command, now the internet command. -- you have the asia command, the africa command, now the internet command. the more they know about people, the easier it is for them to do their job and college their goals. both of these sites have something they each want. we are seeing a marriage between these huge corporate giants in the military and national security part of the government. they have a mutual interest in collecting data and sharing it. , for securityment people to get more government -- information from google then they can get on their own. for these companies, that the u.s. government doing their work from them. protecting copyright abroad and their franchises abroad is protecting them from hackers. what did the u.s. government does it it pays for much of the research. almost all of them come out of military spending. it is a marriage made in heaven why that is a problem for us is going back to democratic theory. it is not healthy for the monopolies and is not healthy to have a militarized state working with those monopolies. that sort of emerge relation th

the whole story, shep. >> shepard: catherine, u.s. military commanders have defended the response. >> there special operations vets bristol operations offered over the weekend from the former head of the africaconference that the attack was over way too quickly for the military to respond and conditions on the ground were too chaotic. the vets say special forces run to the sound of gunfire not away from it. >> i know my compatriots both retired and those that are on active duty were champing at the bit to be launched. we need the guts to try. that sends a message. it sends a message it those on active duty. it sends a message to those that have served that we will never leave you behind. >> while the majority of house republicans support a select committee. it will need approval from the speaker john boehner before it goes to the full house, shep. >> shepard: catherine, dramatic video now as a train plows right through a building and tops our news across america. colorado. railroad officials say crews were doing a switching move in a denver yard when four cars on a freight train derailed and plowed through a maintenance facility. they destroyed some heavy equipment before stopping on the oth

the so-called war on terror. what you see is still a mill tarrization of u.s. engagement with africa. it is not only the continuation of the africa command started under george bush, continued under president obama, but we see quite frankly, you know, the new announcement of a drone base in niger. you see steady flow of weapons into the region. the resistance of the administration to be a signatory on a u.n. arms trade treaty, recognizing that arms coming into the continent are what's fueling much of the conflict. so you see really a continuation of policies that have done much more harm than good. >> ifill: does it make a difference where he chose to go? in going to senegal and going to south africa and going to tanzania. not going to nigeria or eet cope i can't or anymore troubled democracies. is that significant? >> it's very significant because i think many africans see this as an extension of the trip that he made to gan a and the pronouncement that was made i that speech in gan a which in many ways have been reflected in his policy where he got democratization on good governance, trade and investment and helping build the capacity

the u.s. africa command also has paramilitary and joint commanders that use it as a staging ground to run operations into somalia and elsewhere. they trained forces from ethiopia and uganda in the u.s. is contemplating building another drone-based where they will be targeting a group called al qaeda and you also have a base in ethiopia and the relatively new base on the arabian finance law in saudi arabia. i think we are going to see an intensification of covert u.s. actions certainly in africa. we havarti seen it happen here in yemen. we are living in a the moment where we have a popular democratic president who is a constitutional lawyer by trade in training and who won the nobel peace prize and campaigned to reduce the excesses of the bush era and he would close on time of day, what and torture, which shut down this around the world. but what happened is that many of the most egregious aspects of the apparatus that was built up by bush and their cohorts had been intensified or continued in some of them have been rebranded and there is an attempt to legitimize policies that i think many liberals h

bush's preference since he left nofs 2009 has been to stay out of the political conversation, but there he was in africa, the former commander in chief, giving an honest assessment of edward snowden's actions before today's wreath laying ceremony with president obama. take a listen. >> i know he damaged the country and the obama administration will deal with it. >> do you think it is possible for one man to really damage the security of the nation? >> i think he damaged the security of the country. i put the program in place to protect the country and one of the certainties is civil liberties were guaranteed. >> joining me now for our daily fix, nbc's senior political editor, mark murray. chris cillizza, msnbc contributor and managing et toward of post politics.com. mark, start with this remarkable image of seeing the two presidents, 43 and 44, together specifically as they were talking about this issue of surveillance. they are both on the same side of this issue which with so notable given the fact that obama, as then senator an candidate obama, just pounded the president, former president, on the topic back then. >> peter

of drone attacks but regardless of the backlash the march of drones continues an expense for beyond known combat zones the commander of u.s. forces in africa told congress in february that he needed a fifteen fold increase in surveillance reconnaissance and intelligence gathering on the continent fifteen fold that's in africa the pentagon says the u.s. is also committed to increasing its surveillance in asia and the pacific. which effectively means beware china at the other end of the world in south and central america u.s. military commanders say they need drones for counter-narcotics operations so in every region on every continent there is something to keep an eye on but everybody understands that it's not just an eye wherever there are the spy drones there will be the predators waiting right behind to go on a kill mission and washington's request and that's where america's world policing urges often clash with international law in washington i'm going to check them u.k. think tank has warned that nationwide wealth inequality is set to skyrocket over the next few years unless the government really thinks its policy of slashing will for

the u.s. africa command. i just have one observation since there's a lot of references to that and then two questions. the observation is that years after the command when i was there up until april of 2012, had the staff of approximately 2,000 individuals, and -- special operations and army et cetera. about 2,000 person staff. we only had approximately 21 individuals from the interagency there. the department of state, usaid, department of justice and whatnot. when i was there, of those 21 some people, there's on one individual from usaid, and she was extremely valuable in our staff planning processes, execution, whatnot, but when we had the one person it was difficult for her to get around to the various commands, subcommands, working groups and whatnot. so i'm definitely a proponent of having more interagency cooperation, imbedding staff members throughout. my first question is, over the last decade, with iraq and afghanistan, the department of defense has either expanded and/or developed capabilities for d

the former head of africa command was at the pentagon for service chiefs on 9/11 when they got an alertom forces that the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya was under attack and there was no sign of a demonstration being involved. general hamm addressed the question. >> dunk it was a terrorist attack? >> i don't know that that was my first reaction but pretty quickly as we started to gain understanding within the hours after the initiation of the attack, yes. and i don't think anybody thought -- at the command, i don't think that anyone thought differently. >> general hamm said he immediately told leon panetta that it was under attack. it became a recovery operation by the evening and like panetta and others, the commander says it would have taken at least six hours to reach the site in libya. that is disputed by the administration's critics. nearly a year after the murder of chris stevens, foreign service officer smith and woods, the retired general says no one has been charged or prosecuted for the terrorist attack and it's a reflection of libya's weak government. >> it's a very, very

the phone. >> caller: oh. i was commanding officer of a gun boat in the south pacific in world war ii and navigator for a transport squadron. in the middle east and north africa during korea. [laughter] so i have just finished manchester's third volume on churchill, and i wondered what your reaction was to that book. >> guest: thank you, russell. i don't have any reaction because i haven't read it yet. i read the first two and then, of course, manchester died before he could finish the third one, and know that with a co-writer that third one has come out, and it's generally been well received. but i've not gotten around to reading it yet. i will. it's on my list. >> host: and the next call comes from guy in similar on, colorado. guy, you're on with rick atkinson. please go ahead. mr. >> caller: mr. atkinson, a pleasure to speak with you. i've read "the old breed," famous for its first person account of the horror faced by a marine corp. infantryman fighting in the pacific. i was quite moved by it. my question is can you recommend a similar book written by an american soldier who fought in the european theater? thank you. >> guest: well, you know, i rely on fi

jenna: information on the benghazi attack that left for americans dead. a former u.s. commander in north africa briefing the house armed service committee behind closed doors. saying the status of the investigation is "unacceptable." details from washington. reporter: good morning. he wants more benghazi hearings to take place after the august recess. making the comments to fox news this morning after a closed-door briefing of the house armed services committee by marine colonel commander of a task force in northern and western africa. taking affect tomorrow. lawmakers long sought his account on the absence of a military response to the benghazi attacks. other republican lawmakers continuing the personal pursuit of the mysteries surrounding benghazi. taking to the house floor to post related questions everyday while the house remains in session. >> even less known is about the cia annex. what was the annex, when was it established and how many people workework at the annex? how many were direct agencies to employees and how many were contractors? what was the ratio of cia staff to security cont

the u.s. africa command. i just have one observation since there's a lot of references and questions. he observation is that years after the command, when i was there up until about april 2012, they had a staff of approximately 2000 individuals. various components and whatnot, for the marines, special operations, army and etc. we had a 2000 person staff, we only had approximately 21 individuals from the interagency community. it was the department of state, usaid, department of justice and whatnot. when i was there, of those 21 some people, there was only one individual from usaid, and she was extremely valuable in our staff planning processes, execution and whatnot. when we only had the one person, it was very difficult for her to be around the commands in subcommands and working groups and whatnot. i'm a proponent of having more interagency cooperation through embedding staff members throughout. my first question is, over the last decade, say with iraq and afghanistan, the department of defense has either expanded or developed capabilities for development, specifically civil affairs,

so roosevelt contrary to the advice of almost all of his senior military commanders agreed to invade north africa in november 1942. to place on november 8th. american and british forces fighting that the germans because they were not there yet, not the italians, but the french. and that is really where the story begins, with us fighting the french. >> host: why do we begin by fighting the french? >> guest: the french had made a deal with the germans never invaded france in 1940, and he immediately made his way to paris and offered the french a deal of the devil. the gist of it was, i will keep the northern two-thirds of france including paris. your friends can keep the southern one-third of the new capitol, and you can keep your overseas possessions, particularly your colonies in north africa. and most of the french agreed to this. a few renegades refused, obscure brigadier-general, but most of them agreed. and so consequently when we invade north africa it is the french are still there. these are french possessions, algeria is essentially estate of metropolitan france. >> host: how long did take

i work at department of the army, and prior to that i was at u.s. africa command. i just have one observation since there were a lot of references to that and then two questions. the observation is the u.s. africa command when i was there up until about april of 2012, they had a staff of approximately 2,000 individuals . they also had components and what not for the marines, special operations, army, et cetera. from that staff, we only had 21 individuals from the interagency communicate, usi dickerson and what not. of those 21 peoples, there was only one individual from usaid, and she was extremely valuable in planning and all that. it was difficult to get around to all the command, subcommand, working groups and what not. i am a proponent of having more interagency cooperation through embedding staff members throughout. my first question is over the last decade with iraq and afghanistan, the department of defense has either expanded and/or developed capabilities. specifically, civil affairs, the provincial reconstruction teams in afghanistan, for example. is it you

that enormous feat, so roosevelt, contrary to the advice of almost all the senior military commanders agreed to invade north africa in november 1942, and that took place on november 8th, american and british forces fighting not the germans because they were not there yet, not the italians, but the french, and that's where the story begins with us fighting the french. >> host: why begin with fighting the french? >> guest: well, the french made a deal with the germans when hitler invaded france in 1940, and he immediately made his way to pairings. he offered the french the deal with the devil, and the gist was i'll keep the northern two-thirds of france including paris. you french keep the southern one-third with a new capital and keep overseas possessions, particularly, the colonies in north africa, and most french agreed to this. there was a few renegades who refused like a general, but most agreed to it, and so consequently, when we invade north africa, it's the french still there, french possessions, algeria is essentially a state of france. >> host: how long did it take to defeat the french? >> guest: three day

i believe the ec omar bradley who is a west point classmate and friend and he shows up in north africa in the spring of 1943. and he takes over with patton has commandedfter he was ouster and he does pretty well at that. .. and it's hard not to feels sorry for him. it's a very steep learning curve -- curve to go from commanding a court to commanding an army group in a very short amount of time. i think that he, again, is not a natural battle captain. i am heartened by my assessments of them. he wrote to memoirs. he also wrote a book called the general's life which was published posthumously. cannot right every died. he outlived almost everyone else from that generation. consequently have a large role in shaping his own reputation and in shaping the narrative. he was t

the house armed services subcommittee held a classified briefing with colonel george bristol today. he served as commander of a task force that operated in northern and western africat the time of benghazi. fox news chief congressional correspondent mike emanu-el has the report. >> reporter: almost 11 months after the deadly terror attack another revelation of the journalists connecting a two-hour interview was one of the lead suspects will the fbi has not has lawmakers demanding answers. >> right now the media has been speaking to more of the individuals alleged to be involved and have information that we have information from our fbi. and it makes me wonder at this point, our people not pursuing answers to this investigation? >> press secretary jay carney referred reporters to the fbi and said president obama who stood with then secretary of state clinton before the caskets of the four americans killed wants accountability. >> the president absolutely instructed his team to do everything that they can to bring to justice those responsible for the deaths of four americans. >> reporter: a gop lawmaker sign-on to this letter sent to confirm the fbi director dema

he is the former commander of a task force in northern and western africa. republican lawmakers have argued for months now that he has unique perspective on last year's attack that happened on september the 11th, which killed four americans, including u.s. ambassador to libya, chris stevens. meanwhile, lawmakers are are also pressing the fbi's previous director james comey to step up the investigation on benghazi. the fbi faced strong criticism immediately after that attack, following reports that it did not begin investigating the scene until weeks after the assault took place. mike emanuel with this news from capitol hill. mike? >> shep, late today, 8 congressional republicans sent a letter to newly confirmed fbi director james comey saying they want an update from him on the benghazi investigation in 30 days. they write, quote: we appear to be no closer to knowing who is responsible today than we were in the early weeks following the attack. this is simply unacceptable. also today the revelation, a television reporter has y benghazi attack suspect while th

the chain of command, what happened in benghazi. he was in charge of special forces for north africa. the pentagon hit him for a long time.atedly over a long period of time that this person had retired. they didn't have an e-mail or an address. with him. then, voila, it ends up he was still on active duty. now, he's finally on wednesday going to appear before the armed services committee. ha did he know? when did he know it? what was his involvement? what did he know in the lead-up to benghazi, what happened that night and was anything nefarious going on with the cover-up? >> are you telling me that the military lied, pretended that he was unavailable and hid him from you? >> i don't know how many 35-year veterans or 35-year people, colonels, full bird colonel there in the -- somebody actively involved in the marines is mistakenly identified as somebody who is retired, that they couldn't identify him, didn't know where he was. ends up he was in woodbridge, a few miles south of washington, d.c., had not yet retired. i find that a bit curious in the whole string of things that have happened. add it to the list of incompeten

george bristol the commander of the northwest africa task force. that means he would know and what military options would be available to protect the consulate when it was attacked. congress was pushing to meet with him for months and was repeatedly denied by the pentagon what military officials say was a clerical error. steven hayes, fox news contributor. good morning to you. >> good morning, bill. bill: colonel george bristol, what authority did he have in north africa last year. >> members of congress want to question him on, what exactly his rolly was as events of that night unfolded. they had been trying to get in touch with him as you point out and have him testify for months. his was a name you heard early in this investigation. then he so the of disappeared for a while. there was renewed interest in him because of some things he was saying behind closed doors, suggesting to people that he might have insight as to what happened that we hadn't yet heard. bill: okay, now, he has said that immediately he thought it was terrorism but then he's a

the mortar sledding ubben's right leg. then defense secretary lee on panetta and former cia director of david petraeus and former director of africa commandr hamm said over the weekened they knew it was terrorism within hours of the attack. with hearings scheduled on benghazi in the fall, lawmakers hope david usual hope he feels well enough to publicly testify. he is only survivor to witness both waves of the attack. first at the consulate and then at the cia pom pound, kelly. kelly: what are we learning about the actual evacuation? >> reporter: having made direct contact with you ben fox news is obscuring his photo to respect his request for privacy as he remains focused on his recovery alongside america's wounded warriors from afghanistan in walter reed. he is still months later being treated at walter reed medical center. four state department employees including ubben were treated at benghazi. diplomatic security agents say the response on the night was inadequate on many levels. >> that's a good question. now, it wasn't a medical plane. >> is that what he told you? >> i'm just saying, it wasn't a medical plane. that medical plane has

classmate and friend of dwight eisenhower's show up in north africa in the spring of 1943 and he takes over second corps which pan briefly commanded and he does pretty well at that. has an act for it and has not been in combat before like eisenhower he missed world war i combat action that is pretty good at it and in sicily commands the second score again and shows some capabilities as the corps commander, next thing you know he leaves sicily, goes back to england to prepare for the invasion of normandy where he commands an army, the major american force in the invasion of normandy and then commands an army group which is two or more armies, commands the largest armed force the u.s. army has ever put overseas. i think he is promoted beyond its natural level of competence, used to be called the pier principal and it is hard not to feel a little sorry for him, there's a very steep learning curve to go from command and a core to commanding an army group in a short period of time. i think that he again is not unnatural battle captain. i am pretty hard on my assessment of him, he wrote two memoirs, you mentioned the soldier's store, he

the families of those killed have to wait before this administration takes any action to bring these terrorists to justice? >> brian: we're going to get some answers. colonel george bristol, marine commander of north africa, and senator graham has been asking, can we hear from him? he was right there. i need to hear from him. they said they were confused for a while with the administration, but now they understand and he will be allowed to talk to members of congress sometime this week. >> gretchen: it's also that the united states has identified five suspects. we've basically made no arrests as to who killed those four americans and coming up on almost a year ago now, you would think that those families would certainly want some answers or at least some arrests to happen. if we have identified these people, why are we not doing something? >> brian: one of the would be attackers was at a buffet on sunday at a major hotel two days after the attacks. >> steve: crazy. and so that's why it's so important to hear from the survivors who are being told that if you talk, you will -- in public, that is, you'll never work for the government again. a lot of them have families. they need the jobs. plus they're being

commander requirements. since i have been chairman over the past two years, the requirements that the combatant commanders have submitted has actually increased and taken on in centcom and africaon noticeably. we hesitate in trying to align what we are doing with national security interests because that's not our responsibility to prioritize. we made an estimate of what we are doing across the globe that is being placed at risk. we looked inside the services at how the health of the force is evolving. this document did not account for sequestration and once that became a reality, i would have to revise my risk assessment. i would have to do so to align myself with what senator i just described. ayotte hastor ascribed. i would like to point out that despite years of efforts, we have a sexual abuse problem in the military. as you both indicated, we have two not rhetorically, but fundamentally respond to this. one aspect we focus on is that the judicial system -- my experience suggests there are other levers that are critical to the climate, command structure and performance of the military. they include the evaluation, promotion and retention. if we don't focus on those areas, w

now, when the time came to invade north africa, the colonies -- as i mentioned, algeria, due tease ya and morocco -- were under control of the french government. in command of north africa and its colonies at that point was a french admiral by the name of francois darlan, a known nazi sympathizer. but eisenhower dealt with him, something of a pact with the devil, for which he was roundly criticized in the united kingdom and the united states. i mean, what was this war all about? weren't we fighting fascists and nazis? why do we have an american commander dealing with him? fdr backed eisenhower completely in his dealings with darlan in north africa. the president realized that what ike was doing was cutting a deal with the devil to reduce the resistance of french troops when we finally invaded these colonies, which was the case. the french fought for about three days, and that was it. so as a result of the deal that eisenhower cut with the admiral, many thousands of lives or were saved. eisenhower saw -- excuse me, the president saw eisenhower perform again in north africa. the president went to the conference at cat blank ca in -- casablanca in 1943, and

charles: the president comes back from africa and has all these things on his desk what does he tackled first, what does he put everything he has into? >> the first rule of the commanderief is to keep the peace and he has got to try to stabilize the situation in egypt, stabilize egypt and syria but that being said, domestically it is jobs, jobs, jobs and the economy and so far i may have missed it but i haven't heard much from him in recent days or recent months. charles: we at a relatively good jobs report but a part of that, 322,000 people working part-time for economic reasons, still have 4.3 million people who are chronically unemployed, they have been unemployed 27 weeks or longer, some of these things, deep inside the economy i don't think will change anytime soon, with the president's economic policy, the entire business and i success, how does he get away with this and how much longer will the american public accept these new norms? >> i don't think they will accept indefinitely. if i were him i would be working with the republicans on some sort of plan to do tax reform and deficit reduction along with the inevitable extension of the debt ceiling. bottom line

-- events in benghazi and north africa, the pentagon approved the development of the ecial purpose marine air ground task force-crisis response under the african command. this task force is specifically tailored for crisis response in africa in april deployed to spain and italy. the unit is capable of responding to a wide range of military operations and will provide limited defense crisis response in support of embassies, support noncombatant evacuation efforts, provide humanitarian assistance and assist with disaster relief operations, search and rescue nd other missions as directed. as this force is ramping up, we need to make sure this mission is completely and adequately funded. with the rise of islamic militant groups in mali, nigeria and somalia and continued unrest egypt, libya and algeria, the threat is real and growing. the committee has added funds for sustainment and follow-up deployments in fiscal year 2014. but there are substantial concerns that the need may be higher. funding for this force has not -- was not requested in the president's budget, but was included in the house-passed n.d.a. -- ndaa. i'm hopeful that in establishing a fun

the former commander in chief has found a new mission. >> that clinic opened today, the bushes are hoping thousands of lives will be saved. >> very, very important work in africa president and the former first lady, i want to thank them for what they are doing. by the way, tomorrow, there'll be something extraordinary going on in tanzania, the former president and current president of the united states, they will both be there, they will remember what happened back in 1998 when the u.s. embassy was bombed. we'll have special coverage of that. meantime, thanks for much for joining us. i'm wolfe blitzer in the "situation room." >>> "nigger," that's what we're talking about tonight. tonight, the "n" word, say it at your own peril. >> i beg for your forgiveness. >> it's not in my mother's vocabulary. we were not raised in a home where that was used. does any other word compare? >> creepy ass cracker? >> yes. >> is it ever okay to say it? even as a joke?

africa last september 11th and was essentially out of communication. sources say bristol's story backs up what they heard from other military officials up and down the chain of command and lawmakers say his testimony confirms u.s. officials were not prepared heading into a 9/11 anniversary for an attack. some who attended the classified hearing are pushing for the public to be able to hear and watch open hearings. >> it's all very valuable information but ultimately we need public hearings where america can see and not just certain members of congress. an important step forward but come the fall, we're going to have some open transparent hearings where everybody in the country can watch. >> after the deadly benghazi terror attack which claimed the lives of four americans, there are many still unanswered questions. one being asked how tv reporters were able to interview a leader ror suspect about the deadly attack but the fbi has yet to do so. congressman frank wolf leading the charge for a bipartisan select committee to investigate asked these questions on the house floor today. >> today, little is known why ambassador stevens was at the u.s. consulate in the days l

the terrorism subcommittee which had jurisdiction over a special operation command. i got to travel around the world to a variety of different conflict zones obviously iraq and afghanistan. many places in africa and philippines and others to sort of see what our department of defense would do try to keep the peace and move forward with stability. at the same time, in the state of washington we have an incredible presence of development agencies. the gates foundation being the most obvious. but path and variety others as well. they pulled me in and started try to see what was going on in places like latin america as well. what instruct me is the intersection of the two. the more time i spent with our special operations guys, the more they told me we need to fund development. we need fund that to get stability. it's far eas so you don't get to conflict that it is to have to bring in troops to restore stability. they go hand and hand and have to work together. they have to work together closely to achieve stability. i believe the lessons have been learned. now we need to implement the policies that reflect that. there are still many challenges to fully funding and supporting diplomacy. you can l

africa, general carter hamm, told aspen security forum he was in washington, d.c. for a routine meeting with defense secretary panetta and chairman of the joint chiefs, martin dempsey, when an alert came from commandersrmany that a violent assault was under way in benghazi and ambassador chris stevens was missing. >> this was not a demonstration, this was a violent attack. >> did you think it was a terrorist attack? >> i don't know that that was my first reaction, but pretty quickly as we started to gain understanding within the hours after the initiation of the attack, yes. >> reporter: while he did not address reports he was pushed into retirement after benghazi, he said quick response was not possible and defended the decision not to scramble fighter jets. >> in my military judgment it was not necessity, and there was not clear purpose in doing so. >> reporter: ham's comments are in line with his former boss that testified before congress. >> i later found out you had rpgs, mortars, there was attack on a second facility it was a terrorist attack. >> reporter: as to why hillary clinton blamed a video on september 12th, when officials knew the day before it was terrorism, not a demonstration, the st

that you can not no longer avoid it, colonel george bristol, former commander of the task force that operated the northern and western africah the house armed services subcommittee. why is this important? for the longest time the administration says you can't have him. then they said he retired. then the marine times published a report saying he's not retired. he's still active. so one of his last things he will do, we hope, will say candidly electric his perspective why special forces was not deployed to try to save those men on 9-11-2012. >> steve: and those are the four men who lost their lives on that particular day. so it does have a lot of people going, wait a minute. you said he was retired. he's not retired. he doesn't retire officially until august 1. so on the day before he officially retires from the military, he will sit down behind closed doors and talk about what he knows about what happened in benghazi. here is jason chaffetz with greta van susteren last night. >> i don't know how many 35-year veterans or 35-year people, colonels, full bird colonel there in -- somebody actively involved in the marines is mist