this was a question planted by petraeus, possibly.t is not uncommon for a staffer to call up the staff of the witness before a hearing and say, "well, what do you want to be asked?" and a staff person would say, "well, here is a high-minded policy question that you can ask us, and we will give you a serious answer, and we will all sound like we are doing important things here." >> the people we have been listening to over the past 45 minutes, some will say this man is cynical, he is negative, he has no respect whatsoever for the congress or the military or the pentagon. answer those. >> i have immense respect for the congress and the military. i do not have respect for the people occupying them right now. i have immense respect for the people of the military who are doing what they have to do in afghanistan and in the past few years in iraq. i have immense respect for the military officers i have been working with for a long time and people inside the pentagon. my problem, my cynicism, is a result of observing the way the leadership o

levin was not running the meeting, petraeus was. he was making sure that no real information is getting to that committee. >> we are going to keep the volume down on this, but it was senator levin who gave, i do not -- senator joe lieberman who gave, i do not know know if you call it a speech or not, but i think senators get five minutes or sometimes 10 minutes, but you made a point of this. >> is no question that it is a speech. >> what is wrong with that? >> it is an oversight hearing. he is wasting his time, and he is wasting my time. i want to find out about what is going on in afghanistan. i do not care what is going on in joe lieberman's mind. as was done with william rogers in the 1970's about vietnam, he was picking up information, and in some cases, knew more than the witness about what he was asking. i want to find out about this war and what is going on. i do not want to know joe lieberman's political opinion on it. i will send him a letter if they want to get a speech from him. >> another senator, let's watch what he doe

david petraeus was then a hot shot cadet. she hopes military families learn from mistakes they made early in their marriage, like buying a fancy, but temperamental sports car. >> i have learned from experience. and we were lucky. ours were not-- didn't have serious consequences but we did spend a lot of money on repairs on that red sport car. >> couric: whose idea that was, by the way? >> i probably have to point the finger at my husband on that one. >> couric: holly petraeus told me that part of her mission is to connect the military with the american people. in her words, "they need to know us and to know what our lives are like." up next, diet soda and a possible link to heart disease. ,,,, >> couric: in health news, a new study finds strokes are down among older americans due in part to better medications, but up among those who are middle aged and the young. researchers blame that on obesity. meanwhile, a lot of people who are watching their weight drink diet sodas, but now as national correspondent jim axelrod reports t

begins to draw down its own forces and we asked general petraeus about that? >> we think that we won't be able to commence transition here by indeed, i will make a recommendation to the nato command. make a recommendation to president karzai somewhere around the end of february. and so that recommendation will go forward and we believe that there are some very viable candidates for transition that we will be able to identify. clearly a lot of this hinges on the ability of afghan to do more as we do progressively less. we are not just going to say, "tag, you're it, we are out of here." we are going thin out, not just hand off we will stay and support but progressively over time. obviously, we do want to reduce our numbers and locations based on conditions and then either reassess that transition that are or ultimately begin to send some of them home. we are very much on target with the growth of the afghan army and the afghan police but it is because the recruiting has been so high while the attrition is still above what we would like to see and what more impor

. >>> the defense department denies that general david petraeus plans to quit by the end of the year. the times of london reported that petraeus would be replaced as the top american commander in afghanistan. a defense department spokesman said no decision on petraeus has been made, but there is a realignment of top generals coming in the fall, and petraeus could be promoted. >>> in washington, what's sure to be a long and bitter fight over federal spending is under way. republicans are pushing sharp cuts while president obama defends his $3.73 trillion budget plan for the new fiscal year. it was the main topic on mr. obama's first big news conference of the year, as joel brown reports. >> reporter: the president spent much of the news conference fielding questions on what he chose to leave out of his budget plan, social security and medicare. >> this is going to be a negotiation process. >> reporter: republicans had blasted the president's budget proposal for its record $1.65 trillion deficit. and for the fact that it doesn't cut social security or medicare. the government spends mor

petraeus arrived in january 2007, initiating a search. the surge up sensibly to increase troops by 30,000 in the implementation of a new tactic called population center counterinsurgency. the mancha was we are not going to focus on killing the enemy. both focus on protecting the population and tempting them with all kinds of incentives to separate themselves from the insurgents and work with us. now in reality during the search, you are three times as many civilians killed by the americans for the surge, so that wasn't a very centric population. it increased air strike on a capture missions, terrain to now, which is renewed by artillery, sometimes in populated areas. but iraqis were so desperate because of the civil war that they were able to observe these increased attacks. the key factor initially was sunni cease-fire beginning in 2006 continuing to 2007, when the guys fighting americans and she is put down weapons or took their weapons and were neighborhood card. they sat in position, not doing too much and informing americans about al

who's taken over command of the war in afghanistan now while petraeus himself declined to be interviewed the article aptly titled king david's war portrays a man who does whatever it takes to make things go his way that includes undermining the president working with and paying off corrupt warlords escalating violence despite the counterinsurgency strategy that he himself wrote the book on and perhaps most importantly being a master of spin in his nine hundred eighty seven doctoral dissertation at princeton betray us wrote the following what policymakers believed to have taken place in any particular case is what matters more than what actually occurred but nearly ten years into this war how long can that betray us keep manipulating the situation before the veil is finally lifted here to discuss it with me is robert farley a blogger at lawyers guns and money robert thanks so much for being here tonight thank you for having me now i want your opinion first of this profile that we've been given after this here in rolling stone it's not necessarily things that we haven't heard before but he

. >> chris: holly petraeus is the wife of general petraeus.e is serving overseas she has her own mission. >> just some of the things you need to think about before you retire. >> chris: she is setting up the office of service member affairs to protect military consumers. >> the mill tare i have is a targeted group. >> chris: there are a lot of young people with guaranteed pay checks on their own for the first time. >> ad all the factors together and it makes them easy pickings. >> reporter: like auto dealers selling cars at high prices or electronic stores offering expensive financing or military loans on the internet. >> outright scams or very expensive loans. >> reporter: as part of the new consumer protection bureau should be able to help military familys. >> a power to enforce the laws on the book books and also to e rules. >> chris: holly petraeus comes from a distinguished military family. >> how did you omit your husband? >> he was a cadet at westpoint. >> and what did you think? >> obviously we liked each other. >> chris: so much they

i have mentioned general david petraeus. i mentioned admiral mullen. i would mention bob gates, secretary of defense. we worked together in the jimmy carter administration. i would also recommend -- recognize hillary clinton. we are not going to hear much about this looming crisis tonight. i hope we don't feel. it is going to give the things we put in place a chance to work and i am hopeful that come next year, 50 years after the cuban missile crisis that president obama will deal equally well with the crisis that he faces. thank you very much. [applause] are there questions? i hope so. >> i am a freshman. you enumerated many similarities between kennedy and obama but there seems to be one big difference how kennedy was deal with the cuban missile crisis. he had a specific enemy and representative who he could call up and send a letter and crucial of controlled the opposition. and in afghanistan and pakistan, how does that difference influence how obama can deal with this situation? >> wonderful point and right on the button. it is what makes the quest

profiling actually imply and mean the same thing that is exactly what general petraeus tried to present in he's page deep paper regarding the main lesson he learned from his experience in vietnam conflict that is whatever happens on the ground e's irrelevant what really does matter and what they use as decision makers and american public thinks about what's going on overseas regarding their military affairs their bottom line ease the whole american operation enduring freedom has nothing to do with the military conflict neither on bank you stand on afghan territory it has nothing to do we have a counter terrorism or counter narcotics operations what it really does matter is a clandestine percept sion menage a man by the pentagon oath political leadership in the united states and american public. well let's take a look at some other headlines from around the world is marking the first anniversary of last year's earthquake that left five hundred dead and hundreds of thousands homeless a remembrance service was led by the president sebastian pinera there were also protests at the scene with

general petraeus is one of the most capable officers. he's a great choice and he will do a good job. i think the surge of forces that the administration's commited to and is now implementing is basically a plus. the key as i think about afghanistan, it's a very, very difficult set of circumstances you've got in afghanistan. it is one of the poorest countries in the world, it is the leading producer of heroin. it's never really had a strong central government. you've always had war lords operating in various places around the country and you're not going to get a full blown democratty overnight out of a place that starts as deep in the hole as afghanistan is under normal circumstances. on the other hand, we've got to get it right over the long haul because in fact it was the base of operations for al qaeda when they killed 3,000 americans on 9/11. it's where they started from, it's where they trained. and it's very important that they not revert once again back to a safe harbor or a sanctuary, if you will, for terrorist groups trying to k

then you had petraeus, reviewed the results and visited with sheikh sattar. sheikh sattar is the first sheikh to step up. very charismatic gentleman. he was killed in september of 2007 by a suicide bomber. but once we had the success, and once we saw what was occur, that was when petraeus instituted the sons of iraq program. once they instituted the program, sunnies needed jobs. they had no jobs. future was bleak. especially within the government. when we started giving the jobs to secure their own neighborhoods, you had guyed lining up in droves. because they want to work. they want to make money. they want to have a wife and kids. when we started giving them a future, whether it was securing their neighborhood or actual job, things really turned around. and that's exactly what we need to do in afghanistan. but if you look at iraq and afghanistan, the literacy rates amongst the populous extremely different. iraq fairly modern. secular under saddam. afghanistan, hardly anybody there is literal. in fact, you know, a lot of my buddies when they are over there,

general petraeus called usip's work in iraq a striking success. this is what they've done to deal with the challenges. a joint program with the u.s. army combined center in fort leavenworth to convene multiple agencies and help those confronting those in another massive handoff in afghanistan. comprehensive training for the u.s. department of defenses ministry of advisors program, moda going out to serve with general caldwell, the commander of training forces in afghanistan. usip, madam chair, is a small, agile center in support of american national security, funding for it obviously should not be eliminated today. and i want to draw from a letter that governor -- i'm sorry, general petraeus, the general of the united states army commanding forces in afghanistan most recently wrote to rob goldberg, the director of international affairs at n.s.p. he says, and he extrapolate, usip's experience in working closely with the u.s. military will be a great asset in developing unity of effort between levels of the government. i hope soon to see u.s. milita

. >> charlie: on the ground today, general petraeus is successful to what degree? >> he is successful. actually something, the people, i mean all those who are familiar with counterinsurgency operation, they should realize that the success and victory cannot be quick and swift like other type of warfare even if we apply the right strategy and the right forces and the right resources. so it will take time but we already see a good enough indicators. all the attempts and such unconventional warfare is the people. they get the support of the people then i think they will win. but in the moment of the focus of the recent operation in this last six, seven months in afghanistan, i think we do see the indications of the campaign. because what has happened that now that we have managed to have a permanent presence of security forces in the local level and the people are assured that we are going to protect them and we are not there just temporarily like we used to in the previous years. and with that every day we get more support of the people. they are participating in di

general petraeus is not involved in running our forces there. from what you said, is the president doing enough in your judgment to insure that we are successful in afghanistan and pakistan? >> well, first of all, i think that the general petraeus appointment was the obvious choice. he was a great choice and he will do a great job. i think that the surge of forces that the administration has committed to and is now implementing is a plus. the key is that when i think about afghanistan, is a very difficult set of circumstances. it is one of the poorest countries in the world did it is a leading producer of heroin. it has never really had a strong central government. you're not going to get a full- blown democracy overnight out of a place that starts as the van the whole less afghanistan is under normal circumstances. on the other hand, we have to get it right over the long haul because there is the base of operations for al qaeda. it is where the terrorists trained. it is important that they not revert back to the safe harbor for such a worry for

general david petraeus said combat is likely to continue to the spring. over the past few months, nato has gained control of several taliban safe havens. but petraeus says enemy forces will likely fight to get those areas back. >>> former secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld, is revealing for the first time that saddam hussein had targeted his daughters. he's doing interviews to pro met his new book. he says in a national security meeting in 2003 he was told that saddam hussein had a $60 million bounty on his two daughters and the twin daughters of president bush. rumsfeld said he was especially concerned for his family. while president bush and his family had secret service protection, he did not. >>> ben bernanke is on capitol hill right now. alison burns has more. >> reporter: good morning to you, dave. republicans are not holding back their frustrations with fed chairman ben bernanke's approach to the economy and this morning he's on the defensive. this is a live look here at the house budget committee. ber nan kay sis there are clear signs a self-su

this fund -- david petraeus. this fund is related to the safety and security of our troops, it needs to be preserved and i urge a no vote on the amendment. the chair: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from washington rise? mr. dicks: i move to strike the requisite number of words. it would eliminate funding in the bill, a total of $400 million. establishing this fund was done at the request of the secretary of defense and the secretary of state in a joint letter to the congressional defense committees in november, 2010. the funding was not added to the bill but derived by reducing the amount available for the commanders of emergency response program. d.o.d. requested that funding for this account be obtained in this manner. the department of defense and state view this fund as essential to completing large scale infrastructure projects in afghanistan, such as electrical power generation. such projects provide the means for economic activity, which will help to

petraeus has been there for a while now. there's much discussion of wareham ham is and what he intends to do and there's who's winning and who's not and the changes petraeus has brought. where is afghanistan in your judgment both in terms of the civil effort as well as the military strategy? >> i think afghanistan is in the worst situation that it's ever been in. for me it's shameful that no one is talking about the fact that there's a complete breakdown in diplomacy in afghanistan ever afghanistan. there is almost no relationship between hamid karzai and the u.s. ambassador carl eikenberry. that's filtered down to every effort and it drastically affects the u.s. relationship. to me the problem in afghanistan is not military. yes, i mean, on the battlefield we face all kinds of obstacles that are incredibly difficult. yes there's been progress in the south. there's no doubt from speaking to commanders and soldiers and afghans that we have progressing in the south but whether that means anything at all to me it doesn't mean a

i have mentioned general petraeus. i mentioned admiral mullen. i would mention bob gates, secretary of defense whom i know very well. we worked together in the jimmy carter administration. i would also recommend -- recognize secretary of state hillary clinton. so i think we are not going to hear much about this looming crisis tonight. i hope we don't. it's going to give the things we have put in place a chance to work, and i am hopeful that come next year, 50 years after the date -- or the cuban missile crisis that president obama will yield equally well with the crisis that he faces. thank you very much. [applause] >> are the questions? i hope so. >> i'm a freshman. you enumerative many other similarities between kennedy and obama. however, there seems to be one big difference how when kennedy was the with the cuban missile crisis, he had a specific enemy and representation -- representative of that enemy he could call up and sent a letter to khrushchev, and khrushchev controlled the opposition. and that's the difference in what obama is doing w

as you know, general petraeus is now investigating this. what happened? >> well you know, that's been tried on me in the past, david. i don't know what happened. i do know that the general caldwell is a great leader and has done a great job in leading the afghan army. i also know that these briefers are briefed. senator x is interested in the following, a, b, c, d and e. and that i think is perfectly legitimate. if it went any further than that, i don't know. general petraeus will make a, a full investigation. general caldwell has steadfastly denied it. but i don't see how it could have affected my positions. in any way. and so we'll see what happens. but i'm, put me down as skeptical. >> senator mccain, we'll leave it there thank you very much and safe travel. >>> coming up, as a government shutdown looms, budget battles front and center in the capitol and in state houses across the country. ground zero for it all this week -- wisconsin. what is at stake there? what will it mean for the rights of workers? and how will it impact the 2012 race for the whit

to make sure, general david petraeus has ordered a three-star general to conduct a full investigation. jim miklaszewski, nbc news, the pentagon. >>> big story out of texas tonight. a college student from saudi arabia under arrest, accused of planning to build and set off bombs in terrorist attacks around the united states. the fbi says this case broke open only because someone noticed something that wasn't quite right. our report from our justice correspondent, pete williams. >> reporter: inside this apartment in lubbock, texas, the fbi says, were enough chemicals and equipment to make a powerful military-style bomb. all gathered, prosecutors say, by a 20-year-old college student, khalid ali-m aldawsari. investigators say the tip that broke the case came just three weeks ago when a north carolina chemical company notified the fbi that he ordered a suspiciously large supply. >> hope that we were helpful and i hope that we thwarted what could have been a real tragedy. >> reporter: the shipping company in lubbock also alerted police when aldawsari sought to have the chemicals sent to its

there's a report tonight that the top commander in afghanistan, general david petraeus, may leave his post by the end of this year. that's according to the "times" of london which says the pentagon is now considering possible replacements. meanwhile, in italy, silvio berlusconi has been somewhat of a teflon politician. he's been charged with corruption many times but nothing sticks. now prosecutors believe the prime minister's luck is running out. as mark phillips reports, berlusconi was ordered today to stand trial in a sex scandal. >> reporter: she was just 17 but you know what i mean, the song goes. for italian prime minister silvio berlusconi-- 74-- what it means is another day in court, this time on charges he may not be able to dodge. she is karima el mahroug, a moroccan better known in italy by her professional name-- ruby heartstealer, a nightclub dancer who so danced her way into one of berlusconi's notorious all- night so-called bunga-bunga parties that he gave her $8,000 for her trouble. berlusconi is accused of paying for sex with an underage prostitute and using his influ

will leave his post by the end of the year the british press earlier reported that general david petraeus is due to leave afghanistan along with a large share of u.s. troops washington's promise to pull all of its forces out of the country by twenty fourteen quote come hell or high water when our military contributor says the u.s. failed to learn from the soviet campaign there. american occupation of afghanistan has already exceeded all possible saw that mistake in that contrie and accomplished even more than that in a negative sense and simultaneously having missed all the positive developments that were triggered and promoted by the soviet union intentionally or not in afghanistan i'm not going to justify the soviet military campaign in afghanistan however i do believe that the current american military campaign in afghanistan provides and ample evidence to exonerate the soviet political economic and military presence in afghanistan from day raise e.g. of the united states information agency of propaganda which rolled supreme during the cold war battle you know afghanistan the economic

commander will leave his post newspaper reports that general petraeus will step down this year he was appointed about eight months ago as part of. the country but our military says that despite all of america's efforts the number of mistakes in the country is getting hired. american occupation of afghanistan has already exceeded all possible saw that mistake in that country and accomplished even more than that in a negative sense and simultaneously having missed all the positive developments that war triggered and promoted by the soviet union intentionally or not in afghanistan i'm not going to justify the soviet military campaign in afghanistan however i do believe that the current american military campaign in afghanistan provides and ample evidence to exonerate the soviet political economic and military presence in afghanistan from their raise e.g. of the united states information agency propaganda which rolled supreme during the cold war battle you know afghanistan the economic objective was to distribute the farmland to farmers and that's why they're so it forces will fighting th

discuss all that with nora erica and richard hellman next we'll take a look at how general david petraeus has handled the war in afghanistan longer robert farley would join me to discuss betrays his methods and a recent rolling stone article that portrays the general as can't david and at the end of february key provisions of the patriot act are set to expire but one side of there is working on bring.

general betray us profiling actually imply and mean the same thing that is exactly what general petraeus tried to present in he's ph d. paper regarding the main lesson he learned from his experience in vietnam conflict betis whatever happens on the ground he's your relative works really does matter what they you as decision makers and american public thinks about what's going on overseas regarding their military affairs the bottom line is these the whole american operation enduring freedom has nothing to do with a military conflict neither on bank you stand on afghan territory it has nothing to do with a counterterrorism or counternarcotics operations what it really does matter is their clandestine per section menage man by the pentagon political leadership in the united states and american public. well let's take a look at some other headlines from around the world a massive landslide in the blue the capital la paz has swept away at least one hundred homes well there have been no reported deaths but there's been widespread structural damage across an entire neighborhood in the mountain

of he said she said and the presidential palace of afghanistan according to reports general david petraeus met with afghan officials to discuss a military attack that went wrong and somehow left up to fifty civilians debt was an operation in the cone our province which was set to last three to four days where the u.s. military used a patchy helicopters to fire on insurgents and a very mountainous region however upon closer investigation and reports from civilians several women and children also perished in this attack even though the u.s. said that there would be no threat to civilians now as afghan officials investigated this attack on wrong to transpose miss the allegations that civilians have been killed and according to people who were in the room at the time the trains that accuse afghans of burning their own children to exaggerate the claims of civilian casualties now there's no official evidence of the statement being made when betrays was approached about it he replied simply with a no comment and other u.s. officials have made statements saying that they've reviewed this attack th

rolling out of president obama's escalation of the afghan war this is the ruling out of general petraeus last year in the crystals new strategy for the war if it had gotten mired into a bloody nat knockdown drag out fight in the fields of marjah real quick it would have been a very very bad p.r. move so one of the why we advertise so heavily was the taliban know so they could get out so the fight wouldn't be so intense and that sounds a little detrimental right i mean if our entire strategy here is to weed out the taliban defeat the taliban and secure these small towns and if you know wanting them to to get out first of the fight isn't as bad just seems a little odd to me well steve i remember that perception is the most important thing this conflict has said it several times there's a great rolling stone article by michael hastings recently that lays it out very clearly that perception is the most important part of this conflict and not the perception of the afghan people but the perception of the american public jhumpa trace study this when he was up at princeton he was thesis on vietn