al qaeda michael leiter, let me ge win with reports by the "new york times" and others that this plot was foiled that was a sting operation. that there was a saudi who posed as a would be suicide bomber and managed to get ahold of the weapon. can you confirm that? >> i can't confirm it, margaret. i would say this is exactly what we expect and want our intelligence services to do but it's extremely hard to do in the a place like yemen. i think it probably represents a great partnership between the u.s. government and the government of saudi arabia but this information is incredibly sensitive and i think it's somewhat unfortunate that it's been widely reported because it reduces our ability to use these sorts of sources or this sort of methodology to exploit al qaeda and stop future plots which they are undoubtedly going to pursue. >> warner: mr. soufan, do you have any information about this? this latest development? >> no, i agree with mike and i don't think the situation at this point to divulge sources and method, it's a great success for the intelligence community, great success fo

also joining us from our washington bureau, michael leiter who served as head of the the national counter tearicism sector under both presidents bush and obama and was in fact in the white house situation room a year ago during the raid that killed bin laden. he's these days a national security analyst for us at nbc news. you have to admit the talk has been about how much al qaeda has been degraded. beyond the fact this was successful, it was intercepted, what do you take from this regarding their strength? what should we take from this? >> brian, this really shows that al qaeda in yemen, in the arabian peninsula as it's known in government circles, remains a very potent threat. as pete noted, 2009, mutallab, 2010, the cartridge bombs. the growing instability in yemen, especially in the south of the country, has left yemen open as a safe avon for terrorism, and this is a group, despite how they have been wounded, is very, very much committed to killing americans. >> what do you take away from this, at least the attempt at technology and again another attempt to evade the traditional forms

michael leiter served as head of national terrorism center under both presidents bush and obama and was among the few individuals in the situation room that night with the president and the national security team monitoring the bin ladin operation in realtime. michael, we woke up this mourning to this kind of vague warning about possible body bombers here in the united states. the kind of thing we're sadly used to. are we better off in the year since the death of bin ladin? >> i think there's no doubt we are much better off. we're better off because al qaeda is weaker and has been ever since 9/11. with the death of bin ladin, al qaeda really lost its inspirational leader. but as we also found out in the raid, it lost its operational driver for pushing al qaeda affiliates to attack the united states, to attack the homeland. and with his death, the pressure on those affiliates to turn back toward their local targets is much greater. i think in that sense, although al qaeda is still there, the u.s. is much safer one year later. >> as we said, the situation room was part of your old workpla

we are happy and proud to have you at all affiliated with our team now, michael leiter, thank you. >> a deconstruction of the entire mission with the president and his national security team, the people you see in the picture. it airs tomorrow night at 9:00, 8:00 central here on nbc. >>> the fbi arrested five self-described anarchists in cleveland, ohio today. the men are between 20 and 37 years of age and are accused of plotting to build up a bridge over a cleveland park. the plot was uncovered by an fbi sting operation which provided the men with what they thought was bomb making materials. the fbi says, as is the case with so many of these, there was never any real danger associated with the plan. >>> on this may day around the world, across the country there were marches and protests focused on the rights of workers. occupy wall street reemerged on the scene in new york after being dormant for much of the winter season. one of their targets banks. they staged protests targeting the big names including bank of america, chase, citibank. in oakland, california, where the occupy prote

. >> michael leiter knows a lot about being vigilant. he served as director of the national counterterrorism center and is an nbc terror analyst. michael, this last 24 hours sort of trying to go through the sourcing and you've been in the middle of this kind of operation, so you know exactly what's going on. pete williams and a lot of our sources now reporting that the bomber himself, the reason why he's no longer a threat, is he was never a threat because he was a u.s. asset. he brought the bomb out and is now, of course, outside of washington being examined by fbi analysts. but we had actually infiltrated al qaeda. >> well, this is something we've been trying to do for a long time. the reason that these issues remain so sensitive, of course, is key operatives, key insiders, are people who we want to continue to use. even though we had a success here, that doesn't mean that al qaeda in the arabian peninsula is not trying to launch another attack. these methods of how we're collecting intelligence are really the crown jewels in terms of d

nbc news national security analyst michael leiter was director of the national counterterrorism center at the time of the failed underwear bomb attempt in 2009. he joins us now. michael, good morning. >> good morning. >> just yesterday morning, michael, you were on the show talking about what a home run it was for the u.s. to have gained access into the hinterlands of yemen, they've gotten its hands now, how much safer now that we have our hands on this device. 24 hours later, are we less safe now that al qaeda knows how we did this? >> well, i think we're still better off, ann. but there absolutely has been some loss of how we do our business. because of all the release of these details to the public. i understand the desire to know exactly how these operations develop. but the fact is, they now know the partnership we have with the saudis. they now know they're going to look for future operatives and question them for stringently. and it's going to make it a little bit harder for us to get people on the inside again and foil the next plot. >> so, so, to what degree then, because we r

here's what nbc national security analyst michael leiter had to say about it. >> i understand the desire to know exactly how these operations develop. but the fact is they now know the partnership we have with the saudis, they're going to look for future operatives and question them more stringently. it's going to make it difficult for us to get people on the inside and foil the next plot. >> this is all about intelligence one-upmanships, it seems. >> in this case, it cuts a couple of ways again. i think what the agency can do on their end, what the intelligence community can do is realize the effectiveness of actually working very, very closely with other intrejs. i'm talking about not just the saudis, but the pakistani isi. but the limitation is they have their own interests and their interests aren't necessarily ours. it's difficult to determine who the good guys are and who the bad guys are and sometimes it's all very gray, the nature of this business. on other side of the coin, you realize that al qaeda and al qaeda on the arabian peninsula, in this case, is going to be even more ca

michael leiter was the director of the national counterterrorism center at the time. this morning on the "today show," he described the tension in the situation room when the group learned that the u.s. helicopter crashed during the raid. >> it was actually remarkably quiet. i think there was enormous amount of confidence in the troops who were doing this mission. everyone gasped, but then about a minute later, as we saw everyone get off and admiral bill mccraven who was the commander of the raid say everybody was off, everybody was okay. say all right, we're still on this. >> materials found inside bin laden's compound showed he had a hit list of people to assassinate. including president obama and general david petraeus. the white house released some of bin laden's last writings seized in the raid. the u.s. army will post them online this week. >>> well once again, the wife of a former aide to john edwards is expected to take the stand in his campaign corruption trial. sherry young broke down as she testified yesterday. she cried while describing edwards asking her

. >> that was former director of the national counterterrorism center, michael leiter, on the "today" what sounds like a spy thriller. the man at the center of the latest foiled terrorist plot was a double agent, an informant who managed to infiltrate the al qaeda affiliate in yemen. hugo, this story was quite sensational. he was working with u.s. and saudi intelligence services. he volunteered to be the suicide bomber. he was in this from day one -- >> and it involved and underwear bomb. >> yes. >> involved him actually putting it on. >> an underwear bomb that would have gone through airport security. >> yeah, yeah. >> i'm glad you're lauding the courage. >> well, the double agent guy thinks so. we were talking before, i'm a little surprised that there's any, well, any surprise that this story got out there, given that it's really the most successful sort of antiterrorism maneuver since the killing of osama. i mean, it is an incredible story. and you know, i think it does what people -- it's what people want to hear, that the government is doing things we don't know about. it isn't j

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nbc national security analyst michael leiter is the former director of the u.s. nation 58 counterterrorism center where he served under both presidents obama and george w. bush. he was inside the white house situation room a year ago today. michael, good to see you. good morning. >> good to be here, matt. >> the most vivid memory from those hours inside that room? >> well, i think being holed around the screen when the helicopters first came in, and the silence, the tension, i think all of us knowing what a historic moment this really was, and still at that point, not knowing the outcome. >> you say when the helicopters came in. that was one of the moments where something did not go as planned. one of those helicopters went in nose first. the president did an interview with brian williams for "rock center" tomorrow night and talked about that instant. take a listen. >> it turns out to have been sue perkily piloted. >> right. >> by a pilot who nosed it into the dirt to kill the torque of the landing. >> right. >> and cushion everyone on board. >> right. >> just --

. >> michael leiter, thank you so much. it's a great thing we have our hands on that device. >> no question about it. it is a very busy morning. let's get a check of the rest of the headlines from natalie who is standing over at the news desk. good morning to you. >> good morning, matt and ann. good morning, everyone. a new ally for gop presidential hopeful mitt romney in the race for the white house. nbc's peter alexander has the latest from washington. peter good morning. >> natalie, good morning to you. that new ally is rick santorum. but this wasn't exactly a resounding endorsement by santorum. it was sent out in the 13th paragraph of a late-night e-mail, urging his supporters to back mitt romney. here's exactly what santorum writes. he says, above all else, we both agree that president obama must be defeated. the task will not be easy. it will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. governor romney will be that nominee, and he has my endorsement and support to win this, the most critical election

. >> michael leiter, good to have you here. thank you very much. want to remind people they can see "secrets of bin laden's lair" tonight at 10:00, 9:00 central time on the discovery channel. and for brian williams' exclusive interview with the president on the raid watch "rock center with brian williams" inside the situation room tomorrow night at 9:00, 8:00 central time right here on nbc. let's head over to natalie at the news desk. good morning to you. >> good morning to you, matt. and good morning, everyone. media mogul rupert murdoch has been declared not fit to run a major international corporation. in a report out this morning, british lawmakers say the news corp. founder displayed quote willful blindness toward malpractice in his company while his corporation misled parliament about the phone hacking scandal at one of its tabloids. murdoch has denied knowing about the use of phone hacking at his company. >>> u.s. relations with china are being put to the test over the fate of a blind dissident. nbc's ian williams is in beijing now with the