Country. Curfew. Schools have been told. This is the 12th time the 1932. Scenes of slaught ukraine. Separatists. One of several clashes. Violence days before the ukraine. Remember the line from the movie Jerry Maguire you had me at hello. Research from the power of first meetings. Well begin with a critical deficiency in security for the American Nuclear armed Missile Force. According to a report acquired any the Associated Press an Armed Security team was unable to gain control of a captured Nuclear Weapon during a simulated takeover of a minute man missile in montana. The u. S. Has three of these in montana, wyoming and south dakota. Each is armed, ready to launch on the president s command. This security failure is one of a soors of wounds the force suffered over the past year, everything from a cheating scandal. High court marshall. And a removele of Commander Michael cary for misbehaviour. Im joined by the former secretary assistant of defence, and assistant secretary of state and an al jazeera contributor. Good to have you with us general. The exercise that the Security Team failed was a scenario that sim ute lated the capture of a minute man 3 silo by terrorists. That Nuclear War Heads could be vulnerable to terrorists is frightening. How serious was the failure . The words the air force used was a critical deficiency in the exercise was damaging. You have minor deficiencies. Thats bold letter lang wig for language for this is a screw up. The security can pass the do over when the simulation was repeated in october. The air force report acquired by the Associated Press says part of the problem was a lack of standardized simulations for the Security Teams. What does that mean. Training . What it means is that the Security Team probably was not training enough. It may have brought in new people not fully familiar with the responsibilities or, frankly, werent up to the standard expected of them. Are they doing simulations with regularity . Youd think they would, given the importance of this. The worse thing you can do is get into a rope set of standard scenarios because i think all of us recognise that the last thing you are going to expect a terrorist to do is something in the ordinarily. We never saw planes attack buildings before 9 11, and all of a sudden they did. You can expect terrorists that will go to this effort to capture a Nuclear Weapon, to do something you never expect them to do. Against. I know Nuclear War Heads on the missiles vary in power. The use of any would be catastrophic. If one fell into the wrong hands, would it be difficult to use. I dont think anyone would expect them to get the launch codes or use it as a nuclear device. They are probably trying to get ploout onium in the war head and used as a dirty bomb. You wrap dynamite around it and you have an effective peace of material there that doesnt really explode as much as it spreads Nuclear Material around the area. You mentioned the panic that would result from that. Sure. Despite the fact that the simulation failed. Do you think that theres any significant likelihood that Something Like this could happen, that we could see a scenario where terrorists could successfully attack these bases . No, i think you have multiple redundant safeguards on the missile silos. Security force is important, but theres second and thirdlevel safeguards. You can never assume that can happen, you train under the assumption that it could happen. So when an attempt is made, it doesnt matter. We discussed the issues of the force. Defense secretary chuck hagel organised more information after officers cheated on tests. Some lied, two officers charged with possession of illegal drugs. We dont know what the reviews are finding, but what does the air force need to do to end the misconduct. It should be among what we have, given the responsibilities. It must be above reproach. The Liability Programme that they live under, a formal programme to make sure they adhere to the standard expected of them 24 7 is important to maintain. More important. It sounds like there is a leadership problem that is corroding the quality of the force. I think that will probably come out in the investigation that is that secretary hagel wouldnt be reviewing. Hell have to take harsh and top to bottom action in order to get the force back to the standard that the American People can be confident of the Nuclear Security force. The commander of the force, Major General perry was removed for drunkenness, another top officer, who was a 3star admiral was removed in a gambling investigation, and then theres a broader issue about morale, that the Missile Force suffers low moral because it used to be on the cutting edge of the cold war, now they are in a military back water to support a mission that no one wants to fulfil, is there anything that burnout. I wouldnt call the burnout. Theres an example of a leadership problem, its a top level leadership of the Nuclear Force cant persuade and inspire their forces to under the importance of their mission to the application of the United States, then something is wrong. Its a critical mission. People ought to go to work if not exited, sombre about the responsibilities with the application of the United States. Its not a job one should have a moral problem. They should be inspired when they take on that responsibility, and they expect the leaders to give them that inspiration. Important point. Brigadier general mark kimmitt. Thank you. U. S. Military is facing problems with a key Southeast Asian ally. Thai lapped, the land thailand, the land of smiles is the land of coups. On thursday they suspended the countrys constitution and seized power the 12th successful coup in 80 years, the second since 2006. It follows six months of bitter struggles between populist and establishment factions. The military chief, who declared himself Prime Minister told thais the coup was staged to restore peace back to the country in a short time and reform the countrys politics, country and society. For more, im joined from bangkok, a the daily beast contributor based in singapore. Good of you to join us. On tuesday the Thai Military declared marshall law, which they insisted was not a coup, and thursday they arrested political leaders, detained others and announced they had taken over. What happened in two days to coup . What transpired is the general its largely him. This is not a consultative general decided that he may as well go ahead and accelerate the imposition of a coup because there was no point in postponing it, especially since there was no indication that the antigovernment protesters in particular were inclined to stand down and abandon their protest against the government. So what probably happened whats the general decided black was that the general decided to do the coup then. It was interesting how he did it. He invited the principles in the dispute, the civil principals in the dispute, the civil matter, invited them into a meeting at the army club. The first was wednesday, and the second was thursday. At that juncture he detained the participants, including the former Prime Minister from the democratic party, and the leaders of the two leading protest groups, both progovernment and antigovernment, and that brings us to where we are today. What is the situation like today. What is it friday in bangkok. Do people go about their business. Is there a heavy troop appearance in the street . This is not a city that is ringed by armed soldiers in tanks and so on. Its a lowkey presence by the military. In most parts of bangkok, where we are at the moment, you dont see soldiers. You saw more soldiers, in fact, before the coup. It seems to me that the generals are going to some considerable degree to not create an alarmist situation here, and they are keeping the military pretty much under wraps although everywhere knows what is going on. Its a normal bangkok friday to all intents and purposes with people going on about their business. Underlying this, underpiping this is a real coupe detar and they are cognisent of the fact come 10 oclock theyll have to be home because of curfew. We have seen some resident praising the coup. Is it possible it could be popular if it end the protests that paralyzed thailand, hurting the economy and tourism . Thats a good question. Im not persuaded that popular is the right word. I have seen preliminary polling that shows that a majority of thats support the imposition of a coup. I think its largy people being fed up, frustrated, tired of the seemingly neverending protest, counter protest and the confrontations that often escalate to violence. Keep in mind that 28 people have been killed in this 6month period, along with some 700 people injured. I think theres a sort of visor owl response on the part of many thais who are tired of the state of affairs that existed for the last several months, are prepared to give anything a chance. Also theres considerable respect in this society for the military, which is seen as a guarantor of if not democracy, certainly the that way of life. And so at the moment you dont find a great outcry against the coup in many quarters, if any. Even the opposition parties, and the protest groups seem to be prepared to give it a chance. Thailand has been split between protesters, and supporters of two deposed Prime Ministers. Thaksin shinawatra and yingluck shinawatra. They are part of the ruling elite. Is the military taking the side of the elites or taking control and establishing a military dictatorship . It may well be both, antonio. What has been going on here in this country is that there has been some traditional elites that aligned themselves against the populous Prime Ministerships of Thaksin Shinawatra and three Prime Ministers between and after two brothers and sister teams. So the problem has become that its a continuing tug of war. The term populous is bit of a misnomer in a sense that its been used to demonize a party. As if to say that being populous is a negative on its face, the way that in america sometimes you get the sense that some people think that being a liberal is a problem on its face, and i think that is what has been going on. The military has been scene at least in principle supportive of the antigovernment protest. You can put that on one side. On the other hand, the manifestation of the coup yesterday has not quite gone by the playbook that the opposition and the antigovernment protesters had laid out namely there was an expectation that the general would stage a coup, hed install an interim Prime Minister. Theres be talks and an effort at reform, and then theyd have elections. Well, the general surprised everybody by installing himself as Prime Minister. That takes the oomph, if you like, as the carefully oest traited plan among orchestrated plan where it would move towards a civilian government, then an appointed, not elected council that would be responsible for crafting these very vague unspecified reforms, and then there would be elections. Plan. A final quick question. There are hundreds of thousands of investments there. The secretary of state john kerry said thursday that there is no justification for a coup which he said would have negative implications for the countrys relations. Thailand, though, is one of the top 30 economies. It gets minimal u. S. Aid. Is that likely to change any minds in bangkok . Not in the short term. I think thai people are proud people. Keep in mind this is a country that suck sus fully navigated 150 years of british impeer ralism and survived without being colonized by anyone in particular. Theres say and skill and savvy and skill and tendency to see themselves as independent, not susceptible to normal pressures from outside. Obviously they need and want aid and respect from the west. They need and want good relations from the United States. In the short term no one should expect that the condemnation from the United States or the uk or france or the United Nations will have an impact in what is going on in thailand in the short term. Overtime, depending how long it lasts, it might have impact, but i dont see it having an effect in the short term on how the coup is prosecuted by the army. Appreciate you joining us. Well look forward to updates thanks. An update on the al jazeera colleagues held in an egyptian gaol. The trial of our three colleagues resumed thursday, drping six hours the during six hours the defense said the prosecutors added evidence this they will not share. Peter greste, Mohamed Fadel fahmy and Baher Mohamed have been held for 145 days. Meanwhile al jazeera journalist Abdullah Alshami remains in solitary confinement. Last week a video emerged of the 26yearold showing his health at a critical point. Hes been at a Hunger Strike for 122 days and denied critical attention. His lawyer fears hes close to death. Al jazeera says the charges are baseless and calls for the release of all four coming up, the deadliest day for ukranian forces, days away from the countrys election. Is Russian Vladimir Putin trying to destabilize ukraine. Stunning information about crime in chicago, police accused of doctoring dont miss the system with Joe BurlingerAl Jazeera Americas highly acclaimed investigative series the Los Angeles Times says. Beringer tells gripping stories. New york times. Large complicated, sometimes heartbreaking. To keep me from going to jail, i needed to cooperate. See what everybodys talking about the system works. Says variety Al Jazeera America presents, the system with Joe Burlinger the Performance Review. That corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. And yet, theres someone around the office who hasnt had a Performance Review in a while. Someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. Im looking at you phone company dsl. Check your speed. See how fast your internet can be. Switch now and add voice and tv for 34. 90. Comcast business built for business. With only three days before highly anticipated federal elections in ukraine, Government Forces suffered a deadly day battling prorussian separatists in donetsk. 13 were killed, dozens killed on thursday after separatists raided a military checkpoint. The escalation came as the Ukrainian Government claimed they had the upper hand and n. A. T. O. Confirmed that Vladimir Putin may have started pulling back forces from the ukranian border. Ambassador nicholas burns, u. S. Ambassador to n. A. T. O. , senior director for russia, eurasia and ukraine, in the past, hes director of diplomacy and International Poll suggests, and former Affairs Politics for the globe. Good to have you on the show. Acting Prime MinisterArseniy Yatsenyuk accused russia of seriously escalating the violence because of this incident in advance of sundays election, calling for an session. Is Vladimir Putin, do you think, hoping to disrupt the president ial elections . That seems to be Vladimir Putins strategy. He is trying to have it both ways. He says hes withdrawing troops that have been intim diting ukraine for the last six weeks, and yet he is trying to instigate the russian government these armed bands of russians, who are taking over city halls, municipal buildings, government outposts, and creating mayhem in eastern ukraine. The plan is to create enough instability that there wont be a free and fair vote, that people will not be able to vote on sunday in the east of ukraine, so russia can say this was not a legitimate election. The strategy was transparent and Vladimir Putin shouldnt get away with it. Vladimir putin sounded conciliatory, and russia may see signs that they are pulling back from the border. Theres no chance that the prorussian separatists are point . I dont think so. It was not the case. Remember Vladimir Putin denied the russian government had anything to do with the stages of the disturbances in crimea. He similarly denied what happened in eastern ukraine. He has not criticised the armed bands of gunmen. He has not put the full weight of the russian state against them or spoken up for law and order in ukraine. He has not spoken up for the territorial integrity, he said twice recently in the last week is that he has the right to protect ethnic russians, and there are ethnic russians in estonia, latvia, moldova, places. His policies are to destabilize the government. Hes doing it in an insidious way not by rolling tanks across the boarder, but by instigating and helping to instigate the dist