Plans to try to rebuild it. And hats on. One of the biggest superstars in Country Music, Kenny Chesney, celebrates his new album with a live concert. Were making room for the no shoes nation today, tuesday, september 23rd, 2014. Announcer from nbc news, this is today with matt lauer and savannah guthrie, live from studio 1a rockefeller plaza. Good morning. Welcome to today. 7 00 a. M. On the west coast on a tuesday. Im matt lauer along with hoda kotb, who is here while savannah is on maternity leave. We have al roker and Natalie Morales as well. Raise your hand if youre happy Kenny Chesney is here. Me that is a great crowd. Nothing to put you in a better mood than seeing this. We have a concert in our second half hour. Paul l paula deen will talk about where she is headed. Our top story, the first wave of u. S. Air and missile strikes on isis strongholds inside syria. Were waiting for the president to speak. First to nbcs Jim Miklaszewski live at the pentagon. Reporter the first wave is exactly right. Those were the opening is a voe in what could be a longrunning war against isis inside syria. U. S. Air strikes led up the night skies over raqqa. The isis capital city inside syria as seen in this video not verified by nbc news. 47 tomahawk cruise missiles including these launched off the u. S. Destroyer and wave after wave of american fighter bombers unleashed precision guided bombs, all aimed at more than 20 isis targets including command and control headquarters, weapons depots and encampments for isis fighters inside syria. For the first time arab allies in the region, saudi arabia, jurordan, qatar, uae, and bahra played a role in the latest attacks on isis. President obama First Authorized the air strikes nearly two weeks ago. Our objective is clear, we will degrade and ultimately destroy isis. Reporter but until now u. S. Air strikes have been aimed only at isis targets inside iraq while twothirds of the 30,000 isis fighters remain inside syria. The joint chiefs chairman martin dempsey, it was a losing strategy. Can they be defeated without addressing that part of their organization which resides in syria . The answer is no. Reporter the overnight bombings inside syria now mark a m major escalation in the u. S. Air war against isis. Were told that isis leadership targets were not on last nights hit list primarily because the intelligence is just not good enough to pinpoint their location at any given time. Officials here say that would require boots on the ground, an option that president obama has taken off the table, matt. Jim miklaszewski at the pentagon. As always, thanks very much. Again, the president is about to speak from the white house. Before he heads here to new york and the United Nations meeting, chris jansing, is already at the u. N. Chris, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. I think youre going to hear the president not just thanking the men and women involved in the air strikes who put their lives on the line but also the five countries, the Unprecedented Coalition of five nations i think youll hear him call partner nations. It was very important to him and it was signaled over the weekend they did not want to go into syria and do air strikes alone. They wanted to send the message this is not the United States going it alone against isis but this is the world that is threatened by isis and the world coming together. Hell have more opportunities over the next three days to work on this coalition but the president is going to emphasize the fact the world is united and hell talk a little bit about the threat you heard him talk about two weeks ago when he addressed the country in prime time and just about how dangerous this organization is, matt. And, chris, i dont think its an accident the timing. These air strikes occurred the night before the president comes to meet members of the general assembly. Reporter it was one of the things that absolutely this administration wanted to do. They wanted to be able to send this message and, look, it was a different, complicated kind of choreography, these negotiation s involve obviously not just what each countrys capability is but their own individual political situation. So you can see where they would go to one country, get one kind of commitment. It would be a back and forth that the timing came together is something that they consider to be an achievement. It is, indeed, unprecedented and something that they think will allow them over the next three days to get some further commitment from other countries, matt. Chris, thank you. Chris at the white house i mean, at the u. N. , excuse me. Lets bring in our Foreign Affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell here with me in new york. Lets look at this coalition. Bahrain, qatar, the united arab emirates. The message is pretty clear. The message is sunni arab countries are going against a sunni extremist group. That said, we dont know yet the extent of these individual countries. We dont know whether qatar just let them fly from their bases, whether bahrain just let ships work out of their ports. So they werent deliberately involved in air strikes, per se, in many of these cases. But the real precipitous for this, im told, is the khorasan, an adjunct of al qaeda, was planning an imminent attack against u. S. And western interests and thats why they struck as well as trying to coordinate with the u. N. It was a twopronged attack. We dont yet know the effectiveness of the strikes. However, lets talk about the risks of getting involved in a military fashion in syria and the volatile situation. The risks are that we dont have boots Operation Enduring freedom the ground and boots on the ground would be risky in one way because our troops would be vulnerable. We dont have any way, as mik was saying, finding any intelligence. Thats why we couldnt go after isil, right, leadership. We would not know whether we were were going after civil kwan targets. The other risks the troubles in the region. I just came from a meeting with the president of iran and he said an illegal attack because syria did not invite us in. We did notify syria we were going in. We didnt coordinate with them but their air defenses did not go up against our planes. Andrea, as always, thank you very much. Again, well bring you the president s remarks live from the white house in just a couple of minutes. Meantime, newly objetained video of eric frein, accused of ambushing and killing a Pennsylvania State trooper. This as the manhunt for that man enters its tenth day now. Ron allen has the latest. Ron allen has the latest on that now. Ron, good morning to you. Reporter good morning, matt. The video shows frein taking part in a vietnam war era reenactment, part of a documentary shot four years ago. The director says he didnt mix well with the others in the group because he thought he had superior knowledge of history and how to be a soldier, glimpse of the mind of a now trying to outsmart a massive man Police Operation trying to catch him. This video obtained overnight by nbc news shows suspected cop killer eric frein appearing in a documentary about a vietnam war reenactment. Its about teaching the public, showing the equipment that was used and the history of it all. Reporter he describes how difficult it is to find people in the dense forests of northeastern pennsylvania. We had to find them. We walked around for two days straight. Reporter the same area where police have searched for ten days, looking for frein, accused of ambushing two state troopers outside their barracks, killing one of them. Residents wondering when this will end. If they dont catch him, when will you know its safe . We will not. We simply wont know until hes in jail or dead. It is our conclusion he is aimed totally at Police Officers. There were unarmed civilians right in the exact, same location. Reporter monday pennsylvania governor tom corbett urged calm while authorities stressed theyre closing in on frein. And have you been close to catching him . I do believe we are close to him at this point. Reporter another Big Development here today, schools very close to the search area are reopening for the first time in days. Some 10,000 students and staff back in class. With additional security precautions. Police continue to emphasize that the search area for frein is getting smaller and smaller and they believe his anger is directed at police, not the public. Ron allen, thank you very much. The president is now about to speak. Lets allow a moment for more t. Lets allow a moment for more stations to join us. This is an nbc news special report. Here is matt lauer. Good morning, everyone. The president is about to speak at the white house before he heads to new york to address the u. N. General assembly. Of course hell be speaking about this first wave of air strikes inside syria targeting isis strongholds in that country. Im joined by Andrea Mitchell here in new york. And i think the message were going to be hearing from the president when he takes to that podium, andrea, we didnt do this alone. Importantly, there were fave sunni arab countries along with them. I think this is not the coalition that jim baker and george bub 41 put together but this is significant. It was negotiated by john kerry over the course of many weeks. And you talked about the fact we dont know the direct involvement each of these countries had. Some may just have allowed use of their airspace. But we will maybe learn more about that. The president , as you can see, is approaching the podium. Lets hear what he has to say and hes going to jump on a helicopter and will make his way up here to new york for the u. N. I didnt realize it was quite such a walk to the podium. I thought he was a lot closer. But here is the president now. Good morning, everybody. Last night on my orders, Americas Armed forces began strikes against isil targets in syria. Today the American People give thanks for the Extraordinary Service of our men and women in uniform including the pilots who flew these missions with the courage and professionalism that weve come to expect from the finest military that the world has ever known. Earlier i outlined our strategy to confront the threat posed by the terrorist group known as isil. I made clear as part of this campaign the United States would take action against targets in both iraq and syria so that thats terrorists cant find safe haven any are wher america would act as part after Broad Coalition. Thats what weve done. We were joined in this action by our friends and partners, saudi arabia, the united arab emirates, jordan, bahrain, and qatar. Americas proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with these nations on behalf of our common security. The strength of this coalition makes it clear to the world that this is not americas fight alone. Above all the people and governments of the middle east are rejecting isil and standing up for the peace and security that the people of the region and the world deserve. Meanwhile, we will move forward with our plans supported by bipartisan ma jrjorities in congress to train and equip the seyrian opposition for the best counterweight to isil and the outside regime and more broadly over 40 nations offered to help in this comprehensive effort to confront the terrorist threat, to take out terrorist targets, to train and equip iraqi and Syrian Opposition fighters who are going up against isil on the ground, to cut off isils financing, to counter its hateful ideology, and to stop the flow of fighters into and out of the region. Last night we also took strikes to disrupt plotting against the United States and our allies by seasoned al qaeda operatives in syria who are known as the Khorasan Group. Once again, it must be clear to anyone who would plot against america and tray to do americans harm that we will not tolerate safe havens for terrorists who threaten our people. Ive spoken to leaders in congress, and im pleased there is bipartisan support for the actions were taking. America is always stronger when we stand united. And that unity sends a powerful message to the world, we will do whats necessary to defend our country. Over the next several days i will have the opportunity to meet with the Prime Minister of iraq and with with friends and allies at the United Nations to continue to build support for the coalition that is confronting this serious threat to our peace and security. The overall effort will take time. There will be challenges ahead. But were going to do whats necessary to take the fate to this terrorist group for the security of the country and the region and for the entire world. Thanks. God bless our troops. God bless america. Mr. President , are americans in president on the lawn of the white house addressing the American People before he heads to new york and the United Nations talking about going back to the strategy he laid out just a couple of weeks ago for isis to degrade and then destroy that terror group. Said hes now put together a Broad Coalition with five arab partners who stand shoulder to shoulder in this common strategy. And he talked about the Khorasan Group that you mentioned earlier, andrea, that is an al qaeda affiliate targeted last night. This was not just against isis. This was against the Khorasan Group and he said there was an imminent threat against the United States, against western interests and thats why they took action but also, of course, setting up the dialogue that will take place at the u. N. And reminding people the air strikes are just part of the strategy but to train the Syrian Opposition is another important aspect. Which is going to take, we are told by martin dempsey, at least a year. Obviously there are a lot of other people, a lot of other countries supporting that effort as well. Five arab partners in these air strikes that took place overnight and, again, we are yet to find out how effective they have been in disrupting isis. Were going to have much more on nbcnews. Com plus a full wrap on nbc nightly news with br you, natalie. Baltimore ravens owner steve pisciotti said he had to come forward because of the espn report that questioned not only his competence but his integrity. The Womens Association call it is another attempt at damage control that will not work. Bisciotti disputed the report calling it manufactured suggesting Team Officials were made aware of the details of that ray rice video thats had been taken when he punched his then fiancee valentines day weekend in atlanta city. According to him the source of the article were those close to ray rice himself. Rices camp had no comment and in addition to that were hearing from Union Officials they have asked for a broad investigation to exactly who is telling the truth. The Israeli Military said it has shot down a serial aircraft that infiltrated its airspace. It intercepted the aircraft in mid flight using the Patriot Air Defense system. They said the circumstances are still unclear. On a lighter known it was not a banner day for a Youth Football Team here in new york state. Check out what happened to the mighty mites during their home own opener. The traditional run through the banner as you see there didnt go as planned leaving most of the players in a big pile right there on the ground. I think they won 230. Al . And thats that. That sayst look, i better get you some flowers or something. Kara well, at least youre learning. Paul finally, i am finally learning, yes. Kara yeah. Good morning to you. Im meteorologist christina loren. You can see we have plenty of low cloud cover over the santa clara valley. Meanwhile Crystal Clear over San Francisco. Today is the first day of fall and temperatures will be warmer than average as we get into this afternoon. 78 on the peninsula, 74 on the east short. On the trivalley, a warm day coming your way. And thats your latest weather. Carson has reaction on social media to the overnight air strikes in syria. Good morning to you. Some learned of the developments on twitter. Lets walk through the time line. 9 03 eastern time, abdulkader writes in, huge explosions shook the city in what might be the beginning of u. S. Air strikes on isis headquarters in raqqa. Meanwhile sounds of warplanes can be heard clearly. We get the First Official word 30 minutes later u. S. Military and partner nation forces have begun striking isil targets in syria using mix of fighters and tomahawk missiles. The conversation continues. Abdul writes in, the sky is full of drones over raqqa. Interesting that the details came in via social media before we got the concrete evidence of all the developments overseas. Carson, thank you very much. The search intensifies for missing university of virginia student and the man she was last seen with. Did police find clues during a new search of his apartment . Plus, paula deens first Live Television interview in more than a year. Well talk about the fallout from that scandal and the big gamble shes making on a brand new business. But first, this is today on nbc. Cant hold my breath boom, boom, shake the room the unstoppable offender boom, boom, shake the room the unstoppable [ male announcer ] an Electric City car here. Makes about as much sense as a gas guzzling suv