Transcripts For KQED PBS NewsHour 20140115

Ifill plus, in egypt, a pivotal vote on a new constitution stirs violence, and exposes deep divisions along the road of democracy. The outcome of this weeks vote, the turnout as well as the margin, is sure to be read as a referendum on egypts turn under the militaryappointed government. Ifill those are just some of the stories were covering on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by theres a saying around here you stand behind what you say. Around here, we dont make excuses, we make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it, when you know where to look. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff the house of representatives today approved a bill to fund the government through saturday, and sent it to the senate. It buys three more days to pass a 1. 1 trillion spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year. The omnibus measure fleshes out the budget deal that democrats and republicans reached at the end of last year. Theres no agreement yet on legislation to restore extended unemployment benefits. Democrats and republicans clashed again today on the issue. Its now unclear whether any action is possible before the Senate Leaves next week for the Martin Luther king day recess. Well hear more about all of todays action and inaction in congress, right after the news summary. President obama warned Congress Today that he means to move his economic agenda, one way or the other. At a Cabinet Meeting, the president said, we need all hands on deck to build on the recovery. And added that means using all the tools available, including executive orders. Were not just going to be waiting for legislation in order to make sure that were providing americans the kind of help they need. Ive got a pen and ive got a phone and i can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions that move the ball forward. Woodruff the president has already used executive orders to advance some of his ideas on gun control and immigration. Others, including a higher minimum wage and universal preschool, cant happen without congressional approval. Internet providers won a big legal victory today, on so called net neutrality. A federal Appeals Court set aside rules that ensure content providers get equal access to broadband networks, such as verizon and a. T. T. The decision means the networks are free to decide what gets transmitted to consumers, and at what price. The federal Communications Commission is considering an appeal. More of the charleston, west virginia, area was cleared to use tap water today, six days after a chemical spill. A neartotal ban has now been lifted for 35 of some 300,000 customers. U. S. Senator joe manchin said today he thinks the entire system should be back up and running by tomorrow. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has apologized again for a scandal involving allegations of political retribution by his staff. Christie had already denied any role in closing part of a busy bridge, to punish a democratic mayor. Today, the potential republican president ial contender addressed the issue at the outset of his state of the state address, in trenton. Mistakes were clearly made and, as a result, we let down the people were entrusted to serve. I know our citizens deserve better, much better. Im the governor. Im ultimately responsible for all that happens on my watch both good and bad. Woodruff christie said he will cooperate with state and federal investigations, but he insisted his administration and lawmakers will not let the issue sidetrack the states priorities. French president Francois Hollande had his own high profile public appearance today, and his personal life was front and center. Hollande held his annual new years news conference, days after a tabloid reported hes having an affair. We have a report from james mates of independent television news. Reporter the setting in the ornate splendor of the elysee palace befits the head of state of a great european power. In the french way a leading journalist was desginated to broach the embarrassing subject. translated is your partner still the first lady of france, he asked . Reporter private matters are dealt with privately, was his answer. Though he did say her status would be sorted out before he makes a visit to president obama in washington next month. On the newsstands the press have been less respectful, and as for claims the french dont care about the private lives of their leaders, closer magazine which published the photos has had to rush out an emergency reprint to satisfy demand. The only good news it doesnt seem to have cost him any popularity. Theres not a lot of damage on his popularity because it was already very low. In july he was at 20 it was lowest level ever known to a president in france. Reporter valerie treiwalier, the woman who may or may not be frances first lady, remains in hospital undergoing what the french call a cure de sommeil, a sleep cure, in which she is kept sedated until she feels better. She may be there for the rest of the week but when she comes out thats when the real trouble for the president , personal and political, may begin. Woodruff in iran today, president Hassan Rouhani claimed his government won a victory with a landmark nuclear agreement. Under the deal, iran is to scale back its Nuclear Enrichment in exchange for economic sanctions relief over the next six months. Rouhani told supporters in the city of ahwaz that the u. S. And others caved to irans demands. translated the geneva agreement will be put into action within the next few days. Do you know what the geneva it means the surrender of Great International powers before the great nation of iran. The geneva agreement means the breaking of the barrier of sanctions that had been imposed wrongfully on this dear and peaceloving nation of iran. Woodruff iranian hardliners have criticized the deal, arguing it infringes on tehrans right to Nuclear Enrichment. A little later in the program, former defense secretary robert gates also weighs in on the iran agreement. The National Football leagues concussion settlement with former players ran into a body block today. A federal judge in philadelphia denied preliminary approval of the deal worth 765 million. She voiced doubts that its big enough to cover the health costs for some 20,000 retired players. The judge asked for more financial information. Wall street bounced back from mondays plunge thanks to an upbeat report on retail sales. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained almost 116 points to close near 16,374. The nasdaq rose nearly 70 points to close at 4,183. Still to come on the newshour, we dive into the details of the federal budget deal. Former defense secretary robert gates on his new memoir. Egyptians weigh in on their draft constitution. And how to keep your Information Secure in the wake of major data breaches at retailers. Ifill lawmakers reached a deal monday on a wideranging spending bill but remain divided over extending longterm unemployment benefits. Newshour Congressional Correspondent kwame holman reports on todays action. In the opinion of the chair, twothirds being in the affirmative the rules are suspended, the joint resolution is agreed to. Reporter the house used a voice vote to pass a stopgap bill that will fund the government until the weekend. That takes care of a wednesday deadline allowing members to finish work on a massive bi partisan measure that will pay the bills through september. House Speaker John Boehner were in a situation where the government is in fact going to run out of money. Were going to have to move a shortterm c. R. But we want to get this government funding in place as soon as possible. Reporter next up for the house passing the main 1. 1 trillion package, which runs nearly 1,600 pages. That vote could come tomorrow. Some tea party backed republicans are expected to oppose it, but democrats are likely to join more moderate republicans in pushing the bill to passage, and sending it to the senate. Democrats claimed some victories in the bill, holding off republican efforts to strip most funding for the president s Affordable Care act. They also blocked efforts to reverse clean water act regulations and control of greenhouse gases. And, the budget bill increased funding for head start by more than 1 billion. But republicans won some concessions as well. The bill continues the ban on using federal money for abortions. And a gop provision does cut a billion dollars from the Health Care Laws prevention and Public Health fund. Another prohibits transferring Guantanamo Bay inmates to the u. S. More broadly, the socalled omnibus bill restores billions in pending automatic cuts to defense and domestic programs. And it exempts disabled veterans and war widows from a one percent costofliving benefit cut. President obama praised the compromise at a Cabinet Meeting today. I was very pleased to see the house and the senate agree to a budget and to put forward a bill that will fund our government at levels that allow us to take some important steps to provide the services and the help that americans need, that American Families need in order to get ahead in this economy. Reporter but the bipartisan spirit did not extend to the senates fight over providing benefits for the longterm unemployed. Democratic majority leader harry reid offered to let republicans have five amendments if they can get 60 votes to pass them. We want to have relevant amendments. I think thats only fair. And we hope, we hope for my republican colleagues in the interest of getting an upor down vote on final passage. Thats something that should be fair. Reporter republican Minority Leader Mitch Mcconnell quickly scotched that idea. Honestly ridiculous offer that he knows we couldnt possibly accept, which is that all of our amendments are at 60, final passage is at 51, and no budget points of order are available. Theyre typically available on every bill, and expects youall reporter later, the two sides blocked each others proposals on the floor. Despite that dispute, the senate is expected come together to pass the large spending bill, by saturday, thereby avoiding a new government shutdown. Ifill we take a closer look at some of the specific provisions in the spending compromise with ed okeefe. He reports on congress for the washington post. Lets talk about the details of this budget bill but i want to ask you about the Unemployment Insurance standoff. Does that mean any effort to extend the Unemployment Insurance for the longterm unemployed, is that dead tonight . Its not necessarily dead but its on life support. As kwame outlined, there are sort of procedural wrangling still going on between democrats and republicans. Democrats, republicans wants to get this done but i think democrats still continue to insist that republicans have to follow their will and thats causing a lot of consternation for g. O. P. Senators. Bottom line this issue will not be resolved by the end of the week and of course the house and senate are out of town next week fork the Martin Luther king holiday which means this issue wont come up again until late january before it would actually go out. Lets go back to the budget for a moment. The house and congress moved on a shortterm extension for a few days but the big news, is theyre going to work on the longterm extension. What is the difference in what theyre trying to work out here . Really at this point its all done except for the voting. This is a 1. 1 trillion plan. No more threat of a shutdown for 2014 and 2014 as well. What that means basically is that congress and the federal government over all get back to normal order, to regular order. They can go back to writing Appropriations Bills that outline specifically how money is supposed to be spent. Spending levels dip back to levels seen in the late years of the burkes before the economic downturn in the stimulus programs and about 20 billion gets restored to the military, while other agencies continue to see cuts. Lets talk about some of those. Its interesting to talk about the big number irs but not about the big impact. Something like Embassy Security, which might get lost in the big numbers, theres actual change in the spending on that . Thats right. Remember there was a lot of concern after the september 112012 attack on the u. S. Out post and benghazi and lib yar, Embassy Security there and around the world. Theres a little less this year because there was more put in last year but essentially, improvements in ongoing construction project less continue around the world. Theres also money for temporary diplomatic out posts, like the locations still in benghazi and the bigger embassy in tripoli. How about the president s efforts to close guantanamo. Is that in the budget . He cant move out of get mow into the United States. That provision stays put. Its a long dispute between lawmakers and the president. He would like to close it but he will not be able to move them into a detention facility that he was eyeing in illinois. Lawmakers still saying its too unsafe and too costly to do. How many Homeland Security and transportation security administration, are we still obsessed about security and protecting ourselves. Does this budget affect that . Sure, the massive Homeland Security department sees about a 300 million cut in spending. Some of this is targeted at tsa. Its not seeing a big change in the budget but it is seeing a big change in the policy in that republicans were able to get democrats to agree to allow more private security contractors in some airports. A lot of republicans in the post 9 11 era want to see private companies and not the government running security at larger airports and bigger ones and there are collections of them around the country that do this. This essentially allows them to do that little bit more but still caps overall security personnel to check you as you go in for a flight with about 46,000 workers. Democrats also had a couple of wins in this or they wouldnt be agreeing to it and one of them is restoring funds for head start. How much is that and. Overall the program will see about 8 billion in funding. Thats a big increase over last year and a lot of money goes to grants for preschool programs, the Early Head Start program. Big victory for the president. It wasnt down the way the democrats in the white house wanted but getting that money in for head start was seen as a big victory. Theres a Foreign Policy working out in the budget, sending messages to people like hamid karzai saying we sign you up or else. If the Afghan Government doesnt agree to the bilateral security agreement, the government wont necessarily get more u. S. Aide but theres 85 billion set aside for Ongoing Military Operations in afghanistan. Same for libya. No u. S. Aid for libya until secretary of state john kerry ensheurs that the Libyan Government has been cooperating with the investigations into that 2012 attack at the compound in benghazi. A lot of policy behind the numbers. Thanks for helping us with it. Great to be with you. Woodruff one of the most talked about and controversial books of the new year went on sale today. Robert gates has served eight president s, held key posts at the white house, was head of the c. I. A and secretary of defense under president s george w. Bush and obama. The book, duty memoirs of a secretary of war sparked a frenzy of headlines ahead of its official release for his public criticism of the administration he recently left. I spoke to him earlier today. He was wearing a neck brace after falling at his home last week. Secretary robert Gates Welcome to the news hour. Thank you very much, judy. Woodruff so you created a bit of a firestorm with the publicity over the book. It has gotten a lot of attention. Has that been helpful to what you were trying to do . I think so. The book is dedicated to the men and women of the armed forces and i really wrote it for them and for their families and as i like to put it, the america that sent them to war. And really, its kind of on two levels. First of all to show the difficulties of getting anything done in washington under the current environment and how i did it, but also to show how both president s wrestled with these questions of war and peace and life and death to try and humanize it and personalize it by somebody who was sitting in the room and saw them dealing with these issues. Someone wrote that in the book you are, in essence, painting a picture of a broken Foreign Policy process in the obama administration. Is that what you think exists today . No, and i dont think that the book portrays that either. I make very clear in the book that the obama team certainly until the early spring of 2011 a few months before i left, there was broad accord in that team on virtually every major Foreign Policy issue facing the president and facing the country, with the exception of afghanistan and that strategy. I thought that the amount of time that president obama devoted to trying to figure out the right path forward was exactly the right thing to have done. Now what i do complain about in the book is, once he has made the Strategic Decisions, all of which i agreed with, the execution of that, particularly micromanagement from the white house and things like that, did give me heartburn. Well, you do complain that the president lost faith in the strategy behind the afghanistan war. But he said yesterday something different. He was very gracious towards you have but said he has continued to have faith in the mission. Is he not levelling . I think president s having reservations, gauging regularly whether or not their strategy is working is not an unusually thing. And i think that he did have reservations about whether it was going to work, and i talk about that. But i think you have to take it in the context of the decisions that he made and the fact that he stuck to those decisions. I think that one of the things that i show in the book is and its one of the reasons that i cite some of the personal conversations that have caused some people to criticize me for that, but i think what those what those personal conversations show is a president doing exactly what he ought to be doing, pushing back, asking touch questions, not being spoonfed information, and, you know, bring in skepticism to the conversation in terms of whether things are working or noted. I want to turn the corner and ask you about a couple of things you raise. One of them is pretty big. Its president bush. You praise him for having no second thoughts about iraq. How do you think history is going to judge him on that decision . Judy, as i have said before, i think the war in iraq will always be tainted by the fact that it began based on wrong information in terms of Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction. I think in the longer term, whether or not the war or how the war is regarded will depend largely on whether the removal of Saddam Hussein and the creation of a foundation of a democratic state, whether or not it turns out that way, really depends on 40events there and in the rest of the region turn out over the next several decades. Iran, of course, plays major role throughout this book and it continues to very much today. What do you think of the deal secretary of state kerry is working on to negotiate tentative Nuclear Agreements with iran . I think that the United States had no choice but to sit down at the table with the iranians once they offered to negotiate. The question is, what kind of an agreement comes out at the end of it, and i think thats the hard part is still in front of us. First i think there ought to be a Firm Deadline at six months. I think that the iranians are world class experts in slow rolling with their negotiating partners or adversaries in terms of lets take another month or two months or three months and i think theres a risk of this negotiation dragging out as we iranians continue certain parts of their nuke Collar Program. The other piece of it is whether the negotiations roll back enough of the iranian nuke Collar Program that they are not a nuke collar weapon threshold state. So i totally support going to the negotiating table but everything depends on a successful outcome to those negotiations six months from nowed. What do you think of the senates efforts to impose new sanctions to increase the pressure on iran right now . I think that the idea of imposing new sanctions right now is a terrible mistake and would be a strategic error. On the other hand, i do disagree with the administration in this respect. I think that the senate or the Congress Voting receiver new sanctions severe new sanctions but sanctions that would be triggered only by failure of the negotiations would strengthen the president s negotiating hand. I hear the argument that would strengthen the hand of hawks in iran and the opponents of the negotiation. Well maybe the loinions are worrying about the potential consequences of strengthening the hawks in the United States. But i think any new sanctions need to be conditioned and triggered by the failure of the negotiations. Secretary gates, you make it clear you care so deeply about the american troops, you are fiercely supportive of them. Youre not at all worried about affecting the morale of the troops with a book like this that questions the commanderinchief commitment to the war . Well, i think i think that under scoring that i agreed with all of the president s Strategic Decisions on afghanistan and the fact that he has stuck with those decisions, the decisions with respect to the war have all been made. We know were coming out of the end of december of this year. We know that the u. S. Would like to have a residual force, the president decided that. The agreement has been negotiated. Were just waiting for the afghans to agree to it. So i think that all of the fundamental decisions to afghanistan have already been made and frankly in terms of the environment in washington and so on, i mean the troops know the score. They read the newspapers. They watch television. And its not like theyre living in a cave over there. You spent most of your career working in intelligence and of course theres been a lot of criticism at home and abroad over the National Security agencies surveillance practices, especially since the Edward Snowden revelation. Do you think the nsa and many of the programs and practices have gone too far. The question is, whether nsa developed capabilities and applied those capabilities that went beyond the guidelines or the left and right curves if you will that the president and the Congress Expected and were briefed on. And thats why i think that the white house review and the congressional review are so important and if the program did go beyond those guidelines, did go beyond those limits, to get it back within those limits and if, in fact, there were people who knowingly went beyond what the president had approved, that they be held accountable. How much damage do you think these revelations have done . And do you think snowden is a traitor or a hero . I think that the revelations have done a lot of damage. It sounds like they have the potential to do a lot more. I think he is a traitor. You know, we built we spent 40 years building institutions of oversight for intelligence since the mid 1907s, in the congress and the executive branch and in the judiciary. There are multiple avenues for people who believe that the rules are being broken or that the law is being broken to pursue in order to bring those problems to authorities who can evaluate whether or not somebody is breaking the law in the intelligence community. And for 29yearold basically to take it upon himself and ignore the institutions built up by republicans and democrats in washington, over the last 40 years, i think, is an extraordinary act of hubris and then to flee, to the protection of that notorious protector of human rights and privacy and civil liberties, vladimir putin, i think, speaks volumes. If high is truly highly motivated and idealistic as he says, then he should come home and face the music much as earlier whistleblowers did. Last question the late senator pat monahan, among other things, used to rail against tellall books by insiders and said it was a disservice to the Free Exchange of ideas and it made people hold bang because they thought they might be quoted somewhere in the book and said it was a disservice to history. Well, i think that the books to settle scores, kissandtell books, i have the same view as senator monahan. I dont think this book is either of those. I criticize myself as much if not more in the book than i do anybody else. I think im fair in my treatment of both president s. I think over all the book is very positive about both president s. And frankly there are things in the book that are of contemporary relevance and in the problems that we face today, whether its whether to use military force in syria, whether its to potentially use military force against iran and its nuclear program, how to deal with the chinese and the russians. I have been at this under eight president s. I bring a perspective and experience that i dont think anybody else has. And frankly, to wait until 2017 makes any contribution that i could make irrelevant and i think what i have in this book, when people do finally read the book now that its available today, is provide some perspective on these issues and hopefully some guidance. It also lays out how, in a polarized and paralyzed washington, i got things done in terms of canceling programs in the department of defense, in terms of cutting overhead in defense, and how and Holding People accountable in defense. I would just add, as an afterthought, i hope that the same question will be asked of secretary geithner, pineta, secretary clinton and others, all of whom are writing books that will be published before the end of this president s term gld we programs to ask all of them that question. Robert gates, we thank you. Thank you, judy. Woodruff secretary gates had more to say about the size of the nations military and whether the armed forces should remain voluntary. You can find that online. Ifill in egypt today, at least 11 people were killed in sporadic protests and clashes, as millions went to the polls to vote on a new constitution. The violence highlighted the deep political divisions that persist six months after its islamist president was ousted from office by the military. Newshour chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner reports. Reporter for the second time in little more than year, egyptians lined up today to vote on a new constitution. They seemed eager, but anxious. translated many people have been lost, and may god reporter the campaign for the balloting, which ends tomorrow, was intense, with advocates for the current government urging a yes vote. translated no one will ever agree 100 with any i would say if you are agreeing with just 60 of it, say yes. Reporter and the governments nemesis, members of the Islamist Muslim brotherhood, denouncing it. translated we had a transparent election that elected morsi and it was blown away. It is impossible to say that now there is democracy or a fair referendum. Reporter there are high stakes in this weeks vote. Its the first chance for egyptians to formally register their verdict on last summers stunning developments, when millions took to the streets june 30 to protest the economic failures and heavy handed rule of elected president Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhoodled government. And on july 3, he was ousted by the military under army general abdel fattah alsissi. The brotherhood labeled it a coup. But sisis appointed interim government promised to restore civilian democracy within nine months. And, as a first step, named a commission to rewrite the morsiera constitution. Commission vicechair, prominent cairo attorney and womens rights advocate mona zulficar, says the document would ensure many Citizens Rights that previous governments suppressed. There is a guarantee for equal opportunity and a guarantee for equality under the law. And provides explicitly that no discrimination will be allowed based on the fact of religion, belief, sex or political affiliation. Reporter the proposed document does protect women and religious minorities and the freedoms of speech and assembly. And it returns islamic sharia law to its premorsi era status as the basis for legislation, but no more. But it grants new powers and nearly unlimited autonomy to the military, the police and the judiciary. Steven cook of the Council Foreign relations believes the document wont safeguard citizens against government abuses any better than constitutions of the past. Its clearly deeply flawed. If you look at the constitution there are protections for personal freedoms and Political Rights but the key thing is that egypts leaders have then gone about promulgating implementing legislation that essentially removes those rights. Reporter and because it was drafted without official input from the Muslim Brotherhood, he says, its as exclusive and one sided a document as the morsi government was accused of writing in 2012. They have presented the constitution as a way forward when its really essentially a previous political system. It has not been an inclusive system, not inclusive at all. Well first of all, it cannot possible be a step back because the last constitution we had by the Muslim Brotherhood was terrible; you cant get worse than that. Reporter egypts ambassador to washington, Mohamed Tawfik insists that islamist figures and brotherhood members did participate in its writing as individuals. Their ideology, their world views, their perspective was represented, although they did not actually participate as a political party. Reporter but egypts largest political and social movement, is calling on egyptians to stay home this week. Aly khafagy is a youth leader of the brotherhoods political wing, the freedom and justice party. translated the articles of this constitution are legitimizing military rule that has been rejected already from the egyptian street. We are boycotting this document written with the blood of the egyptian martyrs. Reporter he was referring to the Violent Police clearing of anticoup protest sites last summer, like this one at cairos rabaa square. Hundreds were killed. Thousands of brotherhood leaders and rank and file have been detained, and the groups assets confiscated. Yet brotherhood protests have continued. Some sparking street clashes with police wielding tear gas and flashbang grenades. The ongoing polarization between egyptian authorities and the nowsuppressed Muslim Brotherhood has disrupted the image the interim government wants to project, that its on a steady ninemonth path to democratic elections and a new government based on inclusion. The last six months have also seen growing professionalscale terrorist attacks, like this Christmas Eve bombing of a police station, which killed more than 15. The brotherhood denied responsibly, and a radical jihadi group claimed it. Yet the next day, the cabinet designated the brotherhood a terrorist organization. The Muslim Brotherhood has provided support, lodge shticks kel proper and intelligence support, to some small extremist terrorist groups. And that, because of this support, the capacity of these groups to cause harm, has grown exponentially. I will say this is a very short sided decision. Theres no evidence of the brotherhood involved in any terroristic actions. Reporter khalil alanani, a scholar of islamist movements and now a senior fellow at the middle east institute in washington, believes the governments motives are more political. One of the things behind this is an attempt by the state to eradicate the Muslim Brotherhood. Reporter to eradicate it . Eradicate and uproot them, i would say. And to put an end to their ongoing protesting in the street. Reporter he warns the move could prompt some brotherhood members, especially younger ones, to turn to violence, and trigger the kind of Islamist Insurgency egypt saw in the 1980s and 90s. So, what and left for them . Brotherhood figures arent the only ones being silent. So are liberal dissenters, including Young Leaders of the january 2011 revolution that drove long time ruler Hosni Mubarak from power one of them, ahmed maher of the april 6 movement, and two compatriots were convicted and imprisoned last month for breaking a new law restricting protests. Heba morayef, country director of human rights watch, says the government is trying to muzzle all dissent. They are monitoring Political Activities and what happened what coincided with that was a very targeted Smear Campaign against anybody who speaks of human rights, against anybody who criticizes the police or criticizes the military. The regime right now is trying to reverse the last three years, to turn back the clock to pre january 2011. Reporter in fact, under the proposed document, the military will gain Sole Authority over its budget, and the last word on choosing a defense minister greater constitutional autonomy than ever, says steven cook. It institutionalizes the situation in egypt thats existed for a long time, which is that the military is a law unto itself, it makes its own constitution commissioner vice chair makes no apologies for granting the military protective status amid all of the turmoil. The Egyptian Army has always reporter the outcome of this weeks vote, the turnout as well as the margin, is sure to be read as a referendum on egypts turn under the military appointed government. Last weekend, gen. Alsissi urged egyptians to turn out in large numbers and said would consider running in the upcoming president ial election, if the people request it. It seems a far cry from the dreams of the Tahrir Square revolutionaries who set all this change in motion three years ago. Ifill new revelations have come to light in the past several days about the massive hacking attack of consumers information affecting customers of some major retail stores. Theyre raising more concerns over how many people may be at risk, and what individuals need to know to protect themselves. The Holiday Shopping season is over, but the data breach that hit retail giant target is still growing. The company now acknowledges that information on up to 110 million accounts was compromised. Initial estimates were 40 million. Today, two u. S. Senators demanded answers from targets c. E. O. Commerce Committee Chairman John Rockefeller and fellow democrat Claire Mccaskill said in a letter ifill the breach has scared some shoppers away from pulling out their credit cards. I rather try to use cash here, until they straighten everything out. It seems a little scary. Ifill while others say theyre going about their business. Yeah, i use a credit card but it wouldnt deter me because really target is like all the big businesses, you know. Cyber theft is cyber theft. Ifill highend Department Store Nieman Marcus has also announced a smaller Holiday Season breach. And thereve been reports that other unnamed retailers were also hit. As for target, the Company Issued a fullpage apology yesterday, printed in several major newspapers. To help shed a little more light on how vulnerable businesses and consumers actually are, we turn to two people who have been following these developments closely. Nicole perlroth of the New York Times and ken stasiak, the chief executive of secure state, a Consulting Firm focused on information security. We first heard 40 million and then 07 million and now 110 million. Do you expect the numbers to keep going up . I do expect the numbers to keep going up. Originally we heard 40 Million People were affected in the stores that if they use their credit card and swiped it through a Cash Register at a target, they were affected. Now we know that the 70 Million People whose information was stored in the server were also affected and that tells us that the attackers were deep inside targets corporate network, so i would not be surprised if they were able to get into other buckets of information as well. When we first reported the story, the working theory was this was an inside job. It doesnt look that way so much now . No. I think from what we have seen this is too massive to be an inside job. When you look at the breadth and scope of 1700 scores, 110 million records compromised, you know this is definitely pointing to malicious activity, hacker groups outside of the environment and theyre trying to see what they do do with the Retail Industry. Were seeing other breaches come out over the last two weeks. So the question is, are these correlated attacks . Do they have any type of merit to say that hackers are targeting the Retail Industry to try to get this credit card information and identify the information from the consumers. Woodruff do you have reason to be that it could be the attacks originated from the United States. We think it occurred outside of the United States with the secret service involved in the investigation. I think it bought puts it more paramount to the fact theres nor scrutiny to the hackers being outside. Were also seeing some thoughts that the hackers are starting to spread even beyond what we thought from just targets to other retailers and i think that correlated attack and the mass i have had amount of records definitely speaks to a Hacking Community outside of the United States. Nicole perlroth, since we heard about this, email addresses stolen and credit cards stolen, have we had any reported incidents of fraud where people have taken and used that information . We have. I have a cameraman in the room with me now who said he heard from his bank that his card was used and he was affected. I ran into at least three people today who said the same thing. The fact is, this is now affecting over 1 3 of the American Population and we have seen the cards drop into the black market where a single card can fetch as much as a hundred dollars. Hackers will take this information, they will use it, and way beyond the one year that target is offering Identity Theft protection and credit monitoring and unfortunately people whose information was compromised will be good targets for hackers for Identity Theft. Nicole, another thing that we heard early on is this was only affected by people who swiped their cards at points of sale. Do we know that to be still true . No, its not longer true. Definitely people who shopped in store between the day before thanksgiving and december 15th cards and debit cards were taken. But now we learned last week that actually a whole separate bucket of target customers were affected and the names and email addresses, mailing addresses and possibly more were taken from a separate target server so this is no longer just people who shop physically in the stores. This is target customers at large will have to start monitoring their Bank Accounts for potential fraud. So Online Shopping is affected as well. Ken, give me a feeling for this. After we found out about this, do we know if the breach has been sealed or does it continue . You know when target first came out, they said with the press release in the 19th of december that here is the date, here is how many credit cards were leaked, and over the last several weeks, they have controverted their statements and we would believe as investigators, they would come in and contain the environment so no more breaches could occur, no more loss of personally identifiable information, addresses, etc. And as we just heard, you know, thats not the strategy. So its been a botched investigation from a crises management perspective. The c. E. O. Is coming out with apology letters. Its a little too late. They should have taken this seriously in the beginning and put the security in place so that now millions of consumers are obviously affected. And as far as you know, nicole, there are other more than Nieman Marcus and target, there are other retail establishments that were going to hear about that were also affected by some version of this. The investigations are ongoing, but there are reports out there that there are other retailers that were affected as well. Certainly on friday, Nieman Marcus came out and confirmed it had been breached. It has not given a sense of how big that breach is or how many customers were affected and there were reports that we may hear as many as half dozen other retailers were affected and people are still looking to see if the attacks are correlated or not but certainly this could be bigger than just target. So, ken, who we have been scaring people for the last few minutes, what do we tell customers to do about this . Obviously youre going to have to look at your credit report. Thats the big thing that were starting to see out of here. Your credit card and statements are generally going to be backed by target, nieman march consultation. If you see fraudulent charges, more than likely they will be taken off before you even know about it since the payment brands, visa, master card and American Express are hypersensitive to this. You have to look at the Credit History and the monitoring and the reports, a lot of this information that has been he canned speaks to Identity Theft and thats where the consumers are by to get hit. From a debit card perspective, were big on do not use your debit card in the stores, only your credit card, when it says enter you pin, hit the green number and go to credit. Its an ensured way to purchase things and as we have seen before, you fraudulent charges will be taken off. But if your debit card is stolen with your pin, class action lawsuits have been filed against target for people draining Bank Accounts and hackers and etc. And number three, as consumers, you know, vote with your wallet, with your pocketbook and tell the merchants that have been breached that you know were not happy so stop, you know, stop shopping at target and neem map marcus and thats going to point a picture to say you know as consumers were concerned and were not going to stand for this anymore. What should stores be doing or what are they doing now, nicole . I can say this has been a big wakeup call to other stores to up their cybersecurity defenses. Theres been a Huge Investment over the last decade and this is physical security and surveillance and now i think retailers are waking up and seeing that they have to do the same for their cybersecurity defenses as well so im hearing from a number of Security Companies that say that retailers are reaching out to them and saying, can you come immediately and help us install your software . So i think this will be a big boon for the Security Software industry as well. Nicole perlroth thank you for your report energy the New York Times and ken stasiak. Thank you both. Thank you so much woodruff finally tonight, an unusual look inside the isolated kingdom of north korea. While little is known by outsiders about daily life in the country. Some journalists and activists are now smuggling secret videos shot by a network of North Koreans who are risking their lives to show the world whats going on in their country. Some footage obtained by japanese journalist Jiro Ishimaru is featured in tonights frontline on pbs, secret state of north korea. Heres an excerpt. These are pictures we want the world to see. North koreans living n. Towns across the country. They risk their lives to get the footage. One of his contacts is it a states employee, but has been smuggling footage out for five years. He agreed to speak if his identity was concealed translated this is dangerous, and if i get caught, i know id immediately be executed as a traitor to the korean people. But ive got to do this. Ive got to do this no matter what. Im just one person. Even if i have to sacrifice my life, someday, something is going to change. Narrator the famine which killed more than a million North Koreans in the 1990s has ended. But the United Nations says the country is still vulnerable to food shortages, and more than three quarters of the population dont have enough food to eat. Narrator over the past three years, jiros Undercover Network has filmed orphaned street kids gathering in the markets begging for money and on the lookout for scraps of food. For the safety of the people filming, he disguises their voices. Woodruff tonights edition of frontline, secret state of north korea, airs on most pbs stations later this evening. Ifill again, the major developments of the day. The house of representatives approved a plan to fund the government through saturday and sent it to the senate. It buys time to finish an omnibus spending bill for the rest of the fiscal year. A federal Appeals Court struck down rules that ensure internet content providers get equal access to broadband networks. It could affect the availability of material, and the price. And wall street rebounded from mondays big losses. The dow industrials gained 116 points. Woodruff on the newshour online right now, one in every five adults suffers from arthritis, the leading cause of disability in the u. S. Were hosting a twitter chat about this condition on thursday. Find out more and ask your arthritis questions on the rundown. All that and more is on our web site, newshour. Pbs. Org. Ifill and thats the newshour for tonight. On wednesday, the Supreme Court hears an abortion case. This time should there be limits to where protesters can gather outside of clinics . Im gwen ifill. Woodruff and im judy woodruff. Well see you online and again here tomorrow evening. For all of us here at the pbs newshour, thank you and good night. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. And the william and flora hewlett foundation, helping people build immeasurably better lives. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and foundations. And. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Captioning sponsored by Macneil Lehrer productions captioned by Media Access Group at wgbh access. Wgbh. Org our Rating Service provides independent objective ratings daily on over 4300 stocks. Learn more at the street. Com nvr. Rebound. Stocks snapped back from yesterdays steep drop as investors focus on earnings from two of the nations biggest banks and what they say about the future growth. Who controls the internet . Those who own the pipes like verizon and Time Warner Cable or the content providers like netflix and youtube . A legal ruling today could impact everyone who cooks and logs on. And the next hot stock, biotechs are risky but c