Passenger who recorded the encounter. Lets begin with the military targeting isis in afghanistan with a massive bomb. Wa want to bring in a former Senior Adviser to the Trump Campaign. Major general spider marks and colonel Cedric Leighton and a former department of home land security official. Good evening to all you have. Thank you for coming on. General marks, we start with you. As weve been reporting today, the United States military dropped americas most powerful nonnuclear bomb on isis targets in afghanistan. This was the first time this type of weapon has been used. Heres the president. Did you authorize it, sir . Everybody knows exactly what happened. And what i do is i authorize my military. We have the greatest military in the world. And theyve done a job as usual. So we have given them total authorization. And thats what theyre doing. And frankly, thats why theyve been so successful lately. If you look at what happened over the last eight weeks and compare that to whats happened over the last eight years, youll see there say tremendous difference, tremendous difference. So we have incredible leaders in the military. And we have incredible military. And were very proud of them. This was another very, very successful mission. General marks, what zpe mean Everybody Knows what happened . It sounds to me like hes saying that military authorized that and he gave them permission before. But hes not saying whether he did it. Well, thats what we call predesignated delegation authority. I mean did he this all priority. He said secretary of defense, you have the authorization to use this Weapon System when he issued that Weapon System. To the department of defense. So, yeah, i mean he authorized it because he had done it on priority. The decision to deliver that ordinance was done by the commander on the ground, four star general nick mickelson. It was the right target and the right ordinance to be used against that target. And you saved a lot of lives if you wanted to try to level that location, it obviously there was actionable intelligence. It was the right weapons system to be used. They went through the Collateral Damage estimate process to ensure there werent civilian casualties. Well figure that all out when they do the bomb damage assessment. He did say that he authorized the military and i think that youre quite right. I dont see that much confusion in that. Thats right. I think were, as we say, were pole vaulting over mouse turds here. Okay. Colonel leighton, we know the target was isis. Isis al qaeda tunnel complex. What intelligence would have been gathered before this bomb was used . Don, normally what would happen is theyll look at the geography of the place. They look to see how many people are entering tunnels like this. They would look to see who was in those tunnels. And if they had any links to isis. They obviously established a link to isis in afghanistan and they wanted to make sure they knew what the people were up to and our understanding is they were doing things to include making ieds and other weapons and it proved to be a target that they felt they could not only prosecute with this weapon but also make sure they would not only do that but protect the u. S. Force thats are stationed in afghanistan. On saturday, january 28th, the president signed an executive hors doeuvresiorder. Heres what he said on the campaign trail. I would just bomb those suckers. And thats right, id blow up the pipes. Id blow up every single inch there would be nothing left. Were two weeks away from President Trumps 100th day in office. And he wanted a plan for his generals. Did he get it . We dont know what the contents of that plan is. And obviously when donald trump was talking about it as a candidate, he was focused on syria and iraq and not in afghanistan. So the location of where were bombing, you know, everyone to smith reens to so speak to use his language is a different geographic space. I have no way to judge right now whether given the alternatives this was the right thing to do or not. I have confidence in our military effort. I think the question for some of us when we want to look at the policies surrounding the Bombing Missions is what is the strategy in which you have a civilian oversight over the policy . I think with all due respect to the general onz the panel, they even recognize, rig, that the bombs themselves, thats just a tactic. And i think one of the worrisome things about donald trump not being able to directly answer whether he had notification or whether anyone in the white house had notification is that we are looking at a world now that is very different in which the military has a range of activities in which not only do they not seek authorization from the courthouse whiwhite house b notify the white house swrechlt no clarity on that issue right now. You think they should be more specific about whether he ordered it or not . I think he was clear that he had given the leaders the orders. He had delegated the authority but the specific action it appears and there is a difference between notification and authorization. The specific action we have no clarity on whether anyone at the white house actually knew it was going to happen. Thats a very, very different relationship between the white house and the pentagon and there has been tension since the country was born about that tension. Nonetheless, it is a change of strategy. And one that does not seem to be tied to any doctrine related to why this bomb in afghanistan and why the missile strikes in syria. What does this mean for the president s America FirstForeign Policy . I think this is consistent with his campaign. That were going to bomb isis. Did he not limit that to any geographic area. I think its also a message to our own military that this is a tactical weapon. You have the authority. You have the training. Use it if you need it. Go ahead. Im going to be behind you. Whereas i know with rules in engagement under obama, there was always this lets check with washington before we engage in the battlefield. And as somebody who had to represent the third infantry division, thats what was the number one complaint we heard about Family Members. So im glad to see the generals and the people on the ground making these decisions. But i want to Say Something else. In an area where youre going underground and tunnels and so forth, there is a message to north korea. What message does this send to north korea and other trouble hot spots . The message is, number one, we can use a bomb that is 13yearold, 14yearold bomb. Think what we have developed since 2003. All right. This was i want you to listen to this. This is candidate trump in the fall. Now this just came out. This just came out. Wikileaks, i love wikileaks. And i said write a couple of them down. And by the way, wikileaks just came out with lots of really unbelievable things. Just minutes ago. In fact, i almost delayed this speech by about two hours its so interesting. By the way, did you see another one . Another one came in today. This wikileaks is like a treasuretrove. And this was President Trumps cia director today. Time to call out wikileaks for what it really is. A nonstate Hostile Intelligence Service often abetted by actors like russia. That is quite a contrast. Was the president essentially touting an enemy of United States when it served his political purposes . I would say that candidate trump really didnt have a sense of what wikileaks was in the totality and the depth of what it could go to. I would say maybe he had a clear understanding of what they had access to. But there were other sources of intelligence obviously that he didnt have access to until he was elected. He wasnt able to delve into those fully. So the contrast between the dci and what the president said as a candidate is a stark shift. And it comports with what were seeing, a president that has to embrace the realities and make the realities his. And thats what were seeing right now. Stand bishgs everyone. When we come back, British Intelligence interseptembers Trumps Communications with russians. And United Airlines facing backlash after dragging this man from one of their flights. Were going to speak to the woman who was seated right behind him. 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Gentlemen, good evening to you. Steve, you first. British intelligence passed on communications between trump and russian officials. What is the significance of this . We developed over decades really, don, the excellent relationships with this group called the five eyes. Our closest intelligence allies. We have a robust sharing relationship with them. Its sort of similar thing that happened in the United States. You have gchq and British Intelligence looking and trying to figure out what Hostile Intelligence Services are doing in Great Britain in, this case most likely the russians and incidental collection just like we had here in the United States apparently. What happens in these circumstances is that information is then passed to the u. S. Government and ends up with the fbi. And the British Service really doesnt have much to do with it beyond that except that theyre, of course, making sure that we dont we try to protect the sources and methods just as we would protect ours. Its important to note that the whole idea that somebody may have reached out to gchq as the Current Administration implied or openly said, it would be illegal. We cannot ask a foreign Intelligence Service to do something that would be illegal for an american, you u. S. Intelligence or Law Enforcement organization to do. So that whole theory if its out there doesnt really fly. It makes you wonder when people are coming up with the theories about how to, you know, make all of this work or make the president s initial tweet right if they understand how the processes work. Yeah. And i would say that, you know, if you are making claims like, you know, some the Obama Administration or really any administration, past or present, reaches out to a foreign Intelligence Service and asks, hey, can you spy on an american for us . That is just ludicrous on all sorts of different levels. Legally, morally. It just wouldnt happen. Yeah, it speaks to really not understanding how the whole system works. Matthew, twint ask you. This steve mentioned the five eyes. So the u. S. And uk are part of the five eyes. Okay . And the reporting according to them says the fbi and cia were slow to appreciate the extensive nature between contacts trump team and moscow ahead of the u. S. Election. And that essentially seems as if the u. S. Agencies were asleep. Tell us about this. Does that iner if that to you . Well this is you know, what this demonstrates, the guardian story shows that the system actually worked very well. And as steve described it, you know, we have the very cooperative relationships with the members of the five eyes. They are our allies. They are also nato allies, most of them. And they acted here as whistle blowers which is exactly what we hope the system will do. This is what it is designed to help us appreciate is to pick up something that we may not actually, you know, get through our own signal system. And the most interesting thing about the story is that they were hearing these conversations. They were picking up this intelligence back in late 2015. So that raises the question of who . Who in the trump world were they observing or hearing or listening to . You know, both carter page and manifort implicate in the middle of this doesnt join the Trump Campaign until later. And were not active until the march and may time frame. So these stories, the file on this investigation is getting thicker together with the development that we witnessed this week with the story coming out about the warrant for carter page. Its becoming clear that there is some real texture to this. And that the pattern of activity started as early as 2015 and it may have involved more people. So youre asking who in the Trump Campaign would be talking to russian officials in 2015 . Why is that important . I mean, the pattern of activity that is being alleged includes in which the russian official targets or assets declared as interesting by the russian intelligence. So we dont know yet exactly whether this will lend any further credence to the theory of collusion. But what it does demonstrate is there was a pattern of activity that started early on and that continued right up until, you know, december of 2016 after the election was won. And so thats significant. If theres a broad you know, the carter page, lets turn to him for just a minute. Right now what we know, the fiza warrant was issued, is that Justice Department and the fbi may have felt that he was knowingly active as an agent. Okay. That would imply he was doing it in a very con sertd way and the question is who was he doing that with . I got your point. With these foreign intelligence agencies have passed that information on to their leaders . Meaning, is there stuff, things throughout, communications known in other world capitals . Thats to you, steve. Yeah, absolutely. And, so you know, the british leadership and what other other were involved. Their leadership will certainly see that routinely as they see other intelligence. That would be the normal thing. Before you go on, what are the issues this is also part of your discussion a second ago, i think the question was, you know, was cia or nsa perhaps a little relaxed or not surprised by what they saw . There are political sensitivities that even Intelligence Service thats try to hold them apart from the public do understand. If you have raw intelligence of the russians talking to, thater are sensitivities. I think with carter page, it was a very important question with regard to when did this all happen and why is that important . Its important because this is really textbook russian espionage. What russians what the Russian Services will do, the external service, it is their job to identify people who in the near future in the u. S. Or in other countries that theyre trying to spy on will be close to power or be involved in the power structure. Somebody like carter page or a mike flynn. And then to begin a relationship with those people that starts off xreextremely low key. Can you show me the lectures you have given and then it develops into more af relationship. We dont know whether that happened because it depends on the target in this case a g