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a terrorist watchdog group posted the clip on youtube. it showed al qaeda's number two in command. joining me to look why this is so significant, pentagon correspondent mick. explain what we see in this video and why americans should care about it. >> ronan, u.s. officials acknowledge this appears to be an authentic al qaeda video, like we saw during the osama bin laden era. what's troubling about this one, though, is that they're in yemen. a group this size, and the number two core al qaeda leader, nasr -- the number two al qaeda leader, they felt like they were comfortable enough that they could conduct this meeting in the open. expose to the open skies, and one of the reasons, according to u.s. officials, may be because
house asks for an assessment. if we were to launch a military operation what would it look like? the chairman of the chief of staff said there are no good military options in syria right now. so the president stopped short of asking for any military planning or military options. again, it's just not on the table for now. >> mick, thanks so much. we want to bring in ambassador mark ensburg and current advisor. right out of the gate what do you think in your estimation would be the tipping point to get something done with what is going on in syria so there are no more innocent lives lost. >> thomas, it is not going to be military boots on the ground. i think the administration has clearly ruled it out. i wrote a long piece today that lays out a nine-point program to
in syria is the right course of action. we believe it would lead to greater chaos. >> joining me now is correspondent mick. what type of military intervention could we see? >> you know that's really a tough one. it's impossible to say today what kind of military actions would be needed. because what would the conditions be on the ground at the time? what would the president be asking of the military? would it be assisting humanitarian relief or war. unlike libya where you have france and british clamoring to invade libya. you are not hearing any of that from our allies in the persian gulf region or middle east or europe. it is just not on the table. a few months ago when the white
but defense lawyers say he was under distress as a gay soldier under don't ask, don't tell. mick, why does manning's defense team, or why are they admitting there isn't any guilt here? what's behind this strategy? >> well, the defense, not surprisingly, is trying to turn it around and put it all on the army. they're arguing that this material, hundreds of thousands of documents, were leaked primarily because of the army's lax security over those intelligence matters. and they also point out that the army knew that bradley manning was suffering from what's called gender identity disorder, that he sometimes dressed as a woman and had a facebook under the name of brianna. they knew all that before they ever sent him to iraq. now, some would argue that that probably should have disqualified him at that time because of that kind of emotional stress from undertaking that sensitive intelligence job. so, again, they are trying to
turn it all back on the army. but the fact is, according to prosecutors, they have hard evidence on hard drives, thumb drivers, computer disks and the like that allegedly bradley manning downloaded hundreds of thousands of cables classified, which eventually ended up on wikileaks and that's what he's charged for. >> and mick, within pentagon circles, is this a believable or a substantial type of defense to level here? >> well, whether it holds any weight in the long run probably not. but any good defense lawyer is going to try to chip away at the prosecution's case and also gain some kind of sympathy for his client. but i can tell you, in dealing with the military and this massive loss of classified material, we're not detecting much sympathy for bradley manning at this point in these proceedings. >> nbc news chief correspondent