good morning, everyone. i'm alex witt with msnbc's continuing coverage of the attacks in paris. francois hollande said at least 127 people are dead in attacks across that city and he said they were planned and were carried out by members of the islamic state. >> what happened yesterday in paris and suddenly near the stadium of france was an act of war.

in a situation of war, the country must make adequate decisions. it's an act of war that was committed by a terrorist army, isis, and an army of jihadists against france. >> most of the dead were killed in the city's bataclan theater that's where dozens of hostages were held and then killed one by one by attackers. now, at least two explosions were heard outside of paris, the soccer stadium, the stade de france, and shootings took place elsewhere in the city. our president, president obama, said the u.s. stands with france in the fight against terror. >> this is heart breaking situation and obviously those of us here in the united states know what its like. we have gone through these kind of episodes ourselves, and whenever these kind of about thes happened we have -- these

kind of attacks have attacked, we have been able to count on france. they have been an extraordinary counterterrorism partner and we intend to be there with them in that same fashion. >> now, the french newspapers this morning are out with the grim details of last night's carnage. french authorities are trying to figure out if these coordinated attacks were carried out by french citizens like the "charlie hebdo" attacks last january or if they were foreign attackers. here's what we know about the attacks. first one happened outside of paris' soccer stadium. next reports of gun fire at four restaurants where people reported that the gunmen left their cars, shot people outside who were dining outside on terraces. then moved methodically inside those restaurants. shooting and spraying gunfire around the restaurants before getting back into their vehicles and driving way. the specific numbers of dead in those shootings is still not

clear. then the largest attack of the night, gunmen enter the bataclan theater. they shot people while holding others hostage. the gunmen at that venue killed more than 100 people and injured dozens more. it was a packed house for that performance last night. let's bring in nbc's keir simmons in paris. what are you hearing there outside the bataclan theater? >> reporter: well, alex, i'm standing along the street from the bataclan theater, where one of the shooters after his bloody rampage blew himself up. we believe many of the attackers wearing suicide vests. the bataclan music hall is down the street here, and the stories we are hearing from inside there, alex, are just so, so distressing. one man describing seeing a group of men come in and almost immediately begin firing. he describes them as calm.

one of them he saw his face, he was in his 20s. maybe early 20s. this witness didn't hear them say anything. he says all he heard were the screams and shouts of people lying on the ground as these shooters methodically went about shooting person after person inside what is a pretty small music hall. there isn't very much space. this particular witness, he says this went on for ten or 15 minutes. that the shooters reloaded maybe three or four times and it was during one moment when they reloaded that he managed to find an escape and get out on to the street. there he says he saw 20 bodies. he found a teenage girl, he got her, carried her to a taxi and said to the cab driver, just get this girl to a hospital. and then, alex, he starts to get texts from his friends who are still inside the music hall saying we're in here, we're hiding in the dark. we can still hear gunshots. there was on social media people

saying that they were inside. desperately asking for help as the shooters went about killing one person after another. there are reports they used to grenades to throw at people who had now become their hostages. further down the -- along the street in that direction, alex, are a restaurant and a bar where we believe a different group, but it may have been the same men. it was chaos last night. it is still confused. we believe this group went into each of these premises and opened fire. again, the description is of cool, calm, collected attackers who clearly knew what they had planned to do, carrying ak-47s. deliberately shooting people. people who had just been there for a night out. one of the restaurants, it was

packed, fired and fired again and walked away in cold blood to carry out another attack. >> you make some good points there. i want to go through some of them. we do not know if the reported two two attackers that went into the petit cambodge or the other one down the street from the bataclan concert hall, we don't know if they joined others inside the bataclan concert hall. there are two or four attackers inside the hall. so that's possible. i want to take issue with what you said and see if you can piece it together. you talk about someone -- the man who reported seeing bodies outside the concert hall. 20 bodies or so by his account. i'm curious, i had not heard

anything yet that there was an attack outside the concert hall. 20 bodies outside -- >> reporter: right. so what he says he saw, he says they were lying on the ground. they may have injured. they may have been killed. he's not clear. clearly, he got himself out. one man who's arrived in the street who wasn't in the music hall describes seeing one per n person, his shirt soaked black with blood. another with a bullet hole in his cheek. so people who have been injured were managing to escape. and then they were the walking wounded in the streets here. to the other point you were making, alex, i can see where the restaurant and the bar, so that's three of the locations, so you can get the picture that it would have been possible for same group to go from place to place, possibly going and joining their accomplices, their friends in this attack. down the street here. we do believe according to french authorities that eight of

the attackers are dead. what's being said here now is that it's possible that there were accomplices that they do need to find, and as you mentioned, the president of france now announcing in the last hour that he believes that this attack was planned abroad with the help of people who were here and that would absolutely fit with the fears that we have -- that have been chilling europe and what we know about what has been happening which is of course numbers of people leaving european countries, going to syria, and in many cases joining isis and then some of them coming back into european countries. so there are those connections. there will be members of isis, we think, who will be able to make contact with people either old friends if you like or even people that they have been in syria with back here. so that is a possible glimpse of how it was organized. but you know, alex, here in

central paris, the streets are beginning to fill again. with people who are coming to find out as you'd expect there was a real sense of shock, definitely a sense of disbelief. and makeshift shrines are being set up. flowers and candles basically being left because of course there will be people here who know or even have family members who were killed last night. >> yeah. the frantic nature people have experienced trying to get in touch with their loved ones. i'm going to stay, my brother lives in paris and it took me a number of hours to try to, you know, reach him. thank goodness he's all right. he and his family are safe. but the kind of terror that you feel just wondering if your loved one could be involved is

pretty horrific. keir, thank you very much. great explanation to what's going on and giving us the information on the bataclan theater and the petit cambodge. richard lui, i know you landed a short while ago, so talk about the security at charles de gaulle airport. i know you were late in getting to the camera in wake of the president saying he closed the borders. >> reporter: yeah. the president said here that the procedures at the border points would resume to a procedure they had before, although they had made that more lax within recent weeks and now returning to that. as you know, when we look at a country the size of france, that's basically california by size and by population 1.5 times. it's a very big area, and so as we were entering some of the first flights to get into charles de gaulle this morning

which is right about 9:00 a.m., it was the first flight out coming from heathrow, 100 feet deep, about 40 feet wide. it was a sea of people. so much you had no cell phone service. it was one of those situations. we had reports of two hours. it took me 75 minutes to get through. so although they did not cancel any of the flights, that was a question last night into paris, into france, it certainly was not an easy saturday for those who were coming through. keir was mentioning some of those makeshift shrines. alex, i don't know if you can pan over there, just right here you can see some of the flowers that have been left by some of the cordons. this as the law enforcement here -- some of the 1,500 military that has been mustered by the president, francois hollande, are now very well equipped as you can see in this picture. i was also at another location, alex, which is about five or ten

minutes behind me at the rue de charonne, we can see it's completely cordoned off and the makeshift shrines. >> so you're this in the heart of it, where this happened and i understand that you spoke with some people who witnessed all of this as it was unfolding. what did they tell you? >> reporter: you know, they're actually right here. i can bring in alastaire and vivian here. they were living just a block away from where one of the incidents were, and alastaire and vivian, when this happened, we were getting the reports that the pandemonium, the chaos in streets. what did you see and what did you hear? >> we were actually at a restaurant just close by to the bataclan. last night, we were meeting some friends there and when we came out at about 9:45 in the evening we were just coming down the

street here and we saw people running away from the bataclan and they were visibly agitated. there was a real sense of shock. >> reporter: people were running in the street, were they telling you to get inside and -- >> there were about six or seven people and one guy was very clear. he didn't want anyone to go this way. and luckily, alastaire speaks enough french to understand. and people who looked like may might have been at the concert. they said they -- >> they had seen -- they had seen the gunmen go into the venue and start shooting. it was when they told me that, we realized something bad had happened. >> reporter: were you able to get into your hotel last night or was it protected? >> we went to a bar, we took the metro and when we left the metro, all the metros were closed. we -- then we went back to -- we're staying in an apartment

and when we arrived there we found that this street was cordoned off by police and by military. we were told by a passerby that we couldn't get in, but we had to wait to be escorted by the police officer. >> reporter: you had to be escorted. thank you so much for giving us your perspective. alex, also part of this, what was -- what we see in many cities the taxis began to give free rides to everybody so they could get to where they needed to go. so alex, certainly a city now of two sides. one that is going through mourning. one that is very resilient. and very much wanting to fight back as the president, francois hollande, had said not too long ago. >> it's a time when cities like that come together and as soon as you mentioned that, the taxi drivers are giving free rides to people i'm immediately reminded of new york city here in the state we were in in the wake of 9/11. i remember i used to come in to work to get by ground zero, the

metro train operators wouldn't take my tickets. everybody comes together and you're a united force and there's a certain strength and sensitivity in that. that will forever be remembered and appreciated. so richard lui, thank you so much from paris. we'll get back with you shortly. right now, new reports of isis claiming responsibility for the paris attack. this is right on the heels of president hollande saying that it was an isis terror attack and i'll speak with malcolm nance about this. ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪ ♪jake reese, "day to feel alive"♪

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at 18 minutes past 6:00 here in new york, shortly after noon there in paris, france, as we give you a live look and just down the street is where the bataclan theater is located. still the site of an investigation and bringing out

bodies and dealing with the injured from last night. we want to bring you this new information. this is coming via the associated press and via other multiple news outlets, but according to the associated press now, the islamic state group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in paris that killed over 120 people. we should note that france president francois hollande was broadcasting to the company saying that 127 people are at least confirmed dead. though that number could raise. and he also at contributed isis as being responsible for this attack. now, this claim was made in a statement, it was written in both arabic and in french. it was released online. it has been circulated by supporters of isis. we should say though it is not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the statement. however, there are signs that it could be isis. it bears the group's logo. also it resembles previous statements that have been issued

by the group, so that's the working assumption at least for now. let's bring in counterterrorism consultant malcolm nance, the executive director of the terror asymmetrics project. isis being responsible for this, the likelihood of this, is it 90%, greater, 100%? >> well, it's 100% now. isis has laid claim to the responsibility for this attack. i have just read the statement in arabic. they're calling it what they always call these missions, a religious term for a raid that they carried out on paris and they are giving a level of accuracy in the intelligence they're putting out about the shooters and their capacity. if they want to take responsibility for this, the world will hold them accountable for. this. >> i want to look at the type of attack. certainly it was coordinated as you had the multiple sites being attacked in paris. reportedly eight attackers all

of whom are dead, although accomplices have yet to be discovered. they're being sought because it's kind of attack that would need some sort of accomplice to help in the execution. where does the training come from? does this have the markings of those who left and returned to france, to carry out these attacks? >> for a mission like, this has the hallmarks of trained personnel. clearly, their tactical movement, doing a run and gun attack, where they went around to several venues and then carried out a suicide hostage barricade on a facility. believe me you have to be a hard person -- you can't bring an amateur into the group and have them shoot at tin cans and mass murdering civilians the way they did. additionally, this is a one-way mission. this suicide multidimensional mass attack. that kind of mission requires a

great deal of logistics, a large amount of back stopping as we say. they're going to require personnel who you absolutely know will carry out the bombings, will carry out the shootings and then go on and finish themselves off to achieve the group's missions. it's not like "charlie hebdo" in that respect. >> but malcolm, how long does an attack like this take to plan? i'm curious if this has been in the planning stages for a long time or if it could be as a result of activity, bombing runs. france's involvement there in syria against isis, the fact that jihadi john may indeed have been taken out. we have reports of, you know, a drone strike on a car in which he was allegedly traveling. there were two bodies that have been destroyed beyond recognition that literally incinerated. so the specific confirmation that jihadi john was taken out, you know, we're still waiting for that ultimate confirmation. but could this be done just as a

result of something that happened two, three, four days ago or does it take longer? >> it takes much longer. i'm certain that the planning for this type of attack probably took place after the "charlie hebdo" attacks. and which is carried out by al qaeda, arabian peninsula. i'm sure isis is having control of the global jihadi movement, their followers and adherents who were back in france, they could marry them up with weapons and have them build explosive systems. but the terrorist cell leader always has a go/no go criteria which takes place immediately before the attack. then he launches his forces and moves in to attack. no one is going to go, you know, leave from the team room, gather up their weapons and carry out a hasty attack because their brother, jihadi john, has been

killed in raqqah. this requires knowledge of where you're going to hit your targets. i felt where they struck those targets was very interesting. it was not in the actual center of paris. you know, over near the louvre or where the american embassy is. it was out on the eastern side. so that took also a measure of detailed planning. they would have dry runned this. but the people who did it know paris. >> yeah. clearly. you made mention of the place after the "charlie hebdo" attacks were all of paris gathered, and people were there, standing on the monument, and showing solidarity. waving their french flags saying they would not be taken down. there may be significance to that because that's not very far from this petit cambodge and the bar that was also hit in the area. when you came to the planning of

the attack, you say it may have come as a result of "charlie hebdo," the responsibility for that al qaeda and the arabian peninsula versus isis. that is very disconcerting to hear. what is your concern? the level of heightened activity and crimes against humanity as a result of what you're describing like a competition between these two groups. >> well, there is a competition going between the two groups. you know, isis is fifth generation al qaeda in iraq. they are the force that we have been fighting since 2003 after the iraq invasion. they're just grown and they have a safe haven in northern iraq and eastern syria. however, they break with al qaeda only in the sense that they believe the old guys in the caves in, you know, in northern pakistan should no longer be leading the fight for the global jihadi movement in the movement

that osama bin laden built. they think they're the leadership of the new global jihad movement, that they'll carry out bin laden's mission of populating the middle east with adherents who believe in this cultist apocalyptic ideology. >> you would imagine that french security is continually on alert after the "charlie hebdo" attacks in january. does this make it more disturbing they could undertake this successful an attack now. i mean, how did they slip past french security without a hint? >> well, there was intelligence indicators leading up to this. i know there was one a few days ago, where six were arrested, they were under the control of the adherent who is now in custody in norway. and also there was a report that german intelligence had intercepted a vehicle who was moving weapons -- automatic

weapons through germany into france. so these are the little indicators, but you can't protect every place at all times. you know, if you have a dedicated six-man cell, the only way you'll break that cell is if somebody talks, somebody sees something. these people leave their families, they don't have a logistics base of mother, father, wife cooking for them and they go on to a place where they live amongst themselves and pray amongst themselves and when they find that place, they'll find a bomb factory and find themselves a little self-contained mosque and kitchen. that's all they need. now it's the links out from there, that's where the real manhunt is going to go on. believe me there is going to a manhunt on an international scale. no one is going to let this pass. and when they find the links

that scatter out to this, you may find more cells or you may actually instigate, you know, future attacks as the -- as isis gets this capacity, they want to jump into this game with both feet, the game is on now. there may be more attacks. >> malcolm, you say you can't protect all places at all times. i'll say that while initially all of our focus and attention has been on the people of paris, praying for them and looking at what they have had to endure with this attack, you can't help but wonder if it can happen here and i know that security measures have certainly been stepped up in new york, across this country. how concerned should we be? how concerned are you about a similar type of attack here at home? >> well, we should be very concerned. and this is the united states. gun attacks occur all the time in the united states. it was adam gadam, a young american kid from orange county, california, who was recently

killed, thank god by a drone attack in afghanistan. who years ago encouraged members who wanted to self-start and join al qaeda to buy their own weapons legally in gun stores, get rifles in any way possible, train on them and carry out your own mass attacks. isis is an organization that exists because unlike al qaeda, they don't train professionals. they let any person come in, carry out an attack and claim it in isis' name. so is it possible that an attack of this magnitude could occur in the united states? we have much larger security forces. i know paris very, very well, but in the united states we have, you know, the capacity to bring in more firepower on short notice. but it's quite possible it could occur. law enforcement forces should be understanding that lone wolf and active shooters are not all we

should be prepared for. you have to prepare for mass gunmen attacks. suicide mass gun attacks where they have no intention of surviving. and they may create a hostage barricade and blow themselves up in the end. >> and what we can do to protect ourselves from that is somewhat of a rhetorical question at this point. people are willing to die for it. but malcolm nance, thank you so much. i'll speak with you again no doubt. appreciate it. a member of the french media joins me next. she has new information about the suicide bombers outside that stadium in paris. we'll be right back here on msnbc. ♪ (vo) you can check on them. you can worry about them. you can even choose a car for them. (mom) honey, are you ok? (child) i'm ok. (announcer vo) love. (mom) we're ok. (announcer vo) it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

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it is just past noon in paris. 12:33 in the afternoon on this saturday. our breaking news coverage continues here on msnbc of the terror attacks. here are the latest developments. in the past hour, isis has claimed responsibility in an online statement. it was not immediately possible to confirm the authenticity of the statement, however, it does resemble previous statements issued by isis.

now, french president francois hollande has blamed isis for the worst attacks on french soil since world war ii. he is vowing what he called a merciless terrorist response. the death toll as of this hour, at least 127 dead. around 200 others injured. french police are hunting for possible accomplices of the eight attackers who targeted concert goers, restaurant people and striking at least six locations in paris. a state of emergency has been declared throughout the country. france has deployed 1,500 extra troops around paris. it is tightening its borders. let's bring in laura haim, so welcome to you. you have been on this story and bringing us incredible information. what are your colleagues telling you from paris? >> a lot of things about the investigation, and what is interesting is according to some french investigators -- i spoke

with them a few minutes ago, they strongly believe the attacks near the stade de france, near the stadium, in fact, there were -- they were not the target. the target was inside the stadium, according to the investigators. they're looking at that very, and they're convinced that the suicide bombers missed the goal. according to some investigators, the suicide bombers probably wanted to be inside the stadium. and detonated themselves inside the crowd, among thousands of people who are there watching the game. and the investigators are calling it primetime. they knew that the soccer game was live on tv. they knew that the president was inside the stadium. and according to some investigators, really reliable sources i spoke with this morning, they're convinced that the suicide bombers at the last minute changed their plans and detonated themselves outside the

stadium a few feet away from the entrance. >> that makes a lot of sense, laura, because that stadium holds 80,000 strong. it was packed. this was a friendly game between france and germany. to your point, francois hollande was inside watching that game. my question is, your sources, are they suggesting they were not able to get inside that stadium? certainly security is one thing, but when you have the french president inside, perhaps security was even tighter. >> yeah. you have to keep in mind that it's not like in the united states. the security around a president. it's very different, francois hollande, he's going into the stadium to see a game. this is part of the french culture. so you don't have secret service all over the french stadium. it's lighter. and again, it has to be triple checked i would say, but

absolutely convinced that they missed their target. that they wanted to inflict massive casualties. according to the people i spoke with, i tell you to be on tv and to show live on tv because the soccer game was live on tv. it was a big game, france against germany. they don't know if they wanted to kill the french president. they're much more convinced they wanted to kill hundreds of french people, live on tv. and they were so convinced that it's basically as -- a few minutes ago, they're really convinced that it was the team which split and which coordinated the actions. while it was the stadium and the few minutes later because everything happened, it was the attacks against the restaurants and against the theater. now, another information i got

this morning is what happened inside the theater. i don't know if you said that on msnbc, but according to some also reliable sources and witnesses, the people inside the theater spoke, they were screaming. some people told me that they were saying in french we are doing that because of syria. apparently, they screamed of the president president hollande, we are doing that because of syria. then after that they begin to shoot. the people said they were speaking in french and they were saying also allahu akbar. >> they were saying that we are stronger than france. another thing -- another phrase that they were shouting, the attackers inside the bataclan theater concert hall. getting back to the stadium, laura. we were able to hear the sound of explosions and there were three big explosions detected. your reporting last night in the

very early stages of the story were there were two suicide bombers and a gas tank, petrol, maybe used by concessionaires in the area. others have reported three suicide bombers. has anything been definitively decided how many died at the stadium? >> no. according to my sources, a lot of conflicting reports and we have on the careful because the investigation is still going on. according to what i know, that -- that the bomb, the gas bomb was not very sophisticated. it was used apparently before in prior attacks against paris. and it was apparently a tank with a lot of nails inside. it's something that was used in previous attacks in paris. it's something that the

investigators know extremely well. used by some movements. at this point or so, they're looking at explosives on clothes according to the people i spoke with. they went inside the theater an hour ago and they took some clothes. we don't know if those clothes were from the suicide bombers who killed themselves inside the bataclan or if it was clothes from the people who died during the attack. but they're looking at really the clothes of the people who were inside the bataclan. >> laura haim, thank you. i know we'll check in with you again from washington. meantime, msnbc's richard lui is right now in paris. he's been talking with witnesses and richard lui will join me next here on msnbc. metabolism in a dog's brain begins to change. (ray) i'd like to see her go back to her more you know social side.

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6:43 here in new york. here's what we know so far in the paris attack. the president says at least 127 people were killed. though the death toll can rise. francois hollande also said they were committed by members of the islamic state. there were six separate attacks and police say all eight attackers are dead. most of the dead were killed in the city's bataclan theater, that is where dozens of hostages were held and then killed by the attackers. msnbc's richard lui is also in paris having just landed there a short while ago this morning. i understand, richard, you're there with people who witnessed all of this as it was unfolding. >> reporter: yeah. we were able to speak with vivian and alastaire within the last hour. they were very close, about a block away from the bataclan concert hall when that incident did begin. when some 100 people were

killed. that's not too far away from where i'm standing. probably about 300 or 400 feet. we did learn that president is asking for three days of mourning. francois hollande said the country must remember those who lost their lives within the last 24 hours and that the military and law enforcement will be at the highest alert. what we are seeing in the streets today depending an where you're at is a pretty clear shot coming in from the airport. in fact, the driver that was taking me into the city, into paris, was saying this is not like any other saturday. normally the streets are teeming with people because it was asked that those who would like to come to paris stay away, they're in effect locking down the street to the best of their ability. as they go through the forensics tests at the locations including the bataclan concert hall, and this particular area here, richard lenyor, you can see it's

empty today. over to my right, alex, this has been a steady stream of cars coming through. the number of people not only wanting to see what happened last night, but also some -- it's hard to see over there, the makeshift shrines that have been discussed by keir and myself, still small, but people are adding a flower or two to the locations. it was also the case at another location, about five to ten minutes away from here. people wanting to come by to see what had happened. what would normally be a very bustling, energetic area. and one last point though. just over my shoulder here, the "charlie hebdo" attacks you probably remember, that was just about oh, maybe two or three blocks that way. so this is an area unfortunately that has now seen within the time span of one year two attacks that are leaving parisians and french and those

from all around the world wondering what is happening here in france. >> absolutely. life in disarray there in paris. people not able to go about their normal routines which is precisely what terrorists hoped to accomplish. let's hope it does not last long. msnbc's richard lui, thank you. let's bring in dana kennedy, dana has been filing stories for the daily beast and east -- other news outlets. what are you hearing? i know you were following people who were inside the bataclan theater. >> well, the thing that strikes me the most from everyone i have talked to, alex, really eerie calm in the voices i hear from my friends who i talk to on skype and by the phone last night, how they act as if paris has become the new tel aviv and it's a new normal and actually are calm about it. i talked to someone i know who saw the very first shooting between the cambodian restaurant and the bar. she was having dinner with her

who young children. she thought it was fire works, went to the window and saw it unfold. she said she saw bodies in the street like a battlefield. she recounted this to me in such a strangely normal voice. of course you're in shock, but the fact that the people lived through "charlie hebdo" not long ago it shows you how long questionly -- how quickly paris is becoming used to the new normal. people -- the thing that strikes me too is hearing mow francois hollande is calling for three days of mourning. you know, america would be packing heat right now. france reacts to this so differently. when friends of mine say, what can be done? friends here and friends in france, i feel actually a little pessimistic, as pessimistic as the police source i know very well from covering "charlie hebdo" in january said to me today. he had been up all night, but he had a sense of defeat in his voice because what we saw today -- what we saw last night, rather, something so hard.

no matter how many people talk about going after them, it's so hard to combat. essentially young punks who have nothing to lose, who are doing to kill themselves after the situation. >> to my point earlier. someone willing to give up their life in order to do things to innocent lives. intelligence is the key to that. i want to let our viewers know you're an american journalist. you are living between your homes in america and france and you have spent so much time there in paris. i do want to ask you about this neighborhood. i believe it is called the canal and what is the makeup of the community? >> it's a hot, fun neighborhood, very multicultural, a lot of young people. you're out in cafes, having a really great time. my friend i spoke to was especially sad because she said so in young people were out there. the same way they targeted the concert hall, where most of the

fans were seeing that death metal band were very young. it's as if they're going after the young people here. i have to say one more thing, alex, it may sound of an understatement today, but paris represents such beauty. the language, the food. everyone thinks of france as being -- if they're in the u.s. where things are, you know, less aesthetically perfect. to see this place, you know, kind of wiped out with blood in the streets is so anathema to everything that paris stands for, i think it affects all of us. not only the people in france and gives you a sense of helplessness. that's what i'm hearing, both people here in france and in america. >> i read the story that you posted about the friend with whom you spoke online. you wrote about it on the daily beast. i know she has kids. they have school oftentimes on saturdays. has that all been cancelled? >> it's all been cancelled, absolutely. she said her main concern right now -- she said her children are terrified. so were -- i talked to other parents last night as well as

one person this morning. one person, a friend of mine, was saying very bravely we'll try not to have this affect us, but of course i think it will. >> you can about imagine. were you to be over in paris right now, despite being an intrepid journalist and wanting to get this story, you have to step outside -- well, you tell me how you would feel in paris. >> i just saw richard lui, that's just steps away from "charlie hebdo" and i was in paris for two months this summer. i was sitting outside in cafes. what i think about is these people, what's it like to be sitting in a cafe, there was an amazing piece in "the new york times" and sitting in a cafe, all of a sudden, this happens. you're in a theater, how do you react? some people know enough to run, other people freeze. i can't imagine this happening two months ago i was there. i think it will have an effect on the psyche. this is pairs. they put up the occupation in

world war ii to protect their city and now these punks are coming in and plowing it apart. >> thank you. isis has claimed responsibility. what does this mean? we have steve clemons and jack jacobs joining me next. [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems.

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in our continuing coverage of the terror in paris, let's bring in steven clemens and jack jacobs. a question to each of you, we reset at the top of the hour. steven to you first, when it comes to what we're hearing about these attackers and their style, french president hollande saying that isis is responsible, likely these attackers have had training overseas or at least it was coordinated there and carried out inside of france, interpret all that in terms of

the war grins -- war against isis. are they getting stronger? >> isis is expanding the battlefield. we have seen as recently as last week when the president of the united states and john kerry outlined all the ways in which isis was being squeezed, decimated, limited, constrained, and isis has demonstrated an ability to take the game out of that thesis. if this, you know, shows to be true. and they have had actually conducted and deployed these people to conduct such aurora there -- horror there. we need to reconsider a lot of our assumptions about isis' strength. >> colonel jack, when it comes to the kind of training that -- from what we have seen, the type of attack that was carried out in paris last night, how much of it do you believe is directly from the sense of military training or just some guys as dana kennedy was referring to them earlier as thugs who get ahold of a gun and start

shooting. where's the difference there? what are you seeing there? >> well, it looks because of the coordination that was involved, the timing of it all, it looks like it was a military operat n operation. these people were trained as military people. don't forget there are a lot of people coming from france and also the rest of the europe going to the middle east and fighting in syria. learning to use weapons in syria. then returning to their home countries. i think they'll discover in fact that's what the majority of the people -- that was what happened. the kind of training that's required in this particular case requires some time. i mean, you can't just hand a weapon to somebody and expect them to be able to do it, in this case they were all trained. >> colonel jack jacobs, steve clemons, thank you so much. new developments on the terror attack in patient us. we have the latest coming your way at the top of the hour. stay with us here on msnbc. on your account in seconds. and once you find it, you can switch it right on again.

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