good evening. i'm tom foreman in for erin burnett. breaking news. a suicide attack stopped just short of the capitol steps. new details at this hour about the plot. authorities say the would be bomber had conducted a test in west virginia. chose the attack at a d.c. restaurant and allegedly told investigators he wanted to kill people, quote, face to face with an ak 47. if the investigation had not gone well, if detectives had not done their jobs, our lead story tonight would in short be a calamity. inste instead, the fbi and u.s. capitol police stopped it cold. he was arrested in a sting operation when undercover agents posing as al qaeda operatives gave him a fake suicide vest. it contained no explosives, so the public was not in danger. tonight, he is behind bars. brian todd is in alexandria, virginia, where he made an initial appearance today and was charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction. what are you hearing this evening about this alleged plot? >> tom, some very interesting new details according to court documents. fbi affidavits and other documents filed today, mentioned a couple of different phases. that's really the interesting part of how this developed. last month, they had been tracking for a couple of months, but say that last month, one of the phases was the phase where he was allegedly planning to attack a restaurant. they say he not only handled an ak 47, but also an explosive as an example of what could be used in that attack against the restaurant. he conducted surveillance to determine the best place and time for a bombing of that restaurant and that he purchased materials as part of that plan. at about that time, he met up the people who he believed were al-qaeda operatives, but in fact, they were law enforcement people. they were undercover. they were working him throughout this alleged operation. now, according to an affidavit, about mid january last month, he modified his plans and stated he wanted instead to attack the u.s. capitol building and the same day he informed his undercover contacts that he thought were al-qaeda operatives of that, he did go to that quarry in west virginia that you mentioned. they said he dialed a cell phone number that he believed would detonate a bomb placed in a quarry and after that, he said he wanted a larger explosion and told him the date for his operation, february 17th, today, he planned on doing that. so this morning, he was taken down, tom. >> terrific information, brian todd. i want you to stick around because we may come back to you. joining me now, a former fbi assistant director, tom fuentes and stephen klein. as far as we know, he had no ties to any terrorist group. he is a classic, lone wolf. how on earth do you suppose they found out about him? >> normally in a case like this, what you're looking for is the lone wolf or lone individual is unable to carry out the attack he wants by himself, so even though he's thought up this idea by himself, he's intent on carrying out an attack. somebody has to help him. so, he has to reach u out. whether it's in the community or internet, reach out and try to find someone who can help him with the explosives, vest, with the firearm, some aspect of the plot that he is unable to do all by himself. at that point, that's where the community outreach of law enforcement, this case, the fbi, really makes the difference because when that person reaches out, hopefully somebody in the community reports it to authorities and says this person is going to do something bad. we need you to look at him. >> in some ways, i can't help but wonder if his plan to switch to the capitol may have been helpful because that is such a big, hardened target where if you're hitting a restaurant, those soft targets, are so much more vulnerable. >> i think that's a safe assessment. if you look at the so-called lone wolf, it's all about intentions and capabilitiecapab. someone with capability, 300 million people that could have capability, but no intention, it's safe. so an individual with intentions sought out a capability. >> steven, when you look at the level of planning we see here, the fact he had done things with explosives, at some point had an ak 47, was trying make contact with people. on a scale of one to ten, with ten being an operative plan, zero with somebody with fantasies, where would you put this? >> in a seven or eight category. looking at a model tracking these people, it's not perhaps unlike suicide. symptoms of somebody at risk and larm and intelligence can give us indications of somebody at risk, community outreach is so critical. >> washington, d.c. has so, so many places that could be hit. is it in some ways fortunate he turned his attention to something that draws so much attention? >> the capitol is chosen because it ensures maximum worldwide media coverage. we've had bombings in restaurants all over the world. they happen all the time. in some cases, they get attention. here in the u.s., they don't unless u.s. citizens happen to be in that restaurant and victims of that. so hitting a restaurant, bus stop, a discotheque, library, we've seen that all over the world. there's only one united states capitol in the world. if you commit an attack on that, that's significant. >> brian, are there any indications when we might know more about the operational plan here and how the fbi and the capitol police got on to this guy? >> well, tom, we know from documents and from law enforcement officials that he first came under their radar a little more than a year ago. they became a ware of him in january of 2011 apparently from a human source who had confided to law enforcement that he had some ill intentions, so they had been tracking him now for more than a year. now, as far as the hard, undercover working of this guy, that seems to have unfolded really in kind of a hard form over the last few months and really in material form over the last two months. december and january is when they started to work plans with him. you guys mentioned a little about the other targets. he apparently in january had plans to hit a military insulation along with the restaurant and was discussing those plans with the people he thought were al-qaeda operatives. >> again, as we say, this whole issue of the lone wolf being the one that is maybe the most dangerous because they're the hardest to get on to. thanks to all of you. we'll be on this story all weekend long. still "outfront," a desperate plea from syria. we will talk to ivan watson, who is in harms way on the ground there. the president riding high. he's winning the war against congress. is he unstoppable going into the election or will high gas prices run him out of fuel? and dramatic new video of the italian cruise ship crash. we're going to take you inside the panicked ship's command center like never before. stay with us. take the privileged investing tools of wall street and make them simple, intuitive, and available to all. distill all that data. make information instinctual, visual. introducing trade architect, td ameritrade's empowering web-based trading platform. take control of your portfolio today. trade commission-free for 60 days, and we'll throw in up to $600 when you open an account. my heart attack happened completely out of the blue... i was so young...and... yeah... ...you just don't think that that's something that can happen to you. you really realize what's important. i'm on a bayer aspirin regimen. it's a...ya know, first line of defense...right? 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[ spokesman ] when you refinance your mortgage with quicken loans, you'll find that our rates and fees are extremely competitive. because the last thing you want is to spend too much on your mortgage. one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. ♪ one more way quicken loans is engineered to amaze. we want to protect the house. right. but... home security systems can be really expensive. to save money, we actually just adopted a rescue panther. i think i'm goin-... shhh! we find that we don't need to sleep that much. there's an easier way to save. geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more. it just doesn't stop. in syria tonight, the government is expanding its crackdown. forces continue heavy shelling of the city of homs, but antigovernment protesters staged public demonstrations across the country. opposition activists report as many as 61 people were killed today. cnn's ivan watson is in north syria in an area emerging as an opposition stronghold up there. i asked him what he saw earlier today. >> reporter: tom, the syrian uprising has been going on for 11 months. more than 6,000 people have been killed in the ensuing government crack down on these protests and yet every week, syrians come out into the streets in what have become a ritual of defiance. that's what we sea when we visited the small town of vinish. you had men who gathered for trid prayers. they paid respects to one of their neighbors who was killed they said by a nearby sniper and then they poured out into the streets chanting god is great and there under a freezing, winter downpour, this crowd engaged in a furious rally denouncing the syrian president, bashar al asaad. these people are people who know very well the threat of the syrian security forces firsthand. tanks have made deadly incursions. everybody can tell you the name of people who were either arrested and tortured or people killed and syrian tanks are parked about a five minutes drive away and yet, they continued with this. we also got reports unconfirmed that similar rallies like this in towns to the south were attacked by syrian security forces. this is the face of the syrian r revolution. >> it is astonishing how it just goes on and on. we will stay on top of it through all these coming weeks. thanks again to ivan watson. international affairs is one of the things that is gone with the obama administration from the start and this is shaping up to be quite a president's day weekend for barack obama. the economy is doing better. at least a bit. the dow ended just shy of 13,000 today. that's a nice, high mark. his approve l rating is on the rise and today, a big political victory. after months of ripping the capitol hill crowd as a do nothing congress and pushing for an extension of the payroll tax cut, the president got what he wanted. the bill passed. >> this is a big deal and i want to thank members of congress for listening to the voices of the american people. it is amazing what happens when congress focuses on doing the right thing instead of just playing politics. >> "outfront" now, john avlon is with us and ryan salom. ryan, just a couple of months ago, republicans were just like this over the election. let's go, let's go, and democrats were sweating bullets. now, it's almost like it's changed. what do you make of this? >> i think that's very true and it partly reflects the fact that we've had an economic environment that's improved. it's improved in the right places and ways for the president. in the midwest. the manufacturing sector has healthy. if you look at the voters that have tilted, they're doing a lot better. it's those swing voting constituencies doing better, where as a lot of the president's core constituencies, like african-americans for example, who are still hit hard, but they're not about to go and vote for republicans. >> you say it's better somewhat. it is what is better, but housing prices are still terrible. unemployment still over 8%. but the trend is the president's friend and that's the most important thing. unemployment still high, but moving in the right direction. gdp growth moving in the right direction, so it's the issue of whether people feel like morning is coming in america. that's the significance of that clint eastwood chrysler detroit ad. that's the narrative the president wants to run and he's right, but half right. the other thing i think the president's benefitting from is this drawn out republican primary. where it's this sort of reality show cage match and the president really looks good by comparison. the longer this goes on, the better the president looks. we've seen that in some recent polls, especially cnn polls showing independent voters. >> back up the machine. backing up a few years, that's what they said about the democrats. they're dragging out the election. that is a long time between now and november. >> this is a very different primary race. part of the reason, when you're looking at the race between obama and clinton, to compete for a lot of those voters, where as now, both are major republican candidate, more than two, they're competing for these solid conservative voters who are going to vote republican no matter what. right, this is the problem with polarization. you reap what you sow. when mitt romney says i'm a severe conservative to cpac, that does not resognate. >> let me ask you about something related, that president's actually have so much influence on. gasoline prices last year were the highest they've been ever. over $3 a gallon on average. all year long. look at that chart over there. they're ticking back up again right now. people are talking about over $4 a gallon. maybe up toward $5 a gallon. i think if they are that level in july and august, nobody's going to care what happens in january and february. >> the president is alwaready preparing for that. one of the most potent messages republicans have had is that we're for energy from any and all sources. the president has coopted that language. he hasn't coopted the substance, but he's ek nuysed that's a potent political message. >> he also said i'm an energy president. if this happens, i think he's got a problem. >> a week's a long time in politics and we are still a long way out. if gas prices are high in the summer, it will add to that sense of irritation. >> i'm not saying it's the president's fault. >> this is what's fascinating about the political times we're living in. the president only has so much control over the economy because the economy is so interconnected. a french finance minister has an enormous impact on the american election. >> thank you. always good to have you in here. new details are coming out tonight. really interesting material about the death of whitney houston. our don lemon has been on the case. he is joining us with the latest and under surveillance. google. they've been creeping and peeping and maybe at you. stick with us. 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[ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. under surveillance tonight, google creeping and peeping. the internet giant slipping around your privacy settings to see what you're up to online. an investigation reveals that -- to spy on people's computers and phones to see which websites this were surfing. google says that's not the way it was at all. the journal report mischaracterizes that was what's happening. they have however stopped this type of tracking, so what is really going on here? i have no idea. raf needleman joins us now. what exactly was google doing? >> well, one of their advertising areas had figured out a way to circumvent a privacy feature of safari. the browser is supposed to prevent advertising companies for any companies from putting a cookie, a way to track you, on your browser. google circumvented that so that the advertising companies could learn more about what you were doing online. >> so, a case of advertising, yet information saying he's looking for canoes, therefore i should push paddles at him. >> right. the thing that makes this so interesting is that apple's safari browser had a specific block against the easy way to do this, so google had to find a way to circumvent the apple mechanisms for blocking the collection of third party advertising. what makes this even more fun is that the code behind the browser is called web kit and it was written by engineers working by google. >> i have to say, i just expect someone to be tracking everything i'm doing on the internet. reasonable for people to say our privacy should be safer than this. >> both. i think you're reasonable to expect people want to track that because of the economic incentive for an advertising company is so high. but there were companies like apple and google who were trying protect you and your privacy to an extent. apple did build a tracking prevention tool into safari to prevent other companies from doing exactly what google on the other side of campus did. >> thank you very much for explaining it to us. i have a feeling we'll be revisiting this topic a good number of of times. next, dramatic new video from inside the italian cruise ship after it slammed into rocks and we have new details tonight about whitney houston's final hours as her friends and family prepare to honor her this very weekend. ♪ there's a place i dream about ♪ ♪ where the sun never goes out ♪ ♪ and the sky is deep and blue ♪ ♪ won't you take me american flight 280 to miami is now ready for boarding. ♪ there with you fly without putting your life on pause. be yourself. nonstop. american airlines. oh, yeah? 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[ man ] saw 'em in '83 in fresno. place was crawling with chicks. i got to go. ♪ any way you want it ♪ that's the way you need it ♪ any way you want it ♪ the world needs more energy. where's it going to come from? ♪ that's why right here, in australia, chevron is building one of the biggest natural gas projects in the world. enough power for a city the size of singapore for 50 years. what's it going to do to the planet? natural gas is the cleanest conventional fuel there is. we've got to be smart about this. it's a smart way to go. ♪ we start the second half of our show with stories we care about, where we focus on our own reporting and did the work and find the "outfront 5." up first, authorities say a suicide bomb plot has been stopped. the target, the u.s. capitol. he was arrested in a sting operation when other acts posing as al-qaeda operatives gave him a fake suicide vests. he was charged with attempting