Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Second U.S. Jihadist Killed; Obama Scrambles For Military Plan; Russian Tanks and Troops Have Invaded Ukraine; Body Found in Jerusalem Forest

Aired August 28, 2014 - 10:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin with the most feared terrorist group in the world and its appeal to young Americans who are fighting and dying for a hate-filled cause. In Syria, pro-U.S. rebels say they have killed a second American in battle. He was fighting alongside other ISIS fighters and killed in the very same battle as Douglas McCain of Minnesota. The White House is still trying to confirm this.

And President Obama faces one of the toughest decisions of his presidency as ISIS gobbles up new territory, will American forces launch new air strikes to stop their advance? We're covering all the angles of this rapidly developing story.

CNN's Ted Rowlands is in Minneapolis. Ted, I want to read this to you. It's from the mother of a high school classmate of McCain. Her son, Troy Kastigar, also became radicalized and died as a militant fighter in Somalia.

She tells the "New York Daily News" referring to her son and McCain, quote, "They both were sort of searching it seemed like. I think both of them had a really strong desire to be need of value. They had quite a few friends in school who were Somali immigrants and an African- American friend whose family was Muslim." What's the local reaction there?

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, these two went to high school together in a suburb called new hope. The reaction is astoundment on some level but on another level they're hearing -- they've been hearing about this for years.

In fact, Kastigar went and fought in Somalia in 2009 and died in a battle there. McCain started to change his attitude according to friends and family members in knew him growing up and it's unclear when they last communicated.

McCain started to change his attitude according to friends and family members in recent years after 2009 when he would have been associating with Kastigar. Minneapolis specifically is targeted by extremist groups for recruitment. And part of the reason is there's a large Somali-Muslim population here and a lot of children and young adults here and that is where they are targeting. They have a video out that actually targets Minnesota and they say come join us, be a Minnesota martyr.

The video has shots of the University of Minnesota, they are trying to get these young men and women to come and fight. First, it was al Shabaab in Somalia and now we are seeing it is ISIS and a huge concern as you can imagine not only here but across the country.

The biggest concern with the FBI is that one of these young men or women or more could get radicalized and using the U.N. passport have an easier entrance back into the United States that said, they are tracking them and this is a huge priority for the FBI here in Minneapolis.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. Ted Rowlands reporting live for us this morning.

We know the White House has been scrambling to weigh its military options and we now have a time frame. President Obama wants a war plane for ISIS by the end of the week.

That's according to "The Daily Beast," which reports that the key issue is whether to expand the fight to Syria where ISIS has a stronghold. And seems to be growing stronger by the day. CNN's Brian Todd has more for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They're vicious, battle hardened and maybe frighteningly they learn fast. That's the word from U.S. officials who tell CNN, ISIS is getting better on the battlefield. One U.S official says they show uncanny discipline. A Pentagon official says ISIS is a learning, adapting, reacting organization.

DOUGLAS OLLIVANT, NEW AMERICAN FOUNDATION: They're battlefield discipline continues to surprise us to show us they are really a first-year force that they're trained.

TODD: Combat veteran, Douglas, says on the battlefield ISIS likely using what he calls a react to contact drill. That means in a fire fight they make initial contact against their enemy using the smallest number of fighters possible. Maybe three or four.

OLLIVANT: And then put down fire so that -- because those three or four guys can keep 20, 30 of the enemy focused on them.

TODD: Then he says a larger group of ISIS fighters comes around, flanking the enemy on one side, finds a weakness, attacks it.

OLLIVANT: This is something that U.S. army ranger regiment has practiced for years. It's been their hallmark.

TODD: And ISIS has demonstrated it has a powerful arsenal. An American Howitzer Cannon posted by ISIS which claims they're firing on a military base in Syria and even unmanned aerial vehicles.

This propaganda video shows aerial footage of a Syrian military base and brags the drone is deployed from the army of the Islamic state. The ranks of the fighters are building due to their use of social media. Expert says their outside supporters use social media to help them recruit and promote.

What makes it so powerful is that there are hundreds of people out there on Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram, that are forwarding their messages, disseminating them, re-publishing them.

And selling them. ISIS t-shirt, hoodies, toys are marketed on-line by its supporters and sold in shops around the Middle East.

COSTELLO: Brian Todd joins us live from Washington. So how many radicalized Americans are there, Brian?

TODD: Well, Carol, U.S. Intelligence officials have told us that about 100 Americans or possibly more have traveled to Syria to fight with various jihadist groups there. Of those hundred or so, maybe a handful have joined is. Overall, we're told that ISIS may have about 10,000 fighters from around the world, maybe a little more.

Intelligence officials are always kind of revising those estimates. The latest we got yesterday was maybe about 10,000. That includes hundreds from Europe and elsewhere. Maybe a handful of Americans in is now, Carol, those numbers are hard to come by and getting good intelligence on the ground is also pretty tough to get.

COSTELLO: Understandable. Brian Todd reporting live for us this morning.

All right. We're now getting word that President Obama will meet with his national security team on ISIS today. Michele Kosinski is live at the White House to tell us more. Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is interesting. I mean we knew that this meeting was going to happen soon. It's been rumored for days now that it could happen today or tomorrow. The White House added it officially to the schedule.

A 4 p.m. meeting today in the situation room, the president, his national security team and the vice president. We know that they will be talking about the ISIS threat. We know it's going to cover both Iraq and Syria. This is clearly a big deal at a critical time.

However, we have been told by an official that we shouldn't expect any decisions examining out of this meeting, at least not today. Now this goes along with some of the reporting out there, but keep in mind, the reporting has been contradictory at times.

I mean, some are saying that president wants a decision on what to do in Syria by the end of this week. Others quoting, other sources saying it's going to take more time than that.

Remember, next week the president leaves for the NATO summit in Wales and we know that the president has repeatedly said he wants to consult with international partners. Well, obviously, this NATO Summit would be a good time to could that, although there are no meetings that have been scheduled, at least we have been told about.

It's unclear when this decision will happen. We just know that there is this big meeting today and we've been told it won't be a decision this early -- Carol.

COSTELLO: One of our political contributors and a writer for "The Daily Beast" told us that the president wants some sort of plan by tomorrow, by the end of the week. So you're saying that that's not possible?

KOSINSKI: We don't know. I mean, this meeting seems to indicate that there's going to be a lot on the table, possibly options. What we've been told so far is that clear-cut options from which to choose and make a decision finally have not yet been presented to the president.

But also, among members of the administration, even that has been sort of cloudy with one saying from the State Department that those options have been presented. So really, it remains to be seen because there's been so much out there, even from within the administration.

I mean, everyone's quoting their sources and sources here and there seem to indicate something different. What we've been able to tell from the behind-the-scenes work that we all do, we've gotten the impression that it could take a little more time.

That this was not imminent. However, you never know. All we've been told officially, remember, is that we can't expect a decision as early as today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michele Kosinski reporting live from the White House. I appreciate it.

We're also getting word that JPMorgan Chase is investigating a possible cyber attack and working with the FBI and Secret Service to figure out whether Russian hackers stole information from customers. But it might affect more banks than just JPMorgan.

The FBI not only considers this a major breach, but a national security concern. Basically, because we don't have a clue what these hackers are doing with the information they stole from customers. Up to -- we don't know if it's connected to Russia either but it may be.

Up to 1,000 Russian troops have moved into Southern Ukraine and they are ready for battle. A Ukrainian military commander is calling this a, quote, full-scale invasion with pro-Moscow rebels backed by Russian tanks armored cars and rocket launchers.

Ukraine's prime minister is calling for an immediate U.N. Security Council meeting. Phil Black live in Moscow to tell us more. Good morning.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, not just ready for battle but potentially already doing battle according to the Ukrainian government. They say that large numbers of Russian military forces have moved across the border and are now directly engaged in fighting.

The Ukrainian government forces in two key areas near the important city of Donestk, that is the main city in Ukraine's east and also on the road to the port city of Marapol in the South Eastern corner Ukraine. If this is true, it is a significant development.

The Ukrainian government has accused Russia of sending troops across the border, cross bordering Kershuns before, but this is a large military operation being described by Kiev and if it is, indeed, true it would be the scenario that western governments have feared for some weeks and months now.

As the Ukrainian government has made military gains on the against the pro-Russian rebels they've been fighting there, the fear has been that the Russians could choose to intervene directly to try to change that momentum, to try to really alter the balance of power as it exists.

Russia so far no official confirmation from the Kremlin on whether or not this is taking place. From a pro-Russian rebel leader in the east of Ukraine in an interview with Russian state media we learned something interesting.

There are, indeed, Russian soldiers fighting with them in the east of Ukraine, but he says, it's pretty important distinction, they're either retired veterans or serving soldiers who are currently on vacation.

He claims that some of them are choosing to spend their holiday time serving, fighting with them against the Ukrainian government. That could explain why there are so many Russians there and the difference they are making to the fight.

It would not explain why there is such a large number, such a strong presence, of Russian military hardware there as well, though, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Black reporting live from Moscow this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a 23-year-old American missing in Israel, has he become a pawn in the Middle East conflict? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: The search continues for an American hiker now missing in Israel for six days. Hundreds of people including Aaron Sofer's father have been looking for signs of him in a Jerusalem forest.

The family is offering a reward for any information, $28,000. He was reported missing Friday by a friend hiking with him. Bob Singer is working to bring Aaron Sofer home and you said you have breaking news.

BOB SINGER, NEW JERSEY STATE SENATE: I got a phone call from the mayor of Lakewood they found a body in the woods it has not been confirmed it is him, but did find a body. They were searching in the woods and did find a body there. COSTELLO: How did you get this information? You said you talked to the mayor of Lakewood.

SINGER: Gotten a phone call through the connections in Jerusalem. They called him directly they found a body there. As you know a number of groups are still searching in the forest. There had been at one time as many as 2,000 people searching.

The family had been concerned there was a kidnapping and urging for me to come on today to talk about, asking the military to get involved. Again, the government there, the police there are doing a great job, but they wanted to up it one step higher like here if there was a problem we go to the FBI to get involved.

They wanted the military to get involved. Again the body was found, they don't know if it's him. They have to confirm it yet. That certainly takes a different twist on what has happened.

COSTELLO: Did you find out from the family why Aaron was hiking in this particular area?

SINGER: Not really, because again, it is the nature of students over there before to take hikes. It is not unusual. He's a fine young man, a good student, good family. There was no sense of anything but possibly foul play -- COSTELLO: I ask you that because in that general area, two miles from

where they were last seen, right.

SINGER: Right.

COSTELLO: This is where that Palestinian teenager's body was found, so you know, terrible things have happened in that part of the Jerusalem forest before.

SINGER: True. But having been in Israel many times myself, Israelis and people living there tend to go on with life. Life doesn't stop because there are problems. That's not unusual that had been happening. I know the Franco family, which is one of the teenagers murdered, met with their family yesterday to give them comfort and help them out on this.

Again, the government has taken it very seriously, but they just have felt if the military got involved with their technology and understanding it would go better. Unfortunately, again we don't know, it hasn't been confirmed, hopefully it's not him, but they did find a body in the forest.

COSTELLO: New Jersey State Senator Bob Singer, thank you for being with me. Appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, ISIS makes millions a day from everything from oil sales to extortion. Will ending the money flow bring an end to that terrorist group? Maybe. We'll talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COSTELLO: Just minutes ago at the top of the hour we learned that President Obama will meet with his national security council today. The afternoon meeting comes as the White House scrambles for options in combatting ISIS.

According to "The Daily Beast" the president wants a war plan for ISIS by the end of the week, which would actually be tomorrow. CNN's Michele Kosinski live at the White House to tell us more. Good morning.

KOSINSKI: Hi, Carol. Right. Everybody is trying to read the tea leaves out there, especially on this one. This is a high-level meeting. The president, his national security team, the vice president, meeting this afternoon all of a sudden at a most critical time.

But it's not to say this is going to lead up to an immediate decision on Syria. We know the subject is Iraq, it is Syria and it is the threat posed by is. But really that's all the white house is telling us at this point. What we could see come out of this if anything in the immediate future could also be, remember, an expansion of air strikes in Iraq.

More humanitarian assistance, more targeted attacks, dealing with another area, for example, those Turkmen who are trapped in a town that had been surrounded for weeks by is.

But, we know that the president has also been considering what options will be available in terms of Syria. All the White House is saying at this point, however, is that we shouldn't expect any decisions to be announced today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Michele Kosinski reporting live from the White House.

Perhaps one of the most effective ways to defeat ISIS is to hit them ere it hurts the most right in the bank account so to speak. It is astounding how this awful terror group funds its terror operations.

According to the "Wall Street Journal" ISIS funds itself largely through criminal activity like extortion. Is often forces Christian groups to pay them protection fees? Is enriches itself collecting ransoms for hostages?

With me now, Peter Beinart, CNN political commentator and contributing editor "At Atlantic Monthly" and senior fellow at the New America foundation. And also with me David, Ross, a fellow at the foundations for defense of democracies. Welcome to both of you.

Thanks for being here. Peter, I want to start with you. How would you go about bankrupting ISIS?

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It seems to me the key are the regional countries around is. Particularly the Sunni ones. We refer to these as U.S. allies but some of them are not as close to the United States as they were. But this is where a lot of the money is flowing from, often from private people. This is where the oil is being sold in some cases. Could you actually work with the Saudi, with other gulf countries, with Turkey to choke off some of this money that's flowing in?

COSTELLO: Is that possible, Daveed?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: I don't think that much money is flowing to ISIS from the surrounding Sunni states. I don't see any evidence of that. It certainly was previously when they were a part of al Qaeda but they've been viewed as too difficult to control.

One of the problems is that this oil is being sold on the black market and it's almost impossible to dry up a black market. I think that it's good to try to cut off their funding as much as possible but it's going to be very hard to do because as the report said, they're largely self-funding which means I think one of the best things we need to do against ISIS is cut off their momentum.

Right now they have a strategy of expansion built around momentum and if you can reverse that, if they start to experience losses on the battlefield, that to me is going to be the best way to start to reverse what they have.

COSTELLO: Let's start -- let's talk about slowing the momentum. The air strikes in Iraq have helped slow the momentum a bit. What needs to happen now?

BEINART: I think the big question is --

COSTELLO: Peter, I'm sorry.

BEINART: Who are our allies in Syria on the ground in Iraq they were the Kurds. To lesser degree the Iraqi Army. But Barack Obama himself spent the last couple years saying we don't have good allies on the ground in Syria because the moderate, non-jihadi rebel forces are too weak and divided or we can't really tell them apart from some of the jihadist anyway.

If we're going to have effective allies on the ground it's incumbent on this administration to explain to us what has changed now so that we would actually have those allies which they've been claiming we don't have.

COSTELLO: Some say there are moderate groups within Syria, Daveed, that might help the United States, but others say can you trust any group in Syria?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Which is actually the question, given that groups we record as moderate haven't distanced themselves from the Nasr front, that is a disturbing thing. There's two groups that I would look to which haven't been part of the discussion, one of which is the tribes that we aligned ourselves with back in the 2007 to 2008 period that comprised what we now know is the awakening movement. Those are allies we've worked with in the past. The second thing, members of ISIS have been asked to commit unspeakable atrocities, even they didn't sign up for, and it's known to be a brutal group. There is dissension in the ranks, something we see publicly.

For example, a high-level member has created this twitter account called wikibaghdadi, Wikileaks for ISIS. If you can try to get defectors from that organization that could send a powerful signal that could help to break up their power.

COSTELLO: Yes, but to get defectors you need intelligence on the ground and I don't know how effective U.S. intelligence is on the ground in either Iraq or Syria, Peter.

BEINART: Probably not that effective right now. I think that the -- but I think Daveed is making an interesting point, there is -- ISIS has grown and grown because it has outer layers.

For instance, gotten a lot of defectors from Saddam Hussein's former regime in Iraq, people who have maybe become newly religious but not so long ago actually relatively secular members of the Baath party, but deeply alienated from the Shia regime in Iraq or the aloe was regime in Syria.

Is there a strategy to peel away some of these groups from a core leadership, which is incredibly ideological and brutal and maybe has an agenda not even everyone in ISIS entirely signs up for.

COSTELLO: Could the big Sunni countries like Saudi Arabia and Jordan help with that?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Absolutely, they could. They could serve as liaison to certain individuals within the organization or even groups within the organization that are willing to defect and to make public their defection. That's one role they can play.

They can provide safe haven, which is something frankly they've been doing for some time for various dissidents from the region. Both of those would be helpful in terms of fermenting the unrest within the organization.

COSTELLO: All right. Peter Beinart and Daveed Gardenstein-Ross, thanks to both of you. I appreciate it.

Checking other top stories for you this morning at 28 minutes past. The sister of Boston marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been charged against making a bomb threat against a woman in New York City. Police say Ailina Tsarnaev found in the threat to the woman said to be her boyfriend's ex-girlfriend.

A new but small clue in the mystery surrounding the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines 370. Officials say data from a failed attempt to phone the plane suggests the plane turned south earlier than previously thought. Australian officials say the search zone remains the same. Turns out that amazing heroic tale USC cornerback, Josh Shaw, told about saving his nephew from drowning was a lie. He apologized for telling the story. USC has suspended Shaw. It's still not clear why exactly he lied.

This week a Missouri community said good-bye to Michael Brown. The unarmed teenager who was shot and killed after a confrontation with a police officer. Brown's death sparked national outrage and triggered protests across the country.

In the meantime a grand jury is sifting through evidence to determine whether the incident should go to trial. How are police trained to deal with confrontations on the job? CNN's Gary Tuchman takes us inside a high-tech lab that trains officers for life and death situations.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Spokane Washington police officer is getting wired so his brain and body functions could be monitored as he gets ready to make life or death decisions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Spokane police. Police department. Talk to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let go of her.

TUCHMAN: Decisions in a most unique laboratory.