. >>> we want to bring in right now fran townsend and phil mudd. fran, let me start with you. what are your impressions of what's going on tonight? >> well, look, i don't think it should be so surprising that we have arab allies actually dropping bombs. these are the same arab allies that have been imploring the administration since the speech in the rose garden about the red line to take action in syria. they offered to be part of a military coalition, part of military operations because when the president was talking about bombing syria over the red line. the fact they've come together now is really their way of sort of pushing the administration to keep that commitment. >> phil, we were just talking here about how this is a continuation. that's what the general was saying. of the war that we've been fighting against terrorists since 2003. but tonight feels different. >> it does feel different because we're looking at a terrorist organization in its resurgence. an organization unlike al qaeda in pakistan which is relatively focused on small groups of people trying to train p

. >> listen, i'm sorry to interrupt phil mudd.rson, details on the scope of these strikes right now. the spokesman for the pentagon tweeting now, admiral john kirby, that the air strikes are under way using a mix of fighters, bombers and tomahawk missiles and that this is not only the u.s. carrying out these air strikes but also partner nation forces, those countries not identified yet, but you'll remember in the run-up to these air strikes there was talk, one in particular, of one or more air nation that may take part in the air strikes. you also notice that france just in the last week conducted its first air strike inside of -- inside of iraq exclusively although france at the time saying that they would only carry out strikes in iraq. and reports in british newspapers overnight that britain had agreed to take part in air strike. we do not know who the partner nations who are taking part in the u.s. tonight, but we do know that it was more than one nation who has planes in the air now. as i just said, these strikes, a broad var

i want to bring karl penhaul back along with our counterterrorism analyst phil mudd. independent investigators at this point say they think they know where james foley's execution took place. that's the horrible video we saw 13 days ago in which stephen sotloff appeared. they say it's outside the town of raqaa, i could be saying it wrong, but es that outside the northern city of syria. do we think this was filmed in the same place? >> i suspect it was because my guess is the organization is trying to limit the footprint they show to anybody studying the video. they know western security services look at this. they know there might be identifying characteristics they can't fully understand but they believe we can exploit. my guess is they're trying to find as nondescript a place as we can, limit our exposure by hooding the person that's doing this, by creating a backdrop that's difficult to identify. let's do it in the same place so we don't give them too much to look at. >> if it's in the same place, what does that say about fact that no one in the united states or ot

. >> phil mudd, paul, thank you so much. while we wait to hear a u.s. strategy for battling isis in irsyria, the u.s. military has been unloading on isis targets for weeks. . is it working? and president obama is leaving out of the country on a trip a few moments ago without commenting on the sotloff video. we'll ask a senator from the president's own party, what should the president say when he lands? way to "plus" our accounting firm's mobile plan. and "minus" our expenses. perfect timing. we're offering our best-ever pricing on mobile plans for business. run the numbers on that. well, unlimited talk and text, and ten gigs of data for the five of you would be... one-seventy-five a month. good calculating kyle. good job kyle. you just made partner. our best-ever pricing on mobile share value plans for business. now with a $100 bill credit for every business line you add. who would have thought masterthree cheese lasagna would go with chocolate cake and ceviche? the same guy who thought that small caps and bond funds would go with a merging markets. it'

. >> i talked to phil mudd last night who spent time with the cia, tracking these guys.lot of times the group you're talking about, the last group is the greatest concern. and often people who have an emotional turmoil going on in their own lives. and they may not have expressed an interest in these groups but because of what is going on inside, they basically link up or say that they're acting out of support for isis. even though in fact they actually have no direct connection with a group like that. >> right, and there were cases like that. just last week a man in rochester was arrested for allegedly providing support to isis. he had no direct connection to the group. and we've heard people within the fbi saying it could be somebody in their pajamas in their parents' basement operating on line. it doesn't take long to go from planning to acting out the attack. that is what causes concern here. >> thank you, pamela brown here, joining me now, and joining me now, a former member of an islamist group. great to have you on. i kept thinking about you today as president obam

also with us, former cia counterterrorism official phil m mudd. ven't they been able to find him. >> sfwr my first guess is they haven't really confirmed who he is yet. but let me give you a different answer. this guy is a potential gold mine. i'm sort of sitting on the edge of my chair here remembering what i used to do. when you get the name of somebody, he's already irrelevant in a sense. he'll coulddie out in syria. but what he's signaling you is information about where he potentially got money to travel, who gave him documents, who were his friends. what i always worried about in the business, what do we not though about potential networks that are out there. and if they have a name that they have confirmed, they are potentially building out the network around this guy to determine if there is a route extremists are travel to ing to syria that we don't know about. >> and that's a convincing case. obviously 94% of americans are a waiver the beheading videos before because they were so barbaric. that changed the tide here.befo barbaric. that cha

i agree with phil mudd.or a garden variety psychopath who has these tendencies and then saw the videos that we've seen from isis and heard about the attempt bead headings like in australia, their case and the recent beheading in algeria, so we don't know but it's very, very possible. especially when we hear reports from witnesses and employees at the company that he was trying to convert other employees to islam. the fbi is going to have to, in addition to his social media pages, check e-mail, interview all other colleagues, friends, neighbors, people who have known him over the years to see if this is the possibility that he converted and suddenly decided that he was going to do this for the as you of isis. >> yeah, we know that he is in the hospital in sedation, in stable condition. but once he awakens, they'll be questioning him. what leeway do they have, tom, to question him when he's in the hospital, in some sort of condition. >> well, the problem, in the hospital like that, they're not going to be able

correspondent evan perez, cnn law enforcement analyst and former fbi assistant director tom fuentes and phil mudd. i mappingled my read there. let's get the reporting straight for us, okay? who thinks there is a threat? who thinks there is not? >> well, chris, it is very confusing. the iraqi prime minister said that they have intelligence developed locally that there was this plot to attack the subways in france and in the united states. now all day yesterday i made a dozen calls and even this morning i'm hearing from officials that there is no known plot against subways in the united states. now, given that obviously, you recall the 2004 madrid train bombings, 2005 bombings in london and thork is alwaysnew y always a top target for terrorists. u.s. officials say there is something they always keep in mind and they're always worried there might be these types of attacks and so you saw new york raise, add some more security to the subway stations, and that's their response today, simply we're going to keep watching this, but there's nothing, nothing indicating a plot. >> philip mudd, why would the

mudd. this is all very confusing, phil. why would you have the iraqis knowing about a plot that the u.s.ke of this? >> this smells. if you can figure this out, you're a better counterterrorism analyst than i am. i've got two problems with them. if you're a security service and you get a threat to the united states, you know what you do? you walk into your counterpart and you say here's the threat, and here's how we're going to validate it or wash it off the table. you do not front it publicly in new york city. the way this is done makes no sense. second and finally, the timing is really silly. you show up in new york city for a u.n. conference to talk about the seriousness of the threat in iraq. you're trying to persuade partners to do more. all of a sudden you front a plot that has to do with attacks in europe and the united states? this smells to high heaven to me. i don't get it. >> what do you think, paul, fishy to you? >> this information seems to come from captured isis fighters in iraq that the iraqi government has captured and interrogated. these interrogations are notorious for

joining us, phillip mudd, and retired lieutenant general mark hurtling and paul crookshank. philrd arwa's report. these isis guys, you have to take what they're saying with a grain of salt, they're saying these air strikes are not having much of an impact because they moved their equipment, they hid their top commanders. they knew what was coming and they went into heavily populated civilian areas. what do you make of this in >> this underscores the importance of the u.s. mission. when you look at the degradation of al qaeda in pakistan and afghanistan, we're 13 years into that. but that took years. i remember sitting in the chair four years after 9/11 wondering how much damage we had done to the al qaeda infrastructure. what we're seeing here is an embedded terrorist organization taking advantage of civilians. but if we don't stick around for months or years, they will succeed in avoiding us. >> what do you make of what these two isis terrorists told arwa? >> this is consistent with a whole stream of reporting coming out of syria, that isis has embedded fighters into civilian ar

phil, has articulated, instead of being a success, has been an unmitigated disaster he we now have a much more profound -- >> nonsense. >> a much more widespread, deeper, more complicated threat on our hands. >> phillip mudds nonsense. why nonsense, phillip? >> look at every one of the areas where we went in against this adversary without using u.s. force. al shabaab and somalia, heavily damaged. al qaeda on the arabian peninsula, less of a threat than they were two years ago. >> they never were a threat. >> they had a suicide bombers. >> the heart and soul of this is in the middle of the middle east, the goal to take over mecca and medina, which isis wants to do, that's why they can galvanize support. that's why what we're doing feeds right into their strategy. >> what's the alternative, hilary? or reza? >> hilary is making an argument that's been made before on a number of occasions. the problem with that argument is we have no intention of invading or occupying any country. secondly, let's not forget isis is profoundly unpopular. nobody likes isis. >> that is not true. that is not true. there's a saudi -- >> please allow me to finish. >> hilary, don't be part of the problem. be part of the solution, le