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20, 50 pound bags of ammonium nitrate covered with a tarp. he headed to the federal reserve bank downtown in new york, with a undercover agent with him. they parked out front under the watchful eye of the fbi. went to a room nearby at the millennium hotel where the suspect allegedly record ad video where he said, quote we will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom and then he tried to set off the bomb with his cell phone. >> law enforcement is vigilant. certainly we understand the public can become complacent. we had no successful attack here in levens years but law enforcement can't be. i want to certainly congratulate the fbi and the joint terrorism task force for good work in this case. we have to be vigilant and i can assure you, that we're going to remain vigilant. >> reporter: this suspect spent one semester at southeast missouri stateside studying sigher security. tried to recruit people on facebook but wound up with a fbi agent instead. bill: he was in court. what happened? >> reporter: he was in federal court in brooklyn. he was soft-spoken. you could barry hear him when he was answering the judge's questions. he was in the clothes he was arrested in, dark brown jeans and sneakers. he was arraigned on charge of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and providing material support to al qaeda. he did not enter a plea. he is held in the metropolitan center in brooklyn. there is not a date set for his indictment. if this thousand pound gone off outside the federal reserve bank it could have done significant damage to the bank and up and down these streets a lot of windows could have been blown out. hundreds of people could have been killed or injured. the bomb was never able to go off. they made sure of that. this guy faces life behind bars. bill: rick leventhal, lower manhattan. a bit of a context since 9/11, more than 50 terror plots against the u.s. have been thwarted, one of every four terror plots involved new york city as its target. martha: back to politics now. governor romney continuing his surge in the polls, expanding his lead mopping likely voters in a key national poll this morning. let's take a look at the gallup daily tracking poll which finds the republican presidential nominee leading president obama by six poiptsd, 51-45. the governor's lead is well outside the poll's margin of error which is two%. fox news contributor karl rove had this to say. >> this is the first time that romney has hit 50% in the gallup likely voter poll and, the president has never hit 50% in the likely voter poll. and no candidate who has led in mid-october with 50% or nor in the likely voter poll has ever gone on to lose. martha: keep this in mind, this poll was taken before tuesday's presidential debate. we'll have to see if those numbers tighten or change a bit based on people's reaction to that. bill: a lot of times folks tell us give us three days. three days of polling to get an accurate figure. that is friday afternoon at least probably into saturday and sunday and we have next debate monday night. martha: new polls coming out in next couple days. bill: key states. martha: florida, ohio. bill: virginia also. we should have that friday afternoon. martha: get those end of the week to see what the fox news polls have to say. meantime women voters are a strengthening group in the polls for governor mitt romney. but governor romney getting online ridicule saying he got quote binders full of women when he asked for more female applicants in high level. supporters say his insistence finding fee mall staffers and led to women prominently in the statehouse when he was governor of massachusetts. he says the obama administration is the one that failed women in his opinion. here is that. >> why is it there are 3.6 million more women in poverty today when the president took office? this president has failed america's women. they have suffered in terms of getting jobs. they have suffered in terms of falling into poverty. this is presidency that has not helped america's women. martha: so next hour we will speak with a woman who served as the lieutenant governor of massachusetts under mitt romney and see what she has to say about the binders full of women. bill: how about that? some early voting now, martha continuing to be a storyline in race for the white house. many folks taking advantage of that in the state of nebraska. three largest counties there already seen more early voting in person and by mail than in 2008. nebraska not alone. there is early voting in nearly two dozen states from maine all the way to california. early turnout has some counties predicting record breaking numbers for this year? could be. we'll see. martha: could be a factor. how about this factor. a big jump in the weekly jobless numbers. 19 days before the election, the number of americans seeking unemployment benefits lept by 46,000 last week to 388,000. that's the highest number we have seen in four months. stuart varney is anchor of "varney & company" on the fox business network. so, stuart, what do you make of this number today? >> may i start with last week please? martha: yeah. >> last week was the big shock, a very convenient, politically convenient drop of 30,000. that was last week. a sudden drop becausep apparently one big state didn't report their new jobless claims. the president took advantage of that very convenient political decline, going out and saying the economy is headed in the right direction. fast forward to today. a complete reversal. we now have a new number. 388,000 people. that's a very large number. that is the number of people that file first time jobless claims, highest in four months and up 46,000 from last week. that means the employment picture has turned dismal all over again and the president will be hard-put to say the economy's headed in the right direction with a number of people filing jobless claims is going straight up. martha: stuart, we'll get one more monthly look at the overall unemployment rate before this election. >> and that too will be very interesting, because the last monthly employment report also showed a big drop in the unemployment rate and a big jump in the number of people finding work. will that be reversed on the friday right before the tuesday vote in the election? we've got to way and see. martha: we've got to wait and see. thank you so much, stuart varney from fbn. since december of 2007, let's take a look at some of these jobs numbers in context. the weekly claims have stayed above 300,000. they spiked back in early 2009 which you can see on this chart. economist say weekly claims have to consistently fall below the 375,000 mark shown by the yellow line there to indicate that the job market is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate when the monthly numbers come out. in recent weeks, weekly jobless claims dipped below that line but this report shows them headed in the other direction. they have been hovering in some pretty tough territory over the last several months. bill: the jobs report too though is bad enough for recent college grads looking for work. but on top of that now another report shows those same people are burned by a growing load of debt and a lot of it. at least two third of the nation's graduates in 2011, finished school with student loans to pay off and the amount is increasing. it is on the rise. average debt reaching $26,600, up about 5% from the year before. just yesterday the president had a big event in athens, ohio, rural part of the state, ohio university is there. ed henry reports the president had about 12 to 14,000 turn out. which is a big crowd anywhere you go in this country. but you think about the question from the debate the other night, number one from that 20-year-old, he said he will graduate in the year 2014, what are you going to do to help me find a job so i can pay down. martha: if the president and nominee republican party look you in the eye, jeremy, you will get a job, doggone it get a job. that's what happened. we're getting started here this morning on a thursday. a top lawmaker demanding answers on obamacare. saying the obama administration is trying to mask the cost of the new law, in his opinion to buy the election he says. we'll talk about that. bill: another day and more fallout from the terror attack in libya. critics questioning the white house's changing story. >> his united nations speech was a disgrace. for an american president to go to the u.n. and apologize six times for a youtube video by some nut cake? first of all we should be defending the right of free speech. >> what was and what was not said in the days and weeks before the attack that killed our ambassador? we'll be back with that in a moment. martha: a big reaction to the presidential debate. karl rove said the president may have won the battle but he believes he is losing the war. we'll tell you the key issue mr. rove says the president is losing on. a look ahead to next week's big monday night showdown. >> i love these debates, you know. these things are yate. and, -- great. i think it is interesting that the president still doesn't have an agenda for a second term. don't you think that it its time for him to finally put together a vision of what he would do in the next four years if he were elected. he has got to the come up with that over this weekend because there is only one debate left on monday.es just begin with america's favorite soups. bring out chicken broccoli alfredo. or best-ever meatloaf. go to campbellskitchen.com for recipes, plus a valuable coupon. campbell's. it's amazing what soup can do. bp has paid overthe people of bp twenty-threeitment to the gulf. billion dollars to help those affected and to cover cleanup costs. today, the beaches and gulf are open, and many areas are reporting their best tourism seasons in years. d bp's also committed to america. we support nearly 250,000 jobs and invest more here than anywhere else. we're working to fuel america for generations to come. our commitment has never been stronger. there's the sign to the bullpen. here he comes. you wouldn't want your doctor doing your job, the pitch! whoa! so why are you doing his? only your doctor can determine if your persistent heartburn whoa! is actually something more serious like acid reflux disease. over time, stomach acid can damage the lining of your esophagus. for many, prescription nexium not only provides 24-hour heartburn relief, but can also help heal acid-related erosions in the lining of your esophagus. talk to your doctor about the risk for osteoporosis-related bone fractures and low magnesium levels with long-term use of nexium. possible side effects include headache, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. other serious stomach conditions may sll exist. let your doctor do his job. and you do yours. ask if nexium is right for you. if you can't afford your medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. bill: now, winning the battle, but losing the war. critics of the president say he may have won tuesday's debate you he is losing on the essential question in this election, who is best to handle the economy. here is governor romney, one of the strongest moments his camp considers from tuesday night. >> i think you know better. i think you know that these last four years haven't been so good as the president just described and that you don't feel like you're confident that the next four years will be much better either. i can tell you if you were to elect president obama you will know what you're going to get. you will get a repeat of the last four years. we can't afford four more years like the last four years. bill: steve hayes, "weekly standard", fox news contributor, welcome to you. >> good morning bill. bill: wasn't that part of a spot that the romney team made just this week after the debate? >> it was indeed. it's a strong argument. this is in effect mitt romney's biggest argument right now, president obama sort of lapsed to being candidate of the status quo and mitt romney is the candidate of change. he is the candidate of conservative reform. it is a very good place to be when you have a country that thinks overwhelmingly we're on the wrong track. bill: karl rove is making a big point today in the "wall street journal" he made this point yesterday on "america live" with megyn. talked about the gallup survey being 51-45%. that was predebate number two. >> right. bill: that was a six-point spread. he made the case no one who won the white house, whether incumbent or challenger has ever been at 50 above in october and lost. if that is true, what do you make of that? >> that's a pretty powerful precedent. one of several historical precedents will fall this time around. it is also the case more likeable candidate as judged by voters in fiber-optic al polls before november 6th, before election day wins every race going back to 1980. some of these things are going to fall but that is pretty powerful when you look at likely voters in gallup daily tracking poll. bill: i'm reading your point. debate was a tie but you score a slight advantage to the president. why? >> look, i think if you have to decide on a winner i think the president maybe did more to help himself going forward because he had come off such a listless performance before. so it was the case he won by just showing up. i don't think it was enough, to, the phrase that everybody is using, stop the bleeding. he did that but he didn't do anything to really propel himself forward or fundamentally alter the trajectory of the race we had coming out of the first debate we had in denver. bill: i see. one more question about mitt romney in a moment but again on the likeability issue, this is something you're keyed in on, whether or not the president can maintain his advantage in that area, based on tuesday night why is that such a factor now? >> he has had this huge advantage, going back over the summer you had president obama with advantages of plus 36 in some polling when voters are asked who is the more likeable candidate. the most recent "washington post" abc poll had president obama at plus 30 over mitt romney in this question of likeability. the question i have, and i think we'll find out as you and martha were discussing in the next couple days with the new polling, was president obama's new posture a tougher more aggressive barack obama, was he able to be that way and to prosecute his case and really go after mitt romney and maintain that likeability advantage? or did he risk eroding some of that advantage because this was a newer, tougher, perhaps less likeable barack obama? bill: we saw a jobs number that came out at 8:30 steve, i'm our aware of it. 388,000 is not where you want to be, a sharp increase from a week ago. regardless that is number where you don't want to be as an incumbent. that brings us to instant polling after the debate. cnn scored a slight advantage for president obama like you decribed a moment ago, on the issue of the economy, 58-40 for mitt romney. >> i found that finding absolutely fascinating that is a huge advantage, when you look at the way that mitt romney is talking about the economy. the thing that he did differently in this debate than he did in denver and usually done in his stump speech, he turned quickly from his indictment of president obama's economic record which i thought was particularly strong in this debate, then he turned and compared it to the reagan recovery, said we need to do better. he turned again and ended that answer on a really optimistic note that i thought sort of struck just the right tone. he wasn't just being sour about the way things have been for the last four years, but he is also looking forward and saying things can be much better. i think people really grab onto that. bill: almost like the, the theme for the romney team could be in three words, what's your plan? >> right. bill: you wonder whether or not that's the closing argument in the coming weeks. we shall see. stephen hayes, thanks for your time in washington. >> thanks, bill. bill: martha. martha: the final debate is in boca raton. it happens in florida on monday night. it will be focused on foreign policy. you can bet we'll hear questions on benghazi, libya and north africa and what the ramifications are for us at home. that debate format will be a similar debate. this time except being ad poet premiums they will be seated at a table with moderator in between them. we'll see how that dynamic changes things a little bit. they will each get a question. they have two minutes to respond. the moderator who is bob sieve fer in this instance will use the balance of time in the segment to discuss that topic. fox news is your election headquarters, we're so grateful you learned that over the course of these debates and support them in a huge way and continue do that monday night. bill: how about the audience we had tuesday night? martha: pretty amazing. bill: 11 million. martha: people are as we said so many times, bill, absolutely engaged in this election process. in the last three weeks they have become much more so. clearly it has become a very tight race, one that has great ramifications for everything. we'll see monday night. the top watch dog, in the house, i should say, demanding answers on obamacare. congressman darrell issa is accusing the department of health and human service of hiding the costs of the health care law in order to influence the election. we're going to take a look at that question, see what you think. bill: a group of cheerleaders sued for the right to display their religious message at a foot ball game. today they get their answer. >> we will not allow atheist groups from outside of the state of texas to come into this state, to use menacing and misleading, intimidation tactics to try to bully schools to bow down at the altar of secular beliefs. ♪ . martha: 5:00 somewhere, exactly. bill: sure is. bottle of red, bottle of white, will cost you a bit more comes from overseas. bad weather, damage to european vineyards. no! expected to be the worst grape harvest in 50 years, no! spain, france italy affected. there is always the great wines of california and oregon. how about new york state? martha: how about new york state? bill: how about new jersey? martha: how about new jersey. bill: that is worst news of the day. worst grape harvest in 50 years? come on. martha: are all righty. so how about this, strong accusations from california republican congressman darrell issa against the department of health and human services. he is threatening to subpoena the agency if it does not turn over documents related to president obama's health care law. he is accusing the department of trying to hide some details about the program that are important to medicare and to seniors, and he says they want to do that until after the election. in a letter obtained by fox issa wrote, your staff has run out of excuses and the long delay in providing these documents is inexcusable. steve centanni joins us with the details from washington. so, steve, what are his main concerns really here? >> reporter: yeah, martha, he says the department of human services has been stringing him along for months but he also thinks this whole demonstration project is politically motivated. it gives bonuses to medicare advantage plans, according to issa, to try to cover up the first round of cuts to the program as part of the health care overhaul. issa believes essentially the administration is trying to buy the votes of seniors. he says in his letter to hhs, to the secretary, kathleen sebelius, quote, since gao experts demonstrated design makes its impossible to demonstrate anything, the only reason possible you decided to use a loophole in the social security act to temporarily cover up obamacare's large cuts to 13 million seniors enrolled in medicare advantage until after this year's election. issa threatening a subpoena if those documents are not turned over by 5:00 this afternoon. martha. martha: here we go again with another topic coming from him. let's see what the obama administration has been so far to this. anything so far? >> reporter: yeah they say they're reviewing issa's letter and they told the congressman they are working to get him the documents. they also defend the program issa is targeting. seb biel just has not commented on the letter but her department has. the bonus payment program or demo is providing incentives to more medicare advantage plans to improve care, giving more patients high quality choices in the program. it is consistent with previous demonstrations. meantime earlier this year the government accountability office questioned the whole legal authority behind this system, martha. martha: thank you, steve. >> reporter: you bet. bill: so what was and what was not said in the days and weeks after the deadly attack in libya? the president says that he called it act of terror the next day but critics are firing back saying the white house is playing games with the american people. >> has been consistent from the united nations ambassador as you pointed outgoing on five different shows, telling the american people a falsehood on the sunday after the attack, to vice president biden on a national debate misleading the american people, to the president last night completely misleading the american people are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today. bill: there is new fallout now from the sharp exchange on libya between the president and governor mitt romney the other night. it now appears president obama has changed, rather, a key line from his campaign stump speech. taking out a part where he says al qaeda is on the run, as he said just days before the debate. this is what the president was saying about a week ago. >> four years ago i told you would i end the war in iraq and i did. [cheers and applause] i said, we'd end the war in afghanistan and we are. [cheers and applause] i said we would refocus on the people who actually attacked us on 9/11 and today al qaeda's on the run and usama bin laden is dead. bill: now however he is saying something else. john roberts has it live from our new york city newsroom. john what is happening there? >> reporter: good morning bill. this is change happened in the past 24 hours after the debate in hofstra university and all in reaction to what's happened in libya, what happened in the wake of the arab spring where the president used to say al qaeda is on the run. the big suggestion there that u.s. policy has in fact diminished al qaeda's capabilities across the globe. this is what the president is saying on the campaign trail now. listen. >> four years ago i promised to end the war in iraq and i did. [cheers and applause] i said we would end the war in afghanistan and we are. [cheers and applause] i said we would refocus on the terrorists who actually attacked us on 9/11. and bin laden is dead. [applause] >> reporter: you might notice in there, the words, and al qaeda is on the run, glaringly missing from the campaign stump speech. the reason believed to be al qaeda was responsible for the attack on the consulate in benghazi that resulted in the death of four americans including ambassador chris stevens, the first american ambassador to be killed in the line of duty in 1979. at the debated on monday, mitt romney according to the campaign, i talked to this morning is expected to make the case that the white house has failed to react to a reconstituting al qaeda, and also the bigger question about benghazi, now, why make this all about a video in the days after the attack, when they knew that al qaeda was getting stronger in north africa, bill. bill: certainly this will come up monday night. what is the latest. you mentioned benghazi. what is the latest today, john? >> reporter: definitely will come up on monday night, no question about that the latest on benghazi is, the white house continues to insist the president was labeling it as a act of terror in very first hours after the attack. here is what white house spokesman jay carney said on route to the event on air force one. he came out to the rose garden for one reason only. four americans were just killed in benghazi including u.s. ambassador of libya. he said that day no acts of terror will ever shake the resolve of this great nation. he referred to benghazi as act of terror on two more occasions in the next several days you know. romney campaign insists that the president in that statement and those remarks appeared to be talking generically about terror and did not specifically declare the attack against the benghazi consulate as terrorism. and they point out why did the administration continue to push the line that the attack was a result of a violent demonstration against that anti-muslim video? the campaign says that it raises more questions than answers, questions the president no doubt will have to come up with answers for at the debate on monday night in boca raton. bill: thanks, john roberts here in new york city. on friday night, now, fox news has a closer look at the deadly terrorist attack that claimed four american lives in libya. "special report" investigates, death and deceit in benghazi. bret baier is your host. it is friday night, 10:00 eastern time. important stuff there. so, if you get a chance, please, check it out. martha: a lot of good reporting there. that is coming up. how about this? republicans are firing back after that tense exchange that we saw over the libya attack and it happened during the debate between president obama and governor romney. now the president says that he called the assault a, quote terror attack the next day in the rose garden on september the 12th. this has caused a lot of controversy. here is newt gingrich. he says the administration needs to be held accountable for the discrepancy. watch. >> what is there about barack obama's psychology that makes it so difficult for hill to deal with the reality of islamic extremism. why is it always the west's fault? why is it always somebody in america's fault? why is he always apologizing for islamic extremists? you have a president of the united states who is commander-in-chief, will not be honest with himself about the problem of radical islam, will not be honest with the world about it. martha: very heavy charge from newt gingrich. let's bring in former south carolina mark sanford, fox news contributor, mary ann marsh, former advisor to john kerry. powerful stuff, mary ann. what is your reaction to that? >> newt gingrich is wrong. the fact is 48 hours after the attack in benghazi president obama called this an attack of terror in the white house, in the rose garden on september 12th and september 13th in colorado said the exact same thing. mitt romney however never called this an attack of terror until september 25th. if the test is what the president said and what he said it, mitt romney failed his own test. martha: i'm not sure that is the test, mary ann. because the big question needs to be then, so if that's what you said, president obama, why would you guide the rest of your administration to go on national television and tell a completely different story? that it was all because of a video and it was a mob scene that overflowed into violence, why, mary ann? >> ultimately it is what the president says that matters. he is the one who is president. he is held accountable and consistently said this was an act of terror. and east really what matters here. when you look at mitt romney's attack on him especially in the debate the other night, that is exactly the point here. the problem mitt romney has failed his own test. when you look how he handled the situation immediately after the happen trying to politicize it and how he handled it in the debate he failed test at commander-in-chief. martha: i think the first priority, mark sanford, please come in on this, has to be what the administration did and how they handled it. that is the first part you have to get to here. the president himself said i'm in charge. i take responsiblity. so governor sanford, don't we need an answer to the question if you called it a terror attack why did everyone in the white house and the administration call it something else? >> well not only that, but frankly the president himself on september 25th, almost two weeks after the rose garden event went on "the view" and when asked specifically, hey, is this an act of terror, we're not sure yet. we're investigating. even the president himself two weeks later was obfuscating and sort of questioning whether it was or it wasn't. if you look at the susan rice tapes, you know, again, the united states ambassador to the u.n., works for the president. she went on five talk shows, five, you know, sunday talk shows, talking about how we weren't sure as to what it was or it wasn't. admin mum what you have here is an indictment of the president's leadership style where in, president, great presidents have been declared, where they're coming from, rather than sort of a philadelphia lawyer style where he depends on what the meaning of the word is is. there is a real parsing. there is generic statement against terror but it is not a statement against this act of terror there in the rose garden. martha: seems to me, mary ann, the only reason to allow the state department and others to go out, you know as well as i do, that is deliberate action when you send out your folks on the sunday shows and say you need to tell them it is about the video, the only reason i can think of, you tell me if there's another reason you would do that instead of having them go out and say we just don't know yet, we're investigating we don't know yet and we can't talk about it is highly classified to throw a red herring out there to look away from the al qaeda issue and it was crazy people on the streets stirring up problems? >> i think reality here, martha, no one still really knows all the details. martha: why did they say they did is the question, mary ann, why? >> and i think the fact that video was emphasized so much when it was a mistake. that said, the president owns this. he is the president of the united states. and he called it an act of terror. and i think the reason it has become so politicized historically republicans had advantage on foreign policy, to this day president obama has a two-point advantage even after all this over mitt romney. this is a close race and i'm betting we're here on the morning of november 7th not quite sure who won and everything matters that is the advantage that mitt romney is trying to regain. martha: before i let you both go, governor sanford, what is the question you would want answered in this debate about all of this on monday night? what needs to be asked and answered? >> you know, who knew and when did they know? i go back this is a question of presidential leadership style, or what the senior senator from south carolina suggesting right now this is a cover-up. is it a cover-up based on, you know, messing up the narrative that the president wanted to tell on his war against terrorism. martha: big story obviously. mary ann, thank you very much. governor sanford thank you as well. >> thank you. >> thank you. martha: hear is the question for everyone, is al qaeda genuinely on the run as the president has told us? or are they just moving somewhere else in this scenario? he removed a significant line from his stump speech about this. is that a recognition that al qaeda remains as dangerous as ever? bill: also, martha, kt mcfarland is on that. we'll show you the map too to represent that. as for the campaign trail today, where is everybody stumping? the two big guys, obama and romney are down for the day. they will be here for a big event in new york city. but undercard is traveling and campaigning. joe biden, two days in nevada, a clear winner for the president by 12 points in nevada four years ago. paul ryan is down here in the state of florida. another state the president won over senator mccain four years ago. a three point winner in the sunshine state then. so ryan and biden are out there. romney and obama are down for most of the day until later tonight. and when they go back on the trail, expect them to talk about women. we will tell you why that is important. when we continue after this. 0t[7 martha: welcome back, everybody. the feds saying that he wanted to strike a big blow against america. a bangladeshi man in federal custody now after he allegedly tried to blow up the federal reserve building in new york city with a car bomb, that of course is in the heart of america's financial center not from where the world trade towers once stood. thankfully the feds broke up that plot but it is a real reminder that terrorists remain committed to striking at the heart of our democracy. our next guest says al qaeda is not on the run and they simply moved shop so to speak. bill has more. bill: i want to bring in kt mcfarland, national security analyst. good morning to you. >> good morning. bill: we'll get to this big debate. monday night is all foreign policy. as you see as it right now what is the state of al qaeda or groups like to think they are linked to al qaeda or the next generation? >> well, al qaeda is on the move. it is not just expanded into other parts of the middle east. it is expanding all over the globe. it is now in northern africa. in eastern africa. it is in western africa. it is now in countries in the middle east. it back in iraq. it is in syria. it is in yemen. it is in saudi arabia. it is in afghanistan. it is in pakistan. it is in over 30 countries with which is why president has dropped al qaeda is on the run from his stump speech. hard to make that claim. bill: let me show viewers what you're talking about. all these nations in red here we marked 11. i think you will tick off more than that. mali in western africa, nigeria down here, libya, yemen, somalia, pakistan, afghanistan, iraq and syria, that's 11 countries. >> right. bill: what are we missing? >> libya. that was september 11th that was al qaeda affiliate. what al qaeda does, think about it as you're setting up a mcdonald's franchise. they go into a country. the first stage is to organize. they get the real estate. they have got the training camps. they set up shop. then they start recruiting locally. once they have recruited then they go operational. that is the stage that al qaeda in libya was this summer. there was a report, in fact a defense department report prepared by the library of congress saying al qaeda in libya had reached those first two stages. they had organized, they had recruited and they were getting ready to go operational. in other words to have a big splash attack. al qaeda, these affiliates don't call themselves al qaeda until they go operational. that is stage we were in libya in august. so to not have any preparation or additional security in, on the anniversary of september 11th when they knew there was an al qaeda cell ready to go operational is a real problem. bill: all right. so you fill in libya on the map now. you could make an argument that tunisia should be on this map. >> you could. bill: and egypt as well. >> yeah. bill: and sudan. >> yeah. bill: and the list continues to grow. >> yeah. bill: what is your thinking as to why? you used to work in the white house. why do you drop the line, al qaeda is on the run when you've been using it for two years? >> because they have been caught red-handed bill. look, the whole, one of the whole premises of president obama's re-election he is strong on terror. he got bin laden. al qaeda is finished. al qaeda is on its knees. al qaeda is over. war on terror is over. he said that in fact five days before september 11. he said that at the democratic convention. flash forward five days. al key, terrorist attack in libya. awfully hard to make the claim al qaeda is on its heels when you pulled off a huge commando raid on the u.s. con suit land and killed four americans. bill: he says they're still on the run. what are they thinking right now as they view this from the outside? >> if you're al qaeda and thinking about how do i operate? al qaeda does, systemic way they approach things. they keep attacking. keep probing, every escalating attack until they stop. in the twin towers, september 2001, there was a dry run for that 10 years before. when they have stopped, it when they have been retaliated against. if you're al qaeda and in libya, you just pulled this off has anybody retaliated against you? bill: not yet. >> what have they done? americans are bickering amongst themselves whose fault it was and form ad commission to study it. you have not been retaliated against. i want to compare that to ronald reagan. when i was in rage begin administration. there was discotheque in berlin. bill:. 1986. >> servicemen were killed. what did reagan do? 10 days he bombed qaddafi's headquarters. didn't hear from qaddafi after that. bill: thank you, kt, martha, what is next? martha: you have the final presidential debate, sure to be rematch of what we're talking about here with regard to benghazi. both sides sharpening their knives for that fine as face up. we'll talk to chris wallace. what are the stakes for monday night? we'll be right back. m bank of a. i choose the cash back deals in my mobile or online banking. i just use my bank of america debit or credit card when i pay. put in my account. this is cash back on top of other rewards we already get. and best of all, it's free. friends help friends get deals. pass it on. [ male announcer ] introducing bankamerideals, free for online banking customers. sign in to your online banking to choose your deals today. who doesn't like a good deal? thank you, mr. speaker, uh,ing to members of congress.day. in celebration of over 75 years of our government employees insurance company, or geico...as most of you know it. ...i propose savings for everyone! i'm talking hundreds here... and furthermore.. newcaster: breaking news. the gecko is demanding free pudding. and political parties that are actual parties! with cake! and presents! ah, that was good. too bad nobody could hear me. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. bill: high school cheerleaders in texas expected to find out today if they will continue to be able to display bible verses at their football games. those cheerleaders sued the school district after they were told to stop displaying the verse, if god is for us, who can be against us. >> we will not allow atheist groups from outside the state of texas to come into the state, to use menacing, misleading intimidation tactics to try to bully schools to bow down at the at a of secular beliefs. >> would be here? >> i don't know he would be here. i would be. the point as i said in my remarks, this is about all religion. this is the freedom, that is what this country was based upon. bill: school superintendent banned the signs after someone filed a complaint. you might remember back in 2005, the texas ag fought to keep the state's ten commandments monument up. that stands near the state capitol and the supreme court ruled the monument could stay where it was and be displayed. a judge's ruling is expected sometime today. martha: the growing national meningitis outbreak has now claimed the lives of 19 people and it has made 250 people sick across the united states, in one new hampshire town, even the mayor has been infected there. he is urging people to check with their doctors, if they have received steroid back injections. >> they said, you know, we don't think you have it but we're going to do this as a precautionary. my point, get out there and get tested, see your doctor. martha: good advice. jonathan serrie joins me live in atlanta. why are we seeing the numbers increase in these cases jonathan? >> reporter: because even though effective treatments are available, these treatments are generally not used until after the cases appear. since most people receiving these potentially contaminated medications from the new england compounding center are not getting sick, doctors believe treating everyone preemptively would do more harm than good. and at this fungal therapies are complicated and time-consuming. they're delivered intravenously. they require monitoring by specialists and hospital stays that could last for weeks. listen. >> they're tricky to use because they can be toxic. they can injure other organ systems while it is we're trying to treat the infection. >> reporter: so it's not the type of treatment most doctors want to rush their patients into if they're not sick, martha? martha: jonathan, thank you. bill: how much do you think the federal government spent on welfare last year? 500 million? 500 billion? you've got to go even higher than that. that answer coming up. ÷g÷w i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i looked at my options. then i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call now and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it helps pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. to me, relationships matter. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. [ male announcer ] with these types of plans, you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral to see a specialist. so don't wait. call now and request this free decision guide to help you better understand medicare... and which aarp medicare supplement plan might be best for you. there's a wide range to choose from. we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. martha: we start with fox news alert, it is a countdown now to the rematch. the third and final presidential debate monday will be based on foreign policy and the deadly terrorist attack in libya will most likely take center stage that evening. brand-new hour starting now in "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. bill: i'm bill hemmer. good morning at home. as that debate approaches one poll shows governor romney with a widening lead overt president. this is from gallop now. before the debate romney up 6 at 61%, the president at 45. martha: that is the big number this morning. here is chris wall as anchor of fox news sunday. what is your reaction to the gallop numbers. >> it got my attention. we'll have the head of the organization, frank newport on our show sunday. first of all what is so interesting is the number, the margin is quite remarkable, also gallop did a swing-state poll and they found that the gender gap, the fact that women were supporting obama by a wide margin over romney is virtually gone. the obama campaign is very unhappy and says the poll is wrong. where he had a lead in double digits i think it's one point in the swing states. if that states up, one if it's right, and two if it continues, obama is going to lose. there are two things there, it may be wrong and it could change but he can't win with a one-point margin among women. martha: we have a few weeks left to sort it all out for both sides. one of the most significant and talked about moments in the second presidential debate was the question on libya that we will i went unanswered by president obama so he has another chance to get a crack at this and no doubt bob shaffer will bring it up and some say mitt romney didn't do that well in answering that question. what are you looking for on monday night? >> you're exactly right. the question still has been unanswered. this was from this fella kerry ladka. he said why is it with all of these warnings ahead of time that you didn't better protect the embassy. forget what happened afterwards. why didn't you provide more security for the ambassador and consulate in benghazi beforehand? and the president really -- i think it was not a foolish thing for him to do because he can't have a good answer on that. he evaded the question. i fully expected to say, well if you're waiting for an answer, so am i. i then gotten to the semantic question of did he indicate terror or not. you have to get into the question of what did they know beforehand. there had been more than a dozen attacks on western interests from benghazi as we know from the hearing last week. security officials on the ground say we need more security for u.s. interests in libya, and they were turned down by the state department. it's impossible to believe, i'm not saying that the president decides how much security they are going to have at the consulate in benghazi, it's impossible to believe that the president was unaware of these security threats, however in libya. martha: yeah, and then you've got this interesting issue of a line that has been altered in the president's stump speech and, you know, as any of us of course that these things don't happen accidentally. he has been saying for a longtime. osama bin laden is dead and al-qaida is on the run, we've decimated al-qaida with the drone strikes and all of the procedures that they've put in place. are they changing their way of talking about that based on this? >> i would think so. i haven't had an official in the campaign say it but you're exactly right, this doesn't happen by chance. that had been the line for the administration, and it was taken out in several speeches yesterday and i just assume because if he kept it in, maybe even the fact that he's dropped it that bob shaffer or mitt romney would say, wait a minute do you think al-qaida is on the run? how do you explain what happened in benghazi? how do you explain the spreading influence in mali and throughout the entire north africa? it is a wise move on the part of the president. i'm not sure it's going to allow him to duck the question, however. martha: it's like a string and when you keep pulling on it it keeps raising more and more kwesz throug questions through all of this. thank you. bill: september 12th the day after the president holds a news conference in the rose garden saying no acts of terror will shake the resolve of america. that was toward the end of that four-minute address. four days later u.s. ambassador susan rice went on five talk shows and said the attack was not planned, it was spontaneous. september 18th the president was on david letterman and said the extremists used the video to aeu tact embassy. the attack on september 25 this as terrorism. in the debate the president referred to comments in the rose garden to acts of terror and said he always called it. special report investigates death and deceit in libya. tomorrow night at 0:00 eastern time you can see it right here on the fox news channel. martha: congressman paul ryan campaigning in the state of ohio with former secretary of state condoleezzaa rice. ryan and rice spoke to the crowds outside of shrefd. cleveland. ryan is a die-hard fan and wanted to ramp up the tate in what is a critical state. >> what we see in governor romney is a leader, a person who has ideas how to turn this country around and how to get america back on the right track and that's what we will do on november 6th right here in ohio, we are owe going to recognize that leadership and elect him president of the united states. martha: what is happening on the ground in ohio, 18 electoral votes at stake. no republican has ever won the white house without clinching ohio and it's getting very exciting this whole thing. bill: rasmussen as a survey out. he has a one point different, obama at 49, romney at 48 in ohio. joe biden campaigning in nevada. six electoral votes. >> they are the only guys i've ever seen in the presidential election that say, i'll tell you after the election how we're going to get this stuff done. trust me, trust me. well i tell you what, let's look at the sum of what governor romney said last night about his plans. on taxes, on taxes, we learned that suddenly, suddenly governor romney lost that plan, that five trillion dollars tax plan on the way to the debate. i don't know what happened to it. bill: he campaigns again in nevada, six electoral votes ace mentioned. polls showing the obama team with only a slight edge there, early voting begins on saturday in deaf. martha: a quick reminder as if we needed one would, the third and final presidential debate comes up on monday night. this is the final showdown between these two men in one room before this election. focus will be foreign policy that night. watch it right here on fox news channel. the coverage will get started with bret and megyn at 8:55 eastern on monday night. bill: an eye popping report on the price tag of welfare sending. the government spend more than a trillion dollars on welfare programs in 2011 making welfare the government's largest budget expense. matt mccall president of a pension group llc. can you get your head around this. a trillion? >> you hear people talking about how much we spend on welfare, the nanny state, it's called so many different things. putting a number to it blows my mind. even the 1 trillion number may be tough to put your mind about that. think about it when way since 2008 when president obama came into office that number has increased by 32%, that is a dramatic inch sraoes in a matt increase in three and a half years. this tells me two things. one the government is growing at a very rapid pace making more americans rely on the government. number two, maybe the economy is not that good that we have to spend that much on welfare to help out the americans. bill: because folks don't have jobs. >> exactly. bill: and they are going to washington for a hand out to help them through the day. >> exactly. bill: since 2008 energy assistant 68% increase. education a advertise and the up 57%. healthcare at 37%, matt. >> this is kind of a mind blowing number when you see the energy assistance. what does that tell you? clearly president obama's energy program is not working very well. if energy assistance is up 67%. that's a major increase, that is a lot of money, how about food stamps? the food assistance program is the third largest expenditure within the welfare programs. that has increased 71% under obama's watch. and the reason we're seeing this. bill is we're seeing the unemployment rate at 7.8%. the president says that is the same when i came into office. the problem is those 23 million people who are no longer working looking for jobs are now moving to welfare help. bill: that makes it 47% doesn't it. >> it tells me 47% -- maybe it's even a higher number. bill: higher. >> it could be higher. maybe romney shouldn't have said that as a presidential candidate. i'm not running for president. i will say this. there are probably over 50% of americans who rely on the government. they want big government, the checks, handouts. that has to change. bill: it's an eye popper. what a headline this is. matt mccall in new york. martha: democrats immediately pouncing on a comment by mitt romney from the last debate. listen. >> i went to a number of women's' tkpwrao*ups and sai women's groups and they i said can you help us find folks. and they brought us binders. martha: a woman who provided mitt romney with those resumes, his second in command in massachusetts, she joins us after the break. bill: there are serious charges from leading republicans from the white house is trying to buy the election by hiding part of the truth about the healthcare law. we'll investigate that for you. also this coming up -- [gunfire] martha: breaking developments out of syria. the violence there is escalating. we are live in the middle weighs. we'll be right back. you can't argue with nutrition you can see. great grains. great grains cereal starts whole and stays whole. see the seam? more pcessed flakes look nothing like natural grains. i'm eating what i kn is better nutrition. mmmm. great grains. search great grains and see for yourself. bill: increasing winds threatening to strengthen a wildfire in southern california burning close to a hundred memories there. crews are using an aggressive attack on an area near santa barbara where a fire in 1990 killed a person and destroyed 550 homes. at the height of the fire mandatory evacuatio evacuations were order ned that area. >> they come to the doors and told us to evacuate. i kind of used to be on the fire department and i'm getting too old to do this. never racking and i think we have enough equipment to protect every house. >> the fire is about 40% contained. they do not need high wind, do they? witnesses say a downed power line started that blaze. martha: president obama and joe biden seizing on comments made by mitt romney about women in the workforce. mitt romney say that ten of his top positions actually were filled by women during his time as massachusetts governor. here he is at the debate. >> we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be call filled to become members of our cabinet i. went to a number of women groups and i said could you help us find folks and they brought us whole binders full of women. martha: the democratic ticket has been poking fun at those comments. mitt romney has been making major gains with likely women voters. the gallop poll shows him trailing president obama by 1 point. he was trailing by double digits a month or so ago. there is a picture of kerry healy. she is a senior adviser for the campaign working foreign policy primary. good to have you with us. >> thank you. martha: when you heard that comment no doubt you were watching every second of that debate. did you go, oh, maybe not the best way to do that. >> no i didn't. i was the person he asked to beee lay son to the group where he collect canned those resumes for us. i poured over those resumes and i knew exactly what he was talking about. martha: it comes to these kind of issues actions speak louder of words in terms of who you work with, what you are like when you work together, all these kinds of things. what is your personal experience when you worked with governor romney. >> my personal experience has obviously been extraordinary. governor romney is a great leader, and he also creates a work environment which isee memory news lee friendly, it's family friendly, it's professional. it's everything that women in the workforce could hope for. i think this is so ironic because it's giving us an opportunity to talk about one of the great strengths of governor romney during his time in office which is that he did want to bring women's as voices into government. he did have half of the women in top appointed positions, right there with him, his chief of staff was a woman. obviously he asked me to run with him. i am clearly female, and his top policy adviser was also female in addition to all the cabinet secretaries he brought forward. so the idea that governor romney is not interested in hearing the voices and hearing the concerns of woman is simply false on the face of it. martha: he's told stories about beth meyers and he tried to make things easier for her. >> she was his campaign in 2008 for the presidential race. she has played a major role in his career and is a trusted adviser. i'd like to expand on the idea that it wasn't just beth who benefitted from governor romney's family-friendly policies within the governor's office. we all do. martha: there's been this rap, and when i am done with this show and i flip around and look at all the different channels and hear what everybody is saying, there is a rap on him that he's this sort of old fashioned guy, sort of a 1950's kind of guy. he said, after work she had to go home and feed the kids and make dinner. they are making big hey about that saying he's old fashioned. >> i'm a mother, i know kids don't feed themselves, someone has to do it in the family. my feeling is that his actions speak so much louder than that stereotype could ever. it overwhelms that stereotype. governor romney went way beyond just equal pay for equal work, he went out and aggressively championed, mentored women, put them in leadership positions again and again throughout his time in government, and there are so few political leaders, male or female who bothered to do that. in the first year after we were in office there was a survey that he mentioned by sunni albany that looked how governors were putting women in different positions in their administrations and governor romney's administration was the best in the country in terms of advancing women. i just think the proof is in the pudding, and again, the obama administration is trying to create a distraction here away from the horrible economic failures of his last four years. martha: i want to ask you one quick question on a different subject. you are one of his foreign policy advisers. what do you expect in terms of, you know, the big question that is going to come up on monday night, what are you preparing him for? >> well, we know that benghazi will be relitigated on monday night, it has to be, because we did not get a straight answer from the president in the last debate and the american people deserve to know. and i think the entire question of, is america safer? is going to feature very prominently. we have just had a very serious attempted terrorist attack here in new york only yesterday. martha: that's right. >> the attack on our embassy in benge, so you know that terrorism and whether or not this administration has been effective against terrorism is going to come up. martha: kerry healee thank you very much. i look forward to the day where we don't have to talk about women issues at all, that they are just people issues. martha issues, bill issues, we're over it, right? bill: it was the debate question that set off the hottest debate moment of the night right here. >> we were reading and became aware of reports that the state department refused extra security for our embassy in benghazi, libya, prior to the attacks that killed four americans. who was it that denied enhanced security and why? bill: and that man still doesn't have an answer. and now he is saying the president went up to him after the debate anne and and expanded on his answer. what the president said, and should he have told the american people? a fair & balanced debate on that. martha: a strange sight in the sky the view had folks pulling out their cameras. we'll show you what happened in that video when we come back. what is that thing? note catch a falling star and put it in your pocket, never let it fade away. ♪ catch a falling star and put it in your phobgt pocket, save it for a rainy day. ♪ love may come and tap you on the shoulder. ♪ i'm only in my 60's... i've got a nice long life ahead. big plans. so when i found out medicare doesn't pay all my medical expenses, i got a medicare supplement insurance plan. [ male announcer ] if you're eligible for medicare, you may know it only covers about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. call and find out about an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, it could save you thousands in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. i've been with my doctor for 12 years. now i know i'll be able to stick with him. you'll be able to visit any doctor or hospital that accepts medicare patients. plus, there are no networks, and you never need a referral. see why millions of people have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp. don't wait. call now. martha: as promised incredible new video in from northern california. take a look at this. it's a meteor, that's pretty to cool, soaring through the night sky. folks were in ahh, some were in panic fearing a plane might be crash eupg. crashing. >> i see this huge rock or meteor or something just fly over us, i go, oh, my god what is that? >> it looked like a movie. it was so big you literally could see the flames on it. martha: the national weather service says people from the bay area to fresno reported the sighting. bill: in october in northern california. spectacular. clear skies. so new evidence now that international sanctions are failing to stop activity at one of iran's key nuclear sites. these are satellite photos that show what appears to be a cleanup effort at the suspected test location for a nuclear trigger. amy kellogg is on the story back in london now. what is the significance of the pictures, of the evidence? >> reporter: what the inspectors are worried about is that this place may be so sanitized if and when they are ever let into see it, that they will never really know what went on. these suspected tests, presumably with surrogate materials took place many years ago, but this site is still of vast importance because inspectors, bill, have not let back there since 2005. the pictures from the military site show the building where the tests are believed to have been carried out covered up with a tarp back in august. now or as of september it is uncovered. the owners of the pictures, the institute for science and national security say they have even seen people cleaning the roof. this has been going on intensively for some months and these pictures, of course, do not prove that iran did explosives tests there or that that is actually cleaning it up. it's what it looks like, it's certainly suspicious and there is no explanation for what is really going on. bill: this site is not the only concern now, is it? >> reporter: that's absolutely right, bill. this may just be the tip of iran's nuclear program's iceberg. here is what the director general of the iaea or the nuclear watchdog said yesterday. >> we have identified 12 areas that we need clarification. we cannot draw conclusion at this stage, but it is very obvious for us we need to seek clarification from iran. and iran continues to say that all the activities are in peaceful interest it should be of interest to iran itself. >> reporter: the military site, the pictures we just saw, one of those 12. others in the 12 points include the procurement of materials and other suspected test has have gone on in iran over the years, and then documents that they have in their possession, which show war head design. in many cases iran says, oh, those documents were fakes. the iaea is demanding answers. bill: thank you. out of london today. martha. martha: the obama administration has until 5:00pm tonight to turn over documents on the healthcare law or else. that's coming from a top lawmaker who claims that americans need to see those papers before election day, plus this. >> "allahu akbar!." [chanting] bill: we are told that a syrian village has been turned into rubble. the latest on a syrian strike and the search for survivors there. [ music playing, children laughing ] [ slap! slap! slap! ] [ music, laughter stop ] [ male announcer ] when your favorite foods fight you, fight back fast with tums smoothies. so fast and smooth, you'll forget you had heartburn. ♪ tum tum tum tum tums [ male announcer ] tums smoothies. i've been a superintendent for 30 some years at many different park service units across the united states. the only time i've ever had a break is when i was on maternity leave. i have retired from doing this one thing that i loved. now, i'm going to be able to have the time to explore something different. it's like another chapter. bill: we have fox news alert now. the clock is ticking for the obama administration. congressman issa chairman of the house oversight mitty threatening to subpoena documents that relate to a medicare program that issa says is being used to buy the election. these are thank charges now. in a letter to kathleen sebeli sebelius, he says they have until 5:00 tonight. here is john fund from the "national review." good morning to you. i want to break this down to when, where and why. what is the issue when it comes to medicare advantage that he is referring to. >> medicare advantage is a program that is part of medicare, it's privately run medicare. the federal government pays the bills but private companies provide services traditional medicare doesn't. gym memberships, wellness programs, more access to specialists. it's so popular one out of five patients are in the program. bill: you're reporting that obamacare will shift more than $200 billion over the next ten years out of medicare advantage, and now the charge is that that should be happening right now and it's not. why not? >> well, one of the ways that obamacare pays for getting all of these people new health insurance is to put them into medicaid. and you need money for medicaid. they are taking it from medicare advantage. they don't like the privately-run programs there. but they are concealing that fact until after the election because they've created this giant demonstration project, the result of which is that 71% of the planned cuts for medicare advantage are not going to happen until 2014. bill: so that would be a two-year delay. why would that be significant with less than three weeks to go before a national election, for seniors in america who are in this program? >> great question. because in early november is the annual process by which you can change your medicare plan from one you have now to one you want, and if medicare advantage were being chopped on schedule, as it's supposed to be people would be learning about that right now. bill: here is what health and human services says, though. they say the quality bonus payment demo, short for demonstrations providing incentives to more medicare advantage plans to improve care giving more patients high quality choices, and the program, it is consistent, this is important, with previous demos, demonstration projects. that's their defense. are they right? >> well, bill, if it's consistent, fine, but show us the documents. why is issa demanding a subpoena to get the documents? because they won't give it to him. if they have nothing to hide, give up the documents. this is just like eric holder and the department of justice, they had to be censured. holder was held in contempt of congress because he wouldn't turn over documents on fast and furious. this is called hide the ball until after the election, in this case hide the cuts. bill: does sebelius have the authority to do this. $200billion. >> that will have to be decided by the courts. most medicare experts say no, they don't have this authority, that it's a dramatic expansion and probably will be ruled invalid by the courts, which mean the cuts may come earlier than 2014. bill: you know what issa is going for, he wants to make his point before the majority of people vote. can he get this done in 19 days? >> all it takes to turn over the documents to issa is to send a truck over to congress with the relevant documents or send them by email. but hhhs won't do that. why do they have to hide? why are they keeping the documents from us if everything is kosher? bill: we will reach out to his office, waiting for a response on that. you heard what we said, 5:00 deadline today. we'll see if that is met or passes. john fund with us out of california today, john, thank you. martha: we've got breaking news overseas in syria. a desperate search for survivors is underway right now after a string of government air strikes on rebel areas. [gunfire] "allahu akbar!" martha: new amateur video there of what the rebels claim is a military helicopter being shot down. the warplanes reportedly hit a village that was packed with innocent families. several buildings and homes have been turned to rubble in that village. our leland vittert is following this live from our middle east pwraour oefplt what d bureau, what do we know about the air strikes? >> reporter: martha the latest numbers we have right now say the death toils at least in the dozens. these kind of air strikes are becoming the hallmark of the syrian civil war as the government is trying to deny the rebels any kind of place to be able to operate from. it is impossible right now to tell who was inside these apartment buildings. was it simply civilians or were these rebel headquarters? obviously there is a desperate search and rescue and recovery underway to bring out the bodies from inside these buildings. this shows just how dangerous this civil war is, because the rebels are having to fight in civilian areas. they simply don't have the weapons to take on the syrian government in a large-scale battle out in the desert, or out in the syrian, civilian populations or rural countryside and the syrian air force, martha is all too willing to bomb indiscriminately to keep the rebels from having any kind of stable place to be able to operate from. martha: they clearly have. do the rebels really have an ability do we think to shoot down those syrian military planes? >> reporter: that's what we're seeing as of the past week or so. a number of amateur videos have shown the syrian rebels running around with sa7's which are surface to air missiles. in this latest video it shows them shooting down a syrian army helicopter, this is a very sophisticated air defense system, that means the bombers have to fly higher, makes them less accurate, more likely to have a lot of civilian casualties. this also cuts the other way. a number of these revolutionaries are hard gore islamic jihaddists. they can fall into very, very different hands, missiles and sophisticated weapons systems. just in the past week in israel in gaza the militants fired own an israeli helicopter with a surface to air missile. most likely source of that missile was it was smuggled out of libya during their civil war and passed onto the gaza militants. it may be the syrians have these weapons now. who knows who will have them six months from now. martha: thank you very much. bill: a pakistani girl shot in the head by the taliban for daring to go to school and push for education for girls in her country. now there is good news about her recovery. martha: incredible story. all right and plus president obama never answered what was arguably the most important question of the debate. now the man who asked about the libya attack says he got an answer from the president in private. >> he said, no, i'm the president, it's my responsibility. but i still feel it was a huge mistake by the state department and ultimately the president that caused the deaths of four innocent american citizens. [ female announcer ] want to spend less and retire with more? at e-trade, our free online tools and retirement specialists can help you build a personalized plan and execute it with a wide range of low cost investments. get a great plan and low cost investments at e-trade. bill: 18 minutes before the hour. check of the headlines for you. that 14-year-old pakistani girl shot in the head by the taliban for fighting for education is now out of a coma. new york times reporter posting on facebook says she is now responding to doctors by moving her hands and feet. major change coming to newsstands around the world. "newsweek" magazine says it's december 31st issue will be its last print edition. in 2013 "newsweek" will shift to an online only format and job cuts are expected there. new fallout now in the lance armstrong doping scandal, ten of his sponsors now officially pulling their support. we knew this week that nike had dropped him, and now anheuser-busch and trek bicycles dropped him and also he resigned from his charity. martha: big tumble for lance armstrong. let's move onto this now. the man who asked perhaps the most important question in the second debate now says that president obama actually followed up with him afterwards. here was his original question, this gentleman. take a look. >> we were sitting around talking about libya, and we were reading and became aware of reports that the state department refused extra security for our embassy in benghazi, libya, prior to the attacks that killed four americans. who was it that denied enhanced security, and why? martha: the president never did actually answer that question during the debate. but kerry went on the record to explain what the president said to him about all of that after the cameras stopped rolling and here is what he said. >> he tried to explain that the reason he took so long between that initial announcement in the rose garden and about two weeks later when he formally announced it as an act of terrorism, that he wanted to be deliberate, that he did not want to make a mistake based on misinformation. he wanted accurate and true information, because any action he took in any part of the world, including the middle east would have dire consequences. martha: all right. let's see how all of that really adds up. julie rogensky, a former political adviser and fox news contributor. we are having a little bit of technical issues with the other side of this debate, which is chris wilson, a republican pollster. if we get him up and running we'll bring him in as soon as we can. let's start with julie here. julie i go back to the main issue here, which is that the question was never answered by the president, even when he went back and spoke to this man afterwards he never answered why was security not increased in april and june after the prior attacks on the consulate in libya. you know, how about that? >> well, i mean the question -- the question was asked, do you consider this a terrorist attack and the bottom line is that the president did say in the rose garden the following day and also in nevada the day after that, september 12th and 13th that this was in fact a terrorist attack. in terms of security in benghazi, we can second-guess. i don't know the circumstances of that if that was asked for. some people say it was asked for, some people say it wasn't asked for. had it been asked for help should have increased security i i would absolutely agree with you on that. at the end of the day before going off half cocked, rather than doing that i'm brad this president took a breath and got to the bottom of what happened before doing anything. listen, i have no doubt that based on his record of not only killing osama bin laden but going off terrorists with drones, we just had mortar reuss killemoreno terrorists killed in yemen yesterday. this president will hold the people that did this absolutely responsible. martha: we will wait for that. that may be the case. they are investigating. there are discussions there could be a drone strike even, perhaps even before the election some people think on the attackers of these four people killed, including our ambassador. but, julie, let's go back here for a moment, because the president did not, as he said to this gentleman afterwards, wait to figure out what the investigation told him about whether or not this was a terror attack, what they did instead, the president sent out susan rice and others, the administration, clearly this came from the administration and told them to basically, you know, throw the red herring out there about this video. jay carney did it, susan rice did it. they said, no this was not a well orchestrated terrorist attack, this was a video. why would you do that? >> i don't know, martha, i actually agree with you on that. the president himself was very clear. the president went out the next day and said he will not ever standby and allow acts of terror like this to take place. he said it -- martha: he didn't say like this. in fairness -- >> you can split hairs on this. there is a big debate going on and we need to point out to folks at home there is a debate going on whether or not he took credit for a very general comment at end of it, and yes he was talking about benghazi. you know as well as i do if he wanted to come out here and say, this was a terrorist attack and we know it which they did know 24 hours after he would have said it in that way and said it clear leave. there were reasons why they were purposely vague at that point, julie. >> i'm not sure what the implication is here. i do know he was talking about libya. and when he was talking about libya he was talking about acts of terror. i don't think you need a phd to connect the dots if you're talking about a specific incident and acts of terror that you're referring to that particular incident. you're absolutely right, the fact that susan rice went on the sunday talk shows is inexplicable. i'm not sure why she was saying what she was saying when we knew right away it was an act of terror. the president took full responsibility for this and said i am president, the buck stops to me an did say the following day it was an act of terror. martha: people hope bob shaffer will bring this up in very specific terms. the bigger question here, and what the american people are concerned about, i think, is whether or not we have a growing al-qaida problem, okay. and the administration does have a history with the underwear bomber, and the times square bomber, and the fort hood bomber, and this situation, where they always jump to the conclusion that it was not terrorism first. so is al-qaida growing? or is al-qaida as the president used to say in his stump speech and no longer says, on the run, big difference? >> the big difference here is that we have not had a large-scale terrorist attack, we just had one thwarted yesterday on the federal reserve building right here in negotiate. have we had instances? of course we have. do i think that a president romney would do anything differently or go after al-qaida any harder? i'm not sure how it's possible to go after al-qaida har harder than this president has. i'm not sure what we could do short of invading libya. i don't think the american people would support that. i don't know what else we could do other than the drone strikes and the fact that he did get the head of al-qaida, osama bin laden, he's going after the terrorists to get them and to kill them. i'm not sure there is more he could do. i don't know if mitt romney proposes something different. martha: they will get a great opportunity monday night to hash this all out. folks will get a chance to see what they think. chris wilson was our republican counterpart. we weren't able to get him up and on the air right now. bill: that whole phrase, on the run, we'll see if it comes back on the stump or not. jenna lee is standing by with hospitals. jenna: we'll be talking about that major terror bust in new york city. it rye minds us how close to home the war on terror really is. how many more possible plots are out there and where should we be looking? plus, the battle for the women's vote heating up the campaign trail. we know women are important voters. but have women issues ever decided an election? coming up on "happening now." bill: the retailers are getting ready for the holiday rush. did i really just say that? they are busy hiring more people to run cash registers, stock shelves and wrap gifts. there are plenty of seasonal jobs outside of the malls and many of them could turn into permanent jobs. claudia cowan is on that in san francisco. how many jobs are potentially out there. >> reporter: more than last year. retailers plan to fill about 700,000 positions this holiday season up from 660,000 temp jobs last year mostly at big department stores. macy's says it's adding 80,000 christmas workers. kohl's, toys r us and walmart hiring staff more than a year ago. employment experts say overall the big numbers suggest the tight job market is easing and that shoppers are ready to spend. >> we don't see a gang busters here but the economy has improved. there are nearly 2 million more people working now who have money to spend than we saw last year at the same time. >> reporter: many of those taking these seasonal jobs are part-timers looking for extra income, retire reese who want to stay busy and recent college grads hoping to start a career in retail or build up their resumes. experts say it's a a good time for those who gave up looking for a job to go out there and try again. bill, they may not face so much rejection. bill: who else is growing their workforce now. >> reporter: lots of winter-specific jobs needed in the months ahead. up in the mountains, resorts, they are hiring thousands of people to work at ski areas, and at destination hotels. this is lake tahoe. fedex and ups also bringing on extra staff to handle the uptick in holiday shipping. and e-tailer amazon.com announcing this week it is hiring 50,000 seasonal workers at its facilities nationwide. once the season ends these jobs generally go away but experts say more employers view these temp assignments as auditions for full time work. it's a good time to go out and apply for temp jobs. bill: let's go to tahoe, alpine meadows, digging it. thanks. martha: talk about a government misstep. take a look. oh, that is embarrassing. i'm sure she wants to see that 40 more times on every channel. bill: she is going to get her chance. martha: oh, we'll be right back. 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[ female announcer ] our wells fargo bankers are here to listen, offer guidance and provide you with options tailored to your business. we've loaned more money to small businesses than any other bank for ten years running. so come talk to us to see how we can help. wells fargo. together we'll go far. martha: we feel bad about it but here we go. the australian prime minister falling flat on her face. she was in new delhi, she got her heel stuck in the grass. i hate when that happens. jon: me too. >> very hard to walk on grass. once in a while that happens. we'll see you tomorrow. jenna: right now brand-new stories and breaking. jon: 19 days, can you believe it until the election and a new poll showing governor romney leading the president by a statistically significant margin for the first time in this race. for weeks we've known about tainted drugs from one pharmacy shipped to clinics across the country. why are more people getting kick and dying of meningitis? we'll ask our medical a-teamers. should schools bana popular snack saying

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