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Terror Plot Clues Missed; Tracing Terror Suspect in Yemen; Attack on CIA Officers

Aired January 07, 2010 - 12:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Time for your Top of the hour reset. I'm Tony Harris in CNN NEWSROOM.

It is noon in Washington, where the White House plans to declassify a report on the attempted bombing of Flight 253 today.

It is 8:00 in the evening in Yemen, where authorities tie a radical American Imam to the plane suspect, and the accused Ft. Hood shooter.

And it is 7:00 p.m. in Amman, Jordan, where the family of the double agent who killed seven CIA officers talks exclusively to CNN.

Let's do this, let's get started.

The Obama administration releases the latest information today on missteps surrounding the Christmas Day terror plot. An unclassified report will detail what went wrong and what's being done to prevent future attacks. And we will hear from the president himself later today.

Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry with us.

Ed, what are we expecting to hear, to come out in this report?

ED HENRY, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, what we're hearing from senior administration officials is they plan to make this the unvarnished truth about what they know about what went wrong. And when you listen to some of the president's top aides like national security adviser Jim Jones, the retired general, they think some of it is going to be shocking.

They say that some of these details are really going to raise alarms with the American people about how could this go wrong, how could we get this close to a terror attack? How could the dots not be connected when the U.S. government had some intelligence suggesting that maybe this eventual suspect should have been on a no-fly list, for example?

And, in fact, General Jones told "USA Today" it's going to be pretty shocking.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JIM JONES (RET.), NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think there's a certain shock to it in the sense that, you know, the man on the street will say -- will be surprised that, you know, these correlations weren't made because there is data out there. There was a number of things that could have triggered the prevention of this individual ever getting on an airplane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENRY: And one of the big questions that we'll be looking to answer today, of course, when the president speaks about 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time is, where will the accountability be? The president, last week, promising in Hawaii he was going to hold government officials accountable at every level of government.

He spoke then about systemic and human failings. We've heard a lot obviously about the systemic failures such as no-fly lists and whatnot, and needing to be tightened up, but we haven't heard a lot about which official, which agency, is really to blame here, who's going to step up and take some responsibilities so they can figure out how to fix all of that -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely. And meanwhile, Ed, a report out today by the "Los Angeles Times" suggest federal agents learned new information on the suspect while he was actually en route on that Christmas Day flight.

What is the administration, at least now, saying about this?

HENRY: Well, the White House is trying to push back by saying it really wasn't new information, and it really would not have prevented this suspect from getting on the plane in the first place. Basically, they do confirm that while the plane was en route from Amsterdam to Detroit, U.S. officials on the ground put all the names of the passengers on that international flight through a database, and they turned up a match for the suspect because, as we all know now, he was on a database that has about 500,000 people on it.

That, however, does not suggest that they would have been able to stop him from getting on the plane. All it suggests is that once that plane landed, they were planning to sit down with him for questioning to make sure that anything untoward would not be happening from that point on. And, of course, as we now know, he tried to set off the bomb. But the key point is that he would not have been prevented from getting on a plane even with this information.

And that's why these no-fly lists obviously need to be tightened up -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, absolutely.

All right. Our Senior White House Correspondent Ed Henry for us.

Ed, appreciate it. Thank you. See you a little later this hour.

And a reminder. The president will outline his administration's response to the security failures that led to an attempted attack on Christmas Day. And CNN, of course, will bring it to you live, 3:00 Eastern, this afternoon.

The Christmas Day terror suspect is expected to make his first court appearance tomorrow. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is scheduled to be arraigned in Detroit.

A federal grand jury yesterday returned a six-count indictment against the 23-year-old. The charges include the attempted murder of 289 people aboard the Detroit-bound plane and the attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction.

That Christmas Day incident has raised all kinds of red flags about potential terrorist attacks. Two fighter jets escorted this Hawaii-bound jet back to Portland, Oregon, yesterday. The TSA says the plane's captain decided to turn around 90 minutes into the flight after a passenger made threatening remarks and refused to store his carry-on bag.

He and a companion were escorted off the plane.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE YTURRI, HAWAIIAN AIRLINES PASSENGER: We see the fire department surrounding our airplane as we landed. The next thing you know, they told us we couldn't move out of our seats. Then, all of a sudden, the doors open, and the police are there escorting two people out. So we knew it wasn't a mechanical problem right then and there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: All right. Let's talk about health care reform now.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she thinks lawmakers are very close to agreement on a final bill. Pelosi and other top Democrats in Congress are trying to merge the House and Senate bills privately. That means no conference committee, which cuts Republicans out of the process.

Critics complain President Obama is breaking his pledge of open and transparent government.

Congressman Chris Van Hollen talked about that on CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN (D), MARYLAND: Well, there's no intent to jam this thing through. I mean, the most important thing -- and I think all Americans would agree -- that we get it right.

There are goals we have in terms of the time to get this done, but the fact of the matter is, the most important thing is to get it right. Our Democratic Caucus, even though we're not in Washington right now, has had already one teleconference where every member had an opportunity for input. We have another one today. So every member will be able to talk to his or her constituents, provide input through this process. (END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: The president hopes to have a bill on his desk before his State of the Union speech late this month. I believe February 1st.

A workplace shooting in St. Louis leaves one person dead and four wounded, according to The Associated Press. Police were called to the transformer manufacturing company ABB Incorporated early this morning. CNN affiliate KMOV reports the building is still in lockdown and several roads are closed nearby as authorities search for the shooter.

All right, to Chad Myers now.

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the man suspected of trying to bring down a passenger jet over Detroit spent time at a language school in Yemen. What are people from that school saying about him?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Disturbing connections in Yemen. A top government official says Yemeni cleric Anwar al-Awlaki met with the man charged with trying to blow up a U.S.-bound jet on Christmas Day. This is the same cleric who talked to the man accused of killing his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood. We're told the suspect spent time in Yemen ahead of his attempted attack.

CNN's international security correspondent, Paula Newton's, takes us to the place where he stayed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Flying into Yemen, it's hard to shake the instant comparison: the jagged mountains, the unforgiving terrain reminds you so much of Afghanistan. And on the ground, it's easy to figure out why al Qaeda is staging a comeback here. This is a deeply conservative, religious country where poverty is found in every corner and crevice.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab singled out this language school in the capital, ostensibly to improve his Arabic and refine his knowledge of Islam just months before he boarded Flight 253 to Detroit.

(on camera): So, we're here at the language institute where Abdulmutallab came, and authorities believe that this was a cover for him. We're going to go in right now and see if we can find anybody who knows him.

The institute's director tells us he was shocked by the Christmas Day bombing attempt. Abdulmutallab, he says, was quiet and devout.

MUHAMMED AL-ANISI, LANGUAGE SCHOOL DIRECTOR: I get, like, afraid or scared when I realize that al Qaeda member was here in our school or lived in our hostel.

NEWTON: Because you wonder what could have happened while...

AL-ANISI: Of course, he could have exploded the institute.

NEWTON (voice-over): Now, take a look at Abdulmutallab's view of the old city of Sanaa, the capital of Yemen, a place where Yemeni authorities now believe he nursed his extremism and may have found a way to express it.

(on camera): The institute is now convinced that Abdulmutallab was using their language school as a cover and that he knew what he wanted when he came to Yemen. He wanted to mix and mingle in this chaotic environment. We're here outside the old city gates of Sanaa, the capital. And remember that here, the 9/11 attacks were celebrated as a victory for jihad.

Some people allege that Abdulmutallab knew that, if he wanted to perpetrate some kind of an attack, he could find the means to do it right here in Yemen.

(voice-over): American Linda Shen has been living in Yemen for four years as an Arabic student and Web designer. She says she's not surprised Abdulmutallab would choose this country. He wanted material support for a terror attack.

LINDA SHEN, ARABIC STUDENT: Yes, I have met people and I would not be surprised that he would do something like. I just was surprised that he -- you know, such a quiet guy, it would be him.

NEWTON (on camera): In terms of trying to get something like an explosive, though, that's even...

SHEN: It's not difficult. I mean, if I wanted to, I can get a hold of explosives, if I wanted to. In Yemen. Easy.

NEWTON: And all these things, do they make it a prime choice for al Qaeda to try and settle in here?

SHEN: Absolutely. Absolutely. The chaos.

You know, the -- you know, the lack of government control. Absolutely. I mean, you see the terrain in Yemen. Oh, it's a haven. If you're hiding in some mountains with the tribal control, nobody can get in there.

NEWTON (voice-over): And yet, only now, it seems, are Yemeni special forces speeding through the country on a hair trigger, on the hunt for al Qaeda operatives.

Paula Newton, CNN, Sanaa, Yemen.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Al Qaeda is now claiming responsibility for the suicide attack that killed seven CIA officers in Afghanistan last week. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Barbara Starr tells us how the hunt for al Qaeda leaders led to the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sophistication was unprecedented. The alleged Jordanian suicide bomber, Human Khalil Abu-Mulal al-Balawi, may have been a triple agent, a one-time militant who then promised to help the U.S., but then attacked Americans.

Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer, has advised President Obama on al Qaeda.

BRUCE RIEDEL, FMR. CIA OFFICER: It's a very, very sophisticated operation. It must have taken a long time to plan and to set up. And it demonstrates that their capacity to strike back at us remains very, very significant.

STARR: Several sources tell CNN the bomber was driven to a U.S. base by American operatives. He was never searched. No one has said why, and it's believed most of the Americans had never even met him.

But he was offering irresistible information, the possible whereabouts of Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri. He detonated his explosives within minutes of arriving.

The U.S. and Jordan courted al-Balawi over the last year, believing he e-mailed back with credible information on possible al Qaeda contacts. But still, a Jordanian intelligence officer was there as a crucial go-between.

Now it's all brought to light, perhaps the CIA's most covert partner, in the hunt for both Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri.

RIEDEL: The Jordanian intelligence service is the best intelligence service in the Middle East and South Asia, bar none. They are far more effective in working against jihadist groups like al Qaeda in Iraq, like the al Qaeda core in Pakistan, than any other intelligence service.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And Barbara Starr joining us now from the Pentagon.

And Barbara, what are the potential broader implications of this attack in the hunt for Osama bin Laden?

STARR: Well, Tony, make no mistake, that's really the bottom line here. The U.S. and the Jordanians were working very hard, obviously, to get any lead that they could about the whereabouts of bin Laden or Zawahiri, his number two.

This, now, will make both governments' intelligence services, both the U.S. and the Jordanians, go back through everything they have, look at what contacts this bomber had, who he spoke to, who they spoke to. Every piece of intelligence will be scrubbed to see what else might be compromised and what al Qaeda might know about us that we don't know that they know -- Tony.

HARRIS: Yes, it's interesting.

All right. Barbara Starr for us at the Pentagon.

Barbara, thank you.

STARR: Sure.

HARRIS: Last year was tough on a lot of our finances. The last thing we need is to lose hard-earned, cold cash in a scam. Gerri Willis has some tips to help us avoid getting conned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's get you caught up on our top stories now.

We will hear from President Obama today about missteps surrounding the Christmas Day terror plot. The administration releases a report on the findings so far. The White House national security adviser says the public will be shocked.

Live coverage of the president's remarks set for 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

Authorities have surrounded an electrical transformer company in St. Louis, where several people were shot this morning. The Associated Press reports one person dead and four wounded. Police have the building in lockdown as they search for the shooter.

And brace yourselves now. Another arctic blast is sweeping across two-thirds of the country, bringing record lows to many areas. Snow is forecast from the upper plains to the Northeast, and into the South.

Another check of our top stories for you in 20 minutes.

So, 2009 was a brutal year for the economy. OK, we know that. And scam artists were busy trying to take advantage of the difficult times.

Personal Finance Editor Gerri Willis joining us now.

Gerri, good to see you. Happy New Year.

GERRI WILLIS, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE EDITOR: Happy New Year.

HARRIS: So, why don't we do this -- let's start with some of the scams from last year.

WILLIS: OK. Well, here's what we saw, OK? These are the scams that made the top of the list according to the Better Business Bureau.

The stimulus government grant scams -- look, even before President Obama announced the stimulus plan in February, scammers were hard at work trying to convince consumers that if they paid for assistance or advice, they could get a piece of the stimulus pie or grants. Not true.

Job hunter scams -- in this one, the scam artist tries to gain access to information like your bank account, your Social Security number, and you may be asked to pay a fee or to even be considered for a job. Also not true.

Mortgage foreclosure rescue plans -- we talked a lot about these. Foreclosure rates are high and hucksters are offering to help troubled homeowners save their homes. Victims were asked to pay hundreds of dollars and they got nothing.

And, of course, you've seen the robocalls, probably gotten them at home. Basically, they are just automated telemarketing calls that claim, for example, that you can lower your credit card interest rates if you pay them money. The fees can be $700 to $1,000. And look, it's money that you can save by negotiating with your credit card company on your own -- for what, free?

Also, free trial offers. We told you about these. You may have seen those free trial ads on the Internet for things like teeth whiteners or miracle supplements. In some cases, when you click on the free trial, you may or you may not get product, but then if you don't cancel the product, or opt out, down the road you get charged again and again for products and services you didn't even ask for -- Tony.

HARRIS: That's good stuff.

So, this year, how can we become, you know, more savvy?

WILLIS: All right, OK. So, the things to watch out for, again, beware of job offers to make you easy money. Guess what? They don't exist.

Unemployment in the nation is high. Scammers are targeting these job hunters.

And, of course, read the fine print on free trial offers. Right? If they have pre-checked boxes on Web sites when you're buying something, uncheck the boxes, for goodness sakes. You're going to end up getting something you don't want or agree to paying something forever.

Don't open attachments or click on links in e-mails unless you can confirm the e-mail came from somebody you trust.

Get every verbal agreement in writing. And, of course, any company you decide to do business with, you can always check them out with the Better Business Bureau, and another great place to go is your attorney general's office.

I know it's a lot of work, but there are a lot of scammers busy out there right now trying to take your hard-earned money. HARRIS: And you'll be glad you did.

WILLIS: And, of course, if you have any questions, send them to me at Gerri@CNN.com.

HARRIS: Gerri, appreciate it. Thank you.

WILLIS: My pleasure.

HARRIS: We are dealing with big, huge deficits here in the United States, right? But it is also a topic of -- let's call it lively discussion elsewhere. Like the United Kingdom.

Listen to this spirited exchange in the British parliament.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, CONSERVATIVE PARTY LEADER: Isn't the reason for the lack of faith in the government's plans that the prime minister personally is so incapable of admitting what everyone knows to be true, that there is a need for cuts to be made? On Sunday -- on Sunday, he said that the public -- he said that public spending will rise by .8 percent in real terms each year. Given that everybody knows that cuts in departmental spending are necessary, wasn't that just completely disingenuous?

GORDON BROWN, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Mr. Speaker, the person who was misleading the public was the honorable gentleman on Monday about married couples' allowance.

CAMERON: What a lot of desperate rubbish. My God!

(CHEERING)

I thought he might mention marriage, so let me say this to him. The difference between me and the prime minister is this: when I lean across and say, "I love you, darling," I really mean it.

(LAUGHTER)

The only divorce that's taken place is between this prime minister and reality.

Let's take his claim. Let's take his claim that spending is going up by .8 percent. Isn't the only way he's able to make that is to include -- is to exclude capital spending, which he's actually cutting in half? Isn't that completely disingenuous?

BROWN: For him to talk about love and marriage today, when he is the person who cannot give a straight answer on the married couples alone, whether he can't say "I do" or "I don't" when it comes to the married couples...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It's the same debate with a different accent. Here at home, one Rhode Island teenager is doing her part to help pay off our huge national debt. Katherine Young was assigned a civics project -- find a social issue and do something about it. So, she held this bake sale, just yesterday, to raise money to reduce the debt.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHERINE YOUNG, HELD BAKE SALE FOR NATIONAL DEBT: At first, I wasn't serious about it, but then when I thought about it, I realized that it was -- it would be a powerful statement to make just to the government, the nation, kids around school, because the national debt is a serious problem, and I don't think it's handled as one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: It sure is. Thank you, Katherine. She and her friends raised $50.

All right. Still to come in the CNN NEWSROOM, the man accused of killing a group of CIA officers in Afghanistan is from Jordan. Our Nic Robertson tracked down his family. Find out what they are saying about him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: All right. Boy, at this time we always remind you that if you want the latest financial news and analysis, you can't do any better than our money team at CNNMoney.com. Just looking at the top story, seven million lost jobs, and then the question, "Gone forever?"

You can click on and read the article and the terrific reporting on that issue at CNNMoney.com.

Let's look at the Big Board. Three hours into the trading day and kind of a middling day. Not much going on. We're in positive territory at least, up six points. And we're following these numbers throughout the day with Susan Lisovicz, of course, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

You ever get a funny feeling about something that turns out later to be right on? Now imagine companies paying you big bucks for those instincts. Cnnmoney.com's Poppy Harlow caught up with an investment intuitionist.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNNMONEY.COM: When it came to calling the financial crisis, most of Wall Street got it wrong. But Laura Day says she got it right.

LAURA DAY, INTUITIONIST: I woke up and it had actually been a couple weeks and the market had really been bothering me. By bothering me the same way like a scab will itch you. I just sold everything into cash.

HARLOW: She felt the stock market crash coming literally. And then the oil sell-off.

DAY: I said, I wouldn't be buying oil futures any time soon. And then two weeks later, the oil market tanked.

HARLOW: So how does Day do it? She says by harnessing her intuition.

DAY: I literally do this in my sleep.

HARLOW: And she makes millions doing it. Day says major corporations and hedge funds pay her $10,000 a month, not for her business acumen, she's the first to admit she knows nothing about the market or the economy, but for her gut feelings.

DAY: What they really are hiring me for is to predict, is to troubleshoot in the moment so problems don't happen.

HARLOW (on camera): What are some of the example questions, I mean, that you've gotten in the middle of the night from a business leader, for example?

DAY: They're saying they're going to pull the deal if we don't give in on this point. Do you feel they will?

HARLOW: Are they -- are they bluffing?

DAY: Exactly. I'm not a risk factor to them. Because if I'm completely off, they would probably know.

HARLOW (voice-over): But is there science to back it all up? Dr. Joel Voss and Dr. Ken Paller co-authored a study focusing on unconscious memory and implicit recognition at Northwestern University.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our thinking about intuition is that there can be intuitive -- useful intuitive ideas that come out of some actual implicit knowledge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What I'm skeptical of is the notion that someone can make an intuitive decision that's accurate in a field in which they have no expertise. That is completely against any known findings that I can think of.

HARLOW: While celebrities, like Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt all praise her work on Day's website, on Wall Street, the feeling is mixed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't trust.

HARLOW (on camera): What do you trust for that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I trust the history, not the future.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sure, why not? Most people are pretty much akin at throwing a dart at a board anyway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: If I had any left, I would be pulling my hair out! Poppy Harlow, joining us from New York.

Poppy, look, first of all, the scientists sounded pretty skeptical, but we'll play along.

HARLOW: Yes.

HARRIS: What does the intuitionist say about the economic recovery, if anything? Can't wait for this.

HARLOW: Well, you know, first of all, Tony, the fact that, you know, the scientists are a bit skeptical is one thing.

HARRIS: Yes.

HARLOW: The fact that I spent a day with her in her huge loft here in Manhattan, she's made millions, tens of millions of dollars doing this, major, major Fortune 500 companies trust her with this. So she's doing something right. You've got to give her credit there.

But I asked her, can you give us a little insight into what the economy is doing. Should we be putting our money in the market, taking it out? She said, listen, you're not one of my clients. I don't do that on television of all things. But, she said, it's not about what the economy is doing right now or the market, it's about how you take advantage of it.

So, I've been trying to harness the gut instinct and, I don't know, we'll see how it pays off, Tony. But it's about looking for opportunities I guess in any sort of economy.

Tony.

HARRIS: How did you find her, Poppy?

HARLOW: She was completely convincing, honestly.

HARRIS: Really?

HARLOW: I am convinced. And I talked off the record with some of her clients and she's done right by them. So -- and we're talking about major companies.

Tony.

HARRIS: $10,000 a month in some cases. All right, Poppy, appreciate it. Thank you.

HARLOW: You got it.

HARRIS: Let's get to a CNN exclusive now. Our CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson talks to family members of the man accused of killing seven CIA officers. The attack in Afghanistan last week rocked the U.S. spy agency. It also, apparently, shocked the suspect's family. Here's Nic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): I'm meeting the father of the man alleged to have killed seven CIA operatives in Afghanistan.

ROBERTSON (on camera): What can you tell us about your son?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No comment.

ROBERTSON: Why not, no comment?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is nothing sure.

ROBERTSON: You don't know for sure?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not sure.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): We're in a middle-class neighborhood of Amman, Jordan. It is late afternoon and he's going to the mosque for prayers at sundown. He promises to speak to us afterwards.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After the prayer.

ROBERTSON (on camera): After the prayer we'll speak to you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes.

ROBERTSON: OK.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): With two other journalists, we knock at the family's front door to see if others will talk.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Someone's just opened the door.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): The brother of Humam Khalil Abu-Mulal al- Balawi, the alleged bomber.

ROBERTSON (on camera): You can't talk to us?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): He doesn't want to be on camera. But after a little time, shares his concerns.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is my brother. He was very good person. He suffered some huge pressures. We know this.

ROBERTSON: He says his brother, a doctor, was angry about the war in Gaza last year, volunteered his medical services, was questioned by Jordanian intelligence officials, left the country soon after, telling the family he was going to Turkey. That was the last they saw of him.

A senior Jordanian intelligence source told us, al-Balawi, in fact, went to Pakistan after he'd been questioned about his radical Internet postings. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know there is something wrong, since he was not in Turkey. So that we said that, what has this guy gone? We thought that he was in Gaza.

ROBERTSON: Then last week came the phone call no father wants to get. The day after the explosion at the base in Afghanistan.

ROBERTSON (on camera): So they called and said he has -- he's made a big operation in the CIA base in Afghanistan?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. It's bad news, but this is what happened so that you have to deal with that. This is exactly what they said.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said, bad news?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, for you.

ROBERTSON: And they told you you'll have to deal with that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They didn't say congratulations?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they said that this is what happened. He is a hero (ph).

ROBERTSON: Hello again.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): By the time his father comes out of the mosque, it's dark.

ROBERTSON (on camera): So can we come in?

ROBERTSON (voice-over): I want to ask him more about the mystery phone call, but at the door he's met by his son. They're nervous. Jordan's intelligence services have been calling them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Called them 11 times. So . . .

ROBERTSON (on camera): Who called them 11 times?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The intelligence.

ROBERTSON: Have already called them since we knocked on their door?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Since we came.

ROBERTSON: So in the space of being here half an hour, intelligence called him 11 times.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So we have to leave.

ROBERTSON: They don't want to talk. We have to leave. OK.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It's a very, very sensitive issue. Not only were seven CIA operatives killed, but a ordanian officer, too. A cousin of the king. (END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: And Nic Robertson joining us live from Amman, Jordan.

And, Nic, my understanding is you just spoke to the suspect, al- Balawi's, mother. What did she say to you?

ROBERTSON: Well, it was very interesting, Tony, because she described her son as a loner. This isn't something we've heard before. She said even when he was a small boy, he was a loner. That he wouldn't want to go and hang out with his brother's and sister's friends. If they had parties, he wasn't interested in going. She said she had chastised him about it and told him he should mix with more people. But he hadn't.

She also told us another thing we found quite interesting, and again fragmentary information from different people involved in the story. The family seemed to have different information to other people.

But she said that he wanted to go to the United States. He'd told her that he wanted to go to the United States. That early last year, he went to Turkey to sit (ph) another medical exam and he called the family to say that he'd passed it. And he told them in the next couple of days that he was planning to go to the United States. And she says that was the last time they heard from him.

Tony.

HARRIS: OK. Our senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, for us in Amman, Jordan.

Nic, appreciate it. Thank you.

The legal system is moving ahead with its case against the suspect in the Christmas Day airline attack. We will get an update from Detroit.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: And checking our top stories now.

The Obama administration releases a preliminary report today on the Christmas Day terror plot. The report will detail missteps that failed to be detected and efforts to prevent future attacks. President Obama will make a statement after the report is released.

An electrical transformer company in St. Louis is in lockdown after a workplace shooting this morning. The Associated Press now reports three people dead and five wounded. Authorities are still searching for the shooter.

Two military jets escorted a commercial airliner bound for Hawaii back to Oregon after a passenger's behavior became disruptive. A TSA spokeswoman said the man made threatening remarks and wouldn't store his carry-on bags. He was questioned by the FBI and released. The plane refueled and went on to Hawaii.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is expected in federal court tomorrow for arrangement. CNN's Deborah Feyerick joining me from Detroit.

And, Deb, we are hearing Abdulmutallab met with a cleric in Yemen. What can you tell us about that?

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he did indeed, Tony. Top Yemeni official today saying that the 23-year-old Nigerian did indeed meet with that American-born cleric, Anwar al-Awlaki. That cleric served as an imam in Washington, D.C. He is believed to be hiding out in Yemen. And he is dangerous because he's considered sort of a rock star of the Internet, trying to recruit young Muslims to perform jihad.

Now, Awlaki is also connected to the Fort Hood shooter. Officials saying that, in fact, he exchanged e-mails with that U.S. Army major who is now charged with shooting 13 people.

Another development here out of Detroit, Tony, is that we are now learning from a source briefed on the investigation that, in fact, agents from customs and border protection on Christmas Day actually looked in their databases as a procedure and flagged Abdulmutallab's name as somebody that they wanted to question. And they were ready to meet and interview him when the plane landed that day.

Now, of course, we know that that did not happen. He is now in custody, obviously. He is set to be arraigned tomorrow. He is facing a battery of charges that carry multiple life sentences, including attempting to use a bomb to destroy a U.S. jetliner, as well as attempted murder, 290 people on board that plane. All of this developing today, and, of course, the president's report scheduled to come out as well.

Tony.

HARRIS: That's right. All right, Deb Feyerick for us in Detroit.

Deb, appreciate it. Thank you.

And President Obama's security team has been pulling together details of what went wrong leading up to Christmas Day. I am going to get more on how the administration is responding from two reporters who are following this story, as you would expect, very closely.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: An Obama administration official says we will be shocked by a report coming out today. It details the missed clues surrounding the attempt to bomb a U.S. plane on Christmas. For more insight on what we can expect, let's bring in Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today." She conducted the interview with the national security adviser that is making news today. Her article splashed on the front page of the "USA Today." And, of course, our senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry.

Ed, let me start with you. I know you've got new details on what we can expect to hear from the president later this afternoon.

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hearing from a senior administration official, the president is going to be blunt about talking about the foul-ups here. But importantly, the president will not, at least not at this stage, fire anyone. That coming from the senior administration official who told me the president will basically say, here are the warts, I'm responsible. That he's going to take direct responsibility for what happened here and say that they're going to fix it.

Now I pressed on whether or not there will be accountability, though. What the president promised last week when he said there would be accountability at all levels of government on this. And what this official told me was, no, he's not planning to fire anyone, but he believes there will be accountability in the system. That the system needs to be fixed and has to work so that the American people are safe. We'll see the details in all of that, though, and see whether the American people are satisfied that the government is really being held accountable.

Tony.

HARRIS: So, Susan Page, the president is going to say, the buck stops here. What do you make of that, particularly against the backdrop of the conversation you had with General Jones?

SUSAN PAGE, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "USA TODAY": Well, General Jones said that a lot of the details are out already. We know, for instance, that this guy's father had gone and warned U.S. officials that he was being radicalized.

But I think there are some additional details that we're going to learn at 3:00 when the report comes out that we haven't known about before. And General Jones said it's just the collection of several different things that should have -- red flags that should have been noticed, that should have resulted in action that is going to be shocking to Americans when they look at this.

HARRIS: Yes, Ed, back to you. Tease out, if you would, and I'm thinking about -- even as I ask you this question, based on what you just reported, tease out the pressure on the president to make the right call on this issue, quickly, given some of the heat he's taking from the right on this, when we know that the president is a deliberative man.

HENRY: He is. And aides have repeatedly said in this process, when I was in Hawaii and this first unfolded, and they still say now, the president is not going to be motivated by those political attacks. Some Republicans say he should move faster, he should have done this, should have done that. And they also say he's not in a rush to fire anyone, in part because, when you talk to top aides, they say the very people who are charged now with keeping the American people safe are the ones that some people might want to fire. Well, what do you do if you fire someone with, say, 15, 20 years experience here and all of a sudden you're going to, you know, put up a help wanted sign to say, hey, come on in and run the CIA, hey, run, you know, whatever agency you want to pick here that may have screwed up?

What top aides here are saying is, look, mistakes were made, but that doesn't mean they're fatal. That doesn't mean that all of these senior officials can't learn from them. And so, you're right, the president does approach this from a deliberative manner. That is his approach. He doesn't like to rush out there. He likes to get all the facts.

HARRIS: Right.

HENRY: But, nevertheless, he's under great pressure to gather those facts and then figure out how to fix this. And so that's why I think it's unlikely we're going to see people fired. But instead, what we're going to see is the president laying out in some new detail, you know, here's exactly what went wrong and here's what I specifically plan to do to fix it, Tony.

HARRIS: Right. And, Susan Page, one last one to you, and we'll come back and talk to you more in the next segment. Maybe if you're the president you take the blame because you don't know exactly who else to blame at this point. How difficult is it figuring out exactly where to go and what to do when you're talking about a systemic failure and the alarm that General Jones referred to in the interview with you at learning the extent of the security failings?

PAGE: You know, I would say that General Jones used some very interesting language yesterday.

HARRIS: Yes.

PAGE: He said there are two strikes. The Fort Hood shootings and now the foiled bombing of the Detroit-bound jetliner. Two strikes where there were red flags that out to be recognized. Now that implies that a third strike, you're in or out. And I wonder if that is a sort of implicit warning to some intelligence officials who maybe won't get fired now, maybe won't be penalized at this point, but that there's a limit to that patience.

HARRIS: Yes.

PAGE: So I, you know, I guess we'll see.

HARRIS: All right. Ed, we'll release you to do more reporting. Terrific stuff. Thank you.

And, Susan Page, we will be back with you in a second to continue our conversation.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) HARRIS: And back now to our discussion of the report due out today on the Christmas Day terror plot and mistakes that failed to detect it. We will hear from President Obama in just about two hours now. Right now, let's get back to Susan Page, Washington bureau chief for "USA Today."

Just a couple more questions for you, Susan. And let's do this. Let's start with some sound from your interview with the national security adviser, retired General Jones, and then I've got a question for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEN. JIM JONES (RET.), NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The president takes this very, very seriously. And, you know, in the aftermath of Fort Hood and in this event, he is legitimately and correctly alarmed that -- that things that were available, bits of information were available, patterns and behavior that were available, were not acted on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Susan, the national security adviser talked about two strikes. He talked about Christmas Day and he talked about Fort Hood. And then he said, you don't want a third strike. What did you make of that language?

PAGE: I think that he was indicating they want to fix whatever is preventing dots from being connected from these bits of information that they have that say, here's a threat, but that didn't get acted on before there was catastrophe in Fort Hood and near catastrophe in Detroit. So one of the specific things he mentioned in the interview was that there might be a need to hire more analysts. That maybe there are not enough people looking at this. They get overwhelmed. It makes it harder for them to do things.

I think that might be one of the things we'd listen for this afternoon that the administration may be doing. Just hire -- just staffing up so that there's more people looking at this and maybe that we can avoid having this sort of -- the situation, again, where there's an avoidable disaster, but we don't take the steps to avoid it.

HARRIS: More people doesn't necessarily mean that you get it right. I'm wondering, did you get a sense as to whether or not the national security adviser thought that the system was failing us or that the system was -- was sound but that perhaps the people were failing us?

PAGE: He was very clear that the encouraging thing, if there could be such a thing out of an event like this, is that he said the system didn't fail. He said there's no need for the kind of wholesale overhaul of intelligence systems that we had after the 9/11 attacks. Instead, he said, we need what are called tweaks. That is, there are things we can do in the system to make this -- to prevent this from happening again. And he also made the point that there is a zero detect standard when it comes to terrorism. You know, you can get it right 100 times and we don't . . .

HARRIS: What does that mean?

PAGE: It means that intelligence people can get it right 100 times, prevent attacks. It's the one time when they don't get it right and there's a catastrophe that they're held responsible for that. And that -- and he said that they accept that as the standard. That the president understands that is the standard when it comes to these terror attack.

HARRIS: You know, we've also heard, Susan, that during this interview, all options are on the table. I get that General Jones sees the need for tweaking the system, maybe not overhauling the system. But , you know, when you hear words like "alarm," when you hear phrases like "systemic failure," I wonder in this all options on the table framing here, would it be worth, as you look at this story, taking a look at the entire system? And I'm wondering if the administration, at this moment, has an opportunity to do that.

PAGE: You know, I -- it's not my sense from this -- officials I've talked to that they are looking at that kind of broad-scale overhaul. They're looking at what wrong here. And, you know, Lee Hamilton, the former co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission, who is a foreign policy adviser to President Obama, spoke to reporters this morning at a breakfast I was at. He said, you know, we're looking at what went wrong with the Detroit bombing right now to fix things. He said, al Qaeda is doing the same thing.

HARRIS: Yes.

PAGE: They're examining what happened with this (INAUDIBLE) in regard (ph) what went wrong.