now we re learning the reason why they chose that specific target. it might not necessarily be what you think. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. captions by vitac www.vitac.com he s certainly one of the most visible people on the planet that with global media watching his every single move. how did president obama take most of the world by surprise when he showed up in afghanistan. we re learning new details of this rather complex and massive operation. our white house correspondent brianna keilar is joining us. brianna, tell our viewers what you are learning. reporter: there was nothing normal about how this trip was executed and even from the way president obama entered air force one early, early in the morning on tuesday at andrews air force base. instead of taking the normal multi-story set of stairs he takes usually, he went on a smallerest is stairs into almost the belly of the plane, near the front of the plane and in addition, this is a trip th
facility and will be reunited with his family. these developments coming while secretary of state hillary clinton and treasury secretary timothy geithner are in beijing preparing for economic and strategic meetings with chinese leaders beginning on thursday. it s not clear how the chen case might influence those talks, but this was starting to become a sticky situation between the u.s. and china. china now reportedly demanding an apology from the u.s. for sheltering the activist. we ll have a live report from beijing in the next half hour. our other big story of the morning. new questions about america s longest war, this after a trip to afghanistan by the president that was supposed to sum it all up. president obama saying one year after the death of osama bin laden that crushing al qaeda is within reach. but a car bomb that killed six people after air force one was wheels up certainly a tough reminder that there s a long way to go in that country. we still don t know how
huge deal. set the scene. reporter: this is a big deal, wolf. a trip by the president of the united states to a war zone like afghanistan is extraordinary and this is only the third time that president obama has made this trip. it s been over a year. the last time he was there was in december 2010 and furthermore, at the presidential palace which is where he is right now for brief remarks with president hamid karzai and to sign the strategic partnership agreement with afghanistan to talk about the u.s. relationship with afghanistan beyond 2014. that s extraordinary. the last time the president was in afghanistan in december of 2010 he could not make that trip from bagram air force base which is about 30 miles or so north of kabul to the palace because of weather concerns, and certainly security is always a concern as the president is in the comfort of the air force base. if you look at past trip, wolf, the last one only lasted four hours and it s very late at night in afgha
china have hit a brick wall. why and who will take their place as the next hot emerging markets? then andrew sullivan on why he had to wait almost 20 years to get a green card in the united states. it s a fascinating, troubling story. we re also going to look at the war on drugs in mexico. could it actually be working? first, here s my take. a new poll in the united states shows that americans are still deeply frustrated at the slow pace of the economic recovery. that s understandable. unemployment stays stubbornly high. i was just in europe, and they think america is booming. consider this. the u.s. economy is on track to grow between 2% and 3% this year. in europe, by contrast, half the euro zone economies are going to actually shrink this year and not one major european country will grow over 1%. last thursday christine lagard, the head of the international monetary fund and former french finance minister, said there were dark clouds hanging over the global recovery an
states. it s a fascinating, troubling story. we re also going to look at the war on drugs in mexico. could it actually be working? first, here s my take. a new poll in the united states shows that americans are still deeply frustrated at the slow pace of the economic recovery. that s understandable. unemployment stays stubbornly high. i was just in europe, and they think america is booming. consider this. the u.s. economy is on track to grow between 2% and 3% this year. in europe, by contrast, half the euro zone economies are going to actually shrink this year and not one major european country will grow over 1%. last thursday christine lagard, the head of the international monetary fund and former french finance minister, said there were dark clouds hanging over the global recovery and that the euro zone was at the epicenter of potential risks. borrowing costs for countries like spain, italy, and greece are rising again. what is going on? didn t it look like the europeans ha