Fred Townson News Today

>> we would like to personally offer $10,000 in reward to anyone who can bring me footage of piers morgan falling off the segway. >> guess what? i have that footage and you, mr. oliver, will owe me $10,000. intercepted al qaeda communications sparked the closures of u.s. embassies. the code words in those communications pointed to a likely imminent attack. joining me now with much more is cnn national security analyst fred townson, barbara starr who broke the story. barbara, tell me what you d...

Attention. the first leader of al qaeda outlining a possible attack. the second, said to be a response from an al qaeda leader and two weeks leader the u.s. snagged a third message from him appointing a deputy. a u.s. official declined to discuss specific code words but said quote was there a sense of imminence, the overall area at risk and known actors. there was this, officials said, great concern and we know in audition to the em bbassy closings, drones launched an attack that abc news is kil...

You know, tuesday will become wednesday and vice versa the following week. the horribly frustrating to figure out. i faced them and i was absolutely sure an attack was coming and recorded and it turned out to not have happened and occurred a year later. >> fred townson, does this mean al qaeda is alive and well and dangerous as ever? >> oh, i think its clear that al qaeda is not on the run, right? so you got al qaeda in the name of him as the leader communicating to yemen, the head of the yemen ...

Equals less crime. you know how i feel. im sure well have a lively debate when i go head-to-head with aw hawkins, gun sales have been rockets in new town where the sandy hook massacre took place. hes on the grill tonight. and why the daily show owes me 10 grand. >> we would like to personally offer $10,000 in reward to anyone who can bring me footage of piers morgan falling off the segway. >> guess what? i have that footage and you, mr. oliver, will owe me $10,000. intercepted al qaeda commu...

Like, on this infiltration, have they perhaps caused a bigger problem going forward? >> no, piers. they have to. they have -- they have to put this out that have to put it out in public because if an attack did occur and they didnt say anything and a lot of people lost their lives, the political downside would be enormous. they have to expose themselves when they believe there is an imminent threat. i believe they did the right thing. the problems with the codes is they are substitution codes. t...

Fred townson, barbara starr who broke the story. barbara, tell me what you discovered. >> well, piers, in talking to someone who has a very immediate understanding of what transpired, they told me that these messages, these intercepted al qaeda messages by the u.s. intelligence community contained essentially code words, which the intelligence community interpreted correctly, it appears, as being a coded message among al qaeda oftives for signaling a potentially imminent attack. it was those cod...

Official washington is buzzing and senior state department officials briefing lawmakers on capitol hill says they are increased on communications chatter aboard. president obama has been briefed, as well and according to an official directed the national security team to protect the american people. joining me now is paul and fred townson, a member of the dhs and cia external advisory boards and dana bash and jill. jill, what are you hearing about this world-wide alert, 21 posts close in 17 coun...