pete williams joins us again. help us with the latest. >> you have done a good job running down the facts. it may turn out his only violation was smoking on the plane. while the initial reports were he came out and when the air marshal said what were you doing he said i was trying to set off a shoe bomb. he was trying to say i was trying to put a cigarette out on the sole of my shoe. if that is the case, the only violation he may have committed is violating the federal rule of smoking on a plane. to re-emphasize here, though, no explosives were found in his shoes. authorities say no explosives were found on the man in any other way and no explosives were found on the plane. bomb sniffing dogs did go through the plane and found no explosives. i'm sure they'll take another look. this whole situation is certainly easy to understand why the authorities initially responded the way he did. there was a man doing something suspicious in the bathroom. they smelled smoke. they can't get a clear answer what he was doing and,

we begin our coverage here tonight with our justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you on a windy friday. about the only surprise is the timing of this announcement, 11 days before his 90th birthday. justice stevens has been signaling for weeks that this term of the court would probably be his last. john paul stevens will leave the supreme court after nearly 34 1/2 years. the third longest service in the court's history. in a one-sentence letter addressed, "my dear mr. president," stevens will step down at the end of the current term in late june. that will allow time to have his successor in place in early october when the new term begins. >> he has applied the constitution and the laws of the land with fidelity and restraint. he will soon turn 90 this month, but he leaves his position at the top of his game. >> reporter: the court's only gerald ford nominee, stevens arrived in 1975 as a moderate conservative but became the anchor of the court's liberal wing. the choice of his replacement by a democratic presid

our report on what did happen from our justice correspondent pete williams. he's where the flight originated at national airport in washington. pete, good evening. >> reporter: brian, it happened on a united airlines flight that took here from reagan national airport. the trouble began when a passenger tried to sneak a smoke onboard and made a flippant, and very unfortunate remark. it was a harrowing night for 157 passengers aboard a united airlines flight, though it ended safely. >> it was quite an inconvenience, but better than a tragedy. right flight 663, a 757 like this one, was well on its way, about an hour from its scheduled stop in denver before going on to las vegas when a passenger in first class spent a long time in the bathroom. federal investigators say when he came out a flight attendant smelled smoke and notified two federal air marshals onboard. they questioned the man, 27-year-old mohammed al madadi from qatar. assigned to its embassy in washington. he was on official business to check on the treatment of a federal prisoner, convicted last yea

let me bring in justice correspondent pete williams. he scene about justice john paul stevens retiring this summer. >> reporter: the announcement comes in a very unusual way, a statement by chief justice john roberts which the supreme court has just released. let me read it to you. associate justice john paul stevens earned the gratitude and admiration of american people for nearly 40 years of distinguished service to the judiciary including 30 years on the supreme court. justice roberts says he has enriched the lives of everyone in the court through his intellect, independence, and warm grace. we've all been blessed to have john as our colleague and wife marianne as our friend. we will miss his presence in our daily work but will take joy in his and his wife's friendship in the days ahead. you know, we had all expected this month would be the month when justice stevens would make his wishes learn. he turns 20 later this month -- sorry, turns 90 on april 20th. that was, we thought, going to be a landmark date for him to make the decision

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >> you can see it all tonight.he special report hosted by rachel maddow. "mcveigh tapes, confessions of an american terrorist." that's at 9:00 p.m. eastern time and pacific. >>> when we come back, the update on the plan for one airline to charge you for your carry-on bag. you for your carry-on bag. it's planted in miracle-gro moisture control potting mix. it holds 33% more water... than ordinary potting soil, releasing it as plants need it, not when i get around to it. and there's miracle-gro plant food mixed in. so you get miracle-gro results... i like that. [ female announcer ] new and improved miracle-gro moisture control potting mix. success starts with the soil. miracle-gro moisture control potting mix. i'm going to own my own restaurant. i want to be a volunteer firefighter. when i grow up, i want to write a novel. i want to go on a road trip. when i grow up, i'm going to go there. i'm going to work with kids. i want to fix up old houses. [ female announcer ] at aarp we believe you're never done growing. i wa

pete williams, nbc news, washington. >>> this, of course, is good friday. in a service at the vatican today there was an unusual defense of the pope and the growing sexual abuse scandals in the catholic church. nbc's anne thompson is in rome again for us tonight. good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. the world is still waiting to hear from pope benedict on this issue, but comments from another church official have only added to the vatican's problems. pope benedict leading the way of the cross. the event at the heart of christianity. jesus dying for the sins of man, but the outcry over the priests dominated this good friday. priests who sexually abused children and church leaders who covered it up, perhaps even the pope. those accusations brought a controversial defense from the pope's personal preacher at today's service he compared the attacks on benedict to the persecution of the jews. >> translator: they know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence, and also because of this, they are quick to recognize the recurrent

until then, happy easter, i'm pete williams. good night. captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- >> corporate funding for "washington week" is provided by -- >> we know why we're here. to connect our forces to what they need, when they need it. >> help troops see danger before it sees them. >> to answer the call of the brave and bring them safely home. >> around the globe, the people of boeing are working together to support and protect all who serve. that's why we're here. >> one tribe, y'all, one tribe, y'all, one tribe y'all, we are one people. let's forget about all that evil. >> what do you care about? introducing the refresh project. we're giving away millions for ideas to move the world forward. every pepsi refreshes the world. >> funding for "washington week" is also provided by exxonmobil, the an enburg foundation, the corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions through your pbs station from viewers like you. thank you.

nbc justice correspondent pete williams is here with more.ell, what would you call this, celebrity witness, perhaps? >> well, the defense lawyers, excuse me, for blagojevich say that the president has important information about the conversations with two of the witnesses that the government has. one is a labor leader whom they don't identify and the other is tony rezko, the chicago real estate person for whom the president -- former president bought his house. now, a lot of the basis for their claiming the president should testify is unknown to us because let me just show you, andrea, that a lot of the documents that they file are heavily redacted. a lot of the supporting claims that they -- >> blacked out. >> -- claim the president knows about are blacked out. they say, basically, look, the president has important information for us, we are well aware of the inconvenience to the president, that this is unusual, but it's not uns predenlpre denl dented. other presidents have been subpoenaed in criminal cases, unlike jones v. clinton, because

pete williams joining us now. pete, justice stevens holds a unique place in the court, obviously. almost 90 years old. but how much of a major figure is he in the court in terms of the divisions? does he lead the liberal minority on the court and how would any replacement affect that division? >> before i get to that, i have to note that justice stevens threw out, is a person who has thrown out the first pitch before at white sox games. he just did it a year or so ago and you know, you could look at the tape and compare his pitch with president obama's. i'll leave that up to you. >> and one other fact about justice stevens, he, at age 12, watched babe ruth hit that home run where he pointed to the stands and that's part of the lure of justice stevens. >> yes. he does very much lead the liberal wing of the court and the way it works at the supreme court, the chief justice assigns the person to write the opinion assuming the chief justice is voting with the majority. if not, the court's senior person on the other side makes that assignment. that's usually typically justice stevens.

nbc news justice correspondent pete williams is live in washington. nting, how serious is the justice? >> reporter: i think he is quite serious that he'll leave sometime before the end of president obama's current term and the only thing we don't know is whether that will be at the end of this supreme court term or will it be a year from now, possibly even two years from now? it seems fairly certain that the justice stevens himself has not yet made this decision but also seems fairly likely that we'll find out sometime this month. there are a couple reasons for that. one is he'll turn 90 in about two weeks on april 20th. in may he'll become the third longest serving member of the u.s. supreme court on may 21st so those are a couple milestones that he might look at in terms of deciding but he's made a very telling comment in an interview with the "new york times" over the weekend. he said that he recognizes the need to make his intentions known sooner rather than later to give the president time to nominate someone and the senate time for a confirmation

pete williams is the justice correspondent. what more do we know about this man and the big question a lot of people are asking, why hasn't be been charged? >> that's the picture of him you were looking at him a second ago. he's 27 years old, a relatively low level diplomat here. we're told by u.s. officials two katari diplomats are in denver to pick him up. the u.s. expects that qatar will sent him back to qatar. this is the closest thing there is to expulsion without the u.s. formally taking action to prepare him persona non grada. 25 minutes before the flight was due to land, he spent long time in the plane's rest room and came out smelling of smoke. the flight attendant asked if he was smoking and he deny it. he said he was trying to put out the pipe. he said i was trying to put out the pipe on my shoe and he was trying to light his shoe on fire. now, he was questioned, no explosives were found. it was a sarcastic flippant remark. no xharncharges were timed and the sense the u.s. decided to take this course and not filing x

nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. we'll see what happens in this very interesting situation. a lot of parents paying close attention. thank you very much, pete. >> reporter: you bet. >>> there are calls nationwide today for a boycott of arizona. their tough new immigration law was signed by the governor. the latest on the battle lines drawn and a live report. >>> plus, two lawmakers blame the violence in one of our country's most beautiful cities which is so out of control that the national guard should be called in to crack down on the violence. crossing the line? well, we'll talk with one of the democrats pushing this idea. >>> and president obama today launched a new election pitch for democrats in the mid term elections. we'll talk about it, next. ♪ three decadent flavors. 60 calories. it's me o'clock. time for jell-o. i thought you said carl was our best presentation guy. [ worker ] well, he is. last week he told my team about fedex office print online for our presentations. we upload it to fedex office, then they

nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins us now. as i understand it, this replaces a change that was made really in the days and weeks after that attempt by abdul mutallab. >>> the old plan was imposed in january if you were traveling from the middle east and africa mostly, you would automatically if your passport said that be pulled aside for secondary screening after you go through the metal detectors. that could be a patdown, that could be the full body detectors. now they're saying they're still going to use the no fly list and the predetermined list of selectees based on÷qvq names buw they say they're adding a new layer, that if there is a piece of intelligence suggesting that people from certain parts of the world or traveling with certain kinds of bag ang or meeting certain kinds of descriptions or any number of things, a travel mat terns, the way they pay for the tickets will cause them to be put on for selective screening. so a secondary screening. it's not just based on names but based on intelligence. for example, they mi

. >> thank you, pete williams. >>> amy, member of the united states senate and member of the judiciary committee and represents the state of minnesota. great to have you on and i have to start with this question. do you believe the politics right now the president has a free hand. he named a woman from a hispanic background and in many ways that meets a lot of the standards the democrats like to meet. but i think it's a fairly rotten comment here by glen beck about that kind of ticket balancing or constituency mending. here he is talking about it in a very nasty way. let's listen. >> i mean, if he's smart he will find a gay handicapped, black woman who's an immigrant. that's what, because that way he will just say she could be the devil, she could say i hate america, i want to destroy america and that way they'll only be able to say, but why do you hate gay, immigrant, black, handicapped women? >> senator, isn't it amazing you can make a good living after talking like a guy on a commuter train after three drinks. that's the kind of stuff i heard growing up. that kind of stuff is so uni

. >>> tonight our justice correspondent pete williams is confirming that naji planned to enter the u.s. subway system with an accomplice, both carrying bombs in backpacks. planning to enter at grand central and times square subway stops and choose whether to bomb the one, two, three or six trains. nbc news has also learned a fourth suspect in the plot was arrested in afghanistan and expected to be extradited to this country. >>> the vatican made another move to try to get ahead of the child abuse scandal. an acknowledgement that priests who commit such acts should be accountable under the law. the story from ann thompson. >> reporter: the church states for the first time that every case by sexual abuse by priest should be reported by police anywhere in the world. something u.s. church officials have had to do since 2002. the guidelines require local diocese to investigate every allegation of sexual abuse of a minor by a cleric. in cases where a priest has been convicted of sexual abuse of a minor or the evidence is overwhelming, the case can be taken directly to the pope and he can dis

pete williams has a special report about the taped confessions of convicted bomber timothy mcveigh. that's tonight at 7:00. >> there was a tribute today to 97 american men and women who served in the vietnam war and who died prematurely as a result of that service. their names are not among the 58,261 names inscribe the on the vietnam vets memorial on the wall in the mall. only those who died in combat can be included of those wall. families of the 97 veterans say their deaths are due to physical or emotional wounds they sust n sustained in vietnam. it's for them the vietnam veterans memorial foundation created in memory day. >>> finally tonight, a family of ducks was spotted on the grounds of the white house today. the family appears to be a mother and at least six ducklings. they were seen outside the white house briefing room today. they appeared to be trying to navigate a set of steps which apparently is not so easy when you're young and duckling sized. don't you know what? they made it. each one of them. mom did not help out. it was like, you've got tot grow up one of these day

let's bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, what is the significance of this, and what did the obama administration argue in this case? sh >> this will be a test for the obama administration to see if they'll appeal because they argued in the case not about the merits but about whether sh should be even in court at all. they argued the whole issue was covered by the state secret privilege and they were quite insistent on that. we'll see if they maintain that position on appeal. the judge said the law that was in place at the time -- remember, this program has been changed, president obama voted for the change -- what they said was the program in place at the time was illegally used against two lawyers who were representing an islamic charity. they were on the phone in washington talking to their client in saudi arabia. they argued in court that the government listened in on them without getting a warrant, which is required by federal law. the judge said you're right, i agree, this was illegally used in your case. their law

pete williams is nbc news justice correspondent. this is a crime. how serious is it, pete? >> it's very serious. a felony. threatening a member of congress in retaliation for what they do or prevent them. what federal authorities say is this man is charles allen wilson did is repeatedly call and leave messages on the voice mail of patty murray. his staff notified the fbi, but around the time of the health care bill, the threats got more serious. from the message ins a federal indictment, he says if i had the chance, i would do it. talking about killing senator murray. i want to kill you, he says, not only do i say kill the bill, i say kill the senator. he also says, i would actually pay to help that person. he says he's not republican or democrat, he's just furious at her for voting for the health care bill. now, he blocked his phone number so if you you looked on caller i.d., you wouldn't see a phone number. >> okay, thank you. right now, we have to go to west virginia and a news conference on the deadly mine disaster. >> i'm going to ask everybody to continue to be respec

pete williams, thank you. >>> breaking news out of afghanistan, a wave of violence in the southern cityanistan forcing the united nations to warn 200 of its afghan employees to stay home. this is in kandahar. u.n. also moving foreign employees to kabul. three explosions rocking the city this morning killing two people. the violence comes as the u.s. plans a summer offensive to clear the city of the taliban. >>> a legal firestorm brewing over arizona's controversial new immigration law. over the weekend, outraged demonstrators protest against the tough new bill. it requires police to question people suspected of being in the country illegally about their immigration status. republican governor jan brewer signed the bill friday saying it is critical to protect the state's borders. opponents fear it will lead to racial profiling. meanwhile president obama called the law misguided. he's telling his staff to review potential civil rights implications. >>> chairman and ceo of national p latino clergy preparing a legal argument to block this. >> first of all, racial profiling, as you mentioned

nbc news juice 'tis correspondent pete williams joins us with the latest. what are you learning? >> reporter: a federal law enforcement official says that the arrest that was made today is directly related to these cases. very strange as you say about two dozen devices, it started with liquid containers, bottles with wicks in them and then progressed to pipe bombs and the law enforcement official says some of these were in essence working pipe bombs or fully constructed ones. none of them ever went off. no one was ever hurt. they placed some in postal service drop boxes, some on postal service property, some on private property. the arrest has been made and we hope to find out in an hour or so exactly what this person who placed them had in mind. what was his reason for doing this? why didn't any of them ever go off? so we'll know some answers shortly. at one time the postal inspection service and the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and explosives issued a $25,000 reward for information about this case so perhaps we'll find out whether that had a role, too, contessa. >> pet

nbc's chief justice correspondent pete williams is in washington. pete, good morning to you. >> good morning. a very strange episode started with something illegal but far less sinister -- sneak a cigarette on-board a flight. but with the smell of smoke and a flippant remarks, it turned into something more worrisome. it happened as the flight was in its final half-hour on the way to land in denver, flight 663 from washington to las vegas with a denver stopover carrying 157 passengers and six crew members. a passenger in the first class section spent a long time in the bathroom. when he came out, a flight attendant smelled smoke and notified a federal air marshal. the federal agent confronted the man who said he was putting out a cigarette on the sole of his shoe, but then he also made a sarcastic remark, something to do with a shoe bomb. the pilot notified air traffic controllers, fighter jet escorts were scrambled, two f-16s, the faa notified other pilots in the air of a possible terrorist incident. the man was restrained on the plane and searched.

pete williams has the details. >> reporter: administration officials say the failed plot to bomb a planeo detroit on christmas day by a man with explosives hidden in his underwear actually provided a needed jolt to shake up airline security. and now the government is making a big change to a system started just three months ago to evaluate who should be pulled aside at airports overseas for secondary screening, including pat downs and interviews or inspection in one of the full body image scanners. >> it is a more intel or information based way to screen, it is a stronger way to determine whether passengers should go through secondary examination and not just primary examination. >> reporter: gone are the practices of screening anyone coming from known terrorist countries, instead screeners overseas will be focusing on other indicators, such as parable names, travel patterns or physical descriptions, anything that's derived from current threat intelligence, and they'll continue to look for obvious factors. a former homeland security official says it's a good idea but has some potential d