petraeus comes with from iraq, petraeus is a miracle worker. petraeus this, the petraeus that.it is said to come again, unconvincing, but he is sent to afghanistan. the ideas he created miracles and iraq. maybe he could do this in afghanistan, too. and obama at least as an experiment bought onto the idea okay, let's do a surge in afghanistan at least a partial counters urgency strategy. let's see how it works. -- counterinsurgency strategy. the problem is well, remember the book, the book i mentioned which petraeus and others are consulting regularly. it's a very good book. there was one chapter in that book called conditions for a successful insurgency. where he lists specific characteristics of a country that might make it just really fertile ground for successful insurgency. they included a very corrupt central government, and largely illiterate rural population, mountainous terrain along the borders. a neighboring state that issues as sanctuary by the insurgents. you just go down the list, it's a description of afghanistan. he even draws a diagram of what the topography of

petraeus is sent out to fort leavenworth. a lot of people in the army didn't like petraeus.hey didn't like officers who were too bookish or stood out too much and petraeus is guilty on both accounts. he's sent to fort leavenworth kansas and they say that's great, sending him out to pasture literally. he gets to fort leavenworth and he realize this is the intellectual center of the army. they write doctrine. they form the curriculum of the commanding general staff college. he organized the national training centers and nature loop, the lessons from one affects the lessons of out there which affects patterns of the next. he says that these learning all this what kind of powers he potentially has. holy cow. he talks like that, holy cow, jeepers, super. holy cow did put an insurgent in charge of change. there's a lot of a lot of meanwhile fitness book. meanwhile, a professor at the school of advanced international studies and wash to d.c. with the eminent military historian, also leading neoconservative, one of the people assigning positions that we have to invade iraq and overt

. >> jemma petraeus talks about the u.s. military to fight future small wars against insurgents and terrorists. watch him for the hour here on the tv. [applause] >> thank you. thanks for coming out. i read a column called war stories. the word wars in the subtitle of my book, but you might notice really don't write about war. i don't write battle scenes and i'm not one of these reporters who just aches to get back into some were scenes where i can get shot at. it's just not what i do.it's jus ..t what i'm interested in doing is policy and ideas and where do these ideas come from? they don't just drop from the sky. they usually do not automatically appeal to everybody as a matter of logic. where did the ideas come from? who were the people and there were a lot of comp eating ideas. how did this particular set of ideas get transferred? was there resistance? how was the resistance overcome? it usually isn't just one person. it's a community of people. how did this community form? will was the basis of a? that is what history is

petraeus is sent off to ft. leavenworth. a lot of people in the army didn't like petraeus.ey didn't like officers who were too bookish or who stood out too much and petraeus was very much on many counts. zero he was sent to ft. leavenworth kansas and a lot of people are thinking the fair-haired leg, they are sending them out to pasture. he gets to ft. leavenworth and he realizes something. he realizes that this is actually the intellectual sector of the army. they write doctrine. they form the curriculum and command general staff college. they organize the national training centers and they loop these together the lessons from one affects the lessons of the other which affects the patterns of the next. he says to himself as he is learning all this, and the powers he potentially has. he says holy cow and he talks like that. he says things like holy cow and jeepers. he says holy cow they have put an insurgent in charge of the exchange. he viewed himself as an insurgent. meanwhile -- though there are a lot of meanwhile's. been while there is a professor at the school of nation

petraeus is sent off to fort leavenworth. a lot of people in the army didn't really like petraeus. they don't like officers that are too bookish or stood out and petraeus was guilty on both accounts. so he is sent to fort leavenworth kansas and a lot of people are thinking that's a great. sending him out to the pastor literally. but he gets to fort leavenworth and realizes something. he realizes this is actually the intellectual center of the army, the doctrine. they form the curriculum at the commanding general staff college. they organize the national training centers and they do a loop to all of these together, the lesson from what effect the lessons of the other which affect the pattern of the next and he says to himself as he is learning all of this what kind of powers to potentially has and she says lee qalqilya and he says things like a, holy cow, jeepers, super. he said holy cow they put an insurgent in the change. he's reduced himself as an insurgent. now, meanwhile, there are a lot of meanwhiles in this book. meanwhile there is a professor of the school of advanced intern

much as petraeus' e-mails became public? and what if we got rid of george washington? so bill clinton's not the first and not the worst. petraeus is not the first and not the worst. been there, done that, there's a long history of it. in fact, it pains me to say that even abraham lincoln -- [laughter] visited a prostitute. i know. say it isn't so, right? but it happened. now, the details on it are sketchy. there's not a lot of letters written about this. but here's what we can piece together. lincoln's best friend was joshua speed, and speed was perhaps as dashing and as happened handsome and as, quote-unquote, lucky with the ladies as lincoln was allegedly homely and awkward and unlucky in romance. and speed felt sorry for lincoln. they always called one another by their last names. and speed invited lincoln to work at his general store for employment, and lincoln let speed stay upstairs at the general store. and during their friendship speed was using the services of a professional woman. okay? and you imagine lincoln upstairs, you know, with a pillow over his head t

general petraeus that we provide weapons to the resistance in syria?o you support that? >> we did. >> last weekend the "new york times" reported clinton and petraeus asked the white house last summer for permission to arm the veerian rebels. senator rand paul hinted last week that the annex in benghazi benefiting may have been involved in moving weapons from libya to syria via turkey. chris? >> jennifer griffin reporting from the pentagon. thanks. let's get reaction now from the vice chair of the senate intelligence committee, georgia republican sax by chambliss. you were busy in both hearings. let's start with the benghazi hearing. competent in a at that said the pentagon didn't have the intelligence or the assets to get to benghazi in time to protect those four americans who were killed. let's take a look. >> you can't just willie nilly send f-16s there and blow the hell out of a place without knowing what's taking place. you can't send ac 130s there, blow the hell out of a target without knowing what's taking place. >> did you find panetta and the c

petraeus and

i can't think of a better scenario for the political intelligence than having petraeus at the cia. that isn't what harry truman had in mind. he didn't want to put it in the hands of policy makers, and certainly not in the hands of military policy makers. what the cia was created for is to challenge the intelligence which is worst-case intelligence and when the cia has done its job correctly, that is what they have done on things such as arms control or vietnam. what needs to be done, and let me check the time here because we don't have a lot of time. let me go over the two areas very quickly. one that deals with the defense budget coming and the other that deals with the need to demilitarize the entire national security system. there is a chapter in the book that deals with the defense budget and i am not going to get into the specifics of the reduction. i would argue that you could take a trillion dollars very easily out of the defense budget over the next ten years you would still have the same level of spending that you had in 2007. there wouldn't be any risk to the american nat

"lock the door, paula," said general petraeus.h my skirt still hiked up above my waist, i wordlessly obeyed. the deadbolt slid into place with a loud thunk, and i knew the junior officers outside could easily tell what was going on, but i was beyond caring. the general reached into his desk drawer and pulled something out. "put this on, paula." it was a synthetic wig cut louise brooks style and cotton candy pink. "no, david, it makes me feel like a dirty girl," i whispered. "but you are a dirty girl, paula," he replied. you're my dirty girl. now get up on that couch." parwan province, afghanistan,

the thing about petraeus, an irony. can tell you as a reporter, there were four-star generals in the years before petraeus. you go meet with them. you come away thinking, gosh, what kind of outfit is the army that a guy like this can become a four-star general? it's just -- and then you go talk with a guy like petraeus. well, this guy is a smart guy. he knows history. he understand strategy. he thinks strategically. and you are inclined to think, well, you know, maybe he knows what he's doing here. and so you give him a break. then, well, it is the trade-offs that go with sources and the people in washington. so and it was this kind of thing, you know, you knew what he was doing. he knew that you knew where he was doing, but you kind of went with it anyway because it was interesting. it was useful to both sides. and what he thinks of the book, i don't know. when he emerges from his exile somebody should ask in. >> you just mentioned hegel. is he going to get confirmed nor is the senate going to block that? >> well, i th

look at the petraeus affair and how lives were destroyed because of government leaks of what they thought were private e-mails and what law enforcement purpose was served by that? he put our lives at risk when the government can surreptitiously monitor all of our communications on the internet. there are not safeguards and they are not well understood protocols. law enforcement has the tools it needs but they don't need new tools and their tools need to be circumscribed to balance the civil liberties interests at stake and restore the reasonable expectation of privacy to the way people communicate now which is more by e-mail than by snail mail. >> let me pick up on something you touched on which is the issue of secrecy and the secrecy surrounding government requests hrough isp's and the isp efforts in promoting transparency. perhaps you could talk about that. >> thank you for having me here today. transparency is something that is really important to us. we think the current debate is lacking good data about the volume and nature of government requests which we think would help inform the

of wrongdoing after e-mails between him and a florida socialite surfaced during the course of the petraeus investigation. >>> oscar pistorius was back in court today. and for the first time, we heard his side of the story, what he says really happened inside his home the night his girlfriend was killed on valentine's day of last week. it was all part of a very emotional day in which the defense and prosecution laid out their cases. nbc's michelle kosinski was inside the courtroom. >> reporter: oscar pistorius faced the court, the world's cameras, and told his side of the story. in a statement read by his lawyer, he claimed he acted in self-defense against a suspected intruder. he said he woke up in the middle of the night, brought a fan in from his balcony. returning to the bedroom, he said, "i heard a noise in the bathroom and realized someone was in the bathroom. i felt a sense of terror rushing over me. as i did not have my prosthetic legs on and felt extremely vulnerable, i knew i had to protect reeva and myself. i grabbed my .9-millimeter pistol from underneath my bed, screamed words

general petraeus that we provide weapons to the resistance in syria? did you support that? >> we did. >> you did support that. >> we did. >> suarez: so far, the president's judgment has been that things won't get better with american arms. instead, he's warned the weapons might fall into the hands of extremist elements, a concern reiterated today by the new secretary of state, who was asked about the deliberations last year. >> i don't know what the discussions were in the white house and i'm not going backwards. the new administration, we're going forward from this point. there are serious questions about al nusra and a.q.i.-- al qaeda in iraq-- and other violent groups on ground. >> suarez: those groups are among the most effective fighters against the assad regime. they include jabhat al nusra, which the u.s. has declared a terrorist organization. but last november, a top rebel commander in northern syria, colonel abdul jabaar al aikidi, told "the newshour's" margaret warner the u.s. reasoning is a farce. >> ( translated ): this is an excuse used by the west not to provi

the senate hasn't confirmed chuck hagel for secretary of defense yet, david petraeus' replacement, john brennan and secretary of state john kerry, he's still finding his way around the state department. what are they leaning to in terms of arming the sunni rebels. >> the president is still pretty much leaning totally against directly arming the rebels with u.s. military equipment. they're getting nonlethal aid, some computers, phones, humanitarian assistance, several hundred million dollars to the rebels. but as far as weapons are concerned, i think the boobama administration, the president of the united states, together with the european allies, they're reluctant to do it, afraid those weapons might get into the wrong hands. some of the rebels might be affiliated with al qaeda, for example. if you provide weapons to some of these groups they could wind up endangering potentially israeli aircraft in the vicinity. the airment in favor of it is, bashar al assad's regime has been brutal. hundreds of thousands refugees, thousands dead. more than a million misplaced. the president rejected t

right now primarily because you know hillary clinton and martin dempsey and dave petraeus have all come out in favor of arming the intervention more but they by their own admission have acknowledged that they don't have an end goal they haven't figured out where that would lead they don't know what they're metrics for success would be and it's clear that obama rebuffed them to begin with and the fact that he's now stacking his administration with people who are less in favor of that kind of heavy handed military policy shows that i think there's some acknowledge in the administration that the idea of an armed intervention the idea that this can be won through weapons and increasing the capability of those weapons is clearly been discredited over the past two years the fact that we've been in a stalemate for for well over a year and a half in terms of this armed intervention now shows that that's clearly not the way this is going to end it has and what do you think about this because we also hear talks that some members of the opposition are talking with russia and the arab league for ne

right now primarily because you know hillary clinton and martin dempsey and dave petraeus have all come out in favor of arming the intervention more but they by their own admission have acknowledged that they don't have an end goal they haven't figured out where that would lead they don't know what their metrics for success would be and it's clear that obama rebuffed them to begin with and the fact that he's now stacking his administration with people who are less in favor of that kind of heavy handed military policy shows that i think there's some acknowledgment the administration that the idea of an armed intervention the idea that this can be won through weapons and increasing the capability of those weapons is clearly been discredited over the past two years the fact that we've been in a stalemate for for well over a year and a half in terms of this armed intervention now shows that that's clearly not the way this is going and it has and what do you think about this because we also hear talks that some members of the opposition are talking with russia and the arab league for negotia

clinton to leon panetta to david petraeus has suggested that we do a no fly zone like we did in libya sooner that we help separate the free syrian army the democratic people from the terrorists that are now there and to arm them and to help them this very late put it better late than never are do you know those who those people are how to separate them if we knew how to do that why wouldn't have done all i think so go ahead well i wish we had done and i again president obama is reporter new york times to over over ruled his military establishment i think he made a mistake i think there are there's more ok to now and more terrorists there now precisely because we didn't help the people of syria who are fighting back against a brutal government but i have no doubt assad will not stop until hundreds of thousands of syrians are dead and it's just a matter of time there's already outside intervention you mentioned the problems of outside intervention russia iran and hezbollah are arming the government paying for the government cutter and suddenly you're not going to be state islamic audien

. >> the marine corps general caught up in the david petraeus scandal now says he will retire. president obama has accepted general allen's request his name turned up in the emails that had been linked to cia director david petraeus' affair and he says he is now dealing with family health issues. >> dealing with sequestration. it has been called a meat cleaver that will hurt the economy. >> it will hurt our economy. it will add hundreds of thousands of americans to the unemployment rolls. people will lose their jobs. >> there could be a significant budget cuts. the national park service. it could affect some of our area's most iconic vacations. >> leon, i should tell you that park service officials are taking the possibility of sequestration very seriously. in fact, they released a statement today and the public should be ready for reduced hours and services at many popular locations. the storm clouds that moved over great falls today, perhaps an omen of dark days ahead for this national park, which the possibility of looming budget cuts. this is part of this man's daily routin

right now primarily because you know hillary clinton and martin dempsey and david petraeus have all come out in favor of arming the intervention more but they by their own admission have acknowledged that they don't have an end goal they haven't figured out where that would lead they don't know what their metrics for success would be and it's clear that obama rebuffed them to begin with and the fact that he's now stacking his administration with people who are less in favor of that kind of heavy handed military policy shows that i think there's some acknowledgment the administration that the idea of an armed intervention the idea that this can be won through weapons and increasing the capability of those weapons is clearly been discredited over the past two years the fact that we've been in a stalemate for for well over a year and a half in terms of this armed intervention now shows that that's clearly not the way this is going to end it has and what do you think about this because we also hear talks that some members of the opposition are talking with russia and the arab league for nego

general david petraeus is qualified. we will take yours and be real quick. >> i hope this is not too philosophical. united states ambassador, there seem to be two approaches to foreign policy in the twenty-first century. one of the neo conservatives which have great power in this administration. check name names which i will not do. >> i do in this book. >> the new conservative ideological approach to foreign policy seems to be prevalent now as opposed to the traditional national interest pragmatic approach or is there some other approach? what do you see in the twenty-first century? >> i see a policy regardless who the president is of clear national interest and a policy must be for any nation whether it is the russians or the chinese, all nations, all individuals respond in their own self-interest, nothing wrong with that. that is predictable. the policy of our country, foreign policy, all the instruments of power it that you use to frame a policy must be driven with some higher purpose. i mentioned purpose, we lost pu

the army has revoked the promotion of the former assistant to general david petraeus. she had been approved to be lieutenant colonel in the army reserves but the army reversed that decision because of the scandal. she has been under investigation for having classified information at her home without permission. >> americans are eating less fast food daily but not by much. the centers for disease control analyze data from 2007 to 2010 and found adults in the u.s. on average get 11% of their daily calories from fast food. that is down from nearly 13% in 2006. the report revealed african- american adults eat more than that white americans and hispanics. >> food for thought. let's see what's coming up at 6:00. >> gordon peterson is live in the user with a look ahead. >> tonight, we have an update on an exclusive abc seven investigation at the d.c. fire training academy, cadets have accused members of sexual- harassment. gramm iscil member jim finding against a possible reprimand tied to of this conduct investigation. a misconduct investigation. >> we will see you then. a n

alembic and para olympic athlete oscar petraeus remains behind bars at a south african police station charged with the murder of his girlfriend and his expected to appear at a bail hearing next week. today, he received a visitor. we have more from south africa. >> oscar is getting some visitors today including family members and a preacher who said he had been crying a lot. >> he was only crying. >> this reality show aired, for many, painful to watch featuring someone so young and happy living her dream who is now gone. sources saying she had been shot to the bathroom door of the home. there are lots of reports circulating and many details are unconfirmed. some newspapers are published in notes from a speech she was set to give on the day she was killed. sheet says it being in an abusive relationship years before oscar and took three long time before realizing her value. there are now speaking out. >> we deeply regret the allegations of premeditated murder. >> he says he is now with the grief and the other is no substance to the allegations. police have been pretty dismissive of the m

general david petraeus cooked up a real counterinsurgency strategy like what general david petraeus had done before and that is one of the reasons why it got turned around. let me step forward quickly to health care. the interesting thing about this issue, several interesting things, let's talk about obamacare for a minute. credit -- incredibly controversial, passed without one single democratic vote in the house and senate. what were its origins? lots of people in the course of hearing about this know whether mitt romney did something like that in massachusetts. you can go back farther, you can go back to 1989, stuart butler of the heritage foundation came up with something called the heritage plan. what did the heritage plan include? included regulated exchanges in which private insurance company would compete for beneficiary and it included an individual mandate. it was actually for more than a decade primarily a republican idea about how you could do -- close to universal health care. but the mid part of august of 2005, democrats were getting more interested, republicans were fallin

. >>> well, disgraced retired general david petraeus. he is back in the news.ke never before. spiriva helps control my copd symptoms by keeping my airways open for 24 hours. plus, it reduces copd flare-ups. spiriva is the only once-daily inhaled copd maintenance treatment that does both. spiriva handihaler tiotropium bromide inhalation powder does not replace fast-acting inhalers for sudden symptoms. tell your doctor if you have kidney problems, glaucoma, trouble urinating, or an enlarged prostate. these may worsen with spiriva. discuss all medicines you take, even eye drops. stop taking spiriva and seek immediate medical help if your breathing suddenly worsens, your throat or tongue swells, you get hives, vision changes or eye pain, or problems passing urine. other side effects include dry mouth and constipation. nothing can reverse copd. spiriva helps me breathe better. (blowing sound) ask your doctor about spiriva. >>> police in the chicago area are questioning two people in the shooting death of jennay mcfarlane. the 18-year-old was killed friday night. thi

. >> and the woman at the center of a david petraeus scandal has a new dilemma on her hands.n upcoming promotion is on hold.  >>> a special d.c. council meeting will be held next week to discuss pushing council member jim graham by stripping away some of his power. it stems from an ethics violation that was investigated by the newly formed ethics board. the board didn't have the power to punish graham, so it appears the council could pick up, rather, where it left off. matt ackland is here now to explain how graham is fighting back in court. matt? >> reporter: jim graham will go before a judge tomorrow in an effort to block the findings of the ethics board. he believes that he never had a chance to give his side. but at the same time, council chairman phil mendelson is proposing punishment for graham that will be embarrassing and take power away. council member jim graham was at work thursday, leaving the hearing that has oversight of how alcoholic beverages are regulated in the district. it's this leadership role the colleagues could take away from

both of awe fry wed with petraeus and clinton we should start looking at military assistance in syria that correct? >> that was our position. i do want to say, senator, that obviously there were a number of factors involved here that ultimately led to the president's decision to make it nonlethal. alisyn: chris wallace is the anchor of "fox news sunday." hi, chris. >> hey, how are you, ali? alisyn: i'm well. that was an interesting revelation and headline yesterday where leon panetta explained that he and secretary of state then hillary clinton and general david petraeus all thought they should arm the rebels in syria but the president didn't want to. what do you make of that revelation? >> well it is very interesting. we had known for some time that last summer, late summer, early fall, when the u.n.'s diplomatic efforts, kofi annan, the former secretary-general fell apart, that david petraeus, then the director of the cia and hillary clinton, the secretary of state, came up with the idea that the u.s. should begin to arm the rebels because it became clear the civil war was going to

author paula broadwell discusses "all in," her in depth study of the life and career of general david petraeus. in her book miss broadwell argues that the general's new

. >>> first on cnn, the army doing an about-face on the promotion of paula broadwell, david petraeus' former mistress. they decided to revoke the promotion from major to lieutenant colonel in the army reserves after initially appr e approving it last summer. since the petraeus scandal broke, she's been under investigation for having classified information in her home without permission. >> i know you're tired of hearing this, this just in, gas prices rising again. the nationwide average for a gallon of regular gas, jumped up about a penny to $3.78 a gallon. that's 35 straight days that the price of gas has gone up. >> in those days it's up 47 cents or so in 35 days. so that is something people are really feeling. >>> big developments in the works this morning ending the nuclear standoff between iran in the west. we'll go live to washington coming up. >>> plus, bowling and strippers. a suburban mother in trouble after racy pictures involving her own son surface on the web. how is she involved? you'll find out when we come back. [ jen garner ] what skincare brand is so effective... so t

army revoked a promotion for the former mistress of david petraeus. she is a major in the army reserve and had been approved by the promotion and the lieutenant colonel since the petraeus scandal under investigation for having classified information. the tsa is apologizing to a 3-year-old girl in a wheelchair. she has spina bifida and they were on their way to disneyworld when security agents said they needed to do a pat-down and swab her wheelchair. >> i don't want to do that. >> lucy sobbed and said she no longer wanted to go to disneyworld. her outraged mother shot this video with her cell phone and the security worker objected saying it was illegal to videotape the procedures. here's the apology saying they regret inaccurate guidance was provided during the screening and offers the apology. we maintain the security of the traveling public and strive to treat all with dignity and respect. while no pat-down was performed, we will address specific concerns with our workforce. renee is joining us live from washington. renee, what does the girl's fathe

petraeus, before our committee in september, said that the answer to iraq, the answer to afghanistan is not going to be found at the end of a gun. there is no military solution in iraq and afghanistan. and incidentally, i have found over my 12 years in the senate that some of our military leaders are the most impressive and smartest of all our foreign policy thinkers. and so i made that comment not too long ago, and someone said how could that be? why would the military guys be smarter? i said, well, if for no other reason, the same reason secretary gates gave the speech that he gave out in kansas on a lecture or series two months ago when he devoted his speech to the congress and the united states putting more resources in the state department, more resources in diplomacy, more resources in soft power. because he understands as secretary of defense or anyone who wears the uniform is burden is now on our soldiers. and we have overloaded the circuits. of we've asked our military to damn near do everything. well, we should never, ever put the military in that position. not only are the

allen was recently caught up in the sex scandal that forced cia director david petraeus to resign. >>> turning to the weather, bill karins is here. >> yeah, good morning, it's exiting california and going to head straight to the u.s. this is a big storm that's going to cause problems for traveling, especially later on tonight and all day thursday. let me show you where the storm is located. and the temperatures tell the story. we are watching the storm with a chilly 41 in san francisco and l.a. rain and snow in the mountains. the cold air is in place around kansas city, up through areas of nebraska, iowa and missouri. that's where the storm itself is locked in. you can spinning through southern california. that is going to exit out through the plains. we already have a big area of rain developing in north texas and southern oklahoma. eventually, as this storm kicks out we will be watching a lot of snow developing. we already have winter storm warnings much of kansas and nebraska. these are all winter storm watches that will go over as either warnings or advisories in the days ahead. o

president came around president bush who i had been very critical of came around and sent david petraeusd the surge we succeeded in iraq. now, because of the obama administration actions afterwards we are losing and badly unraveling. the fact is if we hadn't done that more american lives would have been lost unnecessarily. so for then senator hagel to say well, he will let history be the judge. he was there and involved and i'm sure he is wrong and he knows he is wrong on the basis of the facts of what happened. >> chris: so i got to press it again. because you saw the hearing. you know his record. are you going to support him for defense secretary? >> i will see the rest of the answers to his questions but i have very grave concerns. >> chris: grave concerns. fair to say you are leaning against voting for him? >> i think that would be fair. >> chris: how do you feel about other republican senators who are suggesting some procedural move to block the nomination? >> i think we need all of the information from senator hagel but the fact is we have never filibustered a cabinet appointee and

then he returned as the multinational force corps commander and was along with david petraeus and ryan crocker one of the key three american architects of the surge. from december 2006 through the early time of 2008, he was the person making the decisions on where the forces should go, how they should base themselves, how they should operate within the population, how they should interact with iraqi forces, all the detail behind the surge, that if you speak to general petraeus, he will say that is the crucial part of what made this whole thing work. general odierno was the primary architect. he got a few months off and went back to iraq, commanding the entire operation, where he did the job for two years and did not get any reprieve, because after spending a year at the joint forces, he has been the chief of staff of the army since 2011 and is engaged in this intensive budget process right now. we all look forward to hearing what he will say. he will speak for a few minutes. i will ask a few questions appear, and then we will go to you. please join me in welcoming general odierno. [app

allen was initially caught up in the sex scandal that forced cia director david petraeus to resign. eventually he was cleared of all wrongdoing. >>> turning to the weather, including a big snowstorm, bill karins is here. >>> right now it's california. they got their snow in the mountains last night and still tapering off but exiting the region. leaving a big chill in its wake. you can see the storm system as it goes to the south and very interesting ining weather day i california. report of one funnel cloud possibly a tornado. didn't do any damage. we didn't see a lot of moisture out of this. it was a moisture starved system, a lot of areas like san diego and l.a. everybody was under a quarter of an inch. the center of the spin is located right over the top of los angeles. notice there's a little bit of white left but not a lot, maybe a little bit towards the higher elevations here approaching southern portions of nevada and now the worst will kick in to arizona. we still have our winter storm warnings that's up in southern california until noon but may be dropping before then. wint