go to sam and i find it really kind of remarkable just only a few weeks ago a month ago the pentagon was saying what a success afghanistan was and now as we get to obama's speech and the details of it they're saying there's a dire need not to pull out i mean what's going on here again it's more smoke and mirrors i mean. we don't seem to have a clear picture of what game is in afghanistan and is closer we get to it the more the military is pulling back. well i don't consider pentagon's position all that perplexing i mean the two positions. seem to be mutually exclusive but actually not there have been a significant amount of progress since the troop surge about a year eighteen months ago and there has been a significant increase in the training of afghan forces and also the afghan police but at the same time what the pentagon and what bob gates and general petraeus are all concerned about is that they want to draw down but they don't want to draw down that precipitous now if you listen to some of the points that president obama made last night my understanding was that he was just goin

well i don't consider the pentagon's position all that perplexing i mean the two positions. seem to be mutually exclusive but actually not there have been a significant amount of progress since the troop surge about a year or eighteen months ago and there has been a significant increase in the training of afghan forces and also the afghan police but at the same time what the pentagon and what bob gates and what general petraeus are all concerned about is that they want to draw down but they don't want to draw down and that's precipitous now listen to some of the points that president obama made last night my understanding was that he was just going to announce that he was going to we do our around thirty thousand troops total by the end of next summer but i thought he was going to leave the rest of it pretty flexible and of course a few months after after the drawdown of the thirty thousand troops there will be the elections so then afterwards he has sort of a more political leader way but i was actually. pretty impressed that he did something that he didn't really have to d

that's right it's a new sponsorship deal where the pentagon is using its money to lure young people to go to war i mean to lure young people to their facebook page to watch exclusive clips of the x.-men yeah it's pretty blatant pro-war propaganda that completely leaves out the realities and the dangers of fighting in conflicts so why are they getting away with it and how long is this kind of thing going on joining me to discuss that is david sirota radio host and best selling author of the book back to our future how the one nine hundred eighty s. explain the world we live in now david always nice to have you on the show and i think we've all seen a lot of those ridiculous ads coming from our armed forces that really glorify what it is to be a member of the armed forces to go into war but you think of this crosses a new line where suddenly they throw fictional mutants into the mix. well you're right to say this is a bigger story it is a longer story the military has been advertising and using pop culture icons advertised for really for years i mean there was an ad back in two thousand

obama is satisfied in public opinion what he's doing is primarily satisfying the interests of the pentagon in the military they have gotten most of i would say eighty percent of what they wanted whereas the faction in his administration was really concerned about the cost of the war got very little of what they wanted alexis and i know you in london what is obama's priorities then because a lot of people see this is this kind of smoke and mirrors that it's not really a real drawback at least at this point because he's put trying the number of troops is still there still really very few good lines out there and maybe that's done it on purpose we can talk about later in the program but is this more driven by domestic politics and it's really happening on the ground in afghanistan well sure i mean i think the drawdown is actually slightly a virtual draw down and it has to be just twenty three thousand it's self because after that after that withdrawal there will still be more troops in afghanistan then when obama took office. but i think it's heavily steeped in domestic political consideratio

military the pentagon do not intend to do it out there intend to keep combat forces there indefinitely that if you read carefully the subtext of the obama speech that's exactly what he was implying sam if i'm going to you i mean i jump in this is go ahead go ahead i'm sorry i just want to go ahead and i think there is a difference between saying that. you know yes there is nobody i don't know if i would go. to the extent of saying there's nobody within the u.s. infrastructure in afghanistan or the u.s. foreign policy wouldn't think two more years going to make a difference but there is an even if that's true there is a difference between that and saying there is no difference between leaving in three years and leaving all the troops in six months i mean there there there is a significant number of people the vast majority of the people within the state department and the pentagon who believe there will be a difference between but president obama is doing now and the alternative which a lot of people seem to one which is basically just pulled apply again leave immediately within three m

but please please put us soldiers day after the deadline at the end of this year the pentagon says big spec the wreckage government will ask them to stay beyond their scheduled december thirty first departure date but with the announced troop withdrawals from iraq and afghanistan the u.s. started actively waging a different kind of warfare what they call and intelligent war one that's waged with drones without sacrificing the lives of their soldiers in countries like pakistan yemen and libya and many say that's the major shift that happened in military operations under robert gates a shift that some say can only lead to more destruction of. the united states has increased the intensity of the focus on pakistan in terms of drone strikes those remotely piloted vehicles while targeting terrorists the us has been criticized for killing mostly civilians it's also making us less secure from a policy standpoint we can't intervene all over the world it just fuels insurgencies and fuels anti-americanism analysts say the deaths of thousands of civilians in afghanistan are part of the reason why

where the new head of the pentagon and the wars that flourished for the outgoing secretary defense robert gates. and on line twenty four hours a day welcome to r.t. our top story now greece has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets that's after parliament's again the largest tough new cuts in order to secure a further a natural life line in the e.u. and european officials welcome the greeks could not have been less happy with the pentagon's thirty think rather than the same two reference on the second day of the general strike protests the police smashed windows and set property police responded with tear gas and stun grenades and the clashes continue to overnight dozens of police in the testers were injured many demonstrators were detained greeks now face twenty billion euro worth of cuts and tax rises a precondition for a second bailout released without the money greece will default on its loans for weeks. a financial. mess the government and this is the minds of people. i've been to a lot of these protests and a lot of these rallies are

whether the new head of the pentagon the wars that the outgoing defense robert gates. and online twenty four hours a day welcome to watty the top story greece has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets that's after parliament gave the green light to tough new. cuts in order to secure a financial lifeline in the e.u. european officials welcomed the greeks could not have been less happy with the pending austerity they gathered in the center of our friends on the second day of a general strike. police smashed windows and set the property and its responded with tear gas and stun grenades and the clashes continued and night dozens of police in protest as were injured while many demonstrators were detained greeks now face twenty billion human worth of cuts and tax rises a precondition to a second least without the money greece will default on its loans with weeks of financial journalist and i to call this is this the government addresses the needs of the people of evolution on its hands i've been to a lot of these protests and

busway look at whether the new head of the pentagon will end the wars that flourished for the outgoing secretary of defense robert gates. from a business desk gazprom may increase its investment program to record forty four billion dollars this year the company's holding an annual general meeting on tuesday we'll bring you the latest from that our business bulletin. around the world and around the clock this is r t greece has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets after parliament gave the green light to tough new cuts in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. european officials welcomed the move but the greeks could not have been less happy with the pending. they gathered in the center of athens on the second day of a general strike protesters threw stones at police rushed windows and set part of property police responded with tear gas and stun grenades in the clashes continue the night dozens of recent protesters were injured while many demonstrators were detained greeks now face twenty eight billion a year worth of

course and teacher counterparts whoever's in the white house in the pentagon it's business as usual robert gates was secretary of defense to two different presidents obama was elected on a promise to end the wars of his predecessor george w. bush but america's worst continued and one more was even added to the plate of the inconclusive campaign levy when administrations change or change between parties there really isn't a great deal of change in the pentagon under robert gates is watch americas and you will defense spending approach the trillion dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory and spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade the gusher has been turned off and will stay off the u.s. is supposed to leave iraq by the end of the year but it seems that there's line is not final he gives all kinds of contradictory statements for instance not long ago he said that anyone who would vices support us a land army in the middle of an asian conflict should have had it right. there at the same tim

government is releasing all seven thousand pages of the pentagon papers meanwhile forty years after the leak of a top secret pentagon papers led to a landmark supreme court case and triggered the nixon white house plumbers group that ended up in gauging in watergate the full report has been declassified all seven thousand pages now released by the national archives. really that's all you've got how about talking about bradley manning in his confinement did you know the government's case against daniel ellsberg where they tried to charge him with espionage conspiracy but all that fell apart because of government misconduct because they tap his phone illegally and they broke into his psychiatry's office to steal his records and yes all of that was wrong but all that pales in comparison to keeping a man locked up in solitary confinement for ten months and then forcing him to strip naked and not allowing him to sleep no mention of that in the press no mention the fact that information that daniel ellsberg leaked was classified as top secret that's a higher classification level than everythi

wars to deal with for his successor but many question whether the incoming cia chief will turn the pentagon's course on round. by from our headquarters in central moscow here watching with me and he said now it's two pm here in the russian capital one pm in athens where greece is pay. king up the pieces from the latest bout of civil unrest when thousands of angry protesters flooded the streets that's after part of the men gave the green light to tough new cots in order to secure a further financial why fine from the e.u. demonstrators clashed with police in the capital on the second day of a general strike financial journalists. witnessed the under arrest you can still. smell the chemicals that were sprayed when i walked into the hotel my eyes started to tear up again and they haven't dropped anything since last night so it's really just residue and things that are coming out. and in fact one of the things that is circulating here today is a video that shows police not just police brutality yesterday where there's a lot of that but also police working with provocateurs agent provocateurs woul

-pakistan alliance; the pentagon papers, 40 years on; and justice john paul stevens. but first, the other news of the day. here's hari sreenivasan. >> sreenivasan: continuing government crackdown on protesters in syria forced more people to flee across the border into turkey today. on sunday, the military reined in protesters in a northern border town using elite ground forces, helicopters, and tanks. we have a report from john ray of independent television news, who is on the border between syria and turkey. >> reporter: an uprising crushed, a victory celebrated on the syrian tv tonight. and in the town, the regime claims it's uncovered atrocities committed by rebels. but as the army advanced, a population has scattered and terrorized survivors tell a different story. >> they have attacked us. they chased us, she cried. i don't know where my aunt and uncles are. in clinics on the turkish side of the border they tend the injured. not even the innocent have been spared the violence. the firsthand accounts now emerging with these refugees, let alone the injuries they've

military and the sponsible for the billions of dollars in the pentagon's coffins from washington now secretary of defense robert gates is retiring leaving behind three wars and i think growing defense budget director of the cia stepping into his shoes critics doubt will be much change in the pentagon's course and she kind of. whoever's in the white house in the pentagon it's business as usual robert gates was secretary of defense to two different presidents obama was elected on a promise to end the wars of his predecessor george w. bush but america's worst continued and one more was even added to the plate of inconclusive campaign levy when administrations trained or change between parties there really isn't a great deal of training in the pentagon under robert gates is watch america's annual defense spending approach the trillion dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory than spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade but gusher has been turned off and will stay off the u.s. is supposed to le

plus a farewell to arms in a cup whether the new head of the pentagon will end the wars that flourished for the outgoing secretary of defense robert gates. for costing live from the russian capital twenty four seven this is out. greece has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets. that's after parliament gave the green light to tough new cuts in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. european officials welcomed the move but greeks could not have been less happy with the pending austerity as they gathered in the center of athens on the second day of the general strike protesters threw stones at police smashed windows and set fire to property police responded with tear gas and stun grenades the clashes continued overnight dozens of police and protesters were injured many demonstrators were detained greeks now face twenty eight billion euro worth of cuts and tax rises precondition to a second bailout being released without the money greece would default on its loans within weeks. generous tantrik uncleanness says unless the

plus we look at whether the new head of the pentagon and the war stuff that most of the outgoing secretary of defense robert gates. are business does russian equity market opened higher with energy and banking stocks among the main gate as germany for details and markets take in about forty minutes from now. on their online twenty four hours a day welcome to what brits has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets south of parliament's gave the green darts to tough new cuts and wanted to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. european officials welcomed the move but greeks could have been less happy with the paintings there to think gathered in the center of our friends on the second day of the general strike if this is true so there is a police stash the windows and separate according to police responded with tear gas and stun grenades clashes continue overnight with dozens of policemen testes were injured many of them. states with the taint weeks now face twenty eight they leave you with cuts. and conditions in a sense least the mon

keeping troops there is for as long as possible and what would those bureaucratic that would be the pentagon bob gates at this moment at least and the commander in afghanistan general betray us and that has there been any sense of i mean we've seen reports saying that it is sort of breaking ranks with the generals here but how many folks on the hill pointed that out is that a concern it's going to come out tomorrow general petraeus will be being confirmed in the senate tomorrow and for the intelligence committee to take over the cia potentially and a lot of lawmakers mainly on saxby chambliss republican of georgia has already come out and said he wants to make sure that the president listen to on his commanders obviously the president took with the commander said with a grain of salt to quote his policy advisers said with a grain of salt so no one's going to be completely happy and it is the dawn of a new more independent obama when it comes to afterward i have to go back and challenge the idea that he didn't pay attention to what the trainer said in fact i think it's pretty clear from the l

>> and the pentagon papers will finally be revealed to the american public in full.he venezuelan president hugo chavez says he is recovering well after surgery on his pelvis. he did not give a date for his return home, but said he is managing government from his hospital bed. he underwent an operation on friday. he told venezuelan tv he had met with former and current cuban leaders, fidel and raul castro, over the weekend. >> surgery on a knee injury kept him sidelined for some weeks. now he has undergone an emergency operation in cuba for something more serious. an abscess on his pelvis. amid speculation is that his condition is worse than the government has revealed, he called from havana to quash the rumors. >> i am in full control of my faculties. believe me, if i was feeling at all like i had diminished faculties to lead the government, i would be the first person to take a decision. but this is absolutely, absolutely not the case. >> despite his claims that the surgery was a success, his critics have seized on his health as a potential weakness in his armor. he

all 7,000 pages of the pentagon papers, fully and finally declassified. that the great bulk of the pentagon's top secret history of the vietnam war has been available for decades. beginning with the most famous leak in history by the most famous whistle blower. >> i can no longer cooperate in concealing this information from the american public. >> reporter: daniel elsberg then and daniel elsberg today saying his own regret is he wasted nearly two years after reading the papers before he leaked them. >> that made me believe that what i was involved in, in vietnam, was not a noble cause that had gone wrong. it was unjustified homicide. >> reporter: in 1967 then defense secretary robert mcnamara ordered one of his so- called "whiz kids," morton halperin to set up a task force to conduct a study of the war. >> we interpreted what he wanted as wanting to learn the lessons of how we had gotten in, in the hopes that they would help other people in the future avoid the perils of what had gotten us into the war. >> reporter: halperin is one of a handful of people

there really isn't a great deal of training in the pentagon under robert gates his watch america's annual defense spending approach that really in dollars rising at the pace of about five percent a year but statements from his office were often contradictory fence spending that nearly doubled the base budget over the last decade the gusher has been turned off and will stay off the u.s. is supposed to leave iraq by the end of the year but it seems that bad line is not final he gives all kinds of contradictory statements for instance not long ago he said that anyone who advised this course you are from land army in the middle of the asian conflict should have his head exactly yet at the same time. he's done everything you can he's flown over several times to baghdad to leave with nouri al maliki government to please please could u.s. soldiers day after the deadline at the end of this year the pentagon says they expect the iraqi government will ask them to stay beyond their scheduled december thirty first departure date but with the announced troop withdrawals from iraq and afghanistan the u

david martin at the pentagon. >> betty nguyen is at the newsdesk with the other headlines this morning. >> good morning to you. a new round of nato air strikes in libya's capitol this morning. a sear roifs blasts were heard outside tripoli and a thick cloud of smoke rose over the city. it followed another series of raids overnight. >>> the white house and congress are in a tussle over the air campaign in libya and the war powers act. it says the president must get approval from congress for military action exceeding 90 days which the libya campaign does on sunday. but the white house says the act does not apply to the level of hostilities in libya and insists it has worked with congress all along. >> we have, from the beginning, consulted regularly with congress. more than 40 times. >> doesn't pass the straight face test in my view that we're not in the midst of hostilities. >> house speaker john boehner threatens action next week that would cut funding for the libya campaign. >>> nancy pelosi says that congressman

at noon today, the pentagon papers will be released. s our next segment, looking at the history of the pentagon papers. join us for that discussion is robert dallek. >> it is 9:14. republican presidential candidate and former massachusetts governor mitt romney is responding to remarks by president obama on unemployment. the president said on june 3 that, there are always going to be bumps in the road to recovery. supporters say, "i am an american, not about in the road -- a bump in the road." the latest generation of cancer drugs may be out of reach for some seniors with medicare prescription drug coverage because of steep co-pays. some of them are more than $500. about one in six people with medicare are not filing or filling their prescriptions. there is a new agreement today between the u.s. air force and poland, allowing troops to be stationed permanently in that country beginning in 2013. poland, a nato member since 1999, is a strong u.s. ally. those are some of the latest headlines. >> connect with c-span2 online -- c-span online.

>> reporter: they shut down traffic all around the pentagon. orities later raced to maluku's suburban virginia home to search for bomb-making material, as the fbi launches an international investigation to dissect his life. as the morning wore on, a fuller picture emerged. the fbi initially could find no links to terrorist organizations. >> we do believe at this time that this individual acted alone. >> reporter: as for the material in the backpack? it may be ammonium nitrate, but it was not the type that is explosive. and the searches of his home and car have turned up no explosives. if it turns out to be a lone wolf terrorist, that's exactly what the fbi feared. someone showing up without warning. diane? >> pierre, thank you for the reporting. >>> and it was a day of backlash, anger and confusion about social security. one of the most powerful groups in the country, the aarp, made headlines with word that they are actually debating a seismic shift, accepting the idea of some cuts in social security. here's ron claiborne on the backlash and the

going to start seeing a lot more money out of general petraeus of course is now leaving aside the pentagon and he's heading over to the cia but this is a man who has made statements that he thinks that we should be in afghanistan for decades so i'm just curious how much more money we can start seeing flowing over to be intelligence agencies we know like i said ready eighty billion now in yemen and we are increasing in the cia's taking over drone strikes in yemen eighty billion dollars i think is sufficient for the intelligence community all seven. i'd hate to see that budget go up much more like to see it used a lot more efficiently not more effectively i think what we've got is a situation here where we're panetta at the defense department. the president in a second term if he's elected let's see if he's reelected i think we've got a situation where we're going to see some real draconian cuts in defense budget but the president is not going to approach that until panetta has had a chance to get in and feel his way around and see what the best way to do that is both bureaucratically and in

plus we look at whether the new head of the pentagon and the wars that flourished for the outgoing secretary defense robert gates. question equity markets open higher with energy and banking stocks among the main gate is germany for the details and markets in about twenty minutes from now. on there and online twenty four hours a day welcome to what greece has erupted into more civil unrest with thousands of angry protesters flooding the streets after parliament gave the green light to tough new cuts in order to secure a further financial lifeline from the e.u. european officials welcome the greeks could have been less happy with the pending a stair to gather in the center of athens in the second day which. like. threw stones at police and set fire to these for sponsible. she's continued the night when dozens of police and protesters were injured while many demonstrators were detained weeks now face twenty eight billion live with cuts and tax rises we condition to assume that least without the money police will default on its loans with a week's financial. stands the government addresses the

the roads around the pentagon are now starting to reopen. >>> thank you. a new hit list showed al-qaeda may be targeting high profile americans. it includes more than 40 people including 26 of the targets and specific names have not been revealed but includes a member of congress, pentagon officials and conservative political pundit. no word yet if security is being stepped up for the people on the list. the u.s. is already putting a $25 million bounty on the number two al- qaeda leader. >>> a new campaign is targeting the religious law in afghanistan saying women cannot operate a car. some say it's time for a change. earlier today some women openly defied the law and drove around the capital. supporters of the ban say letting women drive would make it easier for them to interact with male strangers. >>> one candidate is all over the internet this morning, tim pawlenty confronted by a group throwing confetti on him. he was in san francisco appear a book signing at a health insurance conference. protesters questioned his positions on gay and reproductive rig

early in the pentagon the newsweek poll showed forty one percent of americans thought saddam hussein was directly terrorist and i don't think we are assured that i know i didn't say that there was a direct connection between september eleventh and saddam hussein nobody's ever suggested that the attacks of september the eleventh were ordered by iraq no wonder the news media has lost the public trust they want to make policy choices based on truth and what i heard is that people didn't really quite feel that the mainstream media in the media as we most of us experience. was truth telling group fairness and accuracy in reporting did a. study of two weeks around february fifth two thousand and three right before the invasion the four major nightly newscasts n.b.c. a.b.c. c.b.s. and the p.b.s. news hour with jim lehrer there were three hundred ninety three interviews done around war only three were that the world leaders three of almost four hundred when half the population was opposed to the invasion that is no longer mainstream media that's an extreme and in the drums for war a recent n

to promote the war former military officers would get talking points directly from the pentagon then say them on the air no questions asked if answered red sanders gesture. that is needed a retired u.s. general talking point imagine an iraq ruled by domestic needs to be a marriage in iraq imagine iraq under control start talking point link iraq to iran i believe that iran is now the number one troublemaker in iraq that's bad enough but a lot of these pentagon pundits were making big money from defense contracts most of the t.v. and the radio military analysts have ties to military contractors people who could possibly be making money on the war most would consider that a potential conflict of interest maybe not even potential at the same time reporters who did ask hard questions were punished by the white house luckily their managers stood by them reporter jonathan landay covered the speech dick cheney gave in august two thousand and two to the veterans of foreign wars many of us are. quire nuclear weapons. that was based on absolutely nothing. it was pulled out of thin air there was