lou: senator, always great to talk with you, senator james risch. >>> good talking with the senator, and a man that's plain spoken himself. time for a look at our online poll results. we asked -- be sure to vote in tonight's poll. the question -- cast your vote at loudobbs.com. opening statements today began in stephenville, texas, in the trial of eddie ray routh the alleged killer of real life american sniper chris kyle. prosecutors argued routh a former marine was numb by marijuana and whiskey at the time of the fatal shooting. defense attorneys say routh suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder and that's why they say he shot both kyle and his friend chad littlefield at a gun range in 2013. kyle's wife also choked back her tears as she testified. she knew something was off when she spoke to kyle at shooting range and he was quick on the phone. the trial is expected to take about two weeks. >>> up next, topless demonstrators storming another trial. a trial about lavish orgies with prostitutes and the powerful men who attend them. a full report on dominique strauss-kahn's legal

thank you. >>> joining us, senator james risch risch, a member of the foreign relations and intelligence, thanks very much for joining us. what's going on in yemen looks totally like a disaster. the u.s. the saudis germany, italians they are all pulling out, shutting down the embassies right now. how concerned are you that yemen potentially could be ruled at least huge chunks of it by aqap al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, which is based in yemen? >> wolf i guess the conclusion from your story is chaos reigns. that has never been a terriblebly secure place. there's always been difficulties there. the country has been divided with houthis in charge of one area and the al qaeda in charge of another area. but now where we have pulled out and pulled out some of the key operations that we have there, it's going to be more difficult to operate within yemen. we have been operating for some time as you know but the president will have to step it up there. there's no question about it. i think on the top of the story, there's good news there, not the least of which is the iraqis actually stood a

. >> senator james risch. >>> denied victories elsewhere, our troops are celebrating success in the fight against ebola in west africa. a significant improvement in the region's number of ebola cases, new cases dropping to about 150 each week. that's down sharply from the more than 1,000 cases a week back in october. as a result president obama is ordering our troops to return home in stages after about four months in the battle to control the ebola outbreak, the worst in history. >> more than 1,500 of our troops have been able to return. today i'm announcing that by april 30th all but 100, who will remain to support the ongoing response, all but those 100 will also be able to come home. >> on capitol hill the republican-led house today passed a bill calling on the obama administration to approve construction of the keystone pipeline. the legislation already passing in the senate. so today's 270-152 vote sends the measure to president obama. but he's already vowed to veto it. president obama has ten days to do so and republicans as of right now don't have the votes to override it. those w

. >>> we're back with senator james risch talking about isis the terror group who has unleashed new airikes. we're talking about qatar right now. are they are a friendly -- i mean are they a reliable ally? the u.s. has one military base there, about 8 or 9,000 american troops but there's still deep suspicion that elements in qatar are supporting some of these terror groups. >> al jazeera is headquartered in qatar. we have a common interest with qatar. there are other things we don't have a common interest in. as with many kourntscountries in the world, even our best allies having said all that certainly qatar has been helpful to us in many regards. >> we have 8 or 9,000 there, the ground troops it's been helpful on that but the suspicion that they are supporting the muslim brotherhood and other terror groups out there as well. >> when you say they -- >> not necessarily the amir but the government. >> very rich people. >> that's exactly right. that's one of the problems. there are some people that are very rich there who are clearly sympathetic with elements that are radical. >> should t

we just heard here in "the situation room", senator james risch, saying that isis is in his words moving ahead and attack the u.s. homeland. let's get more. joining us are peter bergen our military analyst, general mark hurtling tom fuentes and justice reporter evan perez. those were strong words. he says they are moving beyond aspiration, we're going to have to do something. we have reason to believe it is moving beyond aspirational. those are strong words. what do you think he's driving at? >> well what we know in the public record is that 20 americans have joined or attempts to join isis or al qaeda in syria. that's a different number than what you see in europe where we have seen hundreds. one particular country like france. i'm skeptical about that claim. yes, we have seen americans who have been in touch with isis. >> what you have heard, evan? this is a significant statement by this senator, senator rich that they obviously had aspirations to go after the u.s. homeland but now it's moving beyond aspiration. >> you know this is something ask about every have i law enforcement offic

senator james risch open your show last week said isis was moving beyond aspirational when it came to.s. >> phil mudd this guy was being sought after, he was operating out of greece. somehow he manages to get from greece presumably to turkey then across the border into syria. how does this happen despite an international manhunt? >> look i don't think this is a big surprise. you are talking about an isis organization that has years of experience in smuggling people across the border. greece is right across from turkey across from syria. i suspect he had his plan organized and that isis knew which border points were vulnerable. the real question is not whether he made it across the border so quickly, it's what his life expectancy is now that he's in syria. in my experience something like this in a war zone and who is the target of western security forces including the cia where i served, life expeckkctancyexpectancy one to five years. >> we will see. how dangerous could he be if he's operating from inside syria? >> well he certainly has some information on the plot wolf. i want to go b