Live at this hour. Hello everyone, im john berman. Im michaela pereira. We begin with a horrifying terror plot with ties to isis discovered by authorities in australia before the alleged conspiracy could unfold. A pair of suspects are in custody in what officials are describing as a plan by extremists to carry out a public execution. The grim details are driving home fears that middle eastern terrorism could find its way throughout the world and to the west. Our Senior International correspondent ivan watson has the latest. Reporter michaela and john, as the Obama Administration works to gather a coalition to combat isis, a key american ally, australia, announced that it foiled an alleged homegrown terrorist plot that it says was linked to the isis militant group. Pre dawn raids across australias largest city. Authorities are calling it the countrys biggest ever anti terror operation, armed with dozens of search warrants, australian Security Forces detained at least 15 suspects. The australian media reporting disturbing details. The suspects allegedly planned to film the public beheading of a random individual and then drape the body in the black flag of isis. Raises serious concern that at the heart of our communities we have people planning to conduct random attacks. Today weve worked together to make sure that doesnt happen. Weve disrupted that particular attack. Among those detained, omar john ozari who appeared briefly in a sydney court charged with a terrorismrelated offense. He did not enter a plea. His neighbors shocked a suspected terrorist lived next door. I never thought i would see anything like this. Its actually quite frightening, my heart is actually pounding. Reporter Prime Minister tony abbott says he believes at least 60 australians are fighting alongside isis and other militant groups in the middle east. Hes repeatedly voiced fears these australian jihadis could pose a threat if they ever come home. Australian intelligence revealed isis was urging homegrown sympathizers to carry out attacks in australia. Quite direct exultations coming from australian who is apparently quite senior in isil to networks of support back in australia to conduct demonstration killings here in this country. Reporter last week australia raised its threat level to high for the first time in the countrys history warning a terrorist attack is likely. The australian Prime Minister on thursday addressed australian troops headed to the middle east. He argued that by fighting isis, they would be protecting the iraqi people and by extension the people of australia. Michaela and john . That is chilling. Well have more on that in a little bit. Here at home president obamas strategy to battle isis front and center on capitol hill. At this hour, house lawmakers will hear from the two men leading the Nations Defense an rebels to combat isis. The senate could vote on the measure as early as today. Lawmakers in both parties are certainly divided over the president s plan. We saw it in the house vote. The yeas are 273, the nays are 156. The amendment is adopted. More than a third of the representatives voted no. 71 of them republican, 85 democrats including our guest, congressman jim hines from connecticut, a member of the house intelligence committee. He joins us now. Good morning. Good morning, michaela. Sir, i want you to outline for us why it is that you oppose the arming and training of Syrian Rebels. What exactly are your specific concerns . There are a bunch of them. Like most of my colleagues here, im in favor of an aggressive approach against isis. I, for example, favor the air strikes. Almost 200 in the last couple weeks that have seriously knocked them on their heels. When youre talking about creating a proxy army of moderate syrians, thats a different calculation. What are the concerns . These are young men who are seething with hatred for president assad of syria. We call them the opposition, opposition, of course to assad. Its unclear to me and has been unclear how you take these people and say we know you really want you to go after assad, we want you to take on these people next to you, isis, because thats a threat to us. Thats a very, very complicated mission. You have issues about how much do we control them . Well arm them, train them, send them into a place where we cannot go. Theres a possibility that weapons wind up in bad hands, Human Rights Violations get committed. On balance, and this is not an easy one, but on balance i did not think that plan was sufficiently detailed and was sufficient likelihood of success to support it. Congressman, the question becomes if you dont support these folks going in to fight isis on the ground in syria, who does the fighting . Do you support the use of u. S. Ground troops . No, no. Take a big step back, while isis and ten other groups like isis are a threat to United States and the west, the underlying conflict between sunni and shia, between extremists and motd ralgs, syria and saudis, these are not our fights. We shouldnt think, the presumption is that we think its up to the players in the region, while we can lead with international coalitions, they have to solve the underlying problems. If they dont solve the underlying problems, well be talking 20 years from now about whether we should increase air strikes or increase the support were giving to whatever group of rebels at that point happens to be aligned with our strategy. You talk about the challenges of all this. You know as well as we do that air strikes arent always without their problems as well. Theyre hard to do in syria when you think about how the fact is like we talked to generals and colonels here about the fact this is not there are barracks of isis fighters. There arent front lines of isis. Theyre within the population. You talk about the potential for humanitarian crisis, we could see civilians in the cross hairs here. We need to be very clear with the American People about what it is that we mean when we say victory. The facts are there to see. Air strikes can knock a foe back on its heels. Isis is in a lot worse place than four weeks ago. We can force them to disperse. Air strikes means they go into caves and villages. Troops can enter skaefs and homes. We had hundreds of thousands of troops on the ground in iraq and afghanistan for ten years. What we do when we do that and when anybody does that, you simply put a lid on the underlying problems. You take those Ground Troops away and those problems are still there which is, of course, what were seeing in iraq and afghanistan which takes me back to the need to address those underlying problems. Congressman, how hard was it for you to split from the president on this vote in arming and training the Syrian Rebels yesterday . Hes the leader of your party. What more do you want to see from the president in terms of leadership . You know, he is a member of my party and i support him on most things. Im profoundly aware of the fact that my role is one of representative. My role is one, if you read the constitution, of acting as a check and balance on executive authority. First and foremost i am a representative, a member of the United StatesCongress Whose mission really is to make sure that power is not concentrated in any one hand. It wasnt that hard. Obviously i want to support the president. I think hes taken so really brutal and unfair attacks. That doesnt mean that you line up when you think something hes proposing may not be a good idea. Thats a fair point. We appreciate your candid comments. Thank you for joining us, we appreciate it. Thank you very much. From arming rebels in the middle east to battlea terrorists. Our military analysts weigh in. Scotland voting on parting ways with the uk. Well tell you why this 307yearold relationship could finally end and end ugly. Plus doogie hauser, barney stinson, whatever you want to call him, we call him neal Patrick Harris. Hes here to talk about his newest role. Its a good one. Thats ahead at this hour. Create things that help people. Design safer cars. Faster computers. Smarter grids and smarter phones. Think up new ways to produce energy. Be an engineer. Solve problems the world needs solved. What are you waiting for . Changing the world is part of the job description. Join the scientists and engineers of exxonmobil in inspiring americas future engineers. Energy lives here. Having a perfectly nice day, when out of nowhere a pickup truck slams into your brand new car. One second it wasnt there and the next second. Boom youve had your first accident. Now you have to make your first claim. 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The violence was to be perpetrated on a member of the public on the streets and that certainly at this stage was at a very high level. The fact that we are free, we are pluralist, we are tolerant, we are welcoming, we are accepting. All of these in their eyes are wrong. Thats what makes us a target. Tony abbott, the Prime Minister of australia there with those comments. Meanwhile, back here many United States, authorities in new york are expanding their show of force on the heels of an online post reportedly from isis that encouraged socalled boen wolfs to attack Tourist Attractions in the city and other areas. Today you will likely see a Higher Police presence in and around times square, in and around mass transit, in and around other targets while we assess this information. John miller you heard right there, adding authorities are working to trace the source of the online post and more importantly, anyone who might use the bomb making instructions it included. Joining us military analyst retired colonel Rick Francona and National Security analyst juliette kayem. We know authorities are assessing the threat. What are you thoughts . Its probably a smart thing for them to do just given, as john miller said, that theyre trying to assess how real this is. I was in charge of intergovernmental for the department of Homeland Security, you have 50 states, thousands of cities and towns. Each will be able to judge the threat stream and make decisions based on density. Big events in new york coming up, the u. N. Meeting as well as the jewish holiday. This seems like a very smart and rational approach. Its not over the top until they can figure out whatjuliette, whg for Homeland Security in the United States and you see a threat like were hearing about today from australia where people with isis wanted to behead someone in the public, drape their body with an isis flag, how concerned does that make you here in the United States . Its obviously part of a atmosphere of isis trying to do sort of small attacks and make everyone sit on edge. But were pretty good in the United States about separating apples from oranges. In other words, just because thats happening in australia, unless theres evidence that Something Like that is happening in the United States, the smarter thing is to figure out whats happening in australia and be it has impacted the United States. The bigger issue for our analysis is each city and each state is going to be very different in terms of the threats facing them and it takes a nimble approach like were seeing in new york to assess the assess and respond to the threat here. We think about assessing or responding, so no coincidence that australia joined not joined the battle against isis. You see this awful, gruesome threat, thankfully uncovered in time to thwart it. Is it worth doubling down one has to wonder, rick . This is an attempt by isis to intimidate those countries that might sign up for the coalition. You saw as soon as we announced our air strikes, they came out with a slick video. The australians are right there, theyre going to provide air and some advisers, same effort were going to do. So now you see this threat against australia. Its an attempt to let other nations know that, if you sign up for this, were going to come after you as well. What do you do about that . Its not like a bully in a school yard where you just ignore them and they go away. Doesnt there need to be a response to isis at some level . The response would be overseas. Juliette adequately described what were doing here. The real response will be taking the fight to them. And when we start actually doing things against isis, weve started on a very small scale in iraq, but we really have to take the fight to them in syria. Thats where their headquarters is, thats where all the stuff is emanating from. Rocca seems to be the center of gravity now. When we get to that point well start making an impact. Until then swrerks to deal with things like that. Horrifying and terrifying. Great to have you both here. Thank you for that. Ahead for us at this hour, scotland decides whether it will stay part of the United Kingdom or make that kingdom much less united. Well tell you why so many people in scotland want to part ways and how messy the whole thing is about the stuff and the logic, just the whole thing. When it comes to good nutrition. Im no expert. That would be my daughter hi dad. Shes a dietitian. And back when i wasnt eating right, she got me drinking boost. Its got a great taste, and it helps give me the nutrition i was missing. Helping me stay more like me. [ female announcer ] boost complete nutritional drink has 26 essential vitamins and minerals, including calcium and vitamin d to support strong bones and 10 grams of protein to help maintain muscle. All with a delicious taste. Grandpa [ female announcer ] stay strong, stay active with boost. So in scotland at this very moment theyre voting on a deeply existential question. A big one. Should scotland be an independent country . They have to answer with a simple yes or no. But that answer will affect scotland, england, the entire uk economically and politically forever. Even president obama is weighing in on the vote via twitter. He says the u. K. Is an extraordinary partner for america and a force for good in an unstable world. I hope it remains strong, robust and united. This vote comes after a twoyear campaign of mounting intensity. The final poll of polls show the no Campaign Leading with a small margin at 52 . If this whole thing seems beyond comprehension to the american mind, it is. This would be historic and messy. Watch. If we learned one thing from brave heart they may take our lives, but theyll never take our freedom if they do take it, mel gibson might have added, we will probably vote to get it back in 107 years or so. This may be a classic relationship struggle over who wears the kilt in this family, but if there is a breakup, it could be the messiest divorce ever. What do you do with the flag . The blue part of the union is Saint Andrews cross, thats scotlands. What do you do with the pound . The uk says you keep that. The oil, thats in scotland so you know who wants that. The bombs . That seemed important in the queen. You can bet the uk wants the arsenal that resides in scotland. What do you do with wales . That stays in the uk, but maybe scotland can visit wednesday night and every other weekend. As confusing as the arguments over the stuff might be, the logic behind the arguments might be even more so. Both sides of this argument have valid points, the freedomloving of the highland tradition and those who enjoy calling like worms beneath british feet. Those freedom loving heirs say while they absolutely positively want their independence, they absolutely, positively want to keep the queen. Because nothing, i mean nothing says freedom like a monarchy. And nothing says independence like the United States of america which is why Hillary Clinton told the bbc i would hate to have you lose scotland what does the United States really know about splitting from the uk . That never works. In closing, no matter what happens to the flag, the pound, the nukes or the oil, no matter what happens in the actual vote, scotland will always be part of great britain. It will never be part of england, the irish part of neither. Northern ireland will still be part of the United Kingdom which may no longer be as united but elizabeth will be queen of all of it. Keep calm and carry on. Have i told you how much i love you, john. Some people were criticizing saying i was being patronizing. That wasnt my intention. My intention was to point out how confusing this ask. My internal grandmother is scottish. What scottish american, scottish canadians, what they think . Because theyre apart from it. Where are their hearts . Vote as young as 16 years old. 16yearolds can vote in this. I wonder which way theyll go . Ive been saying what 16yearold would vote against independen