>> if you read the text of the national defense university speech, the president in effect is admitting his reliance on drones, this program of targeted assassination, may have some upsides but it has significant downsides. he's now acknowledge ago. >> stephen: what downside? >> the downside is it alien aets a substantial part of the world's population. oh, no! are you saying the arabs may not like us? >> the presiden the arabs, many, don't like us. >> stephen: that's why we need this. we can't be the good guys. good guy countries finish last. >> if war is good, europe right. if war is bad, i'm right. >> stephen: i'm not saying war is good. i'm saying vigilance is necessary. that sound good. i like that. when is the last time congress declared war. >> world war ii. >> stephen: really? against the japanese and the nazis, that's last time? >> that is correct. >> stephen: what have we done since then? >> workaroundleading to the commander in chief claiming ever more authority to do whatever the hell he wants to do. >> stephen: and it seems to have work outside on the okay. >> we may differ

in march 2011, he addressed the american people from national defense university in washington. the president who wanted to pivot away from the middle east was now explaining why he was intervening in a civil war in labia. to stop a bloodbath, in a port city that most americans had never heard of. a place called benghazi. >> if we waited one more day, benghazi would suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscious of the world. i refused to let that happen. >> reporter: but saving benghazi from gadhafi was not the end of that story. at that moment, in a jail cell in southern california, a check kiting former meth cooker, named nakula basili nakula was working on a loopy scheme. it employed a low budget, comically inept movie that nakula called "desert warrior." federal authorities would only allow an interview over the phone. >> what was your intent? >> just to send a message to the world, detail evil coming from the east. >> reporter: what was the nature of that evil? >>ith that terrorism >> reporter: at the peak peak of obama's re-elec

the ceremony happened at the new national defense university. all foreign combat troops are scheduled to leave that country by the end of next year. >>> right now we are waiting for leaders of the g-8 countries to release a statement about syria's civil war. this is video from minutes ago when the leaders posed for a family photo in northern ireland. president obama is trying to convince the other leaders to support his plan to arm syrian rebels. syria was one of the main talking points of president obama's meeting yesterday with russian president vladimir putin. russia has been one of the syrian government's main allies. >>> and president obama is pledging another $300 million in humanitarian aid for syria and its neighbors. most of that money will go to countries that are taking care of syrian refugees. the u.s. will now have sent about $800 million on relief efforts in syria. that is more aid than any other country. >>> today the head of the nsa heads back to capitol hill. general keith alexander will tell a house committee how his agency's s

he mentioned this very explicitly in his speech to the national defense university several weeks ago on the broader topics of our counterterrorism programs, and spoke specifically about surveillance and the balance we need to strike between security and privacy, between security and inconvenience. and that is a worthy discussion to have in public. and he welcomes that debate. because it's an important debate. it's important to neat we have had this debate every time the patriot act has come up for passage and re-authorization and it has been a spirited debate with strongly held opinions expressed by people who are not opposed to the structures that are in place authorized by bipartisan majorities in congress, overseen by the courts, as well as internally by the executive branch. so that's important and it's healthy and we should continue to have that debate. >> isn't it true that security will have to take a back seat, or rather, privacy will have to take the back seat to security? >> i think i've answered the question that we have to find a balance between those two and e cannot hav

barack obama gave a major address on counterterrorism policy this afternoon at washington's national defense university. actual safety school. (laughter) all right. in the speech president obama questioned how our overzealous prosecution of the war on terror and the prison at guantanamo bay may be affecting our souls. >> look at the current situation where we are force feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike. is this who we are? is that something our founders foresaw? >> jon: oh, i don't know. (laughter) i actually think on a scale of "founders foresaw" prisoner mistreatment would take a backseat to "black president." (laughter) i think the first thing they would say is "who's that guy?" and "will he get me a sandwich?" (laughter) but it is a good point, how a nation and its leaders react to threats both external and internal says a great deal about that administration's values and ideals. and while it's hard to judge an administration by the actions it says it wants to take but can't, perhaps we can learn something about the administration from the actions it says it won't take but doe

him say again what he said in his speech earlier this month at the war college, at the national defense university. you hear what he said when he responded to reporters last week on this question, which is we do have to find the right balance, especially in this new situation where we find ourselveses with all of us reliant on internet, on e-mail, on texting. so we find ourselves communicating in different ways, but that means the bad guys are doing that as well. we have to find the right balance between protecting our privacy-- which is sacrosanct in the president's view-- and protecting the country against the very real risks we face. the president is not saying-- and this goes to the heart of the changes he made in 2009. the president is not saying, "trust me." the president is saying i want every member of congress owhose authority we are running this program, to understand it, to be briefed about it, and to be comfortable with it. that's why we've done things like we did in 2009 and 2011 by presenting a classified white paper, inviting every member of congress-- 535 members of them-- to see t

the ceremony held at afghanistan's national defense university in kabul is a significant milestone in the afghan war which has lasted nearly 12 years. nato secretary general attended the ceremony where he promised the organization's continued support. >>> president obama headed to berlin this morning. during the final hours of the summit, the leaders talking about how to stop the kidnapping of foreign workers in africa and how to get multinational companies to pay more taxes. there's also some behind the scenes haggling to see if all eight can come to the agreement ton syrian civil war. russia's president, vladimir putin, an ally of syrian president bashar al assad standing firm on his stance. >>> nasa marking a historic moment in space today. 30 years ago, sally ride became the country's first ro man in space. she and four colleagues blasted off aboard "the challenger." she also remains the youngest american to travel to space. she died last year at the age of 61. >>> california lawmakers considering tougher restrictions today on the use of drones. an assembly committee reviewing a b

he mentioned that very explicitly in his speech to the national defense university several weeks ago on the broader topics of counterterrorism programs, but he spoke specifically about surveillance in the balance we need to strike a train security and privacy, between security and convenience and that is a worthy to have in public. and he welcomes that debate because it's important. it's important to know we've had this debate. every time the patriot act has come up for passage in reauthorization has been a spirited debate was strongly held opinions expressed by people opposed to the structures in place authorized by bipartisan majorities in congress that are overseen by the courts as well as internally by the executive branch. so that's import and haltingly should have that debate. >> isn't a true security will have to take a back seat or rather privacy will take a backseat to security? >> i answered the question that we have to find a balance between those two and we cannot have if we hope to successfully protect ourselves 100% privacy that there has to be some modest concession to

defense department. >> host: kori schake has worked at the national security council at the state department, currently a research fellow at the hoover institution. she has taught at west point, johns hopkins, the national defense universitydid you get interested in this line of work? [laughter] >> guest: i was a student of secretary rice. i had a grand idea about writing my ph.d. on the the renaissance of the latin american novel in the 1970's and what this tells us about the law of literature and art. and it did not do that. >> host: "state of disrepair" is the name of the book. one of the recommendations that we have is that for the state department to reconsider universality. >> guest: we have american embassies within every country that we have diplomatic relations in. and that makes a certain amount of sense. if you tried said real vision how to spend our resources on diplomacy, it is not entirely clear to me that luxembourg would need an embassy of its own when belgium is next door and the european union as a lot of its diplomatic work in brussels now. so it seems to me possible that given american predominance in the international order much of the work that we would want to do diplomatically behind politics, stat

. >> national defense university the hottest book we have right now is called convergence and deals witht networks and eenergying -- an emerging national security threat. he was introduced to these nexus of transnational criminal organizations and terrorist organizations coming together and then when he went to european command where -- he was surprised to see the same kind of threat so this book describes this emergent national security threat and the directions it's going and kind of inner agency -- >> what are some of the key ideas that the book fosters because there's been obviously a big drive to interconnect government better to have a whole government approach on some of this stuff but still rather large disconnects in how the system -- >> as you've had on the show with commander task force south, the inner agency approach is important, the treasury, the d.e.a., the coast card and the intelligence community must work together transnationally across borders and across seams. >> that sort of hybrid war on the nexus stuff is also where you have done some of your work. is that really

then there's the targeted killing of american citizens right here in his speech before the national defense university president obama directly acknowledged his decision to kill any. american citizen in yemen who was alleged to be working with al qaida plotting attacks there was no trial just a death sentence handed down from the highest office in the land and weeks after the strike that killed and where a lock e another u.s. strike killed his sixteen year old son of bill ramon also an american citizen. and despite what appears to be a blatant violation of the constitution's guaranteed against deprivation of life without due process of the law republicans for the most part support the president on this two years congressman peter king. i think the president is acting according to the law according to the constitution the president's main job his main obligation is to protect the security of the american people and the fact that the enemy may happen to be an american citizen should not give that enemy any any immunity so that's that and finally there's domestic surveillance edward snowden's leaks have

then there's the targeted killing of american citizens right here in his speech before the national defense university president obama directly acknowledged his decision to kill an. american citizen in yemen who was alleged to be working with al qaida plotting attacks there was no trial just a death sentence handed down from the highest office in the land and weeks after the strike that killed in war a lock e another u.s. strike killed his sixteen year old son of bill romano aki also an american citizen . and despite what appears to be a blatant violation of the constitution's guaranteed against deprivation of life without due process of the law republicans for the most part support the president on this too here's congressman peter king. i think the president is acting according to the law according to the constitution the president's main job is made obligation is to protect the security of the american people and the fact that the enemy may happen to be an american citizen should not give that enemy any any immunity so that's that and finally there's domestic surveillance edward snowden's leaks hav

>> well, i was there at the national defense university. [applause] >> for those of you that don't know, i was actually an audience member and i was really hanging on every word that the president is saying. i have read a lot but this is going to be a shift in policy i was going to be a market change with what has been going on in this is something i have been working for no for 11 years. i was very anxious and i thought i might hear some of the things that you alluded to. i thought you might say that we are making this now and the u.s. will no longer have a fleet of killer drones in the military. i thought he might say that he was withdrawing the opposition to significant strikes that is not targeting an individual, but targeting people on the basis of suspicious behavior. i thought it was with relation to guantÁnamo, and how i thought that he would announce that he was invoking the waiver process, which would allow him on the basis of national security grounds to release those tunnel details. i did not hear any of that. so it was coming t

first question is this is the national defense university and the president of the united states. the hell did you get in there? >> that's a secret i'm not at liberty to reveal. [ laughter ] >> bill: but you didn't -- you didn't sneak in like through a window right or anything? >> no. i had an invitation to get in and i was tulessening very carefully. >> bill: you had an invitation to attend. >> i had an invitation to attend. i was not necessarily planning on interrupting. i actually thought the president was going to -- >> bill: i've known. >> long time. you went there -- you went there to -- >> i went there with the possibility -- i've actually been in other situations where the president was talking and i've never said a thing. >> bill: you went without protesting? >> twice. >> bill: what prompted you to protest this time? >> i had read all of the press reports that were predicting real policy changes and i thought i was going to hear that. i waited until he said in the last thing i'm going to talk about and it was already 45 minutes into his speech and i realized he had alread

like he did just two weeks ago during a major foreign policy speech at national defense university. > now, this is part of free speech, is you being able to speak, but also you listening. and me being able to speak. all right? >> reporter: a softer touch, maybe, than michelle's tough talk. but today the white house gave her performance a rave review. >> it's my personal opinion that she handled it brilliantly. >> reporter: president obama has been saying for years that michelle obama is one tough cookie. but this fund-raiser is one of the first times that americans really got to see it. erin mcpike, cnn, washington. >> well, few people know what makes the president and first lady tick better than my next guest, jodi kantor of the "new york times" has written a book on it, "the obamas." she joins us tonight. it's a pretty remarkable situation. i don't recall seeing a first lady being heckled before and the first lady's response was interesting. what do you make of how she handled herself? >> the funny thing is, this has happened to michelle obama before. not in this role. but a few wee

this is the same president who only a few weeks ago gave a speech at national defense university expressingsite sensitivity to the civil rights of foreign terrorists wanting to bring them to u.s. soil and give them civilian trial. meanwhile, he tells us just this week that he has no qualms about this massive surveillance program on american's phone calls. i agree it's not monitoring the content but yet we have another report about yet a separate nsa surveillance program called prism that does actually potentially get into content and all the while this is top secret. if this is a benign no big deal it's been going on bush did it, if that's the case, why is it a secret? i do think we need to have a very public debate and understand more clearly and fully what the surveillance program is all about. it has huge implications. >> as the president said, you don't want to broadcast to the terrorists what the strategy is in the intelligence community. >> i mean, clearly -- >> here's a question on that note. how is this different from internet companies mining your data for advertising? >> internet

president talked about this in his really important speech he gave on national security at the national defense university recently. we cannot simply have a one part test, does this work. it must also be is this consonant with our values as a free society. >> ari, paul, thanks very much. >> thanks. >>> let us know what you think about this government monitoring program. what do you think? follow me on twitter. let's talk about it during the break. >>> up next, a "360" exclusive interview. a former u.s. navy s.e.a.l., part of an elite secretive team with a secret herself. since childhood, this s.e.a.l. felt that deep inside he was really a woman. now after 20 years as a s.e.a.l., she's finally living the way she truly is. so there was part of you that felt if you could become a s.e.a.l. and be in the toughest of the tough, that feminine side of you would disappear? >> yes. i could totally make it go away. if i could be at the top level and be -- it would maybe go away. maybe i could cure myself. and be good for your face? [ female announcer ] now there's new neutrogena® naturals acne cleanser. acne medicin

about rebuilding after hurricane sandy and the even earlier national security speech at the national defense universitydifferent events raise this question, what is the white house's overall message? right now it's all over the place. joining me live now is nbc news senior political editor. the shatter effect. the president says you can chew gum and walk or talk at the same time. why is this seen as a scatter when you can put a lot of irons in the fire? another cliche there? >> tamron, you know, all of these events, the president and the white house has been holding the last two weeks had been worthy. talking about mental illness, talking about revamping national security, talking about rebuilding new jersey after hurricane sandy six or seven months ago. but they are lacking a unified theme, a bigger theme of where the president wants to take the country. of course, he has given his state of the union address, second inaugural back in january. there does seem to be something where it's missing on where the president really wants to be able to take the country now six months into that second term. and s

. >> let me start with the fact that at national defense university several weeks ago when most of the focus was around the drone program and my plans in afghanistan and the need for us to move away from a perpetual war footing that i specifically said one of the things we need to debate and examine is our surveillance programs because those were set up right after 9/11, it's now been over a decade and we have to examine them. >> rose: and what should the debate be? >> well, and what i've said and i continue to believe is that we don't have to sacrifice our freedom in order to achieve security. that's a false choice. that doesn't mean that there are not tradeoffs involved in any given program, any given action that we take. so all of us make a decision that we go through a whole bunch of security at airports which, when we were growing up that wasn't the case, right? you ran up to the gate -- >> rose: exactly. you're there. >> you're at the plane, you're running on. >> rose: been there. >> it's been a while since i went through commercial flying but i gather the experience is not the s

if he welcomed this debate, he mentioned his speech he gave a few weeks back at national defense university that was largely about the drone program and he gave that speech and he specifically focused a lot on the drone program after the administration came under so much criticism for its use of the drones and its definition of how it could use the drones. the president only touched on surveillance in that speech very briefly. he did say this telling line about america being at a cross roads a dozen years after 9/11. the president said we must define the nature and scope of this struggle, or else it will define us. in some ways aren't these leaks defining this for the president? if he welcomed this debate, why didn't he initiate it before somebody leaked it against him? >> because the fact is if it comes in, this president has an agenda he'd like to get to in the second term. and it's proving difficult because he has been interrupted by any number of things. and this is the latest interruption. it is also an uncomfortable conversation, i think, for this administration. precisely because whe

voice to the moral questions and the moral issues he wrestles with in his speech at the national defense university. how did you grade that? and how would you grade his performance thus far? >> on both counts, it's been status quo since the bush administration on every question, except the question of torture this is the logical thing. the american public, all the polling data shows that the american public regard the period since 9/11 as a success because there hasn't been a similar attack on the homeland. so the administration knowing it can't really stop terrorism. it's like a lightning strike. if they change anything they're going to be blamed if lightning happens to strike. >> the center for constitutional rights, shayana kadidal, thank you. >>> it's funny how details make a difference, such is the case with immigration. the latest nbc news/"wall street journal" poll finds a slim 52% majority supports a pathway to citizenship. but when respondents were told that the proposed pathway includes requirements to pay fines, back taxes and pass a background check, the number jumps to 6 5%, including

he's now at the national defense university. and pamela constable covers south asia for the washington post. she's recently back from kabul. back last week, tell us a little bit about these twinings that are happening today how much of a difference does it make that there's a hand over and is afghanistan ready and how much difference does it make. >> it's been really quite a set of stunning developments, when i was there just a few weeks ago everything was gloom and doom, the taliban were exhibiting extraordinary ferocity and reach and going after international charities, even going after international red cross, supreme court, they really seemed to be going for broke. so this obviously we're now learning that there was a double track going on and they have been quietly negotiating with american officials and others the whole time. but they're very good at playing games. so we are not going to -- >> ifill: taliban you mean? >> yes. saying that they want to talk they have been wanting to talk with the americans a long time. >> if

at the same time the president gave his speech at the national defense university last month. you make of it. i think the part of it that i applaud is a, he's trying to be transparent and the fact that it became clear to me that he is wrestling morally with these questions. and is that enough? i. >> i think the net result of the obama presidency on a counterterrorism front is he'll go down in history as the president who legitimized and systemized a process by which the united states asserts the right to conduct assassination operations around the world. he's trying as hard as he can to make it legitimate. i think that he largely has sold liberals on the idea that this is a cleaner, more effective way of waging war. but at the end of the day, i think that cheney and company are probably having a good chuckle over this somewhere. because it's going to keep the doors open for the kind of war that they like to wage during their administration. >> joan, what do you think of that, that he sold liberals -- >> i've written about it. there is actual polling that shows when you poll li

handle hecklers, like he did just two weeks ago during a major foreign policy speech at national defense universityof free speech, is you being able to speak but also you listening. and me being able to speak. >> a softer touch maybe than michelle's tough talk, but today, the white house gave her performance a rave review. >> it's my personal opinion that she handled it brilliantly. >> now, that event last night was a private fund-raiser, and we're seeing hecklers come out more and more at those events. when you and i traffic around the country and go to campaign events rng you see hecklers there all the time. the interesting thing for journalists is you can see how the powerful people respond to them. it's jarring for everybody in the audience, as well. >> in michelle obama's defense, it's uncomfortable when you're trying to give remarks and somebody won't let you finish. it's rude. >> it's rude, but it shows how they respond, how they roll out of things. for us, it's very interesting. >> indeed, indeed. of course. anyway, thank you so much, erin. >> vice presidents attend a lot of funerals. it's

so president obama gave a much laud and very comprehensive and great speech at the national defense university a couple of months ago where he talked about the shifting nature of the terrorist threat. he said we're now back to a place where formal international structural al qaeda has been dismantled a little bit and really we have these sort of small local networks that are kind of self-starting and self-radicalizing. we saw that in the boston bombing. so if we're thinking about these trolls for metadata, if you had a situation where you had a very structured centralized al qaeda and you could connect individual citizens back to it, maybe that's a little bit different ethical judgment that you make about whether that's okay than if you're looking for radicalization, which is a much harder thing to detect and a much harder thing to prove. >> i was going to say -- >> let me jump in here. what he's touching on i think is the fact that we have erred on the side of magnitude. we have decided that the threat is broad and unseen and our tactics for addressing the threat are broad and largely unseen.