intelligence who saw the report say the images u.s. satellites have captured provide sketchy evidence on movements on the relocation of chemical supplies by assad's forces they say with shifting front lines in this two and a half year old civil war and sketchy satellite and human intelligence coming out of syria u.s. and allied spies have lost track of who controls some of the country's chemical weapons supplied in addition these sources also say an intercept of syrian military officials discussing the strike was among low level staff with no direct evidence tying the attack back to to another saudi insider or even a senior. commander senior. government official this is what those officials told the peace so u.s. intelligence officials are not certain that the chemical attack was carried out on assad's orders but that's that's aside from the official report but some have even talked about the possibility that rebels could have carried out the attack in a calculated attempt to draw the west into the war but that suspicion was not includ

intelligence who saw the report say the images u.s. satellites have captured provide sketchy evidence on the movements on the relocation of chemical supplies by assad's forces in addition they say an intercept of syrian military officials discussing the strike was among low level staff with no direct evidence tying the attack back to an outside insider or even a senior syrian commander the where the officials talking to to a.p. so u.s. intelligence officials are not so certain that the chemical attack was carried out on assad's orders and some have even talked talked about the possibility that rebels could have carried out the attack in a calculated attempt to draw the west into the war that suspicion was not included in the official intelligence report something that is very alarming is that ten years ago you also had top government officials top cover to u.s. officials absolutely sure about the evidence against saddam hussein and you had people from the u.s. intelligence community coming out and saying the evidence was not a slam and

one u.s. intelligence official saying like this was a meeting of the lee gond of doom. fran serves in the dhs. josh, go to have you on the program. i know you can only say so much because you want to protect sources and concerned about balancing your reporting with national security. this being said, cnn spoke to a number of sources today and terrorism experts who say that 20 plus leaders of al qaeda communicating with each other at the same time would be a big departure of how they operate. how do you respond? >> sure, let's remember that this intercept of communication between al qaeda's leadership and pakistan and leadership in yemen was first reported. we flushed out the details and learned this included representatives and leaders of al qaeda groups. what some officials said on background to reporters today they took issue with the use of conference call. it's important to note we with held many details about exactly how al qaeda pulled off this communication at the request of sources, but what i'm willing to share with you and your viewers, it was not a phone call

intelligence community can take shorter of confirmation so u.s. intelligence does not confirm the evidence that the white house says is undeniable here secretary kerry a little bit more about this. the american intelligence community has high confidence high confidence this is common sense this is evidence these are facts so the primary question is really no longer what do we know the question is what are we we collectively what are we in the world going to do about it. so the administration has to has this is in a rush to to act and now as far as although the president said he has not yet made the decision now as far as the evidence the report shows no evidence as such just the u.s. intelligence saying we concluded we identified identified we decided but we have to remember this was the unclassified version of the report it says in those three days prior to the attack we collected streams of human signals and spatial intelligence and that revealed regime activities that we assess where associated with preparations for a chemical weapons attack bu

it says u.s. intelligence services carried out 231 cyber operations in 2011, a theater of fined seven times in war, according to classified documents obtained by the post. it provides new evidence that the obama administration's

intelligence community. this was always kept secret, how this money was spent. it's now been out there. what, if any damage, do you believe was caused by this report? >> we'll have to see. i read the story that was posted, all right? and that talks in general figures, what the cia budget was, what the nsa budget was, and so on. that causes some harm, but not a great deal of harm. you go to the website and start clicking on things and get down to specific operational

either from u.s. intelligence or somewhere else. or maybe they were looking for him when he came through heathrow. it was stopped in transit, anyone traveling would have thought. >> orders from the u.s.? >> they either instructed the security service to question david or the u.s. which has access to the travel data on just about every airline may well have contacted the british and said we want you to stop him, see what he has on him, and possibly take that information from him. i think we need to be told exactly what the chain of command is that made this decision. if david cameron was told straight away that mr. maranda had been stopped, he should have intervened and said why, on what powers, and who asked us to do it? >> the white house has said that they did not give any orders or make any request. is that credible? >> it is certainly possible. they were informed they would be making this detention but the higher authorities had no role to play. it is fair about how close the collaboration between american and british intelligen

just in what we have learned today, this is like a greatest hits of u.s. intelligence community. it's what the agencies use to justify the spending and basically ask for more. so it details virtually everything they are doing and also as you point out the places where we have gaps which in effect allows them ask for additional funding to fill in those gaps so they can develop capabilities to it fill though n. those gaps. if this entire thing were published without any restraint by the "the washington post," i think it would be one of the most significant leaks of anything ever. the post seems to have been somewhat restrained. right now it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days. >> mara, there is some irony to this story because the nsa, according to this report, planned to investigate at least 4,000 insider threats, cases where they said they were concerned that one of their own might have compromised information. the irony, of course, is the fact that the entire story was leaked to the "the washington post" by one of their own edward snowden. >> that's right.

it is the gravest concern the u.s. intelligence agency -- that there is. they can't talk about that in public, they think, because the judgment of success of administrations has been. they need to take what they can get from pakistan. if they cut off aid and say

intelligence community and take short of confirmation so u.s. intelligence does not confirm the evidence that the white house says is undeniable as far as the evidence is concerned the report shows no evidence as such just conclusions then we have to bear in mind that this was the unclassified version of the report it mentions satellite images and intercepted communications with the paper's main argument seems to be this the assad government has huge stockpiles of chemical weapons they have the capacity to deliver them and therefore they were likely responsible for last week's attacks near damascus in the last few days several members of u.s. intelligence community spoke out on condition of anonymity saying the actual evidence that the u.s. has is not a slam dunk and there are caviar in the report related to the analysis of the satellite images and be intercepted communications also from secretary kerry's presentation it seems the main selling point for the strikes is the horrible horrible images that we've all seen the report refers to several

the way u.s. intelligence can and does track our phone calls, our e-mails, virtually all of it all the time. laura poitras and glenn greenwald have done this reporting based on classified documents, who has temporary asylum in russia. it is laura poitras and glenn greenwald who know what their source has to tell. it's they who have been telling his story, making news out of the documents he's given to them week after week now since june. yeah, their source may be in russia now, but they're not.

>> u.s. intelligence officials hate the fact this information is out there in the public domain and other people say if the united states taxpayer pays $52.6 billion on anything, they should be able to have some sense of what they are spending it on, and whether it's results. including blind spots like whether or not we know how safe pakistan's nuclear weapons are, or whether or not we know anything about how capable the chinese new advanced fighter jet is. so strengths and weaknesses revealed in this report. >> put this in perspective in terms of budget numbers, how does it compare to the what the u.s. spends on intelligence a couple years ago? >> "the washington post" calculate as best they could. it's difficult because we don't have historical information, either, like we didn't have this in the present day. this makes u.s. spending on intelligence now higher than it was even at the height of the cold war by, you know, $10 billion or so in current. >> really adds up when you put it togethe

biggest component for a long time folks thought maybe the cia was no longer the dominant player in u.s. intelligence, maybe the national spashl intelligence agency that flies satellites and maybe the nsa was spending money. we know 14.7 billion going to the cia every year.

intelligence efforts. "the washington post" reports that, among other things, the national security agency was investigating up to 4,000 reports of possibly security breaches by its own employees, last year. in economic news, the commerce department announced growth last spring was much better than

of course the u.s. intelligence community was able to crack that security and i guess that's a credit to them in this. >> any idea why al-zawahiri would take a chance on communicating like this. we had a terrorism expert on and said you could look at it as a sign of desperation that it is reaching to affiliates saying do something. >> what we know is al qaeda's leadership in pakistan uses various methods to communicate with affiliates. they use couriers, thumb drives, all sorts of things and we know that conference calls have happened periodically throughout the years. this is something they believed was secure and in this case it wasn't secure. this is sort of a meeting of all of the representatives to sort of cover a bunch of broad issues. in a sense they took a risk and it backfired but that's not to say it is unusual for them because of course that is exactly what they, the u.s. intelligence community are doing every day, playing a game of cat and mouse where they set up interactions and the intelli

the u.s. intelligence community it's a self referential system of the bible and i think when things go wrong as they occasionally do oversight has to mean stepping outside your comfort zone asking some difficult questions and asking what's really going on where in the midst of the anniversary of dropping the nuclear bombs on hiroshima and nagasaki and at the time when we dropped those bombs we were completely unaware of the long term consequences of that sort of warfare here we are several years now into this drone warfare program we have this issue of double tap drone strikes do you think the administration is fully aware of the long term consequences of carrying out this sort of global drone war all across all all i said global all across the globe. i don't think any of us are aware of the consequences we can look back on the invasion of iraq by the u.s. and u.k. ten years ago and some of the appalling consequences that were unleashed from that radicalization many young muslim men terrorists

u.s. intelligence reports al qaeda is planning a massive attack somewhere against the united states. the terror plot is called, very active, led by osama bin laden's former personal secretary. u.s. embassies in the middle east shut their doors today and a travel alert is in effect for americans traveling abroad. devin dwyer has more. >> u.s. ben biases today looked like siege behinds across the middle east. in yemen, american troops ring the compound, patting down passersby. from western africa to bangladesh, a 7,000-mile security belt was pulled tight. leaving 22 u.s. embassies and consulates dark and empty. >> there's a significant threat stream, and we're reacting to it. >> u.s. intelligence has intercepted al qaeda communications about an attack on strategic significant american interests but the exact target remains unclear. >> we received information that high-level people from al qaeda in the arabian peninsula are talking about a major attack. >> one official told abc news the part

there are closed door and class fied proofings of u.s. intelligence. sources say there is emphasis on what the videos show. but the release of the expected intelligence report laying out publicly at least some of the additional information the u.s. intelligence community has about last week's attack was delayed. >> intelligence and defense analyst says that document is vital. >> i think it is absolutely critical that we establish credibility. that that credibility remove as much doubt as possible. after our last interventions there's not a lot of open truck in the united states. everybody respecting our military. very few people clearly respect our judgement. >> behind all of this is the specter of then secretary of state in 2003, arguing the u.s. and its allies should do to wark against iraq, because of that country's weapons of mass destruction. >> what you will see is an accumulation of facts and disturbing patterns of behavior. >> weapons that were never found. >> and u.s. credibility even with very close allies like the british deeply damaged. in

hayden began working in intelligence while serving in the u.s. air force. former u.s. president george w. bush appointed him as the director of the cia in 2006. his mission was to strengthen u.s. information-gathering capabilities. while serving as the nsa director, hayden oversaw the surveillance of domestic communication carried out without warrants. hayden says snowden's case is very different from any other information leak in the past. >> it's not a glass of water or a bucket of water or a cup of water. that's bad enough. what snowden's revealed is what i choose to call the plumbing. he's revealed how it is we acquire information. he's revealed the sources and the methods we used to go out and get this data for the safety and for the liberty of american citizens. >> snowden first took refuge in hong kong before flying to moscow. hayden suspects that snowden may have leaked confidential information to officials in both china and russia. >> i do know both the chinese and the russian services are very sophisticated and, therefore, i have every expectation they will b

this makes u.s. spending on intelligence now higher than it was even at the height of the cold war by, you know, $10 billion or so in current. >> really adds up when you put it together. thank you is much, amon.

spy programs may be enough to ward off efforts in congress to rein them in u.s. officials last week claimed they intercepted an immediate specific threat from al qaeda that led to a global terror warning in the closing of nearly two dozen diplomatic posts around the arabian peninsula the gulf and into africa on wednesday details of how that threat was intercepted was leaked to two defense journalists cozy with the pentagon who ran an article in the daily beast describing a quote legion of doom conference call between more than twenty al qaeda leaders and operatives around the world that was intercepted by u.s. intelligence allegedly al-qaeda leaders use this conference call to discuss plans for a pending attack now if you think it's a little fishy that al qaeda leaders would suddenly begin using global conference calls to plan their attacks well you're not the only one after the story broke journalist with the a.p. the washington post and the los angeles times immediately cast doubt on it and argue that the government's account of what happened just doesn't seem

u.s. intelligence sharing intelligence and consulting with security forces there. but perhaps most importantly, norah, officials say the leadership of yemen has give an green light for those stepped-up u.s. drone operations. all of that, of course, with the aim of defeat ago common enemy, a.q.a.p. >> o'donnell: bob orr, thank you. on day two of major nidal hasan's murder trial, one of his legal advisors told the judge he believes hasan wants the death penalty. hasan is charged with 13 of premediated murder and 32 counts of attempted murder in the 2009 fort hood massacre. hasan admitted in opening statements he is the shooter. his advisor asked the judge for permission to take over the case or minimize his real so hasan cannot ask for advice on a strategy the advisor opposes. in cleveland, the house where ariel castro raped and tortured three women for a decade was demolished today in less than half an hour. the tear-down was part of the plea deal that spared castro a possible death sentence. instead, he is going to serve life in prison. inevitable between the milit

intercepts are some of the most critical that the u.s. intelligence gathers. what are intercepts? it could be a cell phone conversation, website posting, chat room, a courier message. there's any number of ways that the u.s. would come to have knowledge about intercepted communications, but it looks like it was one of these events in the last two weeks that lead to this growing alarm and lead to several subsequent events. closing down of embassies, the worldwide threat advisory, and, indeed, some u.s. troops being put on a higher state of alert in the region, ready to respond if it were to come to that. fred? >> many to respond within an hour, if they had to pack up and go. >> absolutely. this is now something u.s. marines are prepared to do when ordered. there are marines in southern spain, in southern italy, and onboard three u.s. navy warships off the coast of yemen. those are routine deployments for them, but they're combat capable, but they are ready if ordered, they can be on their airplanes, ready to go, ready to be on those helicopters within an hour of getting an order to

in response to new u.s. intelligence about chemical weapons attacks. the sir january regime remains defind. state controlled t.v. showing images of its military. a run away wild fire burning a national treasure, and the labor day weekend forecast isn't helping firefighters who are trying to get the upper hand in yosemite. and 19th century art with a twenty-first century twist. you haven't seen van go until you have seen his master works in 3-d. u. n. weapons inspectors have departed syria. their convey arrived in lebanon this morning and headed directly to beirut airport. the inspector spent four days looking for evidence that chemical weapons were used in syria. but their report is expected to take at least two weeks to prepare. for the first time the obama administration unveiled intelligence it says proves chemical weapons killed 1400 syrians. officially the president is still undecided about what to do in syria. but many on servers see missle strikes as unevidentble. some lawmakers say the president should get consent before ordered strikes. minori

u.s. intelligence about chemical weapons attacks. assad remains defiant. state-controlled tv showing images of the military while president assad vows to defend the country. weeks into the battle and refusing to give up, thousands of firefighters continue their work to stop the massive rim wildfire as it gains ground. >>> the world is waiting to see what action the u.s. and its allies will take against syria. president obama says he hasn't made a decision yet, but several u.s. destroyers are now in the eastern mediterranean. here are the latest headlines. senior u.s. officials plan to hold conference calls with senators this afternoon. russian president putin says accusations the syrian government used chemical weapons against its own people are utter nonsense. that's a quote. u.n. chemical weapons inspectors have left syria after collecting evidence from the scene of last week's attack. we have several reports. we begin with paul live in washington. so, paul, what else have you learned ab

u.s. intelligence has picked up signs of an al qaeda plot which is also prompting the u.s. to close 21 american embassies and consulates throughout the muslim world this sunday the start of the islamic workweek. lawmakers on intelligence committees were briefed on the threat. >> obviously, it's serious enough that we're taking concrete steps to make sure that our personnel overseas are safe. >> reporter: house minority leader nancy pelosi says there is good reason to be cautious. >> now that it's in the public domain that the embassies will be closed and there's a travel alert for americans traveling abroad, there's some understanding of the seriousness of the threat. >> reporter: one lawmaker briefed on the situation says the threat might be timed to the end of ramadan, a muslim holy time of fasting and prayer. former deputy national security advisor and cbs contributor says the state department has a difficult balancing act. >> you certainly don't want to send a signal that anytime al qaeda says boo, we're going to close our doors because in some ways, then, they are achi

intelligence basing these claims on the number of reported deaths we're hearing that upwards of one hundred of one hundred people were in fact killed it also is basing these claims on the type of injuries and on eyewitness reports these kind of discussions are emerging from a meeting that the american president barack obama is currently having with his security advisers we know that he's been prevented with a review of possible options in terms of american response if indeed there has been the use of chemical weaponry president obama has repeatedly said that if assad uses chemical weapons that would be a green light that would be a red line in terms of which american and foreign intervention would be justified at the same time the white house is also saying that it believes that damascus did lade access to these u.n. investigators because it wanted to give the chemical weapons time to degrade now all of this comes as the you in moves its naval forces in the mediterranean closer to the syrian coast and we are hearing from the united states that it would be prepared to strike if indeed called

and u.s. intelligence agencies it turns out washington's been splashing out. international news this is. where it's not just turned eleven pm. edward snowden has been given temporary asylum in russia allowing him to leave the transit. assisting him says that the paperwork issued today allows snowden to live work and remain in russia for up to twelve months. the news has been received. the two reactions that a lot of people really wanted to hear from which were edward snowden himself and wiki leaks founder julian assange for mr snowden's part he says over the past eight weeks we have seen the obama administration show no respect for international or domestic law but in the end the law is winning i think the russian federation for granting me asylum in accordance with its laws and international obligations now says this is another victory for the fight against obama's war and whistleblowers this battle has been won but the war continues the united states can no longer continue the surveillance of world citizens and its digital colonisation of sovereign nations t