you had john brenan yesterday talk about one of the more controversial aspects of this, which is the decision to order the deaths of american citizens abroad. there was an al qaeda propagandist who was killed in a drone strike. >> and his son, as well. >> exactly, and his son as well. and neither soft those were discussed in any way. there was no allusion to killing u.s. citizens but there was no discussion about killing a propagandist and his son who was in control of these types of terror attacks. >> u.s. officials have said they're very careful. about 10% of the drone strikes kill unintended targets, i.e., civilians. again, beyond those leaders, do we know anything about who they're targeting, who are on the kill list? >> what i was told a few years ago is they had moved from targeting individual leaders to gatherings of people who they believed suspicious. the most recent drone attack in afghanistan, for example -- or excuse me, in pakistan, for example, was of a group that had holed up in an abandoned madrassa, according to u.s. officials, and were putting together bombs. the ot

host: let's hear comments made by john brenan as the president's top counter- terrorism adviser, in thepring. >> we decide whether a particular out that a member wants being pursued in this matter. given the stakes involved and consequences, we consider all the information available to us carefully and responsibly. we reviewed the most up-to-date intelligence, drawing on the full range of our intelligence capabilities and we do what sound intelligence demands. we challenge it. the question it. including any assumptions on which it might be based. if we want to know more, we may ask the intelligence community to go back and collect additional intelligence so that a more informed decision can be made. we listened to a department and agencies across our national security teams. we don't just zero different views. we ask for them and encourage them. we discussed. debate. we disagree. we consider the advantages and disadvantages of taking action. we also carefully consider the cost of inaction and whether a decision not to carry out a strike could allow terrorist attack to proceed and potent

officials hearsay the president was informed in april by his counter terrorism team here, john brenan, about this plot and then received continuing updates ever since then and reiterated at no point was the public ever in danger from this foiled plot. i am also told by a counter terrorism official they are confident that this plot was not tied to the anniversary of osama bin laden's death. in a statement released here they also said that while the president was assured the device did not pose a threat to the public, he directed the department of homeland security and law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps necessary to guard against this type of attack. i am advised that means that out of an excess of precaution to make sure there is nothing else out there like this to make sure that americans are safe. the key piece of new information here is that they are confident that this was not osama bin laden's debt related to osama bin laden's death or an attack planned around that, john, and as you might guess they're insist ant and quite pleased this is a sign that