in iraq. and the question becomes that we know that al-qaeda in iraq was defeated between 2006 and 2008 by sunni iraqis who turned against zarqawi and al-qaeda in iraq because zarqawi's strategy was to plunge iraq into all-out war, sectarian fight between the sunnis and the shias. most of the, i mean, attacks bizarre caw by were -- zarqawi were led not against the american forces, but against the sunnis. between 2006 and 2008, what does that explain? the rise of isis. why did al-qaeda in iraq mutate into isis? and here, to come back to your important question, we have to take other factors into equation. other variables. and here comes the deepening sectarianism in iraq after 2010, the president nouri al-maliki as prime minister, the arab spring uprising and derailment of the arab spring uprising, the civil war in syria and, basically, here you have al-qaeda in iraq was able to basically embed and blend itself within rebellious sunni communities in iraq and syria. you have a security vacuum, y

so this holds iraq together. and therefore, anyone with an ambition to control the whole of iraq needs that city. so that's why -- if you ask why now, i think the time is right. they have been moving, the iraqis have been moving should -- slowly but surely up the river tigris toward mosul, and they have to do it. it's a question of credibility, isn't it? if you say you are going to do whatever daesh, isil, you want to call them, you have to act on your promise, and now is the time. melinda: there is of course an echo chamber on the internet that says it has everything to do with the u.s. election, which is now entering its final stage. is there anything to such theories? alan: i don't see what it could have to do with the election. government israqi saying it will not be over until the end of the year. and the election is in two weeks. so what does this have to do, one with the other? it is just time. this has been an offensive that has been going on for months, you might almost say for a year now, and now they h

second-largest city, is the islamic state's last major stronghold in iraq. between said to have 3000-5000 fighters ready to defend the city. they will come face-to-face with 30,000 iraqi troops trained by the u.s. special iraqi forces, including local policeman, will be deployed to provide assistance. north of mosul, kurdish peshmerga fighters will block escape routes but not enter mosul itself. foreign troops will also be involved. the u.s.-led international coalition has carried out airstrikes and there are more personnel,ilitary including 5000 u.s. special forces, deployed on the ground. france is part of the fight with fighter jets taking off of an aircraft carrier. she had militants have played a key role fighting alongside coalition troops and iranian forces have provided advice and funding for various forces fighting in iraq. kurdish forces have carried out artillery strikes on mosul. whether it is unclear they will take part in the operation to recapture mosul. laura: turkey's president erdogan has been insisting his country will also play a role in

iraq forces have already german -- already driven them out. if now they can also sees the terrorist militias last major stronghold in the country, it would be a major success. kurdish fighters gain control of several villages in the first few hours of the operation. >> our morale is high. we were able to repel them when they were strong and now they are very weak. they are nothing compared to us. peshmerga morale is very high as the fight against a group against humanity. we are the defenders of humanity, human rights and religion. we will like them out. -- wipe them out. reporter: but the u.n. warns the offensive could cross -- could cause the biggest humanitarian crisis of the year. there are fears that i.s. could use residents as human shields. military analysts say this campaign may take some time. brent: joining me here in the studio is an iraqi journalist living here in berlin. he is heading back to iraq very soon. he will be embedded with the iraqi army. it is good to have you on the show. explain to our audience, why is mosul so import

there was no real iraq. these artificial political constructions could really only be kept together by a strong man, and typically the west would put a strong man of the majority tribe or sect in power. and it has produced some of the problems that we see today, this lack of coherence, this lack of national identity, this problem that despite the fact that we spent $60 billion training and equipping the iraqi army, there was no real iraqi army and they melted in the face of a far more insignificant force in isis. so my question is to expand on the excellent question from the chairman, let's look 15 years back. let's look 15 years forward. could you look 100 years back and 100 years forward with me? is there something we can do to facilitate a different political construction in these three countries? the shorthand term for this is partitioning. something that acknowledges that sectarian interests that trump national identity. it may be the least bad option. convince me why it is not worth exploring and pursu

matt bradley reports from iraq. well it's still not clear exactly when the iraqi penetrating into mosul itself and again this is iraq's second largest city and this is iraq.reports from light. wind will be light. to iraq, where the prime minister says the battle to retake the northern city of mosul from isis is going "more quickly than we thought."matt bradley reports from iraq. well it's still not clear exactly when the iraqi security forces are gonna be and again this is iraq's second largest city and this is really the super bowl of battles when it comes to islamic state being fought here in iraq.but we do know that this battle is going a pace.we've seen some advances yesterday and the day before and they're likely to be quite a bit of action today.the plan today is for the kurdish peshmerga to probably take some christian villages to the north and northeast and a little bit to the east of mosul as they pre and further into the city itself.but the iraqi security forces have added a new element to the battle and t

i asked him, who is really running iraq? the question people have is whether or not you really have the control over these militia forces. they're staffed by shia, they're powerful and more capable than your iraqi security forces at this point. >> well, this is an official iraqi organization, but yes, i agree there are excesses. some of it we are addressing. we have to find the culprits and make them accountable. my government has zero tolerance towards any excesses in the war. >> smith: the reliance, however, on shiite militias, how can that make anything better? >> it depends how you look at them. i think you're calling them shiite militia; i'm calling them civilians who are fighting alongside iraqi security forces to defend their country. >> smith: next, i went to see hadi al amiri, the head of the badr militia, which had particid in many battles in and around tikrit. his militia today has a heavy presence there. >> smith: after tikrit, there were indeed some allegations of abuse... i met him at his baghdad headquarters a

we supported iraq during the iraq and iran were and supported iraq when it was losing. we supported it. if you look at rings from other people's point of view, china was almost divided by the europeans and americans. hong kong, shanghai, they have a real reason to be very suspicious. so does russia. 40 million casualties of world war ii. so does iraq. we have overthrown the government and it is because of oil. like i said, we support both sides. act like we are bullied. we like to dish it out but we do not like to take it. everything you said was true about one thing. we do not like casualties. part of what policies if we're going to go up half of baghdad, we have to expect these things to happen in return, but the truth is written a committed to human rights. we are committed to making money and what is good for business. i would like your response. i can respond briefly. i disagree, and i stated the reasons for my disagreement in my response to the other gentleman. can you hear me? >> yes. a few years ago, they were doing interviews with high school students in iraq.

despite those early claims that iraq oil would cover this. many people still believe the us should be and operate as the world policeman and to impose democracy everywhere even where there is no tradition or belief in democracy and have no institutions to make democracy possible, and even though we fail to make that happen in iraq or even in libya. i would note, who are our enemies today? the military people will tell you they are most worried about russia and china, rising china and belligerent russia. and terrorists are the problem. and terrorists win when we overreact. i argue we have been overreacting since 9/11. for example, i heard somebody make the comparison that you are more likely to die from a fall in a bathtub rather than a terrorist attack. the perspective is important. the pentagon budget is 10 times more than the state department. we put our money into the military, we keep trying to use it to solve political problems. when there is no military solution to many of these political problems, that is what we have been hung up on w

we did it in iraq. we did it in libya. the challenge, judy, as you suggested in your opening piece, what comes next? and what can the u.s. do about what comes next? and i think that has been a limiting factor on the president's decision to get involved militarily and bring about a transition inside syria. >> woodruff: nicholas kristof, have written about this extensively. what is the path forward for the u.s.? we are late in the obama administration. there will be another president in the next few months. what is a realistic path forward? >> well, i think what we need to aim for is a cease-fire and a kind of de facto partition of syria among the sides, with at least the fighting stopping, and wait, and some time down the road one can put want pieces back together again, to get the cease-fire, to stop the killing, then you need leverage. the syrian government has responded only-- not to moral appeals, but only when it feels threatened. so in 2013, when it feared it was going to suffer air strikes, then, indeed, it agreed, y

it's a symbol of iraq. but what happens, as you said earlier, poppy, what happens after the fight is critically important. you saw it yesterday. the president of the kurdish region said the attack is about to begin. he has as much invested in this fight in mosul as prime minister abadi abadi. they're saying we have to rid ourselves of isis. isis gained a foothold because two year ago, the iraqi government wasn't accepted in mosul so isis was an alternative. since they've been there, the citizens of mosul said this is not a good alternative. we have to free them. along with that, the iraqi government has changed from mr. maliki to mr. abadi. there is more faith in the central government of iraq. >> let me bring in arwa damon, our cnn international correspondent, as well. this is far from said and done. give us a reality check on what it will take for the iraqi government and iraqi forces to truly retake mosul. i mean, how long it took for fallujah, for example. what is ahead for these people? >> look, they h

anne thompson, nbc news, new york. >>> turning now to targeting isis in iraq. on the march to mosul, iraqi troops freed what was the largest christian city in that country from isis control. joining that victory, christian militia men who fled the city two years ago. our richard engel inside iraq shows us the destruction they found when they returned. >> reporter: this wasteland is what's left of the town of cara kosh. once home to 50,000 iraqi christians. along with everyone else, two and a half years ago, when isis started closing in. now he's back for a brief and dangerous visit. >> we want to see the city, and we want to be sure that the people can return back. >> reporter: the offensive against isis has made that possible, but father amin first wants to see his church. or what's left of it. here. >> reporter: this church was the largest in all of iraq where christians have lived for as long as there have been christians. iraqi fighters used the pews for fuel to spread the flames. and the courtyard for target practice. >> i want to hurt them, but to pray of

there's chaos in iraq. king abdullah of jordan said just yesterday or the day before you can't hold elections in iraq with the chaos that's going on today. senator richard lugar, the republican chairman of the foreign relations committee, said that the handling of the reconstruction aid in iraq by this administration has been incompetent. those are the republican chairman's words. senator hagel of nebraska said that the handling of iraq is beyond pitiful, beyond embarrassing; it's in the zone of dangerous. those are the words of two republicans, respected, both on the foreign relations committee. now, i have to tell you, i would do something different. i would reach out to our allies in a way that this president hasn't. he pushed them away time and again, pushed them away at the u.n., pushed them away individually. two weeks ago, there was a meeting of the north atlantic council, which is the political arm of nato. they discussed the possibility of a small training unit or having a total takeover of the tra

up next we'll focus on iraq. the past week president obama announcing some 600 more troops ill be sent to iraq. this week c-span's nakesnakes interviewed the president -- "newsmakers". the service employee's union talks about the campaign activity this year. you can see the entire interview sunday at 10:00 a.m. eastern and 6:00 p.m. here on c-span. >> made a decision to go into the battlegrounds earlier than we've ever done with community partners in latino, african american, and asian communities. and now we are moving our blue states into the battlegrounds through a weekend warrior program just last weekend there were 800 people from new york in philadelphia and i was door knocking with them. this next weekend i'm going to new hampshire and our california members are moving into reno and las vegas. >> are there any races that you're particularly focused on in kentucky and missouri it seems that an outcome in november regarding the house and regarding the governorship in missouri are really going to affect wheth

iraq's military has inflicted heavy losses on isis fighters. including embedded journalists reporting explosions and heavy gunfire. this could take weeks maybe even months. it's iraq's second-largest city. the last wee maremaining isis stronghold in the country. us defense secretary ash carter calls it a decisive moment to defeat the terror group. take you live to the front lines of the battle this hour. >>> the other big story we're following right now, presidential politics here in the united states. less than 22 days and counting until election day, and donald trump is wrapping up his claim that the system is rigged. earlier this morning he tweeted this -- of course there is large-scale voter fraud happening on and before election day. why do republican leaders deny what is going on? so naive. trump has presented no evidence of voter fraud. here's what his campaign manager told our jason carroll just a little while ago. >> -- if there's quelli icompel evidence of voter fraud. >> i didn't say that. >> i said if there is certainly we would tak

in the last major stronghold in iraq, even though the conditions are harsh. we continue to move north, deeper into i.s.-held territory, looking out for potential threats. the first phase of this operation is slow and careful. we are traveling through desert, and the iraqi army are taking village by village. the main threats are roadside truck bombs and mortars. we are still 30 miles from mosul itself. then, the first signs of resistance. a tank fires at a suicide truck bomb before it can wreak havoc. this the aftermath of the massive explosion. these, the rockets when they spotted what they said was an i.s. convoy about to make a n escape from one of the outlying villages. but they say they are also being helped with intelligence provided by iraqi citizens still living under i.s. control. >> they give us a lot of information. how they escaped, they carry weapons, they don't carry weapons they have a motorcycle, , they have machine guns, they don't have it. north, east, west. jonathan: so you have people inside who are passing information to you? >> we have so

turkey is looking to build a bridge with iraq along this area. iran is looking for vengeance against the islamic state group and the paper -- the u.s. is looking for a symbolic victory. after years of failure in the middle east are a clearly there is a lot riding on the battle, not just to the citizens and the army, but the world. genie: the president is embarking on a diplomatic trip to china, the first by a filipino leader in five years. >> roderigo duterte is heading to the philippines. -- is heading to china. notably, the scarborough islands -- "the wall street journal" says he is rolling the dice in getting closer to china. but it is a different story in the filipino press. clearly phoenix filipino diplomacy is moving away from the united states and toward china. according to "the philadelphia inquirer co-this is a good thing, saying that the country has been under the influence of america for too long. this is a case of letting the seller beware. basically they are saying that he should be careful in how close he gets to the chinese because

our richard engel is on the front lines inside iraq. >> reporter: iraq's elite counterterrorism troops, trained by the u.s., are at the tip of the spear in the fight against isis. we join their commander, major general maan al saadi for a tour of their front line positions from a rooftop in the village of bartella, the general barked orders at his lieutenants. down below, tank and machine gunfire from the iraqi forces, was answered with mortar rounds from isis the enemy has had two years to dig in for this battle. but general saadi has an advantage. american air power. isis is losing ground, fast. iraqi forces backed up by u.s. air strikes have been blasting their way through village after village, leaving a wake of destruction. so far, the vast majority of these villages have been empty, the civilians having escaped isis long ago. as soon as the iraqi forces reached his hometown of bartella, father john terachi and his wife were determined to see what homes. >> this is two years and three months. >> reporter: father john and his wife thanked the iraqi troops. but isis left its mark. b

the iraq kips nearing the key city of mosul. we have new reporting about the horror playing out right now in that city. what isis is doing to families who are trapped there. abc's chief global affairs correspondent martha raddatz is in iraq. machine guns, rpgs and automatic rifles, iraqi security forces pounded isis fighters in villages south of mosul. the u.s.-led coalition aiding striking from above and on the ground. and this is the man in charge of the u.s. ground forces in iraq, major general gary volesky. just after dawn, we join him on an extensive look inside the u.s. efforts. oil that isis has lit on fire and the sulfur been? >> just as you see with the visibility, but it hasn't stopped any combat operations. >> reporter: our first stop, a moonscape, the first reporters at this isolated american outpus post. we are east of mosul. american soldiers moved in here just about three days ago to help the iraqi partners as they advance on mosul. >> reporter: they are monitoring every strike in real time. we cannot show you the

iraq and syria are both no longer just getting the local governments against isis. you have the international community in its many forms playing roles as well. laura: two years ago islamic state seem to be riding high. they established the caliphate. how damaging is it to their reputation and ability to recruit, the fact that they are under pressure in mosul? , and: enormous pressure arguably this has been the toughest we can half years of the islamic state's existence. half --est to a toughest 2.5 years in the islamic state's existence. it has lost credibility and equipment but it is still a formidable force and likely to be around for a long time to it took eight months to regain control of ramadi, another key iraqi city. this could go on for a couple of months and potentially longer. this could involve real urban conflict with a lot of civilians trapped in the middle. laura: you have been speaking, i know, robin, to u.s. officials, and you talk about the u.s. military saying this could go on for months. but what are u.s. officials saying about how bloody the bat

the iraq kips moving closer to mo mosul. and martha raddatz revealing the new horror playing out in that city. >>> inside the deadly bus crash. at least 13 people dead. >>> and the eye-opening new headline tonight involving babies. and where they should sleep in their first year. it surprised many. >>> good evening. and it's great to start another week with you. and we begin tonight with that urgent manhunt right now, a suspect accused of killing two, and then leaving a trail of violence. attacking many, including those two police officers. overnight, police responding to reports of shots fired. the rushed to the hospital. and then, the suspect putting his escape live on facebook, with his own words of warning. tonight, authorities are now telling the public he is armed and dangerous. and abc's jim avila from oklahoma. >> reporter: armed and dangerous, wounded and live on facebook. >> let me tell you, it hurts. >> reporter: 38-year-old michael vance, suspected of shooting two police officers outside of oklahoma city, woundin

troops in iraq right now. a few hundred, together with the iraqi forces, the kurdish forces moving on mosul, is that right? >> that's right, wolf, there are about 100 to 200 u.s. forces, many special operation force, out in the field in northern iraq. they're reasoning as advisers to the iraqi and the person manager peshmerga kurdish forces moving on mosul so they are out there in the field to a very large extent. the rules of engagement require them to stay as far back from the front line of combat as they can. but situations like this just underscore in northern iraq where they're involved in directly assaulting mosul or not. it is just treacherous what isis has put out there in terms of its ability to launch bombs, ieds, booby traps, kill iraqi forces and now perhaps having killed an american service member there as well, wolf. >> all right, barbara, we'll get more information and share it with our viewers. thanks very much. one topic of last night's presidential debate here in the united states was interna

and free more than one iraq's prime minister has announced the start of a mission to take back iraq's second largest city, mosul and free more than one million residents from isis. mosul is the largest city under in iraq. u-s military leaders estimate there are up to 5- thousand isis fighters in mosul. and the top anti-isis general in iraq says the battle will be a hard fight but iraqi forces are ready. iraq's military says it has already had success in inflicting "heavy losses of life and equipment" on isis. the presidential candidates are just days away from their third and final wednesday. today donald trump is going all in on his theory that the election is rigged. at his rallies and in tweets, the g-o-p nominee has been making those allegations. trump has events tonight, while hillary clinton is not campaigning today. their running mates weighed in on trump's charges. ""it's an insult to american voters and it's an insult to county registrars to say that america doesn't know how to run an ""i have no doubt the national media is trying to rig this election with their biased covera

battles against isis were difficult in iraq and syria. but they have all been wondering by the coalition and the coalition is going to win this one. most of the civilians and the political shakeout, that is going to be interesting. reporter: humanitarian officials warning about the crisis. many people potentially displaced. >> iraq has handled 4 million refugees from those areas that isis took over. jordan.ey, lebanon, and in the end, because this is a supply and intense medical support to refugee messy butit will be i'm pretty confident it is problematic. no doubtseems to be that the battle was successful, that the iraq he army will take mosul. what do you think they will find when they get their? guest: a devastated city and the terrible policies isis uses to keep the population under control. deal of division among the kurdish, sunni, arab, and shiite. anchor: you have advocated they have to go in, even if there isn't a clear day after plan. risk you could re-tape mosul and then and up fighting in those groups. >> you have momentum in

these are very -- >> iraq has been over run by isis. because hillary clinton -- >> if you want to -- -- hillary clinton -- >> failed to renegotiate a status of forces agreement. >> that is inject gentlemen -- we removed up a of our -- and ice -- >> i'd like to move on to the -- but i'd like to correct -- governor -- president bush said we would leave iraq at the end of 2011. elaine, iraq didn't want our troops to stay. they wouldn't give us the protection for our troops. guess what, if a nation where our troops are serving does not

ourichard engel in iraq s us the destruction they found when they?h?c tued >> reporter: this wasteland is what's left of tn ohe tow cara kosh. once home to 50,000 iraqi christians. along with everyone elsetwo and a half years ago, when isis started closing in. now he's back for a brief andangerous visit. >> we want to see the city, and we want to be suret the people can return back. >> reporter: the possible,ut father i see his church. or what's left of it. >> what was here. >> reporter: this church was the largest in all of iraq where christians have lived for as long as there have been christians. iraqi fighters used the pews for fuel to spread the flames. and the courtyard for target practice. >> i want to hurt them, but to pray of course. members ofhe christian defense unit, volunteers who have taken up arms, like jamil, a poet. this is one of the proudest moments of my life, he said. proud, because jamil and his men were among th first to arrive, drg in nday, initially celebrating. then battling isis snipers. christians have survived previous so-c

service members in iraq, 500 are out on the ground with the iraqi, and secretary of defense was in iraq talking about the dangers. >> make no mistake, whether they are flying airplanes overhead or whether they are advising units on the ground, even behind front lines, they are at risk. >> carter says the battle is going according to plan, and that the noose is tightening around mosul. >>> the site of a proposed pipeline in north dakota, police opened fire on a drone used by the activists as it got too close to a law enforcement helicopter and passengers on lives. more than 200 people have been arrested since demonstrations started there in august. >>> and that that you're seeing there is a flaming rv on the major bridge connecting delaware and new jersey. flames and smoke seen for miles and caused traffic delays last night. the cargo? 50,000 worth of marijuana flavored can day. a total loss. the weed world can day's vehicle was headed to philadelphia at no one was hurt. >>> strange, a bunch of people showed up for the contact high. in sunday night football, the seattle seahawks and ariz

they were wrongly received after fighting in afghanistan and iraq. members of the national guard call for action and it would order the national guard bureau to clear the decks. soldierssoldiers who thought entitled to the money felt betrayed. >> the iraqi forces are advancing to two villages near mosul. they say the fighting is getting more intense as they push closer to the isis held city. the offensive that begun last week is expected to last for weeks or even months. mosul is home to one million civilians. a terror attack killing dozens of police trainees in afghanistan. the gunman stormed a police training center and set off explosive vests. at least 59 people died and more than 100 were injured. a military spokesman says the attackers belong to an al-qaeda affiliated group. >> one in four cancer deaths are caused by smoking. that's according to a new cancer society study. arkansas had the highest smoking linked cancer death rate among men while kentucky had the highest rate among women. now back to "red eye." >> a new study published on monday

. >> thousands of soldiers received cash bonuses to reenlist in the iraq wars and afghanistan war. now the government is ordered them to give the money back. we begin this morning with a look at today's "eye opener." your world in 90 seconds. >>> she is the embodiment of government corruption. >> a new poll shows hillary clinton up big. >> i debated him for four and a half hours. i don't even think about responding to him any more. i'm going to let the american people decide. >> in california, 13 people are dead following a massive accident involving a charter bus and a tractor-trailer. >> at least five people have been killed in plane crash in -- the night aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff on its way to libya. >> at&t shook up the media landscape this week announced it is buying timer for more than $85 billion dollars. >> a march toward mosul. >> the i.d. threats everywhere. >> in syria, fighting returned to the besieged stit of aleppo after a cease-fire. >> ride along with a police officer in california took a terrifying turn. >> blame an r.v. on a traffic delay in new jerse

now, even though it starts with iraq, it certainly doesn't end with iraq. there's responsibilities both regionally and globally. we work closely with the governments throughout the region whether it's turkey, whether it's jordan, uae, whether it's lebanon to make sure that they're doing what they need to do to make sure isil doesn't gain access to those financial systems. i will say, this issue is going to become as we succeed in the military campaign, as isil loses territory, this is only going to become more important because what you see isil developing towards is again a more traditional terrorist organization that again relies -- will increasingly rely on access to the international financial system both to raise money and to spend money. and as that happens, as that becomes more important, as they develop towards focusing more on their affiliates, as they develop more on being a disbursed global organization that needs to maintain networks, the work that we do regionally and globally is only going to become more important. so we work very closely agai

do you expect that given the sectarian tensions in iraq? >> there are great sectarian tensions, but sometimes we overemphasize them in the west. they did give thought to iraq is to defend mosul, a sunni city, an example of the cross sectarian iranian -- iraqi nationalism. and you have the person who is recognized as a moderate, the kurds get a word -- get along with him. he can sometimes be indecisive, but in this case, he is being mightily decisive. mosul,and the battle for which is a densely populated city, is moving. some people wonder what it what happens after. we don't want another insurgency. >> that is the case. field, ite mine hasn't been fully worked out. more than a decade ago, when the iraqi kurdish peshmerga first entered mosul, they created a great deal of sunni-kurdish tension. we always talk about shiite -sunni tension, and you have basic issues about how much local control mosul has. and then you have a lot of christians and other minorities saying, were who are haven't fared well under any government, so we want our own se

he met with the leaders of iraq's largely autonomous kurdish region. he also got a closer look at the fight against isis in northern iraq... he even met with those overseeing that battle to retake mosul. carter spent saturday in baghdad, getting updates from military leaders and meeting with iraq's prime minister u-s ?will provide additional support, if requested by iraq and u-s commanders. we're about to show you something truly remarkable. a four-year-old girl in russia reportedly speaks.... her performance on a russian talent show has gone viral. and she's become pretty famous. she speaks: english, chinese, french, german, russian, spanish and arabic. get this... her father says she learned the languages by playing games! everything you need to know about life, you can learn from granola. keep it simple. make every piece count. always be real. don't be fake, don't be artificial, but always be sweet. and of course, wear sunscreen. nature valley granola bars. we've been hearing that "taylor swift" and ex "calvin harris" are talking again. but after a

the -- assessment in fact pentagon was doing the thinking, planning as for iraq. they reported it through paul and you know this. the officer of that assessment had a couple of analyst whos who took curve ball, the iraqi defector around to half a dozen other national intenls intelligent agencies and briefed them and all of a sudden getting half dozen different foreign agencies that we cooperate with telling us the same story and we're thinking this is multiple source intelligence. it wasn't. >> right, and national security did not do her job in vetting where did this come from and how do you know? >> well you get these very complex bureaucracies competing with each other maybe they want to hang on to their information so they don't share it with the guy over there because he's really nots on our team so as a result you get mixed results. lch lev and not very good decision making at the top. you saw that in the 9/11. it turns that the fbi knew some of those hijackers we are here. but they didn't tell somebody else or somebody didn't tell them or whatever and it got

we have got to win in iraq. and with the surge that has worked, we're now down topre-surge numbers in iraq. that's where we can be. we can start putting more troops in afghanistan as we also work with our nato allies who are the restrengthening us. and we need to grow our military. we cannot afford to lose against al qaeda and the shi'a extremists who are still there,still fighting us. but we're getting closer and closer to victory,and it would be a travesty if we quit now in iraq. ms. ifill: senator? sen. biden: gwen, with all due respect, i didn't hear a barack obama's offered a clear plan: shift responsibility to the iraqis, over the next 16 months draw down our combat troops --ironically, the same plan that maliki, the -- the prime minister ofiraq, and george bush are now negotiating. the only odd man out here,only one left out, is john mccain number one.number two, with regard to barack obama not quote, "funding thetroops," john mccain voted the exact same way. john mccain votedagainst funding the troops be

this is the border crossing into northern iraq. that building on the side, this is the famed building on the inside, take sketches of these chairs we are waiting on but i use floor plans a lot because they can give you schematics to work on later when you are trying to make an accurate drying. some places you have to use a combination of drawings and pictures. we went to a cockfight with one of the people we are interviewing in iraq. it is not technically illegal because birds don't die, the men would prefer not be photographed so we were told not to take photographs while the event was going on so i took sketches again but after everybody left, i took pictures of the space and those i worked into the final drawing so i combined sketches and photos to make the final work. for my work i am using cartoons of people so i have one or two photos making them into a character. i take my sketchbook and do a lot of drawings, from different angles and after i am confident in how they work i will draw the pencil page and start watercolor ring