was curious because yesterday the white house unveiled their new counterterrorism strategy and john brennan actually said that for the first time u.s. officials are now able to envision the demise of al qaeda do you think that's only possible are they getting cocky there. course they're going to talk they have no idea we know what's the worst part here is what we're seeing is this expansion in various ways it's easy to start even if we find that mr gates himself again my former boss when i was at cia was come out saying if any department defense secretary ever said we're going to go back into age or go back into the middle east he needs to have his head examined i believe that's the quote of the problems it's easy to get in it's very very very difficult to get out and sometimes it's very hard just to my eyes just how will your doing yes we are killing people here and there but again the problem that we have is we never know if we're actually creating more enemies than we're actually destroyed and we just don't know bad and

it is hard to imagine anyone better prepared for these responsibilities than john brennan. ining the president in 2009 mr. brennan had a lengthy career in government and the private sector. and counter-terrorism has been a threat running through his career since the early 1990s. a graduate of florida university and the university of texas at austin mr. brennan served 25 years at the cia beginning in 1980. during that time he held major responsibilities in the analysis, overseas operations and leadership at cia headquarters. he served as chief of the cia station in the middle eastern country and as chief of staff and deputy executive director at the agency. foreshadowing his current responsibilities mr. brennan designed and built the nation's first national counter-terrorism center and following his cia career, mr. brennan was the president and ceo of the analysis corp. and chairman of the intelligence national security alliance, association of public and private sector national security leaders. for anyone who knows mr. brennan there is something greater than the sum of thes

it is my pleasure to present to you john brennan. >> thank you very much. thank you for being here today. thank you for your service. it is a special pleasure for me to be introduced by john, and a friend and colleague of many years and one of our nation's greatest intelligence professionals. he was referred to as the world's smartest man. here is frequently introduced that way. he is also the world's nicest man. is also the world's greatest magician. if you have not seen his magic, you are missing out. it is a pleasure for me to be here. this institution has instilled generations of public servants. this is essential for conduct of foreign policy. so what to thank them for their emphasis on national security. they will introduce students to the intelligence community and inspiring the next generation of intelligence professionals. it is wonderful to see so many friends and colleagues that i've had the privilege to work with. we are devoting your lives to helping protect this nation for many threats. this is the continued threat. we are releasing his nation

. >> please think john brennan. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> >> tonight, president obama's what else press conference is next. lettuce continued with press conferences with senate democratic and republican leaders. >> tomorrow, the senate homeland security committee holds a hearing on afghanistan reconstruction contracts. live coverage begins at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span and c- span.org. tune into c-span this independence day. panelists discuss its united states can remain united. >> at the political level, we are more divided. you look at partisan polarization. >> then the dali lama talks about the violence, religion, and the death penalty. this monday, july 4th, beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. for the complete schedule of programs and times, go to c- span.org. >> after four and a half years and two presidents, defense secretary robert gates is set to retire this week. he will be replaced by outgoing cia

we are going to move on to item no. 8, protesting the issuance on march 24, 2011 to john brennan, a permit to alter a building, a provision to bpa 2010/10/18/3214. >> i am the appellant. i think many of you will remember we had a hearing on march 16 that ran quite late. you heard quite a bit of feedback regarding a variety of things relating to his particular permit and not for the proposed development of of steak. -- development. if we were following the law as written, we would be having a conditional use hearing. i want to point out three issues regarding the permit. this was amended on march 24. it required an notification for 30 days of would have allowed neighbors to request discretionary review. that's never happened. instead of moving forward, the resubmitted the new permits, which is been -- being repealed. this movement to avoid a hearing should not be permitted. i am first asking that you rule to go through the process required of them in the first place. there is the permit and the notification for that. the second issue is the square footage requirement. i understand there are

we will also be live at 12:30 eastern as president obama's counter-terrorism director john brennan talks about the campaign against al qaeda. the former cia director john mclaughlin will moderate a discussion. that will follow the presidential news conference. also, more coverage from capitol hill as a senate homeland security committee holds a hearing on diplomatic security. a recent report says diplomatic security service is not prepared for terrorist threats. that hearing is at 2:30 eastern, here on c-span. >> again, the president is due out in a few minutes. he will talk about the economy and a few questions about afghanistan, particularly in response to the attack at the intracochlear -- intercontinental hotel in kabul. we spoke to a journalist this morning on "washington journal" to get an update. .ere's a front-page story gunmen stormed a luxury hotel in afghanistan. what happened? guest: it looks like it was nine insurgents from the taliban, several of them wearing suicide bus, who attacked the hotel -- suicide veests. roof.of them or on the grow they were indiscriminately killin

john brennan, assistant to the president for homeland security, talks about counterterrorism strategyeastern. that will be live at 2:30 p.m. eastern with a hearing on diplomatic security. and in about 45in

john brennan, the adviser to president obama, was out in saudi arabia this week trying to get president saleh to sign this deal. the u.s. wants president saleh out. they stood by him for a really long time because he was an ally in the war on ter. >> reporter: this presents an opportunity for al qaeda and extremist groups to exploit the vacuum in the country. this week secretary of state clinton was as emphatic as anybody has been around yemen saying it's time for president saleh to get out, move out of the way for a transition to democracy, marty. >> i want to turn the corner real quick while we have time to talk about libyan. new developments on the libyan woman who was allegedly gang raped by moammar gadhafi security forces. what have we learned in the new information about her whereabouts? >> this poor women really hasn't been able to get a break. not only after she was claimed that she was raped by libyan forces, then they detained her. she finally escaped to tunisia and on ward to qatar where she was deported back to libya. we understand she has made it out of qatar. she's on her

john brennan, the counter terrorism adviser has gone to yemen to see if he can broker some deal. this is one of those cases where it has been very valuable that president obama has not jumped up and down and said president salei has to go because we certainly want to see if we can ease him out, but we don't want yemen to be taken over by al qaeda. >> having said that, the u.s. statements have gotten somewhat stronger in terms of his response which has been repressive, there lz been violence used by the government and not to the extreme of syria or libia, certainly, but our statements in response to his use of force have gotten stronger over time. >> clearly, we are trying to engineer an exit strategy for him and it's been very frustrating because he seems to agree to an exit strategy and then has buyer's remorse the next day partly because he's trying to protect various elements of an entourage of family and things like that, but at the end of the day we need to find a way for him to go without total chaos because that will certainly benefit al qaeda. >> once again, we have the p

moderate muslim" or if you prefer "personal jihad," and i want to go to a couple people you quote, john brennanthe chief terrorism adviser and james clapper, the national intelligence. clapper said in front the congress, the brotherhood, the club of greater cairo and brennan said jihad is a good thing because it's like a personal struggle. now, as you have interviewed people, studied this, if you take the average muslim imgrant to this country, do they believe that or are they up clined to be -- inclined to the text which jihad is not a personal struggle, but a global struggle for dominance and it's not achieved until people of the book, christians, jews, and other nonbelievers submit to us or are dead? >> guest: not every muslim believes that, thank god. i work with many muslims here in washington, d.c. who don't want jihad and they are truly moderate, but look, polls show, and i point them out in the book that -- this is a pugh research poll. some 13% of american-muslims support suicide bombings in some shape or form. that number rises to 26% when talking about young american muslims. that's

. >> reporter: president obama has dispatched counterterror advisor john brennan to the region. he'll be in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates later this week for talks on yemen. in syria, government troops killed nearly 50 more protesters in the last 24 hours, even as the regime freed about 500 political prisoners. troops opened fire tuesday and again today in rastan, killing 41 people. and in the south, shelling in hirak claimed eight more lives. elsewhere, protesters marched in homs, carrying images of a 13- year-old boy, hamza ali al- khateeb. his death, apparently after being tortured, has become a flashpoint. the government of president bashar al-assad now is promising an investigation into the boy's killing. a state of emergency was lifted today in the persian gulf kingdom of bahrain, home to the u.s. fifth fleet. tanks and soldiers pulled out of the capital, manama, but police stayed at a number of checkpoints. majority shiites began protesting in february, demanding a greater share of power. but in march, bahrain's sunni leaders called in troops from saudi arabia

and i want to go to a couple of people that you quote in this book, john brennan, the president's chief counterterrorism advisor and of course james clapper was the director of national intelligence. clapper said in front of congress muslim brotherhood, secular organization, kind of like the club of greater cairo. and of course, brennan has been saying jihadists a good thing because it's like a personal struggle. now, as you interview people, as you have studied this, if you take the average muslim immigrant to this country, do they believe that? or are they inclined to be scripted that says jihadists not a personal struggle it is a global struggle predominance and it's not achieved until people of the book, christians and jews and other non-believers are either submitting to us or our did. >> host: >> guest: not every muslim believes that. i work with many in washington, d.c. who don't want jihad, don't want sharia and they are truly moderate. but look, i point them out in the book that some 13 -- this is a key research poll. doesn't get more than pew. 13% of american muslims support s

john brennan, the counter terrorism adviser has gone to yemen to see if he can broker some deal.is one of those cases where it has been very valuable that president obama has not jumped up and down and said president salei has to go because we certainly want to see if we can ease him out, but we don't want yemen to be taken over by al qaeda. >> having said that, the u.s. statements have gotten somewhat stronger in terms of his response which has been repressive, there lz been violence used by the government and not to the extreme of syria or libia, certainly, but our statements in response to his use of force have gotten stronger over time. >> clearly, we are trying to engineer an exit strategy for him and it's been very frustrating because he seems to agree to an exit strategy and then has buyer's remorse the next day partly because he's trying to protect various elements of an entourage of family and things like that, but at the end of the day we need to find a way for him to go without total chaos because that will certainly benefit al qaeda. >> once again, we have the paradox

in the words of john brennan, the assistant to president obama, break the back of al qaeda's leadership. >> suarez: juan-carlos zarate, thanks for joining us. >> thank you, ray. >> ifill: now, to pakistan. several new bombings shook the peace there again today, including the first suicide bomb attack in the capital, islamabad. at least one person died and three others were wounded. there were also attacks in the tribal areas, killing three soldiers, and in quetta. no group has claimed responsibility, but the pakistani taliban have vowed to avenge osama bin laden's killing. margaret warner gets an eyewitness account of the fraying situation on the ground. >> since the u.s. raid that killed osama bin laden in pakistan last month, deeper strains have developed between supposed allies. united states and pakistan. npr morning edition host steve inskeep just returned from a two-week trip there he's reported often from pakistan and is the author of a fourth coming-- forthcoming book, instant city, life-and-death in karachi. welcome back to the program. >> glad to be here. >> warner: now you we

[applause] >> counterterrorism in director john brennan talking about the white house strategy against al qaeda. you can read the documents on our website. we have linked it at c-span.org. news about the health care law. a court in cincinnati upholding president obama's health-care overhaul. a three-judge panel gave the ruling today, the first in favor of the health-care law, on an appeals panel, anyway. we will take you live to a senate subcommittee hearing and looking at diplomatic security, as members focus on a diminishing the military's role in iraq. we will have more on the gao report saying that the diplomatic security service is not well prepared to handle tasks like downed aircraft. the hearing is live at 2:30. the federal reserve board will the meeting on rules dealing with debt card interchange fees. we will hear about a plan mandated by the dodd-frank regulations law saying that merchants will be charged no more than 12 cents for debit card transaction. that is on c-span3. tomorrow marks a defense secretary robert gates' final day on the job. we will bring you attribute --

president obama's top national security advisor, john brennan, has been talking directly with him.s are saying that the stakes couldn't be higher. >> reporter: yemen's president saleh lies in a hospital bed in saudi arabia, severely burned, hit with shrapnel on an attack on his presidential palace. secretary of state hillary clinton issues a warning to president saleh, don't go back. >> we think an immediate transition is in the interest of the yemen knee people because the instability and lack of security currently afflicting yemen cannot be addressed until there is some process that everyone knows is going to lead to sort of the economic and political reforms that they are seeking. >> reporter: the u.s. has been working with yemen to pressure saleh to step down. fueled by an economy on life support has been overtaken by tribal and political conflict and al qaeda's most dangerous wing is exploiting that christopher bostick says that the downfall do be imminent. >> i don't think president saleh will go back. the regime says that he's going to return within days, or maybe within wee

ambassador and talked to john brennan, the president's counterterrorism adviser, he's also met with the president's son ahmed and some of his sons that run the security service, so east talking to the key players but he's generally regarded as not a particularly strong personality. gregg: we do know that al-qaeda does allegedly hold certain regions in the country. not a lot of territory, but certain regions. i take it from your comments, you do not think that they could expand that and take control of the country? >> no, i don't. i think in the few cases al-qaeda has asserted its control, it's been very sort of temporary, i would say, for example, a town, the capitol of the abian province in the south. zenzebar which they overran with 200 fighters, a lot of that day be due to saleh creating these crisis points by removing security forces by certain areas to give the logic of enduring support saying al-qaeda is going to take over so i have to leave. i'm not convinced of that. it seems with al-qaeda's brief missions, they overrun particular targets, very never run a weapons factory, but t

we had john brennan, who is the most senior terrorism official in the u.s.so happened to have served in the region go there because we concluded that saleh's presence was going to cause some sort of civil war and that an agreement had been negotiated by the saudis and this is a reasonable solution from the u.s. standpoint of having him step down but have immunity and have an orderly transition to a kind of government that, again, we could work with in the fight against al qaeda. this whole thing collapsed when he refused to sign the agreement, refused to leave the country, and now we've had these rather dramatic street battles in the capital and the resulting attack on his pals and him going off to saudi arabia. >> saudi state tv reports president saleh plans to return to yemen after he recovers from his injuries. >>> well, she captured the interests and sympathy of the world when she stormed into a hotel room full of reporters in tripoli screaming that she had been raped by moammar gadhafi's security forces. since then she has been shuttled from libya to qa

insight to what the counter terrorist strategy has been, speeches by the president, speeches by john brennanland security adviser and actions they take. we've seen increased use of drones not only in the tribal area. but also in yemen, we've saw it on the bin laden camp. this is an opportunity for president obama to articulate what his vision and effort is going to be, going forward. frankly it's gone through an interagency process but will be very mindful of what the accomplishments have been and what the goals are going forward. >> and, fran, we've seen on videotape now, we're hearing recently, as well as other al qaeda leader, embracing the arab uprisi uprising, do we think this offers an opening to fill the power vacuum in countries like egypt and tunisia? >> the frightening possibility is, look, chaos is always to the benefit of our enemies, particularly al qaeda, they can assert themselves in be nine and frankly positive democratic movement. i think what you can expect is the intelligence community, diplomatic community are watching very carefully what's going on in those countries, yo

. >> please think john brennan. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2011] >> and scott whitaker of the biotechnology industry. it begins live every day at 7:00 a.m. eastern. it used to be that we did not release transcripts of argument. now we release them within an hour. it used to be they were released at the end of the term. now it is the end of every week. we are moving in a particular direction. these prison all sorts of challenges. >> right now, watch the chief justice and his latest comments. also, american history television from our local television. >> they have a diplomatic security said today that they are engaged in marathon planning. they will be responsible for protecting roughly 70,000 diplomats and others. then eric boswell is joining to with the committee hearing. this is just under two hours. >> i called this hearing in federal work force. i will call this to order. i want to say a lot -- say aloha and welcome pawlen

secretary clinton, secretary gates, chief of staff, john brennan, etc. we will make it available. i will take some questions. >> [inaudible] >> it was not a top -- a topic of discussion. it was not on the agenda. the president has not received a recommendation from his commanders. this is not a subject for today's meeting. >> [inaudible] >> i do not have an update on scheduling. i do not have a date for you. >> [inaudible] >> the president has yet to make a decision. there were skeptics of his suggested that july 2011 was the beginning of the drawdown -- the president is going to make a decision. the pace of the drawdown. he has not made the decision, but he will make it fairly soon. in an interview earlier today, he talked about the fact that this will be a summer of transition. he has talked about some of the progress that we have made, including the elimination of osama bin laden. we have all qaeda back on its heels. there has been some stabilization in afghanistan. it is part of a process that is under way of transferring security lead to the afghan national security forces, a

john brennan spoke at the school of international studies. we will show that to you at 10:00 p.m. eastern. >> the focus of our efforts since president obama, office is the network that poses the most direct and significant threat to the united states and that is al qaeda, its affiliates and adherents. we used those terms of deliberately. it is al qaeda that has murdered our citizens in the bombings of our embassies in tanzania, to the bombing of the uss cole, to the attacks of september 11. that is the al qaeda affiliate's, groups that are part of its network or share his goals that have attempted to attack our homeland. on the peninsula based in yemen attempted to granholm an airliner over detroit then they put explosives on cargo planes sent to the united states. they send somebody on a failed attempt to blot up and suv in times square. sometimes it is individuals that have succumbed to his ideology and have engaged in or facilitated terrorist activities in the that the states. these misguided individuals are spurred on in yemen. they speak english and preach violence and show v

we had john brennan, the most senior terrorism official in the u.s. also happened to have served in the region, go there because we concluded that saleh's presence was going to cause some sort of civil war and an agreement had been negotiated by the saudis and this is a reasonable solution from the u.s. standpoint of having him step down but have immunity and have an orderly transition to a kind of government that, again, we could work with in the fight against al qaeda. this whole thing collapsed when he refused to sign the agreement, refused to leave the country, and now we've had these rather dramatic street battles in the capital and the resulting attack on his palace and him going off to saudi arabia. >> you mentioned the saudis. the u.s. and saudis are in the interesting predicament really because the saudis, mostly the arab spring has not been good for saudi arabia, they've been trying to prevent the same thing happening in their country yet find themselves in a position where they are bringing in saleh and they have to maybe send him back. wha

. >> please thank john brennan. [applause] [applause] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we go live now to capitol hill as the u.s. in convenience today after a period of general speeches. surgical take up the nomination of general david petraeus to become the next cia director. debate begins at noon eastern time. confirmation vote will happen at about 2 p.m. now to live senate coverage here on c-span2. the presiding officer: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer. the chaplain: let us pray. god of liberty, as america's birthday approaches, help us to know in this land the meaning and purpose of our freedom. may our senators seek freedom with justice, freedom to choose righteousness, and freedom to do the right thing with judicious governmental intervention. give our lawmakers such liberty of soul that their gratitude might merge with their commitment to honor you in word and deed. give each of us a sense of responsibility for his or her share

. >> john brennan has gone to sudan and is going to saudi arabia. what is his assessment of the situation in sudan and what progress do you believe was made there? and how urgent is the situation between the u.s. and saudi arabia and what you think will be accomplished in those meetings? >> well, first of all, you're right that he's made these strips. you know, we made our views known on sudan and are concerned about what is happening there very clear and mr. brennan is there to assess the situation. in terms of saudi arabia as an important partner and we are contacted at a variety of levels with the saudi government and i think this is just part of that to continue contact. i'll take one more from jackie. >> you talked about the long-term budget credit. there are talks that republicans oppose any sort of furthers amulets to the economy. what was the president's response, given be forgotten everything with unemployment at the highest level since the depression, what does he feel about the current economy going forward? >> the president feels, as you

>> john brennan has gone to sudan and is going to saudi arabia. what's his assessment in sudan, and what progress do you believe was made there? how urgent is the situation between u.s. and saudi arabia and what do you think will be accomplished in those meetings? >> well, first of all, you're right that he's making these trips. i mean, you know, we've made our views known on sudan and our concern about what's happening there very clear. mr. brennen is there to assess the situation, and saudi arabia is an important partner and in regular contact in a variety of levels with the saudi government, and i think that's just part of that continued contact. one more from jackie. >> separate from the talk about the long term budget cutting. mr. canter indicated talks for further stimulus in the economy. what's the president's response to that with job numbers coming out and unemployment at the highest levels since the depression. what does he feel about the current economy going forward? >> the president feels, as you know, that we need to further the grow