free. free. free. free. free radio dot com. but can they alone show where you'll get the real headlines with none of them are safe or can live in washington d.c. now today we'll speak with lawrence wilkerson colin powells former chief of staff about president obama's speech tonight on withdrawing troops from afghanistan also take a look at what the chairman ben bernanke had to say in his second press conference and let's just say that it wasn't good news and then we'll look into an f.b.i. raid that took place last night some reports are saying that it might have to do with an attempted crackdown on world security or have all the more free tonight but

first let's take a quick look at what your mainstream media is missing. so tonight at eight pm president obama will be giving a speech to the nation announcing his plan his timetable for withdrawing troops from afghanistan and the mainstream media actually notice this time. tonight tonight president obama outlines the beginning of the end of u.s. military involvement in afghanistan now sources tell c.n.n. that the president will announce ten thousand american troops will be coming home by the end of this year and for eighteen months our troops will begin to come home . tonight president obama is planning to make good on the promise he made in december two thousand years of debate over iraq and terrorism have left our unity on national security issues in tatters so the cost is enormous congressman hunter as you know but the argument is that if you draw down too quickly and you walk away

from it now that everything we've spent so far as structurally the lives that have been given. that becomes a waste. you know i'm not for some of these people it actually seems like they just woke up from a ten year long slumber and realize you hey we're in a war and we're really you know what it might have been a good idea to start asking questions as to whether or not the money spent the lives lost or worth it i don't know how about any time after two thousand and one when the taliban actually fell for a little while when al qaeda was mostly routed out of afghanistan you know it's been almost ten years since that you realize that right now don't get me wrong at least the mainstream media is paying attention to the issue today and for that i applaud that but again the notion that i actually have to applaud them for paying attention to america's longest war well that's pretty pathetic but if all you care about today is hearing a number and moving on with your life then go watch that if you want to think about what that number actually means what thirty three thousand fewer troops means and

you can come here because i can begin to tell you right now that out of one hundred thousand that doesn't sound all that much i mean that there are people in this country who want to have a permanent presence in afghanistan and they don't care how much it costs in blood or money we've already seen reports that secret negotiations are basing are going on and if you thought of the death of osama bin laden was a turning point in the war on terror then you were right this is a turning point for the the worst. because since then both the obama administration and congress have all doubled down on expanding it be a drone strikes in yemen a drone base being built somewhere in the persian gulf or the reauthorization for four more years of the patriot act and so on and so forth so that's what we'll get into tonight and that's what the mainstream media will miss.

no matter what president obama announces tonight we've got to realize that it still doesn't mean the war in afghanistan is coming to a close to new york times the washington post reporting the president is going to remove it ten thousand troops by the end of two thousand and eleven and the rest of the surge goes by summer of two thousand and twelve but even if fifty thousand troops were to leave by the end of june and well that still leaves big eight thousand more we've seen these end dates come and go and even a transition to afghan control of security at twenty fourteen valens been walked back by military officials they go officials to and reports have said that secret negotiations for a permanent u.s. base in afghanistan have been underway so this is a long ways from over so what's the real course of action that needs to be needs to be taken what are the chances for peace talks with the taliban to be successful and it will this be our final war of a large ground troops at the extended global war on terror is fought with drones and special ops teams from pakistani government discusses with me is lawrence wilkerson retired u.s.

army colonel and former chief of staff to colin powell or and thanks so much for being here tonight and for so for starters do you know any information that i don't like i said in the new york times the washington post are saying that they got a call from the white house telling them before the speech that it's going to be ten thousand al by end of two thousand and eleven and the rest of the surge by summer summer of two thousand and twelve can you confirm that you know anything else i don't know anything else was. do you know that. a little like you lord the fact that the media are paying attention to it finally it's understandable why they're not no one's really fighting in afghanistan other than the foreign legion we've created with our forces but they're missing a huge and we're going to buy that but no one's fighting other than that the foreign legion that we've created well it's what we've done less than one percent of this country believe in dying for the rest of this country and so why should anyone pay attention to their son or daughter's not being in danger in afghanistan and there's no possibility for them to be in danger this is a this is

a military that rapidly is becoming like the french foreign legion i want to say that in all of this though i haven't heard the central issue i've heard it on the periphery but i haven't heard in the mainstream the situation is pakistan i knew you were going to say that well we won't get into that but it will ok if i were you want to get into pakistan right now then we can segue there first let's start with some of these issues as in if we do leave let's say if we take thirty three thousand troops out now that we still have the other you know the fill out the other one hundred thousand troops like i said there are now negotiations supposedly for permanent basing in afghanistan is all of that having to do with pakistan mean do you think that afghanistan is going to turn into the next germany or the next japan where we just constantly have fifteen thousand troops right on the side i think you're looking at unless the fiscal situation stocks it and there's a good chance it might i think you're looking at iraq and afghanistan being permanently garrus and for the next half century or more and it has to do with

everything from the what the military is calling the arc of crisis which constitutes everything from really the eastern border of turkey all the way over to zhejiang province in china central asia if you will and it also has to do with oil and gas if you look at the way down of pipelines in the world envisioned under construction and you're seeing the future. that's the future renewals are running out by two thousand and fifty twenty seventy five at the latest we're probably going to be at the last drops of oil. this is the future you're looking at the future of conflict you're looking at the future of security needs all across that region and when you talk about the future of conflict do you really think that basing and that large numbers of troops play into that because i think that the tradition is very good is the traditional stereotype but are we moving away from that are we moving towards their own welfare but we saw what a smaller special operations teams we thought we were remember general jones when

he was commandant of the marine corps and earlier nato commander and talking about lily pads and simply balancing in and balancing out when necessary i think that strategy has been royally discredited by the problems we've had with everyone from respect it's time to talk to whomever we've had to have overflight rights and basing rights with so we feel like we need troops garrus and in the region in order to secure our interest but yet we keep asking are the pentagon's asking for five billion more dollars worth of drones for the very next year i mean i guess it's just going to be a mix of the two billions i just went through a defense budget exercise this morning several hours of it we're looking at ways to cut the defense budget because we are now spending half of the world's money on arms on our military or on our security establishment if you will in this close everything from nuclear to aircraft carriers and there are some real demands to cut that budget now and those demands are only going to grow as our fiscal situation worsens so we talk about garrison troops in other areas and yet at the same time we

still have about one hundred fifty thousand and europe we still have about forty fifty thousand in korea in okinawa we're going to bring some of these troops home if we're going to garros and these other places i'm not even sure in a year or two are going to be able to find the physical realities that will allow us to garrison the anywhere so this is going to be a real battle in the crime. and they also where as we try to determine just how much we should be spending on this hugely expensive instrument now we call the armed forces it is a hugely expensive instrument you definitely are right there i want to ask you if we do let's say have this permanent presence you know a rock is one thing but in afghanistan in particular then what does that mean for all of these negotiations peace talks with the taliban they just want a foreign presence out and i mean it's i think we're now i think what it means at least in part is to try to come to some kind of an accommodation with at least a portion of their leadership so that this reality can take place i just say so we

can leave and there are some troops going to the same way in iraq we're going to have to talk to a lot of people about leaving troops in iraq when we say we're going to leave them for example in the kurdish region because that's the most amenable to our presence is going to do for them to reconcile it with other people in the region will own other people in iraq so yes i think some of these talks are going to be aimed at reconciling those with whom we will say we have made a deal and who maybe the government in afghanistan will say it's made a deal although that's very doubtful especially if cars are remains that they are the government that's part of the talks i'm sure that when we say talks we really mean pride is a lot of money flying around that's got to be a huge part of it because that seems to be the only thing we know how to do over there and the corruption we've created in doing that as karzai has pointed out to his own purposes of course but it's true it's acar we've created corruption factor that probably is greater than the one it was there before we intervened. now you say of course you're working right now on cutting us defense budget we keep hearing

these calls that we can't afford these wars anymore and you know i think that's unfortunate but that's one of the reasons that people actually start paying attention to the fact that we're in a war but that's all they've got if that's what at least drives them to want to realize that we're going broke because of it and i think it's good but there are always those people that are just going to want to keep fighting where war is around the world and we have actually a clip of two of them which are very outspoken voices but they definitely aren't the only ones. if you think the pathway to the g.o.p. nomination in two thousand and twelve is to get the proc obama's left only afghanistan and iraq you're going to meet a lot of headwinds are you fearful that there is an isolationist streak running through the u.s. in part we would drew from afghanistan one time we withdrew from afghanistan and the taliban came but then surely followed by al qaeda followed by attacks on the united states of america. and that was senator lindsey graham of course talking

about libya we would be stupid if we actually forced the president to get us out of a war that was illegal to go into in the first place senator john mccain the republican party is using this word isolationist and just throwing it on everyone like it's the dirtiest word you could possibly imagine one of the suspects because they're scared to death of the isolationists within their own rights because they got their way there is there even such a thing as a real isolation as well if they were trying relation it's i would not couch at that way at this moment more i would call conservatives and they see the trillions of dollars that are being poured down the rathole of afghanistan and the trillions of dollars that were poured down the rathole of iraq and they don't like it they don't like it at all i add to that the money that is now being screened in when you buy a president who went to war without consulting anybody in the legislative branch of government is or is like let's talk about that president because you know when bob woodward's wars book obama's. came out and suddenly they had this great insight

into how it was that we came to this decision or the obama administration came to the decision to send the initial troop surge or those thirty three thousand troops and it seemed like he was really getting strong arms by those around him by general petraeus and the like this time it's being reported that he went with joe biden's plan when it came to you know the timetable in the numbers and he's going to give us instead of what the pentagon and the and shreyas wanted which is the of course they want this to be as a small and as minuscule as possible does that mean he's learning i'm not sure you're right in characterizing the pentagon and warning this could be small and miniscule well the pentagon did say that they think of the troop surge should stay until the end of twenty little ok fine this is the great giant building over across there are people of the building where the right or it would love to shut down morning and they would love to leave maybe a few troops to garrison a few places and make sure they go what a culture of sleep with cheap but they don't want to stay there forever and there

are people who feels like they are about right they understand what it's doing and they understand a hundred billion dollars a year perhaps because it's moving. against the defense budget and they understand what they've got to do to assure the security of the country in the future against a range of threats and afghanistan and iraq frankly are dragging a lot of money out of that potentiality so there's just not enough money to do it all well are going to start seeing a lot more money out of general david petraeus of course is now leaving aside the pentagon and he's heading over to the cia but this is a man who has made statements that he thinks that we should be in afghanistan for decades so i'm just curious how much more money we can start seeing flowing over to the intelligence agencies we know like i said ready eighty billion now yemen and we are increasing in the cia's taking over drone strikes in yemen eighty billion dollars i think is sufficient for the intelligence community all seven. i'd hate to see that budget go up much more like to see it used a lot more efficiently

a lot more effectively i think what we've got is a situation here where we've panetta at the defense department petraeus it's the president in a second term if he's elected if he's reelected i think we've got a situation where we're going to see some real trick pony and cuts in defense budget but the president is not going to approach that until panetta had a chance to get in and feel his way around and see what the best way to do that is both bureaucratically and then in terms of strategy and the president is reassured of his second term and the kind of flexibility and freedom that his second term will give him to be more forward leaning he has a stablished his national security bone a few days now he put to the wrist all the talk about him being a manchurian candidate or a muslim in disguise or whatever when he killed bin laden i mean here's the guy he may be completely the opposite direction which i think is part of the problem so of course he got osama bin ladin and that's going to be on his record but now he's

expanding the executive power is far far and away more than you could say of the bush administration referring to libya and you're right and i don't wonder at this point after doing some research and looking into it and talking to people i don't understand the decision about the only indication i've got that gives me some real . something i can grasp is really really cynical and that's a fact that goldman sachs and waltzed hold were about ninety percent of the sovereign wealth fund that they'd taken over for gadhafi and khadafi got so angry at him he was ready to throw them out of libya maybe even cut their throats before they left and so all the sudden we had calls as well we've got we've been down the cynical road here on the line issue already when it came to wiki leaks cables that said they could off easy relationship it sounded weird only to big oil companies rather why they had to if there how they're going to tell me one thing or in libya but i'd love to know i'd love to know but i'd still want to know why we're still in afghanistan first and foremost lauren thank you. it is thank you. all right still

to come tonight ben bernanke either thank chairman met for media today so what's he now saying about the economy and all of this being a q e three from breaking down your life with. us tonight. into the only military mechanisms if you don't work to bring justice or accountability. i have a right to know what my government should do if you want to know why i pay taxes. i would characterize obama as the charismatic. of american exceptionalism. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here's the part of it and realize that everything you say. i'm sorry

to say. let's not forget that we have been a part. i think either one is well. we're never going to set here for him safe to graduate because of the air freedom. for five. ft.

five. all right so we just discussed the impact on our military with the upcoming troop to trot well no matter how small it may be but since the u.s. has been involved in afghanistan our economy has been on a downward shift now we're in a recession some would argue it's another depression christine takes a look at the current state of the fragile economy. two and half years after the collapse of this nation's economy. the dust is still settling. and decisions on how best to rebuild are still in the works the economy needs to

grow to create jobs our basic challenge is trying to figure out how to make growth faster more sustainable translate to more drugs the lack of jobs has led to widespread homelessness in many of this nation's cities and a foreclosure rate still too high to give most americans any hope majority of americans are understanding that this is not the recession that they've experienced in the past this is the second great depression the unemployment rate still hovering above nine percent it is a grim picture painted even grimmer by some economists in the united states it's nine point one percent but then when you add in the underemployed the part time workers who want full time work and can't find discouraged workers. people who have dropped out of the labor market it's probably more like one out of five americans proposed solution to this thirty billion dollars small business lending bill signed

into law in september by president obama less than nine hundred applications have been filed and so far zero dollars have been given out and majority of small banks haven't even applied we do not have the capacity in the program does not give us the ability to force banks to lend many solutions proposed by the obama administration continue to ignite anger mr secretary i would just like to close by saying that on behalf of the business owner. years in north carolina and across this country you are wrong also happening and with no apparent progress vice president biden and lawmakers continue their struggle to find an agreement to raise the debt ceiling as the deadline looms closer there is increasing talk of a short term agreement kicking the can further down the road as well as reports of lawmakers resorting to creative accounting and gimmicks to exaggerate the size of spending cuts finally with q e two the six hundred billion dollar bond buying

program expected to end in a week and many worry about what lies ahead and if it will feel anything like this . or like this. what the implosion looks like in greece where austerity measures have already been put into place the unpopular solution it's angered the people that are. leaving many to wonder how a similar scene becoming to these shores i don't know what the end result will be but maybe there will be a night where americans get fed up with this and will be storming the gates of washington d.c. with pitchforks over the last few years the u.s. has had to borrow trillions of dollars to keep this country and of building operational the federal reserve bank has also printed hundreds of billions of dollars and confidence in the economy to try to how the frustrating part for so many americans that they haven't felt those results yet and they're starting to

wonder when and if things will ever get better in washington christine for now our team. well fed chairman ben bernanke he held around today of course this new era where the federal reserve actually gives press conferences prior to the event the federal eastwood's forecast for economic growth and employment this year lowering both for the second time they said that the economy is going to expand at a rate of two point seven to two point nine percent down from the over three predictions just months ago and they expect unemployment to average of around eight point six to eight point nine for at the end of the year thing is though they also decreased their outlooks for twenty twelve so the moment everyone was really waiting for was whether or not a third round of quantitative easing was in the stars as he was set to expire in just a matter of days of bernanke he said no dice so when we say do these bad presenters leave us any more enlightened or do they just remind us that it really doesn't seem like anything is being done to bring back jobs and get america back on track

joining me from our studio in new york to discuss this is joe lies involve deputy editor of the business insider joe thanks so much for coming on the show tonight it has been a while so we've missed you too long in the so like i said there were some whispers maybe he we three was in the mix but it seems like burning he pretty much put the kibosh on that are you shocked. a little bit actually i mean right though the consensus you know on markets have been that q.e. three probably isn't coming but there are as you say there have been these whispers he seemed pretty straightforward that we're not going to get more easing at least not now he clearly laid out the differences in the economy today versus last summer . the jobs picture is a little better than it was a year ago inflation is clearly hotter than it was last year and he laid that out pretty clearly and said the conditions just are there or more easing and you could sell the market got that reaction from it because you saw the dollar really pretty

much straight after we started talking about do you think that there should have been more easing i mean let's look at england for example right now they have inflation to worry about as well but the bank of england said that they might actually go for another round. it's injuries and the u.k. economy assuming that the world is slowing down across the board and u.k. economy is clearly one of the worst there may already be back in recession and so obviously they're looking to do whatever they can and it's certainly possible that by the end of the summer of the fall especially if they're spending cuts in d.c. which seems likely that the fed will say oh things are starting to go off the rails again we have to do something. at this point and i think bernanke is probably taking the right approach to it to really didn't do that much good the economy is not growing faster than it was last summer he says the jobs picture is a little brighter than it was i think that's debatable but you know it's hard to see what good positive effects of q.e.

two were so there's doesn't seem to be any good reason to double down at this point but what would you call his approach because i don't really see and i think congress doing very much right now that we don't see the fed do anything it's kind of this hope and wait and cross our fingers and maybe it'll get better one day. you know that's actually probably exactly his approach or maybe his approach could just be get back to me in a few months and i'll tell you what's up right now you just you know wait and see this isn't he doesn't feel compelled to go one way or the other inflation isn't that bad it's starting to cool off a little bit from what we saw commodity prices are coming down the economy the recovery is clearly weakening but it hasn't gone negative or anything yet so he's added to it is get back to me and look clearly serious but it shouldn't all be on him monetary policy is a pretty blunt instrument to deal with these things we are all about foreclosure crisis and various job you know supposed layoffs there's no monetary policy can

do there so you know. but the fact of the matter is what he has at his disposal is not particularly well suited for the problems the bill is today so now i definitely shouldn't be on all. an interesting lap when he was asked about austerity measures he said that no drastic cuts right now are not the way for us to create more jobs do you think that joe biden who is actually meeting with you know with his bipartisan debt grew that he was just jumping for joy clapping his hands and maybe repeating bernanke he's words about meeting. well i'm sure he was glad to see his position indicated unfortunately suspect that these words can have no impact whatsoever you know this debate i don't think he's been it is not a like character he's not influential within either party in particular about the republicans these days so what he's saying makes sense is that it's really true this idea that if we cut spending will create jobs it's incorrect but whether his

message is particularly useful i kind of doubt it now i'm wondering. if he is telling us though you know we often hear from ben bernanke you that sure the recovery is still going along it's just slowing down a little bit we're in a low but then the fed they not only downgraded their forecast or you know economic growth for this year and for employment but also for twenty twelve so does that mean that they're actually telling us that this isn't just a rough patch this is going to last a long time. yeah it seems like they did kind of say that it is interesting because you know the joke is that bernie he loves has been using this word transitory to describe the weakness that come out of the price inflation and so it seemed like you actually kind of did this towards this idea that there are bigger structural issues at play yes we're going to solve it is now and maybe some of it has to do with japan or the surging oil prices due to what's going on in the mideast but he

also seemed to acknowledge that in a way that he hadn't before and there are bigger problems with the economy just be huge housing problem the ongoing the leveraging most americans are still have too much credit card debt by historical standards and have to come down so we did seem to subtly tip is heading that direction and effect of the two thousand and twelve economic growth was downgraded as well is another confirmation that even the fed doesn't think this is just a temporary soft all right why i guess i mean the president wasn't completely useless but i did hear that some people didn't come back for the second time around or at least the media organizations out there you know want to thank you so much for joining us tonight thank you. are coming out another installment of youth that i read it on your comment that you left on line about the stories we cover on the health and the f.b.i. earth is happening agents raided the data facility in northern virginia and confiscated several servers.