Page 5 - Robert Bear News Today

[ male announcer ] icy hot no-mess applicator. wherever you hurt, it massages in icy to dull pain, hot to relax it away. no pain. no mess. libyan rebels and forces loyal to leader moammar gadhafi. theres another group of players on the ground there they are with the cia, the american cia, of course. joining me to talk about what they might be doing in libya, former cia officer robert bear. thanks for joining us, robert. >> thank you. >> so the fact that this information is out there, because it ...

Were fighting each other. they had no combat experience. on top of that, they had tribal differences. trying to sort this out was a nightmare. i was trying to collect intelligence on libya and they couldnt even do that. i know fairly well what the cia people are up against. this is going to be -- lets put it this way. this is not going to be an easy solution for libya. >> no, its not. it doesnt appear to be. robert baer, thanks for sharing your perspective. we appreciate it. lets check on stor...

Good information about who these rebels are and things like that? >> its the only way to do it. you cant do this from cairo, london, paris or washington or have people fly in. you need to be on the ground. you have to get a feel for these people, whos in charge. what you can do, frankly, if it hadnt been so sensitive, it should have been a month ago in benghazi. we dont understand what the opposition is and what these rebels can do and what they cant do. >> i know, robert, you had some experienc...

These members of congress and both parties are pushing is congressional authority. the fact that the president did not come to congress for congressional authority or even consultation from the perspective of many of these members of congress before he decided to launch this military action. a lot of frustration youre hearing again. democrats and republicans. secretary gates had a very interesting answer to one of the questions. he said, look, i worked for eight presidents. he said, ive seen pre...

Gadhafi. what i would like to see is more energetic diplomacy on that end, while we look at these other military options. but theyre problematic. people have to fight and win their own freedom. they want to fight and win their own freedom. if we start getting involved militarily in some way, it makes that more complicated. theres more we can do diplomatically. >> it does seem, bob, military involvement from outside changes the dynamic and allows gadhafi to have a different conversation with the ...

The years? >> its possible. i think that its an unattractive option for him, and if in fact you could get his military and other groups to turn against the regime, he may not have that option. >> how likely is that? how much contact do you think the u.s. really has besides maybe e-mail addresses of people within the regime, but intelligence contact real-time intelligence contact with him? >> thats one of the reasons why you do a lot of this publicly so everyone can hear it. even in libya in the ...

To rule. that the united states and the west looks forward to working with the libyan people to deal with a democratic post gadhafi libya. and that all elements of the society need to turn against gadhafi and try to become part, and will be given an opportunity to be part of that new libya, with the implication that if they dont, they will not. and you can accompany this with private messages, making it very clear that the military and the like continue to hold to gadhafi, there may be no room f...

>> thats one of the reasons why you do a lot of this publicly so everyone can hear it. even in libya in the communication age, you will find there are ways to get messages to the army, to the military. we did it in terms of iraq. and the reason its so urgent is that the things -- the no-fly zone are directed against the humanitarian crisis, the killings going on. those wont stop as long as gadhafi is in power. so as bob baer says, the objective is to get rid of gadhafi. what i would like to see ...

He does support lets say a no-fly zone. but theres a lot of skittishness along the diplomats in the united nations, especially after the iraq war to get into any type of condoning or sanctioning military action. certainly the russians dont want it. the chinese dont want it. i suppose richard was saying if they got a direct plea perhaps from some libyan diplomats, they might consider it. but theres not a lot of appetite for that. >> joining us from washington, steven hadley, former security advis...

Europeans. europeans have a lot more lines into that country than we do. if we would put together the kind of integrated diplomatic strategy im talking about with the rest of the world involved, i think it would show to folks on the ground who are opposing the regime, that they can win. and they will have international support to do so. >> steven hadley, bob baer, thank you very much. still ahead, tear gas fired on protesters in iran. and james arthur ray, remember him? he faces a judge today....