a dark day in the city of lights. multiple terrorist attacks in paris last night reportedly leaving at least 158 dead. a great number more are wounded. thanks for joining us. >> we were just seeing reports of many more people in critical condition, so we are anticipating some movement in the numbers. friends and relatives are taking to social media at this hour searching for their loved ones. france is tightening its borders and deploying 1500 additional troops around paris. schools, universities closed. and even disneyland paris, which this is rare, is closed now to the public. it's decided on this saturday it

will not open its doors. the attacks are spread out at cross at least six sites and here's how it unfolded. >> there is the soccer stadium, one of the first explosions believed to be a suicide bomber. two suicide bombings explosions happening outside that national stadium during a friendly soccer match between france and germany. within minutes another group of attackers spraying cafes outside a concert hall with machine gun. and then they stormed inside the bataclan concert hall, opened fire there on the crowd, leaving the worst carnage of all. >> the paris prosecutors office is saying eight attackers are dead, seven of them in suicide bombings. security forces killed the eighth attacker, but police say there may be accomplices. so far no one has claimed

official responsibility for the attacks, but terrorism experts say the islamic state terror group is at the top of their list. >> french president hollande colleged th pledged that france would stand firm against their foes an respond mercilessly. president obama calling it an attack on all of humanity. as we mentioned, we cannot really give you a stable number of people who have been killed, 158 is the latest number we have that could go up or it could go down. more than 200 have been wounded, some in critical condition as harris mentioned. police believe all the attackers are dead, but they are in a frantic search for safe houses, accomplices, associates, anybody who was in on the organization of what appeared to be a fairly sophisticated simultaneous coordinated operation. joining us now on the telephone

is former united nations ambassador john bolton. ambassador, thank you for taking some moments with us. are these mass attacks in some ways a game changer in the war against radical islam? >> well, i think with any attack like this, this kind of tragedy, it ought to be a wake-up call to governments and people in western you're republiceurope a states who have been saying for far too long the war fence terror is over, we didnnt don'to be concerned about attacks that cause this kind of tragedy. it's just isolated lone wolf suicide bombers. as you say, we don't know yet for sure whether this is isis or al qaeda or some kind of combination. but it demonstrates that even in the heart of paris, even 11 months after the "charlie hebdo" attacks with increased security that this kind of affair is possible. and think it ought to be a warning as we look at these mass refugee flows coming out of the

middle east because of the syria/iraq conflict that many more terrorists could be entering europe and therefore be just a plane ride away from the united states. >> ambassador, this is harris. you know, a lot of times when this sort of thing gets reported, and i'll be specific, president obama said earlier in his first remarks that he was not the trying to reach directly out to the prenfrench president hollande because he was busy and that got some criticism. is that the norm? what is the protocol there? >> i was surprised by that. no doubt that the french government was consumed with the circumstances, but this is when the american president should come right out, make a quick call. he doesn't have to have a lengthy conversation. just to say we are with you, we will work together specifically if it's isis to destroy isis.

and i think this shows that the president still hasn't grasped the nature of the terrorist threat. he said it's an attack on all humanity. no, it's not an attack on all humanity. it's an attack on the west and that's what we need to understand. >> and i just want to get this in here, greg, because you were talking about solidifying the numbers of dead and ambassador you'll be along with us as we update this number for our assignment desk. 128 dead, that number revised down from 1358. now, that number could move again. but then now also revised is the number of people in critical condition. so you would imagine as people are accounted for at hospitals and their are kn notated, tahat those numbers wil fluctuate. when you talk about communication among leaders, you would imagine that the worst might have been communicated to france's government even though our presidents maybe at that

point had not directly talked. what happens next? who else are we likely on the phone with, what else does president obama need to be doing right now? >> several things. in the near term, we need to be coordinating at the level of intelligence and law enforcement agencies with france, with others in europe, and in the middle east to make sure we're doing everything we can to apprehend anybody who may have been connected with this terrible attack in paris. number two, that we are doing everything we can to find out if other attacks are possible. i think as the tragedy unfolded last night, people could see that the multiple attacks in paris were designed to divert police and public attention so that others would be more vulnerable. i think it would be a mistake to conclude this is it, it's not going to happen are somewhere else. which we don't know that we can't know that, we need to be ready for it. and then will number three, we need to be concerting our

efforts to go after the cause of this if it's isis to do what the president said his policy was, which is destroy it. but not ultimately. ultimately is a long time away. and while we've been waiting to ultimately destroy it, it's quite possible it's isis that has been planning out these multiple attacks. >> the united nations secretary ban ki-moon condemned these as despicable terrorist united nat security council will convene. it's appropriate to ask you as former ambassador to the united nations which role if any does the u.n. play or is this really up to france and its allies to go after these people? >> well, i think there was a security council statement last night, but that's probably about the sum total of the u.n.'s efforts. we have never through the u.n. been able to agree on a universally accepted definition of terrorism. and that's been one reason why

the u.n. has not been effective this countering it. i think this will be basically a western coalition with friends in the middle east and we do have a number in the arab world as well as israel obviously that we now immediate to get very serious about rooting out the remaining terrorist enclaves like what isis holds continue to worry about, taliban and al qaeda coming back in afghanistan and the deteriorating situation in a number of middle east countries like yemen, like libya. >> ambassador, given that isaiah appears to have been the one who brought down a jetliner over the sinai peninsula, russian plane, and so many people more than 200 on board lost their lives, the beirut attack three days ago, the list goes on and on, "charlie hebdo" in january, we could name a great many others, does it appear to you that the strength of isis is growing not

diminishing? >> well, certainly it if the attacks in air ris were isipari railroad isis-related combined with the russian jetliner, that is just one indication that others may be coming and that their capabilities and sophistication have been growing. so again thinking of these waves of refugees, hundreds of thousands, maybe millions from all across north africa to afghanistan coming in, we had estimates by the lebanese minister of information about a month ago that some 2% of these refugees could be terrorists. so that's thousands of people that are coming into europe. we had reports earlier this year from both european and american law enforcement that 3,000 to 4,000 people had gone to turkey on legitimate passports and

visas, their own passports and ve visas, disappeared into syria and iraq to be trained by voois and then to come back to europe and the united states. so the first thing is to find out if these people last night were people trained by isis. >> i have heard you say many times that nothing happens in a vacuum. the deal that we made with iran and what russia has done in terms of inserting itself in the air and on the ground with another country to shore up its ally about a similar bashar al can you look down on all of this and give us an idea your gut about what is happening with regard to maybe even what might come next? >> well, i think over the past seven years, we've had a decline of american interest, involvement and influence in the broader middle east. and i think we've seen terrorism take advantage of that, other

adversaries of the west and the united states. we've got isis right now creating a new country out of what used to be pieces of syria and iraq, state structures all around the region have come apart. libya is a perfect example of that. we think of the benghazi attacks. but it's because the central go. 's authori government's authority disappeared. warlord, terrorist groups had sprung up around the country and made impossible to enforcedisap. warlord, terrorist groups had sprung up around the country and made impossible to enforce stability and order. and terrorists can take root. so i think we have a lot of work ahead of us not simply to prevent this kind of mass attack, but to prevent the kind of terrorist threat that could ultimately lead to the use of biological chemical or god forbid even nuclear weapons. it's late to start, but better late than never. >> ambassador, intelligence has improved tremendously since 9/11

especially american intelligence. and some coordination with our allies. but intelligence is never perfect. here you look at the circumstances of what unfolded over the last several hours in paris, a very sophisticated coordinated simultaneous attack which claimed so many different lives, that to have been carried out required a great deal of communication. does this yuunderscore that we still need improvements not just america, but french and our allies in their intelligence gathering operations. >> absolutely. and you're right to say that our intelligence capabilities have improved. but it's a constant struggle of intelligence and counter intelligence against efforts to conceal and camouflage terrorist attacks or any manner of threats to the united states nuclear weapons programs for example. so we've had a lot of nonsense

spoken in this country frankly about the patriot act and its so-called threats to civil liberties. ask the people who are dead in paris what they think of that. i think this it now highlights in such a tragic way, we have to have an intense discussion in this juupcoming presidential ye about how to saefr guard the united states and its friends and allies around the world. threats of terrorism from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and more take strategic threats, as well. if we can't have that kind of discussion about the safety of the nation in a presidential election year, i don't know when we ever can. >> ambassador, thank you very much for being with us at this early hour, 4:13 eastern time in the morning. >> and i was just reading that they have the democratic debate that is supposed to happen tonight and now they will shift the focus of the debate.

it has to be foreign policy. it has to be exactly what ambassador said. we're in that time leading up to an election. >> and i'll coverage will continue in just a moment. we'll give you the latest on the americans over there amid this terrorist attack.

the impact from the attacks in paris being felt all over the world. here in the united states, there are no specific or credible threats of a similar attack according to the fbi and the department of homeland security. no americans reported dead, though he 70 are still unaccoun for. president obama saying these were not just attacks on the people of france, but attacks on all of humanity. let's go to james rosen. what can you tell us? >> reporter: good morning. president obama spoke by telephone with french president hollande at around 11:00 p.m. eastern time last night.

the white house said the two leaders pledged to work together to, quote, defeat the skcour dwchlt e ge of terrorism. earlier the president had said france is our closest ally. and reaction also pouring in from foreign leaders around the world. david cameron saying he is shocked and we will do everything we can to help. angela merkel saying she was deeply shaken by the news and pictures and iranian president rouhani called the attacks an inhumane crime and spokesman for the iranian foreign ministry added that the paris attackers are not loyal to any type of divine religion including islam. and just in the last couple of hour, we heard from the vatican with the holy see calling for

decisive response to quote/unquote homicidal hate str tread. john kerry issued a statement denouncing the attack saying the u.s. embassy in paris tread. john kerry issued a statement denouncing the attack saying the u.s. embassy in parishattread. john kerry issued a statement denouncing the attack saying the u.s. embassy in parishatread. john kerry issued a statement denouncing the attack saying the u.s. embassy in parisd. john kerry issued a statement denouncing the attack saying the u.s. embassy in paris is working to account for americans in the city. the members of eagle death metal are reportedly all accounted for, but published reports say some 70 americans known to have been in paris at the time of the attacks are not yet accounted for. so the state department has released a telephone number for american citizens who want to seek assistance in the event you have a family member in paris at the moment. that number, 888-407-4747. if you're calling within the u.s. if you're calling from outside the u.s., that's 202-0501-4444. as our live coverage continues. >> and we'll put that are information up too on our fox

news social pages. james, you are sticking with that number the 70 americans as well. and so those numbers hopefully will help their family members as they try to track people down. it's coming on 10:20 in the morning there in france. and our coverage continues right after this. yes, we are twins. when i went on to ancestry, i just put in the name of my parents and my grandparents. i was getting all these leaves and i was going back generation after generation. you start to see documents and you see signatures of people that you've never met. i mean, you don't know these people, but you feel like you do. you get connected to them. i wish that i could get into a time machine and go back 100 years, 200 years and just meet these people. being on ancestry just made me feel like i belonged somewhere. discover your story. start searching for free now at ancestry.com.

following moultiple terrorit attacks, all of france is in a state of emergency. joining us live to talk about this, our terrorism analyst matt graham, former intelligence officer andrew peek, and terrorism expert tom rogen. thank you all for being with us. top, let me begin with you.

the question is why. what is the motive behind this kind of a terrorist attack. it does appear to be islamic radical islamic jihadists. do they want to instill fear, do they want to perhaps engage in some determent scheme if in any involvement in french involvement in syria? what do they want? >> well, look, we will have to be -- the simple answer is we'll have to wait and see in the hours and days ahead. but in the short term, i think it's clear that these will be jihadists, that they are at lined with the kind of al qaeda islamic state notion of challenging the west in an existential way. i think it's a desire to use the pure wrist idea that you are trying to push people into a position of fear, break french society down. and again, there is a specific

interest in doing these kinds of attacks in europe in the sense after the madrid bombings in 2004, 2003, 2004, the impacts of that were such that it caused the spanish government to withdraw from iraq. so i think that there is a willingness in one sense to create a destrustruction of civ society in france and perception of lack of trust and lack of confidence and in another sense to drive up this banner of jihadists and say the ordained warriors of god are here to create a strategic effect. >> and i would imagine that that would make it even juicier for them to sell in terms of recruitment the, which is diabolical and very sad. matt, matt,i want on go to you your expertise in the use of weaponry. what do the details of how they were killing people tell you about their level of training? unfortunately, we are getting a

good close up view of how people died from the people frwho were able to get. >> the simplicity of what was used, you don't need a significant level of training to run an ak-47. that's why it was developed. that is a peasant rifle. and the size of takhat cartridg is devastatindevastating. so you can take someone with little or no skill and give them a rifle and they can create carnage. and you don't need a lot of training to blow yourself up. so it's really one of those pieces where it's not months and mocht months in a training camp. the key that we're not really talking about is it's the decision to act. >> yeah. >> that we should be looking at. you have eight individuals that will commit themselves to an act that ultimately ends in their own demise.

and they choose to do it. >> that's so interesting. because when you look at these things, a lot of times they're told from afar. but what you're saying, this is an internal thing. these guys have been radicalized enough that they don't immediate that faraway trigger. >> absolutely. that trigger could have come a month ago, it could have come a year ago. they made the decision to give their life for their cause prior to friday. >> how do we fight that? >> well, we need to go back to alex and tom and their expertise in the intelligence analysis and in the theology application of what goes on. i can tell you how we'll fight it on the ground and it's exactly what happened here. people with weapons are going to storm those buildings and put threats in the ground. >> andrew, let me go to you. it has been said of these terrorist groups, especially isis and to some extent al qaeda, that they are immensely skilled at recruitment. if you look at isis alone, they

have drawn in thousands of volunteers into their organization from a variety of countries. what is it they're good at, how do they do that? is it recruitment through social media, the internet? is it, you know, direct contact? how do they do this? >> well, there is two-fold operationally. yes, they're good at social media. they're good at twitter, they're good at facebook, they're good at posting these sort of snuff films on youtube. secondly, though, which we're not very good at, they're good at using symbols, right? they use symbols like executions in a way that is horrifying for us, but it is very powerful when it represents defiance to many young islamic men in places like france and britain and german. p >> and how to young islamic men

fall victim to this? is it hatred, is it a lack of understanding and education? what is it that allows them to be recruited in such vast numbers? >> well, that is exactly the $64,000 question, right? and it's a little unbelievable that 14 years after 9/11, right, we still don't really have a good answer for that. the bush administration's answer as you remember was that a lack of political freedom in the middle east cause this is growth in radicalism. but i think increasingly there is a feeling that somehow these sort of terrorist attacks and this sort of draw towards these ideologies are just organically tied to certain elements of these communities, whether young pakistanis in britain or france. >> andrew, tom, matt, stick with us. we'll come back to you. real quickly, this is from reuters. we need to independently confirm

this and seeing the video would help, too, if we can authenticate that. the islamic state reportedly has released an updated video in which militants say france will not live in face as long as the bombing continues. we would have to assume that has to do with syria. stay close.

a bit of breaking news from reuters. we'll have to independently do our own reporting on this, but this is hitting the wires right

now that the islamic state has released an undated video in which a militant says france will not live in peace as long as the bombing continues. and before we went to break, i was quickly trying to say that witnesses in that multiterror attack across at least six sites in france last night in paris were saying that they could hear the words and authorities were saying that one of those arrested that they have in custody had said this is for syria. so the bombing could be having to do with what we're doing in the air over syria right now to knock out the terrorists. of course none of this has been confirmed. the video we have not seen. and we have not seen that it's confirm that had this attack in paris was actually the islamic state. however, authorities have told us that it's atop their list of people who would have done it.

>> we can tell you that france has been bombing iraq and syria, also fighting radical jihadists on the continent of africa. extremists in africa. and these extremists have frequently issued threats to france. so joining us now on the phone to talk about this is fred fleitz, senior vice president with the center for security policy and former cia analyst. given what was said in the concert hall, this is for syria, given the fact that france has been bombing extremists, isis extremists, in syria, you would draw a direct connection? >> this is an isis attack. either isis directed or isis inspired. this is a distinction without a difference. we know this is how isis is carrying ultimate out its global jihad. to stage attacks like this or inspire them through the enter

threat. >> france has been worried about radicals that have traveled to syria and return home with the skills to stage this kind of attack and this kind of violence. how could france allow such a thing? >> well, france has special security problems. first of all, it's part of the european union. it is so easy for potential terrorists to get into france. they can get into europe are somewhere in eastern europe, they can use dingies to get into italy. and they have quite a few foreign fighters who are fighting in syria and iraq and are returning to france. france has a pretty sophisticated intelligence effort. we shouldn't it is count thdisc. but the challenge is so enormous with thousands of radicalized individuals just in the city of

paris, french intelligence forces are really over their head. >> fred, this is harris. president obama had said just yesterday that isis was contained. what do you think he meant by that and was there something that got missed here and if so, what was it? >> i was stunned when the president said on "good morning america" that isis has been contained. the president has never recognized the threat from radical islam. he's never seen that this has been global threat based on an i'd yol gi. he's tried to say that the islamic state is not islamiisla. and at this late stage the fact that our president doesn't get it, it really worries me what will happen in the next 15 months. >> fred fleitz, thank you very much. let's turn to a fox news mid eastern terrorism expert.

walid, what are your thoughts given all that has unfolded? >> first of all, i think that france has missed its big historic moment. this is the largest urban jihadi attack in the west putting aside 9/11 which was done by plane. but in terms of individuals killing civilians, this is the harmge largest in the west since 9/11. the french has been dealing with this issue. i spoke with many french experts, the authorities knew that something has been going on and been prepared, but not of that size. the size meaning how many people involved, how many people were killed, the locations, the sophistication of the timing. all of that is now forcing france to revise all of their strategies against that threat which they know very well. >> it's harris. i'm curious as to how the

moderate muslims as they are termed will react to this. we often see statements. but are there any muslim countries that are taking refugees from the war in syria and from the bloodshed that isis is reeking across that region? >> they are basically turkey has up to 2 million, jordan 1.2 million, lebanon 1.2 million. >> saudi arabia? >> no. kuwait, no. everything south of jordan, the gulf area -- >> why is that? >> because they know that within this population, there are radical elements and those radical elements may turn their guns against those regimes. they are not even shy. they said it on tv several times with experts on these countries on a debate on tv and they said we would rather have a campaign to liberate syria from isis than

having to take refugees with the number of elements that would cause us harm. >> you mentioned turkey, jordan, obviously countries that are somewhat if not completely involved in the fight with us against isis with recent developments with our air base this turkey being able to be accessed with our fighters. so take that makes sense. and anybody who thinks this won't be contained, could it spread to those other countries is this. >> let me just make a distinction here. look at the map. they are crossing the borders. definitely in the beginning of the crisis in 2011, 2012, 2013, people inside syria were fleeing either the regime or isis, they just crossed the borders. now these countries put them in camps. this is different from what europe has been preparing.

europe was preparing like germany saying i would like to have a million of them, migrants becoming workers. they made a bad assessment. these people are not fleeing syria and the regime to go and work in the factories of germany. so they made a mistake in the assessment. these are people fleeing for political reasons. and when you say political reasons, the majority are moderates, but you still have a number of jihadists and that's why these european countries are were very concerned. >> we're getting new information that we will share with you as it's happening. and greg, i know you're watching this, as well. i want to make sure we get our details correct on this because i know some of it is not coming in in english. so as we work on bringing you the detail of that, we will in just a second. walid, when you look at that region and how many refugees there are and what we say that

we will take and whether or not we can vet them the way that we should, so on, so forth, what do you think should be our main concern in terms of keeping things safe >> basically about how many we should take and europeans challenged by millions. why don't we look at the root problem. the root problems are in syria. i mean these refugees are mostly comes from the syrian/turkish border and soon enough with other borders with syria because there is isis in syria. so the effort should be instead of struggling with the consequences and the effect of that crisis by making sure that isis is defeated. and because the administration unfortunately and to a certain degree the european union did not did enough to end the problem in syria, now we'll have to deal with the refugee problem that is not the normal one. a normal one would be economic migrants and so, no, this is a

mass of people leaving because of the crisis. >> let's me jump in here. associated press is reporting essentially what german media is now reporting. and let me just quote the urgent bulletin. german media reporting an arrest in bovaria. it's tied to the paris attacks. police are not saying that it's tied to the terrorist attacks. we have no independent confirmation of that. but it does underscore that there may be others who were involved. in the organizational planning of this very elaborate and assign you will taksimultaneous several hours ago claiming the lives according to the latest figure and that may change, 158 people, more than 200 wounded, but that could soon change. we do know paris authorities, you law enforcement as well as their military, are on the hunt

for any accomplices, accessories of any kind who may have been involved in not only the armament which was used which was considerable, the suicide vests, but also any cars, automobiles, any safehouses. and whether there are other still at large that are involved in this situation. >> i also want to share with you this breaking detail that we have been talking about. islamic state releasing an undated video. so we would need to independently confirm. but we're getting more transcription of what that tape says according to routers. as long as you keep bombing, you will not live in peace. you will even fear traveling to the market. a bearded speaking militant flanked by other fighters. quickly your thoughts. >> well, first point of a possible arrest in germany makes sense, but we'll have to wait for the details.

yesterday the french president hollande said we're shutting down the borders p. where is about a var i can't? just across from the french border. so this could be a possibility that one of the individuals took a train or bus or even a car and crossed those borders. >> all right. stay close, everybody. we'll come right back.

continuing breaking news out of paris, france. french police saying they believe all of the attackers involved in the shootings and bombings in paris are dead. not wiwithstanding authorities still searching for possible accomplices, although no one has claimed official responsibility for the deadly attacks, some terrorism experts believe the islamic state group known as isis is likely responsible.

joining us now from our london bureau, kitty logan. what are you hearing? >> reporter: yes, french authorities are still trying to piece together what happened. they may well know a lot more than than they're letting on. it's still speculation. that video has been released without the date attached to it, a video threatening retaliation effectively for france's involvement in the air strikes in syria. meanwhile authorities in france are counting the dead, counting the injured. the latest toll is 128 dead, 99 of the 200 injured are in a critical condition. and if you look at some of the images coming out from local reporters, from observers, witnesses there, you can understand why we can't show you this video, it's very graphic, but i've seen a video clip that shows people hanging out of windows, fleeing the exits. we understand that the gunman in the concert hall where the main attack took place, we understand

that they targeted people leaving the exit. you can see people fleeing, literally grdragging the injure behind them. so paris still very much under rockdown in a state of emergency. of course the tack may well be ov over, but the fears are that the accomplices are still out there and this is what the french government needs to figure out this morning, who was behind this and why did they carry out these attacks. >> just a few months ago, i was in paris and there is a great deal of travel among the european unions. so what is going on in in great britain, with a measures are they taking in response to this? >> of course the british government is extremely concerned by events in paris. this is a scenario which could in theory happen anywhere in europe and any european capital. the british government today, the british prime minister david cameron is holding an emergency

meeting to see -- toen a n e e the situation, to see if the threat level in the uk might need to be raised, as well. it may not be a france-specific incident. of course this is the second terror attack in france this year. authorities will be asking a lot of questions about what went wrong with the intelligence gathering, why they did not know, there was no warning will attack a appeared, why they did not know about it in advance and take any measures to stop it. >> after 9/11 and similar other attacks, the caoordination on intelligence gathering was supposed to be a priority. maybe it still is. but here it does make you wonder given the events of what happened last night in paris. kitty logan, thank you. so we've had those two breaking news developments. we have the reports of the arrest of someone connected with the paris attacks potentially in

aboutbavaria bavaria. and we also have reuters saying there is a video tape with what looks like isis militants on the tape saying there will be no peace for the people in france no matter where they into, even traveling to the market. we're working to put our eyes on that tape if we can. but this is a perfect event to bring back in our panel who are live in our d.c. bureau. terrorism analyst matt graham joining us, former u.s. intelligence officer andrew peak and national review terrorism expert tom rogen. tom, i'll start with you. and the arrest. your thoughts. >> yeah, it's interesting in these early stages that sometimes conflicting information. but i think that idea that one of the things that european intelligence services, the french actually specifically have been concerned about is the potential for returners from syria or jihadists to locate in one country in europe and then go into another country and

commit an attack. and the reason they have been inclined to think that is a problem, if you're in one country, you might be nope to the domestic intelligence service but unknown to in this case potentially the french intelligence service. and so there is that issue. we'll have to wait and see. but the scale of the attacks i would suggest indicates that there is probably some kind of support network as well. again, we will just have to wait and see in the hours and days ahead. >> i don't want to miss the connection, too, because the soccer teams that were playing were france and germany. so i mean the german media have been on this from the start giving probably as much information as we have learned from the french media. now the videotape. andrew, what are your thoughts on this? again, we have not seen it. we're waiting to see if it is genuine. but the timing of it, it's said to be undated. the message, though, very clear. france will have no peace. >> yeah, this absolutely gets to what i think are the two most

pressing questions going forward, right. the first thing is will the french public blame france's involvement in syria for these attacks the same way british blamed in remark bombings. in hollande goes after isis hard, will he now drop his demand that assad steps down so as to get russian and syrian and iranian backing for a sort of unrestrained french campaign. >> that's an interesting question. can we trust the russians? are you suggesting that we team up? i know president obama says that he will talk to anybody with regard to calming things down inside syria. >> and look, we know up to this point that the russians have followed a policy of going after everyone except isis. >> right. >> but hollande will be under so much pressure to respond strongly and viciously against isis in syria that even though he's been the most hard lined

opponent of regime change in syria, you might actually see him dropping that can demand which would have a significant strategic consequence. >> matt, let me get your thoughts on this very same subject. of course the french have been bombing isis targets in both iraq and syria. would you expect now given these events that that may escalate and they may not in the end be deterred as perhaps isis would like? >> well, it may. it may be just the response that king hussein in jordan had when they killed his air man and burned him to death in the cage. so france may respond recognizing with the simplicity of this attack that more force overseas may quell some things at home. so that may be a strategy. >> all right. we are getting the latest figure now, 127 dead. and look, these numbers will continue to change if for no

other reason than that so many of the wounded more than 200 are in critical condition p some may not make it. some may. and the numbers early on especially in the first few hours always seem to change. now right now president of france hollande has emerged from the cabinet meeting meeting with security counterterrorism officials, as well as his cabinet members. we do not have a translation or an interpreter on this, so we can't tell you what he is saying at the moment. but he is addressing the media and the nation of france. >> and we'll get a translation when we go to break. but quickly, that 127 dead confirmation is coming from him. that's what our team at our foreign desk has been able to tell us. i don't know if we can side by side or just simply pop up something, but we've just gotten a live look street scene in paris.

it's been hellish for paris and for the entire nation of france. and as we go to break right now, if we can take a peek at that, quite a bit of military and police presence still on the streets of paris. but it is quiet. you see president hollande speaking now. we're coming right back.

state of emergency in france right now. the country hit with its worse violence since the second world war. joining us this morning with our continuing breaking news coverage. >> at least 127 people are dead after a series of terror attacks rocked paris last night. they targeted young people attending a concert, soccer fans and people just out enjoying a friday night out. in fact president hollande of france was at the soccer game when this whole thing first started. >> and here is how it began. take a look at this. that was the fir