petraeus loses and biden wins. i respect the vice president but we have undercut a strategy that was working. the 10,000 troops leaving this year is going to make this fighting season more difficult having all of the surge forces leave by next summer is going to compromise next summer's fighting season. >> there will be 70,000 troops in afghanistan. >> i think we're creating momentum to undercut the counterinsurgency strategy and we're going to counterterrorism strategy too soon. i worry that our allies will follow suit. will they say america is leaving in large numbers by next summer. will they accelerate their footprint in terms of leaving? will republicans say i had a lot of confidence in general petraeus' plan but this adjustment in my view makes general petraeus' original plan harder to achieve and unnecessarily risky and will they say if we're going to not be successful, lets end it sooner. >> there are only between 15,000 to 25,000 fighters and u.s. troops down to 70,000 by the end of next summer. 40,000 nat

general david petraeus. the trains was on capitol hill today to be confirmed as the next director of the central intelligence agency in truth my goal uniform has always been to convey the most forthright and accurate picture possible. i have to be sure offered more positive assessments than the intelligence community did but although he's been lauded as the man responsible for america's strategy in iraq former c.n.n. pentagon correspondent jamie mcintyre says he has his detractors a lot of people see him as very ambitious very calculating playing the system telling the american people what they want to hear. and a lot of people also some critics also think that the success that the u.s. is tolerating in iraq is vastly overstated and despite his star power some in the military say for trances better at navigating the media and washington in a battlefield it's called the green zone hero these are your senior officers who never actually saw any action who have never themselves been under direct fire and have ne

confirmed, general petraeus will be taking off the uniform to become director petraeus. he has clearly considered the differences in culture and mission between the c.i.a. and the military, and now he will shift his style to lead intelligence collectors and analysts rather than officers and enlisted troops. as a matter of fact, in our hearing, in hart 216, there was a bit of levity when he was asked the question about how he would transition from a four-star major american general to a civilian role as director of the c.i.a., and he said you can be sure that when i arrive at the c.i.a., i will arrive without an escort and just simply get out of my automobile and walk into the building. well, as we looked out in the audience and we saw a fay los -- phalanx of officers accompanying the general, it became quite clear indeed that it was a transition. i believe and this is the importance of this nominee, that general petraeus understands the difference and is prepared to move into a civilian organization at a difficult time. now, mr. president, of our 16 different intelligenc

petraeus go to the cia. but the problems will remain. for instance, what about the afghan national army? 86% of that army still cannot read. >> there's no question about the progress of the afghan national army. >> when we hear the mixed reports out on the field still, mixed reports? >> i think you probably hear the most mixed reports on the police frankly. >> then there's pakistan with that wild flurry of brand-new drone attacks. possibly targets retrieved from osama bin laden's hard drive. was one of them ilyas kashmiri, a top al qaeda leader? >> first of all, not sure that's been confirmed so it would be premature to begin assessing that until we know ilyas cashmekashmiri who has been a v important operational coordinator for al qaeda, whether he is it, in fact, dead or not. >> and pakistan? what will be the sign to you it's really different? >> i think things change slowly in pakistan and we have to work our way through that. >> what about the death of bin laden, which gates said could be a game changer. what did you say the moment i

director petraeus. you have answered a lot of those questions about being the ceo of the cia. i hope we have time to elaborate on that. we often talk about you as a reformer at cia, because you have certainly been a reformer at the military. so much of the work of the cia, over the last 10 years, has been contacted out -- contracted out. there has been a tremendous work of contractors, many of which have done work of dubious quality, some, pretty dirty. i wonder if you have had the chance to take a look at the contractor issue. do you see the need for reform there, both in terms of expenditures of money, functions performed, and also this so- called dirty work that we do not want to know too much about? >> i have. in fact, it is a topic i have discussed with the leadership of the agency. it came up when i was briefed on the agency budget. if i might, just very briefly, i know that budget is classified. i will not fit into the numbers. i will tell you that, coming from the military, i kept asking, surely

forces in afghanistan general david petraeus is set to become the new cia chief the u.s. looks to be moving away from his heavy approach to war as washington stands firm on a master pullout from afghanistan but the generals sent to his new role behind the wheel of global covert operations raises doubts that he can be impartial are descaling for has more. things he's been called the rock star for star he is without question one of the finest officers and military minds of his generation the architect of modern counterinsurgency i'm asked quite often those are all of those what do you think should happen in afghanistan and my first response is well whatever general petraeus says that's the direction in which we ought to go that's the kind of respect i have for you general david petraeus. to train as was on capitol hill to be confirmed as the next director of the central intelligence agency in truth my goal in uniform has always been to convey the most forthright and accurate picture possible i have to be sure offered more positive assessments than the intelligence community

petraeus? who is going to be dr. petraeus, and who the heck is going to be director petraeus? now, to insert a lot of those questions both with me and senator rockefeller's question that indeed the ceo of the cia, and i hope we would have time to elaborate on that, but we also talked about you as a reformer at the cia and the military, so let me get to a former question to you so much of the work of the cia over the last ten years has been contracted out. there has been a tremendous use of contractors, many of which to do work of dubious quality and some pretty dirty, and i wondered if you had the chance to go through your transition documents to take a look at the contractor issue, and do you see the need for reform both in terms of expenditures of money functions performed, and also the so-called dirty work because work we didn't know too much about? >> i have and it is a topic i discussed with the leadership of the agency. in fact by the way it can apply is briefed on the agency budget and if i might for the committee very briefly, i know that that budget is classified. i w

petraeus is in favor of that. one word you never hear david petraeus or any officer involved in the actual fighting use in afghanistan is the word "win." >> that's right. here's the thing. republicans are all over the lot on what you should do in afghanistan. so each of them, when we got their statements, each of them has to find a way to differentiate themselves from the president of the united states because, of course, they can't agree with the president because they want to run against the president. so mitt romney is saying i didn't like the timetable. tim pawlenty is saying you have to win, although he sounds hawkish. and jon huntsman basically said we need to get out. so republicans are everywhere on this, and so in terms of opposing barack obama, it's not clear where they are. the property for barack obama is that his democrats are not with him either. >> gloria borger, joe klein, thanks so much for this. hold those thoughts because i'm sure we'll be coming back to this issue real soon. >> thanks. >>> comi

now today will take a look at a new investigation that shows general david petraeus fudging numbers calling innocent civilians members of the taliban also talk about oscar grant's killer being released from prison and how the community is reacting adult find out what the he'll a party is all about but first let's take a little look at what the mainstream media has decided to devote their coverage to moments in the real story. now you'd think that after two weeks of nonstop coverage the media would start getting sick of weiner gate but otoh they are marching on actually they're hanging on to every single new picture that's really every word of disapproval to every little thing that nobody else in the world really cares about. the big news from coast to coast for years the white house saying president obama believes new york congressman anthony weiner's actions have been you know appropriate and a distraction here was. how do you get from gee i feel badly for this guy pretty well once. calling for him to consult out of congress paychecks papers around the country today as they always do in wa

and that's why petraeus the strategy of counterinsurgency was so successful there worst case scenario is we're talking about complete in a regional regional turmoil india sits between. pakistan says between india and china two nuclear powers. pakistan has demonstrated its nuclear capability and afghanistan is situated in between after an in between iran and pakistan so i think state failure with regard to afghanistan and pakistan is what we've really got to be concerned with and then of course that has knock on effects to your security policy in london and paris and washington ok gary time of your last one of the program. well i mean the idea that a taliban takeover of power the worst case scenario is going to cause a war between pakistan and india is really far fetched and i would just point out that any reasonable analysis of the rationale for the war in afghanistan which is that we are preventing al qaeda from coming back to have a safe haven in afghanistan is failing to come to grips with the reality that al qaeda is already well ensconced in pakistan that is the safe haven that t

counter taliban when obama came into office we started talking much more about counterinsurgency petraeus and his boys brought their lessons from into afghanistan and so we switched more into a steep counterinsurgency role and now because we've had success with bin laden we switch back into counterterrorism success it's just i think it's more indicative yeah you. got to sam and i find it really kind of remarkable just only a few weeks ago a month ago depending on who's saying what a success afghanistan was and now as we get to obama's speech and the details of it they're saying there's a dire need not to pull out i mean what's going on here again it's more smoke and mirrors i mean. we don't seem to have a clear picture of what game is in afghanistan is closer we get to it the more the military is pulling back. well i don't consider pentagon's position all that perplexing i mean the two positions. seem to be mutually exclusive but actually not there have been a significant amount of progress since the troop surge about a year eighteen months ago and there has been a significant increase in

general petraeus ask for and got more forces to do that. will there be a different ballots a year from now? -- and will there be a different balance a year from now? probably. how much? i think it is hard to say. what forces and the commander on the ground recommends taken out next year will be determined by what happens this year. we are not even halfway through this fighting season. it is difficult to say exactly how it is going to look a year from now. >> admiral mullen, i think you stated, "in a counterinsurgency, far power equals manpower." -- firepower is manpower." what does that mean? >> you have to have people out there engaged in the whole idea. the whole idea is to protect the people, the afghan people. it goes back to the success of the buildup of the afghan security forces. totor said it's the best focus on and protect the people, in this case the afghan people. what is important is this goes back to the success of the afghans to search the forces. in the end, it is the protection of the people. the security of the people. the

general petraeus clearly commands u.s. forces in afghanistan, but plans to retire from the army as confirmed. the doing of the senate select intelligence committee is two hours 15 minutes. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> hearing will come to order. i've just been told the vice chairman will be five or 10 minute play, but it's going to be a long afternoon and it ain't we should begin. the committee meets to consider the president's nomination of general david petraeus to be the direct or the cia. general, welcome and congratulations. the way we will proceed on that statement, the vice chair anomic if it meant. you're going to introduce general petraeus and then the general will speak and will do our culinary. the gentleman would like to recognize your wife holly petraeus one edition to be picky behind her success is also serving the nation at a rec

petraeus? who is going to be dr. petraeus and who the sheck going to be director petraeus.ow you answered a lot of those questions both with me and senator rockefeller's question. when being c.e.o. of c.i.a. we also talked about you as a reformer at c.i.a. because you have certainly been a reformer in the military. so much is the work of the c.i.a. over the last 10 years has been contracted out. there has been just a tremendous -- of contractors many of which to do work of dubious quality and some pretty dirty. i wonder if you have had the chance as you go through your transition documents to take a look at the contractor issue and do you see the need for reform there? both in terms of expenditures in money and functions performed and also the so-called dirty work that we didn't want to know too much about? >> well, i have. in fact, i discussed that. it is a topic i have discussed with the leadership of the agency. in fact, by the way, it came up when i was briefed on the agency budget. if i might note briefly i know that budget is classified. i won't get into the numbers b

petraeus for emphasizing that. the speech and position lacks clarity toomey. i do not know -- to me. do not know right now why we are continuing to stay there for two more fighting seasons. to get to the negotiating table with the taliban? is that what it is about? i don't know anyone who realistically think that afghanistan will stand alone when this is over. >> colby? >> what i heard him say is that he will keep 68,000 troops on the ground and afghanistan for the next three years. he is going to have a 70,000 troops out there to help stabilize the situation so that the corrupt, it karzai regime can have negotiations with the taliban. the of what we pay in iraq. 40,000 people -- 4000 people killed, 30,000 wounded. we get the word this week that the iranians and iraqis enter into economic cooperative agreements, syria and iran and the iraqis are building a pipeline into arab countries. we did all that for that? out of afghanistan, what are we going to get out of that? >> nina? >> what you hear from this panel is no

commander in afghanistan general petraeus a set to become the next cia director but opponents question if the new chief spy will object to really assess the progress of american conflicts. and families in india accuse the government of allowing the use of a controversial pesticide which they say he's killing their children victim groups claim applying the chemicals is causing a generation of the foreign children who don't live just in their twenty's. so our lines here are he'll be back with the top stories in about thirty minutes time before they are the spirit of our and he's guess debate why president obama's announcement to withdraw thirty three thousand u.s. troops from afghanistan wasn't welcomed by either as i were activists or military officials. you can. still. welcome to cross talk computor all about exit strategy obama's long awaited plan to start drawing down troops levels in afghanistan is in play but is it a real drawdown or just a reduction of the so-called surge of eighteen months ago did obama capitulate to public opinion over military needs and will american and nato t

army general petraeus is set to become the next cia t.v. but opponents question if the outgoing commander in afghanistan to stage for the job. ukraine's x.-treme or goes on trial over charges of abuse of power allegedly losing a country hundreds of millions of dollars energy deals. and all cry from families in india who accuse the government of allowing the use of the controversial pesticide which they say is killing their children. also in business so you will is mixed up dropping four point six percent the session before why is this happening how this affecting the russian market join me in twenty minutes from . now watching r.t. coming to live from moscow marina joshie welcome to the program the u.k. failed to track detainees handed over to the us neglecting to protect them from possible abuse the shocking revelations forced through by british m.p.'s expose a secret agreement over the treatment of prisoners passed over to washington via lawns and daniel bushell met one victim has spent years in america's most notorious overseas prison. c

last time around bob gates and petraeus and hillary clinton won.oe biden won. people want to get out faster. >> wolf, we're about two or three minutes away. >> the president of the united states is certainly going to reiterate what he said at that west point speech about the mission. he's going to go through specifics of what he said then and then said on many of those specifics there has been enormous progress. let me bring in gloria borger. candy crowley, first. candy, very quickly right now, he can't

of the troop surge in afghanistan by summer of two thousand and twelve and now the general david petraeus has been approved by the senate intelligence committee to take over the cia what's the next year and even more actually going to look like in afghanistan who's taking over what strategies are they going to employ well today marine corps lieutenant general john allen and vice admiral william mcraven both testified in front of the senate armed services committee to answer those questions and if confirmed also likely the answer is yes allen will be the commander of u.s. and nato forces in afghanistan but it seems like the man with the real power from here on out will be the one who is losing any numbers mcraven is going. to be leaving his post at the head of j. sachs fresh off a successful raid to kill osama bin laden to lead all u.s. special operations command so we expect more night raids drone strikes and killing rather than be friending and does not mean that counterinsurgency as a strategy instead of discuss this with me as lawrence korb senior fellow at the center for american prog

gen petraeus. >> absolutely, wolf. now it's becoming increasingly clear, president obama's decision on troop withdrawals had political and economic considerations, military considerations were far from the only factor. less than 24 hours after the announcement -- >> our troops will continue coming home at a steady pace. >> so the most senior advisers openingly acknowledging the president overruled their advice about the withdrawal of 33,000 surge troops from afghanistan by next summer. >> what i can tell you is the president's decisions are more aggressive and incur more risk than i was originally prepared to accept. >> the ultimate decision was a more aggressive formulation, if you will, in terms of the time line than what we had recommended. petraeus made clear he told the president what could happen if the troops were not there. is it a military problem? he suggests perhaps yes. >> there is always a process of assessing risk, and it's typically, in a case like this, as the charm put it today, risk at the margin. we'