for more on this, we're joined tonight by kip hawley. he was the head of the tsa, he is the guy in plain english that made us put all our gels in plastic bags, among other things. he wrote a book called "permanent emergency." he's with us tonight from mountainview, california. now that we know more about how they're trying to come after us, you've complained the tsa is still wasting time and effort looking for sharp objects. are we still fighting the last war? >> good evening, brian. i think we're ahead of this one, thankfully, and we ought to get rid of the tools from the last war that are already covered. it demonstrates again that al qaeda is looking for an explosive bomb, and that sharp objects and things like that are a distraction. i would say we get rid of that and focus on our resources on the next generation of explosives they bring at us. >> do you think it's dangerous how many government officials have been walking around talking about how weakened al qaeda is now? >> well, i think it's not accurate, because it's a worldwide m

kip hawley was the administrator in 2007 when the agencies rolled out these scanners. he believes an alert transportation security officer would have caught this latest underwear bomb at the checkpoint. >> the t.s.o.monitoring the image would be able to find enough to say there's something there we need to check. >> reporter: it has 700 full body scanners in place across american airports. the problem is the vast majority of travelers, more than nine in ten pass through metal detection technology this is less some physician tikteded and would not detect the type of explosive used in this latest threat. p.e.t.n.was also used in the failed 2009 christmas day underwear bomb plot. umar fa uk abudumutallab went from legos nigeria through amsterdam and never passeded through a full body scanner on his way to detroit. the administrator took us to an agency lab to show us the threat posed. >> very concealable. designed in such a way that unless you have advanced technology you walk through a walk-through metal detector this will not register. >> reporter: he wants the tsa to c

. >> all right, kip hawley with us tonight from california. thank you very much. >> thank you. >>> a quick word on gas prices in the news tonight. they are down for the fifth week in a row, hitting an average of $3.79 a gallon this week. that's down almost 4% from a recent high of $3.94 that we hit on april 2nd. oil prices have been plummeting on plentiful supply. it all means we may not see the predictions of $5 a gallon gas this summer. >>> it was about the most low key candidate endorsement of the modern era. then again, these men fought tooth and nail for the gop nomination. last night rick santorum endorsed mitt romney via e-mail to supporters and the news media. the endorsement itself came in the 13th out of 16 paragraphs and says, quote, governor romney will be that nominee, and he has my endorsement and support to win this, the most critical election of our lifetime. >>> richard lugar was with known for a long time in american politics as richard nixon's favorite mayor. that's some measure of how long he's been around. he was mayor of

interesting, too, kip hawley, the former head of the tsa, has a book out.t think that first underwear bomb in 2009 would have been enough to take down the plane. interesting note there despite the video you saw there. he says body scanners, the poof, poof machines we get into, they are helpful but he's advocating a better system of patdowns which have been pretty controversial before. he's saying that's what we need to focus on more so than the body scanners. >> that's interesting because so many people, myself included, i just prefer the poof, poof and just get there and have the body scan. >> we all do, but they are saying it may not be enough. >> interesting. >>> the u.s. and china are pledging to work together against the threat of cyberterrorism. defense secretary leon panetta and china's defense minister announced the agreement after high-level meetings in washington. it's quite an about-face since just six months ago the u.s. accused china of systematically stealing american eye-tech data for its own national economic gain. >>> investigators say they