. >> i'm joined now by kevin barron. military analysis and executive editor of defense. vin, we do not know who committed this atrocity. as of yet as far as reports indicate now and has claimed affirmative responsibility, we should say that this week already, there was a horrific terrorist attack in beirut, in the southern area of just south of beirut where 43 people were killed in a mass bombing. isis did claim credit for that, but given the framework of this, what can we begin to piece together? >> well, and this comes after the attack. there's been a series of events. in the middle of them, that's what the united states has done. the united states has helped launch or aid the iraqis and a couple of different moves. we heard off of sangent mountain to cut off isis fighters. the strike against jihadi john, the executioner of the american hostages. some move in romadi as well. i think this is something that seems like it was coordinated. it was planned. it's a big operation. this is nothing knee jerk. but coming on the heels of all this activity, this is -- i feel like we

and now i'd like to introduce your host for this morning, kevin barron, executive editor of defense one. kevin is a veteran of washington's defense, national security and foreign affairs scene. he's previously written for foreign policy, national journal and stars and stripes. currently, he serves as the pentagon press association, and this is breaking news, he just recently became the military analyst for nbc news and msnbc. kevin sets the editorial direct and vision for defense one leading a talented team of journalists who cover the people and forces that are shaping the new era of defense and national security. please join me in welcoming kevin barron. [applause] ♪ ♪ >> welcome, everyone. >> welcome. >> good morning, i should say. good morning. welcome to the third annual defense one summit. i'm very excited for so many reasons. you know, this is our third time, hopefully third time's the charm. you know, when we first launched defense one, our tag line was this was about the new era of defense. the future of defense. so we really focused on trying to define what that meant coming o

our msnbc military analyst kevin barron is with us. he happens to be the executive editor of "defense one" and of course they cover defense issues for a living. kevin, there had been some talk that the drone attack on this so-called jihadi john may account for the timing of this. but you have some thoughts on that question. >> reporter: i heard from the joint chiefs of staff and also from a senior defense official, both saying that -- at least later today, leading up to this, they were not tracking any chatter at that level about a specific retaliatory attack for jihadi john. which would lead people that think that this was something spontaneous as opposed to something much larger and coordinated and preplanned as we've been starting to get more of a sense of throughout the day. that doesn't mean that there's no intelligence saying that's the case. it just means that at that level this was a surprise to them. >> generally, what are you hearing about chatter, what our viewing public has come to know as chatter meaning the talk on social

former new york state homeland director michael balboni and being joined by kevin barron, executive editormichael, france has deployed 1,500 extra troop, the border crossings have been tightened up, although you can't close them entirely. what does france need to do to make sure that's no follow-up attacks? >> take a look at what could have been known associates of the individuals. here's what we know didn't happen. they didn't show up from a plane or from a train and suddenly conduct this operation. they had to have significant support within the community. somebody needed to be able to do -- to do the pre-operational surveillance and get the weapons. the people who showed up, a suicide bomber, it's not something that somebody raises their hand and says i'll do this. it takes a lot of training and mind washing. and we have to see how they do that, who did they speak to, where did they stay and are there other folks who aren't accounted who might also have the weapons? and so what they're doing now, they're out there obviously as deterrence, and being vigilant and reassuring the people of

kevin barron is executive editor of "defense one" and a national security analyst for nbc news.msnbc sxrisht washington editor at large for the atlantic. and malcolm nance is a former u.s. intelligence officer and now the executive director of terror asymmetrics project. welcome to awful you. malcolm, let me start with you. you're not at the table here, so i want to give you the first word. what are you hearing from your sources on the ground? i know -- i'm sure you're hearing a lot of chatter too. why is the u.s. and uk so sure that it's a bomb? >> well, for the most part when you're coming upon intelligence like this it's going to be very hard intelligence. and when i say that, we're talking about they probably found explosive residue, blast patterns which match a bomb, the container itself. i mean, this came down in the middle of the desert. there's a lot of physical material which they recovered. and they may even have found fragments of the device itself. but saying that, that doesn't necessarily mean that they've come to a definitive answer, though they have those indicati

. >>> i want to bring in kevin barron, msnbc national security analyst and executive director of defensetle bit about -- you've said the word crossroads for western governments trying to figure out how to grapple with this. what does that mean? >> well, for a long time there's been a lot of talk about the very highest levels of international order, is the world really organized to deal with terrorism? we still have institutions that were based on world war ii and the idea that something would have to be catalyst to change thinking in such a way to get beyond the cold war years, to get beyond the iraq and afghanistan war years to really focus on a global threat that requires a new global order of attention towards it. i think that that's what's coming up ahead right now. with the british prime minister about to lay out his new plan, with obama coming back to washington meeting with hollande, it is lining up where there needs to be -- or it seems that there is going to be some pretty big pronouncements by the key western leaders and who's paying attention to this is wanting to see what com

. >> let me bring in msnbc national personality kevin barron, the question being who areaed out these attacks they believe this is isis, by all accounts, very little chatter leading up to this coordinated and complex attacks. why do you believe french -- >> there's been very little chatter at certain levels. the secretary of defense and the secretary's office both said that was not something they were tracking. >> something 4red to the french. >>> here are these individuals that meticulously planned this and that one that would have a passport, an identification on his body, what do we glean if anything from that. do they want to leave a fingerprint, if you will, even though they made the decision to destroy much of the evidence being their bodies? >> i mean, who knows? it could mean that they happened to carry their passports around with them. they can't hide here, they knew they were going to be found out. this was a one-way mission. this is not something that these perpetrators wanted to keep secret, this was as public and open and as visible of a terror attack that they could come

. >>> and joining me now, kevin barron, military analyst and executive director of defense one. kevin, good seeing you. >> hi. how are you? >> good. what's the process of determining whether jihadi john was actually killed? >> well, so these statements you're hearing out of the u.s. military, it's the military's way of saying all that they can without 100% proof that they absolutely believe they got their man. i spoke to a senior defense official this morning who said they are 100% certain that two men were killed by hell fire missiles as they walked out of the building and in to their car. they are reasonably certain one of those was jihadi john. another u.s. official said that they thought it was very likely, also, that it was jihadi john. what they do afterwards is look for forensic evidence and try to get evidence of the body on the ground and match that to other evidence that they can, the dna, teeth, whatever they can. short of that, the pentagon likes to be extremely cautious before saying 100%. >> you were told essentially 100%. so assuming emwazi was killed, what does th

. >>> let's bring in kevin barron, national security and military analyst and executive editor at defenser being with us. i am going to start with this. is the white house using words here, playing a semantic game because you look at the troops here, in many cases they'll be facing combat situations. >> well, yes, when it comes to is this combat or not combat. the pentagon press corps was relentless with the secretary of defense when they've moved past this. they are already saying this is combat. the last raid that -- in which master sergeant josh wheeler was killed, he was killed in combat. at the white house, they were still dancing around this a little bit. we've not heard from the president yet to say that this is combat. >> why do these semantics matter? >> a couple of reasons. there's a base legal reason. if it's combat, then do we need a new authorization for the use of military force out of congress? also, because i think it's more of the politics of it. the president sold this -- the reinvolvement in iraq and whatever the u.s. is going to do in syria as this -- with no boots on