chris lawrence, cnn, the pentagon. >>> it's a sound bite that may end up in a future campaign ad. president obama responding to gop critics that he's appeasing in his foreign policy. listen. >> ask osama bin laden and the 22 out of 30 top al qaeda leaders who have been taken off the field whether i engage in appeasement. >> the president also defended his efforts to block iran from developing a nuclear weapon saying his administration has imposed the toughest sanctions on iran ever. >>> he's placed all his chips on winning the iowa caucus. republican candidate rick santorum is picking up a big endorsement in the state, iowa secretary of state matt schultz is expected to back santorum today. he's considered a rising star in the republican party. also, this is big, schultz threw his support back behind mitt romney in 2008, but santorum is only pulling at 5% in iowa in the latest poll. >>> still to come, imagine missing a billion dollars and one of the people in charge simply says, i don't know where it is. we have details of that hearing. >>> a second chance at life for a death row

chris lawrence, cnn the pentagon >>> the family of an fbi contractor who disappeared in iran more than four years ago released a video of the man pleading for help. they are hoping it will help secure the release of 63-year- old robert levinson. he disappeared in iraq back in march of 2007. last year, the family received this tape asking levinson asking for help. secretary of state hillary clinton says earlier this year, there is some indication levinson is alive and might be in southeast asia. >>> hundreds of expected to turn out tonight at virginia tech university for another candle light vigil to honor the police officer killed on campus yesterday. virginia stitt police still don't know of any connection between officer derek crouse and the man who shot him before taking his own life. investigators are reviewing dash cam video of the shooting. authorities say they now know the identity of the gunman but they are not ready to release his name. >> we are confident we do know who this individual is. however, through protocol, the medical examiner must make that identification and then

chris lawrence has a closer look at what is being called time the's underground great wall -- undergrounda's great wall. >> while china was digging these tunnels, this professor was digging into china. they have produced the world's largest report on china's tunnels. china admits there were dug by a secretive branch of the military, responsible -- they were dug by a secret a branch of the military, responsible for deploying warheads. >> 3,000 miles of tunnels. >> can you put that in perspective? >> imagine a tunnel 30 feet by 20 feet high, running from nova scotia to tijuana. >> he is a former pentagon strategist who used to look for weaknesses in the old soviet union. he says china could have as many as 3000 nuclear warheads. >> the problem with the steady and the way that it comes to this estimate is that the students and their professor make the assumption that, because china is working on this system of underground tunnels, this must automatically mean that they have -- they are working on new nuclear weapons. >> this policy analyst and others working on arms control questioned the georg

>> well, chris lawrence, thank you very much. appreciate your reporting. >>> the secretary of state hillary clinton recently got back from a recent to myanmar and offered its government money to offer reforms. the first time that u.s. secretary of state had been to that nation in 50 years when it was called burma. the u.s. and other countries have imposed sanctions against myanmar and its military government for years because of human rights abuses. it's considered one of the secretive and corrupt nations on the planet. but this visit could signal a change. jill dougherty made that trip, too. jill, the question is, is myanmar about to open up? >> well, you know, many people believe that. and this administration, obviously, having hillary clinton, the secretary of state going there is a symbol that they really do believe that things are changing. now, there are a lot of caveats. you know, we think this is happening. it looks that way and there have been signs. you know, the president is a person who actually has been taking some s

. >>> let's go to chris lawrence talking about the arrests of eight soldiers charged in the death of one of their own, an army private named danny chen. it sounds like a case of bullying but it happened on a military unit instead of school, right? >> that's correct. a teenage american signed up to serve his country and it looks like he was pulleyed to the point where he shot and killed himself. the military believes that he killed himself in a guard tower in a very remote base stand back in october but now the eight fellow soldiers, all higher ranking than private chen have been charged with everything from dereliction of duty. they don't believe they had anything to do with the actual death but it's their conduct leading up to it. basically, that they harassed him verbally, physically, that he was abused and harassed to the point where he literally just broke. brooke? >> chris, where are the men who have been arrested now? >> they have been moved to another base in afghanistan, brooke. for their own protection as well. there may be some concern that other soldiers would try to take

let's go to chris lawrence. that's a mighty idea, to brighten the idea with purple hearts. but this should be filed right under the execution file. >> right. it was a case of purple heart gone wrong. what happened is they sent out about 9,000 of these very special christmas ornaments with be purple heart logo, so to speak. what it was designed to do was to honor or show respect for the men and women that received a purple heart at christmastime. the problem is, the list of recipients didn't distinct wish between those living and deceased. so more than 1,000 families got this ornament at christmastime addressed to the names of their loved ones. as you can imagine, really tough to take any time of year, but especially this time of year so close to christmas, dozens of families called saying wha, wha going on here? they have said, there's no excuse for this. we take full responsibility. the man in charge of the wounded warrior program is calling some families, sending an apology letters to others. bottom line, there is nothing malicious about this. just a mistake, plain and si

i want to begin at the pentagon with you, chris lawrence. we know that cnn has learned that this unmanned drone is a classified plane for the cia. how are they trying to get this back? >> at the moment that it crashed, the u.s. considered all potential options to get it back or to bomb it. retrieval above ensued using some sort of proxy team to air lift it out or get it back over the board from afghanistan. bombing from the air is something that they routinely do in afghanistan or at the border in pakistan. both of those options were considered i considered impractical to try to do in iranian land. >> so assuming that they have this damaged, albeit in tact rb-170, what can iran do with this piece or pieces of equipment? >> by itself iran probably can't do all that much with it. they just don't have sort of the capabilities to reverse engineer it to any degree. but some of the folks that i've been talking about is that the iran will give or sell this technology to russia or much more likely china. china is a huge player in he is pea johe is p

>> thanks so much, chris lawrence, reporting from ft.hood,ernational headlines, early results are in from egypt's first post-mubarak election. the islamist party tied to the muslim brotherhood is claiming 40% of the vote after the first of several rounds of campaigning for egypt's parliament seats. the election for president is tentatively slated for june. >>> vice president joe biden is in turkey today. he urged those attending to further open private enterprise and work to widen internet access around the world. biden travels to greece tomorrow. >>> some iranian diplomats are back in iran today. the british government ordered them out of london in retaliation for this week's attack on britain's embassy in iran. >>> one woman's story is a real wake-up call for millions. at the age of 68, she ran out of her retirement money. we'll have a step-by-step plan so you don't end up retired and penniless. >>> tomorrow, dr. sanjay gupta is celebrating robot week on his new show. on "the next list," dr. gupta profiles special individuals like heat

for that let's bring in chris lawrence. straight up, initially the pentagon assumed this was shot down or whether it lost flight control the iranians recovered it. your sources telling you when they see these images what? >> that they are not so sure now. it's a great question to raise when you consider iran is believed to be the country that once welded oil drums together and claimed they had a sophisticated russian missile system. in this case you're getting different opinions from officials and analysts alike. one aviation expert i spoke with says he thinks it's real. he accounts for the good shape by saying, look, it was not shot down and could have glided to earth in what he calls a falling leaf pattern that would have left it relatively intact. another anl sift says this is nothing more than a parade float. he said the wings when you look at these images side by side, he said the wings on the iranian video droop lower whereas he said most of the images we've seen of this drone, the wings are positioned higher for bett

chris lawrence at the pentagon. thanks. still ahead, a bizarre war of words. vladimir putin versus of all people, john mccain. why the russian prime minister is questioning the senator's sanity. and you got to hear mccain's response. plus, he is one of hospital woold's biggest stars. and during a regularly scheduled interview cnn had with christian bale, some guards began chasing the actor and our crew. we've just gotten this video. in you have to stick around to see it. the employee of the month is... spark card from capital one. spark cash gives me the most rewards of any small business credit card. it's hard for my crew to keep up with 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. 2% cash back. that's setting the bar pretty high. thanks to spark, owning my own business has never been more rewarding. [ male announcer ] introducing spark the small business credit cards from capital one. get more by choosing unlimited double miles or 2% cash back on every purchase, every day. what's in your wallet? this guy's amazing. some folks call me a rock star, some call me

our pentagon correspondent chris lawrence has the latest. >> reporter: aviation experts say commonly used drones like the reaper and predator can't even come close to what the rq-170 can do. >> this is a plane that not only goes faster than those systems, that's not only tell thinkier than the previous generation, that cannot only gather much better intelligence information about what's going on on the ground, it's also a system that's smarter. >> reporter: the radar is the same sophisticated stealth technology that allows america's newest fighter jets to outperform their russian and chinese equivalents. >> it's something that really takes radar to, you know, 21 cst century capabilities. >> reporter: how much of it, if any, is now in iranian hands? reports from state-run tv claim iran brought down the plane. they've not broadcast any pictures of the actual crash but claim the drone is relatively intact. >> i'm very skeptical that the iranian -- of the iranian claim of having shot it down. it is entirely possible that with the technology by which this drone is operated, that as the u.

let's check in first with chris lawrence. hi, chris. >> hi, don. ron has released this video.one set off an investigation to see if it's real or fake. we'll dig into that next hour. >>> i'm jill dougherty at the state department. missing for almost five years after he disappeared in iran. a videotape of former fbi agent robert levinson is now on the internet. >>> i'm elizabeth cohen in atlanta. michelle duggar pregnant with her 20th child has a miscarriage. >>> thank you very much, everyone. also next hour, as ron paul ramps up his attacks on newt gingrich his senator son joins in. rand paul joins us to talk about the 2012 race. ♪ ♪ [ male announcer ] everyone deserves the gift of a pain free holiday. ♪ this season, discover aleve. all day pain relief with just two pills. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> india commissioner david stern has rejected a trade that could have sent chris paul to the lakers. the all-star guard has been looking to get out of new orleans and laker fans were salivating over the idea of paul playing with kobe bryant. one hour after the deal was

gone, that is a very troubling development. >> chris lawrence, thank you very much.011? is it tablets? a look back at the highs and lows of the tech world. here's free advice from the cnn help desk. >> time for the help desk where we get answers to your financial questions. joining me this hour, gary shat xi, president of objective advice.com and gayle cunningham. thank you both for being here. first question to you from chris in florida. chris writes, my wife is approximately $45,000 in student debt spread out over ten loans. she is a teacher in a low income school and could possibly receive repayment help what's the best way to simplify and reduce that debt? >> wow, $45,000 spreads over ten months, that's a bit complicated for them to keep up with. i do think there may be help available to them through income based repayment plans. now we are speaking here of federal loans. so if their loans are private, that may be a different animal to deal with. but income based repayment apply for that, they are going to ask for documentation of course, such things as previous

chris lawrence at the pentagon.one, all this reporting can be found on our security clearance blog, cnn.com/security clearance. >>> and as we've been outlining, tensions. they were already mounting on the korean peninsula really this time last year with the south accusing the north of an attack. remember the attack that killed four south koreans? former u.s. ambassador to the u.n. bill richard areson went to pyongyang on an unofficial visit to help the tensions. wolf blitzer went along on that trip, joins me from washington. wolf, i remember when you were gone. it was, had what, six days in pyongyang last zes. just in terms of color, because certainly i've never been in north korea, even when you just land there, they take your passport and your cell phone and blackberry, is that right? >> right. i didn't even bring my blackberry or cell phone. i was in beijing. i left it all there. i was afraid to even take it with me to pyongyang because i knew they would confiscate your cell phone or blackberry or laptop in addit

chris lawrence is live at pentagon this morning. ission and they had satellite images showing the drone may have sustained significant damage. the white house overruled any possible use of boots on the ground to go into iran and retrieve it, so the feeling now from u.s. officials is, iranians have what's left of it. they're trying to figure out what to do next. when the u.s.' newest stealth drone crashed on the wrong side of the afghanistan/iran border it may have sparked a shopping spree for u.s. adversaries. >> i suppose several people tried to buy airline tickets to tehran from moscow and beijing in the last couple days. >> reporter: saying if the rq-170 is relatively intact the ironens will likely give to do china who can unlock its secret and sell the technology back to iran. >> the chinese probably have one of the best technology gathering espionage services in the world, if not the best. >> reporter: retired air force intelligence officer colonel sedrick leighton says it's missing, stealthier than commonly used drones like the

cnn's chris lawrence is live at the pentagon for us. fact that i'm going to ask you the question, real or fake, is an embarrassment for american, you know, american defense secrecy. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, christine, but also an embarrassment in some ways to iran you have to ask the question, but it's a good question. u.s. officials are split. one official says he's got no reason top think it's fake. in fact, he said, it would be hard to fake it. another official says, u.s. satellite technology showed the crash site and it showed wreckage and rubble, not an intact drone. look at the images side-by-side, what iran showed and a photo of what we know to be t stealth drone. one aviation expert i talked to said he thinks iran's drone is real, because he says most of the damage could be underneath, and it could have survived the fall by coming down in what he called a falling leaf pattern. another expert said, no. he said, the wings droop down, and he said, in the real drone, the wings are positioned higher for better stability. he ca

all right, chris lawrence.hoplifting. one in every 11 people who walks into a store will steal at least one item. we're going to take a look at what these thieves are taking, coming up. >>> u.s. markets open in 45 minutes from now and are poised to open higher following a week when u.s. markets were up more than 7%. >>> herman cain suspending his campaign, insisting he had to get out of the gop race because of all the pain it was causing his family. he says he'll be endorsing one of his former rivals soon. >>> another blast of wintry weather is expected in parts of the west through tomorrow night. and a high wind warning is in effect for southern california. gusts could reach hurricane force. officials warn more power outages and damage could be on the way. >>> wikileaks founder julian assange will be allowed to appeal against his extradition from the uk to sweden. he'll make his case to britain's supreme court. assange is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes in sweden. >>> according to preliminary el

our chris lawrence has the latest from the pentagon. >> reporter: u.s. drone was spying on iran. it's an about-face from when it crashed when officials claimed it was only flying on the afghanistan side of the border. strictly looking for insurgence, not spying. even then we heard doubts. >> could have been deliberately eyesed in iran and it's very likely, in fact, that it was a reconnaissance platform of choice to do precisely that, to take a look at iran's nuclear weapons system. >> reporter: u.s. military officials now confirm the se sentinel was flying suspected nuclear sites. it didn't know what the drone was doing because it was being run by the cia. the afghan government wasn't informed either. afghan president hamid karzai wants his nation kept out of the iran/u.s. rift. >> that afghanistan's sovereignty and integrity is not used one against the other. >> reporter: but the u.s. defense secretary suggested the flights will not stop. >> part and parcel of our effort to defend this country and to defend our country involves important intelligence op

chris lawrence, cnn, the pentagon. >> day would of hearings set for the man who shot president reagan. lawyers for john hinckley jr. fighting for his freedom saying he is not dangerous and should eventually be released from a government mental hospital. one psychiatrist said that may depend on whether he is taking his meds. >> if he's on medication, mr. hinckley could move in next door to me as far as i'm concerned. if he's not on medication, i would do everything i could to block him from moving in next door. >> government lawyers say hing sly still capable of great violence and went to a bookstore to look up information on presidential assassination. that happened during a visit at his mother's home in virginia. >>> terrifying moments during a college cheerleading routine. a michigan cheerleader takes a nasty tumble during a performance at the michigan state/florida state basketball game last night. she fell hard, face first. medics took her away. you can see the video now on a stretcher. she flashed thumbs up and a smile on her way out. she is doing okay, we are told. believe it or

chris lawrence said they're expecting a very happy holiday >>at the first glimpse of her father and nearlyhowed us just how fast a 14 year-old could run she started high school when he departed and her mom had to do everything on her roundown.. >>my dad was my best friend and i really missed him ... i have a real bond with him. >>the last few hours of waiting with the toughest and then the plane full of soldiers finally landed and the troops got a welcome home fit for rock stars ... for sergeant major eric fry the moment was sweet. >>i'm happy it's wrapping up we made many sacrifices of our families and our soldiers >>at one. the u.s. was spending $5,000 per second in iraq 32,000 troops came home wounded and to countless lives. >>this was my third deployment it's hard but it's sweeter coming home >>it's really nice to see those families finally reunited >>and now the answer to today's trivia question: the coliseum was built around 7080. 70 a.d. >>we're looking at the downturn in temperatures for this friday into the mid-20s don't be intimidated into thousand five we have a december 5th the

>> thanks to our chris lawrence there.of the withdrawal from iraq. we have several of our correspondents heading back to iraq for the final days of the u.s. mission there. we'll have in-depth reports starting next week all the way up to the withdrawal. >>> 23 minutes past the hour now. and that church in kentucky we've been telling you about that's getting some criticism really across the nation, all over the place, because it passed a resolution opposing interracial marriage. now the pastor is saying he will ask the congregation to overturn that decision. that could come as early as tomorrow. the church acted because of this couple, stella harvelle, a long time member of the church, has been away at school and attended services in june with her fiance. they planned to get married last summer. but this week, church members patched the resolution saying the church does not condone interracial marriage and says interracial couples will not be received as members or used in worship services. harvelle told our erin burnett she

. >> let's get the latest from cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence. chris, let's start with the information you have on exactly what was this drone up to across the iranian border. >> well, john, in a word, spying. two u.s. military officials now confirmed to cnn that the drone was on a surveillance mission looking at suspected nuclear faciliti facilities and sites inside iran. that's an abrupt about-face from what some u.s. officials were telling us when the drone crashed. first they were saying this was only being conducted on the afghanistan side of the border. it was strictly looking for insurgents, nothing to do with spying. now these u.s. officials are saying, no, it definitely was spying. but as to something john mccain just mentioned, i've spoken to several former military officials and aviation experts, they say, yes, this drone is probably one of the most sophisticated drones out there but it's not the most advanced stealth technology and they say the u.s. has some new technology coming online in the next year or so that will probably make th

cnn's pentagon correspondent chris lawrence has details. >> the u.s.he drone was not shot down. they also agree that iran does have whatever is left of that drone. but, is what iran is showing in that video, is that what they really pulled out of the wreckage in that's the question. one expert i spoke with says he can see a scenario where the drone came down and sort of a falling leaf pattern and it would have landed relatively intact. most of the damage would have been underneath. but another expert says that's just not the case, that when you look at that drone, the wings are pointing downward, compared to a picture of what we know to be the drone in which the wings are positioned higher for greater stability and one u.s. official says they have satellite footage of that crash site and it shows that the drone suffered significant damage. fred? >> thanks so much, chris lawrence at the pentagon. >>> finally, to libya and the violent civil war that unfolded there. you may recall the heart wrenching story of this woman. last march she burst into a crowd

chris lawrence following this for us. chris, what have we learned so far today?a, a sicybercrimes investigate or said he found 100,000 state documents on a computer that he was using and he found a computer that would allow that information to be written to a cd. however, on cross examination of many defense attorneys, the cybercrimes investigator admitted that he could not see direct proof that it was manning that put that information on the computer, and he did not see evidence that it was passed on or transmitted to anybody else. this is all part of the big connect the dots case in which they're trying to tie the information found on manning's computer with those half a million documents that were released by wikileaks. >> and so tell us what the cybercrimes expert told or talked about in the hearing yesterday. >> he basically talked about what he found on those computers, the 100,000 state department cables, also an sd card that was found at advance hall in potomac, maryland. all of this is information they're trying to tie to what wikileaks released. >> all

chris lawrence has details from the pentagon. >> reporter: u.s. stealth drone was spying on iran. it is an about-face from when it crashed. when officials claimed it was only flying on the afghanistan side of the border, strictly looking for insurgents, not spying. but even then we heard doubts. >> that could have been deliberately used in iran and it is very likely in fact that it was a reconnaissance platform of choice to do precisely that, to take a look at iran's nuclear weapons system. >> reporter: u.s. military officials now confirm the sentinel was flying a surveillance mission of suspected nuclear sites. they say the u.s. military didn't know what the drone was doing because it was being run by the cia. the afghan government wasn't informed either and afghan president hamid karzai wants his nation kept out of the iran-u.s. rift. >> and that afghanistan's sovereignty and territory is not used. >> reporter: but the u.s. defense secretary suggested the flights will not stop. >> part and parcel of our effort to defend this country and to defen

chris lawrence is our pentagon correspondent. chris, give us a sense of what the u.s. military, the defense department wants, is doing right now. as you know, there are a million north korean troops just north of the dmz, nearly a million south korean troops south of the dmz, 30,000 american forces almost in between. what's the reaction from the department of defense? >> reporter: well, right now, wolf, it's a very cautious response. talking to their counterparts with the south korean military. as you mentioned, doing perhaps more reconnaissance over or around north korea, getting more intelligence analysts on board to try to decipher what's going on. but not rocking the boat, so to speak. in many ways, wolf, this scenario is what some in the u.s. military feared. just about six months ago the man who now runs the u.s. forces in korea warned the united states senate that kim jong il's death could make north korea a bigger military threat. and by that he told us -- or he told the senate basically that kim jong il's son had an imperative to establish his credibility with

chris lawrence is live at pentagon with that side of the story. d morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, alina. yeah, another, also, a measured response flowing from, as dan mentioned, the official response from the white house. u.s. military officials in close contact with their south korean military counterparts, but as of right now, i don't know of any change to any sort of heightened state of alert. you remember back when north korea was accused of sinking that south korean ship, tensions were building in that region. the u.s. military was very reserved. they held off on calling that an act of war. had a very measured response in order to avoid em flaming tensions there, but obviously, they will be keeping a very close eye on this. last year, former defense secretary robert gates said that he believed that some of the provocations by north korea were due to the fact that the youngest son was trying to earn his stripes, so positive speak, with the north korean military. so that now that his father has passed on it will be interesting to keep

chris lawrence is joining us with some of those details. s, exactly what is the iranian government saying that they have? >> well, some of the news reports run by the iranian regime claim that the iranian defense forces brought down this drone, suzanne. one report even said that it was a cyber attack that brought down the drone. the reports claim that the drone is still relatively intact with little damage and that the military of iran has control of it. >> chris, do we know if the u.s. government is actually disputing that? do they have another scenario here? >> they are. i spoke to a couple sources who say it's highly unlikely that any cyber attack brought this down or that the iranians brought this down. they say more likely is it that they lost control or lost contact with the satellite or there was some other sort of mechanical problem that brought down the drone. officially the u.s. is just saying that they are missing the drone. they're not saying that it's in iran's hands. here's an official statement from u.s. forces in afghanistan.