>> brown: chinese hackers reportedly gained access to classified designs of some of the u.s. military's most important weapons systems. good evening. i'm jeffrey brown. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. on the newshour tonight, we examine china's hacking capabilities and what the breach means for u.s. security. >> brown: then, as president obama tours new jersey's shore for an update on recovery from hurricane say, judy woodruff explores the progress that's been made and what still needs to be done. >> ifill: miles o'brien visits the nation's most active explosives testing facility,

home to the forensics team examining the inner workings of the bombs used at the boston marathon. >> even though off detonation, all of the pieces are still there. with enough time and enough diligence you could actually probably put the entire pressure cooker back together. >> brown: we take a closer look at the interstate 5 bridge collapse in washington state and what it says about problems plagug the nation's irastructure. >> ifill: and margaret warner talks to richard haas about why he believes american foreign policy should start at home. >> brown: that's all ahead on tonight's newshour. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> more than two years ago, the people of b.p. made a commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so we can all produce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to amica. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else.

we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> i want to make things more secure. >> i want to treat more dogs. >> our business needs more cases. >> where do you want to take your business? >> i need help selling art. >> from broadband, to web hosting, to mobile apps, small business solutions from a.t.&t. can help get you there. we can show you how a.t.&t. solutions can help your business today. >> bnsf. >> and by the alfred p. sloan foundation. supporting science, technology, and improved economic performance and financial literacy in the 21st century. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and...

this program was ma possle bthe corporation r public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: there was a new report today of cyber-spying by the chinese, this time aimed at u.s. military and defense systems. according to the "washington post," designs for more than two dozen u.s. weapon systems have been hacked and compromised. the "post" cited a confidential report by a pentagon advisory panel called the defense science board. among the designs said to have been breached: an advanced patriot missile system; the f-a 18 fighter jet; and the f-35 joint strike fighter, considered the most expensive weapons system ever built. in a written statement today, a pentagon spokesman said the defense department "takes cyber

espionage very seriously" but that "suggestions that cyber intrusions have somehow led to the erosion of our capabilities or technological edge are incorrect." warnings about the cyber threat from china to both the military and private businesses have grown in recent months. in march, national security advisor thomas donilon told an audience that the attacks had to stop. >> increasingly, u.s. businesses are speaking out about their serious concerns about sophisticated, targeted theft of confidential business information and proprietary technologies through cyber intrusions emanating from china at a very large scale. the international community cannot afford to tolerate such activity from any country. >> brown: in february, cyber security firm mandiant issued a report saying that this building in shanghai houses one of the chinese military's most active hacking groups. and earlier this month, a pentagon report said that u.s. government computers were

targets of break-ins that could be "attributable directly to the chinese government and military." for more on all of this, we turn to: dmitri alperovitch, co- founder and c.e.o. of crowdstrike, a cyber-security company; and james lewis is director and senior fellow of the technologynd public policy program athe center for strategic and international studies here in washington. dmitri alperovitch, starting with you. what do we mean by "design systems"? what exactly is being stolen? >> well, it's everything under the sun that's not bolted down. it's the blueprints for these weapons systems, these advanced weapons system the chinese can use to recreate and match our capabilities. it's also providing them with the ability to identify weaknesses in this city, vulnerabilitys that they can leverage so they cannot just master capabilities but exceed them andefe us on the battlefield. >> brown: james lewis, is it possible to know how much damage or impact this has had that the point? >> no, we can't really tell.

we know that some chinese weapon systems appear to be based on stolen u.s. technology like their stealth fighter. in other cases where they've gotten into the intricate software that controls weapons, hopefully we caught all the damage, but you can never be sure. >> brown: and just to stay with you. so to what end -- why would they be doing it? what purposes would -- wh use uldhey putit to? >> you know, if you look at the systems that were compromised, it maps pretty well with chinese strategic military interest. they read the pentagon report that said that that if there's a war with china it will be an air/sea battle so they went after air systems, missile defense, air defense, naval systems. what they're doing is looking for that military edge both by improving their own weapons and, more importantly, knowing how to beat ours. >> brown: what would you at to that, rich? >> i think that's absolutely right. it shouldn't be a surprise to anyone to the nws overhe last five or six years, everything under the sun has been taken by

the chinese, not just for military contractors but for private companies that are manufacturing commercial technologies and now we're seeing the results of. that it's striking to see the full list. >> brown: that's what i was wondering. we hear about this a lot but when you see this list of these weapons systems, that's surprising, isn't it? >> absolutely. and it makes you wonder if there's anything left they don't have because it's a pretty cohe list of every cutting-edge weapon system we've built over the last decade or s÷

technical difficulties for example, stealth fighter technology was probably taken in 2002 and it was six or seven years later before they could field a fighter. so they don't have the capability to absorb all this. they're improving rapidly. a lot of this is their own indigenous investment but they've got a lot of information that they don't yet know how to take advantage of. >> brown: does that sound right

to you? >> absolutely. but the other point that you need to be concerned about is that it's not just that they're taking it and duplicating it, it's what waknesses they're finding that they can us to defeat those weapons systems. they may not need to build a b-2 2 osprey but when they face one they may know how to beat it. >> brown: where are the vulnerabilities in our system? i mean, in terms of the ability for the cyber spying to get these designs. is it at the defense contract level? is it at the -- in the department itself? is it everywhere? >> it's really throughout. the reality of cyberspace is such that offense will always be dominant. when someone wants something bad enough, they'll always be able to get it, whether they do it through traditional cyber espionage or -- throgh traditional spying or cyber espionage. there hasn't been a network connected to the internet that hasn't been infiltrated if that network has something of value. >> brown: jim lewis, what's your answer to that? >> it's interesting to see how the far getting has changed because d.o.d. suffered significant losses, we can tell.

they made a move to harden their networks, make them harder targets. so whoever was spying on them, the chinese, then switched to the prime contractors, the big defense contractors. d.o.d. then worked with the contractors, got them harden their networks and the cnese switcd to the subcontractors and now d.o.d. is working with the subcontractors. it looks like the chinese are switching to some of our foreign partners. so they're determined, they're inventive and every place we close up a hole they find a new one. i'm not sure dimitri and i see eye to eye. i think you can make it harder for them to succeed but we haven't done that good a job. >> brown: well, that's of course in our last couple minutes here. what should happen? let me start with you dmitri alperovitch. what can the u.s. do government wise, military wise, but also company wise? >> weeed policy, anatnal policy, for dealing with this problem, both the national security espionage that's taking place and more importantly the economic espionage taking place for the last six or seven years. that policy needs to involve

full tilt of national power. economic power, diplomatic power. we need to pressure the chinese and let them know there will be real costs to our relationship, to our trade partnership with china as a result of this activity. and we need to involve the private sector. right now the private sector is playing the role of the victim. they're told by the government "go sit in the corner and report when you're attacked." the private sectoreeds to me it morediffultnd wigh the costs and risks to the adversaries infiltrating our networks. >> brown: jim lewis, what's your position? >> two thing. we need to harden our defenses. the executive order president obama put out in february does some work to do that, but we need congress to step up to the plate and pass legislation. the second thing we need to do is we need to engage with the chinese. that's where we need comprehensive diplomatic strategy. work with allies. find panel tease. the chinese will probably yield to our pressure but it's going to take years get to that tcome. we justtarte it's a long road but i think we can make this work.

>> brown: all right, james lewis dmitri alperovitch, thank you both very much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> ifill: still to come on the newshour: touring the new jersey shoreline; testing pressure cooker bombs; fixing crumbling bridges and roads; and putting america's house in order. but first, with the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: it may be the biggest money-laundering scheme in u.s. history. the founder of an online currency transfer business, liberty reserve, was accused today of laundering $6 billion worldwide. a federal indictment unsealed in new yornamed arthur budovsky and six others. he has been arrested in spain. the web site is based in costa rica. federal prosecutors said the network became "the bank of choice for the criminal underworld." outgunned rebels in syria today urged the european union to send them weapons immediately now that an e.u. arms embargo has ended, but it was unclear when shipments might begin. we have a report from john ray of independent television news. >> reporter: arming syria's rebels is a gamble.

it might even the battlefield odds, it could also ignite an explosive arms race. just one of the risks britain and france run in forcing the e.u. to abandon its ban on shipping weapons to syria in the hope it will force the syrian regime to the negotiating table. >> the whole of the european union is strongly committed to a political settlement in syria, so, yes, of course, on such a difficult foreign policy issue there are disagreements. >> reporter: and danger is becoming ever more apparent. president assad's russian allies responded by announcing they would supply advanced air defense missiles to damascus to deter what they called "hotheads" from intervening. and that, says neighboring israel, is a threat to its security as it warned against an arms escalation. >> we are very concerned, and we don't understand.

we think that this behavior of supplying such arms to damascus to assad at this crucial time of terrible civil war, we tnk that this is totallyrong >> reporter: it's not yet clear when britain might begin to supply guns, nor what limits it is placing on the size of the armaments, nor how weapons will be kept from the hands of hardline islamist fighters now dominating the opposition. in recent days, the syrian civil war has spilled over its border with deadly clashes in lebanon and missile and mortar rounds landing in israel. a peace conference scheduled for next month carries a great deal of hope but much less expectation. > srnivasan: mnwhi, u. secretary of state john kerry met with his russian counterpart in paris to work on preparations for that upcoming peace conference. the syrian government has agreed in principle to attend. the opposition has not yet committed. at least 19 more iraqis died today as a wave of sectarian

killing rocked the country again. bombing and shooting attacks struck from baghdad north to mosul. they came a day after car bombings killed more than 70 people in shiite areas of baghdad. prime minister nouri al-maliki warned today his government will hunt down the attackers, sunni and shiite alike. >> ( translated ): president cabinet has seriously discussed today all of the challenges facing the security situation and the steps that the council of ministers should adopt to confront the current crisis. they have all agreed to shoulder the responsibility to face outlaws regardless of their affiliation's doctrine and their political parties. >> sreenivasan: in all, more than 450 iraqis have died in the spike of violence this month. gunmen in pakistan shot and killed a woman working to vaccinate people against polio today. that led the world health organization to suspend its polio drive in the area. a second polio worker was seriously wounded in the attack in a village on the outskirts of peshawar in northwestern pakistan. there was no claim of

responsibility, but taliban militants have accused polio workers of spying for the u.s. a c.s.x. cargo train derailed outside baltimore, maryland, this afternoon and touched off a thunderous explosion. the blast shook buildings half a mile away, sparked fires and sent up a heavy plume of smoke. residents reported a strong smell of chemicals, and fire officials urged people within a 20-block radius to leave. there wano immediate report of later the fire chief said the smoke and fumes were not toxic. there was no word on the cause of the wreck n.. in economic news, two private reports painted a brighter picture of the recovery. one found home prices in march jumped by the most since 2006. the other reported consumer confidence is the highest since early 2008. wall street rallied on the news. the dow jones industrial average gained 106 points to close at 15,409; the nasdaq rose more than 29 points to close near 3,489. those are some of the day's major stories. now, back to gwen. >> ifill: our next story takes us to the jersey shore.

that's where the president headed today to take a look at its recovery in the aftermath of last fall's superstorm. today's visit was a less somber occasion than his last new jersey tour. judy woodruff has the story. ( cheers and applause ) >> woodruff: rain and gray skies didn't stop president obama and governor chris christie from taking in the newly rebuilt point pleasant boardwalk, and, in nearby asbury park, the president praised the recovery efforts. >> you are stronger than the storm. after all you've dealt with, after all you've been through, the jersey shore is back, and it is open for business. and they want all americans to know that they are ready to welcome you here. >> woodruff: the visit came seven months after hurricane sandy battered the garden state and caused $38 billion in overall damage. now, governor christie is busy touting the state's comeback, part of a $25 million marketing

campaign aimed at enticing tourists to return for the summer. but as he told new jersey public television on friday, there is unfinished business, as well. >> i'll go to bed tonight feeling really good about the fact that all these boardwalks are done, the businesses are open and people can come to the shore and bring their families. but also feel for those people, that 10% or so of people who are still affected. >> woodruff: the president shared that sentiment today just 48 hours after he visited the tornado zone in moore, oklahoma. >> part of the reason i wanted to come back here was not just to send a message to new jersey but send a message folks in oklahoma. when we make a commitment that we've got your back, we mean it. and we're not going to finish until the work is done. >> woodruff: the october disaster initially brought republican governor and democratic president together as christie welcomed the assistance. >> he is determined to work with us to make sure we rebuild the

things that we need to rebuild, and i am grateful for his partnership. >> woodruff: the praise drew fire from other republicans, who said it helped the president's reelection. but today, the governor insisted again that the state's recovery was a bipartisan endeavor. >> everybody came together. republicans, democrats, independents, we all came together because new jersey is more important and our citizens' lives are more important than any kind of politics at all. >> woodruff: the state still faces a long period of rebuilding all that was lost, including some 360,000 homes and apartments damaged in the storm. we get more abouthe stat of e revery in t garntate and the problems that remain. mike schneider is the managing editor and host of "new jersey today" on new jersey public television. welcome to the newshour. so governor christie is saying the new jersey is come back,

he's encouraging tourists to hit the beach this is summer. has it come back? >> in many ways it has. if you go down to the shore as i did a couple of days ago and interview the governor there in point pleasant, exactly where he was today with the president, you get the sense that an awful lot of damage that has been done has been repaired. the beaches look quite similar to the way they did last summer in some places. the board walk has been repaired. the shops are open once again. the activities are there and, in fact, the crowds as of friday when the weekend began, the memorial day weekend began, were there, they were there in good numbers, they were enthusiastic and there was a general sense that we got through something really bad, here we are, we're about to begin the summer and all is well. that's not the case up and down the shore entirely. there are places where the damage is still profound and long-lasting. but for much of the state, as the goverr is pone to say, for maybe 80% to 90% of the people in the state life is certainly back to normal. >> woodruff: so, mike, who are the 10% to 20% who are still

waiting? >> a lot of those are the people that you see in these horribly damaged homes in places that really bore the brunt of this storm. places that are waiting, now, for the determination of insurance companies or fema, flood maps to be finalized, things like that. to make a decision as to whether they have the money and the resources and perhaps the temperament to want to rebuild and go back where they were eth the want to take their money, cash out, and go someplace else. those people in cases are still waiting in rental units, being helped alongy sheltering funds and what have what have you. those are the people waiting and wondering and there's no clear indication just yet when their stories will turn. >> woodruff: overall, mike, is the governor, are the people of new jersey pleased with the role the federal government has played in all this? >> by and large yes because you've got to remember, the governor went to bat to try to help the president get that money through congress,hose bilons doars thatere so

crucial to rebuilding new jersey's infrastructure. and there's a sense here that the president delivered on his promises and the governor has made an aggressive and determined effort to make sure the money is well spent and goes to the places it needs to go to as quickly as possible. there are some places, though, where there's still questions about where the money is, when the money will get to them. some people are very unhappy about the situation with fema and the flood maps because a number of these places up and down the shore, many, many homes were told that they're going to have to elevate ten feet or pay what could be prohibitive flood insurancrates in thefutu. sohos kin of questions still loom out there. but that notwithstanding, most of the people seem fairly enthusiastic and fairly -- i mean, if you look at the girn's popularity in the polls right now you'd have to say they're happy with the job he's done in regards to this crisis. >> woodruff: and the insurance companies, you mentioned, it's mixed it sounds like what you're saying. >> well, what you have is you have most of the insurance companies right now say they've closed out -- the vast majority of the claims that were filed with them.

in some cases we're hearing 98% of the claims have been closed. but in some itanc, tha's a procedural situation. where the claims have been closed without payments going out because for some people in order to get the money that their policies themselves would not cover they have to go to fema. but before they can get the funding from fema or some alternative source from the federal government, they have to have their insurance companies say, no, you're not entitled to it, we can't help you. the case is closed and they move on to the next step. >> woodruff: mike, there was a lot of attention paid to the politics of the president's visit to new jersey last fall right after sandy. thfact that governor cistie was effusive and praising him and thanking him. today first time the president goes back, was there something more behind today's viz it? what do you know about that? >> well, i mean, you know as well as i that there's always a little bit of -- in the old days when presidents had problems at home they would go overseas. maybe new jersey in a way is the

closest thing president obama can get right knew. the governor himself, of course, is running for reelection. he's way ahead in the polls, he's way ahead in fund-raising but they seem to have carved out a comfortable working relationship. the vernor, a republan gornorn a heily democratic state and a president who may have some issues at the white house right now coming back here where he can say "i felt your a look and see what our taxet'a dollars have gotten." there could be something to that as well. but for the people here in new jersey to see the two of them back together again, the governor's not wearing his fleece so the disaster apparently is over and the president had a broad smile on his face. the people, in regards to this visit, seem to think it's a sign that we have come back. the so t shore is ready and that moter nachber will cooperate anwe get good weather that all will be well. >> woodruff: well, i know a lot of people are glad to see new jersey back so quickly after that terrible storm. mike schneider, thank you very much. >> thank you, judy.

>> brown: now, how investigators are breaking down the inner workings of a bomb. that particular kind of forensics work often happens out of the spotlight, but the boston bombings and the devth used brought it back to public attention. newshour science correspondent miles o'brien has been looking into that for the newshour and as part of a special report on tonight's "nova" about the role technology played in the manhunt. here's his story for the newshour. we all watched the chaos of the boston marathon bombings with or or but in new mexico the raw emotion was mixed with scientific insight. >> it's really almost schizophrenic, i think, from my standpoint is, part of my brain is going into analysis mode-- what that light smoke... what does that mean? i started looking for broken windows. where is the pattern of broken windows from the video that i saw? because that tells me where the pressure ra and how big the pressure rate was. is there a crater? so, all that analytical stuff is going through the brain.

>> reporter: van romero is the vice of research at new mexico institute of mining and technology, which operates the energetic materials research and testing center, the most active explosives testing facility in the u.s. every workday, at least two or name a terror bombing-- the marine barracks in beirut, khobar towers, oklahoma city, the first attack on the world trade center, the london tnsit bombings-- in each case, investigators have come here to test their notions of what happened to build a court case and find new ways to defend against future attacks. >> when you look at the scene of a terrorist bomb, it's just a mess. people have to go in and collect some very important and some very minute evidence that they make a big case out of, making sure that that evidence is accurate tohe scenario that we sumed happened.

that's the important role that we play is, how do we put the pieces of the puzzle together so that we know they fit? >> reporter: every workday, at least two or three explosions echo across 40 square miles of barren desert canyons here. it began as and remains a favorite place for weapons makers to measure the menace of missiles and ordnance. >> these are the basic ingredients for a pressure cooker device. this is a pressure cooker that you would have in your home, and the easy the pressure cooker works is, it creates a seal. the pressure will build up on your stove, and there is a vent here that releases all that pressure so that is doesn't

build up too much pressure in your kitchen. if we put energetic materials in here that create a lot of heat and a lot of gas very quickly, the pressure will build up so fast that the cooker can't contain it, and it will burst open. it will explode, throwing shrapnel all over into the environment. >> reporter: the boston bombers used nails and b.b.s. here, they use nuts because they are less hazardous and just as useful for an experiment. >> these fragments will be going 1,000 feet, 2,000 feet a second, so their shape really doesn't matter. anything going that fast is going to penetrate into just about anything it hits. >> reporter: lighting gunpowder in this dish on a lab bench is not a problem, but tightly packed in a sealed container, it is another matter. they did not show us how to trigger the bomb, and even if they did, we wouldn't share those kind of details. suffice to say a simple how-to

is not hard to find for someone who is determined. but could an untrained amateur stage such an attack without any hands on training? >> the fact that they were two for two kind of indicates to me that it was a little bit more than luck. and the fact that they were so close together, ten seconds, ten to 15 seconds away is essentially simultaneous. and if you think about it, two different people planning two different bombs that went off at almost exactly the same time, to me, it indicates some level of sophistication. >> reporter: pressure cooker bombs are new to the u.s. but are a familiar instrument of terror globally. in 2006, islamic terrorists set off seven of them in 11 minutes on crowded commuter trains in mumbai, india, killing more than 200, injuring 700 others. when our bomb was ready, the warning siren sounded and we retreated to a bunker high above the site, 2,000 feet away.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1. ( explosion ) when the smoke cleared and the site was declared safe, we went back for a look. >> as soon as we walk up, one of the things we'll notice are some of the nuts. therefore, you're going to be careful. they may be warm. this one has cooled down here's the lid from the pressure cooker. >> this is going to be a really important piece of forensic evidence because this obviously was something that wouldn't be in the environment, in a street city. so, you find this, and you go, okay, this was part of the device. and now that i know that part of the device, i can analyze this metal and figure out what the brand, the model, the make of the pressure cooker, where the metal was forged, where this thing was manufactured. and then, as i collect other

fragments, i want to make sure that they match the origin of this piece here. >> reporter: in boston, investigators found one pressure cooker lid on roof of a six- story building nearby. they walked shoulder to shoulder picking up every fragment they could find. and so it went here, as well. >> i'll dump some of these out so that we can take a look. so these would be traveling. these are things that would be traveling how far? >> those could be going up to 1500 feet or so. >> reporter: in the lab, engineer and associate director mike stanley sifted through the fragments. >> even though you have a detonation, all of the pieces are still there; they've just been separated. so, with enough time and enough diligence, you could actually

probably put the entire pressure cooker back together. >> okay. we'll just play this here. >> reporter: explosions here at new mexico tech are all captured with high definition, high speed cameras at 6,200 frames a second, allowing the experts to see how a bomb explodes in super slow motion, minute detail. >> one of the fragments, what appears to be part of the side wall, the pressure cooker, let's run it just a little bit. youcan see there this seems to be the bottom so in that is the bottom of the pressure cooker we found that 100 yards away. right here. that's one that we measured the velocity of 270 per second. you never stop really trying to understand what's going at the scene. just because you identify one molecule or piece of the certain type of device doesn't mean that there wasn't other things that occurred at the same time.

and you have to make sure you've peeled back all the skin of the onion to understand what's going on. >> reporter: authorities probing the boston bombings have already reached out to these experts. chances are they will once again be asked to help solve a troubling puzzle. >> brown: in his next story, miles examines the facial recognition software that allowed investigators to match high resolution images to the faces of the boston bombers. and he continues his reporting on tonight's edition of "nova." it examines the role modern technology played, allowing detectives to unravel millions of clues. is pa of ova' niht o special reports, which also includes a look at oklahoma's deadly tornadoes. "nova" airs tonight on most pbs stations, and you can find a link to their web site on ours. >> ifill: the recent collapse of a vital but aging bridge in the

pacific northwest is raising some big questions about just how safe other bridges and structures are in this day and age. vehicles plunged into the water, beams collapsed and three people were injured last week when this bridge over washington state's skagit river suddenly gave way. >> you can see that the concrete section of that dropped span has slid off of its girders like icing sliding off of a cake. >> ifill: the collapse of a 160- foot chunk of the bridge made for spectacular pictures that refocused the nation's attention on the state of its transportation infrastructure. the national transportation safety board, chaired by debbie hersman, is investigating the failure which occurred after a portion of the span was hit by a truck. >> at the end of the day, why we are here is to figure out what

happened and how and to issue recommendations to prevent it from happening again. >> ifill: the government's national bridge inventory had rated the skagit river bridge as "functionally obsolete," outdated but not necessarily unsafe. hundreds of similar bridges dot the national landscape. in 2007, the i-35 bridge that carried traffic over the mississippi river between minneapolis and st. paul also collapsed suddenly, killing 13 people and injuring 145. it had been classified "structurally deficient." by last year, nearly a quarter of the nation's 607,000 bridges were classified as "structurally deficient" or "functionally obsolete." the federal highway administration reports that figure has actually dropped by more than 16,000 since 2005, but the obama administration has repeatedly pressed congress to increase spending on bridges and roads. in march, the president visited

the port of miami. >> we still got too many roads that are in disrepair, too many bridges that aren't safe. we don't have to accept that for america. we can do better. we can build better. >> ifill: but republicans, led by house speaker john boehner, have resisted spending more unless it's paid for. >> it's easy to go out there and be santa claus and talk about all these things you want to give away, but, at some point, somebody's got to pay the bill. >> ifill: federal officia estimate it would take about $20 billion a year to address all of the nation's bridge problems over each of 15 years. that's about $8 billion more than federal, state and local governments spend now. we take up some of the questions raised by all this now with two people who watch this field. casey dinges is the senior managing director of the american society of civil engineers. and dan mcnichol is an author and infrastructure analyst. he's spent the past year writing the history of the newly rebuilt san francisco bay bridge.

welcome to you both. how serious, casey din jess, are these deficiencys? >> well, looking at the broader infrastructure, a report card was released of the nation's infrastructure this year and it got an overall grade of d+ which is a marginal improvement from the letter grade d we issued in 2009. as president obama indicated the port of miami recently not a great grade. there's a lot of work to be done. in the case of bridge it is grade went up since 2009 there's been reduction of structurally deficient bridges in the country. we still have 65,000 bridges in this country and 85,000 functionally obsolete bridges. >> ifill: fracture critical is one, structurally deficient and functionally obsolete. it all sounds bad to me.

what's the difference. >> it can be very bad. the functionally obsolete means if it were rebuilt today they would notebuild it like they did when they first t it. it's out of state. it's historically just not -- structurally deefficient a whole other category. it tends to be more serious. if the bridge is in disrepair, if it's going to fall or collapse or anywhere near it it's going to have a structurally deficient category. lastly if you think about fracture critical any bridge that has a minimal design where if one piece fails it all fails, that's fracture critical. >> woodruff:. >> ifill: that's what we saw haen in washingn stte. >> if i could add one thing to what dan said about fracture critical. it's not every piece on a fracture critical bridge, it's certain elements of that bridge that are critical and if they fail there's risk of "greater boston"er fill your of the structure. so the bridge was fracture critical, it was also functionally obsolete we we're

interested in this n.t.s.b. operation and i harken back to the minneapolis bridge in 2007. in the first few days and weeks after that collapsed it ended up bei gused ates that are pieces of metal that help connect together different beams and girders on the bridge and it was design flaw in one of those plates that brought that bridge down. >> ifill: in the early day, dan mcnicole, we heard the governor of the state of washington say "if a truck hadn't hit this bridge, that's what caused the problem." we look at these weaknesses, are we talking about accidents? maintenance. that's been deferd? are we just talking about ag >> all of the above.

the highways are our king, our -- the top of the food chain whits t tpoon and logistics. if we've neglected in a short time, in sven years we've seen two major bridge collapses that indicate that we have neglected our system as a whole and the chief system of transportation and supply chains has been neglected. there's great concern that the lesser bridges have been neglected even more so. >> ifill: can these structures be shored up or do they need to be replaced? >> engineers make that cause and advise their d.o.t.s on that. in some cases just greater maintenance some cases rehabilitation, some cases

replacement. the tappan zee bridge, a major structure in new york, is going to be replaced. the public needs to be engaged on this. congress over the next 12 months we'll have to look at a reauthorization of the federal transportation programs. they have to look at funding issues, that's -- you know, that center stage right now and the highway trust fund which is where users fees are collected in this country to pay for our federal programs, that trust fund will go bankrupt by the end of next year. >> ifill: you pay attention to this these issues and public attention not focused on them. have you detected there is a will in local government, federal government, or even among individuals to do what it takes? a very costly project. >> that's right. bridges are celebrated in this country. the golden gate bridge, the bay bridge, the george washington bridge, we love our structures, we love our bridges. but there's been serious neglect and decay and will. the political will. but i feel when we're now at a point where we're starting to see people become educated,

politicians don't lead, the public leads and when they demand better bridges and better maintenance and a different culture and maintaining our vital structures, then we'll see change. and i believe we've begun to see that change, which is very exciting. the. >> ifill: is that change likely to come, casey din jess, from the private sector more than the public sector? >> there's a lot of discussion about the private sector investing more there n infrastructure. you've seen that in other parts of the world, europe and asia. public/private partnerships are more common and to add what-to--twhat dan st sid, the state and local governments are stepping up more. recently the state of virginia made a big move on transportation after 30 years of doing nothing. maryland has done something. even the state of washington is looking at a ten-cent increase in its gas taxes right now to handle structurally deficient bridges. the state of wyoming passed a gas tax increase this year. so the states are starting to step up on this. >> ifill: how about polls? is that another solution?

literally it comes out of our pockets even time we use the roads or bridges? >> you hear politiciansen both sides of the aisle say "we need increase our spending." and that money has got to come from somewhere. people have drawn a line in the sand about not raising the federal gas taxes. maybe some states will continue to raise their taxes but that means tolling. that means private money. that means public money but it means certainly tolling. i just drove across the united states over the memorial day weekend. literally from san francisco to boston and i was only tolled in chicago, indiana, and ohio. that says something. we're really on a free ride that's coming to a quick end, i belve. >> ifill:s we look a these kinds of accidents or episodes which we saw in washington state and five years ago -- six years ago i guess now in minnesota, how long do these investigations take and how important are they for deciding what happens next? >> they take, i will say, maybe up to 12 months. although the n.t.s.b. is very good at educating the public as

it goes along. in the case of the minnesota bridge it let on that it was focusing on the gusset plate and possible design issue early on in the nvpgs. in terms of are a replacement bridge think governor o washington says he hopes to have something in place by the middle of june in the case of a temporary replacement bridge. a permanent replacement bridge, in the case of minnesota it took just over a year to do that. >> woodruff: so maybe it won't take as long as it took you to drive across the country dan mcnichole? >> (laughs) it shouldn't. it took 13 months on an accelerated schedule to build the new minnesota bridge and it became a beautiful bridge, an icon. often engineering is about learning from failures and this could be another case in point. >> ifill: dan and casey, thank you.

>> brown: finally tonight, the second of two conversations about america's role in the world. last week, margaret warner talked to former state department vali nasr. he offered a behind-the-scenes critique of policymaking in the obama administration. tonight, margaret gets a different view. >> warner: the united states is erreaching abroad and under- perfming at home. that's the thesis of council on foreign relations president richard haass in his new book, "foreign policy begins at home: the case for putting america's house in order." it's a surprising viewpoint from a former top state department and national security council official. richard haass joins me now to discuss his book and his recommendations for rebalancing our country's priorities. richard haass, welcome. you have spent your entire life dealing with how america shld me challees abroad. now you're saying it's time to refocus here at home. what led to this turnaround?

>> it's not a book i ever thought i'd be writing. it surprised me. in part of what wasn't going on in the world. there's no challenger out there of the scale of nazi germany or soviet union during the cold war. so despite all the challenges we face abroad we have a little bit of space. so i wantedo wrte a bok about here's what to do abroad and here's what not to do at home. i think above all the bases of american power, i believe, have been eroding. we're not tending to them and i think what we need to do, not simply to make the united states better for americans who live here but so we can be a force in the world is we've got to put our house in order. >> warner: when you talk about rebalancing, you call it restoration, what are you talking about in practical terms? is it the money we spend? is it the president's time? >> it's resources in lots of ways.

one is the foreign policy dimension. less time trying to remake the middle east, more trying to keep things stable in area, more focus on north america which could be the economic engine of the world, tremendous energy resources. rebalancing at home, more resources here. focus more on getting entitlements under control. focus more on infrastructure which right now we're barely third world in many cases. focus more on k-12 schools. margaret, i can't think of one child who comes to the united states to attend our public elementary schools. sure they come for stanford and harvard. nobody comes f ps-this or ps that. we need to do a better job at home. >> warner: we've done a -- we've known about this for ten or 20 years. if our last three presidents hadn't been focused overseas, what's the evidence that these problems would have been addressed? >> two things, someone that overseas the cost of the iraq and afghan wars c i haven'ted to this. the long-term costs of that war, health care costs, will be

considerable. more important, it's what we haven't done at home. we've gone from budgetary surplus to massive deficits to some extent f understandable reasons. we've had runaway spending on entitlements. that's the problem. >> warner: isn't it political dysfunction at home that has made it so far impossible for us to adjust most of these? >> for sure. at the core of these economic problems are political problems. is system isn't working and we can't get people to address. what a lot of americans would agree on in private needs to be address. many of us know what's wrong. o politics are simply letting us down. >> warner: let me ask you this, the last three presidents-- bill clinton, george w. bush and barack obama-- all essentially campaigned initially on this theme and, of course, then kosovo and bosnia wars, then you had 9/11 then you had afghanistan and iraq wars. why, one, -- were those

misplaced for the presidents to get so involved in those? why was it so hard for them to resist getting involved overseas? >> to a large extent they were misplaced. yes there were some things we needed to do after 9/11 but most of what we've done abroad in the last 20 or so years i would say were rs of choice. and in many cases our vital national interests weren't at stake. presidents got pleasured and more often than not they gave into the pressure. in some cases the president decided like george w. bush that we would embark on a major adventure to remake the middle east and i simply think it was ill advised. at the same time, they didn't for the most part on things at home. so we funded, for example, a new prescription drug benefit program. well, where's that going to come from? we had the simpson bowles commission it gets reintroduced andrphaned and we're not dog anything now so five, ten, 20 years from now when the baby boomers are retired we have you have no take care of them. >> you're not saying all wars are to be avoided. only we have to be more

discriminating. what's the criteria? >> this is not an isolationist book. i want to figure more in asia where the great economic powers of the day are increasingly colliding. wars of necessary where our vital national interests aren't at stake. where there are good alternatives we ought to fight there. but something like syria, which is very much in the news, is not a vital national interest. there are alternivesto the united stes tting heily involved. we have to ask ourselfs two questions: can we make a difference given local realities and second of all do we have the luxury of focusing on one square of a chess board given everything else in the world and everything here at home. what i try to write is something of a guide to working through those challenges. >> warner: all right, but that is where your doctrine will be most immediately put to the test is what to do about syria. so what are the alternatives? you're saying don't get involved at all militarily? are you say nothing to no-fly zone? are you saying no to even further arming the rebels?á2"yrl ming rebels. that's an indirect form of involvement. i'm okay conceivably with

certain very, very limited military actions, for example cruise missile strikes if chemical weapons are used but, no, i don't want to set up no-fly zones. i don't want the u.s. air force involved, i certainly don't want soldiers on the ground. i don't want to be responsible for trying to put humpty-dumpty back together again. if and when the assad regime goes, that's when the really difficult stuff is going to begin. that's what we should have learned from afghanistan. that's what we should have learned from iraq. a little bit of humility. there are limits to what american toow kr do. insad we ought to focus it on foreign policy where we know our tools can be useful and more important we ought to focus it here at home. we want to be a leader for the long haul. we don't want to be a short-term power. i recently read we want the 21st century to be a second american century. it will only be that if we first get strong again and that means fixing things here at home. >> warner: and what are the consequences if we don't? >> interest enough, the alternative to an american-led world is not a china-led world, not an india or europe or japan led world, it's a world that no

one leads. that's a world that's chaotic nd wt we've leard is the world is not las vegas so a world in which that there's chaos out there, that will come here in the form of economic relations, in the form of climate change, in the form of nuclear proliferation we have to stay involved if we can we do it when we're strong. >> warner: richard haass will join us for further conversation online. >> brown: for the record, margaret is a board member of the council on foreign relations. as she noted, haass is the organization's president. and you can watch more of their conversation on our homepage. >> ifill: again, the major developments of the day. the "washington post" reported chinese hackers have stolen designs for key u.s. weapons

systems. the newspaper cited confidential pentagon findings. and the founder of liberty reserve, an online currency transfer business, was indicted in new york on charges of laundering $6 billion worldwide. >> brown: online, is an advanced degree the ticket to a better job? hari sreenivasan tells us more. >> sreenivasan: in today's "ask the headhunter" column, before spending time and money on a graduate degree, ask yourself and your employer, what is it worth to the business? the answer may surprise you. tonight's edition of "frontline" explores the journey of an alleged rape victim through pakistan's justice system. find a link to "outlawed in pakistan" on our web site. and chat with judy woodruff; she'll be taking your questions at 1:30 p.m. eastertime tomoow. tweet them to us at newshour. find details on our homepage. all that and more is at www.newshour.pbs.org. >> ifill: and an editor's note

before we go. in our last honor roll of american service personnel killed in the afghanistan conflict, we aired the wrong picture for sergeant first-class jeffrey baker. here, in silence, is the correct photograph. >> brown: and that's the newshour for tonight. on wednesday, we'll have another in our series on key issues in the debate over immigration reform. i'm jeffrey brown. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> re thatwyears ago, t pple of b.p. made commitment to the gulf. and everyday since, we've worked hard to keep it. today, the beaches and gulf are open for everyone to enjoy. we shared what we've learned so that we can all produce energy more safely. b.p. is also committed to america.

we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. >> i want to make things more secure. >> i want to treat more dogs. >> our business needs more cases. >> where do you want to take your business? >> i need help selling art. >> from broadband, to web hosting, to mobile apps, small business solutions from a.t.&t. can help get you there. we can show you how a.t.&t. solutions can help your business today. >> bnsf. >> and the william and flora hewlett foundationworkg to solve soci and environmental problems at home and around the world. >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations.

and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org

>> rose: welcome to the program. we begin this evening with a look at cybersecurity and china. joining us david sger of "theew york mes", david mart ofcb news and former fbi deputy director philip mudd. >> i think the most important message that its president's probably going to have is that cyberissues, whether it's cybersecurity, cyberespionage, whether or not it's possible to come to some kind of an agreement between the united states and china, how to limit the use of these weapons, that these have moved it from the periphery of the u.s. china relationship where they really were even a year or two ago. and they have now moved to the center. >> rose: we conclude way convertion dow not want to mi it is with siren robinson, not only is he the