square last year. an extraordinary development and we mobilized cnn correspondents around the world to cover this breaking news story for us from the pentagon to istanbuistanbul. it's hard to indicate just how important al awlaki was to the organization, but here's a frightening reality. he may be more dangerous dead. that's exactly what our nic robertson has been covering to this point. let's go straight to you. what exactly do you know with regard to how he was targeted and is it possible to give credit to an agency at this point? >> well, i think what we just heard from fran townsend perhaps nails it down very well. that is that it can't be nailed down because nobody wants to go on the record. the past track record, however, of against al awlaki in may this year was credited to the united states, to a drone strike. missile bumped off the fender of his car as he made a get away. politically sensitive. right now the president does not need the united states to announce that it manned and mounted an attack on his territory. the country is teetering on the verge of civil war. that would aid his enemies. and right now he wants the support of the united states, certain lly doesn't want this st of information out there. as far as we know at the moment, it was a strike. most likely, however, the united states has the technology and most likely a drone strike that could monitored al aw lalaki. >> if you say this could actually aid the enemies, should we prepare ourselves for much more violence in his country? what are you predicting here? could this start to become even worse than what we've seen thus far? >> when we were in yemen just a few months ago, the vice president told us in an interview, an exclusive interview that al qaeda already has control of three provinces in yemen. they're taking advantage of the security situation there. the government has pulled a lot of its troops, better troops, not all of them, but a lot of them back to the capital to try to secure its grip on the capital of the country. and that leaves them weak in other areas. the country is absolutely poise for a much wider scale launch. the president refuses to step down. you have armed tribesmen in the capital and significant factions that have been loyal to the president in terms of military and political have broken away from him and you have large street demonstrations calling for his overthrow. it is a very precarious situation. one that al qaeda is exploiting and not just awlaki was a danger to the united states, but the bombmaker who made the bomb and made the printer bomb, both efforts to bring down airlines over the united states last year and the year before, is still on the loose in yemen. is still making bombs there. so, there are many threats that al qaeda is trying to exploit that the president is trying to keep a lid on all of this and, at the same time, the united states really looking after its own interests here, which is making sure that awlaki and others like him cannot pose a threat. >> nic robertson, we'll talk more throughout the morning. thanks. we'll continue to look at al awlaki's new role a martyr for the cause. now, the killing of this american cleric has received a swift praise from the democrat who chairs the house committee on homeland security. peter king says in a statement, "for the past several years, al awlaki has been more dangerous even than osama bin laden had been." a tremendous tribute to president obama and the men and women of our intelligence community. one of the first questions asked when news of al awlaki's death crossed our wires what, if any involvement, had the united states had in this operation. barbara starr working the angle to that story. barbara, you and i remember covering general putray tras when he was upping the drone strikes in that country and now that awlaki is taken out, he is now the director of the cia. you wonder about the timing and the correlation here. >> well, david petraeus director of cia isn't talking, that's for sure. right now, kyra, it is only anonymous administration officials who decline to be identified because of the sense sie senseativity of the situation that were saying, yes, awlaki was killed. it raises fascinating questions on how the u.s. might have known so early on with such certainty that this man was killed if the u.s. wasn't involved in it. now, yemeni official also declining to be identified is telling cnn, "that it was a successful joint intelligence sharing operation. between yemen and the united states that resulted in this." so, this is now additional word we are getting that u.s. intelligence possibly some u.s. military involvement in this. we know that u.s. troops have been in and out of yemen conducting training with yemeni forces. we know that the cia and the u.s. military have had very active involvement in trying to track down anwar al awlaki over the years. why might it be so sensitive, of course, to come out in public and just say that u.s. operatives did this? well, awlaki, of course, is an american citizen and the u.s. finds itself in somewhat of a delicate international position of explaining why it killed an american citizen abroad. but it has long been said that there was a killer/capture order on awlaki and it looks now that the u.s. was very involved, according to administration officials in getting him at the end. kyra? >> barbara starr from the pentagon, thanks. let's talk more with fran townsend. she was a homeland security adviser to former president george w. bush. fran, just going back, i wanted to double check on what has been said over the past say year or two. and this talk about who is involved and how exactly al awlaki was killed. the national security council, according to reports that came out more than a year ago, did say to the cia, you can target this american. go after him. you know, the threats are clear and we are giving you approval. so, what is your take? how involved do you think the cia was in this operation? >> i don't think the yemen officials had the capability to do this on their own. i thought since early this morning that it had to have had some support from american officials and i think what you just heard from barbara that it was an acknowledgment. a joint intelligence sharing operation. no way that yemen intelligence had the capability to actually develop the information necessary to target in a physical way for a kill operation as we see happen. the next question becomes if they were sharing intelligence, what role did americans play in the actual operation itself? we know that the u.s. government attempted a gun strike on awlaki in the past year and going back to the bushed a ninstrati ed ad there was a drone strike going several years back. we know the u.s. has operated drones in yemen, presumably with the permission of the yemeni government, but it is politically sensitive and you could understand if the u.s. was looking to sort of hide their role and give credit to the yemenis at this point. >> you actually met with him and talked to him specifically about awlaki? >> i was in the white house from 2003 until january of '08 and go to the region three, four times a year and almost each time that i was in the region i would stop and see sahla. one thing i discussed with him was our desire to either capture or interrogate al awlaki. remember, he is a dual u.s./yemeni citizen. even if we captured him for you, we could not extradite him under our constitution. he would not even give us access. he was a teacher at a university and we knew when we shared with him that he was ralicalizing people we were afraid would ultimately be deployed to attack the united states. >> a tremendous coup this morning. fran, we'll talk a lot more throughout the morning, as well. you know, the death of this terror leader is making headlines worldwide. our zain verjee is following that for us in london. what exactly is the international reaction you start to comb through it all this morning, zain? >> hi, kyra. good morning. let's look at the guardian here in the uk is saying. this is the headline it has. "anwar al awlaki's death is a blow to al qaeda, but his message is still alive." it says, "though his own importance within al qaeda can be exaggerated, the demise of the american-yemeni will nonetheless have significant consequences." "assassinated cleric awlaki a charismatic." he could spread a call to arms both in elegant arabic and colooquial english. this was a guy who was very internet savvy. he could get his message across. many people thought he was a very inspirational figure among his own crowds and people would really flock to buy his message that were on boxes of dvds. even here in london people would line-up just to listen to his message. kyra? >> zain verjee out of london. stay with cnn this morning and throughout the day as we push forward on this story bringing you the latest details in the death of this muslim cleric. a live report just minutes away, stay tuned. well, our new poll shows that most americans are blaming the former president, not the current one, for the nation's economic troubles. cnn political editor mark preston has the numbers. good morning, mark. >> hey, good morning, kyra. let's just look at the top line number and to say that americans have a bleak outlook on what the economy could be kind. let's take a look at it right now. really devastating numbers right now. 90% of americans, kyra, think that the economy is in poor shape. we shouldn't be too surprised by this given the economic todowntn and housing crisis. this could be devastating for president obama as he heads into his re-election campaign heading into 2012 but the silver lining in this is what you said at the top. he's not getting blamed for it. the blame still rests with republicans and former president george w. bush. in fact, if you see that, more than 50% are blaming president bush in the congressional republicans while only 32% are blaming president obama and the democrats. so, terrible news about the economy, not great news for president obama, but could be worse, kyra. >> before we head to arizona, cnn has a presidential debate on the las vegas strip. this could get a little crazy, to say the least. >> we're heading out west and heading out to arizona on december 1st for a big debate. was just announced late yesterday with the arizona republican party. but before we get out there, we'll head to las vegas. we'll have a presidential debate on the las vegas strip, whoever thought that would happen. with the western republican leadership conference. look, the west is very important in this presidential election, that's why cnn decided to go out there and hold debates out there and talk about issues that really are affecting people all across the country and that comes down to the economy and the housing market. kyra? >> mark preston, thanks so much. we'll have your next political update in about an hour. a reminder for all the latest political news go to our website, cnnpolitics.com. more on the killing of anwar al awlaki. the feds never did convince his family that he was a bad guy. more on their views, next. for the second time this month good samaritans caught on tape lifting a car off of someone trapped. this time the victim, a little boy. let's check stories across country now. take a look at the billboard and signs that are garnering a lot of controversy in new orleans right now. they portray president obama in very unflattering terms and they have drawn dozens of protesters who want the signs taken down. the property owner who put the signs up, guess what, not talking. police in boca raton, florida, released this dash cam video of a 6-year-old boy. he got pinned under this car wednesday morning after he tripped and fell right into the path of the car. officers and bystanders literally lifted the car and pulled him to safety. the boy is expected to make a full recovery. and saggy pants ban beginning to add up for the city coughers. in the 9 months since the ban was instituted the city has collected almost 4,000 bucks in fines. what is attractive about that? let's get back to our breaking news. the killing of the radical cleric anwar al awlaki, one of the world's most wanted man but his family insisted that he was wrongly accused of terrorism. in an interview with paula newton, his son called his son, an all-american boy. paula, give us more insight into this family. >> well, this family was like many others who had come to the united states hoping for a new life. he was educated in the united states and born there. as i have been saying, kyra, his family showed me pictures of the family at disney world and anwar had the twinkle in his eye. always happy, easy going young man. when you try to get to what turned his son towards being radical and radical preacher and that his father did not deny. what he would deny is insist that killing innocent americans was justified. now, any time that anwar al awlaki his father was like any other anguished father. he did not understand what turned his son in this direction. he said that after 9/11 he was appalled and wanted to try to do something to bring the two communities together but something about prosecuting the war on terror did turn him into more radical thinking. what this father, though, what he had said to me over and over was that he did not believe that it was right. that the united states acgo after his son, an american. he said he thought that was wrong. to capture him, try him, talk to him about his beliefs was a different story, but he always thought it was wrong that he actually assassinated by the u.s. government. >> now, paula, you had a chance to talk to the family, what was it, back in january, the beginning of the year. have you been able to reconnect with them since this news has broken? >> the last contact i had with them was about eight or nine months ago. i was trying to reconnect with them. e-mailing the sister and calling the father, they're not responding. we're still trying to get in touch with them. the campaign in the last few months always involved trying to get the u.s. government to stop these drone attacks on their son. this is a grandfather who was taken care of anwar's children at home and his wife was there. he always said it was his own wife, anwal al awlaki's mother who wanted this to end. he didn't want anyone talking to the media and really not have anyone to know what was going on with their son. remember, kyra, as you know, quite the amount of chaos in yemen today. that family has been going through that, as well. >> paula newton, appreciate you. after the break, the latest on the trial of michael jackson's doctor. a key witness testified conrad murray told him to pack up drug vials before calling 911. live to l.a. also, bank fees becoming the norm these days, but even this one will shock you. a $5 fee just to use your debit card. we'll go to the new york stock exchange for more details. 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