Simon like the greeks and the russians, copts are orthodox christians. But they have one thing in common with the Roman Catholics they elect a pope. The final choice is made by a boy who is blindfolded and led to a crystal chalice containing three names. The name on the piece of paper the boy picks becomes the next pope. The copts believe his choice is not a roll of the dice, but is inspired by the divine. cheers and applause im steve kroft. Im lesley stahl. Im morley safer. Im bob simon. Im scott pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 minutes. Theres a saying around here, you stand behind what you say. Around here you dont make excuses. You make commitments. And when you cant live up to them, you own up, and make it right. Some people think the kind of accountability that thrives on so many streets in this country has gone missing in the places where its needed most. But i know youll still find it when you know where to look. Anncr vo introducing the schwab accountability guarantee. If youre not happy with one of our participating Investment Advisory services, well refund your program fee from the previous quarter. While, its no guarantee against loss and other fees and expenses may still apply, we stand by our word. Wiand fed up dad said time for wia new one if you ask me. But which one to buy . There were so many choices. Enter the blue shirts, with their calm expert voices. With low price guarantee there was money to spare. So mom bought a camera, right then and there. Nothing will ever replace good literature. Vo save on great gifts like the lg 55 led tv. At your ultimate holiday showroom. Best buy. Its time. For aveeno® positively radiant face moisturizer. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® has an active naturals total soy formula that instantly brightens skin. And helps reduce the look of brown spots in just 4 weeks. For healthy radiant skin. Try it for a month. Then go ahead and try to spot a spot. Aveeno® positively radiant. Naturally beautiful results. [ male announcer ] lauras heart attack didnt come with a warning. Today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. If youve had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. Its so much more than coffee. Brew the love. Keurig. Kroft tonight, cbs News National security correspondent john miller on assignment for 60 minutes. Miller no u. S. Intelligence agency has ever been under the kind of pressure being faced by the National Security agency after details of some of its most secret programs were leaked by contractor Edward Snowden. Perhaps because of that pressure, the agency gave 60 minutes unprecedented access to n. S. A. Headquarters, where we were able to speak to employees who have never spoken publicly before. Full disclosure i once worked in the office of the director of national intelligence, where i saw firsthand how secretly the n. S. A. Operates. It is often said n. S. A. Stands for never say anything, but tonight, the agency breaks with that tradition to address serious questions about whether the n. S. A. Delves too far into the lives of americans. Keith alexander the fact is, were not collecting everybodys email, were not collecting everybodys phone things, were not listening to that. Our job is foreign intelligence and were very good at that. Miller the man in charge is Keith Alexander, a fourstar army general who leads the n. S. A. And the u. S. Cyber command. There is a perception out there that the n. S. A. Is widely collecting the content of the phone calls of americans. Is that true . Alexander no, thats not true. N. S. A. Can only target the communications of a u. S. Person with a probable cause finding under specific court order. Today, we have less than 60 authorizations on specific persons to do that. Miller the n. S. A. , as we sit here right now, is listening to a universe of 50 or 60 people that would be considered u. S. Persons . Alexander less than 60 people globally who are considered u. S. Persons. Miller but the n. S. A. Doesnt need a court order to spy on foreigners. From its heavily protected headquarters in fort meade, maryland, it collects a mind numbing amount of data from phones and the internet. They sort through it all looking for clues to terrorist plots and intelligence on the intentions of foreign governments. To do all that, they use a network of supercomputers that use more power than most mid sized cities. General alexander agreed to talk to us because he believes the n. S. A. Has not told its story well. Alexander we need to help the American People understand what were doing and why were doing it. And to put it simply, were doing two things were defending this country from future terrorist attacks, and were defending our Civil Liberties and privacy. Theres no reason that we would listen to the phone calls of americans. Theres no intelligence value in that. Theres no reason that wed want to read their email. There is no intelligence value in that. Miller what they are doing is collecting the phone records of more than 300 million americans. Why do you need all of those phone records . Alexander how do you know when the bad guy whos using those same communications that my daughters use is in the United States trying to do something bad . The least intrusive way of doing that is metadata. Miller metadata has become one of the most important tools in the n. S. A. s arsenal. Metadata is the Digital Information on the number dialed, the time and date, and the frequency of the calls. We wanted to see how metadata was used at the n. S. A. Analyst Stephen Benitez showed us a technique known as call chaining used to develop targets for electronic surveillance in a Pirate Network based in somalia. Stephen benitez as you see here, im only allowed to chain on anything that ive been trained on and that i have access to. Add our known pirate. And we chain him out. Miller chain him out, for the audience, means what . Benitez people hes been in contact to for those 18 days. One that stands out to me first would be this one here. Hes communicated with our target 12 times. Now, were looking at target bs contacts. Miller so hes talking to three or four known pirates . Benitez correct. These three here we have direct connection to both target a and target b. So well look at him, too, well chain him out. And you see, hes in communication with lots of known pirates. He might be the missing link that tells us everything. Miller what happens in this space when a number comes up thats in dallas . Benitez so if it does come up, normally, youll see it as a protected number and if you dont have access to it, you wont be able to look. Miller if a terrorist is suspected of having contacts inside the United States, the n. S. A. Can query a database that contains the metadata of every phone call made in the u. S. Going back five years. So you understand, then, there might be a little confusion among americans who read in the newspaper that the n. S. A. Has vacuumed up the records of the telephone calls of every man, woman and child in the United States for a period of years that sounds like spying on americans. Alexander right, and thats wrong. Thats absolutely wrong. Miller you dont hear the call . Alexander you dont hear the call. Miller you dont see the name. Alexander you dont see the names. Miller you just see this number called that number. Alexander the. This number the tofrom number, the duration of the call and the datetime thats all you get. And all we can do is tell the f. B. I. That number is talking to somebody who is very bad. You ought to go look at it. Miller but privacy advocates argue americans phone records should not sit in bulk at the n. S. A. , searchable under a blanket court order. They believe the n. S. A. Should have to get a separate court order for each number and that the record should stay at the phone company. You get the. The bill from whatever the Service Provider is and you see who its calling in america. You dont need to collect every americans phone numbers to do that. Alexander well, the reality is if you go and do a specific one for each, you have to tell the phone companies to keep those call detail records for a certain period of time. So, if you dont have the data someplace, you cant search it. The other part thats important, phone companies. Different phone companies have different sets of records. And these phone calls may go between different phone companies. If you only go to one company, youll see what that phone company has. But you may not see what the other phone company has or the other. So by putting those together, we can see all of that, essentially, at one time. Miller before 9 11, did we have this capability . Alexander we did not. Miller is it a factor . Was it a factor . Alexander i believe it was. Miller what general alexander is talking about is that two of the 9 11 hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and nawaf al hazmi, were in touch with an al qaeda safe house in yemen. The n. S. A. Did not know their calls were coming from california, as they would today. Alexander i think this was the factor that allowed mihdhar to safely conduct his plot from california. We have all the other indicators, but no way of understanding that he was in california while others were in florida and other places. Miller Edward Snowden revealed another program called prism, which the n. S. A. Says is authorized under the foreign Intelligence Surveillance act, or fisa. Prism is the program the n. S. A. Uses to target the Internet Communications of terrorists. It has the capability to capture emails, chats, video, and photos. But privacy experts believe the n. S. A. s dragnet for terrorists on the internet may also be sweeping up information on a lot of americans. Alexander no, thats not true. Under fisa, n. S. A. Can only target the communications of a u. S. Person with a probable cause finding under a specific court order. Miller a judge in the fisa court, which is the court that secretly hears the n. S. A. Cases, and approves or disapproves your requests, said the n. S. A. Systematically transgressed both its own courtappointed limits in bulk Internet Data collection programs. Alexander there was nobody willfully or knowingly trying to break the law. Miller the n. S. A. Says their analysts use highly technical systems under increasingly complex legal requirements, and that when mistakes are made, theyre human errors, not intentional abuses. The snowden leaks have challenged n. S. A. Officials to explain programs they never intended to talk about. So how did an obscure contractor and computer specialist pull off the most damaging breach of secrets in u. S. History . Few have spent more time thinking about that than rick ledgett. How long have you been with the n. S. A. . Rick ledgett for 25 years. Miller how Many Television interviews have you done . Ledgett one, this one. Miller ledgett runs the n. S. A. Task force doing the Damage Assessment on the snowden leaks. And until this interview, the n. S. A. Has never discussed the specifics of the extent of damage they believe snowden has done and still could do. Thereve been all kinds of figures out there about how much he took, how many documents. Weve been told 1. 7 million. Ledgett i wouldnt dispute that. Miller how is that possible . Ledgett so, the people who control that, the access to those machines, are called System Administrators, and they have passwords that give them the. The ability to go around those security measures, and thats what snowden did. Miller Edward Snowden worked for the n. S. A. In hawaii. Part of his job was to help maintain the n. S. A. s computers, and also to move large sets of data between different systems. Did he take everything he had access to, or was he a Careful Shopper . Ledgett he did something that we call scraping, where he went out and just went. Used tools to scrape information from web sites, and put it into a place where. Where he could download it. Miller at some point, you then understood the breadth of what was missing and what could be missing . Ledgett yes. Miller of all the things he took, is there anything in there that worries you or concerns you more than anything else . Ledgett its an exhaustive list of the requirements that have been levied against. Against the National Security agency. And what that. What that gives is what topics were interested in, where our gaps are. But Additional Information about u. S. Capabilities and u. S. Gaps is provided as part of that. Miller so, im going to assume that theres one in there about china, and theres one in there about iran, and theres another in there about russia. Ledgett many more than one. Miller many more than one . Ledgett yes. Miller how many of those are there . Ledgett about 31,000. Miller if those documents fell into their hands, what good would it do them . Ledgett it would give them a roadmap of what we know, what we dont know, and give them, implicitly, a way to protect their information from the u. S. Intelligence communitys view. Miller for an adversary in the intelligence game, thats a gold mine. Ledgett it is the keys to the kingdom. Miller so far, none of those crucial documents have been leaked. In hong kong last june, snowden claimed that exposing the secret programs of the n. S. A. Did not make him a traitor or a hero, but an american. Edward snowden the public needs to decide whether these programs or policies are right or wrong. Miller snowden, who is believed to still have access to a million and a half classified documents he has not leaked, has been granted temporary asylum in moscow, which leaves the u. S. With few options. Hes already said, if i got amnesty, i would come back. Given the potential damage to National Security, what would your thought on making a deal be . Ledgett so, my personal view is, yes, its worth having a conversation about. I would need assurances that the remainder of the data could be secured, and my bar for those assurances would be very high. It would be more than just an assertion on his part. Miller is that a unanimous feeling . Ledgett its not unanimous. Miller among those who think making a deal is a bad idea is ledgetts boss, general alexander. Alexander this is analogous to a hostage taker taking 50 people hostage, shooting ten, and then say, if you give me full amnesty, ill let the other 40 go. What do you do . Miller its a dilemma. Alexander it is. Miller do you have a pick . Alexander i do. I think people have to be held accountable for their actions. Because what we dont want is the next person to do the same thing, race off to hong kong and to moscow with another set of data knowing they can strike the same deal. Miller this happened on your watch. A 20somethingyearold High School Dropout contractor managed to walk out with, in essence, the crown jewels. Did you offer to resign about the snowden incident . Alexander yes. Miller the secretary of defense, the director of national intelligence, what did they say . Alexander they said, we dont see a reason that you should resign. We havent found anybody there doing anything wrong. In fact, this could have happened to anybody in the community. And we dont need you to resign. We need you and Deputy Director to help work your way through this, which is what were doing. Well do everything we can to fix it. Miller besides Edward Snowden, general alexander has growing concerns about a number of increasing threats to the United States and the n. S. A. s ability to stop them. That part of the story when we come back. Good evening. The fed meets to discuss its Stimulus Program this week. Cantor fitzgerald is expected to settle its 9 11 lawsuit against American Airlines by tuesday. And a new report says 42 president s of private colleges now earn more than 1 million a year. Im jeff glor, cbs news. So i got the windows nokia tablet. Its, well, impressive. Its got the brightest hd screen, superfast 4g lte, so my son can play games and movies almost anywhere, and its got office for school stuff. But the best part . I got the lumia 928 for my daughter for free, with the best lowlight Smartphone Camera this side of the north pole. Dad for the win. Mm mm mm honestly, i want to see you be brave as your life changes, fidelity is there for your personal economy, helping you readjust along the way, refocus as careers change and kids head off to college, and revisit your investments as retirement gets closer. Wherever you are today, fidelitys guidance can help you finetune your personal economy. Start today with a free oneonone review of your retirement plan. Miller inside the n. S. A. , where getting hired requires swearing an oath to your country and signing a vow of secrecy under the penalty of law, the very concept of what Edward Snowden did was hard for many to grasp. General Keith Alexander felt he had a big stake in understanding snowden, so he and rick ledgett, who runs the snowden task force, got on a plane to hawaii. They wanted to see the scene of the crime, Edward Snowdens desk. Did you sit in his chair . Ledgett i did not. I couldnt bring myself to do that. Miller for ledgett, the trip was important to understanding who snowden was, and going back through the bits and the bytes, they discovered the first secrets snowden stole was how to cheat on a test to get a job at the agency. Ledgett he was taking a technical examination for potential employment at n. S. A. He used his System Administrator privileges to go into the account of the n. S. A. Employee who was administering that test, and he took both questions and the answers, and used them to pass the test. Miller at home, they discovered snowden had some strange habits. Ledgett he would work on the computer with a hood that covered the computer screen and covered his head and shoulders, so that he could work and his girlfriend couldnt see what he was doing. Miller thats pretty strange, sitting at your computer kind of covered by a sheet over your head and the screen. Ledgett agreed. Miller we also learned, for the first time, that part of the Damage Assessment considered the possibility that snowden could have left a bug or virus behind on the n. S. A. s system, like a time bomb. Ledgett so, all the. The machines that he had access to, we removed from our classified network. All the machines in the unclassified network, and including the actual cables that connect those machines, we removed as well. Miller this has to have cost millions and millions of dollars. Ledgett tens of millions, yes. Miller while Edward Snowdens leaks have been a disaster for the agency, the rest of the n. S. A. s mission has not slowed down. Meanwhile, the pakistani government has asked the u. S. Government to relook its drone policy. Miller twice a week, under the dim blue lights of the n. S. A. s Operations Center, the director is given a briefing. Sir, we added three new hostage cases this week. Miller with his deputy, chris inglis, general alexander listens to a rundown of global issues and International Crises the n. S. A. May be asked to collect intelligence on sir, moving to afghanistan. Miller the meeting is called the standup, because no one sits down, which is almost a metaphor for the pace of daily life in the n. S. A. Operations center. Howie larrabee is the centers director. Howie larrabee this is a 24 7 operation center. We havent had a day off, we havent had a christmas off, and we havent had a major snowstorm off in more than 40 years. Miller while the Operations Center grapples with terrorist plots and war zones, another team of analysts is monitoring what the agency says is the rising threat of a cyber attack that could take down anything from the power grid to wall street. Could a foreign country tomorrow topple our Financial System . Alexander i believe that a foreign nation could impact and destroy major portions of our Financial System, yes. Miller how much of it could we stop . Alexander well, right now, it would be difficult to stop it because our ability to see it is limited. Miller one they did see coming was called the bios plot. It could have been catastrophic for the United States. While the n. S. A. Would not name the country behind it, Cyber Security experts briefed on the operation told us it was china. Debora plunkett directs Cyber Defense for the n. S. A. , and for the first time, discusses the agencys role in discovering the plot. Debora plunkett one of our analysts actually saw that the nationstate had the intention to develop and to deliver, to actually use this capability to destroy computers. Miller to destroy computers. Plunkett to destroy computers. So, the bios is a basic input output system. Its, like, the foundational component firmware of a computer. You start your computer up, the bios kicks in, it activates hardware, it activates the operating system, it turns on the computer. Miller this is the bios system which starts most computers. The attack would have been disguised as a request for a software update. If the user agreed, the virus wouldve infected the computer. So, this basically would have gone into the system that starts up the computer, runs the systems, tells it what to do. Plunkett thats right. Miller and basically turned it into a cinderblock. Plunkett a brick. Miller and after that, there wouldnt be much you could do with that computer. Plunkett thats right. Think about the impact of that across the entire globe. It could literally take down the u. S. Economy. Miller i dont mean to be flip about this, but it has a kind of a little dr. Evil quality to it that, im going to develop a program that can destroy every computer in the world. It sounds almost unbelievable. Plunkett dont be fooled. There are absolutely nation states who have the capability and the intentions to do just that. Miller and based on what you learned here at n. S. A. , would it have worked . Plunkett we believe it would have, yes. Miller is this anything thats been talked about publicly before . Plunkett no, not. Not to this extent. This is the first time. Miller the n. S. A. , working with computer manufacturers, was able to close this vulnerability, but they say there are other attacks occurring daily. So the n. S. A. Has hired 3,000 young analysts as part of Cyber Defense. Three of those analysts morgan, charles, and natalie describe to us how countrys like china, russia and iran use social engineering to get inside a network. Theyre looking for a disguise to get in . Charles exactly, yes. Miller and at what point will they ask the question that will cause the adversary to hand over that vulnerability . Morgan so, if i want to craft a social engineering message to lure you in so that i could potentially steal your username and password to gain access to a network, i may go on your Facebook Page and see if you like golfing. So if you like golfing, then maybe im going to send you a email about, you know, a sale at a big golf retailer near you. Miller so youre trying to develop that little box thats irresistible. Correct, mmhmm. Miller . That the person has to click on and open, because. Morgan theyll take, yeah. Miller . They need to see whats inside . Morgan right. Miller and that is going to let loose all the gremlins that are going to take over whatever theyre capable of taking over. Morgan yeah, thats their door in. Charles the other real trick is, its not necessarily one email, it could be 50 emails. In the new cyber paradigm, you can fail 50 times. You can ignore 50 emails. But if that 51st one is clicked, then thats it, game over. Miller but before computers, before phones, there were codes. The n. S. A. Was born out of the codebreakers of world war ii. And even today, the most secret room inside the most secret building at the n. S. A. Is called the black chamber. This is where the nations top codebreakers work. We were able to look inside, but for obvious reasons, the n. S. A. Asked us not to show the people who worked there. Outside the black chamber is this ordinarylooking file cabinet. But it can only be opened with a code known by a handful of people. Bob, who watches over it, explains it holds the records of the codes america has broken over the last 60 years. If i was russia, china, iran, north korea, would i want what was inside there . Bob you would be greatly interested in whats in this box. This would be the ark of the covenant. Miller when you walk around the n. S. A. Research building where the codebreakers work, you see some very young people and very smart people. How long would it take you to do this . About a minute. Miller are you serious . Yeah. Miller go. Many of the cryptologists skipped grades in school, earned masters degrees and ph. D. S, and look more like they belong on a College Campus than at the n. S. A. Actually, the rubiks cube took him one minute and 35 seconds. You know, i didnt like you before. laughter for this group, the rubiks cube was the easiest problem that day. So the idea here is were looking at a sequence of numbers, and we want to determine whether theyre random or not random. Miller how are you approaching that . Can you show me . We are looking at this data right here, and it is a bunch of random numbers on the screen. Miller that looks a tad overwhelming. It is. Miller can you actually imagine solving this . Definitely. We solve hard problems all the time. Miller is there an unbreakable code . Chris inglis theoretically, yes. Theres always been an unbreakable code. Miller chris inglis is Deputy Director of the n. S. A. Among the areas he supervises are the codebreakers. He says, each summer, 10,000 High School Students apply for a few openings. Inglis we clear them fully. We give them full access to our problems. We give them problems that we could not solve. And they solve some number of those problems, the principle reason being that they bring a different perspective and audacity to it that we hadnt thought about in all the years of experience that weve brought to bear. Miller so youve had occasions where youve given a difficult problem to a High School Kid with a topsecret clearance whose come back and said hey, i think i got this one . Inglis for any given summer, thats more often the rule than the exception. Were always pleasantly surprised. Miller while High School Kids on summer break may be cracking secret codes, this is still a spy agency that steals secrets, reads emails, and listens to foreign leaders phone calls. Among the snowden leaks, perhaps the most embarrassing for the white house was that the n. S. A. Monitored some of german chancellor Angela Merkels cell phone calls. But general alexander says the n. S. A. Doesnt choose who to spy on. They target the subjects and the countries that other u. S. Agencies, including the state department, ask for intelligence on. Alexander thats one of the ones that the white house and i think our principals are looking at. What is the appropriate measures . What should we do . And what are we going to stop doing . From my perspective, when we look at that, it has to be both ways our country and their country has to come to an agreement to do the same. It cant be either way. Miller well, does that mean that well just agree to stop spying on everybody, including our friends, if they all agree to stop spying on everybody, including us . Alexander well, i think thats got to be part of the negotiation. And i think thats fraught with concern. What do you mean by stop spying . Miller do you think chancellor merkel hears president obamas calls . Alexander well, i dont know. But i know they have a great intelligence capability and that they collect foreign intelligence just like we do. Miller this week, the c. E. O. S of eight major internet providers, including google, apple and yahoo, asked the president for new limits to be placed on the n. S. A. s ability to collect personal information from their users. One of the snowden leaks involved the concept that n. S. A. Had tunneled into the foreign data centers of major u. S. Internet providers. Did the leak describe it the right way . Alexander no, thats not correct. We do target terrorist communications, and terrorists use communications from google, from yahoo, and from other Service Providers. So our objective is to collect those communications, no matter where they are. But were not going into a facility or targeting google as an entity or yahoo has an entity. But we will collect those communications of terrorists that flow on that network. Miller sources tell 60 minutes the president s Intelligence Review Panel will recommend new limits on the bulk collection of u. S. Phone records, which concerns general alexander. After all of this controversy, you could come out of this with Less Authority than you went into it. What does that say . Alexander well, my concern on that is specially whats going on in the middle east, what you see going on in syria, what we see going on in egypt, libya, iraq, its much more unstable. The probability that a terrorist attack will occur is going up. And this is precisely the time that we should not step back from the tools that weve given our analysts to detect these types of attacks. How did 60 minutes get its cameras into a spy agency . John miller talks about it on 60minutes. Com. We know were not the center of your life, but well do our best to help you connect to what is. Suddenly youre a mouth breather. A mouth breather how do you sleep like that . You dry up, your cold feels even worse. Well, put on a breathe right strip and shut your mouth. Cold medicines open your nose over time, but add a breathe right strip, and pow it instantly opens your nose up to 38 more so you can breathe and do the one thing you want to do. Sleep. Add breathe right to your cold medicine. Shut your mouth and sleep right. Breathe right. Add breathe right to your cold medicine. I got the tree, open the door ahh theres a better way to save. Hes not hibernating because if youve shopped at sears, you may have valuable points waiting to be redeemed on millions of great gift ideas in stores or at sears. Com. Remember, points equal dollars. So hurry in and use them now before they expire. Holiday a better way. Sears. And i thought you were gonna eat me. Simon think of egypt, and the first thing that comes to mind is not christianity. But egypt is home to the copts, one of the worlds oldest christian communities, with roots dating back to the time of christ himself. Back then, the word copt meant, simply, egypt. But after the advent of islam, it came to mean the christians of egypt and the name has stuck. Copts have never had it easy there. Theyve been persecuted and discriminated against by the muslim majority for centuries. Theyd hoped the egyptian revolution would change that. But it hasnt. Instead, the last year has been one of their worst ever. Copts have been murdered by islamic extremists. Dozens of their churches have been gutted. But were going to begin our story before the onset of these horrors with a coptic rite we witnessed, one of the most unusual events in all christianity. Like the greeks and the russians, copts are orthodox christians, but they have one thing in common with the Roman Catholics they elect a pope. And in egypt, its a public ceremony. It all happens in cairos grand cathedral. This was the first papal election in 41 years, and copts from all over egypt had come for what was likely to be a oncein alifetime experience. Its the last step in a process that has narrowed the candidates for pope down to three. But the final choice is made by a boy who is blindfolded and led to a crystal chalice containing the three names. The name on the piece of paper the boy picks becomes the next pope of coptic christians. They believe his choice is not a roll of the dice, but is inspired by the divine. When the name is read out, pandemonium reigns. cheers and applause the new pope, called tawadros ii, is a 61yearold pharmacist turned monk, and the 118th pope in a line stretching back to the 1st century. Now, in the Roman Catholic church, a pope is elected, as you know, by secret ballot behind closed doors. And you are selected by a boy. Pope tawadros ii yes. Simon . Putting his hand in a box. How did that come to pass . Pope tawadros ii this is a tradition in the Coptic Church, choosing the pope through a boy, because the boy is the symbol of purity. Simon purity and a young child the association is as old as christianity itself. Copts believe that the baby jesus came to cairo, that his life was saved here. Febe armanios, an expert on copts from middlebury college, took us down to the underground chapel of the Abu Serga Church, where the pastor, father angelos shenouda, showed us where the holy family sought refuge from king herod after their flight into egypt. Febe armanios local traditions say that they lived here, that the virgin mary may have even bathed the baby jesus in that spot there, that you can hear his voice in this room, that he breathed in this room. All of this is part of that memory. Simon thats why christians from all over egypt come to coptic cairo to pray. To them, the Abu Serga Church is as sacred as the church of the nativity in bethlehem or the holy sepulcher in jerusalem. But while foreigners used to flock to egypt to see what the pharaohs left behind, very few came here or even knew about Egypts Christian past. Armanios i dont think theres a lot of awareness of egypts role in the christian story. Its a forgotten community, as many people have called it. Simon are coptics a little bit upset about that . Armanios i think they would be eager to share their stories. They want to share this story with the world. Simon they want people to know that christianity has deep roots in egypt, in places like the Eastern Desert next to the red sea. We visited st. Anthonys, the First Christian monastery in the world. Father maximous elantony has been a monk here for 35 years. Now, i think most people think that the monastic tradition began in what we call the holy land israel palestine . Maximous elantony yeah. Simon but it began here . Maximous yes, it began here, of course, in egypt. Simon it began in these mountains, 450 feet above the sands. The monks believe it was in that tiny cave that st. Anthony, the First Christian monk, followed gods instructions to seclude himself in the desert. Every night around midnight, monks and novices climb through the darkness to pray here and honor his memory. It was very crowded and very cold. chanting simon the monks believe that st. Anthonys remains are buried near here, and theyve been searching for them for centuries. Ten years ago, when they probed beneath the monasterys floor, they made an amazing discovery what are believed to be the oldest monk cells in christianity, dating from the fourth century. They lived here. Maximous they lived here. Simon and there was no church . Maximous no church, no cells, no walls, nothing. chanting simon from nothing, the copts developed a religious culture thats distinctly egyptian everything from music to art to some of the most magnificent churches of the early christian era. Scholars have called the red monastery, the coptic sistine chapel. Its walls are covered with paintings of the churchs prophets, saints and martyrs. Today, the traditions that were planted in the desert 1. 600 years ago have hardly changed. The estimated eight and a half million copts form the largest Christian Community in the middle east. But in egypt, they are a distinct minority, 10 of the population. When we first met Pope Tawadros, egypts first islamist president , mohammed morsi, was still in power. Christians were terrified islamic rule was coming their way. By late june, the economy was a shambles. Millions of egyptians took to the streets demanding that morsi leave. On july 3, egypts army leader, general elsissi, announced a military coup on national tv. Lending him their support civil, military, and religious leaders, including Pope Tawadros ii. Wasnt the mere fact that the popes picture was taken next to general sissi. . Heba morayef dangerous. Simon wasnt that enough. . Morayef yes. Simon . To incite the brotherhood . Heba morayef, who heads Human Rights Watch in egypt, says the popes support of the military was denounced at Muslim Brotherhood rallies, which often blamed christians for conspiring to overthrow morsi. When you talk about anti christian dialogue, what are you referring to specifically . Morayef accusations that christians were responsible for the coup, chants that would call christians the popes dogs. Simon it all came to an abrupt end on august 14, when the army crushed two huge Muslim Brotherhood encampments. Close to 1,000 protestors were killed. Morayef the dispersal of the two sitins on august 14 were the most bloody incidents of Police Violence weve ever seen in egypt. Simon as word of the killings spread, all across egypt, muslim mobs began attacking christian churches. This cell phone video shows one surrounding the Coptic Church in sohag, 245 miles south of cairo, battering their way in, setting it on fire. It took a while to destroy the cross, but when it finally came down, the crowd began shouting god is great. Over the next two days, devastation like this was visited on more than 40 churches. Youssef sidhom we never expected that they will turn so fierce and vicious in their attacks. Simon Youssef Sidhom is the editor of egypts most important coptic newspaper. Well, how did you explain it . I mean, why was there such violence . Sidhom they were furious about the copts, and they wanted really to punish them for that. Simon and right outside cairo, in a town called kerdasa, a mob broke down the gate of another Coptic Church complex. Redha girgis, a caretaker, was there. Redha girgis translated they looted everything, from chairs to pews. They stole anything that could be carried. What they couldnt carry, they destroyed. Simon how did they set the church on fire . Girgis they set the whole place on fire, with molotov cocktails and gasoline. Simon and on their way out, the attackers left behind a calling card, graffiti saying that egypt is islamic. The whole complex was gutted. Everything was incinerated pews, paintings, bibles. The copts had supported the overthrow of Muslim Brotherhood rule, were overjoyed when the army took over. But when they saw their churches in flames, they realized they were paying a price for siding with the military and that they were on their own. No one was going to help them. But martyrdom has always been at the core of the coptic religion. Suffering, copts believe, deepens their faith. The day we were in kerdasa, they held a service in the only place that hadnt been destroyed. But we were surprised there was no anger, no call for revenge. Bishop thomas, one of the churchs senior clerics, says whatever pain copts are suffering, they must turn the other cheek, at least for now. Bishop thomas forgiveness is a very important principle in the christian life. When you are able to present forgiveness and love, you are able as well to ask for justice. One day in this life, justice has to be fulfilled. Simon one day, perhaps. But its not happening now. Four copts, including two children, were killed recently when masked gunmen shot them as they arrived for a wedding. Thousands attended the funeral for the churchs latest martyrs. Pope tawadros ii in every period, we must present some martyrs. Simon so you think that christianity in egypt requires martyrs today as it has in the past . Pope tawadros ii yeah, every day. Every day. Simon Febe Armanios believes the violence is one reason people are flocking to charismatic coptic services. She took us to one at st. Simon in muquattam in cairo, one of the largest churches in the middle east. 2,000 people attended the night we went, and the service was broadcast all over the country. It went on for three hours and ended like no other we had ever seen. With public exorcisms. screaming have you ever seen anything like this . Armanios ive attended some of these ceremonies in this church before. Simon and it always ends like this . Armanios yeah, theres just a sense in the community of helplessness, of people in need of the priests blessing, people in need of healing from god, people in need of support. Simon they find support in their own history. In a rite of passage unique among christian churches, the cross is tattooed on childrens wrists. It hurts a little, but the pain doesnt last. Its a tradition that dates back to the middle ages when muslims forced copts to wear the cross as a sign of identity. Today, they wear it as a sign of pride. Welcome to the cbs spores update presented by pacific life. Im james brown with scores from around nfl. Today three touchdowns as miami ends a sevengame skid against the pats. Jamaal charles scores fives times. Seattle hands the giant their first home shutout since 95. Dallas blows a 23point halftime lead in its loss to the packers. Colin kaepernick and the 49ers make it four straight. For more sports news and information, go to cbs sports news. Com. And well help out with the school of your choice. Well, i got the grades and, with dads planning and a lot of hard work, im graduating today with a degree in marine biology. Im so thankful and excited about the future. [ male announcer ] for strategies on how to help your family achieve financial success, visit pacificlife. Com. On use chase freedom atily achselect Department Stores and get 5 cash back this quarter. So you can give her an even bigger surprise. Activate your 5 cash back at chase. Com freedom chase. So you can. Kroft now, an update on a story we did about huawei, the Chinese Telecommunications equipment giant. A year ago, the company was aggressively battling for a share of the american market, and members of congress were concerned that huawei equipment could potentially intercept u. S. Communications or be used by the chinese to wage cyberwarfare. Congressman mike rogers warned customers away from the company. If i were an American Company today, and ill tell you this as the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on intelligence, and you are looking at huawei, i would find another vendor if you care about your intellectual property, if you care about your consumers privacy, and you care about the National Security of the United States of america. Kroft now, the reclusive head of huawei has told reporters hes throwing in the towel the company will not seek any new american contracts. Im steve kroft. Well be back next week with im steve kroft. Well be back next week with another edition of 60 minutes. We eased your back pain. ] ready or not. [ female announcer ]. So you can be up there. Here i come [ female announcer ]. Down there, around there. And under there for him. 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Im so stoked that i get to play with aras, i want to go deep into the game with him. Jeff but instead they were torn apart. You will not be playing with them. You will be playing against your loved ones. Forced to compete against each other. Are you no longer loved ones, you are now expectitiers, it was the beginning of blood versus water. Each tribe is to you going to vote someone out. Oh my gosh. Jeff laura, laura. Not good