many problems with the response last time around. this time they wanted to be prepared. apparently they were. and hundreds of law enforcement authorities swarmed into that area. fortunately it was not anything serious, but it was an important lesson to be learned. thanks very much. the incident here in washington highlights the jitters many are feeling going into this july 4th holiday weekend. and the threats that are out there, the u.s. department of homeland security and the fbi aren t necessarily pointing to what they described as concrete plots but the call for vigilance has increased fears of possible lone wolf attacks by isis sympathizers or operators. let s discuss what s going on. joining us here in washington tom fuentes our law enforcement analyst analyst, our cnn counterterrorism analyst phil mudd he s a former official at the cia and the fbi and former homeland secretary tom ridge is here with us as well. mr. secretary, let me start with you. what s your reaction to the
successor of years, secretary of homeland security puts out a memo to all law enforcement be careful. the fbi director comey to get ready. worst case scenario. jon miller for the new york city police department put out a statement yesterday saying this is the most serious threat on the july 4th weekend we ve seen in a long time. these are serious people. they presumably know a lot more have more inside information than any of us now. that s also true. i think they re looking at it s more circumstantial than real. i think there was specific information we know about and would be focused and targeted on that. i think once we get through this weekend, and i want to remind everybody and i don t want to minimize the threat. i don t want your viewers to think tom ridge, secretary of homeland security minimizes the threat. a couple hundred people i know these will happen will die on our highways. thousands and thousands will go to the hospital because of injuries over july 4th. is the
ends well in this particular case. certainly the different scenario than it was on september 16th of 2013. tom costello, many thanks for that. developing now as we head into the july 4th holiday weekend, federal authorities are sounding the alarm about the potential for terrorist attacks inspired by islamic extremists. while authorities say there s no specific threat law enforcement agencies nationwide are on heightened alert amid calls by isis for its followers to launch spectacular attacks by any means they have at hand. nbc s justice correspondent pete williams is joining us now from washington. pete, with a welcome, it certainly feels like there s a stronger sense of urgency to these alarms than in recent past over the jowl 4th holiday. reporter: what you saw at the washington navy yard points out a couple of things. number one, this is what officials have been saying people should do. if they see anything suspicious let the authorities know. that s what happened here. someone
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reaction that occurred at the navy yard this morning? first of all, i thought you never can blame anybody for being overprepared. it s more of a coincidence going in july 4th. when you have two colleagues lose your lives, lost their lives at the navy yard you think you hear gunshots i think there are some lessons learned. you have this massive reinforcement capable. as i said before much better. people said why so many people rushing to the scene? that s our instincts. i don t think you can criticize people for being over prepared. peter king a member of the house homeland and intelligence committee was here in the situation room. he offered this dire assessment of what s going on right now. listen to this. there s great concern going back to deal with the fbi and homeland security over the last two or three weeks. i would say this is the most intense level of concern i ve seen maybe since 911. he thinks it s the most intense level of concern maybe