>> good evening, i'm bret baier this, is a special edition of "special report" following president obama's speech to the nation, we'll have his plan to deal with isis terrorists president vowing to go after those that threaten america. he is promising we'll have plenty of help and committing american air power, expanding it to syria, vowing there will be no american combat troops on

foreign soil. ed henry begins our coverage tonight. >> we'll conduct a campaign of air strikes against terrorists. >> aides say the president decided that after playing defense, over a fumbled message about whether he had a strategy and would try to turn isis into a manageable problem, it's time to go on offense to a prime time audience. . >> i will not hesitate to action in syria as well as iraq. this is a core principle of my presidency. if you threaten america, you will find no safe haven. >> a stark reversal from when the president said the guiding principle is merely don't do

stupid stuff. after consulting with king abdullah. now, the president is calling on congress to amp up support. >> the result is that people see american weakness, a lack of resolve. >> the president weeks ago mocked syrian rebels, deflecting criticism from clinton. >> it's always been a fantasy this, idea that we could provide some light arms or even more sows fi ti indicated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors pharmacists and so forth. >> the president took u.s. ground troops off the table. and he stressed this would be more like u.s. drone campaigns

that had mixed success. >> strategy of taking out terrorists. >> asked what it will take, 51% say it will require ground troops, 47% say air strikes. 22%, unsure. whether the u.s. should be doing more, 76% say yes. 15% say no. convincing the public he's up to the task will be a hard sell, with fox poll finding 57% use weak and indecisive to describe the president's leadership on foreign policy. now, on the positive side, white house sees momentum from this new iraqi government which is why secretary of state kerry was there predicting it will have

nine nations. bret? >> thank you. >> let's bring in our special expanded panel. okay, first of all, thoughts on the speech. charles? >> this was a military speech. there wasn't a lot in the plan. it's obvious stuff meaning an air campaign to support iraqis ask kurds on the ground which we've been doing and then, analogies to yemen saying what we're doing in yemen and somalia, both failed states we've been doing nothing except pin prick attacks that knock out a leader or two. hasn't changed anything on the ground. this is a political speech,

because this is a president trying to save a collapsed presidency. numbers cited about the lack of support confidence in the effect that if he were a prime minister he would be out of office. there is a way to try to tell america america is safer, who believes that? it's got a president that will have not a lot of american that's believe that today with the speech and after the speech. >> you mentioned house armed services chairman had this to say about that. i remind him that al qaeda and arabian pin anyone shah remains most capable of attacking the american homeland. al shabab continues to carry out attacks against american western interests, recruiting fighter rz

from the united states. >> the president knew he had to say things i spoke with lawmakers in the hour after the speech. both parties all said, he said the right things. they're waiting to hear he'd take the fight to syria. that it would be relentless, it will take years that he will destroy isil. that he is calling on moderate muslims to join the fight. he says there is no safe haven for terrorists the problem is that he said other things that were laugh lines. that one member says the president of ukraine is coming to congress next week he'll have a different opinion of that. they're going to be watching in months still to come.

but in the months still to come he's going to have to exhibit he is engaged for sustained, long fight. >> headline is that president set out a strategy not to achieve it. what i was looking for is something signalling that the president was seeing the world differently, the threat differently than he had before. there was no such epiphany. he modelled the strategy presented tonight on somalia and yemen. he said before that he wanted to go after isil the way he had gone after al qaeda, which is only reassuring if you think the strategy against al qaeda has been successful, which i think most people don't. there wasn't much of a change from the president i don't think, aside from tougher rhetoric that is this something we'll look back on and say this is a turning point in the way the president addressed this threat.

>> the president is promised our air power and someone else's troops. he uses this and if there is anything that modern military history repeatedly taught is information of the power. it's powerful. it's important. can do wonderful things who is going to take that? the president talked about targeted air strikes. that is a give away minimizing. this is surgery strikes. going up against isis is not a great military force. when it ran into syrian army, it's going to take air power plus. who will be the plus remaining after the speech?

>> just august 8th, the president calling that force incapable. that is no question the free syrian army is not close to the free syrian army we contemplated helping two years ago. in that sense, it's not likely to produce the kind of results the president hinted at. tonight in its speech. we've seen them team up with other radicals in the region, and we've seen them ally at times in moments of convenience with the al qaeda affiliate and in ways fighting isis the president the idea is going to turn and arm doctors and pharmacists he didn't want to arm before i think suggests his credibility problem, he's flipped on many different aspects. the war on terrorism was going to be over. this group that was a jv in

january is worthy of a major campaign of the world's super power and all of its friends. >> there are calls for him to come up and get auj sayings. >> there is a sense among everyone i've spoken to that though people want to dodge the vote, people want to dodge a vote, that when you start out at a united front, accidents happen, planes go down. in those days he'll regret not coming to get near unanimous bipartisan support. there is a strong feeling this is a fight against good and evil. >> there is a terrible disconnect between ends and means. he talked about the rebels and syria and being composed of doctors farmers and pharmacists.

now, apparently his aim is to destroy isil. the way he will do it in syria is with u.s. air power and that is not very credible and i'm sure they're not quaking in their boots at headquarters in isis you've got the same feeling hearing him today as you did after the speech he gave in 2009 announcing serge in afghanistan, he announces the serge in the next sentence and a date of withdrawal. you've got that sense today of uncertain and you know what will happen in afghanistan. >> more with the panel in just a few minutes first going live to

the threat of isis exporting terrorism to the u.s. is to a larnl degree behind the president's decision to go on the offense in the middle east. so what do we know about the group's possible plans for america? reporting unfortunately not much. >> the rise of isis as a viable terrier network is a combination of factors including what is described as the lack of interrogation policy. >> you should hear no more talk about treating this as a matter for law enforcement. the idea terrorists are just

criminals of a different stripe has been a dog ma since the very beginning. >> mr. obama promised to shutter the guantanamo bay detention camp. now, when high value targets are captured, they're temporarily questioned at sea, and in katallah case on the uss new york and not sent to guantanamo bay for long term interrogations the obama administration expanded the drone campaign that began under president george w. bush and supporting by leading democrats >> if you're going to take out al qaeda or isis, you have to take out their leadership, smash their leadership. >> while impossible to capture everyone, such as the african affiliate, critics say killing virtually every terrorist leader made it harder to identify their partners. >> justice from 30,000 feet has

resulted in a treasure trove of information not being gained through lawful intestify investigation. >> the obama administration never reached a status of the agreement in iraq. when remaining u.s. personnel were withdrawn, a valuable function was lost. >> the day we pulled out of iraq, we went deaf and blind in that region. we're about to do the same in afghanistan. >> a former pentagon official says al baghdady was considered a significant capture in 2005. >> official said baghdady was questioned and dave up information before transfer to iraqi custody. the decision to release baghdady described as a surprise to us us officials bret? >> thank you. >> tomorrow, less than an hour here in the east is september 11th. amid and ahead of the solemn 13th anniversary, a look aat whether the tsa is trying to

this is a fox news alert. breaking news in the ray rice story. nfl said tonight former fbi director robert mueller will lead an investigation into how the league handled evidence of domestic abuse incident. today a law enforcement source told associated press he had a copy of the video to a lead executive.

nfl maintains no one saw the images before this week but tonight announced the probe, overseen by perhaps the most-respected owners art rooney and john marra of the giants. we're 30 minute as way from september 11th. what will be the 13th anniversary of the terrorist attacks. our new fox news poll tonight asks is the country safer today than before that day? 43% say yes. 45%, say no. one of the main ways the federal government has tried to prevent a follow up attack from the air was a creation of the transportation security administration. tsa. tonight my colleague martha mccowan looks at whether it's been worth the effort. >> it's a conversation we have among the inner agencies. what are we doing here? and with our partners overseas to try to make it more difficult

for terrorists to attack. >> isis leader baghdady in u.s. custody once vowed as he was being released quote, i will see you guys in new york how can we stop them? tsa claims in two months they've ramped up screening with overseas airports with nonstop flights to the u.s. >> certain airports, in europe, middle east, north africa particularly, we have additional requirements. the power electronics and this type of thing. >> challenges for tsa to weed out good guys and bad. it's an enormous task. agents screen 640 million passengers and 1.5 billion bags per year. >> we've tried to dopt a rule of thumb to move away from one size fits all f you look over that needle in hay stack, you can make it more likely we'll be

able to identify and prevent terrorists from getting on the flight. >> while tsa is evolving some critics question it's effectiveness and expanse and say screeners have never stopped a terrorist. chris snieer, author. >> i think it's been a waste of money. we spend billions on one threat. both richard reid and under wear bomber, alert passengers stopped it. >> tsa administrator and former fbi agent points outs that would be bombers never went through our check points. >> we thought since september 11th have come from overseas and there hasn't been a terrorist trying to get on here in the u.s. we know that that is because of the bad guys seeing u.s. as being one of the most-secure

aviation systems in the world. >> snyder calls it security theater. >> we screen for bombs, terrorists use box cutter. we screen shoes they use liquids. take away liquids they put a bomb in under wear. put in full body scanners they're going to do something else, it's a stupid game. we should stop playing. >> i want the world to know how much danger the american transportation security administration is doing. >> tsa watch dog jonathan corbitt says he put a body scanner to the test. >> if you have a metallic object it will be the same color at the background, invisible to visual and auto mated inspection. you can watch i walk through with a metal object. >> tsa says the stanner you used is an old scanner. >> they have new soft wear, but i tested this new version.

but it doesn't matter what software is on it. this is a limitation of how they physically work. >> his findings were backed up by a team of researchers from uc san diego, university of michigan and johns hopkin who's put a moldable putty bomb-like device across the stomach and succeeded in passing through. it's believed the bomb maker behind the under wear bomb is working on a new way to get past our system. tom cane is concerned. >> the latest twist is we have not got the machinery to pick them up we know that. homeland security knows that. we're working hard to find machine that's do pick it up. they're not there yet. >> big element is how to find the new terrorists with us us and european pass ports are they on our watch lists? do we know the hundreds of people we're concerned about?

>> there is a group of known terrorists that wanted washington to receive secondary screenings, other who's will not come up on anyway, they're concerned because they need to get on a plane here. they're not on any watch list. there is no information. and they're planning to do something bad for the day. how do we protect against that? and through our layers to be informed on the trial. >> the president played out a plan for dealing with isis we'll get more reaction from our

greatest threats come from the middle east and africa. and one of the groups is isil,

calling it self islamicstate. now, let's make two things clear. isil is not islamic. no religion condones killing of incents the vast majority of the victims have been muslim. and isil is not a state. >> president obama tonight talking about his new campaign, against isil, isis, islamic state. let's bring in our panel once again. george, that is part of the intro to the speech. what did you make of that? >> a little bit on. isis is -- lots of people say it's islamic. this may be the president's feeling obliged to be politically correct there are islamic people in our country. they are great americans.

clearly, isis stands for islamic. that is what it is. this may be a per let's just say it's a strain that occurred. it's also something both patronizing and ridiculous for a western christian to be telling the muslim world what their religion is about. particularly a religion with a 1400 year distinguished history of theological. it's probably what he does when it's raining and he can't be playing golf. >> we have taken a lot of comments already from, about the president's speech. for many viewers one just wrote in from hawaii. jason says aloha. after the obama administration's criticism of civilian casualties as a consequence of israeli air strikes in gaza, i'm interested

in how the panel feels the administration will respond when that is levelled at president obama after isis goes to ground in population centers. interesting question. steve? >> yes. it is an interesting question. one of the things i think the president will have to deal w i suspect his argument will be look, given context of the broad syrian civil war and upwards of 200,000 civilian deaths most at the hands of the regime, but also, at the hands of isil, that is the price we pay to eradicate this threat. >> congressional reaction. two democrats have come out with statements, there have been others but two notable running for reelection. mark in colorado and said this. i believe in expanded u.s. military role in the fight against isil. saying he's against arming the

syrian army. before air strikes. what do you think of that? >> this issue divides the democratic party. it's no secret barack obama has a promise to get out of a dumb war. he beat the clinton political war and said he couldn't on this issue. they're free to take a vote tieing them to the new war. that will likely turn sour. parties are divided to what we're doing there. support for air strikes but that is a war that just has been a lot of talk about. there can't be boots on the ground. the opposition to arming rebels. we have boots on the ground. no one is going to train any rebel from the air. so if whether it's a free syrian army or anyone else, only way to help them stand up to expand down later is on the ground.

and everybody knows that. because they fear they, you can talk about training and intelligence and use different noun buzz what will this look like six months from now? >> looking at polls and current environment, if a vote was to go to congress would it pass? >> it would just depend what it looked like. if it's very isis specific, open ended, it would depend people do not want a new resolution to an open-ended permanent war. so it co-would depend. people feel something needs to pass. it's a role of the congress to weigh in. but specifics is another beast. >> i think what the polls are

showing is tremendous reaction. mosul is taken over the second largest city in iraq. a video showing humiliation of america, contempt isis is showing for obama in doing this. there is a huge change in the polls given that, this is a president driven to give this speech by the polls given that i can not imagine if he had a constitutional deyensy courage of presenting it to congress for a vote up or down to authorize what he is outlined here he would get a yes. . >> i was struck by the claim we're safer now. it's at odds with the kind of things we've heard from top intelligence officials.

clapper said he'd never seen the environment like we have now. and that it's a bigger challenge because the threat is far dispersed when you have someone like james clapper saying he hasn't seen a threat environment like this in 50 years, you think does the president think things improved? nobody else does. >> politics and next

i made it clear we'll hunt

down terrorists that threaten our country. that means i will not hesitate to take action in syria as well as iraq. this is a core principle of my presidency. if you threaten america you will find no save haven. >> what the president did is layout his answer to himself. he said i do have a strategy. here it is. he gave us this battle plan. it's time to take a look at the military axes yom and what happensr2v if this doesn't work question. learn something about this in syria. >> yes. >> we have viciousness not on the scale we've seen with isil but ethnic cleansing and massacre in europes. well, international community

and in the form of dutch . we tried to cope with this from 15,000 feet. for 70 days we did this. this is once we said air power is not working. that is what did it. the question comes back i hate to keep harping on this. who is go toing take cities back? who is going to be on the ground? and what does the coalition look like? he says i can announce america will need a broad coalition to do, to roll back this threat. he doesn't mention a member of the coalition. he doesn't give us idea of a

number. he doesn't tell us what they're going to do. is there going to be a single soldier on the ground? probably none. they'll be holding our coats and writing checks he tops that by saying in two weeks i will chair a meeting to mobilize international community around this effort. it's fictional as broad coalition. and something as part of a grand strategy. >> and the grand strategy over all. >> yes. he did not describe tonight this in the context of the middle east, did not mention israel or libya. i did say he doesn't solve the crisis once and for all.

begging the question if we decimate does the thought have to go anymore? so he left out complications. and you do have to answer those questions. >> well, finish up with steve and talk about

>> tomorrow marks 13 years since our country was attacked our safety, our security depends upon our willingness to do what it takes to uphold values we stand for. >> are we safer? the panel just minutes from the anniversary of the september 11thth attacks and latest polls we showed earlier in the show, the question on a fox poll are we safer than before september 11th? it's upside down. steve, you talked about that. that, you know not a lot of people are buying that line if you talk to terrorist experts. >> that is true.

it's coming into focus over past couple years the president on the one-year anniversary of the killing of osama bin laden he and many people went out and sort of celebrated the end of osama bin laden's signalling the coming end of al qaeda. john brennan then top white house advisor put a date on it. one thing is important to remember as we talk about what the president said tonight, talk about the threat from isis is that it's part of a much broader threat. we can't forget the rest of al qaeda still exists. there is an affiliate in syria. that threatened to attack the u.s. homeland. there are affiliates in yemen, somalia, throughout north africa that present a threat. it has to be a part of a global campaign i worry the president is trying to take that on by itself. >> george? >> well, we're not perfectly safe. and we should not want to be. or try to be because that is incompatible with a free and

open society. still, if someone had said, anyone here had said we're going to go from september 11th, 2001, to 2014 with no serious terrorist attack from overseas we have been astonished and pleased. somewhere, somewhere, anonymous americans are doing something right. . >> i argue we're safer than we were on september 11th because our count story far better prepared. you might not think we're as safe as we were on the inauguration of barack obama in 2009 but safer than when we're first attacked. this is scary. what -- george is right we're not september 10, 2001. >> charles, the credit is the administration of george w. bush

and nothing created infrastructure, a lot of it flawed but affective that kept us there. nobody who lived in washington, d.c. on that day or new york expected six months without a second attack i think that is a what the bush administration did, including interrogation, and guantanamo bay. including even overreach in a lot of the wars and the nature of the strategy morphed. there is less of a chance of an attack on the u.s. the real problem is a offensive in baghdad to exposure. isis is infiltrating the suburbs of the baghdad and that is an a temptation any enemy would want to use. >> panel, thank you for sticking around so late. we leave you tonight just seconds from the 13th anniversary of the september 11thth attacks with a look at the national september 11th memorial at ground 0 a tribute to nearly 3,000 people

killed in the terrorist attacks at the world trade center, near shanksville, pennsylvania and pentagon memorial's twin reflecting pools feature the largest man made water falls in north america and the names of every person who died in the 2001 attacks and 1993 bombing are inscribed in bronze panels around those pools a stark reminder on the greatest loss of american

>> president miomising strong a against the group isis. >> we will degrade and ultimately destroy isis. >> the president laying out his plan in a prime time address which includes aryrebels. >> after running into enormous criticism last month for admitting he didn't have a plan tore strategy to take on isis the president used his prime time address to outline a four-point plan. >> first we will conduct a systematic campaign of air strikes against these terrorists. we will give support on the ground. we will continue to draw on our substantial counter-terrorism capabilities to prevent isil attacks. fourth, we will continue to