. >>> we want to bring in right now fran townsend and phil mudd. fran, let me start with you. what are your impressions of what's going on tonight? >> well, look, i don't think it should be so surprising that we have arab allies actually dropping bombs. these are the same arab allies that have been imploring the administration since the speech in the rose garden about the red line to take action in syria. they offered to be part of a military coalition, part of military operations because when the president was talking about bombing syria over the red line. the fact they've come together now is really their way of sort of pushing the administration to keep that commitment. >> phil, we were just talking here about how this is a continuation. that's what the general was saying. of the war that we've been fighting against terrorists since 2003. but tonight feels different. >> it does feel different because we're looking at a terrorist organization in its resurgence. an organization unlike al qaeda in pakistan which is relatively focused on small groups of people trying to train p

and all of this brings me to homeland security adviser to the second president bush, fran townsend.he counter extremist project he ca, devote exposing isis. first and foremost, who are these reach patrons of evil and do they even know what they are supporting all the time? >> not all of them do understand it. i'll tell you, we learned a lot. in the united against nuclear iran, we've learned that oftentimes there are shell companies and cutouts. so you talk about $3 million a day in oil. it's not like it comes in a barrel that says isis on it. if you can work just work with other governments, private individuals to identify these shell companies and confront the individuals buying it, whether they are turning a blind eye, that is, they really do know and don't care because the oil is cheap or whether they don't know at all and you lay it out for them, you can actually cut off that flow of funding. >> let's say, for instance, there are some of those -- they are literally called angel investors. i hate to use that term but if they know what it is they are investing in, if they know exa

back with us, robert mcfadden, fran townsend and, start with that, fran, where have they been hiding?ng to get him turned over when he was in cue bait. they had enormous, some of them spent some time in iran. unable to get access during the bush administration. so these guys were used something as pawns and leverage within the region. wouldn't give them over to us. but they would use them, sort of as leverage with the groups to get the group not to commit acts of terror inside their own territory. they would use them with the group in order to negotiate to fete dpet th get them release where they would go to. this coming together the a real concern not only to the administration but to the intelligence committee. >> an al qaeda, consciously sending operative thousands, slib r deliberately. to syria. a safe haven. they build up their operations there over the last year. al-fadhli entered syria ate year age built up the operations of the group, khorasan. >> what do we know about his connection to september 11th? >> at the time. it's remarkable he was that young at the time. probably lat

peter bergen, fran townsend. thank you very much.t ahead in the hour we'll talk more about questions and how long the operation may last. whether it will work. our military experts weigh in next. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ susan ] my promotion allowed me to start investing for my retirement. transamerica made it easy. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. transamerica. "hello. you can go ahead and "have a nice flight."re." ♪ music plays ♪ music plays traveling can feel like one big mystery. you're never quite sure what is coming your way. but when you've got an entire company who knows that the fewest cancellations and the most on-time flights are nothing if we can't get your things there, too. it's no wonder more people choose delta than any other airline. >>> well, it is difficult to say this early on how long the military campaign will last. no one is saying it is going to be quick. there is

. >> i want to go to peter beinart and also fran townsend. fran, i got a question from you. this came from jim acosta. i don't know if jim is still around. of course the president is being updated on the operations. law enforcement told cnn this. that there is no actionable intelligence, trance, to suggest any terrorist strike or planned attack against the u.s. home wland that is in the works. but there's always a fear that there will be some sort of response to strikes like this. and on the homeland. >> that's right, don. often we don't have specific intelligence before an attack. whether that's the underwear bomber, the computer cartridge bomber. they are aware of nothing at this time, and that can change. our intelligence services and our foreign intelligence allies will be particularly focused on looking to identify any potential threats. let me say something about the coalition. jim reported if was jordan, saudi arabia and the emirates participating in military action but you also heard about these two other nations, qatar and bahrain. let's remember what assets we've g

next to mike is fran townsend. full disclosure, a former boss of mine. former assistant to the president, president bush. for homeland security and counterterrorism. served in numerous capacities, and you can see in her bio the multiple roles that she has played. but in particular, the vice president at mcandrews and forbes holding, and also a commentator at cnn. next to fran is dan benjamin. ambassador benjamin was the former ambassador at large for counterterrorism in the obama administration at the state department. he now serves as the director of the john sloan dickey center for international understanding at dartmouth. and next to dan is philip mudd. well-known to many of you who watch cnn, especially recently, a commentator there. former deputy director of the cia counterterrorism center shortly after 9/11. these are all individuals who have been in the battlefield, so to speak. they've been in policy and operational positions and can speak to not just the theoretic, but the practical almonds of this debate. let me say briefly how we will conduct

here to talk about it, fran townsend and bobby gesh. the pressure has grown. >> on the president, definitely and growing on everybody else, as well. this is -- we are very acutely aware of the threat to us, to the united states, but countries in the neighborhood and europe have been acutely aware of threats to them, perhaps coming before us and they have been aware for awhile, and so i suspect on his trip to europe in audition to hearing about russia and ukraine, the president will hear a lot about questions asked what should we do about isis and what leadership is the united states willing to show. >> i get a lot of tweets from people, look, why does the u.s. have to be the world's policemen on this? regional countries have as much if not more to fear about isis. why isn't there more of a coordinated multi national response? >> i think what you see now is secretary of state kerry is trying to build that international coalition. i think the president's trip to nato is a part of that building the international coalitions. i will tell you

fran townsend as well. welcome piece of good news from britain's royal family. the throne on the way. william and kate are expecting. details ahead. ♪ [music] jackie's heart attack didn't come with a warning. today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. if you've had a heart attack be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. everybody knows that. well, did you know you that former pro football player ickey woods will celebrate almost anything? unh-uh. number 44... whoooo! forty-four, that's me! get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts... get some cold cuts! whooo! gimme some! geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. whoo! forty-four ladies, that's me! whoo...gonna get some cold cuts today! welllllllll, not when your travel rewards card makes it so hard to get a seat using your miles. that's their game. the flights you want are blacked out. or they ask for some ridiculous number of miles. honestly,

what is going to have to happen though in the broader society, mentioned in the previous segment, fran townsend, gets down to the individual and neighborhood level. if you look at some actors like, there were a number of behaviors. >> here is our whole thing. we live in a free, open society. we live in a free and open soap sigh tee. at some point we may no longer live in a free and open society. >> exactly. the suggestion is not that everyone needs to be in that kind of, degree of suspicion. one other example, you had a young man from florida, who went over to syria, and actually returned for up to two months before he went back to syria and blew himself up. ended very badly. what happened with the family, friend, those in his mosque as to what was going on. one might say well that would mean a family turning in their isn't to face prosecution. look how it ended. >> paul, you are steeped in this stuff. you study it. are you more concerned today, about khorasan and isis than you have been in past months? >> i think there is very real concern about khorasan, potential plot against western aviatio

let's bring in fran townsend a former bush administration adviser and senior follow for the foundationdefense of democracy. fran, let's start with you, very interesting to hear the british prime minister say that a lot of these lone wolf terrorists or otherwise whatever they are, whatever kind of terrorist they are initially initiated into extremist islam not by preachers who preach violence, but by preachers who preach hatred without violence. that seems like a very big problem for western powers to try to combat. how do you do that? >> it's very difficult, jake, but what he said was very important and that is it's not just that we're combatting violent extremism. we have to chit ourselves to combatting extremism in all its forms. look, it is a challenge, and i think that's why it's very important to have public, private partnerships. this week, ambassador mark wallace, formerly with the u.n. during the bush administration and i announced the counter extremism project. the idea is to provide that counter narrative, to create a public/private partnership with where non-governmental org

fran townsend is joining us, as is our law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes and peter bergen. secretary of homeland security in the last hour right here on "the situation room." listen to this exchange we had. >> how could this happen, mr. secretary? >> well, that's what i would like to know. director pierson of the secret service has ordered a security review, which she will submit to me. the secret service is part of the department of homeland security. i look forward to the findings and recommendations. i'm going to wait until the facts are in. >> it certainly does send an awful message out there about security at the white house, fran. you worked at the white house. you were the homeland security adviser to president bush. it sends a nasty message potentially, a very worrisome message to terrorists. >> that's right, wolf, especially on the same day when you've got the spokesperson for isis calling for lone wolf attacks inside the united states against civilians and against sort of what they call our bases. very concerning. secretary johnson said he was going to wait until t

cnn national security analyst and former bush homeland security and counterterrorism adviser fran townsendn is obvious, if they can do it in australia, can they do it here in new york city? is that what we're seeing with the guy upstate in new york who they're trying and the stuff online and the threats, how real? >> i think there are two different kinds of threats, that there's real concern about. one is the isis foreign fighters, those guys who are overseas, may try to get into the united states to try to launch an attack and then there's the home-grown jihadists. it seems, we believe, what australia is dealing with easier to detect that when it's a group that comes together because they have to meet, they have to plan, they have to coordinate. all of those represent opportunities for law enforcement to discover them and disrupt the attack. which is what the australians did. the hardest piece is the individual. now we've seen arrests in denver and the one you mentioned, where individuals who are sort of vulnerable to the isis propaganda machine, a very sophisticated, very capable machine

we have arranged them to and to with mike morel and fran townsend advocating for the idea of doubling down. and the other two arguing against. let me introduce mike very briefly. mike was the former acting director of the cia after a long, storied career in the agency. he served as a national security consultant, and also with me at cbs news as an advisor and talking head, if you will. townsend.ke is fran full disclosure, a former boss of mine. former assistant to the president, president bush. for homeland security and counterterrorism. in numerous capacities, and you can see in her bio the multiple roles that she has played. but in particular, the vice president at mcandrews and forbes holding, and also a commentator at cnn. dan benjamin.s ambassador benjamin was the former ambassador at large for counterterrorism in the obama administration at the state department. he now serves as the director of the john sloan dickey center for international understanding at dartmouth. and next to dan is philip mudd. well-known to many of you who watch cnn, especially recently, a commentator ther

joining me now is fran townsend. and former fbi and cia senior official phillip mudd.sis on somebody who fought with isis and comes back. what worries me the most are these lone wolves that watch this stuff on the internet and thing i can be part of isis without actually going over there. >> that's exactly right. you know, when you look at this and you triage the threat, you look at the foreign fighters, some percentage of them, some high percentage thoechl will be killed on the battleful, some who are smarter, more capable may be reserved to commit attacks either coming back to the us or in europe against american interests, but it is the lone wolf. they're harder to identify. they're harder to stop and intercept before he commit an act. you really rely on local police, local communities to identify those who are behaving sort of in a way inconsistent with their normal patterns exhibiting behavior that's concerning. >> is it the loan wolves that worry you the most? >> yeah, i would say it's the guys who aren't connected to the heartbeat of isis. for a simple reason. t

challenges, certainly, many other countries have bigger challenges encountering isis and other groups, fran townsend much, dave wilkerson i appreciate you being with us as well. >> thanks, so much. we will take a look at the headlines right now, more than 120 heads of state, including heads of state john kerry gathered with them here in new york. he went and climbed the summit. the secretary of state is expected to speak at an opening event this morning. major companies plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions. on sunday, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators rallied in new york and around the world demanding action. three soldiers from the average army stationed in cade kopd or sent there for an international training exercise have gone missing. the national guard says there is no indication the men posed any threat to the public, according to military, they were last seen saturday night in a local mall. they are among more than 200 soldiers from six nations participating in training drills for future u.n. peace keeping missions. this morning, police in delaware investigated a bus crash that killed tw

fran townsend, phillip mud, 9-11, trying to scare us again.ave you heard credible threats against the u.s. coming around 9-11? >> we're not hearing specific or credible threats right now. what we know from experience is terrorists launch attacks when they're ready, when they have capability in place. they don't hide these around anniversaries. people are especially sensitive because of benghazi attacks that came on 9-11 anniversary. overall, i'm not hearing anything specific. >> professor mud, i see you looking on in subtle attempt in a face that shows agreement. the next question, isis, so much worse than al qaeda. they're new, a new threat. that's not true phillip mud. we've been fighting the same problems since the 90s. why are politicians trying to scare us this is the new and worst thing ever? >> let's take one piece of this off the table. i don't do politics. a lot of this is six years into administration, there's politics going on. there's reality, we're looking at a group like what i've looked at past 15 to 20 years. there are differen

let's bring in cnn's national security analyst julia kayyem and fran townsend, a member of the cia andsecurity advisory boards. deb laid it out, who this guy is and what we know about him, grew up in boston, college-educated with a degree in computer technology. fran, why would isis want to recruit someone like this, not like he has any battlefield expertise? >> but, of course in, a large terror organization you need people who have a whole mix of skills, and the fact that he can speak in idiomatic english and speak to westerners in language familiar to them, they had a very orchestrated campaign. the day of the execution of james foley, myself, other journalists, twitter accounts were flooded with these horrible images of the post-execution body of james foley, and no sooner you would block it and you'd get another related isis account that would come into your twitter feed. it took twitter, you know, a full 24 hours to catch up with them and quite frankly it's concerning to the u.s. government because they don't have the ability, the capability, to react that quickly and that tactica