what do you hear there at the pentagon about this? >> well look brooke what we know is the white house is you know not looking for any kind of unilateral u.s. military action in syria. that is not what they want. that said what we have learned is here at the pentagon officials are stepping up the planning for just that. some kind of military option if they have to do it. because of the chemical weapons situation, because it poses such a dire threat to so many people in the region and it basically is an international security threat if the chemical weapons are not under anyone's firm control, if they start getting used. so wha hagel has said to his people p up the planning, give me some openings give me something i can take to the president at the white house if it comes to that. so we're at that point, the planning has been stepped up, certainly it is not the route they want to go. they're still hoping for diplomatic pressure toce assad out, but i think everyone has to conclude that doesn't -- hasn't appeared to work in the last two s

obviously the pentagon is trying to manage the situation as best as they can, but i think all of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this. why are we doing this? we have a whole bunch of individuals who have been tried who are currently maximum securiti security prisons around the country, justice has been served, it's been done in a way that's consistent with our constitution, rule of law, and our traditions. the individual who attempted to bomb times square in prison. life sentence. so mali who was part of -- who we captured, in prison. so we can handle this and i understand that in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 why for a lot of americans the notion was somehow that we had to create a special facility like guantanamo and we couldn't handle this in a normal conventional fashion. i understand that reaction, but we're now over a decade out. we should be wiser. we should have been more experience in how we prosecute terrorists. this is a lingering problem that is not going to get better. it's going to get worse. it's going to fester. and so i'm going to as i said before examine e

as early as last year, i asked the pentagon, our military, our intelligence officials to prepare for me what options might be available and i won't go into the details of what those options might be, but clearly that would be an escalation in our view of the threat to the security of the international community, our allys, and the united states and that means that there are some options that we might not other exercise that we would strongly consider. >> on the benghazi question i know pieces of the story have been litigated. will you help those people come forward and say it once and for all? >> i'm not familiar with this notion that anyone has been blocked from testifying. what i will do is i will find out what exactly i've been referring to. what i've been clear about from the start is that our job with respect to benghazi has been to find out exactly what happened do make sure u.s. embassies not just isn't the middle east but around the world are safe and secure, and bring those responsible to justice. >> hired an attorney because they're saying they've been blocked. >> jessica.

military with the cia i mean there's a whole division at the pentagon that was set up just to. with hollywood movies to give them access to the technology and it's all you know it's all kind of. you know it's it's celebration of of sort of war and warriors and you know i don't i don't know anyone in that community in the special ops community or the cia that things anything highly of zero dark thirty which is which is interesting but on the raid itself i mean we know that there was this dog that was you know belgian malinois and we know what kind of guns they supposedly had and we know sort of everything that's been leaked we know very little about the thousands of other raids that happened that year in afghanistan or elsewhere around the world who were the targets of those rates who were who was being killed almost everything john brennan said in the aftermath of the killing of osama bin laden turned out to be false as you point out he didn't use his wife as a human shield he wasn't reaching for a gun this was the killing of an unarmed man in the middle of the night who had ju

well i think that they're trying to the wire the white house and the pentagon are trying very hard to retain their strategic domination in afghanistan they see afghanistan as strategically key they want to bring down the number of troops but they want to find a way to have afghans do the fighting against the forces that have resisted the occupation there and so they've poured this money and they have tried to buy military commanders local governors and military commanders of all different kinds and you can see that this is this is not succeeding this isn't and this is the way of occupation all hours of the general afghan public think about this the general left afghan public that aren't on the receiving end of some of this money well i think that there's great anger about this and the fact that as i mentioned before even some were telling the statistics in the country virtually every other indices of power is among the worst in the entire world despite the fact that really what will end up to be over a trillion dollars will be spent by the united states on the war and the people who a

cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr has more for you. >> carol, some new advances in bomb detection technology are coming that experts hope will keep everyonsafe. from the boston marathon to u.s. troops on patrol in afghanistan, in the life and death challenge to detect bombs. it's a debate over dog versus machine in the search for the best solutions. oak ridge national laboratory is fo technology. this bunch of boxes and computers screens is prototype for detecting explosives. >> so what this sensor does is it combines infrared sources with optics and an infrared detector. >> reporter: simply put -- lasers shoot out. the target here, a suitcase reflects certain colors. advanced computers analyze the and within seconds detech explosivessploes detect explosives. the laser finds small amounts of explosives nearly a football field away and it can be put on a truck, moving, scanning a crowd like the marathon. >> you you look out a large area and saw it is a difficult question to answer but i would could do it. >> scientists say a dog's nose is the best detector but pentagon officer sear

a lot of republicans want to make an exception for the pentagon. a lot of democrats want to make an exception for entitlement programs like social security and medicaid. the problem is we all want big government where it serves us. and we all want small government for other people.- and that hypocrisy goes right across the political system and makes the life of citizens and politicians absolutely impossible. a republican congressman from florida said just yesterday, he said the trouble is we don't want the democratic big government programs. we want the republican big government programs. and i think that is really -- this hypocrisy, this inconsistency is just impossible. >> let's talk about some of the programs. earlier this week diane black, a republican from tennessee tweeted this. under president obama, food stamp enrollment has increased at ten times the rate of job creation. now, we know the spending on entitlements is expanding at the expense of discretionary spending things like education and infrastructure, but americans don't trust the go

keep in mind if it weren't for those for your request we wouldn't even know about the extent of the pentagon already ramped up on line surveillance with none the wiser what's perhaps the most ironic in this recent revelation. you know even so vocal about the dangers implication of cispa passing when the worst of the bill has already been practiced entirely in secret but i guess that's the obama administration's imo violate our rights first codified those violations into law second. amidst last week's barrage of violence and tragedy all eyes are on the media for breaking news one such story from the associated press is official twitter account one o seven pm on april twenty third tweeted the following disturbing news said bricky two explosions in the white house and brock obama is injured while thousands of retreats instantly followed only find out minutes later that the report was completely false and he revealed that their account had been hacked in the quick redact of the story but not quickly enough for the economy to take a hit check this out the dow jones which was up suddenly plummeted

keep in mind if it weren't for those for your request we wouldn't even know about the extent of the pentagon story ramped up online surveillance or perhaps the most honest in this recent revelation though you know it's a vocal about the dangers implication of such but how soon when the worst of the bill is going to be practiced entirely in secret but i guess that's the obama administration's m.o. violate our rights first hot either violations of the law second. amidst a last week's barrage of violence and trapping all eyes were on them one such story from the associated press is official twitter account one o seven pm on april twenty third twenty following the story news breaking explosions in the white house and brought obama is injured cult thousands of real and some of them in. minutes later the report was false when he. had been hacked and it quickly redaction the story but not quickly enough for the sake of checking this out. top suddenly plummeted in just two minutes of the tweet crowd just as quickly as news to bunt this reveals just how integrated social media has become with the ico

some reason don't use those it's really not clear what the status quo at this point an adviser for the pentagon visited guantanamo last week came back and said that he predicted gun going strike would lead to death so a long time muslim advisor at guantanamo who goes by the name zack who goes only by his first name for security reasons he said quote there will be more than one death and then he added that the. detainees called wanted to die out of hunger and thirst behind covered cameras and of court and the best of many now ask is what if someone really dies in this hunger strike will it change something in washington i'm going to check them. still to come rising violence in iraq the country suffering one of its bloodiest chapters in the u.s. troops left with ethnic clashes and bombings even more than one hundred dead one this after a short break. the international in the very heart of moscow. mother of the two boston marathon bombing suspects claims she's seen video proving her son tamra one was still alive after being detained but instead the eldest brother was run over by his younger siblin

don't use those it's really not clear what can change the status quo at this point an adviser for the pentagon who visited guantanamo last week came back and said that he predicted the ongoing strike would lead to death so a long time muslim advisor ed guantanamo who goes by the name zack who goes only by playing for security reasons he said quote there will be more than one death and then he added that he wanted to die out of hunger and thirst behind covered camors end of quote and the question many now ask is what if someone really dies in this hunger strike will it change things in washington i'm going to check out. the rising violence in iraq the country's suffering what it's it's us troops ethnic clashes and bombings leaving more than one hundred dead more on this after a short break. technology innovations all the developments around russia. the future. international in the very heart of moscow. twenty seven minutes past the hour now the mother of the two boston marathon bombing suspects claims she's seen video proving her son tamra landing older son was still alive after we are said the

breaking news out of the pentagon. defense secretary chuck hagel now saying u.s. intelligence officials believe the syrian regime has used chemical weapons. hagel revealed that in an extraordinary news conference in the united arab emirates. >> this morning the white house delivered a letter to several members of congress on the topic of chemical weapons use in syria. the letter, which will be made available to you here shortly as soon as george gets it we'll get it to you, states that the u.s. intelligence community assesses with some degree of varying confidence that the syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale in syria, specifically the chemical agent sarin. >> the key remarks there some degree of varying confidence and also on a small scale. get perspective on what this might mean for the civil war that's been raging inside two years now. mohamed jamjoom joins us now. do we know anything about where and when chemical weapons may have been used? >> well, anderson, this is interesting because we've heard the last few months many time the rebels i

don't use those it's really not clear what can change the status quo at this point an advisor for the pentagon who visited guantanamo last week came back and said that he predicted the ongoing strike would lead to death so a long time muslim advisor at guantanamo who goes by the name zack who goes only by his first name for security reasons he said quote there will be more than one death and then he added that the detainees called wanted to die out of hunger and thirst behind covered camors end of quote and the question many now ask is what if someone really are is in this hunger strike will it change something in washington i'm going to. underscore so we're bringing you our in-depth coverage of the developing crisis gone tunnel going head to our web site for a full timeline of events. meantime coming up here on the scene just a couple of minutes we'll look at the brothers believed to be behind the boston bombings and the way that portrayed in the global media do stay with us for the back after the break. the international airport in the very heart of moscow. this is also you coming to life fo

don't use those it's really not clear what can change the status quo at this point an advisor for the pentagon who visited guantanamo last week came back and said that he predicted the ongoing strike would lead to death so a long time muslim advisor ed. on top of my name zack was only by his first name for security reasons he said quote there will be more than one death and then he added that the detainees called wanted to die otto hunger and thirst behind covered cameras and followed and the question many now ask is what if someone really dies in this hunger strike will it change something in washington i'm going to. bring in your in-depth coverage of the developing crisis agung tanabe as you can always have told website home for a full timeline of the vote step and in the meantime coming out here on all scene just a couple of minutes we'll look at the brothers believed to be behind the boston bombings and the way that trade in the global media after the break. the international airport in the very heart of moscow. watching r.t. live from moscow great to have you with us millions of russians

i mean the developments are the the darpa thus the research wing of the pentagon the courser for instance us a research platform for this and a seven and a half ton six we can read it is quite an extraordinary piece of technology they also have a project which is called developed on the thomas submarine that can over submarines that cynthia's to testing and then the and there is well it's not robots the kind of would fall over in a bottle and this is being launched in london how big a road c.-k. have to play in comparison to say the u.s. instead of leading the way with this well we've got to be a systems is on their second one we've got the something called which is going to be tested. this year industry a spent a year and a half behind development but that's fully a thomas intercontinental combat aircraft but when it comes to fully autonomous weapons we're not there yet but they. say that the more time the lads the possum the more money this ploughed into developing this type of technology the place we must find. reality. next heated debate in clashing opinions cross talk with us stay wi

i mean the development saw the the top of us the research wing of the pentagon the courser for instance us a research platform for this and a seven and a half ton six we try to reduce quite an extraordinary piece of technology there also of a project which is called developed an autonomous submarine that can go over submarines that cynthia's to testing and then the millions and there is well it's not a good robots kind of would fold over in a bubble and this is being launched in london how big a road c.-k. have to play in comparison to say the u.s. instead leading the way with this well we've got to be a systems as on their second one we've got the something called the toronto says going to be tested. this year industry of spent a year and a half behind development but that's a fully a thomas intercontinental combat aircraft but when it comes to fully autonomous weapons we're not there yet but there is all getting through the ban say that the most time this allows the pos and the moment a this planet into developing this type of technology a place three miles from find fiction full it's

cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr joins us now. bar ra, what have you learned about possible links to al qaeda or others? >> reporter: well, chris, what we are hearing from u.s. officials we have spoken to is they are taking the claims that dzhokhar tsarnaev has made and taking a look at whether the two brothers may have learned their expertise online. one of the things they are looking at is an online publication called inspire. this is a publication essentially, online site, sponsored by al qaeda in the arabian peninsula essentially al qaeda in yemen. amongst the extremist jihady move. well known, in existence for many years. they published some time back a recipe for making a pressure cooker bomb in an article that they basically entitled "how to make a bomb in your mother's kitchen" the belief is there may be similarities between this online recipe and what was used in boston. investigators are looking at this very closely. chris? >> barbara, thank you very much. another piece in the puzzle. as people understand this informatio

the pentagon says they are investigating. >> dzhokhar tsarnaev is revealing new details about the bomb plot, who was involved. the latest on what he's telling investigators right after this. i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a

i want to go straight to our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr. it is a great question. what does al qaeda-sponsored or their phraseology, al qaeda-supported attack on these passenger trains, what does that mean in this case? do we know? >> well, i couldn't agree with paul more, brooke. i think that is the absolute key question right now. when canadian intelligence services get up there and say there was an al qaeda-supported attack plot, what is going on here? we don't know the answer. is it some kind of al qaeda element that did get training in the al qaeda heartland, the traditional heartland of pakistan and the afghan border, or is this some type of plot that perhaps had originated somewhere else? we know that al qaeda affiliate organizations, if you will, are really gaining strength in syria, in iraq, across north africa. you'll remember an al qaeda north african affiliate, sponsored inspired organization, whatever you want to call it, carried that out that attack against the algerian gas plant a few months back. these affiliates, brooke, are a growing threat -- >>

nuclear test in february but while the many fear that further war games could provoke the ongoing the pentagon insists they're absolutely necessary. to come here and look at a part of the u.s. to tubman to live by its own rules the republic of texas is next. the movie world war z z being for zombie which stars brad pitt as one hundred seventy five million dollar budget has been recalled by paramount executives not because this is probably yet another stupid violent zombie movie but because the chinese might get offended according to the wrap dot com china was supposed to take the blame for starting the evil zombie apocalypse this time but china becoming the largest foreign market for american movies made artistic integrity fly out the window to protect the bottom dollar as is tradition and hollywood this is not the first time that there has been pro-choice and he censorship in hollywood the remake of red dawn which was originally a cold war era minstrel show against russians was supposed to show a chinese invasion of america this time however they have changed it to north koreans who can't eve

the other thing the pentagon is really taken note of this week in the midst of all this tragedy, some of the lesson learned from combat trauma care, being able to deal with mass casualty trauma incidents, many doctors across the country now are looking at some of the experiences of the military. we know some of those lessons learned are things that have helped people in boston. >> all right. thank you very much. shockingly, this week was not the first time the fbi had heard of tamerlan tsarnaev. the fbi now admits that a foreign government, meaning russia or more specifically the russian fsb, the successor to the kgb, that that russian intelligence agency asked the fbi to check him out in 2011 warning that he was, quote, a follower of radical islam. and, quote, a strong believer and may have been planning to leave the u.s. to join an underground group in europe. the fbi even interviewed him in 2011, but say they found no related evidence. the fbi did not follow up after tamerlan tsarnaev returned from chechnya in 2012. it seems pretty evident that he was not watched closely enough. i

. >> chris, you're our pentagon correspondent. the way you describe it, it almost looks like a major military operation with sophisticated military equipment in addition to local law enforceme enforcement. give us a few details of the military hardware you're seeing. >> right now so far it's been split. and i would say the majority of it is being the massachusetts state police, the local campus police are sort of doing perimeter security around the campus as they try to help students get off campus. a lot of students hanging out outside here trying to get a ride home or perhaps someone to pick them up. then we saw the helicopter off in the distance and we know just sort of trying to look through the buildings and the trees, i know it landed somewhere in the interior of the campus. and i know that the dorm -- dzhokhar's dorm is actually over on that other side of campus. i don't know if the helicopter landed near the dorm, but it was definitely on sort of the other side of campus from the entrance where we are and where a lot of th

barbara starr has been doing that at the pentagon this morning. barbara? >> reporter: good morning, erin and chris. the u.s. law enforcement and intelligence community here in washington, now going back this morning, through every piece of intelligence they have looking for any information about these two suspects. until yesterday, until the identification came out, officials had told us they just didn't see any foreign connection. they weren't sure, but they didn't see anything. now that they have the identities on these two suspects and they have some sense of their background, they are going back through everything. that means intelligence reports, phone intercepts, chatter, jihadists' web sielts. anything and everything. they are looking at their social media postings for any connections they may have to overseas groups. now, they don't have any firm conclusions at this point. but what is so significant here is now, as of this morning, they are, indeed, looking to see if these two men had any connections to overseas groups, frankly, to overseas terrori

got to confront about that you also asked about the two point three trillion dollars missing from the pentagon that he announced on the day before nine eleven of course was forgot about completely after the event when you get on multiple aid missions to gaza after leaving office i mean a boat that you were on actually got and you ended up in an israeli jail why is this sort of radical action necessary. i'm glad you're almost the question in the way that you posed it it is necessary. ari because the situation has come so far so i'm hinged that ever in the every day affairs of the u.s. government now we cannot assume that the bill of rights of quizes to us we can that's why it was so important for me to participate in the liberty fest that recently took place in atlanta because this idea this cherished notion of liberty is literally at risk and. well george bush pinned everything all of the rolling of the war machine was because of september eleventh and then after george w. bush were obama says that you know we have to kill people all over the planet because of september eleventh and so if we d

for that, to our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. what are you hearing? >> reporter: well, anderson, a senior u.s. official is now telling me that, quote, there is no reporting indicating a foreign connection to or -- or any reaction from al qaeda. now, that is based on information that is circulated through the highest levels of the administration about six hours ago. no reporting indicating a foreign connection or any reaction from al qaeda. but what we should emphasize is this is just one thread. the investigation, of course, continues by federal law enforcement on all fronts, looking at all possibilities of foreign groups or some sort of home grown, if you will, violent extremist. this official also telling me, again, this could all change. that's what they're looking at right now. he said, quote, there were no known terrorist threats to boston or the marathon. but, yes, they are going back to all of the intelligence they have, because i think if we all learned anything over the last several years, you have to go back to everything and see if there is

the pentagon says they have no specific leads, law enforcement agencies we've heard from says they don't know, domestic, foreign, no suspects in custody right now. one thing they did do repeatedly is ask the public for pictures. thet want the public to give any pictures they may have from the scene. what does that tell you? >> well, it tells you several things. i think the first is it tells you that they are open-minded to any strands of information that might come their way. they didn't have, it seems, complete surveillance from cameras that you might have had, say, in other urban centers like london, like district of columbia. so they are relying on individuals who witnessed things to show them pictures. but i think one of the more interesting things that you just mentioned is that nobody's jumping to conclusions here. there is going to be a logical, rational, forensic evaluation of who put -- what consisted of putting together these bombs, what kinds of materials were used, and it's a notable professionalism that is going on here. it's going on across the discourse, which is that we d

when asked for a comment, a spokesman from the pentagon says the department does not discuss individual detainees who are not currently before military commissions. >>> a school in new york is in hot water, this is for an english assignment tenth graders were asked to think like a nazi. so it happened at albany high school just last week. students were assigned an essay to answer the question and i quote here "how do i convince my teacher that i think jews are evil." well, the students were told to imagine that their teacher was a nazi and build an argument using their research of historical propaganda. school administrators have now apologized to the parents. this assignment was an attempt to link an english class with a history lesson. >> i thought the assignment was ill conceived. i thought it was inappropriate. i thought it was -- i can't describe it in any other words. >> so the teacher who assigned that essay is now on leave. >>> in kaufman county, texas, there was a high profile arrest, this happened over the weekend. eric williams, you see him there, well-known former justice of