pentagon's joint staff concluded that it will also increase the number of terrorist connect with al al qaeda associates in libya. and al qaeda affiliated groups and associates are exploring the permissive security environment to enhance their operational reach. these warrants from the intelligence agencies and a request for more security from those on the ground and benghazi are ignored. leading to the death of four americans, including christopher stevens on september 11, 2012 and leading the senate committee to determine if the attack was preventable. white house press secretary jay carney took up the issue and he was asked to address by the white house pushed the absolutely false story about protests and demonstrations that grew out of control in light of this report. a question that jay carney dodged with a three paragraph answer about cooperating with correctional investigations before he ultimately been referred to the state department for further explanations. and we also learned tonight that general martin dempsey made a startling statement in front of a top-secret house armed services committe

al qaeda link. senator dianne feinsin ying, quote, i believe the groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involvedith the attack and now because of newly declassified documents we've learned iwas our first that helped to lead the interrogation of the head of them uncovering the fact that the uniform defense officials knew it was a terrorist attack from minutes after the consulate was under assault. this is congressman brad pins deechltrom, an iraq war veteran, army reserve officer and good to have you with us, congressman. >> thank you, good to be with you. >> let's begin. what i'd like to do is share with our audience at the same time, a moment of an exchange between you and general ham and i'd like to begin, if we may, with the full screen which is the dialogue that i'm referring to. congressman began by asking carter ham, the head of afr come, i'm concerned that someone in the military would be advising that this was a demonstration. i would hope that our military leader ship this would be advising that this was a terrorist attack. the general, i think the command very quickly got to the point

one is that forces associated with al qaeda. belligerebelligere nce with al qaeda for purposes of international law. they have joined the fight on the side of al qaeda and therefore we are entitled to attack them. number two, to the extent that may not either need the case, we are entitled as an independent matter of international law to engage as heather said himself that fence. that means if there is an imminent threat you can use lethal force to repel it. that's true for international law purposes and constitutional law purposes and we define imminence rather broadly. that is not a new thing in american legal affairs foreign diplomacy. we have done that at least since the 80s but the notion is one that is relatively capacious and so number three, ever since the president's speech we have said we are only going to target people with legal -- lethal force when there captures not feasible. this puts a similar stress on what the definition of the word feasible is so you can say by taking the capacious notion of associated forces

al qaeda groups involved. unless you lived in the pakistan/afghanistan boarder you are not al qaeda. but these groups claim they are associatedfference between core al qaeda and al qaeda. i am sure to the families of the members who were killed it doesn't matter if it is core or al qaeda. >> why wasn't anyone fire? why didn't hilary clinton fire anyone? why hasn't that happened? >> why did the president of the united states weeks later talk to the u.n. about hateful videos and spontaneous demonstrations when he was told that night this was a terrorist attack. why did he say in the debate with romney he called it a terrorist attack but didn't. he was talking for weeks after saying this was a video that caused this. and then the question also is why was susan rice there? why wasn't the secretary of state on all of sunday shows explaining to the american people what happened. >> these are all good questions. let me see how many we can get through. you call the new york times the surrogate for the obama administration. are you accusing the paper of defending them on the benghazi? >> of course. and being the mouth piece for the hi

you show a case in southern yemen where a cruise missile supposedly intended for a group of al qaeda associated militants landed on a poor tribe. the pictures are absolutely brutal. little kids, babies killed, dozens of people. >> 14 women, 21 children in that attack. part of what's at the heart of the film, there's controversy of people attacking us from the right and the left. at the end of the day was to put a human face on the wars. when the school shootings happen, we emphasise with the victims because we see ourselves in them, it could be my son or daughter. why not have the empathy for people lying on the other side of the missile. >> it's impossible to not have it. it's heart-breaking to look at that. one thing that was very disturbing about all this is you found that president obama specifically called the yemeni president and asked him to keep the journalist who shed light behind bars. >> there's a global war on journalists. they are gunned down. there's more than 30 journalists missing. somali is a famous place. most are local journalists making it possible for us to get the story. t

the notion that al-qaeda and associated forces, it assumes a sameness to all the scope of targeting. it assumes that individuals targeted in pakistan are the same as individuals targeted in yemen, as the same as individuals targeted in somalia and libya. it's really not true at all. that's an immense operational fiction. the types of targeting the u.s. has done in pakistan which is primarily about force protection for u.s. individuals deployed in southern afghanistan, it's primarily about going after individuals who want to attack what they consider the apostate regime in islamabad, very different than aqap elements who have been targeted in yemen. even in word -- world war ii, congress declared war against six specific states. all the axis got their own congressional declaration of war. and that only lasts, you know, five years. and here you have a situation where we now are 13 years in, anyone that's an al-qaeda-associated force who is explicitly not named is sort of provided under the same umbrella. the final issue or one other issue is that another significant shift since 9/11 wh

then it goes into al qaeda associated terrorists in pakistan, connected with an unknown person in the united states, and particularly were 215, according to the court came in, was an nsa was able to provide a previously unknown number of one of the co-sprters. the next one is january of '09, an extremist in yemen, connection with khalid o zanny in texas and nsa notified the fbi which discovered a plot to attack the new york stock exchange. using a 215 order nsa inquiried metadata to identify potential connections. three defendants were convicted of terrorism offenses. and the fourth, again, this is a court opinion, in october of '09, while monitoring an al qaeda affected terrorist, the nsa discovered david headily, who is a major figure was working on a plot to bomb a danish newspaper office that published cartoons depicting the prophet mohammed and goes on from there. so the word essential i think is a word that is often debated. you also say as -- that is it was likely that this could have prevented 9/11 and could quite possibly prevent another 9/11. am i correct about that? mr. mor

so what we heard in this meeting today one of the things that we heard is that al qaeda linked to al qaeda and associated forces that they remain a threat and we're seeing this the data that's coming out want to take a look at just iraq as one example let's take a look at iraq this report from the iraq body count shows that the number of deaths there is raising we see it kind of at its highest in two thousand and seven and it dips down and we see that number going back up with that with the most recent year almost as high as numbers almost two thousand and eight so we're seeing that violence is on the upswing in iraq you know but last night we heard from the president saying that you know kind of touting that the war in afghanistan is coming to an and did this did this hearing kind of highlight that the threat is not really minimized today we destroy. and we. can show you and be inevitable. selfless what was seen there was seventy killed on sunday i haven't checked the figures since so it's nothing to be proud of what we did to iraq and we never did get the two sides agreeing to compromise so they could

then it goes into al qaeda associated terrorists in pakistan connected with an unknown person in the united states. 25215 camey, where in, nsa was able to provide a previously unknown number of one of the co-conspirators. the next one is january of 2009. connectedin yelmen with someone in texas. nsa notify the fbi which plot toed a pot to -- a attack the new york stock exchange. was used to help identify connections. accused were convicted. in october 2009, while monitoring al qaeda terrorists, and is a discovered david headley, who is a major figure who was working on a plot to bomb a danish newspaper office that had published cartoons depicting the prophet mohammed. it goes on from there. is a wordessential" that is often debated. you also say that it was likely this could have prevented 9/11 and it could anotherssibly event 9/11. am i correct about that? morrell? >> we as a group -- >> i'm asking about what you said in the op ed. >> we never talked about that as a group. >> it was just your opinion. >> it was my opinion. >> general alexander testified in 2009 nsa did in fact go to

she said, "i believe groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involved in the attack. that's my understanding." loosely associated. you suggest in your article, no evidence of a direct al qaeda involvement. are you with her when she says there was a loosely coordinated attack -- an attack that was loosely coordinated with al qaeda? >> well, i believe what she said was affiliated but, more importantly, her spokesperson walked back those comments that she's not disputing my report. that whatever words we're using, she's talking about what i'm talking about, which is local groups on the ground. some of whom may openly share sympathies with al qaeda or its goals but none of whom were taking direction from al qaeda. none of whom were not part of al qaeda. this can't reasonably called an al qaeda attack. >> what are the relations between sharia and al qaeda? >> ansar al sharia of benghazi -- >> i think we're having some problems with skype. david kirkpatrick is joining us. let's try to reconnect with david because we were just getting to the really important questions, questi

having any assets in the area because we weren't able to classify these groups that were associated with al-qaedanow from the senate report that they were. >> americans dead and he says that the u.s. couldn't seek to capture the benghazi attackers under the existing agreement. but it would need to rely on forces in libya or any other countries where the attackers are hiding in order to do so. it's infuriating and literally feeling handcuffed when we can't protect our own is an awful, awful sentiment. >> we would have to ask libya for permission -- remember, they tell americans -- this past week, the department of state has classified two of the organizations involved in the attack as terror outfits. and they are al-qaeda affiliates. what's interesting is some of the things we've heard is state department employee greg hicks and others had asked for help. we need more security. the ambassador asked for more security as well. but the department of state turned it down repeatedly. you probably heard on tv some people say, well, the guy who ran afrikom offered more protection and he said no. well, st

rejected a -- into investigation that found no al qaeda himself, senator diane feinstein, saying i believe groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involved, now because of declassified documents, we have learned it was our first guest who helped lead the intergation of the head of uncovering fact that or nation's top civilian and uniform defense officials due it was a terrorist attack the minute after they were assault. joining us is congressman brad wirenwenstrup. good to have you with us congressman. >> thank you. lou: let's begin, what i would like to do share with our audience, that moment of an exchange between you and general hamm i would like to begin with the full screen the dialogue that i'm referring to. congressman win strum asked carter hamm, i'm concerned you said that someone in the military would be advising that was a demonstration. i would hope that our military leadership would be advising a terrorist attract. general hamm, i think cocommand quickly got to the pain this was not a demonstration. this was a terrorist attack. wenstrup. and you would havavise advise h if asked -- >> yes, sir. and

groups associated with al-qaeda are spreading violence and using the country as a transfer point to joinhe fighting against bashar al-assad forces in syria. >> those who know the geographical nature of the pro since realize it's a crossing point for armed groups from iraq to syria, and from syria to iraq. >> reporter: in ramadi fighting continues today. dressed in black waving al-qaeda flags. suggestions that perhaps al maliki has picked a fight. >> let's make it clear who is responsible for the fighting. we're partnering with the iraqi government to fight the shared threat at the end of the draw we can help them fight it but we want to help them build their own came ability to do so themselves. >> reporter: the u.s. has rushed arms and surveillance technology to iraq in order to help the government combat the resurgent al-qaeda backed rebels. >> joining us now to talk about the latest up tick of violence and the actors at play in iraq. scene director of the middle in north africa at the national endowment for democracy. from our studio in washington, james jeffrey, former ambassador to

al qaeda. senator feinstein says groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involved.tial white house theory that benghazi attack was fueled by an anti-muslim video, the senate democrat says it doesn't jive with me. house oversight committee chair darrell issa joins us. thowr thoughts, you are a fellow californian. your thoughts what senator feinstein is saying. >> senator senator feinstein joins with adam schiff and republican chairman of the select intelligence on the house side, mike rorntion who have looked at the classified information. understand that it was immediately known that this at least in part was directly connected and that it wasn't from a video. this has been known and told to the president within minutes after the attack began. >> i will tell what you bothers me is if she knew that within minutes, on september 13th, 2012, that is two days later she told wolf blitzer when he asked was this a carefully planned operation she said: i can say i have seen no evidence or no assessment that indicates it was. can i certain isly say that there was a protest. a

in the video the two men sit in front of a banner that wears a religious phrase associated with al qaeda. it's getting a lot of attention because these men are reportedly the suicide bombers responsible for last month's bombing in russia. it was at a train station that caused massive damage. another on a city bus. the bombings claimed the lives of over 30 people. in the video the men say the two bombings were just the first wave and the sochi olympics will bring, quote, a surprise to those who attend. russian president putin is promising stepped up squurt an unprecedented 40,000 members of law enforcement even with that some say it's too dangerous to go. >> i would not go. and i don't think i would send my family. >> putin said in a statement like any high profile event the olympics could be a target but russia has a perfect understanding of the threat and how to stop it. interestingly the threat has nothing to do with the olympics in terms of motive. russia has been fighting a war about 1,000 miles from sochi where the suicide bombers are originally from. they say this is about muslim b

attack groups that we think of as associated with al qaeda. law toeoriented that provide a different basis for authorization support against all of those or groups, you would have the central architecture in place. it is a u.s. domestic statute that authorizes uses of force against some groups. that statue would raise the same concerns with the state in which you are conducting operations. there is one important copy out. at.cave further exacerbating relationships with certain --ntries, are you avoiding are you compliant with our international law? you can imagine a circumstance in which congress would have to be very aggressive and kathy fact --that are not in passed statutes that are not in fact complying with international law. with that caveat, it is probably not particularly significant one way or the other. a really important point if you turn your question around a little bit. unfortunately, your question tells us more about the u.s. than it does about what happens next in pakistan. that this reasons works well and one of the reasons th

quote, al-qaeda-affiliated groups and their associates are exploring the permissive security environment in libya, unquote. ambassador stephens sent multiple cables to the state department, its headquarters in washington, requesting additional diplomatic security but was repeatedly rebuffed. one week before his death, the army's africa command warned about threats to americans in northeast libya, aka benghazi. the bipartisan intelligence committee report cashed fresh doubt on hillary clinton's management of the state department and national security advisory susan rice's attempts to blame the violence on an anti-islamic video. question, what impact will this report have on hillary clinton's presidential prospects? i ask you, pat. >> john, i don't think it's going to have a great impact several years from now. the people that dislike hillary are going to lay the blame on her very heavy. you can remember back in 1983, ronald reagan put those marines in beirut. 241 of them were killed. he always believed he made a terrible mistake in doing that. but 11 or 12 months after that, he won 49 sta

recently re captured by rebels from the alliance group islamic state of the dock and the lemon associated with al qaeda last week the syrian opposition reported that five hundred people were killed during the week in clashes between different rebel groups. it is widely believed that the conflict was caused by the struggle for leadership among the rebels in the growing discontent with violence of the radical islamists. ninety five of the egyptian supported the draft constitution reduce reports. this information was provided by the ministry of internal affairs the referendum turnout was amazing fifty five percent the referendum on the draft constitution lasted for two days. the clashes involving the supporters of the muslim brotherhood calling for boycotting the referendum really happened during these days. ten people were killed the draft competition was developed by the special commission consisting of fifty people. the document restrict the role of islam and strengthens and tones of military forces in particular the constitution requires still a government in women's sharia law. anti government rallie

this is a guy who certainly was rebelieved to be associated al qaeda who may have been involved in the air reiner the attempting -- shouldn't we have gotten here with the drones. i think that he was a republic hence able person. and i wrote, i detailed what happened to the cartoonist. the point for me is not who he was. but who are we as americans and what message does our society of the world serves as the prosecutor judge year of an american who has been caught. the death penalty sunday sound like a medical ideal. >> and what people will argue is after all these years, whatever the u.s. is doing is working because there hadn't bloodstain a figure terrorist attack. >> first of all, we will pay a price for this down the line. everybody was saying look them pull down the sal. i think that we are going to get hit. in some form or another because of what we are doing. >> youty you are christina aguilera creasing is the even fewer. what can you tell me about it? >> we are working with the founder of eli. what we are doing is building a news asker that is going to have an adversarial postur

. >>> new evidence this morning that al qaeda in iraq is stoking civil war. the "associatedting that al qaeda is handing out pamphlets in fallujah, asking people to support them, urging them to take up arms in their fight against iraqi security forces, which are largely dominated by shiites. al qaeda has been fighting government troops in and around fallujah and ramadi for weeks. >>> new developments in the fight for syria. secretary of state john kerry says the obama administration's goal has not changed. it still wants to set up a transitional government that doesn't include president bashar al assad, but he reassured both sides, the opposition and the regime, that they will have a say in the country's future. the opposition is nearing a decision on attending next week's peace conference in geneva. >>> with santa ana winds dying down this morning, firefighters in california are getting an upper hand on a wildfire in the mountains near los angeles. five homes have burned and more than a dozen other structures damaged in this fire. authorities say they've arrested three men

al qaeda establishing sanctuary. and it went on to describe how al qaeda affiliated groups and associates are exploiting the environmenta to enhance their capabilities and that they are seeing sort of a mirror image of al qaeda establishing a presence in libya and neighboring egypt under the jamal network. so what we see so far in this report is very strong evidence, reports by the defense intelligence agency as well as the cia prior to the benghazi attack that al qaeda was establishing itself in that area and then again this link to the former guantanamo detainee sufian bin qumu. martha: very interesting. say, catherine, where the report that showed increasing al qaeda presence in libya, who generated that? was that cia? >> reporter: we have several right here. one produced, this is page 10, july 2012, the dia produced a report that discussed rather the founding of ansar al sharia. it is not worthy here this section if you come back to me one second, this section of the senate report is heavily redacted which means it remains classified. right below that it describes how in july 2012 the cia produced a report, entitle

lives in the war of iraq, now two major cities in that country have been taking over militia associated with al qaeda. secretary of state john kerry has spoken about this morning, what if anything can the administration do? >> the secretary of state kerry said they're not going to send troops back into iraq. that's completely off the table. no way president obama after bringing out of iraq is going to send them back there. you see al qaeda on the march in syria, as the united states trying to get troops out of afghanistan. there's no question one thing will not happen. no troops in the middle east. >> george, great to have you back. george will be talking about iraq and much, much more on his story as the powerhouse roundtable looks ahead to the biggest political stories in 2004. >>> a fast-food experiment, involves a science teacher in iowa who turns to mcdonald's to lose weight. he got his students to plan the menu. three months later how did it turn out. abc's sara haines is here with the story. >> reporter: everything in moderation more apropos, a fast-food diet. he may be on to something. >> i l

that she disagreed with the new york times, and said that i believe that groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involved in the attack, and she went on to show the video and said that doesn't jive with me. so the question that most people are asking, more than a year later, why are are there so many explanations of what happened here? >> well, in many ways, this situation of whether this was core al qaeda, or al qaeda affiliates, led by bin laden and now by al-zarqawi, may not have been involved. but that's not the threat to the region or the united states. these affiliates or these franchises developed over the years were certainly part of that. so while it may not have been the headquarters of al qaeda involved, the article in the new york times suggests and emphases that it was not core al qaeda, but these were al qaeda affiliates involved in this. >> and the military was very ill prepared to deal with something like what happened in benghazi and i'm sure that that will be a big part of the discussion in the future. thank you for joining us. and we turn now to governor chris christie, w

there are so many rebel groups fighting on the ground in syria, especially those associated with al-qaeda, they are not part of these negotiations. even if a cease-fire is reached, there is a decision to try to reach a calm, those groups are not going to be part of that. and the people here feel that no one is going to commit to any such decision. so the expectations are quite low of this conference. people aren't really following it, but they say they do know its happening. >> meanwhile, the unrest in syria and the widening gap between rich and poor are among the key topics of discussion in the world economic forum going on in davos, switzerland. >> it's often described as a giant networking event, or as it's been put, a constellation of egos in an orgy of adulation. the headline appearance will likely be that of iran's president hassan rouhani. his country had been invited and then uninvited in the talks about the war in syria. >> i think what president rouhani wants from this forum is credibility. he'll present the friendlier face of iran, and he wants to convince this audience that he

it is the very specific issue, which they knew of two people associated with al qaeda who had visas who were here in the united states before 9/11. they didn't like that until august 2001. there was very specific intelligence failure. if you look at the 9/11 commission, you know, the cia did a pretty good job of strategic warning that al qaeda was planning a big attack in the summer of 2001. george hammond had his hair on fire and it's blinking red. the system was blinking red. cia -- the people who screwed up about this piece of information. as an organization, they did a pretty good job of strategic warning about al qaeda. in fact, it seems to me if you look at the pre-9/11 era, cia and fbi offers are really the two institutions that disavows to warn and were concerned about this issue. i don't know what your assessment is. >> that's a fair point. the cia people he interviewed, to this day, are very bitter at the 9/11 commission spur trail of their work on the way up to 9/11. they believed that the caricature of the central intelligence be in the 9/11 failures of connect the dot is a

the very specific issue which is they knew of two people associated with al qaeda who had visas who are here in the united states the month before 9/11. they didn't flag it to the fbi until august of 2001. there was a very specific intelligence failure. i think if you look at the 9/11 commission, the cia did a pretty good job of strategic warning than al qaeda was planning a big attack in the summer of 2001. the system was brinking red. was the cia kind of aware of people who crewed up about the piece of information? they did a pretty good job of -- it seems to me if you look at the pre-9/11 the cia and the phi office and your, you know, the two institutions that did the most and were concerned about the issue. super official explanation of what happened. after all the bin laden unit that cia from early '96. that sort of speaks for itself. there was no other place in the u.s. government to have that kind of attention to. blank to fight the new terrorist threat but i think it's fair to say that the cia felt a little bit like a political football. >> yeah. do you think the cia's mission.

intelligence committee, powerful woman, dianne feinstein said i believe that groups loosely associated with al qaeda were involved. went on to say she rejected the conclusion of the "new york times" is a statement. you just saw the quote. she believes al qaeda was involved and she did in past interview as well. so who are we supposed to believe here? >> i think this whole issue whether al qaeda was involved, al qaeda affiliates, core al qaeda, we know they were jihadists, a radical islamist group. what we don't know -- what the administration is saying they weren't core al qaeda. other people saying, "new york times" came to the same conclusion. what we know is there was an attack. we know it was a radical islamic group. we know americans died. we know it was done on the embassy and cia complex in benghazi. the reason this is still alive, people asserting there was a cover-up. there was no cover-up. the president said day two -- >> the reason still alive, nobody has been arrested. chris. >> there was a cover-up. the whole thing a lie wrapped in a misrepresentation inside of a fantasy. this core al q

lives, the war in iraq, now two major cities in the country have been taking over by militia associated with al qaedasecretary of state john kerry has spoken about this this morning, what if anything can the administration do? >> well, what you heard secretary of state kerry say this morning they're not going to send troops back into iraq. that's completely off the table. no way president obama after bringing out of iraq is going to send them back there. this is a much wider conflict right now on the middle east. you see al qaeda on the march in syria, all as the united states is trying to get troops out of afghanistan. a thicket of problems for the obama administration right now. there's no question one thing will not happen, no troops in iraq. >> huge quagmire in the middle east. george, great to have you back. george will be talking about iraq and much, much more on his show this morning as the power house roundtable looks ahead to the biggest political stories in 2014. >>> switching gears to a lighter story. here's an unusual and counterintuitive fast food experiment. it involves a science teache

said, believed that there was al qaeda involvement there are plenty of people belief there was al qaeda involvement, involvement of the affiliates. involvement of associateastes who said so in public and who have said so since the report was published so i think the report back fired. >> elise? >> my winner related to the storm we are experiencing here in the northeast. retailers who didn't have a great christmas who are now selling out all of their inventory who are afraid to leave their home because of the storm. millions of users on snap chat and skype hacked this week not so happy new year for them. interesting the rise of these hackovist groups. >> winner is artic penguins whose life has rereturned to normal after rescue of the normal research passengers who were polluting their pristine environment. and disturbing their mating habits. the winner of the week -- oh, actually, the loser of the week is the justice department for taking on, regardless of the mayor's of the merits of the case and how it turns out. the optics of the government taking on the little sisters of the poor. it isn't even the big sisters of the poor. it's the little sisters of t

groups who in some cases associated with al qaeda i mean you know it's a look at what's going on in syria right now and some of these groups that we that we seem to be backing and you know providing support to we could. i mean the irony here is that iran actually have interest in you know making sure the united states isn't supporting those groups really there's a group called any kay rice in iraq there are these you know you ronnie in dissidents who used to be on the u.s. foreign terrorist organization list not just now there's a change in the last year after a massive lobbying campaign that involved some of the top political figures here in washington to do so but the point here is that. you know iran has interests in making sure the u.s. isn't supporting terrorism the u.s. has an interest a major iraq isn't supporting terrorism the way you deal with that is not by legislating these demands and changing the goalposts of the first deal that these two countries have actually reached in thirty years the way you do that is through negotiations and this deal would blow up the negotiations su

the last year and are accused of neglecting the interest and won't negotiate with those associated with al-qaeda we recognize the brothers who are willing to speak to us, consult and discuss and we need those and not those who claim to represent them. >> reporter: the fighters are only adding to the chaos to further destabilize iraq before upcoming elections in april. you will have to calm the situation before then if it's to show he still has control of the country, rob matheson al jazeera. >> reporter: they are major cities which played a key role in shaping iraq history. after the u.s. led invasion of iraq in 2003 it was a hot bed of the sunni muslim insurgency and fought american forces in 2004 it was a symbol of resistance to u.s. presence there and an american-led offensive drove rebels from the city, in 2006 and 7 a network of tribes went with the u.s. to fight al-qaeda. they are pressuring karzai to sign an agreement with the u.s. and telling him not to release prisoners who participated in attacks against u.s. troops and they say afghanistan could put the relationship of the u.s. at ris

. >> did al qaeda play a role in foaming or creating or doing anything that resulted in those attacks in benghazi? >> well, groups loosely associate themselves not necessarily with al qaeda in pakistan but loosely. and there are suspects and they are out there, and by name it's another group. but loosely identified with al qaeda. >> so there was some sort of al qaeda connection. i raise the question because "the new york times" had that long article saying there was no al qaeda connection. >> it dpnds what you're talking about, are you talking act al qaeda in pakistan or other aspects of it? look, it came from a terrorist group. we know there was no demonstration, this was an attack, maybe not well organized by probably 60 or so people. they set about burning the facility, shooting and killing four of our people. and if that they ought to be brought to justice. >> did the anti-muslim video have role in this at all? >> it well might have. it's hard to tell. but our jurisdiction is the intelligence. and i can tell you that the intelligence was there. it was there for six months, and ongoing and if it was read it should cause people

al-qaeda. senator 9 -- senator feinstein says groups loosely associated were involved. the senate deck crate says "it doesn't jive with me." your thoughts about what senator feinstein is saying? >> senator feinstein joins with republican chairman of the select intelligence on the house side. they have looked at the classified information and understand that it was immediate immediate -- immediately known that this at least in part was directly connected and it wasn't from a video. this has been known and told to the president within minutes after the attack began. >> actually what bothers me is if she knew that within minutes, on september 13th, 2012, that is two days later she told wolf blitzer when he asked was this a carefully planned operation she said i can see i see no evidence or assessment that indicates it was. i can say there was a protest. why didn't she say that from the get go? why is she waiting until now to say something about a new york times article? why not lay it out in the beginning? >> greta, in politics courage is learning more and telling what you

day of the attack, the fbi could not determine if it was the attackers were associated with the terrorist groups or al-qaeda. the fbi removed the terrorist. >> trevor, the investigative report who are did a lot of work on the bengahzi story. thank you. >>> the u.s. hopes to raise $6.5 billion to help syrians caught up in today's bloody civil war. delegates from dozens of nations pledged more than $2 billion in aid. bernard smith was there. >> there has been extraordinary numbers bantered around not least the 4 million syrians that are now dependent on u.n. aid inside syria. kuwait kicked off the pledging offering some $500 million. i spoke to the u.n. representatives earlier on and they say they now have got 80% of the money that was pledged last year. they're obviously knocking on doors and chasing up the outstanding funds because the thing is it's all very well pledging the money, but the u.n. needs that cash in hand now. it needs that cash to buy emergency relief supplies, to buy food, aid, to give to the syrians. but one of the other major challenges that the u.n. faces, and it was touched on by u.s. se

iacc are you where it's an interesting thing, on one hand i see al qaeda, the muslim brotherhood and their associates and on the other hand, i see syria, the assad regime, hezbollah and iran. i have to tell you, and they are killing each other, my impulse is have at it, boys. [laughter] i had to chile, i mean, i am devastated by the humanitarian disaster they see. 100,000 people killed. horrible, horrific, but man, when our greatest enemies have their guns trained o on each otr and not the zionists and the christians, well, let's see how this all plays out, guys. that's my impulse and i don't mean to sound heartless, but i care about america's interest first. i personally don't see an interest in intervening in a conflict between jihad is. that's my personal opinion. sort of educated i guess. syria, egypt and iran, iran's nuclear weapons program. these are the three potential triggers, folks. of course, if iran wants to activate hezbollah which has some 50-60,000 missiles and rockets aimed at every inch of this individual, they are inclined to be -- inclined to do so. if you think that things are goi

al qaeda involvement? >> i know that there was extremist involvement. who they were associatedh, is a matter that i'm not quite clear on. >> all right. senators -- >> john? >> yes. >> they were very specific about al shari being there and he is a well known organizer of terrorist activity. >> sure. we have to go, gentlemen. >> i think that's going to go down as -- thank you. >> all right. thank you. the talk of the town in washington this week certainly are the revelations the robert gates memoir. a day after the public got a preview of his bashing of joe biden, we also got a photo op of the president and vice president at their weekly lunch. the white house granted the press rare access to the normally private affair. sunday panel returns for a look at the white house on defense next. there's a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. around here you don't make excuses. you make commitments. and when you can't live up to them, you own up, and make it right. some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing i

associations are. there's no chance that this was an al qaeda attack. >> reporter: the "times" report was an ambitious effort but it left out the pentagon's assessment that the local extremist group ansar al sharia had terrorist ties. on that score the story backed obama administration officials who blame the attack largely on reaction to an american-made video denigrating islam. but a curious thing happened this week when the "washington post" reported that u.s. officials suspect a former detainee at guantanamo bay played a role in the beingsy attack and that they planned to designate his group, part of the same ansar outfit described at length in "the times" as a foreign terrorist organization but a media establishment that pounced on the "new york times" investigation showed little interest in this information. there were few mentions in other news outlets. fox news, which has aggressively pursued the benghazi story, identified the former gitmo prisoner as a suspect 16 months ago. >> the terrorist designation further weakens the reporting of the "new york times" which concluded no evidence of al qa

al qaeda involvement? >> i know that there was extremist involvement. who they were associated with, is a matter that i'm not quite clear on. >> all right. senator ben cardin, senator inhoff -- >> john? >> yes. >> they were very specific about al shari being there and he is a well-known organizer of terrorist activity. >> sure. we have to go, gentlemen. thanks so much for joining us. >> i think that's going to go down as -- thank you. >> all right. thank you. the talk of the town in washington this week certainly are the revelations in former defense secretary robert gates' new memoir. a day after the public got a preview of his bashing of joe biden, we also got a photo op of the president and vice president at their weekly lunch. the white house granted the press rare access to the normally private affair. sunday panel returns for a look at the white house on defense next. [ male announcer ] what if a small company became big business overnight? ♪ like, really big... then expanded? ♪ or their new product tanked? ♪ or not? what if they embrace new technology instead? ♪ imagine

associated with the al jazeera brand. >> al jazeera america is part of the al jazeera media network -- >> which is part of the al-qaeda mediawork. [ laughter ] >> but john siegenthaler made the case for any newest kid. we can bust some myths here. al jazeera is one of the largest news organizations around the world. we have 12 bureaus in the united states. >> lead story tonight? >> syria. >> okay. miley cyrus has bleached her eyebrows john. [ laughter ] >> what is your angle? is it liberal or fair and balanced? >> we just cover the news. >> reporter: in the end of the roast, a serious question and a serious answer. >> how do you keep people from being afraid of this? >> all i can say is watch what we do, and i think if they see what we do on the air and the stories we cover, i think they'll understand we are doing serious news. [ cheers and applause ] >> well, john, i think -- >> reporter: thomas drayton, al jazeera. >> and you can see the whole interview at colbertnation.com, and you can catch john siegenthaler here at 8 and 11:00 pm eastern time. >>> authorities have identified a man killed in an avalanche in colorado, an