[Vanier:] The volatile situation in Venezuela was not calm, by remarks from top officials of the United States and Russia, Sunday.
[Allen:] The U.S. says military involvement in Venezuela is an option. It supports opposition leader, Juan Guaido, as the country's leader. Russia, which backs embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, warned the U.S. to say out of it.
[Sergey Lavrov, Foreign Minister, Russia:] We call on all the Americans and all those who support them to cancel irresponsible plans
[Mike Pompeo, Secretary Of State, United States:] Sometimes, the same thing the President told the world that every country must get out including the Russians. That's what I'll tell. We don't -we don't want anyone messing around with Venezuela. We want them to be an autonomous, independent sovereign state. Democratic elected officials, this is what we desire for the Venezuelan people.
[Allen:] A prayer vigil was held in Caracas, Sunday, to honor those who have been killed in ongoing protests against President Maduro. Roman Catholic priests, in white robes, led the vigil, as some waved Venezuelan flags and shouted freedom. The U.S. is sending more ships and bombers to the Middle East as responses to what it says are troubling warnings from Iran.
[Vanier:] The U.S. National Security Adviser, John Bolton, says the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike crew and a bomber task force will be deployed. A U.S. official says that this comes after threats to U.S. land and naval forces. Bolton says the U.S. isn't seeking war with Iran but, that it's ready to respond to attacks against U.S. interests or allies. CNN Military Analyst Colonel Cedric Leighton is with us. He's a retired U.S. Air Force Officer, Former Deputy Director for Training at the NSA. How much firepower is this that the U.S. is sending to the region?
[Col. Cedric Leighton , Cnn Military Analyst:] Well, Cyril, it's at least 90 aircraft on board the USS Abraham Lincoln. That includes those six-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, which means, helicopters. Plus, the bomber task force is going to include anywhere from five to, you know, a half dozen or so, bombers, perhaps even more. It all depends on where it will be deployed and whatever support aircraft will be in that group. But it's a very large military footprint and it's designed to send a message to, in this case, to Iran.
[Vanier:] So, a very significant deployment of military assets, what did you first think when you you saw this news, that all of this is being sent over to the Middle East?
[Leighton:] Well, my first thought was, here we go again. This is something that has been very common, you know, during my military career. I spent a lot of time, you know, in the Middle East, and one of the things that we always watch for was Iranian actions and reactions to what we were doing. One of the things that we have to look out for, from a maritime perspective, is what Iran is planning to do, with the Strait of Hormuz. That is, of course, one of the biggest oil transhipment
[Vanier:] And Colonel, our source here, at CNN, told us that there were threats against U.S. Forces, be the land based or naval, across the region. How exposed are U.S. troops in this part of the world?
[Leighton:] They can be very exposed, so in the case of the navy, they have major facilities in Bahrain that's, in fact, the headquarters of the numbered fleet that's stationed in the Persian Gulf, and that said fleet, on land, we have both army and Air Force assets, as well as marine assets. These assets are concentrated in places like Qatar, and in Kuwait, and in Saudi Arabia, to a lesser extent. And so, these are the kinds of things that we're looking to protect. The forces are, in essence, potentially at risk in all of these locations. Plus, of course, we have the deployed troops in Syria and Iraq, and those are also areas of possible contention with Iran.
[Vanier:] Yes. And the Secretary of State John Bolton, in his comments to the press today, made it very clear that he they are not just trying to deter Iran, they're also trying to deter Iranian proxies across the region, which there are many.
[Leighton:] That's true. And, in fact, we're looking at entities like Hezbollah, for one, also the Iranian-sponsored militias in Iraq, those all fall under the possible
[Vanier:] All right. Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you very much. I mean, this is we found this out only a short while ago, so there's still a lot to find out about this. Thank you very much.
[Allen:] We also have a major policy reversal in Brunei. The country's sultan announces a change to a law that punishes homosexuality. We'll tell you what that change is, as well as the reasons behind it.