press corps is just that they're the press corps for the pentagon and i know that sounds overstated well they serve the pentagon and they're scared to hurt the feeling that we're getting to step on the toes of the right look you know there was a pentagon spokesperson a guy by the name of geoff morrell and you knew geoff morrell was telling the truth because you start to sweat because he'd be lying everywhere all the other time and i was on i had this new radio show and it's like geoff morrell and reporter from mainstream publication i'm not going to mention and they and they sound the same you know and they're complement each other and saying with great jobs are both doing and look like if that's what you want to do you know i'm all for it understand is a lot of different the war going does that keep the public completely in the dark about was signing on in the war i mean this is this is a horrible thing we're now having in the middle of the longest war and u.s. history and you could say that the media might be partly to blame for completely playing along with with all of that one o

the pentagon has considerable flexibility. it's also, by the way, easy to conceive of an agreement that which would leave the pain of sequestration, including, perhaps, some modest flexibility year over year. the other part of that equation, though, is that unlike all of those other draw downs, we have, today, present as part of the dynamic, the global financial market. we had -- i mean, the reason we got the budget control act and the sequestration reductions is the threat of default. now, i don't remember the exact clock ticking. i think the president submitted his request on the day that the house came back, so that would have been monday a week ago. so the 15 day clock will probably be reached next tuesday. and that means, i presume, on wednesday morning, our debt ceiling as a nation will go up $1.2 trillion, failing the passage by the resolution a disapproval and the override of a suspected president's veto. so the debt ceiling will go up, up until we hit it again. now, when are we going to hit it again? good news this mo

personnel costs make up about a third of the pentagon's budget. when you include military personnel costs plus the defense health program, it's about a third of the pentagon budget and what they said yesterday is personnel costs are ohm taking one-ninth of the cuts. so that means that other parts of the budget are going to take a disproportionate share of the cuts because ultimately this is a zero sum game. they have a budget cap required by the budget control act they've got to fit in so procurement i think is actually going to get hit the hardest. we heard a lot of the program decisions yesterday. i imagine there are many more. we have yet to hear and those will come out over the coming days and weeks. the total savings that they're talking about, and again, this is the savings relative to last year's budget, it's $259 billion over the five-year plan. 25% of those savings are supposed to come from efficiencies. that's another $60 billion in efficiencies on top of $178 billion in efficiencies that was in last year's budget. boy, that's very optim

that means you can jump in anytime you want but first let's see what mr obama has in mind for the pentagon. in light of budgetary mandates passed by congress last year requiring reduction in overall defense spending president barack obama has announced a new strategic initiative for the american military in contrast to his predecessors the president's plans no longer call for the u.s. to be able to fight two conventional wars simultaneously in different parts of the world and his vision for a smaller more nimble military america will be able to respond to asymmetrical threats like terrorism as well as the more conventional threats such as china's growing navy obama insisted that the cuts would not come at the expense of america's security we will stay vigilant especially in the middle east. as we look beyond the wars in iraq and afghanistan and the end of long term nation building with a large military footprint will be able to ensure our security with smaller conventional ground forces the white house and the pentagon are committed to increasing its presence in the asia pacific region whi

to look over the pentagon but in fact what has become is that the pentagon press corps is just an extension of the pentagon itself and so you don't have critical coverage which you have coverage is just essentially it's not it's not necessary because sometimes they do break stories but it but it's not the kind of stories that i don't think are two that are very helpful to what did to information people need to know to make informed decision what's the what's the implications for us as people i think the implication is that you need to i mean i question how do you get around it i think my my goal would be to sort of support journalists who are doing the hard work matt matt akins at the atlantic there's a number charlie savage at the new york times glenn greenwald i'm salon who really and there's a number of other journalists who are out there kind of hacking away at this stuff . you sort of you have to sort of support those journalists as well as that the other journalists know you're in on their little game and i'm happy for them you know if they want to have a nice career and write kind of

. >> bret: pentagon officials today announce specifics of the proposal to cut a half central from pentagon the next decade. jennifer griffin looks at part of the plan. >> at the pentagon, winners and losers. no branch of the armed services went untouched as the defense chief announced $259 billion in cuts over the next five years. >> this is tough. >> reporter: tough on the ground forces, army and marines slated to lose 100,000 troops. army will shrink to 490,000 troops down from the current 562,000. the marines will slink by 20,000. the new emphasis will be on the smaller, more nimble special operation forces like the navy seals who carried out the bin laden raid. a daring hostage rescue in somalia this week as the president and defense department prepared to announce the new cuts. >> every administration since the fall of the berlin wall has been trying to cut heavy forces. should we ever face conventionm enemy again and we will, the chances are high that we will march off to war with a force that isn't heavy enough to fight land combat. >> defense secretary acknowledged the risks. >> ob

and so, brian, the pentagon budget battles begin. >> all right, jim miklaszewski at the pentagon tonight, thanks. >>> with us here in new york, our military analyst, retired army colonel jack jacobs, a recipient of the medal of honor and combat veteran of the vietnam war. jack, you and i have both been to the battlefields in both dual wars overseas. we have seen the build-up of the military complex, but what does this now mean for the future? >> it means we're going to have to do what we need to do to defend this very large country with far fewer people. if you want to save money, you can save money by cancelling programs but you're going to save money only in the future. you want to save money today, you have to make the army in particular much smaller. we are about ready to have an army that's smaller than the army was in vietnam when i was fighting there. i'm not convinced we can do what we need to do with that small an army. >> what about the guard and reserve who have seen such great sacrifices? >> well, we're going to call on them again. despite what we want to do -- and that is ke

. >> president obama went to the pentagon to personally announce that he's, quote, turning a page on how the u.s. spends its military dollars. fox 5s tom fitzgerald follows this one tonight. there are warnings from the president's critics. >> reporter: tonight, brian s clear that this is already shaping up to be the next big fight between the white house and congressional republicans. the president wants to slash the budget for the military by a half trillion the next 10 years and it will reshape the spending of the pentagon and how the united states fights wars. this is the first time the president appeared in a pentagon briefing room, but the affect of what was said will be anything but brief. >> since 9/11, our defense budget grew at an extraordinary pace. over the next 10 years, the growth in the defense budget will slow. >> reporter: with the iraq war over and afghan drawdown planned, osama bin laden dead and al qaeda weakened, the president said the pentagon's tactics and spending must change. >> yes, our military will be leaner, but the world must know the united states is goi

from the pentagon's point of view, these two are not connect. you can be making reductions for efficiency purposes with your domestic infrastructure at the same time as you are making your -- these two are in fact linked together, we have seen it where the typical mentality no matter where you are from, you say, you know what? before you close my base, why don't you go get those blank aircraft in blank base overseas and bring them home and put them here instead and until and unless the pentagon does a better job of reconciling that dispute, we are not likely to see movement forward. there's also a question of the role of politics here, and you know, each passing administration, each passing election cycle sees a little bit more penetration of politics into the bepentagon, many of yo have been at this over the course of careers that stretch back over decades, and we have all seen it. the attempts over the last month or so to a line the white house's own objectives with the pentagon's observes are worth lauding, it's useful to have some alignment,

when we call it the "pentagon press corps" it is an extension of the pentagon uses representing the pentagon like a pr firm. >> how concerned are you that in the future when you want to do a profile, the doors will be closed? >> i am not concerned. when you are dedicated to reporting, you find a way to get the story. you find a way to get the story. >> once they knew the story was coming, how tense was it? >> i was back in vermont. duncan had told people this story is either going to be fun or end my career. >> did it? >> he lost his job. he resigned. he was a civilian. i think duncan took a lot of the blame when there is plenty to share. >> who else should take some responsibility? >> admiral smith was in the room. general mcchrystal knows this. he was setting the tone for the entire bunch. he is the ultimate operator. he set the tone. >> was there any fact checking that went on from "rolling stone" to the military? >> yes. "rolling stone" is one of the few magazines like that does extensive research. they did not read quotes. we would not easily do that. >> where were you when the article

from moscow coming up in the program shifting priorities at the pentagon. the u.s. on bail to its new military strategy ground wars are now seen as passe ending your kind of warfare is indoors i'll tell you more about it as i come back in just a few minutes. prosecutors in the trial of ousted egyptian president hosni mubarak called for death by hanging for him and his closest associates they justified the request by arguing that mubarak was personally responsible for every protest to death during the country's revolution the prosecutor went on to claim that quote retribution is the solution for the eighty three year olds currently suffering severe health problems it was carried into the hearing on a stretcher radio host and author stephen leatherman told us he believes the trials merely a diversion from the continuing brutality against protesters in the country. this is a distraction this is to do. your believing . for each in their own trying to absolve themselves of the process things are worse now one of the military. know also. people running the country to say

metro rail is reporting a switch problem at the pentagon station. if you normally take a blue or yellow line train, anticipates an additional weight. that's blue and yellow line for metro rail. -- an additional wait. >> 41 degrees in manassas. >> wall street's fall likes what it heard from the fed. and another white house shakeup in the works. who could be the next to go. >> a new look for the wizards. another win. the terrapins take on a rival. >> and an attack on a busy stre >> metro is expected to review several recent incidents when it meets today. >> members will look at why a 10-car train ran along the entire red line in early december. eight cars is the maximum allowed. a panel will also discuss two recent incidents in which the brics fell off of trains and a deadly crash between a pick-up truck and a metro bus last month. -- brakes fell off of trains. >> a study shows streetcars could spur development and raise property values. the report also says the streetcar network could create jobs decrease transportation costs, and improved health. >>

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: the pentagon today outlined almost half a trillion dollars in budget cuts that would shrink the size of the u.s. military by eliminating ground forces, retiring ships and planes and delaying some new weapons. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> warner: and i'm margaret warner. on the "newshour" tonight: deputy secretary of defense ashton carter walks us through the plan to reshape the military while trimming costs. >> brown: then, we turn to florida, where judy woodruff has an update on the g.o.p. presidential primary contest. >> warner: kwame holman reports on a key component of president obama's re-election strategy highlighting the political gridlock in washington. >> president obama says this 112th congress-- as divided and partisan as it is-- should work with him on behalf of the american people. >> brown: ray suarez looks at today's jobs problem and the future role of manufacturing. >> warner: and, we have a conversation with veteran reporter tom edsall about the political landscape in a time of scarce resources. >> t

we start our reporting with jim miklaszewski on duty tonight at e pentagon. jim, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. for the first time since 911, the pentagon is being forced to tighten its belt. to do it will take wholesale changes in the way the military does business. president obama came to the pentagon today as commander in chief to unveil his new strategy aimed at cutting the budget. the president acknowledged the new military will be leaner but insisted no less meaner. >> the united states is going to maintain our military superiority with armed forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of threats. >> reporter: a decade of war in iraq and afghanistan sapped the military and sent pentagon spending soaring up 71% in the last ten years. a bill leon panetta says the nation can no longer afford. >> all of this comes at a time when america faces a serious deficit and debt problem here at home, a problem which is itself a national security risk that is squeezing both the defense and domestic budgets. >> reporter: to cut the mil

strategy and as the pentagon starts making big cuts. >> ♪ the thing about that is i was ready to giveou my name ♪ >> justin timberlake and jessica are ready to tie the knot. "good morning washington" continues right now. >> good morning, washington. live and in hd, this is "good morning washington," on your side. >> o'clock a.m. on this thursday, january 5. -- 6:00. i am cynne simpson. >> i am natasha barrett. the changes of the way. >> traffic and weather every ten minutes. we will check in with lisa baden in a moment. first, meteorologist adam caskey. >> close to where we stood before this time of year in terms of morning temperatures. we are in the upper 20s low 30's, cloud deck moving overhead. warm air in general moving overhead. 28 in leesburg, 31 in manassas along with huntingtown, 29 in la plata, 27 in frederick, berkeley springs, 35 in west virginia. it feels, compared to yesterday. highs in the mid 40's this afternoon, becoming partly cloudy. maybe an isolated snow flurries this morning, few and far between, and before 7:00 a.m. mostly sunny tomorrow, mid 50's, maybe even a

we are awaiting remarks from president obama at the pentagon. he will unveil a new defense strategy that includes some pretty steep budget cuts, it's to point the way forward for the next decade, good morning i'm jon scott. jenna: i'm jenna lee, the question is where will the cuts come from. you're looking at live pictures from the pentagon, the president will be joined by secretary of defense leon panetta and general marin dempsy. we are expecting drastic cuts in personnel but what that means is yet to be determined, also cuts of so-called next generation weapons systems, as well as future benefits. jon, this is happening across multiple department, not just the military. jon: yeark the pentagon obviously is bracing for pretty veer cuts. chief white house correspondent ed henry live at the white house with the latest. what's this all about, ed? >> reporter: good to see you, jon. this is a regular review the pentagon does and the bottom line is what the -- >> jon i'm sorry, the president has just emerged at the pentagon, along with the joint chi

one of the things the pentagon said this time, we are going to keep ncos, keep officers and everybodye is going to go. which makes you thing there will be generals out on the food lines looking for work but that is probably not going to happen probably just lower ranking people. >> generals tend to get hired though. >> we don't know under conditions they will be separated they have not explained that yet. congress last year provided them some tools to make it easy, early retirement benefits authorized, separation pay for people who volunteer to go. it might not be bad but we don't know enough yet to know whether that will happen. >> tom. >> well, i thought you were going to -- i thought you were going to add something to that. >> i was simply nodding sagely >>> i'm back with rick mays of the military times, todd harrison center for strategic and budgetary and lauren and todd shanker of the new york times, to all of you, one of the sort of the crazy aunt with the running chain saw in the basement, it is probably a bad metaphor but is the threat of is sequestration do we know how likely

taking a live look at 395 near the pentagon. you can see traffic moving along kind of quiet. that will pick occupy this friday, january 6th, 2012. i'm sarah simmons. -- that will pick up on this friday, january 6th, 2012. >> let's get the latest from tucker barnes on the weather. >> an absolutely beautiful afternoon today as we are expecting high temperatures, upper 50s. a few clouds working through at the moment but we should wake up with sunshine. it will be a mostly sunny day today and we're not looking at much in the way of rain for the next couple of days. the forecast will be pretty straightforward from here. temperature at reagan national, it is cold out there. 34 at reagan national. your winds out of the south and west at six miles per hour. the forecast is a good one if you hike warm weather and i know many people do. lots of sunshine and we're looking at nice weather for the weekend. details on that in just a minute. >> thank you. >>> in our top stories this morning, d.c. council member harry thomas, jr. resigned and he is due in federal court later on this morning

why is that a concern to the pentagon? >> to put it in perspective, ever since we developed precision bombs we've been in a challenge 20 plus years. our adversaries have been going deeper to avoid the bombs. we started developing penetrators. it's a physics problem we've been trading off back and forth. they go deeper and we build a penetrator to reach them and they go deeper. it's a 20-year struggle and part of the behavior between ourselves and our adversaries. >> given the height of situations with iran right now, is there any reason to believe that within these hardened fortifications that the iranians now have, that would conceal development of a nuclear weapon? >> absolutely. no doubt about the fact that they are doing that. i'm also confident there's nobody in the world that has the capability we have to reach them. and i'm confident that we're all over this in terms of that capacity and making certain under the circumstances ready when necessary. >> the research is underway. they're developing that new bomb but let

at least the pentagon is reading my material. they finally came around.y took them a coup ol f years. i've been saying this for years now. >> i'm struck by -- and i don't think i thought about it until i read the book. that america has this long history of celebrity generals. right? george patton, colin powell, stanley mcchrystal and david petraeus is the biggest names of the post- 9/11 wars. now there are new celebrity generals. is that on accident or do you think it's on purpose? >> i wonder if president obama did this by design or if it sort of happened this way in his quest to regain control of the pentagon. petraeus has been defrauded. he's at cia. general mcchrystal -- who is running the war in afghanistan now? you probably know. but some guy named john allen. none of the other generals -- there's no big-time general that can threaten the president's command. >> are you troubled -- not ambivalence but the way that generals do pr. describe the problems with civil affairs as a struggle in the military. and also the sort of weirdness about generals pic

unveil his new military strategy aimed at cutting the pentagon's budget. the president acknowledged the new military whethill be leaner insisted no less meaner. >> the united states will maintain our military superiority with forces that are agile, flexible and ready for the full range of contingencies and threats. >> reporter: a decade of war in iraq and afghanistan zapped the military and sent pentagon spending soaring, up 71% in the past ten years. a bill that defense secretary leon panetta says the nation can no longer afford. >> all of this at a time when america faces a serious deficit and debt problem at home. a problem which is, itself, a national security risk squeezing both the defense and domestic budgets. >> reporter: to cut the military's budget will take a major shift in strategy. u.s. forces will focus on deterring a growing threat from china in the asia pacific region, conduct smaller counter insurgency operations with u.s. special forces elsewhere, and no longer attempt to fight two major ground wars at the same time. >> i'm uneasy about r

the pentagon will shift the focus of the military from morris to future challenges., mean more pressure on reserves. old planes and ships will be retired, and that is just the beginning. rebecca is live in the newsroom with more. >> today secretary leon panetta said it was tough finding cuts without hurting u.s. troops or un dominance but the secretary did slash spending . the super committee did not get a deal on the deficit. >> secretary panetta warned today's proposed reductions are only half the size of what could happen if congress does not block the cut schedule, there could be even more automatic cuts twice the size. >> we are convinced it would hold out the force and then click severe damage to our national defense for generations. >> companies like boeing in northern virginia. he helped boeing toward their course for the future. >> we think it is an area where there will be gained. >> in this neighborhood, there is concern. major defense contractors are keep life blood in this area. >> we have done well because the defense contractors are here. >> you have a

the pentagon is taking a page from business' playbook-- it's vowing to restructure, keep costs down,d implement a more nimble strategy focused on protecting the growing american interests in asia. the new defense priorities were announced by president obama today. as darren gersh reports, the strategy also reflects another business and political reality, tight budgets. >> reporter: the transition from war to peace has proven difficult for the pentagon. it's a time when skills and focus are often lost. this time, the president vowed, would be different. >> we cannot afford to repeat the mistakes that have been made in the past, after world war ii, after vietnam, when our military was left ill-prepared for the future. as commander in chief, i will not let that happen again. not on my watch. >> reporter: the president plans to shift america's military resources, cutting back on europe and the middle east, and beefing up in asia to counter china's growing clout. to save money, more than 100,000 troops could be cut, and purchases of new weapons systems will be delayed. defense analyst tom

pentagon officials promised the troops that remain will have the best technology at their disposal. >> the reality is you could face a land war in korea and at the same time face threats in the straits of hormuz. we have the capability with this joint force to deal with those kinds of threats of. reporter: with the war over in iraq and fewer troops in afghanistan, pentagon officials say the focus now is on asia and the pacific region where new challenges exist. the president is slashing the defense budget because congress ordered billions in cuts in a budget deal and the pentagon may have to chop another 500 billion starting next year. the new budget plan also looks at new ways to deal with the growing cost of military healthcare and retirement benefits. >> as our newest veterans rejoin civilian life, we'll keep working to give our veterans the care, the benefits and job opportunities that they deserve and that they have earned. reporter: president obama knows he's going to face criticism for his cutbacks, especially from republican presidential candidates who have questioned his comm

while america's fighting force may be thinning out the budget, the pentagon vows u.s. forces will maintain their edge. tara mergener explains the new defense department strategy. >>> reporter: president obama made a rare appearance in the pentagon press room to defend massive budget cuts to the u.s. military. >> so yes, our military will be leaner but the world must know the united states is going to maintain our military superiority. >> reporter: the president is cutting $450 billion in spending and hinted at cutting troops. pentagon officials promised the troops that remain will have the best technology at their disposal. >> and the reality is you could face a land war in korea and at the same time face threats in the strait of hormuz. we have the capability with this joint force to deal with those kinds of threats. >> reporter: with the war over in iraq and fewer troops in afghanistan, pentagon officials say the focus now is on asia and the pacific region where new challenges exist. the president is slashing the defense budget because congress ordered billions in cu

>>> tonight strong words from the pentagon as we learn more about the marines photographed desecrating bodies of afghan fighters. >> new video tonight of that baby found abandoned at occupy d.c. we hear from her mother. >> he physically reached down, picked her up, pulled her up on to his boot. >> and 30 years later images many washingtonians will never forget after a plane crashed into the 14th street bridge and then into the icy waters of the potomac river. we begin tonight with the weather, though. winter coming back. >> in a big way. it all start with a drastic drop in our temperatures tonight. let's get right to doug with the latest. >> you talk about that dras being drop in temperatures. charleston, west virginia, went from 50 degrees a couple of hours ago to a wind chill of 20 degrees. it's snowing in central portions of west virginia. now chicago seeing snow. look at video out of chicago. you can see the people not enjoying it very much at all today. look at the all the snow. four to eight inches of snow for them. a winter storm warning. we will not see pictures like this. i do