


GATES: No, no. It was not -- it was not a vital national interest to the United States, but it was an interest and it was an interest for all of the reasons Secretary Clinton talked about. The engagement of the Arabs, the engagement of the Europeans, the general humanitarian question that was at stake. There was another piece of this though that certainly was a consideration. You've had revolutions on both the East and the West of Libya.

TAPPER: Egypt and Tunisia.

GATES: Egypt and Tunisia.


TAPPER: Secretary Clinton, how does --

CLINTON: Jake, I just want to add too because, you know, I know that there's been a lot of questions and those questions deserve to be asked and answered. The president is going to address the nation on Monday night.



TAPPER: You heard the Secretary of Defense say that Libya did not pose an actual or imminent threat to the nation and bearing in mind what you just said, I'm still wondering how the administration reconciles the attack without congressional approval with then candidate Obama saying in 2007 the president does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation and, as a senator, you, yourself in 2007 said this about President Bush.


CLINTON: If the administration believes that any -- any use of force against Iran is necessary, the president must come to Congress to seek that authority.


TAPPER: Why not go to Congress?



TAPPER: I want to get to a couple other topics before you guys go and one of them is in Yemen President Saleh a crucial ally in counterterrorism seems quite on his way out. Secretary Gates, you said this week we have not done any post-Saleh planning. How dangerous is a post-Saleh world -- a post-Saleh Yemen to the United States?

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