Joining me are eugene robinson. Andrea mitchell. Welcome to sunday and a special edition of meet the press. Nbc news in washington, this is a special edition of meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning, here is what we know about the attacks. This is the current death toll, and the number of wounded in the series of deadly attacks in and around paris friday night. France says three teams armed with assault rivals and suicide vests carried out this attack. Authorities identified one of the concert hall attackers at a 29yearold citizen of algerian origin. Its apparent that they were aware of him and his Organization Since 2010 but he was never actively investigated. One of them also entered through greece and was registered as a refugee in serbia. A number of arrests have been made in brussels leading the french to say this was a terror network. And the paris atrocities were called an attack on the civilized world. We will redouble our efforts to bring about a peaceful transition in syria, and to eliminate a force that can create so much pain and suffering. D. A. S. H. , another fame from isis or isil. What is official now is the war has entered a new faze. A bomb appears to take down a passenger plain in egypt. Killing up 224 people on board. Thursday, dozens are killed when two suicide bombers attack beirut. And then of course, friday, attackers wearing suicide vests and carrying out coordinated attacks carrying assault rifles slaughtering hundreds of people. Well talk about it starting with Richard Engle who is on the ground in paris. Lets start with the investigation itself. The french continue to say this is isis. The United States stance on this is that we dont have information to contradict this. What more do we know . The investigation is continuing and expanding internationally. There have been arrested in belgium. There is a connection to grease. One of the syrian passports did pass through greece. It was found by one of the attackers. A greek official told us that the passport went through greece and it was registered in serbia. There have been people questioned and detained in dermny. Family members of attackers arrested here in france. This is an investigation that is widening. People here do not believe that this is a situation where they were a loan group of seven or eight attackers. Lets talk about the under estimates of isis as a potential Global Terror Network for years for the first part of this war against isis. The assumption was that isis did not have these kind of ambitions that were similar to al qaeda. You say that is not the case, they always had that ambition, explain. Isis has always been an incredibly ambitious organization. Were seeing an evolution of isis. One Senior Expert in this field said that isis started out establishing their own base, consolidating their support at home, declaring a califate in iraq and syria. Then it moved to exporting all of its branchs, mostly into places where the arab spring failed. Now were seeing isis faze three. It is moving international, getting more sophisticated and claiming responsibility for downing a plane. And then the stage four with isis moving further west. Officials have been under estimates isis. They never thought they had this kind of capability. When paris first happened, u. S. Officials told me they thought it would be alqaeda. Because they thought that alqaeda was the kind of organization that looked abroad, looked to carry out complexiple attacks. If isis was the jv team, it no longer is. When you under estimate, that probably means that youre getting bad intelligence. What is our situation . Were not Getting Better intelligence because if we were we could better assess their capabilities. It is not a question of not getting good investigation, it is that there is too much. There are 3,000 to 5,000 people in france theyre concerned about. You have thousands of people a day moving along the migrant trail. Just a few days ago between 5,000 and 10,000 people were arriving. Most of them have no documentation. Theyre trying to take them in and offer humanitarian assistance, but people have no idea who they are, so if someone was left to join isis, it would be a good way to come in under the radar. So yes, it is an intelligence failure, but there could be a situation where there is so much intelligence and the traditional means are falling behind. Richard engel in paris on the ground for us and stay safe. Just before we went on air, i spoke to the French Justice minister who is the equivalent of the u. S. Attorney general and revealed that the french authorities know who they are and are working with the authorities in belgium, spain, and germany. I asked if they will escalate their fight against isis. It is an active war. It is a war against innocent people and our shared values. It is a war against what we are. And this war will give people, and to earlier this week president obama said isis had been contained. A phrase he is probably regretting right now. Even that was a retreat from an earlier declaration and position when he said the u. S. Aim was to degrade and destroy isis. Joining me now is ben rhodes. Welcome to meet the press. Thank you, chuck. Let me start with calling this an act of war, does the president concur that this was an act of war, and does it change americas footing . We absolutely agree that this is an act of war. Our hearts go out to the people of paris that suffered this attack. We have been at war with isil for some time. We have conducted hundreds of airstrikes. This will be a longterm campaign to disrupt and defeat isil. You know a year ago, president obama said isis could not be something that could not be contained. In an interview earlier this week, he said isis had been contained. Can you say they have been contned in iraq and syria when they have escalated to three terrorist attacks in ten days . That is not a contained organization. Well, check, the president was referring very specifically to the question of isils geographic expansion in syria. They had been on the march in iraq and syria for some time. We have been able to push back in iraq and syria. Includes most recently in an operation with our allies in iraq. Cutting off a key supply line from the capital to isil, iraq, and syria. So we have been able to apply pressure and take back territories, but we are seeing isil aiming to project power beyond the borders of syria. What is this that you have gotten wrong in under estimating isis. I think we clearly understand the threat from isil. When we launched our air campaign, the president was very clear this is a longterm effort in is a different type of enmyth. That and is why we have been in this effort launching thousands of airstrikes, targets isil. We have a coalition of 55 countries in this effort with us. Many of them here in the g 20 summit. Do you believe the strategy that the president is complemi t implementing is working . There is not enough of a sense of urgency, it doesnt seem to be working, and isis looks more ambitious than ever. We have been able to look at what has worked in the application of the strategy and what hasnt. What we see works, getting equipment arms directly to fighters on the ground, like the kurds. Backed by our air power, and what were doing here at the g 20 is seeking to gain additional contributions from some of our partners so we can bring more efforts to air. No, chuck. We have very extensive screening procedures. There is a very careful vetting process that including our terrorism community, our department of homeland security. Lets remember, check, were also dealing with people who suffer the hards of war. Women and children, orphans. We need to sort out how to focus on terrorists that we need to keep out of the country but i think we do need to do our part. Are you prepared for france to invoke article five . That is a decision for the french to make. We made clear we will be shoulder to shoulder with them. Theyre in our military campaign in iraq and syria already. They want to energize their efforts. And were confident that in the coming days and weeks, working with the french, we will be able to intensify our strikes against isil in syria and iraq to make clear there is no safe haven for these terrorists. Mr. Rhodes, thank you for coming on meet the press. We now have video that appears to show the beginning of the attack. The pops of sound at the end of the video appear to be the first gunfire. A warning, the video may be disturbing. Again, we will run it again. You see the drummer and the guitarist there, you sit there and watch their essentially running for cover. Again, we have not fully verified the video, but it appears to be just that. Speaking of that concert hall, we have remarkable firsthand accounts from a survivor of the shoots spree. He is described the unfolding horror to our richard engel. We heard gunshots and terrorists stormed into the concert hall, and they were shooting around madly everywhere. We all dropped to the floor and tried not to move and not to be hit. They said at the very beginning, something, they mentioned syria in french. Stay down or well shoot you, dont move, and they continued to shoot. The guy that was shot on the head that fell on me, so i was covered underneath his body. I just stopped moving. That was the main thing, those around us, we tried to give them the message not to move. Another guy was hurt and was complaining a lot. We tried to whisper to him dont make a sound. There was a grenade or two that were thrown. Explosions, and more shots and more shots. What were you thinking about . I was thinking do not move, and i was thinking about my boys. I thought would i ever see my boys again, and will i be the next shot . From one minute to the next, its just like every time you hear the shots, you think okay, is this me . If im hit now, will i be able to be quiet or, you know so you could see the police storming in . Yes, they didnt storm in, they were coming in very slowly. They were very well protected and we kept saying dont people are starting to raise their hands, help us, shouting get us out of here, and at some stage, they said if you can, get out out out now. When you came home your boys were there . Yeah. What was the first thing you did . I just hugged by boyfriend and then i went to see them, d and. That was teresa sharing her powerful firsthand attack of that attack in the theater. Thank you to her for telling her story. He is essentially had to play dead to stay alive. Well have more on this special edition of meet the press. Up next, do we need a new strategy to beat isis . And if so, what is it . The artificial heart, this ielectric guitarsdoers, and rockets to the moon. Its the story of america land of the doers. Doin it. Did it. Done. Doers built this country. The dams and the railroads. John henry was a steel drivin man hmm, catchy. They built the golden gates and the empire states. And all this doin takes energy no matter whos doin. Theres all kinds of doin up in here. Or what theyre doin. What the hecks he doin . Energy got us here. And its our job to make sure theres enough to keep doers doin the stuff doers do. To keep us all doin what we do. The future belongs to the fast. 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We took out the safe haven in afghanistan, but now there is undoubtly a larger safe haven and we must rise to this occasion with collaboration and alliances to confront it. I dont think any sensible person would disagree that the invasion of iraq led to the massive level of instability we are seeing right now. I think that was one of the worst Foreign Policy blunders in the modern history of the United States. Much more on the democrats and how the events in paris may impact the race for president overall. And coming up later in the show, former Florida Governor jeb bush joins me. Does the attack change republican attitudes for those two outsider candidates . I asked my dentist if an electric toothbrush was going to clean better than a manual . He said sure. But dont get just any one. Get one inspired by dentists. With a round brush head. Go pro with oralb. Oralbs rounded brush head cups your teeth to break up plaque and rotates to sweep it away. Go pro with oralb. 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Of course the fear after the horror of paris is that something similar could actually take place here fop discus the threat of isis and what it poses to the United States, im joined by michael leiter, who served as the director of the National Counterterrorism center under president s bush and bam and from texas congressman michael mccaul, chairman of the House Homeland Security committee. Just two months ago put out a report, a bipartisan report called combatting trivet and foreign fighter travel. Congressman, thanks very much. Michael leiter, let me start with you. We thought only al qaeda was capable of some sort of reach. What did the Intelligence Committee that you are a member of consistently underestimate about isis . Its not actually clear to me on a strategic level the Intelligence Community did get this wrong. I think there had been a lot of werentings, again strategically, that isis just wasnt going to stay in its caliphate in syria and iraq. I think tactically the Intelligence Community of france and the u. S. Clearly missed this attack and the attack in egypt. But i think people who have been watching terrorism for a long time knew isis was never going to be satisfied staying where they were. How do you explain the obama administrations policy here . Well, i think thats where we have the real delta. You have the Intelligence Community saying strategically they wont be satisfied staying there. They will ultimately come to the west, but then off policy which frankly isnt sufficiently robust and muscular to really defeat that enemy as it starts to move to the next stage. Chairman mccaul, this report that i referenced earlier, i want to quote from it, gaping security weaknesses overseas especially in europe are putting the u. S. Homeland in danger by making itier for aspiring foreign fighters to migrate to terrorist hotspots and for jihadists to return to the west. Ben rhodes, one of the president s close e National Security advisors, says theyre confident of their procedures in dealing with refugees and how they screen these folks in. You dont you and your democrat partners here, this was not just your report, this was a bipartisan report, you seem to believe there were a lot of holes. Explain. There are a lot of holes, gaping holes. There are a lot of foreign fighters. This was a foreign fighter event. We have 5,000 foreign fighters in europe that travel to the region and come back. This is what happened in paris. Weve had hundreds of americans that have traveled and many of them have come back as well pip think thats a direct threat. When you get to the syrian refugee issue, we think two of these terrorists were actually Syrian Refugees. This causes a grave concern on the part of policymakers because we dont want to be complicit with a program that could bring in potential terrorists into the United States. Quite frankly, i disagree with ben rhodes. Ive been briefed by the fbi and homeland security, and they tell me that this cannot be properly we dont have the databases to vet them. You noted its in the report there is no international database, and yet the report actually blames europe, essentially, that theres not enough cooperation with some of our european allies. Can this get up and running fast . Well, it has to. I mean, i think france is a bit ahead of the curve because they know what the threat really is. The European Parliament needs to pass legislation to, for instance, pass eu citizens pas a watch list. You can nigh this from istanbul airport in turkey where the fighters go and not even be checked on a watch list going into europe. When you talk about visa waive countries that could potentially come into the United States with western passports, thats where the home land gets implicated. The panel is here. I want to bring everybody in. Eugene robinson from the washington post, my colleague at nbc chief Foreign Affairs correspondent andrea mitchell, Jennifer Rubin writes the right turn column, and jeff greenfield, former correspondent for cbs, cnn, abc, a big contributor to the politico and the daily beast. Jeff greenfeld, you wanted to ask a question. Everybody seems