like apples and carrots, to give your pet more out of every ingredient. and we make innova the way you'd make it, with everything they need and nothing they don't. innova is pet food made right so can you feed them right. find it at your local pet store. next on msnbc saturday, it's only just begun. tropical storm lee begins to batter the gulf coast. will it hit new orleans with full fury? it's frustration to the nth power. hundreds of thousands of hurricane ravaged homeowners still in the dark, so when will they see the light? plus, america's search for work. does president obama offer more than just hope for the jobless in his speech? and the fight against terrorism and how it led to i'm's demise.

>> good morning. i'm alex witt. it's 6:00 a.m. out west. what's happening out there right now. we have first breaking news on tropical storm lee, which is threatening this hour as it strengthens while moving closer to the u.s. the center of the storm is expected to make landfall later today on the central louisiana coast. then turn towards new orleans. louisiana governor bobby enginedal warns there's still a lot of uncertainty over the path the storm may take. meanwhile, the storm is already prompting tornado watches and warnings near new orleans, and the rain that's been streaking down for hours now could last all weekend. parts of louisiana and florida could see as much as 20 inches of rain. the weather channel meteorologist mike seidel is in new orleans with more. mike. >> the horizontal rain and wind gust over 50 miles an hour continue to batter the big easy this morning. we've got flash flood watches out. we have flash flood warnings. also, we have a lot of tornado warnings. so far so good. we haven't had any reported

touchdowns, and these are all based on doppler radar. the radar is as much of an inch to an inch and a half. we've had local gauges telling us that, but so far so good in the city. a town that is below sea level. they have all 24 pumps up and running. they've got the backup generators in case the power goes out. the core of engineers working 24-7 keeping an eye on one potential system, including this all-important levee. again, the bottom line is this no katrina. the wind is knocking out power. last check, over 25,000 energy customers have lost power. that's triple what we saw a couple of hours ago, and those numbers will likely increase. it's a slow moving storm. it is taking its sweet time getting to the coast and the stated of louisiana. we're expecting rain, very heavy at times, right on through today, tonight, into sunday, and labor day. back to you. >> okay, mike. thank you for that report. in the meantime, let's get more on tropical storm lee from nbc meteorologist bill careens. good morning to you, bill. >> well, good morning to you, alex. all eyes are on the gulf coast.

this is where we're getting drenched throughout this labor day weekend. we're not worried about the winds doing damage or anything like that, but we're mostly only concerned with heavy rain and flash flooding, and then river flooding eventually. let's take a look at the big map. you will see that all the green and the white down there over the top of new orleans and all over louisiana, that is our storm system that we're dealing with on the gulf. now, as far as the heavy rain goes, all of those bands coming up off the gulf, the center of the storm looking at just sous south to be there in bat oj rouge. now, back towards mobile and also toward the panhandle of florida, you're still going to get dremplged. anywhere down there from i-10 all the way to i-20 that's who is going to see the worst of the heavy rain. take a look at our computer estimates. all the areas of louisiana, especially mississippi, that purple color you are seeing there is the six to nine inches of rain. some locations could get close to a foot of rain, but by the time this weekend is over with. this is just a big rainmaker. here's your forecast.

on your vart tropical storm lee is soaking the deep south. still 100 degree heat. texas. none of this moisture from this storm is headed to draws-stricken texas. we still have a lot of thunderstorms to deal with in chicago, st. louis, kansas city, minneapolis this afternoon. not a bad day for d.c. up through boston. as we look at your sunday, that heavy rain from lee continues over areas of mississippi and alabama, louisiana, and then by the time we get to labor day, we'll see a lot of those showers and thunderstorms begin to spread along the eastern seaboard as the middle of the country dries out. i guess the bottom line with lee, alex, is it's a rainmaker and flooding will be the concern over the holiday weekend. back to you. >> okay. thank you for the heads up. bill karins. well, road access continues to improve in several vermont communities that were cut off by tropical storm irene's floodwaters, but one official says it could be years before the state's roads are back to their pre-flood conditions. at the same time some areas are still without power, and many residents are relying on help from the community. >> we're all together. >> we're holding up all right.

>> we have nice friends who offer us showers, and we can't really complain. >> no matter what it takes, everybody is wanting to help and is coming together. >> craig, another good morning to you. where do things stand right now? you are seeing some clean-up efforts underway today? >> we are. we are seeing some clean-up efforts. we are on main street and lovenel. much of this entire street was under water three days ago. things much better now. the business is starting to reopen. ludlow was one of the 13 towns in vermont that was essentially cut off. cut often from supplies. cut off from electricity in a lot of cases as well. 250 roads around the state were damaged. some of them destroyed. dozens of bridges also washed out. over the past few days, what we have started to see around vermont are workers starting to rebuild that infrastructure, starting to get those roads and

those bridges working again, because it is going to take a great deal of time. >> being able to get back in this way. this is an extraordinary, you know, i think, emotional boost. if there's anything that i can do, then i'll do it. if raking up dead debris and moving mud around is what it is, then that's what i'll do. >> emblematic of that spirit here in vermont. the short-term, they are expecting some rain here tomorrow and monday as well. the last thing, the swollen rivers near this area as additional rain. the last thing, the workers need while they try to fix those roads and bridges is additional rain. that's the concern in the short-term. in the long-term fall foilage

season here. the leaf peepers flock to this part of vermont by the tens of thousands. so much so that about $300 million is generated every year. the concern now is that because so many roads and bridges won't be fixed in time, there are so many hotels and restaurants that may not be able to open in time, that that, of course, will have a big dent in that $300 million. that is the very latest from here at ludlow, have vermont. see you back here, alex. s. >> i'm listening to you talk, and i'm picturing people on those beautiful little roads where you feel like you're in the middle of forests, and those are the ones wiped out. yikes. this is going to be a problem. okay. craig melvin, thank you very much. see you again. >> one of the biggest problems following irene continues to be the massive power outages in addition to those road problems. nearly a week after the storm hit, fewer than 1,000 homes and businesses are without power in vermont. then in connecticut 123,000 are still in the dark there. the state's utility companies say they hope to get that number

down by sometime this evening. moving to new jersey, fewer than 25,000 remain without power. then in new york 97,000 are still not connected, which include 66,000 on long island, and another 29,000 in upstate new york. let's go now to the economy where the dow took a hit friday in response to the august jobs report. vera gibbons is joining us now with a deeper look at all those numbers, and with a good morning to you, let's get right to it. this just doesn't look good. >> the numbers are just not good, right? zero jobs created. we haven't seen this in years. we haven't seen it since 1945. the consensus call for 75,000, 80,000 jobs to be created. some analysts did rachet down those numbers. we're doing 25,000, as the case going -- nobody was expecting to see sfwler jobs added to the economy.

the pressure is definitely on. >> consumer confidence, that's on the decline too in the jobs creation. the outlook going forward for that, what is it? >> it's funny because we actually did shop despite the hurricane and same-store sales were up over 4%. we got some back to school shopping done, which was positive. auto sales also up. the biggest gain we've seen since 2003. overall, confidence is down. people are just feeling extremely down and out. you see the numbers. over six million people have been over six months and it makes sense that we would be feeling so down and out. if there's any economic shock, we would go back to double dips in the area. unemployment rate potentially dropping to 8.5% in 2012, but that's more in line with recessionary number than the recovery number. you have a lot of anxiety out in the air for sure. >> well, anxiety also extends to people who have jobs because

there is this sort of sense of a fear that they could get the ax any day. is that legitimate? >> why don't they come in to necessarily firing right now, but in large part, it has to be because of policies. i do think the fear is somewhat legitimate because we all know someone who has been fired and our neighbors, our friends, our family members. they've been out of work a long time. some of them over a year. there is this poll showing that 30% of workers are fearful they may actually get the ax or their hours may be reduced, and this is double the percentage we saw in 2007. it's higher than 2010. definitely people are concerned. if you have a job, i mean, you're only going to work hard to try to keep it. >> okay. you're keeping yours with us. >> oh, good. thanks, alex. new word this morning from the mrez prez on jobs ahead of thursday's speech on his plan to put americans back to work in his weekly address. the president urges lawmakers to immediately pass a transportation bill that will keep thousands of construction

workers employed. >> it doesn't help when those same folks turn around and risk losing hundreds of thousands of jobs just because of political gamesmanship. we need to pass this transportation bill and put people to work rebuilding america. we need to put our differences aside and do the right thnk for our economy. >> joining me now is mike viqueira. do you think the president can bring both sides of the aisle together on his jobs proposal? >> i tell you, the prospects aren't all that great, are they, after everything we've seen over the past sell days. the president talking about a transportation bill that's a bonanza for congress that everybody loves that passes worth hundreds of bhil yonz of dollars worth of transportation projects. throw on top of that the fema funding, there's a fight about that now. federal aviation administration. remember the fight at the beginning of that month. all kinds of things. even the debt ceiling, obviously, which did so many to shake confidence, we're now learning, of consumers around the country, and did real damage

to the economy. that's just the blind that the president has to walk. a joint session of congress on thursday night at 8:00 here in the east. does he go big? you hear that term being thrown around a lot. get really am birns. part of the problem with that is then is it just to be political or over the top or unattainable? that could shake confidence as well because people will see that through a political prism at a time with 9.9% unemployment. obviously that's a problem there. the president is talking about more infrom structure spending. the president has talked about extending payroll tax cuts. we don't know all the details, but paul goodlatte, his republican response today fired a shot across the president's bow. >> the president's stimulus spending has proven counter productive. government has gotten in the way when it can be part of the solution. with millions of americans still asking where are the jobs, the president should help lead a

bipartisan effort to remove government barriers to job creation. >> the president is at camp david today and working on that speech. he goes to patterson, new jersey, tomorrow. detroit, labor day. all eyes will be on congress heading up to that speechl thursday night. alex. sdmru bet they are. okay. mike, eyes are on you next hour. >> all right. we invite you to watch the president's speech thursday night 7:00 eastern right here on msnbc. stay with us as we continue to follow tropical storm lee's rainy assault on the gulf coast. forecasters expect some areas to get as much as 20 inches of rain. also ahead, months after the raid on osama bin laden's compound, the new book reveals how a change in u.s. strategy really is paying off in the battle against al qaeda. and scientists are cooking up a new way to put meat on the dinner table, and it does not start on the farm. you're watching msnbc saturday. ♪

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>> so louisiana is getting drenched now by tropical storm lee. there's a tropical storm warning. this storm could unleash as much as 20 inches of rain many n some areas. in just minutes we'll have a live report from louisiana for you. let's go now to politics. president obama will deliver a much anticipated speech on the jobs thursday before both houses of congress. in his latest washington post article david writes presidential historian said boich has raised the stakes by scheduling such a highly anticipated address before a joint session of congress. an address in the oval office could last less than 15 minutes. they said. gathering both chambers of congress means the president will have to address something substantial. he is a white house supporter for the washington post. david, go am. >> hi, alex. >> are you calling this a mistake for the president to call a joint session of congress for this speech? >> no, not necessarily a

mistake. i think the point is that by raising expectations like this, the president really has to come out with something very bold and dynamic and i mean, promising that, of course, but remember these joint sessions of congress are very rare events other than the state of the union addresses. for george bush it was after 9/11. these are great moments, it's a grand platform to give a speech. what we're told by the white house is they want to go with congress because they want to be partners in this, and then congress has to support bipartisan ways to boost the economy, and this is the time. >> how bold do you think the president is going to be and how do you think the politicians he puts out there, how well do you think they will be at passing both claim bez of the house. >> they need to make they are mother environmentally friendly. as you go along, as & you guys

just talked about the poor jobs numbers in august. i think the stakes are going to be raised even higher to do something even bolder, and the problem with that is that bold things sometimes cost money. they usually do cost money. we've heard over and over before john boehner and eric cantor and the house republicans that they're just not going to support big new spending programs at a time when the deficit continues to rise and all -- we're expecting too much. >> you're using bolder in your washington post article. there's a statement there in your article. you also quote steven his who says this is like a midterm state of the union message. immediately through all these heightened expectations. do you think there's going to be some sort of a surprise? is there something unexpected we could look to? >> you know, as your reporter just said, the president is at camp david right now. i'm sure he is talking nonstop with his advisors. he was supposedly doing that during his vacation at martha's vineyard, and i think what the question is what other ideas have been out there. we've had several years to try

to find those ideas. they've come up with a giant new stimulus package. it's unlikely, again, because of just the time period we're in. people want jobs. people want something. i know they're talking about really injecting some sort of energy to the housing market, which used to be a drag on the economy. you can expect something along those lines. i think you also hear as a general statement from the president about where a country is and how we're going to get out of this and how he is the right person to do it. that's a tough sell. >> david, you draw comparisons between this speech and president carter's 1979 address on the national energy crisis, and we know he was a one-term president, but specifically, immediately after that speech, how did carter fair, and might this be a defining moment for obama's presidency? >> absolutely. i mean, the president obama -- gemmy carter being they've had this critical speech in his third year when the country was in an economic crisis as well. dlz a lot of parallels there. i got the sense from these historians that president carter did get a boost in popularity,

but then he followed up with other decisions, including firing cabinet members that lost the public's trust. many are saying whether president obama really delivered a strong speech is one thing, but he has to follow it up on continually down this fall as we go into more deficit reduction talks and as we go into the next election cycle. we literally have to keep on the path that we're going to show pro-progress as we create these jobs. >> david nakamura, thank you. >> thank you. >> we're going cho they can in on tropical storm lee. for that i'm joined from louisiana by patrick crawford from our nbc affiliate wdsu. patrick, with a good morning to you, is that a street or is that a little river that you are standing by there, because it doesn't look good either way. >> well, actually, thanks for having me, first of all, alex, this morning. we're looking at a canal behind

me. this canal is moving into a pumping station that is located in the area. the water is definitely continuing to rise just due to all that heavy rain. we have had a break in this part of southeastern louisiana from the rain, but those wind speeds, and they are not calming down. we're consistently getting wind speeds anywhere from 35 to 45 miles an hour. 55 miles an hour throughout the morning. alex. >> you know, patrick, i'm going to just try this one more time. we're having a significant delay. for our folks just know that there's quite a delay here with this. is there any expectation for that canal to lower? i mean, this is certainly bottom of the stages where it is normally, right? >> okay. having a hard time hearing you,

alex. okay. yeah. i'll just go ahead and give you the very latest with tropical storm lee. southeastern louisiana and the basic location of tropical storm lee is very difficult for this part of louisiana. whenever you get these tropical storms and they're moving in a northerly direction, it's going to be the east side of that storm system, or right-hand side of the storm system where the strongest energy will be located. that's the area that's going to get the heavy yst rain. the strongest wind gust and also that strongest storm surge along the coast. about the possibility of over 20 inches of rainfall into some parts of southeastern louisiana. utsdz along it is coastal areas. that's where the rain will be located. it could exceed 20 inches. the further inland you go, though, towards the new orleans area, anywhere from 15 to 18

inches is very highly likely, and it looks like that's going to be the case. pumping stations working very hard to keep the flooding down. until then we've got a tropical storm warning plus whenever you get these tropical storms, you get a lot of rotation. we even have the tornado watch and a few tornado warnings that are reported this morning as well. alex. s. >> indeed. patrick crawford fr, thank you much. in michigan 32% of employers are expanding their work force. indiana is second on the list of states with the best job growth followed by massachusetts, virginia, and minnesota. [ male announcer ] this is the network. a network of possibilities.

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until i see smoke. so pantene said, "breakage and split ends? no problem." they gave me this pantene called breakage to strength. [ female announcer ] the keratin protection pro-v system helps prevent then repair split ends. zero fear of breakage, 100% more strength. no regrets, just health. i'm not giving up the heat. [ female announcer ] the breakage to strength system from pantene. breaking news. southern louisiana is right now feeling the effects of tropical storm lee as thunderstorms slam into the region. let's go to nbc meteorologist bill karins. who is getting hit the hardest? >> it's areas that are dealing with the squalls and the possibility of tornadoes. now, as everyone has to remember well, dealt with irene last weekend at this time. then it was a completely different beast. it was a much larger storm. it was heading into an area of new england in the mid-atlantic that doesn't get a lot of storms. now we're talking about the gulf coast.

we have to put this into perspective. they've dealt with many systems like this. one every other year. a tropical storm in i was hitting the gulf coast is not a huge deal for this area, and, actually, we kind of wish it went to texas because we desperately need the rain down there in texas. now, all that said, every tropical system does have threats. the biggest threat right now would be any isolated tornado that pops up. so far so good. we've had tornado warnings, but nothing confirmed and no damage. you can see where the tornado -- where the symbol is spinning there. it's about to move on shore during the day today and into the afternoon. a lot of this heavy rain that will continue to pose and build up. we may have some flooding concerns in the days ahead. the biggest concern is the heavy rain. the bright red, that's where the thunderstorms are. it's not just near the center. it extends all the way out into the gulf of mexico.

as the storm system pulls to the north, it's going to pull that rain with it. by the time we're all said and done in the next two days, we could see rainfall totals of five to ten, maybe even as much as 15 inches in mississippi and alabama. we have yet to see how they're going to deal with that rainfall and how bad the flooding will be, but that point of concern as we go throughout the weekend. here's the path of the storm. we don't think it's going to get to hurricane strength. it will weaken in the days ahead. even five days from right now this storm system will still be over the southern appalachians producing heavy rain. we're going deal with the potential for heavy rain and flash flooding through monday, tuesday, wednesday, and areas of alabama, mississippi, north georgia, tennessee, possibly kentucky, and definitely into areas of the mountainous spots of tennessee into north carolina. now as far as the other storm out there, and i think this one is a much greater threat. most likely it's a stronger storm, and this one could threaten the east coast again. now, in five days from now the storm is still only going to be between bermuda and the bahamas. this storm is just creeping

through the atlantic. again, it's a week from now that this storm would be the closest. this is katia. to eastern north carolina, possibly new england, cape cod, and maybe up in the canadian maritime. most of our computers at this point think that it can move in that general direction, and then turn north wards. that is good. that yellow line is the only one that's the outliar for now. this latest forecast is much better for the east coast. it was more or less more threat nick in the canadian maritime. possibly bermuda, it's look better for the east coast today than yesterday. now, as we go into sunday, the heavy rain threat would translate into alabama and gornl george, and finally into labor day, monday, that's where we're going to watch a lot of the rainfall headed up the eastern seaboard. one of the concerns, alex, is by the time we get to monday and tuesday, we could see this heavy rain in new jersey and vermont. of course, those are areas that

are still trying to clean up from irene. the last thing they need is another three, four inches of rain. >> thanks so much for that. meanwhile, new jersey is still feeling the effects of hurricane irene. almost 20,000 customers remain without power in that state, and many towns are trying to add up all the damage from that storm in hopes of getting federal aid. nbc's mara is in patterson, new jersey, where the president is scheduled to visit on sunday. good morning to you. people look at the passaic river now that's a fast-moving and powerful looking current right there. what's the latest from patterson? >> as of 7:00 a.m. this morning, the water level here for the passaic river was 21 feet. that's almost two feet above flood stage, and the waters are still receding here. immediately after the storm, they overflowed their banks, and

they flooded this entire area. some stores were flooded up to eight feet. there was really a lot of damage here. people are still recovering from that. you know, the roads here and some of the roads in the downtown area destroyed. businesses are damaged, and there are about 1,000 people who are still without power. now, the power company notes that about 800 of those were disconnected for 60 reasons, but there are 160 homes that don't have power because of the storm here, and all told, the mayor estimates that about 6,000 people have been affected by the storm. about 1,500 are still displaced. that area will be a week after the storm is still very much feeling the effects of that. earlier this week president obama signs a disaster declaration for the state of new jersey, which qualifies them for federal aid and rebuilding and tomorr tomorrow.

>> pretty dramatic for the state behind you. rick perry is in new hampshire. >> he has two events today. he will be doing a barbecue, and he will be he wanteding up speak egg to voters. he is going to be in south carolina doing two evented. one run by congressman tim scott, who is becoming a conservative team in that state, and he will be ending up in columbia later that day sharing the scene with some of his hooifls in that stated. >> interesting. you know, carrie, tell me about the sense there behind the scenes within this campaign? i mean, they leap immediately to frontrunner status, it seems.

how confident are they? are they not focussing on that at this point? >> right now governor perry came to this race very late. one of the main phobings is fundraising right now because they're going up against mitt romney, who is a formidable fundraiser. a lot of the time that governor perry has been spending -- this wim fwrooek monday until yesterday, he did 80 fundraisers. he is working for the money to make sure that he has the financial backing to meet that frontrunner status. the last thing they want to do is run out of money. they're going to have eh an unsatisfying looking -- to take some of the air out of the that big initial push. >> well, carrie, down there covering the rick perry campaign. thank you, carrie. sdhoo thanks, alex. s sdmrirchlg meanwhile, the president will be delivering his jobs plan to the public on thursday, but a new poll released this week shows 62% of americans disapprove of the way the president is handling the economy. just 32% approve. >> all right.

let's talk about the president. he has a big speech planned on the economy on thursday. how much do you think the speech can move the needle in his favor in terms of the economic job approval numbers? >> you know, i think the speech next weekend and more importantly, alex, the president's plan and the subsequent are roll-out, it's an attempt to reset the dialogue, take it way out of the summer doldrums, and talk to the american people about the number one issue facing the country. i think, alec, we shouldn't judge the success of the speech based on the polls the day after. this is -- this is the start, if not already, in 2012 presidential campaign. >> well, yeah. but with the president's overall approval rating at 52% peoplehe is doing verall. just 42% approve. how much do you think this is a reflection of the economy, these numbers right here? >> look, i think a lot of it is a reflection the economy, of reality, of americans being

anxious and dissatisfied. the other thing is president obama is roughly where president reagan was at this point in 1983, and president clinton was at this point in 1995, and both presidents not only improved their numbers dramatically, but obviously won re-election. there's plenty of time when the republican field gets winoed down, and it's the president versus an actual republican opponent and there's a real debate and dialogue, his numbers will improve. >> okay. as we look at the 2012 race overall, the latest poll showing rick perry with a solid lead. mitt romney has 18 berz. sarah palin, 11%. rick perry certainly surged in his just few weeks as an official candidate. what's the likelihood his lead is going to last given this environment, given the kind of candidate that he presents? >> well, i think, you know,

look, i think he benefits from being governor of a very big state. he has a lot of national attention. he is the latest flavor. in some respects you could argue, alex, that these polls reflect even republican voters looking for the next new thing. look, he is a formidable candidate. the next important marker for governor perry is how much money can he raise, and, you know, look, it's very hard being president, and it's very hard running for president, and he got in very late, and does have he have the foundation and the organization to do what is going to be a marathon and not a sprint? >> yeah, absolutely. we look at the latest numbers. auz shou show a head-to-head with the president and rick perry, look at that. the president would squeak by 45% and perry's 42%. mitt romney or rick perry, which looks to be a better candidate for the gop?

>> i think that probably given where the country is and given the state of the issues probably mitt romney. i think you can't discount experience factor, alex, not just in terms of the economy for mitt romney, but the fact that he has run for president before. he knows what it's like. he knows the ebb and flow personally and politically. i think i'm having a known quantity will be an advantage for the republicans. >> okay. thank you very much from hart research. fred yang, good to talk with you. sdmrirchgts in today's yes, it's true, test tube meat. yep. a new meaning for the word snake bitten and the hottest bubble gim around. here are sky-high gas prices to talk about. the national average is $3.65. that's i near record. yeah, that's true. here is some food for thought. researchers in europe are working on a way to grow meat in

a laboratory. yep. true. the scientists think the so-called test tube meat may become a reality within 15 to 20 years. no thanks. sflimplg and, finally, it's snake bitten. really. a california man bit another man's pet python. no one is quite sure why he did it, but cops suspect alcohol may have been involved. gee, you think? the snake is recovering from surgery while the snake biter is facing a charge of mutilating a reptile. >> it's all true here on msnbc. we couldn't even make this stuff up if we tried.

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tropical storm lee is slowly moving closer to land, while its outer bands drench southern louisiana right now. tropical storm warning flags are flying in louisiana, mississippi, and alabama. at the same time flash flood warnings extend along the

alabama coast right in the florida panhandle. about half the gulf's normal daily oil production has been cut because all the rigs were evacuated. a new poll shows that fewer americans think a terror attack in the u.s. is likely around the 9/11 attack this is weekend. usa today gallop poll found that 38% of people think an attack will happen in the next few weeks, which is down from 62% back in may after the raid that killed osama bin laden. that new poll was taken in mid august, and of course i meant next weekend on the anniversary of 9/11 wlsh let's go toy anew book on al qaeda with key levelation on the raid of osama bin laden's compound. joining us from washington is eric schmidt, a "new york times" reporter and co-author of counterstrike,en told story. good morning. >> good morning. >> do you fn the navy seals brought back information suggesting that an al qaeda planned attack may be imminent on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 next week? >> currently the information

that the s.e.a.l. is did collect, there were clear indication that is osama bin laden was trying to organize some type of attack geared around the tenth anniversary coming up next weekend. it's unclear how far that plot ever really got along. senior intelligence and counterterrorism officials that i spoke to this week said they did not believe it was along very far, but clearly law enforcement, intelligence officials are gearing up their preparations just in case the anniversary this next weekend. >> eric, talk about the tangible intelligence, if you will, that was brought back from the raid on osama bin laden's compound. what were the things you could look at and say this is fact and this is going to help us a lot? >> well, clearly what it 140ed was that bin laden was much more involved in the operational plan. he basically used couriers to get information out, recallinging some of the regional affiliates, the al qaeda affiliates in places like yemen and urging them to

continue plotting attacks against the west and specifically the united states. he ran up against some resistance, it appears, from some of the affiliates who are looking more toward attacks in their regions. the al qaeda branch in yemen, for instance, is responsible for the so-called bombing, that is the individual who tried to blow himself up on plain over detroit in 2009. also, they were responsible for the so-called printer cartridge plot. that is the printer cartridges built with explosivesed that was put on i cargo plane. >> how is this battle against terrorism being fought on the internet? >> the internet is really one of the key safe havens for terrorists. it's where they do a lot of they are recruiting. s they raise money, and even through virtual gaming with they actually sometimes try and plot out their attacks. what we reveal in our new book is that american officials successfully infiltrated some of

these network posing as terrorists, posing as militants on some of the on-line chatrooms and as well as hacking into terrorist leader cell phones to basically pose as militants themselves and so inject confusion among those listening in. >> is it a practical or is it an idealogical campaign that we must wage winning the war on terrorism? >> certainly since the decade since the military, intelligent community and law enforcement community is much better at gathering up intelligence and acting on it on the ground, whether in the battlefield or in raid operations like with the bin laden compound. what's more difficult is countering the ideology, countering the message that al qaeda has that the west is at war with islam. this is something very difficult for the united states in particular to counter effectively. >> can you categorize with a

grade, if you will, how well our intelligence operations are going? do we -- is it a b? we have a lot we need to do, or at an a level? i don't want to hear a c, that's for sure. >> i think, in fact, certainly in the last several years what you've seen is the gathering of intelligence has become much better. look at the bin laden raid as a great example of the use of intelligence of informants the u.s. had on the ground all the way up to spy satellites with imagery and stealthy drones monitoring the compound. all that information is pulled together and crunched by supercomputers to basically help track and trace the terrorist and their terrorist networks and understand really how terrorist networks operate. if you can take out various nodes of those networks, say the financiers, the gun runners, that would at least push off or delay the attacks if not reduce the attacks overall. >> the book is "counterstrike."

eric schmitt from "the new york times." thank you. >> thanks. what can president obama say in next week's speech before congress to convince employers to start hire sng we'll talk about that ahead on ""msnbc saturday." " [ baby crying, dog barking ] [ female announcer ] it doesn't have to be thanksgiving to have the perfect thanksgiving sandwich. carving board turkey -- only from oscar mayer. uh-huh. jeff! honey, i can't walk any faster. [ female announcer ] oscar mayer deli fresh turkey comes in a clear pack... [ cellphone beeps ] [ jeff ] ooh. thanks hun! [ female announcer ] ...so the freshness you see is what you taste. ♪ it doesn't get better than this ♪ while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze. but with 24-hour zyrtec®, i get prescription strength relief from my worst allergy symptoms. so lily and i are back on the road again. with zyrtec® i can love the air®.

implts the diz ma'am new jobs report is renewing fears of another recession because no jobs were added last month. the bureau of labor statistics said the rate held steady with 9.1%. joining me live now neil irwin, financial reporter for "the washington post." i want to get your take on the numbers and what they say about the state of the economy overall right now. >> we're flatlining. we have very low growth, and as a result we created no net jobs in august. the truth is we're not in a real recovery. we're in a kind of muddling along period. we had .7% growth in the first half of the year.

in the second half it's hard to see how we get much above that. that's a challenging situation. given the hole we're in, we're not digging out but staying stuck in the hole. >> your latest article in "the washington post" said the data was not as bad as it might appear in first glance. how so? >> there were zero net jobs created in august, however, there was a verizon strike. that kept 45,000 people off the payrolls, so there was job growth of 45,000 once those temporary striking workers come back. that said, this is really not a strong period. we've seen several months in a row of weak job growth, and 45,000 doesn't cut it given the millions of unemployed people we have. >> you also write the fed was set to have a new policy to boost the growth starting on september 20th. how might these new weak job numbers impact that meeting? >> the federal reserve have a mission to maintain stable prices and maximum employment. that's their mission from congress. so the fact that we do not have

real strong job growth happening, any job growth happening is going to weigh on them as they decide to take new measures to pump money into the dme to get it going again. they've already done a lot. they have interest rates at zero and bought hundreds of billions of dollars in bonds to lower interest rates. they don't have a lot of great tools left, but they talk about what they have left and what they might do. >> what about the government having cut 17,000 jobs? you've got to look at the government and the irony in that the government may be a bit of a drag on the economy. >> very much so, especially state and local governments. what's happening is states are running out of money. they have to cut budgets to match their lower tax revenue, so they're slashing thousands and thousands of government workers every month. we see teachers, policemen, all kinds of state and local government workers losing jobs. that showed up this month in terms 17,000 job losses and some months worse than that. >> neil irwin, that's for the heads-up on all of it. we appreciate it. >> thanks, alex.

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