former homeland security secretary michael chertoff thanks for joining us. go live now to a defense conference at boston the defense attorneys for the three gentlemen arrested today. >> litigating that in court. thank you very much. that wasn't much of a press conference. i guess he just gave some comments and then left. so let me share some polls right now. the polls we showed you earlier were conducted in the wake of the marathon bombings by cnn and "time" magazine the latest issue on news stands tomorrow. coming up next, she's the widow of the accused mastermind of the boston bombings. now the feds are pressing katherine russell for answers. we'll get a live report from her home. he told his friends to go into his dorm room and take whatever they wanted and one of the things they took was vaseline. we'll tell you why investigators are honing in on that fact. >> we do not know if those items were involved in a bombing or in any evidentiary value. we are the ones, cooperated with all law enforcement when they came to him without the benefit of counsel, to a

bill: with me now former homeland security secretary michael chertoff, also the former federal judge und erp of the chertoff group. nice to she you back here in new york. you say it never seemed to be anything other than a terror attack based on the accounts on the ground. if that's the case why not call it a terrorist attack? >> it's puzzling because you're in one of the most dangerous places in the world, benghazi which is a recruiting ground for al-qaida on a very significant date which is september 11th. so the obvious going in presumption is it's a terrorist attack. you have mortar fire, heavy arms fire. again, all publicly reported within the first several hours, and all that suggests pretty compellingly it is terrorism. why you would try to deny that is frankly baffle link. >> why the spin? >> it may be part of a larger issue whether killing osama bin laden and having drone strikes is an adequate strategy for dealing with terrorism. if you believe of it is then you want to take the position that we've essentially drastically minimized the threat and as long as we keep the drone

he served in the second bush administration, and he and michael chertoff were the point people for immigration reform. he has remained interested in the issue within his party as well as nationally, and we are very pleased he has been part of this effort, and i am pleased to be a book introduced him and ask him to come to the podium at this time. secretary gutierrez? >> this is the perfect moment to talk about a new vision for greater prosperity and competitiveness in the region. this week the senate will mark up legislation that the u.s. very much needs in order to make the u.s. immigration system more responsive to economic conditions and labor market needs, and, very importantly, to make the u.s. more competitive. i want to emphasize one thing, that is, immigration reform will create more jobs for american citizens, and i will repeat that. immigration reform will create more jobs for american citizens. president obama has returned from a meeting with presidents of mexico and costa rica in which he and his counterparts emphasized the enormous economic and human interconnectedness of the regi

scott webber served as a senior courage to former secretary of homeland security michael chertoff.retty serious charges. what do you make of those? >> it's disturb eurpb disturbing in light of the press attention and photos released and these three students realize very quickly that their friend is one of the primary suspects. instead of reaching out to the authorities, what do they do, they reach out to their friend and then ultimately it appears that they help destroy evidence, or try to. jenna: the narrative that seems to have emerged may be in part from the defense lawyers for these young men is that these are just young guys panicking when they see a friend of theirs on tv and they acted to protect their friend. what do you think about that. >> i know one of the lawyers, i've known him for 20-plus years, we worked for the same judge over two decades to say. he is a very capable lawyer e. has a tough job ahead of him. it appears to be more than young indent students who didn't know what they were doing. there appear from the complaint to be calculated actions by these three you

that is pretty much what michael chertoff, who is also with homeland security after riggs said is the gold standard for saysity, and "usa today" they remain convinced biometrics are the way to go. these are not people making partisan charges. after being heads of this organization, they remain convinced biometrics is the way to go. there is a 9.73% accuracy rate, and "the usa today" uses the figure $3 billion to $6 million as the cost that could be incurred. i think it could be done for less than that if we are careful. a majornot take alteration to have a person go through the line where their card can be read when they get off on an airplane. how hard is that? ashink what we have, secretary napolitano basically told us in the committee as she believes biographic is sufficient. that is what she is committed to. the bill drafters put that in it, and it does not strengthen security at our ports and entryways. it weakens it. it undermines the credibility of the bill sponsors that they are making the bill stronger when it plainly makes current law weaker. i really believe that so much ef

he served in the second bush administration, and he and michael chertoff were the point people for immigration reform. he has remained interested in the issue within his party as well as nationally, and we are very pleased he has been part of this effort, and i am pleased to be a book introduced him and ask him to becocome to the podium at this time. gutierrez/ >> this is the perfect moment to talk about a new vision for greater prosperity and competitiveness in the region. this week the senate will mark up legislation that the u.s. very much needs in order to make the u.s. immigration system more responsive to economic conditions and labour market needs. the very importantly, to make the u.s. more competitive. i want to emphasize one thing, that is, immigration reform will create more jobs for american citizens, and i will repeat that. immigration reform will create more jobs for american citizens. president obama has returned from a meeting with presidents of mexico and costa rica in which he and his counterparts emphasize the enormous economic and human interconnectedness of the region. the

that is pretty much what michael chertoff, who is also with omeland security after riggs said is the gold standard for security, and "usa today" says they remain convinced biometrics are the way to go. these are not people making partisan charges. after being heads of this organization, they remain convinced biometrics is the way to go. there is a 9.73% accuracy rate, and "the usa today" uses the figure $3 billion to $6 million as the cost that could be incurred. i think it could be done for less than that if we are careful. it does not take a major alteration to have a person go through the line where their card can be read when they get off on an airplane. how hard is that? i think what we have, as secretary napolitano basically told us in the committee as she believes biographic is sufficient. that is what she is committed to. the bill drafters put that in it, and it does not strengthen security at our ports and entryways. it weakens it. it undermines the credibility of the bill sponsors that they are making the bill stronger when it plainly makes current law weaker. i really beli

so joining us now is general michael hayden, the former director of the cia and the nsa. he is currently a principle with the chertoff a global consulting firm. yesterday we heard president obama defend the fbi's investigation into tamerlan tsarnaev in 2011. he said it is not as if the fbi did nothing. how do you respond to that? >> i think the president tried. now look, zoraida, we may find some things that could have been done better, should have been done better. but on the face of it, i'm not prepared to conclude right now that anyone did anything wrong. look. these are very difficult problems, and something i said more than ten years ago, even if our security services, and intelligence services are at the top of their game, that doesn't mean that bad things won't happen. this is a very hard problem for us. >> i suppose there's an issue of between whether something was done wrong, or whether more could have been done. senator lindsey graham, who has been extremely vocal about this, tweeted out yesterday after the president's speech, he said if boston is not an example of pre-9/11 stovepiping mentality, what would

michael hayden is here to react to a lot of this. former director with the cia. principle with the chertoff group. welcome to "america's newsroom."rom yesterday? >> first of all that testimony you just showed was heartbreaking, wasn't it, in terms of what the deputy chief of mission, mr. hicks, was trying to do. but, bill, when i look at it and try to take a step back, you know, it's possible that most of the actors in this play were doing exactly what we would have expected them to do. the special forces team like good american soldiers, wanted to go to the sound of the guns. the deputy chief of mission wanted to protect his friends and perhaps people back here in washington having a bit of a broader view of what was going on, knowing that they would be second and third moves down the board here, wanted to conserve resources. what disappoints me, bill, not that the decision that was made but that everyone trying to make a decision was choosing from a very short, very bad list of options and how did we get ourselves into that place? that to me is the real key here. bill: so the pentagon said there was nothing in team could have a