this was a mob response to a youtube video about a cartoon that made fun of mohammed. >> for hillary clinton she cares so much about diplomatic security, this was personal for her. chris stevens was a different of hers. she asked him to serve as ambassador in libya and this was personal. she believed there were lessons to be learned and she wanted to learn and that's why she herself asked for an accountability review board. they had 29 specific recommendations, she accepted all of them and said she wouldn't leave until they were under way being implemented. >> do you think she's finished the dressing this? >> this is the eighth investigation and nothing new came from this and we've seen reports all day that there was nothing new and she did nothing wrong. >> christina shkaki, great to have you here. my colleague kate snow picks things up right. n now. it's back to bread and butter for billionaire businessman donald trump talking trade, which polls indicate is

one of the key subjects from voters trust him over hillary clinton the speech as trump is falling further and further behind in national polls. we have a fact checker standing by on what you heard from donald trump, the latest numbers from our nbc news survey monkey weekly tracking poll shows clinton leading by eight points. that's two more points than last week but the clinton campaign has a different focus. the house benghazi committee has finally released its long-awaited final report. the big question at least as far as the campaign is concerned, did investigators find new evidence of wrongdoing by the former secretary of state now less than a month to the democratic convention. for her part hillary clinton says "it's pretty clear it's time to move on. let's start with what we just wat watched hallie jackson is in pennsylvania where donald trump spoke. the speech billed as a layout of his trade policies. what was new snowed. >> a couple things.

he was specific about what he would do were he to become president laying out basically seven action steps that he would implement were he to win the white house come november interestingly, his opposition to tpp, that trade pack that was put forward and helped promoted by speaker ryan, for example he talked about globalization and took aim that globalization helped the american worker sorchlt for trump what was different was the tone. he's perpetually late as you might know if you watch his rallies. he doesn't start on time which is typical for politicians at rallies but he came out early, ready to go he was surrounded by scrap metal in front of a crowd of invited supporters to deliver this policy speech off of tell prompters, again sticking

largely to his script. his campaign has not responded to request for reaction to the support so many politicians and people within the political world are talking about today so no mention of that. he did hit hillary clinton, he drew a lot of contrast with her in this speech. he clearly in his campaign see this is as a way to go after what they perceive add vulnerabilities with clinton trying to drive a wedge between her and some of these blue-collar working class voters like the ones in pennsylvania that trump has to win. he's delivering in speech in westmoreland county, a republican leaning county that went for romney in 2012 trump is hided to ohio and that's significant. he'll hold a fund-raiser on the west virginia border then head to the rally at 7:00. it's a key battleground state,

trump visiting scotland before he decided to head to the buckeye state. >> i was doing the same thing you were doing, following along with his script, the prepared remarks versus how he delivered. he didn't go off script all that much. i wonder if that's indicative of a trump trying to stay on message. >> it could be. we talked about whether this is a trump 2.0. he told me on the phone yesterday that he does what he does. he sid "i do me." he doesn't care about that talk about this pivot to being more "presidential" and where you've seen him come away from the script are at these rallies when he's in front of hundreds or thousands of people and feeding off their energy. that's where he has sometimes in the past done something that has raised eyebrows so i think we'll know more later tonight as to whether this pivot to being more presidential as we keep talking and and talking about will

stick. >> hallie jackson watching the speech live in pennsylvania. hallie, thanks so much. also watching the speech as it happened, the executive director of politifact who joins me now. you've done a quick turnaround for us. quickly fact checking. let's start with the first thing we'll fact check. are we playing the sound or are we -- okay, let's play the sound from donald trump and then we'll talk about it. >> we tax and regulate and restrict our companies to death and then we allow foreign countries that cheat to export their goods to us tax free. >> so the verdict on that? true, false? >> yeah, this is problematic. the words "tax free" are the real problem. donald trump is using this speech to talk about china but chinese goods that are imported into the united states do have a tariff. they may not be as high as donald trump wants, he wanted to kind of increase those tariffs but they do have a tariff so

it's not tax free. it might not be the balance he wants but on the specific claim he wants it's inaccurate. >> he was an hour south of fitzburg, strategically in a town that's lost steel. let's listen to something he said about the state of pennsylvania. >> the city of pittsburgh and the pennsylvania have lost one-third of their manufacturing jobs since the clintons put china into the wto. >> how about that? >> he's pretty much right on the numbers. the big problem here is him blaming clinton and the entry into the wto. what's interesting here, this is the same type of claim we heard from barack obama in 2008 running in the primary against hillary clinton, blaming the loss of manufacturing jobs on clinton and the decisions that her husband made when it comes to nafta and admitting china into wto. but the fact is, we experienced two global economic recessions in 2001 and 2008. that had a lot to do with the

manufacturing picture in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and around the country. more so than just one decision. >> he hit hillary clinton on trade agreements. let's listen to that sound. >> as bernie sanders said, hillary clinton voted for virtually every trade agreement that has cost the workers of this country millions, millions of jobs. >> aaron, he's quoting bernie sanders talking about hillary clinton. where's the truth? >> well, he's accurately quoting bernie sanders. it actually comes from a "meet the press" interview where bernie was talking with chuck todd. the problem is bernie wasn't right when he said it back then. hillary clinton had the opportunity in the u.s. senate to vote on 10 trade deals, she approved six of them. she did not vote on two and she voted against two. so two out of 10 she voted against two, those had to deal with one in central america and one in south america so she's -- here he's painting an overly broad brush just like bernie sanders did back during the primary. >> and one comment here on taxes from mr. trump.

>> many people think that these regulations are an even greater impediment than the fact that we are one of the highest taxed nations in the world. >> he seemed to say that slowly, we're one of the highest taxed nations in the world. true? >> he's learning. so we've heard him say three different times that the united states is the highest taxed nation in the world. that is wrong by any objective measure. saying one of the highest taxed nations in the world is better. looking at a couple different measures we looked at we rate maybe between 17th and 31 nova scotia t-- 31st in the world in the taxes we collect per person. he's getting better and maybe listening to fact checkers it seems like he changed his talking point there. >> or he's got new advisors or something going on. sharon, thank you so much. appreciate the quick turnaround for us. >> no problem. we'll go to breaking news in

london. take a look at live pictures coming in to us. this is protesters gathered outside the house of parliament police have arrived to see people carryi ining signs. several thousand people had been expected at a formal protest that was planned and then called off earlier today but now this impromptu protest. matt bradley joins me. now what do we know? >> well, this protest was supposed to not happen today. it was supposed to be canceled. these thousands of people walked from trafalgar square any way because they couldn't be silenced as this young man just said and they're saying if this is what it's like today, imagine what it will look like on saturday when the real demonstration starts. >> this is the real demonstration!

>> this was the first! >> why are people arguing? what are their concerns? >> they're saying that refugees are being left behind, that this vote was an older generation selling out a younger generation and they're saying there's more bad to come. they want more demonstrations, more voices to be heard and they say they're going to continue to protest until they get their chance to have another referendum. >> all right, matt, thank you so much. matt bradley in london in the sea of people outside parliament. we'll keep a close eye on that this afternoon. matt, thank you. up next, the much-anticipated house republican report on the 2012 terrorist attack in benghazi, libya, revealed a series of blunders, miscues and breakdowns without any specific blame placed on hillary clinton who was secretary of state at the time of the attack. we are poring through the more than 800 pages of that report and we'll bring you details after a quick break. of trash.

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we're following breaking news today. the long awaited report from the house select committee on benghazi has been released. the report found bureaucratic delays or miscues that failed to stop the deadly attacks almost four years ago. earlier today chairman trey gowdy highlighted this key finding. >> no u.s. mail tear asset was ever deployed to benghazi, despite the order of the secretary of defense at 7:00 that night. so washington had access to realtime information but yet somehow they thought the fighting had subsided. >> key findings in that republican report include, as chairman gowdy mentioned,

despite clear orders from president obama and defense secretary leon panetta, military assets were not immediately sent. a security team sent in to help sat on the runway changing uniforms four times after being given conflicting orders and with ambassador stevens missing and the crisis at hand the white house held a two-hour meeting that focused on a youtube video. let me bring in luke russet covering the latest developments on the benghazi report today. we should note he was in the press briefing earlier with the republican majority. give us a sense of what we learned in this report. >> i think the alarming new items that this report put forward were the ones you just mentioned. the fact that you had this bureaucratic malaise, if you will, this question of this argume argume argument between the department and state about whether or not the forces going into lick ya would be wearing real uniforms. there were questions about the

united states needed the permission of the provisional government in charge in libya to go in. also an interesting detail is that the libyan forces that ended up helping the americans under duress ended up being qaddafi loyalists which is ironic considering the u.s. led the charge to oust qaddafi. but this has been relitigated by eight committees and if you're a politician or operative or whatever you're going to cherry pick the parts of the story that reinforced your point of view. and i think the biggest thing that's come out of this for quite a while is the fact that it's because of this committee more likely than not that the world now knows hillary clinton had a private e-mail server and used it at the state department. that's something more than the republicans would have wanted in their wildest dreams because it continues to dog her at her campaign. but there were two competing visions of the republican report. chairman gowdy is very much "i

want the report to speak for itself, this is not focused on any one single individual, this was a breakdown from the administration all the way down, all these different areas of government. people should read it." then there's another group of republicans on that committee, pompeo and jim jordan who released their own addendum which was much more forceful in its critique of hillary clinton specifically. in his opening remarks pompeo said he was morally reprehensible. i asked him about that and the significance of it. take a listen. >> i don't think you'll see any of that in the report. is it in the report? >> he's promoting it right now. >> you're going to write a story about your take away from the report. i stand on our report, how my fellow citizens, including my committee members read the report, how you read the report, what story you do on the report, you read the report you will not see any of -- >> can mr. pompeo address that? is hillary clinton's leadership morally reprehensible? >> yes.

>> it is. >> absolutely. >> so there you see, kate, the division playing out in full time, trey gowdy going that was not going to appear in the report and in fact the real report does not but right next to him his partner in someone who subscribed to that report goes hillary clinton's leadership is morally reprehensible. that reinforces the belief that many people on the democratic side have and even some that acknowledged on the right that this was done to have -- hone in on hillary clinton and her time at state. >> luke russert following all of it on capitol hill, luke, thanks so much. for more, let me bring in jack rice, international lawyer and former cia officer. nice to see you, thanks for being with us. >> of course. >> as a former cia officer, what do you think was the most significant thing out of today's report? >> well, hi think when we look at all of this we see the failures at the d.o.d., the cia, and at state department. but i think it's very, very

clear that any time you're working on the edge, and let's face it the ambassador and his team were working on the edge, it doesn't shock me that horrible things potentially can happen. i think after eight separate informations, after more than $7 million and the sort of political surface that we have all turn this into basically using four dead americans as traction along the way can be very frustrating for a lot of us who have seen this from the very difficult places we've been. >> let me ask you about the military component. democrats are saying the military could not have done anything differently that would have saved lives. republicans are saying, look, nobody was ever sent in in those hours. they arrived after the fact. purely from a strategic standpoint, do you think something could have happened more quickly and it would have had potential to change to outcome? >> well, things could have happened more quickly but based upon the investigations that were done what the conclusions were were that if they had released the military to actually go in they wouldn't

have been there in time anyway. that is the reality. when you're talking about working in the field and working in very difficult environments, incredibly dangerous environments like the ambassador who was very aware of this, if you know that, the potential is if things go south there's no way back. that is a reality and when you're in the middle of a war zone sometimes that's simply the case. >> and what about security standards in benghazi? does it tell you anything moving forward? does the u.s. need to do things differently? >> without question. about the only one that is useful here when you find that one side or the other, the left is banging on the right, the right is banging on the left, from my perspective, i don't care about that. the real question become what is do you do to make sure something like this doesn't happen again? and the reality is you should have had better security but at the same time the also dmor this case in particular was working very, very hard to keep this

base open, to be in benghazi, to try to establish a permanent presence despite the fact that most of the people around him were saying we can't secure this, we don't have the capability, we don't have the manpower, we don't have the muscle. he knew that, too, but sometimes again when you're working in environments like this you're right up on the edge and you accept the limitations. you accept the danger because that's a part of the job. >> all right. former cia officer jack rice, thanks so much for your perspective. appreciate it. we are getting fresh reaction to today's benghazi report from the candidate herself, from hillary clinton. nbc's casey shunt in denver, colorado, where clinton just responded to the report. casey, what is she saying? >> hi, kate, this, of course, at top of mind for those of us covering hillary clinton here in denver, although she was here to unveil a new tech policy, shi did take the time to take questions from reporters on this and she says that after more

than two years and $7 million spent by the benghazi committee out of taxpayer funds it had to today reported the found nothing so this echoing printed statements her campaign put out. they're also out with a web video walking through comments today on this particular subject, very much feeling as though because this report does not show anything new as far as culpability or placing blame that this is not something that was worth the time or money that was expended. now, of course, they both did hard work around this and they got lucky with kevin mccarthy, the congressman who was at the time gunning to be speaker of the house essentially acknowledging in public that there was a political element this this investigation and that, of course, sank his hopes of being speaker of the house and also gave some cover to clinton and, of course, she also put in a lot of preparation before she herself went before that benghazi committee.

she testified for hours on end so, of course, work preparation went into that. then trey gowdy, the chairman of this committee came out and told reporters that he couldn't identify anything new he had learned from her testimony. so at this point that's what the clinton campaign is relying on in the wake of this investigation, kate. >> kasie hunt in denver, colorado, thank you so much. we have breaking news rolling in right now, very initial reports but we're hearing about explosions being heard in istanbul, turkey, and the main airport there. it's the ataturk airport in istanb istanbul. we've heard one explosion, potentially two explosions. let's bring in caliperry for the latest. what are we seeing? >> i can confirm according to interior ministry two separate excloses at the main airport in ins buell. two explosions and we're hearing from eyewitnesss who say there was gunfire following those two explosions but waiting on

confirmation of that istanbul has been plagued by bombingings in the past year. six bombings have killed 200 people. we don't know the cause of these explosions, i need to stress that. we're still waiting but initial information, to two separate explosions at the main airport in istanbul according to the interior minister there are wounded people there. we've seen video that we're still trying to clear of people taking cover but that's what we know so far. >> i know we can't show the video yet but can you describe for us, cal? i know you're monitoring social media, what kinds of things are you hearing or seeing? >> we're hearing and seeing people taking cover at various stores because these explosions just happened. the cause is unknown. we don't know whether this was a bombing, this could have been maybe gas canisters but two separate explosions followed by gunfire leads us to believe this would be an attack but the history of istanbul is very

clear here. in march, five people were killed, 26 wounded in a bloody attack on the main shopping thoroughfare that runs through the old city so, again the interior minister confirming two explosions at the ataturk airport in istanbul. >> i've been to ins buell before, it's a very westernized city, in the western part of turkey, no president eastern part of the country that tends to be less western. >> if this turns out it was terror related it won't be a surprise, turkey is the perfect target because you're hitting western targets, western tourists. we talk about this, airports are often soft targets because there is no security before you get to the security line so you can get all the way to your check in desk before you talk to security officers. still not clear where these explosions went off but this fits with the profile of soft targets, western tar goetz and trying to drive a wedge between the countries that are in this region and the rest of the

world, kate. >> if we show that map again, cal, i don't know how well you know istanbul -- we've zoomed in on it. that's the airport we're talking about. it's a major international hub. >> this is a massive airport. this is where so many flights come from asia to the west. this is where so many tourists transit through. for a country like turkey which relies on tourism attacks like this one today and the one we saw back in march on this main shopping thoroughfare, this is a serious problem for countries not only like turkey but countries like jordan and lebanon. lebanon saw five separate suicide bombings yesterday and, again, all of this fits within the broader narrative of attacking count these are on the fence. that are trying to walk that fine line between what is becoming quickly a global conflict. >> let's recap for people just joining us we're getting news in of two explosions heard at the istanbul airport, the ataturk

airport in istanbul, turkey. the interior ministry confirming two explosions and, cal, you were saying there were reports that there was gunfire following those explosions? >> and that wouldn't be unusual at all even if it wasn't necessarily attackers carrying out gunfire because you'll have an immediate response from security forces who in places like this airport are already going to be on a heightened state of alert. this is an airport that certainly has had to deal with these kinds of things in the past and a city that's had to deal with this in the past year. six large-scale bombings in the past year not even including potentially this one today so a city that's not only having to deal with this but having to reassess security pro said yours and the way people go about this at airports. we had this conversation about how people check in for their flights. for example, when you fly out of tel aviv and israel, i know that's a very unique situation, you cannot get within a mile of that airport before talking to

somebody who looks in your car, checks the trunk of your car. but on a daily basis at an airport this size that's not realistic and that's the problem security officials have around the world, certainly in this country as well, kate. >> i'm just looking at a reuters report coming out of istanbul, reuters one of the news wires we subscribe to. of course it's nighttime in turkey. we think this is taped -- some video we're looking at right now, not live television but this is the local channel in turkey in istanbul and i was about to say reuters is reporting two explosions hitting the airport. they're reporting it wounded several people, that these explosions wounded several people. they also quote another news outlet and someone telling the other news outlet that gunfire was heard in the parking lot of the airport, also talking about taxis ferrying wounded people from the airport to get them help. >> that video that you're

looking at, that's from the outside of the airport, you can see that, that's from the car park. that's where the cars initially enter the airport to there would be a minimal security check at that point before you get to the main terminal. we're also hearing initial reports that some of this may have taken place in the car park. again you'll be hearing the term soft target over and over again in the coming hours because these are very difficult places to secure because the manpower backs completely unwielding when you talk about securing these outer zones. >> i'm looking at an associated press report now, cal, echoing the same thing we've been saying. a turkish official telling the a.p. two explosions have rocked ataturk's airport wounding multiple people. officials said it's unclear whether the explosions were caused by bombs or a suicide attack. this official speaking on a condition of anonymity with the associated press. turkish media is reporting the sound of gunfire heard in that

area. i don't know how many hours ahead istanbul is, probably about seven or eight so it's nighttime on a tuesday evening. use've said before, cal, this is a busy airport. there would be a lot of traffic even at night. >> and this would be a busy time for this airport with the transatlantic flights coming back. these are the overnight flights, you're seeing this video, this is the initial response from security forces, you can expect that the turkish special police will be arriving on the scene if they're not there already. the other thing worth noting is if this is an attack -- and it's looking as though it is, there will be a methodical sort of going over the scene by authorities to make sure there aren't any more explosive devices. thoosk is a major mo of some of these attacks that they will lay more explosive devices for security forces who then respond to the attack that they would then come across causing more

casualties. so what you're seeing now is the beginning of what i would imagine to be a methodical process. >> cal, for people who aren't familiar this region, we're talking about turkey, the capital city of istanbul. as you mentioned before, turkey has had a number of bombings in recent history. this is not unusual to see violence in that country often linked to kurdish or islamic state groups. again, we don't know what's happened here. we don't know who's responsible but there is a history. >> there is a history, exactly that. there's a history with kurdish rebels, this has been an ongoing domestic issue for the country and that's something we want to say straight away is there's no indication this is international terror. there's no indication that this is some kind of domestic terror but as we look at these pictures it's becoming clear this does seem to have been a well-coordinated attack. the u.s. military uses the term "complex attacks."

anything having two do with one or two explosions followed by gunfire is something they view as complex because it requires more security personnel as they carry out not only searches but in getting people that may have been wounded out of that area and we're seeing first responders now, the fire trucks moving in, ambulances moving out. we know from the interior minister, just to recap, two explosions and he is saying there are wounded on the ground. >> caliperry, stay with us. let me go to amen mohyeldin, my colleague. ammon, you've spent time in turkey. you know istanbul. give us your ogs separations in terms of the context here. >> certainly given the past in what turkey has dealt with, there's a host of scenarios. obviously as cal was mentioning given the response, given the accounts that we're getting this incident could be one of many different scenarios. to put in context of what turkey has been experiencing over the

past several months there have been numerous terrorist attacks that have taken place right in the heart of istanbul, in some of the most secure areas, particularly in the downtown area where tourist attractions are. we know in addition to what turkey has experienced internally, along its border it has been dealing with a stubborn insurgency with the kurtish workers -- the pkk which it considers to be a terrorist organization. it's been fighting a systemic war with the kurds for many years and palace negotiation what it is doing with the kurdish fighters you have the situation in syria that has proven to be a major security concern for the turkish government. so in recent years you've seen infiltration by isis sympathizers as well as isis fighters. they've used turkey as a conduit, many of them traveling through that specific airport in istanbul but in addition to that

we've seen isis followers and fighters carry out attacks mostly in the southern parts of turkey along the syrian/turkey border but in addition to that in recent months there have been going concerns isis was carrying out attacks further and deeper inside turkey including not only istanbul which is considered the commercial capital of the country but ankara as well which is the political capital of the country. so when you put in the context of the security challenges that turkey faces between what is going on with the kurdish insurgency that has gripped that country for years as well as the terrorist threat that comes from isis and its followers inside neighboring syria, you would not rule terrorism out in a situation like this at all. in fact, early indications would suggest it's one of those two scenarios. >> ammon, if you'll stay with us and stand by i want to go back to cal perry in our newsroom who has been monitoring social

media. cal, we have new video? >> this is video from inside the domestic terminal. two terminals at the ataturk airport, one for domestic flights, one for international flights. one suggesting the explosion happened at a car park outside the domestic terminal. you're looking at video of people taking cover in the stores. ammon mentioning two scenarios, the kurdish insurgency, we have isis on our minds, it's worth mentioning although i find it exceptionally unlikely and i wait for ammon to weigh in as well, yesterday reconciliation between israel and turkey. i find it highly unlikely that would be a cause but one more element to throw in as we look at the yeo politics of turkey, a country that is caught in between so many of these global conflicts. a country we continue to see paying the price of being caught in the middle, kate. >> that video difficult to look

at for me. it looks like a lot of tourists on vacation this time of year, taking cover as you say inside a store and children in there as well. >> and the fear of not knowing whether or not the attack is happening in the terminal or whether it's happening outside the terminal and then add to that not knowing where the security personnel, the security forces are, waiting for them to arrive on the scene. certain will i terrifying. >> and somebody inside posted that video? >> yes, this is coming from inside the airport, again, it looks like a duty-free area to me. >> ammon, have you been to that airport enough that you know what the parking lot situation is in there were reports there was gunfire heard potentially in a parking area or parking garage outside? >> yeah, i travel through that airport many, many times and as cal was mentioned just from the video we have on our screen there that does look like the inside of the terminal and the way the at turk airport is,

there's the international arrivals but then there's a separate part of thaft is for the intern fights for turkey and it's not clear from that vantage point whether this is the international terminal in which flights coming in and out of turkey would be leaving and arriving from or whether or not is the domestic airport or the domestic terminal from which the internal flights would be traveling but i have also been in and around the compound and i can tell you it's a relatively secure airport. very secure, various layers and perimeters of checkpoints at the airport. there are often security checkpoints just to bring your car to the airport grounds, there's a robust security presence including police as well as private security contractors. as we also saw, and this is premature, but as we saw in the incident with the airport in brussels, the at turk airport was one that you could access

fairly easily all the way through the arrivals and departures hall before you actually have to enter and make your way through passport control so it is a fairly open airport as we see in many western or european capitals. the security checkpoints outside in the parking lot very much present but at this stage not yet clear where they are in relation to where this incident is being reported right now. >> i was thinking the same thing. we think back to brussels and the attackers were in the baggage carts because that's where they could reach without having to go through serious security, we don't know but it could be a similar situation here. >> and when you're assessing the situation you're analyzing this obvious scenario on the back of everyone's mind is what we saw in brussels. now given the fact of what we've seen unfold in turkey you look at the nature whereof these attacks have taken place in the past.

various groups have targeted various locations. some kurdish attacks are attacks blamed on kurdish fighters or organizations, they tend to target the turkish military or security apparatus or government installations or locations. isis attacks, on the other hand, that we've seen inside turkey have been targeted much more at civilians, sometimes tourist destinations as well as public areas, public spaces. so what we saw in the past and this is certainly something that resonates loudly in the last couple months because of what we saw in brussels and the airport risks there -- highly symbolic location, the busiest airport in turkey, an international hub for a lot of travel in and around the region istanbul airport or at turk airport, one of the busiest in the world because it's such a regional hub, kate. >> ammon, let me recap what we know at this hour.

3:40 eastern time on a tuesday. we're looking at pictures out of istanbul, turkey, ataturk airport, i'm reading a tweet from a member of particle who want writes "ataturk airport, two live bomb attacks." it's poor english but basically saying a large number of wounded at the ataturk airport and we've heard the same from the interior ministry saying two separate explosions were heard at the airport, is we've also had reports on social media of gunfire following those larger explosions. we have the video in the lower right hand corner that appears to be from inside the airport terminal, maybe a duty-free area or store. you can see people crouched down as they try to figure out what's going on at the istanbul airport. we've been looking at scenes, cal perry, of emergency

responders. we've seen fire trucks and ambulances going by. >> and more detail on the terminal. again, we believe this to be the domestic terminal. there are two terminals at the istanbul airport which is expanding massively, turkish airlines has enjoyed significant financial success in recent years. we believe this terminal is just outside the domestic terminal. there are two security checkpoints at each of these terminals in turkey. there's one at the outside just before you go in and then there's, of course, the normal security checkpoint before you board your flight, early indications are the multiple explosions went off just outside that domestic terminal followed by this bevy of gun fire, unclear if that's from an attack or security forces. and picking up where ammon was leaving off, when we've talked about attacks from kurdish or pkk in the past, those have been

grenade attacks targeting security forces. the attack on march 19 in istanbul targeted western civilians. it was a major shopping area, this seems to be in keeping with that motive that would lead us to believe this is an attack likely carried out by isis rather than kurdish extremists, kate. >> and we don't know who is responsible or what the motivation might be as you've been saying, cal, or if it's a full terrorist attack or something else. i am looking at the twitter account of a member of parliament who's been tweeting about what's happening and he is saying -- a member of parliament in turkey -- he is calling it the actions of a suicide bomber. our turkish producer in the uk says he spoke to someone who works at the airport. that person said he witnessed suicide bombers. again, this is initial information not confirmed by nbc news but that's an eyewitness

account saying they witnessed someone responsible for what we're seeing unfold. all we know is that turkish officials have said there were two explosions. we have heard that there are multiple injuries, we don't know how extensive those injuries are, we have not heard details about whether there are fatalities. we've been watching tape of people being moved out. we've seen cal perry's social media reports of people having to get into taxis. >> people getting to the hospitals any way they can. this attack just happening 45b9 minutes ago but so this is fresh and we're seeing footage of ambulances lined up getting those wounded out of that airport. i think it's also worth mentioning that, again, we're going to talking about this a lot, kate, the soft targets. we saw this in brussels at the airport there. you can always attack these soft targets with relative ease and

security experts will tell you a suicide bomber is nearly impossible to stop. even if you have a secure checkpoint and if this was, in fact, the work of suicide bombers as we believe it probably was. we're basing that from turkish officials who say they believe this is the work of suicide bombers, it's incredibly difficult to stop a suicide bomber intent on blowing himself up. >> ammon mohyeldin, i don't know if you've had time to gather your twitterer amounts in social media but there are lots of reports coming in about the potential this may have been terroris terrorism. >> there are reports there was gunfire in addition to the explosion so it's still early but early indication is that this was an incident, an attack of some sort from all the

initial account s we're getting from the turkish interior ministry reporting multiple injuri injuries. istanbul is a commercial hub. the airport is busy where this happened. it's still very early to know but a major cause of concern for officials as they try to assess the damage but treat those that are wounded or those that may have been injured as a result of this attack. also the major concern is based on the fact that we are getting accounts of gunfire as to whether or not this is still an active situation or over with in the sense that the nature of the attack or the gunman or somebody who may be on the loose still posing a threat to folks that have been huddled inside that we're seeing images of right now. >> ammon, thank you. stand by. i want to bring in colonel jack jacobs who just joined me on set in new york. you've been to that airport

yourself. your first sense? >> first of all the airport is much bigger that it used to be. it's a very small place the runways have been exexpanded. the facilities for aircraft and passengers much bigger and lots of security except at the end of the day this is a soft target like a supermarket. >> why do you say that, though? people think of tsa in this country. they think of those are the most hardened targets there are you're talking about outside the perimeter? >> let's assume you can't get through the perimeter. the explosion and fire will be at the perimeter like any other soft target. anybody bent on destruction and death can accomplish that. >> we're looking at video just coming in, colonel jacobs, you can see people holding each

other it does look like it's -- obviously this is outside the airport. we dent know -- we haven't been able to figure out where this occurred. good intelligence might be able to protect you. somebody bent on destruction will be able to attack. >> let me go to lucy cavanaugh, our correspondent in london and monitoring all of this happening in turkey. lucy, what can you tell us? maybe you can reframe what we kno know. >> reuters is reporting that two suspects potentially blew themselves up at the airport

also turkish media reporting at least 40 people wounded. i lived in turkey for some time. this is the largest airport in istanbul. it would be incredibly packed and full of people at this time the ataturk airport is one of those airports that has an extra layer of security before you enter the petroleum thys you have to put your bags through an x-ray machine. we don't know if that explosion was outside of the security perimeter or inside but we know through the wires that this is looking like a potential attack, a potential suicide attack and, of course, this city the no stranger to these kinds of incidents. we have seen numerous attacks from different kinds of groups throughout the past several months. turkey is dealing with a

spillover over the syrian war. there are internal issues within the country with fights within the kurdish population and the turkish government. there's new information that police fired shots to neutralize suspects at the international terminal entry point of ataturk airport. this is according to officials, unnamed officials being reported at the moment by reuterss but a lot of moving part wes can't confirm with the exception of the facts that it did take place and it's a packed crowded area. a lot of people bound to be affected by what took place moments ago in turkey. >> i'm being handed a reuters report just coming in that says according to reuters news agency police fired shots to neutralize suspects. that would explain the shots being heard by others at the international terminal entry point of ataturk airport

according to one official talking to the reuters news agency. we had heard from other sources that potentially this might have been near the international arrivals area, lucy, but arrival area. i don't know that we have nailed that down yet. >> well, we're hearing that the suspects could have detonated their explosive before passing the x-ray security check. this is an unnamed security o official. nbc cannot confirm this but this is referring back to what i was saying before you go through the official operation in the airport just to enter the building, you do have the go through the x-ray machine at the entrance. so with the confirmed reports, we're hearing that they detonated the belts before people enter the area. now, having been there this is where taxis are lined up and people are getting dropped off and lined up.

it's crowded and evening in turkey and a lot of flights coming in and leaving. we didn't know the number of casualties or those killed. likely a lot of people impacted by what took place just moments ago and hours ago. >> that's certain. i am look at pictures that we have not cleared for nbc use, but they're images online showing people that are clearly clearly injured. it's unclear how many su side bombers might po potentially be talking about. reporting and others reporting that these may have been people with explosives strapped to them. they may have happened outside of security? >> yeah, just before the x-ray

machines. again a vulnerable spot for the international terminal. at least 40 people wounded. you heard lucy saying that's the case in any major international airport you have the long taxi queue. those are being used as ambulances to take them to the closest hospitals. two separate explosions and that's two separate suicide bombings. again at this spot before you check in and go through the x-ray machine, that's where we believe that the explosions happened and again very very similar and very early here in this process, but very similar to what we saw in brussels where you got as the kernel was saying you have to check people somewhere and this would have

been just before that first check. one of the remaining questions is gain and we're waiting to hear from the officials is this gunfire. we heard there was gunfire around the explosions. some eyewitnesses saying and they believe that gunfire may have been to neutralized the bombers. the security guards may have seen something suspicious and that's when the gun went off. 40 people wounded and those are just numbers but the photos are likely that the numbers are going to rise. >> stay with us. we have confirmed nbc news confirm that had this did occur outside of the international arrivals area. let's go back who is still on the phone with us. we're talking about the international arrivals and then the area right outside of that and that's where people wait to meet people? >> yeah, it's a busy part of the

airport. turkey in particular this time of night would have several flights arriving from the region and the world. it's a major international hub, so if you assume that many of these people are coming out of the airport or go in and catching domestic flights and you imagine that's a busy time of the day. as we can see from the images, you can see some of the debris in the scene of the destruction and it's the area where there's a lot of traffic and there are a lot of taxi cabs parked outside and a lot of people picking up the friends and relatives outside of the airport. i suspect that we have been able to determine that this was outside of the arrivals per the producers and that certainly this is going to be, you know, the scale of it is going to be bigger since it's a busy sixth

of the airport. >> you think of what we have been through over the year and six months and we have been sitting here doing the exact same thing. i have been sitting here and hearing the explosions. what do you -- it's early to know what it is, but what do you think that might mean? >> well, i think it's going to focus a little bit more attention and not that we need more focussing authorities on the notion of gathering intelligence of sharing information can which we do better now than we used to, but security organizations around the globe do not do enough of it and don't do it well enough. we all want to harbor and keep the sources. we don't want to tell anyone of the information that we may have and affect anyone else. they will will know how we got the information. that's got to stop. we have to do a better job of

sharing the information. we're better at it, but internationally, we're not as good at it as we are domestically. domestically, we're not so hot at it. every bureau in the united states and every executive department has it's own security operation and that's at the top of the food chain and then dissimilar nated to everyone. it's not efficient as it should be. this is a wake up call to do before at that here in the united states and elsewhere. >> let's go nbc analyst. evan, when you think of turkey you think of i stanbul. >> well, the first thought is isis because we have them over the border in syria. that makes sense. although it's important to

emphasize that there are a number of incidents in the last six months or so and some of them with the work of isis and many of them were kurtish separatists that use suicide bombs. in this case you have to ask yourself why the pkk would go over the international terminal? that's an attempt to target those from foreign countries. that's being the case, yes it's more likely than it's isis and the truth is that we don't know yet. there's no claims yet. no one has put a community claiming yet. until we have a claim of credit, it's hard to know if it's isis, al qaeda or again it can be pkk. we more likely go after a targeted with the turkish government and the terminal at

the airport. >> what would you read into what we're hearing here and two or three explosions and then an eyewitness in london saying that person saw someone with a bomb and talk about the strategy that might have been used? >> sure, the more likelihood that someone is going to get to the target. that does not tell us who did this but whoever did this, they had the resources and they were very determined to make a splash and then enough resources to put us us into this that they had success. . there are a number of countries surrounding turkey and are are all capable of the suicide bombers and launched attacks in the resent times. it's coming under a lot of

criticism and then suggesting and then there's a tolerated existness and then they look the other way and then it's in syria and then certainly this could indicate and then it's the government and then it's unseeing and the president and in syria and then isis is along the borders. they talk about the tush irk threat but not the isis threat. >> as we get more information, we hope that you stay with us. as we approach the top of the hour, it's 3:59 almost 4:00 on the east coast and 1:00 in the west in the united states.

it's night time in turkey. i want to recap where we're at for those joining us. i'm kate snow in new york and you're looking at pictures where we learned that there were multip explosions and two possibly three explosions and our own richard angle talking to a witness that say that is they heard a first explosion and saw a police officer dive on a suicide bomber and then that bomber exploded. that witness says that they believe that the police officer was killed. then there was a third explosion outside. we have heard about explosions being heard and we have heard about gunshots being heard as well. lucy is our reporter in london following it all for us, and lucy, what do we know? >> well, kate a lot of details are unclear at the moment. we're hearing that there's at least two possibly and three explosions at the airport. this is the largest airport in turkey.