Anger does not. There is a history to these tensions and that history simmers in more communities than just ferguson. Gwen plus texas politics. An indicted governor battles back. Im going to fight this injustice with every fiber of my being. And we will prevail. Gwen whats really going on in austin . The reporters covering the nancy youssef, National Security correspondent from mcclatchy newspapers, pierre thomas, senior justice correspondent for abc news, and amy walter, National Editor of the cook political report. Awardwinning reporting and analysis covering history as it happens. Live from our nations capital, this is Washington Week with gwen ifill. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided y we asked people a question, how much money do you think youll need when you retire . Then we gave each person a ribbon to show how many years that amount might last. Trying to put it a little further. Got me to 07 years old. I will have to rethink this thing. Its hard to imagine how much we need for a retirement that could last 30 years or more. So maybe we need to approach things differently if we want to be ready for a longer etirement. Additional Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by brigham and womens hospital. Additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again live from washington, moderator gwen ifill. Gwen good evening. Whether its the plight of the azides or the face of a lone american journalist the threat posed by the group known as isis, isil or Islamic State group has become alarmingly real. This is an organization that has an apocalyptic end of days strategic vision. And which will eventually have to be defeated. We stand ready to take action against that threat. And we made clear time and again if you come after americans we will come after you wherever you are and that will guide our planning in the days to come. Gwen in the wake of james foleys execution and the threat of another, is the Obama Administration preparing for military intervention at this point, nancy . Well, this week, we started to hear increasing signs of that. Ben rhodes suggested that the United States will not be stopped by the border between syria and iraq. Marty dempsey chairman of the joint chiefs of staff said that the threat that isis poses cannot be stopped unless you address their sanctuary in syria. The question becomes, what kind of action will the United States take . And would it be enough to stop the threat or simply to contain it for a short period of time . Will the United States go after their sanctuaries or will it go after its leadership . That remains to be seen. In addition to this whether the United States will take that bold action of going into syria. In iraq, the United States was invited in. In syria, it would be very different. They would not be invited in. Gwen the language that seemed much more apocalyptic this week. And i dont know whether it was because of the execution of james foley or because they know things we are just beginning to know about how dangerous this is. This has been building over weeks now. And the president regrets calling them the j. V. Squad compared to quade. Weve seen them beheading iraqis, syrians and weve seen what they did to the azides, mernt group trapped on the mountain. Weve seen all sorts of horrors and drives it home when we are talking about an american journalist like all of us at this table. And i think that for a lot of people that really made very personal and they had to take a stand against that plus with the threat against the other american journalists who are being held. At the same time i dont think that theyre just discovering it now. I think maybe some of the pennies are dropping, that theyre realizing wow, this is a group thats like nothing weve seen before. Part of that is because they control territory. Theyre acting not just like, different militants in the wilderness, theyre controlling a large part of syria and a large part of iraq and collecting taxes. Theyre extorting money and running gas stations, oil wells. Were talking about a really serious problem. Thats my question. How did it get to the point where this group could take property . Take land . And amass all this power . This is a group thats acted on one hand like a military. And advanced like a military and weve heard wild numbers how much they might control in resources and perhaps as much as 2 billion. Those numbers may be exaggerated. At the same time, there is good reason to think theyre making at least 1 million a day on the oil. Theyre selling, i think they got there by using military tactics and now theyre trying to rule through fear and extortion. Gwen what some of us learned this week and for those who have a stomach to watch that execution tape is the voice of the executioner was british. And therefore these isil activists or terrorists are not just home grown. Thats right. When you hear the administration talking about an imminent threat the one theyre referring to is a lot of those who are participating hold western passports and have access to the United States. And to europe. And theres no way to control and once theyre here, what tactics could they bring to the homeland and pose to as a threat to the United States, to american citizens . So that becomes the most immediate, imminent threat. I think for those of us who have been to the region shocking in the sense that somebody whos grown up in this country or in europe would want to go overseas and pick up tactics and bring them back. Because up until this, al qaeda, for example, was seen as a threat in the region. Borne of people of the region. And what isis has brought to the forefront is the threat that people can pose from the homeland. I want to go to the idea about going to syria. Weve heard the president say time and time again no boots on the ground. Weve heard worries about mission creep. How do you square that with no boots on the ground . Well, thats a very good question. The dilemma for the United States is it wants to contain the threat of isis but cant be done without dealing with syria. One of the things argue blir the United States has taken away fraft two weeks is that it has been successful in thwarting the isis threats on iraq and that it was able, up until today, 93 strikes, destroy some of its weapons, destroy some of its tanks and some of them which were american. And that they have seen an effect that isis has been pushed back a bit. I think has boosted the confidence of some that perhaps air strikes can have some effect in syria as well. Gwen lets talk about the hostage situation. Because we saw what happened with james foley this week. We also learned that there had been an effort that did not succeed to free the hostages on the ground in syria. Not just james foley but others were just hearing publicly about. Where does that stand . Yeah. That is really interesting. Because of course normally we hear about the tactics that worked. Zero dark 30 and the mission thats bin laden and what gets publicized. The white house felt they had to disclose the other details and its really quite interesting. They used special forces from all different units. They also used fixed wing aircraft and helicopters and went in there and had information as we understand it from one of the former hostages. About where exactly they had been held at the time. But when they got there, lo and behold, the hostages were no longer there. I think one of the problems that this really points up to us is the problem of lacking human intelligence. If you dont have people on the ground, if youre relying on what a former hostage is telling you, its really hard to have a successful rescue mission. I think its quite interesting how this brought up a lot of questions also about how do you rescue hostages . And the really controversial question about paying ransom. Because we know that european governments with the exception of the u. K. Do pay ransoms and do negotiate with terrorists. And the u. S. And britain have both said were not going to do that because thats only going to encourage more hostages being taken. But look what happened to an american hostage who wasnt paid for. Gwen and we have heard the family of james foley, have heard some one of his employers say the u. S. Could have done more. Is that a constant concern among journalists, among the patrons of journalists who are at risk throughout the region . Because were not just talking about american journalists here. Most of the journalists in syria are actually syrian. It is. So in the case of james foley, his newspaper came out and said they were contacted by his kidnappers at the end of the year and asked for 132 million. And it should be noted that by april of this year, several french and spaniards who were being held along with james foley were released because ransoms were paid. The family has said that the threat, excuse me, the offer wasnt deemed serious. They didnt get any real feedback and hard to know whether they had an opportunity to pay a ransom and did not. Or whether this was a play by isis to suggest that they had an opportunity only to snatch it away. The reality is, and i can tell you having been overseas, american hostages are treated differently. Its not just because the ransom that we are seen as bigger targets. And those who stayed with james during his captivity said that he was treated differently because he was an american. And they think that the outcome was affected by the fact he had a passport. When im overseas im very aware of the threat that comes with being an american citizen in these environments. Gwen i also wonder, though, whether this doesnt put a damper on the ability to get the news. We talked about human intelligence. A few moments ago. You both have been overseas. I wonder if this is a huge disincentive, especially for freelancers . Because if youre a freelancer, theres not really an organization thats supporting you. You put your finger on it and a lot of these cases, a lot of hostages that we know of, we know of about 20 journalists being held somewhere in syria or in iraq. We dont know. Many of them are in fact freelancers. And the problem is when you dont have a big News Organization behind you, bankrolling a search for you, even if its not a ransom request, its very difficult. And i think it really shows that there is an increasing vulnerability for those people. You know, i would just add to that. I started doing this in 2003. The reality is that the risks are higher and higher as the margin of error is smaller and smaller. And the consequences are bigger and bigger. That the smallest mistake can lead to the most dire of circumstances. There are people being held in syria because they stayed too long. There are people held in syria because they trusted the wrong person and have been held for years. Something inconceivable when i started this in the early days out of 911. So thats the real lirving. Compounding that, you have freelancers coming in who are younger and dont have the experience and such a thrill people see with the job and it is a thrilling job. But the risks are increasing with every year with every conflict. And its one of the factors that those who go into this business have to consider. I want to bring you back to the idea of syria and assad. It seems to me that one of the big question marks over the Obama Administration is who whether or not he should have gone into syria and calls for assad to step down and now perhaps in order to get to isil, isis, it may be require his cooperation. This is really an incredible story because it could be the chickens coming home to roost. Three years ago president assad said dont fight against me because im telling you these opposition people, theyre not good people. Theyre al qaeda types. Theyre extremists. And, you know, and everything that has happened is sort of in a way what he laid out. I think the problem is the u. S. Didnt want to they were concerned about aiding the opposition. Because they didnt want weapons to get into the wrong hands. Now we see what happened. The wrong hands, you know, all of this development and all of the territory they control. I think, though, its not fair to say the enemy of my enemy is my friend. I dont think were going to see the u. S. Pairing up with assad to fight isil. We may be fighting them. But i think the u. S. Is very careful to blame whats happened on assad and think about its the soviet union during world war ii. They were part of the allied powers. But they werent our friend. Heres the conundrum. If the isil threat, if assad stays in power, he can say, im putting off this isis threat. To keep him in power there must be an isis threat and otherwise hes in jeopardy again. Gwen thats amazing. So either way its a complete circle. And you end up right where you began. Bad things yet to happen. Thank you both. Back here at home, we watched carefully as the unrest in ferguson, missouri, appeared to calm down. But from all appearances, the federal response seems to be ramping up. Attorney general eric holder promised as much after visiting with the family of Michael Brown on wednesday. I wanted them to know that while so much else may be uncertain, this attorney general and this department of justice stands with the people of ferguson. Our investigation will be fair. It will be thorough. And it will be independent. Gwen so what does the federal response look like tonight, pierre . Well, there are at least 40 f. B. I. Agents who have been canvaserring the community. Theyve done dozens and dozens of interviews. Also this week e. The federal government took the unusual step of doing their own autopsy on the victims body. Also, they have Community Resource officers from the Justice Department working in the community trying to work with Community Leaders to calm some of the tensions there. So this is an allout effort by the Justice Department and the attorney general. Gwen is it creating expectations among the folks in ferguson that there is that the federal government is riding to the rescue . Well, difficult days could be ahead. Because the fact is you have a community that does not trust Law Enforcement. They do not trust the police. And by the attorney general going, and promising that there would be a thorough investigation, there are some that will take that as this means automatically there will be a prosecution. Automatically that there might be a conviction. Where the f. B. I. Investigation will go where the facts take them. And the facts may not take them where some of the people expect them to take them. So you could have a situation where tensions run high again because people dont get the results they want. Pierre, i want to ask you about what it is about ferguson that made all of this happen compared to many other cities in america where weve had similar cases of young black men being shot by the police . Why did this take off in this way . Im going to give you two numbers that will tell you a lot. Over the years, ferguson became a predominantly africanamerican town. 67 of the population roughly africanamerican. 58 or so Law Enforcement officers, three are africanamerican. Sow 85 of the arrests involve people of color so the imagery of white cops locking up black people. And so that the tensions have been simmering because thats the feeling that many africanamericans had that they were under siege, occupied by a force. Pierre, for the past few days, weve seen relative stability in ferguson. What does that portend for the week ahead and what other things should we be looking for . The funeral is coming up in the next couple of days. Again, that will be emotional. This young man was so young. Life just ahead of him. So we have that to deal with. The other thing thats coming up is that this investigation, both by the federal government and you have a state investigation going on, is going on as well, may take some time. You know, you have to rely on witness testimony and Law Enforcement officials will have to sit down and look at the witness testimony and make some kind of decision was Excessive Force or did the young man attack the Police Officer . Those things have to be determined. And if you dont have some kind of evidence thats concrete like video, that will show the community and the world if you will what happened, you can have a situation of they said and the police said. Pierre, how much can the federal government really do or is this something that the local community in ferguson ultimately is going to be responsible for fixing . Gwen the local community, that doesnt trust the local Law Enforcement . Exactly. Two things. The f. B. I. Will get as many facts as they can get. So at some point, a report is going to go to the attorney generals desk and that will say we believe this happened. And so that will be put out and made public to the citizens of ferguson. But again, thats going to take time. And how much patience does a community have . Think about the zimmerman case. Involving trayvon martin. The Justice Department said they were going to do a thorough investigation of that. By all accounts they have been. But the announcement of the results we still dont have. Gwen i think about the rodney king case which they had they ended up having to bring a federal indictment or a federal prosecution separately from the local prosecution because that didnt turn out the way people expected. And in this case, they dont trust the local state prosecutor. Correct. Gwen thats hovering over this. Does what does the attorney general do in that case . Does he have to keep hands off and stay out of it . Well, one of the reasons why he launched a federal probe is to say separate and apart from what the local prosecutor, we are going to do our own investigation. So im telling you people of ferguson, we dont were not going to focus on what hes doing. Were going to do our own case. So you can trust us that were going to be thorough. Because clearly, they dont trust the local prosecutor to be thorough. One of the things that may come out of this case is that youre hearing more and more about what can be done in the future to calm these kinds of tensions when people dont trust each other . Cincinnati has a similar situation a few years ago where a number of unarmed black men had been shot by police. One of the things that they did is that they started having more conversations with the community. They developed advisory boards. And they used technology, cop cams, basically cameras on the helmets of the officers. So that the facts always are gwen are there. What they are. So any time a tense situation, they would roll out that tape, and show the community, heres what happened. Gwen and we certainly wish we had tape in this case. Thanks, pierre. Just as we were going off the wear last friday, a dramatic headline crossed the news wires. Texas republican governor rick perry had been indicted for allegedly abusing his authority. Perry who appears to be readying himself for another run for president more or less shrugged it off traveling to d. C. And New Hampshire for speeches as scheduled. Hes posing at an ice cream stand after taking what is the best looking mug shot picture in history. So does he have something to worry about or is this all just texas politics . I wish my drivers license looked that good. Gwen mine, too. Mine is terrible. If youre rick perry what you will hear from the rick perry personally and from his team is of course this is all politics. When he was up in New Hampshire, today, he said the Travis County grand jury, which indicted him, they are the blew bare in the toe mate the blueberry in the tomato soup. Very blue democratic in red texas. Weve seen this before. Theres no there there. Gwen good point. The point being there. If you look at this, though, from just a legal standpoint, you say, well, and political standpoint, you say, first of all, hes only the second governor whos been indicted in 100 years. So this is not something thats done lightly. And that at its core, what hes accused of is abusing the official capacity and coercion of a public servant. So lets step back and say what did they accuse him of . Back in 2013, the Travis County d. A. , this is austin, shes a democrat. She was arrested for drunk driving. There is video of this. Very powerful video. She is not just a little bit tipsy. She is three times the legal limit. Shes belligerent with the officers. He says to her, you will resign your office. She says i will not. He says were going to cut off funding to the d. A. s Public Integrity office. She says im not resigning. He goes ahead and vetos it. The grand jury said well, thats coercion. You cant threaten somebody with public money and not give that to them. So the rick perry saying its of course in my power. I can veto anything i want. And a constitutional issue and im the governor and i have constitutional authority. The question will be, as this goes to trial, why you cant first of all, why he went and did this in the first place . And whether or not you can actually threaten someone with doing this action versus just going ahead and vetoing it in the first place. Wow, thats fascinating. But i really have to ask you, how does this fit into his plans to rehabilitate his political career and try to run for president again with his fancy glass that is make him look smarter and all of that . He gets a lot of attention for the glasses which he couldnt wear in the mug shot. Hes been doing a very hes been making a very conscientious effort doing media tours. We sat down with him a few weeks back. Where hes laying out what went wrong in 2012. And the ways in which hes going to be a better candidate. If he runs in 2016. Not saying for sure he will do that. But you can hear it in the way that he talks about issues. He wants to bring it back to the story he never got to tell in 2012 which is look how great texas is. All these other states are losing jobs and we were gaining jobs. Were the Great Success story and i want to bring that to washington. And also im not part of washington. Instead, he gets derailed once again by something. And in this case the indictment. The other piece, though, for him is whether or not he was ever going to be able to get off the ground in the first place with people still thinking about rick perry as the oops guy. Now, are they going to think of him as the indictment guy . Thats my question. Does he have a chance . Well, you know, the people around him say hes the governor. Longest serving governor of one of the largest states in the country. He has a great story to tell. Of course he has a chance. Especially because this field is so wide open. It is true, theres no frontrunner in this race. The question for rick perry is going to be one, how does he deal with this issue thats hanging over him . Probably through at least early 2015, thats when we expect a trial. So hes going to have indicted in front of his name. At best hell have acquitted in front of his name. And then hes got to really prove that there is some there there. After stumbling in the 2012 campaign, can he show that hes really got the stuff of president ial caliber . Which is why youre seeing him in New Hampshire and here in washington. Gwen and this time being defended by both democrats and republicans, people like David Axelrod and john sununuu, neither of whom looked him two or three years ago and theres really no there there. And this is what the perry supporters will say. The Travis County this office, this Public Integrity, they kind of pulled this stunt a lot on republicans. And they indicted kay bailey hutchison, senator, acquitted. Delay also. Gwen and tom delay. Thank you, everybody. We do have to go. But not without sending our condolences to the family of former vermont senator jim jeffords who passed away this week. He was 80 years old. For more on how one man tipped the senate, log on right after we go off the air to the live stream of our Washington Week webcast extra or find it at pbs. Org washingtonweek. You can keep up with daily developments with me and Judy Woodruff on the pbs newshour and well see you again here next week on Washington Week. Good night. Corporate funding for Washington Week is provided by prudential. Brigham and womens hospital. Additional funding is provided by the annenberg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to pbs stations from viewers like you. Thank you. Be up next, a special edition of kqed newsroom making a bet on rehabilitation for prisoners serving life sentences. I committed first degree murder back in 1982. California has some 26,000 lifers behind bars. Now more, many more, are being paroled due to changes in the criminal justice system. Do they pose a risk to Public Safety . In my humble opinion, some of these parolees are ticking timebombs. Will rehabilitation work . A strong Public Safety interest in making sure theyre prepared when they do get released