Return to Transcripts main page

WOLF

Assad Waging Own War Against Syria Rebels, ISIS with Mercenaries; Jeffrey Fowle Speaks About North Korean Captivity; Crunch Time for Congressional, Gubernatorial Candidates; Iran Cultural Norms Similar to America.

Aired October 31, 2014 - 13:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: A major development today in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. CNN has learned U.S. military advisers may be moving into Iraq's Anbar Province. No final decision yet. The president has to sign off on it but there's a plan under way to do exactly that right now. This is a key battle zone where ISIS militants have seized several bases in several weeks, killed hundreds of trial Sunni fighters in the past few days.

Meantime, Iraqi Kurdish fighters are starting to join the battle against ISIS in the Syria city of Kobani. About a dozen have arrived so far but 150 more are expected soon, we're told.

Meanwhile, the French President Hollande making headlines today when he said there are two adversaries in Syria, ISIS and the Syria president, Bashar al Assad. Assad is waging his own war against Syrian rebels and the ISIS forces in this country but he's not relying solely on his own military forces. Mercenaries from Afghanistan are coming to his aid and they are getting paid for their work. But the money isn't the only motive, we're told.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

(GUNFIRE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The regime is fast advancing around Aleppo --

(GUNFIRE)

PATON WALSH: -- trying to encircle rebels there.

(GUNFIRE)

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: This building was blown up in that fight.

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: And now rebels dig. Legend may be, as this rescue operation's different.

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: They know the mouth they can just see belongs to a regime fighter.

"Where are your friends," they ask him? They want him alive. Curious, asking, "Is he from Yemen?" No. In fact, this is something they just haven't encountered before. Bandaged up, he can't speak their Arabic. That's because he's Afghan. Valuable enough to keep, they feed him and film this footage, which we can't verify.

"My name is Said Achmed Hussani (ph), he says. "The Iranians pay people like me to come here and fight. I am from Afghanistan and an immigrant in Iran. The Iranians brought us to Syria to fight to defend the shrine. I don't want to fight any more."

He was paid about $500 a month to fight.

It is a long journey between two lands brutalized by war, but in eastern Afghanistan, we found the other end of this story. In this tiny village, men who used to fight with the Taliban are off to fight for the Syrian regime. They come home briefly after training in Iran to say good-bye to their families and ask their fathers if they can go to war. They think they can fight America in Syria.

(GUNFIRE)

"We want to go there for two reasons," he says. "One is to fight against those who are being assisted by Americans in Syria and, secondly, because Iran pays us to fight in Syria. Before this, we used to be part of the Taliban in Afghanistan, but after our disagreements caused tensions among us, we left the Taliban and went to Iran."

They say they were driven to a base, blindfolded for 15 days training with infantry weapons, and will be paid into these Iranian banks. But they know little about Syria's war.

"For now, we don't have a lot of information about ISIS," he says. "But if we see them in Syria, we'll sit with them, talk to them, and if our thoughts are similar, we could become friends."

America's old enemy, the Taliban, now fighting in the new war.

(GUNFIRE)

PATON WALSH: Yet more aliens furies piling into Syria's maelstrom.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, southern Turkey.

(END VIDEOTAPE) BLITZER: Let's thank Nick Paton Walsh for underscoring the very close collaboration between the Iranian government and the Syrian government of President Bashar al Assad. Thanks to Nick for that report.

Coming up, he was confined in North Korea for nearly six months. Now Jeffrey Fowle is speaking to the news media for the first time about the decision that led to his arrest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: A judge in the state of Maine today eased restrictions on the nurse who defied the Ebola quarantine. The judge ruled that health officials failed to prove the need for an order quarantining the nurse, Kaci Hickox, after she returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. The judge did order Hickox to submit to what's called "direct active monitoring" to coordinate her travel with public health officials and to notify health officials if she develops any symptoms of Ebola. The attorney for Hickox calls the decision a victory. We'll have more on the story, obviously, throughout the day on CNN.

Other news we're following, these are decidedly much better days for Jeffrey Fowle. The Ohio man was released after spending six months in a North Korean prison for simply leaving a Bible at a restaurant in a nightclub. Now he has his life back.

And he's speaking to the news media openly for the first time, including our own Randi Kaye, who is joining us.

Randi, how did the interview go? What did you learn?

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it went very well. We sat down with Jeffrey Fowle for about an hour or so. A lot of people are concerned about Kenneth Bae and Matthew Miller, the other two Americans who are being held there. He told me he has not seen them and never saw them in the six months he was there. He could not tell us anything about them but prays for them every day.

He's a religious man, which is why he brought a Bible with him to North Korea, even though it's considered a crime in North Korea.

During our interview, we talked about that Bible and we talked about his arrest. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFFREY FOWLE, FORMER IN PRISON IN NORTH KOREA: It was nerve- wracking, to be sure. At that point I said, well, things are going to happen when they're going to happen. So I went with the guys and they showed me the Bible and they said, is this your Bible? I said yes. They put me in a black V.W. four-door sedan and we went to Pyongyang and that's where I spent the first three and a half weeks of my detention.

KAYE: Were you interrogated or questioned?

FOWLE: Yes. That was the initial phase of the interrogation phase where they --

KAYE: What did they ask you?

FOWLE: Mainly events leading to my decision to bring the Bible, how I actually did it, the mechanics of it. Who did I talk to before the trip? What motivated me to do this, on and on. About 100 pages worth of writing, explaining these various things, things they wanted to find out, an extensive investigation process.

KAYE: What did they tell you exactly as to why you were being arrested?

FOWLE: Actually, they didn't say anything at first. They just wanted to know about the Bible.

KAYE: Where did you leave the Bible, exactly?

FOWLE: At the end of the outing there, I went to the restroom and I thought that might be a good place to leave the Bible as opposed to the hotel because I figured there might be fewer security people there. Once I saw the restroom, I thought that would be a good place to do it.

KAYE: Had you brought it with you?

FOWLE: Yes, I had it in my coat.

KAYE: Why did you leave it behind?

FOWLE: I heard about the persecution of the Christians. I felt compelled to help them in some way.

I never told anybody I was planning on leaving the Bible. Didn't tell the family, didn't tell the church. It was not a church-sponsored thing. Nobody sponsored me. It was just my only personal mission trip.

KAYE: So you left it behind hoping that somebody would find it?

FOWLE: Right. I was hoping that somebody in the church would find it.

KAYE: Did you know that this was a crime in North Korea?

FOWLE: I knew it was not welcome. The people that were caught, especially the locals, would be a severe persecution and sometimes paid the ultimate price.

KAYE: Were you afraid carrying it around?

FOWLE: I was a little nervous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Randi, why does he think he was released as opposed to the two other Americans, Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae? KAYE: I asked him that, Wolf. It turns out his wife, Tonya, is

Russian and he thinks that has something to do with it, since North Korea and Russia have close relations. She wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin, asking her husband to be released and got a response, not from Vladimir Putin, but somebody else saying that there was nothing they could do to help. But he also thinks that had something to do with it.

Also, he confessed right away, right off the bat, about 100 pages, he wrote, while being interrogated and questioned about this. The fact that he came forward and was straight forward right away might have helped.

BLITZER: Interesting stuff. I know we'll have more on this interview coming up in "The Situation Room" as well as on "A.C. 360."

Randi, thanks for doing it.

Presidential persona non grata. What Democratic candidates are doing to separate themselves from President Obama only four days before the U.S. Election Day, and their strategies to try to keep control of the Senate. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's crunch time for the U.S. congressional and gubernatorial candidates trying to do everything they can to win over voters before Election Day, only four days away. Some of their strategies are generating lots and lots of talk.

Let's discuss what's going on. Joining us, CNN political commentator, Democratic strategist, Stephanie Cutter; and CNN political commentator, Republican strategist, Kevin Madden.

Thanks for joining us.

Let me start by playing a little clip. This is the president of the United States, who has sort of been persona non grata in several key battleground states, because he's got bad approval numbers there. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm not on the ballot this fall. Michelle's pretty happy about that.

(LAUGHTER)

OBAMA: But make no mistake, these policies are on the ballot, every single one of them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Stephanie, you know the Republicans pounced on that and going after these Democratic Senators trying to get re- elected. They are trying to say, look, these guys voted with the president 99 percent of the time, the policies are still on the ballot.

STEPHANIE CUTTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, it might not have been the most artful way to say it, but he's right in the respect that some of the Senate races I'm working on, there's a candidate that opposes the federal minimum wage outright, opposes any federal minimum wage, and another candidate favors increasing it. And those are the Democrats. That's the same policy that the president has been fighting for. So those -- in terms of the direction of the country, how to grow the economy, how to create jobs, those policies are on the ballot.

BLITZER: He's probably right. His policies on the ballot, but a lot of Republicans say --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- that will help the Republicans when they go into these election booths on Tuesday.

KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR & REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: That's right. I think in certain respects, the president screwed up here and told the truth, and Republicans couldn't be happier about it. We are trying to nationalize this. We are trying to make this a referendum. We believe and I think what the polls bear out are very unpopular policies in many of these states and also a very unpopular president and I think that's really having a very negative effect on so many Democratic candidates across the country right now.

BLITZER: What's so awkward is so many Democratic candidates are in trouble and they are trying to distance themselves as much as they can from the president of the United States.

CUTTER: Let's talk about some of the facts here. Some of these candidates who are in very tough races would be in tough races regardless of the president. You are talking about Alaska and Arkansas and Louisiana. That is just the case. That's Republican turf, no matter who is the president.

The second thing is I do think it's a problem for these Democrats to be running away from the president. I disagree what Kevin said that policies are unpopular. These policies, raising minimum wage and women earning the same as men and growing the economy from middle out, are very popular policies, not just for Democrats but for many swing voters and Republicans, too. So because they are trying to distance themselves from the president, they're not able to talk about all of the things that they worked on over the last six years.

MADDEN: Also, so many of these candidates in blue states, blue states that President Obama won in 2012, they are also struggling in this campaign. But if you remember, in many of these races, what's been litigated are issues like Obamacare, which is not popular. I think that's been to the advantage of Republicans, is making the case that they're going to go and be the party of reform and the party of better ideas. And also the right track/wrong track is affecting many people and Republicans are making the case they have a better direction. BLITZER: Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu is causing a buzz over the

last few hours. She's in trouble in Louisiana. She has a stiff race and trying to get herself re-elected. She said this. I'll play the clip and then we'll discuss.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARY LANDRIEU, (D), LOUISIANA: To be very, very honest with you, the south is not always the friendliest place for African-Americans. It's been a difficult time for the president to present himself in a very positive light as a leader.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: She was speaking with Chuck Todd of "NBC News."

The Republican governor, Bobby Jindal, of Louisiana, said her remarks were remarkably divisive. What do you think of her remarks?

CUTTER: The clip that you didn't show before that is her talking about the reason the president was unpopular in Louisiana, and it was based on policy, when he shut down offshore drilling. And that was the bulk of her remarks.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: She brought the issue of race in.

CUTTER: I think that it probably was an impolitic thing for her to bring up right now, four days before the election, given the coalition she needs to build for a victory. But I also think she was speaking the truth. African-Americans have had it harder in the south. That's the American history.

MADDEN: This is crunch time in these campaigns and it's a terrible thing to say because it doesn't go to the ideological or party identification argument. She made a remark about people in Louisiana, saying that people in Louisiana were potentially viewing the president's performance through an ethic lens, and that is a mistake and she'll pay a price for it.

BLITZER: We'll have a lot to discuss as we get closer to Tuesday. And Wednesday, we'll assess what happened on Tuesday.

All right, guys, thanks very much.

Tuesday night is election night here in America. CNN's special coverage will start 5:00 p.m. eastern. You won't want to miss it.

Still to come, Anthony Bourdain uncovered many things uniquely Iranian in his latest "Parks Unknown" journey, but he learned things about the culture in Iran that hit much closer to home. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Kids hanging out in their muscle cars, eating pizza, part of the fabric of America, right? Maybe. I'm about to show you that it's also going on some place else, specifically in Iran.

Recently, our own Anthony Bourdain, host of "Parts Unknown," traveled to Iran and found cultural norms that are very, very familiar. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN, CNN HOST, PARTS UNKNOWN (voice-over): Last day in Iran, night falls and the kids, like kids anywhere, get in their rides and head for somewhere they can hang out.

(on camera): Amazing. A lot of American classics here. Where do you get them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Old men's. Old people's, yeah.

(LAUGHTER)

BOURDAIN: Right. And then fix them up?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

BOURDAIN: Mustang. Camaro.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Camaro.

BOURDAIN: Firebird?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pontiac.

BOURDAIN: That's a perfect L.A. car right there.

(LAUGHTER)

Is this a car club or just people come?

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We hang out this way with our friends.

BOURDAIN (voice-over): One last thing everyone has been telling me I have to try, Iranian takeout pizza.

(on camera): It comes with ketchup.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think about Iranian pizza?

BOURDAIN: Not bad.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not bad.

(LAUGHTER)

BOURDAIN: We don't put ketchup on pizza though. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love ketchup.

(LAUGHTER)

BOURDAIN: Spent my youth doing this, hanging in a parking lot.

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: I love ketchup, too, but on French fries and not necessarily on pizza. But it looked pretty good, actually.

See what else Anthony Bourdain uncovered in his look at the people, the culture of Iran, the food, of course. "Parts Unknown" airs Sunday night, 9:00 p.m. eastern, only here on CNN.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. I'll be back 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room." We'll have a lot more on what's going on in the war against ISIS. The State Department deputy spokesman is among our guest.

For our international viewers, a quick check of headlines is next.

For our viewers in North America, "Newsroom" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Wolf Blitzer.