as jeanne meserve and others have been reporting, we are definitely likely to see that. the terror alert level, the color code has been high, at orange, for a number of years now. that's not going to change. but as she and others have noted, there are likely to be some increased measures within that color level. for example, we'll surely see increased armed police presence in airports around the countries, certainly in the significant cities. we'll see bomb-sniffing dogs. probably see an increase of behavior, detection officers who tend to be plainclothed officers who are trained to look at behavior and things that might indicate anger, anxiety, terrorist intent. a number of things are going to be going on at airports in these next few days. that's important. there are two things going on. we have to focus on the investigation, how did it happen and how can it be prevented? and in the meantime, we have to step up aviation security around the country. >> thank you both. we're continuing to follow the story and get every individual thread that we can. we want to get a bigg

jeanne meserve -- jeanne is our cnn homeland security correspondent -- safe to assume this was a suicide mission? if so, why is he waiting until it lands? >> those are some questions we are still looking at. yeah, they're calling this an attem attempted terrorist event. apparently he was going to commit suicide and allegedly was going to take the rest of the plane down with him. as to why he was doing it over land as opposed to somewhere else we haven't heard anything definitive from investigators yet. there's a lot of speculation about what it could be. it could have been he was looking to maximize damage on the ground. also perhaps it would be easier to claim responsibility if the wreckage was found as opposed to being lost in the ocean, let's say. those are some of the theories floating around, but investigators are being very tightlipped at this point in time, larry. >> larry: how do we know, know, jeanne, that it wasn't just a sick individual? >> we don't know know that for sure. that is, of course, what they are checking out. they are looking at computers, cell phones, any communic

jeanne meserve, peter bergen and many others. joining us is paula newton who's traveled extensively in the middle east and in yemen. this suspect says the incendiary device he had was procured in yes, ma'am p and his instructions came from yemen. paula, this is complicated but peter bergen was telling us earlier that yemen is giving afghanistan a run for its money in terms of al qaeda and terrorist presence. >> when you think about what went on at ft. hood, a u.s. citizen with ties to al qaeda who apparently may have inspired the army major at that time in those shootings. he is also linked to yemen. he was wanted in yemen. it was just a few hours ago that with some u.s. intelligence support that the yemenis went after this cleric in yemen. yemen right now is a country that is incredibly vulnerable. the government barely has any control outside of its own city. there are extremists. what the big fear has been among security officials is that a lot of what's going on in afghanistan and pakistan, clearly, may be having an affect on

helping me walk you all through that, jeanne meserve who is our homeland security correspondent and ed henry who is out in honolulu. he is covering of course the obama administration and the president who is out there on christmas vacation. jeanne, let's get right to it. maybe a reset. where are we? what do we know today? >> well, the president came out and said there were pieces of information that had not been put together and we've discovered one of those pieces of information at least. from a very well placed source we've learned that the father of umar farouk abdul mutallab as we know went to the embassy and when he went there or in subsequent conversations he conversed with cia representatives at the embassy. what we're told is that the cia people at the embassy wrote a report and that report was sent on to the cia headquarters in langley but was not distributed more widely to the intelligence community in the united states. and what i'm told is that if that report had been disseminated more widely it might have been pieced together with some other information that had come in. m

helping me walk you through that, jeanne meserve and ed henry in honolulu. he's covering, of course, the obama administration and the president out there on christmas vacation. let's get right to it. maybe a reset. where are we? what do we know today? >> the president came out and said pieces of information that have not put together, and we've discovered one of those pieces of information at least frchlt a very well-placed source we learned that the father of umar embassy. when he went there, he conversed with cia representatives at the embassy. what we're told is that the cia people at the embassy wrote a report, and that report was sent on to cia headquarters in langley, but it was not distributed more widely to the intelligence community in the united states. what i'm told is that if that report had been disseminated more widely it might have been pieced together with other information that had come in. might not have been name specific. maybe it talked about a nigerian and a man of a certain age, maybe it talked about travel to yemen. we don't know yet,

. >> nic, let's go to jeanne meserve. you've been working this story. what more do we have?ight where it has been for aviation. it was put up to orange in august of 2006. initials tell me it is going to stay there. however, within that threat level, they can flex and surge and you will be seeing that. air travelers are likely to see more k-9 teams, likely to see more screening at the gates. there may be more behavioral detection officers as they're called, people who simply stand around the airport and look at people and try and tell from their behavior if something is amiss. those sorts of additional security measures are being ramped up now. they won't be ramped up at every airport. this will be unpredictable. you'll see it in some places, not in others. they are saying there are many other security measures that you will not -- >> this is a very good point because the national threat level is yellow. the national threat level for air travel is orange and has been for sometime. but this is a good point. they can step it up dramatically within that orange. according to rich

joins us in washington, jeanne meserve, and the director of the con sell of islamic elations who have spoken to the families of the american students and he has viewed a videotape. and he said it disturbed him. and the fortunater muslim chaplain at howard university. knows one of the students. and what do we know? >> reporter: there are five young men from northern virginia, between 19 and 25, all of them u.s. citizen. one of them a student at howard university. the parents became concerned about the young men's whereabouts. they said they were going to a conference and when the parents tried to call them on the cell phones, they got a ring that sounded like they were overseas. they got concerned and they went to the religious elders and they made their way to the fbi. and the names of none of the young men had shown up on the radar before. the names of the individuals were passed on to pakistani authorities as persons of interest and then the arrests in pakistan. the pakistani authorities they they were the young men from virginia. they say they tried to hook up with people in pakist

jeanne meserve, what do we know? >> we know there are five young men from northern virginia, between 19 and 25, all of them u.s. citizen. one of them a student at howard university. the parents became concerned about the young men's whereabouts. apparently they told the parents they were going to a conference. but when the parents tried to call them on the cell phones, they got a ring that sounded like they were overseas. they were concerned. they went to their religious elders. that information eventually made it to the fbi. the fbi launched an investigation. one law official tells me that the names of none of these young men had shown up on their radar before. the names of the individuals were passed on to pakistani authorities as persons of interest and then we have the arrests in pakistan. the pakistani authorities are definitive that indeed the young men they picked up were the men missing from virginia. they say they tried to hook up with terrorist groups in pakistan but were not successful in doing so. the u.s