more likely, it is 870 attack -- a suni attack. the real concern is if it is suni directed violence, this is an ominous turn toward sectarianism. >> it would escalate things even further. >> what is remarkable first and foremost is for a brutal repressive government tells you that their group is not what it used to be. this tells you that the state is under stress. and the ability of the regime to control what is happening within its borders is now a question mark. >> do you expect this to be a start of the more dangerous phase? >> we will see how the government reacts to this. if they returned brutal violence with an escalation of their own, this could turn into something very ugly, and potentially a civil war. >> we have another statement. -- what more than a shooting pieces of paper can united states do? >> the syrian regime is a dead man walking. it's still maintains control of security forces, so it can resist for some period of time. there could be further spasms of violence. syria is a different country than libya. in libya,

prime minister nouri maliki is from the shia majority and tariq al-hashemi is from the suny minority.he divisions that have cost so many lives are rising again. >> all calm on the surface of baghdad but the country is on the rest of day crisis. -- is on the cusp of a crisis. the division between the shiite and sunni politicians could spill out into the streets. at the center is the sunni vice president, tariq al-hashemi. he denies that he ran hit squads targeting government officials. he is now in kurdistan. the shi'a prime tester has called on kurdish leaders to hand him over. -- the shi'a prime minister has called on kurdish leaders to hand him over. >> there is only one way out of this, through the judicial system. hashemi should stand trial either to be found innocent or to be indicted. there is no other way. >> tariq al-hashemi has angrily rebutted the charges against him. he said that they were politically motivated. he did not trust the justice system under a government led by nouri maliki. >> i demand that the elementary investigation be held here in kurdistan and it should be

prime minister nouri maliki is from the shia majority and tariq al-hashemi is from the suny minority.he divisions that have cost so many lives are rising again. >> all calm on the surface of baghdad but the country is on the rest of day crisis. -- is on the cusp of a crisis. the division between the shiite and sunni politicians could spill out into the streets. at the center is the sunni vice president, tariq al-hashemi. he denies that he ran hit squads targeting government officials. he is now in kurdistan. the shi'a prime tester has called on kurdish leaders to hand him over. -- the shi'a prime minister has called on kurdish leaders to hand him over. >> there is only one way out of this, through the judicial system. hashemi should stand trial either to be found innocent or to be indicted. there is no other way. >> tariq al-hashemi has angrily rebutted the charges against him. he said that they were politically motivated. he did not trust the justice system under a government led by nouri maliki. >> i demand that the elementary investigation be held here in kurdistan and it should be

withdrew the last troops from iraq and the political battle raging between the shiite prime minister and suni vice president, this new violence invoked fears that this country may be headed for a civil war. the bombs hit too close to home for an iraqi man we will call terry. a former u.s. military interpreter we met last week in baghdad who worked with the army fighting fraud in reconstruction projects. he asked that we conceal his identity to protect him. >> what did you do for the united states? >> i helped them distinguish who were the good guys and bad guys. >> reporter: terry's father who works with the anti-copuption office was on his way to work when one bombs exploded at his office killing 25 colleagues. what will happen to you if you stay in iraq and you can't get to the states? >> i will get killed. >> reporter: terry has been waiting for ayear for a visa that will allow him to move to the u.s. in a skype interview yesterday he told us he can wait to longer. >> when i was working i was living in a secure place. i didn't fear my life. even for the one moment. and now there is no such

mutanabbi street is a mixed shia-suni area. more than 30 people were killed and more than 100 were wounded. this locale is the historic center of baghdad book selling, a winding street filled with bookstores and outdoor book stalls. named after the famous 10th century classic poet, al-mutanabbi, this is an old and established street for book selling and has been for hundreds of years. mutanabbi street also holds cafes, stationary shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. it has been the heart and soul of the baghdad literary and intellectual community. this tragedy is part of a wider and continuing tragedy, but one that we want to isolate and address, not only for the loss of lives but also for the implications underlying the destruction of a street where books were sold. book selling on mutanabbi street is no different from book selling here. we traffic in memory, ideas and dreams. in that sense, we feel that mutanabbi street starts at the front door of all of our book shops. mutanabbi street starts here. our first reader will be

in an on-line statements the group says the assaults government to support suny muslims in present and those have been executed. the bombings targeted markets, grocery stores, cafes and government buildings in a dozen neighborhoods. the attacks coincided with a government crisis that has already strained ties between the destinies and shiites. the first major attacks since the u.s. completed a full withdrawal. >>darya: a strong storm hitting the shores of thailand. giant waves are continuing for a third day. some of the waves were as high as 5 m high. they believe this is caused by monsoons. houses and infrastructure along the shoreline have been damaged. flooding in other parts of thailand is so bad that the livelihood of neighboring countries-- neighboring companies is threatened. >>erica: the orange on the screen indicates a half mile north of santa rosa near petaluma. compromise visibility and hazardous driving conditions. for the most part we are seeing forties' in the south bay locations. into the afternoon we will see a lot of fifties out there. in the north bay, mostly cloudy c

the prime minister is threatening prosecution of a senior suny, which leads many cities to believe theycould be next, but there could be a coming oppression. the u.s. presence in the country had until recently served as a stabilizing influence, persuading the sunni they would not be oppressed by the shiite majority. with that gone, the situation is considerably more dangerous. >> more than 120 people have been killed by government troops in syria today, according to human-rights organizations. a report which cannot be verified by the bbc suggests more than half who died were army deserters, shot while trying to abandon their posts. syria agreed to allow arab league observers to monitor the protests, with a goal of ending the violence. >> the bbc, live from singapore and london. the search for bodies continues, following a devastating flash floods in the philippines. we will hear from someone who has been affected. >> in a race against time, the american man tried to visit as many as he can before the close. >> the man who buried his fiance alive in a cardboard box was found guilty of at

more likely, it is 870 attack -- a suni attack.it is suni directed violence, this is an ominous turn toward sectarianism. >> it would escalate things even further. >> what is remarkable first and foremost is for a brutal repressive government tells you that their group is not what it used to be. this tells you that the state is under stress. and the ability of the regime to control what is happening within its borders is now a question mark. >> do you expect this to be a start of the more dangerous phase? >> we will see how the government reacts to this. if they returned brutal violence with an escalation of their own, this could turn into something very ugly, and potentially a civil war. >> we have another statement. -- what more than a shooting pieces of paper can united states do? >> the syrian regime is a dead man walking. it's still maintains control of security forces, so it can resist for some period of time. there could be further spasms of violence. syria is a different country than libya. in libya, there was a limited mil

presence in the region providing a kind of stabilization keeping sunis and shias from going at each other do you think it would make sense for a u.s. presence to continue or return to iraq do you think that would be preferable to a current situation that could lead to possible down the line something like civil war. i think that the worst thing that could happen would be a return to u.s. occupation that's what led to this level of of of sectarian divide in the first place that is the wrong approach i think that what is needed is a full withdrawal of the u.s. troops not only from iraqi territory but from what they like to call over the horizon we now have thousands of u.s. troops poised at new u.s. bases in kuwait on ships on the coast and ready to move back in that's a very threatening environment as well as threatening of course to iraq's neighbors most notably iran this is not a stabilizing force it never has been i don't accept the premise that the us occupation force has provided stability if we look at what happened in two thousand and six two thousand and seven at the height of the

last week, the shiite prime minister ordered the arrest of the face's suni vice president, accusing him of running death squads against officials. he has denied the charges, saying they are politically motivated. "wjz" "eyewitness news." >> >> also today, a roadside bomb hit a passing army patrol west of baghdad killing two soldiers and injuring two others. >> >> an accident victim pulled to safety, emergency rushed to the scene. it happened when a truck and a car collided head on in cold spring lane and green spring the accident is under investigation. >> >> a maryland trucking company is in a financial mess. the insurer for the mts transport said its $1 million policy won't be enough to cover roughly 1,000 claims for damaged vehicles. the goo damaged tires and engines of cars that drove through it earlier this month. mts transport is suing another insurer to cover the damage. >> >> a university of arizona student recovering after waking up from a coma. in tonight's "healthwatch." doctors can't explain this. >> this is reason for the christmas story. >> reporter: doctors point to 21-ye

this is the highest ranking suni official. this comes a day after the final u.s.ops pulled out of iraq. attorney general holder explains why he and president obama are under fire. later in the grapevine. first, who up and who is down in the g.o.p. presidential race? >> bret: just a little more of two weeks until iowa first in the nation caucuses. chief political correspondent carl cameron tracks the latest polls, and the newest ads. >> slipping in the polls in the face of relentless criticism for the rivals, newt gingrich told modest crowd at the headquarters of the global services in davenport he will hold daily conference call with iowanss to answer the attacks. >> i wish they would have the courage to be positive and have a campaign where we matched ideas. we didn't see whose consultant can be the nastier or whose consultant can run more pleasant ad. >> they face overwhelming barrage of attacks. featuring ads on the air and get out the vote operation on the ground. >> newt stood up with ronald reagan and was there with conservative values. >> that ad launched b

we called out to a list of 150 gptae pich ple and on a suny afternoon at 5:00 eastern time, 23,tae0 we able to picpwotp the 28n and listen. some of them even been doing christmas shopping while they were knsteninpark >> gpwota: iicp curious do you have any idea any of these tea party pich ple in iown is rather the aggressive n you on their vote? >> i h whensche heard that in ia in fact i have heard the negative campaign is bothering a lot of tea party pich ple in soh carolincha in iowa not so much. it may be in iowa they are so used to this every four years n fust like you said. >> greta: it's a rather unusual group o onetea party. it's hard to identify who is in and who is out. is there going to be any collective endorsement? >> not from tea party patriots. i don't know of any collective endorsement. there are different groups arokncd the country that locally made decisions to endorse or not on to endorse. what we try to do is the strsio poll is gauge where our supporters fall right now so we can let the medme media telling us and let everyone know what the tea party are thiorking two

the great concern again is that this is once again going to set off that cycle of tit-for-tat suny versusttacks. >> to be clear, bob, there are still 17,000 american diplomats and private security contractors in iraq. you've said you're very concerned about the safety of those people as well, is that right? >> well, the security forces are contractors. they're well-qualified, but they can't contain an assault from a militia group. they've talked about the embassy being too large. it's vulnerable. in the event of a civil war even right now it could come under attack. i think the state department should be very worried about that and we could have to rescue that mission. >> arwa, there on the ground given that there's no military muscle to speak of left in the country, does the united states have any influence on events happening there on the ground? >> reporter: not a lot, sanjay. the u.s. doesn't have a really strong trump card that it can play against the iraqis to try to force or influence what's happening here. the best that they can do right now is to urge these various leaders to try

there are two basic groups of muslims in iraq, suny and shia. -- sunni and shia. we normally hear the call to prayer, but today we heard a long [speaking islam] it was not the call to prayer. our intel was wrong. even more surprising than that, it was a shia political rally. for centuries, in this area, a shia people were discriminated against, called heretics', blasphemers, worse than nonbelievers. their leaders taught them a philosophy of concealment or hiding. if you ever are in danger of losing your life because of your identity, you do not have to share it. god will forgive you so that you can live and do his work. if you would lose your job, you do not have to reveal your identity. concealment and hiding is ok. but you will lose your friends to. -- if you are one to lose your friends, you do not have to reveal who you are. we were in iraq to help the people manifest a system of government, pluralistic, democratic, rep, where all people, no matter what their identity, could access their government resources equally. enough of this concealment. we would go to

attacks coincided with a government crisis that has already strained ties between skoda--between the suny and shiite muslims. >>darya: take a look at the strong storm that has hit the stores of thailand. the giant waves continue in six southern provinces along the gulf of thailand. there is wind and rain causing destruction. the waves are believed to have been caused by monsoon surges that began on sunday. houses and infrastructure along the shoreline have been damaged. >>darya: more flooding in thailand now affecting neighboring countries with a thousand cars that were damaged when the waters reached a nearby factory run by honda. honda has plants in thailand. there were in the process of restoring this factory before resuming operations. to make sure that none of these cars and make it onto the market they're using a particular serial number and posting it on there website. >>darya: we're back with more in a couple of minutes. here is a live look at where it is foggy in vallejo. the carquinez bridge. if >>janu: overnight, a lot of cloud cover and a slight chance of sprinkles. phosphor f

how could it on my statement it said that the assaults were meant to support suni's and prison and those that have been executed. but there were a dozen mostly shiat street neighborhood. these were the first major attack since the u.s. troops completed a first major--completed their first major withdrawal. take a look this storm that has come ashore, giant waves have continued on a third day in six southern provinces along the gulf of thailand. the wind and rain is leaving a trail of destruction. the waves are as high as 5 m there are believed to have been caused by monsoon surges that began on sunday. the damage and the conditions have forced thousands of people to evacuate. flooding in other parts of thailand are so bad that it is now affecting a neighboring countries live the good. more than 1000 cars were damaged when the high waters rise in nearby factory run by the japanese auto maker honda. the company is in the process of restoring its factory before has, before it can resume operations. to assure the quality of the car, serial numbers that stood in the flood water for weeks will

in an online statement the islamic state of iraq says the attacks were meant to support sunis in prisonek after the u.s. pulled out of iraq. >>> steve the first contest for the 2012 republican presidential nomination is a week away. candidates are now gearing up for their first big electoral test of the season. for more on who if anybody is leading in iowa we turn to fox 5s. sherry lee. >> well, tony, ron paul and mitt romney are neck and neck in this roller coaster year that has seen front runners come and go, many voters remain undecided since the iowa caucuses are typically decided by a very small number of people this could get interesting. >> ron paul is considers a serious threat to win iowa, the vote is organized and energized just over 22%, paul leads romney with 21% in an average of polls taken before christmas. perry is gaining, at 12%. after a one day christmas break, romney and perry both launched new ads. >> it is imperative for america to stop spending more money than we take in. >>> if washington is the problem why trust a congressman to fix it. >> reporter: they use comm

they're going to be re-emerging tensions between sunys and shy as.uestion whether iran has an overly large influence. iraq hasn't been following our diplomatic lead necessarily when it comes to dealing with siri a. we're going to have some tensions and difficulties. iraq may well be on the course interestingly enough to sort of breaking up some and becoming more of a federation of exactly the same kind of thing joe biden was calling for or thought should be the outcome some time ago. let me go back to the size of our presence. you've been to rome. you see what a massive structure the vatican is and what a massive presence it is in rome. this new complex we're building in iraq is expected to be larger than the vatican. >> huge. okay. so this commitment to end this war 2011 was made by the bush administration. it was made again by the obama administration. gloria, who gets credit for this? is it a shared accomplishment by these administrations? >> reporter: i don't think anybody gets credit in particular because americans are completely divided down th

the sunis have the greatest concern over the years they have been mar generalized they have been targetedharassment and worse without the u.s. there, the amish broker protecting their rights they are worried what could hanover the summer i was in faluga that is the place where they are most anxious to see the u.s. leave. they remember clearly the battle in 2004 it will be generations before they forget that, so i think there is a wide variety of opinions. >> you talk about the struggles within the country but threats from outside. >> absolutely. been a lot said about iranian influence is that going to grow without the u.s. there. when you talk about iranian influence first of all that ship has sailed for years the u.s. military has been telling us about iran funding an army and training shiite militias i was riding in a convoy in 2009, hit by an iranian made weapon that is all the evidence i need. there was a camp loyalty in baghdad hit by a powerful iranian explosive, five u.s. troops killed the sophistication of that attack shows you how deep the iranian reach is they have ties to the p

i'm a junior political science major at suny-albany. i just have a question. when andrew cuomo first came to office as governor he said he wanted to emulate some of the qualities of alfred smith. and earlier in the program we talked about how at one point the governor's office was a very weak political office. can you just, if anything, go over what he did to make the office of governor stronger and what example did he leave behind for others to follow? >> thank you, sir. that is probably one of the lasting legacies of alfred e. smith, and when governor cuomo entered office he put smith's portrait behind the rostrum so that all the press conferences will see al smith and he replaced teddy roosevelt, who was there for the last three governors. governor cuomo also instituted a sage commission which would investigate government and try to make it more efficient, which is also like smith's reconstruction commission. the point that smith is probably being emulated most for efficiency in government. smith took 187 massive rolling bureaus, boards, commissions, depart

but the saudis were looking for a suny counterweight -- a sunni counterweight. but they kept turkey from coming out on the side of the kingdom and a few between saudi arabia and iran. furthermore, turkey was buying gas from iran and they economic relations. we will hear more about this, but the turks seemed anxious not to alienate iran. strangely enough, things did not begin to change until the arabs bring this year. one by one, the turks and saudis on themselves more or less on the same side in libya. it took turkey awhile to come over to the side of the rebels there and the saudis were behind them from the beginning. more importantly, syria, where they are now on the same side working with the opposition to overthrow the regime, though not for the same reasons. in the case of turkey, i think it is more a personal the trail. -- it's more a personal betrayal. the saudi position is to eliminate iranian influence in syria and to get even for what happened in iraq where the american invasion created a shiite-dominated government tilted toward iran which is a major