but she had been in the air force and the pentagon. >> -- >> she had been in the air force and pentagon. >> yes. she was with boeing. as she was representing the airforce, and it took her job, and she ended up in jail, thank god. >> you also right in here, in one of your chapters, about the business of staffers looking over their shoulder for their next job, and you were there. if you are working on the senate armed services committee staff, you think about going to work for even the pentagon or going to work for one of the defense companies -- either the pentagon. >> they think a son of a staffer is somebody who goes to work for the pentagon. that means you are really a quality guy or woman -- they think a good staff for is somebody who goes to work for the pentagon. . a good staffer -- a good staffer. to make sure that it is effective and affordable. meanwhile, your ambition to go work for the air force as their senior acquisitions executive, so you are going to ask all of these really aggravating, tough questions, and you are going to aggravate those officials who are in a position t

the pentagon is doing a pretty good job of things. at is, i do not know what the right word is i can use on tv for that, for example, on the crusader, he had my opposition from capitol hill on that, and they were pretty much willing to give up on that. he thought it was a big fight. it was not. robert gates had a fight on the f-22 and demonstrated far more skill in dealing with congress and donald rumsfeld ever did. i am not a big fan of gates, but he is a breath of fresh share compared to donald rumsfeld. >> why do you feel that way about donald rumsfeld? >> i saw your show last week and was reminded how aggressive and petulant rumsefeld was. the thing that came to mind this morning was when he used the word "conspiracy" with the initiation of the war in iraq. but behind all of that bluster and tough talk, there is not much there. donald rumsfeld was one of the most unsuccessful secretaries of defense that i have ever observed in 30 years of covering the pentagon. an amazing combination of tough, aggressive talk with a failure to cope

we settled on "the pentagon labyrinth." the distortions and bales that the pentagon uses to hide what they are actually doing. >> why are you doing this? >> i think our system is breaking down. the system of checks and balances is not operating properly. i worked on the hill for 20 -- 30 years, and congress has three essential powers, the power to go to war, the power of the purse, and the power to investigate. the first two powers, to go to war and of the purse, are meaningless if congress does not exercise the power to investigate, and it is not doing that. it is doing a lousy job. it is actually trying to not investigate things, and that was my motivation. others who contributed to this have been observing the pentagon's system from the inside or the military services from the inside and are very disturbed, concerned, worried about what they are seeing and are trying to educate a new generation of people to cope with the problems we have, to understands the problems we have, and to find ways to fix those problems. >> to b

the pentagon get to here a piece of it martin marietta they're part of the seven hundred twenty two billion dollars seven to twenty two billion dollars pentagon budget and this is according to your work does it add or subtract let me just ask you a bit of a philosophical more philosophical question but the overall u.s. economy as a whole if it more than half of it or half of it is to fund these. arms dealers in countries where they're they're failing to the extent that the local population has to stage their own uprising. is this any good for the u.s. economy at all does it bring does it do anything for defense does it do anything for democracy does it do anything for the economy doesn't succeed on any level in terms of the economy it's a smaller percentage than you might think probably about four or five percent. of the g.d.p. is for military spending a lot of it and it's strategically located in places like. ohio where the speaker of the house john boehner is in california where the head of the armed services committee. buck mckeon is in hawaii where daniel in a way the head of the approp

in the sense the pentagon serves almost as an arms broker. they've got a whole separate department called the defense security cooperation agency which sounds sort of benign but it's really kind of an in-house weapons trafficking operation and so you've got that in the pentagon rubric but you've also got things like nuclear weapons design which happens through the department of energy you've got a whole range of biometric can surveil its technology through the homeland security department and the f.b.i. so you've got a whole range of agencies of spy satellites for national security agency outsourcing of cia activities so it's more than just a twenty nine billion for the pentagon it seems. a lot of the technologies that go into surveillance and these other areas and they they do be you if you're well off broadway in these foreign countries and then they end up in the u.s. you know for example predator drones we heard about the first in pakistan and then we saw them in texas you know looking at the border between texas and mexico is this part of

in the u.s. pentagon officials have been before senate budget committee seeking to slash america's time during fourteen trillion dollar national debts the pentagon wants to keep america's capacity to wage war in times but critics say most of this plan to as many americans face the threat of holder to. grade has called on the u.n. security council to investigate allegations leaking leaking told politicians including the current prime minister toci to human trafficking and other crimes during the one nine hundred ninety nine when the call comes as the poor a basket can only depreciation costs of are on this side and about serial bits you know logical declaration of independence from sebi. as public anger grows in the muslim world also he's peaceful about also his guest whether iran's political establishment does next to be toppled that's not cross talk program which is up next. well. the latest in science and technology from around russia. we've dumped a few jerks some.

. >> now a look at what could become the pentagon's newest weapon, the hummingbird.ve seen what the unmanned drone aircraft can do. now a robotic bird that can hover without the enemy knowing. >> this hummingbird won't be landing on your backyard bird feeder. it's the nano hummingbird, pocket sized drone and could soon be a powerful weapon for the pentagon. >> the first aircraft developed that flies with two flapping wings. >> watch the box on the upper left. the bird flops its wings. the bird becomes a sort of bond. sprying -- spying at its. i the pentagon spent $4 million so far building these birds that can fly forward, backward, hover, land on a phoneline, cableline, all by remote control, watching over someone without them knowing. they're far smaller and more discrease than the droans used by the pentagon and cia. earlier this year, our exclusive look from the air force base in california as they operated the drone 8,000 miles away in afghanistan. we met with the teams behind each drone. the obvious difference, those droans carry missiles, he hummingbirds canno

a plane had hit the pentagon. he raced toward the smoke. >> i came around that corner down there. >> reporter: right. >> and it was -- it was just in flame, in smoke. >> reporter: you could see him helping carry the stretchers of some of the wounded. >> this was the first war of the 21st century. i had to impose a sense of you are ji sen. there wasn't a guide book or a map or some program that said here's how you do this. we had to figure it out. >> reporter: and he told us as all this was unfolding on the national stage he was also struggling with a family crisis. >> rumsfeld's son addicted to drugs. he would disappear sometimes for months. the president consoled. the president said you were in tears. >> i think that's right. he reached out and said, you know, tell me about it and you start talking about it and it's hard to talk about it because it's a wonderful human being that you love and you want him to be better, and he is, god bless him. >> reporter: the parallel demands of home and what he says was happenin

the details later here on r.t. . but first u.s. congressmen and pentagon officials are debating how best to trim the country's fourteen trillion dollars national debt president barack obama has already proposed cutting the massive defense budget by seventy eight billion over the next five years well the pentagon is making sure the cut doesn't come at the expense of america's ability to wage war all non-essential programs are being slashed the proposed budget will actually see the pentagon spending grow this year we cannot cross live to the u.s. capitol and talk to me she's from the national security center for american progress thanks very much indeed for joining us here on our team the defense secretary robert gates is asking for nearly six hundred billion dollars for the military now that equates to half of the entire world's combined defense budget but since the u.s. is involved in afghanistan and iraq and we're seeing this turbulence in the middle east surely this money is justified the u.s. needs this money doesn't it you know actually what people don

the pentagon has spend about $400 million building the birds.y can fly forward, backward, hover, land on a phone line, a cable line. all by remote control, watching over them without anyone knowing. they're far smaller and more discreet than the drones increasingly used by the pentagon and cia. earlier this year, our exclusive look from the air force base as they operated the drones 8,000 miles away over afghanistan. we met with the two-man teams. bp hind each drone. the obvious difference, they carried missiles. the hummingbirds cannot. but what the bird can do is fly over an enemy's shoulder, and the troops can carry the birds in their pocket. the devices have a wing span of 6.5" after testing some 300 wings. they weigh less than an aa battery. barely an ounce. at first flying for just 20 seconds, now they're in the air for ten minutes. >> this is going to have a short range, short endurance, but it's to get video imagery back from a target site. >> while the pentagon is developing the hummingbirds, it's not said if or when they will be deploy

difficult funding the proposed budget will see the pentagon's account arrive in the next few days but lower a cone leader from the center for american progress think time told as the current american approach to defense can't last forever. the defense budget is it's actually higher now than it was at the peak level of spending during the cold war we're spending more on defense than they are spending during the war in vietnam as well and defense spending in the country is actually doubled since two thousand and one so really i think we need to do a better job of matching our resources and our priorities i think since two thousand and one in this country we've sort of gotten into the mindset of buy everything do everything in a sense we've decided that if we can spend enough money we can sort of in a way address every threat that's out there we can buy perfect security and that's just not realistic actually secretary gates was testifying on the hill yesterday in front of the house armed services committee and he was asked about this very idea you know how much money do we really need to

we are very beat but we are not beaten. >> mitchell: this april, the pentagon will launch a global hot line to report a sexual assault anywhere in the world. >> mitchell: and finally this evening, as most of america knows by now, a computer named watson defeate defeated two humn opponents on "jeopardy!" this week. what does watson do for an encore? as jim axelrod tells us, it's already in training for a new line of work as dr. watson. >> reporter: forget lady gaga and her egg. the biggest splafn on tv last week-- >> this is "jeopardy!." . >> reporter: was made by a game show contestant. no, not these guys. this guy. >> seems to have a split personality. >> who is hyde. >> yes. >> reporter: watson, iba's super computer which took on two of "jeopardy!'s" all-time champs and crushed them in a man versus machine match-up which carried some scary implications. >> i, for one, welcome our new computer. . >> reporter: no matter how much we chuckled about it. in the world of artificial intelligence watson is a superstar, able to sift through 200 million pages of content in three seconds to figu

said had said partnership for peace is considered the most brilliant idea the pentagon ever had come forward with it was so successful because you could look at what the partnership for peace has turned into we need almost olympus and almost all countries that former partnership or peace they already made to and why is partnership for peace so brilliant because you get a lines right into the foreign policy to start to discuss you get the possibility to just start to talk with with the people who are who are responsible for four of . for important policy that is partnership for peace and they fooled a lot of peace organizations are you crazy are you really crazy you're going with nato on no mater it's appears organization so they were talented those who brought this up they were but the worst thing and the thing that made us just be wanting to poke wall joining european union and then after this it was just partnership or peace i mean it was it was the it was the case i mean joining european union richard holbrooke who came here in ninety four and said hello to to us you know richard

look at what could soon become the pentagon's newest weapon, the hummingbird. we've seen what the unmanned drone aircraft can do. and now a robotic bird that can hover without the enemy knowing. here is abc. >> this hummingbird won't soon be landing on the back yard bird feeder and the flight path could one day take it overseas, called the nano hummingbird, a pocket sized drone and soon could be a powerful weapon for the pentagon. >> this is the first aircraft that's been developed that flies with two flapping wings. >> watch the box in the upper left as the bird takes flight outdoors, flapping its robotic wings, what it sees, the pentagon will see, powered by batteries, the bird becomes a sort of bomb. spying as it flies. indoors, it would appear to be a bird is an agent with better than a bird's eye view, 360 view. the pentagon spent 4 million dollars building the birds, fly forward and backward, hover, land on a phone and cable line by remote control, watching over someone without them ever knowing. they are far smaller and more discrete than the drones incr

we didn't do that in the pentagon. i insisted we not do it. >> reporter: the casualties are mounting. rumsfeld's critics say he was so committed to a lean, pared down fighting force, it suppressed debate about sending in more troops. you write in the book "in retrospect there may have been times more troops could have been useful." >> it's possible. >> reporter: were you too slow to react? >> oh, maybe. i don't know. >> reporter: do you revisit that? did you say, did that cost lives? >> well, you know, in a war, many things cost lives. >> reporter: rumsfeld insists the generals in the field dictated the number of troops they needed. we pushed again telling him that george w. bush himself had written "cutting troops was a failure." but as the president has written "cutting troop levels too quickly was the most important failure in the execution of the war." >> interesting. yeah. i don't have enough confidence to say that that's right. i think that it's possible. we had an enormous number of troops ready to go in, and we

the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon takes orders direct. with that said i just want you to reiterate if you can how much pressure in fact do you think came from abroad. well i think the united states had to warble they were tempted to keep mubarak in power as they had done for thirty years but the gyptian people's anger and mobilization was so huge that they had no option but to dump him this is a very different sort of mass movement from the ones we saw in ukraine in other parts of eastern europe this was a movement which actually wanted to break from the ugly embrace of the united states which is wrecked their ground very saw a lot of extremely interesting things are likely to happen now and if the military attempts to portray another stooge in power to carry out orders from foreign lands it might not work because the depression people feel they are the ones who remove mubarak nobody else so you don't think that there's a danger that the military won't try to put who they want into power that a democratic leader will in fact be able to be

so it means the pentagon won't be spending as much as quickly. but they're not actual real world cuts, so do i think it will have an impact, >> do i think we're about to change the way we do business? i'm not convinced just yet. >> couric: david, thank you. >> sure. >> woodruff: finally tonight, mexico's deadly drug wars. yesterday, the conflict took an american victim from the u.s. immigration and customs enforcement agency. special agent jaime zapata was part of an expanded american force working with mexican authorities in the ongoing battle. he was shot to death by gunmen on a highway from mexico city to monterrey. a second agent was wounded. but the worst-hit city in the drug battles is to the north, ciudad juarez, on the u.s. border. bill neely of independent television news reports on the drug war there. >> reporter: death is just around the corner, and he knows it. the streets of juarez are deadlier than any on earth, its suburbs and its center the scene of daily slaughter. ( gunshots ) midday in a middle-class area, and mexico's federal p

>> words were, marines don't cry. >> reporter: the pentagon wouldn't comment on the lawsuit itself, but a spokesman says d.o.d. takes this issue very seriously, and this is now a command priority. >> michael isikoff, thanks for your work. >>> when we come back, a former president, a world class poet. more than one american sports legend, they all have something special in common tonight. >>> one day a year in the life of every u.s. president it's a happy event. it's an emotional event. it happened today when president obama awarded the presidential medal of freedom to 15 distinguished individuals. for the recipients it's an unmistakable token of how our nation feels about them. for the nation it's an unmistakable reminder of the truly great citizens living among us. here now the names and faces from today's white house ceremony. >> this year's medal of freedom recipients reveal the best of who we are and who we aspire to be. our first obligation is to the environment, john once said. a rolling stone put it best. if the planet has a lawyer, it's john adams. a voice that's spoken to milli

the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon takes orders direct the big question washington has is nothing should happen to destabilize their permanent israel that is all they're concerned about and they're also concerned about the effects of this are people now on jordan on yemen and who knows even them saudi arabia and bahrain so regardless of what washington wants it can to try to control the situation. and in a few minutes more analysis of the ripples spreading out from the direction of the rats. our military expert examines how the president of afghanistan is trying to shield himself from a repetition of the bands in cairo and. believe me a lot of countries that are so vital for the interest we're paying so it's good for us to be in doubt you think. not this was so deep and can be you out before bankruptcy comes knocking the residents tries to find out on new york streets for. as americans begin looking to next year's presidential election a country in economic crisis potential candidates from the republican party gets out on issues including abortio

what it sees, the pentagon sees. the bird becomes a sort of bond, spying as it flies. agent with better than a bird's-eye view of 360 view. pentagon spent about $4 million so far building these birds. they can fly forward, backward, they can whoever. enter a fine line, cable line watching over someone without them ever knowing. they are far smaller and more discreet than the drones used by the pentagon and the c.i.a. earlier this year an exclusive look as they operated the drone some 8,000 miles away over afghanistan. >> that's what you're watching. >> yes. >> we met with two-men teams. those drones carry hell fire missile. the humming birds cannot. but what that bird can do is fly right over an enemy's shoulder and the troops with carry those birds right inside their pockets. they have a wind span of 6.5 inches. they weigh less than a a battery. at first flying 20 seconds, now they're in the air ten minutes. >> they're going to have a very short range. but it's to get video imagery back from a target site. >> david muir reporting. while the pentagon is developing the

congressman and the pentagon officials are debating how best to trim the country's thirty five trillion dollars debt president barack obama has already proposed cutting the massive defense budget by seventy eight billion over the next five years the pentagon is making sure the cut doesn't come at the expense of america's ability to wage war while nonessential programs are being slashed the proposed budget will actually see the pentagon spending grow this year and as a tease christine for reports ordinary americans are paying the price of living in a war mongering country. times are tough for many on main street but most in government agree before assisting people like this it's more important to assist people like this. perhaps this is one reason the u.s. military budget is more than fifty percent of the entire world and once again the top brass came to washington to defend defense it is my judgment that the department of defense needs an appropriation of at least five hundred forty billion dollars for fiscal year two thousand and eleven for the u.s. military to properly carry out its m

now any time that we hear about the issue of money budget cuts cannot the pentagon fights tooth and nail for every last dollar reminding us that is a matter of national security something we cannot afford to sacrifice but according to a new report from the commission on wartime contracting they do think they can afford to waste if the report found that corruption and waste has cost the u.s. government billions of reconstruction dollars and both iraq and afghanistan losses to fraud alone were estimated at twelve billion dollars and the rest one fortunately they kind of have to guess because you see the reliance on contractors has grown so large that there is no central federal database for definitive accounting and the commission also found that the use of hired hands has become a default option looked at by many federal officials as a free source of labor billions of dollars that doesn't sound free to me so why can't congress going to handle on it why do the same companies who are guilty of corruption and fraud keep getting pushy contracts without any accountability or discuss with me an

the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon and takes orders direct the big question washington has is nothing should happen to destabilize the. israel that is all they're concerned about and they're also concerned about the effects of this are people now on jordan on yemen and who knows even in saudi arabia and bahrain so regardless of what washington wants it can to try to control the situation. when in a few minutes from now more analysis of the report spreading out from the egyptian . ministry expert examines how the president of afghanistan is trying to shield himself from the repetition of the events that current and also still to come we've there's a lot of folks that are surviving off of the interest. so it's good for us to be in doubt you think. not this but how deep in debt can the u.s. slip before bankruptcy comes knocking the president tries to find out he looks pretty. so those stories still to come first ahead of the euro two thousand and twelve championships in poland and ukraine the hosts of all vale the new object may be small but they ho

the pentagon is a big bureaucracy. it has inefficiencies, wastes, and part of the job that congress needs to do is to make sure every dollar we spend on defense is spent as effectively as possible. secondly, we are spending a relatively small amount of the federal budget and certainly a small amount of our national wealth on the fence, compared to the whole post-world war ii period right now. i believe, and think a lot of us in congress believe, that the number one job of the federal government is to defend the country. we need to help protect our citizens before we really do anything else. again, we need to make sure we do it effectively. we cannot cut too much. we have to go through it line by line and eliminate waste to make sure we are thinking ahead for the future, not read fighting battles in the past. host: how did you vote on the amendment yesterday? guest: i ended up voting against the amendment. i could flip a coin on which way saves money. we are going to buy these engines for two decades to three decades int

freedom marshal power week the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon then takes orders direct the big question washington has is nothing should happen to destabilize their permanent israel that is all they're concerned about and they're also concerned about the effects of this are people now on jordan on yemen and who knows even in saudi arabia and bahrain so regardless of what washington wants it to try to control the situation. of protocol later in the program approaching the red planet broken bow five hundred mission is nearing its destination and although it's only natural the scientific worth of big government is very real. as americans begin looking to next year's presidential election a country in economic crisis but social comes from the republican party slugging it out on the issues including abortion gun ownership and the place of religion in public life but the u.s. still fighting two wars abroad one of the biggest topics of discussion will be in the tree spending. has been looking into some of the new political faces on the scene who could

freedom marshall power week the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon then takes orders direct the big question washington has is nothing should happen to destabilize their. israel that is all they're concerned about and they are also concerned about the effects of this are people now on jordan on yemen and who knows even in saudi arabia and bahrain so regardless of what washington wants it to try to control the situation. within a few minutes from now more analysis of the ripples spreading el from the egyptian unrest i'm going to treat. afghanistan as trying to shield himself from a repetition of those events. but also coming up a little later. there's a lot of countries that are so volatile that leaves us with. so it's good for us to be in doubt you think. about this what. can the us before bankruptcy comes knocking the resident tries to find out the new york street. stories told to come first as potential u.s. presidential hopefuls start turning their minds to the twenty twelve elections the list of burning issues for the republican candidates is gro

the defense minister as we've already heard is a close ally of the pentagon then takes orders direct the big question washington has is must think should happen to destabilize. israel that is all they're concerned about and they're also concerned about the affects of this are people now on jordan on yemen and who knows even them so the arabia and barrett so regardless of what washington wants to try to control the situation. in a few minutes more analysis of the reports spreading out from the gyptian on grass to our military apps for example how the president of afghanistan is trying to shield himself repetition of the events in cairo also. we've there's a lot of countries that are surviving off of the interest we're paying so it's good for us to be in doubt you think. not this watch how deep in debt can the u.s. slipper for bankruptcy comes knocking the president trying to find out on new york street. out of the euro twenty twelve championships in poland and ukraine the host have unveiled a two full new object and maybe a small but they help their traditional instrument will pack jus

now, a look what could become soon the pentagon's newest weapon. it's a hummingbird. 've already seen what those unmanned drone aircraft can do. now the robotic bird that can hover without anybody knowing. >> this hummingbird won't soon be landing on your backdoor feeder. it could be taken overseas. it's a pocket-size drone and could soon be a powerful weapon for the pentagon. >> this is the first aircraft that's been developed that flies with two flappy wings. >> the bird takes flight outdoors and seeing what it sees, the pentagon will see. the bird becomes a sort of bond spying as it flows. indoors it's really an agent with better than a bird's-eye view, a 360 degree view. the pentagon spent $4 million so far to build these birds. they can fly forward, backward, hover all by remote control watching over someone without them ever knowing. they're far smarter and more discreet than those drones used bit pentagon and c.i.a. an exclusive look from that base in california as they operate it over afghanistan. we bet with two-man teams, the obvious difference, those drones