u.s. intelligence officials are claiming edward snowden stole internal nsa documents by using cheap and widely available software that still went mostly undetected. "the new york times," investigators looking into the case a snowden deployed a simple web crawler that automatically downloaded some 1.7 million files. in a statement, snowden responded -- in the latest of snowden's disclosures, new information has emerged on the nsa's secret role

u.s. intelligence operations and to some degree on u.s. appraisals of what was going on in europe. let me say that a different way if you have not seen intelligence officials who have who have devoted large parts of their life to german intelligence and then later to hitler styled nazi intelligence they have particular point of view as to how they see the world and when the united states are in good relies largely on such people for their information about those who they say of the enemy which in this context of the soviets i think you get a highly. warped picture about what is happening in on the on the other side of the of the atlantic. so. particularly in the early cold war these people had significant effects on american intelligence we were dependent or the americans were dependent upon what they had to say was going on in germany at that time meanwhile that type of thing it feeds on itself in this way is that for example intelligence agencies don't just process intelligence they don't just kind of sit behind desks and act as scholars know these are action agencies so they do c

u.s. intelligence had photographed zein isa attending a meeting with known terrorists in mexico. all had ties to the palestine liberation organization and international terror broker, abu nidal. >> abu nidal means father of war. abu, father. nidal, war. and he was one of most vicious terrorists around. he's responsible for simultaneous bombings in vienna, rome. >> over a two-year period, zein isa traveled overseas 14 times to caracas, athens, london, israel, zurich, and madrid. >> the fbi, among others, were maintaining a watch on middle eastern families, some that might presumably have connections with terrorist cells. the isas were maintaining what might have been a safehouse for one of the middle eastern terrorist groups. >> so the isa family were well known to u.s. intelligence. >> as a federal undercover said to me, these people are as organized as the mafia, not nearly as lovable. >> investigators wondered if there was more to the story of tina's death than her mother and father were saying. >>> tina's parents insisted her [ thunder crashes ] [ female announcer ] some peopl

u.s. intelligence. reports from berlin. the german chancellor is interested in effectively building up a european communication network to avoid e-mails and other data passing through the united states now it's not a separate internet so to speak but more of a way to prevent e-mails and other data from being harvested by u.s. intelligence agencies now this is just in my deah at this point and it is one that merkel will certainly be discussing with the french president when they meet in france on wednesday merkel said also this weekend that she basically just approved of companies like google and facebook basing their operations in countries with low levels of data protection while being active in countries such as germany where data protection is quite high this is been a very sensitive issue here in germany mr merkel has faced sharp criticism in the wake of the n.s.a. spy scandal for basically failing to take decisive action according to her critics to protect german users from surveillance of internet telecommunications t

u.s. intelligence officials say he is "the best bomb maker we know of in any al- qaeda affiliate. " may leave he is operating in yemen. he designed the underbear bomb which failed to detonate at the last minute in a flight in 2009. a year later, printer cartridge bombs got onto planes bound for the u.s. demonstrations of those types of bombs showed they could have brought down airliners. while those plots were foiled, in each case, he displayed a frightening ability to get bombs past airport security. and experts say he has learned from his mistakes. >> this is a very cold customer. this is a guy that recruited a brother to do a suicide attack. >> reporter: his brother was killed. this video thoughs the brothers embracing just before the mission. >> u.s. intelligence officials are looking for him, but even if this guy is taken out, he is training other recruits to make these bombs. >>> a cement truck hit and killed a woman who was apparently jaywalking in the pacific heights neighborhood. the driver said he had gone through filmore and california street. the woman stepped in front of the truc

u.s. intelligence began spying on german leaders long before chancellor angela merkel took office the report says that the u.s. began spying on chancellor merkel's predecessor gerhard schroeder in two thousand and two because of his opposition to the u.s. led invasion of iraq this comes of course just months after anna say weeks indicated mogul's cell phone had been targeted spoke with obama by phone just last july about allegations that the u.s. was conducting surveillance on its european allies and in that call she made it clear that if the information about the u.s. having monitored her phone were true it would be completely unacceptable now in response to the revelation chancellor schroeder had this to say quote back then i would never have entertained the idea that the u.s. secret services would be listening in on me but now this comes as no surprise. and now we turn to two different hearings that took place in congress this morning the house intelligence committee heard testimony from the director of national intelligence james clapper on his annual worldwide threat report this follows

u.s. intelligence officials are looking for al-asiri but they say even if he is taken out, he is training other recruits to make those bombs. >>> an air force rocket is on an important mission to outer space. it latched from cape canaveral last night car -- it launched from cape canaveral last night. it is for military and commercial customers worldwide. >>> let's take a share of hand here. who is ready for the weekend? >> not me. i have to work right through. >> we have great weather coming up. we have major changes in the not too distant future so today starting out mostly clear a little chilly early on as high pressure builds overhead. we have seen an offshore wind and so, yeah, we have clear skies all around the bay this morning and it looks like it's going to stay that way all day long. plenty of sunshine going to crank these temperatures up very mild into the afternoon. and then a sunny dry weekend for most maybe just a couple patches of fogs along the coastline over the weekend. a dominant ridge of high pressure now building into the bay area. but not going to be a permanent ridge.

u.s. intelligence put commercial airlines on notice. terrorists may try to use toothpaste containers to smuggle explosives onboard planes. >> i believe that's very specific and credible information. >> reporter: sources tell abc news, the new potential threat is not necessarily directed at americans. but does pertain to all international flights into russia during the games, including a small number from the u.s. since 9/11, terrorists have repeatedly come up with creative attempts to blow up commercial and cargo planes. there was the shoe bomber, the liquid explosives plot, the underwear bomber and the plan to smuggle a bomb in a printer cartridge. while it's not yet clear what type of explosives could be used in a toothpaste plot, it's clear that even small bombs can be extraordinarily dangerous. a military bomb technician tells us tonight, that certain explosives in gel or paste form can be easily molded into a powerful bomb, fitting into a toothpaste tube. here's what the liquid explosive bomb could have done. the shoe bomb's potent

u.s. intelligence put commercial airlines on notice. terrorists may try to use toothpaste containers to smuggle explives onboard planes.

u.s. intelligence community it says quote virtual currencies most notably but cohen are fast becoming a medium for criminal financial transfers through online payment companies james clapper testified in front of the senate intelligence committee on wednesday and declined was not mentioned once during the hearing i was joined us earlier by jared khanna the coin entrepreneur and founder of a new multimedia company money attack dot com i asked him if he thinks that going to really poses a threat to u.s. intelligence i think is a bit of an overstatement i prefer to use the word concern and i think we should also apply it to all digital currency in general. in sorry in general. when you look at digital currency as you have things like liberty reserve riffle and bitcoin as well and a lot of people just lump them together liberty reserve is essentially anonymous pay-pal and it's centralized and it's one company behind it it's actually actively working to launder money and prevent information identity escaping from it whereas bitcoin everything is publicly recorded. right and because it does have a b

u.s. intelligence put commercial airlines on notice.othpaste containers to smuggle explosives on board planes. >> i believe it is specific credible information. >> the new potential threat isn't necessarily directed as americans but does pertain to all international flight into russia during the games, including a small number through the u.s. terrorists have come up with creative attempt to blow up kmoer shl and cargo planes. there was the shoe bomber, liquid explosives plot,under are wear bomber an plan to smuggle a become in a printer cartridge. while it is not yet clear what type of explosives might have been used in a toothpaste plot, it is true small bombs can be dangerous. a bomb technician tells us the certain explosives in gel or paste form can be easily molded into a powerful bomb, fit nothing a toothpaste tube. here is what liquid explosive could have been. shoe bombers potential damage. that's what underwear bomb would have done. russians have been on edge due it a series of islamic militant. at a congressional hearing, u.s.

u.s. intelligence community since its foundations in 1947. the aim in 1947 of course was to create a central intelligence agency that would and this sounds familiar to any of you who have studied 9/11, but to make sure the pockets of the u.s. government did not have information that is shared with other constituencies of government might foretell of a particular attack or national security threat on the united states. the national security act of course created the national security council and the defense department but the creation of the central intelligence agency really laid the foundations for the modern american intelligence community. the faults of the national security act of 1947 was that it seemed to give the central intelligence agency many responsibilities for coordinating the variety of intelligence entities across the federal government but not enough authority to do the job. so let me break that down for you if i could. the cia is of course famous for two missions you are all very familiar with, covert action in the recruitment

u.s. intelligence. can the u.s. really trust putin right now?ey can trust him certainly in the sense that he has to make sure that the games go off smoothly. it's very unlikely that he's going to do something that will in some way magnify -- the danger is that they won't ask for help when they could actually use a lot of the help, particularly the sophisticated technological help that u.s. intelligence agencies would provide. >> here's a clip from a russian official. this is the deputy prime minister, dmitry kozak. listen to what he says about sochi right now. >> translator: i would like to repeat once again that the level of security in the city of sochi is not worse than new york, london, washington, or boston. >> all right. those cities are, of course, new york, london, washington, or boston, they were the scene of terrorist attacks, as all of us know. do you think he was deliberately mentioning those cities or just random on his part? >> i think the point he was trying to make is that they have not created that kind of police state in sochi

u.s. intelligence sources and methods and trade craft. in the intelligence community much, much harder. >> one of the most damaging, a detailed map of the world wide internet fiber infrastructure which shows most internet traffic goes through the u.s. this has made terror suspects much more surveillance-conscience and therefore harder to track. a terrorist communicating between yemen and pakistan may not know the e-mail is likely to go through servers and are less likely to communicate that way. >> learning lessons. >>> a life or death debate unfolding. the issue a possible drone strike on american citizen tied to al qaeda. let's go to barbara starr working the story for us. what is the latest on the u.s. targeting of an american involved overseas? >> reporter: u.s. intelligence has this person under surveillance in pakistan. that is where this american citizen is said to be located. one of the key questions we don't know the answer to yet, what is the imminent threat he poses? is it a threat to the u.s. homeland? is he is a threat to u.s

u.s. intelligence saying terrorists may be trying to smuggle explosives into russia in tubes of toothpaste. we're tracking every angle of the olympics. you can see all of the opening ceremony action here on nbc 4. it starts at 7:30 this evening. plus a recap of the action on news 4 tonight at 11:00. >>> right now, the president on his way to signing the farm bill after months of debate. the new initiative he's pushing along with the legislation to get more products made in america. >>> and the new winter weather warning that has leaders in atlanta making it another apology. >>> and tomorrow's snow will keep you inside all weekend. tom is back to break down when the system will clear out of >>> virginia republicans are looking into one of the governor's recent appointees. republicans believe he sold the chairmanship of the alcoholic beverage control board to long time gop supporter boyd marcus. republicans requested an investigation into the appointment, but that request was turned down by the attorney general. this comes after a report claiming marcus was made $140,000 for work on mccullou

u.s. intelligence pentagon willthe have to make changes because of the leaks from edward snowden. the pentagon must assume snowden stole every document he had access to. he is believed to have downloaded nearly 2 million documents before fleeing the country. >> investigations centering on a program that rewarded national guardsman for signing up new recruits. army investigators say the guardsman were giving bonuses of $1200 even when they had no role in the recruiting process. 850 of the assistance are under an investigation. it cost $29 million. cheatedsenior sailors on nuclear reactor test. they were a qualifier for reactors on submarines. much of theon is to air force investigation into air force officers accused of cheating on tests. this does not involve nuclear weapons. >> a federal grand jury has launched a criminal investigation into last month's criminal spill -- chemical spill. water isn'tfear the safe. today, at a senate hearing, they compare the situation to a patient battling cancer. >> the cancer goes into remission. does that mean it is gone? no. you wake up thinkin

u.s. intelligence agencies have been focusing on.s are trying to find a new way to do this. they believe they are. here's a case where, out of an abundance of caution, they're sharing this information as widely as possible. doesn't mean they know a group has this capability now or will use it now, but it does mean that they know they're trying this kind of thing. they want to be careful. >> is there any indication that it's linked, the timing the of it, to sochi? >> there's no indication of that. as i mentioned we had this toothpaste bombing. that was linked specifically to this. this is linked only to the intelligence that they're working on new designs. no intelligence that they have a particular target in mind or date in flight. >> we're talking about flights originating overseas and coming to the u.s. >> that's where the passengers may notice additional measures. those swabs they take to look for explosives residue on your person or baggage. >> jim sciutto, thanks very much. >>> let's get to the other breaking story we're followi

u.s. intelligence collection have obviously caused some tensions with our european allies. have our european allies ever collected intelligence against business people or those of other allied nations? >> they have. i could go into more detail on that in a classified session. >> that is fine. russia announced that it would extend edward snowden's asylum and not force him to leave their country. do you believe the russians have gained access to the documents that edward snowden stole which obviously -- many of which have not been released publicly, fortunately? >> this might be last -- best left to our classified session. >> that is fine. thank you. >> thank you very much. the me start by saying that the men and women of america's intelligence agencies are overwhelmingly dedicated confessionals and they deserve to have leadership that is trusted by the american people. unfortunately, that trust has been seriously undermined by senior officials' reckless reliance on secret interpretation is -- interpretations of the law. the statements did not protect sources and methods that

u.s. uses on citizens of other nations around the world its military operations or intelligence operationsnd upcoming home to the u.s. as well. we believe what we're doing here is public service journalism and that the american people have a right to know what kind of technology their government is developing that could potentially be used on them. but also when innocent people are killed in these operations, it impacts american national security as well and ultimately undermines our safety because we are creating more new enemies than we are killing terrorists at this point in what has been called the so-called war on terror. brandon bryant is a very important figure right now in this discussion. he spent years as what he called a stick monkey for the u.s. air force. he was a drone sensor operator and was part of the -- over 1500 kill operations with his unit around the world when he worked on the drone program. he also was working with the joint special operations command in the operation to target an american citizen and were all awlaki who ended up becoming famous for his sermon denoun

u.s. intelligence agencies now this is just an idea at this point and it is one that merkel will certainly be discussing with the french president when they meet in france on wednesday. also this weekend that she basically just approved of companies like google and facebook basing their operations in countries with low levels of data protection while being active in countries such as germany where data protection is quite high this is been a very sensitive issue here in germany mr merkel has faced sharp criticism in the wake of the n.s.a. spy scandal for basically failing to take decisive action according to her critics to protect german users from surveillance of internet telecommunications traffic that's alleged to have been conducted by u.s. and british intelligence services it's also of course a personal issue for her to some extent remember that miss merkel's cell phone was reportedly monitored but this idea of mine traffic effectively bypassing the united states isn't unique to europe in fact brazil along with several international partners is also currently in the process of trying

u.s. intelligence warning airlines of a new terror threat, toothpaste bombs. the games are two days away and officials say terrorists could try to hide explosives inside of toothpastes or cosmetic tubes. you have that sort of not totally a liquid but a soft substance. evan perez is following the story. evan, obviously it's incredibly specific. you've been working your sources. how serious is the threat? >> reporter: erin, it's very specific and it's very serious threat. this is not every day you hear from the homeland security department asking airlines to be on the lookout for possible explosives in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes or containers. obviously for years we've been putting our toiletries in small containers to get on airplanes. but recently in russia, they decided to ban all carry-on liquids before all flights going down inside russia. what has happened today is the homeland security department says this could be an issue so they've asked the airlines to be on the lookout for it, erin. >> to your point, we talked about liquids. i'm thinking people thi

u.s. intelligence officials say terror groups have been chatting lately about possible new designs for a shoe bomb. they're warning airlines with international flights now sphru. to europe to be vigilant. the department of homeland security says at this point there is no specific threat. >>> new details about a top official on the bay bridge project. caltrans chief deputy director richard land planned to retire in early april. land was blasted for failing to tell local transportation officials about problems on the new bridge. >>> fair warning. here's the spoil are alert for the olympic ladies figure skating competition coming up later tonight. just this morning bay area polina ed must notes took to the ice for the free skate competition and locked in at number nine. the 15-year-old was 7th are a a short program yesterday. russia's skater took first. no u.s. skaters medalled in today's competition. >>> the meat is potentially bad for you. there is a recall on it. it's still on store shelves in the bay area. what you should be checking next time go grocery shopping. >> the days of dropped phon

u.s. intelligence from a former andressional, white house, national intelligence official. he spoke to the world affairs council about intelligence threats, cyber terrorism, and edward snowden. this is a little more than an hour. >> this is the standard list you do of accomplishments of a man and i have to recite them but i will go really fast. he was a white house fellow and he had the experience of working with the national security council with such deadheads as with thesinger -- general's name? general brent stone. a few minor people like that. he had three major positions in the senate including being the administrative assistant chief , international policy advisor to chris dodd. and a stint with the robert byrd, one of the great characters of american politics. there are few companies he did not touch. i'm sorry. power that he moved their headquarters from texas to greenwich, which was quite amazing. he was assistant dean of the fletcher school of law and policy and director of communications for the number in position or place intelligence in the united states of am

u.s. intelligence officials tell cnn he is the best bomb maker in any al qaeda affiliate. they believe he is working in the shadows, working with al qaeda in arabian peninsula, they say he designed the underwear bomb that failed to detonate at the last minute on a detroit bound plane in 2009. and it was his printer cartridge bombs which the following year got onto cargo planes bound for the u.s. demonstrations of those types of bombs showed they could have brought down airliners. while those plots were foiled, in each case, he displayed a fright ening ability to get bombs past airport security and experts say he learned from mistakes. how determined is he to kill americans and their allies? >> this is a cold customer. this is a guy that recruited a brother to do a suicide attack, using an underwear bomb to kill a leading saudi prince. >> reporter: the counter terror chief survived that 2009 attack, but his brother was killed. this video shows them embracing just before the mission. u.s. intelligence officials are hunting for him. >> even if he is taken out, he is now train

u.s. intelligence officials about this. they initially weren't aware of this threat. they say they were taken by surprise when it was first issued. but after having looked into it, they say there is some -- some smoke there. there is something to be concerned about, but on a scale of 1 to 10, they did not put it at a very high priority. chuck? >> thank you, richard. constant -- probably the best way to describe it, a yellow threat here. we're dipping in here, this is live now. we expect to hear from the president in about, we think, a minute or two. this is, of course, an annual event at the hilton, this year. addressing the bipartisan group of political and religious leaders, and we will, of course, bring you his remarks live. they're always a little more interesting than people might expect, the president gets a little introspective, usually, in these remarks, so it will be very interesting to listen to. you'll want to tune in. let's take a quick break. aiken for a win. after we hear from the president, we'll hear from clay aiken, the "american idol" runner-up and n

u.s. intelligence and airlift support. four, trade ties, as part of the e.u., france is negotiating with u.s. on an e.u.-u.s. trans-atlantic trade deal. if this deal were to some to fruition it could establish the largest free trade zone in the world. as the president of the european commission tells us, calling it a quote unquote, game changer. while the french president was in town he visited montselly, home of thomas jefferson. on tuesday night he received the royal treatment at a state dinner in his honor. france's president came stag to the event as he was without his longtime partner and without his latest squeeze. question, what is driving this reproachment between france and the united states? >> both of them want to deal in foreign policy and obama because he's pretty much blocked here in washington, d.c., but i will say, this hollande is 20% popularity, unemployment is over 10% in france. he is really losing the battle against germany for preem innocence. the european union is in very serious trouble. this may the

u.s. intelligence officials say terror groups have been chatting lately about possible new designs. warning airlines with international flights inbound to the u.s. to be watchful. the department of homeland security says at this point, there's no specific threat or known plot. military officials say u.s. aircraft accidentally dropped a bomb on a u.s. outpost in afghanistan. joe vasquez shows us the 500 pound mistake. >> september 2012 in eastern afghanistan. >> there it is. american aircraft were supposed to be bombing the taliban. instead, the camera attached to a soldier's helmet captures the explosion at ground level as the american, 500 pound bomb, blows up right next to the barracks of an american military outpotion. >> this was a major mistake. the way targeting words, you have to get the cured that nights right. >> air crew had the wrong cured that night. that's according to a military. the troops rushed through the camp to make sure everybody is okay. >> are you guys all right? you guys good? >> yeah, we're good, we're good. we are straight. >> yeah, they're good. >> no casua