that attack, there were so many lost limbs as a result of the way that bomb was placed on that sidewalk and so much suffering in it s wake. their uncle is going to be there today. very important to be in that courtroom and see that man s face and experience that moment. he will join us here live in less than 10 minutes. also coming up, house homeland security member, peter king, will tell us why he believes the fbi now does have a lot of explaining to do on how they handled that case. i will speak with peter king, coming up shortly as well. stay tuned for that. new reaction now to reports that frustrations with a major u.s. ally are pushing president obama closer to taking american forces out of afghanistan earlier than was planned. and to weigh the so-called zero option, a move that would not keep any american troops in afghanistan past 2014.
disagreements between president obama and hamid karzai that have to do with the break down in talks over the security negotiations. this seems to be the airing of this so-called zero option, leaving zero troops in afghanistan, may be one way to put pressure on karzai, push him back into line and see if he won t work with the taliban on some sort of peace discussions and also get back in line to object to continue the security discussions with the u.s., jake. last year when president obama went to afghanistan in may, i believe, and signed a document about the strategic partnership, he made it very clear that counterterrorism and equipping afghan security forces were going to continue to be important imperatives for the u.s., even after 2014. strategically does it make any sense if counterterrorism is a priority the way that the obama administration has been waging it with drones, with special forces, does it make any sense to pull out of afghanistan
news a recent video conference call between the two leaders was, quote: an unmitigated disaster. and the new york times newspaper reports president obama is now looking for closely at the so-called zero option. in other words, get every single troop out of there after next year. jennifer griffin is at the pentagon tonight. what s the thinking about whether this is a bluff or some sort of trial balloon or what? well, shepard, congressman buck mckean who heads the house services committee issued a statement tonight saying that administration officials assured him no zero option is on the table. what is clear is that the talks about u.s. troops staying after 2014 are stalemated. i m not aware that this was a trial balloon. i can t say that for sure. i think it s important to note that we stated here, i think it was here but it was certainly publicly and in january that zero was an option. 61,000 u.s. troops will go down to 34,000 in february.
president hamid karzai at the white house as we speak. the two leaders are discussing a range of issues, including the future role for u.s. troops in afghanistan after the war formally ends in 2014. u.s. commanders have proposed keeping anywhere from a few thousand troops to upwards of 20,000 after that date. but the president is reportedly also considering a so-called zero option, leaving no troops. michael hanlon is a senior fellow and foreign policy studies at the brookings insurance taoufplgts he s traveled to afghanistan nine times has met several times with hamid karzai. michael if you you would, because of your experiences specially with president hamid karzai how do you think this conversation is going right now? hi, jenna, i like the way you put the war is to formally end in 2014. at least our role formally ends. as you know the war may continue and that gets to the real essence of the meeting today. there is a lot of work to do. there is a question of how nass we drawdown o
martha: tough for her. she is coming up at the top of the next hour. meantime we re learning some new details about possible white house plans for troop withdrawals from afghanistan ahead of next year s drawdown. there is a new report out that has an administration official floating the idea of pulling out all of the troops. the so-called zero option. molly henneberg is with us in washington. so, molly, how likely is this zero troops in afghanistan scenario? reporter: hi, martha. all the obama administration will say is it is an option, a possibility, something they re looking at but clearly they re signaling to afghan president hamid karzai that the days of tens of thousands of u.s. troops in afghanistan, we have 66,000 there now, are coming to an end. the u.s. does not have, again, an inherent objective of x number of troops in afghanistan. we have an objective of making sure there is no safe haven for al qaeda within afghanistan and making sure