august. now that is going to stretch out conceivably for months and months to come. the end results may not be the results they want and the corruption issue is as big a problem of the military. >> i'm told that it will be resolved in the next month. that it won't stretch out into next spring, but it is still a huge problem. here in washington it is another big problem. this is the first time that the obama administration hasn't been completed united on a foreign policy. it has been pretty amazing so far. >> what intervention? >> it is hard to tell. we know that the vice president joe biden is against adding more troops. we still haven't heard from hillary clinton or richard holbrook or most importantly bob gates. it is clear the military wants more troops. they are only one piece of the picture. >> the military wants more troops and what hillary clinton

has called for along with richard holbrook is a broader policy that involves a big civilian deployment as well. it is basically nation building. >> that is right. that rolls out very slowly especially because the development piece of our foreign policy has been screwed up. usaid is a mess. that is why hillary clinton added a second deputy head of state to get our house in order. >> and manage the state department better day-to-day. >> this is chess. we have to have a reliable ally in afghanistan, a karzai government with plausibility who we don't have. there is the pakistani piece. >> let me switch hats, joe. there is nobody better at

covering domestic politics. the not so subtle shove that the president gave to governor paterson. we saw this shout out that the president has to give to david paterson. >> it was a mistake. it is not as if his plate is empty. >> there is health care. it was a screw up. he will screw up from time to time. this was a pretty big one. i think, well, not a big one, but it was one that causes a stumble at a moment where he needs to seem sure footed. >> surely he is listening to rahm emanuel and others who are his political eyes and ears. he knows the terrain.

chuck schumer says we are going to lose a senate seat because david paterson is going to take down the ticket. we will lose the 59th, 60th vote. paterson is losing to rudy giuliani and cuomo went up against an african-american and got hammered for it in a primary years ago. >> the middle name you mentioned is the key one here. rudy giuliani. who would be a very different sort of problem for the president if he becomes governor of new york. perhaps a potential republican rival in 2012. >> stay tuned. joe klein. the wars in afghanistan and political wars in new york state. joining us is congresswoman jane harman. congresswoman, thanks for joining us.

let's talk about bob woodward's big story in the "washington post" on what stanley mccrystal is recommending for afghanistan saying there could be mission failure if there isn't what some would call mission creep. how does the president resolve this conflicting problem given the lack of support for an expanding war in afghanistan? >> andrea, i have the report here in my hand. it is on the internet as well as a report called civilian military campaign plan put together by mccrystal and our ambassador to afghanistan. it is not just about military resources. i agree with what joe klein said and president obama, strategy first, resources after. this report is more nuanced and it says we have to do more to increase the capability of the

afghan security forces, both police and military, up to 400,000. we have to do a lot more to deal with the crisis in the afghan government. the sham election and rampant corruption. it is the corruption, stupid. the third part is we have to redeploy our forces as joe said from where the enemy is to where the population lives. it is more complicated than the press is making it out to be. contrary to what joe said, we did know early this year the election would be a sham. i was in the country in april, met with all four of the major opposition candidates including abdullah abdullah, then went to kandahar and met with tribal leaders none of whom felt this election would be on the level.

they gave us examples where you could buy voter cards on the black market. outside forces should have been doing more to lead up to the august sham election. >> let me ask you about the president's position and the attorney general holder's position on cia interrogations. seven former cia agents saying they should back off and not pursue what could turn into prosecutions. the president wants to look forward. but the attorney general believes that people -- rogue interrogators have to be held to account. >> let's remember recent history. recent history is the white house pressured the justice department to fire a number of u.s. attorneys because politically they disagreed with some of the priorities of the bush administration. there should be a separation

between the justice department and the white house and somehow we, i think, should remember that. on this subject i did look at attorney general holder's decision. i know it was difficult. i issued a statement at the time saying i supported it, but we should remember the context. the context was, one, these folks had been investigated by a fairly independent part of the administration and number two, the real culprits are those who designed the strategy and the policy and not these people. they were operatives in the bush white house who didn't con soult with congress, ignored the constitution and went ahead any way. i appreciate what the cia former directors have said. i think the inquiry will be narrow. i think attorney general holder is an independent part of the executive branch. his shock at some of the behavior and his determination

to review what has been done by the justice department is something we have to respect. >> we've got these three terror suspects. do we think this is a plot averted or is this a case where we are not exactly sure what they are up to? >> i'm glad you mentioned that andrea. i have been briefed in a classified setting on that and i take it very seriously. there is information in the press which i can mention because there have been court filings. what you can get out of the press is that we are alleging our law enforcement authorities that these folks, at least one of these was trained by al qaeda in pakistan and came back to the u.s. on legitimate travel documents and might have been up to something in the united states. he's apparently talking to authorities in a plea deal. apparently. bottom line, al qaeda does

intend if possible to attack us. that's another reason why we have to be very careful and very serious about our strategy in pakistan, afghanistan and now in yemen where al qaeda seems to be moving in large numbers. i care that we deny sanctuary to al qaeda in afghanistan. they are not there now but if the taliban takes over afghanistan and if the situation is deteriorating, this is going to pose a threat to the national security of the united states. >> we have to leave it there. congresswoman jane harman. up next, congressman pete hoekstra, explaining why he thinks the president should halt the criminal informations into the cia investigations. combating climate change. i talk with actor and environmental activist harrison ford on how you can get

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president obama says he won't interfere with the justice department's probe into controversial bush era interrogation policies. former cia directors want the attorney general to balk off from prosecuting rogue interrogators. peter hoekstra is the ranking republican on the house intelligence committee. he joins us now from washington. thanks for being with us. eric holder said it is going to be limited to those who went outside the already very permissive guidelines approved by the bush-cheney white house.

this is the preliminary stage so why shouldn't he proceed? >> i think you have to take a look at this in the context. these individuals, it was identified way back in 2004 that some people might have gone outside of the box, the permitted box of what they were entitled to do. the cia self-reported this. it was reviewed by congress and the justice department. the cia held some individuals accountable through internal procedures and the justice department did prosecute one individual from breaking the rules and breaking the law. they prosecuted them successfully. >> that is the case of someone who died in afghanistan, at the hands of an interrogator, in afghanistan. >> i believe that is correct. yes. we have a new administration coming in and as far as we can determine there is no new

evidence presented saying here is new information. we need to reinvestigate what the previous justice department, the career professionals, the determination they made. in many cases this is almost like double jeopardy. >> congressman, to that point it isn't really double jeopardy because these are cases where one set of prosecutors looks at it through one filter. but there was an election. we have heard many instances where there is an investigation going on into the politicization alleged of the justice department in the previous administration. wouldn't you expect this new administration and new attorney general would look at it with fresh eyes. >> well, but remember, these things, there is no evidence this was a politicized decision at all. your previous guest jane harman, who is a great friend of mine, indicated this was done by the career professional attorneys in the justice department who made the determination no

prosecutions were warranted. we are going to send a chilling effect through the cia and the federal bureaucracy and maybe through the criminal justice system if we say every time there is a change in administration the decisions that were made by the previous administration are up for grabs and are going to be re-evaluated. there is no indication at all in these cases that the decisions reached were politicized decisions. these are career professionals who said there was not enough wrongdoing or no wrongdoing that warranted prosecution. >> let me tell you about the terror suspects -- excuse me, the suspects that are accused of lying to the fbi in a terror investigation. do we know anything more. is this something we believe new york city is being targeted? there is some speculation

backpacks on the subway may have been an issue? >> andrea, i'm sure there is a whole lot more we know. it is an ongoing investigation. i'm sure they are following a tremendous amount of leads. other individuals that may or may not have been involved. the exact plot or attack that was being contemplated. where and when. we need to be very, very careful talking about this because i'm sure we have lots of questions. there's lots of other answers we'd like to have at this point. it is an ongoing investigation. >> peter hoekstra, thank you so much congressman. coming up, michael cheroff is joining us. straight ahead, actor and environmentalist harrison ford calling for swift action to save the rain forests.

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new! nutrisystem d. lose weight. live better. call or click today. secretary of state hillary clinton ringing in the trading day at the new york stock exchange this morning. secretary clinton is in new york for the united nations general assembly. she is facing a lot of very difficult problems, stalemated middle east negotiations, the iran problem, anticipated protests against moammar qaddafi. 130 visiting heads of states. those world leaders will be gathering tomorrow to discuss the fight against climate change. actor harrison ford is convening with team earth partners to rally support for forest protection. i speak with him and peter

seligman and ask what they want the general assembly to accomplish. >> meaningful climate policies and legislation. we are looking for, first of all, to inspire and oblige the united states' delegation to go there empowered to commit to policies to help effect climate change. we want the obama administration to step up to the plate. i know there are a lot of pressures on the president and his administration to deal with a number of different issues but there is nothing more compelling, nothing more important than the health of the planet. health care is really important on an individual basis, but if we don't have a healthy planet weave got no place else to live

so we need to get the job done. and copenhagen represents important opportunity, the meeting at the u.n. is an important opportunity and must not be lost. >> here we are a decade after kyoto and nothing has been accomplished yet going into the copenhagen meetings we are told there won't be agreements but this is delaying any real progress on climate change. how do you resolve, peter, the conflict between india and china on one hand and the developing world, people at different stages of economic development in a recession where floebl growth, economic growth is said to be more important than climate change. a lot of issues. >> complicated question. i start out disagreeing that nothing has been done over the

last decade. i think there has been significant progress case by case. there has been a much more collective understanding that there is a serious issue that cannot be ignored. number one. number two. many individual companies and countries are looking at what do we do? and what are the issues? today we launched team earth to create a platform for collective action. there have been significant actions taking place over the past decade. now when you talk about nations like india and china and the united states, i think we need to understand there is -- it's almost a chicken and egg situation. who is going to put their toe in the water first? who is going to jump in first? what has not come across yet from the major nations, who is going to make the commitment and dive into the water?

the fact is that china, for example, understands very, very clearly that climate change is a severe threat to them. they are inspired to act. one simple example is china's water comes from the tibetan plateau. when the glaciers melt where is the water going to come from for a billion people? i'm more optimistic. whether or not we come to an agreement in copenhagen, which i hope we do, there are going to be bilateral agreements but nations are focused on what happens if climate change is not addressed. >> how do you feel, harrison, when you see "the wall street journal," can countries cut carbon emissions without hurting economic growth. why it is an either/or?

>> it doesn't need to be an either/or. i haven't read the article yet. but certainly there are policies which will value national resources at a higher level than they are being valued at the moment. the question is whether or not how can we not afford to consume less of our nonrenewable resources? how can we get ahead of the game a little bit. in 2050 we are going to have 9 billion people on the planet. it would take -- scientists tell us it would take three worlds, three earths to sustain that many people. we cannot continue to consume at the rate we are consuming. >> what would be your message to those in congress who are battling over this behind the scenes and saying, okay, if we are going to do health care we can't take on this other

challenge and we can't resolve the differences between the agricultural states. let's just kick the can down the road. what would you say to them, harrison? >> it is a short road. that policy makes a very short road. that will be game over before we get in the game. these are geometric. action denied now, action put off now is not going to advantage us at all. your constituency, your political base requires that you step up to the plate. >> two men who are stepping up to the plate, harrison ford, peter seligman thank you for your thoughts tooth and the u.n. meeting is tomorrow. we'll be right back. you are watching msnbc, the place for politics. [ birds squawking ]

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in court today three americans charged with lying to the fbi during a terror probe. will be facing court. do these suspects pose a threat to u.s. security? michael chertoff served in the bush administration. thanks for joining us. you are the author of the new book "homeland security, assessing the first five years." let me ask you about this threat and what this case really means. did they move too soon or too slowly? >> good afternoon, andrea. this case poses the challenge that was posed in many cases over the last eight years. on the one hand you want to avert any risk that a plot is going to go live and you are not going to catch it and people are going to wind up losing their lives. you want to give the plotters

enough time so you can fully develop a picture from an intelligence standpoint about the dimensions of the scheme and everybody involved in it. in this case i think there was a heightened sensitivity because you are dealing with a challenging week in new york with the united nations, a lot of dignitaries in town, fashion week. it is a target-rich environment and i think that probably stimulated prompt action in this case. >> and, in fact, you've got so many different jurisdictions here. diplomatic security, the secret service, obviously, with the president arriving here this afternoon and the secret service taking care of security for ahmadinejad and moammar qaddafi, people who have enemies. you are a former judge in new jersey right across the river. homeland security director and secretary, you know what they

face here. how tough is this for the new york city police department? >> it is tough. every year i was secretary, each of the four years we had a special program for the u.n. general assembly. it was a national special security event and we spent time with the secret service, the new york police department, diplomatic security and the fbi building a very careful plan and assembling a lot of resources to protect everybody in town. new york city police have a lot of experience, secret service does, the other law enforcement agencies do so you are about as protected as humanly possible with these very, very good law enforcement people. you can understand why the events of the last week caused a lot of activity given the week we are in right now. >> your predecessor tom ridge in his book raised the implication he felt political pressure on

raising the alert level in 2004 and back downed somewhat, reneged that nobody said anything. did you feel pressure to taylil tailor the alert? >> i can tell you unequivocally i never got any pressure of any type. we raised the alert twice, once in response to the attack in london and once in response to the airline plot in london in 2006. in both cases it was easily understandable. nobody raised the political issue in any way, shape or form. >> one other thing that came up is jeapt napolitano is going to look at a commission looking at changing the color coding system, abandoning it entirely. do you think it functioning well and worth keeping? >> i do think it is worth keeping. there are a number of

operational steps that are taken when you raise the alert level that are important for people who work in partnership with the department of homeland security. you don't want to lose that ability to coordinate. i have advocated we reduce the number of levels to three. i think five levels is confusing and unnecessary. >> michael chertoff, author of the new book "homeland security, assessing the first five years." thanks so much. the leader of the global breast cancer movement is calling on world leaders at the united nations general assembly to include the fight against cancer on the agenda. cancer will soon be the leading killer of men and women, it kills more people annually than malaria, tb and hiv/aids combined. the founder of suzanne g. komen race for the chur.

you are going to be meeting with the leadersened what specifically do you want them to do? how can they rise to this challenge? >> cancer is not high enough on the global agenda. cancer is not even mentioned in the goals. it needs to be. we have a very serious problem. the death rate will double by the year 2023017 million or 18 million people a year. that is not a good count because there aren't cancer registries. no drugs to treat, no screening, no infrastructure. we have a serious problem and if we don't act we are going to have a very, very serious problem. >> you just mentioned that 60% of the cancer deaths in the developing -- occur in developing countries but they only receive according to your data 5% of cancer-related funding. >> right. >> the challenge for the world

health organization and other leaders at the u.n. is to step up to the plate. >> absolutely. to raise this up. we polled global health leaders and in washington cancer comes up in 12th in terms of their list of what's important. this is going to be the largest killer of people in a very short time. it is a tsunami. we must deal with it. >> you point out cervical cancer is the leading cause of death among women in sub-saharan africa but 100% preventible. there is not nearly enough a mechanism to have early screenings. >> many organizations have done wonderful things, foundations, ngos, governments, the problem is people have not been convened in africa on women's cancers specifically. that is a role we very much want to play. there is good work going on. treatment and screening can be introduced in on going perhaps

like pep bar, usaid programs. we need to make that happen. >> let me put in a plug. i'm a long time runner in the race for the cure. what you have done has just been amazing with the komen network. the largest grassroots breast cancer organization. $1.5 billion invested into research. what you have managed to do, a shout out to you. you have going to have a race for the cure in egypt named after your sister. we are all with you. >> thank you, andrea. >> come with us to egypt? >> how would i love that? >> ambassador nancy brinker. >> thank you so much. >> thanks for your good work. coming up, israel signals it is not ready to abandon the idea of a military strike against iran. we get the latest on the nuclear

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senior israeli officials say a military strike against iran is not off the table. israel has the right to defend itself. this a day of dmitri medvedev said they told him there would be no attack on iran. what is up? we are joined from washington. thanks so much, ken. could israel strike iran if it wanted to? >> certainly they could strike iran if they wanted to. what is unclear is how much damage they could do. >> could we stop israel from crossing iraqi air space if that is the most direct route? since we control that air space could we stop israel? would we?

>> i'll put it this way if the israelis ask us, we would tell them no. it would be tremendously complicated our relationship with iraq. i think the israelis would find another route over saudi arabia, over turkey, over the sea. the israeli cans be very, very clever when they set their minds to it. i think they could find another route if they wanted to. >> wouldn't people in the region, arab allies assume we had given a green light even if we had been cautioning. i have been told this administration has been arguing with israel they should take this option off the table. it is an existential threat. no matter what they did, israel did, the arab world and the rest of the world would assume the united states had gone along with it. >> that is absolutely correct,

andrea. israeli and american firms recognize that. there were reports that the bush administration turned down an israeli request to strike. that is why the obama administration believes it would be better that the israelis not do so. the israelis have to recognize there would be blowback to the united states. given the close relationship the israelis have to take that into account, how much damage do they want to do to the united states and is it worth it? >> with all this going on, netanyahu is arriving in new york, abbas is coming. the president is convening them in their first public three-way meeting tomorrow in new york. after george mitchell failed to bridge the differences last week. there is no give on the

settlement issue. what is the point of meeting even though they clearly won't have the meeting summit hoped to have? >> he brings his personal prestige to bear. that will put pressure on abbas and netanyahu to make compromises they weren't willing to do with senator mitchell. the situation is badly, badly knotted up at the moment. it is going to be a big herculean task even for the president. both the israelis and palestinians can make concessions to the president they couldn't to a special envoy. >> isn't that a lot of pressure to put on one meeting in new york? these are the kinds of meetings that are usually developed, worked on. if you get a summit meeting, they know what the outcome is likely to be. >> yeah. the number one rule of these kind of summits is to know what

the outcome is going to be before you go into them. that is why a lot of people have the same reservations you voiced. it is going to be hard to make this work. it may be the president believes, he is a persuasive person, once he gets into the room he can convince them to do this. a lot of riding on everything going on in new york. the president put a lot on these meetings. maybe he feels i have to get something out of the palestinians and the israelis. how do i go into the u.n. general assembly without it? >> mahmoud ahmadinejad arriving today. in tehran before leaving to the united states he said he is proud to stoke international outrage with his latest remarks denying the holocaust. the rally he held against israel. he is just dialing it up before arriving here.

>> he is the gift that keeps on giving. you can obviously look at the pyro tech nicks he likes to set off, this can say a lot about iran's internal politician. ahmadinejad is saying i'm not interested in a deal with the international community. i'm going to say what i want to say and do what i want to do. the interesting question if there are forces inside iran that will push back. right now it doesn't look like there are and that doesn't bode well for the talks that are supposed to start on september 1st. it can't be an accident he is speaking to the general assembly that president obama is hosting the u.s. reception for all the leaders. you expect at 7:00 thursday with president obama sitting in their seating listening to ahmadinejad. >> when i was in the clinton administration at the end there, we tried very hard to

arrange things so that president clinton could shake the hands with then-iran's president mohammad khatami, hoping that might be seen as an important, symbolic breakthrough. and maybe the folks in new york were hoping they could get something going here. it doesn't seem likely, given where ahmadinejad is coming from. >> i think it is going to be exactly the opposite. good point, though. thank you, ken pollack. good to see you. >> thank you, andrea. what political story will be making headlines in the next 24 hours? that is next on msnbc, the place for politics. newhen you make m" tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he neglected to mention tdd# 1-800-345-2550 he also makes money when i lose money, tdd# 1-800-345-2550 withdraw money or do nothing with my money. tdd# 1-800-345-2550 tdd# 1-800-345-2550

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what political story will be dominating headlines the next 24 hours? author of "the fix" on "washington post."com, the author joins us now. what is on your agenda? >> any time the democratic white house gets involved in an incumbent governor up in new york, talking about david paterson, embattled, very bad numbers up there.

we learned yesterday that a white house official, the political director, in fact, had met with the governor to express some concerns from the white house about his rea election, if that wasn't interesting enough, then we had the president up in albany today in a wonderful political coincidence, greeted by governor paterson. not sure what words were exchanged there. i wonder if they were friendly or not. but this is a fascinating story. the white house, despite the fact that the president has a very nonpolitical image and they played it up, they have played politics in a number of democratic primaries here. this is one, the new york senate race is another, colorado senate race is another. this is a political white house, despite what it might look like from the outside. >> well, duh. he is the leader of the democratic party. you would assume that he would be political, but wouldn't they know that david paterson would leak this immediately so that he looks as though he is being bullied by the white house and helps him with his base? >> you know, i totally agree with you, andrea, it is an interesting back and forth here. the question was before any of

this happened, could david paterson possibly believe he could win? now the question is he clearly believes he is going to win and can win, they may that picked that scab rather than help it heal. >> looks like possible matchups, woe lose badly to rudy giuliani in the general election and would lose to andrew cuomo in a primary, if cuomo could be persuaded to do it t so, this might have been designed to given a drew cuomo some political cover for taking it on. >> you have been around politics a long time, andrea. that is an impetus to cuomo saying if you got into this race, you wouldn't have to worry about the white house being behind governor paterson. a bigger issue, andrea you have competitive house races, especially upstate new york in 2010 as well as redistricting in 2011. more than just hot governor of new york is. democrats worry if paterson, their nominee, could pull down

some of the house members and cost them the governorship, going into the census and the redistricting, redraws the congressional and state legislative level. >> how about losing the senate seat well? >> you bet. always on the market, though i think there is a favorite at the moment. >> chris cillizza, thanks for the update. more from his blog at washington.post.com/the fix. among our guests tomorrow on the show, one president and ceo, david lane. contessa brewer picks up our coverage next on msnbc, the place for politics. get wrapped up in the luscious taste of butternut squash, blended with delicate herbs. v8 golden butternut squash. from campbell's. a soup so velvety and delicious you won't be able to contain yourself. campbell's v8 soups.

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playing politics? why would the president want new york governor david paterson to bow out of next year's governor's race? the white house denies it. paterson won't talk about it. we will dig deeper to find out what's going on.

the president definitely pushing for health care overall but whether a public option is part of that, well, we get real with a north carolina father and son and their challenge on private insurance and what their representatives want to accomplish in washington. a preacher's daughter on myspace falls in love with a rapper named psychosam. now, police say she may have invited the killer who murdered her and her family. an ageing population and a stern warning from scientists. alzheimer's and dementia, a growing problem for senior citizens. the science behind a failing mind. we have a jam-packed hour ahead here on msnbc. i'm contessa brewer. let's get do it. we begin with the president, on message and on air. tonight, the president hits the late show with david letterman and took over the sunday talk snows a five-network sweep. some republicans think the president should stop hogging the spotlight. >> the president is selling something at people and frankly, they are not buying. he has been on everything but the food channel.

>> mike joins us from the white house. what is he hoping to accomplish by repeating the same message but on a lot of different outlets? >> reporter: some famous thoughtful person said the medium is the message that is what happened yesterday. the fact he set this record by flooding five sunday morning public affairs talk shows, we are all talking about it today. he didn't break any new ground in terms of news and one of the tenents of messaging here in washington political communication is repetition and consistency. certainly, the president is practicing that, ever since his speech to a joint session of congress. he has had rallies in minnesota. add rally next door here at the university of maryland. he went on these five shows yesterday and repeated his mantras about cost containment, about bending the cost curve, about covering uninsured americans, about the benefits to insured americans in his health care proposal. so he is really beating the drum. you mentioned he is going to be on letterman tonight. taking a detour from the speech of the united nations general assembly and a lot of very important