right who said he was indifferent on the nuclear program. during his testimony in front of the senate earlier this year, hagel did not inspire confidence. he struggled to explain previous and laudable positions under interrogation from hostile senators and outright disowned a couple of them. so, the big, crucial, defining question for the second term of barack obama and the multibillion fate of the largest defense apparatus is, is chuck hagel as secretary of defense the radical reformer those on the right feared and those on the left hoped for or has he been coopted he promised today to take on? joining me is matija kramer, a tax policy research group, spencer ackerman, senior reporter for the blog the danger room, and matty dupler. i feel like being the head of the pentagon is like being the pope. it s like when there s a new when there s a vacancy, well, this next one s really going to
administration, from this government. one is that the policy level that says basically the iranians are going to be producing the weapon at some point in time, and we will act against that. well, of course, the environment, the political environment, you know, we are in an electoral year, the arab allies are telling us the iranians are moving forward, so you re going to hear those statements. but when you come to a national bureaucratic defense apparatus, what is it telling us? we don t have that information. the missing link is we are weak on understanding the iranian plan. we are weak on understanding how are they going to proceed? they re not going to throw that bomb in front of us if they don t have the protection system to protect themselves from our actions. heather: and i want to take you back to your words. back in 2007, all the way back then you said that the mullahs intended to develop its missile systems at the same time they were developing nuclear weapons. and you predicte
defense apparatus, $662 billion or more than the 2011 budget s proposed spending on medicare, the fda, the national institute for health, the centers for disease prevent and control and the national park service, crop insures, the fbi, the dea, federal prison system, global health, the federal aviation and highway and railroad administration, the environment tam administration and nasa combined for those scoring at home. this year s defense policy bill attracted controversy and scrutiny for provisions it contains for people deemed suspected terrorists. three provisions that have attracted wide attention. the first extends prohibition on the use of department of defense funds to transfer detainees in guantanamo into the united states or other countries. provisions makes it impossible to comply with the executive order president obama issued on
explosive. new york to its credit is filled with iconic facilities. you have obviously the statue of liberty. obviously the empire state building. the brooklyn bridge. there s so many places there. chrysler building. 30 rockefeller, rockefeller center. so many spaces in new york that would make a big name. times square is enormous. any way to have surveillance cameras and defense apparatus to capture these activities completely? you can never capture them completely, chris. the technology does get better and better. one example that doesn t have to do with new york but the whole country, we re better at electronic listening in to who might be a terrorist and most of the time if there s any connection to some kind of international group, we pick it up in advance. one example was the last terrorist threat we had. the man zazi who was apprehended at the george washington bridge
a much more powerful weapon than a simple atomic device. hand in hand with nuclear development, kim jong-un loves announcing new missile ranges. experts say north korea s last launch could likely reach anywhere in the continental united states. the only steps left are miniaturizing a nuclear bomb and creating a warhead that could survive re-entry into the atmosphere. nuclear missiles go like that. the nuclear capabilities are not the only danger. according to analysis by the u.s. and south korean defense apparatus, north korea has about 1600 military aircraft, jets and helicopters, and almost 700 naval ships, more than 4,000 tanks, 2,500 armored vehicle and 5,500 rocket launchers. that s on top of hidden artillery pieces positioned along the demilitarized zone between north and south korea, pointed directly at seoul.