steve clemens is washington editor at large for "the atlantic." he writes frequently about politics and foreign affair, is joining me now on the phone. steve, good morning to you. what can you tell us about this attack? >> well what i can tell you is i mean i came up from the, the basement train station up into brussels airport. and the departure hall yesterday just off the bombs. and was there to just sort of see on people's faces the fear, the terror they felt after what happened. i saw smoke, i saw broken glass. i can tell you that -- >> apparently we lost steve clemens. cities around the u.s. have stepped up security in response to the terror attacks in brussels, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams has more. >> in new york's times square, extra police swarm in with 50 officers deployed to the subway station there. on bridges and tunnels, more random checks of cars and trucks. on commuter train systems from los angeles to washington, a scramble to turn out a visible show of force. nationwide, fbi agents are stepping up surveillance of t

right now, litsz bring in steve clemens, walk editor at large large for the atlantic. steve was, affect the, in belgium on his way to the airport when those attacks took place. with the welcome, given all that we've learned these last few days since the attacks. what is the take away about the capabilities of isis? >> the take aways don't underestimate them. there is a hub and spoke modem isis has where they're able to export their terrorism to cities around the world and particularly in europe from rajka and other places and they have quite sophisticated terror networks that are thrive income hostile under surveillance environment. so it's something that people need to be serious and not overreact to. it's a major issue. i think it will continue to unfold. >> well, in terms of taking it seriously, they were themming the bbc, there were concerns about 5,000 that have gone to fight. some of whom who have come back to europe. in terms of a likelihood o another attack, can you put that in perspective? >> i ha it to say i. i almost see it as a probability, as a certainty, t

steve clemens had made phone contact with us. we lost it, and now we have regained it. steve, it's been a good while since we spoke. tell our viewers where you were and what happened. >> i was arriving at the brussels airport this morning, around 8:00. and just after the bombs had gone off. and as all of the action began to unfold, i was planning to fly to washington from brussels airport this morning. and was there to witness the smoke and see really a very fast operation of security officials at the airport begin to evacuate and take control. i never got up actually where the site was, but was near enough there, and then as i shared with you a short while ago, some of the morning talking to many people who were very near the bomb blast. one man i was speaking to kept breaking out into tears telling me about what he felt. he felt very lucky. but trying to be normal and breaking into tears with just the intensity of what happened to him. everyone i was with, there were people on buses i met later on the train, others of us were sent back onto the train, back to brussel n

. >> if you'll stand by for a moment, steve clemens of the atlantic is in brussels.l us what officials there are saying? >> reporter: we're at right now at the brussels forum and have the president of the european union and high-ranking european officials here. so the security services around us, i'm speaking to and were tells us about the raid both yesterday and today. this news that sa lad de salaam has been captured or wounded, i was told. and so news is filtering through and on a person-to person basis here on the forum. that's what i've heard. a major deal of course, we saw yesterday, a raid that had been done and right now while we're in belgium, there are major anti-terror raids going on as you have many of europe's most important public officials here meeting in this city. >> what they did confirm is that one of his fingerprints were in the apartments on tuesday. we do not have confirmation that he is part of this raid and captured, wounded, or is any way part of it, but what is happening is according to president hollande connected to the attacks in paris. w

on the phone we have steve clemens. i understand you were actually at brussels airport this morning? >> i didn't, i had just arrived and just come up from the train station into the big hall and i didn't hear the blast, it had happened just before i had come up. but i did see rush of people back out and how authorities took control very quickly, began forcing us to evacuate from back where we came. >> steve, how are you doing and second of all, what were people saying? did you overhear anything from people who had witnessed it, who had seen the devastation? >> first of all, thank you. i'm fine. definitely much better than some of the people that were injured and tragically killed. of course i bonded with a lot of the people that i was with and we were back going from the airport back to brussels north station which is the station that i had ring natured in. and had gone back. i tried to use my phone and interview a couple of the people and tweeted out what they saw because they were much closer when the bombing had stop

let's hear once again from steve clemens, a foreign policy analyst in the atlantic magazine. we started to speak to him earlier before going to the french president. he joins us from amsterdam after leaving brussels shortly following the blast. >> people knew immediately what had happened. it's just very interesting. there's a fragility here when the terror raised and saleh abdeslam was captured, so there's just an awareness here. from everywhere i saw. people were orderly, not screaming, but they knew the police and authorities were firm, and people complied. i feel like i was nowhere near as close as many others were, but given the frustration and given the fact that brussels is now, has bombs going off that are shutting basic transportation systems everywhere. all the public transport is essentially shut down except buses right now. that's scary to be in the middle of and you're trying to get out of town. i think it protects identity. it affect the way people see they are what it is to be european, what degree of openness, we're generally quite open societies. i think that

steve clemens in belgium and just speaking with local security officials there. there's questions about whether abdeslam is captured or injured and captured. any information from authorities in belgium? >> all i can say is that at the forum i'm at, the brussels forum where the president of the european union is here, u.s. trade representatives and jayne shaheen and it's chock a block with intelligence officials is that i happen to be earlier talking about the earlier raid and just the notion that brussels seemed to be, have such a high amount of folks that have been to syria and have a large number of people that have gone to syria and have come back and after the paris raid. so it was coincidental despite having had the tuesday raids and talking to them that in the radio communications between some of the security officials here responsible for protecting this conference site that it came in the media. so they were speaking and talking about this with each other here at this site which is about four kilometers, about two and a half miles from where the action is

right now, steve clemens, our friend and colleague and msnbc contribute for and editor at large for the atlantic on the phone from frankfurt, i believe, steve. but you were at the airport arriving at the airport today and leaving a conference in brussels just moments before the bombs went off or moments afterwards. i've heard you saying you saw the smoke. >> yeah, i saw the smoke. and had a sense of the fear of everyone that was leaving and runni running. they saw the holes in the top of the great hall that had been shattered. some people that said it was a sign that the bomb exploded upward in a way and shattered the very highest levels of that great hall. and oddly, that may have meant that it saved some, not didn't save lives but didn't kill as many people if it had exploded in a horizontal fashion, for whatever that's worth. but we're in the melee this morning and just basically saw belgium, where i've been the last few days, heightened up in a great deal of fear. i arrived as the abdeslam operations were going on with the policy officials in europe and saw security beefed up a litt

navy intelligence collector, and steve clemens, editor at large for "the atlantic" just outside the airportels arriving when the attacks took place and just made his way back to washington. thank so much to you, steve. malcolm, the whole question whether we should be surveying muslim neighborhoods and stepping our intelligence and doing a better job in helping europe the fact that hillary clinton is going make proposals in a couple of hours at stanford, what more should we be doing? what more should ufrp europe be doing. >> i've been training and lecturing to new york state's entire homeland security and intelligence officer community for law enforcement and local police. this proposal to do surveillance on american citizens, as if they were in a ghetto, the president made it very, very clear, not only do these, number one, not stand up to our values, this country's 239 years old, we have never done that on the scale apart from the civil war. we're not going to go to the gestapo and acting like the stazy. the program carried out in new york city was not surveillance of an entire community.

. >> steve clemens is a foreign policy analyst. >> people knew immediately what had happened. it was just very interesting. there's a fragility here that happens when there is a terror raid and saleh abdeslam was captured. so there's just an awareness here. from everywhere i saw, people were orderly, not screaming, but everyone knew that the police and authorities were firm and people complied. i feel like i was nowhere near as close as many others were, but given the frustration, given the fact that brussels is now, has bombs going off and they are shutting basic transportation systems everywhere. all the public transportation is shut down. that's scary to be in the middle of when you're trying to get out. people are seeing what it is to be european, what degree of openness, we're generally quite open societies. i think that there will be some introspection and some people will say, you know, terrorism and crime like this no matter what is something that criminal and intelligence officials can take on and saying this experiment of trying to become more of a melting pot has so

we have on the phone now steve clemens, he's an msnbc contributor. i understand that you were actually at brussels airport this morning. >> yes. come up the train stations in the basement had just come up into the big hall and i didn't hear the blast. it had happened just before i had come up. but i did see the smoke and i did see the rush of people back out and how the authorities sort of took control very quickly and began forcing us to evacuate the airport and go right back from where we came. >> first of all, how are you doing? and second of all, what were people saying? did you hear or overhear anything from people who had witnessed it? who had seen the devastation? >> yeah. i mean, first of all, thank you. i am fine. i'm definitely much better than some of the people that were injured and tragically killed today. when i was there, i of course bonded with a lot of the people that i was with and when we were to brussels north station which is the station that i had originated in and had gone back, i actually tried to use my phone and interviewed

. >> that was a survivor of yesterday's attack speaking with the "atlantic's" steve clemens in belgium when the terror was struck. five train rides and two flights later steve is back in the u.s. and he joins with us his firsthand reporting. plus, tom brokaw joins the table and we'll have results from last night's so-called western primaries and how they will affect the race for the white house. it's all straight ahead. belong. and to help you accelerate, we've created a new company. one totally focused on what's next for your business. accelerating innovation. accelerating next. hewlett packard enterprise. trolling for a gig with can't blame you. it's a drone you control with your brain, which controls your thumbs, which control this joystick. no, i'm actually over at the ge booth. we're creating the operating system for industry. it's called predix. it's gonna change the way the world works. ok, i'm telling my brain to tell the drone to get you a copy of my resume. umm, maybe keep your hands on the controller. look out!! ohhhhhhhhhh... you know what, i'm just gonna email it to you. y