and fran townsend tells us this is a key piece of information. poring over every detail of the lid. >> it shows the strength of the potential bomb used, the name of the manufacturer, anything that could lead them to who did this. you couldn't transport this on a plane. >> also going on, treating and caring for the victims of the blast. 183 people were injured here. at least 23 critically. 100 injured have now been treated and released. treated by some of the best doctors, best nurses, best medical personnel in the entire country. one of those, dr. arun maratha, he was in his office during the marathon. when he heard about attacks. what did he do when he heard about it? he ran to the emergency room. doctor, thank you for joining us right now. so you were in your office when your wife called? >> that's right. i was in my office, and i heard about the blasts, and then i -- i spoke to one of my colleagues and went to the emergency department. >> what did you see when you got there? >> a number of highly injured people who were coming into the emergen

earlier fran townsend, our national security analyst here at cnn reported that the top of a pressure cooker, similar to this one, actually when it exploded was later discovered on the roof of one of those buildings and could potentially hold tremendous evidence as far as dna or other suspicious activity and potentially could lead to a suspect. in your information now the exclusive information you're reporting about a potential breakthrough in the investigation, are they saying that the discovery of the top of this kind of pressure cooker may have played a role in what they're learning? >> it's two separate pieces of the investigation as they put the pieces together, wolf. number one, that physical evidence will be used now to reconstruct the bomb and obviously going to look for fingerprints, whether they can find additional information about that. but that is part of the forensics and physical evidence, but i'm told from the video analysis that they now have what they believe to be clear video image of a suspect approaching the site, placing a package and leaving the site and placing

national contributor fran townsend, you're getting new information, fran, what are you picking up? >> reporter: a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said to me the fbi has indeed classified this as a terrorist attack, but they've made clear to me they do not know at this time whether those responsible for the attack were a foreign or domestic group. they do not know that answer yet, wolf, and that's their highest priority. there was no threat to the marathon in advance of the marathon today. they are going back now to see if there was something that was missed, either by federal or local officials. fbi confirmed there is no one in custody, and this law enforcement official also said to me that the two explosions that we've shown the tape of, wolf, along that end of the marathon route, it looks horrific, but i was told by the source that both packages that caused those explosions were small and that as of right now, initial tests, there does not appear to be used c-4 or other high-grade explosive material,

fran townsend, your law enforcement sources told you the federal government now does believe this was, in fact, a terror event. >> that's right, wolf. it may be, let's remember, you know, the memory of 9/11, september 11th, is not so far away, and when americans hear a terror attack, they are implicit in that in many respects that it's a foreign-driven event, and i think what we know from law enforcement, it's not clear. could it be a domestic terror group, yes, it could. could it be a foreign group, yes, it could. they just don't know, wolf. it could be the president is being cautious, reluctant to call it a terror event until he can say with more precision who did it, why they did it, and the progress that they are making in the investigation. >> would it be called a terror event, fran, if it were, let's say, one individual who was just loony, if you will, crazy, a lone wolf, going and plotting this kind of joint bombing? >> sure, wolf, we've talked about homegrown terrorists and the lone wolf symbol, where they are inspired by an extremist ideology but not directly related to a gro

also senior legal analyst, jeffrey toobin, fran townsend, john king, juliet is here. also jeff beatty. fran townsend, from your perspective, what stands out, what questions do we need now answered in the coming days? >> reporter: well, it's motivation, and the president -- the president himself said that in the white house briefing room. we want to know in the coming days what motivated these two men who had spent most of their lives in the united states. we know some about the suspect. we know that they had some relationship, if you will, or belief in an extreme form of islam. and i think that's why you heard, anderson, the president say that we shouldn't sort of assume bad motives to an entire group. i know from talking to a number of sources across the federal government they're concerned about hate crimes. and they don't want to see that happen. so this is -- they're trying to keep the american public focused on the actions of these two people. one's dead, one's in custody. we will get to the bottom of what the motivation is. to stay focused on the fact that the a

fran townsend, maybe you can explain what this means, federal law enforcement placed on level-one mobilization, equivalent of all hands on deck. what does that mean? >> basically, wolf, that means people who are in the office are no remain, they are going to work -- they are not going to go home, right? your shift is over, you're not going home. people who are at home, once they know they are on a level-one alert, there is a protocol for who comes back into the office and in what order so that they can work every available lead. it's not unusual, it's interesting, wolf, that they are talking about targeting and looking, screening, all international flights. that suggests that there's some concern that an individual may have been identified that may try to flee the united states. we heard earlier that lisa monico, the president's homeland security adviser was going out to the cia. if that's true, that would suggest also sort of an international connection. we ought to remind our viewers, wolf, law enforcement officials have been very clear. they do not know at this point if it is a foreign atta

coming from cnn's fran townsend. our security expert saying that a lid to a pressure cooker much like this one. a six-liter pressure cooker, believed to be what caused the blast. fashioned with ball bearings. the lid to a pressure cooker found across the street from the finish line of the bofrp marsto marathon. a lid to a pressure cooker, much like this one. found across the street from the finish line there at the boston marathon, and, again, that's what investigators will use to try and put together -- piece together exactly what happened. and in the wake of all of this, of this terror attack on monday in boston, you know, it has gotten people really envelopner around the country. people are tennesseei attending and that is car races. miguel marquez will join us to talk how they keep crowds safe at other events. >> reporter: it will be difficult, don. people around the world are watching boston, hoping learn lessons. when it comes to security at big events, despite the number of people attending, each prevents a di

if it's foreign and these people are experienced, i'd say they're out of the country. >> fran townsend, are you hearing any intelligence about where people are beginning to think, in other words, does the fbi know a bit more and perhaps believe it may be home-grown for that reason, or are they thinking perhaps no, this is looking more and more like al qaeda? >> no, you know, piers, i think they've been very deliberate about leaving all those options open, right, because what's really important to them is to find the individuals and once you've got them, you'll know for certain what the motivation was. right now, the real -- first and foremost for public safety reasons, right, you've got two guys who successfully detonated these two bombs, killed three, injured more than 180, you want to get them off the street for public safety reasons, because we know for sure they know how to construct and detonate these things successfully. and of course, you want to do it because you want to bring them to justice. but i think it's a real indication they haven't decided what the motivation is. is it

i'm joined by fran townsend. this is an awful day for boston, for america, for the world. there were so many countries represented in this race. tell me what we know, fran. do we know any hard evidence yet that could lead us to a potential suspect? >> well, there are clearly persons of interest. we know that there is one saudi national who was wounded in the leg who is being spoken to and investigative leads are being run. but we should be clear with our viewers, piers, the fact that someone's a person of interest, that can go either way. the leads will get run and the person will be cleared, or the person may be later, if they are confirmed made a suspect. but there will be many persons of interest and interviews done, surveillance camera video looked at. there will be forensics done and that's the break they're looking for. but i suspect there's an awful lot of evidence and i suspect you will see developments in the next 24 hours. >> from all that you've seen and heard so far, where is it leading your head as to potentially what is behind this? >> we just don't know who

i'm joined right now by fran townsend. cnn national security analyst, and former assistant to the president george w. bush for homeland security and counterterrorism. and joined by cnn analyst juliette kaayem. one bit of news. we understand that president obama will hold meetings tonight with members of his cabinet, as well as counterterrorism officials and homeland security officials. fran, bring us inside that room. inside that meeting. what is the nature of things that will be discussed there? >> going into that, we know president obama has been briefed on a regular basis by homeland security adviser, lisa monaco, and fbi director bob mueller, what happens as he gets these updates, he pulls his cabinet together and they will, one, give them a common view of what the situation is, what the risks are, what they know and what they don't know what are the key questions they are trying to get answered right now? the president will give clear direction to cabinet members how they can support bob muller and the department of h

fran townsend you're our homeland security analyst. you worked as the homeland security adviser to president bush. this pressure cooker type of bomb, i've been told that they are fairly, pretty evident in afghanistan, pakistan, maybe in iraq and not all that complicated to develop and certainly as gloria said you can go on the internet and get the instructions how to build them. >> that's right, wolf. the component pieces are readily available. it's easy to buy a pressure cooker. the circuitry to put it up -- hook it up to the timing device is not very complicated. and so you're unlikely to get sort of the kind of intelligence and leads that they had hoped for from looking at the signature of the bomb. what we haven't talked about, wolf, the special agent in charge in boston did say the component pieces they collected have been sent to the bomb analysis center in quantico, virginia. they'll be looking for fingerprints, dna, the sorts of things while not a signature for a bomb will lead you -- may lead you to an individual. you know, we

fran townsend also with us. fran, from an investigative standpoint, who is in charge mere? >> the key is once the federal law enforcement officials acknowledged that they had deemed it a terrorism investigation, the feds then become the lead investigators. but let's be clear. the boston police have done a terrific job and they sit together with the fbi and the joint terrorism task force in boston, so they're working this as partners but the federal lead in this right now becomes the fbi. that allows them to access all the national security apparatus, including the cia and any intelligence they may be able to bring to bear. >> john king, just from the investigative standpoint, can you just kind of run through what we know because there were so many different reports today about a fire at jfk library, then authorities say it is related, now they say it doesn't seem to have been related to these attacks. in terms of there were two explosions we know about. how many devices do we know were found that did not go off? >> well, we're waiting for a definitive answer on that because

fran townsend also with us. fran, from an investigative standpoint, who is in charge mere? >> the key is once the federal law enforcement officials acknowledged that they had deemed it a terrorism investigation, the feds then become the lead investigators. but let's be clear. the boston police have done a terrific job and they sit together with the fbi and the joint terrorism task force in boston, so they're working this as partners but the federal lead in this right now becomes the fbi. that allows them to access all the national security apparatus, including the cia and any intelligence they may be able to bring to bear. >> john king, just from the investigative standpoint, can you just kind of run through what we know because there were so many different reports today about a fire at jfk library, then authorities say it is related, now they say it doesn't seem to have been reled to these attacks. in terms of there were two explosions we know about. how many devices do we know were found that did not go off? >> well, we're waiting for a definitive answer on that because w

i want to talk to fran townsend on the phone. she has been following leads all day. thanks for joining us. all the agencies involved in this investigation at the local level, federal level, how does that complicate an investigation or is there seamless cooperation? >> i can tell you in all the terrorism investigations i've worked what you hope for and work toward is seamless coordination and a single investigative plan and that never happens. different investigators following different leads give different weight and credibility to it and so they have to work through what are their highest priorities? how valuable is the information and what are the next steps? that they're working through that doesn't mean there is conflict. there is sort of a natural process by which they're kind of -- their elbows are up and they're working the details. these are smart people working way long hours and sometimes come at it from a different point of view particularly between the feds and the locals. >> fran, we know there is an individual spotted in surveillance video at lord & tay

we're now going to go to cnn national security contributor fran townsend. fran, what are your law enforcement sources telling you? what are they doing right now? >> jake, it's interesting because the first thing you want to do is identify the substance that was used in the explosion and who was the perpetrator. so they're pulling -- they're doing the typical investigative steps. i understand that through the jttf in boston, the joint terrorism task force, the fbi is working with boston law enforcement to pull surveillance camera videos to see if there are any clues there. they're going through open cases, whether those are counterterrorism or criminal we don't know what the motivation is. they'll cast a wide net as they bring in forensic information and crime scene data to match that up with to see if they can identify both a motive and a suspect. >> even though the vice president used the word "bombing" and the boston marathon refed to two bombs that exploded, we don't have official confirmation yet that this was an act by an individual as opposed to anyth

we have fran townsend with us now. what are you hearing? >> wolf, anderson, so, look, i've been on the phone, as has tom fuentes, as you just heard from him, i've spoken to two senior administration officials and another federal official. all have said that what tom said is right, there is not somebody in custody or arrested. that the situation is very fluid. they're working closely with their local counterparts, that they're working to positively identify the individual, who is on these two videotapes. and that there -- there was a misunderstanding. that was said to me, not so much that we misunderstood, but there has been a misunderstanding and lots of cross communications as understandably as law enforcement tries to work through this, what they have got, who it is, what the purpose of that is, and what the next steps are. so i, myself, have had conflicting reports and i want to just to be clear with you that they think that is a result of the chaos and quickly unfolding law enforcement situation up in boston. >> so the minimum standard

national contributor fran townsend, you're getting new information, fran, what are you picking up? >> reporter: a federal law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said to me the fbi has indeed classified this as a terrorist attack, but they've made clear to me they do not know at this time whether those responsible for the attack were a foreign or domestic group. they do not know that answer yet, wolf, and that's their highest priority. there was no threat to the marathon in advance of the marathon today. they are going back now to see if there was something that was missed, either by federal or local officials. fbi confirmed there is no one in custody, and this law enforcement official also said to me that the two explosions that we've shown the tape of, wolf, along that end of the marathon route, it looks horrific, but i was told by the source that both packages that caused those explosions were small and that as of right now, initial tests, there does not appear to be used c-4 or other high-grade explosive material, which this was a more crude explosive devic

fran townsend joining me now as well. fran served as homeland security on the bush administration and also juliette kayyem, department of homeland security. what jumped out at you today? >> well, in terms of what we saw, if you notice, it was only law enforcement now. it was the head of the fbi here and our u.s. attorneys, all of the politicians are gone. this is all about the investigation. for me and fran, people that know the fbi, this is an incredible change from the fbi accused around 9/11 of just close holding all of the information. this was a calculated risk on their part. we hope that they are looking at the right people. it's clear whatever else they had in the film discloses enough information for them to take this risk. they need to know more about these people. but they are being cautious as well. finally, this crowd you sourcing aspect of this that the fbi is doing, it's very equivalent to the july 7th attacks in london. this is what the british police did. this is -- has to do with how many pictures there a

fran townsend, thank you so much. we'll check in with you later. congressman bill keating of massachusetts now joins us. he serves on the homeland security committee in the house. he joins me now from the house of representatives. congressman, you spoke to the secretary of homeland security, janet napolitano just a few moments ago. what more have you learned about this attack? >> actually a few hours ago. but what we have learned is that they haven't been able to distinguish whether it is an international or domestic terrorist, only that there is a treasure trove of potential evidence in videos and witness statements and a large part of our focus at the federal level working with state and local officials is to try and provide the assets necessary to accelerate the viewing of the videos to bring in experts that might be able to determine information from those videos. the videos remain one of the center points of the investigation. there are still videos flooding in from individuals, because iphones and other video equipment. and that's all welcome

i want to go to fran townsend, tom fuentes, to get a little better sense of what we just heard. fran, give us your thoughts on what we just heard from governor deval patrick? >> i think he's trying to assure the people it will come to a conclusion and people will be brought to justice. interesting he didn't acknowledge the special agent in charge in boston, acknowledged the recovery of the pressure cooker. we talked about that this morning. the lid, there are pictures now out with the forensics. we know law enforcement has gone through these videotapes and are focused on particular individuals. they've gotten a lot of investigative work done today. and they are much closer. it was interesting to me, wolf, he didn't really want to acknowledge the -- all of the investigative progress that's pn made, other than to say they's encouraged by it and it will take time. look, they want to build themselves space to complete this thing on their own time frame. i do think it's interesting that he doesn't think there's going to be a press conference today, as you reported, wolf. it's been pu

we have tom fuentes and fran townsend both joining us, cnn national security analysts and tom used to be the fbi former assistant director. tom, first to you and then fran, same question, what do you make of this? >> well, this is, you know, not uncommon. back in 2006, the canadians uncovered a plot later referred to as the toronto 18, and it was a collaborative investigation in canada between their intelligence service and the royal canadian mounted police and the fbi and at the time i was still running international operations at the fbi. we provided assistance to them, phone record checks and people traveling around, you know, with connections to the u.s., to make sure there was no related u.s. plot, which there was not. so this sounds very similar to that. at least with that regard. this is also that case was one i referred to where the individual who was the mastermind took one course in mechanical engineering and figured out on his own how to make a bomb, and, you know, and detonate it remotely by telephone. sodevices can be done, if a person has training, education, and aptitud

fran townsend is a former federal prosecutor and also a justice department and coast guard intelligence official and annor a consultant to the u.s. chamber of commerce who joins me tonight from new york. fran we're hearing that some want to charge this man as an enemy of the united states. others want to see him face state and federal terrorism charges. what are your thoughts on this? >> reporter: don, i think we should expect, first of all, he will face federal terrorism charges, and just as we saw in the oklahoma city bombing, it doesn't mean that there aren't state charges that will remain, but first and foremost i think they will charge him in a federal complaint, not an indictment. they will first charge him in a complaint, and it will be pretty basic, pretty bare bones because they can, right? they really only need that document to hold him while they conduct further in this investigation. you're likely to see superceding indictments as they get and glean more information from their investigation. right now what everybody -- what's on everybody's mind is are there -- what are the

we're digging deeper with christiane amanpour and fran townsend, who is currently a member of the cia's external advisory committee. christiane, seems like the state department is clearly dialing back the rhetoric, saying this doesn't need to get any hotter. >> yes. 24 hours ago we were here discussing what seemed to be a very serious situation. but you are absolutely right. i think it's come to the conclusion that no matter what they say from north korea, you can't respond in kind, because it simply rachets up the tension so from the state department and from the pentagon today, a clear desire to step back off this very confrontational ledge. question is, how can all sides get away from their backs against the corner right now. >> racheting it up, does that play into north korea's hands, fran? >> it does, anderson, because remember, this is -- while the rhetoric, the volley back and forth is bilateral between the u.s. and north korea, the rest of the world is watching and this is not the only country we have a serious proliferation problem with. there's iranian negotiations over their

fran townsend is with us, as well. let me bring her into this conversation. the public defender, he's a lawyer, he's a graduate of yale, yale law school. obviously, they brought in someone who's a highly qualified to represent this suspect, fran. >> absolutely, wolf. and what we're learning is he will lead a team of public defenders in representing the defendant here. you know, it's interesting, wolf, we really learned for the first time, we understood that the suspect had these injuries, dzhokhar has these injuries, but what we're learning now is he actually has the ability to speak. it may be limited, it may be to a single word, but that tells you something about when investigators during the public safety exception were questioning him. clearly, he nods most times in this transcript, but he does say the word "no," so we know he can speak. and at the end of the transcript, the judge makes the observation on the record that he is competent, he's lucid, and that he's alert. also very important in terms of understanding the defendant's condition. >> if i can j

fran townsend, thanks so much. let me ask you to give context on one other thing we are hearing in these reports. we heard sound from the uncle to the tsarnaev brothers, one of the uncles who brings up the possible of a character, a man named misha who may have influenced tamerlan, may have been a mentor to him somehow dealing with muslim issues right now. put this in context. is this something that authorities will follow up on? are you hearing that this is something they're concerned about? or is this something that may or may not be that reliable? >> well, there's no question that federal authorities will follow up. they will try to individual misha. they will try to interview him. they will want to vied sort of his network. if there's a particular mosque he's associated with. the people who have heard him preach. but we have to remember they'll take that very seriously. they'll try to see what influence he had. but, here in the united states, everyone's got a first amendment, a constitutional freedom of speech.

fran townsend, thank you so much. thanks for being with us. stick around. a lot to talk about this morning. meantime, investigators say they are reviewing reports that tamerlan tsarnaev may have been involved in a gruesome triple homicide two years ago that remains unsolved today. that happened in waltham, massachusetts, nearby here. former acquaintances say one of tsarnaev's close friends 25-year-old brandon met was found murdered in a suburban boston apartment in 2011, along with two other men. they had all their throats slashed and their bodies were found covered in marijuana. and this just in to cnn, the gas station manager who helped the man carjacked by the tsarnaev brothers last thursday night, he is speaking to cnn. he called police after the victims entered his star, instead he was frightened. >> after maybe ten seconds i called the police. he came here, he was inside, and he closed the door, and i called the police. but i remember a gun, they want to shoot me. he was very, very -- he screaming, and he was nervous. so -- for me to tell you. >> we a

fran townsend, you worked with the justice department. you were a homeland security adviser to president bush. you have to be very sensitive what you say, so you don't undermine eventually some sort of prosecution. >> that's right. because oftentimes as you're gathering, for example they got great forensic evidence that they've been exploiting over the last 48 hours. you want to be able to keep that a secret so that when you're actually, if you get someone in custody and you interview them, you don't want to show your cards publicly. you don't want them to know what you have because you want to be able to test them in an interview and elicit as much detailed information as you possibly can. >> all right. i think some folks are beginning to walk through those doors. this is about to get started. let's see. they said originally it started around five minutes after, 11 minutes after the top of the hour. but let's see if they start coming in. maybe -- it's not unusual, fran, for there to be some last-minute issues they want to make sure they

we want to bring in fran townsend and tom fuentes now. what is your take on this, fran? we have a feeling this is it. this is the final moment. this is when it's going to happen. >> erin, it sure feels and looks that way. in a barricade situation, law enforcement controls the pace at this point. unless the suspect makes a move, time is on law enforcement's side. they can wait him out. they can pick their moment. they can get all their assets in place. and, you know, as we're hearing from various reporting sources, deb, john and others, they want to do this pretty methodically. what they're trying to do is insure not only their own safety but the safety of -- we haven't had any reporting on whether or not they think he's alone or there is anyone in there. they don't want to be a threat to them. they don't want to be a threat to the neighbors and the surrounding houses. and so they will pick their moment. of course, it's getting dark. you know, we can see from the pictures here, the sun has set in watertown. and so the later it gets and the darker it gets, you run the risk

fran townsend saying she has sources that the communication is by writing. but they would not confirm the nature of any of the communication? >> no, they wouldn't. and i'm not sure how much it is actually. i was trying to find out exactly what questions they were asking. one would presume of course that the questions they're asking would be about the possibility of any other planned attack because that's the first thing law enforcement always wants to find out. but my source would not talk about the mate of any of the communications. >> all right. gloria borger, thank you for that. and we've been talking to commission commissioner davis as well as other officials and they did indicate that the very first questions they want answered from dzhokhar tsarnaev would be is there any other reason to be concerned about public safety here in the boston area. again, we can confirm that investigators are communicating, have been since yesterday, with the 19-year-old suspect dzhokhar tsarnaev . ♪ (train horn) vo: wherever our trains go, the economy comes to life. norf

with us now, fran townsend, national security analyst, former homeland security adviser under george w. bush. fran, will investigators be looking for this man, supposedly name ed misha, how does he fit into all of this? >> look, wolf, they have an extraordinary amount of information. this is the sort of information that will go to the very top. why? because of, of course, they want to know all of the connections of the suspects, and they want to know, were there other coconspirators, as part of that inquiry, they want to identify misha,an how he fit into the brother's lives. did he inspire, direct them, what role if any, did misha play in terms of how they became radicalized and began to think, and did he -- does misha have any connection to islamist and radicals overseas? >> that's a key point if, in fact there, was a misha, was he acting alone or connected to some groups? excellent questions for investigators to look at. they have also been taking a look at some of the comments, some of statements, some of the occasions co indications from sdpldzhokhar tsavraev. he said he never ha

. >> wolf, we have information one of our sources from our national security fran townsend, boston law enforcement source tell me that an arrest has been made. >> the suspect has been arrested in the boston bombings. >> i want to be very careful because people get sensitive when you say these things. i was told by a source of law enforcement official that this was a dark-skinned male. i'm making a personal judgment, forgive me. >> according to the a.p., the suspect has been taken by u.s. marshals to a federal courthouse. >> now, this was huge news. big crowds, big crowds began forming outside the courthouse in the belief that the bomber would soon be taken there. while many news organizations were racing to air, nbc news was careful and deliberate. >> what we've been told by several sources, there is no arrest. >> all of a sudden, the story on some other networks began to change. look at the banners on the bottom of the screen. they began rolling it back. >> a third top federal law enforcement official is saying to us now, that makes three, no arrests have been made. >> there's been no

. >> nobody right now, i'm sure, feels worse than john king and fran townsend. it's not as if they wanted this happen. yes, it was a blunder. yes, it was bad. however, these are sources that they believe to be impeccable or otherwise they wouldn't have reported it. >> but relying on law enforcement sources, in my experience, it's like going back to the olympics bombing. he sued nbc and got settle ms. law enforcement sources are sometimes wrong. they want to make it appear that they are on top of case or put pressure on witnesses. >> which is why networks have very strong anonymous sourcing policies. that has to go through editors, through producers. it has to go almost to the top. that's why we don't do it very often. >> we're reaching a point where news organizations need to say on the major points of a criminal investigation as when a suspect has been identified or arrested, the name of a suspect, they need to wait for absolutely official confirmation. either a press conference or a statement. >> but that's tough. >> if you go through these sources, you have l

bob bear and fran townsend joins us on the phone. are we satisfied it was just these two brothers, that the fbi seemed to be indicating that is the case. could they have been part of a wider group. >> my suspicion and it's a suspicion is that they were. why did the russians come to washington and say look into the older brother, tamerlan. they don't do that as a matter of routine. they have some piece of information that he had connection connections, that he had a backing or influenced by some group, whether it's al qaeda or another group, it didn't really matter. we do know that. that's almost certain at this point. where they needed it for money or picked the target, that's another question. what they'll be doing is going through their cell phones, text messages, letters, chat rooms, everything else, travel. you'll see the cia and fbi going to the neighboring countries with chechnya. and that would be georgia asking these same questions. other times it may be individuals trying to mimic osama bin laden and this may be the case. >>

joining us is massachusetts homeland security adviserer and cnn contributor fran townsend is with us. also with us, cnn contributor and former fbi assistant director tom fuentas. fran, i know you consider to work your sources. there's one person that authorities are talking to, and again, we want to urge caution how we approach that information. but what is the latest you're hearing? >> anderson, this is an individual who had a leg wound, is this the hospital, is a saudi national. they were very clear to say to me this person is not under arrest, and quite frankly, while we know about this one, i suspect that there are other persons of interest. so we shouldn't read too much into that. in the early goings of any investigation, your going to find there are plenty of people who come up on an investigator's screen. some will shake out, that is they will be spoken to and not further followed up with. and on the other hand, some may develop into suspects. they're looking at all the forensics. the video surveillance from the cameras. they're looking at forensics from the streets, from this

fran townsend, what are you picking up? >> wolf, we understand from three separate federal officials that during the police chase when they carjacked the first car, they admitted to the victim of the carjacking that the two brothers were in fact the marathon bombers. they proceed along in that carjacked car and pull alongside a separate car. they transfer materials from the separately parked car into the black suv mercedes that they have carjacked. when the police chase begins we know there is a big shootout. we've learned from authorities that the brothers threw one grenade and five pipe bombs. three of the pipe bombs exploded. two did not. there was also a gun fight. the suspects ran out of ammunition. when suspect number two stepped out of -- i'm sorry -- when suspect number one, the guy with the black hat, gets out of the car, the other suspect with the white hat gets behind the wheel. when police approach the brother with the black hat, the one has run out of ammo, the other suspect, the one that is still at large, bac

. >> again, i have a boston source, fran townsend has a second source, in fact, an arrest has been made on wednesday. here's what fran's source said, an arrest has been made based on two different videos showing images of the suspect. i was told the video enhancement showed a dark-skinned male placing the package at the second explosion site and backing away. >> an arrest has been made, a dark-skinned male placing the package and backing away. everybody freak out, and, of course, everybody did kind of freak out much of the afternoon with that information. fox news reported a suspect is in custody in the boston marathon bombing. associated press reporting that a suspect is in custody. the hometown boston globe breaking the news on twitter, quote, breaking, arrest in boston marathon bombing. and the link, you can see the link there, see the way the link spells out, refresh equals true. in this case, untrue. we at the show have been glued to the boston globe's website this week, they are doing stupendous work, but when the big headline says "marathon bomb suspect in custody" and it's next

. >> fran townsend, that is the way a lot of people are beginning to think. of course, we have to keep reminding everyone, nobody knows. what do you make of the way the investigation is unfurling here? >> piers, what i would say is actually i think the answer is something a little bit in the middle of your -- bob baird and mark what they're saying to you. i think what we're most likely seeing is a domestic, home grown lone wolf or a small group who are inspired by jihadist. it's on the website, the "inspire" magazine, that's the al qaeda publication where you find a lot of the information bob was talking about in terms of building these kinds of devices, targeting large groups and multiple simultaneous attacks like we saw at the finish of the boston marathon. and so it may be as we said a little bit of both, right, it may be a domestic incident in the sense it's home grown. but the link may be the inspiration. sort of like nadal hassan the ft.shooter. >> if it is a domestic terror attack, is it more likely from your experience to be a lone wolf or part of an

because i want to bring fran townsend into the -- the former homeland security adviser to president bush, our homeland security analyst right now. as dana said, it's highly poisonous, ricin. this letter that has apparently been tested three times, fran. give us a little sense of proportion what this potentially means. >> well, wolf, it's deeply concerning, because just as we've told our viewers, that the pressure cooker type construction of an explosive device has been touted on al qaeda websites, the use of ricin as a poison, there have been cells, one that comes to mind for me just off the top of my head was in the uk. but there are al qaeda manuals that talk about the use of ricin, and the deployment ricin as a poison. we don't know where the envelope came from. we don't know the threat. we haven't identified the source of the bombing in boston. but these are -- each of these has got some history, some ties, sort of to the al qaeda playbook, if you will, and i have no doubt that that's in the investigator's mind as this news breaks. >> fran, hold on for a moment. dana, hold on for a m

but there were people believing in cnn, and another one was fran townsend. >> bill: yeah, not her finest hour either. she was confirming everything that john king was saying and she didn't have any sources of her own. >> yeah, and to that point it was -- you wonder why john king takes all of this because fran townsend should take some too, but the thing is he had the quote. we got him. >> it was crystalized in the onion too. and the daily show you are the guy. >> yeah. >> bill: i thought brian ross on nbc, he is a damn good reporter too. >> yes, he did some fine work from boston but because of previous mistakes i think that fewer people -- i think if you saw pete williams and john king, you weren't wondering what brian ross was doing, because he got in trouble during the aurora shooting. but long-term the brand recognition and the integrity of the reporter is tarnished. >> bill: quit comment from each of you, while this was going on, on twitter and redit, people were doing their own sleuthing and identifying people as the suspect. is there anything you can do about that? you don't blame

our national security analysts are here, fran townsend, and former fbi assistant director tom fuentes, also hln law enforcement analyst mike brooks. fran, let's go through the pictures. we were talking about suspect number two, wearing the white cap. there are eight still photos, i want to put up on the screen, so viewers in the united states and around the world can get a better look at this individual. you see, fran, the baseball cap backwards on his head. you see his outfit there. he could pass for anyone almost, boston, a lot of college students, he's walking around at the end of the boston marathon, pretty casually. >> he is, wolf. you used a word earlier to describe him as cocky. and let's focus on that for a second. because i think you're absolutely right. you don't get cocky and confident with a bomb in your backpack unless you've thought about this, unless you've planned it. and the likelihood is, these guys did sort of what we call operational surveillance. they did dry runs before. so when the fbi special agent in charge says they're especially interested in those who were