dunford: i can't. that's down to a level of detail that will require the investigation to lay that out. >> how many u.s. troops took part in the search? gen. dunford: i can't tell you. i know how many u.s. troops were part of the original advise and assist mission. i don't know what each of those troops were doing at any given time. anything i would tell you at this point i would be speculating. >> to clarify you said that u.s. , forces don't go out if they expect anomie contact. they won't go out with a partner. the exact language -- and again, i am not correcting you -- but when we say chances of enemy contact unlikely, we would go out. >> you also said that they won't go out or remain at last cover and concealed position if there are -- gen. dunford: there are different locations with different rules in those locations. what i described to you were the rules that were in place at the time this operation was conducted in niger. i'll take one more. >> someone said this is trump's benghazi. i know you

dunford: sure. this really is, for all of you, as we ask question we feel pretty confident in what took place before this patrol moved out. we know the general route that the patrol took before they came back in. what happened from the time the patrol went out on the operation to the time it returned, there's been a lot of speculation and a lot of reports and that's why i want a baseline today what we know and what we don't know. what you're asking is a fair question. but we don't know that definitively right now. i can't answer it definitively. what i'm trying to do today, and be very candid in what do we know, i'll share with you where i've seen speculation. and then what are the fundamental questions we're asking? and the questions that we're asking -- this is a very complex situation that they found themselves in. a pretty tough fire fight. what contact tal instructions the commander on the scene gave at a given time that caused units to maneuver and where they might have been when sergeant john

dunford: i can't. again, that's down to a level of detail that will require the investigation to lay that out. reporter: how many u.s. troops took part in the search? gen. dunford: i can't tell you. again, i know how many u.s. troops were part of the original advise and assist mission. i don't know what each of those troops were doing at any given time. once contact was made. so anything i would tell you at this point i would be speculating. reporter: to clarify, you said that u.s. forces don't go out if they expect enemy contact. they won't go out with a partner. gen. dunford: the exact language -- and again, i am not correcting you -- but when we say chances of enemy contact unlikely, we would go out. reporter: you also said that they won't go out or remain at last cover and concealed position if there are -- gen. dunford: there are different locations with different rules in those locations. what i described to you were the rules that were in place at the time this operation was conducted in niger.

is general dunford sure the u.s. soldiers didn't call for help for a full hour after coming under fire? why didn't those french mirage jets that came to help the american troops drop bombed? and a basic question, were the u.s. troops wearing body armor? the answers, i don't know. i don't know, i don't know, i don't know. ryan brown is at the pentagon tonight and ryan, let's start with theti timeline because thi is a very big change tonight. >> that's right, erin, we learned new details about the timeline of this attack from general dunford in a rare appearance by him in the pentagon press briefing room and he laid out a much different timeline than military and defense officials had been saying previously saying it took almost two hours before air support arrived to support the u u.s. troops on the ground. let's have a listen. >> is about an hour after the initial contact was made, they requested support. when they requested support, it took the french aircraft, the french were ready to go in 30 minutes and then it t

i know general dunford. he has always been, since i've known him an excellent leader an also somebody who's been very open and honest with his troops as well as with everybody else who worked with him. that was what we saw yesterday. that is the kind of demeanor and kind of information that you would expect from our military leaders, and i think it's the right way to go. the bombastic aspects, political aspects that is correct is something that hopefully the military can overcome and actually do what it needs to do. that is to get information to the american people. >> in terms of the quality of this investigation there are those who said this is taking too long. what do you make of the fact that this is sort of the first really analysis we've seen about the questions being asked and the investigation under way? >> well, i think it is a bit long, certainly. i think one of the problems we had was the white house and the pentagon weren't quite sure exactly what happened. not that that's an excuse or anything,

jennifer. >> general dunford, what did you alert the white house? there's indications that they did not know until ten hours after the attack began. also, there's members on capitol hill, members of the armed services committee that said that we didn't know we had troops in niger is. that -- >> two separate questions. we notified the white house as soon as we had a soldier that was missing. that was the first report. they would have received an initial report, probably simultaneous the way it works with our ops centers, we had three killed in action. and then we had a soldier that was missing because we didn't report publicly because they were trying to recover him. i know that i spoke to the general that night when we got the initial report. it was probably around 9:00 or 9:30 washington d.c. time. the night of the 4th. at that point knowing that we had a missing soldier, we had to make sure that all of the resources to include national assets were available for the recovery operation and we maintained operational security to not put at risk our op

so i'll get you all. >> thank you general dunford. could you describe what weapons this unit had with them to defend themselves? were they heavily defended or they go in like trucks not expecting much resistance? >> i'll answer the second part because i know. and i'll give you in general the first part. so they did not expect resistance on this particular patrol. at least when they first planned it. again, what happened subsequently will be the investigation. because the rules in that part of west africa are that we will only accompany our partnered forces when the chances of enemy contact are unlikely. so with that, they were equipmented with machine guns, small arms and communications capability to reach back and get larger supporting arms. >> have you learned what type of fires they came under? small arms fire? ieds? >> initial report, i don't have any reports of ieds. i haven't seen those. small arms, rockets and machine guns. >> jennifer? >> general, when did you alert the white house? there were indications they did not know unt

general dunford said u.s. forces in niger are not allowed to accompany local forces if they expect enemy contact and they did not expect resistance on this patrol. martha? >> martha: thank you very much. here with more lieutenant michael waltz former green beret commander who served in niger and helped train i the army there. he is also a fox news contributor. thanks as always for being here tonight. >> thanks, martha. >> martha: you listened to all of in this afternoon. what's your take away? >> my first take away i think general dunford wanted to come out and have this press conference because there is this growing chorus that there is this covert war going on. shock and surprise that we have this type of presence in africa. as we have talked about before, green berets, special forces are doing this very type of mission in 60 to 80 countries around the world as we speak and in case of niger it's in a very bad neighborhood with al qaeda and boko haram and isis pouring out of libya since that country has falle

general dunford. gen. dunford: general mccain, thank you for the opportunity to join secretary mattis in providing an update on the south asia strategy. in recent months our commander in afghanistan described the current condition as a stalemate. secretary mattis testified we are not winning in members of this committee made similar statements. situation is developed since the nato mission in afghanistan transitioned to an advisory effort. since january 2015 we have advised and i companied units at -- we have advised and accompanied units at the tactical level. but advisory effort for conventional forces has been limited to the afghan core and institutional level. we reduced the aviation, artillery and support provided. this didn't provide afghan conventional forces with the support they needed to succeed limited to the afghan core and institutional level. we reduced the aviation, in combat operations. my military assessment is we drew down our advisory effort and combat sport for afghan forces too far and

welcome, general dunford. i want to follow up on senator king's line of questioning with regard to north korea. as you're aware, all six of north korea's previous nuclear tests have occurred underground. that obviously contains the radio active fallout. but kim jong-un has since threatened to conduct a test in the earth's atmosphere.active f. but kim jong-un has since threatened to conduct a test in the earth's atmosphere. can you talk a little bit about what the global risks and implications of a nuclear weapon detonated in the atmosphere would be as kim jong-un is considering? and if you were speaking to the north korean people what would you say to them regarding the risk of detonating a nuclear weapon in the earth's atmosphere? >> senator, i think the best experience we have recently, of course, would be the nuclear reactor in russia some years ago and the incident that took place in japan. and even with something that isn't anywhere near what the north koreans are suggesting, we had significant health cha

but general dunford made that clear today. he also gave a painful but at least to my mind considerate and at least -- painful but i would say -- painful but considerate and careful response to a particularly troubling issue that has been raised personally by sergeant la david johnson's widow. we have seen these images of her embracing her husband's casket, both upon it being returned to the united states and at his funeral this weekend in florida. myeshia johnson explained today that abc that part of her has doubts that her husband is even in that casket because she says she was denied permission not just to see his face but to see any part of his body. >> i want to know why it took them 48 hours to find my husband. why couldn't i see my husband? every time i asked to see my husband they wouldn't let me. they wouldn't show me a finger, a hand. i know my husband's body from head to toe and they won't let me see anything. >> myeshia johnson was not only married to sergeant la david johnson and is the mother of his children, they

. >> general dunford, thanks very much. we've reported that sergeant johnson's body was found some one mile away from the initial site of contact. is that consistent with the information that you have and is there any assessment at this point as to why that was the case? and i have a brief follow-up if you don't mind. >> sure. jim, this really is for all of you as we ask questions. we feel pretty confident in what took place before this patrol moved out. we know the general route that the patrol took before they came back in. what happened from the time the patrol went out on the operation until the time when it returned, there's been a lot of speculation and a lot of reports. that's why i want to baseline today what we know and what we don't know. and what you're asking is a fair question, but we don't know that definitively right now. i can't answer it definitively. what i'm trying to do today to be very candid in what do we know, i'll share with you where i've seen speculation, and then what are the fundamental questions

general dunford? >> senator, the agreement right now, what i testified to last week iran is not in material breach of the agreement. i believe the agreement is delayed the development of nuclear capability by iran. change the premature end of this agreement or withdrawal impact our insight into iran's activities? >> i didn't hear that. >> how would either a premature ending of the agreement or us unilateral withdrawal impact our insight into iran's activities? >> as i understand it right now, i have been dealing with president and secretary of state on this, right now being considered in terms of the sick of the united states, we are talking about the law that was passed up here, have to certify, plus the agreement, these are two separate you can talk about the condition under one of those and not walk away from the other one, two different pieces, that is under consideration about how we deal with the legal requirement from congress as well as the international agreement. >> general dunford, you said

that's what he was told by general dunford when general dunford called him to tell him that his son robert had been killed. kelly wasn't only angry about what wilson said to the press this week, he went back to the '80s and talked about congresswoman wilson's appearance at the dedication of an fbi building. it was dead kalted to two agents killed in a fire fight and some of the family members of those killed were there. take a listen. >> and congresswoman stood up and in the long tradition of empty barrels making the most noise, stood up there in all of that and talked about how she was instrumental in getting the funding for that building. and how she took care of her constituents because she got the money and she just called up president obama and on that phone call, he gave the money, the $20 million to build the building and she sat down. we were stunned. stunned that she'd done it. even for someone that is that empty a barrel, we were stunned. but you know, none of us went to the press and criticized. none of us stood up and were appalled. we just said okay, fine. so i still hope, as

secretary, general dunford. when we look back on the history ofthe vietnam war in august 1969, president nixon ordered immunization program and a as the army ofal south vietnam gains capability, in 1972 bringt the north vietnamese to the didtiating table, so he operation linebacker two, which was a massive bombing campaign late name -- 1972 of north vietnam. he brought them to the table, and negotiated a peace agreement that extricated the united states from the war in vietnam. today,ok at afghanistan there actually is a better -- state, in state -- end there are areas in afghanistan, particularly rural areas where they put -- prefer the taliban .o the government of kabul like the north vietnamese, the taliban don't feel like they are making gains, so there is no need to come to the negotiating table. this new strategy is designed to increase pressure to bring them to the negotiating table. at least that would be a byproduct of it. what i see is a change of the rules of engagement when you talk about air support

>reporter: dave and christine, unlike some administration officials since this deadly raid, general dunford, the chairman came to the briefing room and said every question about this from the public or from the families is justified, and he will do his best to answer every question he can. the fact is they still can't answer many questions. he said this unit was returning to base when ambushed. they weren't going off on another mission, they weren't or he said he has no information they went outside their orders. he also said they did not call in for air support until one hour into this fire fight. he said or at least his assessment was that that likely meant the commanders on the ground thought it was a fire thiegt they could handle. of course is didn't turn out that way. there are still many questions unanswered. one, why was sergeant la david johnson's body found 48 hours later and why was it found a mill away from where the ambush took place. they don't know the answer to that question. they also don't know why the intelligence that was given to these soldier z was that it was unlikely

and general dunford, you as well. the -- when i was in afghanistan last, there was a lot of optimism around some of the economic development that was going on in the country. they had a lot of work to do but they were getting partners investing money there. and it was helping their underlying economy. there was optimism on the part of president ghani in terms of infrastructure projects. so i'd like to kind of get a status update on how those underpinnings are working. that's one piece. i'd riek to know what if any insights we have into popular opinion about the four rs strategy and whether or not we're seeing trending in the right direction among the afghan people. and then finally i'd like to talk about what does the taliban look like in a reconciled country? do they have a political role to play? and the political process. what do you all envision as the steps toward successful reconciliation which would actually have to deal with that? >> senator tillis, on the reconciliation effort, obviously it's a fight and talk

general dunford confirming today that some 6,000 u.s. troops are in 53 countries in africa, spread out, perhaps, thinly in some places. many of them facing, as general dunford certainly described in today, very dangerous territory. when the white house first knew something went wrong with this mission, general dunford said today the moment it was clear a soldier was missing, they let the white house know and that took place the evening of october 4th. the day after this fire fight took place. wolf? >> all right, jim sciutto at the pentagon for us. jim, thanks very much zblchl. >>> let's get more on all of this. top democrat on the house oversight and government reform committee, congressman elijah cummings of maryland is joining us. thanks for joining us. a lot of issues i want to go through, but first the niger uproar. as you know after myesha johnson, gold star widow spoke publicly this morning, president trump almost immediately disputed her characterization of the phone call on twitter. she's a 24-year-old mother of 2 young kids. a t

reporter: thank you, general dunford. can you describe what weapons this unit had with them to defend themselves? were they heavily defended going in light trucks not expecting much resistance? >> i will answer the second part because i know. i give you in general the first part. they did not expect resistance on it particular patrol, at least when they first planned. what happened subsequently will be the investigation. because the rules in that part of west africa are we will only accompany partnered firsts when the chances of enemy contact are unlikely. so with that, they were equipped with machine guns, small arms, and obviously had the ability with communications capability to reach back and get greater, larger supporting arms. reporter: have you learned at all what type of fire they came under? small-arms fire? were there ieds? >> initial report, i don't any reports of ieds. i haven't seen those. small arms, rockets and machine guns. jennifer, come this way. >> general dunford, when did you alert the white house? th

that is general dunford. let's bring in laura. how significant is it that general dunford has spoken out in this way? very significant because what we're seeing the wake of the last week and of the controversy now, especially after the widow of sergeantjohnson, who was killed in this ambush, has spoken, it is now raising questions about by the us has 800 troops in niger, and why they were patrolling the border with mali. on patrol, they faced small arms fire and rockets when they called for help. they waited an hour, according to the log, for help, so the investigation is now focused on what support was requested, when, and whether it was enough. general dunford went on to say that he owes the families an explanation but he wa nts the families an explanation but he wants the full extent of this investigation to go forward so that they can have the facts. he said it will be priority. he also said he would redouble his efforts to inform congress about where troops up position overseas. that has become an issue in the last week and t

general dunford did offer this. just as they were about to return to base on a reconnaissance mission. he says that team waited an hour before they requested additional support. they arrived minutes later but it took an additional hour before french mirage jets arrived. he made clear it would take a long time before many of the questions are very legitimate and be answered. we don't mow it definitively. >> there are a lot of mirages and they didn't drop bombs. i don't know if they're on the ground and they asked them to do that. i don't know personally how these soldiers, if they were wearing body armor. >> it's interesting just that that event happened. we have had in recent days the president in a twitter and other war with the gold star wife widow, who just buried her husband. credibility questions with the chief of staff. four star marine general who happens to be general dunford's best friend. there were questions about credibility, questions about why is the president whether he's right or wrong in this back a

and that's what general dunford said yesterday. he's going to get all the facts before he says anything to anybody. but anybody that jumps on, this is an intelligence failure, immediately, that automatically gives you some cognizant dissidence and you don't start looking at other things. so the investigation will point out everything that occurred from start to finish and everything in between. >> phil, what are your concerns here early on? and you know, you said something that we haven't heard from the administration yet. you said, you know, these isis guys, for all of the gusto that the president discusses isis with and wanting to discuss radical islamic terror, they haven't said "isis." he hasn't said "cyisis." so why do you say "isis" and what are your open questions here? >> i have one simple open questions. i say "isis," because if you look at the type of people who would engage forces here, let's be clear here, these are people who might have isis ideology in their baghdckground. i'm not saying they're directly connected to

and john told him what joe dunford told him when dunford personally as come an dant of the marine corps went to general kelly's quarts and told him that his son had died. here i think he knew what he had signed up for was general dunford's way of telling general kelly, john, i know you're going to grieve about this, but you shouldn't feel guilty about this. robert wasn't there because of you. robert chose to be there on his own. which is a perfectly appropriate thing for one marine to say to another marine, but it doesn't work at all when the president tried to say it to this young 24-year-old widow. >> let me make this clear and i think you're right. and i tried to do it with jim. this is a very difficult conversation that no one wants to have. but if in that moment you don't say the right thing, the appropriate immediate responses to apologize immediately. >> look, that's all correct. and in terms of politicizing this, i actually think the congresswoman, she was not the intended recipient of the president's message, and so i would never have made that public. but she did. but then the

what did you learn today from what general dunford said? >> well, as your report indicates, still many of the most important questions remain unanswered but what the general did say was that these kind of missions in africa are now under review. they'll continue as scheduled, these advise and assist missions, training missions, if you will, but the pentagon will take a long hard look at the kind of support that these teams get when they go out. we also learned it took about an hour before the team after it came under fire called for help. we still don't know what happened during that hour, whether they thought they could handle the threat on their own. whether there were, sm of the injuries took place within that hour, we just don't know. those are two of the main things we learned today. >> woodruff: laura seay you have been able to listen to what general dunford said, you have been following this, of course too, what did you learn that raises more questions for you? >> well, i think that we learned that there was more assistance initially

clinton. >> thank you chairman and thank you secretary mattis and secretary dunford. secretary mattis i once referred to the u.s. event strategy the worn at and stand the present notice in his august 21 address that india continues to be a very important strategic economic partner and i certainly agree with that. i had the opportunity to visit with the foreign secretary in india and the chief of naval operations for the know you just returned from the region there speaking with president modi and others in your effort in her direction in dealing with india is going to be studying gauge points which i think is spot on. i'm in favor of making sure we do joint naval exercise and we expand the defense trade but in relation to what's happening in the region i'm more concerned about a stable afghanistan and securing the hard-fought gains in the cab there. i know that you noted that in reference to terrorist safe havens there in the region that its globals leaders and even has its resolve to work together to eradicate the scourge of mime info@ the met without that but i want

dunford making clear many questions still remain. >> -- the mission of u.s. forces change during the operation? did our forces have adequate intelligence, equipment and training? was there a pre-mission assessment of the threat in the area accurate? did u.s. -- how did u.s. forces become separated during the engagement? specifically sergeant johnson. and why did it take time to find and recover sergeant johnson? >> reporter: the comments come amid growing tension with capitol hill. top lawmakers from both parties accused the administration of failing to disclose how four service members were killed in niger. >> americans should know what's going on in niger, and one of the fights i'm having right now with the administration is the armed services committee is not getting enough information. they deserve it because we represent their families, too. >> reporter: questions have swirled since the october 3rd raid that left four american soldiers dead, killed in an ambush by up to 50 isis-aligned affiliates near the niger/mali border. there has been conflicting inf

what is it that we're expecting to hear from general dunford? >> reporter: just speaking to officials here. we're going to get a sense of the timeline of how that ambush occurred in niger. also we're going to get a broader articulation why u.s. forces were in niger, and more broadly throughout west africa. these are some of the areas that the pentagon knows they need to clean up. the what and the why. and then on this issue of congress' notification, i expect we'll get a little more how they're pledging and trying to work closely with congress to make sure all the notifications are in place, they have the right authorization for u.s. troops there and also keep them in the loop and how they've been trying to keep them in the loop when incidents like this happen. so i think we'll get quite a bit of information here from general dunford. i should caution, to say sometimes when pentagon officials tell us we'll get all the facts, they're not all the facts or answers we want, but we're told at the very least we'll get a timeline. >> hans, a lot of stu

dunford said normal operations have resumed in niger. there are about 800 u.s. service members stationed there. >>> president trump meets with republican senators on capitol hill today to discuss tax reform. tennessee senator bob corker will be there. the foreign relations committee chairman calls the visit just a photo op. corker reportedly described the senate's budget process as a hoax because it does not address real spending. >>> it's not the first time the republican has spoken out. he told "the new york times" this month the president's threats to north korea were reckless and could put the u.s. on the path to world war iii. when the president criticized corker's decision not to run for re-election, the senator tweeted, it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. senator corker is with us from capitol hill. good morning. kind of laid it all out there, didn't you? >> yeah. >> we're just getting started, senator. >> i know. now the president's coming to capitol hill to talk with you guys about tax reform today. i know you've said you t

let me tell you what my best me who joe dunford told was my casualty officer. he was doing exactly what he wanted to do when he was killed.

secretary, general dunford, mr. chairman. the -- when we look back on the history of the vietnam war in i think august of 1969, president nixon orders vietnamesation program, as well as a withdrawal of the capability. and he couldn't in 1972 bring the north vietnamese to the negotiating table. so he did i think operating linebacker two, of north vietnam. he brought them to the table, negotiated peace agreement that extricated the united states from the war in vietnam. if i look at the -- in afghanistan today, i think that there actually is a better in-state, because i think that the taliban come from the positive too soon ethnic group and there are areas in afghanistan where the -- particularly in rural areas where they prefer the taliban to the government of kabul. but like the north vietnamese, the taliban don't feel like they're making gains, so there is no need to come to the negotiating table. and i understand this new -- this new strategy is designed to increase pressure to bring them to the negotiating table. at least

and this will be an opportunity now for general dunford, for the pentagon, to start sharing some more of that information publicly. certain there has been plenty of phone calls going on behind the scenes to bring these senators up to speed on specifically what's happening, but this will be an opportunity now for the pentagon, for general dunford to tell america what specifically is happening in africa, why it's important that we have forces in africa, what we're seeing out of isis. remember, this is all related to isis or in many ways related to isis as we see isis begin to get squeezed in the middle east, actually getting pretty close to wiped out in the middle east, we see them beginning to my great agreat -- migrate and move some of their operations into africa. it will be helpful for all of us to hear from general dunford and have him explain to us specifically what the pentagon's strategy is going forward. >> all right, colonel warren, thank you so much for that. some of the specifics we're looking for which we may or may not get. wondering why that intel was so wrong that indica

but my -- what i think it is is a military man speaking, he was talking about dunford, speaking to a military man about another military man. and they may understand it in that context. >> i think so. >> but it's different for a 24-year-old widow. >> of course. and first of all, we need to have a little sympathy and empathy for president trump. for those of us who have never made that kind of call, and unfortunately i have had to make that kind of call. but for those who haven't don't be quick to jump to judgment here. this is very, very difficult. and i think the president is looking for some assistance and john told him what joe dunford told him when dunford personally as commandant of the marine corps went to general kelly's quarters and told him that his son had died. and here i think he knew what he had signed up for was general dunford's way of telling general kelly john, i know you're going to grieve about this but you shouldn't feel guilty about t s this. robert wasn't there because of you. robert chose there to be there on his own. which is a perfectly appropriate thing for

this is general dunford. >> early in the morning october 3, u.s. forces a company that nigerien unit on a reconnaissance mission to gather information. the assessment by our leaders on the ground at that time was contact with the enemy was unlikely. midmorning october 4, the patrol began to take fire as they were returning to their operating base. approximately one hour after taking fire, the team requested support. within minutes, remotely piloted aircraft arrived overhead. jetsn an hour, french arrived on station. later that afternoon, french attack helicopters arrived on station in a nigerien reaction force arrived in the area where our troops were in contact with the enemy. during a firefight, two u.s. soldiers were wounded and evacuated. that was consistent with the casualty evacuation plan in place for this particular operation. three u.s. soldiers who were killed in action were evacuated on evening of october 4. at that time, surgically david johnson was still missing. on october 6, sergeant johnson's body was found and subsequently evacuate

dunford said normal operations have resumed in niger. there are about 800 u.s. service members stationed there. >>> president trump meets with republican senators on capitol hill today to discuss tax reform. tennessee senator bob corker will be there. the foreign relations committee chairman calls the visit just a photo op. corker reportedly described the senate's budget process as a hoax because it does not address real spending. >>> it's not the first time the republican has spoken out. he told "the new york times" this month the president's threats to north korea were reckless and could put the u.s. on the path to world war iii. when the president criticized corker's decision not to run for re-election, the senator tweeted, it's a shame the white house has become an adult day care center. senator corker is with us from capitol hill. good morning. >> good morning. good to be with you. kind of laid it all out there, didn't you? >> yeah. >> we're just getting started, senator. >> i know. now the president's coming to capitol hill to talk with you guys about tax

but general dunford did not provide much additional information as to what actually happened during the battle, saying that it's likely that the forces on the ground felt they could handle the situation before calling in air support but how sergeant johnson was separated from the rest of his group, how his body went missing for nearly 48 hours, and how 50 isis fighters were able to assemble and attack this group, is some -- something that the investigation will have to find out. >> absolutely. and there will be a briefing, pentagon briefing key committees on the hill on this later this week. a lot more to come. ryan, thank you so much. >>> joining me now to discuss this, retired army brigadier general mark kimmette for military' fares under president george w. bush and elliott ackerman former marine that deployed to iraq and afghanistan now a cnn national security analyst. great to see both of you. thank you so much. >> sure. >> general that was an important update that came from the joint chiefs chairman yesterday and clearly he acknowledged himself there are a lot of questions that re

>> if you start to our military leaders both secretary mattis and general dunford that they have the capacity to do that, but make it clear this is diplomatic effort at this point. that is the best approach at this point. up fortunately the diplomatic effort i think is being horribled because of lack capacity -- hobbled. we don't have ambassador tore for south korea. don't have confirmed assistant secretary for the region. we have other stories about state department, lack of personnel and focus. the other issue in terms of the diplomatic approach is, a lack of coherent message. we've seen that from the beginning when the president tweeted about the south koreans paying for the thaad system, when in fact they had done a lot of political effort to get it into the country. we have seen it in terms of free-trade agreement. all of that is presented to, just incoherent messages in many respects. and then, in terms of coordination and cooperation, we've got to develop a several tracks, informal tracks, back channels, which i hope are there because in these types of crises, that they come i

terms i'm chairman of the joints joint chiefs has actually spoken up on this issue recently joseph dunford recently gave testimony before the senate armed services committee citing that iran was actually complying with the deal and that that withdrawing from this agreement could make it more difficult for america to reach diplomatic agreements with other nations moving forward do you agree with the general's assessment oh yes of course my view has been all along that iran was never really trying to get a nuclear weapon the whole history of that program that they started. in the one nine hundred eighty s. has been one of. voiding weapons of mass destruction that has been a fundamental position of fundamental policy of the iranian government since it was established in one nine hundred seventy nine so i think what this shows is that the military leadership which. dunford represents is very wary of moves by the united states which could move toward a military confrontation with iran they do not want war with iran under any circumstances and i think this is a position that they feel has to be

brazen ambush on what was supposed to be a routine reconnaissance patrol few details are known but dunford said all signs are pointing to one group is it is an isis affiliated group and i think what you bring up is what we're dealing with in many places is isis and al qaida isis in this case they try to leverage local insurgencies. and connect those local insurgencies globally this is the challenge that we're dealing with and so our initial assessment is these are local tribal fighters that are associated with isis the incident took place in a remote area of new shares border with mali the region that also includes neighboring countries of chad mauritania and burkina faso is facing an ongoing challenge against armed groups to help with the fight the u.s. has around a thousand troops in the up from one hundred in two thousand and thirteen they share intelligence and help train local forces the incident in e.j. or has caused political ramifications as well the widow of sergeant led david johnson said president donald trump was insensitive when he called to offer condolences to president. gor

military officer general joseph dunford has accused pakistan's intelligence agency of having ties to groups an accusation that pakistan denies the sullivan job and reports. these are some of the taliban fighters the thirty nine member alliance has been trying to defeat since two thousand and one donald trump is the third president who's come up with another new strategy to win the war and of learning stand his defense secretary and joint chiefs chairman have bearden public hearings before the senate and house armed services committees to explain this strategy shift and once again u.s. officials say pakistan is among the reasons the a failed it's clear to me that the i.s.i. has connections with with terrorist groups and if i could just follow up on something secretary mabus i think over the last several years we've had a bilateral approach to trying to effect the change in pakistan's behavior. it's not about says the latest round of accusations are absurd the cia paid back son millions of dollars to set up the fight to the end of the understand in the one nine hundred seventy s. by hi

brazen ambush on what was supposed to be a routine reconnaissance patrol few details are known but dunford said all signs are pointing to one group and it is an isis affiliated group and i think what you bring up is what we're dealing with in many places is isis and al qaida isis in this case they try to leverage local insurgencies. and connect those local insurgencies globally this is the challenge that we're dealing with and so our initial assessment is these are local tribal fighters that are associated with isis the incident took place in a remote area new shares border with mali the region that also includes neighboring countries of chad mauritania and burkina faso is facing an ongoing challenge against armed groups to help with the fight the u.s. has around a thousand troops in the up from one hundred in two thousand and thirteen they share intelligence and help train local forces the incident in e.j. or has caused political ramifications as well the widow of sergeant led david johnson said president donald trump was insensitive when he called to offer condolences to president. gore

brazen ambush on what was supposed to be a routine reconnaissance patrol few details are known but dunford said all signs are pointing to one group and it is an isis affiliated group and i think what you bring up is what we're dealing with in many places is isis and al qaida isis in this case they try to leverage local insurgencies. and connect those local insurgencies globally this is the challenge that we're dealing with and so our initial assessment is these are local tribal fighters that are associated with isis the incident took place in a remote area of new shares border with mali the region that also includes neighboring countries of chad mauritania and burkina faso is facing an ongoing challenge against armed groups to help with the fight the u.s. has around at thousands of troops in the up from one hundred in two thousand and thirteen they share intelligence and help train local forces the incident in e.j. or has caused political ramifications as well the widow of sergeant lead david johnson said president donald trump was insensitive when he called to offer condolences to preside

military officer general joseph dunford accused pakistan's intelligence agency of having ties to. fifteen cuban diplomatic staff has been expelled from the u.s. the united states says it took the decision after have failed to protect its staff from alleged sonic attacks cuba's government denies accusations that it was involved and is calling the response from the u.s. reckless and unfounded latin america editor lucy and human reports. cuba is fuming over washington's decision to expel fifteen more cuban diplomats but would it cause unfounded charges of mysterious acoustic attacks against u.s. diplomats in atlanta and many. the foreign ministry energetically protests and denounces this unfounded and acceptable decision along with the pretext used to justify it that the cuban government has not taken the appropriate measures to prevent these alleged incidents from occurring. after months of inconclusive investigations more than sixty percent of u.s. embassy staff here is packing up to go home ordered to leave cuba to protect their health from possible news sonic attacks that have re

secretary, general dunford, mr. chairman. when we look back on the history of the vietnam war in august of 1969, president nixon orders the vietnamization program and a phase withdrawal as the army of south vietnam gains capability. then he couldn't in 1972 bring the north vietnamese to the negotiating table. he did linebacker 2, a massive bombing campaign in north vietnam. he brought them to the table and negotiated a peace agreement that extricated the united states from the war in vietnam. if i look at -- in afghanistan today, i think that there actually is a better in-state because i think that the taliban come from the posthewn ethnic group and i think there are areas in afghanistan where, particularly in rural posthewn areas they prefer the taliban to the government of kabul. like the north vietnamese, the taliban feel like they're making gains and no need to come to the negotiating table. i understand this new strategy, it's designed to increase pressure to bring them to the negotiating table. at least that would be a

brian: you don't think general dunford answered anything there? would you look for secretary of defense mattis to go further? >> i think that once we have more information in the full review is is complete. you will have a lot of details. general dunford said the big priority is making sure we get information to familys who lost someone in this mission, and, that certainly is our responsibility and certainly the priority that the department of defense and general dunford and general mattis both laid out. i don't think they will stop until they get those answers, that they can provide those to the american people, particularly families that lost someone in the mission. ainsley: sarah, many say democrats when it comes to russia, it has boomerang effect, when you throw a boomerang bypassed president trump, and no evidence of collusion and comes back around to democrats and hits john podesta's brother in the face. apparently had this business and didn't report anything on time. media reports, then he decides, full disclosure, yeah, i did have relation

secretary, general dunford, mr. chairman. when we look back on the history of the vietnam war in august of 1969, president nixon orders the vietnamization program and a phase withdrawal as the army of south vietnam gains capability. then he couldn't in 1972 bring the north vietnamese to the negotiating table. he did linebacker 2, a massive bombing campaign in north vietnam. he brought them to the table and negotiated a peace agreement that extricated the united states from the war in vietnam. if i look at -- in afghanistan today, i think that there actually is a better in-state because i think that the taliban come from the posthewn ethnic group and i think there are areas in afghanistan where, particularly in rural posthewn areas they prefer the taliban to the government of kabul. like the north vietnamese, the taliban feel like they're making gains and no need to come to the negotiating table. i understand this new strategy, it's designed to increase pressure to bring them to the negotiating table. at least that would be a

general dunford will allude to this. in the 70's, we were transitioning from counterinsurgency warfare into full spectrum battles and we were discovering this full spectrum includes cyber and other things that our adversaries have been able to do quite well at. the rest and recuperation of deployments from afghanistan and iraq, but also trying to change our warfare effectiveness in terms of trying to get back to the classic battle. thatve all these questions is a great blow to readiness. >> i want to let our members join the conversation. this is and has been on the record. if you could please wait for the microphone for asking the questions. start right here. >> thank you. senator, what role do you see for the u.s. military in syria and iraq once the islamic state has been ejected? i think the role is very limited. i was in syria in june and i rock -- and iraq. iraq, we would like to have american military presence. it would be very helpful with the training operations and the professionalism of the iraqi military force