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Jul 13, 2012
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cnn contributor fran townsend is a member of the cia external advisory board.an you explain what those are? we all have a concept of what drones are in the air, but what are sea drones? >> this is a commercially available product that obviously is going to supplement. you talked about the mine sweeping ships. a sea drone which what you don't want to have happen is have a mine sweeper miss a mine and go over it and have it detonate. so these sea drones are used. they can go to deep depths. hundreds of feet. they go in front of the ship and around it. so they -- they're sort of the canary in the mine, if you will. they go under water, very deep, look for these mines. if they find it, they detonate it and they destroy themselves and it protects the ship. >> sort of hovering in the water with sensors. hence the word "drone." the u.s. military seems a little schizophrenic to me, to be honest. they brag about it, then they don't want to talk about it. >> as you list the assets, they're hard to hide, right, aircraft carriers, mine sweepers, forward operating bases. >>
cnn contributor fran townsend is a member of the cia external advisory board.an you explain what those are? we all have a concept of what drones are in the air, but what are sea drones? >> this is a commercially available product that obviously is going to supplement. you talked about the mine sweeping ships. a sea drone which what you don't want to have happen is have a mine sweeper miss a mine and go over it and have it detonate. so these sea drones are used. they can go to deep depths....
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Jul 11, 2012
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. >> it's interesting to see those ships moving, always interesting to hear from you, fran townsend.nks for being here. >>> still "outfront," some democrats breaking ranks with the obama camp on his latest tax plan. one member comes "outfront" to talk about that. >>> and homeland security plans to close nine border stations along the mexican border, claiming assets would be better used elsewhere. well, they're not exactly on the board, no matter what you've read. we'll tell you how it all adds up in just a moment. [ male announcer ] citi turns 200 this year. in that time there've been some good days. and some difficult ones. but, through it all, we've persevered, supporting some of the biggest ideas in modern history. so why should our anniversary matter to you? because for 200 years, we've been helping ideas move from ambition to achievement. and the next great idea could be yours. ♪ and the next great idea could be yours. male spirit present.trong it's the priceline negotiator. >>what? >>sorry. he wants you to know about priceline's new express deals. it's a faster way to get a gre
. >> it's interesting to see those ships moving, always interesting to hear from you, fran townsend.nks for being here. >>> still "outfront," some democrats breaking ranks with the obama camp on his latest tax plan. one member comes "outfront" to talk about that. >>> and homeland security plans to close nine border stations along the mexican border, claiming assets would be better used elsewhere. well, they're not exactly on the board, no matter what...
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Jul 13, 2012
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fran townsend is here as well. we'll talk about syria. also talk about these arrests the u.s.ent making some important arrests now. two individuals allegedly involved in trying to smuggle sophisticated nuclear-related material to iran. so lots of political news, national security news. all this stuff we do well here in "the situation room," fred, coming up at the top of the hour. >> of course. lots coming our way. wolf blitzer, see you at the top of the hour. >>> another day, another online security breach. this time 450,000 yahoo! users have had their passwords compromised by hackers. g-mail, hot mail and aol addresses were caught up. they didn't have a lot of damage, instead posting a warning for yahoo!. beef up your security. some online security experts claim your e-mail addresses and passwords are completely unsecure. yahoo! responded with this statement saying "we are taking immediate action changing the passwords of effected users and notify the companies whose users accounts may have been compromised." no word on them from any changes to prevent this from happening aga
fran townsend is here as well. we'll talk about syria. also talk about these arrests the u.s.ent making some important arrests now. two individuals allegedly involved in trying to smuggle sophisticated nuclear-related material to iran. so lots of political news, national security news. all this stuff we do well here in "the situation room," fred, coming up at the top of the hour. >> of course. lots coming our way. wolf blitzer, see you at the top of the hour. >>>...
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Jul 13, 2012
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let's dig deeper with our national security contributor, fran townsend. rves on the external advisory boards of both the cia and homeland security department. fran, what exactly does this mean as far as what's going on behind the scenes with iran's nuclear program if these charges are accurate? >> well, wolf, what we know for certain right is that despite the heavy sanctions -- and remember the most recent ones just went into effect on july 1st, despite this sort of complex and very heavy sanctions regime, iran has found ways to work around that and try and obtain the component parts necessary for their nuclear program. you know, this has been a concern of the u.s. government and in particular the department of defense for some time. i sat on a number of private boards for defense companies. and the defense department comes out and briefs companies who might be approached by one of these fronts. and warns them about the kinds of signs to look for in a front company. suspicious activity, suspicious kinds of requests in materials that they may be looking for
let's dig deeper with our national security contributor, fran townsend. rves on the external advisory boards of both the cia and homeland security department. fran, what exactly does this mean as far as what's going on behind the scenes with iran's nuclear program if these charges are accurate? >> well, wolf, what we know for certain right is that despite the heavy sanctions -- and remember the most recent ones just went into effect on july 1st, despite this sort of complex and very heavy...
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Jul 11, 2012
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let's talk about it with our national security contributor, fran townsend. was the homeland security advisor to the last president, george w. bush. also serves on the external advisory committees of both cia and homeland security department. fran, first of all, tell us about this individual. why did the united states release him. >> well, wolf, he had been in custody for about six years prior to his taking a plea in july of 2010. that plea was taken as a result of his agreement to cooperate with the government. and clearly the 14-year sentence he received all but two years was suspended. so now we're two years later and he has fulfilled his commitment under the cooperation agreement presumably because the government is honoring and releasing him at the end of those two years. we should tell our viewers though, again, he had been in custody about six years. so total time is at least eight years, probably a little bit more before he's being released. the government has agreed to return him to sudan. that is where he's a national of sudan. so he will be returned
let's talk about it with our national security contributor, fran townsend. was the homeland security advisor to the last president, george w. bush. also serves on the external advisory committees of both cia and homeland security department. fran, first of all, tell us about this individual. why did the united states release him. >> well, wolf, he had been in custody for about six years prior to his taking a plea in july of 2010. that plea was taken as a result of his agreement to...
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Jul 25, 2012
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. >> reporter: this kind of incident is a rare exception, according to security analyst fran townsendas probably not a threat to anyone other than probably scared the life out of his mother, this is a potential vulnerability that those that wish to do us harm could take advantage of. >> reporter: british police tell cnn they don't believe the boy committed a crime. doesn't look like he is getting into any legal trouble from this, but we may not be able to say the same when he gets home to his parents in terms of the kind of trouble he may be in back at home. >> hard to believe. what a story that is. thanks very much, kate baldwin. >>> let's go to jack with the cafferty file. >> with 8.2% unemployment, why does nobody want 200,000 trucking jobs available in this country? he writes could it be we made the unemployed masses comfortable in their unemployment? as long as they're getting money and benefits from federal and state governments, why give up the easy life? thompson in illinois writes i have been driving a semi for 11 years. to drive a truck, you have to have a certain type of ch
. >> reporter: this kind of incident is a rare exception, according to security analyst fran townsendas probably not a threat to anyone other than probably scared the life out of his mother, this is a potential vulnerability that those that wish to do us harm could take advantage of. >> reporter: british police tell cnn they don't believe the boy committed a crime. doesn't look like he is getting into any legal trouble from this, but we may not be able to say the same when he gets...
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Jul 5, 2012
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let's talk about it with fran townsend, a former homeland security adviser to president george w. s report is true, that he has now defected, a huge guy in syria and the syrian military, fran, this would be huge. >> absolutely, wolf. not only is he in the republican guard, which is a very close -- it's meant to protect assad and the senior members of the regime. it's meant to sort of enforce regime stability, but this is a close personal friend of bashar al assad's and that makes the defection all the more damaging. let's remember his father was the minister of defense for decades when bashar al assad's father was ruling the country. and so this is really a blow, not only sort of in fact but sort of to the psyche of the military. we understand him to have been very well respected and well regard eed by his troops. look, this isn't the first. remember we had the jet pilot who defected with his plane to jordan recently. but this is certainly the closest senior military person that we're aware of defecting most recently. >> here's what i know, and tell me if you can elaborate on this,
let's talk about it with fran townsend, a former homeland security adviser to president george w. s report is true, that he has now defected, a huge guy in syria and the syrian military, fran, this would be huge. >> absolutely, wolf. not only is he in the republican guard, which is a very close -- it's meant to protect assad and the senior members of the regime. it's meant to sort of enforce regime stability, but this is a close personal friend of bashar al assad's and that makes the...