friends. you are an amazing kid. and i just hope that my son can turn out even this much like you because you're pretty awesome. >> thank you. >> that's it for "the lead." i'm now for "the situation room." happening now, new terror threats, why are they coming from countries that president obama points to as examples that were his strategy against al qaeda is working? emptying gitmo, details about a new push to relocate dozens of detainees. will they end up right back on the battlefield? will north korea retaliate as u.s. moviegoers packed theaters, how will north korea's brutal and notoriously unpredictable leader react? and ebola scare, new concerns tonight as a u.s. lab worker begins days of monitors for possible exposure to the deadly virus. have we put too much trust in

the cdc? wolf blitzer is off. i'm brianna keilar. you're in "the situation room." we begin with new calls for attacks on the united states. ominously, they're coming from islamists and al qaeda-linked militants in countries that president obama points to as success stories for his strategy of fighting terror by partnering with other nations. we're also watching the situation in north korea as u.s. audiences pack theaters to see "the interview," a north korean diplomat is fuming, blasting the movie as, quote, unpardonable mockery. are the angry words a prelude to dangerous actions? congressman brad sherman of the house foreign affairs committee is standing by along with your correspondents, analysts and guests. we begin with the new terror threats. here's cnn pentagon correspondent barbara starr. barbara? >> reporter: good evening, brianna. just as the al qaeda and islamic state are going after each other

and threatening the united states, think of it as sort of a hatfields and mccoys feud. in syria, propaganda videos of isis' bloody violence, intimidation and killings. ♪ in yemen, the al qaeda affiliate puts out its new video showing pictures of its top leader. the two terror groups now vying for power. >> aqap is competing with isis for recruits from the arab world, for attention in the global jihadist community. >> reporter: and the u.s. may be in the crosshairs as the rivalry grows. >> i don't think there's any doubt that if isis decides to, they have the ability to launch a major terrorist attack on western soil. this is a group with up to 1,000 western recruits. >> reporter: and al qaeda in

yemen posting a new edition of its magazine calling for attacks on the west and complete with updated instructions yet again on making explosives. the type of instructions that inspired the boston marathon bomb attack. the chaos in controlling al qaeda in yemen made more difficult after a senior yemeni intelligence official was kidnapped by an anti-government rebel group. working with yemen's intelligence agency, vital to president obama's policy of supporting fragile allies. >> this strategy of taking out terrorists who threat us while supporting partners on the front line is one we have pursued in yemen and somalia for years. >> reporter: but in somalia, another sign the al qaeda-linked group there, known as al shab b shabaab, still on the attack. claiming an attack on a military base in mogadishu, saying it was their revenge for a u.s. air

strike killing their leader in september. now all of these groups have expressed a desire to attack the united states and the group in yemen and in syria and iraq have the bomb-making capability to do it. the only question may be when and if they make their move. brianna? >> barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you. i want to get more now on this terror threat and the u.s. strategy against al qaeda's affiliates. joining me now in "the situation room," democratic representative brad sherman, a member of the house foreign affairs committee. congressman, happy holidays and thank you so much for joining us. >> good to be with you, brianna. >> why hasn't the u.s. has more success as it tries to target certainly al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and also isis? >> i think we've had tremendous success compared to the iraq invasion, which cost the lives of 4,000 american soldiers and many, many more thousands wounded, et cetera. this is a problem that needs to be managed.

if you judge success by, have you solved the problem, is there nobody threatening the united states, then you'll always say that we've failed in our policy. but we were able to roll back isis when it was threatening baghdad, when it was threatening the mosul dam, when it was threatening the haditha dam. this is a problem that's being managed with very limited american casualties. you compare that to some attempt to put 100,000, 200,000 troops on the ground, that would be the failure. >> do you worry, though -- certainly that is something that americans are not in favor of right now, boots on the ground. but we just heard from our cnn terrorism analysis, paul cruickshank, said that isis is capable of launching a major terrorist attack on u.s. soil. it's just a matter of time. are you concerned that we are that vulnerable?

>> look, we saw major hasan who killed many of his fellow soldiers. we saw what happened in bostonen. there is no policy -- i know it's unpopular. but there's no policy that will assure americans that there's no chance of an attack on american soil. that being said, we can't put all attacks in the same category. we lost well over 3,000 people on 9/11. that kind of attack, i think we can prevent. but the idea of one or two lone wolfs, one or two operatives killing several americans, that may happen. and we cannot overreact to that fear and lose thousands of soldiers on the ground in the middle east because we're unwilling to accept that there may be another attack like the one in boston.

>> what if this grows, people inspired by isis? and it's not just obviously how it affects those who are killed and injured and their families but it would affect american who is change the way they live their lives out of concern for an attack. >> this is something we're going to have to deal with. even if we totally destroyed isis, some other group is going to fill that physical space, that ideological space and that cyberspace. there is no program that will allow you to say that no american mother is going to worry about her kids and even beside the middle east, we had americans ready to see a movie on christmas day. and now returning to the theaters when we saw threats coming from north korea. so i wish that i could tell you that drunk drivers are not going to be a threat, that accidents are not going to be a threat,

that the shiite hezbollah organizations aren't going to be a threat. we have to live with threats and hope we can keep the physical effect on the american people down to a minimum. if we go chasing around the world, sending hundreds of thousands of troops or asking our leaders, why can't you give us total, perfect safety and why don't we mobilize in an effort to try to achieve that safety, we won't get the safety and we'll get the casualties. >> 100% safety is unattainable as a goal. i want to ask you about yemen again before i let you go. the second highest-ranking intelligence official in yemen was abducted. i wonder, how concerned should we be about yemen falling to control of terrorists but certainly being even more of a haven for terrorists? >> parts of yemen are already not only a haven for terrorists but a haven for different groups of terrorists. you have the shiite terrorists backed by iran.

you have al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. and the divisions that you see between the shiite, the sunni al qaeda and the sunni isis diminishes the threat that these terrorists would pose. but yemen has been in many of its areas a haven for terrorists for the last decade. >> sort of a reality check we're getting there with you, congressman. congressman sherman, really appreciate your time on this holiday friday. thank you. >> good to be with you. >> given these new threats from al qaeda-linked groups, is the president's war on terror strategy working? joining us in "the situation room," we have retired lieutenant general mark hurtling and cnn national security analyst bob baer, a former cia operative. bob, i'll start with you. why is it proving so hard for the u.s. to target these factions? >> the problem is that bigger

and bigger parts of the middle east are falling off the known political map. they're failed states, like yemen. yemen is in the middle of a civil war. there's absolutely no central government we can rely on to put on an end to this. so you have the sunnis in the south moving into the hills, they're almost impossible to get to. and you've got the shia that have taken over sanaa and they just kidnapped the deputy intelligence chief there. even in places like mali and somalia and the rest of it -- libya is much worse than all these countries, there's nobody in control. they're failed states. and they breed terrorism. >> there's a vacuum and it tends to be filled. general hurtling, one of the things that we've seen here over this week a couple of days ago "inspire" came out. for people unfamiliar with it and probably haven't ever looked at this. it's a terrorist publication, 112 pages. this is something targeting people who may be inspired by

terrorists. it talks about bomb-making. it highlights possible targets, gives tips on how to bypass security. how do you stop this? is there any way to curb something like this? >> well, "inspire" has been around since july of 2010. and it's actually given some tips to aspiring jihadists, both single source ones and the ones who they've asked to act on their own. and we've seen results with major hasan as the congressman pointed out, with the boston bomber -- that was a direct result of a magazine article that they had called "how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." this is an organization trying to recruit more and more jihadists for this kind of fight. and it's ewe bubiquitous. it's all over. and we're continuing to monitor

how these infect us. but it's also difficult to continue to track these organizations all over the world because they are like gangs everywhere. >> tell us, general marks, what is the bigger threat here, people who might be inspired by something like "inspire" or an attack that could be ordered from the top down? >> brianna, the bigger threat for us is the lone wolf or those that are being recruited that have probably already been recruiting on theirself, radicalized and they have a capability locally and they're going to act locally. that produces, as we understand, terror. anything that's going to come from the top down like you might see isis obviously as a very organized terrorist organization, all of its military kit is from the iraqi military, most of those folks that have kind of created isis, its command and control came from the former iraqi security forces and from saddam's military that was disbanded when we invaded in '03. so if they were to have a threat from the top down, we would

probably be able to get in front of that and pick up good intelligence in advance and get ahead of that activity. what you have with a lone wolf is awfully hard to stop and it creates terror that causes us to have conversations like this and to kind of cease normal activities. that's the big challenge. >> i want to ask all of you this question. we were just listening to congressman brad sherman and he was saying something that a lot of people in his party believe, which is that there shouldn't be boots on the ground and that when you're looking at sort of a cost benefit analysis, you're better off taking the fight in a way to the enemy overseas but not in a way that you have real u.s. involvement with u.s. troops. he's saying, that's not something that he wants to see and the flip side is a couple of attacks here domestically that are lone wolf-inspired, that that's a better scenario, albeit

a horrible one, than losing thousands of u.s. troops as we've seen in iraq and afghanistan. what do you think? >> well, brianna, let me start. i know my two colleagues will jump in here. what we've created and what we're seeing right now is a new normal. our strategy is to essentially contain what we see in these ungoverned spaces. this is denied space. this is where we're not going to spend much time. if we can contain activity regardless of the degree of barbarity, in many cases, we to say, that's truly unfortunate but we're going to stop it where it is and whatever happens in this defined space is okay, we're not jumping in. but what we also have to agree to, this is our a generational fight, this is our new normal. if this is the strategy that we have accepted, and i think it is. >> is it just a matter of one or two lone wolf attacks or is this something that could balloon and really affect the way people live their lives?

>> i come down on the dark side of this. i think we're going to probably get hit at some point. there are people that know how to make bombs that will take down airplanes, we can't capture them all. there are a lot of western europeans in syria fighting learning how to make bombs. how long is it going to be before one of them comes here and blows something up? and the american people will say, you have to do something about this. but i agree that this is an intergenerational conflict. i call it the 100 years war. i like to be pessimistic sometimes but it's probably not too far off. >> is this the new norm, general? >> i believe it is. i agree with my colleagues that we are going to see some kind of attack. and it's going to frustrate the american people and cause us to have quite a bit of anxiety. but we're also in a fight for basic values. this is a situation where we're

fighting for dignity and respect for every single individual person. we've been in these kind of conflicts before. they've been very different in world war ii and world war i. but this is the kind of fight, the kind of conflict that is placing one group of individuals who believe in human values and human dignity versus another who are willing to kill people in mass slaughter situations. so i disagree with the congressman in thinking that we can stay home and just watch this happen. i think we have to influence this. but it's got to be with more than just military might. we have to bring in all elements of national power, diplomacy, economy, military and all the others that will help change the world for the better. >> all hands on deck for sure. general hurtling, general marks, bob baer, thanks so much. stand by for us. we have much more to discuss. still ahead, how will kim jong-un react now that u.s. moviegoers are packing theaters and laughing at the film that he didn't want anyone to see? and next, details about a

new push to empty out the guantanamo bay detention center. will this mean that terrorists return to the battlefield?

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signing by the authority vested in me as president by the constitutional and the laws of the united states of america, in order to effect the appropriate disposition of individuals currently detained by the department of defense at guantanamo and promptly to close the detention facility at guantanamo consistent with the national security and foreign policy interests of the united states and the interest of justice, i hereby order. and then provide the process whereby guantanamo will be closed at no later than one year from now. >> we have new details of a potentially major development in the u.s. war on terror. we just heard president obama's words from nearly six years ago as he signed his very first executive order and made closing the guantanamo bay prison a top priority for his administration. now cnn is learning details about a renewed push to empty out the detention center there before the president leaves office. with us once again is cnn

pentagon correspondent barbara starr who broke this story earlier today. >> reporter: empty out guantanamo as much as they possibly can. why hasn't it happened? some of the detainees are in legal limbo, not enough evidence to take them to a trial but you can't release them. some, the president would like to put in federal prison in the united states, potentially a super max. congress, deeply opposed to that. now the strategy is to empty it out by transferring as many as they can under the current process. two ways to do this. either send them back to their home country after you find they're no longer a threat or you send them to a third country. here's the problem. we're going to see several transfers in the next several months, several before the end of the year and several more anticipated in the first half of 2015. that should clear out some of it. but there are dozens of these detainees cleared for transfer but their home country is yemen.

and yemen, of course, is a country where al qaeda is very active. they cannot send them back there. they can't find a third-party country to take them yet. how dangerous is sending them back to yemen? how much recidivism can we see returning to the battlefield, returning to the fight? well, just a few months ago, the justice department and the state department put something like a $5 million reward on the head of a detainee that was released, went back to yemen and now is one of the most senior leaders in the al qaeda organization in yemen. so the president has a plan, 2015 is the year he's going to try to make it happen. but it may be tough to fully end the operations at guantanamo bay. >> it's a great example that really shows the perils here of sending some of these detainees back to areas that are so fertile for terrorism. we'll be talking with our panel about that. barbara starr at the pentagon, thank you. let's bring back in the panel, our military and security experts.

retired generals mark hurtling and spider marks and former cia operative, bob baer. bob, the president vowed to do everything he can to close gitmo just recently. but given not just that there is a republican-controlled congress -- do we have sound of that? we have sound. let's listen to this. >> will guantanamo bay prison will closed down by the end of next year? >> i'm going to be doing everything i can to close it. it is something that continues to inspire jihadists and extremists around the world, the fact that these folks are being held. it is contrary to our values and it is wildly expensive. we're spending millions for each individual there. and we have drawn don down the population there significantly. there are a little less than 150 individuals left in this facility. we are going to continue to place those who have been

cleared for release or transfer to host countries that are willing to take them. there's going to be a certainly irreducible number that are going to be really hard cases because we know they've done something wrong and they are still dangerous but it's difficult to mount the evidence in a traditional court. but we are going to close the facility -- >> you want them here in a super max? >> it does not make sense for us to spend millions of dollars per individual when we have a way of solving this problem that's more consistent with our values. >> president obama in an interview there with candy crowley. bob, you have of course a republican-controlled congress now. but president obama couldn't close gitmo when he had a democratic-controlled congress. is there any way that he can get this done? >> i think he can get it done. it's clear at this point he's

going to go ahead with his agenda after sitting on it for six years, not fulfilling his promises but closing gitmo was one of them. and it looks like he's going to do it. the problem is a lot of these detainees killed americans and they're going to have to appear before a court. there's no way politically he can release khalid sheikh mohammed and let him go to yemen or -- >> and yet a trial for k.s.m. was blocked when there was talk of doing it in new york. you think heck see it happen? >> i think we have to. we don't have a choice really. he killed 3,000 americans. he's admitted to this and he has to spend the rest of his life in jail. the other ones, there's not enough evidence against. you pretty much have to release them. why keep this facility open just for them? and some of them will go on to kill americans again or at least join a jihadist group. but it's like any other criminal justice system, you always have

a bit of -- a few of them will always go back to old ways. there's nothing you can do about it. >> general hurtling, i wonder how we see this playing out. who is going to say, yes, bring khalid sheikh mohammed to my state? you hear lawmakers talk about it, they feel like it's a security concern, it makes them perhaps a terrorist target to have this trial going on. how do we expect that that's really going to happen? do you? >> if i could clarify a little bit, brianna. some of the things bob was saying, just put some numbers on it. there have been over 700 prisoners since guantanamo was opened. there are only 132 there now. so both president obama and president bush before him have already released about 600 prisoners. 132 remaining. of those, 83 of them are yemenis. that's going to be very tough right now. 64 of those 132 are cleared for release right now. so the president is going to be

able to take care of those. 36 additional ones are what's fallen into the category of indefinite detention. that means they're either too dangerous to release or not enough information for trial. those are the ones in limbo that the president is not going to be able to deal with. and then 32 are either awaiting trial or who are going on trial soon. the president's promise to try and close it is a good one. but it's going to be tough. i personally don't think he's going to make it in the last two years he has in office. >> the reality is you can't say that many of these people pose no threat, right? >> they all pose a threat. we acknowledge that recidivism with this crew is almost -- it's a guarantee. it's going to happen at some point. the issue we all need to square with each other. let's not talk about the priceover running gitmo as an impediment to -- as the reason or motivation to close it -- >> that it costs too much. >> that's ridiculous.

it really is. the real issue is a political one. it r it really doesn't matter. and the president said it acts to inspire or recruit others. it doesn't matter what we do in the west. there's a sufficient supply of radical islam and terrorists out there irrespective of what we do. there is recruitment and self-radicalization going on all the time. they would kill us if we stood there and did nothing. the point is, we have a prison in gitmo. i agree it should probably close down. is the president going to be able to get that done in the next 24 months? that's a political discussion that needs to take place. he has a strong ally with senator mccain moving forward -- >> how much does that help? >> i think senator mccain holds a very strong position in trying to get the rest of the republican congress on board so this can move forward. i think it's a good idea to close gitmo. but let's be frank, there are a

bunch of folks as mark described in great numbers that need to be addressed and need to be held someplace and cannot and will not -- we'd be shameful if we put most of those folks back. there's a due process that has been followed. most of those guys need to spend their lives behind bars. >> bob, you heard the example that barbara starr was talking about. the u.s. governmenting offering a $5 million freward for a terrorist released in 2006 now serving adds a top leader for aqap. this is the reality we're dealing with here now when we're talking about whether to close guantanamo bay or not. is it kind of just a matter of saying, this is the reality, these folks are going to go back to the battlefield but they need to be released or dealt with otherwise? >> general marks is absolutely right. let me say this. al qaeda and isis don't really have a head. these are organizations that are

just split up in fractions, so many pieces, it's just a jihadist ideology we're fighting against. so to have one of these guys go back to yemen is not a direct threat to the united states. he adds to the numbers but there are millions of them right now. this is an ideology that's going to take, as we've just said, years and years to crush. and it's got to be done economically, politically, diplomatically and the rest of it. we need the cooperation of muslim leaders around the world and muslim countries. so one of these guys getting out is a drop in a very big bucket. it doesn't concern me very much. some of them will obviously go back to normal lives and give up jihad. but there's no way to predict that over the people -- the guards at guantanamo to tell you who's going to go bad and who's going to reform themselves. >> it's that very big bucket you talk about that is of so much concern. gentlemen, great talk. really appreciate you being with

us. general mark heatherling, general spider marks and bob baer. coming up, will kim jong-un take revenge now that the movie ridiculing him is packing u.s. movie theaters and streaming online? and a new ebola scare. we have disturbing new details about why a u.s. lab worker is being watched for signs of the deadly virus. you're in "the situation room." they take us to worlds full of heroes and titans. for respawn, building the best interactive entertainment begins with the cloud. this is "titanfall," the first multi-player game built and run on microsoft azure. empowering gamers around the world to interact in ways they never thought possible. this cloud turns data into excitement. this is the microsoft cloud.

across the u.s. today, moviegoers are defying the wishes of one of the world's most unpredictable leaders. but as people line up at theaters or go online to watch "the interview," diplomatic, mu military and security experts are wondering what kim jong-un's regime may do to get revenge. let's ask elise labott what may happen. >> so far, the real drama has been at the theaters with film fans excited to see the movie as almost a patriotic duty. but now people are wondering what north korea will do. and everyone knows that studies that kim jong-un will not be silent for long.

squeenings screenings of "the interview" have theatrics of their own. >> we just want to say thank you. if it wasn't for theaters like this and for people like you guys, this literally would not be [ bleep ] happening right now. >> reporter: kim jong-un denied involvement in the cyber attack on sony but still promised 9/11-style attacks if the film was released. now that americans are flocking to theaters and streaming it online, north korea has been eerily quiet. >> no sorts of threats. usually a signal they're planning something big, something in the works. it's hard for me to imagine they won't feel the need to respond to the release of the movie and everything else that surrounded it. >> reporter: the comic story of a god-like leader's fall from grace, a crack in the image kim's propaganda machine has crafted of him as a confident and beloved leader. today, a north korean diplomat cold the "associated press" the

movie is, quote, an unpardonable mockery of the country's sovereignty and kim's dignity. >> they want to give that impression to the world that they are strong and invincible. but beneath that is a great deal of insecurity, insecurity justifiably based on the economic situation, based on the fact that the whole political regime is built on a system of lies. so i think there's a great deal of vulnerability that's felt when they see a movie like this come out. >> reporter: kim has gotten support from russia and china, both of which questioned u.s. claims he was behind the sony hacking. moscow called the film, quote, aggressively scandalous. and north korea's reaction very understandable. in beijing, a call for calm and restraint. the foreign ministry labeling it a controversial movie. but thousands of fans downloaded it and posted the film on a popular movie website.

the u.s. does not think a north korean response will be limited to cyberspace. it could be in the form of another long-range missile test or even a nuclear test as north korea continues to develop its weapons program, which is why the u.s., south korea and japan next week are expected to sign an intelligence-sharing agreement to better cope with those military threats. >> we'll be watching. great report, elise labott. thank you so much. joining us now to talk more about this, christian whiten, the former deputy special envoy for human rights in north korea. we have sean henry, a former executive assistant director of the fbi, and cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director. first question to you, christian. how worried should we be about a possible attack? we heard the myriad of options that elise just laid out. >> i wouldn't be too worried about anything happening directly here in the homeland. north korea's ability to act domestically is very, very limited. so their threats of 9/11-style

attacks are boasting from a regime that boasts a lot. likewise, we have seen some of the extent of their cyber capabilities. it was a significant attack. hundreds of millions of dollars of damage potentially. despite the fact this movie has come out will influence decisions made here in hollywood. i would expect that north korea will go down the sort of predictable cycle of belligeren belligerence. you may see moves towards another nuclear test. there's been activity spotted at their main test spot. and north korea was condemned in the u.n.'s third committee that concerns itself with human rights and they staged protests in pyongyang, hundreds of thousands of people out chanting. so i think we are in for a turbulent year with north korea. >> so, tom, we hear christian there saying north korea's options here are someone limited and we have an idea of some of the things that they might try here. but when it comes to an 9/11-style attack, not possible. but this is one of the things i

wondered from the get-go. what about someone who's unstable who might be kind of inspired by this or seize the moment of fear? what do you think? >> that could be, brianna. but that's always the case. we have nuts in this country that can be inspired by anything, anything they see on tv or anything that someone says publicly. i don't think necessarily kim jong-un is going light them up to go do something. as far as the 9/11-type attack, the missiles they've fired toward japan that have sputtered out of control in the sea of japan, they're about 8,000 miles short of being able to deliver anything to this country along the lines of a 9/11 attack. they have hacked into south korea's nuclear industry and their banking industry and they're 50 miles from the border, their capital. that's a little bit different for south korea. but i think china will maybe slap them upside the head if they get too belligerent because china and south korea have become significant trading partners. i don't think china is going to let north korea get too far out

of the box. >> and china interested in "the interview," too, taking a look at it by the droves. one of the things we noted, you had the obama administration pretty confident this was north korea behind this hack. now you have some experts who are questioning whether you can really say that with certainty. should we be wary of this assertion? >> we actually looked at the indicators that the u.s. government put forth and we have been tracking the north korean government for about four or five years. and we've actually linked this back -- it appears likely that it is north korea. in this country, we put people in prison for proof beyond a reasonable doubt. i think the burden of proof will be looked at but the u.s. government certainly believes this is tied to north korea. and they've indicated they've done these types of attacks before. >> what's the evidence that could be so convincing here? >> the government is looking at indicators.

i.p. addresses, malware, the types of tools, tactics -- >> like a digital fingerprint? >> it's similar to a physical world crime scene where you have fingerprints. when investigators look aggregately at attacks, when you look at dozens of hundreds of attacks, you start to see commonality and you can do attribution back to a particular actor. >> christian, do you think we're going to be seeing more of this kind of cyber warfare? >> unfortunately, yes, especially because we've vowed a proportional attack. but there hasn't been one yet, no counterattack, no real cost. i'm afraid we'll have another situation where months go by, maybe a few people or companies get put on a sanctions list, maybe north korea goes back on the terrorist sponsor list. they should have never been taken off in 2008. but i'm afraid they won't see a deterrence develop.

u.s. cyber command will remain mostly defensive rather than going on the offense and deterring future cyber attacks. unfortunately from north korea, from china, from iran and from other groups, russia, we're going to see more of this. >> it's the new frontier. thank you so much, christian, shawn and tom, appreciate you being with us. next, the new ebola scare in the rust, a lab technician being monitored for signs of the deadly virus after a mistake by the cdc. and in our next hour, we take you to new york where police face new threats even as they mourn fallen officers. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain.

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there are new and urgent questions about safety after a mistake at the centers for disease control and prevention. they have exposed a technician to the deadly ebola virus. joe johns has the details. this is kind of i would say unbelievable, but we've seen this happen before. >> reporter: that's true. the cdc is at the forefront of u.s. efforts to fight lethal

diseases like ebola. but a misstep is raising questions about the center's handle on what is a very delicate task. it's a potentially deadly mistake at the u.s. cdc. they said a small amount of material possibly containing live ebola virus was mistakenly transferred from one of the facility's most secure labs to a lab not equipped to handle the virus. so far the technician has no symptoms, no quarantine. but will be watched for the standard 21 days as a precaution. it's the kind of mistake the director said he was determined to avoid repeating earlier this year. >> what we're seeing is a pattern that we missed and the pattern iss an insufficient culture of safety. >> reporter: at that time, he was on the hotseat answering questions about handling of the

avian flew and anthrax. >> these were unacceptable events. they should have never happened. >> reporter: in line with the new procedures following the latest incident, the lab was closed depending review and decontamination. the material was destroyed. an investigation was launched. the incident was reported up and down the chain of command. as for the possibility of anyone else coming into contact with the material, cdc says a handful of others who entered the lab have been contacted. they will be assessed for possible exposure. but only the one technician is being monitored. the cdc does not believe anyone outside the lab could have been exposed. as of this afternoon, cdc tells cnn the lab technician is still showing no sign of symptoms. the laboratory has been working on a project to determine how long the virus remains viable on a dead person, because so many people in africa contract ebola

after handling a body. >> such important work. but really a mistake here. joe johns, thanks for your repo report. let's get more now from our experts. gavin, so far this technician is okay. but there's a window here for monitoring the health of this technician. how concerned should we be that he or she might contract ebola? >> we should not be concerned that the laboratory technician is going to contract ebola, because ebola is still a very difficult disease to get. you have to get it into your ice, nose, or mouth. having worked with many patients in west africa, i've worked very close with them. but we have this lack of management, the lack of quality, the lack of a safety system in place. that's what we should be focusing on. >> you have these rooms,

different labs that are different levels of security and something like ebola is supposed to be in a lab with the highest security. it's sort of someone who took this technician, took a sample and moved it to one lab and there's no excuse for it, because all of these samples are color coded. it's almost like putting something yellow next to other things that are red. how does that happen? >> it happens because of human error. scientists make mistakes, but that's why it's so important to have these protocols in place, to have standard operating procedures to make sure if one lab maker makes a mistake, there are plans in place that prevent such a mistake from happening. we saw this with bird flu earlier this year. that mistake probably occurred because one scientist was overworked. so this is really unacceptable. >> we've seen it with bird flu, samples of live anthrax and now

with ebola. how embarrassing, gavin, is this for the cdc? >> we've always believed the cdc can handle any extremely dangerous pathogen. we're grateful that the cdc has given us this transparency. but the industries have systems in place such as the u.s. chemical board for safety, the chemical safety board is -- goes through congress. the president picks the executive board. it's approached by congress. they investigate chemical incidents throughout the country. we don't have anything like that for biological accidents. and this is what we need. >> you have to give the cdc credit for the reporting here. i believe this happened monday. it was discovered @. within an hour it had been reported. so that's important.

but we're hearing gavin say there's not enough oversight. what can be done? >> cdc gave us some assurances based on the previous mistakes with bird flu and anthrax. they said they would go over the protocols and all staff would be trained appropriately. some of those steps have been taken, and it's not just cdc, there was a mistake at the nih earlier this year where viles of smallpox was discovered. >> i wonder if this is a question of leadership. dr. frieden oversees the cdc. when it came to how ebola was treated and really the protocols that were given to health workers to deal with the ebola threat. does he need to go? >> that's not for us to decide. but it's a matter of leadership.

it's a matter of management. the senior management in these labs have to ensure all the laboratory workers are compliant. not with just the regulations but the standard operating procedures and also there is a second set of eyes. if there was a second of eyes in this situation, you would have noticed the colors were inappropriate for the lab and the situation would have been corrected. that didn't happen. >> it's also a question of resources and support. so cdc has a budget. the work they're doing every year just increases. we're seeing more epidemics and more people get sick and the battles they're fighting get bigger and the resources aren't going up in line with that. >> gavin, thank you to both. ahead in the next hour, new doubts about whether north korea is behind those signer attacks

on sony pictures. and new york police out in force to pay tribute to a fallen officer and cracking down on new threats against other officers. >> order arms! [vet] two yearly physicals down.

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happening now, police threatened as officers gather to mourn a murdered colleague. north korea's next move. will kim jong-un fire back now that "the interview" was on screen or was someone else behind the hack? and news about the guantanamo bay detention center as president obama tries to clean up a stain on his legacy. we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. wolf blitzer is off. aim brianna keilar. you're in "the situation room." we're following two major stor stories. new york city police officers are out in force in a show of

mourning and unity. crowds are gathering for a memorial service for slain officer rafael ramos as the police force scrambles to respond to new death threats. and we're monitoring backlash from the release of "the interview." tonight, there are growing questions whether the u.s. was too quick to blame north korea for the crippling cyber attack that convinced sony to pull the film. we're covering all the new developments. first, we go to cnn's brian todd. brian? >> reporter: tonight, there are serious questions being raised by cyber security experts who have investigated the sony hack independently, poking holes in the fbi's case against north korea and at least one security firm points to a possible inside job at sony. the forensic trail of the sony hack. it's mysterious.

difficult to follow. and tonight, is sparking increasing doubt over the fbi's belief that hackers working for north korea are responsible. >> it's clear to us based on both forensic and other evidence that we have collected that they are not responsible for orchestrating or initiating the attack on sony. >> reporter: his cyber security firm did its own investigation of the sony hack. they raised serious questions about the fbi's claim that the malware used in the sony attack is similar used in other attacks by north korea. they say that malware was leaked a long time ago and could have been used by hackers anywhere in the world. they tracked the attack to a

woman code named lina, a former sony employee. he says lina has ties to the hacking group "guardians of peace," which claimed responsibility for the sony hit. she was a security staffer with sony who had what he calls super user access to the company's cyber secrets, user names and passwords to critical systems. he says lina had two motives for the hack. >> first of all, how sony treated its employees, layoffs that were going on, but also a bigger issue around piracy and how sony was treating those who had pirated music, had been -- and movies and other content and how they had been prosecuted in the u.s. and other countries. >> reporter: experts have doubts about north korea's ability to carry out such sophisticated attack. >> it's beyond the skill level we've been able to observe. >> reporter: but if north korea did commit the hack, analysts say it would have been done by a

shadowy group of the government. >> so they have somebody that's intimate to the kim family who is a very effective manager supervising this. that shows the importance of north korea's national security apparatus places on electronic and cyber capabilities. >> reporter: north korea has emphatically denied hacking sony. as for the tracking of the hack to a former sony employee, they say his firm has shared that information with the fbi. we reached out to the fbi and sony regarding the findings on lina and we asked the fbi for comment overall on all of the doubts that north korea did this. neither the fbi nor sony would comment on any of it. >> we'll keep following this. brian todd, thank you. north korea threatened attacks on the u.s., including the white house and pentagon as controversy boiled of the sony

hack. our global affairs correspondent elise lavin is here with this part of the story. is north korea going to respond to this? >> reporter: no one really knows right now, but they are expecting it. it's been very quiet, even today a diplomat saying we're not going to have a physical reaction. but anybody that studies north korea knows that the regime will not stay silent for long. it may not be this weekend but at a time of their choosing, north korea likes the element of surprise. people are expecting something and it could be a nuclear or missile test. they are continuing to make these military threats. so everybody is on alert. >> this is supposed to be a comedy. i talked with some people who have seen it and they say it's so dumb, but that's the point. this 10sort of over the top typical seth rogan movie you would expect. but at the same time, you're talking about assassinating the leader of a country. it is supposed to be a comedy. how are north koreans

approaching this? >> they're really bothered by it. this cuts to the heart of the north korean system. the north koreans are fed this diet of lies their whole life, propping their leader up as this benevolent leader of the people. and to put out a movie and the plot is to assassinate the north korean leader, kim jong-un loses face among his people. that goes to the very heart. this cuts very close to home for the north koreans. >> so the other thing is, and i understand that china, people in china have been consuming this. they are interested in this. what's the reaction there? >> the people love it. tens of thousands of chinese flocking to the internet, downloading it. a lot of it is bootlegged. tens of thousands of posts on websites. they got a rating on this

popular chinese website of about eight, which is very high. the title was translated into "assassination of the north korean leader." while the chinese people are loving it, the chinese government is saying this is a controversial movie. they get how the north koreans are offended by this and warning north korea and the u.s. both, calm down, calling for calm. they certainly don't want a provocation here. >> thank you to much. now to new york and a memorial service for a murdered police officer that begins in less than an hour. we're still seeing enormous tension between the police and the mayor there. alexander field has more on all of that, as well as the latest death threats against officers. so many feelings that these officers are experiencing today, alexandra. >> right. but you have to be moved by the

sea of blue we've seen. we've seen thousands of police officers come to this church. some waiting for hours at a time to go inside and pay their respects. later this evening, a memorial service followed by a final farewell tomorrow morning. >> present arms! >> reporter: the time salute for one of new york's finest officer rafael ramos, his casket brought for his wake to his family's church. attended by his brothers and sisters in blue. >> it's one thing to pray for something in another part of the country. it's a whole other thing when it 4i9s this close to home. >> reporter: he was scheduled to graduate from a chaplaincy program the day he was gunned down. the married father of two, remembered as a hero by his older son justin who said i'm going to miss his loving

presence and i can't fathom life without him. despite the tragedy, the hate, and rhetoric continues. >> any statement suggesting violence towards the police need to be reported to the police so we can stop future tragedies. >> reporter: this week, seven people arrested in connection with alleged threats against police officers. one targeting the 84th precinct. >> make no mistake about it, they died for you. they died to keep you safe. this isn't a matter of oh, a little charity here and there. you owe them this money. >> reporter: the mortgages of both officers will be paid. the new york yankees will pay for the children's education. jetblue airlines says it's working to fly in more than 600 officers from around the country for ramos' funeral saturday. the airline also working to bring officer liu's family from china. his widow, racked with grief, comforted by loved ones. both families seeing an

outpouring of support from an entire city. >> it's sad. it's really hurting me. no, i'm not a police officer, but it really got to me watching this on tv with my family. >> reporter: new york city mayor bill de blasio is scheduled to be at the funeral tomorrow. he will be making reports along with the police commissioner bill bratton and vice president joe biden. >> an extraordinary man. thank you so much. i want to bring in now cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes. we also have hln legal analyst joey jackson and community activist john gaskin. first, tom, you hear the story coming out of glendale, new york. so much emotion. so many people. so many officers who are just beside themselves with the loss of officer ramos. at the same time, they're dealing with the possibility of

these threats against their lives. >> i think a big part of the emotion is that lately, there's been so much rhetoric that's polarized the police against the communities and people are protesting and being very critical that police are overly aggressive. so they felt very defensive over those issues for several months now. then two of their own are deliberately assassinated, citing those very political reasons, rest in peace, you know, to the fallen people that have died. and then, i'm going to put pigs in a blanket and give pigs wings. so that's made them realize, do you see what our lives are like as police officers when this kind of assassination can happen any time and there's no amount of preparation to be prepared

for an ambush. there's all these vulnerable situations they're in, and then this happens. >> we've seen the strife between police and communities, just build and build between ferguson, between staten island. even some protests, many of them peaceful, but some protesters being violent with police and we see that exchange. are we going to see more of this, do you think? >> i certainly hope not. we live in a different generation, a different day and age. why? because we have the immediacy of communication with facebook, with instagram, where we can put information out there. threats against anybody, particularly the police who are protecting and serving, are not warranted. and there are two separate issues and i understand that there is a major -- particularly in light of ferguson as you mentioned and staten island and just in general what's happening throughout the country, that

there appears to be some d disconnect and there's concern about trust between the police and community. but another issue, taking matters into your own hands and engaging in these kind of threats against the police, there is no place and dilutes the message of making things matter and building a better relationship of trust between the police and community, which we need moving forward if we're going to get to the crux of this issue and stop the violence and hate. >> it does pull away from the nonviolent message. john, president obama said he thinks the u.s. is less racially divided than when he first took office six years ago. do you agree? >> well, i think we've certainly come a very long way in this great country, but we certainly have a long way to go. you know, when we elected our first african-american president

in this country, unfortunately many people were under the thought that we live in a post racial society, which clearly is not the case. as we take a look at protests that are going on across the country, i don't think it's fair to necessarily say police are attack. in my opinion and many other activist's opinion, i believe systemic injustices are under attack right now, which is taking place. you have people that are protesting not just what's faking place in ferguson but in minneapolis, what's taking place in cleveland. seeing that these injustices have, for so many years, been swept under the rug. you take a look at history and this nation, i agree with joey 100%. we have to be very careful regarding the optics and the message of the protest. they have to remain peaceful or they're going to lose

credibility. but i believe people need to continue to protest in a peaceful way with a clear message regarding what it is that people want to change. >> great discussion, guys. thanks for being with us. still ahead, some terror suspects may be on the move from guantanamo bay. so i can reach ally bank 24/7, but there are no branches? 24/7 it's just i'm a little reluctant to try new things. what's wrong with trying new things? feel that in your muscles? yeah... i do... try a new way to bank, where no branches equals great rates.

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tonight, we're learning about the obama administration's new plans for the guantanamo bay detention center in cuba. it's been almost six years since the president promised to close the controversial camp housing terror suspects. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr joining us now. what is the administration planning here? >> the strategy is to empty out gitmo as much as possible as fast as possible. look for several detainees to be transferred either to their home country or a third party country by the end of the year and several dozen more in early 2015. the feeling by the administration is, if they can get the numbers way down and you

only have the hard core terror suspects, and some who are still deemed a risk not able to be transferred, if you have several dozen left at guantanamo, maybe it's shown to be so expensive, congress will have a change of mind and let some of those people be transferred to the u.s. prison system. >> how can the u.s. ensure they don't just go right back to the battlefield? >> this is the big problem right now. in fact, dozens of prisoners already have been approved for transfer will not be because they are from yemen. yemen, a country where al qaeda is very strong and a lot of concern about those people going back to yemen, rejoining the battlefield. we've already seen it in afghanistan and in yemen, in fact, one of the detainees that was released, there's now something like a $5 million reward on his head back in yemen. he's now a top senior leader in the al qaeda organization there.

so none of this is fullproof. it's a big concern. but the president's position is they can't keep guantanamo bay open forever. congress still has to weigh in and we'll see if they agree. >> it's a big if. barbara, thank you so much. i want to talk more about this with cnn's global affairs correspondent elise labot. we have retired general hertling and bob baer. elise, how many dangerous prisoners are there? >> that's just a few dozen of the hard core. those are the biggest problem right now. what do you do with them? they're not really safe enough to be scheduled for relief. they don't qualify for a military trial. congress is giving the administration a hard time about moving them to federal prisons. so what do they do?

the easier thing right now for detainees that are able to be transferred for release, and the administration thinks it's going to have a lot more luck there. they have expected to release a lot more, and hoping that this -- latin american countries may step up -- >> and say hey, we'll take some of these. >> exactly. they feel by the end of the day, they'll be able to get rid of those detainees. >> bob, let's talk about the timing. the president wants to release dozens of these detainees of the next six months. what is the rush here? why now? >> well, i think with the republican congress and the presidential elections coming up, we have to remove this as a political issue and deal with it. i think we should close that prison. a lot of these people, there's not enough evidence against them to bring them to trial. they haven't killed americans

and so forth. and yes, we run the risk of they're going to go back and join the jihadi ranks. i think the ones that have killed americans should be brought here and put on trial. we've done this in the past. the blind sheikh many years ago. khalid shaikh mohammed has no religious standing, he's just a murderer and let's put them in jail for life. >> part of this, this -- if president obama were to choose a time to do this, this politically was the only time that he could do this. so you can't really put politics are in play here. isn't that part of the reason we're seen to be rushing during this window? >> i think the president was

timid his first six years of his administration. president bush started this, very rightly, and it should have continued at a much quicker pace. so i fault him for not moving faster, but now that he's got two years, let's do it. >> general, when you look 59 the numbers here, officials say that 17% of the more than 600 guantanamo bay detainees that have been released or transferred since 2002, they've been involved in military activity. there's 12% more suspected of doing so. so you're looking at 3 in 10 who may have gone back to the battlefield. is there any way around that? maybe you think the numbers are higher. >> i think those numbers are about right. you really can't tell, though, and there's nothing you can do about that. 18% is what the dia says of the remaining 132 that are there. it's problematic, but a great

many more, a larger part of the percentage are people who did very little and need to be released. one of the big problems is of the 64 that are going to be released, 54 come from yemen. that's not a place we want to send people back to now. it's just a caldron of insurgency. so they're going to accept them in eastern europe, central america, but i agree we have to get them released. >> you have cliff sloan, the administration envoy for close guantanamo bay, he stepped down earlier this week. what does that mean? >> it's also a senior pentagon official who is dealing with guantanamo bay. i don't think that's the big issue. a lot of the prep work has been done. now it's the hard slog of diplomacy, which president obama is taking a much bigger role as

he winds this down. he's calling a lot of the leaders himself. so i think the real opposition right now is going to be congress. again, president obama is going to have to take that personal role. cliff sloan said listen, we're not going to stop it. it's the support that the president is going to put behind it and that's key. >> he's working the phones and calling in those favors. thanks to all of you. have a great weekend. just ahead, a former gop presidential contender is fessing up to cnn about the mistakes he made in 2012 as he tests the water for 2016. we have a one on one with governor rick perry, next. so ally bank really has no hidden fees on savings accounts?

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we're seeing some very early moves in the 2016 presidential

race, even before 2014 ends. dana bash speaking to one possible republican contender, the soon-to-be former governor of texas, rick perry. what did he tell you? >> he's been in office for 14 years, and he's leaving in january. he's talking openly now about a 2016 run. but remember his 2012 run? didn't go so well. i found him confident and said if he runs again he can go from political punchline to presidential nominee. >> that is a union general saber, which is an odd thing to be in a southern thing. >> reporter: rick perry, eagerly giving a history lesson of the texas governor's mansion. like what sam houston did in this very room, with a telegram from lincoln. >> he wadded it up and he stepped over and threw it in that fireplace. >> reporter: this is not the rick perry the country saw during his ill-fated, at times embarrassing 2012 presidential campaign. >> the education, the --

commerce, and let's see, i can't -- the third one i can't. sorry. oopse. >> reporter: he's about to step down as texas governor after 14 years. the longest serving in lonestar state history and trying to reintroduce himself as competent and charismatic as he test drives his message for a probable second white house run. >> americans are begging for a positive view of the future for an individual who has got a record of being able to make the future better for their families. that's exactly what we've done in texas over the last 14 years. more jobs created than any other state. a third of all the jobs created in america since i've been governor were created in texas. >> reporter: he will carry some baggage, like an indictment for abuse of power his advisers call politically motivated. still, he spent most of december hosting potentially 2016 donors

and supporters in a series of lunches and dinners prepping his pitch. >> americans are looking for competent leadership, and sometimes it shows itself in ways that you can never have dreamed of. the disease of ebola coming on to our shores, and the first city, and they saw how we dealt with that. >> reporter: he blames his poor performance in 2012 on pain and back surgery. you have been spending a lot of time boning up on foreign and economic policy, every kind of policy you would imagine. tell me about that process. >> running for the presidency of the united states requires an inordinate amount of preparation. sitting at the feet of henry kissinger and george schultz, picking their brains about what's going on in the world.

that has paid great dividends. if i make the decision to run for the presidency, i will be prepared. >> reporter: but this is the second largest state in the union, and you have talked about the great strives you've made with this. so why isn't that enough experience? >> there's a great deal of difference between putting economic policies into a state and being very cognitive and versed in foreign policy and monetary policy, or domestic policy for that matter. >> reporter: last week, jeb bush became the first republican to make official moves toward a 2016 run. >> jeb's a good man, good friend. good governor of florida. as a matter of fact, i think jeb getting into the race will help the field. >> reporter: how so? >> he's been a successful governor and, again, having a person of his background in the race makes a lot of sense. but it won't make a difference whether i get in or not.

>> reporter: in texas, there are a lot of donors that jeb bush might well be dipping into that you might need to fund a perry presidential race. so doesn't that concern you? >> if i decide to make the race, this will be about our vision, this will be about talking about the future of this country. >> reporter: perry was lieutenant governor of texas when jeb's brother, george w. bush was governor, and they didn't always get along. it's not a secret that rick perry has had tension with george w. bush. is that going to play into any potential competition going forward. >> this is a great family. you look back at george h.w. bush who chose texas a&m as the site of his library and to george living in this state, they're a great family. i respect them greatly, always

have, and always will. >> reporter: perry is taking 2016 prep beyond policy to performance, working with a company called podium masters. why did you choose that? >> i guess so my "hamlet" will come out right when i quote "hamlet" on stage. we use a lot of different people and i think that's an appropriate thing to be engaged with folks to help in all aspects of public speaking. i desire to be better at what i do. that's a very important part of it. >> reporter: and i'm guessing also too, avoid an "oopse" moment if you run in 2016. >> that would be preferable. >> reporter: perry insisted he's not in a rush to officially jump into the 2016 race. he's leaving the texas governor's mansion january 20th and wants a few months in the private sector first.

and perry sources say it's going to be may or june before he officially decides and declares. >> does he seem more ready this time? >> oh, yes, no question arnlt it. last time he wasn't ready and admits that. he said it was humbling. but to watch the way that he has prepared to discuss it with him on camera, off camera, is kind of remarkable. he's preparing for himself, he's preparing a team. it seems very unlikely he won't run given what we saw. >> dana bash, great interview. great report. you can see more of dana's interview with governor perry this sunday on "state of the union." just ahead, wolf blitzer's emotional journey home, tracing his roots to one of the darkest moments in world history. alright, so this tylenol arthritis lasts 8 hours but aleve can last 12 hours. and aleve is proven to work better on pain than tylenol arthritis. so why am i still thinking about this? how are ya? good. aleve. proven better on pain.

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due to your first accident. learn more by calling switch to liberty mutual and you can save up to $423. for a free quote today,call liberty mutual insurance at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. it's if season for family and for reflections. so we wanted to give you another look at wolf blitzer's extraordinary journey, tracing his roots here in the u.s. and in poland. take a look. >> it's saturday in buffalo, new

york, my hometown. how are you? and these guys, well, they're fans of fc buffalo blitzers. >> i watch you all the time. >> that's a soccer team that somehow was named after me. something i find both flattering and a little embarrassing. cnn has asked me to come here to trace my roots. a task i find daunting. i grew up here in the 1950s and '60s with my sister and parents. a lot has changed since then. my dad passed away in 2002. and my mom, she's 92 years old and now lives in florida. but some things here never change. like the bar here. the birthplace of the buffalo chicken wing.

>> mmm. bringing back memories. two weeks ago i was on the israel-gaza border. now i'm eating buffalo chicken wings. >> my journey to learn about my family's history has been months in the making. delayed in part because of this -- the war between israel and hamas. i'm in jerusalem reporting for nearly a month. but a friend suggests i take some time to visit israel's national holocaust museum. i, of course, knew my grandparents died during the holocaust, but i wanted to learn more. >> the circumstances of death, it says concentration camp. >> my dad, david blitzer, wrote a testimony for the museum, detailing what he knew about the fate of his family during world war ii. >> i didn't know until i came

here that on my father's side, my grandparents died, were killed at auschwitz. i feel like i've been robbed of an experience of having grand parents. 6 million jews were killed during the holocaust. and i saw the documentation from auschwitz and it hit me and i knew that's where i wanted to go. ♪ >> that was a place for working. >> it was for slave labor. >> yes. it was this kind of camp, but work was an instrument of

ex-termination. >> it's one thing to learn about the holocaust in school or from books. but to see these places firsthand can be overwhelming. most of the jews here came by cattle car. >> and then began selection. >> who lives and who dies. >> exactly. >> my grandparents died here. >> probably they were taken to the gas chamber. people walked in, they believed they were in the shower. >> but instead -- >> that was the gas chamber. >> while many jews were brought to auschwitz from far away, my dad's family was unique. he grew up in a town called

auschwitz. martha schindler, a local historian, agreed to help me find my dad's childhood home. >> we have some school records. you see, this is information about rachel blitzer. >> that's my aunt. we've looked of here. there's no number 26 here. >> no. many houses were taken down by the nazis. >> they were destroyed. like much of my journey so far, i'm struggling to find remnants of my father's life. did this house exist before world war ii? do you remember a family by the name of blitzer? none of the neighbors remembered the blitzers. but i did find a place where my family once stood -- the town square. the testimony that my father provided, he had three sisters, only one survived, rachel.

but two of mhis other sisters, when the nazis came in, they were brought to this area. they were killed. they were young girls. it's pretty much the same story on my mother's side. she survived but her parents died during the holocaust. >> i'm named after my grandfather, wolf. people always ask me, is wolf your real name? i say yes, it's my real name. i was named after my maternal grandfather. >> that's my cousin, peppy. we grew up together in buffalo. she's here to help me find my mother's roots. >> what number was it? >> number 12. >> whatever house they had, it's gone. >> it's closed. >> together, we found what's left of my grandfather's old factory that produced clay

pipes. not far was the slave labor camp where my mother and her two brothers worked. this is the land where camp "a" was -- >> this camp, 24,000 jews came in for labor. almost 18,000 died here. there was no crematorium here, but they simply burned the bodies and they -- we're told they buried the ashes here in this place. it's conceivable that our grandparents -- their ashes are here. >> we have no idea. >> we have no idea, no. >> when you look at my mom now, she's 92, you wouldn't realize how courageous she was when she was liberated. they told all the jewish workers, you're going to be marching on this death march. mother knew if they were on this forced death march, they would die. >> this remarkable woman took her siblings and hid in the

basement of the factory, and they stayed there for a few days until they were finally liberated by the russians. >> yep. presentee amazing story. >> pretty amazing. amazing woman. >> to this day, i'm very aware of the courageous moves my mom made. she's obviously a very wonderful woman. before we leave poland, we visit the only jewish cemetery still left in the town of auschwitz. and i see a tombstone that says blitzer. i don't know if this woman was related to me, but i do what my father would have wanted. i say the special prayer for the dead. [ speaking hebrew ]

so after the war and my parents were liberated, my mother, by the russian troops an my dad by the french troops, they did what most holocaust survivors did, they looked for family members that survived. they were on a train and all of a sudden they saw each other and their eyes met and they fell in love. >> within a few months they were married by an american military chaplain a rabbi. and my dad found work in germany where my sister and i were born. >> in those days you didn't know what would happen a week or two weeks from now and after what they went through during the war, they said, you had to grab life when you could. >> when my dad was visiting nearby munich one day, he saw a

long line. sew so he -- so he got in it. it was a line to bring holocaust survivors and displaced persons to the united states. a few months later we were moving to upstate new york. >> when he came to buffalo, people helped him get that job. you get a job and make some money and they thought it was cool but it was awful. >> it is hot and it will not stop if you are injured. >> my dad hated the steel. and my dad and his brother opened a restaurant. >> it used to be blitzer delicatessen. >> this is the deli. i used to pack eggs here. i would come in on sunday mornings and pack eggs. i would walk in over here --

guys, keep going. we're working, here. so this was where we used to pack the eggs. a lot of memories. blitzer's deli. my dad didn't like the deli business either. then one day he was talking to friends he knew from the concentration camp and they were buying land. >> they developed homes. >> and building homes for the gi's returning from the war. >> my dad built us this house. this is the one of the first he built when he became a builder. that was my house. somebody is living there. >> and it turns out he had a knack for home building and with a lot of help, he became a successful home-maker. >> i went to school here. this is where they taught me to be a journalist. that is me. wolf blizzarder, concert band,

debate club, dirt club, human y humanities club, marching band, national honors society, football j.v. that was me. so after months of following my family tree, i'm right back where i started, my home town. >> he watch you every day. >> it is a place where i grew up, where i went to college, where my met my wife lynn and where i learned a lot about eating good food. >> how can we not have anderson's frozen custard. >> what do you want on it? >> mustard, relish, pickles. the cool people say everything you got. >> we would like all of the above. >> and it is amazing, my parents after all they went through and the lo-- the losses they went through, i never sensed the vindictiveness. my dad when he died in 2002, he

was 82 years old and he was always up beat when they would see me on television, and my mother would see me on tv, the same thing. this is the revenge to hitler and the nazis. i'm very proud of the new roots my parents planted here in america. those roots have grown. and during this visit back to buffalo, and indeed throughout my life, i realize a lesson i learned from my parents. like them, i try to grab life where ever i can. [ cheering and applause ] >> now this impact your world. from international hip-hop star, to creator of a multi-million dollar empire. curtis 50 cent jackson remembers

a time when things weren't easy and that is why he is paying it ford by working with feeding america. >> i had a point, but not to the point there wasn't something to eat. but now i see kids that have tougher stories than i experienced. feeding america, it is the best charitable organization if hunger is your cause. >> this is the nationwide network of food banks, we have 200 members who provide food to people in need. more than 49 million are not able to provide food and we are helping them. >> food is a part of enjoying yourself and to have people provide meals in this time period is great. >> for many it is a life line. >> i have kids and i need some help right now. and i'm so grateful. >> so a partnership means every

pair of sms auto headphones provides 250 meals to those in need and his energy drink street king goes to help the u.n. food program. >> when you look at hunger, it would take so much to solve it, the only place i see enough finances to do it is your self-. this is where you give back. >> thank up for watching, i'm brianna keeler in "the situation room." and we'll see you with this is life with lisa ling. stay tuned for that.

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there is a place in america where for decades people farmed the land. everyone knew each other and the pace was slow. and then almost overnight things changed. it's all because of something found deep