didn t know about it, during a conversation with merkel last week. a white house spokeswoman told cnn the president was not aware of this issue at the time of that call. oh, that s a clear-cut mistake on the part of the cia not telling the president, you know? an espionage arrest in germany, you tell him the moment you hear it. reporter: former cia operative bob baird said germany s decision to about public with the cases should worry u.s. officials. the germans are really, really mad. usually things like this are handled quiet. administration officials were frustrated with the cia for not alerting the white house which had to jump into damage control mode? the relationship that the united states has with germany is incredibly important. this is a close partnership that we have on a range of security issues including some intelligence issues. reporter: still, the u.s. spies on nearly every country in the world, even allies, even as president obama assured merkel earlier this
cooperation. for instance, there were arrests yesterday but inside russia, that s where the russians hold their cards closer to their chest and that s of concern because that s where the most serious threats seem to be emanating from and there are a lot of targets in russia. if they can t get inside the ring of steel, you have the transportation links, you have other cities where the groups are successful in recent weeks. let me bring bob baird into this situation. give us your concern about the threat level of these two weeks of olympic games in sochi. wolf, i think it s high. the chechens are capable of hitting at least somewhere in russia and i think they will. frankly, i m a bit surprised they didn t try something today and i don t think that hijacking clearly wasn t part of their operations. i don t think we ve seen the end of this. i can t imagine that the chechens or islamic groups would let this pass the entire olympics. the only thing we know is what
0 incredibly loyal. this has been the greatest 22 years of my life. the end of leno s two-decade r reign begins with jimmy fallon on monday the 17th. olympic terror. an attempted hijacking sparking new fears of an attack as the winter games begin in sochi. the special forces raid that took down the hijacker and the latest intelligence of the potential attacks at the olympics into plus, profane diplomacy. new fallout from an expletive-filled phone call leaked online. how was her voice secretly recorded and by whom. tap water in one town has residents complaining that it is making them sick though officials claim it is safe. so why were schools closed? a top health official says he won t drimnk the water. and vice president in an exclusive interview with cnn. what could his run for presidency mean for hillary clinton? i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. we re getting new information about the breaking news, an attempt to hijack a passenger jet and force the pilots t
techniques. zubaydah started talking. rizzo says waterboarding and other enhanced interrogation techniques provided key intelligence leading to the capture of top al qaeda operatives. former cia officer bob baird disagrees with that saying that zubaydah would make things up if ever brought under those techniques. he is believed to have given good information and false leads. thanks very much, brian todd rereporting. this just coming in to the situation room. we re now learning that janet yellen has enough votes in the united nations to become confirmed as the first female of of the federal reserve. her biggest challenge ahead, weaning the u.s. economy off of a lot of that economic stimulus. janet yellen confirmed as the head of the federal reserve by
0 the team s made up of many guys who could ball back in the day and ended up on reality tv like cliff robinson and kenny anderson. and doug christie, who recently announced he and his wife were aproducing porn og pi. happening now, 2014, a reset back from vacation. president obama atems to jump start his second term. his showdown could be less than one hour away. the pope and politics when pope francis, washington listens. and basketball party. dennis rodman heads back to north korea to help kim jong-un celebrate his birthday. i m wolf blitzer. you re in the situation room. president obama now back here in washington determined to hit the reset button and make 2014 the political success 2013 was not. but are republicans in congress on board? the first test possibly only minutes away. a key vote on extending long-term unemployment benefits and the outcome could be raiser close. let s bring in our white house correspondent brianna keilar over at the white house with all the la