tonight, we have word from a nato official that nato is now targeting gadhafi. the justification for killing gadhafi, according to the source, falls within the u.n. security council mandate for the operation. here's what u.n. resolution 1973 on libya specifically says about protecting civilians. >> it authorizes member states that have notified the secretary-general to take all necessary measures, that's the key phrase here, all necessary measures, to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack in libya. so apparently nato believes the efforts to kill gadhafi are justified because gadhafi is the commander in chief of a military force which is killing civilians. it does appear to be a departure from what was at least the publicly stated mission. listen. >> there's no question that libya and the world would be better off with gadhafi out of power. i, along with many other world leaders, have embraced that goal. and will activity pursue it through nonmilitary means. but broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mi

you were the former nato supreme ally commander. you agree with gates. >> his statement is well warranted. for years, for decades we've had this share about burden sharing. who provides the majority of the forces? the europeans have never to our satisfaction provided their fair share. they've justified it because the battle was going to be on their ground, they have other things they can do to contribute. i think the libyan operation is a good test for the future of nato. the other thing, though, we have to be careful in this. this kind of rhetoric goes back and forth for a long way. ultimately the united states knows just like the europeans know that nato is in everyone's vital interest. nato will struggle through this. hopefully the allies will listen to what the secretary said. they'll pull themselves up by the boots and we'll finish gadhafi. >> i suspect these nato allies, a lot of them are weak kneed right now, fran. they want the benefits of being part of nato, they don't want the burdens. don't want to send troops, aircraft.

an incident like that could mean a swift end to nato's mission. even if that doesn't happen, sullivan warns of other political problems for nate toe. he says gadhafi has the ability to drag this out and if he does, some nato member nations may not have the patience to extend this mission much past september. >> they're losing patience very, very quickly up on capitol hill. with mounting reports of atrocities in syria, will the obama administration turn up the president on the president bashar al assad? peter bergen is standing by. >>> and disappointing jobs numbers set off more alarm bells on the u.s. economy. will it make or break the 2012 presidential campaign? the count on chevy event is here. turn it up in a malibu. 33 mpg, over 500 highway miles a tank. one of our 9 models over 30 mpg highway. fuel up, rock on. very well qualified lessees can get a low mileage lease on a chevy malibu ls for around $179 a month. fuel economy based on epa estimates. and there's a great selection of inventory available now at your chevy dealer. count on chevy fo

but the extension comes after tough criticism of nato's effectiveness over the past two months. >> nato-led air strikes in libya inflicted serious damage on gadhafi's regime's war machine. yet, loyalists troops continue to demonstrate cohesiveness and operational superiority over rebel forces. >> reporter: contacted by cnn, nato official countered saying by hitting gadhafi's command post nato forces have degraded his ability to attack rebel forces and civilians. sullivan says nato has effectively destroyed gadhafi's anti-aircraft capability but -- >> what does he have that could hit the helicopter gun ships? >> if they are low enough it could cause enough damage. think of mogadishu. >> that, of course, infamous mission that brought down the blackhawk helicopters in somalia. even if that doesn't happen sullivan warns of other political problems for nato. he says gadhafi has the ability to drag this whole thing out. if he does some nato member nations may not have the to extend this past september. >> what are the biggest military challenges nato facing now. >> gadhafi and his troops hunkered

nato firing more than 60 missiles. targeting command and control centers, including moammar gadhafi's compound. a recording of the dictator today running on libyan state television. >> translator: we will not surrender. we will not give up. we have one option, our country. we will remain in it till the end. dead, alive, victorious, it doesn't matter. >> in addition to the strikes, nato is also using attack helicopters. the regime is claiming that many civilians are dying. >> today has been one of the most horrific days of attack on our nation. the forces of evil attacked with full power. >> for one thing, he made no mention of the siege of misurata, nor the regime's claim that they would go after the opposition like rats. and when it comes to proving their claim of civilians, they brought reporters to a cop tick church they said was hit by a nato bomb. and they showed a girl in a coma. later, dan heard the girl was the victim of a traffic accident. as for the munitions, it appeared to come from russia. with us in tripo

they say nato doesn't even respect the dead. there are several other sons including two or possibly three who command iortant military brigades which are really the fiber of what remains of a qaddafi fighting force. the most important of the sons, saif islam al qaddafi very intelligent wily character who spent much of the last ten years trying toll mend fences with the west. spent a great deal of tim in europe with a principal mover in opening up libya's oil mkets again to western companies and building the hotel on his roof i now stand, which is the most comfortable domaini've ever add in a war zone, a real five-star hotel with cappuccino and wicker chairs in the garden every evening. so he's a wily character. but the western leaders are saying all of em have got to go. >> rose: what's the next shoe to drop? >> well, we had robert gates and others saying ty don't know how long it will take. hague said it could be weeks or months, he even mentioned christmas. i think if we were to listen in to what they are saying to each other,

and nato allies are 10 years in. they don't have the wherewithal to deal with 25,000 taliban and maybe 100 al qaeda. >> first of all, we don't know the full extent of the taliban force. you say 25,000? >> sure, but maybe there supporters who are not exactly taliban. their friendly families are providing logistics support. secondly, these afghan troops, 300,000 were not all trained in 2001. new people on the battle field and can build a force under stress in combat when you are taking the losses. it's a tough thing to do. i don't have confidence on the fores, but i do in the training methodologies i do believe we can create stronger forces. it depends on the confidence with hamid karzai and the confidence. thank you very much. >> the president has we have been report suggest expected to announce the drawdown of 33,000 troops and the president probably will not talk about much is the remaining 70,000 troops will stay in afghanistan. how much of those forces will cost u.s. taxpayers. budget experts said it will cost $40

nato says it's investigating those allegations. the incident occurred a day after nato acknowledged its aircraft had mistakenly struck libyan opposition vehicles in an eastern oil city. >>> the taliban is claiming responsibility for a suicide car bomb that target add nato convoy in northern afghanistan today. at least three people were killed and 11 others wounded. >>> earlier on this program, defense secretary robert gates confirmed the u.s. is engaged in preliminary peace talks with the taliban. >>> the greek prime minister pushed parliament for a vote of confidence in the new cabinet. he's trying to avoid what he calls a catastrophic debt default. >>> the national weather service issued a warning to seven states in the southwest saying high heat, low humidity and strong winds are posing an extreme fire risk. firefighters are already battling dozens of wildfires burning in arizona, new mexico and texas. >>> texas congressman ron paul won the latest republican presidential straw poll in new orleans while an absent john huntsman pl

. >> right now i'm seeing a number of nato suvs enter the grounds of te tells. looks like there's about half a dozen. a number of afghan national army armored personnel carriers arrived on the scene and the afghan soldiers stormed the compound. now i'm at the base of the hotel. there's a small hill that goes down to the road. that's where i am. so i can't actually see what type of battle is happening. i can hear small arms fire. but right now, things seem to be a little more calm. i haven't heard gun fire in about 10 to 15 minutes. >> are there u.s. military personnel specifically that have arrived at the scene to back up the afghan security forces? i know you say there are isaf, international security forces there. do you know if they're from other countries outside of the united states and nato? or from the united states? >> at the moment, i'm not entirely sure. there were three u.s. soldiers i did see distinctly who entered the compound to assist. i'm not sure what role they were playing. the isaf suvs i saw enter, i was unable to tell which country the troop

clearly the nato commitment after the united nations commment. it w this international focus that essentially said we need to take steps in lib -- libya. >> charlie: even aer the acts committed in t government's name to somehow play a role i whatever realignmt in the middle east especially with respect to iran. we don't wt to bay part of a civil war that might happen. >> i see no indication that that thought train is running our policy. they need to reform and he is with obviously many other nations that feel the same way. >> charlie: how about yemen. >> yemen is a country i've been focusing on for sometime. the big worry is an ungoverned country that wld allow al-qaeda to try. >> charlie: here comes a failed state. >> and it does and the dangers that are associated with it. they have a very clever, very difficult al-qaeda cell there. they're very dangerous. they speak international terror, seek and support executing the kinds of operations that would be stopped. yemen is a great worry and again it's another country that by and large is being ove

fewer nato troops some home means less violence from insurgents. people don't like foreigners here he says, adding that without them he hopes security will be better. nato promotes afghan solutions to afghan problems, but here the afghan solution, the police, are to some the problem. one man told us anonymously how this month he was badly beaten for speeding. >> translator: i was driving fast on a motor bike to move my sick friend to the doctor. police stopped me for speeding and when i talked back they beat me, kicked me, and punched me for a few minutes. as civilians here, we are afraid of both the police and the taliban and i can't say which one i fear more. >> reporter: it's this rough arm of the law, its corruption and abuse that is often used to explain how the taliban's swift, blunt justice became popular. in this city the handover doesn't mean they've fled. in fact, the taliban is still very much part of life here. while the handover means the afghan police taking responsibility for security, many people here off camera tell us the taliban

we're still a member of nato i guess. >> yeah. >> all right, jack, thank you. after months of unrest and a bloody crackdowns, syria's president bashar assad spec out today offering vague promises of reform and blamed conspirators for the violence >> translator: it's extremely important to distinguish between the legitimate demands of the people and those who are taking advantage of the situation. there are those who tried to take advantage of the majority of good syrian people. immediately after the speech, the reaction in syria was very clear. protests were reported across the country with fresh calls for bashar al assad to step down. joining us now from the turkish side of the border with syria, our own phil black. phil, bashar al assad, the syrian dictator delivering the first public speech in about two months today. a lot of generalities, not many specifics. anyone really in the opposition buying what he's saying? >> reporter: no, absolutely not, wolf. they are not buying it the all it. would be too strong to say they were disappointed because really they w

first, the war of words over libya as nato bombs fell around tripoli, moammar gadhafi sounded as defiant as ever. president obama stood his ground against ga ddhafi with the germ

it seems like nato is trying to kill him? there have been a number of strikes at his compound or what used to be his compound, they say there's command and control reasons to do that. is that not the case? >> reporter: well, i heard from a source in secretary gates' enterage indirectly today that the reason they attacked the command compound in tripoli so heavily yesterday, was that they had some intelligence that colonel gadhafi had been back there. >> john, i want to clarify. you said about a source telling you that the reason they hit that compound yesterday was because they had some intelligence that gadhafi was there. have you reported that in the paper yet? >> reporter: no, it wasn't my source really. this came to me indirectly from somebody who had been talking to a source in secretary gates' entourage. so i can't vouch for that source, but it was put to me that it was somebody who is in a -- you know, in a position to know. it was in respect to the compound. it's been hit repeatedly before. when we went there yesterda

activity in support of the nato in support of the war? the president finding safe harbor from republicans and getting grief from democrats. >> i think it's an infringement on the power of the commander in chief. the president's done a lousy job of communicating and managing our involvement in libya, but i will be no part of an effort to defund libya or to try to cut off our efforts to bring gadhafi down. the president needs to step up his game for libya and congress should sort of shut up. >> i think the war powers act and constitution make it clear that hostilities by remote control are still hostilities. what we should do is act on a timely basis to pass congressional,000 under the war powers act. >> also involved in an intraparty dust-up, the republicans' 2008 presidential nominee, john mccain, invoked the name of one of the party's most revered icons in pushing back against to 20 12 candidates that mccain believes are borderline isolationists. >> wonder what ronald reagan would be staying today. that's not the republican party of the

if gadhafi is going to stay in power it's basically the end of nato. if we can't defeat gaed avenue it's over. it is also a signal that we will allow a dictator of his nature to stay in business. >> the fact of the matter is the frustration is there. it's your fellow republicans. it's also some democrats. >> yes. >> is the horse out of barn on this? >> i can let you know when we engage in debate which i hope is soon here in the united states senate and i would urge my colleagues on the republican side to remember we're going to have a republican president some day soon, i hope and let's treat this issue as if the president of the united states were of our party. would we do the same thing? >> what do you think the answer to that question is? would the republicans be doing the same thing if it were a republican in the white house? >> i think it would not, and i would like to put again, some of the responsibility on the president and his administration. they haven't come to congress and consulted with us and given us their rationale and reasoning for the

can you give us a sense of how severe these nato attacks have been around tripoli? >> reporter: well, martin, it was the biggest barrage so far of the campaign. literally all day long we were hearing day we were told that altogether 26 people were killed and 60 people injured. but we heard a defiant gadhafi again. that audio tape, we didn't see him, and there's actually no way to verify whether or not that was recorded today, but it was a familiar message. he said i will stay here, they will have to take me out dead before i will give up to nato and it's better to be a martyr than to be defeated. martin? >> the head of the african union panel for libya has urged gadhafi to go. president obama has said the same. yet, here he is, he issued a statement in effect defying the entire international community. for how much longer can this go on? >> reporter: well, if you listen to what he has to say, it goes on until he's dead. i mean, that's exactly the point he's been making. we hear that from people here in the city, too. our government minders say to us, well, how come

is it time now for nato to intervene? plus, a former cnn sports reporter, nick charles, he has a wrenching battle with cancer. what he is doing to hold on for his family, our own dr. sanjay gupta spent time with nick. sanjay will join us. [ male announcer ] a moment that starts off ordinary can become romantic just like that. a spark might come from -- a touch, a glance -- it can come along anywhere, anytime. and when it does, men with erectile dysfunction can be more confident in their ability to be ready with cialis for daily use. cialis for daily use is a clinically proven low-dose tablet you take every day, so you can be ready anytime the moment's right even if it's not every day. tell your doctor about your medical condition and all medications and ask if you're healthy enough for sexual activity. don't take cialis if you take nitrates for chest pain as this may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. [ man ] do not drink alcohol in excess with cialis. side effects may include headache, upset stomach, delayed backach

the other spreading mayhem and murder for hour after hour until nato choppers picked off three of them on the hotel roof and secures forces cleared the hotel. right now all six bombers are reported dead. as for other fatalities that is unclear. reporter adam cunningham joins us now by phone. what kind of details are we getting about how this attack played out? >> reporter: well, what it looks like is the taliban fighters launching assaults on the hotels in which at least one blew up at the front gate in order to allow the other gunmen to enter. after that they took positions on the roof of the hotel where they were engaged in an hour-long gun battle with the afghan police later on the afghan national army arrived at the scene, stormed the hotel and evacuated many of the guests. it's unclear right now how many guests were actually staying at the hotel at the time. however, there were rpgs being launched, artillery fire, and it finally concluded with nato attack helicopters coming to engage the insurgents on the roof. >> erin, this clearly has hallmarks of other attacks that we have seen

we knee nato sentence fig its operation here, chuck. we are getting a taste of that over the last few hours. we have been hearing air strikes in bursts of two and three, some of them quite loutd, even shaking our hotel here. some in the direction of the gadhafi compound, which has been hit a number of times. our hote. some in the direction of the gadhafi compound, which has been hit a number of times. the minister of information tell us that libyan tv was hit overnight two people killed, dozens injured, although we haven't been take town see that site. the libyan government is eager to show us that civilians have been dying or injured in these attacks and civilian targets have been hit but because of that eagerness in the last couple of days [ inaudible ] suspect things including what they said was a injured little girl at a hospital from the attacks, but while the journalists on the scene in that hospital one of the doctors slipped a reporter a note, happened written in english saying she was actually in a car crash. >>> anthony wiener

as you say, this is the biggest barrage from nato since this campaign began. there have been excchos of bombings throughout the day. right now we're hearing planes circling above and some explosions in the distance. among the targets, gadhafi's compound which has been hit on several occasions. amazing it isn't completely destroyed at this point. it was hit again today. leveling a guesthouse where south african president zuma actually stayed when he was here a week and a half ago to convince gadhafi to step down. and defiantly gadhafi is not doing that. nato has been intensifying its attacks and today we're getting a real taste of that. andrea? >> stephanie gosk in tripoli. thanks so much. stay safe. >>> and still ahead, wikiwars, as palin supporters try to rewrite history. plus restoring rinse. it's the only listerine® that gets teeth two shades whiter and makes tooth enamel two times stronger. get dual-action listerine® whitening rinse. building whiter, stronger teeth. so let's plant some perennials that'll turn up every year. trees and shrubs to give us de

or nato, nato, as we help lead nato, we are concerned about civilians and making sure that civilian casualties are not part of any kind of strategy, and, yet, that kind of gets thrown back in our faces and there is a... it sound like' message being sent to america and to nato today by president karzai that perhaps we are not wanted there, after everything we have done in afghanistan, after the billions and billions of dollars we have spent there, to help rebuild their nation, and to quash the terrorist cell so that we're protecting on our own shores, conditions are changed there and we ned to reevaluate the timeline that we have for ourselves, being there and now i have great faith in petraeus and, he -- boots on the ground and the front lines, i trust that he will know of this timeline that makes most sense for america's interests to be met in afghanistan. now, in libya, conditions there, we have to consider that what congress just passed, via the resolution, this last week, is a good thing, a good message to president obama. he's not been clear about what our mission is in libya and that is

back to libya, you're opposed to what the nato forces have done there? >> well, we believe that the security council resolutions must be implemented and implemented strictly. resolution 1973 was the second and most important resolution on libya was rst of all about protection of civilians, that was purpose of the resolution. and the first paragraph of the resolution demanded an immediate cease-fire. so that was something which was supposed to have happened and it never did because immediately after the resolution was adopted we're told about the people in benghazi are not accepting cease-fire with qaddafi still in tripoli. what, in fact, needs to happen is the removal of colonel qaddafi which is chang the game all togher and it's not that we have a special attachment to the regime of colonel qaafi. but if the goal is to be regime change-- which, incidentally, members of the security council were repeatedly assured was not the case when the resolution was discussed-- then that means that the conflict is going to be prolonged and civilians ultimately are g

nato is investigating the allegations. the incident occurred a day after nato acknowledged its aircraft had mistakenly struck libyan opposition vehicles in the eastern oil town of el borrego. >>> prime minister pom tray oh pushed parliament for a new cabinet. he's trying to push through an economic reform package of tax hikes and spending cuts to avoid what he calls a catastrophic debt default. >>> texas congressman ron paul won the latest gop presidential straw poll in new orleans while an absent john huntsman placed a surprising second. the poll was taken at a republican leadership conference where rick perry delivered a speech which fueled he's running for apartmental run. those are your top stories. now back to "fareed zakaria gps." >>> the arab spring has now turned into summer and the avalanche of images and analysis out of egypt has turned into a slow trickle out of syria. that's because syria, vitally important, is all but closed off to outsiders. my next guest has managed to get deep inside that nation in revolt.

we had the arab league and another organization solidly behind us and nato acting. in syria it is terrible and atrocious what they are doing clearly the administration and members of congress were way behind in saying we can still deal with him. he's a reformer and etc. the best we can do in syria, i'm sorry to say, the best we can do is sanctions imposing those and making sure that they are rigidly enforced and understanding that this is now to some degree significant iranian involvement which he makes the situation perhaps even worse in some respects than libya. >> the u.s. could go to the security council and seek nato involvement similar to what the u.s. and nato are doing. you are not recommending that now >> i don't know how you would do it. that's the problem in my view. i don't know how that could be a accomplished. in libya we had an area controlled by the rebel forces and the liberation forces and we knew how we could be of assistance. in syria it's town by town, city by city. it's atrocious and outrageous the best we we can handle it is to handle the situ

what have we discover about the use of nato force in libya? >> what we discovered is that thenitial mission, which was the mission authorized by the u.n. security council which is thehought of the humanitarian catastrophe was successful. what we have seen with ben gaz syno longer the threat of isolation, miss ri the opposition has created space and end -- >> there are reports that qaddafi is looking it to move out of tripoli. >> i hope he's looking to get out of the country, frankly. >> rose: how does the united states and nato untriesnd everyone else in the arab world engorge-- encourage him. what is the means of encouraging him to get out is this. >> i think the means to encourage him to get out is recognize he has no future there. and that the tide that is moving slowly is against him and what we are seeing is increased capacity on the part of the opposition. increased willingness of others to identify with it, increased support for the international community. his attempt to try to find a way out is not getting any traction. he even with r

that is the date, after all, that americans and our allies and nato have all agreed on. so i think the message you're going to get from bob gates, probably from our military, is let's stay with the strategy, let's capitalize on the success we have made and see if we can make this a success in the 2014 time frame. >> certainly going to come up at this week, there are confirmation hearings for leon panetta as the new secretary of defense on thursday. and you know he's going to hear from the senate on that. >> yes, indeed. >> thank you very much, steve hadley, great to see you. >> nice to be here. >>> pro palestinian demonstrators on the syrian side of the border with israel confronted israeli soldiers again this weekend from the golan heights. jonathan prince served as deputy assistant secretary of state under president obama and was a top adviser to george mitchell. good to see you. >> great to see you. >> how do we read what is happening, how serious a threat to israel is this, to be drawn into the conflict and to be perhaps provoked into violence that israel has not sou

to pull out and leave the rest of nato there? >> i'm willing to make -- i'm willing to make libya a european problem, not a u.s. problem. >> let me ask you about afghanistan, because we've got osama bin laden, there are now voices in the party, among them jon huntsman, saying, it's time to get a speedier pull-out. should there be? >> i voted for that very idea last week. i think that the time has come with the assassination of osama bin laden and all these other -- for which, by the way, the president deserves significant credit. it's time for a new mission in afghanistan and it can't be about nation building, it can't be about establishing a western style representative democracy. it has to be about limiting the terrorist threat without having kind of cost and forestructure there. i would support an exit strategy that is as quick, but organized and safe as possible for our troops. >> candy, first of all, conditions on the ground have to dictate this and we've already -- >> petraeus and gates -- >> petraeus an gates say this is p

you have nato secretary general just in case bashar doubted that maybe he should worry about nato, you have the secretary general of nato saying we intend no intervention in syria. so the hope is that it will be from within. and in fact, the syrian opposition is now doing something very important and very intelligent. they are speaking to the community from which bashar blessed hails. and they are telling them -- >> which is a relatively small community in the overall population. >> absolutely small but powerful enough and located in the intelligence services and the army and the killer brigades which are controlled and led by bashar's younger brother. >> so protestors are trying to speak to that community saying what? >> they are saying to them, look, you don't have to go down with this man and with this regime. there is a life for you after bashar. and they are trying to reassure them that it's not bashar or muslim fundamentalism. don't be afraid of your fellow syrians. that really is the message of the protests at this time. >> what is it that continues to bring people out in the st

is nato doing enough to help the rebels hold on? was an archer drawing his bow. ♪ could that have also inspired its 556 horsepower supercharged engine? ♪ the all-new cadillac cts-v coupe. we don't just make luxury cars, we make cadillacs. and my dog bailey and i love to hang out in the kitchen. you love the aroma of beef tenderloin, don't you? you inspired a very special dog food. [ female announcer ] chef michael's canine creations. chef inspired. dog desired. just got more powerful. introducing precise pain relieving cream. it blocks pain signals fast for relief precisely where you need it most. precise. only from the makers of tylenol. personal pricing now on brakes. tell us what you want to pay. we do our best to make that work. deal! my money. my choice. my meineke. >>> let's go back to jack. he has "the cafferty file." >> the question this hour -- how will the economy force president obama to change his campaign strategy for 2012? pat p in idaho writes i don't think he can do anything to change his strategy at this point.