investigation. nissan path finder packed with explosives on fire last night. luckily not a tragic explosion. as the investigation continues, a second hour of "larry king live" special coverage begins right now. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com p hour of hour of a two king live." we'p we'll bring you the la developmendevelopments as we g check as we continue our coverage and the investigation, we're going to get the very latest now, national correspondent susan candiotti on top of things all night long and joins us now from times square. susan? >> reporter: hi, jon. of course what a difference a night makes. last night -- last evening at this hour much of times square was blocked off, but now things have gotten back to normal.

the investigation, however, is going on with a lot of intensity, as they try to, number one, try to find out where that vehicle is and who the registered owner was. police do tell us they know the name of the person to whom the car was registered. this nissan path finder. they're not revealing it at this time. they do tell us, however, that that car is in the tri-state area, that means anywhere within new york or new jersey or connecticut. they haven't pinned that down just yet. john? >> and, susan, hours and hours, i would assume, of videotapes from surveillance cameras all around times square. what have they released about the information they've gleaned so far? what are the big questions we're waiting to have answered? >> reporter: one of the things they're talking about is, of course, they have images that they were able to capture from surveillance cameras. as you know there are thousands of them around new york city. and these images show that nissan path finder just as it was coming down the strip near

times square and turned off on to west 45th street. they did not get it parking, but they did see it making that turn. so you also, those videos show how crowded it was at the time. people were going to the theater. people were going to dinner at that time. it was about 6:30 in the ev evening. also police tell us they have isolated another surveillance camera image that shows a man they describe as white an in his 40s who shortly after that car would have pulled over this individual was seen in an alley and they see him, they describe him as looking pertively aside in either direction half way down the alley, taking off one shirt, putting on another shirt and sticking the original shirt in some sort of a bag and walking away. so they are trying to determine whether that is the person who is connected to the path finder. in addition to that, they're also in pennsylvania at this hour because a tourist who was in the area thinks he might have taken a picture of that individual and they're going to

pennsylvania to track that down in an area north about a half hour north of philadelphia. john? >> and susan, lastly, based on your reporting at the fertilizer found in the car was nonexplosive. what is their sense, thank god, this car did not fully explode, was not a fire bomb, but what is their worst-case scenario had it gone to a different level? >> reporter: right. just to recap, people remember, this car was said to contain a few cans of gasoline, a few propane tanks, as well as some alarm clocks and a big metal gun locker. inside that were several bags of fertilizer. however, now we're hearing from authorities that preliminary tests are indicating that that was a non-explosive-grade fertilizer and it was really incapable of blowing up. however, they do add this. that the combination of the gasoline that was inside that car as well as the propane, if they had exploded, could have created a huge fireball that

certainly at the very least could have broken some windows and if people were standing by, certainly could have produced some casualties a well. they said it would not have been capable of bringing down a building. in addition to that, i also talked to other bomb experts who tell me that fertilizer would have had to have additional things to make it dangerous. it would have to have a blasting cap, a detonator another booster and had to be combined with fuel oil, that is to say to mix it up with that fertilizer as we've seen in previous bombings. now, simply putting gasoline in cans next to that fertilizer would not have been enough. you would have had to mix it all together and that combination just did not exist in this case. john? >> susan candiotti with the latest on the investigation for us. a little more than 24 hours ago wane ratigan was at work.

earlier today coached his daughter's lacrosse team and tonight having dinner with a new york city mayor. he's a new york city police department officer. vendors ran and tra track the him down when they found that car. they ran and found this officer on the horse, started efforts to clear thousands of theatergoers in the times square area. wayne ratigan is one of the heroes. >> i was walking down with my horse, megs, down broadway. the vendor alerted me to a car that was smoking, went over there and smelled gun powder with my partner, pam duffy. we knew something was up as soon as we smelled the gun powder. we think there were two rookie impact officers on the scene. with their help, i don't know their names, with their help we started a parameter and just a combined effort of everybody, you know, it's what we do. everybody's out there. i meaning, there were two guys in bomb suits last night.

those guys are incredible heroes. amazing what those guys did. esu, canine, searching a secondary device. combined effort by fire department. it's what we do. this is our job. >> wayne ratigan is 46 years old, a humble hero, having dinner with the mayor of new york city tonight. much more on the as we continue the second hour of a special two-hour edition of "larry king live." only caltrate delivers 1200 mg of calcium and 800 iu of vitamin d, in just two tablets. share some tlc. tender loving caltrate, my subaru saved my life. i won't ever forget that.

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he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. citracal. the president of the united states is at the annual white house correspondent's dinner last night when he received word something was up at times square. the president's been updated, of course, in the 24 hours since. made a trip to louisiana today to assess the impact of the gulf spill but also in close touch with mayor michael bloomberg and national security team about the new york city event. let's go to the white house and our dan lothian for the latest on how the white house is tracking this. >> reporter: the president has been in touch with mayor bloomberg. the president pointing out he

did call him. he wanted to make sure that the federal resources and the state resources there in new york were working together to move forward with the investigation. the president promising to provide whatever assistance would be needed in the investigation. now, he's been getting his updates, his briefings from john brennan, his top counterterrorism adviser. we're told by the white house he did receive a briefing earlier today about the latest information about what the government knows up to this point. on the way back to the white house after spending the day in louisiana, going and checking over the oil spill situation there, robert gibbs spoke with reporters asking questions about what the administrations reactions were to the reports the pakistan taliban was claiming responsibility for this bomb attempt. white house spokesman robert gibbs saying that he views these reports with skepticism, he went on to say that the administration is working very hard to prevent these kinds of

attacks from happening in the future. in terms of continued reports of claims or other possibilities, who might be behind it, another administration official telling me, quote, they're simply premature and unwarranted. john? >> dan lothian track things for us at the white house. thank you, dan. when something like this happens in today's age of cell phone cameras, pda cameras and the like, we get first images to people close at the scene, people who are not journalists. among them is matthew derby in times square last night. as you join us, i want to take a look at the behind the scenes and on the scenes video you shot as this unfolded last night. let's take a look. >> we have to go. everyone. wrap your food up. let's go. >> head northbound. go that way. you can only go this way. >> what's going on? >> great work with the camera

there, matthew. just take us, why were you there on the scene last night, why in the city? >> i'm on vacation from hawaii in new york and enjoying the city. walking around times square, shopping, enjoying the city then all of a sudden this takes place. >> how did you hear -- you say this. how did you hear? were people telling you to get away? did you hear the popping from the car? >> initially, yeah, i wasn't around for the initial 6:30 incident that occurred, but i walked into it 6:45, 6:50 then that's when the police were already out with their barricades and everybody was asking, like, what's going on here? you know? a million questions from everybody. it finally hit us, something is wrong with that car over there and somebody said a fire, other people were saying a bomb scare, a bomb threat. so the police acted accordingly and they started pushing everybody back from 45th to 46th to 47th avenues. between 46th and 47th is when i

went into the mcdonald's and got a soft drink because i was thinking, okay, how long is this going to be going on for? and went up to the second story, started shooting more video from my iphone and then that's when the police came in and they were telling everybody to please evacuate and wrap up your food and to get out of the building because it was being evacuated. we were outside of the mcdonald's and that's when we were by the tickets booth near 47th with that big red seating area. people were being evacuated from there. we really heeded the warning when the new york police detective said this is an emergency and everybody needs to wake up and get out of here. >> what kind of language did they use? you said the police said it was an emergency. what kind of language were the police and people using? were words like terrorism being used? words like explosives? >> no. nobody knew what was going on. i mean, the police weren't really telling the crowd because

the crowd was asking, what's going on? they were saying this is an emergency, we just need to clear the area. so what was really interesting about it is that it was kind of like controlled chaos. you know, the new york police department, the first respo responders, they did an excellent job. they were in control and they were very like commanding and telling everybody you need to get to safety. the people in times square, the visitors and residents, they listened. they weren't running around, screaming and yelling or anything like that. it was controlled chaos. people were listening. people wanted to see what was going on. people like me with my iphone and social media and twitter, my space, facebook and stuff like that, recording what was going on in times square, not knowing exactly what was happening but the rumor out there, i think when we were pushed all the way back to 47th was that finally that they were saying that it was a bomb in an suv.

that's when we saw the remote robot out on the street going toward the suv. >> what did that look like? you were close enough to watch as part of the bomb squad. it's a robot they sent up to the suv. describe that. >> yeah, well, you know, everybody was doing their own urban legend on what was actually taking place, but when we saw that -- the mechanical robot come out and we knew it was a bomb. so in a car or something. we saw the remote robot drive across the street and head toward the suv. at that point, i think people really understood what was happening. again, not much was being shared with the general public. probably the best for their interest because it controlled the chaos a bit. the police were commanding. they did a great job, got everybody back in an orderly fashion. i'd say 99% of the people were listening. a lot of people are out there with their twitter and facebook trying to report this event. >> not the new york vacation you expected, bugts you're going to

stay in the city, come back some day? >> i love the city. i have been coming here for years. honestly, as a visitor, nothing can keep me away. as new york moves on from this incident, it's a great place to visit. as mayor bloomberg says he has one of the best police forces in the world here in the city. i feel safe and i feel safe coming back to the city. >> matthew, we appreciate your time tonight and appreciate you sharing your pictures with us so we have better understanding of this. it's remarkable everyone can be a contributor to our journalism here. we're going to take a quick break, much more on the investigation of the times square attempted bombing when this special two-hour edition of "larry king live" returns. c, th, the hard to define. to those who'd climb mountains or sail across seas... for the perfect vanilla or honey from bees. to the lovers of orchards where simple is grown, who treat every bite as a world of its own. to those always searching for what's pure and what's real...

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announcer: if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. walking in front of us, 44th, broadway. we heard an explosion sound. we stopped. we didn't know what to do. we saw everybody running and we started running, too. >> everybody was backed up and everybody was being pushed back and the barriers started going up. >> we knew something was wrong when we saw the ambulances, cop cars, everybody was racing toward the way we were. >> standing here, suddenly i saw a big flashlight in the car. the explosion was not too big, it, like, a small hand grenade in the car. the windows stayed in, but it smoked. >> live pictures now of times square tonight after listening to those eyewitness accounts of what happened a little more than 24 hours ago. a nissan path finder parked in

the thick of the theater district. you heard the eyewitnesss there. smoke, some explosions. a lot of chaos as police tried to clear the area, but in a relatively orderly way. we try to track what happened and who did this. peter bergen, national security analyst with me in studio. start with this one. often, what we think we know 24 hours later is not what we know 72 or 100 hours later, is it? >> christmas day is a good example. immediately white house officials were saying this was a lone actor. that didn't make any sense because when somebody says that when they get off a plane, i got a bomb in yemen, that makes them part of a larger conspiracy. so stuff that comes out of the white house about this is wrong and cautious in the first several days. here we have a 40-year-old white male. could that be a right-wing terrorist or jihadist? we have plenty of caucasians that are part of militant groups. most right-wing terrorists are caucasian males. the location of the attack seems

to me more likely on the jihadist side because right-wing terrorists don't try to do mass casualty attacks in times square, whereas al qaeda has a long history of that. >> peter bergen says jihadist. the mayor saying he doesn't see evidence of a al qaeda connection, at early hours, 24 hours after the attack. you say jihadist, people out there might think international terrorist organization. not necessarily, maybe inspired by. >> interesting they're looking in pennsylvania. a case of a female caucasian, jihad jane, she was in her late 40s. traveled to europe, allegation to kill a swedish cartoonist who painted an offensive cartoon. is there a connection? i don't know. the fact that there are caucasian people in this country inspired by these ideas, they are converted to islam. it's fairly routine. >> when you hear the eyewitness accounts, they heard explosions but obviously it did not fully

explode, was not a fire bomb, was not a very highly explosive device, maybe had the potential to be so. is there anything from -- does that tell you anything about -- we know certain groups, certain things, certain technologies that are available. if you look on the internet to find them. does that tell you anything? is this device predictable? >> the first thing is when people say it's amateurish. if it goes off successfully, it wouldn't be amateurish. it's hard to build an explosive which is what this guy was trying to do. on the other hand, we have seen this in al qaeda attacks. it's a homage to insurgency. vehicle-born improvised devices. it's a fancy word. we saw it in 2007. those weren't successful. it's a similar motive. it's not something we have seen typically from other terrorist groups. >> so connect the dots for someone out there. so we know the nypd is taking the lead, fbi is involved, joint terrorism task force.

and people whose names we will not hear in the public discussion of this investigation are looking at everything they can. after something like this, you want to rule out international or domestic homegrown? who is involved in those conversations? how does that business go about? >> you have the national counterterrorism center that brings together everybody on route to the national security agency. the central intelligence agency on top of the joint terrorism task forces around the country. one thing press secretary chertoff said earlier in the program is important, the message going out to other police departments saying look out for this -- in the london case there was another attack two days later in gloasgow. >> i want to come back to the point, so people understand this, when people say they're looking if a white male, the surveillance video, was in the vicinity of the vehicle, acting suspiciously. hard to imagine if you have a

car, the v.i.n. numbers, vehicle identifica numbe have been stripped, plates taken from another vehicle. you have all these explosives in the car. crude explosives but still significant -- one person or the suspicion someone had to be helping? >> oklahoma city, this has some potential parallels to. that was two, or three people involved. this doesn't seem like a lone wolf. stripping out the v.i.n. number is premeditation and isn't an entirely -- >> thanks for your thoughts tonight. we'll be back with much more on this investigation, the attempted car bombing in the heart of times square. take 2 exl every 4-6 hours. i'm taking 8 pills a day, and if i take it for 10 days, that's 80 pills. just two aleve can last all day. perfect. [ male announcer ] choose aleve and you could be taking 4 times fewer pills than extra strength tylenol.

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our investigative correspondent drew griffin among those trying to find out what happened in times square last night, attempted car bomb tell us what you know about the ing. tracking of the license plate on the vehicle but didn't belong to the vehicle? >> it's one of the first leads we got this morning. you know, susan candiotti has been since telling us that the v.i.n. number has been found and apparently know the v.i.n. number, the rentgistration. the license plate did not match the vehicle assigned to the

v.i.n. number. we know according to law enforcement sources the lie license plate was taken from a junk yard, auto body shop as well and an f-150 pickup truck had a license plate taken off after it, one of the plates and placed on the nissan path finder before it trove into manhattan. ray kelly said the tag wasn't stolen because it wasn't reported stolen but it was missing from the vehicle. we know the person took the care to take off a license plate of his or the car he used and put on this license plate, perhaps, in an attempt to evade detection by the cameras all over manhattan and at least get a jump-start on trying to get away. >> are they anywhere, drew, in trying to track down exactly, you know, what about this vehicle? where it came from, whom it belongs? >> well, you know, my gut reaction tonight, john, is they probably know all that. they probably have the v.i.n.

number. you can't really scrub a v.i.n. number from the car. there are 12 different or more v.i.n. numbers on cars, what has gotten many terrorists caught in the past. timothy mcveigh, quite frankly, caught. this vehicle would have v.i.n. numbers in other locations other than the one we're used to on the dashboard. my guess is the fact that they now say they know the v.i.n. number, know that this car came from the tri-state area, that they probably know to whom the car was registered to. the question is was that person involved? raymond kelly said today that the car was not stolen, so you would have to at least assume the potential that the person who owns that car knew the person who drove it into manhattan. >> drew griffin, investigative correspondent with us tonight as we continue to troy to track the investigation into the attempted car bombing. we we come back we'll go to the scene in times square and have more panel discussions as the police try to put together what drew was talking about. a license plate from

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mary snow, on the ground all day. still a bustling night tonight. a remarkable scene considering 24 hours ago the police were telling everyone to get away. >> reporter: it really is, john. it's in stark contrast to the scene that some eyewitnesss on your program had been describing last night. scenes of panic. take a look behind me. as you can see, times square is business as usual. streets that were frozen off to traffic and pedestrians were re-opened early this morning, and tourists from all over the world have been swirling around. there's a beautiful night here in new york city. many of them have the same sentiment. they say, you know, people are very resilient here. they were concerned about what had happened but say they're determined to go on, saying they can't live in fear. there are more officers on the street. nypd put for officers on the streets and subways. can't see a dramatic difference in times square, of course home

to dozens of theaters. many don't have shows sunday night but they did this afternoon. the matinees all went on as planned. last night the theaters were saying some shows did start late but all went on. john? >> a unique place and remarkable city. mary snow, thanks so much. how do police and other law enforcement piece together what happened and follow the leads? great panel to understand that. fran townsend, cnn national security contributor, homeland security adviser to george w. bush. jack rice, former cia officer, criminal defense attorney and investigative journalist. larry johnson, served at the office of counterterrorism and former cia officer. larry, let me start with you in the sense that 24, 27 hours in the police say they don't think it's an al qaeda connection. how do you put the pieces together to be sure? >> what strikes me is the incompetence, whoever assembled this. to go to the effort to get the

vehicle. they had money there. to erase the v.i.n. number, showing planning, remeditation and to put this contraption together. it wouldn't have exploded. i don't consider it a bomb. they would have turned on the propane and filled the car with gas and ignite that you would have had a fireball inside the car, would have broken the windows out but not looking at something that's going to be devastating. what captures me is the fact this was so incompetent. i'm glad they are incompetent. it's also sort of odd the taliban would want to take credit for it. it was a failure, guys. you're taking credit for failures. it sort of goes to, you know, if that's what we're up against thank god. it's showing we're having some success in killing off the leadership of islamic jihadist groups overseas and competence level is going down. >> does incompetent tell you anything about lone operator, angry guy, coordination, group involvement? does it tell you anything?

just because it was incompetent? >> it might. it can show how thin they have become if they don't have a direct connection. we haven't seen anything directly to pakistan. although, again, i agree with larry, it's shocking when somebody says we were responsible for something that was that incompetent. if you don't have good planning and capability and good competency and good intelligence you get an operation like this. this was frankly pretty pitiful. i know we've been building this up, but from my perspective this was little and not much more. >> but, we, i don't know if building it up is the right term, but we have been covering it aggressively. when they talk about it, using the term they, that is a bit presumptuous but a normal reflex in a situation like this to say they, not he or she for that matter. >> that's right, john. interestingly enough, i don't disagree with what jack and larry have said, but i will tell you, i think that's true if you

judge it against an al qaeda central leadership type of an operation about how incompetent it is, you don't want to take credit for it. on the other hand, the most difficult thing to disrupt, detect are the lone wolves. inspired by al qaeda. i think it's where this probably more will end up. it's not clear yet. lots of investigating to be done. the only way to really get to the bottom of those sorts of loan wolfs who inspired by al qaeda's ideology, by their tactics is by community-based policing. that's a tremendous lesson learned, tremendous credit to commissioner ray kelly. he had this whole -- he has this whole see it, say it program. the vendor who identified the problem mentioned it. you showed it early. citizens taking responsibility, notifying police officers so they can respond quickly and

effectively is the success here and the lesson we ought to take from this disruption. bomber incompetent? absolutely. the only way you identify, thwart, disrupt these attacks is by community-based efforts. >> bomber incompetent, to stick on that term, means bomber who left a lot more evidence? >> sure. it would be one thing if, let's say the fertilizer was properly treated with fuel oil, then you still need a detonator to set it off. an m-88 is not a significant detonator. if they used the traditional, al qaeda, explosive of choice, tapt. it's found in traces of the underwear bomber in december and the shoe bomber, richard reid's shoes back in 2001. so that is a highly volatile explosive. that could actually be detonated even by dropping something. so, there are signatures and it just -- it strikes me as odd. we could find out what this was,

some disgruntled employee at marriott wanting to create an incident. there's always that possibility. we shouldn't jump to terrorism. it doesn't become terrorism until you have a political connection and show what it is they're really trying to say they're achieving other than just trying to crank off a bomb in times square. >> i want to follow-up with a point you made. this does make it easier. now, there may be latent prints, dna if there are hair samples. if you get a massive explosion that essentially melts everything to the asphalt, all of a sudden it makes it far more complicated to get what it is that you want. you actually have access to material. i'm a former prosecutor so i'm thinking about it like that too. >> we'll take a quick break here. we'll keep our panel with us. when we come back, susan candiotti has new information. we'll get that and talk it over with our fabulous group. hi, ellen! hi, ellen! we're going on a field trip to china! wow. [ chuckles ] when i was a kid, we -- we would just go

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we have a lot of people at cnn working sources trying to figure out what happened last night in times square. none working harder than national correspondent susan candiotti who has more information on the investigation tonight. susan? >> reporter: john, here's the latest. a federal law enforcement source

tells cnn that knee nissan path founder involved in the incident was originally thought to be in texas. that's where leads first took them. as they looked into it further those investigative leads indicated the vehicle was actually slated to be destroyed there. was a surplus vehicle. however, as the investigation went on, additional leads to investigators to here in the new york tri-state area. and that is have the investigation, of course, is continuing. so as you can see, this investigation is reaching points far and wide. >> susan candiotti in times square. thank you for that. let's get back to the panel. fran townsend, jack rice, larry. fran, let's start with you. does where the vehicle is from or where it was and where it is now tell you anything or that some guy had enough time to premeditate it and find a car that would be a little more difficult to face? >> well, it will be more interesting, john, the fact it was scheduled to go there but didn't go is interesting. the question is, where

physically did it start? where did it -- what's the path it was on? they're look at all sorts of records here in the united states, having been a former prosecutor, they're going to look for credit card receipts, for gasoline, look for tolls, look for gps, sorts of things, you know, we use all the time. you know, used to be paper maps, now we have gps, we have cell phone, we have blackberries. all these things hit towers. will tell you your location at specific times. they will try to get all this information, john, in order to paint the picture, if you will, chronology of where this car was in minutes, hours and days before it ended up at 45th and broadway. >> the new york city police commissioner ray kelly says they're looking based on the video, first person of interest is a 40-something white man, in his 40s, seen leaving the scene, changing clothes and looking over his shoulders at if worried about something. that's from the police commissioner. secretary of homeland security janet napolitano says it's an apparent one-off.

what do we make from those clues and hits? go ahead, fran. >> you know, i actually think -- i think it's too soon for us to really tell. i mean, does it sound like it could be a one-off? sure. you know, larry was talking earlier about, you know, we can't jump to the conclusion of terrorism. that's quite right. we can't deny our experience. we understand al qaeda and those inspired by it like iconic targets like times square. we know in the past the glasgow bombing, for example, this was al qaeda inspired. they used propane tanks. they've used propane tanks and things like east africa embassy bombings, came up in the 2004 threat in new york. i don't think we know enough yet. the little pieces we get from susan candiotti are very, very important because ultimately those facts will be the thing that paint the picture so we understand who this was and what caused this incident to occur. >> fran townsend, jack rice, larry will stay with us. when we come back, a quick

update on the situation in louisiana. the tragic oil spill. we'll get the latest from there and continue our conversation about the investigation into last night's attempted bombing in the heart of times square. i was short of breath, so i couldn't always do what i wanted to do. but five minutes ago, i took symbicort, and symbicort is already helping significantly improve my lung function. so, today, i've noticed a significant difference in my breathing. and i'm doing more of what i want to do. so we're clear -- it doesn't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden symptoms. my doctor said symbicort is for copd, including chronic bronchitis and emphysema. it should not be taken more than twice a day.

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back to the investigation to the times square incident in a minute. first, another big story

breaking. the president of the united states went to louisiana to view firsthand the tragic impact of the oil spill. the oil still spewing. reynolds wolf is there to bring the latest. reynolds? >> reporter: when the president came here one of the first thing that greeted him was bad weather, weather still inclement for the time being. conditions with the wind and its effect on the ocean. off on the gulf of mexico, choppy conditions continuing to push the oil closer to shore. there have been reports of waves anywhere from 6 to 12 feet. it is real -- very, very rough out there to say the least. now, in speaking of the oil, question is, where exactly is it? there have been reports the heavier crude has been anywhere from, say, three to nine miles afrom the mainland. now, one of the newest bits of information i have for you is the federal government has place

a ten-day, not exactly a day but rather a restriction on fishing in the northern gulf, from the mst river clear over to pensacola. keep in mind, john and viewers across america, that is a $2.4 billion industry for this region. it's crucial for the people who work on the ocean. certainly very rough conditions is the last thing they need. john? >> reynolds, what's the latest -- i know you're talking earlier about the marine life coming ashore, some of the impact already we're seeing on birds and mentioned sea turtles. you talked about the economic impact, closing of fisheries is a huge economic impact. what about the environmental and sea life impact? >> reporter: the sea life impact, we've already seen, they had a northern ganat, a type of bird that migrates from new finland into the gulf of mexico each year, diving bird, drops down below the surface, picks up fish. there was one that was rescued a few days ago, at a rescue center in the area expected to be

rehabilitated and released farther west in the gulf. there have been reports of 20 different instances of turtles, 20 turtles all together along the gulf coast, mainly mississippi, that were actually found dead right along the surf. some of them were actually kemp ridley turtles, an endangered turtle. not exactly sure if their death is a direct cause or link to the oil, but possibility that they ate fish that had been swimming through the oil. they'll find out in an investigation in a couple days. right now, in my absolute back or to our back a few miles southward we have the delta national wildlife refuge home of 400 species of endangered or protected animals and susceptible to the oil as it comes closer, so, too, a lot of grasses. long-term exposure kills grasses. when that happens islands can fall apart. >> i flew over the area a few months back in a helicopter. it's beautiful, critical both from an environmental standpoint

and also to protect that coast from hurricanes and the like. it's a tragedy. reynolds wolf on the scene for us. we'll continue to follow this in the days ahead. when we come back we'll have the latest on the times square investigation and remind you tomorrow on "john king usa," the latest on both stories, investigation into the times square attempted bombing and continuing coverage and continuing spilling of oil in the persian gulf. we'll be back in just a second. without drowsiness... ...so i stay as alert and focused as someone without allergies. for me, claritin is the perfect allergy medicine. i only live claritin clear

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among the many heroes tonight in times square, wayne ratigan when a vendor ran up to him said he heard an explosion, saw smoke from a car. wayne ratigan dismounted his horse and got the crowds to move, emptied the theaters, got everybody pushed back to a safe distance. if you listen to wayne ratigan here, he's a humble hero. >> when i saw the car running, that was -- i interviewed -- as i was by the car i asked a

couple vendors, is this your car? they're like, no, we don't know whose this is. i looked back and saw, you know, the ignition running and hazard lights on. it was parked happen hazardly. i was like, u hoerkh-oh, this i than a parked car and cigarette in an ashtray. was a emitting smoke and wreaked of gun powder. >> long night in times square. still he made his daughter's lacrosse game today, he's the coach. he gets daughter with the new york city major tonight. wayne ratigan. back to our panel. you see a cop like that, it's just a hero. he notices right away details. the ignition is running, parked happen hazardly. how do you start in the 24 hours, larry, start with you, to take here's what we know so far, put up a map, connect dots, try to go from there. what are you looking for now? >> they're looking for the unexpect. i mean, they start with some assumptions in terms of how people think and act but push

beyond that. the nice thing about new york city, probably more so than any other city in the united states is they've had a long record of doing terrorism drills and exercises and integrated it through the police and fire department and in fact i was involved with one back in 1996. so they worked at it for a while. it's that -- it becomes second nature. they don't have to learn this. they don't start assuming it's terrorism or not terrorism. go with the fact, let the facts take us where they fwill. >> fran, they likely know a lot more than they're telling us right now. >> that's right. as larry and jack both know, what they'll be doing is pulsing to make sure, was there foreign intelligence, overseas information, surveillance, cia information? right now they're focused on what they do know as well. they're really focusing on the car, as susan candiotti mentions, looking at surveillance tape, looking at physical evidence, going over the car with a fine-tooth comb for dna, fingerprints, anything to lead them to the driver.

the critical issue right now is identifying and locating the driver of that vehicle. >> we live in a world where many people sadly, to some extent, but understandably to another extent when they hear an attempted bombing in new york city, your reflex is to worry about terrorism and your reflex might also be to do something that is dangerous and sometimes irresponsible. that's profiling. thinking it might be something, you might think, are you looking for an islamic terrorist, looking for this? the police tonight are saying that they're looking first, at least, for a white male, roughly 40s. >> that's logical. i mean, based upon the information that we had before us. what i really like here is there are two tracks going at the same time. you have the police who are doing what police do. and they're reaching out nationally, so they're grabbing everything they can, including potentially video. they're reaching out past philly trying to grab more there, if there are eyewitnesss let's go down that path. on the international side trying to reach out to see if there's anybody else reaching back, is there somebody from here

reaching out to grab both directions at the same time. both are key. if you can grab both you may be able to make this not just a loan wolf, there may be two, three, five, ten. think abdulmutallab. all of a sudden we're looking at yemen, other parts of africa, too. it's not necessarily that but go down the path as quickly as you can. >> the coordination. in the past some investigations go well, others you have questions about whether the left hand is talking to the right hand, whether the state is talking to the federal. do you have any questions tonight? have you seen anything in the last 24 hours to make sure say, maybe there's a problem here? >> you know, interestingly, john, normally you begin to hear this almost immediately that there is criticism back and forth. i will tell you i spoke both to a very senior federal counterterrorism official who's directly involved in the investigation and to a very senior new york city police debarment official also directly involved. and both said unprompted how well they were working together, sharing information. it's clear the nypd's got the

lead here and the feds are in support. the president set that tone from the top and it's clear it's working really well. this may be -- this may turn out to be a good example of how they should be working together on these sorts of cases. >> larry, you worked in counterterrorism. you're a cia officer. play beat cop for me. based on the information you heard from reporters from what they know from the investigation, from the police so far, what would you be looking at if you had your notes on your desk right now? >> i would say, what toll booth did he get into new york city from? from new jersey? contranecticut connecticut? where did he come from? it's interesting you have -- eyewitness wants the fire department and police debarmepat department. an fbi guy walked through the door, they stopped and began attacking him. so that's when you know new york is back to normal. >> i want to thank frannen townsend, jack rice and l