this as an al qaeda affiliated attack? >> this is absolutely al qaeda affiliated attack. and interestingly enough, last month al qaeda said that mokhtar was dead and didn't say how he was killed. maybe he was hit in libya, but it took him a while to die but we can't verify the statement but it said that he was dead and we have to look back and dig the to this statement and see, was it something that mokhtar put out to release pressure on him or was he actually killed? >> was this group so -- did it hinge so much on him as a personality and a leader that you would expect his group to fall apart, if he was dead? would you expect them to be able to pull off a big attack like this in mali if they had just lost their leader? >> this is not the first time al qaeda conduct. they did something very similar attack in the capital of mali at a luxury hotel and killed lot of people before but now a lot of the attention is because of what happened in france. especially because of the french intervention in mali. is it considered an int

al qaeda in asia, al qaeda in africa, al qaeda in the arab states? mr. morell: that is a great question. we are all, as a government, as a media, as a public, focused on isis, and rightfully so. but as we are focused on isis, it turns out that al qaeda is on the rebound. it's on the rebound in two places. the first is in yemen, the most dangerous al qaeda affiliates on the planet. we talked about that special bomb maker there many times. this is the group that has tried to attack the united states a number of times. they were somewhat degraded by yemeni military operations and u.s. counterterrorism operations up until the civil war started. once the yemeni civil war started -- i think we talked about this around this table when it was happening -- when the yemeni civil war started, it was a boon to al qaeda. there was a vacuum that they were able to fill. so al qaeda in yemen now has more land than it ever had before under its control, and has more fighters, it has more weapons, and it has more money than it ever had before because of this vacuum. that w

we've had al qaeda in arabian peninsula. al qaeda in the islamic maghreb. boko haram,al that bob and isis and affiliates join up. they compete with each other. sometimes they cooperate with each other. they have transient alliances. this makes much more difficult back on september 11th, when it was one group in caves in afghanistan. gregg: switching to our other subject which we initially invited you, we have this isis videotape threatening an attack on the white house. it came 24 hours after a simulated video attack on new york city. how serious do you take this? what does it mean to you? >> gregg, every threat has to be taken seriously. having said that there is as far as i know and i've been briefed fairly recently there are absolutely know known credible threats against the united states, specifically washington, d.c. or new york city. having said that, isis is trying to do two things here. generally trying to create fear and terror throughout the united states. gregg: yeah. >> also what they're hoping to do is inspire lunatics, psychotic, people on the

if it were al qaeda, it's a result of this rivalry with al qaeda trying to move that it's still relevant after the death of osama bin laden and after the rise of isis. >> richard, the other hallmarks of this, the almost organic l low-tech nature, people willing to give their lives as a delivery system. as our graphic at the bottom of the, kalashnikov rifles, people willing to walk into a restaurant and start firing. >> reporter: low-tech weapons perhaps, but it's not easy to find ak-47s in paris, not easy to find grenades and for the easy to carry out attack without multiple cells without word getting out and your organization being infiltrated. people talked about the mumbai attack. that was sophisticated. they had a plan. we talked about it on air. it was low-tech, but almost commando style military assault moving through the train station, going to the hotel. i think that's what we have seen today in paris, a dedicated group of militants who arm themselves to the most sophisticated degree they could, and then carried out a very almost military style assault in one of the world's great

if isil disappeared tomorrow and if al qaeda, the original al qaeda sort of collapsed, we now have al qaeda in the ma greb. we're going to have to continue to deal with this not only militarily, which is really the smallest response to this, but to deal with the financing infrastructure, to get strong, peaceful governance in place. that's what secretary kerry is try ing ing to get moving in syo we can focus our attention all on im i'll as opposed to the brutality of the assad government. we have to deal with that it infrastructure. we have to deal with the propaganda war and help each country get its security chops so they can deal with these ongoing threats. this is a long-term process. we made some progress, but there's a little bit of whack a mole we're all going to have to continue to deal with. >> ambassador, thank you so much. brooke, back to you. >>> coming up next, the mayor of a city in virginia under fire. my next guest has some thoughts about that mayor's letter. he's starring on broadway here in new york right now. this musical sort of based upon his past, his life. he and

so maybe it's an al qaeda linked group. well, there are multiple armchair quarterbacking reports particularly in the american media saying that al qaeda and isis are actually desperately at odds, particularly in this part of the world and they would never work together and would never have any overlapping allegiances in that part of the world. either he's affiliated with isis or al qaeda but couldn't -- but it couldn't be both. none of that seems at all clear to me, in terms of who's responsible, who's cooperating and who's competing. but that's why we turn to experts in these matters. ignorance isn't bliss. the reason we turn to experts in moments like this to tell us what we should believe about these various after filliations, the reason we turn to experts to tell us how important it is to get it in terms of understanding the international threat posed by groups is because without understanding how they're linked, without understanding who's against who and with who, how could we reasonably expect they could be target an

on the short list of possibilities, al qaeda and isis. in part b bause of recent history. >> the tactics used in this specific attack are very similar to what we have seen in the past in attacks carried out by al qaeda or isis. it's too early to tell for sure who conducted it now but i i wouldn't surprise me at all if it was either an al qaeda affiliate or isis. >> reporter: just last january, there was a spree of terroro in france. two others forced their way into the office of the french satirical newspaper "charlie injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video al qaeda in the arabian pepensula claimed responsibility for the assault and say one of the two terrorist brothers traveled to yemen to receive training and funding from the al qaeda affiliate there. another gunmanook several hostagag in a supermarket near paris. authorities found evidence in the gunman's apartment he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believed to have traveled to ria. laictiond has been looking foror ways to do a large-scale attack for years. th

it might not be isis, but al qaeda, the arabian peninsula, aqap as it's called, or another al qaeda group, al shabaab, they do have capabilities to put a bomb on a plane, don't they? >> absolutely right, wolf. al qaeda in yemen, as we know, have that capability. we saw that with the underwear bombing attempt over detroit in 2009, and since then, their master bombmaker, ibrahim al asiri, has been trying to develop new generations of explosive devices, the kind you might be able to get through security at sharm el sheik airport. also worries about the al qaeda affiliate in syria developing these same kind of capabilities. and of course, russia is hitting al qaeda in syria. but what we haven't seen so far is any al qaeda claim whatsoever. and in this age of social media, that's very, very surprising, if they, indeed, carried out this attack. you'd expect them to get the claim out by now, especially because this isis affiliate in sinai has already put out a claim. so, the fact that al qaeda has not put out a claim so far suggests that perhaps it's not them responsible. i think there's a lot o

remember, isis was originally known as al-qaeda in iraq before al-qaeda distanced itself from isis. joining us now, fox news military analyst, the chairman for the institute of the study of war and retired four-star general jack keane. general keane, you have to wonder, isis got all of this propaganda value, i guess, for pulling off those attacks in paris. is this potentially some kind of an al-qaeda strikeback to try to keep its own brand in the headlines? >> well, there may be some of that but, i mean, these al-qaeda organizations in mali exist for a very specific reason. they want to overthrow this government. they've got a bona fide sanctuary in the north. this is the third incident this year. in march it was a restaurant, five dead. in august, another hotel, 13 dead. that had, certainly, nothing to do with the recent incident in paris. i mean, geopolitically their objectives are, certainly, to set up an emirates in the state of mali and try to spread that to other countries. this is a step in that direction. and like all radical islamic groups, they take advantage of the local

on the short list of possibilities, al qaeda and isis. in part because of recent history. >> the tactics used in this specific attack are very similar to what we have seen in the past in attacks carried out by al qaeda or isis. it's too early to tell for sure who conducted it now but it wodn't surprise me at all if it was either an al qaeda affiliate or isis. >> reporter: just last january, there was a spree of terror in france. two brothers forced their way into the office of the french satirical newspaper "charlie hebdo" in paris, killing 11 and injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video al qaeda in the arabian peninsula claimed responsibility for the assault and say one of the two terrorist brothers traveled to yemen to receive training and funding from the al qaeda affiliate there. another gunman took several hostage in a supermarket near paris. authorities found evidence in the gunman's apartment he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believed to have traveled to syria. laictiond has been looking for ways to do a l

qaeda was known for sink kronized attacks, great specificity, and many saying this looked like al qaeda was competing with the isis brand out there. think it's going to force us in the long run to consider what the signature of isis is. that it's evolved rapidly. it has innovated. when president obama and others have come out and said isis is in a vise, isis is contained, they've come out in ways completely unexpected. >> what should we be worried about as americans in the immediate near term? >> i think it's a huge concern

al qaeda might be stateless, but the state of al qaeda is very strong. we have to remember, isis came out from al qaeda. al qaeda is an ideological narrative that provides the jihadi extremists with the passion and their goals. al qaeda today is way stronger than it used to be on 9/11. on 9/11, they had 400 members. now they have armies in syria, they have armies in yemen. >> under what name? >> in syria they fight under al nusra, an al qaeda affiliate in syria. in yemen they fight under aqap. now they control the third largest city in the country. in the islamic world they are very active, not only in mali and algeria but also tunisia and libya. we have to be very careful about al qaeda. >> are they in competition, al qaeda and isis? >> yes. they are in competition. they are basically -- isis used to be part of al qaeda. al qaeda is the poisonous tree and isis is just a branch of that tree. isis is a symptom of a disease. al qaeda is the decide. >> let's go back to the bombings in france, where the mastermind has been confirmed dead. how important is th

they say isis has outdone al qaeda on social media but analysts say don't understatement al qaeda, isis got its start as one of the al qaeda affiliate inside iraq. let bring in "fox news sunday" anchor chris wall loss. doesn't sound greek. no an analyst called it the jihadi olympics, kind of a glib phrase but accurate in a sense because there is wide body of thought that isis and al qaeda are competing, and to the degree and -- you now, you have to put this in the twisted minds of the people thatert parts of these groups. one, they're competing for recruits to to the degree that isis occupies center stage in the center of terrorism, whether the attacks in paris, the suicide bomb indigents beirut think downing of the russian airliner over egypt, that -- then of course putting all this stuff out on social media, that gets them recruits. if you're one of these people looking for a cause, you suddenly decide, isis, marsh that's the fight i want to join, and so al qaeda -- of course we can't be sure that's what went on here in mali but the thought ills at al qaeda may have just ordered this

al mourabitoun has links to al qaeda. they use weapons smuggling and drug trafficking to finance the activities. >> he fought with osama bin laden in afghanistan. he was the leader of al qaeda in northwestern africa but split from the group in 2012 to form his own militia. the group has previously been involved in hostage taking sieges in the region as recently as august several hostages were taken and killed in central mali. now his group has claimed responsibility for the attack on the raddison blu. >>> mary beth long is a former assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and she joins me from washington. mary beth, good to have you on the program. look, this group led by muktar bel muktar claiming credit for this attack, what more do you know about him? first of all, is he alive or is he dead? >> i don't think anybody really knows. certainly the libyan government reported him to have passed as a result of u.s. air strikes this past june, but as you know, al qaeda has denied that from the beginni

don't count al qaeda out though because al qaeda is playing a long game. it's embedded in syria. it's very strong there in syria as an affiliate, al nusra built up quite a lot of local sport, it's strong in yemen, resur gent to some degree in the afghanistan/pakistan border region. we saw that big raid on the al qaeda training complex near the border just a few weeks ago. but clearly isis are getting all their headlines right now. and they have a lot on their side in terms of all these recruits joining them, all the energy from these attacks. and so, you know, the worry is they're going to compete one-up each other and the result is going to be more days like last friday in paris. >> a second twisted competition. melissa, quickly if you could, is the radisson hotel -- we don't mean to pick on that brand of hotel, but are hotels in general soft targets? >> well, this is a hotel that shouldn't have been. you're talking about the world ministries are in bamako, the hotel itself you have to get through checkpoints to get inside. your car is checked, and so we don't know exactly wheth

is it isis, al qaeda? i know there's debate under way. >> absolutely. in the last month or two isis followers have been calling for paris. certainly what happened tonight at that concert hall was a slaughter, a massacre of young rock 'n' roll band. nothing that isis or al qaeda hates most of than a bunch of people out to have a good time going to a soccer game, going to a concert, out for a few drinks with friends. that was the target tonight, very soft targets. >> decadent western culture. insights. >>> coming up next on this special edition of "nightline," what tonight's tragic events in paris mean for homeland security and what counterterrorism experts are saying about the string of recent deadly terror attacks. stay with us. m mary ellen, and i quit smoking with chantix. i have smoked for thirty years and by taking chantix, i was able to quit in three months. and that was amazing. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it absolutely reduced my urge to smoke. some people had changes in behavior, thinking or m

as an al qaeda affiliated attack? >> this is absolutely al qaeda affiliated attack. and interestingly enough, last month al qaeda said that mokhtar was dead and didn't say how he was killed. maybe he was hit in libya, but it took him a while to die but we can't verify the statement but it said that he was dead and we have to look back and dig the to this statement and see, was it something that mokhtar put out to release pressure on him or was he actually killed? >> was this group so -- did it hinge so much on him as a personality and a leader that you would expect his group to fall apart, if he was dead? would you expect them to be able to pull off a big attack like this in mali if they had just lost their leader? >> this is not the first time al qaeda conduct. they did something very similar attack in the capital of mali at a luxury hotel and killed lot of people before but now a lot of the attention is because of what happened in france. especially because of the french intervention in mali. is it considered an int

and he has split from al-qaeda which he lead personally for sometime. and he is known to be even more radical than the main stream al-qaeda. you can compare him to isis. one of his most high-profile operations happened in 2013 when he took over an algerian gas factory in algeria near the border with mali, and that operation lasted for sometime, and 40 hostages were killed during it. at least one or two were american nationals. he is known to be the toughest man among those radical groups in the area, and he -- another name of his group, before his group became [ inaudible ] the name of the group was those who sign with blood. so it is one of the least likely to negotiate. and he goes into bloody action before he even talks with people. >> tomorrow in the papers we'll see another one of those charts with faces that we didn't really recognize before something bad happened like this. but how are the people of mali going to be reacting to this? because it's not the easiest country in the world to live in. >> of course not. and i can tell you from firsthand

inqaeda in asia, al qaeda africa, al qaeda in the arab states? mr. morell: that is a great question. we are all, as a government, as a media, as a public, focused on isis, and rightfully so. but as we are focused on isis, it turns out that al qaeda is on the rebound. rebound in two places. the first is in human -- yemen the most dangerous al qaeda affiliates on the planet. we talked about that special bomb maker there many times. this is the group that has tried to attack the united states a number of times. degraded bymewhat military operations and u.s. counterterrorism operations up until the civil war started. once the many civil war started -- i think we -- the yemeni civil war started -- i think we talked about this around this table when it was happening -- when the yemeni civil war started, it was a boom to al qaeda. there was a vacuum that they were able to fill. yemen nowda and has more land than it ever had before under its control, and has more fighters, it has more weapons, and it has more money than it ever had before because of this vac

as an al qaeda affiliated attack? >> this is absolutely al qaeda aff affiliated attack. and interestingly enough, last month al qaeda said that mokhtar was dead and didn't say how he was killed. maybe he was hit in libya, but it took him a while to die but we can't verify the statement but it said that he was dead and we have to look back and dig the to this statement and see, was it something that mokhtar put out to release pressure on him or was he actually killed? >> was this group so -- did it hinge so much on him as a personality and a leader that you would expect his group to fall apart, if he was dead? would you expect them to be able to pull off a big attack like this in mali if they had just lost their leader? >> this is not the first time al qaeda conduct. they did something very similar attack in the capital of mali at a luxury hotel and killed lot of people before but now a lot of the attention is because of what happened in france. especially because of the french intervention in mali. is it considered an

it comes from al qaeda isis actually believed the leader of isis really about the al qaeda leadership was too weak so isis has built upon a the platform of al qaeda and is a lot more aggressive with the mastermind of today's attack because of the fighting. >> is there any silver lining to the terrorist groups that are fighting with one another? >> they're fighting for years now. isis is gaining momentum around the world and al qaeda is not. and isis is attacking to be more reflective but we are seeing some fighting but not enough to have them implode. deirdre: clearly those types of weapons but the expertise is another. our thoughts to those caught in violence than the posted numbers are they to call for help had ucb allied air group? the former cia reviewers still working in that role would you think anonymous is helpful or would you be anxious about the agenda? >> don't mince words it is a criminal organization period. tens of billions of dollars this group where they might have a common enemy dole told any of our interest so anonymous is also an enemy of the state in the american p

and toward the end it was pretty much assumed it was al qaeda. specifically al qaeda in the arabian peninsula that was responsible for the attack. and one of those brothers had traveled to yemen to get some training and he was inspired by an american cleric. and in the end it was determined the american cler nick yemen was in fact at least a central part to that plot. so i think u.s. anti-terrorism officials are trying to figure out who did it, was this a result of that rivalry, was isis trying to prove that it has now finally arrived on the world scale and is looking beyond the caliphate, as it calls it, in iraq and syria and can carry out attacks in beirut on thursday, like as it claims downing the russian airliner in sinai and now carrying out this atrocity in paris. because if the credit went a year ago to al qaeda, perhaps isis wanted to show that it can do it bigger and better and in an even more spectacular and horrific way. >> richard, we've got a little bit more information. again, cited to paris police officials tonight. they're now giv

on the short list of possibilities, al qaeda and isis. in part because of recent history. >> the tactics used in this specific attack are very similar to what we have seen in the past in attacks carried out by al qaeda or isis. it's too early to tell for sure who conducted it now but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was either an al qaeda affiliate or isis. >> reporter: just last january, there was a spree of terror in france. two brothers forced their way into the office of the french satirical newspaper "charlie hebdo" in paris, killing 11 and injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video al qaeda in the arabian peninsula claimed responsibility for the assault and authorities say one of the two terrorist brothers had traveled to yemen to receive training and funding from the al qaeda affiliate there. another gunman took several hostage in a supermarket near paris. killed after police stormed the building. authorities say they found evidence in the gunman's apartment that he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believe

al qaeda's claimed credit. but it points out that we need to have a global, coordinated strategy against these extremist terrorists and to be able to not only degrade but to destroy wherever we find them. >> but you point out a global effort. it seems that for more than a year or two, we've heard officials from the obama administration or others stress the threat of isis, stress how important it is to, as the president noted, contain and destroy this organization, but it seems now france and russia, after that airliner, are stepping up. is it that the threat of isis wasn't taken seriously? were they underestimated? >> i think you're exactly right. we now know that france, which was not involved in dealing with isis from a military point of view in syria is now engaged in air strikes. russia is now switching its attention from protecting the assad regime in syria to going after isil. these are all positive developments about more support for the u.s.-led efforts against isil. so, we are hopeful that we will get

qaeda or the original al qaeda. charlie: and not only in competition and in warfare with its enemies but also with competing -- david: absolutely. charlie: islamic groups. david: quite right. there's quite a tug of war going on among these different groups, each trying to get as many adherences as possible, trying to make inroads in afghanistan, for example, trying to make inroads in yemen, sinai, libya. a number of different locations where the islamic state has spread its tentacles. and again, nothing succeeds like success in the recruitment of jihadis. charlie: there is al qaeda, then there are al qaeda affiliates that we often talk about. you look at mali, that was an al qaeda affiliate. david: we believe so, yes. i haven't seen the exact attribution of that but the expectation is that that is al qaeda in the islamic lands. charlie: and you have al qaeda affiliates in the rest of the world as well. in africa, especially. david: in yemen. in afghanistan. small. but still there. certainly. charlie: when you move t

they are docked in the strategy of al qaeda. al qaeda attacked the world trade center. here they are attacking the center of europe, the capital of europe, which is paris. and that is why it is devastating. amy: can you explain the term daesh? you see secretary kerry is continually talking about isis as what he calls "dah" so explain what that term means. >> to be honest, i am surprised when the french president uses the word "dash." -- they don't want to call it islamic state. i have been arguing because my book -- i was bombarded by the criticism because i used the term "islamic state." i said, if your name is amy, should i call you cuddle? they named themselves the islamic state and islamic front. why here when it comes -- they want to change its same to an arabic man, which has the same meaning. it is really silly. i'm really shocked by this. its name is islamic state. we have to call it islamic state. like the united states, we call it the united states. barbaric or this is whatever. this is the problem. daesh in arabic, it is a shortening of islamic state and iraq

an al-qaeda-linked group is claiming responsibility. i want to bring in josh rushing now. josh, what do we know about the u.s. force's role in this hostage situation which has now ended. >> that was a surprise that came out this morning. we don't know a whole lot about it, but we have been in touch with u.s., africa command. and they gave us this statement saying the soldiers involved with special operations command. they were special ops. they fall under [ inaudible ] which is special ops command. i have experienced their training troops, i was in africa doing exactly that kind of mission. my guess is that the u.s. guys were not near the point of the sphere going into the hotel. different militaries units operate differently, so it can be very dangerous. the way the u.s. would have been involved is on a tertiary level. >> what are the special operations forces doing there in general? >> yeah, there has been a weerl relationship between the u.s. military and mali. a few years ago there was a military coup. the u.s. suspended relations b

is it isis, al qaeda? i know there's debate under way. >> absolutely. in the last month or two isis followers have been calling for slaughter on the streets of paris. certainly what happened tonight at that concert hall was a slaughter, a massacre of young people out to see an american rock 'n' roll band. nothing that isis or al qaeda hates most of than a bunch of people out to have a good time going to a soccer game, going to a concert, out for a few drinks with friends. that was the target tonight, very soft targets. >> decadent western culture. insights. >>> coming up next on this special edition of "nightline," what tonight's tragic events in paris mean for homeland security and what counterterrorism experts are saying about the string of recent deadly terror attacks. m mary ellen, with chantix. years and by taking chantix, i was able to quit in three months. and that was amazing. along with support, chantix (varenicline) is proven to help people quit smoking. it absolutely reduced my urge to smoke. some people had thinking or mood, hostility, agita

qaeda and aqap and al-nusra. the methodology doesn't vary much when you talk about attacks of this nature. and the islamic extremist groups that we just referred to have favored this type of approach in the past. so it is not a big stretch, although again as the president and other people have mentioned, it is best not to speculate at this state. but it is not ate stretch to -- a stretch to imagine a scenario in which this could be adaq. and possibly islamic state, it could show a new attack but it is not a big stretch of the imagination to imagine the attacks. >> this is a live situation. you have 100 hostages and to figure out what they are being used for. one of the earlier guests mentioned it could be money or escape or political recognition or to die for a cause. and so the group responsible has a lot of bearing on how the situation would be handles, no? >> absolutely. and that is what the hostage negotiators on the scene there, the first thing you are trying to do is to secure the perimeter and understand t

al-qaeda have been on the defensive. they haven't had their names in the news for a long, long time. so for them to put them back in the limelight, they need to target foreigner ex-pats, and they need to go into a place where they feel safe in a way, and mali is that kind of place. they have been around for ten years already, and the state is having a hard time dealing with the different threats and groups, so it does make a lot of sense for them to spring up again, and say, look, we're not irrelevant, we exist, and can inflict damage on the west. >> and isil has not been known to be operating in mali. what does this now mean for mali that was already an insecure, unstable place? what does it mean now going forward? >> look, it means that fortunately people around the world will know that mali is insecure. because up until now only the french and the u.n. have been banging the table saying we cannot let this country go into the hands of the jihadists, so hopefully this will spring up actions from the u.k. and germany and

>> the traditional one is al-qaeda and they have off shoots inside mali. as far as i'm concerned, i don't have specific information, independent information, verifiable that one particular group is more likely than another. we have a group, a new group which is said to be an off shoot of al-qaeda and it is mainly made up of black malien people who are angry against their government. the likelihood that it is not is only 50%, because we have a high profile situation here where clearly westerners targeted. i would imagine that masna would target, they are angry at the mali government. it is confusing. i can't say that one particular group is more likely to have been behind these attacks. >> help me out only one. would they be more likely or less likely to be inspired to go after a target that is obviously not malien, because if you looked at the guest rental industry in the hotel, it's multi national, multi-ethnic. in that sense, what you said wouldn't make particular sense, but if they're inspired by that the events this time last week in paris, they might

on the short list of possibilities, al qaeda and isis. in part because of recent history. >> the tactics used in this specific attack are very similar to what we have seen in the past in attacks carried out by al qaeda or isis. it's too early to tell for sure who conducted it now but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was either an al qaeda affiliate or isis. >> reporter: just last january, there was a spree of terror in france. two brothers forced their way into the office of the french satirical newspaper "charlie hebdo" in paris, killing 11 and injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video al qaeda in the arabian peninsula claimed responsibility for the assault and say one of the two terrorist brothers traveled to yemen to receive training and funding from the al qaeda affiliate there. another gunman took several hostage in a supermarket near paris. authorities found evidence in the gunman's apartment he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believed to have traveled to syria. laictiond has been looking for ways to do a

comparing al qaeda and isis. why one former fbi agent says today's attack could be a twisted competition between those terror groups. that's coming up. >>> welcome back. a commuter plane is forced to abort landing at the very last moment. the pilot of the city jet flight from london city airport forced to perform a go around procedure just seconds after touching down at the airport in southern ireland. officials are saying strong gusty cross winds are to blame for this quick thinking reroute. the plane was able to land safely a few minutes later. >>> gop presidential front-runner donald trump says dr. ben carson's campaign is stumbling. he said he doesn't think trump is tough enough to handle serious issues and welcomes foreign policy to be president. >> if you look over the last week and a half, two weeks and maybe i helped it along by making a speech two weeks ago, which i thought was a really good speech. i was very proud of it. i spoke for about an hour and a half with notes. his consultant said he is incapab

in may they killed two al qaeda commanders. al qaeda would have particular grievance with the french if there are french people in this hotel. if air france does stay there that makes it a target for a number of islamist groups. so islamist connection is most likely explanation. the big question is which group is it? does it have a direct connection with the islamic state? is it connected to the attacks in paris because if it is we could see more of these kind of attacks what is clearly a very soft target, in particularly unprotected, unstable part of africa. >> as you said, dominic, some french troops in the country, 1000 total. the suggestion may be they may get involved with helping mali security forces? >> french civilian citizens and nationals involved among the hostages the french will be getting involved directly. what is causing a lot of concern, the report they are amongst the french military could being amongst the hostages according to one local journalist, maulian journalist. he is that is what is being reported on

. >>> no confirmation on who was behind the attack, a group linked to al-qaeda, claims responsibility. ♪ >>> hello there, this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. the senate votes to extend the state of emergency in france. president hollande says mali has his country's full support. >>> and the e.u. agrees to tighten checks on people entering and leaving the border-free schengen zone. >>> and jonathan pallard is freed after 30 years in jail. >>> hello there. a warm welcome to the program. the united nations says 27 people have died in the mali hotel attack and two of the hostage takers were also killed. the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon described the siege in bamako as a horrific terrorist attack. the reuters news agency says malian special forces are still trying to dislodge gunmen from the upper floors. nadim baba reports. >> reporter: soldiers helping an employee of the radisson blu out of the building after a hostage situation that lasted many hours. gunmen had managed to get inside shouting god is great in arabic before taking around 170 people hostage. as the

both of them with ties to al qaeda including al qaeda and the islamic, al qaeda basically in northern africa, a group that attacked a western refinery in north africa a number of months ago and as you have to look at this, you have to wonder about the connection here. i sils csis carrying out a majok and al qaeda to atrack attention. it's,they think,work and compete and possible they are coal peting for attention for this attack, the u.s. western allies to help mally to deal with this threat and it's a very severe one here. there are a number of targets and what is particularly worrisome is it appears the attackers, two, possibly three went into the hole under the cover of diplomatic plates and they do their best to prevent these attacks but they used diplomat i can cover to get in. >> let's go to paris and the manhunt and it's been a week despite nearly 800 raids. nic robertson is in paris for us. what are you learning tonight? >> reporter: wolf, i think there have been a couple significant developments through the day, salah abdeslam still on the run, questioned where is he? no one

qaeda in the negrib, an affiliate of al qaeda in the western part of africa. they operated in algeria, libya, and in places like mali. in 2012, the president of mali was overthrown in a military coup. now mali has had a history of, if you will, militant struggle in the north, fighting against militant groups, but it all accelerated in 2012, following that military coup. immediately after that military coup, those rebels, with al qaeda affiliates, managed to take control of the northern part of the country, and effectively dividing that country in two. and that is what led the french government at the time to support a military campaign. now, since that military coup, the government has been reinstated to a democratical transitional government although many believe that the military still controls power, but right now it seems that they have managed to retake control of the north, they still struggle with some of these al qaeda affiliated rebels, but for the most part, since that french military campaign, the northern part of the country has once again been rei

an al-qaeda linked group is claiming responsibility. belgian officials say one belgian citizen is among the dead. >>> thanksgiving week is expected to be the busiest american travel week of the year, but with this year's travel season, coming in the wake of the paris attacks, government officials told travelers not to be scared. john henry smith has more. >> reporter: nowhere in america has the fear from the paris attacks and the bombing of the russian airliner last month been more evident than at the nation's travel hubs. three major airports have seen flights delayed or diverted due to security concerns. with 47 million americans set to travel neck week, the heads of the justice department and fbi did what they could to ease america's travel fears. >> we are not aware of any credible threat here of a paris-type attack. and we have scene no connection at all between the paris attackers and the united states. >> reporter: a series of isil videos in recent days that al jazeera has chosen not to air have been promising violent attacks on

they had ties with al-qaeda but split. in 2014 it declared itself an caliphat as one leaders and no national boundaries. it has used media to spread around the globe. how many members there are is unknown, but estimates range from 30 to 100,000. they bank rolled themselves by seizing oil and natural gas fields in iraq and syria and have made millions in ransom money from kidnappings. the question is how to crush them. mary snow >>> i want to talk more about the motivations of i.s.i.l. graham wood is a fellow with the council on foreign relations also a contributing editor to the at lon kick. - shall did atlantic. he wrote an article called what i.s.i.s. really wants. i have re-tweeted the article, post on media, facebook. you have taken a good amount of criticism for this article. i've even taken criticism for posting the article on your behalf, but i think it's important that people read it because you deal? of the theological underpinnings of i.s.i.l. i want to talk about the apocolyptic nature of the organizations. you

that was not al qaeda, it was a pakistani group. but this has been well learned and practiced by isis in syria and iraq. and the french didn't see it coming. attacks on soft targets, know it's coming and arrest people before they do it. if the french didn't have any indication the attack was about to happen, that's very disturbi, because it means we may be in the same situation. we know who the suspects are, but we may not know all of the isis people. >> and that's the frightening part. these are soft targets. unless you catch them before, youi want to bring in martha raddatz. this seems like isis fighting, but these groups may be now competing with one another for global attention. al qaeda hasn't been in the news as much. and they want to get back. they want to make a big spla. so, they're looking at all these possibilities. i do think someone shouting syria is possibly a veryig clue. france, li the u.s., has been targeting isis in syria. so, that may give investigators some clue, because isis would have motive here. >> and that w

once headed al-qaeda. his new group was behind a major attack two years ago at an oil facility in algeria. how strong is this group? >> it's hard to say because back in june of this year we conducted an air strike with the united states in libya and we supposedly killed him, but there was some speculation that he was still alive. this individual keeps the group strong or cohesive. before the strike he was reaching to jihadis from the time that islamists had control of northern mali, trying to keep them in his fold out of fear that they would move over to join i.s.i.l. >>> despite his break with aqim, assuming he is alive and his group are still afail crate with al-qaeda-- affiliated with al-qaeda? >> that's right. he was, aas you correctly said, with aqim. over time he had his own other group called a mass brigade. when northern mali fell under islamist control and he popped up on the scene, he had an attached to one of the wings. in fact, his wife's nephew, who was killed about a year and a half ago, flip

isis and al qaeda, we don't have to only look at isis, al qaeda is out there. people inspired by the ideology. inspired by the koran, inspired in these books and that inspire the people to commit these kinds of crimes. >> let's be clear here, president obama is being cute, no credible threat. i'm telling you if you talk to any fbi agent, anybody in law enforcement, they will tell you every day they are picking up leads, thwarting threats. now when he says credible threat, there must be some legalistic definition of what credible threat is meaning it's going to happen within three minutes, but clearly james comey said himself, didn't he say that the other day? he gives -- the head of the fbi says they're foiling threats every day. when he says there's no credible threat, right off the bat, there's a huge degree of spin there. charles: absolutely. keep in mind, 42 million americans are hitting the road for thanksgiving. and, of course, not letting terrorists stop them, they want to see grandma but terrorism is the most important issue in america these days. so ho

going after al qaeda every night. i talked to the guys involved in the program, tough guys that you are glad are on our side. they would have breakfast for dinner and go out at night. hit safe houses, three or four times a night, night after night. as soon as they hit one, they would collect intelligence and go after another immediately. high tempo, never giving the enemy a chance to regroup or regather. they were effective at taking out second or third tier commanders and eventually killing zarqawi. a couple of problems. one, we had full control over iraq. of the airspace. cooperative government with significant resources. the effect was relatively small groups could make a big difference, ultimately, in the defeat of zarqawi. i remember sitting with intelligence folks in 2008 who are convinced al qaeda had been defeated. that didn't happen. they became isis. you see the groups of special operations into the theater. there is some indication they hope to reprise that successful formula using friendly forces like kurd

on the short list of possibilities, al qaeda and isis. in part because of recent history. >> the tactics used in this specific attack are very similar to what we have seen in the past in attacks carried out by al it's too early to tell for sure who conducted it now but it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was either an al qaeda affiliate or isis. >> reporter: just last january, there was a spree of terror in france. two brothers forced their way into the office of the french satirical newspaper "charlie hebdo" in paris, killing 11 and injuring nearly a dozen more. in this video al qaeda in the arabian peninsula claimed responsibility for the assault and say one of the two terrorist brothers traveled to yemen to receive training and funding from the al qaeda affiliate there. another gunman took several hostage in a supermarket near paris. authorities found evidence in the gunman's apartment he was connected to isis. his partner fled france and is believed to have traveled to syria. laictiond has been looking for ways to do a large-scale at

that was not al qaeda, it was a pakistani group. but this has been well learned and practiced by isis in syria and iraqaq anddhe french didn't see it coming. only way you can stop these attacks on soft targets, kno it's coming and arrest people before they do it. if the french didn't have any indication the attack was about to happen, that's very disturbing, because it means we may be in the same situation. we know who the suspects are, but we may not k kw allf the isis people. >> and that's the frightening part. these are soft targets. unless you catch them before, youi want to bring in martha raddatz. but these groros may be now competing witit o o anotherer for global attention. >> it almost seems that way. al qaeda hasn't been in the news as much. and they want to get back. they want to make a big splash. so, they're looking at all these possibilities. i do think someone shouting syria is possibly a very big clue. france, like the u.s., has been targeting isis inn syria. so, that may give investigators some clue, becse isis woul

al qaeda maybe stateless but the state of al qaeda is very strong. isis came out from al qaeda. al qaeda is an idealogical narrative thatrovide these jihadi extremists with the passion and their goals. al qaeda is way stronger than it used to be on 9/11. on 9/11 they had 400 members. now they have armies in syria. >> under what name. >> they fight under al nusrah. now they control the third largest city in the country. they are very active not only in mali, in algeria and tunisia and libya. >> are they in competition, al qaeda and isis? >> yes. they are in competition. they are basically -- isis used to be part of al qaeda. al qaeda is -- >> exactly. >> al qaeda is a poisonous tree and isis is just a branch of that tree. isis is a symptom of the disease. al qaeda is the disease. >> let's go back to the bombings in franch wheree where the master mind has been confirmrm dead.d. how importrtt is that? >> it gives you closure that the leader is dead. also with in saint-denis they were able to disrupt -- there was maps for the airport, for the defense district in paris. they found ex

al-qaeda. the current leader of al-qaeda, and the leader of isis, and when there are offshoots within these groups, there is a battle for supremacy. one tries to out do the other. so what has happened in paris last week, must have egged -- encouraged this group to launch the scene it did today. to prove their supremacy over the other. >> thank you very much indeed for your analysis of the situation. and still to come on the program, argentina prepares to vote in its first-ever presidential runoff. >>> new zealand will vote for what could become their new flag. ♪

the other, to differentiate, al qaeda used to be against the taliban. but when it comes to the islamic state, the sovereign state, they are in their own territory. sufficient, very independent unless you send boots on the ground and so on. three major characters. there is another one, social media. all the corners of the world and communicate with their people and directly without any intervention, anybody to get in the middle of the process. so that is why. we talk more about it is not just one man. it is not a one-man show. osama bin laden would love to see himself on cnn, cbc, al jazeera. that he is not like that. we have not seen him since. so the organization behind them. >> and it seems to me to be remarkable. the commander of islamic state is eliminated, there seems to be backup of leadership. >> yes. definitely. you know, i mean, it is not one-man show. collective leadership. could the -- not actually the man who is running. a little bit to the root. actually the remnants of the army. security organizations. as people are expedient. able to run