theontinue to press for assad regime to allow the u.n. investigators into the country to look into this matter. and we talk about without getting into specifics about the process, the answer is we do have some ability and we work with our partners and allies and most importantly the opposition on this matter, but i can. youtube what we said about the evidence that we had gathered and the intelligence assessments that were available at the time. i have no new announcements to make on that, but we are continuing to pursue this matter as one we consider to be very serious and important. you talk about the balance between national security and the need for the press to do it stop. is it the standard that a journalist is prosecuted [indiscernible] things should be said about this. first, on a specific case, beyond the public reports, i cannot really offer my opinions about it. i would. you do what the president said last week. i would point you to some of the president did some of the published reports about what you are raising, but i would a

voting on the u.n. convention on the rights of people with disabilities which would take the rules that were established here in this country by bob dole's landmark americans with disabilities act and it would set out those rules as that model for the rest of the world to say we did this here and it works for us. this should be emulated elsewhere. we believe it could work elsewhere the way it worked here and it would be an advance for human rights. and while bob dole sat there and they all greeted him and walked past him in order to cast their vote, 38 republican senators voted against him. and it failed. and among those voting no was the current senior senator from kansas, the man who has been bob dole's friend for decades, close enough to bob dole that according to the local press, he is the man who will oversee bob dole's funeral, he walked past him and voted no on the treaty to be a model for the world. he voted no because the republican party has changed that much. is this forever? and where does t

and the u.n. today voting syria should go through political transition, that the government must go. a nonbinding resolution condemning killings, human rights violations. the vote 107-12. a lot of countries abstained, russia, strong ally of syria, strongly in opposition to the resolution. if you want to know why there has not been meaningful international action, because russia supports the syrian government, put themselves in the way of anybody else doing anything there. between the u.s. and russia in general, things aren't very good. after all, russia this week arrested a u.s. embassy employee that was spying. things between us and russia aren't great. makes it remarkable that at the u.n., america did a big joint event with russia. and it was us and russia in a country less likely to do anything with us, the nation of iran. the united states, russia and iran have come together, including at this press conference at the u.n., they joined forces to try to save wrestling. earlier this year, the exe

and the u.n. today voting syria should go through political transition. that the government must go. a non-binding resolution condemning the killings, the human rights violations, the vote was 107-12. and russia a strong ally of syria was in strong opposition to the resolution. he wanted to know why there isn't meaningful action on syria. it is largely because russia supports the syrian government and they put themselves in the way of anyone else doing anything there. between the u.s. and russia things are not very good. they arrested an u.s. embassy employee that was spying but looked on the way to an impersonator convention instead of regardless of that things between us and russia are not great. which makes it remarkable that at the u.n. this week america did a joint event with russia. and it was us and russia and the country even less likely to do something with us, the nags of iran. the united states, russia and iran have come together, including at this press conference at the u.s. they have signed forces to try to save wrestling. the executive boar

but we're not relying on the u.n. alone. we are pursuing and gathering information independently of that and working with our allies and the syrian -- most importantly the syrian opposition. i don't -- i don't have the depth of information about the progress that's being made to assess whether or not the report you said about the evidence available, whether or not that's the case. i know that we have been, for in an e now, working effort to build on the intelligence community's assessment about the use of chemical weapons, to make sure that we have a case, if you will , a set of facts that can be be -- corroborated and reviewed and from which we can make assessments about possible policy actions. even as that takes place, as you have seen, at the direction of the president, we have stepped up our humanitarian assistance. we have stepped up our assistance to the syrian opposition. we have made assistance available directly to the military counsel of the opposition, nonlethal assistance, but we have stepped it up. and that pro

but of course, we need a u.n. security council resolution. you ask me about the the prospectus for the balkans. montenegro has made substantial progress. this is the reason why we have rented a membership action plan for montenegro. they do not possess the necessary criteria at this stage, but i'm quite impressed and bosnia -- there is a political statement, and the problem is years ago be granted what i call it conditioned-based action plan. we have declared we are willing to activate that members an action plan as soon as the bosnians carry through certain reforms, modest reforms, actually, related to defense problems. i went to bosnia and february, had a meeting with the political leaders. get to aised me to political agreement, but so far we have not seen progress. we stand ready to move forward as soon as they do their homework, and i have answered as far as copies is concerned -- and i believe the agreement between belgrade and -- so facilitate progress with regards to western balkan integration in the europe structures. it is up to the

but will the u.n. be able to take those findings and be able to operation lies them somehow, some kind of plan to influence the north? that would be my specific question. i think it's dealing with the is a rights situation long term effort and the main thing we have to do is keep it up. and i think one thing the commission does is raises the level of attention on north korea and north korea's problems. the north koreans don't like being singled out. they don't like the u.n. security council voting on sanctions against them for their military activities. and i think the same thing is true in terms of the commission of inquiry. we continue to document, we continue to establish the facts. and there is a growing sense that north korea is out of step with the rest of the nations in the world. and i think this commission of inquiry is part of that process. the economist intelligence unit produces reports periodically. they did a report on freedom, what countries have the greatest amounts of freedom. who are

so far the u.n. security council has failed to reach a consensus i strongly regret because i do believe we have a political framework that could be used as an june 2012, the so-called action group in syria issued a statement of declaration, signed by all five permanent members of the u.n. security council. in that statement, it is clearly stated the regime in damascus should initiate a process of transition leading to accommodation of legitimate aspirations of the syrian people. i do believe a solution could be based on that declaration. too bad and of course negates u.n. security council resolution. now mr. burkett asked me about the good. they have made substantial progress. this is the reason we have granted a membership action plan. they do not fulfill the necessary criteria, but i am quite impressed by the work done and the progress achieved. but there's a political statement. a couple years ago, we granted a condition based membership action plan. we have declared we are willing to activate tha

the u.n. is doing a great job. they are running out of money. jordan is about to fall if we don't stop this war. from a human point of view, senator mccain, we have got to get this war over and america needs to be seen as part of the solution, not part of the problem. from a national security point of view, syria is goingo become a nightmare for the whole world, including the united states. mr. mccain: i thank my colleague. mr. president, i ask unanimous consent to include in the record a piece by senator casey called time to act in syria. it wasn the huffington post, "washington post" editorial entitled repercussions of inaction, "wall street journal" article u.s. has warned planned syria arms sale, and finally a piece by leon wieseltier that i >> in a few moments, the first congressional hearing looking into the bombings of the boston marathon. air force officials make their budget request on capitol hill and face questions on a sexual abuse reports. on a that, a house debate bill that would set debt priorities requiring the and at arst, bobby

in syria, there have been reports that the u.n. humanitarian that has clearly stated that the gas was used by the rebels and not by the o-called vicious regime as the gentleman stated. i don't buy that either. guest: i don't think there's any reason so refer to the regime as a so-called vicious regime when they've slaughtered tens of thousands or maybe hundreds of thousands of people. this is a vicious regime willing to do anything to remain in power. the reason the united states has not yet taken any action is precisely because of the caller's concern. because we want to make sure that if there is going to be any response, that we understand exactly what happened. if chemical weapons were used who used them system of we can act accordingly. i think the administration's approach has been in line with what the caller suggested. >> front page of the "wall street journal," pentagon plans for the worst in syria. host: can you tell us more about this? guest: sure. i think that as i said, there is real concern about the possible spillove

with regard to north korea's missile fire and nuclear testing, china has taken active part in adopting u.n. security council resolutions and it faithfully implementing those resolutions. and with regard to russia, russia's also firmly committed to the denuke larization of the korean peninsula -- denuke larization of the -- denuclearization of the korean peninsula and with regard to that, it has been active in supporting them and they've also sent sent a very -- and they've also worked very hard to include a stearn message to north korea in the g-8 foreign minister's meeting. such constructive efforts on the part of china and russia unified to sending a message to north korea that their nuclear weapons will not stand and encouraging and urging north korea to make the right decision. >> obviously i don't know kim jung-un personally. i haven't had a conversation with him. can't really give you an personal ut his characteristics. what we do know is the actions that he's taken. that have been provocative and seem to pursue a dead end. and want to emphasize, we very much share the view that we a

then the part of the u.n. that is actually investigating claims like that in syria immediately put out a statement denying that. saying no, no, no. we know she said that, but really we know nothing of the kind, don't know what she's talking about. so, yes there is a war on in syria. that much is clear. the rest of it including chemical weapons and what israel is doing and why, all of it remains woolly at best and unknowable at worst. but here at home, to the exact same people who insisted that the last war in the middle east, the war in iraq would be easy, we would be greeted as liberators, to them, to those exact same folks, the whole situation in syria right now is clear as day, we can easily get involved with no risk to ourselves. the only question is why we have not started bombing already. joining us now is msnbc contributor and former democratic congressman patrick murphy, a captain with the 82nd airborne and part of the initial invasion force in iraq. he served on the intelligence committee and armed se

the u.n. security council imposes harsh sanctions and sends in weapons inspectors to dig deeply for iraqi wmd capabilities, weapons of mass destruction. >> this went on for years. at a certain point, unbeknownst to weapons inspectors or anyone else other than iraq, it turns out that we had pretty much accounted for the full system. but we didn't know that. >> in 1998, saddam refuses to cooperate further, and the united nations pulls out the weapons inspectors. saddam virtually seals iraq off from the west. in a 1998 letter to president clinton, paul wolfowitz, donald rumsfeld and other leading neoconservatives urge the president to take action to remove saddam's regime from power. the neocons align with an urbane named ahmed alcohol by. he head the iraqi congress, defectors lobbying to get rid of saddam. >> i say to you now that the opposition is united in its aim of getting rid of saddam and establishing democracy. >> he was a very impressive and effective spokesman for the iraqi opposition t

a new u.n. resolution has forced iraq to submit to tough new arms inspections. but president bush is growing impatient. the defense department tells him that if he's going to war, he's got to do it before the blistering desert summer. >> we move along the path of getting a good inspection going, that would probably come to fruition one way or the other. but once you start military forces flowing to the extent that we did for iraq, it's hard it pull them back. >> as the inevitable moves closer, president bush reargues the case. and ups the ante with 16 infamous words in a state of the union address. >> the british government learned that saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa. >> that would be yellow cake. again. but by referring to a six-month-old british white paper the president doesn't end run around a claim discredited by his own intelligence service. >> it wasn't a matter of lying about this or lying about that, but rather through the artistry of speech writers and case presenters, conveying an impression to the america

prior no that he served as ambassador to several countries including the u.n., iraq, mexico. served on the national security council lots of different positions within the government. host: is the d.n.i. instructure effective and is it working in your view? guest: i think. so i think the intelligence community needs a manager, somebody who doesn't have day-to-day operational responsibilities who can deal with issues like bument, programs, priorities and serve as the president's chief intelligence advisor host: did you do the daily briefing with the president? guest: it was done by two briefers. i did it six days a week. half an hour every day from 8:00 to 8:30 in the morning. i thought it was an important process and i thought of myself as in addition to being the d.n.i. and being the president's chief intelligence advisor, i also saw myself as the person responsible for the analytic of the intelligence community. host: ultimately responsible? guest: if i saw material being prepared that i thought needed to be looked at again or modified or changed in some way, restudied. rem

he goes on to explain the u.n. resolutions passed. then he launches right into this explanation for why invading iraq was the right thing to do, because smoking gun was going to be a mushroom cloud, because saddam's weapons of mass destruction, saddam being linked to terrorist groups. seriously. >> the stakes were too high to trust the dictator's word against the weight of evidence and the consensus of the world. saddam posed too big a risk to ignore. he had used weapons of mass destruction in the past, showed every sign of continuing to pursue such weapons, and supported international terrorist organizations. the world was made safer by his removal. with his departure, 25 million iraqis have the chance to live in freedom and build a free society. the new democracy in iraq can be a valuable ally in the heart of the middle east and a beacon of hope to reformers around the world. >> imagine at the bill clinton presidential library, an interactive exhibit designed to prove that he did not have actual relations with that woman. imagine an

i said, who would pay from new york during the u.n. when it has the worst traffic in the world already? i said, we will make it even harder for them. when you come to our meeting, promised to help somebody somewhere and keep the promise if you want to come back. in the first meeting, we asked people to meet with people and make commitments. it has worked out pretty well. it was a widely. wild leap. these things have come up and then i took up child obesity because it is a public health problem in the country. i tried to chart these programs within the framework of my record and my passions as president where i could still have an impact. and to have the discipline to try to stop doing things when i thought i could have an impact and it turned out not to work. we keep trying to measure for impact and do that. >> final question is from another student at your school in little rock. it ties very nicely back into the theme of your talk today. "i heard you say the last remaining widespread bigotry is toward those with whom we have ideologic