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the all-new nissan versa sedan from $10,990. innovation upsized. innovation for all. next on msnbc saturday, on alert. the september 11th terror threat. new information on the search for the plotters and the possibility that two may be americans. plus, ten years later. americans remember september 11th. a look at how the day changed america and the world forever. under water. parts of the northeast still reeling this morning from some of the worst flooding there ever. welcome to msnbc saturday. i'm alex witt. it's just past 9:00 a.m. in the eastern. 6:00 a.m. out west. let's get to what's happening as we get new information this morning about the men who may be involved in a possible al qaeda bomb mroet against new york and washington. officials say two of the three men may be u.s. citizens. the men started their journey in pakistan. they may have flown to the u.s.

from dubai and europe. officials say the terrorist's goal is to set off a car or truck bomb. in response to the unconfirmed threat, security has been drastically increased in both new york and wash wrush. officials in those cities say residents and visitors should not change their plans in response to the possible plot. they do stress skrij lance and that anything suspicious should be reported. there have been no changes to the planned memorials anywhere in this country as the u.s. prepares to mark the tenth anniversary of september 11th. with that alleged al qaeda plot that has the fbi and homeland security searching for three potential trisdz on u.s. soil, here's some of the intelligence that officials are sharing about it. the three men are said to have traveled from pakistan to the u.s. to set off those car or truck bombs in new york and washington. again, some of those men may be u.s. citizens or at least they have u.s. travel documents. i'm joined now live by michael high shan, terrorism analyst for msnbc news, and michael, with a welcome back, you know, i was talking with peter king, chairman of the homeland security committee there in the

house. lots of specific details for an unconfirmed plot. he told me more specific details than he has ever seen in his ten years there in congress. how credible is this threat? >> i think it is troubling. i don't know if it makes it more credible. i think congressman king was right on the mark. because of the specificity and details, particularly about the individuals and the two american passports, raises concern. and the specificity of the attack of a car or truck bomb. al qaeda operatives in that part of the world where they're coming from, clearly know how to do that. it won't be thattize for them if they are here to put that together. they certainly have the capability. >> okay. what about reporting these threats like the possible car bomb plot? i mean, getting that out to the public, good idea or bad idea? either way, why? >> i think it's a good idea, alex, particularly because people will be alert to it, and really we're looking at -- i'm sure nypd and other fbi officials are talking to potential truck rental places,

car rentals. also in particular in this case stores that sell ammonium nitrate-based fertilizers to entities across the tri-state area. they'll need some type of time fuses likes a big firecracker. they need something to set it off. wherever they may be able to get those types of materials, people are going to be on alert for suspicious characters, and i think that could very well help undermine a plot if this truly does exist. >> yeah. and we see all this increase d security. you even see on the streets of new york city, you have policemen with machine guns for heaven's sake. behind the scenes tell me what's going on and how do you even begin to prevent two or three guys from setting off a car bomb? >> right. alex, like you say, the most visible presence will be the heavily armed cops running around the city and checking from place to place, but what you don't see is primarily the

investigators. within the fbi, within the nypd and other places, working with their informants to see if there's any sign that these three guys may have entered the country. remember the case of the man from denver. when he came to new york city to help him in that operation, he ran into an nypd informant. hopefully that's what's going to happen. these guys are going to reach out for support, and our informant network may pick it up. also, nypd detectives, others will be combing through the particular industries that might run into these people as well. the precursor materials for a bomb and vehicles, storage areas where had he may construct one. all this activity you're not seeing behind the scenes is a huge full court press to try to find a lead if these guys actually have entered the country. >> michael, you know, 9/11 will in all likelihood come and go with nothing having happened given this extra vigilance. how about a week from now when the extra vigilance has been tampered down? >> that is right, alex, and, you

know, i have never been a big proponent of anniversaries. i know al qaeda likes to do it, but the fact of the matter is security is very high july 4th, january 1st, new year's eve, rather, around 9/11. security is very tight, and what we always try to emphasize and when i was at nypd, this is a 365 day job. we can't have highs and lows around these events. if you get in that low, like you say, a week or two later, a lull, they're going to find an opportunity to get through. yes, there will be increased activity over the next few days, but it will be the job of law enforcement professionals to keep their level of effort high throughout the year. >> michael, how safe do you feel right now? you're in washington. i'm in new york. i mean, how safe should i feel? >> i feel very safe, alex, and i'm riding around the city here. i'll be up to new york tomorrow morning reporting from ground zero. i'll take the subway down there.

al qaeda should not intimidate us. they've failed for the last ten years to break through a tremendous job that our security forces have done. the cia, the fbi, special operations forces, our military overseas, our work with foreign governments. we cannot allow them to intimidate. that empowers them. that gives them a power and strength that they want to attack us psychologically. i'm going to go about my business. mayor bloomberg made that remark. new yorkers are pretty tough people. i think they're going to keep on doing it. >> i'll see you tomorrow at ground zero. michael sheehan, many thanks. >> thanks, alex. s sdmroorch we're going to go to a live look from nasa. specifically from cape canaveral. we are hoping it's gone off. we've seen it. that is most excellent news, everybody. what you are looking at is the moon shot. it is a pair of spacecraft that's intended to orbit the moon and measure the gravity of the moon. it's going to need some time to analyze all the data with the rocket systems and the putting off that second one, but this is

all about getting to the moon and taking a look at the gravity. they're going to get some tools there to map the moon's inner core. they're going to do this for the very first time. there will be some extraordinary pictures to be sent back as well. it is hoped that the nasa scientists will be better able to understand how the moon was formed and whether there was once another moon that may have melded with it, and that's what could have formed all our lunar mountains. you know, when we look at the moon and you see that you can actually see those huge craters and the like. it could have been two moons that melded into one. gravity measured, look at the depth of the moon, and this is most exciting. we should say that we're glad this one took off. we've been keeping a very close eye on things because they originally were going to have friday a couple of satellites launched there. that did not happen due to

weather. it didn't happen as well about half an hour ago due to weather, but things cleared up. we got you covered here. look telling photos from nasa. video, rather. pretty cool stuff. okay. we'll keep you up-to-date on the things going on way high above us. meantime, the cleanup from the record floodwaters in pennsylvania from new york and into maryland, that is just beginning for tens of thousands that have been evacuated along the northeast. right now as the water recedes, there is a new problem that people have to deal with. about 135 water and sewage plants in pennsylvania have all flooded. that's causing sewage to spill into the streams and the rivers, and that filthy water carried off at least ten houses in the state. nbc's ann thompson live for us again from wilkes-barre, pennsylvania, and with a good day to you. there's so much clutter and debris, i cannot believe some of the stuff we saw in an earlier live shot. what was that, like an ice machine or something that they had on someone's front lawn?

>> there was -- there's an ice machine on someone's front porch. take a look at this. this really tells the story of the power of this flood. in the front of the block you have house siding. you have a ladder that's been destroyed. a window box. then you go back here and this house is actually raised, and the water got all the way up halfway up the first floor. that's where the water mark is. somebody who has a chiropractor office down the block says the water was all the way up to the ceiling. there was extensive flooding. in fact, the mayor estimates some 350 homes took on water, and that's a quarter of this burrough's houses. even though there is still an evacuation order in place for the 65,000 people who live in lucerne county, police are

letting residents in this neighborhood come back, take a look at the damage, start the cleanup process, and, in fact, you can hear there is a -- i believe this is a front end loader right here. you're hearing pumps in the neighborhoods. you hear, you know, heavy equipment as people try -- start the cleanup. it's a job that is going to take certainly days if not weeks. alex what a mess to say the least. many thanks from wilkes-barre. there is a photograph in this week's gop presidential debate that's raising questions like why did rick perry put his hand on ron paul's arm. we have the story behind that snap shot for you. as we continue our coverage of the september 11th anniversary, we'll look at one company's mission of charity to remember the hundreds of its employees killed on that dark day. there was a call for help on 9/11, and ten years later one town prepares to pay tribute to this four-legged first responder. you're watching msnbc saturday.

at ground zero here in new york city this morning the preparations certainly underway for the observances of the 9/11 anniversary tomorrow. we will, of course, bring you the ceremonies tomorrow. six moments of silence will honor the memory of those that died ten years ago. among those who died on september 11th at the world trade center were 658 employees of the trading firm cantor fitzgerald. joining us right now is the author of "an unbroken bond" edi of cantor fitzgerald. that was a day that was filled with incredible loss for you personally as well as for your company. your brother was the ceo and ran things, but more importantly, perhaps on that day, you lost one of your brothers.

>> yes. my brother gary was in the towers, and he passed away along with 657 colleagues, as you said. >> and you barely had any time to mourn him when your brother said we have to put aside our personal familial loss and try to help all of these cantor fitzgerald families. >> it was interesting. i was a labor lawyer before 9/11, and my ties to the firm were only that my brother howard had given me space in their offices. my office was on the 101st floor. so when he said he wanted to start this charity, i stopped being a lawyer and became the full-time co-founder and executive director of the cantor fitzgerald relief fund, and we have taken care of the families for the past ten years financially, emotionally, and, in fact, any way we could think of, and it's in my book "an unbroken bond" the journey of teaing care of them, including the political obstacles that we've had to face along the way

as i became their voice. >> what do you think the families have appreciated most? while i know it may be money on one level, might it also be the fact that you are doing this job and keeping them together and keeping all of this alive? >> thank you. we started as a sea of strangers that the only thing that we had in common was that we lost a loved one who was at work at cantor fitzgerald, and through the just the sensitivity and the care we have become this big community. we are the cantor families, and i think if you ask the families at this point what the most important thing to them was is the constancy and just being there for them and being their voice when they haven't had one a lot of times. >> for instance, i mean, you're trying to think of everything. i mean, dot every i and cross every t. i love what you have done here. tell people what this is about. >> huh thank you.

in "an unbroken bond" i go through how -- i laid out the cantor names at the memorial, so i laid out 715 names for the cantor fitzgerald relief fund on the north tower. >> i wonder if our director can just take this picture here and just get an idea of what are you seeing. >> sure. >> in this book. i don't know. you are literally going through page by page and showing where the names are of each of these families. i mean, it's hard to find. >> you know, i think that it's really unfortunate. while we're very grateful that there is a memorial to our loved ones and it's one of the things also that's in the book, is that it's unfortunate that you need a map to find them, that it is in no discernible order to the general public. you know, i think that the experience for the visitor would have been so much more if we would have been able to put context. if you would have been allowed have the affiliations, if you had the ages next to people's names, you know? i have victims -- have i two

victims names sean patrick lynch, and i actually had to go to one of the families and say if you want to tell them apart, you need to -- one of you needs to forego the middle name. you know, i think the experience for the visitor would have been more and this way with this book we have shown our families where everybody is and what the connections are and what the departments were and why they were placed. >> that would be so helpful for everyone tomorrow and tlit the future. edie, thank you so much. >> thank you so much, alex. a huge variety of first responders and specialists contributed to the world trade center site ten years ago. one retired hero is headed back to new york for the first time since 9/11. a dog from indiana named keiser who was part of the fema search and rescue team. he will participate in the 9/11 tribute tomorrow. 300 dogs in all assisted in the search and rescue that soon turned into a recovery effort.

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in today's tech watch, google's energy use. the search engine giant says it used 2.3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity and that's enough to power 271 holes or 41 empire state buildings. googles about a quarter of its energy comes from renewable fuels and will increase that to 30% this year. just imagine google's electric bill, right? you can now receive flash video, but it's so limited that flash will still not work for video games or animations or those advertisements. well, president obama is selling his jobs proposal to the american public one state at a time. next week he'll speak in house speaker john pain es's home state of ohio and north carolina. he spoke from virginia urging voters to get congress moving. >> so i'm asking all of you to lift up your voices. not just here in richmond.

anybody watching, listening, following on-line. i want you to tell your congress person the time for gridlock and games is over. the time for action is now. the time to create jobs is now. pass this bill. and joining us me now msnbc political analyst johnary altar is also a bloomberg view columnist. good morning. >> good morning. >> do they think the president hit a home run at the white house? >> that's the natural spin coming out of the white house. i'm not sure i should be a baseball critic here, but it was an extra base hit in that i think it exceeded people's expectations, which is the way these things are usually judged. it was a muscular, effective and commonsense speech. the problem is whether that's going to be enough, and, you know, this is a very heavy lift,

to use the washington cliche. he has to do a lot in the next weeks and months, and he doesn't have a very long window before the campaign begins in ernest, and he is no longer really governing. he has to capitalize on this autumn to see if he can salvage at least something out of the bill, and what's changed, alex, is that going in the conventional wisdom was nothing will pass, and now the conventional wisdom is, well, maybe they'll salvage something, and -- >> piecemeal. >> give me a perspective on how worried the white house is about the jobs situation, and if that is topic number one, how far ahead of any other topic is that right now? >> way ahead. >> way ahead. >> that's -- >> i mean, the american job act is now the centerpiece of the obama presidency, and, you know, he is going to use it if not to get the economy better because if it doesn't pass, it won't

have any effect. if not do to do that, then at least to lay down a marker so that next fall when americans are making this choice they know what he stands for, they know what he wants to do with the job, and in that sense it's very helpful for him because it gets him off the defensive and makes him look stronger and it gives definition and tone to his presidency. >> okay. let's say this thing gets broken apart now, which in all likelihood is what's going to happen, and it takes a while to get things passed and then implementation of those jobs. when do the first jobs start rolling as a result of this, and is it going to be enough in time for this presidency to secure a second term? >> well, i can't answer the second question. that's why this is going to be such a fascinating election year. in terms of, you know, when it 125r9s being felt, the answer to that is the way it's structured right away when people have more money in their pockets and,

remember, out of this really $500 billion well over half of it is in tax cuts. thousands of dollars in the pockets of middle class americans. what do they do with that extra money is the question? if they just save it or use it to reduce debt, it doesn't create that many jobs. if they take it and spend it, it increases demand, and the reason there aren't more jobs reason is there's not enough demand, so this is a demand side response to try to increase demand and then when people start going to the malls and buying more things, then, according to the experts, you might see a million, million and a half more jobs in the next 12 months. if i not implemented, there won't be those jobs, and it raises the question of what the alternative is, so the republicans usually cut regulations.

that's -- what this package is that the american jobs act is a holist ebbing approach. it has a lot of different elements to it. if they start peeling off just the ones that they like and don't accept some of the ones that the president wants, it will be a lot less effective. >> yeah. a lot to watch for the next few weeks. we'll see where this one goes. thank you so much, as always. >> thanks, alex wrshs people around the world this weekend are remembering the tragedy of 9/11. the twin tower replicas were right in front of the eiffel tower here. the towers will be the center of a ceremony sunday in paris to honor all of those who lost their lives ten years ago. i don't want healthy skin for a day. i want healthy skin for life. [ female announcer ] don't just moisturize, improve the health of your skin with aveeno daily moisturizing lotion. the natural oatmeal formula goes beyond 24-hour moisture.

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at ground zero tomorrow the 9/11 memorial officially opens for the tenth anniversary observances. joining me in studio, joe dan wrels, president of the national 9/11 memorial as well as the museum, and, joe, with a good morning to you. you guys all ready for tomorrow? >> we have one day showing on our countdown clock after thousands of days counting down over the years in the office right now. it says one. we're one day away. >> i bet you're pretty excited. what do you think is the most special part about the memorial? >> i think it's going to be when we see tomorrow the first interactions of family members, mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, approaching the pools, finding the name of their loved ones, and then having that first moment of touching a name that they know will be permanently -- is permanently inscribed here on sacred ground forever. >> yeah. in anticipation of that, i don't know how i'm going to hold back tears. how do you? >> it's a site that has seen and gone through so much pain. remember the towers falling. we remember the pile over that nine-month recovery period. we remember that empty pit and

to see all had that comes to a place of beauty and grace. it is overwhelming. >> and you see it and it is absolutely so spectacular now, but this was tough to slug this out. this was not an easy thing to build because you had so many people are so much emotion invested into it. you know, you have some divergent voices. >> stlulgts. it was a chatening of a lifetime. victim's family members who have so much appropriate stake in this, but you also had downtown residents, the public at large, the politics that surround it. what i found is that with each paver we put down, with each tree that we planted, when people saw the memorial take shape, there was a feeling of we're doing the right thing here. >> yeah. in advance of heading down to ground zero tomorrow, i've been reading about particularly the museum as well, which is scheduled to open next year on this anniversary. i am so excited by what is promised to be there. talk about how you think the public will react to that? >> i think it's -- we're going to preserve our history of what happened on that day through first person accounts, through

these artifacts that tell these amazing stories. whether it's the world trade center cross that was in the pile that provided just that little bit of comfort of week to people that were just fighting it out in the hellish conditions to first responder vehicles that represent these amazing stories of just bravery and sacrifice from the 343 firefighters, pieces of steel that show the impact of the planes to help people understand that all those people, all they did was what we did this morning. they got up and they went to work. >> and i have to say one thing that stood out to me as we were talking during the commercial the survivor stairs. people are going to be able to see how hundreds of people got out up those stairs. >> we saw the staircase, and we have images that we're going to put along side of it with the dust cloud exploding around. people with masks on actually running down the stairs to run from the world trade center plaza down to escape on the street. every person in the museum will pass that stairwell on their way down to bedrock.

>> it is going to be a year from now, but also tomorrow i'm sure the culmination of so much hard work for you as well. i hope everything goes perfectly tomorrow. thanks. we're going to go now to the actual rebuilding at ground zero, which is, of course, a massive construction project and joining me from lower manhattan is steve plate, the director of world trade construction. with a good morning to you, steve, i'm going to ask you what i asked joe, are you all ready for tomorrow? >> absolutely. we're actually ahead of where we thought we would be at this time. >> okay. >> what were your biggest challenges getting us to where we are together? >> well, as engineers and builders, our biggest challenge was bringing certainty to exactly what people wanted and getting it -- and then getting everyone to push in the same direction. right now we have probably close to 10,000 people on and off the site with 3,400 construction workers. each and every day just orchestrating a tremendous

symphoniy of accomplishment in respect of the souls lost that day. >> tell me about yesterday when the workers unfurled the flag, and there was that moment of silence. did you get the sense that those construction workers, not only yesterday, but throughout this, you know, long and hard-working process have always kept what this is about in the forefront of their minds? >> absolutely. it comes from a back drop of construction workers. i became an engineer, but i walk the site every day, and i don't walk the site just to look at the work and how we're accomplishing things, but to talk to those individuals and find out from them what they see, and they don't just see from a structural or a construction point of view, but they see from their hearts and what it means to them. who lost their brother? who lost a sister? who lost a family member? they want to be here to make it happen, and what yesterday was about, it wasn't orchestrated. all of a sudden we got the word, the word passed very quickly,

that the workers wanted to do something special to remember those souls lost on that day, and it was very touching as a part of construction to watch all 25 to 30 cranes turn towards the memorial pools and bow in reverence with everybody chanting "god bless america." >> i tell you. tell me, steve, what is the most beautiful part about the memorial for you? where do you get a sense of what this is all about, the most profound? >> well, it's just so touching on every element. you can look at the pools. you can look at the artifacts. i mean, understand that as a port authority employee for 25 years that was our home, and we lost 84 of our own, so even when i bring my children back who at the time were toddlers, as i'm sure you bring to your office, they had spent a lot of time in those towers, and when they came back, they started to cry, and i turned to my son, greg, who is

now 26 and said, greg, why are you crying? he said, dad, i lost my home, as so did you. in the very place we spent as we all do countless hours working each and every day. >> steve plate, well put. thank you very much for bringing that to me, and, again, our thanks to joe daniel here who stayed in studio and listened your interview. thank you, guys. our coverage i continues on msnbc.com and a look at how people across the nation are remembering the day that changed america. in just a moment, the back story behind the picture we're going to show you that was taken at this week's gop debate. why has this generated so much talk? you know when something's bad -- but you do it anyway?

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truck bombs. i'm joined by w nbc t reporter and our special correspondent jonathan deanst. a good morning to you. let's talk about what these officials are on the lookout for. is this something like the attempted time square bombing last year? >> that's the correlation that's described in the homeland security kurt bull ten and sort of the briefing that security officials here in new york have that perhaps men are going to come and try to conduct some sort of improvised vehicle bomb, vehicle explosion here in new york. the date was speck. between september 10th and september 12th. there are a lot of questions about this threat information and the veracity of it. it comes from one informant from oversea who's has been helpful, who has been described as credible in the past, but it's unclear where he got this information from. we were speaking with peter king this morning down at ground zero, and he said, look, the guy provided specific information about the nature of the plot, the date, how they may go about

doing it, but they are totally at a loss as to how he got this information or how good that information was from whatever original source he was in contact with. there are some questions, but what does the nypd do? they get put in this position of hey, we have this threat information. we have to ramp up. they know this 9/11 anniversary weekend is going to be a threat. there are threats associated with it. as a precaution, they are doing -- pulling out all the stops. going across midtown, lower manhattan, they're not teaing any chances, but there are a lot of questioned about is this threat for real? do these three guys even exist? it remains unclear. >> what's also -- it's like the needle in the haystack mentality here because if you have these three guys, two of whom are reported in various sources as either having u.s. passports and being u.s. citizens or even having u.s. travel papers of some sort, i mean, come on. you've got millions of people in this city and washington.

that's a challenge to say the least. >> that is the challenge. again, it all goes back to the one source, the one source providing as much detailed information that he could. gave the first name of one of the guys. >> oh, really? >> middle eastern first name. what do you do with that information? what they're doing is they're pouring over travel records. emgregs, custom enforcement, fbi trying to see if they have these computer programs they can run to sort of map dates and sequences and times that have come up with a range of maybe 200, 300 people to see if and then go out and try to track toes folks down. they've not completed that yet, is our understanding, but that work continues. yeah, without a name, without a passport number, what do you do? they're going to do everything they can, but right now they have nothing at this time to indicate there are any terrorists inside the u.s. plotting an attack on the u.s. all they have is the threat information from overseas. they're going to act as if they're here, take although precautions, just to keep them safe for this weekend.

>> nbc's jonathan. coughing and not saying it right. we know who you are. thank you. >> thank you. it is the most talked about moment from this past week's republican debate that didn't actually happen during the debate. worry talking about a photo that was taken during a commercial break showing rick perry apparently giving ron paul an earful. ron paul says he doesn't remember what perry was talking about, but he spoke about the photo at a campaign event. >> it's a picture of myself with i think the governor of texas or somebody. the truth is that i had never met him before, and some of the people in the media said, i don't believe you. how could that be true? he is your governor. the picture, of course, if you haven't seen it, is very -- he is looking straight at me, and he has his hand on my arm, but he is not going to let me move, and is he doing this to me. everybody, my kids, including, have been writing to me, what

was he saying to you? >> well, joining me now senior writer for politico maggie. good morning. >> good morning. >> they have never even met before, and rick perry gets kind of -- >> he is holding his arm. he is pointing. it's pretty amazing to me that they had never met considering how long both of them have been searching in the same state. beyond that, i don't quite believe ron paul doesn't remember what happened. i do think that ron paul is showing that ron paul can be a bit more of a politician than perhaps we think he can be, and he is doing the right thing there, but it was clearly -- the fireworks were flying between the two of them at the debate, and i expect we'll see more of that next week in the next debate. >> yeah. do you have a winner in your mind from this debate? >> i think you have to say that rick perry and mitt romney were kind of tied. they both did what they needed to do. mitt romney had a strong performance. he showed that he can take a purchg and throw a punch. he did not have any mistakes. rick perry did have some mistakes, but the expectations were so much lower for him. he had never debated nationally. you know, he did show that he is going to meet hits on him back

punch for punch. i would argue that maybe fighting with ron paul as heavily as he did only elevates ron paul, but regardless, i think that rick perry did overall pretty well. >> did we get a sense from the polls going into the debate that had rick perry, you know, as the frontrunner -- do we think this race has tightened up at all? >> i think it could, sure. yeah. i mean, i think we have another two debates that are coming up in pretty rapid succession, but i think the first one that we saw last week, it was the first of the fall debates. i do think you will see tightening. i don't think that he rick perry necessarily did what he needed to do to woo doneors. it froze the race. >> how long until we see some dropping out and who do you thu the first candidate may snb. >> tricky question. the person that has the least money and is most in debt. michelle bachmann has a strong internet fundraising base. >> iowa for her. win iowa. >> if she does not win that is absolutely the end. i think she will stay in through

then. i think john huntsman, at a certain point he will have to decide mouch money he wants to keep kicking in. >> he has the money. >> if you don't see yourself gaining in new hampshire, where his focus is now, i think you will start to see him revisiting this topic. >> it's generally considered that michelle bachmann did not have a good night there. >> that's right. >> you write that she's taking her act too late night? what? >> the best possible free media there is. she can kind of inject herself into the mix. she can get easy headlines. she can show a lighter, softer, humorous side. these are folks that have been making fun of her on light nature for weeks now, and this is a is a nice way continue jekt herself into the conversation. >> do you it will help her. >> it can't hurt. it will get her more attention. >> all right. do you think she needs more attention. >> of the positive variety prapgs. >> that's what we mean. thank you. our coverage of the 9/11 anniversary continues in just a moment. meanwhile, pope benedict says he is praying for those those who

lost their lives and their families. up next, how american muslims feel ten years after the september 11th attacks, right here on msnbc saturday. [ woman ] jogging stroller. you've been stuck in the garage while i took refuge from the pollen that made me sneeze.

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a new report from the pugh research says musl americans re muslim extremism. i'm joined now by daisy khan, executive director of the american society for muslim advancement. good morning. thanks for being here. as we talk about this report, it shows no evidence of any rising support for islamic extremism but more than half of the people surveyed, say the anti-terrorism policies single out muslims. do you agree with that? >> well, we've always known in the muslim community that

there's hardly any support for the extremist view, in fact, the majority of muslim s abhore the ideology of al qaeda or anything that breeds extremism or terrorism. there is widespread -- there is no support for terrorism and extremism in the community. but what happens is, when there are certain kinds of policies put into place that then, you know, set the muslim community back and put the muslim community on the defensive because they feel they are being marginalized or singled out and that in itself creates a whole set of other issues. >> absolutely it does. if we want to compare some numbers here based on american perceptions, how muslim-americans say they feel, 21% say there's a great deal of extremism in their community. 40% of all americans believe that is the case. why do you think there continues to be a disconnect? >> i think most americans get

their information about muslims from the media and what happens, the incidences that happen overseas, whether it's so you cri -- suicide bombings, stoning of women. there are powerful images they see, the negative images. there's no way to balance it out with positive images who have muslims are, law-abiding citizens, a street vendor, a taxi driver, your a doctor, your next-door neighbor or co-work also studies say if you get to know a muslim personally, your perception changes. >> as i was telling you, one of our colleagues here, we've learned so much about the muslim faith and what the ideology is for the vast majority of muslims out there. i want to talk, though, and let people know you are the wife of imam ralph who is pushing to build the cultural center.

>> we decided to focus on the 9/11 anniversary. in fact, last night we had ten families that we honored and five were muslim and five were nonmuslim. we felt that the whole opposition against us was a very organized opposition. it wasn't really about 9/11. it wasn't about sensitivity. and there is a new report that has just come out, which is worth reading. it's from the american center for progress. about islam-aphobia and how there's a strong group of people, $43 million over ten years to spread islamaphobia in this country. it's an organized group of people that are opposing muslims on all fronts. it has very little to do with the center, the location, the sensitivity. we decided to focus with the families first. and out of that, r group, we hope that we will be able to really create a center for healing, whether it's about location or another location.

we would like to do something that is symbolic of bringing people together. >> understandably so. we wish you the best of luck in those endefers. >> thank you for having me. we take you to the pentagon in where president george w. bush will take part in a wreath-laying ceremony in honor of the men and women who lost their lives there on september 11th. or wherever you happen to be... the first step on that road may well be... a bowl of soup. delicious campbell's soups fill you with vegetable nutrition, farm-grown ingredients, energy, and can help you keep a healthy weight. putting you on the road to happiness. bon voyage. campbell's -- it's amazing what soup can do.

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