A huge toll in the lives of it was members before withdrawing troops two years ago. peter bergen joins us to talk about the state of al qaeda today. peter, al qaeda rising, if you like, in iraq, it s nothing new. this has been coming for a while. one of the main concerns is the cross border nature. you ve got al qaeda in syria, as well. what is the big risk here when it comes to iraq, though? well, you know, michael, as you know, violence in iraq is back up to where it was in the 2008 time period, when the war was almost at its height. so, we re seeing, as we saw yesterday in baghdad, attacks that killed dozens of christians but also seeing, you know, multiple attacks often by al qaeda in iraq, really destabilizing the country. that s why the maliki government is off on these ammunitions from
Said. here s why this news, not just from a humanitarian perspective but whether or not the united states military will get involved, this is why chemical weapons is so important. here s the president. we have been very clear to the assad regime, but also, to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical movement around or utilized. that would change my calculus. that was change my equation. general, does he make a mistake when he set so clearly what red lines are? people want them. if someone crosses it, you are forced to act. i don t think it s a mistake. i think it was a clear warning, both to assad and to his russian supporters that they can t do this. now, if the russians have an influence with assad, they better rein him back in. we talked about diplomacy and linkage with the russians. i didn t talk about the military option but there s a range of military options that could be used. all right. that brings me to the other
Seeing a whole bunch of chemical movement around or utilized. that would change my calculus. that was change my equation. general, does he make a mistake when he set so clearly what red lines are? people want them. if someone crosses it, you are forced to act. i don t think it s a mistake. i think it was a clear warning, both to assad and to his russian supporters that they can t do this. now, if the russians have an influence with assad, they better rein him back in. we talked about diplomacy and linkage with the russians. i didn t talk about the military option but there s a range of military options that could be used. all right. that brings me to the other top story tonight. that s al qaeda rising. why this is so complicated. violence rippled across iraq today. tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion. no group yet claimed responsibility. signs point to al qaeda. the decade-long war in iraq caused 4,488 american lives,
we have been very clear to the assad regime, but also, to other players on the ground that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical movement around or utilized. that would change my calculus. that was change my equation. general, does he make a mistake when he set so clearly what red lines are? people want them. if someone crosses it, you are forced to act. i don t think it s a mistake. i think it was a clear warning, both to assad and to his russian supporters that they can t do this. now, if the russians have an influence with assad, they better rein him back in. we talked about diplomacy and linkage with the russians. i didn t talk about the military option but there s a range of military options that could be used. all right. that brings me to the other top story tonight. that s al qaeda rising. why this is so complicated. violence rippled across iraq
layoffs. assistant labor secretary jane oates posted this notification. as we first reported, 46 days ago, the law called the warn act, requires that mass layoffs be announced to employees 60 days beforehand. we re talking about mass layoffs threatening the defense industry. since tt sequester cuts take effect on january 2 snd. what that initially meant that announcement at the big defense contractors would go out november 3rd, as you can see that s three days before the presidential election. obviously those are not headlines that obama wants. so enter the labor department. here s the letter. oates writes, quote, the warn act notice to employees of federal contractors including in the defense industry is not required 60 days in advance of january 2, 2013 and would be inappropriate. yes. the administration is reinterpreting the law on the sly. because after all this was sent out and they declined to make anyone available to interview this tonight. of course this was a manna f