have to have this to have health care reform. so if a final bill and the law, the final one the president signs does not have a health care -- public option, can we still call it that true reform? >> i think it's still true reform. we're moving in the right direction. is it better than the status quo? i think absolutely. just making sure that people can getting a cess to health insurance coverage without being denied it if you have a pre-existing condition or being thrown off your policy if you're sick, that is a major set of reforms. >> we saw what happened in the senate. i mean, if one of the senators would have had a flat tire going in, he would have missed the boat and this thing wouldn't have gone through. that's how tight it is. so once they get together and try to -- i mean, you've got so many people you can lose if this legislation changes just a bit. so, what's going to happen here? are democrats essentially going to say, hey, we're this close and some guys are going to have to give up a lot of what they wanted? or, as you start adding some things, you're going to start

finding democrats falling off and losing, like ben nelson, others who barely 2k3w5gave the support? >> at the end of the day, i think the final legislation that comes out of the conference between the house and the senate is going to look a lot more like the senate bill. there's a little bit more leeway in the house in terms of votes. but i think that at the end of the day this is going to look a lot like what the senate has already passed. >> you've been right on so far. kenneth thorpe, appreciate you having you as always. brook, i will hand it back over to you. >> all right, t.j. thank you. folks, if you're used to seeing your bottom line with gerri willis 9:30 eastern, it has been preempted because of our breaking story here on this attempted terror plot on board the amsterdam flight. coming up, we will talk to more terrorism experts. dig a little deeper here. also taking a close look at the pain essentially, pain a lot of you are feeling on the airports. security measures are

heightened. we will continue to hear from passengers on board that flight, northwest flight 253 on christmas day, at teftempted te attack.

hello, everybody. welcome back to the "cnn saturday morning." >> thanks for starting your weekend with us. a busy, busy weekend newswise. let's get right to it. this incident that happened actually on christmas day onboard this flight to detroit from amsterdam and why so many of you out there heading to the airport could face long lines and security. the reason, this man. looking at him. 23-year-old umar far rouk abdul mutallab. he is accused of trying to set off some kind of explosive device he took on board that plane, northwest flight landing, again, from amsterdam to detroit. he began his travels way over in nigeria, in lagos. flew to amsterdam, on to detroit. he somehow ignited this thing. we don't know if it fully ignited or it went up in smoke.

but bottom line is, he burned his legs. he was taken off. you can see by security officials in this exclusive photo. counter terrorism police are in london now. they're in london investigating, at his former house. london police spokeswoman there says police are making several inquiries all at the request of u.s. authorities. we are all over this thing. cnn is covering this story from every angle. we have kate baldoun live at dulles airport, deb feyerick from detroit, wayne county airport, ed henry work the story from hawaii, nic robertson in london, richard quest for news amsterdam, and we have reporters here in atlanta working the investigation. was by want to begin with our senior international correspondent nic robertson now join joining us from this former home of this 23 yaer-year-old

nigerian national. >> reporter: police have been at the premise here in the central of london since the early morning. we know also that british prime minister has said that the terror threat that is posed here and any danger to the public is something that the government here takes very seriously and they've been investigating. the police at a number of other premises. if you look at this building behind me it is a very grand building in the center of london. apartments here, to give you some idea of how much it costs to live here, apartments in this building costs between about 2 and $4 million. so this man, if, in fact, this is where he was living and this is believed to be his last address, last known address in london, believed to have had a basement, lower ground floor apartment in this building. clearly, he would appear to be a man with some financial means. it is not a cheap place to live in right here. the other addresses that the police are searching right now in the center of london, a

connected with this same man, connect weed with the same investigation, earlier on police dressed in forensic cover alls that they wear, more specialist looking officers we saw coming out of the basement of the building, going back in. from outside we're seeing very little activity. most of it going on inside behind the closed doors behind me. >> obviously they're there trying to get any kind of information from evidence perhaps looking at his computer to try and understand any kind of motive. but, nic, what about interpol? are they involved in the investigation at all, do we know? >> reporter: well, at this stage we haven't been made aware of that right here. but it would be normal in a situation like this for intelligence agencies, the fbi and others, to reach out to other means and any people, other intelligence agencies, interpol, as you say, to provide more information, where was this man recently, what was he doing,

who he was associating with, what information can be gleaned from those contacts. most importantly, to find out if he was with another group of people or if there were other events planned, getting this information quickly is very, very important in an investigation like this. and that's what would be utmost on intelligence agencies and police minds at this time. and interpol would be obviously one way to go to try to track down his movements and any associates he might have. >> right. was he a lone jihadi or working as part of a larger group. digger deeping in london. nic, thank you. we want to head to detroit, which i guess you can call that the scene of the crime at this point, deb. of course, a couple of things to hit on here with you. one, just the mess of airport security right now and the long lines. but also, that is really, i guess you could call that ground zero for this investigation now. so give us the latest on both

those fronts. >> reporter: well, you know, we can tell you a lot of people disheartened when they arrive at the airport, due to heightened security alerts they may not be able to bring everything onboard the plane, certain items restricted. the fbi has identified what the materials are and so there's more of a screening to make sure that people are not bringing these potentially dangerous items on board. now, we know that this is a 23-year-old nigerian. appears he was a student at the university college of london. that is one of the best in the country. searches are going on in homes in that area with which he was likely connected. federal and international authorities are retracing this man's roots from yemen where he allegedly received this device and instructions on how to use it, when to detonate it, then on to lagos, nigeria, that was his point of departure. amsterdam, where he stopped over before flying to detroit, to detroit, michigan. why he was waiting to detonate

that device when he was close to the airport, that is under investigation as well. the man was sitting sort of not exactly in the middle of the plane, closer to the front in row 19a, which is a window seat. when people heard a noise, saw smoke, one of the men who was sitting nearby pounced on him, was able to subdue him. the location of the device appears to have been on his lap where he sustained the most serious burns. 23-year-old nigeria. when he was taken into custody, an official memo made clear he had extremist affiliations. it's not clear what that means. was he acting as an al qaeda operative or, more likely, was he a lone wolf, sort of a lone jihadi who was radicalized somewhere along the way, wanting to carry out this christmastime attack. all of this right now under investigation. here at the airport, people sort

of grinning and bearing it. they know what to expect. it's not the first time there's been heightened security, it certainly won't be the last time. but again, a little bit of a scary moment to think that somebody would try something at such a high volume of travel time. t.j.? >> deb feyerick for us at what's becoming a busier and busier airport. more planes taking off behind you. we will check in with you again plenty. thank you this morning. biusy airports across the country. perhaps you're headed to the airport. facing long delays this morning because, you can imagine, added security precautions. cnn's kate baldoun is live for us at dulles international airport. really an international hub for so many travelers. kate, looks fairly quiet behind you from my vantage point. i imagine it's a different story right around security screening. >> reporter: hey, there. we spoke to an airport spokeswoman and she said really in terms of the very busy holiday travel season that we're kind of in the middle of, today is a little bit on the lighter side.

i will tell you from what we've seen, the ticket counters have been pretty light, people moving in normal traffic. but as you know and as we've been talking agent, the department of homeland security talking about passengers on domestic flights and international flights may see some additional security measures in place in light of yesterday's i understand comm i. what we've heart from passengers flying in here to this morning, they're seeing small things that they said they noticed, nothing major is how it's been described to me, but small things. one woman said at airport security they were careful to check all of her liquids. her liquids were baby formula. she was traveling with her young child. she said more so than when she's traveled in the past. another passenger, gentleman flying in from new delhi, they stopped over in jfk before they landed here at dulles. when they were boarding their flight in new delhi he was surprised to see that they

checked his passport again, that could vhave been, he said, the fifth time they checked his passport. as i talk to passengers here, flying out and coming in, by and large they are not convenienced by the delays, the extra checks even if it does mean they need to get here earlier or delayed before they get on their flight. they say what it comes down to is, it doesn't bother them fit means the safety of themselves, their family, and fellow f passengers. what could we be seeing? we're hearing from administration officials things could be stepped up, some stricter security measures, more stringent security measures you could be seeing at the airport, more explosive detection, canine units, bomb-sniffing dogs and more personal attention possibly. and also, you could be seeing some behavior detection specialists. people really trained to keep an eye out and detect some suspicious behavior of people at the airport.

so those are some of the things we're hearing. tsa really, when you look at their security plan, they talk about it as a layered approach. these mull layers. as you and i have been talking they're not tipping their hand today on what you will be seeing today at the airport for good reason. they're do not want people to know exactly what they're up against if they go to the airport. >> we don't know how long this will last. given what's happened, i would agree with the passengers you're talking to, that it's justified. kate baldoun for us at washington budulles. we are covering the story for you from the bottom to the top. stick with us as it continues to develop. coming up, we'll talk to a terrorism expert and we'll also continue to look at the weekend travel security issues, delays, things that can maik maybe get you through the process quicker. we will hear from those very passengers onboard that flight with that 23-year-old on board

that northwest flight 253 from amsterdam to detroit.

all right. we've been talking about these longer lines this morning at the airport. not just because of some weather the people are experiencing, really it's because of that attempted terror attack on board that flight yesterday. josh levs has been looking into what you really shouldn't take -- >> or what to do. there are ways you can speed it up. this is one of the busiest

traveling times of the year. >> already. without all of this going on, right? >> and how many travelers have we been hearing from talking about how much more difficult it is. security screening. i'm going to give everyone some tips on how to make it faster. first one right here. this comes from the tsa. what they talk about, they show you on the website what to do. pack in layers. anything you're going to carry on if you have a carry-on, do a layer of clothes, then a layer of electronics, clothes and heavier items. they explain why you will be so much faster for the screeners if you do that. next one here. prepare in advance anything that's going to be liquids that they're going to question. quart-sized clear, plastic, zip-top bag of liquids. you can get them at a lot of pharmacies. if you have them in advance, it saves a lot of time. mult plooi all tiply all the tr saves hours and hours. pack coats. if you can, inside your checked bags. when you get to the airport, if you can, take off your coat,

smush it into the luggage that you're going to be checking and do it that way. it's going to save a lot of time if you can avoid taking it through screening with you. next,you. next, limit the metal that's on your clothes. tsa says there are a lot of people who feel the need to wear a lot of accessories even at the airport. no big, heavy jewelry. the less metal on you the better, the faster. now let's get to some of the holiday stuff. i found this really interesting. no jelly, sauce, syrup, these kinds of things -- you know, you're with relatives, maybe you're bringing home that great maple syrup or grandpa's cranberry sauce, whatever it is. if you have that in your carry-on, they will take it away. and the amount of time they go through your bag will slow it down for everyone. and no snow globes in your carry-ons. do not bring them on. tsa talked about that. and their videographer said his wife tried to carry one on.

she had to buy another bag zwrous check it. these are just a few of the examples the tsa says, if you follow these, you will save yourself so much time. if everyone can start doing that, it will move everyone through the airport real quickly. this is where you can see the full list. cnn.com/josh. the more people that see it hopefully the better. still, look, brooke, t.j., we know it's going the take a while. we're hearing stories people will spend more time going through screening but if today more and more people start to do those things we can make up the difference and get people through faster. >> toss it in checked baggage. i know we groan about the baggage fees but -- >> if everyone does it, it will help out. >> stay with us here. this is a fast-moving developing story this morning. again, a man attempting to blow up a plane that was landing in detroit. that is changing how you and

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well, you didn't ask. even kids know when it's wrong to hold out on somebody. why don't banks ? we're ally, a new bank that alerts you when your money could be working harder and earning more. it's just the right thing to do. all right. digging a little deeper on this story is drew griffin, krcnn's special investigations unit. looking into this northwest airlines terrorism case, talking about what you found. one of the points here is when you talk about this young man, this 23-year-old on board this flight, who perhaps presumably would have committed suicide with this explosive device, he would have shown some kind of behavior that perhaps an air marshal could have picked up had an air marshal been on the plane. >> yeah. that's right. i think there's two parts to this investigation now that we're looking at. did anybody miss something? or the fact that nobody really got hurt here is -- can we use

this as a way to teach us what's next in fighting this kind of terrorism and look for the things that would have tightened up? and when you look at the behavioral issues, it's a real biggie. was there anybody in nigeria looking at this man, and did he seem odd? when he boarded the flight in amsterdam, did he stay at an airport lounge? was there anything odd about him, any kind of ritual going through? investigators will be trying to track down every single person on both of these flights and actually seeing if they had any if i c pictures, was he in the background of any family photos, any changes they saw, did this guy stick out in any way, and then they will be asking that about this particular flight when he's flying across and the hours are passing and he's thinking about the deed that he wants to carry out. here's a man who is just about to commit suicide. what was or was not noticed about this man not only that we could kind of see where blame

might lie but where we might learn something perhaps to prevent the next. >> and this is a lot -- i mean, hopefully we can learn a whole lot here, but we've been talking to terrorism experts this morning, talking about, you know, we got to stop this guy before he even gets to the airport. that's going to be key, because who knows what he had on him and how he got it through, but something like a powder, unfortunately, you could hide that. it's hard to stop that. it's a matter of tracking these guys and knowing who they are before they're even allowed to get on their plane. >> richard reid, tries to light his shoe. now we have to take our shoes off. then the liquid thing. and they were worried about a team of guys with a tethree oun of liquid, meeting in the bathroom. of course they're analyzing what this powder was or was it a powder with an injectable. they'll figure that out and try to trace exactly where those

components came from. that will be part of the actual trail. where was this purchased, where is it sold, how eetz si is it to get and how to detect it. and the fact of the matter is, tom fuentes we had on was talking about it in places like nigeria, the screening at the airport is not as good as we would like it here in america. well, so what's the point? do we just yell at nigerian officials to do a better job, or do we help them, do we bring that into the fold, do we try to make this an entire world community fighting this scourge of terrorism? >> what about also the fact that just judging by what nic robertson was reporting standing in front of one of his former homes in central london saying that the condo costs, you know, several million dollars. >> right. >> this young man, if this, in fact, was where he lived, he had access to wealth. he was not some poor freedom fighter, to quote you, you know. >> right. we see that over and over again, even with our, quote, unquote, homegrown terrorists that we've been talking about. i just did a story in toronto

where a bunch of suburban toronto kids were involved in this plot. you are seeing a lot of this movement of al qaeda. it's not so much the group al qaeda, although we don't know if this man had any connections or not, but the idea. and it may be being fostered among young people who have access to wealth, who have access to computers, to websites, and just kind of adopt the ideals of al qaeda. certainly this guy could travel, he could live in expensive apartments in london. he was not a poor kid, you know, trying to fight for the freedom of the country somewhere. >> all right. drew griffin, part of our investigative team. we're going to be hearing a whole lot more from you because i know you are digging and you always find something. drew griffin, we appreciate you as always. >> thank you. >> we'll take a quick break here. brooke and i will be back and reset this story for you, a story that will affect you and your loved ones this weekend.