now, that is what mr. blair a thing called his 2010 question. -- what mr. blair i think called his 2010 question. was it a question that we actually either had to take the military action to topple saddam in order to remove this threat, or, if we did not do so, iraq was going to become both a nuclear and a terrorist threat, as mr. blair suggested in his 2010 question? >> no. sanctions forever. they are eroding. there was no evidence of edit -- of any kind. there was no hurry. that was one of the untruths, the exaggerations of the risks of the wmd. to get disarmament and compliance, if you get that, the logic is release sanctions, open up the country, and going along side that, and i am sure that is in the public domain, where initiatives from the saudis and the jordanians about possibly getting saddam hussein to go into exile, which would have been an attractive option, it seems to me, it was that there was no nuclear, and he did not have the means, so there was no immediate threat there, and the evidence on the chemical and biological was the people thought

mr. blair has effectively said not. do you have any evidence that in that period pressures were applied of the nonlegal kind to the attorney general? he had legal discussions with the americans in february. but i'm talking about the period between the 7th of march when he gave his formal advice and the 13th of march when he had come to this clear on-balance conclusion? >> no i don't have any evidence but i think him changing his mind three times in a couple of weeks and then even -- in order to say unequivocally there was legal authority to require tony blair to secretly sign a document saying that iraq was in material breach and not to report any of that to the cabinet is so extraordinary. and by the way, i see that both tony blair and he said the cabinet would give him a chance to ask questions, that is untrue. >> well, that's really my next question because in march of 2005, after you left office, you wrote lord goldsmith stating that in the cabinet meeting of the 17th of march you had attempted to initiate a discuss

this is the first time, mr. blair is appearing before us and we are currently holding our first round of public hearings. we shall be holding further hearings later in the year when we can return to subjects we wish to explore further. if necessary we can speak to mr. blair again. today's session covers six years of defense or complex and controversial. it would be impossible to do them all justice in the time we have available today. the committee is therefore made the decision to center its questioning on a number of specific areas. if necessary we shall come back to other issues at a later date. we plan to focus our questions, first, on the evolution of strategy towards iraq up to 2,002, including key meetings such as those with president bush in april and september 2002 as well as complex diplomatic process at the united nations. we will then look at how the policy was presented to parliament and the british people. it will be followed or the later stages of diplomacy and early 2003. we will then move to the plann

. >> mr. blair, do you think there's a contrast of approach between what frequent habit of government at all levels, including at the top, that in forming policy you engage in legal advice because it may need expression in statute or comply with existing law, you've followed the legal advice to the pro-policy legal process. that's one advice. and in the iraq case, high end strategic objective. then as it were, work around or through and with the constraints and opportunities that legal advice then gives? do you see a difference of approach there? >> i think there could be, but i was in the situation, since march 2002 was the time when you sit the first framework for this. the legal advise was one of the key things we asked for. and we got it. and that legal advise, it's interesting to go back and look at it, it was legal advise that was saying you needed a fresh resolution. and one of the reasons why we went down the path was to give a fresh resolution. one of the things, and this was part of the de

. >> we'd like, mr. blair, to ask a few questions about the strategic direction of government and how one does that in a cabinet system in situations like in iraq. and i think baroness prashar would like to start. >> some questions, mr. blair. just taking your meeting on the 23rd of july in 2002. which you chaired and in which the chief of defense of staff forwarded some military actions. and according to mr. campbell you did not want any discussions at this stage and did not one any of this swimming around the system. why was the participation restricted to two cabinet ministers and not, for example, to the secretary of state for international development secretary? >> we were discussing then what was likely to happen in relation to the politics and the diplomacy particularly in relation to the military. now, at a later time as you know there were officials from dfid were involved in the planning meetings. >> my understanding it came at a very late stage and -- >> i think the officials were together. it's tru

. >> does the prime minister regret the inability of his predecessor mr. blair to express to the chilcot inquiry any sympathy or regret for the awful loss of life in iraq? >> i know that the former prime minister wrote to people at the time and expressed his condolences and sympathies for every family. i also know that on many occasions he has expressed his sadness at the losses that took place in iraq. i say to the whole house that i think that we have been united at every point in mourning the losses of our troops, and also the loss of civilian life in iraq. >> gordon prentice. >> has my friend visited gordonprenticemp.com today -- >> [laughter] >> -- to see how the next election in my constituency is being bought by a tax exile? does he agree that he needs me here, and that pendle is not for sale? >> the conservative party cannot talk about new politics or transparency unless they answer the central question about the tax status of its chief fundraiser, lord ashcroft. the information commissioner has already said that the party has been evasive and obfuscator

welcome back, mr. blair. start of the proceedings. we recognize that witnesses are getting evidence based on their events, and we cross check with the papers we have access. and i have reminded each witness he will later be asked to sign a transcript to ensure that evidence is true, fair and accurate. >> i would like to pick up a couple of points for follow-on from where you left it before lunch. just to finish off the diplomatic and political decisions that you faced in the days before you had to take the decision that we should start with the reaction. and there's only two parts i think i want to ask about now. the first one concerns the position of the french government, which you did refer to before lunch. in your final speech before the conflict for the house of commons on the 18th of march, you told the commons that -- and i'll quote here, france said it would veto a second resolution, whatever the circumstance is. those on the security council opposed to us will not count against any resolution that au

mr. vice chairman. here's how we'll proceed, gentlemen. director blairif you'd represent the entire intelligence community, we will then go to mr. panetta, mr. mueller, mr. burgess and mr. dinger for five minutes each amend each one of us will proceed with questions. so direct your blair, we'd be delighted to hear from you. >> writes, thank you, chairwoman. in providing you with this intelligence community annual threat assessment and proud to represent the thousands of patriotic highly skilled trade professionals at the world's finest intelligence team. i'm especially can't just buy this as we mourned the recent loss of seven of our officers and care for a dozen others who have been wounded in recent months. all intelligence agencies participated in preparing my statement for the record and i'm pleased to be accompanied and my colleagues here this afternoon. every day as we know information technology brings gadgets and services that make our lives better and more efficient. however, malicious cyber activity is growing at an unprecedented rate, as human

welcome back, mr. blair. for the benefit of those who were not able to be in the room, may i repeat two things. we recognize the witness are giving evidence based in part of their recollection and we cross check what we hear against the papers that we have access. i have reminded each witness that he will later be asked to sign a transcript to the evidence to be effect that evidence is truthful, fair, and accurate. i would like to continue the proceedings. >> mr. blair, i'd just like to pick up a couple of points that follow on from where you left it before lunch. just to finish off the diplomatic and political decision that is you faced in the days before you had to take the decision that we should start with a reaction. there's only two points that i want to ask at now. the first one concerns the position of the french government, which you did refer to before lunch. in your final speech before the conflict of the house of commons on the 18th of march, you told the commons that -- and i'll quote here, franc

so maybe mr. blair, you are in the middle seat. do you want to comment on that?> i find the intelligence committee has an awful lot of former prosecutors on them. but i think that the -- i think that the balance that we're trying to strike, it's interesting. i hear these same conversations inside the executive branch when we have our meetings on the same subjects. these are not easy matters. somebody would have found the absolute perfect way to balance -- to balance the prosecution and intelligence valuable for now if it had been right there. so i'm going to say these are balanced cases. and we can talk about individual ones. but we need to keep all the tools out there. we need a process to think them through. we need to take advantage of whatever time we have, and the circumstances of a case and try to do the best thing. >> well, mr. blair, let me disagree with you as far as just being a balancing matter. this is not a balancing matter. the question is, whatever i get out of this guy, do i need it in a court of law? if you don't need it in a court of law, there'

mr. blair says it was not that they would veto any resolution. it is just that they would veto a resolution that authorized force in the event of reach. >> that was a deliberate lie. at that quiet, if you remember he was thin and under enormous strain. at that point, john prescott came in and distracted him and claimed they said they would veto anything. they cannot have said that. that does not make sense, because there have been a written statement from france and russia and i think germany. or was it just a player because it was germany, saying we agree there might be military action, but not yet, and later, somebody sent me the statement, which was being sent out by the french embassy, and it is clear that he is saying, not now, and we have them asking for more time and getting some success, so that was one of the big deceives, and it was only way they could get through. remember when americans stopped buying french fries and all that. >> did you talk to the french about contacts with france? >> at the time, i asked my secretary to find out w

and they made that decision before top official were ever notified, and in fact mr. blair and even the fbi director holder himself said that he was not advised of this at the time it happened. and certainly not the secretary of defense. so you see this individual came from an enemy, al-qaeda, who has declared war on the united states and we've declared war on them, to attack us, and really, it's a defense issue. it's not -- that's the primary interest here, is defending america. bill: well, holder is saying there's no court-approved system in place, meaning if you catch a terrorist in the united states, there's no system in place to take care of that person. i don't know how you feel about that, but i think a lot of people want to figure out well, where is this system and when could that be established. that's -- i'm just saying f. that's the defense he uses before your committee, how are you going to respond? >> well, that's a really, a disingenuous statement, it's not an accurate statement. they try military commissions, the supreme court expressed criticism of some of t

bush and mr. blair were right to do what they did. where they went wrong was in underestimating the difficulties that would follow in administering iraq after we won a military victory. ruling iraq and handing over afterwards was a difficult thing. they did that because neither of them had read enough history. if they had read the history of iraq, hallett was created and what it was created from and why it was created and so forth they would have been much more apprehensive about it and taken much more care to take proper advice and make proper planning. iraq is a difficult country. strictly speaking it shouldn't exist at all. it is an artificial creation. it was created as a result of the first world war chiefly by winston churchill and he knew at the time that it was going to be a very difficult country to administer and run and i remember when i first went to iraq in the early 1950s more than 50 years ago, the prime minister who was the last really good ruler the iraqis have had, he said to me this is one of the most difficult coun

bush and mr. blair were right to do what they did.here they went wrong was in underestimating the difficulties which would follow in administering iraq after we had won a military victory. winning the military victory was the easy thing. handing it over afterwards was the difficult thing. they did that, i think, because neither of them had read enough history. if they would have read the history of iraq, how it was created, what it was created from, why it was create and so forth. they would have been much more apprehensive about it and taken more care to take proper advice and make proper planning for postwar period. iraq is a very difficult country. struckly speaking it shouldn't exist. it is an artificial creation. it was created as a result of the first world war, chiefly by winston churchill, and he knew it was going to be a very difficult countried a and are run. i remember when i first went to iraq, back in the early 1950s, more than 50 years ago, and saw the prime minister, who was the last really good ruler the iraqis have ha

bush and mr. blair were right to do what they did.where they went wrong was in underestimating the difficulties which would follow in administering in iraq after they won through victory. that was the difficult thing. they did that because neither of them had read enough history. how it was created, what it was created from. they would have been much more apprehensive about it and taken much more care to take proper advice and make proper planning for the post war period. iraq is a very difficult country. strictly speaking it couldn't exist at all. it is an artificial creation. it was chiefly by winston churchill. he knew it was going to be a difficult country to administer and run and when i first went t iraq back in the early 1950s more than 50 years ago until the -- the really last good ruler the iraqis have had. he said this is one of the most difficult countries in the world to run because it shouldn't really exist. it is an artificial creation and poses extraordinary problems. he explained all the difficulties and that is still

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. pinetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller? >> agree. >> general best of your knowledge -- burgess? >> yes, ma'am, agree. zds it's chilling to hear that testimony. the so-called christmas bomber is talking again. we have some breaking news on that front on what brought him to the table, and we'll tell you what investigators are learning from him a little bit later in the show. we've got the latest on the toyota recall. tonight federal investigators want to know if electromagnetic interference could be causing the sticky gas pedal problem. they're also looking into civil penalties for the car maker. meanwhile, one manufacturer of those pedals says not so fast. they are not to blame. listen. >> the pedals are the subject of the recall and have to do with a slow return phenomenon, which is a very rare condition, which occurs only under certain environmental conditions, such as high humidity, and cts is not aware, and toyota has said this also, that there has been any accidents or injuries

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr.tta. >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller. >> agreed. >> jon: cia director leon panetta, national intelligence, robert blair and agreeing of an attack in the next months. >> there's a line we have to walk, we want to keep them apprised and report analysis like we just heard, but we need to remind people, don't panic, nobody really knows for sure, it seems likely at some point something will happen, but a lot of this is still guesswork and we need to impart that. >> it's more like a don't ask-don't tell policy for the media i want to know if there's going to be an attack, likely to come from an invading army or already in the united states from some of the mosques, who are the people? if they think there's going to be an attack they must know where it's likely to come from. why aren't we getting reports on that? why koent we get o'keefe or somebody like him to invade some of these places and record what's going on there. >> and we've got the reports, for example, the report about t

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. pennetta? >> i would agree with that. >> reporter: dnis blair in his annual threat assessment said individual attackers are becoming harder to identify and stop. republicans on the panel used the hearing to accuse the obama administration of putting the rights of suspected terrorists ahead of the nation's security. they pointed to the administration's decision to try suspected terrorists in civilian court. sources say one suspected terrorist, the accused chrtmas day bomber, is again cooperating with authorities and now providing fresh, actionable intelligence. umar farouk abdulmutallab began providing new details last week, giving investigators information about the al qaeda leaders in yemen who oversaw his attack and the operatives who trained alongside him. and officials say abdulmutallab's family pyed a critical role in conncing him to cooperate with authorities. fbi officials traveled to nigeria last month and brought back with em members of the suspect's family to talk with him. it apparent

blair? >> an attempted attack, priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta?ld agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> general -- >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> mr. dinger? >> yes. >> all right. that tells us something very clearly. i would -- there has been a response to the case that all suspected terrorists should be labelled enemy combatants and prosecuted through the military commission system if at all. candidly, my view is that president should have the flexibility to make a determination based on the individual circumstances of the case, location of the terrorist activity, location of the arrest, the nationality of the suspect, whether fred crimes have been violated, et cetera. i'd like to ask this question, mr. mueller, what is the fbi's track record in gaining intelligence and collecting evidence to convict terrorists since 9/11? >> well, madam chairman, in your opening statement you mentioned many of the cases that we addressed last year. and a number of disruptions from dallas to springfield, illinois, charlotte, north carolina, the case in denver

blair? >> an attempt of attack, is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller? >> agree. >> reporter: what is being done to thwart these plans. the head of the cia, the fbi and national defense said, al qaeda has deployed smaller groups with little history. and simpler methods of attack. the cia chief said trying to stay ahead of the terrorists before they act keeps him up at night. >> the biggest threat i see is not so much that we face another attack similar to 9/11. i think the greater threat is that al qaeda is adapting their methods, in ways that often times make it difficult to detect. >> reporter: abc news has learned some of the intelligence has come from the accused christmas day bomber. the past week, umar farouk abdulmutallab has provided questioners with useful and actionable intelligence. this comes after the fbi sxretly flew family members from nigeria to the u.s. to convince him to cooperate. and this new revelation is welcomed for the obama situation, which was criticized for reading the christmas bomber

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. pineta. >> i would agree that. gwen: even washington's newest senator misread. >> the c.i.a. director said there will be another al qaeda attack here in the united states in the next three to five months. and obviously, this is frightening news. gwen: i didn't hear that. the president's budget also makes clear that another anti-terrorism goal, closing dwan is fartherer -- guantanamo is farther out of reach. an approach that has come under sharp attack in the case the alleged christmas day bomber. pete broke the story that he is talking again. why are we hearing that now? >> we're hearing because he is talking again because the word was starting around about it and the administration is eager for people to know this. ever since he was arrested, he was initially questions, he talked for about an hour. he went into surgery for the burns on his legs. when he came out, they tried to question him again and he said enough. so they finally gave him the miranda warning and he clammed up. the administration has been hammered

blair? >> an attempted attack the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta?i would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> reporter: c.i.a. director panetta said the fear is not such of another 9/11 but that al qaeda is relying more and more on recruits with little training using simple devices, as in the attempted christmas day attack by suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab. and sources tell cbs news today that abdulmutallab has begun talking again with investigators those sources say "he has provided solid leads, but no one knows how valuable that information really is." katie? >> couric: chip reid reporting from the white house. thank you, chip. in other news, it just keeps getting worse for toyota. faced with repairing millions of faulty gas pedals and its reputation. today the company reported sales plunged 16% last month as it stopped selling some models and recalled many more already on the road. and now dean reynolds tells us transportation secretary ray lahood is blasting toyota over what he calls a slow response to the problem. >> reporter: toyot

blair? >> an attempted attack the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. panetta. >> i would agree with that. >> reporter: the rest of the panel agreed. the senior leaders outlined potential threats that al-qaeda is evolving and militants are harding to stop before they strike >> the biggest threat is not so much that we face another attack similar to 9/11. i think the greatest threat is that al-qaeda is adapting their methods in ways that oftentimes make it difficult to detect. >> identifying individual terrorists, small groups with short histories using new attack methods is a new technology. we did not identify mr. abdulmutallab and we should have. we are working to improve so we can. >> reporter: changes since that at ack will allow intelligence official to identify and stop someone like abdulmutallab but blair warned a more skilled terrorist might not be detected. intelligence official also warned of crippling cyber attacks. they say al-qaeda is deploying operatives to the u.s. to carry out attack from inside the country and the terror group is also i

mr. admiral blair and mil her not supposed to say in the hearing yesterday that abdulmutallab is still talking? >> you would have to ask them. we've done a good job of sharing with the american people who we're doing to keep them safe. we're going to continue. >> my depression was the reason the briefings happened, the information was starting to get out there. the administration wanted to share the story to correct the record but the information that he was cooperating again. my impression is that blair and muller that let the information be known. >> there's a lot of information getting out there from all corners. there was importance in some of that information that was out there from the white house. but i don't agree with your characterization of their testimony. but we do feel like we did a good job of letting folks know what we are up to. >> similar characterization. is that all right? well, the other question i have has to do with the statement that president obama made last week when speaking to the republican retreat, the house republican conference. he's referring to the stray cats

blair? >> i why would say an attempt is certainly. >> mr. minute in etta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> general. >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> yes. >>> attempted attack, terrorist attack they all agree is certain. that's a very chilling warning. we'll speak about that and more. fran townsend will be joining us later as well. >>> we heard the u.s. military is bracing for a big change. the repeal of don't ask/don't tell. we want to pull back the curtain a bit and how this policy came about in the first place. stand by. our senior political analyst david gergen. he was in the room in the white house when president clinton and other top officials made that decision two decades ago, back in 1993. david gergen recalls what happened when we come back. all my business information is just a phone call away-- to my wife... who's not answering. announcer: there's a better way. intuit quickbooks online p9 organizes your business in one place, and helps you stay on top of your business anytime, anywhere. get a 30-day free trial at intuit.com. the b

blair? >> an attempted attack the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> reporter: cia director leon panetta said it's not so much the possibility that we face another 9/11. >> the greater threat is that al qaeda is adapting their methods in ways that often times make it difficult to detect. >> reporter: panetta worries about recruits with little training using simple device as in the attempted christmas day attack by suspect umar farouk abdulmutallab. senior white house officials say abdulmutallab is now cooperating with u.s. investigators. why is he talking? the fbi went to nigeria and consulted with his family, brought them back, and they convinced him to talk. harry? >> chip reid at a snowy white house this morning. thank you very much. do appreciate it. >>> also in washington cbs news national security analyst juan zarate. juan, good morning. >> good morning. >> i think about that panel yesterday and i don't remember a time when all on that panel sat there so stone faced and so sober was their a

blair? >> an attempted attack the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> sean: by july? here with reaction to all of this, the host of the jerry and fred show jerry thompson and fred thompson are back with us. why don't you put your wife's name in the name of the show, i don't get that? >> she is holding out for ceo now, thanks to you. >> sean: good to see you both. >> good to see you too. >> sean: we only for 50 minutes interrogate the christmas day bomber. he says more are coming, i trained with them. then we allow miranda rights and allow him to clam up. what are we thinking? >> bill burton said the american people need to know sources and methods. we don't, he's supposed to be protecting sources and methods. we have friends at the department of justice not one time did they give a background or a press conference on what it was they were doing. how they were doing it. look at security operations here. do these people know what they are doing? . >> you saw two things in that clip i don't think have happened

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. pinetta? >> i would agree with that. >> reporter: that assessment comes from both the director of fashional intelligence and the head of the c.i.a. at the same time, the fbi says that umar farouk abduhl mattal ab, the man accused of trying to blow up an airline over christmas, is talking again. >> i think the balance struck in the mattal ebb case was understandable. >> reporter: fbi agents were able to get him to talk again by flying in his family from nigeria. it's not clear what he's saying, but the white house will try to fend off critics who say he should have been treated as an enemy combatant, not a criminal suspect with legal rights. but republicans and even some democrats say the white house has no business trying terror suspects in criminal courts. and in the case of accused 9/11 planner khalid sheikh mohammed, they're willing to cut off funding to prevent it.lone wolf attack similar to what we saw in the christmas day bomb plot. a single actor is very difficult to stob. >> doug luzad

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> general burjer? >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> mr. dinger? >> yes. >> all right. nbc's pete williams will have much more on this coming up, chuck. >> hey, savannah, the word "attempted" there is the key word. in fact, pete williams and i were talking before the show, and he made this comment. you know, ever since 9/11, there's probably never been a six-month window where al qaeda or some sort of ally of al qaeda has not been attempting to have a terrorist attack on some sort of u.s. asset. >> and in no way does it behoove them to diminish that threat. so a leading question from the senator, but scary, nonetheless. >> absolutely. >>> moving on. the results are in for primary races in illinois. for senate, congressman mark kirk won the republican primary easily and alexi giannoulias won his matchup. but the nail biters are in those races for governor. in the democratic primary, sitting governor pat quinn has declared victory, but comptr

mr. penn has also advised secretary of state hillary clinton, tony blair, and microsoft ceo bill gates.from the clinton school public service in little rock, ark., this is about 50 minutes. >> thank you for that very kind, very kind introduction, and underscoring that the voters are not numbers, they are people with habits, thoughts, beliefs -- and i find so often that the real intelligence of the american voter is really underappreciated. in fact, i got into the business of pooling pretty much after reading a book one day by fellow, which said, the simple fact of this book is that the voters are not fools. the voters, in fact, have real perspectives, real issues, real changes in their lifestyle. as this class studies the election of 2010, maybe it can provide little insight into what is happening right now and what happened in 2009 and before, what are the conditions that have been set up to make this perhaps one of the most hotly contested in midterm elections probably in our lifetime. usually the midterms do not start until june. i think that they have already started, the political

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller? >> agree. >> general burgen? >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> mr. dinger. >> yes. >> in the meantime, top defense officials are calling for an end to don't ask, don't tell. the policy that prohibits openly gay americans from serving in the armed forces. defense secretary robert gates and admiral mike mullen voiced their opposition to the ban and suggested that officials take a year of studying the ban on the policy before scheduling a vote. >> it is my personal belief that allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly. now matter how i look at this issue, i cannot escape being troubled by the fact that we have in place a policy that forces young men and women to lie about who they are to defend fellow citizens. >> there is another side to the issue. what are some of the concerns that people in the military have. >> the biggest concern that people use to oppose the policy is the breakdown of discipline within military units, especially smaller military u

mr. speaker. so the speaker's statement at the president's meeting yesterday at the blair house was incorrect. it was further incorrect because it seems as though that we listen to all the dialogue that unfolded yesterday that the president was negotiating off of the senate version of the bill more so than he was the house version of the bill in which case there is no question that federal funding would flow in and pay for abortions. and at a very minimum, no matter how you argue it, at a very minimum there would be federal funds that would be paying for the administration of abortions and the administration of an exchange that would be brokering policies that funded abortion. that's how the language works. i have read the language carefully and i know that some of that has been amended and not to the satisfaction of the groups in america. not to my satisfaction either, mr. speaker. we have watched as this unfolded and we ask, what about this reconciliation package that the majority leader seems to speak in support of, although he didn't answer the question directly, he accused republicans of

blair house tomorrow. the gentleman from georgia. mr. broun: i believe the american people know what's going on and are going to say no. the american people have spoken. they are going to say no to this sham, putting things together that don't let democrats or republicans being engaged in. it's all a show, it's a joke. a bunch of clowns that are just trying to make something look to be different than it is. and it is nothing but trying to ramrod a health care overtake by the federal government by this tration and -- administration and the leadership. people need to say no to this sham, no to obamacare and we can defeat it. and i encourage people all over this country to start calling first thing in the morning, mr. speaker, to call every congressmen in this congress, every senator and say no to this sham, no to obamacare and no to the government takeover. and my patients' families depend upon the american people just saying no. with that, we as republicans are not the party of no but k-n-o-w but we can lower the health care if our issues

blair. >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> general burgess. >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> reporter: at a senate hearing on tuesday, they told lawmakers al-qaeda is sending operatives to the u.s. to carry out the plots. leon panetta says it is not so much that we face another 9/11 but terrorists are getting smarter and quicker. >> the greater threat is that al-qaeda is adapting their methods in ways that often times make it difficult to detect. >> reporter: intelligence officials are especially worried about who al-qaeda is training. they say more recruits are individual terrorists armed with simple devices like the ones used in the attempted christmas day bombing. cbs news learned the suspect in that case has been cooperating with officials since last week after being persuaded by family members. he allegedly tried to ignite explosives hidden in his underwear to bring down the detroit bound airliner. he has been discussing the contact and providing information on terrorism probe.

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. muller? >> agree. >> reporter: much of the urgent concern about another attack is fueled by the near-miss bombing attempt on christmas day. and there is a steady stream of new intelligence showing al qaeda continues to target the homeland. abc news has learned the fbi has been looking at travel records from africa, trying to determine if operatives trained in yemen have already made their way into the united states. some of the intelligence has come from suspected christmas day bomber abdulmutallab, who is providing useful information to the fbi. mutallab's family was critical in convincing him to cooperate. the fbi flew members of his family from nigeria to the u.s. to talk to him. news about the breakthrough came as republicans in congress hammered the obama administration, for initially telling mutallab, he had the right to remain silent, after 50 minutes of interrogation. >> it makes no sense to capture someone fresh off the battlefield. and with

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain, i would say. >> mr. panetta? >> i would agree with that. >> mr. mueller? >> agree. >> general -- >> yes, ma'am, agree. >> mr. dinger? >> yes. >> and let's bring in nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. pete, you just heard the director of the cia, director of the fbi, director of national intelligence, among others, all speak with certainty about this attempted attack within the next six months. what should people make of that? >> well, i think these answers are certainly a sobering reminder that the terror threat isn't receding, but what they said is it's likely someone will attempt another attack in the next six months, and that could mean very serious and well-prepared groups. it could also mean merely committed and unprepared individuals. and we saw several examples of that in just the past year. and it could range from groups overseas to individuals here at home. i think it's fair to say since 9/11 there hasn't been a six-month period without an attempt to stage a terror attack against the u.s., and it'

blair? >> an attempted attack, the priority is certain i would say. >> mr. pinetta? >> i would agree with that. >> meantime the nigerian man accused of trying to blow up an airline is cooperating with investigators, providing the fbi with fresh intelligence. >>> now to other stories topping headline this is morning. aig is about to hand out $1 million in bonuses. the washington post says employees in the same department that agreed to a pay cut will get their checks today. if the same branch that -- it's the same branch that came close to bankrupting aig but aig says they are required. >>> toyota was being called a safety death. toyota recalled vehies because of a gas pedal. two other crashes that resulted in injuries, and so far there have been no recalls there >>> the military's don't ask don't tell policy under the microscope on capitol hill. the president is calling on congress to repeal the policy. and the defense secretary supports a change after a panel spent a year studying the impact on the troops. the chairman of the board says gays should be allowed to ope

i didn't see that kind of outreach yesterday at think blair house as i watched the deliberations on television, mr. speaker. that really is what we needed. that really and truly is what we needed. we needed to have an agreement from the president and from the democratic majority to start over. to reject this bill that the american people, what, 70%, mr. speaker, had rejected and they want us to start over and they know now that we have great republican ideas that were articulated, i can't go through a litany of all the members there, i think there were 18 or 20, including house and senate republicans, dr. tom coburn talked about medical liability reform, senator alexander spoke eloquently, our own dr. boustany from this body did a great job representing our doctors. we know now what's in store for us. i want to just say to my colleagues and to my friends back home, let's don't give up the fight. if this is what they want to do, if this is what the democratic majority wants to do, this is what the president insists on, they're going to pay the consequences politically. unfortunately, that's not the

mr. dreier: thank you very much. we all know that most of the political eyes and other eyes are focused down at the blair house rightnow as the health care summit has just gotten underway, and my friend from fort lauderdale and i are going to begin the floor management of the very, very important intelligence authorization bill focused on our nation's security. but we can't forget what issue is the forefront in the minds of most americans and that is getting our economy back on track. focusing on job creation and economic growth. we just gotten the news this morning there has been an unfortunate 12% increase in the jobless claims and we continue to have mixed reports on where we are with the economy. it seems to me, mr. speaker, that it's/ absolutely imperativ for us to work in a bipartisan way to put into place true private sector job creation incentives. by that i mean utilizing the bipartisan effort that was in the last half century utilized by john f. kennedy in the early 1960's and ronald reagan in the 1980's. i believe if we were to implement those policies, mr. speaker, we would see the kind of job creation t

mr. speaker, for yielding. we have had quite a day here in washington, d.c., in your nation's capital tonight, 6 1/2 hour summit held at the blair house right adjacent to the white house has concluded and as the saying goes up in washington, everything's been said and everyone has said it, so it was time to go home. but for those who haven't had quite enough discussion about health care today, maybe we could spend a little while longer talking about some of the things we heard today and some of the things that we may be perhaps didn't hear today. one of the things i do want to stress is -- one of the things i do want to stress, we heard several times in the past several weeks that the republicans don't have ideas and in fact, that was one of the admonitions of the president on starting this summit was that the republicans didn't have ideas and he wanted to show the country that the republicans were devoid of ideas, but anything could be further from the truth. there are, if anything we saw today abundant republican ideas. some might say there are too many republican ideas, too many to fit in in one room. i wanted to spend a few

mr. bush he feels good and "it could be a lot worse." and those are some of your headlines. >> all right. let's talk a little bit about this marathon summit they had yesterday in the blair house which was right across the street from the white house. they had it up in the garden room. it was -- there were really two goals of the summit. the first was to counter the argument from the g.o.p. that president obama is not listening to the republicans. well, yesterday, he listened to the republicans. also, to counter the argument that hey, mr. president, you promised that it would be on c-span. and yesterday, it was on c-span. c-span 3. >> sometime. >> well, it was -- i thought it was pretty sensational, also makes me think, why aren't they doing this all the time? why do they need a special event? >> i loved watching. >> it would cure my insomnia! >> it's their job to work ings out, whether it's health care, whether it's jobs program but they got to be interacting on a regular basis. why do weeed a major event for them directly talking at each other. it went seven hours. you got 40 house and senate members. republicans got to feel good because they got what they wanted. numb

mr. durbin: i say to the senator from oregon, that's exactly why i'm standing here. i didn't plan on doing this. it's been a pretty full day down at the blair house and other places. i really believed by the end of the day that the senator from kentucky would have agreed to a vote and he would have had his chance on the floor, which is all we can ask for in this senate, to argue his point of view, and that we would be able to go home for the weekend knowing that unemployed people across the united states would not have their benefits cut off. cutting off unemployment checks in the midst of this recession. i hadn't planned on being here tonight, but i thought to myself, i say to the senator from tennessee, how can i walk out that door and go home and go to bed and say, well, just another day, another objection. those 12 million people that sent me here expect me to stand up for them once in a while, and that's what i'm trying to do. and i just can't believe that we have reached the point in the senate where these battles over cosmic issues are being visited on people who are struggling to survive day to day to put food on the table. and that