this week. despite the way iran's ambassador to the u.n. reacted to our question last night, they might be sharing america's top technology with china. let's go "outfront." i'm erin burnett. "outfront" tonight top secret american technology in the hands of a sworn adversary. at this hour, iran has the cia's rq-170 drone. last night th,e ambassador said iran captured the drone intact and judging by the images of iranian state tv, that seems to be true. sources at the pentagon say that this does look like america's top stealth drone. the rq-170. our question tonight, what is iran doing with this drone? the big fear is they might be sharing its most important technology, the ability to fly undetected by radar, with china. experts today saying the flights between beijing and tehran likely were booked up this week to see the drone. it might be a case of he who doth protest too much, because here's how iranian ambassador to the united nations reacted when i asked him if iran was showing the drone to china. >> this is a question that i think is already answered by itself. of course, no nation is going to share information with any other nation. >> really? when i first asked the question he laughed and said why would you ask that? he said pakistan allowed china to photograph that crashed during the raid that killed osama bin laden. former secretary of defense william cohen is "outfront" tonight. secretary, thank you for taking the time to be with us. it is interesting that you now have a couple of examples of very sophisticated and important classified american military technology in the hands of countries at that that do seem willing to share it.t that that willing to share it. >> i don't think there's any question that iran would be willing to share it with the chinese but i suspect with the russians as well. if you look at it, who are the two countries who have been less eager to her join in that effort to prevent them from moving forward, it's both china and russia. i don't think that the iranians, to the extent they have, in fact, the drone, we assume they do. if they have it, i don't think they have the capability of reverse engineering it. so they would want to share that information with those countries who had the sophistication and the desire to be able to gather that information so they can counter the technology the united states has. that's what gives us the edge in the conflict. the ability to control the air space and the technology gives us that ability. >> obviously, being able to fly undetected by radar is a crucial technology. where does china stand on this? my understanding is their j-20 strike fighter they developed don't have that technology. they desperately want it. access to this drone is something they would desperately to help them leap to u.s. levels. >> there's a report that has been given or reported out of the national defense university that is called -- it's the buy, build or steal. every nation tries to gather whatever technology it can through whatever means it can, and i think china and russia and others are no different than that. even allies try to get information about technology. so it's not beyond their desire to do this. they're building a stealth capability. others are pursuing the same. a report just came out that one of our allies, south korea, is now pursuing the design of a manned stealth drone. it won't be available for some time to come, but other countries are trying to do what we have. >> isn't this proof that a country like china, in trying to and accepting countries like pakistan and iran is not acting the way a friendly country would act? >> china is a competitor to the united states. they certainly want to pursue their own interests, and to the extent they can gain technology by another country sharing it with them, that's something you can expect they're going to do, notwithstanding any public statements to the contrary. i haven't heard any public statements coming from chinese officials. so, i think it's fair to say they will have access to it, and they will utilize it to try to try to build their own capability. >> thank you very much. >> great to be with you. >> a sobering assessment there of what could be at risk with this technology and this it -- drone. we also have developments today regarding an american missing in iran. we have videotape of former fbi agent-turned-security consultant robert levinson. he disappeared in iran five years ago. this is what the island looks like where he was last seen. it's a tourist spot for iranians, nice hotels and water parks and beaches and while americans are allowed, me and my producer were the only americans we saw it there. we were frankly tourist items ourselves, and we only saw one group of germans there, for business in the airport. so it's not some place you would go just to hang out. in the video, an emotional levinson looking pale and gaunt, pleads for help from the u.s. government to heed the requests of his captors. >> i've been held here for three and a half years. i'm not in very good health. i am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine. i have been treated well. i need the help of the united states government to answer the requests of the group that has held me for three and a half years. says she received this video a year ago. she chose to release it to the public today because she's frustrated. >> they are investigating. it's a difficult area of the world to get any kind of information from. i continue to hope that the group holding bob will get back in touch with us so that we can find out what we need to do to get bob home. >> one person who has been working hard to win robert levinson's freedom is democratic senator bill nelson from florida. i spoke with him today and asked him why the family chose to release the tape now. >> i think if you read the accounts today, you see that the family is just at its wits end. so christine levinson is trying the only thing she has left in her arsenal, which is let's get this out there. let's hope that somewhere someone sees this tape and that gives some kind of piece of information that the family can bring their loved one home. >> but you're confident the iranian government is involved here. i know that theoretically he was on the island of kish, which americans can go without a visa to iran. he was investigating cigarette smuggling. he was a private investigator in dubai. formerly in his career, he had worked for the fbi. given all of that, are you sure the iranian government is involved? >> the iranian government has certainly been put on notice over the years by the family's conversations, my conversations with the ambassador, and yet, they're not forthcoming. we're just hoping something will break. >> i know mr. levinson has diabetes and high blood pressure. in the tape, he referred to his diabetes medication running low. the tape was released a year ago to the family. are you confident he's still alive? >> we are hopeful. there's a published report today that there was other evidence of proof of life, which were some photographs, but we don't have date on those. you can't be confident of anything, but as long as there is hope in the family and as long as the -- all the resources of the united states government are going to keep looking for bob until we find him. >> thank you very much, senator nelson. we appreciate it. he we hope that this will be resolved with him coming home soon. >> amen to that. thank you, erin. >> thank you, sir. >> again from sources that we have here at cnn, it appears from where some of this communication has come from with mr. levinson that he could be in pakistan or afghanistan, not necessarily in iran now. the clock is ticking. if congress doesn't reach a deal in 22 days, americans lose money from their paychecks. but the republicans have a new plan. they on "outfront" next. and we're hours away from what could be mass protests in moscow. an unbelievable demonstration due to elections. america should be very concerned about the fate of vladimir putin. he has 18,000 nuclear warheads at his disposal at this moment. the latest developments in the case of florida's missing mom. michelle parker vanished on november 17th. are we closer to finding her? 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it's the learning channel, and last month on this show, we spoke to one of the cast members of the new tlc show "all american muslim." she lives in deerborn, michigan, and she wants to inform people about islam. today, we learned that the show that features an irish catholic that converts to islam isn't sitting well with some people. the florida family association has this to say, and i quote, "all american muslim" is a propaganda that hides the islamic agenda's clear and present danger to american liberties and traditional values. i'm not making this up. and we aren't making this up either. when the florida family association encouraged their supporters to e-mail the show's advertisers, they got some traction and that brings us to our number tonight, one. that's how many fewer advertisers "all american muslims" has tonight. lowe's, one of the biggest retailers in the nation, pulled ads from a show saying in a statement to "outfront," "on a case-by-case basis we will pull our advertisers on show if there are issues raised from a broad spectrum of customers and viewers that have multiple perspective." you can read the full statement on our website, but where to begin? islam is the fastest-growing religion in the united states. the show is on the learning channel to show muslims are americans with american dreams. the man at the top, the producer of the show, he's jewish. all right. it's getting down to the wire now. the clock is literally ticking. if congress doesn't reach a deal on the payroll tax cuts in 22 days, millions of americans will lose money from their paychecks. an average of $1,000 to be exact. it depends on how much you make, but it starts at 700 and goes up to 2300. and today, it seems like democrats and republicans are not close to a compromise. democrats say now they will not pass the new plan put out by house republicans, a plan that links the payroll tax cuts to the construction of keystone pipeline which would transport oil and gas from canada through the continental united states. joining me now is republican congressman kevin yoder, also a member of the house appropriations committee. good to have you with us, sir. appreciate it. >> thanks erin. >> will we get this passed by the end of the year? >> i think we are. americans are going to be rest assured the taxes aren't going up at the end of next year. they have put together a package of ideas that focus on job creation, protecting the social security trust fund, the type of things that most americans want us to do. it's the kind of legislation if the folks in the state take time to look at, listen to the american people, i think it will go through the senate. >> so why link it to the keystone pipeline? >> well, what i've heard from americans throughout the entire year is they want job creation. they want to get washington out of the way, and this is a policy coming out of this administration blocking the construction of a pipeline in the united states that would create, by some estimates, 20,000 jobs. i just think given the current economic climate, washington getting in the way of creating that many jobs sin appropriate. we have to get it done.isin app. we have to get it don in appropriate. we have to get it donappropriat. we have to get it done. >> i hear you on that jobs. the president says it will create jobs. he has environmental concerns, and what i'm saying is forget the pipeline, right? why attach that to the payroll tax? have the pipeline fight. why attach that to the payroll tax? >> there's a series of ideas in this legislation, including protecting the social security trust fund and the medicare doctor reimbursement rates where at the end of the year, every doctor that folks in this country uses gets a 30% salary cut. there's all sorts of things that come together in one big package. we would like to do one thing there and one thing here. >> it's not just the pipeline? >> there's all sorts of things. this is an entire jobs creation package. it's not just the tax relief and pipeline. it's regulatory reform. it's getting all the barriers out of the way affecting job creation. >> in exchange for those things, to make it simple, are you willing to put a surtax on millionaires to pay for it? >> i don't think americans want a tax increase on anybody right now, and frankly the economy doesn't need to send more money to washington, d.c. what we need is more money back in the hands of americans of any economic standing. so raising taxes right now doesn't make sense. this is a jobs creation package. raising taxes doesn't create jobs, and this is a common sense thing. washington doesn't get it. they believe if they take more money and send it to washington, d.c., it creates growth. >> they say it would add $25 billion to the deficit, though, so it's not revenue neutral. >> i'm certainly very concerned about the deficit. the plans that are out there include either raising taxes, raiding the social security trust fund because this payroll tax, that 2% goes into social security. in the current law, we see social security dwindle. if we reduce taxes, we want to make sure there are things within the law that pay for it. >> the payroll tax, you cut that, less money going to social security. thank you very much, sir. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> i want to bring in a congressional reporter for politico now. i want to get your take on how you think this is going to play out, and in particular, what we were talking about, this move to have this be a broader package. not just the payroll taxes but the pipeline from canada down to the gulf of mexico. >> that was needed in order to get republican support. a lot of republicans and conservatives don't like the payroll tax break. this is something the president has hammered them on over the last couple of weeks. john boehner and mitch mcconnell know they need to get back on the the right side or the politically winning message. they know they need to get this it through. in order to do that, they added the keystone pipeline in order to get more republican support. i think what you're going to see is this bill will pass the house next week, and it will put a lot of pressure on democrats in the senate to produce their own plan to show they can get the votes to pass a broad plan to extend a host of expiring programs by year's end. >> representative yoder says he's confident we'll get it done. will we get it done by the time everyone in washington wants to get it done, before december 23rd, when they want to go away on vacation, including the president to hawaii? >> i think they will get this done. i think it's unclear who is going to budge in this fight. at the end of the day, both sides know this looks really bad if they cannot reach a deal on this. i think that on this keystone issue there may be some sort of compromise, but there are other things in the house republican bill that are nonstarters with democrats including how's medicare increases for some of the more affluent americans. those are things that they're going to have to fight over. at the end of the day, this will probably get resolved. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. >> thank you. newt gingrich continues to court the tea party. can he finally win them over? we have three of the biggest tea party leaders coming "outfront" in a couple of moments. europe's economic crisis reaches the north pole. this is disturbing about santa claus, seriously. nyquil (stuffy): hey, tylenol. you know we're kinda like twins. tylenol: we are? nyquil (stuffy): yeah, we both relieve coughs, sneezing, aches, fevers. tylenol: and i relieve nasal congestion. nyquil (stuffy): overachiever. anncr vo: tylenol cold multi-symptom nighttime relieves nasal congestion... nyquil cold & flu doesn't. we do a lot of serious stories on this show, but this one is a little more seriously. when discussing the economic crisis in europe, we usually talk about greece and italy, maybe spain. britain has also been facing some really tough times. unemployment in the uk is the highest in 15 years, and it just got worse because someone else has just lost his job. santa claus. seriously. radio times is a weekly television listings guide. it's been published in britain since 192. in 1969 they started printing a special double-issue for christmas that features a festive cover. most always a smiling santa claus. but not this year. santa has been let go and it is because of economy. according to ben preston, the editor of "radio times," he says for many years santa has been a cheery fixture of our christmas double-issue, but somehow that didn't feel right this year. would father christmas be seen as a bloated red faced symbol of over indulgence hungering down with friends and family. bloated? santa claus? not wanting to see him at christmas? seriously? how bad is an economy when a guy gives toys to children for free is considered out of touch with everyone else? and it's not the first time santa has been given the boot for the economic reasons. in 1992 after black wednesday, santa was replaced by a snowman, and now in 2011 it's a christmas tree. before you get upset, you should know all is not lost because we noticed something when we took a closer look at the new cover. there, behind the tree hanging on for dear life, a tiny, tiny not bloated santa claus, just like the rest of us hanging on for his dear life, hoping the economy recovers so he can make his triumphant return. seriously. i know what newt gingrich wants for christmas. he can put on a santa hat and look pretty good, but he wants the tea party endorsements. we have three of the top tea partiers on our show tonight to talk about where to place our cards and the latest developments in the case of florida's missing mom. her brother was part of the search party today and comes "outfront." we'll be right back. 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