earlier, does in fact have the authority to scramble the military to put them up in some kind of force protection mode. the governor has the air national guard at his disposal. he can do that. but again, officials are pretty much wondering exactly what to do in terms of protection, and how. again, to the counterterrorism officials, this is absolutely the worst case scenario, because right now there seems to be not much, not much they can do in terms of the aftermath. we re scrambling for information. i want to read this reuters wire. two planes crashed into the towers of the world trade center on tuesday morning causing huge explosions and killing at least six people. cnbc said there were at least 1,000 injured. both towers of the lower manhattan landmark where thousands of people work were the scenes of a bombing in 1993. the fbi told the associated press that it was, quote, foul play and not an accident.
the pistol the rifle. authorities say as well that the passengers prevented a massacre. there s now new information about the suspect and his alleged ties to terrorism. brian to do is here looking into this part of the story. we have learned this suspect was on the radar of european counterterrorism officials. by it s not clear if any wand monitoring him. his lawyer says he had found the weapons in a suitindication abandoned abandoned. he hadded idea of getting on the train that he heard healthy people take amsterdam to parris. he thought of doing this to feed himself and do a robbery. reporter: french officials dismiss his tornado.
are investigating radical islamic groups he s been associated with. the french continue to question him here in paris. and also concerns about time that he spent outside of europe in turkey between may and july this year. they say counterterrorism officials in europe tell us they believe he associated with a french isis cell inside turkey. they don t know if he managed to get to syria or not, but that french isis in turkey, they believe, directed a young algerian student in paris in april this year to attempt to attack a church. that attack was thwarted, but the association that they believe khazzani has with this same french isis cell in turkey now causing great concern, but, of course, the french wanting to find out right now, does he have associates, are there more threats, are there more attacks imminent, but for the three men, these young americans described as heros, they will be meeting very soon with the french president francois hollande, and the prime minister, and the
he gets back to school this fall. when a welcoming they are all in store for, heroic, you know, that really not enough can be said about their duties and what they did. all right, thanks so much, polo, appreciate that. so as these americans are being hailed as heroes, the investigation, of course, is ramping up. senior international correspondent nic robertson is joining us from paris. nic, a senior european official is telling cnn that the suspect has been identified and that apparently he was on a list of suspicious people because of activity that he had engaged in. what more are investigators willing to say about him? reporter: well, we know from spain and the south, france, these are all countries that he had lived in. he was on the sort of watch list, if you will, for counterterrorism officials because he was associating with radical islamists. precisely what is telling the
islamist groups. now we understand from european counterterrorism officials they believe this mock rock more rock couldn t had gone from europe to turkey. they are concerned about french authorities holding this young moroccan at security headquarters in paris. they have 96 hours for which they can hold him and continue the investigation, but for the three young americans, anthony sadler, alek skarlatos and spencer stone now heroes in this country, we saw it right here on the streets outside this police station. let s talk more about this story and for more let s get some context from the terrorism is expert with the asia pacific foundation. he joins us live. good to have you with us, sir. when we look at what happened here this was a crisis averted but what do you take away from