All i can confirm there were plans to assassinate policemen in the street or at the police buildings. Especially because we thought that the threats for terrorist attack were very imminent. Days hours . Could have been hours and certainly no more than a day or a few days. And this morning in paris, secretary of state john kerry met with the french president. He placed a wreath at the super market where four jewish hostages were killed. He did the same at Charlie Hebdo where 12 staffers were killed. Today i just really wanted to come here and share a hug with all of paris, all of france. I wanted to express to you personally the sheer horror and revulsion that all americans felt for the cowardly and despicable act, the assault on innocent lives and on fundamental values. And back in the states president obama and british Prime MinisterDavid Cameron are meeting at the white house with Counter Terrorism expected to be the top of their agenda. After their talks, the two leaders will hold a News Conference. Thats scheduled for 12 20 eastern time. More on todays major developments from nbcs bill neely in belgium. Reporter arrests in three European Countries, germany, france and belgium. Lets just separate the strands out for you. In paris overnight 12 arrests of people believed to be connected to last weeks massacre. Men who may have helped or supplied three gunmen. Here in belgium last night on that street two men were killed. The story is this that police have been tracking the men here ever since they returned from fighting in syria. Police say they were tapping the mens phones and yesterday at some point they decided that these men were about to launch an imminent attack. So they went in last night, attacked the men where they were on that street. There were shots and explosions. The police say the men fired first. Two were killed one was arrested. Afterwards in a search the police find four assault rifles explosives handguns and they find Police Uniforms and Police Radios leading them to believe and i suppose wire taps will have contributed to this they believe that the men were about to launch an imminent attack on the police themselves so they preempted it. This is a small town in belgium. Just shows that here in the heartland of europe theres a battle against islamic radicals. Belgium has a particular problem. More people have gone from this country per head of population to fight in syria than from any other european country. And it is believed about 100 people have returned from syria or iraq here in belgium. This country with a particular problem. But here another terror plot say police has been foiled. That was bill neely. Joining me sbash affairs, former senior british officer and defense minister adviser, and nbc news terrorism analyst, evan kohlmann. Evan, talk about some of the things reported by bill neely. The number that have gone on to fight or be trained in syria and are now back believed to be back in that country. It is in the hundreds an outsized number for such a small country. Especially when you look at the details of whats come up here it is quite interesting because theres talk of them targeting the police and of course back a few months ago, september of 2014 the senior spokesman of isis issued a statement, ordering their followers to carry out attacks on police on intelligence agents on other Law Enforcement bodies in western countries. So one of the questions is is this them rallying to that call. Also talk about the weapons pipeline here. I read a report yesterday about some of the weapons coming in from Northern Africa the access that the individuals have and the arsenal they were prepared to use. Authorities say it was all imminent. There are a number of locations, not just north africa. The balkans, a number based in france have gotten an arsenal of weapons, going to the balkans. You can get this stuff on the black market not difficult to find. Europe being the way it is theres no border control. It is fairly easy to bring things across borders. Dont have to worry about sea port checks. When you look at the details coming in that this group, this terror cell was already under observation before paris, when the news broke yesterday, people instantly thought there must be a tie in. So far theres no link between what happened last night in belgium and what happened in paris last week. Yeah. I mean theres no link as far as we know but if you just lay the context, what bill and evan talked about who look at the population of america, 330 Million People and it is around 100 jihadists we know traveled to syria. France, 66 million, 1200 jihadists. Belgium, 11 million out, 350 jihadists. You look at the ratio, theres a melting point in belgium thats a problem. Theyre trying to address it through various new laws. France tried to address it through a new law entered or put in place in november which develops on the hate speech aspect. What theyve done is effectively grouped hate speak within the spoken word and on the internet. If someone is Proven Guilty to have spoken hate speech, verbally they could potentially face fine of up to five years, 90,000. We have already seen one arrest in paris. Exactly. On the internet seven years and 120,000. The key bit or hard bit is defining when you can arrest someone. How do you prove someone said something verbally without recording it. Then the logistics aspects. How much prison space is there to start sort of convicting potential criminals who said this hate speech or posted it on the internet. Can the prison system and judicial system cope with that. Theres a lot of spin offs to all of the laws and problems were seeing it is not just about terror raids, it is about all of the components that surround it. This raid at least information we get regarding belgium, this was not about speech or dialogue on the internet, this according to authorities was an imminent attack, perhaps focused on police. They have Police Uniforms in there. This exceeds any of some of those laws that youve just talked about. It is. And post Charlie Hebdo, what were seeing now is these forces taking a more proactive posture. Charlie hebdo was reactive when the kouachi brothers committed the attack and Police Force Goes into action. Going to take a more proactive stance now, the logistical man power and resource side it is a greater thing to try and achieve. Thats what we are seeing at the moment. They dont want another Charlie Hebdo to happen. The problem is when they get in there and arrest the people, they have to make sure theyve not enough evidence when it comes to convicting in the court of law. If they pounce too early and dont have enough, these people are back on the streets again. Incredible development overnight. Three different countries, a number of arrests, more than two dozen. Likely will hear more at the News Conference with David Cameron and president obama. Meanwhile, all of this comes at the same time we are learning that 400 u. S. Troops are about to head to the middle east to begin training Syrian Rebels in the fight against isis. They confirm training will be in saudi arabia, qatar and turkey in march and april. The goal is to train, equip and arm 5400 fighters by end of the year who will take on isis in syria and ultimately fight against the assad regime. Back at home a developing story out of minnesota. The archdiocese of st. Paul mississippi, filed for bankruptcy. They tried to get as many resources to victims of clergy abuse. They report two dozen lawsuits have been filed, but those suits will be put on hold while the bankruptcy case is pending. This is the 12th American Diocese to seek protection in the midst of these claims. Mitt romney will speak at the gop winter meeting, trying to rally skeptical Party Leaders who want to keep him out of the running. New reaction to conservative ben cars ons controversial comments where he appears to compare isis fighters to American Revolution nararies. And arizona becomes the first state requiring High School Students to pass a civics test before graduating. Now it could become the law in several more states. And Duke University backing down days after the University Said it would allow the muslim call to prayer from its iconic chapel tower. Duke reverses its course. Whats behind it and do you agree with it. And join the conversation online, find the team at newsnation, Facebook Twitter and on instagram. We will be right back. Is it the insightful strategies and Analytical Capabilities that make edward jones one of the biggest Financial Services firms in the country . Or is it 13,000 Financial Advisors who take the time to say thank you . night jim. Gonna be a while . I am liz got a little writing to do. Its why edward jones is the big company that doesnt act that way. Good job still running in the morning . Yeah. Getting your vegetables every day . When i can. [ bop ] [ male announcer ] couldve had a v8. Two full servings of vegetables for only 50 delicious calories. Startupny. Its working for new york state. Already 55 companies are investing over 98 Million Dollars and creating over 2100 jobs. From long island to all across upstate new york, more businesses are coming to new york. They are paying no property taxes no Corporate Taxes no sales taxes. 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Pup right here, silly [laughter] bulldog that tickles mattress discounters year end Clearance Sale ends monday. Mattress discounters welcome back. Another come back attempt from two time president ial candidate mitt romney and what some say could be his last chance to win over the Party Leaders, including if he plans on moving ahead to 2016. The former governor is slated to speak tonight at the Republican NationalCommittee Annual meeting in san diego. It will be mr. Romneys first Public Comments since signaling interest in a third run at the white house. According to a report in politico, Many Committee members are deeply skeptical of romney 2016 making the speech a crucial opportunity to change their minds. Also at the winter meeting, Tea Party Favorite ben carson made headlines when he seemingly compared isis to heroes of the American Revolution. He says like isis Founding Fathers were willing to die for what they believed in. He also said isis has the, quote, wrong fully os fee, and dissuaded that he was likening them to the terror group. And joanie earns of iowa who said she would make washington ski is going to do the response to the state of the union. Casey hunt is at the rnc winter meeting in california. Lets start with mitt romney. No doubt he has seen the headlines, heard some within his own party who say there needs to be new energy and theyre not interested in romney 3. 0. Reporter yeah, a lot of people i talked to in the halls of the winter rnc meeting are having trouble wrapping their heads around another romney president ial bid. Theres a core group of loyalists, family people making phone calls on his behalf the last week since this news sort of first broke. Then theres a slightly larger circle of people that say you know what this is my guy. If he runs im definitely in. Mike levitt who was going to be his chief of staff in the white house, tell the Washington Post of course there will be criticism. The issue is the next group out, which is much bigger and so far has been more vocal, people who admire romney who say we would have been better off if he was elected in 2012 but an emphasis on but, do we want him to run again. Those people are starting to speak up and saying you know what we have a great field of candidates to choose from people like scott walker and senator marco rubio, rick perry, you can go far down the list of potential candidates before people start to say we really think mitt romney should be our guy. Lets talk about ben carson someone who hasnt said if he wants to run or not. His supporters see him as their guy to run. What exactly did he say, kasi erksekasie, and how is he explaining it. Reporter he did discuss the American Revolution how at that point americans were willing to die for their cause, and thats why ultimately americans were able to defeat the british and create the country. Then he went on to say that isis is willing to die for the cause they have, although he did as you pointed out say their i did logically wrong. He went on to say the press would criticize him for it but said it is ridiculous. In the bottom half of his speech, he ticked through what has been for him a series of remarks that has created some krerz. He called the va scandal a gift from god, some interpreted saying he was glad some veterans died and he dismissed that. Not necessarily the message you want to bring in to a gathering like this. Carson is someone with a lot of support from grass roots, he is polling fairly well but this is a little bit of a tough crowd for him, the establishment group. Lets look at the response expected from joanie ernst, new senator, past response bobby jindal, paul ryan and last was Kathy Mcmorris rogers. What are expectations from joanie . Reporter as you know this slot has something of a curse associated with it. This is when marco rubio drank that water, was sort of ridiculed afterwards. Obviously Bach Mcdonnell hasnt had a trajectory the last few years people want to emulate. Republican leaders embrace her as a new face for the republican party, and she will be getting attention as the primary unfolds. Almost all potential candidates went in to help campaign for her, theyll be fighting over her endorsement. We will see how she does tuesday. Thank you very much. Kasie hunt live in california. Thanks. Up next a florida family outraged after discovering a local Police Department used mug shots of a relative and other real people as target practice. She said oh, my god, they used you as target practice. The picture has bullet holes, one in my forehead and my eye. I was speechless. Despite the anger, Department Says use of the mug shots will continue. Southwest Airlines Faces a record time for keeping passengers stuck on the ground for hours. One of the stories we thought you should know. Here is whats happening today, friday, january 16th. Christopher cornell, a man accused of planning to bomb the capitol due in court this afternoon. His father claims his son was coerced by an fbi informant. And today, Supreme Court justices decide if they will take up a case on michigans banned samesex marriage. And noah and nasa call 2014 the hottest year. Seven out of 12 months tied or beat previous temperature records. Ameriprise asked people a simple question can you keep your lifestyle in retirement . I dont want to think about the alternative. I dont even know how to answer that. I mean, no one knows how long their money is going to last. I try not to worry but you worry. 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