -- another american, and it raises the question about killing
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american terrorists overseas. and i'm sure that's going to be a part of this as well. this is the counterterrorism effort of plucking off al-qaeda leaders that the administration has been touting and we're likely to hear the president talk about it. but, obviously this includes an operation where two american hostages were killed. martha: yeah. and according according to some of the reports that we're seeing bret, this is the first time that's ever happened that u.s. hostages have been killed in a counterterrorism operation. it is what no one wants to see happen. and there will be questions about intelligence on the ground and how good it is given our current posture. >> yeah. i'll just say martha remember the administration received criticism for not acting fast enough when we had information about hostages being held in syria that they said that they were slow off getting the intelligence and actually operating moving an operation forward. now they're saying that this operation did move forward but
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led to deaths, but also led to the killing of at least one senior al-qaeda figure. martha: yeah. you know you always wonder about the timing on these things. and as you say, this happened back in january. the president is ready to speak about it now and we expect him to step in front of that podium any moment but any thoughts on timing bret? >> well, you know, i don't know the inner workings of why it comes out today. obviously, there are a lot of big stories that are circulating today. but, you know the administration will likely say that they needed to wait for confirmation and they wanted to make sure all the is or were dotted and the ts crossed with all of the information they're putting out here and declassifying. as you take a look at the white house briefing room. i'll say that the statement by the press secretary is pretty detailed in its sorrow for the loss of the american held, the american held and then the italian hostage held, and it does not lay out exactly how
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this intelligence came to be and specifics of the operation. i doubt you'll hear the president get into all of the logistics, but he'll probably make some statement about how counterterrorism and their fighting of these terrorist groups is on the rise. you know that said the administration is also getting criticized for not doing enough against isis. bill: i recall a case two months ago, was it not, in the country of yemen bret, where there was a rescue operation conducted and a south african was killed, and there was significant blowback from the family and those living in south africa thinking that we had either moved too late or not fast enough, and there was clear fallout from that. >> yeah. i'll just say that these are difficult things. i mean, whenever there are hostages involved and there's an operation ongoing, these special ops guys who go in there obviously, they're doing everything they can to try to save the hostages but often times it ends up in a shootout, and someone is not going to make
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it. these -- you're right, there was that incident in yemen, there was the incident in syria that didn't happen in time to rescue the hostages held by isis. now you have a situation where the white house is depicting something that they did have success in killing some of the bad guys but lost hostages along the way. it's interesting that it took this long, though -- back to our original timing -- bill: no question. >> -- from january until the middle of april. martha: yeah. as you say, bret, there was criticism we didn't move quickly enough and we had intelligence that stated where they were at that time so is, obviously, there's always second questioning in these things. we -- second guessing in these things. the president will point out we believe at no point did they have intelligence or surveillance that detected the presence of two hostages among these terrorists that they were trying to hit.
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so it appears that, you know, there was no indication, according to what we knew -- this is a picture now of jee giovanni lo porto, the italian also killed in an effort to take out at least one american, originally american-based person who became involved in al-qaeda, farouq is his name. and also we know adam gadahn will be announced that he has been hit as well. and his name has been in counterterrorism circles for a very long time. he once runed up his passport dub ripped up his passport in a video criticizing president bushment apparently ahmed farouq an american working on behalf of al-qaeda, was killed in that same operation. the gadahn mission now that we mentioned another american out of california working on behalf of al-qaeda for years, was killed in a separate operation. peter doocy is in the briefing room now let's go to peter to see what he is learning from
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there. >> reporter: bill something that is extraordinary about the limited information the white house has put out so far is that they give four names, and they say that none of the people were where they thought they'd be. they say, yes, the two american al-qaeda, ahmed farouq and adam gadahn, were killed but they were not specifically targeted and yet two innocent hostages warren weinstein and giovanni lo porto were killed, but the u.s. had no reason to think they were in the region where the drone strike that killed them took place. they're revealing that a few months ago they did not know very much about where any of these people were. now they are all deadment two of them -- dead. two of them innocent, two of them members of al-qaeda. so the president is going to have a lot of ground to cover to explain why we didn't know where these people were and how the targeting process worked that an american and another innocent hostage ended up dead. bill: peter in your time at the
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white house there and perhaps maybe more appropriate for the pentagon this question, have these individuals come up in the briefings from day-to-day, week to week or not? >> reporter: you hard about them from time to time, but it's not a daily or a weekly thing. in fact, the white house in the limited information they've given us so far ahead of the president's statement says they had no information about whether adam gadahn or ahmed farouq where are so obviously not something you'd want to avoid in a wartime scenario, but they say they didn't know where they were and that's not something that a lot of the people in the press corps here or at the pentagon are asking about on a day-to-day basis. as you know, there are other things that come up, and these guys have been out there for a long time. we've known that they're bad american members of al-qaeda for a long time but we have not seen them on the front pages or at the beginning or at any point in the briefings lately. martha: yeah. we're about ten minutes past the time when president obama was expected to step to the podium.
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is there any indication, peter about questions and whether he will take questions after statement? >> reporter: nothing yet, but you can bet that he's certainly going to, going to be receiving some from the people who are all seated here waiting for the president to come out. because there are a lot of questions yes. the white house put out a very detailed, two-page-printed statement with names and with locations, but it doesn't explain the why why did this happen and really how did this happen what led up to the drone strike being -- as the two minute warning for the president is now given. what led up to a drone strike being ordered that could have probably -- you know, what was the information and how detailed was it that they did not know as somebody else pops out to tell us there's a two minute warning, they did not know there's this american innocent hostage there. and warren weinstein is somebody who, actually, this past summer we saw al-qaeda come out and tell warren weinstein, his family that they should furb
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for his -- push for his relief. bill: we're going to pause for a moment and let our fox stations join us for the announcement from the white house. bill: this is fox news coverage of the president's statement, americans killed in captivity. i'm bill hemmer in new york. two hostages one american, one italian, held by al-qaeda for several years killed during a counterterrorism operation that we now understand involved a drone. eastern afghanistan, near the pakistani border. two other americans working on behalf of al-qaeda also reported dead in separate operations. one of those americans is adam gadahn who was the first english-speaking american to join al-qaeda, and he was introduced to the world in 2004 by way of videotape. he was born in california, moved to pakistan in 1998. he became the face at times for
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the al-qaeda terror operation around the world. in september of 2006, gadahn was on a videotape introduced by ayman al-zawahiri. later in 2013, august of that year, he was on video praising the death of our u.s. ambassador, chris stevens, in libya and urging muslims to offer militants rewards so that they can kill others. apparently, the strikes happened in january and we are finding out about them now. >> this morning i want to express our grief and condolences to the families of two hostages one american -- dr. warren weinstein -- and an italian, giovanni lo porto, who were tragically killed in a u.s. counterterrorism operation. warren and giovanni were aid workers in pakistan devoted to improving the lives of pakistani
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people. after warren was abducted by al-qaeda in 2011, i directed my national security team to do everything possible to find him and to bring him home safely to his family. and dedicated professionals across our government worked tirelessly to do so. we also worked closely with our italian allies on behalf of giovanni who was kidnapped in 2012. since 9/11 our counterterrorism efforts have prevented terrorist attacks and saved innocent lives, both here in america and around the world. and that determination to protect innocent life only makes the loss of these two men especially painful for all of us. based on information and intelligence we have obtained, we believe that a u.s. counterterrorism operation targeting an al-qaeda compound in the afghanistan/pakistan
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border region accidentally killed warren and giovanni this past january. yesterday i spoke with warren's wife elaine and prime minister renzi of italy. as a husband and as a father, i cannot begin to imagine the anguish that the weinstein and lo porto families are enduring today. i realize that there are to words that can ever equal their loss. i know that there is nothing that i can ever say or do to ease their heart ache and today i simply want to say this: as president and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of warren and giovanni. i profoundly regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government, i offer our deepest apologies to the families. as soon as we determine the cause of their deaths, i directed that the existence of
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this operation be declassified and disclosed publicly. i did so because the weinstein and lo porto families deserve to know the truth. and i did so because, even as certain aspects of our national security effort have to remain secret in order to succeed, the united states is a democracy committed to openness in good times and in bad. our initial assessment indicates that this operation was fully consistent with the guidelines under which we conduct counterterrorism efforts in the region which has been our focus for years because it is the home of al-qaeda's leadership. and based on the intelligence that we had obtained at the time, including hundreds of hours of surveillance, we believed that this was an al-qaeda compound, that no civilians were present and that capturing these terrorists was not possible. and we do believe that the operation did take out dangerous members of al-qaeda.
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what we did not know, tragically, is that al-qaeda was hiding the presence of warren and giovanni in this same compound. it is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally and our fight against terrorists specifically mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur. but one of the things that sets america apart from many other nations, one of things that makes us exceptional is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes. already i have directed a full review of what happened. we will identify the lessons that can be learned from this tragedy and any changes that should be made. we will do our utmost to insure it is not repeated, and we will continue to do everything we can to prevent the loss of innocent
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lives. not just innocent americans, but all innocent lives in our counterterrorism operations. today we join their families and friends in honoring warren and giovanni, two humanitarians who came from different countries but who were united by a pitter of service. by a spirit of service. for decades warren lived the ideals of our country serving with the peace corps and later with the united states agency for international development. he devoted his life to people across africa and south asia. he was a loving husband father and grandfather who willingly left the comforts of home to help the people of pakistan. at the time of his abduction, he was a usaid contractor focusing on helping pakistani families escape poverty and give a better life to their chirp. giovanni's humanitarianism also took him around the world to the central african republic, to haiti and ultimately pakistan.
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like warren he fell in love with pakistan and us people and -- and its people and believed passionately that he could make a difference in their lives. giovanni's service reflected the commitment of the italian people our great allies and friends, to the security and dignity of people around the world. and today is a reminder of the bonds of friendship between our countries and the shared values that bind americans and italians together. there could be no starker contrast between these two selfless men and their al-qaeda captors. warren's work benefited people across states. meanwhile al-qaeda boasted to the world that it held warren, citing his jewish faith. al-qaeda herald both men for -- held both men for years, even as warren's health deteriorated. they deprived these men of precious, irreplaceable years
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with family who missed them terribly. amid grief that is unimaginable, i pray that these two families will find some small measure of solace in knowing that warren and i have vanny's legacy -- giovanni's legacy will endure. their service will be remembered by the pakistani men women and children whose lives they touched and made better, their spirit will live on in the love of their families who are in our thoughts and prayers today, especially warren's wife elaine their daughters, alicia and jennifer, and their families. and the shining example of these two men will stand as a light to people the world over who see suffering and answer with compassion; who see hatred and offer their love who see war and work for peace. may god bless these two brave men, and may he watch over and comfort their families for all the years to come.
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bill: very tough news for the families of dr. warren weinstein and italian giovanni lo porto. the result appears to be a drone strike in eastern afghanistan, happened back in january. they were held for three and four years respectively. in that same strike another american working for al-qaeda was killed as well, we are told. in addition, the white house reporting the american, adam gadahn working for al-qaeda as an english-speaking mouthpiece was killed in a separate strike, also in january somewhere in eastern afghanistan near the pakistani border. happened about four months ago. families have been notified and today our thoughts and our prayers are with all of them. after this news. continuing coverage right now here on the fox news channel and here on this fox station, i'm bill hemmer in new york. martha: let's bring in bret baier who rejoins us from d.c.
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with his reaction to what we saw here this morning. good morning again, bret. >> hi, martha. the president expressing grief for these families. it's interesting to hear about this operation as we're just getting bits and pieces. a producer over at the pentagon saying the senior defense official says this strike was conducted by an armed drone under the operation of the cia and that the u.s. government, the intelligence community, had no reason to believe that the two hostages were there. the american the italian. they had no reason to believe on these other -- on this other strike that these al-qaeda figures were there. apparently, according to the senior defense official they had near certainty that the u.s. hostage and the italian hostage were not present at the al-qaeda location. they didn't know that adam gadahn or ahmed farouq were also there. so it goes to the point of sketchy intelligence on some of these operations as they move forward. the fact that it's taken this
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long to kind of figure out the actual death of these people and to announce it is interesting. but the back story here is senior defense officials telling us that the president did not order this strike. that quote, it is a part of normal policy he did not approve this strike. according to senior defense officials. we'll try to get more on what that means. martha: did that seem like an unusual pronouncement given this? the commander in chief would be in charge of all of these operations, and the president took responsible for it the minute that he walked out there. he said these operations happened under my direction, essentially, bret. >> yeah. i mean, it's interesting that we're hearing this from the pentagon and from what the president said. obviously it all falls to him in the end. he has a policy as we know of trying to pluck off these al-qaeda leaders along the afghan/pakistan border. it's been that way for years.
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but the fact that they're out saying he didn't order the specific strike is kind of interesting. we'll continue to dig on that. but the bottom line here is that it was a mistake, according to the government. and that that's why they're coming out to express grief for those families, that it does happen. martha: all right. bret, thank you. we'll be back in a moment. bill: going to bring in jonah goldberg, fox news contributor. good morning to you. adam gadahn we've been after him for more than a decade, and if he's been dead for four months why did we not know that? you can certainly understand why you want to buy time for the families of the innocent to be notified, but this is a bit confusing. >> it is. and we may just have to wait for some better dig-in reporting about all of this. it does lend itself to the sort of convenient political timing accusation, but we don't know that that's true either. certainly, i was originally supposed to come on this morning and talk about the clinton foundation stuff, and break news
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takes precedence at fox, and that's right. but it does give a good example of how one story can step on another story. we also just, you know tests also very confusing it basically sounds like the killing of the terrorists was a mistake and the killing of the hostagings was a mistake. i agree entirely that in a war where you're trying to kill bad guys, terrorists who take innocent people hostages it's entirely possible that some tragic accidents are going to occur like this, and i don't want -- i mean, we need to wait and see what the actual story is here. but as a general proposition these kinds of things will happen in a war on terror, and it's not our fault it's the evil people who do the, who commit terrorism's fault. bill: jonah, thank you. live in washington. jonah, we'll come back to you in just a bit here. >> no worries. bill: 25 past the hour. martha: when we come back, we're going to get to this story which is also very -- making a lot of
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headlines essentially today. new allegations that link hillary clinton's state department to russian uranium deals that could potentially compromise national security. how will this impact her presidential aspirations? a stunning look inside our new report. stay tuned for that, that's next. [ male announcer ] meet jill. she thought she'd feel better after seeing her doctor. and she might have if not for kari, the identity thief who stole jill's social security number to open credit cards ruining jill's credit and her dream of retirement.
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>> 20 minutes past the hour, breaking news by the president two innocent hostages, one american dr. warren wine scene and she of bonnie killed via drones right in afghanistan four months ago. in the same strike an american working for al qaeda was also killed. in addition the white house reports adam gadan working for al qaeda as an english-speaking of these 4 years, going back to early 2002 was killed in a separate strike. this happened back in january.
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families have been notified and thoughts and prayers are with all of them today. reports from the pentagon at fox news moments ago saying the strike was part of normal policy, not ordered by the president specifically. some more on this as we work through that story today from the white house. >> bombshell rocking the clinton campaign, new details about foreign money flowing into the clinton foundation. major news outlets including fox news reviewing all of the fact that our being revealed in this upcoming book clinton cash. bret baier has been digging deeper into the details and connections that are brought forward in these contentions. he will be anchoreding a fox news special tomorrow night but he joins us back on a busy morning across the board. good to have you here. >> good morning. let's stipulate that these stories don't fit on bumper stickers. they take time to explain and
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unwind but it does not make them any less explosive. the bottom line is it comes down to tens of millions of dollars donated to the clinton foundation and millions of dollars in speaking fees former president bill clinton from foreign governments and businesses that have business or policy issues that would somehow end up in front of secretary of state clinton. this is based on the book clinton cash by peter schweitzer, we have an exclusive interview with him. the first deals with has extent and starts with a trip by president clinton and one of his friends to kazakhstan and develops into a uranium deal. that explodes and tens of millions of dollars to the clinton foundation from one company, also big speaking fees to former president clinton from this. and all ends up with a russia reset that perhaps is more than
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anyone bargained for. consider the stunning case of has expanded at how americans uranium ended up in the hands of the russians. >> september 6th, 2005, bill clinton shows up in kazakhstan, where a canadian investor has been trying to get control, to buy a couple uranium mines. he became partners with bill clinton working on philanthropic activities. >> came to me as an idea about creating an initiative to alleviate poverty. >> frank shoes that has been involved in helping to facilitate speaking engagements for the clintons. >> they're whisked to the presidential palace in cassocks and and it is a fascinating story because everybody walked away from the table that night with something. pc story caught the attention of new york times reporter joe
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becker. >> it was a huge propaganda coup. bill clinton basically endorsed progress at kazakhstan had made in terms of their own democracy which was interesting given that he was elected with 90% of the vote in any election that was widely criticized as being rigged. >> bill clinton has a public press conference where he praises his rule and praises his human rights record but the bottom line is after is they leave a couple days later, frank gets his uranium concessions which end up being enormously lucrative to him and to a small group of canadian mining investors. >> his company was like a bit player and really had gone from shell company overnight, cute uranium mining deal and soon
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after is that bill clinton got a huge donation $31 million, followed by a pledge to donate $100 million more. >> our cost to the kazakhstan embassy whenever returned. we talked to frank justa who considers this an old story and said he is not interested in politics. meanwhile his defenders insist that no undue influence was exerted in kazakhstan because the deal did not require the government's approval. >> the problem is there are corporate records that indicate very clearly that government did have to sign off and approved. that is what we're looking at here. which is the amended memorandum of understanding, september 15th, 2005 between the ministry of energy of the
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republic of kazakhstan and the atomic agency in because the government says there's no way they can argue the governor was not party to the negotiations. they were signatories to this agreement. >> there's a postscript to the kazakhstan tale. >> officials wanted to take an equity stake in westinghouse which is a u.s. company that works in the civilian nuclear field. >> when you have a sensitive industry like westinghouse involved in the nuclear industry that requires review by the u.s. government. >> potential investors came to america to see the man who could make things happen. >> frank justa arranged for officials to go to bill clinton's house in chapel choir. when i first contacted the clintons foundation they denied any such meeting ever took place. and when we told them we have already talked to the head who told us all about the meeting but actually has a picture of
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him and bill at the home, that he proudly displays on his office wall. they then acknowledge the meeting had taken place. >> what happened to the company that benefited from that deal in cash extent? after a merger it became a uranium giant called uranium 1, and then the russians bought it. iranian 1 became very active in acquiring iranian assets in the united states itself by 2008-2009 they were particularly attractive target for the russian government. >> the russians a quiet that target. >> they acquired what amounted to 50% of projected uranium output by 2015. >> in other words russia now controls what was projected to be up to half of america's uranium. hour calls to uranium 1 were not
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returned. >> secretary clinton factor into this? for that deal to go through it needs federal government approval and one of those people it has to approve that deal is secretary of state hillary clinton. >> who as senator clinton was vigorously opposed to these kinds of buys from companies -- countries into the u.s.. >> that is a great point. the dubai ports deal -- >> we believe no foreign governments -- >> in this case we are talking about uranium. we are talking about things that relate to the nuclear industry, the russian government which already provides equipment, material to iran. >> the problem is hillary clinton's family foundation the clinton foundation was receiving tens of millions of dollars from shareholders in uranium 1 who wanted the russian government to acquire them because it would be a financial landfall. >> what this amounts to in this
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end is a russian company essentially controlled by vladimir putin will now be in charge of a substantial portion of the american uranium. russia sends uranium to its client's state iran. so american uranium could well be sent to the very nation we are negotiating with to try to slow its ability to develop a nuclear weapon. we see how far reaching the effect can be. >> the key part to all of this is the specific donations from the uranium company and its officers to the clinton foundation were not disclosed which flies in the face of the deal the clintons rep with the obama administration when clinton became secretary of state. is worth putting out today according to reuters the clinton foundation is refiling five annual tax returns after, quote, errors in how they reported
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donations from government and other areas. we ask the clinton campaign and clinton surrogates for response to this and other stories will lay out in this hour. they have not responded that they put out this statement after a long n.y. times piece about has extend. the spokesman for mrs. clinton's presidential campaign said no one has ever produced a shred of evidence supporting the theory that hillary clinton never took action as secretary of state to support the interests of donors to the clinton foundation. he emphasized multiple united states agencies and canadian government had signed off on the deal and that in general such matters were handled all level below the secretary, quote to suggest the state department undersecretary clinton exerted undue influence in the government's review of the sale of uranium one is under the basis. that is the release they gave them. we have many many more stories, not just this has extent story
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of clinton speeches, multimillion-dollar donations to the clinton foundation in this hour. this really literally is the tip of the iceberg. as you can see you have to follow it but once you get very raises a lot of questions. >> it certainly does. it can't fit on a bumper sticker. one thing you just raised which is going to become more prominent in this story is the white house reaction to this. when she was appointed secretary of state they had concerns about the clinton global foundation and the clinton global initiative. and all their interactions with foreign governments so they asked them to abide by stipulations in terms of reporting on all of these relationships and appears as you said they didn't always do that. any response from the white house on this? >> not yet. we expect there to be fallout and a lot of questions about this. they struck this deal at the beginning when mrs. clinton became secretary clinton. they would disclose the
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donations from foreign governments and foreign businesses and get a first view of the speeches president clinton was going to deliver around the world. that by all reporting just fell apart in the early days. these specific donations from this company uranium 1 were not listed. it raises a lot of questions, also on policy on this specific story kazakhstan has a horrible human rights record and the president, former president clinton was standing next to, wanted to be the head of by human-rights commission this global commission. secretary clinton and policy was supposed to it as senator and then she was silent after this deal went through. is there a quid pro quo there? do you get there? the clinton campaign says no as
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you lay out the bullet points it is worth raising a question. >> people have to read these stories and make these connections. >> clintons could prove all this and do it by an e-mail trail land how can you characterize the history for the e-mails, the server we have been told we will not see, does that fit into your recording at this point? >> it does because listen. there are many questions that potentially could be answered by e-mails that were on that server but we don't know because we have been told the server has been erased. how many of those thousands of e-mails that were wiped clean had to do with the clinton foundation she had how many had to do with speeches or arranging logistics with any of this, we don't know at this point and that is the specter that hangs in the background of all the clinton foundation story. hillary clinton's chief of staff cheryl mills was director of the clinton foundation and there was
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a lot of intertwining, and we don't know what we don't know. >> at 10:00 eastern time we let viewers know, the tagline for the special, they sellout and the viewers can decide on that question. thank you. we are watching two significant stories one about the clintons. ed henry will tell us what the campaign is saying about this. and american drone killed two innocent hostages held by al qaeda. more on both stories on america's newsroom.
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we do not yet fully understand all of the facts surrounding warren's death but we do understand that the u.s. government will be conducting an independent investigation of the circumstances. we look forward to the results of that investigation. those who took warren captive over three years ago bear the ultimate responsibility. >> tough story for that family today. new details in the scandal rocking the clinton campaign. our own reporters at fox news analyzing claims from a book called clinton cash about foreign money flowing into the clinton foundation and to bill clinton specifically and the deal with russia that then secretary of state hillary clinton signed off on. it henry here live in studio with all of this and good morning. it is called the tangled clinton will. you see it in prime time at 10:00 eastern time. brett just explain how there are three different entities in the federal government that have to
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approve deals like these. secretary clinton in her role as secretary of state is one of them. >> in the treasury department and other key departments agencies but the key that i think greta underline is we don't know that any live -- any laws were broken but were ethics rules listed? were problems created by a memorandum of understanding, late 2008, early 2009, this is one of the things john podesta, current campaign chairman worked on. lawyers for the clinton side and lawyers for the obama side sat down during the transition and said this is a big deal. she is secretary of state bill clinton has been called president of the world and global ambassador by various people he's raising money and giving speeches, we need rules of the roads the they created a memorandum of understanding. the administration having a heads of who he was speaking to. it certainly looks from the
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outside that there wasn't anything, i want to stress so many laws were broken we don't know that. peter schweitzer has said he could not connect the dots but he is raising a lot of serious questions please connect some dogs. why can't he connect the rest of the dots? maybe there is no there there or may be as you talking about a moment ago with martha, maybe there were some e-mails we haven't seen yet that could tell us more of this picture but bottom line to me is the administration, the white house itself at the beginning of her tenure as secretary of state knew this could be a minefield and set of rules of the road. doesn't look like that. >> it is really unique to former presidents as a member of the cabinet. you have been on the road for a week now chasing the then someone unsuccessfully. now back here in new york this change did it change your schedule and all? >> advisor is told me they were planning an april 4th while. number 2, if it change it and they moved it to april it seemed like an odd move because you do
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what they are calling a soft launch go to iowa new hampshire, reintroduce herself and when the book comes out stops your momentum seems like a bad idea. more for my own reporting based on talking to people behind the scenes they believe this would be a speed bump they were going to get hacks. they believe when they launch that this would be part of what hillary clinton said a couple days ago. distraction i am focused on voters of new hampshire. it worked for her husband many times. will it work for her this time? >> is that how they tick your hand or have they suggested otherwise? >> absolutely, look at the memo we spoke about yesterday, three page memo from the campaign spokesman brett talked about a moment ago worked for the attorney general, went through a lot of fires that basically that memo mostly went after the author, shot the messenger, didn't add to the card charges. that is their playbook. >> good to have you in sydney a.
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bret baier acres hour and hour-long special, fox reporting the tangled clinton web friday night at 10:00 eastern, sunday night at 10:00 eastern you can see it saturday at 5:00 in the afternoon right here only on fox news channel. thanks. >> when we come back more on the breaking news of two hostages killed in a u.s. counterterrorism operation. chuck nash will join us live.
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a worker geo bonnie gee of money --giovanni dlo porto. they expect investigation in his debt but they ultimately blame his captors. let's bring in captain jack nash. good to have you with us. the reports are all those this was successful to the extent that it took out two al qaeda terrorists obviously it was tragic in the loss of these two hostages but it appears we did know who was in either of these locations when we hit them. >> the real tragedy is the unintended consequences, collateral damage is what it is referred to human life is lost. the real issue as it is always is not how you kill the target. we have 1,000 ways to destroy targets. the most important thing is your understanding of the target, finding the target in the first
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place and then making sure you have the conditions present that fit the rules of engagement and as the president said they do not intentionally launch weapons into areas where we know there are civilians so this was -- i hate to say failure of intelligence because it is almost they're trying to know the unknown. this was in the travel areas in pakistan. is extremely remote. we have very little on the ground intelligence, we are relying mostly on overhead sensors, satellites or drones or reconnaissance sensors, so because of that it is very difficult in of modeled situation like that to make sure that it is a pure straight up kill with just bad guys. it is too complicated. >> from a senior defense officials saying the strike was not ordered specifically by president obama and it was part of quote, normal policy. how do you read that?
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>> what i read in that is this was the central command operation or a cia operation, it was operating under previous guidance. they had rules of engagement that had been blessed of the chain of command and the rest simply executing those missions as per their previous guidance. this was in other words the president did not get a specific briefing. here is the deal, going after usama bin laden, wasn't that. >> great to have you. >> will accusations in a new book crockery clinton's presidential campaign? a flood of foreign cash flowing into the clinton foundation while she was secretary of state, her husband making enormous money as well. we will go through that at the top of the hour.
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we'll see bret's special on that tomorrow night yeah. bill: and the news continues with "happening now." our colleagues, jon and jenna, take it now. we'll see you tomorrow. jenna: and we start off with a fox news alert. the white house announcing a counterterror operation on the afghanistan/pakistan border accidentally killed two innocent hostages in january, an american and an italian, both aid workers held by al-qaeda. good morning, everybody i'm jenna lee. jon: lots of details to get to and still some questions about this strike. jenna: absolutely. jon: president obama expressing sorrow and offering condolences to the families of the two men. american doctor warren weinstein and giovanni lo porto an italian aid worker. also killed in a separate strike was adam gadahn, the american who became a prominent media adviser for al-qaeda and had been on a target list for a decade or more. peter doocy
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