a.m. eastern, so set your alarms and start your day with cnn. that's it for "the lead." i'll be back at 6:00 p.m. eastern to fill in for wolf. but now i turn you over to brianna keilar, filling in for wolf in the first half of "the situation room." tens of millions could files powerful storms including the terrifies and high-speed winds known as a derecho. 10-year-old sarah is getting a new set of lungs. wolf blitzer is off today. i'm brianna keilar, you're in "the situation room." a top sblel jens official

is -- the director of the national security agency says the details are still classified, but he tells lawmakers that phone records were critical in foiling numerous terror threats. >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. i want the american people to know we're being transparent in here. while u.s. authorities build a case against the man who blew the lid off those survaluance programs, edward snowden has dropped another bombshell, the self-declared nsa leaker hiding out in hong kong, tells a newspaper there the u.s. has been hacking chinese computers for years. meantime, vowing to fight any extradition attempt, he continues those. let's go live to andrew stevens in hong kong. revelations today, andrew, what did snowden say? >> absolutely. this is just fanning the flames. what happened is there was an

hour-long interview with edward snowden by the "south china morning post." the big revelation, the headlines was he said the nsa has been carrying out about 61,000 hacks internationally. hundreds of those are on chinese and hong kong targets. we don't specifically know what targets they are, about you they talks about network backbones. these are basically big essentially huge routers linked to hundreds of we don't have specification evidence. it looked at targets like the chinese university here in hong kong and some institutions. no sign, though, that any military institutions have been hagged by the nsa. it brings us to this perplexing question, why did he choose hong

kong? i want to read a couple devotes from that interview. he says people who think i made a mistake in picking hong kong as a location misunderstand my intentions. i'm not here to hide from justice. i'm here to reveal criminality, and all i can do is rely on my training and hoping that the world governments refuse to be bullied by the u.s. into persecuting people and seeking political refuge. he was very clear he thought the u.s. government was indeed bullying hong kong into an early extradition. had el was asked to describe himself. this was interesting, he said i'm not a traitor, not a hero, i am an american. >> do you think that authorities will be helping him fight extradition? >> reporter: this is a key question, what will hong kong do? hong kong provides itself in the rule of law as distinct from the

mainland china rule of law. it has its own mini-constitution. what's been hinted at byfuler head of security here yesterday was that he will be given due course, due process, if you like. the hong kong government will follow any extradition request. remember, none has been made as of the moment, and follow the letter of the law. he will get defense, court hearings, and he will be entitled to appeals, so the process according to a senior expert could takes monthsing to through. the big question is what is china's role? china has said nothing, and china can block it, override the local constitution it hasn't

donum times as all, but at this stage, edward snowden could be facing several months, at least, after official charges have been laid in the u.s. >> hong kong is a semiautonomous region, but technically part of china. andrew stevens is there for us. so what will it take? the first may be getting the charges right. joe johns is looking into that. joe, have authorities decided what the charges will look like? what we have found for the united states to get him back here to face any kinds of charges, it could be a long and involved process. the soul-searching over suspected edward senatorening is only beginning. >> i do have concerns about the process. i have great concerns over that. the access that he is.

>> reporter: laws enforcement sources said the department of justice was still preparing charges. it's seemingly an open-and-shut case. >> probable cause here is one of the shortest putts in the world, a gimme in any golf game, because the guy admitted it to the whole world on camera. >> reporter: getting the charges right is potentially complicated, because he's tried to position himself as a political dissenter, entitled to protection. >> if they want to get you, they'll get you. >> an extradition lawyer says the leaks might actually qualify. >> if an individual commits a nonviolent crime that's directed solely against a government, such as espionage or treason or sedition, traditionally these crimes, horrific as they may be, have been viewed as exempt from extradition. >> reporter: one possible

solution, charge him with theft of government property, which sounds more nonpolitical than disclosure of classified information, but the harder part at the moment is just getting snowden into custody. the second important choice after snowden is charged, when to revoke his passport so he's not free to leave the country he's in. related to that, filing for what's called a red notice issued by interpol, a red notice would say to the suspect is wanted by the united states. >> red notice tells the country that interpol believes these are sufficient charges to warrant that country making an arrest action detaining the individual, and holding them until the rest of the process can catch up. >> reporter: a fourth option, probably less likely in a make case such as this, getting foreign immigration police to toss the suspect across a border. >> informal rendition, bakley they find him, pick him up and

push through the fence, hand him to the fbi and he's back on the way to the united states. >> reporter: in recent cases have mostly been about financial crimes, various scam artists mixed in with the occasional gang member. right now we're told the authorities don't even nowhere edward senatoren is. joe johns for us, we appreciate it. tens of millions of americans could now be in the path of powerful storms, including the rare and terrifying derecho. let's get the latest from chad. >> it's a long-lived event from chicago through indianapolis, maybe columbus, cleveland, even cincinnati, and even into d.c. if it keeps going. that likely scenario right

centered at chicago at this hour. a lot of weather beginning to poppy up. tornado watch already in effect here west of chicago. i think we have a close tornado on the ground not that far west of rockford. rockford, if you are listening, take cover right now, it is that serious. the weather is rotating in that cell right there. i can see so much of a funnel on the storm, but it's lost a lot of its rotation. it could come back, don't get me wrong, but right now i think you're in the clear. we have our chaser tv cameras up, i-map. i see a funnel right there. that's the storm headed to rockford. these are moving rather quickly tonight. if you're in the rockford area or anywhere west of rockford, take cover right now. it's that serious. >> it is so serious, and there are so many major cities, chad potentially affected. it's very alarming. thank you, chad. now next, her family fought

to get her on the transplant list. sarah is getting a new set of lungs. our doctor has the details on that. coming up, the hunt is on for a well-dressed suspect who made off with $100,000 in jewelry. [ male announcer ] who loves social networking as much as you? identity thieves. they can find your personal information and do some serious damage. like your birthday or your mother's maiden name. tod and do some serious damage. money has to last longer. i don't want to pour over pie charts all day. i want to travel, and i want the income to do it. ishares incomes etfs. low cost and diversified. find out why nine out of ten large professional investors choose ishares for their etfs. ishares by blackrock. call 1-800-ishares for a prospectus, which includes investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. read and consider it carefully before investing.

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in colorado fast-moving wildfires have burned dozens of home and forced the evacuation of a state prison. let's go live to cnn's dan simon infore , colorado. it's looking pretty bad behind you. how will these conditions affect the snow, down -- part me, the fire, do you think? >> reporter: yeah, this may quickly be pursuance into a nightmare situation for these firefighters. we've been out along this highway for the past hour. the winds have kicked up. every few minutes we keep seeing more black plumes of smoke, which means more houses are burning. we've seen -- they're concerned that the fire is going to jump in highway and take out more homes on the other side. i would say the wind gusts

somewhere in the neighborhood of 25 to 30 miles an hour. this fire we were told is still zero contained, and shows absolutely no signs of abating. you can see some of the black plumes as well. it's just a terrible situation for these firefighters, brianna? >> and dan, this prison that was evacuated, how -- that seems like something that is very rare. do you even know how that was carried out? this must be a very unusual thing. >> reporter: well, with that prison, that was simply a matter of precaution, to make sure those prisoners got out without any incident. the flames were getting awfully close, so they thought it would be a good idea to get the prisoners out. we're talking about low to medium-risk prisoners. i have to tell you, this black forest fire is progressively getting worse. this is what, quite frankly

officials fear. they fear the winds and this heat and now we're beginning to see what's happening as the flames are getting closer and may skip over this highway. we've also seen a number of aircraft this afternoon, some of these big jumbo dc-10 aircraft dumping water, retardant on the flames. they're not making much of an impact, because the winds are so intense. hopefully the winds die down tonight, but at this point it's not looking good. >> dan simon will be following for that for us in black forest, colorado. thank you, dan. a 10-year-old girl in desperate need of a pair of new lungs for months. she is finally getting them this hour after a dramatic ballots that went all the way up for the federal government. her surgery has unway for much of the day. jason carroll is outside of the hospital there. cnn chief medical correspond dr. sanjay gupta also joining us.

jason, let me start with you. first off, how is she doing? >> reporter: well, i just spoke to her parents. she is doing as well as can be expected. this is a difficult surgery. as you can imagine, her parents are overjoyed for the past couple days sarah has been struggling. she's been in critical condition, fighting every single day. you can imagine how they felt last night when they got that a donation was going to be made for those lungs. so at this point it's a matter of waiting, waiting to see what doctors can doings waiting to see how she does during surgery. just a little while ago i spoke to her mother and her aunt about how sarah and the family are doing. >> mostly relief, because since saturday she's been in a medically induced coma, intubated, it's been really hard. there's no good place to go from here. mostly feel relief. i'm a little nervous.

my baby is in the operating room, but i'm trying to focus on we did it, we have lungs, and she has hope and a future. now we're coming close to 5:00. are they giving you updays in terms of how she is doing? what have they told you so far? >> not a lot, just that she's -- they brought her into the o.r. around 12:00, but they didn't start operating until what time? >> 2:00? because they're waiting for the lung toss come in and they're timing it perfectly. they had her there, under and ready to go. >> but didn't do the incision until around 2:00. >> what we're told, brianna is sarah is expected to be in surgery for another several hours. they're sort of taking it hour by hour. this is nous just a victory, but also for javier acosta, he's 11 years old, also here at this hospital, also suffering, and as you know because of these two children and what their families did, there's now been at least a

temporary policy changes, a nan policy changes in terms of how children under the age of 12 are prioritized on adult donor lists. so it's really been an incredible medical victory for them, but also an emotional victory and ethical victory as well. >> because of them, kids will get the same consideration as adults. it's caused so much attention to be paid, certainly to sarah's case today. let's turn to dr. sanjay gupta. this is obviously high reward, this surgery, sanjay, but also very high risk as well, i imagine. >> yes, no question. it's a tough operation, and as jason was just talking about, you're dealing with the additional sith ways of putting adult lung donors into a child's body. sometimes they can make that work in terms of size, simply by trimming the lungs, sometimes they will take particular lobes

and transplant those. it sounds like a simple thing, but the size really does matter. the vessel have to match up. the various airways have to match up. that's part of the technical challenge, but to your question, brianna, if you take all transplants across the board, and this is a tough thing to reconcile, but five years out, about half of those parents survive, so with someone who has cystic phi browse, the odds are a little tougher. she's more predisposed to infections, she's be on drugs that suppress her immune system. so a the lo of different things will be juggled. what is the best-case scenario here? is she going to potential be able to just act like a normal kid? >> yeah, you know, i think when you talk about cystic phi browse, it's a genetic disease, so the lungs, you know, it becomes very obvious in materials of limiting her function. with the new lunges, if everything goes well, she should

regain a lot of that function, be able to able to do the things a 10-year-old girl could do. but it can affect other organs, and someone who will need to take medications, so she doesn't develop rejection of the new lungs. it never will be the same for her, as everyone knows, but it could be a lot closer to normal. >> a lot closer to normal. we certainly hope so. thank you, sanjay. >> you got it, brianna. sarah is just one of many children battles cystic fibrosis, and a nascar driver is joining the fight to help find a cure. >> i'm denny hamlin. we can make an impact. cystic fibrosis is a respiratory disease that involves breathing, and eventually you'll need a lung transplant. my first experience with someone was my cousin. i never endstood how he had to

take so much medicine until i got older that i realized he had a disease that there was no cure for. we started the foundation doing different events, started the short track showdown a couple years after that, and really just grown the foundation over the last few years and cried to cystic phi browse, as well as a lot 6 children's hospital in 9 richmond area. we hope, you know, that cf is something that people recognize, but eventually we hope it means "cure found." join the movement 679 impact your world at cnn.com/impact. when we come back, information that a lot of parents will want to know. those soccer headers that you typically see on the field? they could pose a serious danger. plus a brazen jewelry heist caught on tape at tiffany's.

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the brain. a new study suggests the subtle hits when they okur repeatedly could be just as bad as a much more powerful blow. researchers -- they caution more research is required before drawing any conclusions. almost eight months since superstorm sandy devastated parts of new jersey and new york, mayor bloomberg is proposals a $20 billion of flood walls and other measures to protect what he considers ed of climate change. he says as bad as sandy was, future storms could be worse due to rising temperatures and sea levels. climate change has been a political hot button issue for years. new york city police are on the hunt for the man seen here in the surveillance tape inside of tiffany's allegedly pulling off a jewelry heist in plain sight.

he takes two diamond necklaces reportedly worth an estimated $100. next, why joe biden is a bit worried about a senate race in massachusetts, and what democrats are doing about it. and in our next hour, has all that government spying actually saved lives? jake tapper speaks to michael hayden about the leaks. [ male announcer ] this one goes out to all the allergy muddlers. you know who you are. you can part a crowd, without saying a word... if you have yet to master the quiet sneeze... you stash tissues like a squirrel stashes nuts... well muddlers, muddle no more. try zyrtec®. it gives you powerful allergy relief. and zyrtec® is different than claritin® because zyrtec® starts working at hour one on the first day you take it. claritin® doesn't start working until hour three. zyrtec®. love the air. just like a tablet.

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a veteran democrat sick congressman facing a rookie republican for a vacant seat in massachusetts. once upon a time that might have been a no-brainer, but in a close race, democrats are taking no chances, bringing in president obama to campaign today. here is jim acosta. >> reporter: brianna, democrats in massachusetts have seen this election drama play out before. a senate seat is up for grabs. a republican candidate might take it away from them, and president obama tries to ride to the rescue. president obama parachuted into boston to warn of the consequences it ed markey loses. >> you can't just turn out during a presidential election. you have to turn out in this election. >> democrats do not agonize. democrats organize.

>> reporter: but polls show markie, a longtime congressman, is roughly in the same position democrats were in three years ago when the president tried but failed to help martha coakley in her race against scott brown. >> somebody who's fought for the people of massachusetts every single day. ♪ and when the band plays hail to the chief ♪ this time they have a newcomer in gabrielle gomez, a former s.e.a.l. and son of immigrants. >> i think he's going to try to -- >> an it's not just the president. vice president joe biden sounded the alarmt. minority turnout could be low, adding ed should win, but this is a strange moment. there's not a lot of people paying attention. >> killing bin laden had been a gold for years. >> reporter: markie has ratcheted up the attack, slamming gomez for his links

with a group that -- when gomez hit back, some of his inexperience shows. >> for him f. it could be as dirty and low as pond scum. >> reporter: do you think that ed markey is pond scum? gomez indicated to cnn he regrets the comment. >> was hi thinking it, yeah. should i have said it? probably not. >> he may be a fresh face, but he's prohotting the stalest old republican ideas. >> gabriel gomez is a very bad man. >> now he's mocking the ads. >> he even leaves the toilet seat up. >> reporter: but the race is no laughing matter for the president, who made a pit stop at a boston sandwich shop to remind voters what's coming in less than two weeks. >> i want to make sure everybody turns out and votes. all right? >> reporter: there's one difference. three years ago scott brown was openly campaigning again president obama.

>> gomez is doing almost the opposite, saying he'll be a reliable vote with the president on expanding background checks and for immigration reform, indicating he has a tough uphill climb against a democratic party that's faring better these days in a deep blue state. brianna? >>,im acosta for us in boston. big news on the nsa controversy. the director says newly revealed secret programs were critical in foilings numerous terror threats. listen form. >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. i want the american people to know that we're being transparent in here. >> let's talk about that and more with cnn chief political analyst gloria borger, chief national correspondent john king, and our chief political correspondent candy crowley, the anchor of cnn's "state of the union." how does it help president obama, or does it help president obama?

>> i think any time you have -- one of the most respected institutions in the united states is the mill tears. any time you have a guy up there with these ribbons and generals, people will listen, so certainly that helps the president. the other thing that helps is exactly what he said, we've been able to, you know, stem a lot of terrorist threats here. if you ask people, would you rather be safe or have people know that you have -- the numbers -- they would say i'd rather be safe. >> he doesn't need that much help on this particular issue, because the american public is already with him. they don't like the ideas that this metta-data, as they call it, is being collected. but we understand why, because it's necessary to fight terrorism, which is why you heard general alexandre talk about the possible declassification of instances in this this data helped thwart terror attacks the i think he said there were dozens of times

in which it was really crucial and very important. i would also argue, though, that the president's been silent since mr. snowden came out and we may want to hear from him on this subject again. >> and not everyone will be satisfied. people say, if you're going to do this, do it only if it's worth it. they're -- but there are some democrats, who say i'm not so sure when that. maybible have done it another way. so the problem for the american people is they won't hear the evidence of which plots, because most is classified, and the other thing is the next up the ratchet, the flow chafrt, if you will, the director of national intelligence, ron wyden, traditionally a friend of the president, thinks he didn't tell the truth to congress. and ron wyden -- >> and he said that the least untruthful -- >> you do have senators wyden

and udahl and paul, bipartisan senators speaking out against the administration. >> filing suits, by the way. >> but they have prominent republicans in leadership and on specific committees that support the intelligence committee, folks who are very much in the know and are very respected. that obviously helps president obama, but this comes on the heels of other controversies that were throwing him off his game. it lends to the question of whether this is getting in the way of his agenda. do you think it is? >> i would say lots of things are getting in the president's way. i mean, he's a second-term president, we're now looking at the mid terms. there are plenty of things that are in front of him in terms of immigration reform. he's still got republicans looking at it going no way, no how. when you look at his agenda, it was always going to be tough. this makes it tougher, but, you know, he can still do a couple more things, maybe even some big things. we'll see, but there are lots of

things in his way before this. >> i can't imagine that president obama heading into a second term thought what would he be talking about front and center most of the time would be talking about drone policy, leaks, surveillance? this is isn't exactly the still he intended to be talking about. if you talk to people at the white house, straight ahead, not going to affect anything. >> but let me ask you about this, john, on immigration, there's a point to be made that a lot of the fervor for immigration now resides in congress where it should be, in order to push something through. president obama maybe doesn't have that much impact on congress at this point. >> the biggest impact the president may have to have down the road is cutting a final deal. you saw behind him, tom donohue, that's a republican, if you will, standing behind the president. john boehner wants immigration reform, to help the republican

party get this nightmare behind it. the question, though, is if the house passes something that gives legal status, but not an automatic, not a sugar-coated path to citizenship, not even what marco rubio wants, if the house will only pass that, will the president go to the left and say this is the best deal we can get, we get legal status, they just don't get a special path. will the president go and say we have to take this deal? or will he say, no, let's go in and -- >> and the left is going to think it's just pun stitch. you've already got 13 years for a path to citizenship. if you thereon throw up any more requirements, they'll consider it a roadblock. >> this isn't about the nsa or irs, this is about the issue itself. >> but there's a calendar. there is a calendar in any second term. >> and a light touch now, but he needs a stronger -- >> he has to have a light touch

noun. >> but to john's point are on a calendar, he doesn't have a lot of time. you know, my question is, what happens with republicans in the house of representatives? you know, even if they get something through the senate by large majority, the question is, what happens in the house? >> it is the huge question mark. gloria borger, candy crowley, john king, thank you so much. >> sure. just ahead in our next hour, the former nsa and crypt a director weighs in on the news the newly revealed secret programs were critical in foiling numerous terror threats. plus the badges over how to stop sexual assault in the military, reaching a fever pitch on capitol hill. why it's putting some unlikely lawmakers at odds. [ panting ]

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an explosive battle on capitol hill over potentially thousands of incidents of sexual assault in the u.s. military, and it's putting some lawmakers in the same party at odds. cnn pentagon correspondent chris lawrence joins us here in "the situation room." this splits them. >> one of the democrats are upset with one of their most powerful members as he blocked a push to bring a third party in to oversee some of these cases. a battle has been brewing in congress over to how to stop sexual assaults in the military. it boiled down to democrat versus democrat. >> it's the chain of command that can protect victims. >> the chain of command has told us for decades that they will solve this problem, and they

have failed. >> senators kristin guillen brand and carl leave present radically different visions after a recent survey estimated 26,000 troops were assaulted last year. gillibrand would take away a commander's power to overturn a guilty verdict. she would give military trial lawyers the authority to decide which crimes to prosecute. >> take it from the victims who have said to us over and over again that they do not report, because they do not trust the chain of command. >> levine wants to keep commanders in control, but allow a senior officer to review cases where the commander decides not to prosecute. i do not support removing the authority of commander. >> reporter: the mill stare brass backs levine. they want the unit commanders kept in the loop. >> 50% of the victims say that

if they report the assault, they don't think it does any good. >> i don't think you can fix the problem, senator. or have accountability within the structure of the military without the command involved in that. >> reporter: victims say those commander can be biased, and discourage them from pursuing a case. >> i remember being questioned about the first rape -- did you say no? i said, yes. rape is tolerated in the military. >> reporter: well, the armed services committee went with levine's plan and added a provision to make it a crime to actually retaliation against some of the troops who bring charges against others. brianna, it's not nearly as far as gillibrand wanted to take it. she's indicated she's going to take it before the full senate this summer. >> we certainly expect this issue to continue, and you will be covering it. chris lawrence, thank you for that. >> yeah. coming up, have the massive

spying programs actually foiled terror plots? jake tapper speaks to michael hayden about the leaks. but next, they deal with guns, bombs and fires. they've been talking -- should say taking a lot of political heat. jessica yellin goes behind the scenes with atf investigators. [ female announcer ] love. it's the most powerful thing on the planet. love holds us in the beginning. comforts us as we grow old. love is the reason you care. for all the things in your life... that make life worth living. ♪ ♪ sweet love of mine

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...and we inspected his brakes for free. -free is good. -free is very good. [ male announcer ] now get 50% off brake pads and shoes at meineke. they're called to the scene of everything, from the newtown school massacre to the boston marathon bombings, yet these special investigators work for a federal agency caught in a political battle between the white house and congress. the man president obama picked to lead it was under fire on capitol hill this week. we're talking about the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms

and explosives. our chief white house correspondent, jessica yellin, got a special inside look. >> anywhere? >> yeah, just get the paper lit real good. >> that's me, lighting the fire. fire forensics. >> on the bottom, everything starting to off-gas and catch on fire. >> one of the specialties of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms. >> this was the only fire laboratory of its kind in the world that does forensics type of evaluation. >> we toured the atf's maryland facility. >> where they have a tank for firing bullets. >> and the water doesn't leave any marks on the bullets. so it stays pristine. >> very csi. >> absolutely. >> a range to test guns used in crimes. >> it has 13 rounds and they're asking whether it did continuously fire and not jam. >> and lots of labs. a digital bullet lab to match

firearm fingerprints. >> with curvature and spatial relationship. >> it looks like it to me. >> are a hit. >> a lab for reconstructing bombs and a lab for pulling dna off of anything from a gun to a gas can. >> you've seen their experts in the field. at the newtown shooting, the fertilizer plant explosion in west, texas and the boston marathon bombing. >> we're bringing our explosive specialists to the scene and we'll be working joint with partners with the atf. >> our mission is to fight violent crime with the criminal misuse of explosives, fire and firearms. >> i object to holding this hearing today. >> up on capitol hill, the atf is under fire. >> the atf plays such a critical role within the department of justice. >> the president's choice to head the bureau face as confi confirmation battle, with skeptical senators slamming the

agency. >> there's a lot of mistrust and people don't think that anybody is held to account at any time. >> is it a priority for the obama justice department to prosecute felons and fugitives to attempt to illegally purchase firearms? >> the last two nominees never even made it to a vote. in fact, the senate has derailed efforts to install a permanent director ever since senators were given the power to block them under president bush. to some, the bureau is tainted by its roles in the tragedy of ruby ridge and the fire at the branch davidian compound, now the president says the atf has gotten cat up in the politics of the gun debate. >> since congress hasn't confirmed a director of the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms in six years, they should confirm todd jones. >> but even some on the left argue there's no reason for the atf to exist as its own bureau. they say it should be folded into the fbi. meantime, the men and women who

work there are without a permanent boss in an increasingly rocky political climate. jessica yellin, cnn, washington. when we come back, a woman's search for her father's killer finally pays off after 26 years. plus much more at the top of the hour on the bombshell news out of the nsa that the newly revealed secret programs were critical in foiling numerous terror threats. that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there. ♪ je t'adore ♪ c'est aujourd'hui

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a woman's relentless search for her father's alleged killer has paid off after 26 years thanks to some help from the internet. here's cnn's poppy harlow. >> this was his last birthday. >> it's like a dream for joslyn martinez. >> what's your greatest memory of your father? >> those parties we had at the restaurant. >> after 26 years, her father's alleged killer arrested. his capture thanks in large part to her. >> my family told me, don't ever forget that name. >> joslyn was just nine when her fae father was murdered in 1986, jose martinez was shot and killed outside the new york city restaurant he and his wife owned. but the suspect, gustav santos fled to the dominican republic. the fbi said the murder case was closed in 1988 after receiving information that santos was jailed in the dominican

republic. what the nypd didn't know was that just a year later, santos was released. >> they should not have closed the case. it should have been looked at to see if there was additional information as to whether or not he was out of jail. >> in 2006, joslyn started hunting online for her father's alleged killer. delving into websites like background.com. >> ha did you find? >> i didn't know i had so much stuff. i really didn't. >> but after years of searching -- >> i was like, i think i have something. let me look. oh, my god. but i had this person in the background check right at the top. >> she took what she found here, to the 34th precincts in november. >> because november is the anniversary of my father's death and i get upset. >> police say it's only because of her efforts they were able to capture santos. >> it's admirable that what she did obviously she she made a concerted effort and it paid off. >> wow. [ speaking spanish ]

>> that your daughter has accomplished this. >> a police source tells cnn after santos was arrested in miami thursday, he confessed to murdering jose martinez. >> it's all i wanted was to figure out what happened. >> what do you think your dad would say? >> you know, i think he would just hug me and smile. he would smile a lot. >> nypd detectives are now in miami. and plan to bring santos back to new york friday. he will be arraigned next week and faces second-degree murder charges. poppy harlow, cnn, new york. joslyn says she has no desire to confront santos when he gets back to new york and that she now wants to put this behind her. pretty amazing story. jake tapper is here to take us away into the second hour of the situation room. >> brianna, thank you for warming them up for me. i appreciate it. happening now, the nsa versus the leaker. one of america's top spies says lives are being saved because the government is monitoring

phone records. plus the cleveland house of horrors defendant. back in court. even ariel castro's lawyer says some of the charges against him are indisputable. and new evidence that al qaeda is training terrorists to use a dangerous weapon that could bring down commercial planes. wolf blitzer is off today, i'm jake tapper. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. you're in the situation room. america's most secret intelligence agency is defending surveillance programs exposed by the fugitive leaker, edward snowden. the head of the nsa told congress that dozens of potential terror attacks have been prevented because of those controversial programs. snowden is waging his own self-defense, giving a new interview to a hong kong newspaper, spilling more secrets and vowing to fight prosecution back home. cnn's barbara starr and miguel marquez are standing by. first to our chief congressional

correspondent, dana bash. dana, it's rare for an nsa chief to testify publicly like this. >> it is. in fact nsa used to be known as no such agency. that's how secretive it is. those days are over, though. and now in the nsa director's first public comments about this sweeping surveillance, he made clear he believes it is protecting americans. >> it is one of the biggest newly revealed secret program, collecting millions of phone records, has it really stopped terror attacks? the head of one of the most secret spy agencies was ready with an answer. >> it's dozens of terrorist events that these have helped prevent. >> national security agency director keith alexander told senators he planned to make the number of thwarted plots public soon, in an attempt to prove to americans worried about government snooping, it's worth

it. >> this is not us doing something under the covers. this is what we're doing on behalf of all of us. for the good of this country. >> credited another classified program, looking at classified information of other users looking at a plot to blow up new york subways and preventing the attack. >> not just critical, it was the one that developed the lead on it. i would say it was the one that allowed us to know it was happening. >> despite his vigorous defense of controversial programs. senators voiced skepticism. >> it certainly defies logic that you need to collect all of the telephone calls made in the 312 area code on the chance that one of those persons might be on the other end of the phone. >> on display, concern about civil liberties makes for strange political bedfellows, conservatives agreeing with liberals. >> what i worry about is how far do you believe this authority extends. >> here i have my verizon phone.

my cell phone. >> what authorized investigation gave you the grounds for acquiring my cell phone data? >> to be sure, there is also bipartisan support of sweeping surveillance. moderate republican susan collins wanted to correct the record on this claim from edward snowden. >> i sit at my desk certainly had the authority to wiretap anyone from you or your accountant to a federal judge, to even the president if i had a personal email. >> true or false? >> false. i know of no way to do that. >> pressed by senators about the importance of public debate, alexander promised to declassify information about these secret programs. but also warned, a lot will remain secret. >> if we tell the terrorists every way that we're going to track them, they will get through and americans will die. that's wrong. >> now the nsa director made

clear that there were a lot of things he couldn't answer in terms of senators' questions because it was a public forum. but jake, they will get a chance to pepper him in private tomorrow. he's going to come back here to the hill for a classified briefing with all senators. jake? >> all right, dana bass, thank you so much. the nsa leaker is stirring up more controversy, edward snowden says american intelligence agents have been hacking computer netd works around the world for years, including thousands of computers in china. our pentagon correspondent, barbara starr is looking into that. >> jake, you have to wonder if edward snowden's playing just a little bit of the china card, the hong kong card, so he can get sympathy and stay there. the latest claim comes in an interview with the "south china morning post" newspaper. he says the national security agency has been hacking and attacking computers in china and hong kong since 2009. an important caveat. the newspaper says they were

shown some documents about all of this by snowden but could not verify them. a very interesting quote from edward snowden in the newspaper. i want to read it to you. he says quote, we hack network backbones. like huge internet routers basically. that give us access to the communications of hundreds of thousands of computers without having to hack every single one. would it be a surprise that the u.s. is interested in getting into chinese computers? probably not. a lot of competition between the u.s. and china economically, militarily. but the administration isn't ready to go there. they will not say specifically if this is true or not. the state department spokesman had this to say today. >> there is a difference between you know, going after economic data and financial information, that is pasht of these cyberattacks, or seems to be. and an issue which is the

president has welcomed the debate on, which is, and the administration has welcomed the debate on, which is surveillance. and going after people who mean to do harm. so there is a difference. that would be what i would have to say on that. >> not very clear, is it? but you know, what i think she's really headed towards there is an acknowledgement that there's plenty of competitiveness between china and the u.s. into getting into each other's computer systems is one way to attack that problem. jake? >> barbara, i wanted to ask you there have been acknowledgements by the obama administration and the military that when it comes to cyber warfare, our capabilities are not just defensive, but also offensive. last fall we heard from a general who said we were doing that in terms of going after our enemies in afghanistan, there's obviously the stuxnet virus, the worm to foul up the iranian nuclear program and earlier, the head of cyber warfare alluded to

offensive programs. so as you say, it wouldn't necessarily be a huge surprise if the u.s. was doing this just as the chinese are doing to the u.s. >> oh, absolutely, jake. but you know as you're pointing out, this is the crown jewel right now of u.s. military power. forget the fighter jets, the missiles, all of that. cyber warfare, being able to attack the other guy's systems, knowing what they're up to. being able to foul up their systems. if you want to, this is some of the most secretive information. it doesn't even begin to touch on what snowden is talking about. crown jewels that the u.s. military really wants to protect is how they're going to get into an enemy's computer systems if they feel they have to do that. >> all right. right now edward snowden is believed to be holed up in some kind of safe house. there are questions about whether his girlfriend might be with hill. she's now in hiding as well. cnn's miguel marquez is in hawaii where the couple lived together until a few weeks ago.

miguel? >> yeah, jake, both are in hiding. but now family and friends are coming out in support of edward snowden and lindsay mills. >> just wish him good luck and he's got my love. >> luck and love, to edward snowden from jonathan mills, the father of snowden's girlfriend, lindsay. >> he's very nice. shy, reserved. he's always had strong convictions of right and wrong and it kind of makes sense. but -- still shocked. >> a family in shock, caught in the middle of an intelligence crisis of global proportions. his daughter, now in hiding. >> how is she holding up? >> as well as can be expected. and that's all i have to say. >> lindsay mills, an avid dancer was updating her blog at adventures of the world traveling pole dancing super hero until monday a day after her boyfriend of some five years

came out as the source of the explosive documents in her last entry, she described herself as lost at sea. without a compass. >> my name is ed snowden, i'm 29 years old. >> friends of snowden now coming to his defense. one writing in the "chattanooga times-free press" called snowden courageous. adding that he's introspective and perhaps a bit prone to brood. a person who thinks long and hard before coming to a decision. >> and it appears when he came to this decision, he came to it over a period of time because the exit from hawaii, the escape from hawaii appears seamless for mr. snowden and miss mills. jake? >> thank you, miguel marquez. up next, we could see a repeat of a rare kind of storm that packs very dangerous winds. millions of people could be at risk. and colorado wildfires, i'll talk to a resident who fled for his life as the flames closed in. i want to make things more secure.

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in colorado right now, wildfires are moving fast. the winds have been picking up and conditions are very unpredictable. it's a dangerous situation. one that has forced several thousand people to evacuate. in just a moment i'll talk to a man who fled his home as the flames were closing in. but first let's go to cnn's victor blackwell in colorado springs. victor? >> jake, the wind as you said has been picking up all day. but it's part of a trinity of trouble here. the wind, the heat and the humidity. it's very dry, it's very hot and you can see that the wind has been blowing pretty stiff and hard all day. listen to dan parsons in just a moment. but first i want to show you there's been this white cloud over colorado springs for most of the day. but you see here on the horizon, the dark puffs there? that means that there's something man-made burning, not nature, but maybe paint, maybe

chemicals, vinyl, fabrics, those are homes, we're told by the sheriff here that at least 80 homes by his estimate have burned. that he believes will surpass 100 today. now let's go to dan parson, he's lived in black forest for 25 years, this is the first time he's had to leave as part of a mandatory evacuation. let's listen. >> my neighbors have called me, they're on their phones wondering what's going on with their house, this is only just here in our community. you can only imagine what's going on in the timber area and people wondering, i can't imagine sitting there watching on tv and wondering if my house is gone or it's not. >> more than 7,000 people out of their homes in either hotels, or with friends and family. at shelters that have been opened by the red cross. wondering if those dark puffs of smoke are their homes. there's more than four dozen

helicopters dumping water on this. we've seen a dc-10 dumping water on the fire. the evacuation has been expanded as they try to put out this fire. jake? >> victor blackwell in colorado springs, thank you so much. joining us on the phone from colorado springs is jared wandell, the last one out of his house as the flames closed in. jared, thanks so much for joining us. you're a father of seven. tell us about your evacuation, what did the police tell you? hi, jake. we were actually just finishing shutting off the power and cleaning everything out. we got all of the essential items of our house out. we had probably about 45 minutes, just as we were getting ready to pull out. sheriffs deputies pulled in and told us we needed to evacuate immediately because the fire was coming up our block and it was only a few houses down. >> where did you go? >> well we had some friends who were helping us to pack up. so we went over to our friends' house, about five miles away. we're over there now and they're

under the voluntary evacuation and the fire has turned, it's starting to go west so now their area is threatening. so now they're evacuating. >> but just to make sure, everyone in your family is safe. >> yeah, we are, we had just enough time. i was actually petty close to the origin of the fire. i was with the cub scouts earlier. and within 20 minutes it was filling the whole sky. that prompted us to send everybody home and go back to our own homes. luckily my wife and children were already starting to pack up and move. we kind of prepared for this since last year with all the canyon fires living in the middle of the forest, we needed to go through drills and figure out what we wanted to do. i'm sure glad we did because it cut down our time quite a bit. >> what do you tell your children, you have seven children, some of them very young. do you have hopes that your neighborhood will survive? >> we are hoping for the best. but i don't think we have any, any opportunity to be able to have our house saved. we had some neighbors just only

a block away that just saw a wall of flames just coming into their house, just as they were pulling out. and not sure if it hit their house, but there was no way they were going to be able to save their home and there's a school next to our neighbor. and i don't believe the school was gone, but all the trees around it. pretty densely forested area. so it jumped quite a bit and the flames, you could actually see them from i-25, which is six miles away. you could still see the flames even now in the black forest. >> how are your children coping? it must be very traumatic for them. >> it is pretty traumatic, i had lost my mother unexpectedly about three weeks ago, we were still kind of reeling from that when this hit. so it's been a pretty traumatic few weeks. this is, this is everything we have. we were able to save some things. but i don't think the rest of the stuff, especially some of those momentos we hadn't thought about taking or certainly

sentimental items that couldn't fit, were able to be taken in time. so it's pretty, pretty painful. >> james, well our deepest condolences on the loss of your mother and the best of luck to your family. >> thank you very much. coming up an unusually long line of nasty weather is forming in the upper midwest. it has a special name. we'll have more details, next. [ male announcer ] it's intuitive and customizable, just like a tablet. so easy to use, it won a best of ces award from cnet. and it comes inside this beautifully crafted carrying case. introducing the all-new 2014 chevrolet impala with the available mylink system. ♪ [ beeps ] ingeniously connecting you to your life

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we're watching out for a new outbreak of ferocious storms, tens of millions of people in the midwest and mid-atlantic regions may be at risk. but more immediately we have reports of a tornado on the

ground. let's check in now with our severe weather expert, chad meijers, chad? >> we have quite a few of them. we'll get to that derecho thing in a minute. that's a series of storms that line up and move quickly to the east. and it's just blasts wind. 80, 90 miles per hour. we had one last year, it did all kinds of damage. now, this is the cell right here that we're worried about. this red box. the tornado watch box. because we still have tornadoes, i believe on the ground. now that's not that far from yorkville in illinois. if you know yorkville, it's a western suburb of chicago. not a close suburb, you still have to go through romeoville and into worth and into chicago. but this is now a very large storm. rotation right here and we've had tornadoes on the ground with this storm already. there are more tornadoes on the ground even into illinois, indiana, and also into southern wisconsin. possible for tonight. the big risk of severe weather tonight, jake, likely weather, from illinois, indiana, wisconsin, right on down into north of indianapolis, that's where the storms will rotate. this is where the wind will

blow. and this wind, this derecho system, this is when one storm kind of lines up with another one, we'll get to it here. i also have this guy here this is chaser tv from i-map. i've been watching this man, he's a little bit behind the tornado right now, that's a dangerous place to be. we'll see what he gets into with the storm moving through yorkville. what you see here is when you have all of these lines of weather. the lines of storms that are going to get lined up and push like a bulldozer, take all of the wind and push it ahead. we'll have it all night long, fort wayne, indianapolis, toledo, columbus, cleveland, big cities in the way. this is just now getting going. it's only 5:30 out west. this will be a ten-hour event as it pushes even into west virginia by later tonight. >> chad, how rare is a derecho, you maybe get one a year tops, especially that could be this big. maybe one every five years, this big. now the one last year was definitely a 10 or 20-year event. it went for hundreds of miles,

800 miles from one side of the country to another. it blew through washington, d.c. with some wind there as well. so yes, they do happen. but when you have a lot of heat down here, it is almost 100 degrees across parts of the south. that's the heat and humidity here and you have this wind coming through here with the jet stream going 60. the winds can be 40 miles per hour in the thunderstorm and the thunderstorm is moving 60 miles per hour. you add 40 and 60, you have 100-mile-per-hour wind. it's like an f-0 tornado. a couple hundred miles wide plowing through the midwest. chad myers, thank. coming up, the former head of the c.i.a. and the nsa, tells me whether insiders of the george w. bush feel vindicated on surveilling terrorism. (announcer) born with a natural

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reasons to worry that al qaeda is training terrorists to shoot down planes. and terrifying video, a woman with a baby dodge as runaway car. wolf blitzer is off today, i'm jake tapper and you're in "the situation room." back to our lead story, the head of the national security agency says dozens of potential terror attacks were prevented because of the secret surveillance of phone records. current and former government officials are coming forward to defend the nsa's tactics of the leaked to the world by the former contractor, edward snowden. i spoke a short while ago with the former nsa director and former c.i.a. director and retired general, michael hayden. general hayden, thanks so much for joining me. >> thank you, jake. >> i want to play some sound. i spoke with senator rand paul a little while ago and asked him how edward snowden should be handled and this is what he said. >> i think he was divulging a program that i think clearly there are constitutional

questions about and for which the director of intelligence, frankly lied to the u.s. senate and said, we're not collecting any data on any americans, when in fact they're doing a billion pieces of data every day. >> so he says there are constitutional questions about the surveillance programs and there are serious credibility problems with the intelligence apparatus in this country. do you agree? >> no, i don't. >> with either one of those? >> no, with neither. let me assume that i do for a moment, all right? to be a true whistleblower, you need to raise your hand inside the institution. you need to go to your supervisor. you need to go to the inspector-general. you need to go to members of congress. all of these things are laid out. if you think something's wrong, raise your hand and tell people that something's wrong. >> how is this not a violation of the fourth amendment in illegal search and seizure? >> there's very specific language about needing a specific warrant for a specific individual in the constitution. this is mining millions of data

and sticking it in a room and being able to go and get it later. >> you're talking for example about the so-called verizon program, the meta data. first of all the supreme court has ruled that meta data, the kind of stuff we're talking about here is not covered by the fourth amendment to the u.s. constitution. so this is not a constitutional issue. i understand it could still be a privacy issue. it could be a legal issue. but it's not a constitutional issue. >> 1979, this is before the internet this is before cell phones. don't you think these things have to be revisited? >> i'd be happy to revisit them. but there's a process to revisit them. right now we've got a 5-3 decision from the supreme court that says that meta data is not constitutionally protected. >> there's a whistleblower named william vinnie, a national security agency analyst. he told that the nsa could be recording the calls on the target list. such as the smaller list of 500,000 to a million individuals that are being watched by the government. is there, is there any possibility that that's true, that the calls are being

recorded? >> i can't conceive of it being true. number one. think it's technologically beyond the capacity of any surveillance agency to do that. and number two, it doesn't make sense with what it is we know about this program. the agency gathers from american telecommunication providers what are essentially business records. they don't collect it, they don't put alligator clips on some wires somewhere. these are records that the company creates for their own purposes. then under this court order, shares with the national security agency. >> the nsa director was in front of congress today. and he said that dozens in his view of terrorist events have been prevented in part because of information gathered by these surveillance programs. is that true if your experience? >> i have no reason to challenge that. of course. >> what about during your tenure? >> during my tenure, what is now the verizon program was part of ha we now call for that period back then, the terrorist surveillance program. and we did have a whole series

of intelligence reports that came out of that program, that would not otherwise have been available, yeah. >> do you not understand the concern that people have, not so much that the program in and of itself or that you general hayden, are at issue. but that if history has taught us anything. programs like these are abused, they are not always just 100% good actors you know the federalist papers and these, you know we're not angels. and the idea that you look at the irs scandal, you look at the abuses, the wiretapping that went into martin luther king jr. that started national security concerns, that became something else, do you not understand why people are worried about this? >> no, of course i understand it. i'm an american, too. i come from the same blood line of folks who are very much concerned about this program. but i probably know a little bit more about the program. a little bit more about the people who are conducting the program. and at least i'm taking the time, jake, to look at how the program is overseen. now i get it.

our constitution was designed to prevent the abuse of pair. so you set up three competing brampls of government. which frankly leads to gridlock every now and again as we've recently seen. but the idea was you create these natural tensions within the federal government to prevent these kinds of abuses. in this case, you have two successive presidents. the two chambers of congress and the american court system all aware of the program and all through our political processes agreeing with the program. >> richard clark, the former national coordinator for the surveillance program. he wrote quote the law under which george w. bush and now president obama have acted was not intended to give the government records of all telephone calls. if that had been the intent, a law would have said that it didn't. rather the law envisioned the administration coming to special court on a case-by-case basis to explain why it needed to have specific records. so he is saying that this went, these programs go beyond the

intent of the law. >> in a bipartisan majority in both houses of congress apparently disagree with richard. because they have authorized this program and continued to authorize this program. and frankly, the obama administration was more transparent about this effort than we were in the bush administration. i mean, they made this meta data collection activity available to all the members of congress. not just all the members of the intelligence committees. >> last question for you, as a former bush administration official, do you ever find it odd given how quiet the obama administration has been in defending these programs? clapper gave one interview and disappeared. obama spoke once and disappeared. meanwhile all of these republicans, republican chairman in the house key committees, peter king, mike rodgers, former bush administration officials, you guys are the ones coming forward, defending these programs after listening to president obama and before that,

senator obama say some not so nice things about these surveillance programs. how does that feel? >> there was a concern, all right? there was a concern among us in the bush administration. we felt comfortable with these programs. jake, we thought they were necessary. we believed they were lawful, they were appropriate and they were effective, there's great concern on our part that the way candidate obama had spoken. that some of these programs would be stopped. the fact of the matter is, most of them have not. some of them have been expanded. that's actually really good news. that's not something we, the former administration need to spike the football about and say i told you so. we should just take a sense of satisfaction that what we were doing, once candidate obama became president obama. he saw that these were of great value and frankly, were being very carefully done. the shorthand version about this, jake, is national security looks a little different from the oval office than it does from a hotel room in iowa. >> general hayden, thank you so

much for being here. >> thank you. coming up the man charged with 329 specific crimes. kidnappings, rapes, even murder, goes to court to enter a plea. plus the story behind a horrifying moment captured by a surveillance camera. for all those who sleep too hot or too cool,

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>> well, jake, ariel castro walked into court making his second appearance before a judge. he walked in devoid of emotion with his head down the entire time. in fact he didn't make eye contact with anyone. as expected, he pleaded not guilty to the 329 charges against him. but what his attorney said after the arraignment came as a bit of a surprise. >> with his head hanging down, accused kidnapper, rapist and murderer, ariel castro looked despondent as his attorneys pleaded not guilty on his behalf. >> we would like to enter a plea of not guilty. >> after an arhine rainment, castro's attorney spoke to reporters in the courtroom and at midded for the first time that some of the 329 charges are horrendous and indisputable. that's a shift from a few weeks ago when he said castro was not a monster. >> the initial portrayal by the media has been one of a quote monster and that's not the

impression that i got when i talked to him for three hours. >> court today, weintraub not only sympathized with the victims but showed a willingness to work out a plea deal. if prosecutors take the aggravated murder charges off the table. >> it's our hope that we can continue to work towards a resolution to avoid having an unnecessary trial about aggravated murder and the death penalty. >> both sides have a vested interest in not going to trial. the defense wants to avoid the death penalty. prosecutors don't want to revictimize the three women. but it's a delicate balance. >> what makes this case unusual is that as much as prosecutors want to throw the book at castro, they also have to consider the needs of the victims, who may not want to testify. who may not want to relive this experience and that could open the door to some sort of plea bargain, at least one that doesn't involve the death penalty. >> this as the prosecution

prepares for trial with fbi agents back at castro's home, analyzing evidence and recreating a scene that include as disco ball and silver garland hanging in the front room. the attorney representing the three plaintiffs tell cnn the women continue to have confidence in the prosecutors' office and sincerely hope for a swift and just result. >> and the courage fund set up for the women has actually ballooned to nearly $1 million. we spoke to a family friend of one of the victims and we're told that the women are enjoying their new-found freedom. that they're as happy as you can be after going through a traumatic ordeal. they've been able to leave their home, go to the nail salon, go to the park and are enjoying a sense of relief as well. that the man who is charged with locking them up for so long now face as similar punishment for the rest of his life or even worse. jake. the big question remains, whether or not ariel castro will

face the death penalty. >> pamela brown in cleveland, thank you so much. a woman and her baby were not doing anything wrong, they were on a sidewalk, not in the street. but events beyond their control put their lives at risk in a security camera saw it all. cnn's mary snow has the story behind the frightening video, mary? >> jake, when you see the video and know that mother and baby were not seriously hurt, it's nothing short of amazing. a teen mother heading to an exam at her high school suddenly found herself racing to save her baby's life. it's terrifying a to watch, a young mother and her baby walking on the sidewalk then in a split-second, a car careens out of control and hits them both. 17-year-old yolanda is grateful for what is, that she's now safe at home with her daughter, pearla. but it's the nightmare of what could have been that keeps playing over and over in her mind. she says when the car headed towards them. she tried frantically to get her baby out of the way, but the

stroller was swept under the car with no time to think, she pulls herself up and rushes to get far enough underneath the car to bring her 8-month-old baby to safety. >> when you look at that videotape, what do you think? god help us. i said god help us. >> alandra said she screamed for help, everything happened so fast, she had already rescued her daughter by the time people ran to her. >> we heard a big bang and all of a sudden i'm hearing a baby, a baby and the car hit in front of our store. >> the driver of the livery cab that hit them police say suffered a heart attack and lost consciousness behind the wheel and later died. >> does this feel like a bad dream? >> normally, i don't want to remember it. but it keeps going around my head. i'm scared now to go outside by myself. >> you're scared to go outside by yourself?

>> yes. >> both mother and daughter escaped serious injury. but baby pearla was kept in the hospital overnight for observation. relatives like cousin vanessa sanchez are just grateful they're alive. >> it was just crazy. and we, my mom were like, she reacted so fast. and we would have been so scared. and we wouldn't have known what to do. it looked like the stroller got completely crushed by the car, it was just a miracle that pearla didn't get hurt. >> now baby pearla was released from the hospital earlier today. alanda says before returning home with her daughter she headed straight to church to say prayers of thanks. jake? >> mary snow, that was a miracle that they survived. coming up, every air traveler's nightmare. al qaeda terrorists with surf e surface-to-air missiles. we'll tell you why there's no reason to worry. ♪ our business needs more cases.

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there is new evidence that al qaeda has a dangerous weapon. a how-to manual for using surface to air missiles has been found. u.s. officials have been worried for years that this would happen. brian todd has more on this chilling discovery. >> the numbers show why u.s. officials are so worried about this. more than 800 people on commercial flights have been killed after hitting shoulder fired missiled. with this discovery there is a strong indication that al qaeda is sharpening skills with its weapons. it streaks towards the target

striking it in seconds, fire and fuel spill out of the plane's wing. the aircraft loses hydraulics. the instrument of this attack on a dhl cargo jet, a portable surface to air missile. a year earlier the only known incident where al qaeda fired at a passenger set. two missiles missed their target. now a discovery that will stir more concern among u.s. officials. the associated press reports it has uncovered a how-to manual inside a building former ll lly occupied by al qaeda. >> large effects on business travel. >> reporter: cnn national security analyst points out the discovery of that manual doesn't

prove that pranch of al qaeda has the missiles but for years the group has been obsessively looking for them. this video obtained by cnn 12 years ago provided militants with step by step instructions on how to use a u.s. made surface to air missile. this is a visual why western officials are so concerned about this threat and so many airports planes take off and land close to areas where surface to air missiles can be fired. how easy is it for terrorists to launch the missiles? >> they are not high tech weapons. they are developed in the early 1960s. they weigh about 30 pounds. it takes a bit of training. >> reporter: another tactical advantage for terrorists while

military planes are equipped with counter measures commercial planes are not. >> if you bring down a commercial jet with the missile you have to retrofit commercial jets with counter measures. it is expensive to do. >> so if al qaeda has a significant stock of portable surface to air missiles where do they get them? most likely from libya during or after the civil war there. moammar gadhafi is estimated to have had about 20,000 of the weapons but when western security forces went in they only got about 5,000 and gadhafi's stocks were in fairly poor shape. >> when i touched down at the baghdad air port it was a cork screw landing because pilots were so afraid they didn't want to get above anywhere other than the airport. >> you have to do that in

baghdad and french forces had to do that. and to attack on the ground the french have had to go to high altitude aircraft because the missiles have been such a threat and the high altitude planes are not as effective in attacking the rebels on the ground. it has taken away from the french capabilities there. >> thank you so much. we are going to switch gears in a minute. we go to a restaurant where the food arrives by remote control. my mantra?

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join us at purinaone.com here is a look at this hour's shots. in switzerland a biker is the first to ride the freshly cleared mountain road to italy. in srilanka school girls hang out. and in bali conservationists prepare a sea turtle hatchling for release. a visit to a new sushi restaurant in london might make your head spin. >> reporter: think of it as a

magic carpet ride for your dinner. maybe the teryaqteryaki burger fasten seat belts. here the flying tray is equipped with cameras so the controller can steer it using an ipad. don't be surprised if dinner lands in your lap. >> it is in test mode. we are working on pushing boundaries. >> reporter: the conveyer belt is yo sushi's original claim to fame. the flying tray seems to test skills in snatching food off of plates. the ceo says the flying plate service may be in place by late summer. what is next delivering room

service. the dominos delivering pizza by drone publicity stunt. did you see what oscar myers is doing with bacon? >> when words just aren't enough, say it with bacon. >> reporter: oscar myers is selling bacon. the set sells for $28. select a card with a meaty message, you are the second best reason to wake up in the morning. >> give a gift from the oscar myers original collection. >> reporter: maybe it is okay for r. kelly to think he can flyfl fly.

rice, bun chicken burger. ♪ spread my wings and fly away >> reporter: now that is a crash diet. >> ceo says the flying tray is part of the restaurant's theater that customers like. >> remember you can follow us on twitter. tweet the show. erin burnett "out front" starts right now. the man who leaked information about the nsa's surveillance program says he did it to safe guard privacy and liberty. today the director of that agency testified that that program foiled dozens of terrorist attacks. question we are asking tonight is the tradeoff worth it to americans. pope francis seems to admit there is a gay lobby working

within the vatican. does he see it as a threat. and her family fought the system and won. a young girl gets the lung that could save her life. let's go outfront. good to be with you. i'm brooke baldwin sitting in for erin burnett who