>> soufan: absolutely. know, if you look at 9/11, al qaeda had only about 400 members, and they were based in afghanistan. if you look at al qaeda today, they have thousands and thousands of members all over the middle east. >> williams: al qaeda now has footholds in around a dozen countries throughout the middle east, africa and into south asia. in syria alone, it's estimated to have up to 20,000 followers. al qaeda in the islamic maghreb operates across the sahara desert, taking foreigners hostage and attacking hotels used by westerners. these regional groups are known as affiliates, with local leaders who have publicly sworn allegiance to al qaeda's central command. >> soufan: al qaeda is stronger than ever. i don't believe even bin laden in his wildest dreams thought that he will have followers who command armies, troops, control lands, are extremely powerful geopolitical players as al qaeda today. >> williams: al qaeda owes much of its growth to the arab spring, a series of uprisings starting in 2010 t

for more on this, and the larger investigation into the bombing, i'm joined now by ali soufan. he's a former f.b.i. special- agent who handled several major terrorism investigations, including the 2001 al-qaeda bombing of the u.s.s. "cole" in yemen. he now runs a consulting group and is the author of the new book "antatomy of terror." welcome back to the "newshour". >> thank you. >> brangham: from an investigator's point of view, help me understand why the british would be so angry about these photos of these bombmaking parts. why are those being out there would bother tell me so much? >> they have an ongoing investigation and this investigation is way more than an act that already happened. there is an imminent threat that's unfolding in the u.k. you want to protect your investigative leads, number one. you need to protect the integrity of your evidence, of your investigation, and when you're trying to catch terrorists who are still on the loose, you know, you don't want them to know what you know. so as an investigator, you know, and it happened to me personally, you get so f

of the fight against terror groups from al qaeda to islamic state is former fbi special agent ali soufan. ali, when you look at what happened in manchester how much do you learn from what is in the public domain so far about how an attack like this is planned and carried out? nuno, it's so planned and carried out? nuno, it's so difficult to make a final determination as the investigation is still unfolding and we see that what happened in manchester is connected to different places around the world, it's connected to syria now from what we read from public reporting, and connected to libya. just another example of how the terror threat in the last decade or so terror threat in the last decade or so morphed and mutated from organisations to message to an ideology. we see that threat in the uk now unfolding in a very similar way to what we have seen in other places in europe and the united states where people get inspired, somejoined the states where people get inspired, some joined the so—called islamic state and some are in contact with members and supporters of the group that tries to i

. >> my friend, thank you for this and for this new book called "anatomy of terror by" by ali soufan. coming up, racial slurs during a game at fenway park last night. what he says was yelled and thrown at him after the break. will your business be ready when growth presents itself? american express open cards can help you take on a new job, or fill a big order or expand your office and take on whatever comes next. find out how american express cards and services can help prepare you for growth at open.com. what's going on? oh hey! find out how american express cards and services ♪ that's it? yeah. ♪ everybody two seconds! ♪ "dear sebastian, after careful consideration of your application, it is with great pleasure that we offer our congratulations on your acceptance..." through the tuition assistance program, every day mcdonald's helps more people go to college. it's part of our commitment to being america's best first job. ♪ >>> baltimore orioles center fielder adam jones says he was the target of racial slurs and insults last night at fenway park and says fan even threw peanuts at h

ali soufan as well. earlier i spoke with phil dick. he had dropped his daughter and granddaughter at the concert. he and his wife were waiting to pick them up when the bomb went off. it's strange to call phil one of the lucky ones given what he saw and what he described to me. what you'll hear now. but his family survived. here's our conversation. >> phil, you and your wife had dropped off your daughter and granddaughter at the concert and you were waiting to pick them up. can you tell me what happened then? where were you when the blast went off? >> we were in the foyer of the manchester arena. and then the next thing, there's a flash and an enormous bang. >> how far away were you from that? >> no more than 30, 40 feet maximum. >> wow. so you know, you heard it -- did you see the explosion? >> yeah. we saw the explosion. we felt the explosion. it knocked us to the ground. >> so the explosion knocked you and your wife to the ground? >> yes. >> and then what happened? >> we picked ourselves up. i helped my wife up. and there was just sm

ringel spent more than 20 years at the fbi, and is now a director at the security consultancy group, soufancam from new york. thank you for your time and for talking to us here at the bbc. i am curious what you made of the intelligence leaks. curious what you made of the intelligence lea ks. there curious what you made of the intelligence leaks. there are the photographs on the front page of the new york times, but even before that, the fact that the name of the man who perpetrated this atrocity on monday was released in the us, when the authorities here in the uk did not want that, why was that done, in your opinion? firstly, iwant not want that, why was that done, in your opinion? firstly, i want to say that having been an investigator, i know the importance of keeping information tight, and to keep control of it, because releasing information such as the name of a mark, or the evidence pictures, that can be detrimental to the investigation. to answer your question, why was it released, i think the media wanted to get a jump on it. no one other than the investigators and people involved i