a day where we re continuing to debate the nsa and the big surveillance program, we can t lose sight as to why we even have that program to begin with, and that s 9/11. that s also the reason we went to war in afghanistan, but we certainly don t talk a lot about the war anymore. so we wanted to take a moment to do that today. there s some big announcements out of afghanistan today. security throughout that country is now primarily in the hands of afghan forces with america and nato allies playing a supporting role. again, a big announcement today about that change. reports suggest this clears the way for a full withdrawal of foreign troops in 18 months. also happening today, an official announcement now that talks will happen between the united states and the taliban and between the taliban and the afghanistan government through a new political office that s opening in doha. so that s also happening. mike to hand land s been to afghanistan ten times over the years, he s a senior fellow
duration of the call were to be. again i just want to make very clear there are no names and no addresses in that database. martha: that s a a really important point according to congressman rogers and the members of the panel when they are looking for information they are not getting names and addresses, they are getting phone numbers, and there s been a big question about what exactly is the data that the government has access to. it s a big question we ll continue to ask as we continue to watch this hearing. we ll just take a break for it for a moment. standing by with us is senator marco rubio, a florida republican a member of the intelligence committee. nice to have you back on the program. as we are watching the news break and develop i m just in a bit of a pause about what this really is about. this hearing is essentially about why we should trust the government with this sort of power. how would you answer that question? well it s difficult. on the one hand it s the natio
what kind of oversight is provided for this program. the court system, congress, how congress has authorized this program, and by the way, even though snowden came out and acted like this was big news, it s something that is known, it s been reported, it s been known on capitol hill, it s just his sort of explosive charges that brought it to the forefront. the good news out of that is that we are having this conversation about what you know, things like surveillance as part of a tool kit of protecting the american nation. and there was an interesting moment too when i believe well i don t remember which of the nsa speakers said it, but essentially they said that the tkhat a that is bein data collected in his view was not necessarily private because it s already available to phone companies and so forth, which number is called, what time the call is made, that kind of thing. he pointed out a court ruling in fact on that where because it s on your bill, your phone
program to the american people and organizing for action, the group that replaced the president s 2012 campaign apparatus, obama for america, even launched a tv ad. take a listen. what s the impact of obamacare? the truth is americans are already seeing the benefits. she s seeing more seniors for free wellness visits. he received a $150 rebate from his health insurance company. and next year she can expand her small business thanks to tax credits that cover up to half of her workers health insurance. jon: joining us now is jonah goldberg, editor at large for the national review and a fox news contributor. that commercial makes me want to run right out and sign up for obamacare, jonah. how about you? [laughter] yeah, no, absolutely. jon: i get a $150 check, apparently, if i sign up. i m not sure you do given where i hope they re paying you, but [laughter] finish. jon: yeah go ahead.
i think this is a profoundly important conversation to be having, profoundly. you go back to 9/11 and there was a sense that another shoe was going to drop at any minute, that there was going to be another serious terrorist attack at any time. we forget those fears, and i think since then a lot of people in this country have taken for granted the fact that there have been, until the boston marathon bombing, and of course there was the fort hood shooting, but generally until the boston marathon bombing we seemed to be safe. and you know it s not luck. and i think what we re seeing here are top intelligence officials pulling back the curtain on what is helping to keep us safe. 50 terrorist attacks have been thwarted because of this program, or more to the point the leads provided by this program. specifically a call between