they are your doctor, your nurse, and we are not unique people. it is just that we have a chronic neurological condition that treatment is available, and recovery is 100% possible. >> dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, manchester, new hampshire. >> thank you for watching, everyone. my colleague wolf starts right my colleague wolf starts right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it is 1:00 p.m. in washington and noon in nashville, tennessee, and 9:00 p.m. in baghdad and wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. happening right now, we are following three important story ares involving u.s. forces overseas. in afghanistan, the taliban are claiming responsibility for the attack that killed u.s., six u.s. service members just outside of the bagram air base. to the south in helmand province, the taliban are making a resurgence right now, and

fight ing fighting to capture some key areas, and in a iraq, the u.s.-led coalition is conducting the air strikes against isis targets in the key city of ramadi, and the air strikes are supporting iraqi forces who are trying to take back the scenter of the city, and reports right now that isis fighters are using the civilians for human shields to defend themselves from advancing forces. i want to start with the journalist sunni rasmussen from kabul. the afghanistan forces are running out of weapons and is supplies and despite pleas from the aftergan government, how dire is the situation for afghan forces in the helmand province right now? >> well sh, the district has be under siege for the past 48 hours is the sangin province, and a north of helmand, and e key district on the trafficking route, and the force is said to

be in dire straits. there are a couple of afghan air strikes to support the forces there, and also, incoming forces are from the uk and u.s. special forces to help out the afghan forces in sangin, but helmand itself is under pressure, and this is the worst pressure in the province that we have seen in a very long time. >> and why isn't the afghan military capable of maintaining this key critical area where so many lives have been lost, including many american lives in this battle over afghanistan in the last 14 years? >> well, they have not completely lost yet, but they do have a lot of difficulty holding it and push iing the taliban ba, and sangin has been heavily embattled for two years, but one reason for that is the lack of coordination between the different security forces units and the police and the special forces and the army, and not a corruption in the special forces, and lot of the inflated troop numbers and not as many people fighting as we would like

to believe there is, and thatting with said the afghans are putting up the hard fight, and for better example with ra iraq and libya, the afghan forces are actually stick together and not fragmentmenting as in those two countries o so it is a sign that the afghan security forces are fighting the difficulties in the first year of the new responsibility after 15 years of international intervention, and they also need a little bit of time to sort of really get used to the role, the combat role. >> because isis now emerging as a new threat in addition to the taliban and al qaeda, and now all of the sudden, at least 11,000, 3,000 isis fighters in afghanistan. you are in kabul, the capital, and is there a sense that the city is on edge right now because of all of the threats? >> we have to take the isis estimates with a grain of salt, and even if we have the most that we have heard is estimates of 1,500 and 2,000 fighting

forces, and it is a relatively small force by afghan standards, but kabul is getting more nervous of the people here, and of course, following what is happening across the country. and the taliban and other militant groups are still able to conduct attacks in the heart of kabul from time to time, and that is the case for a while, of course, but the entire country is the little bit on edge here, and that is the right term about what was happening in the coming year with the security situation. >> all right. sune rasmussen on the scene there in kabul. thank you very much. we have learned the identity of one of the soldiers killed in the attack near the bagram air force base, joseph lemm, a 15-year veteran of the nypd, the new york police department, and the u.s. national guard. two years ago he surprised his family in west harrison, new york, when he came home after a

10-month deployment. he was deployed several times, and the flags will be at half-staff across new york in his honor. and our deep oest, deepest condolences to his family. that attack in bagram was the deadliest since 2012. and let's bring in brad sherman who is a democrat from california and the leading chairman of the foreign affairs committee. and it seems that despite the billions of money spent in there and the military spent in, and it seems that it is falling a apart, and what are you seeing there? >> well, i would not say it is falling apart. and kunduz was taken, and we are going to have to get that back, and we are going to see that it is decades to come, and afghanistan is one of the many battlefields. >> you think that those troops, part of the nato contingent

there in afghanistan should stay there? >> i think so, but we have to be looking at everything from paris to san bernardino from nigeria to somalia? and you believe that the u.s. tax payers spending billions of dollars in afghanistan is money well spent? >> if we ignore the middle east, the middle east will not ignore us. we have been dragged into this civil war of four-way civil war for the future of islam, and we even in those areas where we haven't been involved, isis, al qaeda have pound that the by attacking us, they can build their credibility in the middle east. >> and the afghan military, you would think that they have h hundreds of thou sonds of troops, armed, trained and financed by the united states largely after 14 years, and you would think that they could control their own country, but they can't. >> karzai was not a good leader, and lot of corruption in that lead

leadership, and we will see a seesaw battle in several province provinces. >> and isis is on the move right now, in afghanistan, and in addition to elsewhere throughout south asia, and the middle east and north africa as we a all know, and the afghan military obviously not necessarily up to the job, but the afghan president ashraf algani is traveling there in the midst of helmand province falling to the taliban. why is he going there? >> i don't know why. >> do you have is any confidence in him? >> well, some, more than the predecessor. >> but not much? >> we will have some who will be helpful, and the nigerian government, it is a little b better, and in somalia, it is a little better, but it has lasted two decades already. >> i want to bring in spider marks, and the retired analyst kim dozier as well, and you know this situation over, there

spider. it is looking like another situation where where iraq, the u.s. spends an enormous amount of money, and trains a lot of hundreds of thousands of military personnel, and when the going to gets rough, they disappear. >> yes, the sad fact is that unless there is some glue that holds the forces together, over the course of time, it will dissipate in terms of the fightings s fs for -- fighting, and we have seen that for us to achieve the national security interests, and this is what it is about, how do we get out of the close fight here that is potentially in the united states, and take it elsewhere, that is intergenerational, and this is what we call the new nor the mall, and this is the constant state of conflict that this nation has now accepted as a reis sult of the conditions around the globe. our engagement overseas is a must in order for us to preclude where there is an inevitability, and it is going to happen unless

we engage overseas. >> kimberly, you have spent a lot of time the overseas and in helmand province and kabul as well, and what is your analysis of what is doing on? >> well, to be fair about the afghan forces, they have taken the the heaviest casualties yet over the past year, but they have a problem with the logistic, and your correspondent over there mentioned corruption, and the afghan special forces are seen as one of the most effective fighting forces, but because of problems within their ministry of defense, they can't get some of the supplies they need and they are at the front of the battle, and so you have difing things that are hobbling the security forces. they used to have american forces to prop them up in many of the situations. and now, they are in a situation down in helmand where where they have always had problems getting supplies to those particular bases on the afghan side, and now they are facing fierce fighting, and not much backup. that is a problem that spells a

continuing back and forth which why the u.n. is saying at this point in afghanistan, the taliban hold more territory than they did. and the last time they held this much territory was in 2001. >> and that is when the u.s. came in before 9/11. and it is looking horrendous, and the same in iraq. and there is a offense in iraq to the take back ramadi, and the government of the u.s. wants to help, but because of al bakbu b baghdadi is in control, and so they don't want to get involved. >> and well, they have killed a lot more civilians, and killed far more americans both in afghanistan and iraq, and even our marines in lebanon several

decades ago. as much as we need to focus on getting rid of isis, we also need to focus on getting rid of assad. because as long as he is there, there is going to be an isis. and as long as he is there, and maliki and his rem nenlts of his regime, and isis are pressing the sunnis and if it is not this isis, it is another isis. >> you have confident in the new iraqi prime minister who seems much more interested in the alliance with iran than the united states? >> he is slight sli better than the predecessor, but what we have done is to turn the government in baghdad is now kind of a satellite of terror end. anybody who promises immediate and painless victory is not going to give us immediate victory, and they are going to be dramatically increasing the casualties. >> and general, you can minimize the american casualties dramatically areally s by simpl

pulling out the u.s. military and then there are not going to be any. >> yes, but i would have to challenge that strategy. to minimize the casualties is not a strategy. what we need to do is to work as effectively as we can with the host nation so that we can achieve the goals. i am in complete agreement with baghdad's relationship with teheran, and it is sinful, and incredibly painful to us moving forward if we don't have a balance in terms of what we can try to achieve relative to what baghdad is trying to achieve. that is what the diplomacy is all about, and an element of diplomacy is the military and it is a derivative of what we are trying to achieve. >> we cannot have zero casualty, because even if it is zero in the middle east, we have have san bernardino. so as long as we are involved at a present level in iraq and afghanistan, we will have a present level of casualties and

this year, we have lost 21 even with this terrible incident, but we used to lose 21 in a single incident. and now, half of them have been caused by accidents, and by the opponent's military. >> and kim ber ily a l-- kimbero you have any confidence that they will move on the mosul and been under the control of isis? >> they have been proving increasingly effective and not moving as fast as anybody in the united states would like to see them move, but this has been urban fighting to take back ramadi. and one thing that baghdad has been responsible on is that they have not used she quite militia in the re-taking of the mostly sunni city. it is not as fast as we want, but it is moving in the right direction. isis will have 100 fighters inside of ramadi and doing one of the strategic retreats, and they have actually intercepted a

piece of paper that isis had been handing out to the fighters telling them to commit atrocities as they have exited places while dressed as iraqi security forces. i can't independently verify that is what eisis is handing out, but it may spell that they are changing their battle to an insurgency instead of trying to hold the territory, and that means that the iraqis are more effective. >> are you as frustrated as a lot of people here, congressmen ta that the obama administration continues to refuse to provide weapons to the peshmerga inarguably the best friends of the u.s. in this process and insisting that it has to go through the shiite-led government? >> no, many of us on the foreign services committee have been pushing for the armament of the peshmerga. and we have bombing raids, but we are trying to have zero civilian casualties and we did that in world war ii, we would

have lost world war ii. i was sitting there with the french ambassador telling me that we have 70,000 frenchmen who died due to allied bombing, but when the allies arrived in norm di they were welcomed with open arms, aing right now the iraqi is providing free electricity to isis, and if we had the rules of world war ii, we would be bombing electricity there. >> and in mosul? >> yes. >> that is free electricity? >> yes. >> and i didn't know that. and what does the u.s. say to that >> we applaud your evidents to make the civilians inconvenienced, but you have to inconvenience the civilians that are being take ben ti enemy. >> and spider thank you as well. donald trump did not hold back blasting hillary clinton calling something she did in the last debate disgusting and using

a more crass word to deskrcribe her relationship with president obama. she is speaking live in iowa this hour, and we will see if she responds to the comments. so far donald trump has not paid a price, or a major price in the polls for what he has said, but there are new numbers out there suggesting that there is a tightening in the race for the gop presidential nomination. we will break it down when we come back. ♪

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let's get to presidential politics here in the united states. the democratic frontrunner hillary clinton on the campaign trail right mou in anow in iowa. she has a town hall meeting

where she has a rally after donald trump attacked her with a vulgar term. and now they are getting ready to hear from hillary clinton's campaign, and her people tweeted saying about what donald trump said about her and they said we are not going to be responding to trump, because everybody understands the humiliation of the degrading language inflicts on all women, and #imwithher. and now, it is getting down with the vulgar word, and what did trump said? he used a yiddish word to describe clinton's loss to president obama in the context of 2008, and he joked about clinton's late return to the stage during saturday night's debate. listen to this. >> i am watching the debate, and she disappeared. i know where she went. it is disgusting and i don't want to talk about it.

it is too disgusting, don't say it. and she is going to beat obama. and how does it get worse? well, she was going to beat him, and favored to win, and she got schlonged and she lost. >> and now, bring in jeff zeleny and joe johns, and jeff, i think that when you think that you is heard it all, you have heard something else going on, and what is your take? >> well, look, donald trump knows how the attract attention, and he does it at every single rally. you can't even keep up with all of the things that he said. look, i think that -- the saying that hillary clinton was what she was doing is disgusting, you know, sort of odd. nobody thought that what she was doing was disgusting, and she was late to the debate by a few seconds or so, because she was in the ladies' room, and the ladies' room was a much longer walk to debate stage than the men's room, and i don't think that donald trump does himself any favor s wis with the women voters, but the crowds love it

when he says anything about hillary clinton. >> it boosts him up when he goes after her. >> yes. >> and when she goes after him, it busts her up among the -- boosts her up in the democratic group. >> i am not sure how good for the democracy or the process, because that is another question. >> and 50% of the americans say they would be embarrassed to have donald trump as president compared to 23% who say they would be proud to is him as president, and yet he continues to lead in the polls right now, and we will put some numbers up there, and among the republicans, he is the at 28%, and ted cruz, the senator from texas, and then you can see rubio, and carson there. and he is doing well, but it is tightening up between cruz and tr trump. >> and the 50% of the people who say they would be embarrassed, that is about all of the voters who were polled, both democrats and republicans. but if you look sort of inside

of the poll, the numbers are not as bad for trump. 44% of the republican responders and 20% of the independents said they would be proud to have trump as president. so, it is sort of cutting both ways if you will. if you are a democrat, you would be certainly embarrass and the numbers reflect that, and if you were a republican, it is not so much. >> and among the republicans in this new poll, it is shaping up at least right now, and these numbers change as a battle between trump and cruz. >> it is, and it is important to keep in mind that these are national polls, but in the state polls, there is how the field is consolidating. and we saw lindsey graham get out of the race, and several in are not gaining the ground, so the race is clarifying, so we have donald trump and ted cruz really neck and neck, and the others are fighting for the alternative space on that, but still fascinating that those two are not going after each other. >> and at what point do they?

if they are the one and two republicans, and let's say in e iowa and new hampshire, cruz is moving up as well. at what point does cruz and trump take off the gloves and start pounding. >> i can see trump doing that, but cruz won't do it, because he wants trump's voters. if ted cruz, and senator cruz wants to gain, pesespecially in iowa and those states, he needs people who have looked at trump all summer, and we are just not shure serious but for trump, it is in his interest to go after cruz, but the talk radio show ho hosts and the conservative leaders just whack him for that, and that is why it is so fascinati fascinating. >> because he did say that cruz is a little bit of the maniac, and i'm paraphrasing, but he was criticized by rush limbaugh and mark le vine and thhe said that

influenced by that, and that is the first time that donald trump said that he was influenced by the criticism from the talk show radio hosts. >> and you hear that almost never from trump, and he is never back down, and when you are vying for same voters, and you hoping that one guy falls flat on his face and he turns out the winner, but you ru right on that. >> and where where does marco rubio fit into all of this, because the numbers in the latest national poll have not gone up all that dramatically like cruz for example. >> well, they haven't at all a, and that is because he is not as beloved by the con ser servativg by this party, and he is viewed as the establishment figure, which he is not entirely. do not forget, he is a first-term senator as well, and he came to town here in washington in 2010 in this tea party wave, but he is sort of trying to have the foot in several republican camps if you will, and that is why he has not climbed as much, because people are not viewing him as pure con s conser va i.v. and immigration is a tough issue for him. >> and the quinnipiac poll was

taken after the cnn debate, and marco rubio's numbers after the last quinnipiac poll went down five numbers. >> immigration is huge, and the question was who is more pure to satisfy the conservatives in the p party who don't want any doors opened on the issue at all. so, rubio, of course, he was the supporter of comprehensive immigration reform back in 2013 which failed. he has been trying to chip away at cruz. >> and he has been saying to rubio, if you like president obama's position on immigration or senator schumer's position, you have to like senator rubio's position on immigration, and that seems to be working for cruz's perspective. >> yes, and you saw him up there, and you were moderating the debate and that is what ted cruz did, and he also used the word amnesty, and that is a hard thing to refute. it takes marco rubio a couple of

minutes to explain the position, and it takes ted cruz amnesty, and that is winning here, but i caution people that marco rubio has a lot of the support of the establishment, and so if all of the candidates were to get out or fall aside, his, he still has hope once iowa and new hampshire and south carolina start coming. >> and dr. ben carson's points are going down six points in the last poll. thank you, guys, very much. the momentum could add for ted cruz going through the south. and he is stumping in tennessee. we will have a live report on the latest event, and the event right now in nashville. that is coming up next.

republican senator ted cruz is riding high in the presidential race right now as he campaign s s in the south. a new quinnipiac university poll shows cruz nipping at donald trump's heels. tr trump is ahead by four point, and 28% to 24%. and now, we have sun lyiynn -- sunl sunlyn nerfati is out there on the trail. what are you seeing? h >> well, they are feeling the beneficiary of the ben carson fall in the poll, but they are touting the ground work saying

that the fruit of those labors are paying off, but the line that we are constantly hearing is that this shows a consolidation of social conservatives, of evangelicals coming behind the kacandidate which is something that ted cruz specifically went out of his way to bring up at a campaign stop earlier today in tennessee. this is what he had to the say. >> they are looking for someone who is a consistent conservative, and the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. the dynamic that we are seeing here in tennessee, and all across the s.e.c. primary and across iowa and nevada and the conservatives are uniting and coming behind our campaign, and if the con ser servatives unite win. >> and again, ted cruz today not in iowa or new hampshire or in any of the earlier states, but tennessee, and this this is as you said, his christmas tour , e

and the week-long trip through southern states, and that is a huge part of the cruz campaign strategy going for it. wolf? >> most of the republican campaigns are in iowa and new hampshire and the first two contests, and why did he decide of all times right now the go to tennessee? >> well, i think that it definitely demonstrates, wolf a sense of confidence on the part of ted cruz and the campaign. in an interview, he openly revealed that he believes that he is going to be winning yie-yiowa and that is unusual, will because mostly they want to down play any predictions, but he has confidence, and that is hitting the strategies, and do well in iowa and south carolina and really then beef up in support, and looking towards marvch, and those super tuesday states, and they believe they have a big base of support among the social conservatives and the evan gel cals in the states, and that can do this candidate a long way going forward and so, it is all

about march and forward-thinking for ted cruz. >> thank you, sunlen serfaty. >> bowe bergdahl is now facing a military court, and could spend a life in prison if he is found guilty of desertion. we will catch up to what has happened in fort bragg, and what bergdahl could face next.

u.s. army sergeant bowe bergdahl made his first appearance before a military judge. no cameras were allowed in the

courtroom, but we did seiberg dal when he left the building clean shaven and in uniform. he has stayed out of the spotlight and trying to keep a relatively low profile since his rele release from the taliban last year. you remember that he disappeared from the u.s. military base in afghanistan in 2009. the taliban captured bergdahl and held him captive for five years. he was later freed in a controversial prisoner swap for five gitmo detainees released. nick valencia was in the courtroom, and in fort bragg, north carolina, and also in the st studio, is larry solis, and former jag attorney and let's go out to you, nick valencia, what did you see in the courtroom? >> well, about ten minutes before the arraignment got under way, it was as if he was

intentionally not trying to make eye contact with the people inside of the room. he showed up in dress blue, and clean shaven and clean shaven head, and his hair was so short that you could see a scar on his head. and perhaps from his captivity. and he responded sir, yes, sir, to a majority of the questions. he did not enter a plea today. and he also deferred whether or not he wanted a trial by jury or judge, and finally, he waived the right to the hear the for mall charges read to him in a courtroom. those charges, one is desertion, and he could face up to five years in prison, and the second being misbehavior in the enemy in which he could face life in prison. and surrounding this, the presiding officer recommended a special court-martial where he would only have a year in

confinement, but the the top brass decided not to the go forward the recommendation, and pursuing these charges that he is facing right now. bergdahl, of course, audio, and new audio, and we finally heard are from him in a popular podcast serial, and this court-martial hearing coming shortly after that the audio was released and whether or not it had anything the to do with the announcement of the court-martial, the army will tell you that the process was well under way even before that podcast was released and the x next time bergdahl is going to have a hearing is january 12th, and those are going to be government moog motion hearing bergdahl does not have to be present for those hearings. >> and gary, can you give us a per spspective of what is to be expected next? >> well, the clock is running. when it is referred to trial, they have 120 days to trial, and there may be defense delays, but we should anticipate a court-martial beginning before a

military judge alone or the members, that is a jury within 120 days less now. >> and how unusual for the military brass to reject the recommendation of the advisory group that suggested maybe he should necessarily not face a court-martial? >> what is unusual is that the article 32 investigating officer made the recommendation at all, because it is not within his purview to suggest where the case should be tried and that is what level or sentence might be appropriate. it is like suggesting in an article 32 investigation that the government should send him to college. it is something that the investigating officer has anything to say about, and it is always has been the decision to be made by the convening authority, in this case, the general. >> the general in charge. do you know any other cases that come off of the top of your head where someone who is held as a p.o.w. for five years by the enemy in this particular case the taliban and came back would face these kinds of court-martials and desertion charges? it sounds pretty unusual, but

maybe you know some precedence. >> well, it is up usual, but in the marine corps after the vietnam war, we had eight enlisted marines set to go the trial before decided to let it drop, and two officers, a marine officer and naval officer to be tryied for misconduct while in the hands of the enemy, but for unauthor i unauthoriz unauthorized, no. this is a unique case. >> and tell me if it is unusual from your perspective as it from mine, but on the eve to the court-martial, he grants a interview to the podcast group serial, and he speaks openly about it, and is that going to be playing well with the military judicial? >> well, it is going to be playing well for the prosecution. >> that is what i mean? >> yes, because bergdahl prov e provided the ammunition for conviction at least on the desertion charge. i don't believe that he is going to be convicted of desertion,

but rather convicted of a lesser included offense of unauthorized absence since particularly bergdahl has made that on-air admission to his actions which are unauthorized absence. >> because if you had been his defense attorney, you would not have recommended for him to speak to the media in the start of this? >> yes, i am very surprised that gene fidell allowed him to do so. >> and nick, where you are at fort bragg, what is the reaction to the entire procedure? >> well, wolf, a lot of the people within the platoon, and specific to the serial podcast did not mince words about how much they hated him and hated him for leaving the post. when you talk to the military personnel, and you know this as well as i know this, the only people that you can are rely on in the army at war is the people to the right and the left of you and he abandoned those people, the troops. they allege that he put at least six lives in danger, and six lives lost according to some in

the military, because of the missions undertaken to go after bowe bergdahl and whether they were undertaken missions whether he was missing or not is anyone's guess, but here at the fort bragg, they don't want to share their opinion publicly about what they feel about bow berlg dal. we were surprised to see him not flanked by much security. he was escorted out by a couple of soldiers here after he left the courthouse, and that we should mention, wolf, it is one of the few times that we have seen him publicly because for the last year he has maintained a low profile and not seen out in public, and the today, a better look at the u.s. army sergeant on trial for the two serious charges. wolf. >> nick valencia at fort bragg, and thank you very much, and gary solis, thank you as well. >> kill us together or leave us alone. those were the defiant words of one group of people on the bus who faced terrorists who were targeting christians. muslims.r defenders were -

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in kenya a group of muslims are being hailed for their heroic act. when al shabaab terrorists ambushed the bus and threatened to kill the crihristians on boa, the muslim passengers stood up to the terrorists and it is a move that could have cost them their lives. david mckenzie is in nairobi with their story of incredible bravery. >> wolf, their aim is terror, but kenyans have stood up to al shabaab in an extraordinary act of defiancement on monday, more than 100 passengers were crammed on the bus traveling to mandeira on the critically wor torn area of somalia, and bullets ripped through the bus.

>> i looked up and i immediate ly saw people running in the road to stop us. they told us to get those who are muslims to come out, go back to the bus. >> reporter: a man on the bus told cnn 12 christians on board. the gunmen wanted to identify them and execute them. he says that muslim passengers helped to hide some of them on the bus, and they gave the christian woman head scarves before the gunmen made them lineup on the road. they stood strong said the witness, telling the gunmen, quote, if you want to kill us, then kill us, because there are no christians here. al shabaab then fled. >> we are all kenyans. we are not separated by religion. everybody can profess his religion, but we have seen that we are one country, one people, finish finished. that is a very good message. >> reporter: civilians have suffered through countless al

shabaab attacks in the border regions of kenya, and earlier this year, al shabaab attacked a university killing 147 innocent students and again, they singled out crihristians. more than 20 were killed in a shocking bus ambush last year. >> a man who tried to flee and a but the death toll could have been so much worse if it wasn't for the acts of these kenyan muslims. wolf? >> david mckenzie, an important story, thank you very much. when we come back, security is always an important issue at airports around the world. so how did one individual manage to find his way on to the tarmac at one of the world's busiest airports causing such a huge scare u. stay with us. toto the nation's capitalut to support an important cause that can change the way you live for years to come. how can you help? by giving a little more, to yourself.

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up next the story that should alarm everyone, especially people traveling during this holiday season. a man found his way on to the tarmac at jfk international airport in new york city. . he was discovered by an employee. when asked for his i.d., he held up a piece of paper and warned the worker not to say anything. rene marsh is with me now. you have been investigating what happened. >> this is a major breach. one of the busiest airports in the nation. peak travel time. we know a the this hour investigators still don't know how this manmade it on to the tarmac. they don't know where this man is because he was able to disappear. you mention he warned that cargo worker who noticed he didn't have the required i.d. that cargo worker questioned him and this man warned he shouldn't say anything. so now they are going through closed circuit television to see if they can pick up any clues to determine how this man was able

to breach security. fact of the matter is, regardless of what his intentions were, we do know that this is a glaring breach in. security at a time when many people are on high alert. >> i assume there's video because they video everything at a sensitive spot like jfk international. they haven't released video yet. >> we have not seen any video. we did hear from port authority that they are continuing to go through the closed circuit video that they have, but no indication of what they were able to see. we still don't know what this man did during his time in that very secure area. of course, very close to aircraft and things of that s t sort. so it remains a mystery, but the bigger issue is the perimeter security. many people say we spend so much money at the security check points, the question is is enough attention being paid to the security around the airport, the fencing, making sure that

all of those cameras that may be in place are actually being monitored by individuals looking for anything that's suspicious. we will be speaking to the congressman who is in charge of this district, where jfk is located. he's sitting with port authority getting an update. >> you'd think they don't know who this individual was, but if there's closed circuit video they could distribute the video and somebody might recognize that individual and help law enforcement find out who this person was. >> that hasn't happened yet. we have just very basic description from the police. >> what's the description? >> we know that this man is is about 5'9", 185 pounds, wearing a gray sweatshirt, gray pants, white male. that's all we know. we don't know anything else. so very vague, could be anyone. but as far as that video, haven't seen it yet. >> thank you very much. we'll stay on top of this story. as we look back at the news stories of 2015, we want to focus in on one that sparked

heated controversy here in the united states and in europe, the refugee crisis. today the international organization for migration announced that the number of migrants who entered europe by land and sea has now passed the 1 million mark. cnn's arwa damon, nancy pelosi and ivan watson all covered this crisis for us. they discussed their experiences in this roundtable. >> did you ever think you'd see these masses of people march in into europe like that? i don't think i would have imagined. >> when they get. to greece and the boats keep on coming and coming. >> there's this logic out there of why don't they stay in lebanon or turkey, they are safe. the question is would you? >> no, because you need a life.

you need to be able to build a life. you need to be able to build a future for yourself. you're not going to have a future sitting in a refugee camp or in a country you can't get a job or can't pursue your education or pursue your life. sadly the reality is they are not going to go home. the war in syria isn't going to end any time soon. even if it were to end tomorrow, the country is in ruins. >> the boring people who do those important jobs are not going to be there and they are not going to want to go home. >> this isn't necessarily the poorest of the poor making this journey. they can't afford it. >> a lot of these folks from middle-class families. >> syria's poorest of the poor sadly are the ones either still in syria because they can't afford to leave or they are the ones who are stuck in the refugee camps. it's not a cheap journey. >> it's so universal. the shear volume of people doing it for totally understandable reasons. >> there's no way the way that

refugee trail unfolded it's good for any of the refugees or any of the european states. it kind of weakens european institutions. >> it also became a debate. >> that idea of europe or even america it's meant to be a democracy. it's meant to uphold all these ideals and values and to be treated like trash, that's how they felt. they felt like they were being treated like trash. >> it's dependent on the country and the border as well. it's not entirely fair because there were people who welcomed migrants. >> and people who made difficult political decisions. >> it created more of a pull factor. was that better? >> we had that conversation in the uk where the conservatives said if you stop saving them, they will stop coming. then you have to debate what that does to your humanity. can you really watch thousands upon thousands of people washing up on shores? >> why does it have to get that bad for people to react?

why does it have to that i can take that image for people to begin to react? >> that's it for me. powerful words indeed. the news continues right now on cnn. thank you, i'm don lemon in for brooke today. donald trump lashing out like you have never heard before while ted cruz is closing in on the front runner's lead. a new national poll taken after the gop debate. here's what it shows. cruz is just 4 points behind trump, within the margin of error. that's an 8-point jump for cruz in just the lst month. today in tennessee, the texas senator welcomed the possibility of a two-man race. >> i did think it was interesting that donald trump said a couple days ago that he thinks this race will come down to him and me. i think donald may well be. right. he could easily end up being a