President Obama Holds Press Conference; FBI Blunder
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: How does he look back on this difficult year? FBI blunder. A secret interrogation manual is made public in the most baffling way. What does it reveal about the agency's interrogation methods? And controversial visit -- new photos of former NBA player Dennis Rodman inside North Korea right now. His trip comes as the country sends an ominous message to South Korea by fax. What does it say? I'm Wolf Blitzer. You're in THE SITUATION ROOM. The Obamacare rollout, NSA surveillance, even his poll numbers, it's been a rough year for President Obama. And today he was forced to relive much of it in a lengthy White House news conference. Reporters grilled him on the problems that have rocked his second-term White House. Some of his answers were surprising. Our senior White House correspondent, Brianna Keilar, was there. She is joining us now. So, what did you hear, Brianna?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, maybe a sign of just how difficult 2014 was, he was pushing toward 2014, saying that it is going to be a year of action, and he narrowed his priorities to the economy and immigration reform.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's the most wonderful press conference of the year right now.</s>KEILAR: President Obama closed out 2013 facing a skeptical White House press corps.</s>QUESTION: Has this been the worst your of your presidency?</s>QUESTION: Were you wrong then because you were not fully read-in not just on these programs, but on other programs?</s>KEILAR: The president at times appeared at combative and at other times conciliatory, acknowledging the biggest foible of a foible-filled year, the rollout of Obamacare.</s>OBAMA: Since I'm in charge, obviously, we screwed it up.</s>KEILAR: Instead of making excuses for the way his signature legislative achievement has been implemented, he accepted fault, but pushed back against critics in defense of the underlying law.</s>OBAMA: Having said all that, bottom line also is, is that we've got several million people who are going to have health care that works.</s>KEILAR: Reporters also hammered the president over his shifting position on the reach of the NSA and revelations that the agency was collecting information on Americans.</s>QUESTION: On surveillance, you looked the American people in the eye six months ago and said, "We've got the right balance." And six months later, you're saying maybe not.</s>OBAMA: Well, hold on a second, Ed. I think it's important to note that, when it comes to the right balance on surveillance, these are a series of judgment calls that we're making every single day, because we've got a whole bunch of folks whose job it is to make sure that the American people are protected.</s>KEILAR: The president said he will consider changes to the NSA while he's on vacation in Hawaii and make what he called a definitive statement on surveillance programs in January. In one flash of frustration, the president pushed back against opponents on Capitol Hill who have suggested they will again hold up approving increasing the nation's debt ceiling. The Treasury secretary has warned without an increase, the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bill early next year. (on camera): Will you negotiate with House Republicans on the debt ceiling?</s>OBAMA: Brianna, you know the answer to this question. No, we're not going to negotiate for Congress to pay bills that it has accrued.</s>KEILAR: Obama warned Republicans not to squander the glimmer of goodwill from the recent bipartisan budget deal that averts a government shutdown in the new year.</s>OBAMA: I can't imagine that having seen this possible daylight breaking when it comes to cooperation in Congress that folks are thinking actually about plunging us back into the kinds of brinksmanship and governance by crisis that has done us so much harm over the last couple of years.</s>KEILAR: If that wasn't enough, to send Republicans a message:</s>OBAMA: I have got to assume that folks aren't crazy enough to start that thing all over again.</s>KEILAR: Some Republicans actually agree with President Obama on that sentiment, Wolf, but they also say it doesn't help that President Obama was poking House Republicans in the eye.</s>BLITZER: All right, Brianna, thanks very much. Meanwhile, a manual the FBI fought for years to keep secret has now been revealed under some very unusual circumstances. It's shedding new light on how the FBI conducts interrogations. CNN crime and justice correspondent Joe Johns is working the story for us. Joe, what have you found out?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this document appears to reveal details the government didn't want people to see, a by-the-book explanation of how teams getting ready for court should conduct interrogation of detainees overseas, including terror suspects. Tonight, the FBI is trying to figure out how something like this is available to the public.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): The government says how to this 70-plus-page detailed manual on how to conduct interrogations overseas is unclassified, but it was sensitive enough for the FBI to redact large portions before releasing it last year in response to a Freedom of Information request. Fast forward to this new article detailing how "Mother Jones" writer Nick Baumann discovered an unredacted copy of the same document available to anyone in the U.S. Copyright Office.</s>NICK BAUMANN, "MOTHER JONES": I got a tip that there might be something there.</s>JOHNS: And there was sensitive information we apparently were not supposed to see right in the files for anybody with a Library of Congress card to inspect, including guidelines for FBI teams preparing for litigation.</s>BAUMANN: I have been saying this isn't going to work out, you know? There's no way that someone could be this silly to deposit an unredacted document here. And it was genuinely shocking when I got there, and it was unredacted.</s>JOHNS (on camera): We confirmed with the Copyright Office that the document is in its files, but getting to see it isn't easy. First you have to pay a fee, then there's a waiting period. And then when you get to see the document, you can't make copies or take verbatim notes. (voice-over): Baumann was under the same rules, but recalls details.</s>BAUMANN: My memory and what stuck out to me was the first thing that this is a document that the FBI intended for its clean teams to use, and clean teams are groups of FBI investigators who go in and prepare evidence for federal court. And yet this same document had been criticized by the ACLU and human rights activists for being a little questionable.</s>JOHNS: Still, how this all happened is being called both bizarre and baffling, especially because the author, an FBI agent, filed papers to copyright a document that was generated for government use. Mike German is a former FBI agent himself, now with the ACLU, which first publicized the whited-out version of the paper last year.</s>MIKE GERMAN, ACLU: It's a government document produced at the public expense. It certainly isn't something that can be copyrighted.</s>JOHNS: A law enforcement source with knowledge of the situation told CNN tonight this was -- quote -- "a well-intended manual put together by an FBI agent to assist with interrogations overseas." None of it was classified or secret. It's our understanding tonight that the initial redactions were done to conceal FBI techniques and methods, but no explanation on why that document ended up in the Copyright Office.</s>BLITZER: Bizarre. I don't remember -- I have been in Washington for a while. I don't remember anything like that.</s>JOHNS: This is a story I haven't written before.</s>BLITZER: Yes. All right, thanks very much, Joe, for that report. Still ahead: new pictures of the former NBA star Dennis Rodman inside North Korea right now. We have details of what he's doing in one of the world's most secretive countries. And one of the most controversial figures in the history of sports talks to CNN's Rachel Nichols. The boxer Mike Tyson opening up to her in a very candid interview. Rachel, there she is, she's standing by live. But, first, this "Impact Your World."</s>KATE BOLDUAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six days a week, 73- year-old Clyde Fogle heads to a workshop in his backyard to make a little magic.</s>CLYDE FOGLE, TOYMAKER: They are primarily toys with wheels. I have got some cars. I have got some animals.</s>BOLDUAN: Fogle's been making toys for Operation Christmas Child for close to a decade. The program is run by the charity Samaritan's Purse, and gives gift-filled shoe boxes to children in need around the world.</s>FOGLE: I see the joy on their faces when they get these boxes. It captures my heart.</s>BOLDUAN: Woodworking has always been Fogle's hobby.</s>FOGLE: After I retired, I was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy, which limited me in my physical abilities. I want to give of myself, and I saw in a catalog where I could buy a kit to make 100 cars.</s>BOLDUAN: Fogle has donated around 100,000 toys to Operation Christmas Child.</s>FOGLE: I have got a map in my shop. I have a pin for every country that I know my toys have been. If I get tired of doing this, I look at that map. Oh, yes, that's why I'm doing that. So I keep going.