mr. panetta officially asked germany to take on a role in the north. of course germany already is lead nation in the north. >> nato soldiers on the ground will have to wait for a final decision. the many open questions will be addressed at a special summit in june. >> stay with us. when we come back, we will look at italy. italians go to the polls this weekend. we will look at what is at stake and who are the biggest stakeholders. >> could he be back? silvio berlusconi making a lot of people very nervous. >> stay with us. we will be right back. >> welcome back, everyone. as we've heard, the markets have a close eye on those elections in italy. depending on who steals the vote on sunday or monday, the country could be set for big changes. >> the economic reforms from mario monti's technocratic government hang in balance. they have helped to bring down the country's deficits but remain deeply unpopular in many parts of the country. >> italy still faces high unemployment at its worst recession in over 60 years. let's have a look at who wants to take on th

mr. panetta on capitol hill along with general dempsey, joint chief of staff. are live shots of the hearing on going. secretary panetta who is right next to him says the military pre pictures for all kinds of situations but there were no specific signs of an imminent aeu that being on the diplomatic mission in libya. he says there simply was not enough time to reach benghazi with enough fire power to prevent the murders of ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. >> the inner agency response was timely and appropriate, but there simply was not enough time, given the speed of the attacks for armed u.s. military assets to have made a difference. jenna: national skhaourt correspondent jennifer given is live at the pentagon watching the hearing as it happens. what is the tenure of the hearing this morning? >> reporter: i think what is most interesting, jenna is as soon as democrats take to the questioning they bring up a totally unrelated element, they start asking the secretary about sequestration, about budget cuts. when the republicans are at the helm

panetta. [applause] >> thank you very much. mr.nt, i am deeply touched by your moving words, about me, about my family, more importantly about the men and women who serve in the department of defense. all of us are truly honored by your presence, and i thank you. let me also take this moment to thank michelle and jill biden for the outstanding work they have done in leading the joining forces initiative, which has provided great support for military families who have done so much for us. marty dempsey, i appreciate your kind remarks. marty and i have testified before congress. it was the 11th time yesterday that we have done that. and we have also done 10 press conferences together. we are developing a very convincing case for collecting hazard pay in these jobs. [laughter] as we used to say when i was in the army, there is not anyone i would rather be in the foxhole with than marty dempsey. i cannot tell you what a privilege it has been to work with you and to work with all of the service chiefs. we have dealt with some very tough

mr. panetta, i feel i've been jerked around by every c.i.a. director, either misled, misrepresented, had to pull information out at the most men mal kind of way from tenant with a aluminum rods to tell us we had weapons of mass destruction in iraq, to port are not with coming, the problems with torture. the chair has spoken about it all the way and during those questions, they were evaded, they were distorted, et cetera. my question to you is, knowing your background, knowing your jesuit education, knowing what your -- i think your values are, can i have your word you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power and even when incomfortable, where we're going to have to possible probe in a way that's not an easy way to go. >> honesty, truthfulness was a value in me in my home in new jersey, and still is to this day. honesty is the best policy. none of us are perfect beings, i'm far from perfect but i would commit i would be honest with that committee and do everything possible to meet y

panetta. [applause] >> thank you very much. mr.nt, i am deeply touched by your moving words, about me, about my family, more importantly about the men and women who serve in the department of defense. all of us are truly honored by your presence, and i thank you. let me also take this moment to thank michelle and jill biden for the outstanding work they have done in leading the joining forces initiative, which has provided great support for military families who have done so much for us. marty dempsey, i appreciate your kind remarks. marty and i have testified before congress. it was the 11th time yesterday that we have done that. and we have also done 10 press conferences together. we are developing a very convincing case for collecting hazard pay in these jobs. [laughter] as we used to say when i was in the army, there is not anyone i would rather be in the foxhole with than marty dempsey. i cannot tell you what a privilege it has been to work with you and to work with all of the service chiefs. we have dealt with some very tough

mr. panetta, i feel like i've been jerked around by every cia director. >> 11 united states senators asked to see any and all legal opinions but when i went to read the opinions this morning, it is not clear that that is what was provided. >> we only take such actions as a last resort to save lives, when there's no other alternative to taking an action that's going to mitigate that threat. >> they won't even tell congress what countries we are killing children in. >> please -- >> senator feinstein zsh if you could please expedite the removal. >>> we have michael isakoff, and the correspondent who obtained the white page memo, jim warren, chicago editor of the daily beast and newsweek and karen finney and john braybender. michael, i want to start with you because it was your reporting that started all of this for the american people to get to learn more about how the administration feels it is legal in the choices made for drone strikes. one thing politico is reporting in the article that they have on this and, of course, the two hearings we were watching yesterday, one being leon panetta o

mr. panetta, i feel like i have been jerked around by every cia director. my question to you is: knowing your background, knowing your jesuit education, knowing what i think your values are, kihave your word that you -- can i have your word that you will be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power and even when it's uncomfortable, where we have to probe in a way that is not an easy way to go? >> former adviser to the president reagan, pat buchanan is here. do you have problems with the program to use drones to kill americans overseas if they are believed to be associated with al qaeda. >> vinever seen a bigger assort ion of imperial presidency than that. the president is claiming the right for himself and high-rank subordinates to identify what they consider a threat, imminent threat, the right to use a hell-fire missile to kill them, even if they are an american citizen. i have never heard of this before. i don't think it's going to stand. i think the congress of the united states, which has the power over th

mr. panetta, i feel i've been drug around by every cia dra director. knowing your background and your education, and knowing what i think your values are and can i have your word you're going to be very swift coming to this committee to speak truth power, speak truth about power and even when it's uncomfortable where we're going to have to prove there's not an easy way to go. >> greta: former presidential advisor, do you have any problem with this drone program to kill americans overseas if it's thought that they are somehow associated with al-qaeda, or al-qae. >> i've never seen a better claim of-- the president of the united states is claiming the right not only for himself, but for high ranking subordinates what they consider in another country, the hell fire missile to kill them even if they're an american citizen. i've never heard of that before. i don't think it's going to stand. the congress will have to get in on this and i think a judicial review when you're killing americans abroad deliberately. >> greta: and coming out tomorrow, which of cou

mr. panetta, i feel i've been drug around by every director. >> 11 united states senators asked to see any and all legal opinions, but when i went to read the opinions this morning, it is not clear that that is what was provided. >> do you happen to know the reason why our staff are not permitted when we are permitted? >> having the executive being the prosecutor, the judge, the jury and the executioner all in one is very contrary to traditions and the laws of this country. >> for the first time dianne feinstein said publicly that the committee will consider the creation of a special court to oversee evidence against americans who might be targeted by strikes. brennan was also pressed about his evolving answers on enhanced int interrogation methods. >> what steps did you take to stop cia from moving to these techniques you now say you found objectionable at the time? >> i did not take steps to stop the cia's use of those techniques. i was not in the chain of command of that program. i expressed my personal objections and views to some agency colleagues. >> do you have a personal opinion wh

mr. panetta, i feel i have been jerked around by every cia director. >> i love these groups that are criticizings saying, well, they're fake conservatives. >> this newspaper article about karl rove's intentions is only serving to unite the tea party. >> you made some mistakes but everybody makes mistakes. >> sure. >> heard anything on nbc about the drones? >> not yet. >> tonight we have exclusive reporting on the contents of that white paper. joining us now is nbc news national investigative correspondent michael isikoff. ♪ >>> we start on a day where up to three feet of snow and winds nearing hurricane strength are expected to batter the northeast, and we'll have much more on that throughout the broadcast. but we begin in washington where we are awaiting the president to speak at a farewell tribute to defense secretary leon panetta in washington. it's a ceremony marked by a 19-gun salute, an inspection of troops, and all accompanied by the united states pershing zone army band. general martin dempsey spoke first and he will soon be followed by the president. all to honor the man whom on thursda

mr. panetta his sendoff on saturday, though it looks like he'll probably be in charge for another week or his time has been a period of lasting change for the u.s. military. after the end of the iraq war, he has overseen the beginning of the end of america's longest war ever in afghanistan. the clinton era policy of "don't ask, don't tell" ended under leon panetta's watch, at his recommendation that the nation allow openly gay people to be a part of the military. last year secretary panetta took steps to reform the way the military deals with sexual assault in its ranks, going as far in those reforms as he could without help from congress. he also opened new assignments in the military, new roles for female soldiers. last month, with the end of his term near, he proclaimed an end to the ban on women in combat, full stop. well, today in a new memo, the outgoing defense secretary, leon panetta, made another historic change, saying that discrimination based on sexual orientation no longer has a place in the military. secretary panetta ordered that gay service members and their families be el

mr. panetta, i feel i have been jerked around by every cia director. i have either been misled, misrepresented, -- to tell us had weapons of mass destruction in iraq, to porter goss. we know the problems we've had with torture, the chair has spoken eloquently about it all the way and, quite frankly, during those questions they were evaded. they were distorted, et cetera. so my question to you is knowing your background, knowing your jesuit education, knowing what i think your values are, can i have your word that you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power and even when it's uncomfortable or where we're going to have to probe in a way that's not an easy way to go? >> honesty, truthfulness was a value that was inculcated in me in my home in new jersey by my parents. it still is to this day. honesty is the best policy. none of us are perfect aboutings. i'm far from perfect, but, senator, i would commit i would be honest with this committee and do everything possible to meet your legitimate n

mr. panetta i feel i've been jerked around by every cia director. i've either been misled, misrepresented, had to pull information out, often at the most minimal kind of way. from tenet with his little aluminum rods to tell us that we had weapons of mass destruction in iraq to porter goss not forthcoming. can i have your word that you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power, and even when it's uncomfortable where we're going to have to probe in a way that is not an easy way to go? >> admit it. there is no u.s. senator you would rather have a beer with than barbara mikulski. admit it. i don't even know if she drinks beer. but if i had to pick one senator based on today, i would pick her. senator, if that offends you and you don't drink or if you find that offensive in any way, i'm sorry. you saw senator mikulski gesturing with her hands there saying george tenet brought in little aluminum tubes to make the case about saddam hussein's supposed centrifuge tubes during the leadup to the ira

mr. panetta is not enjoying his second week of retirement. attending a nato meeting on the future of afghanistan because republicans have prevented the appointment of his successor. after ensuring the failure of a cloture vote on the nomination of chuck hagel, a group of 15 republican senators have now sent a letter to the president urging him to withdraw the nomination. in response the white house press secretary referred to a bogus report fabricated by the breitbart media team which suggested chuck hagel may be connected to a nonexistent organization called the friends of hamas. >> just to be clear, he won't be withdrawn. >> absolutely not. if any suggestion to the otherwise -- to the contrary might have been found in the minutes of the meetings of the friends of hamas, yeah. >> ari melber is an msnbc contributor and correspondent for "the nation" magazine and toure is my colleague and co-host of "the cycle." "both of them are known by breitbart as brothers of hezbollah. it's one thing for a news organization to make up a story and fabricat

mr. chairman. >> secretary panetta. >> mr. chairman, senator inhofe, i appreciate being here to discuss the facility attacks in benghazi on september 11, threlf. before i go into -- 2012. before i go into my testimony, let me say my deepest thanks for all of you for your support and friendship that i've had with all of you on both sliles. i have -- both sides of the aisle. i have had in many ways to live the american dream as a son of italian immigrants in the various capacities that i've had to serve this country. the greatest privilege i think i've had is to serve as an elected member in the house and had the opportunity to work with many of you in that capacity, and then as member of the executive branch, had the opportunity to work with you as well. i thank you for your dedication to the country and i thank you for your willingness to serve the united states. on that tragic day, as always, the department of defense was prepared for a wide range of contingencies. just remind you that the nctc in the six months prior to that

it's challenging to sustain those postures. >> senator we. >> secretary leon panetta, mr. secretary, your testimony is wearing going to start with an observation and questions that brings me to the greatest concern is secretary and greatest the security risks we are facing as a nation which is budget uncertainty that confront the most significant military readiness crisis in more than a decade with iran, north korea, al qaeda in putting in mog rabun but our ability to respond to those security threats is completely dependent upon the national security posture that is informed by the budget decisions rather than the budget in decision. yesterday was announced that he had approved the decision to take the uss harry truman and gettysburg and delayed the deployment personnel and to the desire that they would be deployed in the middle east and the likelihood that the what happened to sacrifice the nation's readiness to was deploying a second carrier in the middle east would provide additional security including the area that we are talking about at this hearing and you decided

mr. panetta a simple question. >> who was in charge in benghazi? were you in charge, secretary panetta? >> what do you mean in charge? >> as running the operation, trying to find a way to save our ambassador who was lost. trying to prevent our people from being killed? providing assistance to people who were underattack? >> i mean, it's not that simple. as you know. i think the people that were in charge with the people on the ground. >> would you say secretary clinton in charge. >> pardon me? >> was secretary clinton in charge. >> the people in charge, were the ambassador there at benghazi. >> no. but, they can't, you know, they were trying to save their lives. rick: richard grenell, a former spokesperson for the last four u.s. ambassadors to the u.n. byron york, is chief political correspondent at the "washington examiner". gentlemen, good to see you both. rick, you first. you worked at a number of administrations. odd that the president himself would be so hands off while one of our consulates was under attack? >> yeah, very odd. i think it's, mitt romney was right. it really was a w

mr. president, to my knowledge, we do have a secretary of defense and his name is leon panetta. and it's my understanding that mr. panetta's going to stay on the job, a job that he's done very well as secretary of defense and as c.i.a. director for the last several years. the majority leader knows full well that the reason why cloture was denied or the debate -- closing off debate was denied is because there are reasonable requests being made on this side for additional information, and i hope and trust that that information will be provided here in the next few days and when we come back from the recess, we'll have another vote and another opportunity for senators to express themselves. but this is not any attempt to kill this nomination. this is not a filibuster. i realize that's the headline that the majority leader would like the newspapers to write. we actually had some very reasonable discussions going on earlier today among senators on the democratic side and republican side to try to work this out. given the fact that this nomination has just so recently been reported fr

mr. panetta, who will some and people like that. across -- the difference between the 1984 bill and the 1986 bill were insignificant. if you really look at the architecture elements of it, it is the same bill that passed in 19861986. -- in 1986. no one thought we would need additional workers sometime in the future. there were people who were parading around the halls of the congress, unemployed construction workers to point to the fact that we had unemployed americans and immigrants were taking the jobs from them. organized labor was extremely powerful. labor was extremely powerful, much more powerful than was likely to be. the business community was powerful enough to block the bill until the business community was satisfied. that is what held the bill back for about five years. host: president bush put forth his own immigration plan. are there any significant differences between what president bush put forth in 2006 and what marco rubio outlined the earlier this week here in washington? guest: significant differences. by far, the

mr. panetta i feel like i've been jerked around by every c.i.a. director. i had to pull information out, and i feel like i've been misdirected. they had to tell us that we had weapons of mass destruction in iraq. we know the problems we've had before and the chair has spoken about it all the way. quite frankly those questions were evaded, distorted, etc. my question to you is, knowing your background, knowing your education, can i have your word that you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power? >> truthfulness was a value that was put into me in my home in new jersey. it still is to this day. honesty is the best policy. none of us are perfect human beings. i will say i will be honest with this committee and do everything possible to immediate your needs and requirements. i know you're a proud senator of one of the jewels in the committee which resides in maryland. it would be my objective to make the c.i.a. your favorite intelligence agency. >> i think you're pushing your luck. thank you very m

mr. panetta's legacy? >> cutting -- cutting the budget.eginning of his political career. he was sent there to cut the budget, to do a lot of things but mostly to cut the budget. and he leaves a legacy of having prepared the pentagon to reduce the expenditures during a time when it has to do that one aor the other. >> we appreciate your time. even when you are traveling. thank you. >> coming up. her husband has one and she will have to beat out a former president to get hers. we will tell you what michelle obama could win tomorrow night. first up. we will talk to the man who made the call. to call it quits for saturday delivery, up next, post master general, patrick donahoe, and why he had to make the call. and if it will save the storied american institution. you are watching msnbc. ♪ alright, let's go. ♪ shimmy, shimmy chocolate. ♪ shimmy, shimmy chocolate. ♪ we, we chocolate cross over. ♪ yeah, we chocolate cross over. ♪ [ male announcer ] introducing fiber one 80 calorie chocolate cereal. ♪ chocolate. >>> you are looking at the latest p

mr. panetta will stay in his position until his successor is confirmed. president obama has nominated former senator chuck hagel to be his replacement. this is half an hour. [applause] >> halt. present. halt. ♪ o say can you see by the dawn's early light snule what so -- what so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight o'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there o say does that star spangled banner yet wave oaer the land of the free and the home of the brave ♪ >> please be seated. >> ladies and gentlemen, the director of administration and management, mr. michael rhodes. >> well, welcome, everybody. thank you very much for being here today. as we have an opportunity for the secretary's farewell address to the pentagon community. from the most senior to the most junior individual out here, you represent one team. one focus. and that is the common defense of this

mr. panetta i feel like i've been jerked around by every c.i.a. director. i had to pull information out, and i feel like i've been misdirected. they had to tell us that we had weapons of mass destruction in iraq. we know the problems we've had before and the chair has spoken about it all the way. quite frankly those questions were evaded, distorted, etc. my question to you is, knowing your background, knowing your education, can i have your word that you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power?and even when it is uncomfortable? >> truthfulness was a value that was put into me in my home in new jersey. it still is to this day. honesty is the best policy. none of us are perfect human beings. i will say i will be honest with this committee and do everything possible to immediate your needs and requirements.-- meet your legitimate needs and requirements. i know you're a proud senator of one of the jewels in the committee which resides in maryland. it would be my objective to make the c.i.a. your fa

mr. panetta i feel like i've been jerked around by every c.i.a. director. i had to pull information out, and i feel like i've been disdirected. they had to tell us that we had weapons of mass destruction in iraq. we know the problems we've had before and the chair has spoken about it all the way. quite frankly those questions were evaded, distorted, etc. my question to you is, knowing your background, knowing your education, can i have your word that you're going to be very forthcoming with this committee to speak truth to power, to speak truth about power? >> truthfulness was a value that was put into me in my home in new jersey. it still is to this day. honesty is the best policy. none of us are perfect human beings. i will say i will be honest with this committee and do everything possible to immediate your needs and requirements. i know your a proud senator of one of the jewels in the committee which resides in maryland. it would be my objective to make the c.i.a. your favorite intelligence agency. >> i think you're pushing your luck. thank you very muc

panetta. [applause] >> thank you very much. mr.nt, i am deeply touched by your moving words, about me, about my family, more importantly about the men and women who serve in the department of defense. all of us are truly honored by your presence, and i thank you. let me also take this moment to thank michelle and jill biden for the outstanding work they have done in leading the joining forces initiative, which has provided great support for military families who have done so much for us. marty dempsey, i appreciate your kind remarks. marty and i have testified before congress. it was the 11th time yesterday that we have done that. and we have also done 10 press conferences together. we are developing a very convincing case for collecting hazard pay in these jobs. [laughter] as we used to say when i was in the army, there is not anyone i would rather be in the foxhole with than marty dempsey. i cannot tell you what a privilege it has been to work with you and to work with all of the service chiefs. we have dealt with some very tough

panetta was pressed about the president's involvement. he said he learned about the assault while meeting with mr. obama. mr. obama told him to deploy forces as quickly as possible, but panetta did not speak to the president after that. >> the event was over before -- >> it lasted almost eight hours and my question to you is during that eight-hour period, did the president show any curiosity about how's this going, what kind of assets do you have helping these people? did he ever make that phone call? >> look. there's no question in my mine the president of the united states was concerned about american lives. >> well, with all due respect i don't believe that's a credible statement if he never called and asked you, are we helping these people, what's happening to them. snopa any ta also said that he supported a plan to help and president obama decided against it. >>> also on capitol hill the drone strike was an issue and john brennan was key. brennan defended the program. he said drone strikes are used against targets that pose an imminent threat, not for retribution. danielle nottingham reports. >> reporter