what some think america needs to do. that is, write a new constitution. and then he ll speak to one of the top scientists responsible for the web telescope and those awesome images it has captured. these videos show explosions that have happened in the last two weeks at russian military facilities in crimea, which has been occupied by russian forces since 2014. one attack at an air base destroyed at least seven russian warplanes. ukraine has claimed responsibility for that attack and two others, according to an internal ukrainian government document obtained by cnn. is this evidence that kyiv is launching a counteroffensive against russia? and could it gain back territory illegally overtaken by moscow? joining me now is retired u.s. army general mark hurtling, a national security and military analyst for cnn. good to have you on this morning. great to be on this morning,
army general mark hurtling. and general grks tohave good to have you on. great to be with you. let s talk about the attacks inside crimea, this territory has been controlled by russia for some eight years now. does ukraine s ability to strike behind russian lines in crimea around very sensitive military facilities there show its strength, how much strength and how much of a setback is there for russia? last couple weeks have been fascinating. whenever a force changes from defensive to offensive operations, which is what is happening with ukraine, it changes the dynamics of the battlefield. by going on the offensive, which they have done, ukraine has regained the initiative and can strike at the time and place of their choosing instead of just waiting for the russians to attack. russia now realizes they have to defend in more places, which further drains their forces from the fight in both the east and in other areas in the south. and that kind of action puts the enemy on its back
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federal agents said they recovered from mar-a-lago. joining me now is retired lieutenant general mark hurtling, cnn military analyst and served as commanding general of the first armored division and later u.s. army europe and the seventh army. general, thanks so much for being here. what is this sci classification and where does it fit in the hierarchy of classified documents? well, as you said, michael, sci stands for sensitive compartmented information. most people don t understand that. that means it s an element of top secret documents. where the access is restricted to those that have first of all, top secret clearance but have a need to know additional information and certain details. sci is classified information that comes from sensitive intelligence sources. we might say spies or some type of satellites or things that other nations don t know about or methods or analytical processes. and it s handled with formal access control systems established by the dni in our
it is, confidential, secret, top secret, top secret sci or even additional s.a.p. programs, the excruciating details of the vetting process can go on for months. it involves filling out a form. you put in every place you ever lived, names of your teachers, names of your friends and neighbors and kinds of jobs you held, what kind of things you have done in the past that you re not sometimes not really proud of because after that fbi agents of a special organization or cid agents will not come not only to your home to conduct interviews but the homes of people you name in your document but also people that they name. so, if they go to my third grade teacher and she says, well, mark also had a run-in with this guy. they go to that guy to find out more. those things can take anywhere from six months to a year to process. you normally go under additional requirements to say things and