with a car, thar say they're saying it was a black jeep cherokee that was stopped on the tracks. there are also at least 12 injuries from the crash. 400 customers were taking to a rock climbing gym for shelter. rachel maddow now taking over the coverage. >> we have unexpected and good news out of alabama tonight, a lot of news a busy show we will get to all of it. as chris mentioned there we have legitimately breaking news tonight, upsetting news from the town of valhalla new york. one of the new york city area rail systems is called metro north, just after 7:00 eastern

tonight, a commuter train carrying hundreds of passengers struck a suv that was stopped on the tracks. transit officials say that six people have been killed in this crash, the driver of the suv and apparent apparently five pass jr.sengers on that commuter train. there are reports of at least ten injuries. the mta press release saying there are at least 12 injuries. there is some ambiguity for the number of injuries and the nature of the injuries. three people have been brought to west chester medical center tonight with injuries that are, quote, very serious. the confirmed death toll at this point is six. what we were told by mta is that one of the six confirmed mtas

was the driver of the suv, and she was outside of the car at the time of the car. officials have stop pdped service on that line between white plains and pleasantville. they also closed a highway near by. this is a very busy crowded commuter train going north out of new york city and an suv near vahalla new york. multiple injuries and the total number and nature of the injuries are unknown. six confirmed fatalityiesfatalities. joining us now is gust rosendeal rosendale. what is the latest about why in crash may have happened. >> i was talking to some of the passengers on board. there was about 400 on the train. one man said he was in one of the last cars and he said he felt a slight bump and didn't realize how serious the situation was until he got out

of the train. one man was about four cars back and he said quickly smoke started to fill the train, and these 400 passengers were on their own, they had to self evacuate. they had to essentially smash the glass to get out to escape what was happening there. the fire i think you're looking at some of the images seems to have started a little after the initial crash when the train ran into the cherokee and pushed it back. so there was some delay before the flames started to consume the first car. as far as a cause, the arms that come down across were down so whether this was a case of a car stalling or getting caught on the tracks is all speculation at this point. the one note that is interesting here is the woman who was said to be driving that car was apparently outside of the car when the train finally hit,

so -- >> and gus, we're told that they, as you mentioned, that the train upon hitting that car moved it ten train cars length a very long distance that would imply this crash happened at least at some considerable speed. do we know if there was any other people in the suv other than the drive that exited the vehicle at the time of the crash. >> we have not heard any reports of that. >> in terms of the passengers and their reaction it sounds like what you heard from passengers that survived that they didn't have much communication in terms of what to do but they took it upon themselves to kick out emergency class glass and windows to get out? >> according to the one person i heard here there was a short announcement saying there was an issue, and there was no follow up. there was no extended

instructions on what to do. so what we're hearing from passengers here is it was on their own to get out of the train. and you are dealing with severe weather conditions here and they were brought to a local gym to be reunited with their families at this point. they described it as orderly and not chaotic. there was concern when smoke spread and when you heard an explosion. but the train out of grand central, you know that is packed, there was quite a number of people standing when this happened, and it sounds like they conducted themselves in an orderly way for what could have been a ka yachtchaotic and worse situation. >> thank you, gus, i appreciate it. joining us now is a passenger who was on this train, neil

rater, can you tell me where you are right now and where you were when the crash happened? >> sure you may lose me because my battery is very low. i was in the middle to the back of the train. we did not field as much of a jolt as the folks in front. we evacuated. right now i'm on a bus, we were rate waiting on a place called the cliffs and now we're being taken to a train station. >> you said you didn't feel that much in terms of the collision, were you able to tell at that point what had happened? did you have instruction in terms of what to do and what the train had just collided with? no there was ten seconds or so that we were wondering what happened. we were waiting and it basically

stopped. there was a quick announcement, and then it sounded like they tried to make a another few announcements but nothing came out of the speakers so probably a good i would say three or four minutes went by until a conductor came running through the train, looked like he was coming from the back to the front. and then probably another four or five minutes later he came back and that is when people started evacuating. >> mr. radar, i don't want you to speculate on something you don't know about, but i will ask you in case you do know. we're told that five people on the train were killed in this crash, do you have any sense from what you saw or what you experienced as to whether or not those fatalities were just because of the force of the collision, or was there a fire or explosion or something else immediately after the crash that might have explained that? >> it would be speculation, but from where we are, there was no one injured, but as we were evacuating i looked north and

you could see the smoke and that something major had happened. i don't want to speculate, but i would guess it was the folks in the front car, or the front two cars and the cars that were on the tracks. >> i don't know if you ride this particular train frequently, but whether you have in the past or tonight, was it crowded, was it pretty packed tonight? >> yeah i think this train-- take this train pretty often. it was pretty crowded. nearly every seat was filled. i don't recall that there were people standing in our car, but there may have been one or two, but it was pretty crowded. >> neil radar, i know this is a traumatic experience. thank you for telling us what you went through. good night, sir. >> neil radar, one of the

passengers on this train tonight that collided with an suv just north of new york city. we got the initial reports of a car/train collision. there was an audible gasp throughout our news room when the word that this car train collision happened and six confirmed fatalities so far and multiple serious injuries on top of that again, we don't have a firm number 12 injuries by the mta. nbc reporing that some of those injuries were considered very serious injuries. we're hoping and praying that the death toll does not rise tonight, but this accident as we're told about 30 miles north of new york city a crowded commuter train, an suv on the tracks. the arms were down indicating there should not be someone crossing the tracks. the female driver of that suv was outside of the vehicle when

the train collided with her vehicle. she, we're told was killed as were five people on that train. people self evacuated. some patients were take ton a near by medical center. we're told with serious injuries but the passenger we just spoke with said they were evacuated to "thea place called the cliffs. kid: do you pay him? dad: of course. kid: how much? dad: i don't know exactly. kid: what if you're not happy? does he have to pay you back? dad: nope. kid: why not? dad: it doesn't work that way. kid: why not? vo: are you asking enough questions about the way your wealth is managed? wealth management at charles schwab

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people that carry out suicide bombings don't end up in prison. say what you will about being a suicide bomber but they don't have to worry about getting arrested, or going to prison or anything else that might happen next here on earth. when you do get a suicide bomber put on trial and put in prison what that means is they did it wrong. as to the suicide part of the suicide bomber job description. they failed. that is the case for this failure. she is an iraqi woman, she was married, she and her husband had

close ties to al qaeda in new york city. her brother was a top confident of the founder of al qaeda in iraq. he was killed in 2006 in an air strike. before he died in late 2005 he orchestrated a bombing that had international shock waves. he lead this attack and he was jordanian by birth. he decided to exchange he is reach beyond iraq to attack his native country. they sent iraqi suicide bombers into the cosmopolitan capital city of jordan. and those suicide bombers set off three nearly simultaneous bombs. when nbc broke into it's regular

coverage that day, the shocking bombings in jordan part of what was so shocking about it for an american audience is the familiarity of the names of the places those suicide bombers blew up that day in jordan. this is an nbc news special report. here is brian williams. >> good day from new york. we're coming on the air to report apparently a violence series of bombings in aman jordan within the past hour. three different hotels home to usually a lot of tourists a lot of westerners military contractors, what have you, the hyatt regencs, the days in. >> that was november 9th 2005. in terms of who was responsible for that attack two days after

the bombing on november 11th authorities announced they had identified the bodies of these suicide attackers. one from each of the three hotels that was bombed. weirdly, though at the same time al qaeda in iraq claimed responsibility for those bombings, but they put out a list of four suicide bombers they said were sent to attack those hotels. they put out four names, not three. three did succeed. they were dead. they detonated one bomb at each of three hotels. in total they killed 57 people. all iraqi men. the fourth name on that list that al qaeda and iraq put out when they claims responsibility the fourth bomber was a woman. she apparently planned to take part with her husband in the

bombing of the radisson hotel. it killed 27 members of one wedding party. once they were in that hotel, she either lost her nerve, or her bomb didn't explode. after jordanian police arrested her, they broadcast this spooky tape of her wearing a version of an explosive vest showing how she hid it under her clothes and confessing how she planned to set it off. she is a failure as a suicide bomber. she a wannabe failed suicide bomber. she is now the only woman on death row in that country. now she is not somebody who has become a widespread celeb in the terrorist world. some prisoners honestly are, the blind sheikh or the i.t. student.

this iraqi woman, who failed in her part she has not been a very high profile figure in the terrorist world. but that bombing of those hotels in jordon was probably the most murderous attack that al qaeda and iraq ever carried out. her brother was a top leader in al-qaeda in iraq, and al qaeda in iraq has since morphed into this group. so because of that background, it was a surprise but not inexplicable when isis decided they were going to elevate this woman in this prison. they were going to elevate her from obscurity just within the last couple weeks when they demanded her freedom in jordan in exchange for the life of two japanese hostages held by isis and a 26-year-old air force pilot shot down on his f-16 on

christmas receive in 2014 and was held by isis ever since. there had been reports that jordan was willing to trade her, that failed suicide bomber, that iraqi woman in order to get their own buy lot back out of isis custody. nbc news says jordan would have traded her, but two other al qaeda prisoners they also had. three terrorists, all on death row, they were ready to trade all three of them to isis in exchange for isis returning that air force pilot. but then after last week isis uploaded a video of the death of the first japanese hostage, and then they uploaded another video of the second japanese hostage, today they uploaded another vehicle that purports to show the death of that pilot.

it shows they killed him not by be heading or gunfire the way they have killed other hostages but the video today appears to show they killed this young pilot by burning him alive while he was trapped in a cage. whether or not the government of jordan had expected to be able to trade that iraqi woman, and those two other al qaeda prisoners to isis in exchange for that pilot, whether they thought that was a real plan or not, no such exchange was made. now jordanian authorities say they made a request to the king of jordan that jordan be allowed to retaliate against isis for the death of their pilot by executing those three prisoners in jordan the ones they offered to swap for him. can jordan kill those three al qaeda prisoners?

nbc news reporting tonight that intelligent sources in jordan say that request has been made to the king. king abdullah of jordan is a very close ally of the united states. not just his state, but him personally. he went to high school in massachusetts. he was captain of the wrestling team. he formed kings academy in jordan models on his experience at deerfield. when the video was posted he was in the united states as he frequently is. but after the purported execution video was uploaded showing this jordanian pilot, the king would be cutting short his visit and going home to manage his situation but not before taking one last individual meeting in the oval office tonight, him and president obama. after this meeting, the king

will reportedly be going straight back to jordan which by all accounts is in a uproar over this murder. the propaganda video that isis put out today apparently showing this murder was very long. more than 20 minutes long. and the murder itself was embedded in this larger argument that the propaganda argument made that jordan is wrong. so isis is trying to use this shock, torturous murder of this pilot as propaganda specifically as a way of turning the jordanian people to participate in this decision. the government is banking that this murder of this pilot will have the exact opposite effect on jordanian public opinion. look at this from the official government spokesperson? jordan. for anyone that doubted the

savagery this is the truth. those that doubted the junety of the jordanians in the face of this even we will show it them the broof. he who doubts that it will be decisive shaking, and strong the proof will come to them. that statement today from the official spokesman from the jordanian government. the jordanian king is on his way home. meanwhile that international military campaign against isis continues including with more jordanian pilots. they're participating in bombing targets in syria, not iraq. that has been the decision in most of the countries involved in this coalition. today want pentagon announced nine new air strikes in iraq. the united states was first in in this campaign under president obama's orders.

incredibly -- i find this in incredible, the u.s. government has still not weighs in on this military action that we started in august. they still have not formally weighed in on this or debated what we're doing to isis. there has been no move to authorize that campaign of air strikes or debate it beyond the committee level. tomorrow president obama's nominee to be the new secretary of defense, ash carter he will have the first round of his confirmation hearingings and that may be a venue to discuss or nation's military strategy against isis. this ongoing war that we never debated or voted on it. maybe the ash carter confirmation hearing wills be a chance to consider our military strategy against isis. our relationship with our allies in fighting isis. the risk to american pilots and

personnel, carrying out the air strikes and whether it is worth it if that mission is working. maybe it will be an occasion to discuss that. maybe it won't come up we have snot focused on it as a country. meanwhile we know that isis continues to hold at least one plern hostage, oo young woman who is 26 years old. we know that isis claims to be holding multiple other foreign national civilians, and they have decided that beheading is not shocking enough not provoking enough does not upset people any more. in had the last few weeks we have seen them move from beheading fridayprisoners to this video. where they had a child, himself, carry out the execution of adult prisoners. and now they're trying to up the terror level even further with this video showing this young

pie let set on fire while he was still alive, in a capable, unable to get away from the flames. we're absorbing this as news as it is happening in this country, but we're having no political debate about this in this country. our decision making capacity in this country about how to respond to something like this is stunted. if you're having a binding debate, that makes you come up with good arguments for what you're doing. the need for good arguments is how you get to good decisions. and in the absence of that former political debate in this country, which unbelievably we're still not having, we're sort of left as civilians, regular citizens and observers to try to figure out what makes sense to do here. what is isis's strategy here. what are our hopes for preventing them from achieving their goals, and is what we're doing already making any sense? tonight we await news from jordan to find out what that

country's response will be. what that country's king's response will be to this latest provocation. that ins, tonight, waiting for news from a jordanian prison about whether that country decided to execute three prisoners in retaliation for isis's murderous boast. we await that news right now. joining us now from istanbul is richard engel, thank you for being here. >> it's a pleasure. >> one of the unknowns here is the timing of the death of this young pilot. it was interesting to see your report tonight on nightly news that jordan believes the apparent killing in this video might not have been right now, might not have been recent do we know myiy -- any more about that? >> there was reports

circumstantially, he was taken captive by isis. there was initial reports on the third and the sixth and the eighth of january all coming from jordanian media is siting sources, saying that he had already been killed. there was reports on twitter in early january, the first week in january, that activists were tweeting that the pilot had been killed and that he was killed by burning. i think that most believe he was killed in early january. one of the key things that jordan was insisting upon to make this prisoner swap for that woman, is that jordan was insisting on proof of life and they said we'll hand over this woman and we'll hand over two

other al qaeda militants but it we want proof of life and it was never forth coming. now that the video has been broadcast, i think they're even more convinced that it was filmed shortly after he was captured. also, i have seen the video, i would not recommend anyone watching it and the internet has been pretty scrubbed of the video, it is quite hard to find now which is a good thing. when he was initially captured, he was drabgged out of a body of water, and he had a bruise under one of his eyes and black eyes last a long time but in this execution video, he had the same bruise under the same eye. that would indicate the video was taken not long after he was captured. >> some of those timing issues and the question of whether or

not jordan was trying to negotiate a prisoner swap knowing he potentially had already been killed. saying they would be willing to trade these prisoners, do you have any news or insight into this decision about whether or not they're going to kill those three prisoners as basically retaliation retaliation? >> i have been told it is not three, it is six, it could take place in a few hours, it could take place after the early morning prayers across jordan and the islamic world. so that would be well just around sun up which in this part of the world comes in about three hours from now. whether they actually go through with them we will see, but jordan seems quite intent to do it carry out the executions of

the six individuals. >> from what you understand about isis and how they tick where they came from what they're goals are, what do you think the impact would be if jordan goes ahead with that decision. it would be dramatic understandable, but how do you think it would resonate? >> i think in jordan it will resonate well. there are a lot of people tonight demanding action and justice. you nengsmentioned earlier imagine if this was an american pilot, what the reaction would be in the united states. so i think the king is playing to his tribal audience. the population in the town where this young pilot -- there was some atackles after the video emerges on government buildings. so there was an angry reaction among the pilots relatives and

extended family. that is something that the jordanian king is concerned about. he doesn't want to look like he was off to washington while one of his pilot was facing the worst death imaginable. >> thank you, richard engel, it's good to have you here, thank you. sobering stuff, but i think it is important new development that richard just reported here that according to his sources, he is hearing that it is not necessarily that jordan is considering executing the one al qaeda prison we were told. they were thinking about swapping for their pilot who isis has killed. it might be that they were thinking about executing her and two other prisoners on death row in jordan.

what richard is reporting is that the plan may be six fridayers, the female suicide bomber, who they publicly said they were willing to swap for that pilot, and five other al qaeda militants in custody. we will know more as the night progresses progresses, stay with us. y one network is america's largest and most reliable 4g lte network: verizon. with xlte, our 4g lte bandwidth has doubled in over 400 cities. and now, save without settling. get 2 lines with 10gb of data for just $110... ...or four lines for just $140. and get a $150 bill credit for each smartphone you switch. hurry! offers end february 4th. only on verizon.

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door right there, that is 11 downing street. it is equivalent to the treasury secretary. inside the chancellor was meeting with new jersey governor chris christie. he was supposed to walk out that door with the 11 on it and deliver brief remarks to the press. that is why there was a bank of microphones there. they all come out, they shake hands for the cameras, exchange a few pleasantries about when then watch what chris christie does. and now the microphones -- wait

hold -- wait -- but! governor christie makes a b-line in the other direction away from the cameras and the reporters as they shouted questions toward him and he walked away pretending he could not hear. he was supposed to make brief remarks to the media but he decided to bag it and go for a walk. then this was the scene a few hours later when he took a tour of shakespeares global theater. >> governor would you put troops on the ground to fight ie tis. >> no questions today. >> is there a reason you won't answer questions today many. >> he dodged the press on three separate occasions today. three press availed listed on his london schedule and he bailed on all of them.

his office saying they changed their mind. the whole point of this trip to brit season to get it covered by the press. yesterday on this junket he became the biggest story in american politics in a bad when when he suggested it was a parent's choice whether or not they should vaccinate their kids saying it was a individual choice. a measles outbreak that breaks out as disneyland. his office walked back his vaccine comments and did not make any further comments on the suggest today. he asoided makevoided making a comment about anything today. but the conversation he regrets starting has gone off in a hard to believe direction starting with this fellow 2016 presidential hopeful senator

rand paul. she a doctor. >> i heard of many tragic cases of walking talking normal children that wound up with mental disorders after vaccines. >> today rand paul tried to take that back by saying he never said that thing he said. the statement today "i did not say vaccines caused disorder just that they were temperature por -- temporally related. he then posted pictures of himself getting a vaccination today. i wasn't saying anything at all about vaccines you crazy liberal media. but the rand paul and chris christie vaccine denialism stuff that happened yesterday has now caused, today, what apparently will be the first litmus test moment of 2016 presidential

campaign. watch this. this was the scene earlier today when marco rubio emerged from a senate hearing on cuba not on vaccines. >> should children be vaccinated for measles? >> yes, absolutely. >> should it be mandatory. >> yes, unless they're immune suppressed, but i believe all children, as is the law in most states in this country, before they can attend school they have to be vaccinated. there is no medical science or data whatsoever that links to vaccinations to an onset of autism or anything whatsoever. >> notice how he is looking right at the camera while he is saying this? use this in an ad use this in an ad. should kids get their vaccinations is now a legitimate and interesting question to ask republican politicians. before chris christie and rand

paul jumped into the deep end yesterday, i'm not sure we knew this would billion a hard question. now in 205, republican politicians have to prove they understand that stuff. some of the most high profile among them done. today it went like this. >> do you believe that parents should be required to vaccinate their children under law, and is this something that congress should step in on? >> i don't know that we need another law, but i do believe that all children ought to be vaccinated. >> the top republican in congress house speaker john boehner holding his weekly press conference today. that was the first question he got and it was also then the second question. bobby jindal today, without being asked, put out his own statement on the subject saying he supports kids getting their vaccinations. it is sort of astonishing this is a question in main stream

politics, but this is now a question in main stream politics. marco rubio, bobby jindal planting flags on yet, get your shots today. ted cruz said it is a state's rights issue. carly fiorina said it's not such a big thing. i can't believe this is a topic of conversation among mainstream politicians. they call it planning for retirement because getting there requires exactly that. a plan for what you want your future to look like. for more than 145 years, pacific life has been providing solutions to help individuals like you achieve long-term financial security. bring your vision for the future to life with pacific life. talk to a financial advisor to help build and protect

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>> absolutely? >> definitely. >> that was absolutely. >> dr. anthony fousi is the director of infectious diseases at if nih. that was him testifying today in the house. with other leading medical experts about this newly controversial issue of vaccines that should never be controversial at all. he's our top expert on infectious diseases and joins us tonight. thank you for taking time to be with us tonight. >> good to be with you. >> you obviously come at this not from a political perspective but a scientific perspective. i have to ask if you are worried about the scientific and public health consequences of this becoming a politically controversial issue. >> well, i certainly hope that it doesn't, rachel because this is something that is a scientific public health issue. we have this outbreak currently. this is not something that we

should take rightly. measles can be a serious disease, and it's really unfortunate when you have a highly contagious infectious disease, a highly effective vaccine, with really a very safe vaccine, and yet children are not being vaccinated. it does not make any sense. i've heard people say measles is a relatively mild disease. you can have serious complications, middle airear infections pneumonia even death. with children not being vaccinated, we're seeing the outbreak. >> because of idealogical leanings and political restraints, the argument that we are hearing now from some national leaders, or at least

want-to-be national leaders is vaccines are a good thing but they ought to be voluntary, that each parent ought to make their own case and the government shouldn't prescribe this. why is it important that these things shouldn't be just an individual family's individual decision? >> for two very important reasons. first of all it's for the protection of the child, the individual child. but also we have a communal and societal responsibility to protect society. and when you do vaccines in which certain members of society, such as babies who are less than 12 months old, children who have underlying conditions like leukemia, people on chemo therapy, they can't get vaccinated. so in our mind as a public health official and infectious disease physician, i believe we have a responsibility to society to protect those children by making sure we don't have outbreaks. and you make sure by essentially

vaccinating every child that can be vaccinated. that's pure simple public health principles. >> there's a segment of the population that think that they shouldn't get these vaccinations for their kids. i don't believe they're bad people, by and large. but their theories about vaccines are as you say, turning out to be a bad problem for public health. what do you say to those folks? how do you explain it to people who have fear about these things, even though those fears aren't scientifically proven. >> we try to get them the scientific and evidence based information as to why the reason that they may have a problem with vaccine is not a valid reason. one of the most glaring examples is years ago, a claim that has been discredited that measles vaccine is associated with autism. and a lot of mothers understandably and fathers were frightened by that.

since then it's been clear that that was fraudulent data and discredited. yet there's still that lingering feeling, unrealistically and not based on scientific data. so what we try to do is to make sure people when they do make their individual decisions, they make it on a real solid, scientific data. and when people do that it will be obvious that they really should vaccinate their children. >> dr. anthony fousi, our nation's leading expect on infectious diseases, i know your time is valuable. thank you for being here tonight. >> good to be with you. >> we'll be right back. stay with us.

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