i was alerted to this threat last night by my top counter-terrorism advisor john brennan. i directedly the department of homeland security and all our law enforcement and intelligence agencies to take whatever steps are necessary to protect our citizens from this type of attack. those measures led to diminish screening of some planes in newark and philadelphia. the department of homeland security is also taking steps to enhance the safety of air travel including additional cargo screening. we will continue to pursue additional protective measures for as long as it takes to ensure the safety and security of our citizens. i have also directed that we spare no effort in investigating the origins of these suspicious packages, and their connection to any additional terrorist plotting. although we are still pursuing all the facts, we do know that the packages originated in yemen. we also know that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula, a terrorist group based in yemep, continues to plan attacks against our homeland, our citizens, and our friends and allies. john brennan, who you wil

john brennan, who is president obama's chief counterterrorism advisor, mr. brennan, there's no other way to put it, the more we seem to find out about these bombs that were found on these cargo planes, the more this sounds like a really close call. how powerful do you think these bombs were? >> with, the investigation is still ongoing. and the forensic analysis is being done. but i think the british assessment this time as well as the saudis was that it was a very viable ied that could have been detonated aboard that aircraft and could have brought the aircraft down. >> schieffer: do you think that that was the objective? i mean these bombs were addressed to these synagogues in chicago. do you have any idea what the target was for these bombs? >> well, they were addressed to locations in chicago that have been associated with synagogues. we're looking at the potential that they would have been detonated en route to those synagogues aboard the aircraft as well as at the destinations. but at this point we i think would agree with the british that it looks as th

our guest this morning, the president's top terrorism adviser john brennan. >>> then, the final days. countdown to 2010. >> this election is not just going to set the stage for the next two years, it's going to set the stage for the next ten. >> do you have to take it? >> all: no. >> hell no, you don't. that's what elections are for. >> and the battle for power in the senate. an exclusive debate between the two top senate campaign chairs, democrat robert menendez and republican john cornyn. >>> plus, analysis of our new abc news poll and the politics of coming together. >> we work together to get things done every damn day. the only place we don't is here. >> all on our roundtable. tea party organizer and former house republican majority leader dick armey joins abc's george will, cokie roberts, jonathan karl, democratic strategist donna brazile and arianna huffington from "the huffington post" and "the sunday funnies." >> sunday halloween, the scariest day of the year unless you're a democrat, then that would be next tuesday. that would be the scariest. >>> hello again. a suspect is i

the president's principle homeland security adviser john brennan briefed the president 10:35 eastern time. the good news is the two explosive devices did not detonate but the concern here is that there could be more out there and that's why the president came out and wanted to directly address the american people and make sure everyone is vigilant. >> larry: these 13 more are on the u.p.s. and fedex planes? >> reporter: they're not sure where they are. that is one of the scary parts that they are trying to sift through. just a few days before the midterm elections, this year has been dominated on domestic issues, economy, health care, jobs and all of a sudden a chilling remind for this white house and for this country terror can hijack the agenda. they don't know where the packages are and the other significant piece is having potentially a connection to yemen where the packages started but potentially a connection to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. that's the same terror group that was behind the underwear bomber and had ties to him back on christmas day when they tried to bring

>> john brennan, the counter- terrorism chief, was asked that question at a news briefing a short while ago. he did not get too detailed. he seemed to imply the level of sophistication would have been found -- made it seem strange that this would have been a dry- run. they would not have actually put explosives in a package of this nature. he declined to go into great detail about what was found. he said this was explosive material found at east midlands airport in the u.k. and in the airport in dubai. he said the parcels involved in each case were about the size of a breadbox. that is how he put it. it was about the size of a bread box. other than that, we are keeping the details -- they are keeping the details secret at this stage for obvious reasons, while making it clear that this, so far, is a success for u.s. intelligence. the application is there was a tip-off, and as a result of that, the searches were carried out. >> there are many people watching this wondering how much they should worry. is there a suggestion there might be other devices still out there? >> mr. brennan was st

john brennan, who you will be hearing from, spoke with the president of yemen today about the seriousness of this threat. the president of yemen pledged the full cooperation of the government in this investigation. . for, we will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the yemeni government to destroy this al qaeda affiliate. we will continue our efforts to strengthen a more secure, stable, prosperous yemen so terrorist groups do not have space they need to plan attacks from within its borders. the events of the past 24 hours _ the necessity of remaining vigilant against terrorism. as usual, our intelligence, law enforcement, and only security professionals have served with extraordinary skill and resolve , and with the commitment that they're enormous responsibilities demand. we are coordinating closely with our friends and our allies, who are essential to the fight. as we obtain more information, we will keep the public informed. the counter-terrorism professionals -- >> hello and welcome. >> see the news unfold, get the top stories from around the globe and click to play video repo

program, two key party leaders, democrat tim kaine and republican haley barbour and also tomorrow john brennan, the deputy national security adviser who has been so visible during this latest terror threat. that's all coming up tomorrow morning here on nbc. >>> when "nightly news" continues this saturday, the burning issue in california. the fight to legalize marijuana. >>> and later, a massive crowd descends on washington for a day of stars and laughs, but was something more serious going on as well? >>> in california tonight, the battle over marijuana. in a state that's already legalized it for medicinal purposes there's now a measure on tuesday's ballot to legalize small amounts of pot for recreational purposes known as proposition 19. it's created quite a controversy. here's nbc's george lewis. >> reporter: to legalize pot -- or not. that's the question california voters will have to answer when they vote on proposition 19. those in favor include rock stars. >> so this is why i'm here. because i'm here as a mother and a cannabis user. >> reporter: those opposed include the obama administra

president was in the white house residence last night at 10:35 when his top counter-terrorism adviser john brennan e-mailed him to tell him about credible intelligence of a plot to send bombs from yemen to chicago. >> anybody who is associated with al qaeda is a subject of concern. >> reporter: keeping in e-mail communication with the president throughout the night, brennan sounded the alarm. at 11:00 last night, he held a conference call with top officials of the cia, fbi, department of homeland security and national counter-terrorism center. at 1:00 a.m., intelligence officials, the state department, the faa and military officials of the u.s. northern command at peterson air force base in colorado. at 9:00 a.m., brennan talked to the president of yemen, who brennan has met with four times in the last two years. at 10:15 this morning, president obama was briefed in person by on the threat by top officials, in the oval office in the morning and later in the situation room. tonight and tomorrow, the president will hold a series of rallies for the midterm elections across the country, and will spend

john brennan, the counterterrorism adviser was just there.ght. thank you. >>> 2010 shaping up to be one of the most expensive election years, and billionaire republican meg whitman is doing her share. she's spent $140 million, that includes money she paid from her own pocket. by comparison her opponent former governor jerry brown has spent about $10 million this year. the "daily beast" has come up with a unique way to come up with outcomes of the elections, twitter, facebook and even blogging which candidate is getting the most buzz. how does it work? >> well, everybody's got polls, right? what we do is scrape the internet to find the sentiment, who's blogging, who's commenting, and who's tweeting so we can measure the candidates so we can figure out not only whether it's positive or negative but how much it is. it helps us predict it. >> let's go through nevada first. >> we give harry reid a 60% chance of winning the election. what's interesting is he's winning none of the issues. sharron angle is winning almost all of it. harry reid is tied

and the latest on the terror plot with her special guest white house counterterrorism adviser john brennanater on "this week." and, of course, don't forget to follow our live election night coverage with diane sawyer and george stephanopoulos beginning at 9:30 eastern time tuesday night. >>> and now we want to turn to other headlines this morning and ron claiborne. i'm tossing over to you and not sitting next to you. >> good morning, everyone. >>> indonesia's mt. merapi volcano has erupted again this morning. it came after thousands fled when it erupted last week. they just returned to check on their homes. gases and ash spewing from the volcano forced more than 50,000 to evacuate. 38 people have been killed. >>> and a suicide bombing in turkey this morning. at least 22 people were injured in the main square in istanbul. police say the bomber targeted a police vehicle. 10 police officers and 12 civilians were hurt in that. >>> the two-week dispute between fox and cablevision that blacked out the network for 3 million homes in the new york area has ended. those viewers got fox back in time

joining us now from washington is john brennan, president obama's top counterterrorism advisor. mr. brennan, start with the detention of ose two women. do you believe that they are part of al-qaeda, and have there been any other arrests we haven't heard about? >> i think the yemenis and we are confident they delivered the packages to the ups and fedex offices. so now there is an investigation ongoing. we're questioning the individuals and hope to learn more about the plot very soon. >> chris: do you believe they have links to al-qaeda, that al-qaeda was behind this plot? >> when i look at the information that we've received from the british authorities about the i.e.d.s and the construction of them and sophistication of them, it has hallmarks of the al-qaeda in arabian peninsula. and we know aqap has been vocal about threatening attacks and they've tried to attack the homeland. the packages were destined for the homeland. >> chris: apaq is al-qaeda in arabian peninsula. i want to ask about several stories out there and you can tell us if they're true or not. there is a report that t

the president's counterterrorism chief deputy national security adviser, john brennan. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you, david. >> what more is known about the plot this morning? >> we're still working closely with british authorities as well as the yemenese and other authorities. we're trying to get a handle on what else might be out there. that's why we've taken exceptionally prude measures, in my mind. yemen authorities have been very cooperative in this effort as have other governments and services. so, we're still trying to understand better exactly what we might be facing. >> is it your fear that there are additional devices out there, additional bombs out there in the mail somewhere? >> i think we have to presume that there might be and, therefore, we have to take these measures. but, right now, we do not have indications that there are others that are out there. fedex and u.p.s. have stopped all the packages coming into the united states that were being mailed from yemen. i think we feel as though the appropriate steps have been taken. we feel good

talk about the election but we're going to hear first from the white house point man on terrorism john brennan, bob schieffer. we'll be watching. by the way bob is here in new york for tuesday night's cbs news coverage of the midterm elections anchored by katie couric. just ahead here on sunday morning, bill geist looking sharp. it means getting everything you need to invest for yourself, not by yourself. it means choosing from stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and every etf sold. plus 5-star service and research designed to increase your intelligence, not insult it. so you can wave good riddance to some high-priced joker churning out cookie cutter portfolios. price is one thing. value is another. don't confuse the two. e-trade. investing unleashed. i love running my tongue across my teeth and feeling all the stuff i missed. [ male announcer ] no one really wants plaque left on their teeth. done. [ male announcer ] but ordinary manual brushes can leave up to 50% of plaque behind. oral-b power brushes are inspired by the tools professionals use, to clean away plaque in ways a manual brush can't. for

countermeasures less than an hour after i was sworn in on april 29 when i went and was briefed by john brennan in the situation room on the rapidly expanding h1n1 virus, which was beginning to appear notnly in the united states but in other nations, and we had a rapid and corrugated response across government. made possible in large parts by effort of this committee mr. chairman, who had been directing resources and planning and preparedness dollars over a series of years so that we would be ready to respond, so with the first pandemic in 40 years, the good news is we were able to develop and distribute a safe vaccine. that bad news is that our production peaked three weeks after the eak of the flu season so we were still not able to respond in a timely fashion, so we knew we needed to do better and the president encouraged our department to look at not only what occurred during the h1n1 but to use it as an opportunity to review the entire medical countermeasure enterprise, and so we launched a study in december. as you know countermeasures are vaccines, antivirals, antibiotics, pharmaceutical

john brennan, who you will be hearing from, spoke with the president of yemen today about the seriousness of this threat. the president pledged to the full cooperation of his government in this investigation. going forward, will continue to strengthen our cooperation with the government of yemen to disrupt plotting by al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and to destroy this al qaeda affiliate. we will continue our efforts to strengthen a more secure and stable yemen said the terrorist groups don't have the -- so that the terrorists don't have the time to plan attacks within their borders. on the events of the past 24 hours underscores the necessity for many vigilance. our intelligence, law enforcement, and home and security professionals have served with skill and resolve, a commitment that their responsibilities demand. we are coordinating closely with our friends and allies. they are central to this fight. as we obtain more information, we will keep the public fully informed. at this stage, the american people should know that the counter-terrorism professionals are taking this very seriou

john snow. live coverage resuming in a couple of minutes. until then, and that it on the pennsylvania senate race. -- an update. >> we have an update on the pennsylvania senate race. is chris brennanlitical writer for "the philadelphia daily news." the incumbent, who is -- will no longer be in this seat, senator arlen specter, who was a republican and ran as a democrat, beat joe sess tech in the primary, is now going to campaign for mr. sess tech. -- sesteck. why now? >> he's being deployed strategically in the city of philadelphia. he's still very popular in philadelphia though his favorable -- unfavorable ratings in the state are not so great. i think that this is a chance for joe sestak to raise some last-minute cash. he's kno to close late. nobody knowshat better than arlen specter. sestak was behind in the polls going into the may 18 democratic primary, and with the help of a rather devastating political campaign commercial, closed the gap and beat specter quite handedly in the end. i think specter will help him raise the money that he will need if he's going to have a shot at former congressman pat toomey. they will be holding the primaries in a downtown law firm. it's a pri