perspective, on this country that is otherwise painted as this chronically troubled, at war, conflicted nation, so i think novelists, when they are right, their book ends up having, occasionally serving a purpose and playing roles that they never really fully either intended or even understood. of thathat do you make reality? my analogy, not yours, at a moment when it seems to me, at least, and i think the polls bear this out, that americans have afghanistan fatigue. if we sell hamid karzai one more time, we are sick of this guy, with all due respect. on any given day, you do not know if he is with us or against us or likes us or loads us. us.oathes they do not have khaled hosseini fatigue. what do you make of that the economy? >> i think the government of afghanistan and its well- publicized shortcomings, including the president, i do not think are reflective of the people of afghanistan foley. alternately, books are not about politics, although the struggle and the wars in afghanistan have a significant impact on the lives of my characters. my books are about ordinary people, like you, me, p

we may continue to grant presidents upbound powers more suited towards traditional armed conflicts between nation states. so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal the a.u.m.f. mandate. >> stephen: the president wants to repeal the source of his power. that's like ryan gosling repealing his abs. or matthew mcconaughey repeal his abs. ( laughter ) or me repealing my power to name people with abs. laugh and believe it or not, some in congressment to help him do it. >> i'm convinced that if we do not repeal this authorization to use force that i voted against in 2001, we're going to see the state of perpetual war forever. >> how do you possibly square this with the requirement that-- of the constitution that the congress has the power to declare war? >> stephen: oh, great! let's put congress in charge of the war on terror. hey, we have al qaeda number one in oursitis? do we hit him with a drone? three months of subcommittee hearings later he's still on the loose but acknowledge has nameslet ayman al zawahiri post office. >> if anything

conflict. >> the nation is not un- mainstream media. it has been around for a long time. you say it is minority ideas pushing the nation. minority ideas get a hearing in "the nation." everybody has a blog. is there such a thing as a minority idea? >> minority idea comes from the fact that there are issues that do not get the attention they deserve. part of what "venation" tries to do is drive issues into a national conversation that are off the radar. we did a special issue 34 years ago called "the new inequality. -- we did a special issue three or four years ago called "the new inequality." i would like to publish agait again. there was a tough piece about ronald lauder's management strategy. the occupy movement is moving "the new york times) to cover issues like that. that is important. critical mindedness is also what "venation" is about -- "the nation" is about. >> what single thing has come of of the -- out of the huge wikileaks document that has made a fundamental change in people's lives? >> i think it plays some role in what we're seeing in the era of uprisings. i

coming your way all conflicts still rages in syria the nation received a surprise visit senator john mccain made a quick trip to the war in torn country meeting with rebel fighters with the assad regime so will the u.s. soon arm the rebels look at this issue later. well it's tuesday may twenty eighth eight pm in washington d.c. i'm margaret how are you watching r t. and information content used to emerge regarding the department of justice keeping tabs on journalist and just who approved of those investigations into who journalists communicate with via phone and email well more than three weeks ago news broke that the department of justice seized phone records of the associated press reporters to find out who had leaked national security information then it came to light that fox white house correspondent james rosen was facing charges as a coconspirator under the espionage act for obtaining classified information from a state department source back in two thousand and nine president obama said that

or continue to grant president's powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal they mandate. i will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. so what exactly does the a u m f make possible anyway well here are a few things that might not surprise you number one the bush administration used the a u a math as a legal framework for torture and legal documents drafted under attorney general alberto gonzales the mouth was cited as a justification for the use of force on individuals with specific foreign policy knowledge number two the e.u. a math keeps get moment jed's while the doesn't explicitly give the president detention authority the resolution was interpreted to allow the bush administration to open guantanamo bay that detention facility for suspected foreign terrorist in two thousand and two and eleven years later it remains open while the length of time a detainee can be held is not specified holding enemy combatants for the duration of host

the military called it, quote, accidental spillover from the nation's conflict. >>> israeli military over the weekend struck several military targets near damascus. israel and u.s. officials do not confirm. >> reporter: a third mortar shell in two days landed in the israeli territory of golan heights. no reports of damage. israel simply says this is spillover from fierce fighting between regime and rebel forces. indeed, this time israel has chosen not to hit back, in part, because after a weekend of bomb attacks in on targets inside syria attributed to israeli warplanes there is a conscious effort to reduce tensions. on the syrian front told reporters this morning, and yet according to some reports in the arab media, the syrian president, bashar al assad has warned his country will retaliate if there are more israeli attacks inside his country. israel says it will do what it needs to do to stop advanced weapons falling to hezbollah in lebanon. this crisis remains as dangerous and unpredictable as ever. back to you, bill. >> thank you, nbc news john ray there. >>> the attack on the u.

fight, or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states. so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine, and ultimately repeal, the aumf's mandate. and i will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue. but this war, like all wars, must end. that's what history advises. that's what our democracy demands. and that brings me to my final topic, the detention of terrorist suspects. to repeat, as a matter of policy, the preference of the united states is to capture terrorist suspects. when we do detain a suspect, we interrogate them. and if the suspect can be prosecuted, we decide whether to try him in a civilian court or a military commission. during the past decade, the vast majority of those detained by our military were captured on the battlefield. in iraq, we turned over thousands of prisoners as we ended the war. in afghanistan, we have transitioned detention facilities to the afghans, as part of the process of

or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nations. >> making a case for a tangible foreseeable end to the what was previously called global war on terror, the president was highlighting there the very real danger of being baited into needless perpetual war by any extremist group that has the al qaeda symbol outside their door. working with congress to eventually repeal the indefinite mandate, the authorization of the use of military force was passed after 9/11. the president told congress he wants to give up power, he wants them to take it back, and defended one of the most controversial aspects of the way his administration specifically has been waging the war on terror. the use of targeted drone strikes. >> it is a hard fact that u.s. strikes have resulted in civilian casualties. a risk that exists in every war. and for the families of those civilians, no words or legal construct can justify their loss. for me and those in my chain of command, those deaths will haunt us as long as we live. but as commander in chief, i must weigh th

fight or continue to grant president's unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal they were a mess mandate and i will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue but this war like all wars will stand that's what history advises it's what our democracy demands and that brings me to my final topic the detention of terrorist suspects i'm going to repeat one more time as a matter of policy the preference of the united states is to capture terrorist suspects when we do detain a suspect we interrogate them and if the suspect can be prosecuted we decide whether to try him in a civilian court or a military commission during the past decade the vast majority of those detained by our military were captured on the battlefield in iraq we turned over thousands of prisoners as we ended the war in afghanistan we have transition detention facilities to the afghans as part of the process o

conflict. chief national correspondent jim angle has the specifics tonight. >> there are new and implicating developments on syria today as russia sent advance cruise missiles to support the assad government, which brought harsh words from the pentagon. >> it's at the very least an unfortunate decision that will embolden the regime and prolong the suffering. so it's ill timed and unnorth nate. >> general definitely made it very clear that on the specific areas of the missiles, whatever else is involved with the russians does not help. it makes it more dangerous. >> at issue are new more sophisticated antiship cruise missiles with a longer range that the russians are supplying to syria, which general dempsey fears will give assad a false sense of security. >> what i really worry about is that assad will decide that since he's got these systems, he somehow is safer and more prone to a miscalculation. >> oddly enough, just an hour earlier in the face of repeated questions, state department spokeswoman flatly denied any knowledge of russia's supplying new weapons to syria. >> we're not aware of new shipments

ministers of great britain and israel and in general it seems the approach of many nations two ways of resolving the conflict in the country is changing now however there are still many problems including the one with the washington since when john kerry was in moscow we've seen that they were completely on the scene beach with russia's leadership but as soon as you left he started calling again for president assad to step down and promised more support of the rebels and that was back just recently by president barack obama himself what's widely being ignored is the fact that many of these rebels admit that they are receiving directions from international terror organizations including al qaida there are tons of videos in the web showing horrific acts conducted by rebels including public executions of captured syrian soldiers there is this just troubling in video of a rebel cutting the horde out of a dead syrian soldiers chest and eating it on camera calling on everybody else to do the same and promising to continue doing so in the future and also there is the statistic from various international activist gr

zaph but the day day, representative it was mary ned davis senselessness the the into a conflict of a newly formed nation and mont negative prepared to do but they saw they had no army, no currency, no structure, a completely foolhardy to do this and she stayed in richmond in a hotel where the evenings were filled with the comings and goings of famous generals and military evaders. . .

first moscow's efforts to launch direct negotiations between the conflicting sides in syria is now receiving support from the united nations secretary-general ban ki moon is the latest in a string of high profile figures to visit russia to discuss the syrian civil war

the attack meanwhile russia's efforts for a peaceful resolution of the syrian conflict save the backing of the united nations a week un secretary-general ban ki moon stressed that an international conference involving the syrian government and opposition should be held as soon as possible. has been following developments in. well after meeting with russia's leadership the un secretary-general ban ki moon agreed that the conflict in syria could only be resolved in accordance with international law without any foreign military intervention and with the full respect of syria's territorial integrity he also agreed to the idea of putting together this joint conference which would include both the syrian rebels and the authorities now they were also able to establish the list of current stumbling blocks concerning this idea and well first of all currently the opposition is still quite divided it's unclear who would be able to represent it as a whole at such a conference secondly moscow wants to see all the regional players taking part in such a conference including iran which may cause problems with washington and

that's when i came to the idea that i discussed in my book the partisan conflict at the national level is driven largely by the fact week about the executive power to one person rather than executive parity among local officeholders. one is both political dysfunction are planted with the founding fathers chose to visit the president or the executive branch and the best way to address political dysfunction has to change to a two-person, to party president the which the two presidents are truly deep and come from different parts. ordinarily that would be democratic republic and, but third-party candidate would be eligible and more likely we would get third-party candidates because it's easier. before i make my argument about why a single president is back in two presidents are good, which we mean by a two-person bipartisan presidency? photo look like? the two presidents would have to be equal partners. some if the bill passed congress, both have to sign before it would become law. they have to agree an executive order, supreme court nominees, decisions as commanders in chief of the milit

conflict began. the united nations said if current rates continue, the total number of people fleeing the syrian violence could reach 3.5 million by the end of the year. >>> the vatican reports that over a recent ten-year period, the number of catholics in the world increased by 1.5%. as of 2011, the catholic population was just over 1.2 billion. growth has dropped in europe and the u.s., but has accelerated in the developing world, particularly africa and asia. meanwhile, the number of permanent deacons, men who can be married and who are allowed to perform certain duties, rose 43% in europe and was also up sharply in the americas. but the number of women in religious orders has dropped 10%, worldwide. >>> pope francis this week charged that certain policies of the global financial system are tyrannizing the poor. in a speech to new ambassadors to the vatican, francis warned against a "cult of money." he said money should serve and not rule. before becoming pope, francis was widely known as an advocate for the poor in his native argentina. >>> we have a lucky severson story today on the impact on the po

to fight or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation states so i look forward to engaging congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal they mandate and he also pointed out that will make more friends and will prevent more extremism or will. prevent works extremism or combat extremism by building schools in pakistan dropping bombs. for what we spent in a month in iraq at the height of the war we could be training security forces in libya maintaining peace agreements between israel and its neighbors feeding the hungry in yemen building schools in pakistan and creating reservoirs of goodwill that marginalize extremists. it's brilliant and he also came right out and said you know not only is get more wrong not only is that a terror magnet not only is it a problem for us not only has he been trying to close it from day one of the republicans of actually putting into the military appropriations every year the corporations that run the government literally language this is you can't close gitmo i mean it's right

conflict. seen the city national army enjoying some significant success in the last few weeks. and thinking back. years of the country and i think this is due to a panic actually in washington london potus which is finding the comedy in some king to fly to russia to be one of the people in the conflict is not who we were hoping to destroy the only way to we think of the axis of resistance into the term comprising city of hezbollah up and iran and selling not working and not only because politically of russia's political opposition to western milage into the nation but let's be clear the west is already into beating mode only to shoot through the gulf states said he quit talking to jordan funneling weapons funneling money to the rebels but even so the city national army is managing to mean he can to who they are of significant parts of the country on monday to enjoy some success he's on the ground there is no doubt that despite the propaganda counting the ways that dance this out it still enjoys significant support within said it itself and that is key. right there was as a put

military secrets, as defense hawks try to push thh united states into conflict in syria. >> national security experts ktmcfarland, and general jackk@ keen assess america's next move. vo: traveling you definitely end up meeting a lot more people but a frie under water is something completely different. i met a turtle friend today so, you don't get that vy often. it seemed like it was more than happy to have us in his home. so beautiful. avo: more travel. more options. more personal. whatever you're looking for expedia has more ways to help you findours. at od, whatever business you're in, that's the business we're in with premium service like one of the best on-time delivery recordsand, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises. bjorn earns unlimited rewas for his small business earns double miles [s on every purchase every day. [ bjorn ] just put it on my spark card. [ garth why settle for ls? ahh, oh! [ rth ] great businesses deserve limited reward here's your wake up call. [ male announcer ] get the spark businessard from capita

had tremendous conversations with people whose sense is that period were the periods of the nation's conflictontinue to be important to us because they are pivotal in how the nation continues to advance or decline. i would suggest to you that is really bad shorthand. have any of you read thomas cahill's stuff? why the greeks matter, how the irish saved civilization and his suggestion that we really hinged history on something more than economic pluses and minuses in something more than warfare occurrences. it's the individual who springs forward at a particular time in history that has created the pathway for the human condition. in truth it's probably a meld of the two, thinking again it's only the human critter who is willing to fight and die for an idea. one of the things that you come down to is plato was right ,-com,-com ma that only the dead unfortunately have seen the end of war. i was at nelson's house if an item we were talking about that very subject. just thinking about the nature of war for a second, it was pat who suggested to consider how every other human endeavor shrinks to in

. >> democrats are lose thissic for special counsel, senses though types of conflicts that pitch national one hand and protecting freedom of the press on the other, are not uncommon. democrats, the obama administration and many republicans favor a shield law to protect journalists from criminal charges. >> if we can set up the rules we can avoid the morass. you need set rules rules and an independent arbiter. we have neither now. >> under the law the government would have to go to a job to weigh security concerns get first amendment concerns. critics say a shield law is really not much different from what we have right now. you might recall that the search warrant for james rosen was indeed a approved by a federal magistrate. trace? >> doug is live in d.c. thank you. joins us now also from d.c., real clear politics.com reporter, kaitlin. i'm kind of interested. doug said the democrats are less than enthusiastic about seeking special counsel. but on the flip side the republicans are not about to let arc holder investigate himself here. >> right. i wouldn't be surprised that you'll see more

or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nationi look forward to engaging in congress and the american people in efforts to refine and ultimately repeal the amuf's mandate. and i will not sign laws designed to expand this mandate further. our systematic effort to dismantle terrorist organizations must continue, but this war, like all wars, must end. that's what history advises. that's what history ghands. that brings me to final topic. the detention of terrorist suspects. i'm going to repeat one more time, a a matter of policy, the preference of the united states is to capture terrorist suspects. when we do detain a suspect, we interrogate them. and if the suspect can be prosecuted, we decide whether to try him in a civilian court or a military commission. during the past decade, the vast majority of those detained by our military were captured on the battlefield. in iraq, we turned over thousands of prisoners as we ended the war. in afghanistan, we have transitioned detention facilities to the afghans as part of the process of res

minister and basically what we're witnessing now perhaps is a shift in the approach by many nations to the conflict in syria and ways of solving it since most western countries have clearly taken the side of the opposition pretty much since the beginning of the conflict but now they're talking about the need for a joint conference which would include the rebels and see you know forty's what russia has been calling for throughout the entire time also stressing that not all these rebels are opposition areas many of them are bandits or even terrorists and this is constantly proven by linked in the web including the latest shocking video which clearly depicts a syrian rebel fighter cutting the heart of a dead syrian soldier out of his chest eating it on camera promising to do the same again and calling all the others to follow his example is or is one of the countries what most to gain from a fast resolution to the syrian conflict it's already being affected by this spillover from the crisis but some believe it only has itself to blame as well she's middle east correspondent policy explain. it's a new

conflict. no see the syrian national army enjoying some significant success in the last few weeks in thinking back. years of the country and i think this is deduced. actually in washington and london which is trying to accommodate to fly. the conflict is not what we were hoping to destroy the assad regime we think of the axis of resistance into the term comprising city of. and iran and selling not working and not only because politically of russia's political opposition to western military intervention but let's be clear the west is already intervening. through. the quit talking to jordan funneling weapons funneling money into the rebels but even so the city national army has mounted. control of significant parts of the country and to enjoy some success on the ground there is no doubt that despite the propaganda campaign being waged against this out if you still enjoys significant support within syria itself and that is key the u.s. has put its military forces in europe on alert the escalating tensions in libya washington and the u.k. have already pulled some of the a diplomatic stuff from the cou

but they have said that this is a stabilizing factor in the syrian conflict because it prevents her from other countries and other nations from getting involved in the syrian conflict now russia has been involved in diplomatic talks to try and find a solution to the syrian crisis this week and john kerry the u.s. secretary of state meeting moscow has said that this they are disappointed in the decision to allow this arms embargo to expire because they see it as a. basically two faced diplomacy and it undermines efforts for diplomacy saying that allowing the arms embargo to expire is a double standard which directly damages the prospect of an international peace conference on the topic of syria so russia's reaction right now seen as controversial. the international community but it looks like they're going to go ahead and to deliver the s. three hundred missile defense system to syria all right sean thanks very much indeed for bringing us the very latest on russia's ria russia's reaction to the e.u. syria arms embargo lifted thomas there you can france have now opened the door for arms to flow into the hands of the syrian

founder and executive director of the conflict awareness project nonprofit organization that investigates major arms traffickers and war profiteers and trans national criminal networks that few armed conflicts around the world earlier i had the chance to speak to kathy about her work i first asked her what the craziest things she's seen in her experience hunting down arms traffickers is and here's what she had to say. well you know often i'm flying in crazy airplanes and have had to survive crash landings just in order to document a certain weapons flow going to an illegal rogue group in the congo for example i've come around like corners and met with somalia militia men had to bargain my way out of those situations ultimately being asked to be married with a camel that would be presented to my father. so there is just been a lot of crazy things that i've experienced just to track the way international weapons from exporting countries go to these war zones. one of the highest profile cases you've worked on is victor brood. through the film border war characters played by nicolas cage talk about this case and what players have replaced him since his

to fight or continue to grant presidents unbound powers more suited for traditional armed conflicts between nation >> the idea that presidential power can be bound, that's something we haven't heard in a while. it's a far cry from the message of george w. bush towards the taliban after the tragic events of 9/11. >> give the united states full access to terrorist training camps so we can make sure they are no longer operating. these demands are not open to negotiation or discussion. >> that was a time when a wounded america was in search of answers and we're going to always remain vigilant, but the scope of how our leadership reacts going forward is going to have to change. the time for restraints on accountability is here. so let's talk about restraint and accountability. when we look at the numbers of drone attacks in pakistan we are looking at a total of 355 strikes. these are unofficial numbers, right? but 355 strikes with up ward of 3,000 people killed. 69 strikes killing more than 800 peel with militants, particularly 750 individuals and civilians also being killed. are we, in fact, in a plac