peter bergen, what do you make of these disturbing developments? pulse nightclub in orlando which is a gay nightclub, lgbt, services the lgbt community in orlando attacked brutally, the worst mass shooting in american history. another incident involving gay pride in west hollywood in los angeles, the mayor of washington, d.c. announcing they're stepping up security here. >> the fact that the los angeles mayor is saying the events in los angeles are unrelated to the events in orlando is a good thing because what one is particularly concerned about is a campaign of attacks similar to what we saw in paris where there are rolling attacks or similar to what we saw in brussels where there were attacks over different time periods and so far that doesn't seem to be the case u. there's a big question about who is this person in los angeles, what is their motivation? were they there to attack the pride festival there for some ideological motive? we don't know that person's motive. >> i'm sure we'll get more information on the incident in west hollywood. juli

i want to bring in peter bergen now who, of course, our cnn terrorism expert who interviewed osama binen. peter, let me ask you, what do you -- how do you make sense of this right now. from the information that we have, the combination of choosing this target that you have some sort of religious fervor. he was known to the fbi as an isis sympathizer. they didn't expect anything like this and then he chooses a gay nightclub. >> erin, it's normal and typical that perpetrators of jihadi terrorist attacks in the u.s. are well known to the fbi. we saw that in the case of major nadal hasan who killed 13 people in ft. hood and the san diego field office was very suspicious of the fact that he was in touch with a militant cleric in yemen over email on multiple occasions and we awe that in the boston marathon attack where he was following a tip by the russians that he might be a militant. the fbi has some information in the system and they've interviewed the perpetrator before an attack actually happens, but of course, they can't keep open a case indefinitely if there isn't sufficient derogator

tough talk won't make it, frankly, you have to be smarter than that. >> peter bergen, you've writtenextensively on this. but, again, some americans might think that isis, you know, goes off and chops off people's heads and uses children as human shields. we're seeing that right now in fallujah. don't you have to take extreme measures in finding an enemy like that? >> well, just to get back to the question of banning muslim immigration and what affect it might have on terrorism, as a factual matter, carol, every lethal terrorist attack in the united states carried out since 9/11 has been carried out by an american citizen or an american permanent legal resident. so banning muslim immigration would have no effect on that fact secondarily, it would be open to significant constitutional objections because we haven't used religious tests of this kind before. and thirdly go back to the 1920s. with were there politicians saying we should ban all italians coming from the united states because a small minority might be in the mafia? of course not and the country is in a better place for it. >

peter bergen makes that very clear. he did that one suicide attack on behalf of an al qaeda-affiliated group and not isis. mateen called 911 and pledged allegiance to isis. >> he bought these weapons within the past two weeks, an assault rifle and a handgun? >> he bought at least two weapons within the past couple of weeks. he had on him an ar-15 type assault rifle. we're trying to find out. >> brian todd, get more information, you let us know. joining us now, florida governor rick scott. ty so much for joining us. our deepest condolences to you, to everyone in florida right now on this worst mass shooting in american history. what can you tell us about the victims? have all the families already been notified? >> wolf, they're working to identify all the individuals and working through getting to their next of kin. it's going to take a period of time. there's a great coordinated effort here down here with local law enforcement, federal, and state. this is sad. it's disgusting. it's clearly an act of terror. you can't im

our national security analyst, julia cayenne is with us and peter bergen is with us as well. it's interesting the local authorities as pamela just reported are asking local communities to hold off on the vigils because the police are needed to do another responsibility, another job. they represent a very strain on our limited resources, they said, which we need to dedicate to law enforcement and victims. they've got a lot of work to do right now. >> yeah, and presumably, out of an abundance of caution, there's no evidence that this guy had a co-conspirator, but they don't want him to launch an attack on the vigil where this attack happened. >> juliet, you used to work at the department of homeland security, how do they coordinate right now what the fbi, the atf, the federal lead investigators are going to be doing and local state and local officials? >> so this is all going to be investigated under the joint terrorism task force led by the fbi but includes local, state and federal entities including other federal agencies. so it literally is an incident command. they are all

i want to bring in peter bergen. you have read through this. , gay people, lesbians. what does that tell you, peter? >> well, i think this will help reframe perhaps a little bit about how we consider omar mateen's motivation. there's extension discussion in arabic on these transcripts. there's extensive mentions of his pledge of allegiance to isis or or omar baghdadi, even though it's admitted. he talks about the bombings in iraq and syria. he talks about the events in france. i think in least in terms of what he was saying to the 911 operator certainly indicates that he was doing this for religious motivations and doesn't mention, as you say, carol, anything about gays, homosexuals or any kind of these other motivations that we've sort of deemed to be part of this potentially and the one caution here, of course, these are partial transcripts. some of the material has been redacted but there's nothing on here about anything other than somebody who has been motivated it seems by islamic ideology or at least his attaching himself to that ideology

let's discuss the latest developments with our panel, peter bergen, and paul cruikshank. this picture of someone clearly on the fbi's radar. >> yes, and it's typical in these cases that the fbi, somebody like this has come to their attention. we saw this in ft. hood, the boston marathon case, the older brother was interviewed by the fbi, but we also live in a rule of law country, you can't keep investigations open on people indefinitely, so they're closed if there isn't derogatory information that would lead to a case staying open. >> and this was at a gay club, serving the lgbt community, it was packed, 300 to 400 people there. it was by no means a coincidence that he went after a gay club, clearly it's hatred of gays based on what we're hearing. >> absolutely right. and he may have calculated this may play well to isis' base, who are homophobic, this may inspire attacks in the west. and doing everything he possibly can to allow isis to take ownership of the attack, making the 911 call pledging allegiance to isis. >> hold on one moment. represents from the consul on amer

peter bergen, you heard the president of the united states. once again, he has to make these kinds of statements all too often, but this will go down until now as the worst shooting, a massacre in the united states. >> juliet has written about the president and his approach to these questions. he on the one hand doesn't want to make terrorism sort of -- he doesn't want to terrify the american population by saying things that would really -- that this is such a terrible event and we'll see more of it. on the other hand, he wants to reassure people everything is being done to take care of the issue. i think he's tried to maintain a careful balance between recognizing it's a problem and also not saying the sky is falling. in this statement, he kept it pretty brief. he said this is a terrible tragedy, an act of terrorism and hate, and he didn't take any questions. but clearly this is going to be -- we often talk act an october surprise in politics where something, a big event comes and changes the political atmosphere. clearly this is going to be

peter bergen, thanks to you, as well. that's it for me.ecial coverage continues right now. >>> wolf, thank you so much. i'm brooke baldwin live here in orlando, florida. you are watching special breaking coverage of the terror attack inside the pulse nightclub. the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in american history. >> i'm anderson cooper outside the orlando regional medal center. 27 patients are still being treated. six in critical condition. you're about to hear a survivor tell his chilling account of what happened and president a,

peter bergen, he also mentioned specifically a case back in 2004, an american who went to syria for isis. >> this is fascinating that the fbi would be investigating mateen for his connections to abu saul la. he traveled from florida to syria, got training and came back to florida unbeknownst to the fbi until later. met with a number of people and went back to syria to conduct a decide operation for al qaeda. the fact that ma teteen was in social circle of others recru recruited by al qaeda, i think it's significant. >> tell us why you think it's significant. the fbi concluded it was inconclusive. >> well, this is the only example of an american citizen recruited by syria and becoming a suicide bomber. the fact that the fbi was looking into who was in this guy's social circle. they may have decided that mateen was merely an acquaintance. they were in florida together. they were obviously -- had some kind of connection and the other was a suicide bomber in syria. >> art, you used to work for the u.s. marshal's office. it sounds awful that someone like this was working were a security firm

. >> and peter bergen, of course, when you look at those seven years you now must take what she is saying about his character and his person that she knew and put that together with what our drew griffin was reporting and was going three to four times a week and had been there as recently as two days ago. they said he was sort of a quiet member of the islamic community at that mosque, but abvowsly, a very active one. >> i have been told in the sense that you could be a terrible husband and be an angry husband and be someone that abuses your wife and that doesn't mean that you're mentally ill and what we know about this guy doesn't suggest mental illness. he kept a job for almost nine years at the same place. he was, as you say, a regular at a mosque in the community. we're not hearing about a guy with a serious mental illness and typically terrorists are not mentally ill. if you are mentally ill you can't carry out the kind of attack we saw carefully carried out and get the training and that's not typical for terrorists to be mentally ill. it's more than a network. it's how you stay conne

i want to bring in peter bergen, who is cnn's national security analyst and lieutenant general mark hertlingpeter, what do you make of this? >> i think it's just -- we knew yesterday that the fbi had been investigating the orlando shooter's potential links to al saleh who was a floridian who was self recruited to al qaeda, conducted a suicide operation for al qaeda in syria in 2014. now we have drew's reporting they may have attended the same mosque which i think incrementally moves that a bit further, but it raises the broader question, of course, about these fbi investigations. you know, clearly the fbi didn't find enough what they determine t term derogatory information to keep these cases open. as i'm sure the house homeland security committee and others will do a report on this, hold hearings, and i'm sure the fbi will have to explain why they decided not to pursue these cases given what we now know. >> general, could you make sense of that? because i'm sure many of our viewers are wondering the very same thing. >> i would suggest that as we get more and more involved in mateen's forens

joining me, peter bergen, peter, and former jihadist, founder of counterterrorism extremist think tank. thank you for joining me to talk about this. it is upsetting to have the video evidence not only of happened to hand combat that these murderers went through as they exacted their vengeance and to see the suicide bombing at the moment that it happened. i want to talk about specifics of how we got to that moment. peter, i'll start with you. now we know where they're from. doesn't seem to be a huge surprise to any. is it insightful to getting a hand emon the chris is than it was before we knew who? >> for viewers it might be surprising that russians and others were involved in the attack. people think of isis is a predominant arab organization with western european contingent. russia supplied more fighters to isis than any nonmuslim majority country, also supplied from former soviet union leaders, oh march will he chech in, killed in a drone strike earlier this year, leader of isis in northern syria, ran its prison where foreign hostages were killed. russians played an important role a

i want to go back to what i quoted from peter bergen a moment ago.will ask my staff to find that quote for me. we've been down to the border. the reason why the people and kids and for our companies can they have lack of opportunity. pitching has put his finger on the root cause and/or the conversations we've had and that is our insatiable demand for drugs. we send money and guns down there, and they send drugs. against and folks get our money and guns can use them to make life miserable. make life national for folks. if we lived down there and had kids, we would want to come up as well. so find a new and haystack problem, we can find ways to make the needles bigger to do that with force multiplier's. in the air, on the ground is so forth. we also need to make the haystack a lot over a part of that is the work we're doing through our partnership with these three central american countries at its their version of partnership that we've established that we are helping to support. i want to go back to, i told the chairman of the mystical ago, i thought

back with me now, analyst tom fuentes, and correspondent peter bergen, peter, you're a former directors kind of proposal that dianne feinstein is talking about right now to allow the attorney general to block the sale of a gun if there is quote, a reasonable suspicion that person will be involved -- or support a terrorist attack. from your perspective, your experience, would that help the fbi prevent terrorist attacks? >> well, i think, jim, it's common sense that as a law enforcement officer you would think that fewer bad guys, if they don't have access to this type of fire power certainly it would make the public safer. but we go back to this debate about the constitutional right to buy a firearm. you don't have a constitutional right to fly on an airplane. so the mere fact that you end up on the no-fly list or on a terror watch list so far people have said that should not be enough. and that is not a matter for the fbi to decide. that is a matter for our congressional leaders and the president to decide whether that should be the case or not. the fbi is going to enforce whatever law

it's by peter bergen, a national analyst at cnn.s looked at more than 300 case of charged jihadist terrorism in the united states. he wrote that the easy explanation that jihadist terrorists are mad or bad prove simply wrong. around 1 in 10 have mental health problems, below the incidence in the general population. nor were they typically career criminals. 12% have served time in prison, compared with about 11% of the american male population." he didn't give any delusion, it's probably difficult to find out but he said they're generally motivated by militant ideology. they need to attach them to an ideology to give them a sense of purpose. all of it is interesting to try to grapple with some kind of an understanding which you can't possibly do. but as the fbi tries to tackle this new threat of homegrown. >> a huge amount on this in the last interesting days. an interesting comment i saw if your twitter feed is saul about guns then you need more exposure. there hasn't been common ground to see serious action on both issues. >>> we'r

analyst and author of "united states of jihad: investigating america's home-grown terrorists," peter bergening, carol. >> so what do you make of this, isis leadership directly planned these attacks, what do you make of that? >> you know, i think what is absolutely fascinating, carol, is the fact that we have russian, kurgys, and that is surprising for people who think of isis as an arab group with recruits from places like britain and france. but according to russian sources, we have estimates of anywhere from 2,000 as high as 7,000 russians who have joined isis now, even allowing some room for russian propaganda, after all, russia is heavily involved in syria, we can certainly say that in terms of non-muslim majority countries, russia is providing the largest number of recruits to isis, even more than the french. carol, you will recall that the french have provided the largest numbers of europeans who have gone to isis, at least 1500. west point's counterterrorism center has found thousands of isis documents and analyzed them and found that russia was one of the top countries after countri

let's bring in peter bergen.t of view, britain should have stayed in the eu. why? >> well, i mean, certainly, you know -- i think the bigger issue is not necessarily the standard security argument. it is the fact that this vote has empowered early immigrant proto fascist parties not only in britain but europe. and saying we should vote to get out and so kind of the rising tone of anti immigrant kind of flavor here, i think, is really the big story, which is, you know, we already have a lot of alienated muslims in europe. i think that we will see more, because of this vote, sort of allows us this anti immigrant wave to gather steam. >> so you think there is going to be a domino effect that other european countries want to leave the eu and that could continue and maybe even spill over into the nato alliance? >> scotland may say, hey, we want to evolve from britain. that would be a huge political catastrophe for the united kingdom. seconddarily, people on the right in france say we need our own vote, a frex-it vote

dana bash, peter bergen, david gergen.linton's speech an hour or so ago and implied severe criticism of donald trump. never mentioned his name at all. he was not that reluctant. >> no. she talked about scapegoating in reference to his policy on muslims and his ban. but she didn't mention donald trump's name. this speech was all about hillary clinton. this speech was laying the blame for all of this basically at the feet of hillary clinton. he said hillary clinton supports policies that promote the growth of radical islam. and he said the days of deadly ignorance will end. he declared the end of political correctness. he said very strongly that, you know, you can't, you know, you can't have political correctness and attack the problem at the core. and, you know, is very clear to me that we saw today two completely different visions of what we have to do to stop these attacks in this country. and also, by the way, he had this reasoning which said that hillary clinton can never be a friend of the gay community if she lets in

i have a comment in my column by peter bergen and he's a friend and said saying islamic terrorism isrelated to islam is saying christianity is not related to christians and their view of yes ruse let me. for the president to say what he does, it reeks of political incorrectness which drives people to donald trump. every other world leader uses the term. we can all distinguish between the few terrorists who are radical islamists and the other law abiding, normal, peace-loving muslims. >> woodruff: what do you think? >> i think radical islam is defamation of a faith, whereas radical islamist, yes, rather than radical islamism. there is a difference. when you slip into the den congratulations of an entire faith which obviously is the position that donald trump has been comfortable with, an area he's been comfortable in, it is not only not in the national interest, it is dishonestÑi. >> woodruff: the president called it a political talking point, the insistence on trump's part he use that. >> i am not comfortable with "radical islam" for that reason, people don't become terrorist when th

political analyst gloria borger, david gregory, the host of "the david gregory show" podcast and peter bergen. our national security analyst. doesn't get more different than you heard these two presumptive presidential nominees outline their response to what happened in orlando. >> no, you know, we saw hillary clinton do as she's done before, her solutions. how she'll establish a task force but she did call trump dangerous, which we've also heard from her before. and what we heard from trump is the democrats don't know what they're doing. their s they're sitting on their hands. no progress against isis. standing behind his ban. his regional ban, not his religious ban, but regional ban. but they have completely different ways to handle this. >> hold on, guys. for a moment. there's a police news conference that's just beginning in orlando. the latest on the investigation into the terrorist attack at that pulse nightclub. let's listen in. >> orlando mayor buddy dyer. i'd like to thank all of my partners standing here with me today and many others who come from all over the nation to assist us in

i want to bring in evan perez and peter bergen.van, you're seeing the turkish police showing this picture of three individuals. what information are they trying to figure out? they're going door to door. >> they want to know what neighbors saw. whether they saw anyone else associating with these people. they believe there's other people who are helping. people who did some of the surveillance, some of the preparation work before this attack. they know the people were there for several weeks. who else was there? who might have helped build the suicide vests, the bombs? who might have supply any assistance before this attack took place? >> according to turkish officials, these attackers were from russia, uzbekistan and kyrgyzstan. what did that tell you? >> we have an increasing problem with time. in summer 2014, we're talking about isis taking territory. we're talking about isis surprising people in san bernardino and orlando. we're talking about foreigners, think foreigners in the potential from western, united states and returning

peter bergen has come up with the book just recently in which he posts another counterterrorism official says basically they are not just chasing 5000 day. they are chasing 10,000 threats a day. that means if that number is correct, dave chased down 20 million lives of which only 1000 have been led to much of anything at all. probably less than a thousand. it's a prodigious amount of effort. the question is it worth it overall. if the idea of going after every single tip, every of the very fact it. what we try to in the book is sort of a sense how bad the terrorism threat is, how significant it is to the united states. and what is the likelihood they could create mayhem. as mark will point out that there are breakeven analysis suggests that for the fbi's expenditures on counterterrorism to be justified, they would have to disrupt, foil, deter about one quite large attack, and times square every two months. so the question is, if that's the case, is it reasonable to expect the might of done that. they haven't done anything like that, but maybe the fbi and other government agencies were in

. >>> joining us now in "the situation room," our national security analyst peter bergen.ational security commentator, former house intelligence committee mike rogers, former fbi assistant director tom fuentes and counterterrorism analyst phil mudd, a former cia official. tom -- actually, hold on for a moment. i want to take a quick break. we're getting some more information. i'm going to get that information out and we'll take a quick break and be right back. my moderate to severe chronic plaque psoriasis made a simple trip to the grocery store anything but simple. so i had an important conversation with my dermatologist about humira. he explained that humira works inside my body to target and help block a specific source of inflammation that contributes to my symptoms. in clinical trials, most adults taking humira were clear or almost clear, and many saw 75% and even 90% clearance in just 4 months. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened; as have blood, l

lisa van susteren and peter bergen, his latest book, united states of jihad is about the threat of home us. former chairman of the house intelligence committee. we're getting new information just coming in. i want to take a quick break. we'll be right back. be the you who doesn't cover your moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. be the you who shows up in that dress. who hugs a friend. who is done with treatments that don't give you clearer skin. be the you who controls your psoriasis with stelara® just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and may increase your risk of infections and cancer. some serious infections require hospitalization. before treatment, get tested for tuberculosis. before starting stelara® tell your doctor if you think you have an infection or have symptoms such as: fever, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough. always tell your doctor if you have any signs of infection, have had cancer, if you develop any new skin growths or if anyone in your house needs or has recently received a vaccine. alert your doctor of new o

our cnn national security analyst peter bergen and his latest book, "the united states of jihad" thanks. tom, the wife, noor salman, is being questioned right now and the evidence going before a grand jury. do you believe she will be charged? >> i think she's a very important resource as long as she keeps talking. if they charge her, she'll probably stop almost immediately. but it will be very easy to bring an indictment against her. conviction is another matter and if all they have is information that was given by her and no one else, if they can't corroborate someone else saying that she was involved with him, saying that she was assisting him, they are going to have a hard time getting a conviction. >> she said she knew in general that he wanted to commit jihad but she didn't know specifically about the plot at the pulse nightclub. could she still be charged? >> she could still be charged but conviction is another matter and the other aspect she has going for her and the testimony of the first wife to assist her is that he beat her and she was scared to death of him. so she would kno

law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes, counter terrorism analyst phil mudd, and security analyst peter bergen of small hints about the guy, looking back. you're former assistant director of the fbi. no big flares if you will, but did the fbi drop the ball during the two separate months long investigation of the killer? >> they're closely looking at that, wolf, but the problem is all indications are that radicalization where he really goes over the edge, starts planning to do an attack really occurs in the last few weeks and months, when he gets the guns a week before the attack, the ammunition, tries to get body armor couple weeks before the attack. back in 2013, they don't have that. they investigate him, introduce undercovers, informants to him, and all of the surveillance effort, all of the effort that went into that, he hadn't crossed the line yet. the investigation revealed that. the second investigation in '14 was because of the other individual from the mosque that went to syria and blew himself up. >> knew each other. >> just didn't have enough to lock him up for what he did. >> what

lisa vansusteren, justice correspondent evan perez, tom fuentes, and national security analyst peter bergening about the wife, noor salman? >> in addition to text messages that came around 4:00 p.m., about two hours into the massacre, wolf, in addition to those texts he also -- she tried to reach out to him when she realized what was happening, when she learned there had been this attack at the pulse nightclub, she had been there with him. she realized that he might be involved. she frantically tried to make the calls, he did not answer. at the same time he's also posting on facebook, making comments about isis and pledging allegiance, declaring we are going to see attacks from isis in the coming weeks. you see a lot of activity he is doing while in the club in a standoff with authorities. >> the wife, second wife, noor salman apparently changed her story in various interviews with the fbi. i assume that's some sort of red flag if you were part of the investigatory team? >> the problem, wolf, is that everything she says will possibly be recanted later at a later time. her claim could be in

peter bergen, thanks to you, as well. that's it for me. our special coverage continues right now. >>> wolf, thank you so much. i'm brooke baldwin live here in orlando, florida. you are watching special breaking coverage of the terror attack inside the pulse nightclub. the scene of the deadliest mass shooting in american history. >> i'm anderson cooper outside the orlando regional medal center. 27 patients are still being treated. six in critical condition. you're about to hear a survivor tell his chilling account of what happened and president obama, hillary clinton hold two separate events with one target, donald trump and republican critics who play the fiery messages ahead. >> and we have just received word of an active investigation into exactly how much the shooter's wife knew about his murderous plan. we have that, also a major development today on the killer's motives. we are hearing reports that not only did he visit the pulse nightclub often but a law enforcement official says he cased out disney springs, that is on disney world p

. >> there is a piece on cnn.com from our peter bergen who points out some grim patterns. in the past 15 years has been carried out by american citizens or legal permanent residents operating either as lone wolves or in pairs. and they have no formal connections or training from terrorist organizations such as al qaeda or isis, he writes. so, again, with your experience, the real terror threat, is it homegrown mostly? >> yes. yes. and that is the new face of terrorism. what they're doing is creating this lone-wolf situation where they foist their ideas through the internet onto people who will swallow them and then create sick co-fants essentially in this country who will go out and attack. and it's not exclusive to the united states. we've seen that in belgium. we've seen that in england. this is the new face. >> let's talk about the added dimension within the u.s. which is easy or easier access to military-grade weapons. this man was able to get hold of legally a semi-automatic assault rifle, a handgun. to massacre so many people, he had the time, but he also must have h

i want to bring in cnn senior law enforcement analyst, tom fuentes and peter bergen. i want to start with you, tom. the fbi knew about this guy, right, they investigated him in 2013 and 2014. they interviewed him twice, put him on a terror watch list. they dispatched an informant to get close to him. they followed him around for ten months, and then they closed the case. so that sounds like they did a lot of investigating or does it sound to you like the fbi at some point dropped the ball? >> no, i've run cases just exactly like that. that type of investigation for ten months would probably require at least one full squad of agents almost full-time to do that. it is a very extensive amount of investigation. and the problem is that even though he had made inflammatory statements to coworkers, they couldn't find any indication, even after introducing an informant to him, that he actually was going to do something. he was mouthing off, and they know that, and he had intentions or bad thought, but they couldn't find anything to show that he was actually going to go operat