i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations. including one that inadvertenently took the lives of warren and giovanni. i regret what happened and on behalf of the united states offer our deepest apologies to the families. >> today president obama admit that on his orders cia drone strikes in the lawless pakistan/afghanistan border region were conducted on bad intel, and those strikes left three americans and one italian dead. that happened over two days in january. the u.s. government had been investigating classified attacks now for the past three months. that is why we haven't heard about this until now. the white house says they were supposed to strike senior al qaeda compounds. at the time no intel indicated that any hostages were there. >> 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. what we did not know tragically, is that al qaeda was hiding the presence of warren and giovanni in this same compound. >> now this hour we are learning more about the men who were killed first. american doctor warren weinstein was kidnapped in 2011 from his home in pakistan right as he was making plans to return to the states. his family had been highly critical of both the u.s. and the pakistani governments but says "those who took warren captive over three years ago bear ultimate responsibility." the second innocent hostage killed is an italian aid worker named giovanni lo porto, taken by al qaeda three days after he arrived near the border there in 2012. the president calls their deaths a mistake, an accident to learn from. >> 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 the things that makes us exceptional is our willingness to confront squarely our imperfections and to learn from our mistakes. as a husband and as a father i cannot begin to imagine the angel twhash the weinstein and -- anguish that the line stein and lo porto families are facing today. >> and two fighting alongside al qaeda, adam gadahn had become such a prominent member of al qaeda that he was on the fbi's most wanted list. he had direct contact with bin laden and was indicted for treason in 2006. that was the first time the u.s. used these charges since world war ii. the second american ahmed

farouq, led the religious advocacy. though the two joined al qaeda, i were still -- they were still american citizens. neither terrorist was specifically targeted here nor did u.s. intel knew that they would be there on the scene. the administration says that the operation, though, was fully consistent with u.s. guidelines. we begin our special hour of coverage with nbc's chief pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski. a lot of questions. what's the latest that you can tell us? >> reporter: absolutely. you know, and as the president said today they launched these air strikes against these compounds after hundreds of hours of observation. in other words they could see the comings and goings and determine that this -- these compounds were indeed al qaeda headquarters for small groups of al qaeda. but what they didn't talk about, was there any kind of electronics intercepts, telephone calls that would

indicate that leadership was there or that the hostages were there? and what about human intelligence? that's always a key part of any counterterrorism operation. after all, the u.s. pakistan, afghanistan, they all have informants at some point there among the local population that can point and say yes, those are al qaeda, and here's who we think is there. we didn't hear any of that today. all we heard about was hundreds of hours of observation. and when you're observing from the sky, whether it's manned or unmanned aircraft you can't always see as is evident here obviously what's behind those closed doors. what's in those buildings. and according to u.s. officials, it was only days after the two air strikes, january 14th january 19th that they did start to pick up some phone chatter among al qaeda members

that some hostages were killed. they also mention human intelligence. so why after the air strikes did they have electronic surveillance and human intelligence but apparently didn't have sufficient intelligence to tell them that there were -- one american hostage, one italian hostage? now in terms of farouq and gadahn, they claim they didn't know either of the americans turned al qaeda, if either were at any of of the compounds. again, if you're looking at an area with hundreds of hours of observation, usually they can tell just by the body language among those on the ground who those leaders might be. so there are some real blank spots in the initial intelligence that led to these air strikes that killed the three americans. >> a lot of things still unresolved there at the

pentagon. thank you very much as always. let's bring in lieutenant colonel anthony schaefer who ran black ops in afghanistan, now a senior fellow at the london center for policy research. also with us is david rothkopf sew and editor of foreign policy and author of "national insecurity: national leadership in an age of fear." thank you very much for being with us. >> a pleasure. >> i want to start with a question to both of you. tony, i'll start with you. >> sure. >> obviously this is a tragedy. was it an avoidable tragedy? >> it was completely avoidable. i mean just like was just said the guidelines were flawed intel incomplete. shooting first asking questions later. you must understand how the terrorist network functions. and i completely dismiss the idea that we couldn't do a military raid on the facility. my first book "operation dark heart," was about us going into pakistan to try to nab dr. zawahiri. the idea, we've got to nab them,

and nisin this case we should have gone in with drones. we could have gotten the two and rescued the hostages. this is unconscionable regarding the fact that we're using tactical weapons drones, as a strategic asset. it does not make any sense. >> david, what's your take? was this an avoidable tragedy? >> may well have been avoibddableavoidable. there are questions linger in the air. that said, i think the white house handled it properly today. i think assuming responsibility for this of the right thing to do. i think opening up an investigation is of course appropriate to fill in blank spots. i think we ought to remember that the real blame here does not lie with the united states regardless of the tactics that we've chosen. the real blame lies with al qaeda who captured these people and put their lives at risk and took away their freedom. we ought to be thinking about that. we ought to be thinking about

the families who have lost loved ones, not because of the united states but because their loved ones were taken hostage by al qaeda. >> tony, i think what david said is absolutely right. but still, there was a tactical perhaps military mistake made that led to the deaths of two innocent people. do you believe do you think that the white house is directing these strategic operations themselves? >> this is not a -- lbj conducting operations on rice paddies during the vietnam war, absolutely. part of the problem is the intel. i talked to a former director of one of the three-letter agencies yesterday about this. all the tactical calls were being made at the white house, down the road here. let me tell you, this t doesn't happen instantaneous. it takes time for information to work up. as mik said in his presentation there, we're relying completely on overhead observation. that's like looking for fish through a soda straw. just doesn't work well. so you need to have special operations, and please don't take my comments as blaming the

united states. we need to be aggressive. what i'm saying is we have to be aggressive in the correct way so we can avoid these sorts of casualties and be effective in defeating the terrorists. >> david, when you look at the precedent here, though we know that these kind of tragic casualties, what is technically sometimes referred to as friendly fire or collateral damage, this is part of war part of why war is terrible. the drone dynamic has a technological difference and a legal difference. we've seen that in the memoranda that will come out we'll talk about that later in the show. do you think the administration's handled this the right way? should it be any different in your mind substantively because it was a drone attack or is this a standard problem that they have to month in the standard way -- have to manage in a standard way? >> i don't think there's ever a war that didn't have collateral damage. i think a lot of effort are being undertaken in this to reduce the risk. i think the point just brought up a minute ago about the micromanagement of this war from the white house is absolutely right. i think it's a mistake. i don't think it's possible for people in the white house to

manage these things properly and in the way that people closer to the issues could and should and would have. but having said that no matter what we do no matter what weapons we choose no matter how we choose to go in, there are going to be accidents and going to be tragedies like this. and i think we have to acknowledge that. >> tony while we have you here with your military expertise, can you help us understands more about these signature strikes which are not going after specific identified targets but looking at seeing people that have the signature behavior of terrorists, and can you help us understand how afternoon that's the case signature strikes? >> certainly. targeted strikes, we were going with 8 % or better intel on a target. we always looked at better options. could we capture him, do a drone strike or tlam or do we want to let it go and continue to monitor because obviously you're driven with a lot of

intelligence tactical and human, all. that a signature is more of a shotgun. it's like let's take a shot and see what comes out. i've been on your show since dylan was doing the hour before you guys came on, talking about the fact the signature strikes i think end to destabilize our effort more than help it by the fact that you have unintended consequences of innocence being killed or in this case, actual hostages. so this is where i think we've got to rethink the entire strategy. plus, there's the issue of us trying five taliban for bergdahl. bergdahl was held by the network in pakistan. i think we have to take a hard look at the strategy of how effective it is regarding long-term objectives and defeating a network and arguably, i think killing these guys, we paved the way for isis to come in over and take over the network now which is my bigger concern. >> those are exactly some of the issues we'll tackle this hour. tony schaefer and david rothkopf, we appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up on "the cycle," we want to dig into the heart of

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[♪] the u.s. drone program getting a second look after an aid worker who was trying to improve america's economic development was killed in a cia strike. msnbc's casey hunt at the white house. a solemn tone there and unusual remarks from the president. what can you tell us? >> reporter: definitely a difficult day here.

good afternoon. we heard from josh earnest for over an hour today mostly talking about this tragic incident and trying to explain how this happened. we learned that the u.s. government will betuating the families of the two hostages -- will be compensating the families of the two hostages killed. we learned the president didn't sign off on the strikes because they didn't rise to the level of something he would need to get involved in because they did not actually know that american citizens were going to be present. but i will say that the press secretary acknowledged that some changes need to be made to this program. >> what's also clear and what i would readily admit to you is that in the aftermath of the situation like it, it raises legitimate questions about whether additional change need to be made to those protocols. again, to put it more bluntly, we have national security professionals who dentally follow those protocols based on everything that we know so far. they followed those protocols, and yet it still resulted in

this unintended but very tragic consequence. >> reporter: so it's likely that this is going to spark a robust debate about this drone program. we know that it's already come under a significant degree of scrutiny, if you will from politicians on both sides of the aisle. this isn't necessarily a partisan breakdown. i think senator rand paul is one in particular to watch, although his statement today was notable in its restraint. he simply offered his condolences on the tragic deaths of those two hostages. ari? >> casey hunt, thanks. we'll check back with you at the white house for more. matt miller former aide to attorney general eric holder, good day to you. >> good day. >> matt, you were at the justice department during a period when these rules were being internally drafted and then some of them published, a period of tremendous controversy, frankly. i want to put up on the screen just a couple of the legal principles the military has used generally. they talk about four principles for targeting and war, military necessity, humanity avoiding

unnecessary suffering, a proportionality, a very old concept in war, and distinction, a key issue here which is targeting specific enemies, something that the white house says may not have occurred here because of the nature of the strike, that it was striking an al qaeda facility but not individuals. walk us through your thoughts on how those principles are applied in this program and whether anything that we learn today suggests that anything is awry here. >> so those are the general military principles that they use for these kind of strikes and others. but on top of that there's an additional layer of review that the white house working with the just department and other instituted for any drone strike. and that includes being able to show that there's no way to capture the individuals who are being targeted. and showing that they are a current, imminent threat to the united states. and you have to believe that they went through that process here. in addition, they said that they have to -- there has to be almost no chance of civilian casualties. and obviously that didn't happen

here. so i think what the administration is doing is right. they're going to launch a review both of what happened in this incident and then seeing whether there need to be further changes to the program. it's something that ought to be looked at internally and ought to be subject to public debate as is happening now. >> and to your point, matt, in may of 2013 the president addressed the drone program and said, as you indicated, that before any strike is taken, there must be near certainty that no civilians will be killed or injured. that's the highest standard we can set. when you're talking about a signature strike, right, where you are not targeting specific individuals, you are targeting essentially behaviors, is it possible to meet that threshold of mere certainty that no civilian will be killed? >> i think it's possible to meet the threshold of near certainty, but i think it's a mistake to assume that near certainty is certainty. it's a mistake to assume that a drone strike is a perfect

weapon. it's not. just as any weapon in counterterrorism procedures or in war is perfect. there is always the risk not just to civilian casualties but other risks, as well, in terms of antagonizing local communities. it's the type of thing that possiblymakers have to weigh -- policymakers have to weigh before authorizing any strike. seems that they obviously believe to a near certainty here that there couldn't be casualties. and they just -- they just were wrong. they didn't have perfect intelligence about who was inside that house. and, you know to the administration's credit, that's the kind of thing that's difficult to know. if you're watching from above obviously you can see, you might be able to see specific terrorist coming and going. it's hard to know if someone hasn't left the house for the days on end that you've been watching it, who has been held inside. >> matt two american were killed within this -- not those being -- not the one american and italian being held hostage, but the two americans who were working with al qaeda, i'm

referring to here. one of them was on the world -- fbi's most wanted terrorist list. american are going to be debate figure a while, what is the legal justification for killing an american working with al qaeda. where do you stand? some would say once you join al qaeda we don't care that you're a citizen. others say hey, you're still a citizen, you deserve a day in court. >> yeah. it is a debate that's -- that's going to go on. a debate that started several years ago when a drone strike took out anwar al awlaki and a number of people raised the question of whether that's appropriate for -- for a u.s. citizen. that is actually where this new standard this higher standard review is implemented where the white house determined the standard for targeting an american citizen, and it's important to note that these citizens weren't targeted. but -- but the white house can target american citizens under certain circumstances when they've joined al qaeda, when they present a current imminent threat to the united states and its interests, and when there's

no other ability to capture them. and that's an important point that there's no way to capture them. and that -- when that's the case i think it is appropriate. you have someone who's trying to do the united states harm. we don't have the ability to capture them and bring them to justice in courts like you would in other circumstances. in that case, you're left with no other choice. >> and matt, you talked about the debate there's actually a larger debate here. we've started sending armed drones to combat in 2001. and here we are 14 years later, and the issue seem like it kind of crops up every now and again. we haven't had a thorough, sustained public debated about the use of drones and what our -- what are the appropriate parameters. how should we be framing that debate today? >> the biggest thing we need to ask ourselves is whether the drone strikes, which by the way have been extremely successful in really decimating the top al qaeda leadership in afghanistan and pakistan and that shouldn't if unnoticed.

but we have to have a public debate about whether they do more harm than good and creating new terrorists to replace the ones that we kill. and i think for a long time we didn't really have that open debate. it was hard to do it. a lot of the information was classified. more of that is available now, the administration has made its legal rationale available, and they were very open today in coming out and releasing information. and -- but you know drone strikes have decreased. i think the white house has scaled them back partly because of some of the negative consequences that come from them. and you know i think there is a place for still using them when it's the only resort. it's something we all need to look at. >> yeah. and something that the justice department and military has been looking at for a long time. we know you were there for part of it. appreciate you sharing expertise with us. >> thank you. straight ahead, capitol hill weighing in on this big development in the war on terror as they finally vote for the nation's top law enforcement officer. we have the latest on that and

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warren's state of mine. i've grown to have tremendous respect for the family. we've become very close. and you know my heart and our prayers are out for the whole family as they deal with this terrible tragedy. it's a really sad day. and we're all just heartbroken over this. >> reaction from lawmaker today right here on msnbc about the american and italian hostages killed in a winter drone strike. deaths that included two american terrorists working with al qaeda. luke russert at the capitol. what are you hearing from lawmakers? >> reporter: a lot of sim these expressed. -- sympathies expressed.

nancy pelosi and john boehner this morning at the press conferences started by saying their sympathies were going toward the families and they would like to have a full-on investigation, what occurred. nancy pelosi believing that the white house was going to be forthcoming. john boehner leaving the possibility of hearings occurring. i thought john delaney, the member from maryland, he was a representative for one of the hostages. he had very forceful language. he said, quote -- "this was a sobering national security and government failure, and our country failed the hostage." so you expect a lot of investigation to go into what exactly happened in this case and why it was not all the way brought up the chain of command to president obama when in fact the order occurred to move forward in this operation. >> luke, we want to ask you about the other big national security news on the hill today obviously. the chief law enforcement officer, loretta lynch, getting confirmed here. including ten republican votes after a historic long-standing delay. she's been involved in isis prosecutions and other national

security issues, and if you talk to people around her, the sex trafficking bill that ostensibly held up her nomination of frustrating for them because they point out all of the prosecutions she's done we're putting a couple on the screen convicting men if a sex trafficking ring in brooklyn convicting a bar owner for forced labor and sex trafficking, convicting seven defendants for forced prostitution and a case going to trial this month charging a brooklyn gang under the nightmarename tf mav yo under sex trafficking -- tf mafia under sex trafficking. it's surprising that became the hang-up. walk us through what happened. >> reporter: isn't it ironic that was in fact the hang-up? she's probably done more than any attorney in the country in terms of that issue, at least of my reading and what you put on the screen. there was an agreement on the human trafficking bill pertaining to abortion language. essentially a preservation of the status quo regarding the high mandate that no federal funds would go toward the bill.

it's capitol hill jargon but shows how messed up things are here. the human trafficking bill abortion argument, stops lynch from becoming the nominee. what was interesting though, in this vote, 56-43 -- and those republicans you mentioned, you have johnson of wisconsin, new hampshire, port of ohio, those are all purple state republicans backing loretta lynch. also, mitch mcconnell, the majority leader, backing her. and thad cochran of mississippi backing her. remember it was african-americans who helped put him over the edge in the primary against the conservative challenger seemingly wanting to get on the right side of history. loretta lynch will be nominated. she's attorney general now first african-american woman. there were cheers in the gallery. a special moment on capitol hill. >> nice to hear that. thank you very much for that. let's get back to our discussion of drones and the attacks that killed americans. let's turn now friend of the show jimmy williams, who has years of experience as a senior staffer on the hill. and something of an expert on

things regarding the senate. jimmy, this is -- the issue of drones, extraordinarily sensitive and complicated. political issue p. hundreds of innocent civilians killed by drones. of course, they do allow us to expand the battlefield and attack terrorists where our soldiers cannot go. keeping our men and women who are soldiers out of harm's way. so is the collateral damage that is almost inevitable worth it to expand the battlefield? >> i don't know how put a value on human lives, doctor. the two men that were killed unfortunately, on the other hand, we killed two terrorists. and that's a good thing. the fact they were americans who turned into terrorists. look, the politics of this are -- are very complicated. the cia is the one that called this strike. you might remember that two years ago, may, 2013 the president of the united states went to the national defense university and said he was going

to move this program from the cia to the department of defense. guess what -- here we are two years later, and that hasn't happened. i have a feeling that the people in the building behind me are going to want to ask the question why has that not happened. because let's be clear, what happened in january was a massive intelligence failure. a massive intelligence failure. and that's why these people died needlessly. >> yeah. i think that's going to be a major battle coming up as you're pointing out why hasn't the program been moved. i also think there are going to be questions raised again about the so-called signature strikes. >> yeah. that's right. >> you're not targeting a specific individual, you're targeting based on behaviors people who look like terrorists frequently from, you know, in this case it looks like they didn't have direct intel on the ground. so from surveillance lawmakers have previously tried to end signature strikes. is this where the debate is going to go again? >> i think that's right. i will say this, the difference

-- there's a very something thing that happened today. politically, the president of the united states owned this. he took ownership of this problem. he didn't try shuffle it off. he -- he owns this. this is now something that will be forever a part of his administration. lots of things bay the way, classified that we don't know about the administrations. so capitol hill is going to have to look at this specific program, the the one you're talking about, and they're going to have to make a determination of what is their role in this. we know that any president is the commander in chief. and at the end of the day, is responsible for all military decisions. ultimately responsible. but the congress does have a voice here. even the republican-led congress. i'm not making an excuse for them to go after obama. i am saying that they should get to the bottom of this. by the way, when they do have those hearings, they'll all be closed. most of this information is classified. the public will never see this -- this testimony. >> and jimmy, when we talk about getting to the bottom of this is there a chance that this

starts to devolve into kind of benghazi style ongoing investigations forever? >> oh, yes -- >> what are we looking at in terms of getting to the bottom of it? >> susan, that's the biggest understatement you ever made and you didn't know it. of course. the chairman of the so-called benghazi committee said yesterday that he's not releasing his report until next year. that he wants hillary clinton to testify in private. he will not release her emails. so they're moving that into a political, presidential political year. don't think for a second -- by the way don't forget that the house armed services committee and the senate intelligence committee has already said that hillary clinton had nothing to do with benghazi. but no, don't worry about those facts. he's going to move to to next year. what will the house armed services committee do? what will the house intelligence committee do? they will investigate this. and don't think that they will not talk to each bother this stuff. >> jimmy williams always happy to have you on. >> great to see you guys. >> all right. next we head overseas. the drone war has spread far from the united states. an italian hostage was killed. we are live from our london

newsroom with the latest european reaction next. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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it's now after 9:30 in sicily where italians are mourning the loss of aid worker giovanni lo porto. the italian government calls the u.s. air strike that killed him a "fatal error." richard engle has more. >> reporter: susan, the italian aid worker giovanni lo porto, 39 years old was from player mow which is not very far. it's in the same region where we are right now. we have been covering the migrant disasters that have been happening with increasing frequency in the mediterranean and suddenly had to change gears. it is a very small community of aid workers who help in places like afghanistan, help with migrants here. and some of the aid workers we've been speaking to here, at least one of them, knew giovanni lo porto and was upset to hear the tragic news which was announced by the president earlier today. president themade the surprise

announcement that there were drone strikes in pakistan. we've learned more details it these drone strikes from u.s. military officials. and a clearer picture is emerging. it seems that in mid-january, there were two cia-led drone strikes. cia-guided missions. they happened in the hindu kush region of pakistan near the afghan border. and that in the first drone strike the italian hostage, along with dr. warren weinstein, both the italian and weinstein had been held in pakistan for several years now. that they were both killed by accident, the white house says. that the white house didn't know and the cia didn't know that they were being held in this al qaeda safe house. along with another american. that american was an al qaeda subcommander who happened to be in the house, in this al qaeda safehouse at the time. then a few days after that

attack in mid-january, there was another drone strike in the same region of pakistan near the border. and in that second drone strike yet another american was killed. also working for al qaeda. a man named adam gadahn. that was the adopted name he used when he was one of al qaeda's top spokesmen. so big revelations from the white house today. a tragedy for italy, a tragedy for the united states that in these two separate drone strikes in mid-january, an utalan hostage was killed -- an italian hostage was killed an american hostage was killed and two other americans, both of them working for al qaeda. susan? >> our chief foreign correspondent, richard engle, thank you very much. let's stay overseas with friend of the show chief of contemporary middle east studies at the london school of economics. thanks for joining us today. >> it's a pleasure. >> we just heard richard talking to us about some of the reaction

on the ground in italy. we know, unfortunately, this terrible tragedy involved an italian citizen. what is the reaction coming from our western allies? most of them are not using drones. how are they feel being this news today obviously and then the program more in general? >> well first of all, we have to wait and see. we have not seen any major public pronouncements on the part of america's european allies. but for our american audience, the drone wars so-called the unmanned drone attacks are very unpopular. not just in arab and muslim countries where most of the attacks take place, but also worldwide. the united nations, european civil societies, human rights organizations. american had the organizations view the drone attacks as illegal. as immoral. as you've said more than once on the show hundreds of civilians have been killed in pakistan in afghanistan, in yemen, in

somalia. and this is whipping up anti-american sentiments again to -- to reiterate a major point, a decision by the president by president barack obama to really increase the number and the gravity of the strikes over the last six years is based on a technical premise that they are technically effective effective, and they are effective. americans have killed scores of top al qaeda operatives including two in january. it's based on the simple idea that the benefits outweigh the costs. but the cost are real real in terms of americans standing for the question of morality the question of reality, increasing american -- basically anti-american sentiment. yet the administration says look, i have no choice. i cannot deploy troops on someone in afghanistan and pakistan. that's the most effective instruments that i have.

>> let's go deeper to that point, sir. as we know we have killed lots of al qaeda leaders via drone strikes. we have cost ourselves a lot of anti-american sentiment that we have galvanized throughout the middle east. so is it worth it? >> well i think, first of all, i myself as an american i don't think it's worth it. it's illegal. the united nations says the attacks are illegal. human rights organizations, i mean amnesty international, all of them, they say they are legal. hundreds of civilians have been killed. anti-american is deeply embedded now in pakistan, in yemen, and other places. yes, technically they're effective. but the question is you have also to balance the legal and the political and long-term effects of such attacks. yet really to me it's very surprising that the president

stood up and took responsibility. one has to respect this president for doing so. yet i mean many people in the world where i am and other places in the world, they say the administration has been basically buried its head in the sand when it comes to civilian casualties worldwide. in fact, this will reinforce cynicism about the administration's strategy. i think i'm glad now all of us are beginning to have a debate to have a debate not only about the legal and moral dimensionentions of this particular war but also about the midterm and long-term effectiveness of this particular tool. it's called really assassination. you're assassinating people even though some of them have nasty characters. you're not taking any hostages. so i'm glad finally we're beginning to really have a debate, and i'm glad that -- please? >> we're all obviously very concerned especially on this day about collateral damage. can you look at the results -- you say, yes, it's technically effective.

but you can look at the results and say that al qaeda is weaker because of our drone program? >> i must confess that it's true that the drone attacks basically have broken the backbone of al qaeda central in pakistan. pakistan is the nerve central of al qaeda central. and the drone attacks basically have killed most of the mid-level lieutenants and operatives. these are the chiefs basically who run the campaign and the obama administration has been much more effective than his predecessor because he is fighting a deadly very lethal and very you might say brutally effective campaign. at the same time while the united states basically is winning tactically because you're eliminating, you're killing many top chiefs they are consequences. and we know that these

consequences might come to haunt basically americans and haunt the united states both in the midterm and long term. at least we must have this debate. the administration must allow -- both in terms of u.s. official and the elite and civil society to debate not only the efficacy of this particular tool but also both illegal political and -- and political implications. >> great. thank you very much for sharing. obviously this is a very difficult question that we're going to be debating for a long time. and clearly the grief and shock is being felt in a lot of places. mpactful?" what the cloud enables is computing to empower cancer researchers. it used to take two weeks to sequence and analyze a genome; with the microsoft cloud we can analyze 100 per day. whatever i can do to help compute a cure for cancer, that's what i'd like to do.

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verizon. back now to our breaking news. we now know that adam gadon, one of the american terrorists killed in the drone strikes was born in california and the momimam just reacted to the news. >> he had some problem with one of our officials. and reported to the garden grove police. and he was taken out. after that we never saw him, we saw heard of him. he disappeared. we are sorry that he ended up in the wrong place with the wrong ideology. we do not subscribe to those ideology at all. we condemn terrorists. we condemn terrorism. we stand for peace and justice. >> a lot to sort there. head back to washington.

msnbc political correspondent kasey hunt and nbc's luke. what do you have about the investigation that the president ordered? >> reporter: crystal good afternoon. what we know right now is that the drone program hasn't been changed yet in the wake of the knowledge of what happened with these strikes. so far no changes there. but the white house has launched an investigation and there's also going to be an independent inspector general investigation into just how this was allowed to happen and what changes should be made going forward. i think you can also look to capitol hill potentially as another place where investigations might go on. senator dianne feinstein put out saying they had looked at this but will look at it more closely now. she in particular wants the combatants and civilians killed by this drone program. >> let's hear from you.

should we hear a congressional hearing? >> as you heard from kasey hunt yes, we should expect senator feinstein to continue this investigation. see where it's in prospective with the candidates fall on this. rand paul has been outspoken about the use of drones by the u.s. government. expect him to do something. i think things have been tempered today because of just how horrific the news was and people trying to express their condolences and sympathies before they move forward. in terms of the investigation is going to be. house speaker john boehner this morning, his press conference said he expects the house intelligence committee as well as the armed services committee to see what happened and the house has really been the area of government that's trying to have a lot of oversight over this executive branch. so they'll certainly take a look at it and see how it plays out. today, it's more about sympathy than what the future investigation will be. >> at the white house, thank you both. now to tom sanderson, strategic

international studies. tom, you have investigated terror and intelligence issues. do you see red flags here? >> well i think everyone is searching for a perfect program here and we're not going to get it with any of the means we have of pursuing these groups. if we had sent in a delta force team or seal team to get the al qaeda members and lost 20 of them, we'd have hearings about whether that was the right thing to do. in this case, we didn't know the american hostages were there. that's a terrible tragedy but i don't see a fundamental shift here except for under really serious pressure. >> why do you think the president didn't make that case? he's clearly leaving it to others to say what is uncomfortable, this is this bad outcome may be better than some of the alternatives. >> the first statement that comes from a president in a situation like this is meant to focus on the tragedy of losing the american hostages.

and i think those arguments will come out and i think those are valid arguments. >> tom we hear people say maybe we should get rid of the drone program altogether. is that realistic when we have reports of china, russia and iran have drones? >> no it is not realistic. it is one of the few tools we have of taking terrorists off the battlefield in denied areas where we have imperfect intelligence. this is one of the cases. we simply don't have the means to get them at all places and to reduce the chances to zero of hitting civilians. it's just not going to happen. and i would also ask the same people who are layering a lot of deep criticism on the cia and the president here what would have happened if we found out in a few months that an attack on the united states had emanated from the same site? on the afpac border and didn't

send in. it's monday morning quarterback, mistake. >> tom, very few would advocate for ending the drone program altogether but are there reforms ending signature strikes that could improve our capabilities? >> well i'm sure that there is this merits a look and an investigation. but i don't think they'll be significant changes. a signature strike is just that. the indication are signatures or signals that those being targeted are exhibiting signs that they are part of al qaeda, part of isis. they intend to attack u.s. facilities, forces plotting against the u.s. homeland or those of our allies. this is an imperfect process here and we have to expect there are going to be mistakes and we accept those mistakes because the alternative could be much worse. >> tom sanderson speaking more truths. psych

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that does it for this hour in "the cycle." now it's "now with alex wagner." u.s. air strike claims the life of an american hostage held by al qaeda. it is thursday april 23rd and this is "now." it is believed to be the first ever instance in which the united states has accidentally killed a hostage in a drone strike. in an emotional statement this morning, president obama offered a public apology for the deaths of two civilian hostages. one of them an american. the two hostages both aid workers killed inadd verdantly.

an italian, held since 2012. the president said today he took full responsibility for their deaths. >> as a husband and as a father i can not begin to imagine the anguish that the weinstein and laporeto families are enduring today. i simply want to say this as president and commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations including the one that inadvertently took the life of warren and geovany. i profoundly regret what happened. on behalf of the united states government, i offer our deepest apologies to the families. >> noting he moved to declassify the information and go publicly offered praise for american