0 world. we felt necessary to have the ki ofionships. with the foreign intelligence and law enforcement can share information with us and we could likewise share information with them. the relationship and the coordination communication with russian authorities, it appears to me based on what is report today is going to be extremely important. and bringing this person to justice and also in answering questions about the plot. if there were additional individuals involved. >> shannon: you mentioned that there were a lot of changes in the wake of 9/11. to try to better system and how we close the net in on the suspects like these. what about the coordination between various agencies? there is talk about whether it's improved when you talk about the c.i.a., f.b.i. even d.o.j. do you think there are lessons we may learn from what happened in boston about whether we're make progress gress on the fronts or whether there is still more to do? >> every time there is a plot, and we are successful in stopping it or the plot is successful we learn something. to zo clearly we are better today in terms of sharing information within federal government, between federal agencies than we were on 9/11. is it perfect? it's not. but we strive to become perfect. like other previous plots, we have been success nel stopping there will be lessons learned from here. so that we can become even better in protecting america going forward. >> shannon: do you think the justice department will ultimately answer many of the questions getting about the magistrate who showed up at the hospital as we discussed? i think of congressman mike rogers, of course, heading up a key committee, former f.b.i. agent himself. he called the move confusing and dangerous and he is asking for answers. do you think he will get them? >> i think congress is exercising the oversight authority to find out on behalf ofrican people what happened here. again, if actions were taken that were inconsistent with established protocol, if actions were take than may make it more dif can you want to gather information we could have gotten, those are legitimate questions that congress ought to be requestinasking.if i'm the attol and something happened that shouldn't have happened that may have hampered our ability to gather information, i would be asking those same questions. i'm sure the white house is asking the questions. hopefully we will get answers soon anbe american people will know what happened here. >> shannon: i want your thoughts on the dedication of the bush library in texas this week. the key member of that administration, your thoughts? >> it was a lot of fun to see everyone. frankly, humbling to get, to be reminded of the fact that i had the opportunity to work with talented people. to work in the white house, to work with president bush in historic period in history loom back on the time with pride and look back on the relationship and dealings with president bush with affection and respect. >> shannon: thank you for your service to the country and for joining us today. former attorney general alberto gonzalez. thank you, sir. >> thank you. >> shannon: it's your turn to weigh in at home. do you think federal judge should have read the boston suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev miranda warning while the f.b.i. was still in the process of questioning him? tweets your answers -- i will read system of your responses later on in this hour. the problem is, you know, the president has laid down the line. he can't be a dotted line. it can't be anything other than a red line. more than just syria, iran is paying attention to this. north korea is paying attention to this. so i think the options aren't huge but some action needs to be taken. >> that was house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers on abc's "if this week" weighing in on the syrian situation and whether or not the u.s. should get involved. conor powell is in the mideast bureau and he joins with us more. hello, conor. >> hello, shannon. there is international pressure for the united states to intervene in syria now that there is evidence that they used chemical weapons. former general said he was ordered to use chemical weapons in the tunnels and caves used by rebels but he refused the orer and instead used disinfected water. he defected a couple of months later. president obama said the use of chemical weapons would cross a red line forcing action but stopped short of saying what action would be taken. the white house is very concerned about the use of chemical weapons against rebels and civilians. but equally concerned that the weapons may fall in hands of extremist groups fighting alongside with the rebels. president obama on friday essentially reduced expectations that the united states would intervene in syria anytime soon. american officials fear that as bad as assad may be and as bad as the violence may be now, what comes after he is removed may be more chaotic and violent. as the debate continues, the rebels attack a government air base in the province today, while the syrian forces repeatedly shelled rebel positions in and around the province of aleppo. shannon? with the latest from the middle east. thank you. distributors of videos circulating on the web claim it shows proof syrian government is guilty of attacking the own citizen with the kim call weapons. just last week they admitted the likelihood that syria used small amount of chemical weapons and president obama said if syria does that, there will be consequences. senator jim rich on the intelligence and foreign affairs committee and join us us now live. thank you for joining us today. >> thank you. glad to be here. >> shannon: based on what you know and what you are heard and seen, what is your take on whether or not syria has crossed that line? >> well, as far as crossing the line of using chemical weapons, there is no question in my mind they have. we saw proof of it, the interest thing is this is not news to people who are in the intelligence community. this information has been out there for at least a month. i'm assuming that the president has known it for a month. i assume he has access to at least as good of intelligence briefings as we do. so this is not news. the difficulty is, you have covered this, once the president said this is a red line, what do you do about that? the thing you don'tbe want to do in this area of the world is show any kind of weakness. once you said this is a red line, he is going to have to handle it somehow. because iran is watching this very, very closely. that is the most important issue here, how iran perceive what is we do, when we lay down a red line, then the opposing party crosses the red line. >> shannon: in addition to what the president said, then secretary of state hillary clinton in december said suffice it to say, we are planning to take action if the eventuality were to occur. meaning the use of the chemical weapons. what are the options on the snail talk about helping to create a no fly zone in aiding rebels there? how do we make decisions what about to arm, and how to vet them? what is your take on what the options are? >> well, there is no good options. that is first thing. the president is faced with very, very difficult decisions to make here. i notice on friday, he started to walk it back a little bit. he said the red line was really the open use of chemical weapons, whatever that means. i guess closed use isn't the red line he was talking about. i can understand why they want to walk it back now. once that statement was made. you have to move forward doing something. this is not like a lot of other places in the world. damascus is one of the most heavy guarded, has one of the best air defense systems in the world. i have herd people say it's the fourth best. whatever it is. it's one of the top aerodefense systems in the world. going in there with a typical type of military assault from the air is going to be difficult. the american people need to understand if somebody pulls the trigger over there, you are going to be talking about very, very significant conbe flick, because obviously, before you can send air power in you have to take out the air defenses. they are in amongst a lot of civilians. there is just a lot of difficulties going in to that country. >> shannon: how much pressure do you think the president is under publicly now? to folks here at home, who are going to be concerned about him committing any additional resources, versus those who are there in the region to say this is a real issue? they are convinceed they want to see action. >> we met with one of our best allies in the area last week. king agullah from jordan who has been a stalwart ally of ours. if you listen to him and turkey and other neighbors, they are not as excited as pulling the trigger as some people are. if there is u.s. involvement there is deep ripples going out from where the involvement is. having said, that i'm not so sure that the neighbors are excited about doing things like putting boots on the ground. the america people are war weary. to sell this to the american people, we should put boots on the ground, it's very, very difficult for the president. inition to that, the use of the chemicals have been limited from what we have seen. there is physiological evidence to confirm they used chemical. it's not widespread at this point. but the question is, where is that red line? is it limited use? widespread use? those are questions the president has to answer. those are very, very difficult questions. >> shannon: yes, they are. senator jim rich, we thank you for your time today. >> thank you. >> shannon: well, the israeli military says it's responding to rocket attacks from gaza. with airstrikes on hamas targets. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is vowing to nip these spore radk attacks in bud saying if they continue, those responsible will pay a heavy price. hamas controls the gaza strip. israeli military said it use a training center used by hamas. there is an armed standoff going on in government building in libya. 200 men with machine guns on trucks circled the foreign ministry building in tripoli. they are demanding the government get rid of former gaddafi loyalist and hire rebel fighters who helped overthrow the dictator. so far no, protesters have entered the building. keep an eye on that situation. still to come, when it comes to immigration reform, the so-called gang of eight gets the headlines but they are not the only game in town. louisiana senator leland vittert joins us live to offer imhis ideas on immigration reform alternatives. when we come back -- >> there are more benghazi hearings coming. i think they will be explosives. >> shannon: he has strong words over the attack in benghazi. that's after this break. ♪ [ man ] excuse me miss. 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