joining me now former assistant to president clinton for national security affairs. thank you for joining us. >> a pleasure, eliot. >> eliot: let's start with the important question. what do we know about al-qaeda's attacks in the consulate in ben gassy. >> this was a well planned attack. somebody had been casing the consulate in benghazi for some time. whether they acted on the spur of the moment or if they had direction in outside of libya remains to be scene. >> eliot: the difficulty given the uncertainty and it's impossible to get your arms around all the facts very quickly. but the difficulty then is how do we then move in our evolving relationship with the new libyan government to control al-qaeda's presence and respect their sovereignty. where do we go in this evolving arab spring, in libya in particular. >> a lot of this takes time. building up a strong system of government, institution of government libya in particular build gadhafi never wanted an institution that would rival his him. every political faction within libya has weapons and obviously at least o

affairs for president obama as well as former special assistant for president clinton for national security affairs. now a professor at george washington university. thank you for joining us tonight. >> appreciate it eliot. >> working for ambassador rice, the state department, what appears to be evolving understanding about the awful story of what happened in bengahzi. why did ambassador rice make statements so quickly if there was such fluid information flow at the time? why not just remain quiet at that point? >> well any of us who are in front of the podium, you're only as good as the information that you have available at the time. as we all know frequently first reports get key elements wrong. i think there is a legitimate question not so much when the administration came out and said in care justice caveated statements this is the best information that we have available at the time, but they held onto that narrative for probably longer than was necessary. and then fast forward we got yesterday a definitive statement that there was, in fact, no protest. if that fact became an understanding tha

national security. former secretary of state public affairs for president obama, p.j. crowley thanks for your time tonight. >> always a pleasure. >> eliot: a tight presidential race may come down to a nasty ground game in florida. coming right up. penny marshall whether or not laverne & shirley could make all their dreams come true if the brewery got sold to bain. >> only on current tv. if you have an opinion, you better back it up. >>eliot spitzer takes on politics. >>science and republicans do not mix. >>now it's your turn at the only online forum with a direct line to eliot spitzer. >>join the debate now. >> eliot: not a good day on wall street. between some bad earnings reports, the dow lost 243 points by the end of the trading day. its biggest one-day drop since june and yet that had little effect on our number of the day. 64.8%. that's how much the stock market has gone up since president obama was inaugurated. even with today's drop, that's still one of the largest gains for a president in the last 100 years. as of last friday, "the new york times" calculated he

steven yates is former deputy assistant for national security affairs. great to see you. the chances that iran would actually capitulate to western demands by suspending the production of 20% uranium if you spin it a bit more could be used to make a nuclear bomb? >> gregg, i'm afraid what it sounds like the pieces of deal that were reported by the "new york times," basically the leftovers have more than ten years of negotiations with europe and united states and the u.n. security council. i don't feel there is lot new there. it's been offered and taken back and there is verification problems if you accept the deal. for me i don't see much of a change. if they are facing a great deal of pressure, there is a strategic choice do you make a deal with crumbling regime or do you have to have a strategy to see beyond the regime. >> gregg: iranians have 18, 20 sites, those are ones we know about and bunch under ground. a lot of this could still be hidden from nuclear inspectors. they could continue their uranium enrichment production capacity what would be an elaborate shell game

fellow for national security affairs. he apparently left the united states in 2006.why are we hearing from the fbi now about this guy? >> well, if you ask the fbi they say there is no specific event that has triggered this bounty that's been put out on him. that could be true and or they could be, you know, holding sensitive details to themselves and not wanting to say anything much more than that. he has been gone for six years but his coconspirator was sentenced earlier this year to 17 plus years in jail and perhaps they're finding out some new things about it. so, i mean, it is not quite clear why is is in syria which certainly isn't a safe place for anybody these days. the good news, if there is any, he is out of the united states. jenna: how effective are these type of bounties put on whatever or whoever is wanted on the wanted poster? is this an effective way actually to get suspected terrorists? >> it is one tool. of course there are drone strikes. there are other ways of, you know, getting at them as well through special operations. you know arrests by local

peter brookes also with us, senior fellow for national security affairs at the heritage foundation and former cia officer, which, peter, is something we really want to talk about considering the intelligence, questions if you will, when it comes to libya. let's start it there. would there be any scenario where the state department would know about requests for extra security in libya but the white house wouldn't know? >> that's certainly a possibility. i mean you never know to what level this went but there's so many unanswered questions here, general that -- jenna, about this issue. we have conflicting stories coming out of congress, the administration. five days after the attacks still said it was a protest. probably wouldn't even be calling it a terrorist attack if the director of the national counterterrorism center hadn't testified to that effect on capitol hill. they probably wouldn't have told us there were no demonstrations if congress hadn't had a hearing this week and state was forced to divulge that situation. this just a mess. it is a national disgrace. jenna: what is the e

steven yates is a deputy assistant to dick cheney for national security affairs. en, good to see you. by saying the words, quote, will never achieve perfect security, is secretary clinton implying that the murders in benghazi would have happened even if her department had agreed to the many requests for more security there? >> i do believe, gregg, she is putting a bit of a false choice or straw man argument. perfection is not what people are calling in here. it's whether reasonable measures for adequate security had been given due consideration. it comes down to management of resources. not the question can you stop all violence coming your waying. >>. >> gregg: they were asked about management of resources. state department admitted under oath, yes, we did turn down repeated requests for more protection in benghazi, when they were asked why. they said, well, there is no evidence that more security would have stopped the attack. does that make sense to you? >> i find that astonishing, frankly. it's a tragedy and sometimes tragedies occur when the best of efforts ar

we have a situation in the united states today where increasingly national security affairs are being privatized. the number of individuals who are allowed to participate in making those decisions is fewer and fewer whereas the space for private individuals is no longer nearly so screened from intrusion by the state as was the case historically. and i think if we look at major questions that we have faced recently, we see the reflection of this process. so, for instance, i mean, things that we have been discussing this morning, drones. drone warfare is a process that's being dominated now by jsoc and by the cia, it's covert warfare. therefore, it seems to have been withdrawn from the table of matters that can be discussed even at a policy level in a meaningful way as a part of our political process and our democratic process. secrecy is playing a very important role many that process. in that process. we also have matters like the war that was waged in libya which i think marks some very, very disturbing precedence because we had no oval office speech by president obama, we had no mea

executive director of the foundation for defense of democracies, and peter brookes, fellow of national security affairst the heritage foundation and former member of the cia. mark, first to you, what is the major difference of these two gentlemen and how they will engage iran in the future? >> i think there are two fundamental differences one, governor romney made it very clear he will not allow iran to develop nuclear weapons capacity. the president believes he can catch iran if they sneak out or breakout and he believes the intelligence community which missed chinese nuke, nukes from pakistan and north korea will get it right this time. the second fundamental difference is the israeli prime minister. there are clearly daylight between the obama administration and the israeli prime minister and i think that daylight is being recognized in tehran that is not terrified by this administration and the government in jerusalem is not reassured by it. jenna: peter, respond a little bit to what mark said about the intelligence community. we talked about the intelligence community last couple weeks specificall

security situation in libya was spiraling out of criminal. now, michael singh, the former senior director for middle east affairs at the national security councilthe f.b.i. went in today and not three weeks ago is a big question? >>guest: it is. sitting here it is toug second-guess the f.b.i. and the military team but it does raise the question of why, now, opposed to early on after the attack, could more have been done to secure whatever documents were still there? the larger questions are about security warnings prior to the attacks. >>trace: 13 times they asked for more security. back do what the f.b.i. is on the scene today we have reports saying the sensitive documents were lying around and we know that a cnn correspondent picked up a journal from the ambassador that was lying around. this has been picked over and the damage...what does the f.b.i. hope to get great this? >>guest: it is hard to know. it is a crime scene, it was a u.s. government compound. obviously they are investigating what was the murder of u.s. government employees and even three weeks after it is important to do that and important to assemble all the facts so there is

we have a situation in the united states today where increasingly national security affairs are beingprivatized, the number of individuals who are allowed to participate in making those decisions is fewer and fewer. whereas the space for private individuals is no longer nearly so screened from intrusion by the state as was the case historically. and i think if we look at major questions that we have faced recently, we see the reflection of this process. so, for instance, i mean, things we've been discussing this morning; drones, drone warfare is a process that's being dominated now by jso o c and by the cia, it's covert warfare. therefore, it seems to have been withdrawn from the table of matters that can be discussed even at a policy level and a meaningful way as a part of our political process and our democratic process. secrecy is playing a very important role in that process. we also have matters like the war that was waged in libya which i think marks some very, very disturbing precedents because we had no value office -- no oval office speech given by president obama, we had no

national security experience up against a chairman of a guy who's been chairman of the foreign relations committee and knows foreign policy inside and out. he passed the bar on national security and foreign affairshe seemed practiced and vague on afghanistan, yes. had he made a big gaffe, mispronouncing the name of a terrorist group or confusing iraq or iran could have been a disaster. one other thing i would add i did not think he made his best case on medicare. my story in time focuses on whether the ryan plan's proposal for medicare are going to be a problem in a state like florida and other swing states. i thought biden got the best of the argument. ryan i've seen him give better pren traces trying to explain why medicare has been saved in his view and didn't see him at his best. >> they focused -- biden cleverly focused on ryan one which is not the romney endorsed plan, and which is -- >> the $6400 number not really accurate. >> he could have said we've moved on from that and refined that. could have come up with a way of explaining it from ryan's perspective. >> i thought biden made a good emotional connection with seniors and said trust your instincts speaking generationally. >> josh gree

scott is a legal affairs national security contributor to harper's magazine, adjunct faculty member at columbia law school. one of the people who writes a great deal about this. and next to me, stock exchange, national security reporter in the washington bureau of the new york times. i have been told that i am supposed to interrupt everybody. no one has been told to interrupt me. i'm looking forward to trying to move this conversation along and address what i think is certainly from my side of the aisle an interesting issue, which is how does this play out when there is information that is classified as up in the hands of the press, the legal paradigms' that should govern that, how it works and the practical matters of the real world. i come at this issue in a variety of ways. i currently am litigating on behalf of the new york times the suit to obtain what we believe actually exists, although the government denies or refuses to say, legal memos underlying the drawn strikes. my colleagues from the aclu have similar lawsuits and are here today as well. but probably the way that i'm most

political context and let me finish, normally republicans have an advantage in handling foreign affairs, national securityur polls, president obama retains the advantage but it has been used to shrink it. just what you said. >> first of all, it has been shrunk by ordinary americans looking at the president's handling of the situation and, feeling that he is coming up way short and my comment about lookin this, i'm looking at this from the perspective of having been in the white house and i cannot imagine that at 4:05 in the afternoon the situation room got word of an attack on an american facility in benghazi they wouldn't have taken it to the president and the national security advisor and the president would not have been engaged and i take the president's word. >> thank you, karl, you said... >> chris: wait, let karl finish. >> blaming the -- >> juan, hold on, let karl finish. >> i did. >> no, he didn't. he didn't. >> no. >> chris: let him finish. >> if the president ordered the assistance beiven and none was given until well after 7 hours later. if the cia at the clan des type annex were told three ti

president obama has done a great job on national security and foreign affairs.t romney, you saw him in the debate on the topic of foreign policy. most of his ideas he was a neat, too, with respect to the president. -- me, too. host: lets' hear from our republican voters in new hampshire. -- let's. caller: it is amazing that are all on the puck for president obama. you want to watch a balanced news station, go to fox news. that is the truth, it really is. president george bush would have been crucified if this went down in libya. for american soldiers, people that were killed. they were just sitting around. same situation. mitt romney does have a plan. he is a businessman. obama has never been run a lemonade stand. let's be honest. guest: with respect to benghazi the president is insisting on getting to the bottom. he has also said we will find those responsible and nature -- make sure they are held responsible. that is what we expect from are responsible president. with respect to the other comments, obviously with respect to fox news, i do not watch fox news, s

deal of influence, maybe more influence than even domestically when it comes to foreign affairs and national security. and this issue of the debt and america's standing in the world is tied to america's wealth. so look for governor romney to bring up the economy despite the topic being foreign policy. >> and who do you have on "meet the press" this morning, david? >> we'll talk to marco rubio of florida, are senator rob portman of ohio will join us as well, the republican from that state, battleground state, and david axelrod from the obama campaign. >> all right, david. we'll see you a bit later on. thank you very much. >>> and time now for a check of the morning's other top stories. cnbc's courtney reagan is standing by. good morning. >>> hi, good morning to you, lester. good morning, everyone. we begin with more on the death of u.s. senator george mcgovern. he passed away a few hours ago reportedly from natural causes at a hospice in sioux falls, south dakota, surround ed by hi family and lifelong friends. he was 90 years old. in the 1960s mcgovern was known for his opposition to the growing u.s.

president obama has done a great job on national security and foreign affairs. mitt romney, you saw him in the debate on the topic of foreign policy. most of his ideas he was a me, too. host: let's hear from our republican voters in new hampshire. caller: it is amazing that are all on the puck for president obama. you want to watch a balanced news station, go to fox news. that is the truth, it really is. president george bush would have been crucified if this went down in libya. for american soldiers, people that were killed. they were just sitting around. same situation. mitt romney does have a plan. he is a businessman. obama has never been run a lemonade stand. let's be honest. guest: with respect to benghazi the president is insisting on getting to the bottom. he has also said we will find those responsible and nature -- make sure they are held responsible. that is what we expect from are responsible president. with respect to the other comments, obviously with respect to fox news, i do not watch fox news, so i cannot really comment on fox other than to say

national security. the american public doesn't really like the topic of foreign affairs. they rank it way low in their list of priorities. they got a good earful last night in a pretty good debate. >>trace: there has been a lot of talk you had governor romney agreeing with president obama on a lot of stuff, including syria and libya and iran, and israel. suddenly, they are on the same page. does that help governor romney? >>guest: and china, too, which got little discussion saying they need to play by the rules. they both used that language, china needs to play by the rules. it is a centrist more cautious approach by romney. at the end of the day, you have two smart, good, extemporaneous speakers, both came off strong and both got across their message. there were gymnastics in the language as they diverted from foreign affairs which does not resonate well with the public to the domestic message. we heard that last night. they did not talk about key issues like the euro zone. >>trace: i am looking here, two weeks to go and president obama has $150 million in the bank and r

reporter: the investigation by the senate homeland security and government affairs committee found lavish experiencing that contributed little to national security. the program was designed in the wake of 9/11 to help coordinate communication between state, local and federal law enforcement agency. here is how the homeland security chief talked about it earlier this year about the 77 centers around the country. >> it's the heart of our prevention strategy. how do we prevent a successful terrorist attack in the united states, looking at threats from abroad and threats from within. >> reporter: but the reality is according to the investigation, reports were often generated by violating civil liberties and misusing taxpayer funds by buying big screen tvs to monitor the channels. here is part of homeland's security's response. the committee report is out of date, inaccurate and misleading. in preparing the report the committee refused to review relevant data including relevant information pertinent to their findings. senator susan collins is concerned and said in a statement as responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars the dhs must insure th

national security team. security of americans serving our nation everywhere in the world is ultimately the job of the grander in chief, the buck stops there. foreign affairsw with the secretary of state. she joins us from lima, peru this morning. some analysts saying this was a political decision on hillary clinton's part hoping to deflect blame from the president. it happened hours before their second presidential debate. >> well, john, that's one way to look at it, certainly. and it is taking a little bit of the heat off the white house temporarily. i think. another thing secretary clinton was trying to do, i think, is to refocus people on the idea that four americans were killed that night, ambassador chris stevens and three other americans. and she wanted to remember that the most important thing was to make sure it didn't happen again. but let's take a listen to what secretary clinton said when i asked her about the changing story. first the administration said that this was spontaneous protests gone awry. took a lot of heat for that. and then changed their story to more of a preplanned terrorist attack. take a listen to secretary clinton. >> everyon

at several points bob schieffer tried to bring them back to foreign affairs and national security, but sometimes to no avail. and it goes on to say here that mr. romney got more assertive as the evening went on, throughout the debate obama seemed eager and ready to take the fight to his opponent. at times he offered pointed criticism of his policy, obama glared directly at him. . romney central critique was that the president has been weak in the face of a rising tide of chaos. the challenger responded by saying, attacking me as not talking about how we are like to deal with the challenges that exist in the middle east. but obama press his case that his world view for the domestic front are not just wrong but also rooted in the past. years a little bit from the present last night. [video clip] >> i am glad you recognize that al-qaida is a threat. if you want to go when you are past with the biggest threat is facing america, you said russia. not al-qaida. the 1980's are now calling back for their foreign policy. because the cold war has been over for 20 years. but when it comes to forei

national security threat. now the company has come out swinging, defending its practices. bill plumber is the vice president of external affairs of huawei, and he has some very harsh words for congress. he is going to be here straight ahead. liz: yeah. we'll ask him about the competition too. so much to talk about there. but first, we're going to tell you what drove the markets with today's data download. stocks started to slide after that first hour, couldn't recover. all three major indices lower following a weak economic growth forecast from the imf. the fund saying it's going to be worse than they expected but still seeing three plus percent growth there. the dow crossed the unchanged line 20 times in the first hour of trading. but slipped into the red for the rest of the session. technology and consumer discretionary today's worst performers, and as we said, energy the only sector to end in the green. palladium, this is the metal that helps catalytic converters convert. it was the sole gainer among the metals today to rise to $658.20 an ounce. a stronger dollar weighed on gold though as the precious metal ended in the red

points cbs's bob schiefer who served as moderator tried to bring them back to foreign affairs and national security but sometimes to no avail. and it goes on to say here, that, that, mr. romney, got more assertive as the evening went on. throughout the debate obama seemed eager and ready to take the fight to his opponent and using his experience to draw contrasts with the challenger at times when romney offered pointed criticism of his policies, obama glared directly at him. romney's central critique the president has been weak in the face of a rising tide of chaos and tumult in the world. when obama charged that romney has been all over the map in his policies the challenger responded by saying, attacking me is not talking about how we're going to deal with the challenges that exist in the middle east. but obama pressed his case, that romney's world view is as well as his prescriptions for the domestic front are not just wrong but also rooted in the past. here's a little bit from the president last night. >> governor romney, i'm glad that you recognize that al qaeda is a threat because a few month

this includes topics like foreign affairs, jobs and the economy, and national security. this is another poll from s zogby and the "washington times ." you can see these numbers broken down by the pew research center. it shows how romney is pulling even. registered voters, the numbers a little different from likely voters. our question this morning is whether or not political spouses affect your vote. let's go to william at from florida on our democratic line. caller: good morning, everybody. much they don't do that for the ticket, but they do have an effect on the people when they talk. one thing about -- between michelle obama and mitt romney's wife was she has a sense of entitlement and more or less she was kind of disturbed about when you ask a personal question, but she has to admit they jumped into the race under pressure. it's like her own husband mitt said if you cannot stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. so she has to be very careful about the things that she says from this time forward, because they are noticed. she kind of had that snarled look about the ra

zbigniew brzezinski was national security advisor to president jimmy carter and now is at the center for strategic and international studies. walter russell mead is professor of foreign affairs and the humanities at bard college. i want to start with the latest on libya with hillary clinton taking the blame for security at the benghazi consulate. where does that leave the matter of the responsibility of the white house, pote for the specific incident and the larger libya policy? >> well, i think secretary clinton was absolutely right that specific security requests don't go up from the state department to the president. so it would be a mistake to say that president obama is responsible for the failure to provide more protection in benghazi. secretary clinton did the right thing by taking responsibility herself. now, on the other hand, you have to ask, what would harry truman have done? what does it mean for the buck to stop here? in the same way that secretary clinton is responsible for what happens in state department, the president to some degree is responsible for what happens in the administration. but i certainly don't think there was a situation where somebody said to

national security implications of your business decisions, and we would not advise doing business with these two companies. >> joining us now in a "first on cnbc interview" vice president of external affairs, will yaum plummer, and david faber, who has covered this issue extensively on cnbc. the u.s. congress basically saying your company cannot be trusted. your initial response? >> well, we certainly heard a bipartisan message there are some issues in item of -- in terms of trust for states. we, unfortunately, heard that there's going to be an approach to some of those issues of lack of trust between states. singling out an independent employee-owned company. but it's a company doing business in 150 markets with over 500 telecom operator customers. $32.4 billion in revenues last year. and our product is globally trusted and the security and integrity of that product is globally proven. >> can i ask you something basic? >> please. >> the company admits there's a chinese communist party within the company. that there's a committee there. employees of the communist party at the company. why and what do they do? >> it's a fine question. you made reference to them being employees of the commu

national security law and international regulation. most recently served in the obama administration of the assistant secretary of state of legislative affairs. earlier in the career he serve -- majority leader harry reed and prior to that the house of representatives in the national democratic substitute and office in the air force. previous -- during the bush administration, dov was under secretary of defense and chief financial officer or comptroller. he says several other pentagon during the career and author of other a disufns books. joining me in moderating the debate today are peter bergen of the new american foundation. and tom. at the event today is being live extremed on cnn.com and you can find materials related in the event to the event and to the election on the website of our three organization. including a national security guide to the presidential election on the cnn n website. they will offer a brief opening statement which will be followed by questions from the moderator and open the floor to q & a from the audience. with that let me turn it over to rich. >> thank you very much. let me thank you for the invitation to be he

security professionals. during a visit to peru, the nation's top diplomat was interviewed by fox news senior white house foreign affairs correspondent wendell goler. asked why u.n. ambassador susan rice five days after the attacks was still insisting they grew out of a protest that never occurred and were not not premeditated, clinton cited, quote, the fog of war. >> our post was overrun by a significant number of armed men. our annex was attacked. there had to be a lot of sorting out, and the intelligence community as you know so well, you know, they look backwards. they start going through everything. did they miss something? was there something else out there? then they have to put out feelers to find out what people knew and they have been doing that in a very vigorous way and we're learning more all the time about what happened. >> reporter: assistant secretary of state charlene lamb, who oversees dip low mat tick security testified before congress last week she was following the attack in realtime via direct communications with a diplomatic security agent on the consulate ground in benghazi. for her part, ambassa

security. the world must never see any daylight between our two nations. >> rose: the governor sought to capitalize on his debate performance. the next two debates will address global affairs. new polls show governor romney and president obama neck in neck in the race for president. joining me now from washington, tom friedman of the "new york times." >> great to be with you, charlie. thank you. >> rose: so tell me what you thought of the governor's speech today and did you learn more about his foreign policy positions from it? >> well, you know, i'm -- it's always good to see governor romney, any of the candidates, taking foreign policy seriously. and, you know, this speech certainly does that. but underlying it, charlie, i'd say are several criticisms i would have. one is there's this basically republican trope that romney has fallen back on which is kind of the old one: democrats are wimps basically, and republicans are the daddy party and they're tough and obama's basically a democrat of whim. >> rose: right. >> and the facts just don't bear it out. so that's kind of the underlying theme. also there's a -- i think just a straight out false statement that no trade agree