the "charlie hebdo" attack. but standing against the terrorists. massive shows of support in paris, in london, madrid, berlin, brussels and here in new york city with chants of ju suis charlie and we are not afraid. continuing to gather and mourn. these are live pictures you're looking at there in paris. and as for the magazine the surviving journalists are working on their next issue, that is due out on wednesday. they're increasing production to 1 million copies. that is 16 times the normal run. nbc's ron allen is live in paris. and ron, let's start with that search. what is the latest? >> reporter: well there's still thousands of people out here in the square that's not far from the magazine show -- huge show of solidarity going on for many hours. in the background, you may people saying chanting charlie, charlie, i am charlie, we are charlie. if you pan that direction, you can get a closer look at what people are doing. there's displays of candles,

flowers, there was also a display of tools that journalists used. pens and highlighters. showing support and solidarity for the victims lost. this is a community coming together while at the same time an intensive manhunt continues. and there are, of course three suspects they're looking for. whoever was responsible for a shooting and killing the policewoman this morning and the two suspects from the attack at the magazine yesterday. that focuses on an area about 90 miles north of paris where there is a huge police manhunt going on, trying to pin down where they believe the suspects may be. but, again, this is all very sketchy at this point. and the authorities have not given detailed information about where they are in the investigation. of course, perhaps not to tip the hand -- tip their hand to the suspects. but, again, at this point, this remains a city that is defiant, that is coming together that's also a bit anxious and a bit concerned.

because it's unclear yet whether there'll be copycat attacks, whether there will be others who will rally behind these suspects who are out there. but, again, at this point, it seems that they were acting alone. although, they do have ties to some radical groups that stretch back many years. and we also believed that authorities have said that one of the brothers was under surveillance and they were both known to authorities. but one of them had been under surveillance since as far back as 2005. and got involved in the court system and stopped trying to get to iraq at one point. so the point is that authorities knew these individuals but they were not able to keep track of them. there were perhaps as many as 1,000 or more young men who fall into that same category in this country. so there is this threat this ever present threat that no one here is surprised this happened. but, again, a country coming together, security will be exceptional tomorrow even greater than it was today. some 88,000 security officers

have been deployed around paris and suburbs, hundreds of military, thousands of military, as well. so again, still a city on edge a city taking precautions, but trying to move forward. as this manhunt, the massive manhunt continues. >> ron allen in paris. thank you so much. and president obama's heading back to the white house right now and getting regular briefings on the attack as he travels. let's get you to nbc news senior white house correspondent chris jansing. and of course, we know the u.s. has pledged to assist an investigation whatever way they can. what more can you tell us? >> well i can tell you, there have been frequent meetings all across many different areas here. including homeland security. and in addition to that we know that national security officials have been meeting and have had frequent conversations with their counterparts in france. you mentioned that there's stepped up security in new york a number of other cities new york boston atlanta. we've also learned there's been a request from the french for increased security at their

embassy here in washington. and as you know, president obama pledged whatever help the french needed, of course there's been a strong counterterrorism partnership and a long history of sharing information. that's one way in which the united states is helping. it's important to note in the context of all of this that this is something that intelligence officials and homeland security officials have been most worried about recently and that is this kind of what they call a lone wolf or a lone actor attack when 9/11 happened. the concern was al qaeda. and then it became its offshoots. but in many ways a lone wolf is the most difficult to track. when you talk to intelligence officials, they say they don't really have a good number for how many might be operating here in the united states. although, they frequently put that number somewhere around 100. and there's also going to be a conference on counterterrorism and terrorism that will focus in many ways on these lone wolves. and the threat they pose. that's going to be held in

france on sunday called in the wake of this attack. and we are just learning -- >> thank you so much. a senior correspondent at the "daily beast," he's also a future of war fellow. thanks for being with us. >> good to be here. >> so, shane, as we broaden the lens from focusing on france and trying to unravel what happened there, are there other countries that we should be really looking at that have a similar profile, maybe a large somewhat disaffected muslim population as sort of political hot bed you would be looking at? >> well the first country that comes to mind i think, is the uk. where obviously there's been a lot of connection between isis fighters in iraq and syria, and people there, as well. we've seen some concern about potential in canada which is more of a recent development. and, of course there is a bit of a threat here in the united states, although not as pronounced as it has been abroad. but i think france has been one of these countries where these

issues have been simmering for a long time and people have been concerned about these kinds of attacks, which, in fact, we have seen before in that country, as well. so i think you would probably put france towards the high end at the top end of the list of the countries where this issue of self-radicalizing or people getting training overseas and coming back, these foreign fighters has been a great concern. >> shane, it appears that we in the west are in a permanent war against radical islam. is the price of constantly fighting radical islam over there that occasionally our open western societies will have to experience these kind of hits? >> well you know, i don't know if this is a direct consequence of it but certainly i think there's a strong motivation for people from these countries to go over and to train and come back and fight what they see as a war. and a just cause. i think we should remember you know, this particular magazine in france that was targeted has long been on the list of radical jihadis as one people should

target and take action against. it's not a particularly new grievance. but we have to reckon with the fact that the united states is leading military operations in iraq and syria, and that is going to create a motive for people to do this. i don't think that's any particular reason to stop that. we're not going to bomb our way out of this in iraq and syria. >> and, shane, when you think about the international security apparatus, are we as advanced as we need to be in terms of the strategies we have and the tools and the training we're doing for our security individuals? you know, have we kept up with this threat? >> i think we're having to play catch up with a lot of it frankly. and i think what's going to happen here in the after action looking at this particular attack is trying to understand how good was the intelligence sharing between different countries. were there things the united states could've known that would've benefitted the french? how successful were the french in monitoring these individuals?

why did they slip through the cracks? i would imagine this conference that's going to be happening in france this weekend where attorney general holder will be attend attending, there will be some discussions about are there any gaps in the international efforts that need to be shored up so that when individuals like this start traveling, they don't fall off the radar as it appears these two men may have. >> yeah you talk about the radar and you've written a lot about the way war is evolving. talk to us about this type of manhunt works. do the authorities have any sense of whether these folks may have a plan to get some sort of outside assistance and actually flee the country? do they just go underground? how does it work? >> well really quickly, what happened after the attack itself is the french started looking at the video that was available. they started trying to identify the subjects. came up with an identification really quite quickly which i think tells you they went through their archives and tried to isolate the individuals and found maybe they had been on the radar. the fbi was participating in that and that right now u.s. intelligence agencies are going back through their own records

to try and see who these men were, who they may have been connected to. they have isolated them we know from reports now to an area in northern france that are some 88,000 law enforcement personnel reportedly involved in this. so what you have now is a manhunt. and they're going to be looking for connections that these individuals had to people they knew who they might go and try to hide with now, they might try to contact and get out of the country. it's going to be a situation to what we saw in boston after the marathon bombing where law enforcement is going to fan out and try and find every personal connection they can to give them a lead on where these men might be. >> and shane, two of the things i think are particularly troubling here is as you're pointing out "charlie hebdo" was a known target under police protection there in paris. and these two brothers were on the radar. one had already served time on a terrorism charge. so when you have people who are on the radar and a target that was understood to be a target

and you have a attack that's successful like this it asks you what more can we really be doing? >> yeah, it's a great question. and in this case i don't know more than it could have been. if this individual was charged and he was held and in the legal system meted out a punishment and he could no longer be held. i mean this ultimately, an open society and free society like ours and determined individuals are going to do whatever is within their capacity to carry out these attacks. i think probably what we're going to find out is that this was planned. i'm hearing right now from u.s. officials they're looking very closely at whether this was al qaeda directed or al qaeda inspired. but it does appear that these individuals went off and may have gotten some kind of training. we know they were in syria within the past year. all this is to say that they were extremely dedicated and were driven it appears, to do this. and when you're facing that kind of anniversary and free and open society, it's extremely hard to stop somebody from doing what these men did. >> i think in the west we generally respond to these sort of moments saying we need to do is attack and bomb the back of

the stone age and as you already said in this block, as many others have said we're not going to bomb our way out of this situation. so expanding on the concept of what more can we do what can we do to make radical islamists think that the price of this sort of terrorism is just too high? >> you know it's a huge question, and probably the most important one in this. i don't think there's any particular military answer or threat that is going to deter them. particularly, if you're talking about individuals who would see dying in service of this cause of being quite noble and desirable. i think it's going to require a much deeper look at the societal issues of why these particular people and these young men, this small minority in these populations are feeling so incredibly disaffected and disenchanted that they see it as a good idea to engage in these kinds of pursuits. and that is something that each of these countries is going to have to look at through its own lens and the own particular problems and conflicts they

have. and we try and sort of like cast a wide net about radical islam, but we have to remember that there are just particular circumstances in each of these countries that are motivating and affecting these young men. and that's really going to be i think, it's almost the generational issue. but i don't see them being deterred by force if anything perhaps eggs them on even more. >> very troubling. shane harris, thank you so much. >> sure. we have much more on this developing story ahead, including an investigation, latest recruiting terror in the 21st century. and the question we're all thinking to some degree today, could it happen here? all the latest in theening a ls that matter covered here in the cycle. we're in seattle to see which 100 calorie black cherry greek yogurt tastes best. definitely that one. that one's delicious. it's yoplait! what? i love yoplait! the other one is chobani. really. i like this one better. yoplait wins again! take the taste-off for yourself. ♪ music ♪ ...the getaway vehicle!

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the freedom of expression through arts, politics, cuisine, through life. and it's an attack on the spirit of france. and the french culture has been an influence in modern civilization. and it's -- how could you not go. >> absolutely right. she's one of the thousands gathered right now in paris. a show of force against the terrorists. let's head back now to paris. christopher dickey is not only foreign editor at "the daily beast," he lives there in paris. let's talk about the victims here and "charlie hebdo" and what this form of satire they were all about really means to the french. >> well, there is a long, long history of terrific political

cartooning and social cartooning in this country that they are very much a part of. some of these, some of the victims have been drawing cartoons since the 1960s skewering various political, religious, social and other leaders in france and the rest of the world. so i think they really will be missed. their work will be missed. charlie hebdo, if we want to be frank about it was sometimes-- the ones targeted by the terrorists are well known as wonderful caricaturists, and absolutely vicious satirists. and i think they will be missed tremendously. >> and christopher, as someone who lives in paris talk to us a little bit about the reaction of on the ground today. >> well on the one hand

there's the question of mourning. the national day of mourning everybody participated in to some extent. there was a tremendously moving moment which i'm sure you've already broadcast when the eiffel tower went dark at 8:00 tonight. and i think people literally had goosebumps. they couldn't believe it. nobody had ever seen it quite like that. and all of that has kind of cast a pal over the city. but at the same time you just see armed men, police, soldiers in all kinds of places you never saw them before. it was very difficult to drive through the middle of the city at midday today because traffic kept being rerouted by cops at practically every street corner every major thoroughfare. i don't know why we were being rerouted. but it was obviously a show of presence and force by the police. and even here in the studio

where i am as i was walking in tonight, i passed two very large burly guys with automatic weapons. so i would say there is a sense of if not of paris becoming an armed camp, certainly of a city on very, very high alert. >> and all of this is against a backdrop of a lot of difficulties in relations between muslims and nonmuslims in the middle east as well as in europe. and you wrote about that. let me read from your reporting. you say anti-muslim sentiment has been on the rise throughout europe anti-islam rallies draw thousands in sweden, mosques have been burned. considering laws that would require kindergarten teachers to monitor potential radicalization among their students. the risk of radical overreaction to radical terror looms large. well put, can you give us a sense from what you're seeing tonight of whether that risk is

mounting or whether everything is largely peaceful and nonpartisan in the reaction? >> well, no, you have -- you have two things going on. on the other hand, you have all of those people pouring in where the main demonstrations have been, of support, for "charlie hebdo," all of that goingen o. and there are a lot of muslims in that crowd. who want to say we are a part of france. we are a part of all of this. that's the good news. the bad news is there were attacks on at least three mosques and prayer rooms in france over the last day, day and a half. in reaction obvious reaction to the charlie hebdo events. and in the broader context, this is an issue that's going to be used very effectively and cynically by the far right politicians, not only of france but especially in the rest of europe places like dresden, the netherlands, where what is their

message? their message is essentially that they don't like immigrants. they don't like muslims. they don't like foreigners. their message, if you want to just take all the coating off of it is essentially racist. but in order to avoid being called racists, what do they say? they say we don't like iszlam. and why? because islam is an intolerant religion and therefore we in europe cannot tolerate those intolerant muslims in our midst. it's a very effective argument. it's one that's been politically very successful in the netherlands, for instance. and it is going to be fueled to a white hot level by this incident and any further incidents that take place. >> and christopher, i lived in paris many years ago, and i remember being surprised at that time at the level of rhetoric of

anti-immigrant, which really then was code for, i think a lot of algerians in some respects. do you think that the far right now led, back then it was her father, do you think they're really gaining ground with everyday french people? or is this just a really loud vocal minority but the same size minority it was before? >> oh no no no. no, they are definitely gaining ground. she is a whole hell of a lot smarter than her father and her ambition is to not sort of be a gadfly on the far right flirting with naziism or fascism the way her father did. no she wants to be president of france. and she's putting in place a political machinery and a political discourse that will probably take her very far toward that goal. i doubt that she will become president of france, but it is no longer an impossibility that

she would do that. and right now, we have a political dynamic, there's a whole question of whether on sunday when the government is called for big rallies, for big national day of commemoration of the dead and the "charlie hebdo" affair, she's being excluded from that. this is a very stupid ploy by the government because it plays exactly into her hands. they should invite her and say, okay, you want to come you want to share in the memory of memorializing of the people from "charlie hebdo"? if she would do that she would probably be weakened. but no, she's going to be excluded and then she will say, you see, the mainstream politicians, the mainstream establishment in this country doesn't listen to the people. and it's been her game all along, and she's been very successful with it. it's not a minority. it's a minority but it's certainly not a small and

impotent minority now. >> our hearts are with paris today, one of the world's greatest cities. thank you very much for that report from paris. still ahead, we'll dig into key questions many people are asking today. could what happened in paris happen here in america? and what if anything could we do to stop it? but next other big headlines cycling now, including the freezing cold right here in america. what's in a can of del monte green beans? ( ♪ ) grown in america. picked and packed at the peak of ripeness. with no artificial ingredients. del monte. bursting with life. you're driving along, having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pick-up

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breaking news in "the cycle." former director robert muller has concluded there is no evidence that anyone in the nfl saw that video of ray rice hitting his then fiancee in a hotel elevator before the rest of us did. but they did determine that the league should've done more to investigate the incident with or without those images. rice is currently a free agent after his suspension from the

league was overturned on appeal. and now to the weather. have you been outside yet today? no, then don't. 200 million of us. 2/3 of the country are i have shivering through some of the coldest weather that we ever see. and it's not just the usual winter suspects. the arctic blast spans from the canadian border all the way into texas and everywhere in between. for many apparently the worst is actually yet to come. perhaps the only bright spot in all of this is msnbc meteorologist domenica davis. any news would be greatly appreciated. >> we have a little bit. but it is so cold richard simmons was spotted wearing pants today. >> whoa! >> that's pretty major. that's how cold it is. listen, we have 40 states that experience subzero windchills between last night and this morning. so this is affecting the majority of the nation. the cold is going to continue but it does start to loosen its grip. current windchills though are still very serious through the midwest. minus 16 for the feel like in chicago.

minus 17 in detroit. that puts the frostbite zone coming in at under 20 minutes. this is still really a serious, a serious deal for much of the country. here's a look at friday's forecast. it still stays dangerously cold for minneapolis down through chicago, through the midwest. the cold starts to ease around the northeast. but we will be looking at snow showers. and then things start to get better as we head closer into the weekend. here's a look at the forecast for boston. we're up to 30 on friday and 40 by monday. that's really going to feel nice. and atlanta, where they were dealing with subzero temperatures this morning, they'll get up to 39 on friday and then they'll be looking at 55 by monday. so this situation is getting a little bit better. back to you guys. >> thanks for that. now to some major health news cycling now. nine cases of the measles. that's right, the measles are being traced to disney theme parks in california. three more people are suspected to have it. measles, of course was declared

eliminated in the united states 15 years ago, but apparently, the highly contagious airborne virus is back. and the flu is hitting hard right now. this year's vaccine not fully effective as yet. the effects of that are being felt now in 43 states which have declared widespread outbreaks. so far this season 21 children have died. while the flu shot cannot prevent infection, dr. nancy snyderman recommends it. barbara boxer announced she's not running for re-election in 2016. she's represented california on capitol hill since 1992 and there hasn't been an open senate seat in the state since a long time. it's been a long time crystal. that includes gavin newsom and harris. now to market alert. 30 minutes to the closing bell and stocks take us on a roller

coaster ride surging for a second day, up triple digits. attributed to oil prices finally stopping their slide. and back to our coverage of that terror attack in paris. specifically the social media component. is it possible to create a terrorist with the click of a mouse? let's bring in shawn henry. glad to have you with us today. >> thanks. >> one of the things i've been struggling to understand that i was hoping you could help us with is one of the alleged attackers here was described as a pot smoker at least formerly a womanizer. how are jihadis able to create this cool factor where someone like that would be attracted to becoming an extremist and a terrorist. >> i think often times they appeal to people who feel like they're out in the dark. they're not associated in any particular groups. much the way violent gangs have in many decades in the united states. reaching out to people and

trying to include them and making them part of a family. and when you look at some of the jihadi events that we've seen and the way there have been radicalization by these jihadists, the often times are those that are loners, not fully associated with anybody. social media's being used to reach out and touch them. >> when you were the fbi. this is a situation where you have obviously -- then we get the reports online of isis-related websites, claiming some kind of responsibility. looking to verify whether isis was involved and even if not to look at that as a clue and say if somebody online is post inging they want credit for this. and use that as a lead? >> absolutely. i think the united states and globally we see this as an attack on civility.

the u.s. and fbi are working with french authorities. focused on intrusions by terrorist groups into networks where they're breaching networks. the kind of communications that you're referring to are done by the terrorist task force, joint terrorism task forces and the counterterrorism division at fbi headquarters. what they're doing often times is they're looking for this type of rhetoric to identify those. before you can do those types of reviews, you've got to have an authorized law enforcement purpose. because you've got to constantly balance civil liberties and privacy against the need of the citizens. >> sure. and shawn, when you think about who is potentially a real threat, right? there are a lot of people who are never going to become killers, hopefully. how do you differentiate between the people who are putting out a lot of scary rhetoric out there but never going to become killers versus the people we're

seeing today? >> that's difficult. when i was in the bureau one of the biggest challenges we face because people aren't wearing a sign that says i'm going to turn into a killer. you don't know. you've got to monitor these people in a way to try and protect the civilization. the society. in those cases, what flips the switch for investigators are those that are speaking and then law enforcement identifies that they're taking other overt acts. they're reaching out to try to obtain weapons, trying to raise funds for some type of nefarious activity, something of that nature. you can't just discount out of hand somebody's not going to kill people if they're talking about doing it just because thechbtdthey haven't gotten a gun. rhetoric and murder is like that. >> we hear one of the suspects here talking about abu ghraib and the images that came out of there was what radicalized him. a lot of folks who are in radical islam circles say that abu ghraib was that moment that made them say i must do something. do you buy that that that moment really radicalized a lot of

these folks? or is that an excuse? >> i don't think it's an excuse. and i think law enforcement have been looking for a long time at those specific events that really do cause somebody to flip that switch. abu ghraib is one, the terrorist, the torture report also related to abu ghraib certainly, and there are other events that people have seen where they believe that their rights are being imposed or, you know, u.s. intervention in iraq, in afghanistan. >> they're looking for some galvanizing moment. some folks maybe just trying to look for something they can hang their hat on. but this is a long process often times. and there are some who are walking the line. and it is a particular event that pushes them over the line. i can see where this event here in france may cause copycats. people who have been thinking about this for a while. now that they see what happens in france. we have to be on alert here domestically. >> troubling thoughts really appreciate it.

and up next as attacks on journalists rise our terrorists having the impact they intend. is the pen truly mightier than the sword? and later, canada australia, france, could it happen right here? more on this developing story ahead in "the cycle." okay buddy what's your favorite kind of cheerios? honey nut. but... chocolate is my other favorite... but apple cinnamon is my favorite too... and fruity... oh yeah, and frosted! okay, but...what's you're most favorite of all? hmm...

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eight journalists including four cartoonists are believed to be among those killed in the attack on "charlie hebdo." cartoon writers across the country are uniting in solidarity. another showing our hearts are with charlie hebdo. and arguing it's especially critical not to blame the victims for the paris attack. however, challenging some of their drawings and writings may have been for some. that is what satirists do push boundaries that's their right. "charlie hebdo," lampooning the pope, the jewish orthodoxy. joining us now professor of law at school of law and author of

"your fatwa does not apply here." how are you? >> fine thank you. thanks for having me. >> you bet. let's start with the point there that i read from your piece, your concern that disagreements that people may have with the ideas expressed by this magazine are no reason to blame the victims in this mass murder. >> absolutely. i think to avoid victim blaming now is so important. there's been way too much discussion in the last 24 hours as to whether some of their images were offensive or not. there's no question that killing is much more offensive than any cartoon could ever be. and i think that's what we need to focus on. this is not a sort of cultural debate. this is a political debate about extreme right wing muslim fundamentalist movements, manipulating people's views of certain drawings and so on. if you talk to many muslims and people of muslim heritage

individually, they are quite tolerant and willing to allow expression even that they find offensive. i think of the interview, who was a very religious person but told me she had no problem with koran burning. she said it is up to god to do that. and there's absolutely no justification for the carnage we've seen yesterday. and that's the great offense we have to focus on. >> and it does seem like there has been this uptick against journalists, violence against journalists. and do you believe this is about retribution for perceived wrongs? is this supposed to be about intimidation? why do you think this is? >> an islamic group back in algeria, which is an equivalent of the islamic state in the '90s said that those who fight us with the pen will die by the sword. there's often a perception that journalists tend to be people

who do not support the agenda. they are seen as the enemy, also seen as people who get out the word about the atrocities committed by these terrorist groups and they're targeted for that reason. and as they knew in the '90s as they were systematically targeted by the fundamentalists, killing journalists gets press. and that's another reason that terrorists carry that out and inflicts more damage in that way. >> that's an interesting point. and as you know -- >> i think -- >> virtually every religion has been perverted for horrific ends at some point. but right now, disproportionate disproportionately, it is islam. why is that? >> well i think, again, what we're facing here are political movements, the challenge here is primarily a political one, although it certainly has a religious dimension. and i think we there are different causes of these movements in different contexts. i think what we need to do is to support the many people of muslim heritage around the world who are pushing back who, who are challenging these movements, find ways to support them.

it's much easier to get funding to support a jihadist group than it is to get funding to support a secular group pushing back against them. it's much easier to be heard and make the news if you commit terrorism than if you peacefully go out and demonstrate as people have in places like algeria and pakistan against terrorism. and we have to change all of that. >> one of the things i find disappointing, extremely disappointing in moments like this is when christians come out in the media and say i'm christian, criticizing my own group. moderate muslims should apologize or denounce what has happened here as if it is the responsibility of 1.5 billion global muslims with the radical lunatic fringe does. should the sins of the lunatic fringe become somehow the responsibility of the masses of muslims who are peaceful?

>> being sort of collective guilt was one thing. and certainly, no one is responsible for the atrocities because they share the punitive religious beliefs of those who carried them out. but i do believe that people of muslim heritage have a responsibility to speak out against what is happening. an activist wrote to me from france this morning and saying we have to denounce these dealers in paradise. we have to say you cannot speak. you cannot act in our name. and i believe just as when americans speak out against american foreign policy aspects of it or when jews speak out against abuses committed by the israeli government, muslims or people of muslim heritage -- and i personally feel a strong responsibility to do that because i don't want to see any more victims like those in paris yesterday. like those in pakistan 150 slaughtered also by a jihadist movement back in december. this jihad has got to stop.

and that is only going to happen when we all speak out, as i wrote in my article that you quoted from. we need to have a million muslim march. every single time one of these atrocities happens. >> thank you so much for your words and your time today. up next the question many americans are asking today, could what happened in paris happen here? on car insurance. yeah, everybody knows that. well, did you know that playing cards with kenny rogers gets old pretty fast? ♪ you got to know when to hold'em. ♪ ♪ know when to fold 'em. ♪ ♪ know when to walk away. ♪ ♪ know when to run. ♪ ♪ you never count your money, ♪ ♪ when you're sitting at the ta...♪ what? you get it? i get the gist yeah. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. [cheering] everything okay? we're here because you're about to have a heart attack. pete's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today his doctor has him on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk

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just into us from the paris terror attack. it's a look the a the carnage inside the charlie hebdo offices. we warn you, this is graphic. here's the photo, blood on the ground and covering paper scattered on the floor where the editorial meeting was taking place wednesday morning. the hunt for those responsible continues at this hour. and it's not just paris. first, there was a terror attack in canada last october. a soldier killed outside of parliament. last month it happened in sid sydney, australia. after a terrorist held hostages for hours. and now, of course 12 dead in france after terrorists easily stormed a workplace not much different than the type of workplace you and i go to every day. so today, americans rightfully so are asking themselves, are we next? and what, if anything can we do about it? let's dig into the idea of so-called soft targets with washington post national security correspondent greg miller. greg, thanks for joining us today. >> sure. >> so i think this really is the big question on people's minds today. we've been talking about it here in the office. is there something that we can do about this?

and how great is the threat now? do we see an increased threat here in the u.s. potentially based oen what we just saw in paris yesterday? >> well, i don't think that i don't think that -- i don't hear anybody that i'm talking to in washington saying that this points to an increased threat level to the united states directly. the united states and its allies in europe have been on high alert for some time largely because of the escalating civil war in syria and the concern that that is basically breeding a new generation of potential terrorists. um i think the united states security o firms would say that this country is probably considerably safer from the likelihood of a spectacular attack on the scale of 9/11 than you know obviously than it was beforehand, but these sorts of smaller, more focused and narrowly constructed targets that may not involve communications between you

know, between borders or overseas are much harder to detect and much much harder to stop. >> yeah. you can't possibly stop every one of these attacks. unfortunately, that seems to be the sad reality, but in terms of thinking of the different levels of risk and different situations in the u.s. versus france one thing that we found is a very different political climate. in france we're seeing the rise of the ultra right-wing anti-immigrant party led by marin lepen. in the u.s. you see increasing levels of support for comprehensive immigration reform and acceptance of immigrants in the u.s. it seems like a very difficult political climate, do those things lower our risk in the u.s.? >> i think a lot of experts think that the muslim communities in the united states are probably better integrated than those in some countries in europe where there is a lot of

hostility and has been for a long time. there's also just a greater geographic distance. i mean it's just the united states is farther away from conflicts in syria and other places. we've had far fewer fighters try to go to syria or come back from that civil war than countries like france. france has had ten times as many as the united states has or thereabouts. germany has had more than 500 and so countries in europe that are closer to conflicts like that also see larger numbers. >> yeah. and all of that still goes back to the open categorical question what are we looking at? are we looking at a foreign fighter-type attack? are we looking at an active war or domestic terror and plenty of clues and the training that these folks evidenced. in your reporting that jumped out to me was from the former top counterterrorism official at state and he says it's pretty unusual attack from a jihadist organization.

it's not a suicide attack and not a bomb. we haven't seen many cases of cells affiliated with al qaeda-linked groups carrying out shootings like this. i wonder if you can shed more light on that since you interviewed mr. benjamin for the article on that analysis. that doesn't look like al qaeda although you don't rule it out. >> perhaps al qaeda has again adapted its tactics. if this does end up being linked to some al qaeda organization and there are some indications that some of these fighters had gone to yemen and one of these shooters perhaps had gone to yemen or at least tried to where there is a, you know a very potent al qaeda affiliate could point to some adaptation by al qaeda and we've seen that time and time again. it's too erle pep there is no clear indication yet of any affiliation to al qaeda and i want to emphasize that. there are more questions than answers about these shooters and their motivations and the

planning and whether they have a formal relationship or instruction from a farther away terrorist group. >> since we're on the point, from your reporting, can we say anything about whether al qaeda has sufficient number of individuals across europe who want to do suicide attacks? the obama administration have said they decimated a lot of this rank and file and there aren't that many fighters to do a 9/11-style attack which takes suicide bombers. >> well i think securist oeity officials would say they don't see al qaeda cells intact in europe or in the united states. they can't account for other linkages. we've had occasions in the united states of fort hood with nidal hassan who had been in contact by email with aqap this al qaeda affiliate in yemen but had never gone and been alongside that group or had physical contact with that

group. so these connections online these communications, the recruiting that happens through social media are much harder to account for than somebody who gets up and gets on a plane and tries to make his way to yemen or pakistan or syria. >> i think you're absolutely right. the big attacks we are doing the best that we possibly can to stop the distance between america and the middle east makes it harder to get to an attack in america as opposed to europe and the muslims in america are much more integrated than you see in many cases in europe, but we're a country of over 300 million. they only need to break through once or twice tro to have an impact. we need to stop every single one. so just by sheer numbers, eventually yes in a long enough timeline they will break through and something will happen here but even before that happens, greg we have a greater concern of american wackos who have no relationship for radical islam who are nonideological attacking

us. that inevitability that you point to is something that i hear all of the time from officials from the cia and other security agencies in washington. they believe that and that's the way they approach their jobs and in fact the united states has seen a number of close calls, right? we've seen the attempted bombing in times square that failed largely because it was so poorly conceived and executed. the attempted downing of the airliner on christmas day in 2009 over detroit that failed because of how that plot was executed and not because it was detected and prevented. so to some extent i think some officials will even say we're on borrowed time. >> greg thank you very much. we're right back with the final word after this.

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that does it for "the cycle". thank you very much for being with us today. "now" with alex wagner starts right now. je suis charlie gather for another night as the search for two suspects continues. it is thursday january 8th and this is "now". >> police may be closing in on the killers. ♪ >> they brought out about 800 additional security forces in the paris area. >> rerouting traffic and sirens going around town. >> it is not known if these two will strike again. >> house to house, searching proper wes their guns raised. >> it is quite difficult to get out of france. >> it is a day of great sorrow. >> this has cut this region to the soul to the heart. >> there is a sense of defiance. >> no to the fear. no to the terror.