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Personally hurt by mccain suggesting hoe might have to resort to subpoenas. this is escalating fast. >> and hans, we did some checking. it looks like we have americans, american military in 176 places around the world. >> yeah. >> excluding humanitarian missions and in some postings where there's just one or two members of the u.s. military. but part of what this story has done is awakened some civilians to just how far flung these places are. >> look, in niger, there are 800 u.s. forces, roughly. most of them are building a new drone base. so you look at what the intelligence failure was here...

One. they have some 300 u.s. troops there working on these independent drone bases. hopscotching all across africa to djibouti, they want to have coverage throughout the sahara, in part because this is ungoverned territory, very difficult to traverse by land. right now, the preferred mode of transport, at least in niger because it's very, very muddy, is a motorcross bike. this isn't an easy place to get around. you need more surveillance. that's one of the reasons why we're kind of aware now that all these troops are there. i've got to say, we really only find out about this in crisis. a lot o...

>> there's roughly 800 u.s. military troops on the grounds in niger, mostly at two drone bases in a country twice the size of texas. at the time of the attack, there was no drone overhead. trace? >> thanks, lucas. what he's talking about on the subject, we mentioned senator mccain and defense secretary mattis are meeting in senator mccain's office. we have a camera waiting outside the door. we don't know if they will speak afterwards. let's listen in. here we go. >> we discussed various issues and it's always a pleasure to spent time with him and work with him in these difficult times. >> you ...

Intelligence failure, a lack of overhead understanding. so, this idea there isn't enough surveillance there is something you've heard within the africom community and they are building drone bases. they are building a new one in niger. they have one they're also building down in cameroon. all across africa you see dots, networks of drone bases so they can have a better idea of what's happening on the ground. they're doing surveillance. yes, they're doing training and operation with their partners but it's mostly surveillance and intelligence mission there. crucially, supporting the french who ...

In niger. two other service members wounded and as secretary mattis said the incident is now under investigation but there are a lot of questions about what happened in niger and why we were there. to my colleague at the pentagon hans nichols covering the story for us. hans, general kelly actually added to the intrigue today saying, look, i know more about this that i can't say. this is a, there is a heavy reluctance by the u.s. government not to say why we were there. >> well, it's complicated. it's very difficult to explain you're there for train, advice and assist, sort of getting local sou...