we'll get you more information on the big news from evan perez on the cell phone.happening the soccer stadium hosting the germany and netherlands game. this stadium being evacuated for what authorities are saying was, quote, a serious plan for explosions. all of this as france and england are getting ready to face-off in london minutes from now. stay with me. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself, and that's what we're doing at xfinity. we are challenging ourselves to improve every aspect of your experience. and this includes our commitment to being on time. every time. that's why if we're ever late for an appointment, we'll credit your account $20. it's our promise to you. we're doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. because we should fit into your life. not the other way around. >>> top of the hour, i'm brooke baldwin, breaking news on cnn as we're watching and waiting in the wake of those r terror attacks on friday. now new word from hannover germ nee ahead of the match between germany and the netherlands at the stadium t

and thank you, evan perez. thank you, everyone, for watching.lleague wolf blitz er will start after this break. hi i'm heather cox on location with the famous, big idaho potato truck. our truck? it's touring across america telling people about idaho potatoes. farmer: let's go boy. again this year the big idaho potato truck is traveling the country spreading the word about heart healthy idaho potatoes and making donations to local charities. excuse me miss, have you seen our truck? you just missed it. ahhh! aw man are you kiddin' me? dayquil liquid gels and go. hey buddy, let's get these but these liquid gels are new. mucinex fast max. it's the same difference. these are multi-symptom. well so are these. this one is max strength and fights mucus. that one doesn't. uh...think fast! you dropped something. oh...i'll put it back on the shelf... new from mucinex fast max. the only cold and flu liquid gel that's max-strength and fights mucus. start the relief. ditch the misery. let's end this. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> hello, i'm wolf b

i want to get right to cnn's evan perez. evan, what are you learn sng. >> well, jake, there's been a couple of these incidents recently in the last week for instance on the dutch island -- caribbean island of san martin. authorities there detained three men that they believe are of syrian origin who are traveling on fake greek passports. and they've now kicked that information up to u.s. law enforcement. and in reference to the five n hondurans, prosecutors say they really traveled on this trail from syria through lebanon, turkey and then to south america, including brazil, argentina before finally making their way to honduras. they were arrested or detained. and they had plans to travel to the north of the country. from there, again, the supposition according to local authorities they might have been intending to travel to the united states. let me put in context what is happening. u.s. authorities tell me that one of the things that's happening in the wake of the paris attacks is that they're sharing a great deal more infor

evan perez joins us now. evan, what are your sources telling you about isis' involvement as to isis core lead thing opposed to it being locally inspired? >> reporter: they have no reason to doubt what the french are saying, which is that this was an isis operation. now, the question that is still hanging in the air is whether or not this was something that was directed from raqqa, whether isis headquarters, or whether this is something that they simply set the ball rolling and had these guys who were essentially a sleeper cell sitting in france that was going to carry it out. the question is, is something the fbi is working hard at this weekend, simply because they want to know if there's anything else that could be coming and whether or not this attack is something that may signal some of the dozens of u.s. isis supporters that they are keeping an eye on, whether any of those people might be activated by what happened in paris. that is something on their minds right now. they're looking at some of the communi

nic robertson is standing by with the latest on the investigation, and our justice reporter evan perez is tgoing t be joining us about prior warnings about the suspected s mastermind. and what are you learning, evan? >> the apparent link between the paris attacks, and other terrorists plots center around abdelhamid abaaoud's role. police believe that he was a ring leader in a foiled plot to attack police in verviere, and what police have found now is more ominous in the hindsight of the attack. they found weapon, and precursor to the exe ploeives to make the tatp and that is the same chemical found insooide of the suicide vests, and they found a connection of jihad connections from safehouses to back to gree greece. they believe that he faked his own death in syria to travel back and fort to ball -- back and forth to belgium without being discovered, but still, authorities could not stop him. >> and now, evan, you are getting more information on the scope of this, and over to nic, what are you learning? >> the investigation has led the police to a hotel room that was used by the attack

she is in nearby ki row, and we are also joined by cnn justice correspondent evan perez who has been working his sources on what the americans believe may be afoot here. arwa, i want to begin with you in egypt. what is the latest from that country where the investigation is really in the top throes right now. >> well, a couple of things. first of all an egyptian military source that we spoke to is just as dismissive of the claim s th claims that the plane was shot down for the mere fact that he stated that the militant groups that operate in the sinai, even though they have been in some fierce clashes with the e egyptian security forces do not possess the capabilities of shooting down a airplane traveling 31,000 feet max, but they did discount that a shoulder to air missile launcher who said on the ground that he helped to process about 175 of the bodies and 60% of them were still intact, and none of them had significant burn wounds on them. but, of course, all of this is lending itself to the all of the speculation about what is it then that did bring this plane down if it wasn't sh

that is what is so much of a mystery here. >> arwa damon, evan perez, thank you so much. and now more on the plane crash from our own professial experts. we have a 777 pilot, and contributor to the "faa magazine," and paul cruikshank our cnn expert, and what are you hearing, paul, does isis have a capability to bring down a plane in flight? >> pamela, increasing denial that this is a terrorist attack. a tweet was sent out by isis saying they did it, but they don't have a good track record of telling the truth, and they don't have the missiles to hit an airplane at 30,000 feet either. the manpower ones going up to 16,000 feet. that is what ar ra a wwa was re, and very important reportig from arwa that the there was no residue from the wreckage which suggests that there was no bomb that somebody managed the to smuggle on plane. that leaves sabotage as the only scenario, but it is much more like likely that it was some sort of catastrophic structural failure, and not terrorism at this point. >> and peter to you now, what is the condition of the bodies or the wreckage tell us

evan perez is "outfront." evan, this is a pretty stunning story.nk a lot of americans sit back when they hear this. what are your sources telling you? >> erin, this is a concerning story. the authorities said that these five men went through five countries before they even got to honduras, including going through lebanon, turkey and through south america before they ended up in costa rica by the capital there and their plan was to head north to san pedro. this is part of a larger trend going on around the world of migrants and just earlier this week, police in st. martin, the dutch part of the caribbean islands, they arrested three people of syrian descent carrying greece fake passports. they passed that information to u.s. law enforcement. what i'm told is happening is the suz tryiu.s. is trying to p information with access to database of false documents, including passports, stuff that they can also get from interpol and they are trying to get these countries to do more to try to prevent people from flowing through those countries and ending up i

we will talk about this justice reporter evan perez and also foria younes who worked as a consultant eas, and also former terrorist specialist tom fuentes with the fbi. evan, what are you learning? >> well, there is a shortening of the time of becoming first radicalized to becoming trying to carry it out. they have noticed that the guys seem to be radicalized recently before they try to do something, and that makes the job of law enforcement exceedingly more difficu difficult. so they the are watching a few dozen of the people. there are 900 investigations in all going, but they decided to focus on the ones higher priority and the people they believe are most lickly to carry it out. >> and we have reported that in europe whether france or belgium, the law enforcement intelligence, they seem to be of whemed by the huge number they are tracking. 900 open investigations here in the united states. a fear among the u.s. law enforcement, the fbi, the justice officials that the fbi could soon be overwhelmed with the number of surveillance programs under way. you need a lot of people to watch

evan perez has new information on the paris attacks. as i understand, you've gotten new reporting on the attackers there. tell us about it. that's right, don. the fbi, the homeland security department and the national counterterrorism department has interested a new intelligence report to people around the country telling them to be aware of people who might be doing surveillance of soft targets to carry out terror attacks. this is all in the wake of the paris attacks and it had some really interesting new information about what the attackers in paris did. for instance, the bullets in the intelligence bulletin says these attackers appeared to have had some kind of tactical planning and perhaps training ahead of time. they conducted surveillance of some of the sites that they carries out these attacks against. we reported previously they found a cell phone outside the theater and it included encrypted apps and a message which appeared to away coordinated message that the attackers used to carry out these attacks. this is all information

our justice reporter evan perez is joining us now with more.re the major concerns that the fbi director has? >> he has really some grave concerns here that this legislation would allow anyone into this country, any refugee. and even perhaps affect travel by people coming from visa waiver countries. these are three dozen countirie where citizens are allowed to travel to the united states with easier process because they have a waiver on visa requirements. we're told comey has expressed this view to the administration officials and some members of congress who have asked for his views and he simply is saying this requirement where he would have to personally sign off on every individual refugee coming from syria and iraq is just frankly impossible. the issue here is there's always risk in allowing anyone, any foreigner into this country, and comey believes essentially the process that's in place where the fbi works with intelligence agencies, homeland security department, to try to vet these refugees, a process that takes a couple of years right

evan perez, our justice reporter is getting more information as well. evan, what are you learning? >> well, wolf, we know that counterterrorism officials here in the united states have convened secure conference calls around the country to try to gather information. they don't know yet what they're dealing with. and really to assess whether there's any danger here to u.s. cities. so far there's no indication of any actual threats here in the united states. but it is something that they're keeping an eye on. and, wolf, immediately what they're looking at here is, again, from a distance having very little information on the ground yet from paris what their immediate suspicion from officials that i've talked to is that, you know, the french have long been worried and the u.s. has long been worried about returnees. people who have gone to fight in syria and iraq and have returned. so that's the first place where everybody's looking at the population of people who the french have been concerned about. they've had a very hard time keeping track of which jim sciutto and paul cruickshank h

and cnn justice reporter evan perez just stepped out of the meeting to give us little highlights and hey said. evan. >> well, jake, the fbi says -- the fbi director said that he's had his agents working 24/7 looking for any links whatsoever that they could find between the paris attackers and here in the united states. and so far they've found absolutely nothing. now, he did say that they've ratcheted up their attention to several dozen isis supporters here in the united states who they believe are the highest likelihood who could carry out an attack here in the united states. there are about 900 open cases of violent extremists, most of those a vast majority are isis supporters. another thing it's very interesting he talked about here is he said that the number of americans who are traveling to join isis in syria and iraq is way down. it's something that used to be about nine a month, now it is about six over the past three months or so. and he says that perhaps one reason is because isis is telling people to stay at home and kill here. so that's a very big concern. a very big concer

our evan perez has been working his sources and has new information for us. >> reporter: u.s.gence at this point has seen no evidence of terrorism or of some kind of missile or anything external to bring down this plane, john. one of the things they've been doing is reaching out to egyptian and russian officials over the last few days, and they've looked at everything from radar, satellite, photo images of the crash scene. they've looked at the passenger manifest and communications, signals intelligence. all of these things that usually give a clue if there's something that went awry, perhaps, terrorismwise. they've seen absolutely nothing. we heard this morning at a conference in washington held by defense one, jim clapper, head of the -- director of national intelligence, addressed this question. he said that he so far has seen no indication of this -- that isis was involved. he even said he's seen no indication that isis possesses the kind of missiles that could be used to bring a plane down like this. i just interviewed nick rasmussen, head of counterterrorism agency, and

let's bring in cnn justice reporter evan perez.ut their plan? and what exactly was this? a race war? >> exactly. they wanted to rob businessmen to raise money in order to start this race war. now, they were according to the fbi which was conducting using confidential sources, wiretaps, surveillance to watch these guys. they had plans to kill a jeweler, rob him and use that money to purchase land to stockpile weapons for this planned race war according to the fbi they'd met with an undercover fbi agent as part of a sting operation, jake. they placed an order for automatic weapons explosives and a pistol with a silencer when they showed up to pay for these weapons is when the fbi carrie out these arrests earlier this week. >> and these men have some sort of allegiance or adherence to an extremist version of what faith? >> it's apparently a pagan religion that grew up in the 1960s here in the united states. and some of these people are, you know, both practicing this nordic faith as well as being racist. some of them are not. these gu

evan perez, thank you very much. all right, a lot to talk about, a lot of developments what has been playing out in germany, how it relates back here in france. let's bring in senior international correspondent clarissa ward and cnn terrorism analyst, mr. paul cruickshank. germany, a big headline, thank god it wasn't what they thought it might be what do you see in terms of how the intel came down and what picture it paints for the threat? >> it was very specific intelligence and they had no choice but to act on it given the events of last friday, given all the concern right now that there may be more attackers, at least two still at large. and so clearly, a lot of concern tonight, but they haven't found any explosive devices. the concern, the intelligence points into the idea -- this, by the way, came from the french, passed on to the germans, pointing to the idea that a radicalized individual living near hannover was going to drive a truck or large vehicle ladened with explosives to the stadium perimeter, the sensi

let's bring in cnn's evan perez. what are you learning about this group? these groups that emerged from the chaos after the arab spring in the sinai peninsula, it's been known mostly for attacking the egyptian state, the egyptian military, police. and in particular in july there was this rocket attack against an egyptian navy ship that really raised alarms. people really saw this was an increase in their capabilities that really had not been seen much before. and we've seen just since they've pledged allegiance to isis in november 2014, we have seen an increase in their propaganda, their sophistication, being able to carry things out. and so that's one reason why there's a lot more attention on this group. >> last year when we were covering the war between israel and gaza there was a lot about sinai and the illicit smuggling and trafficking of arms. that could be relevant here too i suppose. >> it could be very relevant because the question of where they get their armaments, the rocket where they used against a navy ship in july is very much an open questi

evan perez, thank you. joining us michael weiss, the senior editor at the "daily beast" and isis inside the army of terror. michael, you heard evan's reporting. at least one reporter had clean enough backgrounds they potentially could have traveled to the united states under what's called that visa waiver program. how many others are out there potentially who could do so? >> there are quite a few, wolf. one of the problems we have in this country is we have a honey come structure of agencies and security burros and they are supposed to coordinate with each other but don't. tamerlan tsarni was also on a watch list or no-fly list. that didn't stop him from flying to russia and then coming back. this has happened before in, you know, our long history of international terrorists incidents. i think the real problem is, though, look, it's not that these guys are necessarily going to come to the united states from other countries of origin. it's what happen in paris could replicate itself here. they will grow up h

joining us now from washington, cnn chief justice correspondent evan perez. when you look at how the united states and the uk, germany, may be involved in this investigation, i just spoke with the deputy mayor of france who said we need help from intelligence around the globe. it is clear they were not able to track the one french national involved in this. we saw the same thing in the wake of "charlie hebdo". so what's the fbi to go? >> well, poppy, that's exactly what the fbi is trying to help them with? they are trying to see if there is any communication, any intelligence that they have, that u.s. intelligence agencies collected in the last few months, particularly that might be helpful to explain what happened here what was missed really. because this -- these attackers to have this many attackers just plan a coordinated attack without tripping any wires, without arousing any suspicion from french intelligence is exactly what the fbi is very concerned about. one of the things they're doing this weekend is fbi agents around the country are reviewing ongoin

evan perez, cnn, walk. >> and victor and kristi, so many things we are looking at.news coming out of turkey with three arrests, including one man, who is apparently possibly tied to the plots that unfolded here last friday. then, of course, the situation in brussels that is ongoing. the new raising of the terror alert here. then, of course, we have the situati situation in mali. there is so much going on we are reporting here in paris. >> fred, before we let you go, i have a question at the top of this half hour, took a brief look at the people there behind you and the messages and flowers in the memorialium. give us an idea more than a week since this attack the mood there in paris. >> reporter: well, look, i think people are absolutely shocked about the attack, about the fact that something like this happened in their city and there is also among many people, a feel feeling of defiance, they say we will not let our way of life be influenced by terrorism. many people also very much on board with the expansion of the french military campaign in syria. those addition

. >> nic, standby, and evan perez is joining us. evan, a new video out said to be from isis which threatening an attack on the united states and specifically washington, d.c. have the u.s. officials been able to authenticate this or any specific isis threats now emerging? >> well, wolf, i believe they are going to be exactly what isis wants to do. so whether or not this message came from the isis central, they are taking it very, very seriously. and we heard from the capital police here in washington that they are increasing visible security around the capital complex a few blocks from here, and we have talked to the fbi, and the fbi says they sent us a statement that at this time there is no specific or krebld threat to the united states, and we will not hesitate to adjust the security posture to protect the american people, but wolf, what the fbi is doing is to is simply make sure that all of the agents around the can country, talking to law enforcement, and making sure that the of all of the suspects that i are investigating, and

i want to go now to our justice reporter evan perez. evan, the date, friday the 13th, could be something significant you're learning. >> reporter: that's right. this is something u.s. counterterrorism officials have been discussing just since this attack rr. the significance of november 13th. now, we know that al qaeda and isis are very much focused on symbolism. one of the symbols here is that november 13th is the anniversary of when the allies, western allies, britain, france, and italy, occupied constantinople in 1918. there is no evidence to indicate this is what these attackers are going for, but it is something u.s. officials are discussing, because they want to know why did this happen when it did? was it predicated, planned well in advance or something they just decided, they had this plan on the shelf and decided to activate it because they saw an opportunity. these are all theories that u.s. officials are going over and looking at. it's something that informs their investigation, they're looking at intercepts and chatter among

we have our justice correspondent standing by evan perez. know you are so close with a lot of people in law enforcement and a lot of tips coming into nypd. how many of them do they have to see through as an investigation? >> they have to see every single one of them through. that's one of the difficult challenges of doing law enforcement in new york city. everyone knows that the top target for terrorist groups. everybody from isis to al qaeda. so that's what the nypd does now is every single lead that comes in whether it comes from 911 or this toll number, all of it goes sbo this database. the fbi takes a look at it and sees whether there is something they need to look at and then the nypd decides if they are going to track this down. someone who ran out of gas and abandon. ed a car. something they have to check out. or someone who posted threats on sn snapchat or facebook, they have to look at every single one of them. 500 of these investigations have been conducted so far this year. >> evan perez, we are so thankful for what they are doing

let's go straight to our justice correspondent evan perez with more on this. ning to do, evan? >> it's a really remarkable story, brooke. these two men are alleged white supremacist who practice a pagan religion according to the fbi. they say they were planning to rob and kill businessmen and use the money to create a race war. now, the fbi says that back in september they learned that there was a meeting involving these two men and that there was going to be a discussion about carrying out shooting and bombing attacks on black churches and joourish synagogues. that's when the fbi decided to set up a sting and these two men allegedly met with an undercover agent who was acting as an illegal arms dealer. according to the fbi, they placed orders for automatic weapons, explosives and a pistol with a silencer. and when these men allegedly attempted to buy the guns is when the fbi made the arrests earlier this week. now, the fbi says that it learned through confidential sources and wiretaps and surveillance that these men were concocting to kill a jeweler as well as

we're also e getting new information from cnn's justice reporter evan perez. what are you learning about possible threats in italy? >> at this point the fbi has been sharing information on pretty much every bit of information it has with any european country that may be at risk for future attacks. and that is what's at work here with these warnings. the italians were provided information of possible threats, possible people who may be planning attacks there. and so as a result of that it, the italian authorities have taken action. they are now looking for people trying to make some arrests. this is all out of an abundance of caution. there was no specific information of a particular plot, but what this goes to show you is in the wake of what happened in paris, no information is too small to share among intelligence agencies or u.s. law enforcement agencies to share with european countries that are viewed as particularly at risk. we know that isis has expressed interest in striking rome and italy. e we know that the uk has increased its security levels as e wel

our justice reporter evan perez is joining us. he's got details. very disturbing case, evan. you learned? >> well, wolf, exactly. we've seen dozens of these cases but this one is very novel. this akron, ohio man is charged with soliciting the murder of u.s. military members. and what he did was simply re-post files on tumblr published on the internet by isis. one file read target united states military. it included pictures and names and addresses of u.s. military members. and it included a photograph with a knife and a gun. and it said -- a text that said, kill them wherever you find them. we took a look at his facebook and tumblr accounts and they contain plenty of posts expressing support for isis and attacks in iraq and syria. and others are simply cheering terror attacks even here at home. one of those posts says i can't wait for another 9/11, boston bombing or sandy hook. and another says somebody should park a car bomb in front of a church, school or mall. now, none of those posts actually break the law. posting those isis files with military members personal data went

let's go to evan perez. what do we know? a couple of these incidents that have happened in the last few days in the wake of the paris attacks getting people's attention. let me explain a little bit about it. for instance a couple of days ago, authorities in st. martin, the dutch part of st. martin in the caribbean island, detained three men who they believed were syrian origin and who were carrying fake or false greek passports or passports that were not theirs. so those people were detained. they're under investigation. that information has been provided, kicked up to u.s. law enforcement. now, this is part of a greater effort that the u.s. is doing, i'm told, since the paris attacks, a new effort to share a lot more information on this database of false documents, travel documents, passports, which is really a problem, a phenomenon around the world. a lot of migrants use false documents, some of them have lost their documents as they were trying to escape syria or other countries. some of them -- again, this is a way for t

joining me from washington, evan perez, also with him, former fbi director, tom fuentes with us china. evan, speak to that a little bit everybody now we know there has been an american casualty, fbi will have a more integral role in this investigation, if you will. >> reporter: that's right, poppy. we expect, now that the fbi is going to be working more closely with the french authorities try to figure out exactly what happened here, they have a criminal investigation now that's ongoing, expect the french will be able to brief them a lot more readily, more, you know, as soon as they have information because now the fbi has jurisdiction. one of the things that's happening i was told just last night the fbi convened a conference call with special agents in charge around the country. one of the things that the deputy director of the fbi told them to do, simply go back and review all of their cases. they want to make sure that this is an opportunity to go back and check to see whether anybody on their radar who possibly might use this event as a trigger to go out and do something. this is

cell phones and those apartments and our justice reporter evan perez, you're getting new informations. what are you learning? >> wolf, there was no doubt the information found on this cell phone in particular, that message that appeared to be a go message were very key for investigators in france trying to unravel this network. the fbi and u.s. intelligence have been turning over more information that is helping to drive some of the hundreds of raids that you have seen that french authorities have carried out in the last few nights in paris. i'm told that essentially there is so much chatter going on they are detecting, this is no lead too small not to turnover. that is something that's changed after friday night. >> you're also getting more information about those five syrians who have just been detained in honduras with fake passports supposedly trying to make their way here to the united states. what can you tell us? >> well, wolf, this is part of a larger trend, really. and we had earlier this week we had authorities in st. martin, the dutch part of the caribbean island detain th

justice reporter evan perez has new information plus details from an off camera briefing that james comey gave. >> anderson, as much as isis is a terrorist group, they love doing propaganda and taking their moment in the sun right now just to make sure that people you believed the threat that they pose, especially to western countries and so that's what we're seeing with videos. the fbi is looking at them, a lot of them are recycled images, videos they used before and know everyone is watching and the world's media is there in paris looking for what they are possibly might come next and that's what they are trying to do, ramping up fear. the fbi doesn't believe there is specific credible intelligence it's coming from these videos that indicates a threat is coming to the united states or perhaps italy or any of the number of countries mentioned but it is something that obviously makes them have to redouble efforts to try to prevent further attacks. >> what about fbi efforts monitoring in the united states? >> they noticed the number of people trying to travel overseas, anderson, to join is

our justice reporter evan perez joins me now.test on this moore rack ra -- moroccan intelligence. >> we had moroccan official andd a lot of information about abaaoud and once it became clear that he were behind the attacks, that's when they set into action and tapped moroccan sources. abaaoud and his parents are moroccan and they found he was with a sustained specked female suicide bomber. they were able to pass that information to french intelligence on monday. just a couple days after the attack and one of the questions i had was why were they tracking him? they say they simply knew about him because moroccan fighters that come back from syria and iraq are given extensive interviews and asked them, moroccan intelligence asked him who are you with and ifighting with? that is information they are able to collect and use for later intelligence. this is the reason why they knew right after the attacks that abaaoud was likely in france. >> which obviously was a huge help. what's the latest on the video? >> the latest on the video, t

and the story first reported by evan perez that the phones found by the dead bodies of those terrorists from the friday's attacks gave them a clue. i was told earlier the i da by the french security sources that the intercepted communications coming from that apartment in saint denis where the raids took place are what helped to lead them there, and remember they had the place under surveillance from yesterday. so urgent use of the intelligence led them to the apartment and raid that prevented another attack. and other detalils. he says now three terror suspects in custody, and they are working to identify them, and crucially, the french pros cue or the there saying that abaaoud the alleged ringleader, and salah abdeslam are not in custody. when they went into the apartment, they the believed that abaaoud abdelhamid might be inside of the apartment, but prosecutors say from what they know now, they do not have it confirmed that he is in custody. and so, now, you have a sense there describing the enormous resources that went into the raid. he said that 5,000 bullets were fired by french

jonathan, to you, what we know are pamela brown and evan perez breaking the news this weekend that theecurity officials have told cnn, look, at least one of the eight paris attackers would have been conceivably able to travel to the united states under the visa waiver program that allows people from 38 european countries to get on planes and come to the u.s. without a visa. there's also growing concern that if perhaps as many as three of them could have slipped through the united states' watchlist and screening system. how do we change that? >> well, i tell you, poppy, that's an excellent and important question because now you're seeing in belgium right now what happens when you don't forward think these things. one of the things you can primarily do is at least take the advice of people trained as an attacker in unconventional war fair that come from the military. i'm a former navy s.e.a.l. people who understand how conventional warfare begins, take these into account before you build a policy so you're not in the position brussels is in right now. unfortunately for now where they are

there was an execution-style massacre happening inside the theaterment cnn just reporter evan perez joins evan, what are you hearing about isis' involvement? yes, they are claiming responsibility, but does that mean that they were involved in terms of core isis directing this? >> reporter: that's exactly what the fbi and the u.s. intelligence community is focused on. just this weekend, everybody i know came into work, they're going to come in tomorrow because that's the question whether this was something that was controlled from rack afrom isis' -- raqqa, from isis' home base, or whether this was something that was the type we've seen before. a more home-grown, inspired attack. again, for the 129 people that are dead, really that makes no difference. but for u.s. officials, for counterterrorism officials, they really want to know this. this resembles a lot. the mumbai attack, as you remember in that case, you had someone in pakistan actually giving instructions to the young men that were carrying out the attack that lasted for a couple of days, as you remember. in this case, we don't kno

let's get more on this from cnn justice reporter evan perez joining from us washington, and also here our terrorist analyst peter. evan, the department of homeland security, they knew about this guy. they talked about this guy. they'd even warned about this guy. >> that's right, john. the apparent link between the paris attacks and the earlier plots center on abdelhamid abaao abaaoud. a u.s. homeland security report earlier this year warned about abaaoud's plot that was broken up by police in january. police believe he was a ring leader in a foiled attack to attack verviers. french authorities believe he was involved in the plotting of the paris attacks. what police found in that raid in verviers in january looks a lot more ominous in hindsight of the paris attacks. they found weapons, precursor chemicals to make the explosive tatp. that's the same explosive that was used in the suicide vests worn by the paris attackers. they found a web of jihadist connections across europe to safehouses in greece and syria. and authorities believe abaaoud faked his own death in syria so that he coul

they found several cell phones, reporting of my colleague evan perez tonight. they found evidence of encryption applications, apps on the phones used for encrypted communications. you or i could download those on our phone tonight. as simple as they are, they are largely invisible, almost completely invisible to security services. there is evidence of that. one more detail, there was a text message on one of those phones that said something to the effect, we are ready to go. it seemed to be perhaps the go order for these attacks on friday night. >> jim, sciutto, thank you very much. frightening that it is simply so easy to avoid it if you want to. we are learning more about the first suspect on the run. that is salah abdeslam. he has been on the run. he was on the belgian border. he has been on the run ever since and could be central to this attack. i went to his hometown today in brussels in belgium and talked to his brother about before abdeslam could be, and whether he was behind these attacks. mohammed, what would you say if salah was watching this intervie

our justice reporter evan perez has details.e know about the threat to the students at howard? >> reporter: this was a threat made on the website and the fbi called howard university because this was a threat that made a racial slur and made reference to a specific metro station that's next to howard university. it threatened harm against students. so we have a statement from howard and the way they reacted. they said this is an ongoing investigation, in an abundance of caution the university has increased security on campus and met e row stations. the fbi said we are aware of the online threat and made appropriate note few indications. they asked anyone with information to come forward to police here in washington and to the fbi. we should put this in context a little bit. these threats are not uncommon. they threget a lot of them. there's been a lot in light of the tensions at missouri. that said the fbi streets this seriously because you never know when one of these will come to pass. so right now we know that the threat spec

cnn's justice reporter evan perez is joining with us much more on. what have the investigators learned and what more are they learning from the phones? >> well, kate, one of the most important things they were trying to learn is who else was part of the network. that is what you are seeing today. there have been over 200 raids that have been conducted by phr french police over the last two days, and a lot of it is driven by some of the intelligence that has been learned not only from the phones, but also from the human sources, and other pieces of intelligence that they have been able to the pick up. we know that the fbi has been funneling information that they have in their files, and so has the cia and sending information back to the french to help with some of the raids. we know that is playing a big role. and really, we have is been talking about the phone, because, you know, there was such a little trail that was left behind by these attackers. they were able to the find encrypted apps on the phone, and so were those apps used to help plot the at

evan perez, you have been talking to your source about any cell phones recovered, have they been able to gather everyday from these phones? >> well, that's what they are working at, don. right now, we know they have recovered several cell phones, on those cell phones, they actually found encrypted apps. we don't know if they were used to plot this attack. that's something investigators very much want to find out. cell phones, even if you can't break into those apps, immediately, the cell phones are very valuable. they could provide information about who these people were talking to, in advance, where they have been. how long they've had these cell phones, again, this is all information investigators are trying to put together. one of the interesting things, one of the phones had a message on it sent apparently before the attacks began. it said, simply, something to the effect of, okay. wear ready, which indicates that perhaps this is the way these attackers were able to orchestrate and coordinate simultaneous attacks. >> evan, is there an internal debate between investigators about ho

our justice reporter evan perez joins us now. you've been working your sources talking to people. what have you been hearing about concerns about threats in the united states? >> well, anderson, that's exactly what the fbi and the u.s. intelligence agencies are working at this hour. they are going through intelligence streams they have including signals and intelligence. the u.s. does a lot of collection of communications overseas and what they want to do at this hour is to see whether there was anything that they have in their possession that perhaps didn't raise concerns before but that now perhaps makes sense, whether there was any warnings missed or indications of planning. this was an attack they believe was simultaneous, clearly very well planned and orchestrated and what they want to know is how that possibly could have happened without raising any kind of intelligence concerns either in france or for the u.s. which is keeping an eye on things there, obviously very concerned about the safety of americans traveling there but just in general, they want to know when things lik

. >> i want to bring in evan perez, what are you hearing tonight? >> one of the things that congressman king talked about is on the mind of u.s. intelligence officials we have been talking to tonight. they're looking at the fact that this appears to be a very well coordinated attack, simultaneous. we're talking about all these attackers who carried this out at the same time. that takes a lot of planning, it takes a lot of support. that's what is on your mind now and they are looking at the intelligence that the u.s. already has. they do a lot of collection of communication overseas. and they are keeping an eye of the people in france especially who have gone gone to syria and iraq and returned from that fight and are now in france, the french have said that they have a hard time keeping track of perhaps over 1,000 people. the u.s. says they have about 250 people and they sometimes have a hard time keeping track of those people. imagine trying to keep track of over a thousand. and that's what is going on now. we know that they're going back through a

including with that message, our evan perez reporting yesterday, ready to go. in effect, the cell phones of the attackers in the friday attacks used before the attacks too many. we know apps for encrypt 7d communications which has been a concern of u.s. and european intelligence, officials for some time. so did they gain some intelligence from those phones that led them to other players in this game, other players that those attackers were communicating with. that's potentially a very important lead. >> one point here, paris authorities are now telling us, prosecutors are telling us two suspected terrorists are dead. we have been reporting three all morning. they changed that number. two suspected terrorists dead. seven now in custody, including three who were taken into custody from inside the apartment and apparently four others from the outside. so those are . one to the next. >> you can see from that church. they're in the sort of historic old town of sontene. that's the focus of today's raid, including the apartment area that they were looking for. if you

our justice reporter evan perez is getting this information. evan, what are you learning? weekend, intelligence analysts spent the entire weekend trying to comb over signal communications of these attackers and, very surprisingly, they have not been able to find any communications. it's one of those things that is very puzzling to the intelligence community. obviously there is some indication and this is one reason why officials are increasingly persuaded and encrypted means of communication. some people will turn up and perhaps the french might have found something with u.s. officials but right now the officials and puzzled and one thing they do now is known to use encrypted applications. that's driving this view that they must have been using encrypted means because it's a simultaneous attack that they were able to launch and they believe that they had to be talking in some way. >> and these encrypted communications could not be monitored by law enforcement authorities and intelligent officials and they planned and did what they were doing? >> this is how they were able

nicholas rasmussen, director the national counterterrorism center, and evan perez, justice reporter at i will turn -- so thank you for inviting us to do this today. i'm going to introduce you briefly to our guests. this is john carlin, the chief of the national study division at the justice department. they do all of the national security prosecutions as well as handle intelligence matters from the legal perspective at doj. nick rasmussen, since 2014, has been the leader of the national counterterrorism center. previously worked at the white house as an adviser to the president on national security. old fogey gentlemen lead agencies -- old fogey gentlemen lead agencies that were born out of the 9/11 commission report. i wonder if you could give us a perspective, 15 years removed to have you see the role of your agencies as they evolve? >> thanks. it's great to be here. thanks to defens "defense one." national security division was greater than 2006 as a result of both reforms recommended from one of the post-9/11 commission's and the idea was simple important and it was to make sure th

evan perez is working this story for us. there was a very chilling message on a phone. it, evan? >> that's right. not only have they recovered multiple cell phones, they have found encrypted apps. in one of the cell phones, there was this message that investigators believe was sent before the attack began. it said something to the effect of, okay, we're ready. that's what investigators believe and were looking for, that these attackers coordinated this attack, that they signaled to each other that it was time to go. some of them probably got stuck in traffic. they were heading to the stadium. they were heading to multiple locations. investigators have long known that they had to be some way to coordinate the simultaneous attacks that they were able to carry out. what this really shows, wolf, is that the fears that we've long heard about, about the use of encrypted apps as a way for terrorists to stay below the radar has come to pass. we don't know exactly the apps that these guys were using. we don't even know what exactly they used to be able to hide from authorities bu

evan perez. i appreciate your reporting. always think in an situation like this it is as important to talk about what we know as also to talk about what we don't know because it can be very confusing. there is a lot of details and a lot of importance is in the details. on capitol hill today the o bam administration's strategy on terror is going to come up heavy scrutiny as member os the house, homeland security and foreign affairs gather for a joint hearing. the focus rise of radicalism in the united states. joining me is member of the committee. good morning congresswoman. appreciate you being with us. you say it is time for the white house to step up. specifically what do you mean by step up? >> well anderson, we are facing a generational conflict with islamist extremism. and we've seen obviously a game-changing dynamic that now most people are woken up to but we've been following for the last year or year and a half since the caliphate was declared. with the attacks in paris and the takedown of the russian airliner, again

evan perez, fantastic reporting, thank you so much. i have michael wies with me now.richard quest. michael, to you, we talk about coming out strong statements. uk, u.s., this was primarily russian middle class, heart of russia, this was who was killed in this plane. why haven't we heard more from vladimir putin, do you think? >> well, look, he was silent saturday after the plane blew up in the sky. this was characteristic for putin. you'll remember not long after he became president of russia the submarine sank and he was quite silent for days afterward and gave this strange statement shortly thereof. the kremlin might not know what happened buzz we're not sharing whatever we've got with them. the spokeswoman today the bruts and americans have this intelligence, why haven't they shared it. they might know what happened and it could very well track with what the uk and america is saying, but they are trying to figure out how best to present this now. and also calculate, look, is this beginning to hurt our effort in the war we claim is against isis and syria or is it go

let's bring in evan perez, our cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank.als have information on movements, help he had moving across borders, contacts he may have had? are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, the search goes on. i've been in touch with officials in belgium and throughout europe on this. and they are putting all the resources they can to find this man. there is a lot of concern because there is a missing suicide vest. he's considered armed and dangerous and it's concern that he might want to go out in a blaze of glory. he doesn't have many options left. the entiere continent secure services immobile utilized against them. they actually stopped him, the french police that morning at 9:00 because he was driving back after the attacks into belgium, picked up by two of his friends but they didn't know at that point that he was one of the attackers, so they let him go and contacted belgium police who arrested the other two but by that time he slipped the net. hasn't been seen since and they really don't know where he is. he could be almost anywhere i

cnn's justice reporter evan perez live in washington with a look at the plan. what do you see. >> this is the hard part of the obama administration's criminal justice reform plan. it's helping thousands of prisoners reintegrate back into society. president obama wants champions to change how they hire to help people with prison records get jobs. he wants the federal government to lead the way by banning the box. this would basically ask employers to no longer require criminal records and for information on job applications. employers would ask later in the hiring process about this information so that people have a better chance of getting a job. now, the idea here is one that had been getting force in the government. sorry here. we're having a problem with our prompter here. some critics are warning that the early releases could make the problem worse. president obama has addressed those concerns in an interview on television last night. >> the question is just how do we go through the various levels of the criminal justice system and tailor it so that we are