military. they are very good at peace keeping, whether in bosnia, back in the 1990s or most recently in darfur, nigerian peace keepers can be found. but now this is a counterterrorism effort that requires a very specialized skillset and our military can convey that to them. there are some obstacles, the leahy moment, it s well intentioned and i support it, the vetting process has been cumbersome when whole units are disqualified from being trained. we re doing about a battalion, 600 plus soldiers but they need far more than that. two weeks ago i had a hearing, ambassador said this is going to be a long war. they are growing in their intensity not unlike what we re seeing in iraq right now with this move on baghdad. they want to move on abuj ja, the capital of nigeria and just
one could argue, sir, that the raids by the yemeni forces that followed our drone strike showed the yemeni government is capable of effectively addressing the threat. why also do the drone strikes which often kill civilians and in this case three reported deaths? i think let s be clear about this. particularly in the past, there have been civilian losses and that s morally reprehensible. it s also counterproductive to the counterterrorism effort. you kill civilians and obviously people take note of that in these communities and people probably sign up with the other side if that happens. that said, the intelligence community, the department of defense, others, have i think done a good deal better in the last couple of years at doing what the president demands of them, which is only launching these raids when there is near certainty. obviously, you can t be perfect. so in warfare, there are from time to time mistakes and bad
thank you. you just returned from being on the ground in sochi, assessing the security situation there. from what you have seen, how would you characterize at this point the level of cooperation between u.s. and russian security teams, because that s been a bit of a question. i think it s better. i think our diplomatic security service who takes a lead tells me cooperation has been very good. we have fbi agents now coming into sochi to work in the counterterrorism effort with the russians. the fsb, if you will. the area that needs to be improved, quite frankly, is the intelligence sharing component that the russians have not been quite as candid with us. i think we could help them a great deal if they would open up information sharing more to us. the other area i think the president called putin on this issue that i know the joint
be in grave condition, his health deteriorating sharply today. the 58-year-old sharon has been in a coma since suffering a stroke eight years ago. house speaker john boehner wants president obama to get more involved in iraq but says it s not time to send american troops back in. al qaeda-linked militants have taken over the cities of fallujah and ramadi. today a suicide bomber attacked a military recruiting center in baghdad killing at least 21 people. boehner says the president needs to do something. we need to get equipment to the iraqis and other services that would help them battle this counterterrorism effort that they are attempting to do. things that we can do to help the iraqis that do not involve putting u.s. troops on the ground. just a few minutes ago on the senate floor, democrat carl levin defended the president saying it s wrong to blame him for bad decisions by iraq s
countries don t want them back. the last thing the leaders of yemen want is for them to show up on the doorstep right when they are just beginning to get a handle on their own counterterrorism effort. what is left once they are gone, what is left are some pretty bad guys and yet in many ways made more radical over the last 11 years. leland: so you have is 155 guys left, not a lot of countries who want to take them, what do you do with them? that is the question. the administration has been all over the world. el salvador, slovakia, poland, many, many different countries. even islands in the pacific in an area to find somebody willing to take these terrorists. for the most part they have said no. now that you re in the last 155,