michael leiter, thanks. we appreciate it. >>> turning to the crisis in ukraine where tensions reached a new level today as russia sent even more troops into the crimean peninsula. nbc's ian williams with the latest from kiev. >> reporter: anger on kiev's independence square today demanding russia leave crimea. moscow appears to be reinforcing a marked convoys on the move. hours after russian soldiers briefly seize control of a ukrainian base. they're still blocking others. pro-moscow authorities ordering all remaining ukrainian soldiers in crimea to disarm and surrender, but many refuse. a european security monitors are being prevented from entering the peninsula. armed men firing warning shots into the air with automatic weapons. in russian speaking east ukraine, pro-moscow protesters chanted "glory to russia." the fear is that russia is stirring up trouble to justify intervention in this region, too. the mood here is very volatile. there is a deep concern about events in kiev but that doesn't mean everybod

from phillips. >>> and michael leiter rejoins me now. we've been talking about spy versus overseers. one of the issues is what role did john brennan play? he was at the counterterrorist center. it was broadly involved in supervision. what supervisory role did he have? this was controversial when he was first nominated. >> yeah, probably played into why he wasn't nominated at the very beginning of the administration. john was supporting people who were supervising the program. but john himself really was not supervising the program. as involved in counterterrorism during that period, lots and lots of people had some involvement, knew what was going on. but i actually do think it's unfair to say john could have stopped it or something like that. he really wasn't in a position of authority at the cia then. the question now fast forwarding, though, is how much is he going to, i think, buck some of the institutional pressure to be cooperative with the senate intelligence committee, which really is digging into, again, something which is the r

. >>> joining me, national security analyst, michael leiter. okay. the two stolen passports. so, you read that and you firstly think, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, something is up here. the second thought i had, i don't know how common if you picked a flight at random in that part of the world or any part of the world you would scratch the surface and find stolen passports onboard. what's the answer to that? >> it happens a lot more than people think it would be. a lot of reasons. a lot of criminal reasons. human trafficking. drugs. but having two stolen passports on the same flight, that is certainly uncommon. is it 10% of the time, 15% of the time? hard to say. but it's certainly not the norm. >> okay. it is not the norm. it is not the case, oh, actually turns out if you were to stop a flight at random that you would get a number like that. this is something that someone who has some experience investigating this kind of thing says, wait a second, what's going on here? >> absolutely. i think for the counterterrorism community and the intelligence community, as soon as you h

certainly, i don't think, that that is how this is going to play out. >> nbc news, terrorism analyst, michael leiterto see you, michael. thanks. >> thanks, chris. a day after announcing another massive recall, general motors this hour has named a new vehicle safety leader to help tackle the growing crisis. in a video statement to employees, new ceo, mary vera, on the job for just two months now, is promising to do better. >> something went wrong with our process in this instance. and terrible things happened. as a member of the gm family and as a mom with a family of my own, this really hits home for me. we have apologized, but that is just one step in the journey to resolve this. >> cnbc's mandy drury is here with what's moving your money. now, what, more than 3 million vehicles being recalled by gm. >> right. we heard yesterday about the next round of wide-ranging recalls. clearly, the company, chris, is really trying to tackle the crisis with a new sense of urgency to look like they're really on top of this. so these new recalls cover 1.7 million vehicles worldwide, on top of last month's recall

said, this is a mystery for a reason because there isn't a clear, easy answer. >> greg fife and michael leiter, thank you both for your time and thoughts. >> you're welcome. >> thanks. >>> coming up, president obama meets with democrats and tries to shake off the new title that he has gotten of late -- deporter and chief. >>> meanwhile, john boehner tries to shake off a group of dreamer at his local diner again. >>> who is winning the congressman debate? we're joined ahead. >>> and round two of the clinton papers. the national archives released another 4,000 pages from 42's stint in the oval office. the highlights ahead. (music) defiance is in our bones. defiance never grows old. citracal maximum. calcium citrate plus d. highly soluble, easily absorbed. predibut, manufacturings a prettin the united states do. means advanced technology. we learned that technology allows us to be craft oriented. no one's losing their job. there's no beer robot that has suddenly chased them out. the technology is actually creating new jobs. siemens designed and built the right tools and resources to get the job d

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our counterterrorism expert, michael leiter. insight. >> thanks, alex. >> i'm going to talk to tom costello on the boeing 777 and where the investigation stands from the u.s. perspective. >>> let's go to politics and new this hour. former house speaker newt gingrich rallying the base at cpac just moments ago. >> we must stop being the opposition movement, and we must become the alternative government movement that will help make the life of every american better. so that they understand what we would do that would be right, not just what the left is doing that is wrong. >> mean time, our first family is spending the weekend in florida after the president and first lady visited students at a miami high school on friday. it is part of the president's new effort to encourage young people to pursue a college education. >> we still have more work to do. all of us. elected officials, principals, teachers, parents, students. because as michelle says, education is a two-way street. folks like us have to work hard to give you the best sc

. >> michael leiter is an nbc analyst. good morning. >> good morning. >> you said the detail of stoling passports energize. tell us what you mean by that. >> when this crash first occurred, it was something suspicious. planes don't normally disappear at 35,000 feet. without anything more, intelligence officials basically stand back and let the civilian investigators look at this. as soon as you know you have people who are on that plane using false identities, passports stolen, that immediately got people saying we need to understand who they were, why they were on the plane, and what links they had. as tom said, they know something suspicious is going on. they don't know what it was. in this region it's common to have stolen passports especially in thailand. people do travel for reasons other than terrorism on false passports. that's what they're trying to find out. >> but it still begs the question, how in this day and age could the security, the technology we have at airports, how was anybody able to board a flight with

. >> michael leiter is an nbc counterterrorism analyst, also with us this morning. michael, good morning. >> good morning. how are you? >> i'm doing well. thank you. and thanks for being with us. as we just heard from greg feith and we have talked about this morning, the weather conditions were fine. the fact that there was no distress call, as greg said, says to him that something catastrophic definitely could have happened. at this hour, again, early in the investigation, but how closely do you believe investigators should be looking at the possibility. terrorism? >> i think they will, but as you've stressed, it's so early. without having any real facts here, you can't speculate on terrorism. and i think there are a number of factors which suggest it probably wasn't. malaysia's actually been very successful in its counterterrorism efforts. it has excellent security at its airports, has some weaknesses in the border, but as a general matter in this region, on this flight, i don't think that terrorism would be the first place investigators would look. >> so, nothing

. >> michael leiter, thank you so much. >> thanks, alex. >>> a texas company freescale says 12 of them are from malaysia, eight from china. the company is deeply saddened by this news. freescale makes microprocessors and sensors for a variety of consumers products. >>> 50-year-old philip wood was just home last week visiting his family. he was living in beijing and about to move to kuala lumpur. his mother told us she has a sense of peace, because she just sauce him last week. his brother says his brother's visit was very special. >> we had a good meal together. it was just good quality time, you know? so i'll always keep that in my heart and memory, you know, as kind of a good-bye dinner. >> philip's family adds he was a man of god and integrity who loved adventure. they're asking for prayers for all the families affected. >>> a inspector will join us to talk about how the massive international effort is unfolding and how they think the plane may have been turning around. >>> who more can the u.s. convince for russia to get out? "feed us -- we've awakened from our long winter's nap an

so we shouldn't be surprised. >> michael leiter, always good to get your insights.che that slammed into a residential neighborhood, burying three people, all found alive. ron allen has the latest. what a story. >> reporter: indeed, alex. we have been hearing about avalanches out west, but most happen in wildernesses areas. this is a residential area, town of missoula, population 70,000. and it septembnt debris flying rescuers scrambling. it happened without warning. the avalanche came crashing down on to a western montana neighborhood. crushing one home, and trapping three people. including an 8-year-old boy. >> yeah. >> rescuers rushed to the scene. while residents did everything they could to get rid of the snow, so they could help get to the family inside. >> i looked outside, and everyone was running with shovels. >> reporter: about an hour after the search started -- >> wait! >> reporter: that young boy was pulled from the debris. while he was rushed to the hospital, the frantic search continued for two elderly people still trapped inside. eventually, signs of

michael leiter, thank you for your time. >>> coming up, senate democrats plan to stay up all night talking climate change. will their flatterth colleagues across the aisle listen? >>> two of the architects in the talkathon. i wanted to call it a talk-o-buster. new video of former chris christie aide bridget ann kelly attending a meeting with her attorneys in new jersey. let's listen in. >> i wanted to ask you a few questions. how are you holding up? >> i'm okay, thank you. >> how -- can you tell us how difficult an experience this has been for you? >> i'm not going to comment. >> would you say there's more to the story people haven't heard? hey mom. yeah? we've got allstate, right? uh-huh. yes! well, i found this new thing called... [ dennis' voice ] allstate quickfoto claim. [ normal voice ] it's an app. you understand that? just take photos of the damage with your phone and upload them to allstate. really? so you get [dennis' voice] a quicker estimate, quicker payment, [normal voice] quicker back to normal. i just did it. but maybe you can find an app that will help you explain this to y

michael leiter, let's turn to you right now. we've learned some things overnight, one of the passengers flying with a stolen passport was 19 years old. he was iranian seeking asylum in germany. does that cross him off the terror list in. >> i wouldn't say crosses him off, but puts him way down. there are the lots of people traveling to western europe for work reasons and this seems to put him in that cat gore. >> both the passengers had their tickets purchased with cash by an iranian middleman, but that iranian middleman stepped forward and contacted authorities when he heard about the stolen documents so where does that road lead? >> most terrorists don't raise their hand and say we did this. buying in cash, overseas this is extremely common. >> in "the new york times" i had to read this sentence three times to make sure it wasn't a typo. according to interpol, last year about a billion people flew without having their passports checked against interpol's database. that's shocking to me. >> the fact is interpol has this huge da

. >> terrorism expert michael leiter, thank you for that insight. >> thanks, craig. >>> the other bigre at msnbc, russia today continues to beef up its presence in ukraine. dozens of military vehicles taking troops, transporting troops today, weaving through the streets of crimea. russia's foreign minister ruled out any talks with ukraine's new government. let's bring in ambassador dennis ross, who is a mideast envoy for president clinton. currently a distinguished fellow at the washington institute for near east policies, also an msnbc contributor. at this point, ambassador, how realistic is it to expect that president obama can force vladimir putin's hand? >> well, i think it's highly unlikely that he can force his hand. right now, what you're trying to do is increasingly signal to putin that there's a price that's going to be paid, in part so at least he has to think about what is his next step and in part also to try to ensure that we deter him from doing something outside of crimea and in the eastern part of ukraine. it's bad enough that he may be promoting what is going to be se

. >>> joining me michael leiter who previously served as director of the national terrorism center.f us wants wild speculation, but listening to the malaysian prime minister he said all possibilities are on the table, one being terrorism. does this fit any of the models you have studied? >> well, not really, alex. i think obviously what we think of over the past 13 years as the most likely terrorist event is something associated with al qaeda. and frankly as we said from a week ago on this really doesn't fit the model. the region isn't right. the aircraft isn't right. it doesn't look like that. and we often think or some people think that al qaeda is this incredibly sophisticated organization and might steal this plane and i think that is really very, very unlikely. i think what it looks more like, and again, these are all possibles at this point, some action by someone who obviously knows this 777 very well, likely a pilot, e either one from the cockpit or elsewhere on the plane, who would take that aircraft far reason. is that a political reason? it could be anything at this point