if they're near tourist areas or taking public transportation. it doesn't go into specifics. britain also told its citizens to be on alert when traveling in france and germany, france ask ge -- and germany especially. for a better understanding of the plot and how it's being dealt with, we have terrorist analyst and investigate or paul cruickshank. he joins us from hamburg. where do you think the attackers are now? >> we really don't know where they are right now. it's very difficult to tell whether this attack was imminent or whether it was just in the planning stages. the german authorities we're talking to over the last couple days are saying they consider this plot was not imminent, but it is not entirely clear whether western security services have complete control over this plot at this stage, don. >> what are they doing specifically? if you can talk about tracking these people down.