we know that the head of centcom david petraeus was there yesterday talking to the president and talking yes, we will support more of the u.s. counter terrorism measures. but some say perhaps your -- in that group that these efforts are perhaps counterproductive. >> well, to a certain extent they are. brooke, look what the -- the u.s. provides yemen with almost $70 million a year. this year we provided yemen with $70 million today. today, yesterday announced the united states will double the secure assistance to $140 million. that's yemen today and tops pakistan which receives only $112 million a year. i think what this problem is not just a counterterrorism problem. question, there is a short-term security problem. >> what's the -- what is the rate of -- greater reaching problem? >> this is a greater political and economic and social crisis facing yemen. and the u.s. should provide the leadership and involve -- muslim state particularly arab league and saudi arabia and kuwait in constructing political vision in yemen. remember, brooke, al qaeda has been able to create a major foothold i

centcom commander general david petraeus was in yemen just yesterday for talks with that country's president. >>> the u.s. embassy is in the capital of sanaa. the ambassador is steven seche, a career foreign service officer who's been with the state department for nearly 30 years. the embassy serves the needs of u.s. citizens there including issues visas and passports. >>> so let's talk about these national security developments with mark and lynn again. mark, you know, during this investigation of this mutallab, what happened there, the obama administration, again, criticizeed very strongly. where do they stand as far as accountability here? does the ball, does it end with them here? did they drop the ball here? >> i don't think it's fair to assign responsibility to anybody about this just like going back to the bush years it wasn't fair to say all this should have been put in president bush's lap. the fact is there was a breakdown. you know, thankfully nothing did happen. i think we heard earlier today, thomas kean said that look, this was a good thing in the sense that it woke us up. so l

the secretary for defense was able to go direct to centcom and to tommy franks. >> thank you. >> i'd like to turn now to the question of sanctions. to ask how concerned you were about the humanitarian aspects and the much publicized suffering of the iraqi people and in particular the m.o.d.'s report of our policy, for the u.k. policy being undermined as a result of widespread public concern about the suffering of the iraqi people? >> i became a foreign office minister responsible for the middle east in may, 1999. and from then on i was a fairly regular visitor to the middle east. and there was little doubt that notwithstanding the meetings that we might have had with the leaders of those countries who were always in private expressing concern about iraq and indeed about iran to be fair, once we went out -- and if we did, say, a press conference, it was completely different. journalists, people in those meetings would be actually very angry about their allegations arising out of the sanctions. they blamed us for, they said, starving the iraqi people, or depriving them of medical suppl

. >> centcom is looking $140 million for young men and training money double the last year.can you give us a sense of the approval process? is this fast-track door a part of the normal budget? to make the fy 10 budget was just appropriated by the congress before they recessed for the christmas holiday. that was welcome news and provides us with the money to stand on 12 '06 two build a partnership capacity and build a security forces so they can attend to these problems before they get to such a problem that it requires u.s. boots on the ground. so with regards to yemen there has been a steady increase in our support came back to 2006 when we gave 4.6 million then 26 million yen 2008 net of the projects that have been proposed met the requirements but then again 2009 be provided $67 million. right now, as you heard from general petraeus recently come it is his desire to increase the funding significantly in light of the threat that is now post from within yemen. in light of the desire of the yemeni government to combat that threat. there is now a process under way within this

in the planning that is being done it would presumably be done by centcom. i think this is -- the secretary of state's comment -- it was recognized as premature and as potentially having a harmful impact on perceptions of allies in the region are looking at iran's press in the nuclear arena. the challenge we face in dealing with this eventuality -- on the one hand we cannot afford to do things would send a signal to allies that we are acquiescing. on the other hand, there are things we need to be doing now to lay groundwork in case that is where we end up. how to strike the right balance is doable. there is and architecture in place built during the 1990's and desert storm. we can build on that. it is mainly in the conventional arena. so, there has been already a lot done that we can build on. the question is what role our nuclear weapons plant and the event iran acquires nuclear weapons. simply, i think we need to think long and hard about this because it is different from the context of europe. it is better to think through implications before we make stat

guest: yes, this is work that i started in the centcom region.hat was followed up by a collaborative effort by the u.s. army war college. one year of fellowship where i can take my field experience reviewing the information about born fighters -- foreign fighters, with a year of intensive study looking into more cases, more information, and as we see every day, more and more opportunities to study that. host: is this the largest study to date of radicalization? guest: i have benefited from a lot of people who have done great research and similar studies in radicalization. i do not know if this one is bigger or if i have just compiled a bunch of them together. for me, the benefit is, before i had to do academic research, i have to do military research that gave me access to information that is not money available to academics. i was able to look at classified reports as well as on classified data that came out from academic research. my sample size has benefited as a result but i cannot say that mine is the biggest or the best. host: you have also

guest: yes, this is work that i started in the centcom region.t was followed up by a collaborative effort by the u.s. army war college. one year of fellowship where i can take my field experience reviewing the information about born fighters -- foreign fighters, with a year of intensive study looking into more cases, more information, and as we see every day, more and more opportunities to study that. host: is this the largest study to date of radicalization? guest: i have benefited from a lot of people who have done great research and similar studies in radicalization. i do not know if this one is bigger or if i have just compiled a bunch of them together. for me, the benefit is, before i had to do academic research, i have to do military research that gave me access to information that is not money available to academics. i was able to look at classified reports as well as on classified data that came out from academic research. my sample size has benefited as a result but i cannot say that mine is the biggest or the best. host: you have also d

general abizaid, former centcom commander, pushed for the growth of one of our only bases in africa,ombined joint task force of more and of africa, and from there we reached out, the u.s. military reached out to countries like ethiopia, kenya, eritrea, djibouti, and we have done well digging, vaccination of animals, reaching out to the population. those are things that are very important. in areas like afghanistan and iraq we also carry that torch and try to reach the population. at the same time there is another aspect, too, we have to go after the specific targets where al qaeda is planning and growing. a host of good morning, spartanburg, south carolina -- host: good morning, spartanburg, south carolina. caller: the main question of that for the gentleman is, he has not brought up the fact that the darfur incident, of the things going on today are all religious problems and throughout the muslim world is all a religious problem. a muslims are killing questions at an alarming rate and north africa and he fails to mention that. and the united states government fails to look at it as

sometimes in our support of our friends and allies working by with and through our partners ronald centcomis looking for 40 million mostly training money double what it was last year. can you get a sense of the approval process will this be part of the normal budget or will this be fast tracked. >> we got the fy and budget as you know was just appropriated by the congress before they recessed for the christmas holidays had the was welcomed news and provides us with the money to spend on 1206 which is building our partnership capacity, building the capacity of the military and security forces so they can attend to these problems so they can get such a problem that requires u.s. boots on the ground. and so with regards to yemen there has been a steady increase on our support of yemen dating back to 20 1/6 when we provided them $4.6 million. in 2007 and went to 26 million. in 2008, none of the projects that had been proposed that the requirements for 1206 but then again 2009 we provided $67 million. right now as you heard from general petraeus recently it is his desire to increase debt fundin

and of course i assume any planning that is being done would presumably be done by centcom and consultations with the joint staff osd end state, but i think this is one of, secretary of state's comment and the reason why we haven't heard anything more about it was recognized as premature and potentially having a harmful impact on perceptions of allies in the region who are looking at iran's. and the nuclear rina and reconsidering their own options and the challenge we face in dealing with this eventuality is on the one hand we can't afford to do things which send the signal to our allies that perhaps we are acquiescing into eventuality of a nuclear iran. on the other hand there things we need to be doing now to lay the groundwork in case that is where we end up and how you kind of strike the right balance is you know, it is doable but it is a challenge. but the bottom line is there is an architecture in place that was built mainly during the 90's in the wake of operation desert storm in terms of a web of bilateral and multilateral relationships with the gulf states. which we can build loan a

. >> the war centcom planning for this family. >> i wanted to assure you that as far as that video is, that was suicidal ideation for me. i was dark, it was dark and very troublesome but it was the american people and the support of those individuals that had come before me, the service members who had been wounded critically and had given so much for our freedom. that really for the inspirational figures in getting me to that situation. and one thing that was clear was they taught me that there would be so callous for me to gain my recovery back in one of the things i did was i when snow skiing and i actually got a chance to play with a pair olympic hockey team and the cool thing about it is we lost 22 to zero with them. [laughter] but it was great to be around all these individuals that have been disabled and knowing that i was going to be retired in and what was my next up in life. and so what i want to do for a couple minutes talk through what that meant to maine. because one thing was clear, i had my god with me, my family, by community, and a way for us to get back to those who

and of course, i assumed any planning that is being done would presumably be done by centcom in consultation with the joint staff, and osd and stay. but i think this is one, you know, secretary states, and i think was and the reason why we haven't heard anything more about it since then is was recognized as premature and potentially having a harmful, you know, impact on the perception of allies in the region who are looking at iran's progress in the nuclear arena and reconsidering their own option. and a challenge that we face in dealing with this eventuality is that on one hand, we can't afford to do things which sends a signal to our allies that we perhaps are acquiescing any eventuality of a nuclear iran. on the other hand, there are things we need to be doing now to lay the groundwork in case that is where we end up. and how you kind of strike the right balance is, you know, it's doable but it's a challenge. but the bottom line is, there is an architecture in place that was built mainly during the '90s in the wake of operation desert storm, in terms of a web of bilateral and multilateral

it is going to be the theater reserve in centcom and the haiti disaster caused us to cancel training exercises. but that's not the end of the world. we can make up that training at other times with those partners. and right now, they are focused dealing with haiti. so far, it has not impacted anything in operation enduring freedom, nothing that was destinned to be going to afghanistan has been impacted by the operations in haiti. but we are well aware that the president's priority is to make sure we get a rapid, expedited surge of forces into afghanistan to change the momentum. and so we have got to be mindful of that. and we are constantly looking at does anything we are doing in haiti perhaps adversely impact what we need to do in operation enduring freedom. as of right now, it doesn't, but we are going to be vigilant about watching that, and not to mention we are being mindful of the cost. this is an extraordinary expensive undertaking. and a necessary undertaking. you know, i think we're still working that. but we've got 24 ships out there. you have 15,000 personnel. you've got f

and of course i assume any planning that is being done would presumably be done by centcom and consultationsith the joint staff osd end state, but i think this is one of, secretary of state's comment and the reason why we haven't heard anything more about it was recognized as premature and potentially having a harmful impact on perceptions of allies in the region who are looking at iran's. and the nuclear rina and reconsidering their own options and the challenge we face in dealing with this eventuality is on the one hand we can't afford to do things which send the signal to our allies that perhaps we are acquiescing into eventuality of a nuclear iran. on the other hand there things we need to be doing now to lay the groundwork in case that is where we end up and how you kind of strike the right balance is you know, it is doable but it is a challenge. but the bottom line is there is an architecture in place that was built mainly during the 90's in the wake of operation desert storm in terms of a web of bilateral and multilateral relationships with the gulf states. which we can build loan and

centcom, saved petraeus, met with yemen's president yesterday. a senior u.s. government official says they discussed the latest intelligence on al qaeda in yemen. he also gave yemen's president several messages from president obama. yesterday mr. obama tied al qaeda to that attempted airline attack on christmas day. he said al qaeda's yemeni branch trained the suspected bomber and gave him explosives. >> this is not the first time this group has targeted us. in recent years they've bombed yemeni facilities and western hotels, restaurants and embassies including our embassy in 2008, killing one american. so as president, i've made it a priority to strengthen our partnership with the yemeni government, training and equipping their security forces, sharing intelligence and working with them to strike al qaeda terrorists. and even before christmas day, we had seen the results. training camps have been struck. leaders eliminated. plots disrupted. and all those involved in the attempted act of terrorism on christmas must know, you, too, will be held to account. >> t

guest: yes, this is work that i started in the centcom region. that was followed up by a collaborative effort by the u.s. army war college. one year of fellowship where i can take my field experience reviewing the information about born fighters -- foreign fighters, with a year of intensive study looking into more cases, more information, and as we see every day, more and more opportunities to study that. host: is this the largest study to date of radicalization? guest: i have benefited from a lot of people who have done great research and similar studies in radicalization. i do not know if this one is bigger or if i have just compiled a bunch of them together. for me, the benefit is, before i had to do academic research, i have to do military research that gave me access to information that is not money available to academics. i was able to look at classified reports as well as on classified data that came out from academic research. my sample size has benefited as a result but i cannot say that mine is the biggest or the best. host: you have al

general abizaid, former centcom commander, pushed for the growth of one of our only bases in africa,bined joint task force of more and of africa, and from there we reached out, the u.s. military reached out to countries like ethiopia, kenya, eritrea, djibouti, and we have done well digging, vaccination of animals, reaching out to the population. those are things that are very important. in areas like afghanistan and iraq we also carry that torch and try to reach the population. at the same time there is another aspect, too, we have to go after the specific targets where al qaeda is planning and growing. a host of good morning, spartanburg, south carolina -- host: good morning, spartanburg, south carolina. caller: the main question of that for the gentleman is, he has not brought up the fact that the darfur incident, of the things going on today are all religious problems and throughout the muslim world is all a religious problem. a muslims are killing questions at an alarming rate and north africa and he fails to mention that. and the united states government fails to look at it as a