and al qaeda is no longer the issue. we know the yemeni regime or a long time wanted to create the fear of al-qaeda. they were getting the funds from the u.s. for counterterrorism. so they were the ones benefiting from the situation. when the friction happen between the military, ali abdullah saleh said we know who is supporting al qaeda, indicating a general. and this guy was known for supporting al-qaeda for a while, and the also was known as the best friend and one of those who brought ali abdullah saleh to office. so then he can stand in front of the camera and tell the people that, we all knew -- know who is supporting al qaeda. wasn't he befriends yesterday? you are creating them all. >> the biggest fear, i think, is what was the basis for al qaeda in afghanistan shifts to yemen. then i do not think it shifted to yemen -- >> i do not think it shifted to yemen but they want to give the image. the issue is not as big as it is reported and it is not that easy, but way easier than they think, because it is in the menta

qaeda leaders and al qaeda will be done the the the media mocked president bush when he did this in two thousand and two and two thousand and four and two thousand and six and they're right on board because top because access is given to top levels of the u.s. national security council to to media personalities and so they're basically eating what what the. people like brennan and others tell them and that's that is why there is very little critical eye in the u.s. media given to this program and i believe the last polls were like eighty two percent of the american public supports the drone program you know of course the administration is going to do this it's a political winner it makes them look tough and it allows them to say they wanted to that they were able to defeat al qaeda and allows them to do what they want to do which is disengage from afghanistan and basically disengage from the middle east and fight a war on the cheap ok jeanne you want to jump in there. yeah what i really what chris said about if it's a militant that's ok i mean what's a militant who is a militant who def

allies with al qaeda with other groups. you know this you know it's one thing to start talking about the practicalities and so forth but you know there is international law there is there is international human rights law there's international humanitarian law there's laws of war and the minute that you start saying we or any one country has some kind of justification for violating that law everybody that has a justification for violating the law in fact i was at the human rights council today and the u.s. representative came down on the syrians for targeted killing and this and the reaction was how can the united states say that the syrians are guilty of targeted killing when they are doing that exactly and in fact haven't come up with any kind of justification in law i'm not talking about practicality or. you know deciding that somebody is a bad guy and we don't like him so let's take him out but that that's not legal if i decide somebody that i don't like that somebody or i have a strategy of counter terrorism and i thin

al qaeda was an ally of assad after 2003 and built safe havens for al qaeda to hide in. i remember one of those safe havens. the americans raided it in 2008 and captured prisoners. this was a hiding place for al qaeda on the border with iraq. it was under the control of a brother-in-law of the president. >> who is making the decisions in damascus right now? who is directing the syrian government policy facing this uprising >> translator: the regime in syria is a totaltar yn regime and a dictatorship. there is only one person who gives the orders, one person who is the president. the rest of the regime personnel are people who only obey. >> does the syrian president and supporters believe they will win? >> they are trapped. they committed crimes and entered into a world of blood and are aware they are going to pay for it. >> he is the second high profile sunni official to break within a week. says the syrian government is staging al qaeda style attacks in syria. retired army general mark joins me from new york. you had several meetings with the brother-in-law of president

nothing to do with al qaeda that they were directly involved in al qaeda going into iraq adding to the instability. >> so what can the u.s. do with this information if anything? >> i think this and other information can be part of the case file that shouldhis situation end up in the international criminal court it could be used against them in an international criminal court of law. it also demonstrates that the decision made by the syrians to accommodate al qaeda inside their country is becoming a situation where the al qaeda is turning sgens the syrian government as we warned and predicted it would. >> so outside of international criminal court does this give the u.s. any impetus for being involved in a more direct manner with the unrest in syria right now? >> i think that just adds to the growing consensus that the days of assad and the assad regime are nearing an end. he is trying his best as the ambassador said to maintain control but he is losing control on a day by day basis. >> at least 57 people killed across syria today. tanks are storms into neighborhoods and heavy shelling.

"outfront" tonight, al qaeda rising. i'm live from a refugee camp miles from the border of northern maly. more than a quarter million refugees have fled the country, more than twice as many as syria. they're flegel indicated linked extremists. here here is leon panetta shortly after the killing of osama bin laden. >> we're in reach of defeating al qaeda. i think we had them on the run. i think now is the moment. >> reporter: but here on the frontier of northern mally, al qaeda and other extremists are getti getting strength. and the fear is this could become a new safe haven for terrorists. we have heard horrible stories about what is happening and you're going to hear them. but sharia law is the rule. today i called the military leader for an czar al din, the main islamic radical group linked to al qaeda here. we wanted to tell you their side of the story, but here's what happened. [ speaking in foreign language ] >> translator: yes, this is omar. hello? >> hello. >> translator: yes, what do you want? >> good morning. g

"outfront" tonight, al qaeda rising. i'm live from a refugee camp miles from the border of northern mali. more than a quarter million refugees have fled the country, more than twice as many as syria. they are fleaing radical s extremists here is leon panetta shortly after the killing of tonight president obama said al kay da is on the run. >> we're rin reach of strategically defeating al qaeda. i think now is the moment. >> but here on the frontier of northern mali, al kay da is gaining strength. we have heard some horrible stories about what is happening and you're going to hear them now. today i called the military leader. it's the main islamic group linked to al kay da here. >> yes, this is omar, hello. >> translator: no, no. listen. i do not speak to a woman. if you would like to speak to me, give me a man. we do not speak to women. do you hear me? >> translator: no, we do not speak with women. it is necessarily to speak, it is necessary to give a man to speak with us vernlthsz i want to explain how we got here. mali

that they had nothing to do with al qaeda, that they were actively involved in al qaeda transiting syriagoing into iraq and adding to the instability and a saf shakat was involved in that. >> what can the u.s. do with this information, if anything? >> i think this and other information can be part of the case file that should this situation end up in the international criminal court, it can be used against them in an international criminal court of law. >> well, it is a dream musical matchup. bruce springsteen and paul mccartney together live on stage in london, but the music comes to an abrupt halt and we'll tell you why and show you why next. >>> you don't have to be in front of the television to watch cnn. do what i do, stay connected and do it on your cell phone and do it from your computer at work and go to cnn.com/tv. this is the first car that i've been totally in love with in every way, shape, and form. it's my dream vehicle. on a day to day basis, i am not using gas. my round trip is approximately 40 miles to work. head on home, stop at the grocery store, whatever else that i ne

says the syrian government is staging al qaeda style attacks in syria. retired army general mark joins me from new york. you had several meetings with the brother-in-law of president assad. does this news between the connection of the regime and al qaeda afirm any of your previous believes? >> that was the presumption we have been working under. they were providing safe haven to al qaeda elements transferring through damascus and killing iraqi civilians and american soldiers. we told them this must stop. >> so the former syrian ambassador to iraq telling ivan watson that syria was furious. does this information shed new light on al qaeda sympathizers. >> it demonstrates that despite the syrian denunsiation of al qaeda that they were actively involved and adding to the instability. >> and so what can the u.s. do with this information with anything? >> well, i think this and other information can be part of the case file that should this situation end up in the international criminal court it could be used against them in an international criminal court of

al qaeda claimed the ongoing horror on radical islamist web sites.al qaeda declares it has launched a new jihad against iraq, vowing to retake areas it once controlled, thus pushing iraq into civil war. the attacks hit mostly sunni- dominated areas with ethnically and religiously mixed populations. and get this, these attacks have come during the holy month of ramadan, the muslim month of fasting, which began last week. iraq's bloodshed coincides with an intensifying conflict. and neighboring syria. despite the horrific continuing assault on iraq, al qaeda is regarded by iraqi officials as significantly weaker than at its peak in 2006 and 2007. yet the nation is far from carter notes how the horror is multiplying itself. >> first of all, the daily killings. the struggle between the shiites and sunnies increased iranian resistance, the resentiment left by 100,000 iraqi civili, who's it a model for? >> so what's the answer to dr. brzezinski's question? is iraq a model for anyone? tim carney, you may have to go into the history of how we got into iraq a

co t gal qaeda because they're angry. what im suggesting is that we really have not had the debate backob thn,he lal ctaut ot ioeor we atoren or kistani civilians have been killed, whole families wiped out as a result. and now in human theres another debate taking place ndle americahe di wl qnow fin rab u toe t big point, barack obama, if i was sitting, realizes tha one untaou terrorist att o the s idy iman inaal cu, quon andthy go far and beyond. republicans cannot even. foto pol qst.lly preempted the irly i doc arutn economy. this tells you howeeply anchored barack obama's foreign-policy. >> butoesn thaeanhe riemev and bto urki a check by escalation on this scale were talking about civilian casualties on this scale that what we are facing ishe at itesnse of g o an airliner, maybe they can't do that, but terrorism, the nature of it, the instrument of the week. >> ihink the difficulty in ic, a y m m tht ofmics aeortn really caution the american public about questions of cos taan feiy and d l ben on is to be inpo truly. an

you have al qaeda in the arab peninsula, which is in the gulf.as responsible for that underwear bombing in 2009. and those cargo attempted cargo plane attacks in 2010. and then you have al qaeda in the north africa and al sha bab in somalia. so the smaller groups are harder to track and don't necessarily work in the countries they're operating, but seems they're trying to target u.s. interests around the world. a lot more dangerous now the affiliates. >> yeah. you know, we've covered extensively the arab spring, these popular uprisings throughout the middle east. what kind of effect have those revolutions had on these groups? >> reporter: well, it has a huge effect, brooke, because in all of these countries you have political instability. and that's what gives terrorist the safe haven. in egypt for instance the sanai, the border between israel and egypt we've been reporting on is increasingly unstable. and secretary clinton in an interview last week told me that this could become an operational base for jihadist. you have yemen operating very int

it's al qaeda, sorry, the taliban and al qaeda.hey believed now there ar certain segments of thetaliban that is subscribed to the globalist transnational jihad is party. this is joe biden's argument as you know when he sat down to search american troops in afghanistan relied on counterterrorism measures. the idea is we have 2000 troops in afghanistan. bring most of them, and leap between 15,000. you wage the war relentlessly, and they realize that because they want to prevent -- here's the idea. the pakistani afghanistan he theater is in the center of any emergence or reemergence of a transnational jihadist including the taliban. when we talk about the taliban, the taliban really are factions must. they have multiple factions. look, this is how it seems. i've basically, and i have written again on the taliban, the taliban don't have any interest in welcoming the few surviving al qaeda because the history of the relationship between the taliban and al qaeda is fraught with tension and contradictions. >> host: when you look at what p

we monitor other key al qaeda a lot al-qaeda-affiliates and groups in the middle east, south asia andafrica. hay remain focused on local and regional. al qaeda and the lands of islamic or aqiam are active in countries like nigeria and are focused on targeting we were u.s. in that region. al-shabaab which formally merged with al qaeda this past february is concerned with combat ken began into somalia which are erode group safe haven in somalia. it remains intent on conducting attacks against region nap and western targets in east africa. having carried out a number of recent low level attacks in kenya. pakistani and of afghan militant groups including the ttp continue to pose a district threat to u.s. interest and allies in south asia. and we continue to watch for signs for any of these groups or networking or individuals pursuing operation outside of that region as a strategy to achieve their objectives. al qaeda and iraq continues to carry out high-profile coordinated attacks against government and civilian targets in iraq. this past weekends more than 100 people were killed in terro

but essentially al qaeda said it is coming back. it says it's coming back in those areas where some of the attacks were today. those include areas outside of baghdad in what was called the baghdad belt which was traditionally an al qaeda stronghold and a life line for al qaeda for attacks in the capital. others were in kirkuk part of the disputed territory. what they really seem to be doing is taking advantage of the chaos that still exists in a lot of places in iraq. >> warner: what are its aims, its objectives? >> it aims to launch, to create an islamic state. the center of the... and one of the capitals would be in baghdad. it repeats that again in the latest statement that we've heard. it also wants to take advantage of this sectarian tension that still exists. while iraq is nowhere near the sectarian violence that it was a few years ago, it's really evolved quite a lot since then. the still is tension there. it wants to foster civil war again. the targets have been predominantly shia targets apart from the security forces. they

how substantial is al qaeda's foothold at this point?uld say al qaeda's foothold is substantial in the sense that it is using mali as a sanctuary. it's involved in training forces both in mali and others in the region, it provides explosive devices, training them in counterterrorism techniques. so it is arising concern and should be a rising concern for a range of european governments. >> we've been hearing so much about al qaeda being on the verge of strategic defeat and some of the successful killings in yemen. do you think this changes that argument? >> i think there's no question it changes the argument. what we've seen across aspects of north africa and then the horn is weakening government. exactly what's happened in it mali. al qaeda has tried to push into the governance vacuum and establishit mali. al qaeda has tried to push into the governance vacuum and establisht mali. al qaeda has tried to push into the governance vacuum and establish mali. al qaeda has tried to push into the governance vacuum and establish some areas of sanc

>> well, we're certainly concerned about al qaeda in iraq coming back.ink we recognized this would be a problem. but, you know, the iraqi security forces, as we were exiting iraq, they're very capable security forces. this is a tough problem for them. it's very complex. but i'm confident that they understand what the problem is and hopefully they'll be able to deal with it as time goes on. but, i mean, clearly, al qaeda and iraq is a problem that they've got to deal with. >> there's a huge uproar now, and from your perspective, i'm anxious to get your sense about the leaks, about the bin laden raid, whether it did undermine sources and methods. it went too far, there are investigations, as you know, on the hill right now, can you share a thought with us on how you feel about all this? >> well, we're never happy when leaks occur, obviously. i mean, we go to great lengths to protect our national security. very great lengths to protect our sources and methods. so all of that, we guard very carefully. unfortunately, not everybody guards that very carefully.

is the al qaeda and the islamic magreb. have long had a program which is called the counterterrorism program. and in that multifaceted program, we have been providing assistance to the governments in the region to strengthen their borders, to strengthen their counterterrorism programs, to strengthen their military, and to give them equipment that will help deal with the al qaeda threat. >> you know, we -- we're here just miles from the border of northern mali, and we went to the border. there was actually a lot of water when we were there. and water was really what was preventing the islamists from coming into the village where we were. they were terrified. the morning after we were there, there were several 4 x 4s with guns mounted on the back. our experience is that the border no longer matters. the islamists are on the beqina side and perhaps other countries you just mentioned. are you worried this is a cancer that could spread? >> this is why we have the transsa hara counterterrorism program. this is why we encourage th

a former top official says the country provided shelter an built safe havens for al qaeda for years. this is the most senior syrian diplomat to defect and publicly support the country's uprising. former syrian ambassador to iraq defected last week. he sat down with our ivan watson for his first television interview with the u.s. network. he says the country is "a totalitarian regime and a dictatorship. and all orders come from president assad." >> translator: in 2003 after the american invasion of iraq a toppling of the syrian regime, they had an agreement with al qaeda so keep the road open to iraq so militants started coming from all over the world to syria under the eyes of the syrian secret police who are directly responsible for the killing of thousands of iraqis and coalition forces. he trained and provided shelter and built safe havens for al qaeda to hide in. >> he is the second high-profile sooun official to break within the regime in a week. ivan, did he say why he defected exactly? >> he said that it was the litany -- he gave a litany of all the atrocities and massacres th

is that i interviewed said that al qaeda is recruiting because of the drums they said al qaeda is recruiting because of local economic factors low calorie counts in certain districts people being on able to water their crops or feed their children and so these economic factors seem to be the thing that's pushing people into the insurgency because they can show up and they can do things like provide salaries between two hundred four hundred dollars a month in a sixty dollars a month economy that's transformative for a family so one of the conclusions i came back with was yes the drone strikes are problematic from a legal and moral perspective and we need to consider that in terms of our own policy in the united states yes the drone strikes sort of implicate yemeni pride in yemen is that humans are generally opposed to them but there's a much more nuanced and complex set of circumstances happening on the ground that are driving the insurgency so this causative relationship we've created in our own minds between us drone strikes on the one hand and al qaeda recruitment on the other really break

he said on what this war and al qaeda to be dismantled. you can do anything you want in afghanistan and pakistan. we cannot document the extent of the attacks any more and special operations forces, and he's talking that the civilian casualties. the reality is he is proven to be. al qaeda doesn't exist since 2003 it ceases to exist and my most rece book on the anniversary of 9/11 was the rise and fall of al qaeda which document the organization doesn't exist you are talking about very few surviving skilled soldiers and lieutenants and i think what we have not discussed so far is the potential blow backed. and i feel we might wake up a few years from now and this blow back might come to haunt us in the same way that afghanistan came to haunt the united states in the mid 1990's after 2011. pakistan the extent think of how pakistan -- think of even talking about the political leadership go to pakistan and talk to the junior officers not just the senior officers in the pakistani security service and we don't debate in the united states. even t

listen. >> we believe that the number of al qaeda fighters al qaeda related fighters who are in syriaely small. there is a larger group of foreign fighters many of whom are not directed with a.q. who are either in or headed to syria. clearly this is a matter of concern fear all greater violence in syria. >> analysts tell the british newspaper the guardian that auto divide and other extremists are taking a larger role in the resolution helping with the attacks on the assad regime. rebel forces say they took control of at least two modern police stations in aleppo. the largest city in all of syria. the army had apparently been using those stations as military bases. now, fox news can't independently confirm those reports. "the fox report's" correspondent jonathan hunt is with us tonight. do they have any idea the strength of this al qaeda influence? i mean, they say it's very small. >> nobody knows for sure how many al qaeda firefighters are there and how many of those foreign fighters now joining the fight that you just said the state department spokesperson talked about may then join

woes are countless and getting worse there's political paralysis a surge of violence and in active al qaeda is iraq a failing state or has it already failed. to cross-talk iraq's growing violence i'm joined by my guest in washington robert maginnis he is a retired army lieutenant colonel and a national security and foreign affairs analyst also we have douglas oliphant he's a senior national security fellow with the new america foundation and john glaser he's an assistant editor for antiwar dot com originally cross-talk rosen i mean you can jump in anytime you want john if i go to you first six months ago they were dire dire predictions about what would happen to iraq and they've been borne out. well some of them certainly have a mean i think it's an embarrassment for the united states having started such a criminal misguided war to have to have been pushed out forcefully by the iraqi government which was good we should have left but now the government we helped install headed by prime minister moloch is sinking towards to dictatorship moloch has shut down news media which is critical of his

you're looking at groups defeated by al qaeda groups.ir efforts in a lot of countries. when you look at this lit up map, this is pretty powerful and we're not even lighting up algeria which we should be. syria, yemen, somalia, niger, mali, yemen. seth jones, good to see you. appreciate your taking the time. the greatest terrorist threat used to be afghanistan and pakistan and people have become accustomed to that. why are we now seeing such a significant rise in al qaeda-linked groups in northern africa and the southern part of the arabian peninsula? >> well, i think there's a bit of a supply and demand issue here. on the one hand there's a new demand for justice. we've seen the fall of multiple regimes in yemen, weak regime in somalia. now we've got falling regime in syria. al qaeda has pushed fighters in to help fill the vacuum. at the same time we also have a supply again of fighters. we've seen money coming from the la vont and the gulf. a bit of basic supply and demand. >> what we heard in mali is they obviously are very add meant t