petraeus is the best we've got.nd we're right in the middle of turning this war around. >> lehrer: and the same thing has been said about bob gates, the secretary of defense. he's going to be very tough to replace. anybody, even leon panetta, do you agree? >> i do. and i have a slightly different view, i think, than john did about panetta. obviously nobody comes close to him in washington experience, at both ends of pennsylvania avenue, on the hill and in the white houses achieve of staff. and he knows budget cutting. but he doesn't know defense per se. right, and coming in, not knowing the culture of that building, and the substance of the thousands of issues that he has to deal with, is to come in, i think, with one hand tied behind your back. it's, you've got two wars. you've got huge budget cuts coming in the pentagon. you had cuts of bone and fat are all tangled up. there is plenty of waste. >> lehrer: and machines as well. >> you have to have a vision of what kind of military you are trying to build in order t

raking in some major donations that story just minutes away and then panetta to the pentagon and petraeus to the cia president obama hates his national security team so what are the moves mean for the u.s. military operations around the world but it's got to some are. we. right. leg i think a lot of money well. we never got the treasure bird in the safe haven grad you can complete the freedom . my guys welcome michel and tell me about a show we've heard our guests talk to say on the topics now i want to hear from the audience has gone to you tube to video response or to twitter for part of the questions that we've host on you tube every monday and on thursday the show long response is to leave playboy to make up. for the six ft. five. you know your story and it seems so. easy to understand it and then something else here's the part of it realized. that. the u.s. government. and its founder julian assange is our enemy number one the sun just portrayed as a betrayal of u.s. national security interests somebody who is circumvented the power of both the us media and the government to expose t

military deaths as well as civilian deaths so what we have with petraeus is yet another military person after bush put general michael hayden over at the cia after he was deputy director of national intelligence and n.s.a. director at the cia as a civilian institution and this is yet another move to militarize the key u.s. intelligence agency and many people at langley would look very of scans at that i would point out that the president want to militarize the civilian institution well i you know it goes back to where and when bush put hayden over there hayden was actually walking around the cia in his uniform and and it was it was gates who actually told him you know you should really take off the uniform and retired from the air force now what happened traders at the cia i guess we'll have to see whether he's going to be walking around the halls of langley in his army general uniform but i think this again is just another indication that obama seems to be the third administration of george w. bush in many respects because he's carrying on almost the same policies on national security

general david petraeus. if you were with mr kerry. he. suggested. to the. you know according to gaffney petraeus is being submissive towards sharia law the code followed by muslims and oh my god if that's true that means a we disappointed that raises the head of the cia so now it's all becoming clear we now know the grand plan we already knew that obama was a muslim now he's brainwashed petraeus with sharia law and he's promoted them to be tops book really gaffney you can't think of a more realistic option like hey maybe we should respect muslims in their holy book considering we're in court of five wars in muslim countries considering that we're supposed to have the freedom of religion in this country so maybe we should support people who burn the koran and are intolerant bigots and yes it's true betrays has spent lots of time in afghanistan and keeping the u.s. military mission in mind he also has to respect the local community and their religion which might happen to also include shari'a law now next gaffney's probably come up you know accusing petraeus

general petraeus will continue to do his job at c.i.a. and lenient will carry out the counterinsurgencyy policy though he's been somewhat of a skeptic of that poifments the bigger issue is there is a certain interchangeability between the pentagon an the c.i.a. these days. the c.i.a. is in the military business, dropping bombs in pakistan and the military is fanned -- expanding its intelligence operations. gwen: does it make less distinction than in the past when the president says, for example, we're not going to put boots on the ground, it buzzn't matter because there are wing tips on the ground? >> that's right. they're trying to gather intelligence, so boots on the ground still means military although the c.i.a. has expanded its par amilitary force, the number of people who show up in places like libya, so many times it's kind of a distinction without a difference. >> the c.i.a. in this administration has been really a favored agency. i think your newspaper quoted the president once as saying the c.i.a. gets what it wants. will petrae

gen david petraeus might be the next head of the intelligence agency so we'll have details on what that move could mean both for our wars abroad at her presidential politics here at home and today many people are wondering what about israel all the drastic changes that are happening in countries in the middle east how is it going to if i can this tiny country and its foreign policy to look into it and we'll hash out the details of one u.n. report author who slightly changed his stance on the war in gaza and the countdown to the shutdown continues the government will turn off its lights this friday unless the right and left can reach an agreement on the budget paul ryan's two thousand and twelve budget plan is also out with six trillion dollars worth of cuts over the next ten years old debate who the winners and who the losers will be and then sit back and enjoy a much needed happy hour with us producer jenny churchill and the daily callers mike riggs will join me to discuss the stories making a buzz thus far this week like the slut walk in toronto it's going to be fun we'll have details

general in afghanistan, david petraeus. general john allen will take petraeus' place. >>> it was an unprecedented move. the president of the united states producing a detailed birth certificate to prove he was born in the united states. the president says it's time to move on. but the issue is still not resolved for some so-called birthers. susan mcginnis is in washington

picks and chooses which countries do deserve military involvement and its official general david petraeus has been nominated to be the director of the cia will determine what changes will be coming to the intelligence agency it's a military official is put in charge and let's talk about copyright infringement and censorship should it be up to private companies to take certain pirate sites out of their search results or should the government force them to host a debate on the issue and we'll call on one of our favorite guests to discuss the big is story in the media but i can't really figure out who cares about the royal wedding they're about to cause will join me to basically make fun of it or because they have that gossip and that fun for the end of our show up first our top story. the syrian government has been violently clamping down on pro-reform protesters with human rights organizations as to meeting that at least four hundred people have been killed and yesterday more than two hundred bath party members announced there was resignation in response to the government's brutality and t

so his position like general david petraeus the top american commander in afghanistan is the man for the job so what do we make of this shake up i'm joined now by was head of colonel anthony shaffer senior fellow at the center for advanced defense buddies tony thanks so much for being here and let's talk about all of these different things going on you know i think it can be argued that the cia and the military may share a lot of things have been close ties but they're also very very different so moving leon panetta to the tom job at the pentagon do you think it makes sense what i think this is primarily what we're seeing is a. dance of political geometry. the problem is and you mentioned before this is almost like just changing chairs some of correlates to you know changing and removing pictures around the titanic which i don't quite agree with the problem is i think we set up an echo chamber and having people simply move jobs around is not going to be a lot of good the problem with leon panetta frankly and this is something that i think people tend to overlook is that he is not wel

general petraeus today condemned the actions of this florida preacher who burned the koran. you heard what senator reid said. is there anything that actually can be done along this line? >> you know, i wish we could find some way to hold people accountable. free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war. during world war ii, you had limits on what you could say if it would inspire the enemy. burning a koran is a terrible thing, but it doesn't justify killing someone. burning a bible would be a terrible thing, but it wouldn't justify murder. but having said that, any time we can push back here in america against actions like this that put our troops at risk, we ought to do it. i look forward to working with senator kerry and reid and others to condemn this, condemn violence all over the world based in the name of religion. but general petraeus understands better than anybody else in america what happens when something like this is done in our country. and he was right to condemn it. i think congress would be right to reinforce what general petraeus said. >> schieffer: we saw

i also look forward to rejoining my old battle buddy, general david petraeus, however briefly, and i am delighted that i will have the opportunity to carry forward with another good friend and comrade from iraq, general john allen. >> i would like to acknowledge the extraordinary work of my vice president and national security advisor have done as well. this is going to be an outstanding team. i'm grateful for the service they have already provided and i am scaunt they will do everything they can to ensure america's safety and security not just today but tomorrow. my team will be shuffling their own lives where the c.i.a. in afghanistan has done tremendous work. i am grateful to your service to our nation. let me thank the families once again. all of them make extraordinary sacrifices. michelle can attest to that. and we know that none of us could be successful were it not for your extraordinary support. thank you very much. >> later remarks from president obama and saturday saturday's seth myers. and "saturday night live's" seth meyers. >> on c-span today, "washington journal" next

petraeus unrstands a lot about that and will bebleto make a contribution.>rered army general jack keeneonhe cnges in president oma's security te. the globalusins connection. u.s. economicrowtslowed arplathe srt of the ye. new figures showed groh rate just 111% yeareset- one ead . -- 1%. econists blamehigh fuel ices at sun exo released i bes perfornce since 2008 and whi -- a wildly exceeded esmate but it is also likel to fuel theebate abo pces at t pump. in japan, industrial pduction plunged flowing the devastating earthquakand tsunami. official figureshow the bell fell5oints, the bigst o- montdecle on cord vehicle productiowas down 5 from ayear eaier. now, let's return to the royal wedding and londo will all stt in less than hours. eediand spectatorat descended thecene en masse, d for mor let's go back to katty. tty, you en there for almost eek. what has surpris youost? >> wh isurprising the most common matt, what is surising me most,att, is the carnival aosphe, the enthiasm. [cerin >> is 11:30 at night in london. and they are still going song. th areaiti f

panetta is ability to shape the pentagon to win the wars we're currently in you know what about petraeus you know on one hand he is highly respected highly we just came to israel lot of people for the work that he did in afghanistan and iraq and yes i don't criticize the cia not only for you know what we've seen in the last few decades not exactly you know obviously the cia and the f.b.i. aren't supposed to work together but there's a lot of holes in organization and strategy i bet have been brought up through general petraeus says things like an organized guy do you think that this move was a good one i do and let me answer that in two parts first i've been in the room with you know general mcchrystal his predecessor in afghanistan receiving a top secret cia briefing which was totally irrelevant to what we were doing on the ground i mean isn't there mcchrystal doesn't get any higher than this so i know i can only imagine what you're up to trace has been dealing with over the past years too so he as a customer as a consumer of intelligence blunder stand better what is necessary cia has h

well i don't think that there's much question that even beyond general petraeus can. get gets more and more these things something that fans contractors certainly are interested in and something that congressmen who are serving constituencies that want to bring troops home certainly are interested in and i think that general petraeus has certainly certainly shown a willingness in the last year to rely on more of the straights and since the cia is running more and more of these operations specially in pakistan although it should be pointed out the wall street journal just reported the other day to pakistan really wants us to stop it's an open question but i think the e.u. you're likely to see in the short term probably more of the same and i want to thank you very much for joining us despite that's looks like the drones are here to say thanks. yeah. all right it's time for show and tell on tonight's program last week we told you that fox news is ending its regularly scheduled glenn beck program and now the one of fox is familiar faces is stepping away from the spotligh

as president obama who decided who is going to replace david petraeus? guest: i do not think the decision has been made. the list is very short. at the top of the list is the vice chairman, mr. cartwright. he is one of the most experienced marine corps officers we have had. all the way back to general gray in the first bush administration. widely respected in the administration, around town. he is the odds on paper. but until the president actually makes the decision -- each of the services always try to put forward their top candidate. it is a game of washington politics, which is different from other washington politics games. the military does not play games, except when it comes to appointments. i think the list is probably dominated by general apart right at the moment. >> and general eikenberry is also leaving -- host: and ambassador eikenberry is also leaving afghanistan. guest: he has felt strongly about what should happen in that part of the world. there has been some debate about how things should be handled in afghanistan and pakistan. with a

the director of the cia replace saying mr panetta and we all know that petraeus the author of the guy who came up with this whole surge in iraq in afghanistan is somebody that the neoconservative certainly like they even were talking about running in for president on the republican. ticket what this is showing is that there is a trend to militarize the central intelligence agency which is after all and has always been run by civilians it's been pointed out that leon panetta is actually the first democratic secretary of defense since one nine hundred ninety seven there may not be as much independence in reluctance issuing forth from the pentagon when obama wants to place the u.s. and yet additional wars in libya potentially in syria and continuing this covert war it in pakistan and possibly even yemen we could see u.s. troops children who are barely in their teens could face drugs test in russian schools the country has a severe problem with a number of addicts and most starve their habit early that is either a garage or it's drugs counsellors were you the focus is pointing the wrong w

. >> to replace pennetta at the cia, the president has picked general david petraeus, now the top u.s. military commander in afghanistan, who has nearly ten years of experience leading counterterrorism and intelligence operations. >> petraeus has been at war continuously since 9/11. during that time, he's had multiple years in iraq. and now directly on the ground working the afghanistan/pakistan issues. petraeus would be a terrific follow-on during these very dangerous times for the american people. >> reporter: especially dangerous for the forces in afghanistan. nine americans, eight u.s. military, and one civilian were kill today with an afghan military officer opened fire at an airport in kabul. the incident remains under investigation. general petraeus won't leave afghanistan until september so it's unlikely there will be any immediate change in the war strategy there. and military officials say the first withdrawal of american troops set to begin in july will be minimal at best. >> jim with the story tonight. thanks. >>> and now to the series of monstrous storms crossing the coun

it is general petraeus' strategy that led us to where we are in iraq, and general petraeus' strategy're executing today in afghanistan. i think if you kept general personnel petraeus in those positions, he would do his best to make sure the end goals were fully reached, reaching the end goals mean we need to stay and stay more engaged than this white house acts like they want to stay the head game, so i think the president's publicly stated position that he wants an end game and executed quickly is more realizable with general petraeus moving. >> host: this tweet, how does his experience help our war situations? >> guest: he has some experience with the military. the biggest effect is going to be, i think, in the budget context. panetta has tremendous national security background, and he is a very solid experienced in implements national security and running the pentagon a running a big corporation where you understand national security. the military side of it is overseeing and protected by the joint chiefs of staff so it's hard for a secretary of defense to really screw the militar

had a cool relationship with the obama white house and also a cool relationship with petraeus looks like president obama is basically cleaning house of anyone who might question his very aggressive foreign policy which has some people in washington here saying all obama is really he's the third term of george w. bush and some people say the fourth term of george h.w. bush do you think he just followed the goalpost could change with afghanistan there they are saying come hell or high water the americans will be out of afghanistan by twenty fourteen but do you think maybe a change in tact there a change in leadership as such would make any difference to that. i think with petraeus says the cia director we're going to see a lot more games being played in a covert way and in afghanistan and elsewhere as is known to be an arch war hawk a neoconservative and now he's going to be heading out the u.s. central intelligence agency there's a there's a dark clouds looming i'm afraid for us involvement in afghanistan and other places wayne madsen was interesting in what you have to say thanks very mu

leon panetta coming in to replace robert gates, general petraeus moving over to the cia. think about the moves. >> in the first place i think they excellent men, great public servants. i think they are fine moves amount of lot of issues surrounded it, panetta being somebody good that can control the defense budget and with petraeus going to cia it further mingled the intelligence and military community. >> we had that discussion last night. is it a serious issue. >> yeah, i don't think it is to be critiqued. i think is the reality. we're not fighting the soviet union, we're fighting terrorists, asymmetric warfare and intelligence will be a lot more intermingled with war fighting so i think it is an inevitable consequence. struggle we are in. >> i'm a little traditionalist on it. the cia was founded to have civilian control of intelligence. i mean it was after the war and after oss. and it was a civilian entity. so that it would not be, intelligence would not be funneled through a military perspective and prism. i am a big admirer of leon panetta's, and i think general pet

leon opinion etta will succeed secretary gates and general petraeus will be c.i.a. director and i understand that your policy is not to comment on nominations before they are made by the president. by hiptthetically, are there tea leaves to be read in the appoint ment of the military man to head the c.a. -- c.i.a. >> i really can't comment on it. i have worked very closely with leon opinion eto as well as -- opinion etta as well as general petraeus and great admiration for both men who are wonderful public servants and their service in their administration has been extraordinary. >> i won't ask my second question on that. let's turn to the budget, the budget and what they importanttend you said the greatest threat to america's national security is america's debt and you have said that the flush years of pentagon budgets including the offbudgeting of the wars has destroyed budgetary discipline in the pentagon. budgets already tight. personnel reductions have been taken with senior officer positions owe bottle issued. i know that you are concerned and many military le

. >> leon panetta, the defense department, david petraeus at the c.i.a., ambassador crocker, and general john allen in afghanistan. gwen:a grand reshuffling. what does it tell us about our national priorities? guantanamo detainees -- how dangerous are they? and on the domestic front, a crazy political week. >> my name is barack obama. [cheers and applause] i was born in hawaii, the 50th state of the united states of america. gwen: donald trump rocks the boat and haley barbour gets out of it entirely. and as americans worry about jobs and gas prices, federal reserve chairman ben bernanke goes before the cameras. >> there's not much that the federal reserve can do about gas prices. after all, the fed can't create more oil. gwen: covering the week, mark mazzetti of the new york "times", tom gjelten of npr, karen tumulty of "the

library and to be able to persuade him to come back, given his knowledge and working with general petraeus in the past. i think was a great -- >> just very briefly does it signal any shift in policy or is this continuing. >> no, i really don't. i think more a continuation. we have somebody intimately familiar with the problems we're facing so i think is more of a continuation. >> david brooks, mark shields, thank you very much. >> thank you. vi >> warner: again, the major developments of the day: the death count across the south hit 318 in the deadliest outbreak of tornadoes since 1932. president obama visited hard-hit tuscaloosa, alabama. prince william and kate middleton were wed at westminster abbey in london, as more than a million people cheered outside. and thousands of protesters in syria defied a government crackdown. but activists reported security

of general petraeus.he has been a big figure when they decided on a surge and replaced military leadership team and put him in charge. they proved to be successful for rescuing us from absolute disaster and has given general petraeus enormous prestige. more recently, he was promoted to the overall command, including iraq and afghanistan, and when general mcchrystal made some extraordinarily on wise comments to a reporter and had to be removed, petraeus agreed to obama's decision to replace mcchrystal so obama could have a credible leader. petraeus has tremendous credibility and is a strong figure with strong views about how these wars should be pursued, particularly abroad, counterinsurgency approaches. he is not an easy person for a president who wants to make specific decisions. it is a potentially difficult relationship, but i think it has been a difficult that sometimes between obama and petraeus. when the interesting stories that has been coming out is that if panetta knows from the cia to the pentag

we've just learned that leon panetta and david petraeus will be cia director. you've worked with both. you're not going to comment of the nominations before they're made by the president. but hypothetically -- [laughter] >> are there tea leaves to be read in the appointment of a military man to head the cia at this particular point in time? >> actually, even hypothetically i can't even answer that question. [laughter] >> again, you said it very well. i mean, obviously, the policy is anything before anything official is announced, i really can't comment on it. suffice it to say, that i've worked very closely with leon panetta as well as with dave petraeus. in dave's case in 2004, and i have a great admiration to both men, who are wonderful pubc servants and their service in their current positions have been extraordinary, and then we'll see what happens. >> okay. i won't ask my second question on that. [laughter] >> let's turn to the budget. the budget trends today and what they portend. you have said that the greatest long-term threat to america's national secu

the decision was made by general david petraeus and general madness to increase sustainment stocks in afghanistan which gave us some room to say can with slow this down and take care of these emergencies and then we will get back to you. that is the same way we handled haiti. the ability to mix and match is one thing we bring to the table. at this time i will say the civil reserve air fleet has stepped up anything we have asked. this last couple weeks i didn't quite understand how much spring break effect excess capacity but i will say this one at us pretty hard next to christmas and thanksgiving. spring break is the busiest time for carriers out there. we brought the order of departure out of japan and in support of admiral willard getting back to the states and giving seats back to their homes was something worked closely with north, and trans com. as libyan operation unfolds we're looking at that carefully. obviously if that expands that is one way where we will be looking to say do we have enough right now. we don't see that. obviously there are some other places where there is tu

one thing i will say about petraeus going to the cia. there has not been a good track record for the generals and admirals in this administration taking on civilian roles. jim jones, obama's first national security advisers was not an affected national security aisers. >> charlie: why not >> wl, i mn he had a very strong deputy who is now the national security advisers. >> charlie: but strong in a sense he understood the way washington is. >> exactly. and jim jones didn't. remember he came from a general to the washington bureaucracy is a big shift. you're not necessarily ordering people to do things, you are fighting turf. you're in a political battle. >> charlie: and you never consistently won. >> exactly. and i remember interviewing rahm emanuel ce. sometimes the's tentn between the national security advisers and chief of staff because they are both big voices in the whitehouse. he said that's why i've got tom dawnland and jim jones as deputy. i've known tom dawnland all my life and if there's any problems i've got tall here. tom beca

general rodriguez, general petraeus's deputy will be replaced this year. rumors general eikenberry may also be rotating out. huge changes in both the leadership and political and military level over a fairly short period of time and those personal relationships that those officers foreign service officers, military officers, developed in afghanistan and pakistan are some of the most important assets we have in this fight and so that period of transition over the course of this year is i something to watch very carefully. >> so, okay. at least you're talking back and forth to each other now. so we're not -- so when i started i said here we are. it's april 2011. now tora bora where we had the safe havens and sanctuaries of pakistan, are an issue in 2001, 2002. so we've known about this problem on the pakistani side now, it will be a decade, decade very soon. so we've got this conflict. you know it is almost straight out of the hollywood movie where the bad guys is right across the boundary and our respect of international law, you know, we don't follow into