we'll talk with cnn national security analyst fran townsend.e in the early morning hours waking guests. the cruise is now over for the 2200 guests on that royal caribbean ship headed for the bahamas. a live report coming up. also, a lot more at the top of the hour including the ridiculous. so we'll start in about 14 minutes, brooke. >> we'll see you then, anderson. thank you. >>> to our fifth story "outfront" tonight. brutal attack on an elderly couple and their 2-year-old great granddaughter. this man, 24-year-old jerry andrew act sieve behind bars. he's charged with entering this apartment complex here this is average wrath, alaska. this happened saturday night, killed the elderly couple. this is what he is charged with. police say he then sexually assaulted their 2-year-old baby, this great granddaughter. police say that child's parents had taken their other son out that night to go see a movie and when they got home they found active in their daughter's bedroom. he took off running and according to police was found about a block away. i wan

fran townsend, let me bring you in.his sound for british prime minister david cameron. fran, after hearing the suspe s suspects' alleged confessions. does it have the hallmarks of a suspected terrorist attack? >> i've been briefed by the home secretary about this absolutely sickening attack in london. it is the most appalling crime. we obviously are urgently seeking and the police are urgently seeking the full facts about this case. but there are strong indications that it is a terrorist incident. >> strong indications that it is a terrorist incident. fran, your thoughts. >> brooke, look, from the suspects' statement alone, you can see why this claiming of retribution for western fighters, british soldiers in muslim lands, we heard this before from groups like al qaeda. and, by the way, we also have seen the release of videos on the internet of beheadings conducted by al qaeda in places around the world. and executions. and so it has the feeling of that. i think that's why you're hearing the british prime minister say t

we want to bring in fran townsend to talk more about this?t a british fighter jet would escort this plane to another airport? >> reporter: carol, let's put it in context for our american audience. oftentimes if there is a garden variety unruly passenger, here in the united states we scramble jets to bring it in. a person of interest on the plane because there is a late hit on a terror watchlist, we escort a plane. really scramble jets for people remember the abdulmutallab underwear bomber, rarely an extreme incident like that that causes jets to be scrambled. that's the american context. a couple of things of real concern. the brit tissue ish do this far rarely than americans. secondly, a plane from pakistan, lahore, pakistan that is of concern and third, you rightly point out, carol, given the events -- the horrible events earlier this week, the assault against a british soldier, the british are on high alert. we ought to presume because of the caution of british authorities in doing this sort of an activity, they had some reason. there is e

. >> fran townsend, appreciate you being here. >>> the chinese baby rescued from a sewer pipe in dramatic video seen around the world. that baby is home this morning with his maternal grandparents. known as patient 59 is drinking formula and is being nursed back to health. left the hospital now with his maternal grandparents. rescuers had to carefully cut the pipes surrounding him in sections in order to get that baby free. so far, police believe the 22-year-old mother's story that this was just a terrible accident. she is not facing any charges. so interesting the world has watched this baby for the past several days. this is not really a widely told story within china. >> it is so hard to believe that it could be an accident. >>> 13 minutes after the hour. ahead on "starting point," the american mother, grandmother jailed in mexico speaks out from behind bars making a desperate plea. hear her tearful defense, next. >>> and cnn exclusive, could this be the smoking gun in the michael jackson case? the testimony that t. jackson family believes could win them a lot of money in court. you're

of course, fran townsend used to work as a homeland security adviser in the bush white house.ran, what was your reaction to the president's speech? >> first, i think most significantly, jake, for five years during the first term and now the first year of the second term president obama has been questioned about what is his counterterrorism policy. how does it distinguish it from the pubush policy? the president is moving the country in the direction of pool si what he called pro proportionality. i think you're going to hear there are lots of people who say they heard president bush say the interrogation and black site prisons overseas he also believed were effective and legal and that wasn't enough to sa satisfy the american people. president obama talked about the targeting of anwar awlaki. he talked about due process and he didn't define that. lastly, while he talked about al awlaki and other americans killed in drone strikes he was silent on those why and how that happened. i think that the white house is likely to get more questions there, as well. >> indeed, in fact, i be

"outfront," cnn's national security analyst fran townsend and the person behind the movie "contagion." they mentioned the current debate over gun control. would that mean that this would be qualified as a political threat over a terror threat? how are the designations made? >> it's really hard. frankly, whether it is a sort of terror threat or political threats is going to be treated the same for the moment. they're going to get the confirmation of the preliminary tests that it is in fact ricin. they'll look for the strength. they'll also look at the forensics. they'll try to determine whether or not on the envelope or on the letter is there hair? is there saliva samples? there are fingerprints? one of the reasons i think you see the joint terrorism task force is investigating this, is because that's where the federal government coordinates with state and locals and pulls all the federal resources together. including cia and other intelligence resources to help them understand what is this against the mayor? >> how hard is it to get hold of ricin and how difficult is it to weaponize i

. >> cnn contributor fran townsend, was one of bush's top national security advisors at the time. >> a man with a very strong internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate. and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility in saudi arabia that killed 19 service members. he also took on the mafia, putting john gambino behind bars, as well as the diva of domestic si, martha stewart. he sits on the booshd of a financial services firm and he was general council for a hedge fund. this may come up as an issue during his confirmation process. senator chuck grassley has said if he is confirmed as fbi director, it could mean comey has to build cases against former colleagues. suzanne. >> thanks, brianna. >>> could be the smoking gun in the michael jackson wrongful death trial. cnn got the exclusive testimony that his family has been waiting for. [ chainsaw buzzing ] humans. sometimes, life trips us up. sometimes, we trip ourselves up. and although the mista

joining us is national security analyst and former homeland security adviser fran townsend. also on the phone, dr. sanjay gupta. they mentioned the gun debate, the joint terrorism task force is investigating. it could be more of a political threat than a terror threat, really. >> that's right, anderson, but as you've mentioned, that's not really at the moment the most relevant piece to the investigators. they don't much care about motive at the moment. they want to know who. and so, to determine the who, they will look for the forensics. they'll look for things like saliva, hair, fingerprints on the letter or on the envelope. they'll analyze, ultimately, the handwriting. but all these things take time, which is why the first thing they're going to focus on is, one, the lab analysis. you heard deb feyerick, the first field test was negative, the second was positive. oftentimes, these field tests are wrong, which is why they're getting a real thorough lab result. that will take a little bit of time, but that will tell them something. they'll expand the strength of the compound

. >> somebody like a fran townsend, she is a former prosecutor. she worked at the fbi. she's homeland security council adviser. lots of credibility. >> and we could get one for benghazi and maybe even the a.p. >> maybe a three-fer, right? don't you think at 6:00 you're going to hear the president be very outraged? he's going to be so outraged. i can't believe this happened. the tea party, i had no clue this was happening. i found out when you found out. i'm just like you. >> that is the most insane thing i've heard of all the things he says that he finds out by watching tv, yet he's the leader of the free world, potentially the most powerful man on the planet. >> like, yeah, i heard that on the news like on friday, i think. and it's monday now. >> you're the one who say he's surrounded by the chicago -- i would bet he didn't know about it and they kept it away from him. >> he should be mad at that. >> i said there was a chicago -- d.c., district of chicago circle around him. but when it fails -- >> you think he calls the shots to investigate conservative groups -- >> i

fran townsend, george w. bush so much he could advisor spoke with david sanger of "the new york times." dana priest of the "washington post" and "wall street journal" reported devlin barrett. from the bipartisan policy center homeland security project event, this is just over one hour. >> good morning, everybody the i'm jason but it's o welcome her to the bipartisan policy center. also a pleasure to be here on behalf of governor tom kean and lee hamilton who are the chairs of our homeland security program for sponsoring this morning's event. the core aspiration of our work on homeland security is to be an accident bipartisan voice looking at these key homeland and national security questions. there are a lot of themes as you can imagine that animate the conversation but there's none that's more pervasive in my mind or dynamic than the sun and the question of the relationship in our society of security and liberty. it is a theme that has been at the core of our governments imagination about the role of governm

joining us is national security analyst, fran townsend, who currently sits on the cia and dhs external advisory committees. they have already arrested this tenth suspect. we've heard so much about these lone wolves. if authorities are accurate, though, this would seem to be not so lone. >> that's right, anderson. we don't really know. when we saw the attack perpetrated in that horrible video the inclination was to think it was a lone wolf but as we have seen too many times, first reports are usually wrong. so as the british begin to pick up these people in this network, the question is going to be did they know about the attack in advance, were there indications, did they help him. let's remember, you pointed out that he was picked up by kenyan authorities and thrown out of kenya, comes back to the uk. we understand from british press reports that mi-5, their version, british version of the fbi, may have approached him about cooperating. you don't do that without looking at the network. who does he have access to, could he be helpful, would it be credible in these circles. they obvious

standing by we have cnn national security analyst fran townsend, pentagon correspondent chris lawrence gitmo, and gloria. but first i want to go to chief white house correspondent jessica yellen. jessica, what can you tell us about the speech? >> hi, jake. the president is going to hit on broad array of topics laying out some of the standards which he has never previously gone into such great detail on before for his own drone attacks on suspected terrorists and he'll go into, we're told -- he'll make the case again for closing guantanamo bay. maybe even explaining how he will use his own executive authority to take steps to pate rate some of the prisoners there and talk about the tensions between national security leaks and press freedom. and also how the u.s. plans to go after homegrown terrorists, an issue that's a new concern after the boston marathon attacks. some questions we're not sure about. that should be interesting. the u.s. has been going on what they call al qaeda associates, terrorists that are affiliated with al qaeda but not directly connected to the 9/11 attacks. will

bush homeland security adviser fran townsend. also on the phone, chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta. the letters mention the gun control debate. it could be more of a political threat than a terror threat, really? >> that's right, anderson. as you mentioned, that's not really at the moment the most relevant piece to the investigators. they don't care about motive at the moment, they want to know who. to determine the who, they'll look for forensics, saliva, hair, fingerprints on the envelope. they'll analyze the handwriting, but all these things take time, which is why the first thing they're going to focus on is the lab analysis, you heard deb feyerick, the first field test was negative, often times they're wrong, which is why they're getting a thorough lab result. that will take a little bit of time, that will tell them something, they'll understand the strength of the compound. how competently it was mixed, analyze whether the two letters, whether it was from the same batch of mixture of the compound of ricin, all those things will help investigators lead down the pa

joining us is our national security analyst fran townsend. she was president bush's homeland security adviser. she is a member of the cia's external advisory board. fran, you look at what's going on in iraq right now. you look at the sacrifice the u.s. made in blood and treasure over a decade. but iraq right now see to be unraveling. what's your assessment? >> well, wolf, as you rightly mention, this has been going on over several weeks. today is only the most tragic and largest example. look, i think what you're seeing is a very aggressive iran. we know iran is very active in syria. they've been known to be active in afghanistan and certainly they've been exerting their influence and their it powpowere iraq. it is as you know a shiite population and shiite government. but remember, wolf, during the bush administration we faced this same sort of unraveling of civilian strife, sunni on shia violence. what we look to are our allies in the region, the saudis, the jordanians. we looked to our sunni arab allies to try and aexert their influence on

hear from include the chief washington correspondent from and theyyork times" will be joined by fran townsend who served as white house homeland security adviser to former president were w bush. the form is hosted by the bipartisan policy center's homeland security project. it is expected to get underway in just a moment. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> we are live at the bipartisan policy center here in washington, waiting for the start of this panel of journalists to talk about betweenthe balance sharing intelligence information and national security concerns. this should get underway in just a moment. , workwe have a moment continues this morning on the senate's immigration proposal as the judiciary committee continues their markup of the bipartisan legislation. coverage is taking place right now on our companion network, c-span2. the house and the senate dabbling in today. you can see the house live here on c-span. the senate is also in today at 2:00 p.m. there will be a couple of judicial nominations that

." >> reporter: cnn contributor fran townsend was one of president bush's top national security advisers at the time. >> this is a man with a very strong sense, internal sense of right and wrong and what is appropriate, and he's going to follow that sort of moral compass. >> reporter: as a federal prosecutor, comey handled the khobar towers terrorist bombing case following the 1996 attack on a u.s. military facility in saudi arabia that killed 19 service members. he also took on the mafia, putting john gambino behind bars as well as the diva of domesticity. comey brought charges against martha stewart and found her guilty of insider trading. >>> michele bachmann has a trial date. the lawsuit against her will go to court in may of next year. it claims bachmann stole and misused an e-mail distribution list from an iowa home-school group during her failed 2012 presidential campaign. the plaintiffs say they suffered emotional distress and loss of business opportunities after the bachmann campaign sent two unapproved e-mails to the iowa christian home educations network. >>> so, incredible, n