but congressional leaders and administration leaders say they want to investigate this. two parts to the investigation, could it have been detected and how much damage could it have been done? reporter: of course, in terms of could it have been decked, it doesn t really present any challenge different than the first underwear bomb that was brought over successfully into a plane in 2009, although it didn t go off as designed. it s basically the same design. both were nonmetallic. these are pictures of the 2009 device. both had high explosives in them, different chemicals, better detonator, apparently, this time. but in terms of detecting it, it doesn t present any different challenge to screeners than the first one did because they both were nonmetallic. could it have been detected? maybe, maybe not by the screening machines. but homeland security says if you combine the screening machines with other protocols, intelligence, background of passengers, they feel relatively
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
broadcasting. we ll have more straight ahead. we begin with that breaking news. also today fears that al qaeda could try to explode explosives hidden inside the bodies of terrorists. the warning comes on the one-year anniversary of the death of osama bin laden. reports in america and the middle east have been stepped up as we get new intelligence with hints at potential and future al qaeda threats. german agents found a memory chip in his underwear. first it looked like it was a pornographic movie but what they found was actual operations drawn up some of al qaeda s, drawn up by some of al qaeda s most senior operatives, the plans include hijacking a cruise ship, dressing the passengers in orange jumpsuits to mimic guantanamo bay prisoners. this morning we join commissioner ray kelly. nice to see you. when you hear about threats like this, a consistent drip, drip, drip of what s happening in the world and what could impact us here. how does that change how new york law enfo
saying bring it on. senator rand paul refusing a pat-down at an airport security checkpoint after setting off an alarm on a body scanner. he s joining us live this hour. he ll tell us what happened. also, a key u.s. supreme court ruling on electronic surveillance. the justices agree that police need a warrant to plant a gps device on a suspect s car but they don t agree on why. i m wolf blitzer and you re in the situation room. what a day in politics. mitt romney is going all out as he goes after newt gingrich with a series of very bitter attacks. the new national poll out today may show why. the two rivals are in a statistical tie. the gallup daily tracking poll shows romney at 29% nationwide, down nine points in just over a week. gingrich is at 28%, double his strength in the last poll a week ago. it s a dead heat, just a week and change before the florida primary. let s bring in cnn jim acosta. he s in tampa and watching the battle for florida. it shouldn t be.
geepg good evening. i m ali velshi sitting in for erin burnett. republican presidential candidates have just over a week left to prove to iowans that they re the first to win the nation s contest held on january 3rd. polls show the race there is still very much up for grabs, but there was only one candidate out today with an official campaign event and it wasn t one of those top three. it was rick santorum and he went hunting with an important guest. dana bash joins us now with more. who is this special guest that got rick santorum out on a campaign event today? he s congressman steve king, a very prominent republican from the state of iowa whose endorsement is coveted big time. he didn t endorse santorum today and i spoke with him by phone as he was driving in the car, ali, to this hunting event with rick santorum. he told me he d planned to endorse months ago. he wanted to back one of these candidates to try to have a big impact in the iowa caucuses and he still to this d