we're not losing to aqap and this was a tragic week for france. but aqap is not winning either.hey have to work hard and wait very long to have this occasional success. >> and michael o'hanlan if we look at the drone strikes in yemen, there are confirmed between 72 and 84 drone strikes in yemen. these numbers are of course a little bit opaque because we don't have intelligence on the civilians killed between 64 and 83. our drone policy is a part of our counter testify ritual policy in yemen, has it not? >> it has. and it's been a tragic week and this has been very bad for france. but i also don't think it would be right to give the impression not that evan or michael did, but allow aqap to foster the impression they are winning. they are surviving and that's bad enough and i regret that but they are not gaining momentum and i don't want to overstate what they accomplished this week. >> michael o'hanlan thank you for your time. just ahead. the kouachi brothers who reportedly carried out the attacks on "charlie hebdo" were on terror lists. we will discuss how countries can prevent

those brothers are now believed to have multiple ties to aqap in yemen. tonight a disturbing new look inside the assault on the kosher market. cctv capturing the hostage taker, coulibaly, in order armor, forcing hostages to take down the cctv cameras. other hostages huddling together soon after the first hostages were killed. a baby stroller possibly belonging to a child who survived the attack hidden in a basementrefrigerator is left abandoned in aisles. those images of course would have been able to police before the siege of that kosher market. we are told that it gave them some valuable information about where the hostages were the layout of the store, what the attacker was wearing, what he was armed with. that's of course likely why you see the attacker in those photographs instructing the hostages to take down those cameras so that police wouldn't have that advantage. of course as we know the killer was killed but those -- some hostages did die before they were able to get in there. >> yeah four jewish men in france killed. jim sciutto live in paris

ran aqap in yemen. i have been to yemen. seeing what goes on and how they train people there. the bottom line is that his focus was the united states. we were lucky that the shoe bomber didn't go off, the underwear bomber but his strategy was to have a small group of people attack the united states and finally, his strategy worked in france, unfortunately. we have to be aware of that. the lone wolf the smaller attacker. that's his style. >> do you think there are u.s. sleeper cells here? >> if i do i probably couldn't tell you but i don't believe they are sleeper cells as much as they are people who want to support some of the al qaeda and what they believe in, unfortunately. that's my concern. that's why again, intelligence is the best defense against terrorism. in the united states of america, americans are not being spied on at all by our government unless there's a court order and yet we need to know and look at the threats that are there. we have talked about threats for years, that these threats a

he was not even mid-level management in aqap.re are exploding his legacy because of the power of nightmares. he speaks in english. the united states has elevated his status within the organization. aqap has a leadership structure. anwar awlaki was not the top of that. quick jeremy scahill, broke the story aqap took responsibility for the charlie hebdo massacre. his latest book, "dirty wars: the world is a battlefield," is out in paperback. his film "dirty wars" was nominated for an academy award. when we come back, we go to guatemala for remarkable verdict that is just come down around crimes against humanity. stay with us. ♪ [music break] "spiritual." dr. martin luther king and malcolm x and ed mentor evers inspired the music. a big shout out to ruth hayden, the widow of charlie haden, who has joined us today at our studios just to come by and say hello. this is democracy now! democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with aaron matÉ. >> a major victory for human rights activists, a guatemalan court has returne

it appears aqap is claiming responsibility.t seems very significant, paul. >> it is very significant. cnn hasn't authenticated this. the u.s. government intelligence hasn't authenticated it. so we have to be cautious. but it does appear an operative with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is claiming responsibility for this. this is after we learned that one of the brothers trained with the group in yemen in 2011. and from what we know about al qaeda in yemen, you wouldn't be allowed to train with a group unless you took an oath of loyalty to the leader and you actually formally join the terrorist organization. so there's been some thought they had ownership over this. they're now saying they directed this plot. >> right. of course it squares with the intelligence community in the united states and in europe saying that one of the brothers one of the now dead terrorists said kouachi, who is 34 years old, had traveled to yemen. also one of the kouachi brothers earlier today telling a french tv station that anwar al awlaki the ame

aqap wanted to make sure he followed through on his plot. understanding is they brought him to anwar al awlaki to essentially groom him or to act as a sort of islamic their best who is trying to get his mental health backup so that aqap could do with they wanted to do with them. that is my understanding the role awlaki played, he was going to help facilitate these people going to aqap but not that anwar al awlaki was running the show. >> we have to go to break. when we come back, we will talk about cherif and said kouachi. governments around the world looking for hayat boumeddiene the woman who they say was related to amedy coulibaly. not clear exactly what her role has been. they say she left france, went through turkey, possibly is in syria. the person who is fallen off the map as the 18-year-old, the day of the attack on the satirical magazine on charlie hebdo, they said he was driving the car, but he turned himself in and said i was in class and many of his classmates tweeted the same facts. we have not heard about him again. we will be

we have heard mention of al qaeda and aqap. that is a question we're going to return to a lot in the show today, but a lot of folks in the west seem to understand the divide between isis and aqap and have a hard time wrapping their heads around the notion that two of the fighters could have been one from isis and one from aqap and the divide between those two organizations is almost tangential. it is almost the banner of jihadism that united them. this divide that we see might not be substantive in this case. how do you read that situation? >> my analysis is that you need to think of this terrorism problem from the ground up in terms of the local gangs that are operating. in this case in the north of paris where the men who attacked the kosher deli seem to have or originate originated. you have groups of disaffected young people who may be a part of a mosque or may spin off into a subsidiary line with some kind of spiritual leader. you have facilitators who surround those people who could be drawn into broader jihadist activiti

>> by aqap. by a foreign militant. >> how do you know these isis so-called terrorists who are now in yemen are really isis? >> they are promoting themselves of isis. it's the rebranding of a new militant group. they are understanding, they initially started recruiting from inside aqap ranks and now they expanded and try to recruit from tribal areas. >> there are diplomats, military ex-patriots, private citizens working for ngos in yemen right now but there may be more than that right? >> yes. >> how many american citizens would you estimate are in yemen right now? >> there are hundreds if not thousands of yemeni-american citizens. >> in addition to diplomats and military? >> these are dual nationals. >> they are u.s. citizens from the u.s. perspective, they may be yemeni citizens as well but they are also united states citizens. when you say thousands, how many thousands of yemeni americans are there living in yemen right now? >> our estimates is around quarter of a million yemeni american citize

but a very clear message from this aqap spokesman that it was aqap that financed this organized thisen of course the kouachi brothers who sat dormant potentially in france in paris, a number of years before they actually carried it out. john? >> reporter: fascinating details there. chilling. and just to be clear, nick only claiming credit. aqap only claiming credit in this video for the attacks at "charlie hebdo," the offices of the satirical magazine not claiming any connection to amedy coulibaly who attacked the kosher supermarket? >> reporter: well that is actually what's fascinating, john really is they refer to coulibaly who attacked the kosher supermarket, but they say his attack was a coincidence in many ways and it was simply good fortune that these things happened at the same time. now, that potentially feeds into the rivalry between these radical groups al qaeda and isis. remember amedy kuhl ball yi left a lengthy video plenching ingpledging allegiance. the fact that they say coulibaly coulibaly's assistance or simultaneous operation was simply good fortune is i think, an a

there's internal politics here because aqap and i.s.i.s. are fighting over supremacy over who is sort of the premier global jihadist in the world. part of what sheik al ansi was doing was, saying, we like this kind of attack but we don't want to say we're in league with i.s.i.s, i.s.i.s. is more than willing to have people use their brand to commit acts of terrorism. aqap does not lend out its brand. >> you are convinced they didn't coordinate -- >> we know they knew each other going back to 2010 -- aqap -- >> i don't believe at some institutional level that they did. i think this is a combination of i.s.i.s. letting this guy sort of go to the bank with this, it's going to help their image. aqap has some involvement, how much we don't know, these guys knew each other and some home grown aspect to it. coulibaly seems to have purchased his weapons from a man in belgium, 500 euros worth. you have to be careful on what you can and can't prove. as i said there is a lot to prove aqap had some involvement, very limb that i.s.i.s. had involvement.

guys let's talk about aqap here. the fight, barbara, against isis has been in the public anti-terror spotlight. but how about operations against aqap like drone strikes? have we been seeing that those efforts are taking perhaps a backseat to the fight against isis? >> reporter: the fight against isis involves a huge coalition, all kinds of fighter jets bombers, drones over iraq and syria. in yemen, you don't have those standard military targets. you have isis weapons and formations and troops in iraq and syria. in yemen, you basically have leadership individuals, a handful of very senior individuals and groups of fighters along with them. very tough to find them very tough to locate them and to launch drone strikes against them and it's really the u.s. and the government of yemen on their own. there aren't any other governments we know of that are involved. so it's a much more difficult set of targets. and drones the military the cia, they will tell you, drones can maybe push back a little bit against an al qaeda thr

al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, aqap, al qaeda's yemen franchise. in their twitter account, a senior leader claims credit for the attack on charlie hebdo, carried out by the kouachi brothers. the video claims the order for these attacks came directly from the head of al qaeda. aman al zawahiri. at least one of the kouachi brothers spent time in yemen training with al qaeda, training with aqap in 2011. we have already known this. they seemed intent on making it known they were loyal to al qaeda in yemen. during the hostage crisis that ended with his death, the youngest brother telling a french tv station he was sent by yemen's al qaeda. quote, i went there and anwar al awlaki financed me. an american citizen in a leading aqap cleric just before he was killed in a u.s. drone attack four years ago now, in 2011. it's important to note in this al qaeda video released today, the group specifically claims credit for just the charlie hebdo attacks. they are not claiming credit for the hostage siege at the kosher grocery store that was carried out by couliba

as about 100 air strikes by the united states against aqap. what exactly are they capable of right now? >> reporter: well, they've certainly been degraded over the years but still considered very capable, very dangerous. there are still training camps operating in yemen and clearly as we said, anwar al awlaki is viewed as a martyr by some in the group, and they use him to inspire others to carry out attacks, but still the u.s. very concerned about aqap and any kind of attack they could carry out, and they could do almost anything, george. >> thanks, martha. >>> we are joined now from paris by the u.s. attorney general, eric holder. mr. attorney general thanks for joining us this morning. we've heard about this concern, aqap still a lethal threat. >> good morning. >> good morning, and we also have this new video out this morning where coulibaly, one of the gunmen, appears to be pledging allegiance to isis. what more do we know about which group may have been behind this attack? >> well, at this point we don't have any credible information that

aqap. they say one of the brothers slipped off for terror training in yemen. aqap remains the mote dangerous of the al qaeda cells, the al qaeda organizations and we are constantly focused on them. >> reporter: but u.s. and french authorities say they do not have enough evidence to directly link aqap or isis to any of the paris attacks. attacks that sent some 3.7 million people into the streets around france sunday marching with an overwhelming show of solidarity and defiance against terrorism. heads of state and dignitarys from all over the world arm-in-arm some with clear division palestinian president mahmoud abbas and benjamin netanyahu united on the front lines. >> for more on that historic march and investigation into the terror suspects. let's bring in our cnn national correspondent. you were at that march. tell us the scene, it was 3.7 million people in the streets of paris? >> reporter: right, it was 3.7 million people estimate total for the entire country. paris of the 2 million p

intelligence sources say aqap's broad claim of responsibility may be inflated. there's no evidence the terror group coordinated and directed last week's massacre in paris. and the video offers no proof. in any case, aqap is renching leveraging the attack for maximum propagand and and recruiting benefits and is now warning other cities like washington, new york, or london could be hit next. the video also reveals aqap is schoasly watching the world's reaction to the recent attacks. on the tape, the leader mocks sunday's unit rally in which western leaders marched arm in arm in paris. if it's confirmed aqap was responsible for the attack it would be the most successful strike against a western target in a decade. >> schieffer: terrorist threats did not stop "charlie hebdo" from publishing an edition since last week and it had an image of mohammed on the cover. elizabeth palmer now in paris. >> reporter: everybody wanted one, even people who don't normally like "charlie hebdo" lined up fair copy for posterity or in solidarity. >> just as a citizen, i wanted to buy

talk about aqap. we've obviously -- we've been hearing a tremendous amount about the islamic state last year during the summer particularly the gruesome beheadings of journalists that caught so much attention, u.s. intervention against the islamic state. it appears that one of the kouachi brothers traveled not to syria and iraq which has been the low cust of a lot of concern and the fly paper that has brought a lot of jihadis into the region but instead to yemen and trade with al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. >> it is one of the, if not the most capable of al qaeda's branches. let's remember, they have demonstrated global ambitions to attack not only transnationally in saudi arabia and surrounding countries, but also in the west. they were behind the airliner plot in late 2009. they also were behind the postal packages explosive postal packages that were intercepted before reaching the united states. of course they are behind the english language magazine "inspire" which we have about 13 issues that

aqap isn't about territory. aqap is about ideology. and aqap's m.o.date is to launch attacks on the west. now, we know through evidence over the past couple of months that isis and aqap are at serious odds. so what i find a little bit confusing here, chris, is you've got the kouachi brothers who are pledging this allegiance to aqap and saying they were sent by aqap. and then you have the other terrorist who launched the attack in central paris who is claiming it was on behalf of isis. so there's a disconnect there. we've got to be cautious about the links that we're drawing between what kouachi is saying and just how strong the links are between al awlaki who he is saying told him to launch the attack from 2011 and financed it and just how strong those links or the push was from aqap. i think the intelligence communities need a little time to breathe on this. the other thing, i spent time in baghdad, working with special forces hitting high value assets most nights and the intelligence we worked off, in terms of spider network, that takes, day, weeks,

>> this is textbook aqap. what they would normally do is issue a statement through the media, which we've seen now this this video. either through a form of an audio recording, more recently through produced videos and full text translation in english and arabic and sometimes in other languages. this shows a transformation of the methodology, is that they first did this, sort of gave a hint of it on twitter. yes, we got the statement before any other news outlet published it. but if you follow what -- the sort of evolution of this, aqap is becoming much more social media savvy and are using twitter and other accounts a lot. they have their own verification system. it's not the blue checkmark. it's that they will say i'm their official old school channels, follow these twitter accounts. >> that's the aqap version of -- >> they have something like that. >> then the question comes, well, do we believe them? you believe in past instances they have claimed credit and only released evidence many months later? >> rig

that's nothing in there that aqap did it. there's a claim and it's an official claim, and it appears to be from an official spokesman. but they don't say, we did it. they say congratulations to the mujahideen who did it. there are folks on twitter who are suggesting that we directed it or we coordinated it. but they haven't gotten out there. we have to see whether or not they do what they did with the underbomb plot. within a day or two of that failed plot they put a photo of him at a training camp in yemen evidence that she was there, directed by them. even that is not enough to suggest that everything was planned by aqap. but at least then we have some knowledge that the claim is credible. i don't know if we know a hundred percent whether it's an endorsement or really a claim of responsibility. >> now jim, you have big experience in man hunts. tell us how you view how this ended with the kouachi brothers. jim cavanaugh. >> i think that the french special operators here did an excellent job, really can't be done better than

we're told aqap is struggling to raise money now. cnn, washington. >>> new video shows part of the stabbing attack in tel aviv wednesday. we want to warn you, the video is very disturbing. witnesses say the attacker boarded a bus and stabbed the driver and some passengers. >> that's where this video picks up. some passengers run off. what you see highlighted is the attacker chasing them stabbing one woman in the back before running away. nine people in all were stabbed and injured. a 23-year-old palestinian man is under arrest. shocking. >> shocking. absolutely shocking pictures. >>> israel's prime minister is set to address a joint session of congress next month on the issue of iran's nuclear capability capability. >> our dana bash reports that the way he was invited to speak underlines a number of political tensions. >> reporter: gop sources admit to cnn congress traditionally coornates with the white house before asking a world leader to address congress. not this time. >> i did not consult with the white house. >> reporter: it wa

while it has been fighting aqap on the ground, the houthis are not a u.s. ally.n backed group. one of the main slogans has been death to america. the group opposes u.s. drone strikes. really a lot of concern about what happens next. especially when it comes to the terror threat that is coming from aqap and yemen. especially at a time when the group does seem to be reasserting itself as a main terror organization on the international scene claiming the attack on "charlie hebdo" magazine in paris. >> jamana thank you. >>> a lot going on this morning. happening right now. the deadline for japan to pay the ransom for two hostages held by isis, the deadline has passed, with no word this morning on their fate. isis said it would kill the two men unless japan hands over $200 million. the japanese government scrambling to contact isis while saying it would not yield to terrorist threats. in tokyo right now, cnn's will ripley. what is the latest will? >> reporter: john government officials in tokyo are making a point that christine made about 30 minutes ago. they are ques

the other is this is going to put a lot of money in aqap's pockets. one of the ways you raise money in the terrorist world is to have a successful attack. >> pelley: what are security officials in the united states going to have to think about after all this? >> one of the lessons for me this week is we have been so focused on i.s.i.s., and here we've had what looks to be an al quaida-directed attack. we can't forget about al quaida. and while the chances of an attack are greater in europefo because it's easier for fighters who have been to pakistan, yemen, syria and iraq to feet to europe, they can also get to the united states, so we have to wire are about that. >> pelley: mike morell, former number two at the c.i.a. thanks for your insight. tonight the f.b.i. and state department sent out warnings urging americans to be alert following the paris attacks. more on that there from jeff pegues.nc >> reporter: this week's terror attacks in france don't seem that far away from the 2013 boston marathon bombings that killed three and injured 260 more. the

they are fighting the aqap. one of the main slogans of the historically iranian backed group is death to america. they have publicly said they oppose u.s. drone strikes and u.s. involvement in yemen. a lot of concern about the current situation and political chaos and what this means with the group trying to reassert itself as a major terror organization and claiming responsibility for the paris attack on "charlie hebdo." >> thank you. >>> six minutes after the hour. happening right now, the deadline for japan to pay the huge ransom for two hostages held by isis that deadline has passed with no word this morning on this fate. islamic terror groups said it would kill the two men unless japan hands over $200 million. the japanese government is scrambling to contact isis while saying it will not yield to terrorists. saying that publicly. standing by in tokyo is cnn's will ripley. >> reporter: there is a report out from the public broadcaster here in tokyo, nhk, gives us a window into the thoughts of isis. nhk claim

aware of any relationship between aqap and isis? >> jim, we're not, but i think it's foolish to think that two groups competing for fighters and competing for money wouldn't go out and claim some degree of credit for this and i think that that's one thing that these groups all share is they're pulling from the same pool of fighters and they're pulling from the same resources for financing from around the world. so being part of that spectacular attack. and i might say i think we've overlooked the fact that belgium is an intelligence win. individuals that we knew about, individuals that were watched, the belgium government made a decision to go for a particular reason when they did. i think you've seen how seriously they take what they found, hundreds of troops in belgium never seen before. over 20,000 troops in france right now helping in the fight against terrorism and a capture of over 20 in five or six different countries just in the last 48 hours. >> the administration has argued that as important as intelligence steps and milit

calculates aqap was already on the upswing in power for many reasons. senior leaders and the master bombmakinger al-asiri are in secure locations in yemen, still very much in charge. its safe haven areas are large and secure. it's continuing to recruit foreign fighters. all of this raising questions about whether u.s. drone attacks in recent years have even made a dent in the group. >> no one expected drones to have suffocated aqap and put it out of business. >> reporter: for now, the u.s. doesn't know how much of a role al qaeda in yemen played in the paris attacks. the u.s. intelligence community already deeply worried that al qaeda may have other plans up its sleeve. barbara starr, cnn, the pentagon. >>> and in just about less than 30 minutes from now, we'll take a closer look at al qaeda's claim of responsibility and look into the man in yemen who may have played a key role in the "charlie hebdo" attacks. stay tuned for that. >>> the paris attacks have the u.s. on alert for new terror threats. ed with the fbi arrested a man -- on wednesday the fbi a

two of the brothers or one of the brothers had a connection with aqap. i think what happened was they recruited recruited amedy coulibaly. the brothers recruited him at the local level. coulibaly we don't think has traveled to syria or iraq. he's not had that interaction with the group itself. he clearly was somebody who had a lot of affection for isis and wanted it to be seen that he was carrying it out in their name carol. >> i wanted to ask you this too, jim, because the new "charlie hebdo" issue came out today and now we hear from al qaeda in yemen. is that just a coincidence? >> reporter: it's possible. you know remember these groups like aqap and others they are very good at maximizing attention, not only in their brutality, the nature of the targets they choose the methods they use, the brutality they use but on picking days to maximize that message. it's very possible they're connected. just another note about that magazine carol, as we talk about it. we noticed earlier, here you'll remember is the memorial to the "charlie hebdo" victims behind m

and aqap is claiming that's exactly what they've done.to some degree a credible claim, because we understand from u.s. intelligence community that they believe these one of the brothers trained with al qaeda in yemen in 2011. this group, from what we know about it you wouldn't be allowed to train with them unless you were recruited into it and swearing an oath of allegiance to it. so i think there is some credibility to this claim, but they don't prove in this video that they carried out the attack in terms of a directional aspect to it. there's no martyrdom video like we saw of the underwear bombing on christmas day in 2009. eventually it's possible the group could release some kind of proof that they carried this out. at the moment the u.s. intelligence community is not certain aqap was responsible, but the working assumption is they may well have been. >> this video goes into a great deal of laying out the chain of command here ordered by the al qaeda leader zawahiri financed by the dead cleric an what al awlaki. if awlaki was killed i

>> wox, it certainly looks like it was an aqap plot.ere some level of communication between that likely visit of at least one of the brothers to yemen in 2011 and the present? we don't know that yet. i mine it's possible there was communication in between. it's possible that they decided after the passage of time to commit this attack or possible apply ly there was a trigger. that still isn't determined. >> i know there's close collaboration between the french and the u.s. do they know how said kouachi was funded for the trip to yemen? there are reports he received $20,000 to get weapons. what do you know about that? >> we are getting a lot of information from the french but we have not yet been able to corroborate it ourselves. i really can't confirm anything except that we are engaged in an exchange of information with the french trying to share with them what we know about all of these suspects and any connection they may have to others. they've been providing us a lot of information. but it's not something we're able to confirm. >>

the brothers with the connections to aqua, the support for aqap. it seems there's more sympathy with isis and some different views when it comes to sort of the justification to targeting civilians. >> one other development today. and there are many, was word that when the french police believe now that the fourth suspect is just the partner was, in fact, not in france this week during these attacks. there are a number of days ago she flew to turkey. and the last scene, bob baer, former eer member of the c.i.aw important is it now that the french capture her for information about future attacks? >> i think it's crucial. it would be fantastic if they could get ahold of her. these people were sort of self-recruited and clerollected their weapons. but what strikes me about this is the's e ea ease with which p can still cross the turkish border. why are they still letting these people into syria. and if so, why? why can't we stop them? >> i heard it from u.s. counter terror officials about increased cooperation and returning fighters from iraq and syria

in the past when aqap has been involved directly with a plot of this nature like the failed christmas day bomb plot with umar farouq sometime after the fact they started to release photos of him and a martyr video. we'll see if they do that and it's possible these guys went to yemen, receive some form of training. maybe met with anwar al-awlaki and gave them encouragement. when they went back to france cooked up their own plot and maybe did or not give aqap to give them a heads up with their own attack. >> the other terrorist who took over the grocery store, the supermarket today, claimed a connection or a support of isis. do you see a conflict i mean obviously i know there are reports that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula sent people to fight in syria, or perhaps even with isis but do you see some sort of either confusion or conflict or contradiction between claiming brothers claiming a link to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and the other guy claiming some sort of allegiance and/or support for isis? >> isis and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula have had a fairly public sort of tu

aqap training and they essentially were axd sleeper cell and that aqap was aware that at some pointthey gaveçó a tip off said hey, we're going to do this in the next week so that aqap could then capitalize on it.tì emselves claimed that they did this in name of al qaeda and the arabian peninsula and the islamic state. and we do know that there is this travel pattern in yemen and allegations that they met withñr an?= al awlaki, assassination of these cartoonists around the world including an american citizen in seattle who hadxd to changeq n though he islp dead. >> paul wouldxd cao so far as tot( say this was anlpi] intelligence failure where thesexd were knownw;7ç actors? >> i think there are manyçó questions. especially because theó[fb inífs2011 andp, getting training in?; yemen with this group. i think thatxd shouldçó have put them near the top of thet( priority list. the french have got a lot of people they got toxd monitor, about 5,000 people that theyht opened security files on that's a huge number. people 24/7 so every day, 00l every week you have to have a sort ofi] priority

calculates aqap was already on the upswing in power for many reasons.and al asiri are all still very much in charge. its safe haven areas are large and secure. it's continuing to recruit foreign fighters all of this raising questions about whether u.s. drone attacks in recent years have even made a dent in the group. >> no one expect pd drones to have suffocated aqap and put it out of business. >> reporter: the bottom line intelligence sources are most worried, they need to get an answer to this question because they need to figure out if al qaeda in yemen has maybe even more attacks planned. jim? >> reporter: barbara, aqap considered the most or one of the most severe threats to the u.s. homeland as well. carol, we think of the nsa as all seeing. this is an alarming possible that one of those most threatening groups to the u.s. would have a way around that surveillance. >> jim, thank you so much. i want to focus now more on the missed opportunities to prevent the attacks on the offices of "charlie hebdo." back in 2005 cherif kouachi was arrested as he

have the paris attacks demonstrated a new capability for aqap, a new ambition, frankly? >> well, jim, i think the intent was always to carry out multiple means of terrorism from aqap and others. we've got to remember that this is not about an individual, it's about an ideology and terrorism is now global. we don't know where it's going to come from. cnn this week broadcast from eight different countries around the world so it's not like we can keep our eye on one thing. and this is a war that we have to win. >> no question. i mean, you make the point that terrorism is global, as a result the response must be global as well. when you look at the run up to these attacks in paris, there was clearly an intelligence failure here, not just by the french, and granted it's a difficult decision to make, but the decision to surveil the suspects and stop it but also in terms of intelligence sharing. the u.s. had the kouachi the u.s. had the kouachi brothers on a no-fly list and a terror watch list. was that information communicated to the french and why did the french not respond a

could yemen become another afghanistan with aqap doing whatever it wants? some report says that i.s.i.l. is trying to expand into yemen too. >> look the situation in yemen and the situation in afghanistan or syria or iraq or any of the other conflict zones in the a middle east that we've been looking at are very different. some of dynamics are the same. to the extent that the central government and the yemeni security services can't enforce their where writ outside of the capital, it's been that way for several years. the difficulty is not that yemen books failed state. the difficulty is that people take advantage ever the short term chaos between the lack of political equilibrium they have now and whatever the preliminary equilibrium will be. it is an opportunity ink situation. >> the yes yes yemenis are not able, what are we going to do? >> the number one thing helping president hadi and his government helping people back to the negotiation tables and the muscle off the street. it is pretty clear the tribal faction will use their muscle to force people to

the aqap in yemen claimed they were behind the attack. they have been unable to carry out attacks on a global scale. >> the evidence is that cherif kouachi was in yemen and he was influenced by the group's ideas. many helped al-qaeda in political turmoil the cooperation between the government in america the drone attacks helped give more popularity and support within the tribes, and the last three years have been the most active for them. >> the attacks in yemen are also increasing. the group seems to be involved on multi of battle fronts. houthi fighters swept through the capitol in september and now control nine provinces. they say they want to end the spread of al-qaeda and corruption. critics say that the houthies are using al-qaeda as a pretext to seize power. power. >> al-qaeda has always called for attacks against the west. they managed to set the base for a long battle against u.s. and europe from within their borders. yemen could be excused because the country is steps away from being a failed state. al jazeera. >> the united nat

we're told aqap is struggling to raise money right now. brian todd cnn, washington. >>> the united states has a history with terror in yemen. in 2000 17 sailors were killed when suicide bombers rammed a small craft filled with explosives into a u.s. navy ship. the commander kirk liphold was at the helm that day. he's with me today. >> thank you, carol. great to be on the show. >> great to have you here. this is how president obama described the situation in yemen just i think last year. let's listen. >> taking outer or lists who threaten us while supporting partners on the front lines is one that we have successfully pursued in yemen and somalia for years. >> so was the president right then or have we just suffered a setback? >> i think it's just a setback. we made tremendous progress in working with yemen while in my opinion they're not exactly a reliable and trustworthy partner in the war on terror they are at least a government that is there that provided some stability in the capital and beyond. they've worked with us in counter terror