this one is for david ignatius for sure. leaked last week that the scope extends to some of america's closest allies abroad. the "wall street journal" reports that the national security agency ended a program that spied on as many as 35 world leaders after the white house ordered a review over the summer. officials say several programs have been shut down and others are expected to be close to the later date. the report states president obama spent nearly five years in office in the dark. unaware of the nsa's practices overseas. the targets of the programs are not decided by the president, but by the agency. yesterday congressman peter king defended the program saying they should be viewed as a positive thing for everyone involved. >> i think the president should stop apologizing and being defensive. the nsa saved thousands of lives not just in the united states, but in france and germany and throughout europe. we are not doing this for the fun of it, but to gather intelligence that helps not just us. >> there reports out of

him at the foreign relations committee today and based largely on "washington post" columnist david ignatius what you did, set off, outlining how the administration is scaling saddleback its options. susan rice, the national security adviser reordered priorities on foreign policy and this is all part of that. explain what you think it happening and how it's perceived overseas. >> the administration is stating a new approach to the region in which they are being pretty explicit about u.s. difficulty in determining the outcome of what they view the civil war in syria, rather than try to pretend they can shape it decisively. pulling back from that. described the approach generally as one of strategic humility recognizing there are limits to american power as we certainly saw it in the iraq war and afghanistan. i think what's bothering the people, the situation in syria is so violent, the loss of life so great, it's going to get worse this winter. we're going to have tens of thousands of people suffering in the cold and dying i fear. it's understandable that members of congress are upset. i have

david ignatius has written eight spy novels. i greatly thank mr. ignatius for agreeing to moderate this discussion and turn the mic over to him to introduce our panelists who have done so much to advance the debate on syria. >> thank you very much. welcome to all of you, to what i hope will be a very good and lively discussion of a difficult policy issue, syria. you'll have a chance to ask your own questions so, please, do be thinking and writing on the cards questions that can be sent up to us so that you can play a part many this conversation. -- in this conversation. let me first introduce our paneltists. starting on my far right, as it were, congressman mike rogers from michigan. i often say the same thing in introducing mike rogers, which is that he has taken what is most of the divided and partisan committees in the house, the house intelligence committee, and made it function as a bipartisan committee that passes authorization legislation every year. congressman rogers has worked with the ranking member, congressman rumors berger from marylan

. >> david ignatius, associate editor of "the washington post" and columnist. thanks for joining us. your take on clearly a tense moment in u.s.-german, shall i say u.s.-european relations? >> well, this does illustrate what i'm told is the first rule of intelligence operations overseas which is don't get caught, because once you get caught you're in this kind of situation in which people get furious, they feel their private communications have been exposed, the u.s. ends up issuing nondenial, denials what jay carney's comments which you showed sounded like to me. reality is that the united states hasek treatmently aggressive and effective capabilities for surveillance around the world. the nsa's the lead edge of that it's not the only part. and it does give the u.s. the ability to capture conversations in germany, brazil, all of these countries that are allies and as those cap abilities get disclosed they're creating real political backlash. >> we shouldn't be surprised. we have covered intelligence over many years and that friendly countries spy on each other

david ignatius has a foreign affairs column, he's written spy novels. i greatly thank mr. to moderate this conversation and introduce our panelists who have done so much to advance the debate in syria. >> thank you so much. welcome to all of you to what i hope will be a very good and lively discussion of a difficult of the issue syria. you'll have a chance to ask your own questions, so please do be thinking and writing on the card questions that can be set up to us so that you can play a part of this conversation. let me first introduce our panel is. starting on my far right congressman mike rogers from michigan. i often say the same thing introducing mike rogers and that is that he has taken one of the most divided and partisan committee, the house intelligence committee and they -- function as a buy bipartisan. the congressman has worked with the ranking member from maryland and that thing that you wish would happen throughout the congress in which members from both parties have each other's backs and try to do the country's work is actually happening in the house intell

david ignatius is an opinion writer, and he writes to us with contributions to the for -- post-partisan blog. i thank mr. ignatius for moderating this discussion and ,urn the microphone over to him and those who did so much to advance the debate on syria. >> this will be a good and lively discussion of a difficult issue. you will have a chance to ask your own questions. please be writing on the cards, questions that will be set up so you can play a part in this conversation. let me introduce the panel, starting on my far right thomas congressman mike rogers from michigan. i say the same thing in which is thatm, he has taken one of the most divided and partisan committees in the house, and made them function as a bipartisan that passes authorization legislation every year among any has worked with ranking member, from maryland, and that thing that you wish would happen throughout the congress in which members from both parties have each other's back as they try to do the countries work is actually happening in the house intelligence committee and this is terrific. i want to say that. the

david ignatius had a great insight. he said this was not overreached. it was.up the rules. forget the filibuster. they have a majority. they didn't have the support of the american people. they said more importantly, i thought this was a great point. it was an overreach. it was too much. they can't handle this. the federal government as it is currently constructed cannot handle this. >> they should have been able to. >> i agree with that. >> don't agree with that. it was a political overreach? >> but not a policy overreach. this was a poor job. they knew they were not going to and as a result it rays real questions about whether the government and public entities can manage. >> here to my mind is one more early grand point. >> please do. >> i'm not going to mention it yet. >> at the moment until there is some sort of transformative presidential congressional leadership that i don't see on the horizon, this is the way it's going to be. this is the new normal. >> we have a bunch of stuff to get to. turning to the ongoing question with the surveillance of america'

david ignatius makes an interesting point, the only strange thing about this, this problem seems to bemaking. >> it does seem like the obama administration has not managed this relationship well. it's also important to remember if the u.s. does have a different kind of relationship with iran, although that frightens the saudis, it puts the u.s. in a much stronger position. you go back to the time when the shaw was in power. it's much better if we can be on a better diplomatic footing, have better relations with both of these important countries. >> peter, always great to see you. >> thank you. >> chris, back to you. >>> kennedy cousin michael skakel deserves a new trial in the murder of martha moxley. we'll tell you why the judge said this, that it needs a second look. decide for yourself. >>> the man behind a youtube confession opens up. matthew cordle begins his 6 1/2-year sentence for killing a man while driving drunk today. he talks with us, ahead. >>> welcome back to "new day." time for your morning headlines. we are just hours away from the capitol hill hearings on the troubled r