i think the biggest change is something that mike morell mentioned that the president has now said, weill have judges, not bureaucrats at nsa no matter how well meaning they are, 22 folks at nsa now who have the authority to query this database. but they have self-interest they see things from a particular perspective. i'd rather have federal judges helping oversee and make this decision that is a huge change and i think it's a very important one. >> schieffer: and tell me a little bit about that -- what you had to say about bob gates. >> well, i wrote a little bit about loyalty and one of my big concerns, like all of us in the news gathering business was inside information. it's a little hard to criticize us to people who give us inside information. that said, i think particularly with secretary gates a republican brought in to democratic administration not inside line position, but in a really critical policy making job. to then turn around write his memoirs while the president is still in office, really, if i were president, would give me pause about selecting somebody from the oppo

mike morell is the former deputy director of the c.i.a. and is now a cbs news contributor. joins us from washington. mike, with all this reporting we're getting, how big would you say the terrorist threat is at the sochi olympics? >> i think this is the biggest threat we've seen to any olympics in quite some time. the terrorists there are motivated, they are determined and they are capable of, as we have seen in the past several weeks, i think we not only have to worry about sochi itself but we have to worry about other cities in russia, particularly places where westerners might gather during the olympics. either way, in sochi or elsewhere in russia would be a big success for these terrorists. >> dubois: on another topic here yesterday lawmakers in the house and senate intelligence committee suggested that edward snowden may have more ties to russia than we first thought. so what can you add to that? >> no strong evidence, but there's reason to be suspicious. during his travels there were a couple of incidents, one in particular, that i can't go into in detail but that rea

well, we put the question to one of the people who know the most about the case: mike morell. until last year. he was deputy director of the c.i.a. he also served on the president's task force on surveillance. morell is now a senior security contributor for cbs news. >> there is no evidence of that, scott. my own thinking is that what edward snowden did was steal the material on his own, get out of the country on his own. my questions about his work with chinese and russian intelligence begin once he arrives in hong kong and then when he moved on to moscow. >> pelleyc: what do we know about what happened in hong kong? >> well, there were some -- a couple of incidents in hong kong that i really can't get into, but those incidents really raised some questions about whether or not he had contact with russian intelligence. >> pelley: does u.s. intelligence have a good appraisal today of what snowden took in its entirety? >> so we don't know what he took. we know what he had access to. my understanding is that the government is still trying to put together exactly what he walked aw

former deputy director of cia mike morell was part of changes. welcome back. dations? >> i thought he said two very important things. one was the importance of intelligence to protecting the nation, the fact that what the nsa was doing was legal and propose and doing exactly what the government asked them do. they were patriots. i thought it was very important for the country to hear that and important for the nsa officers to hear that from their commander in chief. at the same time charlie, he said that the government holing this data creates a potential risk to privacy and civil liberties, which is what our panel found as well and he said importantly that the government shouldn't hold that data anymore and he said that the government should have a war rent when it goes and looks at that data. it's going to take some time to work all of that out, but some of that is in place this morning. getting a court order, for example, is required as of this morning. so i thought what the president said was pretty important. >> is it going to be difficult to find a place

>> cia iid mike morell is our cnbc news contributor.e's concerned about the safety of the games. >>> an outer space wake-up call this morning. the daring comet commission that hinges on a working alarm clock. >>> plus an incorrect finish earns the seahawks the right to face the broncos in the super bowl. nfl james brown is in studio 57. >>> we look at today's eye opener, "your world in 90 seconds.

tom done the lawn, along with mike morel, the former cia that beatty director. deputy director. rebroadcasts begin at noon eastern with meet the press, 1:00, abc's this week. at 2 p.m. here fox news sunday. followed by cnn state of the union at 3 p.m. finally leads finally, face the nation. you can download our free app for your smart phone or listen .nline at c-span radio.org host: we go back to your calls and comments based on the issues of family dynasties and presidencies. the phone lines are 202 -- the l.a. times with this headline -- on our twitter page, dd has this comment -- there is this from our facebook page -- chris is joining us from hoboken, new jersey. your take on all of this? caller: i think it is fine if with the dynasties -- recent citizens united ruling in 2010 i think the problem is there so much political capital built on the clintons and bushes being in the white house. if a younger candidate were to come up and they don't have the funds, you have the big names winning by default. mark from seal beach, california on our democrats line. and little about thi