page at cnn.com for videos blogs and extras and you can also subscribe to our magazine on flipboard. that's it for "the lead." i'm jake tapper. i turn you over to one mr. wolf blitzer who is right next door in a place we like to call "the situation room." happening now, new york bomb plot. the fbi arrests three men living in brooklyn who allegedly talked of killing the president of the united states attacking police and blowing up a landmark while planning to join isis. another mall threat. a major u.s. embassy warns americans to be alert to potential attacks on shopping centers. we have details. north korea nukes. kim jong-un's ambitions and arsenal may be growing at an alarming rate. why the dictator could soon have up to 100 nuclear weapons. plus snow and ice. 43 million americans in the path of another big storm. it's bearing down now. are they ready?

i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." let's get to the breaking news. three men living in new york they are now in custody at this hour accused of trying to join isis. one suspect was arrested today at new york's jfk airport before a flight to turkey. court papers say the men allegedly discussed carrying out attacks here in the united states and one suspect is said to have spoken about shooting president obama. senator chris murphy of the senate foreign relations committee is standing by live along with our correspondents and our analysts and the u.s. as the u.s. helps iraqi forces gear up for an offensive against isis i will speak with the u.s. army chief of staff. but let's begin with an extraordinary terror bust today. our justice correspondent pamela brown is joining us. what's the latest you're hearing about this plot? what were these men allegedly planning? >> very disturbing here wolf. the fbi arrested these three

men, these three brooklyn new york men, on material support charges. they allege that at least one of the men had boasted about wanting to kill president obama. also wanting to allegedly blow up coney island. of course a big u.s. landmark. they also allege according to the fbi that the other man wanted to kill federal agents wanted to shoot and kill the fbi with an ak-47 and kill other police officers. according to the criminal complaint we have been reading through, if they weren't able to follow through on their original plan of wanting to go over to syria and fight with isis they would carry out these plans in the u.s. in the homeland. one of the men, jaraboev posted about allegedly wanting to kill president obama. very alarming post. he says to shoot obama and then get shot ourselves, will it do. that will strike in the heart of infidels. that post brought the fbi to the

front door of this man. they apparently according to an nypd press conference today, identified themselves as fbi agents but even after that initial interview, apparently jaraboev then called people overseas with isis including an isis administrator of a website who then convinced him to come over and fight overseas allegedly, and then according to this criminal complaint, jaraboev also spoke to one of his friends, saidakhmetov to join him to go to isis and saidakhmetov was arrested allegedly for wanting to travel to turkey, then go fight with isis in syria. we have seen these material support cases before but what is so alarming here is the fact that we have information that these men wanted to launch an attack in the u.s. if they couldn't make it to syria, also the fact they were conspiring. this isn't just one person wanting to provide material

support. this was a conspiracy according to law enforcement officials. i should mention the third man in this case wanted to allegedly provide support by financing their trip. he allegedly bought the tickets for these two young men to go to turkey. so very alarming. >> it's taking place, the arrests today, just as we are getting new information about how widespread these extremists might be throughout the united states. >> that's right. we heard director james comey director of the fbi, say there are home-grown violent extremists in every state, all 50 states. he talked about the fact that isis is sounding the siren through social media to tell people to come join them. in fact we just talked about this issue a couple weeks ago when i interviewed michael steinback, head of the fbi's counter terrorism division. he talked about the fact there are groups of people here in the u.s. that are interacting with isis overseas and what we see today with this case is a reflection of what we have been reporting about. >> it's very disturbing information. pamela brown, thanks very much. let's get some more details that are coming in on these alleged isis wanna-bes.

evan peres is joining us. what are you hearing from your law enforcement sources? >> this case really represents an escalation of this threat from isis. until now, we have been hearing about isis and we have been hearing about their recruits most of them have come from around the country and you know they are trying to reach syria to join the militants. in this case we are talking about new york and that's something that we hadn't seen before. i'm told by law enforcement officials that there are other cases they are investigating. they expect they will be able to bring charges against other individuals who are planning to join isis or trying to carry out attacks here in this country. one of the things they are watching is jfk. jfk is a point of departure for a lot of flights to europe which is a conduit for people trying to get over there. >> i want you to listen to what james comey, the fbi director said today about the growth of

these suspected extremists throughout the united states. listen to this. >> those people exist in every state. i have home-grown violent extremist investigations in every single state. until a few weeks ago, it was 49 states alaska had none. which i couldn't quite figure out. but alaska has now joined the group so we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states. >> that's obviously very disturbing when he says it's as widespread as it is. that was sort of startling to me to hear that from the fbi director. >> reporter: well yes. you know one of the things we have been focusing on today is in these charges against these three men, they talked about carrying out an attack against the president or perhaps maybe hijacking a plane and taking the airplane to isis in syria. a lot of people think that these people you know frankly weren't very smart discussing

some of this online. the truth is you know it doesn't take a lot of smarts to carry out some very deadly attacks. we saw here in new york where you had somebody who was deranged who attacked police officers. and so one of the things that the fbi, what the director there was talking about, he was trying to urge people around the country, law enforcement in particular to keep an eye out because the fbi is not really able to keep a handle on all of these people. they are going to need the help of people around the country to let them know when one of these guys is planning to do something. >> evan we have some live pictures coming in from the federal courthouse in brooklyn. you see what's going on. two of these three suspects are about to be arraigned there. we believe they will be charged with providing material support for terrorists namely isis. a third will be arraigned in florida. potentially, if convicted of this charge they face up to 15 years in jail, is that right? >> reporter: that's right. the investigation is continuing. we know that the fbi arrested

one of these men last night and then decided to go and arrest the other one who was still at home, was planning to travel later, and the other one in jacksonville. we know that the fbi spent all night, had agents interviewing these men and one of the other things they're trying to figure out is whether there are others that these men were working with were talking to. they are interested in those people as well. >> deborah feyerick is inside the courtroom right now watching what's going on. she will be coming outside and briefing us. this is the federal courthouse in brooklyn. we will stay in touch with her, obviously, get the very very latest. evan perez, thanks very much. we are also learning of another threat to upscale shopping malls. this morning, coming from the u.s. embassy in amman, jordan. our pentagon correspondent barbara starr is working on this story. what are you hearing about this u.s. warning to all americans who are in jordan right now, or planning on visiting jordan? >> reporter: well the u.s. embassy in jordan has issued a statement warning americans embassy personnel, their

families american citizens in jordan for the coming days to stay away to avoid what they are calling high end shopping malls in amman, jordan. there are a few of them there and they are warning them to stay away from them. they say there is a threat. they say the timing and the exact type of threat is not known but that there is credible information that there is a threat in amman. jordanian officials certainly have ramped up security in that country in recent weeks since the capture and killing, of course of the jordanian air force pilot by isis and the rising sense that there is an isis threat against jordan. so that seems to be the foundation for some of this. but still, another disturbing development, yet another embassy today overseas warning american citizens they must be careful. >> barbara, i want you to stand by. i know you are getting other information about isis activities in iraq. we will have that later. i want to bring in democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut right now.

he's a member of the senate foreign relations committee. senator, thanks very much for joining us. pretty shocking when you hear these three guys who live in brooklyn arrested the suspicion getting ready to go over to syria to align themselves with isis and potentially come back here and launch plots or attacks against the united states. what are you hearing about this? >> first of all, credit goes to our law enforcement personnel who were able to find these guys and bring them to justice. we've got to be vigilant because they are likely the tip of the iceberg. radicalization is pretty easy these days when you have imams and organizers able to contact people through facebook through twitter, through other social media platforms. i think we want to be careful about not getting too far ahead of ourselves here. right now it looks like this threat may have been a little more aspirational than it was operational. but this is real and it's why we've got to make sure that our strategy against isis in the

middle east significantly degrades them without providing more recruitment fodder for folks that are trying to organize in the homeland right here in the united states. >> one of these three guys was arrested at john f. kennedy airport in new york getting ready to board a flight to turkey. once you're in istanbul it's not that hard to cross that border get into syria and align yourself hook up with isis. that seems like there was a pretty specific plot at least in this individual's case, right? >> well we know that there are americans who are moving into that fight. we know there are europeans who are flooding into turkey into syria, into iraq and one of the most important conversations we're having is with our allies in europe to make sure they are doing the things necessary to try to track these individuals to make sure they don't use what's called the visa waiver program to come back into europe come into the united states. we do a pretty good job of figuring out who is moving over there to make sure they don't move back here to threaten us but our allies have to step up

and do the same thing as well. >> the other very very worrisome development in this justice department memorandum that was released outlining the charges was that one of them said that if he couldn't get to syria to hook up with isis he was going to go to try to kill the president of the united states. another said he would simply try to blow up coney island or kill as many police officers or fbi agents as he possibly could. that sounds pretty ominous to me as well. >> these guys clearly weren't really smart about their intentions given that they broadcast them on social media such that they could be pretty easily picked up by law enforcement. it's a reminder about why information information gathering is important. i'm not somebody who has been a fan of how we conducted some of our surveillance activities under the patriot act but so long as a court is overseeing some of the operations we are doing to gather this information, this is another reminder of why we have to be constantly vigilant and why republicans and democrats have to come together in washington around making sure that law

enforcement have the tools available to root this out. as long as isis is there, it doesn't take someone actually traveling across the ocean in order to become radicalized. they can simply use that fight in order to do damage to us without ever leaving the united states. >> when you have these three guys working together would you call them lone wolves or part of some sort of isis conspiracy? >> well i don't think we know enough yet. i certainly don't know enough yet about what their interaction was with isis. frankly, it shouldn't matter in the sense that whether or not people are working with isis or acting on their own, they present the same kind of threat. as your reporter said it doesn't take much today in order to carry out an attack that would kill a large number of americans. we've got to be vigilant whether these are lone wolves or whether these are people communicating with isis. that's why isis is a threat because they are inspiring attacks against the united states and against other countries, regardless of whether

they are actually reaching in to the united states with direct contact. >> senator, i need you to stand by. we will have a lot more on the breaking news that's unfolding. these three individuals arrested today. the conspiracy supposedly they were trying to get over to syria to hook up with isis. much more with senator chris murphy when we come back. your eyes really are unique. in fact, they depend on a unique set of nutrients. that's why there's ocuvite to help protect your eye health. as you age your eyes can lose vital nutrients. ocuvite helps replenish key eye nutrients. ocuvite is a vitamin made just for your eyes from the eye care experts at bausch + lomb. ocuvite has a unique formula that's just not found in any leading multivitamin. your eyes are unique

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brooklyn. two of the three suspects arrested today, suspicious -- the suspects believed to be trying to get to syria to work with isis. two of them are going to be arraigned here in brooklyn. we are standing by. our own susan candiotti is inside. we will get the latest. deborah feyerick i should say, is inside. we will get the latest from deb feyerick when she comes out. we will see what happens inside. but we are watching this very very closely right now. as soon as she comes out, we will go there live. in the meantime we are back with democratic senator chris murphy of connecticut. he's a member of the senate foreign relations committee. we heard the fbi director say today, senator, that there are now radicalized individuals who are being monitored by the fbi in all 50 states. including alaska he said that was the last state. does this worry you? >> of course it worries us. we know that this is nothing new to the united states. for decades we have had radicals

here that we have had to monitor and protect from attacking the united states. but we need to be more vigilant now than ever. again, the means of radicalization are easier now than they ever have been before. it used to be that you had to actually physically connect with a radical imam or a mosque that had been radicalized in order to turn yourself towards that kind of belief system. now all you need to do is have a computer or laptop or smartphone and you can have exposure to this kind of ideology. so it just means that we've got to be more vigilant than ever about watching for where this preaching is happening and who is listening to it. >> in these charges that were put forward in this justice department memo that was released earlier today, one of these suspects supposedly in august of 2014 last summer posted on a website that propagates isis ideology and offered to kill the president of the united states if ordered by

isis. more recently another suspect expressed intent to buy a machine gun and shoot police officers and fbi agents if thwarted in his plan to join isis in syria. it's one thing to try to kill the president of the united states. that's pretty hard. it's another thing to just go out in the street and try to kill police officers. that's not that hard right? >> it's not that hard and again, we don't know yet whether this is a plan that had any real operational reality to it or whether these were individuals who were just posting their vicious thoughtless meanderings online. the reality is right now, as we speak, we are conducting a debate that threatens to shut down the department of homeland security. we have republicans who are refusing to fund the department of homeland security unless they get some immigration, anti-immigration riders attached to that bill. one of the things that is funded inside that bill is the reform of the secret service, the organization charged with protecting the president.

obviously the department of homeland security has all sorts of other responsibilities designed to protect this country from terrorist attacks. the irony, the tragedy of having these three individuals arrested today in new york potentially plotting attacks against the united states when we are about to potentially shut down the department of homeland security is shameful. hopefully it might change the debate here over the course of the next 48 hours. >> it comes after the secretary of homeland security was warning to be on the lookout at shopping malls across the united states especially the largest one, the mall of america outside minneapolis-st. paul. today the u.s. embassy in amman, jordan issued a release saying to all americans, whether you live there or are a tourist, stay away from any of the so-called high end malls in amman, jordan because of terror threats. this is all very alarming isn't it? >> it's real and it's present. it's frankly not going away. but it's why we are trying to have a thoughtful debate inside the foreign relations committee about how we combat isis. you've got to take these guys

out and that involves military operations. but we met this week with the amir of qatar and the thing of jordan. they told us the same thing. they said please don't put u.s. combat troops back on the ground inside syria and iraq because you are frankly going to radicalize more people to the cause of these extremists than you are going to kill through your military operations. so if we really want to take this problem on we've got to do good surveillance great law enforcement, but we have also got to have an anti-isil strategy that is realistic about the fact that arabs need to lead this locally inside that region such that an american face and a large number of american combat troops don't end up just providing more bulletin board material for recruiters. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> thanks wolf. we will continue to watch this brooklyn courthouse. you are looking at live pictures. two of the terror suspects arrested today are about to be arraigned. we are going inside. stand by.

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inside. our own deborah feyerick is inside as well. once this session ends we will go there live. stay with us for that. in the meantime the u.s. military is helping iraqi forces gear up for what's being described as a major offensive against isis aimed at retaking a big city mosul, from the terrorists. i sat down today with u.s. army's chief of staff, general ray odierno. he says that upcoming battle will be extremely tough. >> heard a briefing from u.s. military central command the other day saying we are talking about march or april, in the spring spring offensive, iraqi troops going in there basically backed by maybe kurdish troops i assume the shiite militias backed by iran and some u.s. and coalition air power are going to go liberate muslims. is that the game plan? >> i think the game plan is to have iraqi security forces go into this. >> you have confidence in them? >> we are seeing great progress

over the last couple days last week we have seen them do some successful operations in western iraq in anbar province. they have made some improvements. what we will have to see is wait and see. we will wait and see what the timeline is and i leave that up to the commanders on the ground to determine working with the iraqis are they ready to do this. but this is not going to be a three day four day, five day thing. this is going to be months and months. >> it was thrown out the other day at the pentagon briefing troops going into mosul to liberate the city. is it a realistic number? >> i think so. i think it is realistic. what you are going to need the numbers of isis vary. some people say 5,000, 2,000, 3,000. we are not sure. but again, what it comes back to is it's not that there's 5,000 fighters lined up. it's 3,000, 4,000 fighters intermixed among the population. >> are they still successful at recruiting new members? >> so i think you know the one

thing i will say is their ability to use social media and promote on the internet is -- i think they are still recruiting and i think they are recruiting from many different parts of the world. i do believe that's something that is going on. i think one of the reasons why it's important that we take this threat seriously is we want to stop this now. we don't want this to continue to grow over time. >> one question on syria, the free syrian army. the u.s. is vetting a lot of these guys to go train whether in turkey jordan or saudi arabia. any of them started training yet or is the vetting process still going on? >> very close. we expect march. we expect somewhere in march, april time frame, march hopefully, that we will begin to train. >> then how long will that training last? >> so they are still working through it. it will probably be somewhere around four six weeks. then we will form units and then we will go from there. we are still, we will develop this as we go depending on how

well they do. but there's a good plan in place and i think it will start pretty quickly. >> these units, these free syrian army units, are we training them to go after the syrian regime of bashar al assad, his military or to go after isis in syria? >> our intention is this is our initial problem is isis and isil. these units are being built to help us to put pressure on isis and we want to put pressure on from multiple fronts. this allows us to open another front against isil. so that's the intent of us training these forces. >> we will have more of my interview with general odierno coming up but i want to get back to our top story, the breaking news we are following. the fbi has arrested three men who allegedly planned to fly from new york to turkey with the goal of crossing from turkey into syria to join isis. the suspects are also said to have discussed attacks here in the united states. let's discuss what's going on with our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto, our

cnn national security analyst fran townsend. she was the homeland security advisor to president bush. and our cnn law enforcement analyst tom fuentes, former fbi assistant director. fran what are you hearing about the arrests of these three men in new york? i just want to point out that deborah feyerick our reporter in new york is inside that federal courthouse in brooklyn right now. we are told it's basically over. she is going to be emerging any minute now. we will get the very latest report from her. but what are you hearing about what's going on here? >> clearly, this was a long term ongoing investigation by the fbi and their hand was forced. when the guy heads off to jfk airport and they are going to otherwise lose the opportunity to arrest him, they have to bring the investigation to a conclusion. no doubt when your hand is forced you always wanted it to go on longer if possible so you could collect additional evidence against these guys and also to try and identify others that they might have been in contact, both around the world, inside isis and here at home.

so you know these guys do not look like the a-team but it doesn't really matter. if they had the intent and they took steps in furtherance of that intent to support isis then the fbi was within their rights to bring the investigation to a conclusion. >> tom, it says in this federal statement that was released earlier today on the details of the arrest of these three guys that they began to become suspicious in august of 2014 last summer when one of them posted on an uzbek language website that popropagates isis' ideology this guy must have been pretty stupid if he thought nobody was monitoring a website sympathetic to isis. >> it sounds like they were very stupid but the problem is even the stupidest of them can kill a lot of people if they choose to. that's the difficulty. the fbi starts the investigation, starts to identify who they are communicating with what are they thinking if they can figure that out through their e-mails and social media, and then just keep going forward

with this and the closer it got to where it looked like one is going to leave the country, they have to take it down as fran mentioned. she is exactly right. you make a hard decision of how long to let one of these things go on because they also mentioned in the complaint that if they were thwarted in trying to get to syria they would just go ahead and do attacks here without even going. that's the problem, if in their mind they were being prevented even by one of their mothers taking the passport you don't know what that would trigger and the attack could be here. they had to do it. >> two of them were from uzbekistan one from kazakhstan. go ahead. >> i was just going to say, we saw that with the ottawa shooter. he tried to go to syria. the government wouldn't let him go wouldn't renew his passport. that's when he carried out the attack on the canadian soldier and they killed him. >> walk us through the process. what happens when you get a suspicious element like this? what does the fbi do? >> well they try to find out if there's anybody that knows that

person that will talk to them try and identify the social media accounts the internet accounts phone accounts and start tracking them that way. and then who are they communicating with are they making calls or e-mails to a known jihadi website either in the u.s. or overseas and expand from there. then the advantage is that when a lone wolf decides he needs a couple of partners that's usually the best opportunity for intervention to get somebody in under cover that can get close to the individual and that will enable them to get enough probable cause for wiretaps and to really track them. >> i want to go to deborah feyerick. she is outside that federal courthouse in brooklyn. so deb, tell us what happened inside. >> reporter: well wolf it was a very ordinary arraignment except for the fact that these men were going to syria allegedly to fight with isis. they had no intention of coming back. if they failed to get to syria, then they planned to carry out attacks here in america. we are learning additional details according to their

interview after they were arrested. one of the men said he was going to either kill the president or plant a bomb on coney island. prosecutors will not say where specifically in brooklyn these men actually lived. one of them the younger one, the 19-year-old, he was picked up while he was on the jetway boarding that flight to turkey. the other one, unclear where he was arrested today. we believe he was living with or at the home of the younger man. they were co-workers they were colleagues. they didn't make a lot of money. they reported their income as $1500 and $2,000. one of them actually working -- both of them working at rather menial jobs. they were appointed lawyers. their physical appearance was very very interesting. we expected to see these two men somewhat tall in fact they are somewhat shorter than we anticipated, about 5'2". the younger one, the 19-year-old, was wearing a green

hoodie sweatshirt with jeans that were rolled up because of his size. he was also wearing red and black patent leather sneakers, the laces had been removed. the older man, he was wearing a gray hoodie also jeans, also rolled up. he had an army color skullcap. i want to -- wait one second. we are hearing from one of the defense attorneys right now, adam perlmutter. he is representing saidakhmetov. >> it's my hope that in america in the 21st century in 2015 that the presumption of innocence still holds. these individuals have been charged. they have not yet been indicted. this case really makes us question the federal government's approach to -- if these allegations are true and they are just allegations, they really make us question the approach that the federal government takes to young muslim

men in america. they are very ham-fisted tactics. there were no attempts to intervene to speak to explore, to understand. there is just the rush to prosecution, to arrest and to conviction. and i just remind everybody today that the presumption of innocence is still the law of the land in america and we have every intention of fighting this case vigorously and protecting the rights of these individuals. >> your client what is your client so we are clear? >> my client is the second individual on the complaint. >> the younger gentleman? >> exactly. he's 19 years old. he's really just a young young man. >> you say there was a rush to judgment. >> can you tell us what happened? >> again, i haven't seen the evidence. all i have seen is the complaint. all i know is the mere allegations that are made in the complaint. i know for a fact that these two young men were detained by the

fbi. they were interrogated without the benefit of counsel, and we have not had their statements produced to us. we don't know what they claim to have said and we don't know the circumstances of those interrogations. we expect to get to the bottom of it. >> where did the interrogations take place? >> we don't know. >> for how long? >> the district attorney said they confessed. can you talk about that? >> it's the assistant united states attorney. i don't know what the statements are. they haven't made them available to us. i can't comment on it. >> was your client on his way to istanbul this morning? >> my understanding is my client was arrested at jfk. >> why was he heading -- >> i can't tell you that right now. >> is your client employed? >> my client is not working. he is 19 years old. he has not finished high school. >> very early on you said [ inaudible ]. >> look these are just allegations. my feeling is that when there

are allegations of this sort there is no attempt by the government to intervene. there is no attempt by the government to understand. there is just a rush by the government to prosecute, to charge and to employ the most severe aspects of our criminal justice system to deal with them. >> can i follow that up? i was going to ask you according to the criminal complaint, the government seems to be aware of these men going back as far as august and they then started what seemed to be a very lengthy investigation. >> a lengthy investigation by employing a paid confidential informant. is that what you are referring to? >> tell me about that. >> that's what's in the complaint. >> any evidence that [ inaudible ]? >> we don't know. we're not sure. we know from other cases informants are manipulative. these are snippets of conversations that are in the complaint. we don't know the context. we don't know the full extent of the conversations. we haven't seen the transcripts. we can't comment at this point.

>> in the complaint it said that they paid multiple visits to your client at his apartment, i believe. >> i think you are referring to the first -- >> okay. >> can you give us some background on your client? >> my understanding is that he has been here for a few years. he is originally from kazakhstan and then by way of uzbekistan to the united states. he's a permanent resident of the united states. >> can you explain why they wanted to go to turkey and on to syria? >> i can't comment at this point. i don't even know if that's the case. >> what neighborhood in brooklyn do you know? >> i don't even know. i believe coney island but i'm not sure. >> do you think this is unfair prosecution of muslim men? you mentioned that at the beginning. >> i think we have to figure out a different way to approach muslim men. again, this is if the allegations are true. if the allegations are as stated the u.s. government needs to figure out another way

to approach muslim men who may find some attraction to radicalism. >> what is that approach? >> threatening to kill police officers fbi agents and the president, that's very serious. >> again, those are allegations. we don't know the context of those statements. we don't even know if they were actually made or not. >> how should they approach -- >> there's a section of the material aid statute which talks about seeking civil injunction whereby the federal government can step in and ask the court to basically put somebody under some type of civil monitorship to be able to work with them to be able to understand them, to be able to get a deeper knowledge of exactly what's working here. we have asked the attorney general for years, i say we i mean the criminal defense bar that handles these types of cases, to employ that aspect of the material aid statute. it's in the law, it's been on the books for years. the justice department does nothing to avail themselves of that opportunity and we have said for years that we think that it is a better way to

approach the war, you know to approach the issue of radicalization that we have been seeing. >> don't you think the seriousness of the allegations, including threats against the president, the military and law enforcement, should be the first priority? >> again, these are just allegations. we don't know the context or the truthfulness. >> do we have any sense of the scale of -- >> i have to run now. >> can you spell your last name, please? >> probably trying to protect his client the 19-year-old individual, from kazakhstan. but these allegations that the federal government the justice department putting forward very very serious, clearly, if you want to kill police officers as

the allegation is fbi agents and the president of the united states it doesn't get a lot more serious than that. >> reporter: you're absolutely right. these are very serious allegations that have been made against these men. reading through both the criminal complaint and also the detention memo that's a post-arrest interview, effectively prosecutors and the fbi lay out their case very specifically. this young man, the 24-year-old, he made statements online. he was questioned by the fbi back in august of 2014. he allegedly admitted to the fbi agents according to the document that in fact he was going to kill president obama if isis told him to do so. he said he wanted to get to syria to fight. now, we do know that shortly thereafter he engaged with a confidential informant who approached him in a mosque. the confidential informant working for the fbi, became friendly both with the 24-year-old and the 19-year-old and was sort of in on it even going so far as to say he

himself was going to buy a ticket to travel to syria with them. they were going to turkey obviously, so that they could then cross into syria. now, the money man, he is also from brooklyn. he is 30 years old. he was arraigned in florida. we're not sure why he was in florida. we do know that he owns a series of kiosks at malls in sanvannah georgia, philadelphia pennsylvania and virginia beach. those kiosks that everybody sees where fixing cell phones and selling kitchen ware, he was the money man. he was providing small sums of money, like $1300, in order to facilitate the buying of travel documents and travel records so that this young man, this 19-year-old, could go over to turkey. we know that the money man was also trying to make contact with somebody in syria to help facilitate their transfer from turkey into syria as well. so there are a lot of details in the complaint. it makes very clear that these men, if they couldn't get to

syria, they had every intention of carrying out attacks here on u.s. soil. they are very clear about that. those are the allegations made in those complaints. the defense attorney has his work cut out for him. >> certainly does. very serious allegations. fran townsend you were homeland security advisor to president bush but you also worked in the justice department. i want your reaction to what we just heard from this criminal defense attorney. >> you know for a criminal defense attorney to walk outside having only the complaint and what would have been only a brief meeting with his clients before the arraignment is sort of dangerous, right? he admitted you heard him saying to most of the questions i don't know that i don't know where they were questioned i don't know for how long i don't know why he was going to turkey. there's more he doesn't know than he does right now, and other than to stand up and say he is demanding that the presumption of innocence apply, he didn't really have much to say. that's a good reason not to have tried to do that little press availability. >> you think it was smart, tom

fuentes, you are a former fbi assistant director for one of these court appointed criminal defense attorneys to go out, make all those statements? >> i don't, i don't think so wolf. if i can add, he's making accusations that the prosecutors rushed into this and hurried the case up. he's talking about probably the single finest u.s. attorney in the united states and i have known loretta lynch -- >> she is nominated to become the attorney general. >> exactly. i have known her for 25 years, when she was prosecuting organized crime cases when she first went to the eastern district and her level of integrity and expertise, you know if he wants to throw those kind of accusations out, good luck in court. >> this gives you an indication it's interesting, in the description deborah had of the suspects here. listen were they top line candidates for isis, maybe not. but this gets to the real threat from isis that they attract such a range of people. two young kids three young kids from brooklyn with not a lot going for them all the way up to real hardcore volunteers that

you will get in the middle east and elsewhere and in europe and so on and that's one of the real problems that you hear constantly from law enforcement officials, counter terror officials, that is tough to track because you have just such a range. ranging from the top end very well educated people who drawn to it to folks with not a lot going for them frankly, as far afield as brooklyn and the middle east and further. i think it also gets to another point here is that another big supplier to these jihadi groups that we don't talk about often is russia and the former soviet states. here you have them. they were residents of the u.s. but they were citizens too, from uzbekistan and kazakhstan. two other hot areas to watch. >> i want all of you to stand by. we will stay on top of the breaking news the arrest of these three suspects today. but there's another important story we are following right now, a startling new report warning that north korea is now ramping up its nuclear weapons program. ominously, it estimates that just five years from now, kim jong-un and his regime may have up to 100 nuclear bombs to back

up their threats. cnn's brian todd is here. he's seen the report. brian, update our >> we got this from the weapons experts who put it out. it's saying tonight that kim jong-un's program is secret menacing and that we could soon be beyond the point where the u.s. or anyone else can contain it. he is violent and tonight an alarming new report that says kim jong-un's nuclear arsenal is growing. >> the worst case is they could end up with 100 nuclear weapons by the end of 2020. >> reporter: the frightening new estimate comes from the institute for science and international security headed by former weapons inspector david all bright and from the u.s./korea institute. they believe north korea has ten to 15 nuclear bombs and is building more. a senior u.s. official tells cnn this poses a serious threat to the united states. while u.s. intelligence isn't

giving hard numbers on nuclear weapons, america's top army officer told wolf blitzer he is concerned. >> the thing we watch is the ballistic missile threat. because that's what gives you capability if they have the capability to have nuclear weapons is their ability to deliver those. >> reporter: according to the latest report kim jong-un has that capability. >> in fact they can put a warhead on a missile that can reach south korea and japan. >> reporter: how close is they to placing a nuclear warhead on a missile that can hit the united states. >> it has to be small enough to fit in this part of the re-entry vehicle if they want to increase the range, they may have to miniaturize it further. >> reporter: it's a mystery how long it will take to do that. they have been developing their program for decades starting with the assistance of a notorious mercenary. who helped them? >> they had immense help from

aqkaq khan. they got this important starter kit. >> reporter: the father of pakistan's nuclear program, who is believed to have sold nuclear secrets to north korea, iran libya. the concern now, 100 nuclear bombs in the hands of this unpredictable leader who the nbi says launched a devastating cyberattack inside the u.s. >> he is violent. he is brutal. he is ruthless. what i'm worried about is not nuclear detonation but him selling nuclear weapon to countries like iran and syria and then these weapons making their way to the hands of the terrorists. >> reporter: could america have prevented the buildup of nuclear weapons? the white house has not taken the same forceful action with north korea that it took with iran hasn't pressured kim's regime with tough enough sanctions to force them to negotiate in a meaningful way.

they have imposed some of the most biting sanctions against north korea that the obama administration is holding them to a promise to get rid of nuclear weapons and that it will defer and defend against the threat. >> david albright has scathing words for china in allowing them to build up the nuclear arsenal. >> he is saying china is not enforcing its own laws. it's not checking the materials coming across its own border into north korea. a chinese official in washington has pushed back on that saying they are enforcing their sanction they are committed to fighting this buildup by kim. there's a lot of push back tonight between the white house and everybody else the chinese, because everyone is so worried about this threat. >> a very disturbing report. coming up back to the breaking news. our top story, three men living in new york city arrested for allegedly trying to join isis in syria and plotting possible attacks here in the united states. we have new information.

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i just got my free credit score! credit karma. really free credit scores. really free. i have got to update my ink. american terror plot. new details on an isis inspired scheme allegedly involving a plane hijacking, possible attacks on u.s. soil and a threat to assassinate obama.

mideast collapsing? the u.s. army chief of staff shares his grave concerns about deep dangers in the region engulfed by instability. deadline nears. new warning of dramatic consequences on the front lions of homeland security if congress doesn't approve new funding for the agency very soon. deadly bacteria. new data on the risk of being infected during a visit to the doctor. what you need to know before your next exam. welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you are in "the situation room." breaking news tonight. new arrests in new york city ex exposeing the influence of icesis in the united states. possible targets ranging from the popular tourist attraction of coney island to the president

of the united states. the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, ed royce is standing by live. first, let's go to our justice correspondent pamela brown with all the latest details coming in. >> this is a very unique isis material support case. it's concerning because it involves several individuals living in the u.s. conspireing and allegedly wanting to launch an attack against high-profile u.s. targets in the name of isis if they couldn't link up with the group overseas. the fbi says one of the men arrested today boasted about wanting to kill president obama and blow up coney island in new york city. another man proposed shooting police and fbi agents plans they put into place if they weren't able to join isis in syria. >> two of the individuals were seeking to fly to syria. one was arrested at the

international airport -- jfk international airport as he was ready to board the flight. >> tonight prosecutors point to conversations online including one last summer in which the one man wrote about his desire to "shoot obama and get shot ourselves. that will strike fear in the heart of infidels." >> they came as federal agents as members of the joint terrorism task force. >> even after being interviewed by the fbi he began communicating with an isis website administrator in iraq who encouraged him to join the terrorist group overseas according to court documents. investigators say later communications revealed he and his co-worker began coordinating travel to turkey often seen as a gateway into syria by foreign fighter sglrz fighters. >> you have to show there has been a material effort or

forward step in further answerance of the conspiracy. those communications would indicate that there has been a forward step in the conspiracy. >> in court documents released tonight, both suspects are accused of purchasing round trip tickets to turkey with the help of their friend who allegedly provided more than $1,000 for their travel. he allegedly told a confidential informant if he was detected at the airport, they could kill a police officer and use the officer's gun to shoot other law enforcement officers that arrived on scene. that same man according to the fbi discussed hijacking a commercial flight to turkey and diverting it to isis. his attorney just held a press conference moments ago. the said the federal government used a hand-fisted approach. the attorney has every intention of fighting the case. >> stand by. we will get more information. we're getting new information

from new york right now on the terrorist suspects. both from the prosecutors and criminal defense attorneys. let's go to deborah fairic outside the federal courthouse in brooklyn. what are you learning? >> reporter: wolf one thing we know is one of the reasons it took so long for this hearing to happen is because the men asked for a translator. it was supposed to happen at 2:00. they weren't arranged until 5:00 p.m. the judge was annoyed, actually not understanding that they asked for a translator even though appears the men both speak english. they are both from brooklyn. a third man was arrested in florida, he is the money man. he owned kiosks at malls. he is alleged to have funded these two men in their travel to turkey to go to syria. the two men were -- when they entered the courtroom, it was almost surprising. they are from uzbekistan and kazakhstan. not much taller than five feet. very dark hair.

the 19-year-old is shoulder-length hair. he was wearing a green hoodie jeans that were rolled up along with red and black high-top sneakers the laces removed. the other man wearing a gray hoodie. an army-color skull cap. they didn't say very much during this hearing. they said they understood the charges against them. they had an opportunity to speak with their lawyers. they are being detained. it was very surprising because the information against these two individuals and what they plotted really -- people were expecting some people of greater stature. when they walked in they were very diminutive. the 24-year-old, his job was at gyro kipgng. he asked his boss if he could leave this weekend because he had to go travel. the fbi believes he was trying to move his ticket up after his friend was arrested on the jetway getting into the plane to head to turkey.

all of this happening very quickly. the case began back in august. a confidential informant approached the men, one of them in a mosque talking to them getting their plans understanding where their mindset was. both men planned to travel to syria. they had no intention of coming back. interestingly, the 19-year-old, his mother actually confiscated his passport because she feared that he was going to go travel abroad. he was distraught about that. that's why he had the plan b to join the military and funnel information to isis or shoot up the army. he also had a plan to buy an ak-47 and target cops and fbi agents if he couldn't get overseas. however, with the help of the confidential informant, he was able to get travel documents. that was why he was thrilled. he said his heart felt lighter and he had a joy. he told his mother he was going to syria. she hung the phone up on him. right now, those men behind bars. they are being detained.

they will be back in court on march 11th. >> clearly the fbi had to move in -- make the arrests today because one of the individuals was getting ready to board a flight at jfk international airport in new york for turkey. that's why this -- the three of them had been under surveillance since last summer. now they had to make the arrest. earlier today, you were in that same courthouse covering another trial related to an al qaeda plot where there are new details about the osama bin laden raid. what can you share with us about that? >> caller: this is so interesting. that's how the day started out, with the trial of the man accused of providing material support to al qaeda. today it documents seized during the raid on the bin laden compound when he was killed were introduced into evidence. the fbi agent who got the documents testified that the team came off with the documents along with the body of bin laden. the defendant didn't seem to

blink when they said that. the documents really show just the hate that al qaeda has towards the united states. it is their goal to hit america. they detailed several plots, including one against the u.s. and the writing says it would be best if that was carried out on the anniversary -- the tenth anniversary of 9/11. that was the subway plot here in new york. that was stopped just in time. it also really says that it's not just about hitting america. it's about hitting them both right in the heart of the country, also economically. one of the documents praises the underwear bomber saying this is an individual who caused america to spend $40 billion trying to protect its borders and change up the transportation system which it did. that's where tsa came from or part of it was beefed up right after that. so it was very interesting, again. they said america abandoned its

support of israel. america had to stop its attack on muslims. this ideology very similar to the ideology of the young men going to fight isis. it's really a continuum between the two cases. really interesting. >> very interesting. stand by. i want to bring in the chairman of the house foreign affairs committee, ed royce of california. thanks for coming in. i don't know if you heard about these three before the official announcement today. you have obviously learned a lot of the terror suspects arrested today. what's your reaction? >> if you went back a decade ago, you wouldn't have found young men with these attitudes. 20 years ago certainly in places like uzbekistan. i remember being in central asia, talking to those in local government telling me that because of gulf state money coming in and setting up these schools that young men were now learning jihad and they were

changing the culture. >> whether in kazakhstan or use uzbekistan. >> these two examples the third is kazakhstan. this is the area where this is going on. gulf state money is flooding -- >> be specific gulf state money. >> money from -- to set up -- >> from which countries? >> that would be from saudi arabia. that would be from kuwait, qatar qatar. and difficulty here is that once those institutions are set up -- these particular schools -- >> where they teach this kind of islamic fundamentalism? >> well put. these particular jihadist ones. in in one case there were 12 young men were decapitated because they tried to leave the school. as the local official told me, this is not a central asian custom. it's a gulf state custom. they are changing the culture.

now we have a generation. the other concern at that time in this region was the purchase of television stations radio stations newspapers. as the culture changes to this confrontational view towards infidels towards fighting the infidel, you find more young men swept into it. >> it reminds me of the brothers in the boston attack. they were radicalized in this way as well. at least as the allegations in this brooklyn case go. mr. chairman stand by. we have a lot more to discuss, including what the fbi director has to say. he says all 50 states there are surveillance operations against terror suspects in all 50 states of the united states. we'll be right back. let's take a look at your credit. >>i know i have a 786 fico score, thanks to all the tools and help on experian.com. so how are we going to sweeten this deal?

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back with ed royce. stand by for a moment. i want to get the latest on what's going on even as we're seeing arrests in new york city today. the nation is counting down to a deadline that will impact the nation's homeland security. tonight, new developments in the battle over funding for the department of homeland security. due to run out in just two days. let's bring in dana bash. she has the latest. >> reporter: the head of the tsa warned today that about 50,000 agents that protect america's airports would work without pay and critical operations could be suspended. we saw the homeland security secretary on capitol hill where he practically was all day going door to door begging lawmakers not to let his department shut

down. >> i'm waiting for the senate to act. >> reporter: with two days left until the department of homeland security runs out of money, the two top republicans who run congress john boehner and mitch mcconnell met after not talking for two weeks. >> our staff talk back and forth. senator mcconnell has a big job to do. so do i. >> reporter: it's a window into their challenges of governing. >> i would be happy to have his cooperation. >> reporter: conservatives are furious that mitch mcconnell gave in to democratic demands to fund homeland security without blocking the president's immigration plan. boehner wants his rank and file to know he had nothing to do with it. >> there's no way on god's green earth that i'm going to support any effort to fund illegal conduct. >> reporter: republicans refusing to compromise is a familiar headache for boehner. with the majority now in both chambers of congress conservative expectations are

higher that leaders won't back down from fights against the president's policies. are you concerned that if you bring up a clean bill to fund the homeland security department like mcconnell says he will do in the senate it will be the end of your speakership? >> i'm wait foging for the senate to act. the house has done its job. we are waiting for the senate to do their job. sglt >> the clerk will call the roll. >> reporter: with the senate moving forward, the tough choice will squarely fall in boehner's lap, fund the department or let conservatives down. boehner aides dismiss a notion he would be in trouble. they point to him pleasing conservatives by inviting benjamin net an yaen ya netanyahu to speak, angering the white house. >> there has been injected a degree of partisanship which is not only unfortunate, i think it's destructive of the fabric

of the relationship. >> reporter: secretary of state john kerry went further while testifying on capitol hill today. he made pretty unusual and personal criticisms of the israeli prime minister. he said he was wrong in opposing the nuclear talks with iran just as he was wrong in his support for bush in the war are iraq. >> thanks very much. back with ed recognizeoyce. i think he was before your committee. your reaction to what he said? a quick reaction to what secretary kerry said the negative comments about netanyahu. >> this is a very consequential discussion. 80% of the concessions have gone to iran. if iran gets nuclear breakout capability or if iran refuses to give us the evidence about their thousands of pages of documents that they have about their efforts to build this bomb then it's not just israel

that is the loser in this. it's the united states. i think certainly the prime minister has every right to speak out. i think congress being a separate institution has the right to invite the prime minister of israel to talk about concerns which are joint for the united states and -- >> let me play a clip. this is suesan rice speaking to charlie rose. >> what has happened over the last several weeks by virtue of the invitation that was issued. >> by the speaker of the house. >> by the speaker and the acceptance of it by prime minister netanyahu two weeks in advance of his election is on both sides there has now been inject aid degreeed a degree of partisan partisanship partisanship. i think it's destructive of the fabric of the relationship. >> destructive, that's a strong word. >> why would the spokesman for the administration be ratcheting this up to say that this is destructive of the fabric of the

relationship? can't we get back to a debate about the issue at hand? the issue at hand is very consequential. if they end -- you saw the report on north korea earlier. if we end up with iran having 100 icbms and the nuclear weapons to put on top of them because we have not got an agreement which is verifiable then on our watch we have done with iran exactly what happened with north korea. that's the issue here. >> you want the military use of force resolution correct me if i'm wrong -- you told hugh the other day, would you like that resolution now before congress the draft the president put toward not only to deal with isis potentially but also military use of force potentially to be used against iran. >> i did indicate that that -- i thought that would be a step. but i think that's on the table anyway. the president has already said that if iran develops a nuclear weapon he would take action.

the point would be to put that in the authorization of use of force. upon reflection i would think there would be two down sides to that. i'm not sure that would directly influence iran. second that would make it more difficult for us to get the votes to pass it. i don't think that's the way forward. >> i want to play this clip. this is the fbi director speaking about the terror suspects isis and other terror groups here in the united states. i was alarmed when i heard it today. >> those people exist in every state. i have home ground violent extremist investigations in every single state. until a few weeks ago, there was 49 states. alaska had none. i couldn't quite figure out. but alaska has joined the group. we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states. >> that's alarming stuff. it comes at a time when the department of homeland security is in danger of losing its

funding. where do you stand on this? >> i think you see today that the bill will come out of the senate. it will come to the house. there's a clear majority in the senate and the house to pass this legislation. >> a clear clean bill? >> i think the other part is in the courts. it will be won in the courts as you saw the initial judge's decision because it's clear to me that it's overreach on the part of the president, these executive orders. that gets decided there. >> you want a clean bill to pass the senate funding the department of homeland security and then that bill without additional amendments involving immigration, a clean bill to be allowed to come up for an up or down vote by the speaker of the house? >> the atheat the end of the day, we have to fund the department of homeland security. we have to do that by the end of business at the end of the week. that's what's going to happen. >> you think the speaker will go along with you? i spoke with some of your more conservative colleagues who say they won't vote for it unless there's a specific piece of

language in that legislation that does not allow the president to go forward with his unilateral actions on immigration. >> we passed legislation to do that t. as that. it takes 60 votes to get something out of the senate. that's why the avenue now of going into the courts which actually is working in terms of producing results, is the way forward. >> it's on hold now, the president's executive actions on immigration. the federal judge in texas says it's unconstitutional for him to do so. let's see if you can get that done by friday. we want the department of homeland security funded. mr. chairman thanks for coming in. we will stay on top of the breaking news. the arrest of three men in new york city suspected of wanting to go head and plot with isis. we'll be right back. you can't predict the market. but at t. rowe price we've helped guide our clients through good times and bad. our experienced investment professionals are one reason over 85% of our mutual funds beat their 10-year lipper averages.

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we're following the breaking news. new details of the three men arrested in new york city trying to join isis and plotting attacks inside the united states with president obama among the possible targets. let's get more now on the breaking news. joining us jim sciutto, our justice reporter evan perez mark hertling peter bergen and tom fuentes. jim, you are doing a lot of reporting on this. how serious are the allegations,

threats that the there's individuals were prepared to carry out? >> reporter: they were very serious what they were talking about. they wanted to go to syria to fight. they're serious. one was ready to board a plane. if they weren't able to go, they were going to try other attacks, shoot the president, fbi officials. real questions in light of their experience their age, whether they had the means and skill to carry out those attacks. one thing we have learned with lone wolf attacks, whether in europe or in canada as we saw, is you don't need a lot to carry one of these out. even if you are not actually shooting at the white house, it's very easy to as you saw with the ottawa shooting, get a is soldier or a police officer. it's easy to take over a cafe. each of the cases it shows that there's a low bar. you don't have to be very skilled to carry out some of these attacks. >> we learned in the criminal complaint that the u.s. was

watching these three since august 2014 last summer after they made postings on a website sympathetic to isis. the question is, why were they arrested today? >> because the fbi wants to let the whole thing go as long as possible. you want to let the plot go until the point that somebody is getting on the plane. you want to find out who their contacts are, what their plans are. you want to build the best possible case against them. you want to gather as much intelligence as possible. >> they were arrested basically because one was about to board a flight for inturkey. >> if you know you have everybody identified or they are going to do an attack take it down or leave the country, take it down. they hope they get as much as they can get. you hope they have everybody identified in this plot. once the person is on the jet way, it's time to close the case. >> plenty more alleged plots out there right now that the fbi is

investigating. they haven't made any arrests. >> the director said about a month and a half ago in the largest secure video conference held by the fbi homeland security with all of the joint terrorism task forces in the country, every fbi office every fusion center in that conference he said the fbi has 1,000 counterterrorism investigations ongoing. each case that has one person minimum. that means there's more than 1,000 maybe as high as five thousand individuals the fbi is trying to monitor and see what level, at what point does it turn operational, how many resources can they devote? they can't follow all of them. >> evan we heard the fbi director say today that these radicalized individuals -- tom mentioned them. they are being tracked in all 50 states alaska the last state. they have surveillance on these individuals in all 50 states. the question is what is going on right now in the united states? what are you hearing from your

sources? >> that's right. all 50 states. the other day i was talking to a federal prosecutor about why we hadn't seen any one of these cases, these types of cases in new york city. biggest city in the country. we have seen them come out of denver chicago, texas, florida. and it is -- it was something kind of remarkable. the head of the national security division says that he is prosecuting more than 25 of these cases all across the country. now we have one here in new york city. from what the -- these documents that the fbi filed in court today, we're talking about a real cell in essence, that was working here to try to figure out not only perhaps going overseas but if they couldn't perhaps doing something here. >> right now, the u.s.-led coalition is preparing to for a major new offensive against isis in mosul. the battle will likely drag on for months upon months.

we have more now of my conversation with general ray odiario. i asked him about the role that american troops might play in the critical fight against isis. if the president of the united states says to you, general, go ahead and get rid of isis in mosul, what do you do? >> well we would go in and we would conduct significant ground operations supported by the other domains, space, cyber, air, sea, land whatever we needed to do this. the problem is it's not an enemy that stands out wi ath a uniform. it hides in the popular that use suicide attacks, techniques that are not conventional. we have to have a force that is able to combat that kind of thing. we have some experience in that. i think we would be able to do it. it would be different than just defeating armored columns and

air forces and other things. we would have to go in and really defeat them among a population that's not part of isis. that's what makes it difficult. >> this will require not just street to street but house to house combat. if the u.s. objective is to degrade and ultimately destroy isis which the president says is the objective, but he says no u.s. combat ground troops who will degrade and ultimately destroy isis? >> it has to be iraqi security forces to include the peshmerga forces in the north. they will have to conduct the operation. what we will have to derltermine is how much support do they need. as this goes forward, we will make recommendations on how much support the u.s. needs to give to be successful. this will take time. this is not going to be a short-term issue. >> if you look at yemen, libya, the u.s. embassy shut down in

somalia, damascus syria as well. when i say the region seems to be on fire, there's a potential for this to simply escalate right now. >> i mean we don't know what's going to happen. it certainly is -- i tell everybody it's the most uncertain i have seen the environment in my almost 40 years in the army. i'm not saying it's most dangerous but incredibly uncertain. >> all right. general hertling you heard him say he has been in the army 38 years, it's the most dangerous he has seen it. i assume you agree. >> i agree. going back to the fight in mosul, i think you have to put this in perspective. mosul is about the same size as the city of philadelphia. it has about the same population. no matter how many isis fighters are in that up to whether it's 3,000, 5,000, 10,000 mixed in with the population of 1.7 million, which is how many

people live in mosul, it's going to be a very difficult fight. i fought in mosul. we didn't have that many al qaeda fighters going against us. the chief was with us walked some of the ground when our soldiers were fighting there. it took us a month to clear a few hundred al qaeda fighters. it's going to take a long time for the iraqi security forces. >> if it's not bad enough today the u.s. embassy in ahmann jordan tells americans, don't get near high-end malls because there's plots against these shopping malls right now. >> yeah. we have seen attacks on western targets before. the attacks on hotels in 2005 killed 60 people. jordan is very much a target for these groups. >> shopping malls in jordan the mall of america in the united states. we heard from the secretary of homeland security over the weekend. it goes on and on. stand by. more on the breaking news coming up. also, other stories we're following, including potentially a deadly infection people may be

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we now have the sketches just coming in. this is from the arraignment earlier today in a broom lynn federal courthouse. two of the three terror suspects arrested. two of them from uzbekistan one

from kazakhstan. they are residents of brooklyn accused of trying to get out of the united states wanted to bo to turkey and into syria to align themselves with isis. if they couldn't get there, the fear was they were going to come back to the united states or get in the united states and they were making all sorts of threats against local police officers fbi agents including the president of the united states. these are the first images we are getting from inside the courthouse inside the courtroom in brooklyn earlier today. we will have more on this breaking news. that's coming up. there's other news we are following, including this. the centers for disease control and prevention now reporting a dramatic increase in the number of infections caused by a potentially deadly bacteria. the troubling word from health officials that many patients may have contracted it at their doctor's office or dentist's office. elizabeth cohen is working the story. what are you finding out? >> reporter: we think of

doctor's offices as places we go to get better. in fact those offices may harbor bacteria. it is potentially deadly. 15,000 deaths per year approximately, in the united states. most of the time when people get this they get it from hospitals typically. however, in this case the cdc looked at a large group of people who had not recent by been in the hospital. most of the people had recently been to a doctor or dentist. so this is a big red flag for the cdc. so they now want to do more research to figure out what's going on in these doctor's offices. they do know from previous research that when scientists have gone into doctor's offices, they have been able to swab this bacteria off surfaces. >> the suspicion is the doctors and dentists they don't keep their offices clean? is that the fear? >> i think here is what's going on. doctors and dentists are very good at making sure their tools

are sterilized and that they change paper on the examining table, all of that thing. i think there hasn't been as much emphasis on the surfaces. when you sit down and touch the chair, when you touch the counter, when you touch a table. i think that that has not been a real place that they have been spending a lot of time on. >> disturbing information. thanks very much. more breaking news coming up new information about the new york city terror arrests and the three men who allegedly were trying to hijack a plane for isis. the growing questions about vice president joe biden on running for president of the united states. new questions now after a series of some new and embarrassing gaffs.

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the vice president joe biden, he's notorious for some of his gaffes and now they are drawing extra scrutiny as he shows an increasing sign he may want to run for president of the united states and raising questions about whether he should. brianna keilar is here. what are you learning? >> he's been hitting some politically important states, including new hampshire. he's also had a couple of moments that have raised eyebrows. >> much of the country's future

will depend on the policies we choose in the next two, four six years. >> reporter: after recent travels to iowa and south carolina but biden's latest gaffes are stealing the spotlight away from speculation about his presidential aspirations. >> for they're trust. >> reporter: like his strange on ash carter's secretary and this claim about somali immigrants. >> it's large community. there's an awful lot of driving cabs and are friends of mine for real. i'm being serious. >> reporter: it turns out factually incorrect. only 15 somalis live in the entire state according to the census bureau and cab drivers knew of no somalis asking taxis. >> joe biden says something every day that people should be

responding to. >> reporter: marco rubio who is considering a word and other republicans are incensed. on late night tv biden has become a punch line. >> ever heard of a second lady. >> reporter: the missteps are nothing new. he's become known for them. he's taken criticism for some like this one talking to largely african-american audience about mitt romney in 2012. >> you going to put y'all back in chains. >> reporter: often his handsyness and comments are likened to those of a crazy but lovable uncle. as they veered toward the more bizarre it's raising questions about appropriate behavior for someone eyeing the white house. a distant second to hillary clinton in polls of hopeful, suggestions he isn't a serious contender. judging by his joke last night at a black history month event maybe even biden realizes that.

>> i'm going to be in that room if anybody want a photograph. i would not blame you if you didn't. >> poking a little fun at himself. sources close say he will make up his mind by the summer. hillary clinton is expected to make it clear if he's running even if it isn't a full of campaign. whatever she does is going to factor into his decision. >> stand by. i want to bring in dana. do you think he will run for president of the united states again? he's tried to run before. the way this person put it to me she said he sees all the people in the pool having a lot of fun and he kind of wants to jump in a little bit because they're having all the fun and he's not. he wants to stay.

relevant and involved. i do not expect him not to run. >> there's no question that he would love to run for president. the point that marco rubio made in your piece about the fact he can get away with things that many other politicians can't, never mind democrats, mostly republicans, he's right about that. i've heard that from so many

people. we all do tend to think of there's uncle joe again saying these crazy things. it would be a career ender. >> there's a few things going on. i think the fact his background when it comes to his record on women women's issues, he drafted the violence against women's act. this is one of the things why marco rubio is right. i don't know if they would get away with what joe biden gets away with. does that make it okay? no. i think there's a lot of people including democrats say i wish he would rein it in a bit.

>> when you compare biden faux pas to rudy giuliani. i think what he said was genuinely -- >> that the president does not love america. >> that the president does not love america. i think that was a hurtful thing. we in the press say all the time where are all of the authentic politicians. okay, you have one in joe biden. you get a moment of authenticity can did moment and then you kind of rip him apart for it. there has to be balance somewhere. yeah he goes overboard and they're trying to rein him in. he is who he is at this point. >> where do we stand on the department of homeland security and funding it beyond the deadline?

>> it's still completely up in the air. the senate is moving forward. they had a vote to start the debate today, two days ahead of that deadline. probably have a final vote tomorrow or friday. what are house republicans going to do? you heard on my piece earlier john boehner isn't going there because he's trying to walk this line of wanting to fund the department by also not wanting to anger conserveatives again. we don't know what he's going to do. it's entirely possible. maybe even i would say probable that he won't pass that clean bill. he'll do something else whether he demand a conference committee or attach something else. two things, we're going to have a temporary shut down or pass a stopgap measure while they try

to figure this out. >> republicans are going to get blamed for it one way or another. they know what happened during the shut down. some of them say we won pretty big in the mid terms so the blast government shutdown didn't hurt us. this is homeland security at a time when we're worried about isis. we see the news today. i don't think it looks good for any of them. when republicans control the congress i think it's a problem. >> mitch mcconnell caved to democratic demands early on. there are ways to fight. there are ways to fight the way john boehner has in the past. the fact he caved is proof he knows that the republicans have to show -- >> the republicans have an excuse now. the whole immigration plan is on

hold because a federal judge said it's unconstitutional. it's going to go through appeals. right now that's not an issue. >> you were asking a republican about that earlier today. when i look at this i look at the long view because i'm covering presidential politics for 2016. what does this do for a democrat? hillary clinton said yesterday, it sort of caught my ear, what would she want to happen. she wants people to work together. >> i've never heard that. >> i think this is something that really is hurtful to republicans when you're talking about sort of the long term political landscape. >> my suspicion is they will pass it. the department of homeland security will have money. >> who blinks first? >> let's see how it works. i suspect it will be worked out.

you can follow under the circumstances us on twitter. you can tweet me. join us again tomorrow right here in "the situation room." i'm wolf blitzer in washington. erin burnett outfront starts right now. next breaking news. three brooklyn men under arrest tonight threatening to assassinate the president and hijack a plane. they were about to travel to syria to fight for isis as the fbi warns all 50 states are in darng danger of attack. the man who shot american sniper chris kyle found guilty. let let's go