Girls kidnapped in nigeria. Nigerias fight against boko haram is a very challenging case. Where. Very alarming. Justice department expected to release a report soon on drone strikes that killed four americans. Allowing drone strikes to go forward that kill american citizens. These memos become historic precedent for killing americans abroad. High Profile Senate Races in primaries held in six states on tuesday. Its about the kind of country we want. Its about restoring america. We begin with president ial support for Embattled Veterans Affairs secretary, eric shinseki. Staffers tried to cover up delayed treatments. President obama finally addressed the scandal and said shinseki will keep his job for now. I know that ricks attitude is if he does not think he can do a good job on this and if he thinks he has let our veterans down, im sure he is not going to be interested in continuing to serve. Secretary of defense chuck hagel is also backing shinseki. I dont think its started with general shinsekis term at the va. This should have been looked at years and years ago. But we missed i. T. He said there was a rush to judgment and isolated cases of hospitals covering up patients care. By tuesday, the ten hospitals covering up care had doubled 26. Joining us today johnny damon by the pentagon by rear admiral john kirby. Good to see you. Thank you for having me, glad to be here. A lot of outrage about the va scandal. This should not have happened to anyone much less than people who put their lives on the line for their country. What kind of reaction from troops and families . Anger at the pentagon . Im not sensing anger at the pentagon but i am sensing deep concern about these allegations. To the degree that they are substantiated, we dont know yet, secretary hagel has said that would be outrageous, a disgrace to the veterans and to their families. The investigation is beginning. We need to let the facts take us where they take us and well look at it as we come to conclusion on it. But the nation has no other sacred obligation than to take care of the veterans and we at a that seriously at the pentagon. The veterans from our greatest generation, world war ii are certainly aging. Secretary hagel said we missed it. How. Those are the things we are trying to find out. To be honest antonio, how were things missed . This review is just starting. The secretarys point is issues with backlogs at the very east go well very least go well back if not a decade or more. So its not like there wasnt some reiteration that we had some issues here at the va. But look, we here at the pentagon and department of defense are working closely with our counterparts at the Veterans Administration. Ll of us as a team share a sense of urgency about getting this right. Lets turn to nigeria. The pentagon announced there will be 80 troops going to help for the release of the girls. Theyre going to chad, where specifically and why there . Im not going to get into the specific location in chad. Were glad for the governments access theyre giving us. Maintenance, personnel, operators of these Unmanned Systems to help us look for the girls. The whole mission riot now is to help find them. We dont know where they are right now. These u. S. Men and women are going to support the actual aircraft that are going to be flying missions over the jungle to try to find them. Go ahead. You just referred to unmanned planes. We had been using manned planes. Are we not going to use anything other than unmanned for now . The president has made it clear were going to do everything we can to help. Youll see us use a mix of assets, both manned and unmanned. The manned systems needed some maintenance and theyre no longer used in the effort, but that doesnt mean that in the next few days theyll still get back to it. Well use whatever we can to help. You spoke about how difficult this will be because this is a very difficult part of nigeria, that a search and rescue difficult. Thats right. You said we dont know where the girls are. Have we learned anything . Have we gotten anything from our information so far . I wish i had better news for our viewers. Truth is we dont know exactly where they are. We still believe they have been broken up into smaller groups, difficult to say how many groups and how many in each group. Difficult to say if theyre still in nigeria. Very possible that some of them may be moved out of the country and some of them may still be in the country. This is dense junk jungle, its a big big area and a big big challenge. President obamas letter notifying about the deployment of these troops, in furtherance of u. S. Diplomas diplomacy interest. The geographical spread of their action he is growing. This is the largest Africa Economy and a big geographical area. Ill tell you it is important to remember we did designate boko haram as a northern terrorist are designation. They are a foreign terrorist group. Very cruel, very inhumane. They dont just threaten our National Interest, they threaten the National Interest of those around them. Be that is the threat we have been given and what were working hard on. In your pentagon briefing on tuesday you say in a post benghazi world we must address issues that arise. Libya at the edge of a civil war, in case the u. S. Embassy in tripoli needs to be evacuated. Where do things stand now . No change since i spoke to the media yesterday. Marines and aircraft, prepositioned in sigonella, sicily, Marine Airground Task force or a opponent o component. They are there to assist our Embassy Personnel in tripoli. Right now, no request for that, the embassy is still open and operating. We learned a lot from benghazi and one of the lessons was, we do need to make sure we have forces that are agile quick and ready to respond in any case like this. What about the Bigger Picture inside libya . The report that general hafti, the opposition general, fieding fighting the forces that are there. Hafta lived in virginia for a long time. Is the pentagon in contact with him . Not that im aware of, antonio. We urge all parties to stop the violence and to try to settle the differences there in a peaceful diplomatic way. Its not helping anybody, certainly not helping the libyan people to have all this fighting going on. But from a u. S. Military point, we need to make sure the military is ready for those who need us. You are closely monitoring the ukrainerussian border in advance of the may 25th elections coming up there in ukraine. Vladimir putin again said his forces are pulling back and on their bases by june 1st. Any indications that is happening . Not indications yet. We are still watching the situation very, very closely and monitoring it as you would expect we would but we havent seen any major movements of troops from the border. If he did give that order, that is a welcome sign. Those tens of thousands of Russian Troops that are arrayed on the other side of the Ukrainian Border to the south and the east have done nothing but help escalate the tension just by their mere presence so if they move back thats a welcome sign. We havent seen it yets. Yet. Putin was in china this week where the chinese agreed to pay 400 billion for 30 years supply of russian gas. That really seems to give putin a buffer against sanctions from the west and more power to shut off the gas to europe if he were so inclined. Is there an indication that the russian and chinese seem to be rereaffirming their alliance against the United States . I dont have the details i will tell you this, though. That the moscow, president putin and his military forces and forces that he is controlling inside ukraine have done nothing but violate the territorial integrity of that country. And alarm allies and partners that we have in europe and again we just continue to call for the deescalation of that kind of tension. It doesnt help anybody for big nations to coerce and intimidate smaller nations and simply add to the instability of what should be, i mean this european continent should be a Stable Secure environment for all people. And talking about big nations and big nations the chinese arent happy with us after members of their military were indicted this week on charges of cyberspeej. Has ther cyberespionage. Couple of points here. They have pulled out of a cyberworking group, regrettable, their position. But we want to create a more productive more constructive relationship with the Chinese Military. We have been working hard on that. General fong our counterpart was here last week, secretary hagel was here for very frank very direct discussions. We are still willing to work at that relationship. These indictments however demonstrate behavior and conduct by military members of the Chinese Military that are absolutely completely unhelpful to that. In fact criminal to that. These individuals were involved in the theft of intellectual property. And in trying to disrupt trade practices here in the United States. Look, cyber is a new realm, it is the realm that we are trying to come to grips with conduct that we do not do ourselves. The Chinese Military have made some expansionist moves in the South China Sea that have upsaid our allies the japanese and the philippine government. Where do things stand there . Look we dont stay a position on the individual disputed claims. We do take a position however on coercion and intimidation so we call all parties to work out these differences peacefully and according to international law. That was the message that secretary hagel sent and president obama cen president obama sent. Admiral kirby thank you for being on the program to speak about all of them or most of them. Thanks for having me. So much for integration costing the republicans. Can the party win big without the help of minorities . Plus our social media producer, hermela aregawi, whats trending . Authorities have are arrested many on the charge of child pornography. Youll be shocked. I have the details next. Al Jazeera America presents the system with Joe Berlinger mandatory minimums are routinely used to coerce plea bargains mandatory minimums the whole goal is to reduce gun crime, now weve got people saying this isnt fair. Does the punishment always fit the crime . Had the person that murdered our daughter got the mandatory minimum, he wouldnt have been out. The system with Joe Burlinger only on al Jazeera America the Obama Administration may face rough times ahead on the National Security front. Some Civil Liberties groups say theyre outraged in the u. S. A. Freedom act, a bill that the house is expected to vote on thursday, the administration has also been compelled by a federal Appeals Panel to release key portions of a classified memo that gave Legal Authority to the 2011 drone strike that killed al qaeda leader and american citizen anwal alaki. In yemen. Jim as always good to see you. Lets start with the nsa and this u. S. A. Freedom act. Critics say the bill has been watered down by the administration. What is the difference between the bill we have now, the bill they want and the bill that will likely reach the floor of the congress on thursday . The purpose was to ban all bulk collection of data from lawful americans and their telephone records. And the change is to introduce a qualifier to that. The new version of the bill says that the u. S. Government will have to go to a fisa sa court, and have a search criteria, no longer is it collecting all data but a search term. The search for million of americans phone records. That all thing from the 1990s, it depends on what the definition of is is. How others interpret it. The core concern for Civil Liberties folks is the more you create vagueness in the law the more some president or some executive not today not tomorrow but five years from now ten years from now will be able to take advantage of that do what they want to do if the language is too vague. Opponents are saying its just too broad, the government could say its limiting search to something as wide as a zip code and by limiting it in that massive way, that could allow records in that whole zip code to be examined. Do you think it gives the nsa more latitude than it should have . It seems that way. I prefer more precise language. Im a security person. Were not the the first to face terrorism. Countries pass laws and what you find is those laws are easy to pass and difficult to pull back. When there are exceptions, eventually people are going to abuse that exception. We have in our own country the republican congressman who authored the patriot act and section 215 go onto the house floor and complain that was secretly interpreted in a way that twisted it in ways that never intended for congress that congress was going to allow. I think theres a real reason to be concerned about it but i do think this bill is an improvement over the status quo and this house version is going to have to go to committee in the senate. Theres still some shoes to drop before this bill becomes law. Theres some doubt whether this really cuts back or not. Lets turn to the still secret memorandum that legally justified the killing of an american, anwar al aki, in yemen. This memo is going to be made public at some point. Is it really a big deal . Havent we already heard the arguments as to why al laki deserved and the government was justified in killing him . That memo up to this point has been secret so whatever a government spokesman might say, what jay carney might say, at the end of the day, there have been four americans that have been killed by the u. S. Government in this way. Thats not a big number but the principle is fundamental to the u. S. Government. A right to trial, a right to face our accusers, a right to see the evidence. And of course drones completely short circuit that. So i think its a precious principle for democracy and worth fighting for and i think thats why the Second Circuit court has ruled theyre not going to declassify whole thing but at least part of it that provides the legal justification for such an important decision. Weve already seen this Justice Department white paper that talked about how and why the drone strike was justified. It says that the government said could use lethal force against an american citizen who was a Senior Leader of a al qaeda, but only once a high level official determines that the person is an imminent threat that capture is not feasible and the strike is consistent with the law of war. Isnt that enough protection . You know i think thats pretty reasonable on the face of it. And as i say the number of americans who fall under that category is quite small. Its only been four people. Imminence. There are Many Americans who have created great and horrible crimes, tantamount or worse than acts of terrorism and they still get their day in court. I dont think we should give up this issue easily. Is apprehension really possible . We have brought terrorists to trial in new york and been convicted and served citizens. If we are going to err on the side, this is such a fundamental principle we need to err on the side of protectin protecting democracy t home. There are lots of ways to scare out an attempt to suppress and stop terrorism so there are lots of tools in that tool kit. We dont have to rely on drones to kill americans in most of those cases i dont think. So many National Security issues. Jim walsh, its always good to thanks. Thank you. Turning from the politics of National Security to electoral politics. Funeral notices were posted for the tea party after Mitch Mcconnell and other members of the republican establishment won their primaries tuesday. Meanwhile president obama tried to go on the offensive over the Veterans Administration scandal. Nancy pelosi named five democrats to join the committee. New study suggested the gop could one big elections without much minority support at all. For more im joined by republican strategist leslie sanchez, was the director of the White House Initiative for hispanic education from 2001 to 2003. Months republicanos. Leslie ill start with you, and tuesdays primaries, socalled Establishment Republicans in iowa, kentucky, georgia, won handily, most moderate in that field of five there, it sure does seem as the establishment won and the tea party lost. People would like to write an owe bit wea obituary of the tea party. But if your socalled strategy is to be antiestablishment and you want to run on that as some type of katoken reformer its not going to work. Voters are much smarter than that. People that run as outsiders got in and didnt have the bona fides, and people are looking for trusted leadership that thinks outside the box and will also challenge the system. And michael, last march senator mcconnell said this about the tea party. I think were going to crush them everywhere. But tuesday matt kibbe claimed that republicans and libertarians, are did the tea party lose the battle but win the war, in that its made mainstream conservatives more attentive to their conservative base . You see the republicans courting the tea party base, which they so much need. In all four precincts, mcconnell just crushed matt bevin in kentucky last night. But to what we were just hearing with whether or not the tea party is dead whether there is a funeral, last week, the tea party won in a republican party, will presumably take mike johans seat there. What you are saying antonio they are pulling people who are what we call mainstream or traditional, establishment, none of those words mean very much, theyre republicans pulling to the right. Well see about that. Everyone was