Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Outfront next, breaking news on north koreas launch of a longrange rocket. What were learning about just how much control the country has over that satellite. Plus, erin burnett has an exclusive interview with defense secretary, leon panetta about this launch. She also talks with him about syria, what were learning tonight about the forces loyal to president bashar al assad, and how scud missiles have been fired. The United States government says it shows just how desperate assads regime is now getting. And also, our first look at the shooter who Police Believe is responsible for last nights deadly rampage in a portlandarea mall. Police have identified him as well as the two people that he killed. Lets go outfront. Good evening, everyone. Im Ashleigh Banfield in for erin burnett tonight who is on assignment in afghanistan. Weve got breaking news right off the top. Cnn just learning that the United States does not believe that north korea is in full control of that satellite that it sent into space with the longrange rocket launch. This is according to a u. S. Official to our Barbara Starr at the pentagon. Up until now, by most accounts, this launch has been seen as a success, or certainly it raised the bar on how we view their capabilities. Erin burnett spoke with defense secretary leon panetta, exclusively in kabul about this very issue. Take a look. Mr. Secretary, thank you so much for taking the time. Good to be with you, erin. I wanted to start by asking you about north korea. I know, obviously, theyve had failures with rocket launches and eight months ago they failed. Now theyve had a success. And im wondering if you know how they fixed it or whether they might have had help from another country . We have no idea. As a matter of fact, were still assessing just exactly what happened here to look at each of the stages and determine whether or not it really was a success or not. But, you know, the fact that theyve launched this missile is a clear provocation. Weve warned them not toot it. Weve been very concerned about their firing this missile. In violation of every International Standard and rule. And, you know, its clear that have one of the reasons were rebalancing in the pacific is to deal with the threat from north korea. And we will. Were prepared to do that. We will respond if we have to. How will we respond . Does this mean they could hit the United States . No, the fact is that we do have a very strong Missile Defense that would be able to guard against that kind of potential and so we would be able to stop it if it were coming in . Im very confident that we would be able to do that. Obviously, the hope is that we never have to face that kind of threat, and thats why we continue to warn them against this kind of provocation. Because, you know, frankly, it doesnt help the situation in korea. It just creates a greater provocation, not only towards the United States, but towards south korea. And the result is that tensions increase there and it makes the concern about some kind of miscalculation that much greater. And there was one thing you said. You said you werent you were still determining whether it was a success or not. Is that still something that the u. S. Is not sure about . No, i think we still have to assess just exactly what happened here. Track, you kno track, you know we had radar tracking the flight of that, to be able to analyze exactly what happened during the course of that flight, the various stages. And then most importantly, the final stage, to determine really whether or not that did work effectively, or whether it tumbled into space. I mean, thats the issue that we need to assess. And we will have more from erins interview with secretary panetta a little later on in the program. But i want to bring in james spyder marks, retired u. S. Army general, who served as a Senior Intelligence officer in korea, and also victor cha, who served as director of Asian Affairs in the white house from 2004 to 2007, where he was responsible for coordinating u. S. Policy for north korea. Spyder, let me begin with you. The secretary is not necessarily calling this a success. Barbara starr is reporting that the u. S. Doesnt think that korea has any control out of this, short of saying its tumbling out of control, theyre not in full control. Does that matter . Is this splitting hairs or semantics, or is this really still quite a leg that they have now up in this battle . I think its significant that they were able to establish the capability of launching a threestage rocket. I think we will determine whether they were able to put a tip or at least some form of a satellite into an orbit and then whats it doing up there, at this point, is not significant. We shouldnt worry that that was an armed or a nuclearized or a weaponized tip. I think they just wanted, primarily, to establish the ability to launch it into an extra atmospheric type of orbit, and they were able to do that with a threestage rocket. The real concern that we would have is how do they weaponize that. But this clearly is a provocation against all u. N. Resolutions. Its a big difference, weaponizing with wmds or nukes. And maybe, victor, just weigh in on that. If there is this suspicion and if it bears any truth, that iran may have actually helped this process along, does that not equate to iran would be willing to help the process along in terms of Nuclear Warheads as well . Thats entirely a possibility as well, ashleigh. I think that the relationship between iran and north korea, when it comes to this missile business, has been quite deep, quite robust. Every Iranian Missile of the shahab design, from one through four, have all been north korean missiles. So theres a real history of cooperation there. And i would imagine that it would continue. With regard to whether this thing is a satellite or whatever it is, if the North Koreans dont have control of it, that, to me, would not be that surprising, because they really dont have a fullfledged space program. They just disguise this as a space launch, but as the general said, this is clearly for a military application, before it is for a civilian application. And let me jump back to you, general marks, about the issue of, the tactics. Tactically, they really cant do much to us. I think you have said before, we can defend against a nowarning missile attack here in the United States, so why is this such a big deal, or is it . Well, it is a big deal. They have not done this before. Theyve had a couple of launches, you know, about 15 years ago, they launched a rocket over japan. It was a surprise to most of us. That occurred just before i took over as the senior intel guy in korea. And weve been watching these developments very, very closely. This is a big deal. Ashleigh, this is a big deal. But the arrangement along the peninsula was established close to 50 years ago, as a result of the cold war, and what we need to do, as victor has indicated, is weve got to change the dynamic here. Iran is very much a part of the discussion, but not included in what we know as the sixparty talks, which are russia, china, north korea, south korea, the United States, and japan. We need to try to change the dynamics here, so that there isnt this provocation, because what you have along the peninsula is quite stark. You have this incredibly robust and modern south korea and this stark, dark nation directly across the dmz. Victor, who does have influence over pyongyang . Well, i think for many years, we believed it was the chinese. The chinese are the primary source of food and economic assistance, Energy Assistance to north korea. But then, again, the chinese had a highlevel visit to north korea the day before that they announced that they were going to do this missile launch. So, even the chinese, i think, are quite frustrated. But at the same time, i would imagine that theyre also not willing to completely abandon the North Koreans, because they dont want to see instability in the north, which would then suggest instability along their border. And that is something they dont want to see. So china is really the country that has the most influence, and yet its very difficult to move them to a place where the United States, japan, south korea, the other members of the sixparty talks would like china to go, which is to put more pressure on the north, such that they stop these sorts of provocations and stop their missile and nuclear programs. All right, victor cha and spyder marks, thank you to you both for your perspective on this tonight. Do appreciate it. Outfront next, with just 20 days until the fiscal cliff, both sides are saying very little about progress, which is really what everybody wants. So you would think the Ranking Member of the Senate Budget committee knows a thing or two about whats going on, right . Youd be thinking wrong. Republican Jeff Sessions comes out front tonight. Also, how far is too far when youre interviewing someone on a sensitive topic . Barbara walters asks governor Chris Christie if he is too fat for the job of president. John avalons going to weigh in on this one with a little bit of historical perspective. Also, a new twist in the very bizarre story about john mcafee. The internet tycoon has now left guatemala. Police want to question him about a murder in belize, but that is not where hes headed. Details, next. Ur future. Aids affects us all. Even babies. Chevron is working to stop mothertochild transmission. Our employees and their families are part of the fight. And were winning. At chevron nigeria, we havent had a reported case in 12 years. Aids is strong. Aids is strong. But we are stronger. And aids. Aids is going to lose. Aids is going to lose. [ sniffs ] i took dayquil but my nose is still runny. [ male announcer ] truth is, dayquil doesnt treat that. Really . [ male announcer ] alkaseltzer plus fights your worst cold symptoms, plus it relieves your runny nose. [ breathes deeply ] awesome. [ male announcer ] yes, it is. Thats the cold truth [ male announcer ] yes, it is. 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They also apparently were quite discouraged by the complex registration procedures. So, because of that, attorney general eric holder has a solution for our voting system. In a speech last night that really largely went unnoticed, he said this. Automatically register every eligible voter in america and enable their registration to move when they do. So is this an obvious solution or is this the government going too far . Outfront tonight, political analyst Roland Martin and david fromme, Senior Adviser to president bush. David, i know youve written extensively about this. On its surface, that just sounds terrific. Just make it easier for every redblooded american citizen to be able to vote. But i know you say this is kind of just far too small of a solution. Why . Right. America has a uniquely ram shackle voting. Its injurious to the National Pride to hear that brazil does it better, but brazil does it better, and so does mexico. So what im disappointed in from the attorney general is there are a lot of problems, hes picked one, its an important problem. But it also happens to be a problem, the fixing of which would benefit his party. Because probably the younger people, the less the more mobile people, who would be benefited, would tend to vote democrat. Which is fine. Democrats should vote too. But if youre going to fix it, do a real fix. Dont simply introduce something that is advantageous to one party, as if its a complete solution, when there are so many problems that need to be fixed together, as was recommended by the postrecount reform commissions in 2002. Okay, im sorry, first of all, ashleigh youre not even going to wait for the question, are you, roland . Im sorry, i cant. Im trying to figure out. Only democrats somehow move . This is not a democrat or a republican thing. Ive covered city government, ive covered county government. Ill tell you as someone who has watched this nonsense happen, it is ridiculous. We have 50 different rules, was its done by state. Then when you go in those 50 states, then you have different counties. Part of the problem, you have federal elections, congressional races, senatorial races, president ial race, and then you have your state and local race. This is the start of a starting point, if you will. So if attorney general eric holder had come out with eight or ten different ideas, folks would have been going nuts saying, no, thats too much. Its a way to begin the process, because it is convoluted, in some places, ashleigh, its so crazy. If you literally move from one apartment, right nextdoor to the next one, your Voter Registration is ineligible. Thats how crazy it is. David, let me ask you this. You suggest that Voter Registration is just one very little plank in a big problem. And yet so many people, within hours and the next days after the election suggested that president obama may have won this election because he had a better ground game. He was able to get out there in the community, register voters, et cetera. So eric holders solution would theoretically even the Playing Field for republican annapol. Thats got to be palatable. No, it probably wouldnt. Because republicans tend to be more registered. Democrats always need a better ground game, because their voters, younger, poorer, more mobile are more likely to fall off the registration polls. Let me give you a concrete example of the kind of problem the attorney general does not address. The election of 2000, there was a big messup in the voting in the city of st. Louis. There were lines that went that were not yet discharged a to the time of the that was appointed for the end of the voting. The local very democratic city, st. Louis, in a crucial state, missouri. Local democrats went to an elected judge, a political official, and asked that judge to extend voting hours. In no other democracy in the world does that kind of decision get made by an elected official, who comes from one party or the other. Everybody else has some kind of National Electoral commission, has nonpartisan officers. Throughout the United States, its done in a political way. You have to fix all of these problems, or else by the way, none of them will work, because if it is seen to tilt to one side, nothing will happen. David, youre talking about a line. Were talking about just getting people to the line. And that is what im saying. Again, youre absolutely right. Its a broad issue that we have here. Lots of problems, but one of the fundamental problems is when you have different registration dates. When you start to talk about different criteria in one state compared to the others, in terms of what you need, the beginning process is to, first of all, get people registered. I think the attorney general is talking about the most basic fundamental issue, and that is affirming the right to vote for every american. What youre talking about is later in the process. Lets just get them registered, first. And i have to leave it there, although this conversation, there is certainly more to it than that. Roland martin, david fromme, thank you both. Do appreciate it. And outfront next, Chris Christie is asked if he is too fat to be president. Which questions, if any, should be offlimits . And also, erin burnett has an exclusive interview with secretary of defense leon panetta, and she asks him pointedly, what does the United States need to do to help end the violence in syria, if anything at all . Searching for a bank designed for investors like you . Tdd 18003452550 schwab bank was built with all the value and convenience tdd 18003452550 investors want. Tdd 18003452550 like no atm fees, worldwide. Tdd 18003452550 and no nuisan