Russia: Homemade Bomb Downed Plane Over Egypt.
CUOMO: We have breaking news this morning. It was a homemade bomb that brought down the Metrojet plane in Egypt, Russian officials confirming this, and promising to join the coalition to fight ISIS. Let's bring counterterrorism expert and senior fellow for the foundation for Defense of Democracies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. Daveed, homemade bomb, those are the key words there. What does this tell us about the capabilities of ISIS?</s>DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSES OF DEMOCRACIES: It doesn't really tell us a lot yet. The reason being we don't what the design of the bomb was. There was obviously a big dispute about it was likely an act of terrorism. Both the Egyptians and the Russians seemed fairly confused by what had gone on. On the American's case, they very unwisely leaked the information that they've penetrated ISIS internal communications, which I think was a big mistake. But at any rate, what that suggests is that the design was not a typical design. Secondly, it is important to note that in addition to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, you have both the local affiliate called Walid-Sinai and in neighboring Libya, you also have a very capable ISIS affiliate which currently controls the city of Sirt. This means that you have not just one set of external operations or terrorism capabilities, but several emanating from different geographic areas.</s>CUOMO: Two clues or do you dismiss the following? One is the lighter the bomb, the better the material, the better it's made? It's called a one kilogram bomb, 2.2 lbs. What does that mean? The idea of it being homemade, is that a potential connection to what they saw with the vests here in Paris also homemade, they believed to be made of TATP?</s>GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: No, I mean, the fact that one that was homemade I think doesn't answer the question. What it means is that it was assembled in Egypt. That is what homemade suggests. Again, we don't quite know the design. To me, if it were a TATP bomb, there would have been some signatures and they would have been able to identify the fact that it was a bomb. Because if there were a TATP bomb, there would have something like an individual, a passenger who obviously was at the nexus of the blast and whose body took more damage than others. You also would have typical explosive elements. So I don't think that the fact that they were homemade really links them together. Again, I think that more information will come out about the design is. And you indeed are putting your finger on a clue. How well homemade was it and what it end up doing. You have a lot of information come out against the Sinai attack, for example, the prospect that there was an inside man at the airport who may have been a part of the plot. If that ends up being true, that gives them a lot more options in terms of where to place a bomb and what kind of design to use.</s>CUOMO: All right. Final point, some perspective on this expansion of the coalition of the willing, if you will, but now you have France and Russia saying, you know, we are all in. We want to fight against ISIS. Punish them in the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin. How important is the air campaign? What must be added in order to have sustainable change against ISIS?</s>GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: The air campaign has been a very slow campaign so far. It hasn't been on par even with the campaign that was waged in Libya back in 2011. You may see some loosening of the rules of engagement. Second, you may see some increased coordination among all of the various actors. ISIS is stretched thin. It is fighting a war on ten fronts right now, but the various factions they are fighting against are very uncoordinated. So if there is greater coordination amongst ISIS coupled with the ground campaign that frankly has already been making a lot of progress in addition to retaking Sinjar, you now have anti-ISIS ground forces moving into Ramadi, which is one of their big gains over the course of this year. There is a lot of pressure on Ramadi. This could end up putting a lot more pressure on the ground against ISIS holding in Iraq and Syria.</s>CUOMO: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, thank you very much for the perspective. Appreciate it. We will take a quick break. You have two different considerations. You have what ISIS can do and then you have who does it for them. Right now there is an intense manhunt ongoing here and in Belgium and all over Europe for those suspected to have had something to do with the attacks. What do we know about what was known in advance? What was missed here in France and in the U.S. ahead?