countries and create what he has done in the ukraine in the baltic countries?my: i think we have a good sense that putin is attuned to confusion on the other side. it will definitely widen his range of options whether he thinks it is a wise idea. just to pick up on something julia said that i think has an effect on this, on how putin s trump, thet on republican convention and reaction there was disquiet and discomfort. ultimately there was deference. you saw that also this weekend when mike pence, who has said all things in the past about american exceptionalism, seem befuddled when he was defending trump's, as an backing away from clearly saying there was a moral superiority to the american position. charlie: he could not quite say it. amy: who knows what was in his mind, but it looked like he was not sure what would please his boss. that is what is what mattered to him, ultimately. that is where a lot of people in the republican party are. we saw moments like that at the convention. theave not really seen republican party, when it were -- whatever its reserva

baltics? i wonder if he would have done the crimea move under george bush or ronald reagan. that frustration is part of what we're seeing now as we try to figure out how to respond to the alleged invasion of our election system. >> do you believe that this president, though, has the appetite to really push back against russia? we have not seen him really say that so far. >> well, i think we'll have to see what he does, not just what he says. you know, i think the history of the last eight, maybe even 12 years with with vladimir putin is that he only responds to pretty serious actions. and it's not particularly moved by words. he's a trained kgb agent. if you read that book "the news are" it will show you the personal preoccupation he has with eliminating radical islamic terrorists and some bad things that have been allegedly done at his behest like poisonings. we have a serious character on our hands we need to deal with forcefully. >> that's a good deal. there are a lot of conspicuous and certainly shady circumstances surrounding a number of folks that have gone against vla

there is a clear difference between the baltics and ukraine and georgia. they are members of nato, there was a treaty signed and ratified and acted on. and the senator talked about the reassurance initiative, that is ongoing right now. mr. daalder: the deployment of troops in lithuania and estonia. and all of them are canadian, british and german led battalions and u.s. battalions were in poland, increasing air and naval assets around the region. all designed to send a clear signal. if you ever thought about doing what you did in crimea or the baltics, you have to deal with us. studies,s have done nato has done studies, how defensible are the baltics with that capability and the answer is as much as in the cold war. if you want to do something about west berlin, you have to risk a confrontation militarily with the u.s. is that vladimir putin does not want to split the western alliance going at it through the baltics, it is probably not the smartest thing to do. that said, that is of today, it does not help to make that case and reassure allies in the balti

countries and thete what he has done in ukraine in the baltic countries? receptive to confusion on the other side and this will widen a range of options. to pick up on something that was ,aid that has an effect on this the republican convention and disquiet ande was discomfort. there was, ultimately, deference. just seemed befuddled , when he was defending the comments of donald trump and backing away from clearly saying that he thought there was a moral superiority to the american position. >> in the could not say it. note looked like he was sure what would please the boss and that mattered to him. that is where a lot of republicans are. we have not really seen a republican party that is really going to take a stand. charlie: these are arguments about vladimir -- why donald trump had nothing critical to say about vladimir putin. one is that there is something there and another is that he has a geopolitical idea that he can use vladimir putin or he can join with russia to fight isis. >> i think there is a lack of interest in things that were in , europe,io

and there is a clear difference between the baltics and georgia and ukraine. they're members of nato. there is a treaty that was signed. it was ratified and acted upon. senator murphy talked about the european reassurance initiative. that is right now ongoing, the deployment of nato troops in latvia, lithuania and estonia. in fact, all three of them are canadian, british and german-led battalions, a battalion [inaudible] battalion in poland, increased air and naval assets around the region, all designed to send the very clear signal: if you ever thought about doing what you did in crimea and the baltics, you've got to deal with us. and rand corporation has done a study and others have done studies and at nato they've done studies, how defensible are the baltics with that kind of capability? the answer i have, as defensible as west berlin was during the cold war, which is to say, if you wanted to do something about west berlin, you had to risk a confrontation militarily with the united states or the nato countries. so my sense is that if putin doesn't want to s

because now they don't have to invade the baltics. they don't have to invade mall dovea as people were afraid they would in 2014. they don't have to, you know, test nato and see if nato will hit back. now they can use much softer methods. and that method is you know, it's the reverse. it's the inverse of western soft power. after the end of the cold war all these eastern european baltic states which had, you know, fest erred under communist rule, now they were strifing, reaching for the western lifestyle, the western style economy, western style governance and democracy because it was seen to be better, more moral, more prosperous. with putin sewing chaos or exacerbating the chaos in europe, in the u.s. t shows these people that look, there's one firm hand here and it's not in the west. and these countries that we've been strifing toward don't want us. and we don't know what we're strifing for any more. they are very chaotic. their economies aren't doing well. they are overrun with muslim my grants, these are very conservative places.

in deployment of nato troops the baltics all three of them british and german led ambulances. in poland to ncrease air and naval assets around the region all designed to send a very clear signal. ever thought about doing what you did in crimea in the you have to deal with us. studies corporation did and others and nato did studies how defensible are the baltics that capability. the answer i have as defensible cold war.was in the which is to say you want to do something about west berlin you to risk a confrontation militarily with the united states. countries.o so, my sense is that putin does split the western alliance. going at it through the baltics smartest y not the thing to do. that said, and that is as of today. said, it doesn't help to make that case and reassure our the ball it's states and -- baltic states and eastern the president of the united states every time he says nato ing in support of conditions it in some ways to do nato countries need to with regard to defense spending. our commitment is unconditional argue it should be ironclad and needs to be senator murph

on the baltics is more complicated question. you have to look at context in 1990, after given a warning to bush saying i'm going to do some harsh administrative measure. he pushes away including people like he trained influence of the military in the military, the kgb relies on intelligence that gorbachev give to closest people. so in this context, you have several instances of use of violence in the baltics. as far as i can see from the document i have seen and i have not seen all of them, but i have seen a lot, there's not an instance, not even the hard liners ever showed proof that gorbachev approved the take over. there's -- even though who are saying we culted with him, they never showed proof. his fault was after violence was used, he did not immediately publicly fire them. and disassociate himself from that. to me the proof that works for me, i know when he found out about january events, he wrote a resignation letter to gorbachev and said i'm ashamed. i cannot believe you allow to do it. he said in memory, he said after

states, leave the baltic states alone, leave poland alone. i have to give the vice president credit. the problem is the president. the president will go off and talk about a terrorist attack in sweden what doesn't occur. he'll go around and maybe insult another country and so you have general mattis and the vice president trying to clean up the mess that the president's created. so there needs to be a more coherent national security effort. i think what is essential is a national security adviser the european really want to see that filled with somebody that is going to care about both diplomacy and military issues. so far there is nobody coordinating the defense department, the state department, the cia within the white house advising the president instead of having the president listen to tv news to get us information. >> so we know that the president, the white house, is working to hire this permanent national security adviser. you heard the president say he has confidence in the national security apparatus and you hear him say he is carry

baltics, it is a more complicated question. you have to look at the context after actually giving a warning to bush, saying i'm going to do some harsh administrative measures. gorbachev brings the power conservatives and pushes away people like [indiscernible] strengthens the influence of the military and the decision-making. the kgb starts relying more on then given byce his closest people. another resigns. so in this context, you have several interested -- several instances of use of violence in the baltics. as far as i can see from the documents i have seen and i have not seen all of them, but i've seen a lot, there is not an instance, not even the hardliners ever showed any proof that gorbachev actually approved the takeover. saying, oh,ho are of course, we consulted with him, they never showed a piece .f proof his fault, i think, after violence was used, he did not immediately, publicly fire them and dissociate itself from that. to me, the proof that works for of, whenw that turning he found out about the january events, h

battalion arrivals in the baltic nations, brigade arrivals in poland and others. i do believe it is a road through warsaw. we are not where we need to be. i would give you a broad recipe. first of all within we are looking at prepositioning of materials. i believe our nato allies need to come along side of it and they look at prepositioning of materials forward. being able to rapidly join forces to materials rather than having to move the weaponry materials to europe gives us a quicker response. i do believe we need to look at more rotational force, more forward based preposition materials in order to rapidly fall in on those. and i think that we should encourage you're allies to come more forcefully alongside of us in both respects. >> do you regard the military rotation as sufficient into an out of the balkans? i note that border between on one hand russia and bella reuse and the other hand are balkan countries. roughly the same length as the border that we had between west germany and warsaw pact. much greater military presence that time. is that the krecorrect

put boots on the ground for the baltics? i think they would. think there's more continuity in policies now than people realize. if you remember when obama came into office, there was great concern about the pivot toto asa and obama was going to be the pacific president. then you had a crisis in ukraine and other crises, and smaller incidents in europe, and the u.s. and obama administration were forced to reorient themselves. at the same time, they relied heavily on germany to manage the crisis. i think the headline here is that the u.s. wants to remain engaged in europe.i don't believe this isolationist europe. i think they want europe to take care of itself. they trust europe to take care of itself because they are more worried about china right now, and they feel they need to spend more resources there. i think that's what's going on here. tone andtely, trump's the way he delivers these messages are counterproductive, quite frankly. malte: maybe i can add this, there are circles in the republican party that are so stickley, they want nato to

it could be signaling the baltics. pressure in syria could be only about syria. it could signal that they are capable of only doing things in europe. i believe we need to look at russia in a very innerconnected way. i do not disqualify that we could begin to find sub areas where we might be able to begin to reestablish a trust relationship which by the way we do not have now. maybe sub areas could be addressed, as i said in my remarks, conversation to reestablished trust. but i do believe everything russia does is in the context of a larger attempt to diminish the west and to raise russia. >> do you think if we were looking at the syria situation some what separate and not necessarily dependent on the rest of the world, you mention what most people agree with, that the russians have been more concerned with supporting assad than they have with extremists. but that also i think is related to the fact that rest of the world has been more concerned with getting rid of assad. they feel as if they want to defend their base there. i don't think they are giving their ba

i think is quite doubtful whether the united states and nato will defend the baltics and eastern europe with the resources they have in place and there's a question about whether we can defend taiwan today or other parts of east asia 10 years from now. there's this crucial global regional distinction that we have to keep in mind and keep -- think about the question of how strong is the american hand. we also have challenges when it comes to global power certainly good in a key region where the rubber hits the road today i think we are actually headed for trouble if we are not there are ready. that leads to a third which the book addresses very nicely which is that when you look at these regional balances it's not just us and the adversary that make up the equation. u.s. allies are a big part of it too and u.s. allies added immensely to the strength of united states. that's good that most of them are in relative decline. you point out how the relative and absolute military capabilities of most of our european allies have basically fallen off a cliff. that is adding tremendously to the di

how many troops should we pre-position and water whether it's the baltics or poland.hat should we provide specifically to ukraine so they can defend themselves? >> training has been centered on the extreme western part of ukraine. i will be there next tuesday. we have been training first what they call their national guard troops. it doesn't really trancelike like ours does. we have finished a series of training in the national guard troops battalion and we are now training some of what we call active-duty troops there. the ukrainians are being very smart. they're bringing battle hardened leaders off. marrying them with new recruits, putting them through our training with our u.s. army forces there and we are turning out battalions and battalion leadership that are quite good. this should continue. that is one of the pieces that we recommend the fruit ukraine. >> just trying to lay out the reality. as in in georgia, russia invaded and set up shop. crimea the same way. is that basically what they're established in ukraine? >> clearly, right now they're established in e

everest to redraw international borders by force, we will continue to support efforts in poland and the baltic states through nato's enhanced forward presence initiative and with regard to ukraine from the united states will continue to hold russia accountable and demand that russia honor the minsk agreements beginning by the escalating the violence in eastern ukraine. sides, to abide by the cease-fire that was scheduled to begin today and in the interest of peace and in the interest of innocent lives, we hope and pray this cease-fire takes hold. the united states will continue to hold russia accountable, at president trump's direction, we will also search in new ways for new common ground with russia. which president trump's believes can be found. commitment totes the european union is steadfast and enduring. president tusk, president trump and i look forward to working together with you and the european union to deepen our political and economic partnership. we are separated i and ocean but we are joint by a common freedom, democracy, and the rule of law and we are confident that bond will i

navy destroyer in the baltic sea happened again, this time in the black sea, first a russian patrol planeade a low pass close to the "uss porter." then two russian jet fighters followed a short time later by a third. u.s. officials called the flybys unsafe and unprofessional, and one more sign the cold war is back, a russian intelligence ship bristling with antennas to intercept communications is making its way up the east coast of the united states after president trump has said he hopes to have better relations with russia, but, scott, that hope is being rapidly overtaken by events. >> david martin at the pentagon, thanks, david. >>> kellyanne conway, councilor to the president, should be investigated according to the independent office of government ethics. in a notice to the white house yesterday, the office said that conway, pitching ivanka trump's clothing line during an interview, left "strong reason to believe disciplinary action is warranted." conway has proven to be a fearless fabulist. yesterday she said the national security adviser had the full confidence of the president hou

she talked about how she saw the bodies of soldiers washing in from the baltic sea. and how they would count how many were russians and how many were japanese. then as it turns out, the japanese fleet defeated the russian fleet and victory was theirs. she described how they stood and screamed their bonsais and so on. shortly after that, she was discharged from the red cross and went to work in a silk factory in a prefecture. she was the main supervising nurse. and one of the employees at that silk factory was my grandfather's brother. and i believe his name was sabe. my grandfather had already immigrated to the united states. he went to the united states six years before. his intention following his graduation from business college in japan was to come to america and make a lot of money. and to bring that money back to japan and retire as a wealthy person at a young age. he was going to do that in san francisco. he got on a ship for san francisco and the story is, a day outside of san francisco is when the great earthquake hit in 1906. the people on the boat had to c

and you've got countries in the front line like the baltic states, estonia, latvia, lithuania, only estonialithuania, only estonia is meeting the 2% minimum. you would think that countries that went to such lengths to try to be pa rt went to such lengths to try to be part of the nato alliance would meet the minimum requirement and they're not. it is quite disgraceful. looks as if the americans have had enough, frankly. and now mr mattis suggests that the us will moderate its commitment to nato. what do you think that means, if other states don't pay their way? i think it means that mr mattis and mr trump are good negotiators. let's remind ourselves what nato means. we can't have a situation as we had in the run—up to the first world war and the second world war, when an aggressorfought the second world war, when an aggressor fought —— thought it could pick of one country after another in isolation, without the heavens falling in. what nato means is, you attack any of nato's 28 countries, and you are straightaway at war with the united states. so if you want that guarantee, you've got to pay

stationing, nato battalions in poland and the baltic states. in the wake of russian efforts to redraw international borders by force, the united states along with the united kingdom, canada and germany will continue its leadership role as a framework nation in the enhanced presence initiative, and we will support ever joined critical actions to support this alliance. with regard to the ukraine -- [applause] must hold russia accountable and demand they honor the length agreements, the escalating the violence in the ukraine. united states will continue to hold russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which president trump believes can be found. in africa and the middle east, while his rippling in every direction, reaching only europe of the united states. the leading state-sponsored terrorism continues to be destabilized in the middle east. thanks to sanctions under the comprehensive plan of action iran has additional resources to devote to these efforts. under president trump the united remainwill make -- committed to make su

i think it is quite doubtful whether united states and nato could actually defend the baltics and evens of eastern europe with resources in place.there are no questions about whether we could defend taiwan today or other parts of east asia 10 years from now. so there is a spiritual local regional distinction i think we ought to keep in mind. and the question of how strong is the american hands? we all strip our challenges when it comes to capabilities but in the key regions where the rubber really hits the road these days, i think we are actually headed for trouble. if we are not there already. and that brings me to one third one. which i think the book addresses very nicely. which is that, when you look at these regional balances, it is not just us and the adversary that make up the equation. us allies are a big part of it too. us allies add immensely to the strength of the united states that we can wield. that is good. most of them are not relative à that is bad. you point out how both the relative and absolute military capabilities of most of our european allies basically have falle

can ukraine be discussed separate from syria and cyber incursions and the baltics? >> thank you. have testified to this before and front of the other committee in the senate and i remain committed to my original line of answer and that is that everything russia does is connected. nation could be pressure, it could be signaling the balkans. could only beria about syria for could be signaling that their military is capable of doing things in europe. so i believe that we need to look at russia in a very interconnected way. i do not disqualify that we could begin to find sub areas where we might be able to begin to reestablish a trust relationship, which by the way we do not have now. maybe some areas could be to begin conversations to reestablish trust. i do believe that everything russia does is in the context of a larger attempt to diminish the west and to raise russia. >> looking at the serious situation somewhat separate and not dependent on the rest of the world, you mentioned what most people agree with, the russians have been more concerned with supporting the regime then wit

washington's also sending thousands of troops to poland and the baltics as part of a new nato deployment war tension. winter in the arctic circle, and the days are at last getting longer. but the climate's still unforgiving. the norwegian border guard have to go out in all kinds of weather, keeping an eye on their neighbour, russia. this is the nato alliance's most northerly border, and at times, it is a pretty inhospitable place. but every day, all year round, the norwegian army is patrolling the border. i don't think we can say that there is a lot of increased activity. they have had a high activity here in the north all along. they are training well and preparing themselves, as we are doing on our side. russia's flexing its military muscle in the high north, staking its claim on a region that is thought to have more oil and gas reserves than saudi arabia. but the new us defence secretary has called russia's moves in the arctic aggressive. it's not reached the levels of the old cold war, but the temperature is dropping. further south, us marines are now being trained by the british, le

i think it's quite doubtful whether the united states today could extend the baltics and even parts of eastern europe for resources. there are real questions about whether we can defend taiwan today are other parts of asia. so there's a crucial global regional distinction that all of us have to keep in mind and thinking about the question of how strong is the american hand? we outstrip all challenges when it comes to global power production capability but in the key regions which is where the rubber hits the road, i think we are actually headed differently if we are out there already. that brings me to a third point which the book addresses nicely which is that when you look at these regional balances, not just the adversaries that make up the equation, us allies are a big part of it to us allies at immensely to the strength of the united states wields. host of them are in decline. you point out how the relatives and absolute military capabilities of most of our european allies are based off the past 20 years and that the client is adding tremendously to the difficulties we face in our

why don't as we see the continuous projection of the ability of russia to move on the three baltic states, which are our nato partners. why don't we ask them in a significant that your why don't we ask our allies in the pacific region that are so concerned about these increasingly longer-range intermediate-rangeh ballistic missiles by north korea.a. why don't we ask them if they want to cut back on the assets north protect them from the north koreans if that child dictator suddenly goes off on some crazy tangent and pushes the button. and so, mr. president, i'll just summarize here and say that congressman mulvaney has repeatedly demonstrated an unwillingness to face domestic and global realities and for the senator, that raises serious concerns as to whether he could be trusted to responsibly oversee our nation's budget process. and for these reasons and others, i will be voting no on congressman mulvaney's nomination. mr. president, i yield the floor. back to you out to gavel in. approval quick-tempered clock this morning. went to approve that mulvaney. second to advance the nomination

third, we have a physical building presence with those nato forces in the baltic states and in poland. we have a great alliance in these countries, in poland the national guard has been a long-term ally of the polish forces and we're very proud of that relationship. whent came to lithuania, we were able to see a group from fort carson in colorado. it was a tank command. i've never seen prouder soldiers in my life, american soldiers anxious to sew this senator their abe -- to show this senator their abrams m-1 and fighting vehicles they were using preparing for the possibility of defending lithuania and the baltics. it was an inspiring moment. i made my statement part of the record and i won't go further because i know the senator from south dakota is seeking the floor. but i left there committed to the nato alliance and committed to the effort to stop the aggression of vladimir putin, committed as well to come home to the united states and say to my colleagues in the senate and the house, we have to take it seriously. if vladimir putin tries to change the outcome of an american electi

keep in mind that there are nato exercises taking place in poland and baltics.ussia complained about it. i asked whether russia could view this as a threat. here was her response. >> it has been informed it is appropriate the amount of soldiers there to reassure our baltic friends, and russia knows that it is a reaction for the russian annexation of crimea and the hybrid war in eastern ukraine. >> just to bring this back to the flynn question. this question on whether or not there could be easing of sanctions by the trump administration, which she very clearly said there's no give from the u.s. side or the european side on sanctions on russia that has to do with their presence in eastern ukraine. it's really what we're getting at here. is there going to be back door deal? any attempt by the trump administration to loosen sanctions? at least from the german perspective, just met with senior u.s. officials, she says no. katy? >> hans nichols in our washington bureau. let's go to fmer ambassador to russia, michael mcfall. if we're going to talk to anybody about rus

the baltics shouldn't have been included.e lots of country he he felted personally threatened by. we have to come up with some arrangement with the smaller countries in nato. they'll still be asking for the 2% minimum payment of gdp. doesn't matter to me if the small countries do it but the bigger countries have to do it. we have to stick together on this because russia will be testing it every way they can. >> another piece of the puzzle that's not in place is donald trump's national security adviser, general mike flynn forced to resign. donald trump fired him earlier this week over what happened with russia, so general clark, politico is requiring retired vice admiral bob hardaw turned down the position of nsa because he wasn't assured he would be able to put those he wanted in place in the nsc. do you think this administration is going to be able to get the person they need in place to run this -- run intelligence or field intelligence effectively for the president of the united states? >>. >> i'm sure they're going to fin

whether you're considering the balkans, the baltic or bogota, the travel show is here to help, so emailnd you an answer. from me, simon calder, the global guru, bye for now and see you next time. finally this week, we're back on the road in sudan. it's a country scarred by conflict and largely inaccessible for tourists, but with a bit of resolve and some careful planning it is possible to get there. last time, benjamin zand explored some of the country's impressive archaeological sites, this week he's in the capital khartoum trying something a little more hands on. every friday at 4.00pm, in haj yusef, khartoum, this ancient sport, originally thought up by nubian pharaohs, is still being practiced. for thousands of years, wrestling has been practised among the tribes. but it is notjust a game. as unrest pushes people away from their homeland, the sport has found another home in the capital. and it isa another home in the capital. and it is a huge event. things are heating up is a huge event. things are heating up here, these guys going pretty hard. basically anybody can get involved, th

estonia borders russia and the baltic sea. there have been no reported sightings of the pair.information, well let you know. this morning the first officer on the scene of that explosion - is giving an emotional account of what it was like that morning. jeff hughes was off duty last august when the explosion happened. he rushed to the scene and started helping the people still trapped inside. the explosion killed seven. among them? - john's close friend sal pagiulo. for his bravery last night hughes received the department's medal of valor award. its' one of the departments highest honors. to the first 100 day s- and a delay in president trumps' new order on immigration. the white house- now says it'll come next week. the original order banned entry from seven primarly-muslim nations for 120 days. it was halted by an appeals court. meanwhile - secretary of state rex tillerson is in of homeland security, john kelly. the two will meet with mexican president enrique pena nieto and other officials to discuss border security, trade an president's trump's new immigration guidelines.

and my town in the baltic sea was 96% destroyed, and they flew approximately 500,000 bombs over that town. and -- but after the war, you grew up with simply the task of rebuilding a country that you were born in. and you didn't deal with the horrors of the nazi regime until much later. in my case, until 1961 i saw a documentary in an old movie theater on beverly drive and will shire boulevard. the movie was called mein kampf. i said, let me see what that is all about. in germany in the '50s, i left in '59, we had not heard anything really in detail about hitler or its horrors, and that film was a documentary film. a swedish documentary, and i must say, arguably the most e f epifanous moment in my life. and i subsequently in a vane attempt to i guess make up for the sins committed by the fathers, paid for a jewish teen. just to show that i was not part of that. i was not synonymous with that time. and i will say that most members of my generation are angered by the fact that when they come to america, there's a constant immediate blith identification german nazi, i resent that enormou

consensus within europe and the united states that ukraine was the issue, and the protection of the baltic states was with essentially all of what was of concern to europe and the united states regarding russia. do we have any idea whether that is a priority with the trump administration right now? >> well, we don't know for sure, but we do know that, for example, nikki haley, the new u.n. ambassador coming from the united states, said sanctions will not be lifted unless russia gives crimea back to ukraine, and that's an indication ukraine is still an spornt issue. we know the discussions that were off the record held yesterday between secretary of state tillerson and foreign minister lavrov touched on ukraine, lavrov said they did. so ukraine is still an issue. it's really bad because the fighting is increasing in ukraine once again. a lot of people believe putin is testing the resolve to trump to see what it takes to get a reaction out of trump. >> hockenberry: and there are other tests. we've got a spy ship off the east coast observing connecticut, apparently not to buy real estate. lan