All hostages safe. Were awaiting word from Police Officials on the ground. I want to go to jeffrey goldberg. Hes outside the supermarket. You have been studying this issue of islamic radicalization across europe for some time. Spent the last week there. Yes, yes, no its fairly remarkable day here. There is this without over overstating it a sense of siege in paris at the moment. Im pretty close to the location and people around me are happy that the hostage situation ended. You see metro stations closed. Soldiers on metro platforms. There is a sense of semisiege, which doesnt fit with most peoples images of paris. Its interesting, george. I was at a Jewish School this morning, right near this location. And, uh sorry, i have to get out of the way of police cars. Sorry. The um if you can hear me hold on one second. The huge convoy of Police Moving toward the scene right now. I was at a jewish skulchool this morning. There was a huge expectation that the next attack would come on the Jewish Community in the matter of days or weeks. Two hours later, this storming of the kosher supermarket. So in the Jewish Community, theyve been some what used to it. But now, its sort of this anxiety and fear has spread across much of the country. And there had been the attack in belgium about a year ago. Im surprised you say you were at the Jewish School this morning. What kind of security precautions were they taking fearing this kind of attack would be coming . By the way, heres an interesting fact. Let me get to that. For the First Time Since world war ii the main synagogue in paris is not holding the usual Services Tonight out of fear of security, which is quite something, quite obviously, when you think about how long ago that was. Security is tight at jewish institutions normally in france. And in belgium. You referred to the museum attack a year ago conducted by a french citizen. There was an emergency meeting of the jewish leadership of france yesterday. And, uh they they were talking about asking for more security more protection. But, you know in many cases, i was at the Brussels Museum that was attacked last year. I was there on tuesday. Going into that museum right now is like breaking into a prison. There are so many layers of security. You cant protect everything at once. You cant police every supermarket or newspaper office. Were seeing new video of people running away from that scene. As the operation unfolded earlier today. Brian ross let me bring you in. Jeffrey goldberg talks about the fact that there wont be a service at the Jewish Synagogue tonight. Even though the gunmen have been killed. The other accomplice son the loose. French officials have to be concerned there are other members of the cell still out there. Without a bout. Doubt. There have been some 900 french citizens that have gone to the middle east to link up with al qaeda or isis. Have they come back . With training . With the intent of carrying out a jihad against their own country . Richard clarke lets go back as we continue to wait for the French Police to come out and give information, when you were in the white house, serveing for president bush just before and after the 9 11 attacks. The concern was more attacks like that. It mistystifyied people for years that they hadnt moved toward the small scale aa tacks. Now it seems like its happening. They have been trying in the United States for a decade now. The fbi has been good with help from the nsa. Knowing about the plans and hearing who they are before the plot is activated. The french are good at this too. This time they were not. But, the point is sometimes youre going to miss. You cant be the goalie that gets every puck and all it takes, as we have seen in boston in paris, is for two people to not be noticed. And brian ross is absolutely right. It takes 20 people to follow 24 hours a day, 7 days a week one man. 20 police to do surveillance. Its almost impossible to do human surveillance. We have to rely on electronic surveillance. Now because of snowdens revelations and others the terrorists know how to get around those electronic surveillance techniques. Matt olsen, you were most recently at the national countertismcounter counterterrorism center. What was the top concern when you left . The kind of threat that kept you up nights . We were very concerned about aqap. Onbvious obviously, isis was geding headlines. We remained concerned about al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. These groups as others have mentioned, remain focused on the west. Carrying out an take against us. They remain capable and intent on carrying out attacks like this. These were the things that kept us up. It appears, you know, that france had been aware of this for the last several weeks. As weshl were talking about. The french president say they had stopped these attacks. Perhaps the system is overloaded. I was thinking that way myself. We have thwarted these attacks. Did they not prioritize . Is that one of the reasons the suspects slipped through . They had so many things they were tracking. As dick said and matt would say as well its difficult to track somebody 24 7. Its very difficult. You overload the band width. We have seen over the decade we have seen people who just slip up. Even if they know. Even inf the snowden revelations help people understand how we track. You have to communicate if youre coordinating an take. Attack. If the brothers were acting alone, they could coordinate that. That wasnt an incredibly sophisticated attack. They had weapons training. They would learn how to do that. You would think at some point, and admiral harford referenced that as well. If they were coordinating through yemen. Through aqap they had to have some sourt of communication. That should have been or could have been tracked and now what they do is backtrack. Pierre as you point out, u. S. Officials have been concern about the threat from yemen for some time. Near the top of the their list. Homeland security expressed great concern about possible new attacks against airplanes. And the genesis of that attack involved elements of terrorists in syria. But also terrorists from yemen. Bombmakers. Who are expert in these creative hard to detect types of bombs. So again, yemen, syria, all these things coming into fruition. One official told me including the attorney general that all of this is one of the most active terrorism environments since 9 11. People radicalized on the internet. People in the training camps. They have to watch all of it. Its a daunting task. What do officials take from this right now . What happens in the United States in the coming hours, days weeks . Given what we have learned from the situation in france . What kind of steps will be taken to protect our towns and cities . The biggest thing is information gathering. Fbi and Homeland Security are in the process of gathering all the information they can about what happened in france. It may be delayed a bit because of all the activity today. The information will be sent out to Law Enforcement officials around the country. It will lay out how the attack took place. It will tell police how to respond to potential acts of terrorism coming in their area. The other thing is it would not surprise me if at airports and other places there has quietly been stepped up security in recent days. As you see in new york time and time again, when things happen overseas theyll step up security in kilo occasioney locations. We know security is stepped up in boston new york chicago, atlanta. The main thing is to get the information out and figure out what it means for the rest of us the. I dont know if ray kelly, the former Police Commissioner of new york is here . If you are, talk about the steps new york city took after 9 11 and has become a leader in counterterrorism. Well obviously it was important after 9 11. We had two successful terrorist attacks in new york city. We created our own counterterrorism bureau. We brought in experts from the federal government cia, fbi, dia, others. We honed our Foreign Language skills. We increased our recruitment to make now new york city by far, the most diverse Police Department in the world. With Police Officers born in 106 countries. Obviously, that helps us as far as investigations are concerned. Well over 1,000 Police Officers every day devoted to counterterrorism efforts in new york city. Police officers throughout the si, of course, are aware of the fact that there have been 16 plots against new york since september 11th. All have been thwarted. Some because of sheer luck. Some because of the efforts of the fbi and nypd. New york ceasesees its as a target. Richard clarke we hear the warnings. Coming to fruition in paris over the last couple of days. I have been struck by warnings from the british prime minister. They seem seized by what they say is the possibility or that the certainty they say of another attack coming in the united kingdom. Thats right, george. Theyve been saying that now for about two or three months. They have very good intelligence. That isis has planned something there. It was like us prior to 9 11 we knew something was coming. We didnt know where, when, or how. I think that is the situation that the british are in now. Its a its a very daunting problem. Because you can only stay on alert. You can only stay on tippytoes for so long. And then you wear out your people. You have to start backing off that alert. And, the problem is the terrorists can monitor that. And they can wait for you to stand down a little. Before they stage their attack. Meantime martha raddatz, the campaign against isis continues in iraq and syria. Perhaps more quietly below the radar right now. The air strikes have continued. The momentum that isis had through the summer has stalled in some respects it appears. It has. And the air strikes are really ongoing. We have hundreds of troops over there now. And, we have them out in the west at al assad air base. Because thats a hot bed of isis activity. Theyve been stalled. But not pushed back. That is key here. If you saw lately they have given the United States is now sending over emraps. Those mineresistant vehicles. And humvees. The iraqi forces seem to be out outgunned by isis. I was there when they overran mosul. Isis remains a huge problem. They are not going to be pushed back until Iraqi Ground Forces go in to try to root them out of the major city and in the west there in fa will youll will youfallujah as well. They remain a major mayorjor threat. Matt olsen, talk about the coordination that will be going on between the major western leader ps. The president obama, david cameron, french president francois hollande. Angela merkel. What kind of coordination can we expect . At the highest levels the leaders are talking on a regular basis. And at a lower level, what youre having is intelligence officials and analysts on a moment by moment hour by hour discussion. Sharing the latest information. I mean were very close, of course to our european allies. And those relationships are longstanding. Anything the United States has and the United States has a great deal of ability to collect information. Anything the United States has is being shared with the french the british, and with other alice. Thats all being reinforced by the president and the other leaders. He got call from his french counterparts asking him to come over to be in solidarity with the european many sterinisters. Hell fly there and meet with the european counterparts. How the United States sees our security tied to whats happening in europe. One thing in terms of backtracking is the nsas much criticized eveavesdropping wireless Collection Program will allow the u. S. To go back and find phone calls, Internet Communications these three dead terrorists had over the last year two or three years, and begin to find threads that may lead to the u. S. Other locations in france or europe. That gets to the critical question of coordination. Was this coordinated, directed by Al Qaeda Leaders in yemen . If it was directed that should show up in the communications. If it was inspired it would point to their magazine inspire. Who would be the man, who is the lion with the courage to attack this newspaper and kill the cartoonists who mocked our prophet . That was the message from al qaeda through their magazine inspire. Well know soon willhether this thing was directly called for or if it was them being inspired. Richard clarke we have heard about the degrading of central al qaeda. Osama bin laden was taken out by u. S. Forces. Aman al zawahiri has been quiet. Do they not have the capability to carry out the bigger attacks . Al qaeda central is what the people in pakistan and afghanistan are called in al qaeda. Yes, theres not much there that can do this overseas attack. They have moved people. Transferred people to yemen. Transferred people to iraq and syria. And this is still al qaeda. In answer to your question i suspect this was directed from yemen. And that there was a decision to do this. And that they were trained in yemen and sent back. To do this. And so the question for france now is do they retaliate against al qaeda in yemen . Do we see french bombers in yemen, as they had been doing in syria and iraq . What is your answer . What would you expect . I would think they would. Well be waiting to watch that as well. I want to go back to terry moran in paris right now. We know that all three hostage takers are dead. We have heard from the mayor of dammartinengoele that the hostage there is freed. Tell us about the hostages in paris. Reporter well george the french ambassador to the United States, a highranking official tweeted out that the terrorist here Amedy Coulibaly was dead and the hostages free. That is now in doubt. The original statement by the french ambassador to the United States that the hostages were safe, is now in doubt. It shows that government officials in fact can get caught up in the swirl of twitter and perhaps get things wrong. We hope that is not true. Were working to find out what happened. Remember that coulibaly threatened after he took hostages here that he would kill them if his comrades in arms the kouachi brothers up in dammartin were stormed by police there. The hostages here were at risk. We dont know what happened. What we should tell you is that if you saw that tweet from the french ambassador to the United States, that is now ifn doubt. Were working to find out what happened to the hostages held here. And were waiting for word from police here as well. Alex marquardt up in dammartin, the latest there . Reporter life seems to be getting back the normal. This has been a ghost town all day. Police encircled. Police are the only once in the streets. Now im looking around it look like a typical friday night. Traffic going in both directions. People seemingly going back to their normal lives. The school we have been across from all day long which had their shutters closed theyre back open. Students a short time ago cheering. This feels like a city that had been under siege. Now celebrating that siege being over. I want to go back to admiral harward. The french leaders are presented with the question of whether or not and how the reo retaliate . Youre a former navy s. E. A. L. Tell me how would the thinking go on that kind of decision and what a retaliation might look like . We partner and work closely and we all share the same information as dick talked about. So the intelligence that lets you establish where other branches are, where you know command and control, what few are left . What countries you may need to talk to before you go out and get those gauys. I think also important, and dick talked about this this information. Theyre watching us very closely. They watched the media. They watch all the operations we conduct for the information they can get. And they grow from that to enhance their capabilities. So most important is we go back and do the forensics from this to understand what they applied and how we prepare for those same sort of attacks. Not only to prevent them but to have ready to respond. A lot still to learn from this thing. My prayers are that they did get the hostage and this was a Successful Operation because it is difficult as it comes. What more could we do . More than 100 air strikes reported by the u. S. In the last year or so . I think what has to happen is they continue to share intelligence. Will the french want to take a more active role in whats going on in yemen . Will they want to participate in air strikes as well . Because right now, the way we respond to al qaeda and to isis is air strikeses. If you look over the past decade we have talked about getting to the root of the problem. We have talked a lot about right now, the explosion on social media. The recruiting on social media. Magazine. Yet, we havent been able to do anything about that that puts a stop to it. Im sure we do things i dont know about. But overall, what kind of strategy Going Forward . Because really the threat environment has changed. They are these smaller attacks. They are aimed at soft targets. They can walk in that Magazine Office and kill all of those people with just two guns really. And massacre all those people. What happens in this country now is the security environment has to change. They have to take another look at this. Its not just airports. Not just federal buildings. You cant protect all those places. It raises pro found questions. You cant protect every possible target in a free society. I want to take to john cohen, that question. Who served in the Homeland Security department. That is the task officials have to go through every day