everyone. >> i am with ambassador robert ford. when we come back, we will take a crosser look at an area of his resent expertise after years of service in syria, what does he think about what's happening with the civil war there? you are watching "talk to al jazeera." i am with robert ford who ended his time as u.s. ambassador to syria. while retiring from the foreign service, made public your own thoughts about the way things have gone over the last several years. once it was clear that bashar al assad meant to staytiously that when this is all over, he still means to be president of syria. was there any other way this could have gone against the determined opposition? >> it's a question that i ask myself all the time, to be honest. when i was in syria in 2011, and the peaceful protest movement started, they actually did not immediately demand that president assad resign or quit the political scene. they actually, it started over some police mistreatment of some children in a place called darda in southern syria. the local protes

events on the ground, it's a dynamic situation, it changes. >> reporter: robert ford, thank you. >> thank for having me. >> woodruff: this afternoon, state department spokeswoman marie harf was asked about ambassador ford's criticisms of the administration's syria policy and why it compelled him to leave government. here is an excerpt of her response from the daily press briefing. robert ford, a very long distinguished career here, now a private citizen, is entitled to his own views. the president was clear last week and we've all been clear we're frustrated by the situation in syria. west point said we'll increase opposition because more bork needs to be done. look at today, the photos, disgusting photos of president assad voting acting like this is a real election. nobody working on it is happy with where things are. we'll all frustrated and i think you heard some of that in ambassador ford's comments. >> reporter: that was u.s. state department spokeswoman marie harf. we'll be back with soul singer charles bradley. >> ifill: we'll be right back with jeffrey brown's profile of >> woodru

. >> charlie: robert ford. robert ford. we could arm in a sirrous way which we're not going the syrian opposition with an eye toward increasing pressure on the al quaida-linked group from that side. two, i do think we need a stepped-up from a military perspective advisory effort in iraq to help the iraqi forces. an argument can be made that air power could be helpful within concern constraints. obviously, if they're bringing american arms from iraq into syria as dexter pointed out, appeared in a video, we could stop that if we wanted to, that sort of thing. but it's a complicated thing. you have to distinguish between mixed-up forces on the ground. it's not a simple proposition, but it could be an element of military strategy, but i very much agree with richard that there has to be a political component to it, which is that if maliki cannot be encouraged to form a more inclusive government with prominent sunnis you're not going to have stability in iraq. where i might slightly disagree with richard is i don't know there's a

. >> ironically the state department responded saying robert ford is a private citizen. the fact is president barack obama made up his mind. that's why you have now the impasse. the united states, as you suggested, the united states condemned it as a sham. have the rebels, as robert ford suggested, become extreme, are they linked to al qaeda and other groups with rebellious allowance. >> i think the geography of the opposition shifted towards the hard liners militant extremists. this is elected. the free syrian arm, i and national coalition, which is basically moderate elements are the weakst link in the chaup, and that's why robert ford and other american officials outside the government criticised president obama for not providing the means to aid president obama. >> there's suggestions that russia and iran have been stepping up help to bass what is your prognosis or weeks or months. on the ground inside syria, the vote will not change the reality. the war will go on on the killing field. bashar al-assad's allies. will say to the world this is the reality. bashar al-as

i invited robert ford to come here with you guys. i hope to get him at this table very soon. you interviewed hillary clinton. what did she say about all this? >> the most interesting thing is that she thinks that the president may have learned the lessons of iraq. she favored arming opposition elements in syria and questions the decision to tie the presence of american forces in afghanistan to a fixed calendar date. her view is a new president in afghanistan, we should have a conversation with him and quite possibly work out when forces -- terms under which american forces could stay. >> thank you. we will be back. stay with us. ♪ >> 32 nations in brazil in pursuit of soccer's biggest prize, the world cup. the matchup kicked off yesterday. the united states began its play on monday. it faces ghana. ghana eliminated america in the last two tournaments. joining me now is franklin foy. jeff agoos is a former player. and -- ae offensive defenseman in the world cup in and from connecticut, tommy 1992. smyth, he has been an espn analyst. bennett is covering the action for espn. i a

this saturday on "talk to al jazeera," the former ambassador to syria, robert ford, talks about the growing crisis in iraq and the response to syria's civil war. >> the relatively small force of i.s.i.l. and related and supporting militias took over a big city. the iraqi army evaporated. what does that tell you about the state of play in baghdad and the ongoing efforts to stand up national institutions? >> this was something when i was in iraq for five years our team was working on all the time. it was a tough job then and it's clearly still a tough job. i don't understand fully the military operations that occurred in ninewa or mosul. the fighting reportedly lasted for five days, casualties on all sides, but the iraqi army was forced to withdraw from the second largest city in the country, that's a concern, comes in a difficult time in iraq because there was an election and the different political blocks are beginning to discuss how to form a new government. so this burst on the scene of the islamic state into mosul and into ninewa, sets upon a very form of government in baghdad. >> the pa

and you know, robert ford as i mentioned earlier, was an exemplary ambassador. he did just an extraordinary job till we had to pull him out because of the danger. and i think in some of his interviews even with you, he said the state department was pushing it. >> the state department correct but he said nobody else was listening, the white house wasn't listening. >> well, we did, as i said, create a proposal that both the cia and the department of defense supported. but i want to haston -- >> would you do it in the future? >> of course i would always speak out. >> no, no, no, go back an again and arm and rain? >> well, i said we should have done it you know, two plus years ago, but i want to be very clear. these are difficult hard choices. if it was so self-evident that everybody should have done this, we wouldn't be sitting here talking about what we didn't do. but we might be talking about consequences of what we did do. so you have people making these choices with imperfect information, trying to figure out what they hope will happen, what might happen, how t

on the military side, as richard points out, -- >> robert ford? >> we could arm the syrian opposition toward increasing pressure on the al qaeda linked group from the outside. i think we need a stepped up military perspective advisory iraqi forces. the an argument can be made that air power could be helpful within certain constraints. obviously, if they are bringing american arms as dexter pointed we, we could stop that if wanted to. that sort of thing. it is a complicated thing. you're to distinguish between mixed oh forces. it could be an element of strategy. that thereh richard has to be a political component to it which is if maliki can not be encouraged to form a more inclusive government with prominent sunnis, you are not going to have stability in iraq. i'm i slightly disagree because i do not know there's a lot of time to sort this out. and i think it is imperative to have some sort of strategy to act fast because the iraqis foreign minister raise the option of american drones last august and it's been almost a year that iraqis have been r

the first sound bite you heard there was from ambassador robert ford. former ambassador for president obama in 2010 to 2014. he wrote in the "new york times" op. ed, quote -- al qaeda off shoots that joined the war and now propose a threat to our security. these extremists enjoy a sanctuary mount attacks against europe or the united states. more hesitation and unwillingless to commit moderate opposition fighters to fight more effectively both jihadist and the regime simply hasten the day when force also have to intervene against al ghid sierra. we're back with the panel. steve, this has significance today because a lot of the jihadists, these radical islamists are coming from syria and now taking over a full city in iraq. >> a full city, the second largest city in iraq. strategically very important city in iraq. i think this is significant. it's really hard to overstate how important this is and a "the washington post" piece published this afternoon said, in effect, what you have with this terrorist group is a state without a declared state. i mean, the

ambassador robert ford about what he sees as american miscalculations there. >> we were constantly behindhe curve and that's why now we have extremist threats to our own

ambassador to syria, robert ford is warning of the that isil phrases. he spoke to ray suarez on this week's "talk to al jazeera"? >> i hope people watching the program understand the threat that the islamic state poses, not just to people in mosul or people in baghdad, but, especially with the vacuum that has opened up in eastern syria, we now have a large space of territory. historically, in arab history, it was sort of one desert entity called al jazeera, but that is now controlled largely by this extremist islamic estate group and places like sammali and yemen and mali and afghanistan is a warning that they can use that open space to bring in people to train, to prepare for operations outside of al jazeera, outside of syria and iraq, whether it be against targets in western europe or north america, in the middle east. it's really a danger to everyone. >> you can see the entire interview coming up at 5:00 p.m. eastern on "talk to al jazeera." joining us now is jamie terebet, an al jazeera digital reporter and a former npr baghdad correspond he want. t

robert ford criticized the united states this week in an interview. >> what was the biggest mistake you think the obama administration made? >> we consistently have been behind the curve.events on the ground are moving more rapidly than our policy has been adapting. and at the same time, russia and iran have been driving this by increasing and steadily increasing especially the iranians their support to the syrian regime. >> for more, we are joined by skype, bureau chief for the "washington post" who covered the syrian elections from there. so behind the curve, the former ambassador made this charge. a fair criticism? >> yes, i think that's a very fair criticism. i think we've seen since the beginning of this crisis in syria, we've seen the americans way behind the curve at every step of the proceedings. we saw them wait a very long time to ask him to step down, but then said they would help the rebels but very little help arrived. and the extremists were getting a lot of arms and money and got stronger at a time when the americans were still really holding back on helping. and now assa

. >> that's until ambassador robert ford resigned because he found it too difficult to justify u.s.icy. >> i don't say this is easy, and i don't say it's automatic but i say the alternative of doing nothing is even worse. >> the brutality of the assad government and the extremist elements of the opposition have left the outside world with no

robert ford as i mentioned was an exemplariry am basketball to -- ambassad ambassador.n some of his interviews with you, he said the state department. >> state department, correct, but he said nobody else was listening. >> we did, as i said, create a proposal that both the cia and the department of defense supported. but i want to hasten that -- >> would you do it in the future? >> of course i would always speak out. i would always -- >> no, no, no, go back again and arm and train. >> i said we should have done it two plus years ago but i want to be very clear, these are difficult, hard choices. if it was so self-evident everybody should have done this, we wouldn't be here sitting talking about what we didn't do. we might be talking about consequences of what we did do. you have people making these choices with imperfect information, trying to figure out what they hope will happen, what might happen, how to guard against contingencies. >> to be fair, though, your own husband, president clinton said a couple years ago, the longer you leave it, the more space for bad acto

. >> that's until ambassador robert ford resigned because he found it too difficult to justify u.s.don't say this is easy, and i don't say it's automatic but i say the alternative of doing nothing is even worse. >> the brutality of the assad government and the extremist elements of the oppo

. >> ambassador robert ford, thank you for joining us on "al jazeera america ". >> my pleasure. thank you. >> the united states has made the first arrest in connection with the 2012 attack on the u.s. consolate in bengahzi, libya. four americans including ambassador chris stevens died in that attack. mike viqueira at the white house, tell us more about the suspect and the arrest. >> reporter: a lot of people are still having problems with this saying why did it take so long? and what about the other suspects that resulted in death in the attacks. just a matter of weeks before the 2012 election. but today president obama has a rare foreign policy success to announce. it took almost two years, but when it was done president obama welcomed the capture. >> it's important for us to send a message to the world that when americans are attacked no matter how long it takes we will find those responsible, and we will bring them to justice. >> reporter: officials say u.s. special forces acting alone and without the help of local officials staged a screed raid inside libya late sunday. they

one of our ambassadors robert ford, he's one of the most outstanding ambassadors of a generation.y left because he couldn't take it anymore. >> we were constantly behind the curve and our policy was not evolving and finally i got to the point where i could no longer defend it publicly. and it's a professional career member of the u.s. diplomatic service when i could no longer defend the policy in public, it is time for me to go. >> i love somebody who has the honor and dignity to do what he thought was right. >> nice lamp too. >> it was a nice lamp. >> let's ban a phrase. straight ahead. you hear this at the end of every break. straith ahead. what is the other options? curve behind. everying is ahead of you. there's no time travel involved. everything is front of you. everything is straight ahead. >> what are you supposed to say instead? >> coming up. >> jonah hill over the weekend did something that was i think greg you will approve of. he said he was wrong. yeah, because he hurled a gay slur at someone, asked them to perform a sex act. he said i was wrong and he's begging for fo

. >> robert ford former u.s.r to syria. >>> the searchers in germany have uncovered evidence that the moon was created from a planet crashing into the earth. >> reporter: four and a half billion yeergeds, it's thought that another planet crashed into the earth. debris from both plaents come together to form the moon but where is that other planet now? no one has found any evidence until today. a german led team has found microscopic traces in moon rock. >> what we've been looking for as scientist is actually the chemical fingerprints in the moon rock. and people having looking for this a long time and scientists in germany say they have certainly found it. >> reporter: 900 pounds of moon rocks were collected by apollo astronauts in the late 1960s and early 70s. ever since then, scientists have been searching for traces for the other planet. it's only now that scientists have found evidence in the samples. it's taking so long, that the difference between moon rock and the other planet's rock is very tiny. it backs

ambassador to syria, robert ford. he resigned from his position in may.e was speaking to chris yellen on cnn last month. >> i was no longer in a position where i could defend the american policy. we have been unable to address either the root causes of the conflict in terms of the fighting on the ground and the balance on the ground, and we have a growing extremism threat. there really is nothing we can point to that has been very successful in our policy except the removal of about 93% of some of assad's chemical materials. but now he is using chlorine gas against his opponents. syrianravention of the government's agreement in 2013 abide by the chemical weapons convention. the regime has no credibility, and our policy is not addressing the syrian crisis as it needs to. ford, formerobert u.s. ambassador to syria. ambassador brahimi, could you comment on what he said and what you see the flaws with u.s. policy vis-À-vis syria being today? i was very, very surprised when i heard him say that he left because he could not support the american policy anymore.

>> are you talking about robert ford?he month of trying to diffuse that one but maybe it's not working. the image get it out of your head. i've successfully taken that image out of your head. let's look at the weather. we do have some strong storms in portions of western livingston county. into southern lasalle county. this continues to move through. the worst is at 39 south of 80. these storms are pressing to the east. be on the lookout. in mchenry county, we've seen about three-quarters of an inch of rain. in some areas we've seen as much as 2 in. of rain. that's the number that we've shown you there since the bank. we have a 40 percent chance of rain. tonight we're down to 69. marlin 84. wednesday 73 chance of rain thursday 76 degrees. friday most of us are off for the fourth of july. high temperature of 80 degrees. >> a few crashes we're watching this morning, one of them in calumet city. getting word that a second one ambulance on the scene. also main roads, for the most part they're in good shape. outbound kennedy a

. >> saddam hussein, i think robert ford said it, the former ambassador said this, he said that iraq and syria are one big con net now. -- one big conflict now. >> it is certainly connected. that is one of the dangers. the fight going on right now could spread. and could make some linkages that would be very, very difficult to eradicate once they get a foothold in both syria and iraq and make it much more difficult for even a political solution to the problem. obviously, syria is a whole different issue. one where we have not been very aggressive in any particular way. that would be, we would have to start from ground zero to figure how to solve that or help solve that problem. >> i wonder whether syria formed the decision that the president is making. there are many people criticize the president did not do more. >> it brings into sharp focus that what was happening in syria and really was opposite of our u.s. interest in the region are because first of all, it is a threat to israel. it is a threat to stability in jordan. to some degree, it is a threat to stability or certainly unre

robert ford was american ambassador of syria and saw firsthand the growing influence of isis.sers are arriving today in iraq, is what is going on in iraq now a problem that america can solve? >> i think america can help from the margins, but the problem is essentially, a problem among iraqis and it will have to be solved by iraqis. >> and solved, i mean, is the political part of it the most important part of it? >> oh, for sure, for sure. if you listen to what the different elements of the sunni community that have risen up, if you read what they are saying, it's very much political grievances at the top of the list. >> you said one of the biggest things americans need to understand what is happening in iraq and syria is that it's one big conflict. >> yes. >> not two separate ones, can you explain that? >> the main group is the islamic state of iraq and syria and extends from the eastern half of syria into the western half of iraq ignoring the boarder between syria and iraq because the boarder wasn't even there. if you hit the group in iraq, say, they may retrieve back into sy

ambassador robert ford, the only way to end the conflict is to tip the balance on the ground. that is the only way to force the government to sit down to a negotiating table. the united states as well as western allies are reluctant to provide the rebels with weapons because of what they call the so-called extremist forces still operating in syria. >> three aljazeera journalists are in a cairo court for the 11th time. they have been held for the past 159 days. they are accused of supporting the outlawed muslim brother hood, allegations that august strongly denies. the prosecution diazmands the longest possible sentences. aljazeera is band from reporting inside egypt. we are joined by a cnn reporter outside the courthouse. tell us more about what the prosecution is saying. >> this is a critical day, you get the sense that the anticipation is building because we're getting closer to a verdict, although we don't know when that's going to take place. it looks like we're getting closer because the prosecution has wrapped up presenting its case, made their final argument earlier tod

robert ford was american ambassador of syria and saw firsthand the growing influence of isis. american advisers are arriving today in iraq, is what is going on in iraq now a problem that america can solve? >> i think america can help from the margins, but the problem is essentially, a problem among iraqis and it will have to be solved by iraqis. >> and solved, i mean, is the political part of it the most important part of it? >> oh, for sure, for sure. if you listen to what the different elements of the sunni community that have risen up, if you read what they are saying, it's very much political grievances at the top of the list. >> you said one of the biggest things americans need to understand what is happening in iraq and syria is that it's one big conflict. >> yes. >> not two separate ones, can you explain that? >> the main group is the islamic state of iraq and syria and extends from the eastern half of syria into the western half of iraq ignoring the boarder between syria and iraq because the boarder wasn't even there. if you hit the group in iraq, say, they may retriev

end of this equation, and how does it affect the debate we have seen recently with ambassador robert ford's calls to arm the sunni opposition in syria? thank you. >> very quickly, we had a horrible syrian situation which threatened to do exactly this kind of game changing thing for a couple of years, and we did not do very much about it. it metastasized, and it is the mess we have now. we're going to have that mess tomorrow, next month, at least, and into the future, regardless of what we do or do not do. what is different right now is these guys are moving on a path that could be an immediate dramatic game changer to the entire middle east. so there is a difference in perspective. it is very hard to communicate this. i have been trying to do it for three days. the president tried to do it and was not completely clear. we have a longer-term problem of a wide swath of sunni, arab am a largely desert territory in the middle of the levant that has been taken over by a terrorist group in syria, iraq, and other insurgent groups that are unhappy with the government. it is not really ungoverned be

. >> charlie: i think robert ford said this, the former ambassador to syria, he said iraq and syria are one big conflict now. >> it's certainly connected, and i think that's one of the dangers. this fight going on right now could spread and make some linkages that would be very, very difficult to eradicate once they get a foothold in both syria and iraq and make it much more difficult for even a political solution to the problem. obviously, syria is a whole different issue, one where we've not been very aggressive in any particular way, and, so, that would be we would have to start from ground zero, i think, to figure out how to help solve that problem with friends and allies. >> charlie: i wonder whether syria informs the decision president is making in iraq because many are criticizing the decision the president made not to do more in syria. >> i think it brings into sharp focus that what was happening in syria was opposite what our u.s. interests in the region are, our vital national interests because, first of all, it was a threat to israel, it's a threat to stability in jordan, to

yesterday the white house received perhaps, its most searing indictment yet when robert ford, the formerambassador to syria, under president obama, when he explained why he left his post last month. >> i was no long her a position where i felt i could defend the american policy. we have been unable to address either the root causes of the conflict in terms of the fighting on the ground and the balance on the ground. and we have a growing extremism threat and there's really nothing we can point this to that's been very successful in our policy. the regime simply has no credibility. and our policy is not addressing the syrian crisis as it needs to. >> just ahead, the father of the year is -- chris christie? main justices explain whether the christie recovery tour is working. that's next. [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing ne

you heard robert ford saying he could month longer defend his syria policy. we missed an opportunity to do more to support moderate rebels. so much of this depends on the iraqis getting their houses in order. the concern is it is wishful thinking and had a long time to be more inclusive and get their political process healthier. i don't see a lot of reason lit happen now. especially so much blood is being shed. >> senior white house correspondent jim acosta is in the briefing room asking president obama about his decisions. specifically about how he would prevent from mission creep. jim? >> reporter: that's right. that's the risk when you send in 300 million adviser. it could be a preview. you heard democrats on capitol hill raise a lot of quest questions as to whether or not boots should be put on the ground. harry reid said he doesn't think my boots should be put on the ground in iraq. when i asked that of the president, he said american troops are not returning in a combat role in iraq. i think another key question here in this -- this really goes to the p

. >> reporter: robert ford resigned earlier this year if frustration telling cnn's christiane amanpour> i was in longer in a position where i felt i could defend the american policy. we have been unable to address either the root causes of the conflict in terms of the fighting on the ground and the balance on the ground. and we have growing extremism threat. >> reporter: and in her upcoming book, kerry's predecessor, hillary clinton, writes she along with former cia director david petraeus and former defense secretary leon panetta all favored arming moderate rebels. overruled by president obama. two years later, kerry says the u.s. is now prepared to step up its military involvement to weaken president bashar al assad's resolve. you, yourself, have said we're not going to change the equation on the ground until assad sees he's starting to get brusz brus little bit. >> there are a series of steps we have been taking to do exactly what you just described. >> but wolf, even if this proposal makes it through the full senate where it has a good deal of support, it wouldn't happen overnight.

. >> robert mcnamara head of the ford company, brilliant, famous for his codes. >> he was a world war to stop wasting the pentagon. >> we increased the number of combat ready by 45%. >> the expectation was he would figure out vietnam. >> the intention of my government is clear. we are prepared to produce whatever economic aid, whatever military training and whatever quantities are required and for as long as that is required. vietn vietnam! >> the public secretary of defense is all about bullish bravado that we will prevail but he's gloomy about the prospects. >> until a strong government begins to function here in saigon, the war against the communists will continue. >> the more i stood awake thinking about this thing just worries the hell out of me. i don't think it's worth fighting for and i don't think we can get out. if you keep running communiscom they might run you out of your own kitchen. >> that's the trouble. >> gentlemen, this is a modern war but different war. we're here to advice and support our courageous voietnamese ally >> the most complex war we had fought to this tim

watch out, harrison ford. robert is being tapped to play indiana jones in the fifth movie in the series. some people say that is that -- charles: unless he is playing a vampire with supernatural abilities, i see this guy jumping off a cliff and breaking his ankle. this guy lost it when his girlfriend had sex with the director. those are big shoes to fill. i do not think he can do it. stuart: you have glossed over the real reason why this man will play indiana jones. charles: maybe. stuart: he got all upset because his girlfriend had sex with the direct care. >> and then he went out and got two new girls the same day. stuart: we are going to move on where you make us some money. you will tell us about kimberly-clark. they have a huge demographic problem. you know this already. you are nodding away. charles: they have a serious issue. they will have to swallow their pride which is hard for them to do. they make all of these things that we use. 3% yield out there for people looking for something with yield. this company