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Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates Hold Press Conference; Afghan War Progress & Problems; Pulling Troops Out of Afghanistan; The Help Desk; Hot Off The Political Ticker; Trending Online; Julian Assange Released

Aired December 16, 2010 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: I appreciate very much the president's words about Ambassador Holbrooke. It was a week ago this morning that he and I and members of our team were meeting about this review and the conclusions to be drawn.

As many have observed, he was certainly a giant of diplomacy, but he understood how difficult the mission that he had been given was, and he threw himself into it with every fiber of his larger-than-life being. He was deeply committed to its success, and he and his team -- two members of which are with me today -- the acting special representative, Frank Ruggiero, who has on-the-ground experience leading one of our civilian attempts in Kandahar for a year, and Dan Feltman, who has been another deputy in the operation focusing on our strategy going forward.

Both Ambassador Holbrooke and I approached this review keenly aware of where things stood 22 months ago. This administration, I think it's fair to remind us all, inherited an extraordinarily difficult situation.

There was no coherent strategy to unify America's efforts in the region. There was no clearly defined mission. And our people, both our military and our civilian forces, lacked the resources they needed to get any progress accomplished.

Today, we have a difficult story to tell. President Obama announced a strategy a year ago that defined a clear mission and committed the resources needed to accomplish it. Today's review shows that while we face serious challenges, as the president has just outlined, key parts of our strategy are indeed working well.

In Pakistan, we have moved beyond a purely transactional relationship dominated by military cooperation. We now have broad engagement on both the civilian and military sides.

Through the strategic dialogue that we established last year, Pakistan and the United States have begun a long-term commitment to work together not just on security, but on energy, agriculture, education, health, and other areas that directly affect the daily lives of the Pakistani people. There have been, there will continue to be obstacles and setbacks, but our conclusion is that our partnership is slowly but steady improving. We have greater cooperation and understanding, and that is yielding tangible results on the ground.

In Afghanistan, our surge is not simply military. We have expanded our presence from 320 civilians, less than two years ago, to 1,100 today. Accomplishing our mission requires close cooperation between our civilians, our troops and our international and Afghan partners.

We have worked together to arrest the momentum of the Taliban. Civilians have been particularly instrumental in the progress we have seen in Helmand and Kandahar, and they will be critical in helping us consolidate the gains we've made in the last year, as we move toward a transition to Afghan responsibility.

Our strategy also recognizes that rebuilding Afghanistan is a global commitment. The ISAF coalition continues to grow. Today, it stands at 49 countries. NATO and our partners, including the many OIC -- the Organization of Islamic Countries -- that have recently joined the International Contact Group know that helping the Afghan people and standing up against violent extremism is essential for the region and the world.

This alignment of our international effort was on full display at the NATO summit in Lisbon last month, where the coalition committed to a long-term partnership with Afghanistan while laying out a plan for the Afghan government to take responsibility for its own security. The transition will begin in 2011 and conclude in 2014.

Now, of course we are clear-eyed about the way ahead. The review emphasized the need for a political process in afternoon, including reconciliation and expanded regional and international diplomacy. It needs to complement the continued military presence and to leverage the consensus that we reached in Lisbon.

In Pakistan, it will be important to keep making progress in eliminating sanctuaries for extremists --

(END OF COVERAGE)

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: OK. Let me fill you in on our plan just a bit here.

What we're going to do is take a break, but we are going to continue to monitor the comments from Secretary of State Clinton and Secretary of Defense Gates. We have members of our team standing by, including our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, who will continue to listen to the remarks.

We will try to get back in for some of the Q&A that will follow the remarks.

We'll take a break, but when we come back, we will talk to CNN's national security analyst, Peter Bergen, who was briefed on the review, the findings, the conclusions of the review, earlier this morning. So we will talk to Peter Bergen in just a couple of minutes.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: President Obama, Secretary of State Clinton, Secretary of Defense Gates, General Cartwright highlighting progress in the fight against al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan, but the president warning that the gains are fragile and that challenges, significant ones, remain.

Let's get the view from Afghanistan now. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, joining us live now from Kabul.

Nic, good to talk with you.

The report says that the gains against al Qaeda are fragile and reversible. What does that say about the situation on the ground?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It says that there's much that the United States and its allies in NATO and the Afghan government here still doesn't control. And some of that, as we heard President Obama lay out, is because al Qaeda's core leadership and much of its support structure is across the border, inside Pakistan.

So, those gains that have been made, that he outlined, significant gains have been made to security in the south of Afghanistan. In particular, Helmand, Kandahar, those sorts of areas, are in jeopardy because the fight cannot be won in Afghanistan alone because part of the problem is inside Pakistan -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. And Nic, the surge has been more successful in the south, but what about the rest of the country?

ROBERTSON: That's the real conundrum here, that you can have the success -- and we've seen it. We have spent time in Kandahar, and people in that city are much happier and feel safer.

They're not sure if the Taliban are going to come back, but the brigade commander there is frustrated because the Afghan security forces aren't getting what they need from their government, more weapons. They're not seeing the support from the central government. So, the brigade commander cannot move his troops on out of Kandahar, where they've beaten the Taliban, and get them to take on the Taliban where they are in other areas in the south. And that's before you look at the east and the north of the country, where it's broadly accepted now the Taliban are getting much stronger.

There are no surge troops to send into those areas. So they remain very, very troubling -- Tony.

HARRIS: All right. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, for us in Kabul, Afghanistan.

CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen has been going over the report in some detail. And he is joining us now from Washington.

Let me start with a pretty basic one, pretty straightforward. Peter, any surprises for you?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: No. I mean, look, the contents of this report have been dribbling out over time. General Petraeus, in Afghanistan, and the White House have sort of been saying for some period of time that, you know, this is not going to mark some huge change in strategy. They used the word "diagnostic" in a briefing that I attended today with some senior administration officials, meaning that this is just kind of a status report. Somebody in the meeting described it as an annual report.

If this was a company, this is not, you know, a change of direction, it's more of an assessment of where we are. But I don't think there are any big surprises in the report.

But in the briefing, there's some things that came out which I think are important, Tony -- a recognition that the Pakistanis have done little to go after the Haqqani network which is really the group that is housing al Qaeda, that they have done nothing to go after Lashkar-e-Taiba, which was a group that killed 200, approximately, civilians in Mumbai back in '08, that they have done very little against the Afghan Taliban, which is headquartered in Pakistan.

Conversely, there has been movement against the so-called Pakistani Taliban which has been attacking the Pakistani state. And so, you know, Pakistan is a big factor for everybody who was involved in this review.

The effectless (ph) and corrupt Afghan government is another problem that they identify going forward. You know, it's -- so it's a mixed picture.

But I think the other headline here, Tony, really is, while it's being reported that we're not -- that we're going to be in Afghanistan until 2014, I don't think this has really been absorbed in a way -- this is a huge strategic shift. Imagine for a second a Republican president announcing that we were going to be in Afghanistan for another four years, potentially with 100,000 soldiers. I think the liberal on the left would be up in arms because this doesn't really fit with the narrative of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning president and the sort of soft on national security Democratic Party. We haven't heard that.

But this is a seismic shift. I was in Afghanistan two days ago. You talk to everybody in the region, the fact that we're not going to be leaving in substantial numbers in July, 2011, which was the presumption, that is a game-changer. The Taliban are now in the unfortunate position of having to tell their folks, hey, we were wrong, you've now got to hang on for another four years.

And in the south, as Nic was reporting just now, they're taking a tremendous beating, the Taliban midlevel commanders. Hundreds of them have been killed by U.S. Special Forces. So I think by putting more time on the clock, that is the big headline here -- Tony.

HARRIS: Hey, Peter, if you would, let's stand by. I think Nic is listening as well. Let's do this -- let's dip back into the White House briefing on this matter. Secretary Gates is speaking now.

And then Peter, and perhaps Nic as well, I've got a couple of other questions for you.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ROBERT GATES, DEFENSE SECRETARY: -- to take on a degraded Taliban.

In terms of when the troops come out, the president has made clear it will be conditions-based. In terms of what that line looks like beyond July, 2011, I think the answer is we don't know at this point. But the hope is that as we progress, that those drawdowns will be able to accelerate.

QUESTION: Conditions-based right now indicate a commitment of well into 2013? Well into -- what does that tell you?

GATES: Well, one of the metrics that we're looking at is the importance of continually testing whether we're achieving our goals, by whether we are able to transition to Afghan authority within a period of 18 to 24 months of arriving in a particular area. And, for example, the campaign in Marja has been -- has taken longer and been more difficult than we anticipated.

But the reality is, we have made significant progress at this point. And if you look at Marja in terms of next summer -- so six months from now -- we think we're going to be in a pretty good place in Marja and we'll be able -- our troops already have thinned out in Marja itself and are moving to other areas beyond Marja. So this is going to be a process that goes on, and we'll be evaluating it on a continuing basis.

QUESTION: Can you win this if militants continue to have free passage into Pakistan, find a safe haven there? Can you crackdown in a stronger way with the Pakistani government (INAUDIBLE)?

GATES: Well, first of all, they don't have a free pass at this point. There is a -- there are a lot of, as we say in our building, kinetic actions taking place along that border in terms of people coming across.

One of the areas of progress has been not only the 140,000 Pakistani troops working some of these safe havens in Swat and south Waziristan, and elsewhere, but it is the fact that there is increasing cooperation on both sides of the border in coordinating their military operations. So the Pakistanis come in behind the insurgents from the Pakistani side, and coordinating with us and the Afghans, we're on the other side.

And so they're the meat in the sandwich. And we expect to see more of that, and the cooperation is increasing between the Afghans and Pakistanis. Everybody knows that failure to deal with the safe havens does present a real challenge, but I would argue that we are in the process of dealing with those safe havens, the Pakistanis on their side of the border, and Afghanistan, Pakistan and us working together.

QUESTION: Robert, on the omnibus, this is legislation that contains about $8 billion in pet congressional projects. These are the types of earmarks that the president said he would oppose.

I'm curious, why didn't he simply tell Congress that he would not sign a bill that contained pork barrel projects? And how can the White House urge passage of this with things in it that the president stood against?

ROBERT GIBBS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Jim, I want to go to Secretary Gates on this, because I know they've had conversations about this, and then I'll come back to this in particular.

GATES: I don't much like the earmarks either. I consider the second engine the poster child of earmarks. But what I have to look at is the alternative to the omnibus. A year-long continuing resolution would --

(END COVERAGE)

HARRIS: OK. Let's do this -- let's bring in CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen.

And Peter, I think we jumped in on the point you were making, that with the administration and NATO announcing last month that transition strategy that you spoke of, which includes a major western military presence in Afghanistan into 2014, you were mentioning that that is a major change in strategy.

Maybe explain that point again for folks who might have missed it.

BERGEN: Well, you know, when the president gave his speech at West Point back in December of 2009 announcing the new Afghan policy, everybody, including CNN, picked up on the fact that there was this July, 2011 withdrawal date. But there was an enormous caveat in that which Secretary Gates just mentioned. He mentioned it was conditions- based.

Everybody knows the conditions in Afghanistan are not at the point where you're going to have a lot of provinces transferring authority to the Afghan police and the army by July of 2011. In fact, right now, of Afghanistan's 34 provinces, only one, which is Kabul City and its surrounding neighborhoods, is under the control of the Afghan security forces.

So, by having this conditions-based kind of caveat in there, it was pretty clear that July, 2011 wasn't going to be significant. But what has changed now, Tony, is that the administration, at Lisbon, with the NATO conference there in November, you know, was able to kind of come out and say publicly that, you know, 2014 is going to be -- that's -- December 2014 is the withdrawal date. And NATO has also said that in fact there will be a NATO mission to Afghanistan that goes past that.

It won't be necessarily combat troops, but it will be continuing. And I think this has sent an important signal to the Taliban, to the Afghan government, which was very concerned about us withdrawing, to the Pakistanis, that they can continue playing footsie with the Taliban, but we're going to be around, the United States is going to be in the region for a long time. And that may change there some of their calculations.

HARRIS: Peter, let me ask you one other question here. We talk to a lot of folks here in our day-to-day lives who talk to us about Afghanistan and who consider it a lost cause, a lost cause now, and that it will always be a lost cause, and that we should go.

Talk to us about the ramifications of staying and of leaving, because I've heard you publicly take on this question of whether Afghanistan is a lost cause.

BERGEN: Yes, it's certainly not a lost cause. Afghans continue to have a 62 percent favorable view of international forces. Can you think of a Muslim country, Tony, ,with a favorable view of the U.S. military at that level? The answer is, there isn't one.

And so Afghans are still hopeful about their future. So why shouldn't we be?

As President Obama said in his speech today, we finally have properly resourced this effort, we've got a sort of dividend from the Iraq drawdown, draw on more troops, more resources, more presidential attention, and we're finally getting it right here. So, Afghans think we're kind of, you know, showing the right kind of approach here. That's why I don't think we should conclude it's a lost cause.

But I would point to you, Tony -- "The Washington Post" had an interesting poll that was published today. Sixty percent of Americans now think the Afghan War was a bad idea or a mistake, which is the highest level ever. So the American public is certainly losing patience, and it's costing $100 billion a year to do this, and taxpayers certainly have reason to think that they have got to have return on their investment.

And if there isn't sort of real progress by the summer, I think that a lot of people, including myself, will say, well, a valiant effort was made, but this didn't work out. Right now it's still an open question -- Tony.

HARRIS: OK.

CNN National Security Analyst Peter Bergen with us.

Peter, great to talk to you. Thank you.

BERGEN: Thank you. HARRIS: So, what does this mean for U.S. troops in Afghanistan? Let's make it really personal here. Let's bring in Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr.

And Barbara, the report says the U.S. is on course to begin pulling troops out next year.

Do you hear that sentiment echoed in the halls of the Pentagon?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: You know, this is the stated policy, isn't it, Tony.

HARRIS: Yes.

STARR: In July, 2011, some troops are going to start coming home. But by all indications, it is going to be a very modest, small number at this point.

I think the president, Secretary Gates, you just heard them at the White House. Listen to some of those key words that they said, that the progress they're talking about is fragile and reversible. And that's really the question that underlies all of this right now, this progress.

Is it real? Is it enduring or is it temporary? Or, come springtime, are the Taliban going to come back full blast, regroup, and start attacking again?

Because unless you really have some enduring security progress, U.S. troops can't come home. They can't leave an area unless they can turn it over to the Afghans. And that's the equation that has got everybody concerned right now.

Sure, there's progress. But is it real and is it enough?

Underlying all of that, of course, is this question that the president and Gates brought up. Pakistan, both of them very adamantly calling for more progress in Pakistan against the safe havens of the insurgents and terrorists, because unless you can deal with that, you're still going to have them coming across the border. You're still going to have them attacking U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

So, it's that six months between now and July that's going to be so critical -- Tony.

HARRIS: And you'll be watching it for us.

Barbara Starr at the Pentagon for us.

Great to see you. Thank you, Barbara.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HARRIS: The report calls for greater cooperation from Pakistan in tracking down insurgents operating from safe havens along the Afghan border.

Pentagon Correspondent Chris Lawrence is joining us live now from Islamabad.

And Chris, I asked you this question last hour. I've got to ask it again.

When it comes to rooting out terrorists, the report says the relationship with Pakistan has been uneven. What does that mean?

CHRIS LAWRENCE, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a clean way, a nice, easy way, Tony, of saying the U.S. hasn't gotten everything it wanted from Pakistan. And today, you know, Pakistan was sort of firing back at some of that.

The defense minister saying, "We will do more whenever we can, but we have to look after our own interests first."

What are those interests? Well, some U.S. intelligence officials say there are still elements of Pakistan security forces who are sympathetic to the militants along the border, sympathetic to them, still supplying them.

But even putting that aside, you have got a Pakistani army that's still tied up with flood relief after the massive floods here. You've got elements of the Pakistani government who still believe that India is its primary threat and resources need to be devoted to the eastern side of the border.

Pakistan has put about 10,000 troops on that border with Afghanistan. That's more troops than the United States has in Afghanistan, to give you an idea.

They've also taken some fairly heavy casualties there. So, some Pakistani officials feel like they already are doing a lot, and they have a feeling that there are other extremists in the country, in different parts of Pakistan, that are more directly targeting the Pakistani government and the Pakistani state, whereas some officials look at those extremists in north Waziristan, along the border, and say they're only going into Afghanistan. Yes, they're a big problem in Afghanistan, but they're not a direct problem here.

And to go in there and to stir up that hornet's nest and turn those people against the government could cause major problems for Pakistan's government down the road. So, in a way, you sort of have diverging interests with the U.S. here and Pakistan here -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes. OK.

Our Pentagon correspondent, Chris Lawrence, for us in Islamabad, Pakistan.

Chris, thank you.

And later, we're giving you an up-close look at the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of one young soldier. You won't want to miss that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: I've got to tell you, Chad Myers -- man. Two --

How many jobs do you have for us, honestly? You were doing traffic and weather together yesterday for a while.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: I went home and I did tile in my bathroom, yes.

HARRIS: Because it was a mess here in Atlanta.

MYERS: Sure.

HARRIS: So we got a sense of what folks were going through in Louisville yesterday, when that system passed through, because it hit us pretty hard here.

MYERS: It did, and we only got brushed. Atlanta was a brushing. Nothing like they picked up in Lexington and Evansville.

And here's WCPO, our affiliate here in Cincinnati. Traffic has slowed. This is more snow than ice.

There's Paul Brown right there, the stadium, Reds Hall of Fame, so on and so on, if you go over the bridge down toward the north side there of Kentucky.

The snow continues and the ice continues. It depends on where you are.

We are seeing snow in Charleston, but ice across parts of the coal country here, of eastern parts of Kentucky. Also, snow is going to be piling up in Richmond, Virginia. Washington, D.C., could pick up some snow. I had some pictures of that a little bit earlier if you weren't with us.

Look at the warnings, Tony. Look at this. Warnings all the way from New Jersey to North Carolina, back to Minneapolis. All part of the same system that's swinging in like this. I'm going to get to one more thing, because in case you're traveling, and about 5 billion of you are going to try to do that, navtechtraffic.com will take you to any city you want to travel through and give you the details of the traffic.

Here's D.C., here's Baltimore. Look at the jam factor. I-66 is an eight and holding with every dot that you see there, there, there, there, there, those are all accidents.

HARRIS: Wow!

MYERS: Yes.

HARRIS: You said this at one point yesterday - what was it? A 20-car pileup on - MYERS: Yes.

HARRIS: But warmer temperatures.

MYERS: They're up to 50 now.

HARRIS: Yes. Thanks, Chad.

CNN is giving you an unprecedented look at the war through the eyes of one new recruit. Sergeant Randy Shorter has just been deployed to one of the most dangerous regions of Afghanistan. Jason Carroll with part 2 of Shorter's story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the move again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the move again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Enemy situation, last 24, a lot of IEDs, you anticipate the worse. Everybody tracking?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): OK, right now, Sergeant Shorter and the rest of the men in his unit, you can see that's Frank Worten right there, are about to head outside the wire for the first time on foot patrol. So we're going along with them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, if you haven't done so, lock and load it. It's game time now.

CARROLL: Our first stop outside the wire on this particular day is a meeting with the village elders. But security is such that you really have to have troops surrounding you, in order just to get to this location.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need shooters on this side. You need to have eyes on every direction possible.

CARROLL (voice-over): Inside, Shorter's superior officers are trying to build bridges with Afghan elders. Some are Taliban sympathizers. They're demanding the release of Afghan prisoners.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have six prisoners. There with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know you guys are all vouching that they are innocent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we have more up there.

LT. CHIP EVANS, U.S. ARMY: We just don't randomly go and take them. Usually, there's a reason. Now, that doesn't mean that we're right all the time.

CARROLL (on camera): Did anything happen while we were inside? While you were outside?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, nothing significant, just a lot of traffic coming in. A lot of motorcycles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Jason Carroll joining us again from New York. Jason, if you would, tell us more about this young man you featured and his mission.

CARROLL: Well, Sergeant Randy Shorter, who you saw there - part of what they're tasked with doing is reaching out and engaging the Afghan people. That's one of the things that you saw there.

Another point, Tony, is working closely with the Afghan police and army, training them, trying to get them up to speed to deal with the insurgents. It's very interesting to hear all this talk about 201 and possible drawback, because Sergeant Randy Shorter, as you may know, is scheduled to come out July 2011. So, it's interesting to see if that will end of happening.

HARRIS: I can't wait to see your entire documentary. Jason, good to see you, as always. Thank you.

You can watch the entire Jason Carroll documentary on Sergeant Shorter, "A Soldier's Story" this Saturday and Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, only on CNN. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: The security guard who brought down that gunman at a Florida school board meeting says he is not a hero, he just did his job. Mike Jones is praising God for saving his life and the lives of the Panama City school board members during Tuesday's terrifying incident. Jones became emotional as he described what was going through his mind.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE JONES, DIRECTOR, SAFETY AND SECURITY, BAY COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD: When I was planning my engagement and I saw that first shot and I knew the superintendent fell backwards and all the board members fell backwards. And he and I engaged in the gun battle, but I'd lost the superintendent and I'd let him down. And I love him and the board, and I love the school system. That was the only thing that came to my mind.

When the superintendent came up from behind that counter and Franklin Harrison, and he came and hugged my neck, that's when I lost it, like I am now. Like - just crying. I cry at chick flicks too, y'all.

(LAUGHTER)

JONES: But just to see him, it was like seeing a newborn baby for the first time, that I knew -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (off-mike) JONES: -- I'm not lying to you, and I can't get that out of my mind. That's the picture that I see the most. I don't see the shots being fired or the bullets. I see him coming from behind that desk, and I knew that it was OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Jones says his heart goes out to the family of the shooter who, as you know, killed himself during the incident.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's take a look at the Big Board. New York Stock Exchange right now. We are just past three hours into the trading day, as you can see. Stocks are up. We were up 40 points, NASDAQ at last check, was up 17 as well. We'll continue to follow these numbers for you from the New York Stock Exchange throughout the day.

Important product recall information to tell you about. Wal-Mart has issued a recall of several types of electric heaters because of a fire and burn hazard. They include Flow-Pro, Airtech, Aloha Breeze, and Comfort Essentials heaters. Wal-Mart says it's received 21 reports of incidents, including property damage. Injuries include minor burns and smoke inhalation. Consumers should immediately stop using the heaters and return them to Wal-Mart for a full refund.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Tonight is the night. After 25 years, Larry King says good night and good-bye. He hands over the talk show crown to Piers Morgan from "Britain's Got Talent."

Now, details on who will replace Morgan as a judge is "Showbiz" host A.J. Hammer joining me from New York. A.J., first, let's talk about David Arquette and his confession, please.

A.J. HAMMER, CO-HOST, "SHOWBIZ TONIGHT": Yes. He's had several public confessions, Tony, talking about a separation from Courtney Cox. And he's also had a few wild weekends of post-breakup partying. And now, David is admitting he has a drinking problem. He went on Howard Stern's radio show yesterday. He says he's just heartbroken. He's been using alcohol as a way of coping with the trauma of his split from Courtney. He says that his psychologist believes that Arquette is having a nervous breakdown.

It was a fascinating interview and during it, Arquette admitted, quote, "Everybody's worried and concerned about me... I've been drinking a lot...It's really a personal, traumatic thing. When I drink, I become a maniac."

Ever since he and Courtney announced their trial separation in October, Arquette has regularly been seen out drinking, and just a few weeks ago, he hit his own Twitter page, showing off several pictures of himself, out on a wild weekend in Miami. He was partying like a kid on spring break. And Arquette did tell Stern he's going to be laying off the drinking for a long time. But now let's get to the Larry King/Piers Morgan effect. And it all leads us to David Hasselhoff. You can't keep the Hoff down, Tony! David Hasselhoff's brand-new A&E reality show -- it was canceled after just two episodes. But I'm happy to report the Hoff has lined up a new job. "Showbiz Tonight" has confirmed the former Baywatch star's got a new gig on "Britain's Got Talent" because yes, there was a vacancy at the judges' table after Piers Morgan left that show to take his new job here at CNN.

And remember, the Hoff's got experience in the talent show judging arena. He was once a judge in "America's Got Talent." He'll be joining up with current judge Amanda Holden and British comedian Michael McIntyre, another new addition to the show. Along with Simon Cowell. Simon's actually the guy who invited Hoff to join in.

So, we wish the Hoff best. The best in this. I was disappointed to see his reality show. They only gave it two episodes, but the ratings were terrible. A&E just yanked it right off.

But man, he keeps a job! A.J. great to see you! Thank you, sir.

If you want information on everything -- anything and everything breaking in the entertainment world, A.J.'s got it for you this evening on "Showbiz Tonight." That's at 5:00 at 11:00 Eastern on HLN.

A massive spending bill to keep the government running. One senator threatens to read the entire thing out loud. We will explain in our political update.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Time now for "The Help Desk," where we get answers for your financial questions. Joining me this hour, Donna Rosato. She's a senior writer with "Money." And Lynnette Khalfani-Cox is a columnist with walletpop.com.

All right, guys, the first question comes to us from Colorado. Kathy there writes, "I have a practice of buying a used car with 30,000 miles, driving it for five to seven years until it's worth only about $1,000 to $2,000 and then selling it on Craigslist. I paid off my most recent car in March with 130,000 miles and just had a $1,400 repair bill. Is there a formula for deciding how long to keep a car?"

Lynnette.

LYNNETTE KHALFANI-COX, COLUMNIST, WALLETPOP.COM: This is a great question. And, no, I don't think there's a formula, to be honest with you. If there is, I haven't heard of it.

ELAM: Right.

KHALFANI-COX: Just in general, I think the, you know, good advice here would be, keep that car as long as possible. I love the fact that they had this car with 130,000 miles on it. They said they paid a $1,400 repair bill. Well, if you look at that over the cost of a year, that's like, you know, $100 a month or so. You know, a little bit more than that. So to me, if you thought about, you know, buying a new car and the cost of what that would entail, it's so much greater. Keep the car as long as possible, you know, until it's like on its last legs, you know.

ELAM: So if it's working -- if it's working fine (ph), then stick with it, right?

KHALFANI-COX: Yes, just got to stick with it.

ELAM: Keep going with the car.

KHALFANI-COX: I think it's a good idea.

ELAM: All right. All right. The next one comes to us from Kim in Ohio who writes, "my brother told me he signed over some H&R Block stock to me several years ago. How can I find out if I still own the stock and how much I own?"

What do you think, Donna.

DONNA ROSATO, SENIOR WRITER, "MONEY": Very nice of the brother to give the stock to Kim.

ELAM: Yes, very nice.

ROSATO: It's relatively easy to track down whether you own shares or not. What you need to do is track down the stock -- the transfer agent for that stock. You can call up H&R Block's investor relations department and ask for the transfer agent, or even maybe look it up on the Web site. Once you get in touch with the transfer agent, they're going to have you put up something called assuredly (ph) bond. They're going to track down that stock certificate for you, but they want to have a little assurance that nobody else has taken that. It's just 1 to 3 percent of the cost of the shares. But once you do that and you put up that money, then they'll issue a new stock certificate and you'll have those shares.

ELAM: And then you can track it and know what's going on with it.

ROSATO: Yes.

ELAM: And pay attention a little bit closer.

All right, thanks so much, Donna and Lynnette, for helping us out today.

Hey, do you have a question you want to get answered? We're happy to help you out. Go ahead and send us an e-mail any time to cnnhelpdesk@cnn.com.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Our political update this hour focuses on the tax cut deal and a massive spending bill. Gloria Borger, part of "The Best Political Team on Television," live from the political desk in Washington. Gloria, great to see you.

So I've got a couple of questions.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: How you doing?

HARRIS: I am well, thank you.

Is the tax cut compromise becoming the first big issue of the upcoming battle for the Republican presidential nomination, or am I to far afield here?

BORGER: Sure. No, sure. Why not, right?

HARRIS: Yes.

BORGER: It involves taxes. It involves tax cuts. It involves money. And it is. And, you know, it's very easy when you're standing outside of the Congress and you don't have the responsibility for either ducking an issue or dealing with an issue to say, you know what, this thing costs too much, we shouldn't do it. And that's exactly what a lot of would-be Republican presidential candidates are saying, including Mitt Romney, including former Senator Rick Santorum, including Sarah Palin, including Mike Pence, who's now in the House, a Republican -- conservative Republican.

But there are some, like Senator John Thune, who's come out and said, you know what, I know this costs a lot of money, but what would you have us do, you folks standing out there. Would you rather that people's taxes went up on the first of January? So he's supporting it. Also, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels, who might vote for president says, look, it's not -- I mean run for president. He says it's not a great deal, but, you know what, they have to do it.

HARRIS: Right. I've got one more for you, Gloria. Senator Jim DeMint threatening to read the entire spending bill on the floor of the Senate. What is going on here?

BORGER: I know. Delay, delay, delay.

HARRIS: Yes. Yes.

BORGER: It's kind of interesting because on the one hand Jim DeMint has said to Senator Harry Reid, you know what, your sacrilegious for trying to keep us in here over Christmas. But, guess what, on the other hand, Jim DeMint said he hates the spending bill so much, he wants to spend four days reading it aloud.

What this is all about is delaying. Jim DeMint is among those Republicans who doesn't want to pass "don't ask, don't tell." Lots of Republicans don't want the START treaty right now. So they want to delay until everybody throws up their hands and says, let's go home. I don't think Harry Reid's going to accept it, but it just makes all of them look kind of childish, wouldn't you say?

HARRIS: Yes, a little so. Absolutely. Gloria, great to see you, as always. Thank you.

BORGER: Good to see you.

HARRIS: Your next political update coming in one hour. For the latest political news, just go to cnnpolitics.com.

A new feature coming to FaceBook. It is one of the stories trending right now on the Internet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: FaceBook photos getting an upgrade. It is one of the big Internet stories that we're following for you right now. Well, not following -- Sandra Endo is tracking what's trending right now and she's joining us from Washington.

Good to see you again, Sandy.

SANDRA ENDO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there, Tony.

Yes, this is big on social network sites right now. FaceBook getting into the realm of facial recognition technology. And this is going to be a feature that launches next week. And basically it will suggest the names of your friends of photo albums that you download and basically it will make it easier to tag them in their pictures. And FaceBook says this is all a way to make it easier for people to tag each other in pictures and be more addicted to the site. So I don't know if we need all of that, but certainly they're going to try it out and their own facial technology.

HARRIS: Nice. OK.

ENDO: Also, Tony, trending on cnn.com's iReport, it's so beautiful. Take a look at these pictures submitted from a couple in Tennessee. These are beautiful picture perfect snowflakes.

HARRIS: Oh, look at that.

ENDO: And they were sent to us by Kristin and David Cook (ph). And basically they saw all the snow out there on their driveway. They ran outside. They had a close-up lens on their camera and they took some shots before freezing too much. So here's one reason why not to curse the snow, right?

HARRIS: That's really cool. Yes, that is really cool. Very nice. And you be careful there in the mid-Atlantic there and in Baltimore, Washington, D.C., because you've got a system moving your way. And see you tomorrow, Sandy. Thank you.

ENDO: Oh, yes, it's snowing right now.

HARRIS: Oh, yes.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. HARRIS: And these are pictures from just a moment -- this isn't a live view, is it, or just from moments ago? OK, great, great. Live pictures right now. Julian Assange is about to be released from jail. He's been there for nine days, as you know. Bond was set. And there was some dispute as to whether or not he would be able to raise the money to get out. The money has been posted. He is being released on bail. We expect that to happen any moment now. Assange, we understand, will be staying at a friend's mansion. He will wear an electronic tag and report to police daily. As you know, he is fighting extradition to Sweden on sex crimes allegations, which he says are politically motivated. So we are expecting to see him walk through those doors any moment now.

Why don't we stay with the picture. And there it is. Julian Assange being released from prison. And I will turn this over, these pictures over to Ali Velshi.

Ali.