denial until proof says otherwise. i think, call it a victory for civilian casualty watchers that the pentagon came forth with this information, but hopefully not harbinger for things to come in the future. kevin, your experience covering the pentagon, certainly more than i have, the statement or statements from officials suggest they want to look at accountability going forward and whether or not procedures or processes should change as a result of this. how likely to see any accountability within the military ranks, within the strike cell that carried this out. it seemed that general mckenzie defended intelligence gathering process, acknowledging context of the moment as you said, but didn t necessarily say there was a problem with the way the intelligence was gathered or analyzed to lead one to be held accountable. these are tricky. usually there s a report, some
find out what is going on in russia, what is going on in north korea, what is going on in china, and you got to be able to protect those people in the jobs that they re in. and if you release information that gives those sources away, then that can create some really important problems for our intelligence gathering process. well but if you are a member of congress and you believe that the classification is argument is an excuse for a little cya, what should you do? i think if if your concerned about whether or not something should have been classified, there are ways to challenge that. you could challenge it in the committee, challenge it through the executive branch, the fact is there are ways to try to raise questions about whether something should be classified or not. but the wrong way to do is to simply throw it out there without checking with those that are involved to show just how sensitive that information can
is no evidence of a trump/russia collusion. we take them at their word. however there was new information that came from the hearing we believe is news worthy about the intelligence gathering process and the unmasking of americans identified in intelligence reports and the illegal leak of such unmaved individuals which is a federal crime. director comey told the committee certain appointees in the obama administration had second quarter s to the names of unmasked u.s. citizens such as senior white house officials, senior department of justice officials, and senior intelligence officials. before president obama left office michael flynn was unmasked and illegally his identity was leaked out to media outlets despite the fact that as director rogers said unmasking endangers national security. not only was general flynn s identity made available director comey refused to answer the
some kind before we assess any deficiencies within the intelligence gathering process. we ll know soon enough. if it was the principle consequences, their ability to miniaturize and the ability to put a nuclear warhead on a missile that might reach the united states, and if they have reached that milestone, again, that s a very big if, that s of dark consequence to us in terms of our national security. clearly so. thank you very much, congressman schiff. i know you have to go into that hearing, the briefing with general petraeus. and we appreciate you re being with us today. you bet. and on friday, the benghazi committee is going to interview former defense secretary and cia director leon panetta. and tomorrow secretary panetta will be here joining me exclusively right here on andrea mitchell reports. coming up, the et are rick heating up between saudi arabia and iran. you re watching andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. power,t.
shannon: vice president joe wide biden is expected to deliver the task force recommendations to gun control to president obama on tuesday and some are concerned it could include regulations that would infringe on gun owners second amendment rights. we are back now with senator lindsey graham. i want to ask you you, how do you think we are are doing in afghanistan and our plans there. the president s decision to accelerate withdrawal and leave a small force behind is a disaster in the making. our national interests are not determined by what we leave behind. there is only one afghan brigade that can maneuver itself. so a small force that just does training and counter terrorism how are the afghans going to get around the country without american helicopter and air lift support and if you take the intelligence gathering