private robert hays, david watson, rifleman aiden howe, tommy brown, and christopher rooney and michael richard and michael holmby and we must look after their families. i also join the prime minister in paying tribute to david taylor and his contribution to public service. we too send our condolences to his wife and children. he was diligent, decent, and determined. as one obituary put it, a thought brilliantly he was that rare thing amongst politicians someone who was liked and admired equally by his constituents, his parliamentary colleagues and his political opponents. and he will be sadly missed. this year the government will have to borrow 178 billion pounds. yesterday one of the largest holders of government debt warned the british debt is likely to be downgraded. the oecd, the cbi and the bank of england have all warned there is no proper plan to deal with this deficit. why does the prime minister think that all these people take that view? >> first of all, mr. speaker, let us put this in context. that the debt of every country has risen as a result of a global financial recession. and

joining me now live michael german, a former fbi age enand richard minimum tour a contribute are forethe. how hot a topic is this going to be? >> pretty hot. especially after the bomber nearly blew up a train bound for detroit. it's time for an adult conversation about privacy. no one is talking about ripping up the bill of rights. but clearly some things have to be done to maintain airport security. we need to learn from the israelis and from the germans and learn how to do airport security in an intelligence way. no one wants to be looked at naked or essentially naked with these scanners. but the next generation's going to have computers looking for pattern recognition so there won't be human eyes looking at you, but computer eyes. maybe that will allay some of the concerns of privacy activists. >> you wrote a piste called to hell with privacy and i want to quote it. the underpants bomber teaches us that there are two kinds of americans, those who'd rather be right, and those who'd rather be alive. are those our only two choices? >> i think there is a small group of people out there wh

host: you are breaking up a little bit, richard. michael, have you heard about this? guest: the man came from a rich family. it could have been a diplomat assisting him. i do not have the answer to that. host: john brennan was asked about this attempt to try him in courts as opposed to a military tribunal. this is what he had to say. >> we have an array of tools and we want to make sure we maintain flexibility in how we deal with individuals. he was arrested on u.s. soil in detroit. he was talking to people. there were people arrested in the previous administration -- richard reid, moussaoui, and others -- all of which were charged and sentenced to life in prison. just because someone is put through the legal process does not mean that we do not have other opportunities to get information from them. >> after abdulmutallab got lawyered up, did he stop talking? >> we got information and we continue to have opportunities to do that. as you come to the individuals and they recognize what they are facing, there are opportunities to talk about it. the fbi has some of the be

host: you are breaking up a little bit, richard. michael, have you heard about this?uest: the man came from a rich family. it could have been a diplomat assisting him. i do not have the answer to that. host: john brennan was asked about this attempt to try him in courts as opposed to a military tribunal. this is what he had to say. >> we have an array of tools and we want to make sure we maintain flexibility in how we deal with individuals. he was arrested on u.s. soil in detroit. he was talking to people. there were people arrested in the previous administration -- richard reid, moussaoui, and others -- all of which were charged and sentenced to life in prison. just because someone is put through the legal process does not mean that we do not have other opportunities to get information from them. >> after abdulmutallab got lawyered up, did he stop talking? >> we got information and we continue to have opportunities to do that. as you come to the individuals and they recognize what they are facing, there are opportunities to talk about it. the fbi has some of the best

richard ben-veniste and jeanne meserve. i want to go to something that the former cia director, michael hayden said this morning.d americans are going to have to make a tough choice between privacy and security. there's only so much intelligence officials can do. in ow future, jeanne meserve, do you see full-body scanners, even profiling like the israelis do when we fly? >> a lot of people are talking about the body images. i think the british said they're going to start doing it. i'd raise this question though, ultimately is that going to be the solution? if we start doing body scans will they hide the stuff internally the way drug dealers have been doing it for years? one question on body scanners. profiling, again, a lot of debate about should we be doing the a lot of this. never before christmas day did i ever hear anything about anybody including nigerians as part of pro filing. there was jose padilla, john walker lind. >> the profile keeps change sng. >> the profile keeps changing. if you wed yourself to a certain type of individual that you're looking at, perhaps you're going to miss the kinds of people t

michael leiter, the guy in charge of the national counterterrorism center. but again, it's going to be weeks, maybe months before we know for sure if somebody individually gets held accountable, lester. >> chuck todd and richard engel tonight with us. thank you very much. >>> now to the weather. and this year is getting off to a cold start across much of the country, even by january standards. and the cold snap came just as many americans are on the move after the holidays. from the great plains to the northeast, ice, snow, and frigid cold were the order of the day. we get more from nbc's jeff rossen. >> reporter: whiteout conditions in buffalo, new york as the bills battle the colts. fans could barely see the players. >> yeah! >> reporter: perhaps the players could barely see these fans. the weather channel's mike seidel was there this morning. >> let me tell you how cold it is. my face feels like it's going to crack, my eyes are watering up and i can't even feel my fingertips this morning. >> reporter: record-breaking temperatures are gripping the plains. in parts of minnesota it's 40 degrees below zero. >> you know we have some very cold temperatures when we break overnight lows in the beginning of january

michael steele. a look at the latest unemployment figures with marilyn geewax. and we will discuss counter- terrorism efforts with juan zarate. richard holbrooke talked about u.s. military and economic recovery efforts in afghanistan and pakistan at a brookings institution for on this afternoon. he is the president's chief adviser in that region, and a long-term u.s. diplomat. this is about one hour. >> good afternoon, everybody. we're very honored and appreciative that ambassador holbrooke took some time off from his duties on the other side of town and being on the other side of the world to spend about one hour with us this afternoon talking about policy in afghanistan and pakistan. there are never boring moments in his life. there certainly haven't been any in the course of the time that he has had this job. i figured that was a figure that i was doing you. that i was doing you. you could use a little more. of course, this is a particularly busy week and a particularly difficult week. ambassador holbrooke has got a number of members of his terrific interagency team with him here. and one of the very promising and productive aspec