strikes, but there s several places in the region where the sites could have been launched, including aircraft carriers and bases in saudi arabia, qatar, jordan, bahrain and united arab emirates, all participate alongside the americans. lisa stark starts first. we hear the strikes may have lasted an hour and a half, the first wave, and continued after that. this is a massive effort against i.s.i.l. in syria. it s not the shock and awe campaign, general dempsey, general of the joint chiefs made it clear that it would not be a shock and awe campaign, but would be persistent, more aggressive than the first air strikes against i.s.i.l. had iraq. we believe they have taken at lodgistical depots, fuel and training sites. 31,000 i.s.i.l. fighters are in syria and iraq. two-thirds of those are believed to be in syria. again, a much bigger target, if you will in syria, although much more complicated than launching the air strikes in iraq for a host of political and other reasons. th
so we haven t had a chance to digest it. but the attorney general in his confirmation hearings was very clear with a one-word answer when asked by a senator whether he had contact with the russians in any way, shape, or form. he said no, period. no condition, no modification. so obviously that turns out to not be accurate there is no reason to believe that jeff sessions in the confirmation hearing was trying to hide something. he may simply have forgotten. but it does mean two things. number one, it adds to the incredible weight of evidence that the administration is not credible on these issues. remember a couple of weeks ago when we heard that michael flynn was talking to the russian ambassador simply to wish him merry christmas. and of course that turns out not to be true. and michael flynn is no longer national security adviser. so this white house has a very, very significant credibility problem. and it s with respect to attorney general sessions, what this means, and again, it
progress.ng when times went from 38 minutes down to 30, and only 18 minutes in the month of december. i wanted to meet patsy. i want you to meet passage. patsy, director of the center. [applause] patsy, thanks to you and your team for giving our customers great service. in tennessee, we have a lot to brag about. this is the time to take advantage of our strengths and face are challenges head-on. i look forward to the executive and legislative branches continuing to work together on issues such matter to tennesseeans. we should begin tonight by addressing the elephant in the room, there are a lot of expectations and preconceived notions about how republican supermajority is going to govern. there is a narrative already been written for us. republicans will fight internally, and democrats will be focused solely on play politics instead of working across the aisle to find common ground for good government. i think that makes characters caricatures of us. we re not always g
top diplomats from more than a dozen countries dealing with what s been described as a, quote, bleak global environment. and it s the situation in syria and the european refugee crisis that are overshadowing their talks. the meetings come just days after ministers from the united states, from russia and other nations all announced that they ve agreed to a pause in the fighting in syria to take effect in a week. but there are fears that at least two issues will scuttle any lasting peace in that nation. the continued russian airstrikes on aleppo and the insistence by the syrian president, bashar al assad, that he would continue fighting enemies that he deems terrorists. let s get the very latest from munich. our cnn international diplomatic editor, nic robertson, is live for us this hour. nic, good to have you with us. so there s so many issues that are playing out in the world. what is the mood there among leaders in munich? reporter: well, there s concern about this peace p
retired lieutenant. thank you for being with us. a new cold war, was the headline. when you look at this and when you argue that medvedev was putting out in the open what u.s. officials have been saying for a while. the tension between u.s. and russia at a number of points. in syria it started nout ukraine, the sanction against russia over the annexation of crimea in ukraine have hurt. and this has been going on in the back ground. it s also been going on verbally. u.s. officials over the past year and a half have called russia publicly an existial threat. now for the russians to answer with their own war of words not surprising but it have to point out, we don t have nuclear weapons pointed at each other s cat talls. so it s not truly a cold war. no, it s a very important distinction to make, absolutely. given so many newspaper headlines will read this come tomorrow morning. general, to you. let s listen to what nato s top commander general breedlove said in response to