it was something, as it's being called, radicalized. >> important to you, mike leiter? >> very important. people think this is an atypical story of people who have lived here for a long time become radicalized and it regrettably isn't. in the times square bombing we had a case where someone had lived here for 13 years, had an mba, had worked for an american company, and then tried it bomb times square. the challenge here, david, there are lts and lots of people who go through these crises and become more radicalized but very, very few of them actually become mobilized and become terrorists and that's an incredibly hard piece for the fbi and others. >> and you're speaking, mike chertoff, did the fbi miss something? they were on him, tamerlan, that is. they talked to him. they tracked his digital footprint. chairman rogers talking about him then traveling on an ilyas, which i had not heard before. the red flag is up and then they closed the books on him. after they took a look at him, they determined there's no threat here. >> i think that is going to be a big question, d

i saw mike leiter was on before going back over previous phone conversations, previous intelligence thatought to be important but now will have a different light to it. >> are you surprised -- you were talking earlier about how you had gotten a briefing just last week and nobody brought up even -- every once in a while there is chatter that you get briefed about that turns out to be nothing. but there was nothing like this having to do with the boston marathon? >> no, there was absolutely nothing at all involving boston. i've checked with other police departments who were in contact. also the boston police department had nothing at all. so neither at the federal nor the local level. all i would say on that though is, federal people can only find out so much. that's why in new york -- i don't know what procedure they follow in boston -- but i know in new york, that's why ray kelly has 1,000 police officers working on counterterrorism so they can be out in the communities monitoring what's happening. often that's where you pick something else. but again we'll have to wait and see but these

. >>> i want to bring back in justin burke and michael leiter. and, mike, i'm sorry? okay.t have michael. so, let me brick you back in, justin, and i know you wanted to make this sort of point of caution about, you know, tieing to what is going on back in their homeland. and you do start to hear some of these things, like, when the uncle came out yesterday, he talked about being estranged from the family. there are other members of the family who said that they were estranged from the father. i don't know that we've gotten a definitive answer about why he went back to russia. but you don't even know, do you, i mean, this could be something about family dynamics and discontent that fed an already discontented 26-year-old who felt he didn't fit in? >> absolutely. there are so many questions that we don't know, and we're not even sure where they were in kyrgyzstan, it's not only a security issue, it is also partially a diplomatic issue. relations with russia have to be managed. they've been tense. this has the potential to increase friction. another thing to take in to conside

i wanted to bring in mike at leiter in as well. from your assessment and your sources, how is this proceeding, the fbi 2,000 tips, getting pictures, putting together the pieces of what these bombs were, what they were made of, how far have they gotten, do you know? >> i think they're doing quite well. we're not yet 48 hours in. we're getting there now, and they now have a pretty good idea about these devices. they know how many, they have a sense of how they were carried to the side, so that's a huge piece. from surveillance cameras that were in place from the city of boston, businesses in the area, and of course all of the photos and surveillance movies that people got on that you are iphones and everything else. there's been an enormous amount of work. with the central be gens agencies, they're seeing if they can -- or human intelligence to point in the direction. all of those things are think over the coming days and weeks will sloely by correlated. i think if things go well, they could -- in the come days. >> pete williams, is

mike at leiter will join us to discuss. plus behind the explosion of home-grown extremist groups.k about a new report on so-called patriot groups. >>> in the aftermath of boston, what is the future for reform efforts on guns and immigration. luke russert and bob herbert join the panel. all that and more, coming up next. and do you know your... blood type? a or b positive?? have you eaten today? i had some lebanese food for lunch. i love the lebanese. i... i'm not sure. enough of the formalities... lets get started shall we? jimmy how happy are folks who save hundreds of dollars switching to geico? happier than dracula volunteering at a blood drive. we have cookies... get happy. get geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. to prove to you that aleve is the better choice for him, he's agreed to give it up. that's today? [ male announcer ] we'll be with him all day as he goes back to taking tylenol. i was okay, but after lunch my knee started to hurt again. and now i've got to take more pills. ♪ yup. another pill stop. can i get my aleve back yet? ♪ for my pain,

we will be back with more breaking news from boston with michael isikoff on the ground, michael leiter, mike miller and his own perspectives on the days events. i'm telling you right now, the girl back at home would absolutely not have taken a zip line in the jungle. (screams) i'm really glad that girl stayed at home. vo: expedia helps 30 million travelers a month find what they're looking for. one traveler at a time. expedia. find yours. oh, hey. using night-vision goggles to keep an eye on my spicy buffalo wheat thins to make sure nobody touches them. who's gonna take your wheat thins? um, i don't know. an intruder, the dog, bigfoot, ted from next door. hey, could you get the light? i love you. [ loud crash ] what is going on?! honey, i was close! it's a yeti! ted! check it out! a yeti! [ male announcer ] must! have! wheat thins! since aflac is helping with his expenses while he can't work, he can focus on his recovery. he doesn't have to worry so much about his mortgage, groceries, or even gas bills. kick! kick... feel it! feel it! feel it! nice work! ♪ you got it! you got it! yes! aflac'

let's bring in michael leiter of, an nbc news terrorism expert. good afternoon, mike. what do you make of these possible connections between the two brothers and chechnyan terrorists? >> what we really know their ethnic is chechen. the one brother has traveled to chechnya. we really, really can't go down the road yet of assuming, even assessing is likely, that they were, in fact, linked to chechen group such as the islamic jihad union, iju. that really is premature. i think probably more likely at this point is the older brother might possibly at least have seen something in the relationship between chechnya and russia, the struggling chechnya, that drove him in a direction of extremism. that's more likely. but i would say the direct connection too early to say. >> because up to this point, chechen independence movements, chechen terrorists have been concerned about the location, the geography, of their own nation. that didn't previously involve the united states of america. >> that's absolutely right, and i think that's another reason why a direct connection from a ch

mike? >> first of all, michael leiter, that is one of the terrific under reported stories thus far.rauma teams at these world class hospitals all of them, five or six of them, within four or five-minute ambulance ride of the blast site. that is a hugely underreported story and god bless them for everything they did. the question that i have for you is the progress of the investigation. i was speaking to several people yesterday involved in the investigation. maybe you can flush this out a bit. it seems that they are quite confident in the direction that they are headed and what they have received so far. if you want to liken it to a murder scene, is it not accurate to say that they have kind of a partial fingerprint here in the sense that they have a piece of a pressure cooker, they have remnants of a bag, they have the outlines, the ingredients of the bomb, so i would think that that would be a huge step down this progress road, would it not be? >> i think it is. the analogy to a fingerprint is good although it's a little imperfect and because a fingerprint is distinct to one indiv