defense forces available for seven hours. two brave americans died in the last hour. >> now, one other question that is still remains after these hearings today is whether or not the white house can claim that al qaeda has been disseminated when clearly the terrorist group is still launching attacks in northern africa and elsewhere. the secretary answered that by saying we have taken out the core leadership like usama bin laden. can you kill the leader and their affiliates just seem to keep growing, shep? >> shepard: ed henry at the white house. thanks. it looks like the u.s. government will indeed be able to keep paying the bills at least for a few more months. the house of representatives today voted to raise the debt ceiling until the middle of may. senate democrats say they will pass the bill soon and the white house says president obama will not veto it. the debt ceiling is the limit on how much the feds can borrow. republican leaders were refusing to raise it without an equal amount of spending cuts. but the bill they just passed has a new ultimatum for the