>> wow, that self-doubt overcome by amazing will to live. all right, i'm fredricka whitfield, thank you for being with me today. i'll see you throughout the weekend. right now time for "wolf." hello i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. in washington 6:00 p.m. in london 8:00 p.m. in jerusalem. wherever you're watching around the world, thanks for joining us. one day after a shooting that killed four u.s. marines in chattanooga, tennessee, there are more questions than answers. here's what we doe know about the terror investigation unfolding in the united states. today we learned the father of the shooter, mohammad youssuf abdulazeez was previously investigated and cleared by federal authorities in a terror finance investigation. meanwhile, investigators are still trying to figure out why abdulazeez -- who a number of

people describe as an all-american boy -- pulled up to a suburban strip mall in a rented silver convertible mustang and opened fire on a u.s. military recruiting center. one u.s. marine recruiter was wunlded there. over the next half hour or, so abdulazeez drove seven miles away to a navy operational support center where he killed four u.s. marines. during what was described as a harrowing gun battle with local police he rammed the gates surrounding the center and was eventually shot dead. sources tell cnn abdulazeez held police at bay with an ak-47 style weapon. while he did get a dui, driving under the influence, in april charge abdulazeez had no prior run ins with the law. >> well i think the concerning thing here is this is somebody that wasn't on anybody's radar. there were no set of circumstances where people said okay we need to be particularly wary about this individual or

this circumstance. i think that's maybe what's the most concerning to law enforcement and then to people in positions like mine is there was nothing that would predict that this could have happened. >> that's the governor of tennessee, governor bill haslam. investigators are searching for a motive. this hour we will discuss why terrorism is atop the agenda, one clear possibility. how his blog may have provided by clues and why his recent trip overseas may have played a significant factor. first, we want to remember the victims of this tragedy. as we mentioned, four u.s. marines were killed during the shooting rampage. cnn has now identified three of them. our senior washington correspondent joe johns is with me in our washington stutddio. joe, a sad day for the families and the nation. tell us what we know. >> it's very true. we're getting the full measure of this awful event and it's affecting people up and down the

east coast. we can publicly identify three of the four marines who were killed in those attacks in the chattanooga area. they are thomas sullivan skip wells and david wyatt. first let's talk about sullivan. he's a marine gunnery sergeant who was reportedly shot to death at the naval reserve support center. 40 years old, he's worthed to be an iraq war veteran from the state of massachusetts around the springfield area. believe to have been in the military for more than a decade and a half. two tours of duty in iraq. there are reports he worked as a marine recruiter. will it's talk about the names of two of the other three marines killed. skip wells, said to be 21 years old from the marietta georgia area and apparently straight out of boot camp as far as we can tell. david wyatt is said to be 38

from tennessee, apparently around the chattanooga area described as a husband and father. outpourings of sympathy for each one of those marines along with the fourth marine whose name has not been released by cnn. >> very sad day indeed, the mourning under way right now for these four u.s. marines. joe, thank you. we're also learning more about the background of the shooter. cnn's victor blackwell is on the ground for us in chattanooga. he's speaking with those who knew mohammad youssuf abdulazeez personally. our justice reporter evan perez is here in washington. he's looking to abdulazeez's background as well. victor we've heard a lot of reports that he seemed to be a pretty normal young man growing up in tennessee. had anyone noticed changes in his recently? what are you learning? >> wolf when you ask friends, former classmate, coaches about mohammad youssuf abdulazeez they use terms like "all american kid." they say he totally fit in. his former coach said he was the

nicest kid he'd ever coached. obviously there's a contradiction because what happened in chattanooga is not the action of the nicest kid or the all american smart guy, your good friend. look we look back about three months to that dui arrest in which an officer so that when he came upon this car, abdulazeez was driving erratically, stopping at green lights and when he went to question him he smelled alcohol and marijuana and there was a white powder under his nose. abdulazeez told the officer he crushed caffeine pills and snorted them. he's been described as religious but not radical but religious muslims don't use those types of substances and there's inconsistency there. so while friends and relatives and coaches are not saying they've noticed any big change there were things they didn't notice that would have spoken more possibly to what led up to the actions of yesterday.

>> evan, we know that abdulazeez was born in kuwait his parents were jordanian citizens living in kuwait. he was born in 1990 and 1991 shortly after the first gulf war. the family left kuwait for the united states became a naturalized u.s. citizen but he wasn't on any terror watch lists right now. he did have some overseas travel in recent years. what do we know about that? >> that's right. that's within of the focuses of the fbi investigation today. they've talked to jor dannian authorities to get a better sense of his travels. he has family ties so it wouldn't have been unusual for him to have visited that country in recent years. there's been multiple trips back to jordan. the kuwaiti government said he traveled there in 2010 spent a couple months then ended up in jordan shortly thereafter. the jordanian government says they're still struggling to put together a good sense of when he

visited and what he was doing. the fbi is very much interested in knowing who he was associating with there. was there anybody who perhaps might have helped radicalize him that might explain what happens yesterday in chattanooga. as you mentioned he was not on any of the databases the fbi uses to track potential or suspected supporters of terrorist groups and this is exactly the kind of suspect that has worried fbi officials for very long. >> there are a lot of reports out there including the "wall street journal" evan as you know, the "new york times" saying last year he spent seven months in jordan, what do we know about that? >> the jordanian government has not yet confirmed he spent -- how much time he spent there they said he made several trips to jordan in the last few years and i believe one of those tripped ended last year. so it's not clear the timeline

of that. that's something authorities are trying to put together wolf. >> victor is there any indication based on everything you're hearing from friends of his, associates family members, investigators there with you in chattanooga right now when he might have become radicalized? because we know that it was only relatively recently he grew that beard, right? >> the reports we're hearing is that the beard is new and we can see the photographs some of the mma photographs in which he's clean shachbven. one mentions the old tale of the blind man and the elephant in which you can feel parts of the elephant but not get an idea of what it is totally. he compares that to a muslim's understanding of islam. and writing -- and i'm paraphrasing -- that muslims can believe they understand islam but don't get all of the aspects of it. it could be parsing but i know investigators are looking deeply

into those blog posts. they are aware of it but there is no confirmation he wrote those but that is part of this investigation. >> stand by victor we'll get back to you. evan to you as well. the driving question today, as it has been after all of these events is simply this -- why. what was the killer's motive? we should learn more from a news conference about to take place two hours from now in shooing. meanwhile, the family home is being searched for evidence that may help answer the questions. cnn has also learned the father was twice investigated by federal authorities years ago for sending money to what was described as a middle east charity but it was suspected of having terrorist connections. the father was cleared on both of those occasions and the matter was dropped. there's no indication mohammad youssuf abdulazeez himself was on any terror watch list or anything along those lines.

we can say he grew this beard, as we noted, travelled in recent years to kuwait as well as jordan. he's only known brush with the law was a dui arrest back if april, he's expected to appear in court on july 30. that won't happen now. still, the fbi is working the case as a possible terrorist attack although they have not ruled out anything at least not yet. the fact that abdulazeez killed four u.s. marines on the last day of ramadan is consistent with isis directives to aspiring jihadists. let's discuss what's going on with our panel tom fuentes, paul cruickshank and kimberly dozier. tom, will it's talk about what you hearing. i know you're well sourced in these matters. what's going on? >> right now they're still, wolf looking into was he inspired directly by isis. is there a real connection or is it just loosely that he supported it and thought he would take on an arm of the u.s.

military military, one recruiting and one training facility. the other thing is are there more people involved? did he rent the car himself? what credit card? are other people connected to that? where did he get the firearms? did somebody buy those on his behalf or help him get the weaponry and ammunition that went with it? we're talking about yet again an assault rifle used in this attack. that's part of the investigation whether additional people will get charged. very similar to oklahoma city where they had mcveigh and then discovered accomplices that helped him carry out the oklahoma city bombing. >> there's one suspicion he wanted that rented car, that ford mustang convertible so the top would be down so he could start shooting much more easily with the top down. that may have been the reason he rented the car. kimberly, what are you hearing? >> u.s. officials have been telling me stop thinking about these people who follow isis

cold or aqap as having a specific allegiance to one specific group. they say thexd be admirers of all of them. when you look at some of the blog post which is haven't been definitively proven to belong to abdulazeez but they are carefully talking about islam in general terms and following jihad in an active way. they talk about the followers of mohammed taking up arms and bringing about the caliphate on the ground so he's left us clues to what might have been motivating him. look back to his yearbook post when he talked about his name causing national security alerts. this is a kid that from a young age haas had issues with being singled out for being muslim. and if your dad had been on the fbi terrorist watch list and had been questioned by the fbi you can bet that that was a subject of household discussion that stayed with him. >> i'm sure it had an impact on him as well. what are you hearing, paul? >> what we haven't seen in this

case is that he went out of his way to brand this for any particular terrorist group as kimberly was saying. he didn't pledge allegiance for example, to abu backer al baghdadi. we saw that in the attempt in garland, texas, where one of the attackers pledged abu bakr al-baghdadi. and we saw that with coulibaly who launched a video where he wanted isis to take ownership for it. we've seen none of this. >> so no one has claimed credit no martyrdom videos that have been released? >> nothing. no far mall claim of responsibility from any terrorist group. the there's been a degree of celebration if pro-isis fan boys on twitter, that was inevitable

obviously. >> and know video because very often in a situation like this if this was formal isis or al qaeda or whatever type of terrorist operation they may have had a suicide video ready to be released? >> the scary thing about this is if he was radicalized overseas it's as if he's learned by watching the news coverage about what not to do when he got back here. don't follow isis on twitter, don't establish an online presence that draws the fbi's attention. go low profile. perhaps that's what he did. >> only a few days ago he did post these apparently if you believe these two blogs are his, most experts believe they are he posted these two blogs in which he spoke in paranoid ways religious ways as well. >> that's true but speaking favorably of the caliphate, isis is one thing and to carry that to an armed attack on facilities and s another and the problem

we've talked about many times is how does the fbi read somebody's mind if he doesn't communicate to someone else he's going to do the attack? we need to have some other information go public that he's going operational rather than just supporting them in theory. >> what does your gut tell you,fall? you've studied this for a long time. what happened here? >> well, this certainly has the hallmarks of islamist terrorist attack. the terror happening at the end of ramadan, isis and their propaganda singling out military targets, a string of isis-inspired plots in recent months in the united states against military targets be being thwarted by the fbi but we don't know whether he did have allegiance to isis. these blog postings all he's saying is that -- according to his version, most muslims don't understand the companions of the

prophet mohammed were jihadists as well. so there's no allegiance to isis or al qaeda or anything like that. >> what worries me is how this will be perceived by the public is a islam militant attack. i'm already seeing among friends in the national security community a rising sense of anti-islamic sentiment. i'm worried that will feed into more attacks like this and undercut the efforts to reach out to the american islam community and include them rather than make them feel isolated as it seem this is young man felt. >> this man seemed to have everything going for him. a graduate of the university of tennessee chattanooga, engineering, had a jon seemed to be popular, good looking. jordanian officials are tells us someone with this same name mohammad youssuf abdulazeez did travel in an out of jordan

overwhelm times over the years. the traveller always used a u.s. passport not a jordanian passport he was a naturalized u.s. citizen. that's what jordanian officials are telling cnn. they're struggling to ascertain more information because, in the words of one jordanian official the name is very vague, it's a three-part name so we're facing difficulty in getting to the bottom of it but they're working very very closely. they're trying to figure out when he was born. the word is he was born in kuwait of jordanian parents in 1990. the family left kuwait after the first gulf war to come to the united states in 1991. >> right, and the u.s. government in general has an outstanding close relationship with jordanian government but particularly in this case the fbi office in amman, jordan works very closely with jordanian intelligence and jordanian law enforcement, has for decades. i oversaw that office when i ran fbi international operations so if jordan gets anything

whatsoever or had they gotten anything before, if they came up on his t radar, the fbi would have been told about it, the cia would have been told about it long ago. and jordan has not been a hot bet of recruiting. it's a very secular country with the exception of zarqawi. but when abu musab al zarqawi was 12 years old, he was already a psychopath. he was not a islam scholar, just a thug. >> and there's no doubt the u.s. and jordan have close relations, military strategic and intelligence law enforcement cooperation, the u.s. has a good friend in the jordanian government so i'm sure they iraq working very closely. still to come where did mohammad youssuf abdulazeez get the firearms used in yesterday's killing spree in tennessee? you may be surprised that these types of weapons, a favorite among terrorists, is now made right here in the united states.

and what was going on in the mind of the chattanooga killer? a blog or two possibly written by the gunman providing clues to the big question why. we'll have a closer look at that and all the news when we come back. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern.

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among the many unanswered questions in the chattanooga, tennessee, shootings is where the gunman obtained the ak-47-style weapon. a u.s. company recently began making and selling them under the kalashnikov brand. i'm joined by matthew fogg, the former chief deputy of the u.s. marshal service and an expert in this area matthew, thanks for joining us. he had a large amount after ammunition and 30 round clips. getting a gun like this sophisticated ak-47 style weapon how difficult is that? >> kind of difficult to pick up a weapon like that. but he could have gotten it from someone, someone could have sold it to him. the bottom line is he wanted maximum firepower. with that type of weapon you

can get a lot of rounds off in a short period of time. it's very maneuverable you can go from semi to automatic. it's the right weapon if you want to have maximum terror input. >> the only charge he was facing was a dui charge. he was supposed to go before a judge on july 30 that was back in april, if you're facing a charge like that can you go out and buy a weapon like this one? >> that's been the question wolf sometimes people are saying if you have a felony arrest or something like that you shouldn't be able to a dui, i'm not sure if he could have went on. >> are you surprised he was on no terror watch list? no law enforcement list? had never raised any suspicions given the fact he was traveling back and forth the to the middle east or anything along those lines? usually in a situation like this there are some indications by friends or family that maybe there's something wrong. >> that's true but again he had no contact with the law, nothing

wrong so just his name. maybe that might have raised a flag. >> but you're not supposed to just profile a muslim or arabic name like that. >> that's right. and people are saying that's the first thing that comes out of people's mouth, you look at his name, should you profile him? absolutely not. you have this guy that probably planned it but no to stay under the radar. >> when you say "planned it," because there's suspicion out there that he knew exactly where he was going, he had sophisticated weapons, lots of ammunition he knew to go from one u.s. military target to a second u.s. military target less than ten miles away. all of this taking place within a half hour and the suspicion is he probably rehearsed this cased out these two places over the past several days or weeks. >> i would say yes. he knew what he wanted to do when you have somebody like that a lone wolf, it's very hard dedetech because he knows

exactly what he wants to do. if i find out later he's connected with other people, they can narrow in but in this case it's very difficult to figure out if he had that plan and carried it out all the way through, that even if the police came upon him, that's a lot of fire power with the police to have to confront. >> i'm sure they're looking at the videotape from all the closed circuit cameras that may have been at these two locations over the past several days to see if he showed up there, whether in a car or walked by i'm sure they're looking at that videotape. matthew, thanks very much. this just coming into cnn. we have confirmed the identity of the fourth u.s. marine in yesterday's shooting in chattanooga. carson homelmquist lived in jacksonville north carolina according to this facebook post. there's a picture of this u.s. marine we'll bring you more details on him and the three other marines shot and killed in chattanooga yesterday as well.

our deepest, deepest condolences to the families. a blog surfaceing online possibly from the chattanooga killer. what action it may urge other islams to take. we'll have more on this part of the story when we come back. what to do when you're stranded in a city and you need a last minute hotel? a priceline tonight only deal! stuck out on the range? nowhere to rest your beard? choose from thousands of hand-picked hotel deals at the very last minute. only on your phone. only from priceline. ♪ the goodness that goes into making a power kale chicken caesar salad is rivaled only, by the goodness felt while eating one. panera. food as it should be.

welcome back. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. look at this. a live picture coming in from tampa, florida. the mcdill air force base. that's the home of the u.s. military's central command which overseas the middle east. special operations command. the chairman of the house homeland security committee, mike mccall, he's getting ready to make a statement, answer reporters' questions, he's being briefed on what happened in chattanooga, tennessee, yesterday. he'll be speaking on that what he describes as domestic terrorism, encountering violent

extremism. we'll have live coverage of the chairman of the house homeland security committee mike mccall once he steps up to that mike phone. while no official motive have been declared, a blog purr partedly written by the killer is providing with us a closer look at what may have led to the attack. here's how mohammad youssuf abdulazeez's former martial arts coach described him. >> he seemed like the all-american kid. he -- never got out of line hard worker seemed to enjoy the training and got along with everybody. >> but two blog posts poeblg ss possibly point to something sinner have. let's discuss what's going on. joining us is mubin shaikh a former jihadist turned counterterrorism operative. mubin, thanks for joining us. i know you're a specialist in this area. i want to get your insight in these two blog posts.

we tart with parables about islam. "brothers and sisters don't be fooled by your desires. this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to allah may pass you by." mubin, what does that say to you? >> that blog post you're referring to he uses -- he quotes the -- he uses the famous prophetic statement by the prophet ali salaam that the world is a prison for the believer and a paradise for the disbeliever. and this idea of don't let your desires fool you, this indicates he's strszed out about something. nothing is not working out in his life. i'm reading a lot into that post but people who site that feel they constrained or restrained. >> the second blog post urges muslims to study islam, companions of the prophet

mohammed who fought jihad for the sake of allah. he writes "we ask allah to make us follow their path and to know what role we need to play to establish islam in the world." what is he inferring here? >> what he's done here is he's taken the militant and tie and drafted it to the muslim identity. what he's saying that -- and it's true -- there were wars being fought in the early years of islam and he's saying in that blog post that the canyons were not like monks in monasteryies so he's very clearly sis associated himself from the peaceful tolerant ways that muslims are, generally and bringing on this militant self-identity. the fact that those blog posts are like very the only two blog posts; i think there was some kind of indoctrination he went through and this is not a way to manifest his ideas but to keep

him straight on his mission as he conceived it. >> because a lot of reading into it that he grew this beard and became more devout after returning from the middle east. he seemed to have changed. even though he was a happen hi young man, had a good outstanding education, was very popular and suddenly he went through this change. can you relate to that. >> i can definitely relate to that. something definitely happened in his life that made him change like this. people don't just out of the blue decide to get religious. it's usually at the behest of something in their life. i think like your other guests were saying, the jordanians were very good at this. the fbi would have known if he met with people but maybe not. maybe he met with somebody and

it wasn't picked up. maybe he was becoming radicalized but didn't outwardly manifest it. she an mma fighter. there is some level of strategy that goes into it planning calculation. these are things also to look at. >> we also had to look at the fact that he had a dui charge in april and was about to go before a judge on july 30. that may have played a role in all of this as well don't you think mubin? >> i agree. we see this in a lot of these isis foreign fighter cases, a recent british foreign fighter who was killed was supposed to be in court for stabbing someone in the face. it's possible. also if you look at the blog posts he talks about emigrating to the muslim lands. this is isis speak. so i think you will see some level of if not inspiration than direction from someone. i'm sure we'll find this out

later. >> mubin shaikh thanks for joining us. >> thank you. are the nation's military recruitment centers here in the united states truly safe? we'll take a closer look at renewed calls to beef up security at these centers. plus chuck fleischman of tennessee is standing by live to discuss what's going on. he represent this is chattanooga area where these tragic events have occurred. coverage beyond the borders at no extra charge. get 4g lte data, unlimited calls and texts in mexico and canada just like in the u.s. that's coverage in three countries for the price of one. only from t-mobile. ♪ i'm the biggest threat your business will ever face. your size, your reputation mean nothing. because tomorrow, i'll be your competitor. and i was born to disrupt everything you think your business is about.

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light. liberty mutual insurance. continuing our coverage with the chattanooga, tennessee, shooting. thursday's attacks left four u.s. marines dead and a community deeply shaken. let's talk about what's going on. joining us united states congressman chuck fleischmann, he represents this area in washington in the u.s. house of representatives. congressman, thanks for joining us. i know you're being briefed by federal, state, local authorities. what can you tell us about the motivation of this killer?

>> right now all of the investigators are keeping this close under wraps. there's going to be a press conference at there o'clock today where additional information will be disseminated but it's very important for the american people to know that so many resources are being used to make sure we get to the bottom of this and to get to the bottom of this organization investigators are being careful about how they go about this process, we're cooperating, seeing great cooperation, local, state, and federal agencies. secretary johnson called me yesterday to offer his condolences, everyone is working together sir. >> secretary jayeh johnson is the secretary of homeland security here in the united states. based on what you know without getting into a lot of the specifics, we'll await what the authorities say at 3:00 an hour

or so from now, does it look like this individual mohammad youssuf abdulazeez was inspired or was actually ordered to undertake this kind of terrorist attack? >> i have no personal knowledge of that but what i can say, if you look at his posts in his high school yearbook if you look at some of the rhetoric that he had out there, this is a bad actor, this is someone who sadly, had a very deranged plan and carried it out. much to the loss of our marines, our chattanooga community, this is someone who was bad. the worst part about it wolf it looks like he was off the radar. he was not picked up until it was too late. so when i go back to washington we'll sit down and work very hard to figure out what went wrong, how we can prevent these attacks in the future.

right now the chattanooga community is in mourning over this great loss. >> we know he spent time in kuwait was born in kuwait his parents were jordanian citizens he was born in 1990, the family moved here to the united states after the first gulf war in 1990 so he was an infant. he grew up in the united states and a good high school record was on the wrestling team. he graduated from the university of tennessee chattanooga engineering degree. he had no real record at all so i guess it shouldn't be that surprising congressman that he was not on any terrorism watch lists other than the fact he had a dui arrest in april. >> i think folks are looking at some of his posts, i think his yearbook post is out there but let me say this we'll have to learn from this tragedy because we want to keep the american people safe and keep our men and women in uniform safe when they are here on american soil.

the rhetoric that we hear from some of these groups that do not like the united states that condemn us is very real and they are reaching out to people in this country. we know this and we have to work to quell this to stop this because they are serious about their bad rhett riblgoric towards us and our allies. i've spoke to the canadians today, to the people all over the world. these enemies spewing this anti-american rhett riblg and reaching an audience are real and we need to deal with it. >> representative chuck fleischmann of tennessee joining us. we'll stay in close touch with you. thank you very much. >> it's a pleasure wolf. >> house homeland security chairman mike mccall is speaking in tampa, florida, right now, the home of the u.s. military's central command which overseas

the special operations command. i want to briefly listen in. >> i came here initially to get a briefing on our count terrorism efforts from a military perspective in the war against terror. little did i know on the flight down here that terror would strike america in the heartland. and my heart goes out tow the families of the victims, the four marines and the wounded. and what happened yesterday anywhere in our environment. now see four u.s. what yrs killed at one of our training centers to me is unacceptable. and this fight against isis and the terrorists must escalate and we must win.

we must prevail and defeat them. i can talk about the case and i know we'll go into a q&a. but let me give you the threat landscape and environment. if it can happen in chattanooga, tennessee it can happen anywhere. and the stats prove this. over the last year we've had over 60 isis-related arrests in the united states. that's more than one isis follower arrested in this country, more than one per week. we have thwarted over 50 plots against the west. so i commend the fbi and homeland security and our state and local law enforcement for the good work they've done in stopping these terror plots. people ask me what keeps me up at night. what keeps me up at night is the one case we don't know about. because we do know about a lot of the plots. we know a lot about the individuals and the

communications going on in the united states but this one we did not. this is the one that we worried about. this is the one that unfortunately happened yesterday resulting in the death of four of our united states marines. the threat is real. and it comes from the internet. this is a new generation of terrorists. this is not bin laden in couriers anymore. this is what the new threat oftism looks like. and it comes from the internet out of syria, it comes from isis followers, isis recruiters isis operators out of syria with directives into the united states to activate individuals in the united states. they don't have to travel to syria and iraq. they're already here to activate them to commit acts of terror.

and what have been their mis missives? over the course of the past six months we've been intensely trying to stop these directives, these miss i haves fromives from activating in the united states. many of you recall the fourth of july. there was a serious plot in new york that the fbi and homeland security stopped but we can only be lucky so many times. we can only stop so much. they only have to be right one time 1%. and unfortunately i believe yesterday they were. this will no doubt be preclaimed as a victory for them. but we will have the final word in this war against them. this directives call for multiple things but primarily they call for the attack of military installations in the united states and they also call to kill military personnel and

to kill police officers. and we've seen these missives time and time again. there are over 200,000 tweets isis tweets, per day that we are trying to monitor but the volume and the but the volume and the chatter is so high and so intense that it's hard to get a handle on it. it's very difficult for the fbi and homeland security to stop and disrupt every one of these. and i believe one of those was yesterday that got through. i have a lot of emotions about what happened yesterday. this is the event we've been most worried about, and then it happened. i don't know how many more of these could happen but i can tell you there are isis investigations in all 50 states across the united states of

america. they are permeating our society and this country through the internet and through social media. it's very very difficult to stop it. and i believe yesterday, unfortunately, we couldn't. again, i pray for the families. it's extremely tragic to see an american soldier killed on american soil. it's never happened. it should never happen. as i get my briefings today at mac macdill air base we want to take the fight over to them in syria and iraq to stop them from doing what they did yesterday. we need to drain the swamps so we don't have to swat the mosquitos over here. that is a threat to the homeland. and so with that, i'd like to turn it over for questions. >> are you confirming that

mohammad youssuf abdulazeez was either inspired or directed by isis? >> i just got off the phone with the fbi, had a very good briefing with them. i can tell you this. they have opened this case now as a terrorism case which is very significant. right now the -- his communication devices are on an airplane as i speak going to washington. they will be looked and combed over very closely for any information regarding any foreign direction about these tweets as i'm telling you about. the forensics will be done on the computer devices. and i know we'll know a lot more in probably the next 12 hours as to what information is contained on those devices. my assumption is based on my experience. both as a federal prosecutor and as a chairman for homeland security. and that is we've seen too much

of this traffic. there are too many warning signs. the targets are identical to the targets called by isis to attack. so my judgment, in my experience is that this was an isis-inspired attack. and it has been open as a terrorism investigation by the fbi, which is a very significant event in this case. >> [ inaudible ] set off by any particular social media interaction [ inaudible ]? >> i can't confirm that until we've done a full forensics of his technical devices, his computers, cell phones. one aspect that concerns us and the fbi and homeland as well is the ability of these terrorists and isis to go into what is called a dark space. they communicate over twitter accounts with americans in the united states. they can rapidly jump from one twitter account to the next and

the other phenomena is they can jump out of normal communications that we could see to what is called dark space on platforms that even if we have a court order, we cannot see these communications at all. if that is the case here then i think we need to change the way we look at this maybe change some policies. i think that's the greatest concern that the intelligence community and fbi and homeland has, is that they may be communicating in this dark space and there's no way we can stop it. >> are you [ inaudible ] the encryption? >> i think there's a legal way to do this but there is also -- i have been turning to the technology companies to see if there's a technology solution to this a creative technology solution. >> all right. we're going to break away from the chairman of the homeland security.

michael mccaul is now working under the assumption he says this was in fact what aoccurred in chattanooga yesterday an isis-inspired terrorist attack. there were no indications that this young man, mohammad youssuf abdulazeez was in fact plotting anything along these lines. tom fuentes is with us former fbi assistant director. he's not speculating. he's very blunt. based on everything he's heard so far, he's spoken to the fbi, he's getting briefings from the central command, this was a formal terrorist plot. this individual was at least inspired to go out and target two u.s. military installations and kill as many u.s. military personnel as possible. that was the goal. >> well, if the fbi, in examining the computers of this guy and his e-mail and phone traffic, if they discovered that that type of propaganda was on his computer that he was

communicating with anybody not only just favorably supporting isis and the objectives of isis to commit attacks or being inspired to follow their orders and just go kill if you're capable of doing it as opposed to a directed plot yes, he could be isis inspired and they could be finding what information supports the fact that it was inspired by his belief to support isis. >> because he's going further -- mike mccaul chairman of the homeland security, he's saying that this was in fact an isis inspired attack. >> i'd like to know what was leading to the conclusion that it was absolutely inspired unless he expressed the belief to others that he supports it and believes in it and establishing a caliphate and killing americans, soldiers particularly police officers then yes, you could say it's an isis-inspired plot and he may

have already heard that. >> walk us through what they are going to do. his cell phone and computers are being flown to washington right now. >> they will do the complete examination and have specialists try to break as much encryption as they can. now, if this guy got on one of the dark apps, as they refer to it and was communicating, that encryption is not able to be cracked. that's what the fbi director has been testifying to that when these individuals make a social acquaintance through twitter and facebook through one of the jihadi websites and then agree to go to an encrypted site it's over. they can't trap the content of the discussion. they can't tell what they are saying. >> but they can tell that he's gone to the so-called dark app even if they can't break the encryption? >> no. they may not know. they won't see any electronic

trail telling him to do it. so that's the fear the bureau has had and they have said all along here that they can not read people's minds. if there's not an indication from a friend a. neighbor a posting that goes out that they are made aware of they may not know until after the fact and try to piece it together. >> mike mccaul saying that he believes this was, in fact an isis-inspired plot an attack against the u.s. military. tom fuentes, we'll have much more on the breaking news, coming up. that's it for me. i'll be back at 5:00 p.m. the news continues here on cnn in 60 seconds. you pay your car insurance premium like clockwork. month after month. year after year. then one night, you hydroplane into a ditch. yeah... surprise... your insurance company tells you to pay up again. why pay for insurance if you have to pay even more for using it? if you have liberty mutual deductible fund™ you could pay no deductible at all.

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shooter and the police. we're learning the identity of all four marines killed. cnn can now confirm sergeant hole. holmquist was killed and gunnery sergeant sullivan and 38-year-old chattanooga father and husband staff sergeant david wyatt by a gunman armed with an ak-47-style gun. the first in his cross-hairs, a military recruiting center. the gunman driving by in a convertible and spraying the window as we see right here with bullets. >> i seen the guy in his car. it was a silver mustang, drop top, white guy, high-powered rifle. it wasn't simultaneously but it was pow, pow, pow.