mrs. feinstein: i ask the quorum call be suspended. the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. feinstein: i come to the floor to discuss an issue of national security, and that is how to prevent a nuclear armed iran. i was thinking about our troubled history with iran, and whether more sanctions at this time make sense for our national security interests. and i asked these questions of myself: can, in fact, a country like iran change? is it possible for an isolated regime to rejoin the community of nations and change its behavior after several decades? must a country and its people be held captive because of the behavior of previous leaders in earlier times? so i thought back on history. i was a young girl during world war ii. i remember when imperial japan killed millions in southeast asia and particularly china during its brutal wars of expansion. today, japan is a peaceful democracy and one of this nation's strongest allies in asia. i remember when hitler and the german third reich committed unspeakable atrocities across europe including the murder of six million jewish citiz

i -- you have the chair of the committee, diane dianne feinstein and mr. rogers, joe rogers and these programs say we need them. on the other hand you have people who are much more critical. who is going to win? >> just wait until congress gets involved. if the president signs executive orders, those can be reversed easily either by him or by the future president. if congress has shown itself that we want to get in this game too politically, they came close last summer to killing the nsa program and will try again. >> but what will happen? >> i think they are close to having -- because the president is being pinch i had by -- pinched by both sides. you have the traditional left and the right libertarian who are coming together. together they may be close to a majority. >> where is the center of gravity, joe among republicans? if they go along with what the presidentoposes this is a done deal. if they resist you may have a chance at preserving the powers? >> that's the big question. a lot of the more mature members of the republican party are resistant to t

read it. >> well, we'll just go with what you said. >> we agreed with the quotation, senator feinstein read from mr. morell's "washington post" op-ed. on the 9/11 issue in particular we did not discuss as a group. >> we'll take what she said, they agreed with you. the bottom line, let's get way at the 30,000 foot level, what are we trying to do? do you believe as a group we're at war with radical islam? >> i do. >> how many of you believe we're at war? >> the difference between fighting a crime and war, there's a fundamental difference, do you agree with that? intelligence gathering is a very important tool in fighting a war, do you agree with that? >> that's a critical theme of our report. >> yeah, so i guess what i'm trying to let the nation know, what you gentleman are trying to do, we're trying to find a way to fight a war within our values and this is an unusual situation. there's no capital to conquer. there's no navy to sink. there's no air force to shoot down. we're fighting an ideology. if we all believe that the enemy doesn't mind dying, as a matter of fact, that's first prize for these g

. >> we agreed with the quotation senator feinstein read from mr. post" op- "washington ed. we did not discuss 9/11 as a group. >> we will take what they said. we will agree with you. bottom line, let's get way at foot level. do you believe as a group we are at war with radical islam? >> i do. >> how many of believe you are at war? the difference between assigning a crime and a war, there are fundamental differences. you agree with that? intelligence tethering is a very important will in fighting a war. you agree with that? >> that is the theme of our report. >> what i am trying to let the nation no, what you are trying to do, we are trying to find a way to fight a war within our values him and this is an unusual situation. there is no capital to conquer. there's no navy to sink. there's no air force to shoot down. we are fighting an ideology. if you believe the enemy does not mind dying -- that is their first price -- we have got to hit them before they hit us. is that generally a thought process here we have got to before sinceattack they will not be deterred by death? >>

. >> dianne feinstein agrees with the president's reforms but she remains committed on to collection of telephone data by the nsa. >>> mr. in the, a spare the air alert tomorrow. this is the 28s alert this season. all woodburning is subject to a fine unless it your only source for heat. mark has been tracking high temperature, no rain and just the air is still. >> that same message. you can look outside and see the horizon and the haze. the weather pattern setting up with the warm weather pattern. record heat and air quality suffering, another one for sunday. just that one issue for tomorrow. oakland 74. that was a record. gill roy at 80. lots of 60s. warmest in the 70s. still pretty warm numbers. most areas cooler than yesterday. that trend will continue by the weekend. here's the overall wetter set up in the -- weather in the future. temperature dropping off, four in fairfield. napa 59. san francisco last check 61 degrees and clear skies. for tonight, mostly clear skies, a chill overnight. looking out toward city hall in san francisco and into the weekend sunny and minor cooling. a dry weather pattern for next week. l

mr. carafano. is there ever any way we're going to get a report? i do believe feinsteinthough a democrat, has to be something, she is a grownup. and this committee tends to be pretty bipartisan. what do you expect to come out of this thing? i know the republicans are using it as a battering ram to get to her. but i didn't see it in the report. >> yeah, well, i got to tell you, first of all, i like a lot of things jim said, and i agree with him. i really like the report because it does something in a lot of detailed information. my number one issue from the beginning hasn't been who is responsible. it was how does this happen. we have embassies, consulates and missions all over the world. a lot of them are in the category called high risk, which we know people are out to get them. we know islamist terrorist groups like this as a target. we needed to learn inch we could from the situation so it didn't happen again. the thing i love most about the report is it gives us a lot of meat and potatoes about how we could have done a lot better. >> it also does something that i'm g

from the senate intel committee, chaired by dianne feinstein who by the way said she doesn't like it getting political and doesn't agree that it was mrsfault. but at the end of the day, the report says mrs. clinton was responsible for the safety of those serving in our administration, her failure to do so clearly made a difference, why is that not true? >> well, let me just say one thing, the report points out many, many examples of problems that took place. and also lays out a number of recommendations. and so for example, secretary scl clinton is in charge of the state department. you have a staff of 70,000 employees over 300 departments. there is no evidence in the report that the requests for security or the security situation went up the chain of command. >> went right to her. >> and that she was even aware of it. >> let me just ask you this question, we have to get karl on, too. you know what is going to happen in 2016 if she runs? people are going to saying there is nothing tying bridgegate to chris christie and there is nothing tying benghazi to hillary clinton. what is your view on chris christie, then? do you see this as dif

mrs. logan. and your remarks, we put up this constricts your inspector general's activities of being able to evaluate american aid and projects. could you comment on that? >> senator feinstein, cochairman gracilis -- grassley, thank you for the opportunity to testify. , at your request on my most recent trip to afghanistan, i met with numerous officials involved in the counter narcotics programs. in the opinion of him as every body situation is dire with little prospect for improvement. this year or beyond even with the signing of a bilateral security agreement. what i learned is echoed in the latest reports. the report where they note and find that overall insurgent funding from narcotics trafficking remained largely unchanged. the taliban had shown a greater propensity to protect the poppy harvest and regulate narcotics trafficking. that international law enforcement officers no longer had the same freedom of movement than in previous reports. those are the areas that anyone under chief status including the circumstancest cannot go beyond the areas because they have to return with that and our. -- within an hour. that basically eliminates the gao and anybody under the chi

mrs. clinton, if you want to be the next commander in chief you better start acting like you care. now, we're not the only ones saying this, yesterday, dianne feinstein said there is clearly no evidence to suggest that h hillary knew about the tenuous situation on the ground in libya. >> there is no evidence that secretary clinton knew about this, there is an under-secretary for management. there are others who make these decisions, evaluate the facilities that make these decisions. rather than casting recriminations, i think the thing to do is make sure these facilities get the security. >> is she saying we need to brush this thing under the rug? well, that is not going to happen, i'm glad to see that republican lawmakers agree with me. yesterday, they made a passionate plea to dig deeper for answers, and they're asking why the secretary of state hid behind susan rice in the aftermath of this deadly assault. >> she couldn't be on tv to talk about what happened at the state department because she was distraught? i don't buy that. does anybody believe that about secretary clinton. and if it is true, it is something the american people need to consider

unfortunately, dianne feinstein and mike rogers had a platform to smear the whistleblower with faceless innuendo without a scintilla of evidence to back up their allegation. moreover, mrwent publicly chatted with the u.s. this week to deny being a spy. but if people don't want to take my word for it or mr. snowden's word for it, you can ask the fbi which decided and still believes that he acted alone. >> all right. jesselyn radack in moscow for us today. thank you very much for being here. i appreciate your time. michael chertoff is here, as well, former head of homeland security and also head of the criminal division under president bush which is particularly relevant here. welcome back. >> good to be back. >> how would you handle this question? you heard the attorney general. what do you do to get snowden back? >> well, you know, we have done deals in the past with spies but they've always been a deal with your take a very heavy prison sentence. when i was head of the criminal division, we made a deal with robert hansen. he agreed to give us everything he had given the russians but what we did is we put him in prison for life instead of the death patent. >> is it ir

feinstein publicly weighed in on the possibility, along with the former cia director. >> the disclosures coming recently are very sophisticated in their content and sophisticated in their timing. almost too sophisticated for mr. snowden to be on his own. and it seems to me he might be getting help. >> do you agree with chairman rogers, that he may have had help from the russians? >> he may well have. we don't know. >> the claim that he may not have acted alone was first reported by fox news in early december based on an interview with mike rogers. on sunday, he went further. >> some of the things he did was beyond his technical capabilities. how he arranged travel before he left, how he was ready to go. i believe there's a reason he ended up in the hands and loving arms of an ffsb agent in ma cow. >> the hotel did not respond to fox's questions about snowden, nor did journalist glen greenwauld who has handled most of the leaked documents. in december, he described the original claim as baseless. the nsa debate now moves to capitol hill where attorney general eric holder will testify next week before the senate judiciary committee. as the democratic chairman suggested on fox news sunday, the president's refor

we worked with senator levin and senator feinstein, two great americans, to get the definitive truth we could, as best we could, to get info about the failures. mr. mccain: and we called for the resignation of the secretary of defense because of the failures in iraq. mr. graham: yes, you did. now here we are years later, the families have no clue as to what happened to their loved ones and quit blaming the dead guy. this suggestion that chris stevens had fault for his own death, chris stevens was in benghazi, because that's where he was supposed to be, doing what he was supposed to do, trying to hold libya together. senator ayotte, you have followed this as well as anybody. can you tell us, from your point of view, the unanswered questions and whether or not you think there's evidence that this was a preplanned terrorist attack versus a protest? ms. ayotte: i want to thank my colleagues, the senator south carolina and the senator from arizona, who have been relentless in finding the truth about what happened in benghazi where our ambassador and three brave americans were murdered. let me -- there are so many questions. i would start with the acc

feinstein indicated, some serious concerns. just as we have done in the our job is to foster the growth of this new industry managing effectively, mr. huerta, its risks. know aboutt we aviation today. it is a major part of our economy, it is relatively safe, relatively safe. tens of thousands of aircraft day andskies every transport passengers, shipping goods, performing public safety mixes and given -- missions and given the large wide variety that use our national airspace our safety is amazingly and remarkably good. i'm very proud of that record think the f.a.a. should be, too. it is the product of a lot of by the aviation industry and safety officials at the federal aviation administration and other agencies and also people that have not seen good results from folks fromhe lackawana, new york, the pressure that they bring to make get safer.hings also the product of some tough lessons learned in the aftermath of some serious accidents. we will have to use those lessons as a guide and we confront the latest in aviation which is --all of this is a very interesting subject. we are all familiar with and iraq and most have questions

mr. president. and let me just say that i applaud the majority leader for his work on this neil armstrong flight research center. this is something that diane feinstein's been very involved with and jay rockefeller supported. and it's an appropriate way to pay tribute to neil armstrong, who was a constituent of mine and a dear friend. i spoke to his family about th this. they believe that it is an appropriate way to pay tribute to him as well. he was a true hero, not just because of what he did as the first man to walk on the moon, but also the way he led his life subsequently. he was a humble hero to me and to so many others, and i'm delighted that through the action we just heard on the floor here a moment ago, with the majority leader, we have now passed that legislation. it will go to the president for his signature and the dryden flight center in california will now be renamed the neil a. armstrong flight research center at the dryden aeronautical test range. so that's -- that's good news tonight. the senate got something done. i also want to comment on what the president of the senate said earlier with regard to the retirement provisions in the b