dwlee deals with fund -- committee that deals with funding for the armed services which is the pentagon. but i suspect that after 9/11 there has been a hyped up intelligence source. my colleague porter gos who -- goss, who took over the c.i.a., i have talked to him. there's a heightened thought of what to do because of potential terrorism. >> have you heard about the n.s.a. we know about the warrantless eaves dropping and the flap over that. the president seems to not only successfully not been hurt by it, but he comes out a winner because the congress has come away from it because they don't want to appear soft on security. but the n.s.a., it is said, put cookies on those computers that inquierd into the n.s.a. have you heard anything about that? >> no, i know it's cookies are put on my computer all the time. it's not only cookies we had a bill dealing with the spyware and that has not passed. >> do you think that the federal government is doing enough with this new phenomenon where a person's identity cannot only be penetrated and exhausted but also stolen? >> i think the government d

we built the pentagon in one year. i don't know if i have towed to the story yet, but i have told it many times. if we wanted to build the pentagon right now, first of all, we would probably not be able to build at. probably some endangered species would stop us. say we got through the process and we finally turned the first spade of dirt and started building a, we would probably not be -- we would be in the vietnam war before we could get the pentagon bill. we have taught ourselves up with so much bureaucracy. tolet's move from budget policy issues. >> let's talk about iraq and whether you think the troops ought to pull out or not. it does not seem like the iraqis at this moment really want us to stay. >> i hope that there is a request to keep some troops there and provide some security. i am not convinced that the iraqis are totally ready to handle all of the security, and we are going to have contractors and state department people and other citizens over there helping the country rebuild. i think that will be put at

everything that is except for the pentagon my greatest fear is that in economic tough times the people will see the defense budget as the place to solve the nation's deficit problems i would be very reluctant to cut defense spending until we see really how these two conflicts were and are going to come out worldwide military spending increased by twenty point six billion dollars in two thousand and ten and nineteen point six billion of that was the u.s. alone according to the stock on international peace research institute the u.s. very much sees itself as a global military power it's the only global military superpower. so it perceives it security interests as encompassing the whole world in two thousand and ten the u.s. spent more on its military than the next highest countries combined was both presidents bush and obama have ripped of the wars defense spending in the us has increased eighty one percent since two thousand why this seems to reflect a boy. prioritization of military and military conceptions of security even in the face of such difficult economic times and american earn

expensive education many americans are all three dollars is more social cuts are announced all the pentagon refuses to volunteer for the gigantic defense also it's. never our business says the share swap between b.p. and roll c.f. is close to hitting the rocks last may have touched in from the deadline for the deal is not that extended make an announcement concerning its state's authorized it would have warned out of business school it's. a very warm welcome to you this is live from moscow with me on this have a. terror attack on ballerinas has been sold less than forty eight hours after it happened are going to present a will to suspect detained in connection with the monday metro bombing have confessed to the explosion. the latest. big rollout on tyra's that site has been solved the president's. got people behind but at last at nine pm on tuesday in a sting operation police arrested two suspects both of belorussian origin of the law the bit responsibility of this atrocity up the long hours of interrogation that wasn't us to give us a b. also they will lead to other similar terrorist attac

on touched off another series of sweeping cuts its social programs are losing out in favor of the pentagon. on moving commodity prices have done a lot to support russia's not its in the first quarter of the year to more china's in about twenty minutes time. that's one pm here in the russian capital you're watching r t welcome to the program two suspects have been arrested by police and their roots following that monday's metro bomb attack wednesday has been declared a day of mourning for the twelve people killed in that trusting. in that which over has been meeting some of the survivors. i started to scream for help i was bleeding heavily a man and woman can't be outside into the fresh air they tied up my leg and didn't leave me until the ambulance arrived that's man and woman might be unaware they saved not only irina but the life of your unborn child as well looking little xiv it's on the day i was going to the city center to buy vitamins it's terrible but i believe i got over not really there were people without eyes with missing legs and hands i'm six months pregnant so all my thoughts

wars and the expense of education many americans are often all dismal social costs are now small the pentagon refuses to budget for the gigantic defense budget . little. can see this is live from moscow now the fatal terror attack since been sold less than forty eight hours all but according to president bush and co two suspects detained in connection with the monday metro bombing confessed to the explosion however the reasons a motive behind the attack remain all clear the blast killed twelve and left almost two hundred injured. the bomb went off as crowds were coming out of trains during the evening rush hour and the capital's main subway help. bring the groucho of a met some of the victims recovering and. the shoes from when. i started to scream help i was bleeding heavily i'm an injured woman can't be outside into the fresh air i told my nag and didn't leave me until the ambulance arrived that's mine and one might be unaware they saved not only for the life of pure unborn child as well who came here who to leave but on the day i was going to the city center to buy vitamins and terrible it

bases in sites world by as well as the pentagon's she one hundred thirty four golf courses. fifty one percent of americans polled would rather cut military spending and sacrifice social programs needs children poor women and homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we are every program is being cut is just fraudulent in obscene fraud to put it on the ground remembering the old employed. they say they feel betrayed by a president was elected and promises to end war where doing all these wars and they don't even want us there and i think that right there is i'm upset with obama i need a reset button you know we need to change right we need the obama administration to do the right thing stop this attention to continuous military buildup at the four cents of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the penta

we built the pentagon in one year. i don't know if i've told you this story yet, but i've told it many times. >> that wasn't the house you built. is it? >> no. different story. but if we wanted to build a pentagon right now, first of all, you wouldn't probably be able to build it. it's a swamp out there. probably some endangered species. but say we got through the process, all the court indicateses and everything -- cases and everything, and we finally turn the dirt and started building it. we'd probably not be in world war ii. we probably would be done with korea. we'd probably be in the vietnam war before we could get the pentagon built. we tie you ar -- >> i'm going to jump in. we have about seven minutes left. let's move to policy issues. >> let's talk about iraq and will you think the troops ought to pull out or not. it doesn't seem the iraqis really want to us stay. what's your view? >> i hope that there is a request to keep some troops there to provide some security. i'm not convinced that the iraqis are totally

bases and sites the world why as well as the pentagon's two hundred thirty four golf courses the. children poor women homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we are every program is being cut is just fraudulent in obscene try to put it on the ground really a great deal of the royal. birth that the four cents of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to tighten its belt and forward our t. washington d.c. . still ahead this hour getting tested for the space right. one of the most unpleasant is being stuck in this capsule to the martian. thing that has by the waves over the open sea. can also use correspondent angle of the pressures of real world training find out. as if you're. making headlines this hour under an order given to detain the deposed egyptian leader hosni mubarak as well as t

bring its annual budget to rome seven hundred billion dollars well as they did speech obama said the pentagon budget should also be reduced alongside slashes in domestic spending less skits and thoughtfulness and across the florida show ross is ready to speak to us he runs the antiwar news service let's get your views are on a bomb as proposed deficit reduction plan and u.s. military spending plan so if the u.s. is scaling down just tell me how this works if it is scaling down operations in both afghanistan and iraq why is there such a large military budget necessary also the reasoning there. road built in so that military budget is planned obsolescence the people who are terry industrial complex or forests they are going to maintain as much the balance related spending is going on a nice corporations are making enormous profits while much of the rest of you are an economy is starving and we have twenty two percent of our workforce of our of we're you know what we have an average of what does your average american think of . you know you've got that debt of the head some four trillion dollars

even even when even back when to release the pentagon papers you try to go through command structures and try to go through the certain congress in the prior year the media to grease the pentagon papers rarely manning according to some of the news that new york was on this first. involving torturing and. of billions in iraq he allegedly brought that to the commander he was directly above the commander rejected and said nothing going on here get more iraqis than the rest of iraq that same kind of prison so he tried going through command structure it didn't work and so what do you what do you do seeing was widespread crimes and we just saw crimes released yesterday about the get no documents that showed torture going and torture is that they got to be horrifically those into those silly that show torture in fact their dark ok i want a job where there is a way that i was part of their doctors so i covered doctors covering up torture time of day another crime and the doctor saw hillary clinton ordering the state department spies and you do mats another crime of them on a crime is a lot of

bases insights the world why as well as the pentagon's chil hundred thirty four golf courses. i mean children who are wimmin homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we or every program is being cut it's just fraud to lean in obscene try to put it on the ground. that the four cents of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding costs and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to tighten its belt here in florida are t. washington d.c. . struggling for. water it comes on after a powerful force cruise to flee the area she's going to pan raised around the missing the maximum level of seven i suppose the crisis on a par with the chernobyl. the decision was based on new data showing more radiation from the damaged previously but officials say. the situation critical meanwhile attempts to restore cooling systems of the reactors appears to be n

bases and sites world why as well as the pentagon's two hundred thirty four golf courses. i mean children who are wimmin homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget or every program is being is just fraudulent in obscene try to put it on the ground. that the percent of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to finding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to tighten its belt when ford r. t. washington d.c. . well and they say that international. to decide how to proceed with its military intervention in libya from the u.k. wants to help the assault on colonel down are they considering arming the rebels more an old one from geneva. rector of the translated peace university many being with us here on r.c.l. the may say led coalition has before the two holes the desk writes in libya so far for the civil war there really does seem to remain

bases insights the world why as well as the pentagon's chil hundred thirty four golf courses that. children poor women and homeless you know take your or the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget or every program is being is just rajoy in an obscene right to put it on the. road. that the percent of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to finding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to take in its belt and forward our t. washington d.c. . news making headlines this hour a suicide bomber has killed at least ten people in our attack on tribal elders in eastern afghanistan a close ally of president calls i was killed in the blast the attack approached the elders after a meeting before detonating the explosives strapped to his body the taliban denied responsibility for the attack claiming that the victims had their own enemies. the deposed egyptian leader hosni mubarak and his

replacement over at the pentagon is trying to the joint chiefs with that said i think the trace is a bright enough individual who can adapt and actually maybe even bring some much needed change to make c.i. more adaptive more relevant organization to the conflicts we're currently in tonier these promotions prezzies to human well clearly the patris move to c.i. is i think a lateral transfer at best i think that he's already had the ability to do a lot of things especially given the job he's had but at his job promotion i mean you're talking about a five fold increase in responsibility talking about everything from veterans affairs to strategy to defense acquisition all these things which are clearly you know the huge most and most difficult bureaucracy to control is i think one of the pentagon so yes it's a much larger job and i would argue i'm not sure if his credentials are going to match the responsibilities of that job at this point. that was lieutenant colonel tony shaffer senior fellow at the center for the advanced defense studies. all right well it's been known as the temple o

bases in sites with world why as well as the pentagon's two hundred thirty four golf courses. it means children poor wimmin homeless you know take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we are every program is being cut is just fraudulent in obscene to put it on the ground real bring it out and write. that the percentage of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding past and future war and for all the tough talk by president obama about making hard choices cutting the budget and closing the deficit gap many americans are wondering when it will be the pentagon's turn to tighten its belt you know in florida r t but into d.c. . engineers a panel struggling fukushima nuclear plants have resumed efforts to remove radioactive water comes off a powerful aftershock forced crews to leave the area on tuesday japan raised around the facility to get back some level of certain spots the crisis in the whole of the chernobyl disaster the decision was based on new data showing great vision for the damaged previously thought

saudi arabia you know it's between saudi arabia and go and legally going to see me to africa and the pentagon wins if the country is back on ice as long as they keep their oil contracts intact it's good for them if they can also profit off the western oil corporations to strike deals somewhere else another due to play another deal with russia for instance another view with venezuela and that they're doing which is going to be exporting oil in five six years as you say you know they just action so there's so much of a melting pot isn't there we're out of time for now it's a pleasure to have your program pepe escobar asia times correspondent joining us live from brazil thank you to. well another expensive conflict comes at a bad time for the struggling u.s. economy a ratings agency standard and poor's slashed the outlook about american debt negative in a move casting doubt on washington's ability to reduce its deficit some thoughts on this the business does for more demand and there was a sensitive reaction on the markets on monday was a massive selloff pretty much all across the board on the n

chief leon panetta heads to the pentagon. while general david petraeus leaves afghanistan to take over in langley. lieutenant general john allen takes petraeus's place in afghanistan, and former ambassador to the iraq ryan crockers joins him there as the top u.s. diplomat. each man has a different career and a different relationship with the white house that can tell us much about how obama policy and about how wars themselves have changed. isn't that right, mark? >> yeah, there's a lot of familiar faces changing jobs. one way to look at it is that there is not going to be a significant change in the policy in the war on afghanistan agent. general petraeus will continue to do his job at c.i.a. and lenient will carry out the counterinsurgencyy policy though he's been somewhat of a skeptic of that poifments the bigger issue is there is a certain interchangeability between the pentagon an the c.i.a. these days. the c.i.a. is in the military business, dropping bombs in pakistan and the military is fanned -- expanding its intellige

house who the president wants to cut the pentagon by. and that is former director of o.m.b. how you want so man who when you make the reductions understands the world is just coming from the cia he's been looking at it we want someone who's going to be able to work with congress he's a former congressman and he was a republican before he became a democrat so i can't think of anybody who would have better experience to carry out. president obama's agenda similarly i think by building general petraeus to the cia we've had some differences between the cia and the military about what exactly is happening particularly in afghanistan hopefully general petraeus will be able to bridge that gap now jack i want to get your opinion here what do you think of these and this is i think a lot of people are describing this as a shakeup but if you really think about it it's it's the same faces that are just being put into different positions and you know given an entire. you know you're absolutely right i mean if you think about if you'd rather kate's a g

deploy anti-satellite weapons so-called missile defense systems and other space technology at the pentagon today a warning that space will become the next big battleground to meet the challenge defense secretary donald rumsfeld is making space at the top pentagon priority putting a four star general at the head of a new air force space command to take charge of all military space activity including any new anti missile defense pay careful attention to protecting and promoting our interest in space pentagon officials say it's the first step toward eventually putting weapons into space. the united states is the leader of the search and development of space weapons possible secret and hidden in the black budgets of the pentagon these covert programs cost many billion dollars and. what technologies benefit from this financing. starfire has been used primarily in the past to do research on satellite tracking also they've done a lot of work in astronomy with range finding of stars he use the laser to be able to help tell you where the star is and how far away. in the budget documents on the air

guest: we did notify the pentagon. in part notified them because we wanted to see what they could tell us about the photographs, and we also notified them because we knew the reaction might potentially put troops in harm's way. we want to give them a heads up that this was coming. they mostly spoke to was off the record, so i cannot tell you what they said, but in one on the record conversation we pointed to the photographs of the men tied up beside the road, and we wanted to know if they were investigating who those men were, the circumstances under which there were killed, and whether u.s. troops were involved in the desecration of the bodies. basically the response of the pentagon is they have no way of knowing in no way of basically figuring out who the men in the photographs were. that was disturbing, because you could see from some of the related photographs that there were marks on the striker vehicles and other identifying signs that any peace investigator could have to track down what had happened in that incid

been close ties but they're also very very different so moving leon panetta to the tom job at the pentagon do you think it makes sense what i think this is primarily what we're seeing is a. dance of political geometry. the problem is and you mentioned before this is almost like just changing chairs some of correlates to you know changing and removing pictures around the titanic which i don't quite agree with the problem is i think we set up an echo chamber and having people simply move jobs around is not going to be a lot of good the problem with leon panetta frankly and this is something that i think people tend to overlook is that he is not well known for his military or intelligence background it was an anomaly that he got sent to cia he was sent over there to reestablish confidence and that's another us code word in the d.c. for keeping a lid on things so i think what we're doing now what we're seeing now is handing it to the pentagon because of his political connections with the white house rather than his ability to manage department events or more importantly achieve victory not a w

economy and then a shakeup in the obama national security team the cia the pentagon are getting new leaders so how will these changes affect u.s. wars taking place in the middle east and north africa then berger's de vocht again president obama surprised everyone this morning when he released his long form birth certificate but should he have kate for the birth or crowd or will they simply move on to the next eerie and then does the crime fit the punishment oklahoma lawmakers passed a bill that would mandate up to a life sentence for anyone convicted of converting marijuana and hashish later in the show but first let's move on to our top story. so a federal reserve chairman ben bernanke he held a press conference and it was the first of its kind since the fed was founded in one thousand thirteen and supposedly it was the first of what will be for annual news gatherings so did the earth rattled or the winds blow did the world change well not quite as usual dr he said a whole lot of not that much did q e two work yes but it didn't fix all the problems will they do it again now because they do

it goes way beyond libya effect i'm working on a story at the moment pitting the pentagon against china this is the big story in africa for the next fifty years i would say it starts in the beginning of the two thousand creation of the african union cathy was a very important in this mechanism it was a mechanism to give a political voice to africa in terms of unified africa in terms of political decisions and not know of course economic integration then china's start investing much more than it was investing two hundred ninety nine it's over african net least thirty eight countries we have more than nine hundred projects all over africa and then came the reaction from the pentagon two thousand and seven two thousand and eight would be african command which has just launched its first african war when they launched a tomahawk three weeks ago against against tripoli basically so now this is the chess war it's the pentagon fiat african i guess the chinese investments in the middle. i will say at least fifty african governments and scrambling to see oh keep what's going to come down. that's

secret and hidden in the black budgets of the pentagon these covert programs cost many billion dollars a. month technology's benefit from this financing. starfire has been used primarily in the past to do research on satellite tracking also they've done a lot of work in astronomy with the range finding of stars he use the laser to be able to help tell you where the star is and how far away it is in the budget documents from the air force there's also been mention of the use of starfire for anti cell at weapons activities. the air force told congress that it had no intentions of using starfire for anything related to the selling weapons however they are doing it just. to make the laser beam very skinny. and make it stay very stable as it goes up and then to target that on a salad. if you're tracking it sally you don't need a very skinny laser beam in fact what kind of a wide would cause you gave me a tree catch it illegal right. so. many of us here concerned that this kind of a test is actually an anti-satellite weapons test in the skies. in april of two thousand and five the air force

bases inside the world by as well as the pentagon's two hundred thirty four golf courses that. it needs children poor women and homeless you know to take care of the needs of our population to spend enormous amounts of money on the pentagon budget while we are every program is being is just fraudulent and obscene try to put it on the ground bring it out. that the four cents of every dollar americans pay in taxes goes to funding past and future war and for all the. but meanwhile the u.k. is giving one hundred million pounds of emergency funds to its military forces to support the libyan campaign despite the cuts agreed in temple's defense spending review comes at a time when britain is dramatically slashing social spending actually contributor because we know there's a view that says debating defense cuts will soon be felt and square. well britain's involvement in a new conflict it's impossible to state and the level of defense cuts decided upon last year when still defense needs extra funding but the government has two major obstacles in providing it the first one is how to ensu

cut more exclusively out of domestic social safety net spending because we're going to extend the pentagon budget carte blanche and take that completely are considerable for the rest of the year meanwhile a democratic president is out his major message about why would a government shutdown is to avoid the weighing payments pay to troops now the length troops would be regrettable definitely but in a democratic president saying this is the major primaries to stop a government shutdown would use doing is walking is already into the republican frame which says ok we'll just take through the pentagon budget and move it out of the debate over spending and deficits so that all of the debate over cutting all of the debate over spending since is on a small portion of the budget deals with discretionary domestic spending so you've got basically both parties now working in tandem against and this is a key point against the will the american people because the latest survey by reuters just a couple weeks ago show that when the american public is asked what do you want to cut to deal with deficit the n

the pentagon define this new program as offensive measures to disrupt. the grid or destroy any adverse or is based capabilities. yet. oh. by. the air force academy in colorado springs for the doctrine of space control and its possible consequences our study. it's hard to change space period already without attacking so i'm afraid that if we want space we're going to have to attack and resistance which i don't know if you know much about oral mechanics but if you create a degree of in space that would just get in the way for you as well and it kind of start chain reaction and pretty soon you just have a cloud of debris surrounding earth. about six hundred thousand fragments fly through space at ten times the velocity of a rifle bullet. all these objects are traveling at fourteen thousand miles an hour so even an object the size of a pea traveling at that speed has more force than a. cannonball. right now the problem with space junk is so high that nasa is worried that if there is never another watch of anything into space it has every launch creates a litt

>> reporter: well, the pentagon revealed today that despite assurances the u.s.was no longer striking targets on the ground. american jets have, in fact, attacked libyan air defense sites three times in the last ten days. add in aerial refueling, reconnaissance, and electronic jamming missions, and the u.s. is flying 35% of all the nato missions. >> couric: so why are the europeans and the rebels complaining that americans aren't doing enough? >> reporter: well, they want the u.s. not to just attack qaddafi's air defenses. they want the u.s. to attack his ground forces. and specifically, they want to bring in the a.c.-130 gunship. here's the problem-- this is a video of a british jet dropping a bomb on a libyan tank. it destroys the tank, but then look what happens. all the libyan soldiers that were operating with that tank flee in pickup trucks. it's hard to bomb a pickup truck, but you can hit it with an a.c.-130 gunship. >> couric: so is the u.s. likely to give into european demand and send in ac-130's? >> reporter: the gunships have been placed on alert so th

host: what has the pentagon said about that? recruiting for the military has become easier, so their standards could go up. with that said, they have had trouble with overweight and high school diplomas, and things like that, but recently, they say the standards have gone up because the poles have been much bigger. host: we will go to mike, a democrat in charleston, south carolina. caller: the way the strategy is laid out, many of times the department of defense is forced to acquire weapons systems they do not want to buy, but it is mandated by congress. how do we get around this problem? guest: it is tricky. you see it over the fight for the alternative engine. secretary gates has said they do not need it, but the hill continues to put it in the budget. it is a constant battle between the pentagon and capitol hill. i am sure this will continue. host: "the new york times" editorial weighs in on this debate. they say the budget plan would spend $7.50 trillion on the military, and that does not include the cost of actual war fight

pieces of steel from the world trade center and the pentagon that was from flight 93 was used in the creation of the statue. it will be placed in a park where green played little league. >>> truly disturbing remarks coming out of arkansas war school nurse -- where a school in your has been fired. according to a letter written by the superintendent. maryland snyder told staff and faculity members all special ed student need to be euthanized and wiped off the face of theearth. parents are outrage and paul has been -- has an 8-year-old son with a tim. listen. >> the thought that he should be put to sleep like a dog, wow. >> the public school board held a hearing and voted unanimously to fire the school nurse. snyder says it was a bad choice of words and her quote, heart

guest: we did notify the pentagon. ed them because we wanted to see what they could tell us about the photographs, and we also notified them because we knew the reaction might potentially put troops in harm's way. we want to give them a heads up that this was coming. they mostly spoke to was off the record, so i cannot tell you what they said, but in one on the record conversation we pointed to the photographs of the men tied up beside the road, and we wanted to know if they were investigating who those men were, the circumstances under which there were killed, and whether u.s. troops were involved in the desecration of the bodies. basically the response of the pentagon is they have no way of knowing in no way of basically figuring out who the men in the photographs were. that was disturbing, because you could see from some of the related photographs that there were marks on the striker vehicles and other identifying signs that any peace investigator could have to track down what had happened in that incident. there is

defense secretary robert gates, who plans to leave this summer, will be replaced as the top man at the pentagon by current cia director leon panetta. panetta will be replaced by the top u.s. general in afghanistan, david petraeus. general john allen will take petraeus' place. >>> it was an unprecedented move. the president of the united states producing a detailed birth certificate to prove he was born in the united states. the president says it's time to move on. but the issue is still not resolved for some so-called birthers. susan mcginnis is in washington