outfront. next breaking news. uh, 911, wake-up, call, intelligence official sounding the alarm two out outfront about the warning signs an imminent attack. this is cnn learns more about the eight men links to isis who entered the united states through the southern border, plus an outfront exclusive tonight on aboard a russian war ship off the coast of the us, capable of firing a hypersonic missile. and more than 6,000 miles an hour, we're going to take you on that ship tonight. who details tonight about trump's vp search is number one question, who's best on tv? well, will also tell you who's reportedly playing hard to get to win for trump. >> let's go out front and good evening. >> i'm erin burnett outfront tonight. we begin with the breaking news uh, 911 wake-up call, a major terror warning coming into outfront tonight from multiple officials who have been on the front lines of protecting america. >> the new warnings prompted by the arrest of eight men in the united states with it's possible ties to isis. >> former cia director leon panetta tells out front tonight, quote, this is a real terrorist threat that must be taken seriously by law enforcement. the goal of isis is to attack the us and they will recruit and train those who have conducted successful and failed attacks around the world this is a 911 wake-up call the former director of national intelligence, james clapper, tells us that these arrests of the people from tajikistan are quote, a stark reminder that the terrorist threat to this country hasn't gone away. we cannot take our eyes off this ball. >> and then there's the former secretary of homeland security michael chart off. >> he tells us tonight, groups like isis. now shabaab are growing membership and financials strength even increasing territorial control our own homeland security depends on taking effective steps. >> will these warnings all coming into night come after those eight men with ties to isis were arrested in major cities across the united states, specifically los angeles, new york, and philadelphia all of them, every single one of the eight men entered the united states through the southern border and sources tell cnn that some of the men expressed extremist rhetoric on social media or in direct private communications. >> and we are learning tonight that the discovery of these men's extremist views set off a flurry of emergency actions by federal agencies one major concern for officials is that these men are all from tajikistan. >> now why is that important? >> it is important because it was isis members from tajikistan that attack that moscow-area concert hall in march 140 people people, more than 140 people were killed. >> they're building burned and the worry tonight is, is that if they could do that in a country won by a paranoid former spy, a police state obsessed with terrorist threats and coup attempts maybe they could do it here. it's a warning that the fbi director, chris re issue just days before those eight men were apprehended in the united states just in the time that i've been fbi director, we've disrupted multiple terrorist attacks in cities and communities around the country, increasingly concerning is the potential for a cool ordinate it attack. >> here in the homeland. not unlike the isis-k attack we saw at the russia concert hall back in march josh campbell is out front in los angeles and josh, you broke the story today of this heightened concern by us national security officials of a potential attack in this country. >> what or are you learning from your sources tonight aron, we're learning it was a the us intelligence community's targeting of isis members abroad that helped this government identified those eight men who are here in the us, of course recently in congress who was hotly debated whether to strip the us intelligence community of those authorities current and former officials are telling myself and our colleague katie bow lilies that they are sounding the alarm, these arrests come as the fbi director himself says, he can't remember a time when so many different types of threats where elevated all in once? would you say that there's multiple blinking red lights out there i see blinking lights everywhere. >> i turn current and former us counterterrorism officials increasingly sounding the alarm over concerns about threats to the homeland. >> multiple us officials tell cnn eight tajikistan nationals with possible ties to isis were arrested on immigration charges in los angeles, new york, and philadelphia. the man had entered the us through the southern border and requested asylum, raising no red flags when initially vetted by immigration officials, but it was the later discovery of their potential ties to an isis affiliate that set off a flurry of virgin investigative efforts by fbi agents and analysts coast-to-coast. >> no specific attack planning was detected. >> sources said, but senior us officials decided late last week to arrest the men and again proceedings to expel them from the country rather than continuing surveilling them to determine any possible plot. the fbi investigation continues sources say, along with a renewed focus on threats from central asia. >> we have seen a number of high-profile attacks and plots, both planned and carried out by tajik nationals acting on behalf of isis-k, several in europe, as well as in particular, the deadly attack on a concert hall in moscow earlier this year that killed more than 100 people. >> the recent arrest have also renewed concerns about the vulnerability of the us southern border in 2023, us customs and border protection reported 169 encounters with non-us citizens identified as potential matches with names on the terrorism watch list, a broad category of individuals who may have only tangential connections to note three, missed, but nevertheless remain a matter of grave concern for terrorism experts in this heightened threat environment, terrorist groups are learning and adaptive organizations. they've identified vulnerability that the united states has what we need to do is increase and target our resources so that we stop people from entering illegally or if they present themselves at a border crossing ensure they never make it in. if they are, in fact a terror threat while officials say the group known as isis isis-k, an isis affiliate based in afghanistan, has dramatically ramped up its online line propaganda machine scope of the problem is really massive. >> the problem since september 11th has continued to metastasize. the enemy has not stopped. there committed to causing violence and harm to us. we have to be committed to protecting this country now, aaron, security officials tell us that it's riskier for groups like isis-k to train operatives abroad and trying to send them in this country, which is why so many of those groups have focused efforts on online radicalization, trying to find the so-called lone-wolf. >> and that is difficult for law enforcement to identify if you have a group of people who are communicating law enforcement can possibly detect those communications much more difficult if you have one extremist who doesn't telegraph to anyone but they're potentially about to do their and josh campbell. >> thank you very much with all that new reporting and our chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, john miller is out front now for nypd, deputy commissioner of intelligence and counterterrorism, gregg area is also here. chief security officer of the port authority of new york and new jersey, which oversees all the bridges, tunnels, and airports in this area. also, former fbi section chief of domestic terrorism operations. so thanks very much to both of you. it's a very sobering conversation. greg, so let's start with the damage what really is at stake here when we were talking before the second began, john said he's never seen it with threat in the in this area that hasn't come to the port authority, how serious is this right now? >> it's extremely serious. i liken it to a weather front. you're seeing all the right fronts come into play. we have a border issue. we have an ideology and ideological issue. we have isis k, which is increasing their external operations. and then we find these individuals who we don't really know a lot about in our borders but that's what we know. what don't we know? who aren't we seeing that's already here or it's trying to plan to come in and john, i know you've been talking to your sources. i mean, this is not theoretical. we hear these these warnings it is, it's real and it could be imminent there's a couple of three things that have happened. i in the last two years. one, you see the end of the war in iraq. you see the end of the war in syria. you see the end of the war in the us withdrawal from afghanistan. and with that, aaron, you also saw the counterterrorism analysts and operators who were focused on that for so long being centered the other problem sets, china, russia, cyber and all of those are problem sets. the problem is during those same two years, groups like isis-k have time to regroup, to rebuild, to read engineer their social media platforms and their radicalization, outreach and redevelop the network. and when you see an attack in moscow, as was pointed out here, yeah, that's a difficult environment for a terrorist group to operate in. and then you see an attack by isis-k in iran and even less permissive environment, then you have to ask, why are we not going to see these targets? that's in the united states and this these arrests are assigned that that's a real risk. i mean, grade those eight from tajikistan arrested, right? >> as we're talking about in that news, just just days ago it was it was ice members chapter jica, but did successfully attack that concert hall in moscow more than 140 people were killed do you see the real risk of something like that? i mean, they found eight who knows what they don't know? >> we do and it's exactly as john's pointing out, you're watching in the business of terrorism, you want the notoriety, you want the media attention, or watching a group like isis-k grow and learn from that what they've done, their operations i ran and then russia and then you start to think, what's the next target that would get them the most notoriety that would make the biggest splash for them. it's hard not to come back to the united states. and then they look and as john mentioned, and we've talked about and with our intelligence community partners the fact that these groups have had time to study. now, look for, our vulnerabilities are gaps and dual planning. and that's what we're facing and what sorts of things are you most concerned about, john? are you hearing about in terms of the form that this could take? >> i think if you look at the arrest of these eight it really spells it out because when you peel back those layers, what you have is a rerun. we saw this movie before you may remember june aid hussein and his plots when you were in the fbi and i was in the nypd and isis operative who managed to work social media too. find like-minded people in the united states, recruit them. and then give them the encouragement to do these attacks. and there were multiple attacks planned that's what we were seeing with these group of tajiks where they have shifted to say, we're not looking for people from the arab world or with obvious muslim name we're going to take people who could be from eastern europe or the stands, send them to week borders and then start communicating with them. and here's the real thing, aaron, which is there was a real debate. you've been in this debate. do we watch this network? do we see what shape it takes? do we identify the plot? do we stop it? >> and the risk management people look at that and they say, do you have enough control over all of these people? >> what could happen to be able to get in front of that for certain? and the answer was no, which is why they rolled it up. >> and greg the southern border. all right. that is the heart of this concern right now. it's bigger than that, but that is big, right? and you have all, all eight of these individuals did come over that border how how many more could there be? how serious is the southern border risk to you it's incredible concern, as john said, we've been seeing the show before and now we add on top of that and it's not a political issue, it's just is what it is in our business. >> we have to deal with the facts. we have a border that people are coming freely over and we don't really know who's in their former fbi director. and one said, in the intelligence business, we're looking for a needle in a stack of needles now with the environment we're in right now, you're looking for that needle on a football field with one eye closed because we don't know where to look. it's just wide open. >> it's an extreme concern. john. >> there have been many moments of great concern in the us since 911. why is this moment different? >> it's different because it's all happening at once, aaron, we have a growing domestic terrorism threat. we have acceleration as through are looking realistically, just start a race war to have the overthrow of the us government and at the same time, we have foreign terrorist organizations were not just committing acts of terrorism against western targets overseas but are actively looking at external operations in europe and the united states. we know that from the very near miss of the attack of the cathedral in cologne the planned attack of the parliament and sweden, the fantastic work of german and german intelligence that shut those attacks down in two other countries. and what we're looking at here is a real effort to take the propaganda opportunities because what's going on in gaza and other places and say, we can stir emotions and get people to act. >> all right, well, thank you both very hey much sobering, but important for all for everyone to hear and doing real context around all of this, including the border. >> well, next and outfront exclusive. cnn goes inside the russian naval destroyer that is just 90 miles off the coast of florida, as cnn actually inside russian navy, naval destroyer, think about that russian soldiers were watching our reporters every move. we're going to take you there. and the apprentice on steroids, new reporting tonight on trump's read vp picks and the question that he asks about every single one of them. >> plus biden struggling, struggling to win over young voters. >> but 120 1-year-old is fiercely fighting for the president on tiktok were some of his videos anti-trump videos are getting up to 15 million views. >> good morning. >> can one i want to be working with? 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saying this now yeah, i think it's pretty significant because it comes as g7 leaders, including president biden meeting italy, and talk about a plan to provide ukraine with financial aid using confiscated at russian assets in the west. >> that's something that putin was very angry about. he called it theft and he said that the western states would be punished for that. but look, i mean to be clear, aaron since the full-scale invasion of ukraine back in 2020 to russia has been sabre-rattling. talking about the dangers of trying to defeat a nuclear armed country like russia, saying it could end in tragedy. and putin was really doubling down on that in his speech to the foreign ministry here in moscow, earliest de, in those, in those fiery remarks, it spoke about western leaders saying they don't seem to understand the scale of the threats they themselves have created. so he's really trying to ratchet up that rhetoric. aaron, he also outlined, i know today, matthew, that conditions for a quote, final end is the way he used it for the war in ukraine. but i know that you say you've never heard him lay it out in such a way what does he say? well, i think that one of the challenges about sort of talking about why russia invaded ukraine is trying to sort of get clear what they want out of it. and i think this is one of the rare occasions that vladimir putin sort of set out the latest kremlin thinking on that and it is quite a lot. vladimir putin saying that he wanted basically ukraine to surrender vast areas of territory, including the four regions that russia has unilaterally annexed alr