Face in the News: Democratic Presidential Candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders Links Climate Change to Rise of Terrorism; Paris Terrorist Attacks and the Strategy Against ISIS

WASHINGTON (CBS News) - This week on "Face the Nation," our focus was shifted to the Friday evening terrorist attacks in Paris that left 129 victims dead. We spoke with Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D. VT) about the statements he made at the CBS News Democratic Presidential Debate on Saturday night, linking the rise of terrorism in the Middle East to climate change. We also spoke with Former CIA Deputy Director and CBS News Senior Security Contributor Michael Morell about the Obama administration's strategy on combating ISIS, NYPD Commissioner William Bratton on the challenges New York faces on anti-terror efforts, and House and Senate Intelligence Committee chairs, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC).

At the CBS News' Democratic Debate, Sen. Bernie Sanders asserted that climate change remains the United States' biggest national security threat. When asked by "Face the Nation" host John Dickerson about those comments, the Vermont senator stood by his statement. "If there is not enough water, if there is not enough land to grow your crops, then you're going to see migrations of people fighting over land that will sustain them." Sanders said, adding, "that will lead to international conflicts."

When Dickerson asked how this connected to the attacks in Paris Sanders responded saying, "When you have drought, when people can't grow their crops, they're going to migrate into cities, and when people migrate into cities and they don't have jobs, there's going to be a lot more instability, a lot more unemployment and people will be subject to the types of propaganda that al-Qaeda and ISIS are using right now."

Sen. Bernie Sander's comments were covered by The Washington Post, The Hill, The Washington Examiner, International Business Times, The Washington Times, and Mediaite.

During Sunday's broadcast we also spoke with Former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell about the Obama Administration's strategy against ISIS. Morell stated that it is "crystal clear," that the current strategy of sending American special operations into Syria to support rebel groups is not working. When John Dickerson asked what an appropriate solution could look like, Morell offered one that includes the United States joining forces with Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

"An agreement where he stays around for a while and the Syrian army, supported by the coalition, takes on ISIS, may be the best result here, may give us the best result. I think we need to have that discussion again." Morell said. Although Morell acknowledged that the Syrian president is a part of the problem, the former CIA Deputy Director believes that Assad could also be a part of the solution.

Our conversation with Michael Morell was covered by The Washington Examiner, The Hill, Newsmax, and the Kuwait News Agency.

NYPD Police Commissioner William Bratton joined Sunday's broadcast and spoke about some of the challenges that New York faces in combating terrorist threats. One of those challenges includes terrorist operatives "going dark," a tactic that officials say could have been used to carry out the attacks in Paris. It is the result of the operatives using encrypted messages, making it impossible for law enforcement to track and monitor their communications.

"We in many respects have gone blind as a result of the commercialization and the selling of these devices that cannot be accessed either by the manufacturer or more importantly by us in law enforcement even equipped with the search warrants and judicial authority." The Commissioner said and also noted that, "This is something that is going to need to be debated very quickly, because we cannot continue operating where we are blind, which is our offense, gathering intelligence and acting on it."

The NYPD Commissioner made news in The New York Daily News, The Boston Globe, The New York Times, Capital New York, and AP.

Finally, we spoke with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) both saying that the President has no strategy for combating ISIS.

"We've got to have a strategy. We don't have a strategy in Syria as it relates to ISIL." Sen. Burr said and added, "We've got to make sure that we carry the fight to ISIL, which means probably more Special Operations efforts in that region."

Rep. Nunes echoed the Senator's sentiments and also called for the United States to stop admitting Syrian refugees into the country saying, "There's no possible way to screen them. It should be stopped immediately. Look, we feel for these refugees, but the bottom line, if you don't want refugees, then you have to go into Iraq and Syria and defeat ISIS."

Our segment with Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. Devin Nunes was covered by The Hill, The Wall Street Journal, The Winston-Salem Journal, The Charlotte Observer and The Washington Times.