bruised today, thursday, october 18th, 2012. captions paid for by nbc-universal television and good morning, everyone. welcome to today on a thursday morning. i m savannah gurthrie. and i m matt lauer. the suspect in that terror plot came to this country a little earlier this year on a student visa. but authorities say his real motivation was to carry out a deadly attack on americans. he was arrested wednesday after he allegedly tried to set off what he thought, according to investigators was a bomb at the federal reserve in lower manhattan. but the device was made of inoperable materials, part of an elaborate sting operation. more on the story straight ahead. also rough weather over parts of the south. powerful storms toppled trees and knocked out power to thousands in places like arkansas and mississippi. al s going to tell us what to expect today. and we re going to talk politics including a comment from mitt romney s son tagg. he said he wanted to quote take a