special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke who should have got the push in his latest video blog. shares his views on the issue. last weekend general mcchrystal had a fire farewell party at he's at his mansion at fort mcnair in washington d.c. to commemorate he's honorable discharge from the active duty in the us armed forces and the most striking feature of that and his command in afghanistan was the quiet house decision makers has completely lost a unique opportunity i believe that given the choice the us military intelligence and especially law enforcement community would prefer for general mcchrystal to keep his command and instead to see the u.s. special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke to be fired from his current position which is an officially called drug lords special representative to the united states it was really remarkable that the only top civil servant of god that positive coverage in the rolling stone article by the general mcchrystal to my america was richard holbrooke boss u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton but richard holbroo

special envoy to afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke to be fired from his current position which is an officially called drug lords special representative to the united states it was really remarkable that only a top civil servant got a positive coverage in the rolling stone article by general mcchrystal to my america was richard holbrooke boss u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton about richard holbrooke who of the most negative and poisonous coverage there was the reason why he was called it wounded animal fun by the mcchrystal team america my guess is that the main reasons for such a negative comment was it was mostly motivated by richard holbrooke's the micromanaging and double crossing i'm sorry the general mcchrystal efforts i believe it was one of the main impediment for the general mcchrystal to get the job done during his mission impossible efforts as a u.s. commander in afghanistan. well now the white house's fresh controversy concerning the afghan conflict to do with one of the biggest weeks in u.s. military history has revealed the cover up of hundreds of afghan civ

at stake as richard holbrooke claims you might think congress would have crossed their t.'s and dotted their i's by now and fighting their longest battle as they're supposed to be united states constitution requires that before the united states goes to war that there be an act of congress but just as in the vietnam war we've never followed the procedure with respect to the war in afghanistan and we centrally drifted into a war in a long term commitment a long term commitment that appears to be wearing on lawmakers who want to know this wouldn't be helpful for the president to at least lay out a flexible time for when the u.s. is getting out beyond the july two thousand and eleven date to start withdrawal u.s. president obama set it given no assurance that this should be an open ended occupation holbrooke emphasizes the u.s. is committed to no calendar i am very leery of setting a date certain. they here for the salute withdrawal but still the endgame is unclear civilian and military operations in afghanistan are proceeding without a clear definition of success the ambassad

scored up in poppy and can it be feels now if the united states representatives and especially richard holbrooke the u.s. special rep to afghanistan and pakistan start delivering their regular job regarding the millions of raisins why drug lords and their own people mules immune from any prosecution and they are untouchable the world community will get it and next. prove that the us stance on the war of drugs in not is not only double standard but it's totally hypocritical and whatever they say and whatever the us straps have set or we'll say the bottom line is very simple talk is cheap the only way for the united states to restore its credibility in afghanistan is to unleash war on drugs and in that endeavor they can count one hundred percent on their regional stakeholders in afghanistan mostly china india russia iran and pakistan. now soviet era cosmonauts and american astronauts who flew the first international space mission are celebrating the flight's thirty fifth anniversary and the saudis apollo mission was the first joint space venture between the u.s. and the soffit union and mark and n

the subcommittee will come to order and i am pleased to welcome ambassador richard holbrooke, the special representative for afghanistan and pakistan, the administrator of the united states agency for international development, to share with us this systems and processes to ensure accountability of u.s.-taxpayers funds, outlined a joint-u.s.- afghan strategy to combat terrorism, to coordinate the u.s.-civilian military strategy. tary strategy. we understand the difficult environment in which the men and women in afghanistan work and we appreciate their and your commitment to this very crucial effort. funding appropriated by this subcommittee for diplomacy, development and humanitarian programs plays a vital role in supporting our national security. nowhere is this reality more evident than in afghanistan with the predent crafting an integrated civilian military strategy to disrupt, dismantle and defeat al qaeda. recent media reports of rampant corruption, concerns about billions of dollars in cash leaving through the kabul airport, alleged influence peddling, reported interference with an

. >> reporter: in washington, the special representative for afghanistan and pakistan, richard holbrooke, spoke at a u.s. house hearing. >> i understand from our embassy in islamabad that the smoke is visible throughout the city. we hear there's going to be a national day of mourning, there are apparently two americans who were on that plane, and i just want to express on behalf of the u.s. government the administration our deep condolences. >> reporter: holbrooke then turned to the issue that's dominated the week in washington-- the leak of 91,000 secret u.s. military documents on the war in afghanistan. >> first of all, the leaks themselves are pretty appalling. and for somebody like myself who has been in and out of the government for over 40 years, in fact, an author of one of the volumes of the pentagon papers, i just find it inexplicable that somebody would take the oath of office of the united states and violate it in such an extraordinary way. >> reporter: other top u.s. officials have warned the documents may place american operatives inside afghanistan and pakistan in danger. a

tomorrow, a special representative to afghanistan and pakistan richard holbrooke will he is scheduled to testify at a sub appropriations committee. you can watch it live on c-span 3 beginning at 10:00 a.m. eastern time. >> with no york representative charles rangel in the news because of the recent house ethics committee hearing, watch a world history with congressman rangel. the c-span video libraries online and free, washington your way. c-span is now available in over 100 million homes, bringing you washington your way picked a public service treated by america's cable companies. -- your way. a public service created by america's cable companies. >> there was a confirmation mattis. from james madiso he will replace general petraeus. this is just under two hours. the general mattis is no stranger to this committee. he served more than 30 years in the military with tours in afghanistan and iraq. in the last few years, he has served as the commander of the u.s. joined forces command. for many -- many have considered his work to be pioneering work. general petraeus told me last week th

the special representative for afghanistan richard holbrooke is in germany today where he meets with officials there and then he will travel to the region to meet up with the secretary as she departs washington early next week. a special envoy it leaves washington this evening where he will head first for khartoum, sudan, to meet with officials from the african union to consult the sudan on voice -- envoys. he will also meet with the those whoarty's and are negotiating post referendum arrangements. in addition to the referendum commission. you have already seen the release today where the secretary marked the plata that the civilian response corp. has reached 1000 members of its anniversary. it is the only force in u.s. government dedicated to conflict prevention and peacekeeping -- and peace building. to bring you up-to-date on that you're quite lacrosse team, we have had conversations -- with the iroquois lacrosse team, we have had conversations with the united kingdom. we understand that the united kingdom cannot make an exception for these travelers. we understand the united king

. >> next week, a group of foreign ministers are going to be in kabul and richard holbrook previewed the meeting, and talked about general david betray its. this is his first state department briefing since the resignation of gen. mccrystal in afghanistan. this is 40 minutes. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> as we do from time to time, holbrook has traveled to the region, and we have a review of his meetings, to give you a feeling of where we are, in terms of the policies, and actions in pakistan, and afghanistan. and we have -- we also know that the secretary is getting ready to travel and he will have more to say about the particulars of the travel letter this week. and this is clearly a major element of her travel, which will be participation in the conference in kabul. this is about richard's travel over the last few weeks, where he was in pakistan, to talk to the pakistan officials, about the groups that we have -- for the strategic dialogue. he was in afghanistan, working on the policy issues tha

those comments came during a hearing with the special representative richard holbrooke. this is two hours and 20 minutes. order. let me say at the outset of the hearing that the rules of the committee are crystal clear with respect to any kind of demonstrations of any thought whatsoever. this committee prides itself in listening carefully and in probing and having a thoughtful dialogue even about the most emotional and contentious issues, and we ask every member of the public to respect that, and the rights of the senators and the committee to be able to conduct their business. i want to thank everyone for coming this afternoon, and i want to extend a very special thank you and welcome to ambassador holbrooke who has taken time from an exceedingly busy schedule in order to appear again before the committee. we look forward to hearing your insights ambassador holbrooke and i thank you for doing this. i might mention that ambassador holbrooke is a little inscribed in the amount of time he can be with us simply because he has to leave from here in order to go to islamabad a

professor and a former attorney general, as well as the drugs are, and a representative from richard holbrooke's office. this is a great crowd, a well- informed crowd. understanding the importance of this issue and the drug components of afghanistan. the institute of peace, and the center of international corp. have done a couple of these reports -- cooperation have been a couple of these reports. one of these reports was written by to people that are here. one of these reports has already had an effect on the policy of this administration, moving from the medication, which had been the policy before, the one of the focus -- a focus on the movement. we will have an opportunity today to listen to this new report being presented. in the words of the preface to this report, it is even more radical than the first one. it is very timely today, in that you probably read in the paper that afghan security forces with nato support killed 64 people on a raid in a truck facility. it was three days long. they destroyed 16 tons of narcotics. they confiscated explosives. they destroyed production facilities.

with all of these members of the team, including president karzai, as weel as with ambassador richard holbrooke, the special representative for afghanistan and pakistan. we are firmly united in seeking to forge unity of effort. as i noted in my testimony before this committee two weeks ago, i was part of a process that formulated the president's strategy for afghanistan and i support and agreed with his new policies. during its development, i offered my fourth ride military advice and i have assured the president that i would do the same as we conduct assessments over the course of the months ahead. he in turn assured me that he expects and wants me to provide that character of advice. as i also explained to this committee two weeks ago, i specifically agreed with the message is of greater commitment and greater urgency that the president expressed his address at west point last september when he announced the new policy. the greater commitment was explained in terms of the additional 30,000 u.s. forces, the troubling of the u.s. civilians, and the funding for an additional 100,000 afghan secur

holbrooke. all these point out that for the first time americans are trying to take a long-term view. we are grateful to senator john kerry of massachusetts and senator richardugar of indiana and howard berman for bringing about the kerry-lugar-berman bill which promises $1.5 billion in unconditional economic assistance of pakistan over the next five years. five years is as long a commitment as the united states makes at any time to one country and that will help pakistanis start getting a level of comfort with the united states. once that level of comfort is restored, the trust deficit is addressed, we can get back to being friends, allies and stop sort of worrying about what the other is doing. there are people in pakistan -- and i'm not one of them, but there are people in pakistan who are suspicious about what america's long-term intentions are in relation to afghanistan, and for that matter even in relation to pakistan. the pakistani government is working very hard at bringing about normalcy in relations with india, but there are outstanding issues that keep cropping up there as well. so what we are trying to do is deal with several of these issues at a