And where are we going from here. Last august 2014, i traveled from damascus to washington, d. C. , with a fortune of maps and photos. I thought it might be a good idea to share with you ten out of them today. This is the first one. This reflects the situation in syria in summer 2013. We are talking about july august, 2013. The red color refers to the areas controlled by the regime, and his militia supporting him, like hezbollah in syria, and so on and so forth. The green area referred to the areas controlled by the rebels. And then the black spots refers to the areas controlled by isis at that time. So this map tells us two things actually. First of all, that the balance of power on the ground 15 months ago was almost 50 50. This is not the situation right now. This is an important thing to come back to. Second, that at that time isis was very weak. Very scattered. Not controlling a lot of areas. The areas are not geographically connected, which is very important from a Military Point
The Armed Services chairman who is retiring. We are starting off on that note. Then his last big bill, the Defense Authorization bill is going to be the first matter up for consideration. , when we knewht senate,forward with the there has been an agreement struck about 3 00 today. Earlierittle bit depending on the level of cooperation. There is going to be a series of votes that will lead to the passage of the Defense Authorization bill. And itat has happened passes, the bill will go to president obama. That, then we are in the end of the year negotiations on time and how to compress time in order to get the rest of the work done. When it comes to the spending bill, what are the chances that its going to pass the senate . Will the senate be in on saturday to get this done . Guest thats the big deal. There will 00 votes, be a series of negotiations between all 100 senators behind the scenes. They will figure out whether or has to go through to process of filing cloture cut off the debat
Plotting an attack against the states, article two still gives the president the to conduct whatever is necessary to protect the united gives me causet to be confident that we arent theing the security of United States at risk and that we will be able to come back and decision. Dependent if isis poses a threat to the United States in another country as to whether its a good idea to bring to country as well, which may involve a completely different set of factors. For johnson. I think much of this discussion underscores my primary point is we should spend a lot of time on definition. Of time defining exactly who the enemy is. Name one group, defined. So if we spend a lot of time defining a lote enemy is and spend of time finding exactly what the and then be 100 committed to the objective, anybodys hand, dont ations. Imit is is if we do that it will be easier the partners that will also be 100 committed to the exact properly defined objective. Example, the first gulf war. When the first
That morning, i knew what it was like to belong to an Intelligence Agency that had been ringing the bell for many months about the plans to attack. Thatf us were devastated al qaeda operatives were able to carry out such horrific attacks in simultaneous fashion. While i remit or walking the halls of cia that day to ensure as many agencies as possible had left the building. They work through that day and that night in the following days in the following nights to piece together the clues as to what plans are underway to carry out more attacks. Their cia brothers and sisters who were dispersed around the globe many in dangerous environments to the same thing only 15 days after 9 11 under it was cia who put the First American boots on the ground in afghanistan. Less than two months after arriving the United States suffered its First Casualty what a 32yearold cia officer was killed in action november 25. Ciae his death, 20 other officers have lost their lives around the world the events of
He does travel frequently to properties that bear his name. Other president s also have engaged in recreation in the past but they didnt have named Properties Like this president does. It has been a mix of work and holiday during his days here, arriving on tuesday night. The president on friday had some, what we call foreign leader calls, contacting the president s of turkey and egypt, having some conversations there. Some other works gone on behind the scenes, but this is a weekend and a Holiday Weekend and the president was out and about for several hours with the press pool traveling with him. Hes now back at maralago, a home where hes spent many of his thanksgivings, long before he was a candidate, or certainly the president , over the years. Let me ask you about what the president faces when he gets back to washington, d. C. Theres some confusion about who is will be in charge of the Consumer Financial bureau. A pretty new agency. Whats the white house saying about who is going to