what s changed that would make the administration think, okay, it s okay to take this risk now. we wouldn t have done it a couple years ago. one key change, the war is coming to an end. the president s announcement, it s coincidental that this release happened the same week as the 9,800 troops now, no troops by 2016, but the fact is we are winding things down. we are leaving afghanistan. during a period where we had 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 troops in afghanistan, you couldn t let people like this out. this is an exclamation point on the fact that we are withdrawing and this is now for the afghans. what about guantanamo bay and these other prisoners? i mean, are they in effect bargaining chips on the international scene? this is a very difficult position, and i think actually getting more of them out will be harder now because of congressional reaction to the president s release in this case. there are still many people there who we cannot let go. michael, thanks so much for your
we know from the va s inspector general s early and initial investigation that they are probably systemic. we need more facts. but the fact is, as president obama said, we are going to act now. we must act now to fix whatever is wrong. i m committed to do that as secretary of defense, to continue to help veterans administration leaders. we do that now. we work very closely with the veterans administration. we ll continue to do that. we ll continue to offer everything we can offer in order to assist them, but we have no higher responsibility in our country than to take care of these men and women whose selfless service we depended on and continue to depend on to this day, and we ll fix it. for more reaction to that interview, i m joined by michael lighter, nbc security analyst for nbc news. michael, i want to focus on
general s early and initial investigation that they are probably systemic. we need more facts. but the fact is, as president obama said, we are going to act now. we must act now to fix whatever is wrong. i m committed to do that as secretary of defense, to continue to help veterans administration leaders. we do that now. we work very closely with the veterans administration. we ll continue to do that. we ll continue to offer everything we can offer in order to assist them, but we have no higher responsibility in our country than to take care of these men and women whose selfless service we depended on and continue to depend on to this day, and we ll fix it. for more reaction to that interview, i m joined by michael lighter, nbc security analyst for nbc news. michael, i want to focus on these guantanamo prisoners who were released.
the administration think, okay, it s okay to take this risk now. we wouldn t have done it a couple years ago. one key change, the war is coming to an end. the president s announcement, it s coincidental that this release happened the same week as the 9,800 troops now, no troops by 2016, but the fact is we are winding things down. we are leaving afghanistan. during a period where we had 10,000, 20,000, 50,000 troops in afghanistan, you couldn t let people like this out. this is an exclamation point on the fact that we are withdrawing and this is now for the afghans. what about guantanamo bay and these other prisoners? i mean, are they in effect bargaining chips on the international scene? this is a very difficult position, and i think actually getting more of them out will be harder now because of congressional reaction to the president s release in this case. there are still many people there who we cannot let go. michael, thanks so much for your expertise. i m joined by paul r
and continue to depend on to this day, and we ll fix it. for more reaction to that interview, i m joined by michael lighter, nbc security analyst for nbc news. former director of the national counterterrorism center. michael, i want to focus on these guantanamo prisoners who were released. the five detainees were on the obama administration s list to be held indefinitely without charges. how big of a risk to release these detainees to qatar. this is significant, david. there s always a range of people in guantanamo, the low level fighters up to the other al qaeda operatives. these guys are very close to the khalid sheikh mohammeds. they are serious leaders. the deputy defense leader of the taliban, a key governor. these are people who helped lead taliban s relationship with al qaeda pre-9/11, helped fight against u.s. interests post-2001, and they will be in