gregg: love the superhero story. that's the story of the day. [laughter] jenna: i can't wait to see which outfits you guys have on in the background. gregg: "america live" coming up now. bye-bye. megyn: fox news alert and a bombshell development in the case of missing baby lisa irwin from missouri. we are now learning that a police team is searching a well under a deck at a vacant home not far from the family's house. the kansas city fire department is reportedly assisting. this as police uncoffer a new -- uncover a new possible lead in the case inspecting surveillance video from a grocery store nearby the family's home. they say that in this store little lisa's mother and an unidentified man were reportedly seen buying wine, paper plates and napkins just five hours before the child allegedly went missing. who was this man? was this disclosed by the baby's mother to police, and did this

have anything to do with little lisa's disappearance? all this as a family member now says that lisa's mother believes she will soon be placed under arrest. we have much more on this throughout our show. in just minutes we will have a live update from a local affiliate and the captain, the police captain, who has been working this case. another fox news alert, a new protest march is getting under way in new york city right now. hundreds of wall street protesters marching on the personal homes of some corporate executives. welcome to "america live," everyone, i'm megyn kelly. we have got live pictures coming in as a couple of hundred people from the occupy wall street protest group get ready to visit the personal homes of new york city executives. those include jpmorgan chase ceo jamie dimon, oil and gas investor david koch, hedge fund manager john paulson, real estate developer howard mill steven, and rupert murdoch, the

ceo of news corp., the parent company of the fox news channel. trace gallagher live in our west coast newsroom with more. trace? >> reporter: and you've got more community groups and labor groups joining these protests, megyn. now as they go on each day kind of has a different theme, again, taking a live look down there. they were expecting upwards of a thousand people. we can't really tell you how many, but it looks to us more like there are a hundred, few hundred people at max that are now kind of protesting, this is on the upper east side in new york. this theme today is aimed at maintaining new york state's 2% tax on millionaires which is slated to end this year. the idea was to march on the homes of the five of the city's wealthiest businessmen. this, again, is more tape earlier. they're holding some protests down there, this is in lower manhattan. again, they were going after five of the wealthiest businessmen in new york. the plan is to present them giant checks to show them how much less these men would pay if

this 2% tax ended. the five, as you said, who are being demonstrated against are rupert murdoch, jamie dimon, the ceo of jpmorgan chase who did not back government bailouts. remember, he refused to bail out bear stearns at first. david koch, a longtime libertarian who believes in drastically lower taxes and limited social services. john paulson, he's a hedge fund manager. again, we're looking live again as this protest moves to the upper east side in manhattan. john paulson, a hedge fund manager who made billions betting against subprime mortgages, howard philistine who invested heavily in banks and hotels. the protesters were suppose today host a news conference earlier, it never materialized. all they said is they are simply trying to get their message out.

tomorrow, seiu will protest for better jobs, megyn. megyn: trace gallagher, thank you. and a fox news alert from the campaign trail. there is breaking news now in the race for the white house. our own campaign carl cameron confirming a big development with the gop field. carl? >> reporter: hi, megyn. well, there's a big debate tonight of the republican candidates, and there will be somebody making news beforehand. the current governor of new jersey, chris christie, who has been the summit -- subject of tremendous speculation today will come to dartmouth college and here at the event site he will endorse mitt romney, the front runner in the polls. chris christie will give his support to mitt romney for president. this is for mitt romney sort of following a pattern. after former minnesota governor tim pawlenty dropped out of the race, it took only a matter of days before he threw his support behind mitt romney.

chris christie said he would not run for president only a matter of two weeks ago will emerge on the stage with mitt romney at his side and formally give his endorsement to the national front runner. another sign of romney's ability to coalesce the republican support across the country. he has been racking up endorsements very aggressively, trying to take advantage of rick perry's slide in the polls and solidify a perception that he is the inevitable nominee. a juggernaut front runner. the addition of chris christie to his team with today's endorsement expect inside a matter -- expected in a matter of hours is a very big deal. megyn: it sure is. carl cameron breaking that news first. thank you so much. chris stirewalt joining me now, host of power play on foxnews.com live. chris, this was an endorsement the perry camp told me explicitly it would like to have. alas, for them it was not meant to be. >> i don't think it was probably

ever meant to be. certainly, chris christie and mitt romney are both more moderate kinds of republicans from the northeast, and as carl points out, they appeal to the same sort of republican establishment. obviously, we knew that it would have been bad for romney had christie opted to get in the race, they would have been competing for the same votes, so this sort of recapitulates romney's position in the race. what's interesting is the timing of this. this seems like a strange moment for the front runner to roll out what may be the most important endorsement he has for some time. i wonder why now, and it may have something to do with the fact that we've seen this surge this polls for herman cain of late. megyn: i want to talk to you about that because that is a huge political headline today. herman cain has been rising in the polls, and our viewers know that by now, but they may not know just how high he has risen. look at the latest polls, ladies and gentlemen. the latest gallup poll shows herman cain is tying mitt romney

just about, look at that, almost right at the same level as mitt romney. compare that to a month ago when cain was pulling just 5%. and here's another poll, south carolina 26% of voters there now say they would prefer to see cain as the nominee, neck and neck with romney. and take a look at virginia, another key state. they're saying there it would be a bitter battle between cain and romney who both come in at 21%. look at perry, a distant third, at 11%. chris, for those who believed that herman cain was a flash in the pan and not a real contender, they need to think again. >> well, clearly, mitt romney's going to have to think again because it's been an unalloyed good for the romney campaign. if you look at those numbers, mitt romney hasn't gained any support and, as a matter of fact, has lost support in the gallup poll. he has not benefited from the severe downgrade in rick perry's status to the third place. herman cain's picked up all that

support, mitt romney hasn't been able to capitalize on that. at a serb point -- certain point, herman cain goes from being a spoiler on the right who allows romney to continue to progress, and at a certain point becomes a genuine threat mitt romney, and we may see that play out when they debate tonight airing up in the new hampshire. we may see herman cain get treated a little differently. megyn: you know, with all due respect to mr. cain, it's not that he's been given a pass at these debates, but by his fellow candidates he mostly has, right? so the questioners target mr. cain, but the fellow panelists on the stage have not really taken aim at him. they've been taking aim at romney and perry mostly, those two. that could change tonight. in particular, romney may be dweerg up his game plan to go after the author of the 9-9-9 plan. >> maybe too soon because republicans just love herman cain. he connects with them in a visceral way, he's talking the

talk that they want to hear and sticking to attacking obama and not attacking the rest of the field. the moment that you see mitt romney go on the attack against herman cain will be an implicit admission on the part of the romney campaign that they are having trouble putting together their coalition. megyn: it's no accident that the campaign is, quote, rolling out this endorsement now. this is something they likely knew they had, and they choose, these campaigns do, when they're going to announce their big endorsements. but one does have to wonder why now, and that is a huge news story today. chris stirewalt, thank you so much, sir. megyn: back to the campaign trail in a minute, but i want to bring you back to our breaking news on our top story this afternoon, and we are getting word from missouri that dozens of emergency workers are now searching a well. it is under a deck at a vacant home not far from the home where baby lisa irwin vanished according to her parents a week and a day ago. joining me now by phone is ray reid of kcmo radio in missouri.

ray, two significant developments today at least, and number one is this search. what do we know about why they are searching this well? >> this seems to be a site that investigators just kind of stumbled upon during their canvass in the neighborhood. they came upon this home that's been vacant for over two years. the home itself is collapsed, they've had to make sure it was safe and also do an air quality assessment before firefighters could rappel down. there's no specific tip that sent them to this home, it's less than a half mile, just a few blocks from the irwin family home, and they want to leave no stone unturned. megyn: so there's nothing specific in terms of a tip or a dog scent trail or anything along those lines that led them to this well? >> >> no. this is investigators trying to explore every option. the local crimestoppers has received over 1,000 tips related to this case with about 300 of those being forwarded to investigators. megyn: and, ray, these are live pictures coming back to us of the search of here they are at

this vacant home underneath the deck, again, searching this well near the home of this missing baby. she's been missing now since last monday night when her mother said she put her down in her crib after 10 p.m., and when the father came home from an overnight job at 4 a.m., they say the baby was missing. ray, i want to shift to the other piece of news today, and it could prove to be significant. police took their investigation to a nearby grocery store, the test value foods -- festival fooz, where now they are reportedly saying that deborah bradley, the mother, and an unidentified man were seen buying wine, paper plates and napkins about five hours before lisa bradley -- i'm sorry, deborah bradley said she put her baby in the crib for the night. they're saying the mother and an unidentified man was buying wine, plates and napkins. what do we know? is.

>> well, we're just beginning to learn that story. police are coming out with those comments this morning. we do know that over the course of the past week that certain individuals we can best describe as criminal informants all along have been telling us they wanted us to look more closely at the mother and perhaps some relationships and associates that she has in the community. megyn: oh, boy. ray, have we heard anything more about -- our local affiliate was reporting on friday when we went on air that there were phone records that they, a law enforcement officer was saying showed a 2:30 a.m. phone call on the mother's phone at the time when she claimed she was sleeping. she said she put the baby down at 10, she went to sleep, she didn't awake until 4 a.m. when the husband came home, and we heard from a source that at 2:30 a.m. her phone records showed she was making a call. any update on that? >> we do not have an update on that. again, that just points to the

earlier comments by the family that mysteriously all their cell phones disappeared during this incident. megyn: and now the family of the mother, the family of deborah bradley is suggesting that they believe and perhaps she believes that she will be arrested sometime in the near future. >> and they made that claim to another network this morning of which they're speaking exclusively to, but the kcpd, captain steve young, has called that absurd and says he has had no conversations with investigators about any arrest coming. megyn: ray, thank you so much for the update. we will stay on this, and we will have that captain young back on the program in just a short time, and we will ask him all of these questions. in the meantime, we've got this fox news alert for you, live pictures coming in from new york city as wall street protesters have now showed up outside the home of a corporate executive. can you imagine this? they're upset about the taxes that millionaires pay, among other things.

whose particular house this is, i cannot tell you, but we looked up most of these five executives, and they employ hundreds of thousands if not tens of thousands of people. stu varney minutes away on what's behind this, and should they be going to people's homes. to be more environmentally aware,

we are now printing on the back sides of used paper

and we switched to fedex cause a lot of their packaging contains recycled materials. tell them what else fedex does. well we're now using more electric trucks and lower emission planes. we even offer a reusable envelope. now, can't we at least print on the back sides of used paper? what's the executive compensation list...? [ male announcer ] sustainable solutions. fedex. solutions that matter.

megyn: fox news alert, want to take you now to missouri where we have live pictures coming back to us of a search at a nearby home, a home that is close to the home of little baby, missing baby lisa irwin. here's a reporter on site where they are searching a well under a house. let's listen. >> only be down there for a specific amount of time before they bring 'em out, clean 'em up and search again. we're going to have continuing coverage of this as it develops. working for you live in the northland. megyn: there you heard he was explaining how they are getting the workers into the well. it appears now that they are actually sending people down into the well where they are confirming that they're searching for this baby, but not confirming exactly why.

our earlier radio reporter said they didn't have a specific tip that she had been brought there, but we will continue to monitor that. we've got the live pictures coming into the control room, and we'll update you as soon as we have anything. fox news alert now, the so-called millionaires march is now taking place in new york city. hundreds of the occupy wall street protesters fired up and taking their message right outside of the homes of some of the top five business executives here in manhattan. stu varney is host of "varney & company" on the fox business network, and nina easton is a fox news contributor. she's the neighbor of a bank of america executive who had this done at his own home by seiu protesters, and she witnessed it all. let me start with you on that, nina. >> yeah. megyn: forget what they're marching for. is it appropriate to have hundreds of people storming the private homes when they're not going to corporate headquarters,

the private homes of these individuals? >> right. yeah, this happened a year and a half ago. and, you know, megyn, i am a firm believer in the right of protest. it's very much a part of the social fabric of this country -- megyn: and here's the one on screen right of what happened to your neighbor, the bank of america executive. go ahead. >> yeah. but, again, when you take a protest out of a public street and you go up and you surround my neighbor's house and what was his, he was guilty of simply being a bank of america executive at a time when congress was debating wall street reform. was he treating his employees badly? no. was he guilty of something awful? no. he simply was an executive of bank of america. we had close to 700 protesters swarm across my lawn, onto his lawn, circle his home and terrorize his son who was inside. i think it's a case of where these guys can't get their, they can't get their, what they want, their agenda passed, they can't

get what they want through legal means, so they go ahead, and they trespass, and they, in this case in the new york now where they're trying to get, up the media attention on it. in this case where, when they protested my neighbor's home, by the way, as you recall, megyn, there was no media with it. they just brought along -- megyn: they department want media -- they didn't want media attention. >> they knew we'd all be criticizing it. they did not bank on the fact that i actually lived across the street, i wrote about it and commented on it afterwards. megyn: stu, it's the same group in part, seiu union, who's joined with these occupy wall street protesters in helping them get organized and go to people's homes. they seem to be upset, the seiu president had a piece out saying the one demand they have is to create jobs. is that how you do that? >> i don't think so. it look like a clear alignment of president obama who wants to tax the rich and the demonstrators who are now going

to the homes of the rich. they seem to be closely aligned in terms of policy, object i haves and now -- objectives and now tactics. i would have thought this was rather dangerous for the president to align himself so cleary with a movement -- clearly with a movement that is correct get out of homes and go to the private homes of executives. megyn: one of the homes they're going to is jamie dimon, a bank that was on it own two feet. >> he runses a bank which employs 250,000 people. do you think he's going to employ more people? the basis of this protest at jamie dimon's house is they hate the banks -- megyn: even the ones like jpmorgan chase that helped alleviate some of the financial crisis. >> they hate all banks. it's a blanket dislike, a blanket distrust. i have to stress it is surely dangerous for the president or leading democrats to align so closely with this kind of

demonstration. megyn: well, certainly nancy pelosi's thrown her support behind them, the president was begin the opportunity to comment and did not condemn them. what do you think? kelly@foxnews.com. breaking news right after this break.

♪ a refrigerator has never been hacked. an online virus has never attacked a corkboard. ♪ give your customers the added feeling of security a printed statement or receipt provides... ...with mail. it's good for your business. ♪ and even better for your customers. ♪ for safe and secure ways to stay connected, visit usps.com/mail actually, head & shoulders is for more than dandrf. itives me a healthy scalp and great looking hair. does it do anything else for you? no? no? yes. [ male announcer ] head & shoulders.

7 benefits. 1 bottle.

megyn: fox news alert, and there are major developments this hour including just momenting ago in connection with the investigation for missing baby lisa irwin in missouri. emergency crews, you're looking at live pictures right here, are searching a well at a vacant home nearby the baby's house. as police uncover a new possible lead in the case, and trace gallagher, now we have more on exactly what this police and the firefighters are doing at this house, and it is new information now. >> reporter: and the breaking news coming in from captain steve young, megyn, he's the one

who's been kind of leading this with the kansas city police department telling one of our bookers now that this was, in fact, a tip that was received which is what led them to this house. and what you're looking there on the left-hand side of your screen is a well under the deck of a vacant house. this house is about .5, maybe a half mile away from where the irwin house is. it's about a three and a half, four-minute walk, maybe a minute and a half drive. they got a tip, and what they're doing, it doesn't look like time is of the essence here, that there's a great sense of urgency. well, there is, but they don't know how secure this well is. now the firefighters, what you're seeing there is a reporter scrambling, getting in front of his camera because that's how the local stations are getting their breaking news. they're trying to secure the well to make sure it's safe. we're going back to taped pictures now to make sure it's safe so they can go in there and thoroughly check out this well. he wouldn't tell us exactly how

or why what they believe they're finding in this, but this, again, we're going back to pictures of the deck above the well. they want to go in and search, and this was -- megyn: and this is live. >> reporter: no, this is back to tape. no, this is live. kind of confused. tell me, live or tape? is. megyn: this is live now. >> reporter: okay, megyn. okay, these are live pictures now. they want to make sure the deck is secure before they go beneath that end of the well. then they're going to make sure the well is secure for the safety of the firefighters and then go down in the well and check out this tip that captain young says just came in. as you're looking at these pictures, remember, a couple of other hot items, we just learned that they have now confirmed the mother did buy box wine, napkins and paper plates at a store with an unidentified man five-and-a-half hours before lisa disappeared. there is surveillance tape at the market where she bought these of her and the

unidentified man. on top of that, the aunt, a woman named ashley irwin, told "good morning america" todaythah bradley is prepared to be arrested at any time. now, the police are knocking that down saying we have no reports, no investigators have mentioned anything about an arrest, but it clearly makes sense that the police are focusing on deborah bradley because deborah bradley has said as much, saying that police told her point-blank, we believe you did something to your child after she miserably failed -- her words, not mine -- that polygraph test. you can see the reporter there for our fox affiliate in kansas city. they are now going wall to wall with this because of this new tip that came in on the well beneath the vacant house in the neighborhood where the irwin family lives, and we are now just waiting to find out when the well is secure, when they go back inside that thing, megyn. we'll keep you posted all along. megyn: and i just want to go

over then what we have learned in the past couple of days about the police leads on this case. i want to point out to the viewers on friday we closed the show with the police searching a landfill. nothing came of that. so the fact that they are searching does not necessarily mean they will find something. that, however, i believe, was not on the basis of a tip. this we are now learning, according to the police captain, captain young, this is that they have been tipped off to search in this location. by whom we do not know. what exactly they told them they would find, we do not know. we are now getting it confirmed from the police what we brought to you earlier. we had this through our local affiliate, now we have it from the police that, indeed, they found a receipt inside the mother's house that showed she had purchased a number of items from a local store. they went to that store, they got surveillance tape. it was five hours before she put the baby down, and she was buying a box of win, paper plates and a napkin with an unidentified man.

police know who her husband is, so why is he being described as an unidentified man? and where has this taken them as the mother reportedly tells the little girl's aunt she believes her arrest will take place soon. we have much more on this right after the break, and we will bring that to you, including captain young who is going to be joining us. stay tuned for that. we just got word that the attorney general of the united states, eric holder, will hold a news conference in 30 minutes. now, you can bet that the fast and furious gun-running scandal will come up. he has yet to speak to that on camera. this will be significant news if he speaks to this issue on camera. he and top republicans in the congress on both sides, the house and the senate, have been at odds over what he knew and what he, whether he told the truth in disclosing what he knew about this botched federal gun-running sting and whether

the justice department either has been misrepresenting itself on this or was incompetent with respect to the facts. we're going to go to break now, but this is all coming up. captain young, breaking news and eric holder with a press conference. don't go away. [ male announcer ] tom's discovering that living healthy can be fun. see? he's taking his vitamins. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups. yeah, maybe not. v8 v-fusion juice gives them a full serving of vegetables plus a full serving of fruit. but it just tastes like fruit. v8. what's your number?

fiber one. h, forgot jack cereal. [ jack ] what's for breakfast? um... try the number one! [ jack ] yeah, ts is pretty good. [ male announcer ]alf a day's worth of fiber. fiber one.

megyn: fox news alert, from the campaign trail, the fox news political team has now confirmed that new jersey governor chris christie will endorse mitt

romney for president just hours before tonight's gop debate in many new hampshire. this is a key endorsement for governor romney and one that was sought by other gop presidential hopefuls. ray sullivan is the communications director for one of them, and that is governor rick perry. he may just be hearing this along with us now. ray, thank you for being here. last time you were on, i asked you if you'd like governor christie's endorsement, you said you would. it was not to be. your reaction? >> well, that's the way it works in this business sometimes. the northeast republicans are sticking together in this case. we've got a debate tonight that's supposed to talk about the economy. i've got a governor, governor perry, who's got the strongest jobs record in the country, six balanced budget, cutting billions in spending. that's really what the voters want to hear about, how to get this economy turned around. we feel like we've done that in the state of texas. governor perry's got an agenda to get america working again, and that's what we're going to talk about the next several

hours tonight for the debate and then on the campaign trail going forward. meg what has governor perry been doing to prepare for this debate that is different from the way he prepared for the last couple of debates in which even his own wife admitted he did not perform very well? >> he's spent a lot of time in the last few weeks with voters in iowa and new hampshire and some of the early states listening to their concerns, articulating his message to them. and that's really the best thing we can do, is to get our good, solid finger on the pulse of the american public and to articulate the governor's agenda. he's, he's been getting better and better every day on the trail, and we do view this as a long haul. the governor's got the resources, has the job creation, economic record and the vision to go the long haul in this campaign. we look forward to tonight but realize this is just a step thing stone to the early primary states coming up here in the next 90 days. megyn: and, ray, with respect,

governor perry's been dropping like a stone in the polls including, and particularly with respect to herman cain, and i just want to show you what i'm talking about and show the viewers too. new hampshire, where the debate is tonight, governor romney's now at 44% in the latest poll. perry is down at 6%. in new hampshire. six, behind cain and paul. here's iowa. romney's at 23%, cain is second at 20, perry is down at 10%. take a look at virginia. romney is up at 21%, cain also has 21%, perry is third at 13%, ten points behind. and american research group poll which is just a general poll shows romney at 25%, cain at 26 and perry 10, 11 points behind at 15%. these are the early states, these are critical states, and this is a general election poll by the american research group showing your guy is way, way behind.

how do you turn that around? >> two observations. one, that a large swath of the electorate is solidly opposed to governor romney who has been running for five years, so there's a conservative bloc. our hope is to build on the governor's conservative record. we've got a lot of time and be a lot of resources to do that. the polls and the electorate has been very fluid in these early states, that's why the governor's working so hard in iowa and new hampshire and is going across the country talking about the things that people care about; bringing jobs, we've done that, balancing budgets, we've done that, cutting spending, we've done that. and the governor's going to be laying out a good, solid jobs and economic policy here in the next several days and weeks, and we're optimistic that this fluid electorate can come back around to the solid, true, proven conservative in this race, and that's my guy, rick perry. megyn: why do you think they're

going with cain in particular over perry? he's been out there giving his message, governor perry has, and and yet they seem to be going in droves for herman cain over rick perry. >> that's kind of hard to explain. look, like i said, the electorate is fluid. it's, the electorate has, this election has a little bit of an "american idol" feel to it these days. sometimes folks are up, sometimes they're down. bull my candidate, governor per -- but my candidate, governor perry, has never lost an election, has come from behind before and has that jobs record that i described and will be putting out solid public policy to get america working again here in the next days and weeks. and we're optimistic that there's plenty of time to turn things around, there's plenty of time for us to solidify that conservative base of support that we have had, will continue to have and will continue to build going forward, and we're optimistic. this is a marathon, not a sprint, and we're in this for the long haul, have a resources,

the ground game in those early states, the financial support and most of all, that conservative record and vision to get things moving in the right direction. megyn: an "american idol" feel. so that would make -- chris wallace is going to have to be simon cowell. i guess bret baier, i know he's gone now, he'd have to be randy, and i'd be paula. i'm really dating myself now. i know they've updated the cast. ray, thank you so much for coming on. >> my pleasure. megyn: all the best to you. we've got breaking news in the baby lisa investigation. in three minutes, we speak with the police captain who has been involved with this investigation from the beginning. he has been very forthcoming to us about what they can and cannot confirm, and they are confirming quite a bit today as we look at live pictures from the scene not far from the baby's house where the authorities are right now searching a well. that's right after this break.

megyn: fox news alert, and we are now awaiting details on reports of a significant terror plot targeting the united states. our producers in washington tell us that attorney general eric holder and fbi director robert mueller will be holding a news conference in about 20 minutes, a fact we reported to you earlier. the topic we did not know, now we are getting these reports: that the plot reportedly involves iran and plans to bomb both the saudi and israeli embassies in washington, d.c. as well as to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states. the details as being reported by another news agency now suggest that the operation that our government conducted began in may when an iranian-american from texas approached a dea informant seeking his help to assassinate the saudi ambassador. again, a news conference on what we are being told was a foiled terror plot by iran targeting

the continental united states and these embassies. in less than 20 minutes, right here. another alert now as the news is breaking in missouri in the search for baby lisa. emergency crews at this moment are searching a well under a deck at a vacant home that is nearby the home in which this little girl lived. joining me now by phone is captain steve young of the kansas city police department, he is currently at the abandoned house where this search is taking place. captain young, thank you so much for being back with us. >> which thank you. megyn: i understand it was a tip that led to the search here. what did the tip say? >> well, from what i understand, it was just, you know, one of many be tips that we've had and have been farming detectives out on, and is it's just basically have you checked the abandoned house at this location. so detectives came out here and found that the house, clearly, was abandoned, but in the back underneath the deck is a well, and, obviously, there are many more reasons to check it than

not, so that's what we're doing now. megyn: how many people are on scene? >> i don't have the dimensions of the well, but clearly it's very deep. the fire department is helping us out right now, and i just saw a water department truck pull up and some power companies, so it looks like we might be trying to drain it, but that's a guess right now on my part. megyn: are these emergency operators in danger as they do this? >> well, i mean, obviously, it's risky for the firemen to, you know, be lowered down there by lopes and things like -- ropes and things line that, but i think they've abandoned that effort, and they're just going to try to drain it first and take another look. megyn: it is chilling to watch the effort and know what they are looking for, captain. let's talk about the latest in the case. >> right. megyn: now, tell us about this new report that in the home of deborah bradley who's the mother of little lisa irwin, police found a receipt that led them to the festival foods store and showed and identified some surveillance tape showing deborah bradley on the night in question doing what?

tell us about what happened there. >> well, as much as i've tried not to talk about details of the case, i am going to address this one mostly on the request of the store so they can get back to normal, as you might imagine, they've been a little inundated with media. clearly, there was some evidence or, rather, some surveillance video of the mother in the store with somebody else, and the detectives wanted me to pass along that everything has checked out. it is not information that's going to break the case. it shows that she was at the store at that time, but beyond that there's really no drama or scandal or anything that requires further pursuit. megyn: and when they say an unidentified man, does that mean someone other than her husband? >> well, i can tell you that we know who the person is, and they assured me there's no drama around it, and it's not going to help the case whatsoever. so in that regard, i'll address it. megyn: let's just put it to rest then. is there a theory being investigated by police that this woman was with some other man drinking wine or in any, that that was in any way connect

today the disappearance of this baby? >> well, i can't speculate on what the detectives might be using as a theory, but clearly according to video she was in the store with another person. it was a man, but i don't know who it is, but they assure me it's not important, and it is not going to further the case at all. megyn: okay. >> it just shows that she was there, nothing more. megyn: had the mother revealed that to police prior to this? >> i don't know. megyn: okay. what, what, if anything, can you tell us with respect to these reports that there are cell phone records showing she made a call at or around 2:30 a.m. on the night lisa went missing? >> unfortunately, that falls into the category of investigation details. i've heard it floated around among the reporters out here, but i'm not even going to follow up on it with detectives because i know i can't address it. megyn: understood. captain, i've been meaning to ask you this question, and i mean no disrespect to the family, but it is dr. michael baden raised with us once. has there been any questioning of the two young boys who were

also at home, a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old? >> >> well, i can say this, that, you know, it's clear they were in the home, and i assure you our detectives have done everything that anybody might imagine they would do. megyn: and are they under suspicion in any way? >> >> i haven't, i have no information on that at all. i haven't heard it even floated as an idea. megyn: okay. and are the police yet confirm what the mother reported friday, which is that she took a lie detector test and failed? >> i'm not going to get into confirming the family, and the mother and father are free to talk about whatever they would like, but i have restrictions on what i can and can't say, and really the case is the most important thing for us, so i'll not go there. megyn: and on that front, and i want to tell our viewers a different law enforcement member did confirm that, that she failed and failed miserably. another report that a young man was seen in the neighborhood, and folks are describing him as, quote, a handyman who had been around a week before that, maybe

two weeks before lisa disappeared. is that a lead that police are investigating? >> i wouldn't call it a lead so much as everybody knows we saturated the area and did canvass, and we're trying to account for and make sure we've spoken to everybody that either lives and/or frequents the area and, obviously, people are going to take longer to locate, but beyond that i don't believe it's much more. megyn: are the apartments cooperating with the -- parents cooperating with the police again? >> >> yes. the story's the same. i hesitate to where i'm setting the bar when i have to announce when we're talking, how long, but i'm just sticking with they're still talking with the detectives, and, clearly, we're very happy about that. megyn: as we look at those live pictures of the search at the well, one doesn't know what to feel, whether you close the case or what. >> yes, i understand. yeah. megyn: we thank you for the efforts that you have put into this case, and thank you for coming on. >> thank you. i'll pass it on.

megyn: a major alert, fox news now confirming a significant terror plot with targets inside the united states. our producers in the washington tell us the attorney general, eric holder, and the fbi trial courter, robert mueller, will be holding a news conference in ten minutes.

megyn: welcome back, folks. and we are now awaiting details on a significant terror plot targeting the united states. we are now being told the attorney general will be holding a news conference along with the fbi director in about five minutes. fox news is now confirming that this plot involves iran and plans to bomb both the saudi and israeli embassies in washington as well as a plan to assassinate the saudi ambassador to the united states. jennifer griffin live at the pentagon with the breaking details. jennifer? >> reporter: well, megyn, we've just confirmed, as you said, that there was according

to the dea and fbi a plot to assassinate the saudi ambassador. it is a plot by a nationalized american citizen, an iranian-born citizen. he is from corpus christi, texas. he met earlier this year down in texas and on the mexico border in mcallen texas with somebody that he thought was a member of the zetas mexican cartel, and he began a procedure where he was trying to get, get their help in assassinating the saudi ambassador. of the fbi has logged him, has tracked him for the last few months, and we're going to hear more details about this case. but the plot involved not only assassinating the saudi arabian ambassador, but also blowing up the saudi embassy as well as the israeli embassy here in washington, megyn. megyn: now, do they believe that this man actually worked for the iranian government, jennifer, or

was working in many connection with the iranian government or that he was simply claiming that? >> reporter: they believe that -- he has a cousin in the iran, they believe that that cousin is a member of the iranian revolutionary guards. they, the man traveled to iran earlier this year. the fbi says that they have recorded phone calls back to the united states that suggest, that give the details of this plot. um, it is, you know, the details are just coming out as we speak, but again, they're going to lay all of this out at the top of the hour when attorney general eric holder addresses a press conference from the justice department. megyn: jennifer, my understanding from the initial reports is that he is now cooperating with our federal government which could lead to more arrests. >> reporter: well, that's true. the question is, how broad was the plot and did it involve other u.s. citizens. um, but, again, they believe this man is connected to the iranian revolutionary guard in

iran through his cousin, a cousin who lives in iran. megyn: understood, jennifer, thank you. that news conference is now three minutes away, right after this break. stay with us, breaking news.

diabetes testing? it's all the same. nothing changes. then try this. freestyle lite® blood glucose test strip. sure, but it's not gonna-- [beep] wow. yep, that's the patented freestyle zipwik™ design. did it just-- [both] target the blood? yeah, drew it right in. the test starts fast. you need just a third the blood of one touch.® that is different. so freestyle lite test strips make testing...

easy? easy. great. call or click-- we'll send you strips and a meter, free. free is good. freestyle lite test strips. call or click today. with advanced power, the 4g network makes everything faster-- smartphones, laptops, tablets, mobile hotspots. but not all 4g is created equal. among the major carriers, only verizon's 4g network is 100% lte, the gold standard of wireless technology. and while other carriers may have limited lte coverage, verizon is the largest lte network in america and ever-growing. with verizon 4g lte, stream shows and movies without buffering, and play multi-player games with no lag. watch live nfl games on thursday, sunday, and monday nights. video chat with no delay. download songs on rhapsody in just 4 seconds. and access thousands of apps. plus, come to any verizon store and choose from the largest selection of 4g lte devices anywhere. the most 4g lte coverage and access to the hottest content and thousands of apps.

verizon is the nation'fastest and most reliable 4g network. verizon. built so you can rule the air. megyn: fox news alert. we are now live in washington, as we await a news conference by the u.s. attorney general, eric holder and head of the fbi, robert mueller, we expect them to be revealing details of a significant terror plot that has been thwarted, targeting different institutions inside of the united states. we understand the conference will begin momentarily, and this is what we know so far about the plot. that it involves iran and plans to bomb the saudi and israeli embassies in washington, d.c., as well as to reportedly assassinate a saudi ambassador to the united states. so far, now we are being told two men have been charged in the plot, one, a naturalized u.s. citizen from iran, and we will have

this news conference shortly. the details as we know them are that this man, 56 years old, was claimed he was being directed by high ranking members of the iranian government and had a connection to the iranian revolutionary guard, that he, in an attempt to organize these bombings, reached out to a dea informant who he believed was, in fact, someone else, that he was dealing with, that he was connected to a mexican drug cartel. he wanted to use that drug cartel in connection with these assassinations and rain-siar, an american iranian, agreed to pay this dea informant up to $1.5 million for the assassination of the saudi ambassador, and had actually made famous -- made payments, wired two payments of nearly $50,000, one on august 1st, 1 on august 9th to general counseled --

undercover bank account after returning to iran, that shows affirmative acts towards the crime being charged. it appears the feds have him on that, according to law phonement, at least odown payments for the assassination were made. the federal agents claim the fbi and dea have reported a number of phone conversations and meetings between this informant and arab-siar, some of them from iran. again, now, the target was to bomb the saudi arabians embassy and israeli embassy in washington, d.c., as well as take out the saudi ambassador. joining me now to put some perspective on this is neil livingston, a terrorism expert on the phone. what do you make of these reports. it shouldn't come as any surprise. iran is the largest and most continueous base sponsor of trim out there and is

responsible for having killed more americans than any other country. obviously we've been dealing with al-qaeda rose recently but iran goes back to the bombing of our marine barracks in beirut in 1983 with 240 people killed, they bombed the israeli embassy in argentina. this should not come as a surprise to us that iran has deeply engaged in acts of terrorism. megyn: well, neil, this raises all sorts of questions. i mean, if in fact the iranian government was behind this, or connected to it, as this arab-siar seems to claim, what does that mean for our u.s. government, our policy with respect to iran and what we do next? >> we've been very wishy washy on iran. initially, the obama administration wanted to have a dialogue with the mullahs in tehran and later during the iranian spring and demonstrations in iran, we waited weeks before the

president even commented on the situation there. so those in the state department and elsewhere that want age gaugement with iran, this conspiracy certainly suggests we should not have any engagement with them, we should step up our activities to undermine that government, to isolate it, and obviously, it's a country that's trying to develop nucleolar weapons right now, and our allies, like israel and even saudi arabia, are deeply, deeply concerned about a nucleolar-armed iran. megyn: now, obviously, i would expect that you -- you tell me, but that the iranian government will deny any role in this and it looks like from the initial reports this man was claiming he was directed by members of the high ranking iranian government. i guess we'll hear from eric holder whether we believe that is in fact the case, but if we get a situation where our government makes the allegation and the iranians deny it, do we take any action, based on

historical events, neil? >> well, we have only a limited number of things we can do that are going to be meaningful with iran, but we have already -- we already have sanctions on iran and we are also trying to address with a meaningful coalition their nucleolar weapons program. but i think that this would -- if we have the goods here, if indeed a direct connection can be made through rain-siar and those within the iranian government, i think we have to consider other things. right now we've even got one of the iranian opposition groups on our terrorism list. i think we should take them off. it's a very meaningful thing to do immediately and we should step up our cooperation with saudi arabia and israel in addressing this situation. one of the reasons they were probably going after saudi arabia is that there are a lot of reports right now that the saudis are cooperating very quietly

with the israelis in the event that the israelis decide to attack iran and take out their nucleolar weapons facility. so this is a very, very dangerous time in the middle east, very dangerous situation with iran, and i don't think that the administration can remain neutral any longer. it really needs to step up its actions to undermine that government. megyn: mahmoud ahmadinejad, the iranian president, has said he would like to see israel wiped off the face of the map, he's made no secret of his feelings towards iran. that clearly says something as well. this plot, we are being told, was not about bombing saudi target in saudi arabia or an israeli target inside israel, but those two targets inside of washingtond.c., inside the united states of america. as well as an assassination of a saudi ambassador to the united states of america.

three main and major targets, not just saudis and israelis, but americans as well, and apparently, according to the indictment, we will be told that rain-siar, a naturalized u.s. citizen, keep in mind, expressed and i quote, utter disregard for the collateral damage at the planned -- that the planned bomb attacks in washington would cause. i want to get live to jennifer griffin with the news. >> reporter: megyn, we have a few more details about how this plot came about. back in july, this informant, this naturalized iranian-born american citizen, met with an fbi informant, he thought that he was meeting with a member of the mexican during cartel in renosa, a city on the mexican side of the border across from mccallum, texas and that's where they started hammering out the details. he flew, then, between july and september 28th, he flew to iran, he was in iran, he managed to have two wire transfers of money to what

he didn't know at the time was an undercover fbi bank account. he sent two wire transfers of about $49,000 apiece. the payment for the assassination of the saudi ambassador was supposed to be $1.5 million, but he did manage to send two wire transfers. he also made some telephone calls from iran to the united states. those were recorded by the fbi, we understand. and then on september 28th, he tried to fly back to mexico, where he was going to have a final planning session, we're told, but the mexican authorities didn't allow him into the country. his plane, he was i diverted to new york, when he got off the plane in new york, that's when he was arrested by the fbi. at that point, we understand that he began cooperating with the fbi, the case is under jurisdiction in new york, but those are some of the details we have at this time about how this plot was going to -- how they eventually caught him. megyn: i want to tell our viewers, we were given a two

minute warning during jennifer's report, we are about a minute away. jennifer, do we know when this man was arrested, do we know the time something. >> well, i believe it was around september 28th, if not september 28th, because he flew to mexico at that time, there was supposed to be a final planning session, but the mexicoan authorities wouldn't allow him in. they sent him to new york, and when he got off of the plane in new york, that's when he was arrested by the fbi. megyn: and any understanding as to why, you know, here we are october 11th, why the delay in letting us know? is that par for the course? >> reporter: well, i think at this point in time, we're only learning about this publicly right now, but there would have been a time where they would have been interrogating him, if he's cooperating with him them -- with them, they were pursuing leads he gave them. there were two people arrested, we don't know much about this second individual, but we should know more, attorney general eric holder is about to speak from the department of justice. mig what happens at the pentagon, the building you're in now, jennifer, in response to something like this, will they comment? what will they do, if

anything? >> reporter: right now, the pentagon would not be commenting. we've called over to the state department, everybody is going to let the department of justice take the lead on this right now, but certainly, the state department is going to have to have a reaction, at a certain point, because this deals with -- this is an international issue, we're dealing with a potential foiled attack in washington, d.c., and if the culprits -- if the fbi believes they have links going back to iran and involving the saudi ambassador on u.s. territory, that is an international issue. megyn: certainly is. stand by as we await the attorney general. we expect him out momentarily. i want to get back to neil livingston if i can for a quick moment before we hear from the attorney general. neil, how bold is this? >> well, this is very bold. i have a department across the street from the saudi -- an apartment across the street from the saudi embassy, across from the kennedy center, this is in the heart of the washington, d.c., and the israeli

embassy has very good security, it's set way back off the street, but the saudi embassy is extremely vulnerable, particularly to a vehicle bomb. so this is -- and there probably would have been very high collateral casualties there. so this is a very, very serious plot and it could have been of a very serious magnitude in terms of the damage and casualties. so the fact that it has been preempted is extremely important right now. megyn: and neil, let me stand you by as we listen to the attorney general. >> good afternoon. today, the department of justice is announcing charges against two people who allegedly attempted to carry out a deadly plot that was directed by factions of the iranian government to assassinate an ambassador here in the united states. monsoue arab-siar who holds an iranian passport and was arrested last month in new york is accused of working with members of the arm of the iranian revolutionary

guard corps to devise an international murder for hire scheme targeting the saudi arabian ambassador to the united states. according to the complaint filed today in the southern district of new york, abab siar orchestrated a $1.5 million assassination plot with golan shakori, a member of the force and other iranian coconspirators. the force is a member of the iranian revolutionary guard -- guard corps and is suspected of coalitions forces in iraq and was designated by the department of treasury in 2007 for providing material support to the taliban and other terrorist organizations. the conspiracy was conceived, sponsored and was directed from iran, which constitutes a flagrant violation of u.s. and international law, including a convention that explicitly

protects diplomats from being harmed. in addition to holding these individuals and conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot, the united states is committed to holding iran accountable for its actions. abar-siar and shakari are charged with plotted to murd an official, use weapons of mass destruction and commit international terrorism, among other charges. abab-siar has been in custody since september 29th, 2011, sakori, based in iran, remains at large. according to the complaint earlier this spring, abab-siar met with a confidential envelopant from the drug enforcement administration posing as an associate of a violent international drug trafficking cartel. the meeting which took place in may and in mexico was the first of a series that would result in international conspiracy by elements of the iranian government to pay the informant

$1.5 million to murder the ambassador on united states soil, according to documents we filed today in court. according to the complaint, those discussions led abab-siar with shakuri's approval to facilitate the wiring of approximately $100,000 into a bank account in the united states as a downpayment for the attempted assassination. the complaint also states that in the days since the defendant's arrest, he has confessed to his participation in the alleged plot, as well as provided other valuable information about elements of the iranian bottom's role in it. the disruption of this alleged plot marks a significant achievement by our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, as well as close cooperation of our partners in the mexican government. i want to commend the outstanding work of the agencies involved in this investigation, including the fbi and director mueller, who is here with us today, as well as the drug enforcement administration, and michelle lenhart.

their agents and their analysts worked closely with prosecutors at the department's national security division, as well as the southern district of new york over these many months to monitor this alleged conspiracy, obtain valuable information, and bring one of the primary plotters to justice. i want to thank them for their remarkiable work and i'd like to turn it over to director mueller. good afternoon. this case illustrates that we live in a world where borders and boundaries are increasingly irrelevant. in a world where individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug trafficking cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on united states soil. it reads like the pages of a hollywood script, the impact would have been real and many lives would have been lost. these individuals had no regard for their intended

victim, no regard for innocent citizens who might have been hurt or killed in this attempted assassination they had no regard for the rule of law with these charges we bring the full weight of the law to bear on those responsible and we send a clear message that any attempt on american soil will not be tolerated. this was not a typical case for any of us, given the global ties we unraveled and the scope of the plot itself, but it represents the full range of threats we face and it illustrates the need for continued collaboration, collaboration between agencies, departments, collaboration between countries. we have said it many times before we it's worth repeating, it's only working side by side to prevent plots like -- like this

before they take hold. we will continue to find those who seek to do us harm whether they attempt to strike overseas or here at home, whether it's a conspiracy to kill a foreign official on u.s. soil, a terrorist attack on united states citizens, or street crimes in our communities. >> now let me turn it over to lisa monica. >> i want to echo the remarks of the attorney general and others here today in thanking those involved in this operation. this is a significant milestone and achievement in our national security efforts. as you have heard, the facts as alleged today and in today's criminal complaint shed light on an assassination plot that was conceived and sponsored by elements of the iranian government. thanks to a coordinated law enforcement effort, we were able to penetrate and thwart the plot before it could result in harm to the

ambassador or anyone else. i want to thank the men and women of the national security division in particular, those from the division's counterterrorism section and other sections within the division, for their efforts in helping to shepherd this case and for their efforts in the extensive coordination that was required to arrive at today's results. this case more than any in recent memory involved an incredible amount of collaboration, with partners over several months. were it not for the hard work of the division and its many partners, we wouldn't be standing here today. i want to thank our partners in the u.s. attorney's office for the southern district of new york, for their extensive and hard work on this matter, i also want to acknowledge the work of the prosecutors in the houston u.s. attorney's office, and of course, the many investigators at the fbi, dea and new york joint terrorism task force. they deserve a special

commendati for thwarting this plot and obtaining information on those behind it. finally, i want to thank the intelligence community for its critical role in this matter. the national security division was designed to serve as the place where intelligence and law enforcement come together at the justice department. i am proud to say we served that purpose here. this case demonstrates exactly how the division is suppose to work and should serve as a model for future cases. thank you and i'd like to introduce the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, pete ferrera. >> thank you assistant attorney general monoco. as has been described, the complaint unsealed today reveals a well funded and pernicious plot that had as its first priority the assassination of a saudi ambassador to the united states. the details of that murder plot are chilling to say the least. as the defendants allegedly

had no care or concern about inflicting mass casualties on innocent americans, on american soil, and in furtherance of their assassination plan. for example, as set forth in the complaint, when the confidential source noted there could be 100-150 people in a fictional restaurant, where the requested bombing would take place, including possibly members of the united states congress, a lead defendant, acting on behalf of a component of the government of iran, said no problem, and no big deal. and as we allege, the defendants showed they were more than ready, willing and able to carry out their plan by, among other things, causing $100,000 to be wired through a new york bank as a deadly downpayment for their hired gun. and it didn't stop there. the saudi ambassador's assassination was allegedly intended to be merely the opening act in a series of lethal attacks cooked up by the defendants and their cohorts in iran. like the speakers before me i want to thank all the partners responsible for

unraveling this plot before it ever even got off the ground. our work, as has been said, is a collaborative effort among intelligence agencies that share an unflagging commitment to keeping americans safe both at home and abroad and protecting representatives of foreign governments while they are guests in our country. i want to commend director mueller and the fbi for its outstanding work on this unprecedented and very much ongoing investigation, specifically, also, the houston fbi office for its tremendous work and also the new york joint terrorism task force and our partner in so many cases, janice dipardic of the new york office. i also want to thank the houston office of the dea for their important role in this investigation and of course, the attorney general and his staff, assistant attorney general, lisa monoco and our close colleagues at the national security division for their tremendous leadership and support. finally i want to acknowledge the dedicated career prosecutors in my own office in the southern district of new york, glen

kopp and edward kim, along with michael farbiarge michael strausser, richard zable and jonathan pilabner, none of the people that have been mentioned by me and others have gotten much sleep lately, and we're all safer because of it. today's charges should make crystal clear that we will not let other countries use our soil as their battle ground. thank you. >> any questions you might have? >> when you say you're going to continue to hold iran accountable, what exactly do you mean by that? >> well, we'll be working with our colleagues at the white house, at the state department, at the treasury department, and they will be taking further action which they will be making more -- will be making known in the next few hours. >> to be clear, mr. attorney general, to what degree are you saying that the iranian government was complicit? did they know about this at the outset, did they direct it, order it, what exactly

are you saying? >> well, the organization that i referenced in my remarks is a component of the iranian government. as we've alleged in the complaint, this was directed and approved by elements of the iranian government, specifically senior members of the iranian islamic revolutionary guard corps and iranian military, high officials up in those agencies which is an integral part of the iranian government who were responsible for this plot. >> does it extend to the up per regions of the iranian government knew about this and blessed this? >> we are not making this charge at this point. >> were the -- what about the other attacks to follow and what was the understood motivation or purpose behind the overall plot? >> we are restricting our comments today to that which we have charged in the complaint. >> why were the charges brought in new york? and were there any charges

to be brought in d.c.? >> as is the case when you have an international plot that touches a lot of different jurisdictions, cases can be brought in a lot of jurisdictions and one of the bases for the jurisdiction to be in new york, as i pointed out in my remarks, that there was a $100,000 basement, which was a downpayment on the alleged assassination attempt, and that traveled to a bank in the southern district of new york. >> mr. attorney general, besides the wiring of the money, what were the overt acts? did anybody obtain explosives? >> the answer to that would be no, but the complaint alleges just a couple of overt acts, there are the discussion of conversations that took place, meetings that took place, the complaint did not allege that explosives were actually purchased. remember, as the complaint lays out, the entire time this operation was being investigated the confidential source was operating under the guidance and monitorship of fbi and

other law enforcement agents, so those were never placed anywhere and no one was actually in any danger. >> can you tell us what role the mexican government played in the investigation of this? i mean, with the subjects traveling back and forth, can you tell us how they were involved? >> well, i can simply say that we have all commend dollars the mexicoan government for their cooperation with us, and in this, helping us uncover the plot, helping us ultimately unwind it. i don't want to go into too much detail as to what the nature of the cooperation was, but it was significant, and i don't think that without it, we would have been able to accomplish what we have announced today. >> are there any other suspects at large in the united states? there's a reference here to others who have conducted surveillance in washington. are there any folks that

were part of this still in the united states that you're looking for? >> we don't believe there are any other coconspirators present in the united states >> did the iranians know the ambassador's favorite restaurant since it was discussed, or was it something that the confidential informant, now -- came up with? second, why is the other person, how is he still at large? >> i'm not going to -- i don't think it's appropriate to comment on the second question. in response to the first question, we should just be clear, as the complaint lays out, it was never actually any identified restaurant. i referred to it as a fictional restaurant in my remarks. it was the way as which, as is laid out in the complaint, the confidential source was providing information to the people paying him for this assassination plot. as for the details and the way in which he was going about setting up which was requested of him after the payment of money was made.

>> could you elaborate a little on what kind of attack this was supposed to be, whether it was to be a car bomb or what sort of attack? >> directly to the complaint, it's not a very long document, there's a discussion in the complaint about the way in which the assassination attempt would go off and if memory serves, i think there's a discussion between the defendant and the confidential source about the best way to do it, whether it should be indoors or utdoors, whether it should be a bomb or otherwise, and at some point, again, it's pretty explicitly laid out in the complaint, there's a discussion of using explosive devices, which is why one of the charges is use of a weapon of mass destruction. >> mr. attorney general, this case seems to have culminated at the same time over the two hikers -- there were negotiations with the hikers. was any consideration given from the state department to the timing of this? >> these cases -- this case was brought as the facts

warranted, as the facts dictated. we have been at this matter for a number of months, and the attorneys in the u.s. attorney's office, southern district of new york, our colleagues in the national security division, worked on this matter irrespective of other things going on. >> at what point was the saudi government brought in? >> i'm not exactly sure when they were notified, but they have been notified, and they will be reacting as well. in a public fashion, very soon. are there other countries that are in danger or threatened? >> with regard to this conspiracy, i think one has to be concerned about the chilling baich of what the iranian government attempted to do here, and one of the things that our state department will be doing will be getting in touch with other of our allies and nations around the world to make them aware of exactly what it is that was thwarted here today.

>> i have to ask you about the -- the report is they are preparing subpoenas on the hill to get information from the justice department naming top officials in the justice department. apparently the people on the hill, your critics say, they just don't believe your testimony in this. what do you have to say about that, how will you comply with the subpoenas? >> we have sent thousands of pages of documents up to the hill, with the subpoenas, we will undoubtedly comply with them, but what i want the american people to understand, in complying with those subpoenas and that inquiry, that will not detract us from the important business we have to do here at the justice department, including matters like the one that we have announced today. thank you. megyn: and there you have it. a 30-minute news conference by the attorney general of the united states, his deputy, the head of the fbi, robert mueller,

and the u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york which has somewhat of a tangential connection to this case, but enough to actually charge the defendants here in new york. in the federal courts, they could have been charged in d.c., new york or elsewhere, they decided to do it here in new york. the sum and substance of the presser was that a man, 56 years old who has both an american and an iranian pass port was plotting to kill the saudi ambassador to the united states. you did not hear them mention the plot against the saudi and israeli embassies, but fox news has confirmed along with other news organizations that that did become part of the plotting and is part of this story, that this man was working with the iranian revolutionary guard, and you heard the attorney general say that the plot was conceived, sponsored and directed from iran from senior members of the

international, of the iranian revolutionary guard. he would not go so far as to say the iranian government itself -- one would assume he means ahmadinejad -- was behind this or blissed it. but eric holder saying that the white house, the state department and the treasury will be making their plans known in the next few hours on what should be done with respect to iran in the wake of this news, this terror plot that's been thwarted and saying that we, the united states, will be getting in touch with other allies to alert them of the role of the iranian government behind this plot that would have shed massive amounts of blood on u.s. soil. and it would not, you could hear in the attorney general's comments, have just been the saudi ambassador. it was made clear to this man that untold numbers of civilians here in the united states would be killed. they had no problem with that. he and his co-conspirator who was an iranian, part of the quds force and has yet to be ap

apprehended, he remains at large. joining me now is kt mcfar lane, let me ask you what i asked neil prior to the break. this seems extremely bold even for iran. >> yeah. i mean, this takes it to a whole new level of iranian aggressiveness. there's good news and bad news in this. the good news is that the fbi and the u.s. intelligence services acted decisively and very capably to shut this thing down, but the bad news and the news that will sort of, you know, residual importance is that iran has now moved into a new era with this. iran has historically acted through others, through hezbollah in syria, but now iran in the last several months has become much more aggressive in its own region, and now as we see internationally. iran sense warships through the suez canal off the coast of israel, iran continues with its nuclear weapons program. but if iran is now willing to

conduct assassination attempts on u.s. soil of foreign diplomats, it really puts iran in a whole new rogue state light. now, think about it for a few minutes. iran couldn't get these people in saudi arabia or in israel, right? so they're looking for another country to attack them with. the united states is a hard country to do that in. megyn: right. >> it would be much easier to find some third world country -- megyn: so what does that tell you? >> >> they want to make a point that they can reach into the united states and do something of that level. so far we've only seen al-qaeda which has wanted to attack on u.s. soil. but now iran is taking this a whole new level, and so much for, you know, president obama extending the hand of friendship to iran. they don't want any friendship, and thai making it -- they're making it pretty clear. megyn: you have eric holder saying that the united states is committing to holding iran accountable. what does that mean? sanctions? i mean -- >> well, we've already done that. megyn: they don't contain --

>> they don't care. megyn: has its eye on the united states, and that's been clear. >> well, we've had sanctions, but we've been unable to get a lot of other countries to go ahong. presumably, we're going to ramp up efforts on sanctions. technically, you could construe this as an act of war. now, you could make a lot of excuses saying, well, it wasn't the iranian government, it was parts of the iranian government. megyn: well, speak to that. before you go on and finish that point, speak to that. there's the iranian revolutionary guard, and then ahmadinejad and the government there. this is the revolutionary guard. >> yes, this is the quds force which we have designated as a terrorist organization. it's a military, yes, it's also a paramilitary, but it also owns and operates a lot of businesses within iran. so it's like the military industrial complex of iran. now, some scholars have said, look, there's this civil war going on with iran, there's a split between ahmadinejad and the clerics, there's a split

between ahmadinejad, the military and the clerics. frankly, you know, i've been reading and hearing about these conflicts within the iranian government since the carter administration, since i was in office in the reagan administration, so i don't give it a whole lot of credence. i don't think something like this happens at this level with this potential for real disaster if it goes wrong, which it seems to have done, unless it was something sanctioned by a good bit of the leadership of the iranian government. megyn: and i want to pick up on your point then if this is or can be considered an act of war, what does that mean? is that a decision that our government will make, whether to use that terminology? and if they do, does that not raise the stakes? >> it raises the stakes enormously. what are things that we might do other than sanctions? i mean, we can scold them, but that's not very effective. we could put a blockade around iran. europe, certainly, if iran continues with its nuclear weapons program and thumbs its nose at the world, it lends credibility to the idea that the

military option should not be off the table, for example. um, but i do think iran, this is really risky behavior on their part. they've either got to assume that the united states is not going to respond, or they assumed that the united states would never find out about it, or they assumed that they would be success. any one of those assumptions is a very high-stakes poker game that they just put down their cards on. megyn: because you have to think of what would have happened if plot had been successful, if they had managed to bomb the israeli embassy inside of the united states, inside washington, d.c., bomb the saudi embassy inside washington, d.c., close friends of the united states. assassinated the saudi ambassador inside the united states and killed who knows how many american civilians along with them. there would with no question that that was an act of war, would there? >> well, that's like al-qaeda bringing down the twin towers. to me, that's a very similar thing. and what it points out, too, is again, we think of al-qaeda as

the one on a worldwide jihad with the united states, but what this shows is iran is willing to consider this a worldwide conflict. um, and, again, i think that that is -- i'm not sure what their game is, and i'm not sure anybody knows what their game is, even themselves, but it really is entering a very high-stakes poker game. megyn: kt, thank you. stand by, if you would. joining me now for more is walid phares, terrorism experience. let's pick up where kt and i left off, and let me ask you, is this an act of war? should the united states even consider treating it as such, or does that elevate it to a level it does not justifiably get to? >> let's go bottom up. number one, for the iranian services, revolutionary guard and others to have enough networks, cells or individuals capable of striking inside washington, d.c., the federal capital, that is the first thing that comes to our mind in terms of homeland security. and if they have it in washington, so where else they

could? number two, if, indeed, it's the iranian revolutionary guard and the quds force in particular, if that is the case, we're not talking about a branch of government going loose. we're not even talking about ahmadinejad. this organization, this agency -- and there's a consensus on that for those who are with iran and those who are against iran -- takes their instructions from the supreme leader, from the office of the supreme leader, eye ayatollah. so this is a central decision by the iranian regime to strike against the national security of the united states and also to trigger conflicts in the middle east. because when they would bomb, they were planning on bombing embassies, one is the saudis and the other one are the israelis, you know, they're talking about triggering a conflict in the middle east. and the third dimension if i may say, this doesn't come alone. when they planned such a strike, strategic strike inside the city, you know, inside washington, d.c., it means that they have other things that they wanted to do in the region

against the saudis and against the israelis. megyn: well, that's another question. if there is this plotter who we discovered and, apparently, just to update our viewers on what we know, there is a man, 56, an iranian-american who was behind this plot. he was caught when he contacted what he thought was a representative of the zeta drug cartel. in fact, it was a dea agent out of our houston office. he tried to get what he believed to be the zeta drug cartel in mexico to work with him on this assassination. in fact, he was working with undercover dea agents who brought in the fbi as well. he took several affirmative actions towards completing the crime including wire transferring up to $100,000 to the person he believed was working with the stay thats -- zetas. $1.5 million was the agreed upon term, $100,000 wire inside two different payments on august 1st and august 9th to the fbi undercover bank account was what

happened. he was ultimately arrested at jfk airport trying to get into mexico. they turned the flight away because he was on it, and that is how we got this guy. his co-conspirator is still at large. washington lead, now back to you. if this, if this man has been, was so bold as to be seeking explosives, to be wire transferring money, to be told that there'd be countless numbers of u.s. civilians and say that's no problem for me, are we to believe or suspect there are other plots potentially in the works? >> well, first of all, the plot itself must be wider. we'll give it to the agencies in government to tell us more. one man cannot, you know, perform all of that by himself alone. so first thing we need to know is how many others are connected to him. there could be iranians, there could be also ally to iranians. remember, hezbollah has a presence in the united states, hezbollah has developed, also, a presence throughout the hemisphere. but we will have to wait for the government to get more information. but the other thing is that we

don't know if iranians would have claimed it or if they would have framed some other group, some jihadi group and did the strike against the saudis and israelis and force sort of dramatic developments in the middle east when the arab spring is taking place. or this would have been a strike claimed by the iranians, or was something else. remember, the iranians are becoming very bold. this is a very bold conspiracy. they have placed some of their task forces in the mediterranean, they have some of their units coming to venezuela, they are training in venezuela to speak spanish as well. so we have to put the big puzzle together. what was the meaning of that projected strike? megyn: last question. the fbi director said that we are sending a clear message that any attempts on american soil will not be tolerated. how? how can we do that? >> first of all, we want to make sure that the iranian regime doesn't have other strikes in preparation. we really don't know. we're like a 9/11 botched, but we don't know exactly the length

of it and the dimension of it. but the united states, of course, is present in the region. it's surrounding iran from many places, so the iranians want to strike our homeland security, i think u.s. government has capacity in sending a strong message to the iranian regime. but we are really early now in trying to understand what they were trying to achieve on our soil. megyn: walid phares, thank you so much for your expertise. again, the attorney general says we will be hearing from the white house, the state department and the treasury, he believes, saying they will make their plans known within the next few hours about how exactly the u.s. plans on holding iran accountable for what the government is saying was a potential terror attack inside the united states of america. we'll have much more on it right after this break. [ male announcer ] in blind taste tests, even ragu uss chose prego. prego?! but i've been buying ragu for years. [ thinking ] i wonder what other questionable choices i've made? [ '80s dance music plays ]

[ sighs ] [ male announcer ] choose taste. choose prego.

megyn: back, now, to our alert on this terror plot that has been foiled by american law enforcement.

hatched in iran, according to our attorney general, it was conceived, sponsored and directed from iran, in particular from an element of the iranian revolutionary guard. the attorney general would not go so far as to say that it was the iranian government itself. in the upper echelons, although you heard walid phares suggest that would have to be the case. nonetheless, moments ago the white house weighing in on this saying in a paper statement, quote, the president was first briefed on this in june and directed his administration to provide all necessary support to this investigation. disruption of this plot is a significant achievement, he writes, of the intelligence or by our intelligence and law enforcement agencies. they write that the president is enormously grateful for their exceptional work in this instance and in countless others. now here is what attorney general eric holder said with respect to iran's role and where we go from here about a half an hour ago. >> the complaint alleges that

this conspiracy was conceived, was sponsored and was directed from iran and constitutes a flagrant violation of and international law including a convention that explicitly protected diplomats from being harmed. in addition to holding these individual conspirators accountable for their alleged role in this plot, the united states is committed to holding iran accountable for its actions. megyn: joining me now is texas congressman ted poe who sits on the house committee on foreign affairs. congressman, thank you so much for being here. your reaction to this breaking news. >> well, the iranian government, obviously, is involved, and they are so bold that they believe that they could commit an act of war against the united states and face the consequences. and to me, it is an act of war that was foiled. one other thing, i think, that's important is that the iranian terrorists, if you will, thought that he could work with another terrorist group, the zetas in mexico, and show influence in the united states by funneling

money and drugs to the zeta cartel to help facilitate the murders here in the united states. so i think it's an act of aggression. we should not be surprised, we have to remember that ahmadinejad said a few years ago that when he gets a nuclear weapon, his first bomb is going to israel, and the second one is going to the united states. so i think they mean it when they say that they believe that we are an enemy of iran, and they want to do something that hurts us, and we need to show that we are willing to let them be held accountable for their actions. megyn: but what does that mean? what does it mean to hold them accountable? what does it mean to say that this is an act of war, in many your view? >> if they had actually gone through with the bombing in washington, no doubt that would have been an obvious act of war like pearl harbor, like 9/11. and we're not dealing with a group of terrorist cells that have no borders, we're dealing with another government, and we would retaliate to that. what we do now, i think, it's up to the administration to give a

hard look to make sure there are some consequences for this action. specifically, what we do i'm not really, could say what we could do, but we need to be willing to show that we are not going to tolerate acts of aggression against the united states. megyn: you know, we already don't have diplomatic relations with iran they've already been subjected to numerous rounds of sanctions, many of which are, you know, hurting the iranian people. i don't say that in a judgmental way one way or the other, it's just a fact because the international community in large part has imposed these sanctions on iran, but none of it seems to work, congressman. none of it seems to stop their emboldened leadership from antagonizing israel, antagonizing the united states, and, you know, eric holder's now saying that the upper echelons of the iranian government are behind this, but he's clearly pinning this on iran in general and on the revolutionary guard. i think a lot of folks are going to wonder what more effectively can we really do? i mean, we're not going to bomb

iran, are we? >> no, i don't think that that is going to be the answer. although there has to be some type of consequence or retaliation. you know, iran is showing aggression in iraq by supporting the insurgents there. they show aggression throughout the world. they're moving their fleet towards the united states. they want everyone to know that they are the big bully in the middle east, that's why they are going after saudi arabia who has been the stabilizing factor. and ahmadinejad, obviously, does not care what we think because he will continue these aggressive actions. we have to do something rather than say it's not nice for them to do such horrible things to the united states. what those specific things should be, should be left up to the department of defense and, of course, the president. megyn: the department of defense, interesting. congressman, thank you so much for your thoughts. the president releasing a statement saying that he was first briefed on this issue in june and directed his administration to provide all necessary support to the investigation. a couple of the critical events

happening in august as wire transfer payments toward the crime were made, up to $100,000. we're going to have an update from our own william la jeunesse on some more details right after this break. fr

megyn: back, now, to our breaking news this hour, and this is a thwarted terror plot hatched in rapp aimed at targets -- in iran aimed at targets in the united states, in washington, d.c. in particular. the attorney general telling us that the suspect in the case, manssor arbabsiar has confessed to the crime, that he was mirandized, keep in mind he is an american citizen, but there will be controversy about that. he was mirandized, he confessed and then provided valuable information regarding elements of the iranian government's role in this plot. there is a twist in this, and

that is the terrorists who hatched the plot tried to recruit the mexican drug cartel operating along our southern border to help them. here's fbi director robert mueller on that. >> this case illustrates that we live in a world where borders and boundaries are increasinglier relevant, a world where individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug-trafficking cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on united states soil. and though it reads like the pages of a hollywood script, the impact would have been very real, and many lives would have been lost. megyn: william la jeunesse with more in los angeles. >> reporter: i think this underscores two points. number one, the cartels control the worder. -- border. secondly, the importance of confidential this hasn'ts not just in the drug war, but in national security. this is actually a transcript of

a proceeding at a federal case in chicago involving the number three or four guy in one of the cartels, and in it -- this is from thursday -- the government argues that the testimony of confidential informants must happen before a special master because there is so much national security involved in the what they have to say in the regards to this prosecution of the drug cartel member, that it has to be done before a special master who's been appointed by the nsc, basically, before anything can be held in open court. and finally, the nexus, of course, with fast and furious is that the fbi allegedly knew all about that for 18 months but did nothing about it because of the importance of their fbi confidential informant that was so high up in the cartel, there for national security reasons, that the guns were allowed to go back and forth. that's the allegation, back to you. megyn: want to tell our viewers that the attorney general was asked about fast and furious and said that he would comply with the new round of subpoenas that are about to be served on him by the republicans in the u.s.

house. we'll be right back. he's takin. new one a day vitacraves plus omega-3 dha is a complete multivitamin for adults. plus an excellent source of omega-3 dha in a great tasting gummy. one a day, gummies for grown-ups. ♪ [ gong ] strawberry banana! [ male announcer ] for a smoothie with real fruit plus veggie nutrition new v8 v-fusion smoothie. could've had a v8.

,