phillip mudd, thanks very much for joining us. >>> just ahead, how long will the u.s.-led air war against isis last? we are about to go behind the scenes and tell you what's going on. >>> also, going live to iraq, not far from the latest air strikes. much more of the breaking news coming up right here in at situation room. [ female announcer ] we help make secure financial tomorrows a reality for over 19 million people. [ mom ] with life insurance, we're not just insuring our lives... we're helping protect his. [ female announcer ] everyone has a moment when tomorrow becomes real. transamerica. transform tomorrow. transamerica. big day? ah, the usual. moved some new cars. hauled a bunch of steel. kept the supermarket shelves stocked. made sure everyone got their latest gadgets. what's up for the next shift? ah, nothing much. just keeping the lights on. (laugh) nice. doing the big things that move an economy. see you tomorrow, mac. see you tomorrow, sam. just another day at norfolk southern. you can't get any thbetter than that. trains. siemens trains are not your grand

phillip mudd. suggestion is that what you're doing right now is the opposite of what will help squash the idea. do you agree with that? and the notion that the numbers getting bigger -- isn't that because we wanted them to be small when we were saying they were a jv team and we now want them to be big because we're going to dedicate all the resources. what's your view? >> if you look at the campaign since 9/11, on 9/11 when we were sitting in the threat chair at the c.i.a., we didn't have a good sense of the adversary. we were on the back foot. al qaeda was on the offensive. if you look at the areas where al qaeda has been damaged, pakistan, somalia, north africa, yemen. in every one of those cases, u.s. military, intelligence, law enforcement, diplomacy, the same tools the president is talking about use against isis in syria, the tools that have been fairly successful elsewhere. measured problem, isis, they're not a huge problem, measured problem, measured response. in answer to your questions abo

to help us try to get through this, we want to bring in paul crookshank and phillip mudd., phil. why would you have the iraqis knowing about a plot that the u.s. is denying. what do you make 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 ir

joining us, phillip mudd, and retired lieutenant general mark hurtling and paul crookshank.t heard 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 civili

joining me are cnn national security analyst fran townsend and former fbi and cia senior official phillip muddin deborah's piece, a lot of these people seem to be self-motivated or lone wolves. there's been so much focus in the last couple of weeks about the idea of isis sending people over into the united states, but it seems like the bigger danger at least in the short-term is just people who are are ideologically motivated who maybe want to say they're part of isis but they're already here. >> no question, anderson, both are issues. but you're right in the near term, that's part of the purpose of these horrible beheading videos that get out, that someone who is an english speaker. that is part of it. part of it is the recruitment and the inspiration that these provide. we saw the american preacher in yemen who is now dead. his ser mons were widely dribted and often used -- they were cited by the fort hood shooter. >> nidal hasan tried to make contact with them. >> that's exactly right. >> you and i talked about this before. the state department officials were telling cnn the obama administr

and former fbi and cia senior official phillip mudd.sis on somebody who fought with isis and comes back. what worries me the most are these lone wolves that watch this stuff on the internet and thing i can be part of isis without actually going over there. >> that's exactly right. you know, when you look at this and you triage the threat, you look at the foreign fighters, some percentage of them, some high percentage thoechl will be killed on the battleful, some who are smarter, more capable may be reserved to commit attacks either coming back to the us or in europe against american interests, but it is the lone wolf. they're harder to identify. they're harder to stop and intercept before he commit an act. you really rely on local police, local communities to identify those who are behaving sort of in a way inconsistent with their normal patterns exhibiting behavior that's concerning. >> is it the loan wolves that worry you the most? >> yeah, i would say it's the guys who aren't connected to the heartbeat of isis. for a simple reason. t

. >> phillip mudd and christiane amanpour, thank you both very much.ch the whole interview with secretary of state john kerry. >> that's just one of the high profile interviews that we have here. christiane amanpour has been sitting down with leaders all over the place. her schedule is full after speaking with kerry and iraq's new prime minister in the coming d days she will interview emir from qatar. they will be seen on cnn. so many big interviews. she has her own website. >> she's christiane amanpour. >> the only person she doesn't have in the circle of influence is the president himself. that's to come i'm sure. but today president obama has a big agenda. he has to deliver a message to the world. the u.n. general assembly, it's just 36 hours after the first strikes in syria. has it made him stronger? will he be able to rally in a way he couldn't have before to get this true coalition to destroy isis? the president's spokesman josh ernest will join us next and give us what the message is from the white house. the stakes could not be higher. so many

lieutenant colonel and pentagon consultant bob mcginnis and former cia counterterrorism official phillip mudd. bob, let me ask you this first. when we say nato or talk about some sort of coalition, how do we make sure it isn't just the u.s. almost alone doing whatever needs to be done? >> well, martin, that's always tough and, of course, the president was in nato this week talking with our key allies lie the brits, and germans and managed to garner significant support. they've recognized the threat of isis and, of course, now secretaries hagel and kerry are on their way to the middle east trying to recruit arabs so that they can fight on the ground. so together with the nato allies as well as those from the region working together, i think we can put together a reasonable coalition, and it will fit the emerging strategy the president has put together. >> let's talk about that strategy, because we know this week we heard not only from president obama but also from vice president biden and from defense secretary chuck hagel on the threat of isis. let's listen at this first of all, please. >> we