and it's a similar very urgent crisis like situation that forced the president's hand here. >> fran townsendehind the scenes how these decisions get made. we saw the president's meeting and saw an animated discussion, jim acosta pointed out. take us inside. how does this work? >> well, you know, anderson, because of the reach and the capability of isis and isil, the president talked about isil related group, very capable, we've talked about foreign fighters on this program before. you can be sure the national security considerations also incorporate the potential for a threat against american targets around the world or here in the united states and so the department of homeland security will have been brought in. the fbi will have been brought in to look at the potential for retaliation attacks against u.s. targets. and that will be a real concern and so while you see the president's attention and the foreign policy team focused on what is going on inside iraq and the humanitarian crisis, there will be homeland security and counterterrorism considerations taken into account at this hour. >>

. >> let's bring in fran townsend. s she's a cnn national security analyst. there you are, fran. i couldn't find you for a minute and you are right there on my screen. thank you so much for joining me. sorry to lighten the mood like that because this is such a serious topic. you heard the former cia deputy director say this is isis first terrorist act against the united states. chilling words. >> no, that's right. and they have undertaken a pretty sophisticated propaganda campaign. five minutes before i go on air today with you, carol, i tweet that i'm going to be on and i get isis supporters sending tweeting back to me horrific pictures. this also happened last night when i tweeted i was going to be on and so they not only putting out their own propaganda, the orange jump suit that james foley and sotloll is reminiscent of guantanamo. the speaker in the video claims they are a legitimate government. the fact this they used someone with a british accent is a reminder of foreign fighters against western interests. i complete with the former director of the cia, we have to maintain

joining me now rick francona and fran townsend.here is the humanitarian drop component and the possible, the use of u.s. military fighters to bomb advancing isis forces. >> yeah, both are probably important on the humanitarian side. this is something we can do but has to be done right. you can't push things out of the back of an aircraft. they have to be targeted to get to an area where people can find them and use them. you don't want them going out and exposing themselves to isis fire. >> there is concern, if you're dropping supplies out of a c-130 from height or low, you have to have some sort of fighter jet escort. >> they will go in there. they will probably have f-16s equipped to do air defense suppression. that's the fear. has isis gotten itself ahold of a weapon that can knock down a higher flying aircraft. we talked about this and the malaysian aircraft, these more capable anti-aircraft systems. right now we don't believe they do but who knows what they have taken. isis has proven to be effective in moving things from one

fran townsend thanks so much for joining me. >>> still to come in the "newsroom," according to reportsssia announced military exercise near the ukrainian border today. could this be a sign of strength or does president putin really want war with ukraine? we'll talk about that next. ard where the reward was that new car smell and the freedom of the open road? a card that gave you that "i'm 16 and just got my first car" feeling. presenting the buypower card from capital one. redeem earnings toward part or even all of a new chevrolet, buick, gmc or cadillac - with no limits. so every time you use it, you're not just shopping for goods. you're shopping for something great. learn more at buypowercard.com ♪ that's why i always choose the fastest intern.r slow. the fastest printer. the fastest lunch. turkey club. the fastest pencil sharpener. the fastest elevator. the fastest speed dial. the fastest office plant. so why wouldn't i choose the fastest wifi? i would. switch to comcast business internet and get the fastest wifi included. comcast business. built for business. >>> according to reut

they tweeted cnn security analyst fran townsend after the air strikes posted foley's execution on youtube. can you use these things to track these terrorists down? >> absolutely, and at my institute we're doing that to some extent, i would expect the intelligence services to have much greater means of analyzing the content also hacking into accounts to be able to establish locations but also importantly, it will be very interesting to security services to monitor the chatter after the publication of the video, because you can expect that this guy who did the execution was known by other foreign fighters and probably they are talking about this on social media right now, and it takes only one to reveal his identity in order for them to be able to identify him. >> all right, keep up the good work and thank you for the insight, peter neumann, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >>> tracking down foley's executioner could force the united states to take action in iraq and syria. isis is mainly in syria. yesterday defense secretary chuck hagel outlined the immediate threat seen from the terror gro

. >> fran townsend, thank you very much. still out front, the second american infected with ebola now on american soil. many others being tested. dr. sanjay gupta is where the doctor is being treated. could the experimental drug, is it a cure? a special report on exactly what this is. breaking news out of ukraine, a russian troop buildup surging along the border. nak payton walsh is there with a fire fight going on just behind him. >> another junshot i've just heard. you can hear that in the distance. from 2000 to 2011, on average 17 manufacturers a day shut down in america. there's no reason we can't manufacture in the united states. here at timbuk2, we make more than 70,000 custom bags a year, right here in san francisco. we knew we needed to grow internationally, we also knew that it was much more complicated to deal with. i can't imagine having executed what we've executed without having citi side by side with us. their global expertise was critical to our international expansion into asia, into europe and into canada. s

fran townsend is joining us right now. friend, you worked in the bush administration. adviser on homeland security. it shouldn't be that surprising that lindsey graham, john mccain, they hated the president's position in withdrawaling all u.s. troops from iraq in 2012. they wanted some u.s. troops to remain. the president says the iraqi government of nuri al maliki refused to give those troops immunity, and as a result, the u.s. had no choice. lindsey graham and john mccain said the president just wanted those troops out. didn't fight the iraqi government of nuri al maliki very hard. what do you say? >> wolf, i actually think their statement, i agree with the idea that we need a more comprehensive strategy to address and degrade isis, but perhaps for different reasons than john mccain and lindsey graham. i don't know. my real concern here is we need to degrade isis because of the direct threat to the united states. there is no question we've heard a lot about the thousands of foreign fighters, many with western passports, including american passports. so as we increase

let's discuss with our national security analyst fran townsend and jim sciutto, our national securityorrespondent. jim, the idf spokesperson tweeted a little while ago. two rockets hit southern israel. terrorists have violated the ceasefire. as far as we know, that's it. no more rockets have come in. only those two. the ceasefire supposed to be up in an hour and a half from now. what is your analysis? is this some random incident or is hamas deliberately wanting to break the ceasefire and make a statement? >> typically there is a claim of responsibility from hamas or islamic jihad when the rockets go off, and there are a lot of splinter groups there. it is possible one of them fired these off as just a sign of strength. but there also may be groups there that don't want the ceasefire to happen. the question is what does israel want here there may be a temptation to retaliate. but does israel really want a full resumption of the offensive that was under way until a couple of days ago? i think that's an open question as well. if it's just two rockets, maybe that's not enough to end the

want to bring in our panel, fran townsend and mark hertling. > anderson, post-9/11 we stopped waiting for them to actually attack us here. they've attacked a u.s. journalist and got $425 million out of the bank of mosul when they seized that and have territory and u.s. made military equipment they seized and they are a better manned, trained, equipped and financed than al qaeda was before 9/11 and the killing of jim foley, an american, a direct indication of their intention and their capability and willingness to act against the united states makes clear that they most certainly are a direct threat today against the united states. i haven't even gotten to the foreign fighters yet, right? thousands, we know thousands are westerners which means they don't require a visa to get into the united states. of which at least accords to administration officials at least a hundred are americans. >> general hertling, do you believe they are currently a direct threat or is it more in your opinion a potential threat down the road? >> in my opinion it's more o

fran townsend, phil mudd, appreciate it, thanks. >>> coming up next, remembering james foley.conversation with his brother, michael, tonight. so what we're looking for is a way to "plus" our accounting firm's mobile plan. and "minus" our expenses. perfect timing. we're offering our best-ever pricing on mobile plans for business. run the numbers on that. well, unlimited talk and text, and ten gigs of data for the five of you would be... one-seventy-five a month. good calculating kyle. good job kyle. you just made partner. our best-ever pricing on mobile share value plans for business. now with a $100 bill credit for every business line you add. >>> well, we spoke before the break about the case for and the mechanics of escalating the battle against isis. the killing of american journalist james foley obviously a catalyst for some of that reassessment. i want to focus now on james foley himself, on the kind of person he was, the kind of son he was, the kind of brother. earlier today i spoke at length to his brother, michael, about all those things and all the things he'll miss.

townsend. also, patrick skinner, senior director of special products formerly with the cia. fran, let's start with you. these two american jihadists killed on the battlefield, do you think this becomes then a recruiting tool for a group like isis? >> it absolutely does. look, when they see that these guys have actually -- part of the recruitment effort is to entice these guys, you're going to get to fight. >> you're going to see action. >> that's exactly right. you're going to see action. it's the adventure of it, right? it's the bravado of it. so when they see these guys really do make their way, do fight on behalf of isis, it is a recruiting tool. and it's a recruiting tool not only for americans, which is concerning here in the homeland, but for other westerners, that you can get in, you can fight, you can -- >> and right now it's large numbers of western europeans that we're talking about. there may be as many as 100 americans, according to some estimates, but it's really huge numbers of western europeans, west africans. >> right, they're talking thousands. >> right. patrick,