james clapper is here with me. he's a cnn national security analyst. and of course the former director of national intelligence. you know, director clapper, what we're seeing and hearing about the fact there are hostages that they might be in gaza, we don't know if they're in one area or otherwise, secretary antony blinken is there, going to arrive with a top u.s. official who deals with hostage situations. when you're looking at this, what sticks out to you about why this might be very different than what most americans have come to understand about hostage scenarios? >> well, for one, first, laura, i don't know if i've never felt more inadequate after your opening and the heart wrenching, gut wrenching statements all family analysts. -- family members. and i think anyone in my position it would feel quite inadequate after that having to speak to this. the first thing, with, well your comment about, this is not normal. no, it isn't. because the typical way we have tried to affect the release of hostages's negotiations, diplomacy. so we appoint a specia

here with me is director james clapper, peter bergen and dr. guy ziv is here as well. this is incredibly difficult to wrap one's mind around even with a powerful military, a well-regarded military as the israeli defense system is. you've got hostages on the ground, we believe. you've got a civilian population, director clapper, who is trying to get out. how on earth are you able to think about how you could move militarily? >> it beats me. i don't see how this works, frankly. what you're doing is the expectation, i guess, is to cram people that are already in the most densely -- one of the most densely populated areas in the whole world into an even smaller area with no organization on the part of their government and even if they were disposed to i don't think they have the capability to organize any sort of evacuation. i hope -- i would like to presume that the israelis have some information that leads them to a terrorist location or hostages. if they do, that's amazing at this point to know where the hostages are. so i have trouble getting my head around what's -- w

i want to bring in james clapper, the former director of national intelligence and now a cnn security analyst. director clapper, thanks for joining me. the first question is, knowing what you know about the intelligence networking capabilities in that region by israel, how did this happen? >> well, dana, that's the question of the hour. we regard israeli intelligence services as one of the premier intelligence capabilities on the globe. notably shin bet, their domestic intelligence organization has always been well wired, at least in the past, in the west bank and hamas. israelis have an extensive surveillance system all along the gaza. they have a capable tig nall intelligence capability. so it's really quite surprising. it really took me aback to see the apparent surprise and, as you said, the israelis getting caught flat-footed which really took me aback. i'm also quite impressed with the complexity of this multidimensional attack on the part of hamas. i've never seen anything like that before, to include apparently a cyber dimension of denial of service which adds further confusio

james clapper is here with us. also back with me, mark dubowitz and beth sanner. director clapper, thank you for being here tonight. you heard the president of the united states, compare that brutality of hamas to i.s.i.s.. and we've seen the horrifying videos, the indiscriminate killings. how did hamas get to this level? >> i think it starts with that lengthy blockade that egypt and israel imposed on the gaza strip, restricting goods and services that had before, previously, gone into gaza. and so about 40% of the population are youth and i think many of these youth got radicalized. the frustration, the sheer hatred of israel and israelis is what led to this. i think there were some other factors, and probably the timing of the attack, it's been 50 years since the yom_kippur war and i think that strategically, i think hamas was concerned about, and for that matter, they were sponsor, iran, concerned about the -- between the saudi and israel, brokered by the united states -- to normalize relations between saudi and israel. and i think hamas found that extremely thr

joining me now is cnn national security analyst and former director of national intelligence, james clapper. director clapper, thank you so much for joining me. i want to start by talking about intelligence since that is your expertise, one of your areas of expertise, and about the hostages who the u.s. and israel believes are inside gaza, including an untold number of americans. what will it take to get them out given the reality that you have had biden officials on air all day admitting that they don't -- they don't -- forget about where they are, they don't know who they are or how many there are. >> well, this is pretty daunting challenge. certainly when you're going to do a hostage rescue this sounds like an obvious thing to say, you have to know where they are. i rather doubt we have much insight into location of any of the hostages. i would surmise they are underground and widely dispersed and hamas for its part is going to consider any information on the hostages as very, very sensitive state secret, so to speak. so this is a real disaster in the making, i think, because as each day

i think we need to know more, at least from open sources. >> all right, james clapper, always good to you. thank you so much, appreciate it. >>> coming up next, we're back on the ground in israel for all the latest, plus new details on president biden's phone call with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. what steps the u.s. is taking after this quick break. >>> the israeli defense forces say that its navy has foiled an attack in the area of zikkin beach. nic robertson is there. it's early morning in israel, tell us the latest. >> reporter: yeah, the latest we're hearing is that the police station in sderot taken control of by hamas militants about five miles or so in that direction is now back under israeli defense force control. we've seen a lot of tanks being transported into the area, into closer to gaza. we've seen civilian buses, empty, going in. then some of them coming out. it appears as if some of the civilian population now, that area is more fully under israeli golf control. some of the civilians are being bussed out of that area. but this is becoming a very active sp

you, former nato supreme allied commander breedlove and former director of national intelligence james clapper. thank you. >>> up next a member of the house intelligence committee will be here to tell us what he's hearing about the possibility of iran's involvement in the hamas terrorist attacks. stay with us. >>> you are looking at images from moments ago. this is a town that is in the north of israel but not that far north, and this helps to describe what hadas gold was explaining what she saw on her phone as part of the alert system that israel has, sirens go off and it is a signal for people to take cover to go into safe rooms and spaces, and this is the scene moments ago in that town. we do not know the specifics of what prompted these emergency alerts to go off according to hadas gold all across the north of israel, and looking at a map which we will show you shortly, this goes down to haifa. the biden administration is trying to figure out what's happening with american families, with missing loved ones in israel, whether the relatives are dead or alive. mj lee joins me live from the wh

let's get reaction from cnn national security analyst james clapper, the former director of nationalelligence. thank you so much, general, for joining us. according to abc news, trump allegedly told this australian billionaire down at mar-a-lago, toldld him of the supposed exac number of nuclear war heads u.s. submarines carry and exactly how close they supposedly can get to a russian submarine without being detected. give our viewers a sense just how sensitive is that kind of information? >> well, wolf, with due regard for the fact it's a single-source media report and the fact that the special counsel, for whatever reason, chose not to use it in -- for an indictment, with those caveats in mind, this is really, to me, a serious infraction. it is, unfortunately, another in the long litany of violations of our national security by failure to properly protect such sensitive information. if this involved sea launch ballistic missiles, and the subs that carry them, this is a part of our national strategic arsenal which gets to the very essence of the survival of the nation. so, it's hard

i also want to bring in the former director of national intelligence, director james clapper. director clapper, security is going to be a key part of this visit. it's the president's second visit to a war zone this year. we saw earlier secretary blinken had to go and shelter in a bunker because air raid sirens were going off as he was trying to meet with the prime minister. how risky is a visit like this, in your eyes? >> it's clearly risky. it's not like going to a non-combat environment. so, there is that prospect. but, you know, the secret service is very professional about this, and they will figure out ways and means of minimizing personal risk to the president. and i do think that this is a powerful message, as anderson outlined. but i also think it's an opportunity for the president to counsel israelis privately about temperance, as they consider a plan, an incursion into gaza. >> well, director clapper, when it comes to an imminent -- do you think this visit could schang the timing of that? could israel potentially delay a ground invasion of gaza, if they have one plan

rushed to bunkers. [ sirens ] joining us now is the former director of national intelligence, james clapper. thanks for coming in. this visit sends a powerful message. it comes with risk. what are the key considerations when planning something like this, especially on short notice? >> well, there's a number of -- first of all, the matter of personal security of the president. good on him for taking on this mission. to me at least, there's a lot of messages he is conveying here. certainly, support for the israelis. i would also surmise that he is counseling moderation, if that's possible, after seeing these graphic scenes of the affects of the air strikes in gaza. a message to the region, particularly engaging other nations to get them involved perhaps for negotiating with the -- for the release of the hostages. it's a very important trip. i have to wonder, what's the long-term affect. i wonder as i watch the graphics, what exactly is driving the targeting of these air strikes? what is israel using as a basis for deciding what targets to strike? this is almost, in my mind, kate, a perfect st

i want to bring in cnn national security analyst james clapper, the former director of national intelligencewhat was your first reaction to hearing these revelations? >> well, shock, stunning development, but unfortunately not surprising. you know, i'm having trouble coming up with new adjectives to describe how serious and how dangerous this is. you just presented a very succinct litany of the things the former president has done that reflects his complete disregard for protection of national security sensitive information and for that matter the very national security of the country. in this latest episode, one aspect of this that i think is worth mentioning is that when this kind of thing happens and this sensitive information is spread out as ubiquitously and pervasively as it was and an adversary gets a hold of it, particularly russia or china, they can use that to confirm or refute their own intelligence holdings. there's no end to the potential consequences here or the endangerment to sources and methods, the endangerment of the crews that man these multibillion dollar submarines. so

. >> james clapper tells me and he was here with me in "the situation room" yesterday, he tells me if trump did share this information, it could endanger crew members, impact, quote, the very essence of the survival of the nation. do you agree? >> well, that's possible. obviously we don't know exactly what the information is. one of the things he's alleged to have said is the number of tridan missiles in our ballistic missile submarine. i just looked up for it for the fun of it, wikipedia says there are 20 in an ohio class submarine. i'm not going to say what the number is, but i'm just saying there's a lot of discussion on that point. on the point about how effective our submarines are at evading detection, i think that's a lot more serious and it's hard to imagine there's any explanation or any excuse for revealing anything that trump might have remembered on that score. >> ambassador, if you were advising trump's 2020 rifvals, what is the threat trump poses to national security? >> absolutely. i think the core argument republicans in particular ought to be making about trump is tha

go now to the former director of national intelligence and retired air force lieutenant general james clapper. and i appreciate your time, director. let me just ask you as a career intelligence. surging intelligence assets to the region. what does that actually mean? >> well, to me, off the top, erin, it means probably more airborne reconnaissance capabilities. rc-135 comes to mind. a 707-type aircraft, a fleet of them flown by the air force, which is jam packed with intercept equipment and technicians on the back. so, my guess, it's something of that order which could be surged very quickly. >> so, the u.s. when it put out the statement, and, obviously, i would imagine they wouldn't do something like that unless they were sure, 100% sure. they mentioned, though, in the intelligence that they had for saying that israel was not responsible. i'm sorry, they specifically mentioned missile intelligence, director. i know you were involved in mh-17 and how the u.s. was able to use missile analysis to determine that it was russia responsible with that missile. so, when we hear missile intelligence b

james clapper, signs with cnn, his role is to go on there and bash trump.they've now been hired back bay -- by the biden administration to serve on the board of directors -- larry: i know, i saw that. clapper who lied several times under oath to congress. just lied, outright lied. so you think this stories has legs, whatever robert ray happens to say. so speak of congress, we've had a little bit of upheaval in the republican side, mark simone. >> yeah. larry: who are you backing for speaker? who are you personally backing for speaker? >> donald trump would be great but that's not going to happen. i think i just saw him, byron daniels -- larry: donalds. byron donalds was just on the show. >> imagine if the republicans had the first african-american speaker of the house -- larry: to -- ooh, i haven't heard that yet. by the way, he's a really smart if guy. >> wonderful guy. just doing that would have a lot of effect on the election next year. larry: president trump is going down to speak to the republican conference on tuesday. >> yeah. they need a coach. they