admiral? good to see you, too. and, first, i applaud the decision to fully fund ship and depot maintenance accounts. the navy is taking steps to improve maintenance work on its surface ships so as to mitigate problems in material readiness that has come to light in recent years. admiral, can you talk about some of the -- of these improvements, how these will -- these steps affect ship maintenance work, particul particularly pearl harbor and other shipyard as well. thanks. >> aloha, senator. the biggest change is called the surface management engineering program, surf mep, we reininstituted it into the program. it lays out the key and critical maintenance procedures that need to take place when we bring a surface ship in for maintenance to assure that it gets to its expected service life. it involves going into the tanks, looking at the turbines, the shafts, the shaft seals. those long-term items that you might be tempted not to look at and that we didn't look at in the past, where we started finding emerging proble

admiral? >> yes, sir. as you know, general allen investigated some of these allegations had a joint investigation with the afghans and they found the allegations to be false. and as general mattis mentioned, the stability program and the afghan local police in particular are, in fact, part of the minister of the interior. so that chain of command goes right back to the simple government and gives it some credibility from the tribal level, the village everybody's up to the central government. we think this is very important. there are currently 11,000 afghan local police and we are growing to about 30,000 over the next couple years, and we think this is an exceedingly important program for the stability of afghanistan. >> thank you both very much. senator mccain? >> general mattis, has the -- after all the sanctions have been imposed on the iranian regime, do you believe the regime has been at all dissuaded from pursuing a nuclear weapons capability? >> no, sir. i have not seen that. >> general mattis, are

>> yes, sir, it does. >> admiral? >> yes, sir, it the does. >> and general, do you support that budget request? >> i do, completely. >> absolutely. >> now, in the wake of the violence following the burning of korans in afghanistan, including the killing of at least six american soldiers, secretary panetta has said this this violence is not going to alter our commitment to get this job done in afghanistan. he added that, quote, our goal is that by the end of 2014, the afghans will have the responsibility to govern and secure themselves. general, following the violence over the koran burning incident, should we modify our strategy in afghanistan? >> no, mr. chairman, i don't believe so. i'm delights to defend our strategy. i believe it is working. we should not allow a few criminals, malcontents to define the afghan security forces, even their performance during these last two weeks, disciplined, restrained, standing by us is an indication that this is a force that's come a long ways. it's right now nearly at the 352,00

admiral mcraven, thank you for coming by yesterday. i did want to go over a question that we talked about. several public reports have indicated that you are seeking several new authorities to give you more control over the deployment and utilization of the special operation forces. for example, t"the new york times" recently reported that you want authority to deploy the special operation forces without going through the traditional force generation process managed by the joint chiefs. as i said, i know we've discussed this. but if you could also go over again, are you seeking authorities that would provide you with additional control over the deployment and utilization over the special operation forces? >> i appreciate the question. i appreciate the opportunity to set the record straight. as you said, there's been a lot in the news about this lately. every two years the joint staff goes through a staffing drill to look at the unified command plan, the ucp, which is -- defines the roles and responsibilities, missions of the come pat t

admiral greenert, admiral lockhart has described the ohio submarine as the base for our force. based on the questions you had with senator read, you said the slipping of the virginia class production will exacerbate the shortfall that we're going to see going forward. i have a couple of questions for you. first of all, let me say that i'm very proud of the maintenance done at the portsmouth naval shipyard and the importance of that work when we think about the role of the virginia class submarine as the backbone of our attack submarine force. but it's my understanding -- i mean, this is obviously a very important issue for us, that the navy was only able to support 61% of the combat and commanders requirements for attack submarine in 2011, is that right? >> that's right. >> so, we're only currently in 2011 when the combat commanders ask for the support of the submarines meeting only 6 out of 10 requests. >> that's right, ma'am. they provide their requested. they're adjudicated within the joint staff and then we get, you know, our distribution of providing worldwide presence. >>

admiral porter will suffer greatly from confederate artillery. and many of his vessels will be riddled. general tom green from texas will try to catch the navy at a place called blairs lane, and they will fight an unusual battle, 2500 mounted texas cavalry against an ironclad monitor, the osage, and some support vessels. very few casualties. they disabled -- this was april 12, 1864. the first time a periscope was ever used in battle for the osage. it is just been invented a couple days before. and one of the few casualties was general tom green and the osage fires around from the 11-inch gun, a huge naval gun, and they fire high but one of the canister rounds takes off a part of his head, just the sight of it and he falls dead. his body is taken back to austin for a state funeral. it was a huge loss for the confederate cavalry, and for taylor, because tom green was a very fierce fighter. there was a lot of morning on both sides. taylor does not have enough men to capture banks' forces. banks does not have the will to go forward. goes back to alex

but also this comment extends to admiral mcraven as well. if you look at these two gentlemen's records of service in the military, the ultimate reward of competent leadership is command. and we look at the number of times that command shows up on both of these leaders' military bio, there's no two better people we could have in the positions that you are in. and you have my thanks for the contributions that you're making on behalf of our country. i'd like to clarify something just as a result of the discussion that has occurred during this hearing. i don't think it's accurate for those who are pushing for a faster pace move toward military involvement in syria to -- to characterize those, including myself, who have been asking for us to be very careful in terms of how we define the opposition movements as simply some reductionist statement about al qae qaeda. i've put the question to general dempsey. i've put it to director of intelligence clapper. my concern that we -- we really move forward in a careful way to define how much of this oppos

secretary, then admiral, how you view the arctic? are we prepared? i know you did a study on the arctic road map which was released by the navy through your -- i think it's task force climate change. are we prepared, and if not, what do we need to do? >> senator, you accurately pointed out we released the arctic road map in 2009 and we are following that road map. both the cno and i have recently been to canada to talk to our canadian allies about what they're doing in the arctic, what we're doing in the arctic, how we can better coordinate. the question you asked immediately before that, one of the things that would help us the most is by approving the law of the thief. it would help us in terms of the rights of freedom ofit would al nation establish our claims in d the arctic, as you are better aware than i am, but we have different nations competing for the same resources in an arctic that is going to be increasingly ice free in the summer so that you can not only havevi you're y beginning to see that, but also extraction of sea bed resources and

. >> admiral, from your perspective? >> sir, i'm also extremely well resourced. >> you don't think that the budget was prepared under different assumptions and the circumstances have now changed with regard to that? >> no, sir. >> admiral -- general? >> we'll always have to adapt, sir. but right now i think the strategy is well supported by the budget. >> and if circumstances were to change to where military action was required, would we be having to change circumstances then, as well? >> senator, active operations along those lines would be very expensive. obviously, that's one of the characteristics of war. we're doing everything we can to try and deter war, to keep the stability, the peace, or what path of peace in the middle east one more year, one more month, one more week, one more day to allow secretary clinton and the diplomats to convince iran this is not in their best interest to go the way they're going now. >> one more question if i might, mr. chairman, on the budget. would that apply to -- in any engagement

our first witness today is coast guard vice admiral brian selerno, welcome, admiral. you're recognized for your statement. >> good morning, chairman mica and ranking member larson and distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and discuss issues related to cruise ship safety. thank you especially for your expression of sympathy for the coast guard's loss last evening. we are a small service and events like that touch us all very deeply so we very much appreciate your acknowledgment of that this morning. every year, over 170 large passenger ships operate from the united states ports and they embark approximately 11.5 million passengers. the safety of these passengers and the crews which operate these vessels has been a long-standing focus of the coast guard. every year thorough examinations of the vessels to comply with all united states and international safety, security and environmental standards and insure their crews are well-trained. in my role as deputy -- i'm responsible for setting the safety, security and enviro

admiral, thank you for taking time to come in. i know we -- i think it was senator levin referenced the afghan local police program which i had an opportunity and honor to observe as a soldier this summer and go out and visit the special forces and see that program at work and visit many of the villages and speak with the tribal leaders and also the soldiers that were there. and to me, it's the program we should have implemented from day one. the value for the dollar is incredible. the amount of cooperation between the tribal leaders and the people of the villages and the special forces is unheard of. it's never happened like it's happening now. that check and balance. when one village is actually coming to the aid of another village when they're being attacked or harassed. it's never happened. that is because of the advent of a simple road connecting the villages. that's why it's very important to continue with the infrastructure in that region. you get from point a to point b, see what the other village is doing. create trade wi

the answer to all of your questions is yes. >> admiral? >> yes, sir, to all questions. >> yes, sir. >> in terms of the marines on okinawa and guam and asia pacific, i think you are very much aware of the issues there. senators mccain and weber and i have been voicing concerns and others have as well about some of the issues that are involved there. including the road map realignment agreement and the build up on guam. some of the changes considered in the current plan. the fy '12 national defense authorization act contains a statutory provision that would block the expenditure of funds on guam until a number of conditions are met. first is submission to the committee of the marine corps laydown and master plan of the construction of the facilities of infrastructure necessary to implement that preferred laydown. another requirement is the secretary of defense submit an independent assessment of the force posture in east asia and in the pacific region. secretary, i assume you are familiar with that statutory requirement? >> yes, i am. >> and

good morning, admiral. as has been indicated earlier we're deeply concerned about the tragic lost last night, admiral. with the coast guard conduct an independent investigate into the loss of the two american citizens aboard the do sta concordia. >> we are as mentioned, sir, interviewing all of the u.s. passengers who were on board to develop as complete a picture as we possibly can as to what took place on that vessel. and as mentioned to the chairman, we'll share that information with this committee. >> thank you for that. is it possible for a cruise vessel to fail an inspection and then not be permitted to operate on u.s. waters? >> yes, sir. that is possible. and there have been instances where the coast guard inspector has not been pleased and has detained a ship. it doesn't happen very often. it hadn't happened in a number of years now. i think we've developed a strong enough expectation with the industry and they've responded by instituting safety cultures within their companies. to make sure that th

admiral mcraven?>> good morning, journalism, ranking member mccain and distinguished members of the committee. thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and represent the extraordinary men and women of the united states special operations command. it's an honor to command the world's finest sponsor operations forces serving side by side with our broad military and interagency teammates. and i am proud to appear today with my good friend and next-door neighbor, jim mattis. admittedly though, jim is really there. but when he's there he is a great neighbor. which i will submit my written statement for the record and open with a brief remarks. this morning i'd like to provide you an overview of the role in the dressing the ongoing emergency security emerging security challenges. psychiatry panetta outlined how he viewed a future joint force. he called for low-cost, lean, technologically advanced and agile responsive innovative effective forces able to address a variety of challenges and adv

chairman, and thank you secretary amos, general amos and admiral, for being here this morning. hopefully i am the last person that you have to hear from. i figure on this committee we always save the best for last. i actually want to begin where some of my colleagues left off, and particularly senator bagich, and that is on the issue of energy. i want to thank you very specifically, secretary mavis, for coming to testify on monday the water and power subcommittee of the energy committee in the senate which i chair held a field hearing down in norfolk on the surcharge. i want to commend the great staff work in finding a ship for us in new hampshire to hold the hearing on. it was a nice benefit to the hearing. but it was an excellent hearing, and it's one that i wish everybody on this committee could have gone to to see very directly the difference that moving toward alternatives and energy efficiency is making for the efficiency and the capacity of our fighting men and women out in the field to do their job. and secretary mavis, you made the point that national security in today

thank you, admiral. i will call on senator hagan. >> thank you. thank you, madam chairman. >> i was looking around to see who else i could call on. i guess it's just you. >> last but not least. general madison, admiral mcraven, thank you so much for your testimony today but even more so for your service to our country. i agree with senator mccaskill, hank you for coming by yesterday. i did want to go over a question that we talked about. several public reports have indicated that you are seeking several new authorities to give you more control over the deployment and utilization of the special operation forces. for example, "the new york times" recently reported that you want authority to deploy the special operation forces without going through the traditional force generation process managed by the joint chiefs. as i said, i know we've discussed this. but if you could also go over again, are you seeking authorities that would provide you with additional control over the deployment and utilization over the special operation forces? >> i appreciat

our witnesses are general james maddus, and admiral bill mccraven, commander of the u.s.cial operations command. thank you both for your dedicated and distinguished service to our nation. also, on behalf of the committee, please extend our heartfelt gratitude to the military men and women serving with you. many have served multiple deployments, often directly in harm's way. we thank them for their dedication and courage, and we thank their families, who's support is so essential. as reflected in the president's budget request of $88 billion for overseas contingency operations in fiscal year 2013, the conflict in afghanistan remains our military's foremost security challenge. the afghanistan mission is entering a critical phase of transition. the drawdown of the 33,000 u.s. surge force is scheduled to be completed by the end of this summer, and the remaining 68,000 u.s. troops in afghanistantie t quote, at a steady pace, thereafter, through 2014, according to president obama. u.s. and coalition forces have begun to move from the combat lead to an advise and assist role in

secretary or admiral? how does the current contract, the excuse of the program compare with the initial purchase of the first ship in that program? and how do you see that program developing? >> senator, i'm very proud of ships of both variance came in as lead ships do very expensive. very high priced. >> first in class is always more expensive no matter how you build it. >> it is. >> what does it look like now? >> the price has come down from the bids on the -- on ships 5, 6 and 7. the bids, the initial bids have come down from that by 40% and the price is coming down for every ship in this contract. we have a block buy of ten ships from each vendor. so a total of 20 ships. the tenth ship of each one will be significantly less expensive than the first ship. these are all fixed price contracts. so we're certain that we will reap these savings. we were able to get 20 ships instead of 19 as originally planned. and both shipyards are performing very well. the ships themselves as the c & o has mentioned is goi

admiral william fallon on my right former commander of u.s. central command has served as commander in the u.s. pacific command, the u.s. elite forces command in the in and the u.s. atlantic command and down here general david sanger. who knows a whole lot about everything. use the chief washington correspondent for "the new york times," one of the newspapers senior writers and for those who have tweeted he really is a general. [laughter] i forget in this day of the internet there are no jokes. [laughter] in more than 25 years he has reported from new york tokyo and washington and also has a book the inheritance, the world obama confronts and the challenges of american power. we haven't seen his byline a lot lately because in the process of writing another book. let's just start off, what is the new book going to be about? >> the new book is a look at obama administration's national security policies that deals a lot with afghanistan and pakistan. deals a lot with iran as you would imagine and with arab spring and china but mostly as an effort

all my reports have been very favorable. >> admiral, do you agree with that? >> i do agree. it's a very worthwhile fund. >> all right. thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you. senator hagen? >> thank you, mr. chairman. general amos, i wanted to ask one question on the camp lejeune water situation. in a recent statement made immediately after the airing of the semper fi issue, the commander of the marine corps said we are committed to finding a responsible solution to this challenging situation. i understand that the agency for toxic substance and disease registry has the lead in studying the contanl natimm nat. is there anything that congress can do to expedite the care for the families and the service members for those who have contaminat contaminated? i know that's one question. can you talk about the progress that the marine corps has made to find those who lived on the base during that period? >> senator, i read the same comment from gerald kessler and we have spent $30 million in an try to bring science into this. there are allegations out there, i read them, i spent an a

and admiral bill mcraven. thank you both for dedicated and distinguished service to our nation and on behalf of the committee, please extend our heartfelt gratitude to the military men and women serving with you. many served directly in harm's way. we thank them for dedication and courage and we thank their families whose support is essential. as reflected in the president's budget request of $88 billion for overseas con tingaries operations in fiscal year 2013, the conflict in afghanistan remains our military's foremost security challenge. the afghanistan mission is entering a critical phase of transition. the drawdown of the 33,000 u.s. force is scheduled to be completed by the end of this summer, and the remaining 68,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan are to continue to be reduced, "at a steady pace" thereafter through 2014 according to president obama. leading to an advise and assist role as those forces assumingly assume the lead for providing security. this transition is to be completed by 2014 when afghan s

how far away are the iranians, admiral fallon had it right when he said that ambiguity is really the iranian's big friend right now. in many ways, having a capability or a near capability is as useful to them or perhaps more useful to them than actually having a weapon. if you think that they actually had a weapon they know what would happen if they used it in an explicit way against israel, the united states, other targets. i think that's unlikely, what they're -- i think if they are interested in a weapon, they would be interested in the influence it gives them in the region. and they would get that influence -- or almost as much of that influence by having the world know they had a capability of building a weapon in a matter of weeks or months. and it keeps them within the nuclear nonproliferation treaty. and it keeps the u.s. intelligence agencies able to say, there's no evidence that iranians have made a political decision to go ahead with a weapon. why would you make a political decision to go ahead with a weapon when you could get many of the same benefits and be just short of

general, comment on this and, admiral, what you believe. how can we better strengthen your budget and do the job we're allowing contractors do now and do it much more economically? is that doable? >> sir, i'll tell you the budget i have right now meets all the needs for u.s. special operations forces for fiscal year '13. >> would that be saying as long as you have the contracting support? if you didn't have that contractor support and we asked you all to do the job that maybe they're doing, could we do it more effectively and efficiently and -- >> the contractors play a very vital role. no one should diminish the role they play. it is expensive. but there are places and times where having a contract force works well for us as opposed to putting uniformed military to do -- whether it's a training mission or a security guard mission, et cetera. there are some places where you would rather have uniformed military than contractors. so while i don't want to speak to the total size of the u.s. government's contracting force, what i will tell you

porter's flagship, and admiral porter thinks he did it because it's an insult. banks had no clue. also waiting for banks is a letter from general grant now taking over as the commander of union forces. and he says, banks, you will go to shreveport, or you will not go to shreveport. if you take it, fine. if not, you're going to stop, you're going to come back. you're going to leave just enough men to garrison what you have, and you and the bulk of your force will go east and take mobile because you have to protect general sherman on his way to atlanta. there's a confederate army operating around mobile, and the union does not want to have to deal with that coming in behind or on sherman's flank or his side. so it's an important mission. well, banks ignores it. he sends a letter to the president and to general grant separately saying things are going great, i'm going to take shreveport, then i'm going to be in texas. he had specifically been told not to go to texas, and grant is going to go ballistic. and general howlick is going to go ballistic. and president lin

he has had a great passion, which i have is admired and i will always admire. he will pursue this with the same kind of leadership and persistence that he has given over the last 10 years. this has not been an easy time. our church has disagreed with the archbishop with consequences that one cannot help but admire his passion and leadership. >> what about the challenges for his successor? do you foresee other challenges on the horizon? >> it is hard to read that. i think that we will have to wait for time to tell on that question. i do hope and one of my sadness is is quite frankly that during these last 10 years when the issues that have preoccupied his leadership has been so intense and rather narrow that we have not been able to enjoy the range of his capacity to lead as the teacher on a variety of issues. i remember moderating the conference at trinity church just two years ago where he was a principal speaker on the topic of theology and economics. he is a police leader and i thought at the time, what we are missing by not opening the range to a wider scop

i was very admired. that is true. we did big steps. vocabulary. i have enormous admiration. i was also speaking social society, which was what was going on in society. me, to my grandmother, i was like feeling. too close to say something indefinitely. yes, why did i do the men like that? because i work around it sex. i saw that what was showing, it was the men in this world where the woman was strong. then have to be equal of the men. and i wanted to show it. there was some interest in like a blazer, a jacket, double- breasted. you have the men's jacket with the inside pocket. it is a pocket for the wallet. the women did not have that. why? because the men pay at the restaurant. but can the woman they, too? i think there was a lot of stupid things -- not stupid, but the things that were intelligent but one time that changed and was changing. and the vision of the woman about the man was changing, too. some men were not accepting their femininity. does not mean that they were gay or whatever, no. it just means that men can be sensible, but they have been traumatized by their

we greet admiral as he makes his first appearance before the committee as chief of naval operations. we want to wish general amos good health as he returns from the flight surgeon. you look terrific. you really do. we all know about what you have come through with flying colors. we greet you. we are delighted you are here and looking so fit. we are grateful to each of you for your service to our nation and for the valorous and the service to the men and women with whom you serve. we are very grateful, also, to their families, knowing the vital role that families play in the success of careers and missions of our armed forces. two recent changes make the defense budget challenging in particular. first is the budget control act passed by congress last summer which places limitations on funding for our national security. secondly, adapting to its changing role in the new strategic guidance announced by the president last january. each of our services has that challenge. the defense department's most recent guidance issued in january refocuses the u.s. military on the asia pacific and co

it is my privilege to appear today alongside admired leader and good friend admiral bill mcraven. the work more closely together than u.s. special operations command and central command. let me begin with what i see today in the region. manifesting differently in each country. we may hope for and certainly for early support all efforts for more democratic governments in the region, the origins are not necessarily a rush for democracy. rather than the awakening stems from breakdown of the social contract between government and their people. unjust or unresponsive regimes have fallen or are in the throes of falling as is the case in syria. the transition to a democratic government is never easy as we see in egypt. it is not clear what the resulting governments will look like. challenges remain be on the promise of the arab awakening. iran and its surrogates work violence worldwide as evidenced by the plot to kill the saudi ambassador in washington d.c.. iran presents the most significant regional threat to stability and security. the threat created a high potential for miscalculatio

admiral, sorry, admiral, you're flying wrong. he loved being able to do that because he was only a colonel, to get to say that to a general, he loved that. >> i was always worried about the word getting back. >> a high draft number. >> '98, yeah. >> i think it ought to be time right now. in fact it is -- >> no, it's not. >> i can't believe you're doing it this way. >> you're trying to avoid my question like you tried to avoid my appeals. >> i thought i responded to every one of those appeals. >> and there's a lot of blood on those 70,000. i want to thank you for your service, we always thought that we got a good hearings, even if we didn't get the right answer over the years. i guess the question, with both of you here, i guess the question i would like to put to you is to think and to maybe expound if you will a little bit about the role of the justice department in -- as a model and a leadership role for the entire federal foya process, government wide, as well as in the world. but specifically government wide and let me tell y

. >> we met with admirable ted carter, the commander of the enterprise carrier strike group and asked him where his forces were going and what they were going to do. >> it's a great question about the carrier strike group operations because a lot of folks do see only the centerpiece of the carrier strike group which is the aircraft carrier and the air wing. but as you point out, we do, we have a guided missile cruiser with us, the uss vicesburg, three guided missile destroyers, the ninza, james e. porter as well as a combat port ship which is named supply. so we operate as a six-ship carrier strike group -- gotta love the sound of freedom here, six feet prowlers going around. but the operations run the full gamut, so we may be out there doing a presence operation with a full carrier strike group or we may disaggregate so we can do, again, a more broader spectrum of operations, for example, i may have some ships out there doing anti-piracy missions while the carrier and the air wing and my cruiser will go support operations for operation enduring freedom. so it really depends on the de

i have admired and will always admire for the unity of the church. he will pursue that with the same kind of pastoral and pastoral leadership and persistence he's given over last ten years. this has not been an ease dwrime. oufer church disagreed with the archbishop with consequences. but what cannot help admire his passion and theological leadership, in spite of all of that. >> what about the challenges for his successor. do you think they will be the same as those faced about dr. rowan williams? do you foresee other challenges on the horizon? >> it's hard to read that at this point and i think we will have to wait for time to tell on that question. i do hope and one of my sadnesses, frankly, during this last ten years when the issues that have preoccupied his leadership have been so intense and rather narrow, that we have not been able to enjoy the range of his capacity to lead us as a teacher on a variety of issues. i remember moderating a conference at trinity church wall street just two yoors ago on the topic of theology and economics because he

thank you both for your service and admiral thank you for taking the time to come in.senator actually referenced the afghan local police program, which i had an opportunity and an honor to serve as a soldier this summer and go out and visit with a special forces and see that program. and is that many of the villages and speak with the tribal leaders and also the soldiers that were there. to me it's a program we should have implemented from day one. the value of the dollars incredible and the amount of cooperation between tribal leaders and the people of the villages in the special forces is unheard of. it has never happened the way it is happening now, that check and balance. 11 villages coming to the aid of another village when they are being attacked or harassed. it's never happened and that is obviously because of the advent of just a simple road, connecting those villages. that's why it's important to continue with infrastructure that region so they get from point a to point the to see what the other villages doing. create trade with that village, and vice versa. i

he was an admirer of grant. they were both small town boys. they both grew up poor. they both went to west point and were uncomfortable there for some time and didn't rise and shine in the west point cadet hierarchy. their approach to war was very similar, and they were both two-term presidents who two terms are in my opinion vastly underrated. i think they were both good presidents. ike a better president than grant. ike i think was one of our best presidents. so, the more i began to think about ike and read about ike, the more i discovered i didn't know and wanted to know and the more i liked him. in 1951 irving berlin musical, a famous song "they like ike." and that became ike's political theme song through no choice of his own. but the truth of the matter is as i began to read particularly the letters and cards between ike and marshall and the correspondence that ike had with his wife mamie, i began to like ike. and for a biographer that's the first big step. it's very hard for me to imagine writing a long biography of a man or a woman for that matter whom halfwa

and like admiral fallon said, we're not in their head, we don't know how they're looking at these problems. it's difficult to say, this is what i'm going to do, and this is what they're going to do. >> this is a different situation for israel. that's i'm sure why this thing is super heated or seems to be getting that way. they can't range -- best intelligence i've seen, they had those weapons. >> it's interesting in the past two weeks you've seen two israeli officials, one a senior israeli official both make the claim that the iranians would have the ability to reach the united states with a missile within five years or so. maybe they're right, maybe they're not. usually these things take longer than one would think. it was interesting the israelis felt it necessary to say this publicly. i read that as trying to get iran moved in categories in the obama administration from a general threat to one specific to the united states. perhaps in hopes that would change the way the u.s. dealt with the issue. i don't think that will succeed, but it is interesting. and i think general cartwright said

porter's flagship admiral porter thinks he did it because the peninsula.o waiting for banks is a letter from general grant, now taken over as the commander of union forces and assist banks, you will go to shreveport where you will not to shreveport. if not you're going to stop. you're going to come back here to quenneville it just enough bad and you and the bulk of your force will take mobile because you have to protect general sherman on his campaign to take atlanta. this confederate army operating around mobile and the union does not want to have to deal with that coming in behind on his side are you so it's an mission. well, thanks ignores it. and since a letter to the president and general crabs happily say things are going great. i may take shreveport any specifically been told and great disquiet to go ballistic in generalities going to go ballistic. and president lincoln has in the notes of his secretary has the most interesting and telling, perhaps. she says every time i have had a general lewis told me that things are going so well there has been a

and admiral papp and i share great interest in the arctic. of course, we need to move forward with some consensus of what are the capabilities that will be required and the implications for what are the prudent investments that should be made. so we have an opportunity while we watch the arctic begin to open up to get ahead of potential security requirements and to that end, working closely with the coast guard, united states navy, other partners in the department of defense and the department of homeland security, and also staying tied close thrly to the canadians is right framework to be working in now. >> one statistic i'll use, i think it came from the coast guard alaska, and that is a few years ago you would maybe see 50 ships moving through the bering sea and now close to 1,000. with the arctic, i think seven last year, now 34. in one year alone. so it's moving in a rapid pace of activity up there. we know our friends from china and russia are very interested, china in our land, as i would say, curious about their efforts and so again,

we asked the president's top political strategist what he admires about the romney political strategist admires about the romney call right, let's decide what to do about medicare and social security... security. that's what matters to me... me? i've been paying in all these years... years washington's been talking at us, but they never really listen... listen...it's not just some line item on a budget; it's what i'll have to live on... i live on branson street, and i have something to say... [ male announcer ] aarp is bringing the conversation on medicare and social security out from behind closed doors in washington. because you've earned a say. who have used androgel 1%, there's big news. presenting androgel 1.62%. both are used to treat men with low testosterone. androgel 1.62% is from the makers of the number one prescribed testosterone replacement therapy. it raises your testosterone levels, and... is concentrated, so you could use less gel. and with androgel 1.62%, you can save on your monthly prescription. [ male announcer ] dosing and application sites between these products di

i mean, admiral fallon, you said even if they get one or two nukes it's not going to do anything for them. how do we convince israel that iran with nuclear weapons is not an existential threat to israel. it would be suicidal for them to do that? >> we're not going to -- the israelis are going to convince themselves what they want to do, and it will be based on their perception of how they see the situation. iran, again with nuclear weapons, we -- i would expect would make it very clear that if these things were used that's probably one of the last things the leaders get to do. so we have a lot of national interests. and so do other countries. and one these things with the tide running against these guys now, is that there's a lot other things going on in the world. stop for a second and roll the clock back nine months or so. and it seems to me for six or nine months, there's very little that you heard about. why? other things were going on. the arab spring, in the region, everybody's attention went to other things. we're in the height of the season right now. i guess it must be slow,

i said, well, admiral you've actually had 15 months. you decided not to create this program. they also refused to accept a database that we handed to them with 10,000 volunteer pilots on a cd. they could have gotten them started contacting pilots and putting them into the program right away. they refused to accept it. they also refused to accept a program outline that we developed in concert with the fbi, some agents in the fbi that had designed a cockpit protection program. they didn't want to have a anything to do with that. we also started a professional standards program within the group of pilots that would eventually be armed. and they ignored that. they were also hostile to the design of the program itself and they designed it to discourage participation. they created excessive background checks that were redundant to the background checks that we already had just to become an airline pilot. checks with regard to security, financial and criminal background checks. their initial weapon choice was inaccurate. we called it the barney fife pistol because it was a six-shot

admiral, we thank you for being here. we will have a brief adjournment to set up for the next panel. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> >> the committee will return to order. for a second panel, we have mr. and mrs. shamire of medford massachusetts. their survivors of the concorida and are here today to give us their first hand account of what happened. we welcome you both. we thank you for taking the time to share with us and you are now recognized for whatever statement you would like to make. >> thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. are chairman. thank you for giving us the opportunity to come in here and present what we had to say. i would just start off saying that this was our fifth year wedding anniversary trip. first trip to europe. we were very excited. ands as ms. brown said earlier, it's affordable way on travel. we had cruised before, so, that kind of like helped us to make up our time and our mind to take another cruise. we boarded on friday january the 13th, 2012, from italy. between 5:00 and 6:00 p.m., the f

he made it a point to come in for my father's funeral, and he admired my father very much.self then. it was all about me and michael which, now looking back, that may sound a little selfish, but he wanted to make sure we were c consoled, and that we had mitt his new wife, and that cars were parked out of the way so they could bring the hearse. little things like that. to make sure that our type of grief right there was our time and nobody was interfering with it, and that's what he did at his funeral. so we greatly appreciated that, but he did not talk about himself at all. he made sure he was there for us. >> michelle and michael, thank you both for your time tonight. >> thank you for having us, we appreciate it. joining me now is a professor of neural psychology at drexel university. he has a book called "military psychology." professor, you heard sergeant bales friends say this is nothing like they knew. could he have just snapped? >> he could have just snapped. it's common that friends and relatives talk about a perpetrator that committed a crime in normal terms. most c

vegetable garden, chopped water to life from brittle landscape, leans her hoe against goat wire, admires shoots balanced on turned earth, looks up, fulfilleds a leaves sigh, clouds, hands on her hips, her jaw falls open and a bomb drops down her throat. white. the horizon, a black line against brilliant white landscape, pale blue sky above it, empty except for heat devil blur, a raindrop sound hits a wooden post against cloudless light, another, the lamb, his children, wife, then he drenched in bullet rain. blue. the final moment of night passing, exposes limbs, torsos, heads, breasts, humans, cows, goats, curved and knotted heaps, lays blue against bitten grass. final piece, the title is the headline for a newspaper. anti-war activist immoh lates along kennedy's express way near giant flame of the millennium skull up tour 4 days before november 2006 elections and no one pays attention. everything but the heart reduced to ash. thank you. . >> i just want to thank george for bringing to bear some of the numbers, some of the horrific things that are happening in iraq right now. this poem w

one admirer observed with her husband swearing in she looked like a queen it she rapped just strip of silk fabric about her head. james, it admitted to sleeping poorly looked pale but dolly affable to everyone went on happily. ever for 16 years she ruled over washington society welcoming political friends so many came that during them madison presidency she was well known and probably more widely loved and admired than hurt husband. the man that james madison defeated was heard to remark i was beaten by mr. and mrs. madison. i may have a better chance of it was him alone. i decided they had different but complementary perspectives. now to tell the story of 1812 it would take hours rather than minutes. by would be remiss if the conflict did produce in the pathology of people don't associate the stories before example in the early weeks 18 british pound cannonball built off -- bounced off the constitution came guessing more than a few people in the room have walked said techs. august 19, 1812 they won a decisive victory when the ship reduced the ship to a perfect unmanageable rack. of c