and ultimately to the national counterterrorism center and so they will be able to use this information they just can't go out and seek information on you unless as of right now unless the secretary of defense gives them permission to now we do talk a lot about drones and how they can be used for surveillance purpose as they are these your own bland's kind of take it a step further so i think it's a matter i mean i think what we're going to see is people trading off how how long you can keep lamps up there without having to keep somebody watching them without i mean one of the things that's happening domestically with these drones is that people are buying them and they're finding out it costs too much to operate them so the limbs can bring that cost down then i think you're going to see the same kind of surveillance you know high level you're not necessarily aware of it. but you're going to see it operating locally in a way. that you otherwise but you know drones might be too expensive to run so is there a real possibility that local police forces could get ahold of these drones and if

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

joining us, live from abbottabad in pakistan, michael lighter head of the national counterterrorive centerident obama. he's also, as i said an nbc news terror analyst. and jim talent, a romney adviser, senator tom daschle and former ambassador nicholas burns. wake up! that's good morning, veggie style. hmmm. for half the calories plus veggie nutrition. could've had a v8. i'm a wife, i'm a mom... and chantix worked for me. it's a medication i could take and still smoke, while it built up in my system. [ male announcer ] along with support, chantix is proven to help people quit smoking. it reduces the urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or mood, hostility, agitation, depressed mood and suicidal thoughts or actions while taking or after stopping chantix. if you notice any of these, stop taking chantix and call your doctor right away. tell your doctor about any history of depression or other mental health problems, which could get worse while taking chantix. don't take chantix if you've had a serious allergic or skin reaction to it. if you develop these, stop taking ch

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 disrupting these plots. >> what can we learn from the bomb itself? we're told that the bombe

for more, we turn to michael leiter, who was director of the national counterterrorism center from 2008 until the middle of last year. and ali soufan, a former supervisory special agent for the f.b.i. his cases included the bombing of the u.s.s. "cole" in yemen in 2000, as well as 9/11. 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 un

. >> 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

national security team have visited yemen in the last few weeks. they include the fbi director robert mueller, white house counterterrorism adviser john bren yen, as well as matt olson who needs the national counterterrorism centerfter 9/11 to analyze threats against theun and these were the individuals who would have been read in on this latest effort to infiltrate the sale in yemen with the newly improved underwear bomb or they call it the brief bomb. so the bottom line really is that this group in yemen has quite a safe haven in the south from which they can operate and train and recruit and they remain very global in their focus, specifically on the united states jenna. jenna: some important news for us today. catherine, thank you very much. >> you're welcome. jenna: -- jon: right now jury deliberation underway for a second day in the john edwards trial. he faces up to 30 years in prison if convicted of illegally using campaign contributions. to cover up an extramarital affair while he was running for president. jonathan serrie, live outside the courthouse in greensboro, north carolina now. jonathan. >> reporter: good morning, jon. the jury, deliberating behind closed doors in the federal courthouse that you

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

well michael lighter was director of the national counterterrorism center at the time of that failed 2009 underwear bomb attempt. he is now an nbc national security analyst. michael good morning to you. >> good morning, ann. how are you? >> you -- great. i imagine that you've got something to say about the fact that -- that part of the story here is that the u.s. was able to take down this effort, foil this plot, that was apparently from the hinterlands of yemen. isn't that part of the story here? >> absolutely, ann. this is a very difficult intelligence operation, to actually find individuals working with foreign partners and really have the entire u.s. intelligence community, led by the cia, have people in a position to identify these operatives before they get on planes, be inside the plot enough to disrupt them before they're even close to our shores, that really represents an enormous victory for u.s. counterterrorism efforts. >> well, you know, as you have pointed out in the past, this 2009 bomb plot, the christmas bomb plot, showed us that they're able to get a bomb, a device

>> guest: one quick example is the national counterterrorism center, where we have brought people inncy into one central location. they are bringing backgrounds from agencies to that exercise and going through that and going back to their agencies, having served shoulder to shoulder with people from all the branches and build those personal relationships to have to break down from some of those barriers so that something is going on. we also have regional managers in the sense that the director of national intelligence is that it has at these various think it is called regional managers come and which they would take subject matter and have responsibility across all agencies for subject under two lander break down the barriers, inappropriate barriers between various agencies. constantly looking at ways to do the issue better because you don't want something to happen because one piece of the information and another entity has a second piece and put together. they work every single day is to not let that happen. >> host: we are talking about presented as mike conaway, serves on the fl

national counterterrorism center which, of course, is the hub for threat analysis have been tracking in fact, it was their highest priority. the c.i.a. intercepted the bomb in yemen before the would be bomber even purchased the ticket. counterterrorism officials say the device was likely a refinement of the underwear bomb similar to the failed christmas underwear bomb attempt over detroit in 2009. the device was recovered from a raid on an al-qaida in the arabian peninsula camp. officials say that the device is now being analyzed in quantico. >> the plot itself indicates that these terrorists keep trying. they keep trying to buy more and more perverse and terrible ways to kill innocent people. >> now, a government source familiar with the intelligence tells fox news the operation is ongoing. and it involves countries, the source says or adds, rather, there is a second threat stream coming out of the middle east involving surgically implanted body bombs. counterterrorism may see the device as the work of the man who has perfected the use of nonmetallic explosives that are very hard to

guest: the national counterterrorism center, where we brought people from every agency into one centralocation. they are bringing their backgrounds from those agencies into that exercise. going back into the agencies, having to serve shoulder to shoulder with people -- as you build the personal relationships, it helps break down all the barriers so when something is going on. we also have regional managers, the director of national intelligence has set up heads of these barriers -- i think they are called regional managers in which they will take subject matter and they would have responsibility across all agencies to again blend and breadth of the barriers, the inappropriate barriers between the various agencies. constantly looking at ways to do that better, because we did not want something to happen because one piece of the information on -- another entity has a second piece and 50 put them together they could stop some but because they were silo, you miss it. host: talking to representative mike conaway, republican from tennis, and the select armed services and intelligence committe

figured out what he was and what he believed before he was giving tours of our top secret national counterterrorism center. "time" magazine featured a profile of imma'am of the all dulls muslim society called themselves adams for short. i is the current current president, which also was a named co-conspirator to fund terrorism in the holy land foundation trial. what the district court and fifth circuit court of appeals examined the record and said there is plenty of evidence to support them being named, specifically, as supporters of terrorism. but in november, 2005, majib was awarded for the imam's cooperation claiming quote, he regularly tips off the bureau. but in a letter to the adams center community, the next day, majib told his members he did no such thing. he made clear that he never reported on anyone in the muslim community and his relationship with the f.b.i. was one-sided with the outreach meetings, quote, are solely to create avenues to work with law enforcement to preserve our civil liberties and civil rights, unquote. majib has met with top d.o.j. officials urging the criminalization of isl

we organize our intelligence community for the first time since 1947 and renamed the national counterterrorism center. when he served as the first director of the nctc, when he moved into the white house's deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counter-terrorism and assistant to the president, and when i succeeded lee hamilton here at the wilson center last year. finally, when he became president obama's point person on counterterrorism strategy, and when the wilson center commenced a series of programs, which are still ongoing, the first of which we held on 9/12/2011, to ask what the next 10 years should look like and whether this country needs a clearer legal framework around domestic intelligence. clearly, the success story of the past decade is last may's takedown of osama bin laden. at the center of that effort were a senior security leadership of the country. i noticed dennis mcdonald in the audience, right here in the front row. certainly, it included president obama and john brennan. they made the tough calls. but i also know, and we all know, how selfless an extraordinary

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 superbly 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 -- >> and i will tell you, when i saw that pilot, i gave him pretty good hug. >> what was the reaction i

for the first time since 1947 and renamed ttic, the organization john had headed, the national counterterrorism centerwhen he served as the first director of the nctc, when i chaired the intelligence subcommittee of the homeland security committee, when he moved into the white house as deputy national security adviser for homeland security and counterterrorism and assistant to the president, and when i succeeded lee hamilton here at the wilson center last year. finally, when he became president obama's point person on counterterrorism strategy and when the wilson center commenced a series of programs which are still ongoing, the fist of which -- the first of which we held on 9/12/2011 to ask what the next ten years should look like and whether this country needs a clearer legal framework around domestic intelligence. clearly, the success story of the past decade is last may's takedown of osama bin laden. at the center of that effort, were the senior security leadership of our country. i notice dennis mcdonough in the audience right here in the front row, and certainly it included president obama and j

national journal senior correspondent james kitfield of this cover story on the obama administration's counterterrorism strategy. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] host: that chinese activists at the center of a diplomatic standoff between washington and beijing now says he wants to leave china with his family. state department officials say they have spoken twice to chen guangcheng, saying he and his wife have changed in their hearts and want to depart the country. this as the secretary of state continues her trade and economic talks in beijing. russia's defense minister morning talks between moscow and washington on the missile defense plan in europe are close to a dead end. they have not succeeded in overcoming a disagreement over a system washington says is aimed at deflecting potential iranian threats. it is thursday, may 3. the president is at the white house today. congress is at recess. we want to begin with a conversation on u.s. foreign policy. what is america's influence in the world in light of developments this week. we welcome our listeners on c- span radio, xm channel 119. we will begin with the developing story in china. "the washington post" -- this front-page story. and