five men were tied to an al qaeda link group in somalia. they were arrested on suspicion of planning to carry out a salt. according to the prime minister, it showed that the country was still under threat from extremist groups at home and abroad. we have more. >> in the quiet streets of the suburbs, one of the biggest counter-terrorism operations that australia has ever seen. it got under way in the middle of the night, involving some 400 officers. for men thought to be planning a suicide attack against the australian military. they're all nationals in their early-to-mid-20's. >> the men were planning to carry out a suicide terror attack on a defense establishment in australia, involving an armed assault with automatic weapons. planning indicated they were prepared to indicate a sustained attack on military personnel and cover themselves with fuel. >> this is the army base that police believe was the target. after seven months of separation, one officer said an attack was imminent. police say that they have closed circuit footage showing on

al qaeda. ali mahmood was an ex-egyptian army officer, part of the unit that actually killed anwar sadat. he succeeded in infiltrating the cia in 1984 and says that he was used as an asset. he went into a mosque in hamburg supposedly blew his cover, got put in a u.s. watch list, but he ended up getting on a twa flight into america. on the flight he meets a woman named linda sanchez who is coming back from greece from vacation. slightly older woman. ali is a stud. when he ended up in the u.s. army, he set a record for the 440 at fort jackson reportedly. we are talking push-ups on the fingertips kind of guy. he seduces her and they get married at a drive-through wedding chapel in reno nevada six weeks later. now he is in silicon valley. he sets up a sleeper cell, and he enlists in the u.s. army. this is a radical egyptian, ex-egyptian army commando so radical in his religious views that president mubarak after the assassination of sadat through this guy out of the army. who was he adopted by? the

invaded afghanistan, al qaeda's leaders pled to the cities of pakistan. >> after operatives like ramsey captured in the cities the survivors fled to the border area could she flee again? >> he says no. >> that's where they are going to make their last stand, al qaeda's core leadership has lived and died in that region, and i don't see an al qaeda caravan moving from the afghan packed border region into some other part of the world. >> there are by his estimates between two and 400 core members of al qaeda left. >> but every conversation about defeating al qaeda begins and ends with just two names. >> i think in order to see al qaeda finished and many crumble, you have to kill or capture osama bin laden and zawahiri without a doubt. >> finishing al qaeda requires not just killing bin ladin and his number two saw zawahiri but upsetting any plots they have set out to carry out another 9/11. >> court documents reveal a man from long island pled guilty to provide al qaeda information on the new york transit system and a man in north carolina has been arrested on giving support to terrorisms.

from al qaeda. the approach the obama administration should be to come to people involved in the policy and say how did you do it and what were the keys to keeping the country safe over the period of time and instead, they are out there now, threatening to disbar the lawyers who gave us the local opinions and threatening contrary to what the president originally said they will go out and investigate, the cia personnel who carried out those investigations. i just -- i think it's an outrageous political act, that will do great damage long term to our capacity to be able to have people take on difficult jobs, make difficult decisions, without having to worry about what the next administration is going to say. >> chris: if the prosecutor asked to speak to you, will you speak to him? >> it will depend. on the circumstances. and what i think they are -- their activities are really involved in, i have been very out spoken in my views on this matter, i have been very forthright, publicly in talking about my

and also how closely tied was he to al qaeda. >> he clearly collaborated with elements of al qaeda inthe period after their retreat from afghanistan across the border after 2001. >> may i just interrupt. was he involved, for instance, did this group shelter al qaeda leaders. >> they are accused of that by the government of the united states that why he had a $5 million reward on his head in addition to the%cx & reward by the pakistani government it was for his collaboration with al qaeda. he also facilitated tactics against american soldiers across-the-board never afghanistan and he targeted western facilities in pakistan and by seeking to destabilize pakistan he was judged by the united states government to be working against american interests for all those reasons he was seen as an enemy of the united states. but his collaborations with al qaeda i think the ambassador said it well, were peculiar to his region and to the relationship between his tribe and uzbeq and some other arab elements of al qaeda. we're not clear, i'm not clear anyway, on how close he was to the senior leadersh

which was to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. but actually to execute against that very narrow definition of what the project was all about, you need a broad strengthening of the governmental capacity and security forces in afghanistan. you need a stronger, more committed partner in pakistan. i think this team reflects that. and reflects a much larger strategy than what is embedded in that very narrow definition that the president"pñ used on march 27. i think probably ambassador eikenberry's budget request that was recently reported reflects that again. so in that context, for, from the perspective of the mediterranean -- american people, how do you define clear objectives of what you are trying to succeed with as out putts against the -- how do you measure success against that broader array of problems and inputs? >> a very key question which john, you are alluding to is of course if our objective is to defeat, destroy, dismantle al qaeda an they're primarily in pakistan why are we doing s

the base, al qaeda.nd the name al qaeda comes from the fact the database of all the guys that came to fight with mujahideen and ali mohamed and bin laden copied all their names down and the guys from the philippines, south africa, chileans and they dispersed after the war against the soviets and the data base of brothers willing to die for allah became al qaeda. and this guy has a book that says al qaeda if the fbi 1992. now, ramzi ahmed yousef is a new york city and a bomb factory and is building this fuel yield device 1500 how the bomb to go up. he wants to block talwani to tar were to. he tells the fbi he wants to and injured 50,000 people killed. okay. and so they are building this thing. now, salem, remember the good egyptian, the goodbye? they gave him a couple of months to find a new job and kept paying the 500 so he meets nancy at the subway sandwich shop, one of my favorite in use by the way whenever i am in manhattan, and he meets her there and she gives him the last $500 in the presence of ano

khalid shaikh mohammed, preeminent source in al qaeda. while they say that the overall program got absolutely crucial information, they do not conclude whether the enhanced interrogation programs worked. they just are kind of agnostic on the program and then there's what president obama calls the core issue. >> could we have gotten to the same end without resorting to these techniques? and it doesn't answer the broader question, are we safer as a consequence of having used these techniques? >> well, these two reports are versions of the ones i asked for previously. there's actually one, the detainee report pivotal for the war against al qaeda, there's one that's more detailed that has not been released. the interesting thing about these is it shows that khalid sheik muhammad and abu zubaydah were pivotal in the war against al qaeda, that both were uncooperative at first, that the application of enhanced interrogation techniques, specifically waterboarding, especially in the case of khalid shaikh mohammed, convinced him he needed to cooper

there's actually one, the detainee report pivotal for the war against al qaeda, there's one that's more detailed that has not been released. the interesting thing about these is it shows that khalid sheik muhammad and abu zubaydah were pivotal in the war against al qae, that both were uncooperative at first, that the application of enhanced interrogation techniques, specifically waterboarding, especially in the case of khalid shaikh mohammed, convinced him he needed to cooperate. the iets were critical and saved thousands of life and let us defeat all further attacks against the united states. the thing i keep coming back to time and time again, chris, is the fact that we've gone for eight years without another attack. now, how do you explain that? the critics don't have any solution for that. they can criticize our policies, our way of doing business, but the results speak for themselves, and as well as the efforts that we went to, the justice department, to make sure what we were doing was legal, was consistent with our international treaty obligations. >> at one point the vice presid

the strategy focuses on feeding al qaeda and their extremist allies. that's where the original 911 attacks came from, that region. they have moved to pakistan. i don't think that threat is going to go away. they still plot against us, see us as somebody they want to kill in terms of as many arican lives as possible. in that regard, we are focused on executing that mission. >> let's talk about the focus. the commander on the ground is expected to release his report. will he request more troops to fight? >> the assessment will come in in two weeks. his guidance was to come out, put a new team together and tell us how you assess conditions on the grou, take into consideration the president's strategy. he's going to do that. his assessment will come in and not speak specifically to resources. >> senator mccain is saying this morning, it will deal wit resources. he'll come back with high, medium and low threat assessments whether you need 15,25 or 45,000 troops. >> the assessment he will submit here won't specifically deal with requirements for additional r

no one has any idea how much al qaeda and the i m -- imu r earning in the drug trade. they came in at the moment when the drugs leave the region. opium costs $75 a kilo in afghanistan. by the time it >>reporter: pact -- reaches pakistan's order goes up 12 times. when it turned into a crystal heroin and moves to the west has gone up 200 times. if you are the guys who are moving it out of the farm areas, you are making a bit of money. if you are the guys moving into other parts of the world, you are really making a killing. i will end on that note. 9/11 cost $500,000. people often say to me the last thing we want to do is get involved in another drug war. columbia has been a total disaster, looking pretty messy, why should we bother getting involved in this in afghanistan? i will agree, the things i think need to happen to turn this around are going to be extremely expensive, extremely complex, it is going to take a long time and it is not going to be easy and it will take a lot of coordination which is something the coalition has famously lacked since 2001. but i think

and a secret plan to kill al qaeda leaders. we have uncovered new information about a private firm's role in a bush administration's war on terror. >>> bob corker is on the scene monitoring a vote. was it a victory for democracy. we want to welcome our viewers from the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer, you're in "the situation room." >>> this man was found guilty of killing 270 people in cold blood, 189 of them americans, now he's free back home in libya. abdelbaset ali mohmed al megrahi was the only person convicted in the 1983 bombing over lockerby scotland. one man is taking responsibility for it, calling it an act of compassion for a man who's said to be dying of prostate cancer. and joining us now from scotland, the scotland justice secretary kenny mccaskill. did he kill 270 people? >> yes, he was convicted by a scottish court. >> is it normal procedure in scotland, that someone, a convicted mass murder who gets cancer is free to go home to his wife and family. >> thankfully in scotland we don't have ma

now that's al qaeda. and the second thing about it is if you inflict enough pain on anyone, they'll tell you anything to make the pain stop. so you not only get perhaps right information but you also get a lot of wrong information. but the damage that it did to america's image in the world is something we're still on the way to repairing. this is an ideological strug... struggle as well as a physical one. >> schieffer: senator mccain, thank you so much for coming by to share those stories about senator kennedy and also about the comments on the news of the day. >> thank you for having me on, bob. >> schieffer: okay. i want to go now to boston where senator dianne feinstein, who served with senator kennedy on the judiciary committee, is standing by. also with us this morning from portland maine congressman barney frank who is from senator kennedy's home state, of course, massachusetts. senator feinstein, let me just start where senator mccain left off. this whole controversy where you have the vice preside

that attack was blamed on al qaeda. the american secretary of state believes threats of terrorism remain. >> it is an opportunity to renew our resolve. we need to ensure that these attacks do not take more innocent lives in the future. >> america says that the insurgents trying to topple the somali government are linked to al qaeda. they want to impose strict islamic law across somalia, and they have the government pinned into a small corner of the capital, mogadishu. the war appears to be attracting support from extremists. several young men were arrested, accused of links to the terror group. under the clinton presidency, american troops tried to intervene in somalia. when helicopters were shot down and soldiers killed in the black hawk down incident, america pulled out. reluctant to send troops, the americans are backing somali forces loyal to the transition government, with the aim of preventing hard-line islamist forces from seeking power. in nairobi, hillary clinton met the president with a clear message. we are w

iraq had no link to al qaeda. 28 pages of the report are redacted.26th, american troops are accused of beating iraqi prisoners. and july 29th, 2003, three days later, amid all of the negative headlines. >> word of a possible new al qaeda attack. >> homeland security issues warnings of further terrorist attempts to use airplanes for suicide attacks. december 17th, 2003, tom ridge -- thomas kean says the attacks were inevitable. then a federal appeals court says they cannot detain jose padilla indefinitely without charges and the chief u.s. weapons inspector in iraq dr. david kay who announced he found no weapons of mass destruction there announces he'll resign his post. december 21st, 2003, four days later, the sunday before christmas -- >> today the united states government raised the national threat level. >> homeland security again raises the threat level to orange claiming credible intelligence of further plots to crash airliners into u.s. cities. subsequently, six international flights into this country are canceled after some passenger names pur

only about 30,000 are very radical, al qaeda-ized taliban.generally somewhat ideological but mostly impoverished youth who go there for a job, literally for a job. second, we have to recognize our insurgency as the new general is doing has to change. it's not about seek out and kill, it's about earning trust of the local citizens -- >> that's nation building. you can't earn trust unless you're doing some nation building. and i don't know if the american people signed up for this. this is what the president had to say. he was asked a question about war of choice, war of necessity. here it is. >> there will be more difficult days ahead. the insurgency in afghanistan didn't just happen overnight. and we won't defeat it overnight. this will not be quick nor easy. but we must never forget, this is not a war of choice. this is a war of necessity. >> you believe that, congressman? >> i do, and here's why. it's because this is not about afghanistan any longer. because we got -- i was head of the navy on the ground early in the war. came back on the g

as one of the government's key sources on al qaeda were also reviewed by president obama who questioned in a primetime news conference in april whether techniques like waterboarding were necessary? >> could we have gotten the same information without reporting to these tactics? awhile there are lots roof redactions, there is no mention of waterboarding or the enhanced interrogation program, they do provide the intelligence gleaned from the high value detainees. k.s.m. is described as one of the pime airy sources of understanding how the 9/11 plot was conceived, and executed. hey gave a rolodex that flushed out our understanding of the activities of important detainees, which, in turn, assisted in debriefings of these individuals, and in what is described as a building block process, information from k.s.m. was used to confront other detainees, which provided more intelligence, ultimately leading to the capture of humbali, training cells for u.s. attacks. the c.i.a. inspector general's report, much of which was also declassified monday said k.s.m. provided few intelligence reports prior

across that border in pakistan, they provide the safe haven for al qaeda. they also feed fighters into afghanistan. al qaeda would very much like to see kabul become the capital that it was before, essentially run by extremists. so in that regard, it's very much linked, and again, it's the mission that the military has right now to focus and general mcchrystal is doing this, to focus on the security for the people, focus on the afghan people. and that's a significant change from where we were just a few months ago. and it is in that focus that both understands what they feel about their security, which is pretty bad right now and getting worse, and moving to a direction -- moving in a direction that provides security, so then we can develop governance. so then we can develop an economy and they can take over their own destiny. >> we're rebuild this nation? >> to a certain degree, there is some of that going on. >> is that what the american people signed up for? >> no, i'm -- right now, the american people signed up, i think, for support of getting at those

k s m became one of the key sources on al qaeda.tainee, he provided reports shedding light on strategic doctrines, plots, and like the methods for attacks on the homeland. an important point to emphasize, though, is that none of these documents are specific, saying that we used or the cia used waterboarding or enhanced interrogations, and it therefore got us this information. in fact, the documents never mentioned the program at all. this is why the value of this intelligence is still open to debate. jon: that brings us to our foxnews.com question of the day. should the justice department reopened and possibly prosecute cases of alleged errors suspect by cia interrogators? a lot of you weighing in on this survey. about 96% says yes. about 6% say no. we want to know what you think. go to our website, foxnews.com, cast your vote, make your voice heard. you can look at the top of the page and find a link to the survey right there. jane: nasa has been forced to scrub liftoffs today due to bad weather. thunderstorms pop up unexpectedly n

somalia is battling islamic extremists thinks -- thought to be linked to al qaeda. she met somalia's president today in kenya. from there, our east africa correspondent. >> and mark of respect for those killed during a terrorism attack 12 years ago in central nairobi. the american embassy was bombed. the victims were mostly canyons. -- kenyans. the u.s. secretary of state believes that the threat remains. >> it is an opportunity to renew our resolve to do all we can to ensure that these attacks do not take more innocent lives in the future. >> america says that the insurgents trying to topple somalia's government is linked to al qaeda. the group wants to impose strict islamic law across the country. it portrays this as a holy war. it appears to be attracting support from islamic extremists. several young men were arrested in australia accused of plotting terrorist attacks. in the early 1990's under bill clinton's presidency, american troops tried to intervene in somalia. when helicopters were shot down and american soldiers killed, the americans pulled out. reluctan

al qaeda are ijihadies. that's what they call themselves.y believe that the war on terror is over. somebody needs to tell the terrorists and convince them. how do you -- what about our soldiers? eastern and southern afghanistan right now fighting in fire fights going on as we speak. is the war on terror nonexistent for them? this is just about political correctness, i will tell you, he went on and talked about soft power. sell that in afghanistan. look, small dvd's of sex in the city are not going to persuade afghan villager that western culture is wonderful. this is a fight. when you fight -- when terrorists attack you, as they attacked us, the answer, to dealing with someone who believes they are on a mission from god, and who believes that deficit promotion is to kill them. laura: ralph, what is he getting at here? why the aversion to the word jihad? his actions are actually oftentimes pretty tough. i mean, we took out the taliban commander it looks like in pakistan today. the leader of the taliban. leader of al qaeda, pakistan, taliban c

>> they're not al qaeda, they're not team a and they're not team b, they're team cp some of them ared ability to cause serious damage or catastrophic violence is in doubt. if you look at the folks in the uk, the glassgo cell, they set themselves on fire, they made a scene, didn't hurt anybody. but that was just luck. that was not by design. these guys by miracle didn't hurt anyone. they had intent to kill a large number of people, the idea is to kill a large number of people, for the most part, anyway. the problem is if they don't have expertise, the training, when you have that kind of intent and access to automatic weapons it not difficult to see how this can lead down a road where you know there are serious security concerns. >> sure. and dumb luck, boy, you've got a bad situation. >> exactly. >> evan kohlmann, many thanks. >>> on the rebound, why is president obama encouraged about where the economy may be headed. >>> keeping quiet. sarah palin goes silent. welcome to the now network. right now five co-workers are working from the road using a mifi, a mobile hotspot that provides

he is believed to be leading al- qaeda's campaign to make pakistan ungovernable. sources have said that he is killed and buried, killed in a u.s. air strike on wednesday. this is from our correspondent in as, bob -- islamabad. >> baitullah mehsud is rarely seen in public. the white house has called him "a murderous thug." >> we have clear information that so far we do not have any evidence to confirm that he is dead. there were several killed during these attacks. these are indications. >> he is accused of masterminding the assassination of former prime minister benazir bhutto, as well as dozens of other attacks. he has been linked to the bombing of the marriott hotel in islamabad which claimed more than 60 lives, and his stronghold has been a sanctuary for al-qaeda, a major concern for britain and the u.s.. but he is focused on targets here at home -- bombing pakistan because it backs the west. he declared war on his own country and people. some here have told us they do not believe he is dead. they have heard that before. others have said they feel a sense of re

it was thought he has led al- qaeda's campaign to make pakistan ungovernable. there is no official confirmation. ed sources tell the bbc he is dead and buried. american and pakistani officials are also telling our correspondence they believe he is dead. this from our correspondent in islamabad. >> a glimpse of pakistan's most wanted man -- baitullah mehsud. his chilling message at this news conference last year was that suicide bombers were his atom bomb. he said he wanted to die for his cause. the indications are, he got his wish. baitullah mehsud's cv is written in blood. he is accused of arranging the assassination of former prime minister benazir bhutto. he is linked to the bombing of the hotel in islamabad which claimed over 50 lives. his home has been a sanctuary for al-qaeda, a problem for britain and the u.s.. he has focused on targets here at home, bombing of pakistan because it backs the west. security in islamabad is being stepped up for fierce his followers could try to take revenge. -- for fears his followers could try to take revenge. he declared

do you think that the al qaeda comments about negotiating with the tell ben's -- >> whose comments? >>qaea taliban rather than trying to peel away the local people? >> on the second question i haven't seen the full text. in the contempt -- context i saw them in they seemed to be consistent with our positions and those of everyone else. on your first question, i can't answer your question. no one can. but i can tell you that we all feel the impatience and pressure of the american public and the congress, which legitimately wants to see progress. that's an absolutely legitimate thing and we have spent a great deal of time talking to members of congress and reaching out to groups, never in this configuration, this is unique for us, but to talk about this and so far it seems to me that people understand how critically important is this is. do we need to show progress in of course. we can't make these investments without making some demonstration that they have results. that's why i said earlier i don't want to confuse input and out putt. we've answered your questions about what's going

it's believed to be loosely linked to al qaeda. its fighters have been battling block-to-block in the capital of mogadishu to oust the president, who took office in january. clinton said today the threat posed by al shabab extends beyond somalia's borders. >> al-shabab wants to take control of somalia and use it as a base from which to influence and even infiltrate surrounding countries and launch attacks against countries far and near. if al-shabab were to obtain a haven in somalia which could then attract al-qaida and other terrorist actors it would be a threat to the united states. >> warner: n fact, the group was linked to a foiled terror plot in australia earlier this week. the general lawlessness has also spawned another thre0bgainst u.s. interests, piracy in the waters off the east african coast. the secretary flew to south africa tonight, the second stop on her 7-country african tour. >> warner: for more on the instability in somalia and the implications for the u.s., we turn to tristan mcconnell, a correspondent for the int

also a major friend of al qaeda. has a u.s. air strike actually managed to kill him in we'll have reports from michael ware. >>> while the cult of charles manson not only will not die but in fact seems to be going strong. ♪ anyone can prove they're strong once. the real question is can they prove it again and again. ♪ at northwestern mutual, we've answered that question compellingly... for over 150 years. northwestern mutual. consistency counts. put our strength to work for you. learn how at northwesternmutual.com. >>> welcome back to "360." our exclusive interview continues with lisa ling. before the break she told us her sister, laura and euna lee did briefly touch north korean soil before their arrest. lisa is back with us now in an exclusive interview tonight. that's really, i think, unless i'm wrong here, it's the first time we've heard that or it sounds like they've come forward or had the chance to say that. talk to me more, if you could, about what laura told you about those moments? >> that's really it. it was somethin

a new terror tape from al qaeda's #2.>> according to a senior counter-terrorism official, it is a visible sign that al qaeda is under stress because of the becausepredator drovne campaign. the fear is that a fracturing of the taliban will lead to a fracturing of al qaeda. trace: the anti-tax tea party movement is going on the road. >> the tea party express rolls into sacramento on federally built roads and will encircle the capital. farmers in their tractors, truckers and their big rigs, united in their discontent of too much regulation and what they see as higher taxes for the future. farmers are complaining that their water has been cut off to save the fish. it ends on september 12. trace: let's get to the weather center. the east coast feeling the effects of danny. >> certainly in terms of the possibility of dangerous rip currents. there is danny. just a couple hundred miles off the coast line. we will see the affect and especially along the coastline. it is going to be an incredibly wet one across the northeast. trace

in dawson, there was a group inspired by al qaeda that has been battling with the government of hamasooting it out in a mosque. -- in gaza. our bbc middle east correspondent gave us this update. >> the area around the mosque, which is under attack by hamas, has been declared a closed military zone by hamas, hundreds of hamas policemen and members of its military wing of firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy machine fire at the mosque. inside the mosque, it is thought there are around two dozen supporters of that imam. they are firing back. at least one rpg has killed someone, and they say the death toll is rising, and even though this is a strong extremist group within gaza, itç isç extremely well equipped. it has managed to keep up things for more than four hours. >> the that is our reporter there. the coast guard said earlier that the arctic sea has been spotted around 400 nautical miles from the cape verde islands. the russian on voice as those reports are not true. -- the russian envoy says those reports are not true. prosecution for slander. the person has alleged that som

efforts to get rid of the taliban and al qaeda may have gotten a major boost. that's because it appears that the top terrorist leader in pakistan has been killed in a cia drone attack. >> pakistani intelligence officials say that batula massoud is dead. and there's reports that his funeral has already been held. we get details from nick schifrin in islamabad. >> reporter: massoud is pakistan's eni number one. responsible for some of the worst terrorist attacks in the country's history. pakistani officials say he's killed more than 1,200 people in the last 2 years, including benazir bhutto. he's at the center of a nexus of terrorists that have threatened pakistan's future. this year, the u.s. has increased its targeting of massoud, using unmanned, cia drones. of the last ten attacks in the pakistani tribal areas, nine have targeted massoud and his network. in pakistan, the attacks are controversial. but the u.s. believes they are the only way to target the taliban and al qaeda, in the rugged terrain along the afghan border. >> over the past six months, we've pre

which was to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future. but actually to execute against that very narrow definition of what the project was all about, you need a broad strengthening of the governmental capacity and security forces in afghanistan. you need a stronger, more committed partner in pakistan. i think this team reflects that. and reflects a much larger strategy than what is embedded in that very narrow definition that the president"pñ used on march 27. i think probably ambassador eikenberry's budget request that was recently reported reflects that again. so in that context, for, from the perspective of the mediterranean -- american people, how do you define clear objectives of what you are trying to succeed with as out putts against the -- how do you measure success against that broader array of problems and inputs? >> a very key question which john, you are alluding to is of course if our objective is to defeat, destroy, dismantle al qaeda an they're primarily in pakistan why are we doing s

in part, to defend al qaeda, though it is all al qaeda as far as i'm concerned. >> gregg: well, if weail with a drone and a cruise missile, by -- baitullah mehsud, how close might we be to the leadership of al qaeda. >> to be clear we are not using cruise mills, these are predator aircraft, unmanned aircraft and fire a mills off the top of it,'a hellfire missile. but, the point is, is this guy even came out and he said, you know, we have beheaded 12 informant who gave away information about these thing and they are terrified of these things and there is continued various and the obama administration has done a lot more strikes than the bush administration and they need keep doing i they will not win the war and get al qaeda but if they keep the guys on the run but the key hear is really the pakistani government. they are trying to control these guys and have to destroy them. they gave up this one guy, hopefully they'll give up this guy and eventually they have to realize the taliban are the greatest risk to the pakistan government, than they -- than they are and hope the u.s. will lea

help provide protection for al qaeda. i do not see that their firm allies or have a common agenda. >> one more. >> one more? >> roughly, how much of afghanistan do you consider to be other taliban control right now? how can you convince so many afghans to vote when the marines are just showing up in their village seven days or so before the election? >> first of all, it is a pretty big country. i would remind or make the point that, first of all, based on everything that i have heard, we are looking at an election in which there will perhaps be 13 or 1400 more polling places than there were in 2004, several million more afghans have registered to vote then in 2004. they're holding an election in adverse circumstances. i think these considerations are important. they have significantly larger numbers of both international and afghan observers for these polling places. there is a tiered security arrangement. i think the potential is there for a quite credible election. i think general mcchrystal's view would be that kabul i

almost certainly al qaeda a iraq. >> and tir purpose? >> their purpose is to, first, try to reignite t civil war betwn the sunnis and the shia in iraq, and also to demonstre their relance,ta they're still a player in iraq. >> a why would they want to retrigr a civil war, as y ll it? >> well, al qaeda, which a radical sun muslim organizati, doesn't like the shia. they think that they a muslim apostas. ev worse know that the christians. and they would love for the iri suis to rise up against them, overthrow the sh government, and reestabli a sunni caliphe in iraq. that's not going to happ but that's the aim. >> there w perior, not that long ago tt you wouldave a bombing say that the shias or the sunnis and then the shias would rpond against the sunnis. wharen't we seeing this tit for tat? >> i thinkchargely the tit for tat accelerated in civil war. we saw a civ war tween the sunni and theshia muslims in aq but that war is over. the shia have won. there's a sa government fully established. e sunnis have accepted that. they've reconciledith

through the taliban oakleigh to al qaeda. -- hopefully to al qaeda to that is one can be justified much more easily than iraq might have been. this is about getting osama bin laden. >> but not if this is an unwinnable war, which is the irony. democrats said that this was the good war. but how do you fight a war for a country that never was a country? iraq was a country that you can hold together and is holding together. it was a winnable war. afghanistan is a war that and a minimum this winnable, keeping and pay the taliban and al -- keeping and today the taliban and al qaeda. the idea of constructing a new afghanistan is out of the question. afghanistan never was a country and is not going to be a democracy. i think we have to redefine our goals radically napa or we are going to be in their -- radically now or we are going to be there 34 years and leslie. >> we will not be there 30 or 40 years. this is a democracy, and that becomes unsustainable without an achievable mission, a defined mission. >> we are going to have some kind of force there as long as you and i can see. >> may be in

an al qaeda operative was arrested in 2002. c.i.a.gators, the report will reveal threatened him with an electric drill. they fired a handgun and threatened execution. another al qaeda figure was reportedly told his children would be killed if he didn't cooperate. another, that his mother would be sexually assaulted. all this may have been illegal even under the bush strrgdz's newly rewritten -- the bush administration's newly rewritten rule book. >> officials should have known the techniques were illegal and the enteringors should have known they were illegal. it is absolutely essential that individuals who both authorized these techniques and those who implemented them be held accountable. >> now, the attorney general, eric holder, must decide if c.i.a. officers committed crimes, if they should be prosecuted. tonight he announced a fresh review of the evidence to help him make the decision. in recent days, an angry c.i.a. has been pushing back. >> i think it's just destructive of the agency and unfair to the good people who did what

that's the latest al qaeda stronghold. the maliki government has been dogged about running this war on its own in its own way. it wants america to underwrite it but it doesn't want america to participate. it wants to do this its own way. it's tearing down the walls in baghdad. it's ludicrous to hear the prime minister of iraq blame these bombings on saddam loyalists or baathist loyalists. the baathist loyalists went on the u.s. payroll. they opposed saddam then, they oppose him now. that's just the idea of the shia and sunni rivalry. >> michael ware, appreciate it. thanks very much. >>> a quick program note, starting the week of september 7th, michael, peter bergen, dr. sanjay gupta and i will be reporting from afghanistan with american forces at the front line in their battle with the taliban. >>> tell us what you think, join the live chat at ac360.com. >>> will those be able to stick together as-f it comes to passing a democrat-only plan? new details on how that might happen. and barney frank's reaction to one who called

in terms of al qaeda, not afghanistan, and later in the speech, he talks about the reason that we're in afghanistan is to decrease the area of taliban control, thus decreasing the area in which al qaeda has freedom of action f you look at the war that way, and your intention is to defeat al qaeda -- he used the words dismantle and defeat al qaeda, then what you're arguing in favor of is a war in afghanistan which is a war of containment, against expansion of the taliban, and that is a minimalist war, which he could sustain. now, a year -- in a year, the democrats in congress will be in revolt. he will have to defend even that minimalist war. he is not talking about remaking the country, establishing a democracy or anything of that sort. bret: but president bush would have said something like this to present a safe haveen in afghanistan and i remember points in his speeches where he made that point. >> except early on when we had the swift victory and won astonishingly quickly with very few casualties an defeated the taliban and got them out of power t looks as if we might be able to

al qaeda wasn't here. wasn't projecting a terrorist threat beyond its immediate borders certainly not to the united states. the regime of saddam hussein didn't possess weapons of mass destruction. the u.n. kept saying that. so like it did, after the soviet withdrawal, invasion of iraq took america's eye off afghanistan. and america's still paying aprice for that to this day. >> the decision to go to iraq diverted attention and resources from the fight in afghanistan. opened the window for the taliban to come back. it slowed the rate of reconstruction and progress and development in afghanistan. it made people feel here as if they had been deserted, and deserted again. >> the shift from afghanistan to iraq was pulpable. we in the media did it as well. i closed national public bureau in kabul because we all knew a war was coming in iraq. >> when there's media attention on the country, the country improves. when the media attention goes away, the country falls apart. >> now you have nato fighting against tali