chairman of the homeland security committee, also with us this morning, cnn national security contributor frances townsend, former bush homeland security adviser. congressman king, give me some more details of this plot as you know this and the man at the center of the plot whom we haven't heard much information about. >> soledad i really can't give you all the details. this is an ongoing operation. it was an unmetallic device, i can tell you it involves a number of countries and that at no time did the bomb ever make it on to the plane but as far as even the country it originated from, all of that for various reasons is not being disclosed but it is ongoing, involved sophisticated intelligence and it's something where i don't think the government expected it to be coming out yesterday because it's ongoing and the device is being tested by the fbi, and as you raise the issue about whether or not our current level of detection is enough to be able to find this type of device. this seems to be a new level of sophistication by al qaeda, probably al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. it's an indication that the war unlike the president said is not going to end in afghanistan. the war will go on for many years. >> where was the plot foiled? was the individual found inside of yemen, outside of yemen? >> soledad i can't go into any of that with you. this is sensitive information on the ground. i can just tell you that the person who actually had the bomb is no longer a threat. >> meaning he's dead? or he's alive? or being held somewhere? >> i can only tell you that the white house person i spoke to said the terminology they are use something he is no longer of concern. >> congressman king i'll have you stand by while i bring in fran townsend. we're hearing a lot and yet there's not a lot of detail. before i get to the device itself, talk about the person, the individual who has not been named yet. peter king said he's no longer a threat as he's been told from the white house? >> i talked to a senior administration official yesterday using the same language. he's dead or in custody f he's not a threat he's got to be one of the two. overnight we were steered away from the notion he was dead, sounds as though he's in custody but it might not be u.s. consist di. we understand they have possession of the device and logically, soledad, what that says to me is wherever the device was seized probably so is the would-be suicide bomber. he's in custody wherever the device has been seized. >> what are the implications of where it's been seized if caught inside yemen, outside yemen, if he's been able to get on a plane successfully and transport the device, all would be relevant. >> all would be relevant. the senior administration official who has direct knowledge asecured me and others that this device never made it to an airport, much less never made it to a plane. one has to presume if this began in yemen, it was u.s. forces working with foreign partners. it may have been the saudis. we've heard information like that. the saudis have the best insight to al qaeda in the arabian peninsula. presumably the saudis working with the u.s. disrupted this plot perhaps inside yemen, seized the device, turned that over to the u.s. and the yemenis or saudis have custody of this guy. >> let's talk more about this guy before i get back to congressman king. non-metallic, it wouldn't set off the detectors as you walk through the airport. >> al qaeda is known for petn, the explosive very difficult to detect, it can be a pudy type substance, and we saw the use of pted type of components so no one concerned it's petn but petn is a non-metallic subsatancesub. >> a drone attack was held to kill al quso. the drone attack was successful in foiling this plot? >> yes, i was told by the white house they are connected, they're part of the same operation, and that's why i said this operation is still ongoing. everything that fran townsend said is usual, makes a tremendous amount of sense. i'm not in a position to say all of the things that fran does because of the restrictions that i have but if you listen to fran townsend you're getting a pretty good idea of what happened. >> we fully understand, sir. i'll go back to fran for a moment. tell me the connection then. we know there is this connection between the drone attack that took out quso and this foiled plot. >> quso was the head of external operations for al qaeda and the arabian peninsula. as the head he would have been aware and directing any ongoing plotting so they have a target of opportunity over the weekend, take him out in a drone attack and you see the disruption of this plot also in time related. it was described as a one-two punch. you take out the external chief, operations chief, and you disrupt a plot and throw the organization into a little bit of chaos, which explains congressman king's remark that this is really, remains an ongoing operation. >> we could expect more information. congressman king before i let you go, when we were talking about this treasure trove, for lack of a better word of information that was coming out after osama bin laden was killed and all that material had been vetted, and we talked a lot about the drones and the panic almost that bin laden had about the drones and on the one hand it seemed there was a tremendous vulnerability and on the other hand we're seeing tremendous flexibility especially as al qaeda in this region continuing to come back hard and flexibly changing their plans and strategies. where do we stand today in terms of safety and security? >> well in many ways we're safer than we were on 9/11. however, al qaeda and its affiliates can metathesis and morph. they find a new method, they are very able scientists, and doctors working for them, these are sophisticated people, they never stop. that's why it's wrong when people in the national arena somehow say the war on terrorism is over or al qaeda is defeated. certain parts of the united states question never let our guard down. people are not surprised, they can use all the drones they want and they are effective. al qaeda will find other ways and we have to constantly stay with them and ahead of them. congressman peter king and fran townsend, we appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you bet, congressman. let's get to christine romans this morning. >> good morning, soledad. one month after dropping out of the gop race rick santorum is officially endorsing mitt romney. santorum met with romney last week and released a late night e-mail to supporters saying he has a better understanding of where his former rival stands on conservative issues. he writes "above all else we both agree that president obama must be defeated. the task will not be easy. it will require all hands on deck if our nominee is to be victorious. governor romney will be that nominee and he has my endorsement and support to win, this the most credital election of our lifetime. romney has the chance to pick up more delegates with primaries in indiana, west virginia and north carolina. romney needs about 300 delegates to clinch the nomination. the focus in north carolina is mainly on amendment one, that measure aims to ban same-sex marriage. evangelist billy graham has taken out full-page ads in 14 state newspapers supporting the amendment. former president bill clinton recorded a robo call denouncing it. in indiana the main focus is focused on "360" term senator dick lugar, the senate's longest serving republican and may not survive the challenge from tea party backed richard mourdock who is up in the polls. new this morning the fbi redoubling efforts to track down the alleged kidnaper of a tennessee family after the mother and one of her daughters were found dead. authorities say 31-year-old jo ann bain and her eldest daughter were buried in shallow graves in the backyard of the mississippi suspect adam mayes. they say mayes is considered armed and dangerous and they fear for the safety of the two other young daughters. mayes who is a family friend is suspected of kidnapping them two weeks ago. markets could open 75 points or so lower. concerns about the future of greece's government pushing markets down worldwide. new research about congress and your money. the center for responsive politics reports democrats on capitol hill are worth on average $878.500. median net worth for republicans $957,500. the average american's net worth is about $96,000. who are the richest? jean casarez, much comes from his wife's fortune, car alarm tie condarrell issa $448. these are the people talking about fairness, equality and who pays what in taxes. is mcdonald's bribing bloggers? the fast food chain is assembling an army of a million burger friendly bloggers to respond to critics. some 400 bloggers are receiving gifts and party invits in exchange for positive posts. last year mcdonald compensated mommy bloggers, so-called, for writing about the new healthy meal happy meal offerings. >> we get fries, sounds like a bit of a deal. a new documentary on a teenager who is sent away, his parents trying to pray away the gay. this is a debate over same-sex marriage heats up with president obama under pressure from his own party. a woman who had surgery without anesthesia picks up her pain killers in cvs and ends up spending the night in jail. it's john fugelsang, abby huntsman and will cain. good morning, welcome, guys. ♪ you are my sunshine, my only sunshine ♪ ♪ you make me happy [ female announcer ] choose the same brand your mom trusted for you. children's tylenol, the #1 brand of pain and fever relief recommended by pediatricians and used by moms decade after decade. dude you don't understand, this is my dad's car. look at the car! my dad's gonna kill me dude... 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(female announcer) most life insurance companies look at you and just see a policy. at aviva, we do things differently. we're bringing humanity back to life insurance. that's why only aviva rewards you with savings for getting a check-up. it's our wellness for life program, with online access to mayo clinic. see the difference at avivausa.com. fascinating, new documentary takes a look at the controversial practice of using religion to turn someone who is gay into what they call ex--gay, it focuses on love and action, the ministry group and a 16-year-old boi, boy, zach stark. the movie documents what happens after zach takes to myspace and starts blogging about the refuge program and what he calls its draconian practices, in it the founder talks about why he started the program. listen. >> i started hearing a lot more stories and experiences of teenagers moving into homosexual promiscuity, homosexual behavior and pornography on the internet. we thought we could offer a day program where we could begin to kind of help these kids with some of the tools that we knew were valuable. >> in a founder, john smid, joins us this morning. since left love and action and also joining us is the director of "this is what love and action looks like." morgan john fox. >> good morning. >> you didn't start as the filmmaker, you started at a protest. because the 16-year-old is blogging his friends go to refuge and start protesting outside of where he's being held, it's too dramatic but stuck inside at his parents' request. what was happening on the outside? >> it was a whirlwind. luckily it was the summer so zach's friends had a lot of time on their hands and they looked at it as a friend being bullied and they commend them for having the guts for something they thought was important. >> this is back in 2005. you opened the doors for the teenage program refuge. what was your take on what was going on outside? >> i got to the office that morning thinking this is a day as usual, we're going to start this program, and all of a sudden someone came into my office and said john there's a protest outside and obviously it upset my apple cart. i didn't know what to do. i heard all the mega phones outside barking my name, john smid, what are you doing in this there, and i was just overwhelmed. >> what were some of the measures, the kids, zach called them draconian, what were doing to get them to become ex-gay, not turning them straight but ex-gay. >> there's a couple components, one was to give them opportunities to talk and share things that were going on in their heart and lives but the other was educational, as a conservative christian ministry that it was, we wanted to teach the wrongs of homosexuality, why it was sin, why it was wrong, how it could harm their lives not realizing that stuff was going on in their hearts that we wouldn't really allow them to share. >> a lot of this documentary is about the big changes that happened to you. >> yes. >> you eventually left refuge and shut it down. when did you realize what you had been trying to teach kids was wrong? >> i think it started with meeting morgan, the protest. i want to say the protest was effective, not too many can see an effect from a protest like we did, but in morgan's effect on my life i saw a man i really respected and appreciated and started to listen to his heart and through that started to evaluate what we were really doing. >> you started having regular conversations. you actually instead of screaming at each other which i think protests often have -- you sat down and had conversations, each realizing i'm not going to belittle the other person but hear them out and have that person hear me out. was that the crux of the doc and what was successful? >> yeah, i think our protest was important because it got a certain amount of attention that was required but at a certain point when i set face-to-face with john i decided as opposed to debate him, i told my story, where i came from, i told about my emotions and my struggles and how my life was better for having a partner who is now my fiance. you know, and i think what that did was allowed a certain amount of trust so when we started to discuss the issues we didn't have to yell at each other. we were able to not be defensive and listen to each other and that laid to some real change. >> it took years and years and years. i'm making it sound like it happened over a two-week period but took many years. >> we didn't talk about homosexuality or the program or probably about two years or more. we talked about one another's lives, what our passions are, what we're interested in, who we are as people. the issue of the documentary came up when we started talking about the program and it helped me a lot to evaluate what we had really done. >> what had you really done? >> for the teen program the main thing that we did, we didn't educate the parents so the kids were brought into the program and the parents weren't involved in the program. >> kept out. >> they were spending time doing other things and i saw that and realized we were setting these kids up for failure. the home they left, very conflictive in many cases became no different after the program so they went home to a place that was conflictive still. now as i look back there is no change in orientation, and yet at the same time we really believed that somehow we were going to rescue these kids from a life of homosexuality, but the truth is, they are gay, and they will be gay the rest of their life, and so we set them up really for a facade. we set them up for a false image of what we tried to help them think life would be like but it never was going to be like that. i was in complete denial about that at the time. >> are you guys both christian? >> yeah, i am. >> i consider myself christian. i don't necessarily -- yes, i am christian. >> do you see a tension between that christian belief many say is the genesis of seeing homosexuality as wrong and what was your purpose before of trying to turn people into ex-gay? i guess my question is this, it seems that's where the debate should lie, at the place of religion. seems like this program you used to take part in, john, seems like a natural revolution if you believe homosexuality is wrong. >> i don't believe it's wrong and i think in fact the bible doesn't really say it's wrong. >> i don't get your question. back up, what? i'm sorry, i don't. >> the place the debate should be had is at the place of religion. most people who believe in christianity believe homosexuality is wrong. >> i disagree. >> in the record, christ never said anything about homosexual relationships. no one in this country follows all the rules of leviticus. we'd be killing children for talking back to their parents. >> i'm not advocating. i'm not a believer and i believer in gay marriage. >> the majority of americans identify as christians and support marriage equality. >> the majority of americans do not support marriage equality. that's not the current statistics. >> what do you hope that americans take from this? this is obviously a big issue now in politics. >> what do you think of gay marriage? we know carlotta was the reason we have this conversation. what do you think? >> the worst thing to do where people can't talk about the lives and can't live authentically who they are. >> is that a support of gay marriage? >> i think people must have the freedom to pursue relationships they feel convicted or desire for their lives, and i certainly believe that should be done with equality. >> and you see no tension between christianity and homosexuality? >> tremendous tension, absolutely. >> you see a difference between the teachings of christ and homosexuality? >> jesus doesn't say anything about it. >> thank you, exactly. >> what is that tension and how do you resolve it in. >> the tension is an unequalled base of the evaluation of other people's lives. in christianity it's obvious people pick and choose what they want to say is wrong and don't want to say is wrong and both could be seen as wrong or not wrong. >> you see the tension in the application of christianity and not in the teachings. >> yes. i've lived in that place for many years i would say i don't see hoe row sexuality as worse than any other sin but an entire ministry and program and virtually everything i spoke publicly did communicate homosexuality was worse than any other. >> this is the place the debate should be had at the application of christianity. >> it's political implications so it can't be had at this level. >> tim: conversion therapy, maybe that's the place for your next focus. >> i'm sure he appreciates your advice on that. thank you, gentlemen, we appreciate you joining that. >> congratulations on being an ex-gay ministry. >> not many can say that. >> for me what's most interesting is love and action and similar ministries promise change is possible. it turns out it is, but the change is different. >>as a christian i'm inspired by what you've done. >> it's deviating from 23 years of my life. it's a huge process and i'm writing a book. >> when your book is out we'll have you back. >> it will be out soon. >> i appreciate it. our get real talks about a woman who had a legitimate prescription, crutches to prove she wasn't faking it so why did she end up behind bars when she went to cvs to grab her prescription? 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