here in the country that are the concern. look at the garland, texas example. two people in phoenix who became radicalized by social media and decided to go to texas. look at the case of what the fbi says they in boston is already here and decided he was going to, if he couldn't go to new york and attack somebody he would get a big knife and attack police in boston. so it's that social media. it's the unknowns that are of the big concern. now what you've seen in these arrests in the past couple of weeks is people that the msnbc had under surveillance that are right on the edge. they're saying you know let's forget the surveillance. bring them in f there. if there's any criminal offense, get them off the streets. the big concern is the things they don't know of. >> it's not the real threat of people coming akroos the border but people already here and popping up as threats. what is your sense of what is being done or could be done to compete with the social media problem? >> that's the part that isn't being done. trying to find a counter narrative is something that gets a lot of disc

mohammed contest in garland, texas. one official called it a fantasy, and the police commissioner agreed with that. >> i think it was more along the lines of wishful thinking. you know, but we had 24/7 surveillance on him. we were monitoring potential target. there was some mention of that name. we were focused locally here. >> joining me from boston msnbc's sara daloff. will the video remain sealed because of ensuing charge? >> reporter: in the past investigators have released the video at the end of their investigation, something they discussed yesterday when they made the decision to show it to that first group of civilians, the community and the religious leaders. tell not be released to the public before it is shown to the family which is expect ded to happen today. you'll recall that the group of community and religious leaders. shown that video because police said they were worried that rumors would grow and tension will continue to escalate if they did not involve the group to tell the public what they saw. rahim's brother posted on facebook shortly after the shooting that he had

geller, the activist and commentator who organized last month's draw mohammed contest in garland, texas. in a written statement she says "they targeted me for violating sharia blasphemy laws." but on dawn tuesday police say they overheard rahim say that he changed his mind and decided to attack massachusetts police officers later this very day or the next. the fbi says he told a friend "i'm just going go after them those boys in blue because it's the easiest target." the man investigators say rahim was talking to on the phone, 25-year-old david wright appeared wednesday in federal court charged with encourage rag hemoto get rid of evidence by destroying the smart phone. congressional leaders briefed on the plot say isis social media played a role. >> this is a growing trend, it's a growing problem in terms of our counterterrorism atmosphere and it's really terrorism gone viral. >> reporter: also wednesday, boston police and the fbi took the unusual step of showing community leaders a surveillance video of the rahim shooting saying it proves officers were backing away as he advanc

conservative activist pamela geller. her group was hosting in garland, texas. officials tell nbc news that unlike the plot to kill police, the discussion of killing pamela geller was just talk and more like a fantasy. another suspect in the investigation was in federal court in boston today. 25-year-old david wright was charged with conspireing with usaama rahim to destroy he of the plan. according to court documents, the suspects were monitored using phone surveillance. last night, president obama signed the usa freedom act which continues most of the provisions of the patriotic act, but ends the government's bulk collection of telephone records. joining us now is richard clarke who served the previous three presidents as a senior white house adviser on issues from cyber security to counterterrorism. he served as counterterrorism adviser from president obama's first campaign. he is the author of the new book "pinnacle event." richard clarke, looking at the security situation in boston, did anything happen in the change in law from the patriotic act to this new version of the law that

hatchet attack in new york city last year to the attack in garland, texas last month. and now the apparent beheading plot in boston. joining me now is malcolm nance, who spent over three decades in u.s. counterterrorism agents and al a counterterrorism expert. thanks for being here. >> thank you. >> malcolm, we're hearing about an alleged beheading plot. what do you make of that? >> this is an interesting plot, reverend because it is almost identical and almost two years to the day of a plot which occurred in england in an area called woolrich in london where two radicalized british citizens beheaded a british army soldier named lee rigby in the middle of the streets with a machete and a butcher knife, and then bragged about it on horrible media in front of people with telephones and then stood there until armed police came and shot them to death. it's quite possible this is the exact type of attack they wanted to carry out. >> what do you make of these beheadings and the sequence that connects back to the beheading in the uk or do you make the same connection? >> as mr. nance jus

the web and social media. the hearing was prompted by last month's isis inspired attack in garland, texas. but, all the more timely considering what's happening in boston. the director of flash point global partners joins me now. let me ask you about boston. do you have any insight in how these men were connected or how they may have been connected to isis? >> it doesn't appear that they were actually at all connected. the only way i could think they were connected is by ideology of course adopting that kind of ideology does not require any kind of membership of a group. they appear to have been radicalized online of course. mr. rahim appears to have expressed displeasure with united states security forces online and i feel like the jttf took proactive measures which is a good sign that we're on the right track. >> turning to a broader issue of radicalization, most people think of video recruitments showing assassinations but here's now the associated press describe it. islamic state videos come with beat handsome clear eyed young men and editing techniques that remind you of touri

the recent shooting this garland? no but they will be the first to point fingers and say, oh, yeah, it's all your fault, we never should have given up on this great program. >> willie, we both flinched at the same time when rand paul said some secretly want this country to be attacked. >> he's had a huge impact on this debate and if you agree it's been a good impact for him, it's changed the way we look at surveillance. but to suggest that any sitting senator would invite or welcome a terrorist attack to prove them right is pretty sad. >> yeah it is. i can't believe they're not going to move forward and pass something that's pretty aggressive. i think this is something that sounds great on college campuses to debate and i'm not talking about liberty sounds great to debate, i'm talking about keeping americans safe. and i think most americans do want a strong act. and very anxious to see what happens. we'll be of course to guests today putting together a bill to move it forward and keep the surveillance going. but this is -- in a sense it's frightening, but i will say the thing i do