sergeant bowe bergdahl may have made contact with suspected taliban associates. let's get more on this now from barbara. >> i began by asking defense secretary chuck hagel about the deal to release five detainees from gitmo in exchange for getting sergeant bergdahl back. and then an extraordinary moment of candor. >> not everyone at white house agreed with me. >> on what part of this? >> probably on the pace of releases. >> because you've been cautious? >> because i had the responsibility and i play my own game here and that is because by law i am the one, the one official in government charged with certification of release of detainees. >> have you had pressure? >> we've had a lot of conversations. >> what he is talking about is the pressure he felt to sign off on releasing more detainees and releasing them faster. secretary hagel made clear he was never willing to sign anything he wasn't comfortable with. barbara star cnn, the pentagon. >> for more on this let's bring in former u.s. delta force commander lieutenant colonel james reese. i think there is a big pi

officials now suspect that one of those five freed prisoners has made contact with suspected taliban associates. cnn's pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more. >> good morning, all of this coming to light because the u.s. intelligence community conducts a classified intercept surveillance program over the communications of all five of those men now back in the persian gulf nation of qatar after being traded for bowe bergdahl from their detention in guantanamo bay. something popped up where one of them was noticed to be making communication, telephone call it's believed to militants, taliban associates so you know now where does all of this stand? the u.s. says it's got all five under even closer surveillance than before. that they can mitigate any threat that is posed. they don't believe it was a direct threat. but i will tell you there are some in the intelligence community, i have spoken to who express a good deal of concern about all of this. and believe that this is a clear example of someone returning to militant activity. the detainees, this isn't the first one that's done it. it wo

he was attempting to communicate with taliban associated back in afghan, pakistan area. this is an attempt to return to militancy. that raised alarmed in the u.s. intelligence community. officials caught it very quickly because they conduct classified surveillance of these five detainees communication. they intercept and monitor so they caught it very quickly. now they're watching all five of them even more closely than they were although they were watching them very closely trying to keep track and seeing what they may be doing. an internal debate inside the u.s. intelligence community. did this pose a direct threat. some say no. some say not sure yet. they're still looking at it. >> barbara, this isn't the first detainee to return to the battlefield. 12 to 15% is one solid estimate out there. this one is extremely significant. this deal in and of itself was significant. the united states does not negotiate with groups like this. they do not do these sorts of things. they did and said because it was an american prisoner of war they were exchanging for. this is one of th

there are reports the man reached out to taliban associates from his current home in qatar. of five taliban detainees releases leased from guantanamo bay last year. in exchange the taliban released bergdahl. the army is considering whether to punish bergdahl for leaving his post in afghanistan prior to his capture. >> still no proof of life for two hostages being held by isis, the terror group said it would kill the japanese journalist and a jordanian pilot yesterday unless jordan released an al-qaeda prisoner from death row. jordan said it would agree to the swap but only if it received evidence those hostages were still alive. well that deadline passed with no word of their fate. the jordanian government has promised to release any updates. >> reporter: opening statements began today in the murder trial of a maple shade burlington county man accused in the murder of etan patz. pedro hernandez was a teenaged stock boy at a soho new york city where the little boy stopped on his walk to the school bus back in 1979. now 35 years later hernandez who is mentally ill is defending

quickly when it happened essentially in real time that one of them had made phone calls to taliban associatesk in afghanistan. so they picked it up really almost instantly that this had happened. it's one of the benefits you might think of this classified surveillance program, of their communications. inside the intelligence community, a bit of a difference of opinion, perhaps. some say, not so serious. but i have to tell you, i've talked to several sources who tell me they are taking this very seriously, they do have concerns about it. and the qataris are supposed to keep physical control over them. there's a travel ban on them for one year. so come this spring, we'll see if they stay there or they go somewhere else. >> i'm not going to suggest that i know how the cia plies its trade. but i want to ask if it's not a great idea that if he did actually return to militant activities, doesn't that bring you right to the source? doesn't that bring your intelligence right to the source of where the others are, meaning, isn't it strangely a good thing? >> it's a phone call at this point that they'v

apparently within the last several weeks one of them tried to make phone calls to former taliban associates u.s. intelligence picked it up very quickly. they caught the call. now, what does this all mean? some in the intelligence community have said as long as we caught the problem, it's okay. i will tell you that several sources tell me that there is considerable concern about this. it is not a good sign. they may have caught the communication, but this is not a good sign. they've had detainees do this return to the battlefield, shown that activity in the past. it's happened before but in this case of course it's very distinctive because of that political controversy surrounding the five for one trade swap to get bowe bergdahl back. these five detainees from guantanamo bay all were suspected of fairly significant activity in operating with the taliban in afghanistan. that's what got them picked up and sent to gitmo in the first place. so likely to see a lot of additional criticism from this from many republicans, in fact democrats here in washington. >> wasn't someone supposed to be keepin

sergeant bowe bergdahl may have made contact with suspected taliban associates.gan by asking defense secretary chuck hagel about the deal to release five detainees from gitmo in exchange for

army sergeant bo bergdahl has tried to reestablish contact with his taliban associate in afghanistan.hree u.s. military contractors in kabul. retired u.s. army sergeant jordan vaughn served in the same company as bo bergdahl he joins us this morning. sergeant, nice to see you this morning. welcome to the show. >> nice to see you. thanks for having me. >> absolutely. part of the argument from the obama administration is don't worry these five guys are in the hands of the qatary government and qatar is watching these guys. what do you say to that? >> well, i think it's a bit obvious what's already going on. they are talking to taliban haqqani network. they are boosting morale at a key time in the conflict. they are calling them insurgents instead of terrorists. it seems like they're making attempts at reconciliation and possibly giving them a part in the ruling coalition of the government of afghanistan. >> you heard rear admiral kirby come out third day in a row where a member of the administration or spokesperson from the administration has come out and said we are not calling the tal

taliban killed 133 students and also killed staff members last month. a 15-year-old student, who was injured in the attack told the associated press he had one message for- we are not scared of you. another student posted two photos on facebook. one of him and three classmates before the attack. and another after the attack with only one of those friends left alive. it was reported in "the l.a. times," the raid underscored the vulnerability of pakistan's schools, which have long been a battleground for militants who view the country's formal education system as western and un-islamic. joining me by phone from pakistan is kiran nazish. kiran, thank you very much for joining us. when i read your article, i knew we had to talk about this. you say in the article, at least a thousand schools have closed down and possibly more. some of those schools have been replaced by religious schools that approach education in a very different way. would you explain what's happening in those schools, the new religious schools? >> that's right. well the citizens that we have it is more than schools, but we haven't been able to actually tell how many schools have been dest

taliban there. an afghan military official told the associated press, isis is recruiting new members in afghanistan. more than a dozen have already been killed in fighting. >>> an illinois teen pleading guilty to charges he tried to support isis terrorists. officials say 19-year-old mohamed hamzah khan invited his family in his plans to travel to the middle east to join isis. he was arrested at chicago o'hare airport in october. khan's mother condemning the terror group, saying it brainwashes muslim youth. >> we condemn the brainwashing and recruiting of children through social media and the internet. and we have a message for isis. leave our children alone. >> khan faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. >>> attorneys for accused boston marathon bomber dzhokhar tsarnaev are asking a judge to suspend jury selection in his trial for at least a month in light of the terror attacks in paris. defense lawyers argued that right now it would be all but impossible to seat an impartial jury there in boston. the judge has twice rejected defense efforts to move that trial out of boston or to delay its sta

people in places that they want to put them and they don't want to be associated with a terrorist organization. if you don't call taliban terrorists, then you can kind of deal with them. >> it could be kimberly, that they are trying to make a distinction where there might not be. the state department has a list called foreign terrorist organizations, that means that you're a state and doing terrorism and you are a state sponsor of it. the taliban are not on that specific list. however, they are on the treasury list. >> right. >> which basically means, if you are on that list, there are asset freezes and you can't do trading with them. do you think they are trying to make a distinction? >> of course they are. it's always what is convenient semantically. i don't know what is wrong with these people. they really don't get it. this poor guy makes a fool of himself. it's just sad. and they are in charge of this country and of our foreign policy and of our national security. i don't get it. they have really proved themselves to be completely and wholeheartedly unworthy. >> do you think it matters if they say if the terrorists

two of the five of the taliban dream team as part of this prisoner swap, one of them was associated with bin laden. one of them directly associated in helping al qaeda and you know here is where we are, martha. the problem is the taliban, they're our enemy. they have killed many of our troops. so you put five of their top commanders back in this battle. i think the real worry is we don't want them in the position where they can harm our men and women in uniform again. these taliban have killed many of our men and women in uniform. don't forget what the taliban did to woman in soccer stadiums, murdering them. this is very bad group. josh earnest is missing the point and white house is as well. martha: 150 schoolchildren in pakistan right before christmas. thank you very much, senator. >> absolutely. murdering innocent schoolchildren. martha: thank you very much. bill: ten minutes past the hour. cell phone video capturing a horrifying scene as a gas trucks explodes outside of a children's hospital. [explosion] now there are new details on this deadly blast. that's coming up. also there is

former taliban in pakistan and afghanistan are associating.ligence briefing yesterday. can you share with us if you were told about any credible threats here at home? >> alisyn i can't share what we were briefed on in a classified meeting of the senate intelligence committee. i can tell you that the threat around the world is as great as it's ever been because al qaeda is on the march. they now control more territory than they did before the 9/11 attacks. this president has consistently minimized the threats of al qaeda. a year ago he called the islamic state the j.v. team. two years ago he said al qaeda was on the run and his re-election campaign said they were largely defeated. they're not largely defeated. they're on the offense. >> just yesterday the chairman of the senate intelligence committee richard burke told jay tapper that he believes it is possible that the kouachi brothers did have contacts in the united states. do you think that that's right? >> well senator burr and i obviously are monitoring the situation very closely and we're

associated with al qaeda. these are not minor players. melissa: a new report that says one former talibanmander is now recruiting militants to join isis. the dream team here to talk about this one. this is in or mess. >> a few do not have a place to put high-value detainees then what are you doing with them? what are you saying about your desire to gain high-level intelligence? the problem is, the notion that people have out there that we just put people to languish there forever. >> there are a legal roadblocks in the middle of it. the problem right now is you have 127 of them. eighty-seven of them are from yemen. no, that is not an option. you have a president in the white house hell-bent on closing it. >> it seems that there is almost this wholesale release of prisoners. these are bad people. whether it is 30% or 2%. these are masterminds. they are very high valued. >> you look at our veterans. what are you going to do if you release them from gitmo? you cannot put them in maximum security facilities. >> no. there is no way we will allow this. we cannot get agreement on what that proce

taliban and al qaeda operatives. >>> there is word a possible plea deal is off the table in the case of the boston marathon bombing suspects . the associated press reports the justice department is now pushing for the death penalty should dzhokar tsarnaev be convicted. opening statements are set for a week from today in the case against the 21 year old defendant. only three federal inmates including timothy mcveigh have been put to death since 2001. >>> well people living in one west african country, mali, are breathing a sigh of relief. the health minister announced an end to the ebola outbreak. no new cases have been reported over the past 42 days, that the period required for the world health organization to declare an official outbreak being over. >>> meanwhile pope francis we love you. that was the cry from hundreds of children in the philippines as the pope boarded a plane headed back to the vatican. pope francis visited the philippines during a week long trip and drew what phillipine officials believe was a record crowd of 6 million faithful during his visit manilla. >>> icy roads are blamed for a string of deadly crashes on some of

taliban. as it turns out there has good bit suggesting that they were, are associated with terror. that's right. the supreme court precedent that says if you withhold evidence bringing material, that's evidence leading the jury to believe that you're not guilty of the crime, then you get a new trial. what they have done, steve, is expose new evidence that they say the army had, the defense department had and failed to turn over. >> and that's the troubling part. apparently there was evidence and we've got information to put up on the screen -- one man killed was a co-conspirator to a man serving a 20-year sentence for ied attacks in afghanistan. the man lorance was attempted to engage was ied in kandahar and the guy interviewed was incarcerated in afghanistan and linked to four separate ied events. peter, when we last talked about this, we were looking to help this man get clemency. that didn't happen. what's left? >> what's left is a new petition modification to general clark and if that do not work, go to the court of appeals, military court of appeals. also there is a petition t

military action against obama and his associates, al qaeda i walked up to our secretary of defense, donald rumsfeld. i said let's go in do what we can, destroy the taliban which held government control in the country and underneath get engaged in development of democracy. maybe i was wrong. maybe time will demonstrate i was wrong. but certainly i don't anticipate ten years an still another ten years. certainly the rest of the middle east would try that, it would be far, far longer. i think we have to face the fact that the region will probably be in some serious turmoil for a long time to come, and our bets ought to be on those countries which like the european countries have already acquired cohesion of states and i mentioned them in my comments but not trying to do the heavy lifting ourselves. we could get the russians and chinese to be more cooperative. they have a stake being more cooperative, we would be better off. each sit on the sidelines and think, well the americans will get more engaged and this will improve our interests in competing with us here or there. we would like to collaborate them with limited steps and helping moderates in the midd

the "associated press" reports that isis is now spreading its tentacles in the country leading to deadly clashes with the talibanersevered for generations. joining me now is graham smith, author of the new book "the dogs are eating them now, our war in afghanistan." it is a stark chronicle of the four years he spent as one of the few western journalists in the taliban hotbed of southern afghanistan. graham, with a welcome to you, i want to first ask you, are you seeing this reported presence of isis in the region? >> yeah the area where i spent years reporting down in the south is where we're hearing some of the most disturbing reports about black flags going up over taliban groups. so the white flags are coming down, the black flags are coming up and they're fighting each other, some of these extremists good news for the afghan government. good to see your enemies shooting at each other. but on the other hand it means that there is this new sort of even more extreme version of jihadist ideology being bred in the south, making it perhaps a little more difficult for mainstream, more moderate taliban to negotiate

associates, al-qaeda. but i walked up to the secretary of defense at the time, don rumsfeld and as such in, look let's go in knock them off do what we can, destroy the taliban which held government control in the country, and don't get engaged in developing of democracy. now, maybe i was wrong. maybe time will demonstrate i was wrong but certainly i don't think anybody anticipated it would be 10 years. and by still another 10 years. and certainly the rest of the middle east if we were to try that it would be far, far longer. so i think we have to face the fact that the region will probably be in some serious trouble for long time to come at our best ought to be on those countries which, like the european countries in the air of formation have already acquired some cohesive of state. and i mentioned in my comment not try to do the heavy lifting of those. and if we did get the russians and the chinese to more cooperative and they have a stake in being more cooperative, we would be better off. and each of them in fact may be tempted to sit on the sidelines and think well, the americans will get more engaged by this will improve our interests in competing with

associates al qaeda. i looked to the secretary of defense donald rumsfeld and said, let's go in and knock them out and do what we can to destroy the taliban, which held government control in the country, and then leave. don't get engaged in development of democracy. maybe i was wrong. maybe time will demonstrate that i was wrong, but certainly i don't think anybody anticipated it would be 10 years, and certainly in the rest of the middle east, if we were to try that, it would be far longer. i think we have to face the fact that the region will probably be in some serious turmoil for a long time to come, and our bets ought to be on those countries which, the european countries -- like the european countries, have already acquired some cohesion as states, but not try to do the heavy lifting ourselves. if we could get the russians and chinese to be more cooperative -- and they have a stake in being more cooperative -- we would be better off. each of them could be tempted to sit on the sidelines and think the americans will get more engaged, and this will improve our interests in competing here or there. i don't think that is a smart solution