let's bring in nbc's chief pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. what is this all about, jim. >> reporter: the u.s. military doesn't like to talk about these top see drones, but in this case had no choice. they do admit they lost remote control of one of the drones as it flew a surveillance mission along the iran/afghanistan border. the drone crashed inside iran and what was left apparently recovered by the iranian military. the iranians say it is a super secret stealth drone called an rq-170, which looks more like a flying wing than an airplane. it is the same kind of drone that provided overhead pictures of that compound in pakistan where osama bin laden was killed. it is not clear, really, what technology or intelligence the iranians could actually get from this crashed drone, but given the increasing tensions with iran, this would at least be a huge propaganda victory for the iranians. lester? >> mik, there is news about the incident that took place a week ago in pakistan, the nato attack that left four pakistani soldiers dead. what do we know.

tonight, brian, the cia has no comment. >> all right, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon tonight. jim, thanks. >>> news tonight from russia. there were big protests in moscow and st. petersburg, the biggest in years after parliamentary election results over the weekend, thousands in the streets accusing the party of vladimir putin, who wants to be president again, of rigging the election to keep a hold on power. there were widespread reports of ballot box stuffing. today, western election monitors did report widespread fraud in those russian elections. >>> the santa anas are back at it in southern california. not as bad as last week, but the winds are kicking up once again. today they hit 64 miles an hour in malibu. it's the last thing the area needs after last week's damage and power outages. a lot of it's still being repaired. that story of course has to do with our current earth but we learned today there may be another one out there. astronomers report the discovery of what they are calling an earth-like planet 600 light years away from here. while it is very big it looks like

jim miklaszewski with the news out of the pentagon tonight. jim, thanks. >>> a lot of parents may have heard today a major college campus in this country was on lockdown for much of the day. the campus was virginia tech and the reason was all too familiar. there had been a fatal shooting there. for a time it appeared the gunman was on the loose. it all started with what police describe as a routine traffic stop. our justice correspondent pete williams picks up the story. >> reporter: it was just after noon, the university says, when a virginia tech policeman pulled over the driver of a car in a campus parking lot. police say another man walked up and shot and killed the policeman, then ran off toward a nearby rec center building. officers hurrying to the scene found a second body. >> in light of the turmoil and the trauma and the tragedy suffered by this campus by guns, i can only say that words don't describe our feelings and they are most elusive at this point in time. our hearts are broken again for the family of our police officer. >> repo

we get details tonight from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: the u.s. combat forces were on a night mission in a mountainous region along the pakistani border when they came under fierce attack. the americans and afghan soldiers came under heavy machine gun fire from a ridgeline inside pakistan. u.s. war planes fired off a barrage of flares, lighting up the valley and making it clear those were americans on the ground. but the attack raged on. assured there were no pakistani forces nearby, an ac-130 and apache helicopters pounded them with rockets and cannon fire, killing 24 pakistani soldiers. but how could this happen? a u.s. military investigation found miscommunications and a lack of coordination between u.s. and pakistani forces. and american commanders' maps were nine miles off target. more disturbing the u.s. military gave the pakistanis imprecise information during the operation because the americans simply don't trust them. and that distrust and suspicion is mutual. >> they lose sight of the fact that they have very shared, common interests in

jim miklaszewski, nbc news, washington. >>> overseas tonight, clashes continue in and around cairo's tahrir square. at least ten protesters have been killed, and more than 400 wounded in three days of violence as egyptian troops cracked down on the protesters who are demanding the nation's ruling military immediately step down. today's protests have been fuld by an image sparking outrage around the world. it is of a woman being stopped by egyptian police, her head scarf pulled over her face. >>> in the philippines, a staggering death toll following torrential rains and flash floods. officials there say at least 650 people are dead, and more than 800 missing. many of them washed away as they slept. >>> tributes are pouring in from around the world tonight, remembering an anti-communist champion who led czechoslovakia's 1989 velvet revolution. vaclav havel was a dissident playwright who spent years suffering in communist jails before become his country's first democratically elected leader. he proved that moral leadership is more powerful than any weapon. he passed away at his home in

we get details tonight from our pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski. >> reporter: the u.s. combat forces were on a night mission in a mountainous region along the pakistani border when they came under fierce attack. the americans and afghan soldiers came under heavy machine gun fire from a ridgeline inside pakistan. u.s. par planes fired off a barrage of flares, lighting up the valley and making it clear those were americans on the ground. but the attack raged on. assured there were no pakistani forces nearby, apache helicopters pounded them with cannons and rocket fire killing 24 pakistani soldiers. but how could this happen? a u.s. military investigation found miscommunications and a lack of coordination between u.s. and pakistani forces. and american commanders maps were nine miles off target. more disturbing the u.s. military gave the pakistanis imprecise information during the operation because the americans simply don't trust them. and that distrust and suspicion is mutual. >> they lose sight of the fact that they have very shared, common interests in the region. and

nbc's jim miklaszewski is live at the pentagon this morning. they say happened to this drone? >> reporter: there was a drone flying in western afghanistan along the iran border. and that kmonders on the ground, those remote control pilots, suddenly lost all control of the aircraft, which then disappeared. which indicates it could have just veered off into iran perhaps and eventually as it ran out of fuel, crashed. but all of this is pretty much a mystery. iran claims it shot down this unmanned drone. they claim it was an rq 170. a super secret stealth drone used by the u.s. for example in the operation that killed osama bin laden in pakistan. but they offered no photographic evidence that they've actually recovered an rq 170. in the meantime, the u.s. will only say that they lost a drone. won't say what kind. and there are also some questions being raised about if this were an rq 170 mission, they would have been tasked for a specific operation. what along the border would have been so specific that would have required that kind of really high

jim miklaszewski joins me now. what's the latest? is in contact with pakistani officials to try to find some way to get the pakistanis behind an effort to track down and find mr. weinstein. quite frankly, u.s. officials say this could be a tough one. it's probably a case where armed militants there in pakistan grabbed up weinstein about four or five months ago. then it took that long before he was handed over to al qaeda and we saw this message from zawahiri. one of the troubles factors about all this is that in this taped message, zawahiri called for the end of bombing of militant camps throughout that region and emptying of the prison at guantanamo in exchange of all those prisoners -- in exchange for weinstein. those are the kinds of issues that just not possible. so the fate of mr. weinstein does not -- it does not bode well currently for the fate of mr. weinstein, quite frankly, because the idea that the u.s. could go in there and launch a kind of raid to rescue weinstein is probably not in the cards in the near term, at least.

officials tell our own jim miklaszewski at the pentagon that the cia had used this sophisticated stealth drone in the past to spy on iran's nuclear facilities and hezbollah training camps within iran. but officials would not describe the mission it was flying when it crashed last thursday. >>> in april of last year, 29 men died in the explosion in the upper big branch mine in west virginia. as you'll recall, it was a huge story and a genuine national tragedy. today the mines' owner agreed to pay more than $200 million in penalties and restitution to the families of the victims. nbc's tom costello covered the disaster, and tonight he has more on the settlement. >> reporter: it's a tragedy that still haunts west virginia coal country. 29 men, husbands, fathers, brothers, sons and uncles died when a huge explosion ripped through the upper big branch mine in april 2010. soon after, we talked to tommy davis, who lost his own son, as well as a brother and a nephew. >> why? why did it happen? somebody tell me. why am i not coming home, seeing my son on my couch. >> reporter: federal and state i

for more i'm joined by jim miklaszewski. this is a highly sophisticated drone. did ground commanders lose control, and what kind of intelligence might it provide to the iranians? >> the technology is great whether it works, but it doesn't always work, martin. in fact, over the history of these so-called drone wars, a number of predator drones and other kinds of drones have actually just been lost in the operations. they somehow lose or disconnect between the ground controllers and the aircrafts themselves, and that appears to be what happened in this case. now, the u.s. military officials tell us that this drone, once it crossed into iran, eventually ran out of fuel and crashed. so it's not clear what kind of shape it is in or what kind of intelligence can be recovered. there are high-tech cameras and high thif tech sensors on board and the stealth technology itself. but experts say even with all that, it would be difficult for the iranians and take some time, actually, for them to actually exploit it and reverse engineer it to their benefit, martin. >> jim, you

nbc news pentagon correspondent jim miklaszewski joins us live to explain. itself, the drone that iran says it recovered, they said they did so and it's mostly intact, correct? >> that's what they're claiming. they've offered no photographic evidence that they have in fact recovered what would have been a crashed drone. and in this case, they claim it's an rq 170. which is an advanced super secret stealth drone that the u.s. has used in operations such as the killing of osama bin laden in pakistan. but in terms of the covert war, u.s. military and officials here in the pentagon stress that the u.s. military is not flying drones, neither is the cia, flying drones over iran. they claim they've got enough satellites in the sky to collect that kind of information that they might glean from a drone. in this case, they say they were flying a drone on a routine surveillance mission inside afghanistan when they suddenly lost control of the drone. it appears to have crossed over into iran. maybe run out of fuel and eventually crashed. again, despite iranian claims an

joining me now is nbc's pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski and jim cohen as well. to be a complete withdrawal of the american forces by the end of this month? >> reporter: that's right, thomas. it's obvious that all american troops are going to be out of iraq probably within about ten days or so. it's going to come rather rapidly. but that doesn't mean they'll all be coming home. the u.s. intends to keep as many as 5,000 forces there to put together a brigade in kuwait as a stopgap just in case things should get out of hand and the iraqis need some kind of support. now, that number of troops is not going to make a huge difference in iraq. what we're really talking about is that the u.s. military wants to keep a military-to-military contact with iraq. eventually there will be trainers, there will be advisers inside iraq in small numbers. but it's not only about keeping that contact but keeping the kind of influence that the u.s. military would like to maintain with the iraqi military in the future. those kinds of connections, it's believed not only this iraq but in

and also with us onset, jim miklaszewski. >> let's begin with you.at killed 24 -- give us the details. >> well, the u.s. military investigation into this has been completed. it's been given to the commander. and what it found is here's the key point to what it found. that night in october, u.s. special operations and afghan forces were conducting an operation along the afghan border and took some fire from across the border. now, there are coordination centers that allow the militaries of both sides pak and u.s. to talk to each other. and there were communications. but when the americans phoned in the information to the pakistanis about the sight from which they were taking fire, they gave them the wrong coordinates, they gave them something nine miles away, so the pakistani on duty said, not our guys, not a problem, boom, they attacked killed 24 pakistanis. there are going to be mea culpas all over the place. the pakistanis have cut off the flow of the vital supplies to our forces in afghanistan, about 70% of what they need comes through pakistan, a

jim miklaszewski joins us live.he days of this hearing revolve around manning's personal background. >> that's right, but quickly the evidence today that was presented by a computer forensics expert indicates according to this expert that there were 10,000 classified do you means that had been downloaded from some of those secret intelligence computers there in that cell to bradley manning's personal computers. that is a charge against manning. the same expert testified that none of that showed up on wikileaks. he is accused of downloading and stealing more than 400,000 documents so some of that evidence is likely to come out later n. terms of his personal life, the defense attorneys are trying to turn this around on the army. they say first of all, one of the reasons all these documents were stolen in the first place is because of the army's lax security in that intel center and manning himself had personal problems. he had gender identity disorder and would apparently often dress as a woman and had a website on fa

nbc's jim miklaszewski joins me now from the pentagon.person has been turned over to the iraqi official or government? >> that's right, tamron and this is not the way the white house and the pentagon and the military wanted this to go. the u.s. was in very intense negotiations with the iraqi that on the departure of all american troops that they would take this suspect who is a shiite militant and lebanese-born and believed to be a member of hezbollah and operating under orders from iran when he allegedly took part or planned the raid in january of 2007 that killed five american soldiers. the white house put out a statement a short time ago that they had hoped to bring him back to the u.s. and put him before a military commission and in the end the negotiations broke down and they had to turn him over to iraqi authorities. the iraqis say they will put duke on trial. officials told me it's not believed they would try him for the killings, but simply try him for entering the country of iraq illegally and they suspect in very short order he

. >> jim miklaszewski is nbc's chief pentagon correspondent. mik, chen died in early october. what's happened since then? >> the army launched an intensive investigation. and this really is a tragedy on all levels. this 19-year-old army private, danny chen, was at a, in a platoon at a remote outpost there in southern afghanistan. when according to u.s. military officials, he was alone in his guard tower one night, and apparently, shot and killed himself. now the army investigators later determined that it appeared that chen was actually driven to suicide by many in his own platoon, because of the abuse and the ethnic slurs they threw his way. now according to army officials, it appears that chen for some reason, was underperforming and that the leadership in that platoon decided it take it out on chen quite physically. he was forced to do combat crawls with full battle gear over long distances, had rocks thrown at him reportedly. and was even forced to hold water in his mouth while held upside-down. and again, there were those ethnic slurs, constantly apparently, thrown chen's

. >> nbc news chief correspondent jim miklaszewski joins us. take us through the allegations.ot of people are wondering what exactly happened or what is alleged to have happened here. >> according to u.s. military officials and the charge sheet, it appears that 19-year-old private danny chen shot and killed himself while he was alone in a guard tower there in a remote outpost of southern afghanistan last october. now, according to u.s. military officials and the reason eight soldiers are charged in connection with this death, five of them are charged with involuntary manslaughter and negligent homicide is because it is alleged that those eight soldiers drove danny chicken to kill himself. because according to the military he was apparently an underperformer. he didn't do what he was asked to do. and then hazing or disciplinary ritual of some kind. these soldiers heaped abuse both physical, mental, and oral in materials of racial slurs on danny chen. today in new york, the president of the organization for chinese americans in new york, elizabeth, spoke on behalf of the family.

nbc's chief pentagon correspondent, jim miklaszewski has the latest. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, savannah. not surprising that the u.s. and iran would publicly fight about something, but u.s. officials strongly deny that the iranians shot down this drone. the officials say this unmanned drone was on a retuneen surveillance mission when operators lost control. it appears the drone veered off course and fell into the lapse of the iranian military. the problem is this is not just any drone. the iranians claim it's an rq-170, a super secret stealth drone that looks more like a flying wing than an airplane and the same kind of drone that secretly circled over that compound in pakistan where osama bin laden was killed. but the concern here, though, is that this could be a technology bonanza for the iranians, that they could try to retrieve the drone's high-tech cameras and sensors, even its stealth technology to try to develop it for themselves. but even if they can't, this episode in itself could prove to be a huge propaganda coup. >> mik, than