we're now finding out, based on testimony yesterday from wendy sherman, we don't even know when the start date is, that officials cannot even agree as to when the beginning of this agreement is going to be and when the implementation begins. and it's pretty amazing to me that we could spend months negotiating over an issue that is so important to us and so important to the world and yet after it's concluded, we don't even really know when the agreement begins and we certainly, because of the text of the agreement, know that it does not have an end date. i've tried to listen to the concerns that the administration has. i think i've demonstrated since i've been here that i really want to seek understanding, number one, but also try to use that understanding to solve problems. so our office has worked hard to develop an amendment. it's an amendment that establishes a firm end date but it also describes end state. that's what this amendment does. i think that people on both sides of the aisle -- i don't think it, i know it because of public expressions -- have been very concerned that this in

today, wendy sherman, the lead u.s. negotiator in geneva, held a closed briefing today for members of the house. republican trent franks of arizona is among the lawmakers who have called the agreement a bad deal. >> seems like there's general notion that we're afraid to allow iran to question our sincerity when we should be questioning theirs. iran has given no concession of any kind for 30 years. and yet we are now taking some of our most powerful inducements off the table. >> ifill: michigan democrat dan kildee was milder in his criticism, but he said the u.s. has to proceed very carefully. >> we have to be very cautious with this state, and very skeptical and realize that the reason that we're in the position we're in right now, is that the sanctions are working, and the sanctions need to be not just seen only as a penalty, but as an inducement to better behavior. >> ifill: under the agreement, a limited number of economic sanctions would be eased for six months. in exchange, iran would agree to neutralize its stockp

and wendy sherman persisted that we can trust these guys even in her ope ed in 2001. and you couldn't trust them. and people that knew these people knew you couldn't trust the leadership. you could trust the north koreans. you can't trust their leadership. yirnians but he can't trust their leadership. another article, nuclear gang-bangers and points out, yirne appreciates three laws, number one, nuclear weapons earn a reputation. number two, the more loco a nuclear nation sounds the more it sounds that nuclear states will say it is not subject to nuclear deterrence and pay vibes for it to bave. gang bangers have nothing to lose. they are more responsible intended targets have everything to lose. number three, there is no 100% effective nuclear effective defense systems that can guarantee non-nuclear powers from a sudden attack. the police have the upper hand. and this administration is turning a blind eye to the deceit and lies and the nuclear development in iran to our detriment and the detriment of our dear friend. the speaker pro tempore: 20 minutes remaining, i be

we had hoped to bring you an interview with wendy sherman, the lead u.s. negotiator for upcoming international talks on iran and syria, but that conversation has been delayed. on tuesday, we'll look at the ruling in the detroit bankruptcy case. i'm judy woodruff. >> ifill: and i'm gwen ifill. we'll see you online and again here tomorrow evening. for all of us here at the "pbs newshour," thank you and good night. >> major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by: ♪ ♪ moving our economy for 160 years. bnsf, the engine that connects us. >> supported by the john d. and catherine t. macarthur foundation. committed to building a more just, verdant and peaceful world. more information at macfound.org >> and with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. and... >> this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you. captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org >>> this is nightly bu

kudos to john kerry and wendy sherman for really moving forward. >> we need to say for those who don'tand is a show on showtime, very good show and they are about to try to kill -- i probably shouldn't say -- >> good grief, chris. >> i don't know what happened. >> okay. but -- tune in. but so who would have thought that? this is an interim deal. i think what this does is it aligns the world's clock, the israeli clock, the american clock, the -- pick a place, the iranian clock, to a six-month clock. let's see what happens. there is a long way to go between an interim deal and whatever is the final outcome and i think congress is going to consider enhanced sanctions and will pass a bill. i think they will pass a bill in the next month or so, but the sanctions won't take effect until six months and one day from now, or five and a half months and one day from now. there is jubilation in the streets of iran. i think a lot of iranian people are fond of americans and have been withering through the 34-year period of hell. the polling in the united states shows 2-1 people favor this, and if it

it's not a coincidence these sanctions were announced an hour before wendy sherman, the top americanr testified to congress. they had a political point behind them. >> good point there, thank you. michael gordon, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> and in an unprecedented step, 13 international news organizations, including "the new york times," "washington post," reuters and the ap have signed a letter addressed to the syrian rebels warning reporter abductions threaten the coverage of the syrian conflict. the organizations are urging rebel leadership to help identify those groups holding journalists and help secure their release. on tuesday the spanish newspaper el mundo revealed two of their journalists had been sipped in september. espinoza survived the bombing that killed another and photographer held by an extremist group according to the newspaper. the kmd to protect journalists reports there are as many as 30 journalists missing in syria with seven abductions in the past two months alone. so you'ree your mom has a mom cave? hi boys! i've made you campbell's chunky new england

right now undersecretary of state wendy sherman and undersecretary of the treasury david cohen facing senators about the temporary nuclear deal with iran. >> the president is absolutely right to fully test iran's leaders. and i will be vigilant to ensure that the joint action plan is strictly enforced. >> congressional sanctions designed in a completely bipartisan fashion have successfully worked. to bring iran to the negotiating table. we must maintain that leverage going forward. >> her boss, secretary of state john kerry, briefed lawmakers on the deal yesterday. the obama administration is in a full-court press to keep congress from voting for new sanctions until the diplomatic process plays out. >>> wait for this one. it could get interesting. today the fcc starts the formal discussion about allowing cell phones to be used on planes. it's an idea you'd be hard pressed to find a lot of people happy about, but if approved, it's not just calls. also texting and other mobile services. they would be okay when planes are in flight, although not during takeoff and landing. and this could

wendy sherman who is going to give the house a briefing in the morning at 9:00 a.m. on how good things have gone in the dealings with iran. as the "wall street journal" article from november 20 points out, the clinton administration's policy coordinator for north america, wendy sherman, is now the obama administration's lead egotiator for the iran nuclear talks. in a 2001 "new york times" op-ed, ms. sherman urged president bush to cut a deal, writing that kim jong il, quote, appears ready to make landmark commitments because to ensure the survival of his regime, he has to improve the country's disastrous economy by reducing the burden of a vast missile program and opening the doors to trade. well, ms. sherman was wrong about that inner op-ed she wrote in 2001. kim jong il needed to help his economy, right about that, but she thought it meant that he was ready to get rid of his ballistic missile program and open the doors more to trade. certainly they were willing to open the doors to trade but just as she had been wrong in 1994, when she helped the clinton administra

the committee heard from wendy sherman and david cohen. this is about an hour and a half. >> i call this hearing to order. yesterday, all senators had a chance to hear directly from kerry on theew and first step nuclear agreement reached in geneva between the p% plus one and iran. we will dig into the agreement in gritty detail, and explore the likely effects of congressional action on new sanctions legislation at this time, to which the president and the secretary of state strongly object. have talked with various members of the committee about these issues, and ensured that all members have had the opportunities to be briefed repeatedly by secretaries kerry and lew and the intelligence community on the ongoing geneva negotiations. let me be clear -- i support strong sanctions, and authored many of the u.s. sanctions currently in place. i have negotiated a new bipartisan sanctions bill with my working member that could be finalized and moved quickly if iran fails to comply with the terms of the first step agreement in geneva, or if negoti

was a because of wendy sherman and baroness ashton? you tell us. >> thank you, barbara. a great, great pleasure being here at the world affairs council. top secret pleasure great pleasure to be with my good friends, barbara and john, who i owe both quite a lot to it comes to understanding this issue. and he didn't play much of a devil's advocate i think. you were quite positive about this deal. and rightly so in my view. it was interesting in geneva and i think the last day was quite tough. long moments where large number of journalists were sitting in the lobby of the intercontinental hotel in geneva were as the negotiators were on some of the upper floors. they were starting to get a sense that there's been actually not work out. in the beginning i think the vast majority were quite optimistic for a very simple reason, the cost of failure is so great for both sides. there is a symmetric situation in the sense that neither side can feel particularly comfortable walking away thinking, even if there's no deal we are in a pretty good situation. iranians will not be a good

madeleine albright, wendy sherman went to north korea in 2000 and i went with them about negotiating a deal on the missiles as well, and the negotiations went well. they went so well that bill clinton had to decide and fli ia coin at the end this presidency whether going to go to north korea or if he was going to try to finalize an arab-israeli peace agreement he and he decided for the arab-israeli peace agreement. wrong choice. he probably could have gotten the north korean agreement. george w. bush came in. colin powell wanted to pick up where clinton left off. he had his hat handed to him. he was humiliated for making that statement. john bolton who was in charge of nonproliferation, state department, went about leaking information that the north koreans might have a secret program to enrich uranium and there was a confrontation in 2002, and low and behold the north koreans admitted they were indeed investigating and richmond and the whole deal fell apart. the north koreans left v. npt, building reactor and tested weapons. there were other agreements wert were reached with the nor

wendy sherman is the lead negotiator on this deal. our friends see what we are doing.ave got saudi arabia. turkey, all these other countries, yeah, turkey another country you have got all these allies of ours going wow, we are going to have to have nukes. we have never felt the need to have nukes before. if iran is going to have nuclear weapons, we have got to have them too. it's exactly the opposite of what we ought to have happening. and our dearest ally over there. the most -- the most closely related in democracy israel, is more threatened than ever because of this administration's policies. and, in libya, just as in egypt, where this administration has been the backers basically of muslim brotherhood, candidates in egypt for example, where basically they ar sure if you like him you can keep him. what they kept saying again and again is please make sure the united states understands, this was not a coupe. the guy that you supported morsey told us was such a great guy, he pushed through a constitution that didn't even from v. a provision for impeachment. and so they

and now they're cutting a deal with iran led by wendy sherman, who was the policy director for north korea when president clinton and madeleine albright made that atrocious deal to give them nuclear power plants, nuclear help and in return all they had to do was promise not to develop nuclear weapons, which they readily did, and in return the clinton administration, and they agreed not to inspect their nuclear facilities. what amounted to about five years, gave them plenty of time to develop nukes. if someone is evil enough to behead, to brutalize, to persecute innocent people, to somehow think it's a noble thing, to terrorize and kill innocent people, how do you not understand that they are also capable of lying as well? you want to trust people that want to kill you and have said so many times. i think it's time we wake up. the world is less safe because of some of the actions that we have taken. we need to be wise about what jesus ecause just as said, to whom much is given of him, much will be required. we've been given much. we've been blessed more than any nation in the history

wendy davis, has a book coming out in the fall. she filibustered in texas on the abortion bill. gabriel sherman has a new book. that will come out in may. elizabeth warren has a book coming out in the spring. as does glenn beck. his next book is tentatively titled "controlling education." robin roberts has a book coming out. those are some of the books coming out and went to 14. also, plans are underway for or -- the white house is looking for to a big day in 2014. michelle obama's 50th birthday. that will be on january 17. there will be a party the following day, snacks and sips and dancing and dessert. the date e-mails are already being sent. guests will wear comfortable shoes, eat before you come, and practiced in shoes. eric in pittsburgh, republican line. caller: i think that we live in a culture that fantasizes war. you cannot look at a later without seeing an image of war. look at our national anthem. it is about war. it is a war in them. host: is the war on drugs succeeding? -- war any kind of for proves the point, and then the flags are put down. everybody moves on. host: that was eric in pittsburgh.