this year, they re gaining 192,000 jobs a month. gaining. but even with all that, economists remind us that things that were so bad during the recession, we still have a long way to go. george? we do, but that is good news tonight. jim, thank you. we re going to turn now to the latest on the mission against bin laden al qaeda confirmed today that he was killed and vowed to retaliatret, saying americans happiness will turn to sadness. but we are learning more about the mother lode of intelligence taken from bin laden s compound. pierre thomas joins us tonight. and pierre, these bin laden files could be the most valuable intelligence breaks ever. reporter: indeed, george. as investigators review a mountain of intelligence from osama bin laden s compound, sources say it s clear, bin laden thought of himself as a head coach, overseeing strategy, blessing and approving plots. the cashe of electronic and
handwritten notebooks taken from the bun laden compound, is both a strategic playbook and a greatest hits album of al qaeda aspirations. while no imminent plots have been uncovered, it is clear that bin laden was constantly consulted on ways to attack the u.s. they were bringing bin laden computer discs and other computer thumb drives that may have had plots on them. we know in the past he s approved specific attacks and he sent attacks back for further work and further analysis. reporter: the materials include numerous hallmark al qaeda plots, including attacks on infrastructure targets, such as water supply and transportation. rail and air. in the past, al qaeda planned for attacks on water supplies have included an interest in dams and poisoning the water. the documents say there was clear interest in new york, chicago, los angeles and washington, d.c. and contrary to what many analysts thought, a strategy to attack americans on holidays and anniversaries.
new activia parfait crunch. mitchell: as we have seen across the middle east the internet is a powerful weapon that can unite people and spark a revolt. that s why libya like egypt earlier this year pulled the plug on the internet three days ago. but a new device might some day allow users to get around that. here s den yell sieberg. reporter: a long time pioneer for an open internet eben mog length champions the idea of the freedom box. they are inexpensive, come paningt, low power machines like this that can do everything a much larger server computer can do. reporter: it startses with a device made by glob will scale technologies in california which sells for $100. think of it is as a blank canvas. the company sayses it can be used for many tasks like controlling the lights in your house. but combined with moglen s software initiative it would become a freedom box designed to circumvent government
television cameras inside. the people here seem uncomfortable that we re here. we haven t been able to talk to any scientists directly and we re not allowed to take pictures of their faces. earlier iran s chief nuclear negotiator told us the tehran reactor produces medical isotopes for cancer patients. on an issue which is completely and solely a humanitarian one and more than 850,000 patients are using the medication. reporter: for years, iran has braced for possible u.s. or israeli air strikes on its nuclear facilities, but the chief negotiate told nbc news israel and perhaps the united states have already attacked, not with planes but sabotage, corrupting iran s computers and, in israel s case, he says, murdering scientists. the new york times reported this weekend that the computer worm was a joint u.s./israeli operation and helped delay, but not destroy, iran s nuclear program.
straight months now, katie, just not enough of them. if you look at the past year, the economy created 1.1 million jobs. that s an average of less than 100,000 a month. if we re going to bring down the unemployment rate, we really need about 250,000 a month. a lot of economists thought we d be there by now, but we re not. couric: the economy gained just 103,000 jobs, but the unemployment rate dropped, what, from 9.8% to 9.4%? reporter: yeah, because people just dropped out of the work force. and if you give up looking for a job, the government stops counting you as unemployed. now take a look at this: for every 100 people unemployed in november, by december just 18 had gotten a job. 62 remained unemployed. and 20? they left the labor force entirely. that s what s happening. that s why the unemployment rate went down. couric: as we just heard, fed chairman ben bernanke said it may take as long as five years for us to get out of this recovery. but i know you visited a city where it