Years in a coma. Hes expected a burial on monday. He was 85 years old. In russia five suspects were detained. The government said they belonged to an International Terror group. They were found with grenades and explosion device. And americans planning to attend the olympics have been issued a planning warning. U. S. Citizens should stay on alert because of potential crime. Bomb shells about washingtons most powerful players. Why would a man with a representation for being discrete with go this public . And Bill Richardson joins me. Example zanexamining anxiety did im antonio moro. Welcome to consider this. We begin with a surprising memoir written by former defense secretary and c. I. A. Director robber gates. The ultimate Public Servant and statesman, a washington insider who served under president s from both parties. His memoir, which isnt even out yet is serving up critique of the obama white house. He chose contempt for congress and the Vice President and said joe biden has been wrong on every Foreign Policy issue over the last four decades. For more, we speak with senior fellow for american progress, were also joined bay contributor to al jazeera english, who served as secretary of defense for middle east policy and worked closely with secretary gates at the pentagon. And joining us is editor of defense one. Kevin has covered and traveled with defense secretary gates and they all join us from washington, d. C. Its a pleasure to have you all with us. One excerpt from the book focuses on a meeting where gates questions obamas leadership and questions the military in particular. He writes the reference to the commander is the u. S. Commander of American Forces in afghanistan david petraeus. General, lets start with you. Should a former official criticize a sitting president . Critics have said he really shouldnt, and certainly those comments about karzai will damage further a relationship that is already problematic . Well, first of all, i dont think that we should be very surprised that this book came out three years after stepping down as director of the c. I. A. Robert gates wrote his book from behind the shadows, and was very, very forthright in that book, as well. He was very positive in some regards and critical in other records. Regards. I dont see anything stunning, but he is a private citizen now, and i think he is writing for history now as he was writing in 1996 as his experience as director of the c. I. A. Larry, shouldnt he have the right to do that . You have already been critical of gates, and even former defense secretary lyon panetta because they criticized syria and russia last year. You said their behavior was unprofessional and unseemly. You really think he should not be writing about his experiences while the president is in obvious . In office . Well, certainly he should not be saying some of the things. For example, joe biden has been wrong about all foreign policies the last 40 years. Thats not true. He was right about the balkans and the first gulf war and what would happen in iraq. It would fall apart. Saying these things, and secretary clinton said she really didnt mean it. Thats not the type of stuff, thats beneath him, beneath the office, and most of his predecessors. Melvin laird, he waited for 30 years after he left to write an about, you know, what went on. So iris van who resigned when president carter was going to try to rescue the hostages in iran never went out and criticized him. More than that, if he didnt like it, why did he stay . Why didnt he speak up . What about his obligation to the men and women that he talks to movingly in the book if thats how he felt. I give you one example where hes dead wrong. Obama when he announced that he was going to add roughly the 70,000 troops with the two that he did, he went to west point and said im going to be out in two years, and the military commanders, he asked him, do you support that . They all said yes. Then he finds out general petraeus is telling the press, no he didnt, no. They should have spoken up then. Again, im not sure what this accomplishes in terms of what hes trying to do other than protect his own reputation. We should say that the National Security council has responded to excerpts in the book, specific by about Vice President biden. They said kevin, how do you see this . Who is right here . Who is right about what . The Vice President specifically. Well, you know, i think of all the things that weve seen so far we havent seen much, the criticism of the Vice President is the one thing that sounds the least gatesian of all. It sounds like a g. O. P. Hit on the Vice President. Clearly nobody is wrong all of the time. That said, going back to the original point of the general brigadier, no, we should not be surprised secretary gates. We knew he was going to write this book. He has another book in the works. We knew that before he retired that that was in the plan. This seems in line with his previous memoir. Hes telling it like it is from his perch. Secretary gates is an executive branch denizen. He never was a politician, and this was the closest that he would get to be one. He talked about the frustration of not only fighting wars but fighting washington, fighting congress, but he also said he understands that. Having to deal with ro rom emmal and axing rod. Lets talk about the politics. Gates talks about how he found himself with odds with what he called obamas controlling inner circle. There has not been anything like it since kissinger and nixon. He said general, lets start with you on this one. I want to hear what larry has to say about this. Is this unusual as to how much politics were determining our National Security decisions . Well with, i dont think its surprising at all that in the first two years of the administration, especially for a president that ran on getting out of one war and trying to reform another war, that there is going to be that level of micromanagement that comes from the west winning. Thats something that i suspect secretarsecretary of gates unded would happen. Its not something that we want to see in our Public Servants, that level of macromanagement done by none elective, not even appointed application politiciat thats just a fact of life. I dont think that secretary gates has necessarily overly harsh. I think he was just acknowledging, as he has in both of his books from what ive read in his passbook, and what were starting to read in this book, hes putting it down in history so if nothing else america can take his experiences as director of c. I. A. And sick of defense and learn from that and try to improve from that. Larry, what do you think . Is there an unusual amount of politics involved in important National Security divisions . No, gates should go back and see what the First Defense secretary said. He said, you can no more separate politics from government than you can sex from creation. This idea that he has been aroundi watched him play games when i was in the Reagan Administration in terms of saying, well, reagan shouldnt negotiate with gorbachev. Soviets will never leave afghanistan. This idea that some how he was naive, thats nonsense. If you take a look, he was a deputy on the nasa National Security council for bush. Youre saying political people were making a lot of decisions and influencing the decisions, and thats different than having National Security people make decisions. Well again, when i worked for reagan, mike was very close. Gabriel was the one who told him to call begen. You got to sell to the American People and sell it to congress, and thats a constraint on what you want to do and need to do. The tea party want cut the Defense Budget so i think the political people need to take that into account when theyre formulating a Defense Budget. Kevin gates was a hold over from the george w. Bush administration. Will these revelations kee make someone think twice about keeping someone on from a Previous Party . No, i dont think so. Everyone knew he was going to put this book out while he still had a chance to perhaps influence the second term and not wait three years until obama leaves, or 30 or 50 whatever. I think something is going on right now where politics in washington does not understand or much less care about National Security, vice versa, i think its concerning. We were trying to cover this a little more in defense one. This goes to what the sense hes trying to say. The lyon panetta had the same frustrations and i think chuck layingel ihagel is experiencings well. The last two and three years we heard every National Security leader in washington scream their heads off bloody murder not to have the sequestration, but it made no difference whatsoever because these political leaders in this town are not vested in National Security like they were in the 80s, and 70s. So gates leaves office, he comes back to take control of these wars and says outrights he hates the job. He hates having to convince the white house why these things are important that we have to do or want to do for National Security. But this is a new era. Its not just convincing his National Security colleagues, as he points out. Its convincing ram emmanuel, david axelrod, hes acknowledging that this is a fact of life. He didnt like it. I wonder how much he grappled with understanding how to get through it or whether this was a man where the politics surpassed his time. I think thats the case. Both gates and panetta left office with scathing, scathing peaches about the state of washington, state of politics, and congress. Maybe aside from his attack on congress is that he even though he says hes a big fan of former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and points out flattering things about her, there was one moment that he was clearly upset by, and she was with president obama, and he says, hillary told the president that her opposition to the 2007 surge in iraq had been political because she was facing him in the iowa primary. The president conceded vaguely that opposition to the iraq surge had been political. To hear the two of them making these admissions and in front of me was as surprising as it was dismaying. We reacted very strongly to that when we saw that here in our newsroom, general. Is that one of the most concerning revelations in this book . Well again, i think in total most of us have seen about two pages of whats probably 600 page book. But again, i think its important to go back to his 96 book and the last part of the book entitled reflections. He talks about the problems he had with the inter agency, with the white house aides, he talked about the problems that he had with congress. I think what seems to be the most surprising thing that secretary gates is finding out, which all of us now understand, is how much more intense those problems have become betwee between 1996 and 2012. The polarization inside of congress. The polarization inside the white house. The bureaucracy inside the pentagon. All of these are still the same problems that he mentioned 18 years ago in his last book, but they just seem to have intensified significantly to the point of his frustration, which is one of the historical lessons i think hes trying to bring out for all of us. Hhe is a historian. Hes not writing this book hysterically. Hes not writing this book to settle scores but i do believe hes writing history, not to go after political enemies or sharpen the axes. Certainly these excerpts that have been released are powerful and intriguing. To my guests, thank you all for joining us. Consider this will be right back. Al Jazeera America presents the best documentaries. A historic election we have 47 of our people who pay no income taxes. We take you behind the scenes im rick santorum, im running for president. No barriers. I intend to be the nominee that defeats barack obama no restrictions. I think were catching on. No filters. My guess is they wont be voting for me. Al Jazeera America presents caucus with an apology now behind him, the question remains was Chris Christie blindsided by his staffs actions or was he fostering a troubled workplace culture. And a missionary who has been held in a north korean prison kenneth bae has been a hot topic since dennis ro rodman. Will this attention help his release . We go to the author how to sweet talk a shark. He joins us from washington, d. C. Great to have you with us, governor, as someone who was chief executive of a state is it possible that Chris Christie did not know what his staff was doing . Well, it is possible, and he was very candid and let it all out yesterday in his press conference. Hes going to have to be right. I think he cant afford to in the future to show that he had any connection because he was pretty forthright. But i will say it does damage his ability to project bipartisanship that hes a tough guy who gets results because this was a bad incident, but i give him the benefit of the doubt having been a former governor that possibly he didnt know. You know, one of the things that have brought up is that even if he didnt know, is it a question of the culture that he created . I know that you had issues with some of your own staffers in new mexico, but do you think it is possible and he had responsibility if his staffers thought that Chris Christie thought was okay . Well, the governor sets the tone, but i think what rather than indict governor christie on this, it just seems that the attitude of those staffers, vindicative, petty, retribution, he didnt get endorsed, so lets go after that mayor, i think its indicative perhaps if he wants to jump in the president ial waters he needs a broader view, more critical staff that is able to say, governor, were wrong in doing this, or that isnt so petty. So i think its more a question of if he wants to move into the buyinthebig leagues, he has to a stronger staff. How hard would a scandal like this make it to governor . Well, its early in his second term. He tried to put everything away in one press conference by, i must say, being candid and admitting the mistake. It remains to be seen what happens in the days ahead if there are other emails, if it does link him more directly. But possibly he has at least stopped the bleeding at this point, but hes going to get more scrutiny. When you run for president everything you do is scrutinized. He has invited more scrutiny. This is why i think he needs to rise above in debacle. It wasnt a plus, and get some new staff and set a new tone. Lets move on to north korea. You have been involved with the North Koreans now for a couple of decades. Youve traveled there a couple of times since the 1990s. What was your reaction with everything that happened with Dennis Rodman . I initially felt that Dennis Rodmans out of box diplomacy, pingpong diplomacy with china helps sometimes. Its not traditional diplomats. But after this last debacle of Dennis Rodman hinting that kenneth bae was possibly guilty. Singing happy birthday to kim jongun. Playing on kim jonguns birthday, being a mouth piece the propaganda effort of dennis has in my view, undermined his ability to use basketball diplomacy to try to better relations. I hope he has left town. I hope hes left north korea. But i was disappointed because i am an advocate for out of the box diplomacy, and hes the only guy who can get in to see kim jongun, i tried and failed, so they have a relationship. But he could at least pushed to get kenneth bae, the american detainee out, and he didnt seem to do that. You tried last year. You were there in january. Do you think there was any kind of opening that there is any reason for optimism that kenneth bae will be released . Unfortunately, im concerned the North Koreans want to use him as a bargaining chip, buts been over a year, 14 months. This man is not guilty. Hes sick. Hes got a family. Because we know so little about kim jongun and his negotiating tactics in the past, i could deal with the old regime because i knew more or less where they were coming from, and we were able to get some releases out. But with this young man, he teams to be totally reoccupied with his own power base. He w brutally executed his uncl. Hes replacing generals he feels are not loyal to him. Hes internally being challenged. The worry is that there may be an implosion there because it seems that the young man is insecure. We know so little about him. North korea has nuclear weapons, missiles, we have a treaty with south korea, so any little incident could get us involved, the united states, in a way that could be a real spark, a bad spark around the region. Lots to be concerned about with the loose canon in charge. In your book how to sweet talk a shark. Back i in the 90s you were cald the under secretary of thugs because you managed to get so much done. You tried to get a deal with the castros in cuba for the release of alan gross, has there been progress there . No, no progress there. I failed there, antonio. I got all upset because the cubans, i thought we had a deal, and the cubans said no, we cant the cuban four, which was totally, you dont go one for four. You go one for one. And it was a new element in negotiations. So instead of playing it cool and resuming my negotiations, cooling off, i went to the press, and i denounced the cubans. They called alan gross a political prisoner. I lost my cool. Im not involved in those negotiations any more. I know theyre pressing hard, i know the administration is doing that, but this is another case where this man should come home. He did nothing wrong. He has been there several years. Hes not well. There has to be an advocacy for these individuals, and