terrible terrorist now, you know. and you know i don't know -- he was -- i think chris was kind of lost and trying to find direction. he's a mommy's boy, you know. he hangs around with his mommy, his best friend is his kitty cat. >> joining us now with more nbc justice correspondent pete williams. thanks for being with us and federal officials claim they were on to cornell early and didn't pose real danger. how did he come to attention to federal investigators in the first place? >> he started posting twitter messages calling himself rahil and expressed support for the isis terror group. he said there were people overseas that wanted to commit attacks here but couldn't do it and he said maybe people here should do those attacks instead. so shortly after that he ended up meeting somebody in cincinnati that he thought was like minded but who was actually an undercover operative for the

fbi. it all ended officials say when he took another step in the plot going to a shooting range, buying two assault rifles and 600 rounds of ammunition and walked out of the store and fbi tackled him. court documents say he claimed he drew inspiration from anwar al awlaki and isis videos and said the isis people have given a thumb's up for acts of violent jihad but family members say he was pushed into this. that he was coerced and didn't have the money and didn't even have a car. >> it's encouraging, it seems the fbi was on top of the situation. what happens next in this case? >> he'll have a court appearance tomorrow. there's a detention hearing scheduled tomorrow on whether he should remain in custody while trial is pending. the next step will be for a grand jury indictment. there's another hearing scheduled in the following week after that which his defense

lawyer could waive. he has a public defender but no comment from that lawyer. pete williams thanks as always. we'll talk to a senior member of the house foreign affairs committee about all of this in just a moment. we're following breaking news right now out of belgium. here's what we know as of now. belgium public tv says three people are dead in a police counterterrorism raid in the city 90 minutes east of the capital city of brussels. police are expected to hold a press conference at 2:00 p.m. eastern. we'll bring you all of the latest developments. next secretary of state john kerry will be in paris today, he's scheduled to meet with prench officials, including francois hollande. this as new pictures emerge at last friday's attack at the kosher grocery store. the gunman coulibaly is seen with terrified hostages inside that store. you can see the photos right there now on your screen.

joining us live from paris, we have nbc's ron allen. as i mentioned, secretary kerry is in france today. what are we expecting a result from this visit? >> reporter: let me go to the situation in belgium which we're hearing more about. witnesses are saying they heard three or four loud explosions and shots fired. in addition to three people being dead reportedly there are also a number of people arrested. now the significance of that situation to what's been happening here in paris is the suspect amedy coulibaly, there are reports he traveled to belgium in the not too distant past and met with an arms dealer who went to authority after of the situation broke in paris to say he met with coulibaly who wanted to buy weapons. it's unclear whether a transaction took place or not. since that meeting allegedly between the arms dealer and authorities, there have been a number of raids that we've heard about but not been able to confirm a lot of details about

in and around belgium. we expect what's happening there tonight is related to all of that. so that's how all of this ties together if in fact this raid that's happening now and try to hear more about it is in fact related to the alleged attempts by amedy coulibaly to buy weapons used in the attack in paris. there are suggestions he got the weapons from other parts of europe and still trying to track finances for this operation and trying to determine if there are other accomplices involved. we know about his girlfriend his common law wife seen in the videotape in turkey moving into syria with another person. still trying to find out who the other man is and his role in all of this. a lot of attention focused in belgium where there may be a deadly connection to what's happening here in paris. >> we're definitely going to keep following those developments. thank you so much. up in the air aboard the papal

plan, pope francis weigheded in on the "charlie hebdo" cartoons. one cannot make fun of faith and there is a limit of freedom of expression especially when it insults someone's faith. he continues his tour of asia. a messy commute for people in boston this morning as protesters chained themselves to road barriers on the i-93 highway. they were doing it to make a statement about police and violence against black people. this protest was organized by the group black lives matter an took place in at least two locations in the boston area. significant changes to the decades old u.s. sanctions on cuba. the obama administration making it much easier for americans to travel to that island 90 miles south. travelers will still have to fall into one of 12 categories approved by the government but won't need toe apply for special

licenses airlines and travel agents with book flights into and out of cuba. joining us with more we have our chief washington correspondent john harwood, what do we know about the policy change? can we take vacations in cuba legally now? >> that's on the way. we're on the road to that place, not there yet. we don't have commercial flights going between the united states and cuba. but this is the beginning of the deconstruction of this wall that's existed for 50 years as you said. we've got a situation currently where you could go to cuba if you applied for a license and fell into one of these 12 special categories. they haven't eliminated all of that bureaucracy. you still have to attest you fall into one of those categories and you can spend money when you're there and use credit cards and bring stuff back, $400 worth on your trip. all of this is the beginning of the normalization process, the president announced at the end

of last year. >> i have to say cuba right now given the weather on the east coast sounds pretty good john. you mentioned americans allowed to bring back some cuban goods. tell us the details there. >> you can bring back $400 worth of things that you purchased in cuba. $100 of that could be alcohol or tobacco tobacco, cuban cigars are prized and americans can sends four times as much money to cuba to relatives as they can under current policy. this exchange of spending will go both ways. >> john harwood, thank you so much. appreciate it. and today four high ranking secret service officials forced out of their jobs. each with more than 30 years experience. this following numerous security lapses like this one from last october, when a fence jumper with a knife made it deep into the white house. upper management in the secret

service has been essentially gutted. this means six of the eight top leaders will soon be gone. two others recently having resigned. joining us now with more, nbc news white house correspondent kristen welker. what did joseph clancy say about these changes? >> reporter: he essentially said it's time for change. this is a major overhaul at the secret service, krystal, we'll go through who the folks are, four assistant directors named as dale pupelo and jane murphy governor and public affair and mark kapansy, important to point out they are being reassigned to other positions either within the see kretdcret service acting director clancy saying change is necessary to gain a appreciate perspective on how we conduct business. the context here krystal is

that this comes on the heels of a scathing report by an independent panel appointed by the department of homeland security that said the culture within the secret service was troubled. there was a problem with leadership and morale was low. there's bipartisan support for the move announced yesterday by the secret service. we're getting a statement from congressman jason chaffetz who says the secret service needs to act less like a good old boys network and what the american people expect. this comes on the heels of a number of security lapses dating all the way back to 2012. you'll recall that's when a number of agents fired because they were caught with prostitutes in columnombia. and the one you pointed out, unprecedented when the man with a knife was able to jump over the white house fence and make it deep inside the white house.

that led to the resignation of the then secret service director julia julia pearson. my sources telling me there are more changes on the horizon. >> thanks as always. >> thanks. still ahead, the latest on the belgium counterterror action and more on the plot to bomb the u.s. capitol. brad sherman will be here to talk about the reaction from the folks that work there and the dangers of home grown terrorism right here in the u.s. you'll also hear from the two climbers who pushed themselves to the limit and made history. >> it's kind of an emotional roller coaster, you get the full gambit of intense conversations and light hearted fun ones. which is great, you have to have both when you're up there for that long.

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we're back and following breaking news out of belgium where belgium public tv that three have been killed in a counterterrorism operation. we're getting detailed about that and mike is here to help us understand the connection between belgium and the attack on paris. >> we have to understand just how kektded europe is in aability to transverse borders and ship weapons over borders. we do know in the intelligence

has come out post the quts"charlie hebdo" attacks. the weapons were traced back to a source in belgium. what will be happening at the moment. we don't knee definitively that is what the counterterrorism raid was about but the french intelligence communities and belgiums and italians communication and conversations will be happening at a rapid rate post the "charlie hebdo" attacks. wanting to confirm, corroborate intelligence across a number of different organizations to the frefrm to the germans to corroborate intelligence and share intelligence and make sure that anything doesn't drop through the gaps. >> should we expect to see further counter terror across europe? >> what we talk about an actual raid, the blunt end, if you like of the work that the intelligence community does. the intelligence community will

be listening. it will be watching and a lot of what the community does we don't get to hear about. for right and proper reasons, it's about need to know and maintaining that operational security aspect of what the intelligence community are doing. what we will hear about this intelligence to prevent something else happening. they are the bits you hear about. you won't hear about the listening or what they are up to behind the scenes but we'll hear about what that evidence and intelligence leads to in terms of activity. >> michael kay, so much appreciate your expertise on these matters. i want to turn to representative brad sherman of california, also the ranking member on the subcommittee on terrorism nonproliferation and trade. thanks for being with us today. >> good to be with you. >> we're just learning details of this counter terror operation

in belgium. wanted to get your response there to what we know at this point, which is that three have been killed in a counter terror raid may or may not be related to the terror attacks we saw in paris. your reaction sir? >> i doubt it's a complete coincidence. the brothers from france were trying to buy weapons in belgium, a bell belgium arms dealer turned himself in and now we see this raid. these were not complete lone wolf operators. they did have connections. they didn't have weapons they made in their own kitchen. they had money. they had sew fisophisticated weapons and hopefully we'll catch a few involved in the process. >> congressman, i want to turn to the plot disrupted here on the u.s. capitol. what's rur reaction?

>> we have tight security at the capitol for a reason. we shouldn't be surprised that there will be those who mean us harm. and we have that security for a reason. >> and congressman, secretary kerry is in paris meeting with france president francois hollande. are we doing enough to help them root out extremism in their own countries? >> well we're making our intelligence available. obviously the administration has said this, secretary kerry or more prominent official should have been there at the major march in paris. one concern i have about france and other countries in europe their policy is when you go fight with isis or with al qaeda and then you come back they monitor you. the policy in the united states is we arrest you. there's a reason for that. cooperating with and serving as

a soldier in the army of a terrorist organization is a crime. it's international crime and there are at least 200 people in france that if their laws were designed and enforced the way we should and do in the united states, would be not under surveillance but under imprisonment. >> would we be pressuring those allies to change to take a tough look at the laws and changing them to make them closer in alignment with what we do here? >> first we have to push on our own people some of whom wanted to adopt this french model of just monitoring. i don't think the united states has to pressure france to be vigilant on terrorism. there were 3.7 million frenchmen in the streets in various cities, i think the french authorities know what their people want to do. >> turning to another terrorist organization boko haram has a new video praising attacks and

shortly after they torched ten towns in northeastern nigeria, 2,000 people unaccounted for in a week long killing spree. john kerry spoke about those attacks this morning. take a listen. >> the slaughter recently is a crime against humanity. nothing less. it's an enormously horrendous slaughter of innocent people and boko haram continues to present a serious threat. >> congressman, boko haram controls territory the size of switzerland and done horrifying things including using little girls as suicide bombers. are we taking them seriously enough. >> we have a lot of problems around the world, we have to take them all seriously. if we take a next step beyond intelligence sharing and training for the nigerian army,

it would be to deploy drones and other resources. this is a terrible organization and linked with the intel national terrorists who mean to do us harm. i think we cannot deploy major ground forces everywhere in which there are terrible atrocities but we can use our intelligence and some cases our air power. >> brad sherman, thanks so much appreciate your time. >> up next we're going to give you more on the counterterror operation in belgium. we'll have that for you up next.

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tur joins us from london. thanks for being with us what is the latest information you have for us? >> he want to cage everything important to say it is all preliminary and coming from belgian tv. two dead and one seriously injured. this is part of counterterrorism operations going on across belgium in various towns. police enter the building and that there were numerous explosions potentially three explosions and gunfire exchanged. sharp shooters were standing outside ready to take fire. three people were the target of this raid. they say they just had come back from syria and they were under surveillance. it is not clear right now if this is directly related to the attacks of "charlie hebdo." we don't know if this is the potentially the fourth person or more people they had been looking for in connection to those attacks. police sources are telling belgian tv that they do believe they just prevented another

"charlie hebdo" style attack there in belgium. per capita a very small country, they do have the most foreign fighters going to iraq and syria and believe there are 150 of them there right now. it is very high -- very tense situation in that country in terms of surveillance and who they are looking for. we don't have that much information. we do know two people dead one seriously injured and there was another man detained and turned himself in an arms dealer. but they are having a news conference any moment now where we will figure out a little bit more. so far as you've said two dead and one seriously injured. >> katy tur, thank you so much. we'll check back in with you as we get new details. stick with us we'll continue on this breaking story in belgium. stay with us we have republicans flocking to two key gop meetings with talk of 2016 on everyone's mind lots going

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whooo! gimme some! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. whoo! forty-four ladies, that's me! whoo...gonna get some cold cuts today! we're back and we continue to follow breaking news out of belgium where we're receiving reports at this time that two are dead and one seriously injured in a counterterror raid outside of brussels in belgium. i have mike kay here. you have interesting background on extremism in belgium? >> it's not just france that hit the headlines, last year belgium was at the center of a few headlines when it came to sort of terrorism if you like. we heard about the attack on the jewish museum in brussels where up to four people were killed.

that was by an extremist and then september of last year 2014, there was a couple apprehended by the intelligence community and security forces that were coming back from syria. so we've spoken about the nerves of the intelligence communities in europe about the secondary consequences of what happens when jihadists of which there have been 1200 from france alone have gone to syria. what happens when they come back with the training and operational experience. a couple were apprehended in september and they had information allegedly which was planning on plotting a bomb attack on the european commission, which is also housed in belgium as well. like france it's no stranger to this terrorist activity and plan and plotting. as we head earlier on, there's so much information and so much work that goes on behind the scenes that the public don't know about and rightly shouldn't know about.

but there's a a lot going on. resources required more resources required to go into finance these operations and this intelligence. as we've seen the threat is a big one and trying to track 1200 alone who we know about, trying to track those we don't know about and all of the rest of it is very difficult. >> that's a lot of threads in a wide network to trace. mikey kay, thanks so much. we'll stay on top of that breaking story but right now we'll turn to politics at home. it will be hard to find a republican member of congress in washington today because house and senate republicans are gathering in hershey, pennsylvania for a two-day retreat, plotting the next legislative moves and on the west coast members of the republican national committee are meeting in san diego. today the rnc noungsed their dates for the 2016 convention. that's going to be held in cleveland, ohio from july 18th through the 21st. that is the earliest date for the republican convention since

1980, when ronald reagan accepted the party's nomination in detroit. you may have heard of him. joining us now, casey hunt in san diego and in hershey, pennsylvania nbc news capitol hill correspondent luke russert. thanks for being with us guys. >> reporter: nice to see you. >> casey, let me start with you, you mentioned president reagan and romney supporters like to say if he runs a third time there is a precedent for that with ronald reagan. i know mitt is scheduled to speak on friday. what are folks there saying about him potentially entering this race? >> reporter: mitt romney is the talk of the town here at the rnc winter meeting. there were a lot of surprised people who worked for mitt romney campaign last time around and now finding themselves in a little bit of a tough position. many were preparing to sign up with other 2016 hopefuls. unlike last time there are many establishment figures potentially getting into the race to choose from. all of a sudden some people say

they are stuck between a rock and hard place. in many ways the business of this meeting is actually oriented towards fixing what happened in 2012. that later -- earlier convention date that you mentioned is part of that. they view the late convention last time around as part of the reason why romney lost because he ran out of money and couldn't tap into general election funds until very late in the game. that allowed the obama campaign to go up and stay up on the air for months and define him out of the gate. so we'll see what he has to say come on friday night. it's going to be the first public comment since news has broken about how he wants to be president for a third time. i'm picking up on a lot of skepticism. we'll see if he can reverse that in his public remarks. >> luke, you're following republicans in hershey, pennsylvania which you told me yesterday is the sweetest place on earth. >> reporter: look at this krystal -- can you see that? it is a 40-pound chocolate bar.

yeah. >> tell us how other than gigantic candy bars what else is going on there? how is 2016 hanging over the convention there? >> reporter: well i will say the sweet smells of 2016 from a presidential perspective are like chocolate over these republicans and that specifically ted cruz is in here trying to figure out whether he would have support of fellow members. more importantly what they are really working on here is trying to figure out a pathway forward on funding the department of homeland security which runs out of funding on february 7th and rebuke of president obama's executive order regarding immigration. why is that important? yesterday the house passed down a bill that was extremely far right, 26 republicans voted against it saying it went too far. and repealed daca which allowed undocumented db children of undocumented to stay in the united states. what would that mean in the presidential realm of 2016?

mitt romney said self-deport, jeb bush tried to say he wants to be more moderate on the issue. they have to figure out a way to move forward on the issue. so far they have not. i asked john thune, the senator from south dakota whether or not they would move it on the floor. he said the magic number is 60. they are still looking. >> quickly, one person who is not at the retreat is senator rand paul, looking like he will likely run in 2016 as well. he's in new hampshire today. does that matter? >> reporter: well it matter in the sense this was a gathering of house members and senate members trying to get together to figure out a way forward. it's clear that rand paul and also -- and other members who are out there on the presidential trail they are more concerned with that than opposed to governance. the issue rand paul will have amongst his colleagues is his views on national security. there really are too outside the

mainstream for a lot of them to take a bite on krystal. >> bring it back to the candy bar. casey in lovely san diego and luke in delicious hershey, pennsylvania. thank you both. up next we're going to check back in with nbc's katy tur on the belgium counterterror operation. she has new details and we'll talk with evan coleman about a fourth accomplice being sought in the paris terror attack. lots to come. please stick with us. ash back ends here, at the purchase. but there's a new card in town. introducing the citi® double cash card. it lets you earn cash back when you buy and again as you pay. that's cash back twice. it's cash back with a side of cash back. the citi double cash card. the only card that lets you earn cash back twice on every purchase with 1% when you buy and 1% as you pay . with two ways to earn, it makes a lot of other cards seem one-sided.

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we are following breaking news out of belgium. two people dead and one seriously injured in a counterterror police raid that happened in the small town about 90 minutes east of brussels. katy tur is the foreign correspondent for nbc news and joins us with new details. what can you tell us? >> it's still very fluid situation but what we can tell

you is the main tv station rbtf in belgium is reporting the prosecutor's office has confirmed that two people are dead and one is seriously injured as part of a terrorism raid in that town. the town of verviers and reporting that several others have been arrested. we are hearing that eyewitness accounts, people saying that they heard one big explosion followed by a quick succession of gunfire that sounded very much like fireworks. then even more explosions those people told to run and take cover, then to stay inside. right now the police are also saying there were no casualty or injuries with any of the officers involved in the raid. but that's still very preliminary and certainly can change. these three people were apparently under surveillance, having just returned from syria. we're told that there were a number multiple raids going on across belgium at the same time and this one reportedly ended in

deaths and some explosions. now, we don't have this confirmed but we are hearing from sources talking to those belgian tv reporters that the police believe they were able to stop another "charlie hebdo" style attack in this raid. that is unconfirmed right now but they are saying they believe they were able to stop this. it's not confirmed and not so far unclear if this is in connection to the actual attack in paris, the "charlie hebdo" attack and if the people were associated with them or in talks with any of alleged terrorists involved in those attacks. we also know there was a weapons dealer who was arrested today that said he wanted to be in police custody, rather than be out there. he had had dealings with coulibaly, the man who sold him -- the man who sold coulibaly the weapons he used in the supermarket attack. so far just a very fluid

situation. this information is changing as we go but we do believe that two people are dead and one person seriously injured. a number of others detained in belgium tonight. >> thank you so much for that update and also developing in paris right now, french police reportedly looking for a new fourth suspect in connection with those attacks in paris. we're also getting our first look inside what is said to be the weapons cache of coulibaly. you can see the weapons all spread out on what appears to be something like a bed. we want to turn to evan coleman, the terrorism analyst for nbc news. we want to start with your reaction from news coming out of belgium. unconfirmed but some reports that police believe they were able to disrupt a "charlie hebdo" attack. >> these recently came back from syria and despite the fact belgium is a small country, a

specific number of individuals, hundreds of nationals are believed to have traveled to syria to fight with the official branch of isis. belgium has a history of this kind of activity. it's the home of the black widow, the woman famous for marrying suicide bombers, including one of whom was basically the cell leader for the individual who recently killed a bunchoutside of a jewish school. two people are reportedly dead and supposedly there are reports that another individual may be on the loose, may have traveled or gone through a train station yelling religious slogans and carrying a hand gun. this individual is reported to be still on the loose. let's hope that's not the case. but it's bringing back uncomfortable memories of paris and does come into the context of understanding that belgium, like france has had a problem with radicalization of its local

population. >> in that context, are we still in a place where we're concerned about further coordinated attacks directly associated with parsz or are we in a place where we're concerned about copycat attacks? >> i think copycat attacks or attacks incited by what happened in paris are the most likely of what we're looking at. there's no doubt there are a bunch of people that have come back from places like syria and yemen and elsewhere. they may not have a terrorist plot they are engaged in but they can realize they can cause major headline because anything reminiscent of what happened in paris, successful or not, will generate headlines. we have to be careful here. these folks in belgium and verviers, it appears they were heavily armed. that's not typically something you come up with overnight. maybe there was already another plan in place just happened to

coincide coincide. on that point, it's important to note, a number of different cells related to yemen and syria picked up in europe in the past year or so. it's not clear those cells are coordinated with each other. they are all plotting different terrorist attacks. so this could simply be a coincidence in terms of timing. >> evan turning back directly to paris. let's talk about this fourth suspect reportedly being sought. what incite do you have into what the potential role was? >> at this point french policehood anpolice have had an tubtopportunity to go through computers to get a clear picture of who they were in touch with and contact with. aside from phone calls and skype and e-mail that kind of thing, obviously just looking at what happened here there had to have been other people involved in this. the video of lone of mr. coulibaly was edited and uploaded after he was dead. somebody did that and it was somebody who appears to have been in france because it was

not released by the main isis media wing. it was in french language edited in french. it look likes whoever produced it is in france. you could be talking about anyone here from someone who provided weapons or financing for the operation. it could be someone who uploaded this video or the scary part there is still the potential it could be someone who is another cell member. >> thank you so much. always appreciate your insights here. up next we stay on the terror beat. we've got a fascinating look behind the rise of isis mikey kay is back and joins us with his chilling interview with a radical cleric about the strength of isis and that group's access to chemical weapons. stay with us. please, please, please, please, please. [ male announcer ] the wish we wish above all...is health. so we quit selling cigarettes in our cvs pharmacies. expanded minuteclinic for walk-in medical care. and created programs that encourage people to take their medications regularly. introducing cvs health. a new purpose.

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despite hundreds of u.s.-led air strikes in syria isis controls at least one-third of that country's territory

according to a new report in the daily beast. we want to take a look back on how isis became threatening so quickly. mikey travelled and spoke with radical cleric. what did you learn there? >> the emergence of isis has taken syria and iraq by storm. many say by surprise but what got me was just how quickly they emerged in terms of what made isis such a potent threat. it's easy to answer. what came across in this piece that i reported it has been a long time in the making. when we hear obama talking about how the intelligence community led by clapper was taken by surprise that's quite a phenomenal statement because having spoken to this radical cleric they have been planning this for a couple of years. >> let's take a look at what you

found. >> reporter: in october 2013 i travelled to tripoli, lebanon's second largest city about a four hour drive north of the capitol. for decades this city has been a hot bed for violence. with gun fire being a daily occurrence. one of tripoli's notorious residents is a well-known cleric who fled in 2005. he is despised by many in the west and infamous for describing the 9/11 bombers as the magnificent 19. >> may god accept him as a martyr and declared al qaeda. al qaeda decided -- islamic groups decided to have the state of islam in iraq. al qaeda gets dismissed so they

left everything and he continues to fight. >> in iraq? >> al qaeda went to north africa to somalia and even latin america. >> reporter: the number of jihadists entering syria from the region and beyond is increasing at an alarming rate. >> the good thing about it i could admit there is those who are not syrian. >> reporter: the complete void of security in syria is troubling on many fronts. recent reports from fighting in the border town suggests that isis militants may have access to chemical weapons. >> people are focusing on syria. if syria breaks through there would be a lot of change. obama worried about the chemical weapons not to be in the hands

of islamists because if they get it they will never hesitate to use it. >> reporter: isis has recruited some 700 suicide bombers around the world which is added to a list that the leadership pulls from. >> from italy, france australia, some from somalia. they have come even from afghanistan. >> now it's important to note that that piece was filmed at the end of 2013. he was arrested by lebanese authorities last may and faces charges that include encouraging terror acts and insighting hatred against the lebanese army. if convicted he could face the death penalty. >> that moment when he turns to the camera after he says islamists wouldn't hesitate to use chemical weapons is absolutely chilling. you interviewed him in 2013. as we look at what is happening in belgium and paris how

influential is he among jihaddests? >> he is less influential now that he is arrested. he was arrested. that is an important conversation about religious intolerance. the one thing i want to address is he said there was 35,000 foreign fighters. he has inflathed that figure. we estimate about 15,000. what was illuminating was the fact that isis set up offices around europe two years ago from now which was a purpose of recruiting self-sacrificing people, people who wanted to give their lives for this movement. that is people from denmark, france italy and all over europe. it has been a long time in the planning. that was the thing that struck home with me is how it took intelligence communities by surprise. >> it is a remarkable piece. it is chilling fascinating stuff. mikey kay thank you so much.

that wraps it up for this edition. ronan will be back tomorrow from the operation hope global forum in atlanta. please join me at 3:00 eastern today for the cycle. it is time for "the reid report." what do you have coming up today? we will see you in an hour. coming up next on "the reid report" we will continue to follow the breaking news on the terror raid in belgium. we will have a live update from the authorities at the top of the hour. the government relaxes more cuban sanctions. "the reid report" starts next.

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katie tur is monitoring developments. what do we know? >> it is a very fluid situation. we know the main belgium broadcaster is reporting that the prosecutor's office is saying two are dead and one person is seriously injured on a raid of a suspected terrorist cell in the town of verviers. we are hearing at least one other person was arrested as many as 12 potentially arrested. this is part of a number of raids across belgium for people that they had been under surveillance from just returning from syria. these three people that were directly involved in this say they were under surveillance and do believe they just returned from syria. witnesses are reported they heard one explosion followed by a rapid succession of gun fire. more explosions potentially three or four more explosions and then were told to run and take cover and stay