very happy to be here. bright and early in the morning as well as brian. we ve been here awhile but this is great. i m looking forward to it. this is a big news day. let s get to it. new fallout over the taliban prisoner swap that freed an american soldier. bowe bergdahl s parents were allowed to take part in secure, secret video conferences with top u.s. officials. perhaps as many as 20 times per your. and as we re learning, that would have been unprecedented access. weesh we re getting reports of bergdahl s treatment of the captors and he s refusing to talk with his parents. all of this as the white house appears to be in damage control. secretary of state john kerry says any idea that the prisoner exchange for bergdahl puts american lives at risk in his words is baloney. i don t think anybody should doubt the capacity of the united states of america to protect americans.
through telephone calls and video conferences. something his father just said is a work in progress. joining me now, nbc news terrorism analyst evan kohlmann. editor at large for the atlantic, steve clemens. nbc s new senior critical report, perry bacon, and nbc political contributor goalie taylor and from the washington post, ann garen. i thought it was interesting in the press conference, it is clear the parents understand that this is going to be a very long process for their son. i thought it was a very healthy thing they were doing. we live in a time where everybody wants instant answers, instant attention, instant grabbing of this soldier that s just been brought out of really dark place. i think the parents did a very noble thing. we ve seen so many cases of people who have been at war, in combat, come back, thrust back into society without the kind of prep time and decompression which the parents are saying in this case he needs and deserves.
and randy erics will be in communications. so big heads moving around at gm as they still continue to deal with the problems about the decade long recall issue. one big thing that is coming out today, the first day google glass now available to the public. kind of a steep price tag. depends on where your tech love falls, i guess. this is the google glass explorer program. it s a model where they re testing this and taking some features off, putting new ones on. but you have to be a part of the test program. $1500. plus your sales tax. and you do get some very interesting features, you could even get a free sunglasses or newly introduced prescription glass frames with it, as well. you don t get video conferences. you will get improved battery life and better photo sharing. but paying $1500 plus sales tax to be part of an unfinished product doesn t seem steep, but it s one day only and limited
with the russian space agency. however, the jointly-operated international space station so far is exempt from these new guidelines. the move, though, could impact some research projects. phil keating live in miami with more on that. phil? reporter: hi, jon. russia s annexation of crimea first got its suspended on the global stage from the g8, now it is suspended from all context between russian government officials and anybody working for nasa. at least none so far from the russian government. citing russia s, quote, ongoing violation of ukraine s sovereignty, nasa has implemented its own sanctions including no nasa travel to russia, no visits by russian government representatives to nasa facilities and no nasa nasa/russia bilateral meetings, teleconferences and video conferences. exempt from all of this is everything keeling with the dealing with the space station.
bilateral meetings, e-mails, teleconferences or video conferences. given current events i think it s certainly right for nasa and law enforcement to be skeptical of that relationship and make sure that there s that this relationship going forward is in the best interest of the united states. reporter: a major exception to these new nasa sanctions is that everything dealing with the international space station is unaffected and that covers the vast majority of nasa s interactions with russia. second tower separates. reporter: american astronauts will also continue flying on board russian soyuz capsules to the space station as nasa s steve swanson did last week with two cass mow foughts. former astronaut tom jones says what nasa is doing is risky. they are inviting retaliation and we don t know what that may be, maybe not at space station but they may try to cut oesks ports to our russian rocket engines to the military boosters. the space station is