Page 20 - Daniel Benjamin News Today

Hes only been in for a week? it seems like a month or two months. make sure you tune in tonight to the cnn special town hall with bernie sanders host bid our wolf blitzer, 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight right here on cnn. in a letter released within the last hour, 58 former cwhite house officials agree is there a national emergency that allows the president to tap into funds to build a wall at the southern border? this morning, without citing a source, president trump tweeted his reasoning for the ...

White house. >> dana: and here you are now is the anchor of "special report." he changed a lot of peoples lives. it was hard to believe its 17 years ago, because for a lot of us who were adults before hand, you can really see a stark contrast of the before and the after. there were some commentary of course today. let me read you something from an op-ed by daniel benjamin. he is a former counterterrorism coordinator at the state department, and at politico he wrote "17 years after 9/11, nobody c...

They expected the u.s. to help them, but -- >> no one would take the m.e.k. members as long as it was listed as a foreign terrorist organization. >> so, reluctantly, benjamins department had them removed from the list. m.e.k. operatives are still believed to be conducting covert operations inside iran. but these days they do most of their fighting on capitol hill. where their regime change message has been embraced by politicians from both parties. >> they see this group who says they have popul...

After the revolution, the ayatollahs took over and the m.e.k. was force today flee to nearby iraq. from there, armed and supported by saddam hussein, it launched a deadly campaign against the iranian regime. in 1997, the state department designated the m.e.k. a terrorist organization. >> there was a long trail of violence and blood shed here. and the m.e.k. really stood out as one of the really capable and dangerous organizations in the world at that time. >> daniel benjamin was the obama admini...

From there, armed and supported by saddam hussein, it launched a deadly campaign against the iranian regime. in 1997 the state department designated the m.e.k. a terrorist organization. >> there was a long trail of violence and bloodshed here, and the m.e.k. really stood out as one of the very capable and dangerous organizations in the world at that time. >> reporter: daniel benjamin was the obama administrations coordinator for counterterrorism. >> its pretty remarkable that a group that has am...

As a foreign terrorist organization. >> reporter: so reluctantly, benjamins department had them removed from the list. m.e.k. operatives are still believed to be conducting covert operations inside iran. but these days they do most of their fighting on capitol hill. where their regime change message has been embraced by politicians from both parties. >> they see this group who says they have popular support, whos making all the right noises about overthrowing the mullahs. and they see that as a ...

Vacant the deputy secretary of state, we dont have one of these. these are people that are serving in these roles, but they have not been named. its number two person, the deputy secretary to rex tillerson, an understaffed department that is really, really important. the solicitor general also. what about ambassadors? these are all the ones we do not have. the president only nominated 11. six, awaiting confirmaon. 60 remain. the adviser for the trump transition on hiring is the presidents ceo of...

Disbanded. he was even in ai document that aired recently. some questions as to why some of these people werent on their radar, particularly the british man in question. chris? >> once again showing the difficulty of that volume of cases that they have there to look at. in the wake of that attack, president trump is renewing his criticism of the mayor of london. but what is the president doing to fight terror here at home? lets discuss with cnn counter terrorism analyst phillip mud, former u.s. ...

Lot of sense. hes actually the kind of deputy we need. he served previously as the deputy at the commerce department and the bush administration. but he is the exception, not the rule. there are only 39 senate-confirmed people across the entire government. there are 1100 senate-confirmed position. >> and in the case you mentioned, its an acting -- >> no, he is actually, in fact, confirmed. and he is a trump appointee whos senate confirmed. so hes exactly what we need in the other jobs. youre rig...

Diplomatic establishment, know this is a problem. the people who are on the inside know that their departments cat run without these people. is the administration hearing this? are the people at the highest levels getting in the presidents ear and saying, we really have to make this a priority. >> well, i think secretary tillerson has fallen down on the job here and isnt pushing hard against the white house and telling them that it has to be done. and theres no one else who has the authority to ...