Transcripts For WJZ Face The Nation 20130210

Republican senator Lindsey Graham is with us is this morning and he is prepared to take gnaw steps unless he gets some answers. Controversyover the president s nominees to run the pentagon and the c. I. A. New reportes of computer hacking, and the threat of Cyber Attacks. Well also hear from mike rogers. Senator jack reed of the Armed Services committee. Former democratic congresswoman jane harman, now with the Woodrow Wilson center. James lewis of the center for strategic and international studies. And our own Justice Department correspondent bob orr. For analysis weal talk with kevin merida managing editor of the washington post. And david leonhardt, washington bob orro cheat New York Times. Its cold outside but getting warmer inside because this is face the nation. Captioning sponsored by cbs from cbs news in washington, face the nation with bob schieffer. Schieffer and good morning again. Well the blizzard 2013 may have set records in some areas for snowfall. Five states received over two and a half feet of snow. 40 Million People in the region have been affected. Over 350,000 are still without power in the northeast. And so far, eight deathhave been attributed to the storm. It is bound to get worse as weather forecasters tell us another storm is on the way. Massachusetts is among the states who were hardest hit and were joined now by the massachusetts governor, the expats deval patrick. Good morning, governor. I know youre in preliminarying on the this morning but it look likes will youre in the swiss alpis. How did the state come through the night . We came through pretty well. We are holding our own. We have 250,000 customers without power, down from a high of 400,000 yesterday, about 1,000 people in shelters, some coastal damage. But considering want severity of the storm, the amount of snow, and the wind weve come through this pretty well. Schieffer how about flooding . Weve had some coastal flooding with high tide yesterday around 10 00. There is some structural damage, which were still assessing now that we can get out and get eyes on things. But no serious injuries from those from the flooding, which is a blessing. Schieffer at this point what is the major challenge you have . Its cleaning up getting the power back on. Were trying to make sure that Public Transit is fully functioning in time for tomorrows commute, tomorrow mornings commute. Weve had the m. B. T. A. Our transit system, in suspended operations really since friday. And that will continue through the day. I think well be able to get the subways going and the commuter rail. Its a challenge to get the buses going because some of the secondary roads still snead to be cleared but were working on that today. Schieffer what do you need from the federal government . Well, support and encouragement. Theyve been great. Our fell tow fellow governors in neighboring states have sent equipment and people to help as well, which is most welcomed and appreciated. We have really ready terrific coordination by our own state emergency management, with all of the state agencies local agencies and the federal government. So i think its too soon to say exactly what we need from the federal government but they continue to check in and have routinely to make sure that we have what we need as we go along. Schieffer there are reports that theres another big storm coming. Are you ready for that . I dont even of the to think about it, to tell you the truth. Ive heard that we may get a valentina day storm. Ill tell you whats more concerning in the shorter run is that we may get rain tomorrow. Warmer temperatures which will be great, but rain on top of snow that is so far pretty light on flat roofs and so forth can be a hazard. So we are encouraging people as they can do so safely to use snow rakes and so forth to start to move the snow off of their roofs. Schieffer well governor we want to thank you very much and all the best to you. Thank you so much, bob, all the best to you. Schieffer joining us two key members of the senate Armed Services committee, republican Lindsey Graham in miami this morning where the weather is a little better, and democrat jack reed is here with us in the studio, far away from the snow this morning in his home state of rhode island. How is jur state doing, senator . We took a very major blow but the states responding very well. We have about 70,000 people still without power. Thats key issue because power and boilers operate together typically. The governor our. Adjunct general, our state Police Commander did a superb job of preparing, and the utilities are doing all they can to get the power back on. Im headed up there immediately after this show. Schieffer all right, senator graham, i want to talk to you about indoor t t activities because its gotten warmer here on capitol hill last week during all those confirmation hearings. It was pretty obvious during those hearings senator that you are still not satisfied with the administrations version of what happened on that night when four americans died in benghazi. You brought it up during the hearings that the president was briefed on all of that about 5 00 in the afternoon and then had no other contact with the secretary of defense, with the joint chiefs chairman or with secretary of state clinton. We also understand that on that night, the state department, or the government chartered an airplane in tripoli and flew some security agents in to benghazi. But its my understanding, they were heldum at the airport. Tell us what you found out about that. Well, theres a sixperson rescue team left tripoli to reinforce the annex in benghazi. They left at 1 30 excuse me they aride at 1 30 in the morning libyan time. It was not until 5 00 that they could get to the annex. They were held up for three and a half hours at the airport had problems with the militias releasing them and a lot of bureaucratic is that fuse. Heres my question did the president ever pick up the phone and call the Libyan Government and say let though people out of the airport. They need to get to the annex to protect our people under siege . Did the president at any time during the eighthour attack pick up the phone and call anybody in libya to get help for these folks . Secretary clinton said she was screaming on the phone at libyan officials. Theres no voice in the world like that of the president of the United States. And i do believe if he had picked up the phone and called the Libyan Government these folks could have gotten out of the airport to the annex and the last two guys may very well be alive. If and he did call the libyan officials and they sort of blew him off that would affect whether or not i would give foreign aid in the future to libya. But if he failed to call on behalf of those people under siege, and i think thats a massive failure of leadership by our commander in chief. Schieffer have you tried to find out if he did call . Ive tried we know he had a 15minute briefing by secretary panet and the chairman of the joint chiefs right after the attack happened. It was a preplanned meeting. It just happened that benghazi came up at the meeting. I dont know what the president did that evening. I dont know if he ever called anyone. I know he never talked to the secretary of defense. I know that he never talked to the chairman of the joint chiefs. And they never talked to anybody at the white house. I know the secretary of state never talked to the secretary of defense. This was incredibly mismanaged. And what we know now it seems to be a very disepigauged president. Again, if he had lent his voice to this cause, i think it would have made a big difference. And im not going to stop until we get an accounting. I pushed back against the bush administration. We know nothing about what the president did on the night of september 11 during a time. National crisis, and the American People need to know what their commander in chief did, if anything during the eighthour attack. Schieffer what can you really do about it . You can ask them what the president was doing. If they dont give you an answer what, can you do . I dont think we should allow brennan to go forward the c. I. A. Directorship hagel to be confirmed for secretary of defense, until the white house gives us an accounting. Did the president ever pick you want pope and call anyone from the Libyan Government to help these folks . What did the president do . We know he talked to the israeli Prime Minister from 8 00 to 9 00 on september 11 about a dustup of a democratic platform and the fact he didnt meet the Prime Minister of israel when he came to new york to visit. But thats not related to libya. What did he do that night . Thats not unfair. The families need to know. The American People need to know. Schieffer im not sure i understand. What do you plan to do if they dont give you an answer . Are you going to put a hold on these nominations . Yes, why im going to ask my colleagues, can just like they did with john golpin, joe biden said no confirmation without information. When secretary clinton said she had a cleareyed assessment of the threat in libya that turned out not to be true. Want department of defense knew of the cable saying they couldnt defend the consulate. The secretary of state didnt know any of this. So she was blind. The president was disengaged and the Dodd Department of defense never launched an airplane. This is a complete system failure. And chaim going to get to the bottom of it. I dont think its fair to ask these questions. Quite frankly, how could they say after panet and dempsey said they knew it was a terrorist attack. How could susan rice come on to your show and say theres flow evidence of a terrorist attack when the secretary of defense and chairman of joint chestles said they knew that night . I think that was a misleading narrative three weeks before our application. Schieffer let me just make sure, because youre about to make some news mere, i think. Are you saying that you are going to block the nominations youre going to block them from coming to a vote until you get an answer to this. John mccain has already said he doesnt think the republicans ought to filibuster this. What will you do . Youre just going to put a hold on it. Im not schieffer and what im not filibustering. Schieffer what would they have to do then to bring this to a vote . I want to know who changed the talking points. Who took the references to al qaeda out of the talking points given to susan rice . We still dont know. Richard burns, Saxby Chambliss discovered emails discussing change the talking points. I think her story after what we found out was incredibly misleading. I want to know what our president did. What did he do as commander in chief . Did he ever pick up the phone and call anybody . I think this is the stuff the country needs to know. We pushed back against bush. We asked for rumsfeld to resign after iraq went to shambles. Chaim not going to stop until we get to the bottom of it. Schieffer all right. If it hadnt been for the investigations and your show we would still think it was a video that caused a riot and the senator was hands on. Schieffer senator reed, i have to ask you, can senator graham do this . This is unpress dented unwarranted to stop or attempt to try to stop the nomination of a sopped. We need the men and women the men and women of the department of defense need a secretary of defense. He has been supported by Madeleine Albright brent scowcroft, by a host of alexanders knowledgeable of National Security patriots who served both republicans and democrats. The same way with mr. Brennan. And the Central Intelligence agency. I think the issues of benghazi are important. The report that ambassador pickering did was quite thorough, indicated the situation, the confusion. And i think Something Else that has to be recognized is that. There was attacks on our embassies in cairo. In fact mobes were storming the gates purpose there were threats throughout the region. The idea that the president was not engaged is, i think completely wrong. He directed the secretary of defense, as secretary panetta testified, to begin moving assets into the region to provide any response. Ambassador pickering, admiral mullen concluded a response would be difficult if not impossible because of time and space. Schieffer a lot of people dont know want rules of the senate. Senator graham said hes simply going to put a hold on these nominations. You say thats unwarranted. But what will happen next if he does that . Well i would hope we would have in regular order a hearing and a vote on senator haig expel haig expel brennan and then we would bring it to the floor. I cant recall a secretary of defense that has not least had an opportunity to have their nomination brought to the thereafter senate. The last example was senator tower. It was brought to the popular. It was defeated but it received an upordown vote. These are critical offices, the secretary of defense, at a time when were looking at sequester, looking forward looking at crises across the globe to dwell on a trag i think ofic incident and use that to block people is not appropriate. To ask legitimate questions as senator graham is doing is completely appropriate. But then to turn around and say im going to disrupt, essentially, the nomination of two key members of the president s cabinet, i dont think thats appropriate. I dont think its warranted. Think it is an overreaction that is not going to serve the best interests of Going Forward for the security of the newt. Schieffer all right, senator grarnlg ill give you a short response. Ill give you the last word here. Jack is a very dear friend. Were going to get to the bottom of benghazi. The administration has been stonewalling before the election and after. Theyve been misleading. Theyve been deceptive. And they have been delaying and havent been forth coming. In a constitutional democracy away need ton what our commander in chief was doing at a time of great crisis and this white house has been stonewalling the congress and im going to do everything i can to get to the bottom of this so well learn from our mistakes and hold this president accountable for what i think is tremendous disengagement at a time of it National Security crisis. Schieffer all right, we have to end it right there. I want to thank both of you. Well be hearing more about this and be back in just a few minutes with the chairman of the house intelligence commit canny, mike rogers more and more energy. The world needs more energy. Wheres it going to come from . Thats why right here in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. Enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. Whats it going to do to the planet . Natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. Weve got to be smart about this. Its a smart way to go. [ male announcer ] ok, heres the way the system works. Lets say you pay your guy around 2 to manage your money. Thats not much you think. Except its 2 every year. Does that make a difference . Search cost of Financial Advisors ouch. Over time it really adds up. Then go to etrade and find out how much our advice costs. Spoiler alert its low. Really . Yes, really. Etrade offers Investment Advice and guidance from dedicated, professional financial consultants. Its guidance on your terms not ours. Thats how our system works. Etrade. Less for us. More for you. Schieffer back now with Michigan Republican congressman mike rogers. He chairs the house intelligence committee. Mr. Chairman, you just heard what Lindsey Graham and jack reed were talking about there. Of course people in the house dont vote on the confirmation. Thats the senates business. But senator graham sounds pretty pretty set that hes going to do everything he can to block this unless he gets some answers. Well, i do think answers appropriate. There was catastrophic failure in the decisions from a security perspective from the state department on keeping the ambassador and the employees in benghazi safe. That to me is clear. Weve done our intelligence investigation in the house, some 4,000 cables cables and documents. It was clear the threat stream was very real, which is why i think the secretary of defense panet said yesterday they knew that night and the joint chiefs said in testimony yes they knew that night it was a terrorist attack just by the sheer volume. The question here is what happened . Why did the state department fail those people that were in the field in benghazi . That is not clear yet and i think the American People deserve at least to understand what failures happened and how were going to prevent that moving forward. Schieffer let me ask you about something that former Vice President dick cheney said last night. Dick cheney has had the heart transplant. He seems to be up and running and going full steam. He told a group of republicans last night talking about the nominees that the president has put forward so far. He said, the performance its request this is a direct quote what would you say about that . Well, i know one thing, we have firstrate problems. When you look at the security in northern africa, the growing, metaft sizing of al qaeda in the northern magreb schieffer do you think these people are up to the job . Do you think mr. Cheney is right or is that maybe a little beyond how you would it may be a little beyond where im going. I do believe the policy formation that were walking into here when it comes to syria, which is by the way there is now no good solution in syria today. The best thing we can hope for is the best worst option moving forward. We need very quickly to turn the tide in syria. And i dont mean to win it. Ip mean just to getinous a position where we can mitigate what bad things are going to happen in syria in the months ahead. Same with northern africa. Weve got huge dangerous challenges approaching the United States, and i dont be will believe weve configuredly ourselves, our resources or policies will to confront them in a way that will cause an impact. Schieffer i want to ask you did drones, when we should use them. First off, has the administration been straight with congress on sharing information about what the rules are about using these weapons . I think they have. Listen, for months theres a change in 2008 in july under the previous administration, jon of george bush, that changed the way we could use airstrikes to al qaeda. That changed in july of 08. It ramped up. And that was taken over when barack obama became president. As the chairman of the house intelligence commit, even as a member, was awear in part of those discussions. And now as chairman even before they conducted that first airstrike that took awlaki remember this was a guy trying to kill a whole bunch of u. S. Citizens over detroit on Christmas Day. This guys a bad guy. Our options were limited. This was a tool we could use to stop further terrorist attacks against americans. I supported it then. Monthly, i have my commit go to the c. I. A. To review them. I as chairman review every single airstrike that we use in the war on terror both from the civilian and military side when it comes to terrorist strikes. There is plenty of oversight here. Theres not an american list somewhere overseas for targeting. That does not exist. And i think theres been some sensationalism. This is a serious matter, but i do think the oversight rules have been, i think schieffer it is an extremely complicated matter. But what about the argument that Civil Liberties groups make that if a person is a u. S. Citizen, if even if hes a bad guy he has certain rights after the constitution. And you cant just say okay, were going to kill him. In the United States, thats true. If you join forceses with the enemy, we have a longstanding tradition in this country that that in and of itself you lose your constitutional protection. Are you engaged engaged in bridge represent activities against the United States. This happened in world war i, world war ii where americans would join forces with people at war with the United States, and when you do that, you sacrifice your rights. So this is someone who had sworn off his citizenship, had been actively planning terrorist attack against the United States the most notable was the one over detroit on Christmas Day and but for a quarter of an inch of an injector that would have gone off and killed hundreds on the plane, if not thousands on the ground. He was a serious al qaeda player. He picked his team. This is not an american citizen of the United States. Does not apply, none of this. This is only enemy belligerence with the enemy overseas. Schieffer were going to ask you to stick around for page two. Were going to talk about the idea is the United States vulnerable to Cyber Attacks and how much of a problem it is. I know you have thoughts about that. Well be interested to hear what you have to say. Youll be with us with a panel of experts on page two. Mr. Chairman, until then thanks. Ill be back in a moment now with some personal thoughts. Tdd 18003452550 introducing schwab etf onesource™. Tdd 18003452550 its one source with the most commissionfree etfs. Tdd 18003452550 tdd 18003452550 one source with etfs from leading providers tdd 18003452550 and extensive coverage of major asset classes. 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This ge jet engine can understand 5,000 data samples per second. Which is good for business. Because planes use less fuel, spend less time on the ground and more time in the air. Suddenly, faraway places dont seem so. Far away. Schieffer those of us in journalism spend a lot of time worrying about the wrong things, such as whether newspapers and backs of the future will be printed on paper . Its an important question, but one over which we have little control. The truth is, technology will decide how we get the news. What we need to be thinking about is not the Delivery Systems but the information being delivered, all of which was underlined this week by the inexcusable hack, of the bush familys personal email accounts. In the past, when journalists got personal information about public figures, we normally didnt publish it, unless we determined it was,. If true and, second, was in the publics interest to know. Did it show the person was dishonest . Did his private life impact on his public responsibility . Publishing the pentagon papers revealed a government making public statements about the vietnam war that it knew to be false. The watergate revelations revealed a cancer of government corruption. Making public personal phone numbers and family conversations about the health of an ill father are no ones business but the family. For the most part the Mainstream Media handled the bush email hacking with restraint. We report the the hacking. That is news but little else. Still, the episode is a lessthangentle reminder of how technology is redefining our culture, the whole idea of privacy, and, yes the respect or lack of respect that honest citizens should have for each other. These rat things that all of us not just journalists may want to think about. How the news is delivered will take care of itself. Ould aluminum production in south africa, and the Aerospace Industry in the u. S. . At t. 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Com® you can pay, print and have your packages picked up for free. I can even drop off free boxes. I wear a lot of hats. Well, technically i wear one. The u. S. Postal service® no business too small. Schieffer some of our stations are leaving us now but for most of you well be right back with a lot more of face the nation. Schieffer mike rogers is joinedded by california democrat jane harman, now the head of the Woodrow Wilson International Center here in washington. Also with us james lewis, senior fellow at the center for strategic and international studies. And our own cbs news justice and Homeland Security security correspondent bob orr. Jim lewis, i want to start with you, because when i was trying to get myself read in and studied up about what the questions i ought to ask before the president ial debate, i went to see you and we talked for a while. And i asked you how serious was thethreat of a cyber attack on the United States . And i asked you what kind of what kind of defense we had. And i will never forget what you said. A faithbased defense. Schieffer basically we pray it will never happen. Its like asking people, are you a good driver . And everyone says yes. And when we test them, its you live in washington. Its gotten worse since we talked. The iranians have picked up the pace. Schieffer and you said, i think, at the time that everything we can do in cyber the russians can and the chinese can. Yeah its good to think of them as near peers if not peers. And theyve done the reconnaissance. Theyve thought about how to use it. Were really not in a good place. Schieffer mr. Chairman how do you see all this . How serious is the threat of an attack and when we talk about an attack, what are we talking about . Well theres really two Different Things happening here. One, were getting robbed every single day. We have, as the u. S. Government set up lawn characters total burglars where the silver is, in the bottom drawer, and opened the case of beer and watched them do it. If means everything from personal identities, Social Security numbers to money from banks, to intellectual property. The blueprints for jobs in the next generation with nation states slyke china, and it has gotten exponentially worse, even since the president ial debates. It is unbelievable and breathtaking. The second part of that is the attack part that were so vulnerable for, actually shutting down our Financial Services or finding other ways to destroy material in companies that wont allow them to function on a daytoday basis. And that is very, very concerning. Weve seen that recently with iran. Schieffer jane what are we being attacked now . Yes. Keith islamabad the head alexander has said there have been 19 ear 20 substantial cyber attack in addition the last several years, more to come. I think were much more vulnerable to a catastrophic cyber attack than a catastrophic terrorist attack in the homeland. We have done a better job of decapitating al qaeda. Its not capable i dont think, any more of an attack like 9 11. Congress has not act. There have been several bills introduced, including one by my colleague and friend, mike but they havent moved. And now the white house is mounting an executive order, which will not do enough, but its not that the government is sleeping through this exactly. Its that the government has so far proved incapable of protecting all of us. And one last point i think everyone has read about the hack, of the bush familys emails and so forth, just in the last days. Its not only our Defense Space and our dotgoff space what the government does. Its our dotcom space, what private individuals do, and its a serious, if you want to think about it be incursion on individual privacy in this country at this point and we have to act. Schieffer bob, companies are not all that keen on telling us when they are attacked. And in fact american businesses are being attacked. Well, in big terms. Chairman rogers said i think newscast this is a great pillaging of wealth. Its hard to put a number on it. Some estimates 250 billion a year, up to i think chairman rogers bill says 400 billion a year. The reason this goes on, bob is because lets say youre company a, you have to report to stockholders, you have constituents, you have competitors. You dont want to come out full face and say look my systemes were attacked because it suggests you might be vulnerable. To protect a Competitive Edge these companies im afraid to say are writing off these losses. Schieffer what are some of the things they do to these companies . A major paint manufacturer lost formulas. The chinese are replicating these products products about as a matter of fact they can and were not doing very much about it. This is the first of what could be a very, very big problem if they turn this pillaging of wealth into attacking key systems. Two things one, theyre stealing the next generation of jobs. Theyre taking blueprints back not just military documents but civilian innovation that companies are going to use to create production lines to build things. Theyre stealing that repurposing it back in nations like china, and competing in the international market. To be fair however, there was a bill that passed bipartisan, we wrote a bill, passed the house of representatives. It did language in the democratcontrolled senate. Were going to try that again. As a matter of fact as early as this week, and its very simple share information. Share cyber threat information. The Senior Leadership in the intelligence said they think we can stop 90 of our problems by just sharing classified cyber schieffer let me ask you lets just say somebody decided they wanted to attack the United States. I mean, somebody that wished us ill. What would they do . You have a whole range of things you could do. If you just wanted fun you could have all the traffic lights turn green at the same time here in washington during rush hour. But schieffer all the traffic lights would turn green. How many of us would know that. The real target is the electrical grid and it would be really easy to cause a blackout. We saw this in 200three. That was an accident but you could destroy electrical generating capability through cyber attack and people say that as the target. The financial system, and the wave of iranian attacks against the leading banks. Not that successful but the iranians havent brought their a game to that electrical grirkd financial system, maybe a couple of other places. You could really disrupt things here if you want to. But there is a legislative issue. There was a competing bill last year by susan collins, a republican and joe lieberman, an independent, in the senate. And their bill did two things differently. It started out by saying the private sector has to cooperate on a mandatory basis, and some feel thats only way the whole private sector will cooperate. Because theyll be tipped off first about these incursions. And the second thing it did was it gave the department of Homeland Security jurisdiction over the dotcom space. It cant all be in the pentagon. And that was different from this bill. And so the problem is it couldnt get out of committee, and couldnt get passed on the floor. We have one bipartisan solution. My argument is lets start with what we know, given all the threats. By the way if you want to see what else could happen on an individual company basis, iran attacked a Saudi Oil Company the stateowned ahamaco, and did something fairly remarkable they destroyed 30,000 machinees, computeres manipulated data and made it so they couldnt reconstruct the data. If you apply that to businesses around the country, think of the economic chaos that that would cause. So what you saw with the banks this is interesting iranians doing a probing action trying to look for vulnerabilities, and what we know is now they have this other capability thats laying on the table. Thats concerning. And so weve admired this problem long enough. It is time it take action and do something about it. Schieffer let me ask you this, is part of our defense, part of our defense be we have an offense, and in fact dont we already have an offense, and havent we launched attacks on for example, the Iranian Nuclear facility . I have a life lesson, if you want to go punch your neighbor in the face, bob, ought to hit the weight room for a few months first. We are not prepared for what happened with a robust defensive capability. 95 of our network heres in the United States, privatesector networks incredibly vulnerable. Most of which are penetrated already. But you raise something, bob and its the whole subject of remotecontrol warfare. Drones part of this, too. Congress needs to enact a legislative framework around all these activities. I think its past due. Oversight by congress is essential, but i also think court review in the way that the courts review the fifa schieffer wiretapping, things of that nature. Correct. That can be the whole plan on the front end, and then an afteraction report not all the individual targeting decisions. But i think this idea that surfaced in congress is a valid idea and fifa the write model. The thing to watch in the upcoming weeks, the white house will probably put out an executive order that will try and do some of the things that were in the bill, information sharing, protecting critical infrastructure. And until we see that executive order we wont know what the entire legislative agenda will have to look like. Your bill is great, but we have to say what else do you need . And thats what the executive order will tackle. Theres great resistance to this though. Congresswoman harm an mentioned the lieberman bill. It started out as a mandatory sharing of information about attacks. That was then softened, i believe, to a voluntary sharing of information. And even that couldnt get through because the Business Community kicked back on, this is our business. This is a privacy issue. Schieffer too much government regulation. Its a real problem trying to find a solution this problem if done correctly, youre sharing information in real time. It moves at the speed of light. Name one government regulation that needs the speed of a stanley steamer in 1908. This is 100 million times per second. These are 0s and 1s that make up as bs and cs on the computer, moving at light speed. If you are going to do this right you cant set up arbitrary standards so the company manages toa standard the government has dictated. What theyll tell you is, too slow too cumbersome. By the time you get them inked in law they dont work. Thats why we created a voluntary system to share information. If they dont play, its only as strong as the weakest link. And if some companies dont cooperate you have the vulnerablality we already have. That was the problem we have last year, and a lot of serious people, including Keith Alexander felt we needed schieffer one of the things we can be thankful for, if that is the wordes nobody with the possible exception of us has a greater interest in the success of the American Economy than the chinese do because theyre so heavily invested here. But it seems to me the danger is not china or russia. Its some private actor or one of these terrorist states that get this access and as yet they do not seem to have the capabilities of the big powers. One of the things that changed the story since august when the legislation failed is the iranian activity i think the iranians you know, the chinese some chinese officials once said to me, you dont have to worry about us disrupting wall street because we own it. So why would we do that . Fair point. Same for the russians. But the iranians are a little crazier, and i think youre seeing a shift in industry as they think about were facing pup more dynamic opponent. Theres been another development, too, which both n. S. A. , the National Security agency, and their australian counterparts have identified basic measures that really put us at risk so we can new say, heres what you need to do to make us safer. The question is how do you get companies to go along and thats going to be a debate. Schieffer lets go around the table start with you jane. What do we need to do . On cyber . I think the councilslieberman bill was the place to start and i think we should restart it looking at new threat and i think we need a legislative framework around drones. Go for what we can pass in a bipartisan way. There is only one vehicle that can do that. By the way, those same Senior Intelligence Officials Say you pass this bill, a bipartisan bill solves 90 of our problem. Thats a good first step. Then i would go and try to attack the regulatory standards issues later in the year. Get the executive order out. Make critical infrastructure. Do what they need to do. And, also think about how you engage the chinese at a senior level ask tell them theres got to be a limit and we havent done that a lot. Everyone has to take this seriously. For too long, cyber abe the subject wherize glaze over. People have to come to table and realize this is real. Its serious. Its eminent. And we need to pay the same kind of attention to this bob as we do to terrorism. Schieffer thank you all very much for a very good discussion. Well be back way little reporter roundtable in just a minute. Schieffer and were here now with david leonhardt, the New York Times Washington Bureau chief. Welcome to washington. This is a new assignment for you. And kevin merida, our old friend all the way back to the dallas news when i first knew kevin. He is now the number two guy at the washington post, managing editor. Glad to have both the of you here. We had quite a discussion this morning, starting with Lindsey Graham saying he was going to try to block the nomination of both chuck hagel, and john brennan, unless he gets some answers. Is he being serious here david . Well, i think we dont know. I think, clearly, republicans have signaled theyre really worried, particularly about the hagel nomination, and of course the senate is a place where a single senator can often hold things up. It is true there are serious questions what went on in benghazi and also this would be a deeply unusual things to do. There were often serious questions about Foreign Policy betweens the party and the idea of holding up a nomination schieffer two of them. Two of them would be deeply unusual. These are very big appointments. These kinds of things happen all the time with smaller nominations and often we dont even find out who the senator is who is holding up the nomination. But this is, obviously, a very public play on the parent of senator grahams and i suspect there will be negotiations behind the scene. Schieffer do you think the republicans will back him . John mccain said he does not favor filibuster. I wonder if graham will have the backing. One senator can hold it up. Clear me up on senate procedures. Have to have 60 votes, wouldnt they to break that hold . I think a hold can sometimes keep away a vote of any number. I think what republicans are torn about here is the fact that on the one hand, they do think they have serious questions to raise about benghazi and that the American People have serious questions. On the other hand, when you get involved in libbia, there are always going to be things that go wrong. And i think republicans are worried about polling that have shown voters in general see themmals the party that has been more obstructionist and i think one of the reasons we have seen them compromise more since the election is they want they want to sort of sand of sand off the rough edges of their images and theyre torn between wanting to push benghazi for substantive and political reasons and not wanting to be seen as the party of no as they do to many americans. And maybe the question of trying to get some answeres from the administration that they feel like they havent goint, and there could be some negotiation. But i wouldnt be surprised if the nominations doesnt go forward. Schieffer we have the president s state of the Union Message coming up this week. It seems to me the partisan divide is about as wide and about as deep as it was before this election. Whats your take . Is anything going to happen . There is a tremendous divide but there are a lot of big subjects thrown on the issue. Certainly issues like immigration reform, also guns in america and whether gun violence can be deterred but also the question of the state of the economy Going Forward, and that gets into the haves and havenotes and can you have a debate about income inequality in the country without it descending into class warfare. I think thats one of the bug questions facing the country. I think one of the really key things to look at Going Forward from the state of the union is this the hope yes, vote no caucus of the republicans in the house. This gets to 2 what i was just saying about republicans worried about their image here. Theyre a pretty substantial number of republicans in the the house, who because of the politics back home, want to vote against bills but because of the Partys National standing want them to pass. And i think immigration less so guns. We have less chance of a really sweeping gun bill. But immigration i think its going to be really interesting to see can obama move a substantial immigration bill through . And in fact republicans, including some who vote against it, want that to go through. Schieffer both of your organizations organizations have had your email hacked. We saw this inexcusable hacking of the bush familys private email inexcusable certainly in my view. I thought the way both the of your organizations handled it reflected well on you. I mean thank you. Schieffer you reported the hacking, but you didnt go ahead and use the results of it. What went into those decisions, david . Well, with any of these issues whether its National Security issues or whether its issues of privacy, you have to balance a lot of things. Were not just in the business of reporting everything right. We dont report everything about crime victims so you often have to balance these things. In the case of the hacking against us, we did what we do with stories involving other people. First we tried to put in place tougher security measures. There is suggestive evidence official people in chine arm involved involved in the hackings and it followed our reporting on Senior Leaders families. And we put those measures in place and we went and can reported the story and essentially laid bare what we found out. Schieffer kevin, why did you print the pictures . I felt like we needed to report the fact that it happened. But wanted to be very discreet about the information that we put out for the public. And we thought that, you know the idea that it was being investigated a criminal investigation, that was important for people ton. To know. But we didnt need to invade the privacy. Noflghts at stake National Securitywise, or anything else related to the bush administration. Schieffer generally, as i was growing up the rules we all followed when we came upon personal information if we thought it impacted on the persons public responsibilities or if it showed him to be someone other than he pictured himself to be then that was it was fair and the public needed to know about that. But theres a difference in what is in the Public Interest and what is just in someones selfinterest who is just trying to get back at somebody for doing something. Is that still pretty much the rules you all follow . I think clearly the rules have shifted. I think when people talk about what we know about president s personally as opposed to j. F. K. And l. B. J. Was it better not to know about some of the personal behavior or is it better now . I think the standard you lay out in the general sense is the standard we should follow. We shouldnt report things just for the sake of reporting it. It should be does it have news value to make the judgments. And the media culture has shifted so dramatically when we have sites like deadspin and, you know, smoking begin, t. M. Z. And just think theres a broader range of people operating out there. Schieffer all right. Well listen, i want to thank both of you. These are dwheaz we all talk about when were not on Television Just as reporters. We all try to grapple with it and theyre questions that we still will have to deal with every day. Thank you. Well be back in a moment and have a final update on the monster blizzard. Stay with us. We want to take one last check on that massive blizzard that hit the northeast. Our cbs news correspondent Terrell Brown is in boston. Terrell, what do you know . Reporter bob, good morning to you. Crews will work today to clear roadways and try to restore power to about 345,000 customers that are still in the dark this morning. And it was a tough night if you do not have any heat. Temperatures here in the boston area and really all across the northeast, down into the teens and Single Digits and power officials are saying it may be monday or tuesday before power is restored. Nine deaths are now being blamed on the storm including an 11yearold boy overcome by Carbon Monoxide as he sat in a car while his father shoveled snow off the vehicle. Were seeing planes taking off and landing at logan. Amtrak restoring partial service, and mass transit will likely be back up and running in the boston area tomorrow. While all of this is happening, there are hint in the forecast of more wintry weather, maybe another winter storm, coming up later this week for the northeast, bob. Schieffer okay, thank you, terrell. Hang in there and well be back in a moment. L go verify and lock. Command is locked. Five seconds. Three, two, one. Standing by for capture. The most Innovative Software on the planet. Dragon is captured. Is connecting todays leading companies to places beyond it. Siemens. Answers. Schieffer well, thats it for us today. On tuesday, former Vice President dick cheney will be talking to charlie rose on cbs this morning at 7 00. At 9 00 p. M. Ill be joining scott pelley and the rest of the cbs news team for live coverage of president obamas state of union address. Be sure to join us for both of those. And well see you right here next sunday on face the nation. Captioning sponsored by cbs captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org