Transcript: Face the Nation (1-3-2010)

Complete transcript. Excerpt below:

SCHIEFFER: Thank you. Well, let’s get right to the big story. And the news overnight of course was that the U.S. embassy and the British embassy in Yemen had been closed because of a security threat.

David Martin, what have you been able to find out about this?

MARTIN: Usually when you close an embassy, it’s because there has been chatter on the Internet and on cell phones about some sort of vague attack against Western interests. That’s different from what almost happened on Christmas Day in Yemen.

There was a specific plot to attack the American embassy on Christmas Day, and the U.S. preempted that attack with an air strike of its own. It launched jets off a carrier and cruise missiles from ships offshore. And it hit two training camps in Yemen.

And General David Petraeus has said that they intercepted four suicide bombers who were on their way to the capital. And they also killed some senior al Qaeda in Yemen operators. So when you look at that and you remember what else happened on Christmas Day, namely the near-miss on the bombing of the airliner in-bound to Detroit, Yemen -- al Qaeda in Yemen really was planning a Christmas surprise.

SCHIEFFER: So what you’re telling us here is these were U.S. aircraft flying off a U.S. carrier that carried out the strike. We heard about that they had -- that there had been some strikes, but the credit seemed to be going to the Yemenis. This was a U.S. operation?

MARTIN: It was. The Yemenis gave the green light. It was done with their permission. But this was an American strike conducted with American intelligence and designed to preempt an attack against an American target.

SCHIEFFER: But apparently, Bob Orr, they still think the threat is out there because today both the British embassy and the American embassy in Yemen have been closed. What about this guy that was caught on this attempt on the U.S. airliner? He has been talking a lot since they took him into captivity.

ORR: After he was arrested, we’re talking about Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the man on Northwest Flight 253. After he was arrested, he almost immediately gave up everything to the FBI. In fact, he was so cooperative, that one investigator said it was almost like he was bragging. And there was some fear that maybe he was spreading disinformation.

It turns out so far that the story he has told has checked out every step of the way. He said he went to Yemen, check. He said he got explosives there. Said he trained with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula there.

He told us one thing that’s very haunting -- or he told investigators (INAUDIBLE). And that is that when he was training in Yemen, he trained with a number of other people. He didn’t know how many. He called them his brothers. He said though we were segregated. And he felt that was because he wasn’t supposed to know too much about what other people were up to.

If you take that information at face value, you have to assume there may be something out there.