chairman of the homeland security committee, also with us this morning, cnn national security contributor frances townsend, former bush homeland security adviser. congressman king, give me some more details of this plot as you know this and the man at the center of the plot whom we haven t heard much information about. soledad i really can t give you all the details. this is an ongoing operation. it was an unmetallic device, i can tell you it involves a number of countries and that at no time did the bomb ever make it on to the plane but as far as even the country it originated from, all of that for various reasons is not being disclosed but it is ongoing, involved sophisticated intelligence and it s something where i don t think the government expected it to be coming out yesterday because it s ongoing and the device is being tested by the fbi, and as you raise the issue about whether or not our current level of detection is enough to be able to find this type of device. t
a threat anymore. u.s. counterterrorism official says the explosive device is similar to the one that was used by the so-called underwear bomber back on christmas day of 2009. only this time, more sophisticated and harder to detect. barbara starr is live at the pentagon this morning. what do we know about the bomb itself and about how this all unfolded? well, very little detail being made public at this point, ashleigh because officials say operations intelligence operations are still ongoing. clearly, pointing to the fact they still feel there are elements of whatever this organization is that was behind this throughout. and they believe it is al qaeda in yemen known as aqap. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. as for the bomb itself, all the indications are that it was very similar. as you said, to devices used by aqap in both the christmas day underwear bomber and another plot after that to put bombs inside printer cartridges and put them on aircraft bound for the united
congressman peter king in new york is chairman of the homeland security committee. he s been briefed on the plot and joins us on the phone. what are the latest you can tell us? i got briefed by secretary napolitano and john brennan. basically it s a nonmetallic deaf vits, intended to be put on an american-bound airline. it never made to it the airline. it s right now as you said being tested and analyzed by the fbi. obviously a concern would be that being unmetallic as to whether or not this could evade security in our airport. that s a real concern. also, this is an ongoing operation. this particular part of it occurred sometime last month, sometimes in april. but it s not over as far as the operation itself which is why you re seeing very few details being given out. obviously and the questions, use your judgment as to what you can say or whether say, is it known who made this bomb? bomb makers tend to have a certain signature. there are certain bomb makers particularly
a track worker found dead in a barn at the world famous track. new clues and new questions as we are expecting to hear from police this morning. and middle class talkback. today we kick off a series built around you. your concerns. your issues. your questions to the candidates. today, we connect you to them and get answers. newsroom starts right now. this morning, we begin with a man s desperate plea for president obama to save his life on a videotaped just replease by al qaeda we hear from 70-year-old warren weinstein, the american who was snatched from his home in pakistan back in august. he begs president obama, make a deal with the terrorists or they will kill me. cnn s reza sayah is in pakistan. what is the latest? reporter: eight months we weren t sure about warren weinstein s condition but when you look at this video, it looks like he is in relatively good condition. he speaks coherently and he doesn t seem to have any visible injuries. now, we should note that w
it will make things more difficult. it is very important that you act quickly, and i m now waiting for your response. cnn s elise lapin joins us from the white house. before we get to reaction, let s talk about the demands. what are they demanding? well, soledad, a range of demands starting from releasing all al qaeda and taliban prisoners and in particular those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the world trade center, the attempted attack on the world trade center, and also a halt to all air strikes in yemen, somalia, afghanistan and pakistan and the list goes on. more goods and people being able to go from egypt to gaza, so it is really running the gamut of specific things that deal with al qaeda to all muslims and arabs. that is a big list of big asks, and what is the reaction from the white house and the state department? well, if you remember, soledad, mr. weinstein was kidnapped in august and in december al qaeda claimed responsibility and the leader of al qa