and muslim countries that can eliminate isis where they operate, which is syria and iraq, they re going to continue to be influential across the globe. and we ll see further displays of radicalization and then efforts to kill innocent americans. a few hours after the shootings in san bernardino, president obama was interviewed by cbs news. and he had this to say about the threat posed by isis. take a listen. our homeland has never been more protected by more effective more intelligence and more law enforcement at every level, but the dangers are still there. we have to keep things in perspective. the american people should feel confident that, you know, we re going to be able to defend ourselves and make sure that, you know, we have a good holiday season. and go about our lives. our homeland s never been more protected, we have to keep things in perspective, americans
welcome back to the lead. i m jake tapper. we re going to continue with our breaking news. the fbi officially investigating the mass shooting in san bernardino, california as a terrorist attack. back with us our panel of experts, mary ellen o toole, paul cruickshank, phil mudd, you heard mary ellen say it s so rare for a mass shooter to be a female, almost entirely they re male. is that true also with terrorism? are they almost always male or females as well? there s certainly been female terrorists, black widows in russia and al qaeda and iraq basically isis a few years ago when they didn t have as many men as they have now they used dozens and dozens of female suicide bombers. in iraq one was a belgium catholic convert who blew herself up the same day as her husband in iraq in november
things that still strikes you as so odd about this incredibly horrific and bizarre story is the target they chose. sure. it s still stimies law enforcement. that s right. i don t think we ll come up with simple answers. if you look at terrorism the intent is to send a signal to a government. for example, don t intervene in iraq, don t intervene in afghanistan. we re going to attack the pentagon, white house, subways which are a symbol of economic power, attack a cafe in paris or rock show, symbol of french culture. so you have a direct connectivity between radicalization and the target that s chosen as a way of protest by the person conducting the attack. significance politically is of the workplace? i think we re going to find a mix here. it could have been serving a dual purpose really. because they did not just choose that venue at the last minute. this was a much too controlled crime. and isis saying attack anybody anywhere. that s their message. they re responding to it
hasn t been. this thing we are talking about he sees himself as nixon going to china. he thinks he is going to be the guy to reopen relations with tehran, bring them back to the community and nations even though all other nations in the community know these guys are poison and are taking over these nations not friendly like. i want to say something about the netanyahu speech and the attacks. david axelrod was tweeting while it was going on which became talking points of the president when he attacked netanyahu afterwards and the democrats after they went off sounding like talking about dick cheney was embarrassing. question of he said nothing new. yes, he did. we have in iraq one who killed thousands of americans with ieds. for years i m wondering why wouldn t any democratic or republican speak take on iran
they have duration experience in these organizations, the second theme you ll hear consistently is what we call ungoverned space, an area of geography where governments lack the capability to reach. iraq one, yemen the other. in the third is shown intent to come after the united states. we ve seen it with isis. this guy is the architect of the underwear bomber over detroit in 2009. that combination of space you can t control, leadership and intent why is isis eating his lunch? is it because of the caliph thing and it s appealing more on a religious level? you look at the access that isis has to a universe of people in western europe and the united states. the amount of geography they control. that s a bigger magnet i would say than yemen is. and this man? well this man is the leader of boko haram in this country they came to everyone s attention when they grabbed those girls last year. they re still missing. this group has been sort of running amuck in nigeria and some of its