doesn't consider that north africa is part of africa. any diplomacies have north african partners, you know, policies that are part of a broader middle east policy. so i beg, you know, i beg you to consider that north africa is also part of africa. i'll stop there. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much. so there you have it, the economic issues seen from the broad comparative perspective down to the regional perspective down to the firm perspective. thank you very much to our panelists for helping lead us down that progression. we have about 15 minutes for questions. i would ask if you could, please, identify yourself. if you could only ask one question, and then my pet peeve, if you could answer your question in the form of a question which is to ask a genuine question of our distinguish canned panelist -- distinguished panelist, not to make a statement and say what do you think of my statement. .. you by giving us some very concrete examples from your experience but i would like the panel to tell us what sorts of things can actua

north africa's remained on the margins of u.s. strategic thinking, but today's conference and the crowd we expect to be here suggests this is beginning to change. it's hard to look seriously at the piddle east for the last 18 -- middle east for the last 18 months and not conclude that north africa is, indeed, or important, and we need to understand it better. we approach these issues with mixed emotions. ambassador chris stevens was a friend and colleague, and his tragic death in libya a month ago is a reminder not only of the dangers posed by hatred, but also of the threats that come in the wake of police forces in disarray, inadequate security and factionalism. and yet we see the same green shoots of hope that gave chris such optimism. historic elections in country after country were conducted with more order and less intimidation than anyone had predicted, and few parliaments are struggling -- new parliaments are struggling to exercise their new roles. militaries are giving way to politicians, and politicians are yielding to th

live coverage starts at seven eastern. >>> now domestic security and stability in north africa. e arab spring is really the middle east, a number of countries impact of our northern africa. the center for strategic and international studies discussion posted this one hour and 25 minute panel on the situation and tunisia, morocco and algeria >> i would like to welcome you to the third panel of the day. we started out -- my name is haim malka i'm phill and deputy director of the program here csis. we had a great morning with a lot of substance. we started out talking up the political trend, the internal political dynamics in each of the countries in the maghreb, and we moved on to talk about the economic and social economic challenges that many of the countries in the region face and now we are going to bring those trends together and look at how the political and socio-economic trends in the region intersect and affect the stability moving forward in the region in the transition and the country's in transitions in those countries that have navigated the uprising of the last year-a

it is the key key subpart north africa. and where libya and algeria to his instrumental in the regional dynamics. you know, one of the challenges of study and algeria and libya is that there is some analytical problems. in the case of libya, when the events of 27 started, when the rebellion started in february 25 men, we found analysts here in d.c. back to the to catch up and make up for lost time and libya. a lot of the times of reference they were trying upon to understand political dynamics and libya for books written 20 years ago and based on research conducted 30 years ago and they've been scrambling to develop a knowledge base ever since. there is a similar gap about algeria, a similar misunderstanding. a lot of analysts don't travel to the country and they generate a certain perspective on what's taken place in the country from outside of it. that necessarily produces problems and misunderstandings. i think a good example in the case of algeria is the predominant understand if i algeria did not have eight arab spring

it'll be this big, glaring absence in north africa. the largest country in africa disengages from the international community, solutions to the instability that dr. zoubir mentioned, solutions to the instability in sir car or northern -- syria or northern mali. what would make this all the more glaring is if our worst fears about libya were to come to pass. as i mentioned before, the libyan government is very much committed to the road map they've laid out, they're very committed to the political process, but i'd like to bring you back to the middle of 2011. at the time, gadhafi's head of external security defected. and when he defected, he warned that libya would become like somalia. and at the time i think most frames of references were to mogadishu, to a black hawk down moment. and, unfortunately, we have had a black hawk down moment in benghazi. but i think he's, you know, a are nuanced guy. and what i think he was referring to was a much broader frame of reference. how would libya look like somalia. not just a black hawk down inci

intelligence community we see something of a pivot going on away from iraq and afghanistan to north africa broadly as an area of concern an arc that runs from mali all the way across the sahara sail region and winds up in the horn of africa and somalia these are areas of focused attention and of course just across the red sea there in that narrow strait is yemen which may be maybe emerging after pakistan is the next major focal area for drone activities and we know that the drones in fact are operated from facilities largely from tinsel he's back in the united states in fact there's an air force base and where a lot of this is going on at langley we see a lot of direction but you have to maintain and operate them locally so that's the reason for the bases and the contractors and the uniformed professionals on the ground there in djibouti who will do this maintenance and guidance action may they may also step in and handle operations of the drones at some time at some point and scott i know that the military installation here in djibouti is the only one of its kind is the since the first of

obama administration is reporting that the white house has moved armed drones into position in north africa and put specials on forces on stand by the military weighing how it will react should investigators find a militant group responsible forth death of chris stevens and three other americans, john. >> can i just say, it seems to me that secretary clinton's statement is the first mature, effective thing the administration has said about this and it strikes me the act of someone taking responsibility you as she says, and doing her job. is the president ultimately responsible? yes. as president kennedy said, i'm the ultimate responsible officer of the government but the idea that that is her being thrown under the bus is, seems to me, wrong. because to me, she looks strong, effective, rational and those are three things we have not seen to describe the reaction of the administration to this story u >>> when we come back, former mccain strategist steve schmidt and political columnist for "time" magazine, joe klein, are here to help us handicap tonight's big debate. >>> tomorrow, looking at

ashley: do you think the obama administration is getting serious about north africa? >> they better be serious because as the kernel has said, if we look at the map, al qaeda is rolling to the synagogue as big as intercontinental united states. ashley: what about afghanistan? the russians before us a very difficult place and continues to be a very challenging environment. speak of the reason there is no defeat of al qaeda and in afghanistan is because the administration even the last two years of the previous administration not interested in working with civil society to work with the younger generati generation, and unfortunately we are going to withdraw and the taliban will come back and sees as much as they can. ashley: the arab spring, what challenges does it pose with regards to security in the region? >> lebanon is clearly a lost cause, and the israelis are watching. iraq is going the wrong direction, the president has no solution to what is going on with iran contaminating the entire region. we have a policy that is absolutely bankrupt, it is going to lead to f

we are talking about a military-like terrorist group operating in north africa. and the significance of that is of course that al qaeda in a sense moved from pakistan to yemen and from yemen to north africa. so we have al qaeda is spreading rather than, you know, being destroyed in another part of the world. so it's going to be interesting to talk to this guy. if, in fact, he gives up details if he admits to being a member of al qaeda in the maghreb. >> what do you make of whether the fbi or cia is the one who's interrogating or questioning this person? >> oh, i think it's a good idea. the fbi is good at this. they -- >> you prefer the fbi do it? >> much better. i mean, i just -- i think that the renditions and interrogation tactics, rough interrogation tactics ultimately didn't work. i disagree with a lot of my colleagues. the fbi does a good job on this. they've always taken priems mac investigations like this. american citizens were killed. under american law they're the ones that should be doing it. >> u.s. intelligence agencies now also believe another al qa

it was all across north africa. yemen and throughout the middle east. and this is sort of coming home to roost, that original problem that we saw that foreign fighter pipeline into iraq years earlier. and so while unfortunate it's not surprising. these guys returned to their home communities with this sort of sense of prestige, having fought in a foreign conflict, they come home and they really take on these leadership roles in local extremist communities. and so in that respect it's not entirely surprising but very unfortunate. >> and bob, we've seen this time and again. fighters who were trained in chechnya ending up in bosnia during the war there. now it's folks who were trained on the battleground in iraq ending up in libya and elsewhere. >> well, anderson, keep in mind these guys are getting military training in combat zones. it's the only place they can get it. whether it's iraq or afghanistan or pakistan, it doesn't matter. they need to pass through the crucible of combat. they get very good. learn how to lay mortars, learn how to fire rocket-pro

the turks as being a mediator i still insist that turkey's involvement in the middle east and north africa is one that works through the new conservative partners the case of egypt and the case of libya i think prove my case. since what we see on the rise in these two countries is muslim brotherhood influence in politics and we also see a similar trend in iraq where turkey is again at odds with the government in syria turkey unfortunately has acted in a very sectarian based and has not been a positive. support for democrats is ation and institution building because i believe we have two alternatives here. syria as the main opposition party we agree with the government that it's a human tragedy and the civilian killings should seize at once and we want democratic nation in syria but where we differ from the turkish government is that we want an all encompassing participatory and transparent process in syria which includes all stakeholders as legitimate partners in governing a democratic syria hippie government on the contrary when it comes to their stance in syria is not only sectarian but

believe that the strike on the consulate in benghazi was preemptive by the al-qaeda groups in north africa and those sympathetic to their cause because they want to drive out the american influence in north africa and specifically what they saw as the growing cia presence in benghazi. and they have effectively done that at least in the short-term, judge. >> judge jeanine: catherine herridge thank you so much for being with us this evening. >> thank you for having me. >> judge jeanine: shawn smith one of four americans killed in benghazi was is a foreign service information management officer and state department official. his mother is in furiated with information that she is receiving from the white house. pat smith joins us now. good evening, pat. >> hi there. >> judge jeanine: well, let me just start by saying there is no greater loss to any one than the loss of a child to a parent, a mother, especially for you, your only child. you raised him as a single mother. at most words but our condolences to you. >> thank you. >> judge jeanine: pat, tell me about your son shawn? >> what is there

of that is, of course, that al qaeda in a sense moved from pakistan to yemen, from yemen to north africa, so we have al qaeda spreading instead of being destroyed in another part of the world. so it's going to be interesting to talk to this guy. if, in fact, he gives up details and admits to being a member of al qaeda in the magnificent red. >> what do you make of whether the fbi or cia is the one who is interrogating or questioning this person? >> i think it's a good idea. the fbi is good at this. >> you prefer the fbi do it? >> much better. i think the renditions and interrogation tactics, the interrogation tactics work. i disagree with a lot of my colleagues, the fbi has done a good job. they always take investigations like this. american citizens were killed. your hon under american law, they should do it. >> they also believe another al qaeda avilleiated group had a role. >> al qaeda in iraq. that would be significant. >> not in this attack. >> exactly. >> we know there is a core group of the a dozen of people, the bigger group, between 35 and 40 people. 12 of those had some sort of

running mindless wars i love it war and the military changing its strategy now more toward north africa and other sections of the middle east oh yeah after you did such a great job in afghanistan and iraq move on. it's failing at every level and by the way this is very important think about it the economy is going down and for so many people they're losing their homes trillion dollars in debt for college students that can't get jobs thirty percent of the jobs created in august for low paying service sector jobs working at fast food great food restaurants and where's the economy we. are they really talking about the economy it's not the economy stupid as they once said it's war and that's all they're talking about and that's an interesting point in terms of the economy what we've heard this conversation turned into is taxes the candidates focused on their tax policies but none no amount of taxing is going to get the country out of its fiscal problems in terms of the debt that it faces i'm curious what you think we'll see in the next four years in terms of the consequences of what you ess

certainly this does not suggest that the whole city has fallen earlier we spoke with a man in north africa we are not naming jus to security purposes his family is in bani walid and he gives us an update of what the situation there was like. the. moral issues you. know. guys that are going to. really we would know you wanted to know want to. save our family. i got. work them where no one goes until you have unlimited money we're going to. now we've also been receiving reports that the army has arrested at least eighty former gadhafi henchmen it accuses them of being involved in torture and murder this is other reports are circulating that the release of some forty hostages has taken place by government forces but again a lot of confusion and these different reports coming out of the besieged city we certainly do know that the city is almost drained of people most people have fled according to the red cross some five thousand families which stands at around twenty five thousand people have fled to neighboring cities and towns but this figure is far below the total number of people who we un

they're talking about sending predator drones it's other areas of north africa there are kid ramping up for more and more war you know you keep seeing what's happening in front of us and the people are turning a blind eye is this still greatest leadership vacuum that eyes of a saying have you watch the presidential reality show did you turn on those conventions that were part and that super bowl halftime show and mega-church revival meetings what respectable person could believe this garbage that is spewing out you know john i want to want to dive more into a couple of the things that you said because you talked about the people and you talked about the decay and the kind of progression that we've been on but to go back a little into history too you actually brought up an eisenhower quote that we were talking about earlier today in our morning meeting which was the observation that any man who wants to be president is either an egomaniac or crazy so has this always been the case in terms of the kind of people that are president and if so what's different now. well of course it hasn't

dozens have been wounded when police clash with migrants from north africa in italy the scuffle broke out after him a grand supplications for political asylum were rejected the migrants were part of a group of about one thousand two hundred instead sailed to the tell you an island of latin do so in twenty eleven fifty political upheaval in north africa. twenty one people are dead after hurricane sandy barreled through the caribbean killing eleven people in cuba unload a category two storm also cause flooding power outages and damage in jamaica haiti and the bahamas hurricane sandy is currently moving towards florida where forecasters projecting it could sweep up the u.s. east coast and hit new york city by choosing midday. next on archie is crosstalk with peter lavelle and his guests stationed with us for their. over a decade of north austin terrorist attack. ex hostages blindness into their lives and after the tragedy. still gets try to cross over the past. because their future. be written. download the official up location cell phone choose your language stream quality and enjoy you

al qaeda in a sense moved from pakistan to yemen and from yemen to north africa. we have al qaeda spreading rather than being destroyed in another part of the world. it is going to be interesting to talk about this guy. if he admits to being a member of al qaeda. >> what do you make of whether the fbi or the cia is questioning this person? >> i think it is a good idea. >> you prefer the fbi in. >> much better. i think that the renditions and ininterrogation tactics didn't work. i disagree with a lot of my colleagues. the fbi does a good job on this. american citizens were killed under american law they are the ones that should be doing it. another group had a role in this. >> one we haven't heard of yet. that would be significant. >> we hadn't heard of them yet in this attack. >> we know that they are a group of a dozen people who launched the first attack. >> and for a long time we have been hearing that they were affiliated with al qaeda and we are hearing that they may have affiliation was al qaeda in iraq. over the weekend there was an attack in jordan and one

the expansion will allow the cia to carry on with its mission in pakistan yemen and possibly in north africa and the cia isn't the only one asking for more unmanned aerial vehicles in the next decade defense spending on known medium and large sized drones will be nearly forty billion dollars the pentagon is planning to increase its inventory by thirty five percent so let's compare the drone fleet that we have now versus the one that we have planned for the future as far as electronics where warfare and reconnaissance drones the u.s. has five hundred thirty six operational you avi's and is planning to buy another one hundred forty five when it comes to light attack and reconnaissance drones two hundred fifty five of those are operational and another five hundred eighty seven are planned so in total the u.s. has seventy seven one hundred ninety one operational drones right now and is planning to buy another seven hundred thirty two now it is important to note that these are only air base drones so to talk about whether or not these military machines are really necessary lieutenant colonel anth

. >> there is no question in your mind that al-qaeda is stronger in north africa today than it was four>> absolutely. they have all kinds of new organizations. >> so it suggests that the white house doesn't get it. >> the problem is, they are avoiding reality, bad things happen when you avoid reality and we have just seen that. >> we are in a stronger position today than we were four years ago. >> t.j. crowley assistant secretary of state believes that president's anti-terrorism policies are paying off. >> we have gone through a dramatic transition, call it the arab spring. these transitions of repudiation that every bin laden stood for and tried to achieve through violent means. >> he says you don't make americans safer with words that inflame. you do it by winning over those we can work with. >> we are at the stage where we need partnerships to solve any meaningful crisis around the world. united states can't do that alone. >> do you believe there is dead americans as a result of this administration's roughly to call the threat what it is? >> i do. showing signs of weakness, they take

increasingly focused on north africa. "the washington post" reports the white house has been holding secret meetings to examine this threat and considers for the first time to launch unilateral strikes in the region. peter, you know the area very well. we've seen mali, tunisia, library area lot of problems developing with al qaeda and terrorists. do you believe that the administration is now looking at that area in a very different way and that there's an increased threat? >> reporter: well, "the washington post" piece certainly indicates that there's been secret meetings to kind of consider the possibility of strikes in the region and i think that sort of speaks for itself. the administration doesn't want to be caught flat footed as it was with al qaeda in the arabian pen and christmas day 2009 attack that was traced back to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. arguing against this, al qaeda hasn't really shown any real ability to attack in the west as yet. they have certainly kidnapped western tourists as you mentioned. i

he was a speaker for north africa. this is 40 minutes. >> none of them are very hard. the first job is i want to welcome my friends and ambassadors. we honored that you came to join us today. second i want to ask after our keynote address is done, you all remain in your seats to help get the party out of the room. and my third task is to introduce somebody who needs less of an introduction than anybody in washington. general brother croft is national security advice tor to ford and bush. a graduate of west point. i think for all of us who have worked with him he's a model of judgment here in washington. he's a counselor and trustee of crirks is and i introduce general to introduce our keynote speaker. thank you. >> good afternoon. it's a real pleasure for me to be able to stand here for jon and introduce our speaker today. it's a testimony to the importance of north africa, to global security that the secretary of state has taken time to address this conference oh on the ma grab in transition. the forces that are surged through the arab world right now had many of thei

all of those throughout northern and north western africa so it is influence and profile of the region boosted by recent events the terror groups calling for a jihad against the u.s. over the american made film mocking the prophet muhammad its leader or more protests outside u.s. embassies in the middle east while praising last month's assaults on the consulate in libya that killed four diplomats this go live to new york middle east expert james petras is there to put some more perspective on this mr praed. and to us anger in the middle east seems to have calmed after last month's attacks on embassies but it is call reverse that now do you think. well i think what we have here is the unfolding of a very opportunistic policy the u.s. government and in particular the obama regime supported al qaeda elements specially out of benghazi that were anti kadafi washington's thinking on this is that they could use the al qaeda extremists to overthrow gadhafi and then discard them. and of course this policy has backfired the al qaeda elements very strong they've moved from libya in part to syria

clinton was the keynote speaker recently at a conference on politics, economics and security in north africa. the center for strategic and international studies looked at the situation in northern africa covering libya, egypt and tunisia. the secretary of state said the state department can't prevent every act of violence directed at overseas diplomats. her comments are about 40 minutes. >> none of them are very hard. the first job is i want to welcome my friends, the ambassadors of morocco and algeria, the ambassador of the arab league. we're honored that you came to join us today. second, i want to ask that after our keynote address is done that you all remain in your seats to help get the party out of the room. and my third task is to introduce somebody who probably needs less of an introduction than almost anybody in washington. general brent scowcroft, a legend in washington, he's a retired lieutenant general in the air force, national security adviser to president gerald ford and george h.w. bush, a graduate of west point, a holder of a ph.d. from columbia. i think for all of us who ha

>>shepard: trouble continues in the middle east and north africa. turkey has intercepted a passenger plane from syria packed with military equipment and ammunition that came from your friends in russia. according to the turkish prime minister the turkish fighter jet intercepted to passenger plane traveling from now to damascus. turkish newspaper reports the plane was holding ten containers filled with radio receivers, antennas and equipment thought to be missile parts. syria called the interception of plane "piracy." russia is one of syria's only remaining allies and the turkish and syrian military have been exchanging problems across the border and it could turn into something bigger. we have associate editor of the "wall street journal," parent company of this network. what do you make of this? >> well, turkey is doing pretty much what the u.s. would help. they are keeping arms from getting into syria. these were military parts that we are not sure what they were. turkey has been explicit saying, look, if this happens again, we will bring the flig

and nays in various forms appear from north africa all the way to western china in very many differentds of forms. and the nay that i play is associated with turkey. it is this shape, this profile here, that is said to give the turkish nay its particular tonal timbre. but the real place where timbre lives is inside the instrumentalist's heart and head. if the instrumentalist doesn't hear the timbre in the instrument and the music, then the audience won't hear it either. (narrator) while materials and construction are critical in determining the timbrel capabilities of an instrument, it is the musician who makes the instrument come to life. in essence, the instrument becomes the unique musical voice of the player. (redman) i think the connection that you feel with an instrument is oftentimes beyond literal or verbal description. but i think one thing that really attracted me to the sound of the tenor saxophone was its incredible emotional range. [saxophone plays jazzy staccato music] the tenor saxophone can be a very, very tender and sensitive instrument. [resonating, mellow melody] or

the middle east and north africa is no exception.in the region, we have witnessed changing attitudes that slipped across borders, and underlying the change is a demand for economic opportunity, a demand for freedom, and demand for individual dignity, and the calm for more inclusive prosperity. these demands are, in fact, daunting, redefining the landscape around the region, but provide enormous opportunities if the current turmoil can be channeled in creating successful democracies that bring about fiscal stabilization, jobs, and skills training. to do so, government, not just the u.s. government, but governments all around the world, will need to support the development of the private sector which previously languished in many of the countries due to cronyism and state central economies. there's a combustible mixture of demographics and stagnant economies, and in almost every country in the region, individuals younger than 25 years of age make up 40%, and in some cases, 60% of the population, and use unemployment is expected to rema