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Gunman Backed ISIS Before Deadly Shootings; Egypt Asks U.N. Security Council for Help; ISIS, An Apocalyptic Cult?; Train Carrying Crude Oil Derails then Explodes; Snow and Ice Crippling the East Coast

Aired February 17, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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


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

This morning new details emerge on the Denmark terror suspect and a reminder of just how raw nerves are in Copenhagen. This morning police scrambled to the cafe where that first attack took place. Someone had found a letter described as suspicious. Police later dismissed the concerns without giving out any details.

In the meantime, a new ISIS linked surfaces. This Facebook page apparently belonging to the gunman shows he vowed his allegiance to the ISIS leader just before the shooting spree.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is in Copenhagen with more.

Hi, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Carol. We've also heard from the Danish ambassador to the United States saying that there is a strong possibility that he may have become radicalized while he was in jail. He had been a gang member. He'd been convicted of an attack in 2013 for an unprovoked violent stabbing of a passenger on a commuter train, and it's while he was serving time on that jail sentence that there's a possibility they say that he may have become radicalized.

He left jail two weeks before the attack. Just hours before the attack posting on Facebook the support of the ISIS leader, al- Baghdadi, an indication therefore that he sort of ascribes to the ISIS ideology. But what we're also learning from the Danish Intelligence Services here is they say that, yes, he was on their radar, been brought to their attention, but they didn't think that he was about to commit an attack here.

But I've also talked to a man who knew him when he was a member of the gang and described that -- described to me that environment that the gangs once where he would be able to get weapons would be very attuned to violence on the city streets but where he was finally thrown out of the gang he was in. This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) IDEN SOUIE, SOCIOLOGIST: They did a peace agreement but to make that peace agreement they had to throw out some of the members whom they wouldn't control and he was one of the members who was thrown out, and then afterwards, he's become radicalized. Also Islamically radicalized. But I mean, if you ask a normal Muslim, he would say, well, this doesn't have to do with Islam. You have to be used to violence and being able to kill other people to act the way that he has done.

He has had this identity before and it's also very common with anti- Semitism in these subcultures. But he could have been more radicalized in prison. But I think what is important to look at when you look at history is after he went to prison and came out, he didn't have anything to lose. I mean, he was a loser man from a ghetto before he went into prison, when he came out of prison he was even more isolated.

And -- I mean, it's not a secret that a lot of young men become more radicalized while they're in prison.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So what we're learning here is that he -- while he was supporting ISIS, he didn't actually ever go to Iraq and Syria. He learned his weapons skills if you will on the streets of Copenhagen in these turf wars between the gangs here, learning how to kill other people. And the gangs, they were viciously fought -- viciously fought turf wars here.

But the idea emerges here that he was really drifting down to the bottom in society, kicked out of the gang and just gravitated to radical Islam and that gravitational pull perhaps stronger when he was in jail. That's the impression, certainly the narrative we're hearing from officials here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Nic Robertson reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

In the meantime, the likely target of the Denmark attacks tells CNN he is now in hiding. Lars Vilks is the Swedish artist who has enraged Muslims with his depictions of the Prophet Mohammed. He was at the Free Speech gathering that became the gunman's first target. Last night he talked with Anderson Cooper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: For you there is no going back, just -- purely on a security level, this is the reality for you?

LARS VILKS, CARTOONIST: No -- when once you get on the Islamist list and you're pointed out, you cannot excuse, you cannot withdraw because there's no forgiveness. You are pointed out and you are bound to die in these people's eyes. There's no way out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: Vilks became a target in 2007 after drawing the prophet with the body of a dog. He says the attack was the third attempt on his life.

A delegation from Egypt is appearing before the United Nations Security Council today asking for help in the battle against ISIS. Many believe the terror group take advantage of the chaos in Libya which could put it nearly on Europe's doorstep.

In the meantime, it is a very busy day in Washington in the meantime. The White House is holding a counterterrorism summit focusing on the prevention of violent extremism as General John Allen, the man leading the coalition fight against ISIS, details what could be ahead for the United States as it faces off against the terror group.

Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has more for you.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Even as Egypt continues its air strikes in retribution of those Egyptian Christians in Libya by ISIS, they are continuing to ask for help at the United Nations, here in Washington today we are seeing a good deal of work evolving on counterterrorism countering extremism. As you say that summit going on.

A combination of looking at the problem domestically here in the United States and also on the global stage. Today Vice President Biden chairing a panel looking at some of the domestic issues. Looking at what cities in the United States like Los Angeles, Boston, and Minneapolis are doing to try and counter extremism right on their turf, looking at some of the things that these city and local officials are doing to try and encourage young people not to join in with extremist causes.

Also that international big picture. What comes next for the coalition. A lot of talk again as there always is about ground troops. But don't look for President Obama to commit ground combat forces to this. Because even as we see ISIS evolving, expanding to Libya, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, it's only making the issue of ground troops less and less likely than it even was.

This is going to be a very difficult problem. Every official says this is the real lesson of countering extremism. It's not a military problem alone. It is a problem for everybody to address on so many different levels -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Americans do seem ever more willing, though, to engage in a ground war to take on ISIS. And it seems like that's the right move. ISIS is simply evil and needs to be wiped off the face of the earth except that's kind of what ISIS wants. A ground war is ISIS' prophecy. It's the end of days. CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen writes, quote, "ISIS'

ideology is that of an apocalyptic cult that believes we are living in the end times and that ISIS' actions are hastening the moment when this kill happen. In other words ISIS wants a Western ground force to invade Syria as that will confirm the prophecy."

So let's talk more about this with Peter Bergen.

Hi, Peter.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: This is so strange and so frightening. So is ISIS like some sort of apocalyptic cult?

BERGEN: I think that's a fair description, Carol. You know, Tony Abbott, the Australian prime minister, has called them an apocalyptic death cult. I think that's sort of on the money. If you think about the way that they think about the world, they have an English language magazine called "Dabiq" which is -- just recently published its seventh issue last week and Dabiq is a town in southern -- in Syria where the Prophet Mohammed is supposed to have predicted a final showdown between the forces of Islam and the forces of Rome.

And so in the -- in the minds of people in ISIS, they see themselves as the vanguard of a, you know, Islamic army which has been predicted in Islamic prophecy, even to include you're seeing these black flags here, Carol. These are important because there's another prophecy of the Prophet Mohammed that an army will come bearing black flags from an area called Khorasan which is what is -- where Afghanistan and Pakistan is today.

So these guys really believe all these prophesies. A lot of them are not necessarily very authentic kind of sayings of the Prophet Mohammed, but they're saying they believe with ISIS, so they see themselves as partaking in this kind of final apocalyptic battle.

COSTELLO: You know, the "Atlantic" had great a article, too. Your article is fantastic as well, Peter. But the "Atlantic" had a really long article about it. And I was struggling to understand it. So ISIS wants this apocalyptic war to break out, right, and then somehow an anti-messiah will come and then Jesus, they say, Jesus is the second most revered prophet in Islam. He'll return to earth and lead the Muslims to victory.

What exactly does -- can you expound on that?

BERGEN: Well, again, these are one of these sort of prophetic traditions. And of course Jesus is a very honored prophet in Islam known Isa, but not regarded as the savior as Christians believe that he is. And, you know, it's just one more kind of part of this. I mean, there's a reason that the leader of ISIS awarded himself the title of the caliph, Carol, because, you know, the caliphate is the perfect incarnation of Islamic rule across the Muslim world that existed at the time of the Prophet Mohammed. And so they -- these guys truly believe that they are establishing a

perfect Islamic state and unfortunately a lot of other people around the world believe that, too, including the United States where we have seen teenagers from Colorado try and join, go to ISIS. We've seen teenagers in Chicago. Despite all that brutal tactics some people do believe that they are establishing some kind of perfect Islamic state in Syria and Iraq despite the -- you know, significant evidence to the contrary.

COSTELLO: Fascinating and scary, too.

Peter Bergen, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.

BERGEN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a train carrying crude oil derails and explodes in West Virginia. And guess where the oil landed? Right in the river. So is it safe to drink the water? We'll talk about that next.

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COSTELLO: A huge fire caused by a train derailment and explosion in West Virginia is still smoldering right now. Take a look at this. Flames shooting hundreds of feet into the air after a train carrying more than 100 tankers of crude oil derailed. One of the flaming tankers even landed in a local river leading to concerns about the drinking water supply.

The intense fire also destroyed one home, left one person injured and displaced about 1,000 people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, I consider myself lucky because, you know, got somewhere to go anyway. We'll make a way some way. He'll provide a way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Rene Marsh is following the story. She has more for us.

Good morning.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I can tell you at this hour crews are getting a better handle on the fire, but it is still smoldering. It makes a lot of sense. I mean, this is highly explosive situation here. And that is essentially fueling the fire.

We do know that it's still a dangerous situation in West Virginia. People are still not being allowed to return to their homes. And as you mentioned, there's that concern about the drinking water in this area.

We do know that oil from the derailed train has spilled into the nearby river, which is a source of the drinking water. The water was tested last night and it will be tested again today. However, I just got off the phone with the emergency management team and they tell me that the crews on scene they do not believe at this point that oil made it into the main channel. They are still awaiting results from the test samples to verify that but they believe that the snow and the ice on the river actually helped slow down the flow of oil downstream, preventing it from getting into the water supply -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Do we know why the train derailed?

MARSH: We do know that investigators, federal investigators, are on their way to the scene but because the fire is still smoldering, it's still too hot and too much of an intense situation for them to move in and officially begin this investigation. So this is how it will work. First off, they have to make sure that this fire stops burning. They have to secure the area and make sure that it's safe.

Once all of that is done, investigators will split up into various teams and look at things like the tracks. Of course these trains have event recorders. So they'll want to get those. They'll talk to management as well to find out if there are any management issues. They'll look at all of these issues, piece them all together to try to figure them out. But as I speak to you, still a mystery what caused this fiery explosion and the derailment -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Rene Marsh reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

Checking some other top stories for you at 16 minutes past, just three days after the Ukrainian forces and pro-Russia rebels agreed to put down their weapons, the delicate ceasefire, it seems to be falling apart. Ukraine's Defense minister says they've lost five more service members in the past 24 hours. There's also been heavy fighting in a crucial eastern Ukrainian city. Both sides say they're not backing down.

The new Defense secretary begins his first day on the job today. Ash Carter set to take his oath of office in just under an hour. He'll be sworn in by Vice President Joe Biden. Carter is taking over at a critical time as the military deals with complex challenges including the growing threat from ISIS. He's the Pentagon's fourth chief under President Obama.

A Texas arbitration panel is telling disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong to pay up. He's been ordered to pay $10 million to a Dallas sports insurance company over bonuses he received for winning the Tour de France. It's because Lance initially lied about using performance enhancing drugs. A judge must now give final approval.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, socked by another round of snow. The price Boston is paying to get the city up and running next.

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COSTELLO: Ninety-five inches so far this year and the snow just keeps on falling in Boston. Commuter trains plowing through the tracks as transportation shuts down for days. Fears it could be more than a month until service is fully restored.

This latest winter storm is clipping the south, too. Kentucky under a state of emergency as many wake up to record-breaking snow.

As for North Carolina, ice is the main concern. The state's governor warning drivers to stay off the roads as planes deice on runways as well.

Take a look at Ithaca.com. It's perhaps the best post of the morning. It tells visitors to Ithaca, well, think again. Better head to Key West instead. That's a better bet.

Unfortunately not in Key West right now as our Ryan Young and Rosa Flores, they're covering all angles of the weather woes. Ryan is kicking things off for us in Massachusetts.

Hi.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, how are you doing? Guess what? The snow is starting to fall again. And we decided to climb the snow mountain. As you can see, this is a snow farm. It is more than four football lengths full of snow at this point. It is an amazing sight to see. Quite tall, in fact. It's more than 17 feet high. And there are more trucks that are trying to bring snow to this area.

Now they packed the snow here and then they used a snow melter to start melting the snow. Even the snow melter has had issues. In fact, it is frozen at one point and now they're going to bring it back out and start melting the snow once again.

We'll have to show you how this video of the transportation issues that they've had in town. They're actually paying people $30 an hour to get out of the track and try to clear it because it's so much snow they're going to have interrupted service for the next 30 days. People have been frustrated by that because a lot of people in the city get around using transportation.

Of course the subway systems here have been affected by all this heavy snow. The snow that continues to fall. More than 50 inches, of course, over the last few weeks.

Now just look at this. We've tried to walk across this a couple of times. The snow is everywhere. It keeps just getting higher and higher. This is amazing sight to see. I wish I could show everybody what it looks like from up here. We're as tall as some of the roofs in the area and guess what? In the next half hour they're going to start carting some of this out and putting it into a huge box and melting it down with a jet engine.

COSTELLO: I noticed you have your Canada coat on. Those coats are supposed to be the warmest on the planet. And you still sound like you're freezing, Ryan.

YOUNG: Well, you know, what's funny about this because I feel warm in the center but the face, the tongue, the ears, at this point I've never experienced this. But let me just say this. Yesterday was a lot worse. Today is a lot better. It's 10 degrees. I cannot believe I'm saying that. I'm actually enjoying the fact that it's 10 degrees here.

But you -- what are heating bills for these people at this point after a month?

COSTELLO: I can't even imagine. I just can't even imagine. OK. I hope you get somewhere warm, Ryan. Thanks for climbing up there for us. We appreciate it.

Rosa Flores is in New York City where it's awfully cold, too.

Good morning, Rosa.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You know, it's been a long winter and this information just into CNN. Three weather related deaths in Tennessee. Again, this weather can be very, very treacherous.

Let me start here in New York City. The temperature about 17 degrees at this hour. If you look around me, you can see there's a light snow. One to two inches of snow expected here in New York. Just enough to make those roadways and highways very, very slippery.

I want you to take a look at this video. This is shot out of Hampton, Virginia, by CNN affiliate WAVY. Now focus in on the spotlight in this video. And you'll see an SUV spin out of control. Cross several lanes of traffic, hit a gray car, then that gray car spins out of frame and that SUV comes inches from that television camera.

That video was actually taken by our affiliate. The good news that reporter and that photo journalist were actually inside a car so they didn't get hurt.

Now I want to take you to Philadelphia. Take a look at this video. Under all of that ice, yes, there is a building.

Here is the back story. A fire broke out at about 4:45 a.m. on Monday. When firefighters arrived on the scene, they were not only fighting flames, they were also fighting the ice. Some of their equipment froze over. The building turned into an ice palace.

Now here's the good news. There were no injuries. The fire is still under investigation. As for all that ice, yes, you guessed it, the low temperatures were definitely to blame.

Now Mother Nature does not discriminate. We know this. She will pummel the most powerful men in the free world.

Take a look at this video. This is of President Obama in Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews.

And, Carol, I don't know if you noticed, but I know I did, the president doesn't have very many layers on. Everybody else around him does. But here's my guess. Air Force One is probably very toasty. That black SUV waiting for him is probably very toasty as well because he doesn't need all the layers that I have on.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Hey, I love your old-school thermometer. It matches mine, 17 degrees.

FLORES: I know. You know, it's all about the props, Carol. It's all about the props.

COSTELLO: I know. You've got to jump into the 21st century, honey.

(LAUGHTER)

I love my Rosa Flores. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

FLORES: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the war on ISIS overseas and battle for public opinion here at home. Brand new polls are out. You'll be surprised after the break.

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