he had communications with major nidal hasan, the fort hood shooter.w much of an operational role did a lot the play -- did alaki play? in the crhistmas -- christmas day incident. >> we assess that he had a direct an operational role. >> he directed him to blow up the airplane? >> will not go into greater detail. -- i will not go into greater detail. he had a direct and operational role. >> they say he is on the cia hit list. director leon panetta all but confirmed that when asked. he said, he is a terrorist and he will be treated as a terrorist. he is also a u.s. citizen. doesn't give anybody pause in the -- does it give anybody pause in the upper rankssof the obama administration that we are targeting u.s. citizens for murder, especially when, as in the cleric's case, he has not been charged with a crime? >> you through in a lot of words. i have to put my legal at on. i think a lot of those are flatly wrong words. murder and killing are not interchangeable. i think that, without speaking directly in the case of the cleric, it certainly gives me pause

despite the broad buildup, terrorists have still slipped through, nidal hasan at ft.he underwear bomber in detroit. but analysts point out other planned attacks have been covered, an al qaeda plot in 2006 and by najibullah zazi to bomb new york subways. >> there have been dozens of attacks, plots, terrorist networks that have been not only discovered, but foiled in the post-9/11 world. >> reporter: the government insists some of the redundancies are necessary, but there's also wide agreement the system has gotten too big. the challenge now is to cut the waste without increasing the risk. bob orr, cbs news, washington. >>> and that's the "cbs morning news" for this tuesday. thanks for watching. hope you'll join us later for "the early show." i'm betty nguyen. "the early show." i'm betty nguyen. have a great day. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> your realtime captioner is linda marie macdonald. caption colorado, l.l.c. comments@captioncolorado.com >>> hey, good morning! it's tuesday, the 20th of july. a.c. transit sickout. boy, what, 200 of their workers did no