i'm lynn berry. >>> and today we begin with new rules for this new year. under a policy implemented just this morning, travelers from more than a dozen hand-picked nations will be facing stepped up security measures when flying into the united states. with global threats rapidly emerging, the list targets old foes from libya, iran, pakistan and iraq. nbc's brian mooar reports. >> reporter: passengers flying into the united states from other countries will face tougher random screenings, including full body scans. travelers from seven high-risk countries, including nigeria and yemen, will be getting full body patdowns and hands-on luggage inspections. it's the latest fall out from northwest flight 253, a plot allegedly hatched by al qaeda. >> part of something larger from al qaeda. >> reporter: on the sunday talk shows, white house counterterrrorism adviser, john brennan committed the nation's intelligence agencies had but failed to connect a series of dots. still, he insists the system wasn't broken.

berry: lynn wall, there was no mention of president reagan or margaret thatcher except communist gorbachev. so do you see a problem in rewriting the history and why there hasn't been any resistance on our part to sort of counterattack the efforts to rewrite what took place in the 1980's? >> i think that's a very telling comment you made and it was a very telling incident. the president of the united states who removes himself to bring home the chicago olympics, he removes himself for climate change and removes himself to oslo to receive a prize but doesn't show up in berlin on the 20th anniversary of an event of biblical proportions one i'm sure most of us in the room never imagined we would ever see. that tells you how he sees the world, reinforces that quotation. i could have used one of dozens. the one i used was from the general assembly where you can see his priorities and to speak of the cold war divisions as sort of arbitrary and not to see how rooted they were in the fundamental values of the united states as cleavages is simply staggering but it tells you a lot of his world view.