services instead of these nontraditional services which are predatory. >> immara jones from colorrhi colorlines.com, thanks so much. that is "all in" for this evening. the rachel maddow show starts right now. thanks for you at home joining us this hour. september 7th, 1986, the city of spokane, washington, was hosting something called the spokane interstate fair. and several government witnesses later testified that on the afternoon of that fair in 1986, a man wearing camouflage pants and army boots walked up to the cotton candy booth at the fair, along with his wife, they also had their baby with them and a diaper bag. the young man in camouflage attempted to buy some candy with a $20 bill. whoever was manning that booth realized something was wrong and somebody called the police. turns out the $20 bill was both counterfeit and a bad enough counterfeit that however woas working at the cotton candy booth could tell it was a fake. the sheriff's department tupprn,

arrested the guy with the fake $20 bill, and inside the diaper bag, he had another 59 counterfeit $20 bills. . turns out that couple arrested at that fair that day back in 1986, they were members of the a aryan nations, members of a neo gnnazi group, trying to create all-white homeland for white people in that northwest corner of the country. when the other aryan nation guys heard about their friend and comrade being arrested at the cotton candy stand at the fair trying to pass that fake $20 bill, federal prosecutors say two of the other aryan nations guys, when their heard their friend got arrested, they went to the guy's house. they went to the couple's home and once they were there, they flushed down the toilet a bunch of leftover green printer's ink that they had used to make those counterfeit $20 bills. they also took the scraps of counterfeit paper that had been left over after they passed the bills and took the paper cutter

itself. but one of those two aryan nations guys then freaked out and turned the himself into the fbi and said, he wanted protection. the next day, the fbi raided the home of the other guy, with whom he had flushed the printer's ink and cleared out the paper cutter and all the rest. in the other guy's home, the fbi found not only more counterfeit 20s, stacks and stacks of $20 bill, they also found whole uncut sheets of counterfeit $20 bills. tens of thousands of dollars worth, had the counterfeits, any good. according to the fbi, they also found a sheet of steel that matched shrapnel from a bombing that had happened just two weeks earlier in northern idaho. on september 15th, 1986, so about a week after the cotton candy incident, a bomb had gone off at the home of a local pastor in idaho. he had been helping lead opposition to the aryan nations against their efforts to try to take over that part of idaho and

the northwest. the reverend bill wisemouth was not hurt in the bombing of his home, but the forensic evidence taken from the bomb that went off at his house, that forensic evidence did tie back to those counterfeit $20 bills. and they did tie them back to the aryan nations and to this whole network of white supremacists operating a complex ring of crimes aimed at attacking people who they hated and getting publicity for the white supremacist cause, and stealing or even manufacturing money in order to help them do more of the same. the neo nazi group of that time called editor, they're best known for having murdered this man, jewish talk show host named berg in denver. but they are also known for counterfeiting and for a series of bank robberies and armored car robberies that was thought to have netted the group a little over $4 million in the 1980s. the order used the money from

those armed robberies to finance itself as a neo-nazi organization, but also to funnel that money to other white supremacist groups. they were hoping they were building what would eventually be an aryan white power movement strong enough to overthrow the entire u.s. government. and they handed out this booty, basically, stolen money, in hundreds of thousands of dollar chunks to other white supremacist groups. and there had been some effective law enforcement tactics against these neo nazi and far right groups operating in the pacific northwest at the time. the details about the cotton candy counterfeiter and the bombing, those came out during a successful federal prosecution that the fbi brought against the order and the aryan nations in 1985. they brought them up on racketeering charges and whole big chunks of those groups all went to jail, all at once. 1985, that was a successful prosecution that was brought in seattle. but two years later, in 1987, the fbi tried to go for

something much bigger with these neo nazi groups. they convinced a federal grand jury in arkansas, an all-white jury in arkansas, in trial, once it got to trial, they convinced this federal grand jury to indict 15 different leaders of white supremacists and neo nazi groups for sedition. not for counterfeiting or armed robbery or racketeering, but for sedition, for trying to overthrow the united states government. it was a really, really big deal case at the time. >> a three-year federal investigation of white supremacy groups in this country today resulted in indictments against 15 key members. some were charged in connection with the murder of jewish talk show host, alan berg three years ago in denver. other charges included planning to murder a judge and plotting to overthrow the government. nbc's roger o'neil has more. >> reporter: called operation clean sweep by some, the justice department says today's arrest wipe out the white supremacist

group of the aryan nations with all of its leaders either in jail or headed that way. the u.s. attorney says that today's actions sends a message. >> the message is that any radical group that uses violence to achieve their ends will be dealt with by the department of justice. >> the government says the violence included murder, bank and armored car robberies, plotting to kill this man and the judgment overthrow of the u.s. government. the white supremacists belong to different groups, the white supremacists, the order, the coku klux klan and were anti-black and anti-government. >> that was in 1987, ambitious prosecution brought against all of those white supremacist leaders, going after them for trying to overthrow the u.s. government, it's a sedition trial. that's when that "nbc nightly news" report was from, april 1987. by april 1988, it had all fallen apart. >> if ft. smith, arkansas,

today, an all-white jury acquitted members of a white supremacy group of trying to kill federal officials. >> they tried to bring down basically the whole neo nazi and white supremacist movement in one fell swoop. they put 15 men on trial all at once for the most serious charges you can levee against american citizens. sedition, plotting to overthrow the government. the feds went for it and they missed. and that had to be a huge disappointment, right? at least an embarrassing failure, for the prosecutors and for the fbi agents who were involved in that big landmark case. >> but imagine if you were the informant in that case. imagine if you were the rat. imagine if you were the guy inside the white supremacist movement who the fbi flipped and convinced to testify against your old neo-nazi pals for the big federal case, and then your old neo nazi pals you just

ratted out won the case. and that happened to guy. when the order was robbing banks and robbing armored cars to raise money for the neo nazi movement, they gave some of that money to groups like the arian nations, they also gave some of that money to a group called the white patriot party. the guy who founded the white patriot party got flipped by the fbi, and in exchange for a more lenient sentence for himself, he testified against everybody else in that indictment. he explained how he had been given $200,000 in stolen money from the guy who founded the order. and he testified about what he knew about other white supremacist groups getting money from the order as well. and when the case collapsed and all these guys were acquitted, here's this guy, who had testified against everybody else in the neo nazi movement in open court. he had founded the white patriots party in carolina, he had founded the california nights of the ku klux klan. but after that trial and after him turning state's evidence and

ratting oen all of his colleagues in the neo nazi movement. he left north carolina, he fled the state, moved to missouri, and he changed his name. he changed his name from fraser glen miller jr., to frazier glen cross. and this, this weekend, was frazier glen cross. >> panic and fear ripped through the parking lot of the jewish community center this afternoon at 115th and knoll. >> there's a guy with a rifle here, shooting at people. >> should we leave? >> i would leave. >> is he still here? >> i don't know. >> three are dead and a 14-year-old boy is in critical condition after police confirmed to 41 action news a gunman opened fire in two different locati location. just after 1:00, a man with a rifle shot at people in the parking lot, forcing the center into a lockdown. dozens of people, including teens and children, scrambled to safety. moments later, gunfire was also

reported at village shalom, an assisted living facility a few blocks away. >> our cameras were there as that person was placed inside a police unit. listen to what the suspect had to say. >> heil hitler! >> the three people who were killed this weekend were a 69-year-old grandfather named the william and his 14-year-old son, as well as a 53-year-old woman named terry lamano. even though the suspect in these shootings was taken into custody almost immediately after the shootings happened, that was him in the back of the car, shouting " "hiel hitler", there was still some confusion as to his identity because of his multiple aliases. and those spring in part because he had to move across the country and pretend he was somebody else after he turned state's evidence against other neo-nazis in that big failed

sedition trial back in the late 1980s. even so, though, he wasn't exactly hiding his white supremacist light under a bushel all these years. he did numerous press sbrointers over the past years. over the past ten years, he has posted well over 10,000 messages to racist websites and message boards online. and these online message boards are an important part of how the neo-nazi and white supremacist movements promulgate themselves to this day and how they organize and hold themselves together. you might remember that the racist website storm front was the online home for this guy, who opened fire inside a sikh temple in oak creek, wisconsin, two years ago, killing six people before he killed himself. storm front was also the home base online for this guy, who ambushed and killed three police officers with his ak-47 in pittsburgh in 2009. the favorite online home for a man who called himself online rounder, who offline was sometimes known as frazier glen

miller, or sometimes known as frazier glen cross, his online home is a place known as vanguard news network. if you don't tend to keep nazi networking hubs in your head, the reason why this vanguard group might sound familiar is because of this news story you might remember. this was the martin luther king day parade in spokane, washington, in 2011. a 36-year-old white supremacist packed fishing weights and other shrapnel dipped into rat poison into a backpack bomb and left it on the scene of the martin luther king day parade in spokane in 2011. he pled guilty later that year. he was sentenced to 32 years in prison. part of what prosecutors used to try to influence the judge in his case to lengthen his sentence is that after he was arrested in spokane, once he was in jail on suspicion of having been the bomber of the martin luther king day parade, that confessed bomber from jail exchanged letters with the guy who shot up the two jewish facilities and killed those three people this weekend in

kansas city. frazier glen cross wrote to the mlk day bomber and offered to be a character witness. offered to set up a defense fund for him. did media interviews about the mlk bomber case, telling talking points memo at the time, i have been conversining with him on t internet for years. i had a very strong opinion of his intellect, and most of the other people did too on our vanguard news network forum. so the guy doing 32 years in prison for bombing the mlk day parade in spokane three years ago and the guy who yelled heil hitler after allegedly shooting up those two jewish facilities in kansas this weekend, they apparently were old friends who had been corresponding online for years at a neo nazi online hub. and it's not just them. the spokesman review also reports today that on saturday, on the day before the kansas city shootings this weekend, frazier glen miller, aka, frazier glen cross, he was

online, again this time, posting a public notice that he had just spoken with this guy. over the past few months, you've probably seen one of the many inflammatory news stories that have been done about tiny, beleaguered leaf, north dakota. this is this little town in north dakota of 15 people where a small group of white supremacists moved in. they attempted to basically set up homesteads and take over the town. the town of leith, at one point, considered disbanding itself, to stop these nazis from having anything take over. the leader of that band in leith, north dakota, is currently in jail facing seven charges including terrorizing the town officials in leith. but from jail, he reportedly had contact on saturday with the guy who on sunday went on to do those kansas city shootings. in 2009, the department of homeland security prepared a draft report on the national

security threat of homegrown right-wing extremists in the united states. after a draft of the report was leaked, there was a huge backlash on the political right and on the fox news channel in particular. a huge backlash against the department of homeland security, even studying the possibility that there might be a threat of violence from right-wing extremists in this country. that final report was never released. the lead author of the report later said that in response to the uproar the department of homeland security not only didn't release the report, they diverted resources away from studying the problem of homegrown right-wing extremists is and their threat of violence. today is the one-year anniversary of the bombing at the finish line of the boston marathon. one of the two suspects in that bombing, of course, is dead. the other is in custody, still awaiting trial. from what's been made public about that case so far, it appears clear that the bombing, at least, seems to have been motivated in part by religious extremism. there are reports that the surviving suspect told people from the hospital when he was

recovering from his wounds that he hoped to inspire other people to commit jihad. but there also seemed to have been some other things going on here as well. "the wall street journal" reporting several months ago that one of their reporters went into the apartment of the older suspect and among the items found in the older suspect's apartment was a stack of right-wing conspiracy theory newsletters. the american free press, which promises to tell you the truth that the mainstream media will not tell you about, black mob violence continuing unabated in america, the irs scandal reveals that there's jewish control at the white house, the sovereign, which calls itself the newspaper of the resistance, reporting on how 9/11 was an inside job, israeli lobbyists control the u.s. government. this one, this is called the first freedom, equal rights for whites. which, until recently, was advertising events for storm front. the same nazi message board

frequent ed by the sikh temple shooter and the ak-47, the online cousin to the vanguard news network, home of the martin luther king day boppmber from spokane and telling aed kansas city, kansas, shooter this weekend. and june, with the boston bombing guy, how weird is it to have chechen-speaking russian immigrant guys reading ads from boards and daelgedly setting off bombs that killed americans? how weird is that combination of conspiratorial nihilism? good question. but that is as much a part of the story of the boston bombings is as anything else we have absorbed about the threat posed by those kind of perpetrators in this past year. the new america foundation tracks deadly, ideologically motivated attacks in the united states since 9/11. following the kansas city attacks this weekend, their totals stand at 21 for the total number of people killed by attacks motivated by islamic

extremism, and that includes the boston marathon bombing, with four people killed a year ago today. also includes the ft. hood shooting in 2009, with 13 people killed. but after the kansas city shootings this weekend, the total number of people killed in what appear to be ideologically motivated the attacks not by jihadists, but by right-wingers in this country, that's a higher number, that's 34. not 21, 34. and we have decided that combatting terrorist attacks motivated by islamic extremism is not only a matter of national significance, it's something that should drive the entire international order of things. but when it comes to the proven and interconnected threat of the armed american extreme right wing, we're still treating every attack by them like a surprise. we're still treating every one of those attackers like a lone wolf. regardless of how many letters we find between them, each of them, while they're in jail. regardless of the places where we find them talking to each other online.

regardless of the connections that they say exist between them, regardless of the tide of evidence that these networks exist and are operational. why are we so willing to not be afraid of the threat of right-wing extremism in this country? why is that? should that change? hold that thought. all stations come over to mission a for a final go. this is for real this time. step seven point two one two. verify and lock. command is locked. five seconds. three, two, one. standing by for capture. the most innovative software on the planet... dragon is captured. is connecting today's leading companies to places beyond it. siemens. answers. at your ford dealer think? they think about tires. and what they've been through lately. polar vortexes,

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add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side in 2011, a white supremacist couple named david peterson and holly grigsby, they were arrested fog a ten-day killing

spree in oregon, california. they were accused of carjacking and killing four people as part of a campaign to, quote, purify and preserve the white race. in 2010, a man in texas set his home on fire and then flew his small plane into the irs building in austin, texas, killing himself and an irs supervisor. in 2009, three people, including one linked to the aryan nations broke into a home in pima county, arizona, looking to commit a robbery. they reportedly intended to use the proceeds of the robbery to finance their anti-immigrant white supremacist minuteman militia. they killed a 29-year-old man and his daughter inside the house. she was a third grader. in 2008, a man stormed into the tennessee valley unitarian universalist church looking to kill liberals. he said he hated liberals and blacks and gay people. he killed two people inside the church with a shotgun. in 2009, abortion provider geor george tiller was killed in kansas.

he was killed by a man with long-standing ties to the extreme right wing, including the abortion fringe group, operation rescue. there were the other sovereign citizens who ambushed is and kills two police officers in louisiana as well in 2012. there was also the white supremacist who ambushed and kills three police officers in pittsburgh in 2009. he was a regular at the say anti-semitic neo-nazi message board as the man who killed three people at the sikh temple in 2009. and that is not to be confused with the board frequented by the confessed bomber of the martin luther king day parade in 2011. and by the suspect arrested this weekend in conjunction with the triple murder in kansas city. before he ever sat in the back of that police car and screamed "heil hitler" at the cameras, he was organizing online for years, corresponding with others terrorists, trying to inspire others to follow in their footsteps. at cnn.com today, the cnn website, peter bergen said we should do a thought experiment

in this country, in which instead of shouting "heil hitler" when he was arrested, that suspect in kansas city had instead shouted ayla al akbar. how would we be reacting to it then? why are right-wing terrorist attacks treat as as a one-off whack job, when other forms of terrorism, engender not just a bigger reaction from us as a nation, but a more radical and systemic response as well? joining us now is a man who knows of these thing, michael leiter, with one of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. mr. leiter, thank you for being here. >> good to be here. >> you were at the counterterrorism center when this report in 2009 from homeland security on right-wing extremism, it was produced and leaked and never finally reported. do you remember what was going on around that report at the

time? >> i do, very well. the fact is that people in the u.s. government and the counterterrorism community really were worried about right-wing extremism. and the report talked about some of those factors. the report also used what i would consider really bad, sloppy language and some bad analysis about some other things, like the potential for returning vets to become right-wing extremists. and that raised the ire of many in congress, especially in the right, stating that the department of homeland security shouldn't be in the business of looking at people like veterans and anyone else for purely political views and why those weren't terrorists, those were patriotic americans. >> in terms of recognizing the threat from right-wing extremist groups, though, did the backlash to that report, the fact that it was never even released in any other form, should we read that as essentially the government getting shy about identifying this as a real threat? because they were worried about that backlash? >> there is no doubt that when congress reacts very, very badly to something the executive branch does, it makes people gun

shy. and i don't want to say that people stop looking at right-wing extremism. i think aryan nations and other associated groups, a lot of the ones you've mentioned, the intelligence community, the department of homeland security, the fbi, still did focus on them. but there is no doubt in my mind that that sort of reaction to the paper itself absolutely made people a little more risk averse than, frankly, they should have been, given some of the history that we saw. >> and the counterterrorism center, forgive me if i've got this wrong, but i understand that the national counterterrorism center by law, focusing only on international terrorism. is that true? >> that's true. >> and is that right? do you think it should be that way? >> i think it's probably a mistake. i think it's largely a response to 9/11 and al qaeda and international terrorism. but the fact is that extremism and terrorists and people who turn to violence are all going through a very similar radicalization process. they're motivated by different causes. it could be a skewed islamic ideology or it could be

right-wing extremism, but almost always, there are people who have gone through some sort of crisis or looking for a higher meaning, create a sense of us versus them. and in that sense, it's actually really important for organizations like the national counterterrorism center and foreign intelligence organizations to at least talk to their domestic counterparts, so that expertise of understanding what makes people turn to violence, regardless of the motivation for that violence, is fully understood. >> do you -- there is this issue with the boston bombing, and today is the one-year anniversary, a very painful anniversary, there is this sort of almost feels like an outlier detail in terms of the way we think of it, that in the older is the's apartment, there was this stack of, you know, right-wing, anti-semitic, very aryan nation style literature, while at the same time, we've seen very well documented and seem as very central as to understanding the case, islamic radicalism. is that sort of a mixture of different forms of extremism, an unheard of thing? >> no, it isn't.

we think of america as a melting pot. and we used to think of in the counterterrorism community, it's an extreme melting pot. you would have people who are associated with al qaeda also sort of living what you might think of as a traditional gangster lifestyle. but the two are totally in conflict. or reading white supremacist literatu literature. so it's not totally unheard of. in the case of tsaernave, it's what happened. but spotting that is another indicator of identifying the people who aren't just extreme in their thoughts, but are actually turning to violence. >> and to see that, for me, what is frustrating is to watch the sort of news response and the man on the street response, which is that there's no larger story to tell about all these continued acts of extremism if they come from the american right, but a larger story to

tell about other forms of extremism. thank you for helping me understand it. michael leiter, the former director of the national counterterrorism center. we're lucky to have him at nbc and msnbc. much more ahead. stay with us. hey. i'm ted and this is rudy. say "hi" rudy. [ barks ] [ chuckles ] i'd do anything to keep this guy happy and healthy.

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transportation commissioner, which is not one of the glamour jobs of government in any state. but what james simpson is showing us here, what he's pointing out in this picture is a marquee government thing that lots of people tend to care about. what he's pointing out is the rapidly rusting out underbelly of a great big important bridge. this particular bridge is about 80 years old. it's called the pulaski skyway. it connects jersey city, new jersey, on the way in from new york city. it carries something like 70,000 cars every day, give or take. but that major, major piece of infrastructure is just flat falling apart. and so, these state transportation commissioner, james simpson, he's been out there explaining to the public why his department needs to close down this major bridge coming into new york and they need to shut it down for two hole years. commissioner simpson has set up a website explaining how this is going to work for commuters.

they started a twitter account with the latest options for getting to work. they've made psas, right? they're trying to be very friendly and they're going to explain this to everyone, so this major two-year-long shutdown of this major bridge goes as smoothly as possible, especially for the people of newark and jersey city, who especially depend on this bridge, because that's where the bridge goes. well, last summer, commissioner james simpson scheduled a meeting with the mayor of engineejersey city. he's a democrat, his name is steven fullup. and mayor fullup had all those meetings set up, but then those meetings got canceled, one after another, most in the space of an hour, after the mayor told the governor's office that he wasn't going to endorse governor chris christie for re-election in flnlg. the transportation guy, james simpson, he was one of the guys scheduled for one of those meetings with the jersey city mayor. but like everybody else, his meeting with the jersey city

mayor got canceled because governor christie didn't get his endorsement. now, the chris christie staffers who canceled all those meetings with the jersey city mayor, they may or may not have been playing politics when they canceled those meetings. they were playing politics when they canceled those meetings. but the transportation commissioner says he actually did just want to talk about the falling down bridge. and he wanted to talk, specifically, about how poor old jersey city, where the bridge is, he wanted to talk with them about how jersey city was going to manage the traffic that would be created when they closed this bridge down for two whole years so they could repair it. after his meeting got canceled along with everybody else's meetings, commissioner simpson called governor christie's staff, called specifically, governor christie's deputy chief of staff and asked if she could please reschedule that jersey city meeting, since it wasn't just a political favor, it was actually on a really important topic. he told chris christie's deputy chief of staff, bridget kelly,

he told her it was, quote, an important meeting regarding the upcoming temporary close of the pulaski skyway. he called bridget kelly repeatedly, asking if he could please meet with the jersey city mayor. and apparently the answer was no. jersey city may need to plan for traffic armageddon, and the state traffic commissioner may want to help them do that planning, but chris christie had an election to win, and the mayor wasn't playing along with that, and chris christie's new jersey, priorities are priority, so no meeting, not at least before the election. finally in december, after the election, after governor christie was re-elected, the transportation commissioner asked again, and this time he asked somebody else in the administration, and then, finally, in january, mr. james simpson did finally get his meeting, so he could finally start talking to jersey city about how they were going to handle this two-year shutdown of the bridge. and then, yesterday, they finally shut down the bridge and they started working on it. and i, for one, do not know what

governor christie needs in order to revive his national political career. i don't particularly care. but i am willing to guess that what he needs in order to revive his national political career is not more man-made traffic problems. especially in a situation where the transportation commissioner was begging a chris christie staffer named bridget kelly to please let him meet with the local mayor to avert the traffic crisis. especially not when that same christie staffer that the transportation commissioner was begging is the same chris christie staffer who ordered traffic problems for the town of ft. lee. the extent to which chris christie staffers also served as an election machine, and the way the chris christie administration governed new jersey as an election machine, that has been one of the startling revelations of the past few weeks. we began to see some of this in the report issued last month by randy mastro, whose law if i

were was hired by the governor's office to do an internal review of the governor. yesterday, that law firm released notes from 75 interviews they did for that internal report on the governor's office. those notes have more and in some ways, more unsettling detail that we didn't know before. for example, they interviewed a sandy regional director in the governor's office. this person served as a conduit between mayors and municipalities in the office of the governor, involving issues regarding to hurricane sandy, recovery from hurricane sandy. that staffer, in charge of that issue, recalled, according to these notes, that on issues related to hurricane sandy, bridge bridget kelly needed to check with the chris christie re-election campaign, quote, before approving certain things. he says he was told, for instance, not to bend over backwards to help hoboken mayor don zimmer, who also was not endorsing chris christie for re-election. that official says he treated the hoboken mayor just the same, but do these new documents from the investigation show that the

christie administration conditioned sandy relief aid on politics? i mean, if the re-election campaign was involved in clearing decisions about sandy relief, and if the mayor of new jersey -- of jersey city, was boxed out of planning for the closing of the pulaski skyway, because of political relief, because of political reasons, these both seem like very damning revelations from a report that supposedly clears the governor. , rash and i felt this horrible pain on one side of my back. i had 16 magic shows to do. i didn't know how i was going to be able to do these shows with this kind of pain that i was in. i told my wife what i had. she went on the internet and said "i think you have shingles." i could feel the shock in my back and it was like "wow its got to get better than this or i'm in big trouble." [annpurina pro plan can can help him achieve it.

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nbc's richard engel joins us next. stay with us. in the nation, we reward safe driving. add vanishing deductible from nationwide insurance and get $100 off for every year of safe driving. we put members first. join the nation. ♪ nationwide is on your side

this is one of those days when the international section of the news gets really dramatic in its language and it is not melodra melodrama. this is earned. it's that things really are this tense. check this out from "the washington post" today. defiant militants have pushed this country to the brink of war or disillusion. in a nation of 44 million people, it became clear that a few hundred men with guns and unmarked uniforms operating on the eastern fringes of the country have brought ukraine to a deeply dangerous juncture. that was "the washington post," from "the new york times" today, just as ominous. quote, the looming threat of war sent the russian stock market down by 3%. in a sign of the heightened tension, the ukraine seemed to teeter towards a run on bank deposits. quote, the ukrainian troops were not yet moving on the town as of early tuesday night, but ahead of them, scores of armed men maintained their hold on the

city hall. they have barricaded the roads and locals say placed snipers on rooftops. what's happening is that today became what everyone fears is going to be the first day of a new war. vladimir putin may have taken a part of ukraine called crimea without firing a shot, but in their determination to not let him take anymore of their country, the government in the ukraine today started to use force to push back pro-russian forces that had started to, effectively, take over eastern parts of ukraine. and if it feels like this is a fraught decision and a fraught moment, it's because this is a fraught decision and this is a fraught moment. >> today, very carefully, ukraine's military fought back. it mobilized helicopters, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and ukrainian special forces and they re-took a small airfield in eastern ukraine, which had been seized last week by pro-russian militants. it was a risk. russian president vladimir putin had warned ukraine's new

government not to use force against the protesters, raising fears russia will invade if violence does break out. but with protesters seizing one government building after another in as many as a dozen towns in eastern ukraine, some say with plenty of russian help, ukraine's acting president felt he had to act. responsibly and cautiously, he said, to protect citizens, stop terror, and stop attempts to tear the country apart. ukrainian forces have been mobilized, but so far they have not retaken any of those occupied buildings. and angry protesters make it clear they aren't leaving. here, the barricades grow larger, the protesters more defiant. >> that's nbc's jim maceda in eastern ukraine today. nbc's chief foreign correspondent, richard engel, has long warned they are looking for any justification. has that now happened in the

last 24 hours? joining us now is nbc's chief foreign correspondent, richard engel. thank you for being here. >> it's absolutely a pleasure. good to see you in person. >> welcome back from there. >> not sure if putin knows where the edge of the envelope is. >> the provocations he is calling for? >> not yet. not yet. people talk about will russia enve invade, will the zero hour come? not sure that is the way to frame the argument. i think it has already begun. this is russia's way of taking over eastern ukraine. it is a step by step approach. he sends in these militias. he activates sympathetic militias. a lot aren't just russian troops in uniforms they're local ukrainian whose also have russian nationality, russian citizenship, who live in the

border area. and you mobilize these people. that is stage one of a -- effective takeover. >> that's what crimea looked like in stage one. there were russian troops on the border, a lot inside crimea was russians speaking, allied populations. >> crimea was much easier. you had russian bases in crimea. the russian troops on their bases simply went outside and deputized all the people around them who were sim pa thetympath them. they took over. in eastern ukraine. a much bigger area. you don't have the russian bases there. so they're doing it just with the militias. unions. some times motorcycle gangs. who ever is sympathetic to russia is now being mobilized. they're taking buildings. and the ukrainian government has a tough, tough call to make. >> now that they have moved ukrainian troops into the areas. this is, the last 24 hours has been very dramatic. >> they move them in.

they took a tiny airfield. if you listen to that report, that was just on. >> they're not taking the buildings. >> they haven't taken the buildings. you go. start clearing out buildings. start killing people. then you could have a different situation. don't forget the narrative. vladamir putin has said, very clearly, the government in kiev is controlled by nazis. these are from his point of view, which is being spread in the russian media, nazis. who are controlling the government whuchlt a government, who are backed by europe and washington. that's who he is telling the russian people and people of to y the ukraine. saying the nazis took over. nazis killed a lot of jews and russians, in the local history and sentiment. the nazis have come back, come back to power in ukraine. this is the scenario anyway. and we can't allow these nazis

to go kill lots of good russian folk. we have how to go in and protect those people who are begging for our assistance. that's the scenario. if suddenly government, this nazi, cia-backed, pro-baush bau -- pro-washington wants to wantonly killing russians, starts killing russianize could see in the next few days, vladamir putin saying, we had no choice, a humanitarian act, we had to send in peacekeepers, otherwise the nazis would take over. >> what is the ukrainian government's range of options then. that narrative. i believe that vladamir putin is a little bit of a kook. i believe he is using that in a very smart way. not sure that he believes that it is true whether or not he talked himself into it. but he must realize that boxes the ukrainian government not toot being able to protect their own territory. >> that's the whole point?

haw h >> how do they get out of the box? >> they're in a difficult box. the ukrainian government is asking for help from washington, from the eu, from the united nations. so far the help hasn't really been coming. they lost crimea. which was blow, but i think even the government in kiev kind of accepted that. this part is half the country. they can't lose half the country. otherwise they're a failed state. >> does ukraine have the sort of tactical infrastructure to fight to hold on to this part of their country if they decide to to do it by fighting? >> no, not really. if they fight against just the militias. maybe they'll win against the militias or maybe they will lose. if they fight against russia, they'll be done in an hour. they don't have the kind of force. >> nbc news chief foreign correspondent richarding en ine. you see a story. better get closer to it. this is the kind of the story

that makes me want to hide under a pillow. >> it's the idea it's happening. are the russians going to go in. >> they're already there. >> this is phase one of a faive phase plan. >> richard engel. be safe. i know you are on your way to some where dangerous. you are always are. we'll be right back. [ hypnotist ] you are feeling satisfied without standard leather. you are feeling exhilarated with front-wheel drive. you are feeling powerful with a 4-cylinder engine. [ male announcer ] open your eyes... to the 6-cylinder, 8-speed lexus gs. with more standard horsepower than any of its german competitors. this is a wake-up call. ♪ you're not doing anything as fast as you used to,

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news in boston, on the night of the anniversary of the bo bombings. on the scene of the finish line of the boston marathon, terrible resonance on the anniversary because of last year's bombing. at 7:00 p.m. eastern in boston, this is the strange scenario reported. a man was reportedly barefoot and wearing a large black veil

over his head. was reportedly walking down the street near the finish line for the marathon. he was carrying two large backpacks underneath the vechlt vechlt -- veil. reportedly yelling boston strong he made the way down the street. the man dropped both backpacks near the finish line. at that point, unsurprised league, the man was apprehended and take known custody. the police have cleared the area around the finish line. a perimeter as two backpack as they investigated the contents. the bomb squad has been on the scene. get this, less than an hour ago, the bomb squad issued a one minute warning to people in the area. an officer called fire in the hole. that was followed by a loud boom and explosion. reportedly that was one of the backpacks being blown up by the bomb squad. then just moments ago, another, fire in the hole call was issued. followed by another warning. and another loud boom. the bomb squad apparently detonated the second of the two of bags.

that is the breaking news out of boston tonight. strange and obviously weirdly resonant news out of boston tonight on the anniversary of the boston bombings. and just six days from when runners will be streaming through the area for the next running of the boston marathon. that does it for us. thank you for joining us. see you tomorrow night. now time for "the last word." on your left, mitch mcconnell, she is passing you on your left. and she is not the only one. >> overall republicans may be in the best position they have been in years. blue grass politics, a little less snowy. there is one place where republicans are in bad shape. >> the kentucky senate race is tight. >> in kentucky. off awe ta >> the minority leader of the senate. >> mitch mcconnell. >> the holy grail is mitch mcconnell. >> people are just sick and tired of what goes on in washington, d.c. they're tired of the dysfunction. >> mike lee. >> iop