it now seems clear tonight the federal government has been caht off guard by the level of public outrage on the part of some passengers toward these new security rules at airports. the skies will be full of flying passengers this thanksgiving week. all of them have to get through security first, and for a lot of them, this will be their first encounter with the either/or combination of body scans and the patdowns that have some groups planning acts of civil disobedience. the government reminds us this threat of terrorism is constant. but there is new evidence these flying rules have some room to change. we want to start off with tom brokaw who is at reagan national airport in washington. tom, good evening. >> reporter: hi,brian. i think the government has heard all of this, because senior government sources are saying they're going to modify the number of passeers randomly selected for a patdown as the government looks for a balance between privacy and security. after a week of growing public and political anger over the tsa's new enhanced patdowns, the adminiration suggested it might tweak its policy. e tsa administrator on the "today" show. >> yes, we're going to look at how can we do the most effective screening in the least invasive way. >> reporter: but given the ongoing terrorist threat, don't look for the tsa to abandon patdowns. >> of course we'll make chges wen called upon but not changes that will affect the bic operational capability that we need to have to make sure that air travel remains safe. >> reporter: the tsa insists only psengers who opt out of the new full body scans or trip a metal detector are selected for a patdown. but it's also reeling from travelers horror stories from their experiences with the tsa. in detroit, a bladder cancer survivor says he tried to tell officers he was wearing an external bladders but their aggressive patdown caused the bladder to spill urine down his parents. >> it was so embarrassing and humiliating. i didn't have time to really do what i needed to do. the plane was going to go. >> reporter: this weekend, secretary of state clinton admitted she would not want a patdown. >> would you submit to one of these patdowns? >> not if i could avoid it. no. i mean, who would? >> reporter: not everyone has to be scanned or patted down. any federal official with armed bodyguards like cabinet members or congressional leaders of both partiehave always been allowed to avoid tsa checkpoints. the rest of us have to wait in line. >> i wouldn't let it happen. i would not do it. i would just not fly. >> it's in some ways intrusive to our civil rights, but i guess if we have to, to be safe. >> you would think by now the technology should be better and we should ve a better system than people just fondling us. >> reporter: a couple of stats for you. less than 3% of people are ever selected for patdowns and of those who go through the full body scanners only 1% decide to opt t and go for the patdown instead. so far no sign of that protest that they've been talking about this week with people opting out, trying to force tse tsa checkpoints to get into a choke period. but the crunch day is wednesday, the day before thanksgiving. back to you. >> tom costello at washington's nashl airport. tom, thanks. the close calls we've had with terrorism in recent months haven't started in airports here at home, but in europe nbc's jim maceda is at london heathrow with the latest on how they've been handling serity over there. jim, good evening. >> reporter: hi, brian. security checks d patdowns have also put a strain on passenger's patience overseas but so far at least they're mostly taking it in stride. across europe, security at major airports for u.s. bound flights has become time consuming and personal. >> amerins are paranoid about security, as simple as that. >> reporter: even heathrow airport officials admit when it comes to removing shoes and laops before boarding, there's overkill in the system. >> i think we could do a better job for passengers. >> reporter: but there's no rethinking this. richard reid, the shoe bomber, and the so-called underwear boer, omar abdulmutallab were on u.s. planes that departed from europe. >> i think in europe we have now reluctantly accepted the fact at when you buy an airline ticket, you agree to surrender your dignity. >> reporter: since the christmas day attack, what was unheard of before, ll body scanners and hands on searches,ot nearly as uncomfortable as stateside, are now more visible, with varying degrees of acceptance. after a three-month trial peod, paris dropped all use of body scanners, calling them too invasive. instead, passengers to the u.s. and otherhigh-risk countries dergo obligatory patdowns with few complaints. great britain and germany now use a handful of body scanners between them. patdowns are random or occur if scanners or profilers pick up something suspicious. opinions generally are mixed but the's been little outcry. >> i don't, as a rule, mind being searched and all that, as long as they're polite. >> reporter: and amsterdam airport has avoided any controversy. its scanners use radio waves to detect explosives, even liquids, without an actual image of the passenger's body. other airports are looking at similar technology. security experts say the biggest difference is attitude. europeans are less likely to qution an intrusion on personal freedom if there's a greater good, like stopping a terrorist attack. brian? >> jim maceda with the view from overas tonight. jim, tnks. there is a major tragedy unfolding overseas tonight in cambodia. what started as a celebration attracting a huge crowd, in fact, millions of people, has ended in a death toll in the hundreds after panic triggered a human stampede. our own ian williams is in bangkok in neighboring thailand tonight. ian, good evening. >> reporter: good evening, brian. more than 330 people died in the stampede, which came at the end of a huge celebration to mark the end of the rainy season. it should have been the joyous end to one of cambodia's biggest festivals. instead this, the shocking termath of a stampede that's killed hundreds of people. early reports say the majority are women, hospitals in the cambodian capital are overwhelmed. millions of people have descended on the city for the annual three-day water festival, celebrating the end of the rainy season eyitnesss say there was panic, that the vast crowd pressed across a small bridge back from a nearby island where they had been attending a ccert. >> a lot of people can't swim, so there's no doubt some people drowned in the river, having got off the crush on the bridge. >> reporter: the prime minister's calling it the biggest tragedy since the murdous khmer rouge regime ruled the country. it's dawn now and the search for bodies is continuing. officials still trying to figure out exactly what triggered that agic stampede, brian. >> ian williams reporting from the region tonight. ian, thanks for that. in ireland today, prime minister brianowan asked for a massive bailout of that nation's banking system. as much as $123 billion from the european union and the international monetary fund, a staggering amount for a nation that size. cowan had denied last week the tion needed a bailout, but ireland's banks and bond market were at the risk of collapse. now cowan's government is being pressured to resign. he says he will call an early national election. in this country, the fbi today raided the offices of several hedge funds as part of a wide ranging investigation into insider trading at large and powerful funds. our justice correspondent pete williams has been following this l day and is with us from our washington newsroom. pete, good evening. >> reporter: more of these searches may be coming in fact as this investigation picks up speed and becomes more visle. but for months now, the fbi has been looking at insider trading, which the top federal prosecutor in new york has said is like athletes using performance enhancing drugs to get an illegal gej, a financial steroid he called it. agents searched two offices in the new york area and a third in boston. officials say this is a nationwide investigation, and one thing they're looking into is whether industry consulnts unfairly passed along inrmation that they learned to investors. justice department officials say arrests in thisase could start coming in the next month orso, affecting everythi from small companies to some of the biggest names on wall street. brian? >> pete williams in our washington newsroom. pete, thanks. there's a new target date for u.s. withdrawal from afghanistan agreed to by president obama and nato alls just this past weekend. it's 2014, that would be 13 years after the war started. lester holt is in afghanistan tonight where he's spending time with americans in the fight. for them, it's their liv and their comrades mean everything. that means they're willing to do just about anything when trouble breaks out. lester is in kabul again this evening. lester, good evening. >> reporter: brian, good evening to you. you want to get a sense of how intense the fighting has been. ask the men of the 33rd rescue squadron. they are a combat soldier's 911. >> there it is right there. that's the ak-47 hole. >> reporter: the hole is in the boom of a helicopter. the inscriptn he wrote next to it says it all. >> almost got me. that's the de, my new alive birthday. the bullet struck the bottom of the aircraft and part of the pieces went right over my sunglasses and right underneath my helmet here. >> reporter: just five stitches and one day later, he was back in the air. sergeant jimmy saddle is a p.j., a combat paramedic with search and rescue squadrons. it's a well-oiled team from the ground to the cockpit. the pedros as they're known here can scramble within minutes of a call for help. their motto is that others may live. >> it's all about the guy on the ound and we're there to support them. >> reporter: waitingor a mission, they trained in the art of flying low, using speed as their best defense. racing their own shadow. d assessing potential threats, which is, as we discover, can require split second calls whether someone with a weapon is friend or foe. >> roger, did he present anything? >> negative. >> we'll leave him alone. >> reporter: when they come into an area where there still may be enemy present, they'll jump o with guns ready to establish security. another p.j. would begin working on the wounded while these guys watch their flanks. with night vision equipment, they can operate at any time, defend a landing zone, and even refuel in the air to remain over a hot battlefield. business lately has been brisk for the pedros. they don't always bring home the living. for sergeant saddle and his team, only something more th themselves keeps them gog back. you didn't hesitate for a moment to get back on the job. >> those dudes on the ground are more important. >> reporter: there are other air force and army units in this country carrying out the same mission, each dedicated to getting the critically injured from the battlefield to medire care within an hour. brian, that's the period, the window in which they have the best chance for survival. >> lester, thanks and great work there this past weekend as well. lester holt who continues s reporting in kabul, afghanistan, for us. when "nightly news" continues in just a moment, sarah palin's new book ready to launch. tonight, who she takes aim at next. and later, the quiet explosion on facebook. tobrokaw will tell us about the biggest group of new users. about the giggest group of new use. [ laughter ] ♪ [ male announcer ] for tim and richard smucker, giving a gift of their delicious jam always made the holidays just a little bit sweeter. we forgot to put our names on them! richard, i think they'll know who it's fm. ♪ thank u, boys. you're welcome. you're welcome. [ male announcer ] happy holidays from our family to yours. i love christmas. [ but aleve can last 12 hours. tylenol 8 hour lasts 8 hrs. and aleve was proven to work better on pain than tylenol 8 hour. so why am i still thinking about this? how are you? good, how are you? [ male announcer aleve. proven better on pain. they know that she always forgets where she puts her "magic wand"... but when she finds it, she makes magic happen. [ kim ] people know a lot of things about me, but no one needs to know about my condition. thanks to depend®, they don't. [ female announcer ] now the best protection also comes in new prints and colors. check out the myboniva program. it's free to join, and it shows you lots of ways to hp improve your bone strength. like bone-healthy exercises that are easy to do. boniva works with your body to help stop and reverse bone loss. and mybova gives you calcium-rich recipes... monthly reminders... and even a month of boniva, free. so call or gto myboniva.com and sign up now. ( announcer ) don't take boniva if you problems with ur esophagus, low blood calcium, severe kidney disease, or can't sit or stand for at least one hour. follow dosing instructions carefully. stop taking boniva and tell your doctor if you have difficult or painful swallowing, chest pain or severe or continuing heartburn, as these may be signs of serious upper digestive proble. jaw problems or severe bone, joint, and/omuscle pain develop, tell your doctor. k your doctor if boniva can help you stop losing and start reversing. and join the myboniva program. get one month free, plus more tips and recipes, visit boniva.com, or call 1-800-boniva. say what you will abt sarah palin. she knows how to get her message out. she's got a role on cable news, she's a reality show star, a sought after public speaker, a political operative anof course, a fixture on twitter. but she's also a best selling author and her new book out tomorrow is already making prepublication waves. our report from nbs andrea mitchell. >> reporter: "sarah palin's alaska," it's not safe to be a halibut. >> they can do some damage here. we need to calm these boys down quick. >> reporter: her reality tv show is breaking all records for tlc. >> mom. >> okay. >> take your prom hair back home. >> reporter: daughter bristol dances for the gold tonight on "dancing with the stars." america by heart, refctions on family, faith and flag, palin rehashes the debate over unwed moths that got dan quayle in political hot water. writing about bristol's teen prnancy, given the choice of role models between bristol and murphy brown, i choose brist. she also takes on john f. kennedy for his 1960 cpaign speech for his catholicism, while praising mitt romney, a mormon. she writes, ere kennedy seemed to want to run away from religion, mitt romney embraced it. in her book, palin slams the president and first lady for mrs. obama's remark during the 2008 campaign, that it was the first time she felt proud of her country. palin writes, i guess this shouldn't surprise us, since both spent almost two decades in the pews of the reverend jeremiah wright's church. listening to his rants against america and white people. palin got a court order this weekend, pulling down pages of the book posted on the website gawker. a week before the book's official release. but not before some material leed. all this buzz will likely help sas. but will that translate into votes if palin decides to run for president? barbara bush was blunt with larry king. >> i think she's very happy in alaska and i hope she'll stay there. >> reporter: but after this exchange with barbara walters -- >> if you ran for president, would you beat barack obama? >> i believe so. >> reporter: other republin hopefuls are viewing palin more nervously, worrying how high she might aim. andrea mitchell, nbc news, washington. when we continue here tonight, what this day will always mean to millions of americans. s of americans. ah, it's stinging a little bit more than usual! yeah, you'll get used to it the longer you keep your high mileage car, the more it pays you back. get castl gtx high mileage. it helps engines last longer by fighting the main causes of engine failure. i think a dime went up my nose. yeah, it happens. don't change your car. change your oil to castrol gtx high mileage. its re than just oil. it's liquid engineering. nothing beats prevacid®24hr. just one pill helps keep you heartburn free for a full 24 hours. prevent the acid that causes frequent heartburn with prevacid®24h all day, all nit. nothing works better. another heart attack could be lurking, waiting to strike. a heart attack that's caused by a clot, one that could be fatal. but plavix helps save lives. plavix, taken with other heart medicines, goes beyond what other heart medicines do alone, to provide greater protection against heart attack or stroke and even death by helping to keep blood platelets fr sticking together and forming dangerous clots. ask your doctor if plavix is right for you. protection that helps save lives. [ female annouer ] certain genetic factors and some medicines, such as prilosec, reduce the effectf plavix leaving you at greater risk for heart attack and stroke. your doctor may use genetic tests to determine treatment. don't stop takinplavix witht talking to yr doctor as your risk of heart attack or stroke may increase. people with stomach ulcers or conditions that cause bleeding shouldot use plavix. taking plavix alone or with so otheredicines, including aspirin, may increase bleeding risk, so tell your ctor when planning surgery. tell your doctor all medicineyou take, including aspirin, especially if you've had a stroke. if fever, unexplained weaess or confusion develops, tell your doctor promptly. these may be signs of ttp, a rare but potentially life-threatening condition, reported sometimes less than 2 weeks aft startg plavix. other rare but serious side effects may occur. i'm one of your ddle class americans. and quite frankly i'm exhausted. >> you may remember that woman from a few months ago. thelma hart, the woman who confronted president obama at a cnbc town hall meeting telling him how worried she was about her family's economic future. turns out she had even more reason to be worried than she knew then. she's just been laid off from her job as chief financial officer for the non-profit organization amvets. she talked to the moderator of that september town hall meeting, cnbc's john harwood about what happened just today. >> i think for me, what's in my heart is now, even more than i d before, i appreciate what millions of people who are in my condition now have been experiencing for the last two, three, four years. >> by the way, you can hear more from her on "power lunch" tomorrow on cnbc. for more than one american generation, november 22nd will always be the dapresident kennedy was shot. a new bookust out is full of the imagery of those years. it's called "portrait of camelot" full of family photos by the white house photographe back then. they include jfk's christmas eve in palm beach, making sure the stockings were hung by the chimney with care. incredibly cute john jr. on a boat in august of '63. jauelineennedy on a boat off cape cod while caroline naps on a summer day. video released includes first family dip in the untain, the backyard of the white house on the soutlawn. and for the first family, of course, it all came to an end on this day, 1963 in dallas, texas. when we come back here tonight, tom brokaw takes a look at who's on facebook, and the answer is, it's probably somebody you know. at who's on facebook, a the answer is, it's probably somebody you know. the middle of this special moment and i need to run off to the bathroom. i'm fd up with always having to put my bladder's needs ahead of my daughter. so today i'm finally talking to my doctor about overactive bladder. [ female announcer ] if you're suffering, today is the day to talk to your doctor and ask about prescription toviaz. one toviaz pill a day significantly reduces sudden urges and accidents all day and all night. plus, toviaz com with a simple plan with tips onood and drink choices. if you have certn stomach problems or glaucoma or cannot empty your bladder, you should not take toviaz. toviaz can cse blurred visn and drowsiness, so e caution when driving or doing unsafe tasks. the most common side effects are dry mouth and constipation. [ jackie ] i asked my doctor about viaz. and today i'm looking forward to my daughter's wedding. [ female announcer ] why wait? ask about toviaz today. [ female announcer ] why wait? [meow] desperate for nighttime heartburn relief? for many, nexium helps reeve heartburn symptoms caused by acid reflux disease. and for the majority of patients with prescription coverage for nexium, it can cost $30 oress per month. headache, diarrhea, and abminal pain are possible side effects of nexium. other serious stomach conditions may still exist. ask your doctor if nexium can help relieve your heartburn symptoms. if you can't afford yo medication, astrazeneca may be able to help. to bring you a low-price medicare prescription drug plan called the humana walmart-preferred prcription plan. it's a new plan that covers both brand and generic prescriptions and has the lowest-priced national premium the country of only $14.80 per month and in-store copays as low as $2. when you could save over $450 a year, you can focus othe things that really matr. ♪ go to walmart.com for details. ♪ [scraping] [piano keys banging] [scraping] [horns honking] with deposits in your engine, it can feel like something's holding your car back. let me guess, 16. [laughing] yeeah. th's why there's castrol gtx... with our mt powerful deposit fighting ingredient ever. castrol gtx exceeds the toughest new industry standard. don't let deposits hold yr car back. get castrol gtx. it's more than just oil. it's liquid engineering. the hollywood film "the social network" shows us the invention of facebook, built by college students for college students, but that was billions of dollars and millions of users ago, and it's not just not true anymore. tom brokaw has our final report tonight. it's about what many consider the big story late in the social network business, the age of those getting into it. >> in the film "the social network" the idea began as a college stunt. but quickly went around the world and across gerations. >> this cannot be happening. >> well, it finally happened. your mom is on facebook. >> reporter: and chief operating officer cheryl sandberg couldn be happier. >> i think facebook is more valuable as you get older. you think about as you get older you've interacted with more people, maybe yove lived in more places, you've had more jobs, maybe you have kids and grand kids. there are more people to keep in touch with. >> reporter: sandberg joined facebook in march of 2008 from google, where she sent advertising revenue into the stratosphere. a former wizz kid, now 41, a harvard mba and veteran of the world bank and treasury department, sandberg arrived at facebook to a new personal reality. >> i'vbeen there around a month and someone called me middle age in a meeting. this guy alex, says we have to take io account all user demographics in this lunch, including, waving h hand at me, the middle aged demographic, and i didn't know who he wa waving at, but that's a sign i was bringing a new approach. >> do you think facebook will mean that in the fure we'll have virtual college and high school reunions and not real reunions where we go and tell the old stories all over again? >> the barriers of time and geographbecome more and more important in our lives, particularly i think as you get older, and facebook breaks down those barriers. >> and it's easy to find folks on facebook doing just that. >> this a page created by a group of people. this page is dedicated to those of us along the burr road corridor in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. >> reporter: vickie allen lives in las vegas. a long way itime and distance from the miami of her childhood. >> we all grow up in the same neighborhood and we found each other again on facebook. >> reporter: like nearly 5,000 others, on facebook, she relives the day of burr road. >> it's a repository o memories. it makes me feel connected. i'm home. i go on that site and i'm home. >> reporter: not everyone of a certain age is so enthusiastic. why should justice o'connor be on facebook? >> i'm not. heaven help us. >> reporter: at a stanford symposium on aging, saberg made her case on social networking to her honor. >> even people as famous as justice o'connor use facebook. >> why would you resist it, justice o'connor? >> i don't need any more publicity, even on facebook. >> that symposium at stanford, justice o'connor did acknowledge she uses skype to be in touch with her grandchildren. >> andhere are a million more other uses, other groups in this age group. >> baby boomers are pouring on social networks and we just discovered a lot of them are having to care for their elderly parents, something they had not anticipated at this stage in their lives. they can be in touch with each other about what works best and answer a lot of questions. so it is a new resource for them that's going to be very important and valuable as they go forward in their lives. >> tom brokaw, thanks for your reporting tonight, good to have you. that is r broadcast for this monday evening. thanks for being here wi us. i'm brian williams. as always, we hope to see you back here tomorrow evening. good night. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com me and the lads earn rewards just for everyday banking. like writing checks. i found your problem. thank you. getting cash from t drive thru earns us rewards. here's the twenty i owe you. so does paying our bills online. [ mouse squeaking ] click.