michele kosinski is live at the white house to tell us more. good morning. >> this is interesting. i mean we knew that this meeting was going to happen soon. it's been rumored for days now that it could happen today or tomorrow. the white house added it to the schedule. a 4 p.m. meeting in the situation room. the president, his national security team and the vice president. we know that they will be talking about the isis threat. we know it's going to cover both iraq and syria. this is clearly a big deal at a critical time. however, we have been told by an official that we shouldn't expect any decisions examining out of this meeting, at least not today. now this goes along with some of the reporting out there, but keep in mind, the reporting has been contradictory at times. some are saying that president wants a decision on what to do in syria by the end of this week. others quoting other sources saying it's going to take more time than that. remember, next week the president leaves for the nato summit in wales and we know that the president has repeatedly said he wants to consult

>> michelle kosinski, we'll be watching this for us this evening at the white house. thank you, michelle. >>> joining me now, peter beinart the author of the crisis of zionism and thank you, gentlemen, for joining us. peter, the question as i mentioned to michelle, they never mentioned hamas in the white house statement. u.s. and israel have deemed them a terrorist organization. the two sides won't talk to each other. can anything be accomplish heard? will the negotiations work? >> it seems like it's going to be difficult. hamas, and not just hamas, but almost all palestinians want some relief from the blockade that has destroyed the economy in gaza and produced a tremendous amount of suffering. israel wants the demilitarization of gaza because they want to make sure there are no more rockets and tunnels. maybe between the two goals there some kind of deal. but the question is who would carry out the demilitarization? i think the only answer can be a palestinian unity government that brings mahmoud abbas back into gaza and allows for elections that are legitimate among

force beyond anything we have seen. >> i think the president views isis a couple of times. >> michelle kosinski of the big problems with dealing with syria. whether you are trying to rescue hostages or you are looking at targets. you can see the two sides of it. on the one hand, they were able to gather enough intelligence and the department of defense says they knew where the hostages were. they think that was the correct location, however, the intelligence was such that they missed the hostages at the location by a few days. you can see the problem there. there aren't americans on the ground to gather that intelligence, but, a senior administration official tells me they have several extremes of intelligence that they are able to monitor isis's movements and now they want to gather as much as possible so they are able to find which targets to hit. syria, of course, is not just a difficult intelligence environment, but difficult military environment with all of the insurgent groups fighting the regime. it is hard to tell them apart when they are on the ground. so we just had to wait and see ho

michelle kosinski has more.> he was going to cut this vacation short for a few days and return to martha's vineyard before all this. this has been planned. he's not coming back just because of the situation in ferguson. the white house has been wanting to let it be known they care about the situation, they're focused on it, that it is a priority. the president will be busy today. first, though, he has a briefing on the situation in iraq with his national security team. then later this afternoon, around 1:00. he'll be meeting with attorney holder. they'll be talking about the white house's role. i think most significantly what we have seen over the last few days is the department of justice wanting to have this additional autopsy done by a federal medical examiner, putting in their expertise to the situation and wanting to have that role. also, we know that the white house has been organizing regular briefings, not only briefing the president while he's been in martha's vineyard on the situation, but having his t

white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins us now with the latest from the white house where they have been doing a lot of cleanup. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: good morning, john, right. well, of course, everybody kind of waits with bated breath, especially with the national security meeting in the situation room wanting to know what is the decision on hitting isis in syria? i mean, u.s. hostages are still there. one was just murdered but the president has made it to some surprisingly clear we're just not there yet. >> i've directed secretary hagel and our joint chiefs of staff to prepare a range of options. >> reporter: another address by the president. there have been many lately, but it was these words regarding syria that many were not expecting. >> i don't want to put the cart before the horse. we don't have a strategy yet. >> reporter: his critics quick to pounce. the republican party tweeting what's the obama strategy? to have no strategy. ukraine, isis, russia. but the white house was equally quick to explain. >> the president was asked a specific question about w

so joining me now from the white house is michelle kosinski. now, michelle, the president is back in d.c. today, meeting with attorney general eric holder. what do we know? what has come of that meeting? >> reporter: we don't know if it's ended at this point. we're waiting for guidance from the white house. and we should say for some reason the president decided to come back from his vacation. we knew there were going to be some meetings. and this was added later. so it's not as if he left his vacation specifically to deal with this issue. but the white house has wanted to make it clear, it is a priority, and a big priority, thus we see this meeting today with the attorney general. and it was presented as a briefing, basically. and the president has been getting repeated briefings from the attorney general on this issue on what's going on on the ground. at the same time, we know the federal government has also become involved. first of all, now, asking for that federal autopsy to be done by a federal medical examiner. we know that fbi agents are

michelle kosinski, cnn, the white house. >> so let's talk more about this.avid gergen is a cnn senior political analyst and former adviser to president's nixon, ford, reagan and clinton and john avalon, senior analyst and editor-in-chief of "the daily beast." good morning to both of you. did you see the body language between the two men in the story? it was bad. >> good morning, carol. >> david, "the national journal" describes the relationship between obama and netanyahu as one of the most dysfunctional between allies anywhere in the world. is that true? >> well, a lot depends on what you mean by dysfunctionality. at the personal level they distrust each other and in many ways loath each other. obama thinks that netanyahu is bull-headed and not a team player, and netanyahu thinks e obama is weak and unreliable as a friend. right from the beginning of the relationship, george w. bush and bill clinton tried very hard over their time in office to maintain a very good relationship with the israeli prime minister, and by and large succeeded, and president obama

>> athena jones, michelle kosinski thanks to both of you. >>> seeds sown long before the shooting death of michael brown, ferguson has undergone a lot of changes. we'll talk about that next. imagine the luxury... of not being here. the power you want with the fuel economy you dream of. performance with a conscience. this is volvo innovating for you. man: [ laughs ] those look like baby steps now. but they were some pretty good moves. and the best move of all? having the right partner at my side. it's so much better that way. ♪ [ male announcer ] take the next step. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement insurance plans, it helps pay expenses that medicare doesn't cover and lets you choose or keep any doctor who accepts medicare patients. call or go online and request your free decision guide. use this guide to help you choose from a range of aarp medicare supplement insurance plans. have the right partner at your side. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan. go long. >>> t

michelle kosinski many thanks to you. >>> my next guest says while isis has been successful so far duee weakness of its opponents and military capabilities, the real test could be maintaining all the gains especially'group is attacked by multiple forces at ones or if its allies start to defect. join me michael knights, fellow with the washington institute for neareast policy. welcome. >> thank you for having me on. >> michael, i'd like to start with britain. write tain raised its terror threat to severe. what do you make of that? >> there are many more foreign fighters from concern countries within isil today than there were in the old al qaeda in iraq so it's unsurprising that western countries would start to feel some blow-back from what's going on in iraq and syria. >> raising the terror left to severe in britain means there's a chance of an eminent attack. the british prime minister is going to make a statement at 9:45 eastern time. what do you suppose he'll say? >> they always try and act with an abundance of caution whenever they get warning data. i would think he say the securit

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski has the very latest for us this morning. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: hi, john. right. the obama administration has authorized surveillance flights over syria and looks into what options might be available leading up to potentially air strikes. now we see that the reach of this barbaric terrorist group isis has affected the u.s. in more ways than one with this american citizen who grew up in minnesota now killed fighting with isis inside syria. his name was douglas mccain killed last weekend in the outskirts of aleppo, syria. u.s. officials confirm the 33-year-old was fighting for isis. battling other groups who are all battling the assad regime. mccain's devastated family told cnn he converted to islam years ago and eventually traveled to what they thought was turkey. they communicated with him over facebook only days ago and say they had no idea the father and one-time san diego-area restaurant work we are a history of minor arests and citations had devoted his life to violent jihad. >> that's not who he was. for hi

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski is at the president's vacation retreat on martha's vineyard. this is all just breaking that the president is going to address this topic. do we know what he's going to say? >> no, but we've been expecting this. we have heard from the president several times over the last few days about the situation in iraq and the u.s. and the air strikes. i think what will be interesting, we know now, he will talk about james foley, but curious to know if it's going to be a statement just based on that or if he's also going to address the other american journalists in isis hands. we know the administration wants to be careful about this. it's not as if they want to address or necessarily seminegotiate or make a statement to isis via the u.s. media. but they probably want to send a message. so remains to be seen exactly, you know, kind of what balance they'll strike there if they say anything at all about steven sotloff and the situation there. we expect it to be measured as the national security statements have been. the council just made another statement s

. >> michelle kosinski, thank you so much.ng me is retired general michael hayden shs the former director of the cia and nsa. he's now with a global security firm. thank you for being with us. is this the first you are hearing of this? >> it's the first time i have ever heard any of the enriched details that barbara gave you from the pentagon. i had heard rumors, but nothing specific. i don't know any of the fine print. i don't know when or where. i can tell you, though, it's what we do. we're good at it. we work very hard at this. >> you cannot really overstate the danger of taking on an operation like this, right? but also certainly the goal behind it, there's so much risk in trying to achieve something like this. >> there's tremendous risk. we're kind of an emotional roller coaster. we had the horror of yesterday. now today we hear a story of brave americans supported by really good intelligence efforts risking their own lives in order to save an american citizen. >> yesterday we saw in the video the horrific video where on

response has been up to this point and what we expect to see moving forward, don. >> all right, michelle kosinski at the white house, we appreciate your reporting, thank you very much, michelle, we'll get back to you as soon as we know more about that briefing. we know now how many times michael brown was shot. we even know which shot was fatal. so what will a third awe tutops tell us we tonight already know? i'm going to speak with renowned forensic scientist dr. henry lee. hey! i found my true love, livin' in a sweet dream. what matters most should always come first. that's why whole grain is first in every general mills big g cereal. and why we never use high fructose corn syrup. general mills. goodness first. your studied day and night for her driver's test. secretly inside, you hoped she wouldn't pass. the thought of your baby girl driving around all by herself was... you just weren't ready. but she did pass. 'cause she's your baby girl. and now you're proud. a bundle of nerves proud. but proud. get a discount when you add a newly-licensed teen to your liberty mutual insurance policy. call t

michelle kosinski was in the room when the president spoke. this was -- you could feel the president even just watching on tv, michelle, emoting here being very heated in his response. >> reporter: absolutely. the words tone were remarkable. yesterday isis sent this ugly message to the u.s. this was the president's response. a strong, condemnation of isis' killing of james foley, of its actions prior, its bankrupt ideology as he put it, calling isis a cancer that needs to be stopped before it it can spread and along those lines making it clear that the u.s. is not letting up in its intense pressure. listen. >> no just god would stand for what they did yesterday and what they do every single day. isil has no ideology of any value to human beings. we will be vigilant and we will be relntless and we will continue to confront this hateful terrorism and replace it with a sense of hope. >> so how clear is it that the u.s. is not backing down as secretary of state john kerry also said today those 14 air strikes just today again in the area of mosul da

and as we await, a reminder, secretary hagel and martin dempsey, we have michelle kosins kosinski, cnnhite house correspondent and bob mcfadden, former special agent in charge of the naval criminal investigative service. so michelle kosinski, first to you, the administration is on record saying it did not want to disclose the secret operation to try to rescue jim foley. but they are doing so anyway. tell me why. >> reporter: yeah, i know. and whenever you hear that, i think there are always -- you know, everybody wants to be a skeptic and get to the heart of the information. and you want to say, really? did the white house not want to get this out there, possibly to show that a significant rescue attempt was made? but i just had a lengthy conversation with the senior administration official, saying that the reason the administration now is not even confirming or denying in many cases some of the details that have already leaked out is because they say it is not outside the realm of possibility that there will be another rescue attempt in the future. and also, they insist they did not w

white house correspondent michelle kosinski joins us now with the latest from the white house where they lot of cleanup. good morning, michelle. >> reporter: good morning, john, right. well, of course, everybody kind of waits with bated breath, especially with the national security meeting in the situation room wanting to know what is the decision on hitting isis in syria? i mean, u.s. hostages are still there. one was just murdered but the president has made it to some surprisingly clear we're just not there yet.

cnn white house correspondent michelle kosinski has the very latest for us this morning. ichelle. >> reporter: hi, john. right. the obama administration has authorized surveillance flights over syria and looks into what options might be available leading up to potentially air strikes. now we see that the reach of this barbaric terrorist group isis has affected the u.s. in more ways than one with this american citizen who grew up in minnesota now killed fighting with isis inside syria. his

more to michelle kosinski with more on this. ms like we've gotten to the point that we're hearing the same kinds of things for the last two weeks but equally evident are the deep complexities involved in making a decision like this. what the white house is saying it's doing right now is considering the options available, gathering information and in its words enlisting international partners to be a part of whatever this effort will be exactly moving forward. yes, that includes the expected partnerships, britain and france, and, of course, we know the uk has already been involved in trying to find the killers of american journalist james foley, but the uk says they have not been asked at this point to conduct air strikes by the u.s. just today the french president was talking about the region and the concerns that terrorism will spread, but what the house has been emphasizing lately is the importance of regional partnerships in this. for example, to encourage sunni tribes to band together and fight isis. john. >> michelle, thanks

i want to bring in our panel right now, michelle kosinski, josh rogan, and mark hurtling joins us. , i want to start at the white house with you because it has been very busy there. normally the president speaks and they let it sit, however, since the president spoke yesterday, white house advisers have been out again and again and again and again to explain his explanation. >> yeah. you might say they were the non-shots heard around the world and critic were quick to jump on it. i know the republican party tweeted out, what is the obama strategy, not having a strategy and the white house was equally quick to explain that he was only referring to military action as a possibility in syria, saying that those options were still being presented, worked up by the pentagon and the president will consider those when the time is right, but, yeah, it does kind of take on this aspect of damage control. i mean the white house will say he didn't miss speak, if you listen to the speech, he explains fully that there is a strategy and a sort of well-laid out one in their opinion in iraq. it was ju

let's more about that with white house correspondent michelle kosinski. will we be hearing from the president at some point today? >> reporter: we think that's pretty likely but we haven't had any definite indication of that at this point. we know -- we've asked the white house -- reached out by everyone at this point, so they know the press and likely the american people is eagerly awaiting a response. to see what they would say at this point and knowing the sensitivity of the situation, obviously it's going to take some time to determine what exactly is asbestos, to talk to the -- is best to say, to talk to the national security community, what it is that's appropriate at this point. really a difficult situation as we all know, so at this point we're waiting and seeing. we have heard of course from the national security council saying they are appealed by this brutal murder of an innocent american journalist. it could be something along those lines. often statements like this are aligned along layers of the administration. the president has come out and

i do want to bring in michelle kosinski, live in the white house, briefly. hat president obama should be out in about a few minutes. do we know what he's talking about? >> reporter: no, they never really tell us ahead of time, of course. but we expect him to reiterate the sentiments they put out yesterday before the cease-fire ended. but also in the very strongly worded statement by secretary of state john kerry today. i mean, he used the word "outrageous" twice. so we expect the president to say virtually the same thing in the statement he makes. but now we've also been hearing he will take some questions. so we expect to hear some more detail on what exactly is the u.s.'s take on what happened there. what led up to the break in the cease-fire, and also, of course, everybody wants to know what happens now from the u.s. perspective. and we talked to a senior administration official last night who said that the president has been engaged throughout the process that led up to this cease-fire, even into the final moments, advising secretary of state kerry, talki

let's talk about this, michelle kosinski, our white house correspondent and barbara starr covers then. thanks to both of you being here. barbara, the united states did try to rescue james foley at some point. why are we hearing about it now? >> well, it did happen last summer, carol. it was over july 4th weekend at a place called daraka in syria in the north, and we are hearing about it now because a number of news organizations were on to the story and about to pub lir about it, so the administration made the decision to acknowledge what it could and yet not give all the details. any hostage rescue situation especially by u.s. special forces, which unbelievably went into syria to try to do this, is really the most sensitive information, to reveal any classified tactics or procedures that they try and enact to make these missions successful is really very problematic in the view of the pentagon, because more americans are being held, because they may want to try and do this again. that said, there's an awful lot out there in the public arena about how these missions go down, because

last question, michelle kosinski. >> thank you. you made the point that in certain difficult conflicts in the past both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of the bloodshed. do you think we're actually far from that point right now? and is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there are still tunnel operations allowed to continue? is that going to cause a change of approach from this point fwra forward? >> keep in mind the cease-fire would have given israel the capability to continue dismantling these tunnel networks. but the israelis can't dismantle these tunnel networks without going into major population centers in gaza. so i think the israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to be dismantled. there's a way of doing that while still reducing the bloodshed. you are right that in past conflicts sometimes people have to feel deeply the costs. anybody who's been watching some of these images, i'd like to think should recognize the costs. you know, you have children who are getting

michelle kosinski is with the president in martha's vineyard. what are we learning?ected to hear from the president today. now it is official that we will, at 12:45, the president will come here to where the press is making and he will make a statement. the white house doesn't spell out what the statement will be about, but one can assume that it will be about this situation and the isis threat. also the president's national security team has now made another statement about the video. remember yesterday they said that they were reviewing it to try to authenticate it. well now they say they have. they believe that the images do show the two american journalists that have been named and they say the video they believe is real. it comes from isis and that they will keep having updates as available. so the president now we believe will respond directly to this and we have heard from him three times over the last week on the situation in iraq. the past three times it has been good news that the president has announce ds the progress made on the ground there because of th

michelle kosinski. >> thank you. you made the point that in certain difficult conflicts in the past, both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of the bloodshed. do you think that we are actually far from that point right now? and is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there are still tunnel operations allowed to continue? is that going to cause a change of approach from this point forward? >> keep in mind that the cease-fire that had been agreed to would have given israel the capability to continue to dismantle these tunnel networks. but the israelis can dismantle these tunnel networks without going into major population centers in gaza. so i think the israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to be dismantled. there is a way of doing that, while still reducing the bloodshed. you are right that in past conflicts sometimes people have to feel deeply the costs. anybody who has been watching some of these images i would like to think, should recognize the costs. you kn

. >> i was going to ask michelle kosinski this question. while might the prime minister's news conference cause obama to come back out and speak again? >> he has said on a couple of occasions, each country needs to handle this in their own way. keep in mind, the differences between the u.s. and the u.k. in dealing with issues like this as well as the history of attacks, geography, it's much, much different. the u.k. has dealt with terror cells in its homeland before, even extremely recently. so when something like this comes up, it does strike a nerve and obviously, there's a much different political sort of milieu right now with this conservative pressure on immigration. the reaction is going to be much, much different. it's so complex. it's really hard. it's almost like in some ways we're not comparing apple to apples here. that said, cameron's statement was very tough, strong, telling people here's exactly what we're going to do to protect you, and you can't deny that he is reacting in the immediate sense and says that, yes, this is not

obama's tone was somber, emotionally charged, michele kosinski said the press corps was struck speechless time later, president obama went golfing which did not go unnoticed. the president was quickly blasted for zipping from his news conference to the tee, up like his british counterpart one day into his vacation prime minister david cameron decided to high tail it back to find out who was responsible for beheading an american citizen. let's talk about this. joining me cnn political commentator and columnist for "the blaze" will cane and commentator and host of huff post live mark la month hill. look at the daily news. it says it all. can we just all agree that the optics was bad? >> yeah. that seems fairly obvious, right. >> what can you say? >> i hate talking about optics, carol, to this extent. it has a disconnect from actually the substance. do we think -- do i think that president obama cares about james foley if clearly. do i think he's planning action in how to respond to the death of james foley. yes. but i guess you also have to analyze optics in kind of its own world, its own s

seen, you heard in the q & a a moment ago in the vineyard our own white house correspondent, michelle kosinski, saying hang a second, it was the president six ago making that jv comment. and here you have this potential 9/11-level threat. did someone drop the ball six months ago here? >> oh, the ball was dropped, absolutely. i wouldn't blame the white house. the problem was, brooke, for the last couple years, we have been listening to maliki in baghdad, talking to a shia government, who has down played the sunni threat, downplayed isis, downplayed what was happening in anbar province and we looked the other way and listened to him and it was a terrible mistake. and i think we can flablame the state department for that in the first place. and now we have seen this. i have been talking to the sunnis in anbar province, and i said what is going on with isis? and they said look, we are aligned with them. we don't share their ideology. we certainly don't share their attacks on the united states. but right now we are going to kafb out a homeland for the sunni and iraq and we are working together. and

white house correspondent michelle kosinski is following all of those developments.ill not stop. it's interesting how this information came out, too. obviously someone within the government felt that it was necessary for the public to know that this rescue operation had happened and when the president was here and giving this address, strong words against isis and vowing to keep fighting them. there was no mention of it. it was only later that the national security team put out a statement saying that the president authorized action at this time because it was a national security team's assessment that these hostages were in danger with each passing day. unfortunately that mission was ultimately not successful because the hostages were not present. and the national security team wouldn't give any more detail, even on when it happened saying it's sufficient to say that it happened earlier this summer, and they said they had no intention of disclosing it. it was only when the press started to get wind of it that they say that they felt forced to acknowledge that this h

>> all right, michelle kosinski in martha's krinyarvineyard. >>> on the phone, former cia officer, and start with defense secretary chuck hagel, isis is beyond anything we've seen. you recently told nbc news, "i don't think we've seen a more significant threat to american security since the early days of 9/11." with that said, do you think as she just said, they may immediate more legal just fiction to go into syria? is that true or do we need to target syria? >> i do think the president should come to congress if he intends to embark on air strikes in syria for the purpose of trying to defeat isil. if there is an meet crisis we have an opportunity to try to rescue other journalists or an eminent or immediate threat, in other words a plot against the homeland he needed to act on immediately, that's one thing, but if we're talking about the same kind of more general air strikes we're undertaking in iraq, that's something that would broaden the mission significantly and frankly i think the case hasn't been made for that yet. we don't have the same resources in syria, the same intelligenc

let's bring in our white house correspondent michelle kosinski with the latest on what the president. >> reporter: careful, careful, careful is a good way to describe it. he didn't want to take sides or prejudge things. plenty of people in the community wanted him to address the obvious racial tensions surrounding this. today he did address it but in a very carefully balanced way. >> in too many communities, too many young men of color are left behind and seen only as objects of fear. there are young black men that commit crime. and we can argue about why that happened because of the poverty they were born into, the lack of opportunity or the school systems that failed them or what have you, but if they commit a crime then they need to be prosecuted. >> reporter: the president also clearly wanted to carefully balance condemnation of excessive use of force by police towards peaceful profrtesters wh condemnation of the police. the president doesn't have plans to visit ferguson, missouri but he's sending the attorney general down there on wednesday to meet with a department of justice t

first to our white house correspondent, michelle kosinski.out isis today. >> reporter: today we hear from the president's deputy national security adviser who said the murder of james foley is, he agreed, the isis first terrorist attack against the united states. >> when you see somebody killed in such a horrific way, that represents a terrorist attack, that represents a terrorists attack against our country and an american citizen. and i think all of us have the foley family in our thoughts and prayers. >> reporter: okay. so of course americans have been concerned. what threat then does isis pose to other americans who are outside the region, especially given all of the foreign fighters, people who travel to iraq and syria, they fight alongside isis. what happens when they return to their home countries, including the u.s. today rhodes was asked could isis be capable of a september 11th style attack. the answer right now is probably not. rhodes said that they have been mainly concerned with these regional operations. they obviously pose a bi

last question, michelle kosinski. >> you made the point that in certain difficult conflicts in the past both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of the bloodshed. do you think that we are actually far from that point right now? and is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there are still tunnel operations allowed to continue? is that going to cause a change of approach from this point forward? >> well, keep in mind that the cease-fire that had been agreed to would have given israel the capability to continue to dismantle these tunnel networks, but the israelis can dismantle these tunnel networks without going into major population centers in gaza. so i think the israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to be dismantled. there is a way of doing that while still reducing the bloodshed. you are right that in past conflicts, sometimes people have to feel deeply the costs. anybody who has been watching some of these images i'd like to think should recognize the costs. you have children who are getting killed. you have women, defenseless, wh

last question, michelle kosinski. >> thank you. you made the point that in certain difficult conflicts in the past, both sides had to reach a point where they were tired of the bloodshed. do you think that we are actually far from that point right now? and is it realistic to try to broker a cease-fire right now when there's still tunnel operations allowed to continue? is that going to cause a change of approach from this point forward? >> well, keep in mind that the cease-fire that had been agreed to would have given israel the capability to continue to dismantle these tunnel networks, but the israelis can dismantle these tunnel networks without going into major population centers in gaza. so, i think the israelis are entirely right that these tunnel networks need to be dismantled. there's a way of doing that while still reducing the bloodshed. you are right that in past conflicts sometimes people have to feel deeply the costs. anybody who's been watching some of these images, i'd like to think should recognize the costs. you have

let's bring in cnn's michelle kosinski and errol lewis to discuss this further.are you hearing from the white house? what is their reaction, and what are you hearing in. >> we haven't heard directly from the white house on this. president obama arrived pack in martha's vineyard where he's been trying at least to take some kind of a vacation, but, you know, we've heard from the white house twice. heard directly from president obama twice last week while he was here on martha's vineyard regarding iraq, and, you know, the news was good. he talked about the progress made. we heard from him just this week on monday from the white house, again, talking about the progress made, but now this happens, and so far at least we have not heard a statement directly from the white house. you can imagine what's going on behind the scenes. i mean, while this other american journalist is in isis hands, his life hanging in the balance, the white house and its national security team deciding what exactly to say and when. the sensitivity of this situation surely intense. i think we're