i don't know, about a third of the vips attending this briefing of the president. the president in turn is going to do a briefing for you and for me on holiday security in the nation. so as soon as he goes live, we go live. this office, by the way, didn't even exist until 2004. and it came about at the urging of the 9/11 commission. for a single agency to analyze all terror related intelligence. to maintain a repository of sorts for known and suspected terrorists. and then also they struck this agency to keep senior policymakers in the loop of what was going on on the terror front, on the security front. the president due to make the statement any moment. so we're watching that. in the meantime, a couple of people who know a thing or two about what these discussions just might entail. our jim sciutto is our chief national correspondent and bob baer is cnn intelligence and security analysis, former cia operative. first to you, jim sciutto. when you read a list like this, when the president was at the