colonel francona?on for two and a half years in syria now and there's so much emotion and anger released. and what was possible maybe a year and a half ago, two years ago for a solution to bring the parties together and come up with a method where the -- either assad could leave or there was some accommodation for the rebels, i think we have gone far beyond that now and i don't see any diplomatic solution on the horizon. this has to play itself out militarily. whether that involves external force coming in or you have them just fight until they don't want to fight anymore. this has gone on far too long to just quit. >> general, you want to respond to that? >> yeah. i think one of the challenges that we're going to have as a nation is that if you start something of this magnitude, the question is, how much commitment do you want to make? you know, we have spent a little over $600 billion in afghanistan, roughly $800 billion in iraq and, of course, those numbers keep going up. so ultimately, the american

bring in lieutenant corner rick francona.o, colonel, why does someone watching right now say in missouri supposed to be concerned about what bashar al assad is doing thousands of miles away to his people, other than morally concerned? how is it that our national security is at risk? and did the president make a compelling case? >> well, i think they as well as he could. this is a tough sell. it's going to be a tough sell. committing u.s. military force to a nebulous goal that's hard to define. if you're trying to deter the syrians from using chemical weapons, again, we may have already done that. i think that the threat of force was probably enough. it was a credible threat of force. obviously, the russians were concerned. they put pressure on the syrians. so i think it was that that deterred the use of chemicals. now that the syrians declared the chemicals, that's a major step. once you declare it, you almost have to get rid of them. that was a very successful move. but why are we concerned about syria? that's a great questi

don't go anywhere, colonel francona. you're an excellent resource for this.pecifically, who gets tasked with that job if it actually end it's up working of going into syria, finding the chemical stockpiles, moving the chemical stockpiles in the midst of all of this? see what's on the screen? that is the strategic reality. what are the logistics of trying to get rid of chemical weapons in that place? that story's next. my mantra? trust your instincts to make the call. to treat my low testosterone, my doctor and i went with axiron, the only underarm low t treatment. axiron can restore t levels to normal in about 2 weeks in most men. axiron is not for use in women or anyone younger than 18 or men with prostate or breast cancer. women, especially those who are or who may become pregnant and children should avoid contact where axiron is applied as unexpected signs of puberty in children or changes in body hair or increased acne in women may occur. report these symptoms to your doctor. tell your doctor about all medical conditions and medications. serious side effe

. >> retired air force colonel and cnn military analyst rick francona live now in washington.> good morning. >> so what do you make of this? is syria -- i mean, do you think syria will really turn over its chemical weapons stash to international control? >> not until they are absolutely forced to. you know, every welcomes this development. i mean taking chemical weaponses off of anybody is great. but i just don't see the syrians giving up what they believe is their strategic deterrence to israel. now, we may see them give up some of the sarin, they'll say, okay, here's the artillery rockets. shears some warheads and certain other things. but, you know, he has a pretty large stockpile of a better agent called v.x. that's what is on the asked you missiles. that's what he plans to use on the israelis there-f there's a large-scale war. i don't see him giving those up unless he's forced to. >> colonel, i want you to stay with us. we're going to take you and our viewers to the armed services committee. they're meeting right now. >> -- very, very busy week. we appreciate your time an

i'm joined again by nick payton-walsh, lieutenant rick francona and steven sesh.alk to you. the president making the case about the strike in syria and whether or not this video is going to help or hurt. will americans be moved by this? will congress be moved by this? will the international community be moved by this? and are the people in syria -- the syrian government, does this affect their approach at all? >> well, i hope that we'll be able to get the international media to put this on the air as much as possible. thinking specifically of the arab media, al jazeera and the qatari networks. i hope they can see this coverage wall to wall and that will jar their conscience into demanding their government step up and be hurt. and we don't want to go into this without very robust arab support. no matter how high-minded our principles may be, they're often lost in translation in the arab world. we need a good coalition, a group of arab, european nations and others that can speak with a collective voice and be heard and demand that this action be taken in a way that

rim francona is an analyst.ere in new york, senior fellow at stanford's hoover institution and christopher dickey, the mideast editor for news week and the daily beast. i'm looking at you christopher. you called this deal a diplomatic breakthrough and israel is the big winner here. we have not heard, i haven't, from a lot of people say thg is a diplomatic breakthrough. they are saying oh my gosh, the u.s. is eliminating power in the middle east. >> i don't get that. it reminds me of george w. bush, threatened war, said the international community had to meet their responsibilities to disarm saddam. he shook things up. we had inspectors going into iraq and a lot of stuff happening. the difference then and now is george w. bush wanted to invade iraq and obama does not want to invade syria. there's that. the main thing is, even though it's been a mad scramble, you can't say they have looked organized in this whole effort. at the end of the day, they threatened force and they got what they said they were threatening

lieutenant colonel rick francona, thanks for being with us. appreciate it.still to come here a powerful call to action on syria from the arab league. what it had to say and what it could mean for president obama's plans. that's coming up next. 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 records and a low claims ratio, we do whatever it takes to make your business our business. od. helping the world keep promises. >>> it is very clear tonight that while the house has not passed a motion it is clear to me the british parliament reflecting the views of the british people does not want to see british military action. i get that and the government will act accordingly. >> that's british prime minister david cameron explaining why his country would not join the u.s. in a potential military strike against syria. that was a big announcement related to the very special relationship between the u.s. and great britain. what a difference a day can make. on the heels of president obama's deci

nick payton-walsh, lieutenant colonel rick francona. right to you, rick, you made the case about why you believe two specific cities were hit by these attacks. what's your analysis of that? >> if you look at the status of forces -- the way they're laid out in damascus right now, there's a highway called the southern beltway. it divides the regime from the opposition forces. it goes along the eastern edge of the city. right inside the city is the square which many believe is the key. if the rebels can get to the square, they might be able to take the city. right there, ein tar ma and zamalka are on the on the rebel side of the highway. while you can kill a lot of people with bombs and artillery shells and rockets, the chemicals kill everybody and it pushes everybody away from that line. these weren't random attacks. they were planned and put there for a reason. >> stand by, lieutenant. nick, i want to bring you in here. as we've been talking about this and it's a question i've been posing here -- because the videos have been out there on

me now from washington to discuss what we know about this situation, cnn military analyst, rick franconaso, rick, first off, before we talk about the negotiating, nonnegotiation, let's talk about what we know of the makeup of some of these al shabaab members, three what we understand are americans from minnesota as well as from missouri. i think it was you who said earlier, we're talking about a terrorist group that has recruited a lot in the united states, particularly from minnesota. so, how does this sound to you, learning that three are americans? >> well, three of maybe 10 or 15, that's kind of surprising, kind of a high number. but we've known for some time that there are at least 15 to 20 remaining in the senior leadership of the al shabaab organization. you know, there's two parts of al shabaab. there's the people that are primarily interested in what's going on in somalia and then there are those who have come from the outside, using somalia as a training base to mount the global jihad. that's the ones we're concerned about. that's where the americans are. we've always been very

want to bring in cnn military analyst lieutenant colonel rick francona in washington. is the u.s. showing its hand too soon? >> yes. i think so. we've been telegraphing a long time we planned to do this. it's very helpful to the syrians to be able to plan what they're going to do in the way of defense or reaction. they know nothing is going to happen now for ten days or eight days now. they are going to have time to move as that report just mentioned. they are moving things out of where we think they are, where we know they are to places that we hope we can't detect. we have very good capabilities to monitor all of this. you can't see everything all the time. the chance we are going to catch every move of every high value asset is pretty low. that said, with the crew's missiles on the ships, they have to go after a specific set of targets because these missiles are not going to be able to hit hardened facilities, hardens bunkers. these are high explosive war heads. they'll do a lot of damage, but they'll use radar sites, air fields, hangars, that sort of thing, command and control

elyse, i'm joined by elyse jordan, van jones, ben ferguson and colonel rick francona.e president arrives home from this trip, does he arrive home in a better position than when he left on the issue of syria? >> i think he's in absolutely a worse position because the public has shown in their most recent gallop poll that they are really opposed to any intervention in syria. so now he has to make his case and he is waiting until tuesday night to do that. and it looks like it's going to be too late to get -- constituents have had such an outcry this week. the marshmallow incident with mccain you just showed onscreen. so there are some very passionate anti-war feelings there. >> bad enough to be called the marshmallow incident. van, you're a democrat. you support the president here with a lot of caveats. what do you want to hear from his address on tuesday night? what will convince democrats who are on the fence or maybe even opposed to military action at this point to support him? >> well, let's be clear. i'm actually a dove on this. i don't want us to go into syria. i do

whole lot of mess to deal with, joining us is cnn military analyst retired air force general rick franconaappened to live for three years in syria as a military attachchy and also joining us is dr. david kai. colonel franklin, i want to begin with you if i, let's start at the top with russia and with what president putin has said in veiled terms. we have our plan he said. >> i would venture to say his plan is going to be on the diplomatic side or the economic side. i just can't imagine that the russians want to get into a fight with us over syria. it doesn't make sense. it doesn't reach the threshold of something they want to get into a superpower confrontation in the military realm. they've got quite a number of ships in the eastern mediterranean, it's a small body of water. there's a lot of firepower out there. they may do a show of force, but i just don't see them doing anything militarily. >> so, dr. kai, if vladimir putin is paying lip service to his allies and makes sure he walks this fence, let's go south to iran and next door iraq. you and i have had a couple of conversations off a

next i'm going to talk with cnn military analyst lieutenant colonel rick francona and stanford's fuad ajami, i've been saying it for five weeks now, it looks like we may be closer to a nonmilitary resolution on the syria crisis. are we? we'll talk about that. >>> and this where we want to be in this particular situation? he always made us think every time he speaks. he makes us think. and these day bill cosby seems to make a lot of folks a little bit angry as well. still, he is never shy with his words, but you never heard stuff like me -- like my conversation with him. that's next. i remember the day my doctor said i had diabetes. there's a lot i had to do... ... watch my diet. stay active. start insulin... today, i learned there's something i don't have to do anymore. my doctor said that with novolog® flexpen, i don't have to use a syringe and a vial... or carry a cooler. flexpen® comes prefilled with fast-acting insulin used to help control high blood sugar when you eat. dial the exact does. inject by pushing a button. nom a vial. you should eat a meal within 5 to 10 minutes after

so i want to talk with rick francona about this group. rick is a retired u.s. military intelligence officer, i should point this out and a cnn military analyst. rick, al shabaab is a name that we have heard before. they are said to be behind this attack. just remind us who they are and why they would target civilians at a shopping mall. >> well, this is a group resident in somalia. they had a real cause celebre in the u.s. they were trying to get a lot of recruits to fight for them. they're really fractured right now. there's one faction that wants to work only in somalia. and there's another that wants to go in a global jihad. but the reason their attack in kenya is because kenya has been supporting the somalia government to eradicate these people. so striking out against kenya makes perfect sense. going after this mall makes perfect sense. this is a soft target. it's in a high profile area. there's going to be a lot of foreigners there, a lot of wealthy there. this is -- this was well-planned and well-thought out. >> you know, we talk about kenya, many people

elyse, i'm joined by elyse jordan, van jones, ben ferguson and colonel rick francona.president arrives home from this trip, does he arrive home in a better position than when he left on the issue of syria? >> i think he's in absolutely a worse position because the public has shown in their most recent gallop poll that they are really opposed to any intervention in syria. so now he has to make his case and he is waiting until tuesday night to do that. and it looks like it's going to be too late to get -- constituents have had such an outcry this week. the marshmallow incident with mccain you just showed onscreen. so there are some very passionate anti-war feelings there. >> bad enough to be called the marshmallow incident. van, you're a democrat. you support the president here with a lot of caveats. what do you want to hear from his address on tuesday night? what will convince democrats who are on the fence or maybe even opposed to military action at this point to support him? >> well, let's be clear. i'm actually a dove on this. i don't want us to go into syria. i don'

listen for a second to our own cnn military analyst colonel francona. >> if you as a security officer or you as a supervisor bring this to the attention of the security people, then they refer him to a mental health review. and that for several career fields is a career-ending event. >> what he seemed to be saying, dr. welner, is there may have been this interest in not representing everything about aaron alexis because they also knew that by doing that it would be a career ender. he would not get any of the upward mobility certainly in the military. so that was part of the problem here. what do you think of that? >> the toll of folks who are laboring with psychiatric problems right now in the military is so huge and it's required such a great sensitivity to folks that i think there may be some truth to a person's perception of whether it will damage his military career. but the reality is what i see in my experience of the military is that the doctors are very sensitive and they want to try to patch people up and make them better rather than say we've got to get this person out of ou

the indians nail down one wild card spot as terry francona gets the champagne in his first season asleveland's manager. tore team will be determined tomorrow. ray's and rangers were both winners today. they finnish dead tie. they will play a single game tomorrow to determine who meets the indians in single game. >>> a disappointing season for the giants, but it did have a feel good ending today against the padres. this has been a weekend to celebrate. today began the first giants player in history to start all 162 games of the season. 2-2 game in the fifth when san diego's jed gorko got all of a pitch. looked like giants would close out the season for a loss but zita was brought in for a fair w. he struck out the one batter he faced and the crowd said good byte still 6-5 in the ninth when francisco led off against houston's streak. the tie game first major league home run for pagera. giants loaded the bases. the owner of a new 5 year contract went up and drilled a 3-2 pitch in center for a walk involve rbi single. giants spring boarded into the off season. they win 7466 and finish ti

the final oing to be at-bat of the night for jiminez, as terry francona gave him an to close it down. he wasn't able to do it. he'll depart after the second hit of the night by connor gillaspie. c.c. lee comes into the game. jiminez, after a brilliant job, departs. step out and be back after these messages. out here, this is lake shore drive. this is the brown line. that's bucktown. [ john ] and out here, we have our own version of the great fire. i'm jake. i'm john. and we're leinenkugel's. [ all ] leinenkugel's! [ jake ] and for five generations we've been brewing america's friendliest craft beers. for your kind of town. so join us, chicago. you're gonna like it out here. ♪ show off that belt you replaced. show off the fuel pump, the oil change, the upgrade. you did it. there are a lot of places you can go to do it yourself. but there's only one place that can help you do it right. autozone. because even the pros know, parts are just part of what we do. we have the advice, the instructions, we even loan tools. so show it off america. you did it right. get in the zone. autozone. gril

. >>> terry francona has its cleveland indians posed to make the post season. is it going to drop?nd cabrera scores. indians up 1-0. and then viciedo drills one to left, and just like that they take the lead. jason giambi at the plate. runner on second and two outs, and everybody drive home safely, because we're done. a 2-run shot to right. he extents his own record as the oldest player to ever hit a walk-off home run. >>> and then beltre blasts one deep to left. his 29th home run of the season. hey, guys easy, easy in the dugout. joe nathan in for the save, two outs. he gets a pop up to mitch moreland. 3-2 the final. the rays currently hold the first wild-card spot in the american league. the indians keep their one-game lead over for the final wild-card spot. that's a look at sports this hour. i'm mark morgan. dell? >>> 32 people now dead in the philippines following two days of heavy rains. more than 36,000 people have been forced from their homes. the hardest hit areas are in the north. emergency crews are trying to clear roads. more than a thousand families said to be living in

rick francona is with me. rick, i should remind people, you are a retired u.s. military officer. this group, al shabab, what is the connection? >> they self-affiliated with al qaeda when they formed back in the mid-2000s. al qaeda decided to recognize them. they have that bond there. it ebbs and flows. they agree with al qaeda on some things and don't on others. there's a lot of fighting in the group. this is a disorganized group. that makes them dangerous. they don't normally go for the global jihad. going after this attack in kenya, they are going after their own interest in somalia. kenya is going after al shabaab. they are mounting attacks against al shabaab. they are fighting back. >> that's the question. if they have a beef with the military and the leadership, why are they going after a shopping mall? >> because they can't. they can't take on the kenyan military. they have been effective against al-shabaab. they are going to go after targets they can strike. they picked a great one. if you are looking at how to make a terrorism attack work, this is it. go after a soft targ

i want to bring in military colonel rick francona, a cnn military analyst and he also spent three years syria as a military attache in dam mass sc scas. you and secretary kerry met and others are supportive but not providing arsenals. how strategic or helpful would it be for saudi arabia to offer support? >> it would be nice if we had arab support somewhere. they don't have a lot of capabilities in the standoff move, launching cruise missiles. the saudi arabias don't have a lot of capability but nice to have token support. right now, looks like just us, one french frigate, a defensive ship. nice to have more involved. makes a nicer show in the arab world. we will be portrayed as the americans once again, imperialist, doing things once again to an arab country. >> are you talking about moral support or offering air fields or perhaps ports for our military? >> exactly. exactly. material support, some sort sof -- put some aircraft on alert, do something, let us use the air fields, even go beyond the operation. if it goes beyond standoff cruise missile attacks, nice to have saudi airplanes

cnn military analyst and retired air force lieutenant, colonel rick francona. i want to talk about syria's israel trip. the u.s. will maintain the threat of force under this agreement. is that enough to enforce it? >> i think it's very important that we maintain that as part of the agreement and that the russians know that and that the syrians know that. it is that threat of force. we haven't seen any movement out of the syrians yet towards this agreement. the test will come this week. >> nick, i want to talk to you now about israel. israel's prime minister appears to be on board with this greemt. what are the israelis looking for? >> at the end of the day, they want to be pretty sure any chemical weapons are a threat to them in some ways. i think they're possibly looking at the next few years seeing most people want to do them harm in the region, doing harm to each other. they're in a difficult bind, too, because of the past two weeks, that it would be agitating too much. they don't want the people in the u.s. to be bombing only behalf of israel and stirring u

lieutenant colonel rick francona, you spent three years in syria at the u.s. embassy in damascus.u think assad must go? >> oh, absolutely. he's done so much to that country. i think he's gone too far down the road. there's been too much bloodshed for anybody to let this go. there needs to be a syria without assad in the future. >> if he does not get congressional support to strike, will it hurt him politically, do you think? will he somehow hurt america's credibility? >> if we don't strike syria, i think our credibility is on the line in the middle east. in the middle east, it's more about perception than the reality. it's how we look there. i can tell you by reading the syrian press, watching some of the reporting coming out of the middle east that while it looks very good to the west and to us, for the president to go to congress and seek the authorization, that makes us look strong. it makes us a reluctant warrior and doing things deliberately. in the middle east, however, it is perceived as weakness. syrian headlines were the american retreat has begun in the face of our glori

. >> terry francona, said they did good in september because they stayed away from chicken and beer.ave waiting 21 years but they are finally hosting a post season game against the reds. how do you see this one playing out? >> i like pittsburgh in this series. i mean it has been great. they had a couple of letdowns the last couple of years, where they faded at the end. they add some more players to a team that has already got a lot of good players. i like the pirates a lot. >> there you go, other stories, rob that are making headlines. alex rodriguez starts his appeal process in new york. when all is said and done, what will his legacy be? >> that's a good question. i think he was smart to put the fight up for this 212 game suspension. i think that was successful, and maybe we'll win in arbitration and that will help a little bit. but i don't know if he will ever be able to clean up his legacy, but he was a great baseball player. >> the cubs fired their manager today. who are some of the people you are hearing that could replace him? >> the big name is joe girardi. which doesn't have

still, rick francona in syria says bashar al assad is unlikely to risk striking americans militarily.risks associated with this operation are pretty limited. >> reporter: but there's an attack risk. >> to do something against an american interest, american company, an american family, yeah, there are risks involved. >> reporter: last year, u.s. embassies in several middle east countries were attacked and the most serious threat of all? terrorism. >> syria's a state sponsor of terrorism and has been since the list was made in 1979. so, it has ties with a whole host of groups that could carry out attacks against americans or american installations abroad. >> reporter: head boll la is among the most dangerous and iran said america would suffer with a strike. "wall street journal" says there's an all right of attacking the u.s. embassy if america strikes syria and came in a message intercepted by the u.s. from the revolutionary guard. there's a warning for anyone to retalia retaliate. >> if assad is arrogant enough and i would say foolish enough to retaliate to the consequences of his own

lieutenant colonel rick francona lived in syria for three years during the 1990s and also a former attacheat the u.s. embassy in damascus. general dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said the capacity to strike syria is not time sensitive. do you agree, it could happen any time and would it make a difference? >> it depends what his target said. if he's going to have fixed facilities, the targets will always be there. you can't move air fields and control things and radar installations. they will be in the same place today and two or three weeks. if you're going after the chemical weapons delivery systems, primarily artillery, rocket launchers, things tactical things and movable, they are things syrian can hide and have a lot of places to hide things. >> why not it be a target? how difficult would it be for the u.s. to track, monitor any kind of movement over the course days or weeks? >> even if we have excellent satellite coverage what's going on. the syrians have a lot of these systems. they have hundreds, thousands of rocket launchers and artillery systems to move and a lo

the last guy to do that, terri francona in 2004. one other baseball note, scherzer is the first pitcher to reach 20 wins. he made it friday by giving up three runs over 6ings tigers beat shall chicago 12 to 5. their magic number to clench the central division crown is 3. entering tonight's game against the white sox. baseball playoffs will be here before you know it even though we are talking about football right now. >> thank you. at that talk about on thin ice, summer melting takes a surprising turn. scientists say the overall trend is still headed in the wrong direction. the cold hard facts ahead. >> cold facts with the weather. we have temperatures dropping in the midwest but it's brief. we will take a look at the numbers in the national forecast coming up. summer ice in the arctic sea has been disappearing rapidly. the extent of ice cover this year was about 50% more than in 2012. gerald tan investigates >> reporter: for all of the talk of global warming and melting ice caps, it seems for once, a glimmer of good news. sea ice i

lieutenant colonel rick francona will join me in 15 minutes to talk about whether we can do something proportional and have it really work. >>> and that brings me it this -- if the united states attacks syria, what is the legal justification? can you make the case that assad gassed his own people using strong, direct or circumstantial evidence. the administration says it can. it's just not telling us exactly what it's got. want to bring in our legal team to talk about this. this is a critical question. we are hearing echos of "it's just a circumstantial case." danny savalos, get me off the ledge. there are -- most criminal cases that find circumstantial evidence stronger than direct evidence. >> oftentimes circumstantial evidence is stronger. that's a public misconception that hasn't been remedied. direct evidence is saying, i saw professor plum in the library with the revolver. on the other hand, you have to believe that person for that direct evidence to be effective. sometimes especially nowadays, circumstantial evidence -- if i want to know where professor plum is and get hold of

joining me now is lieutenant colonel rick francona who is the u.s. military attache.tion, colonel? how good are assad's assets? we've heard terrific and then we're starting to hear maybe not so much. >> they were terrific, given the context of where he's operating. he's operating against his own people. regionally he's not that strong. internally he's the only game in town. so he's been able to take quite a toll on his own people. you talked about defections. we saw a slew of defections at the beginning of this but it has slowly tapered off. and a lot of the reason for that is he has contained a lot of the people to the bases that many of these people when they do defect we find out that they're prisoners on their own bases. he's had a real problem keeping the morale up, a problem with resupplying his own forces. but if you're the only army in town you still retain immense capability, overwhelming firepower against the rebels. >> so let me ask you this. as we look at the movements of assets of the united states right now, there's a heavy presence of an aircraft carrie

lieutenant colonel luke francona lived in syria in the 1990s and is formerly of the u.n.ssy in damascus. lieutenant, good to have you. >> thank you. >> now, general martin dempsey, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, as you heard from the rose garden yesterday, said that striking tomorrow, next week, a month from now, will not decrease the effectiveness. do you agree with that? and what does this mean for the assad regime as this week, month goes on? >> well, i disagree. depending on what we're trying to do. if you're trying to degrade the syrians' ability to use chemical weapons, waiting ten more days is going to hurt our ability to do that. i can guarantee you that right now, almost every chemical weapon, chemical weapons delivery system, what the syrians regard as high-value targets, things they think we're going to go after are being moved. they're being moved into hide locations, hardened locations. we've just given them ten days to make sure that they can absorb any kind of strike we're going to make. and i'm not sure what the goal of this is going to be, if it's

joining me to discuss this is cnn military analyst lieutenant colonel rick francona, a former intelligencerved with the cia. it's great to see you. i low a lot of these questions are unanswerable at the moment. there are reviews under way. it does need to be discussed. you said you were surprised that he was granted security clearance with that kind of police record. what do you think should have been flagged? >> these arrest records, anytime you have security clearance someone comes to interview. they ask you, what's your arrest record and they check that out. a pattern of arrest for this kind of behavior would be instantly a disapproval. i was shocked when i heard about the arrest for the use of firearms. that's a nonstarter. >> what do you make of this most recent incident in the august that we've been talking about a lot this morning, that aaron alexis told police that he had voices in his head, that he was being followed, the microwaves in the room. clearly he was disturbed. he alerted police and police alerted the navy. his access was still not revoked. >> this is a problem. this has

. >> all right, kernel francona, thanks for your insights this morning. we appreciate it. >>> later the president will meet with republican lawmakers john mccain and lindsey graham. mccain says before he commits to a vote, he wants to know if the administration has a plan to take out assad's regime. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash is on capitol hill this morning. good morning, dana. >> good morning, carol. the president and vice president and others are working the phones and having meetings. probably the meeting you just talked about with john mccain later today is among the most critical not because mccain has been the most vocal at going ahead and being aggressive with syria but using this vote as leverage to get the administration to better articulate what its plans are after any military strike. if mccain comes out of the white house and authorizing force for the president, it could help sway some skeptical republicans. based on the conversations here, he's going to need all the help he can get. one after another, lawmakers emerged fr

tom foreman is in our virtual studio with colonel rick francona.e? >> we're looking at the varying information chris was talking about a minute ago. the syrians are trying to discount the idea that the u.s. was ever really going to bring warships in here and start firing cruise missiles in at them. and yet, every day that that discussion goes on, it's more time for them to prepare and to get help. one of the areas helping them out right now are the russians, because another russian ship has shown up here, and this one's important. why? >> this is an intelligence collector. it's pretty much state of the art. detached it from the black sea fleet. it's got the complete outfit of censors. it's got ability to monitor radars, communications. it's got its own sonar system. it can effectively track the u.s. movements in the eastern mediterranean. >> it would know the moment a missile launched. >> might know before they launched because there's different signatures coming off of those vessels as they prepare to launch. >> what would he do with that informat

. >> cnn military analyst colonel rick francona. thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. >>> we'll take you back to st. petersburg because you're looking at that gorgeous room inside this russian palace. this palace built in the 1700s and you can see the walls are guilded gold and that has to be real gold because this palace was built for a czar and remodeled in 2001 and it was brought back to its former gl glory. you see vladimir putin now addressing members of the g-20 summit. brianna keilar is on the phone right now. this is what you would call a working session, right? brianna, are you there? >> i don't think we have a great phone connection. but this is a working session and the leaders here are talking generally about the global economy because that's really what this summit is all about. the global economy, how to improve it. the problems that world leaders having because these are world leaders with a 20 biggest economies and that's why they meet periodically over the years. okay, brianna is on the phone. we have her now

rick francona, a u.s.ys bashar al assad is unlikely to risk striking americans militarily. >> i think the risks associated with this operation are pretty limited. >> reporter: but there's an attack risk from forces other than assad's military. >> to do something against an american interest, an american company, an american family, yeah, there are risks involved. >> reporter: last year, u.s. embassies in several middle east countries were attacked, and the most serious threat of all? terrorism. >> syria is a state sponsor of terrorism and has been since the list was made in 1979. so, it has ties with a whole host of groups that could carry out attacks against americans or american installations abroad. >> reporter: hezbollah is among the most dangerous of those groups. also, iran's top ayatollah threatened that america would "definitely suffer" if it launches a strike. the "wall street journal" reports iran has instructed militants to attack the u.s. embassy in iraq if america strikes syria. the "journal"

indians manager, terry francona said it was going to be safely returned to that farm. >> nice.e chicken. >> baseball players are so superstitious. >> oh, i know. >> if they go far in the playoffs that chicken will live at the stadium. >> did i see a leash on the chicken? cody the chicken. >> too busy looking at my notes to know. >>> coming up. we'll take a trip back in time as we take a look at some of our favorite saturday morning cartoons. >> should be fun. >>> a woman inspiring young girls to build their own future. >>> first, we're going to take a cruise in a driverless car. you are watching "world news now". ♪ let me ride ♪ ♪ mustang sally ♪ you're going to let me ride ♪ it's time to free ourselves from the smell and harshness of bleach. and free ourselves from worrying about the ones we love. lysol power & free has more cleaning power than bleach. how? the secret is the hydrogen peroxide formula. it attacks tough stains and kills 99.9% of germs. lysol power & free. powerful cleaning that's family friendly. another step forward in our mission for health. >> as a kid, i mad

sprintcaptel.com >>> tom foreman is in our virtual studio with the retired air force lieutenant colonel rick franconaow effective some sort of military action against syria would be. what are you guys seeing? >> we are looking specifically at this notion that senator mccain raised about attacking the air assets there and you think a half dozen targets truly could make a difference. >> the six air bases constitute the bulk of the combat power of the syrian air force. >> and those air bases if we zoom in on some of them here, some are very important because they have the most advanced aircraft and support there, what would cruise missiles hit if they targeted this? >> you want to go after things that make a difference, the fueling supplies and points. you also want to hit the mains nance areas, limit their ability to generate sorties and the command and control resident on the base and, of course, if you can take out the runways. >> so in effect what you are doing is attacking the repair stations and the fuel stations that's how you shut down the traffic. >> exactly. >> and this would have a real impac

let's listen to francona. >> anytime you talk about mental health that races flags and cautions becauseer him to a mental health review and that for several career fields is a career ending event. >> what he seemed to be saying, there was an interesting sort of not representing everything about aaron alexis, because by doing that, it would be a career ender. so that was part of the problem here. what do you think of that? >> the toll of folks who are labeling with psychiatric problems right now in the military is so huge, and it's required such a great sensitivity to folks that i think that there may be some truth to a person's perception of whether it will damage his military career, but the reality is what i see in my experience of the military is the doctors are very sensitive, and they wanted to try and patch people up and make them better rather than say we have to get them out of the organization. >> i think it's so important. again, i think mental illness gets short, and incidents like these, and there have been too many of them as you know over the past year, can worsen the stig

that's what a manager of the year should be, a guy that takes, you know -- >> francona could win it.a-rod enjoy your last couple of weeks because you're not playing next year. >> you don't think >> oh, god no. i would be shocked. horowitz is nervous. people care about this one. >> go knock down the suspension. >> chris russo. >> see you guys. >> you can hear chris every weekday afternoon on sirius. this spring he hosts a new show at 1:00 on the mlb network. can't get enough of this guy. next mike lupica joins us on set. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] staying warm and dry has never been our priority. our priority is, was and always will be serving you, the american people. so we improved priority mail flat rate to give you a more reliable way to ship. now with tracking up to eleven scans, specified delivery dates, and free insurance up to $50 all for the same low rate. [ woman ] we are the united states postal service. [ man ] we are the united states postal service. [ male announcer ] and our priority is you. go to usps.com® and try it today. we're gonna stop beating ourse