Transcripts For WPVI This Week With George Stephanopoulos 20

WPVI This Week With George Stephanopoulos November 9, 2014

George stephanopoulos begins now. And we begin with that emotional homecoming overnight for the last two americans held prisoner in north korea. Kenneth bae and Matthew Todd Miller touched down in Washington State on an air force jet. Their release secured when americas spy chief James Clapper hand delivered a secret letter from the president to north koreas leader kim jongun. After hugs from his family, bae reflected on two years in captivity. I learned a lot. I grew a lot. I lost a lot of weight, in a good way, but i am standing strong because of you. All of this happening as president obama heads to asia this week leaving behind a capital shaken up by that Midterm Election earthquake. The gop now in solid control of congress. The president s team scrambling to salvage its final two years and were going to analyze all the fallout this morning beginning with jon karl at the white house. Good morning, jon. Reporter good morning, george. The president departed overnight and will spend the next week on the other side of the world seeking to redirect u. S. Foreign policy towards asia while here at home, the new Republican Leadership gets settled in. The president has already broken bread with congressional leaders but he is off to a rocky start with republicans. It was a lunch that brought no real breakthroughs and apparently no smiles either. The president acknowledged the message from tuesday nights drubbing of democrats was loud and clear. The American People just want to see work done here in washington. Theyd like to see more cooperation and i think all of us have the responsibility, me in particular, to try to make that happen. Reporter but despite the election wave that swept republicans into control of the senate it is time for a new way forward. Reporter president obama insists hell still take executive action on Immigration Reform before the end of the year in defiance of republicans in congress. If they want to get a bill done, whether its during the lame duck or next year, i am eager to see what they have to offer. But what im not going to do is just wait. Reporter and the white house says theres no backing down on that. Even though hes had a chance to sit down and talk with him hes completely closed of the idea of delaying not even talk to them. Hell take that executive action before the end of the year. Reporter but Republican Leaders warn if the president goes around congress on immigration, it will poison the well on virtually everything. When you play with matches, you take the risk of burning yourself and hes going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path. Its like waving a red flag in front of a bull to say, if you guys dont do what i want, im going to do it on my own. Reporter so what issues show the biggest chances for actual agreement. Bipartisan calls for trade, Corporate Tax reform, Infrastructure Spending and the Keystone Pipeline and despite their track record, president obama and republicans showed some signs they may be ready to turn the page. Just because you have divided government doesnt mean you dont accomplish anything. I would enjoy having some kentucky bourbon with Mitch Mcconnell so i think we can have a productive relationship. Reporter for democrats tuesday was certainly a drubbing but its hardly unprecedented. In fact, going all the way back to world war ii, all four president s who served two full terms faced a congress controlled by the opposing party for their last two years. George. That is what happens. Okay, jon, thanks very much. Overseas the president finds himself in a position he did not anticipate, certainly did not want sending more troops to iraq. The white house announced friday it was doubling the number of troops in the fight against isis and abcs chief Global Affairs correspondent Martha Raddatz is on that story. Reporter tumbling down against isis in iraq, first it was 300 troops on the ground to protect diplomats grown to almost 1600 to train and advise, now up to 3100 approved. Not to mention hundreds of air strikes including these on the besieged town of kobani this weekend. So, what will these troops do . Outside erbil in baghdad two expeditionary Operation Centers will be built to advise and assist iraqi and kurdish forces. And at least four additional training sites will be set up in the volatile north, south and al Anbar Province in the west. The white house insists these are not combat troops but that is some hot territory. Isis strongholds, no question theyll be in more danger. And americans in iraq will get, quote, an appropriate array of force Protection Capabilities which will likely mean attack helicopters. Matt bradley has been reporting on the ground in iraq for 18 months. We spoke to him on skype from baghdad. Most iraqis know that the Obama Administration is going to stick to the commitment that its made to not deploy these troops in a wartime scenario but see it as one more step towards the inevitable. There has to be u. S. Troops on the ground because the Iraqi Military is simply incapable of fighting the islamic state. Reporter and this week, president obama is saying hell ask for even more support from congress. Im going to begin Engaging Congress over a new authorization to use military force against isil. Reporter and when one of the most powerful voices in the newly elected Republican Senate says things like this we need to understand that the president is the commander in chief and that role i do not believe should be impinged upon by the congress. Reporter the president just might get his wish. For this week, Martha Raddatz, abc news, washington. Thanks to martha for that. Were joined by republican congressman darrell issa. Thanks for joining us. Are you prepared toot authorization of this mission in iraq . I am, george. I was just in both baghdad and erbil in addition to six other nations in the middle east between august and erbil just a few weeks ago. The fact is were already there. Weve had to be there. The government in baghdad is still quite delusional, if you will, about what the real impact is. Theyre still talking about longterm training before theyre ready to fight so the fact is that if were to protect the gains we made against islamic extremism my marines from Camp Pendleton and others are going to have to go back again. Should they be in combat position . Iraqis should fight for their country. Theres no question at all. Theyve been trained and they should do it. The fact is the kurds are willing to do it. I have no doubt whatsoever that the kurds will fight and all they need is our air support and our technical knowhow and they will do it. When it comes to the sunni shia divide that the maliki government created, it makes it very, very hard to put together the kind of military units that they should have. That remains to be seen lc pw whether or not the substantial portion of that 800,000 people we trained are willing to fight. The fact is, by the time they started fleeing we were down to a quarter of a million and when i met with the government they said, well, we have about 8,000 would will fight. I think they have to do better. Let me turn to the broader issues facing the president and congress in these next couple of years. The president is making it very clear hell act on immigration on his own before the end of the year. What are the consequences . Well, the consequences are lost opportunities. In the last congress i authored the skills visa act that not only would have allowed and promoted the best and the brightest being allowed to remain here and add to our economy, stem, if you will graduates but it scored 100 billion of new revenue to the government. That can be paired with other Immigration Reforms and if the president is willing to work with us in the house and the senate, we could make that happen. If not, shutting down the government. Im not predicting what the result will be other than in my 14 years on judiciary and the work ive tried to do on immigration, time and time again, people have missed opportunities. The fact is our farmers in california need an effective worker program. The reality is that we send home to Foreign Countries the best and the brightest from around the world when, in fact, theyd like to stay here and add to our economy. We need to Work Together to solve both of those problems. Im hoping the president will delay and have a real comprehensive discussion about whats possible, because a great deal is possible on Immigration Reform. Well, lets see if he takes your advice. Congressman issa, thanks for your time. Now to that major new threating itting our nations Critical Infrastructure and learned that hackers have broken into the Computers Controlling our utilities. The life lines for water, gas and power are. Our experts to weigh in and what can be done to prevent them after this from abcs senior justice correspondent pierre thomas. Just issued a critical alert. The entire network went down. Reporter in live free and die hard theyre able to hut down the power grid and transportation network. Reporter that kind of dramatic threat may not just be the stuff of hollywood fiction. In fact, closer to reality than you think. Sources tell abc news hackers in overseas secretly planted Malicious Software inside computer systemed serving our nations most Important Services and industries. Water treatment facilities, power plants, gas pipelines, all critical for daily life now potentially at risk. Authorities believe this electronic trojan horse was put in years ago but not activated. Theyve given it an ominous name, black energy. In theory black energy could allow a hacker to turn off a generator, flood a Water Treatment plant or shut down a gas pipeline. The threat is ongoing. Abc news obtained a new Homeland Security bulletin that warns, utility owners and operators to look for signs of compromise and to report any suspected intrusion immediately. U. S. Officials are worried because they have hard evidence that such a cyberattack is possible. In this test government hackers forced this generate story selfdestruct with a series of simple keystrokes. Watch. The generator is literally shaking itself apart. As for black energy, the primary suspects, operatives tied to the russian government and sources say it resembles Malicious Software used in recent attacks on nato and unclassified white house computer systems. It may all point to the beginning of a new cold war with the internet as part of the battlefield. Terrorism is still the Number One National Security Threat but weve seen cybergrow at an alarming rate and the threats that we face, the number of arcs, the number of breaches, this is a real problem. Reporter its a new world where threats you cannot see can reach out and touch you. For this week, pierre thomas, abc news, washington. Thanks to pierre. Were joined by former white house counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke and jim langevin. Richard, let me begin with you. Since you left the government you devoted time and study to the threat from cyberattacks and youve concluded that were a lot more vulnerable now than we were then. I think thats right. I think nation states have been building cyberarmies, cybercommands including the United States and theres probably a half dozen nations around the world that have already put these logic bombs in each others networks, not that theyre going to use them unless they go to war. So unless we so explain that. This black energy malware which is in our systems, we believe, why just park there . Well, because you want to be able to get in when you can get in. It may be that if you wait itll be too late to get in, new defenses will be created. You want to have the act to push a button when the war starts and bring the enemy to his knees. And so most modern nations now have tried this with their potential enemies. And congressman, you know the federal government is also st y studying these threats to the power grid showing the vulnerability of our power grid, a small number of transmission stations could create a power grid collapse. How serious is this threat . It is very serious and ive been talking about this for a number of years going back about 2007 when i chaired the Homeland Security subcommittee that had jurisdiction over cybersecurity and we did a deep dive on this looking at how vulnerable Critical Infrastructure is and in particular ow vulnerable our electric grid is and found its very vulnerable. National labs did that study ha showed that the generator through a skater attack thats a systems control and Data Acquisition system attack could be used to cause a generator or a number of generate attorneys blow themselves up and you could see a whole sector of the country without electricity for a period of not just days or weeks but potentially months because these generators are large, theyre not just like batteries sitting on a shelf that you can take one out and plug another one in, these generators take months to build, ship and install. Richard clarke, what can be done to prevent that. Very little. But the thing here to really bear in mind is this is not about to happen. We have Nuclear Weapons we havent used them. We have cyberweapons and weve seldom used them. The United States did do a cyberattack on iran and destroyed some Nuclear Centrifuges but this is a ton contingency and its very unlikely it will be used by nation states. The real worry is that eventually nonstate arcs maybe even terrorists will gain this. Is this the real threat. Yeah and richard hit it right on the point right now. Right now these worst weapons and cyberweapons are in the hands of nation states who have the capability but not necessarily the will to use them. But then you have groups like isil or al qaeda that certainly would have the intent but not the weapons, and that gap, that divide, if you will, is becoming much more narrow and eventually the worst actors will have the worst weapons and potentially will use them against us. Ive been trying to raise the alarm as richard has to close that aperture of vulnerability thflt is not a problem that were ever going that were ever going to solve. Its one that we need to manage. We need to close the aperture of vulnerableabili vulnerability and pass an information sharing bill, that bill passed and was unanimous out of the House Intelligence Committee and passed the house with strong bipartisan support and now were waiting for the national to take it up. That would allow classified threat information to be passed to the private sector and for the private sector to pass the threats or the attacks that theyre experiencing back to the government so information could be more widely shared lets hope that happens. We also need stronger regulatory control. Okay. Lets hope that happens. Thank you both for your time this morning. Coming up, a surprising decision from the Supreme Court on obamacare. Is chief Justice John Roberts to about reverse course and trike down the heart of the law. Plus one of election days big new stars joins us live. The roundtable weighs in on what it means for 2016. Were back in just two minutes. Announcer this week with George Stephanopoulos brought to you by pacific life. For insurance annuities and investments, choose pacific life. The power to help you succeed. The future to life. For more than 145 years, pacific life has been helping families achieve lifelong Financial Security with innovative tools and strategies. Talk to a Financial Advisor to protect your family and plan today. Pacific life. The power to help you succeed. As the company thats all about printing. But did you know we also support hospitals using Electronic Health records for more than 30 million patients . Or that our Software Helps over 20 million smartphone users remotely configure email every month . Or how about processing nearly 5 billion in electronic toll payments a year . In fact, todays xerox is working in surprising ways to help companies simplify the way work gets done and life gets lived. With xerox, youre ready for real business. The new republican majority is vowing to dismantle obamacare but in a surprise move on friday, the Supreme Court signaled it could do that on its own, a decision the president could not undo with his veto power. Terry moran explains in our closer look. Reporter from the moment president obama signed his centerpiece legislation back in 2010. We are done. [ applause ] reporter the Affordable Care act, obamacare, has survived one near death experience after another. None more dramatic than the Supreme Courts 54 decision to uphold the law in 2012. Now, obamacare is once again in the judicial and politi

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