you've worked inside the cia. i have to tell you that right off the bat i don't understand why on sunday the homeland security secretary didn't seem to know that this man's name had popped up in a cia report and the president didn't really allude to it until today. is it possible they didn't learn until last night or this morning that there's a report in langley? >> yes. i think that's really the problem here. i think that's the case. if we look back at what we have done over the last eight years we turned this world upside down deciding we're going to reorganize the government. we're going to spend hundreds of billions of dollars. we're going to do amazing things. yet this fundamental problem seems to still exist. the inability to take a piece of information and put it out there in a place where everybody else can grab it and hopefully connect it to something. remember it's not just about acquiring things. that is one thing the agency does. it really has to be about analyzing them and saying what does this mean?

cia report did. it's the other intelligence. we're not sure. they might not have had a name. i have a statement from a cia spokesman who said we learned of him in november. we did not have his name before then. >> so this seems to me a very familiar scenario here that we went through basically in that whole connecting the dots following 9/11. is there any -- you've been talking to sources all day long, some i assume are in the cia but you don't have to tell me and wouldn't, but what -- what is the sense you are getting here? is there some tension going on between these -- >> oh, yeah. i think there will be a lot of tension building between the different component. here's one reason why. the statement from the cia spokesperson he said we worked with the embassy to make sure he was in the database. we also forwarded key biographical information to him to the national counterterrorism center. they don't say if they forwarded all the information they had, but they're certainly pushing back here. yeah, i

the dead included the chief of the targeted cia post. on the newshour tonight, the latest details about one of the deadliest attacks on cia personnel in the agency's history. >> brown: also tonight, a federal judge has dismissed all charges against 5 blackwater security guards accused of killing unarmed civilians in baghdad. >> suarez: the president gets a preliminary report into the attempt to blow up a u.s. airliner. we'll talk to intelligence community veterans about what went wrong. >> brown: then, a 'second look' as paul solman asks economists one central question about the recession: >> why didant -- why didn't the fed tell us? >> why didn't we warn you. >> yes. >> suarez: gwen ifill looks back at a dramatic decade in u.s. politics. with amy walter, andy kohut and michael beschloss. >> brown: and the poetic partnership between one of russia's leading writers and the husband who translates her. >> this gives a lot of advantages to the -- view. because he gets to translate poems that we lived through together. >> brown: that's all ah

the cia gets kicked around for not connecting dots. then you've got men and women out there on the front lines getting killed. the eight that lost their lives, one of the largest losses of lives of cia employees in the last 30 years. >> larry: considering kicked around, the cia is rejecting accusations that it failed to properly share vital intelligence on the christmas day terror suspect. do you buy that? they're denying it, tyler. >> yeah, i think they did share. the problem here is that the system that was set up by the reform act -- intelligence reform act of 2004 set this up. this was almost inevitable with the expansion of the intelligence community, the bureaucracy here in washington, that it was almost inevitable that something like this was going to happen. the cia station in laggos collected had, they sent it in. the information comes from the field goes automatically to the counterterrorism center, the cia, the white house. all these people get it. the problem is they've broken the link between the analytical process and the

it's one of the largest losses of lives of cia employees in 30 years. >> larry: the cia is rejecting accusations that it failed to properly share vital intelligence on the christmas day bombing is the. do you buy is that? >> i think that did share. the problem here is that the system that was set up in 2004, set this up. this was almost in'emible with the expansion of the intelligence community and the bureaucracy. it comes to the field. and it goes to the cia, the white house, all these people get it. the problem is they have broken the link wean the analytical process and the operators in the field. many of them are young contractors. they don't have the experience and don't have the grasp of this to go back to the station and ask the second question. the station does haven't the contact to specific analysts to go, to follow up on it and see if what they have sent it in has been followed up on. it is to make it smaller, better staffed and more official. >> larry: we keep hearing about the failure to connect the dots. based on what you know, are we connecting the to thes? >> yes, we

you had the vice president's office that did not believe the cia. the cia on these matters appeared to be very much in the camp of the state department. >> my next question is about november, 2001. related the conversations we had with the ministry of defence on tuesday. bush had a press conference in late november 20001 where he was asked about -- 2201 -- 2001. there was discussion with the american media about interviews with crumbs fell to -- rums feld. did you report this as the first signs of iraq coming into view? >> i don't have the reporting telegram in front of me, but we were watching this stuff like cox we almost got too close. there was no doubting the for an office with this kind of reporting. i remember the press conference pretty well. of course we did. without having it in front of me, i can't believe -- i don't think the foreign office can claim ignorance the way the wind was blowing. they made it extremely plane. -- plain. on the fifth of november, i could not find in the archives, they lay all this out. -- laid all this out. we we

buzz algren and fellow astronauts and the role of muslim americans in the world, later, a former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against al-qaeda and afghanistan and starting at 8:00 pm eastern remembering the lives of william f. buckley, jr. and senator ted kennedy. >> now a senate hearing on the backlog of dna evidence collected for unsolved rape cases. tens of thousands of so-called rape kits across the country have not been tested. we'll hear about the justice for survivors of sexual assault act which provides incentives to local law enforcement agencies to process rape kits. patrick leahy of vermont chairs the judiciary committee. this is an hour and 45 minutes. ...

evan tls me that the cia is dog new things -- >> they are using guys with riflesnot just drones. it was receny reported that we went in and ot -- cia snipers got seven or eigh guys, i believe in paktan. th is really a difficult covert action tpull off. the capacity has increased so we can more of this. having sd that, i am always eptic about this, because presiden are always tempted -- we don't have to send in a whol armies, which does get w smart guys ino get it done. it is tempting for a predent to go for the option, andt works sometimes, but often i es not. >> the ironys that the one timet worked is the initial war in afghanist, whe we said in a bunch of smart guys on horseback in the hundreds, not even in the thoands, and succeeded in bringindown the government tha had been in por for almost a decade. >> and for the hel they did noget it. >> withfghanistan, the probl this. ultimately hold and succeed in occupying -- it has defeated almost everybody >> we ar talking about an endls war with a very small army with fourr five tours. at what point say enough? >> let's turno the jo

for the cia. so he tried to talk me into coming into the cia. the conversation didn't go well because house with your new through that of course we don't want you to be an agent. we don't want to be a covert agent. we wanted to be an analyst at headquarters. and i sort of thought is dashing covert agent and suddenly my hopes are dashed, which is so for chilly that same week there'd been a senior editor at "time" magazine. my whole thing was doing a whole lot in the days before they had layoffs. so they sent a senior editor and a trip around america because they had decided they need to find writers from as they put it out there to go to "time" magazine. this guy is spent a whole year finding writers out there. fortunately, he got to new orleans just when i had finished writing about the mayor's race we had back then, right after boot landrieu was retiring and i've been promoted from police headquarters to city hall by this point. and there were 12 people running for mayor in new orleans. as the wo

nobody told the cia and we wl never know whether the information at could of been obtained for moussauoi bore september 11th could of prevented the attack. so it's happened again. >> jeffrey: san, let's go to at issue. there was inte intelgence on ths yog man. wasn't shared or decisions were made t to follow-up. >> i thinke need to try to unrstand the nuts and bolts, reverse en near at happened. >> the first question i wod ask apart om the questions of the actualnterview is when the group t to discuss this in the embassy. what information, what additionalnformation were they ab to obtain by going back to their agencies to learn to, brinto bear on that discussion. yes, if there was infoation that was not shareat that time, that is troubling. we would want look at why. whether when the reque went back, assuminghere was a request at went back, it reacd the people who actually were concerning emselves if there were such people. >> jeffrey: chard, the president referred tthis as systemic failure. it's abovehat was investigated last time around. >> onef the things that most troubled us was the

in order to also help you understand my remarks, i retired from the cia in november of 2006.march of 2007, two individuals from barack obama camp asked me if i would like to be an adviser to the campaign. i agreed on one condition, i didn't want to get a job for myself, i wanted to find a job for the senior senator from illinois in the federal government. i should also tell you i went home that night i told my wife, this will be lots of fun, but it won't last very long. there is no way barack obama is going to become president of the united states. so bear that prediction in mind as i go forward. [laughter] >> what i would like to do then over the course of the next 40 minutes or so is review the key judgments of the strategic review that i chaired, talk a little bit about what has happened in the interim when the closure of that strategic review in march and the president's comments at west point and then look at the road ahead. let me be careful and clear, i'm speaking here as a senior fellow . i'm not here as a supposeman for president obama, for the united states governme

now the pieces show the cia is under the magnifying glass as well. >> well we're going to need to lower the bar on who gets on the list to identified people who need secondary screening. i think the secondary screening would have caught these guys. there were whole body imaging machines in nigeria and amsterdam. we have to ask why those were not used. we need more from our international partners on screening. make sure they're communicating. of the 550,000 people on the watch list who is watching the people on the watch list it seems we maybe a little too politically correct on the way and we need to trar get the tar reufts. we're at war, they want to kill us. >> gwen: you think profiling should be as at base. >> we have to be careful. we don't want profiling on race, ethnicity or religion. but we can profile potential terrorists and go through a rigorous screening. i don't see any other way around it. >> gwen: congressman, do you think the administration is acting quickly enough and thoroughly enough to address what is turning into a bigger and bigger problem. >> the president son this

so he tried to talk me into coming into the cia. the conversation didn't go well because halfway through he said, of course, we don't want you to be a covert agent. we want you to be an analyst at headquarters. i and i had thought this -- you know, this dashing covert agent, and suddenly my hopes are dashed. oh, you want me to actually analyze papers in headquarters. fortunately that week there had been a senior editor at time magazine -- i don't think they were dog a whole lot. so they sent the senior editor on a trip around america because they decided they needed to find writers from, as they put it, out there to good to time magazine. this guy spent a whole year finding writers out there. fortunately he got to new orleans just when i had finished writing about the mayor's race we had back then, right after landrieu was retiring and i had been promoted from police hurricanes to city hall by this point. and with 12 people running for mayor of new orleans, it was wonderfully colorful race. in fact if you good down the street you wi

the attorney general has appointed a special prosecutor to look at some abuses by the cia in the previousministration. over time there are going to be other ways to evaluate what happened in the past. the purpose of doing that is to prevent future situations or leaders. deciding that that is the right policy. we should never, no government should engage in cruelty or inter gation. as long as i'm in government, i'll make sure to push for that around the world. >> next up, calling on our line

there's a lot of suspicion in the middle east many think we are spies our work for the cia and do not appreciate the wall that exist between the media and the government and they do not believe we are neutral observers. 1/2 to counter that before i talk to them. >> the author of sisters and more. thank you so much. >> thank you for coming. one of the first questions i am usually asked why i decided to ride a book about madam chang kai-shek it was about the loyal said daughter and to granddaughter of queen victoria why would any writer in her right mind jump from europe to asia from transparent western ladies to mysterious chinese? the explanation goes back to my life with my late husband who was working on a screenplay of doris kerns quote could win no ordinary time separate a book about the roosevelt white house. we have had one of the usual dinner conversations about our work. neither of us listening particularly carefully to what the other was saying. [laughter] and allen told me during world war ii when madame chang was staying at the white house although there were phones and cal

you bring up the operations of the cia -- the man brought up the operations of the cia. a cia. the funding is coming from mostly that goal that was confiscated from the japanese up in the philippines. it was being investigated, and the three places that got hit on 9/11 were the three places that stored the information on this secret blacktops operation. i would ask for a new investigation -- new one -- i would ask for an investigation, a criminal investigation in 9/11, because the whole damn thing is based on a lie. guest: one of the things, on the 9/11 commission, they had a lot of resources and did a lot of hearings. i don't know if you read that report. it has been several years since i read it. but i think it was fairly thorough. i want to get to the broader issue, and that is transparency in government in general. maybe at the end of the day, you and i are going to disagree on some things, but i would like you to have all the information. one of the things that we republicans are pushing for, if we get back into the majority, is that we want to put bills online, sev

we have a lot of talented men and women both in the military and cia and fbi that are working together in some areas and goou and debilitated and destroyed key fundamentalalist targets. that needs it to keep up. i like to think more of managing crabgrass. it may never go away, but you can keep it from taking over your yard and creating a complete danger for everyone. some of these crazies have seen them but we've seen them overreach. when they tried to kill the saudis, they step up their effort. when they go into stack stan and kill more, the government was an enabler of some people they helped to step up the retaliation. we see the same in yemen. i think we're moving in the right direction. it's important to keep up, not saying military or law enforcement. this isn't a light he beer commercial. it's both. >> we're going to have all of them back. president obama makes a he pledge to americans. we'll hear it in 60 seconds. zooishgs not only to undermine our security but also the open society and the values that we cherish as americans. this didn't, like several that have preceded it, no

state department's office of counterterrorism, former cia analyst and ceo and founder and co-founderof berg associates. peter bergen was the the president's statement today satisfactory? >> yeah. i mean, i think it was satisfactory. i think the statement would have been daifsh if the plane would have blown up, he would have made a statement earlier. i think so, yeah. >> what do you think, jack? >> there's been enough problems he had to address this. i think it was sufficient that napolitano and robert gibbs stepped up early. i think it's beneficial for the american people to realize he's watching this and being briefed on this regularly. i think that's a positive step for all americans to know. >> larry: harvey, cnn has obtained u.s. government photos of what remains of the device which the suspect try he -- tried to blow up the flight. they show singed underwear with t . would you class this as sophisticated? >> it's a new type of device peculiar to that region. yemen seems to work with petn. this type of device, they made a statement that as you know today they were experimenting w

system as you yourself noted, but we coordinate and are coordinating extensively with the fbi, the cia, the dni and other intelligence agencies in terms of cases that emanate from broad-- from the interior of the united states. secondly we are increasing our sharing of information at the state and local, so those are the eyes and ears, local law enforcement that need to be more fully engaged and plug in, watching for those who would seek to do us harm and have the information and situational awareness to do it. one of the ways we are doing that mr. chair is through support of fusion centers across the country. >> support of what? >> fusion centers where we have a federal state and local law enforcement collocated and to give you some nuts and bolts, one of the problems we are working through a security clearance so people can get information top-secret and above levels, and that is a process that is underway right now, and lastly, we are really asking the american people to lead forward and that the individual, business, the community level, whereever come to recognize our security is

later, a former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against al qaeda in denniston and started at 8:00 p.m. eastern, remembering the lives of women -- william f. buckley jr. and senator ted kennedy. >> and now the annual christmas tree ceremony at the vietnam veterans memorial on the national mall. this portion of the event is about 20 minutes. >> is to recognize some of the people here today, especially want to thank everybody here from rolling thunder and a motorcycle community. they were here and they brought handwarmers. that shows the type of leadership we have with rolling thunder. we wanted to make our board member, john dibble, and then a hard-working volunteers that keep this in more up and running. the government was close touch with the vietnam veterans memorial was (and our volunteers opened the kiosk and we were open for business and the park service removed the snow. we want to thank the xerox today as well for our ceremony and giving us the money to have the ceremony. we want to welcome now major general khaled m

our own cia says there's less than 100 al qaeda in afghanistan. what are we going in afghanistan? president obama said we were attacked in afghanistan. i don't think so. 15 of the 19 hijackers, terrorists, killers of 9/11, they were from saudi arabia. in fact, there wasn't one afghanistan citizen amongst them. the only thing afghanistan had to do with it, they are monkey bars in the desert that these guys trained on. i've seen the video. for that? it's absolutely insane, larry. we have been in this war for twice as long now as the u.s. was in world war ii. twice as long as world war ii. we defeated hitler and tojo and mussolini in half the time it's taken us to find osama bin laden. if he came on tonight and said we're going in with special forces to try and capture the killer, that's a good idea. that's not what he's talking about. he says we'll have 100,000 troops there to find these killers that aren't even there. absolutely insane. >> larry: he didn't make any kind of case to your satisfaction of the dangers, the differences between vietnam and iraq and afghanistan? he was opp

say the standards of physical fitness we insist on an mi5 and i regret to say neither the fbi or the cia played cricket and that is the british example, but the man at the back who has the kind of haircut that one normally associates with a student in the late 1960's is steven lyndon who is a decent fellow and who became-- immediately from 1996 to 2002 and had the best idea that anyone has ever had in the whole history of british intelligence and that is to say commissioning an official history of mi5. thank you. i am sorry if i sound slightly partisan and there is sir patrick walter in the middle. they were off to play against the team that i cannot identify and could not that conceivably been mi but i can't possibly comment. and i can explain what it is except it is a good thing to do. this becomes interesting. i have just that time to talk about it. i merely let myself time to talk about tourism. mi5 was found solely with counter espionage. nowadays it stands only three and a half% of its resources on counterespionage in deals with counterterrorism but because that there is no collect

is she supported by the ceo of -- cia? if she truly independent? questions will be raised about this in a politicized context, so let me now, after setting of this general framework -- we are running out of time. let me extend that model a little bit on both sides, and then i will talk a little bit about history, and then i will move into looking in some of the blogosphere in cuba in detail. next, let's talk about those two ideas. on the democratization side, we could say that what are the obstacles to internet expansion in cuba? the obstacles if you believe in that model would be political and ideological, bureaucratic, and the obstacle is mainly an internal obstacles. it is the cuban government. that is the problem, and it is ideological and your credit restrictions. on the other side, of the obstacles would be economic, infrastructural, geopolitical, and there would be external. the cuban government would argue -- this is a challenge for us, so she and them to -- socio- economic flee, but also, history will show -- this is a challenge for us soc

a former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against al qaeda in afghanistan. and remembering the lives of william f. buckley, jr. and senator ted kennedy. . the debt deal labor leader fielded questions. the former -- the deputy labour leader fielded questions. she also took questions on the british economy and foreign policiey issues. >> questions to the prime minister. >> mr. speaker, i have been asked to reply. i am sure the whole house will join me in sending out profound condolences to the family and friends of the two soldiers from the third of volume rifles to die in afghanistan yesterday. we send out the deepest sympathies to their families. this christmas will all be thinking of the bravery and dedication of our armed forces overseas and especially at this time of year. overseas and especially at this time of year, the families who support them. my right honorable friend the prime minister is in copenhagen. this morning he met the u.n. secretary-general. this afternoon he will address the assembly. >> the whole house will endorse what the right honorab

were this morning on possible cia presence abroad. parliamentary commission has found that the lithuanian approved a u.s. request to set up a secret prison in the country, but says it is unclear whether one was ever established. the panel based its findings on the testimony of top lithuanian politicians and nsa officials. the probe will be launched into the case. u.s. officials are concerned that the release of three american hikers held in iran may be used as a bargaining chip. a prosecutor in tehran claims 11 iranians conducted in europe are being held in the u.s. and the iranian officials are increasingly mentioning the cases together. the president -- iran dismissed a deadline today to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel, and cleans his government is 10 times for then 1 years ago. mahmoud ahmadinejad in remarks earlier, they come a day after a protest for a moslem cleric who died over the weekend. >> "washington journal" continues. host: jim gilmore joining us this morning, the new president and ceo of the free congress foundat

after that meeting, the cia had the suspect's name and that information was passed to washington andhen he got on this very broad base of about 500,000 people. people i am speaking to on the intelligence side of the house said that there was not one single piece of information sitting on one computer in langley, virginia, that would take this 23-year-old name and magically kick upstairs so he was on the no-fly list. certainly there is a difference of opinion as to what the quality of in for mission was and whether it truly could have been connected to sort of prevent him from getting on the flight. host: with the reviews he is calling for, what is he looking for and what specifically from the intelligence community? guest: there are three sets of lists. the 500,000-name database, a very broad database. the way you get on the database is, for example, if a terrorist is picked up overseas and have his address book or his own or calendar and let's say your name happens to be on the list, for some mysterious reason, your name would end up on the broad database. someone who at least have

i retired from the cia in november of 2006.7, two individuals, tony lake and -- from the of buraku san obama camp came to me and asked me if i would like to be an adviser to the campaign. i agreed on one condition -- i didn't want to get a job for myself. i wanted to find a job for the senator of illinois in the federal government. i also told the i went home that night and all my life -- wife, this will be lots of fun, it but it will not last that long. there is no way barack obama will become president of the united states. bear their prediction in mind as i go forward. what i would like to do over the course of the next 40 minutes or so is review the key judgments of the strategic review that i chaired, talk a little bit about the end to run between the closure of that strategic review in march and the president's announcement last week at west point, and then spend a few last-minute looking at the road ahead and where i think we are going. let me be very careful though, and clear. i am speaking here as a senior fellow at th

you had the vice president's office that did not believe the cia.rtment. >> my next question is about november, 2001. related the conversations we had with the ministry of defence on tuesday. bush had a press conference in late november 20001 where he was asked about -- 2201 -- 2001. there was discussion with the american media about interviews with crumbs fell to -- rums feld. did you report this as the first signs of iraq coming into view? >> i don't have the reporting telegram in front of me, but we were watching this stuff like cox we almost got too close. there was no doubting the for an office with this kind of reporting. i remember the press conference pretty well. of course we did. without having it in front of me, i can't believe -- i don't think the foreign office can claim ignorance the way the wind was blowing. they made it extremely plane. -- plain. on the fifth of november, i could not find in the archives, they lay all this out. -- laid all this out. we were may be overly deciduous -- assiduous. >> this is the moment to take a break.

i retired from the cia in november, 2006.myself. i wanted a job for the senior senator from illinois in the federal government. i should also tell you that went home and told my wife, this will beç lots of fun, but it will nt last very long. there is no way barack obama is going to become president of united states. period prediction in mind as i go forward. -- bear that prediction in mind. what i would like to do over the course of the next 40 minutes is review the key judgments of the strategic review that i chaired, talk a little bit about what is happened in the interim between the closure of that strategic review in march and the president's announcement last week. and then spent a few last minutes looking at the road ahead, where i think we're going. let me be careful and clear. i am speaking as a senior fellow at the brookings institution. i am not here as a spokesman for the united states government or president obama. please to not enter but any of my words as reflecting the views of the united states government in

they did not exceed both the cia and musharraf intelligence committee was very effective but the point* is that is what al qaeda has in mind. perhaps the most discouraging thing that i hear is my friends tell me that perhaps one quarter of the pakistani military is sympathetic to cockeyed up. the ninth nation was north korea. they probably started seriously with kim jong-il succession to power in 1994. the first shot october 2006. it was a fizzle but what they told the chinese and what we have learned is the design yield was not 20 kilotons a big fat man but the design yield was only four callow tons -- kilotons hopefully to be missile compatible and light weight. the north korea and tested again in the me 2009 they have to kilotons. a problem with north korea is not just that they are a nuclear state but pumping technology and materials to all of the other guys that we were about. pakistan and north korea is a fountain of nuclear weapons technology. so that is the short history. what lessons did we learn? in my opinion there is a very significant nuclear event in the western world dur

later, a former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against al qaeda and afghanistan. and start at 8:00 p.m. eastern membered lives of william f. junior and senator ted kennedy. >> we now continue our coverage at the health care debate. next come the senate democratic leaders are joined by the president of the american medical association. the ama has endorsed the senate health legislation. this news conference is just under 25 minutes. >> dr., don't be bashful. we stand closer than ever to making it possible for every american to afford to live a healthy life. never have we been so close to reforming america's broken health insurance system. we're not over the finish line, but we would never have gotten this far without the support of doctors, nurses, medical professionals. we know we did action, not excuses anymore. excuses are not going to work. this legislation is not about politics or partisanship or some poll that appears in a newspaper somewhere around the country. the legislation is really about people. our guest today, dr. cecil wilson, president-elect of the

let them go straight to hell. >> usa. >> the cia operatives in pakistan and other countries, our men and women are oftentimes killed in action, never to be recognized. we universally salute them as they follow the enemies until the end of time, until every last one is killed and extinguished. ladies and gentlemen, as we see on aljazeera, osama bin laden and al qaeda terrorism, if they want the paradise express to go up to the side of allah, then let's speed up the process. to the brave men and women of the nypd, the court officers, the federal marshals, the fbi agents, all those who will be charged with public safety here and abroad, they will have to continue to risk their lives. those on the front lines of our defense, we honor their service to america and to our great city of new york, because they are the ones who will help to keep us safe and sound. let me tell you about this criminal justice system. many of you know that this -- that we saw trials against john gotti jr, who tried to take my life on two occasions. how are we going to find a jury who can feel safe and secure with

we can use the cia to get them out the way we use the cia to get the russians out of afghanistan.lems here at home. the way to strengthen this nation is, you know, to take care of some of the problems we have here, i mean, with health care, with the economy and, if you know, we can't be trying to build nations and trying to establish government in the nation that's never had a successful central government. >> okay, thank you for the call. earlier today senior administration officials on a conference call with reporters outlining a dance of the president's speech had one of the points they made is the effort to try to stabilize the economy in afghanistan in particular for the farmers. in a couple of minutes were listening to another conference call from senator mitch mcconnell who is the republican leader in the senate. we've also get his reaction to the president's speech. the next will go to david from long island. go ahead please. >> hello, i'm going to say that i am opposed to the war. i believe that the war is a fraud. we spent billions of dollars and can't it be the group. t

from "the new york times" this morning, "the cia is expanding its role in the attacks in pakistan.central intelligence agency sharpshooters killed eight expected militants, wounding two others in a compound said to be used for terrorist training, only the latest strike by their covert programs to kill operatives of al qaeda and their allies using this hellfire initiative that the president was able to use from its controlled aircraft half of a world away. the white house authorized the expansion of the program in pakistan, commenting that this is a lawless, tribal area. paul is joining us from california. how long have you been out of work, paul? caller: about one year right now. i work in information technology. what i see out there, one, the employers have raised requirements. without a bachelor's degree these days you cannot get the same job that you could as recently as a few years ago. let's say that you can meet the educational requirements, the salary is significantly less. i heard the comment about unemployment benefits continuing in people not looking for work. i strongly

i retired from the cia in november, 2006.rch, 2007, two individuals, tony lake and another from the obama campaign came to me and asked if i would like to be an adviser. i agreed on one condition. i did not want a job for myself. i wanted a job for the senior senator from illinois in the federal government. i should also tell you that i went home and told my wife, this will be lots of fun, but it will not last very long. there is no way barack obama is going to become president of united states. bear that prediction in mind as i go forward. what i would like to do over the course of the next 40 minutes is review the key judgments of the strategic review that i chaired, talk a little bit about what has happened in the interim between closure of that strategic review in march and the president's announcement last week. and then spend a few last minutes looking at the road ahead, where i think we're going. let me be careful and clear. i am speaking as a senior fellow at the brookings institution. i am not here as a spokesman for

there's word the blackwater security firm helped the cia to seize suspected insurgents in iraq and afghanistan. "the washington post" and "the new york times" reported today the private guards were involved in snatch and grab raids from 2004 to 2006. it was unclear if that involvement would have been strictly legal. but a spokesman for the company now called xe services denied the allegations. a draft agreement was unveiled today at a u.n. climate change summit in copenhagen, denmark. it came as street protests began, and police rounded up dozens of demonstrators. we have a report from julian rush of independent television news. >> reporter: the arrests >> reporter: this was the first confrontation between police and demonstrators. the danes have stepped up security at their borders and are expecting more to arrive next week when the world's leaders come here. the talks themselves though made a step forward, with the release of a draft for the agreement those leaders are expecting to sign next week. but it is far from complete: on the two key issues of emissions cuts by rich countries and fina

a former cia analyst looks at policy in afghanistan and pakistan. later, historians discuss the life of senator ted kennedy. >> now available, when abraham lincoln, great american historians on our 16th president. from $56, journalists, and writers, from his early years in the white house and his relevance today. now in digital audio to listen to any time, available or digital audio downloads are sold. >> recently, secretary of state hillary clinton laid out the obama administration's human- rights approach during a speech at georgetown university. topics include efforts to address human rights abuses in russia and china. this is an hour. >> the honorable caroline kessner and the hon. hillary rodham clinton, secretary of state for the united states. [applause] >> their students, faculty, and staff, it is my honor to welcome you to the human rights agenda for the 21st century, with secretary of state hillary clinton. december 10 mark the international human rights day. we are reminded of the historical drafting of the international declaration of hum

cia sharp shooters killing eight people. >> what do you know about this? >> again, i know nothing classified. i've had some experience in el salvador where we had an insurgency there in the early 1990s. what you need to do is go after the leadership. the leadership of the insurgency is extremely important. that's what i think the drones are being used for. because they are across the border hiding in parts of pakistan and the other part that this is going to happen here, i think, as far as the plan, is to bring the pakistan and nato coalition forces closer together along the border with pakistan. and starting to coordinate their actions. i think this is absolutely essential. because this is much more than just an afghanistan problem. it's a strategic problem for the researchen. the drones are part of that. you are going to have a counterinsurgency, but counterterrorism. you need to blend both together. i think that's what's going to be happening now in the next several months. >> good morning, on the democrats line. >> hi, i just don't understand why this

liddy, you serve our country in many, many ways -- business, fbi, cia, government -- and i defer to youthe magnitude of the solidity of your service. >> well, sir, as i try to explain to people, any damn fool can keep his mouth shut, and nobody was, you know, whamming on me the way they were on you. [laughter] thank you, though, for those very kind words. now, tell me about this very elaborate communications system that you have. you're all isolated in separate cells, and yet you had a communication system where you could identify who was where? you had code names for different parts of the prison in which you were held. you, you had a command and control set up that was based on rank and data rank. who created that system? when you got there, was it in existence, or did you create it? how did it work? >> when we went to survival, evasion, resistance and escape, we learned there was a tap code by which you blocked off the alphabet five by five and just indicated a row and column for each of the letters. there's one more word so in the end -- one more letter, k, we put that outside the s

i retired from the cia in november of 2006.7, two individuals, tony lake and -- from the of buraku san obama camp came to me and asked me if i would like to be an adviser to the campaign. i agreed on one condition -- i didn't want to get a job for myself. i wanted to find a job for the senator of illinois in the federal government. i also told the i went home that night and all my life -- wife, this will be lots of fun, it but it will not last that long. there is no way barack obama will become president of the united states. bear their prediction in mind as i go forward. what i would like to do over the course of the next 40 minutes or so is review the key judgments of the strategic review that i chaired, talk a little bit about the end to run between the closure of that strategic review in march and the president's announcement last week at west point, and then spend a few last-minute looking at the road ahead and where i think we are going. let me be very careful though, and clear. i am speaking here as a senior fellow at th

it will be the economy, unemployment and holder's decisions on cia interrogations and the 9/11 terrorists>> larry: two senior sources have told cnn senior democrats are headed toward dropping the idea to allow 55 to 64-year-olds to buy into medicare because of the opposition from independent senator joe lieberman. senate democrats had an emergency meeting to discuss the issue, which threatens to derail health care. the medicare buy-in concept was intended to -- i hope you're hearing me. i'm hearing lieberman. was intended to appease liberals. up set that democratic leaders were dropping a public option. that ran into a wall when lieberman said he would support a gop filibuster to block health care if a medicare provision was in the bill. what do you make of this compromise, penn? >> well, it kind of means there isn't much left of the health care in terms of any sort of public option. it's now just very similar to what we have, which is not good. >> larry: what do you think, larry? >> the whole thing is a bad idea. the idea was that it was not going to increase the deficit and it won't for

letters to the library of congress, the national archives, the fbi, cia, need no explanation. but what i discovered early on was how many universities around the united states had material on madame chang. it took a while before i realized that there were dozens of what are called china hand, diplomats and journalists who, for various reasons, specialized in china, and to all left their papers to their home university. my favorite was the diplomat from cornell, a fascinating guy who worked at least part-time for the intelligence service. and do it left a couple of pictures along with his extensive note. and one of them, madam was standing next to a doorway, carefully -- carefully posed in the old hollywood style, you remember the knee bent. the diplomat had put a note on the photo for his editor. .com he said, crop the ankles. [laughter] >> madame chang was, in fact, famous for her legs, which were lovely. in the last empress i could not resist telling the story of the cairo conference, at which she was the only woman present with roosevelt, churchill, and her husband. not onl

in the factual question, i may as well be talking to a cia agent. i don't gaetan answer, so the notion of transparency has its limits add google about that, and some of that i know comes from-- to all his life he read a book early in his life about-- to arguably invented electricity but because he was generous and shared his secret on the dying a vet very bitter and poor man and thomas edison got all the credit so larry page talks about this. he is talked about not just to me but talked about it elsewhere, the importance of keeping things secret and their secrets that are worth keeping. you keep your black box, your algorithm determines search is a secret for good reason. you don't want people to gain the system and if you did you would lose the kind of trust that is essential to your success. the other contradictions are there is a genuine idealism here and when this levin don't evil was created by-- that resonated on this campus because you can embrace that as being true, as the fitting who you were, yourself identity but in the real world you mak

also a former cia analyst on u.s. policy in afghanistan and pakistan. >> tomorrow on "washington journal," a discussion on u.s. foreign policy. after that, a look at president obama's achievements in his first year in office would stephen hess of the brookings institute. that is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern here on c-span. >> in the mid-1990s, "newsweek named him one of the most 50 most influential people to watch in cyberspace. he has helped found a charter school in brooklyn and explained new technologies on "oprah." >> next, encore presentations from the supreme court week's special. >> by and large, the people that cover us like their worked. as you indicate, they know our traditions and they do a very good job. the news cycle, the interest, the attention span being what it is, they have 24 or 48 hours to make the point. we write for a different time dimension than that. it is not just the result, it is what the principle is. the press does a very good job of reporting what we do. it is a little more difficult to rep

later, a former cia intelligence officer on u.s. strategy against al qaeda in afghanistan.tarting in o'clock p.m. eastern, remembering the laws of william f. buckley jr. and senator ted kennedy. host: caller: ♪ host: caller:[cy national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2009] "washington journal" is already special time and after that we will give you a coverage on the blog senate vote. we will have analysis on the senate health care about. later, we will talk to a lieutenant-general about the wounded warrior program for veterans. host: welcome to "washington journal." in 50 minutes, the senate will gaveling to session and in 30 minutes they will vote on final passage of their aid hundred $71 billion health care reform bill. this is a key milestone in a months-long health care debate that has dominated capitol hill. senate democrats are, they have the votes to pass this legislation, giving president barack obama an important victory on this christmas a pretty road to health care reform does not end here. the senate bill will need to be

general, the cia has indicated that afghanistan is 4,000 feet versus up in the air versus iraq that is flat. you asked for 40,000 troops. we've got 30,000. what is your commitment to protect troops as they travel up into those mountains and to save lives? >> my commitment is absolute. our rules of engagement provide them every responsibility and right to defend themselves. we believe that the equipment we're providing them is as good as we can and we will continue to do that better. i will push for every asset we need to protect there will be. >> i thank you for that. i think the terrain is so difficult. it brings to mind the pat tillman story that opportunities for friendly fire and loss of life are heightened. there is a theory of clear, whole, build and transfer. president karzai today said this week with secretary gates that it will be 15 years before he can maintain a military with his own resources. ambassador, why are we engaged with a country of which we have great appreciation and want to see helped with political help and social help and economic help and constitutional help