i would reemphasize the pentagon began. the bad news is that we all followed the recently publicized defensdefense logistics agency s finding that nearly $1 billion of inaccuracies. as the department continues, there will be more painful findings, but there shouldn't be too are the efforts, that is the purpose of the audit to find things that need to be corrected and to save money by conducting them. we know a successful audit will take time and require sustained congressional oversight to the accountability and the department. checking the box by completing the audit is not enough. the goal must be improved financial management and business operations and the will and power managers to make better decisions with more accurate financial reporting systems and data. for the troops it will be better decision-making that will be more money for critical equipment and training. for our part, congress needs to step up the oversight of the consolidated audit and support findings that we need the department of health to understand t

many were paid for by the pentagon. at least you have any idea who the perpetrators are among the papers where and use a certificate a kind of contract between buyer and seller the buyers must confirm they will not transfer the weapons without informing the seller they are a vital tool to stop the global spread of weapons according to the theocracy and. special operations command but the weapons and that up are in the hands of jihadists in syria. but she says the seller bulgaria bears responsibility to know when gary as a country is. in fault that our weapons and up in warsaw and in countries which are and bargo we should stop immediately exports. since their discovery the documents have been verified by international experts. so what is bulgaria's position on these exports. the government declined to come and so we turn to the only bulgarian official prepared to speak to us it is possible to say that is the best lippert mice in the world stephanie new chair of the co-president of the association of bulgarian defense in

we haven't insisted on it with the pentagon. the pentagon every year under presidents of both parties will submit a budget request and congress gives them more than they ask for. i think it's the same phenomenon here. we have insisted upon it with others but not until the ndaa really put it on the calendar in 2014, which was 24 years after the 1990 act, have we started to insist on it. i think that's obviously important that we continue to insist. i think you are hearing a bipartisan agreement around the table we should. quickly to conclude, i think that timeline is helpful. your conclusion is important. i anticipate the audit process will uncover many places where our controls or processes are broken. there will be unpleasant surprises. the d.l.a. audit showed some. some of the problems may prove frustratingly difficult to fix. i think all -- i think we have to be prepared for all that. we're going to get a lot of bad news out of these audits if we do them right. if we don't do them right, maybe it will be nice news. if we do t

i think that's the number one issue in terms of reform of the pentagon. if you want to save money, we need to close these excess spaces and facilities. >> washington journal highlights. turkey-based, this is the political end of what's going on but it's a f larger issue of we really need all these type li of facilities. >> we've had five rounds of these disclosures in thepast. the last one started in 2005 . base closures in the united states, you need congress to give you permission to do it. closing bases overseas in other countries, you don't need congress's permission so dod has constantly been doing that is that the easy way to trim excess esomebody's overseas so are overseas bases are pretty close to right side. and they can adjust them dynamically as they need to. is just in the continental united states, that's where a lot of the issues are on the political reason. no member of congress wants to be close to that district. >> brady from huntsville alabama. >> good morning. >> question for you. you're going to audit, a clean on it, is that what i und

where there are thousands of papers of scripts where there are the pentagon to. change this we want this amended crossness out that's what. structurally and done in such a kind of. careful way by the american government that doesn't seem to happen very much with these other countries where there is obviously influence you know the monarchy will be all over anything that's to do with the monarchy. but they won't have the. kind of level of interference it's just not possible on our own or across the board as it is with dr matthew offered thank you well in a second we'll hear from the former vice chair of the british momentum moving jackie walker perform a scene from her play the lynching described as a fight for free speech arguably more relevant today than ever that's even a show about a wednesday or twelve the anniversary of the launch of twitter de facto the new battleground for free speech he'll then keep in touch via social media we'll see you on wednesday my name is dorothy rebecca ferguson walker i was born in spanish town jamaica in nineteen fifteen i did w

it wasn't long after the twin towers came down in the pentagon was hit that of all things the invasion of iraq came up and regime change in iraq and it made no sense at the time but once you did some homework and looked back at the project for the new american century what they were saying about wanting regime change in iraq and wanting to have frankly a pearl harbor which they said would then justify a new prologue which would justify this invasion it started the pieces start to come together and how did we get rolled everybody the media and playing on anger which we had after nine eleven and. just the media got behind it and the vote in the senate was seventy seven to twenty three only twenty three of us overwhelming vote in the senate to invade iraq which had nothing to do with nine eleven as we know and there were no weapons of mass destruction which we now know also president bush addressed the nation the night before the invasion back in two thousand and three. i want to merican and all the world to know that coalition forces will make every effort to spare innocent civilians fro

technologist, the was the number three position in the pentagon. now it's well below that. they're trying redo it now. eisenhower, for example, he really relied on his scientific advisers on creating darpa and creating a nasa, which direction to go. in scientists don't have that influence on the administration, predating the current administration. i don't think scienced a viewsers have been as important in recent areas. the big question is if darpa is to be important again, swone white house or the pentagon leadership has to decide, we have this problem and we need darpa to solve it. in to iraq war and afghan war when roadside bombs, and ids became a big problem think crated a new agency and spent billions off dollars. people said that -- darpa doesn't do that. they do future science and technology and that's untrue. in she vietnam war they were the agency. it rae create itself as a futuristic science fix version of its. so somebody has to decide darpa is the agency to solve or problems and that has to come from above hem. >> two more question coz

is this push by the pentagon to harness the power of artificial intelligence and you know that's the biggest question on the table is it going to come back and bite us like those same groups. time to suit businesses the set up in bed with the pentagon the develop the atom bomb and did all that you know then basically develop weaponry that could end the world a hundred times over are we going to see that same twenty thirty years from now we'll look back and say what were we thinking i think it's fifty fifty i think fifty percent of it being what were you thinking in the other fifty percent when you really look look at things and sort of see the perspective is that the is. i just don't think that just like nuclear weapons yeah they were but it's not like we used them a bunch after that we just keep making them but we don't use them but the fear is right the whoever uses it first. you know it's like when we drop the ball the right let me use it though one time the other groups a good point to the other group the group or. the army marketing and research group or a.m.r. g.e. is the marke

welcome back to the program it's been revealed the pentagon has requested money from the u.s. government for paying the salaries of at least ten thousand syrian rebel fighters washington now hopes it can assemble a force of sixty five thousand militants despite the crushing failure of the previous train and equip program. one key element of the strategy to defeat isis is to train equip sustain and enable elements of the vetted syrian opposition these forces are projected to total approximately sixty to sixty five thousand and sixty five thousand these spare me would be bigger than the canadian or straightly and militaries and. yet there already three warring armies in syria the pentagon is planning on equipping and providing this puppet force with everything but there are underwear tens of thousands of new rifles machine guns mortars millions of rounds of ammunition thousand vehicles and don't forget this seemingly going to pay their salaries two to four hundred dollars a month it's all in the new counterterrorism fund request it says clearly once isis is this true it this new

everybody in the pentagon -- have you had an assignment in the pentagon? everyone in the pentagon was vying for something to say about this. and there was a lot to be said about it that was beyond just the military strategy about it. there were a lot of books associated with it, a lot of future programs that were involved. those kinds of things that unfortunately is a drive, and the program world and the pentagon world, for which it exists, really. the good thing about goldwater nichols is that we now have the power in a chairman who could look beyond that. chair -- aair, a seat at the table. where something beyond the programmatic issues could be argued. that's where we went. i was fortunate enough because of my experience to be picked as one of the senior planners the got to meet with general powell a couple of other senior ls, some, mainly colone senior colonels, who said how are we going to get the best military advisement we can possibly give, despite all the bureaucratic stuff that was coming in from the cia and the state department, people in the st

is this push by the pentagon to harness the power of artificial intelligence and you know that's the biggest question the table is going to come back and bite us like those same groups of scientists and businesses the sutton bed with the pentagon the belle of the atom bomb and did all that you know and basically develop weaponry that could end the world a hundred times over are we going to see that same mess twenty thirty years from now we'll look back and say what were we thinking i think it's fifty fifty i think fifty percent of it what were you thinking and the other fifty percent when you really look look at things and sort of see the perspective is that the. i just don't think they're just like nuclear weapons yeah they were but it's not like we used to move bunch after that we just keep making them but we don't use them but the fear is right the overuse of first you know it's like when we drop the bomb the right let me use it the one time that gives a good point to other groups or group or. the army marketing and research group or am argy is the marketing and branding arm of th

and the congress against my vote decided to add another $165 billion to the pentagon over the next two years. and yet alone, among all agencies of government, the pentagon has not been able to perform an agency-wide audit.

supporting a pentagon budget of $700 billion. >> last thursday during a routine landing, the nose gear failed on an air force to see if i transfer plane and texas. the planes get it on its belly to stop. just last summer, the air force because of its entire fleet. house speaker paul ryan says it's defense needs to increase or it will get worse. >> just last week, we lost two f-18 pilots off the course coast of florida. we lost seven in western iraq. this is in many ways because of training and accidents because of our military budget. >> ryan climbed the wrongs of power focusing on cutting budget. >> what did you become a different talk? you had always been a deficit hawk. in fact, you had pressed president obama and criticized him to ignore the deficit. what changed? >> when i became speaker, i got access to the classified briefings to see what exactly our military is experiencing. i have been absolutely convinced that we have been doing a disservice to our men and women and military with a budget they have been getting. >> republicans and democrats agreed to the budget control act or

is this push by the pentagon to harness the power of artificial intelligence and you know that's the biggest question the table is going to come back and bite us like those same groups of. scientists and business is the set up in bed with the pentagon the develop the atom bomb and did all that you know then basically develop weaponry that could end the world a hundred times over are we going to see that same twenty thirty years from now we'll look back and say what were we thinking i think it's fifty fifty i think fifty percent of it what were you thinking in the other fifty percent when you really look look at things and sort of see the perspective is that the is. i just don't think that just like nuclear weapons yeah they were but it's not like we used them a bunch after that we just keep making them but we don't use them but the fear is right the whoever uses it first. you know it's like when we drop the ball sarky right let me use a belt one time the other groups a good point to other groups are good for. the army marketing and research group or a.m.r. g.e. is the more recruiting

and this is now the pentagon policy. does this m more lawsuits or is this something distinct?ably mes morlawsuits. it's-- again, it's a little unclear whether this new pms no just-- because it is a new one, kind of gets rid of the old lawsuits and will be kind of be spawning a new knd. but, yeah, i mean, it definitely will mean more lawsuits, and what the president basically did he canceled his original ban, a full ban, and says,'m deferring to mattis. i'm deferring to the military." and the military basicall recommended this new ban, with a few exceptions. >> sreenivasan: all right, vera bergengruen, pentagon reporter for requested buzzfeed, joining us live via skype from washington. thank you. >> thank you. s enivasan: it's been more than 15 years since the federal government started certifying food as organic. but how the u.s. department of agriculture defines "organic" isot always so simple, especially for a staple of the americadiet: eggs. the treatment of the chickens that lay those eggs is at the center of a battle between farmers, some of whom are saying that not all o

progress for them but again the pentagon is very worried about canceling the deal that has implications on u.s. forces in iraq and syria so the point is the u.s. and saudi a lot of. interests are not as much allied as to source three decades ago a change so drop and have been some men though are going against the trend against the current of how the u.s. saudi relations have evolved in the last decade or more after the arab spring after the iran nuclear deal after the u.s. presence in the region so they are going against gays this so we will see i think of the coming weeks the pushback from the pentagon and the cia on guessing the nuclear deal and its implications and now we saw the saudis are more and those in the trump view so it's going to be a very good we will see a bit of what the quarry i think in the coming weeks of the may twelfth regarding the nuclear deal and reading how is that by been viewed within saudi arabia is he seen and welcomed as a reform or is he seen as a warmonger for his foreign policy well the reports that we keep hearing and many of which are filtered through

and opposition fighters are on washington's payroll with the pentagon requesting thirty dollars from the. to cover their wages. also ahead in the program. for a life in russia. killing. nineteen workers. live from moscow to the world this is r t international my names you know. your company this hour's top story front. and new plan to reintegrate just how this children returning from syria and iraq the spy concern still hanging over the danger they could pose to society the focus has now shifted from one of isolating them from other children for no to a more integrated approach charlotte breakstone the issue for us from paris. they're just children born innocent into a world of brutality that while most children are playing with dolls and because these are being taught to play with guns and knives and some have even been trained to kill. well i mean it would depend on each individual to the cops of the caliphate the cool would be actually trying the guns knives and how to kill people and not only that we have seen people being killed and of course that makes it some form of normality

the pentagon just warned that climate change poses a threat to half of all military sites.ave our top generals working on a parade. man, you had a chance to be in the military and you dodged it. if you want to hold a parade for something you yourself actively avoided, why not throw an irs parade or a parade of personal trainers? [ light laughter ] what's next? are you going to make the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff plan your prom? but be careful if you do, because if it goes by popular vote, you're not going to be happy with who they choose for king and queen. [ cheering and applause ] if it's popular vote. on top of the fact that it would be a waste of time and money, there's also the fact that the pentagon itself doesn't even seem to want it. because trump also asked for a military parade for his inauguration and the pentagon didn't seem too psyched. a pentagon official wrote in an internal e-mail at the time that the trump team is seriously considering adding military vehicles to the inaugural parade. later, in response to an e-mail confirming that the trump team

thinking that i wanted to be in afghanistan on the pentagon and you know it's a lot but the i think the relationship is that when when you've got when you're thinking about the importance of the troops on the ground and how it scales back to who or whatever that support system is you've got the leadership has to make sure that that support system is resourcing the soldier on the ground and so for me as the deputy commander general tenth mountain division brigade commander one hundred first airborne eighty second airborne battalion commander i was always as very focused downward on in taking a look at the what my mission was and so at the national level we need to make sure that we're looking at ins ways and means what are the vital interests of the united states and are we are we scaling the military industrial complex to address those vital interests. and is that drive in it or is it the military industrial complex and striving to get back to to the you know larger part of the discussion because there is a level bit of greed there i mean you can whenever you introduce businesses in

it's revealed about the volumes of syrian opposition fighters are on washington's payroll the pentagon requested thirty million dollars from the u.s. budget to cover their wages. they so named. jailed for life in russia guilty of killing mutilating nineteen workers in the sex industry. from moscow to the world this is r t international just after eight in the morning here in the russian capital hello and welcome to our top story from a new plan to reintegrate children returning to europe the spite concerns still hanging over the danger that could pose to society the focus has now shifted from one of isolating them from other children for to a more integrated approach to dubin ski bricks than the issue from paris. they just children in. tallahassee. while most children are playing with dolls. being taught to play with guns and knives and some have even been trained to kill. well i mean you know. each individual should be kept to the caliphate i believe because it would be actually trading guns knives and how to kill people and not only that we have seen people being killed and of course

or straightly and militaries and don't forget there are already three warring armies in syria the pentagon is planning on equipping and providing this puppet force with everything but there are underwear tens of thousands of new rifles machine guns mortars millions of rounds of ammunition thousand vehicles and don't forget this seemingly going to pay their salaries two to four hundred dollars a month it's all in the new counterterrorism fund request it says clearly once isis is the straw it this new army will stabilize and patrol the territory it holds near enough a third of syria which measures well with washington's plans to stay in syria indefinitely keep the country split up and prevent asaad from winning but there are questions like where is the us going to find thirty thousand more moderate rebels when it couldn't find ten can you tell us what the total number of trained fighters remains it's a small number. the ones that are in the fight. we're talking four four five the last time the us trained equipped and sent forth a rebel army they all promptly gave up their guns and joined al

thinking that i wanted to be in afghanistan on the pentagon and you know it's a lot but the i think the relationship is that when when you've got when you're thinking about the importance of the troops on the ground and how it scales back to whatever that support system is you've got the leadership has to make sure that that support system is resourcing the soldier on the ground and so for me as the deputy commander general tenth mountain division brigade commander one hundred first airborne eighty second airborne battalion commander i was always as very focused downward on in taking a look at the what my mission was and so at the national level we need to make sure that we're looking at ins ways and means what are the vital interests of the united states and are we are we scaling the military and duster. complex to address those final interests and is that drive in it or is it the military industrial complex and striving to get back to to the you know larger part of the discussion because there is a level bit of greed there i mean you can whenever you introduce businesses into any

but of course, pentagon insiders know you as something else.hat no one outside really understands, military director -- which is a really important internal office on making budget decisions. so could you talk a little bit about what you think about the current national defense strategy and the budget that the president has presented in light of everything that you've been talking about. >> okay. let me see if i can get through this without making the front page of the "washington post." >> so before -- a quick story. in my world, there was sort of a mythological tale which sounded like this. if you're a general officer in the pentagon how do you know you're about ready to have the worst day? and here's how you know. when you walk into the offers in the morning and your secretary says to you, sir, 60 minutes is on the phone. and that actually happened to me, and so this hopefully won't be like that. but, so i will tell you two things. there is an interesting phenomenon that has to do with budgets, and innovation. the more money you have, the le

ten thousand syrian rebels are on the pentagon's a payroll that revelation coming from a u.s. defense department budget request washington now has to increase that number to sixty five thousand despite the crushing failure the previous train and equip program. one key element of the strategy to defeat isis is to train equip sustain and enable elements of the vetted syrian opposition these forces are projected to total approximately sixty to sixty five thousand sixty five thousand these pet army would be bigger than the canadian or straightly and militaries and don't forget there are already three warring armies in syria the pentagon is planning on equipping and providing this puppet force with everything but there are underwear tens of thousands of new rifles machine guns mortars millions of rounds of ammunition thousand vehicles and don't forget this seemingly going to pay their salaries two to four hundred dollars a month it's all in the new counterterrorism fund request it says clearly once isis is the straw it this new army will stabilize and patrol the territory it holds

tonight's development took the pentagon by surprise.o you've been in touch with pentagon officials, were they surprised? >> well, at least some pentagon officials were surprised by the very nature of this announcement. some of them weren't even aware that an announcement was in bounds. when we initially spoke to them, and many officials were off-site, not in the building today, preparing for this. that was definitely of note. one of the thins from the pentagon's perspective is the announcement from the south koreans that kim jong un understands that joint military exercises between the u.s. and south korea would be ongoing, that's always been a big issue. in the past north korea and china have offered a freeze for freeze in exchange for stopping these joint military exercises, butt sou but the south saying that kim jong un understands three will continue. and they are scheduled for next month part of an exercise known as "full eagle." that's expected to proceed given that this meeting will happen by may, it's very interesting to see now

centcom over the use of american weapons but the pentagon doesn't seem to have that many answers. tom track the purpose of the missions that it is refueling what targets it strikes and the results of the mission senator we did not ok and apparently russia will also be on the agenda when trump meets with the saudi prince senior u.s. officials say president trump and the hum. i've been someone will look for ways to make russia pay a price for its aggressions now the kremlin has responded expressing regret over the demonization of russia but with all the protests and the senate vote that's coming up it doesn't seem that the meeting will go as planned or as smoothly as trump would have hoped as we mentioned the future of the iranian nuclear deal is expected to be a key point of discussion at the meeting between the prince and trump in.

so as daniel said, i'm a former pentagon official. i wanted to start about saying why i think this center that peter and daniel created is so important. the department of defense is innovative and adopting the changes in the external environment. it's a conservative institution. i don't mean politically, but it is a place where there's very strong pull of conventional wisdom. so to have a center like this bringing together a diverse mix of scholars and practitioners and people who want to shake things up and coming at this issue from different vector tors. it is so important and valuable. thank you for everything you do with the center. you find it as a former nameless bureaucrat, important. we get people like doug, our colleague who is here who is a former army officer and bob s d schmidle. it is important because of the times we are in. there's so much change going on in what the threat environment is and internal environment is. what the weapons of war are. the tactics and the nature of war is and there are a lot of people inside o

i don't know, some nameless bureaucrat in the pentagon, i don't know.he point is as weapons become more autonomous and autonomy becomes more pervasive, it seems to me there's an increased amount of responsibility that must be taken on by the policymakers and decisionmakers and they must be involved in the creation of those algorithms. so as a al gore rhythm is developped -- so as an algorithm is developed that tells me terrorist 1 or air resist b, this is not my job, you bring my the capability. then i'm advocating my moral responsibility to that -- to make that decision. so that's what is about autonomous weapons that makes us uncomfortable. we like to believe if there's a decision that will be made about killing another person it will be made by another human. so that's just an example. and another example is in the world of cyber, there are some attacks that will occur with such speed and velocity that if you tried to put that into a conventional decision chain and say ok, i'm going to run this into the general, generals are great for that, coffee an

matthew welcome to going underground you resigned your position with the pentagon over alleged lying by the hillary clinton state department your allies of the trunk no i think it's just about the same the deal with you got trump now. different than obama but the thing that has remained the same or the same career minded people at the state department at cia at the pentagon who are dedicated to their own careers and dedicated to the empire basically but is drawn buggy really listening less to there's a line we don't know whether we can take michael wolff seriously in his book on drugs and there's a scene in it where he where trump tells off. all the generals in the situation room about this suggestions as to what to do with afghanistan this year. would that ring true is a little drum saying we need to make money like the chinese out of afghanistan we should be in regime building or training or whatever it is if you're someone like donald trump who you know always say about him he is an intelligent person he has accomplished a lot look he beat seventeen people in the republican primar

. >> a disconnect with the president and pentagon. officials are at a loss for what the president meant. >>> and fox news host facing backlash from advertisers after a comment from a parkland survivor. the student not satisfied with the apology. welcome to "early start" on good friday. is david hogg fair game? i'm dave briggs. >> i'm michelle kosinski. it is 4:00 a.m. in the east. he may have been a lower level aide, but rick gaetes could pla a pivotal role. details push for the collusion case. >> the court filing this week claims gates was in contact with someone who was working with the russia investigation. the investigation has been focused since the president took office. it appears collusion remains a focal point of the russia probe. we get more from evan perez in washington. >> reporter: dave and michelle, the special counsel prosecutors told rick gates they did not need paul manafort. instead, we are told, they wanted him to provide information on trump campaign contact was russians. that is the mission of the mueller investig

the pentagon holds ground operations against. syria after its key changes focus to u.s. partner in the region turkey. the former russian colonel who spied for britain is allegedly poisoned in the u.k. sparking media speculation of a russian despite no details from the police also ahead. on israeli soldier is filmed throwing a grenade on a couple carrying a baby trying to escape a military operation. just after midday here in moscow this choose the march the sixth my names you know this is r t international our top story the u.s. military household did its operations against islamic state in eastern syria in a statement the pentagon said the kurdish forces that it box in the area are shifting their focus from fighting terrorists to country a turkish offensive. some fighters operating within the s.d.s. have decided to leave operations in the middle east river valley to fight elsewhere possibly in akron they're not fighting isis anymore and that basically meant that the not taken to richard barrett from isis is quickly as they had been in the past syrian democratic forces m

know mary the over the years when they were before the negotiations with the iran nuclear deal the pentagon constantly was telling russia that all these in these anti-missile defense systems in poland and remain were many they have nothing to do with you it's all directed against iran and then when the deal is signed they actually admit to that well we still have to keep them there is it because of russia well yes because ok i mean this is the kind of relations and partnership russia has with nato you can't believe what they say ok or they talk out of both sides of the mouth at the same time with russia would putin did exactly what he promises has promised the russian people that a war will never be fought on this country soil ever again and he's making sure that happens go ahead mary. well i think that there is a perpetual problem between russia and nato as to who is on defense and who is on oftens and who acted first and we saw this most graphically and most recently with ukraine but we've seen it all before with the expansion of nato and we've seen it since ukraine with the strengthening

the pentagon is still investigating the ambush. the video is released as part of a terror group propaganda campaign. we caution you portions of the video are graphic. here is david martin. >> it is a propaganda video released by isis to show how supposedly invincible they are. cbs news has chosen to air parts of the video, which was captured by the militants from a helmet camera, worn by one of the four soldiers killed that day. the pentagon has yet to release a full account of the ambush, but the video shows in a way no word can express, just how outgunned and cut off the americans were. they were returning from a low risk patrol made up of a 11 americans and 30 nigerian soldiers when the ambush hit. at first they tried to take cover behind their suv. with one of the soldiers at the wheel they ran alongside. attempting to escape the kill zone. they fired colored smoke grenades which would provide some cover, and identified their position to any friendly aircraft overhead. but it would be two hours from the start of the ambush befo