chris lawrence, live. to be specific, when we talk 30,000, these are the so-called surge troops, correct? >> reporter: exactly, brooke. two years ago the president surged another 30,000 troops into afghanistan to bring us to about 100,000 troops. now we're expecting to hear that he will say that he's going to bring all 30,000 of those troops home by the end of next year. the key is what happens between now and then. a capitol hill source is also telling us that they've been briefed that the president will make the suggestion that he will bring home about 10,000 of those troops this year, the other 20,000 will stay until next year and come home in 2012. >> as you have been reporting, we know that the defense secretary, robert gates, had been a proponent, is still a proponent of a smaller drawdown. in fact, he spoke specifically about the afghan war today. let's listen to what he said. >> sure. >> the president has to take into account on any national security issue sustainability here at home, both among th

let's turn to pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. first, i understand two coalition helicopters attacked the gunmen on the roof of the hotel. what more can you tell us about this? >> that's right. major tim james a spokesman for the coalition forces there in kabul says that two of the coalition helicopters did engage with some of the enemy forces with some of those fighters who stormed the hotel directly on the roof. firing on them, on the roof and killing them on the roof. he also tells us that about 20 afghan soldiers entered that hotel from the ground floor and worked their way up to the hotel from the ground about 20 stories to start to clear the roof and make sure that things were secure there on the roof. isaf coalition forces called in for an air strike there in the middle of kabul. >> let's talk about the attack itself. is it your sense this is likely a response to the news that president obama, as we know, announced a drawdown of u.s. forces in afghanistan? >> i think sometimes we make those connections much like we say july

joining us, cnn correspondent chris lawrence, and chris, we're going to talk about the taliban and thee of the people on the ground. >> that's right. well, sources tell us, joe, that basically if this department was pushing for a smaller draw down, a gradual draw down, no more than 5,000 troops by end of the year and probably keeping bulk of the surge through end of next year, not just the summer. here is why. you look at the taliban presence. afghanistan has what's known as fighting seasons. which means they go after the taliban in the spring and summer. then when the taliban go to ground in the winter, u.s. troops consolidate a lot of their gain. if the troops are out by summer, they are not going to have the surge troops next winter to consolidate some of those gangs. but some people look at it, say when you look at troop levels and say this is a massive reduction, you're still going to have around 70,000 u.s. troops in afghanistan even at the end of next year, and that is twice the number, joe, twice the number that was there when president george w. bush left office. >> so there's

let's bring back our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence joined by four-star general and former nato alley commander in europe. chris, i want you to pick his brain and get a real sense on how this is going to work. >> no surprise that the military asked to keep more troops there longer. general, as we look at this map and you look at where they are still fighting the taliban influence, we know that the military wanted to keep only withdrawal 5,000 this year and keep the bulk of the surge through the end of next year. given what the president laid out, how upset should the military be? >> first of all, in this situation a commander never really gets everything he wants and we need to understand that. that happened throughout history. the general gives his input. the decision makes a decision. petraeus will get on with the job at hand with troops he has and will explain what the risk will be to all of that but he'll get on with it. i think that he has time now. he has two seasons. he has until the summer of 2012 and then to 2014. i think there's time to get the job done. >> as we look

me go away because there are 1,000 people that are standing behind me as i get off the bus. >> chris lawrencentioned how sergeant bachus went back to two tours, iraq and afghanistan. 27 bottles were ultimately found. wouldn't that make someone ineligible for going back and fighting the war? >> well, in general, the answer could be no, brooke. the pentagon determined that there were very few prescriptions that would necessarily disqualify someone from deployment. in the issue of fairness, there are no good drugs out there that deal with the range of emotional and physical ailments that some of these troops come home with. so a lot of times the doctor is mixing and matching to deal with people who have very serious emotional and physical ailments. you know, add to that, the fact that some troops will go to private doctors so their prescriptions may not show up on their military record and what could be an even bigger problem, wounded soldiers and marines trading prescription drugs amongst themselves. >> i know, chris, that ultimately it is these troops who are the ones taking the pills themselv

my colleague chris lawrence joins me from the pentagon with much more on all of this. chris, combat or no combat, u.s. troops are still targets in iraq. will today's attack you think hasten or hinder the total pull-out set for december? >> it really depends on what else happens between now and then, randi. i think one of the reasons why this attack stands out is because of the very thing you just mentioned, in that we haven't seen an attack like this in over two years. of violence against american troops is drastically down in iraq. of course there are far fewer numbers of americans there than there were at the height when we had about 170,000 troops. this one is shocking in that it happened while these troops were apparently in their trailers. 5:30 in the morning. some of these american troops were asleep when the rockets and mortars started to hit the trailers from an attack. but in the big picture, what will it mean at the end of the year? defense secretary robert gates has already said he hopes that iraqi officials can find some way to ask the u.s. to stay longer th

cnn pentagon chris lawrence has that part of the story. chris, we've known about ties between syria and iran, but these new revelations take it up to another level. what is the defense department worried about at this stage? >> reporter: well that iran is increasingly taking an even bigger role in syria than it has up until now, especially when these protests are concerned. a u.s. official was confirming to us that they've had a number of electronic communications that were intercepted that show iran's revolutionary guard has an increased presence in syria. they say iranian personnel are moving in and out of damascus, not only helping to train syria's forces there, but also facilitating the flow of weapons, which one official said just remains completely unchecked at this point. another official says iran is also providing riot gear to the syrian government. really, a lot of this confirms what the british foreign secretary claimed about a week or two ago when he said that iran was helping to give technological advice and other things to syr

chris lawrence at the pentagon. let's dig deeper on this potentially very dangerous short fallout from the yemen complex. joining us once again is the director of middle east studies at johns hopkins of international studies here in washington. thanks very much. how concerned should we be that al qaeda could take over yemen? >> well, wolf, i think you said it well when you compare yemen with afghanistan. i mean, look, yemen is wafg a coastline. it's the most dangerous country in the region. if you talk to saudi officials, wolf, they tell you there's two things they are concerned about, egypt and prospect for egypt and yemen. so the stakes in yemen are very huge and i think we, the american presence in yemen is, i think, unprepared for the games that are being played. saleh has played the americans and gulf states for a fool. he has promised he'll relinquish power. he in tends to do nothing of the kind. >> here's what concerns me. we saw opportune snartunisia. a little violent. similar in egypt. since then we've seen

chris lawrence for us at the pentagon. chris, we appreciate you, as always. thanks so much.n eye on that little box on the bottom of your screen right now, waiting to hear from congresswoman michele bachmann, who, of course, has announced she's running for president. she'll be addressing the republican leadership conference taking place in new orleans right now. when that happens, we'll certainly bring you some of her comments live. >>> also, actress angelina jolie, she's visiting the syrian border as violence escalates and more people die. tell you what happened once she landed and whether her trip is helping in this crisis. our arwa damon is there. >>> well, welcome back. 20 past the hour here now. we've been telling you that we are standing by to hear from congresswoman michele bachmann, who has now thrown her hat into the ring for the republican nomination. she is going to be speaking at the republican leadership conference in new orleans that's going on right now. we can show you that picture there. we're waiting on her to step to the podium. while we're waiting on her

thanks to our chris lawrence as always at the pent gorin.t believe. they say young people are meeting each other on these days. nope. a 90-year-old woman just met her beau. how mollie met eddie, that's next. mine was earned over the south pacific in 1943. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve. >>> we're coming up and the top of the hour now. a feel-good story for krogh. the story about love and maybe how it's never too late, especially in the digital age, right? but you wouldn't expect a 90-year-old to be trolling on match.com looking for her beau. well, it's happened. >> reporter: meet 90-year-old mollie holder and her groom, 82-year-old ed nisbet. this whirlwind romance started on match.com. >> i don't know why i did it. it w

let's go now to the pentagon and cnn's chris lawrence. it mean about the threat against the troops in iraq? many americans sort of, i won't say have forgotten about those troops, but certainly on the back burner of their minds. >> no, that's because violence dropped to such a low compared to where we were in it 2006, 2007, there are a lot more u.s. troops than 177,000 at one point. now we're down to maybe 46,000, 47,000 troops remaining in iraq. i think the thing that really hits hard about this, is the fact that it happened at 5:30 in the morning. it was on a base that the u.s. shares with iraqi, as many cases are in iraq now. some of those u.s. troops, we're told, were sleeping at the time when these rockets hit. so -- that's just a very hard thing to digest. big picture, when you look at it, it shows that violence is still possible in iraq. this was just one of many attacks that was carried out around the country today. it sort of resources outgoing defense secretary robert gates' view when he says he hopes that the iraqis at the end o

chris lawrence at the pentagon. thank you, chris. >>> and coming up next, prosecutors try to use a sample of air here, air here, in alleging that casey anthony killed her 2-year-old daughter, air from her car trunk. we will tell you how it is being used in the trial under way right now in orlando. we are going to go there live next. hey, did you ever finish last month's invoices? sadly, no. oh. but i did pick up your dry cleaning and had your shoes shined. well, i made you a reservation at the sushi place around the corner. well, in that case, i better get back to these invoices... which i'll do right after making your favorite pancakes. you know what? i'm going to tidy up your side of the office. i can't hear you because i'm also making you a smoothie. [ male announcer ] marriott hotels & resorts knows it's better for xerox to automate their global invoice process so they can focus on serving their customers. with xerox, you're ready for real business. >>> before we talk about casey anthony and the trial under way t

chris lawrence is going to stay with us. thank you. >>> meanwhile, the house speaker john boehner is warning that the troop withdrawal should not be too steep and should not jeopardize afghanistan. many of the fellow republicans and democrats as well just want out of this very, very long and costly war let's go to capitol hill. >> reporter: there is a split about how leaders should proceed in afghanistan. but among the republicans and democrats, there is a growing feeling among these two parties that usually don't agree on anything, that it's time for the war in afghan tan to come to an end. >> i think we need to come home and we need to do it in a responsible way. >> reporter: to the most liberal. >> it is time for our people to begin to come home and it is time to change our strategy. >> reporter: weariness with the ten-year mission in afghanistan is growing and creating strained by partisan bedfellows. republicans like joe walsh who campaigned on staying in afghanistan saying that constituents are now fed up. >> nine mont

chris lawrence at the pentagon. l, this attack in baghdad comes just months now before what? 46,000 u.s. troops are supposed to leave iraq. what does this mean for that effort and for the stability in iraq? well, i think if you put this in context, suzanne, two things that are really shocking about this is that, one, the number of troops killed. as you mentioned, the largest number of u.s. troops killed in a single incident in almost two years. some of these american troops were sleeping in their trailers when these rockets or mortars hit the trailers. it happened about 5:30 in the morning baghdad time. and again, when you put that in greater perspective, you got 46,000 troops left there in iraq. they're due to come home at the end of the year. secretary -- defense secretary robert gates just a few weeks ago said, if the iraqis were to ask us to stay longer -- and he said he hoped that they would -- he would also hope that the u.s. would say yes and agree to extend that, because he felt that the security situation th

officials do not want to miss. >> chris lawrence, thanks so much.no sitting u.s. president has been in 50 years. plus, it's being called facebook at the workplace. see how many people you could be interacting with and how you could be interacting with these co-workers in the future. what's this option? that's new. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. >> president obama making an historic visit today and a new way of interacting with your co-workers. juan carlos lopez for me inform puerto rico. the president was there for a couple of hours today. but why puerto rico? what are the political implications of that? >> well, it probably has something to do with florida. there are over 4.5 million puerto ricans living in the mainland. that's more than those who live in the island. the difference is that puerto ricans on the mainland can vote in the ewleks. -- elections. it's also a good historical event, the president coming on the same day that president kenn

our cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence is joining us. we know, 100,000 u.s.n afghanistan. what do we expect to hear from the president in terms of how many are getting out and how quickly? >> reporter: what we have been hearing, suzanne, is that he will announce that the 30,000 troops that he ordered in as a surge about two years ago, those troops will be coming home by the end of next year, 2012. the rationale for that is something that's sort of unique to afghanistan in that because of the harsh winters there in certain parts of the country, and the way that they grow poppy, they have what are called fighting seasons, which is basically the spring and the summer, where the fighting with the taliban really intensifies. what this would do is it would allow a lot of that surge to remain through this summer and also through next spring and summer so basically the military would get two more full fighting seasons out of that surge. i talked with an analyst yesterday who talked about how some of the forces may be shifting, though, in where they fight. >> any draw

chris lawrence is joining us with more.at the end of the month. >> that's right, wolf. today was his last appearance before congress. leaving a job like this after so long gives you a little bit of leeway to be perfectly blunt. gates knows how long he has got left at the pentagon. >> 15 days. >> he is through holding back. why do we call pakistan an ally and shower them with aid when they helped the u.s. find osama bin laden. >> how long do we support governments that lie to us? when do we say enough is enough? >> the currency defense secretary let loose. >> most governments lie to each other. that's the way business gets done. >> do they also arrest the people that help us? when they say they are allies? >> sometimes. >> not often. >> sometimes they sent people to spy on it. >> they tangle on giving money to afghanistan. >> i'm not talking about a vermont democracy. >> neither am i, mr. secretary and you know that. >> i know. >> here admitted to susan collins, the white house gave him a dollar figure and said start cutting

chris lawrence is in washington, dan lothian at the white house. chris, let's start with you.earing in the pentagon, there are some real differences between the president and some of his members of the military. >> yeah, kyra, some differences, sure. but if you told me the president wouldn't to bring out 30,000 troops in year and the military didn't want to bring out any, that's a casym between them. that's not the case. what we're hearing from sources is that defense secretary robert gates, general petraeus pushed for a more moderate withdrawal this year. in other words, they didn't want to see any more than maybe 5,000 troops come home this year. primarily for the reason that they wanted to make sure they could still consolidate some of those gains down in the south, helmand province, kandahar, but also begin to divert a lot of the troops to the east. that's the area where the taliban is still very, very potent. that area has been undermanned for a lot of years. so, having more troops now would allow them that flexibility. but what we're hearing from our sources, as you ment

our pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence, is joining us with the latest. rtainly panicked a lot of folks in the pentagon area, here in the washington, d.c., area. what's the latest, chris? >> that's right, wolf. i mean, this was enough that it even caught the attention of the white house. when you hear the details of this story, with you can see why certain people were very, very suspicious. >>> the bomb scare ended with with the arrest of a u.s. marine and dogs searching his home in suburban, virginia. but it started when the man was caught overnight in arlington cemetery after running away from police. >> arlington cemetery is closed after dark. this is why the person was being investigated. >> reporter: but he wasn't cooperating. and then police opened his backpack. >> that's why we felt that it was appropriate to close these roadways down. >> reporter: two things made them suspicious. a notebook with the words "taliban" and "al qaeda" scribbled inside. and something he claimed was ammonium nitrate. >> we responded with the appropriate expertise, which i

chris lawrence's reporting have been that these are forces not fighting forces by any stretch of the imagination. >> there's many questions about the afghan police. corruption on their part, not well liked in many towns. the afghan national army considered bets, bear in mind a lot of the time these are from the north of the country sent into the southern areas to fight the taliban there. already a strong ethnic revalerie between the two sides. >> you say it is time for afghanistan and for the people there, for officials and the population, nick, to begin to adjust to a new reality. what about the reaction as we head into the very important speech tomorrow night by the president? what about the reaction from officials in afghanistan? >> absolutely. i mean, speaking directly about the withdrawal until it is mard public by obama, but the public are fearing the loss of foreign troops. while many see the nato contribution as having tried to bring a better life here to afghanistan, i think there are genuine concerns they need to get on with their lives without foreign interference some see

. >> i'm chris lawrence at the pentagon, and this week is really going to focus on the office secretaryhe current man holding that job, robert gates, starts the week overseas of one of his last visits to some of his counterparts in other country. the man who has been nominated to replace him, cia director leon panetta, will be on capitol hill for his nomination hearings and a lot of big issues on the table including how many troops will come home from afghanistan in july and how much will the defense budget be cut, all that could be on the plate for the next defense secretary. >> i'm paul steinhauser at the cnn political desk. all but declared republican candidate rick santorum does just that yesterday. the two-term pennsylvania announces from his home state. tuesday another gop white house hopeful, former minnesota governor tim pawlenty lays out his plans to boost the economy and create jobs. >> after an abysmal week you'll want to keep an eye on wall street. fed chairman ben bernanke will speak and hear what he has to say about the u.s. economy and hear how different regions of the co

chris lawrence looking at that for us. >> reporter: t.j., we've been down in south carolina getting thede look at really what it takes to go from the civilian ministry to an army life, possibly being deployedover seas and ministering to soldiers under extreme amounts of stress, fascinating story we're working on for the rest of the week. we've been keeping an eye on what's going on in washington as well, specifically the start of the confirmation hearings, leon panetta nominated to replace robert gates as defense secretary. the interesting thing about this in the way in which these goings on in washington may affect every soldier and marine who is out there in iraq and afghanistan is because you're going to have a different set of voices around the table talking to president obama when these big decisions start to come up. originally what we had heard from folks in the pentagon was that the initial drawdown in afghanistan was going to be fairly minimal, maybe 3,000, 4,000 troops at the most. now there is increased talk of that being a more sizeable drawdown perhaps over 10,000 troops be

chris lawrence is joining us. chris, it's very clear a lot of americans want out.e country's longest running war? >> first off, suzanne, to keep the taliban from coming back into the population centers in the south, and redirect some of the forces to the east where it has been under manned. we flipped that question around and we will tell you what the taliban's goals are for the rest of the year. not all attacks are created equal. the taliban attacks in the north are meant to pull resources away and distract the forces, and down in the south where you see the red, that's where the surge pushed the taliban out to the fringes, and their goal is to regain influence. to the east, a little bit further to the northeast is where you have al qaeda cells. and there are the high profile attacks you have seen in kabul. if you flip the question around, the u.s. goal is to stop the taliban from doing many of the actions. >> and we're told the drawdown schedule will allow for two more fighting seasons. what does that mean? >> that's a good question. when you look at afghanistan,

chris lawrence is joining us now. the accusations, the latest ones against iran? >> they make it seem as if iran is this close to getting a nuclear bomb. why isn't this the number one priority for the u.s. national defense team? well, it's because you are about to hear, things are not always as they seem. the british foreign secretary is openly accusing iran of conducting missile tests and rocket launches >> capable of delivering a nuclear pay load. >> iran is producing 20% enriched uranium that could be used in a warhead and announced plans to triple capacity. >> these are levels far greater than is needed for nuclear energy. >> there is even a you tube video allegedly leaked from iran in which journalists are taken inside what looks like a missile silo. >> sorry iran that close? >> very far from being able to attache warhead to that missile. estimates range anywhere from to ten years. >> lacey olsson is at the center for arms control. when it comes to capaability to launch long range missiles, she doesn't put much f

chris lawrence is joining us now with more on what the outgoing defense secretary had to say. what did he say, cry? >> wolf, after 4 1/2 years now in the office, this was a mix of sort of looking back on his term and looking ahead to the challenges that are still going to be there for his successor. as secretary gates prepares to leave, al qaeda is getting new leadership, too. but gates says ayman al zawahiri is no osama bin laden. >> i think he's gho the some challenges. >> reporter: for one, gates says there's some suspicion within al qaeda, because sweari is a egyptian. >> in that particular context, he with a. >> he poked fun at the process when asked why he thought it took them seven weeks. >> reporter: probably tough to count votes when you're in a cave. >> reporter: he avoided the question of whether the u.s. is winning or losing the war in afghanistan, but said the mission is on the past to success. he also urged his successors to continue to deal with pakistan despite massive criticism and accommodations. >> i hate leaks, maybe more than most. >> reporter: gates said

let's bring in chris lawrence who is working an important story for us. >> initially the announcement to be minimum, maybe 3 or 4,000 but now there's a growing pressure to make that number bigger and to bring the troops home faster. there's a fight about to go down. on one side, those who say starting next month president obama should bring home a significant number of troops home faster. the other side arguing it's too risky. >> nobody wants to give up the games that have been lost at such a hard cost. >> urging officials to keep combat troops as long as possible. >> i would opt to keep the shooters and take the support out first. but the numbers are such that it's going to have to be both. >> reporter: in 2009, president obama sent another 30,000 troops to afghanistan. but it's not 2009. the national debt has soared. there's political pressure to make spending cuts, and it costs $1 million per man to fight in afghanistan. >> we are spending about 120 billion per year, 10 billion per month and we -- there's no end in sight. >> and the head of al qaeda is dead. some see what intellige

chris lawrence. let's go to you live at the pentagon.onal archives and read these things? >> yeah, and anyone with a computer can just get on line and read them on line. not expecting a whole lot of anything new in these papers. but now you're going to get the complete account online. anybody can go on there and read them. in this age of wikileaks. it's interesting to sort of look back, you know, it's sort of the grandfather of wikileaks. the pentagon papers. which basically was a report that showed the government was saying one thing about seat national. well in all actuality, they were. in july, 1965 when president lyndon johnson already had sent troupes combat troops to vietnam but then a few days later, pretends to consult with his allies and advisers about doing so. >> so you compare it to sort of wikileaks. is there any lesson to be learned from these papers today? >> the primary leaker, one of he took away from it, his biggest regret was that he didn't come forward sooner. and he says to any future whistleblowers out there, he sai

let's go to our pentagon correspondent, chris lawrence working the story for us. lot of numbers being thrown out there. what are you learning? 100,000 u.s. troops now in afghanistan. how quick of a pace will they start coming out? >> sources are telling us that the president will announce that he wants to bring home 30,000 troops by the end of 2012 with the first 10,000 of those coming home by the end of this year. if that's true, that number we're putting smack-dab in the middle of a fight between congressmen who signed this letter to him urging the president to make a significant, sizeable withdrawal and military leaders who have urged a steadier, slower drawdown. >> a congressional source says the defense secretary and general david petraeus pushed for just 5,000 troops to come out this year instead of the 10,000 the president is expected to bring home in 2011. >> that worries me a great deal because i don't think there's anyone who is more knowledgeable than general petraeus. >> defense secretary robert gates explained that decisions like this one are not made

let's bring in our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. he's got the latest for us. what is the latest, chris? >> reporter: wolf, a lot has changed since he made that promise to start bringing troops home in july of 2011. two years ago when he made that promise, he probably couldn't foresee that afghan president hamid karzai would be calling the americans occupiers or that the pressure to cut the budget would be so great that even his republican presidential challengers are calling for an earlier exit from afghanistan. president obama has the military options in front of him and the risk of drawing down more troops compared to fewer. but the president is still in the process of deciding how quickly to bring u.s. troops home. >> i can tell you with absolute certainty that it is not over. >> there is no real major consideration of a dramatic reduction. >> reporter: michael o'hanlon is just back from afghanistan. he says no one he's talked to at the white house says they're considering bringing home a majority of the 30,000 troops president obama deployed as part of the

conquer them and it's a new revelation to them because everybody else that ever has tried -- >> our chris lawrencethere on the ground have said that those afghan soldiers are not ready, they are not the same kind of warrior that the u.s. soldiers are. and that in many cases, they feel like a lot of the investment we're making in the people in afghanistan won't be returned as soon as we are gone. >> they have significant challenges. you got to remember, most of these people have no occasionally level whatsoever, not even a third grade education. we are not only training them to be soldiers but establish security across the country. there's some very bad areas that still needs a lot of work. >> this is our nation's longest war there. this is going on past ten years. we're doing a lot of, i guess, nation building as opposed to counterterror and people asking why are we doing this and can we afford the sacrifice of so many like you and those who haven't come back alive to continue it. >> i think it is our strategic interests. i mean, we need -- we need partners like the afghanis. they are extremely lo