the afghan national army's fourth brigade is increasingly capable of planning and conducting operations on its own. the afghan security presence across the province is expanding. the brigade is conducting combined operations with the afghan national police. it is leading in many operations, with our mentoring taskforce in a support role. for example, the belgrade oversaw a two-week operation -- the bird trade oversaw a two- week operation. it demonstrated the brigade's ability to plan, execute, and sustain an operation over an extended period. it was marked as a success. the brigade was able to disrupt insurgent supply, to maneuver through an insurgent stronghold without taking major casualties. to make contact with the enemy in an area the insurgency previously considered to be a safe haven. we still face a dangerous enemy, this is the kind of progress we seek across the country. this view is increasingly shared by our afghan partners. with all this in mind, australia, the international community, and afghan authorities, have now reached another point where key decisions need to be mad

police and afghan national army are enforcing the rule of law. we are at a very delicate crossroad point in history, of afghanistan. the whole nation of afghanistan wants to decrease the weight that we have placed on the shoulders of the international community, but we must have the capabilities to assume that heavy responsibility, to provide security for the entire nation of afghanistan. we are extremely grateful and appreciative of the international community's efforts, led by the united states of america, in the fields of increasing professional capabilities, and we are continuing to increase those capabilities. as i touched upon earlier, we have placed a great deal of focus and concentration on increasing leadership capabilities over all, training from basic to highly specialized. until 2014, we do have plans set up for the continuous improvement of the capabilities of the afghan national police force, and all of our efforts are aimed at gaining the trust, the hearts and minds, of every afghan. fortunately, with the passing of everyday, the cr

as we're drawing down on forces, we are also drawing up on afghan national security forces capabilities. capacity. getting the numbers up. most importantly, their will. those three elements of the afghan security forces are on a rise. somewhere in the middle is a sweet spot. i think we're there. but what we don't want to do is change that main effort till after this season. now, i don't like using the term fighting season. because i think to my commanders hey, don't say fighting season because the cg doesn't like it. but there's like a little psychosis there and we use this term fighting season as if we're giving up the initiative to the insurgency, because we haven't. we look at it more as a sort of a poppy cycle. i think the recent incident in kabul where we've had some attacks, very weak. the afghan security forces were able to stand up to that pretty easily. last season in the harvest season, may 17th was this big published date. they were going to come out and it was really going to be big. it was a whimper. so, i mean, i really do believe the insurgents cannot introduce any type o

the afghan national security force has it. the afghan national army general officer has it. he picks up the phone, he calls another general. instantaneously, they are calling my headquarters. it is very quick. we were getting this intelligence in 24 hours. it allowed us to posture changed checkpoints. redesign the battlefield. in the case that it didn't occur, it was defeated. in my outfit, we were doing that. trust but verify. make sure that you're doing the right things. your first question? >> [inaudible question] >> it is largely provided by the afghan uniform police in case of the governor's and the district sub governors. of course, my charter to myself was that don't get the governors killed. how are you going to replace them? i would say that i monitored that very closely. how do you replace these leaders? that is why haqqani is trying to kill them. i provided -- i did not provide forces to specifically protect. but i did provide information and a new but the governors were there and where they were going. haqqani did not get an opportunity to kill them. >> we are co

othe strans situation planned for the afghan national security forces is frankly not a plan. roughly a year ago, we were talking about expenditure levels of $7 billion to $9 billion a year through 2020 for the afghan national security forces, a force of over $300,000 of which roughly 40% would be five different police forces. and this is an important distinction because it's often confused with an army. we are now talking about $4.4 billion a year after transition, having cut our fy-13 request in half from what we spent in fy-12. we're talking about going down to gr 230,000. none of us really knows which this means. and this focus on manpower numbers ignores the fact that when it comes down to transferring responsibility, both within the ministries, according to the department of defense reporting and in the training force, we have not yet been able to put together the structure to provide sustainability, the skilled elements of a forced structure as distinguished from battalion elements. within the police, we have a pattern of corruption, local influence, this is going to be

at least two afghan nation until members dead. if this had been al qaeda for example you would see heavy casualties numbers in the dozens of people killed. we had multiple sites around the country 70 different sites proves to some extent that's all about the show. it's not really about capabilities hard hitting damage at the end of the day. >> let me take a break. when we come back you will hear from the general commanding our forces in afghanistan. we will be right back. >> we are in the captain ital o afghanistan. dominic, my brother craig. dominic, ambassador crocker told me this had all of the hall marks not of the taliban but at the criminal hatan i network. >> the debate in pakistan in the tribal areas there they are believed to be packed by the pakistani secret service. they blamed the attack on the haqqani. while the taliban has claimed responsibility the state department and u.s. military we have been hearing those arrested as part of the attacks in the past 17 hours have been saying they were sent here by the haqqani. >>

at least two afghan nation until members dead. if this had been al qaeda for example you would see heavy casualties numbers in the dozens of people killed. we had multiple sites around the country 70 different sites proves to some extent that's all about the show. it's not really about capabilities hard hitting damage at the end of the day. >> let me take a break. when we come back you will hear from the general commanding our forces in afghanistan. we will be right back. i'm robert shapiro. over a million people have discovered how easy it is to use legalzoom for important legal documents. so start your business, protect your family, launch your dreams. at legalzoom.com, we put the law on your side. ♪ [ male announcer ] with 50 horsepower, dual overhead cams and fierce acceration, the gator xuv 825i will shatter your expectations. ♪ and so none gets left behind, check out our affordable xuv 550s at johndeere.com/gator. ♪ to have the energy to turn a "to do" list into a memory. to put more giddy-up in our get-along. to keep steppi

the first we're going through a difficult time, beginning with some acts of violence by afghan nationalurity forces against our troops and now we have had a couple of bad situations involving our forces. give us a sense, if you can, of what you're hearing from our marines in afghanistan about their relationship with the afghan national security forces and if it's relevant with people of afghanistan that they're interacting with. what kind of level of trust interaction do they have? >> senator, the -- i can probably sum it up with just a recap of an e-mail i got. i got two of them two days ago. we just turned over the leadership of the marines in helmand province. the command was given to general gainous. the night before was a huge dinner hosted by the provincial governor. i'm confident that you have met them on your many visits in there. at that dinner at that night with all the commanders and the leadership there, there was -- there was much discussion, almost to the point of tears, as the general recanted the last 13 months of general tullen's time in afghanistan in the helmand provi

at least two afghan nation until members dead. if this had been al qaeda for example you would see heavy casualties numbers in the dozens of people killed. we had multiple sites around the country 70 different sites proves to some extent that's all about the show. it's not really about capabilities hard hitting damage at the end of the day. >> let me take a break. when we come back you will hear from the general commanding our forces in afghanistan. we will be right back. [ kate ] most women may not be properly absorbing the calcium they take because they don't take it with food. switch to citracal maximum plus d. it's the only calcium supplement that can be taken with or without food. that's why my doctor recommends citracal maximum. it's all about absorption. if you want a luxury car with a standard power moonroof, your options are going to be limited. ♪ if you want standard leather-trimmed seats, you're going to have even fewer. ♪ and if you want standard keyless access, then your choice is obvious. the lexus es. it's complete

we have been providing that support for the afghan army and police and many of the local nationals. that is something the afghans know that they will have to provide some level of care. it will not be what we have, but that will take time. we will have to stay there to provide medivac and medical care. we're doing great work. every member of my staff was advising in some world. my surgeon was working with their doctors. that will have to continue. they are support -- fire support is an area that will have to be maintained through 2014. they do not have the capability to put rounds on target and be precise like we can. it makes your eyes water to see how precise hour fire support systems are. the afghans know an errant round or bomb could exacerbate the problem again. that will have to stick around. it is more complicated. as we lose our balls on the battlefield, -- as we lose eyeballs on the battlefield, we have to have some way of seeing it. one thing we are developing in the southwest is full motion video. as we leave places, we're maintaining systems. we have balloons and various

army and afghan national police personnel. in another case an afghan interpreter sold various opiates and the documents show other drugs were also available. one soldier admitted buying drugs from a local national while attempting to purchase steroids in. a separate incident a soldier bought heroin and xanax, an anti-anxiety drugs from local juveniles on multiple locations in afghanistan. during the same two-year period the investigations show at least eight soldiers died from drug overdoses including oxycodone, heroin and morphine. in one death announcement the manner of death was described as noncombat related. >> what's concerning about this, we're not interested in invading the privacy of those who died or their families, but it looks like you can't find any public reporting about this. >> reporter: regardless of the circumstances an army spokesman told fox the notification team provides as much information as possible about the death adding every effort is made to assist the family as look as they need it. judicial watch

so the shift of resources focusing this conversation that occurs with afghan national security force leaders on condition that need to be met with transition. at all levels, the afghan chief of staff -- .four .. >> all of them. >> when you get the microphone, the next question. >> thank you. viola gingrich from bloomberg news. a couple of questions. one is how -- what is the coalition doing, if anything, to improve purity for local officials and the ansf and so forth or help them figure out ways to secure themselves considering that the militants seem to be aiming very largely toward the established, um, representatives of the nsf, the local officials as they've changed their tactics? and the other thing is in your joint special operations that you're doing with afghans, with afghan forces, how much do you have to factor in the risk of potentially tipping off the enemy in advance in the planning stages or coming up to a raid? how much of a factor is that, how much distrust is there still between the forces? thank you. >> i'd like to hit that last one. you know, we, we -- in my outfit

kabul falls under the responsibility of the afghan national security forces. it is not under the responsibility of nato or the united states. they managed to infiltrate. they got into these locations. did they do anything? they didn't do much. no one was killed at any of those locations. they didn't manage toreach any of those locations. however, it did take 18 hours for afghan security forces to stop them. it goes to show that a very committed insurgent with a plan is very difficult to stop. >> brown: then, of course, we have afghan and american officials though praising the afghan security forces. this, of course, is is a... remains a very sensitive issue. but today they were saying those forces performed well? >> well, of course, they're praising the afghan national security forces. we sent... spent billions and billions of dollars training these forces to gradually take over security from nato and the international community, not only in kabul but the rest of the country. so was it afghan national security forces that acted well and acted quickly? yes. the

it will be running by the afghan national forces. so the afghanis will do it but they are building the plane while they are flying it. they are trying and create the afghan forces but they are doing a great job. can i tell you a good story? not this weekend but the weekend before in kabul your viewers might remember there was an 18-hour siege by taliban. they have spent a year putting together an assault on kabul. here a good story. the americans said we're here to help you. we'll help you win and defeat the taliban. they afghan forces said we can handle this. the taliban wanted control of kabul. in 18 hours, afghan national forces defeated the taliban in kabul. there were only four civilian casualties. it wasn't reported as a success in media. this was a wild success. you should have seen the servicemen and women. they are seeing what they are doing matters. we will be handing off to the baton and our men and women are doing everything we can. >> greta: every time i see our men and women how hard they are working. it is tough. what t

we have been providing that support for the afghans army and police, and quit honestly for many of the local nationals. a texas something the afghans know they are going to have to provide at least some level of care. they know it won't be like what we have but that's going to take time suite of to stay there to help provide medical care. we are doing great work. not only is the advice and training and tactics and security operations but every member of my staff was advising someone to read my surgeon was working with their doctors so that's when to have to continue. i think fire support is an area that is we do have to be maintained through 2014. they don't really have the capability to rounds on the target and be absolutely precise it makes your eyes water to see how precise the systems are, and the have canceled it could exacerbate the whole problem again so that has to stick around for awhile. that is a little more complicated because as we lose the battle to we have to find we to ensure that when the afghans call for tighter or need fire support that we have a way of seeing it. so one of the thin

but you do understand that an afghan national army and an afghan national police which was completelyestroyed and wiped out prior to the efforts started during the last decade is a big task. i had the honor to fight against the soviet invasion and resist against the taliban invasion. i am still proud to be a soldier for my country. so i have seen all of this for many years. my assessment is that, during the past 10 years, perhaps i was afraid that we would not reach the number of security forces to the tune of 150,000. but it is a tremendously big deal because we had to stand up from the ground up and the afghan national army and a national afghan police, this monumental task required an equally monumental investment. but we're quite optimistic that this will decrease as time goes on. now we are in a phase of sustaining the capabilities and those numbers in our security forces. we still have enablers. but we are at the point of sustainment. and as his excellency the minister defense mentioned, in the field of agriculture, in the field of health services, the field of energy, possible

as we are joined their and our forces, we are drying up afghan national security forces capabilities to capacity and get the numbers up. and most important way, there will. those three elements of afghan security forces are on the rise. somewhere in the middle, is the sweet spot. i think we are there. but we don't want to do is change that main effort until after this season. now, i don't like using the term fighting season because i think, and to my commanders, we don't say fighting season. it is a little psychosis there. if we use that term, we are giving up the initiatives to the insurgency. we look at it more as a cycle. i think that the recent incident in cabo where we have had some attacks, that are very weak. the afghan national security forces stand up pretty easily. last season during the harvest season, may 17, there was a big published data they were going to come out and it was going to be big. i really do believe that the insurgents cannot introduce any type of complex attack. the most complex that you're going to see is not going to happen in helmand province. just becau

but catching everybody by surprise, both the afghan national forces and the international security forcesy handed over a lot of responsibility for afghan security to exactly them. this is a real test. it is a test. the fact they were compot by surprise shows there are definitely gaps in the intel gathering. >> gregg: if it's going on that many hours, big gap. stay safe. live in kabul, afghanistan. thanks very much. >> heather: from big gaps to big developments in the investigation into the federal agency assigned to protect your tax dollars from waste. executives with the general services administration to face a congressional panel tomorrow. lawmakers are looking into allegations that the gsa spent a bill chunk of its budget to party. if true, the panel will want to know who is to blame. steve centanni joins us in washington. >> reporter: hi, heather. the sparks begin to fly tomorrow as the first of four congressional pams begins hearing on the waste of taxpayer money by the general services administration. the latest twist is the head of the gsa western region, jeffrey neely, who organi

it will be running by the afghan national forces. so the afghanis will do it but they are building the plane while they are flying it. they are trying and create the afghan forces but they are doing a great job. can i tell you a good story? not this weekend but the weekend before in kabul your viewers might remember there was an 18-hour siege by taliban. they have spent a year putting together an assault on kabul. here a good story. the americans said we're here to help you. we'll help you win and defeat the taliban. they afghan forces said we can handle this. the taliban wanted control of kabul. in 18 hours, afghan national forces defeated the taliban in kabul. there were only four civilian casualties. it wasn't reported as a success in media. this was a wild success. you should have seen the servicemen and women. they are seeing what they are doing matters. we will be handing off to the baton and our men and women are doing everything we can. >> greta: every time i see our men and women how hard they are working. it is tough. what t

afghans army and police. and for many of the locals, local nationals. that is something that the afghans know that they are going to have to provide at least some level of care. it won't be like what we have but that's going to take time so we are going to have to stay there to help provide medvac and medical care. we are doing greatwork. not only is security operations but every member of my staff was advising in some role. my surgeon was working with their doctors. so that's going to have to continue. i think fire support is an area that is going to have to be maintained through 2014. they don't really have the capability to put rounds on target and be absolutely precise like we can. and it makes your eyes water to see how precise our fire support systems are. and the afghans know that an erant bomb could exacerbate the problem again. that is going to have to stick around for a while. that's a little more complicates because as we lose eye balls we have to find a way to find that we have some way of seeing it. and so one of the things that we're develo

our transition man toward the afghan -- plan toward the afghan national security forces is, frankly,not a plan. roughly a year ago we were talking about expenditure levels of $7-$9 billion a year through 20 the 20 for the afghan national security forces, a force of over 300,000 of which roughly 40% would be five different police forces. and this is an important distinction because it's often confused with an army. we are now talking about $4.4 billion a year after transition having cut our fy-13 request roughly in half for what they spent in fy-12. we're talking about going down to 230,000. none of us really know what this means, and this focus on manpower numbers ignores the fact that when it comes down to transferring responsibility both within the ministries according to the department of defense reporting and in the training force we have not yet been able to put together the structure to provide sustainability, the skilled elements of a force structure as distinguished from battalion elements. within the police we have a pattern of corruption, local influence which is going to b

russians and the germans on top of that, but this is an attempt to undermine the evidence of afghan nationalrces as they tried to grapple with the responsibility they now have of protecting their own country. and it was the international community also finds it, because they had given a resounding endorsement, takely in charge of protecting the capital. so, a lot of thought, dawn will rise and sun will rise here in less than half an hour's time and that will be food for thought on a brand new day of just really where the afghan national forces stond, especially the international forces in 2014. harris, back to you. >> harris: dominique dena tal yes, thank you very much. u.s. marines assigned to our border with mexico, our top story as we go across america. arizona, dozens of marines with the border patrol trying to stem the tide of illegal immigrants from mexico. a local news crew from tucson riding along as specialized blackhawk helicopters scan the desert floor and spot group of immigrants and then the takedown. agents on foot and aflt tv's trying to catch them. >> there's more here, and t

good news out of this today is how the afghan national security forces responded to today's attacks here in kabul. >> that was lieutenant colonel jimmy cummings. thank you so remember for being with us. we're on the phone with temple bassy, there u.s. embassy. we want to talk to ambassador kroerk. we'll have him coming up later in the hour to update us on the circumstances cane bull. monitor the breaking stories throughout this morning here on cnn. next up obama with romney with rnc chair. dry mouth is very common. a lot of people aren't really aware of it. water alone isn't a solution. dry mouth can have a profound effect. it can lead to bad breath, to tooth decay. it can lead to just general discomfort. i recommend biotene because it contains supplemental enzymes. biotene works really, really well. they make an oral rinse, a mouth spray, and toothpastes. biotene is specially formulated to make the mouth moist and to really make your mouth feel comfortable. we have patients who really love biotene and who swear by it, which to me is the best recommendation. i worked at the colorado spri

wiped out with the nato forces and the american forces in iraq head and you know go on even the afghan national police and we just forget the past few months we've seen you see how white american and world leaders soldiers getting killed at the hands of the very afghan army solutions and bullets means that the needle of the newsgroups retrained today's attacks just to remove that the middle man to the school or problem overcome still his friend from whom. for that we want to know your view on events in the afghan capital had to r.t. dot com to participate in our latest work quote they were all staying with the recent attacks what's next for. you expect more strikes on ground over third believe there's going to be a collapse of central thirty ten percent saying it will see an equal share to choose from it's so only the minority feel it will lead to a sense of international troops on the right course of your vote while you're there and what else is going to be said right so that one of the teeth of all embrace is genetically modified products in a step towards boosting its culture about the possi

and afghan signed today begins the process for afghan national security forces to take the lead on special operations. they'll lead the way to targeting ensuns in afghanistan. the deal resolved a dispute over night raids by american troops, an issue that threatened to derail a larger pact governing the u.s. presence there for decades to come. special operations will be conducted with full respect of afghan's law and constitution. >> in rome, pope benedict xvi celebrated easter mass before tens of thousands of christians at the vatican. ♪ >> alan: the pope prayed for a new start to middle east peace process and implored the syrian government to heed international demands to end the violence. the congregation grew to well over 100,000 by the end of the two-hour ceremony. hours earlier the pontiff, who turns 85 on april 16th, led a long night vigil service in the church. >>> in jerusalem, thousands of christians made the pilgrimage. the church is built on the site where roman catholics believe christ was crucified, buried and resurrected. president -- protestants believe it was in the garden

as i pointed out earlier, virtually cut the amount of money we plan to spend next year on the afghan national security forces in half in the budget requested. that money poors into the afghan economy. it probably puts more into the u.s. economy than the u.s. aid budget by a factor of 2 to 3. we are going to go to 4.4 billion, the future planning figure where a year ago, we were planning to spend about 80% of that money, we're now talking 25%. now, going into chicago and getting more pledges is going to be like the bond conference. and if you look at the world bank report, which is the only thing we have, there is no u.s. economic transition plan for afghanistan. the world bank report talks about what's going to happen with or without chicago. you can see that and the issues are raised in the department of defense report. some of these facts, as ron points out are who picks the facts. we have three reports on this kwar that matter. and i would suggest it's about time we start reading them. because we only have one fiscal year to make this transition and we' already made most of the decisions.

and if we don't finance and fund the afghan national security forces when we leave in 2014, if don'tthe wherewithal do to do what they need to do and they don't have the money and their numbers come down, that's a recipe for failure because as we're leaving, we would reb accusing the afghan national security forces who have to take over from us at a time when they'll be conducting operations independent much us. >> heather: thank you for joining us. i would add something to that list, i think we should listen to you as well. general, thank you for your insight as always. >> take care. >> gregg: always good getting the insight from the general there. that's going to do it for us. rick folbaum, arthel neville will be taking over top of the hour. my daughter e-mailed me and said, dad, you're in the dog house with mom. >> heather: she's going to force to you watch the housewives show. >> gregg: that crack i made? i'm beginning to regret that. >> heather: we will see you tomorrow right here at 4 p.m be sure to join us. >> gregg: have a great weekend y of single mile credirds. battle speec

know. >> people should know it costs $6 billion a yore to maintain the current structure for the afghan nationalse ministry have caught more than cutting more than 100,000 of those troops and read a very good piece from a couple of days ago from spencer ackerman's in wired's danger room. read that in general and get the sort of point. we are finishing training, a total waste for people about to be cut. if with you worried about what happens after the united states leaves, you have to watch what happens with these security forces. >> we spent all the money training and arming and they will get laid off. we saw all of the things in iraq that went wrong. >> afghanistan went wrong from the beginning. >> one of the big lessons was the decision to disband sadam's army. all have you do is have a bunch of unemployed, frustrated armed men with guns that don't have other options. >> a soldier without an army is a fight. >> thank you to my guests. peter beinart "the crisis of zioni zionism" son ali kolhatkar, host of uprising on pacific radio. i willi lake and rula jebreal. back next weekend,ç saturday a

right ten years of war here we've been spending a lot of money on building up the afghan security forces right the national army and the police and this was supposed to be kind of our exit strategy is that we can finally handed over to afghan control and everything will be ok in the country and now when we're supposed to be handing off the majority the responsibility to them then twenty fourteen they're going to be shrinking the force so was what with all choragus that's sixty four thousand dollar question. and frankly it was it was a pipe dream. you know i you if you look back at our involvement in afghanistan after nine eleven i personally think it made sense for us to go over there that's where our qaida was holed out as the welcome guest of the taliban and you know it was ten eleven years ago with things were going well things were going very well we had special operators in that country really really kicking some some tale of the joker in the deck was the war in iraq and. all these forces were pulled out of afghanistan to support the war in iraq of course we don't have a draft so we're fighting two wa

whether they will the next group that they will fit in with and of the militants or from the afghan national army. our political. will is for months that we have. actually we're meeting and u.s. military personnel from. their own laundry the national army. and really a very very big. red cross the president of a lobbying group the pac national is we have to leave it there not the best sounds unfortunately coming out of our broadband connection there sorry about that thanks for your input. well still ahead for you this hour show premieres an exclusive interviews a sneak peek and artie's new show featuring the world's most fabulous whistleblower julian a song that launches next week. but the french just a week away from choosing their next president the two main rivals are rushing to secure last minute support as they hold rallies in paris socialist candidate front is ahead in the polls and president sarkozy has joined the charge for the right to sway voters and artie's tests are sillier reports it's growing immigration and fear of terrorism that many french politicians are banking on and he i