good morning, i'm chris jansing. this is "jansing & company." we are learning more today about exactly what motivated that man who took a florida school board hostage. clay duke we now know was previously arrested for threatening to kill his first wife and his former lawyer in that case says he was paranoid.

nbc mark potter has more now from panama city, florida. mark, a little bit of a scene behind you. are people setting up for the news conference? >> yeah, news conference is coming up in a half hour with mike jones, the security chief here who ended the shooting that occurred on tuesday. he's been hailed as a hero and in the days since then, we've been looking into the life of the shooter, clay duke. and the more we do that, the more we see a man who had a troubled past. he had a criminal record and he had spent time in prison, he was mentally troubled and he believed in conspiracy and when he came here, he was well armed. >> you may leave, you may leave. >> reporter: as 56-year-old clay duke armed with a 9 millimeter handgun threatened the bay city school guard and then opened fire, a terrified witness called 911. >> oh, my gosh, he's firing. he's firing. he's firing! i don't know. >> are you secure where you -- >> we need an ambulance.

>> in confronting the school superintendent four board members and their attorney, duke said he was angry his wife had been fired from her teacher's job. rebecca duke, who is separated from him said he suffered from economic and financial pressures. >> the economy and the world just got the better of him and along with his bipolar, it just set him up for this horrible event. >> reporter: while police confirm rebecca was fired from her teaching job, they say she was unaware of duke's plan to lash out at the school board. even his former lawyer agreed that the gunman had mental problems and wasn't shocked he was involved in the shooting. >> he was the guy that everybody you hear about on the news that believes in the end of the world and conspiracy theories and things of that nature, he was that type of guy. >> reporter: in the year 2000, duke was convicted of aggravated stalking and shooting into a vehicle in a case involving his ex-wife. he was sentenced to five years in prison. >> he was dressed in full

camouflage and had an assault weapon and basically was planning on killing her the day he was going to meet her at her house. >> reporter: despite what happened at the school board, rebecca duke insists he was trying to turn his life around. >> he wanted a second chance. he lived in a very quiet community out in the woods so that he could wouldn't have to deal with the stress. >> reporter: police say they believe duke planned the school board attack for some time and arrived tuesday with lots of ammunition. >> he had a full magazine in his back pocket and then another box of ammo. >> reporter: neighbors describe duke as quiet and a loaner and much different than the aggressive gunman who opened on school officials and then took his own life after being wounded in a gun fight. and that news conference with mike jones is scheduled for about a half hour from now. school board officials and others say mike jones quick action by running into the room

as soon as he heard shots drawing down and shooting the intruder ending that event saved a lot of lives. again, he's being hailed as a hero here and we're eager to hear his side of the story in just a short while, chris. >> we are looking forward to that, mark, thank you so much. julian assange could soon be a free man and we could hear from him shortly outside the high supreme court in london. a judge rejected the appeal and granted the computer hacker provisional bail. now, we heard from his mother, christina assange less than an hour ago. >> i am very, very happy with the decision. can't wait to see my son and to hold him close. i had fact that the british justice system would do the right thing and that the judge would uphold the decision and that has been confirmed today. >> nbc peter alexander is in

london with the latest. a sense of how soon we'll see julian assange and if and when we do, we'll hear from him peter. >> chris, that is a good question. a crush of cameras that have set themselves up right outside the royal course of justice here. two and half hours since this hearing ended and everyone is waiting for assange to walk out the front door. the fact that you can see it is dark here now is not good news for assange. the banks shut down and courts all shut down at 5:00 today. if they're not able to get all the necessary paperwork signed and all the necessary assusignee do expect he will be released today, but that possibility exists that he's behind bars for a little while longer. is worth noting, though, that when he does leave, assange will go from the prison, which is one of the largest prisons in all of britain to a place that will mark a dramatic change in scenery. as part of the bail conditions, he will be staying in this 600-acre eskatate. a ten-bedroom manor that exists

outside of london. the conditions includes electronic monitoring so police can check on him. he will have to check in with police once each day between 2:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. to give you a sense of this country, the community is so small that that police station closes at 5:00 p.m. that's why he's forced to go in there during those earlier hours. again, julian assange expected to walk out as early as tonight and the possibility exists he's stuck one more night behind bars. >> peter, i know you're going to stay there and keep us updated. thanks so much. now, stay with me on this one. we can all agree supreme court justices need to walk a very clear line when getting involved with anyone or anything that could become a conflict of interest while making the law of the land. here's the question, does this cross that line? this is what i'm talking about. conservative justice scalia will give a talk organized by tea partier michele bachmann. now, she and her supporters have

been very vocal opponents of the new health care law which is sure to end up before the high court. his talk is not about that and is not open to the public, though, or to the press. let's bring in our company. patrick gavin, former domestic policy adviser jami floyd and princella smith. all right, now, we have to understand that it's not out of the ordinary for justices to give speeches. they do that. but then there are a couple major questions here and, jami, let me ask you the first one. does this create a conflict or at least the appearance of a conflict of interest? i know you vetted supreme court nominees before. is there a problem not only as michele bachmann sponsoring this talk, but she's on one of the briefs arguing against the health care law. >> and i think we all agree and we should probably put this on the table that this health care law will end up at the supreme

court. we have justices from different circuits disagreeing which gets you to the u.s. supreme court probably on a fast track. >> and a lot of americans who care about this noting the fact that the two judges that side would the obama administration are democratic appointees. the one who didn't was the bush appointee. >> and we have a question of congressional authority. all of that gets us to the u.s. supreme court and scalia likely to be sitting there when it gets there. that is the question of controversy, the question you raise whether there's a conflict of interest. that being said, as you point out, supreme court justices speak all the time. i've heard scalia speak on many occasions and i know the man and even though i disagree with him on almost everything more than any other justice with the exception of possibly clarence thomases, i've never seen him cross the line. he's very careful when he speaks not to cross the line and to anything he's going to pass judgment on and this speech will focus strictly on the separation of powers. it is not about the health care -- >> aside from the speech,

princella this is behind closed doors. how do we know if lawmakers can attempt -- are we supposed to trust that that is not going to happen? >> that is exactly the point i was going to bring up, chris. that is more of a concern than anything else. obviously, supreme court justices have the right to speak to whatever groups that they want to speak to and it should be noted here, i don't know if it's been said yet, but this is open to congressional members of both sides of the aisle. so, both democrats and republicans are welcome to attend this event and, yes, you're exactly right. i think the bigger issue is making sure that no one is lobbying justice scalia for what appears to be a pretty big future battle about the health care law. so, that is the more important question of the whole deal. >> it does seem, patrick, like back in the day supreme court justices weren't out there the way they are now. you also have a situation with ginny thomas, the wife of

clarence thomas where she has this tea party affiluted group and raised money for them and questions be raised we don't know where that munsy coming from. is this with all the fund-raising and with the supreme court justices being more likely to go out, are we in a whole new area here? >> i think what sort of bothers me is, let's assume that none of this is unethical, technically. that it does sort of fit in that box. the reality is that the supreme court is one of the few institutions that still enjoys a high public approval rating and still held as an esteem ee eed paragone of virtue. you have every year this debate about whether or not supreme court justices go to the state of the union and how they behave at the state of the union. all these stories that create this idea in the public's mind. even if it is completely legal and ethical, will slowly chip away at one of the only institutions that the public still reveres and that, i think, is the one thing i worry about.

>> shortly on the heels, the court has to be very careful about that and the court has enjoyed over the years and then some periods had dips in the enjoyment of its legitimacy and i, personally, as a lawyer and a political analyst think maybe justices shouldn't speak. maybe they shouldn't write books. i think this court has been very careful and i'd say scalia is among not to erode their leg legitacy. if i was a supreme court justice, i never will be, would not go on a speaking tour. >> the appearance of conflict is another issue. house democrats, meantime, plan to make one last stand over changing the tax cut compromise. they're talking about that issue right now on capitol hill. they have a vote coming later today. the senate overwhelmingly passed the deal, 81-19 yesterday. but nbc news has learned yesterday that the house takes two votes. first, to change the estate tax part of the deal and then if that fails, they'll vote on the

exact same senate deal. we're watching all of that on capitol hill. senate majority leader harry reid says he'd like to take up don't ask, don't tell before the lame duck session ends, although he's afraid republicans will run out the clock. he's been lobbying gop senators to join him to repeal the ban. republican senator olympia snowe says she will support the appeal on the military policy and the house voted to repeal don't ask, don't tell yesterday. we are getting new details on that breaking news story we were following all morning out of new haven, connecticut. police have confirmed that the devices were found inside a first floor apartment at the house you're looking at. now they're just waiting for the search warrant to go through the apartment with a fine tooth comb. brynn is on the scene. how did this come to light in the first place? how were these devices discovered, brynn? >> that home is split into two separate apartments and what new

haven's police chief told us in a news conference half an hour ago that the tenant on the second floor smelled the smoke from the first floor apartment and that person called the fire department. once the fire department came in that's when they found these explosive devices. now, at this point police are not commenting on what kind of devices were found, but they did emphasize that this is not being classified as terrorist activity. now, police do say that only the tenant on the second floor was evacuated. everyone else on this street does not appear to be in harm's way at this point, chris. >> brynn, thanks for getting us up to date on that. one of the heros to come out of that horrific florida shooting was ginger littleton. she tried to knock the gun out of his hands with her purse. coming up, we'll hear from another hero, security guard mike jones who ultimately put an end to this potential tragedy. did it all have to happen?

richard lui has a closer look. >> clay duke's wife does speak out about her husband, how he had a troubled background and how he tried to get back on his feet before he died. we share with you, also, what he wrote on his facebook page days before he died. my doctor said most calcium supplements... aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal. >> man: diving to 4,000 meters. >> boy: go down, down, down. down. straight. go straight. no, to the right. to the right. >> go to the right, go to the right. >> whoa!

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we're learning more about the border agent gunned down tuesday in minnesota. brian terry was in an elite squad. the former marine has also served as a police officer in michigan. his brother says protecting the nation was simply part of who he was. >> he died. what's to tell you?

if he didn't love it, he wouldn't have died. doesn't matter what kind of vest you got, what kind of gun you got. he died, man. >> four suspects are reportedly in custody. officials are searching for a fifth. let's bring in t.j. bonner, president of the national border patrol. good morning. >> good morning. >> the homeland security secretary janet napolitano will go down to arizona and meet with border patrol agents later today. if you were there, what would you tell her? what would your assessment of the security situation be? >> i would ask her why she is not letting border patrol agents do their job the way they know best. she has them deployed in fixed positions along the border. it speaks volumes when you have armed thugs running around 12 miles into the u.s. accosting illegal aliens and there are,

obviously, enough illegal aliens running around in that area to justify or to sustain them in their criminal enterprises. this is not border security, despite what she may say, despite what others may say. this is so far from border security. we need to change, fundamenta y fundamentally, what is going on along that border and secure it once and for all. >> when you hear about the violence, we have done that extensively on this program is about drug trafficking and then i think at least from what i've been able to see secondarily, human trafficking. where do you see the biggest threat to border patrol agents? >> the biggest threat is, obviously, from the drug traffickers because they're heavily armed. but people like these, these criminals, these bandits are also heavily armed and pose a very great danger to border patrol agents. >> i know the statistics that

we've shown are astonishing. overall, more than 28,000 people have been killed since mexico's president declared war on the country's drug cartels back in 2006. how do you see the next few years unfolding and what are you hearing from border patrol agents? >> we're already starting to see some of that violence spill over into the united states. obviously, not in the magnitude that it's happening down in mexico. but the signs are very troubling. and the fact that you have criminals willing to shoot it out with u.s. law enforcement authorities is not a good sign. it doesn't well for the safety of our officers along the border, be they border patrol agents or state and local enforcement. >> our sympathies to all of you. it's very difficult for border patrol agents to lose one of your own. thank you so much today for being with us. >> thank you. one of the greatest pitchers

baseball has ever known has died. bob feller. he was known as rapid robert for a near 100-mile-per-hour fastball. he joined the cleveland indians when he was 16 years old for $1. and a baseball autographed by the team. he won 266 games in 18 seasons despite losing four years serving for the navy in world war ii. he was the first major league player to enlist in the armed forces after the bombing of pearl harbor. an eight-time all-star, feller was indicate under to the hall of fame in 1962 in his first year of eligibility. bob feller, once an iowa farm boy and then a great cleveland indian was 92 years old. brian jones loved the holiday movie "a christmas story." after licensing the rights, he started selling versions of the film's iconic leg lamp and he used the profits to turn the

cleveland house where the movie was filmed into a museum. for more, watch your business sunday mornings at 7:30 on sunday mornings at 7:30 on msnbc. craping] [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. that's why there's castrol gtx... with our most powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don't let deposits hold your car back. get castrol gtx. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. all of a sudden, it's like an earthquake going off in your body. my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen to help protect my life. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. to my friends, i say, you know, check with your doctor, 'cause it can happen to anybody.

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you may be at increased risk of heart attack and stroke. don't kid yourself. talk to your doctor about your risk and about lipitor. millions of users and you might be one of them of some of the world's most popular websites are being asked to change their passwords for a massive security breach at gossip site gawker.com.

yahoo! twitter and linked in are just some of the sites telling users, reset your password. a new survey out this morning shows a lot of us are pretty careless when it comes to passwords. 42% say they never change their password on social networking sites, % never change their password on banking and financial accounts. i'm joined now by "today" show financial editor jean. what is the number one password. >> unbelievably it's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. >> gee, nobody would guess that one. >> a, b, c, d, e, f. >> people pick their passwords because they're easy to remember. inthey're that easy for you to remember, they're easy to figure out. you need a ten-digit combination of letters and numbers and you need to change your passwords every few months. but this survey which i worked on with the folks from norton it just shows people don't. >> many of them use the same

password for almost everything. quite a few actually use one password. doesn't matfer it's your bank, if it's somewhere where you're shopping and 71% do it because -- >> it's easier. right, we don't want to be some place out of our house. we're doing a lot of this transacting on mobile devices. we don't want to be some place outside of our house and have to get into a bank and have to get into a shopping site and not be able to log in. >> where can we keep track of these passwords? my brain cannot hold 25 different passwords. >> one thing that you can do, this is a great trick that i learned in doing this reporting. keep a list of your passwords. it's okay to keep it in your mobile phone, but in that list include a four-digit blank that only you know. you have all these passwords plus this extra four digits that is random, totally secret to you and then you make sure you don't know. another big problem is that people are not password protecting their mobile devices.

we're doing so much of this -- >> smartphones, they can do almost anything these days. >> think about losing your wallet, right? now, think about losing your phone and leaving it in a taxi. you don't have a password on it, what happens? >> i live in absolute terror of that happening. >> they have your contacts, they have your address and they have e-mails back and forth between you and your bank and you or any website where you purchased something. a cyberthief who is not even all that smart could take all that information and build a decent enough profile that they could apply for credit in your name. >> let me ask you really quickly because we're out of time. i do a lot of online shopping and a lot of people doing that as we speak. i sign up for almost every one of them because if i go back to it, i don't want to have to put my information back in. >> as long as you have an s in the url, it's a secure site and i think it's fine.

but you want to just be careful about doing this on your mobile phone when you're on somebody else's wi-fi network. the network is just as important as the device itself. >> jean, always nice to see you. happy holidays. >> to you, as well. here are a xupal updates, developing stories about mariah carey. first of all, she's having twins. a lot of speculation, but her husband, nick canon, made the official announcement on his radio show just moments ago. canon said he didn't even tell his wife he was going to spill the beans and he thinks he might get in trouble for it. but he said two vips got the scoop first. maria told the president and first lady during a taping of christmas in washington on sunday. the couple has not said when the due date might be. speaking of mariah, all i want for christmas is goat's milk. a farmer in the uk has discovered that by repeatedly playing mariah carey holiday hit "all i want for christmas is you" to his herd milk production

went up 20%. apparently the sound of her voice immediately gets his goats to relax and produce an extra pint each day. oh, no. >> unbelievable. ♪ every time it's so right ♪ well, it feels so good [ female announcer ] when you have a softer bath tissue, you can enjoy going more... while still using less. introducing new charmin ultra soft. new charmin ultra soft has an ultra-cushiony design that's soft and more absorbent. so you can use four times less versus the leading value brand. [ both ] ♪ soft to the touch... [ female announcer ] using less never felt so good. new charmin ultra soft. enjoy the go.

aren't absorbed properly unless taken with food. he recommended citracal. it's different -- it's calcium citrate, so it can be absorbed with or without food. also available in small, easy-to-swallow petites. citracal.

 i'm a member of this hotel'sre loyalty program.ce. well, how far away is it? okay, we take a train to a dude ranch, then we canoe to the conference. or we could book with hotels.com and stay closer. [ male announcer ] accumulate 10 nights and get a night free. welcomerewards from hotels.com. this is the courthouse in london and some time tonight julian assange could be released. what are they, six hours ahead of us? that would make it 5:30 in london. still several hours there before he might be released. they do think that could happen, so we have peter alexander there and our producers there and we're watching that for you because, obviously, a ton of microphones set up and he may have some things to say. we're also waiting for this other news conference to begin and the man of the hour is mike jones. he is the security guard who walked into the room where a man, a troubled man had been

firing, shooting repeatedly at members of the school board in panama city, florida. and a lot of people are calling him a hero. he shot at clay duke and then clay duke took his own life. this has become such a big story. we wanted to take a closer look at clay duke, who he was before he made that fateful decision to go inside that school board meeting. richard lui has been looking into exactly what duke was doing in the days before all of this happened. richard? >> chris, we're learning much more about clay duke. he led a very difficult life, as you were talking about today. he was an ex-con who filed for bankruptcy while he was in pr prison and while he was released he got psychiatric help and got medication. this year a judge then relieved duke of his probation obligations after duke told him he and his wife were out of wife. his wife talks here about duke's effort to bounce back. >> he had changed. he had been on medication. he had not been a problem to

anyone. his records through prison and through his probation, through everything from being off. he was trying to make it, trying to get a second chance. >> and also trying to get $500 or $600 a month in medical insurance. duke suing the social security administration that's what he was trying to do, losing his appeal for that there, chris, at least five times. as a result, his lawyer said he could not afford the medicine for the bipolar disorder he was diagnosed with and then a week ago duke joined facebook and posted stills of the movie "v for vendetta." a masked man that fights against government. that red v we see in the video was a symbol from that movie. then he also wrote this note on his facebook page. rich republicans, rich democrats, same same, rich. they take turns fleecing us.

our few dollars pyramiding the wealth for themselves. chris, finally, he also wrote this. some people may say i was evil. >> richard, thank you very much. patrick, jami and princella are back with us. there are, as always happens in cases like this. prin princella, shouldn't somebody have seen something or known something. he was someone who was troubled. sadly, i don't know, there are a lot of troubled people out there and you just don't always see this coming. >> chris, that's exactly right. the country, quite frankly, we're on hard times and everybody just can't deal. clearly the man had mental issues and i think there's something to be said. i'm not an attorney, but something happened here and there's a disconnect between letting this man off probation or letting him out of jail without some sort of assurance that he will be in mental counseling. i will say this, my father servi served on the school board for 20 years and in most towns

school board meetings are open to the public. but i have always expressed and had a concern that these meetings are open usually with no security and usually people just kind of go along and get along and no one expects that these things happen and, really, there have been several violent incidents maybe not to this degree, but people who just get out of control at these public forums. i really urge many of these small towns who just think that everything is fine and we do this every day. you really probably need to get some security there. you just never know who is coming to these meetings. >> obviously, we're waiting for the security guard in this case to come out. a lot of people saying he -- here you have a superintendent who's trying to talk to the guy. he says, keep me, let the other people go. you have a woman who is let go, she comes back with a purse, tries to knock the gun out of his hand. >> ginger littleton. >> yeah. i talked to her yesterday and she said it probably was thntd

smartest thing i ever done because when he knocked her down, he put the gun to her head. but it never ceases to amaze me the bravery and she did it because her friends were sitting there and she thought they were in danger, she couldn't leave them there. the bravery and the calm of people under the most extraordinary circumstances. >> the first thing i would have done is duck under the desk. these guys could have done that. they are trying to talk him down. what is interesting is the facebook incident of this. we had a guy threaten to attack our metro system and the authorities were alerted by something on facebook and that's great. it is going to present some interesting situations down the road because everybody talks on facebook and says things whether crazy or not crazy and hard to separate something like this after a guy who is just venting after seeing a movie. facebook is a great resource.

>> especially if the shooter suvives and heads to trial. what is fascinating, as you pointed every one of these mass shooting cases you have these incredible heroes like mr. jones who we'll hear from shortly like ginger littleton. i saw your interview, amazing colonel. they say i was not being courageous, i was thinking of my friends. these are american heroes but we have too many of these stories. it's not just florida. this is a nationwide academic. this man had a criminal record and a history of mental illness. if it doesn't rise to insanity in a court of law, he certainly had a mental illness and yet he had firearms -- there he was firing at other american citizens who were unprotected. that's a problem. i know we have a right to bear arms, but we have to find a way to keep them out of the hands of those who are mentally unstable. >> thanks. as we wait for the security guard to come to the microphone, the president is also going to be speaking.

discuss his long-awaited report on the war in afghanistan. he'll be joined by vice president joe biden, secretary of state hillary clinton, defense secretary robert gates. nbc chief washington correspondent chuck todd is inside the briefing room. what are we expecting, chuck? >> we'll hear from the president and then you'll hear from the two secretaries, gates and clinton. they'll take questions. we expect an update where they'll talk that progress has been made and they're going to make the case that the strategy is working but it's not irreversible and that's why they have to continue. it will be interesting to see exactly the language that is used when talking about the beginnings of a conditions base withdrawal. what does 2011 mean. obviously a month ago in lisbon when they signed off with nato when they pledged to keep combat troops in there to 2014. what is the meaning of july 2011 versus 2014 and that will be some of the things that we're all interested to hear from the

president. >> is there a general agreement among the secretaries and among the president and among the people who make these kinds of decisions and influence these decisions that the counterinsurgency strategy now is working? >> that is the case that is going to be made. they believe it is working but, again, it's sort of cautious optimism that nothing is irreversible yet. but, yes, they believe that there are signs of progress and more signs of forward progress than any steps backward. >> does there seem to be any opposition out there that is significant to argue in places of power for troop reductions earlier than this? >> that is, politically, this isn't going very well with the president's own party. you saw on our own nbc/"wall street journal" poll when we asked about the deadline, a majority of democrats were not in favor of it. it is really only republicans that were supportive of this plan and, overall, made it as if

a majority of the country was supported. but there are definitely cracks in the president's coalition and i know our pollsters are wondering if this is something politically that could be very tough for the president in the next few months, particularly if july 2011 comes and goes without a lot of troops being withdrawn. >> as they try to win popular opinion for waiting until 2014 to argue that the counterinsurgency strategy is working, is there a feeling at the white house at all that the wikileaks disclosures, particularly when you're talking about the the graft and corruption and the central government that that has hurt their cause? >> well, i think that's one of the tougher questions they have to answer. a tough question they had to answer a year ago and tough one for the president to answer six weeks ago in lisbon because there are a lot of signs that karzai isn't the most cooperative partner and, obviously, wick ae leekileaks a have indicated the same and

those assurances are not necessarily there and that's going to be other questions that i think that are going to be leveled that both secretary gates and secretary clinton and we'll see if the president discusses them, as well. >> chuck todd, thank you so much. we'll let you sit down as he waits for the president to arrive there in the briefing room. let's go to panama city, florida. the news conference with mike jones, the security guard who is being called a hero after a shooter came in to the school board meeting the other night. let's listen. >> we appreciate everything you've done, but i wouldn't be in front of you today and i have no doubt that the men and women on the board and the board attorney, many of us would not be able to talk to you today if it hadn't been for the blessings of having mike jones as head of our security for our school system. his timeliness, his professionalism and his ability to do what had to be done. this is what mr. dukes wanted. he was going to make this

happen. but mike in his timing saved our lives and i don't say that lightly and i don't say that just to have something to fill in the blanks. i know that i owe the good lord a great thank you for having mike there at the right time being able to do what he had to do. right now, i want to introduce to you, mike jones. >> i appreciate all of the waiting you've had to go through and i'm sorry when this incident happened that they took me to the hospital and my daughter's only 54 ft. and she wanted me to stay overnight and i had to stay there. but, first of all, i want to tell you that being a law enforcement officer you always think about this day and i just want to let the duke family know that my heart goes out to you. he was somebody's son and somebody's father and maybe even

a grandfather. i don't know, i don't know the man. i never met him. my heart goes out to that family. i think that the thing that sticks in my mind most of all was during the the gun battle i tried to get this gentlemen to come outside with me and draw him away from the school board and the superintendent and that didn't work. when i was planning my engagement and i saw that first shot and i knew the superintendent fell backwards and all the board members fell backwards and he and i engaged in the gun battle i lost a superintendent and i love him and the board and i love the school system and that's the only thing that would come to my mind. when the superintendent came up from behind that counter and franklin harrison and he came and hugged my neck, that's when i lost it like i am now. i cry at chick flicks, too, you

all. but just to see him. it was like seeing a newborn baby for the first time that i knew. i'm not lying to you. i can't get that out of my mind. that's the picture i see the most. i don't see the shots being fired, i don't see the bullets, i see him coming from behind that desk and i knew that it was okay and, you know, it's just that training. if you folks don't know, probably not what i know about law enforcement. law enforcement officers and their spouses they go through so much. we train, we train, we train, we prepare, we prepare and i know a lot of times the school board folks get tired of me saying, aren't you going to quit preaching. but that's what it is all about, folks. without the training i received with panama city police department over 20 years there and the sheriff's department now and air force base security guys

they just put me through the rapid response shooting school. if i didn't have that training, might have been a different scenario. i'm just glad that we're here. i apologize, but yesterday i spent most of my day with my pastor and jerry moore, who is my retired pastor. i just want to get right with god about this and get right with my church about what had happened. you know, you think the first thing that came to mind was, what is this community going to think of me? i am known as this nice guy and now i've taken somebody's life and, you know, my parishioners what they would think and then, honestly, i shot the man in the back the first time and i was thinking i was going to jail. and just so many things that go through your mind, but it was the instinct and the training and i'm just glad that they're all here and alive. i'm not a hero, folks. i've just done my job. >> yes, you are.

>> i just want to thank my wife. folks, i'll tell you something. if anybody doesn't believe in god, this was the first angel he sent my way 21 years ago and he was wrapped around that entire room yesterday. i don't know how i lived through all the shots that were fired at me during that battle. but i praise god for everything right now and give him all the thanks. i appreciate you all being here. i'm sorry it took me so long to get here. but just had things to do. >> could you walk through yesterday from the time you first heard about it -- how did you respond to it and all the steps you took along the way start at the beginning all the way to the end. >> actually, there was an item on the agenda they were doing some remodling and i was going

to move to a different building. i want to go to the pre-k playground, they play rough here. i don't want to be here any more. that is what was on the agenda and i called my immediate supervisor to see if he needed me at the meeting to answer any questions the board might have and he said no and then the secretary called me and they said, no. i said, you know what, i'll go by there because i have a feeling they need me in the board meeting to answer some questions and i wasn't in the building five minutes and i was in a gun fight. . it happened that quick. >> jessica barren, one of our finance people called me on my cell phone and said there is a man with a gun in the board room. i took the stairs down and done a peek-a-boo into the room the first time just want to get an assessment and see what was going on and drew the guy's attention to me. i was hoping to get him to come to me, to come out of the building and he didn't fall for that. he wanted me to come in and i

closed the door to go to plan b and from there i went to my vehicle, which was parked right outside the back door and got my vest and some extra ammo because i knew it was serious and he had a real gun. i came back to that door and peeking through the crack of the door at the time and when i saw his back and he squared up with both hands, i knew the fight was fixing to happen and i reached for the door and it was too late and he filed the first shot at the superintendent and i thought he was dead and i just opened the door and he and i went at it. no, sir, i was opening the door with one hand and firing with the other hand. there's no doubt about that. there's no doubt. when he fired the first shot, i had no recourse. it was a gun battle then. >> when you first -- 20 years experience have you ever had a gun battle like that? >> i had been in one and win witnessed another. in this case when i was peeking through the door, i was trying

to isolate him and any time you do these things. you locate, isolate and neutralize the threat in rapid response and i just didn't have a shot to take the shot because all the board members were sitting straight up and i just didn't have the time to snatch the door and get a good clean shot so i was waiting. but when he shot, i thought he had shot the superintendent and i engaged no matter what. >> mike jones, the security guard who may well have saved lives in that school board meeting. a picture of lives, a picture of bravery, humility, bravery, compassion. now we go to the president. he is flanked by the vice president and the secretary of state. talking about the way forward in afghanistan. >> in my national security team and our coalition partners. that is what we've done as part of our annual review which is now complete. i would like to thank secretary

clinton and secretary gates since admiral mullen is in afghanistan, i'm pleased we are joined by vice chairman admiral cartwright. ambassador richard holbrooke whose memory we honor. the tributes to richard that have poured in across the global speak to the enormous impact of his life and broad international commitment to this region. i have spoken to president karzai of afghanistan and the president ofpakistan. i want to update the american people on our review. i want to be clear, this continues to be a very difficult endeavor. i can report thanks to the extraordinary service of our troops and civilians on the ground, we are on track to

achieve our goals. it's important to remember why we remain in afghanistan. it was afghanistan where al qaeda plotted the 9/11 attacks that murdered 3,000 innocent people. the tribal regions along the afghan/pakistan border where they have launched attacks. if a wider insurgency engulfed afghanistan that would give al qaeda more space to perform these tasks. i want to be clear about our goal. ultimately, it is afghans who must secure our country. it is not nation building. it is afghans that must rebuild their country. we are focused on disrupting, dismantling and defeating al

qaeda in afghanistan and preventing them from the future. today al qaeda senior leadership in the border region of afghanistan and pakistan is under more pressure than at any point since they fled afghanistan nine years ago. senior leaders have been killed. it is harder for them to recruit, travel, train and plot and launch attacks. in short, al qaeda is hunkered down. it will take time to ultimately defeat al qaeda and remains a ruthless enemy bent on attacking our country. make no mistake, we are going to remain relentless in disrupting and dismantling that organization. in afghanistan we have three areas, our military effort to break the taliban's momentum,

our civilian effort to promote effective governance and development and regional cooperation especially with pakistan. our strategy has to succeed on both sides of the border. indeed, we have put in place the strategy and resources that our efforts in afghanistan demand. because we ended our combat mission in iraq and brought home nearly 100,000 of our troops from iraq we are in a better position to give our forces in afghanistan the support and equipment they need to achieve their missions. our drawdown in iraq means there are tens and thousands fewer americans deployed in harm's way since i took office. with the additional forces in afghanistan we are making gains in our objectives. the personnel i ordered in afghanistan are in place along with additional forces from our

coalition which has grown to 49 nations. along with our afghan partners we have gone on the offensive, targeting the taliban and its leaders and pushing them out of their strongholds. progress comes slowly. at a very high price in the lives of our men and women in uniform. in many places the gains we've made are still fragile and reversible. but there is no question we are clearing more areas from taliban control and more afghans are reclaiming their communities. to ensure afghans can take responsibility we continue to focus on training. targets for the growth of afghan security forces are being met and because of the contributions of additional trainers from our coalition partners i'm confident we will continue to meet our goals. i would add much of this

progress, the speed with which our troops deployed this year, the increase in recruiting and training of afghan forces and troops and trainers from other nations, much of this is a result of sending a clearer signal we will begin the transition responsibility to afghans and start reducing american forces next july. this sense of urgency helped galvanize the coalition around the goals that we agreed to at the recent nato summit in lisbon. we are transitions to full afghan security that will begin early next year and conclude 2014. nato remains committed to training and advising afghan forces. our review confirms for the security gains to be sustained over time there is an urgent need for political and economic progress in afghanistan.

we have dramatically increased our civilian presence with diplomats and development experts working alongside our troops risking their lives and partnering with afghans. there must be a continued focus on the delivery of basic services as well as transparency and accountability. we will fully support an afghan process that includes reconciliation with those taliban who break ties with al qaeda and accept the afghan constitution. we will forge a new strategic partnership with afghanistan next year to make it clear the united states is committed to the long-term security and development of the afghan people. finally, we will continue to focus on our relationship with pakistan. increasingly the pakistani government recognizes terrorist networks in border regions are a threat to all of countries,

especially pakistan. we have welcomed pakistani offensives in tribal regions. we will help to strengthen pakistan's capacity to root out terrorists. nevertheless progress does not come fast enough. we continue to insist that terrorist safe havens within their borders must be dealt with. we need to support the economic and political development critical to pakistan's future. as part of our strategic dialogue with pakistan we will work to deepen trust and cooperation, we will speed up our projects that improve the lives of pakistanis, we will encourage closer cooperation between pakistan and afghanistan. next year i look forward to an exchange of visits including my visit to pakistan, because the united states is committed to a partnership that improves security, development and justice for the pakistani

people. again, none of these challenges i have outlined will be easy. there are more difficult days ahead. as a nation we can draw strength from the service of our fellow americans. on my recent visit to afghanistan i visited medical unit and pinned purple hearts on some of our wounded warriors, i met with a platoon that lost six of their teammates. despite their tough fight and sacrifice, they continue to stand up for our security and for our values that we hold so dear. we're going to have to continue to stand up. we'll continue to give our brave troops and civilians the strategies and resources they need to succeed. we will never waiver from dismantling, disrupting and defeating al qaeda. we will forge partnerships with those commi