chemistry, of all things, from the university in tunisia. thank you for being with us. thank you, everyone, for joining us. my colleague brianna keilar is sitting in for wolf and she starts right now. hi there, i'm brianna keilar in washington, wolf blitzer is on assignment today. the terror threat poised by isis. well, it's raising alarm bells all over the world. britain is raising its threat level to severe. prime minister david cameron warning just hours ago that isis poses a danger deeper and greater than the country has ever known. >> we need to tackle that ideology of extremism head on, at root, before it takes the form of violence and terror. that means challenging the thinking of extremist ideologues, identifying the groups in this country that push an extremist agenda and

countering them by empowering the overwhelming majority who believe in british values of democracy is the rule of law and respect for minorities. >> the department of homeland security says, quote, it is unaware of any specific credible threat to the u.s. homeland from isil, which is another name for isis, and the white house says it's working with its allies in watching the situation closely. >> for a number of months now, we have been monitoring those individuals that have western passports, that are citizens of western countries, other than the united states or in europe, who have made the decision to travel to syria or that broader region, taken up arms alongside isil. they pose a threat because they are -- they've received military training, they're battle hardened, and they have a willingness to rick their lisk for their cause. >> a string of unsettling

developments. reporters gained access to what they're calling the isis laptop of doom. buried inside hidden files of the computer found in syria were videos of osama bin laden, bombmaking manuals and a treasure trove of other documents, including plans to enleash a biological weapons attack. a report in "the washington post" about slain american journalist james foley. citing unnamed sources, saying that foley was water boarded by his isis captors. least three other captives reportedly subjected to the same torture. let's first head to london. our karl penhaul is there. karl, see veeshvere, the secondt level, it means they believe an attack is likely. tell us why they made the decision, why they're doing this now. >> absolutely. in fact, it's the highest threat

alert that british has issued in the last three years. it means that a terror attack could be highly likely. prime minister david comb ran we cameron went on to specify there's no specific intelligence any threat is imminent. he referred to the fact that intelligence services believe more than 500 britons are in syria or the iraqi region fighting for jihadi groups there, and that really, especially in the wake of the james foley execution and the suspicion that his execution or one of his excusers may have been british, that is what is driving this alert. now, of course, the idea that british jihadis are fighting in syria, iraq or afghanistan, is nothing new. that has been going on for years. but certainly, nothing more than that seems to be at the core of this. prime minister cameron did go on to say that he has a number of measures in mind, both to fight radical islam abroad and also on the home front back in britain.

what he's looking at doing in britain. he said he would give more details in parliament next week. perhaps travel bans for individuals suspected of trying to travel to join jihadi groups, possibly also withdrawing some of their passports. what he did also spell out was this could be a long drawn-out fight. in his words, he said this could be a generational battle that could take years or even decades, brianna. >> yeah, and you heard him there, carl, really managing those expectations by saying that. he was also talking really tough. how do you think that's going to play out on the streets? >> he certainly was playing tough. these are tough fighting words. obviously, a lot of the measures he's got to get through to tackle the problem may have to go through parliament. he also later on in the speech referred to the fact that it was a duty of those people living in britain to adhere to british values. he didn't take questions on what those british values specifically were that he had in mind. but that may not play out that well on the british street,

especially in multicultural communities, in some of british's largest cities. a lot of british muslims may see that as a suggestion that it could be an attack on their clothing, the kind of clothing. are they going to be allowed to wear veils on the streets of british? or do they have to adhere to a british set of clothing? will they be able to carry on in the way they do right now with their beliefs, with their religious beliefs? all that up for debate. that said, with some of the people i was talking to over the last few days in east london, british born and bred, were saying they do fear this multicultural britain because they don't like the fact that some britains now may speak another international language in their corner store. they don't like perhaps the fact that women are walking down street in veils. so those words by cameron may go down well on some fronts but the question is, now, is this going to be an attack on the

multicultural value, of some british cities, brianna. >> karl penhaul, thank you. britain raising its terror alert level coincides with writings from al qaeda. the british newspaper the telegraph reports that al qaeda in arabian peninsula has published a manual on how to make car bombs and suggested potential targets including the sandhurst military academy, thames house, mi-5, department stores, new york city's times square and las vegas casinos. let's bring in our guests. also tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director. tom, this decision, we know it's been made. you heard carl say this is the highest threat level in three years. what goes into a decision like this? are we write to be so alarmed by it? >> well, i think, brianna, a big

part of this is britain, like the u.s., other western european countries, have been watching the growth of isis and fearing that, well, okay, they're fighting battles in syria, other terror groups like al nusra in syria, then going into iraq ton fight against the shia-led iraqi, under maliki. now they've come to realize they have 500 of their own sit zens have realized. the u.s. realizes at least 100 from the united states have traveled there to join the jihad. they're realizing those citizens can come back, because the travel into syria and into iraq really is not trackable. if they go to turkey, they can sneak in. >> it's so porous. >> they could go to greece and charter a boat and go across the mediterranean and land on the shores of syria. no one will ever know. when they come home, it won't be in their passport they visited syria or iraq. that's the threat. >> that's the concern, that there's no way to track. obviously, we know some of these people, right, tara, are being

monitored, but at the same time, how can the u.s., how can british, how can european nations monitor all of them and not have someone slip through the cracks? >> exactly. on something like this, where you see the threat level go up, there is probably some type of reporting, some type of concern. what analysts are doing, they're looking at three things. they're looking at what are potential targets, they're looking at what are potential tactics, and that's just the desire side of the equation. the groups want to try to target. then look at the capability. do these groups, the individual, have the capabilities to carry out the attacks they may have the desire to do? even though we see documents like the ones found on the laptop or the ones you just mentioned pre eed previously, s desire to go after real target, but the next question is do these groups have the capabilities to carry out these plans. >> aspirations obviously different than capabilities. but you said there has probably been some reporting. so we don't know what that is then, is what you're saying.

we may never know what has spurred this. >> exactly. they haven't raised it to the highest level, which would be imminent. if you look back to 9/11, there was a presidential daily brief about planes hitting buildings before. that was not specific intelligence. that was not a specific attack. but there may have been types generic reporting about types of plans that groups want to do. that doesn't mean they know a time. it doesn't even mean there's a specific operational plan. it could be, again, just speculating, reporting of that nature that leaves a country in this case, britain, to raise their threat tllevel, or it cou be a fact there's a lot in the news lately about foreign fighters going back and forth and then the video of james foley. so domestic political concerns if they didn't raise it and something happened, they would be negligent. >> this manual on car bombs posted by al qaeda. this is what "the telegraph" reported. it suggests potential targets. speaks to what you're saying,

something general even if it's not specific. do you think this is an attempt by al qaeda, is this pr in a way, is this al qaeda saying, okay, everyone's talking about isis, hey, remember us? >> that could be. competition among the terror groups. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula civentered in yemen he been putting out inspirational jihadi messages for a long time, back when al awlaki was still alive. they put out "inspire" magazine. >> it's still going strong. >> you go back to through the 12 issue, they list dozens of ways to kill people without having to shoot a gun or make a bomb or anything sophisticated. they talk about take a car and drive it up on the sidewalk in washington, d.c. at lunchtime and you'll mow down a lot of people and kill them. hijack a tanker truck and drive it into an elementary school. derail a train. there's so many things they've listed over the 12 issues.

and the travel to syria or iraq to learn how to do it, just do it right here and if you're inspired, go forward. >> that's an important point. we worry about this mass casualty attacks. we worry about the black swan events that might be low probability but very high impact. at the end of the day, there can be lone wolf actors, mass shootings. terrorism aside, events that can be carried out by teenagers, small groups, individuals. things like this are what the law enforcement community has to watch out for, which is not the catastrophic mass casualty terror attack we think of. >> they consider them to be probably more likely. tar rar mauler, tom fuentes, thank you. ahead, president obama facing a laundry list of foreign policy challenges. how many well is he handling the challenges? up next, we will also go live to russia as leaders there downplay any involvement in ukraine and question whether the west is making the whole thing up.

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to the crisis in ukraine now. the russian denials of activity by their troops. the u.s. and nato both say there is evidence of russian troops and heavy armor in southeastern ukraine. russia says it's all a western lie. here was nato's response this morning. >> despite moscow's hollow denials, it is now clear that russian troops and equipment have illegally crossed the border into eastern and southeastern ukraine. >> our matthew chance is live for us from moscow. matthew, there's video evidence, there's satellite images,

separatist leaders are admitting that russian troops are fighting with them. how is the crekremlin still deng involvement here? >> well, they've denied it all along. for some months now, there's been mounting evidence that russian forces are taking part in combat operations inside ukraine. just a few days ago, ukraine paraded ten russian paratroopers it had captured and detained inside ukraine. the explanation from the kremlin then was they'd slipped over the border by accident after patrolling the frontier. now, today, the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov, again, keeping to that kremlin line, saying that any kind of evidence, any kind of suggestion that russian forces are taking part in combat operation, inside ukraine are purely conjecture. take a listen to his explanation. >> translator: from the very beginning of the crisis, we have

been blamed for everything. there have been reports that there are photographs from space showing movements of russian troops, but as it turned out, it was computer games and the images were taken from there. and the latest allegations are more or less the same kind. >> all right, well, the pro-russian rebel commanders in eastern ukraine have given an even less plausible, arguably less plausible explanation for the presence of russian troops. they're saying there are several thousands of them fighting alongside ukrainian rebels against government forces in eastern ukraine. they're saying they're russian soldiers who are on leave of absence from the russian military and are simply taking their vacation time to fight alongside, in many cases, die alongside the rebels in eastern ukraine, brianna. >> that's a very odd explanation. president putin, matthew, he has referred to the rebels as the militia of new russia. why does this matter, this choice of words?

>> well, new russia or -- as they say in russian is the russian term for that area of eastern and southern ukraine, which was traditionally part of the russian empire in the czarist times. it was named that then. and of course using that term sort of puts forward a russian claim on the territory. indeed, that's what the real concern is at the moment. that while this is kind of a thin veil of deniability placed over the presence of russian troops taking part or not inside eastern ukraine and in southern ukraine as well, what's actually happening behind that veil is that russia may be tightening its grip, increasing its presence in that area to eventually annex it. it did that in crimea a few months ago at the start of these hostilities back in march. one of the worries is it may also be doing something similar in those eastern and southern areas of ukraine as well. >> all right, matthew, thank you so much.

well, ukraine and russia, iraq and isis, no shortage of foreign policy challenges for president obama. but his no strategy comment about isis in syria is raising concern. chief political analyst gloria borger will be joining me to talk about that and more.

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doesn't have a strategy yet for dealing with isis in syria. the white house in overdrive again today trying to clarify what the president meant. >> weigh asked a specific question about whether or not the president would seek an authorization before ordering military action in syria. the point the president made was that's putting the cart before the horse. the president hasn't yet laid out his specific plan for military action in syria. and the reason for that is simply that the pentagon is still developing that plan. he's still reviewing them. and it would be putting the cart before the horse to talk about whether sort of congressional authorization would be required for a plan that hasn't even been put in place yet. >> do prime minister cameron's actions perhaps put more pressure on president obama to lay out a plan? i want to bring in gloria borger to talk about this. can we kind of talk about the delivering leadership styles in a way just between two press

conferences. we see cameron today. president obama yesterday. >> there was no ambiguity at all in what cameron said. he said isis was a direct security threat to the uk. what the president has said, particularly in a recent interview, he said, we have a strategic interest in pushing back isis. so i think you see the different styles. the president is less willing to come sort of straight on and say it. he seems, as a result, less decisive, of course, less direct, more conflicted. you see the president in conflict. >> it's different, right, because the u.s., there obviously are some people with american passports who are participating in isis. >> right. >> there are many more in british. it is clearly a bigger issue for them. >> more of an issue for britain, but one would argue, if, god forbid, there were an attack on britain, it would be an attack on everyone. so, look, i think what you see

in the president is somebody who sort of wants to put the brakes on. he didn't want to occur what occurred to him a year ago when he set the red line in syria and we were all saying he was going to use military strikes, et cetera. he walked right up to the red line, then pulled back. not a great political moment for him. i think he doesn't want to see a repeat of that. so he'll put the brakes on and said, i'll tell ready, but i don't have the information yet. so people are asking question, why aren't you ready. obviously a surprise. >> that was obviously his goal, to tap the brakes on this idea that somehow it's imminent, the u.s. is going to expand air strike noogs ss into syria. saying those words, we don't have a strategy, that doesn't inspire confidence. how much damage did he do with that? >> well, look, i think since we've been talking about it nonstop for last 24 hours or almost 24 hours it does do him political damage.

you could argue if you look at the polls, people are with him. they don't want to use force. they don't want boots on the ground. his point is, you talk to senior administration officials, they'll say, the president wants to be deliberative about this. he doesn't want to rush ahead. however, what people want is leadership. >> yes. >> from the president. they don't want to see the complex -- they don't want to see it play out like shakespeare, you know. >> so they don't want boots on the ground. yet a lot of americans were very supportive of those recent u.s. air strikes in iraq. there's this poll coming from "usa today," pew research, and it says that a lot of people aren't satisfied with the president's approach to foreign policy, like you just said. you had 54% of people saying his approach is not tough enough. 54% is kind of tricky for the administration, right -- >> sure, it's very hard. >> how do they navigate these muddy waters of what americans want and don't want? >> a couple of things going on here. first, i think americans are

conflicted. they want somebody who's a strong leader. they want somebody they know who's devicisive and who's in charge. on the other hand, they don't want to go to war, okay. so they don't want to put boots on the ground. so when they say president obama isn't tough enough, what they're saying there is that we don't really know what you think. we need to know what you think. and lots of times, with foreign policy over the years, you'll find when a president companies out and gives a speech and says these are our options, this is the national security threat, my job is to protect the people of the united states, this is what we have to do. public opinion tends to follow a leader. and the president. and so, you know, i think they have to consider all of that. i would argue that what they're trying to do is come up with the right solution and trying not to look at those -- at those polls because they're very, very changeable. >> yeah, very much. all right. interesting. great conversation. gloria borger.

thank you, gloria. >> my next door neighbor here. >> that's right, i know. just ahead, we'll have more on the isis threat and president obama's threat. should he get authorization from congress to go after isis in syria? we're going to ask a senior member of the house intelligence committee. ugh. heartburn. did someone say burn? try alka seltzer reliefchews. they work just as fast and are proven to taste better than tums smoothies assorted fruit. mmm. amazing. yeah, i get that a lot. alka seltzer heartburn reliefchews. enjoy the relief.

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britain's prime minister's response to the danger from isis by raising the country's threat level. in the u.s., president obama is weighing options for dealing with isis in syria. he's dealing with the fallout from his comment that, quote, we don't have a strategy yet. joining me to talk about the president's response to isis and other foreign policy challenges is democratic congressman adam schiff from california. he's on the house intelligence committee. critics are blasting the president over this comment that he made, there's no strategy yet. here's what congressman mike rogers said on "the situation room." >> this is not like this happened last night or a few days ago. they went across that berm if full force around june of this year. we knew it was a problem before june. even the president said he was talking about this to iraqi officials other a year ago. this is so frustrating that with all of this going on, with certainly all the intelligence

showing us the problems that are there, the president says i want a strategy, how to deal with this by the end of the week. it just tells you apparently we're not taking this seriously for some length of time. >> congressman, can you respond to that? i mean, is that fair criticism of president obama? >> i don't think so, but you can tell people are going to pounce on that comment and they did. but the reality is, the administration has a broad strategy for dealing with isis that involves closing the turkish border, drying up funding, military strikes in iraq, changing the government in baghdad. there are pieces that need to be filled in. the syria piece still needs to be filled in because it's such a mess in syria. i think it's unfair to go after him for something that admittedly was inartfully said. >> his objective in what he was saying, and the white house has made this clear, he was trying to tap the brakes, to slow down speculation about how imminent it may be the u.s. is going into syria with air strikes. do you think he should have been

trying to do that? >> yes, i think it was very important for him to slow those expectations. you know, once he asked the military planners, some of whom are trying to make the case for strikes, what would we achieve, tell me what would we even strike, some will take that and say, okay, he's asking for a target list and that means he's going forward. it was clearly i think his desire, really, to see if they could make the case. i don't think the case has been made. we don't have the same capabilities on the ground in syria like we do in iraq. and if we were to strike from the air in syria, we have to ask ourselves, if we displace isis from some part of syria, like we did around the mosul dam, who takes over that ground? al nusra? is that what we want? the official al qaeda affiliate? is it assad's forces? is it hezbollah? unless you can answer those questions, and didn't think the military yet has good answers, i'm glad the president hit the pause button. >> but american, they want

leadership, they want a sense that for what is obviously a very complicated situation that many people don't even understand the nuances of. they want to know that someone else does. that there is a plan. how important is that? and how much damage do the president do by saying that there is no strategy in his effort to try to say, don't worry, we're not going there yet? >> i think it's important for the country to have the sense there's a vision for how this ends and how it ends well. that's been a real struggle in syria. it's easy to see in iraq, although it's difficult to accomplish, how a different government in baghdad that brings the sunnis in, peels them away from isis, could succeed in iraq. what do you do about this toxic brew in syria? i think the solution in syria mate look like it's shaping up in iraq, and that is, there's increasing dissatisfaction with the assad government, even by assad's allies, even by the a o ylo alloits and there may be the

same opportunity for the regional coalition to usher him out and bring about some coalition of the alloites, sunnis, christians, kurds and others in syria that can be a substitute for displacing isis. >> you think that's going to happen in any kind of expedient way? this is going on for years now. >> i think in the near term we need to send a message to those surrounding al assad that we need to find an alternative to him. and that means, you know, iran can play an important role, saudi arabia and jordan and qatar and durinturkey. much in the say way as we were on the same page as iran in pushing maliki out. we can find allies to usher in a different regime. >> these are strange bedfellows, no? >> they're remarkably strange bedfell bedfellows. i think the president, even though people like decisive

action, pretty unequivocal, it's smart to say, let's make sure we think this out before we act. >> i want to ask you about congress' role in all of this. you say it's important for the president to get approval. if he is going to pursue air strikes or something like that in syria. is he likely to get that approval? >> well, i think at this point it would be tough because still there are a lot of unanswered questions about what would we accomplish are air strikings in syria. if we have a compelling case that can be made about what we could succeed with. in other words -- >> but let me ask you this, a year ago, it feels -- a year ago, this is all deja vu. i witnessed covering the white house at the time a press on congress unlike anything i had seen during this administration, trying to push congress to go along with taking action against syria, and it completely failed. it was a full open door that the white house was giving to democrats, to republicans. and it was not a midterm election year. >> well, i think the problem

there was that it's not all about making the case to congress. it's also about making the case to the american people. and in that case, the case had not been made to the american people. here, i think the public may be receptive, as it has been to the strikes in iraq. if that case can be made, if the administration can say, here's what we could accomplish, here's what the midgame and end game looks like. here are the partners that we have. but i think we're a long ways away from that. >> congressman, thank you so much. really appreciate you visiting with us. up next, vladimir putin evoking nazi history as he hammered the government in ukraine. will that help sell the war back home? tigers, both of you. tigers? don't be modest. i see how you've been investing. setting long term goals. diversifying. dip! you got our attention. we did? of course. you're type e* well, i have been researching retirement strategies.

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week. with the recent russian aggression in ukraine on the front burner. joining me is susan glasser. she was the co-chief of "the washington post" moscow bureau so tremendous expertise on this issue. thank you for being here. the u.s. is taking the lead when it comes to these sanctions. is that the right move? is there a rule for europe here? is there any willingness? >> it's an important point i think. what the white house would tell you is they sort of had to pull europe kicking and screaming every step of the way.

>> just fascinating, almost dumb founding, if you will. the foreign minister saying it was actually taken from a video game. we've heard some things on twitter on russia, but this is the top official saying this. >> i think we see this as implausible denialability. i don't think there's a serious debate about the fact that regular russian military are operating inside ukraine, actively participating in this war inside the country. as the foreign minister of sweden just tweeted, if it looks like a war and acts like a war and kills like a what it's a war. the debate isn't really that. the question is much more revolving around what, if anything, is the united states and its partners in europe really prepared to do. and president obama yesterday made a very strong point of

saying we're not going to be engaging in any military action in ukraine, period. >> yeah, ukraine, in a sense, was on its own, was sort of the message taken away from that. talking a little about -- i guess you could even call it -- i don't know if you would call it propaganda. putin likening ukrainian troops to the nazis who stormed leningrad in world war ii. why is he doing this? who is he playing to? does this work? >> well, he's certainly not making a very persuasive case to anyone in ukraine or europe. it's definitely aimed at a russian domestic audience. after so many years of turmoil, basically, victory in world war ii over the nazis is pretty much the major thing that russians have to turn to when they're looking to whip up support at home. so that's a key element in almost any kind of nationalist campaign in russia.

i think that, you know, it's wearing pretty thin. i don't know it's particularly convincing to anybody. it's not surprising that putin would resort to this tried and true tactic from the russian playbook. >> i think you can almost kind of lump in there the fact he's talked about making a plea to -- he called it the nova russian militia, the new russian mili a militia. >> it is significant, the fact they gave a name to this, it's nova russia. that's new russian itself, opposed to the breakaway republic of donetsk or something like that. it suggests how connected this is to the aims of the russian government itself. so that makes it pretty threatening. again, they've decided to double down on this war, rather than to accept the ukrainian military's potential victory. putin has decided to escalate the war in ways that are pretty

risky. we've seen pretty clearly this week. >> susan glasser, thank you. appreciate you being with us. and still ahead, women jihadists. you may not have heard much about them, but they play important roles behind the scenes. and we have a live report next. wouldn't it be great if hiring plumbers, carpenters shopping online is as easy as it gets. and even piano tuners were just as simple? thanks to angie's list, now it is. we've made hiring anyone from a handyman

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possibly an entire brigade of them in the isis stronghold in syria. brian todd has been looking into this. what have you found? if these women aren't fighting what are they doing? >> they're used mostly in a policing role. we're told this from u.n. officials, also various news reports say that isis women who are recruited into their ranks are are used for policing, they're used to patrol the streets of towns which they occupy and make sure other women are wearing the proper garb, whether covered properly. if they're not, they bring them in for arrest or exact punishment on them somehow. they're also used at check points. we are told that in some areas where isis has check points, rival mi lish a come through dressed as women knowing they can't touch women. to avoid detection, some men from rival groups dress as women. and with them not able to touch women, they use women fighters

to pat down everybody dressed as a woman. that's what you have as far as policing. we are told the isis, they have at least one brigade, and they also take women in house raids. we talked to one man from the former spokesman from free syrian army. here is what he had to say about the raids in the houses. >> especially the biggest brigade in isis, when they join isis forces to attack houses or civilian place or something, they need these women to search inside the women inside the bedrooms and even do shake for the women. >> he has a steak in the fight against isis, a spokesman for the free syrian army, he was.

they're a rival group, we have to say he has a stake in highlighting atrocities, he is not an objective observer, but good to know what's happening on the ground. still ahead, they were close high school friends growing up in minnesota. how did they end up embracing terror in a distant land. one more tries to deal with her son's frightening transformation. her story when we return. ♪

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on this day in history, august 29, 2005, hurricane katrina hit the gulf coast. record storm surge, record winds overwhelmed levees in new orleans. 80% of the city was underwater. 1 million people displaced, more than 1800 others in the southeast lost their lives. two american teenagers growing up in a minneapolis suburb ended up fighting for extremist groups far from home. douglas mccain on the right was killed in syria fighting for icize. troy cast at the guard while fighting al shabaab. >> reporter: for years, troy and doug were the picture of the average teenage american boys. they grew up in minneapolis, both loved playing basketball, and were in some ways

inseparable. >> troy had, there's quite a few people would say they were best friends and doug was one of those really close friends. he spent a lot of time at our house, went to family gatherings with us. they played basketball together. >> reporter: how did two respectful young men go from this image to this. >> this is a real disneyland, need to come and join us. >> reporter: this recruitment video was posted by al shabaab. both of them ended up fighting for terrorists overseas. mccain killed in syria days ago, troy killed in 2009 in somalia. his mother still trying to understand how it all happened. >> i'll never not have that pain and that bitterness, but by trying to fill my life with joy and recognize the gifts and the beauty of the world, it makes it easier. >> reporter: his mother says he

started to have trouble at 16, began using drugs, was searching for help and spiritual guidance. >> he found comfort turning to the koran? >> then he became muslim. i don't know exactly how that happened. he had some friends that were muslim. some friends that were somali who had immigrated here. it was great for him. he was all of a sudden i have my boy back. his eyes were bright again. >> reporter: he said he was going to kenya to study the koran, but his destination ended up being somalia. spent a year overseas with little communication. then in july, 2009 the fbi came to his mother's home. >> they said he could have been recruited. i had no clue that he was going into a dangerous situation in that way. or to fight. and i think he knew. >> reporter: weeks after that visit, her son was dead. were there any warning signs along the way?

>> with doug for sure there were no warning signs, i just haven't been around him for a long time. the one thing i thought was really strange with troy is that they -- that someone, they, were willing to pay for him to come to kenya. and i really question that. i think they were manipulated and i don't think they knew what they were fully were a part of. >> reporter: five years after her son's death, the toughest part for her is having to explain how he died. >> i don't easily talk about it to people because i don't want to have to also defend him. my family is great and my friends are great, but just in general in the world. and i mean, it is, it is the hardest, the hardest loss that there is. and i'm really grateful that i had him and that i knew doug.

and you just kind of try to go on. >> reporter: case on carol, cnn, minneapolis. that's it for me, i am back at 5:00 eastern on the "the situation room." newsroom with brooke baldwin started now. good afternoon, i am brooke baldwin. thank you for joining me. you're watching cnn. the white house has no plans to raise the threat level here in the united states because of the islamic terror group isis. we can tell you that the united kingdom has officially raised its terror level to severe. that's the second highest level there. you see the different rankings on the screen. translation, they believe with the severe level that attack is highly likely. but let's also be clear there is no information that one will happen soon. what jolted