Down on the southern part of the country. Last year it brought major cities to their knees. This time around, are they ready for it . Good afternoon. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. We begin today with our National Lead. Just minutes ago the fbi issued a bulletin to state and local Law Enforcement telling them be on your guard. This comes as we learn that three men, new yorkers, are now behind bars for allegedly trying to join isis and plotting to commit acts of terror here on american soil including potentially trying to assassinate president obama. According to a Court Document unsealed just hours ago, the fbi collared three brooklynitis two of them wanted to join the socalled isis caliphate, the third tried to finance that terror pilgrimage to syria. The department of justice says these men comprised a terror cell in new york and were actively conspiring to join isis provide cash to the terrorists and if neither of those plans worked out, they would unleash chaos right here in the United States. Lets go to cnn justice correspondent pamela brown. These men first came to the attention of Law Enforcement last summer. If you read the complaint, its really quite remarkable the heinous acts they were plotting allegedly to carry out. Thats right. According to officials, the intent was there but whether or not they could carry out their plans is an entirely different story. But this case is especially concerning because for one of the first times in an isis related case we are seeing a level of organization according to the fbi, among multiple individuals living in the u. S. And wanting to launch an attack here that they couldnt link up with isis overseas. The fbi says two of the three Brooklyn New York residents were intent on waging jihad in syria with isis. Or launching an attack in the United States. A third associate was allegedly helping finance their mission. Court documents allege one expressed his desire to pledge fidelity to isis and in an uzbekistan online chat last summer saying to shoot obama and get shot ourselves, will it do . That will strike at the heart of the infidels. That alarming post brought fbi agents to his front door. He allegedly admitted to them he would harm president obama but did not have the means to do so and said if isis ordered him to he would also plan to bomb on coney island in new york city. They came as federal agents as members of the joint Terrorism Task force. They identified them as such. Reporter even after the fbi interview, Court Documents revealed the man then began communicating with an isis website administrator in iran who encouraged him to join the terrorist group overseas. Later communications revealed his coworker began coordinating travel to turkey, the gateway into syria. He allegedly told his friend once you cross the border of the Islamic State, someone has to receive you there. To prove a conspiracy you only have to show that theres been a material effort or forward step in furtherance of the conspiracy and clearly, those communications would indicate that there has been a forward step in the conspiracy. Reporter the complaint says both suspects purchased round trip tickets to turkey with the help of their friend who allegedly provided more than 1,000 for their travels. He allegedly told a confidential informant if he was detected at the airport they could kill a Police Officer and use the officers gun to shoot other Law Enforcement officers that arrived on the scene. The fbi says it arrested him at jfk airport today. They say he was trying to board a flight to turkey to join isis. Federal agents arrested the other at his brooklyn apartment. The third associate, the one in florida appeared in a courtroom today and the other two are expected to appear before a judge as well. Pamela brown, thank you. Appreciate it. I want to go to cnn National Correspondent deb feyerick in brooklyn outside the federal courthouse where two of these three men are set to be arraigned potentially any moment. What can you tell us . Reporter we can tell you they are going to be arraigned within the next 45 minutes. The judge came out and told everyone in the court, its a packed courtroom, as you can imagine, theres another terror trial going on upstairs on a higher court. Very interesting, hes an alleged al qaeda operative. The ideology that he shares very much similar ideology to the ideology of the two men who are scheduled to be arraigned. We want to tell you they are uzbek nationals. They do have legal residence here in the United States. One of the reasons that they had a sort of plan b is because the 19yearold, he didnt have his passport. His mother had actually confiscated his passport fearing that he would travel or try to get to syria, so he was planning other attacks here in the United States. They included joining the u. S. Military, perhaps funneling information to isis and then if that didnt work he was simply going to open fire on the troops. His other plan was simply to get an ak47 and attack Police Officers as well as fbi agents. The 24yearold, his colleague and coworker, he was the one who said he had plans to shoot president obama. All he needed was the go ahead from an isis member communicating via the internet. These two men were tracked online they ultimately took down their social pages, according to the fbi indictment against them and they were sort of maintaining silent communications. The 30yearold man, also a brooklyn resident he got his money running kiosks at local malls in savannah georgia, in philadelphia pennsylvania as well as virginia beach, virginia. He is alleged to have given the younger man, the 19yearold, 1300 to purchase tickets. He even went to a travel agency in coney island essentially to help him buy that ticket. The boy wanted more money he said because he had to repay a debt to his mother according to these Court Documents. Again, they never made it to syria. The 19yearold picked up today at jfk airport. He had a ticket to get to turkey and it was interesting because he ultimately did get his passport travel documents through the help of a confidential informant. When he told his mother that he was out of here that he was going to go to syria and fight with isis as was his duty his mother actually hung up with him. He was arrested at jfk. The other man, the 24yearold, he was also arrested. They are scheduled to be in court within the hour. Deb feyerick live at the Brooklyn Federal courthouse thank you so much. The fbi says one of these suspects had a backup plan if he wasnt able to get to syria to stay in the u. S. And kill or at least attempt to kill the president of the United States. Michelle kosinski is live at the courthouse. I dont know how seriously this threat should be taken but has there been any reaction from the Obama Administration or the secret service so far about this threat . Reporter we have reached out to the white house on this. This news was breaking as the president was taking off for a trip to miami to talk about immigration. We havent heard anything directly from them yet. The secret service did weigh in. They said this is a joint Terrorism Task force case multiagency and the secret service is involved in that. What they said was that the u. S. Secret service will take all appropriate steps based on that investigation. The u. S. Takes all threats seriously. It is not in a position to discount threatening statements until they are fully investigated. There is no one out there who wants to say they are not taking this seriously. What we have heard from analysts today is that these are boastings online that anyone could make. They are not the greatest things on earth to write online and obviously, its what will gain the interest of Law Enforcement out there, or somebody else who might be reading it prior, but its not enough to make an arrest at that time. Everything is case by case. But this case took some time past those postings online before it really got to the deep end of the investigation and finally the arrests. It was interesting to hear other people within the administration over the past few days talk about threats and how difficult it is to really get to them before they start to progress because lone wolves out there, thats what everybodys concerned about. So so far, the line from the administration is well were waiting for the investigation, were participating, were not going to say that this wasnt serious. We are taking all of these sorts of things seriously. We heard from the new York Press Conference it sounded like they were taking such online postings pretty seriously, especially one from the other young man who said that he was willing to go and find a machine gun to target Police Officers or fbi agents here in the u. S. Jake . Thank you so much. These arrests in new york may be just the beginning. Could they reveal even more plots in the works . More plots being perhaps more carefully crafted right here in the United States . The fbi says it is tracking homegrown violent extremists but wait until you hear just how widespread this problem may be. Thats next. Mouths are watering, lemons are squeezing and stomachs are growling. Or is it just me . Every minute between you and red lobsters lobsterfest feels like an eternity. And who could blame you for craving our largest variety of succulent lobster dishes all year . Dishes like dueling lobster tails. With one tail topped with creamy shrimp and a second tail stuffed with tender crab. 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How do you know . Duh. Try credit karma. Its free and you can see what your score is right now. I just got my free credit score credit karma. Really free. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. We will continue following breaking developments out of new york. Three men from brooklyn apprehended by the fbi. Court documents say two of them were trying to join isis. The third was trying to help them do so. If those two could not make their way to syria, they intended to kill police and fbi agents and even aspire to assassinate the president. Lets go to cnn Counter Terrorism analyst phil mudd former cia Counter Terrorism official. Also with us robert mcfadden, former special agent in charge for the naval criminal investigative service. Let me start with you. How serious a threat do you think these guys were . From what we know right now, very serious. Well done by the fbi, jttf and all their partners. It sounded like they were all over these three and their cell. You have human sources or confidential informants electronic means, tapping into the internet so very well done. But you know jake the thing that happens right now, while the high fives are going on about taking this cell down the intelligence part of it is going on full speed ahead. Thats paramount, we talked about this in the leadin to the segment, about how important it is to find out how broad or not this cell is. So that work continues as we speak. Phil i dont want to make light of this case. Obviously we all take it seriously. But if you read the Court Documents, at least one or two of them dont seem like the sharpest tools in the shed. Maybe thats just because these Court Documents show how they were caught but am i wrong for thinking for maybe not taking them as seriously as i should just because they seem kind of dumb . Look as we used to say in the business we dont always catch the smart ones. But before you discount these guys youve got to realize that as soon as they access a weapon as robert said if the joint Terrorism Task force isnt up on them and you miss this case and they murder two people nobody cares anymore how capable they were. They went from wannabes to terrorists in the space of 24 hours. I would agree some of these Court Documents will reveal and we have seen this for 15 years after 9 11 that the people we catch arent always the sharpest tools. That doesnt mean they cant murder people. All you got to do is get a weapon. Fair enough. Let me ask you, robert. This is the first time i can recall hearing uzbekistan or kazakhstan mentioned in one of these types of cases. Obviously the threat of islamic terrorism in Eastern Europe is very real. I guess you combine this with the tsarnaev brothers its coming here too. Look interesting part about this i dont want to create any kind of false connection before we know more however, there is something known as the Islamic Movement of uzbekistan that really essentially received exile in afghanistan in the late 1990s, upwards of 2,000 were there. They fought next to al qaeda and the taliban, for example, before 9 11. They show up in other places around the world. Granted, these individuals, too young really for that time frame, but there are a number small but still lethal that come from uzbekistan roots that show up in places like iraq syria and even yemen. First time im aware of that ethnicity being part of a recent plot within the United States. I want you both to take a listen to something the director of the fbi said earlier today. Those people exist in every state. I have homegrown violent extremist investigations in every single state. Until a few weeks ago, it was 49 states, alaska had none. Which i couldnt quite figure out. But alaska has now joined the group. So we have investigations of people in various stages of radicalizing in all 50 states. Phil this appears to be if you talk to Law Enforcement, the new normal. I tell you, it is. Back early in the days after 9 11 we could focus on a target that was in some ways a bigger threat that is the strategic target of al qaeda and the 19 hijackers, a target that had taken down four aircrafts simultaneously. Back in 2008 i remember saying its not al qaeda anymore. It is an al qaedist revolution. You started seeing people on College Campuses and basements saying this ideology is interesting to me i have never met an al qaeda member but i would like to think about joining the organization. We are seeing that again in this case. The problem, though is in the past year or two with the dawning of whats happening in syria and iraq the ideology is accelerating once again. So 15 years into it i would say we dont have the kind of strategic problem we faced in 2002 but weve got a problem thats harder for an Intelligence Organization because its so dispersed. These Court Documents are written carefully and for public release, but as you alluded to there is assuredly a lot the fbi is not telling us about other people that may potentially be involved with this cell or other ones. Yeah, thats right. The ongoing investigation, nothing along those lines will be revealed of course because obviously the sensitivity. Typically, though just some supposition here you have a group of guys in this case known wolves or wolfpack. More often than not, its just them. Yes, they may have ties connections to conduits from Islamic State and other groups but usually its confined to the group that has been taken down so far but well see. Thank you both so much. Appreciate it. The world lead now. A small victory in the war against isis. 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Billions in tax revenue. And a new century of American Energy security. The new Energy Superpower . Its red, white and blue. Log on to learn more. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. More now in our world lead today. New video showing isis quite literally digging in. Iraqi Security Forces unearthing what they say are isis tunnels, attempts to burro into the key city