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@THISHOUR WITH BERMAN AND MICHAELA

Paul Theo Curtis Expresses Thanks for Efforts to Free Him; Shirley Sotloff Pleads With ISIS to Free Her Son; American Killed Working for ISIS; Air National Guard Reports F-15 Crash in Virginia

Aired August 27, 2014 - 11:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL THEO CURTIS, FREED AMERICAN JOURNALIST: I had no idea that so much effort was being expended on my behalf. And now, having found out, I am just overwhelmed with emotion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN CO-ANCHOR: Freed American journalist Peter Theo Curtis expressing thanks and surprise at the efforts to bring him home.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR: A 33-year-old American has been killed fighting alongside is in Syria. How many more Americans like Douglas McCain have joined up with rebels, and what threat do they now pose on U.S. soil?

PEREIRA: Shooting instruction at this Arizona shooting range goes terribly wrong. A 9-year-old loses control of a submarine gun.

BERMAN: Hello, everyone. Great to see you today. I'm John Berman.

PEREIRA: And I'm Michaela Pereira. Those stories and much more ahead @THISHOUR.

BERMAN: We're going to be beginning with freed Peter Theo Curtis, spending his first morning in the United States after almost two years in captivity in Syria, and he is already speaking out.

PEREIRA: Pretty extraordinary, we just heard from him last hour from his mother's home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He got right to expressing thanks for being brought home, the effort that went into bringing him home.

Let's take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CURTIS: First of all, I want to thank you all for coming out here on this beautiful Wednesday morning.

In the days following my release on Sunday, I have learned bit by bit that there have been literally hundreds of people, brave, dedicated, and big hearted people all over the world working for my release. They have been working for two years on this.

I had no idea when I was in prison, I had no idea that so much effort was being expended on my behalf. And now, having found out, I'm just overwhelmed with emotion.

I'm also overwhelmed by one other thing and that is that total strangers have been coming up to me and saying hey, we're just glad you are home, welcome home, glad you are back, glad you are safe, great to see you.

So I suddenly remember how good the American people are and what kindness they have in their hearts, and to all those people, I say a huge thank you from my heart, from the bottom of my heart.

And now, look, I'm so grateful that you are expressing all this interest in me. At the same time, I have to bond with my mother and my family now, and I can't give you an interview, and I can't give you -- talk back and forth.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you tell us what it feels like --

PEREIRA: That's all I can say to you, but in the future, I promise I will respond to your emails, and I will be present, and I will help you guys do your job.

And I'm one of you, and I know what you guys are going through, so I want you to help you guys. And I will be there. And I will respond, but I can't do it now.

Thanks very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: And off he went, back into his home to bond with his family and spend some time with them, a short, a direct, and very touching moment there.

Miguel Marquez is outside the Curtis home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where all of that just happened. And we're also joined by psychiatrist Harry Croft, who's a former Army doctor.

Miguel, we've got to talk about that. He's a sight for sore eyes. What a moment to hear from him.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He clearly looks tired, but extraordinarily relieved and very, very emotional. He was really fighting back tears and the emotions as he was talking.

I mean, think of it, 22 months basically kept literally in the dark for much of it, and then to have the entire world sort of focused on you like this, not even knowing during all this time whether or not anybody cared at all or even knew, and indeed his family didn't know for about half of the time he was in captivity where he was, whether he had just disappeared, been killed, or was in captivity.

So he is extraordinarily thankful that he is home. His mother, I'm sure, is going to make him a darned good meal, and he clearly wants to get more off of his just, but just looking at him today, dressed in a T-shirt and jeans and sandals and looking relaxed compared to the videos where he was high-strung and clearly under stress, a gun pointed to his head in one of those videos.

But clearly a different man today, and extraordinarily thankful and happy to be home.

Michaela?

BERMAN: I've got to say, you know, what a mensch, also, looking at all the reporters, all of you out there, saying, I know there's a lot of interest in here, but I've got to bond with mom, the ultimate mensch.

Miguel, the context of all this happening right now, just a few minutes ago, we played really a heart wrenching video from the mother of Steven Sotloff who is in custody right now in Syria. Last week, James Foley was assassinated in Syria.

I know this is really difficult for the Curtis family.

MARQUEZ: This is the tough thing. You've been to some of these places, John. Jim Foley -- James Foley, his parents, Diane and John Foley, they became friends with the Curtises while their kids were locked up in captivity. They bonded, they held together, hoping they could all have this day.

It did not happen for the Foley family. When Mrs. Curtis found out that her son was free, that he was standing right next to the officer from the State Department, from the U.S. State Department, the first thing she did was picked up the phone and called Mrs. Foley, James Foley's mother, who had just gotten the news the week before that her son had been killed in a very brutal way.

A very, very hard thing to take, a real sense of the bitter-sweetness here today.

Back to you guys.

PEREIRA: As low as we got last year -- last week, rather -- in learning of James Foley's assassination, as you said, we got just as high to see him home with his family.

Dr. Croft, former Army doctor and a psychiatrist, you can speak to his health right now in terms of the trauma that he has been through the last two years, the captivity, the torture, being away from loved ones, being cut off from outside world.

Are you surprised he spoke so soon after his return?

DR. HARRY CROFT, PSYCHIATRIST: No. And I'm glad that he spoke so soon. It means that for the moment he's doing OK.

One of the things he said in one of the interviews he did was you learn to live with the panic, and one of the things about post- traumatic stress disorder, one of the things that military combat members will tell you is you learn to numb out and it's that numbing out that allows you to get through day-to-day torture and uncertainty and difficulty, loneliness, and isolation.

It's that numbing out that the soldiers -- and I've seen 7,000 of them -- soldiers that I've talked to have talked about, and that's how they get through it.

And then they come home, and we see these wonderful events, thank goodness, and John, I love it, he was a real mensch. I love the fact that he's doing so well.

I love the fact when we see the videos of the soldiers popping out of the boxes and surprising their children. It's all wonderful.

What, unfortunately, we don't see often is what happens weeks and months and years later --

PEREIRA: Good point.

CROFT: -- and that's when the emotional turmoil begins.

PEREIRA: Yeah.

BERMAN: It's just the beginning of the process. Dr. Croft, Miguel, thank you so much for being with us.

They have a difficult, I think, few days and weeks and months ahead of them, to be sure. And, again, the last few days and weeks have been so difficult, also, especially with everything else going on.

PEREIRA: Survivor's guilt, I'm sure they are going to be feeling the impact of that as well.

BERMAN: That's why I want to bring this back to something we just saw a few moments ago, the mother of Steven Sotloff, a plea from Shirley Sotloff.

She is a mother of the journalist in captivity. She is reaching out right now to ISIS militants who are holding her son captive. He disappeared in Syria last summer and video recently surfaced of him for the very first time.

It was part of, sadly, tragically, of the execution video of James Foley, and the terrorist group has vowed to kill Sotloff as well, and now his mother in this video we just saw for the first time, pleading for his mercy.

I guess we do not have that video here.

PEREIRA: OK, well --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHIRLEY SOTLOFF, MOTHER OF ISIS-HELD AMERICAN JOURNALIST: Steven has no control over the U.S. government. He's an innocent journalist. I've always learned that you, the caliph, can grant amnesty. I ask you to please release my child. As a mother I ask your justice to be merciful and not punish my son for matters he has no control over.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That video was broadcast by the al-Arabiya Network just today.

PEREIRA: Meanwhile, there is search going on and intensifying for a New Jersey man who is missing in Israel. Aaron Sofer was last seen on Friday when he went hiking with a friend in a forest outside of Jerusalem.

A police spokesman says it's not clear if the 23-year-old was kidnapped or if his disappearance was personal. He had gone to Israel for religious studies. So we'll keep an eye on that story.

BERMAN: An American killed as a jihadist in Syria, this new video surfacing of a mother in the United States pleading for the life of her son, we have a lot to discuss with the crisis in the Middle East. We'll get to it just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: So we are learning about a 33-year-old American who was killed while waging jihad in Syria with the terror group ISIS.

BERMAN: Douglas McArthur McCain is believed to be the first American to be killed while fighting shoulder to shoulder with ISIS militants for ISIS as a member of ISIS.

His relatives say they are stunned and devastated.

PEREIRA: McCain's death comes as President Obama has given the go- ahead for reconnaissance flights over Syria.

Rebel fighters, including ISIS forces, are locked in a three-year civil war to unseat President Bashar al-Assad. Some believe air surveillance could lead to U.S. air strikes.

BERMAN: McCain's death on the battlefield also highlights the threat that American jihadis could pose back here in the U.S. homeland.

Officials say as many as 100 Americans may have tried to join militants in Syria, and now there is growing concern that they could come, again, back to the United States and launch attacks on U.S. soil.

As we just said, he's just the latest example. There could be as many as a hundred there.

Earlier today, I spoke with Pentagon spokesman, Rear Admiral John Kirby. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: It's a stark reminder and a healthy reminder of the concern that governments all over the world have about foreign fighters getting radicalized, joining a group like ISIL, and then potentially coming back home to their homelands and conducting terrorist attacks.

That they are being attracted to such a perverse and brutal ideology and that they would go over there and help in this -- in complete depredation of the region, and particularly inside Iraq, so it's very, very troubling.

But when we talk about the immediacy of the threat here in the Pentagon, the reason why we are taking this threat so seriously, this is one of those factors.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: The immediacy of this threat. Joining us to discuss it is CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruikshank.

Paul, thanks for being so nimble in joining us on this topic right here. I think most people are concerned when we hear the rear admiral talk about this imminent threat and the fact that there are at least 100 Americans who have left U.S. soil to go over and join in the ISIS fight. The concern is they can come back home. If they are American they travel with a U.S. passport and can come home easily. How big of a concern is that and what is being done to prevent such a thing?

PAUL CRUIKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: It's a very significant concern indeed. I think the fear is that a dozen or more Americans have joined ISIS, that they have become trained killers. The worry is they could get on flights and come back home. That they could acquire bomb-making skills in Iraq and Syrian and come back and launch attacks. It is obviously the ones that you don't know about that are the most dangerous.

The ones you do know about you can stop getting on planes, you can put on the no-fly list. But there's an even a bigger concern about the Europeans who are with ISIS. There are around a thousand Europeans who are believed to have joined the group. The fear is these Europeans could return to Europe and then come on to the United States to launch attacks, Michaela.

BERMAN: To be clear, the number of 100 right now is the number of Americans suspected to be fighting for rebel groups in Syria right now, not all part of ISIS. But still clearly there are Americans fighting for ISIS right now. And Paul, my question is who is recruiting whom here? Is it disaffected American youth who goes out and finds ISIS or does ISIS find him?

CRUIKSHANK: It's both, there is push and pull. But ISIS has a very sophisticated social media strategy. A video strategy where they get English speakers on these video's to implore people to come and join their ranks, to tell them it is their Islamic Duty. But the people back in the United States, or back in the West, a lot of them are on social media. It's a radical echo chamber which are really encouraging these radical views, encouraging them to go across to Syria to fight.

PEREIRA: We use the words extremist and radical. I'm curious if you can help us make the link. You talk about disaffected youth. Disaffected youth can go so far but to join a brutal, a brutal extremist group like ISIS, how is it that they are susceptible to this, these western disaffected youth?

CRUIKSHANK: Well, we saw in this case that it was a convert involved, and often converts are more susceptible because they haven't grown up as Muslims, so they are more vulnerable to these radical interpretations. There's also the aspect of a zeal of a convert wanting to throw themselves into their religion.

So we've seen a lot of converts actually go all the way and get involved in these groups. Getting attracted by very radical fundamentalist interpretations of Islam, distorted interpretations, and feeling that it's their duty, their religious duty to go and fight, but also feeling that they will be rewarded in the after life, in paradise for what they do. So it's a very, very powerful recruiting argument.

BERMAN: All right, Paul Cruikshank, thanks so much for being with us, appreciate your time today.

Ahead for us @THISHOUR, fighting ISIS in Syria, the president has authorized drone surveillance. What more will it take? Our military analyst Retired Army lieutenant General Mark Hertling weighs in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: There's been an air accident in Virginia we want to tell you about. The Air National Guard reports that an F-15 C has crashed. This happened in Augusta County.

PEREIRA: They are saying Deerfield community of Augusta. A spokesperson for the Air National Guard didn't have information of the fate of the pilot, whether or not that pilot was able to eject in time. We are going to keep an eye on this story for you, bring you any new details once they come into our news room.

BERMAN: Some many of us woke up to the news this morning of a 33-year- old American killed fighting for ISIS in Syria.

PEREIRA: President Obama has authorized recon flights over Syria, a move that could, some believe, pave the way for U.S. air strikes on ISIS targets in that nation. Senator John McCain just this morning issued a stark warning about how the U.S. should proceed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: You can't contain ISIS. You have to defeat it. Look at the way that it's grown and morphed in just the last year or so. They have now attracted young people, young men from all over the world, and they are growing in strength. They have U.S. equipment. They have money, and they are a direct threat, and you can't just contain direct threats. It's not like the cold war. They are going to be exporting terror to the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining us is CNN military analyst retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling.

General, thank so much for being with us. Senator McCain, obviously, feels the need to try to go after ISIS right now. He's calling for air strike among other things. Let's talk about the operation under way right now. The air surveillance, there are drones flying nearby right there. What are they looking for and do you think the military, right now, is doing more than just looking?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, they are doing more than just looking. They are doing pattern analysis. They are conducting operations that are linked to intelligence-gathering. It's more than just drones. It doesn't have to be over flying Syrian territory. There are things called SLARs, side looking air born radar's, that can look from Iraq into Syria. There are all kinds of techniques to gather intelligence.

That's a critical piece right now. It is more than just looking for targets. It is looking patterns, operational headquarters, convoy movements, how flow is going in and out of Syria and to support operations in Iraq. So when you are talking about the kinds of things the president has authorized, we are building intelligence and better situational awareness, which we do not have in that part of Syria to perhaps defeat ISIS in many areas.

PEREIRA: So, give us an idea too, because militarily there is so much that can be done, but is there other avenues that can be taken, other diplomatic efforts? I mean it seems strange to want to use diplomacy to deal with people that are beheading journalists, yet are there other avenues that can be investigated?

HERTLING: Michaela, it's a great question. It's not talked about enough.

Christiane Amanpour mentioned that yesterday and I was applauding because it's something that every colonel in the military is taught during their time at the war college. There is diplomatic means, informational means, monetary means and military means. So we call it the dime analogy. Diplomatic information, military and economic. And all of those areas should be brought to bear.

John Kirby, Admiral Kirby, said yesterday that more allies are joining us now and they are starting to build a coalition. The force of diplomacy, the force of messaging to get average Islamists to condemn this organization, that's got to be part of it. It can't just be air strikes.

BERMAN: General, just a few minutes ago, we saw a video for the mother of journalist Steven Sotloff, Shirley Sotloff, pleading for the life of her son, asking these ISIS militants to release him, to show mercy. I just want to get your impression of seeing something like that and if you think maybe it can be effective? HERTLING: Well, what was interesting about that message, and I just

heard it too, his mother actually used the words of the Koran in approaching this radical extremist. I mean, I think sometimes we have to remind these radicals, these extreme abusers of the great religion that is Islam that they are in fact violating the faith by doing some of the things they are doing.

So I think it was an interesting message. I'm not sure how helpful it's going to be. I'm not sure if it was blessed by either the state department or the department of defense, but it was an interesting approach and it's not the first time something like that has been used.

PEREIRA: We certainly hope there's something that can be done. It was just heart rending to hear that mother plead for her son's life.

Mark Hertling, always a pleasure to have you with us, General. Thank you so much for lending your expertise to the conversation.

Up ahead, air travelers, listen up, a new FAA reports says near air collisions are on the rise. Seems like we sure are reporting a lot more of them. We will talk about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)