it's always a pleasure talking to you. >> that is "all in" for this evening. >> good evening, chris. thank you very much. thanks to you at home for joining us this hour. it was four years ago, 1974, february 17th, 1974. and the white house was dark. this was the depths of the energy crisis. everybody was concerning energy and the white house wanted to lead by example. but it was 2:00 in the morning, middle of the night. but because they had the lieblgts extra dimmed, it was even darker than you would expect at the white house. that night, 2:00 in the morning, a warning system kicked in at the white house and 2:00 a.m., these bright search lights came on. and the reason those search lights came on and the alert had been triggered was because somebody was landing a helicopter on the south lawn of

the white house. and they were not supposed to be. this wasn't an authorized arrival. this was a 20-year-old kid who had stolen a hewey helicopter from ft. mead, maryland. he decided to take off for washington, d.c. he was only flying it about 50 feet off the ground. he had the lights off and apparently zipped down the baltimore washington parkway, crossed over the river at the capital street bridge. you could tell he was sort of used to maneuvering by car instead of air since he was following appropriate roadways. but once he crossed the river, he apparently looked up and decided that rather than continuing to follow local roadways, he would just fly right at the washington monument.

so once he was there, he decided he would go to the white house. he would go hover above the white house in this helicopter and ultimately would land that helicopter on the white house lawn. state police helicopters by then were chasing him. one landed apparently between the stolen dhoper and the white house itself. secret service agents pulled out shotguns and started shooting as it hovered over the white house. eventually, they came down and wrestled with him on to the ground. eventual eventually, they took him to the hospital to have some buck shot taken out of him before they got him booked. it turns out the pilot was a 20-year-old army pilot. he had been very disappointed to have flunked out of flight training. part of his motive for what he did was he wanted to show off what a good pilot he was. he eventually served about a

year of prison and got kicked out of the army. later that same year, it happened again. this time, it happened without air power. this time, it's more amazing that the would-be white house intruder lived to tell the tale. marshal fields, jr., had a chevy impala. used to ram the security gate at the white house and was successful to ram that gate. he rammed right through it. rammed the car into the gate. the gate collapsed. he drove through it and all the way to the north field of the white house. he told the officers that he was the messiah and opened his coat

to reveal explosives. it turned out to be road flares that he had wired to his chest as if they were a bomb. they negotiated with him for hours and he eventually gave himself up. and that, incidentally, is how we got the first crash-proof gate at the white house. they installed a new, bigger, stronger one after 1974 proved that the old gate was not up to the task. people trying to break into the white house to make some kind of statement or more frequently to answer the voices 234 their heads. this has been happening for a lot of years now. mostly, the secret service has been trying to deal with things in a way that nobody gets hurt.

he was not known to be suffering from acute mental illness, at least as far as we can tell from this distance. he climbed the security fence at the white house, pulled out a three foot length of pipe and brandished that as if it was a weapon and the security officer took aim and fired 60 feet. he fired one bullet. that one bullet hit him in the chest and killed him. chester plumber of 1976. two years later, 1978, another guy put on a karate outfit, climbed the fence. when the secret service ran over to him, he pulled out a knife and stabbed one of the officers. he wanted jimmy carter to take in god we trust off of u.s. currency. oddly enough, that was a ploy that didn't work. in 1995, when bill clinton

was president, president clinton had just entered the white house moments before. when a guy with an unloaded handgun jumped the fence and started running. that guy with the gun got within 50 feet of the white house, which the president had just entered before the secret service took him down by shooting him in the arm. 2001, it happened again. except this time, the guy's handgun was loaded. he got a shot off. he landed on the south lawn, fired his handgun once. the secret service shot him in the leg and took him down. these sort of intrusions happen a lot. they happen to every president. when the guy landed the helicopter on the lawn, gerald ford was president. the obama administration had a

very alarming one of these less than a year ago. object of last year, a 34-year-old dental hygienist crashed her car into an outer perimeter barrier at the white house. she had multiple confrontations with the secret service and the police. she just kept going. she was unaurmed but officers fired at her multiple times. just two weeks ago, there was another one of these that made the news, in part, because of the very striking imagery and the attack dog reacting to this sadly mentally ill man who was holding a doll. he climbed over a fence holding a pokemon doll and wearing a pokemon hat and t-shirt. he was having an issue with his health insurance about which he wanted to talk to president obama.

that was just a couple of weeks ago. so people trying to get into the white house. it's been happening for more than 40 years. sometimes, it's spectacular, like, when, for example, they use a helicopter. sometimes, it's almost unbearably tragic. each one of these stories is unique and strange. there's always some sort of strange and sad story behind all of them. but one thing that is true about every single one of them is that in every single one of those cases, nobody ever made it inside the white house until now. on friday night, the initial reports about 42-year-old texan omar gonzalez, it seemed

initially like one of those reports we get every few months. in some ways, it's sadly typical in which his family says he was struggling with depression and paranoia which may have been aggravated or caused from post-traumatic stress from tours in iraq. mental illness is the thread that runs through almost all white house intruder stories. it is sad but it is true. and that fits this large, rare pattern. we have since learned things from the initial arrest. since that initial arrest, the things that we have learned about that incident subsequently, turns out put this incident in a category all of its own. initial reports had said that omar gonzalez was unarmed. it turns out he was not unarmed. he had a knife in his pocket, a knife like this, 3 1/2 inch

folding knife with a serrated blade. his car, parked a couple of blocks away from the white house stashed more than 800 rounds of ammuniti ammunition, a machete and two hatchets. what they found in his suv was kind of a nightmare. he had 11 different guns 234 the car with him, two shotguns, at least one of which was sawed off, two rifles and one fitted with the two legs of a tripod so you could set that one up with the bipod and the scope to use it essentially as a sniper would. he also had five handguns with him, one revolver and four other pistols.

he also had a map of washington, d.c. there were two things on the map. a masonic temple and the white house. so 11 weapons, including the sawed off shotgun and the rival set up for a sniper and a map with the white house circled. virginia state police arrested him. they took those guns into custody. and then they did two other things. they released him on bond and then they informed the secret service of what happened with this arrest. virginia state police confirming now that they notified the secret service about omar gonzalez and the circumstances of that arrest after they picked him up in july. and if in fact that happened, if the secret service got that

notification, then what happens next at the white house is very hard to believe. they say they reported this guy in july. in august, that same guy that the secret service had been notified about, he showed up at the white house. hechs clearly showing the hatchet. secret service awe him there. they stopped him. they questioned him about the hatchet. they interacted with him for a long time. so apparently over the next couple of weeks, he went out and got his 800 rounds of ammunition and the machete and the knife in his pocket and came back to the white house again and this time, vaulted over the white house

fence, all the way across the lawn, got to the doors and then went inside the building and was not apprehended until he was lr inside the white house. the president and his family had just left the white house four minutes before this happened. fr all sorts of reasons, people make crazy runs at the white house all of the time. and there is almost always a very sad, personal story behind most of them. that said, in terms of the way these manifest, usually they are more whack kill than they are scary. but this one breaks the mold. how did he get inside how did he get inside on his second trip to the white house with a weapon after virginia state police had told the secret service about this well-armed man obsessed with the white house whom they had already arrested.

in a sworn affidavit, he says he believed the atmosphere was collapsing. and that is a sad and upsetting thing that he got to the point that he believed that. he believed he was doing what he needed to be doing. that's upsetting enough that he was in that state as a perm matter. but it is on a whole different level a very upsetting thing that a man trying to warn president obama about the collapsing atmosphere lchl goalt a chance to do so. carol, thanks very much for being here. it's nice to have you here. >> thanks, rachel.

>> so on the one hand, this was a very unsophisticated breech. on the other hand, there is this back story about at least the virginia state police saying they tried to let the secret service have a heads up about this guy. it keeps getting more and more complicated with each 12 hour segment that i've been working on it. you know, initially, as you highlig highlighted, the secret service praised the restraint of their officers saying he didn't appear armed and they could tell that as he spread acrossed the lawn. he didn't appear to have any bulky clothing, but he did have a pretty big knife. now we find out another 12 hours later, he had a lot of ammunition.

he had been circling the white house for another month of time. as his family told us the first day he was arrested, he's an army special forces sniper. about the warning, rachel, you noticed the secret service has this heads up in july. the secret service is dealing with thousands of threats. i feel for them in terms of trying to assess which ones are the dangers, which ones are the crazies, which ones are the nothing but a bar fight of somebody who said something stupid. i have had so many people tell me that they went out to interview guys for a lot less.

the question is raised did anyone go out and interview this guy. did they log his name? did they look at an id? did they, apparently, they did. and did that prompt another alarm bell or not? >> that's the thing that's hard to grasp in this. the secret service has a huge job that they do mostly in secret. i have incredibly sympathy and respect for them as an organization. but the fact he was stopped at the white house and nothing pinged, i mean, maybe we'll find out that something did ping and he was still able to get there. it's hard to square with what we believe about this agency. i guess that's my follow up question. is the secret service in trouble? we've had some scandals with the secret service and people getting into a state dinner.

is the secret service an agency that's in a little bit of a crisis? >> certainly, the personal behavior, the misconduct, the bad boy culture is one category of events that are troubling. but this is a whole nother level. people who truly love this service tell me that they're really worried. that this says to them that you're telegraphing to the world and to the enemies, you can get across that lawn. if there's more than one of you, you might be able to succeed in getter further than the grand foyer. it's just a couple of flights of stairs from the residence to the door that mr. gonzalez entered.

>> there has been a very severe staffing problem in the uniform division for the past three years. the main job is monitoring the compound. it's the uniformed division. if you have spent any time, there is a anger about having to work all of the time. come in on your days off without being paid properly for all of those shifts. you're allowed to have 1420 aumpbss right now, we probably have 1340. remember, this is the unit that is responsible for the security of largely the white house complex. the schsz saervice says they're to beef up those numbers.

>> they would review it, yes. but also, they'd think about locking that door now. the overall issues about this most important of our security agencies, it's a stunning story. thanks for helping us understand it tonight. i appreciate it. >> you bet. >> all right. president obama is about to do something rather unprecedented. details on what he's about to do coming up next. stay with us. i got this. [thinking] is it that time? the son picks up the check? [thinking] i'm still working. he's retired. i hope he's saving. i hope he saved enough. who matters most to you says the most about you. at massmutual we're owned by our policyowners, and they matter most to us. whether you're just starting your 401(k) or you are ready for retirement, we'll help you get there.

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on may 24th of this year, there was an attack on the jewish museum in belgium. right in the middle of downtown brusse brussels, the train station right next to the ministry of justice, it's so in the middle of everything, when the attack happened, both the belgium secretary of state, their foreign affairs minister and also the belgium minister of interior were both permly right nearby. they just happened to be nearby. what had happened is a young man armed with a handgun and a rifle had walked into the jewish museum and just calmly started shooting. apparently, choosing his victims at random. he killed three people instantly and a fourth died a few days later. the attacker left on foot and

disappeared into the busy streets of brussels. he wasn't captured for another six days. they finally got him over the border in france at a train station in marseilles. he was a frenchman. it turned out he had combat experience in syria. that young man had left france, gone to syria and went to fight with religious radical groups. he went to syria in 20120. by may of this year, he was back in europe, back in belgium, specifically, at that brussels jewish museum bringing the war home. also in may of this year, this suicide truck bombing in syria was attributed to an american who grew up in a gated community. he had traveled to fight islamic radical groups. but after he did that, he came home in 2013.

he went back to texas and apparently did not want to or did not try to mount an attack here at home. he, instead, went back to syria again. this may, the day after the other foreign fighter shot up that museum, an owner blew up a restaurant in that truck bombing. neither the u.s. government or french government were able to stop they're own citizens from fighting back and forth. and then, coming back home th e thereafter. this week, president obama will do the very same thing. the goal is to pass a binding resolution in which all will

pass a doe mesic law, they should prosecute their own citizens who travel abroad to create terrorist groups. they have to share information about terrorism suspects flying on any airline in those countries. president obama will personally be chairing that session this week. and in a lead up, they're being more blunt than they have ever been about the fact that americans are among the foreign fighters despite our best efforts to stop it. >> we have over a hundred fighters there from america that have passports. they can come back here. that's why foreign fighters are such a focus and president obama will chair a u.n. security council meeting this week to deal with foreign fighters.

president obama choosing to chair this weekend. it should be noted that the group, isis is doing a pretty good job themselves. today, it has not been ind pent dentally verified by nbc news. what it reports to say is how psyched isis is. it goes onto call for isis supporters around the world. isis sympathizers around the world to mount their own attacks at home. he calls for a tax on disbelievers. he specifically singles out france and australia and canada. he says kill him in any manner or way, however it may be should you come across a disbeliever of another country.

if that's their plan for a world domination, it's a pretty terrible plan. so there's some comfort in their bankruptcy? really? just telling people broadly, hey, go kill people? on the other hand, what they are asking for is something that is not very hard for some people in far flung corners of the world to say yes to. or to at least try to. the issue of foreign fighters being radicalized in syria and then being able to bring that know-how home. that is an issue to which the united states is not a stranger but we will find out this week if the united states can lead a truly global effort to fix it. ♪

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i have breaking news. the pentagon has just released a statement confirming that u.s. military aircraft have just commenced bombing in syria. this is the statement from admiral john kirby. he says i can confirm that u.s. military and partnering nation forces are undertaking military action against isil terrorists in syria using a mix of missiles. given that these operations are on going, we are not in a position to provide additional

details at this time. the decision to make these strikes was made earlier today under authorization granted him by the commander in chief. president obama will provide more details later as operationally appropriate. but, again, the headline right now, we had been expecting that u.s. air strikes would expand from iraq where they started on august 8th, into syria. whether that was something due eminently or months off, the white house had said that president obama had authorized those strikes. now we've been told that central commander has orderred those strikes. the decision to conduct these strikes was made by the u.s. central command commander. gep, we're just getting that news. we presume that means the u.s. military and french jets.

i want to bring in live now nbc foreign correspondent richard engle. >> this was something that we were expecting. we thought this would happen, we didn't know exactly when. i thought perhaps at the end of the u.n. meeting. it sort of forces them to own up to it. they are now on the world stage. if thef an issue with this, they have a platform. they are in the world's media capital. they are speaking at the u.n. from the administration's point of view, the timing of this, you could debate, was too late in years.

>> richard, in terms of what the u.s. is mounting here in terms of a military effort, the president and john kerry have been talking about this large coalition of 40 or 50 countries that the u.s. has pulled together in some way in opposing isis, do we know who, if anyone other than france, has agreed to be part of kinetic military actions? >> well, let's not guilty be fooled by that talk of coalitions. this is a u.s.-led effort. we're going to see help from partnering nationsment we're going to see covert help from turkey, france, we're going to see help from arab countries, we're going to see help from

saudi arabia reinforcing the leb news border. we're going to hear a lot of talk about arab participation. i would not be at all surprised if we hear arab emeritus. this is a u.s.-led operation with some assistance from other coup tris. this is happening ahead of president obama chairing a

security council meeting. >> exactly. it makes it look strong in front of the u.n. with actions already underway. and with those in the assembly stepping up to accept it or denounce it. to that point, particularly arab world leaders, they are going to be put on the spot to respond to it. would it make a material difference to them in their own calculation if planes were among those participating in this? is it more than just spin in terms of how much covering? >> yes, it forces them to put skin in the game. if jets are involved because that's -- even if it's one, that is going to be the one plane that is going to have a

go-pro camera strapped to the conflict. it puts skin in the game. they could have terrorist attacks in their own city which is going to force them to increase security along their borders. a lot of countries for years have been willing to support the united states behind closed doors but to allow their own countries to act as black market hubs or transit hubs and be questioned by reporters at the u.n. about their participation, they will be putting their populations at risk.

>> so the strikes include manned and unmanned jets, fa-18s. it says the man flights are first unmanned and then the tomahawk planned missiles will be after the targeting the announcement that's just happened right now. they say ugs plans include 20 targets including i zirks s logistic sites, training sites and troupe encampments. richard, in terms of want you know strategically, about the military, the way the military is trying to go after isis, what can they hit in syria that they haven't been able to hit in the more than 170 air strikes they've taken part in iraq already.

what's important to go after? >> southeasterly ya is the isis headquarters. it is the place where they've been stockpiling their weapons. one could say if they would have done this earlier, it would have been much more obvious. if that murder had happened and that night the u.s. would have responded, obviously the targets would have been more exposed than they are today. so the danger is that these attacks were projected. the united states said it was coming. they didn't say exactly when,

but they said it was coming. that it's building a coalition to come. so isis had a pretty decent amount of time to plan. that's the danger. but if the attacks are effective and they didn't hide everything, it's striking in the home base. we'll just have to find out when we get the strikes, were they effective? or did they plan effectively ahead of time and move its key personnel out of place. >> richard, if you could stick with us, i'd appreciate it. i'd like to bring in colonel jack jacobs. thanks very much for being with us on such short notice. i appreciate your time. >> what we've been told by the pentagon is this is u.s. military in syria has started with a mix of fighter, bomber

and tomahawk land attack missiles. the sea assets include the arleigh burke, which is in the red sea. what can you tell us? what can you con tex youize for us in terms of the scale of this attack and its likelihood of success. >> it will be quite substantial. the thing is we've known where all of this stuff has been for quite some times. we don't have a lot of human intelligence on the ground, and whether or not it's going to be

successful will be easy to tell after the strikes occur. how that's going to affect overall the campaign for isis by what it's doing in syria and iraq, that remains to be seen. logistical facilities and other troupe concentrations, the easiest to dispurse are the troupes. they're going to be hit -- the loss of them is going to be most telling on isis.

we'll see what happens after the bombed damage assessment comes out. i don't think that you can expect that just those 20 strikes are going to be launched. other movements to hit subsequently, there's a plan to do that. >> colonel jack jacobs, jack, if you would bt mind staying with us for a moment, i want to go live to the pentagon right now. >> thanks very much for being with us. what can you tell us? >> as far as we know, according to u.s. military officials, the air strikes promised by the white house, have begun tonight. there are some 20 air strikes against multiple tar gets

overnight. and, at some point, after the initial wave of american cruise missiles, fighter bombers, b-1s, f-16s, fa-18s. some off the aircraft carrier there, there were supposed to be some kind of roll played by arab allies in the region. it was clear that the white house was bound to determine some kind of support. now, as jack jacobs was talking about, these are achled at weapons depots, floors depots, some at encampments. but no one is under the illusion that these air strikes are going to deter isis for any length of

time. some officials predict that this is just the opening salvo in which is just a long, drawn out, larger military campaign against syria. >> on the issue of the syrian government here, this is a very uncomfortable question, but the syrian government does not welcome these air strikes in the way that the iraqi government offered their territory. they would see it as an act of aggression. is this a higher risk operation for u.s. pilots than what they've been doing in iraq, not because they face potential aircraft fire but also because of the syrian government and the risk that they might shoot bag?

>> at this point, military officials are recognizing that there is a potential threat in terms of aircraft and their own fighter jets. frankly, they would be no mat for the u.s. military. to consider any potential threat from the syrian air force or their aircraft relacemeimplacem be minimal. there was one syrian official that said syria, in some cases, would welcome air strikes which they see as a potential threat to the regime. >> to be clear, there's no plan by the u.s. to go try to destroy

syrian defenses? no. that's exactly right. and many of these air strikes can easily be launch ed from inside a rocky air space. not that that would be necessary, but it could be accommodated. >> in terms of the location here, we're told targets are in and around rasaca. is this something that's considered to be anywhere in eastern syria or isil can be found is fair game for the u.s. military? >> it's a strategic and tactical target. it's the de facto capital of the isis state that isis has claimed to have established. i can tell you that these are

aimed at fuel dee poes and the likes. but they are not aimed -- and this is one of the problems with the kind of air strikes that are being conducted now. conducted . they are not aimed specifically at isis leadership targets. in part, because the u.s. doesn't have sufficient intelligence. and to do that, they would actually need some boots on the ground, according to military officials we're talking to. and nobody is under any illusions here in this building that these air strikes, even if they continue, would mean the end to isis. chairman martin dempsey, chairman of the joint staff, chairman dempsey himself said you cannot defeat isis unless you go after them in syria paron threatically, that means troops of some kind. it's pretty much out of the

question. so officials here say this is just the beginning of what is going to be a long, drawn-out campaign. >> chief pentagon correspondent for msnbc. thank you. it's not a surprise in the large sense that we knew that the president authorized strikes. we did not know when they would happen. the exact timing ahead of the president's trip to the u.n. security council, i'm sure is not a coincidence but is quite striking. thanks for joining us. >> reporter: thank you. it's not just striking, it's significant that he has said he did not want to go it alone. big push, post nato going into this, was that they wanted to go to the united nations saying they had a partner coalition, a real coalition. you know there's been some push back. i think it's been significant in the statement that the pentagon put out. they said that the u.s. military

and partner nation forces are undertaking this action. they want to emphasize this. the u.n. ambassador, samantha power said over the weekend, i will make you a prediction. we will not do the air strikes alone. if the president decides to do air strikes in syria. and look, he himself said that his job, when he goes to the united nations over the next three days, is to rally the world around this threat. and we got an indication of it today. there was a briefing by senior administration officials, talking in particular about the threat of foreign fighters where americans, europeans go over to syria, train, come back and pose a threat. and we know that there are more than 100 americans that intelligence officials have been tracking. and what senior administration officials describe today was a magnitude and scale of a problem that is extremely worrying and dwarfs what we've seen before, 15,000 foreign fighters from 80

countries, but obviously those 100-plus from the united states and the president's decision, only the second time an american president has chaired one of these sessions, sending a signal of how seriously they take this, how concerning it is, and i think you're right, absolutely, that it plays into the timing of when this happened, rachel. >> chris, in terms of the size of this effort, we're hearing from colonel jack jacobs, fr from richard engle. they say this is not going to be quick. this is not going to be a short thing. this is the start of something that's going to go on for a long time. is the white house talking about a larger call up of americans to support this level of expanded air strikes? obviously these pilots never go up alone. it takes a huge, huge effort to

support ongoing air campaigns like this. do we expect that there's going to be more u.s. troops called up to support this effort? >> reporter: they haven't talked about that specifically, but they have certainly said, and we heard it from the president when he gave his primetime address, rachel, that this was going to be long term, and they know that this is going to take a large effort. and part of the reasoning for this push is that they want the united states to know that the amount of commitment that we make will be matched by other countries. that's why they were very pleased to see when the french joined in air strikes in iraq. but, remember, french president h hollande said he would not go into syria. there has been a real reluctance here. it's important to know that over the last couple days we've already seen samantha power, john kerry sort of setting the

stage, working the crowd, if you will, in new york and making all these contacts so that when the president goes he has sort of all of that ready to go. but there's no doubt that there is going to be this further push, because it's important, as this goes on, as inevitably, it expands, that they have this support of other countries, and it's been a very difficult slog. >> chris, thank you. i want to bring in a correspondent for nbc news. just summarizing tonight what we've learned that the u.s. began this bombing campaign in syria at approximately 8:30 eastern. this is a newly expanded air war that is less than 90 minutes old. we are told that this is u.s. military and partner nation forces undertaking these military actions. fighter jets, bombers and tomahawk land attack missiles.

the pentagon is giving us the sequence of those, saying the f-22, f-15s will go first in these initial sorties. and andrea mitchell, can you tell us anything further about who these partner nation forces might be and what the united states government felt had to be in place before they could go ahead with these strikes tonight? >> reporter: well, as you've seek in the last couple weeks, secretary of state kerry traveling around the region. he's working very hard with the sunni states that feel threatened by isis. these are the saudis, the uae. he was trying to get better cooperation from turkey, and that has been the hardest target for kerry, diplomatically from

turkey. but their border is so porous. that is how money, oil, are walking across that border. we saw a lot of action along that border in turkey today where there seemed to be the turks seem to be going against kurdish as well, kurdish pkk militanting ws who are going up against the border trying to go against isis. so there was a lot of activity, unclear who was pushing in which direction. but there was a lot of tear gassing or other types of gassing of people crossing the border. that was the first time we saw some effort to close that border today. but up until today, turkey was the hardest one. there were meetings today between kerry and his saudi counterpart. and there was talks between the

prince of saudi arabia. we understand and were told at a briefing tonight from the state department that there will be a follow up meeting with sareef or others going to riyadh. that has not happened. >> that's astonishing. is the basis of those discussions the issue of isis and the situation in syria? >> reporter: yes. that is what's so unusual about this. so this will not be the broad coalition of the willing that george bush, george herbert walker bush was able to put together in 1991 when saddam hussein invaded kuwait. and you saw what jim baker was able to do in getting the world aligned. in fact, as you were just discussing with chris jansing, president hollande was reluctant to talk about france. this is all in the air, and

there needs to be a ground component, but that is not ready yet. there's no way that the syrian free army can be trained that quickly. we were told it was going to take up to a year to train 5,000. according to martin dempsey's testimony last week. and you also have the iraqi army which is woefully unprepared and turned and fled when mosul and other areas were targeted. there is really very little on the ground in iraq aside from shiite militias that are iranian sponsored. so kerry is talking, again, about cooperating or at least coordinating and figuring out how to deal with the iranians, much more so than others in the past have. and that is all going to be up for discussion here at the u.n. the president's coming tomorrow, as you know. the first event was supposed to be on climate change. you know that he's going to have to speak on this at some point

in the morning. and, as well, there are going to be all sorts of meetings along the margins as this coalition begins to come together or not in the coming days. the president's speech for the united nations was scheduled for wednesday. then there is this special security council meeting -- >> which he'll be chairing personally. andrea mitchell. thank you for joining us on short notice. again, we are getting notice tonight that as of 8:30 eastern u.s. fighter jets have started bombing over the border in syria they have been bombing in iraq since august 8. they have now crossed the border to bomb inside syria. they said they would see any air strikes on its territory as an act of aggression. but the united states has gone forward with unnamed partner nations. our coverage continues with lawrence o'donnell. >> thank you, rachel. it is 5:00 in