to be hiding. we have seen him periodically appear on videotapes on al jazeera, broadcast throughout the arab world. the wars in afghanistan and iraq, particularly the war in afghanistan that was launched in an effort to bring both al qaeda down and osama bin laden down. and now it has happened. the president will take america through the developments that led to osama bin laden's death tonight. we are awaiting the president who will speak late on a sunday night. and he will take us through those developments. we have all of our correspondents in place. chuck todd in the white house, our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell who has covered the war on terrorism and its many incarnations since 9/11 and including before on osama bin laden. our colleague said it, this is nothing short of a breathtaking development the president will announce. >> the last report on bin laden was 1997 on "nightly news." that's when he was first identified as the key operational leader. over the years, we've seen many killed and captures of these top al qaeda officials, but it was always osama bin laden, the one figure that the u.s. really

beginning in two thousand and two a massive diversion of resources and attention was taken from afghanistan to iraq that allowed the insurgency that allowed to escape from tora bora allow the insurgency to regroup and going to regenerate itself in afghanistan and that's why we're still there so i think president obama certainly does the deserves a lot of credit for refocusing america's national security policies on pressuring al and generating the information which finally led to locating and killing that you're going to say it's you know we kind of jump right into the bush stuff in the more heated discussion but let me just say all praise for president obama for the national security team he has for armed forces this is to me not a parson issue at all there's a discussion that's obviously going to follow but today and last night no i it wasn't about politics it was about parties and i was just excited that we had killed osama bin laden i think that's for the majority of americans and conservatives or republicans who don't like president. much they're all happy and excited the presence of the well

to be hiding. we have seen him periodically appear on videotapes on al jazeera, broadcast throughout the arab world. the wars in afghanistan and iraq, particularly the war in afghanistan that was launched in an effort to bring both al qaeda down and osama bin laden down. and now it has happened. the president will take america through the developments that led to osama bin laden's death tonight. we are awaiting the president who will speak late on a sunday night. and he will take us through those developments. we have all of our correspondents in place. chuck todd in the white house, our chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell who has covered the war on terrorism and its many incarnations since 9/11 and including before on osama bin laden. our colleague said it, this is nothing short of a breathtaking development the president will announce. >> the last report on bin laden was 1997 on "nightly news." that's when he was first identified as the key operational leader. over the years, we've seen many killed and captures of these top al qaeda officials, but it was always osama bin laden, the one figure that the u.s. really

, why are we sending more people to iraq than we are to the afghanistan made no sense. >> i think that's become so clear that i wonder why the american people haven't gotten on to it yet. yesterday, or day before yesterday, the iraq oil report made the projections that there's 100 billion barrels for sure, 200 billion probably, and at the outside 300 billion. that dwarfs saudi arabia. i know why dib cheney went to iraq. >> wow. you're saying that it didn't have to do with al qaeda or bin laden. it had to do with the oil. >> that was the camouflage. that was to get the american people excited about going to war in iraq again. the real reason for iraq, and incidentally the reason we aren't coming home anytime soon is the oil. >> you know, you mentioned dick cheney as if he was making the decisions. i want to play one more clip from george bush in that same interview and get a response from you. let's watch first. >> can you name the president of chechnya. >> no, can you? >> the president of taiwan? >> yeah, lee, theual pakistani general took over office, he

the one moment in his presidency when he has the political credibility to announce a substantial withdrawal from afghanistan and iraq on the grounds that. that the bin laden's threat is gone and we will know within they are weeks how many troops the president is willing to withdraw otherwise. it seems to me we will have learned that he has no intention of a significant withdrawal and the the victory here the political victory will be for more secrecy more cia operations. more trillion dollar wars and. new explanations for why we are in afghanistan so we'll see you know big moment and i'm curious just given what you just said to what extent do you think that president obama will be making that decision or his administration will be making that decision based on internal pressures things like you know lobbying the the the military complex those are complex now not versus external pressures like voters you know people contacting the white house and calling members of congress and saying ok we've got him let's get the hell out of the area. well i was on the phone with congresswoman barbara lee's office today and there m

troops to afghanistan and iraq. >> u.s. officials continue to try to work with pakistan to get answers to crucial questions. >> did pakistan harbor bin laden? what was his daily life like hiding out? how much do his wives know? we're getting answers tonight. >> reporter: reports of explosion in osama bin laden's compound come amid persistent rumors that the pakistani authorities intend to blow up the compound at some point. it will be an extraordinary move because it is still a forensic site and still a crime scene. they are still interrogating the three wives of osama bin laden. the youngest of whom seems to be giving away the most information. any details she gives them needs to corroborate with a visit to the site. they have already destroyed much of the personal furniture and things of bin laden at the house. i've seen video footage of broken beds and wardrobes and other furniture at the site. an extraordinary move and one which will complicate any additional information, especially if the c.i.a. gets involved such as th

going to put it lets the afghanistan iraq situation particularly if it's the joe biden magic ninjas play we get intelligence from some magic place and we send in the guys the players to take it or if we can get that absolutely that's better than rolling tanks really takes is a bad idea so if we can get intel and send in j. socks in the seals then in delta and the guys we want or welcome. it so that when you torture people when information about going time of day comes out when that ends up recruiting even more terrorist doesn't that she has her leaders were destroying their propaganda now qaeda recruiting videos rarely mention that their number one piece are always us in the holy land crusaders all that stuff us occupying their country but that's another hitler it is. i'm all right jim thank you very much for joining us i am actually going to see you happy hour it was a little bit later on in the show thanks. now if we continue talking about osama bin laden and how this one figure to change america forever let's get to the money the u.s. is facing a debt crisis fourteen trillion dollars

the last ten years, to the new programs developed to prevent further attacks, to the two wars being waged in afghanistan and iraq to the actual direct physical hunt for bin laden, some are placing the cost anywhere between $250 billion to a staggering $3 trillion. and while many, including the president, have indicated that this does not mean an end to the so-called war on terror, with one of the key players dead, things are bound to change. today, secretary of defense robert gates spoke about the death of bin laden while touring a military base in north carolina. >> in terms of the situation in afghanistan, i think that there is a possibility that it could be a game-changer. >> reporter: how the game changes, of course, remains to be seen. >> martha raddatz joins me now from washington. martha, breaking news in just the last couple of hours. what's going on? >> reporter: well, there was a drone missile strike in yemen. there hasn't been any kind of missile strike in yemen in the last year and this one targeted american-born cleric anwar al awlaki. apparently, it just missed him. he is behind, they believe, the

intellectual, not anything more than that by people who had experienced the first tour in iraq and afghanistan and came back to why u.s. military was failing. why we were losing iraq. and they reached back and they found these sort of intellectual antecedents french counterinsurgency theory and the rule and the missions and how to sort of refashion government to get at this problem and they played an interesting rule and advocacy and they've become in some ways as described by other reporters a farm team to the obama foreign policy. >> what is your dÉjÀ? >> i work for "the wall street journal" covering national security. >> finally, nathan, what is the image on the front of your book? the young boy on the wraparound, and the soldier, where did you get this image? >> i think the image conveys a little bit of sort of how i felt about this mission as i observed it which is kind of like at times the ronald reagan saying i'm from the government, here to help. yes, our military is there. they are there to help to do fundamentally humanitarian things come and that is a mission that they have embraced. it's a rewardin

but i urge my colleagues to support the amendment prohibiting permanent military bases in iraq and afghanistan. it's critical in fighting the perception held by many in iraq and afghanistan that we are an occupying army or that we intend to remain as an occupying force. that perception fuels the insurgents and taliban and makes our troops more vulnerable and further threatens our national security. i want to thank the chairman again and our ranking minority member for the time and for including this amendment in the en bloc package of amendments. thank you. the chair: the gentleman from california. mr. mckeon: mr. chairman, i yield one minute to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from georgia, mr. kingston. the chair: the gentleman from georgia. mr. kingston: i thank the gentleman from california for the time. i stand in support of the amendment and the passage of the bill. but i want to raise a point which is of great concern to me as an appropriator and as a fiscal conservative, and that is the pentagon's practice and its being practiced by the obama administration and as it was by the b

foreign policy abroad he's also been very cautious to say if we're going to end the wars in iraq and afghanistan we need to do it quickly and we also need to do it smartly we need to to reduce footprint we need to reduce spending all these are things the problem is not pape's no matter what gates says or does the problem is the electorate but the the military doctor complex the lobbyist going out electorate the elected body that continue to keep us in these wars and they also brought their problem is president obama doing in my case my opinion liberal interventionism nation building mindless programs in libya afghanistan and elsewhere so should we not listen to what secretary gates said because it doesn't sound like the administration really did you know you mentioned a lot of it that from our perspective that that you know setting a land army to take them more countries are fighting for something more country than one would need to have their head examined i mean while the administration just you know get involved in libya for i well i mean again gates is not the one that sends troops not obama

general dempsey, admiral winnifeld, we have much to do from bringing our troops home from iraq to reducing our forces in afghanistan and transitioning to the afghan leader. from the feeding of credit to protecting the libyan people, all this even as we make difficult budget decisions while keeping our military the finest fighting force in the world. above all as commander-in-chief, i will be looking to you and the rest of the joint chiefs for what i value most in my advisers, you're honest, unvarnished advice and a full range of options especially when it comes to our most solemn obligation, protecting the lives of our brave men and women in uniform. we have no greater responsibility as we are reminded today when we honor all those who sacrificed so that we can enjoy the blessings of freedom. again, to marty, sandy, and ray and your families, thank you for your patriotic service and your readiness to lead once again. thank you very much, everybody. [no audio] >> army general martin dempsey chosen to be the next chief of staff admiral sandy winnifeld as head of the northern command nominated as the vice-chairman and

in the authorization well we've got one hundred twenty million dollars still going to the wars in iraq and afghanistan name cut by twenty billion going to the department of energy for all their nuclear enterprise as well on the hit on with all that's all rolled into this yeah that's over the billion a lot of all well rolled into all of this is of course a lot of different. different park projects that we would call them part. project of course members of congress who are beholden to a ban on earmarks are saying well no no these are these are they were interest here these are things for national security that's what we see with these defense bells that's why they're so big we we think the favored interests in the guise of national security is ok but that's the side of defense that really has aided a lot of republican members of congress and particular in their desire to continue to grow government spending and that he has to the tax god it's not just the amount of numbers it's on imagine seven hundred billion i can't even count that high what is that right and so this year what we have is an interestin

to. in places with names like afghanistan, iraq. this is the way it happens. the words are old: mother, father, home. and the will of a river etched out of the landscape history refines to myth. the tv blanks between segments but every static face defines itself. holds stubbornly its private scene, fixed publicly. as we are led back to that little negative whose lack is each of us. staring the staring dead, leaning, sometimes like grief itself and then straightening back. >> brown: and now, tonight's honor roll. as always we add the names as their deaths are made official and photographs become available. here, in silence, are nine more. >> ifill: and that's the "newshour" for tonight. on tuesday, we'll look at the conflict heating up between north and south sudan. i'm gwen ifill. >> brown: and i'm jeffrey brown. we'll see you on-line and again here tomorrow evening. thank you and good night. major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: >> okay, listen. somebody has got to get serious. >> i think... >> we need renewable energy. >> ...renewable energ

bring our troops home now it's been clear for years that osama bin ladin wasn't in afghanistan anymore that iraq had nothing to do with nine eleven and that we're not bringing democracy to afghanistan but rather we destabilize the country and made life for civilians more dangerous for our politicians and our military military officials have made repeated calls in the last few days for us to remember it's a spike in lawns that the war on terror isn't over but even though there are maybe one hundred two hundred al qaeda left in afghanistan total we must stay so they don't return but a new survey a usa survey poll shows that sixty percent of americans suddenly think they're winning the war on terror so will obama can obama use this moment to get us out or a signal out prolonged war because people think that suddenly we're on a roll joining me to discuss this is jack rice former cia agent and criminal defense attorney jack thanks so much for joining us tonight for starters ok so is selling a lot and has been killed he was in pakistan and he was in a mansion why do we have one hundred thousand troops in afghanistan

to find him and bush is trying to build up this war in iraq and you can see direct instances in which resources were being diverted from hunting bin ladin in afghanistan and the tribal regions in pakistan to iraq for example their army delta units that were transferred from the bin laden unit to iraq to hunt for. kind of units in iraq and in two thousand and five bush quietly close the cia's bin laden unit this is the unit that was dedicated specifically to hunting bin laden because they were intelligence needs for iraq and so he had to switch resources so i think a lot of that rhetoric about you know saying that bush was doing this intentionally asserted sort of some kind of grand scheme was to cover up this huge embarrassment of not being able to find him because you just wasn't resourcing it properly i mean tora bora is the key instance here this is in two thousand and one right after the invasion we had been in our grasp he was wounded he was on the run and there's about one hundred american commandos and they kept asking for reinforcements and they made repeated requests reinforcements a thousand marines to walk off the exits into pakistan there

that's the honest cost i mean just the glitz and linda bilmes show that the wars in iraq and afghanistan were going to cost originally three trillion dollars and they've since revised those estimates account for things like caring for wounded soldiers and if you remember when donald rumsfeld and his his cronies were selling the iraq war they were estimating only a few billion dollars worth of costs here but the reality is when these troops come home as she delivered to the center set up there many of them have p.t.s.d. that have to be dealt with many of them have life altering injuries and their families sometimes lose work because they have to stay home to care for them so when they recruit you for the military you should have this information in mind that your skills are probably not going to be marketable and you're probably not going to get that money for college and when you come home your injuries are going to not only affect your economic life but those of your family and the irony of there is that the an announced that we spend on a deployed service person in afghanistan the according to the o

in the '60s, and revamp the whole process to fix it. >> if you apply right now for disability benefits and you are a young vet coming back from iraq-afghanistan is six months. that's unacceptable. >> so get any kind of veterans services? >> to get disabilities payments. >> they are living on what? >> if you appeal it resets to two years. so the system is broken. the most important thing that we need to focus on is customer service and customers satisfaction of those veterans of all generations coming home and customers are saying this isn't working. so we need the president to be much more aggressive, we need congress to come together and solve this problem once and for all. every va secretary comes in and says i'm going to break the backlog. every va secretary leaves and says the next guy's got to break the backlog. it hasn't happened yet. >> i think people don't get it. it is the same story we heard 15 years ago, the same story we heard coming out of vietnam. general shinseki is, i think we can all agree, an incredible guy, a soldier's soldier. and if he can't do it, isn't it time just to sort of light a fuse and say, start from scratch? >>

to iraq five times. i have been to afghanistan tree timeses. i have been to turkey and kuwait and jordan and israel and others. as to your previous point, there is a group of individuals who are radical jihaddists. we need to call them by name. they believe it's okay to kill innocent people in the name of their religion. it is not all of islam. it is not all muslims. but there is a subgroup who believe it's okay, in fact, it's their plan and design to kill innocent people. the first order of business of the united states federal government is to protect this country and the american people [applause] >> the people and the mind-set that killed 3,000 of our fellow citizens on september 11, 2001 would have killed 300,000 or 3 million or 30 million. we need to do everything we can to make sure that doesn't happen -- i support enhanced interrogation techniques under limited circumstances. >> let me ask you all directly -- this is another raising of your hands. you didn't answer this specifically, congressman paul, raise your hand if you would suppor

to prevent nine eleventh's from happening again why don't we see this is a moment to withdraw from afghanistan in iraq just for oprah do you think that's possible or is it also possible that this could this moment could be taken as an extra opportunity to really intensify efforts in afghanistan well for afghanistan's not going to go well no matter how you define going well it is not possible to win these wars whatever that means and everybody knows that the dilemma is you can hear the drumbeat now for pakistan you know against pakistan and there's always going to be a rand reserve bailable for the military aggressors seem to dominate but you know we've seen the united states. people find an end to these wars they voted for the current president as a peace candidate and now we've got two more wars so let's have an end to this is this the death of bin laden should be a moment where we can say yes now withdraw american withdrawal from occupation what are the chances of that really well i don't we don't know until we do we insist on it we don't know until we insist on it and i think it's our only hope is

before more than two hundred thirty thousand women have served in iraq and afghanistan in the last ten years but few welcome assets to receive them on return while veterans like chiquita suffer neglect and physical disability others are tormented by demons like jessica goodell who spent eight months in iraq collecting and sending home the bodies of fallen marines i couldn't leave my apartment you know i didn't have friends and anybody. and a lot of it you can feel it. you know until it keep pushing it back out holism drug abuse and depression are widespread post-traumatic stress disorder affects the overwhelming majority of today's veterans there are some estimates of hundreds of thousands actually think it's much more than that in my opinion anyone who stepped foot inside of iraq or afghanistan some around ninety percent of them are suffering from p.t.s.d. do you think that if chelsea clinton. if alexandra pelosi had their arms or legs blown off or that they would be doing more for the veterans do you think there would be different treatment. of course there would instead there are an estimated one hundred thousand

to bringing our troops home from iraq and reducing our forces in afghanistan. ing the libyan people. all this even as we make difficult budget decisions while keeping our military the finest fighting force in the world. above all, as commander in chief i'll be looking to you and the rest of the joint chiefs for what i value most in my advisers, your honest, unvarnished advice and the full range of options, especially when it comes to our most solemn obligation, protecting the lives of our brave men and women in uniform. we have no greater responsibility as we are reminded today when we honor all those who sacrificed so we can enjoy the blessings of freedom. so, again, to marty, sandy, and ray as well as your families, thank you for your patriotic service and readiness to lead once more. that c thank you very much, everybody. >> with that, we'll step away. perhaps the most important nomination is general martin dempsey, who will chair the joint chiefs of staff. of course all three nomination still has to be confirmed by the senate. >>> as we honor our war dead on

government is in fact asking them to allow more troops to define in iraq and afghanistan because theyhave the special skills to go in and train mexican police forces we know this happened in the past and they also train mexican military in a lot of those guys are now part of that has you know one of the most violent hard tells why can't we figure out a way to do this without violence without training you know i feel like this happens to us so often just like when we sell weapons to people that end up being our enemies down the line i mean that is ironic actually the weapons being used by the cartels are american and the weapons being used by the police the american but we are we are there are some strategies i think that. the drugs are ahead of the office of national drug control policy they take the policy approach to the takes the more enforcement approach and i know the kerlikowske has done some business mexico where he said they're trying to build up these things called drug courts where if you are a violent offender if you are captured by mexican police or mexican military you ca

they volunteered to go to iraq and afghanistan. just because they're home and out of uniform doesn't mean that service isn't any longer important to them. >> service has been especially important this week for homeowners in a town devastated. looking for hope amid utter destruction. >> okay, guys. i know what a bunch of angels look like now. >> air force veteran nicole green used her vacation time to rush here. and while they're sweating for different reasons, there's a common bond binding them here. >> this is a personal mission and you're giving back to an organization bigger than yourself, so it's a great bridge. >> while disasters like this hit home closer to rubicon members, but they often happen overseas bridging the gap between catastrophe and the arrival of large-scale relief. they came together for the first time in the earthquake in haiti nearly 15 months ago followed by acts in chile, haiti, africa, and elsewhere. 15 months ago, followed by disaster and humanitarian missions in pakistan and elsewhere. today, the focus was

iraq and afghanistan in libya. in fact, we all know that it's time to bring our troops home out of afghanistan and iraq and it is time to engage in smart security where diplomacy, human and economic assistance are used instead of bombs and weapons, costing us pennies on the dollar. no more wars, no boots on the ground in libya and as much as we can do to take care of our business here at home. and i will yield back to the gentleman from michigan. mr. conyers: i thank the gentlelady. the time has come for congress to once again exercise its constitutional authority to place boundaries on the use of our military forces overseas and clearly state that this conflict in libya will not escalate into an expensive occupation that could strain our resources and harm our national security interests. i beg the members of this house to give favorable consideration to our amendment. the chair: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentleman from virginia is recognized. >> we have no other speakers and i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is on the amendment offered by the gentle

to a withdrawal from afghanistan? >> the question to ask is, what degree did our invasion and occupations of iraq and afghanistan help had found him in afghanistan or northwest pakistan, i would have said, yeah, this flushed him out. as you were saying, he was sitting in a suburb. that opens all new questions about what are we doing in afghanistan and is that making us safer? >> you're nodding. why? >> well yeah, that's absolutely the question. i mean, why are we in afghanistan at this point? i mean, are we capable of getting all those tiny little post hydra cells by waging a war in afghanistan, waging a war in iraq? i don't think so. yet we've killed bin laden, what's changed today. >> again, to that end, $800 billion was the cost of the war in iraq. $400 billion the cost of the war in afghanistan. the overall cost between 9/11 and bin laden's death, $1.3 trillion. and the guy's living in the suburbs of islamabad next to the pakistani west point. we know after this wave breaks, we're going to be back on the debt ceiling. what are we doing? >> so, this was an expensive execution operation, but i think we're asking ex

decisions and people you know that they have to listen to the american people and that's the people want out of afghanistan and they want out of iraq and they don't want to be slow walked for the next decade towards the quote unquote of the war well lastly speaking of holding the president accountable of course president obama got us into a war in libya without ever asking congress but he did have he does have a sixty day period there within nine days those sixty days are up and it's going to be up to congress to question him on it and to have to vote on it so are you going to hold the president accountable are you going to call for congress to take a stand yes when congress returns after the after next week because we won't be in next week i'll be prepared to bring forward the. war powers resolution where the statute effectively is told and the congress can now enter into a vote on the issue of libya look we now have new legislation before the congress that could keep us. in war forever you know the militarization of our nation is such a disaster for our democracy and unless we take a stand and challenge these wars at the core at

afghanistan and pakistan. obama promised to pull u.s. troops out of iraq and turn the military's attention back to afghanistan. >> we must take out osama bin laden and his lieutenants if we have them in our sights. >> in the end, it was a promise that president obama was able to keep. >> again, terrorist master mind osama bin laden killed on sunday in pakistan by u.s. led special forces . 25 other al qaeda operatives were killed in the trike. the u.s. has custody of his body and osama bin laden will be buried at sea. this is tj winic reporting, back to you. network the president received a tip on bin laden's where abouts in august which led them to a mansion in pakistan. he was killed in a fire fight. his body is held in accordance to islamic tradition. aman al-sari had a major role in the september 11th attacks and the brains behind the al qaeda network. he denounced the united states and urged muslims to fight nato and american forces in lib yampt osama bin laden is responsible for the deaths of thousands of innocent americans in the 9/11 terror attacks

to tighten its budget belt. military analyst loren thompson says the wars in iraq and afghanistan now cost $100 billion a year. he says the strike that killed bin laden will eventually accelerate the winding down of those conflicts. >> there is not going to be a peace dividend associated with osama bin laden's death any time soon. but of course, the reason we are in afghanistan, the reason we went to iraq was all linked to 9/11 attacks. so with the chief author of those attacks now dead, there is a high likelihood that we are headed into a period of contraction in defense demand and maybe more money available for other things. >> reporter: since osama bin laden launched attacks on the united states, the armed forces have added 92,000 soldiers and marines. with al qaeda's leader gone, analysts expect the military to return to it's pre-9/11 size. gordon adams headed up national security budgeting for the clinton white house. as important as bin laden's death is, he says the key factor driving down defense spending is the massive federal deficit. >> it means slowing down some hardware programs, and it probably mea