Illness. Prosecutors would not say with that condition was other than it had been treated by a doctor. They did not find a suicide note or anything indicating a religious or political motive. They are combing through the copilots background examining financial and personal details, as well as the possibility he was suffering from depression. The federal Aviation Authority says there was a medical edition attached to lubitzs file, but did not say what it was. Lubitz had been a patient. Officials declined to provide for the details. The medical records have been sent to the investigators office. Germanwings confirmed that lubitz interrupted his training in 2009, but did not say why. On wednesday, lufthansa ceo said the copilot passed all the subsequent tests and checks with flying colors. German pilots undergo rigorous annual physicals but not specific psychological testing. That is limited to a questionnaire filled up by the pilots themselves. Youre as Aviation Safety Agency is recommending airlines have two people in the cockpit of a flying aircraft and lufthansa announced it will offer 55,000 assistance for each victim. Charlie iran, which many believe is backing the rebels one that military action would result in a deepening crisis. Join me from washington is anthony cordesman. Tony, thank you for doing this. Let me begin with what is happening on the ground. Where are we . Tony where we are is that the hufti seem they have taken over key airbases. They occupy ports along the western coast as long as the capital. We need to makebe careful with the term because they are allied with the former dictator. They split the regular forces, which are largely dominated. This is not a shiite takeover. This is a shiiteled mixture of sunni and shiites and a noncombination of a religious Tribal Movement and a former dictator. Charlie what are the stakes for saudi arabia that led them to be engaged . Tony there are 4 million yemeni inside saudi arabia. That is a massive potential source of instability. Quite aside from the houthi the main terrorist threat to saudi arabia is al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That was largely driven out of saudi arabia but into yemen and it still conducts regular strikes inside saudi arabia. You have a border that has always been a source of contention, of smuggling, of illegal immigration. It is one of the longest borders saudi arabia has and it is an area where many of the factions have been a problem for saudi arabia for decades. You have the need for some kind of stability in yemen, but you also have saudi concerns that if iran should ever acquire airbases or any kind of naval bases, even in the indian ocean area that yemen has, there is an island, or inside the red sea, they would control potentially one of the critical chokepoints into the red sea affecting the suez canal and saudi arabias sports and oil exports are at sea area. For all of these reasons, yemen is critical to saudi arabia. Charlie what are the stakes for the United States . What is the risk for the United States . Tony the risk is that al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has been the group that plant more direct attacks on the u. S. Than any of the other extremist groups or terrorists in the area. We too, are critically dependent on the stable flow of exports out of the gulf. And through the red sea. The suez canal is critical to us because we use it to move our combat ships. It is critical in terms of the global economy. We have been able to reduce our dependence on oil imports. Our dependence on other kinds of imports from asia countries that are dependent on gulf oil and our dependence on europe keeps increasing. Are we achieving Energy Independence . No, not at all. We are actually steadily increasing our dependence on the global economy. Charlie what happened to yemen . It was a place that the president suggested, go look at yemen. That is a good place to see where things might be. Tony it is sometimes very difficult to know. None of the data that was being collected by the National Counterterrorism center shows that somehow we had scored any kind of major victory scribble yemen. Victories in yemen. None of the saudi activity coming out of yemen showed we were attaining stability. The houthi have been a problem since 2009. This is not something new. The previous government the dictatorship, had fallen apart between 2011 and 2012 and the new Central Government was elected without real opposition and without any real support as the military had split. I think part of the problem is we sometimes spin things almost in defiance of the facts. Charlie could we be suggesting there is more iranian influence than there actually is . Tony i think there is certainly that risk. There were a lot of reports initially that the houthi were only succeeding because of iran. There were no precise estimates here, but the cia puts the shiite population of yemen at about 35 of the population. It has been houthi dominated. The sunni part has been divided almost since the formation of yemen, almost constantly fighting and some kind of level. It is a country that has never had stability since it was unified and before that it was the source of fighting within its two halves. Charlie as you know as well as anyone, there has been some degree of split between United States and saudi arabia that took place after the socalled red line in syria and the failure to attack there. They witnessed that the president went quickly from india to saudi arabia to talk to the new king. Now with a common enemy, isis and terrorism, is this strike a cooperation . Could there have been United States involvement with the saudis in terms of some way making it easier for them to do what they have been doing . Tony there were some reports that we did not get large amounts of strategic warning that the saudis would act. The saudis had no warning that the Prime Minister would be dealing with houthi and have to leave. We are providing logistic report to the saudis. We are providing targeting capabilities that they do not have. We think we may be flying Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as well as providing other kinds of intelligence. There is a close relationship and there has been in yemen for a long time. This is not like the problems we face in syria or iraq. Ever since 2011 and long before then, the United States and saudi arabia cooperated in trying to stabilize yemen. Ever since about 20032004, we have had a strong cooperative effort to try to do with al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Charlie what is the risk here for a larger war that could go from yemen to the rest of the middle east . Tony i think you probably will not get any kind of unified explosion. Iran is a very weak military power in terms of air power. It has very serious reasons not to start a war inside the gulf. Iran can certainly still the flames inside yemen stoke the flames inside yemen. You can make it into a difficult insurgency. It can create a climate where there is more support for terrorism. Iran already is playing a major role in iraq and it is an ambiguous one because it sometimes seems to be pressing for iraqi unity and it is directly arming and supporting shiite militias which are attacking the sunnis and presenting a problem for the kurds. We are watching iraq iran back assad regime inside of syria. You see iran playing lowerlevel games and bahrain, in lebanon in some extent supporting hamas scribble gaza hamas in gaza. This is an explosive situation. It is clear that tensions between sunnis and shiites are rising. We are watching power struggles between Sunni Islamist extremist groups and most of the governments inside the middle east. It is this interaction of different nonstate actors with outside states supporting them and feuding with other states that can sort of create this longterm, almost unquenchable seriously violent sort of hotspots throughout the regions. Charlie what is the status and syria . Tony im afraid that the status is the last Rebel Movement we tried to back first had very Serious Problems last november and was decisively defeated a month ago by not the Islamic State but another sunni extremist group. The fighting against assad is very mixed. From day to day, it is hard to know exactly who is winning. At times, the sod seems to be gaining and he certainly seems to be gradually taking back some cities, but he does not seem to be creating any kind of lasting ability to hold the more Populated Areas of syria. As we have seen inside iraq, tikrit did not produce this quick, sudden victory by the sheet malicious and the shiite portions by the sheshiite militias and the shiite portions of the iraqi army. It is far from clear who inside any of this is achieving some kind of unity between arab sunni and shiite or between arab and kurds. This is an area where the Islamic State is a problem, the eldest front is a problem, assad regime is a problem, and you have a constant battle between factions in iraq. Charlie we thank you very much for joining us. Tony a pleasure. Charlie anthony cordesman. As a followup, a footnote on 60 minutes on sunday. My conversation in damascus with the shawl all are sought bashar alassad. 90 of the civilian casualties, 90 come from the syrian army. President assad how did you get that result . Charlie that was a report issued in the last six months. President assad war is not about capturing land and gaining land. It is about winning the hearts and minds of the serious. We cannot win the hearts and the minds of the syrians what we are killing syrians. We cannot sustain for years and that sustain for four years that. It is impossible. This is not realistic. This is against our interests of the government, the kill to people. What do we get . Charlie the argument is there are weapons of war that have been used on that most people look out on look down on. One is chlorine gas. They believe it has been used here. There is evidence of that and they would like to have the right to inspect to see where it is coming from. As you know, barrel bombs have been used in they come from helicopters. The only people who have helicopters is the syrian army. Those two acts of war, which is society looking down on as barbaric acts. President assad this is part of the propaganda. Chlorine gas is not military. You can buy it anywhere. Charlie it can be weaponize. President assad it is not very effective. It is not used as a military gas. It was very effective, the terrorists would have used it on a larger scale. It is not used very much. Charlie then why not let someone come in and inspected to see if it has been used . You would be happy for that . President assad of course. We ask delegations to investigate. It cannot be used by the military. This is propaganda because in the media, when it leads, it leads. They are looking for something which bleeds. Charlie as a teenager, barney frank had an epiphany. One that he wanted to go into politics and public service. The other was that he was gay. In his 20s, he achieved that first dream, serving in the massachusetts general court, and 32 years in congress, dating as the chairman of the Financial Services committee. During that time, he probably paraded as a liberal champion of effective government but he had the fact he was gay. He hid the fact he was gay. He has written a memoir in which he talks about these experiences. It is great to have you here. Senator frank thank you. Al how much of that was affected by the fact you are gay and could not disclose it . Senator frank it was more than i thought. There was one way it did not affected. I never let it keep me back from being an advocate for gay rights. I cant be honest about who i am, so i will be a coward, but i will not be a hypocrite. I will not hold back from the fight. I did that. It takes something out if you personally. Al you talked about the emotional damage. Senator frank no question. You are repressing. You have physical and emotional needs to relate to other people as who you are. Especially when i became a legislator. Legislators, and you know, it is a very personal business. Legislators have to interact with each other. We do not have a formal hierarchy. No one can order anyone else. When your interpersonal skills are impeded by your own inner turmoil, you dont do it as well. I realized this after i did finally knowledge being gay publicly and a number of my collies, including some who would fight me not to do it they said we are glad you did that because you are easier to work with now. You are better at our job. I was able to put all of my Emotional Energy into work with my colleagues, not into keeping myself bottled up. Al have you suffered a lot of pain, emotional damage before . In some ways, the most painful must have been after you came out of the closet, when you were sanctioned by the house for a relationship with a male prostitute. That must have been the worst. Senator frank it did. Heres the deal that relation with the prostitute was a product of my repression. It is not an excuse. I realized i was behaving responsibly because i was the phone this need for emotional and physical companionship. That was one of the things that help me came out. This is crazy. You are acting irresponsibly. When i came out in 1987 and the colleagues responded better than i thought they wooden i got reelected, i thought, well, here is a big thing i did and it hasnt hurt me. When almost two and a half years later this guy comes back and i had broken it off with him, we were not dating at the time when i came out. Yeah, i was humiliated. I hurt the causes i cared about. I thought i was free of all this and i found myself pulled back. It was a very bad moment. Al he certainly bounced back. Barney, and all of my years in politics, i dont think i have seen an issue jays araiza glee changed so radically. 2004 karl rove was using antigay slurs as a wedge issue and now it has changed completely and republicans to know what to bring up the issue. Senator frank i agree with you. As late as 2004 if i had said i plan to get married while im still in member of Congress People would have said that would controversial. When i did get married in 2012 the gym and someone asked to jim and they asked if it was controversial, it was. A lot of colleagues were met i did not invite them. It is the most rapid social change in American History. We started out having hidden from everyone, so the prejudice ran the show. There was no counter to the prejudice. What happened is that more and more of us decided to be honest about who we are. I served and many others. As we became honest about who we were, reality defeated reggie does. Especially on samesex marriage. There were people against marriage because they disapproved of us and maybe they did not want us happy. They did not want to give us a sense that we should be treated normal. They could not come out and say that. That is why they call that the defense of marriage act. What do you mean, defense of marriage . I married ajim. What does it hurt you . Someone said it hurts the institution. That does not hurt anyones marriage. They had to come up with an argument that said we were causing social damage by marriage. Once massachusetts started it and others did, they lost that fight because there were obviously no negative social consequences. As more and more states did it, the argument that this would become a problem disappeared. Al lets turn to government and politics. You dont agree with some liberals as some others who say that liberalism is in decline, it may be dead, the era of Big Government is over. You think that is wrong. Senator frank as i said, i wonder when the era of the government was. I must have slept through. Maybe was 1936. He was unfairly attacked but i think it was a big mistake. Then they make the mistake that say the government is unpopular so we will concede that government is not a good thing and work to expand this program in that program. The whole cannot be smaller than the sum of the parts. You cannot agree to this antigovernment, shrink the government, and then look to expand this or that program. I think it is a paragraph. Some people are i think it is a paradox. Some people are opposed to the government. There were working people for fdr and truman and johnson and kennedy and they believed in government, but they are disappointed because as their economic position has eroded over the past couple of decades the government has not done anything. They are mad enough not because they disagree with it al because it has not done anything for them. Senator frank while they were being hurt. I believe we could free up resources and do things in the area of health care rich kish and, obama and clinton want to do more for health care. The perception among many working people is that he will take it away for me and give it to the poor. If we could have been clear that it was an expansion, it would have not been unpopular. Al lets talk about the financial crisis. 2008 and 2009, part of the key of getting through a was you working with two stallwart republicans. Al peoples senator frank people say to me what happened to bipartisanship . It died when obama became president and no republican would give him the partnership. Seven weeks before the president ial election, the tension appeared in american politics. Ben bernanke three times appointed to the office by bush. He was a good republican. They come to the Democratic Congress and say the economy is about to fall apart and we have got to do something that the public is not going to like. We respond by helping them past the tarp which will go down in history as the most unpopular successful thing the government ever did. We worked with them very closely. When the bill came to the floor on the house, we get them many more votes than the republicans. Even when we went to financial reform, and this is something that people do not focus on, ben bernanke at the fed and sheila bair, the bush appointee the bob dole protege, worked with us. Much of the legislation that was passed was their idea. Even the legislation was bipartisan in that the bush officials who knew about the crisis worked with us, even though all of the republicans voted no. Al there is doddfrank, of course. In retrospect, c