>> nothing is on cruise control in centcom and i would encourage that we don't take that approach. we should always be looking at what's happening out there for opportunities to, you know, change our footprint, whether it's increasing or decreasing the activities we're doing. in general i think we should always be looking at what's happening out there and assessing that. i think the president's decisions have been very fortuitous to us. the decision to stay as opposed to going down to 5,500 which is where we would generally be right about now and keeping it at a much higher level around 8,400 i think was a wise one and i think it sent a strong message to the coalition and sent a strong message to the afghan forces and the people of afghanistan and like wise the additional authorities that have been granted to us i think have helped us immensely and have helped us help the afghans immensely. i'm very keen to keep that going into the future as we kind of continue to assess the environment and other things we might need to do to keep the afghans going. i think afghanistan is a country

any broad comment on the strategy. >> nothing on cruise control in centcom. we should also be looking at what's happening and for opportunities to change the footprint whether increasing or decreasing the activities they are doing. in general we should always be looking at what's happening and assessing that. i think the president's decisions have been very fortuitous to us. the decisions stay as opposed to going down to 5500, which is where we would generally be right now, keeping much higher level. around 8400 was a very wise one and i think it spent a strong message to coalition and certainly sent a strong message to the afghan forces and people of afghanistan and likewise additional authorities granted to us i think have helped us immensely and helped us help the afghans immensely. i'm very keen to keep that going into the future as we kind of continue to assess the environment and other things we might need to do to keep the afghans going. i think afghanistan is a country worth fighting for. as a military member who went with the first wave of forces in

i think the thing that is important to recognize for me as centcom commander is that i'm not in this by myself. the seams around centcom as you point out, libya, turkey, russia, india, sudan, horn of africa as just some examples. these are areas that have challenges as well. so we have to think transregional. we have to look at the threats that transcend across these. i think when we limit ourselves, we limit our thinking, limit operations, limit how we organize to bureaucratic boundaries, we limit our options to address the threats we have. i think there's been some very good work done, largely through the leadership of the chairman to develop a national military strategy that capitalizes on the transregional aspect of our threats. transregional, multi-functional, multi-domain aspects of all of our threats. it is going to begin to change how we think about command and control and how we think about relationships between the various combatant commanders. my advice to the incoming administration is build on that. i think it's the right direction for us to move here in the future. >> t

>> nothing is on cruise control in centcom and i would encourage that we don't take that approach. we should always be looking at what's happening out there for opportunities to, you know, change our footprint, whether it's increasing or decreasing the activities we're doing. in general i think we should always be looking at what's happening out there and assessing that. i think the president's decisions have been very fortuitous to us. the decision to stay as opposed to going down to 5,500 which is where we would generally be right about now and keeping it at a much higher level around 8,400 i think was a wise one and i think it sent a strong message to the coalition and sent a strong message to the afghan forces and the people of afghanistan and like wise the additional authorities that have been granted to us i think have helped us immensely and have helped us help the afghans immensely. i'm very keen to keep that going into the future as we kind of continue to assess the environment and other things we might need to do to keep the afghans going. i think afghanistan is a country

general votel: nothing is on cruise control in centcom. i would encourage that we don't take that approach. we should all be looking at what is happening out there for opportunities to change your footprint, whether it is increasing or decreasing. in general, i think we should always be looking at what is happening out there. i think they president's decisions have been very fortuitous to us. the decision to stay as opposed to going at a 5500, which is where we would generally be right about now, and keeping it at a much higher level, around 8400 come i think it was a very wise one. i think it's at a very strong message to the coalition, a strong message to the afghan forces and the people and afghanistan. and the a 30's that have been granted to us i think it helped us immensely -- and the authorities that have been granted to us have helped us immensely. and we can keep that going as we assess the environment to keep the afghans going. i think the -- i think afghanistan is a country worth fighting for. as well as a military member who we

centcom commander, a warrior diplomat that knows the region.e huge swings of policy from this guy. it depends on what trump you believe. what do you think is coming. if you think it's the trump who campaigns saying, we need to go after isis immediately, we need to ratchet up the war, i want a 30-day plan. i don't know that general mattis is going to be giving some sort of massive increase to that campaign. that would surprise everybody. if it's the trump we're seeing post-election surrounding himself with, frankly, very establishment people, very insider people, you'll get, as derek was saying, not that much of a difference. an extension of the war until something new comes along in the first year. but really, you know, this is a guy who has fought in iraq, who has known the region for years, he knows the complexities of the middle east, he knows the pentagon's plan of action right now, using local fighters to fight, keeping america out of entanglements beyond what's necessary. i think we'll see incremental things from him instead of massive ch

a really great question for the centcom commander. i would encourage, when you have the opportunity, to ask him about that. i think what the secretary talked about is there is -- i mean come as we talked about earlier, the islamic state isn't and syria.d to iraq most of these violent extremist organizations are not just limited to specific geographic areas. they do have them horns. they do use virtual means to put out a toxic narrative, to influence people, to create disruption and conflict in other areas. i think we have to look at these threats much more trans regional and and we can't limit ourselves to specific areas. i think what the secretary is talking about is making sure that we have a process, both in the military and across the broader government, that allows us to look at this much more holistically. and to bring the power of all of our capabilities, our diplomatic ourr, our military power, intelligence community power, our informational power, or economic power, to really address these issues. these are just military prob

military commanders were still unveiling the political wisdom they were altering their intelligence at centcomsee this playing out over and over again. it is an american pattern rment on the one hand it speaks well to us we are a democracy. we don't want to fight wars. we have no desire to invade other countries. but on the other hand it is depressing to think we can only defend ourselves after getting a pretty bad bloody nose. >> what are the lessons we can learn if any? >> the top thing is better intelligence sharing between the local and federal level. our police departments all around the country are picking up intelligence on the communities and potential radicals every single day and they have a real trouble finding will at that channels to get that to the right place where it is the fbi or military or somewhere else. engines tuting a regular channel for that to be compiled and acted upon is the most pressing national security challenge the united states has facing islamic terrorism. >> thank you andrew peek for joining us this morning. >> one of the greatest story i covered was flying w

whether you're talking about centcom, paccom, which you're talking about asia, the middle east, europe, the different pressure points and hot spots that are around the globe. to know that mr. trump is seeking advice and counsel from individuals that have that kind of world view and that kind much on the ground firsthand insight, intelligence and experience, i think is just really comforting to people who have said jobs, economic security, national security are the top issues in the campaign. we've had a hard-fought campaign over those. people want to see action and wolf, i think they're going to be very pleased with this. >>> let me move to the story that jim scuitto just reported on. it's a significant story now seven democrats have written a letter to president obama that reads in part -- we believe there is additional information that should be declassified and released to the public. we are conveying specifics through classified channelses. will republicans work with does thats to fully investigate this very serious allegations that the russian government directly interfered in the

don't have any real previous talks, but of course i know who the general and he was a commander of centcom and we know in israel a lot about him. about his stance and what we see in the press. from my point of view, very positive. >> obviously, there are many things president-elect has said with regard to the state of israel. one of the things he has said, i believe he said on day one he would want to move the capital to jerusalem. obviously, that is, i think it is fair to say, easier said than done. do you think that he should do that on day one? >> first of all, i think that, you know, we see before in every elections, the same promise to remove the embassy to jerusalem. but i think that we will wait and we will see. and you know, a year ago, i was here. it was much easier. i was in your position. now as a minister, i try to be politically correct. it is very difficult. we will wait and we will see. i think it is worth something publicly, strong public commitment and we will wait. >> i won't do too many follow-ups on this one, but as a matter of whether or not the move itself would be pe

>>russell: another former centcom commander is up for the position. david petraeus being considered for secretary of state, though his conviction for leaking classified information could prove problematic. petraeus would have to notify his parole officer when travelling outside of north carolina. of course, trump could pardon him. also since he retired in 2011, petraeus would need a congressional waiver to serve. >>jennifer:am stopping by trump towers later today. she's going to discuss her future in his administration. she's already an adviser for the transition team and trump may appoint her as drug czar. >>russell: trez obama will be in tampa tuesday to give a final speech on counterterrorism strategy. he'll be at macdill. women stationed there, including special ops teams who have played key roles in counterterrorism efforts during the obama presidency. the president's last visit to macdill was in september of 2014. jiep pearl harbor veteran is returning to hawaii. >>russell: and alcides segui hopes to talk to him before he leaves on his big trip.

and our centcom commander was in the same area just yesterday and gave a very detail to the president this morning. and all of us witnessed this unprecedented cooperation between the iraqi security forces and kurdish peshmerga which has been essential to this campaign. our coalition since the beginning of this campaign about two years ago, we trained about 65,000 iraqi personnel who are now fighting professionally and fighting heroically. they're trapped in mosul, unable to resupply or replenish their dwindling ranks. throughout this campaign we've conducted over 500 air strikes, destroyed about 100 car bombs, 100 tunnels, 300 bunkers. this is ongoing every single day. we're often asked how long is this going to take, and the answer is, in mosul, it will take as long as it takes. it's useful to remember other campaigns against isil, cobauny, raqqah, significant campaigns. each of them took about six months. some have gone faster. fallujah went faster than anticipated. and the key thing is what isil does in these cities, they set up concentric rings of defenses. once you break through

security and whether or not they're shaky on those most important issues, while president obama was at centcom giving his national security address there on cnn was the vice president-elect, having to explain why or if the transition sought security cleaners and gave a formal government transition role to the son of mike flynn, the son of mike flynn, the national security adviser designate, the son of general flynn is a stated fan of alex jones and info wars. he has served as his dad's chief of staff while trafficking publicly in truly insane conspiracy theories including that hillary clinton was secretly running a child sex slave operation out of the back of a d.c. pizza restaurant. >> you must be aware that the transition team put in for security clearance for michael g. flynn, the son of retired general flynn? >> i'm aware in talking to general flynn that his son was helping ask scheduling, jake. >> no, but you put in for security clearance for him. >> helping his dad arrange for meetings and provide meetings, but that's no longer the case. >> were you aware that the transition had put in f

petraeus' bio, he served 37 years in the army, four-star general, former cia director and former centcomer, nonetheless, do you think edward snowden has a point? >> well, no, i wouldn't -- i would not give the credit to edward snowden who clearly was egregious in his actions and put a whole host of great americans and folks that were out there doing their very, very best on our nation's behalf. and to compare the two is faulty and is a narrative i wouldn't try to honor with a response. what i find interesting is that now there's this, what i would call this just position of argumentation. clearly what snowden is looking to get is a ticket back in the united states. he's second-guessing his terrible mistake and the fact that he broke the law and now is in purgatory to live in russia the rest of his life. the second he steps on a friendly nation easter terror or comes back to the united states, the man is going to be put in handcuffs and will be arrested and charged and arrested. so i understand what he's trying to achieve, but let's not honor that comment. and try to make a comparison wit

. >> reporter: since retiring as centcom kmancommander, he's cril of the obama administration. >> the next president the inherit a mess. >> reporter: like trump, mattis is hawkish on iran. >> the iran amtrak regiian regi most enduring threat to stability and peace in the middle east. >> reporter: still trump and mattis disagree on several key foreign policy challenges. trump has praised russia. >> wouldn't it be nice if we did get along with russia? >> reporter: mattis sees russia and putin as a threat. >> putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules, and the west will try to follow the rules. that is a very dangerous dichotomy. >> reporter: trump is in favor of bringing back the illegal practice of water boarding terrorists. >> i think water boarding's fine. >> reporter: mattis opposes water boarding. trump telling "the new york times" that during a meeting mattis told him it is ineffective. >> i said, what do you think of water boarding? he said, i've never found it to be useful. he said, i've always found give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers, and i do

mattis, who was the chief of centcom would need a waiver from congress because he has been on active duty within the last seven years. something that the law says he cannot be on in order to be in line for secretary of defense. but we should point out that the trump transition team, a spokesman just tweeted in the last several minutes that no final decision has been made on the position of secretary of again defense. >> so we'll see what happens. but it looks like he has that job all lined up. thanks very much jim acosta. let's get more on donald trump's tour of that carrier plant in indianapolis. suzanne malveaux is on the screen for us in that was a classic unscripted trump moment as he explained the deal to keep at least some jobs here in the united states. >> reporter: it really was unscripted. he was subdued at times, very relaxed and a little self-deprecating. he did not use a teleprompter, he did tour the plant on the floor getting a wild applause from that group and then during his speech, he actually told a very funny story about the fact that he didn't even remember making

. >> since retiring at centcom commander mattis has been critical of the obama administration. >> theext president is going to inherit a mess. >> reporter: like trump mattis is hawkish on iran. >> the iranian regime in my mind is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the middle east. >> reporter: still trump and mattis disagree on several key foreign policy challenges. trump has praised russia. >> wouldn't it be nice if we actually did get along with russia? >> reporter: mattis sees russia and putin as a threat. >> putin goes to bed at night knowing he can break all the rules and the west will try to follow the rules. that is a very dangerous dichotomy. >> reporter: trump is in favor of bringing back the illegal practice of water boarding terrorists. mattis opposes water boarding. trump telling the "new york times" that during a meeting mattis told him it is in effective. >> i said what during of water boarding? he said i've never found it to be useful. he said i've always found give me a pack of cigarettes and a couple of beers and i do better with that than i do

meeting with retired navy admiral, believed to be on the list for secretary of state, as is former centcom commander general david petraeus. he's chosen retired general john kelly to head the department of homeland security. retired general mattis tapped to his defense secretary and retired general michael flynn is his pick for national security adviser. let's bring in national security analyst juliette klime to talk about this. the question is simply is he tiring too many generals? >> i think if he hires all of them open the list, the answer is absolutely yes. you know, individually, each of these picks makes sense. it's sort of like halloween candy, each of them may be good but eventually you want a steak or a salad. the idea a general by their experience is the best experience for each of these different agencies really sort of underestimates what these different agencies do. and i think puts an overemphasis on that sort of chain of command training that so many of these generals have lived under. and the department i worked at, the department of homeland security for example, it's not

. >> as you know, the head of centcom and others have said that russia is the number one geopoliticalof the united states. a recent statement by the director of the u.s. counter intel engines and security center says russians are estimated to have 100 spies on u.s. soil. how concerned are you about russia right now? >> if it's 100 russians and we know it's thousands chinese, we have to look at both. president obama did a pivot to asia, and that pivot was all about the expandive behavior of china. i think president-elect trump is dealing with two fronts, a very activist, small power, russian, for all of its military strength has an economy about the size of italy. and china. they're both flexing their muscle after eight years of feeling emboldened by the policies of this administration, and in fairness, the previous eight years in which much of it america was distracted with two wars. >> the united nations security council could vote on a resolution to demand an immediate halt to israeli settlement activities. sources are telling us the u.s. was planning to either abstain or vote yes o

pro-settlement right wing of israel's right wing but there's also the mattis nomination, the head of centcom, general james mattis who said at various times in a specific interview, i think it was 2013, where he talked about his experience as head of central command in the middle east and understanding the negative impact of the israeli/palestinian conflict on u.s. interests in the region, supporting secretary kerry's negotiations process, a very realist analysis of the way that this conflict undermines u.s. relationships in the region. i'm interested to find out how that conversation's going to go -- >> yeah. >> and what that impact will be. >> that's a really excellent point. matt duss, i appreciate it. >>> moments ago donald trump emerged from mar-a-lago and it turned into the closest thing to a press conference that we've seen from the president-elect in months. here it is in full. >> hello, everybody. everybody okay? you all know don king? who doesn't know don king? >> great to be an american. now with our leader, we're going to make new days, make america great again. >> is your israel

news organizations that he had been chosen to run the pentagon, the retired four-star former head of centcom and a life-long marine. so, we will get a warning when the motorcade is on the road and en route to the venue in time enough to pass it along to you. we want to backtrack a bit to one of the signature events of this day, and that was donald trump and the sitting governor of indiana, mike pence, showing up at the carrier hvac plant in indiana. this goes back to an announcement to carrier employees that they were moving their operations to mexico. cell phone video of that day, that announcement, circulated wily. and it was absolutely heartbreaking to witness those workers learning that their jobs were going away. that manufacturing was headed south of the border. carrier found its way into donald trump's stump speech, and it became a part of this campaign. it gets a little more complicated after that, but not if you ask the trump/pence team. they arrived today, kind of a victory lap, because they had, after all, saved most of the jobs that had been jeopardized. they, through a collectio

they investigated and found that junior folks over at centcom's intelligence arm were getting pressuredtheir seniors to be optimistic in their delivery when it came to the war on isis and how we were doing. the point there being that it takes a whole lot of trust and a whole lot of working together on both sides there in order to make that intelligence relationship work. it's not as simple as a product being delivered and it's 100 percent right or wrong. intelligence delivery to a president is more of a dialogue. >> there are so many layers though beneath the president from which this stuff bubbles up. you'll never get down and find out where it came from. really you can't. how do you trust it? and this is going to a question for president trump when he takes office. how do you get that these briefings are right driving, et cetera? >> you have to as the commander-in-chief and the president, you have to really be an advocate for -- this is what my personal take on this. you have got to be an advocate for diversity of opinions. you can't try and stove pipe this stuff. you have got to real

don't have any real previous talks, but, of course, i know who the general, and he was a commander of centcom and in israel know a lot about him and about as tense and what we've seen in the press, for my point of view is very positive. >> okay. obviously, there are many things the president-elect has said having to do with the state of israel. onone of the things he is a visibly feasted on said on day one he would want to move the capital to jerusalem. obviously, that is, i think it's fair to say, easier said than done. do you think that he should do that on day one? >> first of all, i think that, you know, we see before in every elections the same thomas to move the embassy to jerusalem. but i think that we will wait and we will see. you know, a year ago i was here. it was much easier. i was in position. now as minister i try to be politically correct. [laughter] we will wait and we'll see, but i think some publicly and strong public commitment, and we will wait. >> i won't be too many follow-ups but just as a matter of whether or not the movie itself would be perceived as incendiary and pr

that's a really great question for the centcom commander. i would encourage, when you have the opportunity, to ask him about that. i think what the secretary talked about is there is -- i mean come as we talked about earlier, the islamic state isn't just limited to iraq and syria. most of these violent extremist organizations are not just limited to specific geographic areas. they do have them horns. they do use virtual means to put out a toxic narrative, to influence people, to create disruption and conflict in other areas. i think we have to look at these threats much more trans regional and and we can't limit ourselves to specific areas. i think what the secretary is talking about is making sure that we have a process, both in the military and across the broader government, that allows us to look at this much more holistically. and to bring the power of all of our capabilities, our diplomatic power, our military power, our intelligence community power, our informational power, or economic power, to really address these issues. these are j

themselves execute mission secondlyly we have to create a truer line of movements right now i have been to centcom, the 60 plus nation, coalition of the obama administration, doesn't exist, we need to have a true coalition of those individuals those nations who wish to destroy isis and convince them we are on their side what the sunnis of region have learned last 8 years don't trust us -- we are going to hightail it out of there we need diplomacy convince them with that here to help you not going to invade middle east we will facilitate you with intelligence, training and everything else you need to be the front line of this war and we need to stay the course. sandra: dr. gorka we didn't get to it i want to let learns no japan prime minister shinzo abe meeting with president obama in pearl harbor major significance i want to make sure viewers knew that as well thank you for being here good to have you sir. >> thank you. >> coming up, oops the intent did it again latest hack that targeted -- brittney -- hand a cup of cheers starbucks ringing in new year with three elaborate new drinks. your insuran

they told him there was also a problem with him not reading his daily briefing and a problem with centcomaving an analysis coming up that was changed. that has never been a problem. >> do you think he doesn't get c-span? maybe he should watch it. >> the other thing important to bring up is when he made that statement, people said, there's a lot of unrest in iraq and syria. he says it, and these are just affiliated. just because they're wearing a laker jersey doesn't mean they are kobe bryant. this is the jv team. man man, they were wrong. listen to this from last night. >> barack obama has been a complete disaster. he knows darn well the community told him that. and when people told him isis was going to be a problem, he fired him. the ones that didn't speak up are the ones he didn't get rid of. so when he says he didn't hear about this from the intelligence community, i know that's ma already a key. general flynn told him this was going to be initiated. >> a lot of generals told the president what was going on and he fired a lot of generals. and now we are where we are. >>> we have a new

the consequences of america's support of israel and how that played out when he was commander of centcomle east. interesting to see their dynamics in the room advocating for a policy on what to pursue. >> they're looking at it separately. we'll make israelis happy with jerusalem and talking but then we'll make the arab -- especially sunni arab -- >> at one point you have to say i need to pursue this policy more than this one. this is more important than that. that may be tricky. >> graeme, thank you for coming back. we appreciate it. coming up next, the search warrant that allowed the fbi to reexamine hillary clinton's e-mail case just weeks before the election is now public. her allies not happy. they say their suspicions have been confirmed. plus, some lighter fare for heavy news this morning. a wisconsin police officer teaches a speeding college student an important lesson. a great video straight ahead. ♪ ♪ ♪ style lets you stand out from the herd. what's inside sets you apart. the cadillac escalade. enjoy our best offers of the year. >>> all right. newly released dash cam footage sho

. >> not to speak of the need to move the capital down to centcom in tampa because that would be a lotountry. so i think we need to be a little thoughtful on that point as well. you're quite right. the best secretaries of state are those that have a great relationship with the president. baker is certainly the gold standard there. george schultz had it as well. bonnie rice had it and was able to make changes. that's very important. i would like to get a better sense from the president of what he wants to do in the world. does he want to create crises where there aren't crises? does he want to resolve things and have other countries work with him? there are a lot of different skill sets and certainly someone like bob gates or jon huntsman would answer the bill. >> 100%. after brokering a deal to keep a thousand manufacturing jobs in indiana last week, donald trump issued a far more sweeping policy on twitter yesterday morning. "the u.s. is going to substantially reduce taxes and regulations on businesses. but any business that leaves our country for another country, fires its employees,

the head of centcom served with him. this is very much a known figure.he one question that people have is whether this distinguished general, fighting general, he is that, has the management skills to take on what arguably is the toughest management job in america which is running the pentagon. it's tough for anybody to do that but in some ways especially tough for former uniformed general officer. >> let's talk about the patton description. there's that famous scene where bradley says to patton the difference between you and me, george, is i do this because i have to do it. you do it because you love it. patton says i do love it. that's not mattis at all, is it? general mattis is one who has seen war, is wary of it at best. >> mattis is a warrior intellectual i would say. he's not a blood and guts guy. he is a person who likes a fight when he's in it and wants to win it. he was tough on the way to baghdad in 2003. he fired one of his subordinate commanders for being insufficiently aggressive in that campaign. he was furious at the white house for not le

former centcom commander tony zinni serving u.s. army staff p shezeky both warned occupying iraq would cost hundreds of thousands of troops and take a lot longer than the administration was planning for. if you remember back to those days, the invasion took place in march. the plan was to be out by september. this is, you know, what lieutenant general jay garner had in the office of humanitarian affairs, who was supposed to take care of iraq in the aftermath of the conflict. he got the team together in kuwait city before heading up to baghdad. and goes up to review the bidding. we make sure the humanitarian -- there's no humanitarian crisis. turn on the lights. turn the government over to the iraqis and we leave by september. and some person in the back of the room raised her hand, probably meghan o'sullivan, said, which september? which was exactly the right question. the bush administration failed to balance strategic ends with the means available. simply put, waging two wars at the same time was one too many for the united states

former centcom commander tony zinni serving u.s. army staff p shezeky both warned occupying iraq would cost hundreds of thousands of troops and take a lot longer than the administration was planning for. if you remember back to those days, the invasion took place in march. the plan was to be out by september. this is, you know, what lieutenant general jay garner had in the office of humanitarian affairs, who was supposed to take care of iraq in the aftermath of the conflict. he got the team together in kuwait city before heading up to baghdad. and goes up to review the bidding. we make sure the humanitarian -- there's no humanitarian crisis. turn on the lights. turn the government over to the iraqis and we leave by september. and some person in the back of the room raised her hand, probably meghan o'sullivan, said, which september? which was exactly the right question. the bush administration failed to balance strategic ends with the means available. simply put, waging two wars at the same time was one too many for the united states