on booktv with peter baker. >> caller: hello.ick cheney is promoting his book and he is volunteering and bragging about having originated enhanced interrogation techniques, what the world knows is terrace treatment and are we ever going to realize what is what the rest of the world considers right and are we ever going to get prosecutions for these crimes? >> these are issues that we are still debating today. he mentioned president obama not only kept that program going that he believes that it is a useful tool of national security and there is honestly talk among some people would like to define prosecution on some of these issues and what people call torture. president obama decided he wasn't going to do that. he allowed an attorney reinvestigation. and so i think at the moment there is no vehicle is moving in that direction are trying to investigate. and he did find an owner banning the techniques that were in some of the programs that dick cheney and president bush had authorized. >> host: since the end of the bush administra

now, at risk of sounding a little bit too sincere, i am so proud of peter baker. i want -- when i saw the book come out i felt like i had an incredible sense of ownership and pride in that wanted it to do well. everyone should read it, savored . here here. i am actually already bought two copies. anyway, thank you all for coming. [applause] >> i'm here on behalf of all appeasers colleagues to say congratulations. the main reason you should read this book. that's so devastating. the theme with dick cheney sitting there is worth the price of the whole book. it just goes scene after scene faugh. we all know that he would write a fabulously entertaining book. a great surprise is how incredibly relevant to today that it is, how much the world has come around to the world of the bush years. civil liberties, nestle security, the economy, it is still weak after all these years. maybe even above all think about the origin of george bush. while the most impressive campaigns that we have seen in our lifetime contract to overcome a deeply unpopular congressional republican ca

we all knew that peter baker would write a fabulously reported entertaining book. the great surprise of the book is how incredibly relevant to today it is, how much the world has come around to the world of the low shears. iran and iraq, serious civil liberties national security the economy that is still weak after all these years and maybe even above all think about the origin of george bush. george bush rose to power on one of the most impressive campaigns we have probably seen in our lifetime trying to overcome a deeply unpopular congressional republican caucus. it's basically the same challenge that the republican party is today. a great thrill of the book is you are living in this entertaining past while you get to see the future as well so congratulations to peter, to susan and theo and everyone who worked on it. peter is either the nicest great journalist are the greatest nice journalists. thank you all. [applause] >> hi. my name is chris and i'm peter's editor. [applause] as an editor i go to lunch a lot and ever since peter delivered the book i have been b

probably were not going to help us anyway. >> clair in boynton beach florida, the last call for peter bakerrk times. >> mr. baker, i am very interested in your findings about the role of colin powell in the lead up to the iraqi war. i always felt he was very reluctant to go before -- i believe he testified about the weapons of mass destruction, at such a. my feeling was that if he had resigned in protest as to what they were doing in that the debt situation things may have been different. >> that's a good question and an important one. in fact, his deputy secretary of state at one point did, we reveal in the book, urge : bell to resign thinking that -- the argument being that the white house is using dollars a cover for policies that otherwise would not get as much public support. secretary paul did not see it that way. he did not resign, obviously. he spent a lifetime in the military and believe in being a good soldier. the truth is, he was reluctant about the iraqi war but never actually said no. he went to the president, brought along was that he had written out a long legal battle of th

peter baker has. it is an interesting book, easily reduced to sound bites but that what we do, screaming headline gates blasts obama and biden. does he criticize them? yes. there are criticisms. gates is the only defense two tary ever to serve different presidents of different parties a holdsover from george bush. republican so surprisingly he doesn't view democrats the same as republicans. but he is also critical of president bush on some things complimentary on president obama on others. nor nuanced and you might think but as john wrote bites have sound been weaponized already in war.ington's gwen: i read the op-ed that he wrote in the "wall street main topic ch his seems to be congress. >> he hates congress with a passion. moments when he is testifying and you wish to see the thought level because he measured and impressive, yes, senator, this is the way we view and good question but inside he i want to get out of here i want to rip this off because these people are idiots. it is interesting you le

joining me is the white house correspondent for "the new york times" peter baker.or joining us. no better person to talk to about this. congrats on breaking what i think is important and valuable information as we talk about what needs to be done or doesn't need to be done in terms of surveillance. i ask you, someone that knows this white house pretty well, did any part of what the president is going to propose to you tomorrow surprise you? was any out of character? the list seemed very much down the middle, nothing too extreme, yet nothing completely insignificant. >> he's trying to straddle a difficult line here, obviously, one that goes far enough in change at least in tone and procedure and transparency to give some comfort to civil liberties advocates and others in america who are concerned about the revelation that edward snowden as provided without going so far to create a rupture in the national security agencies which were worried they'd be handcuffed in purr suge terrorists. it's a tough line for any president to approach. it looks different from the poin

and to peter baker's point, you know this, when the obama folks first came into the white house, theyisdained, we're not school uniforms, we're doing big things behind the scenes. they were constantly saying that. they come out and make a big show about how they were scanning across the administration to find different policies that they could do on their own and they didn't come up with that much. if you look at the actual speech, he said i'm going to do a number of things but really gave a nod to the rule that congress has and kind of conceded that he can't do these massive things without congress having his back on that. >> now, matt, politico has a completely different take. their headline is obama's power play and stephanie simon says, "obama's pushing to push to take his executive order still and what constitutes as a single serving of potato chips and perhaps just how salty those chips should be. is he hemmed in or is this a huge power grab? >> you cannot allow him to regulate poe pat toe chips in this way. >> you don't like like you eat potato chips anyway. >> i don't. okay. y

asking the hardest questions indeed if you read recent books on president bush's administration, peter baker'sif you read study of the vietnam era, you would want to have the tough questions asked. >> schieffer: tom donilon thank you so much. we'll be back with personal thoughts in a second. of the little roomis the sy over the pizza place on chestnut street the modest first floor bedroom in tallinn, estonia and the southbound bus barreling down i-95. ♪ this magic moment it is the story of where every great idea begins. and of those who believed they had the power to do more. dell is honored to be part of some of the world's great stories. that began much the same way ours did. in a little dorm room -- 2713. ♪ this magic moment ♪ ♪ this magic moment (voseeker of the sublime.ro. you can separate runway ridiculousness... from fashion that flies off the shelves. and you...rent from national. because only national lets you choose any car in the aisle... and go. and only national is ranked highest in car rental customer satisfaction by j.d. power. (natalie) ooooh, i like your style. (vo) so do we,

news, breaking a couple stories this morning, related to the nsa, the first one by peter baker.e reports that the president, on friday, when he gives his speech about nsa reforms, will restrain some surveillance when it comes to accessing telephone data. he will keep many programs in place and he will ask congress to weigh in on some of these issues. the new york times, next to that, a piece about nsa using computer software to hack into nearly 100,000 computers around the world. it says that the technology, which the agency has used at least from 2008, relies on radio waves. in some cases, they are sent to the briefcase sized relay station that intelligent -- intelligence agencies can set up miles away from the target. in most cases, the hardware must be physically inserted by a spy or an unwitting user. more on the nsa today in the new york times this morning. on the front page of the wall street journal, a court has tossed out the rules of the road for the internet. a blow to the obama ministrations -- administration. federal rulest requiring broadband providers to treat all

peter baker and charlie savage.,esult, he seems to seems to leave in place many current programs, leaves in place many current programs but it embraces the spirit of reform. and keeps the door open to change later. rhetoric,s like more then it does changing today. does and we will have to work and -- wait until friday morning when he gives a speech to the justice department to see how specific he is going to be. committee that the advisor -- the advisory committee that he created, to come up with suggestions for change, issued an unclassified report with 46 recommendations. we will be able to go right down the scorecard and say that the president embraced this one and rejected that, punting some of the others. but he has decided not to take o command, whicher- have the same commander. the story that peter and charlie wrote this morning suggests that it may also reject a major recommendation that they had to the the database of all telephone numbers that we have been talking about, for telephone calls, out of the han

peter baker, david's colleague at "the times," had a piece over the weekend. saying he had a friend in silicon valley saying 90 but none of the people in his tech company were convinced edward snowden was a whistleblower and that every single person you talked to felt edward snowden was a traitor. i think we have seen this very deep polarization throughout the way we have reacted to these disclosures. it is not that we should shy away from stories where there is a polarization of opinion, but, in this case, we, as a news organization, "the guardian" and "the post," have big players in this story. there has been a lot of -- it has been a situation where you have to almost decide what kind of posture you will take, approaching these disclosures. in approaching these disclosures. for all those reasons -- none of these are issues we should be afraid of dealing with. but it is a really complicated story to report. >> it is easy to understand it if you are one of to the the outlets with actual access to the documents. we have been doing the primary reporting. initia

ema tell him i simply knew this because all the scenes during the bail review peter baker losses. aviation country in war or so of an icing that because they know everybody knows the posts faithful and coming flying disc you can carry him. it looks like not too many people known known to so many thoughts in co st still he fights the express or inexperience and cooking out of the team that really improvements than anybody looks very happy years of endless cockle hold it above the street lights and this is of course while the biggest accomplishments and the us is present in my angel to color in two thousand and eight and the posse direct flights on the lean times offering convenience. lol still makes the interaction of leo in the business sector and old school mon people warning people of law more convenient lie the yield on mom or easy and that given the fact that the kids always get the man for more to break flights so what does the state of cross strait no flights direct flights every week combing the flights to we have. and though warrant the plans to further expand to frustrate

reported in a piece today, which i found interesting that and this is like the third paragraph, peter baker and charlie savage, the result, projecting what he might say seems to be a speech that leaves in place many current programs, leaves in place many current programs but embraces the spirit of reform and keeps the door open to change later. and that sound like, that sound like more rhetoric and betting on the come than it does changing today. >> it sure does, charlie, and we will have to wait until friday morning when he gives the speech over at the justice department to find out how specific he is going to be. but there are a few things to look for. the committee that he, the advisory committee that he created to come up with suggestions for change issued an unclassified report and it had 46 recommendations, and we will be able to go right down the scorecard and say the president embraced this one, rejected that, and, you know, punted on some of the others, but realready know that he has decided not to separate out the nsa and the pentagon cyber command which right now have a similar -

peter baker writes about last night's state of the union.

peter baker did, a colleague at the time smack at a piece over the weekend where he quoted pierce swire which is what the presidents review group. he had a friend in silicon valley say 90% of the people in his tech company were convinced that edward snowden was a whistleblower and every single person he talked to in the national security establishment felt that edward snowden was a traitor -- and we have seen this deep polarization throughout the way we have reacted to these disclosures. it's not that we as journals should shy away from stories where there is a polarization of opinion but in this case you know because we as news organizations and the guardian and the post as well have been players actually in the story. you know there has been a lot of of -- it's been a situation where you have to almost decide what kind of posture you were going to take in approaching these disclosures. for all those reasons, i mean none of these are issues that we should be afraid of dealing with. this is a really complicated story to report. >> i think it's quite easy to -- with access to the documen

peter baker and charlie savage report that president obama will not endorse leaving bulk data in the custody of telecommunications form -- firms. can you explain this a little bit? the national security letters were not something that was given to the review committee to make recommendations on. i am surprised they made those recommendations. we have had the fbi before our committee and we have had a about what, if we follow the directions of the review committee, and evidently, the president agrees with the fbi director, it would inhibit our opportunity to go after terrorist. it may put more requirements on going after terrorists then you would before a grand jury for a common criminal in the united states. what was the other point? will not require core permission for security letters. he will not endorse leaving bulk data in the custody of telecommunication firms. guest: i don't know why he is making that recommendation. we all want to wait until the president makes his statement before we react to it. that gets back to some of the concerns that i said that i have. that would targ

times"rom "the new york -- this is from peter baker this morning, writing a preview on the president'speech. ilex -- our last call from california. the more and more i find out -- it just seems like we do not have anybody who's really president. it sounds like we have corporate companies. we were never supposed to have people that have -- that fight for their own companies. i mean every american, black, white, puerto rican. we are not being represented. we have been very asleep. so much stuff that gets covered up that we do not get to hear. wingnut sound like a but it is because i am native american and our country is out right now. host: when we come back we would turn our attention to the 2014 politics. two experts, jennifer duffy and nathan gonzales, will be here to break down the races to watch this year. on incomet winship inequality and income mobility. we are back in a moment. ♪ , i realize tax reform and entitlement reform will not be easy. the politics will be hard for both sides. none of us will get 100% of what we want. us alternative will cost jobs, hurt our economy, visit

host: this news analysis from peter baker, who writes in -- jerry is joining us from columbia city, indianalcome to the program. stutzman doing the weekly address earlier. i would like to read you something he said back in october. he stated "we are not going to be disrespected. something out of this and i don't know what that even is." we should run him for president. host: thank you for the call and common. michelle obama, who turned 50 last week, celebrating yesterday in the white house. the apa writing -- the ap writing this operation is a private affair. word has spread that the president has told guests to come prepared to dance. people will move in a buzz. and jay-z willng perform as well. you can read that story online from the hp website. terry is joining us from indiana. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. a host: how are you today echo caller: -- how are you today? caller: i am doing well. i just want to express myself as a democrat. bill clinton was the best president next to kennedy. 62 years old. i do remember. host: thank you for the call. maureen dowd writing

host: peter baker tweeted this out around midnight last night. guest: so the united states is going to go into another middle eastern civil war, essentially alone, to accomplish what? what has been accomplished over the past 10 years and iraq? very little. there are still suicide bombers blowing up weddings will blowing up churches. the lesson for america is that the best that we can hope for is to tamp down violence. provide a breathing space, that opportunity for the warring factions to reconcile. if they do not take that opportunity, there is not much more that the united states can do. another military engagement -- host: senators john mccain and lindsey graham, who supported surges in iraq and afghanistan -- one president obama withdrew all u.s. forces over the objections of military leaders and commanders on the ground -- guest: well, i think it is more specific to the situation on the ground. i don't think it has to do with our policy. thatolicy is to recognize we have tried and we have sacrificed considerably, both in in terms ofasury, am

part of it is affection for the dad, president bush 41, who's been in the news, peter baker's best-sellingg some of the same problems president bush did in adidn'ting some of the same national security pollties. so go to ed gillespie's senate web page, edforsenate.com, and on the home page, former white house aide. and you go in, and you see he was the counselor to president bush for the last 18 months of the bush administration. so, joe, this is going to be a great race. both sides will have tons of money. mark warner, democrat, who's certainly the favorite, but he's going to work downstate virginia this week, and ed gillespie's launch has helped him with fund-raising. this week, i got an e-mail with the subject line, here we go. and it's mark warner raising money, saying -- telling his donors he's running against a very credible washington insider. >> politico's meek allen. thank you. >>> coming up, our conversation with stanley mccyrystal. we'll get his take on the push to get all troops out of afghanistan. keeping up with these two is more than a full time job and i don't have time for

you know what's interesting is that i'm reading this peter baker book on the bush administration, hetration that he feels as though everything was too broken up, too partisan and president bush did have a recess appointment with ambassador bolton. >> i think so, but the way that the nlrb appointments went, the facts were far different from the bolton appointment. i think when you have -- again, look what president obama has done on the friday night amnesty moves, now on this federal government worker hiking their wage. you understand why a lot of people out there both have little to no respect for what's happening in washington and why people think this is truly the imperial presidency. the president wants to just be king for a day and unfortunately, this day seems like it's never ending for the american workers. >> and we're begging for transparency as it was promised to us, but the more we find out about certain things, almost more scary it gets. we're finding out about the secret abortion fee, which was forecast about four years ago and sort of a warning from some pro-life communi

peter baker writes about last night's state of the union.romises come as he tries to rejuvenate a presidency. he uses annual stain you the union -- the annual state of the his owndress to rely on authority. what is your take on the president's fifth state of the union address. democrats, (202) 585-3880. republicans, (202) 585-3881. independents, (202) 585-3882. send us a tweet, @cspanwj or post your comments on facebook.com/cspan. here's with the president had to say last night about the state of our union. [video clip] market,ounding housing a manufacturing sector that is adding jobs for the first time since the 1990's, more oil produced at home than we buy from the rest of the world, the first time that is happened in nearly 20 years. [applause] our deficits, cut by more than half. for the first time, in over a decade, business leaders around the world have declared that china is no longer the world's number one place to invest, america is. host: his fifth annual state of the union address, talking about where our economy is. what did you

baker stay so slim with a hectic lifestyle? two words. dennis rodman is back in north korea. >>> should rand be banned? peter king continues to not be a fan of rand. senator paul is unfit to serve in office. they say they are filing a class action lawsuit over domestic surveillance and it would be good for edward snowden to, quote, share a prison cell. take a a listen, listeners. >> rand paul is spreading peer among the american people. i understand the show is also comparing clapper to snowden. to me either he is totally uninformed or he is part of the hate america crap. in anyway, he doesn't deserve to be in the united states senate for spreading that miss perception and lies. >> i wish he could be more forceful, but whatever. if only members of congress could learn to cooperate like these two. >> go get it. go get your frisbie. go get it chase. go get it chase. >> go get it beptly. good boy. >> that is bipartisan ship. it gets the inexperience out of the way. i like to call him paul ranked and was he uninformed? >> king is right in the sense that rand paul was -- i think she grandstanding and playing to t