next on msnbc sunday morning, breaking news. heightened terror concerns. the u.s. and great britain have closed embassies in yemen today. a live report straight ahead. also ahead, cold as ice. a large section of the united states is dealing with a record blast of arctic air. plus, the manhunt is over. the suspect in a thanksgiving day family massacre in florida is now in custody. we are live with the details on how police finally captured their man. also, it is a wallet-draining experience at the gas pumps. how high will gas prices go in the new year? and the must-see movies in the new year. will a lovable ogre's return to the big screen be worth watching? good morning, everybody. i'm david schuster in for alex witt. welcome to msnbc sunday. it is 11:00 eastern time, 8:00 in the pacific. here's what's happening right

now. but first up, al qaeda threatening americans overseas. an active threat has forced the closure of the u.s. embassy in yemen. the british embassy has also been closed. the suspect in the christmas day plane bomb attempt said that he got his marching orders from al qaeda operatives in yemen and today all 500 u.s. embassy employees there have been instructed to stay away until further notice and to remain inside their homes as much as possible. new details were revealed this morning on nbc's "meet the press." >> there are indications that al qaeda's planned to carry out an attack in sana, the capital. yemen. we know they are targeting or embassy personnel and we want to safeguard our diplomats and others down there so it was the prudent step to take. >> nbc's mike viqueira joins us now live from the white house. the administration's trying to portray this as out of an abundance of caution. but anything more specific about what prompted them to do this? >> we're told there is no specific threat but a number of factors picked up in intelligence over the last

several days, including the revelation that the president shared with the american public yesterday in his web and internet radio address where he said it was indeed al qaeda where the suspect trained, spent time, was actually taught how to use the device that he attempted to detonate over the skies of detroit on christmas morning, david. the president making that statement in a radio address. now as you mentioned, both the u.s. and the british embassies are closed. general petreaus, david petraeus, many people are familiar with him, he is now leading all u.s. military and allied military operations in the mideast region, including afghanistan, pakistan, the saudi peninsula. he visited yemen yesterday, consulting there with yemeni government officials. it is a new strong hold for an old enemy is yemen. many of the routed al qaeda terrorist operatives from afghanistan and elsewhere are now settling in yemen which has proven to be fertile ground. the president, as you know, david, has ordered these reviews to take place. he has a preliminary assessment

already. he will have a meeting in the white house situation room just behind me in the basement of the west wing come tuesday. he returns from his vacation in hawaii. what will he be looking for then? john brennan, the homeland security advisor that you just saw there on "meet the press," had this to say about that meeting on tuesday. >> clearly the system didn't work on that day because abdulmutallab should never have gotten on to that plane with those explosives. every other day the system has work so far this year. we've been able to thwart attempts by najdy bulla zazi. clearly what the president wants to do is make sure we strengthen the system. system is not broken but there are clearly ways to improve and strengthen the system to put together various bits of information that allows us to stop every single terrorist out there. >> human and systemic failures were to blame according to the president himself. incidentally, we know that the president's been in hawaii since

christmas eve. he returns tomorrow morning leaving late hawaii time this evening on sunday evening, david. >> nbc's mike viqueira at the white house, thanks, as always. for more on all of this we are joined live by nbc news terrorism analyst evan kohlmann. evan, first the timing of the decision to close the u.s. and british embassies today. >> it makes sense if you think about the reports that now the strikes, air strikes that we saw on al qaeda camps just in the last few weeks, took place specifically because of the fact that we had indications there were additional plans to attack u.s. -- the u.s. embassy, western embassies in sana, in yemen. it is part of a pattern. just 1 1/2 years ago in september of 2 240u8 al qae2008 arabian peninsula targeted the u.s. embassy in sana. it was memorialized in a video

they released. they said in retaliation for these air trix strikes we will k western embassies. it makes sense it would be a british or u.s. embassy. i think it was a step of prudence but it was probably a wise one. >> i want to get your reaction to a statement by the ncse's michael lighter in -- "the failed attempt to destroy northwest flight 253 is the starkest of reminders of the insidious terror threats we face. while this attempt was a failure, we know with absolute certainly that south caroli lth pursue an attack on the homeland. >> it makes perfect sense. in the aftermath of the abdulmutallab incident, on the internet right now al qaeda supporters are taking every bit and piece of the fbi report regarding the device that abdulmutallab's tempted to detonate and are putting it online. they've created a workshop to

study what went wrong with the device so that next time that same mistake is not made. whether it is through al qaeda in yemen or through home grown extremists, there is an effort right now to replicate this effort and try to make sure that the next time the bomb goes off exactly as planned. if you go back, it's exactly what al qaeda in yemen has said. they just released the document or an audio recording a few months ago where they said, look, don't wait for us to do it, make these explosive devices at home. you can launch attacks by yourself. follow in our lead. it is a reminder that there is a myriad threat here. it is not just one country or one region. you had another individual similar device as abdulmutallab in somalia. we have to keep our eye on multiple different threats and be aware it is not just pakistan, it is not even just yemen. there are several different countries now where there are al qaeda or al qaeda franchises or would-be al qaeda factions that all recognize that if they want to make a big splash in terms of media, in terms of recruitment,

in terms of financing, there is nothing better than launching an international terrorist attack, one that shows sophistication, credibility and know-how. >> to that end, some people in the united states are wondering is this just simply one incident and al qaeda essentially failed because they couldn't get this thing to detonate or was it a test run in which al qaeda was using this to probe the vulnerabilities of the united states and refine their tactics for the next attack or next series of attacks that maybe they are planning? from this is obviously not the first, nor the last, that we'll see of this. if you look at the reaction following the attempted assassination of a saudi prince that was running saudi arabia's counterterrorism program, by an assassin, a much-wanted al qaeda operative, carrying explosive made of petn, hidden within him. after he carried out this attack, al qaeda in yemen called him the first bullet. they said "this is just the beginning. we're going to carry out revenge like this all over the place." he is the example.

"we will follow in his lead." if you look at the video recordings they're releasing, they are videos of make-shift explosive devices which they are developing hidden in places like cassette tapes and cassette boxes. they're mailing bombs to people which are disguised as innocuous items. this is not the work of an organization that's carrying out one or two attacks, this is an organization which is clearly developing explosive devices in order to create systems and ways to penetrate western security. most particularly to cross international boundaries and get through airline security which is the only way that they're going to be able to get folks from yemen to other countries. if you have an experienced bombmaker who now has demonstrable -- a demonstrable record of being able to sneak devices through airline security, that's a big warning sign. i think we do have to take them seriously when they say we will do this again and we will succeed the next time. that's exactly what al qaeda in yemen has said. >> nbc news terrorism analyst

evan kohlmann, great stuff as always. thanks for being with us this morning. >> my pleasure. thank you. for more on how the terror attempt might have been prevented, we invite you to watch nbc's "meet the press" for david gregory's entire interview with deppdy national security advisor john brennan. that is today at 2:00 p.m. eastern here on msnbc. to a record blast of arctic cold in parts of the country, maine is dealing with a one-two punch, a combination of strong winds and falling snow. it is expected to bring blizzard or near-blizzard conditions to some parts of the state today. take a look at the big waves that storms stirred up along the massachusetts coast on saturday. a couple of roads were flooded, a few homes got some water. plus, there was 6 to 10 inches of snow that blanketed the state of maine and more snow is in the forecast for massachusetts and also for buffalo, new york. windchills in buffalo are expected to fall below zero. meteorologist alex wallace joins us now from the weather channel

in atlanta. alex, how long is this stuff going to last? >> you know what? it won't warm up for the next few days. that's the story. very frigid conditions. you mentioned that arctic day that's really invaded the country. we can thank our friends in canada. they provided it to us. case in point here, international falls, the last couple of mornings we've rung in this new decade on a very frigid note. we've been down into the 30s. that's 30s below zero the last couple of mornings setting daily records fr for saturday morning and this morning. very cold conditions indeed. we'll keep it chilly for sunday highs, across the northern plains 20s and 30s, even 30s down into the deep south. atlanta 34 degrees for you. miami, 63. you should be in the upper 70s in miami so pretty cool there. we head over towards los angeles though, the southwest, that's where we find some warmth finally as we get down into southern california. very cold conditions. as we head through the next few days we'll keep it quite chilly. looking at a map of the departures from average.

wherever you see blues, that's where temperatures are going to run on the cool side compared to where they should be this time of year. that will roll all the way into our monday and even into tuesday. quite cold from the middle of the country into portions of southeast. a lot of heeating bills will ge quite pricey. >> looks like a chilly week ahead for the midwest and east. alex wallace from the weather channel, thank you. you will not like the difference a year has made at the gas pumps. what's in store for your money in the year ahead? the best bets for keeping your dollar safe. you're watching msnbc sunday. and when you have it, everything hurts. for fevers and body aches from the flu, doctors recommend tylenol more than any other brand of pain reliever, for both children and adults. so when the flu strikes,

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welcome back to msnbc sunday. right now we're following the

breaking news that both the u.s. and the british embassies in yemen's capital have been closed today. that's because of an active threat by al qaeda in yemen. this is according to the obama administration's top counterterrorism official john brennan. brennan said today, "we are not going to take any chances." this comes just a day after the head of u.s. central command, general david petraeus, met with yemen's president to talk about increasing terrorism efforts in the country. both the united states and the uk also announced an increase in funds to yemen to combat al qaeda militants there. this is all happening on the very same weekend president obama acknowledged publicly for the first time the connection between al qaeda and yemen and the suspect in that failed christmas bombing attack. in a few minutes we'll have more on the latest news out of yemen. there is a big development this morning in that thanksgiving day murder case in florida. the suspect is now behind bars after five weeks on the run.

police arrested paul merhige at a hotel last night in the florida keys. he's accused of killing his twin sisters, his aunt and 56-year-old girl. >> it was a huge relief to know that the monster's in the cage ever since we've come back into the house, i've been in protective mode. we've had jupiter police in the front of our house and in basket protecting us 24 hours a day, seven days a week. but even with that, i would be inside my house patrolling the different windows. >> nbc's michelle kosinski is live in miami where this has been a front page story for weeks. michelle, describe how police were able do this. >> reporter: it seems remarkable that as meticulously planned out as police say paul merhige's massacre on his own family thanksgiving night was, as well as his escape, this is a guy who

was caught on surveillance video buying guns the day before the attack, getting his car serviced, taking thousands of dollars out of the bank, that he was caught so close to where it all started. he was in this area. he was still driving the same car. in fact, it was a tip from a member of the public that ended his five-weeks on the run. somebody watching "america's most wanted" apparently recognized the car. it was at a motel in the middle of the florida keys. that's where police arrested him. >> there is a weight lifted off our shoulders obviously by making this apprehension. now i can stand before you and tell you that this family is safe, we can give them a little peace and let them get on with their healing process. >> reporter: this was terrifying. the family, they live in several homes within this area of south florida. every now and then there would be a supposed sighting of paul merhige around one of those residences causing some panic in

the area. and especially for this family. they were living with 24-hour security in at least one location, some of the family members had armed themselves. nobody knew where this man was, what his next plan would be, or if he would come back and try to harm other family members. his family said that during the attack he announced that he had waited 20 years to do this. they described him as a brilliant young man. he is 35 years old but said that he was troubled. there had been some tension in the family and that he was on various medications for antianxiety. as you heard them say in the beginning, they are relieved that this is now over. as much as you can be considered they're still mourning loss of four of their family members gunned down on thanksgiving night, david. >> nbc's michelle kosinski in miami, thanks for that. we appreciate it. brace yourself. a bad boy pachyderm goes bonkers. hold your horses. we'll get to the story in just a

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at the gas pumps this morning, higher prices. the average price for regular gasoline edged ina half a cent to $2.66 a gallon. we are now paying over $1 more than we were paying a year ago today. leading economists say that improving the job market in 2010 will be the clearest way to spur economic recovery here in the united states. nbc's carmen wong ulrich joins us now. what's the key indicator that investors, wall street, everybody's looking for in the week ahead. >> we are looking for numbers to not just make a drop which we saw in the past month 262,000 fewer folks looking for unemployment benefits, we are looking for a reverse. we're still talking over 400,000 folks going after new unemployment benefits, 4.9

million taking in unemployment benefi benefits. we are looking for a reverse of that which will probably go into the summer or fall we'll see those numbers shift and see a lot of growth, hopefully in the six-figure numbers. >> what's the betting from most economists? that, yes, we will get to economic growth in the months ahead or are they essentially taking the view of the obama administration which is essentially saying we may still have some rough months ahead? >> i think there is no doubt we'll have a lot of rough months ahead. some analysts are saying during the spring and in the summer we'll see more unemployment changes. but i got to say that in looking that everything up ahead, talking commercial real estate market, residential real estate market, there are a lot of things to get through in 2010 and lending has to free up before jobs will be created. >> we've heard people talk about a double-dip recession. technically what does that necessarily mean and what's the likelihood according to most

economists? >> that means a very big pull-back again like the recession we've just had. we've seen substantial recovery. we've seen a recovery in the stock market that we haven't seen since the great depression. it was a banner year. however, for the decade we still come out way behind or below where we should be. of course all that growth we've seen in ten years was just wiped away. we won't see a huge recovery possibly until we see the double deep. i mentioned commercial real estate. bankers an analysts say that's what they are looking at as is next possible bubble and what's going to happen to those foreclosures. we have millions of foreclosures out there. until the real estate market in general looks up we may see another dip. >> finally, carmen, the sort of intangible, that's consumer confidence. though i suppose a lot of economists would say that's very tangible, when consumers feel more confident they buy more things. that in itself can help the economy. given that consumer confidence is up, at least a little bit, what's the view based on that

factor alone? >> but consumer spend something not necessarily up. for the first time we're seeing a really big shift. consumer confidence used to directly translate into more increased consumer spending. we are seeing that all the reports right now and surveys that came out last week that consumers are continuing to pull-back. not the same pull-back as after the great depression which was decades of folks keeping their hands on money and not spending it at all but we are seeing a huge shift in how consumers are spending. they're spending much, much less. the overall resolving rate of the credit card has been going down consistently so i think we'll see that continue as we go forward. this won't be consumer-driven economy recovery. >> carmen wong ulrich, thanks so much. we appreciate you joining us this morning. >> thanks, david. in a moment, back to our breaking news today. out of yemen where the united states and british governments have decided to close their embassies today. all the result of a growing threat from al qaeda. we will have the latest next. ( thud ) ouch!

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today we're following some pretty big developments into the investigation of the failed christmas day terror plot. president's top counterterrorism advisor says an nbc's "meet the press" there is now an active al qaeda threat in yemen and that one of the targets that officials are concerned about is the u.s. embassy. so in direct reaction to the possible threats, both the united states and british embassy today were ordered closed. today there is increased focus on yemen as a hotbed for terrorists. joining us now, "daily beast" chief investigative reporter gerald pozner. first, what do you make of the closure at the embassies today? gerald, are you there? all right, i think gerald pozner is not there or we're having some technical difficulties.

so let's move on briefly and talk about the political angle of all of this and let's be joined now by a.b. stoddard, columnist here in washington. as far as the politics itself, how does this news like today, people wake up on a sunday morning, they find out after a week of focusing on this terror plot over detroit and the airliner, that all of a sudden yemen's gotten so serious now that we have to close our embassy there. how does that essentially affect the public dialogue on all this? >> well, this is an interesting point, david. i think one of the problems initially for president obama last week is that he came out with his first response, we saw homeland secretary napolitano say that the system had worked. president obama himself gave a very weak response. his initial response came out the second day knowing he had to quell the criticism and be -- hold his administration accountable for these security lapses. he used much stronger language and has been very bold on this ever since.

i think that they realize politically the issue kind of got away from them. what's interesting about seeing them respond so forcefully once former vice president dick cheney comes in to criticize them, or the republicans, is that this administration actually policiwise has been quite tough on terrorism. you've seen them trim down in afghanistan, coordinate with the yemeni government to attack al qaeda strongholds there and also obviously increase drone attacks in pakistan. why is the obama administration so reluctant to talk tough on terror? i think that that become a political problem. if his policies are similar to the bush administration and he is aware of the fact that there is a new thriving al qaeda threat out of yemen, why are americans only finding this out now? i think politically it would help the administration to talk more about these problems and what the administration is doing to mitigate them and it would better position them to face

republican attacks in the aftermath of an event like this. >> it was a very harsh attack by dick cheney over the past week and a lot of democrats suggest that it was way beyond the pale given that the situation is still developing, and also that cheney seemed to suggest some things that were simply not true. the issue of dick cheney and his criticism of the obama administration came up this morning on "meet the press" with john brennan and david gregory asking the question. let's roll that and i'll get your reaction. >> i'm very disappointed in the vice president's comments. i'm neither republican nor democrat. i've worked for the past five administrations and either the vice president is willfully mischaracterizing this president's position, both in terms of the language he uses and the actions he's taken, or he's ignorant of the facts. and in either case it doesn't speak westerly what the vice president is doing. >> willfully mischaracterizing the president or the alternative is that he just doesn't know the facts. what do you make of it? >> well, that's obviously a very strong rebuttal and it was coordinated obviously by the

white house and they're pushing back hard on comments from former vice president dick cheney. dick cheney's criticism of the obama administration on national security and other matters fills a void, david, in a leaderless party. he is a lead republican, an art cl iculat advocate. even those who think is he a polarizing figure are happy to have him out there. so far this administration has been slow to combat criticism coming from former vice president cheney. the other problem with this is that you've seen former presidents, george w. bush and his father, choose to follow protocol which is not to criticize a sitting president when he's in office tackling all these problems. and so it's an interesting -- it's an open question about whether or not cheney's criticism is really unseemly. but you don't see his own party trying to rein him in because

they are without a leader and he riles up the base and keeps a lot of base republicans maep hap happy when he comes out and criticizes this president. i think until he sort of is reined in by members of his own party he's going to keep at it. >> i wonder if that suggests that the republican party is still very frightened of its essentially far right. you hear a number of republicans, as you've heard, who suggest, yes, there is a strong intellectual argument that dick cheney may have been trying to make but that dick cheney, because of his sort of bombastic, aggressive in-your-face sort of language and the fact that he's the one making the argument, that that doesn't help republicans. >> well, i think that republicans are split on that right now. i don't think there is a lot of republicans worried about strong criticism coming from congressman hoekstra or former vice president dick cheney. i think they're taking this issue and running with it, david. democrats are on the defensive right now over several items in their domestic policy agenda, particularly health care, on the defensive over joblessness and

the economy, and now on terror. i think this is an issue that we're going to hear about this all year long, even if there is not another attempted incident on an airliner or anything else. the republicans are going to take this issue, which they feel that they have an advantage on, and run with it and make it as political as possible. i don't know if the democrats would do the same if the position was reversed. i think that everything gets politicized now and i don't think that you see republicans really worried about what criticism from their party did last week to them politically. >> such a great point. a.b. stoddard, associate editor and columnist at "the hill" newspaper, thanks. joining us on the phone, daily beast chief investigative reporter gerald pozner. gerald, we've been talking about the political fallout and what it means that the united states and british governments have closed their embassies today in yemen. what's your reaction? >> i think this is the clearest example yet, david, of these governments, british an american, saying to the central government in yemen that what

you have going is not working. they're not making any progress on their own against al qaeda. they're only making the limited progress with the american help on air strikes. the problem is yemen is clearly that there is an intertwining between the president, president szalay, and al qaeda groups. it is the same thing that happens in pakistan where you have sort of this grouping between intelligence agencies, police agencies, the government and parts of al qaeda. it is very difficult to weed it out. there are mountainous regions that are hard to get into that are essentially lawless and it is little surprise to me today that we see both those embassies closing in light of what will be some retaliation probably from al qaeda. >> i was struck just by the timing, that there was general david petraeus meeting yesterday with yemen's president, and most countries, it is a humiliation when an embassy has to be closed. it suggests that you can't protect the visitors to your country. we haven't really heard anything as far as general david petraeus being upset about the meeting yesterday, but clearly there was

something that happened either in that meeting or something late last night that caused the united states to decide, okay, out of an abundance of caution we need to close the embassy. >> you're absolutely right. it is very likely that they are tied together. i agree, i think you hit the nail on the head, and that is that petraeus left yesterday's meeting with something that he wanted that he didn't get. not sure yet what that is, but clearly on top of what he went in and had the meeting with, he needed something that was on his agenda, he failed to get it from yemen and as a result today, that very public slap at them of closing these embassies. i think it is clear, we've known now for years that we have areas in yemen, these poor eastern provinces which are essentially run by parts of al qaeda. we have the areas down south in which you have successionist movements also backed by al qaeda. there is a desire in some parts of the central government of that country to try and crackdown on the terrorists. there is only a small group --

u.s. intelligence says about 200 active al qaeda terrorists in the entire country. but that's what makes them so difficult to find, because they're spread out over a mountainous region as well and in the broad southern area they are very tough to get to. >> gerald, finally, your most recent article you talk about the u.s. security officials being increasingly concerned about the chatter over petn, which was one of the elements that the underwear bomber had on him on december the 25th. how concerned are officials to this day about that? >> very much so, david. as a matter of fact, this had been an eight-year silence on petp,eon of the most powerful strong explosive, can be disguised to look like coffee grounds. literally about a quarter of an ounce can blow a hole in the side of an airplane. the last time it had been used was in december of 2001 when the shoe bomber richard reid tried to ignite his sneakers that he

had burned in to explosive bombs and failed to get the detonator off. it was eight years ago. now all of a sudden we pick up chatter about it over the summer. we see it used here on christmas day. the difficult part, the reason terrorists haven't been using it widely, it is very difficult to get a hold of and manufacture correctly. so now that he that they have one, i can guarantee you this, whoever made the underwear bomb that was used on christmas day did not make one set. that's what intelligence is worried about, that they had enough to make more than one bomb because so little is effective. and that we may have just seen the first failed attempt. there may be something else coming up. >> daily beast chief investigative reporter, gerald pozner, thank you so much. again, you can read gerald's latest dispatches at the daily beast, must-read for anybody who cares about investigative reporting. for the newest developments online on al qaeda's plot against americans in yemen, you can also go to www.msnbc.com.

if you have questions for me or any of our guests, send them to twitter.com/davidschuster. police in massachusetts have released surveillance video of a would-en robber whose felony was foiled by a fast-thinking employee. the video shows the man demanding cash from a convenience store owner. when he tried to run away the robber followed but so did a store clerk who tackle the man. the suspect essentially got away and officials are still searching for him. neither employee was injured. crowds in india expected a peaceful religious procession but instead they were nearly trampled by a spooked elephant. only two minor injuries. two minor injuries reported in the solo stampede before a religious ceremony. the elephant was supposed to be part of the procession but onlookers said the noise from the crowd frightened the animal and caused the animal to try to escape. keepers nearby controlled the situation calming the elephant down and minimizing the damage.

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some optimism to tell you about. despite being one of the worst years for car dealers plagued by bankrupts and layoffs, the end of 2009 was strong for car sales. car sales are expected to total 10.4 million vehicles sold in the last year with december giving automakers something to smile about. joining us now, jessica caldwell, senior analyst with d edmun edmunds.com. how did the car dealers do it? >> this has been a really bad year for you aer tomakers, without a doubt with the bankruptcy issues, the recession, the credit crunch. all of thieves factors have led to slow sales for over a year now. when we say december will be good, i think it is comparatively speaking. by itself it may not be great compared to a few years ago. but compared to where we've been over the past year it's been quite good. >> what can we see in the months

ahead? >> it's going to be tough especially in the first quarter of 2001, real tough still for the automakers. there is a lot of pent-up demand on the good side. people have been wanting to buy a vehicle but have held off their purchase decision because of economic reasons. there is a strong buyer's market out there, people just have to feel comfortable buying their vehicles. >> a big auto number comes out this week. could there still be surprises in terms of numbers coming in lower than a lot of people were thinking? >> we're thinking they could come in higher than we are thinking. traffic on our site and just sales in general, what i've been hearing from dealers, if it is true, traffic has done really well especially in the past week. we could maybe perhaps be in for a pleasant surprise rather than a negative one. >> okay. finally, gm is still offering huge discounts, still a lot of deals out there for americans. right? >> there certainly is. there are still a lot of deals out there for people depending on the kind of deal you are looking for. you can find everything from

mercedes to an entry-level toyota or honda. gm, for instance, is offering until january 4th, 0% for 72 months. if you're looking for a good finance deal, they definitely have one for you. >> jessica cadwell at edmunds.com, thank you for joining us this morning. now to the box office and a billion dollar baby. "avatar" is expected to pass the $1 billion mark in the worldwide box office and $350 million domestically following this weekend. later this year another movie that's expected to be a huge hit -- a shrek sequel. now to talk about some of the must-see movies for 2010, senior writer for "in-touch weekly," kim, our families saw "avatar" yesterday. i didn't think the plot line was so unusual but the effects were incredible. is that the wave of the future now? >> oh, yeah. look at "avatar" to start this ball rolling. we'll see a lot of 3-d movies in

2010. the fourth installment of "shrek" is coming out in 3-d. "shrek forever." it has a "wonderful life" type of thing. "toy story" in 3-d and so look for some 3-d in 2010. >> here's the 3-d clip in "alice in wonderland." >> you're back. >> alice! >> alice! >> alice. you're absolutely alice. i'd know you anywhere. >> tell us about this movie. >> this is tim burton's interpretation of "alice in wonderland." it is not the disney animated happy kind. johnny depp plays the mad hatter. he's made some comments saying he thinks the mad hatter's very poisoned. >> finally, is 2010 going to be as strong a year as 2009? >> for sure. a lot of sequels, throw-backs to

the '80s. look for "ironman." "sex and the city." "twilight" eclipse, the final chapter in harry potter is coming out in 2010. >> kim, thanks so much. in a moment, more fallout from the botched terror attack. will it trigger a political fight here in the united states? you're watching msnbc sunday.un p with hungry. or, you can follow the weight watchers plan entirely online and learn life skills that put you in charge. sign up for free right now and see how 31,000 food options give you options, and 1,800 recipes keep them fresh, so when life comes knocking, you can learn to live it, and lose weight and keep it off. sign up for free right now and get living. weight watchers online. stop dieting. start living. the more you expect from your pain reliever. tylenol 8 hour eases body pain...

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breaking news out of yemen today where al qaeda is said to have recruited and armed the man who stuffed explosives in his underwear and boarded a u.s.-bound plane. the american embassy in yemen has been ordered closed today because of what officials describe an active threat from al qaeda. president obama has summoned his top security officials for a meeting. for more on the white house of who will be held accountable for

the lapses, we're joined live. and jackie kucinich. on "meet the press" this morning john brennan, the top counterterrorism official in the obama administration hit back extremely hard at dick cheney who earlier in the week had harsh criticism for president obama. cheney said the president doesn't realize we're at war. here was the response this morning. watch. >> i'm very disappointed in the vice president's comments. i'm neither republican nor democrat. i've worked in the past five administrations. either the vice president is willingfully mischaracterizing this president's position both in terms of the languages he uses and the actions he's taken or he's ignorant of the facts. in either case it doesn't speak well of what the vice president's doing. >> karen, he's either ignorant of the facts or willfully mischaracterizing, what do you think of the pushback? >> it's about time. here's a president that's given us 500,000 more troops in

afghanistan. we had an air strike last week killing, i believe, 30 militants. general petraeus met yesterday with the yemeni president. this president has done more than the previous administration that cheney was under. and there was no mission accomplished. we didn't go and attack a country that had nothing to do with the war. at least we're going straight at the people coming after us. this president has done a tremendous job in just under a year in trying to make us safer. shame on cheney. >> jackie kucinich, as we take the temperature politically in washington, there could be a lot of political back and forth. yet when there's news like this morning of em baas being clobai closed, what do you imagine that does? >> i think in washington republicans have been trying to show that barack obama is week on security since he was inaugurated. this is as far as that aspect, this is nothing new. on gitmo they have been talking about how they think it isn't

right for them to close gitmo and transfer prisoners into illinois which they've taken to calling gitmo north. the fact that they're cite sizisize i -- criticizing the obama administration on this issue isn't really new. as far as the embassy closings, i think it can go either way. it shows that the threat -- that the administration is taking the threat seriously. but it also could show that, oh, okay, critics could say that, oh, well, then they're pulling back and they're not confronting the problem. so it definitely is going to be a topic of discussion. that's for sure. >> karen, what are you going to be looking for out of this tuesday meeting at the white house? >> more confidence, more strength out of this administration. i think he's been hit for things that -- of substance over style. but if you go and do your home work, he's done a lot to keep us safe. for us americans to be more vigilant and, more importantly, not let the terrorists win by

being so afraid but also that this administration has it under control. >> karen hunter and jackie kucinich, reporter for roll call, thank you both for coming on this morning. >> thank you. if reports are true, the wife of tiger woods may be in the mood for counting money. that's ahead on msnbc sunday.