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i'm fareed zakaria. first up, a tour of the world and the united states with a terrific panel. we'll tackle the euro crisis, britain, riots, the united states and much more. then what in the world? should the u.s. be taking economic queues from iran? maybe. i'll explain. >>> next, an inside look at intelligence and the war on terror are john miller who has just resigned as one of the nation's top spooks. >>> finally, a last look at how not to be a spy. >>> first, here is my take. i wrote a blog post for our gps website, cnn.com/gps that has gotten a great deal of reaction. let me talk about it for a moment. it all started because i read a website that pointed out after the s&p downgrade of the united states, no country with a presidential system of government had a aaa rating from all three rating agencies. only countries with parliamentary systems have that honor with the possible exception of france which could be characterized as having a parliament, a prime minister, as well as a president. this brought to mind my years in political science grad school and an essay by a fam

a short while ago i talked to cnn's fareed zakaria about all of this.has a great cover story in the latest issue of "time" magazine on this very subject and some very strong views. take a listen. >> economically, what message have we sent to the world? >> see, what we took was something that was taken for grante that was that the united states would pay its bills. the credibility of the united states. and we've added a layer of uncertainty to it. so every time there is a crisis, every time there is a debt ceiling issue, every time something like this happens, there's now a thought in people's minds around the world, will the united states actually pay its bills? will it fulfill its promises? will it have another one of these dramas? >> why does that matter so much to all these countries around the world? >> because the u.s. treasuries remain the kind of gold standard of the financial system. so you see even right now there's trouble in europe and what you see happen is what people call a flight to safety, which means people move into treasuries, buy u.s

i'm fareed zakaria. first up we have a star-studded panel, arianna huffington, joe klein and others to talk about the aftermath of the debt deal and the political landscape going forward. then why in the world are we not taking an' larger chunk out of the defense budget? i'll explain. >>> next up, remember last summer's controversy over the so-called ground zero mosque. forget everything you thought you knew and listen to an exclusive, the man behind the mosque tells the whole story. >>> finally, a novel solution to parking problems. first here is my take. we've downgraded ourselves. we've demonstrated to ourselves the world to global markets that our political system is broken and we are incapable of implementing sensible public policy. the actual cut to the 2012 budget which is the only budget over which this congress has any control is $21 billion out of a total of $3 trillion in expenditures. everything else can and will be changed by future congresses. what the deal does is once again kick tough cho

let's get perspective from cnn's fareed zakaria. fareed you write and i want to read in the "washington post" today "everything we do as a country should be geared toward the central task of boosting employment. some of this will involve government spending. an infrastructure bank that uses current low interest rates, includes the private sector and chooses projects based on merritt rather than patronage is one of the best ideas to come out of washington in years". best idea to you, speaker boehner the other house republican leadership says that's more stimulus spending. not happening. >> this is part of the problem. we've gotten into an absurd political debate where everything the government does is called stimulus spending. it's important to understand what we're talking about. we're talking about rebuilding america's infrastructure, bridges, highways, but also, for example, a power grid, also broadband. all this would be done using an infrastructure bank that would largely use private sector money. that is it would borrow from the

fareed zakaria, always a pleasure.>> pleasure, brooke. >>> just in here, switching gears, talking about the aftermath -- aftermath of this earthquake. new video of president obama. you know, he's on vacation. he was talking on the phone. martha's vineyard just after the earthquake rocked up and down the east coast. i'm being told we will be hearing from the president soon. so as many are still bracing for aftershocks, we're back. breaking news on cnn in two minutes. one day on the red hills of georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. i have a dream today! [ male announcer ] chevrolet is honored to celebrate the unveiling of the washington, d.c., martin luther king jr. memorial. take your seat at the table on august 28th. [ male announcer ] they'll see you...before you see them. cops are cracking down on drinking and riding. drive sober, or get pulled over. fiber one. uh, forgot jack's cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um..

cnn's fareed zakaria discussed the development on "john king usa." >> it puts the screws even furtherning of the end. john, what we've realized about many of these regimes is they are real police states, really brutal, really tough, and they're tough to crack. sanctions didn't get rid of sass dad hussein or moammar gadhafi. i doubt they'll get rid of president assad in syria. >> one human rights group says more than 2,300 people have been killed in the syrian crackdown. >>> the results from wisconsin's recall elections are in. republicans held on to four of the six senate seats up for grabs and hemmed on to their majority. democrats needed three seats to take control, but got only two. remember this battle started in the winter when pro union protesters rallied against republican congressman scott walker and legislation they claimed was anti-union. >>> let's head to the weather center and jacqui jeras. i'm sure you're going to have a beautiful forecast for everyone all over the country. >> you're so funny. never the case, right? my bright spot today is that oklahoma city is probably o

if i may give a comment why and fareed zakaria comment and why the u.s. did not say he has to step down for this long time and we asked the question directly to secretary of state hillary clinton, she said, we don't want to recognize a revolution, but after five months of protesting along and with the huge and massive human rights problem, it's right to intervene. >> will it be the beginning of a domino effect, will an exples sit call for assad to step down will it get the european nations some of whom have energy business with syria, will it get them to stop and will it get the saudis in the arab league to go beyond calling it a killing machine but taking formal steps to doing something about it? >> john, this is all important, but i'm thinking of the syrian in the embattled city of hama at home thinking about the world. now, remember the syrians have been giving names to the fridays. there was one friday, your silence is killing us. another friday, god is with us. means only god is with them. i think it's important that they know they are not alone, tha

with me in new york, our friend fareed zakaria of "time" magazine and g.p.s. on cnn. i am pleased to have all of them on this program. if you do what i do, this is a perfect storm. first you have somebody write something, then you have someone respond to it, and then yo have someone come along in "time" magazine and talk about all of them. so i begin with you, drew. make the case that you made as to why you are disappointed wi the leadership of president obamand the significance you believe of narrative. >> i guess i'll start by saying just from that clip that you just played, which i hadn't heard before but i think it's a prime example is that the president blamed the problem on congress. he didn't say... and he blamed the problem on the lack of quote/unquote coress to be able to negotiate in good faith and to compromise. the problem is actually isn't the problem in congress, it's the problem that one side of congress is actually not willing to negotiate and the other side was willing to negotiate away most of its core principles. so that kind of rhetoric may help th

we talked about it earlier with david kirkpatrick of the "new york times" and fareed zakaria from cnnrek saying he's innocent of everything, basically, and didn't order the attacks on protesters. i mean, when you're an absolute dictator of a country for many, many years, it suddenly seems ridiculous for somebody to claim oh, look i had no responsibility for what was happening. >> no. the complicating factor here, anderson, is he's almost certainly guilty of the charges that are being laid against him. but it still has the feeling of i don't want to say a show trial but a trial that is not fair. i wish that the egyptian government realized that this is really a very important moment for them. they need to get this right. >> david, that image of this once all-powerful dictator reduced to a sickly man inside a cage has got to be an incredibly powerful image for the people of egypt. >> yeah. it's absolutely breathtaking. you've got to remember, this is a country where there has never been a living ex-president, much less a president or ex-president brought before the law. it's something t

we have fareed zakaria, the host the editor at large for time magazine and william cohen, former defensenson a veteran of u.s. special forces. fareed, let me pick up with you as we wait for the president to speak in a few minutes on libya. if we could just pick up with what we were talking about. libyans haven't had a voice really for 42 years. they have no experience with democracy at all. is this something that they can learn? >> you know, i think that large numbers of people have not had experience with democracy. it doesn't necessarily mean that they can't learn. it means it's going to be hard. because what happens in the absence of democratic traditions, democratic experience, the rule of law in civil society, which are probably more important, people revert to their oldest associations. so that that would mean tribes, that would mean ethnicity and sectarianism. that's traditionally what tends to happen in these situations. you saw it in iraq where there was a reversion to kurdish identities. you see it in afghanistan. my guess is you will see a lot more of the tribes and tribal aff

fareed zakaria writes about the issue in the new "time" magazine. fareed, what happened today?t looks like it's not just the united states, but the whole world, the fear out there, what, we may be about to go into a double-dip recession? >> i think there's a fear around the world that the global growth, the growth all over the world, is experiencing problems in many different ways, but it's happening all over the world, so if you think about this year, started out strong for the united states, but you had oil spikes, you began to see inflation in china and india, then europe started getting another replace of its debt troubles, then the united states with its budgetary squabble, so in a sense you went from china and india worrying about inflation, europe cratering with regard to greece, now italy and spain, and the united states, our debt problems and our debt wrankling was problem the straw that broke the camel's back, but it's happening everywhere. they all seem for different reasons to have experienced serious economic troubles, and the market is finally sort of catching up

. >> let's discuss, get some analysis with fareed zakaria, also editor of "time" magazine. will be become a martyr or surrender and hope for the best? will he fight or surnder? >> my gut is he'll fight. gadhafi is different from ben ali or assad. gadhafi is a founder, a revolutionary. he was a rebel. he initiated the coup that brought him into power. he is more a castro-like figure, originally charismatic, populist figure, also militarily skillful and accomplished, somebody who takes risks. he's not a bureaucrat, he's not going to lay down the sword and go quietly into the night. of course if he feels like he is outnumbered and there's certainty, who knows but my gut is this guy's going to fight 'til the end. >> we're showing our viewers a picture of when you interviewed gadhafi a couple of years ago, right, fareed. that was in new york. give us a little reflection on who this man is because the whole world wants to know where he is, will he be captured and what happens to him >> he is without question the strangest foreign leader i have ever interviewed. he kept us waiting

here's what cnn's freed zakar-- fareed zakaria had to say. >> it has the feeling not of a show trial trial that is not fair. i wish the egyptian government realized this is really a very important mont for them. they need to get this right. >> right now, mubarak's former interior minister is in court, accused of killing the earlier this year. a conviction could get him a death sentence. >>> ground turkey, cargill meats recalled nearly 36 million pounds of it, it might be contaminated with a salmonella strain that's hard to treat. one person died in california. people in 26 different states have become circumstansick. >>> nina dos santos is going to talk about europe's debt crisis in just a moment. first, let's stop in and visit with anna in hong kong. the dow finished higher yesterday after an eight-day losing streak. it kept us waiting right until the end. how did world markets do overnight? >> yes, good morning, ali. markets in europe begin the first few hours of trading, it would seem the main indices have been void by wall street's positive finish. here in the asia pacific is was

. >>> up next, a check of today's top stories, then fareed zakaria gps at the top of the hour.rge part of that is oil sands. this resource has the ability to create hundreds of thousands of jobs. at our kearl project in canada, we'll be able to produce these oil sands with the same emissions as many other oils and that's a huge breakthrough. that's good for our country's energy security and our economy. 7 [ man ] i got this new citi thankyou card and started earning loads of points. you got a weather balloon with points? yes i did. [ man ] points i could use for just about anything. ♪ ♪ there it is. [ man ] so i used mine to get a whole new perspective. ♪ [ male announcer ] the new citi thankyou premier card gives you more ways to earn points. what's your story? citi can help you write it. top stories. we're expecting a verdict soon in the trial of two u.s. hikers accused of spying. josh fattal and shane bauer have been in prison for two years after allegedly crossing iran's border with iraq. last sunday their lawyer said the courts would issue a verdict within a week. >>> at l

and cnn's fareed zakaria is here to talk things over. hearing lots of comparisons, and i think this is a visual, between iraq and libya. simply because when we watched iraq unfold in the early days, we saw all that jubilation in the streets, and people standing, having their picture taken by the downed statue of saddam hussein. we see libyan rebels in the compound, and we see all of this taken out of the compound, all of this ammo. is this cause for concern? >> it's cause for concern, candy, but i think the libyan opposition, far more than the bush administration learned the lessons of iraq, if you listen to what they are saying, it's clear they watched what happened in iraq and are trying very hard not to follow that pattern. they say we're not going to disband the army and police. not going to disband the bureaucracy. no debaathification. they are asking soldiers not to engage in reprizal killings, reprisals of any kinds. looting. it will be more successful in some areas, less successful in others. if you look at the transition council

. >> i was having a conversation with fareed zakaria about what the markets are looking for, and he said especially after the fed statement yesterday there's a lot of concern that washington, not the economy at large, but washington in particularly won't do any steps to encourage growth and job creation. let's listen. >> the market is saying what we care more than anything else about is whether or not you're going to get economic growth and the market is right in this particular case. so, what is our policy? what is our national strategy to boost economic growth, to create jobs, to generate demand from american consumers? we have none. >> "a," is that true, ali, in your view, "b," we have none and is that what the markets are looking for? >> we had growth somewhere, we didn't have it in the united states but we had it in other parts of the world where we can manufacture things or sell services to them, that would be great. but when you see the soft economy all over the place, where does growth come from? it doesn't come out of nowhere, generally it comes from the fact that people are wor

. >> fareed zakaria, thank you for ing with us tonight. of course, cnn is staying on top of all of the developments in libya, the aftermath of the earthquake here on the east coast, and, of course, hurricane irene headed toward the u.s. for now that is all from us for tonight. anderson cooper 360 starts right now. >> good evening, everyone. major news on two front tonight. breaking news at home. aftershocks from the totally unexpected east coast earthquake, and a massive hurricane headed our way. moammar gadhafi speaking out. he hasn't been seen since this video taken two months ago. a local tripoli radio station broadcast a taped message in it, he vowed march tir dom or victory. he said the retreat from his compound was a tactical move. just breaking right now over the computer wires, we're seeing from reuters, mousi ibrahim, the government spokesperson, who was in the hotel with other journalists, but fled yesterday. he is saying to reuters, now the mission is to just liberate tripoli gradually, our men are assuring me, it will only get

but when you tie in the budget issue with debt approval, i think it was fareed zakaria who says, youd that was the perception. maria, is that really what happened? >> absolutely, deb. you hit the nail on the head. and this is what economist after economist have said. if we had -- if we had raised the debt ceiling cleanly, we would not with in this downgrade right now. so, begun, i think the blame lays specifically on the tea partyers. and let's talk about these presidential candidates. you have mitt romney, who was, by the way, terrific at creating jobs in india and in china, when he was head of the private equity firm he headed. and when he was governor of massachusetts, the state ranked number 47th in job creation. that's the kind of leadership we want? and let's talk about michele bachmann. she was the one who literally said, bring default on. she did not believe in the -- in what would happen if we actually went to the brink of default. and now we're seeing what did happen. and soy blame it on her, i blame it on the tea partyers. they have absolutely no idea how to govern, how to

. >> i was listening to an interview with fareed zakaria and christine lagarde.'s been a looming crisis that's chipping away at some of that positive bias. in terms of a global perception, is the united states' image overseas -- is it becoming increasingly tarnished because of this circus in washington? >> reporter: you never want to say and be so definitive as to say tarnished, over and done with. i would say people are slightly disgusted and almost certainly confused with a real worry that this may not get sorted out. we talk about an accident may happen. what do we mean by that? by that i mean, the vote suddenly gets put off, a bill suddenly arrives at the treasury, something doesn't get paid. and without anybody noticing, one of the spinning plates that they've been doing so badly suddenly comes crashing to the floor. that is still a real possibility. and that is why people like myself, yourself and everybody who's watching it are doing it so carefully. there are dozens of plates spinning at the moment. any one of which could come crashing to the floor. >> ri

our fareed zakaria has a different take on this.nt you to listen to what he says about the threat of al qaeda. >> i don't see anything in the libyan case that suggests we should worry that there's going to be some sort of takeover by al qaeda. they seem very few, very far between, we haven't heard much from them. and i think it says more about the kind of demons we worry about than anything -- listen to the reporters on the ground. cnn has such good ones. none of them are detecting any great al qaeda presence there. >> congressman, what do you make of that? he doesn't really believe that al qaeda is necessarily a threat. >> well, when i say al qaeda in libya, i don't mean to take over the government. they want those weapon systems to go off and leave libya with those weapon systems. they're trying to get those weapon systems out of libya for obviously nefarious purposes. >> how do we know that? sure, sure, you're in charge of intelligence. >> that's right. >> we have very good intelligence that they're very interested. and they unde

host: john, who goes by affirmatively tweets in deede fareed zakaria writes -- another call from new york city -- this one from james. what do you think of the impact of president obama's three-day bus tour? caller: i think the impact is very small because it was only three days, and president obama continues to avoid his base. he came to new york for, what, three hours to visit a billionaire -- on the west side? he is missing the point that if he doesn't bring jobs to america -- and the proposal like increasing the federal -- mandating all federal buildings have 50% clean energy. or energy efficient to 90%. these are simple things he can do as the president to change the job structure. because he is not going to get reelected from duty on the mass of support of young voters again. i think that was a bad thing he didn't target. i mean, he talked to the midland which is suffering like everybody on both -- both coasts. he's got to target jobs. and i didn't hear that as a proposal. it is so simple. give it simple loans to small businesses under 100 people or sell -- so, and you will sti