of activity, construction activity and that's a very positive thing here because for so many years, nine and a half years, there's been so much wrangling about what was going to be constructed here and rebuilt here and how they would happen and progress that the president will see and the families see coming here today. for example, you can see the outlines of what will be the memorial. those two gray areas. those are the original footprints of the two twin towers and where the memorial will open on the tenth anniversary of the september 11 nthd a few month's time. around the borders of those two areas will be plaques, markers with the names of those who died here. there will be waterfalls, cascading into a reflecting pond, an area where people can come and sit and reflect and remember what happened here. there's also construction going on of office towers that will border that area. there are going to be five, the largest is world trade center 1, already some 60 stories tall. it's set to be 104 stories tall and used to be called freedom

tower. it will be 1,776 feet tall, patriotic al patriotically, symbolically. president obama will lay a wreath and meet with several dozen 9/11 family members quietly, privately. i think people are glad it will be a low key ceremony. it's a place to remember. thomas? >> very respectful day, for sure. thank you so much, appreciate it. jerry nadler is the congressman for 8th district of new york, includes ground zero. speaking for your constituents how important was the successful elimination of bin laden and this presidential visit to your district today? >> well, the elimination of osama bin laden is of great importance. it's rare in the history of a country to have unabashed,

unquestioned good news. it doesn't bring closure to people who still are missing someone at the dinner table, whose relative was killed but it brings a certain amount of justice and a certain good feeling. it is very important. >> sir, you're one of the strongest proponents for the 9/11 first responders bill. give us the latest about the implementation of this law for the people desperate for the assistance. we can't drive home the point it's nearly ten years later. >> there's two pieces of the bill. one is proper health care monitoring and services to people who are sick because of the toxins in the air, injured, whose injuries weren't clear until later and compensation for them. again, after the original compensation board ran out. we're now told by the attorney general that after considerable pressure that this will be up and running by october 1st. we expect the administrator for the new victims' compensation

board to be appointed by then. we expect the system to be functioning by october 1st for all the survivors and first responders. >> congressman, nearly every district our nation has men and women serving overseas in the war in afghanistan. do you have the feeling in washington that the death of bin laden is impacting the conversation, especially when it comes to the level of troop withdrawals coming up in july? >> well, i think that discussion is just beginning and i think, yes, it is impacting it and will impact it more greatly as quite few of us are saying that we invaded afghanistan to eliminate al qaeda terrorist bases which were planning to aim against us. we got rid of the taliban government in two weeks and then the mission sort of changed to take over the country and install a friendly government but now that osama bin laden is dead and wasn't in afghanistan, it makes the point that there's really no point in keeping a lot of troops in afghanistan. we should decle victory and go

home and reserve -- the cia says fewer than 50 to 100 al qaeda people in afghanistan altogether and we can much better serve the purpose of defending ourselves by preserving the right to attack a base in afghanistan or pakistan where they're plotting mayhem against us. we don't have to occupy the territory nor do we have the capability of shaping the government to one of our liking. >> congressman, thank you for joining us this morning. i know this is a symbolic and also a sad day but a very important day for your district. >> bittersweet. >> it is. thank you, sir. we appreciate you spending part of your morning with us. >> thank you. we're watching the president landing in wall street. he arrived at jfk. roughly about 10:50 and there we see the helicopter on the tarmac having just landed for what is a very important and early afternoon here in new york city for the president. it's also a very important day for the family and the friends of the men and women who died on 9/11. the president's visit marking the successful elimination of the man behind the attacks but

also a reminder of what was lost on that fateful day. phyllis rodriguez lost her son greg in the attacks and joins me this morning. phyllis, really nice to have you here. >> thank you. >> when you heard about the news of bin laden finally being eliminated after all of these years and i can't stress it enough, here it is almost ten years later, what were your emotions? >> my initial emotions were the same feelings of grief and shock and loss going back nine and a half years to that day. i was -- you know, so many things remind us of that day. you really never forget it. and then, i was stunned that it happened because i had given up thinking that osama bin laden would ever be captured. as news unfolded, i also felt very sad. when i learned that he had been killed, and not captured alive,

i was disappointed and i was sad. i was sad personally because once you have lost someone in a violent manner and in an untimely manner, you cannot rejoice when another person dies. or is killed. and also, i feel that true justice would have been done if he could have been captured alive and tried in an international tribunal for the things, the plots that he masterminded in tuns nia and other places so that the world could learn and face the accusers. >> do you think that having the president in manhattan today connecting with first responders, families, is an important gesture for the president to make? >> yes, i do. and i'm very happy that he's not going to make a political speech today. >> for you, you know, this word

is bantied about a lot. closure. is it more about coping than closure. >> very good. yes. it's coping and making it part of you and having it take a place that's always there but being able to live a full life. >> phyllis, we appreciate having you on today. we honor your son greg today and the rest of america and we really thank you enough for spending part of your morning with us. thank you. >> thank you very much. the u.s. navy s.e.a.l. was inside the compound more than 40 minutes, most of that time was spent gathering up computers, hard drives and files which could provide valuable intelligence on al qaeda members and ongoing operations. jim miklaszewski is the chief nbc pentagon correspondent. we have the details. five computers. dvds. over 100 thumb drives. so this is really a treasure trove of information. what do we understand about the analysis to be done on this? >> reporter: well, you know, there are hundreds of analysts

that we understand that are assigned to this task force for both the fbi and the cia. they're trying to glean any information they can first about identities of people that they may not have known about before and the attorney general, eric holder, yesterday up on capitol hill, told lawmakers that, yes, we have already taken names off that intelligence and put them on a watch list. so, it's already gleaned some valuable intelligence. and that's just scratching the surface, actually. everybody was really surprised at the amount of potential al qaeda information that they found at that site. they didn't think that osama bin laden would have been that careless. and when you said most of the time, those navy s.e.a.l.s, one of the reason for the mission to stretch out to 40 minutes was because they were finding so much of it. it took them longer to gather it up and throw it in the satchels and take it off with the body of bin laden as we know and it's back here in the states already.

>> in addition to the computers, they found five cell phones. bin laden never using them but the people around him using those devices. so what can we learn from their use? >> reporter: well, what you can learn is specific phone numbers that were dialed or calls that were received from specific phone numbers. abe if they're the right kind of phones as we have learned just recently they would also be able to track the gps locations of where that phone had been taken at any given time. these two while it seems like a simple cell phone can yield i hate to say it again a motherload of intelligence. >> jim miklaszewski at the pentagon, thank you. >> reporter: okay. once the analysis of the material that the s.e.a.l.s took from the bin laden compound is complete, attorney general eric holder says new names probably going to be added to the terror watch list, some already. should we expect any major surprises? covert field operations officer

for the cia and president and co-founder of the diligence llc, an intelligence and security firm. mike, good to see you again. >> thank you. >> as we get the new information about they were able to collect and really a boatload of stuff to pull out of there, what's the first thing the cia looks for? >> you gather up the material. they just hoover up everything to get their hands on in the course of the 40 minutes on target. and it's a bit like picking up a high-value detainee off the field. what you want to do is immediately figure out if they know of imminent threats so you're looking for any indication that is they're aware of an operation in the final stages of planning. now, obviously, everything else is also of immense interest and you're talking about people. not just members of the al qaeda but sympathizers, support personnel. you are talking about the finances, bank accounts, any little detail. you know, reference to an atm card, whatever it allows you,

entities set up as pass throughs for assets for al qaeda. communication patterns and procedures. training sites. safe houses. there's an enormous amount of material that could be on here but it's still speculative because, of course, still analyzing. >> to think about this, if they were taken alive, many of the people there, this information factual information probably provides much more information than getting out of an interrogation. >> well, certainly, in a faster fashion. yeah. interrogations particularly in this circumstances that we exist in now where we've publicly stated to the world we will simply use the army field manual. what that means in a sense is we're stretching out the period of time that you may need to gather information. not necessarily because you have taken -- i mean, it is not so much the enhanced techniques as the concern over the enhanced techniques from the detainees' point of view. we've removed the sense that they've lost control and now we

can analyze the information in a relatively quick fashion and may be encryption, language issues. we have do go through and figure out what is and isn't actionable and also playing beat the clock. the hostiles, al qaeda, as soon as the news broke about the takedown of bin laden, of course, they're all scrambling. like rats off the ship. >> changing the ways of anything coming up. good to see you this morning. i appreciate your time, mike baker. we'll have much more on the president's visit to new york city. we are expecting him to come to new york city's fire house that is in the neighborhood there shortly. we'll bring it to you live here on msnbc. in phillips' colon heah defended against the bad gas, diarrhea and constipation. ...and? it helped balance her colon. oh, now that's the best part. i love your work. [ female announcer ] phillips' colon health.

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welcome back, everybody. it is a big morning right here in new york city as president obama has landed roughly about 25 minutes ago at jfk and then recently took a helicopter to

the wall street heliportla landg there about 10 minutes ago. he is laying a wreath in memory of the 9/11 victims, also meeting with first responders and families. the shot we are showing you right now is outside of a firehouse hit pretty hard after the september 11th attacks. the president stopping by there first and then on the way to ground zero from there. pakistan is still a very hot topic on capitol hill this morning. senate leaders continue the discussion on the tenuous relationship with our supposed ally. >> there are few countries as important to our national security right now as pakistan. no matter what we learn about the events that proceeded the killing of osama bin laden, we still have vital national security interests in this region. we have worked hard to build a partnership that allows us to pursue common threats and

interests. >> jamie reuben is a former state department spokesman and joins me in studio. we'll keep the two box up so the viewers watch as we wait the president here in the city. earlier this morning, pakistan's foreign minister said he didn't think that the nation's relationship with the u.s., quote, nosedived. but we are getting leaders on both sides questioning the relationship and i'm sure americans at home watching this thinking as information comes out questioning this relationship. so, where does it stand for us right now? >> well, it is hard to believe that the pakistani government or members of that government didn't know that this compound was housing somebody important. or if they did, didn't know how could they not have known? so that question, what did pakistan's government know and when did they know it, is one that americans and american officials and senators as you mentioned are going to be asking for a long time.

the problem as chairman john kerry pointed out is whatever you think about sosa ma bin laden whereabouts and what they knew and when they knew it pakistan is crucial to us getting the job done in afghanistan and making sure that we can kill or capture or stop any other terrorist organizations in that part of the world from threatening us. >> so the senator's saying in that piece right there that they're valuable to the national interest but here's the major points we hear about pakistan. they have nuclear weapons. we need the supply route. they're a stable ally. seems like we have to keep working with this nation no matter what to keep this relationship ongoing and means the tax dollars poured into the country to foster this relationship. but what kind of loyalty are we really buying? >> i don't think we're buying any loyalty. we are buying practical trades,

quid pro quos on a regular basis. the truth is that pakistan is inside deeply conflicted. the pakistani army and intelligence service have a view of that part of the world that we just don't agree with. they believe that somehow a stable government in afghanistan without the taliban is not in pakistan's interest. we believe that is in our interest. we don't understand their obsession with india. the bottom line is pakistan is so obsessed with india gaining something either in afghanistan or in kashmir or in that part of the region they do things we cannot comprehend or understand. >> when it comes to the military action over the weekend, i mean, foreign policy, much larger topic and an article of associated press today on what they call the quote compare bring scant foreign policy experience of the potential 2012 field for republicans to be elected president.

is that experience a really powerful tool and how effectively can it be used on the campaign trail especially if the economy stays the way it is? >> i'm in the foreign policy business so i would like to think that the next president is going to have good experience in foreign policy but having observed these elections over the years, face it, president obama did not have much experience compared to john mccain, his opponent who had been chairman of major committees for decades and as we can see from this weekend he's done a perfectly fine job as commander in chief so i think we have to be realistic those of us in the foreign policy business that voters tend to vote on the basis of circumstances economically and after the next week or two weeks i think the killing of bin laden will fade in memory and what people are worried about is the economy and more broader question where the

republicans i think will come after president obama and that is america's place in the world because he does have a very different view than the other republican candidates. >> i want to remind everybody, we're watching, waiting for the president to arrive at a local firehouse here in new york city before going to ground zero. personally as a new yorker, what does it mean to you to see the president coming here today? >> i was in london when 9/11 happened. i am a new yorker. i lived here my whole life. i watched the trade centers be built up. i was overseas when 9/11 happened and to be here when bin laden is dead, it provides a certain -- face it. it's been ten years. >> yeah. >> of this war. my son who's 11 grew up his whole life in a post- 9/11 world and one can only hope that the killing of bin laden and the other steps the president has taken is going to reduce the threat of terrorism so that for the next ten years and ten years after that it's not going to

play such a dominant role in our lives. >> yeah. it seems like a full circle moment sort to speak and a lot of hard work to be done. jamie, great see you today. >> thank you. in september, ten years since the attacks and today americans are reflecting on that as president obama prepares lay a wreath as ground zero later today. he is in new york city. we'll have much more on the president as he travels from midtown downtown right here on msn msnbc. ♪ sometimes i feel like... mom! ♪ i know i can count on you ♪ sometimes i feel like saying... ♪ mom! mom! ♪ ...see me through [ male announcer ] you know mom. ♪ you got the love... we know diamonds. together we'll make this mother's day one she'll never forget. momma! [ male announcer ] that's why only zales

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and we are back with more on the president's trip to new york and the outpouring of emotion right now at ground zero. nbc's tamron hall joins me live from ground zero. we are watching the president travel midtown to downtown. when's the mood of everybody down there waiting on the

president's arrival? >> well, it's interesting, thomas. i used to live across from the street from this location and i know the spots where people go to take a look at the site. and i'm glancing over to my right here and i see a few people peering through windows and businesses, of course, still around here and i think, you know, it is certainly somber but as the president has said it is a bittersweet moment. we know that president obama has arrived at local fire station. one of the fire stations here in new york who lost some of its bravest in that horrific day nearly ten years ago. he will then meet with police officers from new york, as well. and then around 1:00, 1:40 eastern time we'll know and see the president here at ground zero where the wreath will be laid and the president has said, according to jay carney flying in, it's an appropriate and fitting to come to new york to recognize the terrible loss that new york suffered on 9/11 and to acknowledge the burden families have been carrying and we know that as the president said and many of the families said justice was served to osama bin

laden and i was thinking, thomas, a week ago today we would never have imagined we would be at this site ten stories above ground zero saying that osama bin laden is dead. we expect to be here for the ten year anniversary and we know that president obama will be here then. as well as president bush. but to be here now four days after the news came from our president that osama bin laden is dead was something that no one imagined so there's a somber but as i said bittersweet moment here today seeing the president lay the wreath. you can bet it just will fill the hearts of people knowing where we stand now. >> hey, tamron, we are going to be back with much more. thank you for your reporting. this is msnbc. is is the aarp...

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towns in several states. it eased the water in some places sending the diverted floodwaters to inundate farmland. forecasters say the river should crest in memphis, tennessee, next week. 14 feet above flood stamg, the highest level there in nearly 75 years. secretary of state hillary clinton says she will ask the u.s. government to free up some of more lib why's assets. speaking today in rome, clinton says it's important to isolate the libyan leader. the rebels are asking for $1.5 billion for basic supplies to continue the fight against the gadhafi regime. and some progress to report to you in japan. workers have entered the damaged reactor buildings as the troubled nuclear power plant. it is the first time they have been inside since right after the earthquake. crews are connecting equipment in an attempt to absorb radiation from the air that's inside the building. bin laden's death is also being acknowledged today at

ground zero. vice president joe biden will be laying a wreath at the pentagon this afternoon, joined by defense officials and family victims. 184 people died on september 11th when american airlines flight 77 flown directly into the pentagon. back in pakistan, there's still a lot of questions about how the world's most wanted terrorist was able to hide and do so in plain sight. as for the people unwitting neighbors, many don't believe bin laden was ever there. nbc's stephanie gosk is live for us in abbottabad, pakistan. stephanie, what are we hearing from the residents there about the raid and the beliefs of how close they were living unknowingly to osama bin laden? >> reporter: well, thomas, the first thing you need to understand is that pakistan is really home to the conspiracy theory. by practice, people don't believe anything officials tell them here and the killing of bin laden in the house behind me certainly falls in that

category. not only do they not believe that he was killed as the u.s. has described it in great detail, they don't believe that he even lived here at all. one of the reasons they don't is they never actually saw him here. and, you know, united states was watching this house for 24 hours a day for the last 8 months. and they never saw him. people living here certainly never saw him leave the house. they saw two brothers, one we now know the infamous courier followed by u.s. intelligence for years. they saw them. they never saw the women or the children. they just simply don't believe bin laden was here. a lot of people think bin laden was killed in to ra bora years ago in afghanistan. >> what about the intelligence service? >> reporter: well, in the last 24, 36 hours, what you are seeing is sort of a rising tension between the united states, the u.s. officials and pakistani officials and two conflicting accounts of what

happened here. the united states version which is that there was a fire fight, navy s.e.a.l.s killed bin laden and left with the body but officials here saying that actually what happened was according to the daughter of bin laden who's being questioned by pakistani intelligence officials she saw her father killed, not immediately, first detained and minutes later was killed. now, that is a story that the cia has flatly denied. publicly, we have been hearing from the pakistani prime minister in paris. he's been saying, look, we didn't know anything about this. this was u.s. helicopters coming in in the middle of the night undetected by the radar, swooping into the country and basically undermining our sovereignty and anger in the words. thomas? >> stephanie, thanks so much. and now for an installment of "sound off." look a look at the day's headlines and affecting the communities and joining me is melissa harris-perry, an

associate professor of politics and african-american studies at princeton university and a msnbc contributor. is that baltimore behind you today? >> i am in baltimore today. >> that's my hometown. now we are getting somewhere. so the white house is refusing to release these photos of the bin laden corpse but the debate rages on whether that's the right decision and brings back memories of a similar debate in 2009, releasing the photos of u.s. troops abusing prisoners. what do you make of president obama's decision? >> yeah. i have to say in this case i think that this is the right decision. and i agree with you. it reminds us a great deal of the conversation about whether or not the so-called torture photos should have been released. and whether or not president obama in his discussion about wanting to have an open and transparent government should also release these kinds of images. but i have to say, i think there's simply too much evidence

in this case that these images would be inflammatory and inflammatory in precisely the ways that make us less safe as a nation. it seems to me the president's first job is to be concerned with national security. >> melissa, talking about safety, the death bringing up the painful memories of 9/11 but what's it do to the national conversation to continue to have about the security and disaster planning? >> you know, it's interesting that the ways in which this is connected to 9/11 and the images, remember, part of why we want to see or so many people say they want to see the bin laden death images, part of it is, you know, confirmation that it happened but the other piece is that, remember, we watched our fellow americans die in very gruesome ways on television and we watched it over and over for hours and hours. and it was very painful, it was excruciating and part of what sered 9/11 into our collective psyche so i think part of why we now at this moment asking for

the visual images is we want to wrap that up, we want the other side of it. but the fact is that as we think forward towards safety, the primary question is not simply our psychological desire to have closure, really it is about whether or not having those kinds of images makes things worse on the international stage. >> and as we've been hearing in the reporting, we had stephanie gosk report in front of the house of six years for bin laden, what do you make of the hidden in plain sight phenomenon? >> again, i'm distressed of what it means they felt emboldened enough to build a compound of that size and dispressed both by what it means of american intelligence activities and certainly obviously what it means about the complicity of pakistan and again pakistan's language at this point kind of turning it back on the united states as a sovereignty issue. i think it's awfully problematic given that the centrality of capturing bin laden is a clear

emphasis of this administration. >> and there have been these discussions as we have been seeing the street celebrations across america after the death of osama bin laden. the announcement. the celebration energy for some people it left a bad taste in their mouths. is this a somber event in your mind or is it a cause for celebration? not so much about celebrating a death but maybe a victory for americans in the war on terror and feeling safer? >> yeah. you know, i notice there's a lot of young people out there, extraordinary number of young people and many of whom just children when 9/11 happened. remember that in this war the war on terror we have not had any clear victories. we haven't had any moments where we can say, yes, we are getting somewhere. and, you know, if you think about the greatest generation post world war ii or the agony of vietnam at least when soldiers started to come home it felt like we won something. it felt like there was some kind of closure and i think for a lot

of young americans this is the first time in their entire lifetime, a lifetime dominated by war, where they feel like they a win and a somber occasion because the death of one terrorist leader does not necessarily mean the end of the war on terror and that's a somber reality we have to keep our eye on. >> you make a great point of the kids. most people growing up having a stamp of what war we were fighting against a certain country. the war on terror is an ambiguous phantom sort to speak of basically a war on our safety, a war on letting our kids grow up and knowing that they can travel around the world and not be intimidated. so i think it's more a celebration about feeling safe. melissa harris-perry, thank you for coming on from my hometown of baltimore. >> it is a great city. >> it is. thanks. president obama may have quieted critics of the foreign policy credentials but falling short with americans with jobs and the economy.

the same "the new york times" poll that saw the president's approval rise reported a dip of handling of the economy. it's a number the white house wants to see change in a big way before the general election gets under way. atoko rich joins me this morning, a writer for "the new york times." the jobs report is coming out tomorrow and seen the numbers move in the right direction over the past few months but it's obvious that it's not at the pace a majority of americans would like to see, especially the millions who are still feeling how hard it is because they're out of work and struggling the find that next job. >> absolutely. last year, we would have said that it was agonizingly slow. we have had a couple of decent months but looking at the numbers they're not much higher than the number simply to accommodate new people entering the work force. college graduates, people coming off the bervelg to come back to work. thinks of the millions and millions of people out of work

for years now, we are not creating enough jobs to accommodate them. >> the republicans on capitol hill keeping their focus on these deep spending cuts. and they want them attached to major legislation and going forward does the president really need to be a part of making cuts and solving the debt issue? will that move the poll numbers in a different direction going forward up? >> well, i think that all branches of government are involved this very intense debate right now about our future in terms of how we are going to spend and what social programs we're going to support. and there is a very deep schism in our government of how to achieve a balanced budget and attack that deficit and whether or not we can stand to have a deficit for a little bit longer in terms of tax cuts and other measures that we might do to support the people who are trying to get back to work. i mean, there are a lot of people -- when i talk to employers out there, a lot of them are very concerned and talk a lot about uncertainty about

government policy and that uncertainty creates a psychology nobody wants to hire and that's what we need. we need the companies to start hiring so that people have money in the pockets to start spending and creating a virtuous cycle where once people have jobs and spend again that creates more demand and more demand for jobs. >> we'll have the hard numbers tomorrow. >> absolutely. >> thank you. appreciate it. >> thank you. 3,389 people, that's the number of those that we lost on september 11th, 2001. for their family members the killing of osama bin laden is important symbolism and today the president is going to be taking that symbolism personally to ground zero. we're back with much more on the president's visit to new york city after this. [ airplane engi] [ grunts ] [ dog barking ] gah! [ children shouting ]

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president obama is finishing his meeting with firefighters in new york city right now. then this afternoon he's going to lay a wreath as ground zero before meeting with family members of 9/11 victims. tamron hall is back live now

with us from ground zero and made a gracious stop there at the firehouse and one of those hit hardest on september 11th. >> reporter: absolutely, thomas. they lost 15 firefighters from that engine house alone. and it is known as the pride of the midtown, a very popular fire station as it is located close to times square and there's a placard and see the honor given to those that lost their lives and the president going in graciously, he said he wanted to come to them to say thank you. this is a symbolic site of that day almost ten years ago. obviously, we can't bring back friends we lost. i know each of you grieves those lost and tried to support their families. what happened on sunday because of the courage of the military and intelligence sends a message that when we say we never forget we mean what we say. and those are the words that the president offered up to those firefighters at that station. we know that he plans to meet with police officers and

eventually come to, of course, the site of ground zero and with mayor giuliani that greeted him with the president and the security is incredible. i'm looking over just where i'm standing and i see a row of police officers and security as far as the eye can see. we're on the tenth floor here so i can see snipers on top of a lot of buildings near us. the security is tremendous, as to be expected and seeing the president here shortly laying the wreath and also be with governor cuomo, as well. and then the president will meet with about 50 family members and when asked, jay carney was asked on the way in if the president would have a photo of dead bin laden and that is not the case in case the family members want to see but they say they have the closure they have been seeking and the day after the president confirmed he won't

release the photograph, there's curiosity there and nonetheless this is about the victims and nearly 3,000 people who lost their lives almost ten years ago and the president saying that justice is served and we'll continue to have live reports from here and doing my show "news nation" 2:00 p.m. here, as well. >> look forward to it. >> thank you. michael, the youngest firefighter to die in the twin towers and joseph wrote about the days following the attack in "face of courage: rise from the rubble" joseph joins us this morning to talk about it. good to have you with me today. i want your feeling of what it means for the president to be visiting ground zero, especially following the news, the death of osama bin laden. what does it do to you? >> the president visiting ground zero today, i'm glad he took an opportunity to finally get around to visiting ground zero. it means a lot to the families

and hopefully from this point moving forward we'll have a more connected relationship with the president in regards to the events that took place. >> as a former new york city police officer yourself, do the events of the past week provide a sense of relief for you? what was it like for you to get this news? >> it was great to get the news we finally put an end to osama bin laden. it's been ten years and i think that it sends a clear message to radical islamic terrorists that no matter how long it's going to take, we'll find you and deal with you. >> joseph, the war on terror, it's far from over. but do you feel like we have turned a coroner this process, especially if you feel justice is served with the killing of osama bin laden? >> i wouldn't say that we turned a great corner. i think that we took a baby step in the right direction. i think we will have to deal with this problem for many, many years to come. the work of osama bin laden is s death. he has a tremendous following.

and believers in him. and i think we have to take this, learn from, it move forward, and know that this is not over. >> joseph cam rata, thank you. we honor you and your brother today as we look upon these events and show our deepest respect. thank you. >> thanks for having me. >> all right. so we want to show you live pictures from ground zero, where we expect to see president obama in a little over an hour from now. really emotional day for those who are gathering in the foot prohibit of the world trade center. we have it for you here on msnbc. stay with me. [ woman ] welcome back, jogging stroller.

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>> september 14th, 2001. i remember that day. it's time for us to do the flip side now. a chance to go behind the headlines. president obama participating in a replaying ceremony at ground zero later today. and he's not the first president to visit the site. president bush observed the fifth anniversary of the attacks by sharing a moment of silence with police and fire fights near the door of ladder 18 in new york. it's also not the firefighter president obama visited ground zero. although he hasn't been there since he was elected, but back in 2008, he and john mccain took a break from campaigning on september 11th to pay their respects at the site. and some of our international allies have is also made a trip to lower manhattan, as well, including the british royals. queen elizabeth held her own wreath laying ceremony at ground zero during a visit to new york last summer. and prince harry stopped to meet with firefighters after visiting the site of the attacks in 2009. but i think there will be nothing more pivotal and respectful than what we're going to see today. a than when the president lays a wreath at ground zero,

concerning the fact that the elimination of osama bin laden has done successfully. that's going to do it for me today. i'm thomas roberts. i'll see you back here at 11:00 a.m. eastern every weekday morning. now we say hello to contessa brewer. hi there. >> thanks. we're keeping our eye on lower manhattan. our coverage continues with president obama meeting with new york city firefighters, police officers, and members of 9/11 victims. also, we're going to talk to the last person found alive in the debris at ground zero. and new york senator chuck schumer will weigh in on today's visit, and how this might influence the war in afghanistan. this is msnbc. there's another way to minimize litter box odor: purina tidy cats. our premium litters now work harder to help neutralize odors in multiple cat homes. purina tidy cats. keep your home smelling like home. ♪

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good day, i'm contessa brewer covering the news from coast to coast. the big story we're watching is unfolding on the east coast today. president obama is in manhattan today for a visit to ground zero. you're seeing live pictures of the construction site. and just a bit ago, the president visited with

firefighters in midtown manhattan, some of whom responded on 9/11, all of whom feel the loss of their 15 colleagues from that one midtown station. colleagues and friends on that day. the president today is striking a solemn balance between satisfaction at a., mission accomplished, and remembrance of all that was lost. instead of making a speech about the victory over bin laden, the president will lay a wreath at ground zero, and meet privately with first responders, and families of some of the americans who were murdered on september 11th. retired new york firefighter jim riches will be in that private meeting. he lost his son, jimmy jr. >> he did esers all of the credt in the world. >> but the president could face questions about his decision not to release pictures of a dead osama bin laden. described by some as bloody and gruesome. the president explained his reasons in a "60 minutes" inte