hey, there, everyone. high noon in the east. 9:00 a.m. out west. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." 700,000 people across france today are standing in solidarity with the victims of this week's terror attacks in paris, according to the nation's interior minister. and tomorrow leaders from across

europe and the united states will be among the hundreds of thousands who are expected to join anti-terror marches throughout france. meanwhile, french police continue their search for hayat boumedien, suspected of being an accomplice in yesterday's supermarket attack in paris as well as the thursday shooting of a french police officer. senior officials held an emergency meeting to discuss new anti-terror efforts. the interior minister saying security precautions will be stepped up at certain institutions. at least 17 french citizens were killed in the terror attacks. three suspected terrorists are dead. one still being sought. the attacks began wednesday at the office of the newspaper "charlie hebdo." late friday police raided a printing factory where the two suspects in wednesday's shootings were holed up. those two were killed in the gun battle with police. also on friday an associate of the suspects went into a kosher market in paris. four hostages died.

police said they were killed by the gunman. let's get to richard engel who joins us live from paris. richard, we've all become very familiar with you and your routine covering the aftermath of terrorism in the middle east for us. compare it to the situation in paris right now. >> reporter: there is a sense of shock here in paris. this is not gaza. this is not afghanistan. this is not the kind of thing where you have heavily armed gumin' with ak-47s dressed in black going into the streets, entering into that newspaper and gunning down the staff and moving on and taking hostages and having his associate go in and taking over a kosher market. that is not the kind of thing that has been happening here in paris. there's a lot of anger, there are some questions about how this could have happened. and there is grief. tomorrow a vigil is supposed to be held a march that is going to go through right in this

square where i am right now. there have been people coming here and laying flowers. the city is also on edge after this traumatic event. today there were two false alarms. there was one report earlier in the day that there was a gunman who was spotted near a metro station and then there was another report of a possible attack on a synagogue. luckily both turned out to be false alarms. but there was a lot of tension. people started scrambling. and that's the mood that is still here. this city has not calmed down yet after this tragedy. >> you can imagine, and in part that lack of calm might be fueled by the fact that authorities are still looking for this hayat boumedien, this woman accomplice particularly the grocery store terrorist there. what is the latest on that? >> reporter: the latest on that is a lot of confusion. she is the -- she's been described as the spouse.

other times described as the partner. but they shared an apartment, hayat and the kosher grocery store attacker. earlier today the interior ministry put out an appeal to the public again releasing her photograph with a tips number asking people to call in. then a short while ago, the respected french newspaper "le figueroa" said that perhaps hayat left the country, not today but left the country a couple of weeks ago before the attack traveling to madrid and istanbul implying that she was aware of what was about to happen and decided to skip town. so right now, we really don't know very much about her whereabouts or her possible involvement. but we definitely know that french authorities would like to speak with her. >> yeah, at the very least. nbc's richard engel there. thank you very much for that.

let's bring in chapman bell joining us from outside that kosher grocery store, one of the sites of yesterday's siege. there was some police presence there earlier today. how do things look now? >> reporter: alex good evening from a rainy night in paris. the police presence has actually grown. crowds are braving the rain coming here to pay their respects. we're expecting more people later. the french interior minister is expected to come here to pay his respect. the memorial here has grown throughout the day, flowers have been laid candles, the phrase je suis charlie, that's been used so much throughout the days for the journalists killed at the "charlie hebdo" offices has now evolved. we're seeing now "i am police i am jewish" everybody -- the unity here is growing. everyone in france and in fact across the world is coming together in mourning these

tragic incidents here in paris hoping the worst of it is over and it can come to terms with what's happened. as i said, this crowd continues to grow. security is tight in anticipation for coming here on this evening. alex? >> chapman, i'm sorry to ask you one more question despite you being in the rain there. very quickly, a lot of the increase in population there is probably because it's the end of the sabbath day. it's a kosher market it's a heavy jewish neighborhood. is that what you might account the increase in foot traffic and people laying flowers and memorials there? >> reporter: that's correct, alex. they are expecting after chabot to have a huge number of people. soon we're expecting more people to be here to pay their remembrance at the kosher supermarket. >> chapman, go get dry. thank you very much for the live report there. as you've heard, there is a palpable level of anxiety today

on the streets of paris. it is a feeling that new yorkers who lived through 9/11 may well remember. security forces in france can now take a page from the nypd playbook. they're trying to secure a bustling metropolis without interrupting daily life. joining me is christopher dickey who straddles new york and paris, covering this story for us from paris. christopher, i'm glad to have you speak here. you have a very unique perspective. let's first talk about what's happening in france first. you've been writing about the investigation into who these terrorists were the depth of the network from which they came. these attackers were on the french intelligence community's radar for as long as a decade. so was this a miss? >> it definitely was a miss. it was a huge miss. the biggest problem is not just that they were on the radar. there have been a lot of people on the radar. the french intelligence community has been saying ever since the names first appeared yes, we knew about these guys

but we can't follow everybody. we thought they were going to be okay or at least they were not high-risk targets. and they missed one crucial fact. these guys went to yemen and trained to be the kinds of killers that they became. if you have people who are known jihadist backgrounds who have wanted to go fight and kill americans in iraq since 2004 or 2005 who have a vocation to be suicide bombers as younger men and then they go to yemen and hang out with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and come back to france and you don't stick to them like glue, then you are making a huge mistake. and i don't think anybody has really explained adequately yet how that happened. it may be -- this is speculation. we don't have good answers yet. that the americans knew these guys had gone to yemen but

somehow the french did not know that these guys had gone to yemen. >> would you then classify them as a reawakened sleeper cell? >> not exactly a sleeper cell. one of the foremost experts on terrorism and criminology here said no the problem is not they were a sleeper cell implying they were living anonymously, nobody knew what they were up to that somehow they fooled the world about their intentions. no, this was known to be a collection of guys with a lot of relationships with very very famous -- infamous terrorists not only in france but in great britain. and they were not living under cover. they were not hidden away. and yet they were not observed well enough to keep them from carrying out the worst atrocity in france in 50 years. >> christopher, i want to reference your book that you wrote "securing the city." it concludes that new york has

one of the most effective terrorism task forces around. will paris look to new york now as a model for what comes next there now? >> they're already talking about that. of course the systems are very different in france and in the united states. new york is essentially a huge metropolitan police force. france essentially has two national police forces the national police and the national gendarmes. they have a lot of resources that they can deploy in a very different environment than new york. but what they are going to do certainly is the kinds of surveillance that the new york police department has been criticized for. and france to some extent already had in place. it's a two-way street. in fact a very senior adviser

to the french police was also an adviser to the new york city police department. and the new york city police department learned a lot from the french. in fact they had for many years an officer -- an nypd officer stationed in the intelligence division of the national police here in paris. >> i well remember in the days immediately following 9/11 there was just a fear that permeated new york city and everybody was on edge for quite some time. in fact in just these 24 hours there where you are in paris, there have been several false alarms, many fears of terrorism perpetuating there. do you think if or when the 26-year-old hayat boumedien is captured parisian's will return to a sense of calm or is this the new norm in paris as it was in new york for quite some time post-9/11? >> yeah i think the latter, alex. i was in new york in fact on 9/11 and immediately afterwards. and you're right, it feels exactly like that. of course, the scale of the

atrocity was much greater in new york. but that sense that you just don't know what's coming next that what has happened was so out of proportion to anything that had happened before and such a surprise and the double hit -- the idea that there's an attack and then there's an attack by somebody else and it has the kind of gruesome climactic ending liked the it had yesterday. i walked under the tunnel of the arch di triumph and there was nobody there. this is a huge time for all the stores in paris. a lot of them almost empty the last couple of days. things are picking up. people are back out on the streets but they're looking over their shoulders. people are very nervous because nobody's really sure it's over.

and it's not just because hayat boumedien is still at large. we're seeing reports she may have left the country some time ago. it's because nobody knows if there are other cells like this. if you can miss a cell as obvious as this then what about real sleeper cells? nobody knows. >> which is why next hour i want you to talk to us about the 19th district there, a place with substandard housing and an area where a lot of fomenting of unhappy citizens. let's get a description of that next hour, okay? >> all right. sure thing, alex. >> thank you. journalists fearing for their safety not just in paris but around the world. ahead, the u.s. senator who's been working tirelessly to highlight the need to protect correspondents abroad, that's next. one thing i've learned is my philosophy is real simple american express open forum is an on-line community, that helps our members connect and share ideas to make smart business decisions. if you mess up, fess up. be your partners best partner.

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16 past the hour. about 700,000 people across france today are standing in solidarity with the victims of this week's terror attacks in paris. meanwhile, french police continue their search for this woman, hayat boumedien. she is suspected of being an accomplice in yesterday's supermarket attack in paris as well as the thursday shooting of a female french police officer. boumedien is the only survivor among the four suspected terrorists. 17 people are believed to have been killed in those terror attacks which began on wednesday. and the impact of those coordinated attacks in france are reverberating here at home this weekend. a travel alert has been issued, new concern about where terrorists could strike next. joining me now, pennsylvania senator bob casey who's led the annual senate resolution to make the protection of foreign journalists a priority. senator casey, good to see you. >> thanks, alex. good to be with you. >> you have continually highlighted the need to protect journalists abroad as well as

this week the streak of terror in france begins at a controversial news agency, the "charlie hebdo" magazine. did it surprise you, sir, to hear of journalists being attacked even on western soil? >> well it's always shocking because we take -- probably take for granted in the united states that freedom of expression is not only recognized but protected in law. the same is true of freedom of the press. so it's always disturbing when it happens in connection with violence. it's one thing to have vigorous debate and even a real aggressive battle or debate about freedom of expression or what's in the news. but when there's violence directed at either journalists or those who have an effort made to express their point of view whether it's through cartoons or otherwise, even when that's upsetting we don't in the united states see the same kind of violence. >> are you concerned at all that

this could mark some sort of a new frontier in terrorism, an effort to control the news messaging? the fact is we're putting an aggressive amount of coverage on this because it does strike home to us that are journalists. >> there's no question alex, that some will be intimidated by this. we have to make sure that we do everything possible to dampen the effort to intimidate those who are expressing themselves in any way but especially when it comes to basic reporting. i'm not sure there's been a time in our history in terms of the world where you have a concerted effort in a lot of places in the world, whether it's in the middle east or even in europe now, where journalists are targeted, those who are expressing opinions are targeted. so it has to be a response by the international community. first of all, to recognize the value and affirm that. and then to take steps to protect those who are members of the press or those expressing

themselves through cartoons or otherwise. >> as i know you're aware, the president said our country stands with france against hatred and suffering. but do you see any specific support that the u.s. can offer right now, be it security training or perhaps counterterrorism assistance? >> well it's hard to make an assessment right now, alex. it's difficult to be certain about that. but we're going to have to listen to the security professionals and see what lessons can be learned. but, of course this relationship between our two countries, france and the united states, goes back to the founding of our country. so it's very strong. i think the intelligence gathering and sharing is strong. there may have been some gaps here. we have to assess that kind of in an after-action kind of way to assess whether or not there are better ways we can share intel. but i think the relationship is strong. and maybe some of the -- as you pointed out earlier, maybe some of the lessons in law

enforcement in new york after 9/11 could be instructive. >> the u.s. state department has issued a travel warning saying americans could face an increased risk now. how concerned are lawmakers that the attackers in france were part of either an ongoing or waker sleeper cell that could target americans next? >> there's no question that we're seeing in a lot of places if it's in the anot a lone wolf -- in this case, seems like it was a lot more sophisticated and coordinated with training apparently in yemen over a number of years or at least for a period of time. so this has elements to it that are similar to recent attacks. every time we think we have the image of terrorism fixed in our mind, it will change. so we have to continue to be adaptive to that. law enforcement and security and intel. so i think it's early to make kind of categorical judgments about what we can learn from

this. but we have to make sure that any lesson that our security professionals impart to us that the congress takes action either by way of policy change or appropriations. >> but speaking of that, i want to ask you this. in an effort to block the president's recent executive action on immigration, house republicans have fought to only fund the homeland security department for three months. meantime, they're trying to craft legislation to block the presidential order. is there any concern the house will not get a long-term funding bill passed before the clock runs out and might these fresh terror concerns now from france impact what's happening on the hill for us? >> well first of all, it's a mistake in any situation to short-change homeland security. so i would hope that folks in both parties will come together and make sure that we don't have these stopgaps or limited funding efforts, especially when it comes to homeland security. i think folks will come together and get the job done. i know that secretary johnson is

working very hard to make sure that there's no gap. >> all right. senator bob casey, thank you much for your time. appreciate it, sir. >> thanks, alex. ahead, much more on the terror attacks in france and the hunt for a gunman's female accomplice. plus george zimmerman arrested friday night. what landed him behind bars? we have details on that ahead. ♪ the nissan rogue, with safety shield technologies. the only thing left to fear is your imagination. why do i cook? because i make the best chicken noodle soup. because i make the best chicken noodle soup. because i make the best chicken noodle soup.

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george zimmerman was back in court hours ago after being arrested for alleged assault with a weapon. this morning, a judge granted a $5,000 bond but zimmerman was ordered not to have contact with the alleged victim nor travel to the county where she lives. zimmerman who was acquitted in the 2013 shooting death of trayvon martin must also now surrender any firearms that he owns. it is unclear, though if a gun was used in this case of alleged domestic violence. this is not the first time zimmerman has had encounters with the law. zimmerman was involved in a

dispute with his estranged wife and was later arrested after a dispute with a girlfriend. up next we return to paris as officials call for extreme vigilance in the wake of the deadly terrorist attacks. new players in new markets face a choice: do it fast and cheap. or do it right. for almost 90 years, we've stayed true to the belief that if you put quality in, you get quality out. it's why everything we build, we build to last. build on progress. build on pride. build on a company that's built for it. does a freshly printed presentation fill you with optimism? then you might be gearcentric. right now, all printers are on sale. plus great deals on hp ink and toner. office depot & officemax. gear up for great. ♪ ♪ ♪ "here i am. rock you like a hurricane." ♪ fiber one now makes

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to help support regularity. wife: mmmm husband: these are good! marge: the tasty side of fiber. from phillips. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." breaking news now, the french government is urging its citizens to remain vigilant in the wake of this week's terror attacks. france's interior minister held an emergency security meeting earlier saying the french government is now deploying hundreds of troops in addition to thousands of police and other security forces. the nation's terror alert system will amain at its highest level. at this hour authorities are still trying to track down the fourth suspect, hayat boumedien. it will wife of the attacker who seized hostages at the kosher grocery store in paris. he was later killed by police. police believe boumedien is armed. and world leaders will all gather in central paris for a

unity rally scheduled for tomorrow. let's go to paris. nbc's ron allen is standing by for us on a wet, dreary night there. ron, another welcome to you, let's go to this meeting held by france's interior minister today. what more came out of that? >> reporter: well the other thing that i want to tell you about first, alex is boumedien may have left the country. there are reports in the french media here saying that she got on a plane a few days ago, arrived in turkey and was seen crossing the border into syria, the same day that her alleged boyfriend was allegely killing that policewoman a couple of days ago here in paris. so the search has been on now since the sieges yesterday at the grocery store and the industrial park. the latest reporting here from the french media suggests that she left the country which makes sense because she's not been accounted for here. she wasn't seen at the grocery store. she wasn't reported among the killed or wounded. and she wasn't seen among the hostages. it was unclear if she was ever there. now again these reports that she

might have left the country and gone from turkey into syria. so that development -- you were talking about the huge unity rally that going to happen here tomorrow. that's the other big thing that's happening. the square tonight is quieting down because there's a cold chilly rain falling. but as many as 1 million people are expected here perhaps more to descend on paris and come together in a huge unity rally that will start here and march through the streets. already today in several other cities across the country like marseilles and nice many people coming together saying "i am charlie". it's a prelude of what will happen tomorrow. we expect heads of states from many countries to come and show support for france and be part of this movement. >> to pick up on what you were talking about with the location of hayat boumedien.

nbc news has yet to confirm this. you were not implying that in any way. you're hearing from reuters, from yt"le figaro" and the french investigators, journalists might have a bit of an edge having access to the interior minister and counterterrorism officials as well. the fencesense of fear there, you say it's palpable, people are on edge. but trying to return to normalcy. talk about the sense there this evening. >> reporter: everyone's on edge and people are concerned about what's going to happen. you're right, the reporting about the development of where ms. boumedien may be is significant because this is one of the missing links to this whole episode. that's why i wanted to get it out there although we haven't confirmed it. but it's significant if it's true because that sort of closes this chapter to some extent because all the suspects are accounted for, that's been one of the reasons why people are so

afraid here. they don't know what's happening. there was this unexplained suspect in the mix and there were reports earlier today, for example, of a person seen with a gun at a subway station. there were reports of shooting outside a mosque -- i'm sorry, outside of a synagogue, none of which proved to be true. but that gives you another sense of the fear here the concern here about another attack. and when this march comes together tomorrow hundreds of thousands in the streets, there will be extraordinary security here thousands of officers many of them plainclothes. and when these kinds of things happen police tell you what they're going to do. but they're not telling you 90% of what they're really going to do. so just an extraordinary day expected here tomorrow with so many heads of state and so many people in france coming out into the streets to say we will not be intimidated by these terror attacks. >> we should also add, two u.s. notables, u.s. attorney general and also our united states ambassador to france, jane hartley hartley, will be attending that unity rally as well.

ron allen, thank you for reporting for us. while hints of normalcy are returning to paris today, it remains on guard with an attacker still on the loose. a foreign threat striking at home. joining me now is a terrorism analyst. with a welcome to you, let's talk about what we were just hearing from ron allen. we're not exactly sure where she is. and we should say the interior ministry has stopped answering questions about hayat boumedien, speculation on where she is. but if she's left the country, what does that say? might she have been involved? you know the way these terrorist cells operate. >> the mere fact that she's on the run tells me she's guilty of something. so it just shows that she is obviously on the run. the french authorities and likely probably interpol are currently looking for her.

she's probably on a number of no-fly lists and on a number of blacklists by a number of european countries and probably the united states. we don't know exactly where she travels, if she remains inside france, maybe even in paris. but probably etchven in belgium across the border. she has a french passport allowing her to travel more freely than other individuals. the other point is that the rumor that she might have traveled to syria, obviously we cannot -- we have to tread carefully about that specifically. but there has been precedence there has been cases where female jihadists who have adopted this radical islamic ideology have indeed traveled around the world, have gone to jihadi war zones like somalia, yemen, syria and iraq and have actually assisted terrorist groups in carrying out their plots. we know samanthalesman the white widow,

one of the bombers in london she's been accused of conducting operations on the behalf of the link in somalia. she's on one of the topmost wanted lists right now. that's created a precedent. >> with hayat boumedien, is she someone that you think may be more dangerous than she otherwise would have been as being a widow, if you will whether it's a boyfriend or common law husband or legal husband, the fact that she's been left behind and she sees what happens to him, does she become more dangerous? >> i think it makes her a little bit more dangerous because she has that grievance now that motivates her likely to take revenge or act because she has been impacted by the loss of her husband though we cannot obviously ascertain what her plans are or where she's located. >> i want to ask you about the female role. the brothers were holed up not

only inside the "charlie hebdo" headquarters but in that printing location, they said we will not hurt you, you're a woman, to one woman inside the offices and elsewhere. and yet you have a woman who is a jihadist, if you will. how does that ideology sync up? >> there is a lot of what we call double standards in the jihadist community. i'll give you a quick example. jihadists accuse the west and the united states of not upholding their freedom of speech laws because they ban twitter accounts of jihadists yet jihadists themselves have attacked "charlie hebdo" and other freedom of expression icons because they express their views in their newspapers. so to your point about female jihadists, probably impacted -- she's seen her image on the media and that we're following her. that gives her a little bit nor notoriety and she might be

someone that other jihadists might reach out to building on that grievance that she has. >> cherif kouachi claimed in an interview that anwar al awlaki of aqap nuanceinfluenced him, that he trained with him. is it conceivable that this was a directive of anwar al awlaki an attack like this some three years later? >> well he could have met with anwar al awlaki before he was killed in september of 2011. but also if he met with awlaki he must have met with other jihadi leaders in the ranks of aqap. and aqap did not explicitly say, we claim responsibility for this attack. but they did say, how could we stand by watching while somebody's insulting our prophet? so they insinuated. another case an aqap fighter went on twitter and actually claimed responsibility, that aqap is actually behind the attack and that they will claim responsibility at a later time. but for now, they are not claiming responsibility simply

because of security reasons. of course, it remains in the air. >> certainly does. many questions there still. thank you for joining us. appreciate it. ahead, much more on this week's terror attacks including the author of a chilling new article in which he writes the time of the assassins is upon us. and new job numbers and lower gas prices a sign of what's to come this year? 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... the kind i have with you. me too. you show up. you stay up. you listen. you laugh. you worry. you do whatever it takes to take care of your family. and when it's time to plan for your family's future we're here for you.

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you're only young once. unless you have a subaru. (announcer) the subaru xv crosstrek. symmetrical all-wheel drive plus 34 mpg. love. it's what makes a subaru a subaru. new reports coming in on the whereabouts of this woman, hayat boumedien, she was believed to have been inside the paris grocery during friday's attack. but now french media is reporting that police sources say she actually flew to turkey on january 2nd then crossed over into syria. now, "le figueroa" newspaper is reporting that turkish officials say a woman fitting her description traveled into syria on thursday. nbc news has not confirmed this story. we'll update you as we get confirmation. other news to share. new nrm numbers know 2014 was

the best year for hiring in 15 year. the unemployment rate is 5.6%. more than 250,000 jobs were added in that month as gas prices continue their fall. the national average at $2.17 a gallon. let's bring in jared bernstein now. with a welcome to you, my friend, what do you make of these numbers? is there a silver lining here or is there a gray lining here? >> more silver than gray. as you mentioned, the strongest year for job growth in well over a decade almost 3 million jobs added in 2014. on average, we were adding about 250,000 a month which was around september's count. if you go back to the year before, 2013 we were adding about 50,000 less than that per month. so the job market tightening up at a slightly faster clip. however, there's some gray

there, always, this is the economy, nothing's ever perfect. one area -- it's a very important area. i'd call it the key missing piece to this recovery. we still are seeing quite flat wage growth. wages are rising for most people at about the rate of inflation even though inflation is pretty low because of the low gas prices. that's one area where the gas market has not quite reached. >> can there be a successful recovery if -- >> five cents, by the way. >> i thought that's what i side. >> i said 5%. >> we have it out there, five cents an hour. >> right. >> can there be a successful recovery if workers are not seeing the benefit of increased wages? >> it's a great question because i think a lot of our listeners probably hear how can you have a great recovery if it's not reaching middle class and lower income workers? and, frankly, i don't think you can. i think that to have a recovery that's showing up in gdp and in

the stock market and in corporate profits, that's absolutely important and necessary. but if it doesn't reach the broad and middle class, it's not going to feel like much of a recovery. i think as the job market tightens up we should begin to see more pressure on wages coming from workers who have a little bit more bargaining power when the job market is a lot tighter. >> look i'm usually a glass half full girl. but i'm going with the glass half empty about the number of people filing for unemployment. according to bloomberg, the benefits have fallen to the lowest level in more than a decade though retirements have caused part of that decline. and janet yellen has said discouraged workers are flat-out abandoning the workforce, a sign of economic slack. does that fact put a damper on these unemployment numbers? >> absolutely. in december the labor force

participation race which is the measure of what chair yellinen was talking about did dip. any monthly number can be revised but this problem of people leaving the labor force has stabilized in 2014. but it's going to take a tighter job market to start pulling some of those folks back in. and so the direction that we're moving in is a positive one, it's a good one. the job market is clearly improving. but there's still a ways to go. >> jared bernstein, thank you so much. look forward to seeing you again. >> thank you. never have so few people disrupted the lives of so many. that is what one journalist has to say about this week's devastating attacks in and around paris. i'll talk with him next on why he doesn't see much light at the end of this tunnel. mmm mmm mmm mm mmm mm mmmmmm ♪ here we go, here we go here we go. ♪ fifty omaha set hut ♪

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have you heard of the new dialing procedure for for the 415 and 628 area codes? no what is it? starting february 21, 2015 if you have a 415 or 628 number you'll need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number for all calls. okay, but what if i have a 415 number, and i'm calling a 415 number? you'll still need to dial... 1 plus the area code plus the phone number. so when in doubt, dial it out! new developments here. the reports coming in this hour on the whereabouts of hayat boumedien, the common law wife

of one of the paris terror suspects. she was believed to have been inside the paris grocery during friday's attack. however, french media now reports that police sources are saying she actually flew to turkey on january 2nd then crossed over into syria. also the newspaper "le figaro" is reporting that turkish officials report seeing a woman fitting her description traveling into syria on thursday. nbc news has yet to confirm the story. we'll continue to update you as we get news. any hope the devastating sectarian violence of 2014 would end with the new year was stuffed out on the streets of paris this year. in a powerful column today out on politico my next guest writes that now is the time of the assassins and the call for moderate voices is largely going unheard. joining me now is washington bureau chief for al arabian news. i want to read a quote from your piece. you write, the time of the assassins is upon us and the true tragedy of the arab and

muslim world today is that there is no organized legitimate counterforce to oppose these murderers, neither one of governments nor of moderate islam, nor is there any refuge for those who want to escape the assassins. instead. there is only the grim promise of further disintegration. where do you see it going from here? >> we haven't reached the abyss really. if you look at what happened last year in the area that this section from beirut on the mediterranean to the mouth of the persian gulf two words can summarize it, despair and disintegration. these societies are falling apart from north africa to yemen. the nation state is crumbling. no societal forces that are progressive or moderate can stem the advances of these malignant ideologies. i made a point in the article at

politico to say that at the same time the 12 were gunned down in the heart of paris, 38 people were killed in the streets of sanna in yemen. whatever we call it the variety of names of groups we've seen operating in syria and in iraq and pakistan and afghanistan, this is a challenge. and while there are many moderate arabs and muslims obviously who are horrified by the violence in paris, but there is no organized moderate political parties or movement that can really challenge these malignant forces intellectually and politically on a societal level. and every religious institution from saudi arabia to morocco to egypt, because they are not independent, they cannot evan engage in a serious

"theological political religious" debate. >> i want to pick up on the theological point here. you write in the piece that the ain the same is used to defend the atrocities. is this the case of the devil citing scripture for his purposes? >> not really. the problem is many people make the mistake that you understand religion by looking at the religious texts, the sacred text, that's not really religion. religion is the lived experience of the community of the believers. it's those that are doing the interpretation of the religious text. we had the same -- catholicism sent the crusaders to the middle east to butcher people left and right and the same catholicism today. we had the same islam in the 12th century, they had the same

religion, the same text the same koran, the same hadif. but the same economic power of those empires or muslim empires gave them enough self-confidence and security to embrace the world and to produce knowledge and culture. today the arabs are defeated. the muslim countries are on the defensive. they look at the world as if it's passing them by like a modern-day caravan -- >> but i have to ask this question. what drives a group to respond to something as simple as a cartoon with such extreme violence? how can you explain a terror act like this? >> look obviously in islam, depicting prophets or cultures or paintings are prohibited. although in shia islam it's different. there are people who made it their job and their work to

foment any enlightenment. years ago, a city like alexandria, the symbol of cosmopolitanism on the mediterranean, it's a hotbed for reactionary islamists. it's the political culture that perpetuates these negative images and exploit these alienated youth, whether they are in europe or in the middle east or in the world in general. this is the saga within islam. these force will not be defeated by the west. the west can defend itself. but the arabs and the muslims themselves should defeat these malignant forces within their own societies. >> thank you very much. we appreciate your insights. coming your way at the top of the hour a show of solidarity around france as hundreds of thousands march against terror. now an even bigger gathering is

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in vision or hearing. ask your doctor about viagra. . she is the most wanted woman in france and maybe the world. the hunt goes on for her amid fears she could strike at any moment. french authorities calling on hundreds of armed forces to help secure the country. but what can security forces do to stop another attack? more information about the "charlie hebdo" killers is emerging as are questions about how these known jihadists eluded the watchful eye of thors. and the parallels between the terror attack in paris and boston. good day to all of you. welcome to "weekends with alex witt." there are new reports coming in at this hour on the whereabouts of hayat boumedien. she's the common law wife of one

of the paris terror suspects. she was believed to have been inside the paris grocery store during friday's attack. but now french media is reporting police sources say she actually flew to turkey on january 2nd, then crossed over into syria. also "le figaro," the newspaper, reports turkish officials report seeing a woman fitting her description traveling into syria on thursday. we'll continue to update you as we get information. 700,000 people across france are standing in solidarity with the victims of this week's terror attacks in paris. tomorrow leaders from across europe will be among the hundreds of thousands expected to join anti-terror marches throughout france. at least 17 french citizens were killed in the terror attacks. three suspected terrorists are dead dead. attacks began wednesday at the office of the newspaper "charlie hebdo." and late friday police raided a printing factory where the two suspects in wednesday's shootings were holed up. the two were killed in the gun battle with police. also friday an associate of the

suspects took several hostages at a kosher market in paris. he was heavily armed, killed as police raided that shop. four hostages died. police say they were killed by the gunman. nbc's chief foreign correspondent richard engel begins our coverage in paris on a wet, dreary night. getting new reports on the whereabouts of hayat boumedien, that common law wife of one of the paris terror suspects. what are you hearing is the latest? >> reporter: what we are hearing now is what is being reported by the french newspaper "le figaro." it is quoting police sources as saying hayat, the woman who is now being pursued all across france may not be in france any longer, that she left the country a couple of weeks ago before these attacks took place and then traveled to spain, then from spain to istanbul and then according to this newspaper, she

left turkey and crossed into syria, crossing into syria just as her partner, the man who attacked and took hostages at the grocery store, killing, according to french authorities, four hostages as he was carrying out that attack she crossed into syria. we have not been able to confirm these reports. there is one thing that suggests it could be possible. the man -- her partner, had professed his allegiance to isis the islamic radical group based in syria. if she wanted to evade capture, it is possible she could have crossed into syria to join in with isis it would have been a place where it would be hard for any international authorities to come and find her there. there is an absolute chaotic situation, total lawlessness in syria right now. so it would be a place where she could hide. but we haven't been able to

confirm these reports. we have calls in with the turkish authorities. but so far it is just the french newspaper reporting that. >> richard, how much do you get a sense of police presence? is it obvious there? >> reporter: just a moment ago as i was walking up to this camera position i saw two police officers wearing flak jackets, which is not the kind of thing you normally see in paris. that is something just a moment ago. yesterday, all day, i was at the scene of that -- what turned out to be a shootout when french counterterrorism police killed the two brothers and this was in a town not far from here close to the charles de gaulle international airport. and we saw hundreds of heavily armed counterterrorism forces some machine guns flak jackets, many, many police vehicles helicopters. you got a sense that the military mobilized.

in fact france says it mobilized around 80,000 personnel for the manhunt after the attack on "charlie hebdo." so this is a level of security nationwide in france that is unprecedented in recent years. >> i know if serendipitously to this point we've had one live shot from where you are right now where we've not heard police sirens in the distance as we just heard now. so clearly police are on alert for anything as needed. richard, thank you so much as always. >> reporter: absolutely. >> there's also a police presence at the kosher market where four hostages and the gunman were killed yesterday. it's dreary there right now. but taking a look at that grocery store. chapman bell is there. chapman? >> reporter: alex hi, from a rainy evening here in paris where huge amounts of people are still braving the rain to come to this kosher supermarket where

four people were killed in yesterday's hostage situation to pay their respects. the chabot has ended for the jewish people here. and they are coming out for an outpouring of grief for those killed on wednesday and thursday here in paris. security is very tight here. it's been tight across the last few days. but it's even growing here in anticipation for the people. the french officials are taking no chances and are keeping high security here all across paris as they come to terms with these tragic events. alex? >> chapman bell from a very rainy paris, thank you. the united states is warning americans traveling abroad the u.s. state department issued a global warning yesterday in the wake of this week's attacks in france asking citizens to remain vigilant. nbc white house correspondent kristen welker is covering this angle for us.

what other precautions are being taken? >> reporter: alex, president obama has been briefed regularly on the ongoing situation in france but also the security posture here in the united states. we know that federal officials are calling on state and local officials to be on heightened alert. there's also been increased security around french consulates at major cities all across the united states including new york, boston, chicago, atlanta. the secret service stepping up its patrols for a period of time. so there's really a heightened sense of alert although also important to say that there's no known threat against the united states right now. so they haven't increased the terrorist threat level. now, president obama has spent much of this past week on the road, alex rolling out some policies that he's going to announce during his state of the union address. but what has happened in france really dominating discussions here at the white house. president obama paying an unscheduled visit to the french embassy here in washington, d.c. emphasizing that the united states stands shoulder to

shoulder with france a country that the president has called the united states' oldest ally and it's a key ally in the fight against isis. attorney general eric holder will be traveling to paris where he will be a part of talks that are scheduled for tomorrow. those talks will focus on the threat of violent extremism and also these foreign fighters like the ones that we saw in this latest terror attack in france. now, president obama this upcoming week has some more travel scheduled. but undoubtedly what is happening in france and the security situation here in the united states will continue to dominate his attention and the attention of all of the senior administration officials here at the white house. >> thank you very much, kristen welker. the sieges are over but today the hunt in france continues. hayat boumedien still at large, now unconfirmed reports from french media saying she may have left france last week and traveled to syria before yesterday's stand-off. joining me now, international affairs correspondent, michael

kay. with a welcome to you, what do you think, what you're hearing, the possibility that boumedien has been in syria all along? >> i think we should take a cautious approach to what we're hearing at the moment and allow the intelligence communities to do their jobs. one thing that would have happened when coulibaly would have been neutralized, his home will have been sprawled over by the intelligence community. they'll be looking at his computers, looking at cell phones, any form of communication. as we know boumedien was the supposed wife of coulibaly. and therefore i would expect the intelligence community to uncover some form of communication with her and be able to assess what her likely movements might be. but listening to richard's report in paris, the places and the accessibility across europe is something that's been troubling france for a long time. the ability to get from france and travel across europe through

germany, belgium, the borders are very pour rouse which makes trafficking quite easy to do. that will be something the french authorities will be struggling with. >> it appears at this point that the terrorists were a mix of home-grown models and a traditional al qaeda sleeper cell model. talk about that dynamic and how you prevent that from developing. >> well if we just go back a couple of months and look at the occurrences that happened in ottawa, canada then the sydney siege and then something which is quite calm cool and methodical such as what we saw in paris over the last couple of days, what that does is highlights to us that there is a very broad range and broad spectrum of threat. that threat is produced by a very broad level of disenfranchisement, the ability for people and groups in the middle east to spread propaganda over social media, what toxicity is spread by imams in mosques, for example.

what we should be doing is compartmentalizing various issues of what contributes to the way that we're seeing lone wolf threats or more organized hits such as the one that we saw on "charlie hebdo" play out. we shouldn't be treating this with a broad brush. we should be looking at specifics and trying to understand what is creating that disenfranchisement. and that could be a reaction to foreign policy, for example. it could be the fact that maybe we've created a governless state in libya and that allows people like al qaeda or isis to go and exist there and grow there without governance. there's a severe lack of governance in places like syria. boumedien has been able to get across europe go through turkey, through turkey's border into syria, if she's gone there, and it's easy to do that. and she will be protected there

because of the lack of governance governance. it's something we have to be mindful of when looking at how these threats metastasize. >> and thinking about the uk there's a volatile relationship with its fundamentalist muslim community there. i'm curious about how you temper the extremism there. is it offering economic opportunity, is it education? how quickly can that turn around? >> evenings a great point you make. the uk since 2011 have had a strategy called contest. it's a counterterrorism strategy. a pillar of that strategy is what's called protect. it tries to look -- it's not all things to all men and women. but it tries to understand and tries to look how the organic threat can grow from within. so people who have british passports, british citizens how do they become disenfranchised? they want to speak and build relationships with the islamic community, especially within london and birmingham and other places like that. but the same applies to france.

the uk have been talking about apprehending people at the border and taking their passports away if they suspect people are trying to travel to syria. there's also a big debate about people going to syria, realize what they've gotten into is not great and being prevented to come back. and then there's the issue of do you take away their citizenship? the u.n. have a policy where you cannot make someone a stateless person. there are many different laws and regulations right from the united nations all the way down to domestic laws which have to be addressed and considered when we're looking at how to prevent or protect as the uk call it as part of their strategy. but france will find this difficult. france will find this more difficult than the uk. france is a melting pot because france has historical cultural ties into north african and then you have the ease of access going over into syria. france really is a classic example of just how difficult this is to counter. >> much appreciating your insights, michael kay.

>> good to see you, alex. the section of paris where the kouachi brothers lived is described as a land of walking molotov cocktails. we talk about the time bombs of potential terrorists next. [container door opening] ♪ what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. ♪ [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. ♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back.

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again, these new reports coming in on the whereabouts of hayat boumedien, the common law wife of one of the paris terror suspects. she was believed to have been inside the grocery store during friday's attack. but police saying she flew to turkey on january 2nd, then crossed over to syria. "le figaro" report that turkish officials reported a woman fitting her description crossed over into syria on tuesday. but nbc has yet to confirm this story. 700,000 people across france

standing in solidarity with the victims of the attacks. and a large people standing in the rain outside the super market where one of the sieges ended on friday. joining me to talk more about that is yifr dickchristopher dickey in paris. i wanted to talk about your writing of the 19th arrondissement's influence on jihadists. give us a little background, first. this is a highly diverse part of paris, correct? >> yeah very diverse. but it's one of the -- most of the time when we're talking about the kind of young people who are attracted to jihad in france, they live in what you might call the excerpts the housing projects outside the outer edges of the city. but the 19th arrondissement the 19th district, is within the city. but it is the most like those projects. it is a lot of public housing. it is a real mix of halal shops,

kosher shops, african shops and a lot of young men and a lot of unemployment. we started reporting on the jihad express as we called it back then back in 2005 about people going from there to fight in iraq to become martyrs blowing themselves up trying to kill americans. and at that time, one of those people was cherif kouachi. so it's a classic breeding ground for discontent. back then unemployment was 60% among young men. now it's even higher. >> yeah. and you mention a quote from someone who ran a program to help young people in the 19th arrondissement. he said we're all molotov cocktails, we're all time bombs. how volatile is that section of the city? i understand it's densely populated with both mumdzslims and jews. are they at odds there? >> well, they can be.

it is from this kind of environment that we see a lot of the stories of anti-semitism here in france where you have basically immigrant communities of north african muslims and african muslims and immigrant communities of north african jews. and they mix and for a long time lived perfectly happily together. but as you've had the rise of jihadism and the rise of anger about events in the middle east and the rise of unemployment and especially among young arab and african background men, they look for places to turn that anger. and very often they turn it against jewish targets. and that creates a very ugly situation. but that's not unique to the 19th arrondissement. that happens in many many communities around france that fit that profile. for instance sarcel a town on the outskirts of paris. >> when the counterterrorism officials are talking about

keeping their eye on literally hundreds of people they don't necessarily put a name on that but in the wake of these attacks, what percentage of that time or that focus do you think is within the 19th arrondissement? >> i don't know what percentage would be. but it would be high because the original cell that was sending people overseas to fight in jihad, the first really major group that we know of like that in france was, in fact there in the 19th arrondissement. it was started by a janitor who declared himself an imam when he was in his early 20s and impressed the local boys like cherif kouachi with what they thought was his knowledge of the koran. and he persuaded many of them to go fight in iraq. and several of them died there. at least three died fighting there. others were arrested by the

americans there and thrown in jail in abu ghraib. others wound up in jail here in france. and it was -- so we're not talking about a bunch of guys sitting around playing video games saying someday we'd like to go fight jihad. we're talking about an active cell that existed ten years ago. and that created the core for the group that we saw attacking the last few days. >> absolutely sobering to think that they've been around that long and in the midst there of other parisian's. christopher dickey, many thanks as always. i appreciate your insights. the actual goal of this week's attacks in paris may be more disturbing than you think. mitt romney's about-face. he's saying he just might run for president. no. it's called grid iq. the 4:51 is leaving at 4:51. ♪ they cut the power.

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romney told a small group of donors that he's now thinking about a third run saying quote, everybody in here can go tell your friends that i'm considering a run, end quote. so how will this affect the gop field? joining me now, msnbc contributor and executive editor at bluenationreview.com jimmy williams and former spokesperson for president george w. bush mercedes schlapp. mercedes, what caused romney to change his mind? >> i think he has this ideal of himself that he really wants to be president of the united states. so with that being said the sort of idealistic view that's driving his decision he's also looking at the field overall and saying, wait a second maybe i can go up against these guys. the problem is that the field is getting so crowded and governor jeb bush is moving aggressively. and so i don't think that governor romney is just about the let go and be out of the limelight and just give it up to jeb bush.

>> jimmy, romney telling donors he would run a different campaign than he has in the past. what would be different? >> not much other than -- listen, i think mitt romney would be a fabulous candidate for the presidential nomination in 2016 because exactly one year ago, he told "the new york times" -- the quote is oh no, no, no, no, no. that's a quote. i'm not doing that, end quote. i welcome mitt romney into the race for a third time. the last temptation of mitt as buzz feed calls it. i think he would be a welcome addition to the field. >> jimmy, i don't welcome him, okay. >> really? >> i do. but here's my point. my point is this. in that piece that he did with "the new york times" a year ago, he praised chris christie he praised jeb bush, et cetera, et cetera. if he does -- if he gets into this race he's now going to have to take back everything he said about those two men.

and we're going to call him a flip-flopper once again. his time is up. it's hubris. >> there's an abc news/"washington post" poll, mitt romney led the republican field there. romney has 21%. jeb bush, 10%. rand paul 9%. >> but it's not even a clear majority. this field is wide open. this field has yet to be determined. the donors are all -- they're on the sidelines. but i have to tell you, what caused mitt romney to think about this is the fact that jeb bush just launched his pac. he's moving aggressively. he has a veteran fund-raising team and a campaign organization ready to go. with that said there are still other candidates like governor scott walker, carley fiorina -- >> jimmy, it's been said several times that the two leading diop

contenders that could raise the money that it takes to run for the presidency are jeb bush and mitt romney. and that's it. they're the only ones who could get the piles of cash it's going to take. it was three quarters of a billion dollars last time around. >> bush saying he's going to raise $100 million in the first three months of the year, if he does that, that's awesome. but the field is so wide open that that scrounging and clamoring for the money is going to be hard for romney -- romney could self-fund to large degree. but i don't think he wants to do that to his family. this is jub busheb bush's race to lose right now. i want mitt romney to run. >> i don't, jimmy. >> of course you don't. but is he more severely conservative now than he was two years ago? i just don't buy it. >> and the reason you don't want him to run is what, mercedes? >> because mitt romney had a

very difficult time connecting to the average american voter. with the 47%, that damaged his goods. and he's made a lot of mistakes with reaching out to hispanic voters and minority voters. we need someone who is the package. and the republicans at this point don't want to lose 2016. and we just need the candidate that's able to build a broader coalition where you have conservatives, moderates, hispanics, african-american, women. it is critical we find that candidate and make sure that candidate -- >> you just described hillary clinton. i'm glad you're on board. >> oh, come on, jimmy. >> that's a wrap of this one. talk to you later. will the calculation of terror. your mom's got your back. your friends have your back. your dog's definitely got your back. but who's got your back when you need legal help? we do. we're legalzoom, and over the last 10 years we've helped millions of people protect their families and run their businesses.

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. 33 past the hour. welcome back to "weekends with alex witt." we give you a beautiful look at the arc de triomphe, a place notably void of tourists as

reported by christopher dickey. things are trying to get back to normal. this in advance of a huge rally. the unity rally set to take place tomorrow where we find nbc's ron allen joining us from paris right now. ron, with a welcome to you. the search for the fourth suspect, hayat boumedien, any updates to offer on that? >> reporter: no we have been really trying to get to the bottom of these reports from the french media that she is allegedly in syria at this hour. and that she left here a couple of days ago, went to turkey and is now in syria and had a round-trip ticket that has not been used to come back here. so if that is all true -- and we have not independently confirmed that, but certainly has the ring of truth to it -- if it is true it makes sense because she's not been spotted here. there's been a dragnet out for her over the past 48 hours since these attacks. and the culprits in all this are

well-known to authorities. they have talked to their friends, relatives, associates. so seems unlikely that someone so close to the three gunmen who carried out these attacks allegedly would not be able to be found. authorities are deep into these neighborhoods and they also have known the suspects or known of them i should say, for the last ten years, especially the kouachi brothers one of whom was arrested and then jailed. one who traveled to yemen allegedly a few years ago. this is not an unknown entity. police know about them. if they can't find this woman, stands to reason she's gone across the border. alex? >> potentially armed and dangerous there or if she remains in paris. ron allen, thank you very much. we appreciate that from the heart of paris and the 11th arrondissement. my next guest writes this week's terror attacks, that the terrorists' true goal may have been to force a backlash against

france's muslim community and inspire for muslims to join their cause. you see a real strategy here. can you explain it? >> yes, these terrorist groups have a problem of repeat. most people aren't interested in becoming members of a terrorist group, especially in france where only about a third of the heritage muslims are religiously observant. there just isn't very much market for what they're selling. so their strategy -- and we have seen this elsewhere in iraq and syria -- is to strike out at another community in hopes of creating a backlash and then radicalizing the then-oppressed

minority and then they can show up and say, well you're being oppressed, we can save you. >> okay. and the historical precedent for this tactic lies where? >> it's been used by militant groups all through history. some of the leninists in the early 20th century used it. they would try to provoke police crackdowns on workers and leftists and then they would show up and say, we can save you. and al qaeda in mesopotamia in iraq these young men who committed these horrific murders were involved in did this in iraq. they would attack the shiites and get them to take reprisals on the sunnis and then they would pose as defenders of the resulting discriminated-against sunnis. >> juan this strategy assumes a cynical view of the average muslim.

but we have seen in this case broad condemnation even from some of the most conservative muslims. did this attempt fail? >> it depends on how the christian and secular europeans respond to it all. it's entirely possible that the far right national front party in france and its equivalents elsewhere in europe will benefit from these events and then will put in laws and restrictions and discriminatory practices on muslims in europe that will in fact, have a radicalizing effect. so it's very important that european politicians avoid scapegoating the entire muslim european community. >> you end your piece by writing, extremism thrives on other people's extremism and is

inexorably defeated by tolerance. when do we see that defeat? >> in a way, we've seen it over and over again. how communities have dealt with these events have been very important for their future. norway experienced a horrific attack on norwegians who were considered soft on muslims by breivik. and their government dealt with it by prosecuting him as a common criminal refusing to offer him the norwegian civil liberties. if there's an overreaction, then that's the danger. >> professor juan cole, thank you very much for weighing in. appreciate it, sir. coming up tracing the terrorists' path of one of kouachi brothers. the justice who sentenced him to prison talks about the disturbing case next. that's more... shh... i know that's

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people across france today are standing in solidarity with the victims of this week's terror attacks in paris. police estimate more than 20,000 people marched to the seaside in nice. i want to bring in msnbc's ronan farrow who joins us in paris. a huge rally is expected there tomorrow. i understand you have a special guest as well. but take it away and talk about the sense there and the information you're learning. >> reporter: you're exactly right. the situation is still tense here. rallies happening all around the country. around tomorrow, the big one, hundreds of thousands, if not more, taking to the streets here in paris right here to express unity. but that's still revealing a lot of fault lines. we're seeing divisions on the political side ethnic tensions and concerns about security. i want to bring in that guest you mentioned. judge jean louie. he was the judge who charged and

arrested cherif kouachi, one of the two brothers behind the "charlie hebdo" attack. judge, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. right off the top, tell me what your impression of kouachi was? >> at the time he was not a very high-profile figure. he was not very radical. looked like a petty criminal. but he was involved in a very dangerous cell because this cell was intending to carry out a terrorist operation against the u.s. in iraq. >> reporter: did you ever think he could be responsible for something of this magnitude? >> at that time, no. but after that he was in jail and i put him in jail. he was sentenced to three years and in jail he was much more radicalized from prominent figures of al qaeda. >> reporter: the question so many people had was how was he able to carry out this attack given he had this record given that you and others in the justice system knew about him?

>> it's complicated because when he was arrested we don't have any anything to monitor him. we can do it by intelligence not by judicial or law enforcement level because there's no reason to do that. so i think we lost his trace very quickly. we know that probably he was in yemen with his brother and he has been trained in yemen and in contact with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. >> as a former judge and that's a very powerful role in the french justice system. almost like the combination of a u.s. judge and a u.s. prosecutor in one role you dealt with many, many radicalized individuals. you dealt with terrorism -- >> yes. >> reporter: frequently. what does this particular case reveal about how the terrorist threat here in france and elsewhere has changed? >> that's very interesting because there's a change of paradigm.

the islamic sentiments -- they still engage in the fight against the west and engage in terrorist activities. we have new terrorism but we have foreign terrorists who are much more radicalized. >> reporter: how can societies like this safeguard against this new brand of terrorism, these sleeper cells? . >> that's a very comp ated. we have to have more important conversations about what to do. and we have to have more powerful systems to prevent it. >> reporter: we've been hearing sirens throughout this interview and throughout the day. there are a lot of concerns going into this major rally tomorrow. do you think there's enough security? >> yes. i think because i think we have visible policemen but also intelligence mobilized to

detect. we have civilians and policemen in uniforms. i'm quite confident about the security. >> reporter: judge, thank you so much for your time today. a really interesting insight into the inside workings of the french justice system and the challenge they're up against going forward with this new brand of sleeper agents and these lone wolf attacks. >> great interview, ronan. i know you're there on location. i have the advantage of having our nbc hot file access right here. in terms of security for tomorrow there are going to be 24 reserve teams to keep order. there are going to be 150 plain plainclothes officers protecting, roof snipers, 56 motor bike patrols. tube stations will be closed. 2,000 policemen and 1,350 army

personnel. >> reporter: and it's heads of state, alex hundreds of thousands, not just from here in paris but we're hearing coming from all of the neighboring countries. this will be big. >> and u.s. attorney eric holder is there. ronan, thank you so much. people in boston are remembering the victims of the paris attacks in two memorial services. one today, another tomorrow. in a moment a look at the striking similarities between the boston bombers and the "charlie hebdo" attackers. the nissan rogue, with safety shield technologies. the only thing left to fear is your imagination.

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we want to reiterate some details on some key reports that have been coming in for the past hour or so on the whereabouts of the common law wife of one of the paris terror suspects. she was believed to have been inside the paris grocery during friday's attack but now reports are saying she flew to turkey on january 2nd then crossed over to syria. a newspaper reports that turkish officials saw a woman fitting

her description travel into syria on thursday. nbc news has yet to confirm this story. about 700,000 people across france today are standing in solidarity with the victims of this week's terror attacks. what happened in paris this week will no doubt resonate in boston. that's where the trial of tsarnaev just got underway. 1200 potential jurors were called for a series of hearings that will select the jury to decide tsarnaev's fate. there are similarities between this case and the paris attack. a pair of brothers in both cases. at least one brother was already being watched by the intelligence community. i want to bring in boston globe columnist, kevin collin who has been following the torre ror over -- terror overseas. i want to talk about the

similarities with paris. i'm watching what's happening in paris and i'm thinking of watertown. referring to the town where tsarnaev was cornered. do you think a lot of boston residents were chilled by the similarities? >> oh, yeah. obviously, you have two sets of brothers who probably were radically -- their radicalism probably began as virtual radicalism, going online viewing jihadist websites things like that. in both cases, the older brother is said to have traveled to actually meet with jihadis. in the tsarnaev case they traveled and met with jihadists a year before the bombing, and that was the triggering device that something was going to happen. in that case i think there is a key difference. the tsarnaevs seem to be left on their own devices. it was up to them to do what

they were going to do. as you've been reporting today, al qaeda in yemen is taking credit for directing the kouachi brothers which is a significant difference. obviously what you saw, the older kouachi brother traveled to yemen and would have yet with organized jihadis and came back. in both cases, they're lone wolves but they have direction from jihadis. >> we noticed the boston globe did cover the attacks in france on the front page, but down in the bottom corner do you think that reflects where it falls in bos bostonians minds? we're not going to put it front and center? was there an approach thinking we're not going to put it where we put the marathon bombings? >> obviously, if it happened literally in our own backyard that's a different placement. you're talking about journalism and choices made by editors in

conference rooms. i think obviously, it's not just that bostonians recognize what happened in paris this past week, they obviously recognize what happened in madrid years ago. they recognize what happened in london in 2005. my biggest concern, by all accounts there were more than 2,000 people killed buy boko haram in nigeria this week. we don't have all our forces there. we don't have journalists racing to nigeria. it's a little easier racing to paris than nigeria. that raises questions about us, too, the identification that bostonians identify with parisians, but do they identify with people in nigeria who are suffering suffering suffering suffering grieviously right now.

>> pretty horrific in nigeria. before i let you go i want to ask about boston which knows what it's like to have a suspected terrorist on loose in city limits. do you think someone sleeps well as far as this woman is on the run? take me back to what it was like in boston during the man hunt for the tsarnaev brothers. >> one of the key differences, when they took off, we didn't know at the time but obviously there was an armed conflict, a confrontation where they threw explosives at police officers. >> on memorial drive. it was crazy. >> they thought there was a real belief by law enforcement that they would strike again. i would be surprised if the french authorities thought this woman on her own is going to do something. i think she's more of a material witness than she is an actual conspirator in the terms she's going to do something else. the reality is, the french authorities must know when they're in their own suburbs, there are people far more dangerous than her.

>> kevin collin thank you so much for the conversation. look forward to seeing you again. >> than, a -- thanks alex. up next our coverage of the events in paris continue. i look forward to seeing you tomorrow at noon eastern. we test drove it...i was like "this is my car". all-wheel drive is amazing... i felt so secure. you can do it, emmie! ecoboost is when you can take a four cylinder and make it feel like a six cylinder... i was really surprised... i drove the fusion... and i never went back. make the switch to america's favorite brand. check out special offers on ford fusion at ford.com or see your local ford dealer. ♪ i take prilosec otc each morning for my frequent heartburn. because it gives me... zero heartburn! prilosec otc. the number 1 doctor-recommended frequent heartburn medicine for 9 straight years. one pill each morning. 24 hours. zero heartburn.

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what's on your hand? noth-- my wedding ring. [chuckles] symbol of our love and understanding. comparing rates for you. now that's progressive. [ high-pitched ] nailed it! breaking news in the investigation of the france terror siege. it involves the whereabouts of a woman who is believed to be the lone remaining terrorist still alive and on the loose. good afternoon, everyone. thank you for joining us for a special live extended coverage of the situation in france. we begin as france remains on high alert today. we are getting new reports about the woman linked to the terror suspects. the subject of a man hunt. hayat boumediene was believed to be inside the grocery during friday's attack but now sources are saying she flew to turkey on