christine is busy preparing a thanksgiving feast for thursday. >> it's a full week. >> and ali is preparing to eat one. >> that's right. >> so they're off today. i'm carol costello along with alina cho. welcome to "american morning." first, new details in a plot to plant pipe bombs in and around new york city. 27-year-old jose pimentel, arraigned and made bail an hour ago. a muslim convert to plotted to bomb nypd pa control car, post office and returning u.s. troops and he was doing much more than just talking about it. our deb feyerick is here to tell us more and it appears this lone wolf was acting alone. >> reporter: absolutely and under surveillance about two years. jose pimentel, 27 years old, preparing as many as three pipe bombs. had he built and executed them properly he could have killed upwards of a dozen people. before arrested the nypd bomb experts built and detonate add similar device. you see it on the screen. they showed it last night. the device was detonated inside a car. you see the amount of damage it does cause but gives perspective, because they have time to construct a similar device. federal authorities were not involved in this operation, run entirely by the new york police department. new york's top cop says the suspect was radicalized by the teachings of cleric anwar awlaki and because of his death, pep p pimentel's plot was advanced. >> -- he relied on a particularly notorious article called "how to make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom." >> reporter: and that article came from the al qaeda-inspired magazine "inspire." the publisher of that magazine killed in that same strike. you can see components the nypd was able to put together. ba basically he was using a pipe bomb a timer, bought household items at home depot including about 700 matches he was able to scrape off as part of that bomb. again, a lot of things would have had to go right for this to detonate, but had he placed it where he said he was going to, that is in the vicinity of u.s. service personal nell returning from iraq, at police stations, post offices, he was going to put shrapnel it in the form of nails, it could have done great damage. police stepped in, realized he was going operation's, not just talk anymore and in fact starting to drill holes in that pipe bomb, and that's when they swept in. they arrested him on saturday. >> that device looks pretty crude yet you're saying it could have done a lot of damage. are we getting a sense, you say operational, how close he was to launching an attack? >> reporter: interesting. he had all the ingredients and started to drill the holes according to the magazine article in "inspire" that one of the final stages of preparation for this, but his talk had accelerated. he was talking much more about jihad. talking about waging holy war against the united states, and so they really felt they could not take a chance, because, again, it's one of those things that, nobody would know whether in fact he was able to put this together. now that he's been arrested. but if he had, he could have caused mayhem and chaos. certainly at a very busy time of year and sent a lot of panic to people. >> a couple of rather odd things. one, the fbi really wasn't involved, although at some point the new york city police department and the fbi had conversations. number two, that mayor bloomberg chose to show a video of what these pipe bombs could do and peter bergen saying, if this is all al qaeda has to offer, we don't worry much. >> excellent points. one thing you have to keep in mind, of all the terrorism case ice followed over the last ten years, we have never seen a video before a trial. usually it happens during the trial, and usually certainly in federal cases that kind of video is safeguarded. jock so they don't just so it. but, again, they didn't want to take a chance. it's not clear exactly when the fbi was in fact contacted. ed mayor was very, very careful last night to mention fbi director robert mueller by name and his theory on terrorism and how you stop it, but it appears that the feds were really shut out of this entire operation. so whether the nypd simply wanted to do it on their own, go it alone and sort of present it to the public. i'm sure we'll hear more about that today. >> i'm sure we will. deb feyerick, thank you. the sounds of surrender. it appears the super committee, oh, yeah, charged with finding ways to cut $1.2 trillion from the federal budget, and they have all but failed in their mission. with a wednesday deadline looming, their focus is putting the most positive spin on what they could not accomplish. cnn congressional correspondent kate bolduan is following developments and is live in washington. i was going to say, do you know how angry voters are? they're probably resigned because they probably expected this. >> reporter: this seems to be one more bit of evidence that washington, if you want to say, or congress, specifically, is just broken. barring an 11th-hour breakthrough of some sort, the super committee is headed towards failure as talks have fallen apart and no evidence of last-minute negotiations taking place. the gloomy outlook is quite evident in the change in tone among members of the super committee themselves. many took 90 sunday morning talk shows and much of the conversation there, markedly shifted from we're push for a deal and hopeful for a deal for who should be to blame when the committee fails. listen to republican senate jon kyl and the co-chair, senator patty murray. >> look at the democrats' position, we have to raise taxes, pass this jobs bill. the only real breakthrough here, the word breakthrough was used by my colleague democratic whip dick durbin, was the republican offer to actually increase the amount of revenue -- >> let me just say -- >> -- through the tax code which would largely fall on the upper two brackets ever taxpayers. >> the truth is at this point today democrats have made some really tough decisions and come to some pretty tough choices that we're willing to put on the line, on entitlements, on spending cuts, but only if the republicans are willing to cross the line on the bush tax cuts and be willing to say, revenues have to be a part of the solution. >> reporter: clearly, both sides blaming the other for not being able to reach agreement around the required minimum of $1.2 trillion in deficit savings. the negotiations breaking down on the same issue that has largely held up talks to this point, which is taxes. taxes, revenue, need to be part of any "ball,ed approach" they like to say to reducing the deficit. republicans are very opposed to tax increases unless it's an effort to bring down rates. the only question seems to be, how and had do they make a formal announcement they couldn't pull it off. many say today. this is today, a preliminary deadline. the committee is required to post its agreement, if it had one, and also post its official debt savings estimate two days before the hard deadline, which is wednesday. >> i bet demming aocrats and republicanens won't make that announcement together. bottom line, if the committee fails, what's gets cut what gets spared? >> reporter: if the committee fails, across the board automatic cuts called sequestration, everybody can forget about at 6:00 in the morning. too early for that. what would be cut, kind of get the knife would be kind of across the board spending cuts. defense would be hit very hard. about half of the budget cuts would hit the defense budget. other areas of spending, education, transportation, immigration. just to name is few would be hit, because they would automatically be hit by $1.2 trillion in deficit savings, go into place in 2013, but some areas are exempt from these tough cuts. areas generally speaking that would help low-income families, would help the poor. barred from automatic cuts of social security, medicaid, food stamps and veterans' benefits and one area that will also be hit is also medicare, but there's a cap on how hard medicare can be hit. so it's hidden areas that were supposed to be painful in an unacceptable alternative that was put in place, carol, of course to motivate them to do the job. seems they could not pull it off. >> guess not. kate bolduan, many thanks. coming up later. talking to two members of the super committee. arizona senator jon kyl and masses mass democratic senator john kerry. later today the obama administration plans to announce new sanctions against iran. u.s. companies already banned from doing business there. diplomatic sources tell cnn the new sanctions are intended to stop foreign countries from conducting business with iran's oil and gas industry and any nation that does will be banned from u.s. markets. egypt erupting again this morning. protesters filling cairo's tahrir square for a third straight day. ten people killed in brute's clashes yesterday. hundreds of army officers and police firing tear gas and rubber bullets. many protesters brutally beaten. military rulers say elections will go on as planned in seven days, just a week, but some egyptians worry they traded one tyrant for another. ben wedeman is live in cairo for us. ben, good morning to you. >> reporter: yes, hello, alina. you can see, tahrir square not packed at the moment, but more and more people are coming apparently groups of university students are on their way and, of course, they are here to protest against what's called the supreme council for the armed forces which took over if hosni mubarak on the 11th of february this year. the worry of many egyptians is that now they won't leave power, won't go back to their barracks. we did hear from a spokesman of the military counce yil saying elections scheduled for one week from today will go ahead as planned but already several candidates, several political parties, suspended their campaign in protest over the crackdown in tahrir square. yesterday we were out in the street. there are rocks and tear gas flying all over the place in the streets to the east of here. those streets, of course, leading to the ministry of the interior. the ministry of the interior still very much a symbol of repression. many victims recalled in the days of mosinee mubarak, where people would go, never come out, just disappear into that building's dungeon. it really is a symbol of hate which many egyptians can unify. that's what we're seeing here in this square. really a protest against a regime that hasn't really changed alina? >> quickly, just to be clear, and you touched on this. remind our viewers what people are so mad about. we remember those massive demonstrations earlier this year that led to the fall of mubarak. has are they so upset about now? >> reporter: well, they're upset that, they feel, they thought they had brought down a regime, but all they really did, they decapitated it, removed the head, and it's been replaced by this military council. all of the members of which were obviously promoted during the 30 years of mubarak's reign. in fact, wuk wikileak quoted, describing the head of that council, the field marshal mohammed jose zentalli as mubarak's puppet -- poodle. sorry. they feel after all this, nothing's really changed. the regime is the same as it was on the 11th of february, after all of those massive demonstrations here in tahrir square. alina? >> ben wedeman live in cairo this morning. ben, thank you. a viral video that has two police officers in hot water. they're on leave now after blasting peaceful -- peaceful ash ash occupy protesters with pepper spray on the campus at uc davis. students are saying they will go all the way to the top. and video of a nascar crowd booing the first lady. that's ahead. did you see this? jon huntsman who may be trailing in the polls but certainly has lost his sense ever humor. the candidate's cameo on "saturday night live" when "american morning" returns. it's 14 past the hour. capital one's new cash rewards card gives you a 50 percent annual bonus. so you earn 50 percent more cash. if you're not satisfied with 50% more cash, send it back! i'll be right here, waiting for it. who wouldn't want more cash? 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[♪...] >> announcer: now get a $250 airfare credit, plus save up to 65%. call 1-800-sandals. certain restrictions apply. 17 minutes past the hour. welcome back. two university of california-davis police officers on administrative leave after this video. this video surfaced. you see cops casually sprays peaceful occupy protesters in their faces at point-blank range friday night. the officers were trying to clear out the occupy cast and felt trapped by the protesters. 11 protesters required treatment. two landed in the hospital. hundreds of protesters calling on the school's chancellor to resign. >> well it wasn't exactly the warm welcome the first lady and dr. jill biden were expecting. take a look. >> and now, please welcome our grand marshals, sergeant andrew berry and family, first lady the united states michelle obama and dr. jill biden as they deliver the most famous words in motorsports. >> gentlemen, start your engines! >> michelle obama and jill biden greeted way chorus of boos by nascar fans at the ford 400 yesterday, the grand marshals of the season's last race. the two were also there to honor u.s. troops and their families and bring awareness to the first lady's joining forces program, an initiative to hire and train veterans. actress meila kunis accompanied a soldier, accepting an invitation. >> and justin timberlake did that, too. making another wish come true. >> mila looked beautiful and her date, i must say, handsome, too. >> yes. and let's go to bonnie schneider with the weather. >> looking at southern california, a place that doesn't usually get a lot of rain. over the weekend records shattered in santa barbara and in los angeles. look at this video coming to us from l.a. you'll see the roads covered with water in a lot of areas. some flooding, some problems, and people cleaning up their areas, their homes and businesses due to inundation of water. the water will be a little better today but note almost an inch of rain yesterday. now we're getting rain across the northeast, slide fring from york city into rhode island. intermittent showers in the new york area but more steady and heavy downpours in the midsouth. so memphis, just facing a lot of wet weather. driving on i-40, getting an early start to your holiday week, you'll be facing severe downpours. possibly hail and very heavy downpours here in texas. dallas, as that front comes through, watch out for severe storms. they could get very strong later this afternoon, low pressure rising bringing a threat for flooding even to memphis and more towards nashville and affecting travel. one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. delays across the country, from new york to texas, back out westward. most in the morning. however, in the afternoon, dallas and memphis could face strong storms and that could cause big slowdowns. we'll keep you posted here on cnn. back to you. >> thank you, bonnie. >> sure. the next list is a new cnn program focusing on some of america's most creative minds. each sunday dr. sanjay gupta profiles people on the cutting edge of technology and innovation. this week sanjay looks at someone who is pushing the culinary envelope. watch? >> really just someone who xplorp sxpors explore the your expectations. we use centrifuges, lasers, we're actually starting to work with super conductors. if you look at the limitations of creating new products you're only limited by the technology you have to work with. the real thrill with the food experiments we do is creating something that's impossible. creating something that just shouldn't be. >> anything involving food is good for me. you can catch "the next list" 2:00 p.m. eastern time next sunday. ahead on "american morning," mitt romney ready to take a big gamble on iowa. a move that could make or break his candidacy. we'll tell you why hybrids might be the best bet for keeping you safe in case of a crash. up next on "american morning." 22 minutes after the hour. ♪ [ male announcer ] sometimes, a hint is all the wrapping a gift needs. is that what i think it is? ♪ [ male announcer ] the lexus december to remember sales event is here, but only for a limited time. see your lexus dealer for exclusive lease offers like a complimentary first month's payment on the 2012 is 250. congratulations. congratulations. today, the city of charlotte can use verizon technology to inspire businesses to conserve energy and monitor costs. making communities greener... congratulations. ... and buildings as valuable to the bottom line... whoa ! ... as the people inside them. congratulations. because when you add verizon to your company, you don't just add, you multiply. ♪ discover something new... verizon. 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"minding your business" this morning, u.s. stock futures pointing to a lower open. last week the dow dropped nearly 3% and the s&p 500 fell about 4%. fears about u.s. budget talks as well as the debt crisis in europe. spain has a new leader, mariano won 45% of the popular vote topping his agenda preventing the debt problems in greece and italy from spreading to spain. in recent days concerns about spain's economy pushed bond yields closer to the key 7% level at which other companies were forced to seek international bailout. good news for drivers here in the united states, the national average cost for a gallon of gas is $3.38. down 5 cents from the past two week. the survey says slumping demand and lower crude prices helped drive prices down. ahybrids. 25% better protecting people from getting hurt in a crash. because they're heavier than convention the cars and that extra mass is an advantage during an accident. mary kay. the company presented beauty consultant with its legendary pink cadillac. the only man ever to earn the car. the caddie is a symbol of high achievement and presented to the top mary kay sales consultants. "american morning" will be back after a break. welcome to idaho, where they grow america's favorite potatoes. everyone knows idaho potatoes taste great. but did you know they're good for you too? they're high in vitamins and potassium. and idaho potatoes are now certified to carry the heart checkmark from the american heart association for foods low in saturated fat and cholesterol. so they're good for my family, and for yours. heart smart idaho potatoes. always look for the grown in idaho seal. who's commander in chief material? republicans getting ready to do battle on national security, live on cnn with six weeks to iowa on this "american morning." and welcome back. it is 30 minutes past the hour. time for this morning's top stories -- a suspect arrested in a new york city pipe bomb plot. the mayor announcing an alleged terror