for gas, once again becoming the new normal. what's behind that sharp price hike? wolf blitzer is off today. i'm candy crowley, you are in "the situation room." an alleged plot for a suicide bomb attack on the u.s. capitol busted today in an undercover operation. officials say a moroccan man is under arrest after accepting a vest he believed was filled with explosives. cnn's brian todd is at the courthouse in alexandria, virginia. what's the latest there? >> reporter: candy, we're told the suspect has arrived at this federal district court in alexandria, virginia, for a court appearance this afternoon. we're also told that authorities are searching at least two locations in the northern virginia area, including possibly his home. here's what we know about the suspect. he is identified at 29-year-old amin caliphi, we are told he's living in the u.s. illegally. this official said regarding this alleged plot, that mr. kalifi had various targets, settled on the capitol, but previously considered a military installation, synagogues, and possibly a restaurant where military and government people were known to frequent, but he, according to this law enforcement officials had settled on the capitol as a target. they said he came to law enforcement's attention because of his extremist views he had esupposed. in december, according to a law enforcement official he started moving down the path toward conducting an attack. he was arrested today when he apparently met up with undercover agents who were posing as people who were going to give him a suicide vest and a gun, but the suicide vest and the gun were rendered inoperable. he was arrested at a parking garage near the capitol. we were at a garage where there was a lot of activity this morning, and i talked to one of the parking garage attendants about how this all went down, what he saw. did they tell you why they wanted you to leave? >> no. just just to move from the garage. >> reporter: i also spoke to phillip mudd, a counterterrorism official about the kind of case that could be made against suspects like this, and how a sting operation like this, what that kind of operation would entail at some of the critical moments. >> as you go into a criminal proceeding, you want to say he was ready to move. the fact he's wearing a suicide vest would suggest to anyone, including someone on a jury, that he was going to act on what he believed. >> reporter: now, a law enforcement officials tells us that mr. kalifi has been under close watch for the past couple months, but the public was not in danger. we're also told that members of congress have been briefed on this entire operation on the law enforcement operation, and that they were never in danger as well. again, the suspect amin kalifi, 29-year-old moroccan national, has arrived at this courthouse, expected for a court appearance this afternoon. candy? >> brian todd, in alexandria, virginia, staying on the story for us. thanks, brian. we want to get more on this thing with cnn contributor ton if went, and fran townsend. she serves on the cia and is -- is also serving on the homeland security advisory board. fran, first to you, what are you hearing as you called around about this story? >> well, sources are telling us, one, this is an investigation that's been going on almost a year, that originally law enforcement sources came in contact with this man as part of a criminal investigation. not a terrorism investigation, but sort of an other criminal investigation. as they had this contact with him, they realized his aspirations were quite different. when you push law enforcement sources about will there be a valid entrapment defense? they tell me no. this guy had him sell gone out. fran, from what you're hearing, there any way to know thousand this is what they call a digital terrorist, someone who learns everything he knows over the internet or someone who may have been trained elsewhere. there any way to know that at this point? >> really hard to tell. what i do know from the course is this was part of a criminal investigation, and so he was probably part -- it sounded like he was part of a group, a network of guys involved in some sort of criminal activity, didn't sound very serious, so it's hard to say. we don't have enough facts whether he was radicalizesed over the enter net, but we heard he had gone and prayed at a mosque before meeting with the agents. >> tom it seems there's always a fine line there, between sbiszing someone and allowing them to go thus far and no farther. where is that line? >> in a case like this, it would start with many cases of the fbi, an individual is expressing a desire to conduct a terrorist attack. when they start the investigation, they're not sure if he -- is he serious? does he have the knowledge or expertise? in this case, they start looking at him, and then as recently as december they start to realize he's serious, he's trying to find people who can help him and assemble the explosives into a suicide vest, get him a weapon, and then make hi trip up to capitol hill where he would have the greatest impact obviously. in the case of the fbi, they're looking to make sure that he wants to do this. they want him to establish that this is what he wants to do, and he's seeking help. >> so it would be important, it seems to me, what fran was telling us, that it appeared he had been purchasing things on his own, so that's obviously key to not having this being key -- >> it's a huge key. of course, of course the course of the months from december until today, you want to see that he is trying to push this, trying to get the additional equipment, the assistance he needs, laying out the attack plans. meantime, the fbi is trying to determine is he alone. is he part of a network? and they wouldn't want to take the case down until they have identified all other subjects that might be involved or have similar intentions. >> fran, first to you, and i want to ask tom the same question. what caught my attention here? let's set aside the underwear bomber who clearly was willing to blow himself up to bring a plane down, coming in i believe from london -- i can't remember now -- but nonetheless he was willing to kill himself. part of what i think gave the measure of safety to americans is suicide bombers seem like someone that would do that in some other country. we have not seen that here before. there's a huge distinction, someone willing to leave a car bomb and someone who says i'll go. >> candy, that's right, and i think you state it correctly. americans have taken this with a sense of confidence, but remember the first world trade center bombing, they did plant the car and then left. on 9/11, all those hijackers were prepared to die and did. i think we have a false sense that an individual is unlikely to happen here. it's ununusual, certainly unsettling, but we can assume when you have 19 hijackers all willing to kill themselves, we shouldn't assume we're immune from it here. >> this is the fbi taking some things from a house, you know, we can speculate it's his house, we don't know, but it's in arlington, virginia, certainly near where they're looking to see this guy appear in court. is there a false sense of reasonable safety when you think, well, we haven't seen a suicide bomber in the u.s.? although the -- let's face it, suicide by plane is still suicide. >> the suicide bombers overseas have a network. they have individuals that make the bombs, assemble the vests, motivate the victim that's going to blow himself up. you know, they have this whole group, if you will that helps that person down the path to actually committing the suicide and killing other people in the process. to do that in the united states, what the fbi and the police and all of the other agencies are hoping for is that that person, in trying to get assistance to either create that support group is -- that's where the authorities will come in contact. that's why the tremendous effort at community outreach in the communities where individuals like this would be looking for helpers, co-conspirators, if you will, that's why they want to do that, so when a person begins to seek assistance, someone in the community reports it to the police or fbi and says, hey, this individual is talking about doing something bad. that's when they begin the investigation and very cautiously deliberately in the process to find out is that person serious. you know, fran, i know during the bush administration and your knowledge is probably not as good now in terms of what's happening on the ground now are there a number of things that are ongoing? can you put any -- on how broad-based this is? if you pick a guy on low-level crime. >> you know there's been a real effort in the fbi going back to my time in government to build the capability to intercept, detect, intercept and intercept before the guy has the materials or is assembling the bomb. and when they find these opportunities, they understand how legally and constitutionally to be able to per sue them, to identify the real threats as opposed to the wannabes, aspirational, but no real intention of making it a credible threat. thank you both so much for your expertise. we will get more targeting the u.s. capitol in our next hour. congressman peter king will join us. coming up this hour, a syrian city laid to waste by 14 straight days of shells. arwa damon manages to get inside to see the devastation firsthand. plus a defection by a high-profile mitt romney supporter who's now backing rick santorum. but we couldn't simply repeat history. we had to create it. introducing the 2013 lexus gs, with leading-edge safety technology, like available blind spot monitor... 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[ female announcer ] discover what's next in your life. get this free travel bag when you join at aarp.org/jointoday. at meineke i have options... like oil changes starting at $19.95. my money. my choice. my meineke. republican presidential candidate rick santorum has plucked an endorsement out of mitt romney's hands. cnn's senior correspondent joe johns hughes the latest. >> reporter: is the earth did not shake, but it was at least another little drip of news about the momentum shift. >> i am endorsing rick santorum for president of the united states. >> reporter: he begin his dame in michigan, singing familiar tune to the faith and freedom rally. the social issues that have propelled him in this race were front and center. he got a chance to -- >> we are children of a loving god. >> reporter: and of his positions on birth control, especially the criticism of the obama administration and recent positions which, on requires catholic hospitals and universities to pay for insurance that covers birth control. >> >> it's not about contracepti contraception. it's about your constitutional rights. >> reporter: though it wasn't all smooth sailing, mostly due to this man, santorum's big money donor foster friess. >> he creates an uproar. >> back in my days they used bayer aspirin for contraception. santorum was forced distance himself. >> this is someone who is a supporter of mine. i'm not responsible for every comment a supporter makes. lots of folks they say it was a bad joke, it was a stupid joke, not reflective of me or my record on this issue. >> reporter: but then he tried to rewrite history by comparing the situation to barack obama's trouble in the last election with the reverend jeremiah wright. santorum suggested obama got a break from the media even though wright's comments came close to crashing the campaign. >> in fact with president obama you went out and defended him who sat up in a church for 20 years and defended him, he can't possibly believe what he listened to for 20 years. it's a double standard, this is what you're pulling off and i'm going to call you on it. >> >> reporter: foust are friess apologized for the comment later, but polls show conservative voters consider it a plus at least in the primaries, though it could come back to haunt santorum if he gets the nomination. candidate? >> there is another new poll confirming the front-runner status. the arg group surveying of likely republican primary voters shows 34% backing santorum compared to 32% for romney. that is a statistic cal tie. let's bring in gloria borger. gloria, it looks like romney could use some reinforcement. >> yeah, and he's going to get it and is going to spend an awful lot of money. we have learned today his super pac, separate from the campaign, called restore our future, is going to put in $6 million in eight states coming up s. $900,000 alone in the state of michigan, primary in ten days. these adding don't have miley faces on them. >> in a single session, santorum co-sponsored 51 bliss to increase spending and zero to cut pending. he voted to raise his own pay and joined hillary clinton to let convicted felons vote. big spender, washington insider. >> two things strike me about this. >> could there be back lash? >> absolutely. first of all rick santorum has a very good ad that shows romney swatting him with mud. it plays into the david/goliath story. santorum is fighting back s. saying that he voted to give convicted felons the right to vote. he makes at the case on the merits. he voted for them once they're out of jail, have done that are due pencens, and by the way, is it massachusetts did the same thing. so there's a lot of back-and-forth on that, but people are kind of sick of it. newt gingrich, someone trying to get him back in the game? >> kitchen bonn, our senior producer broke the news that sheldon adelson will probably pour about $10 million more bucks into the super pac supporting newt gingrich, probably within the next month. as you know, that will give is newt gingrich the money and wherewithal to fight on through super tuesday. if romney doesn't do well in michigan, maybe newt gingrich can rise once again. >> money helps. it's not everything, but if you have a backer willing to pile money -- >> and what's the incentive for you to get out of the race? none. >> gloria, have a good weekend. >> you too. >> we continue to following the breaking news. officials say they arrested a man plotting to bomb the u.s. capitol. we'll bring you that as soon as it happens. the contraception controversy. is the gop out of line when it comes to decisions about women's health? that was me trying to be discreet with my vial and syringe. me, drawing my insulin dose. and me the day i discovered novolog flexpen. flexpen is pre-filled with your mealtime insulin. dial the exact dose, inject by pushing a button. no vials, syringes or coolers to carry. flexpen is insulin delivery my way. novolog is a fast-acting insulin used to control high blood sugar in adults and children with diabetes. do not inject if you do not plan to eat within five to ten minutes after injection to avoid low blood sugar. tell your healthcare provider about all medicines you take and all of your medical conditions, including if you are pregnant or breastfeeding. the most common side effect is low blood sugar. other possible side effects include reactions at the injection site. get medical help right away if you experience serious allergic reactions, body rash, trouble with breathing, fast heartbeat or sweating. with flexpen, vial and syringe are in the past. ask your doctor about novolog flexpen, covered by 90% of insurance plans, including medicare. mary snow is monitoring other top stories in "the situation room" right now. there's a five-mile-long oily mess. >> unfortunately. two barges collided this morning carving out a 10 by 5 foot gash that leaked oil into the mississippi. barriers were set up to contain it. the problem is the coast guard isn't sure how much exactly spilled into the water. authorities shut down water intakes. the syringe designed -- mcneill received complaints that the dosing system for the grape-flavored system is difficult to use or doesn't work properly. in georgia 15 high school students and their bus driver went to the hospital this morning after the bus ran off the road and flipped on its side. a school representative says the bus driver blacked out and lost control. none of the reported injuries is life-threatening. candy? >> thank you very much, mary snow. appreciate it. a dangerous assignment to a city under siege. >> there's only certain roads that we can take because of sniper positions, and some parts driving really have to gun it to get across to avoid being targeted. >> cnn's arwa damon is inside homs, a scene of devastation after two weeks of shelling. victims of the government crackdown say they are dying of hunger and fear. why getting help to them is so difficult. 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[ engine revving ] the all-new 2013 lexus gs. there's no going back. we are of course following the story of a moroccan man arrested by the fbi. it is alleged hi wanted to be a suicide bomber. they arrested him with a disarmed bomb just before he got onto capitol grounds. indeed a fascinating case. we want to go to our brian todd. he is in virginia at the courthouse, where we expect an appearance by the suspect s brian? >> reporter: he has just made the appearance, the suspect now identified as amine el cliffi, he's appeared in court, came in wearing a green t-shirt, tattoos on his arms. he was not in shackles. he was made aware of the charges against him. we have a complaint here, a court documents saying he was arrested for, quote knowingly and unlawfully attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction against property that is owned and used by the united states or by any department or agency of the united states. but maybe even more telling is a quote on the new released from u.s. attorney neil mcbride says the complaint alleges that amine el khalifi sought to blow himself up in the u.s. capitol building. he allegedly believed he was working with al qaeda and devised the target and methods on his own, according to the u.s. attorney in virginia here. mr. khalifi has just appeared in court. we're also told that fbi agencies and other authorities are searching a property not too far from here in arlington, virginia. not sure if that's his home or not, but searching a property in connection with this case. to recap some of the information we've been bringing you, he was arrested today, as he was attempting to get a suicide vest that he thought was operable. it was not. he was arrested by undercover law enforcement agents who had been tracking him for a couple months. they had given him in inoperable vest and a gun that was also inoperable. he was arrested today at a parking garage near capitol hill. >> brian todd, as always on the case for us. i'm sure we'll be getting back to you. i just want to make it clear. he thought he was working with al qaeda? but in fact he was working with fbi undercover informants. is that correct? >> reporter: that is correct. he thought he was working with al qaeda operatives who were going to help him in this plot, when this fact he was working with undercover fbi agents. they had been tracking him for a couple months. this law enforcement official told us earlier today that the public was never in danger. this offi