joining me now fbi assistant director, chris swecker. the last time we spoke, 1999 in charlotte, i remember you told me that motive was very important to figuring out what is going on and how to stop further attacks. so in this, does it really matter what the motive is now that the bomber is gone or something that they need to find out? >> it matters from the perspective of whether there's going to be another attack, if it was terrorism, international or domestic. that has basically been ruled out or at least international terrorism. you want to know motive to prevent these types of things. the behavioral science unit at quantico studies this, looking for early signs and signals. many of these are flashing red. your best opportunity to identify them and prevent the act is the people that surround them, their social network. sometimes people call in and sometimes they don't. sometimes people just don't flash those signals. it appears in this case there was that one innocuous statement that the world was not forget him sounds to me like a

chris swecker.m, the republicans are saying even the appearance of some impropriety here, whether he was aware of it or not, it's not safe they're saying for him to be on that committee. do you agree with that? >> i do agree with that. you start with the premise that china presents the greatest national security threat by a long shot to the united states security both economically, through economic espionage, militarily. they're competing on a global scale to be the world's super power. so any member of the house intelligence committee, any member of congress would get an awareness briefing of how there's thousands, literally thousands of chinese operatives targeting our free democratic government in so many different ways. so here's my standard. if he didn't know, he should have known. he gets that awareness briefing. >> neil: and i was looking forward to getting you on, chris. i want your thoughts on all the attention the last few years on russia. i know we had attention focused on china, trade an

my name is chris swecker. i'm a chair of the ft. hood independent review committee. i'm a practicing attorney in charlotte, north carolina. i'll also of counsel with miller martin out of tennessee, and i'm retired from the fbi after 24 years, retiring as assistant director of the fbi. to my far left is jonathan harmon. he's chairman of mcguire woods law firm. he is a nationally recognized trial attorney who previously served as an army officer at ft. hood in the first cavalry division after graduating from west point. to my immediate left in the front is carrie richie. she is a retired army jag officer who spent four years at ft. hood. she is now a senior executive serving as general counsel for the u.s. department of agriculture. just behind miss richie is kete rodriguez. she is a retired officer who served 20 years on duty. she recently served on 4block which is a veteran serving nonprofit organization. to my right is jack white. he's a partner at fh&l law firm where he serves with civil rights claims. he graduated at west point and served as an army officer in the

joining me now, though, is chris swecker, former fbi assistant director.fbi of memphis is leading on this investigation. obviously incarnation with the atf, the local nashville police. nashville police, it's interesting to note, did mention earlier in a news conference, and in an hour they'll have another, they have several people they are currently speaking to. they didn't name them persons of interest, they could just be witnesses. would they bring witnesses to the station to speak with? or would they talk to witnesses on the street? how does that work, what's the first step in the fbi investigation here? >> they'll talk to them wherever they can find them. of course they will try to get to an area in a car or somewhere that they can have a one-on-one conversation, if they are talking to witnesses. if they have a suspect, in all likelihood, they will get them to an fbi facility or the local police department. at this stage, i think probably what the police are doing is interviewing potential witnesses. i am absolutely certain they are attacking that crim

assignments work assignments and that sort of thing chris swecker led the investigation into the basin found rampant problems with sexual harassment and assaults in the last 4 years there have been more than 150 non-combat related death at fort hood including 7 murders and 71 suicides i'm gravely disappointed that leaders failed effectively create a climate that treated all soldiers with dignity and respect because of this historic trust and confidence and accountability. i directed the relief and or suspension. and other leaders from the corps to the squad level in all 14 people have been fired or suspended and the army is promising widespread changes for the entire service again family has been demanding it taking their case to the white house and the f.b.i. are now in to get them in. and the people at fort hood where it took place oh very much a. week and we didn't want to have this swept under the rug which could happen and to congress where they say the laws that govern service members need to be changed they say this report is just the 1st but important step everyone hears about

. >> reporter: chris swecker spent years working bomb scenes when he was with the f.b.i. >> they mayes of the car that lead them to who owned the car, who rented the car, et cetera. >> reporter: to help identify leads, in nashville, federal investigators will use forensic analysis from previous incidents involving explosives. ( explosion ) at this secure bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives site in huntsville, alabama, you can feel the bomb blasts even from 200 yards away. ( explosion ) wow! glad i had these in my ears. a.t.f. officials tell us what is left of an explosive device is preserved for a reason. >> we're going to try to recreate-- we're going to collect as much of the evidence left over from the bomb. it doesn't all go away. >> reporter: and that is what is happening now in nashville. the a.t.f. and f.b.i. will look at everything left behind, all to track down the suspect or suspects responsible. katherine schweit is a former f.b.i. agent. >> this is an opportunity, on a holiday like christmas, and in a big city like nashville, to make a splash and get their

on the phone i have former assistant fbi director chris swecker on where the investigation goes from here. i know it's still early, but what is your initial reader based on your experience? >> we are ten hours into this now and the first couple of hours would have been spent securing the crime scene, it's a very large crime scene that secure, making sure there are no secondary devices. what they are looking for is the vehicle identification number, tag on the car or any paraphernalia or anything that you can find that might identify people that are associated with the car. one team will be looking for videos, and this will be an fbi led effort, by the way, until they rule out terrorism. under their team processes the scene forensically looking for the type of high explosives and swabbing nearby areas and parts to see what kind of explosive was used. they will be looking for the detonator device, pieces of it, whether it was remotely detonated or detonated by timer. there are a lot of teams divided up here, each one specializing in a certain area and all that information will funnel i

chris swecker, the former fbi assistant director for the criminal division.or joining us. let's talk about this. investigators say they are speaking with the suspect's mother, who she's been cooperating, right, according to the investigators. was this suspect on law enforcement's radar? did he raise any red flags with anyone that you know about? >> no, it doesn't appear that he did. i mean he had a marijuana conviction back in 1978, but he appears to have led a fairly quiet life. he did have a license to handle explosives, so you can surmise he knew a fair amount about explosives. but he wasn't one of those people that pops up on law enforcement's radar screen as some kind of threat. the only people that would have known about any threat he would present would be the people close to him, like his mother. >> yeah. listen, i want to ask usually when something happens like this, the investigators will determine whether it's -- you know, what sparked it, whether it was homegrown terrorism, domestic terrorism, foreign terrorism or whatever, especially if it's a pe

. >> chris swecker spent years working with the fbi. >> find pieces of cars, find out who owned the car, rented it, et cetera. >> to identify leads, they'll use forensic analysis from previous incidents involving explosives. at this secure bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives site in huntsville, alabama, you can feel the bomb blasts, even from 200 yards away. >> wow. >> glad i had these in my ears. atf officials tell us what's left of an explosive device is preserved for a reason. >> we're going to try to recreate, collect as much evidence left over from the bomb. it doesn't all go away. >> that is what is happening in nashville. atf and fbi will look at everything left behind. all to track down the suspect or suspects responsible. katherine swiet is a former fbi agent. >> in a big city like nashville, to make a splash, get their name out there, i think we'll see somebody that wants to be known. >> in the past, extremists targeted christmas to carry out attacks, hoping for maximum exposure. sources tell cbs news the threat lec level was assessed as low headed into the hol