and we also have dennis rader. it's going to take time to heal that wound. >> dennis rader was sentenced to a minimum of 175 years and is currently in prison at the el dorado correctional facility outside of wichita. he was ineligible for the death penalty because kansas did not reinstate capital punishment until 1994, three years after his last murder. that's our report. thanks for watching. i'm john seigenthaler right now on msnbc, al qaeda connection. president obama makes his first direct link between that group and the botched terror attack on christmas day. heart healthy, rush limbaugh out of the hospital and talking about what might have caused his chest pains. the get away, tiger woods takes a trip far from the troubled golfer. she's been spotted in resorts in the alps. details ahead, a look back as we enter a new year. good morning, i'm chris jansing, in for alex witt. we'll have all those stories plus your weather forecast. first, knew new this mornin president obama is blaming a branch of al qaeda on the bombing plot of the botch ed terror plot. >> we know he traveled to yemen of crushing deadly insurgencies. a fear he joined a group of al qaeda and this group trained him, equipped him with those explosives and directed him to attack that plane headed for america. >> i mike is at the white house for us this morning. good morning y mike. >> good morning. >> what can you tell us about the president and where he is now on this whole thing? just waiting for that big meeting on tuesday? >> reporter: that's right. the president of the united states has a weekly radio and internet address saturday morning. it wasn't a leak or congressional testimony, he was getting out there saying it was aqap, as referred to on intelligence circles, al qaed n on the arabian peninsula, that nig nigerian man in the skies. the president had been on defense initially. it was three days before he said anything and in the meantime, republicans were attacking him for being soft on terrorism, not responding quickly enough, abolishing the term "war on terror" later, the president talked about the things he has done to fight terror, especially in yemen. >> i refocused the fight bringing to a responsible end to the war in iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11 attacks and dramatically resourcing our interests where al qaeda is based. i set a mission to dismantle al qaeda. we put unrelenting pressure on these extremists wherever they plot and train. >> reporter: later in that address, the president went out of his way to call for bipartisansh bipartisanship, end to partisan rancor when it comes to these issues. tuesday, he gets back from hawaii, been there since christmas eve, a work vacation, it turns out. gets back monday. tuesday, he will convene a meeting in the white house situation room with these agencies, department of homeland security, national terrorism center, director of national intelligence, transportation security administration. incidentally, the interesting thing about those five agencies were created after 9/11 with the express purpose of streamlining and sharing the kind of intelligence information that was picked up apparently leading up to this but nothing done about it. they will have tough questions to answer from the president come tuesday. >> there's also a report the president got a high level briefing on terror a couple days before christmas. he does regularly get these terror briefings but yemen wasn't mentioned. is that a big red flag? >> reporter: interesting you should mention that. the president does get an intelligence briefing every morning. you're right. reported on "newsweek" this morning, a report just days before the attack, the president did receive a top level briefing. it seems to be an unusual briefing. some of the same agencies we just mentioned talking about a possible holiday attack. the report goes on to mention yemen in specifically was not mentioned. there are fragments of information that float around out there. according to this report ultimately, this was judged to be a washout, ultimately turns out there was actually an attempted attack on christmas day, chris. >> thank you, mike. now for perspective i'm joined by cia special agent jack rice. good morning. i'm wondering what significance you put on the fact the president said it was al qaeda the first time. >> obviously they're trying to target who was driving this operation. it highlights the problems we face in yemen right now. it's a failing state, like we have seen in afghanistan in some ways, even efforts in somalia, if you have no central government or incompetent central government, the idea saying that government should stop what's going on in their country, to give perspective, they're two civil wars taking place, one to the north and one to the south of yemen. you look at the growing, big mountains, serious problems. for the americans to come in and i say, okay, now what? do we open up a third war? is this a third front for any americans. people are really starting to ask that very question. >> i guess then that if the president says it's a priority to forge stronger relationships with the yemeni government and work more closely with their security forces, is your question how significant is that government? how strong? . >> exactly. that's part of the problem. we increased the amount of money we're spending there. part of the problem, when they say "failing state," what little oil they have is draining away. little to nothing left. they have serious water issues. you think about the jihadis, the movement you see inside yemen, in some cases takes you back to the 1980s, after afghanistan and fight of the mujahideen against the soviets a lot of those people came back to yemen. americans saw that as a good thing then, those were the good guys, right? what happens when you create that type of approach and at some point in the future, those very same people turn on the americans? we're sort of paying a price for that thing, too. that is also a piece of this puzzle. >> whether we're talking about yemen and al qaeda in the arabian peninsula and bigger picture of al qaeda, you just heard what the president had to say, jack, they had a clear and achievable goal of getting rid of al qaeda. clear maybe but how achievable? >> that's a great question. >> i think it sounds good. the problem you have with al qaeda or any group like this is it sounds like there is one simple organization, there are not. there are multiple parallel organizations on a world-wide basis. they connect when they need to or interested in or just looking for more authority, they will use the term "al qaeda." that doesn't mean they necessarily work together hand-in-hand. that is part of the problem. we can actually go after one group, even inside some place like yemen and another spring up alongside it, which is separate. how about this? you that the possibility of several groups actually not just coordinate budget almost competing, what you will have is one saying the other guys are the bad guys when in fact they both are. we had a very hard time determining those who wear the white hats if we can call it that and those who wear the black hats. >> jack rice, thanks very much. sobering stuff. on "meet the press," deputy national security advisor john brennan will talk about how it might have been prevented and also on that program, michael chertoff and michael hayden. developing now, just getting word of a ship hijacking this morning. the british flagship, asian glory was kidnapped off the coast of somalia by pirates. it includes eight bull gareians. more details as we get them. police in pakistan say a suicide bomber who killed 96 people at a volleyball tournament probably had another target in mind. it took place near a meeting of elders trying to fight off the taliban in the area and set an ant anti-taliban militia. investigators are trying to comb through that rubble for more bodies. rush limbaugh out of the hospital saying he did not have a heart attack and the tests show nothing wrong. the conservative talk show radio host was released from the honolulu hospital yesterday and admitted monday after suffering serious chest pains. limbaugh says doctors don't know what caused the pain. >> i wish i knew what it was. all people can do is make wild guess about it. best guess was it might have been a spasm in an artery. this angiogram showed literally no heart disease or arterial disease whatsoever. >> we'll have more what doctors are saying about limbaugh's condition in a live report from honolulu in a few minutes. all across new england, preparations under way for heavy snowfall today. boston could get buried by up to 10 inches of snow. in portland, maine, snow removal crews plan to salt, sand and scrape their way through what's expected 15-18-inches of snow. bill karins has your forecast. good morning, bill. >> good saturday morning to you, chris. waking up to snow. new york city gotten an overnight dusting. and snow in long island, connecticut and also massachusetts. it will be pretty much all day snow event in northern new england. in boston the next two day, windy and persiods of snow and t will be enough you have to do shoveling. official forecast calls 3-6 in boston and 6 to 12 inches with the latest storm. other locations are cold incl e including the southeast. you want to talk about cold, look at the midwest, windchill in negative 37 range in minneapolis. a horrible cold period for minneapolis, the high 22 degrees tomorrow, only 7 degrees. by far the worst area for winter cold this weekend in the midwest. back to you, chris. >> thank you. tennessee police have just released dashcam video showing one man who couldn't quench his thirst. the video shows him dragging a soda machine from the back of his truck, sparks flying everywhere. he allegedly stole the machine earlier in the day. officials caught up and arrested him before anyone was hurt. police say he was hoping to get the money in that machine. isn't there an easier way? new economic numbers show signs of recovery in 2010, jobless claims down to the lowest in 18 months and wall street starts the year up by 19%. i'm joined by financial analyst, vera gibbons. happy new year. we have the stock market up. if you've been in the market a few years, you're probably still down from where you were. what's the out look this year? >> pretty good, the best performance in 2009 than we've seen in six years. looking ahead, experts agree two things, no longer on the brink of depression, so that's a positive and not going to see the 60% surge wave seen ever again or not any time soon. looking ahead to 2010, the rally in 2009 was pretty much based on hopes of recovery, expectations for recovery, to see those gains continue to 2010, you have to see evidence the recovery is actually taking hold. only of the analysts, experts talking about 10, 15% gain, all over the map because know one knows where it's headed. >> the housing market they're talking about getting better, a lot what i'm reading show me concerns maybe a lot of money helping people avoid foreclosure wasn't as helpful as they thought it would be, still very tight to get a mortgage, those kinds of things, what's it look like this year? >> the housing market will not recovery until there is any real job growth. we're still a ways away from that. very good if you're a buyer, tax credit extended to april, very low mortgage rates and more foreclosures expected in 2010, will put pressure on prices. if you're a buyer, you're excited. if you're trying to sell your home, you're in a tough position. people who sell their homes in 2010 are only people who have to sell your homes. i advise you if you to have sell your home, know what homes in your area are going for in terms of size and location. you have to do your research and in this market, you have to price your home to sell. >> you mentioned jobs, what are the prospects? . >> jobs, i know, over 7 million jobs lost since the recession started. not good. >> and many people getting part-time jobs much less than making before. >> and many underemployed or unemployed. if they want a full time job, they can't actually get it. first quarter of 2010, some expecting it to peak at 10.2%. no sign of real recovery. >> you got any good news for me right now since i'm not in the market to buy a house, what is the silver lining? >> we're saving more. >> that's good. maybe the recession is confirming there is a tomorrow. >> people are working hard and spending less and saving more. taking new steps to find a missing woman. also the proof police really did have their hands full new year's eve, how a highway stop got out of control. the wife of tiger woods spotted on vacation, the details. later, the most admired women in the united states, how does secretary of state hillary clinton stack up against sarah palin. a new poll coming up. vo:0manage yoñr0weigh÷ and çsav [ male announcer ] let's talk about putting our best square foot forward. then let's do more than talk about it. let's turn picturing it into planning it, thinking it over into making it happen. let's say out with the old and in with the new. let's create some wall-to-wall "wow." 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(announcer) zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. no prescription needed. new this morning, president obama is blaming al qaeda for the attempted bomb attack on usa passenger plane. the president has summoned security officials from key government agencies for a me meeting. chuck todd is covering the president who continues his vacation in hawaii. good to see you. what do we know about this agenda for tuesday's meeting? >> reporter: tuesday's meeting will be very similar in many ways, how long and back and forth to the afghanistan review, when the president would get a lot of voices around the table. this will be focused on one specific issue, actually two in this case, one would be the intelligence breakdown, how is it we had all this intelligence? the president has -- web and radio address outlines details how quickly we knew what was going on with abdulmutallab in yemen tells you we had this information before he got on that plane. the review is about two things, how is it the dots weren't connected? the whole point of the national counter terrorism center and the intelligence was to have an apparatus to do that. those folks getting called on the carpet a little bit,to have them explain and the president questioning those folks back and forth. there's the homeland security aspect to this where janet napolitano will answer questions what could tsa have done better? what can we do nationally to make sure security getting onto these airliners coming to the united states is as good as in the united states. >> we already know the president got preliminary reports from intelligence agencies. did we learn anything else about the suspect's path from nigeria to detroit or anything about how it all came to this? >> reporter: the most significant aspect of this is we knew in august in the arabian peninsula, aqap was working with someone simply identified on some intercepts as the nigerian and another source tells us it was a partial name used, in fact one veteran of watching these things said it was probably something like umar, the nigerian, using his first name and identifying the nationality had the information that abdulmutallab's father, he gave to the embassy in nigeria, had been simply connected to that, it would have been enough to move abdulmutallab's name not just out of the terrorist database but up a notch to secondary screening or even the no-fly list one would assume at least either prevented him on that plane or had that extra screening and found the material he hid. i think the most troubling aspect to this is that in this review process, we had a lot of information. the good news, it means we have good intelligence sources in yemen, nigeria, places you need these sources. the bad news, we're still not connecting the dots, chris. >> let me ask you finally about this continuing criticism, some on the airways, some in print whether the president should have acted more quickly, whether he should have come back from hawaii, some op-ed columnists writing about the fact when he should have been putting out a front he was working hard, he was out on the golf course. what about that decision from the white house and is there any second-guessing of it? >> reporter: there doesn't appear to be a lot of second-guessing. if there were, they would be careful not to make that public. they don't like to necessarilied a mate mistake like that. i think their defense on this behind the scenes is a couple fold, the president does like to wait until he has all the information he gets before he responds. he doesn't want to overreact. at time when a lot of people were traveling, he didn't want to hit the panic button for everybody and suddenly make an already tough travel season even tougher on folks. i think in hindsight they probably wish the president had responded a day later but i don't think they believe there's anything he could have done in washington he couldn't get accomplished here. >> all right, chuck, thanks so much. good to see you. >> reporter: nice to see you. >> still ahead, more from hawaii, rush limbaugh talking about what doctors discovered after he suffered chest pains this week. rush limbaugh is out of the hospital this morning. the 58-year-old radio talk show host is out of the hospital after being admitted monday complaining of severe chest pains. lee, what do we know about his condition? >> reporter: well,it was a very relieved rush limbaugh that resumed his hawaii vacation yesterday calling his health care very humbling but very misfy fiing at the same time. he described the chest pains he was having as some of the worst pains he ever had. cardiologists say he did not have a heart attack. they're unclear what he did have. take a listen. >> i wish i knew what it was. all people can do is make wild guess about it. best guess was it might have been a spasm in an artery. this angiogram showed literally no heart disease or arterial disease whatsoever. >> reporter: now, health care and health care reform are both some of the key topics on rush limbaugh's shows one of his points of contention with the president and didn't waste the opportunity to say his experience at queens medical center in honolulu is proof the health care system is just fine. your can expect to hear a lot more on his radio show. he's expected to be back on the air wednesday. >> he was expected back monday. he's delaying a couple days, is that right? >> reporter: he was just leaving the press conference yesterday, thought he was going to be back monday and maybe things got pushed back, wants to eat up those two days he lost in the hospital although he actually said staying in the hospital is almost like being on vacation, maybe wants to extend it a little bit. he said he will be back middle of the week, maybe wednesday. still ahead, the wife of tiger woods coming out of hiding but for just a moment. next, where she was spotted on msnbc. zyrtec® itchy eye drops work fast i can love the air™. 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could we see shake-ups in agencies? >> possible. some agencies heads have come under severe fire. there's a chance. there's reports dennis blair, the director of national intelligence has been a little disaffected in this administration, has lost a couple fights with the cia director leon pin net ta in the intelligence community and reports he isn't all that enthused about the job right now. i haven't personally heard those indications from any of my sources. i wouldn't be surprised to see a shake-up. it's a little early in the administration for something like that to happen. your usually want to see, in terms of, if there's going to be a change, you would expect someone to come under more fire than they're coming under now. there are people in congress suggesting maybe janet napolitano, the dhs secretary should go. it's coming from some of the lower level members usually, not a whole lot of higher level members calling for that kind of shake-up yet. i don't see that happening right now but that doesn't mean it won't happen. >> the unknowable is not only the tuesday meeting but these congressional hearings coming up and who knows who will come off well or not so well in those hearings. you also have a president, who frankly, when he was running for office, probably took the strongest number of its about his foreign policy experience. how much pressure is he under, especially given the criticism how he handled this the first couple of days, to come back here in the midst of all these hearings seem strong, forceful and focused what he will do to make sure this doesn't happen again? >> there are, i think five different congressional committees promising hearings on this. that's a lot of scrutiny. some of the scrutiny is coming from democrats on capitol hill who had been a little bit more cautious in their criticism of the president for instance the ft. hood shooting. the pressure is ratcheting up a little bit. i think you will still see some of those democrats looking to defend the president a little bit, the senate intelligence committee chair woman, dianne feinstein put out a statement earlier this week saying, there was a 2008 policy that contributed to this watch list problem, a little bit of pointing backwards at the bush administration. as these hearings develop, you will see information come out and you will probably see -- have more pressure on the president to perform better on these areas. there's a wide consensus there were missteps here as far as how he handled the appearance of it. what's interesting about it, you will finds some experts who say actually he handled it well, you don't want to overexaggerate a terror incident. i think later on in the week he started to realize and advisors realize maybe that's not the best strategy and maybe he should have been more proactive and out front. >> thanks for talking to us this morning. the botched terror is focusing more attention on airport body scanners. would a body scan have caught the airport terrorist? we will talk about that in two minutes. facing charges after passing out in a car right in the middle of a highway. he apparently partied too hard on new year's eve. the passenger was so out of it, the officer had to carry him to the police cruiser, both men arrest. some serious snowfall expected over the midwest. lake-effect could drop 14 inches east of cleveland. joining us, bill karins. good morning. >> if you've ever seen the movie "fargo," that's how it feels in the plains today, incredible temperatures. this morning the record low in fargo was minus 34. the windchill is minus 37. even in chicago, minus 11. in the middle of the country, you have the incredible cold. in new england, you deal with a windy snow event. tough to travel in portland and burlington, vermont, the next couple of days. the storm will last until probably sunday night. we're expecting a foot of snow at max but light and powdery and blowing all over the place. the bottom half of the country is chilly but sunny, northern plains extremely cold and new england with snow the worst of the saturday weather. >> thank you. coming up, a new poll on the most admired people in america, a fourth place finish for michelle obama? who finished ahead of her. and friends and family of a mother missing. we'll talk to her father next. how can i keep my best employees? how can i bring down my insurance costs? and while at american express open we may not have all the answers, we know who does. other owners. that's why we're helping business owners connect. together, we're building a community for them to talk, share and help each other. a place called openforum.com where owners can swap ideas and ask questions. will tweeting get me more customers? how can i make my business green? and one question seems especially popular. how can i get paid faster? how can i get paid faster? i was about to ask you the same thing. and they're inspiring ideas like acceptpay. a new tool from open that lets owners invoice digitally and helps them get paid faster. ask a question. find an answer. join the conversation at openforum.com. it has been almost a month since susan powell, the 28-year-old mother of two disappeared from her home in utah. friends and family are taking new steps to locate her. i'm joined by her father and her best friend. good morning to both of you. mr. cox, let me start with you, what is the latest on the search for your daughter? >> we haven't heard any new news. the police are still tracking every lead and we're just hoping for some good news. >> authorities have, as you know, been calling your son-in-law, josh powell, a person of interest and some say he is even slowing down the investigation. when, if all, have you talked to him and what's your thought about him as a person of interest? . >> i talked briefly with him when i was able to see my grandchildren on christmas day the police have their reasons for naming him a person of interest. obviously, i'd like him to cooperate with the police, his attorney to talk with the police and tell him anything he knows so we can get on with ruling him out and finding my daughter. >> how were the kids doing on christma christmas? >> well, we purposely did not pry into that,to protect the privacy of the children, we avoided discussing anything with them. they seemed to be okay, to me,or reasonably happy. >> i'm glad to hear that. i can't even imagine what it's like for them not seeing their mom. chrissy, you have said that you believe that some breaks, big breaks maybe even, could be uncovered, if the search would be expanded online. could you talk a little bit about that? >> i've gotten a lot of flak from people for not being in searches on the ground in utah. i believe since we have no idea where to look and the police haven't given us any clue, we could reach million os of people over the internet and somebody in those millions of people will know something that will help us find susan. >> what is it you think you might be able to see or hear? someone you want to maybe recognize her for some reason hasn't seen her picture yet in the news media? >> exactly. we're creating a brand-new slide show of pictures of susan throughout her life and getting a missing person poster out there and somebody who will know her and help us. >> you're starting a ribbon campaign? >> correct. we're asking everybody to tie ribbons on their clothes and trees and car antennas,another symbol to keep her close in everybody's minds. >> have you talked to josh at all? >> i have talked to him several times but not since he went to washingto washington. >> what did he tell knew. >> he really doesn't say much at all. he's normally pretty talkative but hasn't said much at all since this all started. >> there are a number of people unfortunately who have found themselves in your situation, started organizations, foundations to help the families, to go through this process. how are you getting through this? >> one day at a time. we're kind of preparing ourselves this could be a while before we find something. we've had a lot of support from friends and from work. through the internet, people interested, and our faith. >> is that what police are telling you, you should prepare yourself this could take a while? >> no. but -- >> are they optimistic they are going to be able to find your daughter? >> we don't know the details of the investigation. we have every confidence in what they're doing, and we're letting them do the police work. but, as missing cases go, and the other ones you were mentioning or referring to, we realize it could be a while before we know anything. >> i'm sure the hearts of all the viewers who are watching go out to you. we hope this case is solved very soon. charles cox, chrissy, thanks so much, i hope this is a happy new year for you, that this case takes a positive turn. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. the new year started with a frightening moment in suburb ban kansas city, a motorist running a stop sign plowed into a house. fortunately, the brother and sister inside the house weren't hurt. the driver did suffer minor injuries an was arrested for dui and driving with a suspended license. president obama starts 2010 as the country's most admired man. "usa today" and the gallup poll said that americans found the president blowing away the competition but when it comes to america's most admired woman, hillary clinton took it in a nailbiter. jon dekker is washington correspondent for reuters. this is the one people have been looking at. one point apart, hillary clinton, sarah palin, could you think of two more different women? >> i can't. talk about a partisan divide that exists in america to have these two women as the most admired women in america, it also shows you, chris, how each of these women are viewed by both political parties. i think it was 6% or so off republicans say that they admire hillary clinton, while less than 1% of democrats say they admire sarah palin. these two women who certainly are lightning rods in american politics are viewed quite differently by both political parties. >> it's interesting, hillary clinton has had an unprecedented run, 17 years either as the number one or number two most admired woman. amazing. >> isn't that remarkable? 17 years to keep it up. >> given she's considered to be such a polarizing figure. >> yeah. whether she was first lady of the united states, the junior senator of the state of new york, now secretary of state, still number one or number two on this list that comes out every year at this time of year, it's quite the staying power hillary clinton has. it may bode well for her if she has some thoughts about perhaps one day running for president once again. >> let's go to nen. barack obama, 30% of the vote, only presidents to score higher were george w. bush, right after 9/11 and jfk, in 1961, clearly at least he has a base of incredibly strong support. >> again, the strong support comes from democrats. that's to do well. it's a much smaller number as it relates to republicans, viewing the president in this fashion. but the president continues to maintain some popularity, which should be very helpful to him in this new year as he pursues his main domestic priority. health care. in these first few months of the year. he's going to certainly count on that popularity and count on that support among his democratic base. >> and glenn beck and pope benedict both with 2%. a tie there. another interesting part of this toll. >> and tiger woods made the list. >> and so did elin. they both got 1%. it's always gd to see you jon, thanks for coming. >> good to see you. >> speaking of elin woods, she's in the alps. the wife of tiger woods on a secret trip. until now, of course. you're watching msnbc. is anything secret with the paparazzi? oh, that's right. you just woke up from a 23-year coma. yeah, it was a long one. did i miss anything? uh, the cold war ended. 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(announcer) zyrtec-d®. behind the pharmacy counter. mom: mom, anybody? momhey...where's grandma?o? grandma: here! mom: how'd you fit in there? woman vo: manage your weight at unbeatable prices. woman vo: healthy living costs less at walmart. vo: save money. live better. walmart. now to new news in the tiger woods saga. a british tabloid is reporting this morning that the golf star's wife elin has turned up at an exclusive french ski resort. nbc's stephanie gosk is in london with more. and stephanie, what are we hearing from that tabloid? >> reporter: good morning, chris. well it's the sun, and they're reporting that elin is in the resort of chamonix and she's there with family and friends. she's been there for about a week, staying at one of the most exclusive chalets at the resort. reportedly costs more than $8,000 a night. she's there with her twin sister josephine and it's a little unclear whether or not these pictures are of josephine or of elin herself. they are both reportedly very good skiers. now, nbc has spoken to some paparazzi on the ground there. they say they've been staking out the location for a week, and they haven't had any luck getting pictures of her. some thought that she might be staying inside the chalet and not going out that much. and reportedly she is expected to leave tomorrow. >> we're joking that the paparazzi can find anybody. but any tine of tiger woods? even from the british press? >> reporter: no. it remains a big mystery here, chris. he disappeared after the accident. no one has seen him. there was a statement that he released saying, admitting that he was guilty of infidelities. but there has been a large chorus of people wanting that public apology, in person, in front of cameras. tiger woods clearly not doing that. but the disappearance is doing little to stem the tide of bad news. over the holidays, at&t announced it was dropping their sponsorship. >> all right, thanks, stephanie. appreciate it. a new report by the associated press says airport patdowns are often ineffective, and that most travelers at u.s. airports never get frisked when they pass through security. aviation experts say patdowns aren't effective because of government rules limiting where screeners can put their hands. joining me live from washington, d.c. tom blank, vice chairman of westler and walker and the former head of tsa policy. happy new year to you, sir. >> chris, good morning. >> what about that report that patdowns essentially are ineffective? >> well, i think what we need to do is to get better at detecting organic materials, which are explosi explosive, at the checkpoint. that's a weakness, it's a vulnerability. and patdowns are but one technique for secondary screening, after you already have some suspicions about somebody. what we've got to do is find that organic material when we do our initial screening. perhaps putting some x-ray equipment linking it up with a walk-through metal detectors that are already in place. >> are you talking about the full body scanning machines that have got some privacy advocates up in arms? >> that's exactly what i'm talking about. we really should deploy this. we should really understand that what happened on christmas day is a lightning bolt wake-up call, because we simply have to understand that explosives is what we're worried about. the full body scanners address that issue. we're not really worried these days about knives, guns, and box cutters. >> well, let's talk about these machines, because it does take awhile. i've actually been through them myself. are you proposing everyone has to go through them? or you really have to start at the front, get our intelligence better, and just pick and choose who goes through these body scanners? >> well, you've got to do all of the things. the intelligence has to get better. there's a lot of ways to operationallize this equipment. the tsa -- >> you mean to make it quicker? >> you can make it quicker. it already has been made quicker, because of the investments that tsa has made in it. and because of the fact that it has been pretty extensively piloted. there's 40 pieces of this equipment out there right now. so it can be made quicker. but tsa could choose to use it on a random basis. but you know, there's really a high degree of acceptability on the part of the american public about its use. that's what tsa find in its pilot programs. >> well, i want to see what that study shows. because i know when i've gone through it's probably been a good minute to 90 seconds, in addition to the other screening, and how much that would slow down the line, especially at christmastime. so, i think i guess we'll wait and see, even if we get beyond those privacy issues. nice of you to come and be with us today, tom blank, thanks so much. >> thank you. our top story this morning, for the first time, president obama publicly blaming al qaeda for the botched christmas day terror attack. you'll hear from the president, next. smo my grandparents smoked. i've been a long-time smoker. i'm a guy who had given up quitting. what caused me to be interested was, chantix is not a nicotine product and that intrigued me. the doctor said while you're taking it you can continue to smoke during the first week. 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