a fight jamie mcintire has the story. >> john it is perhaps an understatement than closing guantanamo is easier said than done. but president obama still has it on his to do list for his last two years and last night he vowed to get it done. >> it is time to close gitmo.

john. >> jamie mcintire reporting. coming up. texas citizens carrying guns. washington has already cost $10 million and it has barely begun. the cost of death penalty cases coming up next. ming up next. >> contaminated water and polluted farmland near glendive, montana. 50,000 gallons of crude oil poured into the river last weekend, the second major spill in four years. most of the contamination trapped under ice. investigators still trying to determine the cause. for more on this story you'll want to go to aljazeera.com. >>> a high profile death penalty case is finally getting underway in washington state. but it took five years to get there. allen schauffler is in washington with that. allen. >> we are just getting started just beginning ohear witness testimony in this case john and it's already very expensive. once again washingtonians having to consider the questions around what is the cost of killing a killer? is it worth it shall we go on? all of this with the defense side and the prosecution side split on exactly who's to blame for the rising price. >>

jamie mcin tier. mcintire. jamie. >> not reducing the overall compensation for u.s. troops but the reforms could be a hard sell if it looks like they're going to cause the pentagon problems in recruiting and retaining top-notch personnel. it's pricey weapons like the uber expensive fighter jet $144 million, that give the pentagon a reputation of spending beyond its means. >> the cost of people recruiting retention medical care the simple cost of manpower cost for pentagon eats up more than 50% of our dollars. and those costs are rising every year. >> reporter: a committee of retired military officers and politicians with military expertise is now recommending an overhaul of the system. its most potentially contentious recommendations, cut base retirement pay but add a 401(k) style plan but continue full retirement benefits after 20 years and eliminate tricare the military's health care program and replace it with private health care plans. predictably many are upset. >> instead of maintaining a system that's worked well for years, we're going to force soldiers to put

jamie mcintire has more from the pentagon. >> 15 recommendations designed to save the pentagon billions of dollars without reducing the overall compensation of troops. but the reforms could prove to be a hard sell if it appears they make it harder to retain and recruit top-notch people in the future. its pricey weapons like the uber expensive f-16 fighter price tag $144 million gives the pentagon its reputation of spending beyond its means. but that is not the only thing that is going to bus the budget. >> the simple cost of manpower cost for the pentagon eats up more than 50% of our dollars and those costs are rising every year. >> politician he with military expertise is now recommending an overhaul of the system. its most potentially contentious contentious, continue full retirement benefits after 20 years and eliminate tricare the military's health care plan and replace it by private health care plans. predictly many are upset. >> instead of maintaining a system that's worked well, defined benefit system, we're going to force military to put their plans in a casino plan. >> reservin

jamie mcintire reports. >> license to steal from citizens who were not convicted or even charged with a crime. the leg legal name is civil asset forfeiture. seizing assets from americans whom the police believe are suspected of law breaking. state police were able to keep up to 80% of the proceeds that they kept, money that often went directly into their local budgets. it became a significant source of funding for many police departments across the country and it gave rise to a whole industry of consultants who advised the police on how to maximize these seizures, especially after routine traffic stops. targeting anyone they suspect of criminal intent, often that suspicion was only after discovering that person has a large amount of cash. you had to prove you were innocent not other way around. in a statement today attorney general eric holder said acknowledge asset forfeiture remains a key tool, adding the new policy that these authorities can continue to be use to take the profit out of crime and return assets to victims while safeguarding civil liberties. under the new rules the po

now they're explaining why and here is jamie mcintire. >> james comey used his top billing to rebut the skeptics who have rebutted the case against north korea for the sony attack. >> there is not much in this life i have high confidence about, i have very high confidence about this a attribution. >> blog about their doubts, typical was scott borg, who posted on cnbc, north korea has never before demonstrated any advanced hacking capabilities. more important it hardly has any way of acquiring those capabilities. >> some serious folks have suggested that we have it wrong. i would suggest not suggesting i'm saying, they don't have the facts that i have. don't see what i see. >> the most popular counter-theory was that it was an inside job with the keys to the sony kingdom supplied by a disgruntled former employee who was laid off last may. speaking to the website the security measure kurtsteinberg said his be company identified three individuals one sony employee a ten year veteran of the company. comey has been under pressure to go beyond the statements, that the many hack was connected

jamie mcintire is in washington with details. jamie. >> john this order from attorney general acre holder puts on hold civil lib libertarians, not even charged with a crime. the legal term is civil asset forfeiture. billions of dollars of property and cash of americans whom the police simply suspect of criminal activity, without ever having to prove anything. the program that holder is actually putting the brakes on is known as the equitable sharing program and under it, local police state police are able to keep up to 80% of the proceeds of money they kept, often went directly into their local budgets. it became a significant source of funding for many police departments around the country and gave rise to a whole industry of consultants who advised the police how to maximize these seizures, especially after routine traffic stops. to target anyone they suspected of criminal intent and thoofn suspicion was based -- often that suspicion was based on, getting that money an back you wrote have to hire an attorney and would you have t

start with jamie mcintire tonight in washington. >> even with the two wars, the pentagon budget continuesp, still it's over $500 billion, nearly half of all federal spending. and it's not just wars that makes the pentagon budget hard to cut. it is the costly weapon, the f-47 fighter jet the most expensive jet ever made. one of the biggest areas of unnecessary spending, excess infrastructure. more basing capacity than it needs and the pentagon can't close bases militarily because each base is in someone's district. not something congress is in the mood to do so don't expect the president to ask for it in his state of the union address. >> i'm jake ward, under president obama's predecessor president bush, under the current president the technology came on line. we have seen outrage opportunity nsa bulk collection of data, but those systems are getting better and better stronger and stronger no sign it is going to end any time soon. there is five different programs from picking up conversations on the phone transcribing them, and noticing appearance in the atmosphere. all of this thing is ge

jamie mcintire is in washington. >> john, u.s. law enforcement officials have been dismissing skeptics and insisting the evidence against north korea is solid. it turns out some of that high confidence the u.s. has may be because the u.s. hacked north korea before north korea hacked sony. >> hello everybody, really got afull house today hmm? >> president obama has been unequivocal in blaming north korea for the hack of sony pictures in november of last year. >> the fbi announced today and we can confirm that north korea engaged in this attack. >> but some cyber experts remain skeptical. was north korea really capable of such a complex cyber-attack? a newly revealed document provides a tantalizing clue suggesting the u.s. had such information, top secret and published online by the german magazine der spiegel big win computer jargon describing what's called a zero-day program, in this case planted by someone else, u.s. hackers then took advantage of. what the document suggests is the ition was deep inside north korea's cyber hackin

jamie mcintire has that story. >> john, there is little to be done about the fate of the two japanese hostages short of a rescue mission that would be very risky. meanwhile, the pentagon is make its case that it is making progress in the war against i.s.i.l. nighttime air strike on a bunker near baji, iraq, the u.s. referred to as the acronym dash. just one of many strikes that the u.s. and its allies conducted against i.s.i.l. secretary of state john kerry says the air assault has dash on its heels. >> no large dash unit can move forward aggressively without worrying what will come down from the skies now. >> reporter: in a meeting from london the day before, kerry f stated statistics. outgoing secretary of defense chuck hagel says it is no yardstick of success. >> it is a measurement but i don't think it's the measurement. i mean, i was in a war where there was a lot of body counts everyday and we lost that war. >> reporter: but pentagon sources paint a more nuanceed picture. it all points to a summer offensive to retake mosul the key iraqi city that fell to i.s.i.l. fighters last y

. >> jamie mcintire, thank thank you. ing even before this was confirmed president obama was talking about making the cyber world safer. he proposed a cyber bull of rights. efforts to keep kids safe as well. >> today we're proposing the students digital privacy act. -- student digital privacy act data collected should be for educational purposes not to market to our children. we want to prevent companies from selling data to third appeared other thanparties other than education. >> free access to credit scores. >>> french police say up to 6 sell members may be at large -- cell members may be at large. as france increases its security. the country's interior minister announced today that 10,000 soldiers and police officers are being deployed, at jewish schools and synagogues to deter more attacks. al jazeera's recovery challengeal jazeera's rory challenge has more. >> one of hundreds of places the interior prints feels it minister feels it is vulnerable. >> 770 schools and places of worship have been identified by security

jamie mcintire joins us. what more do we know about this? >> you know tony u.s. intelligence and law enforcement officials have been dismissing skeptics insisting that the evidence against north korea is unassailable. now it turns out that the reason they have such high confidence that north korea has hacked sony because the united states may have hacked north korea first. >> hello everybody really have a full house hmm? >> president obama is adamant about insisting the north korea hack of sony last year. >> we can confirm that north korea engaged in this attack. >> some cyber-experts remain skeptical. was north korea capable of such a cyber attack? tantalizing clue suggesting u.s. had inside information. the document was labeled top secret and posted online by der spiegel. we were able to repurpose it big win that's computer jargon describing what's called a zero day program in this case planted by someone else, a program u.s. government hackers then took advantage of. what the document suggests is that the u.s. was deep inside north korea's cyber-hacking unit m