there are disagreements over neighboring syria and the role of hezbollah. reporter: a triumphant return ariri, he was appointed prime minister of lebanon thursday, six years after vacating the post. >> i've just been nominated, so i will talk to all of the blocs. tartrrow will s conversation with all the parties. national unity means hopefully that those who want to be part of the cabinet candy. -- can be. reporter: although he is all smiles now, it might prove difficult to form a government. the parties are divided over the lah. of hezbol lebanon operates under a concession system. the president is christian. the speaker of the house is shiite. hariri and heritage political capital from this farmer, the former prime ministers -- his father, who was assassinated in 2005. several of his workers are being tried for that murder in the netherlands. month unityd a 14 government into early 2011 when hezbollah forced its lapse. sticking point. hezbollah was one of three pro-syrian political parties that voted against hariri's support on thursday. his return is a s

. >> rose: because of the support of the russians and hezbollah and everybody else. >> yes. they had a conference, some friends and family relations of his staged a conference in damascus, and, so, they invited a bunch of journalists and think tank people to come. from that, they just selected a couple of people to come and meet the president. so i didn't know that was going to happen until -- >> rose: you went for the conference and you and ann bernard from the "new york times" in a meeting with him. >> yeah. >> rose: who else was in the meeting. >> some think tank people. >> rose: six or eight maybe? three or four. >> rose: oh, three or four? yeah. we all got in a van and drove -- you go into a secure area, lots of checkpoints, lots of blast walls. then suddenly we're at his house. he was standing at the door. >> rose: he welcomed you to his house. >> yeah. >> rose: before you talked about the conversation. tell me what's happened on the ground. what's the status on the ground as we speak? >> you mentioned at the top of the show what an utterly catastrophic war it is, a ha

charlie: that is because of the support of the russians and hezbollah. dexter: they had a conference in damascus. they invited a bunch of journalists, think tank people to come. from that, they just selected a couple of people to come and meet the president. i didn't know that was going to happen. charlie: you went to the conference and ended up in the meeting with him. who else was in the meeting? dexter: some think tank people. three to four. we all got into a van and we go into a secure area with lots of checkpoints and blast walls. suddenly, we were at his house. charlie: he welcomed you to his house? you sit down. tell me what is the status on the ground as we speak. dexter: you mentioned at the top of the show what an utterly catastrophic war it is. a half-million dead, whole state is disintegrated. half the country is displaced from their homes. the migration crisis. it is the great catastrophe of our time. i think everyone thought, most of the world, probably assad himself thought he was going to go around 2012, 2013. when you have seen since the

hezbollah, these groups, tried to stop you. i'm going to stand with you. you're going to take over jerusalem once again and soon and i'll take care of the other crowd. praise the lord we've got more time. jesus is about to come. at that timee people from heaven, revelation 1:7, the lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints and sets up his kingdom where? it is called the new jerusalem in revelation 3:12. and guess what? it's built over the old jerusalem because the jew now holds it. hallelujah! the final sign is here. and god's called this prophet to tell you to prepare to meet your god because we're going to see you know what jack? i think we've got some people out there and they're saying, where does he get all of his information? from the offer, we've got a great offer and it is his... the prophecy bible. that's where he gets all his information. oh please take a look at our promo right now. presenting the third edition of the jack van impe prophecy bible, this beautiful, burgundy, leather-bound edition has been created exclusively for the friends of

their support of hamas, hezbollah. and one of the main methods they use to support their terrorist activities around the world is their flying commercial aircraft of the quds force around this world, supporting terrorism. supplying assad in syria, who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds. this deal is not about blocking airplane sales, mr. speaker. this deal is about protecting taxpayers on financing airplane sales. protecting our banks in financing of airplane sales. in fact, mr. speaker, let the obama administration -- the obama administration has already provided the government of iran, the mullahs in iran, over $100 billion in freed-up cash and given them $1.7 billion in euros, in cash, on pallets. let them use that to buy an aircraft. let's assume they cost $150 million. they can buy several aircraft and pay cash thanks to the failed diplomacy of the obama administration. so, again, this legislation is about the belief that the united states should not directly support terrorism. and the killing of innocent c

charlie: do they simply support hezbollah? dexter: they are people on the ground. they are directing the fight. he's busy in iraq right now. they've really, i think it is fair to say, changed the situation on the ground so probably pretty close to 70% of the population lives in areas controlled by the government. probably something close to three quarters of the people left in syria. so many people have left. charlie: what is happening in aleppo? the russians said that he would have some kind of cease-fire. dexter: all of that is a prelude to what is medieval fight to the death. eastern aleppo is cut off, under siege by assad's government. they have been bombing it relentlessly, bombing hospitals. it is horrible. essentially in the few days of cease-fire announced by the russians was the view a few days. anyone in the ones to leave, get out. after that, we are going in. charlie: retaking all of it? dexter: yeah, i think we should stand back for a second and look at what happened. the goal for assad and the russians is to capture all of aleppo which was the largest

against mohamed morsi, accusing him of hatching a plan, sending militants to training camps, run by hezbollah. including the spiritual leader -- it is quite amazing, the turnaround, coming on the heels last week, when -- to perhaps showing a seachange here in egypt. the they are less afraid of power that mohamed morsi has and the political leaders have in the country. upheld ah, the court ,0-year sentence against him using deadly force against protesters once he was in office. cases areese other overturned in a retrial. annette: with that in mind, does the muslim brotherhood still have any presence at all within egypt? >> certainly their presence has been massively curtailed since the 2013 military overthrows. tens of thousands of members have been jailed, including top leadership, not just mohamed morsi but his top brotherhood .eaders they have all been put in jail. -- onther leaders have the ground it is very small. in november resulted in people being rounded up. it looks like a regime that still -- they are feeling less threatened their group that has been decimated the last three years i

unveiled their own intelligence which indicates iran is using these aircraft to smuggle weapons to hezbollahonsternation on the hill and hill sources today saying that the obama administration is turning a blind eye to warning flags. it seems the right thing to do is pump the brakes on this and investigate what the israelis have to say. we have israel and iran. who are you going to believe on intelligence like this? most americans -- >> fox news has heard from a senior official who is telling us that -- an official, u.s. official briefed on matter telling us they are using what you call diplomatic pouch to do this, they are basically putting this into the plane, via these pouchs and that's pretty alarming stuff. perhaps it speaks in general about the challenges we now as a country face having entered this deal in the first place. >> they've already violated this deal once. you may recall that they had too much heavy water on hand in iran and we came and bailed them out by taking it off their hands. they've been bad actors in the deal one time and now we have a second possible breach of trust

to the deal, but putting sanction he on them for their support of terrorism, for their support of hezbollah, their action he in syria and so forth. if they did that the iranians might say hey look this is not within the spirit of the agreement, you took sanctions that we removed from the nuclear deal and simply reimposed them with another excuse. that's something the united states said it would not do during the obama administration. that would probably serve to unravel the deal, that it is probably the iranians who would do the first step towards doing the unraveling in that case. >> stewart: david sanger, thank you for your reporting. >> thank you, >> stewart: president-elect trump captured the white house by winning 29 states-- 30 if you count michigan, where he's ahead-- and the most electoral votes, at least 290, 20 more than needed. but hillary clinton won the most actual votes nationwide-- the national popular vote. she's currently ahead by 630- thousand votes, but that gap is projected to double when all the votes are counted. last week on this broadcast, new york university politic

they cite iran support for hugh tee rebels in yemen and the hezbollah group in lebanon and syria. they also say iran is constantly interfering in the internal affairs of arab nations. >>> the defense department identified the two soldiers who died in a terrorist attack on a u.s. air base in afghanistan saturday. two american contractors also were killed. 16 u.s. service members and one polish soldier were wounded. we have an update on violence that's bringing the dangerous situation in that country back into focus. >> reporter: afghan security forces surrounded this air base after a suicide bomber infiltrated the largest military base in aftghanistan killing tw soldiers. john perry, age 30, from california, and tyler ubelt, 20, of illinois. two civilian contractors were also killed. >> this is a very secure facility. something happened here. we're looking closely at it. >> reporter: a local day laborer and former taliban fighter is responsible for the attack. located 30 miles north of kabul. the second time they have penetrated a u.s. base. 16 other service members plus a po polis

for 50 years they have been -- they murdered their political opponents and supported groups like hezbollahavez. let's not forget who he is. >> this is a very american view of -- >> i can't tell where danielle is on cuba. she might be vacationing there. i disagree a little with held even. there is an american view of this. i will say there was something poignant about castro's death. because as i -- it's not everybody's view. when he was elected in 2008, part of the promise, part of what people felt was the sense of turning a new generation turning the page on all the history, history just wouldn't quite get out of his way on his timetable. here it is the very closing act of his presidency and finally he gets castro out of his way too late. >> you did a little reporting on this as to why did the white house stay so -- >> this argument we're having here, the white house decided, we don't want to perpetuate the past. we want to go forward. the more you talk about fidel castro and his record, according to their logic was you end up fighting old fights that have been going on for 50 or 60 years

looking in the direction that the syrian government and the russians and their backers, iranians and hezbollahre looking for the solution to the situation in aleppo. they will fight until the rebels lose the territory. the russians and syrian regime set up humanitarian corridors for civilians to go to other rebel held areas in more than western syria and civilians to get out. civilians don't trust that. the rebels don't trust that. they believe they'll be killed and captures. there is not many places to go. you see secretary of state kerry pushing the diplomatic efforts to get a halt to the fighting in aleppo going. with the situation on the battle field, going in the favor of syrian regime forces, it seems they will keep pushing on their offensive. that is or appears to be very much in high gear. >> the humanitarian horror we have seen will only get worse. fred, thank you. >>> in breaking overnight. ied found a few feet from the u.s. embassy in manila. the bomb was placed by a person riding in a taxi. police consider it an act of terrorism. it has the same design as the one that killed 14 peo

there's no end in sight for hezbollah's support for the assad regime. got instability throughout iraq, yemen and the gulf. and more and more our allies are unsure about the future of america's resolve. we must send a clear got messag that american leadership is a sure thing. i also feel very strongly, you know when we all went to school when we were kids, we learned about separation of powers. well, the legislative branch, this congress has an important say and an important role to play and we will continue to do that. so this legislation will provide for an immediate snapback of sanctions should iran cheat on the nuclear deal. these sanctions must be in place to demonstrate to iran that there are consequences for noncompliance. in 10 years when this legislation expires, we'll have another discussion. i sincerely hope that by then iran has exceeded to every demand of the international community to stop its ballistic missile program and put an end to its destabilizing activities around the region. but in the meantime, hope won't safeguard our interests.

there a so many other plays, hezbollah, and iranians, it is get ground troops ready for all out aassaultefore winter sets in, this has been in plan all along, u.s. elections just happened in meantime. charles: ground forces, who does that consist of? i am reading more soviet are a part? >> i think that russians will have advisors in there, as they bring in advanced equipment in syrian forces in the to time to train othey will have technicians working there, that is a big, when people start talking about -- let's set up a no-fly zone, does that mean you are shoots down russian planes, and before you try that, you take out surface-to-air missile sites that are manned by russian technicians. charles: where does it leave the american-backed rebe rebels. >> they are between iraq and a hard place, they are moving out, aleppo toward raqqa, about 2000 arab fighters, moved in today, to start working with u.s. special forces, in that effort on raqqa, all people to west, and turks have no laug love lost for that, turks don't top see the kurds, get any stronger in that western-northwestern corner wi

one called hezbollah, a terror organization by the u.s. the u.s.acked forces move from the east and iranian from the west. it's a reminder of just how complex the battle for mosul really is, melissa. melissa: thank you so much. jon: with conflicts around the world president-elect trump faces a tough decision, one top contender mattis, who is he? a man who knows the general very well joins us next. mr. trump sparking concerns about nato member calling alliance obsolete but what does the nato chief have to say about working with a president trump? jon: nato chief says he look forward to working with president-elect donald trump. he touched on the election and on u.s. relations with our european allies. >> i'm welcoming the incoming administration in washington. and i look forward to working with president-elect donald trump. the partnership between europe and united states has been rock-solid for almost 70 years. a partnership that has always received bipartisan support in the united states. will make the transatlantic bond even stronger. jon: spendi

you have shiite fighters from iraq and hezbollah fighting there and the russians as well. it was one of the key things to take aleppo. it is the last urban stronghold that the syrian rebels still hold or at least where they have a large area that they do hold. you're right, the fighting has been intense over the past couple of weeks. the area has been under siege. there have been aerial bombardments as you said. many of the hospitals hit. we're hearing that the food and water supplies there and medical supplies are running out as well and that people are under threat of starvation. something that the united nations hasn't been able to rub any sort of convoy or food aid into the eastern part of aleppo for months. so that really is something where people are in grave threat to not only be in danger from the fighting but, of course, from shortages as well. now we're seeing gains made by syrian military and their allied forces after the big bombardments going on. certainly something that is very, very significant. because the syrian military has been trying to enter the distri

has a close relationship with hezbollah.ed to try to provide support to that you can have support to the civil society so that we can help bring about means. if we're going to do business with cuba, it should be with the cuban people and not with the cuban military. >> so maria, what are you envisioning is potentially next that you look forward to or that you worry about? >> well, i worry about that a trump will just erase the kind of progress we have seen by closing up diplomatic ties which is what he has threatened to do. i think by listening to the pressure of those in miami-dade who absolutely don't want the united states to have any relationship with cuba. i don't think that will happen though, fred, because it is really tough to put the genie back in the bottle and that is progress towards democracy towards all of those things that my friend helen was talking about. and i agree with her, we do need to -- whatever we do to move forward and we have to move forward, not backward, we have to make sure that we do pressure -

. >> has the support for hezbollah dropped off? >> not at all. >> modify snd. >> none.ything, greater. >> support for assad? sfwl sfl none. >> leon panetta largely supports the president's deal, but says the policy lacks one crucial infwreed yent. >> what is missing is the larger strategy of containing iran and making clear that even though we've negotiated this agreement, we are not going to allow iran to be able to exert their influence in that region. they have to deal with them from a positionnot from a position o. >> and there are those who believe that without that american led containment strategy, a middle eastern war is all by inevitable. >> president obama has said since the nuclear deal was finalized, that he believes that saudi arabia and other countries in the middle east will have to share the region with iran and he called for what he said would be a cold peace. unfortunately, i suspect it's more likely to be a hot war. >> many fear that hot war may involve the kinds of weapons the president spent more than seven years trying to control. >> it's not going

occasionally targeting assad forces when they have tried to transfer weapons to militant groups like hezbollaht early sunday morning isis affiliated rebels opened fire on an israeli patrol in the golan heights. israeli commander said they successfully repealed the attack and four militants were killed. israel has generally maintained close ties with syrian rebels along its border. and while there have been many cases of errant rockets and mortar fired from syrian rebels that have landed in israel, sunday's attack is one of the first time isis affiliated militants have directly attacked israeli troops. it isn't yet clear, though, if this is part of a new strategy by isis to try to draw israel into the syrian civil war. this comes as assad troops backed by russian jets continue to push into the eastern part of aleppo. the government offensive sending thousands of civilians fleeing. in recent weeks, rebels have lost some territory in aleppo as government forces have divided the rebel areas in two. fully capturing lep owe would be a major victory for the assad regime and break the back of the oppo

arabian peninsula, looking at the mischief inside different shia areas in the middle east itself, hezbollahonebanon, in yemen wit hewittitys. also in iraq, looking at the mischief inside iraq. one o of the key fundamental objectives of the united states is to have a political stability inside iraq. as general petraeus recently stated, the battle of mosul and looking at what isis is actually trying to achieve is not going to be achieved. their territory is going to go away and they're going to morph into isis 3.0. general mattis with his operational experience at u.s. central command, strategic experience, is going to look at iran as one of those key countries in the strategy that needs to be contained and also to deal with their military and their shia incursions in different places in the middle east. >> retired navy captain bob wells, thank you very much for your insight. appreciate it. >> thank you, julie. >> kelly? >> president obama embarking on his final foreign trip as leader of the free world and making the case for a trade deal. plus a city block blanketed in white without a single

it is russia, it is hezbollah, movers of primary death and destruction. it is the bombers that drop bombs on fighters and schools. it is his billion la and the irtc fighters from iran and the commanders who beseech cities, who burn the crops and prevent food and water and medical supplies from reaching cities. it is assad's secret police and intelligent group, intelligence apparatus of maybe 14 different agencies who kidnap and then torture and then get new names from those they've killed and then go out to repeat that process and murder civilians from every ethnic group and every political party, whether sunni or shia or christian. none are safe. we've gone through in the committee some of the -- well, there was tens of thousands of photographs but i think we've identified 11,000 souls, people, these photographs that were individually killed, tortured and killed, in the prisons. assad's prisons. and there is this bizarre, i've never understood it this bizarre focus on recording every death. that's why we know the numbers. recording the deaths and putting

they would also prevent the transfer of weapons between the regime, assad regime to groups like hezbollahccording to israeli officials a patrol along the syrian/israeli border came under fire from an islamic state affiliated group. the israelis returned fire and took out the machine-mounted pickup truck that had four i.s. fighters there, as well. appears to have taken it out by aircraft, by a missile. israel says this isn't a direct involvement in to syria. they have no plans of getting deeper involved there. they want to maintain the quiet along the border there. and this was a one offing. larger question, though, is, does this represent any type of shift on the part of isis and other mill grants groups? they try to stage a larger presence along the israeli/syrian border, that's sort of a larger question. as this unfolded this morning, there's a large battle going on for aleppo. regime troops continue to push deeper and deeper into rebel-held area of the large syrian city of aleppo. this is the big fight we are seeing day in and day out in syria these days, elizabeth. the russian-backed

they cite iran support for hugh tee rebels in yemen and the hezbollah group in lebanon and syria. they also say iran is constantly interfering in the internal affairs of arab nations. >>> the defense department identified the two soldiers who died in a terrorist attack on a u.s. air base in afghanistan saturday. two american contractors also were killed. 16 u.s. service members and one polish soldier were wounded. we have an update on violence that's bringing the dangerous situation in that country back into focus. >> reporter: afghan security forces surrounded this air base after a suicide bomber infiltrated the largest military base in aftghanistan killing tw soldiers. john perry, age 30, from california, and tyler ubelt, 20, of illinois. two civilian contractors were also killed. >> this is a very secure facility. something happened here. we're looking closely at it. >> reporter: a local day laborer and former taliban fighter is responsible for the attack. located 30 miles north of kabul. the second time they have penetrated a u.s. base. 16 other service members plus a po polis

. >> has the support for hezbollah and hamas dropped off? >> not at all. >> modified? >> none. if anything, greater. >> support for assad changed? >> none. >> military alliance with putin's russia moderated? >> stronger. >> harassment, other actions, has that changed dramatically? >> increased. more resources applied to the antagonism. >> then there's the seizure of americans, has that changed at all since the iran nuclear deal? >> it has not. we paid $1.7 billion in ransom. they have taken three americans since that time. >> since that time? >> that's correct. >> is there anything that is good out of this deal? >> i can't think of a thing. >> not one? >> i can't think of a thing that has put america in a better position as a result of this deal. >> you are not just saying that from a political ideology standpoint? >> no. if you have something you are thinking of or something that's been proffered by the administration, i would be happy to consider it. as i look at the middle east and world today that has resulted in -- from the time that the negotiations began until the time t

. >> has the support for hezbollah and hamas dropped off? >> not at all. >> modified? >> none. if anything, greater. >> support for assad changed? >> none. >> military alliance with putin's russia moderated? >> stronger. >> harassment, other actions, has that changed dramatically? >> increased. more resources applied to the antagonism. >> then there's the seizure of americans, has that changed at all since the iran nuclear deal? >> it has not. we paid $1.7 billion in ransom. they have taken three americans since that time. >> since that time? >> that's correct. >> is there anything that is good out of this deal? >> i can't think of a thing. >> not one? >> i can't think of a thing that has put america in a better position as a result of this deal. >> you are not just saying that from a political ideology standpoint? >> no. if you have something you are thinking of or something that's been proffered by the administration, i would be happy to consider it. as i look at the middle east and world today that has resulted in -- from the time that the negotiations began until the time t

. >> has the support for hezbollah hamas dropped off?> if anything, greater. >> support for assad >> none. >> alliance with russia? >> stronger. >> panetta, secretary of defense from 2011 to 2013, supports the president's iran nuclear deal but says the president's policy lacks one crucial ingredient. >> what is missing is that larger strategy of containing iran and making very clear that even though we have negotiated this agreement, we are not going to allow iran to be able to exert their influence in that region. you have to deal with them from a position of strength. not from a position of weakness. >> and there are those who believe that without that american led containment strategy, a middle eastern war is all but inevitable. >> president obama said since the nuclear deal was finalized that he believes that saudi arabia and other countries in the middle east will have to share the region with iran. he called for what he said would be a cold peace. i suspect it's more likely to be a hot war. >> many fear the hot war may involve the

that trump's policy might produce positive effects for iran, syria, and their allies, including hezbollahand how it would threaten israel. this line of argument reveals from what has been a concern and the worry from the beginning of that kind of trajectory. that is what we are witnessing today and that quote is apt. a risk that should have existed from the very beginning for the sake of living a healthier the independent, a democratic uprising in syria against the territororial resue -- regime. nermrmeen: dr. sahloul, bashar al-asassad commented for the first time on trump's electoral victory last week, calling him "a natural ally of his regime." could you, quickly, tell us what you expect from a trump presidency, vis-à-vis, syria? >> before that, we are calling for a day of solidarity with the doctors and nurses in syria on friday. where evereryone should d put e #neveragaisnsnow. this is sosomething thatat'impoportan because committingng war crimes against t doctors and nurses should be recognized by everyone.e. it should not be normalized. trump said he will be supporting president ba

and now, with the interference, and the intervention by the russians and the iranians and hezbollah andther forces you've got a -- a really mixed playing field there. and that we haven't adapted our policy. the new administration is going to have to figure out just what our interests are in syria and act accordingly. if that is working with the russians against isis, that's going to take a major shift in our policy, and in effect we will be allied with bashar al assad. and i don't think we want to get into a situation where we're supporting a guy who bombs hospitals in the city of aleppo. so this is a real challenge for the new administration. and i get the impression, and i understand what jason is saying, we do have a government in power right now, but i think they're kicking the can down the road because syria just has no solution as far as this administration is concerned. >> all right. jason i want to focus on the position of national security adviser, michael flynn is trump's only pick for that position. it's no secret that flynn considers obama weak and spineless. that's what he'

i'll take the ticklers off your hands for a weekend if you agree to host the gentleman from hezbollah. [laughter] i'm serious about that too. [laughter] rather than be offended or suspicious, iranians should perhaps be grateful that somewhere down near antarctica is a country whose entire population appears to have a serious case of ocd. but seriously, i believe that my status as an outsider, as a non-iranian historian has been more of a help than a hindrance. for a start, i see things that iranian scholars have overlooked or perhaps did not think were significant. the issues i am interested in and the questions i ask are different. my training as an investigative researcher has also been a big help. some iranian intellectuals expressed irritation when i pointed out that many of my iranian interviewees said they felt more comfortable talking with a non-iranian scholar because they did not trust a fellow iranian to fairly represent their views. but rather than castigate me, perhaps my critics should look at the way they conduct themselves and why this level of distrust exists in the fi

he's 81 years old, and a strong ally of the islamist militant group, hezbollah. election took several rounds of voting, after extra ballots suspiciously appeared in the ballot box for the first few counts. aoun's win is a victory for pro- iranian forces in the region. turkey has opened another phase of the crackdown that began after last summer's failed coup. today, police arrested the chief editor and 11 senior staff of a major opposition newspaper. supporters rallied outside the newspaper offices-- one of the oldest in turkey. a cartoonist for the paper condemned the attempts to silence journalists. >> ( translated ): this is ridiculous. you will not intimidate anyone by putting pressure, i want to say that. it is impossible for people with conscience to endorse this scene. you cannot justify this to the world. today, i am being detained for drawing cartoons, and only for drawing cartoons. >> woodruff: just yesterday, another 10,000 people were fired from their government jobs in turkey. more than 100,000 have been dismissed since the coup. police in pakistan a

syria fighting in a very complex battlefield where turkish, syrian, russian, iranian, lebanese, hezbollah, kurdish forces are operating in close proximity as evidenced by recent developmentedevelopments in theg catastrophe in aleppo. i continue to believe, and i will say this in a very personal way as a military dad, that the troops we have deployed overseas deserve to know that congress is behind this mission. at this war has expanded into two-plus years -, more and moref our troops are risking and losing their lives far from home, i am concerned and raise again something i've raised often on this floor -- that there is a tacit greement avoid debating this war in the one place it all the to be debated: in the halls of congress. the president maintains that he can conduct this war without a new authorization from congress, relying upon an authorization that was passed on september 14, 2001, when the new congress is sworn in in early january, i think 80% of the members of congress were not here when the september 14, 2001, authorize was passed. so the 80% of us that were not here in 2001 h

two commanders, one is the bonner corps commander, the second is a designated terrorist who leads hezbollahother leader of his designated terrorist "league ofn, called the righteous." they said that the mosul operation isn't about liberating from isis, but to avenge what happened working hundred years ago. -- happened 1400 years ago. the comparison i can make between the 2007 search and this isis strategy today. i was on the ground during the surge and i recently came back. at no time have we allowed or been part of, meaning supporting, a military force half-life sectarian flags was a sunni town. that is what happens today. when you look at the next 80 days, we should be concerned havethe parties that don't the mission of securing the population believe they have 80 days to do as much as they want. this is also in syria. they literally believe they have 80 days to as get as much as they can, and wait and see what happens with the u.s. election. i won't go into the specifics, but we talked about that this morning. interesting polling numbers, of iraq that is not so much as they prefer, they

should remain in place as we address how best to deal with the iranian missile test, support to hezbollah, and support of the syrian regime. as we come to the end of this year and of this congress, we'll continue our efforts to complete the business before us. members have been working diligently on their respective conference committees to conclude the outstanding conference reports on the defense authorization bill, the water ways infrastructure and resources bill, and the energy policy modernization bill. i look forward to the full senate taking up these measures as they are available so we can pass final legislation to be signed into law. in the coming days, the senate will also consider a critical and bipartisan medical innovation bill known as the 21st century cures as well as a continuing resolution to keep the government funded and carry us into the spring. mr. reid: note the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: the presiding officer: the democratic leader. mr. reid: i can consent the quorum call be terminated. the presiding office