the problem is the way the pentagon, the pentagon is an interest in genera general studn iraq or afghanistan. they are interested in how to study things so they can fight better or pacify better. maybe those at the wrong questions to ask. that he can come to my central question, do you want the national security state to be the driving institution so many scientific questions? in some cases may be yes. social science the answer is probably not based on the track record they have to date. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. i find your talks fascinating. it said the generals always fight the past wars, and the title of your book is "the imagineers of war." so i'm wondering you look backwards. what can you do to help us look forward and understand how darpa is looking at how wars are going to be fought in the future and what they can be doing to facilitate that? >> my argument is, that's a great question. my argument in the book is that there is been a pretty giant structural change in darpa and people within darpa will disagree but i think it's a very defensible what i base this on. the

we have the honor the untold story of the pentagon agency that changed the world. a couple of notes before i get started now is a good time to turn off your cell phone and other devices you might have. when we get to the question and answer part of the talk if you have a question which we do encourage, please step up to the microphone. we have c-span book tv and we would like to pick up your question for the recording. after the talk, books will be available behind the register in the back end of the line will start to the right of the podium. as you get up if you could unfold your chair against the bookshelf that would be a big help as we put the store back together. the imagine years of war i warse untold story of the defense advanced research projects agency also known as darpa federal agency founded as a response to sputnik. publishers weekly says the archival material and interviews former officials of the defense advanced research project agent is revealing and organization with a mixed legacy into the account of the examples of technocratic arrogance to the

let's begin with our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara, top officials, they are leaving absolutely no doubt about who is to blame. >> reporter: in this extraordinary press conference, wolf, the top pentagon brass wanted to send several messages. some things were clear. some things were deliberately am big gouss. defense secretary james mattis telling me on that he wanted to be ambigous on whether the u.s. would go after chlorine-filled barrel bombings from assad, but he was ambigous on nothing else. the pentagon top brass not yet ready to say russia what is complicit but definitive on bashar al assad's involvement. >> there is no doubt the syrian regime is responsible for the decision to attack and for the attack itself. >> reporter: the u.s. missile strike telling moscow the trump administration will use force and is also not ruling out further military action against assad but hoping that the russians temper their own actions. >> i'm confident the russians will act in their own best interest, and there's nothing in their best in

>> hans nichols at the pentagon. we're going to let him go report and see what more we can find out about this, again, this volley of cruise missiles launched tonight from u.s. navy vessels onto land targets in and around the city of homs in syria. specifically aviation targets, we're told. that could change. airfields, aircraft on airfields and the like. kristen welker is at the white house tonight. kristen, what will we hear, if anything, from the building behind you or from the traveling white house in florida? >> reporter: i anticipate we will hear something from the traveling white house, brian. president trump, of course, meeting with the president of china this evening. the two had dinner. vice president mike pence, i can tell you, had been meeting with his staffers here inside the west wing. no word an specifically what those conversations have revolved around, but clearly the key topic of conversation here at the white house has been syria and trying to determine what those next steps will be and now, of cou

i begin "the pentagon's brain" with it. from the perspective of witnesses who were there and told me their story when i say colossal failure, it was supposed to be 6.5 mt. but it went out of control. his calculation and all of the site is working with him, they couldn't predict the future. they couldn't predict their own science experiment. and instead it was a runaway thermonuclear bomb. 15 megatons. just an astonishing amount of power, energy, and apocalyptic by its very nature. >> host: he shows up at area 51 and he shows up again in "the pentagon's brain" and "operation paperclip," the whole gamut. >> guest: he's a super interesting character. many people again would say he had hubris and that is trying to outdo his archrival, oppenheimer. other people will say he saved us from a soviet invasion. because he pushed the idea of the development of the thermonuclear bomb. which some of his colleagues by the way called the evil thing. they did not think of additional manhattan projects they did not think it should be develop

pentagon meanwhile also responding to a new military encounter with russia. tell us about that. >> that was yesterday. russians for the first time in a couple of years sending their bombers off the coast of alaska. about a hundred miles off of alaska. u.s. maintains air patrols up there all the time. they saw them coming. two u.s. air force f 22 aircraft went out. met the russian planes. some other u.s. planes showed up. and they basically escorted the russians who turned around and escorted them out of the area. the russians definitely pinging, if you will, at a u.s. response. not clear yet. it was a full-on provocation but they had not done it up in that region for some time. wolf? >> reminiscent of the battle days of the cold war. thank you very much for that. vice president pence meanwhile says north korea is getting the message that united states won't stand for its reckless nuclear activity. it is a message pence personally delivered during his visit to north korea's heavily armed border with south korea. cnn's chief political correspondent dana bash is

jennifer griffin at the pentagon, the adviser to four u.s. ambassadors, united nations and ben collins a former g beret who served three tours in afghanistan. all of them standing by with analysis. but we begin with kevin cork just out of the white house briefing. kevin, sean spicer referring a lot of reporters, questions over to the pentagon today for more details. will we get more details from them? >> you know, that's a very good question, dana. i would guess that we'll get more granular detail about why this decision was made and what exactly it means. and jen griffin will help us unpack all of that. it was pretty interesting. keep in mind they're usually pretty puntual here. then you finally saw the press secretary come out and offer very little in the way of det l detail. usually we expect to get more information. understanding, again, from his perspective, you want the information that's coming out to be accurate information. and given the fact that this just happened not terribly long ago, at least in terms of our reporting, he wanted

the pentagon says 59 missiles striking 59 targets on base. they launched another to replace that destroying, they estimated 0 syrian aircraft and the number of harden aircraft shelters as well as depots and radar installations here. the runways here, those are still operational and usable. the focus was syrian forces although this is a base that's also been used by the russians, of course, it is the syrians that the u.s. is planning for this attack. the pentagon is investigating whether russia was complacent in the chemical weapons attack as well. >> the u.s. military is investigating whether russia was complicit in gas attack this week. >> five hours later, perhaps to destroy evidence. >> president trump ordered a barrage of missiles on a syrian air base in retaliation of the deadly attack. the first u.s. military strike against the assad regime of the country's bloody six years civil war. today, nikki haley, warned a possible u.s. military action. >> the united states took a measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. but, we hope

>> hans nichols at the pentagon. thanks. >>> there are a flood of new questions tonight about president trump's new tax plan to be specific, what's in it? and how will it effected millions of american families. the trump administration provided an outline but not many details so far. nbc's peter alexander has more on that. >> reporter: the president's plan to overhaul 70,000 pages of federal tax laws so far boiling down to barely 200 words. critics say it's a p.r. pitch, not a proposal. >> it is a plan to lower president trump's taxes. the taxes of his cabinet. and people as wealthy as they are. >> reporter: the biggest winner according to most tax analyst, the rich, their tax rate dropping nearly 5% and the white house pushing to abolish the tax. the death tax and slash the capital gains tax on investments all benefiting the wealthy. low income americans could pay no tax at least for their first $24,000 of income with the doubling of the standard deduction for couples but today treasury secretary steve mnuchin is re

but first i want to go to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she's at the pentagon.tanding by our senior international correspondent in this case payton walsh from iraq and our cnn military analyst retired general james fighter. we're now learning about a major change in u.s. military action in afghanistan with the dropping of what's described as the largest nonnuclear bomb ever used in combat. you broke the story. tell us about it. >> wolf, quite an extraordinary and sudden turn the events here at the pentagon today. we learned a short time ago for the first time in combat the u.s. military dropped a 21,000 pound bomb in eastern afghanistan to destroy a complex of caves and tunnels it says was being used by isis fighters in this area of afghanistan close to the pakistan border in an area called nangahar province. let's talk about this weapon for a minute. its formal name is the massive ordinance air blast bomb, moab, but inside the air force, inside the military it is referred to as the mrt other of all bombs. 21,000 pounds. it is an air blast weapon. it penetrates

"the pentagon's brain" came out in 2015. recent book is "phenomena: the secret history of the u.s. government's investigations into extrasensory perception and psychokinsis." she tells us her next book will have something to do with the cia. that leaves it pretty broad i guess. do you enjoy the book to her? >> guest: i love it. i love you and eating out on the road and talking to people who like to read. it reminds me of that image that we talked about of edgar mitchell, the man on the moon reading. and you think about this idea, the archetype of reading, of knowledge. i often say i the best job in the world. i get to write books and listen to what readers think about and what the expense of reading a book and then how it influences them in their lives and their thinking and as they become more alert and knowledgeable part of the citizenry. >> host: let's hear from barbara from newark new jersey. >> caller: speaking about near-death experiences and extrasensory perception. i had a near-death experience and i think the brain

the pentagon says it struck all 59 of its targets. destroying at least 20 syrian aircraft, air defense systems, radar and ammunition supply bunkers. once those missiles fell, the president huddled with his national security team to assess the damage. the retaliation coming just 60 hours after the world saw the first horrific images of that chemical attack, images that pushed the president to act. >> tonight, i ordered a targeted military strike on the airfield in syria from where the chemical attack was launched. >> reporter: the pentagon providing evidence it says shows assad was behind the war crime. the flight path data of the syrian warplane. and tonight, the u.s. military looking into whether the russians knew about that chemical attack or assisted in any way. today at the united nations, ambassador nikki haley warned that the u.s. could strike again. >> the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. >> so let's bring in martha, live in washington. we're learning tonight as we come on that the

"the pentagon's brain" came out in 2015. and her most recent book is "phenomena; the secret history of the u.s. government's investigation into psychokinesis" she tells us her next book has something do with the cia. do you enjoy the book tour? >> guest: love it. love getting out there talking to people who like to read. reminds me of the image of edgar mitchell's man on the moon reading. you think about this idea. the archetype of reading, of knowledge, i often say i have the best job in the world. i get to write books and listen to what readers think the experience of reading the book and how it influences them in their lives and their thinking and they become more of an alert and knowledgeable part of the citiz citizenry. >> host: let's hear from barbara in newark. >> caller: speaking about near death experiences and extra sense perception. i had a near death experience and i think the brain is more powerful than any computer. also, have you heard of dark social? it is supposed to be something where on the internet people

certainly, i think if you look at this for what the pentagon is describing. and what i would describe as a limited strike they have the means to escalate. at the assad regime i would not be surprised if the u.s. military reacts because this is designed to send a message to assad, stop killing his own people. it is a message that will is long overdue as you ever been reporting for seven years now and we have been reporting 450,000 civilians have been killed seven years and nothing has stopped the assad regime with the killing i believe at this point in time we know that 59 of the 70 tomahawk have been used by the american destroyers in the eastern mediterranean. they certainly resupply it on the island of crete in greece. that's where they load the tomahawk's onto the destroyers. it's also notable that the navy two years ago in 2015 forward deployed for destroyers to spain because for the first time in many years they felt the need to have a u.s. navy presence in the mediterranean. this has all been part of an asset that this day would come. >> jennifer with a

there is no end to what the pentagon produces. even artificial intelligence they say is the darpa project or three the i dachnology so the idea that darpa is the most powerful in productive militarycy science agency is the world in so few people know what about it. that is why i wrote the book initial because how could this agency be so significant to change and shape our world but yet it is public perception. >> host: psychokinesis? >> guest: book number four that was just published last week the idea and the book is called phenomenon in the government investigations into esp and psychokinesis knowasensory perception getting knowledge of the then through the five senses and psychokinesis the ability to move matter with the mind these are very controversial subjects that many scientists day mattis pseudoscience but had an interest to write about this after reading - - writing the pentagon sprain it was called squishy science but, the intelligence community is interested in both of these projects and so mit's seven taxpayer dollars

the pentagon looking closely. they know it was a russian jet, they don't know who was piloting it, but they can't rule out that it was a russian pilot. and it was reported two more jets took off from that airfield today. >> brian, thank you. >>> we move on to the other major story developing at this hour. the deadly truck attack in sweden, with all the hallmarks of terrorism. the attacker using a stolen truck, speeding for blocks down a crowded pedestrian mall, slamming into a department store. people running for their lives. tonight, an arrest has been made. was this the man behind the wheel? terry moran on the scene in stockholm. >> reporter: tonight, shoppers in disbelief, then panic. the truck barreling through the shopping district. police scouring videos searching for clues. this video shows the truck mowing down pedestrians, crashing into this department store. thick, black smoke billowing out. at least four dead, more than a dozen injured. nine of them critical. at this hour, a nationwide manhunt is under

meanwhile, the pentagon is investigating fired national security adviser michael flynn. the question, did flynn fail to ask permission to accept money from russia? >> new details on north korea and the rising tensions with the u.s. how the president is leaning on china for help and, how he hopes to solve things without force. but warns that a major conflict is possible. >> then, united airlines reaches secret settlement with the doctor dragged off a flight. details on that and the company passenger friendly policies. >> kiss-cam, kiss-cam. lack like a normal couple. unsuspecting pairet why is this dude saying no. seems like a lovely woman. >> hmm. >> mom maybe. sister. >> hmm. i dent knon't know. ex-girlfriend. >> we'll explain it on this friday, april 28th. >>> i -- i, you never know. but, the explanation is quite tricky. >> we have our investigative unit on it. get through it in a moment. we'll start the half-hour off with a last minute scramble on capitol hill to avert a government shutdown by tonight's deadline. >> yeah, senate democrats blocked a quick vote on a sho

let's go straight to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara, the pentagon is reporting major damage to that syrian air base. >> reporter: they do believe, bomb, at least for now, that they have rendered much of that base inoperable from further chemical attacks, but this is now a growing impact of what were the russians up to? we now know that there was a russian drone flying near where that chemical attack happened, and a lot of questions about how much the russians may have known. >> this was the message president trump wanted to send to bashar al assad. attack with chemical weapons. the u.s. will attack you back. 59 cruise missiles striking the syrian air base the u.s. says was used to launch aircraft killing men, women and children tuesday with a nerve agent-filled bomb. >> the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. >> reporter: but this was also a message to moscow which denies the syrian chemical attack even happened. >> to justify its armed action washington has entirely twist what had ha

go long. . >>> following the breaking news our pentagon correspondent barbara starr saying the pentagongating possible russian involvement in the chemical attack in syria that included so many civilians that killed lots of children and had a huge impact on president trump and his going forward and ordering that tomahawk crews missile strike against that syrian air base last night. david gregory, you've been watching all of this unfold. give us your thoughts on where the situation stands right now. >> well, i'm really focused on where the situation is going to stand. how does president trump want this to end? i thought his u.n. ambassador nikki haley was incredibly strong. a lot stronger than him frankly and more thorough and more plain spoken in laying out the case for this strike and a strong takedown of russia, something that he, the president as john was just saying, has not done himse himself. but his ambassador of the u.n. has been blaming russia appropriately for this and facilitating his chemical weapons program. they have to answer for the fact that those chemical weapons in tha

that's your problem as you make the way to the pentagon and 14 street bridge. switching to maps. slow drive times now that we're hitting the morning rush. 95 northbound dale city. 395 bement way to king street takes you eight minute. getting to beltway is 20 minute delay. outer loop to george aavenue red zone 16 minute delay and 66 eastbound to 234 prince william to parkway checking in 3 2 minutes now. he'll show what you we're up against this morning. if you skip roads and take rails we very free shuttle service on green line no yellow rush mraws. and don't forget college park and green belt stations remains closed. inner loop police activity now arena drive. delays extend back to 50 and also 50 inside the beltway and slow through cheverly from 202 to 295. gw parkway southbound huge problems if you try to get from rosalyn to georgetown. there's a crash between the key bridge and roosevelt bl blocking left lane. police directing traffic and gw parkway backing up on southbound side back to the beltway. huge slow downs there. keep it to fox morning. we'll look at shady grove in gai

pentagon people inside the pentagon misled them on this point. >> at this point that battle sheep and we are told that, told that they are heading towards the sea of jap. they will get that sometime that week and blem blew. being described as an innocent mistake, where the president was so clear about where an aircraft carrier is being sent. turns out it was wrong. >> thanks so much, jeff zeleny. reporting for us democratic congresswoman kathleen rice, a member of the house homeland security committee. congresswoman, thanks for having me. >> thanks for having me, wolf. >> does this incident being blamed on miscommunication undermine the trust that the public has to have in the military and the commander and chief and the president. united states or is this simply a little blunder? >> >> it certainly doesn't help, wolf. you know, the one thing that the american people and really the international world amount large need from the president of the united states is a level of credibility to ensure both our allies and our knows that when we speak we mean it. now i happen to be in japan and

now, neither the white house nor the pentagon would comment on that question. i think what we started to see today if you take all of these actions together, not only in afghanistan, syria, some of what's been happening in yemen, somalia, are the very small contours of a trump doctrine coming together, which is that he supports this type of robust action that some may think is also symbolic that might send a message to another country like north korea, which has engaged in provocations recently. of course, the white house watching north korea very closely, concerned about potentially a 6th nuclear test. so, i think that we're starting to see that come together. but to that point, did he actually authorize it, he never said yes, brian. and as you point out, the pentagon said he didn't need to give authorization to drop this bomb. >> jeremy, if nothing else, this bomb's other nickname could be the mother of all kmaz of subje -- all changes of subject. to pickup on kristen's point, if i asked you to define another purpose for this, let's just say the battle field

. >>> also tonight, we now learn the pentagon is investigating fired national security adviser michael flynn. they want to know whether he asked permission to accept money from russia, from foreign governments. >>> the deadly standoff. the gunman accused of killing a state trooper. today, the images coming in, as authorities blew up this home and the shootout that follows. >>> major news on united tonight, after that passenger was dragged off the flight. after the ceo told us here that changes were coming. tonight, news of a major settlement. and what the airline might now pay you, if you get bumped off your flight. >>> and the warning tonight about the superbug here in the u.s. authorities say it can live for weeks on hospital beds and for months on your skin. >>> good evening and it's great to have you with us here on a thursday night. and we begin with president trump and his promise of the biggest tax cut in history. tonight, our reporter asking the president how he would pay for it. it comes 24 hours after the plan was revealed, promising tax cuts for the middle class and a major

i want to bring in our cnn pentagon reporter ryan brown. pentagon is saying they haven't established who definitively is carrying out these new air strikes but to be frank, who else would it be based on experience than syria or russian warplan warplanes. >> we spoke to a military official just now and observed regime jets headed in that direction. unclear whether or not they dropped the bombs that we're seeing now with conventional strikes. no one else really operates there. in fact, the coalition has kind of reduced operations in the syrian airspace recently. not much doubt. >> reduced those operations partly because of this cruise missile attack because they fear that they might become even bigger targets. >> that's right. they are taking precautionary steps in case the regime or ally to the regime may attempt a retaliatory strike. they did conduct some strikes supporting local allies there but fewer strikes than we've seen in the past. >> now we know that the syrian air base that was struck by 59 cruise missiles yesterday, it's up and ru

we know the pentagon is planning.uring out options, they're ready to present those options at a moment's notice. we also know secretary mattis will be by donald trump's side pretty much all weekend. if there is an order to be given, trust me, he will turn to the secretary of defense and give that order. there are still some things we don't know. we don't know quite a bit on this, mainly what their actual response is going to be, what the u.s. response is going to be. we know the options. they can do cruise missiles, they can do drone, they can do chemical attacks themselves. ground troops in syria, at least 500 the u.s. acknowledges. but katy, they're fighting isis. just to give you a sense of how complicated this battlefield is, defense officials are telling nbc news that the target of those chemical weapons, the regime dropped on their own people, it was al nustra front hospital, closely affiliated with al qaeda. you could sense the argument the regime would make if they ever admitted to this saying, we're simply fi

we also learned from the pentagon that the u.s. military contacted the russian military through an established hotline to warn them about the tomahawk strike because russian forces are based at that base. it's not clear if there are any casualties tonight. no clear if any people were at the base at the time, but again, the u.s. military went to great lengths to avoid civilian carpets, to avoid casualty advertise of people at the base. they warned the russian military through this hotline they've been using the u.s. military headquarters in the middle east to the air base where the russians had headquarters in syria. >> we've confirmed that the russians were notified through diplomatic channels in advance. has there lenny response from russia? >> they have put out a sears of statements -- series of statements suggesting that this is being seen as an escalation. there have been criticism of the airstrikes publicly from russia, but we also understand from john properties, who is down in marring, that the president didn't call presiden

>> i don't think the pentagon can do whatever it wants.hat it does mean is the president has decided to trust his commanders, in his view, to do the right thing. when major missions like this happen, we are told, indeed, the white house is briefed. for the first time ever, the mother of all bombs was used by the u.s. military in combat. the largest non- nuclear bomb used in combat, targeting isis fighters in eastern afghanistan's row moat nangahar province. a us air force special operations, mc-130 dropped the bomb via parachute. >> we targeted a system of tunnels and caves that isis fighters used to move around freely, making it easier for them to target u.s. military advisers and afghan forces in the area. >> reporter: the moab, the massive ordnance air blast bomb, also known as the mother of all bombs, is a 21,600 pound bomb that explodes in the air. it's blast is supposed to destroy a target area that can spread over thousands of feet. on saturday a u.s. army special operations soldier was killed in combat in the same area. >> the unit

what does the pentagon make of this? >> reporter: well, by all accounts it looks like they have moved most of their operational fighter aircraft to this base along the syrian coastline dwight close to where the russians have the majority of their military footprint, including russian anti-air missiles, russian air defense equipment, so the presumption is the syrians think that they are going to be under the russian shelter and that the u.s. can't attack them there. so here's the key question. what if the syrians do decide to launch another chemical attack using something like sarin? would the u.s. fly within the range of syrian air defenses? how could they counterattack against the syrians if they are within the russian military umbrella. jake? >> all these tests and challenges for the president come as the administration is trying to downplay the fact that the president and the white house last week suggested that a u.s., quote, armada, was was approaching the korean peninsula which suggested that that was happening imm

we're waiting for some news here at the pentagon. what trump said in the back of the plane there at the end, something should happen. it's unclear if trump was referring to military action, or was he referring to regime change with assad? obviously secretary of state tillerson talked about an effort being under way to remove assad from power. later an official clarified that tillerson was speaking about the diplomatic effort, not an actual formal marine change by the united states military. guys? >> so, hans, just a little bit of clarity on that. you had referred to two different options, a sort of broad attack on the air power, airfields and assets of the assad regime, a narrower one on where we think the chemical weapons is? is that right? >> not necessarily where the chemical weapons are because in a lot of ways, remember the deal that was brokered between then secretary of state kerry and the rush unz, a lot of those weapons were supposed to be taken out of the country. so it's not necessarily that the military -- the entagon. we

earlier, russia warned of negative consequences of any us military action in syria but the pentagon didn moscow of the air strikes. i'm aron heslehurst. in business, face—to—face and just the start of what president trump calls a great relationship, the leaders of the world, two biggest economies, finally meet as the rest of the world hold its breath to see if these two can avoid a fight. and the lawsuits that probably runs more than 140 characters. twitter is suing the us government after the trump administration demanded to know the identity of an anti—trump account. but first, president donald trump has said the us military has carried out a cruise missile attack on an airbase from which syrian government planes staged a chemical weapons attack on a rebel—held town. more than 50 tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from american navy ships in the mediterranean, hitting the shayrat airbase which lies 150 kilometres north—east of damascus. the us military say the attack severely damaged or destroyed aircraft and equipment. after the operation was completed, president trump made this sta

our top stories: the pentagon launches an inquiry into president trump's former national security advisor. michael flynn's accused of accepting unauthorised payments from foreign groups. protestors storm macedonia's parliament, attacking politicians after the election of an ethnic albanian as speaker. little more than a week before france's decisive presidential vote, polls suggest emmanuel macron‘s lead over marine le pen is shrinking. and facebook says it's launching new ways to uncover fake accounts and fight abuse on its platform. hello. the pentagon is investigating payments to president trump's former national security advisor michael flynn, including one to attend a gala dinner in russia where he sat on a table with president putin. general flynn made headlines when he was fired by mr trump afterjust21i days in office, it emerged he'd misled vice president mike pence about his dealings with the russian ambassador. let's speak to the bbc‘s laura bicker, whojoins us live from washington. laura, what is the latest on this? we know the pentagon is investigating this $45,000 payment tha

nbc news pentagon correspondent hans nickles has details. >> reporter: u.s. special operations forces joined by the afghan army attacking isis insurgents, killing around 40. but in the battle, two u.s. special operators were wounded. medivaced out alive but later died. a third was grazed by a bullet staying on the battle field. all happening on the same isis stronghold in eastern afghanistan where the u.s. dropped a 21,000-pound explosive two weeks ago collapsing terrorist tunnels and caves. afghan officials say roughly 100 isis combatives were killed by the bomb but defense secretary jim mattias claiming not to care about numbers. >> frankly, digging into tunnels to count dead bodies is probably not a good use of our troop's time. >> reporter: tonight, more than 20 extremist organizations in the region according to u.s. officials including isis and the taliban. >> i don't see how afghanistan doesn't devolve further into endless civil war. >> reporter: the top commander in afghanistan wants to add a few thousand more troops to the already 8400 in country. but

in addition to that, i want to bring nbc pentagon correspondent. part of this was being reported by kelly o'donnell moments ago. what is to be seen as a short, maybe a muted response, from the defense secretary saying the president and his military team are aware of north korea's most resents unsuccessful missile launch. the president has no further comments. is this widely seen as we're not going to give kim jong-un satisfaction this is of any consequence to a greater degree to the united states and we are still monitoring and we're aware of what's happening. is that the takeaway? >> reporter: that seems like a fair interpretation. this statement from mattis is similar to the statement we had from the secretary of state tillerson so we have this mattis statement and this tillerson statement very similar. the tillerson one was from two weeks and the mattis one is from tonight saying the time for talk is over. we're going to have no further comment. according to u.s. government officials tonight, secretary mattis personally briefed donald trump and

and that's hans nichols at the pentagon standing by. he was the first to break the news on our air that this strike was underway. hans, i guess the best way to come at this is what have we learned to kinds of fill in the gaps of this specific targeting? why this place? why now? >> reporter: why now? they did it in the morning because they wanted it in the dawn because they didn't want to have any civilians there and minimize the risk of sylviannian or any actual casualties. they did it at 72 hours after the actual strike happened. this is the base from which they saw planes. and the u.s. thinks they have very clear and convincing evidence, brian, on planes taking off from this base and then they have a track of them flying towards the target where those chemical bombs were dropped. ultimately, this had to do with a lot of build up. this was a decision that president trump made. he was presented several options. he went with what seems to be the smallest option. and that is 59 air strikes, tomahawk, a single strike i should say, a single

hans nichols at the pentagon. hans, rachel mad dow did a thorough investigation into the following question on her show last night. was it 20 aircraft, 20% of the known openerable syrian air force and even though it was asked and answered today, i am still no closer to knowing the answer. >> brian, what i heard was 23 rare craft which they thinkments to 20% of the plating and operating aircraft that syria has. that seems to be their assessment. one other note on this april 6th response strike, it was made very clear, several points today that the word they used was a sing you lar response, a one-off response. then you twin that with what secretary mautdis said at the end, they do not have preemptive strike authority. it looks more and more like we had on april 6th. this response was a unique response and they are taking this on a case by case basis. one other quick note, in several moments they used the term measured response. you can continue to hear inside the pentagon, the launching that 59 strike targets, 57 o

now the pentagon saying it has evidence that the russian military forces either knew about this attack in advance or possibly even took part in an explosive. they are still investigating. a reminder to our viewers that some of these images that you'll see are disturbing. tonight the u.s. military is investigating whether russia was complicit in the syrian regime's gruesome chemical weapons attack on civilians earlier this week. specifically whether a russian warplane dropped a bomb on a hospital treating victims of the attack five hours later, perhaps to destroy evidence. the probe comes after president trump ordered a barrage of missiles on a syrian air base in retaliation for the deadly attack. the first u.s. military strike against the assad regime in the country's bloody six-year civil war. today u.n. ambassador nikki haley warned of possible further u.s. military action. >> the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. p but we hope that will not be necessary. >> reporter: target of the strikes was syria's sharate air base, launch point for th

>> well, the pentagon says that it is merely a coincidence, the timing of the use of this weapon.ertainly it is notable, juan, that just last saturday a green beret member of the seventh group was killed by small arms fire, conducting an operation against the spirit isis tunnels. the pentagon saying it is not in retaliation for the death of that special forces army soldier. >> kimberly guilfoyle? >> curious intensive the intelligence reports they were getting and how they received that information, i guess, and the time frame in terms of making this decision to act and drop this bomb. >> i think there's several things going on. right now, general nicholson is noticing enough to cover not only taliban attacks, especially down in the helman province, but some of the form fighters from afghanistan, not necessarily from syria. these are guys who essentially change their uniforms and go with whatever they think the winning team is. the estimates, the latest intelligence estimates, about 1,000 of these isis fighters inside afghanistan. i think this is part of the larger strategy of taki

senior international correspondent fled pl-- what ar you hearing from the pentagon. four times over four days. >> well, that's right, wolf. this is the fourth time and we hadn't seen this kind of activity for quite some time before this. 2015 was the last time these russian bombers flew into what's called the air defense identification zone. it's in international air space, but it's kind of this area that the u.s. monitors foreign aircraft as they approach and tries to track that, particularly military aircraft. in the most recent case which occurred yesterday, russian bear bombers were intercepted and some canadians cf 18s. this was about 700 miles southwest of anchorage alaska. one official saying four times in four days this couldn't be anything but strategic messaging. there are other factors in play. one is russia is trying to keep their pilots up to snuff, training them, making sure they can fly these long range missions. four times in four days is particularly note worthy in this case. >> fred, you're there in moscow. what are the russian -- what's the russian

>> a conference call was just held with reporters here at the pentagon to talk about the pentagon's strategy in the wake of the tomahawk missile strike. he would not say why the runway was not cratered or the chemical weapon stores were not bombed. sean spicer said the president leaves open the possibility or more strikes. >> i think from what you're hearing, you've taken two planes and taken them off at the p.r. site. the bottom line, their fuelling capabilities have been taken out, radar capabilities have been taken out and 20% of their fixed wing from the entire air force has been taken out. their ability to operate out of that air base is gone. >> we've been told privately the u.s. military didn't want to be accused of hitting sarin gas agents and creating a cloud and affects agents or russian troops at the base. we're told tomahawks are not the right weapon to crater an airstrip. colonel thomas added this is a one-off strike designed to send a message to the al-assad regime about using chemical weapons. the united states does not want to be pulled into syria's civil war. >> shepard: tha

jennifer, the pentagon said president trump -- okay. get back to her as soon as we get -- we to have her now. jennifer, president trump did not need to give this commander permission to drop that bomb? we'll get back to jennifer soon. and from the mother of all bombs, to what could be the father of all fighter jets. the pentagon set to put this fightner action. it's the f-35 joint strike fighter. unique in many ways including it's humongous price tag. president trump slammed the tremendous cost. he took credit after the price dropped. after more than 15 years in development, the f-35 is the most expensive weapon systems effort. rick leventhal live in yuma, arizona. so how much is it, rick? >> first, it got louder. they just fired up a few of them for afternoon training exercises. these jets cold just over $100 million. the next batch, supposed to be around $96 million and the price will drop to $85 million each the next three years. the pilots here that fly them love the aircraft. they say they're fast and responsive and versatile and e

for more, i want to bring in nbc's hans nichols from the pentagon. me, jeremy peters with "the new york times" and msnbc contributor. break this down for us. what do we know exactly, what will kushner be doing when he's in iraq? >> good afternoon. he's met with abadi, prime minister, along with general dunford. people at the pentagon are very clear on this, simply want jared curb ther to kushner to be informed. jared kushner is going to have a lot of policy influence inside the white house and want to present their view to jared kushner. that's why the chairman of the joint chief of staff, joe dunford, invited kushner to take this secret trip to iraq, arrived unannounced. it's not just the generals. secretary mattis, nbc news learned has had several meetings with kushner that's here at the pentagon, as well as at the white house. and just to give you a sense of what kushner will be seeing, he's going to see a very aggressive fight. remember the fighting in west mosul is taking place in iraq, also in syria, some u.s. troops were inserted behind enemy

the strikes were in response, the pentagon says,

in syria, the pentagon says a u.s.-led coalition airstrike in tabqah killed 18 syrian rebels backed by the united states. u.s. central command said in a statement the attack accidentally targeted fighters with the u.s.-supported sdf rebel alliance who requested air support in a fight against isis. centcom offered condolences and called the deaths tragic. the attack followed a series of coalition raids that killed civilians. the journalistic monitoring group airwars cited four separate u.s. airstrikes in april alone that killed 24 noncombatants. meanwhile, syrian president bashar al-assad has denied his forces used poison gas to attack a rebel-held town in idlib, which killed 87 people, including more than 30 children. in an interview recorded wednesday with the afp news agency, assad said reports of the attack were 100% fabricated. >> there was no order to make any attack. we don't have any chemical weapons. we gave up our personal years ago. even if we had them, we would not use them. we have never used are chemical a

again, ask the pentagon. there are still certain questions to be answered about the commander in chief's actions today. we tried to shout a little bit to the press secretary after he left the room. no response. clearly one of the dominant themes in today's briefing. >> courtney, is this a strike that has to be authorized by the president, or is this a strike that can be authorized by the pentagon alone? >> no, this is actually a strike authorized by the battlefield commander, general nicholson, in afghanistan. it didn't have to go to the general or the president. this is a first of its kind strike. it's the first time this large a mission has been used, but the intel has an existing mission in afghanistan to go after isis k, isis khorasan. the four-star general has the authority as the commander there to use the appropriate munitions to carry out his tasks and his operations. so while this is a significant milestone that they used this munition on the battlefield, a 21,000-pound bomb, it is not something that

hans nichols is at the pentagon. we just heard from nikki haley with some really strong language about russia and their support for the syrian regime. let's take a listen to what she said. >> the united states will no longer wait for assad to use chemical weapons without consequences. those days are over. now we must move to a new phase. a drive toward a political solution to this horrific conflict. we expect the syrn regime and its allies t take political process seriously, something they have not done until this point. we expect russia and iran to hold their ally accountable and abide by the terms of the cease fire. we expect this council to speak loudly and forcefully when the regime or its allies undermine the political process, and countless of our own resolutions. the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. but we hope that will not be necessary. >> she also talked about russia and questioned whether they knew that syria was going to use chemical weapons or in her words,

the pentagon chief generaljim matters is presenting the options to president trump.l mattis will go to mar—a—lago and pass on further thoughts on that. detailed discussions now confirmed by reuters on military options to respond to the poison gas attack. it is now confirmed thatjim mattis will meet president trump at mar—a—lago in florida. talks about potential responses underway, including between mr mattis and white house security officials. that's according to white house official. significant development in washington with regard to events in syria and a possible vote at the united nations in the coming hours about investigating what really happened in idlib province. we will talk more about it in the next hour. just going to bring new bit of golfing news. the world golf number one dustinjohnson news. the world golf number one dustin johnson has news. the world golf number one dustinjohnson has pulled out of the us and masters golf tournament after sustaining a back injury in a freak fall. he was favourite to win the title after victories in his last three tourna

while never used in wartime, the pentagon has been authorized to use it. it works by basically removing the oxygen at the surface and lighting the surrounding air on fire. and at 30 feet long, 21,000 pounds, give or take, it causes a localized earthquake, as it did today in an isis area in eastern afghanistan. but, did the president authorize or sign off on its use? did he know about it beforehand? his answer to that question today was interesting. and note here he doesn't say yes. >> did you authorize it, sir? >> everybody knows exactly what happened. so and what i do is i authorize my military. we have the greatest military in the world and they have done a job, as usual. >> as the president has become acclimated with the weapons and the sizable u.s. arsenal, weapons like bombs and cruise missiles, he seems to have changed his opinion of the u.s. military, which he has taken to calling my military. yesterday in a fox business interview with maria bart romo he went on at some length about the syrian missile strike while still managing to work in a shot ag