00:00:00
tonight the u.s. is offering much more than condolences to the French after the attacks and Jeff pjs has more on this
00:00:06
Jeff good evening Nora the French may be leading this investigation but US law enforcement is digging into trying to
00:00:13
track the terrorist path to the streets of Paris US officials are concerned the tactics Isis used to kill there could be
00:00:20
used here US officials say the attacks were well organized but not sophisticated and that the explosives
00:00:29
used were not high-tech however it is the organizational skill and high death count that has counterterrorism
00:00:36
officials worried this is the next stage in Isis methodology capability in reach
00:00:42
ones arata is a former counterterrorism official and a CBS News consultant the real dangerous and troubling part here
00:00:51
Jeff is that you have individuals who are working in tandem in some way communicating or coordinating and those
00:00:58
communications that coordination and the material that they brought with them suicide vests and heavy weaponry weren't
00:01:05
caught in the French security system just hours after the attacks in Paris senior FBI officials ordered agents
00:01:12
across the country to step up surveillance of potential Isis sympathizers currently there are about
00:01:18
900 cases last month FBI director James Comey testified before Congress about the threat a challenge we face the folks
00:01:27
at this table is finding those needles in a nationwide haystack and assessing where are they on that spectrum between
00:01:33
consuming poison to acting on poison and disrupting them before they act that is
00:01:39
something French investigators weren't able to do in Paris how do you prevent an attack like that in the u.s. you
00:01:47
can't prevent every attack and that's the problem and when terrorists are trying to go after any soft target
00:01:54
strategic or otherwise you can't protect all sites at all times and what we saw in Paris was the terrace winning on that
00:02:03
fateful night in many ways what happened was the nightmare scenario for Western intelligence officials not only were
00:02:11
there mass casualties but a suicide bomber was able to get close enough to the French president that he had to flee
00:02:17
Nora all right Jeff 'begaze in Washington Jeff thank you